Categories
Books Gaming Library Issues Media

Orson Scott Card: the author and the work

I’ve kept up with the recent Orson Scott Card controversy in libraryland, and I respect nearly everyone who has taken a strong stance against the decision by the YALSA to award OSC the Margaret A. Edwards award for adolescent literature for 2008.

But.

I’m not sold on the controversy here.

There is no denying that OSC is a homophobe…no, that’s probably not strong enough. “Fear of homosexuality” doesn’t approach his views. OSC is a heterosexist bigot, based on his own words, and does not deserve either our respect or our patience. But the two works that are being honored, Ender’s Game and Ender’s Shadow, are not homophobic. They don’t seem to speak with the same voice as OSC in interviews. They portray strong, smart kids doing incredible things, and should stand above and beyond the idiocies of the author.

The award is given, according to the description online, in order to:

…recognizes an author’s work in helping adolescents become aware of themselves and addressing questions about their role and importance in relationships, society, and in the world.

The works do just that.

The author can be an idiot…hell, it could probably be argued that most artists of any sort are damaged in some significant way. Insanity, adultery, substance abuse, and yes, crazy beliefs…all crop up in the pantheon of artists. Just because the author is nuts doesn’t mean that the work is nuts.

Would I give OSC an award? No. Would I honor the work? Yes, I would. It’s a fine line, but otherwise I find myself having to question every piece of art by examination of the artist.

Categories
Gaming

LOL-Eliza




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Originally uploaded by griffey.

New Year’s challenge for all you funny folks: take this photo, and come up with the best LOL caption you can. Upload your photo to the site of your choice and put a link up in the comments, and I’ll choose the best one and blog it just after new years.

Why? Oh, why not…its fun!

For those who are image manipulation challenged, there’s a tool that will help you out: http://kscakes.com/LolCats/

Categories
Gaming

Happy Holidays from the Griffey clan




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Originally uploaded by griffey.

Here’s the first picture of the Griffey clan all together for the Holidays, grandchildren included.

Here’s hoping that your holiday is great.

Categories
Gaming

Eliza Rhea Griffey




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Originally uploaded by griffey.

I just realized that I’d been busy over on Brand New World, but that I hadn’t actually posted a picture here on Pattern Recognition. For the whole story, check over there.

Welcome to the world, Eliza!

Categories
Gaming

Guitar Hero III – Librarians Unite

GHIIISo what little free time I’ve had since returning from IL2007 has been spent playing Guitar Hero III for the Wii…and, no surprise, it rocks my face right off.

I don’t have any other “new” game consoles, so this is my first sustained playing of any of the Guitar Hero games. I completely see why this franchise has done so well…it really feels like playing music, even though I know I’m just mashing buttons.

Well, for anyone out there that I know with both a Wii and GHIII, at some point I’d love to try the wifi connection part of the game. If you missed it earlier, my Wii friend code is:

4523 9501 6905 5000

Leave yours in the comments, and we’ll hook up sometime and shred.

As Beth pointed out in the comments, there is a separate code for friends in GHIII. Nintendo, for all the great games and the system, just gets Internet stuff so wrong. Anyway, my code is:

4253 1688 4710

Categories
3D Printing Digital Culture Gaming Personal

Fabjectory

Check THIS out:

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It’s Mii!

A long time ago, I blogged about a company who would take your Second Life avatar, and create a little 3d render of it using a 3d printing process. Then, a bit later, I blogged about getting a Wii.

Unbeknownst to me, the president of the company, Fabjectory, had noticed my blog posting, and had been reading me (or at least skimming my feed) since then. When he saw I got a Wii he emailed me to let me know that Fabjectory was now making mini-statues of Mii’s, and he offered to make me one gratis. After a few emails back and forth to assure me he wasn’t joking, and for me to assure him that I wasn’t guaranteeing that I’d blog about it, etc…I took him up on it.

The process was really simple: for a Mii, you just take a few full-body shots of your Mii right off the TV screen. You can do that from the Mii edit screen…here are the two I sent in:

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From that, the Fabjectory guys recreated my Mii, printed it using a Z-corp color 3d printer, and shipped it my way. My only negative about the process was that my initial discussion with them was in March, and while I checked in a few times to make sure the photos came through ok, it’s August now…better than 4 months since my initial order. Still, it’s a freebie, and almost certainly wasn’t given the priority that a paying customer would be given.

I’m really impressed with the detail of the fig…it’s so well done, with the colors being dead-on. Overall, it’s just amazing to see this once virtual piece of me now as a physical item. I would definitely recommend this as a cool gift…Betsy nearly fell over when I gave her the one of Mii, and I think it will be quite cute on her desk at work. My fig is one of the 3 inch figures, and at a retail of $50 is a bit on the steep side to order on a whim. On the other hand, it’s a great little object d’ arte, and if you’ve gotten as many comments on your Mii as I have, it might be a small price to pay.

Here’s some detail shots of the figure:

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I’d recommend Fabjectory after seeing the quality of the work, and just the intrinsic coolness of holding your Mii. I’m considering pushing my Dean to pony up for a SketchUp model of the new library, once the plans are finalized…how cool would it be to show off a model to the students?

Categories
Gaming Monkeys Personal The Living Dead

At GenCon

GenConSo this weekend is my annual pilgrimage to Indianapolis to GenCon. This may be my last until Eliza gets big enough to want to go with me…but it’ll be great if that happens!

I know that Josh Neff has done the GenCon thing…with all the rage around gaming librarians, any other librarians hitting the largest gaming convention in the world?

Categories
Gaming Personal

Still here!

Yep, I’m still kicking around. Major training going on at the new job…still going well, and I’m starting to feel more and more like a part of the library.

Update on Origins (much fun, and I’m on my own card now!) and more job updates to come.

Categories
Gaming Personal

Off to Origins

I’ll be at the Origins game Fair for the next couple of days…possible posts from there, but it may be a day or so before I get back on.

See ya all soon!

Categories
Digital Culture Gaming Media

Cthulhu! Skating rinks!

Here’s page two of the Penny Arcade Christmas Special.

Page 2