About – The Great Gatsby for NES

The Great Gatsby for NES. Similar:National Headline Contest 2011Great headlines from winner David Bowman…AestheticsPrimeStage's 1984: "It was very true to the book," says Peter.Five of us went to see PrimeStage’s 1984…BooksKickball Ice Cream Maker Is Both a Stupid and Awesome Idea$35 Kickball Ice Cream Maker does exactl…AestheticsCause and Effect (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season 5, Episode…

Bother (a minor Turnitin.com grademark bug)

That whole thing should be a link — the underlining shouldn’t stop at the tilde. Similar:'Our worst nightmare': New legal filings detail reporting of Rolling Stone's U-Va. gang ra…The court documents, submitted as eviden…AcademiaUsing a Typewriter Simulator to Teach Media HistoryWorking on the syllabus for my “Media an…CultureiMovie Glitch: Unplug Removable Media before Using iMovieI…

Apple’s new App Store rules affect Amazon’s Kindle – Computerworld

To meet Apple’s guidelines, Amazon must remove its “Shop in Kindle Store” link from its Kindle application. That link, which opens the iOS browser and displays Amazons Web-based e-bookstore, is currently the easiest way for Kindle app users to purchase new books. via Apples new App Store rules affect Amazons Kindle – Computerworld. Similar:Pioneering Harvard…

Civilization IV song wins Grammy Award

While there’s an instrumental theme from Civilization III that’s even catchier, I was happy to run into an old friend. For the first time ever, a music score from a video game has won a Grammy Award, as Christopher Tin’s “Baba Yetu” from Civilization IV won the Grammy for “Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s)”. While…

Shipwreck that inspired Melville’s Moby-Dick found

The shipwreck lies off French Frigate Shoals in the blue waters of Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument in Hawaii. Melville completed “Moby-Dick” in 1851, drawing on an Essex crew member’s account of the remarkable event. The twice-cursed Pollard retired from whaling, became a watchman and lived to be almost 80. Melville met him in Nantucket shortly…

Science Fair Victory

In this photo from the front page of today’s Latrobe Bulletin, my daughter explains her “Endangered Art” science project for the judges. She created numerous identical paintings, kept a control in a safe place, and exposed the others to various threats (sunlight, temperature change, the grubby fingers of children). Similar:First-Gen Social Media Users Have Nowhere…

Discretion in First-Person Shooters

I recently learned that my kids have the habit of turning this hectopus (a toy they’ve each played with since babyhood) away from the screen when they play Half-Life 2. Similar:Another 10sq cm of background details for a #steampunk project. #blender3d #blender3dart #…AestheticsBackstage with the White Swan and her prince.PersonalA woman approached The Post with…

On the Ten Twenty Thirty

The F. Scott Fitzgerald story “Head and Shoulders” features this unfamiliar phrase, spoken by a young actress who, through an unimportant plot contrivance, invades the study of a bookish progeny: “I knew a girl,” said Marcia reminiscently, “who went on the ten-twenty-thirty when she was sixteen. She was so stuck on herself that she could…

Poetry, the First Milk

Tomorrow I will be teaching some Harlem Renaissance poets in my American Literature class, so this reflection on the function of poetry is welcome and timely. Poems are first and foremost to be experienced—sensually, imaginatively. Of course, learning more about form and structure, the words and historical contexts of a poem may make that experience…

How To Get Students To Integrate Quotations

It’s comforting to know that I’m not alone. Like many writing teachers, I put a lot of effort into asking students to integrate their quotations, but being a logos kind of guy, I emphasize the efficiency of MLA style. From the ethos perspective, I point out that college asks for a different, more concise pattern,…

Liveblogging Injury

I threw a muscle in my shoulder while furiously blogging a record of a committee meeting. Similar:Kairos: Open Since 1996As a plucky new faculty member I wrote a…AcademiaEssay on meaning of a life grounded in the liberal arts @insidehigheredFor David N. DeVries, the critical think…AcademiaDay of Dennis Jerz » Today, a Hand-written Letter about a…

Apple Cyclops

A happy apple cyclops, with a marshmallow eye and banana teeth. My daughter’s creation. Update, 12 Feb: Carolyn, noting the condition of her apple creation, asked for “a good-bye picture of Poli-yumyum.” Similar:What the ‘Grievance Studies’ Hoax Means As the hoaxers explained in Areo, they …AcademiaMy 1951 day DuoLingo streak was fun, but… Ever since DuoLingo announced it…BusinessAnother square of…

Remediate a slideshow via whiteboard? When the techno-awesome video projector won’t start, I draw the line.

This term, I teach two sections of “Seminar in Thinking and Writing,” the second course in our two-course freshman writing sequence. My sections both meet MWF, nicely bookending my lunch break. Since Seton Hill usually schedules committee meetings for Tue/Th, that means on MWF I usually have nothing else to do but prepare for, and…

Glad to see so many thoughtful responses.

Looking forward to a good discussion of a complex story. via Fitzgerald, “The Ice Palace”. Similar:How To Talk To Babies About Semiotics (and Marxist Theory)BABY: read dog book again ME: okay fine…Academia#PPTPlaytime adaptation of The Merchant of Venice.Top — nonverbal addition with Jessica an…DramaIn May, 2002, I was blogging about… typefaces in period movies; poets…

Learning Beyond Words

I work so closely with words that I sometimes have to force myself to remember that there are other ways to learn. I saw a DVD of Annie Get Your Gun for the first time, and was sort of struck by the lines sung by the backwoods sharpshooter, “Folks are dumb, where I come from,…