July 28, 2008

According to Wikipedia

I keep coming to this thing with something inspiring or thought-provoking up until the moment I get here. I feel estranged by my own mind! How about this...a game on wikipedia. It's the best procrastination tool, but why not add some goals?

1. Come up with a random person, place or thing - OR - click "random article". For example, the Television.
2. Now, click on "random article"
3. Find your way to the self-chosen person place, or thing (or back to the first random article) from step 1 by using only the in-text links and informational side bars from the random page.

You can't click "back" and you can't use the search function (ctrl+f)

Here is a quick run through, with a list of my travels. My end-goal is Christmas. My random start article is Flicker, which is apparently a name given to many things. The following is my clicked route to Christmas...
  • Flicker, the novel by Theodore Roszak
  • From the plot summary I find the hot-linked word "Catholic"
  • In the "see also" category I catch a reference to Christianity
  • Off to the right I discover a nifty summary of the Christian faith, including a Calendar of its significant celebrated moments
  • Boom! The Westerners' section declares Christmas as a season in the liturgical calendar...
So, get at it. Watch out for math links. Once you get into math theories it's nearly impossible to link out. And don't even try to find this one...

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