This post was originally titled: “Don’t Tell Me How To Feel About My Own Body,” quotes included. Though that was an obvious appropriation of retarded activist-speak, I couldn’t bear having it so prominently on display. Satirizing activists is a few degrees lower on the cringe-meter than an actual activist, and I don’t have the perpetual … The Epistemology of the Man-flu
I did another hackathon. See photo below for photographic results. I somehow got more sleep than past hackathons, but that’s not saying much. The local news covered the event (PS- I’m not a CMU student as the title implies). You can try to watch the video but it’s Flash-based and the site takes forever to … Sleepathon
The story below is a work of fiction. All thirty employees gathered in the carpeted lobby for the first public beta play-through of the game. Becky, the project manager, won—she would say “lost,” after the fact—the shortest straw and was player one. Silence during the opening cinematic, and a quick cut to the gameplay, an … Story: The Soldier Has No Gun
From Ethan Frome: It was during their night walks back to the farm that he felt most intensely the sweetness of this communion. He had always been more sensitive than the people about him to the appeal of natural beauty. His unfinished studies had given form to this sensibility and even in his unhappiest moments … “Orion down yonder”
Due to screen fatigue…at least in the United Kingdom: “I wouldn’t say that the ebook dream is over but people are clearly making decisions on when they want to spend time with their screens,” says Stephen Lotinga, chief exeutive of the Publishers Association, which published its annual yearbook on Thursday. “There is generally a sense … Ebook Sales Trend Downward
The Wisecrack Youtube channel has a great video on the philosophy of Ghost in the Shell (the original one). It’s actually a very Western movie because it’s Hegelian through and through, and Hegel is as Western philosophy as it gets. I left a comment on the video that I will cross-post here, for those interested. … The Philosophy of Ghost in the Shell (1995)
Mustafa sat proudly at the back of the rock outcropping, a paw—with just enough claw extended make the warning explicit—held firmly on the back of Sarabi’s neck. The mandrill, that neurotic mystic, walked out to the edge of the outcropping and held up Mustafa’s infant son, Simba, for all the gathered animals on the ground … Story: How It Should’ve Gone
The story below is a work of fiction. Alice was the person in the audience least willing to be called upon, so naturally the magician volunteered her for his first trick. Seated on the stage chair, being so close to the magician—she forgot his name but he looked like a Mark—wasn’t as embarrassing as she … Story: Magicland
Just what the title says. UPDATE: Here are some photos from the December comic con. Someone from something, and Bucky Barnes from Captain America/Avengers: Freddy Krueger: People from a thing: New-ish Batman and old-school Robin: A version of Wonder Woman: Indiana Jones and yours truly: A Doctor Who (I think), some Harry Potter person, and … Steel City Comic Con 2017 Photos
Jill has decided to serialize her new book, The Minäverse, and you can read the first chapter here. Jill was kind enough to send me an ARC* and it’s definitely a good ‘un if you like absurdist sci-fi, a la Douglas Adams and that other author of that one book I can’t recall right now. … The Minäverse by Jill Domschot
tl;dr – a very good retelling of the original Possible spoilers below. See my previous posts here and here about the film. Thoughts, in no particular order: 1- Visually and aesthetically impeccable. Director Rupert Sanders did an excellent job of portraying a society figuring out its relationship with acute, mechanical, physical augmentation. He skirts the … Ghost in the Shell (2017) Review
“Always the same, and now all this. No more stones. No more spears. No more slings. No more swords. No more weapons! No more systems! No more superpowers. You can fire your arrows from the Tower of Babel, but you can never strike God!”
Gamification of Safe Driving Gamify car dashboards, or an app itself on your phone, that rewards safe and efficient driving, accompanied by a small social media framework. There can be badges for keeping your vehicle on its eco-efficiency setting, days without a ticket or accident, for not speeding up or braking suddenly, for taking more … Two and a Half App Ideas
One of the funniest lines I’ve heard in a video game.
tl;dr – I don’t want bread Stop with all the sandwiches for breakfast. Not everything has to be in sandwich form; you’re not leaving some moral culinary duty unfilled if you don’t serve sandwiches all the time. If you really must have sandwiches on the menu, the very least you can do is offer normal … Attn: Restaurants That Serve Breakfast, Please Take Seriously and Enjoy this Unreasonable Rant
Astronomical distances are unfathomable—literally, inconceivable—so much so that we need ultra-instrumentation to calculate them, which in turn dump their data streams into analog displays for these distances can be “visualized.” Imagine yourself traveling through space. Scary, isn’t it? There’s a reason why some of the more accurate depictions of life in space in science fiction … The Epistemology of Large-Scale Distances
They forced him into a blind date, claiming that her fetish for chefs would warm her to him. She was described as a Kirsten Dunst lookalike, which in his mental filters was synonymous with “looks like Kirsten Dunst plus 50 lbs,” or “looks like Kirsten Dunst with severe exotropia,” or “looks like Kirsten Dunst with … Third Person Dreams Means I Have Disassociative Issues
“Doesn’t anyone have any more missiles!?” Nibiru is the real, cosmic, deal. I know this because all of the theories of Internet-connected folks concerning its arrival into the Milky Way don’t posit the planet crashing directly into Earth like two perfect billiard balls. If it was contrived it would be aiming straight into us, right … The Earth’s Poles Shifted and All You Read Was This Blog Post
Plenty of metal band releases nowadays feature a track, usually in the middle or at the end, that’s a little quieter or more contemplative, probably to break the sonic elephant-gun onslaught of everything else you’re hearing/have heard. If the metal band is Christian, this track is the time to let listeners know you are, in … One Weird Trick for a Worship Band to Make Their Album Go Platinum
There’s this video, and then there’s comments I’ve read all over that go something like this: 1) “So weird to see the Death Star upside down,” or something equally as innocent and merely observational. And someone replies with: 2) “you idiot theres no upside down in space its all relative you probably like the prequels … The Epistemology of Orientation in Space