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Tag: Life and Living It

“My Team Sucked” — Denying Good Play In MMOs

Published by MichelV69 on February 17, 2017

Post Views: 1,304 The other evening I was playing one of my favourite MMOs (Massively Multiplayer Online game), “World of Warships“.  Over the dozen or so matches I played, there were three really outstanding games.  Everything on my team went well — good communication, skillful play, good sportsmanship and smart tactics. In all three matches, someone on the other team made a statement like along the lines of VBG.  My team sucked.  They played about as well as a bunch of potatoes. “VBG” is online short hand for “very bad game“;  it’s the polar opposite of the ubiquitous “GG”, or “Good Game“.  “GG” is like shaking hands with the other team at the end of a bowling match or a hockey game.  It’s being a gracious winner and…

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Re-thinking education

Published by MichelV69 on October 29, 2013

Post Views: 617 I want to have a talk with you about education. To have that talk, I need you to accept that a few people who are smarter than I am have noticed something is a bit … wrong Watch these videos, and then we’ll talk: http://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_build_a_school_in_the_cloud.html http://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_the_child_driven_education.html  (some duplication from previous link, but still important) http://www.ted.com/talks/geoffrey_canada_our_failing_schools_enough_is_enough.html http://youtu.be/y_ZmM7zPLyI Heady stuff, yes? The issue as I see it is the habit of molding the student to the course material, instead of making the material suit the student. The Zombie Empire Replacement Part System continues to shamble along. Now I know that some folks think that asking a teacher to put together an individual teaching pamphlet for each student and attempting to implement it for a standard classroom of…

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Viva La Revolution – No, Really

Published by MichelV69 on May 16, 2013

Post Views: 514 The new normal So “it has begun” as the saying goes. Right now, I am living on the north shore of Prince Edward Island, Canada. There are four of us living in a wonderfully large house, and all of us in one fashion or another want to do something with the next ten years of our lives. I run a reasonably successful telecom business, and I am an internationally published author. I am working as part of an RPG game development effort. I have served with Her Majesty’s Royal Canadian Navy in a theatre of war. I have competed at an international level in sword fighting. I have some awesome friends that I am honored to know. Someone might well argue that I have “done” plenty and do…

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Questions From The Audience – July 4th, 2012

Published by MichelV69 on July 4, 2012

Post Views: 180 “With the increasing popularity of steampunk, there seems to be some backlash from some of the more old-school steampunk enthusiasts, who resent the idea of ‘just paint something sepia and put some gears on it — steampunk!’ If you have any thoughts on that, I’d love to hear them.” — Daniel Swensen Hold onto your tophats, gentlemen, and clutch your parasols, ladies, because I am afraid I have to shock you all with the revelation that we have all been here before. Seriously. One of my favorite observations on human nature is that there is no more conservative a person than a rebel the day after winning the revolution. Fandom organizations, based on my own personal observations thus far, tend to bear this out.  The…

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Hey you… stop and think about The End Of (Your) Days

Published by MichelV69 on May 8, 2012

Post Views: 370 My wonderfully hard-working vendor rep at Avaya, Danielle Mellado, sent me this gem as part of her .SIG.  It actually caught me hard enough I stopped and re-read it a couple of times while thinking about it.  At that point, I felt it was well worth sharing: When you are in the final days of your life, what will you want? .. Will you hug that college degree in the walnut frame? Will you ask to be carried to the garage so you can sit in your car? Will you find comfort in rereading your financial statement? Of course not. What will matter then will be people. If relationships will matter most then, shouldn’t they matter most now?  — Max Lucado This pretty much ties in…

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Looking over my shoulder, then looking ahead

Published by MichelV69 on January 3, 2012

Post Views: 196 So the turn of the year was a very eventful period for me. The week before Christmas had my son down to visit from his school-year home with his mother in Montreal, QC. I hadn’t really seen him beyond MMORPGs, Facebook and a couple of phone calls. Long Distance/ Instant Messenger -isn’t- as good as being there. I miss him, and I’m doing my best for him, but it’s hard. However, it is the arrangement he felt would work best, so I’m okay with it. The same period also saw the release of my first novel, “The Sauder Diaries – By Any Other Name”. It is a Steampunk pirate adventure romance novel which took me about 4 or 5 months to write in my spare…

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