joe – Thinking About Stuff With Joe

I gotta admit, I’m a big sucker for nostalgia. Recently, I’ve been into watching some old video tape recordings of Toonami and other shows we’d record on VHS when I was a kid. My dad has watched anime since before I was born on and he would record the shows for me to watch in the morning, since I had to sleep before they aired. It was a dope way to wake up for some Saturday morning cartoons.

I’ve been enjoying re-watching those low quality recordings and found myself enjoying watching the old commercials too. Since then I’ll click on the occasional YouTube compilation of “90’s cartoons, 2000’s commercials, etc.” Call me weird, but hey, its better than Keeping up with the Kardashians, right?

While recently watching this youtube video, I saw an ad for a cute little website called MamaMedia.com. It was one of those early internet websites with obnoxious colors and graphics, and I thought it looked amazing.

A little more about my love for nostalgia, I grew up with a love for the internet and computers. Being born in 1995, I experienced the gold rush of the Internet and loved those wild-west days of no rules, no social media, and no google domination. These were the days where you’d have to hear about a website to find it. Miniclip.com, Coolmathgames.com, and egg2.com are all fond memories of mine. There’s something about a text-filled, messy colored, low poly website that just makes me happy.

So with nostalgic hope in my heart, I type MamaMedia.com into my browser to see what I missed out on as a kid, only to find that the website no longer exists.

“How Sad”, I think. Perhaps the site fizzled out due to the tidal wave of content available on the internet. I do the next logical thing and search on Wikipedia.

But it doesn’t say anything about why it’s gone…

This is what’s peaked my curiosity. I can’t find any source explaining why the site went down. After looking into the logistics of this site, it was clear it had a lot of users. With some of their design games totaling over 5 million creations. It’s clear this site wasn’t a dud. People used it regularly.

So what happened?

Poor Business model?

I came across an article at wjs.com, and although I couldn’t read the whole thing because a website with ads everywhere (I have Adblock too) shouldn’t force you to buy a subscription as well. Rant aside, the article details that MamaMedia Inc. laid off most of its staff in 2000 in attempts to salvage the company or hopefully sell it.

I also found an AMA on Reddit from Idit Harel, CEO of Mamamedia.com, but she never talks about MamaMedia in much detail, just a little bit about the design philosophy they took when creating the site. This site was made to incorporate design concepts of constructionism theory to flash games. Kids could build their own designs out of template options given to them. This concept is also huge in computer programming. Specifically C++. Coding in block concept is big now, and the goal with MamaMedia.com was to disguise that learning concept in the form of fun little games.

In an article I found rambling about how bad the internet is for children (oh just u wait honey) there’s a snippet about some of the sponsors MamaMedia had on their site.

“The Website of MaMaMedia.com, for example, promotes itself as presenting “playful learning” activities aimed at children 12 and under, based on extensive research at Harvard and M.I.T. The co-founder of M.I.T.’s prestigious Media Lab is listed as chairman of MaMaMedia’s advisory board. The site also features the names of its commercial sponsors–which include the producers of high-sugar drinks and foods and video games. The site links children to one advertiser’s new release, “X-Men Mutant Academy,” which will allow young children to “Brawl your way around the world, one opponent at a time.” It also links children to the Websites of a long list of candy companies. On one link children are able to download a screensaver of Hershey’s Miniatures “stacking up before your eyes,” or “Flying Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups,” thereby setting up their own background ad for a chocolate break.”

So they had sponsors… how did it fail?

A Surprising Resilience

I put in MM into web.archive.org and looked into how long it actually ended up lasting. The last archived record I can find is on November 12, 2013. I thought that was very interesting because the copyright for the site ends in 2005. MM in its final form looked like that picture in the bottom right in the gallery above. From top to bottom the pictures are chronological order of how it changed over the years from 1997-2013.

MM had over 5 million registered users by the end of its lifetime. For an internet business in the early 2000’s, that’s a pretty impressive feat. This link highlights many interesting bits of info on the site, including statistics on each specific feature including traffic numbers.

“Lessons Learned From Mamamedia.com”

I’ve found a quite interesting powerpoint document that appears to be from a group of panelists talking about their online projects. Idit Harel is a part of this panel. Heres some interesting facts from this presentation. There’s actually some pretty interesting notes on gender differences for learning games.

•Made using:
40,000 lines of Java code
•30,000 lines of Perl code
•20,000 lines of Cold Fusion code
•75 database tables (Oracle>>MySQL)
•15,000 HTML template files
•Became anchor of AOL’s online children’s channel; and forged partnerships and distribution deals with industry leaders Time Warner, Earthlink, Disney, MSN-TV, Scholastic, Intel, Nintendo and General Mills. Pioneer and leader in developing federally-mandated online safety and privacy policies for children under 13.

•Won numerous honors and awards, including Yahoo’s Best Site for Kids(1999 and 2000); Computerworld Smithsonian Awardfor visionary use of information technology in education (1999); the Internet industry’s coveted Global Information Infrastructure (GII) Awardas the website that has most empowered, entertained, and educated kids (1999); and the 21st-Century Achievement Awardfor “visionary use of information technology through the MaMaMediaPeace Project” (2002). Dr. Idit(Harel) Caperton was honored by the Network of Educators in Science and Technologyand MIT in 2002 “for devotion, innovation, and imagination in science and technology on behalf of children and youth around the world.”

The Mystery Continues

As I dig deeper into the depths of the internet, I am unable to find any solid source of what happened to MM. My imagination runs wild, but it’s probably a much more boring and sad reality of something being “out-moded” just like my precious VHS player.

I’ve reached out to Idit Harel to see if she can help explain the mysterious disappearance of her website and help fill in the big gaps we have of information on this story. If she answers I’ll make a continued piece on this.

It bums me out because some of their flash games looked pretty fun to try out. They were probably old and basic, but sometimes the nostalgia is worth it. Maybe one day Idit Harel will release a brand new HQ version to re-introduce these learning concepts to a new generation, and I can finally play them.

For now, we say farewell to MaMaMedia.com. Rest in peace next to AOL messenger.

-Joe

I swear I’m at least on my 5th viewing of the entire series of “The Office” and I really want to iron out exactly why I can watch this show over and over again without losing interest, while also being unable to love any show as much.

For those of you who live under a rock, “The Office” is a TV show that was released on NBC in 2005. The first season, inspired from the British version (also known as “The Office”) , came out to lackluster criticism and overall mixed opinions.

But then something magical happened. They adapted the show for American Audiences. See we MERICANS have a taste for the bombastic. We like things a little zany, a little flashy, if you’re catching my drift here. So when the second season came out, the direction had gone from small stories from an average, mid-sized, paper supply company in Scranton Pennsylvania, to larger world building stories and in depth characters interacting with each others and the world they live in. Things in Scranton Pennsylvania aren’t as quiet as it seems when Michael Scott is running around.

Which brings me to my next point

Michael Scott is Everything

When you think about the office, you may think of iconic characters Like Dwight, the “out-of-touch” beet farmer who’s constantly fighting with Jim, the Office prankster. Or maybe Stanley, the Sassy, Overweight, African American man who just wants it to be pretzel day. But I know without a doubt that when you hear “The Office” you think Michael Scott First.

Some people try to argue that with me. But be really honest with yourself. When Steve Carrell left the show, It wasn’t the same. It might not have necessarily been worse, as developed story lines with Dwight, Angela, Jim, and Pam could expand and find their eventual resolutions, but it wasn’t the same.

I think it just lost that amazing twinkle that made the show so unique. So.. perfect. This is a case of the creative stars aligning on personality types and the development of an absurdist character based on a genius filming processes that promoted improvising within scenes. Michael Scott was developing as a character all throughout the first season, and when they turned him from a mediocre office annoyance to a more complex and absurd character, he became a beautiful enigma.

Maybe it’s just me, but I love Enigmous people. You know what I’m talking about. Those people who just can’t be described as anything other than their name. Whether it be from their defined personality, passions, talents, or just how they look. I have a big fascination with people who are impressively different.

Because I think that at the end of the day, some people want to fit into this approved mould that ads, pop-culture, and echo-chambers bombard you with constantly online. And while I think social acceptance can be great, it never really feels right when you’re being something that you’re not. Be yourself, wear what you love about life (or don’t love) on your sleeve for the world to see!

That’s what’s so great about Michael Scott. He isn’t the smartest person in the world, he isn’t even the smartest guy in the office. He isn’t the most impressive salesman that the world has ever seen, He has trouble with relationships with both friends and women. He has a hard time with personal boundaries and he constantly slacks off at his job and bothers others, but he has all of these little redeeming moments from all the cringe inducing moments he creates in his office.

You learn a lot about his character as the show goes on. You find out he came from a divorced home, how he was bullied in school, how he had to spend many years working for a company that often wasn’t great to him. Yet despite all this, he still defends himself quite fiercely. I’ll explain it this way:

In the second episode of the first season “Diversity Day”, the Office has a diversity acceptance speaker come in and teach everyone about being more conscious about what they say in the office space. As the speaker goes on, it becomes clear that he is there because of an incident that happened with Michael. Michael becomes outraged when people discuss his in-office performance of one of Chris Rock’s Early comedy routine. And without diving into opinions on jokes and race, The routine would be pretty offensive in today’s standards if a white man performed it.

However, Michael refuses to believe he had done anything wrong, and firmly choses to refute the idea that he could be, in any way, racist by saying that joke. He then does what only Michael Scott would do. He gathers everyone for another meeting, this time ran by him, on his own version of cultural acceptance. He makes a video that doesn’t do much for his case, then has everyone wear cards on their head to practice talking to other people from different nationalities.

He, of course, encourages people to focus on cultural niches when talking to one another, which is really the opposite of what the original speaker had taught. By the end of this meeting he uses a super racist Indian accent with Kelly, who is Indian, to the point where she slaps him. Realizing he had finally gone to far, we see Michael reflecting on what he believed to still be a successful meeting and signing off on his Corporate forms that he had learned his lesson with the name “Daffy Duck”.

And that’s just one example of how Michael Refuses to let people change who he his. For better or worse at times. He believes himself to be a free thinker, an artists, someone creative. He really is unconventional, and that’s a partial reason why his branch of the company does so well.

I could ramble on about Michael for a whole post, so Maybe I’ll do that instead of having this thing be longer than a DMV line.

Developing A World

One of the biggest things is how the show goes about its way of getting you information about characters in unique ways. The single-person interview style worked with why there would be cameras in the building. This alone already creates a scenario that you could believe to be the real world, a real documentary. Then you learn more and more about each character slowly as they react organically to daily chaos in the office.

You learn that Pam is an artist, Darrell loves Jazz and the Blues, Dwight loves karate, Kelly is a blabbermouth, creed is almost pure comic relief and is the most absurd person in the show, Stanley wants to retire in an old light house where nobody knows that he lives there, Phillis gave away a child when she was younger, Angela loves cats, Kevin loves poker, Andy has Daddy issues and the list goes on.

Most episodes focus on a few characters each time and do a nice job revolving everyones progress around Michael, who often throughs that progress through an absurd ring of chaos. We watch these people grow, learn, and change from season to season. The producers did a genius time gap between every season to see sped up ramifications of what happened from previous seasons. It’s a solid narrative tool because fresh ideas can be executed now that a time gap allows new stories to be had.

Now I can’t bring up developing characters if I don’t bring up Jim & Pam, the arguably Main characters of the show. But I thought Michael was the main character? See that is where you are wrong. For all intents and purposes, The Office is a show about the Love story of Jim and Pam. It’s easily the most focused on aspect of the show, especially once Michael leaves it. You see the focus switch to them more and more until he’s gone. The main arch of the last season is them tackling their marriage and personal issues through and through.

I’ll do another post with more on all of the characters soon!

Jim & Pam

The office tackles complex subjects like Love and friendship fairly often in the show. There are a couple of in-office relationships that happen during the season, but none as focused as Jim & Pam.

Jim starts the show as a mild-mannered young adult who doesn’t enjoy his job very much, but loves goofing off and having fun. In many ways, you can see some parallels between Michael and Jim in terms of motivation and personality, but Jim is certainly more charismatic, good looking, and smart. He starts the show off as just a kid goofing off, but as his interactions with Pam increase and they develop their friendship to the point where being just friends isn’t enough, it causes both of them to really consider what they want in life.

Pam isn’t a confident or outspoken person in the beginning either. She gets walked all over by Michael as a receptionist and by her Fiancé, Roy. Pam was in the trap that many of us fall prey to. We’ve been conditioned to believe that marriage is an inevitable and important milestone when you start your young-adult life. Get married have kids right? However, some people put more emphasis on just checking off the list than finding somebody they actually want to spend the rest of their life with. I mean Marriage today is at a 50% Fail rate. That fact is even brought up in the show. Pam was in that fallacy of wanting to marry someone that really wasn’t great for her.

The relationship was ok, but they didn’t get along. He wouldn’t talk to her, spend real time with her, and drank too much. It takes a long time for both Jim and Pam to realize that they need to take their chances, Jim tries but pam doesn’t realize how big Jim is in her life until he isn’t in it anymore and she cancels the wedding. Eventually they end up together and it’s great, and Roy even ends up finding that perfect woman for him that turned him from a slop with a DUI to a successful businessman.

And I think at the end of the day, we want somebody who’s gonna help us be the best version of ourselves. I believe love is like a Yin-Yang thing. There’s gotta be balance, you have to have traits that support each others differences but find enough in common to relate to one another. I think the final couples in the office reflect that. Jim and Pam help each other grow and become successful adults with two kids. And even though they have their problems when Jim gets his job in Philly, they still make enough compromises with each other out of love and respect to make the relationship work.

Their Love Story isn’t some fantasy, it’s a relatable story about two people realizing how much they care for each other and doing whatever they can to be in each others lives. It’s not some cheesy happily ever after, (even though the series ends with them pretty well off) its a story about real people dealing with real problems and finding solutions to make everything work out. It’s not perfect, but it’s something real.

And that’s why I think so many people relate with that. A lot of people think their relationship is #goals, and honestly it’s not far off for me either. It’s crazy to think some story could be such a role model of relationships for so many. But when the stars align for a show bigger than life, it’s bound to happen.

Well, I think I’ve rambled enough to send the point that I love this show for so many reasons. I’ll do another part on this sometime soon because I think it’s cool to have these thoughts down on paper.

In the mean time, take it easy,

Joe

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What Happened To MamaMedia.com?