Thank you, ESPN
Back in 2006 I wrote a blog post titled Shut Up, Dave O’Brien.
Thank you, ESPN, for listening.
Tomato Nation/Donors Choose Challenge
Seriously, this contest restores my faith in humanity every year. I’m a little late in plugging it this year—it began all the way back on October 1. As of this writing, donors have already donated over $90,000 to help students in high poverty schools get badly-needed supplies and other resources. Like, y’know, DESKS.
As amazing as that is, we still have quite a ways to go before we hit the primary goal of $150,000, and we’re not even halfway to the final goal of $210,000. We have until Halloween to buy a truckload of books and other supplies for high-need children.
For details on how to participate in the challenge, visit the contest info page at Tomato Nation. If you don’t really care about getting a prize for participating, you can just head over to the Donors Choose project page and fork over some cash.
The widget below should keep updating with this year’s total.
The View from the Other Side
For the first time in approximately 25 years, I am not a student.
I have no homework, no assigned reading, no exams. No teachers, no professors, no academic advisor. I am not enrolled in any kind of degree program.
That’s Dr. I-am-not-enrolled-in-any-kind-of-degree-program to you, by the way. 
It is kind of amazing how much dead tree you can accumulate through years of schooling. In the course of cleaning out my grad office I discovered:
- The coursepack for CS 525, Linear Programming. That was undergrad. I’d forgotten that I even took that class.
- The binder of reference papers for one of my undergraduate theses (yes, I wrote two).
- The binder of papers I had put together to read for interview weekend in Pittsburgh (I think I read two of them; still got into grad school).
The grad school adventure, she is finished. In the administrative lingo of my department, my status as a student is “terminated”. Have PhD, will travel. On with life!
Chipanglish
CogKnition
Gustatory Circuit