First week post-French class (for the moment). I had gotten really used to the daily routine of class in the morning, then lunch, then try to work on various job-hunt related stuff. Now that I have the mornings too, I find myself trying to figure out how to structure my day. Sleep in? Get up and work in the morning and do more relaxing/outdoorsy ( Read more... )

For the longest time, I have railed against the vagaries of cooking. I hate the fact that you have instructions like "add a dash of X" or "simmer on med or med high until done" or "bake until just right". Just give me a number of minutes, an exact temperature, and don't make me guess ( Read more... )

I admit it: I really enjoy noticing milestones, markers for transitions between phases of life. I like seeing them in general, and am really interested in my own (cue navel-gazing joke). I feel like this week has marked another milestone in my transition from adolescence to adulthood (and for the sake of this post, we are assuming it is possible to ( Read more... )

Man, I love going on vacation. Of course, a big part of it is not going to work, but I also like getting out of town. Just a few days ago I returned from a 10-day New York trip with the missus, and we had a great time. We started out in Flushing (which is in the borough of Queens, which is in Queens county, on Long Island), where E's cousin was ( Read more... )

First off, I say this as someone born and raised in Oakland, who was a bit apprehensive about moving to the City, leaving the things that I knew and loved, and heading to the pretentious, white, expensive city to the west. My first month here, I admit to enjoying the location, and enjoying the bigger apartment, and generally liking the weather (I ( Read more... )

Man, it has been a busy couple of weeks. Work has been picking up even more (to the point that I really need to work on reports a couple of hours this weekend), while simultaneously E and I moved across the Bay. We started packing the house on Monday the 20th, had the truck come on the 26th, and today, August 1st, we are close to fully unpacked. ( Read more... )

Wow, for those that haven't seen the Facebook post, an article in today's NY Times mentions that in order to save money, the University of California Santa Cruz campus is cutting the minor in music and the bachelor's degree in Earth Sciences. It doesn't seem to be reflected on the department website yet, but it kind of shocks me. I mean, it was ( Read more... )

Boy, I don't post much anymore. It seems like many people I know have moved towards Facebook or Twitter (a service I really don't understand), but given how little I post, I can't complain too much, can I ( Read more... )

Boy, I haven't posted on here for a while, have I? Well, let's see what I can update ( Read more... )

Sometimes, the country surprises me, and my post-30-something cynicism. With the news this morning that Vermont's legislature over-rode a veto by the governor to legalize same-sex marriage (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/08/us/08vermont.html?_r=1&hp), there ( Read more... )