School’s out Friday

There’s nothing like the the passing of an iconic popstar who inhabited your formative teenage years to make you sit back and take stock. Prince’s music formed part of the playlist of my youth. I can remember dancing to 1999 at nearly every party I attended in my 17th and 18th year. I always thought he was so clever to have written a song in 1982 that was guaranteed to be played at near on every New Year’s Eve party in the modern world at the turn of the century. And yes, there I was in 1999, dancing to just that song as we nudged closer to the rise of the new century.

It’s been a bit of a year for it. David Bowie, Glenn Fry, Alan Rickman. I suppose every year is much the same really. People who occupy our screens and playlists meet their demise and we ponder our own uncertain fate. I quite like this quote about death from Terry Pratchett

“It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. That is true, it’s called Life.”
Terry Pratchett, The Last Continent
Make it count. Enjoy the weekend ahead, and the rest of it for that matter.

School’s out Friday

Now, I’m not sure how the leadership of Brigham Young University are feeling about this video given that the two young men (who attend the university) are not current missionaries, but I’m thinking that it’s done a power of good for the young elders who are out there knocking on doors hoping that someone invites them in to discuss ‘The Book of Mormon’.

Posted three days ago, 729,793 views to date – a bit of marketing genius right there. Great piece of storytelling. The narrative arc  flows.

NarrativeArc

Nice analysis activity of new media storytelling for your next English class. 🙂

Have a great weekend. If they knock, maybe it’s time to open the door…

 

 

School’s out Friday

Yes, it is April the 1st. Yes, this is one of Google’s April Fool’s day pranks.

Surprisingly, it doesn’t look as ridiculous to me as does the image below taken of an audience wearing the Oculus Rift headset.

Oculus rift

It’s probably best summed up by this comment from Matthew Humphries;

Almost like intensive farming, only with humans hooked into a virtual world.

Unfortunately, reality, not an April Fool’s Day joke.

I don’t know about you, but I just can’t see this catching on to the extent that some of the pundits are suggesting. I certainly don’t want to be restrained in a headset device like this to experience virtual reality. Call me old fashioned, but give me unrestrained real world experiences any day of the week.

Enjoy the weekend. Head outdoors, appreciate the world we live in, headset free. 😉