The economy of gaming
Jesse Schell, professor at Carnegie Mellon University, presented “Design Outside the Box” at the DICE Summit 2010, held February 17-19, hosted by the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences. I found it through Ze Frank. First Schell explains how the new generation of online games work. He explains how surprised game designers are that non-traditional […]
Lexicophiles Top 100 Language Blogs
Some very kind reader has nominated the undeserving Island Weekly in the Lexicophiles Top 100 Language Blogs 2010 in the category for Language Teaching. Thank you, bless you, light of my life, and may you live forever, as they say in the best fairy tales. These friendly annual nominations are very kind pats on the […]
Melissa Laveaux: Scissors + Evil
This mesmerizing singer-songwriter from Canada is just travelling through Europe. Here’s the first song on her wonderful 2009 album, Camphor and Copper. I’ve included the lyrics from the booklet and added the additional third verse she sings here. If you hear different words than I did, please correct them. She’s easier to understand on the […]
Grammar Guru: Mother’s Day or Mothers’ Day?
What do we say … and why: Mother’s Day or Mothers’ Day? Is it the same or different in the other languages you know? Here are some great ideas for thinking about this holiday in an English class. Sean Banville has a nice holiday lesson on it.
My dad
My dad died 15 years ago yesterday. He came down with Parkinson and diabetes just as I was finishing school in 1981. That very long summer, from May to September, I got a job at the company he’d begun working for a few years earlier, a big computer consultancy, and had the fun of commuting […]
America 100 years ago on film
The Library of Congress a few days ago uploaded a playlist to its YouTube channel entitled America at Work, America at Leisure, containing 150 motion pictures from 1894 to 1915. “Highlights include films of the United States Postal Service from 1903, cattle breeding, fire fighters, ice manufacturing, logging, calisthenic and gymnastic exercises in schools, amusement […]
Jimmie Cliff: Sitting here in limbo
My big brother Larry first played me Jimmy Cliff in 1974 after watching The Harder They Come, the movie whose soundtrack introduced so many people to reggae. His taste in music has certainly educated mine. I’m thinking of him and the situation of being in limbo in between life phases, even as we go about […]
