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The first five episodes (consisting of eleven chapters) of my book are up on podiobooks.

Door is Rocked

In these grim, humorless times, it's still ok to make fun of foreigners and their hillarious attempts at English, right?

Food "Virtue" and Class

It's hard to escape the developing social norms surrounding "virtuous food." I'm talking about organic food, locally grown food, cruelty-free food and the like. There are varied reasons touted for its merit (health, environment, trade, "social justice"). And there is always a message from people who eat this way (subtle or not-so-subtle): everyone should eat as I do. Let's set aside for a moment the question of whether these foods have the righteousness imputed (and consumed) by their proponents. Let's focus on the one thing they indubitably share: a high cost. Examine for a moment this article on folks who hire gardeners to plant and tend vegetable gardens in their back yard. An extreme case, yes, but it points out how unreasonable it is to expect everyone to eat this way. In fact this whole phenomenon represents another case of thoughtless condescension on the part of the well-off toward those less well off.

The Gun Gene

Yeah, the gun gene. It's found in human males and its expression in the phenotype begins at around 18-30 months of age. The anti-gun gene is found in human females and kicks in post-partum. These opposite genetic imperatives can result in conflict. Sometimes, however, there is a happy ending.

Kill the Bat Man

Scott Nehring is always gracious in publishing my mutterings regarding the rare movie I catch in theatres. Like today.

Excuses, Excuses

Have you noticed the slow down in posting here? I thought not.

I have been spending inordinate chunks of time preparing my book for podcasting. At this point I've probably earned the right to offer advice. Start with this: there are two introductory podcast rigs you can get for about $100. M-Audio Podcast Factory and Behringer PodcastStudio. Both represent marketing departments' urge to throw together some disparate existing products into a box with some new buzzword on the outside. The difference is M-Audio's actually works, while Behringer represents the black side of high tech. Poorly translated instructions, inadequate driver support, incompatible software - it's all here.

As a software engineer, I often shudder when I think of lay people struggling with stuff like this. May I offer an apology on behalf of the industry I have served for a couple of decades?

In any case, podiobooks will not release a new author's work until they have at least five episodes on hand. I hope to reach that milestone some time next week.