Children never forget

For this reason it was important what one said, and what one did, and it was a relief when they went to bed.

Hooked to a machine.

Do you sit down and read 60 pages of To the Lighthouse?

Or do you sit down and grade a couple dozen exams?

You read To the Lighthouse.

Big Breasts and Badasses: The Dividing Line of Gender Representation in Gaming

This post emerged as a result of my fascination with a mechanic in a boardgame that I played recently, the Eurogame Bora Bora, that concerned differing outcomes for activating male and female "workers" in the game. Eurogames often include abstracted forms of people that serve as agents of action in the game. However, rarely are such pieces marked for gender.

All of that got me thinking a bit more about gender markers in digital spaces. Hence, my, perhaps, absurd, but hopefully "provocative enough to get people clicking" thesis "that the new Lara Croft might be the best example of androgyny in gaming."

Big Breasts and Badasses: The Dividing Line of Gender Representation in Gaming

It's kiss or kill

I could weep

Rek'Sai Isn't a Dude, Dude

One more piece of evidence that I frequently play video games more like an anthropologist than I do like a gamer.

Maybe I'm playing wrong?

Rek'Sai Isn't a Dude, Dude

Moving Pixels Podcast: The Greatest Couples in Video Games

The greatest couple in video games is really Walt the dog from Valiant Hearts and everyone else that he meets. However, here are a few additional thoughts on notable examples of digital love:

Moving Pixels Podcast: The Greatest Couples in Video Games

Twelfth of Never

A Brief History of Crime

Occasionally a title for an essay occurs to me that makes me then want to write an essay that justifies that title. This is the case with "A Brief History of Crime." The phrase popped into my head, and then I realized that I could write an essay on the history of criminal motivation in Grand Theft Auto and make a point as a result of doing so.

A Brief History of Crime

I ran into Dorian Gray earlier today

I was exiting a building, and his back was to me. He turned, and I became aware of the most beautiful boy I had ever seen. He had longish wavy, blonde hair and a lovely mouth.

I hated him immediately.

I live much of the time in the past.

I spend a fair amount of time in the future.

I am very, very seldom in the present.

I think that I am doing something terribly wrong.

(An addendum: Mostly, the few times that I do spend in the present are when I am in a classroom. I don't "think" when I teach. I just am. I grapple with what is in front of me and nothing more. My thoughts don't intrude there.).

(I'd insert the scene from I Heart Huckabees in which Mark Wahlberg hits himself in the face with a dodgeball repeatedly, but I can't find it on YouTube. Oh, the humanity.).

The Butterfly Project

The Butterfly Project is an organization in Manila that takes in young girls that are victims of rape. As the name implies, it is an organization about transformation, moving girls away from their past and towards a new future. I support this organization and highly recommend anyone to do so.

While I don't feel strongly about their current campaign's indictment of 50 Shades of Gray (I'll be "boycotting" the film anyway, but that's simply because I think its material is garbage), they are correct that hurting girls isn't sexy, and, again, I think donating to their cause is an excellent use of resources. These people are doing something important for other people.

My prayers are with them and with the girls that they help.

The Butterfly Project

I can relate

Witch Hunt: The Elegance of Orchestrating Chaos

My thoughts on Witch Hunt, a tower defense game with only one tower.

(Play it. It's great.).

Witch Hunt: The Elegance of Orchestrating Chaos

Moving Pixels Podcast: Investigating Ethan Carter

This week we discuss one of the games of 2014 that I enjoyed a great deal, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter:

Moving Pixels Podcast: Investigating Ethan Carter