February 2012
3 posts
Not Just Marriage: The Other Fights for Gay and... →
Coding Horror: Farewell Stack Exchange →
January 2012
5 posts
Self-driving cars: Yes, please! Now, please! |... →
“exploring and embracing the idea that dance through the ages has always offered...”
– Harmonix on Gender, Self-Expression, in Dance Central
Denmark voted best OECD country for work/life... →
The US was ranked 23rd… last.
Gender Stereotypes Hurt Everyone
I’m Mad at You Because You’re an Idiot, Not Because I’m a Woman is being posted all over my Facebook newsfeed now. In it, Litsa Dremousis explains how when she became angry in response to men’s actions, the men attributed her anger as stemming from her emotional womanhood, and not due to the situation at hand. She rallies:
it’s time for more men to understand our behavior...
An Irrational Guide to Gifts →
I just finished Predictably Irrational, a birthday gift from Bennett. I loved it, for the same reason people usually enjoy books — I learned a couple things and it reinforced many of my existing beliefs :) But seriously, I think Dan Ariely presented many pop sci findings that are extremely relevant to daily life. Because of this, I’m delighted to see that his explanation for a good...
December 2011
1 post
October 2011
3 posts
3 tags
“A designer who does not write markup and css is not designing for the web, but...”
– Andy Rutledge, Web Design is Product Design (via jonathanmoore)
September 2011
1 post
August 2011
3 posts
Humans as Sensors: Visualizing the spread of... →
via Marco
“The recent fuss over the over-sharing, over the loss of privacy is just noisy...”
– From one of my favorite blogs, you are not so smart, in an article on how we view our own actions as being context-dependent, but others as less versatile.
July 2011
1 post
June 2011
11 posts
“The data we produced on Reddit and Tumblr is interesting in itself, of course...”
– MediaShift . The Necessity of Data Journalism in the New Digital Community | PBS (via nickdouglas)
“Learn to savor the spirits of rum, gin, brandy, whiskey, and the entire...”
– Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails
I went to Pennsylvania for Memorial Day weekend →
My cousin Lindsay pretty accurately narrated our time there.
I don't understand flight prices
It’s $192 for a flight from Seattle to San Francisco.
But, for $140, I can get a flight from *Bellingham* to San Francisco, connecting through Seattle on the same flight.
And then of course, it’s only $110 to fly from Seattle to Vegas, connecting through SF.
Decisions, decisions.
http://www.468noe.com/ →
Moving in here for July & August, which is about all the commitment I can handle. Super excited though — I love the Castro, and my housemates are excellent people.
“[People] are getting nostalgic for their vision of the 1950s’ martini...”
– Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails by Ted Haigh
TIL that the 80’s are to blame for such variety in the drinks called martinis, a phenomenon I’ve often wondered about.
May 2011
1 post
“Do I have anything to want other than what they want me to want, whether it is...”
September 2010
2 posts
Copenhagen
The last 9 months or so of posts are about my semester abroad in Denmark. I went to class at Ingeniørhøjskolen i København and lived in the Vesterbro neighborhood.
Useful Copenhagen Websites
I live on the internet, so it’s important to me to have some resources available online. When I got to Copenhagen, I was sad to discover that few of my favorite websites worked or were supported there. After 6 months though, I’ve compiled a decent collection of sites. Enjoy!
DBA - the classified sections of craigslist for Denmark.
Rejseplanen* - public transit trip planner that...
August 2010
2 posts
Kids & Coins & Denmark
My parents, being quite suspicious that I will never again live at home, have designated my time here for cleaning out my room. This morning, I was sorting through my collection of wheat pennies, Susan B. Anthony’s, pesos, loonies, and other prized coins every child has when I found a 10 and 25 Danish øre coin that someone must have given me. I never saw the coins in Denmark —...
July 2010
3 posts
money
I have 4 different currencies in my wallet — and I just realized that I won’t be in a country that uses euros again before I go home!
Bavaria
visited Bernhard in Bavaria. it was so cool to see the mountain and rivers and lakes that he’s spent months so fondly describing to me. I only wish I had scheduled more time to spend there - it was easy relaxing, and it was nice to stay in a “real home” instead of all these shoddily-furnished dorms, hostels, student housing, and couchsurfers living rooms.
It makes me realize...
Budapest
I arrived in Budapest this morning via the Austrian RailJet train from Salzburg. I was planning on seeing David Guetta at Balaton Sound music festival with Nick Hays, but I balked at the 50 euro tickets and by the time I finally worked up the nerve to buy them, they were sold out. So today I’m on my own, and I’ll meet up with Nick tomorrow.
I’m staying in a hostel which is...
June 2010
3 posts
Final Plans
With a little over a month left in Europe, I’m trying to figure out how to jam everything I want to do here into the short amount of time left. Here’s what my plans look like so far:
June 17 - June 23: My momma visits in Copenhagen
June 23 - 29: Paris with my mom
June 30ish - July 3rdish: camping at Roskilde, a crazy 110,000 person 4 day music festival here in Denmark, with Dan...
things I like about Danish (language)
there is just one word for boyfriend/girlfriend (it sorta means dear one)
in the sentance “Maia bought Tessa coffee with her money”, the word “her” is different depending on whether it refers to Maia or Tessa
one doesn’t “have sex”, they “grow sex”
I just saw a woman, elegently dressed with a fur shawl and heels, bike down the street in the rain with another young woman, this one smoking a cigarette, in the box on the front of her bike
May 2010
2 posts
Denmark has not enough
water pressure in my shower
coffee in my coffee cups (6 ounces? come on!)
service in restaurants. I’m lucky to see my waiter more than once every 20 minutes.
there are 7 other Maias that take classes at my little hole-in-the-wall yoga studio and doesn’t that seem like a lot to you?
April 2010
7 posts
Iceland Volcano Ash shuts down basically all the...
and until now, I didn’t realize how large a role air travel played in my life. Even when I’m not flying, which, let’s face it, is most of the time.
The couchsurfers who were supposed to stay with me this weekend had their flight here canceled, so they couldn’t come.
Ducker’s flight (supposed to arrive tomorrow) was canceled, so instead we’re meeting up in...
Tuesday, March 30th, 2010
Jona and i choose to wake up at 7:30 am, having just spent our first night at La Fontasse, the youth hostel in the middle of the Massif des Calanques in Southern France. The night before, we had procured both a rope (thanks to Jona talking up 2 French climbers) and a guide: an enthusiastic American who lived in Germany and did MI for the army. We called him Tennessee (in private) after his home...
Baguettes
Over break, Jona & I mostly ate baguettes from boulangeries. A baguette is 0.50 euros, and makes a fine meal. One can eat rather cheaply on 3 baguettes a day.
Yesterday I needed a quick meal before going to a birthday party, and, out of nostalgia, purchased a baguette from a supermarket here. It was 16 DKK.
According to the convert app on my phone, that makes it 4.31 times as expensive as...
Danish
Went to Danish class for the first time in 3 weeks (opps). We just finished our first book, a thrilling, 50 page novella called Restaurant Petit.
Today I wrote a paragraph about my family; can you understand it?
Min Familie
Min mor hedder Cheryl og hun er 57 år. Min far hedder Neal og han er 59 år. De bor i Bellingham, nord for Seattle.
Jeg har to søskende: en søster og en bror. Min søster...
Returned my library books today
Epitome of Copenhagen: scarily futuristic looking technology & late fines that start at the outrageously high price of $4/book
March 2010
10 posts
Roskilde
The trains are free on the first sunday of the month, so we went to Roskilde.
We had some guidebooks
But we were still the least informed tourists ever:
“Hey look, a Viking castle!” “That’s not a Viking castle” “Yeah, it’s a church!” “No, it’s a castle, just not a Viking castle” “How do you know? I bet it is.” ...
things I think are interesting
Most of my friends here have neither middle names nor passports!
There is a direct train from Copenhagen (on an island) to Hamburg (not on the island). It goes on a ferry! That is nuts.
Of all the slang I say, my friends have become particularly enamoured with “true story” and “lame sauce”.
You don’t have to apply to colleges (at least in Belgium & Germany), you just sign up.
My...