Anon, dear Lulz, Anon

It has been somewhat amusing watching all the hubbub develop between LulSec, Anonymous, and the various groups they're going after/groups that are after them.

A hilarious attempt at journalism by The Sun, covering the arrest of the "mastermind" behind LulSec.
and
LulSec & Anonymous make the FBI most wanted list.

As a previous participant of the realm from which they were both hatched (myself being a retired "oldfag /b/tard" from 4chan), I guess I'm lucky enough to appreciate the humor behind the attacks (for the lulz, man).
But I can also appreciate the (hopeful) ultimate goal of these groups.

Originally, Anonymous was nothing more than the moniker of anyone who posted oncertain image boards. It was not a group, so much as a way of behavior (see: John Gabriel's Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory).

Obviously, this "act like an asshole without having the deal with the consequences" internet lifestyle appealed to a great many people, and thus, the in-joke that it was actually a secret club was born. Eventually, the joke was propagated enough that it became reality when people began to claim affiliation to Anonymous.
It became the "cool thing" online in certain circles, a Tyler Durden's Internet Fight Club for the 1337.

In fact, Fight Club could be said to be the spiritual predecessor to the current state of Anonymous.
What started out as fun and games, suddenly decided to get serious.
Groups of "Anons" began to get together to plan "raids" or "invasions" of other websites. At first it was all "for the lulz", but soon, the participants realized, working together, they actually had some significant online muscle. Those more "noble" of the Anons proposed that they use their powers for "good" (or, fighting what they considered "evil"). 
Essentially, they decided to emulate the beginnings of Project Mayhem.

And that's when the first great schism occurred.
The "newfag" Anons wanted to go off and create this better world, and the "oldfags" wanted to continue business as usual and watch the world burn.
Those Anons that decided to dedicate themselves to the fight are the ones we've seen on the news, taking on Scientology and defending Wikileaks.
The Anons we DON'T see working in the shadows were the ones to REALLY be wary of.
... that is, until they decided to come OUT of the shadows.

Enter, LulSec.

Frankly, if they can move on from petty website info snatch'n'grabs and on to more worthwhile attacks, THEN I will be interested (anything that brings us closer to Project Mayhem's ultimate goal is A-OK BY ME!). 
But as for the moment, they seem to be content with their lulz making.
*shrug*

TL;DR
Anonymous is the first "internet superconscious".
They are simultaneously everyone and no one.
LulzSec is just an extension of that fact.
Even if you were to cut off an appendage, the body as a whole will still be able to continue without them.
Think of them as an internet hydra, with trolls for heads.
... good luck trying to take that down.

Meet YamaSavini...

This is Yari, aka. Yama Savin.
He hates grades.
He dreams of a day when grades don't matter everywhere in the world.
You see, in Europe, not only is school free, but there's no such thing as a GPA.
...
Can you imagine? A place where people aren't just regulated to being a number? Where students free to actually learn because they don't have to worry about whether they're failing a class?
Mind-shattering concept, I know.

Anyway, Yari/Yama has some interesting ideas about how to go about sharing him anarchistic anti-grading message.

Taking the info found on this site, he's thinking about making a series of GIFs to tell the world of the evils of grade over-emphasis. (one way he's thought of doing this is via simple iPhone screen caps, possibly made into gifs... see below-)

... frankly, I think if he made the image in the background contrast against the message, it would be a lot more interesting (eg. "GO AMERICA! USA!!!" and the background image is some fat person out font of Walmart)

Actually...

After seeing Sho Tanaka's post, I had a bit of a flash of inspiration.
(She's working on something called "Blackout Poetry", where you basically take a piece of text (newspaper clipping, book page, classified ad, etc.), mark out the majority of the text with a marker, leaving only a handfull of words left on the page. The remaining words, when read in sequence, make a poem.)

An idea along those lines came to me-
As an avid gamer, I frequent a lot of video game industry related websites, blogs and forums. One of the issues you often run into on these sites is spoilers (people talking in forums about parts of a narrative game which spoil the plot of said game's storyline). In order to prevent accidental "spoiling", contributors often blank out parts of their text using basic HTML code. To be able to view the hidden text, one only need highlight the the text in question. The highlighting then contrasts against the background color, and voila, the text is revealed.
As exemplified below-
(I am typing on the internet)

I was thinking about writing a two-in-one story, essentially having lines of the actual story, maybe with a secondary story running between each line of the "actual story".
I'm not quite set on the details yet, but I am intrigued by the possibilities...

The Three Assignments...

Three assignments covering Sight, Sound, and Other.

I've thought of a few ideas for these assignments... only problem is not all of my ideas fall into these categories.
Maybe you guys can help me---

Diary/Journal entries:
Make a series of blog entries that all tell a story of the course of several weeks.
The idea behind it was inspired by “Ted’s Caving Story”, a series of journal entries made over the course of a several months.
The story itself starts out innocently enough, with what seems to be the exploits of a caving enthusiast … but by the end, has taken on an almost Lovecraftian atmosphere. The effect for those who were unaware that this was all an early foray into digital story telling was quite unnerving.
[the site in question]
http://www.angelfire.com/trek/caver/
[here’s the entire story on one page, so it’s easier to read through, if you have the time]
http://www.storylog.com/mystery-cave/

Emails & Chat logs:
Dialog between TWO sock puppets (both controlled by the same person, or one real person per puppet, either is fine).
The basic premise is taken from online-RPs, where two characters carry on a friendship/relationship online.
One of my ideas on how to make an interesting twist would be to have the relationship sour, and see the ensuing arguments and “drama” unfold over various online services.

Post-its:
Tell a story by showing the progression of a person’s daily life over the course of a few weeks through a series of reminder post-it notes.
Inspiration was from the google superbowl ad from 2009 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnsSUqgkDwU). Through nothing more than text being typed in a search field on screen, it was able to tell a touching story.
I would seek to emulate, to a degree, that simple note-like story telling technique, much akin to the video on Digital Ethnography we watched in class.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=dGCJ46vyR9o

(... although, I'm not sure if any of these are actually close to anything in the DS106 assignment bank.)

Opinions?

Usefulness abounds

After watching that video we watched last class, I think I've solidified at least one of my ideas for the three projects.

Also, I think I've stumbled upon how to link your blogger-blog to your facebook account
http://everything.typepad.com/blog/2009/01/how-to-add-your-blog-feed-to-your-facebook-profile.html
Might be pretty helpful.

*blows dust off of*

Well, the class is about to actually start up this week (as far as "getting into full swing" goes. The previous couple weeks were just prep).

We're supposed to be coming up with some assignments we can tackle based on the DS106 course's ones... only issue I've run into there is, I'm not entirely sure what their ones are, specifically.
... but then, maybe that's the point (just give us something to look at to get the brain-engine started).
Regardless, I think I've got a few ideas brewing about what I'd want to do.

I do have to admit, though, I am intrigued by one of the assignments they've got listed:
"Fan Fiction Assignment"
...

Digital Story Telling...

I think I'm a bit hobbled as a video gamer.
Every time I hear "digital storytelling", the only thing to come to mind is "video game cut scene".
I realize there's other ways to tell a story digitally, but as far as I'm concerned, that medium is the zenith.
(where else can you have Pixar quality animation combine with deeply immersible interactivity where you control and interact with convincing virtual actors why portray emotionally convincing characters across sprawling worlds over the duration of an epic novel...)
I'm not saying digital story telling must be restricted to video games alone, but it's a little hard to "expand my mind" beyond what I know here.

Greetings, programs!

I am posting on the internets.

Derp.