Siniſtra

Misopogon

2012-01-09T14:28:00.000-08:00

I'm growing a beard. I'm doing this reluctantly. I've sported a circle beard before, in varying degrees of thickness. I prefer the clean-shaven look, but my facial skin is prone to rashes, especially with shaving. Over the xmas holidays, I was in Socal, on antibiotics, and ran out of shaving oil and aftershave. Since then, my face has yet to forgive me. Every time I take a razor to it, it breaks

Gresham Remodel: The plan

2011-10-01T09:30:00.000-07:00

Here is a schematic of what we intend to add to our house. If you're familiar with our current house layout, you'll notice that we're adding on past the existing bedrooms a master bedroom, another bath, a walk-in closet, and a small office. What this schematic doesn't show is that the ceiling will be a pocket ceiling. And we intend to decorate the bathroom 1930s style. No decision has been

Gresham Remodel

2011-09-21T09:40:00.001-07:00

We're adding on a room to our house! One master bedroom, an additional bath, and a walk-in closet. So far all we have is a dirt pit in our backyard. Here's the photostream where I'll be posting the progress. http://www.flickr.com/photos/22586674@N00/sets/72157627597231165/

Keplervasana

2011-09-21T09:37:00.000-07:00

It's been hot here in the Bay Area, finally, and Tammy caught this photo of Kepler and me cooling off and laying low. This relaxing position I call Keplervasana.

Kepler

2011-09-01T10:28:00.000-07:00

Kepler Edward Jorgensen was born at home at 4:44pm on August 31, 2011, weighing in at 7lbs 8oz. We are eternally indebted to our midwife, Rosanna, and our doula, Shannon, for their support, patience, endurance, and love. Tammy's labor started Tuesday night, but it really got going at 2:10pm on Wednesday when her water broke. From that point on, the contractions came fast, and less than three

The Silicon Valley

2011-08-18T16:44:00.000-07:00

One of my worst kept secrets is that I'm working on a Silicon Valley parody novel, called Pood!e. I read the intro at Tuesday Funk in Chicago: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lw2Ktu5F224 As part of my novel research, I've been covertly working at a SiVl startup not far from the Google campus. In fact, by not far, I mean that I'm almost but not quite working _on_ the Google campus in Mountain View

I deleted all my blog photos

2011-03-30T22:08:00.002-07:00

Sorry, there are no more pictures on this blog. I accidentally deleted the Picasa Album that housed all the photos, and there is no undelete for Picasa Web Albums. Whoops!

DIY: The stove

2011-01-09T10:00:00.000-08:00

Over the xmas holidays, our dish washer stopped working right before our expected house guests were to arrive. For several days we were doing dishes by hand for four adults and one toddler (that's like another two adults right there). Since we don't use paper plates or cups, were were hand-washing several times a day.We replaced the dish washer as soon as we could. Based on our experience with

Who killed Latin, Part I: Charlemagne

2011-01-08T10:00:00.000-08:00

There are several theories circulating among Romance philologists on who or what killed Latin. Once of the oldest and well-known theories is that the Carolingian scribal reformers are its murderer.The theory goes like this. Prior to the Carolingian Renaissance of the eighth and ninth centuries, speakers in the former Roman world weren't conscious of the fact that they were speaking differently

Who killed Latin?

2010-11-11T05:57:00.000-08:00

At no time in the evolution of English through Old, Middle, and Modern did speakers of English ever get the sense that they were no longer speaking English. Even though there is no possible way I can read Beowulf in its original, and I have to squint real hard to read Chaucer, and I need to keep annotated versions of Shakespeare around--Joyce is just unreadable, I have know no idea what language

The decline and fall of the Roman Empire

2010-10-12T05:03:00.000-07:00

I've re-listening to a series of lectures by Professor Philip Daileader on late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages. Viola hasn't been that into them, she just reads her flip books while I stream them over the car stereo.As anyone who has known me for a while can attest, I have an obsession with Latin and Romance languages, and I love piecing together the whole history of the transformation of

The Minimalist: Marriage post

2010-09-29T16:28:00.000-07:00

Come on over to The Minimalist my slightly more active blog. I've got a good controversial post up, and I'm looking for more opinions! Add yours today!

Django: vincentjorgensen.com

2010-07-16T07:58:00.001-07:00

I've re-written my eponymous website in the Django web framework. There's lots of benefits to this, but the part I really like is that I can make a change to the database on my laptop, then just copy over the file (it's sqlite3), and the change is instantaneous. I'll no longer need to update php functions or html code if I want to change the content. Also, if I ever get sick of the

Four teeth fewer

2010-07-08T11:08:00.000-07:00

My four wisdom teeth were pulled at 0800 today. I didn't look at the needle that went in my arm ever. The anesthetic worked pretty quick. One minute Dr. J is making small talk about movies, then World Cup, then I'm trying to tell him about my hobbies of Greek and Latin. My head was getting fuzzy and lightheaded pretty fast. I asked him about his hobbies (watching Warriors and Sharks games),

Short story sold: A Case of the Mondays

2010-07-02T08:40:00.000-07:00

My short story "A Case of the Mondays" is out in the current issue of Golden Visions Magazine. The whole issue available in PDF for purchase through PayPal for only $3.00!There is a typo on my last name in the print edition and online. Happily, both editions have my byline correct.I'm very pleased to see this story in print. My thanks to the Critters Workshop community who critiqued it back in

My own geek hiring tips

2010-06-30T21:15:00.000-07:00

Justin James at TechRepublic has 10 interview questions to help make the best geeky hire. I think some of them are close, but a couple are downright dangerous (at least from the candidate's perspective). Here's my take on his 1010.1: Star Wars or Star Trek?James is confused. He thinks that a wishy-washy candidate is showing a lack of bottle. Nonsense. If I were interviewing and the candidate

Google command line

2010-06-18T12:27:00.001-07:00

I'm posting this with google's new command line tool. http://code.google.com/p/googlecl/

Thought experiment, better more articulate

2010-05-14T20:51:00.000-07:00

Viewable here.

1950 Thought Experiment

2010-05-10T19:51:00.000-07:00

My house was built in 1952. As a thought experiment, I try to imagine what the first home-owner thought of their house and the accommodations it entailed.More precisely, how am I living differently than my 1950s single-family counterpart? What makes 2010 different from 1950? Am I living better? Am I living worse? Do the differences matter?So, the thought experiment: In 1950, what do you

Under the sink

2010-04-20T20:35:00.000-07:00

Our garbage disposal died. The backup is getting gross, and I really wanted to replace it, but SAHDs don't get to do that, what with library story time, nap time, my coveted gym time. Ack! What to do?After the gym I swung by Lowes, grabbed a new, expensive inksinkerator, and opened it up. Inside were debugging instructions. One suggested taking a wrench to the main shaft and wiggling it to

Net-winged Midge et al.

2010-04-18T20:49:00.000-07:00

If I'm reading my field guide to California insects1 correctly, this is a Comstock's Net-winged Midge--Agathon comstocki, Family Blephariceridae--native to the granite regions of our state. If that's so, then she is far, far from home. We don't have waterfalls or swift-moving streams. I suspect she hitched a ride back from weekend warriors on their way home from Lake Tahoe.While strange

Click click

2010-04-05T09:11:00.001-07:00

I usually take a shower during Viola's morning nap. (When she transitions to one nap, I don't know what I'll do, I'll have to pose that question to The Parents Guild). This morning, she went down easy. I got my towel and was ready to turn the tap on when I heard a faint click-click click-click coming from what I thought was her room. It had been raining, and our heater's ventilation pipe

Lavash crackers and pizza

2010-04-01T19:57:00.001-07:00

I made Lavash crackers from Peter Reinhart's The Breadbaker's Apprentice, followed up with TJs whole wheat pizza. She adored both. She ate a whole cracker herself (Za'atar paprika and all, even though she couldn't masticate them), then enjoyed her semi-premade pizza. One-years are pretty cool, though I wish Viola could tell me "more pizza" or "less fried ricotta".

Indoctrinating the youth

2010-03-19T21:46:00.000-07:00

I'm going to build a computer for Viola. I'm going to use the Crayola keyboard, and I haven't decided on a mouse yet. I'm inspired by this article in Linux Journal. What I still need is: flat screen monitorchassis (preferably mini ati)motherboard (preferably post 2007, no P3s please)22" deskThe software is free. But if you have any used equipment you'd like to part with, please let me know.

Warm spring day

2010-03-17T13:51:00.000-07:00

I'm definitely affected by seasonal mood swings. But today is a warm, almost summer-like day in Sunnyvale. The birds are singing, the bees are buzzing, and I can taste the pollen in the air. Even though I'm still getting over this throat cold, I feel pretty good. Now, where's my allergy medication?

The Minimalist's own blogspot

2010-03-16T19:32:00.000-07:00

The Minimalist has its own blog now: www.bayareaminimalist.blogspot.com. I'll cross post for a while. If you can think of any topics I should tackle, let me know via email or the comments.

The Minimalist: Mint.com

2010-03-16T10:21:00.000-07:00

I applied to be a guest blogger for We the Savers, the blog for ING Direct, but a different father, vegetarian, 30-ish white guy got the job instead of me. I look forward to following Matt's posts, but I was kind of looking forward to passing on savings advice to a wider audience (not just the three people who semi-regularly read this blog).This blog has been languishing for a while, as I don't

Not so secrets to bread

2010-02-24T18:47:00.000-08:00

First, if your daughter doesn't like it, you did something *very* wrong.OK, now on to pointers that work with my oven in Sunnyvale most times of year.1) "Room temperature" for bread is much higher than I can get in my room. Thus the proofing setting on the oven is key. 85-100°F is ideal. I get excellent rises this way.2) The yeast I buy from Berkeley Bowl is unsurpassed. If for some reason you

Discovery of "boo-boo" in English

2010-02-23T09:08:00.000-08:00

It seems that when Viola Naia hurts herself and wants to call attention to the fact, she babbles "bwa-bwa" or "bwoo-bwoo". No doubt other babies in times prior to mine did this thus we have "boo-boo" for an ouchie. I still prefer the babble my father taught me: "Mother f-ing son of a god d--n b---h!"

Facebook has gone the slut

2010-01-20T15:54:00.001-08:00

I guess slut sells. This is what came up when I was looking up the profile of a Calband friend of mine. I quit Mafia Wars over a year ago. And I'm certain that the girl in the other photo is no kith of mine. Reminds me of this onion video. 2000 lbs of slut. hehehehe. I should tell her that they're using her profile to sell sex, but a) that's redundant, and b) she'd think it was really,

Thunder

2010-01-19T05:06:00.000-08:00

5:05am and there's thunder and lightning. For those who live in climes with weather, rain, thunder and lightning are probably less interesting. The Bay Area--and much of California--is famous for its temperate weather. We only get a storm like this once a decade. I can remember each one from my childhood (I've lived here my whole life). Viola is too little to remember this one, but I'll

Viola's first earthquake!

2010-01-07T16:07:00.000-08:00

Today around 10am Viola had the first earthquake that she felt. Or didn't. She was hitting the wall while I got the car seat ready for a trip to tjs, when the plant on the bookshelf started shaking. Rather impressive for such a small child, but then the rest of the house shook, too. I grabbed her and wrapped myself around her while the tiny tremor passed. Tjs was more exciting, what with the

New lessons in patience

2009-11-17T12:28:00.000-08:00

We went to Babies-r-Us today, followed by Trader Joe's before going to story time at the library. I'm a pretty nervous guy, but usually waiting in lines is something I can handle. I can do verb conjugations in my head (or decline nouns), and I get to the front of the line eventually, purchases are made, I get to in the car and forget about it.Today though, whew! I went through a lot of

Baby steps

2009-10-22T18:25:00.000-07:00

I'm convinced that babies are able to learn one new thing at a time AND THAT'S IT. Viola is a master crawler at nearly seven months of age (the army crawl, but she's unstoppable). But she still can't roll from her stomach to sitting. In fact, she's still a bit shaky with sitting. She had a play date today with a baby her age almost to the day. Their differences and similarities were striking

Baby sign language rocks

2009-10-14T18:29:00.000-07:00

Viola knows two words already: milk and pacifer. She invented the second word. Now when she's screaming, I can eliminate two problems from the list of possible infractions. And when she tells me what she wants... there's no screaming. Ahhh.

ſ again

2009-10-13T13:15:00.000-07:00

I had to change the code base a bit. Now you don't have to look at the ſs if you don't want to. Just click above and the ſs goes away. The change is suble to the user, but it took a lot of effort on my part to learn JavaScript tricks.