Brains: No Indicator of Success

Most Likely To Succeed

( Malcolm Gladwell on how hiring recruiters are looking at the wrong things. )

The Vatican Bans Basically Everything Reproductive

( But tells people to 'just do it.' )

CSS Sprites Advanced Techniques

Nifty stuff.

Not Tonight, Dear, I'd Rather Blog

( 46% of women would rather go without sex than without Internet access for two weeks. )

Although 46% of Americans voted for Bush, only 33% will admit to it now.

No surprises here.

Evangelicals really don't like gay people.

( Leader ousted for tolerating civil unions. )

The Senate: George Bush & Donald Rumsfeld bear responsibility for toture

( Don't ever leave the country, guys. )

Video Game Design: 1990 through 2008

A fabulous trip through time. Dig those crazy interfaces.

Time Is Different from Space

A physics major explains closed time-like curve, the causal nature of reality and its malleability, the relationship between general relativity and the distinction between P vs NP problems, and finally the claim "CTCs make polynomial time equal to polynomial space as a computational resource."

Far out.

Friday: Tense negotiations and Kouryou-chan's ballet class

Kouryou-chan gets dressed for ballet.

Ungh. So tired. Spent the entire morning at the mediator's office, hashing out a deal with Yamaraashi-chan's mother. I think the general thrust of the agreement is... okay. It's better for Yamaraashi-chan, at any rate; gives her life and schedule more predictability, and that's one thing she appreciates. I regret not bringing my camera; the mediator's office has a great view of downtown to the southwest. Although the weather was miserable and the promise of snow was all over the radio.

But I was so tired when I got home I fell asleep on the couch, which is not at all usual for me. I'm not sure why. Maybe it's because all the negotiations leading up to the negotiations kept us up late at night.

All four of us went out to Kouryou-chan's annual Christmas ballet performance. She's stalled a bit in her improvement, but she did fine on-stage. The main scene they played was the opening, party scene, and she was onstage for about half the performance. She did great, although she has to stop scratching her nose. The lead performer is a blond and wore a hair extension of tight curls in a bun behind her head; I told Omaha it looked like she had an octopus on back there, and Omaha agreed with me.

Why is it so many 19th-century ballets are obsessed with the idea of the woman dancer as automaton? This is the third ballet I've seen with that idea. The last one, Copellia, had the mad scientist obsessed with building the perfect dancing girl. Nutcracker has the music-box dancing girl brought to life, after a party guest shows off a mechanical dancing girl. It seems a little creepy to me.

There's a story arc in there. If only I was writing.

Afterward, we went to Red Robin for dinner. We had to ask for a different table because the halogens we were under flickered so badly they represented an epilepsy risk. Yamaraashi-chan has started ordering from the adult menu. Damn, they grow up fast, and they get expensive when they do.

By the time we got home we were all exhausted. Nobody complained about going to bed on time for once. I watered Dinah. She's off her feed and is proving much harder to pill than usual. I wish I knew why, other than the obvious "she's old and pretty close to death" explanation.

Saturday, doin' stuff

Kouryou-chan at Ballet demo

I wish I could say that Saturday was better, but...

It's only 6:30pm or so and already I feel run down. Exhausted. Tuckered. And we only did two things today.

This morning, Omaha and I took Kouryou-chan out to a very brief performance of a tiny portion of her ballet at the grande opening of a new strip mall down in Normandy Park. A "winter festival" was scheduled to bring it to the attention of the local citizenry, and Kouryou-chan's school had volunteered to be part of the display. I tell ya, that place is gonna be a bucketload of fail if it doesn't get a decent anchor, like a supermarket or a pharmacy or something. Right now it's the desperation zone for a pedicure shop, a Papa John's pizza, a kitchen-sink cafe, and a smoothie shop. It's a lovely square mall, but it's got nothin' and it's just in the wrong place.

Omaha was late getting there as she and Kouryou-chan had decided to try and make fudge a few hours beforehand, and it wasn't quite done when Kouryou-chan and I left.

The dance went fine. The other exhibit that morning was Yamaraashi-chan's old choir, which is still intact and still doing lovely, although Paula expressed missing Yamaraashi-chan. The mall, on the other hand, was very lame, with one brave crooner out in the parking lot singing Christmas carols alone under a tent with mic and amplificer (until Paula's group came out and karaoke'd with him), a very sad pair of Rudolph and Frosty fursuits. The place hasn't even really started to get tenants yet and already it gives off a shabby vibe.

Afterward, we drove over to the theater to watch Bolt. It was actually a damn fine movie, predictable and forumlaic in some ways, but well-drawn and well-acted. I was surprised to find a Truman Show subtext to the whole film, but it was lovely after all. Kouryou-chan surely enjoyed it. And despite Travolta being the lead actor, there wasn't a Thetan in sight. Really, if you have kids, it's a worthwhile trip. Disney seems to have their groove on again.