Shipka's Forum Prompt:
Presentation Reflection

As ever--posts are due by Wednesday at 5:00 p.m. and must be at least 250 words.

W. Chewning's Response ·  P.C. Paul's First Response ·  P. Hartman's Response ·  C. Wychgram's Response ·  P.C. Paul's Second Response

S. Kibler's Response ·  D. Wentworth's Response ·  B. Bauhaus' Response ·  D. Panchwagh's Response ·  E. Sanchez's Response ·  A. Sheikh's Response

E. Piccirillo's Response ·  A. Natvoitz's Response

1. I thought about it.
2. I said, "Joy, will you make me a sock puppet that looks like me when I was a kid?"
3. I decided what "kid" meant to me.
4. I waited and praised Joy, offering positive reinforcement, as she made my sock puppet.

Step 3 above is, I suppose, the one that gave me the most influence over the design of my puppet. I decided that I wanted my puppet to reflect my teenage self rather than a younger version, and I dressed as I would have at the same age. I figured that since I was a little older I could get away being an older "kid."

         To me, the sock puppet didn't have much of an effect, other than the occasional fooling around, on the way I communicated. I used my "deep voice," but I pretty much said all of the same stuff I would have said had I not had a sweaty hand manipulating a dressed up old sock. I did, however, somewhat enjoy the feeling of discomfort coming from that second lady with whom we spoke; she wasn't diggin' the sock puppet thing at all. :-)

         Knowing that we were limited on time, I made comments in my notebook about only the photos that appealed to me for some reason. I noticed that I had a tendency to interpret the photos from a man VS nature perspective, and I think that might have been because I was reading Annie Dillard at the time for ENGL 303. Again, I do not think that the puppet affected my language or the perspective from which I observed and commented on the photos. But I do think that I was somewhat more interested in sharing this experience with my classmates than I was in the photos themselves. I cannot explain exactly why.

         Finally, the speeches by and conversations with the library/gallery/archives representatives did not greatly affect the way I made sense of what I saw on display. The archive lady, for example, spoke about a number of items which sounded really cool, but we didn't see any of them. I can't say I blame her for not taking a bunch of people wearing hand puppets into the depths of the archives. However, as she gave her speech before we looked at the items in her realm, I was more interested in seeing what was there. The other lady spoke to us about the photographs after we looked at them, and I didn't get a whole lot more out of what she had to say. I did enjoy hearing Shipka drill her about "how to read" the exhibit, though -- that was great.

         Thanks for giving us this experience, guys!

"Diggem Not Diggin' It" a response to W. Chewning's "Making friends with a sock..." by P.C. Paul
Chewning said, "I did, however, somewhat enjoy the feeling of discomfort coming from that second lady with whom we spoke; she wasn't diggin' the sock puppet thing at all. :-)"

         No, she was not diggin’ anything that was going on that day. Liz and I happened to be at the same place in the exhibition early on. Elizabeth asked her a question and she was actually quite rude to Elizabeth with her reply. After she had left, I forgot what Liz said to me, but it was probably something to the effect of "Was it me or was she just a rude person?" I suggested to Elizabeth to "Just let it go, some people have no sense of humor." For me, the whole thing was funny and everything should have been treated in an upbeat, lighthearted manner, after all we’re just dumb kids.

         "I noticed that I had a tendency to interpret the photos from a man VS nature perspective, and I think that might have been because I was reading Annie Dillard at the time for ENGL 303. Again, I do not think that the puppet affected my language or the perspective from which I observed and commented on the photos. But I do think that I was somewhat more interested in sharing this experience with my classmates than I was in the photos themselves," said Chewning.

         The photos really did nothing for me. As far as the horticulture, I have seen things like we saw in various arboretums as visitng arboretums is something I enjoy doing during the summertime, especially with my camera in tow. Every opportunity I get when I go to a different state or two I usually try to visit a local arboretum because they are all sooooooo every different from each other. I used to have a great deal of photographs similar to the ones displayed so the exhibit was nothing new to me. The nature pictures also did nothing for me because I shoot a great deal of these pictures also. That is not to say that every exhibit shown does not hold my interest. Many have been quite interesting but I had already done a walk through on this exhibit so I was familiar with the work.

         "Finally, the speeches by and conversations with the library/gallery/archives representatives did not greatly affect the way I made sense of what I saw on display. The archive lady, for example, spoke about a number of items which sounded really cool, but we didn't see any of them. I can't say I blame her for not taking a bunch of people wearing hand puppets into the depths of the archives. However, as she gave her speech before we looked at the items in her realm, I was more interested in seeing what was there."

         Here I agree with one point and disagree with the other. I would have simply asked that everyone remove their sock puppets for a moment while we stroll through the archives. Simple as that. Not giving us the walking tour created for an authoritarian environment and not an inviting one at that. Bill, I assume that you are a native Missourian like myself: Show me. I really would like to know what is in there but I was not able to get there this week because of all kinds of crazy tutoring hours.

A response to P.C. Paul's post by W. Chewning
I wasn't all that amazed by the photos of the plant sculptures, myself. It seems like the actual art is in the plants, and the photos are just a facsimile. I liked the other landscapes, though, especially the ones that made use of scale and perspective that wouldn't normally be observed by people.

         As for the archive lady, I don't think that she was necessarily being authoritarian by not lettings us browse the archives. I doubt they let large groups back there... even if they aren't wearing sock puppets. I mean, I would assume that one who would choose such a career would likely be naturally watchful, perhaps even foreboding. I bet a lot of freaking out goes on in that room...

"Cover me... I'm going in..." a response to W. Chewning's post by p.C. Paul
...if you like, I'll tell you how things go. I'm looking for photographic history of my hometown which was rather complex.

         Okay I already do not understand this question. Do you mean… Wait! What the Hell do you mean? Did you design it to be an extension of yourself or did you design it to depict another character/persona different from yourself? The sock puppet was my most popular persona/character from a web forum/bulletin board I used to frequent. His posting name was/is Flipper. He was male but I decided to make him a female dolphin instead just for the hell of it. Shall I explain the design decisions of the persona Flipper or the design of the puppet Flipper? There is some really heavy design work going on here and bad jokes just made worse.

"Blackhole" now online...

         The beginning of this story is weird and only progresses from one bad joke to a string of bad jokes spinning out of control. My friends nicknamed me Blackhole. Why? Well I must have had 14 different nicknames depending which circle of friends I was standing with. Blackhole came about while I was telling my (Sheeeeh, we ran the gambit of relations and now we don't even speak to each other, ever.) girlfriend, ex-girlfriend, wife, ex-wife… significant other yeah that's the ticket! That pretty much blankets the whole field. I was telling her about a weird dream where I was sucked into a black hole. Kirk, Spock, and McCoy were there. We were stuck and we were trying to figure out how to escape its grasp. Theoretically, a black hole has so much gravitational pull that it basically sucks up everything in the Universe. So as it always is in a Star Trek episode they always get together and formulate some long winded untested theory to try and then because no one understands what the hell they are talking about they follow it up with a simple minded metaphor. So the solution to the problem was to "reverse the matter/anti-matter convert it to... deflect it off... channel it though... bla bla bla, thereby freeing us from the gravitational pull." Kirk: "What?" I responded, "We convert it to a white hole. I didn't realize that her sister's friend was in the house at the time and he loved to rip on me. He overheard this conversation which was totally out there to begin with. My thinking and creativity has always been somewhere beyond Pluto as one person said so this person became fixated on the two words black hole and gave me the name Blackhole in order to rib me all the time. The name within this circle stuck and eventually they shortened Blackhole to the familiar Blackie. When they reached the familiar form of the surname they then gave me a theme song "Blackie" to the tune of the "Flipper" theme song. I told you this goes from bad to worse.

         Now to the next level. I found this online bulletin board forum. I took the liberty to use the old nickname no one would recognize and use that as a Posting Name so when I posted, I always singed Blackhole. This forum was kind of weird. There were no controls in place to prevent people from changing their posting names as they saw fit. Obviously this leads to flaming problems. I always posted as Blackhole so people could get to know me and would talk with me. You post often enough and behave yourself you are eventually accepted into the community. Eventually I had to get an anonymous email address so people could contact me. I set up the name Blackie Blackhole because "Blackhole" was already taken and I didn't want any number crap. I had already decided that this would be an alias le plume name for my writing within this space. So the Familiar Name was Blackie and the Surname was Blackhole.

         Next ladder rung. Blackhole had my own real life persona. I wrote I my own voice and said whatever I would normally say in a public forum on the Internet. I am making this distinction because there are things I would say on the Internet being a virtual space and because of anonymity I would never repeat in a Public Brick-n-Mortar space. (This refers back to one of our earlier readings of how communication changes with the safety of anonymity.) At the time I was being treated for depression so I didn't have too many good days. A great deal of the writing was quite dark at times and hard. Many people liked it because they liked the Anne Rice sort of thing. But this persona also scared away other people who I wanted to talk to. There was a woman from Australia in there who had a terrific imagination. I noticed her posts, she noticed mine and we started posting to each other. She would drop one strange paragraph, I would drop the next. This would go on for days and from the number of posts going on people began to take notice and open them. The first couple of posts would make sense then the imagination would escalate. She would play off me and I would play off her. This was not a contest of who could out wit or outdo or who had a further out imagination. Actually it turned out to be two middle aged people battling depression, two people trying to escape the crushing weight of the world, and an opportunity to escape the living hell in our own heads for at least two hours a day. I would get some laughs from her creativity and hyperactive imagination and she received the same. These narratives or yarns would spin completely out of control. It was like two five-year-olds on the computers when the parents weren't looking. As I said, the hypertext subject always indicated that something strange was being said. Her posting name was Spinny which was also her real life nickname. They called her Spinny because her circle of friends said when you attempted to have an entertaining conversation with her you were guaranteed to walk away with your head spinning.

         As I said there were other people I wanted to talk to and the Blackhole persona had its constraints. I.e. to have crazy out of control language fun like a five-year-old the Blackhole persona was not going to work. I needed a new character. I needed a light-hearted, happy go lucky silly character that everyone liked and no one would ignore. I had read Douglas Adams Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Science Fiction, Philosophy, Religion, Political Satire) where mice were the most intelligent creatures on earth, dolphins were 2nd most intelligent, and humans were third. (Don't ask about the mice that will take pages to explain.) There were some humans who were saying it was a mistake to have ever come out of the trees. I subscribe to the theory he mentions that it was a bad idea we ever came out of the oceans. So from this point of view who is having the most fun? The dolphins. After all they get to play in the wakes of ships, muck about in the water, and have fun all day Adams said. Therefore the dolphins are the smarter creatures also because they had enough sense to NEVER come out of the ocean. So there is this theory that dolphins are smarter than humans, dolphins like to play all day long and are having more fun than we are and there is the Blackhole/Flipper theme song. Now I have connected all the dots or at least some of them. Of course, Flipper gets introduced into the forum as a new persona and says hello to everyone. He talks like a little kid… loves to use his elipses... haha... and laughs every few words or so... haha... like a little kid. He's never angry, mean, sad, bla bla bla and fools around with everyone. People begin to ask questions and his persona begins to develop around the questions. So Flipper becomes a happy go lucky Rummy who likes to scour the Caribbean for sunken ships with bottles of rum and get drunk (I don't drink at all), listens to Reggae music, likes to play in the wake of ships, talk to people in posting forums on the Internet with his waterproof laptop and a flotation device, likes anchovies. Flipper eventually becomes a soul mate of a woman named Shel because this is the only human name he recognizes from his home perspective (shell). Flipper isn't a great speller and thinks Shel/Shelly/Michelle is a sea shell, the thing that washes up on the beach and not an shorted version of the name Michelle. This persona is in complete opposition to the persona of the post-punk group Flipper. Brace yourselves gang, its Flipper!

         Now to the puppet. Kids like happy go lucky characters, they like animals, but most of all they like bright colored objects. Flipper is a perfect persona to use with small children because he's silly and not scary. He also laughs at everything just like they do so they identify with him and his persona quickly. The problem is dolphins are gray and quite boring looking. Dolphins are real kewl when they are doing tricks in the water and attract kids, but this is a sock puppet and grey sock puppets are Borrrrrrrriiiiiinnnng. So just make Flipper a girl. A hot pink sock was what was available in Wal-mart for a buck. I knew I had yellow folders so which was a material that would be stiff enough to work for fins. I wanted big eyes that couldn't be missed because when a child looks at themselves in the mirror they usually have big eyes and we associate big eyes with being able to read emotions and gentle characters. I could have used black because most animals have black to mask the eyes for protection. On the other hand, I wanted every aspect of Flipper to be inviting and fun so she got big white eyes.

If it was another character, how does it reflect you?
Flipper is another character. Flipper is an alter-ego of what I can't be as a middle-aged man with affordances and constraints the world places on me. There are ways I am expected to behave and ways I have to behave. Flipper has affordances and constraints that are different than mine; therefore, Flipper can say and do things I can't but there are things I can say and do that Flipper can't. Jumping out of the box only places one into a new box with different affordances and constraints. Flipper is a persona that allows me to play with children and a significant other behind closed doors. Basically, the more complex the mind the greater the need for play.

Did you use your puppet to reflect you in present day or reflect you in the past as a kid?
Well, as I explained in the three past pages of text, Flipper does not reflect me in the present day nor does he reflect me as a child. I was not that playful as a child. Imaginative yes, as an adult and a child but not playful. Flipper allows me to step out of my various adult roles and have some fun because people recognize the persona as silly play and either walk away or play along. Flipper has been around since 1996 when I first went online and has been fleshed out into the real world in some theme parties like an indoor beach Reggae pool party in January. Consider it the poor man's trip to the Bahamas.

Did the sock puppet empower you to communicate more or did it hinder you?
Flipper hinders communication because his mentality is that of a five-year-old. "Hey, I'm just a dumb kind and I want to have fun." If I took Shipka's approach and just said the hell with it I need information and I am going to speak in my normal voice and just flap my hand as though the sock puppet is speaking, then I would be neither empowered nor hindered. I would have been just asking asking questions with my hand sweating inside of an old sock. Playing the persona locked me into a role or a part/character that had its own affordances and constraints as would any acting part. Don't get me wrong. I enjoyed playing for the 75 minutes and any questions I need answered I would certainly walk into Special Collections and ask. I need to do research for this 2nd C.O. but I was NOT about to ask one particular woman working there questions with the sock puppet on my hand. Elizabeth and I had that experience earlier in the tour. I was standing next to Liz looking at one of the images in the gallery near the Special Collections door when the employee walked by. Elizabeth played fair and asked the woman a question while flapping her hand indicating the sock puppet was asking the question as was our instructions. The employee was not at all amused, shot Elizabeth her the dirtiest look, and fired off a really sharp comment. Elizabeth and I looked at each other. I forgot what Elizabeth said, she will probably remember, but Elizabeth was not happy with the way she was treated. I said to Elizabeth, "Forget about it some people have no sense of humor, that's why she's a librarian." Please don't make a big deal about this. What's done is done. Besides if you remember when we were in special Collections the woman's co-worker played along a little and was smiling. Some people are interested in hearing what the purpose of the sock puppets were because they have inquiring minds and can understand when it's explained how communication changes when acting through a persona. Others don't give a shit and never enjoy life anyway. We know it's different because we are communication specialists. Next time I'll just say, "You wouldn't understand, you don't speak the language of Shipkaese." I thought the whole activity was not only funny but fun to be a part of. This is active learning. Even adults like active learning. I am speaking of oral communication. Written communication for me was even more difficult. Being fair about this and having to communicate through a dolphin creates some real headaches sort of like the players in a Renaissance Fair. Considering Flipper is a dolphin, Flipper is not in his element when out of water. He's not a land lubber like us. He has no idea what to make of anything on land. Looking at the images in the gallery I (P.C. Paul) knew what to make of them but I was expected to communicate in my blue book through Flipper's persona. Flipper doesn't know what to make of trees and landscape. He's seen the shore but steers clear of it knowing the shore represents danger. The photographs of the Susquehana was water so he knows what to make of that. At that point though Flipper was tired of trying to make sense of the other side of the gallery with the trees and didn't feel like speaking.

         Flipper on the Internet has been around the world and visited a great deal of people that lived near rivers and were not land locked. The most peculiar place Flipper was at was a virtual pool party in Australia. He swam down to Australia, then slipped through some of the main drainage pipes somehow worked his way into the public freshwater system and popped out in Spinny's pool for the party because she said she would have Rum. Don't ask, I haven't asked either and I don't think I want to know how Flipper ever got into the public freshwater system. I told you this is a well-developed character/persona.

Was it more of a [crutch] to use [the sock puppet] than a helpful tool to communicate with others?
Flipper in this particular space was a crutch especially around adults who did not know exactly what to make of him. Bill Chewning walked up and nicely asked if she was a shark. You don't EVER say the word "shark" around a dolphin. You want to see a happy go lucky animal go postal just say the word shark to a dolphin or as he made the error of doing call a dolphin a shark. Dolphins HATE sharks. Dolphins will go on the offensive when they see a shark and as a pack will continually ram their noses into the shark. As large as they are and as fast as they can move, momentum = velocity X mass so an impact from a dolphin has to hurt. Multiply that by a pack of dolphins and you are not going to stick around long. Flipper bit her tongue and realized it was an honest mistake and said to Bill that she was girl dolphin. That was the end of that.

With the notebooks that were supposed to be used to form descriptions from the photographs on display, how did you interpret and use your notebook?
I understood as an adult what our hosts wanted was data and our impressions of each image in the gallery as we viewed them. These notes from an adult were supposed to be some kind of impressions from the images or some kind of meaning-making. The data I provided was the data from a sock puppet's view and a little kid on a field trip. Most kids don't like museums or galleries and meaning-making is going to be simple. As I said earlier, Flipper had no idea of what to make of he images. As an adult I already saw the exhibition and have seen things like what we saw in real life so this was nothing new for me. On the other hand, here's where things get real crazy which may better explain the scribbling in the blue book. When I put my name tag on I mistook the spelling of my new name. I thought it said "Brat" and not "Bat." My scribbling were that of a disinterested brat who didn't want to be there an wanted to go out and play. More than a few times I was temped to bother our hosts and ask if I could go "weewee" to be a "brat." If I had known it said "Bat" that would have been worse because then I would have changed sock puppet to Boney". Boney is a dead stegosaurus dinosaur (kids love dinosaurs) who I borrowed the idea from the kid's TV show Weinerville some 13 years ago that had all kinds and types of puppets. (On the TV show Weinerville, Boney was a skeleton stick puppet.) Boney was not a nice character. He had a grovley voice and really didn't like the kids coming around. He just wanted to rot in peace. Haha. The kids liked coming around because they would always get a rise out of Boney no matter what they did. The kids liked "pushing his buttons." Boney would tell a brief anecdote and then say, "I'm done. Now get out of here!" then he would sing his silly little sign off song, "I'm Boney, I'm Boney. Leave me aloney!!!!" and go back into his cave. If I had known the nickname was "Bat" as in the mammal that hangs from the ceiling of a cave (quite an amusing choice giving me that nickname I might add… haha.), then the persona of Boney would have been fitting because he's black with white eyes, big boney sharp plates on his back with boney plates on his tail and razor sharp teeth. Bat and Boney would have fit marvelously together.

Why did most of you decide to write in the point of view of a child?
Several reasons some of which I may have covered implicitly. Some have not been covered. First, our reading was about seven and eight year olds making sense in reports through construction. At that age they don't have the ability to write full blown paragraphs and long reports. Children find it easier to communicate literally through images and textures because they don't have all the vocabulary necessary or the articulation of language. This is what the reading was about. We were instructed to dress as children and make a sock puppet. Therefore when we came in, I understood that the presentation/activity theme was going to revolve around the limitations of communication as a child and furthermore, through a sock puppet. I was being asked to play a persona and as a communication analyst, I would now have to analyze affordances and restrictions communicating as a child through a sock puppet. As far as the space, I interpreted this to be a school field trip; therefore, all the rules and warnings mom told you when you went on such a trip also applied. If I am playing along with this experiment properly, any data or means of communication I use should be through the persona of an eight-year-old child and not the sense making of an adult. The world through a child's eyes is very different and their communications of making sense of that world or space will be very different.

Or did you inter-mingle the two--the thoughts of both the child and adult in you?
Well yes there was intermingling in the sense that I had to reduce the adult mind to now see and communicate as a child would or how I perceive a child would. Even then the level of communication probably was not correct as a bright eight-year-old can articulate thoughts quite well. As far as making sense of my world or space I used the perspective of what I "think" it would be like to be eight years old again.

Did you spend more time observing the photographs or observing each other? Why?
I spent more time observing the photographs.

Why?
One I was the "good kid" and tried to stay out of trouble for the most part at that age. In this "space" I would have followed the teacher's instructions, stayed close to the pack, and did what was expected of me and I would have taken notes. I would have not bothered with the others for the most part because I was a loner, an outcast, and got the tar beat out of me nearly daily so why would I bother with them. Basically I was tormented by the other boys. Now let me change the perspective slightly. Remember I said I "thought" my nickname was "Brat." I thought of acting out, walking right out of the gallery and forcing our hosts to come and get me, among other scenarios. The REAL adult assumed this would NOT have been funny as a middle-aged man. After all my peers and hosts have worked their friggin' tails off to put this all together and I KNOW all too well it is not easy to pull something off like this because we did a playground skit as children in presenting a project in IFSM 438 Project Management. We were given the freedom to BE entertaining and we were and did entertain. We did a skit planning a new playground as little children playing on the old poor playground dressed as little children playing with toys discussing how to go about building a new playground. This presentation had a great deal of practice in it because there were six of us. We weaved a dialog and there was movement and action. This was a complex orchestration of six presenters, so the presentation itself became a project. Knowing how much work goes into a project and/or presenting and also knowing that our hosts were probably a little wired because we all are when we are center stage I figured this was not a good time to be a jerk. If I did act like a jerk because I thought I was amusing (I know I am not) the amusement could easily be dealt back at me at a later date. I decided to behave.

And finally, did the speeches give you more of an interest or greater appreciation in the exhibit and special collections or did it not make a difference in how you interpreted your surroundings?
It is pretty frightening and speaks volumes when a professor (Shipka) who has only been here a semester and a half has to be the one to introduce you and alert you what is kept in Special Collections after having been attending UMBC for six years. This speaks highly for Shipka and her concerns for us as students and blossoming researchers, authors, and educators and is frightening how the other professors really don't care about us at all. In essence, I lost six years of my time when I could have been doing high powered research and studies because I was not aware that this resource was here. I have been in the gallery every time the exhibit has changed. I have taken advantage of that aspect. But what was behind the Special Collections door is maintained like a big secret that undergrads are not supposed to know about or be trusted with which is really sad when Hrabowski totes this as a "Research University." The door makes you think that it is an employees only area and not open to the public. Okay I'm not answering the question but blowing off steam.

         I have found that in most cases when going to exhibits I found out a great deal more by walking with the tour guide if there is one because they will point out subtle aspects that one normally misses. Also may exhibits have a point of entry and a path that should be followed in order to get a better appreciation of the viewing. Once the tour is over I like to them lingerie and spend more time with objects that I find more fascinating then the others. This also allows me to look at the finer points the guide brought that I may have missed without them. So in other words I like it both ways. Completely alone with no tour, sometimes I don't always get what I should out of the experience.

A response to P.C. Paul 's "Sock Puppet Day... Field Trip... Yaaaaaay...." by C. Gatton
In creating your sock puppet, we mean--

What were the choices you made in making your sock puppet? Did you know immediately how you were going to make your sock puppet or not so much? The process(es) is what we're asking/meaning by this question.

A response to C. Gatton 's post by P.C. Paul
In a nutshell:

I knew exactly what I wanted and how to go about it.
I wanted something that children like.

Children like animals.
Children like bright colors, especially cheery colors.
Children like dolphins.
Children like Flipper.
Who doesn’t like Flipper?

Grey was right out.
The buttons had to be a little floppy because when one manipulates the puppet in play, one can toss the eyes in funny ways, which makes children laugh.
Children like when an adult can be silly.
They don’t expect an adult to be silly.

I did as much work as I could in the short time I had.
I knew someone was going to have puppet day.
Shipka rhetorically said, "We should have Sock Puppet Day."
"...And what Shipka wants... Shipka gets."
Therefore Sock Puppet Day was in inevitable in some way, shape, or form across the Shipka Spaces of 324 or 407.

Note: I also dressed the part for "Sock Puppet Day" and looked like the lead guitarist of Cheap Trick: Black shoes and socks, blue shorts, white shirt, a Catholic school uniform stripped tie and a Chinese Communist hat -- a school boy uniform.

         Second, when the other lady gave her presentation on archiving, I had no questions, mainly because of the sock puppet. Using a sock puppet to communicate with an archivist just seemed inappropriate (yes, even though everyone had one on).

         So, my puppet was not an extension of me. I burned eyes in the sock, with my cigarette, on the ground outside the library. It needed to see. It got rewarded for my behavior with two hats, one of which said "I'm a bad girl". I thought it was male.

         To contradict myself, I suppose the sock puppet was an extension of me. Not only was it attached to me, and changing my behavior (a little), but the creation of the puppet reflects on me as well. Obviously, I couldn't be bothered with dressing a sock. (Or talking with my sock).

         It's not that I don't wish I was four years old--I'm just not.

A response to P. Hartman's post by D. Wentworth

• Don't you think, Phil, that those pictures were awesome?
  
• I mean, like, the whole deal, water and trees and foliage up the what-have-you. Don't you think we're all puppets?
• And the man, God, money, times, nature, and pizza pie control us, and makes us do the dance of death, until, inevitably, we die?
  
• That void, that space, between the womb and the tomb, isn't that just an area to " play the game", be someone you're not, try on new faces?
  
• Don't you think that the phrase "play the game" has gotten a bad rap? Isn't that what you learned in 407?
• Have you learned anything?
  
• Don't you want to be a part of society, study it, and make your own conclusions about reality?
  
• What about the rest of your classmates?
  
• Do they matter?
• Are their ideas valid?
  
• Do they have any ideas?
  
• Are they playing the game?
  
• Did you miss something?

A response to P. Hartman and D. Wentworth's posts by P. C. Paul
Das Ah Riot!
You guys are Charming.

I said it before, I'll say it again:

We are all PAWNS in "this" game.

Shipka has the unusual position of being a Queen and a Pawn (the man wearing the Derby depicted in the linked image)

A response to D. Wentworth's post by P. Hartman
No way. Totally false. Stop taking the drugs, man. Obviously, you have no idea what the hell you're writing about. And what's with the questions? Don't you have any ideas of your own? Or do you just want to ask questions so you can shoot me down? I think we all play a game. But everyone's game is different. My game includes me. And that's it. I understood the photographs a lot more after the last lady spoke. I liked them to start, without the coaching, but after she said her piece, I realized how much I hated them. All photography, actually. Representations of a reality we can't hope to hold on to. As soon as the big flash pops, and Iran drops the bomb, I'm sure my last thought will be of the pictures. Not.

A response to P. Hartman's post by P. Hartman's sock puppet
You're such a jerk. Just because you can't understand an assignment, you become this pessimistic, wide open asshole who spreads crap everywhere you sit. You didn't even consider, not for one minute, what this meant for the rest of your classmates. Where's the heart, dickhead? Was everyone taking it badly? I don't think so. Some of your inmates seemed to enjoy it. Do you think it's because they care? Don't intelligent people care about everything? They're intelligent--they're in college. Where the hell are you? You should delight in dressing up foot coverings. Where else would you get this kind of opportunity? This IS important.

A response to P. Hartman's Sock Puppet by P. Hartman
Sorry...I left my sock puppet alone by the computer. Where did he learn to type? It's my fault--I gave him eyes.

A response to P. Hartman by P.C. Paul
I understand. You can't leave children unattended even for a moment. My parrot, Ryoko, does this ALL the time.

A response to P. Hartman by D. Wentworth
wait... i thought you burned his eyes out with a cigarette...

A response to P. Hartman by W. Chewning
...or some other smoldering object, perhaps?

A response to P. Hartman by E. Piccirillo
i'm scared

A response to E. Piccirillo by P.C. Paul
Whispering: Elizabeth, you quitely slip into the corner over there and call 911 to bring in the men in the white jackets while we will keep Hartman's attention distracted over here until they arrive. "Phil, wouldn't you like a nice relaxing herbal tea while we continue to discuss this... I understand how this has been such a traumatic experience for you as it has been for all of us... So what seems to be the problem ... hmmmmmmmmm???? Here, have a nice lie down on the coutch. Comfy isn't it? Yeeeeeessss... so tell us all about it... hmmmmmm... Tell me about your childhood... hmmmmmmm... "

A response to P. Hartman by S. Natovitz
thanks...now i look like a crazy girl because i started laughing out loud in public and when asked what was so funny i could only babble about 407 shipka sock puppets and the power of puppets...clearly, this did not do much to put the "look at that crazy girl" girl idea to bed. god bless ya phil, you’re friggin funny and that’s glorious.

A response by P.C. Paul
"Let's all lie down on the floor and have some milk and cookies and if we're real good maybe Shipka will grant us Weekend Passes..."

A message from our narrator:
I think our friends in ENGL 407 and the Shipka Spaces have finally cracked under the pressure.
Will Elizabeth dial 911?
Will Christopher be able to keep Phil calm long enough for the men in white coats to arrive?
Are Bill's suspicions of Phil smoking illegal drugs correct?
Has Shipka finally passed out at her computer terminal and now the inmates are running the asylum?
Is Sarah serious with Phil or is she just trying to calm him also?
Let's continue to observe to see how this all turns out. Hmmmmmmmmm????

And so the Saga of the Shipka Spaces continues... yeeeeeeessssssss...

         The thing that made me feel more like a "kid" was having to write using my left hand, not wearing the puppet. (I guess I could have written with my right hand and put the puppet on the other hand... but that just didn't occur to me) Puppets are an adult thing to me, anyway - when I was ten, a famous puppet master came to my elementary school, and the puppets he and his apprentices used moved just like real humans. I wanted to be a puppeteer when I grew up (until I decided to be a scientist). So I guess I didn't really get the puppets = kindergarteners idea. But writing left handed reminded me of being in elementary school with a badly broken right hand, and getting yelled at for my bad left-handed writing. Back then, handwriting was directly related to intelligence and maturity - kids with poor handwriting had to use the paper with wide lines and guide marks and stayed in the "Green" or "Pink" (average and below average) classes, while the ones with good writing got to use adult paper and be in the "Red" (smart) class. I had to tape the pencil to my right hand to be in the Red class. (And I still avoid writing by hand whenever possible!)

         So maybe I felt a bit more like my elementary-school age self that day. I used to be kind of a freaky schizoid little weirdo until I figured out how to play other roles. I wasn't really interested in my classmates or the photographs, so I wandered around aimlessly and looked at stuff. I probably would have done the same thing when I was a kid. I guess as an adult I wouldn't be too interested in the people or the photos, either, but having a hand puppet do all of the interacting for me freed me up to honestly admit in the notebook that I didn't care about the art.

         I did care about the archives, though. I love books, especially old ones. When I was a kid, I cared more about books than people. Still kinda do. I thought it was disrespectful to the library to have a "kid" mentality. I guess other people felt that way too, maybe, because no one actually *acted* in a childlike manner in front of the archivist or the art speaker. I was polite to the art speaker, too, even though I don't really have much interest in photography or most art in general. (note: I was interested in the photos in the archives because many of them had unfamiliar or shocking subject material, so I could learn something new from them - I wasn't interested in the gallery photos because they conformed too much to artistic conventions and contained things that I had seen before.)

Note: C. Wychgram also dressed the part for the day and came in wearing a Catholic School girl uniform. She already had the uniform, it was nothing special. Wychgram likes going to Sci-Fi conventions dressed in Cos-play hence the Catholic school girl uniform.

Response to C. Wychgram 's "Puppet Show" by P.C. Paul
No, I don’t bother using a me-shaped puppet either everyday because I’m already manipulated like a puppet anyway or more like a pawn. We’re all pawns in the game you know.

         That must have been really cool. I am not quite sure where the idea comes from that puppets are just for kids. Maybe that has something to do with that silly Wabbit. In other cultures, adults as well as children gather for a puppet show. This is especially true in Japanese culture.

         Puppet shows were probably more popular too before movies, radios, and televisions became mainstream (read that as affordable). If you remember just a little further back say the 1890’s and maybe 30 years ahead the bandstand was used as a popular form of entertainment. The structure of the bandstand was to cause the sound to resonate better and project further. Maybe then a puppet show was a more commonplace form of entertainment. I am not really sure on this and I am speculating.

         Hmmm, interesting point about the hand puppet providing you the freedom to say that you really didn’t care about the art. That was the same thing I wrote in my post and my bluebook. As an adult or a child the art did not hold my interest either. For the puppet, what kind of sense can a dolphin make of objects on land? A dolphin wouldn’t know what sense to make of landlubber stuff.

         Yes! That I agree with whole heartedly. I kept my mouth shut with the archivists because of the disrespect thing and because the one archivist was not as Bill said “diggin’” the whole sock puppet theme. I think maybe if the archivists lightened up, more questions would have been asked. On the other hand Bill had brought out another good point from the archivist point of view which was they are responsible for an expense set of data that is not replaceable which places them in a serious position, so I have to also understand their position. I am quite serious in doing my own job even though it is complete crap. I really do go out of my way to treat people working with respect unless I am not treated the same because I realize most people take their jobs seriously.

         Many of the photos of the Susquehanna were taken around the Harrisburg, PA area which I had the chance to spend considerable time in living in Northeast Lancaster for a period of time. That was why the photos did very little for me. I was just seeing many things again only now at different times of the day.

The Luminous River Series
He was imitating the American Art Form of Luminous-ism between 1850-1860. This was the opposite of Impressionism. The artists painted light in a crystalline form (clear light) and one cannot detect the brush strokes. Pfahl was shooting for the Eternal picture and not a moment in time.

         I was also in Special Collections today looking for images of my hometown Westbury NY but was very dissatisfied with what I found. My home town has a rich history. What I did learn is that the area was originally inhabited by Quaker Farmers from 1700 to about 1900. Entrepreneurs such as Andrew Carnegie and Jay S. Phipps made the area basically their own private summer homes (See the Great Gatsby). In 1896, 50 Quaker farms occupied 90% of Westbury. In 1903, 3 remained. The last Quaker in the area of the Westbury house by the name of Issac Hicks who died in 1910. His home was eventually removed and Phipps had an estate home built named the Westbury House which is no open for public viewing. The estate was donated and is now home of the Old Westbury Gardens arboretum. This book was not really helpful in my quest because it’s a little too far back in time. I am trying to find a picture book showing photos from 1957 on.

The Extreme Horticulture Series

         The people in Special Collections were very helpful though. I also wanted to look at some photographic records of the land UMBC now resides on because I have heard all kinds of stories and want to figure out which are true and which are myths. Here they brought out about two boxes of stuff which was way more than I could work with in one sitting. Things went much better without a sock puppet on my hand.

         As far as the booklets that we were to take notes in, I basically just jotted down things that I wanted to remember about the pictures in the gallery. We were told that we would use them for circle time and, not being sure exactly what circle time consists of, I wasn’t clear on what sort of information I should write down or how the information I chose to write would be used. I didn’t write from the point of view of a child. In fact, it really didn’t occur to me to write from the point of view of anyone/age other than myself. I’m not sure why it didn’t occur to me to do so. Maybe I need to reconnect with my inner child. I felt that the speakers were interesting; however a bit of a contrast to the experience that I thought was being created in the beginning. I’m not sure if the group did this on purpose, but the speakers were very professional and spoke to us as adults (not the children we were suppose to be representing). For this reason, I did feel uncomfortable having a sock puppet on my hand and refrained from speaking or asking questions in the presence of the speakers. I felt that everyone became a bit more adult-ish during the presentations as well. I guess this reflects how we, as students, can mirror back the attitudes/behaviors of our teachers. When the group was in charge, so to speak, they treated us like children and, although uncomfortable at first, we eventually began to mirror this behavior/expectation back to them. When in the audience of speakers who ignored the use of the sock puppets and treated us as adults, we attempted to mirror this behavior/expectation back to them. I wonder if young children were treated in a more adult manner if they too would mirror this behavior back to their teachers and parents.

         As I wrote inside my book, I wrote as if I were a child. I wrote very short phrases in a limited vocabulary. I commented on how each painting was colorful, what it was trying to represent, and the location of where the photograph was taken. I viewed the photographs fairly quickly, mainly because I had already seen the exhibit before. I was mainly watching people on their interaction with others, wondering who their sock puppet was; if it was themselves today, from the past, or a figment of their imagination. The lectures were awkward. I don’t think the speakers were expecting us to have sock puppets asking them questions. Although they probably thought we were crazy, they played along and answered each question thoroughly. I noticed that the second speaker only answered to the person holding the puppet, not the puppet itself. I guess she didn’t feel comfortable with having a puppet asking her questions.

         my sock puppet wasn't designed to be an extension of anything, really. i don't have too many art supplies lying around my house and was therefore extremely limited in what i could use to create an extravagant "handy" companion. but, at least i can say that i didn't cheat and simply go out and buy a pre-fabricated sock friend, like some of our peers...

         i know i didn't use my puppet to reflect me as a kid on presentation day, but i'm not sure if i used it to reflect my current self either. actually, i found myself, while using the puppet to speak, talking with a voice from an online cartoon that i watch quite frequently. i was portraying a voice from the Teen Girl Squad toon on www.homestarrunner.com. it really is God's gift to this earth. so, maybe, in a roundabout sorta way, i actually was portraying the kid in me through the sock puppet by voicing a cartoon through my current self. make sense? p.s. i, i mean my sock, did not appreciate those 2 time demerits.

         the sock didn't empower me to communicate any more than i usually would. it basically just gave me an excuse to be goofy (hence the TGS voice-over). but, something it did do to me was make my hand ridiculously sweaty.

         for the notebook, i used the same technique that i did when i was participating in my presentation for this class. i wrote down little observations about the gallery, the pictures presented in it, the presenters, the kids in class, etc. i wasn't one of those people who decided to write from the p.o.v. of a child so i can't vouch for that. but i did choose to record some sillier observations as well as more academically-based ones.

         i thought i'd spend more time observing others, but turns out i was really intrigued by the photos. after i realized the exhibit presented photos having to do with certain rivers, it immediately sparked my attention because i love anything having to do with large bodies of water. the ocean is my favorite, but rivers and lakes will suffice.

         the speeches didn't have a huge effect on the way i interpreted my surroundings, although i did find that the archival lady's talk spawned my greater interest in maybe a future archaeological dig around the archives to unearth some fun photography. i've always liked photography. it's something that really interests me although i'm not all that good at it. so i like to sift through photos of those who've been published to analyze technique, critique, and see how i can produce better photos with deeper voice on my own.

         So with that thought in mind, I tried to create a mirror image of myself on the sock, which was no easy task using a sharpie marker. It was somewhat hard to adjust the lines of my eyes and eyebrows because the sock had some rough spots along it. I drew my hair the way it normally looks, which is in the form of a Mohawk, lol. And of course I also made sure to sketch a chinstrap beard around the bottom of my face. I think that the drawing was a good looking representation of how I appear, with a few exceptions of course.

         I suppose the reason that I took such a straight forward approach to creating the sock puppet is because when I was a child, I did not create puppets or create images using existing pieces. So I did not have this need to fill a nostalgic void of creating a puppet.

A response to A. Sheikh 's "Sock Puppets" by S. Kibler
Thank you for jogging my memory. I don't remember ever making a sock puppet as a kid, but now that you said something, I definitely remember making puppets out of paper lunch bags. In fact, my sisters and I would do this for fun all the time. I had completely forgotten about this until now... so thank you!

         I was acting like a kid before class even started. Sarah and I put on tee-shirts and wore our hair in pigtails while we were smoking. I didn't smoke as a child, but I should have. It would have made long division and science projects go by a hell of a lot quicker.

         My sock puppet wasn't very creative and of course Jodi had to spend 10 hours making hers the night before. I just printed out a picture of Vygotsky because he is sexy (pre Tuberculosis) and on the other side there was a picture of a kid wearing a Vygotsky Rules! T-shirt which I thought was cute. Then I had yellow and orange confetti paper glued to the top for no good reason other than to spice up my sock. It really wasn't a very good reflection of me in that when I was a kid I would spend hours on any project that required innovation and imagination. Not that I was undermining the work the group was doing by not dedicating a lot of my time to the sock puppet.

         The idea of using the sock puppet was a fascinating exercise. It definitely changed the way I was perceiving my surroundings and it also changed the way our surroundings were perceiving us. The "lecturer ladies" (esp. the first) at the library seemed uneasy about the presence of the puppets, almost as if they were another audience watching them. I guess there is a reason why they work at a university and not with a kindergarten class. I am almost positive that none of the staff surrounding us were aware of the intellectual roots of what we were doing. At best, they assumed it was something FUN or A BREAK FROM SCHOOLWORK. This type of outlook can be so disappointing; when you realize how little educators expand their classrooms. The exercise for me had a lot of meaning. In my notebook I wrote in cursive because I am having a quarter-life crisis about forgetting everything I learned in primary school. I looked at the photographs in the gallery and drew pictures of what a child would recognize. Looking at a lake against a sunset with birds swimming in it wouldn't have been a "Landscape" to me. It would have just been "DUCK!" I'm actually not sure if they are considered landscapes, I wasn't really listening to the lady. I was eating candy and playing with stickers.

"Thank You God for Such Small Favors" a response to E. Piccirillo's "Puppets, Pictures, and Poopy!!" by P.C. Paul
Shipka must have been asleep at the terminal when this post was written or she was fuming and could't respond.

         Elizabeth, of all people you should KNOW better to call Shipka Jodi considering you are a Veteran from ENGL 324.. "Call me Shipka..., not Professor Shipka, Dr. Shipka, and especially not Jodi."

         Second fatal error is the use of the word Creative. That word leaves Shipka screaming into the night. Creative implies Random and there is nothing Random about the work we do. Everything is thought out with what work is "this" doing? Random implies that there is no engineering process involved, that all our work is haphazardly thrown together without intention of communicating a message. See Creative. ;-)

         I used the word creative a few times, but I think I got away with it. ;-). [At the end of the semester, we all got chewed out for the use of the word creative by Shipka. :-) "This" word has since been cut out of my Oxford Dictionary with a razor blade.]

         "I don’t know why. I also don't know why no one played with me.)" I did and then we got our heads bitten off by one of the Special Collection librarians or have you already forgotten the dirty look she shot us. Hahahaha.

         "I was acting like a kid before class even started. Sarah and I put on tee-shirts and wore our hair in pigtails while we were smoking. I didn't smoke as a child, but I should have. It would have made long division and science projects go by a hell of a lot quicker," said Piccirillo. Yes I saw you guys. All you needed was some football bleachers and you would have been back in High School. Hahahaha.

         Originally I was going to sew eyes, hair, etc onto my sock to make my puppet... but when I realized that I didn’t have a needle and thread I had to come up with a new idea. So, instead, I decided to make an ode to Andre, from Project Runway puppet. I used a different sock (one that was thin and long and white ...like Andre) and glued on a picture of Andre doing his trademark “Oh” face. Then, for the body, I made some red, striped SSUPER-BOOTY shorts, with matching shoes, natch, and a t-shirt that said “I’m so LA.” I now have the puppet hanging on my wall... it makes me smile like nothing else (except the pic of KB getting drunk in his hyperbole now shirt). I didn’t want to make a puppet that looked like me because that wasn’t what my inner child wanted, it wanted one that made me giggle and Andre does just that. I think it reflected me more now than as a child... unless you count the fact that I was a bit of a weirdo... and that I wore terrible outfits... when I was little. Hee. As for communicating with Andre, it wasn’t really a help or a hindrance in terms of communication alone. But it did get me in the kiddy mood, and I enjoyed making the “Oh” face and holding up the puppet at the same time whenever anything was funny/shocking. I kind of liked talking with it when I was communicating with the library ladies... mostly because it seemed to freak them out, but they didn’t want to say anything. Watching them try to ignore the puppet while we talked and then still make their response serious and professional was hilarious.

         The Sunshine notebooks were awesome. It was like having a blue book, but for kindergarten. It highlighted, at least for me, the ridiculousness of those evil books. The first page of my book was dedicated to a drawing of the 3 “teachers...” complete with a caption pointing out that they ate their bogeys... I’m not sure why I drew it, I guess to get myself in the right frame of mind. I also drew my own picture, because that’s what I would have done as a kid that looked at the photos. Then I just wrote about how I felt about the pics, and explained which ones were my favorites (and Andres) and why. I wrote like a child because it seemed to silly to respond in any other way at the time. I spent more time in the gallery looking at the pics than at other people, but once we were in the “no digital archives” section I switched to looking at/talking with other... mostly because P wasn’t all that into the exhibit in there. Plus, at that point we were all over feeling stupid, and were embracing the child within so I thought it was more beneficial to interact... and that’s what kids would do too. Btw, I feel like an idiot because you guys switched my name tag... and I forgot and wrote my old name allllll over my book. I felt, um, “special,” to say the very least.)

         The second speech definitely enhanced my experience, at least in terms of my appreciation for the photos. Once I got what the artist was trying to do I had a renewed sense of “wow,” and that was nice. Plus, it was priceless watching that lady try and figure out if Shipka was the teacher or not... she spoke like a teacher, and asked a lot of great academic type questions... but the lady seemed to be having a lot of trouble getting past the ensemble and the leopard-tastic puppet. Her facial expressions were delish. The first lady definitely made me feel like a kid in a library again... with the boring explanations and the way the info wasn’t really in sync with the audience. Although, the “NO DIGITAL” portion was worth the boredom, and the look on Maggie’s face when the lady responded with such venom made it tough not to laugh out loud. She was pretty much the crochety librarian stereotype, and I think both of them should really work on their people skills. Especially because they work in the library, at a college, and its pretty hard to get “kids” interested when you talk down to them and discuss things that are, honestly, yawners.

         Overall, I have to say, KUDOS to this group!!!! I tried explaining just how fabulous the presentation/field trip was to people outside the class... but I couldn’t do it justice. The entire project was awesome and well thought out, and the experience not only bonded the class, but also made me think. Absolutely fantastic job you guys!!!! You totally get a gold star on the class chart! (also…it out me in such a good mood that Elizabeth and I just started tooling around in the outfits, with the puppets, all over campus... stickers on our face and nametags blazing... I felt like a kid again. Priceless.)