Gonzalo: That‘sbetter. Now, let me tell you something: narratology is a sham. It‘sfor losers who can’t get laid. You know what I‘m saying? Narratologists can go suck it, as far as I‘m concerned. Kiss my sweet ass, Vladimir Propp! You?re not going to put that in the transcript, are you? Walter: Of course not. Well,…
Gelotology-(root word, gelos (gr) meaning “laughter”) is the psychological study of laughter. More and more, scientists are beginning to realize the value of laughter on a physiological level. For instance, laughter reduces levels of certain stress hormones and contributes to overall strengthening of the immune system. As the field of gelotology grows, practicing “laughter clubs”…
Maybe PowerPoint is soo powerful that the mounting of critiques creates some kind of karmic vacuum–PowerPoint skepticism met cosmically by a surge of colorfully-themed shows rushed to the doubter’s inbox. Two shows were sent my way in the past week. One was a self-evaluation for whether or not you (dear reader) would be a fit…
Crutches, Pills, Insomnia, and OversleepingJerz’s Literacy Weblog) I had every intention of getting up this morning to attend several presentations at the writing center conference that took place here at Seton Hill this weekend. My wife called me at the office last night… (she’s in Texas visiting her parents). It turns out my son is…
After looking at my teaching evals from last term and talking with the boss, I can see I need to spend more time discussing my assignment expectations. I’m teaching mostly freshmen, which means they are perhaps more needy than the students in the upper-level tech writing classes I used to teach every term. But I’m a freshman too.…
Many advocates of computer-mediated distance education emphasize its positive aspects and understate the kind of work that it requires for students and faculty. This article presents a qualitative case study of a Web-based distance education course at a major U.S. university. The case data reveal a taboo topic: students’ persistent frustrations in Web-based distance education.…
Prometheus, who stole the secret of fire and shared it with man, is often represented as a thinker; his name means ?forethought,? and is credited both with founding civilization and inciting Zeus to curse mankind with the necessity of labor. In 1929 Eugene O?Neill examined the power of both religion and technology in his expressionistic…
Small academic organizations looking for publicity but lacking the funds for a web designer, teachers interested in exposing their students to feedback from real-world audiences, and individuals who simply like to write may all find weblogs valuable, even outside the setting of a composition classroom. We already see barefoot and pajama-clad students in the classroom;…
Web loggers, or bloggers for short, are that new breed of armchair documentarian, chronicling the day’s events — politics, sports, music, arts, family, dating life, anything — on Web sites that are updated daily, or several times a week. But unlike a newspaper Web site, which brings a new front page with new stories each…
—IF Quake (Loonyboi) I wonder whether everyone who claims to have downloaded it and played it is in on a grand April Fool’s joke, so I’ll just let you decide for yourself. Similar:Teaching myself the #Unity3D game engine. Each step requires a lot of focused attention. I… Teaching myself the #Unity3D game engi…AestheticsShould you trust media…
Hand over hand, he slid it up past the sinus that sphinctered and wheezed wetly around the plastic, and Jimmy grinned when the jug fogged with his breath, proving he’d made a tight seal. This egged him on as the tube caught for a moment against the back wall of his sinuses — a dull…
The text adventure lives on as a result of a network of websites and Usenet groups, and each year this small community gathers to hold the IF competition, in which amateur entries are subject to peer review. Dennis Jerz, associate professor in English and new media journalism at Seton Hill University, Pennsylvania, says interactive fiction…
People use these devices [i.e. remotes] while watching movies or TV shows at home. Given this, two key elements of the user’s situation are likely to be: Wearing glasses for distance viewing, rather than reading Low levels of lighting Of course, a young designer whose vision hasn’t yet started to deteriorate wouldn’t have the first…
“[T]he world’s first consumer application of an electronic paper display module in Sony’s new e-Book reader, Librié, [is] scheduled to go on sale in Japan in late April. This ‘first ever’ […] display utilizes E Ink’s revolutionary electronic ink technology which offers a truly paper-like reading experience with contrast that is the same as newsprint.”…
I look at my students: some barefoot, others wearing hats and dressed in clothes they could easily have slept in, and I think how the college classroom has become an adjunct of the dorm bedchamber. Sometimes, when I begin classes, I get the impression that the students resent my interrupting their conversations. Few of them…
Too often, writers workshop their egos, instead. It’s human nature, especially if your story is on the table and everyone’s talking about it. But to get the most out of a writer’s workshop, you need to think of the story on the table as your car, and everyone around the table is a mechanic looking…
—Dominique (Interactive Face) (Alterfin) A great link from The Goreletter. I wish the eyes would follow the mouse cursor. Similar:No girl wins: three ways women unlearn their love of video games – OffworldSeveral times I assigned Brenda Laurel’s…BusinessEffects of Internet use on the adolescent brain: despite popular claims, experimental evid…Big difference between the clickbaity ve…CybercultureWordPress duplicate…
43.75 % My weblog owns 43.75 % of me. —Does your weblog own you? Hmmph. I thought it would be more than that. One question about dating really doesn’t apply to me. Similar:I actually don't mind Canvas — it just happens to be the course management system I have …AcademiaMy Son Plays Mozart Too Fasthttps://youtu.be/gXAtRI1NLxs…
—Old School Moveable Type (MGK) Real moveable type. Ever since I investigated the meaning of the name of the character “Shurdlu” in Elmer Rice’s The Adding Machine, I’ve had a longing to learn how to use an old-fashioned printing press — one that actually presses the paper. As much as I love the power of “push-button…
Throughout the conference I went to several sessions on blogging. I’m not convinced, however, the presenters who claimed to be blogging are actually blogging. They’re using blogging software, their students use blogging software, but I’m not convinced that using the software is the same as blogging. For example, does posting writing prompts for students constitute…