I'm not going to top last year's little essay about why I'm suddenly making a list of resolutions after years of gradual change without regard to the rolling over of the calendar year, so I'll just get right into it.

Lose 50 pounds

As I wrote a couple weeks ago, I did OK at this last year, but despite the tenor of my reporting, I didn't make it ( Read more... )

I got a link to a final exam to graduate the 8th grade in 1895. The point of it seems to regard declining test standards, but I don't see it.

I tried taking the test, and from memory I certainly would fail it. I'm pretty sure any of us would. However, I dug up an answer key, and here's my assessment of the test:

( I reveal answers behind the cut, so don't read the rest of this if you want to take the test yourself first. )

... I'm going to think about New Years. Specifically, my resolutions from last year.

Lose 50 lbs.I failed to reach this goal, and completely fell off the wagon on my chosen method. However, through diet and exercise and a little something called "restraint," I've made it halfway to this goal. I was floating between 330 and 340 when I made that ( Read more... )

I took a swing at it, smacked it into the wall, and while it was dizzy on the ground I killed it. ( For some reason this gave me pause. )

( I'm collecting my thoughts on a matter of political/religious significance. If that's not your bag, go no further. )

My dad has listened to conservative talk radio for as long as I have known such a thing existed. I have always found this obnoxious, but as I've become more politically aware, it's become something of an issue of contention between us. He sends me links from crazy people like Maureen Dowd and G. Gordon Liddy (who, to be fair, is more of a Barry ( Read more... )

Click to view

The presence of such cool people in it is just gravy.

Hat tip to PZ Meyers.

I'm going to have to state up front that I'm several months and ten books removed from having read this one, so this review will be less detailed than later entries in this series ( Read more... )

So I just made a joking reference to "The Princess and the Pea" in a friend's LJ just a few seconds ago, and my brain kicked into overdrive for a moment. "What," it wondered, "is the deal with that story ( Read more... )

Perhaps not so belated, though. I want to talk about the presidential frontrunners for a moment.

( I will do so after the cut. )