Reading up on Noam Chomsky for my term paper has renewed a latent interest in linguistics. I ran across this recently, and thought it more than worth sharing.
The English Issue, From the Language Builder’s Perspective

The problem with having English as your first language, from the language builder’s perspective, is that English is a language that ( Read more... )

We've all heard the trite saying that "the perfect woman (or man) for you is out there", usually followed by "you'll find him/her eventually." These are supposedly good for consoling someone after a messy breakup but, to be honest, I've never known them to help. While pondering idly today, I thought about the effect a small change in the above ( Read more... )

I'm not normally one to share things simply for the sake of their cuteness, but this warrants an exception:
As noted on PhD Comics, the Wolong Giant Panda Preserve in China had a bumper crop of 16 baby pandas this year.

I want one!!

After washing my hair a few times, it's more obviously blue; I kinda like it :). Tuesday didn't provide any new fodder for observation, though today (well, Wednesday) I ran into Sarah, who was quite literally staggered when she noticed. Certaintly the most dramatic reaction I've seen -- I was amused ( Read more... )

Some of you know (and many of you don't) that I've dyed my hair (blue/black) in the service of a social experiment. My goal in this is to alter my outward look (somewhat) and observe any changes in others reactions toward me; those that I know well, those that I know in passing, and particularly those upon whom I'm making a first impression. The ( Read more... )

I haven't written in quite a while, so I thought I'd add this letter as a summary to bring things up to date. It was actually written to someone, but I don't think it'll be a scandal if I post it ( Read more... )

Been keeping too busy with classes, but never seeming to get ahead or even catch up. I don't like it one bit. It's really getting me down. On top of it, I feel like I'm not seeing any of the freinds that I care about, and certaintly not expanding my circle of freinds like I'd hoped to be able to do. In short -- life feels pretty sucky right now. I ( Read more... )

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Invitation to Open House at Intuit
Date: Mon, 31 Oct 2005 16:09:50 -0800
From: [redacted]
To: College Congratulations! Intuit would like to invite you to an invitation only ( Read more... )

Walked in to class today to find a cat, a couple of girls in renaissance garb, and a pumpkin. I'd kinda forgotten about the whole dress-up on the 31st thing. Did I mention that I've been a bit out of it these past few days? It's a pity I didn't get to do much for halloween this year -- as I said a week or so ago, I do enjoy it. Dumb UCSC needs to ( Read more... )

Had a couple of crappy days end of last week; between not finishing that program that I was beating myself up over, getting back a bad physics test and hearing that IBM "couldn't consider [me] for Xtreme Blue because of GPA requirements" I was in a funk. I'm doing better now, but I feel like all I'm getting of late are whiffs of good news, not ( Read more... )