I’m not exactly sure what this says about Internet discourse, reading comprehension, pervasive marketing, and overall cynicism. But this story and discussion thread over at Newsarama is well worth reading. Apparently the Franklin Mint – the folks who’ve brought us so many pewter chess sets over the years, one piece every other month – is […]
Pattie’s recent mention of the latest marketing tendril (tentacle?) to snake outward from Disney’s “Princesses” franchise struck a nerve with me. You see, I’m going to become a dad myself this fall, and even though I’m going to be spending the next few years learning baby talk and then trying to transition that into what […]
About a week ago I discovered a long-running webcomic called Real Life, a loosely autobiographical comic done in Illustrator by Greg Dean. The comics and some of the situations are based on Greg’s life, his friends, and his various hobbies. Others are clearly science fiction scenarios played for humor, such as dimension hopping, time travel, […]
So we went out to dinner tonight because I had a hankering for tacos, and in the restaurant there was a guy making balloon animals for tips. You can guess what the chances of us leaving the restaurant without a balloon for Alex was. So the guy comes over, sees my Fordham cap, and asks […]
There’s a great post-mortem discussion of the 8th District Council race over at Young Philly Politics. One of the blog’s founders is the son of one of the three candidates who challenged the incumbent; he came in a very close third and the incumbent was re-elected. The discussion thread also includes some thoughts about the […]
I went to an activity day at Alex’s preschool on Wednesday and brought my camera to take some pictures of her with her classmates. The four and five year olds would come up to me and ask me to take their pictures – and then they would reach out to turn the camera around and […]
I was flipping through the cable guide some weeks back and found something on PBS called “John Cleese on The Human Face.” I figured it was a documentary special, so I had the DVR record it, and I finally had the time to watch it tonight. I was a little disappointed to discover that it […]
Interesting story up on Yahoo from Reuters, suggesting that fruit flies may be making “decisions” independently of outside stimuli. The scientists who conducted the study argue that this might be an argument for something along the lines of free will. I will wait for the scientists and neurophilosophers to chime in on the comments, but […]
Spent the day clearing out the garage for the primary tomorrow. If we didn’t host the elections in our district, I don’t know when we’d ever get around to it. Gotta say I’ll be happy when this election’s over and we can start trying to figure out what it all means. And maybe I can […]
WARNING – spoilers in the comments! Saw Spider-Man 3 today. Overall, I liked it. I’m writing the review for the LogBook now. The plot summary for my Spider-Man 2 review was about 275 words long. This time around, it clocks in at 975. Not that I’m necessarily agreeing with those that think the film was […]