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January 17th, 2011
05:57 pm - Hunt minor commentary.
So: kudos to the Fungi for a lovely hunt (as seen from afar), including my favorite theme of the past N years (because it scratched all my Gen X itches).
I didn't see enough puzzles to comment on specifics, but one note: I owe myself a flagellation with a wet noodle for failing to follow through on my (correct) hunch on Executioner's Grounds. *THWACK*
This entry was originally posted at http://jcconrad.dreamwidth.org/1858.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
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June 7th, 2010
09:16 pm - New location at DreamWidth.
For reasons articulated beautifully by ![[personal profile]](http://s.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png) cme here, any further (infrequent) posting will be at DreamWidth.
This entry was originally posted at http://jcconrad.dreamwidth.org/744.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
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October 5th, 2008
12:47 pm - Prompted by CNN this morning in the airport:
Dear Governor Palin,
In the heartland, we say "fuck." Not "doggoneit."
Sincerely,
a resident of the cornfields
Current Location: Houston, TX
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August 26th, 2008
09:53 am - Next Boston visit.
23-28 September, afternoon to afternoon. I should be at Tech on Tuesday night. It's another working visit (meeting with my old advisor to discuss my job proposals on Wednesday and Thursday) but I'll be in town, albeit ungodly stressed about jobs, until Sunday afternoon.
Edited: my travel schedule for this fall is a bit of a mess. I'm in Houston 5-7 October, Buffalo 8-13, and then Philadelphia probably for the last two weeks of November (conference the week before Thanksgiving, and then I'll probably stay for Thanksgiving with my family). I am trying to make sure I post Boston visits here/Facebook, but my full travel messiness is on Doppler as well.
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January 19th, 2007
06:25 pm
I've been too busy to post my usual post-Hunt thoughts this week ... so my comments are a little fuzzy.
( Hunt rambling. Not terribly insightful or coherent. )
Other weekend highlights: seeing old and new friends (although the Hunt is a terrible place to see people, as I always spend the weekend holed up in a room); my usual Mary's trip; restful sleep (when it happened). (I still can't quite figure out how to classify the experience of opening up porn [sent by my UIUC graduate student friends during one of their impromptu sleepover parties] during the Hunt. Surreal. Inappropriate. Those words do a good job of summarizing my UIUC life as well.)
( Flying to CMI: don't. )
Current Mood: tired
Current Music: The Knife, "Silent Shout"
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January 1st, 2007
01:39 am - Happy New Year!
I haven't posted much in the last year, but I wanted to wish everybody a happy new year.
So far this year, my amazing college friends (including ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.1) kail_panille) have dissected a couch to find my lost earring. After many staples were removed, the earring was successfully located between the wood frame and the bottom fabric.
May your endeavors in the new year be as successfully resolved.
Current Location: South Loop, Chicago
Current Mood: sleepy
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October 9th, 2006
04:11 pm - Need laptop help. (Probably futile.)
My Mac laptop appears to have abruptly died yesterday. When I boot it up, I get to the gray screen that (usually) comes up briefly before the Mac splash screen appears, then nothing. I can boot into target mode, but it looks like other Macs can't find my hard drive. Is there anything else I should try before consigning my poor laptop into the sad hands of Central Stores (for a diagnostic)?
(And, for what it's worth, I think there's about a month's worth of work lost if my HD is indeed dead, although I haven't been using my computer that much. The most important things that I've done in the last month (accounting for the majority of my computer-related work time) are all backed up via email/correspondence/memory key, at least.)
Current Mood: navy
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February 13th, 2006
11:09 am - [meme] THIS is what I actually wanted:
http://kevan.org/nohari?name=antihip
Fill it out. Use a false name if you want -- I'm really curious. (No, this isn't the same link as in the last post. It's the evil, dark, twisted version.)
(I could easily have picked 12 rather than 6.)
Current Mood: mostly working
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February 11th, 2006
09:18 pm - [meme] So I'm sitting around on a Saturday night ...
... filling out everybody's Johari windows.
Feedback is, as always, greatly appreciated: http://kevan.org/johari?name=antihip. (Although I'm not sure that I support any self-classification system that doesn't include "fabulously bitchy" or "snarky" as options.)
In other news: I traveled 11 miles on foot today (walked 4.5, ran 6.5, in three trips to lab). Synthesis: Not Fun At All.
Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Radio Soulwax (02)
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January 31st, 2006
08:18 pm - [Politics] My insta-reactions to the State of the Union.
I've been listening to the State of the Union address for four minutes (I'm still in lab and just remembered to tune in). My two insta-reactions:
1. Tuning in at 9:14 was actually a good idea. I missed the opening platitudes and just caught the beginning of the discussion of Iraq.
2. That being said, the party party has destroyed my ability to seriously listen to the president. (I keep hearing "... is a killer" in every rheotorical pause.) I think I'll have to look at the transcript tomorrow.
Current Mood: working
Current Music: State of the Union on top of silly trance
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January 25th, 2006
04:50 pm - [Hunt] Too many puzzles?
A query: during hunt, do you like to receive small numbers of new puzzles at once, or larger numbers of puzzles? Do you ever feel overwhelmed by receiving too many new puzzles at once?
I'm freeloading^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hnot a paid member, so I can't set up a poll, but I'm interested in hearing hunters' feedback.
My viewpoint: after the last two years of a puzzle-trickle, I miss the bad old days of 2003; due to a shortage of new puzzles, I keep getting stuck doing something like looking up romance novels.
(Yes, I realize there were Too Many Puzzles in 2003-2004, and I won't defend the overload of 2004; still, I miss the horn of Amalthea of those years.)
(This is prompted by the discussion over here, if you're interested as to why I'm suddenly re-pondering hunt. Well, that, and I don't quite have enough to keep me busy in lab today.)
Current Mood: unsuccessful
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January 16th, 2006
January 12th, 2006
03:16 pm - [Travel, hunt] Today's travel checklist.
Sleeping bag: check.
Dance shoes and skirt (the latter of which will also double as part of my "formal wear" tomorrow): check.
Reading material for the plane (Bitch, Mother Jones, and a grad student's paper): check.
iPod: check.
Unhealthy snack (Necco hearts!): check.
Samples for work: check.
Crazy moonboot slippers: check.
Laptop, battery, mouse, power cord: check.
And all of this fits into my laptop bag and a single carry-on sized rolling suitcase. (Even the sleeping bag!)
People keep asking, so: I'm leaving lab "after work" (5pm, which isn't generally "after work" for me, but you get the picture). My plane leaves CMI just after 6pm CST, and I get in to Boston just after 11pm EST. Thanks to those who have offered rides.
Current Music: mashups (currently "Elevator Doorbell")
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November 23rd, 2005
11:39 pm - [Feminism] Recommended reading.
Since the first "elite women leaving the workplace article" (in the NYTimes, archive link, subscription required, etc., in October 2003), I've been an avid devourer and critiquer of similar articles. Time magazine had a similar article about six months later, and earlier in this year in the NYTimes there was a particularly egregious article titled "Many Women at Elite Colleges Set Career Path to Motherhood" (link) which asserted that "many" women at Yale were planning on working only until marriage. (Snide commentary at Slate can be found here.)
Linda Hirshman has written an interesting, thoughtful, and somewhat provocative rejoinder to these articles (link). (Thanks to truthspeaker for pointing this out to me.) I think this is required reading for anybody interested in feminism/gender issues/politics. Her research does support the trend of elite women dropping out (and is culled, fascinatingly, from the wedding announcements in the NYTimes). Most provocatively, she questions whether feminism's failure is its failure to transform the (private) relations between men and women along with the workplace.
My favorite comment, however, is her rejoinder to a common argument given by women who choose to stay home, that the additional money earned by the woman just barely offsets the cost of childcare and therefore isn't worth the work. Hirshman asserts (and I think rightfully so) that earning money moves women into the adult world of rationality and thereby gives them more power in their familial relationships.
Read this article.
EDIT: There's also a brief discussion of Hirshman's article at Salon's new-ish womynblog, Broadsheet (link).
Current Mood: thought-provoked
Current Music: Jonathan Biss, Piano Works
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October 19th, 2005
11:42 am - [Dancing] More pop-culture randomness...
One of these days, I'll post a more substantive update (including a long-overdue rodomontade about bugs). In the meantime, for the dancers, this week's Cat and Girl.
Current Mood: busy, bug-bothered
Current Music: the hum of the printer
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October 5th, 2005
10:14 pm - [Random] What it takes to get in to Harvard.
The New Yorker this week has an interesting article, titled "Getting in: the social logic of Ivy League admissions." (Link here.)
My favorite quote (obviously): "To [the Harvard dean of admissions], the answer was obvious. If you let in only the brilliant, then you produced bookworms and bench scientists: you ended up as socially irrelevant as the University of Chicago (an institution Harvard officials looked upon and shuddered).“
More to the point, I thought it was a wonderfully outlined description of what the Ivy League looks for in admissions; and drew a simple dichotomy between a "best-student" model (those who will be the best students, the Chicago paradigm) and the "best-graduate" model (those who will become the best in life, the Harvard paradigm).
That being said, I don't fully buy the dichotomy, for several reasons. I don't know if Harvard's rubric for "best-graduate" is simply monetary (as the article seems to charge); is Harvard College not also proud of its scientists? I'd also argue that my beloved alma mater is hardly "socially irrelevant"; the Chicago school of economics is tremendously influential, as is Leon Kass, the oft-quoted (ex?) chairman of Bush's bioethics panel.
This came to mind partly because of rjpb's post describing his thoughts on the differences between Harvard and MIT (link here). (I do tend to agree that, especially observed from outside [say, from a large, excellent public university in the Midwest] that Harvard and MIT look more similar than not.) Can MIT be fit into either the Harvard or Chicago category? or is the dichotomy a false one? Are engineers the missing middle ground between the academic and the pragmatic (terms mine)?
Current Music: Spiderpower Web Radio (silly trance/industrial/goth)
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04:38 pm - [Dancing/Science] From the NYTimes:
Currently on the front page of the New York Times:
Three Scientists Share Nobel Prize for Chemical Reaction Work
By KENNETH CHANG 3:24 PM ET
The chemical reaction swaps out pieces of molecules in a swing-your-partner-around square dance manner.
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September 5th, 2005
04:49 am - [Moving] Going, going, ...
... gone, or nearly so.
It's 4:50 AM; I am leaving Boston in four hours. I can't sleep -- a combination of too hot and too nervous and too overstimulated (after a weekend of reminiscence, wine, and many hours of standing).
My best wishes and thoughts to those here. Many thanks.
Current Mood: sleepless
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August 28th, 2005
01:45 am - [Moving] Plants given to good homes.
I have a lot of untamed vines that I won't be able to take with me to IL; let me know ASAP if you're interested in adopting one. They could probably use a trim.
Otherwise: I'm sick (again, inconveniently); and we've been moving foo242's stuff to his housing here for the next six or so months. (Most of his stuff is coming to IL with me, since I have movers coming Mon-Tue, but his bare necessities are staying with him.) We also cleaned out my office at work: six years' worth of accumulated paper. Ugh. (Now deposited in the three recycling bins that I filled.)
Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Global Underground 015 -- Uruguay, courtesy PR
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August 22nd, 2005
12:17 am - [Moving] Local (MA) assistance requested -- truck/van?
We need to move our futon from our apartment (in Davis Square, Somerville) to foo242's sublet (near Central Square, Cambridge). The frame won't fit in our car -- we'd really like not to have to rent a U-Haul for one trip. Does anybody have access to a van or truck? or know people with same that I also know?
(I'm still in OR, and will be there through Tuesday night. We're flexible as to move time/dates -- I get back to Boston late Tuesday night/Wednesday morning.)
Any assistance/leads gratefully appreciated.
Current Mood: relaxing
Current Music: Guess Who (an extremely dumb movie)
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August 13th, 2005
08:05 am - [Chambana] Day 3.
I found a little house for rent that I liked -- 2BR, in Urbana (described to me as the "crunchier and more granola" of the two cities, wiht a washer and dryer in the basement and with central air. Very cute and little, and not so far from lab (1.5 miles) or the natural food store (0.8 miles) or a large grocery store (0.5 miles) ... and even within walking distance of what is one of the few coffeehouses in the area (1.0 miles).
(As an aside, there is one Starbucks in the whole area, in the Campustown area just west of campus. This is the small-town large-college Midwest, meaning that while there are many bars and what has been described as a surprisingly active local music scene, coffeehouses are rarer.)
I still haven't found a good bookstore (although I did find the Border's yesterday, in the strip mall ghetto near my hotel); I'm meeting my landlady this morning at a local coffee shop which isn't too far from my house (with free wireless! yay!).
Not looking forward to my return flights tonight -- will be very bumpy.
(I was told strongly that "nobody says Chambana, it's so stupid" ... I still think it's amusing, regardless.)
Current Mood: random
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August 11th, 2005
02:00 pm - [Chambana] Day 1.
I flew out to Champaign/Urbana (comically abbreviated as "Chambana" on craigslist) this morning, to look for apartments for the next three days. Flying over Boston gave me an all-too-murky view of the moist, muggy air hanging over Boston (and then Chicago, and then U/C). An added side bonus (spoken with much sarcasm) was the bumpiness of all the flights, especially the short Chicago-to-Champaign flight.
The rental car company gave me some monstrously huge Buick (at least it seems monstrously huge to me). If I raise the seat to my desired height, I can't see the speedometer, so I set height at a reasonable compromise. I'm a little overwhelmed by flatness already. Also, wasn't the whole Buick line discontinued? I feel like an eighty-year-old. A further irritation: my hotel (situated inconveniently on the north side of Champaign, next to a highway) is undergoing massive renovations. Whee. (Note that the company-paying-my-salary booked the travel arrangements; I'm grateful for their assistance (both financial and organizational), but I wish I'd been given some choice of preferences for location, car size, etc.etc.etc.)
Off to appointments.
Current Mood: tired yet slightly frantic
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August 8th, 2005
12:48 pm - [Moving] Requests for information.
I want to clear out a lot of old clothing and used books before moving. I need suggestions for (a) places to sell used books (especially of the silly-fantasy-and-scifi variety) and (b) places to take used clothing for donations, etc. All advice/suggestions gratefully accepted.
Current Mood: planning
Current Music: rx, "HIV/AIDS"
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August 2nd, 2005
01:39 pm - [Randomness] Ready ... set ....
...go.
Current Mood: lazy
Current Music: Nine Inch Nails, With Teeth (on PR)
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July 26th, 2005
01:58 pm - [Moving] A sudden reduction in frictional coefficients.
I've started my relocation process this week; today I talked to the relocation service, and my contact is arranging a trip to Urbana for me to look for housing. We'll probably buy a small house or a condo in the upcoming year, but for now I just want an apartment for 9 months or so. Tentatively this is scheduled for the 11th-13th of August, but I'm waiting for my flight info before I start contacting
The housing situation in Urbana is certainly different than in the Boston-area. There are a large number of large, ugly apartment complexes catering to undergraduates -- the ads proclaim "Free cable! Smoking OK! Roommate matching service!" -- that aren't terribly expensive. I'm not excited to live in one. Then there are small houses, which I find significantly more appealing, or subdivided larger houses (similar to those found in Somerville).
I've really loved living just outside Davis this past year; I like having cafes and restaurants nearby. I don't know if there's an equivalent in Chambana (the hilarious fusion of "Champaign" and "Urbana" that I learned from craigslist). Another strong priority is to stay far away from any area with tons of drunken undergrads ... who probably populate whatever Davis-like area exists. Damnit.
(Aside: I've lived in only one city/area in my life not covered by craigslist, and that was for less than a year. What this really means: a surprising number of smaller cities in the West have their own craigslists, including both Eugene, OR, and Stockton, CA.)
I'll probably be leaving the area around the end of August/early September.
Current Music: Orbital, In Sides, courtesy PR
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