As some of you may recall, once upon a time I started a blog called “schoolblog” based on my progression through the educational system. It was a tiny little side project, and really, it stayed that way all along. Now, or more specifically, yesterday, that process came to its conclusion at the U of A convocation ceremonies.

So, I’m done.

And, as has been increasingly obvious, so is this blog, at least as it currently exists. I don’t seem to have the impulse to write, and if the comment rate is any indication, what little I do write is not spurring conversations either. Given these two strikes, I cannot see myself having anything to say for a while.

I’m not getting rid of the domain, so it might come back at some future date, but in the meantime…

Good night.

Mindless Self-Indulgence (a more fitting band name I cannot imagine) is playing this tuesday, and I’m gonna go see them with a whole horde of friends. I expect bruising, which will be fun.

France is coming closer. There might be some more news there, too, but I’m not 100% (98%?) sure of it.

Simon is kindly sending us to an opera! We’ll be seeing the Flying Dutchman, which is probably going to be really odd. I’ve never been to an opera, so I hope that they don’t have a dress code

I mean, I can chalk it up to being a bit hung over, what with Brady and Mel not leaving til 4 AM this morning, but waking up at noon and realizing that I really don’t have time to go out, jump, and get home…

Bleargh.

I wish I had been a bit wiser, that’s all.

I did, however, oversleep a bit this morning. I blame the fact that I’ve not topped 6 hours of sleep in any night for around a month, which is probably not doing my body any good whatsoever.

In other news, Mother’s day is coming, and I’m pretty stoked: I remembered!

TV Tropes is the biggest timesink I have ever encountered. I recommend starting with shout outs or Jossed or, perhaps, a favourite show.

I’ve done just about nothing in the last two days but read this damned site. It even references Girl Genius!

Actually, two weeks. My, how time flies…

So, I was in Omaha for a week doing some integration work for the team, taking the opportunity afforded by proximity to get some grotty little details hammered out and hopefully to sell my southern compatriots on the value of the tools we make up here. I think I was successful, but I haven’t heard a lot out of them this week (mainly because I’ve skipped the morning meetings, being disinclined to lean too heavily on the good graces of my carpooling coworker).

This past week…

Well, I’ve got a new respect for (and fear of) character set encodings. And, if you wonder what that means, there’s A) wikipedia and B) wikipedia.

Suffice to say it’s hellish, but I believe that the end is nigh. I think I’ve got the very worst of it nailed, and I hope to be on to something less nightmarish next week.

I’m done.

This fills me with both apprehension and joy; the latter is for obvious reasons, the former is because the desire to get into school and the drive to finish it have been a major part of my life for the last decade. Who and/or what will I be, now that this goal has been achieved?

Time will tell.

Toys R Us has tramp stamps

Where has all the pubic hair gone?

Seen on thursday evening in a restaurant: A little boy, probably a bit over one year old, starts to do that high-pitched attention-getter crying bit, and after a token effort at calming him by his father, the mother pulls out a portable DVD player and sets it up on the table so that he can watch a TV show and shut the hell up.

Overheard this morning in a Starbucks: A couple having coffee together, both looking modern, professional, and stereotypically ‘starbucky’… Talking about playing online RPGs, power-leveling, and gold farming.

In the news: A film, Fitna, that is — as do so many things these days — enraging the religious of the eastern world to the point of sputtering threats. Please note, “The Internet interprets censorship as damage and routes around it.”

He leaves behind ideas beyond number and a culture immeasurably richer for his contribution.

My god, it’s full of stars!

I’ve never given it the attention it deserves, obviously, but science reporting in the popular media — from the news outlets to the movies — is pretty bad. Cinema is especially guilty of portraying the scientific establishment as a repressive overmind bent on quashing any threat to some imagined orthodoxy, and popular science writing isn’t a lot better.

I hope you enjoy the article.

For some reason, today, I’m just… irritable and tired.

Tomorrow I’m sure I’ll be fine, but only if my work laptop isn’t still being a bucket of cocks. It’s been that kind of day.

And, it appears, I’m not the only one.  Here’s “To Hell with Good Intentions by Ivan Illich,” a transcript of a speech given in 1968 to a volunteer organization.  I came across this by way of, as always, Metafilter, where a discussion on the validity of volunteering was taking place. This was spurred by an interesting article decrying modern celebrity aid programs as development porn and calling out volunteerism as paternalistic behaviour… which is how I have always sort of felt.

Poke about. It’s a good debate.