Prior to heading home for Thanksgiving, I picked up the Oregon Trail card game. As I wrote about before, my mother has recently expressed an interest in playing games, and I thought the game would be fun and nostalgic. I missed the mark a bit on the nostalgia part, however, […]
Charlotte Hyde
106 posts
Every now and then the LEGO community will debate the lack of diversity in minifigs. Most minifigs have the generic iconic, yellow LEGO head, but occasionally, LEGO will go outside of that and try to create more realistic representations. These more realistic, (sometimes diverse) heads tend to be found in […]
Five years ago as I sat in dr. b’s class, I kept noticing the NYMG sticker on the back of her laptop. I had no idea what it meant, and I was too shy to ask. I learned a lot in that class, and by the end of the semester, […]
In last week’s podcast, we talked a bit about agency and feelings of control when watching a movie or TV show versus feeling control while playing a game. Opinions varied, but I’ve been thinking about it a lot this week. I find that when I watch a movie or TV […]
I’m always trying to figure out ways to improve inclusion in my classroom and help students begin to recognize the implications of various technologies or arguments. I’ve written before about the LEGO Serious Play methodology and how I see it contributing to project in the technical communication classroom and projects […]
I’m a year late, but I’m finally playing Until Dawn. I feel like I’m having an entirely different experience with the game this year than I would have last year because this year, I’m playing during the election. I imagine that had I played last year, I would have plowed […]
This week I started working on the Brick Bank, a build I’ve been looking forward to for months. I was mostly excited because attached to the bank is a laundry mat, and LEGO has jokes. The set has several references to money laundering. The big, modular sets also tend to […]
Recently, LEGO released the Disney Castle, and I was both excited and conflicted when I saw the set. The LEGO Disney Castle had been rumored for a while, but I didn’t pay much attention to the rumors. In my mind, I imagined the set would be more like one of […]
I recently watched the documentary Can We Take a Joke? When Outrage and Comedy Collide. As you might imagine, the premise is that outrage is ruining comedy. I was curious. We hear similar arguments here at NYMG: We are ruining video games. We just want to take away everyone’s fun. […]
This weekend, my mother came to visit me in my new town, and we managed to get a lot of play time in even while exploring the new town. We played with LEGO, which mostly involved repairing her LEGO camper that had suffered heavy damage during its last trip; my mother […]
I’m currently working my way through Neal Stephenson’s Seveneves. I’m writing about it here because the book was described to me as feminist science fiction written by a man. I had forgotten that description until I had gotten a little ways into the book, but it came back to me […]
CW: Rape, Harassment, Threats About a month ago, LEGO released the new Ghostbusters Ecto 1 & 2 set, which included the new female characters. On that day, someone from Reddit posted a picture of his or her 6-year-old daughter excitedly holding her new set. If I recall correctly, the set […]
Right now, I’m in the process of transitioning from my current university to my new one. It’s an exciting time, but one filled with the whole spectrum of emotions. I’m exciting to be moving to a great new place, starting a new job, and meeting new people. But, at the […]
Occasionally, I hear the argument that LEGO has lost its way and instead of encouraging kids to be creative, LEGO now encourages kids to simply follow the directions in the box. Normally, this argument comes from people who seem to be looking nostalgically at their own childhoods, which likely included […]
I’ve been watching the second season of Fargo, which is a great show. The second season is set in the 70’s, so much like Mad Men, the sexism is blindingly obvious, as it was in the first season of Fargo. The portrayals of sexism in both seasons are a bit […]
One of my favorite places on the internet is the LEGO Subreddit. Unlike some other subreddits, the one for LEGO fans is filled mostly with people who want to share and discuss their hobby. I’ve been following the LEGO subreddit for some time now, and I’ve found the space to […]