Reserving judgments is a matter of infinite hope. Best case scenario? A virtual reality game that is either based around Portal or Half-Life, or unites the franchises into one experience. Valve has invested heavily in VR and clearly values the technology as an entertainment phenomenon – the Portal demo for Vive is one of the…
Similar:Overflow seating for the 50th anniversary of the canonization of #elizabethannseton @seton…PersonalSoldiers and Sailors Memorial and Museum Another visit to Pittsburgh with my his…CultureSiblings gotta sib.PersonalReally enjoyed watching Your Name with the family. Visuals hooked me, but the story kept m…AestheticsSeize the Day!PersonalMy colleague @crissycp once again left an amazing Irish soda bread in…
Similar:Stunning writing in this WaPost reflection on the Trump campaign's journey from a gold esc…I’m stunned by the writing. Here’s just …CultureSelling Point (Audio Drama) I had fun recording this in the stud…AmusingWe found a mushroom fairy ring in our yardIt won’t make the afternoon of mowing mo…AestheticsHow the printing press changed “you”: when reading…
MTV recently ditched the “Best Actor/Actress” awards in favor of “Best Actor,” which suggests the gender-specific term “actress” is less popular among MTV’s target audience. I added that detail, fixed some broken links, and updated the graphic. See Writing Tips: Gender Neutral Language. Similar:Certainty vs. uncertainty: "In which are we more likely to be deceived,…
With the money I saved by working on the car (watching a lot of YouTube tutorials) I bought a new midrange zoom, in the hopes I won’t miss shots by swapping lenses. And now my camera bag won’t quite zip shut. #ConspicuousConsumption Similar:Enjoying live theater.The Illustrious Invalid. @kinetictheatre_pghPersonalThese chairs were cheap, but it really annoys…
Similar:Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reducing print edition to 2 days a week; cites plan to go all digi… The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is scaling …BusinessFacebook Ad Refreshes Interrupt the Composition ProcessSo I’m trying to edit a Facebook status,…BusinessCelebration of Writing Fall 2019PersonalMy son teaching chess to a young pupilCultureHearing "Godzilla on My Mind" author Wiliam TsutsuiPersonalMy current…
Similar:Every few years, I Google the name of the kid who saw "The Empire Strikes Back" the night …HistoryA woman approached The Post with dramatic — and false — tale about Roy Moore. She appears …This looks like a deliberate attempt to …Current_EventsCan't upload photos to Facebook from my MacBookI spent 30 minutes trying to…
While doing some spring cleaning around my computer desk at home, I noticed that there are scores of old PC games that are still stacked up within arm’s reach, even though I no longer even use a computer with an optical drive at that workstation. But these are games that have sentimental value for my…
Oppressors deny their own agency and dehumanize their victims by using the passive voice. I want my students to recognize this deliberate strategy, and to look for hidden actors and dehumanized recpients of injustice. (I try to teach about active and passive verbs in a more lighthearted way, but I only bothered to photograph and…
The voice of Wallace has died. The silly, plummy, character-driven steampunk/sitcom hybrid Wallace & Gromit films were a big influence on the tone of the “Captain Gearhart and the Magnificent Blimpship” steampunk bedtime stories I used to tell the kids. Peter Sallis has died at the age of 96, his agents have announced.The actor…
The First Amendment of the constitution protects the incoming students’ right to say whatever they like, even if Harvard doesn’t like it. And, as a private institution that is not regulated by the First Amendment, Harvard has the right to kick out incoming students unwise enough to exercise their rights in this manner. (The government…
Just as comedians generally don’t laugh at their own jokes, Shakespeare doesn’t call too much attention to his own linguistic cleverness, which is one reason his work rewards close scrutiny. It’s not that he was being deliberately obscure or flowery — though some of his obsequious characters definitely exhibit such speech patterns. One line of…
Similar:Masked, vaxxed, and settling in to watch live theaterBarebones is a little black box theater,…BooksIn praise of the sci-fi corridorCorridors in science-fiction movies. I l…AestheticsColorful variations of an upholstered desk chair for my fantasy #steampunk #blender3d proj…AestheticsChess tournament in Monroeville.PersonalAccession #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 4, Episode 17) Sisko rethinks his role as Emissar…Rewatching ST:DS9 Bashir…
Similar:Bless thee, Carolyn, bless thee! Thou art translated — into a 22 year-old woman. I remember when we got home from SHU’s…PersonalMore modeling in #blender3d. Very happy with reflections and lighting. (The teacup is a po…DesignTeaching myself the #Unity3D game engine. Each step requires a lot of focused attention. I… Teaching myself the #Unity3D…
Could the absurd examples of bizarre public discourse please stop happening so I can investifart some of them? Similar:Rhinoceros in Love (World Drama — China, 1999)The blurb for a 2011 English version of …AcademiaPolice Department, Fire Department Tell Different Versions of Same Richmond IncidentA Richmond police official and a fire of…Current_EventsVerizon's $4.4 billion deal for…
Most research subjects, when offered the chance to win $10 and read essays that opposed their views, or $7 and read essays that confirmed their views, chose comfort over the higher potential prize. Liberals and conservatives reacted basically the same–with liberals slightly less willing to read conservative views. (I changed the click-baity headline, which sensationalized the issue…
I remember being fascinated with and challenged by The Waste Land in high school, though it wasn’t until I read some of Eliot’s essays in college that it all sunk in. The same man who could write such clear, sensible prose when he wanted to explain could also construct densely packed, layered, gnostic verse. What…
Fake news is frustrating. Nothing new there. I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately. Students in my freshman writing class often want to write their first college research paper on the topic of unrealistic images of women in advertising. Their first thesis is often something like “Advertisers should not damage women’s self-esteem by promoting…
I didn’t use Newsweek’s clickbaity headline: “Trump and JFK Are More Alike Than We Like To Think.” They are different in many ways, but JFK was remembered for mastering the new medium of television (people who listened to the Nixon/Kennedy debates on radio were more likely to believe Nixon won, but those who watched the…
To believe Donald Trump, you must believe two largely contradictory things. | You must believe that there are a slew of leakers in the executive branch who are providing damning details to the press illegally, and who must be rooted out and punished. punished….You must also believe that the press makes up imaginary leakers simply…