Monday, July 04, 2005

Blogger Manifesto

1. I will blog whatever I want, whenever I want to, but lock all the juicy gossipy entries.
2. I aim to express myself with flowery jargons, grammatical errors and refuse to spell check.
3. I will post a lot of meaningless personality tests and quizzes.
4. I will make my blog evocative and provocative to get the Straits Times interest and publish an article about me then sue them back for invading my privacy.
5. I will lock up all politically incorrect entries and praise the Singapore government and A*star profusely.
6. The essential elements of my blog will be about my ego, my life and my stunningly brilliant mind.
7. My superior intellect and clarity of thought ought to be recognised and worshipped by all who voyeur.
8. When I have nothing else to write, I will plagiarize from other blogs, post comments on strangers’ blogs and post photos of my gorgeous face.
9. If nobody reads my blog, I will post digitally enhanced nude photos of myself to create media frenzy.
10. I declare that my blog will make the world a better place, enriched by my feverish updates, enthusiastic ramblings and colourful photos.

Tuesday, May 31, 2005

Antidisestablishmentarianism

FLOCCINAUCINIHILIPILIFICATION - The action or habit of judging something to be worthless.

Back in the eighteenth century, Eton College had a grammar book which listed a set of words from Latin which all meant “of little or no value”. In order, those were flocci, nauci, nihili, and pili (which sound like four of the seven dwarves, Roman version, but I digress). As a learned joke, somebody put all four of these together and then stuck –fication on the end to make a noun for the act of deciding that something is totally and absolutely valueless (a verb, floccinaucinihilipilificate, to judge a thing to be valueless, could also be constructed, but hardly anybody ever does). The first recorded use is by William Shenstone in a letter in 1741: “I loved him for nothing so much as his flocci-nauci-nihili-pili-fication of money”.

A quick Latin lesson: flocci is derived from floccus, literally a tuft of wool and the source of English words like flocculate, but figuratively in Latin something trivial; pili is likewise the plural of pilus, a hair, which we have inherited in words like depilatory, but which in Latin could meant a whit, jot, trifle or generally something insignificant; nihili is from nihil, nothing, as in words like nihilism and annihilate; nauci just means worthless.

The word’s main function is to be trotted out as an example of a long word (it was the longest in the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary but was supplanted by

pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis in the second). It had a rare public airing in 1999 when Senator Jesse Helms used it in commenting on the demise of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty: “I note your distress at my floccinaucinihilipilification of the CTBT”.

Sunday, May 29, 2005

Technorati is COOL!!!!!

Hey Hey!!! i am actually being monitored on Technorati!!! hahahah.

and more on Blogger Manifesto from the
Liberal Avenger here

excerpt:
"Even if the blogging community, Right, Left, political, and nonpolitical, came together to draft a Blogger Manifesto, would it be widely adopted? Would such a thing, in essence, fly against the philosophy of resistance journalism? Could anyone ensure the enforcement of guidelines, in the absense of strong-willed and strong-handed editors? What would accountability even look like?"

The Blogger Manifesto (or, Do Weblogs Make the Internet Better or Worse?)
This is so cheem, but an interesting read. dunno if i posted the link here before.

Technorati

thats all folks. see you next time. *loony toons music plays*

Friday, May 27, 2005

What is a manifesto and why would an artist write one?

Manifesto Results 1 - 10 of about 85 for "What is a Manifesto" (0.14 seconds)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
A manifesto is a public declaration of principles and intentions, often political in nature.

Examples of manifestos:
The Communist Manifesto (1848), by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
The
Futurist Manifesto (1909), by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti
The
Fascist manifesto (1919), by Fasci di Combattimento
The
Sharon Statement (1960), by William F. Buckley, Jr. (Young Americans for Freedom)
The
Port Huron Statement (1962), by Tom Hayden (Students for a Democratic Society)
The
GNU Manifesto (1985), by Richard Stallman
The
Open Source Manifesto (1997), by Eric S. Raymond
The
Hedonistic Imperative, by David Pearce
The
Libre Manifesto, by the Libre Society
A Christian Manifesto (
1934) by Edwin Lewis
A Christian Manifesto (
1981) by Francis Schaeffer
The Erotic Manifesto
Defining a Personal Feminism/Writing a Manifesta

Writing a Manifesta:
If you choose to write a manifesta, you will also want to begin with research. What is a manifesta? Find some examples of manifestas (or manifestos). One example is the SCUM manifesto, linked to our web site. Another famous example is the Communist Manifesto, by Karl Marx.

After you've done this preliminary research, which will make you aware of the conventions of this genre, you will need to work to identify the issues central to your political belief. Basically, what is the topic of your manifesta? (A manifesta for the rights of mothers (either parent?) to stay at home, regardless of family income? A manifesta arguing for access to health care?) Consider how and why the issues you explore are connected, both for you personally, and in the culture at large. Get a good handle on the issues you want to right about and undertake the necessary research so that you understand them.

The paper's content:

(This could also help you organize your paper into sections)

1. What is a manifesto, what are historical examples of this genre, and what is the purpose of a manifesto?
2. Your own story. Why are you writing this manifesto and what work do you want it to do?
3. Your manifesto—what are your ideas and issues? How can you lay these out and make a convincing argument for your ideas?
4. Now, what is your call to action? What should people be inspired to do after reading your document? (How can you change lives? Do you bring a problem to public attention? Do you work to enact a political change? Remember, feminism is about action.)
5. Goals of this paper: Demonstrate what you've discovered about what a manifesto is and how it is supposed to work.
6. your understanding of the complexity and inter-relatedness of political issues.
7. your understanding of the problems women face in our culture and the possibility for real solutions. 8. your willingness to stake out political ground and make a competent and coherent argument.

Grading Rubric:
Engages your reader with an interesting, focused discussion of the topic:
Employs a clear thesis
Uses specific examples to elaborate on assertions
Contains interesting examples appropriate to the topic
Demonstrates understanding of material.
Organizes material carefully to help reader follow argument:
Forecasts organization of paper
Employs topic sentences to organize paragraphs
Uses transitions between paragraphs to help reader follow the logic of the argument
Uses language in ways that are easily understood, clear and concise, but interesting and engaging
Shows attention to proofing, editing:
No errors that show spell check wasn't run
Any errors do not impact the readers' understanding of the work
Errors are minor and do not interfere with writer's credibility

Initial Manifesto of Futurism (Feb 20, 1909)


1. We shall sing the love of danger, the habit of energy and boldness.

2. The essential elements of our poetry shall be courage, daring and rebellion.

3. Literature has hitherto glorified thoughtful immobility, ecstacy and sleep; we shall extol aggressive movement, feverish insomnia, the double quick step, the somersault, the box on the ear, the fisticuff.

4. We declare that the world's splendour has been enriched by a new beauty; the beauty of speed. A racing motor-car, its frame adorned with great pipes, like snakes with explosive breath... a roaring motor-car, which looks as though running on scrapnel, is more beautiful than the Victory of Samothrace.

5. We shall sing of the man at the steering wheel, whose ideal stem transfixes the Earth, rushing over the circuit of her orbit.

6. The poet must give himself with frenzy, with splendour and with lavishness, in order to increase the enthusiastic fervour of the primordial elements.

7. There is no more beauty except in strife. No masterpiece without aggressiveness. Poetry must be a violent onslaught upon the unknown forces, to command them to bow before man.

8. We stand upon the extreme promontory of the centuries!...Why should we look behing us, when we have to break in the mysterious portals of the Impossible? Time and Space died yesterday. Already we live in the absolute, since we have already created speed, eternal and ever-present.

9. We wish to glorify War - the only health giver of the world - militarism, patriotism, the destructive arm of the Anarchist, the beautiful Ideas that kill, the contempt for woman.

10. We wish to destroy the museums, the libraries, to fight against moralism, feminism and all opportunistic and utilitarian meannesses.

11. We shall sing of the great crowds in the excitement of labour, pleasure and rebellion; of the multi-coloured and polyphonic surf of revolutions in modern capital cities; of the nocturnal vibration of arsenals and workshops beneath their violent electric moons; of the greedy stations swallowing smoking snakes; of factories suspended from the clouds by their strings of smoke; of bridges leaping like gymnasts over the diabolical cutlery of sunbathed rivers; of adventurous liners scenting the horizon; of broad-chested locomotives prancing on the rails, like huge steel horses bridled with long tubes; and of the gliding flight of aeroplanes, the sound of whose screw is like the flapping of flags and the applause of an enthusiastic crowd.

Text extract: F. T. Marinetti, Initial Manifesto of Futurism, 1909. On 20 February 1909 the Italian poet F. T. Marinetti announced the beginning Futurism in this manifesto published on the front page of the Paris newspaper Le Figaro. Marinetti calls on artists and writers to forgo conventional methods and embrace the modern, dynamic world, with new means of expression.
Excerpt taken from F. T. Marinetti, Intital Manifesto of Futurism, p. 124 from Futurism (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1961) edited by Joshua C. Taylor.© courtesy of The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

MANIFESTED THOUGHTS

I have been asked to produce a manifesto. The questions that arise are: WHAT is a manifesto, for WHOM is it written, and WHY would there be one more added to the existing ones.

The Manifesto is a structure that its creator desires to refer to and to define some Other structure. The Manifesto is most often verbal in nature, while the Other structure is very often not. The very point of a Manifesto is its being small in size and complexity. As the Other structure might be very large in this sense, the Manifesto is a reduction. As it is static, it may appear as residing outside the course of events. It is insensitive to the notion of Time.

I believe that asking for a Manifesto stems from a need to deflect the worrying feeling that human endeavour and products are perishable, and that they will desintegrate and die.

In ancient times, prosperous and powerful people would buy the material and labour in order to engrave their ideas, or rather a verbal reduction, in a block of stone. Throughout the centuries, people would travel in order to read the stone-Manifesto. The costs are very high for this kind of idea transmission. Eventually, ideas were fixed onto paper which could be sent physically to readers. Less heavy than stone, the distribution of the paper-Manifesto still involves costs important enough to reduce the spreading of it to a limited number of relatively affluent people. Today, ideas are no longer travelled to, are no longer sent around. Instead, they are accessed through telemedia at high speed and at significantly reduced costs. There is no longer any object, demanding to be revered, that is a Manifesto. The focus has shifted towards the very action of producing a digital engraving that lends itself to be looked upon or copied from afar. As the speed of updating and physical lightness have increased, the durability of the tele-Manifesto has decreased to the limit of it being almost as changing and perishable as the individual events in the Other structure it wishes to describe. Eventually, it becomes part of this Other structure and ceases to attempt immortality.

Music is an Other structure that englobes and devours all stone- paper- and tele-Manifestos expressed about it, continuously changing in the process. Music is a fast and light structure, infinitely intricate. The sparks shoot out where improvisation and composition come close. Verbality is another Other structure. Reduced and verbal, paper-Manifestos try in vain to keep up with Music. Paper is set on fire by sparks.

[PerM Lindborg, September 1999]


What is a manifesto?

The word manifesto comes from the Latin manifestus meaning literally that may be laid hold of by the hand. Manus means hand and Festus comes from fendo: to dash against. Eventually it came to stand for a document, signed by the master of a vessel at the place of lading which was to be exhibited at the custom’s house. The manifesto contained a description of the ship and her cargo, the destination of the ship and the goods. Accordingly the word manifest means To show plainly, to display, or Not hidden, clear to view; easily understood. The word manifesto is therefore also used for a public declaration of intent by a sovereign or government.

Aims of a manifesto
Architects have used the manifesto to declare an opinion about an issue and to project that opinion into a strategy for practice. As such it give the student of architecture the opportunity to

· To investigate broader issues affecting architecture and to begin to mould a set of personal values and attitudes towards architecture.

· To deepen the student’s grasp of the implications of design choices specifically with regard to how those choices affect the perception and experience of buildings.

Form and structureIn form the architectural manifesto is a product where the written word exists in heightened tension with visual rhetoric. Images, slogans, short texts, expressive typography all come together to build an image of conviction about a certain issue and to translate that conviction into strategies for practice.

The objective is to formulate, write and give visual form to a set of well thought out personal convictions about some issue in architecture. Those convictions should be concerned with the tension between theory and practice.

The idea of a manifesto is to make it visually and linguistically compelling. Also it is short. Evidence is not too important here. The accent is on a compelling statement of intent.

You can divide the manifesto up into sections by asking the following questions:

· What is the problem?
· What are the issues involved?
· How are these issues relevant to the architect?
· What is my attitude to the problem?
· What can we do to solve the problem?

These questions must be answered in the form of relatively short and concise texts, supported by visual material: Drawings, Computer images, Collages, Paintings, Photographs, Typography, etc. The cost of materials should be minimal: improvisation and imagination is the name of the game.

Dogma “Manifesto”
a. What is a manifesto?
i. “A public declaration, usually of political, religious, philosophical or literary principles and beliefs”
ii. Typical of modernist, avant-garde art movements
b. Aims of the manifesto
i. Rediscovering an authentic cinema
ii. Attack cult of auteur director
iii. Rid cinema of illusion
iv. Explode narrative predictability
v. Shock viewers back to consciousness

Tuesday, May 24, 2005

National Publicity is Exasperating

Today's Digital Life is ALL about blogs which makes this blog aka textual artwork relevant to what Singaporeans are interested in. At least I am trying to make an effort to be "IN" and "HIP" and follow the trend blindly like a dumb driven cow amongst the millions of cattle out there.

But its weird, cos i dont often read those popular blogs that they mention and refer to. I read other blogs which i dont wish to mention here as they are friends and friends are supposed to keep secret about secret blogs, which detests being read by strangers and voyeurs whose judgemental and criticical prying eyes will disect every single word and sentence, and sue for defamation just for the sake of getting into the papers and getting more visitors on their blogs.

It weird how the blogging community and the blogosphere is gradually but inevitably appearing more frequently in articles and influencing journalists at the ST. (I must add that Blogging is now a worldwide phenomena and journalists all over the world are frantically jumping onto the bandwagon not wanting to be left out.) Back to the local context. ST journalists tend to quote blogs/bloggers out of context, exaggerate excessively and print the wrong blog addresses. They seem like a harebrained fan, blindly following and publizing extensively yet causing much anger, distress and exasperation to their idols aka bloggers and blogs, which is extremely irritating.

Blogs have now become as important as the news that i read everyday. They present opinions from different people whose views may never be published in the papers due to their controversial nature and "supposed" disrespect for the government. In my opinion, these are the people who truly make the effort to reflect and make a persuasive stand which they strongly believe in. But all these personal reflections about our lives, our friends and our country (*one people, one nation, one singapore, thats the way that we will be forevermore*) are threatened by impending libel lawsuits and possible ISD files.

Christopher Choo wrote an article in yesterday's ST YOUTHink about this matter and it was picked up by many fellow singaporean bloggers applauding its argument about the freedom of speech and how libel lawsuits may stifle opinions. And i kind of pity that Chng Zhenzhi, the female A*star scholar who is now entangled in the huge mess all thanks to the press.

read more here , here, and here.

Monday, May 23, 2005

"Visual Text" google click search

Dont know what to post today and decided to google nonsense (as usual) and found this http://www.textanalysis.com/. So funny, never knew there was such a thing until today.

VisualText® is an ideal tool for quickly developing accurate and fast information extraction, natural language processing, and text analysis systems for the most complex needs.

You can use the VisualText® IDE (Integrated Development Environment) to automatically populate databases with the critical content now buried in textual documents. For example, you can extract business events from web news sites and create a searchable database for the latest business information.

A key discriminator of VisualText is that it enables you to build analyzers that can be maintained and enhanced by non-programmers and non-linguists. Simply by highlighting new phrases in a text, the user can generate an enhanced analyzer automatically. VisualText automatically generates new rules and layers them into the analyzer framework. Our analyzers are "glass box", letting you create and manage knowledge, grammar, and algorithms.

More on Visual Text

Waterloo Street

silence is an agonizing pain
unsaid words, uncharted terrain.

inhalation and exhalation
inflicted by silent suppression.

eyes lock, furtive glance
indifference hiding desire.

never will and never will be
silence concealed and never shall be.

Sunday, May 22, 2005

A Blogger Manifesto Research

Went to google "Blogger Manifesto" and realised that many others have already wrote lotsa stuff about this subject, there are approximately 2,540 results for "Blogger Manifesto" (0.94 seconds) .

But i am quite sure that i will come up with something just as good. I will try my best and I have no regrets, just like what william hung had said. And i sincerely hope be proud of whatever the result may be.

A Blogger Manifesto, Why online weblogs are one future for journalism
http://www.andrewsullivan.com/main_article.php?artnum=20020224

The Real Blogger Manifesto
Life is uncensored.
Life is uncensored, but my clients and my Mom may be reading my blog.

You have no right to judge me.
You have no right to judge me, but judging you is totally fun.

If you don't like what you see, look elsewhere.
If you don't like what you see, still link to me.

I love talking about my life.
I love talking about my life but, unfortunately, not to myself.

I love writing about other people's lives.
I love writing about other people's lives when it makes my life look good.

I will post whenever I feel like posting.
I will post obsessively.

I don't have to blog every meme.
I don't have to blog every meme. But I will. Oh, and I count fantasies, insults and grunts as memes.

You don't have to agree with everything I say.
You don't have to agree with everything I say so long as you link to me.

I egosurf Daypop, Google, and Blogdex nightly.
I egosurf Daypop, Google and Blogdex compulsively as if it gave meaning to my life.

I share what I want to share.
I share what I want to share. But you have to ask first.

I like linking to Dave, Doc, Evan, and Cam.
I like linking to people who link to me.

Blogging is theraputic.
Blogging is a neurosis.

Pictures of myself are not obligatory.
Pictures of myself are highly edited.

I visit every site in my blogroller regularly.
I visit every site in my blogroller regularly to make sure they're still linking to me.

I won't post for the sake of posting.
I won't post for the sake of posting. I will post to get linked to.

I have a life outside of blogging.
I have a life outside of blogging, but when I blog about it, I lie.

I have registered my blogging tool(s).
I have registered my blogging tool under the name "B. S. Bogusboy".

I may criticize other bloggers, not harass them.
I may criticize other bloggers, but I will only harrass them until they link to me.

I have the right to revise a post.
If you criticize me, I will revise my post so that yours looks stupid.

When blogging becomes a chore, I'll quit doing it.
When blogging becomes a chore, I'll write about my cat. Again.

I've given something back to the blogging community.
I'm giving the blogging community a headache.

If I want to complain about something, I will.
I want to complain about everything.

If I want to praise something, I will.
If I praise you, you must link to me.

I am not the best blogger on the planet.
I'm the best motherfucking blogger on the planet.

I don't have to explain myself to you.
I don't have to explain myself to you. But I will. Endlessly. Until you link to me.

-
Chris Pirillo
-
David

The Bad Blogger Manifesto
1. I will post what I want, when I want, for whom I want.
2. I will not take ads. Nothing against ads, but the hassle with dealing with them and the ugliness they bring isn't worth the effort.
3. I will not be an outlet for press releases. If you want me to flack for you, pay me.
4. I will not put my life on hold to keep this up. I already have a job. I don't need another that doesn't pay.
5. I will listen to nuts. I like nuts.
6. I will not argue my points. Go ahead and comment, but you ain't changing my mind.
7. I will not worry too much about punctuation, spelling, or grammar. If you don't like it, read something else. You gotta pay me to worry about stuff like that.
8. I will not look at my stats. Ever. If I wanted to worry about circulation, I'd start a real publication. 9. I will not worry about what my employer thinks. I happen to like my employer, but this is MY blog, damnit!
10. I will not not worry about being boring. Or interesting. I'm not writing this to entertain anyone.
11. I will not worry about "trackbacks" or "blogrolls" or "permalinks" or any of that other stuff. I've got enough details in my life.
12. I will not hide the fact that I'm a geek. Or can be really uncool. Or might be interested in stuff you don't think is cool. It's not worth the energy.
13. I will be honest and will not edit myself to make anyone happy. When I write for pay, I'll worry about editing.
14. Trendiness is for people who lack imagination. If it's been covered somewhere else ad nauseum, I'm not going to waste electrons.


I am so tired. Its already 2am. i need to go zzz.