• On Life and Love

    Too Many Links on the Dance Floor

    That’s a Flight of the Conchords reference (NSFW!). First, a couple of lengthy jokes: Amazon.com: Customer Reviews: AudioQuest K2 Terminated Speaker Cable – UST 2.44 m Plugs 8′ Pair – This is a $14,000 set of audio cables. The reviews had me laughing all day. Amazon.com: Hutzler 571 Banana Slicer: Kitchen & Dining – Another marvelous instance of reviews matching the seriousness of the product on Amazon. I'm really impressed at Hutzler not blasting away all these joke reviews. Then some psychology:

  • On Life and Love

    When Reading Drags

    I may have caved to an Online Reading Syndrome. I’m finding it increasingly hard to read some books, while I have no trouble reading various articles, blagoposts, stories, and graphical matter on the internet. Now, in my defense, I’m reading non-fiction, and that’s never been my strong suit, no matter how much the concept of the subject matter appeals. But still. I find myself feeling the flaws of books more acutely than I would in an online piece. For instance, Amartya Sen’s Identity and Violence. Excellent concept for a book:

  • On Life and Love

    Actually Kinda Clever

    Upon reading “The Biggest Stock Scams of All Time” (an ambitious title, perhaps), I decided to update my non-existent knowledge of these scams and failures—including the 2008 business failures. Holy crap. I know, I’m so late to the party. I get the housing market failure. As Elf says, it’s not rocket science. But when Enron occurred (2001), I was a junior in high school, immersed in the IB program, and only cared about grades and college, not about the business/financial world. Reading up on Enron and WorldCom/MCI (who blatantly put expenses on the books as income) was only the start. (MCI was taken down by a little team of auditors…

  • On Life and Love

    Weekly linkage

    This week’s internet cruising, in which I was evidently trying to make up for lost time. A Vegan No More | Voracious – This woman went through a struggle to find her health as a vegan… and found that she needed to go back to eating meat. Her journey is well-documented and heart-breaking, although I found her dogmatism rather creepy. She believed very strongly in veganism, and now believes very strongly in omnivorism. Vegan Defector Talks Back | Voracious – Part 2 of the no-longer vegan story. To Teach Your Kids Money Management, Start Your Own Bank – A cute take on teaching kids how to save. I'm still divided…

  • On Life and Love

    Weekly linkage

    Just a few: Passive voice is killing your design documents – " I would argue that if the goal is to communicate clearly, actually stating and explaining the uncertainties is going to be much more helpful to readers." The Size Of Our World – Bad graphical quality, but cool comparison. 6174 (number) – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia – Who comes up with stuff like this? Who sits around adding and subtracting numbers to find patterns? Ta Prohm temple at Angkor, Cambodia – Absolutely gorgeous. 8.4 Million New Yorkers Suddenly Realize New York City A Horrible Place To Live – I don't normally read the Onion (maybe I should!), but this…