victoria l. braegger

absolutely obsessed.

The mix of real/game/CGI creates a pervasive Truthiness that clouds reality (or truth) and is easily spread across media.

That the administration is engaging with using game narratives to elevate their use of Truthiness (and claim ethos amongst a demographic) should be alarming.

I just published an article on this very issue with @saffista.bsky.social.

Mixing real footage with game footage and hyperealistic graphics presents a very real problem for understanding not just history, but immediate events.

Article here (or by DM): doi.org/10.14361/dcs-2025-0109

I look forward to @rafaelfajardo.bsky.social's sketches every year. ❤️ 🎮

I love it!

a young man wearing a shirt that says super is sitting in front of an apple laptop Alt: A young man slowly closes a laptop while slowly looking down; the laptop then flies out of the second story window.

oh.

What a privilege this man had -- to have never lived in or experienced a place with water scarcity. To be in the midwest where water is (seemingly) abundant. To be in a state that banned the export of water.

But don't worry -- he had visited Laguna Beach, so he understood.

What a privilege.

Last week, I attended a workshop on creating a uni-wide GAI literacy requirement (I'm the squeaky wheel). One of the participants brought up ethics, including environmental consequences for the Colorado River.

A man behind me started heckling; he was sick of hearing about the Colorado River.

If you're interested in Call of Duty, the Cold War, or how song lyrics can be rhetorical framing devices for arguments -- please check out our latest piece!

(and message me if you have trouble finding it and I can help)

Last year @toskakoshka.bsky.social and I wrote a bad ass piece on historical revisionism through Call of Duty paratexts and its out(-ish) in the latest issue of of *Digital Culture & Society*. If you're an academic with library access please go download it!

Rockstar vs. Union: We Went to Court and Saw the Evidence YouTube video by People Make Games

We traveled back up to Edinburgh to be there as Rockstar Games and its fired union members took their case to court:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnui...

I have no idea why after noon but before five is the acceptable time to have Mountain Dew, but there it is.

At 9:45am, I texted a friend a question:

Is it too early for Mountain Dew?

She told me it wasn't.

This exchange has happened every couple of months for eight years (industry besties). Not sure I believe her, but she gives me the confidence to have Mountain Dew before noon (breaking rules).

I don't know. I've been teaching since 2006 and I have never seen someone pretend to be disabled to get accommodations. I mean that literally: I cannot think of a single instance where someone was trying to game the system.

Understanding Generative AI: A Primer for College Writers docs.google.com/document/d/1...

The CCCC Special Committee on Generative AI in College Composition & Writing Studies is pleased to share two docs that have been in the works since this past summer:

Academic Integrity, Plagiarism, & Generative AI: Guidelines for Postsecondary Writing Teachers docs.google.com/document/d/1...

After mass AI college-cheating freakout, many admissions offices are using it to screen student applications | Fortune It wasn't long ago they began banning student use of it for homework or test-taking. Admissions offices are different, though.

Judging from the quotes in here, university admins are some of the least “ai literate” people in existence. No wonder they think students need to be taught how to use it.

A screenshot of the ADN story with highlighted text quoting an anonymous EPA spokesperson: "A spokesperson for the federal Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday defended the decision, saying "due to the proactive cancellation of this grant, $20 million of hardworking US tax dollars are currently sitting in the U.S. treasury instead of swept into the Kuskokwim River."

What an insult to all Alaska. This is outrageous.

You could just talk about Jim Crow. I promise you, there's no need to leave America's shores to talk about life in a fascist state

Hey authors, the official list of Anthropic works is available for searching.

secure.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com/lookup

Excited to announce that University of Tennessee at Martin is hiring a TT faculty member! Specialty is Prof/Tech Writing, and teaching first-year comp is also expected. bit.ly/UTM-PTW-AY26TT. Priority deadline is Nov 3rd. I'm Search Chair, so let me know if you have questions. #techcomm #rhetcomp

May be the only time it's appropriate to say, "damn, you look so good after losing 280lbs."

You radiate happiness and confidence.

A lot of video-game publishers spend hundreds of millions of dollars chasing after "realistic graphics" and "massive open-worlds" when what players really want is just a shitload of weird little guys

a black cat is holding a pair of scissors in its paws and says `` well '' . Alt: Gif of a black cat filing its claws with the caption, "Well..."

not to make it a competition, but I've been on the phone for an hour (so far) with the drug manufacturer, insurance, and the specialty pharmacy trying to get my monthly dose of way-too-expensive-MS-disease-modifying-drug.

how's your healthcare going?

Sure! I'll send a DM with some links.

a close up of a stuffed animal wearing a santa hat looking at a christmas tree . Alt: Gif of Elmo, a red hand puppet monster from Sesame Street, looking up at someone before slowly turning and walking away.

I read the text. I clicked play. That was a choice I made.

HOW MUCH WILL YOUR SCHOOL DISTRICT LOSE? Federal budget cuts to public education will eliminate afterschool and summer programs, arts and technology classes, teachers, emergency preparedness, mental health services, and more. Search for your state and school district to see how much your child’s education will be impacted. DES MOINES INDEPENDENT COMMUNITY SCHOOL DISTRICT will lose $8,175,391 in federal funding.

You can use this tool to find out just how much funding your local district (or any district in the country) will be losing in the new federal budget:

"DES MOINES INDEPENDENT COMMUNITY SCHOOL DISTRICT will lose $8,175,391 in federal funding."

public.tableau.com/app/profile/... #EduSky #EdChat

A "coding error" that removes pieces of one content block (section 8) and two entire content blocks (sections 9 and 10) that the current administration rails against on the daily is perhaps the most serendipitous (magic) "coding error" there's ever been.

"coding error" lolol