Wednesday, February 1, 2012
I’ve been on Facebook since October 28, 2004 (I now know, after trying to wrestle my Timeline into a presentable state). At the time, a .edu email address was required, and I had never heard the phrase “personal brand.” Facebook was correct in removing the ridiculous .edu stipulation and opening up to the world at [...]
Thursday, November 3, 2011
I was FURIOUS about the sudden loss of Google Reader when it got summarily eaten by Google +. A lot has been written about this, in much better words than I could come up with:
The Google Reader Redesign is an Ugly, Lonely User Experience (Forbes)
The Unsocial Network: Why Google is Wrong to Kill Off Google [...]
So, I’m really badly stuck on a paper, and it seemed like as good a time as any to blog, which is a wonderful word that sounds exactly like the mental vomiting I feel like I need to do right now. Internet, I’m tired. My head hurts. It’s gorgeous autumn time and I don’t have [...]
Last night around 11 pm, I was in bed playing Angry Birds, which is the mindlessly obsessive thing I do all night now, and there was a weird rattling noise in my closet. All of the cats and the dog were visible, and this sounded exactly like a crazy creature banging on the inside of [...]
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Ok. I have been wrestling with Mandarin Chinese for well over three years now, and it’s a lazy Saturday afternoon, so I thought I’d tell the internet about a few mistakes I’ve made in trying figure out how to learn Chinese. Full disclosure: my Chinese isn’t great. I lived in Nanjing from 2007 to 2009, [...]
Saturday, December 11, 2010
[Disclaimer: I know enough about Chinese culture to have a reasonable idea of how little I know about Chinese culture, but I don't even have that going on for me with Japanese culture - PLEASE correct me if I'm interpreting anything wrong or just being obtuse]
A while back, Photographer Chris Clanton and I watched [...]
Thursday, October 7, 2010
I just took a massive tumble while hustling across the street so as not to unduly inconvenience cars stopped at the crosswalk. I tripped on a rock, and went hurtling through the air for enough of a duration to be aware that no part of my body was in contact with the ground, and landed, [...]
I’m working on my Chinese homework this afternoon. It’s a simple restaurant dialog, and I’m pretty sure I wrote everything correctly - I wasn’t using any new grammar and hardly any new vocabulary. Out of curiosity, I ran my Chinese through Google Translate, and here’s what I got:
Waiter: Welcome, welcome!
Guest: There is no seat?
Waiter: Yes, [...]
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
There are three papers I’m supposed to be writing right now, and page after page of Chinese characters I’m supposed to be drilling, but I wanted to take the time to share this tidbit I found in a footnote in one of my textbooks:
In 1893, a guy named John Nix went to the Supreme Court [...]
I’m taking an undergrad Chinese class, courtesy of an incredibly generous tuition discount offered through my employer, and it starts tomorrow. I just bought mechanical pencils and a binder, I’ve got my syllabus all printed out and stapled, and I’ve been dutifully reviewing the material we’ll be covering in class tomorrow. The entire process is [...]