Gnomepoiesis

Unsolicited Advice for My Generation

Posted on July 3rd, 2009 by Trip.
Categories: Uncategorized.

I posted this on the Civil Discourse today. I’m opening this up for a wider audience.

The recent debates over grade inflation at Colby raging on the Civil Discourse have brought me out of my shell. This is my first post on the Discourse, so thank you Edmund for starting this discussion, and thank you Katie Peterson for you awesome posts.

Grade Inflation, or, as its more commonly known, Graflation, is defined by the Urban Dictionary as “What goes on at Harvard.” The Urban Dictionary defines Harvard as “See Grade Inflation.”

Seriously, I find this description appalling, considering Harvard’s reputation otherwise. Its true, we get higher grades than our parents, though most of the evidence I’ve seen of that that been anecdotal, from professors and students, and thus somewhat dubious. I’m not saying that all the evidence for grade inflation is dubious, just that which I have seen on the discourse. Still, GPA’s seem to be rising.

What I can’t say for sure is whether or not graflation is detrimental to our education. I think its more important to ask if we are learning rather than if we are receiving the grades we deserve.

I’ve never worried much about my grades. The truth is, I’m not banking on my grades to get me through life. I’m banking on my good looks and natural charm. Those, and my abnormally long tongue.

Really, why have grades in the first place when their only function at this point seems to be to crush four years of work (or alohol-induced amnesia, if that’s your style) into a number that you can occasionally wave over your relatives and/or send to a person in a suit who’ll glance over once while they consider your admission into Barclays Entertainment Law and Medical School, Incorporated. As Eli Dupree said a few days ago, “grades are a non-standardized form of communication.” Subjectively important, objectively meaningless. Why, then, does graflation happen in this situation? I believe it is because of a deep-seated phobia that many of us share.

I feel that our generation is afraid of failing. We’ve been trained to achieve from when we were very young, from when our parents were strapping us in our booster seats and carting us from one structured activity to another. In High School the vampiric College Board, convincing College Admissions Offices, and well-meaning counselors built up a myth where they were the gatekeepers to an Edenic College World, which held promised fruits to feed you the rest of your life. So, are we getting what we were promised? When you are at Colby, are you really enriching yourself, or are you saying that you’re being enriched while spending most of your time drunk around equally inebriated, oversexed psudo-intellectuals, who, like you, cling to the hope that if they keep practicing the magic formula taught to them by their parents (get the right activities, go to the right place, meet the right people) while expending the least amount of effort in the execution of it success will fall into their lap? I believe that, if the truth is the last situation, we’re headed to a crisis of faith. Grades are the least of our worries; are we learning, and with that knowledge, can we get the world back on its feet (’cause Manjusri knows Earth needs a hand)?

I say its time to restructure the system from the inside out. Don’t include your GPA’s on resumes. Ask your professors for a new form of evaluation. For Avalokiteśvara’s sake, do something that you know will fail and question everything and do something people won’t like or want and make it beautiful. As Kurt Vonnegut once said, “Why don’t you take a flying fuck at a rolling doughnut? Why don’t you take a flying fuck at the mooooooooooooon?” Better yet, he said “God damn it, you’ve got to be kind.” I like both quotes.

“Trip,” you may ask, “How can you speak with such authority on graflation?” My authority comes from my staggering GPA, which, at 5486.72, is higher than all of your GPA’s combined. And I have a huge penis.
Love,
Trip Venturella

4 comments.

Big Internet Events

Posted on June 12th, 2009 by Trip.
Categories: Uncategorized.

Just a few minuets ago, the number of tweets ever tweeted exceeded the number 2,147,483,647. This number is one half of two to the thirty-second, minus one. For this reason, all the applications that have been developed to track tweets in thirty-two bit binary are in danger of failing because they can no longer give tweets unique numbers. This is being called the twitpoclaypse; innumerable developers are in danger, but Twitter is fine.
At 12:01 AM tonight, Facebook will be the site of the greatest digital land-grab ever. All 200 Million Facebook users are entitled to a personalized URL, and, since Facebook users are already self-important enough to maintain a Facebook profile, everyone will want one. Facebook is trying out this policy to make itself even more central to people’s lives: no longer a network of friends, Facebook profiles will become central repositories of information for brands, bands, and professionals easily accessed through personalized URL’s. While you still must be part of the Facebook network to access most profiles fully, this is still an ingenious move by Facebook. The URL bonanza puts Facebook firmly on top by opening it up to easier access, now that one can easily remember a Facebook profile. Some say that this is the death of Facebook. I say that it is just the beginning…

4 comments.

World on a String

Posted on June 9th, 2009 by Trip.
Categories: Uncategorized.

This is what I did over the weekend.

 

 World on a String: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (45)

0 comments.

D-Day

Posted on June 6th, 2009 by Trip.
Categories: Uncategorized.

I started this blog almost two years ago now. Back then, my objective was to find the next big thing. I set gnomepoiesis.com up to be a blog because blogs were all the rage, free magazines published by anyone and governed however the author saw fit. They were a revelation in 2007. They were hailed as the Big Thing, complete game-changers. At that time, I knew of Twitter, but failed to see its value.

Today, blog-mania has pretty much cooled off. While I feel that it is still the bet way to get my word out, right now the big deal is twitter. Twitter’s visitor numbers have grown something like 2500% in the past year. The key, of course, is that Twitter is live, fast, and ubiquitous, a medium that reaches dozens, hundreds, thousands of people with digestible bits of information.

I was an early twitter-adopter. My first tweet was October 29th of last year, when I felt a premonition that Twitter was going to soon by very, very big. It was a lucky premonition on my part, though my contribution to and what I’ve taken away from Twitter has been quite small.

Twitter is the next step for the internet in becoming the ultimate means of mediated communication. What people seem to want is a free way to keep in touch with anybody instantaneously no matter what the distance. Look at the change in Facebook: who reads or updates profiles any more? Its all about the main page, where anyone can be reached and every activity can be commented on. Look at Google’s newest project- Google Wave (http://bit.ly/13u3Sm), which is Facebook, IM, and E-Mail (and pretty much everything else in the internet) all rolled into one.

65 Years ago today, thousands of people endured one of the most hellish experiences on Earth to end the worst war the world has ever seen. And they succeeded. Still, I would have loved to see the Normandy Beach Twitter feed. Twitter, in a limited way, lets us intimately feel the experiences of groups. This, along with near-instantaneous communication with other, singular people, is Twitter’s great strength.

I’m going to say now that I have no idea what the NEXT big thing is going to be. Maybe Google Wave, since Google already has the user platform to support it. Maybe it will be something completely unexpected. As of now, I think I’m done searching. I’m happy being an early adopter, even if I’m not looking actively for the next big thing. Gnomepoiesis is now, officially, an outlet for creation. This will be a very different place by the end of the summer. Mark my words. Lets do this.

2 comments.

‘nuther Podcast, w/Mr. Jack Harris

Posted on May 31st, 2009 by Trip.
Categories: podcasts.

Excuse my voice, it was still phlegmatic from a long night’s sleep.
Enjoy!

 

 With Mr. Jack Harris: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (56)

1 comment.

you are the lighting and you’re news

Posted on May 24th, 2009 by Trip.
Categories: news.

Against all odds I have found employment. Despite the sorry state of the economy (one op-ed writer in the local news paper went so far as to foretell “The Coming Summer Job Apocalypse”) I have been entrusted with, what to call it, occupation (that works). I will be interning at the Sharon Tri-Arts Playhouse in Sharon, Connecticut, which is especially exciting because will I be working (actually working, not volunteering or fooling around) in a theater setting, writing press releases, helping at the box office, and related tasks. Simply put, I am exactly the place where I want to be this summer.
And here I am.
The Playhouse is having a few shows this summer, and I will post when those are going up, but, aside from those, I probably won’t do much writing about my work, unless I encounter something of particular interest to me that I feel somehow fits in to whatever is considered normal on this site.
I still mean to develop Gnomepoiesis into a more interactive site, a lifebox for my ideas. My objectives still need to be clarified, and the methodology for completing these objectives is yet to be worked out, but I have, so far, some artistic sketches and a sturdy, re-built frame (scaffold would be a better word) for reworking the site, so, come what may, my desire for change will eventually triumph over the inertia of “vistered little,” the current layout I’m using. Until then, good luck, subscribe to the podcast!

0 comments.

New Podcast

Posted on May 22nd, 2009 by Trip.
Categories: podcasts.

Oh My God!
A new Podcast!
Who Let This Happen!
It is only 10 min. long!

 

 The Reboot!: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (40)

0 comments.

JW

Posted on May 18th, 2009 by Trip.
Categories: Uncategorized.

Back on the blog that nobody reads.
Writing my posts and sowing my seeds
that bloom in fantastotacular trees
with fruits I will harvest and munch on (for free!).

I’m brewing up something back in my brain
Like nursing an ember then fanning the flame
Sit by the fire and think “What became
Of John Wayne?”

0 comments.

Ian Goes to Stupid Land

Posted on May 12th, 2009 by Trip.
Categories: Glorious.

Ian Goes to Stupid Land With His Tame Barracuda from Trip Venturella on Vimeo.

0 comments.

Listening?

Posted on May 11th, 2009 by Trip.
Categories: Uncategorized.

I would rather listen to a record than a CD.
I would rather be at a live concert than listen to a record.
I would rather be the speakers at the concert than just listening to them.
I would rather be the electrical impulse that activates the speakers than the speakers.
I would rather be the instrument than the electricity.
I would rather be musician than the instrument.
So what plays the musician?

0 comments.

Older »