Today I stumbled upon this little tool that analyzes your blog and tells you your Myers-Briggs type. Much faster than taking the actual test. I wouldn't trust its accuracy though. It told me that I am an ESTP: "active and playful", "especially attuned to people", "very impulsive", "full of energy, talking, joking and engaging in physical out-door ( Read more... )

The Orwell diaries: Eric Blair's diary in real time, 70 years late. So far it's just his domestic diary, which focuses heavily on crops and weather. His political diary gets started on September 7th.

If one becomes famous, suddenly people are interested in how many eggs one's hens laid on a certain day. Otherwise, nobody cares.

I have posted before about words that just do not fit with their meanings. Thanks to Freakonomics I have learned a new word today: contumely. It's a very mellifluous word, fun to say, and completely incongruous with its definition. A contumely is an insult.

Today is the 14th of July, otherwise known as Bastille Day. Today is also the five-year anniversary of this, my blog. That's what all the fireworks and champagne are REALLY about ( Read more... )

I love books. I love them almost as much, maybe even sometimes more, than I love food. I like to read them. I like to read about them. I like to think about them and talk about them and blog about them. I like to hold them. I like to smell them. I like to buy them and hoard them. I like to see them all lined up neatly on my giant bookshelf, each in ( Read more... )

Though it doesn't hurt. According to Scientific American, blogging, like other forms of expressive writing, is good for you. "Research shows that it improves memory and sleep, boosts immune cell activity and reduces viral load in AIDS patients, and even speeds healing after surgery."
As long as you don't do it too much, of course.

One of the food blogs I peruse from time to time is Homesick Texan, the musings of another transplanted Texan who cooks more than I do, with pretty pictures and much more intelligent commentary. She almost convinced me to make my own chicken fried steak. Almost. A few days ago she posted about her recent crawfish boil, and ever since I have been ( Read more... )

So my post on Colbert's interview seems to have aroused the ire of some Moldovans, which is actually kind of flattering. I had no idea anyone read this in Moldova, or indeed that anyone read it at all outside a very limited circle of my family and friends. Of course, it could just mean that someone's screwing with me by misrepresenting their IP ( Read more... )

I know that many of you are bored, and you count on my blog to bring excitement and interest to your day. You want regular updates on the breaking Meredith news that matters so much: Meredith eats a sandwich! Meredith answers the phone! Meredith sighs despondently! And I would love to provide such service, but I'm afraid it would be bad for me. The ( Read more... )

On one of the gift-giving occasions in the past few years my parents gave me a book called No One Cares What You Had For Lunch: 100 Ideas For Your Blog. I didn't find it particularly helpful, but I still have it in case I should ever come down with a killer case of writer's block. However, I have recently learned that its premise is flawed. John ( Read more... )