/Sigh

Whatever happened to free will of the individual? and taking responsibility for your actions and choices? Although some will see this as a victory - i see it as shifting responsibility... much like blaming children's consumption of violent video games on the game companies and not the parents who actually raise the kids....

Old Technology - New Owner
I am the proud new owner of a NEC MobilePro 790 PocketPC. Although this puppy is from 2001, and therefore considered quite dated technology-wise - i am very happy with my ebay purchase. At only 1.7 lbs and a whopping 1.1" thick, I can throw this in my bag with my books and my new thermos (thank you again sashay!) and off i go. Small as it is, the keyboard is 85% the size of a standard laptop keyboard, the screen is 8" x 3" so i can see the full width of my documents and is quite easy to use. I am sad that i cannot change the color of my background in Word docs (but maybe i just havent figured out how yet) and have no clue how to get on the internet (but it is possible)

For note taking and agenda - it is well worth the $200.00 i paid (well, i won the auction at $107USD but shipping and duty and blah blah blah later....) I still use my toshiba laptop for more complex portable duties, but for now, i have a new toy - yipee!

More on Simmel, Space

So, after finally finishing Simmel's piece on Spatial and Urban Culture (well worth the read), I am - amazed might be a strong word - but appropriately awed, that Simmel dealt with such abstract concepts of space in the early 1900's - yet people today still have a hard time dealing with the concept of the 'virtual' as being a 'real' space. According to Simmel (in my interpretation of course) organizations, institutions and religion are parts of society that exist largely in their abstraction. In their concepts. Many of these spaces do not exist in any physical or geographic location - membership and belonging to these things are abstractions that occupy a form of intellectual space.

have so much more to say on this - but i keep running out of time ...

The Concept of Space & MMOG's

Reading Simmel's article on Spatial and Urban Culture for my Sociology of Culture class, and it got me thinking about how we preceive space in the digital context, and even more specifically in the context of mmog's. When looking over my play experience in EverQuest, Dark Age of Camelot and World of Warcraft, the space experienced, although visual, is still an abstraction of space. Yes, boundaries and 'zone walls' are created by design, but this is usually for design limitation and technical issues. Simmel's article focuses on the three predominant qualities of space for social formations and interactions. In many cases then, there is no difference between Simmel's 19th century concept of space and today's virtual space found in mmog's. Both are conceptual spaces that exist within the physical realm that concerns itself with localization (cities, states etc / servers, shards etc.)

More on this later ...

Living Avatars

A colleague of mine has often said that I remind her of an avatar. This post if for her.

Although I did not attend the Tokyo Game Show 2005, Lisa Galarneau, over at SocialStudyGames did.

I thank her for the links of the booth babes and living avatars (or cos players) that were at the show. I was awestruck by the beauty of many of the costumes and got into a little game of 'name that avatar'.

Conforming to Simplistic Thought

After much deliberation, reading and converstation, I created my genealogical tree of classical sociology represented by theorists.

Although I stand by my earlier post, my common sense tells me that I should stay somewhat into the 'typical' concept of classical social theory. So, when i think of "dead white guys" who forged the way of social theory, these are some of the names that come to mind.

My goal was to not give any hierachy to any one theorist or clustered concept, but to demonstrate that they bear equal importance in terms of creating a foundation regardless of linear time. I must admit, this assignment was alot harder then I had expected. Not that I have no concept of classical sociology, but to work within normal boundaries when thinking it through. (thanks you guys for talking me through it)

The Geneology of Social Theory

What started out as a relatively simple assignment, has taken on a life of its own this evening. Our assignment was simple. Create a geneological tree consisting of social theorists that we feel represent classical social theory. The point was, or what I understand the point to be, is that everyone will have a different idea of what classical sociology is and who best represents it.

It was agreed upon in the seminar, that the arborious design was problematic, as it implied certain hierarchies and 'branches', and it also became skewed because it was laid out in a relative time sequence, not a theoretical sequence.

So, my problem stems from my typical knack for a) overanalysing even the simplest tasks (that were probably meant to be fun and b) thinking too far from the box that deep down in my heart, i know i should be sitting in...

that said

I have a theory that classical social theory can be seen as, as sashay put it to me this evening, emphasizing the concept of cannonical instead of classical as denoting a particular period of time.
What I find peculiar about the debate of time within attempting to define the boundaries of classical social theory, is that most people have very fixed ideas of when it ended, but seem quite flexible when determining when it began even though sociology as a formal discipline was introduced rather late in terms of intellectual thinking.

So, since we allowed people such as Plato and Aristotle, Rousseau, Kant and Locke to be included in the definiton of Classical Sociology, I have come to my own reasoning in pushing the boundaries in the other direction as well. If I am to think about classical social theory as being cannonical, then people not commonly thought as classical can definitly be included. Contemporary feminist theory should be included as part of the classical literature in the sense that it should be included as part of a foundation of knowledge that is necessary in order to understand other volumes of work. With each new (and i mean box-shatteringly innovative) nuggets of theory, we should consider it to be part of the classical body of work. Or perhaps the problem is not with the dates and time frame, but with the terminology. Perhaps we should abandon the idea of classical social theory for a very strict modern/post-modern ... or maybe before and after Marx =)

The other option is to very clearly state the meaning of classical and find theorists that fall ONLY under those categories....who's definition would be the most homogenous to create a very definitive list of thost that qualify as "classical social theory".

I learned classical social theory in a very progressive way. What I mean is, all old theory was paired with contemporary theory (as current as 1996 articles found in popular culture magazines such as Wired) to show us the progression of theoretical threads. Although I attribute the way I think through theory to this method (currently working on Parsons and VideoGames), it skewed any definitional lines of classical social theory for me.

Alas! The Academia That I Have Been Dreaming About...

Sort of ... Without the beer of course. Heh.
Today was my first seminar in my Sociology of Culture course - yes, the one I bemoaned in my last post. I managed to get all but 6 pages read for this week's seminar, so I felt quite prepared.

I enjoy the format of the course so far. Every week, there are 4 presentations (or 3) on that particular week's readings (which are subdivided into sections so there is no overlapping). After each person presents an imminent summary of the reading, discussion is opened up to the room. Although I was quite nervous to speak about the theories that I have been processing in my head, once the discussion got rolling, it was difficut to contain myself. But I think I found a good balance between contributing to the conversation and letting others speak...

Walking away from this evening's class, I've realized my capacity for reading and internalizing chewy (thats sashay! heh) theory and feeling comfortable with my readings of the text. I shift now from this morning's nagging feelings of doubt to another renewed energy ready to face the challenging works ahead.

The Processing of Knowledge

Let me start by saying, I look forward to the challenges that lie ahead of me in my Master's degree. But even after the first week, I am slightly saddened at the reality versus my preconceived notion of 'higher education'. Over the last two years or so, I have had the time and luxury in my Undergrad degree to read books for pleasure. I don't mean harlequin romances, or pocketbook novels, but books that have expanded the limited scope of theory that was offered in my coursepacks. I've read Foucault so i could better understand references made in other readings, as well as de Certeau, Arendt, Parsons and Merton (among many other books that I never completed)

I took my time to read each sentence completely, digesting the words in the order that they were written. I took notes, re-explaining the paragraphs, thoughts and ideas to myself, in an attempt to embody the knowledge that I was working through. This is how i learn, how I take theories, concepts and abstractions and make them part of who I am in order to say that I "know" a theory. Otherwise, I would just say that I've 'read' a theorist and move on in a converstation.

Last year, in casual conversation with a professor, I was told that I would not have the luxury to read like that as I moved onto grad school and further. That what was required of me to read - the volume of work - would not allow for such a time consuming, word for word digestive process that I have come to enjoy. I balked at the idea at the time. Sadly, this week - I eating my words of disbelief.

But sometimes, the irony is in the theory....

This past week, I have been pouring over a collection of Simmel's articles titled "On Culture" for my Sociology of Culture class. It is, in my opinion, fascinating. Written around 1914, I find myself in awe of Simmel's ideas of culture, knowledge, cultivation, spirit and potentiality (among many other ideas that he intertwines in the 200+ pages we have to read). With a delay in receiving the reading material due to a shortage of copies available, I only began my 135 page weekly assignment. I understand that I am in grad school now, and that will not seem like alot to others who have studied past their undergraduate degree. But almost 4 days behind my reading schedule, I am finding myself in an internal struggle between getting the assignment "read" for class, or reading the text, as I normally do, dissecting the choice of language, making external connections to ideas presented within the work and taking pages and pages of secondary notes that re-explain Simmel's concepts in terms and examples that allow me to retain the information as truly a part of my personal body of knowledge.

The irony lies in the content of a part of Simmel's theory. To Simmel, in order for a person to 'cultivate' knowledge, they must ingest it to the innermost parts of their core, letting it become part of their greater potentiality of self. When this is done, one can be seen as 'cultivated' or 'cultured'. He continues on to discuss the fragmentation of knowledge and self when a person consumes knowledge to 'know' it, but as an 'addition' to the self, not as an integral part of one's core. As I've come to call it in the last few days of thinking about this - the difference is between truly knowing something from your heart and soul and having sticky notes of random knowledge that we can draw upon in the right conversation.. I choose to have less internalized knowledge then more sticky notes...

So, I am struggling with myself. Should I read at my pace, ingesting all that I can? Or plow through the readins to say that I've read the material before class... either way, the irony in the text is something for me to smile about while i struggle.

Revisting Knowledge

My classical social theory class had us revisit theorists that we often hear their names and roll our eyes (marx/weber/durkheim) but an interesting excercise today had us explore the wider scope of theorists and how they fit in the scope of social theory.

What started out in an excercise of deconstructing the 'geneological' selection of authors on a Sociology textbook, turned into a test of knowledge (and memory) of social theory. We now get to create our own geneological tree of social theorists. Let's see how well I was listening over the last three years.

The Semester Ahead

Looking forward to this semester. Although slightly intimidating for me to be working on my Master's degree, I am excited to be in a program that looks challenging and mind expanding (finally!). This semester, I will be taking a methods course - which I was dreading in the beginning, but it actually looks like a good course that will help me focus on the details of my thesis.

I am also taking a theory course - Classical Social Theory - dont know what that will look like yet as my first class is tomorrow night. And finally, a course called Sociology of Culture. The readings look challenging - 5 books:
Marxism & Literature
Revolutions du Capitalisme: Paris
Simmel On Culture
Undoing Gender
World Beyond Difference

Ill try to post my thoughts as I work through the readings. Other then course work, im looking forward to another semester of working for gameCODE, social events and more Everquest play/research ..

Back to School
Well, its back to school for me. Pardon for the long interval between postings, but after the submission to the DAC conference, I have been busy 'lfg' and 'grinding' in EverQuest to make level 70 - Which I am proud to say, I did a few weeks ago now. In honour of the occasion, i splurged and bought some armor dye for Velix's older, more retro gear so they werent as distinguishable when looking for a group. (People can be so judgemental when it comes to gear!)

I have also been schmoozing the server community - i transferred servers in may 2005. It has been a very successful schmoozefest resulting in invites to several guilds =)
But my heart still rests on Rodcet Nife and my old guild TCA, so for now, i am enjoying the attention, logging and dissecting play sessions and searching for the nuggets and gems that make or break my research.

As I enter my first semester of my Master's degree, i can only cross my fingers that I can keep up with my course work and keep up with the required play time in EQ necessary to maintain social networks. If ever there was a space to study perceptions of time and flow, i think an mmog would be the place... miss a week and you can be quite out of the loop!

Anyways, all this to say YEAH! i dinged lvl 70! and now its back to school!