Category: Uncategorized

82298751

the golden compass

i stayed up late last finishing phillip pullman’s excellent book the golden compass. it’s fantasy, but only loosely – pullman crafts a “universe like hours” in which witches, talking bears and animal companions, called daemons are entirely believeable and do nothing to detract from the basic humanity of the characters. it’s juvenile literature, but really only in the sense that the book has a youthful protagonist, Lyra, a streetwise young girl whose murky past, connections with academia, and curiosity cast her headlong into a dangerous journey. In all other respects, be it the length of the work, the language it uses, or the ideas it purveys (a critique of organized religion that alludes to the control of catholocism for instance) are just as enjoyable for someone my age as they are to a precocious child. this stuff is like harry potter, only darker, and arguably better. whereas the fantasy elements of harry potter at a spirit of whimsy and a golly-gee-that’s-neat factor, pullman uses his fantastic elements to enrich the character’s world and carry the plot along. I don’t really want to talk about the plot of the book. i’d rather just say that reading this book made me feel like i did when i read some of the llyod alexander stuff as a kid (though i by no means intend to draw any comparison between these works) . I was excited and genuinely interested in the characters and they’re adventures. it made me wish that i was reading the book, reading light clipped to my bunk bed, and hoping my mom wouldn’t come in, half delighted with my literacy and half overcome with maternal worry about getting enough sleep, to advise me that i had to get up early for school the next morning, in my bedroom back at my parents house. it made me experience the simple pleasure of reading for the sake of a story that i fealt when i eventually broke down and read the harry potter series. in this book, however, the idea of adults as both nurturing and inherently corrupt and the idea that nobility, courage, and destiny are all things best recognized by youth resinated with a far greater potency. this book was awesome. i’ll be sure to stop by the legion and pick up the other two books in the series as soon as i can. tim gives the book high marks as well, though, of course, he had read it years before i was introduced to it.

82282835

critical mass article

jason pointed me to this article about crtical mass. it’s an indication that critical mass is now on the broader social radar, which is awesome. some drivers might have a negative experience, but at least it brings the issue to the forefront. still, as with any kind of highly symbolic activisim, i think it’s important to also develop solutions (be they permanent or more ad-hocl) to deal with the issues that people are protesting against. With the issue of bicycles, it could be as easy as people bikepooling (commuting by bike in groups to have more visibility in traffic and make those new to bike commuting more comfortable) or as slick as spray-painting our own bike lanes! In any case, I think it’s important to have this kind of direct action where critical mass leaves off.

82271250

journal entries from 09.08.2002 and 09.10.2002

82271123

recipe: country fried tofu

this is the most unhealthy tofu that you will ever eat

ingrediants:

  • 1 lb. firm tofu
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp. black pepper
  • 1 1/4 cup all purpose flower
  • 1 1/2 tsp. seasoned salt
  • 1 tbsp nutritional yeast

mix the dry ingrediants. press excess water out of the tofu and cut into strips or large cubes. roll the tofu pieces in the dry ingrediant mix until they are completely covered. pan fry or deep fry in vegetable oil until pieces are crispy and golden brown.

82270947

free textbooks

Tired of supporting an institution that is both exploitative and further exacerbates the problem of rising higher educational costs, I have decided to start giving away textbooks that I no longer wish to use. Sure, I could sell them used (which would still be supporting the college textbook industry) or I could sell them through some other channel, e.g. half.com, but in the end, I think that education has such important social value that it (and the items to support it) should be free (as in beer 🙂 ).

All I ask is that whoever wants them shows me some proof that they’re actually taking the courses. Furthermore, I ask that whoever wants the books promises to keep the books for personal use or pass them on to another student who needs them.

Anyway, here are the books for now:

For Material Science and Engineering 205:

Material Science and Engineering An Introduction

William D. Callister, Jr.

Fifth Edition

ISBN 0-471-32013-7

For Math 568:

Linear Algebra and It’s Applications

David C. Lay

Second Edition

ISBN 0-201-34774-1

If anyone’s interested, please e-mail me off this list and we can make an arrange to get the books to you. Also, feel free to cross-post and forward this message as desired.

81724044

howto: installing the java plugin for mozilla

1. Install the jre on one’s system

2. ln -s [full path name of libjavaplugin_oji.so e.g. /usr/lib/j2re1.3/plugin/i386/mozilla/javaplugin_oji.so] [mozilla plugin directory, e.g. /usr/lib/mozilla-1.0.0/plugins/]

81723439

software art

The whitney has a software art exhibition on the web called CODeDOC.

81559984

factoid: mail servers for columbus roadrunner

smtp-server.columbus.rr.com