Another one of those pauses

As has happened here before, my lil' blog is taking a bit of a back seat to other real-life concerns. My thesis may or may not be in the final stages and I really really want this thing to be finished soon. Spring is always a busy time where I work, and this spring is nuttier than usual because we've been hosting a major event each month since January - and this will continue through to June. I also have an additional project I took on a little while ago that is taking more of my time and energy than I'd anticipated.

On top of all that, for Lent I decided to give up Google Reader. I briefly scan through posts on Sundays, but otherwise I'm not spending the time I used to on picking up fun tidbits from the interwebs. This is good for my productivity on all those other things, but it cuts down on some of the post fodder I used to have.

So except for the occasional fun fact, don't expect a lot of input around here until later this Spring. I prefer to post here when I have some actual content, so hopefully when I do return I'll have some good stories to tell.

In the meantime, if you like hearing someone grouse about the grad school process, check out PhD Comics. The complaints for those of us earning measly Master's degrees are shockingly similar.

What he said

International Women's Day was this past week, but since I think we lady-folks are great every day, here's a belated link to a letter written by Carl Sagan that made me want to put on my boots and go exploring.

Three things

Here's a fun gift from the interwebs:

Paper-Rock-Scissors played against a New York Times computer.

And here's a question: I grew up calling it paper-rock-scissors. Is rock-paper-scissors an East Coast thing?

At Least We're Number One at Something...

I've been learning about prisons and how they affect people for years now, since my first post-college job at a halfway house for former Illinois State Penitentiary inmates. As DH can attest, there were days in that job that left me completely drained - people come out of prison broken, there's no way around it.

My thesis looks at some of the bigger-picture problems with prisons, but you don't want to read my thesis (definitely not now - the data analysis is a shambles). Instead, you should take a glance at this infographic about the "Land of the Free".

The United States locks up more people per capita - and more people in sheer numbers - than China. Oh, and that fun fact didn't even make it in to the infographic.

Why aren't we protesting in the streets about this? Good question.

Organizing the bookcase

I'm at the point in my thesis where this is about all the text-based research I can handle anymore:

Organizing the Bookcase

Rahm-com

Someone's already used that title, right? They must have.

Anyway, I did my civic duty and voted yesterday after work, then naively tottered through the early evening expecting to hear about how there'd be a runoff for mayor. Turns out, not so much: Rahm Emmanuel won by enough to not even need another race.

What a bust. After decades of foregone conclusions in mayoral races, we had a field of 5 candidates plus one... foregone conclusion. Such is Chicago politics, I suppose.

My bud Bro sent me this link, which left me thinking that Da Mayor-elect was actually kind of cute back when he was pre-verbal.

One wonders, was his first word a four-lettered one?

6-word love stories

Angela at Oh She Glows (the woman responsible for my very healthy breakfast routine now) has been posting sweet stuff all this month to celebrate Valentine's Day. Today she wrote about six-word love stories, and I have basically had to peel myself away from all the comments on the NY Times article so I can, like, get other things done. It's really good stuff.

A few of my favorites:

When we stopped thinking, we loved.

Dog approves; maybe this guy’s good?

Rain on the roof. Strong arms.

red hair, brown eyes, weak knees.

She fed me.
Me wed she.

There are hundreds of them, spanning from pure romance to tragedy, and since they're so short, it's easy to tell yourself you're just going to skim them. Be advised that skimming is difficult and you will likely not come up for air for 45 minutes.

I decided I should try my hand, too:

Rome to Chicago, home's with him.

or:

Shelf too tall? He always helps.

also:

Proposed with violin, still making music.

Yikes - I think I just gave myself a cavity.

Anyway, happy belated Valentine's Day, everyone! We get to spend the weekend hosting the newlywed lovebirds from the super-fun October wedding we went to, so things are looking up over here.