Let me be the first to praise Google for their new invention, Google Custom Time. The idea is simple: you can pre-date your e-mails so that it appears that they were sent at the appropriate time (birthdays, anniversaries, before the big presentation was due), and they will appear at that time, in the proper place in the recipient's inbox. It will appear that they simply got 'lost in the ether' during the interim.
Good times! Now that the concept of 'on time' is slowly being eradicated, I look forward to the day when concepts such as 'date' and 'time' lose all meaning altogether, which will allow me to finally live in a nirvana where every meal is breakfast (what? Time for pancakes with whipped cream again?), and every day is both a Saturday and my birthday, simultaneously.
Although, I would like to know a little more about their 'e-flux capacitor' before signing on whole-hog...
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Liberal Praises Liberal Paper - Counterintuitive!
Okay, just to prove that I'm not entirely a New York Times-basher, a couple plaudits for its pundits.
In today's op-ed section, the oft-maligned (and deservedly so!) David Brooks writes really well on the subject of behavior and discipline, and how good habits brought on through rote and routine can lead to perfection of execution in the physical sports. He doesn't really go into it in great depth, but I think the point he's getting at, which is something I am really a firm believer in, is how these sorts of habits can help you in your everyday life as well.
For instance, with all these new responsibilities at work, I am finding myself having to be, roughly, a billion times more organized than I've had to be in the past. Which is to say, fairly organized.
Now, strictly speaking, my ability to organize my thoughts and processes have nothing to do with my ability to, say, keep a very clean desk. Indeed, if you listened to Will Wilkinson's diavlog with Richard Florida over the weekend (sorry for the lack of a dinglelink, but I'm too busy!), you'd know that people who score very high on the 'open to new experiences' axis in Five-Factor Personality Analysis tests, like me, tend to have very messy desks.
Nonetheless, I am now aspiring to keep a clean work area, both at my cube and in the lab, the idea being that if I can keep order in my physical surroundings, that will assist my brain in keeping itself neat and tidy as well.
It's really a nice column by Brooks, and a reminder why the hell the Times pays him to write three times a week. I find his political columns to fall in a fairly narrow space between uninformative and uninformed, but when he writes about behavior and sociology, which is the area where he got started, he really can be both interesting and insightful.
On another note altogether, bravo to the Times, via the Freakonomics blog, for giving my brother-in-law's father, the weird-and-wonderful Daniel Hamermesh an outlet for his economic thoughts. Daniel is quite the character, as anyone who has spent a Passover dinner with him can absolutely attest. But he's also, I'm told, quite an insightful economic thinker. I've been to one of his undergrad lectures, and he is definitely an engaging speaker, and his occasional posts to Freakonomics have been fun to read. And he's definitely the most famous blogger that I'm related to by marriage, although since I am very loosely related to David Copperfield by marriage, he's not the most famous person to meet that qualification.
In today's op-ed section, the oft-maligned (and deservedly so!) David Brooks writes really well on the subject of behavior and discipline, and how good habits brought on through rote and routine can lead to perfection of execution in the physical sports. He doesn't really go into it in great depth, but I think the point he's getting at, which is something I am really a firm believer in, is how these sorts of habits can help you in your everyday life as well.
For instance, with all these new responsibilities at work, I am finding myself having to be, roughly, a billion times more organized than I've had to be in the past. Which is to say, fairly organized.
Now, strictly speaking, my ability to organize my thoughts and processes have nothing to do with my ability to, say, keep a very clean desk. Indeed, if you listened to Will Wilkinson's diavlog with Richard Florida over the weekend (sorry for the lack of a dinglelink, but I'm too busy!), you'd know that people who score very high on the 'open to new experiences' axis in Five-Factor Personality Analysis tests, like me, tend to have very messy desks.
Nonetheless, I am now aspiring to keep a clean work area, both at my cube and in the lab, the idea being that if I can keep order in my physical surroundings, that will assist my brain in keeping itself neat and tidy as well.
It's really a nice column by Brooks, and a reminder why the hell the Times pays him to write three times a week. I find his political columns to fall in a fairly narrow space between uninformative and uninformed, but when he writes about behavior and sociology, which is the area where he got started, he really can be both interesting and insightful.
On another note altogether, bravo to the Times, via the Freakonomics blog, for giving my brother-in-law's father, the weird-and-wonderful Daniel Hamermesh an outlet for his economic thoughts. Daniel is quite the character, as anyone who has spent a Passover dinner with him can absolutely attest. But he's also, I'm told, quite an insightful economic thinker. I've been to one of his undergrad lectures, and he is definitely an engaging speaker, and his occasional posts to Freakonomics have been fun to read. And he's definitely the most famous blogger that I'm related to by marriage, although since I am very loosely related to David Copperfield by marriage, he's not the most famous person to meet that qualification.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Welcome Mat
And let me be just the latest, if not the first, to welcome Kathy G to the blogosphere. As someone who called for her to be made a guest-poster at Ezra's back when she would occasionally post these random, incredibly insightful comments to some post-or-other of his, I'm very happy to see her finally have her own outlet for thoughts and comments.
Although, I have to say - if I'm saying that you ought to learn how to write some slightly shorter posts, you probably have a real brevity issue.
Although, I have to say - if I'm saying that you ought to learn how to write some slightly shorter posts, you probably have a real brevity issue.
I Waited A New Week For This Post, And All I Got Were Some Lousy Ellipses?
Best intentional misreads of the day:
World's Hackiest Hack, Bill Kristol:
You gotta love the blatant, unrepentant hackosity of Kristol's rantings. I don't know how long a contract the Times signed him to, but it's already been going on too long, as far as I'm concerned. Senators Clinton and Obama have many faults, but accusing them of holding a "stale liberal orthodoxy" can only be the opinion of a fool or a madman. Unlike Charles Krauthamer, I do not hold a Ph.D. in psychology, and will not speculate as to the mental state of my ideological opponents, so I'm left believing Kristol to be a fool.
Although, I must admit, I do appreciate Kristol's confidence in his own manhood to publicly declare his appreciation for the qualities of John McCain's 71-year-old buttocks:
World's Hackiest Hack, Bill Kristol:
Most Americans want to be told we can leave Iraq sooner rather than later. McCain has chosen instead to tell Americans the hard and unpopular truths that...there’s no...path to defeating our enemies and securing a lasting peace.And the occasionally anti-Bushian Paul Krugman:
[T]he Bush administration actively...tried to protect families against predatory lending.Of course, those aren't the real quotes, but wouldn't it be funny if they were?
You gotta love the blatant, unrepentant hackosity of Kristol's rantings. I don't know how long a contract the Times signed him to, but it's already been going on too long, as far as I'm concerned. Senators Clinton and Obama have many faults, but accusing them of holding a "stale liberal orthodoxy" can only be the opinion of a fool or a madman. Unlike Charles Krauthamer, I do not hold a Ph.D. in psychology, and will not speculate as to the mental state of my ideological opponents, so I'm left believing Kristol to be a fool.
Although, I must admit, I do appreciate Kristol's confidence in his own manhood to publicly declare his appreciation for the qualities of John McCain's 71-year-old buttocks:
The qualities of a young military hero may not be those of a successful president. McCain knows this. As an elected official, he’s never rested on his P.O.W. laurels, remarkable though they are.
Sunday, March 23, 2008
My Favorite Least Favorite Coach
Sorry for the overload on b-ball coverage, but I'm in that kind of mood right now.
I know that I'm contractually obligated to hate Roy Williams, the head basketball coach at the University of North Carolina. For one thing, he's the former long-time coach at Kansas, who was the best team in the Big 12 back when I was a regular attendee of University of Colorado basketball games (there's no real defense for this, except that sometimes it was fun to be one of 300 fans in the arena for early-season games.) Anyhow, he was always so snide and snotty and easy to hate, and the one magical year that CU went undefeated at home in conference, including wins over #13 Oklahoma State, #6ish Texas, and #2-ranked Kansas, he nearly threw an apoplectic fit at the end of the CU-KU game, insisting that star player Kirk 'Frodo' Heinrich had been fouled on their last possession, I thought he was going to have an aneurism.
Very immature.
Anyhow, now he is the coach of UNC, and since Michelle and LJ, official BFFs of The Consistent Fool, are NC State alums, I am still contractually obligated to dislike him.
But, despite myself, I find him occasionally quite charming. The #1 example of this was back when he left Kansas, and told Bonnie Bernstein, standing outside the locker room moments after his team narrowly lost to Carmelo Anthony's Syracuse team, that he didn't "...give a shit about Carolina right now."
And just today, in a post-game interview after his team absolutely dismantled Arkansas, he told the interviewers, regarding star player Ty Lawson playing at full capacity; "when he plays like that, I'm a much better coach."
It doesn't quite count as humility, but it's still pretty funny and fairly charming stuff.
I know that I'm contractually obligated to hate Roy Williams, the head basketball coach at the University of North Carolina. For one thing, he's the former long-time coach at Kansas, who was the best team in the Big 12 back when I was a regular attendee of University of Colorado basketball games (there's no real defense for this, except that sometimes it was fun to be one of 300 fans in the arena for early-season games.) Anyhow, he was always so snide and snotty and easy to hate, and the one magical year that CU went undefeated at home in conference, including wins over #13 Oklahoma State, #6ish Texas, and #2-ranked Kansas, he nearly threw an apoplectic fit at the end of the CU-KU game, insisting that star player Kirk 'Frodo' Heinrich had been fouled on their last possession, I thought he was going to have an aneurism.
Very immature.
Anyhow, now he is the coach of UNC, and since Michelle and LJ, official BFFs of The Consistent Fool, are NC State alums, I am still contractually obligated to dislike him.
But, despite myself, I find him occasionally quite charming. The #1 example of this was back when he left Kansas, and told Bonnie Bernstein, standing outside the locker room moments after his team narrowly lost to Carmelo Anthony's Syracuse team, that he didn't "...give a shit about Carolina right now."
And just today, in a post-game interview after his team absolutely dismantled Arkansas, he told the interviewers, regarding star player Ty Lawson playing at full capacity; "when he plays like that, I'm a much better coach."
It doesn't quite count as humility, but it's still pretty funny and fairly charming stuff.
Further Basketball Thoughts
What Shane said.
Also, it's a testament to how absurdly well Stephen son-of-Dell Curry has been shooting through two rounds that I was surprised to see that he was only an 89% free throw shooter. I figured him for a Reggie Milleresque 93-94%, one of those 'misses a couple a month' sort of guy. Then, he actually missed one which would have sealed the game, putting Davidson up 4 with a few seconds to play. Of course, it was the front end of a 2-fer, and he hit the second, rendering the whole argument moot.
But that kid has a future in The Association. Oh, and, suck it, Hoyas.
Also, it's a testament to how absurdly well Stephen son-of-Dell Curry has been shooting through two rounds that I was surprised to see that he was only an 89% free throw shooter. I figured him for a Reggie Milleresque 93-94%, one of those 'misses a couple a month' sort of guy. Then, he actually missed one which would have sealed the game, putting Davidson up 4 with a few seconds to play. Of course, it was the front end of a 2-fer, and he hit the second, rendering the whole argument moot.
But that kid has a future in The Association. Oh, and, suck it, Hoyas.
Basketball Thoughts
This post is probably two weeks too late, but early March is traditionally when I really start paying attention to basketball. A few weeks' decompression from the end of football season, and it's time for some roundball.
But, with being busy and all, I really haven't had time to become as aware as I usually manage. Throw in the fact that I don't have cable, and I really am pretty solidly not knowing what's going on. A fact which is well-reflected by the way my NCAA bracket completely self-destructed in the first 4 days of the tournament.
A few random thoughts from the first 3 days of NCAA play:
But, with being busy and all, I really haven't had time to become as aware as I usually manage. Throw in the fact that I don't have cable, and I really am pretty solidly not knowing what's going on. A fact which is well-reflected by the way my NCAA bracket completely self-destructed in the first 4 days of the tournament.
A few random thoughts from the first 3 days of NCAA play:
- It may be the fact that my TV is aging a bit, or the fact that my eyes are aging a bit, but it seems like the text that CBS is putting up is nearly impossible to read on my screen. In particular, the scores of the other games going on are so small, they're almost impossible to read. I'm guessing that this is an outcropping from the prevalence of high-res HDTV's these days. On those screens, I'm sure the smaller text is quite readable, and leaves more room on the screen for the game being shown. But it's irritating for those of us who think there are better things to spend money on than expensive toys...
- So, wait. You're telling me that Duke is a slow, unathletic team which is overly-reliant on distance shots, who is highly ranked based mostly on owning the best home-court advantage in the game? And they flame out early in the tournament, losing to some unheralded lower seed? Man, that is some seriously new story. I never saw that coming.
- Every year, I run the bracket at work. I put in some extra brackets for reference. This year I only put in two - one where the higher RPI team wins the game, and one where the higher-seeded team wins every game, called 'Old White Men's Committee'. As of this writing, OWMC is tied for second, and also tied for second for most possible points remaining. I think the point is not that there were almost no upsets, but instead that the upsets were difficult-to-call ones, like Siena, that very few people got right. That's what I think. But, then again, I am tied for 17th, so my thoughts ain't worth much.
- Kansas has definitely looked the best through two rounds. But it's still Kansas, and I have faith that they will find a way to blow it before all is said and done.
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