English Rules

December 2004

Fun in the Snow

December 31, 2004

The kids (and Andrew) had a blast on the hill behind Andrew's house on Boxing Day. Here are a few pictures of the fun: … Read more.

The South-East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami Blog

December 28, 2004

Here is a major resource for information related to the earthquake and tsunami: The South-East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami Blog. Let's pray, donate, and do whatever else we can to help those who are suffering in the wake of the devestation. … Read more.

Books in the Queue

December 26, 2004

What a bookish Christmas I've had! I received so many wonderful new books for my birthday and Christmas that I worry about how I'll ever find the time to read them all. Here they are, in no particular order, all of them linked to further descriptions on amazon.com: The Dream of Scipio by Iain Pears: From what I can tell, … Read more.

You Might Say He's a Good Steward

December 24, 2004

I was reminded of Bush's shameless, duplicitous statement in the second presidential debate, You might say I'm a good steward of the land, when I read yesterday's New York Times article about the administration's overhaul of environmental regulations: The Bush administration issued broad new rules Wednesday overhauling the guidelines for managing the nation's 155 national forests and making it easier … Read more.

Guess the Dictator and/or Sit-Com Character

December 21, 2004

Here's a funny, bizarre little game you can play online: Guess the Dictator and/or Sitcom Character. You just think of a dictator or television sitcom character and answer a series of yes or no questions about the person. The web site will figure out who it is every time. … Read more.

Christmas According to Kids

December 19, 2004

Just when the Christmas season started to feel like a burden rather than the joy that it should be, my kids came along and restored in me a sense of wonder. Here are a few highlights from this season: Ben's Number One hit: We wish you were Mary Christmas This song has been getting heavy rotation in Ben's brain the … Read more.

Dead Battery Day

December 18, 2004

Technology is not my friend today. While taking pictures of a friend's baby, the battery in my Nikon digital camera ran out. No problem, I thought, I'll just switch to my 35mm camera while I recharge the digital camera's battery. But when I tried to turn on the Nikon N80, its batteries were dead, too. I ran to the closet … Read more.

amazon.com Phone Numbers

December 18, 2004

If you've ever had to contact customer support at amazon.com and wanted to do so by phone, you've probably run into the same roadblocks that I have. The number is nowhere to be found on the customer support pages. One intrepid reporter, Timothy Noah of slate.com, managed to track it down by calling a corporate number he found on an … Read more.

Blog the Blogging Blog, You Blogger

December 17, 2004

Newsweek has just come out with an article all about blogs and their growing influence in the world of ideas. I guess this means blogs are really, truly in the mainstream now. What's interesting, though, is that two of my coworkers in the past week have asked me what a blog is. And I work at a hip interactive communications … Read more.

News Junkies Aggregate!

December 15, 2004

Every time I add an article to my website or send a cool new link to my wife, she asks me where I find the time to do all this stuff. Part of the answer, as I mentioned in a previous post, is that I stay up late at night. Too late. But the other part of the answer—the part that … Read more.

Mixed Messages

December 9, 2004

Jim Vanden Bosh, a former professor and colleague of mine, once told me he was tempted to write on a student's recommendation form, "I cannot recommend him too highly," just for the beautiful ambiguity of the statement. Inspired by his masterful wit, I've been trying to come up with a list of other backhanded compliments, or mixed messages, or accidental … Read more.

Phones to Flowers

December 8, 2004

Here's an idea so cool and eco-futuristic that it looks like it must be a hoax. Because of the explosion of cell phone users and the maddening upgrade cycle for new features, there has been a problem with the number of old phones being dumped into landfills. An R&D company contracted by Motorola has come up with a creative solution: … Read more.

Networks Refuse to Run Church Ad Saying All Are Welcome

December 5, 2004

A few days ago the Eschaton blog posted an entry about CBS and NBC refusing to run an ad from the United Church of Christ. Apparently, it was considered too controversial by the two networks. The ad, which you can view at stillspeaking.com, shows burly bouncers turning people away from a church. Then these words appear on the screen: Jesus … Read more.

Clean Well-Lighted Online Shops

December 1, 2004

I love amazon.com as much as the next surfaholic, but sometimes the clutter and the noise and the enormous number of choices can seem overwhelming. That's when I like to turn to simpler shops on the web, sites that offer fewer items but more compelling options, sites with elegant design and beautiful presentation. It hardly matters that most of the … Read more.

Blog Named Word of the Year

December 1, 2004

Merriam-Webster just named their 2004 word of the year, based on number of online lookups. And the winner is blog. One of my favorite words, defenestration, just squeaked in at number 10, while others on the short list related to the U.S. elections or other news events this year (incumbent, electoral, insurgent). … 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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My Bookshelf

Reading Now
  • Staggerford: A Novel
  • Four Seasons in Rome: On Twins, Insomnia, and the Biggest Funeral in the History of the World
  • unChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks about Christianity... and Why It Matters
  • Light: Science and Magic: An Introduction to Photographic Lighting
Just Read
  • JavaScript: The Definitive Guide
  • The Art of Learning: A Journey in the Pursuit of Excellence
  • The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World
  • Jesus and Nonviolence: A Third Way (Facets)
On the Shelf
  • Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software (Addison-Wesley Professional Computing Series)
  • Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
  • Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life
  • The Elephant Vanishes: Stories
  • The Catcher in the Rye
  • The Tenacity of the Cockroach: Conversations with Entertainment's Most Enduring Outsiders

© Karl Swedberg

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Noteworthy Articles

This Math Whiz Called It for Obama Months Ago (NY Times)

In an election season of unlikely outcomes, Mr. Silver, 30, is perhaps the most unlikely media star to emerge...

Op-Ed Columnist: The Obama Agenda

Right now many commentators are urging Barack Obama to think small. Let?s hope he has the good sense to ignore their advice...

Obama for president (Anchorage Daily News)

Palin's rise captivates us but nation needs a steady hand...

McCain's Non-Support for Troops and Veterans: The Master List

Senator John McCain has a very clear, long, and illustrious history of not supporting troops and veterans one bit...

Music & nightlife | A suburban mom's rock-star moment | Seattle Times Newspaper

Though Ketola has a reputation as a singer/songwriter in the Christian music community, she never expected that she'd leave her husband on their 17th anniversary, mind you, and take up with another man. On stage. In front of 20,000 people...

Make-Believe Maverick (Rolling Stone)

A closer look at the life and career of John McCain reveals a disturbing record of recklessness and dishonesty...

The Palins' un-American activities (Salon)

The Republican ticket is working hard this week to make Barack Obama's tenuous connection to graying, '60s revolutionary Bill Ayers a major campaign issue. But the Palins' connection to anti-American extremism is much more central to their political biographies...

Once Elected, Palin Hired Friends and Lashed Foes (New York Times)

Ms. Havemeister was one of at least five schoolmates Ms. Palin hired, often at salaries far exceeding their private sector wages.

Obama to Palin: 'Don't Mock the Constitution' | The Trail | washingtonpost.com

Sen. Barack Obama delivered an impassioned defense of the Constitution and the rights of terrorism suspects tonight, striking back at one of the biggest applause lines in Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin's speech to the GOP convention...

Attacks, praise stretch truth at GOP convention - (Associated Press

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and her Republican supporters held back little Wednesday as they issued dismissive attacks on Barack Obama and flattering praise on her credentials to be vice president. In some cases, the reproach and the praise stretched the truth.

State of the Art - New Nikon Holds a Secret - NYTimes.com

If you saw it just sitting there, you?d never guess that the new Nikon D90 is a mind-blowing, game-changing camera...

Captcha is broken - now what? (The Guardian)

Websites use Captchas in an attempt to disrupt the spam and malware economy - but they are not working...

Hoping It's Biden (New York Times)

Barack Obama has decided upon a vice-presidential running mate. And while I don't know who it is as I write, for the good of the country, I hope he picked Joe Biden...

The Candidate We Still Don?t Know (New York Times)

Most Americans still don't know, as Marshall writes, that on the campaign trail "McCain frequently forgets key elements of policies, gets countries' names wrong, forgets things he?s said only hours or days before and is frequently just confused." ...

Is Jon Stewart the Most Trusted Man in America? (New York Times)

Mr. Stewart describes his job as "throwing spitballs" from the back of the room and points out that "The Daily Show" mandate is to entertain, not inform. Still, he and his writers have energetically tackled the big issues of the day...