What I Would've Blogged This Week
This week's big discovery regarding the nature of college teaching is that it's probably one of the worst jobs in the world to try to do when you have a really nasty cold. Doing two lectures a day with a really bad sore throat is not pleasant. Throw in a couple of evening obligations that made Monday and Tuesday long days, and a Maryland game one of those nights, and, well, I haven't really been at my best. A phrase which hear means "I've been too dazed to type, let alone write blog posts."
Some recent things that I would've blogged about at length if I'd had time:
- Teresa Nielsen Hayden and the commenters at Making Light on Elmore Leonard's rules for writers. These are, to a large degree, rules that will help one to write like Elmore Leonard, which may or may not be a Good Thing. Pamela Dean, for example, has some qualms. There definitely seem to be more bad writers than good breaking these rules, though, so they're worth a look.
- William Tozier at the recently discovered Notional Slurry has some good posts on the idea of a Singularity, that Ken MacLeod memorably termed "the Rapture for nerds." (Follow-up here.) Drawing a parallel between extropian thinking and Intelligent Design may be hitting below the belt, but his comments fit well with my own feelings on the subject. It's a nice device in a Vinge novel, but as an actual extrapolation of the future? Not so much.
- Slacktivist has a nice post about Bush's dog (unlike that commie Yglesias), which in some ways could be read as a companion to this Izzle Pfaff post on his dog, who was the Best Dog Ever (to him). I whole-heartedly agree with both of them-- Kate is somewhat bemused that I reserve the title of "Best... Dog... Ever" for the dog I had while growing up, who died when I was in grad school. Emmy is pretty darn cute, but she's got a long way to go to catch up. Thus, all praise of her is qualified: "Best dog in the capital region," or "Best Emmy ever."
- I sort of feel like I ought to say something about the gay marriage situation, so here's a link to a post where PZ Myers compares Bush unfavorably to Prince Humperdinck, with links to other smart people saying smart things. But really, the selling point is the Princess Bride reference.
Posted at 8:52 AM | link | follow-ups |