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On home. (Thanksgiving 2010)
I've recenly become a fan of a game called Minecraft. It's a sandbox game; like so many such games, its goals are open to interpretation. But one experience that most players seem to share is this: within the first 'day' of the game, you build a small shelter to keep out the night, and this shelter becomes your character's first home ( Read more... ) -
Movie review: M. Night Shyamalan's "The Last Airbender"
I've read some terrible, terrible reviews of this movie. I'd like to thank those reviewers for preparing me for the absolute worst. I believe that it was through their pessimistic help that I was able to thoroughly enjoy myself.
Let's get a couple of things out of the way. If you go in expecting a live-action Avatar cartoon, you will be extremely ( Read more... ) -
Apple Is a Magic Maker
One of the bigger pieces of tech news this week is the release of Apple's iPad tablet computer. The device looks very spiffy: it's fast, it has good screen quality, and it provides the user interface to which people have grown accustomed on the iPhone. However, many bloggers have expressed concern about the openness of the platform. Apple has ( Read more... ) -
Upon watching episode 3 of Carl Sagan's "Cosmos"
Kepler knew hundreds of years ago that "some force" in the sun drove the planets in their orbit. But it would be years and years until Newton's observations and theories brought to us the unification of behaviors that is the theory of gravity. How must it have felt to have been a scientist in those times---to have the pieces Kepler, Brahe, and ( Read more... ) -
I call upon the POWER OF THE INTERNET
Hello everyone!
I have a project I'm working on right now to get some military patches identified. Any and all help would be appreciated.
( So as not to clutter up your main page, details inside. ) -
My favorite holiday of the year
Floating (or, as it were, falling) high above the earth is a small colony of people, living in a space no larger than a few school buses welded together. They sail through the darkness, going about their lives. Their day-to-day activities do little to betray the perilous nature of their existence, for their environment is naturally hostile to their ( Read more... ) -
In which I commence to make a music trainer
For the past year-and-a-half, I've been performing with a choir in the North Hills. It's been an exciting process; I had years of musical training on piano in the past, but while I've always loved to sing I never really cultivated it. It's great to be playing an instrument that I can carry around all the time; it's much easier to fit an hour of ( Read more... ) -
Prediction (recorded here for historical reference)
So there's an article on NPR's website about a movement to get "retarded" banned as hate speech. The article mentions that
The word has been retired by medical and social service organizations, which prefer the term "intellectual disabilities" instead.
Regardless of other issues discussed in the article, here is my prediction ( Read more... ) -
Don't read articles about your old high school
The subject is good advice.
Apparently, my old high school (a regional magnet) has about 20% applicants who are African-American. But only 7% of the student body is African-American. Some people have a problem with this, so a group at the University of Virginia did a study on the issue. They had several recommendations---some good, some I take ( Read more... ) -
Sarcasm Mark says...
I'd like to thank the Department of Health and Human Services for issuing this new clarification on their discrimination policy.
( It's about time! )