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Participate in a collective storytelling challenge.

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Often, as people imagine future changes that lead to a better world, they start by imagining a crisis -- something that forces existing precarious circumstances to their breaking point, causing people to come together and try something different. Right now, our world is confronting a painful health crisis of unprecedented proportions and it is predicted it will be followed by an economic crisis of the same scope and scale. Recognizing this, let's use this moment to initiate a process of reflection and intervention and bring our imaginative selves to the realities we face today.

Draw on what inspires you, respond to our prompt, and contribute to a collective brainstorm that taps our imagination at a time when imagining takes courage. All responses will become part of 2060: Reflections from the Future, a public and shared collection that connects our current hopes, concerns, and aspirations. Artists, thinkers, and community leaders working in various fields and formats with then also bring our collective visions to life.

Think about the current moment, your situation and what you see around you - your fears and concerns. Take a deep breath. Inhale. Exhale. Now think about something that inspires you. This could be a story from anywhere (popular culture, folklore, faith, childhood, etc.). It could be non-fiction, fiction or even fantasy. It could be something you have noticed happening around you recently. It could be a person in your life. Hold on to your inspiration as you start to turn to the future. Imagine it is now the year 2060, that is 40 years from now and the world is as you would like it to be. What's possible? What could this future world look like? What are you curious about? What could it feel like? Imagine how people may live, engage, move around, learn, communicate, take care of themselves etc.. Imagine how things work and are organized.

Now, answer these questions create your response and add to the brainstorm:

Think your hopes for 2060. Set the scene by describing your future world briefly.
What are three keywords that you would want to have define this future world?
What is a key thing that has changed between 2020 and 2060? And, why?
What will people want to remember when they think back on 2020?
What story, thing, event, or person inspires you? Why?

COMPOSE YOUR RESPONSE

Here are some ideas about what you could do to respond (mixing and matching is welcome):

You can answer our questions directly,
You can author a short creative response based on our prompts, and/or
You can create a scenario inspired by these prompts.

We welcome participation at all levels - short, long, simple or complex.

Share your response in any format you like - write, draw, record audio, make a short video (anything else works too, but note that the google form submission option only supports text and links).

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Often, as people imagine future changes that lead to a better world, they start by imagining a crisis -- something that forces existing precarious circumstances to their breaking point, causing people to come together and try something different.

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Austin Kleon of Blackout Poetry fame (ENG 401ers, you know this) has made 30 Quaranzines. Check'em out, make your own, and share'em here.

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I made 30 zines in the first four weeks of our quarantine. Here they all are, with links to read them: 1. ONE HUNDRED AND ONE FAMOUS POEMS 2. ONE FAMOUS POEM &

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Join us in our virtual “movie club” talk about Disney's Frozen II. Watch the movie beforehand, have popcorn ready for our conversations, and let’s spend some time talking about Frozen II and its contributions to Disney’s legacy of public pedagogy.

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Game Studies Group
The Games Studies Group is a new student organization that is dedicated to, well, video games! But you don’t have to be a gamer to join us! We’ve been using Discord to keep in touch, and we’ve had some pretty awesome conversations!

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Hello everyone! Many of you have already heard me talk about the Hattiesburg Public Library, but for those of you who have not, the library has many digital resources available to you for free! If you don't have a library card yet or have not set up your online accounts, you can e-mail them, and they will help set you up. Their FAQ page is here! If you are not living in the Hattiesburg/Petal area, check your local library's page to see what they offer!

Also, I am pretty sure that Scribd is still offering a 30 day free trial to first time subscribers, no credit card required. They have a large library of e-books and audiobooks, including some pretty new releases. The blog post explaining the offer and with the link is here!

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The National Theatre in London is showing filmed versions of some recent stage shows on YouTube for free! I'm so excited to watch the stage adaptation of my favorite novel, Jane Eyre. It's available to watch from 1 PM (Hattiesburg time) on April 9 until April 16!!

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Hi everyone! I write for a blog and cohost a podcast called Book Squad Goals. I recently wrote about how Animal Crossing has helped me during this time of isolation, and thought maybe you’d like to read!

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Nintendo's Animal Crossing has charmed gamers since 2001, when the first installment was released. Created by Katsuya Eguchi (who also had a hand in such cute games as Yoshi's Story), each game in the series lets the player create an avatar to represent themselves in a world filled with anthropomorphic, cute animals. Responsible for maintaining the town and keeping residents happy, the player must make friends with the various residents of the town, who are free to move in and out as they please. The attraction of the game comes from a collector mentality; the player can choose to work on a museum that collects the various fish, bugs, and fossils available throughout the game.

When I was in middle school, my sisters and I spent Saturdays in front of the television, gleefully eating sugary cereal and making detailed lists of tasks to complete in our village. We took town organization to a new level, constructing a carefully scaffolded plan to make our town the best it could be. Back then, our goal wasn't to get the perfect town fruit, have the cutest town villagers, or collect all the furniture. We wanted to build a home and a town that we liked, regardless of how rare the components were.

As an adult, I've played other Animal Crossing games, but I've never recaptured that feeling I had when I was younger. I wanted to time travel (where you reset the system's clock to trick the game into thinking it's a different day), get the best furniture, collect all the things. I didn't really care about the village itself, just the things I could put in it. And really, I didn't have time to dedicate to playing a slow-paced slice of life game. I was working on a PhD.

A couple of weeks ago, Animal Crossing: New Horizons was released for the Nintendo Switch. It arrived at an opportune time: the president had just declared a 15 day self isolation for the entire country in order to slow the spread of COVID-19. I'd already pre-ordered New Horizons, because I do love the franchise, but I wasn't sure what to expect. I knew I'd have a lot of time with the game, since all my teaching had gone online for the rest of the semester, but I didn't know how much it would soothe me during what has turned out to be a time of high anxiety. I recognize the privilege in being able to say that-the privilege to have access to not only a Switch, but a new game for it, and time to play, as well as a job that can be done from home. That being said, I'm not alone in finding a peculiar comfort in Animal Crossing.

There are many great reviews out there of the game, but I'm not here to argue the merits of it as a game. Instead, I want to explain why it's the perfect game for this quarantine season, and perhaps an especially perfect game for those who deal with anxiety.

1. It forces you to slow down and breathe.

Animal Crossing takes place in real time. If it's 9 AM in the real world, it's 9 AM in your town. If you're playing by the rules set forth in the game, and not time traveling by resetting the clock on your Switch, sometimes you just have to wait on things. You're building a shop that won't be open until tomorrow? Well, you'll just have to wait for tomorrow. The game forces you to wait for things and find inventive ways to pass the time in the meanwhile-or put the game down entirely to pursue something in the real world. By mandating a slow pace, the game forces players to stop and breathe for a moment. There's no breakneck pace to keep up with-sometimes there's not even anything you can do except wait! Of course, you can always fish, catch bugs, harvest materials, etc.. But you aren't the master of time, just like in real life.

2. It lets you set goals and build towards them slowly, day by day.

When I'm feeling anxious or down, it helps me to have something to look forward to, even if it's a small thing like getting coffee with a friend or going to see a movie. Unfortunately, all of the things that I'd usually look forward to are cancelled for the time being. That concert I got tickets for a few months ago (for Orville Peck, one of my favorite things of 2019)? Show postponed. Coffee or lunch out? Cancelled. Going grocery shopping? Nope, not unless you have a good reason to. My graduation (for my PhD, which I've been working on for seven years)? Nah, cancelled. Engagement activities like pictures and showers? Nope! In many ways, New Horizons has given me things to look forward to, as silly as that sounds. Most recently, I had to wait for K.K. Slider to come to my town to perform a concert for my citizens. I worked hard to get my island just right so he'd want to come visit, and I felt relief and happiness when I unlocked the special event. I didn't rush it, I just worked towards it, and it gave me something fun to look forward to. We had our concert around 11AM, and he played a new song (the theme of the game) for all the town's villagers. It was oddly touching to stand there with all my animal friends when my real life friends feel so far away.

3. It is filled with kind characters. And speaking of those animal friends, they're so sweet and cute.

A lot of Animal Crossing's appeal is its character design. Each animal has their own personality, with some obsessed with fitness (and muscles), some seeking fame as a popstar, and some creating adorable nicknames for you, their new favorite person. The animals are adorable, and they're constantly trying to help me out by giving me DIY recipes, furniture, and clothes. They also interact with each other more than I remember from previous games. I walked into my town square to find two villagers having an impromptu concert, singing joyously to no one in particular. New Horizons makes the island world seem real, and it makes its animal inhabitants seem to have rich inner lives-even though I know it's just code and presets.

4. There's no pressure to complete things.

Though many people have griped about Tom Nook-the owner of, well, everything in Animal Crossing, I argue that he's actually a very kind businessman that just wants good things for his home. As you move through different activities in the game, you're offered to do things like expand your home or improve the infrastructure of the island-all for a small price from Tom Nook, who's willing to front you the money. However, Nook never charges interest on these loans, no matter how extravagant they are, and he never forces the player to make any changes that require a loan (aside from your initial move-in fee). If you don't want to complete your house upgrades, you don't have to. Heck, if you don't want to do things like build a museum, I guess you don't have to! There's no pressure from the game itself to move you forward in a preset narrative.

5. You can connect in new ways.

Like I mentioned earlier, we're living in a weird time where most of us are separated from our friends and other loved ones. New Horizons has surprisingly added a new way to connect with friends by including a multiplayer feature where you can visit others' islands and interact with them. I've heard of folks participating in rounds of musical chairs, stargazing, or just stopping by at a friend's place to have a chat. The world has suddenly embraced technology as a means of staying in touch with loved ones, but a Zoom call or Google Hangout session doesn't feel the same as actually getting to participate in an activity. New Horizons allows players to interact in a virtual world where you can not only talk, but go on a walk together. Not only see each other, but look up at the stars. That's something I took advantage of before this period of isolation, and something that gaming has helped me remember and look forward to again.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is available now on the Nintendo Switch. If you want to come to MY island, my friend code is SW-4618-0757-5586!

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Why Animal Crossing is the Perfect Quarantine Escape - BookSquadGoals

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Nintendo's Animal Crossing has charmed gamers since 2001, when the first installment was released.

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I found a wine named Canvas. It made me strangely happy.

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This organization is pretty cool, and I recently made a small donation to it because a friend from the Boston area made my family masks and sent them to us as a surprise in the mail

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In settings where facemasks are not available, HCP might use homemade masks (e.g. bandana, scarf) for care of patients with COVID-19 as a last resort. However, homemade masks are not considered PPE, since their capability to protect HCP is unknown. Homemade masks should ideally be used in combination with a face shield that covers the entire front (that extends to chin or below) and sides of the face.

CDC, Crisis Capacity Strategies section

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In settings where facemasks are not available, HCP might use homemade masks (e.g. bandana, scarf) for care of patients with COVID-19 as a last resort. However, homemade masks are not considered PPE, since their capability to protect HCP is unknown.

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If you like Hamilton (and even if you don't), you've got to check this out. Especially min. 8:25-16:00.

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Hamilton Cast Zoom Surprise: Some Good News with John Krasinski (Ep. 2)

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My ENG 203 World Lit class just finished reading Basho's Narrow Road to the Deep North. If you like Basho's haiku, you might enjoy this work of e-literature inspired by his most famous haiku, "The Old Pond."

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Basho's Frogger, like the haiku upon which it is based, is a modestly-sized piece, consisting of a title and three words, and in the best tradition of Toronto-style concrete poetry, it is predicated on the elaboration of a simple visual pun. However, its simplicity is highly suggestive, as each play-through produces an infinitesimal change in the outcome of the text, which never itself changes. One wonders what this poem has to say about paranoiac reading styles by the bleary-eyed addict in the salad days of the arcades (video game, not Paris). JABBER enters from the opposite direction-rather than three words, there are numberless combinations based on a few etymological roots-but, once again, Hennessy invokes the paranoiac style, as this "engine," depending on the mental state of the reader, appears to be the tidal pool into which future lexicographers will wish they could have peered.

Author description: Matsuo Basho, the inventor of Haiku, penned the following poem (translation R. H. Blyth): "The old pond / A frog jumps in / The sound of water." A few hundred years later, the concrete poet dom silvester houédard offered his rendition: "pond / frog / plop." Fifty years after that, a Zen video game appearerd celebrating one of the most famous haiku. Basho's Frogger was produced as a response to derek beaulieu and Gary Barwin's Frogments from the Frag Pool, a book of Basho translations. JABBER produces nonsense words that sound like English words, in the way that the portmanteau words from Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky" sound like English words. When a letter comes into contact with another letter or group of letters, a calculation occurs to determine whether they bond according to the likelihood that they would appear contiguously in the English lexicon. Clusters of letters accumulate to form words, which results in a dynamic nonsense word sound poem floating around on the screen with each iteration of the generator. JABBER realises a linguistic chemistry with letters as atoms and words as molecules.

Instructions: Click on the BEGIN button to select work.

Previous publication: 2000.
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License.

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Basho's Frogger, like the haiku upon which it is based, is a modestly-sized piece, consisting of a title and three words, and in the best tradition of Toronto-style concrete poetry, it is predicated on the elaboration of a simple visual pun.

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To homeschool, or not to homeschool, that is the question. My answer: makeshift go karts in the rain.

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Has anyone else enjoyed studying at home with their pets? I've always wanted to bring my dog while I teach, and now I can. He just sits under my chair as I teach online. (and no, this isn't my dog)

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I recently played Keita Takahashi's new game Wattam with my two daughters (5 and 7). We were laughing and smiling the whole time. A game that highjacks the common mechanic of explosions into bursts of pure joy. Kaboom!