Writer, Agilist, Elder Geek
As I try and analyze where the game industry is going and what it means for your career, Gabe Newell of Valve came down from Asgard to give us his insights on gaming at the DICE summit. He certainly had a ton of insights to share, and I thought I’d take time to deconstruct what he said.
Fortunately arstechnica has their usual roundup here, so let’s look at the highlights.
Freedom of the press is important to any democracy and indeed functional society. We take it for granted in America, only discussing it in between our complaints about how awful news has gotten.
But as newspapers fade, as news changes (and merges with entertainment), as blogging alters what journalism is, then what is the press? Certainly by broad definition there’s a lot more of it, and we often see laws disrespecting traditional press.
As “press” evolves, and has it’s conflict (which often seem to be someone-versus-bloggers), as entertainment and ratings keeps driving news (often to insanity), the question of what is the press and what freedom means will keep coming up. Sadly, I expect them to come up after horrible occurrences and bad laws, but come up they will.
Of course it all comes down to freedom period. But that’s a subject that is thornier than many realize, and too often people are a bit narrow on that whole freedom thing beyond their own concerns.
Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach. He blogs on careers at http://www.fantopro.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.
My step-grandmother passed away at 98.
Those are amazing words to say because few people LIVE to 98. Wanda in fact lived on her own until 96. She only stopped driving a few years before that.
It’s funny, the stereotype of someone who lives to a ripe old age is one of some ornery old person out of a sitcom. Wanda was quite the opposite, polite and genteel and quiet. Strong-willed, but strong more like a flow of water than iron – and very enduring.
She broke a door down with an axe to get to her husband when he had a heart attack. I was young then, and it was a reminder of just how much there was to the woman. The admiration stayed with me.
She got to live to 98, see her great-grandchildren grow to adulthood. She was alive through wars and moon landings, the internet revolution and the Civil Rights movement. She got to see the century that made the US what it is. Quiet, and unassuming, loving wife and mother, she saw all of that, and kept going, raising a family and their families, keeping it all together.
I feel sad seeing her pass. I’m on the other side of the country so I feel like I should have been there. I feel sad for everyone missing her, the huge family that she was matriarch of. I feel sad to see a life end.
But what a life. What things to see. What a remarkable woman, wife, and mother, grandmother, and great grandmother.
Here’s to you, Grandma Hinkle. 98 years, and every year worth it.
– Steve, your loving Grandson