response/assignment IV

http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1809858_1809957_1811552,00.html

There's a reason no one ever reads the instruction manual. Ho. Hum. That's why I've always been slightly on the outside. I'm the instruction manual type, if there is such a thing. I read the deliciously thin yet complex pamphlets first word to last, and at times, twice, and, at other times, without even having the device about which I am reading. It isn't the curiosity to see how things work, no, not the vein quest for endless knowledge of all wired objects, no. It's just that when someone has something that needs fixing, I want to know a page number. It's a compulsion of sorts like the man washing his hands over and again. I need that page number. I need that marked in memory in tattoo ink. It keeps me up at night. The same way that you need to finish the crossword or get every smudge off your wine glass, I need to read sections A-1 through A-5 and then read them again.

As far as the reason that these manuals so often go unread, I tell you this: It is because of willful ignorance, skillfully and excitedly executed.

The box is torn. The device is plugged in. Check the plug. That's as far as you get.

response/ assignment IV

ORDRUPGAARD
http://www.arcspace.com/architects/hadid/ordrupgaard4/ordrupgaard4.html

The growth of Ordrupgaard presented an opportunity to explore new formal relationships between the components of the Ordrup and Gaard tribes of northernmost Greenland. To best elucidate the social dynamics of Ordrupgaard, it would be best to analyze the communities within their greater narrative.

Many years ago, before the discoveries of North Ordrup and West Gaardon, both communities lived in total isolation. But when Sir Mortimer Greensley of Worschestershireton docked his vessel at Ordrup Bay, he noticed two camps along the hills of the Gaardon Valley. He prepared a diplomatic venture, but was surprised to find that the two villages would not communicate, let alone sit at the same table. When pressed for the explanation behind their silence, the Ordrup chief confided in Sir Greensley "we don't talk to goat farmers because we are sheep farmers. Sheep, as you know, are a higher-quality beast, than the dirty, horny, dancey goat."

Sir Greensley was dismayed. Determined to leave the valley in peace, he gave it its new name: Ordrupgaard.

assignment IV

The next time you walk into work, the first computer you see, have the employee send you the link he/she is browsing, write down the first fifteen words which will then begin your next short short story. The title of the story is the link.