It took me three tries to get to my spot today. I sat in the Pembroke arch, watching the rain, waiting for it to let up. Every time I would think the rain had stopped, I would venture tentatively out, hand first and body second. It wasn’t raining heavily, but I had intended to draw. I was determined to find the exact moment in which the rain would pause, allowing me to carry through with my plan. I wanted to defy the rain.

 Finally, after at least fifteen minutes, I realized there was no way I was going to win against the rain. I sat dejectedly on a plastic bag in my spot, feeling rather lost. What now? Is this where the narrative of “man vs nature” emerges? We make plans, but ultimately the rain is a reminder of how little can go according to that plan.

Chief Yellow Lark

"Oh Great Spirit - whose voice I hear in the winds, and whose breath gives life to all the world, hear me. I am a man before You, one of Your many children - I am small and weak. I need your strength and wisdom. Let me walk in beauty and make my eyes ever behold the red and purple sunset. Made my hands respect the things You have made, my ears sharp to hear Your voice. Make me wise, so that I may know the things you have taught my people - the lesson you have hidden in every leaf and rock."

This clip is from the 1979 documentary, The Secret Life of Plants, directed by Walton Green. I don’t know how I feel about this particular clip (his ideas get more crazy towards the end), but if there is any validity to it, it’s fascinating .

I’m having a hard time getting out of my brain. Call me self-centered, but I have always found that the best way for me to understand something is to apply it to my own experiences. It’s not that I’m not noticing things at my site today- I am. I’ve observed how the colors of the growth around me look duller in the rain. And how browns and oranges are starting to intermingle with greens. I notice the flock of birds that I’ve startled while walking to my spot. But today my mind keeps coming back to one idea.

We talked last class about the possibility that trees are sentient beings. And why not? What if plants can feel things? Can trees communicate? In the most basic chemical way, yes, many can. A forest of Aspen trees is completely connected by hundreds of miles of underground runners. Certain kinds of mushrooms are also one organism, connected underground. Do plants feel emotions like people do? Can they empathize? Do they desire things? I wonder if scientists will ever figure this out. This topic is captivating to me and I would love to learn more about it. 

Unethical?

This is a video that Dan and I watched together while reading though Right To Be Hostile. It's a "Crazy prison riot".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LWbxSZ2Nxw

We invite you to consider what this does to people's perceptions of prisoners? And contemplate what goes through our mind when we see a headline that includes the words "prison riot".

http://www.udel.edu/ihrc/conference/earthperfect/

...the cartoon Alison Bechdel drew on the blackboard in the English House lecture hall,
during her Q&A session last Thursday:

among HSBurke -- “Showing each other our cracks and admitting that we don’t have it all together is, in my opinion, something our group needed. Thank you for your honesty--

Michaela --I'm grateful that… you all don't "have it all together" in the way I feared--that everyone else had some intstruction manual for getting through life that I just never picked up on--

and Sara --I think most students at Bryn Mawr feel that everyone else around them is doing better then them… I realized last semester that everyone else felt exactly as I did- behind… like everyone else was flourishing but them. I began to wonder, in this environment that is supposed to be so empowering, why so many students felt so helpless and inadequate…maybe …we are constantly measuring ourselves up to impossible standards; grades that we have imagined for the people that seem to be flourishing --->

This is a forum for students in two courses at two different institutions to explore experiences, ideas, and questions about playing games online; about using games to change the world; and about what we think about all of this.  Diablogging together will also give us an opportuinty to see how the Internet might foster conversation/build community about issues of shared interest.  Could this diablog ever work or feel like a world-changing game? 

The first exchange will happen this way.  Members of one class will each write a response to at least three of the following questions.  At the end of your post, please pose a question that a member of the other class will answer as part of their writing their responses to at least three of the questions.  Please be appropriate and respectful in writing in public to others.  At the same time, please don't hold back on saying what really interests you and where it comes from.  If you have any questions, please let your instructor know! 

Do you think playing games can help change the world?

Why do you feel the way that you do?

What is something that McGonigal said that you found interesting and disagreed with and why?

Name one personal experience you had with a game and what it taught you.

Briefly describe a new game/invention and how it would change the world.

What are you still curious about?

A number of possible venues for activism have been emerging from our conversations (giving feedback to the Mural Arts Program, and/or offering an alternative form of art-making in some of the neighborhoods we visited on our tour? working with YASP on a door-to-door campaign? advocating for the future of Perry House? what other activism is likely to emerge during the next 6 weeks, as we spend time inside The Cannery?).

We would like you to 1) structure your final work in this 360°around one of these actions and also 2) find some way to present those projects to the larger bi-co community (or beyond it). A number of these will need advance work (especially if we are to co-ordinate w/ others outside the bi-co), so we'd like to begin brainstorming together the directions in which we might go, both individually and collectively.

By 5 p.m.on  Sun, Oct. 21 (the day we return from break): please post AS A COMMENT TO THIS POST a short description of the sort of activism which interests you, and any ideas you have about what particular form this action might take.

We will then begin having shared conversations about when and how to move forward ….