Robert asleep

robert asleep
Originally uploaded by Hamster Salad.

This is the slammingest slam that ever slammed.

If you've just tuned in, eight of us from BCIT are in the New Media Slam event. We've been up for...a long time. And we're getting a bit delirious.

Mark's zipper won't stay up, and that causes no end of hilarity. What can I say? We're nine years old.

I had a very insightful blog post written a while ago. I'm sure it was the bloggingest blog post that ever blogged. It blogged like a hamster. However...

...if "dog" and "homework" are concepts that automagically appeared in your mind when you read that, you're not far off. But I'm blaming it all on Robert.

"Sure, why not," as Anthony would say.

So, Robert, enjoy your portrait. It shows your best side. (Mariska made me say that.)

- posted by Sandra Smith @ 11:38 AM 0 comments   

 
Slam is hard

New Media Slam Content Development
Originally uploaded by Hamster Salad.

We're at the end of the first 12 hours of the 48 allowed for development of our entry to the New Media Slam event. And we're tired.

Robert, Mariska, and I have been working on content development, and Mark has just ported over from the game play squad to lend his creative flair and keen appreciation for all things ridiculous. Alan is well into the game development that he and Anthony mapped out. Erik and Boris are spending all their time drawing funny pictures. Some of which are not of Robert.

Don't forget to read The Standard. Robert is posting mini-bios of all our team members. Don't believe everything you read, though.

- posted by Sandra Smith @ 2:32 AM 0 comments   

 
The New Media Slam is underway

NMSlamPrep
Originally uploaded by Hamster Salad.

As I mentioned before, this is the weekend of the New Media Slam, and our team, BCIT New Media Crew, is already hard at work.

The Standard has been keeping you up to date about our activities in the early hours. We got our Inspiration Package at 4 p.m. (hint: look at the computer screen in the photo to see what we're trying to incorporate into our final product).

As we take a few short breaks over the next 48 hours, I'll let you know how we're holding up and what we're up to (without giving away too many secrets). Words of encouragement are always welcome.

This hour's photo shows Alan and Mark contemplating creative development of the theme.

- posted by Sandra Smith @ 8:50 PM 0 comments   

 
Hamsters: not just for salad
Ray, a recent visitor to Hamster Salad, has pointed me towards a site that shows how your hamster can help reduce your electricity bills.

At Other Power ("The Cutting Edge of Low Technology"), Dan B. and Dan F. explore alternative energy sources and contend that "it's easy to make your own power from scratch!"

They show some very cool stuff on their site, but I have to tell you, it's the "from scratch" bit that really grabs me, especially in terms of their exploration of the energy production possibilities of a small animal enabled with tooth and claw.

In response to a query from a student embarking on a science fair project, they set up their hamster's wheel to power a night light. They explain the process and product much more clearly than I could ever hope to and give detailed instructions that should allow anyone so inclined to replicate the experiment.

I wasn't able to access the discussion board or the news sections of the site and am not capable of judging the credibility of the facts they present, but to my untrained eye it seemed like Other Power offers a lot of useful information on a topic* that should concern all of us.

*(Um, I mean the alternative energy sources, not the making your hamster work for its kibble, but you got that the first time, right?)
- posted by Sandra Smith @ 10:45 PM 0 comments   

 
My new Nintendo DS

my new Nintendo DS; isn't it purty?
Originally uploaded by Hamster Salad.

I got home tonight to find that my winnings from the Vidfest haiku contest had been delivered. Not only did I get a brand new Nintendo DS, but I also got two game cards with it: the demo version of Metroid Prime Hunters that's packaged with the system AND an extra-special surprise of a Super Mario DS game. Kewl.

Thanks again Vidfest and also New Media BC.

- posted by Sandra Smith @ 12:03 AM 0 comments   

 
The haiku queen
From verklempt to wow in...3 days! The wonderful people at Vidfest have just announced that I have won their haiku contest!

A Nintendo DS is being sent to me, and I'm afraid that I might not be very adult about getting my nyah nyahs out the next time I see Mark and Robert.

My winning haiku was the first of fourteen (yeah, I know, I can't believe it either) that I submitted.

Many, many thanks to Vidfest and Nintendo, and also to everyone else who submitted haiku to this very enjoyable contest.
- posted by Sandra Smith @ 5:26 PM 0 comments   

 
Trackback atcha
I'm not fond of reading all the rules before launching into something new. I'd much rather get a general sense of how things are and then figure out the details as I go along. I think this attitude comes from rebelling against my Dad's way of doing things. We'd get a new board game, for example, and have to sit waiting, waiting, waiting while he read--often out loud in his bedtime storybook "let's get you to sleep as fast as possible" voice--every blinking point of play.

So, when I started this site a few weeks ago, I knew nothing more about blogs than the fact that I wanted one and that I wanted it to be at least as useful and interesting as The Standard. Blogger was amenable to an "up and running in minutes" approach, and Hamster Salad was unleashed upon the world.

Once I've put something in motion, however, I do like to know the rules of the game. I'm a bit of a researchophile, so I've been spending some time recently bookmarking blogs and articles about blogging. Trackbacks emerged, in my mind, as the monopoly money, with potential for real money, of the blogging game. More importantly, trackbacks can add credibility to your blog as the number of relevant trackbacks to it increase.

Learning about Trackbacks
When I first encountered them, I thought trackbacks were the same as links to a specific page on a blog. They are that and more. For those of you even lower on the blogging curve than I, trackbacks automatically tell the original blog that you have linked to it and that blog then posts a title, summary, and trackback to your post. It's a quick and easy way of getting traffic to your site.

There are some concerns about this, such as trackback spam, in which the purpose of setting the trackback is not so much to indicate a relevant expansion of the original topic but to advertise your own site or services. If you want an informative introduction to this and other aspects of trackbacks, I suggest that you have a look at the videos that Jim Edwards (of I Gotta Tell You) and Thomas Pierce (of How to Blog for Fun and Profit) produced. The series of three short videos (8 to 10 minutes each) are a clear and informative start to advanced blogging.

After watching the first video, I learned that Blogger, which is what I used to set up Hamster Salad, does not have trackback capability, but that Haloscan is a free add-on (beta) that inserts the trackback function into your template. Within 15 minutes of watching the video, I had signed up at Haloscan and had trackbacks for all of my posts. Easy-schmeazy.

Now we'll see how well I've learned about adding trackbacks as this is my first post that attempts to follow those rules.

EDITED about 30 minutes later: Okay, something I didn't understand--I have to go back to Haloscan to manually ping the posts I want to trackback. I thought that that functionality would be automatically added to my Blogger blog, but apparently not. I had used Edwards' and Pierce's trackbacks as links in the above paragraph and that got me (and you) nowhere.
- posted by Sandra Smith @ 2:49 PM 0 comments