Michael Dirda offers a thoughtful assessment of Poe’s career. My initial puzzlement about Edgar Allan Poe (1809-49) was hardly surprising. His fiction can seem too rhetorical, too thickly textured, too literary for most young people. Still, Basil Rathbone’s recording did persuade me to give the writer another try—sometime. The opportunity finally arose in high school…
Similar:Building a ridiculous amount of detail as I create tiles for distant sections of a #blende…AestheticsOverwhelmed? Start a new to-do list with "1) Breathe; 2) Make 'to-do' list" Felt momentarily overwhelmed by the da…CultureAt the airport, sending the daughter off to Ireland.At the airport, sending the daughter off…PersonalDeus Ex MemoriesI’ve just finished my final…
The brain-as-computer is a powerful meme. It’s no more accurate than metaphors inspired by fluid dynamics or automata, which were cutting-edge technology in their time, says Robert Epstein. The invention of hydraulic engineering in the 3rd century BCE led to the popularity of a hydraulic model of human intelligence, the idea that the flow of…
I think I must be doing something right if the professionals I see each year at Computers and Writing are as likely to mention seeing Facebook pictures of my kids’ achievements as they are to bring up topics about, you know, computers and writing.
I can’t really get myself that worked up over prescriptive grammar issues, but I do enjoy reading the arguments. The adverb is an incoherent lexical category, a catchall. How are “there,” “yesterday,” “quite,” “assiduously,” and “indeed” all members of the same family? As we learn in school — in a definition that dates from Dionysius…
I have not had much luck with Zagg keyboard cases before (I think this will the fifth time I’ve asked for a replacement, across three different products), but Zagg itself has followed through every time. Similar:When backwards newbie poets write…PersonalWould YOU trade a Hank Aaron rookie card for a Roberto Clemente… for her? Full Bloom (Au……
Creating n00b-friendly interactive fiction by deliberately reducing the number of available verbs? Intersting… Though I rather liked the results when I experimented with diegetic (in-game) hints delivered by an NPC who gets more and more specific to help the player accomplish some orientation tasks. Parser IF is fundamentally driven by player action, by game verbs, in…
This app, which sports a little red notification bubble showing the number of unmarked assignments on my to-do list, controls much of my life during the school year. This app doesn’t show the number of committee meetings I have to attend, the minutes from committee meetings I have to post, the assigned tasks I have…
Defeat clickbaiters with this one weird trick! You won’t believe how punctuation can save you time. Will you regret clicking that headline phrased as a question? (You can safely avoid clicking any headline phrased as a question, promises an emotional reaction, or hedges a claim with “may” or “could be”. You won’t miss anything important if you don’t click that bait.)
Similar:On the spiral staircase that leads from the top deck down to the officers' pub and wa…AestheticsSmalltalk through masks is hard; I really was glad to see so many familiar upper halves of…If you said hello to me recently and I d…CultureThe Geekling Worked a Shatner/Nimoy Tribute into GodspellMy geekling daughter, who in Willy Wonka…AmusingMy…
Similar:Today's workload included requesting a "less-depressing used chair" #lowexp…PersonalThat felt sooo good!PersonalToday's second 10sq cm of #steampunk control panel. Love those letter flip tiles. Maybe I'…AestheticsThe girl as Gimli, Legolas, Aragorn and Thorin. #proudofthegirl #notentirelysurewhy #still…AestheticsSalesman at Pittsburgh Public Theatre. PersonalWhat about Socialization?Sometimes, I worry that by homeschooling…Current_Events
Similar:Enjoying live theater.The Illustrious Invalid. @kinetictheatre_pghPersonalHow Poetry Helps You Improve Your WritingWhile I’d rather see a reminder that we …AestheticsTom Wayman's FAQ on "Did I Miss Anything?"I’ve long been a fan of Tom Wayman’s poe…AcademiaA 27-Story Vertical Forest Grows in MilanBosco Verticale was conceived in respons…AestheticsHow to Reduce Racial Bias in Grading (Use Objective Rubrics)To…
Similar:Portraits of my 11yo: Pretty, Goofy, and Pretty GoofyAmusingWhy We Fall for Fake News and How to Bust ItMeasuring the impact of fake news spread…AcademiaOn my fantasy #steampunk capital ship, every uniform is a full dress uniform. #blender3d #…AestheticsTrying out a new lens to capture creepy-toy-come-to-life choreography. AestheticsThe Decline of Wikipedia: Even As More People…
[G]ames is a bit more financially brutal than either theatre or poetry, which is funny, because poetry is already financially brutal. It is harder to get people to pay for games than for any other artform I work in. I could make more money for less work elsewhere. That said, in both theatre and poetry…
I was in no rush to finish the beautiful mind-puzzler game Monument Valley. Minimal story, but an engaging world and a satisfying ending. Similar:POV: You are coding the automatic doors on your fantasy neovictorian cruiser personal proj… POV: You are coding th…Aesthetics“Let It Go,” Idina Menzel’s Frozen ballad: It sends the wrong message.This author is…
You don’t want to use Courier New and 1.25 inch margins on your term paper. You want to go home and rethink your life. A true Jedi uses the power of the Font for emphasis and visual rhetoric, never for stretching a 6-page paper to 10 pages. Similar:Incredible archer shows his speed-shooting skillsI know next…
This sounds like the plot of a Young Indiana Jones episode, or maybe Johnny Quest. William Gadoury is a 15-year-old student from Saint-Jean-de-Matha in Lanaudière, Quebec. The precocious teen has been fascinated by all things Mayan for several years, devouring any information he could find on the topic. During his research, Gadoury examined 22 Mayan…
One day when I was an undergraduate working for one of two competing student papers, two rallies were held on opposite sides of the downtown mall. One group held signs like “Keep your laws off my body,” and “Keep abortion safe and legal,” and the other group held signs like “It’s a child, not a choice”…
There can be no true distinction drawn between the effect of word processing on the literary imagination and its intervention in the working lives of the women employed as noncreative automata…. How can we know who was working where, what relationship each female amanuensis had with each new device that came to take her work away?
Interesting essay challenging the notion that medical difference equals pathology. With Children of a Lesser God, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, “Flowers for Algernon,” “Cathedral,” The Glass Menagerie, The Miracle Worker, and The Sound and the Fury, I can see putting together a special topics literature course on pathology and pathos…