I first met my wife in person, but we were in a long-distance online relationship for a year, and some weeks are so busy we text each other more than we speak in person. Starting a relationship during a pandemic would be tricky. Similar:My mentor interrupted me. “Ignore your students from the neck down,” she…
It’s striking to hear her audience erupt in laughter at the comedy bits in the opening scenes. I assume they didn’t know what they were in for! Similar:The coronavirus is today just as contagious and just as serious as it was when we were all…CultureVote for your favorite Monopoly token — or else!One of…
In the wake of the pandemic, the entertainment industry created a new position on set to help keep outbreaks at bay. […] The demands of the job are big: sanitization, testing, safety equipment and distancing. Cast and crew are split into different zones, based on the frequency of testing and ability to wear masks. The…
I’m proud of the daughter for her involvement in this Equity audio production. (Some of the screams mentioned by the reviewer are hers.) One would be hard-pressed to find a more perfect production for the pandemic, as the radio drama comes with no visuals and forces one to shut out the outside world for the…
https://youtu.be/CWcEABVWbfA Similar:The Muse #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 4, Episode 21) Jake meets his muse; pregnant runaw…Rewatching ST:DS9 From his spot on the …MediaIn January 2000, I was blogging about dancing paperclips, the transience of literary judge… In January 2000, I was blogging abou…BooksSee How Vaccines Can Make the Difference in Delta Variant’s ImpactHere’s a great…
Bits and pieces from a news article that summarizes recent scholarly studies. Some moderately good news, and a reminder that increased testing means finding more cases, and finding them earlier, which means people get medical treatment sooner. (More testing means less suffering and fewer deaths. For those of us who care about such things.) Over…
My big finish as Alquist in a Zoom-based production of R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots). Similar:Google Pledges $300 Million to Clean Up False NewsThis is a welcome step, but we cannot tr…CultureRemember Who The Enemy IsGood article on Catching Fire. (I haven’…BooksApparently I’m using boolean modifiers to carve out negative-space greebles for a texture …AestheticsFun With…
Rewatching ST:TNG. The plot, such as it is, quickly gets Picard and Wesley separated from the Enterprise and in the company of a mining shuttle pilot who challenges Picard’s authority. After a few on-location scenes in a bleak desert, the story shifts to the standard generic cave set, where some falling chunks of foam and…
I wish I had the time or energy to get out the telescope and camera, but I did go out for a walk in the neighborhood and got an eyeful of this in the sky. Similar:I just picked up both Aslan's How and Cair Paravel. #narnia #monopolyPersonalTesting out my new greenscreenFriendly advice… If you are…
In October 2000, I was blogging about The F. Scott Fitzgerald Short story “Bernice Bobs Her Hair” (background; full text) A biography of Virginia Woolf The precarious status of English as a global language A call for papers for a special issue of Text Technology devoted to interactive fiction (I have a copy on my shelf…
There are some sound pedagogical reasons for turning cameras on. Thus, I suggest sharing those reasons with the students before giving them the choice of what to do about their cameras. Explain why you are making your request. For example, being able to see students’ faces gives instructors a quick and easy way to discern whether students are finding the material engaging, at least in smaller classes. One instructor told me that “I asked students to turn their cameras on to say hi to their classmates at the beginning and end of class, and those were the best moments of the class.”
Similar:This class has been everything that I expect it would be and I cannot believe that we are …Some days are slogs. Some weeks are slo…AcademiaDear organization from my past that just sent me a scolding email…Dear organization from my past that just…CultureMany of these individual steampunk control panel elements are repeated, but I've arranged…
Similar:"Orphans" was amazing. Powerul, funny, cruel, humane, empathetic. I was speechle…PersonalThe Best Word Book Ever, 1963 and 1991.As a child, I obsessed over many Richard…BooksMy basement dehumidifier was flashing an error code. YouTube had a tutorial with a possibl…My basement dehumidifier was flashing an…PersonalGil Gerard (1943-2025) I built a model of the two-pronged Sta…CultureThe…
Obviously I would have preferred to see it live, but the pandemic-era video presentation — with clever graphics that indicate stage actions and pop-up text that augment the recorded performances — was subtle and touching. Similar:Star Trek Beyond was an enjoyable nerdy family outing.PersonalJust reminding myself that these moments do and will exits. I’ve evaluated…
Similar:The Forsaken (#StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch, Season 1, Episode 17) Lwaxana Troi and the station c…Rewatching ST:DS9 Bashir is hosting t…CultureOut for a walk and saw this. I hope you are having a nice day.Out for a walk and saw this. I hope you …AestheticsEnjoyed watching the restored version of the hugely influential 1927 sci-fi movie…
The daughter plays Laertes in Seton Hill’s free, live Zoom production of Hamlet (with a film noir theme) which opens tonight at 8. (The first half will be performed tonight and next Friday; the next half will be performed Saturday and next Saturday.) Free tickets to Seton Hill’s livestreaming video production of Hamlet Through the…
From The Brookings Institution (non-profit, deeply sourced factual writing; has been accused of both conservative and liberal bias; is cited in Congress about equally by conservative and liberal politicians; leans a bit left in terms of loaded language): American institutions are not perfect, of course. We all should want to improve scientific practices, remove bias…
Sinclair Lewis’s 1935 anti-fascist novel adapted for radio by Berkeley Rep. Similar:Elderly woman who botched religious fresco demands royalties – TelegraphThe elderly Spanish woman who ruined a r…AestheticsFirst steps towards reconstructing a 30-year-old simulation. Marking the locations of the …First steps towards reconstructing a 30-…AestheticsHarper Lee, author of To Kill a Mockingbird, dies aged 89Harper…
It was a reporter’s bodyguard, not an anti-fascist activist, who shot and killed a right-wing demonstrator who had assaulted him. The viral spread of those false claims apparently alarmed the Denver Police Department, which had taken Dolloff into custody along with the journalist he was guarding and quickly determined that they were not left-wing…
Similar:What if I design a #steampunk fantasy cruiser and there aren’t enough chairs? How do I kno… AestheticsAs Twinkle Twinkle is to Suzuki musicians, so is a wooden shipping crate to CGI modelers. …https://youtu.be/diQF9buONqY I ha…AestheticsCry from a Far Planet by Tom Godwin (WAOB Audio Theatre; read by Dennis Jerz)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZ0BBIss…CultureAnother #neovictorian control panel for a…