Randy Hoyt » Randy Hoyt

Benjamin Button Review in Mythprint

Randy Hoyt — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 16:22:16 +0000

A while ago, I submitted a review of the film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button for Mythprint. The publication had a rough year last year, with the editor having to resign for family care issues, so my review did not appear until a year after I wrote it. But it has finally been included in the latest issue, Mythprint 331. I believe the Mythopoeic Society webmaster‡ will start adding electronic versions of these Mythprint reviews to the society’s web site a few months after their initial publication, so I’ll be sure to post a link here back to the site once it is available.

‡ Yes, that’s me!

Dallas Film Festival

Randy Hoyt — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 17:00:06 +0000

News on Dallas Film Festival (formerly AFI Dallas) been slow but looks like it’s going to happen: http://dallasfilm.org - Just bought passes

My Course at UTD Starts This Week

Randy Hoyt — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 17:00:49 +0000

My course at UTD starts this week. Updates here will be scarce for the next few months. Keep up with the course at http://r2h.me/atec3361

Great Tolstoy Quote

Randy Hoyt — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 03:00:07 +0000

I discovered a great quote by Leo Tolstoy this week. As most readers will probably know, I am passionate about myth and fascinated by the fact that human beings have (seemingly) always told stories. One question that often arises in discussions about the meaning of a story is this: why didn’t the author write a non-fiction piece instead, an essay or an op-ed article. Here’s how Tolstoy responded when asked about what he was trying to say in Anna Karenina:

If I wished to say in words all that I intended to express in the novel, I would have to write from the very beginning the same novel that I had already written. And if critics understand and can express in a newspaper article what I want to say, I must congratulate them.

With some books, the author’s message and intentions can be so blatant that they are distracting; it feels like the author cares more about preaching his personal agenda than he does about telling a good story. This Tolstoy quote is a refreshing reminder that other authors see the narrative elements of their work as essential to the meaning, not just as an unnecessary cloak that can just easily be removed.

Teaching University Course

Randy Hoyt — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 03:00:20 +0000

I have been talking with some of the guys at the Emerging Media and Communications (EMAC) program at the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) since this past summer, and I am happy to announce that I will be teaching a university course on internet technologies in the spring semester. I’ll post links to my course web site and anything else official when it is available, but here’s a brief (tentative) description:

As the web continues to grow in size and popularity, more and more professions require a basic understanding of the core technologies behind the internet. This course will provide undergraduate students with a working knowledge of HTML, CSS, domain registration, web hosting, JavaScript, server-side scripting, FTP, and more. We will look at how these technologies are encapsulated into content management systems, spending considerable time working with WordPress as an example. It is becoming increasingly important for individuals to take control of how they are portrayed online, and this course will explore how individuals can use these tools to do that. The course will include discussion of popular hosted publishing tools and social networking sites, as well, looking at how they contribute to an overall online presence. The final project will include developing a functional web site using the concepts and the technologies discussed throughout the course.

(For my Sooner friends, I want to assure you that UTD has no relationship to UT in Austin. It is completely independent — just like University of California and UCLA are independent — and UTD has its own, non-Longhorn mascot. So everything is good there.)

UPDATES

11/18/2009: Paul Boag’s book Website Owners Manual came out last week, a book I had been anxiously awaiting. I downloaded the PDF version, and I will definitely be using it as the textbook for my course.
11/29/2009: There’s now an entry for my course in the official UTD online coursebook: I’m affectionately known as “-Staff-” right now in the listing.
12/02/2009: I have started my course web site: ATEC 3361 / Spring 2010. I need to add quite a lot of content before January 1, but I think it’s taking shape.