English Rules

November 2004

Home Roasting

November 28, 2004

For the past six months or so I've been roasting my own coffee in earnest, using green coffee beans that I buy from sweetmarias.com and a popcorn popper that I bought from eBay for $15. There are small, personal machines on the market for genuiune home coffee roasting, but they're mostly in the triple-digit range, and I wasn't sure if … Read more.

Thanksgiving Snow

November 26, 2004

The first snow of the season fell just in time for Thanksgiving this year. Holland, Michigan, as you can see in the picture below, got about 10 inches, while Grand Rapids seemed to get a little less. For those of you living in Florida or California, please don't envy us here. You may miss the snow and the "traditional" winter … Read more.

Computer Time Limit

November 21, 2004

A friend of mine recently challenged me to limit my time on the computer, outside of work, to one hour or less each day. He didn't think I could do it for a month. So I've accepted the challenge, which means that I'll probably be posting fewer entries on this site and I'll definitely be reading fewer online magazines and … Read more.

Trying to Be Fair

November 15, 2004

In a Washington Post article, executive editor Leonard Downie Jr. (don't ask if he's related to Morton or Robert; I don't know) describes the policies in place at his newspaper to separate the editorial staff from the news staff and to maintain as much objectivity as possible. It's an excellent reminder of the standards that most mainstream news organizations apply … Read more.

One Moment More by Mindy Smith

November 14, 2004

My new favorite album is One Moment More, the debut effort of Mindy Smith, a countryish, folkish singer/songwriter currently living in Nashville, where it seems just about every country artist and folk singer and even the stray electronica/dance/pop band (e.g. Venus Hum) winds up if they want to "make it" in the music biz. It's a wonderful collection of sweet … Read more.

Election Outcome Explanations Abound

November 12, 2004

Sure, this information is a little dated already, and we're all trying to move on (no pun intended) and put the election behind us, but for what it's worth, here are a few links to articles that try to make sense of the Republican victory: Money and Politics: It's all about money. Kerry Advisers Point Fingers at Iraq and Social … Read more.

When I Grow Up

November 10, 2004

Sara was in the kitchen, making herself a latte. Ben sat at the kitchen table and drew a picture of only he knows what. "Momma," Ben said, still rubbing the crayon hard against the pink construction paper. "Yes, what is it, Ben?" "When I grow up, I'm going to be a workerman, a teenager, a lady who serves food, a … Read more.

Back on the Blog

November 9, 2004

After eight days of vexing back and forth with tech support from two companies, I finally have my little blog software running again. Just like a long-lost friend. Thanks, everyone, for your patience and understanding as I worked through the byzantine world of cgi, mysql, php, and other odd strings of letters. Now brace yourselves for some pent-up blogging energy … Read more.

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Recently
in my life...

• Thought I had to use tables for bottom-aligning some elements. Then remembered display:inline-block and the IE6 hasLayout hack. Beauty! — Thu, Nov 20 at 8:18 am
• finished chapter 10 before 2 a.m. Not as bad as I thought. Now for my 5 hours of sleep... — Thu, Nov 20 at 1:39 am
• It's gonna be a long, long night. — Wed, Nov 19 at 9:48 pm
• What is it about Jackson Browne's "These Days" that makes every musician under the sun want to cover it? (don't get me wrong; I <3 it ... — Wed, Nov 19 at 11:59 am
• I'd like to go on record as saying that I have no idea what the govt should or shouldn't do regarding the financial bailout. — Wed, Nov 19 at 7:09 am
• Thanks, everyone, for jQuery plugin suggestions. anyone else have "must mentions" for Learning jQuery, 2nd ed.? — Mon, Nov 17 at 9:03 am

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