Linguistics, Dancing, and a Few Good Books
Wherein I post about the excitements and mundanities of life in Providence, RI| [blog home] |
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| Don Blaheta is a sixth-year PhD student in Computer Science at Brown University, studying Natural Language Processing; he just finished up an AM in Linguistics across the street in the Department of Cognitive and Linguistic Sciences. In his copious free time, he does competitive ballroom dancing, sings in two choirs, hangs out with the Brown-RISD Catholic Community, knits obsessively, and reads sci-fi, fantasy, and alternate history novels. |
11 July 2003
Well, in a little while I'm off to catch a bus to catch a plane to fly home for two weeks. It'll do wonders for my productivity, I'm sure. :P
"I believed then and I believe now that removing Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq was a just cause. But not every just cause requires that we go to war, especially with inadequate planning and without maximum support." --Howard Dean
Posted 4:46 AM [+]
09 July 2003
I just had the weirdest conversation. I mentioned that the media had finally started being more critical of the government, well, maybe not Fox News, but.... and the guy I was talking to commented that Fox was the only moderate, fair voice out there. My jaw just about hit the floor. He actually believed it. Amazing.
"Krispy Kremes are like twelve little orgasms in a box." --Kelly Mayberry
Posted 6:17 PM [+]
08 July 2003
Discovery: Democratic hopeful Senator Kerry bears an uncanny resemblance to President Jackson. Consider:
For comparison, here's a portrait of Jackson:
and another:
Crazy, huh?"I'm really sick of the whole feed the baby routine. I'm tired of picking out the meals, and spooning the food in her mouth, and cleaning her afterwards. I'm looking forward to the day when she says "I'm hungry." and I can just hand her a live chicken and a gun and let her take care of it." --Jeff Vogel
Posted 11:42 PM [+]
07 July 2003
This week's Comics I Didn't Understand explanations page has a great one---it's the last comic, BC, in its usual not-terribly-funny state. The explanations are fairly straightforward; but the third one (by Tim Tjarks) is CLASSIC.
"Rather than send $20 a month to feed a starving child, we as a society choose to spend $200 a month to upgrade to the Super Extra Huge SUV, with fucking rear view cameras so we don't even have to turn our bloated heads on our fat little necks to avoid crushing our evolutionarily-unviable offspring on our way to get a Shiatsu massage." --Eva Schillace
Posted 4:38 PM [+]
It's funny---it wasn't until I really got into the crunch of having to write up my thesis that I really got such a clear notion of what was left to do. Now that I have less than a month until I defend (on 6th August), I have a million things that I realise that I ought to have tried. Some of them I'll be able to do in the intervening month. And the rest... well, that's why there are Future Work sections. But still, I wish I'd gotten started on the writeup sooner; I think that in the end I would've gotten more done. Oh well.
"Just when you had all but forgotten that carbon-based life exists above the 49th parallel, those sly Canadians have redefined their entire nation as Berkeley North." --David Montgomery, Washington Post
Posted 1:17 AM [+]
| Don Blaheta / blahedo@brown.edu |
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