Yesterday, I lost a whole day to sleeping.

I slept two extra hours in the morning, took probably 5-7 short naps (anywhere from 5 - 30 minutes each), and went to bed two hours early.

I consider this to be an unequivocal victory in the name of efficiency.

Why?

Because yesterday I woke up feeling like refried crap, with swollen tonsils, a sore throat ( Read more... )

OH, the synchronicity.

Needing peace, I cracked an anthology of Chinese poetry (if you don’t yet know the soporific, gently rocking peace of Chinese poetry, let me just say that it has about the same effect as two Southern Comforts and a hammock) - and in doing so, I found the very perfect thing to say about the political life of Her Irritatingness ( Read more... )

First, they’re cool.  And if you know a physical art that you like, then by necessity you’ve made yourself cooler in your own estimation.  Woot for self-esteem.

(Oh, and by “physical art” I mean the set of physical skills that would include-to different degrees-kungfu, playing an instrument, skateboarding, calligraphy, and dance.)

Secondly, the ( Read more... )

There’s a lot of argument over whether people being attacked - especially women confronted with sexual assault - should fight their attackers.

Courtesy of The Straight Dope, here’s some data (emphasis mine):

• A recent ten-year study of attacks on women (733 rapes, 1,278 sexual assaults, and 12,235 general assaults) found that on the one hand, ( Read more... )

Oddly enough, yesterday I was really impressed with the court system in a little city that I expected to be unfair, and which was surprisingly well-handled and unbiased.  I ended up being one of the last people to get my “informal hearing”, and not only did they agree with me that my own ticket was unfair, but they dismissed the tickets of quite a ( Read more... )

So, I actually finished Section Two of The Shaolin Workout over a week ago, but the Universe has obviously not wanted me to do the writeup about it just yet.  (Or at least my computers haven’t.)  I have high hopes for this attempt, though.  (If you missed the Week One report, you can read it here.)

One note before I begin:  Today is the day I go to ( Read more... )

Well, well, well!   Look at this!  Writing has been polished, scary new things have been done with microphones (oh shush, you), and mad panic and Wild Disclaiming has been engaged in in public…and now it’s time.

I’m telling you, if this wasn’t for a good cause I’d have scared myself out of it ten times by now.  But Silence is the Enemy is an ( Read more... )

Some of you may know that probably my favorite work of modern philosophy is Harry G. Frankfurt’s “On Bullshit“.  Yes, it’s a serious paper (published as a cute slim little book) on the topic of bullshit, and it’s clear and compelling and effing brilliant.  Makes a great gift, too, especially if you know any lawyers, politicians, or other bullshit- ( Read more... )

Hey, I finally got an idea for how to benefit the “Silence is the Enemy” movement going on this month.

How about purchasing some sound?  ;)

Synchronicitously, I’ve just finished writing a 4,000-word short story that I’m really proud of, and in putting the polish on it, I realized that it works really well as an audio story.  So I thought, hey, I ( Read more... )

I’ve learned something interesting from the last few weeks of meditating twice daily (as demanded by Herr Sifu in exchange for getting to wear black uniforms):  It makes your brain leaky.

In a good way.

Okay, so all brains are “leaky” (it’s even a technical term, a la Andy Clark and other extended- and emergent-consciousness types).  But I don’t ( Read more... )