Probably because I read The Worthing Saga at a formative moment in my life, quotes and concepts from it pass through my head more frequently than most other books. Recently, I've been thinking of change. In "Skipping Stones" (a short story from The Worthing Saga), Card takes it to its logical end and discusses entropy:

[ Bergen is the main ( Read more... )

[ This is a repost of a Google Buzz I wrote at work a few weeks ago (during performance review season), scrubbed lightly for content. For background was what I worked on in 2009; I loved the team and the work. In December 2009, the entire team was asked/forced (my old manager and I differ in how we characterize it) to move to the exciting/high- ( Read more... )

For reasons too long to discuss here, I've decided to sort -- and likely throw away -- most of the stuff I've been storing at my parents' place; it is also too long to discus why I'm doing this without their knowledge. The relevant point is that the process involves me sneaking into my old bedroom, taking a few boxes of stuff at a time, re- ( Read more... )

Almost 10 years ago, tcwambition took me to the huge UW luau where I saw plumeria flowers for the first time. I found them stunning, and when my sister headed to Hawaii a few months later I very carefully instructed her to find some flowers for herself, because I was certain she would love them too ( Read more... )

Neither the husband nor I can be accused of optimism. But recently, I feel as if I've become even darker than him. In any case, this exchange yesterday made us both laugh pretty hard:

I'm staring intently into the mirror:
me: I think I'm developing frown lines!
husband: I don't think they're frown lines ...
me: No, I think they're frown ( Read more... )

It's Saturday night, and the husband and I are sitting at home, thinking about getting a movie. We decide on "Die Hard 2", and the husband leaps to the computer to attempt downloading or streaming the movie from various legal and not-so-legal sources. After 10 minutes of flailing around on the internet, we decide it's faster to put on our shoes ( Read more... )

My wardrobe is, I suspect, smaller than most other women's. Nevertheless, over the years I've managed to accumulate 25-30 t-shirts**. Mostly, they're plain t-shirts (I loathe logo'ed t-shirts), but I have the occasional shirt that commemorates an event or company ( Read more... )

Looking back at my resolutions for this year, I realize that I'm not very far along:

1. Family: doing well with siblings, not so hot with the older generation. Not doing so hot on the friends front.
   
2. Dance isn't happening
   
3. I signed up for a health challenge centered around walking, and it feels natural and sustainable. I'm pretty happy with the ( Read more... )

So, I've been experimenting with various ways of reducing my meat intake in the past weeks. What seems to work best for me is asking a simple question before I sit down to cook/order: "will the presence of meat substantially increase my enjoyment of this meal ( Read more... )

This New York Times article pretty much captures exactly how I feel about having meat in my diet. I don't feel a need to "quit" eating it, but I don't enjoy having it front-and-center in my diet. All I want is meat reduction.