They’re meant to educate people by simulating real-world events and are often created with the best of intentions. Problem is, education, science and health care aren’t exactly the stuff of exciting entertainment, let alone video games. —Daniel Terdiman —What’s wrong with serious games? (C|Net News.com) Okay, but I’m uncomfortable with the word “entertanment,” since that carries…
Finally Upgrading to MoveableType 3.2 (Jerz’s Literacy Weblog) I’ve had a rather hellacious weekend. I upgraded the MovableType installation at blogs.setonhill.edu to version 3.2 on Friday. The actual upgrade went very smoothly, but it took most of the afternoon for me to get the anti-spam protection to work decently. The spam-blocker I had been using, MT-Blacklist,…
Oh newfanglenesse! Y have learned the privitees of the manye abbreviaciouns ywritten on the internette. OMG: “oh mine ++DOMINUS++”. ROFL: “rollinge on the floore laughinge”. IRL: “in reale lyfe.” WTF: “whatte the swyve?” Beinge somethinge of an innovator myselfe, Y presente to yow, churles and gentils alle, the followynge abbreviaciouns. May they serven yow welle…
Protagonist –> click –> a regional Canadian airline Protagonist = pilot Setting –> click –> some African herd animal Setting = a savannah Problem –> click –> some antidepressant drug Problem = need to acquire medicine Antagonist –> click –> some historical doctor Antagonist = a doctor who won’t dispense the medicine (nice synch on…
The 6th annual Game Developers Choice Awards will devote a portion of the ceremony to honoring a group of individuals whose efforts stand out in the advancement of the interactive entertainment industry. The ceremony, which is produced and hosted by the Game Developers Conference (GDC) and presented by the International Game Developers Association (IGDA), will…
There never has been a better time to get into Web journalism. We are making money, we are hiring, and we are actively searching for new, innovative ideas. After ten years, there are no veterans in this field. This is your chance to be among the first. —Anthony Moor —Go to the Web, young journalist! (Online…
Then one night Lisberger went to visit his in-laws, and everyone was crouched around the TV, playing Pong. “They kept referring to the games, ‘Play the game,’ and since I had been working on a project called “Animalympics,” the idea of games to me meant more than that. It meant Olympic or gladiatorial games,” the…
Singer says he plans to use the late Marlon Brando in the new film. Brando, who played Superman’s father, Jor-El, in the 1978 Superman and died in 2004, will return in the same role. Singer says he found stock footage of Brando shot by director Richard Donner in 1978, which will provide Brando’s voice. Special-effects…
“Oh, no,” I exclaimed several years ago, when a student in a composition class stepped out afterwards to explain that she had been absent because her grandmother had died. “Another dead grandmother!” The girl immediately burst into tears. Of course I wished I was dead. The student’s grandmother really had died. Or else her granddaughter…
No, not Nachos, Naches. That’s yiddish for…naches. Ok no good English translation (as usual). Not quite pride. More like a feeling of ease or peace for the spirit. Something that makes you go, “..ahhh…” Though it’s usually meant as pride. Specifically, the pride you get from one of your kids when they do something good.…
It’s Not Monday, but I Hate Garfield. (Jerz’s Literacy Weblog) I started writing this as an example, on the paper of a student who put a bit of plot analysis in the spot where an academic thesis should have been. While this isn’t quite as good as the story of J.R.R. Tolkien writing down the opening…
Taking our previous analogies for punctuation, what happens when it isn’t used? Well, if punctuation is the stitching of language, language comes apart, obviously, and all the buttons fall off. If punctuation provides the traffic signals, words bang into each other and everyone ends up in Minehead…. The reason to stand up for punctuation is…
Think back to John Henry racing a steam drill and forward to Garry Kasparov trying to outmaneuver IBM’s Deep Blue in 1997 to the Onion tweaking the genre with its accountant battles Excel story. But the latest twist on the meme takes it to the meta-level by raising the question: in the future, will you…
When former Gizmondo executive Stefan Eriksson wrecked his million-dollar Ferrari on the Pacific Coast Highway last month, it simply seemed like a fitting metaphor for the death of his hapless handheld – the destruction of one expensive piece of machinery to mark the end of another. —Gizmondo Bizarro (Game Revolution) If all the news reports are…
Thanks to a comment a former student added to last week’s post, I found some pleasant, lush models of trees, along with numerous other realistic residential items. I’ve added the fluorescent light fixtures and wall sconces inside, and some pretty trees outside. I also started working with a street model (curbs and sidewalks), but ran…
“We also wanted your cubicle to give you a little shred of dignity and recognition and acknowledge you exist because you’re probably not getting that from your co-workers or your boss. So we’ve built in a mechanical flower that’s acoustically activated. When you’re gone, it’s wilted. But when you come in, it’s acoustically activated and…
The cubicle was not born evil, or even square. It began, in fact, as a beautiful vision. —Julie Schlosser —Cubicles: The Great Mistake (CNN Money.com) Similar:Page Weight MattersUnexpected consequences, when a develope…CybercultureHow Mickey Mouse Evades the Public DomainI get my fill of Disney pretty quick. In…BusinessGoogle Docs "Writing to Learn" ActivityI created a fresh Google Docs…
Welcome to World of Warcraft: The Text Adventure. You are standing at the end of a road before a small brick building. Around you is a forest. A small stream flows out of the building and down a gully. There is an elf with an exclamation point above her head here. >Talk elf “Alas,” she…
The Food and Drug Administration today approved the sale of the drug PharmAmorin, a prescription tablet developed by Pfizer to treat chronic distrust of large prescription-drug manufacturers. —Wonder Drug Inspires Deep, Unwavering Love Of Pharmaceutical Companies (The Onion (Satire)) Similar:Inequity and BYODIf we are really wanting to help these k…CultureAt Computers and Writing #cwcon for the…
Colleges keep complaining that students are coming to them unprepared. Instead of raising admissions standards, however, they keep accepting mediocre students lest cuts have to be made in faculty and administration. —Patrick Welsh —For once, blame the student (Yahoo!/USAToday (will probably expire)) This essay is written by a high school teacher frustrated by the lack of…