Like many people, I curate my social media posts. After a month of coronavirus lockdown, I’ve been curating more than usual. I have spent (many) sleepless nights scrolling through news reports in slack-jawed horror; I’ve (often) felt overwhelmed; I’ve lost my temper at my family (regularly). I haven’t posted about such events because I don’t…
Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break. As Picard mediates a reconciliation between a recently enlightened civilization and its barbarian outcasts, Riker pursues a humble servant girl. After a brief visit to a raided Federation outpost, we get a well-done infodump from the stately Marouk, ruler of the Acamarian civilization. She lets Picard talk her into offering…
Similar:Academic robe, Is this the year I finally send you out to be cleaned? Nah, Febreeze is goo…PersonalThis winter I changed my weekday alarm tone to chirping birds. This winter I changed my weekday ala…AestheticsMasked up, so I don't infect you, in case you are in a vulnerable group. Feeling healthy. …CultureThe School of Humanities…
Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break. As the Enterprise hosts negotiations for access to a wormhole shortcut to the Gamma Quadrant, Troi becomes intimately involved with one of the delegates. A budget-friendly “bottle” episode that doesn’t feel cramped. We get to see Deanna’s routine, as she spends time decompressing in her quarters, working in her…
Nice lighting shows clearly that I have no idea how to do translucency. See the vertical lines in the highlighted edge just under the cabinet window? The woodgrain is going the wrong way. I know how to fix that, but still don’t know why the soap bottle and the brush bristles look like a styrofoam…
Sometimes when my social media contacts are complaining about “the media,” they are really responding to headlines, which they cite as examples of “fake news.” Sometimes the headlines they respond to are creative interpretations supplied by a third party with a dog in a particular fight; but other times I can see very clearly…
Similar:Results of the 18th Annual Interactive Fiction Competition The 18th Annual Interactive Fiction Com…Current_EventsThis friendly gangster was parked at WalMart in Johnstown yesterday.This friendly gangster was parked at Wal…PersonalThinking a lot lately about masking and empathy, and my role as educator.Thinking a lot lately about masking and …CultureI'm not a big fan of Disney's corporate greed.I’m…
Thoughtful essay from Julio Vincent Gambuto. Get ready, my friends. What is about to be unleashed on American society will be the greatest campaign ever created to get you to feel normal again. It will come from brands, it will come from government, it will even come from each other, and it will come from…
Similar:Carolyn and Nick in Beauty and the BeastAestheticsThe Trouble with Tribbles: A Television Adaptation by Richard GoreyShaenon K. Garrity – New Smithson!.AestheticsSuch pictures fill my weekday world at fiveYour pictures fill my weekday world at f…AestheticsBook geyser. My latest #Blender3D practice.In a peaceful grassy setting, a geyser o…AestheticsAnother section of a #neovictorian control panel for…
Similar:Hero Worship (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season 5, Episode 11) Orphaned Boy Idolizes DataRewatching ST:TNG The Enterprise-…AmusingFor the record, if I should happen to be murdered by someone with a gun… For the record, if I should happen to …Current_EventsI just tried Open Shot Video Editor, a free open source toolFor years I used ScreenFlow, which…
Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break. LaForge is stranded on a hostile planet with a nervous, injured Romulan. The “mutual enemies must learn to cooperate” storyline is by-the-numbers, but I still enjoyed it. I don’t remember ever seeing this episode before, but seeing the frequently reused “planet hell” set (featuring a distinctively stair-stepped sloping wall)…
For years, I’ve been teaching a fake graph. In pretty much every course I teach, on some day when students seem discouraged or distracted, I’ll draw an X axis labeled “Experience” and a Y-axis labeled “Confidence,” and sketch out the “Dunning-Kruger Effect” curve, as preparation for an informal pep talk. (Update, 27 Nov 2021: My…
Similar:The YouTube "Blender3D to Unity UMA" tutorials blow through all the steps in a h…PersonalNot a #carguy but I pried open the hatch of the van to change 4 bulbs. #adulting PersonalTrump Fires Senior Adviser’s Son From Transition for Sharing Fake NewsTrump senior adviser’s son, who used a t…Current_EventsIn Defense of DistractionIf you’re a fan of…
Similar:Beautifying the exterior of the fantasy cruiser from the bedtime stories I used to tell my…PersonalFight choreography via teleconference. As You Like It @steelcityshakespearePersonalSchool ditches rules and loses bulliesSwanson School signed up to the study by…CultureHere for the daughter.Academia“Thank you for being kind.” —Friday afternoon email from a student who’d been a little sal…PersonalNow I…
Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break. To escape a thousand-year-old booby trap, LaForge interacts with a holodeck simulation of the designer of the Enterprise’s engines… and gets waaay too attached. The teaser shows LaForge on a date — a failure that he later talks over with Guinan. Meanwhile, Picard, thrilled to explore an old warship, is…
Similar:What About “The Breakfast Club”?I made three movies with John Hughes; wh…CultureEnjoying an ice cream cake, apple pie, and the classic Star Trek episode “The Doomsday Mac…PersonalMy journalism students just gave me this wristband: "What would Jerz do? / Verify or duck…. AestheticsOne wild place. (Sunday.) NatureMaking Interactive Fiction Mainstream: ReadersJon Ingold describes the gamelike…
Similar:The Problem with Quotes on the InternetAmusingFaculty Senate meet & greet. With food. In the parlors till 6. AcademiaThis Is How Tyranny Begins (Robert Reich)As the faculty advisor to a college jour…CultureNYT newsroom integration memoBy integrating the newsrooms we plan to …BusinessLife would be so much better if all the interfaces we encountered looked like…
According to an article in Medium, toilet paper isn’t selling out because the supply chain is collapsing, or because people are hoarding. We’re using more toilet paper at home. Yes, some people are hoarding, but we’re all spending a lot more time at home. All the toilet paper we would have used at work, in…
Similar:Sorry, not sorry. I don't want such friends. Back in 2003, shortly after I moved …CultureMy 11yo, of the opening chapters of a YA novel with an orphan heroineMy 11yo, of the opening chapters of a YA…BooksPop Culture Showdown with My Retro DaughterThe girl tried to weird me out with a vi…AestheticsThe…
This is just an excerpt. Read the whole thing. Similar:A 27-Story Vertical Forest Grows in MilanBosco Verticale was conceived in respons…AestheticsStuffed planet Venus, made for me by my dear mother, around 1974.AestheticsBeowimp (spoof I wrote for my high school lit magazine c. 1985)I got an email this morning from someone…AmusingNAVY TO DROP ALL-CAPS COMMUNICATIONSCaps off…