I’ve already read three of this year’s six Hugo-nominated novels, and am highly unlikely to read two of the remaining three, but since I have voting rights, and want to be as responsible as I can about this, I started on Palimpsest by Cat Valente last night. The language is very rich, and I’m not… Continue reading On the Fragile Suspension of Disbelief
Category: Personal
Graduation Day 2010
A grey and dreary day here in Schenectady for the 216th Commencement at Union College. This is probably healthier for the graduates than the years when it’s sunny and hot and people pass out in their seats, but it isn’t the most pleasant send-off. Then again, my own college graduation was a grey and dismal… Continue reading Graduation Day 2010
Thursday Happy Family Blogging 061010
Kate was away last Thursday, and just got back yesterday, so this is the first time in a week that all of us have been together. In honor of that, we’ll break out the fancy camera remote technology for a group portrait (a Baby Blogging first!) Emmy snuck into the lower left corner of the… Continue reading Thursday Happy Family Blogging 061010
I Need to Work on My Sound Bites
One of the questions asked of Neil deGrasse Tyson at the WSF thing last week was “When did you change from a mild-mannered astrophysicist to a rock-star scientist?” (or something close to that phrasing). In his answer, he said that after his first tv interview was edited down to a three-second shot of him wiggling… Continue reading I Need to Work on My Sound Bites
The Coveted Uncertain Principles Endorsement Goes to…
I’m not in the general habit of endorsing candidates for state office in districts where I don’t live, but I think I can make an exception in this case: In a unanimous vote, the Broome County Democratic Committee approved of Town of Triangle Councilman John Orzel to run for the state’s 52nd district, currently represented… Continue reading The Coveted Uncertain Principles Endorsement Goes to…
Thursday Baby Blogging 060310
I sometimes get comments asking why so many of the baby blogging pictures are taken from above. The answer is twofold: 1) I’m rather tall, and thus it’s hard for me to get down to baby level to take pictures straight on, and 2) when I do try to get down to baby level, most… Continue reading Thursday Baby Blogging 060310
Thursday Substitute Baby Blogging 052710
Kate here with two pictures of SteelyKid at play. Here’s one from last night in which she is beginning to realize the difficulties with her plan: (Very shortly after this, she solved the problem by demanding that I put my sandals back on, and then leading me around by one hand while she pushed her… Continue reading Thursday Substitute Baby Blogging 052710
alt.sic.transit.gloria.mundi
Duke shut down its Usenet server yesterday, which is significant because Duke’s server was the original home of Usenet. I think this means that Usenet is now available only to about a dozen people with panix accounts. I note this here because Usenet was an important part of my life. I started reading the rec.arts.sf.*… Continue reading alt.sic.transit.gloria.mundi
Thursday Baby Blogging 052010
How did my day of solo SteelyKid wrangling go, you ask? I can sum it up in one picture: She’s quite a handful…
Bouncing Baby
SteelyKid’s day care is closed today and tomorrow for a Jewish holiday (happy (?) Shavuot to those who celebrate it), so she’s home all day for the next two. Of course, Kate and I are both crazy busy, so my parents are coming up to watch SteelyKid today while we’re off at work. We really… Continue reading Bouncing Baby