@profmikesell.bsky.social
English Prof, Indiana U of PA • Currently writing 'Playful Literature: Stories, Games, Theories' • The Digital Storytelling Project • Teaching focused on Decision Education, Literary Study, and Game Design • Unionized Faculty (APSCUF)
Emma Stone really working to get that smile over the fillers and Botox.
[They do not move.]
Beckett was a tantric guy
There are some strange, unsettling, even mind-altering nooks and crannies to be found in the Digital Humanities, but I can personally guarantee nothing is more, uh, more, than the Twine storygames constructed by two dozen gifted middle-schoolers.
Yes, my child, my "aura" is indeed "crazy."
Interesting question! For sure, an archetype, but one that enables a kind of "organizational imaginary" as much as being manifested by dint of the gathering. Is the platform producing a new kind of "table"? Yes. But when I GM, I also try to capture the conventional table when measurement matters.
I do! I like to think of it as a performative, something that is invoked and that, by way of that invocation, serves to organize feelings, mechanics, and community. (I say this as someone who plays almost exclusively via Zoom or Discord.)
do you ever consider the table in table top role playing games
One of those movies that is 90% to the credit of the location. An exemplary mid-century movie.
Singing this to the tune of L’Internationale
Crocus boy
I'm sorry ma'am, but your son perished on Kharg Island in a valiant effort to create Wii Bowling meme videos for the White House X account. In the face of danger, he was not cringe; he was based to his last breath. Please have this commemorative Epic Fury challenge coin. Yes that's Punisher, ma'am
New FUNDED PhD opportunity with me, @doktornick.bsky.social, and @bomlab.bsky.social on 'Playing in Public: Game-Based Interventions for Sustainability, Community and Environmental Engagement' as part of the CreaTech Frontiers CDA scheme!
Deadline: 10 April
Details: www.bcu.ac.uk/research/our...
Morning bun from Madeleine Bakery, Pittsburgh. Croissant twist with citrus sugar. Perfect.
Daniella Shreir reviews Chantal Akerman's writings and films.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
I am old enough to remember the vitriol directed at random humanities scholars' work complaining about the totalizing tendencies of capitalism to corrupt, colonize, or co-opt everything. I also lived long enough to read long term coverage of the literal attempt to privatize thinking in the newspaper
Butlerian Jihad but the enemy is vibe coding.
Tristan + Isolde
(2015, Choreography, Concept, and Staging, David Dawson)
Well, no and yes. On the no side, as I was reading, I was simply checking with Google Scholar searches using the writer’s own key terms. On the yes side, it’s a lot of work to integrate those, especially in work that engages multiple fields.
I AM HORROR
A global archive documenting creators of color shaping the horror genre.
The archive begins March 15.
Submissions open the same day.
#NightTideMag
👻 📽️ 📺 🎭 📚 🌎
Archive matters.
Record matters.
I'm delighted to be keynoting next Thursday at the Online Symposium "Videogame Preservation: Practices and Approaches" organised by the Bodleian Libraries @bodleian.ox.ac.uk. I will present on "Play It Again" & the #AusEAASI network. @aarnet.edu.au
www.digitalscholarship.ox.ac.uk/event/videog...
The U.S. is a kleptocracy. When we failed to prosecute the bankers and policy-makers responsible for the 2008 financial crisis, we ensured systemic looting.
Uggh. Just completed a review of a 120k-word manuscript and had to advise rejection. So much effort, such intelligence, but almost completely lacking reference to other work on the subject. Absent a sense of the conversation, how can I understand what you want to contribute? Double uggh.
There are very few things from my 1980s teenage years that continue to provide me undiluted geek delight. The final credits scene from 'Buckaroo Banzai' is one of them. The energy of the cast (little Damon Hines leading the charge), the costumes by Aggie Guerard Rodgers! youtu.be/MAgnTREVCXk?...
That's about half of what it cost for USAID for a whole year www.nytimes.com/live/2026/03...
Get brav?
$11.3 billion could cover any of the following for a full year:
-1.4 million people on Medicaid
-19 million kids getting free school lunches
-1.4 million people getting affordable housing
-1.1 million hungry seniors fed
-0.8 million children given free child care
Exactly this:
If you'd like to learn more about our project, please DM me! It's been so much fun working with our teaching partners for the last 10 years to integrate game design into ELA classes and getting students to think about their own choices in conversation with those of literary characters.
Thrilled to share with you that I'm the recipient of $255k grant to study the changes in high-school students' understanding of decision-making after experiencing a unit built around Decision Education, standards-based literary study, and game design! alliancefordecisioneducation.org/2025-researc...
