Love, love, love work but it has me pinned under a landslide of maps, volumes and other deliverables. Yes, I used the word “deliverable” on this blog, which should tell you something about my current state of mind. Before you think I’m turning droid, other upcoming products include chana masala (pictured above), pedas and apple pie. Christmas time + people finding out you can cook relatively well = sore shoulders, fragrant home and happy, well-fed friends.

Things that I’ve checked out lately that may interest you:

Best Practices for Scientific Computing Goodness love arXiv. “Scientists spend an increasing amount of time building and using software. However, most scientists are never taught how to do this efficiently. As a result, many are unaware of tools and practices that would allow them to write more reliable and maintainable code with less effort. We describe a set of best practices for scientific software development that have solid foundations in research and experience, and that improve scientists’ productivity and the reliability of their software. ”

Los Angeles Review of Books | Literature is not Data: Against Digital Humanities The author’s main arguments against digital humanists (?) are that while eBooks are great, books are not data objects to be placed in Data Bases because “literature is terminally incomplete” [bogus argument – physical books are terminally complete; that’s what future editions are for and there are ways to archive and access these electronically] and that “the process of turning literature into data removes distinction itself.” Here, I can see automated librarians falling apart, but look: It will always remain the job of the human to think and gain insight or not. Just because I love Project Gutenberg and the preservation of literature through eBooks doesn’t mean I automatically want to create or support an iTunes Genius functionality for digitally-archived books. Let’s just say that Pandora and Spotify pleasantly surprise me sometimes. I still have to do the hard work of discerning my way through the music.

MUSIC 1323 – Audio Engineering I’ve been an acoustics junkie for a while and want to take this sound creation course so badly. Of course, the only time I can attend entails 6 hours starting at 9am every Saturday for four months. The question then becomes: How “badly” do I want to take this course?