I'm re-reading part of Freakonomics, and the chapter on parenting struck me as particularly interesting. Not only for myself (can I please let my childhood angst go already), but for any future children I might have (am I fit to be a parent, do I want that kind of responsibility, has my childhood doomed me to be a bad parent, etc). I found the ( Read more... )

My mom was transfered to a people team. She is an EMT as well as a vet tech, so she's all-around handy I guess. :) She spoke with my aunt this morning, and the most recent news is that she is currently working in the Super Dome. There is apparently a temporary medical center in the dome that has bed-ridden patients that need help, along with the ( Read more... )

My mom is a member of a VMAT team, and they have been deployed to New Orleans to help out. It's fairly badass for a woman in her fifties to be flying off to live in a tent for a couple of weeks, helping local animal personnel deal with post-Katrina casualties and cleanup, no?

Ladies, get thee to a bookstore and plop down some cash for Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress. It isn't all that often that I have to flat out put down a book in order to properly cackle and roll about madly, and then in later parts stop to sniffle.

Today is literally the best day for riding my motorcycle I've encountered so far....except for the fact that it's a weekday and I can't spend it taking a road trip. I picture myself looking a bit like a cross between a Charlie's Angel and a female James Dean; unbelievably cool, unbelievably hot, but bored by it all. In reality...well, let's not go ( Read more... )

After getting to bed late because open office corrupted all of the equations in my lab report, and getting very little uninterrupted sleep last night, thanks to the endless aggressive snuggling and group gymnastics the cats subjected us to (they actually a) woke J up and b) drove him to the couch, which tells you exactly how bad they were), I woke ( Read more... )

I read a few interesting articles on aerobic training about a month ago, and realized that I had never understood why it was worthwhile. It seemed like aerobic training really didn't help much other than endurance, which wasn't something I was hugely worried about. Also, trainers will tell you to stay in the aerobic zone because your body uses fat ( Read more... )

Oh Jeebus, what have I done? I just bought my first computer. Yeah, I know, what kind of software developer has never owned their own computer? The kind who was poor and went to MIT, birthplace of universal computing, that's what kind. Anyway, it did seem like it was possibly time. Being back in classes has necessitated access to a non-work ( Read more... )

"Contrary to popular opinion, the plural of 'anecdote' is not 'fact'."

Honorable mention: Everyone generalizes from one example. At least I do. --Steven Brust, Issola

I am getting really tired of the sloppy teaching and grading at UMass. They lost my 2nd exam in the first class, then in the lab course I got grades on lab reports corrected after the TA there flat out misread and mismarked my stuff...and he then failed to credit me the changes he made to the grades when tallying up my points at the end of the ( Read more... )