My office at work has an east-facing window. It's a pretty nice view, all told. Being the sunset connoisseur that I am and working as late as I normally do, though, I'd really be better served by a west-facing window. On those rare occasions I'm at work before 5am, though, the sky through my office window is pretty breathtaking ( Read more... )

I don't really *like* New Year's Eve. The same goes for Halloween.

I think I had a conversation about this with digfarenough a while back. It really feels like there are high expectations for both -- like there's supposed to be some magical social event that you attend on both of those holidays that, without doubt, will be the best ever. Barring one New Year' ( Read more... )

I discovered tonight that Barnes & Noble doesn't have free wireless access at their cafe. Rather, they charge $1.99 a month for their wireless service ( Read more... )

Following diamondmagus's example, here's a movie of a physics professor giving a lecture at CONvergence, a comic book convention, on the physics in a few comic books. It's pretty good stuff, he's a good lecturer ( Read more... )

So, my friends had a white elephant gift exchange at our holiday party, and Steve's present was the best and funniest gamer-themed gift I can think of ( Read more... )

Happy solstice, all, along with whatever non-secular holiday greeting applies. :)

I just bought thirty pounds of chocolate in the form of three large bars, which will find their way into my nieces' and nephew's possession and, ultimately, stomachs. I may not be able to give them a white Christmas, but I'll be damned if I can't give them a chocolatey one.

Holy Mary, mother of God.

For those curious, I went to Best Buy in Florence, South Carolina, not exactly a Mecca of technology. I figured maybe the crowds would be a bit smaller there.

People began lining up before 3am to go shopping at 5am when the store opened. By the time I got there at 4:45, the line was hundreds of people long, and snaked ( Read more... )

I'm heading out to brave the Black Friday shopping masses. I pray for a profound lack of armament in the other shoppers I run into. Wish me luck!

God, I love a good thunderstorm. There was a beautiful one outside a little while ago -- the kind of lightning that ripples across the entire sky, rather than just flashing briefly. It's dying down now, which is why I'm inside ( Read more... )