Category Archives: Uncategorized

I’ve been reading an insanely great book, 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus. So far, it’s been a history of American Indians from about 1000 AD to about the 17th Century. The author Charles C. Mann, starts by … Continue reading →

And by “traditional” I mean “unhappy.” I’ve thought about this occasionally through the years. I remember — intellectually — that I was unhappy a lot of the time when I was a kid. Who wasn’t? I remember being bullied a … Continue reading →

I’ve been messing around with Dragon Dictate on the Mac a little bit. My first impression: this is not software to mess around with. This is a serious tool, and requires some time to install and learn to use effectively. … Continue reading →

I’m grateful to be living in the social media era when breaking news happens, as it did Sunday night and as has happened all too often in the past few months (Fukushima, Libya, Osama, etc.) Previously, if you wanted to … Continue reading →

I promised myself I wouldn’t get distracted from work by chasing down a lot of Obama news. Plenty of time for that during my breakfast and lunch breaks, and after work. But now I find myself reading my favorite crazy … Continue reading →

My cold seems to be largely cured, all over but the residual snuffling. There is NOTHING that feels as good as waking up without a cold after several days of having had one. My torn-below-the-cuticle thumbnail has grown out enough … Continue reading →

My allergies are acting up worse than they have done since I was 11 years old. Because of that, or perhaps because of the Chlor-Trimeton I took to stop my runny nose, I could not drag myself out of bed … Continue reading →

This is interesting: Yesterday morning, I checked my LiveJournal friends’ page, and one of them was talking about LJ being under a massive denial-of-service attack. He talked about what he would do if LJ went down for good. He seemed … Continue reading →

I don’t go in for the contemporary superstitious practice of keeping one’s email secret. I share it far and wide on the Web. I don’t get much additional spam because of it, and sharing it makes it easier for people … Continue reading →

While walking to the train in Los Angeles Union Station, a young woman who looked to be about 20 stopped me. She was blonde, and looked healthy, but overdue for a bath. She started to say, “Excuse me, sir…. ” … Continue reading →