1UP: Perspectives from Scholars/Practitioners of Video Games (CCCC 2006 Chicago — Day 1) I arrived early at this session and spent some time reconnecting with Matt Barton, whom I know from previous conferences. Barton is working on a book on graphic adventure games, and gave me some suggestions on what I might do with my interactive…
Newsweek Educational Program (CCCC 2006 Chicago — Day 1) A big part of the CCCC convention is the exhibit hall, where publishers offer their latest titles. I peeked in before the exhibit hall opened, and found the chaos very interesting. The exhibitors work for hours to set up booths that I might spend 2 seconds glancing…
900 Newbies (CCCC 2006 Chicago — Day 1) According to one of the Newcomers’ Orientation Committee volunteers, there are 900 first-time attendees signed up for this conference. A staff member at the registration desk said there are 2800 people already registered, and they expect about 3400 in total. I think it’s a great idea to have…
Leeroy Jenkins Meets the CCCC Program (CCCC 2006 Chicago — Day 1) The wireless internet access at the Palmer House Hilton charges an hourly rate, so I’ll batch-post my notes to my blog when I get back to my hotel. As is always the case with live blogging (or near-live blogging), these will be rough notes…
Conference on College Composition and Communication — Day 1 (Jerz’s Literacy Weblog) It’s a little after midnight on March 23. The fancy-schmancy hotel where the conference is taking place charges an hourly rate for internet access, so I didn’t liveblog. But here are my entries for the first day of the conference. Preface Leeroy Jenkins Meets…
Victims of poor high schooling, of whom we have plenty at my university, often come to my classes asking, “Is this an ‘opinion paper’ or a ‘research paper’?” I tell them that that is a spectacularly bad question based upon a false dichotomy; that I’m interested neither in mere feckless opinion nor in the random…
CCCC Chicago 2006 (Jerz’s Literacy Weblog) I’m in Chicago this week for the Conference on College Composition and Communication. I had a very hectic weekend doing some emergency blog maintenance, working an article I had promised and a story pitch for which I’ve got high hopes, and working ahead so my students can work on their…
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…