With the recent deaths of many of my childhood icons — Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson, Walter Cronkite, Ed McMahon, John Hughes, Bea Arthur – I got to thinking about the famous people who died this year. Growing up, we watched the Oscars segment honoring those who the industry lost during the year. It seems like there’s more celebrity deaths this year than ever before. Actually, it’s probably more accurate to say I’m now old enough to recognize the famous people who are dying. Curiously, Wikipedia keeps track of the deaths of “important” or famous people by month and year. I looked over the list forRead More →

I am almost done with cleaning my office. What’s left is the hardest part: My filing cabinet. I’ve done some preliminary cleaning of files, but most of the work remains. I’ve started cleaning and de-cluttering other parts of the house. It feels productive, but the truth is that I’m avoiding the ominous filing cabinets. The other day I found a videotape of an interview I did with my grandmother a couple of years before she died. I sent it off to be converted to DVD. I hope they don’t break it or ruin it. On a different note, my therapist seems utterly fascinated by D&D.Read More →

1. I still play on text-based games (muds, mux, etc.). Most of the gaming world has moved onto MMORPGs. 2. My cellphone is the one they sell to senior citizens. Big digit buttons, no keyboard for texting. I don’t text, surf, or download ringtones. In fact, I don’t even keep my cellphone on. I just turn it on to call out. 3. Until my new computer this week, I didn’t have the capacity to play DVDs on my computer. 4. Until this week, I was using HTML frames instead of CSS for my website. 5. I would rather play D&D 3.5 than move to 4.0.Read More →

Finally! Something I’m not too behind the curve on! Apparently a McCain aide, Michael Goldfarb, made a disparaging remark about us Pro-Obama D&D players on McCain’s blog. (IMO most D&D players are Libertarians, but that’s just anecdotal.) Here’s the comment: It may be typical of the pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons crowd to disparage a fellow countryman’s memory of war from the comfort of mom’s basement, but most Americans have the humility and gratitude to respect and learn from the memories of men who suffered on behalf of others. John McCain has often said he witnessed a thousand acts of bravery while he was imprisoned, andRead More →

1. Marc Bousquet’s syllabus for Internet Culture and Information Society. I’m too obsolete to teach a cyberculture class again. I’m so out of it. I don’t like  MMORPGs. I don’t particularly like social networking. At least I blog (occasionally). Bousquet’s syllabus has them view the Daily Show’s report on Second Life. It’s worth a laugh.

2. An open letter to Star Trek director JJ Abrams. This is a list of things he should NOT

Second Life, the MMORPG, is huge; stories about it pop up everywhere in the press. For instance, someone named “Stroker” just sold his “Amsterdam” site on Second Life for $50,000. Wired has an interview with Stroker. Last year, Reuters opened a virtual news bureau office on SL. Most recently, Sundance has held a virtual screening of a film from the festival. About a year and a half ago, someone told me about Second Life, and many of my cyber/VR friends have bailed from my various cyberhaunts to this site. So I got a character there, and even bought a video card to do so. ItRead More →

I got to see the Matrix Reloaded twice already in the theater. Although the film was flawed, when the final movie in the trilogy comes out, a lot of people will re-examine Reloaded and be blown away. In the first Matrix, I caught the whole the story early on, and most of my ruminations were about philosophical issues, social theory, hyperreal, yadda. It was pure brain candy. I have seen Reloaded twice now, and I still can’t figure out the plot. I have re-watched The Matrix recently, and in retrospect there are several additional cool things. For example, the Oracle tells Neo something to theRead More →