In February, 2001, I was blogging about Computer nostalgia and text adventure games.“Walking into a room rendered in the Q3 engine can be lovely and impressive, but when you’ve only 16K to tell a story, you have to rely on the gamer’s imagination to provide the details. Just the words ‘you are on a beach’…
Similar:At the chess club holiday party. Peter looks forward to his Wednesday…GamesAnother square of #steampunk control panel eye candy. #blender3d #blender3dart #design #a…AestheticsCarolyn and spider friends performing "Power" from Stage Right's Sleeping B…PersonalStage Right's production of 'Secret Garden' is heart-tugging showIn the Stage Right production, the role …Current_EventsThe girl enjoyed seeing Alex Noble and the…
Some of Elon Musk’s stunts have caught my attention. He was involved in founding the company that became PayPal (which I use from time to time, to accept freelance payments and to pay other freelancers), and I can see a lot of people would benefit from the high-speed train systems he has advocated, but I…
Similar:Furnished a random nook in the #neovictorian #steampunk cruiser I'm building. Not ha…PersonalThe Die Is Cast (#StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch, Season 3, Episode 21) Garak's mentor leads a pres…Rewatching ST:DS9 After the recap of …CultureIn April, 2002, I was blogging about an autistic person's guide to asking a girl on a date…In April, 2002, I was…
The Holocaust was the most murderous and massive manifestation of Jew hatred — and it began and ended with the aid of conspiracy theories. State-sponsored conspiracism fueled the genocide of 6 million innocent human beings. A major pillar of Nazi ideology — and an effective method of drumming up anti-Semitism — was the false accusation…
I can’t believe I’m fact-checking a viral story about a plastic potato, but Hasbro is removing the “Mr.” from its “Potato Head” logo, and offering a new mix-and-match package that includes two potato bodies, one baby potato, and a bunch of loose parts that will let kids put them together however they want. That…
While some survey respondents were unfamiliar with the term “humanities” (apparently guessing that it had to do with the study of the human body), once they were given the definition “studying or participating in activities related to literature, languages, history, and philosophy,” most respondents had a high opinion of the subject. Predictably, people who were…
It’s a bit of a stretch to call this Teddy Roosevelt quote “encoded,” but it’s still fun to notice. We’re told to be on the lookout for more surprises as the mission develops. Systems engineer Ian Clark used a binary code to spell out “Dare Mighty Things” in the orange and white strips of the…
Similar:Ave atque valeWhat is a liberal education and what it …AcademiaI made some progress.PersonalWARNING: Picasso, Van Gogh, Gauguin have been stolen in UKOne of several paintings that were, acco…ArtParallel structure in writing: Use it!These comic panels cover the issue well….HumanitiesHide and Q (TNG Rewatch, Season 1, Episode 9) Riker, buffed up by Q, grants desires…
New video from NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover chronicles major milestones during the final minutes of its entry, descent, and landing (EDL) on the Red Planet on Feb. 18 as the spacecraft plummeted, parachuted, and rocketed toward the surface of Mars. A microphone on the rover also has provided the first audio recording of sounds…
Years later, after earning my degree in Jazz Performance from Howard University, I joined a country band where I was the only Black member. It was 1983 when we visited Frederick, Maryland, and played at an all-white bar (a bar where Blacks were legally allowed to enter but wouldn’t be welcomed). After I finished a…
Beckett’s masterpiece Waiting For Godot was once famously described as ‘the play where nothing happens – twice.’ First produced in French and then re-written by Beckett into English, it remains one of the most significant plays of the twentieth century. Beckett described it as a tragi-comedy: it has as much comedy within the characters and…
Similar:So peaceful and majestic. Another outing with my son.PersonalBeautiful set. Support the humans who do arts in your community (instead of settling for …Beautiful set. Support the humans who d…PersonalUgh. Unmarked items waiting for me as I start to recover from an illness.PersonalPopulating my simulation with a crowd. Tweaking and experimenting. #unity3d #medievalyork …PersonalYou're Doing…
I often invite my colleague Kelly Clever to give the “library session” to my freshman writing students. Of course there’s only so much anyone can accomplish in a single session, but my students often credit her for helping them make the leap from a general idea to a well-formed research question. Maybe they end up…
If it were possible to build a digital novelist or poetry analyst, then computers would be far more powerful than they are now. They would in fact be the most powerful beings in the history of Earth. Their power would be the power of literature, which although it seems now, in today’s glittering silicon age,…
I already bought the thing, and I’m only looking in the manual because I can’t figure out what’s wrong with the non-working piece of junk, so I don’t really want to read a chipper note congratulating me on my purchase. People hate reading instructions, and will only glance at them after they are already frustrated…
The pandemic sucks. We’re spending more time with a smaller circle of people, and tensions can mount. But I’m grateful my family is together, and grateful for our health. Sure, things could be better. Recently in my email I found this reflection on the benefits of being in a relationship. 4 Main Benefits of Being…
Today, February 18, 2021 at 20:44 UTC (3:44 p.m. Eastern US time), if all goes well, another robotic rover will land on the planet Mars. —Bad Astronomy Similar:Most Americans have a high opinion of the humanities, and 81% use at least one humanities-…While some survey respondents were unfam…AcademiaSad Doggy Says: People Who Confuse Correlation and…
Technology is wonderful. My journalism students prefer to conduct their interviews by emails, but the word “interview” defines a back-and-forth exchange where the reporter can respond to body language and other subtle cues that don’t make it into emailed responses. Also, it takes non-trivial effort for interview subjects to write out their answers, only a…
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Carolyn Jerz (@i_am_carolyn_jerz) Similar:Should a Journalist Covering Rocky Horror Live Attend the Show in Drag?Is it a violation of journalistic integr…AcademiaHappy Father’s Day One of my favorite pictures of my fa…Current_EventsWhy Teachers, Parents, and Society at Large Have Destroyed Kids’ Love of LearningI have…