Wet Rock
There is no smell in the world quite so wonderful to me as wet stone. Waking up to a grey day is intensely invigorating.
Another good lead
Mark Rosenfelder, over at Zompist’s E-Z Rant Page, has just posted a very interesting review indeed. I’m glad to see him talking about this; Chomsky’s approach to data has been offending me for a while now, and Rosenfelder is one of my earliest linguistical influences, though essentially a lay one. Check it out; I’m gonna …
Academic slapdowns are my favorite
One can in fact view construction-based theories of syntax as upholding standards of grammar coverage that the original proponents of generative grammar abandoned, as they sought to reduce the theory’s dependence on linguistic facts. Chomsky (1995: 435) describes this shift in the goals of grammarians as follows: “A look at the earliest work from the …
Foods
I need to get back in the baking habit; it’s hard when weekends are the only time available for it, and it’s a two-day process. But beyond that, I want to make pickles, ginger beer, and cheese. My forays into each have been small. I’m hoping to give some cooking lessons to a few friends …
Minor complaints
I have many ways to switch between active work areas: ctrl-a, n when using screen; ctrl-arrow when using Spaces; cmd-tab when using normal OS X application switching; ctrl-tab when using my Windows VM. These can get confusing, and I spend a certain amount of time swapping between applications and desktops and virtual terminals fruitlessly. I …
Water, this time with lightning
At the end of the driveway: a field full of fireflies, with lightning flashing over the next ridge. Finally, the rain that’s been threatening all day arrives, and it pours, and it pours, and it is still pouring.
A good visit
Too much good in today to encapsulate it here, but suffice to say that I feel like life is happening again, things are moving forward, and I saw a fox this evening, thus confirming, by the hand of Nature, that today was, unambiguously, good. Also, does anyone in the Philly area want some kittens, at …
Water
It’s a wonderful thing. I stood the other night up to my knees in water, with Allie, for a good long while talking as the sun set. We saw a shiba-inu. If I ever were to get a dog, that’d be the breed. Also, Princeton is a pretty great town, and I miss it. Tonight, …
Flying
I write this in the Denver airport; I am flying east, to be there for a week. I hope to see folks. Also, I finished Dracula last night. Quite good, though the entire role and character of Quincey Morris is underexplored and underexplained. I would love to see some sort of speculative backstory for him, …
The Rain it Raineth All Day Long
So, I went to another board game party with coworkers, this time at Aaron’s. It was great fun, there was Settlers, beer, guitar, geeking out. The best bit came, however, at the end: it was THUNDERING by the time we all left, so Theban drove all of us as far as he could manage (except …