Sigh. I've been bad. I half-wrote up some GenCon recollections while they were fresh, then stopped. Bah. This happens a lot. Time to just write. But first, a recap.

Random cool news stories

From the New York Times, an article about the use of butterflies in the classroom:

But what about the eager students and future (might we say, larval) ( Read more... )

Vaguely catching up on old LJ things. I looked at some old text files I made of earlier rambles. See if you can make any sense of this one from a year ago or so ( Read more... )

A variety of topics, with recent events but a way to string them together.

Wednesday

I'd just like to say that while I've been to passover seders before, as a non-Jew, I don't usually help run them. Still, the really informal apartment-style seder was in many ways way cooler than the real version, since we got to make things up if we couldn't ( Read more... )

I've been indulging my closet Orientalist lately (among other things, but that's what I feel like writing on). homais happened to recommend earlier "The Dream Palace of the Arabs" by Fouad Ajami*; it's a reasonably fast read, if you don't mind being depressed. You get to learn about a succession of Arab intellectuals, then watch as they fail. They ( Read more... )

Been busy lately hopping around to various places. I missed out on a chance to go sledding yesterday (darn!), but I did attend my first hockey game ever on Tuesday, much to my surprise. The Rangers thwapped Ottawa 5-1 just before the Olympic Break, nicely seen from the nosebleed seats. But hey, they were free, so I'm not complaining ( Read more... )

So, I was reading the wikipedia page on Oberlin College recently, when I noticed among the list of famous alumni one Michelle Malkin. Huh. Bit of an odd choice, considering the stuff I'd read of hers from the New York Post, but still... ideological diversity and all. Plus, I think she was a Connie ( Read more... )

Today is MLK Day, after all, so I'd feel somewhat guilty for my day off if I didn't attempt to commerate it somewhat. For those interested, I looked up a referenced speech King gave at Riverside Church in 1967, which was actually quite prescient and cutting. It's not quite as famous as some of his other speeches, and got quite the negative ( Read more... )

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/08/opinion/08sun3.htmlRead more... )

If I ever write a murder mystery, I'm setting it in China. Why, do you ask? Well, one of the classic requirements of the muder mystery is that the police be utterly incompetent boobs. Otherwise, there'd be nothing for the detective to do. That requirement is filled in spades in everyone's second-favorite People's Republic ( Read more... )

I was terrified by phantom mice this morning. I had gotten to bed unusually early, so I wasn't sleeping quite so soundly... and then I heard that horrible twittering sound. I knew, deep in my soul, that it might be mice. Ack! There it was again! So down the ladder I come and turn on the light and get up at 5:20 AM to check my uncovered food, ( Read more... )