Rewatching ST:DS9 The lead characters channel the personalities of Dax’s previous hosts, in a low-stakes episode that gives the cast some acting challenges and advances Nog’s character arc, but as a stand-alone episode this was just okay. I hadn’t seen it since it originally aired ~30 years ago, and I think I must have bailed…
“Hospice.” Once the word is uttered aloud, there is a seismic shift. You will feel it. Like a (very short) thread through the eye of a needle, swiftly in and swiftly out. The air itself becomes thin, steely. At the periphery of your vision, an immediate dimming. The penumbra begins to shrink. In time, it…
In Blender3D, I created a jumpsuit, rigged and weighted it with the UMA_Male_Rig, and created a simple animation (right). From within Unity3D, I can see the animation just fine, which seems to tell me the model is properly weighted (lower left). I’ve carefully watched every second of Secret Anorak’s “UMA 201 – Part 5: Converting…
I joined Twitter for the first time during a session at an academic conference, and since then have mostly used it to keep in touch with academics who share my professional interests. But many of those professional contacts feel about Twitter the way I do, and have moved much (though not all) of their activity…
In the backstory for the interactive bedtime stories I told my kids from about 2007-2012, a young Benjamin Franklin discovered glowing green aether (which expands & glows when exposed to radiation), used it to power his printing press and light the streets of Philadelphia. When he threatened to share it with France, King George reluctantly…
Rewatching ST:DS9 After losing to O’Brien at darts, Sisko visits Kira in her quarters (where she is praying before a memorial for Bareil) to report that the scheming Kai Winn, already the spiritual leader of Bajor, has been elevated to First Minister. During a routine meeting with Odo, a distracted Kira vents about her recent…
Similar:Why ‘Cats’ the Movie Fails So FlamboyantlyI can’t seem to get into superhero movie…AestheticsIn a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. @thepublicpghIn a hole in the ground there lived a ho…BooksMy too-big Android phone stresses the pockets of one of my favorite shirts. My grandmother…PersonalGame night at our local library.GamesThe spoils.PersonalMaking movie magic…
Similar:Amenities are limited on a short range excursion craft, but we can still meet for tea in t…AestheticsTrying something a bit different for today's 10 sq cm of #steampunk #blender3d control pan…AestheticsI Find Myself in Another Showhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=517BhV1j0…DramaI’ve roughed out earthen embankments for the city walls. I know there was at some point a …I’ve roughed…
The first few weeks of June were very busy for me. I spent a week leveling up my skill in ChoiceScript, I pivoted to marking AP English papers for a week, then I prepped a workshop for the Computers and Writing 2023 conference, which I attended remotely last weekend. The other day I returned to…
Similar:"Godspell" is sure to entertain audiences of all ages and faithsThat’s me in the white shirt, with a tie…CulturePictures only hint at her passion and can't capture how smart she is. I love you, daughter… Current_EventsFaculty Senate meet & greet. With food. In the parlors till 6. AcademiaLiz Fosslien's insightful comic on unhealthy conflict vs.…
Similar:I didn't mark a single paper or set foot in a classroom. Here's why this prof is tired fro…I submitted my final grades a few weeks …AcademiaMy son (black) has captured better pieces, but my brother (white) has a better position. C… PersonalAnother visit to downtown Pittsburgh with my history-loving son.CultureTerm grades submitted. Homeschool son graduated.…
How is AI going to change individuals and society in the not-too-distant future? AI will obviously make it easier to produce disinformation—from fake images to deepfakes to fake news. That will affect people’s sense of trust as they’re scrolling on social media. AI can also allow someone to imitate your loved ones, which further erodes people’s…
Similar:Squirrel noisily enjoying a nut alongside the Grotto drive at Seton Hill.PersonalToo Short a Season (TNG Rewatch: Season 1, Episode 15) When an old admiral youthens, shows…Rewatching ST:TNG. I was underwhelmed…HistoryJohn Speed’s 1611 map of #medievalyork features a “scale of paces.” My #unity3d placeholde…John Speed’s 1611 map of #medievalyork f…PersonalMy Polish grandmother used to bake…
Similar:Wall display by the talented Jess Lohr, interpreting an infographic by Norton (textbook pu…PersonalEnjoyed watching the restored version of the hugely influential 1927 sci-fi movie #Metropo…Enjoyed watching the restored version of…AestheticsI just installed the "Old Layout for Facebook" plugin for Chrome.I just installed the “Old Layout for Fac…CybercultureNarnia board game — enjoyable family activity (but…
TikTok influencers and celebrities are increasingly taking over from journalists as the main source of news for young people, according to a report published Wednesday by the Britain-based Reuters Institute. The figures were based on interviews with some 94,000 people across 46 countries, conducted for the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, part of…
Think of ChatGPT as a blurry jpeg of all the text on the Web. It retains much of the information on the Web, in the same way that a jpeg retains much of the information of a higher-resolution image, but, if you’re looking for an exact sequence of bits, you won’t find it; all you will ever get is…
I make mistakes on my blog all the time. But I’m not CNN. (Check out the line under the photo.) Yes, that’s right… that blue box is missing an important word. Similar:Fraternity Announces "Legal Action" Against Rolling Stone”The Rolling Stone article viewed by mil…AcademiaThe Terrible Things I Have Said and Done My Entire…
Years ago I spent some time in Second Life, taking my young son to visit a display of NASA rockets and historical sites from classical history, and for my own amusement wandering through a few Star Trek exhibits, and exploring the mostly empty landscapes. My university bought an island, and I was briefly excited at…
I rather miss teaching HTML and doing my own web design on the side. These days, when my students propose to make a web page, they have already decided to use Google Sites or Wix. Sometimes I can talk them into using WordPress, but there just isn’t room in my curriculum to teach them everything…
A good article about kids and dopamine. Apps and sweets can hijack the neural pathways we need to survive, triggering tantrums and aggression. The problem describes plenty of adults, too! It’s not actually happiness we feel when we fulfill that craving. While she’s staring into the technicolor images, her brain experiences spikes in dopamine, over and…