Mark Sample @samplereality@post.lurk.org
Teaches and researches digital culture at Davidson College. Also makes weird things for the internet.
Joined Apr 2022
Mark Sample
boosted
When I see one email newsletter link to another email newsletter I feel a deep melancholic longing for blogging.
Creepy Clown
Creepy AI-generated clown of the day, medieval manuscript edition
If you have played my work—such as the workplace horror game "Content Moderator Sim"—and found it worthwhile, can you tell just one other person about it? https://samplereality.itch.io/content-moderator-sim
Wordle, AI
There's a mysterious puntum in the AI-rendering of today's Wordle answer...
Racism, Time Travel
Out of the blue today it occurred to me how utterly racist *Back to the Future* is. Michael J. Fox travels back in time and inadvertently introduces rock 'n roll to Chuck Berry's cousin, implying the Chuck Berry's rise as the father of rock 'n roll is due to Fox's white intervention. Which is a complete reversal of the actual facts, in which white musicians of the 1950s stole from the black musicians who pioneered the jump blues and R&B.
When I saw *Back to the Future* as a kid and even later as an adult, I thought the time travel paradox with Chuck Berry was a clever ha-ha thing. But now I see it as a toxic blend of white fantasy and black erasure. Don't know why it took me this long to see it, except for my own white privilege.
For those who asked, here are the guidelines to the unessay project: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UJHZUhFFTyRumdkuRdlBRR43tTCGld0AaEtFE8wpkWI/edit?usp=sharing
Grading final unessays for my Contemporary American Lit class, which is always a delight. One of my favorite unessays so far (on Ling Ma's _Severance_) is a collection of social media accounts for various characters, as well as the contents of one character's Notes app. The novel is in many ways a meditation on connectivity through technology, so this approach fits perfectly.
Mark Sample
boosted
For this is one of those disheartening instances where truth requires full as much bolstering as error.
Mark Sample
boosted
Any low-cost 3D printer can pause so you can embed a small object or several small objects and then resume printing. The resulting print has no seams and a few small non-metallic objects inside should pass even X-ray inspection. The resulting model can be shipped to a friend.
Creepy Clown
Creepy AI-generated Clown of the Day (19th century style)
Creepy Clown
Creepy AI-generated clown of the day, in wallpaper form.
YELLOW wallpaper form.
Want a distraction? Have a go at This Is Just Infinite, an endless deformance of William Carlos Williams' internet-famous poem, "This Is Just To Say." Features both an automatic and manual mode! https://samplereality.itch.io/this-is-just-infinite
politics
healthcare should not be political
Mark Sample
boosted
Future things swim before me, as in empty outlines and skeletons; all the past is somehow grown dim.
Mark Sample
boosted
Be careful in the hunt, ye mates. Don’t stave the boats needlessly, ye harpooneers
Teaches and researches digital culture at Davidson College. Also makes weird things for the internet.
Joined Apr 2022
