Monday, February 15, 2010
We’ve got a trillion strays roaming around the neighborhood and tonight Monica, sweet soul that she is, let one into the house. Now he won’t leave. Not sure what to do about this. This is not the cat, but it will help you visualize maybe. Help.
Monday, February 15, 2010
Is that if something really matters, if you _really_ want to be good at something — which is different than simply saying that you want to be good at it — you’ve got to do it every day. Even if it’s just some tiny increment forward; even if the effort is rubbish, or a failure. [...]
Sunday, February 14, 2010
I’m having this thing lately where I read something so delightful I have to run and post it before I even finish the article. Apparently, not trying to slaughter your girlfriend is insufficient qualification for public office, even in Illinois, and even at a time when Sarah Palin is considered a serious presidential contender. From [...]
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Can you wish you had written something even when it’s taking the piss out of you? Yes, apparently: Also, global warming? Total effing letdown. Americans are no longer believing in it. Do you know why? Not because the mountains of scientific proof aren’t there. Not because it’s not happening. But because it’s not yet happening [...]
Friday, February 12, 2010
Here’s another chunk from that collection of Edge essays that I linked to the other day: It’s less than twenty years since the living presence of networked information has become part of our thinking machinery. What it will mean to us that vastly more people have nearly instantaneous access to vastly greater quantities of information [...]
From this article by Jonah Lehrer about some uber-prodigy 13 year old Swedish chess grandmaster: And this is why we shouldn’t be surprised that a chess prodigy raised on chess computer programs would be even more intuitive than traditional grandmasters. The software allows him to play more chess, which allows him to make more mistakes, [...]
Some of you might have already seen this, but seriously, it makes me want to laugh and cry at the same time. I swear to god it’s an absolute wonder this country isn’t ten times as fucked up as it is.
Saturday, February 6, 2010
My favorite quote from all those David Eddings books were from the without-a-doubt best character, Silk, who would periodically say: “I didn’t make the world, xx, I just try to live in it.” I stole this quote with such alacrity that some of you probably think I made it up. Sorry about that. Anyway, this [...]
In 2003, apparently, I wrote an Amazon review for an audiobook. I had forgotten both the book and the review until this morning, when I got an update that some random person had commented on it. You can read the original post and the comment here. Seriously, I can’t tell you how much this brightened [...]
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
I wrote my first grant proposal the other day, for funding for next year. It would be a pretty big deal to get it, not because it’s super prestigious or anything (it isn’t) but because it would mean that instead of essentially working three jobs, I’d only have to work 1.5 jobs. Here it is, [...]