English Rules

June 2005

Why Do We Like that Song?

June 28, 2005

Musical taste is an inscrutable thing. Some songs are immediately pleasing to the ear, while others demand a lot of work and repeated listens. Some are hailed by critics and spurned by the public, while others are panned by critics as they ascend to the top of the charts. On a much smaller scale, two people could have the same … Read more.

Books I Would Read If I Were

June 24, 2005

I've read a few books in my life, and I hope to read a few more. But there are many that I'll never be able to get through, even if I'd really like to. The big irony of recent years is that while book sales are going up, reading is going down. At least, that's what I've read. So, here … Read more.

Compleat Steve

June 21, 2005

I've never been all that wild and crazy about Steve Martin's Saturday Night Live years. But the essays he has written for The New Yorker's "Shouts & Murmurs" section over the past few years are some of the funniest I've ever read. The other day when I was searching for one of those articles, I came across the website The … Read more.

Learning PHP the Fun Way

June 14, 2005

A friend of D. Keith Robinson made up a MadLib for Keith's birthday the other day and asked him to post it on his website and start a "meme." It looked fun to me, but all of the fill-in-the-blanks were embedded right in the story, so it was missing that element of goofy surprise that I remember about the MadLibs … Read more.

The Best Part of the Trip

June 13, 2005

The family took a trip down to Chicago this past weekend to celebrate nephew Michael's high school graduation. We had a terrific time seeing family, catching up, eating good food, looking at Michael's stellar photographs, doing the family thing. On Sunday we went to the Brookfield Zoo, which is probably the nicest one I've ever seen (I've never been to … Read more.

The Cutter of 'The Cut'

June 9, 2005

The premiere episode of The Cut is airing tonight at 8:00 p.m. on CBS. It's a "Project Runway" type of show—not that I've ever seen "Project Runway," but that's what I've read. Tommy Hilfiger puts 16 fashion designer wannabes through their paces to decide who will get a gig working for the master. I plan to watch the show, not … Read more.

An Odd Relationship with Words

June 6, 2005

Jose Saramago's writing is so peculiar that three weeks after I finished reading his latest novel, The Double, I'm still baffled by how he pulls it off. It wasn't just the long, sinuous sentences or the simultaneously disturbing and comical events that teeter on the brink of absurdity, but also the odd voice of the narrator, who most of the … Read more.

Changes in Site

June 1, 2005

The time seemed right to change the site, so that is what I'm doing. I'm taking it slow, though, beginning with the home page and adapting other pages to the new design as I find the time. So let's just call this a work in progress. In keeping with my "process" attitude, I'd love to hear from anyone who has … 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...