October Happenings

Lots of great stuff happening in the month of October. October 18th and 19th, I am attending the Serious Games Summit at the Loews in L’Enfant Plaza (not too far from my office). As part of my day job, we’re always working on providing ‘interactive’ learning experiences for K-12 students, so I hope to pick up some good tips from the conference. I plan to blog as much as possible, assuming they have wifi.

If anyone is coming into town for the Summit and wants to get together for drinks, drop me a note at jcrhody -at- umd -dot- edu (or post here). Hopefully a few of the local bloggers / wordherders interested in technology and humanities would be willing come out for drinks as well. The Summit promises to be crowded, if nothing else, as it was recently reported to be sold out with over 500 attendees. Not too shabby.

Prior to that, I will be joining my dad in the Shenandoah mountains for a few days of camping. We’ve camped there since I was a little kid, often so my mother could have some peace and quiet to work on her dissertation. I’m looking forward to the changing leaves and the hikes. And, of course, the camp food – nothing quite smells as good wafting through the cool October air or tastes as good after several miles of hiking.

And then there’s the Green Valley Bookfair – a nice diversion while camping. If you haven’t been to the GV Bookfair, it’s worth the drive. From DC, it’s about 2 or 3 hours, depending on your route, but with a ton of remaindered books available on the cheap, what’s not to like? A quick stop in Harrisonburg for Luigi’s pizza (where the waiters promise to be higher than the pizza dough tosses!) and you can’t go wrong (it’s just great pizza, even if they take a long. time. to. make. it. duuuuude.).

Unfortunately, the trip to the mountains does mean that I will miss the Library of Congress Book Festival, where they have – I believe for the first time – a science fiction/fantasy booth. With Neal Stephenson and Neil Gaiman. Stephenson is also reading from the 3rd of the Baroque Cycle at Olsson’s in Arlington, Friday at 7 p.m. Although, according the the WashPost Express, the Stephenson at the Festival is the “author of the behemoth best-seller ‘Necronomicon’,” so he might be a different fellow from the author of the best-selling Cryptonomicon. One might imagine the proper title of a “behemoth best-seller” might be one of the easier fact-checks for an editor. *shrug*

And, of course, in October, our daughter Evie hits the nine-month mark, the Claycomb twins turn one, and dave and Natalie run the Marine Corps Marathon!