Driving in to the office this morning, it looked like Central Virginia had little case of “end of the world” last night – fallen tree branches, shingles unattached to houses, all scattered EVERYWHERE. I thought I heard a storm last night. Anyway, even though I apparently slept through a hurricane or something, I still don’t […]

Per a study at the University of Montreal, “macho” men are dangerous drivers, in comparison to their less-“masculine” gender counterparts, at least in terms of taking unnecessary risks behind the wheel. While I have a few questions about the study (for example – the use of a “driving simulator” – i.e. “video game” – is […]

“Those who discourage your dreams likely have abandoned their own” Think about it, won’t you? (Carrie V has)

I’ll just let the original words speak for me here (and if you don’t know from whence these words come, get thee to a library or bookshoppe immediately): A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value — you can wrap it […]

“I’m making perfect sense. You’re just not keeping up” A sentiment that’s more than a little bit familiar sometimes. Otherwise, a decent, if damp weekend. Enjoyed an afternoon at the Virginia Rennaissance Faire, and only got a little wet. The rain came later as I was taking out the recycling.

Up. Down. From moment to moment. That’s been my week. It’s exhausting. Sun. Rain. Euphoria. Despair. Pleasure. Pain. Smile. Scowl.

As someone who both liberally applies snark and sarcasm to everyday communication, and often has trouble recognizing social and non-verbal cues*, the research presented in this paper is really very interesting to me. The research describes a “novel Semi-supervised Algorithm for Sarcasm Identification” in online user-generated content (this study made use of Amazon product reviews) […]

…Let’s go poke it with a stick” “if we’re going to die, then let’s die looking like a Peruvian folk band”

Came back from DC a day early because someone else needed to; I’ll never pass up an opportunity to sleep in my own bed another night (I have more hotel points than I’ll possibly ever need…). …And, it turned out Coulton and Paul and Storm were in town…my town (or, you know, the closest major […]

Tuesday evening, after a work day that was stressful for all kinds of reasons that had little to do with the actual job at hand (though the triggering event came upon me too quickly to get nervous about), I shook off the resulting adrenaline rush with a few hours of literary shoulder-rubbing and political commentary […]