Why Jemi Won’t Teach

January 27th, 2005

Mac of the day: the rumored G5 PowerBook (via Slashdot)

Here’s a post about outsourcing math teachers from GNXP for Jerie. The comments go into more detail about the disincentives that keep otherwise qualified people like yours truly from becoming teachers.

Snow with a side of snow

January 26th, 2005

I looked out the window this morning and thought that’s not two inches of snow. It was, in fact, two inches of snow, but it wasn’t supposed to be snowing yet and the forecast of 2-4 inches was looking a bit inaccurate. In fact, the new forecast has 5-8 inches total.

Back when I lived in Connecticut, we had this one winter where it snowed every Wednesday and Sunday–not blizzards, but it added up. The drifts just got higher and higher, and the winter went on and on for a total of over 100 inches of snow. So 5 inches on Wednesday following a Sunday blizzard is ominous.

On the up side, the MBTA finally shoveled that half-foot of packed snow off the above-ground T stops, just in time for the new coat.

Space, the Wino Frontier

January 25th, 2005

Modern Drunkard Magazine compares the hard-drinking TOS crew with the sensitive synthehol imbibers of TNG in Space Winos. Don’t drink and read… [Via Geek Press]

Two Feet and Counting

January 24th, 2005

Bad news of the day: Fla. loses appeal in Terri Schiavo case

Reports vary, but we have about 2 feet of snow on the ground today. Though I live to mock the T, I have to admit it was the only thing moving in Boston yesterday morning. (Yes, I was out in the blizzard yesterday.) The Breda trains were coated with snow, but they turned out to be the little engines that could. The only problems they had involved opening doors blocked by snowdrifts on the unshoveled outdoor T stops.

The Red Line was not quite so obliging; it took me an hour and a half to get to work this morning, much of it spent waiting for a semi-disabled Red Line train that went out of service right after it deposited me in Cambridge.

Things That Never Were

January 23rd, 2005

It seems like I’ve linked this link before, but in case I haven’t, check out Edgar Governo: Historian of Things That Never Were. He has collected timelines for books, television, movies, and other ahistorical histories.

The Blizzard of Ought-Five

January 22nd, 2005

Fluff of the day: The Chain, a Stargate fic about what happened to Captain Matheson.

It’s pretty and fluffy and white outside. By morning we should have at least a foot of snow, and be back down to the teens in temperature. The blizzard bit also starts tomorrow with winds up to 60 miles an hour and a total accumulation around two feet.

The only down-side is that it’s happening over the weekend. Why couldn’t we have a nice Thursday-Friday blizzard for a long ski weekend?

Post-Series Depression

January 20th, 2005

I’m finally caught up on Stargate, thanks to Jerie. It’s taken me a year and a half to cover seven and a half seasons of the show. I missed an episode here and there, but I got the general idea.

So where do I go from here? Atlantis? Farscape? Battlestar Galactica, of all things? I’ve been reading a lot of sci-fi instead (and getting behind on the reviews), but at some point I have to decide what’s next. And whatever it is, even Stargate S9, it will be sadly Jackless.

Radioactive Jemima

January 19th, 2005

Both Drudge and NECN report that the FBI is looking for a dirty bomber in Boston. The bigwigs are hiding out in the bunker, but us plebes don’t have that option. If I fall behind on the blog, it may mean I’m busy glowing in the dark.

The End of the Beginning?

January 18th, 2005

/. quote of the day: Enterprise got quite a bit better the last two seasons, but it never actually got very good. In a lot of ways, it’s like watching a clumsy kid playing sports or President Bush giving a speech — you know they’re going to screw up, so each minute that they don’t is like a little victory. Given that, it’s hard for me to imagine that there are actually people looking to save the series. I mean, why?Skyshadow

There’s a lovely filk up at Slashdot, too, on the occasion of more Enterprise cancellation rumors.

More Mini Macs

January 17th, 2005

More cool mac links, of the miniature variety: