Like many of you, I sometimes wonder what Genghis Khan would’ve thought of Twitter. At first I thought, he’d hate it, because it would be an early warning system. If you were a shepherd and saw the Mongols descending, you’d quickly tweet it before you were run down and disemboweled (the killer would probably use [...]

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I have 5 sisters, plus a mother and an aunt. I will not likely get a chance to eulogize my father at his funeral. I also don’t believe in the “he was a great man who never made any mistakes” brand of eulogies. For myself and for him, I’d like a Speaker, to Speak the [...]

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Jana and I just had a long talk about money and the future. We’ve got two children in public schools, Jana’s a grad student at UCI and I basically an employee of the State of California, so the Governator’s promised “Financial Armageddon” could make things rough in the coming months. Certainly it’s introduced (or at [...]

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My daughter CatGirl decided to join me in my quest to read the Hugo nominees before they are voted on at WorldCon in Montreal(!) in August. To be fair, she probably won’t read all of the novels, novellas and novelletes, but she did listen to the five of stories nominated for Best Short Story. Escape [...]

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via @lessiebrown (blog) via @pacifistfish (blog) (oof, that was a lot of links! if that doesn’t get me thinking in html again, nothing will!) As you can tell from the date stamp on the tweet, I discovered this awhile ago and became obsessed with it. I even bought it on iTunes. And then changed the [...]

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Goddess? or Whore? Isn’t that always the question…?

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Here at Mind on Fire labs, we’re relentless in our pursuit of knowledge. I and brave volunteers will often offer our very selves up for social experimentation. In the name of science, here are the results of our virtual party experiment: I wasn’t sure what to expect–a big bash or an intimate gathering. It turned [...]

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This article on how the X and Y generations are leaving religion like lemmings turning back from the cliff is actually from xJane, but she’s chin-deep in finals, so asked me to pass this on to you all. Money quote: “Many of them are people who would otherwise be in church,” Putnam said. “They have [...]

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Would anyone be up for a virtual toast on Friday night? Here’s my thought: send or twitpic a picture of you with a *drink in hand, preferably taken on the same evening, by Friday May 8th at 11pm my time (Pacific) and I’ll put them all together in a blog post and a flickr photoset [...]

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I have always loved Louis Armstrong. He’s hard not to love, and it doesn’t hurt that not only does he play one of my favorite instruments, but he works his vocal chords like a trumpet as well. This may not be one of his best performances, but it’s heart-warming to see him at ease with [...]

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