God of War

When you step into the middle of a franchise, whether it's written, on screen, or in a video game, you run the risk of not understanding references to past events. Within a couple of minutes of playing God of War, I watched the main character, Kratos, fiddle with his arm wrappings. There was a strong sense of…

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Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice

I've written video-game reviews from time to time, but this is the first one for which I'm giving a trigger warning: discussion of severe mental health issues. Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice is an unusual video game in that the lead character is psychotic. I'm not using the term in its popular (and incorrect) sense of meaning "psychopath." Senua…

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The Colors of the Qabalah

I've just finished my first color design project for my Shapeways shop, Kickin' Wiccan. It proved to be challenging in ways I did not expect. My goal was to create a full-color three-dimensional model of the Tree of Life. For anyone not familiar with the Tree of Life, it's the best-known design from the Jewish mystical interpretation…

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Why they pay me

Today, a student comes into my office. This is one of the physics summer students who are here as a result of a nation-wide selection for the brightest. Here's the exchange: "I can't run GIMP on the server." "Did you try typing 'gimp' on the command line?" "I did, and it didn't work." I sigh, and start…

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Spreading the word

Since I had to cancel my trip, I’ve decided to spend much of my vacation working on my on-line Wiccan jewelry shop. The store, “The Kickin’ Wiccan,” is a storefront on Shapeways, a 3D printing service. A shopper can pick one of my designs, choose the size if it’s a ring, maybe choose the magical symbol on…

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A light at the end of the transcription tunnel?

According to David Pogue, the latest version of Dragon Dictate is capable of transcribing interviews. Based on the example in the article, the results are limited. Still, it offers hope that by the time I'll need it for the biography, there'll be some form of software that will let me turn 100+ hours of interviews into text…

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