Weather’s been mixed; temperatures rose again last week but it rained about every other day. I did and do a lot of running, writing, playing, editing photos, and watching movies, and I enjoy the latest advances in refreshment engineering. However, academia’s gravity field caught up with me again. I attended my university’s term project presentations, which was very delightful, and wrote a few lines here and there about the severely undercooked “5 Demands” menu for academic improvements in “science, research, and teaching” for game design, which was the opposite of delightful. These “demands” were pushed by GAME, the German Game Industry (sic!) Association, right before the gamescom: a crude demo banner written in crayon whose pretentiousness and cluelessness are only matched by its breathtakingly chauvinistic “we have no idea about academia but as an industry association we know what’s best for you” attitude that’s really in a league of its own. (There’s no English version as yet—thankfully, I’m tempted to say.) Luckily, my good friend and former colleague Linda Breitlauch took the time and energy and wrote an excellent, well-informed, pulling-no-punches review on Facebook (where most industry bigwigs still hang out). I can’t express how grateful I am that she did.

No blog posts last week, except for a brief 阿基拉 [AKIRA] review. Then there are two new albums on Flickr—15 shots from the Hwaseong Fortress in Suwon, South Korea, and 25 shots from Haw Par Villa in Singapore, the most bizarre theme park you’ll ever come across—and my daily vintage-style travel squaries at Pixelfed. That’s about it.

As mentioned, I’m through with my recommendations from last June’s Indie Game Fest, but I’m excited to pass on that two of the games I recommended—Tiny Bookshop by neoludic games and It’s a Wrap by Chanko Studios—scored the Indie Cup Germany’s Rising Star Award and Critic’s Choice Award, respectively. Congratulations!

J.