I learned today that Richard Rorty passed away a few days ago. I never interacted with him directly, and I disagreed with at least 75% of what I read from him, but in many ways he’s probably responsible for what I’ve done with my life for the last eight years. His work helped revive interest […]
A mental challenge requiring intense focus and concentration? Check. A physical challenge requiring muscle strength, coordination, and conditioning? Check. An emotional challenge requiring compassion, understanding and intuition? Check. Fur wristlets? Sequined headband? Pink lip gloss? Curling Iron? Check, check, check. Welcome one and all to the recap of my baptism by fire into the stress-filled […]
I’ve been having more trouble than I’d like accessing the site for the last week or two – any attempts to access the database-driven parts of the site (the current blog structure, the old forum) are just grinding on without much luck. If updates get spotty, this might be why. If anyone else is seeing […]
So Crowded House’s new single “Don’t Stop Now” is now available on iTunes, and the band was on Conan O’Brien last night. So the hype is off to at least a mild start here in the U.S. Now, something about this single has rubbed me the wrong way from the start – something about Neil […]
The Phillies have apparently decided to reinforce their bullpen by bringing back Jose Mesa, their former closer who fell down on the job a few seasons back and whose ERA is currently over 12. So he’s incompetent and he conjures bad memories for Philadelphia fans. Of COURSE you would sign this guy to a contract. […]
You know, I probably could have stuck this under philosophy of language, but what the heck. McDonald’s and other service companies are lobbying the Oxford English Dictionary to change the definition of McJob to be less negative. There’s a socioeconomic point to be made about how McDonald’s has lowered standards for many things in the […]
Some time over the next few weeks, there may be some alterations to the comment system in order to try to cut down on spam. I’m in the process of wiping out 770 comments that accumulated in the moderation queue since yesterday, and it ain’t my idea of fun. So if I accidentally killed something […]
Last year I completely gave up caffeinated beverages for three months. I stopped when I hit dissertation crunch time and couldn’t afford to be drifting to sleep early in the evening. But going cold turkey wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be – I just started buying Sprite instead of Coke and walked […]
OK, time to play Crabby Old Guy. I’ve been watching those sneakers-with-wheels get more popular, judging by the number of rolling kids I have to dodge when I’m out at malls or stores. And I know it’s a matter of time before klutzy me can not get the heck out of the way. I assume […]
Over the last week, I have been ripping up old grass in my back yard and using a tiller to loosen up the soil so that I can spread it around and make it more even. This has involved a lot of me picking up a small clump of grass from a pile of such […]