I have nothing to say

I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels this way sometimes. I just sat down at the computer to write a blog post, and within seconds my mind had gone completely blank. I stared at the “Your Post Title” block at the top of the page, and

The Problem with Trolleys

What is it about the Trolley Problem that is so compelling? What is the trolley problem you ask. It goes a little like this: Imagine you are the driver of a trolley that has gone out of control. Ahead of you is a split in the tracks, and you can

On Perfectionism

"If your fidelity to perfection is too high, you never do anything." Those words hit me hard when I read them last week. This is a constant struggle I've had for the last couple years. In my head I have a perfect vision of a completed

Lift and Writing

I got an invite to the web version of Lift, which is an amazingly simple application designed to help you get started and stick with daily habits. It is most beautiful in its simplicity. There is no failure. You simply stop by the website every day and check in with

evernote

Beginning GTD

As a student, my plate is always full. There are so many things I could be doing at any given time of the day. I fully believe that for the first part of my doctoral program I let that get the better of me. Since there was no way I

how to

Create a new Evernote note from Launchy

I love Evernote. And I love Launchy. But it turns out that combining the two was more difficult than I expected. All I wanted was a way to add a new note to Evernote from Launchy without having to open up Evernote's whole interface and do all sorts

stuff i love

Apps I love - Focus@Will edition

I spend a lot of time at my computer. As a student, I write papers and do programming assignments. As a researcher, I read papers, write more, and try to keep on top of what’s going on in the world and especially in my field. As a nerd, I

Why I no longer blog with Google+

I'm not a frequent blogger. I've given blogging a go several times in the past five or so years, and it's never really stuck with me. Or rather, I've never really stuck with it. I've done self-hosted Wordpress, Drupal, and

stuff i love

Apps I love - BeyondPod edition

Not so very long ago, I used an iPad for a lot of things. One of those things was listen to podcasts. Now, the Apple podcast app came out about that time, and it was a train wreck. Nothing started, there was no way to manage a playlist, and half

stuff i love

Apps I love - Pocket edition

This is a ridiculous question, but have you ever found an article online that you wanted to read later? Bookmarks just don’t seem to fit the bill for me in that situation. A bookmark is a commitment. It means I want to keep this site around for reference into

stuff i love

Apps I love - F.lux edition

I’m a computer person. As a computer person, I’m often using my computer late into the evening, and it’s often one of the last things I look at before I head to bed. Sadly, staring at bright computer screens just before trying to sleep is not the

stuff i love

Apps I love - Anki edition

Memorization is a tricky beast. It comes in handy when learning a new programming language, a new computer program, a new set of papers with authors and dates, and lots of other places. When learning something you'll use every day, memorization comes naturally. I can pretty quickly learn

vim

How to source one ftplugin from another

I recently read an article about using Vim for writing prose. A lot of the tips there are really cool, but I don’t want or need them for all the types of files I write in. I do, however, use TeX and Markdown frequently, and who knows if I’

Busy Busy

Life is busy. That is all. I am returning my blog here because I finally learned what Markdown means, so I can use it now with my sweet Jekyll blog. Wish I’d learned about that sooner. Of interest to possibly nobody but me, I’ve started to use Vim

Welcome to Summer (2012 Edition)

So, it's that time of year. As a grad student, my summers aren't terribly different from my school years. I don't have class, but in its place I have a whole host of papers, projects, and milestones to work on. This summer I have

Misleading Conclusions

There's a curse that comes with being a doctoral student. The curse is that I can rarely take the results of any study at face value. I suppose this has more to do with learning statistics than being a doctoral student, but nevertheless, I have a problem. So

Getting Older

I guess I'm getting older, and trying to prove that I'm not is getting harder and harder every time. I'm not that old, but some things have definitely gotten more difficult for me in the last few years. I think having a kid really

Prepping for 01-01

It's that time again: New Year's Resolutions. I'm going to keep my list short and sweet this year. And hopefully simple and basic enough that I can actually do it. So here are my resolutions for the new year. * Become less of a consumer

Research Update

It's been a while since I've posted anything to the blog, so I figured it's about time. Lately I've been working on getting IRB approval for my latest research project: training people on countermeasures to beat our lab's lie detector.

Do It (Tomorrow) - My new favorite To Do List

So, I have to admit, I'm kind of obsessed with Lifehacker. There are just so many interesting tools and tips there, I can't get enough of reading it. Interestingly, some of my favorite tips and tricks on the site are related to productivity. Using to do

music

Turntable.fm - My new Pandora

In my never-ending quest to keep my ears occupied while I complete the more mundane tasks I have to do at work (like matrix multiplication by hand), I have discovered Turntable.fm. For those who don't know what it is, here's a quick breakdown. Turntable is

school

Warning! Crazy semester ahead

I realized during the first week of classes this week that I will be programming more this semester than I ever have in my life. For some reason I have decided to punish myself by choosing 4 classes that each require me to program in a different language. Here'

school

Reflections on 20 years in school

As I was heading out the door this morning to start classes once again at the University of Arizona, my wife pointed out to me that, including kindergarten, this would be my 20th first day of school. That's nuts! First of all, that made me feel a little

recipe

Foodage - Asian Chicken and Noodles

In our family, we have a tradition of me cooking Sunday dinner. Sometimes it's pretty basic, like some grilled cheese or spaghetti with canned sauce. Other times I go all out and pull out a recipe. I'll start posting some of the more delicious recipe'

jekyll

Getting started with Jekyll

If you are a regular visitor to this blog, you may have noticed that it's changed quite a bit. For some reason, my Wordpress installation decided to go ape on me, and I wasn't able to update anything. I tried wiping the whole thing out and