Ugh
The Ender’s Game trailer looks awful. Just awful. Primarily because it nearly gives away the entire plot. But it’s hard to destroy Ender’s Game any harder than Card has already by writing it.
Book out – The Centrality of Style
In an earlier post I noted that The Centrality of Style was available online; now, it is available in print.
I sent off another article today, so I’m feeling relatively productive. It’s collaborative and my first, I think, piece that is solely about professional writing, rather than the multidisciplinary stuff that I usually produce.
Exams are almost over. It’s getting hotter and the lawn needs cutting more and more. We have a mini-vacation planned, to go see Paul McCartney in Memphis later this month; then it’s back to work to teach a summer session before the real vacation begins.
Aftermath
Well, basically none of the crowdsourcing efforts of the Internet ultimately helped catch the two bombers. If anything, they complicated matters, although one could argue that they sped up slightly the release of the images of the principle suspects. There is a lesson to be learned here, though it’s not clear in my mind yet. Professionals and facts over amateurs and supposition, perhaps?
Part 2
Another photo of one of the FBI suspects emerges. I suspect this will not be the last one.
Conferences, Boston Bombers
It’s about time for me to write proposals for CCCC (May 6 deadline) and RSA (July 1 deadline). I haven’t been to either in some time and I am a little concerned at the moment, as I don’t feel I have much to propose.
This 4chan and Reddit finger-pointing stuff seems promising – creating multiple narratives out of still pictures of men with backpacks that SEEM damning. The FBI just released its own video mashup, of course (official version here at the FBI website) from what appears to be store surveillance video. It’s too early to say what will come of all this, but our ever-increasingly videographical society appears to be ready for its closeup. If the Boston bombers are caught via these means, it’ll be a simultaneous victory for justice and continuous public surveillance.
Frustration
Having this website is frustrating sometimes, because I can’t really write in detail about most of the things that I’m currently engaged in or find interesting. I’m working on an article on Luke-Acts, but posting unfinished work seems unwise. Ditto for another article on workplace documentation. I’m not concerned about ideas being pilfered, but my personal quest for perfection gets in the way.
I just finished Bioshock: Infinite, but that game is so easily spoiled that I dare not say a word about it lest some virgin wander by. Ever since I, purely by accident, told H that a certain someone killed a certain someone in a certain book, I have been trying to be careful about such sensitive information. I will simply say that it is very, very good.
In the end, I suppose, I have absolutely nothing to say at the moment, but that beats 90% of the web most days.
Simcity
It is probably too early to judge Simcity 5 still. I bought it several days after launch so I did not experience the plague of constant disconnection that most people did, but I am sensitive to such things. I think EA has done an upstanding thing in offering a free game to early buyers – I just picked out Dead Space 3, so I ended up with two new games I wanted at $30 each.
Now it is true that pathfinding is a mess. It is pathetically easy for any vehicle, especially fire trucks, to become confused. Stuck trips appear to be resolved auto-magically at some point, but poorly chosen paths are not. But this is something that is fixable. Overall the cities, while small, come alive in a way that previous entries in the series did not accomplish. I would like to see more callbacks to the original game, which I have very fond memories of, and terraforming custom levels/scenarios, but Maxis/EA still has time to add these things. Not every gaming house can be Paradox, but we can hope for and demand that level of commitment.
Arcanum and memory
I could have sworn that I had finished Arcanum ten years ago. It is becoming increasingly apparent, however, that my memory is not correct. Upon buying the game again on GOG, and playing it over the past week or so, I have come to realize that I never played through the great bulk of the game. I have completed over 24 journal pages of quests and sidequests that I never knew existed. This is a boon, certainly, for good games are hard to come by these days. I’m not sure why my memory of the game is so scattered – normally I have an encyclopedic recall for these things – but no matter.
The Centrality of Style
The Centrality of Style, edited by myself and Star Medzerian Vanguri, is now online at WAC Clearinghouse. Congratulations to all the authors! The print edition by Parlor Press will soon follow.