• On Life and Love

    Wednesday Weekly Winkage

    Not, of course, limited to Wednesdays. Today just happens to be one. …Barely. I shall open with a video of Nayna, my belly dance instructor, from a couple of months ago: I’m somewhere off to the left, wishing I’d brought my own camera. This was after class, so I don’t feel bad about watching my instructor dance instead of dancing myself. Posie Gets Cozy: Well, Things Fell Apart – Sadness.”For six days, as we waited for the results of the DNA test, we loved her with our whole hearts…” 10 things the iPhone Siri will help you get instead of an abortion | The Raw Story – “Ask in New…

  • On Life and Love

    Weekly Linkage: Art, Science, and Spirituality

    It’s been a hot minute since I posted any links. Apparently this is also the Elf Sternberg addition, since three of his posts appear here. Good stuff. Lands of Dream Donation Drive – Jonas is doing one of the coolest donation drive ideas I’ve seen. Donate, and receive a detailed description and beautiful picture from the Lands of Dream. What in the hell is the Lands of Dream? Go play The Book of Living Magic. Took me about an hour (I read every description!), and everything about it is gorgeous: the art, the writing, and the music. Then take a look at some of the art/writing that Verena and Jonas…

  • On Life and Love

    Health Insurance Confounds Me

    Whycome pricing out independent health insurance is so confusing? Seriously. I have a spreadsheet, and for each plan I look at, I end up with some new column that I then need to backfill for the plans I’ve already looked at. Whycome some don’t cover birth control? Or maternity? Take a stance, companies. You’re already charging more for women in childbearing years. Whycome a plan can have a $3000-$5000/per person deductible, but not be considered a high-deductible plan (and thus eligible for an HSA), and there still be a coinsurance after the damn deductible? Whycome some of them have documentation that mentions using an HSA for certain things, but the…

  • On Life and Love

    Beginner Developer: Where to Start?

    I have a friend who’s looking to become a marketable developer fairly quickly, but is essentially trying to go from zero to hero. Despite starting a project in Python to randomize wedding slideshows, he’s never really done development, nor does he understand its core concepts (classes vs. objects, for instance). He kinda just needs a job, plus the ability to make useful tools for himself. Folks are telling him Java and *.NET, and I (mostly) agree for the simple purposes of 1) easy desktop or web development, and 2) using keyword-heavy languages to reinforce programming concepts. Not strong reasons, no. If he just wanted a job, I’d recommend UI development.…

  • On Life and Love

    Weekly Linkage: Travel, Doctors, and Bat Wings

    I spent a fair amount of last week (and all of this weekend) sick, so I spent very little time on the wibbles aside from work. Found a few fun tidbits, though: 40 Beautiful Photos of India – See, now I totally want to tour India. All of it. How to make doctors miserable people (now with data!) – Read the linked articles as well, especially “Doctors as Martyrs“. Any time I read about the stress chamber that is medical residency, I think of 1) Scrubs (sowwy!), and 2) a high school friend of mine who’s a resident now. Oy, vey. Senator James Eastland: The Mike Wallace Interview – From…