April 2012
1 post
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Ink is what's for dinner
On Valentine’s Day my wife got me a really nice pen. At one point I had mentioned I was interested in trying a fountain pen again. I recall that I said it a little half-heartedly, so I’m fortunate that she filed it away.
She bought me a Lamy Accentfountain pen and it changed my life.
Well that was pretty hyperbolic, wasn’t it?
But see this is the thing: I’ve always...
March 2012
3 posts
5 tags
I walked into a pen store, today
I walked into a pen store, today, and felt extremely out-of-place. Well I should amend that — I walked into World Lux, a store that specializes in watches, luggage, “mens’ gear”, also fountain pens. And I felt out-of-place.
Luxury stores always make me feel uncomfortable. In fact, it took me a long time to feel okay going into something like a Banana Republic, even...
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Ned Hepburn: "This Is Water", by David Foster... →
There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says “Morning, boys. How’s the water?” And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes “What the hell is…
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Kill the Buddha
I have been thinking about this a bit, lately.
After years on his cushion, a monk has what he believes is a breakthrough: a glimpse of nirvana, the Buddhamind, the big pay-off. Reporting the experience to his master, however, he is informed that what has happened is par for the course, nothing special, maybe even damaging to his pursuit. And then the master gives the student dismaying advice: If...
February 2012
2 posts
3 tags
the understatement: Five Problems For Tesla Motors →
understatementblog:
Tesla Motors has responded to my “It’s a Brick” post with a blog post of their own, “Plug It In”. I’m genuinely very glad to hear that the Model S and Model X are apparently going to be substantially less prone to “bricking” than the Roadster.
Unfortunately, the rest of Tesla’s response has…
That response and corporate belief structure isn’t that surprising if...
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Computers Really Are Magic
This morning I was simultaneously reading this article about the new Windows 8 interface and helping my brother with github. Had a sudden epiphany and point of empathy with technologically illiterate people.
It basically boils down to: For the computer illiterate, Computers Really Are Magic
Continue reading and I’ll explain what I mean.
The Windows 8 article sort of loosely lays out...
January 2012
4 posts
5 tags
Well that was quick
All of a sudden my daughter just started using lots of signs and real words and everything. It’s bizarre. Like shit just got real.
There’s a little human in there, making her will known.
Man, I’ve gotta stop saying things like “shit just got real”; both because she might repeat it, and because people who are allowed to use lingo like that don’t use...
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Link: My hometown is better than yours
My wife linked me to this article about Seattle. It’s all true.
I like the idea that it’s sunset for 12 hours a day. Absolutely true, that. Basically it’s golden hour all day — which is probably why it looks gorgeous to me all the time.
We do have some cloud-cover where we are right now (Issaquah, about 20 minutes East of Seattle), but we’re far enough away from...
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Phone (Android) Woes
I really want to like Android, but the phone manufacturers make it so hard. I have a Samsung Captivate, which is a Galaxy S phone. Really solid feeling, good specs. But Samsung filled it with bloated software and dicked with the UI. Ugh. This post is kind of a first-world-problem post, yo.
I have a Galaxy Tab for work, and it too has issues. Also a Samsung. I love the opportunities provided by...
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Much too heavy
My posts have been way heavy the past couple months. I think part of that is because when I sit down to write I have it in my mind that I am Sitting Down To Write. That’s fun for awhile, but also a little tiring to read.
I need to shake it up a bit, so here’s a video I shot today. My wife and I signed up for Amazon Fresh, which is online grocery delivery. Only Seattle-area so far, so...
December 2011
13 posts
4 tags
Penultimate
Here’s to a fun year. If that guy who misinterpreted ethnographer’s misinterpretation of the Mayans is right, this is the penultimate day of the penultimate year. Seems auspicious.
I didn’t end up learning a hell of a lot of French this past month. Je suis desole. I think I need a little more structure for learning something like a language. I’m starting an online class...
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Not to go on about Washington
but man this place is weird. I’m learning I have preconceptions, expectations, and prejudices about certain things that just don’t work out here. I’m having to come up with an entirely new model for people.
Say you go up to La Conner and you have lunch in a greasy spoon. Waitress is sort of weathered, like smoker grandma. Gunsmoke on the television. Dirty burber carpet. A guy...
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Dramas
Getting older is weird. I’m unsure if things get more complicated or I just become more aware/exposed to complications. It’s hard to know for sure, because anyone you ask isn’t going to remember it right anyway, since the very things that might cause you to notice things more now are affecting the people you would ask in the first place.
For example, it seems like politics are...
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Happy Holidays
Today, or maybe yesterday, an acquaintance posted a small diatribe on Google+ about how he dislikes “Merry Christmas” and “Happy Holidays”. He hates how it’s all mysticism and people hiding their minds from reality, etc. It was pretty involved and filled with passion, some of the points I agree with some I don’t. But it’s exactly the same as other friends...
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Gratitude for Work
Work sent me to a class for Sencha Touch 2, the past three days. I had some interesting experiences that I’d like to write about, but not right now.
Right now I just want to say how happy I am to have a short trip to work.
It’s been about 6 years since I worked more than 5 minutes away from my employer. Driving from Issaquah up to Kirkland and back, through traffic, is one of the...
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One Year - An open letter to my daughter
Adelaide, I have now been your dad for one year.
A year ago you were born. You popped out as a wrinkly little post-fetus, wet and crying (but not too much), and now here you are all plump and walking and beginning to communicate. You started off as an alert, albeit dopey, little baby — you’re now an alert, engaging little girl with a winning smile. It’s been amazing to watch...
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Narrata
I was trying to do something clever there with the word “narrative” and “errata”, but I don’t think it really works.
Anyway, you should read this adaptation of a talk given at Stanford. It resonates with me because it reminds me of something I was told a lot growing up: You must have a lot of time on your hands.
Radiolab has a new episode up talking about a guy...
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In Decisions
I wanted to decorate my laptop a little bit, set me apart from the hoi polloi, so I purchased a decal from a random amazon seller. It’s pretty sweet. A slight problem though: the company sent me some free stickers. I don’t know what to do with them.
Does that happen to you? You get a gift card, or something free but consumable and suddenly you have this brain freeze. “How...
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Something Humorous
Just got finished working a little extra for the day. Also just polished off a surprisingly strong bottle of beer — surprising in that I didn’t realize it was 8% ABV, so I’m a little buzzed.
French is coming along so-so, Je voudrais dire vous que c’est facile, mais non c’est.. Though I did just type that, ad hoc and google translate seems to think it’s right;...
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Man Down
I’ve been meaning to write a post about general gender issues for a long time now, but I’ve never gotten around to it. This is not that post, but it contains something that’s bothered me awhile now, and I’d like to address it. I’m not sure why it bothered me enough today in particular, but strike while the iron is hot, right?
Part of this is attempting to analyze...
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You Are What You Speak
I’m sitting here looking at various language videos online, perusing the resources available to me in a 1st world magic-land. There are quite a few free resources if you’re willing to do a bit of searching. I’m very fortunate to have access to so many learning opportunities. It’s too bad that it’s all structured wrong.
Épinard, pronounced “spiznach” My...
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New Endeavors
I started learning French, again. It’s fun! Also, kind of weird.
The first thing I did, yesterday, was switch my phone over to Francais mode. It’s a good thing I’m both fairly familiar with the interface and know a lot of cognates in a few languages, so I can guess what things mean.
Versailles ca. ‘09 One thing I didn’t expect was the modified keyboard. I was...
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What I Learned Over November Vacation, and a Short...
So this is the end of my foray. It feels as if I’ve written a great journey, though it also feels as if I haven’t really written that much. I can look at the nano page and see all the posts, but I don’t have a tangible feeling of how many posts I’ve written.
I’m proud of several of the entries but I don’t feel the weight of my writing — kind of like...
November 2011
29 posts
5 tags
What's Next?
This is penultimate post for nablomo. Actually, I discovered there’s a real thing people do called nablopomo which is basically a blog post a day. That seems to be a girl-blogger thing more than a boy-blogger thing though. Not sure. I wouldn’t want to crash someone else’s party.
After tomorrow I’ll need something to do. This is me musing about next steps. Perhaps you can...
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Dubious Conclusions
In the past couple years I’ve developed more of an ability to read between the lines and a little more critically than I used to. But it’s weird, because it doesn’t always happen. At least, not automatically — sometimes I feel really on the ball and author biases seem obvious. Other times I revisit something and I think, “man, how could I not see that before?”
...
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The Life of the Party
I’ve happened across handful of articles about introverts and extroverts lately. Not sure why they’ve cropped up. There seems to be some truth to the idea of “gestalt”; ideas will come and float around when they want. Whatever, the reason, the articles have me thinking about that personality dichotomy.
I’m not sure where you fall on the introvert/extrovert...
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How Chantix Almost Killed Me
I quit smoking 4 years ago next April. I was able to quit through the use and in spite of a drug called varenicline, also known as Chantix. I cannot recommend it to anyone. Let me tell you what it was like.
P.s. This turned out highly personal, but I consider it a public service for internet searchers so it’s going up.
I was a smoker for around 15 years, had tried quitting a handful of...
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Thanks, Ants. Thants.
Today I suffered the repercussions of too much food. I think Nicole and I are trying to recapitulate our childhoods, but +1. It’s a common malady, I think we need to decide enough is enough and just eat sandwiches.
But since I didn’t do the obligatory Thanksgiving post and because I still feel a little unwell, I’ll give you something short and sweet: a bulleted list. And then...
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The Name of the Beast
My daughter is slowly climbing her way up the language hill. It’s really neat to see her acquire words. Each time she we recognize that she’s trying to say a particular term for something, such as “kitty” or “milk”, it’s kind of amazing.
But she can’t say the words very well, so as we see her applying labels to things it’s really evident that...
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It's All Part of My Rock and Roll Fantasy
I really like music. I enjoy listening to it, and I enjoy making it. Over the years I have been involved in three bands, produced a double-handful of songs, and been on the radio twice. But I have a confession to make: I never learned to play guitar.
If you’ve read here before you know that this statement is probably a little disingenuous, or as I like to call it, “funny”....
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And now, perhaps a jolly one
I’m not going to apologize for the sadness of the previous post, but I understand if you have some trepidations about reading this one now, because of it. In order to assuage your fears and take the taste out of your mind, here are a few somewhat light-hearted things to ponder.
Have you seen Nyan cat? You should, it brings joy. Go ahead and give it a listen. There’s also an ipad app...
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The saddest childhood
My wife complains to me that all my stories are sad. Honestly, I don’t set out for pathos when I tell them — I think my childhood was rather entertaining!
Well, I guess it’s Schadenfreude Monday all over again.
I’ll say it’s a common situation. I will recount some fond memory from my childhood. I wax nostalgic, a faraway look in my eyes. I finish the story and...
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It's monkeys all the way down
“I’ve now had this conversation about 100 times:
Person who’s lived in Seattle longer than me: It RAINS here. You’re going to HATE it. Waaahhhh, RAIN! So much RAIN. It will eat your soul and dismember your family! *sobs* Why did you leave the paradise of northern Indiana to subject yourself to the horrible, life-destroying RAIN?
Me: Why do you live here?
Seattleite: I...
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Your brain is dumb
Just a quick set of ideas you can use for your own constructive self-delusion. Remember kids, we do this all the time already — might as well direct it yourself for your own happiness.
This is the followup to yesterday’s post.
So I have some issues with using my computer. It does some really irritating things, crashes, etc, contrary to the party line. However, I’m content with...
7 tags
Your computer is dumb
I upgraded my computer today. It was kind of a pain in the butt when it really shouldn’t have. I’m going to take this opportunity to vent a little about my Mac experience. This is basically going to chronicle a few impressions about the past several months as a Mac user.
I’m a Linux guy. I’ve run Ubuntu for the past 6 years, and before that I’ve run various flavors...
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This is why your teeth fall out
I went to the dentist, today. It was surprisingly pleasant! I’m in only a little pain right now. In the process of taking my mind off the actual activities, I got in touch with why I’ve been hesitant to go to the dentist over the years. This may or may not apply to you
I’ve never liked getting dental work done. Part of it is the pain aspect and the fact that I don’t...
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The Big White Room
I’ve been thinking about parenting again, lately. Funny that, as I am a parent. What I mean is that as I interact with other parents of different backgrounds and children of various ages, I keep revisiting some ideas I’ve had about kids, learning, and people. I think mainly I’ve been channeling Radiolab episodes in my head.
This post may be a little less coherent and freeform...
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Love in the Time of Golden Books
When I was in 6th grade, all I really wanted for Christmas was a rock tumbler. But life is really like a box of chocolates, isn’t it?
I saw an ad for it somewhere. Maybe in Boy’s Life magazine. It was probably near the ad for “Build Your Own Hovercar with Just a Vacuum Cleaner!” I really wanted that, in fact, but didn’t think my folks would go for it and I...
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Schadenfreude Monday
scha·den·freu·de/ˈSHädənˌfroidə/ Noun: Pleasure derived by someone from another person’s misfortune.
I’m glad the Germans have a word for that, and it is my gift to you. Three unfortunate things about my past that are kind of amusing if you think about it.
The first thing is that I was a bad student. I was a little bit of a daydreamer when I was in 1st and 2nd grade. I know this...
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Meta-post checkin
In the past 2 weeks this blog seems to have gotten really heavy. Well, except for the Emotron post, I suppose. I’m not sure if that’s a function of the shorter days, or the environment I have for writing.
In the PNW at this time of year we seem to get darkness starting around 4 or 5. It’s bright earlier in the morning after the DST change, but the early evening really sucks....
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Cheap Brain Tricks
There’s an aphorism among computer scientists that goes, “One of the hardest things in computer science is naming things.” I’ve experienced this first-hand, as a computer scientist. There’s an insight here that’s applicable to everyone.
So the situation is like so: Say you’re making a list of items and you need to give it a good name so you remember what...
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Hairs and Hormones
Discovered some grey hairs on my temples, today. I’m really interested to see how they come in. It’s kind of like a gradual hair dye job. Maybe I’ll get more respect now… probably not if I keep wearing Threadless shirts.
I find it fascinating to observe the physical changes that life-changes bring about. I pretty much expected the grey to be coming in… I noticed my...
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The Flaming Wagon
When I was in first grade, my little brother Daniel and I set our Radio Flyer wagon on fire. After all was said and done, I got a pony.
It was the middle of summer. As I said, I was in first grade so my brother would have been maybe 5 years old. I had discovered left-over fireworks hidden poorly in the garage. I told mom that we would be in the back yard. She acknowledged, and we were on our...
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Down with the Sickness
Do writers keep writing when they’re unwell? When Neil Gaiman has a cold, does he abandon his shack in the woods and just sit at home with a blanket and a cup of soup? I have a cold, and I found it difficult to think at work, so I retired early today.
Working from home it’s pretty easy to just keep on going if you don’t feel well. I mean, you’re home anyway so...
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Math is hard, let's go shopping
Tonight we celebrated Nicole’s birthday. We ate at P.F. Chang’s and then we wandered around the Bellevue mall. That place feels like Las Vegas minus the sleeze — just a lot of money floating around. There’s a Tesla dealership in the mall, if that gives you any indication.
We also plunked down a not insignificant amount of money for Nicole’s birthday gift. I feel...
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Evolution and Thought
I think that’s the most grandiose title I’ve ever used.
Have you watched Carl Sagan’s Cosmos? I highly recommend it for anyone. It’s a little dated, though the version I watched via Netflix had updates at the end of each episode. For a good overview of the universe as it is understood, and how science works, it’s hard to find a better show or a better teacher to give...
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Crazy Train, or the Littlest Calvinist
You know what book I used to love when I was little? Tootle. You probably know the story, Tootle is a young locomotive from the town of Lower Trainswitch, and he is going to school because he aspires to be a Flyer.
It’s a heartwarming tale of working hard so that eventually your natural talent will be honed, and all of your dreams come true. I loved the story when I was little, but...
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Northern Exposure Pt 2
I feel as if my creative energy has been sapped. I sat here staring at the screen, knowing I have this task I’ve set for myself to write something every day — but it kind of feels as if I’m out of mana right now and cannot do it.
Fortunately I know a few tricks. I’ll teach you one of them, since I’m an open source kind of guy.
I’m sitting on the couch,...
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Northern Exposure
Nicole and I have lived in the Pacific Northwest (PNW) now for about 3 months. One thing we’ve noticed about this area is that it is lousy with kids. You can’t swing a cat without hitting a toddler in a stroller. The area is so kid-friendly you see things like the brewpub down the street from us has children’s toys and a small table for kids to play at. People don’t give...
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The Emotron
I’ve a story I like to tell. It’s a band story, a bar story. Out of all the weird things that have happened to me, this one stands out for its Ozzy Osborne-like weirdness. I’ve been meaning to get it down in text for several years — for posterity if for no other reason.
Frankly, I’m not sure if it works in any other format besides standing around at 2 AM, slightly...
