I’m spending a few days visiting my parents in Northern Virginia. Similar:Those shoggoths hacked from lungs unspeakable1) Last night, I’m fairly certain some …AmusingOne hundred years ago, Czech writer Karel Čapek introduced the world to the word “Robot”PersonalAfter some long-delayed recabling, these are the bits I culled from my work setup.PersonalTo all these tools I've…
Words, words, words. With the advent of the stream of consciousness in twentieth-century literature, it has come to seem that the self is very much a thing made of words, a verbal construction forever narrating itself and reconstituting itself in language. In line with the dominant, internalist view of consciousness, it is assumed that this…
Similar:When you accidentally send a "Dear Satan" letter.My family and I are in the voice cast of…PersonalMy crazy Friday night involved tweaking the graphic for an #MLAstyle instructional web pag…AcademiaWhen you need to record footsteps on a sidewalk, and the carpeted studio has a brick wall.Amusing"Moorish girl" in Man of La Mancha. (Vulcan Moorish…
A Google self-study found that its own most successful employees had soft skills, such as mentoring ability, empathy, and critical thinking and problem-solving. “Those traits sound more like what one gains as an English or theater major than as a programmer,” according to the Washington Post. [A]mong the eight most important qualities of Google’s top…
Instead of flagging links to questionable news items, Facebook will instead hide them. Which is nice, but it still means we have to trust the algorithm Facebook uses. (Don’t trust Facebook to filter your news for you.) False news undermines the unique value that Facebook offers: the ability for you to connect with family and…
“Dammit Mom, I’m a daughter, not a theoretician!” — the girl, responding to a pointed rhetorical question. Know Your Meme Similar:I spent Thanksgiving break building a #trimsheet for steampunk control panels, because why…Aesthetics5 myths about Facebook’s Messenger appReal journalism takes a look at that Huf…BusinessPredatory Journals Hit By 'Star Wars' StingI’ve been contacted by editors…
Similar:The Best of Both Worlds, Part 1 ( #StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season Three, Episode 26) We Hav…Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break …PersonalIf I don’t design the sign for the pub on my #steampunk space cruiser, who will? #prioriti… AestheticsI've got a lot to learn, but my #blender3D #neovictorian #steampunk cruiser, and this…AestheticsNot bad for…
No spoilers here. (I managed to avoid all spoilers, and hadn’t even seen the trailer. I did see still pics of porgs, though, and I knew the name of the character the StarWars Bros were hating on, so thank you to everyone who did their part to keep the secrets.) No intellectual critical distance for…
In the bird-flight simulator at the Pittsburgh Aviary, the girl twists and turns, careening around buildings, dive-bombing alleyways, and comes to a perfect landing in the middle of the street just as her timer runs out. The boy immediately heads up to clear the buildings, then flies toward the horizon to see how far he…
Pope Francis recently addressed Italian journalists: Your voice, free and responsible, is fundamental for the growth of any society that wishes to be called democratic, so that the continuous exchange of ideas and a profitable debate based on real and correctly reported data can be guaranteed. In our time, often dominated by the anxiety of…
If you were this person’s attorney, you’d probably want this social media blurb phrased a little differently. The headline attached to the story is clearer. Yes, the social media blurb is shorter, but I’d rather cut the “Twp” and make room for the unambiguous “and.” Derry man accused of assaulting female witness and attorney jailed…
Right now, I’m teaching “American Lit 1915-Present” for the last time. It’s the companion course to “American Lit 1800-1915,” which I’ll also never teach again. They are required courses for English majors who need to cover American Lit, but they were also designed to serve as electives. My colleagues and I have trouble covering the depth that we know our English majors need, without overwhelming students who are just looking to sample a bit of AmLit to fulfill a course requirement. So we’ve revamped both these courses, starting next fall. One new course will be “American Lit 1776-Present,” which will obviously cover fewer works than we can fit into 2 terms, but the benefit is we can be confident that any student who’s taken the course will have a clearer understanding of the scope of American literature. Another new course will be “Topics in American Literature,” which will allow us to go into some depth, without needing to cover a little bit of everything. I’m thinking of picking the focus “Literature and Government,” which could include “Rip Van Winkle,” All the King’s Men, To Kill a Mockingbird, Invisible Man (Ellison, not H.G. Wells) and Farhenheit 451.
“If you want to preserve democracy as we know it, you have to have a free and many times adversarial press… And without it, I am afraid that we would lose so much of our individual liberties over time. That’s how dictators get started.” — Republican Senator John McCain, in a Feb 2017 interview on…
The euphoria of getting my grades in Friday was short-lived. Similar:Is this stripe appearing or disappearing? FULL BLOOM (Aug 30 to Sep 2)PersonalMy colleague @crissycp once again left an amazing Irish soda bread in the break room. (Yes…AwesomeGo not to the elves for counsel, for they will say both no and yes.First runner-up for the…
Similar:Stage Right's Alice in WonderlandMy daughter shared the role of Alice thi…CultureI'm not showing you my email inbox, or my laundry pile, or the state of my soul. Just…PersonalWhen backwards newbie poets write…PersonalPart of my daily routine is practicing German for about 15m per day. With no particular pr…EducationIt not only went VROOM, it…
Similar:Help! I may be running out of excuses for not wearing…Help! I may be running out of excuses fo…CultureHandshakes Really Do MatterMonday night handshake/eye contact pract…CultureThe Daughter's 21st Birthday Current_EventsMy precious is fifteen. PersonalOne of the benefits of teaching at a small college, with small classes…In a final reflection video for a freshm…AcademiaFight choreography via teleconference.…
Similar:Narrating "A Christmas Carol" for WAOB Audio Theatre. (The four episodes will be released …DramaWest Side Story — 50 Years AgoWhen West Side Story opened on Broadway …CultureDuring a modest snowfall, I’m passing the time in a public place where someone else has tu…Stay tuned for more live footage of Stor…CultureSad that NASA is taking…
Similar:Serving at Christmas on the Hill 2025PersonalMy 13yo homeschooler had no idea how to open a little milk carton. I had to show her.CultureGirlhood 2014They don’t even seem to want to watch Fr…CultureMostly German, sometimes refreshing my high school Latin.PersonalJustice (TNG Rewatch, Season 1, Episode 7) When Wes trips on a fence, joggers' god gets…
Similar:Valid for any new yearEthicsPluto FlybyWhen I was about 10, I wrote to NASA and…Current_EventsHad a rough day. Designing another 10 sq cm of #steampunk control panel doesn't fix everyt…AcademiaFinding downtime during orientation week is not a walk in the park. Except when the downti…PersonalChess tournament in Monroeville.PersonalProgress over 11 years of Blender3D practiceOver the…
This clever freshman writing student created a project in Texture, which is designed for branching narratives (such as the Choose Your Own Adventure stories). In the next few screens, he put up nodes showing older and more recent writing samples, asked me to choose which one showed the better writing technique, and gave me feedback…