hegemony rules

I find that walking calms my brain, giving me a moment or two to contemplate life's other questions (like "What am I doing here?" and "Who am I really?") - ones that don't revolve around communication theory or new media or whatever other scholarly stuff I'm slogging through for my exams. I especially like walking from my house in Capitol Hill down to Pioneer Square. It's a long walk, but I love doing work at Zeitgeist and browsing Elliott Bay Books. It reconnects me with myself - and, in turn, reconnects me with the universe. I revel in the peace of mind I feel after this walk.

Thus, it is with heavy heart that I reccount the following incident:

On Thursday, I decided I would walk downtown as usual, and read some stuff at Zeitgeist. After working for a while, I headed back home at 2:00 pm. As I was crossing the street on 3rd and Washington, a woman was crossing in the opposite direction. She was in her 50s or 60s, heavyset and wearing a hat. All of the sudden, she made a beeline for me and hit me. On my head. And then kept walking. I stopped, and yelled, "Excuse me" (I'm not the best at coming up with pithy comments on the spur-of-the-moment), but she continued on and entered the building behind me.

As I was contemplating this unusual turn of events, I was struck by a thought - she just slapped me upside the head! I had never understood what exactly that phrase meant before, but there was no better way way to describe what happened. It wasn't like she punched me, or even slapped my face...it was definitely a whack at the base of the back of my neck in an upward direction. The two guys who were walking a bit ahead of me turned around and asked if she had just hit me. When I answered affirmatively, they said, "What was that all about?" I said that I had no idea.

I still don't know what this is supposed to mean. Was the universe using this woman to send me a message? Like I shouldn't cross the street using the crosswalk? Or was this just a crazy lady who decided she didn't like the look of me? (I don't like not being liked!)

Anyway, it happened. I don't think my walks in Pioneer Square will ever be quite the same.

Posted by Adrienne at 04:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

So, despite not posting that often, I get a lot of spam on this blog. As a result, I've resorted to using Movable Type's MT Blacklist plug-in (thanks, Cameron) to de-spam my blog. Using MT Blacklist, I can de-spam my blog in minutes, deleting comments advertising sites for poker, pharmaceuticals, and gift baskets in minutes.

Unfortunately, there's no way to specify registered users whose comments I want to keep (at least, none that I've found). As a result, I keep accidentally deleting comments from my friends. So, if your comment has been deleted, I apologize. I promise it wasn't because I didn't like the content of your message - it's just because I've been trigger-happy on the de-spamming button.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I might end this madness altogether? Or is blog spam just the price I'm going to keep paying for my (limited) popularity?

Posted by Adrienne at 03:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I'm teaching an upper-division new media class at the UW for the next two quarters, called "Navigating Information Networks." The class Web site is already posted, and my students will be collectively blogging throughout the quarter. It should prove entertaining.

In other news, despite blog being crowned the word of the year by Merriam-Webster dictionary, only 38% of Americans online are familiar with them. Even fewer people, 7% according to a recent Pew Internet and American Life Project report, have actually created a blog. And, who knows how many of those individuals actually update their blogs, um, regularly.

So, if so few people are using them, are blogs really changing the face of politics, culture, society, [enter any metaconcept here]...? Or is the phenomenon just a bunch of hype?

Posted by Adrienne at 01:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)