Tomorrow I will be teaching some Harlem Renaissance poets in my American Literature class, so this reflection on the function of poetry is welcome and timely. Poems are first and foremost to be experienced—sensually, imaginatively. Of course, learning more about form and structure, the words and historical contexts of a poem may make that experience…
A happy apple cyclops, with a marshmallow eye and banana teeth. My daughter’s creation. Update, 12 Feb: Carolyn, noting the condition of her apple creation, asked for “a good-bye picture of Poli-yumyum.” Similar:The reflection should show what's about 60 degrees above the shuttle, not what's in front …AestheticsAt the chess club holiday party. Peter looks…
The very last roll of Kodachrome film will be delivered today in Parsons, Kansas. Kodak has slowly phased out the materials needed to make and develop the film. Only a single operation in the world — Dwayne’s Photo in Parsons — had continued to develop Kodachrome. First introduced in 1935, the death of the film…
Similar:"Know that I glory in this nose of mine."Was browsing YouTube for a few of my fav…AestheticsThe false link between Amy Coney Barrett and The Handmaid’s Tale, explainedOne of the weirder ways this debate has …BooksFinal grades are due tomorrow. My Fall 2020 is almost over. I survived.Final grades are due tomorrow. My only u…AcademiaLighten…
Pixel art entry from Something Awful. The site includes loads of others (most of which I don’t get). Similar:Crying Myself to Sleep on the Biggest Cruise Ship EverI’ve felt a bit like this guy the last f…CultureVideo ResumesI’m thinking of asking students in a med…BusinessI do not know why this antique service button from my…
My wife baked this cake for my birthday (and my daughter’s half-birthday.) Here’s how the family dressed up for Seton Hill’s haunted house fund-raiser for Make-A-Wish. Similar:And so it begins.BooksAnother NewsBreak.com Exclusive Exposes a Royal Family Lie #FakeNewsYou sheep who trust the lamestream fake …AmusingA Robotic Dog’s MortalityFascinating video journalism from the Ne…CultureLooking forward to…
“I am learning about subtext,” he said. She raised an eyebrow. “You?” “Yes, me.” he said, casually stretching. “It means the words say one thing, but there’s a more important meaning hidden between the lines.” She watched him. “Subtext sounds so… interesting,” she said, uncrossing her legs. He sat next…
I just wrote these examples on a student paper, in an attempt to reinforce a lesson in showing vs. telling. 1) Winning is important to me. It doesn’t matter to me what I do, so long as I win. (That’s TELLING. Its dry and boring, and not at all convincing.) 2) On the shelf in…
My class was doing small group work, focusing on a challenging passage in Emerson’s Nature, when a student called my attention to a fiery red sunset outside the tall 19thC windows. I turned out the lights, and in the glow of their iPads, I could see the looks on the students’ faces as they took…
I’m about to start the Rick Moranis #LittleShop movie. My 8yo has never seen it, but she’s gotten interested in musicals. about 3 hours ago via Twitter for iPad Wife is unwrapping the #LittleShop DVD now. about 3 hours ago via Twitter for iPad First, put away the #Cats DVD. about 3 hours ago via…
Awful, awful Apple TV ads. Similar:Liberal Arts Majors Are the Future of the Tech IndustryMy sister the computer programmer benefi…AcademiaChapbooks — the latest assignment in my “History and Future of the Book” class.Students have already done a 400-word sp…AcademiaSet design for Acts II and III of R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots) #blender3dDesignFacebook, Now You Remind Me…
Doom was a ground-breaking 2003 1993 first-person shooter, with a successful business model that involved releasing the first few levels as shareware and charging for the full game. From GoldenEye to Modern Warfare 2, I’ve played first-person shooters made of polygons. As the years advanced, I’ve watched the worlds and figures these games depict advance…
Sheaffer Pen celebrates the art of writing, highlighting (predictably) the technological advances of the fountain pen. (Thanks to Ryan Trauman, who posted this on techrhet.) Near the climax of Death of a Salesman, Biff confesses that he has totally blown a business opportunity because he stole a big-shot’s fountain pen. When I first read the…
There was no leaflet in my mailbox this morning, but I did find something much better — a copy of Jason Scott’s text adventure game documentary.My commemorative coin… Similar:Another visit to downtown Pittsburgh with my history-loving son.CultureA crushing backlash to Apple’s new iPad adHave you seen Apple’s “Crush” ad? It fea…AestheticsStopping By The Woods On…
Now available for Windows-based PCs, Classic Adventures: The Great Gatsby is a downloadable casual game that lets you interact with familiar characters, locations and story lines from the legendary American novel. As Nick Carraway, a young idealist back from the Great War, you must unravel secrets buried behind the decadence of the Roaring ’20s. This…
Gameplay in Cow Clicker is insultingly simple — Bogost has described it as “Facebook games distilled to their essence.” Users obtain a cow on which they can click every six hours, and every time they click, they earn more opportunities to click their cow or their friends’ cows. Users can buy custom “premium” cows or…
The Blender Foundation has announced its release of version 2.53 beta. Blender is a free, open-source 3D animation and game design package. I’ve taught it in the past in my New Media Projects course, but no student has ever chosen a Blender creation for a term project, and some of my textually-minded English majors have…
After Safari (which comes with the iPad), the app I spend the most time with is definitely SketchBook Pro. While it’s possible to use a stylus, I don’t have one — I just use my finger. Here’s the first picture I drew — a space shuttle that was, at the time, featuring prominently in the…
I don’t get to say much, but I’m honored to find myself associated with such company. The following dialogue was fabricated in order to illustrate the viewpoints of Vannevar Bush, K. Eric Drexler, and Dennis Jerz, and how they relate to the website created by TJ Chapp for Engineering Professional Development: Engineering applications to web…
