These are shoe-holding racks at a local indoor play area, where I took my daughter and a friend for a few hours. Why buy six different rainbow-colored shoe-holding racks, if you’re not going to arrange them in the proper order? I really wanted to pick up the purple one and at least put it in…
Sample, improved lyrics: “An old man turned 98 /He won the lottery, and died the next day (from a severe paper cut from his lottery ticket).” Similar:The College Fear FactorWhat happens in a literature discussion …AcademiaResponding to Literature at the College LevelA new handout, based on the opening lect…AcademiaPlaying God (#StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch, Season 2,…
Rewatching the classic Trek episode “The Conscience of the King,” which features a Shakespearean acting troupe. In one scene, McCoy writes a report on a wedge proto-iPad… …but in the very next scene Kirk scrawls on a piece of paper. This episode also features characters doing computer searches, using an exposition-friendly voice interface to call…
At least three journalists left NBC, after the network aired a tape of George Zimmerman, edited in a manner that substantially altered its content. Filed in Seminole County, the suit adds that “NBC News saw the death of Trayvon Martin not as a tragedy but as an opportunity to increase ratings, and so set about…
Jon Negroni creates a meta-narrative to connect every Pixar movie, using Boo as the still point in the turning universe. Every Pixar movie is connected. I explain how, and possibly why. Several months ago, I watched a fun-filled video on Cracked.com that introduced the idea (at least to me) that all of the Pixar movies…
The contrast between KTVU’s treatment of its triumphs vs errors reminds us of the difference between journalism vs public relations. Similar:RT @PhilKomarny: A floppy disc… In #context htt…RT @PhilKomarny: A floppy disc… In #co…TweetsYes, I do feel rather awesome right now.Lost brand-new earbuds. Reached in pocke…PersonalAnd the girl has succeeded in getting me to wear…
Last week, the Fox-afiliated KTVU fell for a prank, repeating offensive fake names for the pilots involved in the crash of Asiana Flight 214 last week. [S]even-year veteran KTVU producer Brad Belstock closed his @producerBB Twitter account after his last Friday tweet just moments after the names were read aloud on the air by Tori Campbell.…
Francesca Borri writes of being a freelancer and a woman covering the war in Syria. (When my life gets hectic, a story like this helps me keep some perspective.) Similar:Advent of Digital Humanities Will Make English Departments Pointless — New RepublicDon’t overreact to the headline, which i…AcademiaHow One Stupid Tweet Blew Up Justine Sacco’s LifeA…
Is your Sunday feeling incomplete because you haven’t read anything about punctuation today? This explanation of the semicolon should help. You’re welcome. Similar:Air miles be damned. I say the best way to find out about the joy and complexity of our wo…Essays like this remind me why I picked …BooksReady to teach another set of…
My wife is something of a hoarder. Now, as it happens, I have saved my half of the slip of paper that I tore so that we could write down each other’s phone numbers back when we were about 22, but she saves old catalogs and phone books (phone books!) from years ago. Sometimes, when…
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Next up: Stage Right summer musical theater camp starts Monday! Similar:My Shakespeare students are off peer reviewing their term paper rough drafts. I’m official…AcademiaBlender GriffinTo celebrate yesterday’s on-time submiss…AestheticsOver the years I have leveled up my Blender3D skills.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNLArSlF…Aesthetics"I think the Exposition Officer's bridge station might have too many control pan…PersonalI felt a great disturbance in…
Testing a tool to automate connections between iOS apps. Similar:Memories of Toronto Yonge Street EncountersI arrived in Toronto in 1992 as a 22yo g…CultureNot Bad for an English MajorI didn’t have much choice when it came t…HomeHypertext as a Teaching Tool — Brown University Poetry Classroom 1974This short film documents an early attem…AcademiaThe Declaration Of…
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Submitted revisions of 6 video tutorial scripts & drafted 5 more. Also, scored 3 boxes of leftover reception cupcakes and 1 of brownies. Similar:After you finish your brass-polishing shift, join me at the Gear and Heart to swap stories…AestheticsMariah Carey meets William Carlos Williams AmusingOh the Overthinks You Can Overthink: Horton the Elephant, the Wickersham…
Blogging this so I can find it when I teach my “News Writing” class this fall. People do like to prank journalists with fake names. In this case, the reporter did what you’re supposed to do — get confirmation — but sheesh. KTVU reports fake racist names of Asiana Airlines 214 pilots from NTSB intern…
I recently bought a new phone. since then, I have answered an incoming call in my car. It felt awesome. Similar:Judge: Apple conspired to fix eBook prices.Judge: Apple conspired to fix eBook pric…BooksRT @JordanFor: One of the counters from the Civil…RT @JordanFor: One of the counters from …TweetsHow hate and misinformation go viral: A case…
I just touched up a handout on Parallel Structure vs Faulty Parallelism. Similar:Why the British Tell Better Children’s StoriesIf Harry Potter and Huckleberry Finn wer…BooksWe're Teaching Books That Don't Stack UpOur provost sent this link to English fa…AcademiaAmusing Ourselves to Depth: Is The Onion our most intelligent newspaper?Greg Beato, from Reason Magazine Online…BusinessJournalism, Fake News,…
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A thoughtful reflection on religion in Star Trek. While Humans aren’t depicted as participating in any form of organized religion (there is a reference to a Christmas party here, a nod to monotheism there), the series also includes a distrust of science and technology, regularly depicting mad scientists, societies over-dependent on technology, etc.) that insists…