Doyle Redland Says Goodbye

I’m still mourning the loss of Herman T. Zwiebel.  And now this? Similar:I Was Fired for Making Fun of Trump After 25 years as the editorial cartoo…CultureI played Pseudolus freshman year in college. Haven't seen the show in a while.AmusingThe Darkness and the Light #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 5, Episode 11) A serial killer t…Rewatching…

"By Their Sidewalks You Will Know Them"

There are no sidewalks where I live, but if there were, my sidewalk, and my conscience, would be clear. Here’s the first stanza of a five-stanza poem by TImons Esaias. Originally there were eleven CommandmentsMoses, perhaps confused by the unfamiliarsnow, ice, and sidewalk,botched one, and left it out. Similar:Support the arts in your community! #augustwilson…

The ABCs of Adventuring

Thanks for this find, Mark Sample (via Twitter). The ABCs of Adventuringby Admiral Jota, Dylan O’Donnell, G. Kevin Wilson, and Dan Shiovitz.A is for Adventure, the first of them all;B is for Brass lantern, so you don’t take a fall.C is for Compass, an unseen one you keepD is for Drinking, eating and sleep.E is…

What Makes a Great Teacher?

Gripping story of an effort to use data to predict teaching excellence. As Teach for America began to identify exceptional teachers using this data, Farr began to watch them. He observed their classes, read their lesson plans, and talked to them about their teaching methods and beliefs. He and his colleagues surveyed Teach for America…

Why Google Has Become Microsoft's Evil Twin

Google Buzz combined the openness of Twitter with the “whoo-hoo look at me!” aspects of Facebook. The result? A total face plant. —PC World Similar:Defunct Web Pages are Not Dead Ends to JournalistsIn my “News Writing” class, I first warn…AcademiaMake your case stronger – argue against yourselfAcademic argument depends on being able …AcademiaThe Enduring Allure…

Critical Code Studies Working Group — Colossal Cave Adventure Annotation

This week, I’ll be facilitating a week-long collaborative annotation project, as part of the Critical Code Studies Working Group online conference, on the source code to Crowther’s original Colossal Cave Adventure (a classic text-only computer game from the 1970s). According to Donald Knuth, designer of the “literate programming paradigm,” Colossal Cave Adventure is the “ur-game…

Happy V-Day: Valentines for Journalists

Valentines for Journalists. Similar:Journalists: The "Enemy of the American People"; Also, an "Accountability" PollI seem to be educating future enemies of…Current_EventsCommonly Misused Words: ALL RIGHT and (Slang) ALRIGHT For more on ALL RIGHT, ALL R…AmusingYou are standing in a field. There is a meme here. Via David ThompsonAmusingHappy Winnie the Pooh Public Domain Dayhttps://twitter.com/textfiles/status/147…CultureWhat's a…

Frisbee inventor dies at 90

Walter Frederick Morrison, the man credited with inventing the Frisbee, has died at the age of 90. —Guardian Similar:New Data Shatters Video Game Player Stereotypes: Gamers Regularly Involved in Community, C…”Gamers are everywhere and they’re every…BusinessWe’re in Denial About the True Cost of a Twitter ImplosionThe public disintegration of a platform …Current_EventsIn January 2000, I…

Peter West, Trying the Dark: Mammoth Cave and the Racial Imagination, 1839-1869

Interesting examination of role-playing, illusion, identity, and power in Kentucky’s Mammoth Cave, one small branch of which was the inspiration for the 1976/7 computer game Colossal Cave Adventure. In the middle decades of the nineteenth century, Kentucky’s Mammoth Cave was a popular tourist destination for travelers from around the United States and beyond. The cave…

Typography and Textuality

Zach Whalen is turning his dissertation into a blog-web-thing, in the hopes of developing a book-thing. In whatever form it takes, it’s an interesting approach to a textual study of video games. This study asks how the design and configuration of text in videogames contributes to their textuality. I argue that videogames are texts in…

The Superbowl, Technology, and the Police State (1984-2010)

There’s a dissertation in here. All I have the energy to do today is imply a connection. Using a police state to market technology in 1984: Using a police state to market technology in 2010: Similar:Why Tetris is the 'perfect' video gameRather than wanting to make a film about…AestheticsHaiku'da Been a Spam FilterLatest weapon against…