Category Archives: Diary

Conspicuously absent from here are the things I tend to think about during business hours. I’m lucky enough to have some difficult problems to solve every now and then, especially when we have client with a scientific turn of mind. … Continue reading →

I’ve been writing at Thudfactor for almost nine years now. Is that right? Yeah, just six months shy of that. When I started the weblog I wasn’t married yet, Elf and I were living in a small apartment in Prince … Continue reading →

There’s a lot of difference between “Sufi-run Islamic community center in Manhattan” and “Ground Zero Victory Mosque.” I’ve been thinking about that, and a lot of other words, since listening to this Radiolab episode. Radiolab argues that language doesn’t just … Continue reading →

It’s been fifty two days since I started my diet, and I’m down by thirteen pounds according to this morning’s weigh in and eleven pounds or so according to my trend line. On May 1 I said my weight loss … Continue reading →

I have been getting numerous unsolicited emails on “market news” from an outfit — or perhaps it’s a person — called “The Bull Bear.” They’ve all been marked as spam in gmail, but it’s not often that spam persists in … Continue reading →

Kroger Wine Guy: Do you need any help? Me: I am looking for a sweet sherry. KWG: Haha! Ha! Ha! That is a redundancy! All sherries are sweet. Me: … KWG: Even dry sherries are sweet! Me: … KWG: Of … Continue reading →

I listen to a lot of music, and while my tastes are varied my favorite artists are singer/songwriters with touch of melancholy around the edges. Aimee Mann and her urban sarcasm. James McMurtry and his rural ironic pessimism. Pink Floyd … Continue reading →

We are finally moved into our own house. We didn’t buy a house in Northern Virginia because I felt like my employment had to be stable and it wasn’t much. Heck, I even changed career paths while we were up … Continue reading →

Wow, this might be one of the longest periods of time I’ve kept my mouth shut on this blog. It’s not entirely intentionall. There are three or four draft posts. But let me tell you what’s going on. 1) The … Continue reading →

The Sprout is in his terrible twos (“terrific twos,” I’m apparently supposed to call them), which means I don’t get nearly as much blogging time as I’d like. He wants to type on the computer, too, you see. So I … Continue reading →