Category Archives: nothing special

Damning facts are still facts.   Steven C. Holtzman* Truth is difficult. Truth can be slippery, subjective, and in a larger sense unknowable. Facts, however… Once again in Facebook I am confronted with people with whom I share political views on … Continue reading →

I am trying to unravel a problem with my email program and GMail.  Looking things over, there is a chance that I — no, my mail program, without my freaking permission — may have been accidentally sending my intermediate drafts … Continue reading →

One of the books on last year’s Entertainment Weekly’s “Top Ten Nonfiction Books for 2010” is a book, Packing for Mars by Mary Roach, the subject matter with which I have at least a passing familiarity.  Among other aspects of … Continue reading →

I play trivia at several different venues.  The Loft in San Jose, Applebee’s, St. Stephen’s Green in Mountain View.  Different venues, different formats, different games.  I’ve done pretty well this week.  Although my team tanked at the Loft, our dinner … Continue reading →

It’s very odd to see all of my friends on the East Coast freaking out a bit about the 5.8 magnitude earthquake that hit Virginia this morning.  As someone who lived through the 1989 Loma Prieta quake, part of me … Continue reading →

Hurricane Irene is strengthening into a Category 3. To my friends and family in Florida and along the East Coast, keep an eye out.  I know she’s only a Cat 3, but I have a really bad feeling about this … Continue reading →

 A First Air 737 crashed just short of the runway in Resolute, Nunavut, Canada.  Although the scientists and staff who go to Devon were home, the Rocket Scientist and the NASA people he work with most probably know one or … Continue reading →

One way to know that school has started? I am getting more hits from people Googling the words “little known heroes” or “little known American heroes.”  Guys, you really need to go elsewhere than some blog by some person you’ve … Continue reading →

According to writer John Batchelor in the Daily Beast blog, the Republicans do not stand a chance in 2012. Right. Remember how all of us (all of us liberal Dems, that is) laughed about the possible election of GW Bush?  … Continue reading →

Yesyerday, I returned from several days in Mexico.  Rah. I have had better vacations.  Much better vacations. There was a fair amount of crankiness on people’s parts (and I’m not exempting myself in this), and not enough time to do … Continue reading →

I know I have a small (but hopefully dedicated) audience… Perhaps because of the Russian LJ issue, and because of some cases I have heard recently of Google being overly aggressive in freezing people’s accounts, I have taken to backing … Continue reading →

My first introduction to the world of online writing was through LiveJournal in February, 2002.  Even with all the other social media outlets which have come (Dreamwidth, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn) and gone (MySpace, Vox), I still have maintained my LiveJournal … Continue reading →

My first introduction to the world of online writing was through LiveJournal in February, 2002.  Even with all the other social media outlets which have come (Dreamwidth, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn) and gone (MySpace, Vox), I still have maintained my LiveJournal … Continue reading →

When I started this blog, it was, for the most part, discussions of the events of the day filtered through my own particular life experiences.  I did not write very much about my family, and, although more, not all that … Continue reading →

I had talked about how I needed to find a way to make my trivia abilities a paying proposition. Last night, I did, sort of. The scene: an Applebee’s in San Jose. The set-up: a local trivia contest (i.e., not … Continue reading →