Normally, if one isn't a completely lazy procrastinator, the time to post lists for the previous year is the beginning of January, but at least I'm finally getting around to it now.  I kind of fudged a bit on this list of books read for 2008,  in that I included a great many children's books and comic books that I re-read while entering them in ( Read more... )

I'm not actually any sort of a scientist ( I don't even play one on TV ), but I do read a lot of science fiction, and I like the kind that at least tries to put genuine science in there.  I also selected "Science" as one of the categories of headlines displayed on my home page, and in one of today's stories I encountered a sentence that resulted ( Read more... )

Last night's episode of Oregon ArtBeat featured a segment on Andy Paiko, a Portland artist who creates amazingly cool glass sculptures that are mechanical devices.  The program showed his seismograph and spinning wheel, and his web site also lists a glass chair, hourglass, coral, and "pseudoelectrical devices".

Go look.  He's got some beautiful ( Read more... )

Odd -- my gmail account had begun getting spam in German.

!?!

Granted, I'm technically of German descent ( though thoroughly mongrelized ), but I don't speak German and have never sent an email with German in it that I'm aware of, and I'm pretty careful to have as little contact as possible between what I do on the net and my actual legal name.

( Read more... )

This morning when I got in my car to come home from work, my "default" radio station was playing one of the commercials that I find particularly irritating, so I pushed the button for another of the ones that I usually listen to.  They were playing the Rolling Stones' "Honky Tonk Women"; I listened to that for a little while, but decided that I ( Read more... )

that an "electric fireplace" should bill itself as being made by the Amish, but judging by the number of these that go through UPS every day, they certainly seem to be selling well.  I haven't got that many in my assignment, but the two next to me, that load deliveries for Scappoose and Saint Helens ( outlying towns beyond the fringes of Portland ( Read more... )

Among the things I'm doing to settle in to my new computer is going through the websites I frequent and signing in, to make sure all my passwords are still valid.  The latest was at Powells.com, and I was surprised to find that it was sporting a new look since I last visited.  To me it seems vaguely Frank-Lloyd-Wright-ish; I like it, but then my ( Read more... )

The new computer that I ordered last week finally arrived about three hours ago, so now I am in the process of learning Windows Vista.  So far, not as bad as I had feared after a year of reading everybody bitching about it, although there are a few frustrating things.  By far the greatest of these is the fact that it will not accept the custom( ( Read more... )

It's surprising how such little things can really bug me.

I've been carrying the same cell phone for around five years now, and something that I'd been vaguely worried about from day one finally happened:  I lost the little rubber stopper that covered the power connector on Friday.  Aside from that, and the typical scratches and dings from being ( Read more... )