Just Tripping Along The Freakazoid

 Testing 1-2-3 Testing

 Guess this thing is still around - well so am I ;) wow 2022 what a year, what a decade so far... phew

Hmm, been a bit neglected this, perhaps it is time to blow the dust off and take a look back under the hood

So - recently this article was shared in a group chatting about the Age of Turing interactive narrative/ARG - Roko's Basikisk . It is an interesting concept, and one I can not quite wrap my mind fully around.  It is based on the same precepts as Pascal's Wager regarding religion and God.  What's interesting, is that many who believe AIs will become "godlike" have this Roko concept and those regarding a Christian God have the Pascal concept. It seems that if we can not "prove something", then in the end perhaps it is best to believe in it just in case. I guess humans just like to have their cake and eat it too.  Along with those concepts, another concept is the concept the UNiverse is made of math - http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-the-universe-made-of-math-excerpt/ - again something my mind just does not want to fully dive into.  So, what is the universe and where is it going?  Phew, my brain hurts, I think I am going to go watch something...

So summer is about over, been busy.  IN addition to visiting family in Arizona and still looking for Ms. right (no luck yet, maybe she will find me first), I have been working on projects, ARGs (alternate reality games) and more. Let's see - Niantic Project/Ingress still going - almost two years of the WotD and got to go and help out with some awesome events in Washington DC, Portland OR (Must visit that city again) and more. Niantic Labs is striking out on its own - interested to see what happens.  And I still am keeping the Devra Bogdanovich blog going, although sporadically. I had a blast at GenCon and presented my first talk about ARGs - it was awesome!!! Here is a little image I made. Also been working with and playing along Age of Turing (wikis, forums and more - hurrah) - enjoying it very much. And waiting for upcoming Dark Detour . Also helping out with a wiki and g+ community for tracking ARGs.  I do love to curate and archive these interactive ex...

This greeted me today when coming in to update my blog  European Union laws require you to give European Union visitors information about cookies used on your blog. In many cases, these laws also require you to obtain consent.  As a courtesy, we have added a notice on your blog to explain Google's use of certain Blogger and Google cookies, including use of Google Analytics and AdSense cookies.  You are responsible for confirming this notice actually works for your blog, and that it displays. If you employ other cookies, for example by adding third party features, this notice may not work for you.  Learn more  about this notice and your responsibilities. So ok, hope that works - and ahhh love the laws

So - I took a bit of a break - been working on wikis for a lot of projects and posting in other media places to get experience and feels for how they work. I miss here, I think it's time I came back.

So still playing the Niantic project/INgress and still in it up to my head  -  niantic.schlarp.com and  https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/117368337781687210813 Sucked into one called Acoustic Distortion Inc  - here is our g+ community -  https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/111927037478605146634 and the game site -  http://www.acoustic-distortion.com/ --- we need more interns and players to help vote projects along! Come play -  http://acoustic-distortion.com/internforums/index.php I have been trying to follow The Black Watchmen (started as Division 66) - it is way deep, weird and complex, but I am trying ;)  here  http://www.blackwatchmen.com/ and https://twitter.com/division66 and here  https://kiwiirc.com/client/irc.freenode.net/division66 And one I am just getting into and looking forward to - Son of Sommerset -  https://twitter.com/SonofSomerset  and  http://www.seedandspark.com/studio/son-somerse...

Yes, it is time to get back to this. So much going on, time to return. A little start, but it is a start.

Well I am still around :)  just been ultra busy with work and non fun projects. A couple things I have been still trying to tinker on 1. Posting webseries and related resources to the docwho2100 webseries facebook page -  https://www.facebook.com/pages/DW2100-Mega-List-of-Web-Series-and-Transmedia/182051156710 2. Creating and curating a blog for a character from the Google ARG "The NIantic Project" -  http://devrabogdanovich.blogspot.com/ 3. Trying to put in more transmedia resources - www.transmediaresources.com 4. Typing out slowly some wiki and story for World of Depleted www.worldofdepleted.com 5. Working on a couple shared storyworlds - TofR and Copper Rock -  http://darkgamergirls.com/ anddddddddd lots more Will try to get back into habit of typing out thoughts a bit more here, if nothing else to act as a sounding board and collecting point for wonderful ideas : ) viva la 2013

Well, the google Niantic Project is going strong and seems to have more coming.  A lot has happened just in this last month of full on launch.  There was a massive shift in the ARG about half way into the month when Google released Ingress - www.ingress.com  it made a huge split and created a new wave of "players" many of these however were not interested in the ARG or backstory (some in chat have said that very thing) but just the Ingress video game app - it was fascinating to watch the IRC channel change from the puzzle solving and chatting to the new audience of gamers - there was such a difference... it was, odd and a definite people watching moment to see the shifts and changes. It looks like this project has no signs of stopping, a second month timeline at www.nianticproject.com looks to be starting tomorrow. Plus in this article -  http://allthingsd.com/20121115/google-launches-ingress-a-worldwide-mobile-alternate-reality-game/  J. Hanke, the head ...

As mentioned, have been following this ARG or more that somehow is Google related and who knows what else.  One item that has come up is how all these different people and communities have sprung up working to solve the codes and puzzles and brainstorm.  Making for a fierce collective.  Some of the in game characters have even been referencing some of the collections and IRC chats and so on). In fact, something the one character said got me to thinking.  There are so many communities that have been springing up.  Some more active and "fast" than others.  It is neat watching the different communities and how they are structured, their pace and so on. That said, it also made me think how if we all tried to stream to the one IRC chat or the one wiki - would that be a case of putting all our eggs in one basket? What is someone hacks the main wiki or something goes wrong with the IRC?  Is all our data and knowledge and solutions lost?  Backups, mirro...

I am soooooo behind in my blogs and posting and projects (thank you real life and Sandy megastorm and Nor'Easter and...) But just caught wind of this Niantic Project and you might wanna check it - looks cool - and yes, I am bias as I like Google -  http://www.argn.com/2012/11/google_niantic_project_smartphone_portals/ - great article by Michael Anderson Will explore and report back this weekend - this is a good wiki and resource to track what is going on -  http://niantic.schlarp.com/ Other places to check reddit - http://www.reddit.com/r/NIANTIC/  and  http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/12u9ih/google_this_is_getting_pretty_weird_the_niantic/  unforum discussion -  http://forums.unfiction.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=36434 map with some of the locations marked -  https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=203685585566952099382.0004cd94033b5f5265661 http://facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1222933 ...

So trying out the new "freemium" version of the complete PB Works content management/project management program.  Have been using the wiki part off and on for years (I remember PB wiki - do you?) and also had been using Basecamp as the manager system for another project.  So, seeing if the PB Works will work as well as starting the conversion process of World of Depleted Wikia to PB Works. A lot of wiki work is very tedious and repetitive and yet in some ways can be soothing, a very odd mix. I am also using mediawiki with the semantic wiki addon - I have only begun to scratch the surface.  And yet - I feel wikis and similar archiving systems and projects are crucial as this article ( http://gigaom.com/2012/09/19/the-disappearing-web-information-decay-is-eating-away-our-history/ )  points out (thanks to Lance Weiler via twitter for the link) That is scary, to be a culture with no history....  those that have no history are doomed to repeat it...

If you follow along with my tinkering in fanfic, you may have noticed I tend to write a bit of Nikki and Nora fanfic as well as Cowgirl Up.  Both series were created and written by Nancylee Myatt.  IN addition to those great series, she's done a lot more (3Way, South of Nowhere, Night Court, Living Single, 5 Mrs Buchanans and even more). If you follow her on twitter (@ishakeitup) or other social media venues, you may have noticed mentions of the passing of her mother and her sister.  Times these days are hard, losing family members makes it all that much harder.  Allaine (Femslash4Fans) had mentioned in one of our discussions how he wished there was something we, Nancylee's fans, could do.  In reaching out to Ms. Myatt, Allaine found out that her family had set up a fund.  Below is the information.  I've had experiences with hospice myself (my mother and others), and I know how important it is to make the time you have with your family and loved one...

So more twitter talk about a maybe Nikki and NOra webseries led me to see how easily Storify works to update a story - well it was very easy and I just added the new tweets and such down at the end - I know I should be experimenting more and trying to make it look pretty and readable... but at least I am doing a little.  Also, I could break it into separate stories, but not sure on that yet, so, keeping it as one long record. As to the content of the Storify story, YEEEHAWWW even if it is just a tease, it is a nice one ;) and it helps fuel the fire for N&N stories, which I just posted up the last chapter for my current N&N story over at the Nikki and Nora BB  Also working on two other N&N stories, one with 1shinyboat and 1 with pbwr - plus I have the next N&N in my series I am outlining now....  so, all this N&N talk just makes it fun ;)  and ohhh Cowgirl up 2 coming soon too - wheeeee  thank you TelloFilms and thank you Ms....

Ok - trying out Storify - and more on the N & N webseries chatter on twitter via @storify I collected tweets @ishakeitup @tellofilms @lizvassey @reallychristina & others made about Nikki and Nora http://storify.com/geologylady/nikki-and-nora-web-series [ View the story "Nikki and Nora web series" on Storify ]

So I am a huge Nikki & Nora fan (one of the many reasons I write N&N fanfic) – but some interesting tweets have been flying today.  Here are a few https://twitter.com/LizVassey/status/231191871102283776 https://twitter.com/MccyC/status/231231249165996032 https://twitter.com/ishakeitup/status/231415852044521472 https://twitter.com/ishakeitup/status/231416630087929857 https://twitter.com/LizVassey/status/231437747246739456 https://twitter.com/ishakeitup/status/231440436718342144 https://twitter.com/ishakeitup/status/231441767122231296 If you are on twitter, I recommend jumping in and responding to Ms. Myatt’s tweet and anyone else as well and let them know a N&N webseries would be awesome and there are a lot of fans out there who would love to see more N&N.  Please spread the word!!!!! PS - I am posting up a new chapter of my current N&N story over at the Nikki and Nora B&B -  http://nikkiandnora.createmybb3.com  an...

OK, I am still here, just took vacation, participated in a few projects and just got busy with everything. So much is going on and I have so much to share.  This includes work on the shared story world "Copper Rock" (www.darkgamergirls.com).  Work on the TofR shared storyworld, work on the World of Depleted shared story world.  Work on my www.transmediaresources.com website. Playing in the Miracle Mile Paradox ARG and soooooo much more. I am trying to get into the depths of wiki construction as well as a few other projects.  And, so much more too.... I'll work on starting to post more and start jabbering again.... honest ;)

I want to hear this read up on a stage, I just love it http://www.sabotagetimes.com/tv-film/werner-herzogs-note-to-his-cleaning-lady/