Look what mysteriously appeared outside my office door!

ChoiceScript tutorial for making casual, phone-friendly, stats-driven storygames. Choice of the Rhetor.

Rules of Engagement #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 4, Episode 18) Worf is accused of destroying a Klingon civilian ship

Rewatching ST:DS9 After a nightmare featuring dead Klingon children, Worf wakes up in Odo’s security cell. He’s clearly in trouble. A Vulcan admiral convenes a Federation hearing called to explore allegations that, while commanding The Defiant, Worf destroyed a Klingon civilian transport. A Klingon prosecutor, Ch’pok, intends to prove Worf’s negligence, thereby stoking sympathy for…

In September, 2003, I was blogging about the emerging fad of internet plagiarism, ethnically diverse anthropomorphic recyclables, EverQuest, and VeggieTales

In September, 2003, I was blogging about What the NY Times called the “campus fad” of Internet plagiarism. “What Does a Professor Do All Day?” (Clearly we are wasting our time whenever we are not standing in front of a classroom.) “Graphic Artist Carefully Assigns Ethnicities To Anthropomorphic Recyclables“ Leni Riefenstahl Dies (although she distanced…

Accession #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 4, Episode 17) Sisko rethinks his role as Emissary when a poet from Bajor’s past claims the title

Rewatching ST:DS9 Bashir reluctantly helps O’Brien clean up before Keiko is due to return after an extended absence. At the family reunion, little Molly points to her mother’s belly and announces she has a little brother. At the request of Kira and her mentor Porta, Sisko blesses a young couple. He’s not thrilled with his…

“The author talks about [topic]” is filler. Your professors want your college-level ideas.

I think I smelled a hint of my mint toothpaste just now. Wishful thinking, or another sign of recovering from #COVID19?

For the past 2 weeks I have slept a lot, coughed a lot, and one of my four classes is a week behind where I had hoped to be, but I guess I’ll be okay. Still dealing with some heavy eldercare and other issues that I just don’t have the energy to write about here,…

Bar Association #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 4, Episode 16) Rom Inspires Quark’s Employees to Strike

Rewatching ST:DS9 As The Defiant returns from an uneventful jaunt in the Gamma Quadrant, Dax teases that Worf is in love… with The Defiant. Bashir and O’Brien, dressed as medieval Irish warriors, prepare for a holosuite adventure. Rom, exhausted and overworked, collapses at the bar. Leeta is concerned, but Quark is just annoyed. Bashir confirms…

T-Shirts for student journalists who recently leveled up to “staff writer”(with bear signed by 20 years of editors)

The A.V. Club’s AI-Generated Articles Are Copying Directly From IMDb

I’ve enjoyed human-written A/V Club articles in the past. I see no reason to seek out articles written by bots that copy existing material word-for-word and add no value. The company G/O, mentioned in the clip below, owns the A.V. Club and is behind the shift to bot-authored articles: “A/V Club [sic] licenses content from…

Amazing McDonald’s “Maestro Burger” Commercial

Jaw-dropping. So creative and joyful.

Sons of Mogh #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 4, Episode 15) Worf’s brother Kurn seeks an honorable death

Rewatching ST:DS9 Worf wins a furious sparring match with Dax, but she discombobulates his composure, first by accusing him of trying to flirt with her, and then by actually flirting with him. A drunken Klingon arrives on the station, calling for Worf. It’s his brother Kurn, come to ask for a ritual death due to…

Return to Grace #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 4, Episode 14) Kira supercharges Dukat’s clunky freighter to fight Klingon raiders

Rewatching ST:DS9 Played for laughs, Kira gets many inoculations as she prepares for a diplomatic mission to a Cardassisan outpost. Her pilot is none other than Dukat, who has been demoted and ostracized after acknowledging his half-Bajoran daughter, Ziyal, who now lives on his clunky freighter. Dukat smugly flirts with Kira at dinner, clearly enjoying…

I just thought of a time before you were born when I should have been kind, but I can’t remember whether I was.

Sometimes when I’m driving along lost in thought, I flinch. If my son or my daughter asks me what’s wrong, I’m rarely able to articulate an accurate response like, “I just thought of a time before you were born when I should have been kind, and I can’t remember whether I was.” So I usually…

Oh dear, George Lucas! Why the Star Wars universe is going from bad to worse

Though I always preferred a different franchise, I loved the first Star Wars trilogy. The other trilogies? Not so much. And I haven’t followed any of the Star Wars TV shows, but the Shakespeare reference in this review of Ahsoka really caught my eye. Ouch! More pressingly, it’s just exhausting to sit through yet another…

What It Means If You’re A ‘Paragraph Texter’

A very fluffy article that does a good job diving into an everyday thing and sharing expert opinions. While some of these sources are simply random people, others have specialized skills and training that makes their opinions newsworthy enough to provide some substance to a not-exactly-hard-news story. Some of us just can’t get our thoughts…

Crossfire #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 4, Episode 13) Odo’s feelings for Kira complicate his job

Rewatching ST:DS9 Odo meticulously arranges his office in preparation for a routine meeting with Kira. For her, it’s an enjoyable part of her workday, but Odo looks like he’s nervously preparing for a date. Quark complains that Odo makes too much noise shape-shifting into various creatures in the quarters above his. First Minister Shakaar arrives…