January 2012
2 posts
December 2011
7 posts
So I finished The Stand, finally. All 52 hours of it. Luckily you can cut that in half with the double-speed feature on the iPhone. Very convenient feature.
It becomes apparent very early on in The Stand that King is a fan of The Lord of the Rings, and that obviously he is going for something similar here. But I can’t say that it measures up. Not at all really. King’s strength is...
November 2011
10 posts
I’ve been reading a lot of book blogs lately, mostly because I’ve been reading more fiction than ever before, so I thought I would start processing some of what I read here, to join in the conversation.
Basically, I started trying to write fiction myself about two years ago. You haven’t see any of it because I am self-aware enough to realize that it is not very good....
“It is said that power corrupts, but actually it’s more true that power attracts...”
– David Brin (via thesearepeopleyouknow)
“These talking machines are going to ruin the artistic development of music in...”
– John Phillip Sousa, in 1906, from a very interesting article on piracy, from someone who completely changed his mind
Best Nerd Joke I Ever Heard...
There’s been a rash of nerd jokes on Facebook recently, and I think this is the best one I’ve seen so far:
Schrodinger’s cat walks into a bar… and doesn’t.
There are a few more good ones here as well:
Helium walks into a bar and orders a beer. The bartender says “We don’t serve noble gases in here.” The Helium doesn’t react.
A neutrino walks into a bar. The...
October 2011
14 posts
Recently I’ve been trying to see if I could get my French back to a place where it might once again be of use. Just as the case tends to be with Japanese students of English, I studied for seven years during middle and high school, but have very little to show for it. But I discovered recently that the Anki flash card software has an iPad app, and I thought that it just might work for me. So...
“No scientific theory touches on the mysteries that the religious tradition...”
– David Berlinski (agnostic), The Devil’s Delusion: Atheism and its Scientific Pretensions (via mushfromnewsies)
“I am gambling that there is a significant audience interested in a kind of...”
– Bernard Haisch, God Theory, The: Universes, Zero-Point Fields, and What’s Behind It All
Again, along the lines of the book I was quoting yesterday, this is another quantum-science-for-dummies type book, written by an astrophysicist, that raises very interesting questions, from the perspective...
My tastes change suddenly. I used to think the grid format on Tumblr looked just soooo good. Now it just looks busy and confusing. Hence the simplification.
More Quantum Physics for dummies...
Too bad that when I was trying to explain observer-dependent reality to my kids, I forgot this little ditty from Fred Kuttner’s book, Quantum Enigma.
There was a young fellow named Todd
Who said, “It’s exceedingly odd
To think that this tree
Should continue to be
When there’s no one about in the Quad.”
The reply:
There is nothing especially odd;
I am always...
“We live not just in an age of anxiety, but also in an age of shame. I find very...”
– Richard Rohr, Adapted from Hope Against Darkness: The Transforming Vision of Saint Francis in an Age of Anxiety (via miketodd07)
Does the moon exist because a mouse looks at it?
Having sons is proving to be one of the most awesome things so far in this life o’ mine. I love how odd our discussions can get. Recently, they were asking me about some weird science question and if I could explain it better to them. I forget exactly what it was. But after I’d finished giving my best layman’s explanation, there was a short silence followed by the ten year old...
1 tag
Ok, so that last post indicates that it has been two months since I last posted something here. This will do nothing to improve my reputation as a pathetically inconsistent blogger.
The absence has primarily to do with a titanic battle with a black dog. I won’t go into that, as the explanation would surely just become even more metaphorical and confusing. And those sorts of explanations...
July 2011
4 posts
Survival of the Coolest...
Cycling home at dusk. Right through a cloud of bugs. Splat, covered in bugs. Not long after, right through a cloud of bats. Not a touch.
I know you insects are winning the evolution game in terms of pure numbers, but when it comes to adaptation awesomeness, the bats are kicking your ass.
YEAH! MAMMALS RULE! BOO YA!
“My advice for young Japanese is simple: get out of Japan. One of our weaknesses...”
– Fast Retailing CEO Tadashi Yanai (TIME magazine)
Another quote aimed at the Japanese that is probably true for people in general…
“Japanese prefer nonsense songs to message songs. It’s a hassle to think about...”
– I hear you Mr. Taxi, but I think the world “Japanese” in this quote could accurately be changed to “most people,” no?
It must be a sign of age, but I can’t remember the last time I actually liked a “hit” song.
June 2011
7 posts
Writing Random Things VI
It’s been a long time since I wrote a random thoughts entry. Why? Basically because I was job searching, and I read on numerous job search site how every employer these days googles your name to find blogs, etc. So that made me very shy about saying anything. Hence the long stream of instagram pics you see back there.
Turns out, we didn’t get the jobs we were looking for, but A. Got...
“Techno-optimists will tell you that social networks are going to lead to peace...”
– Kester Brewin | (via theycallmepastorbryan)
May 2011
0 posts
March 2011
10 posts
Why Does Japan Need Nuclear Power? →
A good discussion from tweets discussing Japan’s need for nuclear power. Personally, I have been mildly in favor, without giving it much thought. Of course, this experience is making me re-think my support…
But moving away from nuclear power would require some very big life changes for everyone - indeed an embracing of a sort of new 21st century morality. We just simply can’t...
