My Thanksgiving is hardcore

Thanksgiving is hands-down my favorite holiday.

It's not because of the Thanksgiving parade or all that warm-and-fuzzy-family-togetherness crap. No, this sole bright spot in the gray, bleak month of November is made even more special because I have three Thanksgiving dinners. Yes, three. Divorce isn't such a bad thing.

Statistically, I heard somewhere that about 50% percent of people will probably deal with this joyous dilemma. As a seasoned multi-Thanksgiving dinner attendee, I have a few valuable bits of advice that will ensure success and minimize phrases such as, "No pie for me, I already ate at Mom's." Because that is just criminal and un-American.

#1 Don't waste your time with rolls.
Rolls are for rookies. They fill up your stomach and turn you into a useless lump. I know, they are so tempting because they hit the table first, but seriously, don't do it. Save that precious space for stuff that matters. Unless we are talking about crescent rolls, that's a different story.

#2 Getting full? Put some gravy on it and quit whining.
It's your mind playing tricks on you. This feeling usually sets in at the second Thanksgiving meal. Your stomach knows better, just keep going.

#3 Never pass on pie.
How often do you have pie? Don't skip it, life's short and whip cream is the most delightful substance created.

An unexpected upside to gorging yourself is that you'll put on some vital weight that will keep you from getting trampled at Target on Black Friday. Throw some elbows! You need that 504 inch TV for $699!

The 30th Wiki

The final wiki for the course is inspired by my place of work, the Lake Superior Zoo.

The Lake Superior Zoo began in 1923 with a man and his pet deer and it evolved into a Mecca for animal lovers in northern Minnesota. Bert Onsgard envisioned a zoo and the community responded with vigor: donating their labor, supplies, and money. Schoolchildren even raised funds to purchase the Zoo’s first lion cubs. The little zoo fought through the hardship of the Great Depression, appealing to the escapist mentality of poverty-stricken Americans. From there, it grew to host an incredible family of animals, ones that have left an impression on people to this day.

Today, the Zoo is home to a Siberian tiger, lions, a polar bear, grizzly bear, snowy leopard, and countless other exotic animals. With its recent accreditation by the AZA, the expansion is on the horizon for the Lake Superior Zoo.

Seven Web Wikis

Pandora.com is free, personalized, internet radio. Users create their own stations based on a genre or band and Pandora streams music that is similar. To do this, Pandora uses the Music Genome Project, a system that uses over 400 individual attributes to apply to a song and analyzes them to bring the user music they will like. Some of the characteristics include "Beats Made for Dancing," "Knack for Catchy Hooks," and "Emphasis on Instrumental Performance."

Pinterest is a photo sharing site that allows users to create "pin-boards" and browse through millions of images and "pin" the ones they like on their board. Created by Ben Silbermann, the website became the fastest one in history to gain 10 million users. TIME Magazine called it one of the "50 Best Websites of 2011." Pinterest's mission is to "connect everyone in the world through the things they find interesting."

Alexa.com, the global leader in web analytics, is a website that records traffic (or the number of "hits") on other websites, as well as their rank. It is an invaluable tool for marketing and research. It was founded in 1996 and gets its name from the Library of Alexandria. The top three sites right now are Google, Facebook, and YouTube.

StumbleUpon.com  states on its home page, "We help you explore new and interesting things from every corner of the Web." It functions as a roulette-like discovery engine, bringing the user to websites of photos based on their interests and likes. Clicking the button allows the user to "stumble" upon a new page. As of August 2011, the site registered over 1 billion stumbles per month.

Twitter.com is a social networking website that made "micro-blogging" famous. Users of the site send and receive messages no longer than 140 characters, called "tweets". As of 2012, 340 million tweets are sent daily. In an interview with the L.A. Times, Twitter creator Jack Dorsey said when it came to naming the site, he and his team "came across the word "twitter," and it was just perfect. The definition was "a short burst of inconsequential information," and "chirps from birds." And that’s exactly what the product was" (source).

Netflix.com is an on-demand movie provider that allows streaming over the Internet. The website is only one half of the company, the other branch of it is a service that provides subscribers with DVDs through the mail.  Netflix brokers deals with movies studios for the films, documentaries, TV shows that appear in their media library. A Netflix app is also available for iPhone, iPod, iPad, and other mobile devices. 

TheOatmeal.com is a web comics site created by Matthew Inman in 2009. The site gained popularity because of Inman's clever and humorous spin on everyday situations. The site attracts around 4 million visitors per month. According to an interview Inman gave to the Seattle Weekly, he has been taking drawing classes in hopes of re-inventing his signature style. 

Here is the latest comic that media-savvy types such as myself will finder interesting.

More Movie Trilogy Wikis

Spider-Man

The first Spider-Man film stars Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker/Spider-Man, Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane Watson, and Willem Dafoe as Norman Osborn/Green Goblin. This film serves as Spider-Man's origin story, depicting the trials and triumphs on his path to becoming a superhero. Director Sam Raimi (who was also the creative mind behind The Evil Dead) showed extreme interest in the project, which had been stuck in the development stage for nearly a decade. The film used a Spydercam, a camera capable of dropping 600 feet with fluidity and exceptional quality, mimicking the acrobatic movement of the high-flying superhero. 

Spider-Man 2

The second film in the trilogy focuses on Peter's life as he struggles to balance his superhero duties and his duties as a student, boyfriend, and son. And of course, this is made all the more difficult when a new villain threatens to raze New York City: Dr. Octopus. After an experiment backfires on him, Doc Ock loses his wife but gains four tentacle-like robotic arms that have a mind of their own. They corrupt his mind, making him fatally hubristic and murderous. Meanwhile, Peter finds himself losing his Spider-Man powers, which according to a physician, is the result of stress. Peter must now decide which path to take and where his destiny lies. Spider-Man? Or Peter Parker?

Fun fact: The pizzeria Peter is fired from in the beginning of the movie is a real place in NY. They received a huge boost in sales after their phone number was prominently displayed on Peter's bike helmet. 

Spider-Man 3

The final installment in the trilogy is by far the darkest. Spider-Man faces villains such as the Sand Man, Venom, the New Green Goblin, and an alien symbiote. Spider-Man is at the height of his fame, and this inflates Peter's ego, causing him to become reckless and ultimately, susceptible to the malevolent influence of an alien life that bonds itself to his Spidey suit. This black-suited Spider-Man is more powerful but also more deadly. Peter becomes consumed with the power and it addles his mind, causing him to lash out at the ones he loves most. He realizes the negative influence the suit has just in time to rescue Mary Jane from the evil clutches of Venom and the Sand Man. 

Despite mixed reviews, it is the most commercially successful film in the series.

Rise of the Archivist

“Archives exist because there's something that can't necessarily be articulated. Something is said in the gaps between all the information.” - Taryn Simon

Taryn Simon's bloodline photography project, as mentioned in her TED Talk, extends beyond the realm of archives and strikes a chord with the audience. I work in the College Archives and I thought Taryn's talk was incredibly insightful, but her experience is rare. I have spent a good portion of my time in the archives filing pictures and documents, which isn't exactly earth-shattering stuff. That routine was my job until about a year and a half ago.

The family of one of the College's earliest male professors bestowed upon the Archives all of his papers and letters. James Franklin Lewis was a veritable Renaissance man - he taught chemistry by day and was a prolific poet by night. In his short 42 years of life, he wrote over 2,000 poems, several novels, and three plays. Using his letters and personal documents, I constructed a biography that will hopefully be published.

In honor of the curation of this special collection, a small reception was held in the Library on April 27. Lewis' children (now in their 70's) attended with their families and were eager to share their few memories of their father. Professors from both the science and English departments were invited to speak about Lewis' thesis on organic chemistry and read some of his poetry.

The family was so grateful to my supervisor and myself for the care we took with their father's belonging, his life's work. That to me, was what Taryn was referring to, the thing that cannot be articulated. The pride in one's work; the sense of completion a family feels when their questions are answered. Archiving has become so much more than organizing photo albums.

Matrix Wikis

MetaCortex

MetaCortex is the fictional software company where Thomas Anderson works. The root word "meta-" means "beyond" while "cortex" refers to the outer layer of the brain; and "going beyond the boundaries of the brain" becomes Neo's mission in the films. This is made even more symbolic with Neo's daring escape from the office building. 

Simulacra and Simulation

Neo stashes cash and illegal hacking software in a copy of Jean Baudrillard's philosophical essay, Simulacra and Simulation. The text explores concepts such as simulated reality and hyper-reality, the idea that imitations and representations are becoming more real than reality itself. It is also where Morpheus' line, "Welcome to the desert of the real" comes from. 

Nihilism

The chapter to which Neo opens Simulacra and Simulation is titled "On Nihilism." Nihilism refers to the notion that life is devoid of meaning. The television show "Seinfeld" has been called nihilistic because of its premise as "a show about nothing," following the tradition of Theater of the Absurd. Fictional nihilists include Tyler Durden from Fight Club, and the Nihilist villains from The Big Lebowski.

"Know Thyself"

The phrase "Know Thyself" hangs in the Oracle's kitchen in the Matrix and is carved into the entrance of the Oracle at Delphi, a temple in Greece. In the Matrix, the Oracle is an elderly woman who makes cookies. The kitchen becomes her temple and her gift of prophecy guides Neo on his quest. Greek myth states that the god Apollo spoke through the oracle, a young woman from the area, called the Pythia. Inhaling vapors caused the Pythia to fall into a trance-like state and rave incoherently. That babble was then translated by priests of the temple.

Morpheus

Morpheus, played by Laurence Fishburne, is the rebel leader of the humans fighting against the confines of the Matrix. His character's name comes from the Greek god of dreams; a god that could assume any human form and appear in dreams. According to legend, Morpheus guarded the gates of the dream realm, false dream taking one route, and prophetic dreams taking another. It is also the origin of the word "morphine." 

Nebuchadnezzar

The ship Morpheus commands, the Nebuchadnezzar, gets its name from a ruler of the Babylonian Dynasty. In the Bible, King Nebuchadnezzar II was known for his conquests and for constructing the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. The Book of Daniel describes a forgotten dream that plagues the king, and Morpheus references this with the line "I have dreamed a dream; but now that dream is gone from me."

The Merovingian

The Merovingian is an exiled program Neo encounters in the second film in the franchise, The Matrix Reloaded. Modeled after the Greek god Hades, the Merovingian provides a safe haven for obsolete, out-dated programs. In other words, programs in their after-life. His name comes from a Frankish dynasty that ruled over the region of Gaul from the 5th to 8th century. Numerous myths surround the Merovingians, leading conspiracy theorists to assume they are of divine descent.

Persephone

Persephone is the contemptuous wife of the Merovingian who aids Neo, Trinity, and Morpheus with finding the Key-Maker in The Matrix Reloaded. Her name comes from the Greek legend of Persephone, daughter of Demeter, who is kidnapped by Hades. Demeter was distraught over her daughter's abduction, and as a result she let crops and plant life die. Fearing that humans would starve, Zeus commanded Hades to release Persephone for six months of the year so she could rejoin her mother. She would then return to the Underworld for the next six months, explaining the changing of the seasons.

A Million Little Lies?

The media's tangled relationship with the truth has been central to nearly every class discussion; whether it is at the forefront or quietly in the background. I am often reminded of one of the more earth-shattering scandals that occurred only six years ago, the exposure of James Frey's fabricated memoir, A Million Little Pieces. Treachery is not confined to journalism, and Frey suffered the wrath of the public and Oprah Winfrey. Rough day. I decided to dig a little deeper and unearth some information that will hopefully aid future class discussions.

A Million Little Pieces is a memoir by James Frey that chronicles the painful rehabilitation process for the main character, who is also named James, an alcoholic and severe drug addict. James' battle against "the Fury" (the term he uses to refer to his desire to use drugs) is written in a brutal, and slightly modified stream of consciousness writing style. It was released in 2003 and it produced visceral reactions with the public. Oprah Winfrey was so moved by the novel that she made it a pick for her Book Club in 2005, a rather prestigious honor. Book sales skyrocketed, as did its rank on the best-seller list.

In 2006, three years after the novel's release, The Smoking Gun published an article questioning the validity of the author's claim that the events described were based on his real life. Winfrey interrogated Frey on her talk show and he admitted to fabricating parts of the memoir. Frey's publisher, Nan Talese, also was forced to admit that she made no formal investigation into the claim that the account described in the book was actually non-fiction. 

Random House has now included a publisher's note in the beginning of the book stating that some of the events described are fictional. Frey is still known as "The Man Who Conned Oprah."