This page shows recent posts from all categories. It will probably be fancier later.
Getting hit on in MMOs (2013/06/03)
So, last night, there was hilarity. There was this guy, in Rift, who was… well. First off, I believe he was about 14. So he was being generically homophobic, as a lot of young teens are, and people were teasing him about it. And he responded, as 14-year-old boys often do, by trying to be abusive and sexually harass people with female names. Whereupon he asked Katrinka (aka me) to “show me your milkshake”. [read more...]
Critical theory in a nutshell (2013/05/27)
I once encountered someone who asserted that all men, without exceptions, were rapists. Not as hyperbole, but as a flatly literal claim. And when I pointed out that this was pretty sexist, she explained that, according to “critical theory”, there was no such thing as sexism against men, because men are a privileged group. [read more...]
New personal best: 13 years. (2013/05/26)
So, you know that thing where people say they’ll get back to you, but they don’t? I had one of those pending from a programming conversation. I finally went back and tracked it down and sent a followup message. It’s been 13 years. [read more...]
On being made out of meat. (2013/05/14)
We are, by and large, made out of meat. [read more...]
Dear Ms. Scott: I believe you misunderstand the term "heart-breaking". (2013/05/13)
Peggy Scott’s heart breaks for the state of Minnesota. [read more...]
The mirror test and cats (2013/05/03)
One of the standard tests for self-awareness is “the mirror test” – put dye on a creature in a place it can’t see but could see in a mirror, give it a mirror, see whether it investigates the dyed spot. Cats, in general, fail this. [read more...]
The bat: Nature's temporary pet! (2013/05/02)
Now available for limited time trials: The bat, nature’s temporary pet! [read more...]
Living in Minnesota (2013/05/02)
So, last week, we had a brief bout of freezing weather and snow, with rumors that temperatures would rise. And they did, fast enough that about a day after the snow, I installed a window air conditioner in my bedroom, since I have trouble sleeping when it’s warm. And then we had three consecutive days where it was warm enough that I ran the air conditioner so I could sleep. [read more...]
Defining "proceeds": Harder than it looks (2013/04/30)
So, there were bombs in Boston recently. You may have heard. And there are people in Boston, and a lot of them feel that this is sort of a thing which affects them. It may in fact affect them significantly. And if they run, say, a company, one of the obvious things to do would be to collect some money and donate it to a charity. [read more...]
Sympathy for the devil (2013/04/21)
A poster on tumblr recently expressed some unpopular views; to wit, the hope that Dzokhar Tsarnaev would escape and never be captured or killed. Lots of people have expressed the hope that he’d be captured alive, and some have hoped that he might one day be rehabilitated. Not so many have thought to show off their empathy by hoping a killer escapes to kill again. [read more...]