Gamification is a big idea these days. People in a variety of fields realize that games — often video games in particular — have a lot to teach us, whether it’s how to deal with a deranged computer forcing us through ever-more-dangerous tests or that bards can be spoony. When…
It took me twenty-nine years to discover that I didn’t hate pink. When I was a girl growing up, pink was the enemy. It invariably designated toys I did not want to play with, clothing I didn’t want to wear, and games that bored me. I was happier when I…
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles lied to me. At age six, I saw that cartoon and believed that pizza was the most delicious thing I could possibly imagine. Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, and Michelangelo scarfed down what looked like golden slices of warm, salty, cheesy goodness. Instead, what I got was a…
(To make my point, I’m going to explain the first fifteen minutes of Disney’s Frozen. If this would spoil you, do not read ahead.)
So I’ve been watching the first series of the BBC’s Luther on Netflix to relax between marking, writing, and lesson-planning. Brilliant loose-cannon DCI John Luther (Idris Elba) butts heads with his boss and his colleagues while trying to win back his estranged wife and not get in trouble for losing his…
Ever since I finally finished reading the books I already have, I’ve been glutting myself on all the books I’ve wanted to read for the last couple years. Which means I’ve been doing a lot of reading this month and plan to do plenty more over the rest of the…
(WARNING: Spoilers for Veronica Roth’s Divergent trilogy, J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, Katherine Paterson’s Bridge to Terabithia, C. S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia, the original Star Trek and Star Trek: the Next Generation movies, and various Sherlock Holmes stories and adaptations.) I w a r n e d y o u t h…
(But first, happy birthday to my friend Grace :) And many more!!!) Writing is a lot more difficult for me in the winter. Well, most things are a lot more difficult for me in the winter. My body just wants to sleep whenever it’s dark out, there’s a whole new…
In high school, one of our drama teachers defied us to think of counter-examples to this statement: “Every joke is about someone’s physical or emotional pain.” Slapstick, of course, is about watching other people get hurt. Reversal of expectations is often about the tacit stupidity of those not quick enough…
1.Novel-Writing II: The Revisionating. Ha ha, like I’m ever done revisionating — I mean, revising a novel or script until it’s published. And sometimes not even then. Still, as you can see…. 2. How to hem dress pants and curtains without requiring the assistance of a tailor. My aunt made…