The Muse #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 4, Episode 21) Jake meets his muse; pregnant runaway newlywed Lwaxana asks Odo for help
Rewatching ST:DS9 From his spot on the upper level, Jake watches new arrivals, taking notes for his stories. An alien woman, perhaps drawn by something, looks up at him. Odo finds someone waiting in his office — it is a weeping and very pregnant Lwaxana Troi, who has left her possessive husband. Odo is attentive…
Snazzy officer uniforms from the #steampunk bedtime stories I used to tell my now-adult children. Women’s versions are coming! #blender3d #design #aesthetic
Pythagorean Theorem Found On Clay Tablet 1,000 Years Older Than Pythagoras
Translating the markings from base 60 – the counting system used by ancient Babylonians – showed that these ancient mathematicians were aware of the Pythagorean theorem (not called that, of course) as well as other advanced mathematical concepts. “The conclusion is inescapable. The Babylonians knew the relation between the length of the diagonal of a square and…
Can you really say you’ve designed #neovictorian uniforms for a fantasy #steampunk cruiser unless the LtCmdr’s sash fits perfectly between the jacket and waistcoat? I think not! #blender3d
Helping students find my office (St. Joseph 403)
Shattered Mirror #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 4, Episode 20) Jake Meets Mirror Jennifer Sisko
Rewatching ST:DS9 Lonely Jake frumps in the Promenade people-watching spot where he and Nog used to hang out, and Odo and Quark try to offer him comfort in their own faux-antisocial way. At home, Jake is shocked to find a visitor — Jennifer Sisko from the mirror universe. Though he knows this is not actually…
More Adventures in Suburban Adulting
About four years ago I bought an electric mower that was quiet enough that I could listen to audiobooks while doing my suburban adulting duties. The battery held enough charge that I could get about 1/2 of my lawn done at a time so that summer I bought another battery. A couple years later I…
Why We’ll Never Live in Space
As much as I love escapist science fiction, the way to get to the future for real is to avoid killing each other and ourselves in the present. We can’t count on capitalist techbros selling joyrides to billionaire tourists. People tend to liken space exploration to expansion on Earth—pushing the frontier. But on the edge…
It’s such a privilege to introduce these young people to Shakespeare’s body of work.
After starting my 200-level “Shakespeare in Context” students on a few sonnets, I assigned Twelfth Night (most had never read a Shakespeare comedy before) and Othello (they loved Iago), and then asked them to sample four different plays — The Taming of the Shrew, The Merchant of Venice, Marlowe’s The Jew of Malta, and Jonson’s…
In MLA Style, use the ellipsis only to mark an omission from the middle of a quotation.
If you are writing an academic paper that quotes from an author that uses the ellipsis in a way that differs from MLA style (such as the script of a modern play that uses “…” to indicate when a speaker is interrupted, or a graphic novel that might use “…” to indicate a meaningful silence…
The Cosmic Brownie fairy has visited my office. Is “brownie fairy” redundant? Thank you anyway.
Students tend to zone out during my lectures on proofreading. I time it so I can say “class dismissed“ as soon as I show that last headline.
Henry Bemis waited his whole life to finally read a book. Listen to Lynn Venable’s story, “Time Enough at Last” to learn what happens. Read by Dennis Jerz.
The chief engineer does not know where the floating lamps are coming from, but he looks great in his leather elbow-patch jacket and pantaloons tucked into high boots with spats. #steampunk #blender3d #neovictorian #unity3d #aesthetics #design
Hard Time #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 4, Episode 19) O’Brien deals with the implanted memories of a 20-year prison sentence
Rewatching ST:DS9 A haggard O’Brien, with a scraggly beard, is released from an alien prison. He seems disoriented… “I can’t leave. Where would I go to?” A concerned Kira watches as smug aliens infodump that they punish offenders by inserting extended memories of incarceration — twenty years, in O’Brien’s case. Sisko explains to Keiko that…
Look what mysteriously appeared outside my office door!
ChoiceScript tutorial for making casual, phone-friendly, stats-driven storygames. Choice of the Rhetor.
Rules of Engagement #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 4, Episode 18) Worf is accused of destroying a Klingon civilian ship
Rewatching ST:DS9 After a nightmare featuring dead Klingon children, Worf wakes up in Odo’s security cell. He’s clearly in trouble. A Vulcan admiral convenes a Federation hearing called to explore allegations that, while commanding The Defiant, Worf destroyed a Klingon civilian transport. A Klingon prosecutor, Ch’pok, intends to prove Worf’s negligence, thereby stoking sympathy for…
In September, 2003, I was blogging about the emerging fad of internet plagiarism, ethnically diverse anthropomorphic recyclables, EverQuest, and VeggieTales
In September, 2003, I was blogging about What the NY Times called the “campus fad” of Internet plagiarism. “What Does a Professor Do All Day?” (Clearly we are wasting our time whenever we are not standing in front of a classroom.) “Graphic Artist Carefully Assigns Ethnicities To Anthropomorphic Recyclables“ Leni Riefenstahl Dies (although she distanced…