I’m in the middle of a period of extraordinary productivity, and all of the pressures that go with it. I’ve banished the TV and Netflix for the week, and am doing my best to get healthy food, exercise, and enough sleep. But the most obviously effective coping tactic has been this: afternoon tea. I drink [...]

Sitting at my computer, bundled up for a subtle (SoCal-style) winter chill, I suddenly feel a slight tug at my left toe.  The tiniest scratch of a tooth, a thoughtful pause, then another playful, miniscule bite.  My sock is under attack, in the most delicate and persistent way.  I hold still and wait it out, [...]

Some days, it just feels silly, this obsession with language and how it fits together.  But the construction of expressible meaning is as much art as it is science, as its value lies in the way the resulting work is perceived.  I tripped over two articles today which address that perception, and its influence on [...]

  I’ve been on a summer blockbuster spree at the movies over the last couple of weeks.  Saw Transformers (III), and it was fun.  But it was also exhausting to watch — the metal ‘monsters’ are so big and complicated, so very foreign, that much mental energy is expended just trying to figure out what you’re [...]

I love this in spite of the shiver factor — if you’re not familiar with Squidoo, be sure to check it out.  It’s a site devoted to building ‘lenses’, i.e. single-page shrines to a wide variety of topics.  Some people create lenses to offer information and instruction on any topic you can think of (polar [...]