dr. b.'s blog

I haven't posted a lot lately so I thought I'd break the silence by posting about why I have a love hate relationship with October. This is the month when all of the much awaited games start coming out for the holiday season. While there are a gazillion new big budget games coming out this month I am only in for 3. Yeah, 3 to the tune of about $200+ (damn!) In order they are:

1. Fable 2 (already playing the pub games on XBLA)
2. Fallout 3 (the game that I bought the PS3 for all of those months ago)
3. Little Big Planet (while everyone else is uber excited for this one I am still a little lukewarm, but I need something else for the PS3, right?)

In other news, if you hadn't heard it yet Ninetendo is forcing me to buy a 3rd DS. Yep, they are releasing the Nintendo DSi which is going to be thinner, have a bigger screen, improved WiFi, and a camera! Nintendo has thus far been the only company to get me to buy the same system multiple times (no matter how badly I want PSPs in various colors). Damn them!

In non-what I want for Christmas type news. Micro$oft has teamed up with the NYU system to form a Games for Learning Institute. They've got $3 million to "cover the first three years of G4LI's research, which will focus on evaluating video games as potential learning tools for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subjects at the middle-school years." Geez, how can I get down with that?? It sounds like a great project. Do you think that we can convince M$ that they need to do a separate study on Mid-West kids and start a consortium with Indiana universities?

And with that I will take my leave...for now :-)

and one of those things is Josh Groban singing the theme to The Jeffersons! Surpringingly he didn't do too bad with the theme from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air!

He just doesn't have the ethos to carry off The Jeffersons.

Very cool YouTube video on Tangential Learning in video games. Definitely something that can be shared with New Media or Computers in Language and Rhetoric course. There are a few others (by the same guy) that are interesting, like video games and sex. Definitely worth checking out.

Daisy twittered about Diigo today and that was all I needed to draw me away from what I should have been doing and into something that I would have rather have been doing. It is like del.icio.us meets Google notebook, meets instant messenger 2.0. I have been playing around with it this morning and it looks pretty cool.

They now have a free premium account just for teachers that will allows them to interact with and follow their students research. Definitely something worth checking out!

From Clancy even though she didn't tag me :-)

1. Cloth or disposable? Both, prefer cloth.
2. Breast or bottle? Bottle
3. Eczema or reflux? Reflux, and it's pretty bad.
4. Jumparoo or play mat? Playmat, she's too young for jumparoo.
5. Mommy or Daddy? Mommy, of course.
6. Sling, front carrier, or stroller? Front carrier
7. Pacifier or thumb? BINKY!
8. Bumbo seat or bouncy seat? BOUNCY, STILL TOO YOUNG FOR BUMBO
9. White noise or silence while sleeping? White noise, LOUD -- and ceiling fan
10. Crib, Pack'n'Play, or parents' bed? Pack'n'Play

As I have spent the last 2 and half months in my own newborn baby induced bliss (and sleep deprivation) with the addition of Princess Peanut to the household (no pictures posted as she is foster/adopt and still a ward of the state) I have done a piss poor job of blogging (more about the peanut later and/or via private email). What has drawn me out of my blogging hiatus (late though it may be) is the story of beautiful Rowan Santos who has been diagnosed with retinoblastoma. What makes this diagnosis so special is not only that she is the infant daughter of one of our graduate students , but that her condition was caught not by doctors but by one of her mom Megan's cyber friends who saw the tell-tale "white eye" in pictures that the two proud mamas shared.

As a new mama myself I cried when I first heard about Rowan's condition, but while she will lose her eye her prognosis is good. All of the big media outlets have picked up the story and it made the Today show today . The Santos clan is traveling from Tampa to Miami for chemo and surgery and anyone who has ever had to travel for healthcare (our brood included) knows how expensive that can be, especially when gas is 4 bucks a gallon. MWZ has spread the word that those so inclined can come together and help defray the costs for the Santos clan (and maybe buy a new buddy for Rowan)

Please consider sending a donation of ANY amount to help defray these considerable expenses. Checks can be made payable to Rowan or Marc Santos and mailed to:

SunTrust Bank, Tampa Bay
Attention Customer Service
2208 East Fowler Ave
Tampa, Fl 33612

In the memo line of the check, *please include the account number: 1000074628628* (four zeros after that first 1).

Happy blogiversary to me! It's been seven years since I started...7 years. Can you believe it? Most days I can't. Hiatus will be over soon with some news.

While I am definitely in favor of all desserts (as long as there is no mingling of fruit and chocolate) I am hoping against hope that the desserts that I am thinking about right now don't come to pass. So here goes...

The big question today is whether or not Hillary Clinton's supporters will vote for John McCain in the presidential election once Barack Obama ultimately gets the democratic presidential nomination. Now it is no secret that I have had a politicrush on Barack Obama since watching him introduce John Kerry at the Democratic National Convention in 2004. I was, at the time, looking forward to 8 years of Kerry and then 8 years of Obama, but we all know it didn't work out that way. Today we find ourselves based with a minimum of 4 more years of Bush or a minimum of 4 years of Obama. This campaign has gotten nasty quite quickly, most at the hands of the Clinton camp (regardless of whether or not she says it was without her knowledge and approval...yeah right) from Slick Willy's comparison of Obama to Jesse Jackson, to the red phone commercial (YouTube video), to the mysterious re-release of the "Muslim" dress pictures, to the "good blue collar white folks won't vote for a Negro" comments, and more recently to the Bobby Kennedy assassination comparison/comments it has been a whole batch of hatred and lies. I have lost all respect for the Clinton duo.

Folks have asked if I was voting for the African American or the woman and my answer has remained the same...I am voting for the person who most closely reflects my own political leanings and for me that was Barack Obama. It had nothing to do with the fact that he has melanin than Clinton or that I have spent the last 4 years crushing over the man, or that I am magnetically drawn to his rhetorical abilities. It has more to do with the fact that I am drawn to his policies on education, health care, energy and the environment, and several other things. There are things that Barack and I don't agree on and one day he and I may be able to sit down and chat so that I can help him see the light, but right now he just works for me.

But I digress, back to the question of whether or not Hillary supporters will switch camps and vote for McCain...I have to say that I am fed up. If, as Clinton says, the good working class white folks won't vote for McCain (or the older women or anyone else) I say that's their choice and as such they have to suffer the repercussions. If folks want to shoot themselves in the foot by voting for McCain so that they don't have to vote for an African American presidential candidate then in the end they will get what they deserve. If the last 8 years have taught me anything it's that we have no control over the political realm. Hell, sometimes the candidate that the most people vote for doesn't even win. I'd hate to have to suffer for other people's close-mindedness, but I fully recognize that this is always a possibility and say that they will get their just desserts.

As I watch the news tonight I see Clinton supporters talking about a dream team ticket that has Clinton as VP. Call me bitter, say I'm holding a grudge, or just label me cautious, but I would be hesitant to run with Senator Clinton as VP. I ain't saying she's dangerous or shady (ok, maybe I am) but I would definitely be looking to bring back food testers to the White House if I were President Obama. I'm just saying.