Cynical Idealists

Blogging the GLS conference

I’m in Madison, WI through the weekend for the Gaming + Learning + Society conference. I’ll be blogging it over at BionicTeaching. Just posted a short reflection about Passage and the future of educational gaming.

Follow My Inauguration Experience

My wife and I are attending the Inauguration on Tuesday, and we plan to head into DC tomorrow morning for a while, as well. I will be posting updates and photos online throughout the next couple days. Feel free to follow along:

Text Updates will be posted at:

http://twitter.com/cynicalidealist

Assuming the networks are not clogged, I will also be sending photos to:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/35004452@N00/sets/72157612680845827/

Here’s a set of Mii I created in honor of The Big Lebowski. They float around in the background while bowling in Wii Sports! You are welcome to download any/all via The Check Mii Out Channel.

The Dude: 8267-1981-2905
Donny: 2743-6013-6304
Maude: 3215-1512-2634
The Jesus: 5413-9361-8202
Walter: 7246-0765-3953

Jim “Bang YOUR HEEEEEAAD!!” Jim and Pete will drive you mad! 3 new panels. One new comic.

The YouTube Embedded Search Box is Very Annoying

marc:

I know that Google owns YouTube and that Google is a search company. But, having to look at a big, ugly search box every time I interact with an embedded YouTube video is really painful. I hope someone at YouTube rethinks this. I know they’re proud that we can now search all of YouTube from any embed. The thing is, I don’t actually want to search all of YouTube from any embed.

Lifehacker has a quick solution if your are embeding in your site. Of course, this is no help for others who choose to leave the serch bar…

I posted my latest Jim and Pete comic, “Karma is a Chicken”.

I posted my latest Jim and Pete comic, “The Usual Thanksgiving”.

I posted my latest Jim and Pete comic, “No Game”.

“ Isn’t it kinda gross that the bird is eating a bird?

— My wife referring to Woodstock as she watches A Charlie Brown Christmas

“ We compared the civic and political attitudes and behavior of teens who play games at least once a day, those who play games one to five times per week, and those who play games less than once a week or not at all. This investigation is motivated by concerns that children who play a great deal risk becoming socially isolated or experience other negative outcomes. On all eight indicators of civic and political engagement, we find no significant difference, positive or negative, between teens who play everyday and those who play less than once a week (after controlling for demographics and parents’ civic engagement). That is, those who are the frequent players are not any less or more likely to engage in social and civic acts than the less frequent players.

— from The Civic Engagement Research Group at Mills College. Results of a major study sponsered by The MacAurthur Foundation’s Digital Learning initiative. Game on, Gamer!