Gosh darn it, I'm the first one to do this _again_! And Dr. Kirschenbaum says I'm not a dork. Please!

I'm Sandi (short for Aleksandra). Junior English major with a concentration in creative writing: poetry. I plan on declaring Art History as a double at the end of this semester.

I'm commute from Rockville, but I am from Leningrad in the USSR (which, recent events indicate, despite many changes in the last decade and a half, is still a place rife with tragedy).

I took this course because I'm interested in breaking with convention and asking myself an endless array of questions that are masochistic because they are unanswerable. Also, I'm horrible with technology, so I thought I might do well in accessing it via the humanities, which are what one might describe as my strong suit.

As a senior, I plan to change the world and learn English in a major way...ok, so I'm a senior English major and I wanted to make it sound more exciting.

A friend of mine (ok so he may be imaginary, but you'll never know) highly recommended both this course and this professor; I trust in Drop Dead Fred.

I'm interested in a large variety of activities, but none of which include physical exertion or talking about cars, clothes, or money. I enjoy making random references and comments whenever possible--usually this results in people giving me funny looks.

I also enjoy this phrase: "prancing through cloud fields of marshmallow and myrrh whilst downing delectable delicacies."

PS-I'm Kelly.
PPS-Let me know if I need to be more scholastic when typing entries in the blog.

Hi everyone,

I'm a junior Psychology major from Harford County, Maryland and I want to make myself more marketable before I graduate by taking...an English class.

Yeah I know. But no actually, I love to read and enjoy working with computers as well so this class caught my attention even before I saw the good reviews it received.

I'm also taking English editing this semester, and will probably take a few business classes and maybe get the citation in Interdisciplinary Multimedia & Technology before I graduate because I'm still not exactly sure what I want to do yet.

This semester, though, I'm looking forward to learning about new forms of text that have arisen due to the amazing growth of technology.

Hi,

I'm a senior IVSP student pursuing a degree in Digital Media. I chose to include this class as part of my degree for obvious reasons. I'm mostly interested in progressive web design and new media arts.

My credits and experience thus-far can be viewed at my portfolio site. The address is www.trifecta-design.com if anyone want to check it out.

So far, this class has opened new ideas for me about text and conventionalized expression. I'm excited to see where it goes. Thanks.

Hi. Giles Crider here, senior english major. I took this course because I'm very interested in both computers and literature (people would have you belive this isn't possiable, but they lie). I'm an avid game player, and I just know I can relate that to these discussions on cybertexts, so expect it in the future.

If you'd like to remember who I am and the rest of my entry doesn't help you out much, look for the dark-haired girl who just tripped or walked into a door. That's me.

I'm a junior English major from Bethesda, MD and I'm taking this class because I got way too excited while reading about MUDs in the course description and because the class seemed interesting in an unconventional way.

I'm Annette Mitchell, but I'll respond to any variation thereof, as well as to my sisters' names and occasionally my dad's.

Hi,

I'm a senior computer science major from Harford County (it was very exciting for me to see another HC person on here).

I enrolled in this class based on a strong recommendation from a friend of mine. I'm actually quite surprised at the amount of terminology from this class that I have seen in CS and philosophy classes that I've taken in the past. Graph theory, recursion, and formal systems are all things that I'm pretty well acquainted with, but in a different context. It's pretty exciting for me to see these dry CS concepts put to interesting use by the humanities.

Hey everyone,

My name is Jason Puckett and I'm from the Bay Area in California. Being a senior government and economics major who has finished most of his other coursework, I figured I should try my hand at this "English" I hear so much about. And so far, I'm digging it.

Even though the "Computers and Text" title seemed a little dry, I was attracted to this class by the good reviews and the course description, which mentioned the choose-your-own-adventure topic. I loved those things as a kid, and I aspire to write the Great American Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Novel someday.

Anyways, I hear good things from past students and I'm excited for this course.

-- Jason

Hi, all...

I'm Meg (please, please don't call me by that *other* name that my parents gave me!) Cybulski, originally of Albany, NY and now residing in Olney, MD (well, for the four months of the year that I don't live on campus).

I'm a 3rd year/junior English major who can be found writing about 85% of the time, considering picking up Crim as a second major because we have more elective credits in the English department than I know what to do with.

I have a mild addiction to both computers and novels, I've actually tried to 'play' a hypertext novel before, and (as a future library degree seeker) I'm intrigued as to how this class will influence my perceptions of computers and their value as texts.

Hi,

I'm Trish. I'm a Broadcast Journalism and English double major, currently labeled as the notorious "super senior." I'll graduate soon, though!

I'm taking this class as a break from you're run-of-the-mill English class where you try to jam in 15 400-pg novels into one semester. And also because I know how much computers/internet/video games have had such an impact on the way we think and create. So here I am.

Hey, all! Wow, these introductions are pretty lengthy. I was just planning on telling you all I'm an English major from Millersville, MD. I guess I could go into more detail...

I'm also working on my secondary education certificate - teaching high school lit. is what I plan on doing for a few years. After that, who knows.

See ya'll in class.

I'm Matt. I'm from Millersville too. I am an English and Econ Double major.

I took this course for a couple reasons. I was a compsci major for three semesters, before I decided I couldn't code all the time and be happy. But, this is an interesting way to use what I learned in a context where I can be happy. I also run two Cybertext realted Wikis:

http://www.writehere.net
and
http://www.solasi.org

They're for collaborative writing, editing, and theory-developin'. Dr. Kirschenbaum helped me do a lot of the work on these wikis to get them going, and so that's another good reason to be taking this class. Ta!

Hi, my name is Ryan Cicoski and I'm a junior English/Sociology major with aspirations for law school. Right now I'm a Resident Assistant in New Leonardtown.

I took this class because, as one poster above mentioned, I'm tired of taking english classes where you throw in as many victorian novels as you can by the end of the semester. I love to read, but doing this every year in the english department is somewhat wearing on me.
Taking a look at the course offerings for this year, computer and text offered a fresh perspective on reading, and implementing computers into it.

Hello,
I'm Wei, a senior Print Journalism major. I formerly had English as my other major too but I didn't want to spend 4 years in college so I dropped that to graduate early.

I'm from sunny Singapore,which happens to be the best place to live in the world!

Why am I taking this class? Well it happened to fit into my schedule right after Dr. Kirchenbaum's other class on postmodernist literature. Nothing more nothing less.

PS Like Ryan above, I'm also a Resident Assistant, but in the Commons.

Hi, I'm Erin, and I come from Upper Marlboro MD. I too am a 'super-senior', but with good reasons. Rather than just double majoring, I am actually planning on graduation with two degrees; one in English Creative Writing, and a second in Studio Art.

I didn't actually plan on taking this course, for the simple reason that it runs late and puts me directly into rush hour traffic. However after shockingly finding myself in a "The Language of Politics" senior seminar, I decided that I'd much rather rip my hair out in traffic than stay in a class that might make my hair naturally fall out. That is to say, politics are definately not my thing. Plus, with evolving semi-literary icons on the internet that have achieved cult like status (such as megatokyo, penny arcade, and strong bad), I find that I am very much interested in how computers have affected the literature world as a whole.

Hello All,

My name is Rhadia Hursey, and I am from everywhere! I grew up as a military brat and have lived all over the U.S. I'm an English major, and no, I don't want to be a teacher. I plan to be a reporter in the very near future since I graduate in Dec. I decided to take this course because it fit into my schedule, and sounded interesting.

Hi, I'm Danny and I'm from Columbia, MD. I'm in the IVSP (Individual Studies Program) and am persuing Digital Media in as similar form as Jordan is, who posted above.

I'm into many forms of media and art, especially when it deals with computers and technology. I enjoy web design, image editing, drawing, video editing, etc, and I'm really into digital audio and music. I created a website that hosts my music: www.supergreenx.com .

With my major, I plan to learn about all this stuff and how it can all work together. Hopefully this class can add to my understanding and ideas about digital media.

Hi, i'm David, and I'm a Senior Computer Science major from Bethesda.

Good to see there's another CS major in here!

And another from Bethesda ;)

Anyway, I don't know what else to say.

Hi, I'm Tiffany, a senior English major from Ellicott City, MD.
I took this course because it sounded interesting and fit into my schedule.
You'll have to excuse me, I'm recovering from this past weekend and can't think of anything else to say.

Hi, I'm Kathleen, a fifth year senior English major. I have no immediate plans to graduate, or plans for what happens once I graduate... I'm taking this class because I have time to take things that sound interesting, rather than something that makes me wish I wasn't an English major.

Hi, Im James, Im a 5th year senior. Im taking this class because our section number ends in 1. I think. After graduation I'll probably take a nap at some point.

Hi,

I am Ryan Tinsley. I am an english major and 6th year senior. No, I am not stupid...but this is my 4th college and 3rd major. I took the class because it sounded interesting and i need an english elective to finally graduate.

Hi, I'm Matt Duran, 5th year senior and ex-CompSci, currently turned English major, (creative writing).

I took this class because it is different from the other english classes we have to take and I'm loaded with them because of recently changing my major. I'm From NY and have no idea real plans for graduation, though a nap does sound good.

Hi,
My name is Jonida Gjika. I am a senior majoring in finance. I took this class because i wanted to learn something different besides business.

Hi, my name is Brooke, and I'm from Baltimore, MD. It's so nice to see other 5th year Seniors! I took a year off between my Sophomore and Junior year, and it was one of the best things I did. I plan on graduating in the spring with an American lit. concentration and a citation in Russian (and no, I am not Russian).

I decided to take this class after working for a publisher this summer and realizing web publishing is growing rapidly and may be an area of interest for my future career(s).

I might be 2 for 2 on this "last one to post" stuff. I'll pretend it was a strategy to get the last word...

I'm Greg (Lord, if there's more than one), I'm a 21-year-old senior, an English major, and doing the whole creative-writing-track-thing. Which isn't something I've ever been altogether comfortable with since it seems like it might look a little pseudo-school outside of the university context (maybe even within it), but I'm learning to cope.

I'm taking this class mostly because it seems like a completely unique topic in the English department, and as someone who's logged probably near a real-time year of online gaming, I'm interested in the way that literature can have real merit within the context of the internet, the videogame, etc.

Hey, looks like I'm one of the latest and greatest to post here. Go me. I am a twenty year-old History major and a complete movie geek. Um, there isn't a whole lot to say about me. I'm taking this course because my dad thought that since I'm online in a bunch of chat rooms most of the time that this course would be perfect for me. Well, maybe he's right, maybe he's wrong. Only time will tell. If you have any questions or feel like playing Six Degrees to Kevin Bacon, just e-mail me or something.

Hello, my name is Alex and I'm a linguistics major...I'm taking this class because it appeals to my love of language, literature and pattern recognition and because as a musician and writer myself I find nothing more interesting than exploring the ways in which we create, interact with and are affected by works of art/literature.

Yeah yeah, so I've neglected the forum introduction. Melissa here, 23, linguistics / cognitive science major and I'm in this class because I'm a computer dork ><.

Hi my name is Jennifer Alpert. I am a senior Economics major. I was born in DC, grew up in Silver Spring and Rockville, MD and currently live in Bethesda. I am taking this class because I am doing a lot of computer programming for Econ and though this would be a good addition to my skills. I also enjoy reading, writing and all art forms.

Hello,
My name is Mary Ann. I am a Senior, American Studies major. I am excited to be taking this class because it actually sounds interesting and it fit into my schedule. Also, my best friend is in this class so it makes it even better.