For more on ALL RIGHT, ALL READY and ALL TOGETHER, see Grammar Girl. The slang term “alright” is always slang. Similar:Ranked First out of 2 Billion Google Hits for Something Really ObscureI just noticed a mild traffic spike over…Current_EventsNew handout: "The Shape of an Academic Paper"I’ve given an in-class presentation on “…AcademiaCommonly Misused Words: THAN…
Similar:What happens if you hide everything on Facebook? I tried it for a day.Spoiler: not much really happened. Telli…AmusingDo you remember Harry Monster counting with adorable little John-John? Watch this 2 min cl…https://twitter.com/ValaAfshar/status/15…AmusingWhen He Clicked the Link, You Won't Believe How Disappointed He WasAuthors of overhyped link text are like …CybercultureBlood Oath (#StarTrek #DS9…
The Alot is an imaginary creature that I made up to help me deal with my compulsive need to correct other people’s grammar. It kind of looks like a cross between a bear, a yak and a pug, and it has provided hours of entertainment for me in a situation where I’d normally be left…
In addition to iPads and MacBooks, every freshman who arrives at Seton Hill this fall will get a copy of The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins. I taught this book last term in my American Lit class. Here are two of the best student projects on The Hunger Games. The Hunger Games: 2 Sides of…
Similar:The crying Honduran girl on the cover of Time was not separated from her mother, father sa…The original was a stunning image, which…Current_EventsEverybody Dies (Shakespearean Tragedy Infographic) The image (by Magee and Griffin) is an…AestheticsWhy teens are leaving Facebook: It’s ‘meaningless’However, there’s a silver lining for Mar…BusinessGoogle Autocomplete Still Makes Hateful Autocorrect…
Similar:Because Internet: the new linguistics of informal EnglishI’m planning to begin my online Shakespe…CultureA Classicist Goes to Work in Silicon ValleyKristina Chew writes about what her frie…AcademiaHow to Disagree Academically: Using Graham's "Disagreement Hierarchy" to organize a colleg…How to Disagree Academically: Using Grah…AcademiaReally enjoyed Prime Stage Theater’s video presentation of Mockingbird.Obviously I would have preferred…
According to a somewhat dry AFP article (posted on a URL that will probably expire soon), “The researchers estimated that in 2008 Australian adults aged 25 and older spent 9.8 billion hours in front of the small screen, and that this time was associated with 286,000 years of life that ended prematurely. | Every single hour…
Our iPads will one day be stacked on a pallet, like these old PCs. They’ll be retro curiosities, having done their jobs — empowering us to build even better tools. Similar:Brother Stuck in the BathroomThe girl posted this story on Instagram …AmusingThe Nightingale (WAOB Audio Theatre)I haven’t done any audio theatre recordi…Aestheticsink: Inkle's open source…
The business of journalism is changing. The approaching anniversary of the 9-11 terror attacks is an occasion to reflect on how we received news in the days when newspapers updated their web pages once a day, and Google did not constantly monitor newspaper home pages looking for fresh stories. For journalists thinking about the future,…
A popular handout from my site, Short Stories: 10 Tips for Creative Writers, includes a phrase uncommon enough that Googling for it (“practiced scream therapy“) leads me to short story exercises that develop an example into more detailed studies, or pages that remix the content of my site in order to make a similar point.…
There is a lot to like about Google+, and getting to 25 million users so quickly certainly seems promising for the Google social network. But, it doesn’t bode well if the excitement is already fading. Google needs to not only create a capable social network, but it needs to make that social network compelling enough…
This rhetorical power derives from the “-ification” rather than from the “game”. -ification involves simple, repeatable, proven techniques or devices: you can purify, beautify, falsify, terrify, and so forth. -ification is always easy and repeatable, and it’s usually bullshit. Just add points. Game developers and players have critiqued gamification on the grounds that it gets…
I was doing a lot of impulse buying during the $9.99 days, but since then, on occasions when I’ve seen the ebook offered at a higher price than a paperback, I have just turned to interlibrary load instead. “Terrified” by Amazon’s Kindle e-reader and discounted e-book pricing, five major publishers allegedly acted together to increase…
David Mahokey of Dunbar, a senior at Point Park University, and Greg Kerestan of Greensburg, a senior at Seton Hill University, wrote the 20-song score and script, respectively, for ″In Control,″ a musical that focuses in part on Mahokey’s real-life battle with bone cancer. Two free performances of ″In Control,″ directed by Anthony Marino, artistic…
Which is cooler? That my 13yo son was just sitting at the kitchen table singing lyrics to MC Frontalot’s “It Is Pitch Dark,” or that my 9yo daughter was chiming in with corrections? It Is Pitch Dark Similar:The Myth of the Fake Geek Girl It’s not surprising, then, that being a…CultureI'm not really a royal…
The heartbreaking thing is that this fall, over 10,000 bookstore employees across America will be out of work. The way the publishing industry is going, many of those people won’t be able to find jobs that are even tangentially related to books anymore; they’ll go on to work in movie theaters and grocery stores and…
The layout of this display at the Carnegie Science Center almost makes it look like the Maria duplicate in Metropolis came before Karel Capek’s play RUR (which was written in 1920, first performed in 1921). Similar:Happy Father’s Day One of my favorite pictures of my fa…Current_EventsWest Side Story — 50 Years AgoWhen West Side Story…
The control panel. Similar:On Death and iPods: A RequiemI never owned a classic iPod, though I d…CultureVinyl Chairs, Lace Tablecloth, and Stainless Steel Canisters for a Villain's Lair #blender…I’m working with more complex materials,…AestheticsBehind the art: The Westmoreland's 'Death of Elaine' beloved of staff and visitorsI always slow down and spend some time w…AestheticsI sometimes…
Images from an extended tour of a cold war submarine. (We liked the tour we took last year so much, my son and I came back.) [portfolio_slideshow size=medium trans=scrollHorz ] Similar:ink: Inkle's open source scripting language for writing interactive narrativeGearing up to teach “Digital Storytellin…CybercultureMultiple Choice = GoogleNo big surprises here, but this blog pos…AcademiaIn…
My daughter, as the wizard, with her talented castmates, in our local theater school’s preteen summer camp musical. Similar:Rossum's Universal Robots (Act 1) Artistic ProsperityThe first act of Artistic Prosperity’s v…CultureOk, never mind Dusgcxms2… buddy, you can keep your first place as far as I’m concerned. Ok, never mind Dusgcxms2… buddy, you…EducationBackstage opening night.PersonalDisruptions: Texting…