Today my favorite student left me a note in hieroglyphics.
Considering a Response in Cuneiform
Posted in Teaching
2 Comments
Favorite Things That Are Almost Pride & Prejudice
Fitzwilliam Darcy, Rock Star
Bride And Prejudice
Manga Classics: Pride & Prejudice
Death Comes to Pemberley
Betrothed to Mr. Darcy
Mr Darcy Takes A Wife, for a scene in which Mr Collins falls into a mud puddle and drowns, and The Independence of Miss Mary Bennett for a human sacrifice cult in the secret cave network outside Pemberley.
But No One Wants To Read The Comments Section
Part of my science class involves reading and commenting on other students’ coursework, so the other day I had to read an essay about why the writer would never give up his SUV and how whiny sissy scientists don’t scare him, and how can water vapor be a greenhouse gas, when humans need water to live, so CHECKMATE, CLIMATE CHANGE!
It was just like stumbling into a horrible comments section, only I’m required to read it all, and respond usefully and politely for a grade.
Sometimes when I’m spending an evening doing homework, I question why I signed up for this class or exactly what I hope to get out of it, and my answers change from day to day. But I’m pretty sure it wasn’t this.
Posted in Chapel Hill
Leave a comment
Carolina Blogging
Such a great day at Carolina Blogging this weekend! Group organizers Heather and Sara really did an impressive job putting everything together, from getting interesting local vendors and a great conference space with solid wifi and pretty decorations, to all the details that make a good experience for everyone. I had a good time meeting everyone, it was great to meet my internet friends in person and to get to know completely new people who share my blogging interests. My favorite part of being around bloggers is if you want to set up a photo of random things, they won’t ask why, they’ll get excited, too, and suggest how to improve the light or the layout. Also, more than one person made a joke about something happening as frequently as Facebook changes the feed algorithm. My people.
There was a lot of great tips and advice from other bloggers, like how DIY and food bloggers are taking such great photos (Did you guys know there are factors in good photography besides finding an interesting texture?!?!? Turns out there are!), how successful bloggers plan posts, and how bloggers are authentically and honestly promoting products.
The day also raised larger questions for me, like what exactly do I want from my blog? How can I be more intentional about the way I’m sharing my work, finding some kind of balance between I guess I wrote a thing, maybe you sould read it if you’re bored and communicating solely though clickbaitery and social spamming? How can I be more intentional about the way I’m blogging? Without it turning into Work, and Deadlines, and developing a consistent brand, and planning consistent and optimized content around that brand, and I just bored myself typing that. Too much like work.
I was a little (a lot) intimidated when I followed a speaker who makes thousands of dollars every month on her blog. I mean, I make a little money here, but it’s more like covering my hosting fees here and the fancy coffees to sip when I read and write. I spoke a little bit about turning blogging for fun into blogging for new subculture-fan readers, and access to ARCs and beta codes. Anyway, I took some questions and ended up talking about all the things I love about Mr. Darcy.
Because I guess that’s my brand.
Wonder Woman’s Jet on Display at National Air & Space Museum
Crossing museum conservation jokes with superhero jokes.
Every Flavour Perfumery
My trip to New York for IndieCade involved facemeeting some of my internet friends, and revisiting some favorite Manhattan places. This means a lovely wander around snowy St. Marks Place (thanks, ADigitalMagician!), and a black-and-white cookie, and a long walk through Chinatown, and eating at just a few of the amazing restaurants around, and also, a trip to the drugstore to sniff perfumes.
The Duane Reade next to my old office and the one next to the Port Authority both carried this insane line of perfume. They are plain square bottles of Honeysuckle, Freesia, and Jasmine, but also Wet Garden and Crayon and Old Books and all kinds of random, good-smelling things. When I missed the DeCamp bus to my parents’ house (sometimes because DeCamp wasn’t running on the Julian calendar that day), I’d go and sniff perfumes.
Not an advert. Just an example of some of the awesomely weird fragrances.
I know that when one reminisces fondly about working in Manhattan, drugstore perfume isn’t supposed to make on the list, but you guys, I walked about a dozen blocks out of my way to go to one of the drugstores that has these in testers, so I could try spray things on my arm, and get so excited over how Rain actually smells like a rainy day, or Laundromat actually smells like clean laundry, or how that Honeysuckle spray still smells exactly like the spring when I was writing quests for Next Island and Harold had just moved to New York.
Posted in Brooklyn, Chapel Hill, New York City
Tagged adigitalmagician, demeter fragrances, Harold, indiecade, Next Island, weird-mcgee
Leave a comment
Action Figures Reading Action Figures
I saw this wonderful Godzilla photoset/book review, and immediately hopped up to take my own photo of Godzilla reading Action Figures
Godzilla enjoys a good YA superhero adventure.
Related:
Posted in Books, Chapel Hill
Tagged Action figures, Book review, Godzilla, Michael Bailey, sheshootslikeagirl, Tricia Lupien
3 Comments
Exams Are Awesome!
So, I hated the mandatory Online Education intro and the etextbooks have missed the point. Also there are these mandatory discussions, where one person writes a forced and disinterested paragraph responding to the reading, and someone else writes a forced and disinterested comment on the bottom. The internet wisdom of never reading the comments has rarely been so true.
But the quizzes. They are the best.
Students can take them any time over the week, which is so amazing. I know I’ve done less-well on exams when I was tired, headachey, or distracted by other deadlines. I’ve also tried to time my course reading before a quiz, in order to hit the sweet spot between being quizzed on what I crammed 10 minutes ago, and being quizzed on something I vaguely remember reading at the beginning of the semester. Being able to take my quiz when I am feeling comfortable and confident is so great.
Plus, you can take the quizzes multiple times, and the highest one counts. So, if you hand in a quiz and realize you messed something up or if you’re not happy with your score (available instantly, did I mention that?), just try again.
And course grades are always available, which is I’m finding motivating and really reassuring. It’s nice to see my average whenever I want, and know that I haven’t forgotten anything. (I got a lot of Bs in college because I aced 4 assignments and completely forgot about the 5th.) It’s not always fun to do homework at night, so looking at a good course average is motivating.
(I just did the math to see if I can pass by getting As on every quizzes and ignoring discussions. I can’t. But if I maintain an A in quizzes, I only really have to do 2/3s of the discussions… Why did I work that out? The discussions are so much worse now.)
Posted in Chapel Hill
Leave a comment
Unlocking The Pyramids in ‘World of Secrets’
The Pyramids are one of the most challenging locations in National Geographic’s Facebook game World of Secrets. Here’s a guide to unlocking and rebuilding this beautiful site:
After you’ve gotten to Level 21, you’ll need 22 Scarves from your friends and 15,000 coins to unlock the Pyramids. It’s easy to get the Scarves by asking your friends, and you’ll find 15,000 quite easily as you reach level 22. Congrats!
Now it’s time to repair the Pyramids. Here’s how to do it, and some hints to do it even faster.
Your Crafting Recipe
You’ll need:
5 Rock, which are made in the Workshop
7 Pickaxe, which can be found in either the Valley scene in Alaska or the Arctic Camp scene in the Arctic.
2 Canopic Vase, which are found in Abu Simbel in Egypt
2 Ankh Symbol, also found in Abu Simbel in Egypt
2 Hieroglyphic Tablet, also found in Abu Simbel in Egypt
4 Toolboxes, found visiting friends.
Well, you’ll clearly have to visit Abu Simbel, and search until you have all the Canopic Vases, Ankh Symbols and Hieroglyphic Tablets. But wait! Rock is a crafted item, which requires:
2 Rough Rock, borrowed from friends
3 Pickaxes, which can be found in either the Valley scene in Alaska or the Arctic Camp scene in the Arctic
In all, you will need 10 Rough Rocks from your friends, and another 15 Pickaxes.
Best Strategy For Speed
The best strategy is ask all your game friends for Rock (the Rough Rock, not the finished Rock!) as soon as you get this mission. If you have very few friends, it might take a while to get all 10, but if you have a lot of friends, you can get this with no problem. You only need 2 to start making Rock, so you can get started on crafting while waiting to receive more, in order to progress even more efficiently.
Then start visiting friends every day for those Toolboxes! Don’t worry if you don’t find one right away — you will use the other items you find, like Camp Stoves, Scales and Canteens, when crafting hints! Again, if you have a lot of World of Secrets friends, this will be faster than if you only have a few, but you can still complete this with just a few neighbors.
Then, search for the rest of the items in the locations. To maximize efficiency, you can do this while you’re waiting to receive items or waiting for visiting to recharge.
Search the Valley scene or the Arctic Camp for those pickaxes. The pickaxes are just the same from either one, so pick whichever one helps you with other missions or whichever scene you’re better at!
You’ll also need to search Abu Simbel until you have all the Canopic Vases, Ankh Symbols and Hieroglyphic Tablets.
Happy exploring! I hope this helps! Let me know how far you’ve gotten in WoS!
Career Lessons From The Sims: Lifetime Wish
So I recently noticed that following the Writer skill track for The Sims 3 draws an interesting distinction between mastery of the skill, creating brilliant work, selling profitable work, and the activity of writing. Thinking about these distinctions has led to way more existential questions than you might expect from relaxing with my imaginary game people. Does my Sim want to write something brilliant? Create a masterpiece? Earn good money writing? Make money on this piece, or overall? Or just feel like writing something for fun?
In Sims 3, each Sims has an individual Lifetime Wish, chosen at the beginning of the game, which answers which type of writing they should pursue. They might want to rule the free world, or learn every recipe ever, or be a chess grandmaster, or whatever, and they’ll be working towards this their whole life, unless you’re the kind of player who puts your Sims in the pool and deletes the ladder.
Anyway, three of these Lifetime Wishes are about writing, and they’re all more detailed than just “be a writer.” The Professional Author Lifetime Wish means making a living as a writer, so this Sim should be focused on completing a wide number of short, saleable works. For the Illustrious Author goal, which means reaching the top of the skill track in writing and artistry, Sims should train, and practice, and read about writing, and study art, and not really bother writing anything to sell until it’s a masterpiece. And there’s another writing-related goal, which is to reach the top of Journalism career track. This is actually a Star News Anchor and turns out being more about building Charisma skills and workplace relationships than writing and creativity (and it doesn’t involve any puns about a rapidly rising anchor, really a missed opportunity).
Mixing these goals up, especially by thinking that as long as your Sim is writing, they’re on their way to their goals, can lead to major life dissatisfaction.
(You can do them all if you turn off aging.)
