Geez, Tumblr, at least give it a couple weeks! Let me have a little break between “So, when’s the big day?” before the questions about babies start up!
Actually About Ethics
So I wasn’t really thrilled with this class from the beginning, but I soldiered on, taking a large amount of comfort from looking the teacher up on RateMyProfessor, and reading others students’ complaints that matched my experience. I’m pretty glad the class is finished, which just reminds me how much of education is checking the boxes that other people tell me I need to check.
Another thing that disappointed me throughout the course was the nagging feeling that I’d already thought more critically about media ethics than this course was leading students to think. It’s not a massive revelation to me (or to most adults, I think) that a major advertiser could pressure an editor into holding off on a story that reflects poorly on their company, or that political campaign ads might not be fully accurate. So most of my assignments were really a case of rephrasing the text, drawing a surface conclusion, and citing them correctly. (One of the RateMyProfessor commentors noted that the key to getting good grades is working the chapter’s vocab words into every essay. Thanks, my anonymous internet friend, you were not wrong, and my GPA thanks you!)
Anyway, it’s finished.
No Spaces May Be Left Blank
I do like the Manic Pixie Dream Girl character who always carries her passport with her, so readers know what a wildly adventurous free spirit she is, but my own travel experience is not so much grab your passport and my hand. More grab your passport… and take it to the consulate where you will fill out this visa application in triplicate, wait in line, find out you have to redo form Y712 in black ink when it turns out blue ink isn’t acceptable, and come back in three days for an entry visa.
Anyway, that’s where I am on my trip.
Pineapples Don’t Wear Makeup
I wrote a quick post about the latest dev diary for No Pineapple Left Behind. It’s great to see this game taking shape!
The latest dev diary video introduces a teaching dilemma: a young boy named David likes wearing makeup to class. Should you create a comprehensive anti-bullying program, teaching children to respect each other’s differences, and provide reasonable consequences as a deterrent to bullying behavior? Or just turn David into a pineapple? Pineapples, as we all know, don’t wear makeup and don’t get bullied.
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Tagged (the) absolute, No Pineapple Left Behind, Subaltern Games
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Oil Changes Are Awesome!
There’s usually a bit of paperwork hassle dealing with things that Harold and I share, but are in one person’s name, like whenever one of us wants to pay a bill that’s in the other person’s name. So I was a expecting a bit of annoyance when I took Harold’s car for an oil change this morning (I assume there’s some kind of highly profitable long con that involves getting oil changes on stolen vehicles.). Today I didn’t have any trouble, PLUS I got to say “my husband” in conversation!
Being married is so great!
It Is So Ordered
Today all my social channels are rainbows and happiness and lists of benefits for married couples and sweet courthouse wedding photos and more rainbows. It’s so wonderful to be a newlywed looking at all the newly married couples, and seeing all the happy brides and grooms, and reading all the reasons why people get married! I mean, I’ve only been married 6 days, but it’s been pretty great so far!
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Next Steps
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Also The Whole Thing Really
One of the common complaints about social media is that people who are Instagramming or livetweeting their experiences, aren’t really “present” in the moment they’re recording, and are therefore enjoying things incorrectly. I usually don’t understand this complaint, and it falls into the category of enjoying it wrong or XKCD’s other people having experiences incorrectly. Does anyone ever wish they had written less in their diary or had fewer photographs of things they enjoyed?
But in the time leading up to our wedding, I didn’t really have any desire to record or chronicle what was happening. Now that we’re married, and I’m just waiting for another chance to say “my husband” and laugh hysterically, here are some things about weddings:
The old rule about the groom not seeing the dress is a good one to follow because if the groom can’t see the dress, he can’t put a cooler of snacks on top of it.
Wedding dresses are complete bullshit. The more I think about the time, money, and effort involved in something I wore for a couple hours, the more bizarre the entire concept is. Social customs, man. So weird if you think about it. Actually, don’t think too much about wedding symbols and why they exist in general, because then you will say things like “Fine, let’s get this patriarchal handover started.” and everything will accuse of you not taking the wedding seriously and not being romantic.
We went to a jewelers in South Dartmouth to get Harold’s wedding ring resized, because our trip to the Chapel Hill jeweler had been not so great. My favorite part was being told that in a few years when we have more money, I could upgrade my engagement ring and get a better diamond, and that I shouldn’t worry too much because lots of people start off with small diamonds. Bizarre upsell attempt, I think. Harold was also told that men always complain about their rings, and that his ring fits just fine. (It didn’t fit fine, and while I don’t much care about most of the wedding traditions, I do feel rather strongly that a wedding band is not to be worn as a pinky ring, and that’s why we were resizing at the last minute.)
We had a ceremony at my dad’s church, and about 20 guests to dinner at the parsonage next door. I thought this would be simple and manageable. I was wrong.
My dad ended the ceremony with “husband and wife, Meg and Harold” in order to avoid saying Mr and Mrs, because even if I am going to do the whole patriarchal handover, I’m not changing my name.
Even if you are in your thirties, and have given marriage a lot of soul-searching, and are crazy about your intended spouse, and have thought a great deal about whether marriage is just the social expectation or if it’s really the best thing for your life, and know each other very well, and have decided that you’re really, really ready to get married, the part where you actually see the marriage license is pretty scary. Also, the part where you walk into the church. Also, the whole thing really.
See Ya, Space Cowgirls: Til Cows Tear Us Apart
I’ve been playing tons of browser games to review for my students, which means spending a lot of time on sites like Kongregate. I keep getting Til Cows Tear Us Apart in my recommended games, which is probably because a retro space adventure about alien ladies is perfect for me. But I’m usually looking for games to share with my students, and one of the first player choices in Cows is whether or not to pretend to be hookers, and that’s followed by which kind of recreational drugs to buy, so even though I really wanted to see where it led, I realized this was probably not the best choice to introduce to my 10-year-olds.
Wah wah wah, I had to stop playing the game I wanted and go play a different game for work, wah wah, my life is so terribly hard. But I finally had the chance to play it at home, and this game did not disappoint.
Truxon, where cows are super valuable because the citizens really, really like cows. Ahem. (Hmm, that part’s probably not kid-friend either.)
The spacefaring duo need sneak to past alien customs, battle bounty hunters or try fast talking out of trouble. There are multiple paths with different endings, depending on player choices, or whether you use the FTL drive to warp out of or into trouble. Along the way, the cow counter on the top of the screen keeps track of how many cows have been sold, given as bribes, teleported away, or otherwise disappeared. In between conflicts, Quanee and Enora will flirt, discuss their heist, and listen to the radio, in a Cowgirl Bebop kind of way.
As I played, I unlocked achievements for reaching different story points, which made even goofy decisions (Should I land on this planet and try the peyote? Should I flirt my way out, or just nuke this guy?) seem more meaningful. Also, players can speed through sections in replays, which encouraged me to replay again and again, for different storylines that did not disappoint. So much blasting, romance, and listening to space music in this little game!
Til Cows Tear Us Apart was created by Pierre Corbinais for the Space Cowboy Game Jam. Even if you’re going to play the browser version on Kongregate, it’s worth checking out the game jam’s page to see how Til Cows Tear Us Apart ranked in essential space cowgirl categories, like Lonesomeness, The Void, and Romance. When I realized this was made in just a couple days, I started to notice that the images of Enora and Quanee at the ship’s console is the majority of the game’s art assets, but that’s ok, because the fun concept, the variety of music and the branching story options make it seem like a much more vivid gameworld.
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Til Cows Tear Us Apart blends retro pixel art, choice-based adventures with a Cowboy Bebop / Firefly space bandit universe, which are pretty much all things I like. Probably why it kept coming up on my recommendations.
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First Step: Proving I Don’t Have Leprosy
I’ve been talking around this for a bit, mentioning my Chinese lessons and alluding to future changes, but with my work visa in the works, now it seems like it’s really happening. I’m going back to China for a few months to teach.
Actually, I’ve been talking about going back for years. Literally years. I’ve looked into it a couple times, but there’s always been a reason to stay. Mostly for wonderful reasons, like I was enjoying my work, or I had a great opportunity here, or I loved being in Brooklyn, or I wanted to be with Harold. But there’s always going to be good reasons to stay, you know?
I’m really looking forward to the new adventure. I’m excited to be traveling again, improving my Chinese, seeing a new city in my second country, and joining a great program to teach ESL, although I’m not really looking forward to being away from Harold for a few months. He’s planning a good long visit this fall, a bit of a delayed honeymoon, but my Harold isn’t exactly a traveler at heart. (If you know Harold, you are giggling at my understatement. If you don’t, well, Harold is someone who really likes his daily routine, and his comfortable chair in the evening, preferably surrounded by his collection of comic books and toys.) For some reason, the idea of heading to a new country where he doesn’t speak the language, or have a job, or any familiarity with the lifestyle, or know any one, just doesn’t appeal to him. Whatever. People can be so strange, the way different people want different things than I do.
There are a lot of annoying logistics to sort out before the full awesomeness kicks in, but when I think about all the things I have in the works, I am so, so excited.
