Well, it's been a big painting day here at home. After seeing it at my sister Sue's house, we're going with Sherwin-Williams "Gardenia" (a light creamy yellow) for two of the upstairs rooms. It does make you realize how much difference a little paint can make.
Painting with a roller is a lot of fun. You spend 2 hours painting 1/10 of the area and then 15 minutes painting the other 90% - an immediate transformation, very gratifying.
There's an interesting New York Times column by David Brooks: Lonely Campus Voices. He discusses the difficulty of conservatives pursuing academic careers in the humanities or social sciences. There are a few conservatives there already, but it's really tough to become one.
I guess that I'm lucky I got my Ph.D. in the sciences. Even living in Ithaca is challenging enough. I tend to "fly below the radar" and let people assume that, of course, I'm a liberal just like them (which actually would mean I'd be illiberal, but that's a whole different story).
There's a very interesting column by Paul Johnson at Forbes.com: Europe's Utopian Hangover. There's a very important message here for the U.S. So far, we haven't strayed too far down the path of "enlightened bureaucratic regulation", but it's always an alluring one to politicians. Be warned.
Tom Friedman's column, Our War With France, in today's NYTimes is right on the money once again. The question as to why France is willing to cut off their nose to spite their face is a very interesting one, but their actions will benefit no one, and the Iraqis least of all.
Here's a great article by Orson Scott Card (of SciFi writing fame) on peer2peer filesharing: Art Watch - September 7, 2003 - MP3s Are Not the Devil - The Ornery American. He really makes all the right points about the recording industry's behavior. It might also be called "Who are the pirates?".
Read this, and then send a donation off to the EFF to try to help get the record companies to stop suing their customers.
Well, I seem to be a very occasional blogger. I guess I get distracted and don't think about trying to post what I'm thinking or doing. It's been a pretty busy couple of weeks. At work, it's been the start of the semester, complicated by lots of Microsoft viruses, worms and patches. Then there are the requests for configuring Petabyte storage arrays, combined with a bunch of NSDL stuff.
At home, we've been rearranging rooms, with Caroline's departure for Carleton. We've got Jennifer pretty well settled, and I'm clearing out the front room in anticipation of repainting and setting up my new office/project room. Always lots to do.
And here's another: Virginia Postrel, whose weblog is the Dynamist Blog. She's a former editor of Reason magazine, but eschews some of the wild-eyed observations that they succumb to. I've found her uniformly thoughtful and insightful, on politics, economics, and culture.
Her latest book, The Substance of Style, will definitely be on my Christmas list (if I don't just give in and get it myself first).
OK, I'm joining the crowd. Andrew Sullivan's weblog: www.AndrewSullivan.com - Daily Dish, is a wonderful source of information and insight. I'm very much in agreement with him that there are many things wrong with George Bush and his administration's choices, but he's getting a few things right - and they are the most important things.
Quoting: "I have made plenty of criticisms of this president; and will do so again. But he's currently the only leader in this country who actually gets the depth of our predicament and the need for innovative, enterprising and ruthless action to improve it."