(Author’s note: you know that thing I do in my writing where I write about one thing but am actually writing about something else? Yeah, that’s happening below, so even if you don’t care about video games, you may still like the rest of my post. However, you may not like any of it. Just […]
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Watching the Super Bowl with Librarians
What a Super Bowl. The game literally game down tot he last minute after several momentum swings throughout the game. With an acrobatic catch on the ground and a few interceptions, football doesn’t get much better than that. Of course, I was largely neutral and only slightly favoring the Seahawks, so barring a total blowout, […]
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Stories versus Statistics
I like statistics. Statistics don’t lie. Out of context, they can mislead, but they can’t lie. I like stories. Stories create meaning. Out of context, they can mislead, but they are just as impactful. Unfortunately, stories and statistics are very different approaches and often conflict with each other. Here are a few examples. Baseball loves statistics. […]
I recently have been engrossed by storytelling. Finding stories everywhere has been awesome. My fascination started with joining a book club about 2 years ago. Before book club, I hadn’t read fiction since high school, and most of that was mandatory. In between, I read various nonfiction and enjoyed the epiphanies and moments of wonder. […]
On my long drive back down the west coast this past holiday season, I listened about 20 hours of podcasts. Most of them were political and current events, including “Left, Right, and Center”, “The Bugle”, and my favorite, “Wait Wait, Don’t Tell Me.” I also listened to several episodes of “Political Gabfest”, and one segment about […]
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Who is using Facebook these days?
(Author’s note: I embrace the irony that most of my readers will come from the facebook link) I often use my younger cousins to find out what’s going on with kids these days. A few weeks ago, I asked them to explain what “ratchet” meant. They tried to explain. I still don’t think I get it. […]
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New Year’s Hopes: 2015 Edition
Welcome to 2015. Let’s avoid the cliches and get to the hopes. If you haven’t read previous ones, hopes are like New Year’s resolutions except named less strongly despite a similar intent. So, let’s review last year’s hopes. Old 2014 Hopes 1. Make something creative and physical. Julie and I did wall art! Well, we haven’t […]
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My Lessons from Hosting Thanksgiving
You might be wondering how I can post about having hosted Thanksgiving in the middle of November. Although it is true that I am Canadian, that isn’t the reason this time. Actually, Zanbato has an annual tradition of holding a team Thanksgiving a week or two before actual Thanksgiving, where we can share (hopefully) delicious […]
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“Interstellar” Review
Christopher Nolan has directed and written a lot of enjoyable movies: Memento, The Prestige, Inception, and all of the new Batman movies. If you have loved his previous movies but are skeptical about him making a space movie, I can assure you that Interstellar has that same Nolan touch should you know and love it. Interstellar is set in the not […]
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My Pivot Away from Video Game RPGs
A few weeks ago, I started playing Mass Effect 2 and was instantly sucked into it. Well, instantly after playing the initial, 15 minute, unskippable cut scene sequence 3 or 4 times because I couldn’t get the controller working in Windows properly. Anyways, I was instantly sucked into the giant universe and cinematic feel. I […]