I used to be able to get my cat to quit doing stuff (and run away, and look kind of shocked, in that cat way) by squirting her with a squirt bottle. That's what you're supposed to do, right? Well, she's gotten used to it -- now, she just squints, looks annoyed and holds her ground, lets me squirt her, and then spends the next five minutes or so ( Read more... )

It occurs to me that professors or peers who react to students who "seem smart" with vague praise and appreciation might actually be doing such students a pretty serious disservice ( Read more... )

This thing reminds me of this thing. It also makes me wonder if perhaps it isn't a little problematic to view the Harvard kid as an exceptional case, constitutionally a criminal whereas all the rest of us are perfectly normal, with all our ethical integrity intact. Certainly, it's probably not a bad idea to try to "seem smart" in addition to ( Read more... )

Those of us who are terrible procrastinators (e.g. me) and who nonetheless seem to at least kind of function have a secret: we become total productive machines at the last minute. That is to say, I have written 25 pages worth of term papers in the past 36 hours or so, which makes the prospect of having to write about 20 more in the next 40ish ( Read more... )

I noticed the "writer's block" prompt for today, about renaming pet owners as pet "guardians." I was sort of casually mulling over the drawbacks of the word "guardian" when I realized that when I talk about my cat, what I mean is something more like my brother than, say, my table. There's something really funny (but maybe kind of true?) to me ( Read more... )

Okay, crappy little piano videos no more than 40 seconds long and recorded on my phone. Did you know my phone could record video? I did not, until about an hour ago; thus, I bring you grainy, bad-quality video proof that I can play at least a few measures worth of decent piano music.

Here is my haphazard attempt at the start of Debussy's La ( Read more... )

I went to St. John's over the weekend for croquet, and it was pretty excellent. I stayed with the lovely anathelen and got to see a whole lot of people I hadn't seen in ages. Today, though, I'm having some kind of weird socializing "withdrawal," where the activity of the weekend somehow threw into relief how quiet and solitary my life here in NYC ( Read more... )

You know how, once, you were a teenager, and you were just discovering your favorite music, and you would stumble upon some song that EXPRESSES YOUR VERY SOUL and whatnot? I am feeling pretty much way about this (despite not having "flaxen hair"):

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I'm not sure where this notion that "independents" are all conservatives, or even people more right-leaning than Republicans, comes from. I am an independent. My dad, raised Republican and Christian in (mostly) South Carolina, is maybe what I'd think of as a "true" independent, in that he's clearly not just a disgruntled would-be Republican or ( Read more... )

It appears I have Cat-On-Foot disease.

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