Category Archives: Personal

Life updates, reflections, and everything that doesn’t fit neatly into another category.

To Read

Education, Essays, Personal

Several people have asked what I’m reading this semester, so I thought I might as well post it here. I’m too busy right now to link everything, but they’re all fairly well-known works. Plus I love nesting lists.

  • Intro to Political Science
    • Machiavelli, The Prince
    • God & Company, Five Books of Moses
    • Thucydides, The History of the Peloponnesian War
    • Dostoyevsky, The Grand Inquisitor
    • Plato, The Republic
    • Locke, Two Treatises of Government
    • Marx-Engels, Mark-Engels Reader
    • Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling
  • Philosophy of Language
    • William Lycan, Philosophy of Language
    • Jay Garfield & al., Meaning and Truth
  • Honors American Government
    • Ketcham, Anti-Federalist Papers & the Constitutional Convention Debates
    • Mary Nichols and David Nichols, Readings in American Government
    • The People Shall Judge, Vol. 1
    • John Calhoun, Union and Liberty
    • Hamilton, Madison, Jay, The Federalist: Gideon edition

Ah, I shall have to finish this when I get back. Mostly done now. Heading out to see this Mars business with Elissa. We saw Mars, I think.

Another Semester

Education, Music, Personal

It is with a slightly stuffy nose that I will start my third semester of college tomorrow. For the curious here is my schedule as it stands now, as much for my own reference as anyone elses.

  1. Monday
    • 10:00–11:00 — 3310: Introduction to Political Theory, taught by the prolific Ross Lence. AH 302.
    • 11:00–12:00 — 1336: U.S. and Texas Constitutions and Politics, taught by my favorite instructor of last year Dr. Little. PGH 350.
    • 2:30–4:00 — 3319: Politics of Social Policy, by Dr. Lineberry. PGH 347.
  2. Tuesday
    • 10:00–11:30 — 3332: Philosophy of Language, Dr. Saka. AH 205.
  3. Wednesday
    • 10:00–11:00 — 3310: Introduction to Political Theory. AH 302.
    • 11:00–12:00 — 1336: U.S. and Texas Constitutions and Politics. PGH 350.
    • 2:30–4:00 — 3319: Politics of Social Policy. PGH 347.
  4. Thursday
    • 10:00–11:30 — 3332: Philosophy of Language. AH 205.
  5. Friday
    • 10:00–11:00 — 3310: Introduction to Political Theory. AH 302.
    • 11:00–12:00 — 1336: U.S. and Texas Constitutions and Politics. PGH 350.

As you can see it’s a little light, but that’s by design as I’d like to devote myself as much as possible to excelling in these courses, which by virtue of their instructors should be pleasantly challenging. Also playing in two or possibly three big bands, developing a new business, and moving WordPress forward, I knew that my extra-curricular commitments would be high and I didn’t want to over-commit myself (and possibly get ill again) like I did last semester.

Sometimes You Just Can’t Win

Meta, Personal

The last name “Mullenweg” has elicited various schoolyard permutations over the years, but by far the most enduring has been “Mulletwig,” presumably because mullets are so entertaining. Therefore it is with great trepidation that I point to Mulletwigs.com, “Business in the front, party in the back!” 🙂

It’s worth outlining how I came across this: Email → Politech posting → “It’s the Economics, stupid” post on spam whitelist → scroll down to Hairy Situation → Original Mullet Wig.

Refresh

Personal, Web Standards

I love when it rains because I feel like it soothes my soul.

Last night in the space between conciousness and sleep I wrote an entry. It was beautiful, exquisitely thought out and relevant, and I even imagined the markup I would use. My last thought before I drifted off was I should write something down before I forget it in the morning. I forgot it, and I’ve been trying to toggle my memory since then.

I was trying to toggle my memory while driving this morning. However when I drive I don’t think, I just listen. I couldn’t find the two CDs I had planned for the drive but an older album did the job nicely. When I listen to music the bass vibrates all of the mirrors in the car when it hits. Depending on what pants I’m wearing, it sometimes vibrates my pants as well, making me think that my phone is ringing, but not any more because my phone no longer vibrates. Watching the rearview mirror when it vibrates is fascinating, as a picture of the world behind you goes from near-perfect clarity to fuzziness as the music plays. If I even make a movie, the first shot will be of a rearview mirror vibrating with the music.

A replaced faceplate apparently crippled my phone’s ability to vibrate. Now it is a beautiful, vibrant blue. Can I have my blue and vibrate too? We shall see. Maybe it’s just time for new phone.

Ignorance

Essays, Personal

The scene is Wal-Mart, there are boxes everywhere and even though it’s midnight the place is still busy because it’s tax-free weekend. Apparently this weekend people will save about 151 million dollars. In New York I understand they spread it out over two full weeks, which seems like a much better plan to me because you don’t have everyone trying to get in at the same time, you can spread out the chaos.

So I’m standing, I didn’t get a basket because I didn’t want to get too much stuff. My attempt at self-constraint worked halfway; I just ended up with my hands full. I’m standing in line holding a pack of socks, two workout shorts, a fat toothbrush, a CD, and a little CD holder for my car. She hadn’t called back. I had few enough items to make the express lane. However here’s where the story turns sour.

There was a couple behind me, the woman remarked to the man under her breath, complaining about the speed of the line, “Why don’t they give them a seperate line?” The “them” obviously referring to the black people in the line. The man replied, “I don’t know.” You don’t know!? It’s amazing in such relatively enlightened times we can have such ignorant people. I stared dumbfounded at them for an uncomfortable amount of time, then walked to another line.

A Little Hair

Personal

Well so I finally did it. I’ve been flirting with the idea of growing my hair long, really long. Either that or I wanted to cut it all off, not quite bald but buzzed. I went in to the hair place not quite sure what I was going to do, either get a light trim just to clean it up or take it all off, and I ended up with neither. To satisfy everyone’s burning curiousity here is the obligitory before and after picture. What do you think?

Before the Haircut    After the haircut

In Austin

Personal, Travel

As of last night I have been happily in Austin, a much needed vacation and also a wonderful oppurtunity to visit my sister Charleen whose birthday is the driving reason for this visit. It’s interesting because we didn’t get along terribly well when we were both younger (and there were ten years between us) but now we seem to grow closer every year. The goal for this weekend, when not partaking in festivities, are to finish all of my email, including the ones from January and December that I still haven’t taken care of. I tried to get it done yesterday to try and beat the weekend email rhyme policy but there was just too much.

Yes, it’s a policy now! I’ve decided for the forseeable future every weekend all emails except ones where it would be wildly inappropiate will be composed and responded to in some sort of poetic form. Sure it will probably increase the amount of time each email will take, but whistle while you work, spoonful of sugar and all that.