Ken Newquist's Blog at Lafayette College
When I was a kid I used to love going to summer camp. Usually it was 4-H campaign, where I’d spend a week in Beemerville, NJ building model rockets, though I also went to Space Camp. Twice. Yes, I was a big nerd. Thirty-odd years later, I’m still a big nerd, but instead of building … Read more
The first book on my summer reading list is Words of Radiance, the sequel to Brandon Sanderson’s The Way of Kings. It’s an epic fantasy novel set in the world of Roshar, a planet ravaged by mystical storms, whose people were abandoned by their arcane defenders generations ago. Now a terrible danger — The Last Desolation — threats the … Read more
Moodle is hitting Macalester College in a big way in June. First, the Collaborative Liberal Arts Moodle Project (CLAMP) is hosting it’s first ever Moodle User Group meeting (or “MUG”) at the St. Paul, MN college. The MUG runs June 23-24, 2014 and features a packed schedule focusing on the pedagogical uses of Moodle. Immediately after the … Read more
Qapla. Dah tlhingan hol mu ghom a dalegh. Qawhaqvam chenmohlu di wiqipe diya ohvad ponglu. Ach jinmolvamvad Saghbe law tlhingan hol, dis, oh mevmohlu. Ach dis jar wa mahcha dich wikia jinmoldaq vihta. Qapla. Dah tlhingan hol mu ghom a dalegh. Qawhaqvam chenmohlu di wiqipe diya ohvad ponglu. Ach jinmolvamvad Saghbe law tlhingan hol, dis, … Read more
A Darkling Sea by James Cambias is a story of first contact between humanity and a seemingly primitive race of intelligent crustaceans living in the world ocean of a Europa-like moon. Europa’s fascinated me ever since I read 2010: Odyssey Two by Arthur C. Clarke, and that fascination as only grown as we’ve learned more … Read more
The Collaborative Liberal Arts Moodle Project (CLAMP) is hosting its first-ever Moodle User Group meeting at Macalester College, in St. Paul, MN on June 23-24, 2014. Learn more at the MUG website or submit a response to the call for papers.
I’ve been on a military sf/space opera jag for a while, so I decided to try something new. The Creative Fire focuses on a young woman named Ruby and her tightly-regimented life onboard a generational starship. It’s inspired by the life of Eva Perón. It’s apparently a quasi-YA scifi novel somewhat reminiscent of the The Hunger Games. I think it’ll … Read more
My Picture of the Day project is slowly moving forward. I’m not hitting it with nearly the frequency that’s needed (as in actually taking a picture a day) but I’ve managed to snap a few good shots over the last month or so, including this post’s featured image of a foggy, chair-filled quad at Lafayette.
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline is an homage to videogames and 1980s pop culture, set in a dystopian cyberpunk future. The audio book is read by Wil Wheaton.