I'm now down in Rock Hill, SC, to spend Christmas with my dad and wicked stepmother. She liked my reduced beard, too. So there! She also said it looks better in person ( Read more... )

I just finalized my travel plans for the holidays. I am really hoping that the replacement hard drive for my laptop arrives before I go. In the year since I bought it I've already taken four or five trips where it was nonfunctional and only one trip where it was marginally-functional. It's been a very frustrating owner experience. The last time ( Read more... )

I found a new comic: "Minus", by Ryan Armand. I can't figure out where I came across the link (edit: spyRob points out that the strip is advertising on Shortpacked! now, so that must be it), but I am so glad I did. It's wonderful. Here's an example strip:


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Finally, the last of my catchup posts about my summer travels. It's only taken me two weeks to get around to all of them ( Read more... )

On one of the last days of my visit to Dad's house, we went to the "Nature Museum" in Charlotte. It was kind of a crappy museum. It's a small, low-budget "hey kids, nature!" thing on the edge of a big city park. Not all that interesting for a grownup. But, they did at least have a small butterfly pavilion, so Dad and I both took a bunch of ( Read more... )

My trip from San Diego to Greensboro was quite a headache which included several delays and redirections. My last flight landed sometime between 2:00 and 2:30, I believe. Enough time that, if things went quickly, I could probably check into my hotel and change clothes before going to the AAPT conference to give my talk. So, naturally, things did ( Read more... )

( Pictures interspersed with story follow... )

After David and I got back to Maggie's place in Berkeley, I met her roommates, grad students in physics and math. They showed me their dangerously-strong magnets and we talked about teaching. It was cool ( Read more... )

Before San Diego ComicCon, David and I flew into Oakland instead of directly to southern California. It saved us each a couple hundred on the airfare, and it meant we could drive down to SD along with Maggie. Also, it meant I could visit San Francisco for my first time! Sadly my friend Seth, who also lives there, was off visiting our old Boston ( Read more... )

I've finally uploaded some BotCon photos! These were taken at the end of June in Providence, Rhode Island. The full gallery can be seen in my Photobucket account, but here's a few thumbnails of shots that I especially liked or require explanation:


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