I think I’m managing work-life balance pretty well. I’m not ready to give up the sweet cheeks and sticky paws — not yet. I’m being pawed and kissed by a lollipop-slurping preschooler at the moment, so I’m signing off for now. Everything else is going to have to wait. Source: So, What’s in It for…
The other day, I noticed that if you Google for “mla style paper,” the first two images that appear are from my website — but out of context, they aren’t terribly useful. They’re just screenshots of sample papers. I’ve added some callouts with visual tips. Not the best graphic I’ve ever created, but certainly more useful…
The 96-year-old inventor of the eponymous anti-choking procedure had never actually used it to save a life — until the woman sitting next to him at a retirement facility got a bite of hamburger lodged in her throat. When he heard that a resident was choking, Perry Gaines, maître d’ for the Deupree House dining room,…
Interviewer Katie Couric asks a group of gun owners the question: “If there are no background checks for gun purchasers, how do you prevent felons or terrorists from purchasing a gun?” The gun owners respond right away, according to audio recorded by one of the participants. But in the documentary Under the Gun, footage taken from elsewhere…
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:A brief respite from grading. A brief respite from grading. PersonalYou may move your tassels from right to left. #classof2017 PersonalJumpsuit for a female mechanic in my #neovictorian #steampunk project. #blender3d #unity3dAestheticsOkay yes, this affirmation does matter to me and it will go into my annual review for next…Marked 832 AP English essays in a…
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:Dress Rehearsal for "My Son Pinocchio"My wife, daughter, and I waiting to star…AmusingMore #steampunk #neovictorian goodness. Bring the wood polish. #design…
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:My Kids Loved Narnia but Were Unimpressed by Turkish DelightAmerican kids today would have little id…AmusingFeeding a Neighbor's LambsA neighbor invited us over to help feed …AmusingAnother 10 sq cm of #steampunk control panel. #design #aesthetics #blender3d #blender3dar…AestheticsStage Right offers four versions of its musical 'Annie' | TribLIVELeapin‘ Lizards! There are four versions…CultureStack of wooden…
Similar:Spaghetti dinner with my son.PersonalSpent the morning in a socially distanced recording studio.PersonalLovely set for @prime_stage Frankenstein. The daughter joined this cast less than a week a…PersonalSomething to Ponder — Let Me Fix That Meme For YouArtPfully Pfizered and pfeeling pfine so pfar. Current_EventsKeeping it classy. My 20yo son encounters the fruit-eating scene from the…
Similar:FBI Raids Star ABC News Producer's HomeIn April, the FBI raided an ABC journali…CultureComputer scientist Leslie Lamport to [Brandeis] grads: If you can’t write, it won’t comput…I like introducing my English majors to …AcademiaFaculty stacked up in launch tube beneath McKenna gym, ready for graduation 2022.AcademiaThe Best Argument for Studying English? The Employment NumbersWhile health…
Similar:Writing a news story calls on different skills than writing a traditional essay.Updated an older instructional handout w…EssaysAn Unexpecting MinorityTruthfully, I expected my new department…AcademiaDon't call it "social distancing" or you just might get a polite correction from the admin…AcademiaGetting there.Getting there.PersonalWe celebrate the good life of my father, George Joseph Jerz “Be straight like…
[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:Lie to Me: Fiction in the Post-Truth EraI’m trying to remember what it was like,…BooksSeriously, Fuck You, "Kindle Unlimited"I’m just quoting the f-bomb in the link,…BooksKatie Couric Gun Documentary Undermined By Manipulative…
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:Irony in Blakes7 Reboot?RT @Laroquod: @DennisJerz If #Blakes7…