# Live Granades

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## Posts

- [LOLTrek](https://granades.com/?p=864): Let's talk about lolcats. Lolcats, or cat macros, are a subset of image macros. They're pictures of cats with captions typed across them. In essence they're the "Hang In There Baby" posters gone feral. Anil Dash has a great post about them, in which he identifies a number of lolcat subclasses and discusses kitty pidgin,
- [I've Been Cosplayed](https://granades.com/?p=3264): You may remember that, two years ago during Dragon*Con, I spontaneously ended up on stage leading the audience in singing Re Your Brains. At the time I described it as the most surreal moment I'd experienced. It's been trumped: this year I was cosplayed. Check this business out. These two strolled into my space panel
- [What I Learned in Japan About Fetuses](https://granades.com/?p=1686): Unborn babies are very noisy.
- [We've Got New Sites!](https://granades.com/?p=6199): Things have been quiet on this site for a while, and a lot of that is because Stephen and I now have individual sites for our work! You can see my art at misty.granades.com. Stephen's science stuff now lives at stephen.granades.com. See you there!
- [2015 Making Something Every Day Project Guidelines](https://granades.com/?p=6192): 2015 will be my third year of making something every day. I started in 2013 with the idea of making things to increase my creativity and to work on my art skills and to start building a portfolio. I wanted to call myself an artist but in order to do that, I had to be
- [2014 Making Something Every Day Year in Review](https://granades.com/?p=6180): As my second year of making something every day comes to a close, I wanted to take a few minutes and bask in the glory of things completed and post a few stats to remember from the year. I posted 273 days of pictures of things I made. There is a week by week log
- [2014 Week 35 & 36 of Making Something Every Day](https://granades.com/?p=6168): Day 242: Made a lot of progress on the Blankie today on the plane. pic.twitter.com/Q85MgGu4ll— Misty Granade (@mistyg) October 28, 2014 Day 243: Made some progress on this shawl yesterday and today. pic.twitter.com/vZv7kG0u3l— Misty Granade (@mistyg) November 4, 2014 Day 244: Love, Create, Enjoy postcard. pic.twitter.com/LDDpeVePAU— Misty Granade (@mistyg) November 5, 2014 Day 245: Helping
- [2014 Week 39 of Making Something Every Day/End of 2014 Project](https://granades.com/?p=6177): This is really Day 270 & 271: Day 265 & 266: one sleeve to go on this tiny sweater! pic.twitter.com/8WnG8ujaQK— Misty Granade (@mistyg) December 8, 2014 This is really Day 272: Day 267: a baby hat. (Posted a day late.) pic.twitter.com/g2cVKwT7bs— Misty Granade (@mistyg) December 11, 2014 This is really Day 273: Day 268: Crochet,
- [2014 Week 37 & 38 of Making Something Every Day](https://granades.com/?p=6173): Day 256: Illustrated word list for 2015. pic.twitter.com/SjBgxmWwV5— Misty Granade (@mistyg) November 20, 2014 Day 257: Painted 5x7" card from @Obajoo I'm calling 'Paradox Lotus.' pic.twitter.com/f8JONZycK5— Misty Granade (@mistyg) November 20, 2014 Day 258: Believe postcard. AT THE BEACH. pic.twitter.com/CQIP2BNxLE— Misty Granade (@mistyg) November 22, 2014 Day 259: 3 ATCs. Needs a name. pic.twitter.com/Tm66KwZcB8— Misty
- [2014 Weeks 33 & 34 of Making Something Every Day](https://granades.com/?p=6163): Day 226: a bit o' crochet in the gorgeous Seattle Public Library. Resting. pic.twitter.com/lykpDXUqF1— Misty Granade (@mistyg) October 8, 2014 Day 227: Crochet at the top of the @space_needle. pic.twitter.com/xLZK0NuyvA— Misty Granade (@mistyg) October 9, 2014 Day 228: Fly be free postcard. pic.twitter.com/JuWuX2o1Jc— Misty Granade (@mistyg) October 14, 2014 Day 229: Art directing for an
- [2014 Week 32 of Making Something Every Day](https://granades.com/?p=6160): Day 219: 2 new ATCs to go with Day 216 (top card). pic.twitter.com/FLGb9imYB0— Misty Granade (@mistyg) September 29, 2014 Day 220: if you want to fly, give up everything that weighs you down. pic.twitter.com/X7Aqx9IUJk— Misty Granade (@mistyg) September 30, 2014 Day 221: mini journal spread. pic.twitter.com/23h45PWqlj— Misty Granade (@mistyg) October 1, 2014 Day 222: Mini
- [Help Us Present Science at GeekGirlCon 2014](https://granades.com/?p=6158): The DIY Science Zone is back at GeekGirlCon this year! We'll be extracting DNA, making slime and light, creating tiny hovercrafts, demonstrating dice roll science, and constructing to-scale solar systems that you can carry in your pocket. It's a chance to have people try out science with a team of scientists and science communicators who
- [2014 Week 31 of Making Something Every Day](https://granades.com/?p=6152): I have a lot of yarn posts this week because I was traveling! I got to go hang out with my mom and my mother-in-law at the Arkansas Fiber Arts Extravaganza. I had a great time with them and with fellow yarnies. The vendors were amazing and I was able to take two classes. One
- [2014 Weeks 29 & 30 of Making Something Every Day](https://granades.com/?p=6148): Day 198: In This... postcard. pic.twitter.com/5VIcbLjh6t— Misty Granade (@mistyg) September 4, 2014 Day 199: Blind Horse postcard. pic.twitter.com/yPMD48sG8q— Misty Granade (@mistyg) September 5, 2014 Day 200: PAINT ALL THE RED!!! pic.twitter.com/rWGox9ve8K— Misty Granade (@mistyg) September 6, 2014 Day 201: tomorrow I might have to pick one of these to concentrate on and finish. #artworldproblems pic.twitter.com/KTIBGXLu6s—
- [2014 Week 28 of Making Something Every Day](https://granades.com/?p=6145): Day 191: 8x10" "6749" $45. pic.twitter.com/AMMfHKpzwj— Misty Granade (@mistyg) August 23, 2014 Day 192: Working on another Christmas present. pic.twitter.com/kspkvknspW— Misty Granade (@mistyg) August 25, 2014 Day 193: Thinking about Liza and her love of insects. pic.twitter.com/sjjMkzqXRm— Misty Granade (@mistyg) August 26, 2014 Day 194: @Obajoo gets the credit today for making art on me.
- [2014 Week 27 of Making Something Every Day](https://granades.com/?p=6134): I like this week especially because you get to see nearly every single step, from start to finish, of my making process. I don't have very many weeks where that happens so handily. Also, I like this week because I finished a piece at the end of the previous week and sold it. I finished
- [2014 Weeks 25 & 26 of Making Something Every Day](https://granades.com/?p=6131): Day 170: working on a painted pot for messy art night, tomorrow night at Trinity at 6. pic.twitter.com/3dEwkeqfMD— Misty Granade (@mistyg) July 30, 2014 Day 171: Messy Art Night was a huge success! Even the geese came out to help paint! pic.twitter.com/txV0DTFqpP— Misty Granade (@mistyg) July 31, 2014 Day 172: Started on the last section
- [Thoughts on Week 25 of 2014 Making Something Every Day](https://granades.com/?p=6125): I have struggled this week with Make Something Every Day. I think this has been the worst week in the history of this project in terms of not being able to work. Sure there's been times that I've been traveling or I've been working on something else but this week has been none of those
- [2014 Week 24 of Making Something Every Day](https://granades.com/?p=6121): Day 163: Go where you're celebrated Not where you're tolerated collage in progress, 18x24" paper. pic.twitter.com/aT8I9FW6TO— Misty Granade (@mistyg) July 21, 2014 Day 164: Finished, 18x24" collage. Checking into having prints made. pic.twitter.com/nSKxBsevVG— Misty Granade (@mistyg) July 22, 2014 Day 165: turning the corner on mum's sweater. pic.twitter.com/QKGvBr8Zmh— Misty Granade (@mistyg) July 24, 2014 Day
- [2014 Week 23 of Making Something Every Day](https://granades.com/?p=6117): Day 156: Cleaned off my art table only to wreck it again. pic.twitter.com/IN4jSBS77A— Misty Granade (@mistyg) July 13, 2014 Day 157: There isn't enough room in your mind for both worry and faith. You must decide which one will live there. pic.twitter.com/99d0F0MNR0— Misty Granade (@mistyg) July 14, 2014 Day 158: @Obajoo & I put wings
- [2014 Weeks 21 & 22 of Making Something Every Day](https://granades.com/?p=6108): The past two weeks have been a lot of travel and a good deal of sadness. And laughter. And joy at reconnecting with family. My maternal grandmother passed away, leaving me at 41, with no living grandparents. While I didn't have much contact with any of my grandparents once I left for college, they filled
- [Week 20 of Making Something Every Day](https://granades.com/?p=6097): Day 135: Pacific, 12x12." For Sale: $50. My feelings for this piece waxed and waned a lot while I worked on it. At one point I had it in a place I loved and then I took several days off for reasons I can't remember now and I lost momentum. I ended on a high
- [Week 19 of Making Something Everyday](https://granades.com/?p=6085): Day 127: Finished piece. Faith, 8x10. Day 128: Hey, @Obajoo is this what you are calling my gray (& blue) period? Day 129: Chevrons. Day 130: more paint...more paper. Day 132: it's coming together nicely. Day 133: 2.5 years making these tags for thewaterglass.org towels, this is the first batch without mistakes. Day 134: I
- [Some Thoughts During Year 2 of Making Something Every Day](https://granades.com/?p=6074): So I'm six months into Year 2 of Making Something Every Day. I've missed a few more days this year already than I did last year. I felt the pressure of not letting up last year. Not slowing down for any reason for fear of losing momentum. I'm much more laid back about it this
- [Week 18 of Making Something Every Day](https://granades.com/?p=6063): Day 120: Everything is glued down. Getting close to being finished with this one. "And Indeed There Will Be Time" Day 121: Rushed back home from ATL to put the finishing touches on this painting, I think. Day 122: Postcard palate cleanser. Day 123: 8x10" new canvas. Day 124: looking at collage pieces and adding
- [2014 Weeks 16 & 17 of Making Something Every Day](https://granades.com/?p=6046): Day 106: another close up of commissioned piece in working on. Day 107: You can always tell when my mom comes to town because we make stuff like this. Day 108: Proud to be putting this piece in the mail for @duchess to give to her cousin! I hope they love it!! Day 109: Gelli
- [2014 Weeks 14 & 15 of Making Something Every Day](https://granades.com/?p=6028): Day 92: Have declared myself grade A crafting goddess now that my mom-in-law has taught me knitting. Day 93: Finished! Day 94: Practicing my knitting while watching the weather move through. Day 95: never had to use clothes pins in a crochet project before. Day 96: work in progress and a glimpse of the many,
- [2014 Weeks 12 & 13 of Making Something Every Day](https://granades.com/?p=6012): Day 78: Coping with ALL THE ANGSTY FEELS today so slinging paint seemed like a fine idea. Day 79: Another chance to play name that art. Day 80: Some fish in progress on a 12x16' canvas. Day 81: Made a bit of progress on the fish. Day 82: I might be done with this one.
- [2014 Weeks 2 & 3 of Making Something Every Day](https://granades.com/?p=5914): Two weeks to view this post! Day 8: Curly pages. Boo. These pages aren't made for paint. I'll just have to mash it flat between working in it. Day 9: Finished cowl for @Sargent and now to the picking out a manly button stage. He loves it! Day 10: Church. In my Art, Doodle, Love
- [2014 Weeks 6 & 7 of Making Something Every Day](https://granades.com/?p=5958): Day 36: Working in carline. Day 37: working on a new book that's all my own stuff. So much fun. Day 38: reading a friend's book and have all these interesting images floating around in my head. Day 39: best of the prints I made today. Day 40: Finished the Oswin shawl. Unblocked on the
- [2014 Weeks 8 & 9 of Making Something Every Day](https://granades.com/?p=5974): Day 50: another page in my little book. Day 51: emergency shawl for a friend of a friend. (Posted a day late.) Day 52: Middle spread in the little water book. 2 more pages and I'll be finished. Day 53: Worked on design for the @GlobalWomenGo registration packet all day today, no photos though. Day
- [2014 Weeks 10 & 11 of Making Something Every Day](https://granades.com/?p=5989): Day 64: 12x12" collage painting I've been working on this week. I think I'm calling it 'No Words.' Day 65: In progress 8x10" canvases. Day 66: Working on Captain USA. Day 67: 8x10" - Have an idea for what to call it but I'm entertaining suggestions if you'd like to contribute. FYI: It got called
- [2014 Weeks 4 & 5 of Making Something Every Day](https://granades.com/?p=5940): Day 22: Finished gloves going out to my friend, Jeanette. Day 23: More dishcloths. Day 24: Page in the book said to collage things I see everyday. I used yarn labels. (In progress.) Day 25: This makes me laugh every time. Day 26: Instructions - Draw shapes you see. Keep filling in. Add words. Keep
- [Year 2 of Making Something Every Day](https://granades.com/?p=5867): Since returning from Nepal, I've thought a lot about if I would continue making something every day. Frankly the decision wasn't all that hard. I've had a couple of people ask me about the year and what it's meant to me. Every time I've responded that I've loved this year. I've love the freedom to
- [2014 Week 1 of Making Something Every Day](https://granades.com/?p=5898): I'm so excited to start a new year of Making Something Every Day! Here's the first week of work: Day 1: Embrace Imperfection Ganesha postcard. I love the idea of Ganesha, Mover of Obstacles. Also, I live in Alabama, so it's kinda hard to get away from the houndstooth elephant. HE. IS. EVERYWHERE. Day 2:
- [Week 43 of Making Something Every Day](https://granades.com/?p=5882): Day 294: Working on a new baby blanket. (Posted a day late.) Day 295: larger version of piece from my tiny art journal. Day 296: Car crochet! Day 297: Finished the baby blanket! Day 298: Made a sweater for my dog sister. Day 299: Painting with Liza's new art supplies. Day 300: hat. Day 301:
- [Week 42 of Making Something Every Day](https://granades.com/?p=5873): Day 287: Lotsa fun today making prints with the gelli plate and working with @Obajoo! Day 288: Making a larger version of the collage from Day 282. Trying to get the yellow house just right. Day289: Yarn: Doctor Donna. Pattern: Oswin Shawl. Started: 11/23/13. #loveeverythingaboutthistweet Day 290: @kingjrd and I are co-crocheting a comfort blanket
- [Year 2 of Making Something Every Day](https://granades.com/?p=5870): Since returning from Nepal, I've thought a lot about if I would continue making something every day. Frankly the decision wasn't all that hard. I've had a couple of people ask me about the year and what it's meant to me. Every time I've responded that I've loved this year. I've love the freedom to
- [Adding Quicktags to WordPress and to the TinyMCE Editor for WP Plugin Authors in Many Easy Steps](https://granades.com/?p=714): A while back I wrote a Wordpress plugin that adds popup images to the blog. The way the plugin works is that you add in fake HTML-ish tags and the plugin filters those and changes them to the actual HTML required to create the popup image. That wasn't the hard part. The hard part
- [I Wrote a WordPress Plugin](https://granades.com/?p=398): A while back I took Amy's code for creating popup images and turned it into a little WordPress plugin. I've been cleaning up the code and making a more robust UI, and now I have released the Simple Popup Images plugin into the wild. Those of you with WordPress blogs and a need for popup
- [Week 41 of Making Something Every Day](https://granades.com/?p=5854): Wow! Check the numbering on the days of this week! I have a quality education from an Arkansas school. I'll just chalk it up to being a bit out of it this week while I try to reacclimate to the real world... Let's see if I remember how to do this. Day 280: Fly free.
- [Week 40 of Making Something Every Day](https://granades.com/?p=5843): This week in art feels like it happened a million years ago. Or, at least, a month ago. Still trying to play catch up and get my Nepal photos sorted. I'll do a post with those photos soonish. Day 273: Nepal journal. Day 274: Shawl Nepal project prep. Day 275: Pumpkin cake with cinnamon maple
- [Week 39 of Making Something Every Day](https://granades.com/?p=5826): This week has been a crochet heavy week and I'm sorry about that since the challenge has been primarily about paper and paint. I've been working against some pre-Nepal trip deadlines so I've been using a lot of time crocheting to get things done before I go and in preparation of teaching the ladies in
- [Week 38 of Making Something Every Day](https://granades.com/?p=5813): Day 258: Morning meditation on Hope, Peace, and Love. One to go. Day 258b: It's a good day! I'm finished! Day 259: Working in my tiny art journal again feels good. Day 260: Faith, Hope and Love. Day 261: Watching the paint dry on the cover of my mini Smash Book. Gonna use it as
- [Nepal 2013](https://granades.com/?p=5778): Swayambhu, or in English, The Monkey Temple in Kathmandu. As most of you remember, I went to Pokhara, Nepal in December last year to help train women as sewing instructors. I'm so excited to be getting to go back this year! I'll be leaving in just a few short weeks to start the nearly 30
- [Week 37 of Making Something Every Day](https://granades.com/?p=5786): Day 251: Starting on Peace. Kinda a lake of paint at the moment. Day 252: Hebrew in pink for Joy Week. Day 253: Sneak peek of the panels in the sanctuary. (Got words & stained glass shapes drawn on all of them today!) Day 254: @Obajoo came over and helped me paint today. We got
- [Week 36 of Making Something Every Day](https://granades.com/?p=5776): Day 244: got the purple background done on Hope. Cut shapes for the stained glass. (1 of 4) Day 245: one corner with solo cup for scale. Day 246: progress report. Day 247: I've got 20 inches of 55 inches made. It's starting to look like a blanket. Day 248: Gluing things down. Day 249:
- [Week 35 of Making Something Every Day](https://granades.com/?p=5764): Day 237: I dream in CMYK. Day 238: Treasured ATC. Day 238b: Liza brings her journal home from school and @Sargent & I write in it. Here's art I did for her this week. Day 239: Explore the Minor Chord postcard. Day 240: Circles pages. Day 241: 1 of 4 mock ups for a soon-to-be-announced
- [We Did Mad Lib Abstracts for Science](https://granades.com/?p=5759): As part of our fundraising to hold a DIY Science Zone at GeekGirlCon, we promised to perform acts of whimsy as we hit funding milestones. We've passed $3,000, which is amazing and means we're halfway to our goal. (Feel free to donate money at this link to help us reach it, by the way!) It
- [Week 34 of Making Something Every Day](https://granades.com/?p=5742): Day 230: One Wish Postcard. Last week I talked about the pieces that I wonder later who made that super cool thing. 'One Wish' is that for me this week. Day 231: 9 new postcard backgrounds. On the Mommies Run Away from Home weekend trip to Pigeon Forge, we went to the scrapbook outlet and
- [Help Us Hold a DIY Science Zone at GeekGirlCon and Make Me Fix Prometheus](https://granades.com/?p=5735): One of the things I love to do is to help people discover how awesome science is. One of the best ways, hands down, is hands on: give people the opportunity to commit science themselves. GeekGirlCon agrees, because they're letting a team of us hold an all-day-long DIY science zone! Why am I excited about
- [Week 33 of Making Something Every Day](https://granades.com/?p=5718): This week plus of work had a Dragoncon-sized intermission in the middle of it. I deliberately didn't take any materials with me to Con to see what it would feel like to take a break. Answer: I missed the daily 20 minutes terribly. I couldn't wait to get home to work. Best of all, I
- [Week 32 of Making Something Every Day](https://granades.com/?p=5706): Day 214: decided to make some solid color squares for the border. I'm almost out of boarder yarn so I'm slowing down for a while on this project until my yarn supplies are replenished! Day 215: Pink Butterfly postcard. This is the last of these pink cards with music on them. Just means I'll have
- [My Dragon Con 2013 Schedule](https://granades.com/?p=5704): It's that time of year again, when I go to Dragon Con and talk science and space and so on and so forth. Do you dare to stalk the wily Granade? The Dragon Con Late Show. Every morning at 9:00 AM, Hyatt Centennial I-III. Every morning at 9 I and my co-hosts Brian and Ally
- [Week 31 of Making Something Every Day](https://granades.com/?p=5674): Day 207: Abundance ATC. Lately, every time I make an ATC I feel like it is the best one I've made so far. I guess that means I'm growing. Day 208: Enchanted butterfly ATC. Day 209: Sojourn ATC. Day 210: Seek Hope ATC. After the second ATC, a friend commented that I had a nice
- [Week 30 of Making Something Every Day](https://granades.com/?p=5663): Day 200: Go Travel Nepal ATC. Also! Day 200, guys!!! My colorist, Renée, colored the background on this one using my cool watercolor crayons. Then instead of the cartoon car that was on the card originally, I covered it up with yet another Nepal stamp. I have to go back to Nepal just to get
- [Doubt](https://granades.com/?p=5662): I've been working on the Making Something Every Day Project now for 208 days. Earlier this week, you might have noticed that I didn't post anything from the project for two days. Sunday, I was busy, busy, busy with church and the gym and friends and other projects that I just didn't get anything done
- [Week 27, 28 & 29 (Holy Cow, I'm late!) of Making Something Every Day](https://granades.com/?p=5637): We've been on the road a lot this July so my daily posts just kept piling up. For three weeks. I feel sorta bad about it but mostly I'm proud that during all of this travel, I still managed to do work nearly every day. Week 27 Day 179: Scrap granny square blanket started. Day
- [Week 26 of Making Something Every Day](https://granades.com/?p=5622): Day 172: Close up so you can see the circles and the cool bronze/purple swirl action! Day 173: Art Lab for Kids. Fostering some summer creativity. Art Lab for Kids Day 174: Base row of a new shawl. Day 175: Butterfly postcard. Day 176: One digit off from 1776. Coincidence? Day 177: Reading about Doctor
- [Week 25 of Making Something Every Day](https://granades.com/?p=5596): Day 165: Collaborative postcard effort with Liza Lou. Good Times. I painted the background and she found the postcard in my stash. She asked if she could draw on it. I said sure! She hauled it all the way to Disney and sometime during the car ride, drew on it. When we got home, I
- [Week 24 of Making Something Every Day](https://granades.com/?p=5541): Day 158: TARDIS ATC. Day 159: Started a shawl for a friend to give to a grieving loved one. THIS is the reason I crochet. Day 160: Thinking about a quote for this one. Day 161: Helped my little artist-in-training complete her Girl Scout fundraising art. Day 162: Be humble for you are made of
- [To Liza on Her Sixth Birthday](https://granades.com/?p=5558): Since you still are obsessed with animals, we celebrated your birthday at the Tennessee Aquarium. You got to look at all of the aquatic animals and pet stingrays and vibrate excitedly. Before you were born, I never thought that we'd be the kind of family with a season pass to an aquarium. Now we've been
- [Week 22 & 23 of Making Something Every Day](https://granades.com/?p=5540): Day 148: love, love, love this Nepal Hamilton postcard. Day 149: Trying desperately to get a baby afghan done before the baby arrives. Still got more work to do tomorrow. Day 150: Green stamp postcard. Also, day 150! Day 151: Autumnish background for something yet to be decided. Day 152: Postcard with red glitter. Day
- [Week 21 of Making Something Every Day](https://granades.com/?p=5504): Day 141: Perfect Love Postcard. Day 142: Romantic flower postcard. Day 143: Feminist ATC. Day 144: "Breathe on Me" Postcard. Day 145: Dream postcard. Day 146: Pinkbird of happiness ATC. Day 147: New postcard backgrounds and scraps. This Week! So, lots of positive feedback on these pink, dreamy postcards. They've been fun to make. Some
- [Week 20 of Making Something Every Day](https://granades.com/?p=5483): Day 134: Near to calling this one done. Here's the finished project in my kitchen. Between the picture and my new island, it's like I got a whole new kitchen! Enjoying all of it! Day 135: Amster ATC. I feel like I should ship it to @mamster since it has his name on it. Our
- [I'm Forcing Science and Podcasting on Baltimore for Balticon 2013](https://granades.com/?p=5499): I'm headed up to Balticon 47 this weekend to talk about science and podcasting and more science and more podcasting. How can you resist? You cannot, that's how. Or not how. Or -- look, just come see me make a fool of myself at any of these fine panels: Your Lying Eyes. Saturday, 5:00 PM,
- [Week 19 of Making Something Every Day](https://granades.com/?p=5482): Day 127: love postcard. Luv. Day 128: A whole mess of proto-ATCs. Can't wait to get back to these guys but I got distracted by remaking my kitchen art. Day 129: looking forward to talking to folks about clean water tomorrow. I designed the logo for The Water Glass about a year ago. The labels
- [Week 18 of Making Something Every Day](https://granades.com/?p=5435): Day 120: Star of Cracker Barrel for 1/3 of a year! So yeah, I've being doing this for a third of a year now. In my mind, it's kinda a big deal. Day 121: It's not blue! Gonna make some more postcards. Renée said it was the end of my blue period. I don't think
- [Week 17 of Making Something Every Day](https://granades.com/?p=5434): This was a good week on many levels. I'm pleased with the way my art went this week. Stephen sold my old car. Worked on The Water Glass presentation that Hallie and I are making next week. Got to visit several groups of friends throughout the week. Loved it! Day 113: Calling this one done.
- [Be Careful What You Measure](https://granades.com/?p=5429): Johns Hopkins has an excellent graduate program in science writing. For thirty years it's taught people how to write about science, covering both researching interesting science and turning it into prose that sings. Now Johns Hopkins is closing the program. Writing for a living, especially about science, has never been easy. It's become harder over
- [Week 16 of Making Something Every Day](https://granades.com/?p=5393): Day 106: 5.5 x 7.5" piece. Hope. In the spirit of visiting @WaterStep tomorrow. Hope seemed to fit since Hallie, Amy (We are The Water Glass gals!) and I headed out that day to go to Louisville, KY to visit WaterStep. We had an amazing visit with Claudia and saw for ourselves how clean water
- [Week 15 of Making Something Every Day](https://granades.com/?p=5389): Day 99: Lotsa church today so I'm kicking back with the dog & some crochet while watching a movie with @Sargent. It's the crocheted shawl that will never end! Day 100: I had anticipated celebrating my 100th day. Now, not so much. Finished piece. Shocking day all the way around. It seemed callous to toot
- [Even If You Don't Blink, The Weeping Angels Will Still Get You](https://granades.com/?p=5375): "Listen," the man on the TV says, "your life could depend on this: don't blink. Don't even blink!" He gestures, thumb and middle finger in a circle. "Blink and you're dead. They're fast -- faster than you can believe. Don't turn your back, don't look away, and don't blink." The Doctor is warning Sally Sparrow
- [Week 14 of Making Something Every Day](https://granades.com/?p=5361): Day 92: Be of good cheer, daughter. I've not been giving away the things I've made this year. I have a giant stack of stuff. This one however, I gave to a friend because it seemed like it needed to be with her. Day 93: What sort of art supply/tool am I making? Answer tomorrow!
- [Week 13 of Making Something Every Day](https://granades.com/?p=5321): Day 85: ATC based on ihanna's work. See her cool postcards here. Day 86: Another ATC today. I think this might be an all ATC week! Day 87: There's a bird on this ATC. No surprise there, huh? Day 88: Liza's first word was "buh-fly." Day 89: Put (another) bird on it! A magic bird
- [Week Twelve of Making Something Every Day](https://granades.com/?p=5298): Day 78: Wet paint, wet glue. I think my work here is done. Day 79: Working through collage ideas. Day 80: My creative partner & I painted some wooden blocks. She declared the blue "perfect TARDIS blue." I agree! We had a good time painting these blocks and now she has a set of blocks
- [Week Eleven of Making Something Every Day](https://granades.com/?p=5297): Day 71: Finished 4"x4" squares. Fun project. I like making a piece and then cutting it down. I feel like I am searching for a size of a piece that is ideal for me to work on. All of them present their own challenges and working on a variety of sizes lets me see how
- [Week 10 of Making Something Every Day](https://granades.com/?p=5266): I can't believe I've made it 10 weeks! I have to say, I'm a little bit proud of that. Day 64: Visited with friends from out of town at our favorite Mexican restaurant. No time at the art table. Busy day ending with dinner with some friends. I took a photo of these flags because
- [Week 9 of Making Something Every day](https://granades.com/?p=5265): Day 57: Mixing it up a bit! Playing with yarn. This yarn winding session turned into a full scale stash reorganization. I loved it! It also made me want to ditch the art stuff and play with yarn exclusively for a while. Day 58: Started a set of rainbow inchies. Yes, that's a technical artist
- [One Time Science Tried to Kill Me](https://granades.com/?p=5262): When I looked down and saw that I was on fire, I finally admitted to myself that Science was trying to kill me. Science's always been a bit dangerous for me. When I was a kid I decided to apply the scientific method to the chemicals in our bathroom closet and see what burned the
- [To Eli on His Ninth Birthday](https://granades.com/?p=5242): This year you requested one final birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese before the video game token embedded in your hand begins to flash and signal that you're too old for the Pizza Rat. How could we say no to something so overstimulating? For adults, Chuck E. Cheese is actually a wight, draining life out
- [Week 7 of Making Something Every Day](https://granades.com/?p=5175): Day 43: Made one AMAZING cut in the watercolor page & now I have a book! Worked on digital portion of content. Day 44: Day of many flubs and near disasters. Quitting while I'm ahead. Day 45: Inside page of "Roll away your stone" book. (Mumford & Sons obsession reaching annoying proportions.) I love it
- [Week 8 of Making Something Every Day](https://granades.com/?p=5220): Day 50: Finished goth spread. Renamed hermit spread. Enjoyed new watercolor pen technique. Love the way this black page turned out. Used watercolor pencil and then went over it with my water pen. It was the first time I had tried anything like it and I am pleased with the almost chalkboard effect I achieved
- [Week 6 of Making Something Everyday](https://granades.com/?p=5168): Day 36: Glue drying on purple bottle. Day 37: Bottle side done. Next up: figuring out how to get the words on the other page. Day 38: Holding onto anger is like taking poison and expecting the other person to die. --Buddha I got a lot of response to this page. More than I've gotten
- [Themes From Science Online 2013](https://granades.com/?p=5158): I'd never been to a Science Online conference before this year. When I began concentrating more on science outreach I asked some of my friends if there were conferences I could go to to help me communicate more good. They all pointed me to Science Online, so I dutifully registered and attended the conference last
- [How I'd Moderate a Discussion Session at a Conference](https://granades.com/?p=5146): A little over a week ago I went to Science Online 2013, a yearly conference for people interested in communicating science, especially online. (Yes, I get the irony in having a conference about online science that took place face-to-face. If it makes you feel any better, it was also filled with printed books.) It's the
- [Week 5 of Making Something Every Day](https://granades.com/?p=5118): Day 29: New art shrine out of a cheese container. I'll see what develops with it tomorrow. Day 30, photo 1 of 2: A cheese box turned into an art shrine for my dog. Day 30, photo 2 of 2: Inside the cheese box art shrine. After Saturday night of the dog being so sick
- [Week 4 of Making Something Every Day](https://granades.com/?p=5100): Day 22: Glued felt to the back of the coasters. Started yellow page in art journal. Don't know what it will be yet. Day 23: A place to make a list of all the good things in my life. Day 24: Few finishing touches & I've started my list of good things around the frame.
- [Science and "Science"](https://granades.com/?p=5098): Since the new year began I've been busy with two projects. The first is attending the ScienceOnline2013 conference this week. ScienceOnline is a non-profit organization that's all about communicating science over the web. So of course part of that is having a face-to-face meeting! We really are primates with a veneer of civilization. It's my
- [Week 3 of Making Something Every Day](https://granades.com/?p=5075): So yeah. Three weeks done. I'm possibly a bit more pleased about that than I should be. I've been having fun. I hope you've enjoyed getting a peek into my world every day as well. Day 15: A few more layers. Yesterday was stripes. Today was circles. Day 16: Added words. Added more color! Will
- [Personal Reflections on Dr. Martin Luther King's Legacy](https://granades.com/?p=5071): My dad, Ray Granade, is a history professor. Back in 2011, he spoke at the start of school about his experiences growing up in rural Alabama during the Civil Rights era. I'm sharing it as I did with Johnny Wink's similar talk because it captures a time and place that is at once far removed
- [Week 2 of Making Something Every Day](https://granades.com/?p=5045): Week 2! Some days are good, some days are not so good but I'm enjoying the challenge of both doing something every day and coming up with something to do every day. Day 8: Got a bit of grunt work done. Glued pages in altered book, gessoed a page in the new notebook. Putting gesso
- [Now <i>This</i> is Science](https://granades.com/?p=5038): While I've been away doing science things like working on a robot that can read your fingerprints from 10 feet away, Eli and Liza decided to get in on the science action. Yesterday afternoon they were making popcorn for their afternoon snack. "Can you pop an unpopped piece of corn?" Eli asked. "Let's do an
- [Week 1 of Making Something Every Day](https://granades.com/?p=4975): So the first week of making things has had its ups and downs. Day 1: beginnings of a spread in my art journal. Day 2: learning patience. Needed to let it dry longer before adding yellow layer. Previously when I've worked in an art journal, I've constructed it out of watercolor paper myself. These constructed
- [New Year with a Resolution](https://granades.com/?p=4978): I'm not big on New Year's resolutions. So that's totally why I decided to make one for 2013! 2012 was amazing! I had the awesome Nepal trip in December (more on that in another post) and then, as an accidental bonus, I got my sister-in-law's CRV to replace the Buick I've been driving for the
- [Happy Dino Day, Stephen!](https://granades.com/?p=4959): A month before Stephen's birthday, I realized that the local group who flamingoed yards for a living had gone out of business. This was sad-making because I had been planning to give him the full flamingo treatment on his 40th birthday for some time. One of our best pals, Renée, suggested we do it ourselves.
- [All Night Long](https://granades.com/?p=969): I don't really miss my old life. The life I had before I had kids. I enjoyed that life and it was fun. Stephen and I were married eight years before we decided it was time to have kids (well, ok, really he was in grad school but the other sounds better). But sometimes I
- [Liza's Awesome Shark Cake](https://granades.com/?p=4945): One thing I didn't talk about in my letter to Liza was her awesome cake. Our friend Renèe has made some awesome birthday cakes, including Eli's robot cake and his World of Goo cake. She wanted to make Liza a cake, so Misty asked Liza what she'd want. We were expecting My Little Pony or
- [To Liza on Her Fifth Birthday](https://granades.com/?p=4929): You are another year older, another year taller, and another year obsessed with bugs and spiders. The other day you found a wolf spider outside our garage that had given birth to a gazillion little babies. "Aww!" you said. "Look! Baby spiders!" You paused. "Don't kill them yet, Dad, I want to watch them some
- [My 2012 Balticon Schedule](https://granades.com/?p=4923): Hi! How've you been? It's been a busy couple of months. I keep meaning to write, honest. Look, it's not you, it's me. Oh, never mind. Here's where I'll be speaking at the Balticon convention this year. If you're in Baltimore, or near Baltimore, or anywhere on the east coast, swing by! Multi-Creatives. Saturday, 12:00
- [The Den](https://granades.com/?p=4912): Anwyn has claimed under our bed for her den. Liza visits her there in the mornings for some one on one snuggle time.
- [Wednesday Photos](https://granades.com/?p=4889): A Granade doing what we do best! Liza and Pop hamming it up! The newest Granade!
- [To Eli on His Eighth Birthday](https://granades.com/?p=4893): Your birthday celebration started on February 4th with a trip to the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga and will end some time around Christmas. The Tuesday after your birthday trip our friend Renèe gave you an awesome World of Goo-themed cake, undeterred by your reaction to the robot cake she made for your sixth birthday. May
- [Spring Concert](https://granades.com/?p=4869): Eve and Liza all dressed up for their spring concert this week. Can't believe that this was Liza's last one!
- [Where Life Takes You](https://granades.com/?p=4870): I have been absent from this site for some time. The short explanation is, I've been incubating. Here's the slightly longer explanation: Two years ago I attended the Global Women Summit in Austin, TX. Since that experience, I've been doing a lot of thinking about what sort of contribution I can make to the world.
- [Talking Science at Balticon 2012](https://granades.com/?p=4864): This year I decided to focus more on science outreach, especially giving science talks to general audiences. As part of that, I'll be attending Balticon, the long-standing SFF convention in Baltimore. I'm especially excited because I'm getting to interview Bill Phillips. In 1997 Dr. Phillips won the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on
- [Cars in Science](https://granades.com/?p=4861): In my ongoing question to provide scientific input into everything regardless of its applicability, I'm now helping put the science in cars! I'm working with Jason Torchinsky, a contributor to the car site Jalopnik, on articles that combine physics and cars. First up is Jason's discussion of how to build a lunar rover for as
- [Liza Loves Animals On the Internet](https://granades.com/?p=4856): Misty has been haunting Pinterest ever since she discovered that it would serve her a never-ending stream of Doctor Who-related content. A while back she thought, what if I showed our animal-obsessed daughter the Pinterest board that has nothing but animals on it? The answer: Liza becomes so enamored of Pinterest that her gasps of
- [Have a Powerful Day!](https://granades.com/?p=4851): Yesterday I tweeted a link to Rhett Allain's fun article comparing name-brand batteries to dollar-store batteries. Rhett covers numerically approximating integrals, energy, energy density, and cost per joule of energy. As a bonus, his commenters taught me about eneloop batteries. My take-away from his article: if you're going to use disposable batteries and you're buying
- [Three New <i>Space Quest</i> Fan Games](https://granades.com/?p=4840): Growing up, I loved the Sierra On-Line video games. They were the first adventure games I played that had graphics. Oh, the graphics they had! Sixteen colors! (Assuming you had an IBM PCjr or a Tandy 1000, like me.) And the music! Blippy bloopy music! Plus instant-death and read-the-designer's-mind puzzles! Look, it was the '80s.
- [This SOPA/PIPA Protest Thing is Way Overrated](https://granades.com/?p=4836): If you paid attention to the internet at all yesterday, you probably saw people complaining about the proposed US bills SOPA and PIPA. The Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect Intellectual Property Act are designed to help content creators fight piracy. Oh, sure, there's been a lot of whining from the usual suspects about
- [Three Very Small Exoplanets](https://granades.com/?p=4829): NASA's Kepler spacecraft, which is looking for planets outside our solar system, has found three of the smallest exoplanets yet. They're all smaller than Earth -- their radii are 0.78, 0.73 and 0.57 times that of Earth's -- and the smallest is about the size of Mars. They're very close to their star, too close
- [Two Articles About Publishers](https://granades.com/?p=4825): One, SF author Charlie Stross discusses publishers' insistence on locking ebooks with DRM. The corporate drive for DRM is motivated by the fear of ebook piracy. But aside from piracy, the biggest ebook-related threat to the Big Six is called Amazon.com. Until 2008, ebooks were a tiny market segment, under 1% and easily overlooked; but
- [<i>Ready Player One</i> Reinforces Some Bad Geek Outlooks](https://granades.com/?p=4818): (This is a critical essay about Ready Player One by Ernest Cline and as such contains a lot of spoilers about the book.) In 2044, cheap energy has ended and climate change and wars wrack the world. Most people escape reality by spending their time in OASIS, a virtual reality created by a programmer named
- [Science Experiments for Unimpressed Kids: Surface Tension](https://granades.com/?p=4811): A while back, Eli and Liza excitedly talked about water striders. "They walk on water, dad!" As a scientist, I never miss a teachable opportunity. "You know why water striders can walk on water?" I asked them. "It's because of surface tension. I'll show you!" How to Demonstrate Surface Tension This easy and fun experiment
- [Flash Mob Fandom](https://granades.com/?p=4801): For a few months now I've been doing the Disasterpiece Theatre podcast with Alex, where we come up with terrible ideas for Hollywood movies. We've had some guests on the podcast, like Colin Ferguson, but none quite like Misha Collins. He's one of the stars of the TV show Supernatural and has a reputation for
- [Night of the Ninjas](https://granades.com/?p=4794): We started our Halloween festivities early Monday morning. Eli's school was having Mad Scientist Day, a celebration I can completely get behind, so we put him in my lab coat, spiked his hair, and gave him purple highlights because that's all the rage among hip young mad scientist these days. I too dressed up, for
- [The Only Talk Combining Exoplanet Hunting and My Little Ponies You Will Need Today](https://granades.com/?p=4790): At last it can be seen: my hour-long talk about how astronomers find planets outside our solar system, complete with a Goatse joke and pedagogical My Little Ponies. I gave this talk for the second time at Geek Media Expo in Nashville. I had good panel attendance even though I was talking at 9 AM
- [From Kansas City to Geek Media Expo Vol. 3](https://granades.com/?p=4781): We've been going from pillar to post the last few weeks. The bulk of our time was taken up preparing for and then taking a trip to Kansas City to see my brother and his family. Eli and Liza were very excited to see their cousins. The four of them immediately formed a band and
- [Becoming Disillusioned With Insects](https://granades.com/?p=4778): My first inkling that something was wrong happened the other night when Liza came running to me, holding her large stuffed bee and crying. "A fly landed on bee-hee-hee," she sobbed, tears leaving shiny trails down her cheeks. Liza had always loved flies, calling them our "usually fly pets". I couldn't understand why she as
- [but what if i'm the bats guy](https://granades.com/?p=4774): While I was deep in preparation for Dragon*Con this year, artist Katie Cook had a flash of insight: what if Bruce Wayne actually thought he was a bat, aided and abetted by Alfred? It all started with a tweet. [blackbirdpie id="103272093067657216"] From there Katie soon had a rogue's gallery of villains from an actual scarecrow
- [The Craziest Dubstep Dancing You'll See This Week](https://granades.com/?p=4769): Right, so Nonstop (aka Marquese Scott) has been doing dubstep dances for a while, but his latest will make your brain melt. There were several points where I was convinced I was watching editing tricks, and then I'd see the reflection of a car driving past.
- [In Which I Use Scientific Reasoning to Doubt the Thorium-Powered Car](https://granades.com/?p=4762): While I was away at Dragon*Con, stories about a possible thorium-powered car popped up in the news. From the write-up at Txchnologist: Charles Stevens, an inventor and entrepreneur, recently revealed that his Massachusetts-based R&D firm, Laser Power Systems (LPS), is working on a turbine/electric generator system that is powered by “an accelerator-driven thorium-based laser.” The
- [Talking Science at Dragon*Con 2011](https://granades.com/?p=4753): It took me a while to realize how much science content there was at Dragon*Con, mainly because I was distracted by Steampunk Zombie Marvel Superheroes Made of Cardboard and Patrick Stewart. Now that I give talks for and hang out around the "reality tracks" in the Hilton (i.e. Space, Science, EFF, Robotics, and Skeptics), I
- [Podcasting at Dragon*Con 2011](https://granades.com/?p=4743): My Dragon*Con this year was far more packed than normal, so I'm splitting my normal recap post into several, divided by topic. First up is podcasting! We did our usual live episode of WhatTheCast, which was raucous and fun. We had Patrick Jarrett calling in as our roving sports reporter from Philadelphia, where he was
- [My Dragon*Con 2011 Schedule](https://granades.com/?p=4740): I'm a guest at Dragon*Con again this year, which means I'll be on all kinds of panels. If you're wanting to find me to say hi or to hang out, your best bet is to find me right after one of these panels. Or you could haunt the Hilton -- that's where all of my
- [First Day of Second Grade](https://granades.com/?p=4734): And Liza starts preschool tomorrow. We stepped outside this morning to take this photo and there was a cool breeze blowing. Nice change of pace to the hot weather we've been subjected to most of the summer. The summer is over and I'm glad to see it go. I'd like very much now to settle
- [It's a Disasterpiece!](https://granades.com/?p=4727): I'm pleased to announce Disasterpiece Theatre, a new podcast in which I and my co-host Alex White come up with the worst idea for a movie that we think Hollywood might actually make. We pick a topic, like animal horror, or an actor, like Milla Jovovich, and each come up with a movie that we
- [We're Up For Two 2011 Parsec Awards!](https://granades.com/?p=4725): Two of the podcasts I'm involved with are finalists for the 2011 Parsec Awards, which celebrate excellence in speculative fiction-related podcasts. WhatTheCast is up for Best Speculative Fiction Fan or News Podcast (General), and Dragon*Con TV is in the running for the Best Speculative Fiction Comedy/Parody Podcast. I'm excited that both are finalists, especially given
- [These Are Relevant to My Interests](https://granades.com/?p=4721): Misty and I have been crazy busy thanks to life and work and kids and everything, so in lieu of actual content, have two videos! First, what if Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince were really a teen coming-of-age comedy? Second, what if Pinkie Pie from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic were possessed by
- [Continuing the Franchise](https://granades.com/?p=4717): Now that the Harry Potter movies are over, I expect that there are movie executives scrambling around, trying to discover the next big thing. Since young adult books are still popular, I expect that'll be their focus -- perhaps the Hunger Games trilogy or Cassandra Clare's The Mortal Instruments series will garner a huge audience.
- [Hey, Stephen, How's Liza Recovering From Her Surgery?](https://granades.com/?p=4712): Friday, Liza had minor surgery to close an umbilical hernia. Our scene takes place Sunday afternoon. INT. LIVING ROOM - AFTERNOON This standard suburban living room is square and has all of its furniture away from the walls, leaving a continuous track around the center of the room. The MAN is in the living room.
- [GET INTERVIEW](https://granades.com/?p=4707): Perhaps you haven't gotten enough of me on this blog, Twitter, Google+, Facebook, ifMUD, and the many other online places I haunt. Boy, do I have a treat for you! Jason Scott is releasing the full interviews he filmed for his interactive fiction documentary GET LAMP. One of those is mine! Now you can hear
- [U2 in Nashville](https://granades.com/?p=4698): The first time I heard U2 was 1986. A friend let me borrow "The Unforgettable Fire" on cassette tape. I fell in love with "Pride (In the Name of Love)" and was pretty much hooked. This is my view from the 27th row last night: The show was UN. BELIEV. ABLE. It was made better
- [Talking Science to Romance Novel Writers](https://granades.com/?p=4694): A few weekends ago I had the opportunity to give a talk on science and technology to the Nashville Romance Writers of America chapter. Yes, yes, laugh all you want, but romance novels often touch on other genres. I met writers whose books had strong science fiction or suspense elements, and you can bet that
- [The Most Disturbing Music Video You'll See Today](https://granades.com/?p=4687): Courtesy of "Weird Al" Yankovic: For you fans of 30 Rock, does Weird Al in this video remind you of anyone? Like, oh, Paul L'Astnamé?
- [To Liza on Her Fourth Birthday](https://granades.com/?p=4668): The weekend before your actual birthday we went to Big Spring Park in downtown Huntsville to feed the "ducklings and fishies" that fill the park. We bought several loaves of old bread and did our best to make all of the animals hyperglycemic. You squeezed chunks of bread into balls that you would then throw
- [Bad Analogies Can Be as Addictive as Chocolate](https://granades.com/?p=4663): Did you know that reading romance novels can be as addictive as pornography? And that reading romance novels can destroy marriages? That utter silliness is being peddled in an article by Kimberly Sayer-Giles. The article prominently quotes Dr. Juli Slattery, the Family Psychologist for Focus on the Family. Focus on the Family is James Dobson's
- [Terrible Videogame Voice Acting Acted Out](https://granades.com/?p=4661): In my discussion of Portal 2, I talked about the game had the best voice acting I'd ever heard in a videogame. Sadly, as this video shows, that's damning with faint praise. My favorites are the over-written ones that sound like they should be in the Lyttle Lytton contest. Right now I'm torn between "Hold
- [<i>Portal 2</i> Has a Great Adventure Game Story](https://granades.com/?p=4644): (This essay, needless to say, is going to spoil Portal 2 like the recent tornado and subsequent power outage did to the food in my refrigerator. Don't read if you haven't played the game.) Almost four years ago, Valve released Portal, a little game stuck in The Orange Box alongside much more eagerly awaited games
- [I'm the Best! I'm the Best at Space!](https://granades.com/?p=4640): I loved the game Portal 2 for its gameplay, story, and especially its writing. One of my favorite bits was the Space Core, a computer personality who was fixated on space. As a sign of my unhealthy fascination with the Space Core, I spliced a number of its lines together into a 30-second sound file
- [My Fiasco Playset "Town and Gown" is Out](https://granades.com/?p=4633): While I was away dodging weather, my "Town and Gown" playset for Fiasco came out! Fiasco is a role-playing game that re-creates neo-noir stories like those found in Coen Brothers movies. Given my history with small-town universities, I couldn't resist creating a Fiasco setting based on one. Universities are strange places, and small town universities
- [It's True That I'm Bald Like Jim Cantore](https://granades.com/?p=4627): On Saturday we went to Toad Suck Daze, a street festival in Conway, Arkansas. The railroad runs through downtown Conway, and while we were there, we got to watch a freight train rumble down the tracks and past us. For the record, the EF-5 tornado that ripped through Harvest, Alabama about a mile from my
- [Duck and Cover](https://granades.com/?p=4622): (Photo courtesy of WHNT19) So this is what our day has been like. There've been storms, high straight-line winds, and the occasional tornado playing merry hob with us in and around Huntsville. To the south of my house, trees are down everywhere and the power's out. On my way home I passed one house whose
- [Skynet Online in 3, 2, 1...](https://granades.com/?p=4618): People have been gleefully pointing out all day that today, 21 April 2011, is the date of Judgement Day, when Skynet comes online and kills us all. That, of course, is the date given in the TV show "The Sarah Connor Chronicles". Judgement Day wasn't always in 2011. The movie Terminator originally claimed that Judgement
- ["Happy Birthday, Robot!" is an Excellent Storytelling Game](https://granades.com/?p=4613): If you like storytelling games, and especially if you have young children in your life, I cannot recommend Daniel Solis's Happy Birthday, Robot! highly enough. Using dice and coins, up to five players collaboratively create a story about Robot's birthday. The game serves as creativity fuel, helps you practice collaborative storytelling, and is a whole
- [Search Your Feelings; You Know It to Be True](https://granades.com/?p=4609): A while ago we watched the original Star Wars movie with Eli and Liza. Liza especially was entranced. "There's Darth Vader!" she said excitedly when he strode onto the rebel ship for the first time. "Listen! He's breeeeeathing." Given her love of DV, I wonder what the future holds for Liza. I'm guessing it'll be
- [Two Awesome Things and One Scary Thing](https://granades.com/?p=4605): One, a new investment opportunity from Aperture Science. Buy your turrets today! Two, have you ever wanted to see the StarCraft II cinematic trailer audio married with video from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic? Of course you have! Three, I cannot believe this driver lived through this accident without being hurt at all.
- [How to Make a Password Encryption Card in One Easy Step](https://granades.com/?p=4379): A while back, when talking about password managers, I mentioned that I didn't store any of my financial passwords in a password manager. Instead, I have a card that assigns three random characters per letter or number. For each bank, I use the first five letters of the bank's name and then use the card
- [Needs more yarn](https://granades.com/?p=4577): Pretty much everyone who reads this blog knows that in the past year I've become rather crazy about crochet. It has pretty well consumed my free time. And I mean it when I say "consumed." If I'm sitting, I have a hook, yarn, pattern or all three in my hands. My current tally in my
- [This is the Closest I'll Come to a PAX East 2011 Post](https://granades.com/?p=4573): All right, it's been two weeks since PAX East and I might as well accept that I'm not going to do a proper post. Instead, I'll summarize by saying that I had a great time and that it was wonderful to see a lot of the people in the interactive fiction community and have a
- [Friday Liza](https://granades.com/?p=4539): Liza dressed for her Spring Music Concert on Thursday.
- [Chain World Recapitulates Religious Schisms](https://granades.com/?p=4557): It turns out that a game designed to have religious overtones has rapidly gone through a lifecycle that mimics several Western religions. For the past several years the Game Design Challenge panel at the Games Developer Conference has asked a few game developers to spend the week before GDC creating a themed game. This year
- [What Pi Sounds Like](https://granades.com/?p=4553): Happy Pi Day! I can think of no better way to celebrate 3.14 than Michael John Blake's fun musical composition that takes the digits of pi (3.1415926535...) and turns them into something akin to a Schoenbergian twelve-tone row that never fully repeats.
- [Remembering Japan](https://granades.com/?p=4551): Japan 2008 Part 1 225.JPG a photo by misty.granade on Flickr.I have spent all day grieving for Japan. We visited three years ago and I fell in love with the beauty of the place and the graciousness of the people. If it is possible to be homesick for a place that you've never lived, then
- [Growing up Crafty](https://granades.com/?p=4520): There are lots of things I love about Eli and Liza. They are kind and funny and smart and, best of all, interested in making things. It's a bit late in the season, but both of the kids wanted a scarf to wear. So yesterday Liza and I purchased yarn (she picked out both hers
- [Where to Find Me at PAX East 2011](https://granades.com/?p=4534): I'll be at PAX East in Boston this year, occasionally wandering the halls and perhaps seeing if anyone wants to try a game of Fiasco, but if you want to find me, the Interactive Fiction Hospitality Suite is a good place to start. The suite is in the Westin Waterfront Hotel, which means you don't
- [Friday Yummy: Chocolate Cake](https://granades.com/?p=4518): I haven't posted a recipe in a while and since my mom was asking for the chocolate cake recipe I made for Eli's birthday, you guys get a new recipe. I cut it out of the local paper several years ago and the writer claims it's from the back of the Hershey's Cocoa box. I
- [The Interactive Fiction Theory Reader](https://granades.com/?p=4515): The IF Theory Reader is out! It's a collection of essays about interactive fiction that run the gamut from theoretical discussions of the form to nuts-and-bolts advice for describing rooms and designing puzzles. You can download the PDF for free or buy a physical copy of the book for $15. The IF Theory Reader began
- [Watson Isn't the Future of the Interactive Fiction Parser](https://granades.com/?p=4507): Watson, the IBM program that beat two top Jeopardy! champions, is an eye-catching advance in natural language and reason-engine-style processing. It crushed its two human competitors at reading answers, teasing out the clues in those answers, and responding with the appropriate question. It's also not where text-based interactive fiction parsers should be going. Interactive fiction,
- [Why the <i>Dead Island</i> Trailer is Exploitative](https://granades.com/?p=4481): The trailer for the game Dead Island is striking both in content and presentation. The trailer's focus on a young girl turned into a zombie has sparked debate, so of course I have to weigh in! Be warned: the trailer is gory and disturbing. The trailer is for a game but it functions like a
- [<i>Digital: A Love Story</i>](https://granades.com/?p=3765): Here's the thing: I very quickly figured out what Digital: A Love Story was on about. I could see where the story was headed. I suffered through some sketchy story mechanics. None of that mattered. In the end, Digital: A Love Story told an affecting story superbly, bolstered by its evocation of a specific moment
- [New Text Adventure Intro: Child's Play](https://granades.com/?p=373): As some of you know, one of my hobbies is interactive fiction, which is another way of saying "text adventure." Every year there's a competition for the best introductory segment to a game: IntroComp. I've entered this year, with my first game in some six years. It's called Child's Play and is pretty short. If
- [IF Competition Ends](https://granades.com/?p=585): The yearly interactive fiction competition I help run ended last night. Congratulations to Emily Short, whose game Floatpoint took top honors, and to all of the authors! If you're looking for some short entertainment, head on over -- you can finish each game in two hours or less, plus you now can see which games
- [Child's Play, a New Text Adventure](https://granades.com/?p=1220): It is playgroup day and playgroup day is normally a good day but ever since that little red-haired girl started coming she always wants your toys. She shouldn't get your toys. You tried telling the mom this but she doesn't understand you. She mostly ignored you but then she just shoved a pacifier in your
- [One Last Post About <i>Child's Play</i>](https://granades.com/?p=1339): In the I-forgot-to-post-about-this department, back at the first of the month my text adventure Child's Play took home the XYZZY Award for best NPCs. Clearly the route to creating award-winning non-player characters for a work of interactive fiction is to not have them talk. And in the last week there have been two reviews of
- [2008 Interactive Fiction Competition](https://granades.com/?p=1925): Psst, want to play some short text adventures? Each year I organize the yearly Interactive Fiction Competition for text adventures that are playable in 2 hours or less. The competition's started, and all of the games are available. You've got nothing better to do over lunch, right? So download them, play them, and rate them!
- [Go Play Some Text Adventures!](https://granades.com/?p=3315): It's that time again: the annual Interactive Fiction Competition is underway. That means you can download 24 free text adventures and play them. If you want, you can even score them on a scale from 1 to 10. So go play some fresh new text adventures, why don't you?
- [Where I've Been the Last Month](https://granades.com/?p=3651): I've been writing a text adventure! Fragile Shells is a short, puzzle-centered game. I wrote it for the Jay Is Games 7th Casual Game Design Competition. This 7th CGDC is an all-interactive fiction competition, so how could I resist? You don't know how long you've been hammering against the station's wall, but you stop as
- [Help Andrew Plotkin Write Text Adventures Full Time](https://granades.com/?p=4242): I've known Andrew "Zarf" Plotkin for fifteen years. He's one of those mad creative types who fizzes with ideas like a seven year old filled with Pop Rocks. He's best known for his interactive fiction such as So Far (winner of 4 XYZZY awards), Spider and Web (winner of 5 XYZZY awards), and Hunter, in
- [I Survived PAX East](https://granades.com/?p=3742): I made it! I survived several days in Boston without serious incident. I even went for a ride on the MTA, and did I ever return? Yes, I absolutely did. Enough of that. How was PAX? you ask. The main difference was that the crowds were there to play games and see Gabe and Tycho
- [PAX East](https://granades.com/?p=3738): Hey, look where in Boston I'll be this weekend! Because, mmm, Cheesecake Factory. If you're looking for me this weekend at PAX East, I'll be around at many of the interactive fiction events (both official and non-).
- [Making <i>Fragile Shells</i>](https://granades.com/?p=3716): When the 7th Casual Game Design Competition was announced, I had no intention of entering it. While all of the competition entries were supposed to be text adventures (yay!), the competition's theme was "Escape" (sigh), and authors were encouraged to set the entire game in a single room (boo!). At the time I was in
- [I Have Many Facets, Like an Onion](https://granades.com/?p=3693): Hey, my game Fragile Shells placed second in the Jay is Games Casual Game Design Competition #7. I'm in a three-way tie for second, mind you, but given the other two games (including Andrew Plotkin's), I'm quite happy with my placement. I was also pleased by how my game was reviewed. Gruelove, Matt W., and
- [<i>GET LAMP</i> is Out](https://granades.com/?p=4023): GET LAMP, Jason Scott's documentary-slash-love-letter about text adventures, is now available. I was lucky on two counts: I'm one of the about 80 people interviewed for the documentary, and I got to see an early cut of it at PAX East this year. GET LAMP is funny, affecting, and informative, which isn't a bad trifecta
- [Just Call Me the Amazing Kreskin](https://granades.com/?p=3797): When I wrote Fragile Shells, my latest work of interactive fiction, I labeled it science fiction. Reviewers, too, called it science fiction, comparing it to pulpy 50s science fiction and talking approvingly of how the game had real science as part of its science fiction. Who can blame them? I mean, a story where you
- [What These Adventure Games Need is a Jonathan Blow](https://granades.com/?p=4476): Jonathan Blow's new game The Witness is going to modernize adventure games. The creator of the hit indie platformer Braid claims that his new game will avoid what killed off adventure games in the 1990s. As you might imagine, his comments have raised hackles in the adventure game community. Some of that is a reaction
- [To Eli On His Seventh Birthday](https://granades.com/?p=4466): Yesterday you were born; today you are seven. For your birthday we got you tubes in your ears. Hope you like them! You've always been prone to winter ear infections, and this year you've been on antibiotics almost continuously since December. The surgery center where they installed your tubes has a hall with fourteen curtained
- [A Quick Business Presentation Tip](https://granades.com/?p=4461): Let's say that you're making a PowerPoint presentation on improving businesses. Let's further say that you want to illustrate how the members of your business's management team must work together. You decide to use a picture of gears to show how the team interlocks and turns as one. You go to iStockPhoto and grab this
- [White House Fashion](https://granades.com/?p=4456): Yesterday, Marketplace ran a fascinating report talking to author Kate Betts about how the White House is influencing fashion. Ryssdal: [Y]ou call it "approachable" at one point in this book. And I'm going to quote a friend of yours, you got an exchange from her at one point. Mr. Obama had been seen in a
- [Octopus Cake](https://granades.com/?p=4441): Several folks have asked me today about Eli's birthday cake from the photo in the previous post. I made the cake Thursday afternoon from our favorite chocolate cake recipe. Then my mom and I decorated it Friday morning. It is a retired Williams-Sonoma cake pan that I bought on a whim when they were closing
- [Make a Wish](https://granades.com/?p=4438): Today Eli is seven.
- [Help Me Pick Topics for Dragon*Con 2011](https://granades.com/?p=4434): I'm starting to mull topics to talk about at Dragon*Con this year, so now's your chance to help me decide! How do we know where we are? Do you remember the route you took to get to your desk earlier? If so, how? In the last five years scientists have found all kinds of crazy
- [Super Awesome Robot Action Sequence Go!](https://granades.com/?p=4430): Are you ready to have your skull opened up, your brains scooped out, and your cranial cavity filled with awesome? Then take a look at the following collection of the most awesome action sequences involving a robot ever committed to film. Those are scenes from Enthiran, a 2010 Tamil SF movie about a robot who,
- [Evaluating Scientific Claims](https://granades.com/?p=4427): On Twitter today, Joe asked me whether two Italian scientists' claim to have demonstrated working cold fusion was real or not. I took two minutes, did some Googling, and told him that their cold fusion device may turn out to be really producing cold fusion, but that there are too many red flags for me
- [Photo Shoot](https://granades.com/?p=4412): I'm a bit obsessed right now with keeping my ravelry.com page updated with photos of the work I've done. This is my Granny Square Shrug I re-finished this weekend. (I finished it the first time over Thanksgiving but it was WAY too big.) So I had to take it apart and make it a bit
- [Attack of the Brain Slugs](https://granades.com/?p=4409): When I asked for Eli to pose for this photo, I asked him to look sad. He replied that he wanted to be happy. We got kinda bogged down in the discussion after that when I was explaining to him that when the brain slug is on your head you are most definitely not happy.
- [Today You Should Go Play FRACT](https://granades.com/?p=4404): FRACT is a first-person adventure game, similar in gameplay to puzzle games like Myst, set in a strange, abstract world filled with TRON-like structures that are in part reified electronica sounds. I cannot tell you how in my wheelhouse this game is. Here, take a look at what the game looks and sounds like. It's
- [What a Fiasco!](https://granades.com/?p=4383): Fiasco bills itself as "A Game of Powerful Ambition & Poor Impulse Control". It's a one-shot role-playing game that helps three to five players tell a neo-noir story along the lines of the Coen Brothers' movie Fargo, Jackie Brown, Bad Santa, and Out of Sight. It requires no game master, takes about three hours to
- [Sic Semper Snowmannis](https://granades.com/?p=4395): (Yeah, yeah, the Latin would probably be closer to "nivis homines".)
- [Reading Negative Reviews Just Beacuase](https://granades.com/?p=4372): There can be a joy in reading negative reviews where the reviewer appears to have seen some Earth-Two version of the novel, movie, or game in question. Charlie Stross recently revisited Amazon one-star reviews of classic books. One of my favorites is from Robert Bolt's play "A Man for All Seasons": It is long and
- [The Snow of Twenty Eleven](https://granades.com/?p=4360): Snow day! You know what that means? It means we bundled the kids up in clothes until the excitement of going outside completely drained away. We even joined in the non-fun! Eventually we made it outside and discovered that we'd gotten approximately two feet of snow. We had to make a snowman, which Liza spent
- [Sometimes It Is Science All the Time Around Here](https://granades.com/?p=4352): I'm often amused by the things science evidently can't explain. The Chick Tract Big Daddy, nominally about evolution, claims that science can't explain why an atom's nucleus holds together even though it's packed full of positively-charged particles. In the version I read long ago, gluons weren't even mentioned -- the tract merely claimed that no
- [It's not all Science all the time around here.](https://granades.com/?p=4343): Eli and Liza got straw glasses for Christmas. They have been nearly endless entertainment for everyone involved. Liza poses like a rock star with an octopus I just finished crocheting for charity.
- [Al Mohler and His Lying God](https://granades.com/?p=4339): Al Mohler is the president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He's very concerned about evolution, calling it one of the biggest challenges to Christianity. He knows evolution isn't true, though, because his God is the author of one of the biggest lies ever: the Earth. I am willing to accept the authority of science
- [Why Companies Care About Twitter](https://granades.com/?p=4337): In the comments to yesterday's post, Jim mentioned how interesting it was that Twitter had finally gotten companies to pay attention to what customers were saying about them. I got to wondering why that was. Why didn't this happen with blogs, or Facebook? Both of those use the same one-to-many broadcast model as Twitter. Facebook
- [eHarmony Pays Attention](https://granades.com/?p=4329): Over the holidays, eHarmony released apps for iOS and Android that give you access to their site. They chose an unfortunate tagline, though. Since I am a twelve-year-old boy at heart, I had to make a joke about the tagline on Twitter. [blackbirdpie url="http://twitter.com/Sargent/status/22339099524341760"] To my surprise, eHarmony responded! [blackbirdpie url="http://twitter.com/eHarmony/statuses/22345334722142208"] [blackbirdpie url="http://twitter.com/Sargent/status/22348106943172608"] [blackbirdpie url="http://twitter.com/eHarmony/statuses/22349609292537856"]
- [Sokka vs Xander as Comic Sidekicks](https://granades.com/?p=4319): Earlier this week I finished watching Avatar: The Last Airbender, and I was struck by how much the character of Sokka reminded me of Xander from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Both Sokka and Xander are comedy sidekicks who, over the course of the series, evolved into a more serious role. They were normal guys in
- [Yahoo Closes Del.icio.us](https://granades.com/?p=4315): Del.icio.us, the social bookmark service that we've used for our Shrapnel links, is getting the bullet to the head courtesy of Yahoo. If you still need a cross-browser bookmarking service, take a look at Xmarks. There's also Diigo, which not only stores bookmarks but also lets you store the whole web page and annotate it.
- [Start Using a Password Manager](https://granades.com/?p=4307): On Sunday, it came to light that Gawker had experienced a long-term break-in that leaked the username and passwords for commenters on Gawker and its related sites like Kotaku, Gizmodo, and Lifehacker. Now we know that a lot of people use "123456" and "password" as their password. Why should you care? You may not care
- [The Gearheart Podcast Novel Gets a Soundtrack](https://granades.com/?p=4303): The Gearheart is Alex White's free podcast novel of magic, adventure, and gunfights. It's got a steampunk feel crossed with 30s pulp, and is a whole lot of fun. He's now released a soundtrack CD for the prequel novella he's working on now. If you listen closely, you can even hear me singing on one
- [Second as Farce](https://granades.com/?p=4295): The furor over Wikileaks has become Theatre of the Absurd. Consider: Senator Joe Lieberman says that he can't understand why the DoJ hasn't charged Assange with treason, a charge which applies only to US citizens. Assange is Australian. New York Times editor Bill Keller, speaking with the BBC, admits that they clear what Wikileaks cables
- [Teaching is Physically Demanding](https://granades.com/?p=4293): On Twitter, I joked about having one thumb and a newly-cut pile of lumber. When I later explained that, no, I hadn't actually lost one of my thumbs, I said that my high school biology teacher had 1.5 thumbs. It turns out that this is far more common than I would have expected. At last
- [In Case of Emergency](https://granades.com/?p=4287): This weekend two of my friends had medical emergencies. One of them is still unconscious in a neurological ICU following a motorcycle accident. This has, as you might imagine, left his family in a terrible place, and his wife is having to put together pieces of their life that were left scattered on a highway.
- [How to Remove the Exclamation Point Icon in iTunes](https://granades.com/?p=4285): Our music collection lives on a network-shared drive. One of my ongoing annoyances with iTunes is, if it can't find that drive because the network is down, it marks all of the music with an exclamation point icon. That icon keeps iTunes from synching the songs with your iPod or iPhone. Once the drive is
- [New Life in Old Planets](https://granades.com/?p=4282): On Monday, NASA issued a press release announcing a news conference today at 2 PM EST on an astrobiology discovery. They gave no further details other than to say that it would "impact the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life" and that the journal Science had the full paper. As you can imagine, people's imaginations
- [19th Century Family Car Stickers](https://granades.com/?p=4276)
- [Here is Where My "Last Airbender" Joke Would Go if I Could Think of One](https://granades.com/?p=4271): Last night, before combining The Last Airbender with Rifftrax, I made the mistake of watching it without the sarcastic commentary. Surprise! It truly earned its 6% rating at Rotten Tomatoes. I was fascinated, though, with why it's so eye-bleedingly bad. There's been a lot of discussion about the whitewashed casting and how it undermined the
- [Saturdays of the Future](https://granades.com/?p=4257): Here's hoping that it won't be too many more years until this is what we are all doing every Saturday morning.
- [Chris Crawford's Unflinching Look at His Life](https://granades.com/?p=4249): Chris Crawford is a visionary game designer. He began his career at Atari and created some of the earliest computer-based wargames. He founded the Computer Game Developers' Conference and The Journal of Computer Game Design. In 1985 released his best-known game, Balance of Power. In it, you played either the President of the US or
- [I Told You Steampunk Was Over](https://granades.com/?p=4240): Presented without further comment.
- [Saturated with Steam](https://granades.com/?p=4237): Steampunk is a mad popular subgenre of SFF these days. You can't hardly swing a frozen matchstick girl without hitting a dirigible or someone who glued a bunch of gears on a top hat. It comes in part from the joy of a comprehensible future-that-never-was, one built out of machines that are beautiful and whose
- [A break from crocheting hats](https://granades.com/?p=4214): I'm still making hats even though I made my 50 hat goal. But I took a break this weekend to make a couple of sweaters for my mom's dog, Lola. She was unimpressed with her fittings up until she had to go outside one morning and it was below 50°. My dog sister was slightly
- [Remixing Storm Troopers and the Stanford Prison Experiment](https://granades.com/?p=4218): This weekend at GMX I met George Willis, who took part in a reality series called The Colony. The conceit is that a group of people must survive a global catastrophe -- in this case, a viral outbreak. They dumped ten people in a Louisiana town near New Orleans that had never been rebuilt and
- [I Don't See Hair](https://granades.com/?p=4215): I don't see hair. I mean, obviously I do see hair. It's not like I'm blind; I'm just hair-blind. See, I don't let someone's hair affect my opinion of them. I don't care if a person's hair is black, white, or purple. It can be long or short, straight or curly or even tightly bunched.
- [Two Crowdsourced Music Videos](https://granades.com/?p=4210): One: the band C-mon & Kpyski, from Utrecht in the Netherlands, created a simple video for their song "More is Less" and asked fans to film themselves duplicating the duo's motions. They then spliced frames from the fans' contributions into the original video. The result is hypnotic and utterly engaging. Two: if that's not enough
- [My 2010 GMX Convention Schedule](https://granades.com/?p=4205): Next weekend, October 22nd through the 24th, I'll be up in Nashville, TN attending GMX and holding forth on several panels. Yes, yes, I appear to be turning into one of those people who go to science fiction conventions just to blather at others. What can you do. I know: you can go to the
- [50 hats: Done!](https://granades.com/?p=4189): And here are a few of my favorites:
- [Finding Lyrics Everywhere](https://granades.com/?p=4193): The Gregory Brothers have made a name for themselves by writing songs whose lyrics come from YouTube videos and then auto-tuning the original speakers to make them effectively sing the song. Their most watched one is undoubtedly the Bed Intruder song, featuring fellow Huntsville resident Antoine Dodson. Their work is an example of using found
- [Sneak Peek](https://granades.com/?p=4186): We had studio portraits done today of the kids. This is one of the photos from the shoot. If you are related to us, you'll be getting photos for Christmas. Just so you know...
- [Lazarus May Be Starving, But Dives <i>Feels</i> Poor](https://granades.com/?p=4178): The AP today reported that, based on the 2009 census data, the gap between rich and poor in the US has continued to widen. It's been driven by two factors: rapidly-rising incomes of the top earners, even during the depression, and a mirrored increase in the US poverty rate. The end result is that we
- [The Grue We Knew](https://granades.com/?p=4128): It was about 8 pm on a Wednesday night when I realized we had a house guest. I saw a praying mantis clinging to the ceiling in the kitchen when I looked up from making Thursday's lunches. I pointed out the praying mantis to Stephen and we decided to let him stay inside until the
- [Also I Soon Expect Him to Have Followers](https://granades.com/?p=4151): Last week Eli came home from school with a large plastic helicopter. "Where did you get that?" Misty asked him. "Oh, I got one of my friends to trade it to me." She paused. "What did you trade him?" "This two-page comic I made in school. It had two robots and they were fighting." We
- [Did I mention the hat drive?](https://granades.com/?p=4138): I finished my Dr Who doll in time to take it to Dragon*Con. Renee and I had a blast taking photos of him all over Con. Since Con, I've also finished Rose (notice my Dr Who poster that I got at Con in the background): I've been making hats for a hat drive ever since:
- [My Dragon*Con 2010 Experience](https://granades.com/?p=4122): Let's see. At Dragon*Con I've led a thousand people in a sing-along to "Re: Your Brains". I've had a naked man tell me, "Hey I saw you on TV!" I've even been cosplayed. Really, what can top all of that? I know. Let's talk about Scott Adsit. He's best known for his work on the
- [Dragon*Con Placeholder Goes Here](https://granades.com/?p=4120): We're back from Dragon*Con. We had a blast. We are tired. We will post more later.
- [Today's Embarassing Admission](https://granades.com/?p=4117): For years I've been making fun of razor manufacturers' ongoing arms race. Three blades! Four! No, five! Make that six! For the longest time I've used a three-bladed razor to shave my head, and even that felt excessive. A few weeks ago a friend of mine gave me a free five-bladed razor she'd gotten through
- [I Got Lamp!](https://granades.com/?p=4113): Look what I got, two days after my birthday! It's GET LAMP, Jason Scott's awesome documentary about text adventures. Liza is modeling the coin that comes as a feelie with every copy of the movie, and let me tell you, that is one high-quality coin. I know the trouble Jason went through to get them
- [My Dragon*Con 2010 Schedule](https://granades.com/?p=4108): Looking for me at Dragoncon? I move around a lot, but here's where you can definitely find me. C'mon, stalk me at the con. You know you want to. What the Cast - Live! Saturday 11:30 AM, Hilton Room 204 Brian, Crispy, Stephen and Patrick (also of Dragon*Con TV) bring their chaotic and hilarious "What
- [The Granade Family vs. the World](https://granades.com/?p=4102): You may remember that, a while back, Liza fell and had to have stitches in her lip. A week later, I rolled my ankle while exercising. It swelled up like an angry pundit and I spent the weekend with it propped in the air. Even now I am wearing this crazy ankle brace which, if
- [Two Steps](https://granades.com/?p=4099): Your body didn't look like you, lying in the casket. I can't fault the funeral home, really. The accident did far more damage than makeup and putty alone could repair. Mike told me that the hospital covered most of your body with towels, including half of your face, before they let him see you. I
- [Weekend with LanaBob](https://granades.com/?p=4083): Alana has been visiting us this weekend and we've had some big fun. Friday we went to Build-a-Bear to celebrate 50 years of Sanrio. From left to right: Alana's new Yorkie, Rooney, My Hello Kitty, Eli's Keroppi, Liza's Tropical Kitty, Liza and Eli. Notice Eli's band-aid on his forehead, that's where the stitches are. Having
- [Hello! Kitty!](https://granades.com/?p=4026): As you may have noticed, we're a wee bit obsessed with the white kitten overlord around here. As proved by my constructing an idol this past week: Many thanks to K & J Dolls for the pattern and to Glass Eyes Online for the official Hello Kitty! eyes and noses.
- [Me and My Healthy Lifestyle](https://granades.com/?p=4045): The honeymoon is definitely over between me and my new "healthy lifestyle." During the first six months and 30 pounds and four pants sizes we got along great but now the bickering has started. This past week, I sorta gave it a rest. I didn't exercise much. I ate a bunch of crap and guess
- [Liza Versus the Sidewalk](https://granades.com/?p=4040): It happened when none of us were looking, and it was my fault. We'd gone out shopping on Sunday because it was tax-free weekend and I needed pants. How could I resist the lure of tax-free pants? On the way back from pants, we stopped by Michael's so Misty could buy some yarn to knit
- [School Supplies](https://granades.com/?p=4028): The day before the day before school starts. Eli starts First Grade tomorrow and he declared that Stephen would walk him in, but only that first day. This past week I bought what felt like mountains of school supplies. First, I bought some for Eli. And then I made a second trip to buy for
- [You Don't Understand Fair Use](https://granades.com/?p=4016): Fair use is one of those US legal concepts that, like the first amendment guarantee of freedom of speech, gets badly misused on the internet. Chances are you don't understand it. That's okay; I don't fully understand it, either. But there are some misconceptions that you absolutely positively should rip out of your brain. The
- [I'm In the Paper!](https://granades.com/?p=4011): Hey, look who was in Sunday's issue of the Huntsville Times. (Glenn Baeske of The Huntsville Times took that picture.) The article touches on the Hermes system that we've been developing to help helicopters automatically pick up cargo and then guide them to the delivery point, which has a lot of potential applications for everything
- [This week in photos](https://granades.com/?p=4001): I always love my Tuesday nights with the crafty gals. This week was no exception. We has some serious crafting! Eli created Super Mario characters to do battle on our kitchen table. Stephen caught the whole drama. The end of the battle: Liza showed her super remote skills: Lastly, my finished crochet stash. It seems
- [What I Learned in the UK About Babies](https://granades.com/?p=3993): Babies had better watch out for guys in wheelchairs.
- [Creativity Crisis Solved with an Alien City](https://granades.com/?p=3989): Newsweek's article on the "creativity crisis" has been making the rounds lately. It fits the usual template of such stories: extrapolation of a trend leads to prognostications of vague gloom. In this case, it's that US kids' Creativity Quotient scores have been falling since the 1990s. The article is talking about a specific flavor of
- [Photos for a Rainy Monday](https://granades.com/?p=3982): Here's Liza eating her birthday cake at the giant locals kid birthday party we had a few weekends ago. Here's Eli pretending to be a robot in the box of one of Liza's birthday presents. A pirate, my little pony robot. And lastly, here are the two monsters I finished last night. They are going
- [4th of U2](https://granades.com/?p=3977): We're off for 4th of July celebrations, even if it is the 2nd. Here's the song "4th of July" from U2 to get you in the holiday mood, assuming your holiday mood is fueled by trance-y instrumental pieces.
- [What Do You, The Sparkly Vampire, Choose to Do?](https://granades.com/?p=3974): Given my enjoyment of older styles of videogames, is it any wonder that I'm charmed by Twilight redone as an 8-bit JRPG?
- [UK Photos](https://granades.com/?p=3971): I finally got my photos from our trip uploaded! If you want to see some of Kat and Sean's photos click here.
- [Tik Tok](https://granades.com/?p=3969): I'm not sure why this is as entertaining as it is, but hey! That's the internet!
- [Changing Uptime to Use More Relevant Units](https://granades.com/?p=3960): [stephen@sargent ~]$ uptime 8:58:08 up 10 Isner-Mahuts, 06:10, 1 user, load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00 For those of you wanting to actually make the change to uptime.c, note that, instead of updays = uptime / 86400; uphours = (uptime - (updays * 86400)) / 3600; upmins = (uptime - (updays * 86400) - (uphours *
- [A Tribute to My Dad](https://granades.com/?p=3958): My brother Andrew wrote a tribute about our dad for Father's day. A father’s tough love is a cultural cliché – walk down the Hallmark aisle in May, and you’ll be assaulted by pink and white frilliness that proclaims a mother’s tenderness while the next month, the same aisle is festooned in blue and brown
- [My crochet habit and my Doctor Who habit collide](https://granades.com/?p=3943): This is without a doubt my favorite thing I've crocheted so far. I worked on him while in the UK, so I think he is sufficiently British. Blessed even. The cuddly Doctor is going to Alana over the Fourth of July weekend and I will be so sad to see him go. I think I'll
- [Smaller Pants](https://granades.com/?p=3935): I got a wake up call right after the first of the year. I went to the doctor for a sinus infection and my blood pressure was high. So high in fact, that my nurse practitioner was afraid I would have a stroke. She ripped open a sample box of BP meds and stood and
- [What I Learned in the UK About Multinational Corporations](https://granades.com/?p=3930): Hello Kitty followed me from Japan.
- [What I Learned in the UK About the Military](https://granades.com/?p=3921): They play their best music while running away.
- [25 or Bzzz to Vrrr](https://granades.com/?p=3927): I'm really enjoying the new kick horn section that the band Chicago is using. [audio:25-or-Bzzz-to-Vrrr.mp3] Never fear: I'll soon move on to other obsessions.
- [Vuvuzela Cat](https://granades.com/?p=3925): I've got football fever, and it's expressing itself in meme mashups.
- [Be Only What You Can Be](https://granades.com/?p=3916): My uncorrected eyesight is terrible. I started wearing glasses in second grade and contacts in third grade. My optometrist had me wear rigid contacts in the mistaken hope that it would keep my eyes from continuing to degenerate. At this point I am nearsighted enough to need nearly eleven diopters of correction. Without my glasses
- [Fever? What fever?](https://granades.com/?p=3913): As you can tell, the fever today isn't slowing her down much.
- [We Live](https://granades.com/?p=3910): Back in the US once more. Can't talk. Tired and busy. I have a desk full of work. Eli has Kinder Egg toys. Liza has a fever. Misty has her hands full. More later.
- [We're in the UK](https://granades.com/?p=3906): Misty and I are in England! We're taking a nearly two-week vacation in the UK, driving around with friends and being amazed at how old everything is. We're mainly relieved to be done with packing. It took a while for us to turn our pants into trousers and our underwear into pants. If someone wants
- [Thursday Night Videos: Dance Dance Random Movie Stars](https://granades.com/?p=3902): Almost ten years ago we had Christopher Walken dancing through the Los Angeles Marriott for Fatboy Slim and Spike Jonze. Now we have Hugh Jackman dancing through a Rio de Janeiro hotel for Lipton Ice Tea. I guess there's just something about hotels and dancing movie stars.
- [Eli's Kindergarten Graduation was Very Wet](https://granades.com/?p=3897): Last Thursday we celebrated Eli completing kindergarten. Some schools treat this as a full-blown graduation with caps and gowns and all kinds of formality. I am not down with that; I appreciate marking Eli's transition from kindergarten to grade school, but it's not really a graduation. Fortunately, Eli's school didn't do that. Instead, after everyone
- [The Light! The Light!](https://granades.com/?p=3892): We live near the eastern edge of the US's Central Time Zone, which means we get light earlier in the morning. I'm sure it has something to do with relativity and perhaps warp drives. The upshot is that, in the summer, sunrise occurs at 5:30 in the morning. Eli and Liza care nothing for arbitrary
- [Fear of Banking](https://granades.com/?p=3885): This past week I went to the bank to pick up our passports from the safety deposit box for our upcoming trip to the UK. This is where I am going to confess my irrational fear of banks. I hate going inside the bank because, wait for it, I'm afraid there will be a robbery.
- [To Liza on Her Third Birthday](https://granades.com/?p=3876): For your birthday this year we let you pick what you wanted to do and where you wanted to go. This led to us celebrating your birthday on Friday at Chuck E. Cheese with Mumsy, your friends Josh, Kate, Jordan, and some scary clanking animatronic animals. I watched you climb up the kid habitrail all
- [Nostalgia Web Hosting](https://granades.com/?p=3874): Dear The Internet, Let's say, for the sake of argument, that I was going to open a business offering nostalgia web hosting. It would be where people who really wish their sites looked like a 1998 Geocities page would come. The question: what features should this company offer? A free Under Construction .gif with every
- [Eugie Foster Won a Nebula!](https://granades.com/?p=3871): My friend Eugie won a well-deserved Nebula1 for her novelette Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast. If you've not read it, Apex Magazine reprinted it online for free. You can also listen to an audiobook version of it courtesy of the Escape Pod podcast. 1The Nebula Awards are given by the
- [Still crocheting small things](https://granades.com/?p=3861): The three cacti I crocheted for Kat and Sean. If only I could crochet little sombreros for them they would be perfect. Excuse me a sec, while I go look for a pattern... Eli and Liza demonstrating how sharp the needles on a cactus can be. This critter doesn't have an owner yet but that's
- [Friday Night Supercuts: Get Out of There!](https://granades.com/?p=3857): It's no secret that I'm a fan of supercuts, where someone takes every instance of a phrase they can find in a TV show or movie and smushes them together. The first one I ever saw was just about every instance of Buster saying, "Hey, Brother," in Arrested Development. After that there were all of
- [Muppets Take Improv Lessons](https://granades.com/?p=3854): Here's something to cheer you up: two camera tests from the 1979 Muppet Movie. It's a wonderful opportunity to see how well Jim Henson and Frank Oz worked together and riffed off of one another.
- [Let's Argue About Fanfic Like It's 1999!](https://granades.com/?p=3850): It's spring, when a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love and authors post rants about fanfic. Diana Gabaldon is the latest author to denounce fanfic and those who write it in a manner reminiscent of Anne Rice at the turn of the century. Unfortunately, many of her arguments are so shaky and
- [Amigurumi Adipose Alien](https://granades.com/?p=3842): Misty has taken up crocheting, because she collects crafting habits the way I pick up hobbies. She's been making various amigurumi animals and such, which is how Eli and Liza ended up with a ladybug and an alien. Now I've gotten one! Meet the Adipose. This little guy is an alien baby made up of
- [Perhaps He Will Be the Next David Cage](https://granades.com/?p=3834): This morning Eli spent a fair amount of time inventing a new video game. The game starred a Lego version of Perry the Platypus, from the cartoon Phineas and Ferb. For reference, here's what Perry looks like in the cartoon. Man, that's one sweet hat he has. Anyway, in the game Perry has to dodge
- [Sales in Garages Continue to be Strong](https://granades.com/?p=3831): Here's the thing about garage sales: they make me slightly nervous. It's an opportunity cost thing. You don't know what any given garage sale will be offering, and meanwhile the one thing that you'd really like, the single perfect item which you would buy if only it were right in front of you, is undoubtedly
- ["There's Gotta Be a Better Way!"](https://granades.com/?p=3828): The last two weeks have been extremely frustrating for me, but you know what? At least I'm not in a commercial. To wit: That segment with the ketchup and the eggs cracks me up every time.
- [Two weeks of crochet](https://granades.com/?p=3802): With Stephen gone the past two weeks, I had a lot of time to practice my new hobby. The hat took way longer than it should have but I learned a ton in the process. Like you have to count the stitches. Not just guess. It's the difference between a rug and something you can
- [Eli Loves Technology, while Liza Gets Specific](https://granades.com/?p=3795): I've joked before that Eli is a child of technology. For instance, he doesn't understand why only some TVs can serve up hot and cold running Imagination Movers. He does read books, but he views even that activity in a computerized light. He was engrossed in a book one morning, and I had to tell
- [Fourth Time](https://granades.com/?p=3786): That was far more nail-biting than I would have liked. Congratulations to Butler, which played an astoundingly great game. I'll be off now to recuperate from watching Duke win last night. (Photo by Robert Deutch, USA TODAY)
- [The Video Game Marketplace Explained in One Short Scene](https://granades.com/?p=3782): INT. GENERIC GAMESTOP - DAY STEPHEN and his six-year-old son ELI enter. ELI is instantly captivated by Super Mario Brothers Wi-hee! on the Wii next to the door. STEPHEN Hey, Eli, are you going to stay here by the Wii? ELI Look, I'm moving Mario all around the map! STEPHEN I'll take that as a
- [Easter](https://granades.com/?p=3773): Easter morning. Eli's surprise face. This is the toy he says he's been wanting his whole life. I think he was excited about it. Yes, Liza has pink in her hair. Yes, we did it on purpose. She wanted it there on Friday so I put it in. It still isn't completely gone but it
- [Thankful](https://granades.com/?p=3748): I've not said much here lately. I've had a lot going on in my head. I think I needed a bit of time to catch my breath and think about a few things. I guess I've had a season of personal growth but I'm not sure how to put it all into words. My take
- [Lunch with the G'parents](https://granades.com/?p=3731): Stephen's folks are visiting, so today they went to have lunch with Eli at school. For the kids in kindergarten, having a visitor for lunch is considered cool. We decided we should all get in as many lunches with him as possible before he turns 7 and realizes that having family around your friends actually
- [Skeptic Vader](https://granades.com/?p=3726): I have no free time, so here, have a Star Wars lolcat. I'm so sorry.
- [To Eli on His Sixth Birthday](https://granades.com/?p=3706): It only took us three years, but we finaly found the best place for your birthday party: Kidventure. It's an indoor playground with an inflatable slide, a climbing wall, skeeball, and a pirate ship. We had the entire place to ourselves, and they let us bring in our own food, which meant that the parents
- [Billions and Billions](https://granades.com/?p=3702): The other Sunday, after Eli got dressed for church, I realized that he looked like someone. If I get him a buff jacket, maybe he can appear on the Tonight Show like Carl Sagan.
- [Crazy Hair Day](https://granades.com/?p=3697): In honor of Dr. Suess's birthday this week, Eli's school has activities planned every day. Today is crazy hair day. Stephen and I decided he looked a bit like an Anime character but since I don't know anything about Anime really, I have no idea which one. He started asking me this morning at 6:03
- [Liza Loves to Sing](https://granades.com/?p=3685): This is a fine example of how Liza will sometimes say "I dunno!" reflexively. [audio:liza-identifies-turtle.mp3] Turtle is a small plastic turtle who "swims" in a tiny bowl thanks to magnets and a small child's belief in magic. Liza likes Turtle a lot. [audio:turtle-is-my-best-friend.mp3] Despite her loud protests, though, Turtle isn't really her best friend. [audio:lizas-best-friends.mp3]
- [NASA's Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer Takes Pretty Pictures](https://granades.com/?p=3681): Yesterday NASA started releasing pictures from their latest orbital telescope, WISE. WISE is an infrared telescope that's doing a whole-sky survey. It's also looking for near-earth objects, asteroids, and comets. This thing is extremely sensitive -- it's about 100 times more sensitive than previous infrared telescopes -- and it's taking a lot of pictures. A
- [Crafting, reading about crafting, listening to podcasts about crafting, oh and snow!](https://granades.com/?p=3670): It's been a snowy mess here lately. I jokingly said at Christmas that it snowed all the time here, so I think the universe decided to prove me right. While it's been too cold to even stick my toe outside, I've been stitching and listening to podcasts. I blame Alex at The Gearheart for addicting
- [Where to Reach Me Online](https://granades.com/?p=3666): Thanks, Google Buzz. Without you, however would people reach me online?
- [One Ad and One Music Video](https://granades.com/?p=3663): I understand this makes me something of a shill for Old Spice, but I don't care. "We're not saying this body wash will make your man smell into a romantic millionaire jet fighter pilot, but we are insinuating it", says the ad's description, and if that doesn't make you want to watch it right now,
- [Gravity's Probably Not Causing the Pioneer Anomaly](https://granades.com/?p=3660): A quick follow-up to one of the talks I gave at Dragon*Con last year. The Pioneer Anomaly refers to how the Pioneer 10 and 11 space probes were pulled more strongly towards the sun than they should have been, making them slow down more than expected. Scientists have been trying to explain what's going on
- [At my house right now: snOMG!](https://granades.com/?p=3658)
- [How to Put Non-Amazon Ebooks On Your Kindle](https://granades.com/?p=3646): Amazon and Macmillan have been in a pissing match recently over ebook pricing. On Friday, as part of their continuing battle, Amazon removed the "Buy It Now" button from all Macmillan titles in their catalog, even the print ones. The only way you could buy a Macmillan title through Amazon was through one of the
- [The Dollhouse Finale Wasn't Very Good At All](https://granades.com/?p=3643): Huh. So that's how Dollhouse ended: with a jumbled, unfocused episode that epitomized many of the show's shortcomings. It didn't help that Misty and I watched Epitaph One right before the finale. Epitaph One was the first season episode that only showed up on the DVD release, at least in the US. It was set
- [Kage Baker Died This Morning](https://granades.com/?p=3641): Kage Baker, author of the fabulous Company time travel books, died this morning. My thoughts and prayers are with her family and friends.
- [Thoughts on the State of the Union Address](https://granades.com/?p=3638): There's a lot I don't understand about the economy depicted in Fallout 3. The game is set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland near Washington, DC some 200 years after a nuclear war between the US and China. There's no central government, so you have a bunch of individual settlements and scavengers who wander between them. It's
- [Your New Word for the Day](https://granades.com/?p=3636): It is: backpfeifengesicht. It is pronounced: back-FIFE-en-guh-zeekst. It means: a face badly in need of a punching (roughly). Usage: Did you hear what Pat Robertson said about Haiti? Man, has he got a backpfeifengesicht. Trust the Germans to come up with a single word that perfectly sums up a more complex concept. (And thanks to
- [Friday Night Videos on Friday: Marching Band](https://granades.com/?p=3633): This one's for Jeff McClure, and anyone else who's ever willingly watched a DCI show. I'm enough of a marching band nerd that my first thought was, "Why aren't they marching on a football field?" There is an answer, one which will become immediately obvious upon watching the video. For those of you who prefer
- [An everything update in one post!](https://granades.com/?p=3600): As Stephen posted earlier today: Life! it is busy! We have a wounded hot water heater that we're dealing with. I have a root canal scheduled for Tuesday. My blood pressure has been crazy high and I'm dealing with that. And in and around all these other things, we're trying to get Eli's birthday party
- [Locations Versus People](https://granades.com/?p=3597): It's another one of those times where we're buried in stuff to do, so here's a realization I had a while back: thanks to cell phones, calling someone has changed from calling a location to calling that person specifically. Phones are no longer location-dependent, they're people dependent. I can't think of the last time I
- [Everything is Different Now](https://granades.com/?p=3591): As usual we spent our Christmas vacation in Arkansas. You may recall that Liza had her first milkshake last year in Arkansas. Her reaction? We didn't go back to the Purple Cow, but we did go to Cheeburger Cheeburger, another retro diner that serves milkshakes. What was Liza's reaction this year? At least Eli did
- [Christmas 2009 Photos](https://granades.com/?p=3588): Warning: Contains very cute content.
- [Daughter of Curse You, Opposable Thumbs](https://granades.com/?p=3583): When we first moved Liza from crib to toddler bed, everything went well. In fact, it went amazingly well: she slept through the night, and when she woke up and was ready to come out, she knocked on the wall until we came and let her out. Then she discovered that she can open the
- [Finding the Boundaries of Greed](https://granades.com/?p=3580): Yesterday on NPR, Robert Siegel spoke to Steven Hall, Managing Director of an executive compensation company, about how the investment banks Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase are giving its employees some $47 billion in bonuses. SIEGEL: Well, it's reported that Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase have combined, that is, have set
- [I Could Be Bounded in a Nutshell](https://granades.com/?p=3576): When I was wee, I often visited the Mid America Science Museum, which introduced me to theremins and tectonics. I was especially fascinated by the movie Powers of Ten, which played on a continuous loop in a dark alcove of a theatre. In its own seventies-tastic way that movie helped me get a sense of
- [My First Snowdrift](https://granades.com/?p=3573): We're having a snow day here in Northern Alabama, which means drivers panicking and people buying up all of the bread and toilet paper while people from, say, Boston just shake their heads and laugh. In honor of the snow day, here's my first ever experience with a snowdrift ten years ago. -- When I
- [Soliciting Ideas for Dragon*Con 2010 Talks](https://granades.com/?p=3571): Hey, looks like I'll be doing more science talks at Dragon*Con later this year. If you've got topic ideas, throw 'em my way. And, yes, Mike, I'm mulling a talk on metamaterials and invisibility cloaks.
- [Happy New Decade!](https://granades.com/?p=3568): We survived the wilds of Arkansas and have returned, busier than ever! We'll have more to say later, including the thrilling story of The Return of Liza's Poor Sleeping Habits (thankfully a one-night-only limited engagement) and Now Liza Opens Her Door in the Morning and Goes Roaming. While you wait, enjoy Peter Watt's awesome fanfic
- [Holiday Hiatus](https://granades.com/?p=3566): We are off the Internets for 2009. Have a great holiday season, and we'll see you in 2010.
- [Friday Night Videos: Techno Jeep](https://granades.com/?p=3563): That poor, poor Jeep Grand Cherokee.
- [The DoD Loves Complex Charts](https://granades.com/?p=3558): As you know, Bob, I'm mildly obsessed with how to display data visually. Displaying data well is tough, especially when you're talking about complex data. When I have to design a chart for some crazy-ass set of data, I often look at how others have done the same thing, and I keep tabs on blogs
- [Oh, Authors, Why Must You Be Crazy on the Internet?](https://granades.com/?p=3554): If I linked to every incident of an author being crazy on the Internet over a bad review, I'd be here all day, but this one is a perfect shining diamond of such crazy. It's the platonic ideal of an author going insane over a bad review, and will be studied by future cockroach scholars
- [It's Not the Name, It's the Persona](https://granades.com/?p=3547): James Chartrand is a well-known blogger in certain circles through his articles for Copyblogger and his web design and copyrighting company, Men With Pens. Yesterday James admitted on Copyblogger that he's really a she. She'd adopted a male pen name to make it easier to land freelancing jobs. You know the punchline, of course: it
- [I'm practicing saying, "I am an artist."](https://granades.com/?p=3487): I think a lot about other people's artistic styles--about how I wished I'd thought of what they've created. Or maybe I wish my stuff were as cool as I perceive theirs to be. Maybe my work is cool and maybe it isn't. I'm not writing this down to garner praises or sneers for what I
- [How to Choose Board Games in Many Easy Steps](https://granades.com/?p=3481): Since I have the bad habit of collecting board games in much the same way that the Collyer brothers collected newspapers, people sometimes ask me to recommend board games. Often they want a recommendation of something to buy for their non-board-game-playing friend. That's a hard question to answer. It's like saying, "My friend doesn't really
- [Whatever Night Videos: Seismographs](https://granades.com/?p=3476): Sean pointed me to this video for a song called "I'll Be Gone" by Mario Basanov & Vidis (feat. Jazzu). If nothing else, check out the effect that starts around 1:52. I swear it works as a metaphor for the transient nature of music. Man, music visualization is cool.
- [Friday Night Videos on Monday: Achingly Meta](https://granades.com/?p=3474): Today is busy busy, so have a music video that starts out all meta and gets even more meta-y. Thank you, MetaFilter, for making my morning by pointing me to this.
- [What we woke up to this morning](https://granades.com/?p=3472)
- [An Object Lesson in Pop Sensibilities](https://granades.com/?p=3464): Item the first: "Such Great Heights", by The Postal Service. Item the second: "Fireflies", by Owl City. The Postal Service was Ben Gibbard's and Jimmy Tamborello's side project. It mixed Gibbard's deft melodies with Tamborello's glitch-electronica beats. Owl City is Adam Young plus his laptop and a backing band. Critics have compared Owl City to
- [Thanksgiving 2009 Photos](https://granades.com/?p=3455): These photos looks like we lived at the beach this year. That's not far off the mark, actually.
- [Friday Night Videos on Wednesday: WTF](https://granades.com/?p=3452): Even when they get a budget, OK Go still turns out excellent videos.
- [Hey, You](https://granades.com/?p=3450): Pink Floyd's concept album The Wall turned 30 today. It's an odd, ragged, emotional album. It doesn't have the lasting musical impact of Dark Side of the Moon or the more self-contained minimalism of The Final Cut, but it's still one of my favorite of the band's albums. It helps that I didn't experience it
- [Thankfulness](https://granades.com/?p=3449): Happy Black Friday Eve!I understand we used to be thankful for things other than low low prices and artificial scarcity, but hey, lookit those deals!Off spending time with family. See you on the flip side.
- [Not That This Will Do Any Good](https://granades.com/?p=3447): Dear Internet, The name of our blog isn't really misspelled. While it's true that the weapon is spelled "grenade", if you check our about page, you'll see that our last name is spelled Granade. It's why we chose this domain name and blog title. Hugs and kisses, Stephen
- [Going Google](https://granades.com/?p=3444): I inevitably complicate any computer setup I'm involved in. I've mentioned how I made ripping CDs an easy six-step process. It's like I'm made of entropy and duct tape, frantically trying to keep everything together even as I'm making it fall apart. So it's been with our email. I've owned granades.com for nearly a decade,
- [Advanced Negotiations, An Ongoing Series](https://granades.com/?p=3441): From time to time I've mentioned Eli's futile attempts to threaten his sister by saying things like, "If you don't do what I want, I'm leaving!" He's moved on from that; instead, now he tattles. He tells us every thing Liza does that's wrong, where "wrong" is defined as "things Mom and Dad have said
- [How To Generate Scientific Controversy](https://granades.com/?p=3431): 1. Pick something that is regarded as true by the vast majority of scientists in the field and claim that it causes something bad. 2. Demand that scientists prove a negative by showing that the good thing doesn't actually have bad results. 3. When people point out that the facts don't back up your claim,
- [How To Monetize Scientific Controversy](https://granades.com/?p=3435): Chad Orzel, who is an excellent physicist and author even if he is a Syracuse fan, had a good point: how do you monetize the scientific controversy you cause? Two approaches spring to mind. You can make products to address the problem you've raised. If you were using my child safety seat example, you could
- [Pearl Jam Discovers Internet Memes](https://granades.com/?p=3429): This is so strange and frightening. Note that it's on the official Pearl Jam YouTube channel, which means, yes, that's what the band is up to these days. Edit: Whoops, it's gone already. Sorry if you didn't get to see it!
- [Vampire Weekend](https://granades.com/?p=3426): It's the weekend! Let's celebrate like vampires! You know, I'm not really sure those guys are actually vampires at all.
- [Biblical Marriage](https://granades.com/?p=3421): Esau then realized how displeasing the Canaanite women were to his father Isaac; so he went to Ishmael and married Mahalath, the sister of Nebaioth and daughter of Ishmael son of Abraham, in addition to the wives he already had. -Genesis 28:8-9 "If brothers are living together and one of them dies without a son,
- [Two Weeks of Photos](https://granades.com/?p=3410): The past two weekends we've been busy, busy, busy. And I've got the photos to prove it! Space and Rocket Center Some friends came to visit for the day and we played at Rocket City's biggest attraction. Halloween This year Eli finally got "trick or treating" and Liza thought carrying her bag of candy was
- [Floating High Above the Sky](https://granades.com/?p=3407): I'm traveling today and tomorrow to Mountain View, so no long posts from me! Instead, gaze upon Airship Ventures, which offers zeppelin tours of the SF bay area. I've seen them flying their dirigible previously when I've been out here in the Bay area, but I only recently learned that they'll let you actually fly
- [Yes, But Do You Have a Flag?](https://granades.com/?p=3402): That's a mighty fine picture of the Apollo 17 landing site and the American flag that Jack Schmitt and Gene Cernan planted on the sound stage where all of this was faked. (Pic taken by the fantabulous Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, and courtesy of NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University. NASA also has a larger version. Seen over at
- [Ares I-X Takes Flight](https://granades.com/?p=3399): That needle leaping skywards is NASA's first new launch system in some three decades. It's intended to be the first step towards a new rocket to launch people into space. It's the tallest rocket we've currently got going, and is only 11 meters shorter than the historic Saturn V. I didn't have any involvement with
- [Today's Non-News News Headline](https://granades.com/?p=3395): Courtesy of MSNBC: "In reality, some stage parents are very scary". You don't say. This bit of hyperventilation brought to you by the Balloon Boy incident, which MSNBC covered extensively. I can't imagine why parents think these kinds of stunts will result in publicity.
- [Things That Make Me Happy Today](https://granades.com/?p=3393): The guitar parts for Modest Mouse's "Dashboard". I had no idea I'd like a Johnny Marr/Modest Mouse combination, but it turns out I do.
- [Friday Animal Collective Video](https://granades.com/?p=3390): Here's something to liven up your Friday: a very spacey video for "My Girls", by Animal Collective.
- [Perhaps Microsoft Could Hire Count von Count](https://granades.com/?p=3385): Today is Windows 7 day. How exciting! I began wondering why Windows 7 was called Windows 7 and started trying to count versions to figure out the numbering scheme. Let's see. If we consider consumer-oriented versions of Windows, then 95 could be version 4, 98 would be 5, ME would be 6, XP would be
- [We Are All Connected](https://granades.com/?p=3382): John Boswell, aka Colorpulse, can keep making these songs starring Auto-Tuned scientists and I will happily keep listening to them. This one has Richard Feynman (including his bongo playing!), Bill Nye, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, and Carl Sagan. If you want to hear more as they come out, Boswell's set up a new site, Symphony of
- [Should We Really Be Fighting a Three-Front War?](https://granades.com/?p=3380): First, we de-planeted Pluto. Then we bombed the moon. Yesterday, one of the space scientists who helped find water on the moon was arrested for espionage. This can only mean one thing: SPACE WAR. Now we can try to guess what our next target will be. Mars? That annoyingly smug Mercury? Europa?
- ["I wanna do a craft!"](https://granades.com/?p=3370): What crafter doesn't want to hear these words from their children? Painting though is my least favorite because it involves water. Both kids really love to paint, so it's always a special treat at our house. These are from this past week when it rained and rained and rained. Yes, that's paint all over Liza's
- [Jeff Sessions, My Pro-Rape Senator](https://granades.com/?p=3363): Dear Senator Sessions, I am stunned and appalled at your vote against SA 2588 to H.R. 3326, the 2010 Defense Appropriation Act. The amendment would prevent government contractors or subcontractors from receiving federal funds if they require their employees to submit to arbitration if they are sexually assaulted while on the job by other employees.
- [Email to my Senators](https://granades.com/?p=3359): I am appalled and disgusted that you voted against Senator Al Frankin's bill to allow people to sue government contractors in the event of their rape. This email is the first of its kind that I've ever sent to a government official and this email marks the promise I make that during the next election
- [Liza Loves Bugs; Eli Loves Puzzles](https://granades.com/?p=3356): Liza still loves her some bugs. These days she has her pick of them, as we've had so much rain that beetles and cockroaches have fled indoors to escape it. More fools they, as that puts them at Liza's mercy. Liza finds them, picks them up, and carries them around by one of their teeny
- [FlashForward Eschatology](https://granades.com/?p=3338): FlashForward is a new ABC show about what happens when everyone on Earth passes out for about two minutes and sees a vision of what they'll be doing in six months. The show is most concerned with What It All Means -- why did everyone get a glimpse of their future? and is that future
- [Birthday Week was a WIN! Do I have to wait a year for another?](https://granades.com/?p=3339): There are not enough words to describe the awesomeness of my trip to Atlanta to see U2 and visit with friends. The show was full of awesome. A friend of a friend said that Bono was the best worship leader that she'd ever had and I'll have to second that. I think the show was
- [Running Man](https://granades.com/?p=3334): I'm working on a post comparing the TV show FlashForward to the Left Behind series, but it's taking a while. To keep you entertained in the meantime, I give you Canabalt. It's a minimalist game created for the Experimental Gameplay Project, whose theme in August was "Bare Minimum". You play a man running to escape
- [The Most Widespread Internet Memes](https://granades.com/?p=3332): What do you think are the most widespread Internet memes? Bonus points if you explain why.
- [Misty Says "Woo!" Again](https://granades.com/?p=3330): It's a light posting week for us, seeing as how Misty's gone to Atlanta to say "Woo!" at U2 in the Georgia Dome. I'm taking care of Eli and Liza, which is fun right up to the point when it isn't any more. Given that Eli is living up to his reputation of petri dish
- [The More I Think About This Song, The More It Weirds Me Out](https://granades.com/?p=3326): "I Will Possess Your Heart", by Death Cab for Cutie: is it a creepy song about a stalker, or is it the creepiest such song? As with "Every Breath You Take", I expect it's only a matter of time before someone plays this at their wedding.
- [Craft Update](https://granades.com/?p=3319): I started this Teresa Wentzler before Liza was born. I stopped to cross stitch something for Liza's room and then just never picked this piece back up. After I finished the lighthouses, I asked the Craft Night Ladies what I should work on next and they all unanimously said, "THAT!" when I showed it to
- [I Never Knew Carl Sagan](https://granades.com/?p=3312): I never really noticed Carl Sagan until after his death. Part of that was due to how I backed slowly into science. My childhood may have been filled with Asimov's books and the spectacles of Star Wars and Star Trek, but I hadn't given much thought to becoming an honest-to-goodness scientist. In high school, after
- [Visualizing Music](https://granades.com/?p=3304): How do you visualize music? Can you turn an auditory experience into a visual one? Scores are one way of doing just that. While a score requires training to read fully, you can follow along when it's paired with the music. That was part of the allure of early computer music programs like the Music
- [Hobbit 419](https://granades.com/?p=3302): Dear MR BAGGINS, Fellow Conspirator, I am Thorin Oakenshield, descendant of Thrain the Old and grandson of Thror who was King under the Mountain. I am writing you to discuss our plans, our ways, means, policy and devices for rescuing our treasure from the dragon Smaug. During the reign of Thror our kingdom was a
- [Regencies and Revenants](https://granades.com/?p=3299): For a Dragon*ConTV bumper this year, I made up names of books that might follow "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies". I had "Beowerewolf", "Grave Expectations", "Vampire Fair", "Jude the Undead", and "Northanger Abbey But This Time Catherine Starts Fires With Her Mind", among others. I'd thought I'd covered the waterfront. Then I saw the announcement
- [From Corinth to Cairo](https://granades.com/?p=3294): Today I started wondering how long it'd take me to walk from Corinth to Cairo. 100 miles? That'd only take me a couple of days! Thanks, Mississippi! This post has been brought to you by the US's habit of naming cities after other cities. Because Paris, Arkansas wasn't going to come up with anything better.
- [Rubik's Companion Cube, or How to Make a Custom Rubik's Cube](https://granades.com/?p=1169): Behold, the Rubik's Companion Cube! I know the cube loves me because, no matter how I turn it, it's always solved. (If you're completely confused now, you should read my dissection of the game Portal or listen to me rave about it on a podcast.) (Also, if you don't care about how to make a
- [If Christians Made Video Games Like We Make Shirts](https://granades.com/?p=2756): Those of you who aren't part of a more fundamental Christian group may have been spared the sight of what I call flair of the spirit. It's a subset of Jesus Junk consisting mainly of shirts with retooled corporate logos. The companies peddling these shirts are fond of saying, "Change your shirt and change the
- [Etsy Sneak Peek](https://granades.com/?p=3282): Yes, I've been working on Etsy shop stuff but I've also been taking care of other things. How is that whenever I decide to embark on something kinda big the whole rest of my life decides to be busy and awesome and crazy and full at the same time? The kids both have colds this
- [That's Why You Will Not Survive](https://granades.com/?p=3279): Eli has a new favorite song that I now must play when I take him to kindergarten: "The Underdog", by Spoon. Here, enjoy the band playing it on David Letterman.
- [Suburban Fantasy](https://granades.com/?p=3273): His roar, even from the garage, shook the walls of the bedroom where I was busily ironing ruffled shirts. The outside door slammed open, adding to the collection of dents in the wall, and Javier Rodriguez de Orbaneja stalked in. I glanced up at him, then away. It's never a good idea to lock eyes
- [Rules I Never Expected to Make](https://granades.com/?p=3271): "We're going to the gardens, but don't roll around in the sand." "Noodles go in your mouth, but your plastic snake doesn't." "No shrieking while dad's on the phone." "Sure, grab some pretzels from the pantry while we sleep in." "If you're going to squash your sister, do it gently." "Get off the couch with
- [How To Disassemble a Toilet In Many Easy Steps](https://granades.com/?p=362): Late last week I noticed that the guest bathroom's toilet rocked forward and back. This worried me. The Internet confirmed my fears: one site claimed that it could be a cracked flange! That sounded bad! So there was but one thing to do: ask the Internet how to disassemble a toilet. The Internet claimed that
- [What I'm Doing at Dragon*Con 2009](https://granades.com/?p=3260): Because you are all desperate to know what I'm doing at all times, here are the talks I'm scheduled to give at the Dragon*Con SFF convention this weekend. If you stop by any of the panels, come say hi! Creating Dragon*Con TV Friday 4:00 PM, Hilton room 204 Join the folks who write, and produce
- [Everything I Need to Know](https://granades.com/?p=3257): Eli's been going to kindergarten for a few weeks now, and it's about to kill me. It's my job to take him to school, which involves me getting up earlier than I'm used to. Once upon a time I was a morning person, but then I became an adult and discovered that I could stay
- [It's My Birthday! Go Me!](https://granades.com/?p=3255): Happy birthday to me! Happy birthday to me! I got a new videogame that lets me drop-kick APCs before killing all of my enemies with fleshy tentacles that erupt from my back Happy birthday to me! I've been offline most of today, and I don't see that really changing this evening when I've got videogame
- [If you've ever wondered what I do while I stitch...](https://granades.com/?p=3253): ...wonder no more:
- [How far we've come: Age 2](https://granades.com/?p=3242): Remember when Liza didn't sleep? This is where she fell asleep this afternoon. I was on the phone and when I went to her room to rock her and put her down for nap, this is how I found her.
- [Propaganda and Teaching Intelligent Design](https://granades.com/?p=3237): The thing about Intelligent Design is that it's non-science masquerading as science. Its claims can't be used to predict anything and are not falsifiable. It's not a theory that can be improved over time. Its domain is religious and philosophical. That doesn't stop its ardent supporters from wishing very hard for it to be science.
- [Children's Antipasto](https://granades.com/?p=3221): Occasionally I'll let the kids pull up the step stool to the cart/island in the middle of our kitchen and we will eat a meal there. That meal is sometimes breakfast: homemade donuts where they get to dip or roll the donuts in their choice of toppings. When it's lunch or dinner I put out
- [Open the Door and Jump In](https://granades.com/?p=3218): Busy day today, what with finishing up my two prepared talks for Dragon*Con and writing new material now that William Shatner is a guest, and, oh, yes, there's always my real work with the rockets and the lasers and the FWOOSH. So here, watch this video to pass the time. I previously gushed about the
- [Mark Edmundson Demonstrates Boredom](https://granades.com/?p=3145): Writing in The American Scholar, Mark Edmunson has a common complaint: boring people can be very difficult to get rid of. The problem is, he spends some 5,000 words trying to decide what motivates a bore and in the process put me to sleep. There are a couple of things you can get from an
- [Lighthouses Finished](https://granades.com/?p=3204): Had a marathon stitching session last night and then finished up this morning. I've ironed it and emailed my client to say that it's ready. Can't wait for her to see it. I've talked about it and tweeted about it and you guys have traveled the road with me. This is a pretty awesome end
- [One project finished](https://granades.com/?p=3197): I started this small project before I began work on the lighthouses. Since then, I've only worked on this when we traveled. It's been a great one to work on in the car. This past craft night, we had a full house so instead of cramping everyone else's style with my large frame for the
- [Etsy for Mistys in many easy steps](https://granades.com/?p=3154): A while back I asked you all if I should open an Etsy store. A couple of you replied that I should. I talked to Stephen about it (more than he ever wanted to hear, I'm sure) and I decided that I would go for it. My goal was (and still is) to finish the
- [Photo Catch Up](https://granades.com/?p=3180): This is how Megan and I keep our kids out of trouble. See how it works? From our weekend at the lake in Arkansas. You can imagine the kind of birthday May had with all her grandchildren in one spot. The obligatory grandchildren on a brown couch photo. As Andrew said, "Everywhere we go, there
- [Maybe They Meant a Chevy Suburban](https://granades.com/?p=3147): A little over a week ago, we went back to Arkansas to have some time with my family. We stayed on Greers Ferry Lake, one of the several Arkansas lakes brought to you by your local Corps of Engineers and their dams. We visited, swam in the lake, and Andrew and I water-skied. For those
- [I Hadn't Realized He'd Retired From the Public Eye](https://granades.com/?p=3143): John Hughes, dead at 59. For me, it was Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, though I also give the nod to Sixteen Candles despite its casual racism. Did you have a favorite among his movies?
- [Also, The Snacks Sucked](https://granades.com/?p=3141): I attended kindergarten in a squat nondescript 1960s-era building. Years later I had some of my 8th grade classes there when my hometown decided to add 7th grade to the junior high school and that school ended up annexing the building. In January of that year I walked into the building to hear that the
- [Kindergarten](https://granades.com/?p=3132): We rushed home from our weekend visiting with Stephen's family to attend open house at Eli's school. I expected the school to look like the elementary school I attended: one very long hallway with second grade at the end nearest the offices and stretching to fifth grade at the far end, and Kindergarten, first grade,
- ["That'll Give Us Enough Money to Save the Orphanage!"](https://granades.com/?p=3129): TV's Spatch, friend to animals everywhere, pointed out 80s Ending, a 2003 short that is indeed the ending to every 1980s teen comedy ever. It starts slow but picks up nicely as it goes. Be sure to hold on until the Baltimora song starts up.
- [We'll Be Back](https://granades.com/?p=3127): But not for a few more days. We snuck away from the Internet to have some family time, which so far has involved very little blood and only one boating accident. You'll just have to imagine the fun we had, at least until we get back and share it with the entire world.
- [Doctor Who Supercuts](https://granades.com/?p=3124): Last week, IO9 posted a wonderful montage of David Tennant saying "I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry". It's good, because gosh Tennant's Doctor says "I'm sorry" a lot, but, weeeeeelllll, it's not my favorite of the Doctor Who supercuts:
- [4 of 5 Lighthouses Done](https://granades.com/?p=3121): One more lighthouse to go and I am so excited to be nearing the finish! I'm contemplating my next project and what I might get done if I work as I've worked on this piece.
- [In Honor of Liza's New Obsession](https://granades.com/?p=3116): (Taken from elsewhere.)
- [Banging His Tiny Shoe on the Table](https://granades.com/?p=3114): As Eli has gotten older, he's learned that he can't always get what he wants. This has led to him developing new strategies to try to get his way. He cajoles. He whines. He argues. He suggests. But best of all, he issues threats. What's great is that he hasn't yet learned that his threat
- [Gun Sold Separately](https://granades.com/?p=3110): We were in Kroger at midnight picking up supplies for tomorrow's breakfast when my friend Jess saw the following on an endcap: Now, it's been a while since I've owned a dog, but given what happens in the story, would you really want to feed this to your beloved pet?
- ["That was a yummy cookie, Mom!"](https://granades.com/?p=3105): and the less often heard sounds of cooperation:
- [3 of 5 Lighthouses: Finished!](https://granades.com/?p=3099): What I've been working on: ...but maybe not so much today since Liza woke up grumpy and Eli's ability to bug the crap out of her is up to gold medal proportions this morning. I'm not sure what I'm going to do to turn the day around. If anyone has any ideas, I'm all ears!
- [So Much for Updating!](https://granades.com/?p=3094): Both my home and work computers decided to go blooey over the weekend, so I'll be spending my evenings' spare time trying to resurrect them. So it'll be light posting from me for the foreseeable future. And no, I'm certainly not spending all of my time playing Bioshock. What a silly idea!
- [Fourth of July Snapshots](https://granades.com/?p=3091): We ended our Fourth of July vacation as we began it: driving in the car. We were half-way between Little Rock and Memphis, an area slightly less populated than the middle of Wyoming. As we sailed past the only rest stop in miles and miles, Liza sang out, "I'm stinky!" Misty confirmed that, yes, her
- [Happy Fourth of July Weekend!](https://granades.com/?p=3088): Some blogs would put pictures of fireworks here, or possibly embed a Lee Greenwood song. We give you the best Keyboard Cat ever. We're out for the weekend to do family-type stuff. Enjoy!
- [Has Anyone Seen Ceiling Cat Lately?](https://granades.com/?p=3084): First it turned out that the LOLrus died in 2005. Now I learn that Fatso, the keyboard cat, died in 2000. Since these things come in threes, it's clear that we'll soon learn that Rick Astley actually died in 1995.
- [Fewer Racially-Stereotyped Robots Would Also Be Nice](https://granades.com/?p=3081): Last night we watched "Virtuality", Ron Moore's TV pilot that became a mini-movie instead. It's about a crew of astronauts who are on a starship headed to Epsilon Eridani and who are also part of a reality TV series. Thanks to the show, I have a request: Dear science fiction and fantasy TV/movie writers, please
- [Urban Fantasy, DCTV Style](https://granades.com/?p=3076): Saturday was my first opportunity to tape skits for DCTV, so of course there were vampires. Fine, fine, we had vampire hunters as well. That's Buffy, Alucard, Edward Cullen, Spike, and Mina Harker in that photo. Why were they all together? Find out in September! (And thanks to Patrick for the cast photo.)
- [Weekend Update](https://granades.com/?p=3062): I've been working diligently on the lighthouse cross stitch. And everything was going great until today when I sat down to begin lighthouse #3. I completely miscounted and stitched for an hour only to have to remove all but about 20 stitches and start over. I was so disgusted that I put my tools away
- [Michael Jackson Died Today](https://granades.com/?p=3059): I tell you what: go watch the video for Billie Jean. When you're done, listen to the entire Thriller album. Twenty-seven years later, and still one hell of an album.
- [Together, They Fight Each Other!](https://granades.com/?p=3056): We have reached a magical point in rearing Eli and Liza: occasionally they go off and play together for up to an hour. It's like how Furbys would sometimes spontaneously talk to each other, except Eli and Liza have no off switch. The two of them will come wandering through the room, each pushing a
- [Soon-To-Be Trending Twitter Topics](https://granades.com/?p=3054): Pirate pickup lines. Which of Jon and Kate's octuplets you'd like to be. That one YouTube video that is unbelievably cute. Tinted avatars as political activism. Movie titles that are unintentionally creepy when muttered by Christopher Walken. Robot sexual positions. The YouTube video involving Keyboard Cat playing off that one unbelievably cute YouTube video. Things
- [Me Versus the Big Daddy](https://granades.com/?p=3049): This is a Big Daddy, from the game Bioshock. He protects the Little Sisters -- mutated girls who have a certain resource you need in the game. You can see one to the right of him. And here's what it looks like when I try to fight him! Caution: this video contains scenes of violence,
- [We Have Band Does a Stop-Motion Animation Video](https://granades.com/?p=3045): What makes this more interesting to me than other stop-motion animation music videos I've seen recently is the video's use of makeup to produce some very disturbing effects.
- [Ribby the Frog](https://granades.com/?p=3040): It's been a long time since I've posted about any scary kids' toys. I don't know if that's because Eli and Liza's toys have gotten less scary or because I've grown desensitized to them. If it's the latter, then I've finally found a toy to shock me out of my complacency. Meet Ribby the frog.
- [Tom Deutch is Pretty Sure Everything's Okay](https://granades.com/?p=3036): The White House has unveiled their proposed revamp of financial regulations. One of the changes would require banks and other companies that offer loans to keep 5% of that loan on their books. See, one of the causes of the current financial mess was banks offering loans to anyone, knowing they could turn those mortgages
- [Busy making things](https://granades.com/?p=3029): I've had the notebook crafting bug: Click to see some of the other notebooks I've made over the past week or so. So, question: Should I put up an Etsy store and start selling my creations? I'm still hard at work on the lighthouses. I'll take a photo after tonight's work and post.
- [Stay Alert! Trust No One! Keep Your Laser Handy!](https://granades.com/?p=3027): Sunday night, for the first time in far too long, I ran a game of Paranoia. Paranoia, for those of you who haven't had the pleasure, is an RPG originally published in the 1980s. It was an unholy union of Brave New World, 1984, and the Three Stooges. Players took on the role of Troubleshooters,
- [Converting iTunes Playlists to M3U Playlists](https://granades.com/?p=2263): Because I have a crazy byzantine digital music setup, there are times when I want to take an iTunes playlist and move it to our Xbox running XBMC, because the Xbox has nice speakers whereas none of our iTunes-running laptops do. XBMC, like all sane media players, accepts M3U playlists. iTunes, however, will only export
- [Gus was a friendly ghost](https://granades.com/?p=3017): My mom saved a couple of boxes of my children's books for me to give my kids. They've sat in the bottom of Eli's closet since before there was an Eli. He's looked through the books off and on a couple of times and has come up with a few gems that he likes to
- [Will work for fabric & floss](https://granades.com/?p=3002): You know how the other day I mentioned that I was working on a cross-stitch piece someone hired me to do? Well, that generated a fair number of questions I thought I'd answer in a post. How did the person find me? A long time ago, like around the time Eli was born, I was
- [Politicians on Twitter](https://granades.com/?p=2975): Pres Obama while u sightseeing in Paris u said 'time to delivr on healthcare' When you are a 'hammer' u think evrything is NAIL I'm no NAIL --Senator Chuck Grassley's Twitter feed You know, a lot of political speech would have been much better on Twitter. Heres truth: NO FEAR! Now everybody back to work.
- [The 360 is Better Than <i>Cats</i>](https://granades.com/?p=2987): Look what I got! That's right, thanks to Misty's gift, I've leapt into the future of 2005. Finally I can play Bioshock on my TV, like God intended. What's that, Xbox 360? What do you mean, an interloper? Oh, him? First-generation Xbox? He's harmless. I mean, it's not like he's really any threat to someone
- [What have we been doing lately?](https://granades.com/?p=2978): The list is long but boils down to this: trying to acclimate to Eli's last summer before school starts. In an effort to keep things light this summer, I didn't schedule any camps or lessons of any kind for the kids. Ironic, since this is the first summer Eli's been old enough to be eligible
- [At Least We Didn't Go Into Tashi Station](https://granades.com/?p=2972): Saturday, to celebrate its decade anniversary, we watched Star Wars Episode I with the accomanying Rifftrax. I hadn't watched it all the way through in ten years. Holy cow, I'd forgotten how bad it was. It's like those Anita Blake comics where nothing happens. Even with part of the old MST3k crew making jokes I
- [Kids and Cages Go Together Like Apples and Razor Blades](https://granades.com/?p=2959): Several years ago, Eli climbed into a dog cage, so of course we took a picture. Ten months later we got hate mail about it. A few months ago, comic book writer Matt Fraction took a picture of his kid in a dog crate. Because my mind works lighting fast, yesterday I thought, "I wonder
- [Make Your PowerPoint Presentation Suck Less in Many Easy Steps](https://granades.com/?p=2948): Hands up if you've been in this situation: you have to give a presentation using PowerPoint, and you're pretty sure it's going to suck. Maybe you don't know how to put an effective one together. Maybe you do, but you don't have enough time to put a good presentation together. Maybe your boss has handed
- [We Have PhDs in Nerdiness](https://granades.com/?p=2945): I admit it: I am in the Facebook, with the Twittering, the different technology that young people are using today. And occasionally we have very geeky conversations there. Me: Five kids in the house = combinatoric explosion. No wonder interactive fiction authors avoid NPCs. Glen: I just recently did that problem. Complexity scales as the
- [Gender in "Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!"](https://granades.com/?p=2937): Eli and Liza are addicted to Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!, a kid's show on Nickelodeon -- and with reason. The art direction's fabulous and the stories are fun. One of the characters, Widget, is always making the something-or-other 3000, a habit that Eli has picked up. "Look, dad!" he says, brandishing a tinkertoy creation. "My Robot
- [Sony Vegas Script to Change the Pixel Aspect Ratio of Images](https://granades.com/?p=1396): I spent far too long getting this to work again because I forgot to transfer the script from one computer to another, and all of the web references to this technique are, shall we say, broken like a character on Battlestar Galactica. So for anyone else who might need this, I give you a Sony
- [Advanta Screws 1 Million People Over](https://granades.com/?p=2934): Misty's had an Advanta small business credit card for her graphic design business when she first opened it. She's been happy with it, though of late Advanta has taken to doing things like raising interest rates on balances from 8% to, oh, say, 30%. I guess that should have warned us not only that Advanta
- [In Memoriam](https://granades.com/?p=2932): Both of my grandfathers were in the military. Both of Misty's grandfathers were. Both of our fathers served. All lived. Today, pause and remember those who did not.
- [We Had Been Pregnant](https://granades.com/?p=350): We had been pregnant for five minutes. Sure, Misty had been late, but neither of us had been expecting this. We stared at the blue line, re-read the pregnancy kit instructions, and stared some more. I don't think we said anything for quite some time. "Maybe we did it wrong," she said. "Maybe." Those tests
- [Had I Only Known the Disappointment I Was In For](https://granades.com/?p=2920): Hey, guess where we were ten years ago. You know, I hadn't meant to see Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace on opening night, but it just kind of happened. In fact, I wrote about our experience of waiting in line for Star Wars a decade ago and posted it to a school website.
- [The Cutest Zombies You'll Ever Blow to Pieces Using Peas](https://granades.com/?p=2915): Here's what amazes me about PopCap Games: they regularly come late to a videogame genre and make it their own through ridiculously high production values for casual games, very sticky gameplay, and a great sense of the absurd. Now they've taken on tower defense games such as Desktop Tower Defense and made a crazy addictive
- [To Liza on Her Second Birthday](https://granades.com/?p=2899): You turned two this week, roughly five weeks and a day after you turned one. It probably went by so quickly because you're always in motion. I only thought you were fast when you were one. These days we can track whether you're coming or going by the Doppler shift of your voice. You have
- [First of Many](https://granades.com/?p=2896)
- [I Like Fish!](https://granades.com/?p=2889): I like fish! I! Like! Fish! Get the Flash Player to see this player. This, in fact, is one of the songs Liza sings every once in a while. [audio:liza-ilikefish.mp3] The whole thing is from the TV show Yo Gabba Gabba. It's astoundingly awesome, but it's also clearly the kind of kids' show that college
- [You Should Get <i>Hungry Monkey</i>](https://granades.com/?p=2868): Hey, look, we got our friend Matthew Amster-Burton's new book, "Hungry Monkey"! Matthew's a food writer whose daughter, Iris, is about three months older than Eli. His book combines helpful guidance, recipes, and awesomely funny writing while avoiding that strident, chiding tone so common to books that have anything to do with parenting. I've seen
- [Every Review of the New <i>Star Trek</i> Movie Ever](https://granades.com/?p=2883): ...and by far the best of them was $MAJOR_ACTOR as $ORIGINAL_SERIES_ROLE. While the cast as a whole was good, and $OTHER_MAJOR_ACTOR and $ANOTHER_MAJOR_ACTOR turned in solid performances, $MAJOR_ACTOR stole the movie. They took $ORIGINAL_SERIES_ROLE and made the character their own, and avoided the obvious pitfall of making it a rip-off of $ORIGINAL_ROLE_ACTOR's take on the
- [Proofreading is Hard!](https://granades.com/?p=2871): I took this at the trade show I attended this week. The booth belonged to a major company, and clearly a lot of money had been spent on it.
- [Craft Night](https://granades.com/?p=2848): Last night was once again craft night at Casa Granade. We had a small turnout but that allowed us to really spread out and work and chat. I am excited to say that Craft Night is becoming all that I dreamed for it to be. Everybody is working on different kinds of projects but it
- [H1N1 Swine Flu vs. Google](https://granades.com/?p=2842): These are the daily new confirmed cases of H1N1 as reported by the World Health Organization in their situation updates versus Google's search volume for H1N1 or swine flu.
- [Here, Have some Cute!](https://granades.com/?p=2823): A week or so ago we went to a bluegrass music festival here in town. We ended up leaving early because the kids were crazed but the pictures I snatched before we left look like we are having an awesome time. The best photo of Will and Luke I've taken by like 1000%. Thursday I
- [Stephen, Now That You've Read the Twilight Novels, Can You Sum Them Up In One Sentence?](https://granades.com/?p=2821): Vampires and werewolves tell Bella how astoundingly special she is, and Bella in turn faints a lot. Mind you, I've still got a giant chunk of the last novel to go through, and the series as a whole has an OH JOHN RINGO NO vibe that's only getting worse. We'll see how I feel at
- [A House Concert with Eric Peters](https://granades.com/?p=2814): Saturday night I had the privilege to see a house concert. Geof hosted Eric Peters at his condo clubhouse and the audience consisted of me and six other people. And Eric. Eric playing some really amazing music. I don't know if the concert would have been as amazing with any other singer. Would I have
- [My Bedtime as a Function of My Age](https://granades.com/?p=2810)
- [Solomon Stone is Rad](https://granades.com/?p=2806): If you're like me -- and I know you are -- then you like things that are awesome. And have I got something awesome for you! Solomon Stone! He's a half-vampire private eye who's also a skateboard champ, and he's so amazing that he has three fists of justice, and all of them are filled
- [My Latest Hobby: Artist Trading Cards](https://granades.com/?p=2791): As you know by now, I get on these wild crafting jags where I make one particular thing until I'm exhausted or until the next shiny thing catches my eye. Artist Trading Cards are the latest big thing on my desk. The only two rules for ATCs are that they must be 2.5"x3.5" or smaller
- [Future News Articles About Twitter](https://granades.com/?p=2787): From the "You Know It'll Happen in the Future" department: (AP) Popular Twitter service may have cost a young woman her life Authorities are now reporting that Allie Sutherland was potentially lured to her death through messages posted on Twitter, the popular online messaging service. Allie received a "tweet," or message, from someone known only
- [Cute Photos for a Monday](https://granades.com/?p=2780): See? I do still remember how to post! We've had the stomach bug and now we've progressed on to the head cold bug. But never fear there are still cute photos of the kids to fill in the gaps between my actual posts. This is what Liza does in the morning. This is how Liza
- [Smurfin' Smurfs!](https://granades.com/?p=2777): Just today I learned about a UNICEF ad starring the Smurfs that aired in Belgum back in 2005. I, er, wouldn't let any kids watch this.
- [Easter Prayer](https://granades.com/?p=2775): I was asked to pray during our church's Easter Sunday service this year. I was a bit nervous about it, especially since I wanted to keep the prayer short while still touching on the themes of Easter week, from the darkness of the Friday crucifixion to the wonder of the Sunday resurrection. Returning from the
- [Happy Tax Day!](https://granades.com/?p=2771): Because, really, everyone knows today is the happiest day of the year. Fellow US residents, now's your chance to freak out that you waited so long before doing your taxes, or you can be smug about how early you were done. Sadly, we greatly over-estimated how much we needed to pay and got back huge
- [Twitter is for Transmitting Outrage](https://granades.com/?p=2748): Yesterday, on Easter Sunday, news began spreading through Twitter, LiveJournal, and other blogs that Amazon had de-ranked a lot of books that they had deemed "adult", in addition removing them from general search results. The majority of those books had little adult content, and the de-listing appeared to be targeting books with GLBT themes. The
- [Wow Wow Everyone!](https://granades.com/?p=2738): Wubbzy lives in a tree. He likes to play. Play. PLAY. He's got a bendy tail. And he LIKES IT THAT WAY. For context watch this video. Watch it twice and you will never get the song out of your head.
- [Tonight the Role of James Nicoll Will Be Played by Me](https://granades.com/?p=2735): It turns out that Tim Powers, SFF author of Declare, Last Call, and other fine books, is a fan of Little Green Footballs.
- [Writing Scientific Proposals in Many Easy Steps](https://granades.com/?p=2716): If you're a scientist or engineer, you've got a pretty good chance of having to write a scientific proposal. If you're an academic scientist or engineer, your chance goes up to around 100%. That's one of the downsides of getting to choose what kind of research you're going to do: you have to convince people
- [Using Regular Expressions to Match Twitter Users and Hashtags](https://granades.com/?p=2704): If you want to find Twitter usernames and hashtags in tweets and do something with them, like turn them into links when you're displaying them on your website, the most compact way of doing so is through regular expressions. However, most of the articles I looked through on the web mess up the regexp. Usernames
- [Art for Kid's Sake](https://granades.com/?p=2675): When Eli was Liza's age (around 2) he was decidedly uninterested in coloring. He did not want to play with paper or crayons or markers or paint. You can well imagine how sad this made me. But I dealt with it, thinking he would learn to be creative in other ways. I got the book
- [CRPG is CRPG](https://granades.com/?p=2672): As Misty will tell you with a sigh, I'm addicted to computer RPGs. Once I start one, I have difficulty doing anything else. Stats fiddling, exploring side quests, juggling inventory and selling off the useless cruft that accumulates -- I love it all. In the 1990s I devoured Fallout and Planescape: Torment. I have a
- [Be a Sky Pirate in Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies](https://granades.com/?p=2669): A while back I had the opportunity to playtest Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies, the new RPG from Chad Underkoffler, who created the superhero RPG "Truth and Justice" and the fairytale RPG "Zorcerer of Zo". The real strength of "Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies" is its setting: a world filled with floating islands, where pulp-style
- [Okay, Kids, You Can Come Back Onto My Lawn](https://granades.com/?p=2666): In the past I've been dismissive of April Fools' Day as practiced on the Internet. After this year, though, I'm taking off my old-man grumpy pants and putting on something newer and hipper. Parachute pants, perhaps. There were a number of funny and inspired jokes yesterday. Among my favorites: BugMeNot claiming to require registration to
- [Friday Night Videos on Wednesday: Ambience](https://granades.com/?p=2663): The music video for The American Dollar's "Anything You Synthesize" is a great match of visuals to music. The video was created by Onesize, a motion graphics studio. If you really want to lose yourself in it, try making the video be fullscreen. [from Aurgasm]
- [Hardy's Paradox, or The Economist is Dismal at Science](https://granades.com/?p=2644): Today let's talk about Hardy's Paradox, since I'm guessing you haven't yet had your daily dose of quantum mechanics conversations. I got interested in this topic after Jeff pointed me at The Economist's writeup of a recent confirmation of a puzzling aspect of quantum mechanics. What the several researchers found was that there were more
- [Information Overload, Kids' Book Edition](https://granades.com/?p=2659): I've mentioned the video to Röyksopp's "Remind Me" before, with its deliberate beat and hypnotic infographic style. In case you haven't seen it, take a look: Now Tomas Nilsson has done the same thing for "Little Red Riding Hood". (seen at Anil Dash's place)
- [What's Wrong With This Picture? ](https://granades.com/?p=2643): Oh, Best Buy, how I love you.
- [The Dark Secret of <i>Wall-E</i>](https://granades.com/?p=2638): In lieu of actual original content from me, watch Jay Smooth lay out a frighteningly plausible theory about Wall-E and why all the humans in the movie were white middle-class ones. Jay is the man behind the awesome "How to Tell People They Sound Racist" video from last year. In fact, let me throw that
- [Cross-Stitch Purse & Other Craft Goodness](https://granades.com/?p=2622): A few years ago I saw a cross-stitch magazine with a plastic box purse on the cover. The sides were cross-stitch flowers, stripes, and funky circles. I bought the magazine thinking I would do the project immediately. Then I saw how much the purses cost. They are awesomely designed purses from Z Becky Brown but
- [An Alternate Ending to <i>Battlestar Galactica</i>](https://granades.com/?p=2616): After some five years, Battlestar Galactica ended with a giant two-hour episode. I enjoyed it, though I felt that, in the end, it undermined one of the series's core themes: it's individual's decisions that matter, and those decisions, even if made for what seem like the right reasons, can turn out badly. The road to
- [Websites that Inspire me to Make things](https://granades.com/?p=2588): I've mentioned before that I read a ton of craft blogs. Actually that's misleading, look at the photos on a ton of craft blogs, would be more accurate. This is a list of my favorites that I look forward to seeing every day. A Print a Day: She does beautiful illustrations and posts every day.
- [Hoops, Baby, Hoops!](https://granades.com/?p=2593): No post from me today, as my brain is too full of basketball to cope. Instead, why not listen to Tor's mashup of Sufjan Stevens and Blackalicious? [audio:The Dress Looks Nice On You _ Make You Feel That Way.mp3]
- [Strawberry Bread](https://granades.com/?p=2583): A friend gave me this recipe a couple of years ago. I've made it with frozen strawberries a few times but nothing beats fresh berries. You can pretty much make it in one bowl with a wooden spoon which makes it super easy and yummy to boot. The baking time can vary a little bit
- [Lately (In Pictures)](https://granades.com/?p=2568): Liza has discovered dress up: and dancing on Daddy's feet: and strawberry bread: and the fact that big brother is the best thing since the strawberry bread. Eli has discovered if he helps cook he gets first dibs on licking cake batter: and sometimes close is too close to his little sister: and that it's
- [Eli Achieves Sentience](https://granades.com/?p=2566): "So I press Tivo Man and that brings up the menu. Then I do 'Now Playing' and press select. Then I find 'Wow Wow Wubzy'. Then I press select. Then I pick a show and press play." It occurs to me that Eli will never know a time when you couldn't choose what TV show
- [Funerals](https://granades.com/?p=2563): I am waiting in the funeral home foyer, listening to the grandfather clock across from me tick, tick, tick. I am standing with the other pallbearers. The clock's big hand points to the phrase TEMPUS FUGIT. I've been a pallbearer at three funerals now. When the time comes you lift the casket, marveling at how
- [Kutiman Bricolages YouTube Videos Into New Music](https://granades.com/?p=2561): As usual, I'm about a week behind the Internet, but in case you're further behind than me, you really really really need to look at Thru You. Israeli musician Kutiman has created an album of songs spliced together from YouTube videos, and the result is astounding. Please understand, I'm talking about honest-to-goodness songs, good ones,
- [I Like My Coffee Like I Like My Post](https://granades.com/?p=2558): I like my coffee like I like my women: in a plastic cup. I like my coffee like I like my men: rich, strong, and hot. I like my coffee like I like my men: tied up on the back of a mule led by Juan Valdez. I like my coffee like I like my
- [Taking Care](https://granades.com/?p=2536): I'd like to be able to say that it gets easier to prepare for a trip home to go to a funeral. In some ways, the packing and managing of our lives to get ready to go has gotten easier with practice. Remembering to take Liza's sound machine and to hold the mail before we
- [The Robi-Robots Story](https://granades.com/?p=2527): by Eli Once upon a time, there was a green-headed robot. He was lonely and very sad. But...he had no friends. But then one day, he met a purple-headed robot, Joe. "How do you do, Joe?" said Sparky. (Mom, the purple-headed one is Sparky.) "Good!" said Joe. "Good!" said Sparky. "But we don't have any
- [The Best Part is That I Took This Picture in Bald Knob](https://granades.com/?p=2523): From a gas station restroom in Bald Knob, Arkansas: I knew "politically (in)correct" had become meaningless terms, but this confirms it. What exactly is a politically incorrect novelty? "Look, honey, this condom makes fun of cripples!"
- [First Night of Craft Night](https://granades.com/?p=2513): Tuesday night was our first try at Craft Night. I thought it would be a way for the gals to get together, work on projects, eat a bit and gab as much as we possibly can in a couple of hours. I was not disappointed with our first group effort. Watch out for Amy. She
- [You Don't Know What an <i>Ad Hominem</i> Argument Is, You Moron](https://granades.com/?p=2509): Look, idiot, it's clear to everyone here: you don't know what an ad hominem argument is. We've tried to be polite about it on the assumption that someone as lead-brick thick as you deserves some slack, but c'mon. Let me see if I can explain this in teeny tiny words that you might understand, you
- [What's Old as a Function of My Age](https://granades.com/?p=2506)
- [A Few More Random Things About Investing](https://granades.com/?p=2502): My Two Rules of Investing post resulted in several good questions from people, both in comments and in email. I've got answers which are worth every penny you're paying for. How much should I be investing? Oh, goodness, there's a question with no good answer. It depends on what your current financial situation is, how
- [Saturday Breakfast](https://granades.com/?p=2492): Ever wonder what we do around here on Saturday morning? I know, how have you gotten on this long without having this knowledge? Here's the answer to your burning question: Donuts. I've always meant to fry some biscuits to make donuts and haven't ever done it. (Is there anything more Southern than this? Maybe frying
- [References in The Lonely Island's <i>Incredibad</i>](https://granades.com/?p=2485): So perhaps you bought Incredibad, the comedy record from The Lonely Island, because you liked their stuff on Saturday Night Live, and now you're left wondering why the album includes some really terrible interludes, and what the joke behind "Like a Boss" is. Luckily you've got a white thirtysomething physicist to explain the references to
- [Two Rules of Investing](https://granades.com/?p=2187): Since the economy's doing so well, let's talk investing! Everything I know about investing in stocks and bonds can be boiled down to two rules. 1. Buy index funds. 2. Diversify. To understand index funds, you have to know what an index is: a collection of companies or bonds that someone tracks to get an
- [To Eli on His Fifth Birthday](https://granades.com/?p=2477): After the success of outsourcing last year's birthday party to JumpZone!, we decided to do something similar this year. We let you choose where we'd have the party, which is how we ended up at Chuck E. Cheese's. You've been a fan of the pizza rat for a while, even if his restaurant makes your
- [Liza is a Talking Fool](https://granades.com/?p=2473): These days, Liza says a lot of words. You can only understand a handful of them, of course, and then only if she points to the object she's referring to, but she's gone beyond what she could say in June! Er, except she still likes talking about butterflies. [audio:liza-butterfly.mp3] But there are a lot of
- [Update of What I've Been Working On](https://granades.com/?p=2463): This poster was for the "My Bloody Valentine" library event that happened this past Friday night. We were playing up Friday the 13th and Valentine's Day happening back to back this year. I was really pleased with the way the poster turned out. A friend attended the event and emailed me that Dr. Bass, one
- [Brand Loyalty](https://granades.com/?p=2459): The other night, Liza was tearing through a piece of cake (Liza's motto: "AHHHHHHHH! CAAAAAAAKE!"), so of course we had to take another picture in the ongoing series of "Liza eats something and gets it all over her". We didn't have our real camera at hand, so I took a picture with my iPhone. The
- [This Message Brought to You By Hallmark ](https://granades.com/?p=2456): Hope you bought your Valentine's Day cards already!
- [First Against the Wall When the Robot Revolution Comes](https://granades.com/?p=2453): For several months now, Eli has told me, "Don't run into any robots!" as I head out the door for work. This morning, before he could do so, Liza waddled to the door. "Aah! Wobot, daddy!"
- [In 1859](https://granades.com/?p=2449): In 1859, Louis Pasteur was just beginning a series of experiments disproving the theory of spontaneous generation. In 1859, diseases were thought to be caused by miasma -- bad air -- despite John Snow's work on the 1854 cholera outbreak in London. In 1859, Gustav Kirchhoff formulated the law of black-body radiation. In 1859, scientists
- [In Space, No One Can Hear Me Scream About Science](https://granades.com/?p=2444): It's been a while since I've talked about scary kids' toys. Good thing Eli got a new batch for his birthday! Meet Black Hole. He's the enemy from Planet Heroes, Fisher-Price's new line of planet-themed action figures with tie-in DVDs and comics. You can tell he's a villain because he speaks with a British accent.
- [Three Very Unfunny Words ](https://granades.com/?p=2441): So, funny story...
- [A Rocket Scientist Explains Securitization](https://granades.com/?p=2431): From a Marketplace report on the American Securitization Forum comes the following conversation between Kai Ryssdal and Bob Moon: RYSSDAL: ...How do you restore investor faith in what is admittedly a very important part of the economy? MOON: Well, they're promising straight talk, for one thing. There's agreement here that things did get so confusing,
- [The Evil That Men Do Lives After Them](https://granades.com/?p=2426): When I've written about the non-existent link between vaccines and autism before, I've done so without a lot of anger. I can understand how parents would be worried enough about the effects of vaccines to not have their kids vaccinated, even though the antivax movement in the end is a very bad thing. It turns
- [Four Songs From the 80s Chuck E. Cheese Should Cover](https://granades.com/?p=2422): Blister in the Sun, by the Violent Femmes. Girlfriend in a Coma, by The Smiths. Head Like a Hole, by Nine Inch Nails. Centerfold, by the J. Geils Band. Any other suggestions?
- [Eli's Fifth Birthday ](https://granades.com/?p=2417): Yeah, he acts just as grown up as he looks.
- [Four Songs From the 80s Chuck E. Cheese Has Covered](https://granades.com/?p=2412): I Think We're Alone Now, as made famous by Tiffany. Overkill, as made famous by Men At Work. Working in the Coal Mine, as made famous a second time by Devo. Tarzan Boy, as made famous by Baltimora. Now don't you wish you'd heard covers of these songs performed by animatronic animals?
- [Historical Perspective on the November 2008 US Job Losses](https://granades.com/?p=2145): Note: I've updated this article with more current information. Well, that's not good. The Department of Labor announced that there are 533,000 fewer US jobs in November than in October, which is the largest one-month drop since December of 1974, when the job numbers dropped by some 602,000. The BusinessWeek article offers this perspective: How
- [Historical Perspective on the Jan 2009 US Job Losses](https://granades.com/?p=2405): (This is an update to my November post about US job losses. For more information about where I got my data, please see that post.) The US job market is definitely still sliding. Back in December I crunched some numbers to see how bad the job losses were as a percentage of the total number
- [Eli Reviews "Super Mario Galaxy"](https://granades.com/?p=2400): I've had the raw video of Eli reviewing "Super Mario Galaxy" sitting on my hard drive for forever, so I decided it was time to do something about it.
- [Productivity Porn](https://granades.com/?p=2398): I didn't used to obsess about productivity. Friends were welcome to get all wrapped up in methodologies for being more productive; I was getting things done just fine, thanks. I had an excellent memory, and seldom forgot to do what needed to be done. Then I started getting older. I'd leave small tasks lying around,
- [Stephen, Can You Sum Up Your Half Day in San Francisco in Four Sentences?](https://granades.com/?p=2396): The Golden Gate Bridge was gusty. Fisherman's Wharf was fishy. Lombard Street was twisty. Coit Tower was phallic-y.
- [Lunch Deceased ](https://granades.com/?p=2389): When I was in high school, I wanted to be a pretentious art school student but I was hampered by attending a regular high school with my good and very nerdy friends. In order to gain my pretentious art school street cred, I made all my friends participate in my daily creation of Lunch Deceased.
- [Liza says, "Sleep is for the weak!"](https://granades.com/?p=2384): Do you remember when I used to complain all the time about Liza's lousy sleep habits? Well everything old is new again. Liza's current run of lousy sleep has me offering to give her to people I barely know. The rotten part is, several people have agreed to take her but decided against it when
- [ESPN, Take Note](https://granades.com/?p=2382): Today, while watching Duke's basketball team feed Maryland's into a wood chipper face-first, Eli started doing play-by-play announcing. "Duke's got it, and then other Duke's got it, and he throws it in the air, and it hits the front and falls. "And a red guy's got it, and now another red guy, he throws it
- [Birthday Thaumatropes](https://granades.com/?p=2374): What are thaumatropes you ask? Thaumatropes are Victorian spinner toys. In this case they are also Eli's birthday party invitations. I got the idea from my new favorite author Ester K. Smith. The thaumatropes are from a book called Magic Books & Paper Toys. You hold the strings, twist and see the robot open and
- [Eli vs. the Dungeons and Dragons Player's Handbook, 4th Ed.](https://granades.com/?p=2370): "That says 'player's handbook'. There's a woman on the cover. Why is she holding some fire?" "I guess because she thinks it looks cool." "Oh, look! There's a dragon and he's holding a thing to fight with!" It's also nice to see Wizards of the Coast returning to tradition and placing a woman with semi-covered
- [Preserve, Protect, and Defend the Constitution](https://granades.com/?p=2368): Congratulations, Barack Hussein Obama. And now comes the hard part. Best of luck, to you and to all of us.
- [Painting with the kids](https://granades.com/?p=2363): Today we did some painting since it was way too cold and snowy to go outside. Here are the kids in action: Click the photo for more painting! Also, here's a photo I got of the kids watching tv. They aren't often that still that close to one another so I had to memorialize it.
- [I'm a Mac, and I'm Ubiquitous](https://granades.com/?p=2355): He's Just Not That Into You. Still Waiting. Patriotville. Serious Moonlight. Youth in Revolt. Drag Me to Hell. After.Life. Planet 51. Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakuel. Nine movies, all scheduled for release in 2009. One thing in common. Justin Long. Justin Long! JUSTIN LONG! The smirk is inescapable. Also, I have now typed "Justin
- [Today's Geek Observation](https://granades.com/?p=2353): You can tell someone is a child of the 80s if they make a Gauntlet joke. But you can tell what kind of geek they are by which character they use when they say, for example, "Wizard needs food, badly!"
- [The coldest day of the year](https://granades.com/?p=2348): This morning while driving the kids to school the temperature was 19° F at 9 a.m. It was snowing heavily but the sun was shining as well. The sun caused the snow to sparkle like glass as it was swirling in the breeze. It was like being on the inside of a snow globe. This
- [there's a whole world of People who like to make things just like me](https://granades.com/?p=2334): A haiku from RISD's President John Maeda. Clifton Burt turned it into this awesome sign. Originally spotted on the Make Blog.
- [LEGO Creator: The Race to Build It Board Game](https://granades.com/?p=2327): Several years ago, a friend from church graciously gave me a trunk load of her son's toys. He was turning 13 and I guess that means some sort right of passage by ditching all of his kid toys. One of the things in the stash was LEGO Creator: The Race to Build It Board Game
- [What Should I Talk About at Dragon*Con?](https://granades.com/?p=2325): Hey, look who's a confirmed guest at Dragon*Con. Now I guess I should come up with things to talk about. Actually, that's not my problem. My real problem is that I have too much I'd like to talk about. I'm going to be doing a live WhatTheCast episode (right, Brian?) and be on the Evil
- [What I've Been Working On](https://granades.com/?p=2303): If you've been following me on Twitter, then you know all I've talked about lately is the work I've been doing. Working from home as I do and doing zero self promotion as I do, the work tends to come and go in waves. Lately it's been a bit of tsunami and I am completely
- [My New Favorite YouTube Comment](https://granades.com/?p=2301): That would be SmoothJazzApprClinic's on Eli's review of You Have to Burn The Rope. "This is not a 4 year old reviewing "You Have to Burn the Rope". This is a 4 year old being interviewed by someone about "You Have to Burn the Rope". To me that makes a difference if he puts it
- [Some of My Best Friends Use Facebook](https://granades.com/?p=2298): From the Washington Post's coverage of yesterday's Republican National Committee chairman debate: "We have to do it in the Facebook, with the Twittering, the different technology that young people are using today," Duncan ventured. "Let me just say that I have 4,000 friends on Facebook," contributed Blackwell, putting his hand on Dawson's and Anuzis's knees.
- [Grandpa Joe](https://granades.com/?p=2196): The past six weeks have slid by in a blur of work and travel and gray days. Winter arrived with too many cloudy days to count and it has oppressed me more than I can remember since my Emo high school days. I have sat down to write about the passing of my grandpa half
- [Christmas Photos](https://granades.com/?p=2279): My favorite of the Christmas photos this year. Stephen took it during an extended Lego building session. Click on the photo for more Christmas pictures.
- [The Doctor is Alone and Lonely](https://granades.com/?p=2278): We just finished watching season 3 of the new Doctor Who reboot. I'm not sure, so could someone tell me: what's the theme of the new show again?
- [Liza Versus the Milkshake](https://granades.com/?p=2273): While we were back in Arkansas, we had lunch at The Purple Cow, a burger-and-shake restaurant in Little Rock that Misty loved when she lived there. Because we are Americans who love our calories like we love our guns and unregulated financial systems, we ordered two milkshakes, one for me and Misty, and the other
- [Converting iTunes Playlists to M3U Playlists on a Mac](https://granades.com/?p=2269): So I wasn't content with just one way of creating M3U playlists out of iTunes. I went and wrote another. There's more than one way to do it, as I learned writing Perl programs. Pity I'm writing in Python. Anyway, this method only works on a Mac, because it uses Applescript. Actually, it uses appscript,
- [525,600](https://granades.com/?p=2259): In 2008 Liza began speaking. In 2008 my grandfather died. In 2008 I was a guest at a conference dedicated to internet memes. In 2008 I saw my friends become the parents I always knew they could be. In 2008 I flew back from California to go to Misty's grandfather's funeral. In 2008 the U.S.
- [Vacation Time!](https://granades.com/?p=2257): We're off until some time after the new year for the vacationing and the playing etc. etc. Don't trash the blog while we're out.
- [A Sign of the Times](https://granades.com/?p=2256): For Christmas today, Eli got a remote controlled car. It was some kind of Dodge, and the package proudly states that it was an official Chrystler licensed product. Two minutes after I put batteries in it, it stopped working. On the plus side, we're now eligible for $10 billion in bailout money.
- [The Coolest Christmas Ever](https://granades.com/?p=2253): Hey, remember when Arsenio was cool? Remember when New Kids on the Block was cool? What if the two of them were mixed together in a 1990s mélange of super-coolness? That, my friends, is funky, funky. It is, in fact, twice-baked funky.
- [Not Santa! Not Santa!](https://granades.com/?p=2248): You know what gets me in the mood for Christmas? Scary Christmas songs. Yes, yes, mall Santas are frightening, but are they as frightening as this song?
- [Christmas Wishes](https://granades.com/?p=2245): Mary holds the tiny Christ child who will grow beyond her sight. Merry Christmas and a Happy Holidays to all. I wish you the gift of days spent with those you love.
- [Review of Element Case's Liquid Case for the iPhone](https://granades.com/?p=2235): Hey, look what I got to review: a Liquid case from Element Case. Here you can see my encased iPhone menacing my poor old SLVR. It's a hard plastic case designed for either generation of iPhone. You drop your iPhone into the case and screw a bezel on to hold it in place. The tiny
- [How to Make Mp3tag Embed Album Art From a File and Convert Replay Gain to Apple Sound Check](https://granades.com/?p=2230): Since people asked, here's how I make Mp3tag embed album art in the mp3 tags and convert Replay Gain to Apple's Sound Check. Both require a new set of actions. If you go to Convert > Actions, you'll bring up the action list and can create a new action group. For album art, make a
- [A Very Baroque Digital Music Setup That Nonetheless Has No Actual Baroque Music In It](https://granades.com/?p=2227): How I go from physical CDs or purchased mp3s to my music library: Rip the CD with Exact Audio Copy, which converts the album to mp3s using LAME. Since EAC uses freedb to populate each song's metadata, that metadata is often wrong. Fix the metadata using the MusicBrainz Picard tagger. Normalize album volumes by using
- [The Dream](https://granades.com/?p=2219): I want my only memory of this past election to be of two different friends, both white, both male, one older, one younger, both born and raised in the South recounting to me at different times and places that they voted for this man on the content of his character and not on the color
- [Gizmodo's Matt Buchanan Doesn't Understand Consumer Reports](https://granades.com/?p=2216): Earlier this week Matt Buchanan ranted in Gizmodo about Consumer Reports' review of smartphones. He didn't read the actual reviews, of course. He just saw the top five list on someone else's blog: the Samsung Blackjack II, the T-Mobile Wing, the Motorola Q9C, the T-Mobile Shadow, and the Blackberry Pearl Flip. Then he went to
- [Recent Trip to Arkansas](https://granades.com/?p=2195): We had an unexpected trip to Arkansas this past week due to a death in the family (that's for a later post), and while we were there Eli and Liza discovered the joys of ponies and make up. Luckily for me it wasn't all at the same time. Click on the pony for more photos.
- [Emogency!](https://granades.com/?p=2193): Today's neologism: emogency. When you're so overwhelmed that only listening to Dashboard Confessional on repeat will make you feel better. I went googling to see who else used the word, and I discovered an emogency on deviantART and one on MySpace. The MySpace Emogency is Canadian. His two songs are him singing while he plays
- [I Love <i>Leverage</i>](https://granades.com/?p=2189): If ever there was a television show created specifically for me, Leverage is it. The TNT show is about a team of con artists, thieves, and one ex-insurance investigator who scam corporations and organizations who are up to no good. It's fun, it's got sharp writing, and it was written just for me, though I'll
- [Please, Sir, I Want Some More](https://granades.com/?p=2184): We had driven from Grayton Beach all the way to Montgomery, with a several hour stopover in Brewton to see my grandmother and aunt. It was past dinnertime and Eli and Liza were hungry and tired, vibrating at frequencies that make experienced parents nervous. There was a Red Robin next to our Montgomery hotel, so
- [Ten Tips and Tricks I've Learned About the iPhone](https://granades.com/?p=2181): Yes, I'm still enjoying my iPhone. Yes, I've been using it a lot -- probably more than is healthy. I'm going to end up with thumbs that look like Popeye's forearms at the rate I'm going. There were a number of things I had to learn about by experimenting or looking on the web. Here's
- [Our Little Cruise Director](https://granades.com/?p=2177): I suspect this will surprise my friends, but when I was in middle school and high school, I was very reserved. When I was young I was gregarious and outgoing, but between those two points I folded on myself like a Venus Flytrap. I had trouble dealing with people, and mostly avoided them. I say
- [Forrest J Ackerman is Dead](https://granades.com/?p=2175): Godspeed, 4E. Ackerman's contributions to science fiction and horror ranged from the sublime -- helping Ray Bradbury get his start -- to the not-so sublime -- appearing in both Nudist Colony of the Dead and Curse of the Queerwolf. I first found out about him through his cameo in The Wizard of Speed and Time.
- [Book Review: The Trouble with Boys](https://granades.com/?p=2164): Peg Tyre's publisher solicited me to read this book for the site, and I was intrigued enough by the book to say "yes." I remember being fascinated by the Newsweek article she wrote a few years ago, but it was published while my son was fairly small. I wasn't thinking about him going to kindergarten
- [Playing in the bathtub](https://granades.com/?p=2146): Wednesday morning I discovered the ultimate Liza distraction tool. I stuck her in the bathtub in our bathroom while I was getting ready. This tub is known around our house as "the big bathtub" because it's nearly twice the size of the tub in the kid's bathroom. Liza doesn't get in the big tub much
- [Reading Goes to 11](https://granades.com/?p=2143): And now, a brief conversation regarding Eli's reading. "Eli, let me see what the sticker says. Okay, you can read that one by yourself." "Wait, what does the sticker say? Library books have stickers for Eli?" "It says level 1.8." "Level 1.8? What does that mean?" "I don't know. Eli's reading roughly level 2 books
- [Thanksgiving Photos](https://granades.com/?p=2137): Our trip to the beach. Stay tuned! I might accidentally post something else next week.
- [I Have a Crush on Matt Fraction](https://granades.com/?p=2135): I've mentioned my love of Matt Fraction's comics before, what with Casanova and Five Fists of Science and his run on Iron Fist. You want to know why I love his work? I'd be remiss, however, if I didn't at least point out that in this issue, Matt Fraction and Terry Dodson deliver what is
- [Eli Loves the Beach](https://granades.com/?p=2130): Since we have family in the Florida panhandle, we've spent Thanksgiving week at the beach for years now. Eli's been coming since before he was born, and in the past he's not thought much of the beach. When he was a year old, he didn't like how the sand felt under his feet. When he
- [Pushing Up Knight Rider](https://granades.com/?p=2127): Pushing Daisies has been canceled. Meanwhile, the Knight Rider relaunch has managed to shed nearly half of its cast and keep on goin'. If I ever teach a class that covers theodicy, I'm using this as an example.
- [Preparing for Thanksgiving This Week](https://granades.com/?p=2125): I was surfing randomly through Wikipedia, which is something I do because shut up, I just do, and discovered that it has a list of harvest festivals, the US Thanksgiving included. I'm extremely pleased that in the UK it's just called a Harvest Festival. No Solung or Chuseok for them. I wonder what a rebranding
- [Tryptophan Coma](https://granades.com/?p=2123): Actually, it turns out it's not the turkey meat responsible for tryptophan and subsequent postprandial napping, it's the carbohydrates. Still, we're going to take the weekend off.
- [It's US Turkey Day!](https://granades.com/?p=2120): Happy Thanksgiving, fellow USians. As is customary on this day, I will pause and consider what I'm thankful for. I know: I'm thankful I don't have any of the turkey fryers that the Underwriters Laboratories got to burst into flames. Have a safe and non-fire-filled Thanksgiving, everyone.
- [Entering a Hex Wifi Key on an iPhone or iPod Touch](https://granades.com/?p=2117): For anyone else having to use a hex string to access their encrypted wifi network over an iPhone or iPod Touch: put a dollar sign in front of the string. Instead of, say 2DBA7C, enter $2DBA7C. It looks like Apple used to let you choose between a passphrase or a hex key in version 1
- [I Have Succumbed](https://granades.com/?p=2113): Hey, guess what I got today? It looked a lot smaller in all of the commercials. And less glowing. At any rate, now the inevitable question: what apps should I put on this thing?
- [The Tubes are Unclogged](https://granades.com/?p=2111): Almost despite itself, Alaska didn't send convicted felon Ted Stevens back to Congress.
- [Thomas Kinkade, Art Director of Cheese](https://granades.com/?p=2106): You may not be familiar with Thomas Kinkade, Painter of Light™. Much of what you need to know can be summed up by him trademarking the phrase "painter of light". He paints bucolic scenes, often of cottages that glow as if on fire, using a soft pastel palette. He also is frightened of hard edges.
- [Tobias Buckell Falls Ill](https://granades.com/?p=2104): Toby Buckell, one of my favorite new SF authors, is in the hospital for heart problems. He could use your thoughts and prayers.
- [Another Wii Christmas](https://granades.com/?p=2101): Last Christmas, through a series of unlikely events, we got a Wii. The house rejoiced over a new gaming system. Over the past year, we've played Mario Kart, Lego Indiana Jones and about a million games of bowling and tennis. We weren't letting it collect dust by any means but I had no idea we
- [A Review of <i>Couch</i>, by Benjamin Parzybok](https://granades.com/?p=2095): Thom, Erik and Tree have a problem: they have a couch they literally can't get rid of. After their upstairs neighbor's waterbed accident floods their Portland apartment and leaves them homeless, the three decide to take a trip. Thom's an unemployed computer guy, Erik's a low-rent grifter, and Tree is a commune refugee who doesn't
- [An Open Letter to Gerry Spense, Total Tool](https://granades.com/?p=2092): "We have to redefine who we [as trial lawyers] are: We are the most important people in America," Spence said. "There is no other profession in America that fights for freedom, that fights for what America is about, that fights for justice for ordinary people." To make his point, Spence -- founder of the Trial
- [Three Things About Liza Make a Post](https://granades.com/?p=2085): 1. Liza's shifted from brain-liquefying screeches to words, or at least word-like sounds. She still believes that volume and repetition are key to convincing arguments, much like the recent US Presidential election, so she will walk over to a bed she wants to be on, point at it, and repeat "Up peeese! Up peeese! Up
- [Fingerpainting Photos and the much anticpated Prepared Piano Photos](https://granades.com/?p=2082): A while back I read a great tip on Parent Hacks. They suggested to let your kids fingerpaint in the bathtub and then just take a bath. You contain the mess and the kids. The kids get to have a great time, first painting and then a bonus bath. I decided that we'd try it
- [An Unusual Fit of Cleaning](https://granades.com/?p=2075): We'd been talking for a while that we needed to do some cleaning before Christmas. Specifically in Eli's room so there's actually room to bring in some new stuff. So to show him how Mom and Dad can clean up their stuff too, Stephen started pulling books off of bookshelves and chunking them in a
- [Grand Theft Auto: Odds and Probability](https://granades.com/?p=2072): I have moved beyond the bike portion of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, and have learned that the Los Santos police are awfully cavalier about any carjacking I might do. At first I was very careful about what cars I'd boost, and I'd try to take care of them. Now I realize that cars are
- [Grand Theft Auto: Orient Express](https://granades.com/?p=2070): I've never played a sandbox game before, where you have a giant virtual environment that you can drive around mugging grandmothers and running red lights, so last night I started Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. I wanted to experience its mix of non-linear gameplay and vehicular mayhem. In the first hour of play, I've watched
- [Shhhh! I'm Working](https://granades.com/?p=2065): I've got six graphic design projects going right now and most of them are paid work. I'm working on making way too many Christmas and birthday presents. It is possible that in October I got a little overly ambitious about Christmas. I've made it so I'll be working every night on hand crafts from now
- [What a Prepared Piano Looks Like](https://granades.com/?p=2060): Ever seen inside a prepared piano? I hadn't either. Here's what it looks like when you're doing the preparing: There's a table in Cage's Sonatas and Interludes that lists what strings you're supposed to shove stuff in and how far from the bridge the stuff goes. Insert a screwdriver, twist to spread the strings, and
- [One Last Bit of Election Stuff](https://granades.com/?p=2057): I'm fascinated by behind-the-scenes information about political campaigns, which is part of what made The War Room so interesting to me. Now Newsweek is starting to release information from their Special Elections Project. "How He Did It, 2008" is an "inside, behind-the-scenes account of the presidential election produced by a special team of reporters working
- [What Would George W. "Lame Duck" Bush Nickname You?](https://granades.com/?p=2050): We were gone last week to Arkansas to hear my brother Andrew perform at Ouachita Baptist University, our alma mater, where he played John Cage's Sonatas and Interludes for prepared piano and taught a class about Cage. Cage's prepared piano pieces: where artsy music meets Home Depot's hardware aisle. Andrew was nice enough to let
- [The Expected Public Service Announcement](https://granades.com/?p=2052): To my fellow US citizens: go vote. Unless you're going to vote for candidates I don't approve of, in which case, stay home. And for those who live in Alabama, go vote for all of the constitutional amendments. True, our constitution is already the longest in-use constitution in the world. Yes, it's been amended to
- [The Soundtrack of My Life](https://granades.com/?p=1975): I was thinking the other day that I would post my top five favorite songs so then I could get others to post their favorite songs. Then I realized that I couldn't narrow it down to five, and frankly ten was a bit tough as well, so I decided that I'd just list my favorites
- [Future So Bright, I Gotta Be Gay](https://granades.com/?p=2044): Focus on the Family, James Dobson's conservative evangelical Christian group, is dabbling in near-future science fiction. They've sent out a letter from 2012, four years after Obama becomes President. They have looked into the future, and it's gays as far as their eyes can see. Same-sex marriage, first graders forced to learn about homosexuality, churches
- [How to Create a Portal Gun in Many Easy Steps](https://granades.com/?p=2001): It's almost Halloween time, so let's build a Portal gun! Two quick notes. One, if you're wondering, "huh?", and don't think you'll actually play the game Portal that the gun is from, you can read my dissection of said game or listen to me rave about it on a podcast. Two, if you don't care
- [Mixed Messages](https://granades.com/?p=2026): The vet near us updates his sign every month or so to suggest treatments, give general pet advice, or threaten you with free puppies. As of today, he has different statements on either side of that sign. Side one: Winter is coming. Prepare your pets for the cold. Side two: Antifreeze will kill your pets!
- [A Fun Saturday](https://granades.com/?p=2021): We were full of the busy yesterday and I managed to get photos of big chunks of it. First thing was playing with the doll house: Click the photo to see more pictures. In the afternoon we were off to hang out with our friends at Hallie and Remy's house. I made all the girls
- [Oh So Busy](https://granades.com/?p=2016): I can't tell you how busy I've been here lately. Between work and home and my own projects-- Fine! I admit it! I've been spending all of my free time playing Jade Empire and kicking people in the face! But no worries. I can quit any time I want. As soon as I finish that
- [I Have Been Remiss in the Posting of Photos](https://granades.com/?p=2007): Will and Luke came over to visit yesterday. They brought their mom Chrissy and we played outside and very belatedly celebrated Chrissy's birthday with hot dogs and chili for dinner. Click the photo to see the rest of the photo set. Here's Liza watching "Yo Gabba Gabba!" Click the photo to see the rest of
- [Death to Zima](https://granades.com/?p=1999): I had a friend in grad school who eventually left physics behind to become a brewmaster. He was a fan of beer, which put him in the same league as, oh, say, Wrigley Field spectators, but he backed that up with a lot of knowledge about beer. He also hated Zima, with a passion and
- [Southwestern Rollups](https://granades.com/?p=1995): I'm always looking for a way to sneak some spinach in our diets. This is a great option as the spinach gets flavored by the fajita seasoning so unless you KNOW there is spinach in there you can't taste it. The dipping sauce you can make more or less hot by adjusting the amounts of
- [Three Anecdotes About Eli Makes a Post](https://granades.com/?p=1971): One: Eli continues his habit of becoming distraught over all kinds of random things. He's like a Victorian maiden who just so happens to have brought her fainting couch with her. Earlier this week, Misty wouldn't let him get in bed with her early in the morning. This is not cruelty, it's self-protection. When Eli
- [Your LOLDebate Picture](https://granades.com/?p=1967): (Photo from a Reddit thread via Making Light)
- [The Third Presidential Debate in Five Links](https://granades.com/?p=1965): Joe the Plumber. Joe the Plumber. Joe the Plumber. Joe the Plumber. Joe the Plumber. Thank you, and good night.
- [I Should Get Some Muscle Relaxants](https://granades.com/?p=1962): A while back I injured my lower back playing racquetball. I say that I injured it playing racquetball, which makes it sound like a real injury that I sustained while doing manly, athletic things, but in reality I injured it bending over to serve. Once my back got to feeling better, I resumed my real
- [Our Weekend](https://granades.com/?p=1959)
- ["Take On Me", the Literal Version](https://granades.com/?p=1956): I'm swamped at work and I have a cold that has left my head feeling like a giant piñata, only filled with phlegm instead of delicious candy. Since all of my coherent thoughts are focused elsewhere, have a version of A-Ha's "Take On Me" video, only with the lyrics changed to better match what's going
- [A Prophet is Not Without Honor](https://granades.com/?p=1952): Given where the stock market is going right now, you'll be glad to know this book is still available at Amazon.com: Dow 30,000 by 2008: Why It's Different This Time. Buy your copy today! Given that Zuccaro's funds tanked before being closed down, I'm sure he'll appreciate the royalties.
- [Liza's Super Hero Powers](https://granades.com/?p=1937): We all have our skills. I, personally, can find any household object that's located inside my house. You'd think that wasn't much of a super hero power, but Stephen and Eli have tested me to the limits of my skill with their ability to pick up the tiniest of objects and put them down again
- [Help! I've DIY Papered myself into a corner!](https://granades.com/?p=1929): A few months ago I got on a Do-It-Yourself planner kick. I love having a paper planner even though I rarely ever use one for anything other than meal planning and grocery list making. But I had big plans for the one I was making. Surprise! I use this one for exactly the same things
- [NPR Wants You To Help Fact-Check the Debate](https://granades.com/?p=1927): Here's something interesting: NPR wants you to help them fact-check the debate tonight, and they want you to use Twitter to do so. Make a Tweet that includes the hashtag "#factcheck" and has a primary source rebutting one of Palin's or Biden's claims, and NPR will take a look. You can follow along using a
- [Look At Me Still Typing When There's Science To Do](https://granades.com/?p=1923): We're still here, we're just busy as all get-out. More later when we're not swamped. In the meantime, what have you been busy with?
- [Rinse Cycle Not Included](https://granades.com/?p=1920): This is the last one, I swear. All I ask is that you watch it to just past the 1:40 mark.
- [Also, He's Not Here to Make Friends](https://granades.com/?p=1918): It turns out it's not just Top Design contestants spouting alternafacts about history. Here's VP candidate Joe Biden on the current economic crisis. "Part of what being a leader does is to instill confidence is to demonstrate what he or she knows what they are talking about and to communicating to people ... this is
- [We Also Always Clapped on 1 and 3](https://granades.com/?p=1915): Growing up in the Southern Baptist church, I often heard (from others, mind you, not my parents) that we shouldn't dance. They said it was because dancing was sinful. Now that I'm an adult, I realize there are other reasons why you might not want to dance. Does this make up for yesterday's video? (the
- [Another Great Quote From Bravo](https://granades.com/?p=1912): "Sweet, 'cause my hands can use a break. My hands look like a Polish potato farmer during, like, the famine." --Top Design contestant Eddie Ross, from Greenwich, CT First I learned about the Chinese and the Hiroshima bomb, and now this. By the end of this season I'll have a whole collection of alternafacts about
- [I Bet I Could Have Beaten Him at Call of Duty 4, Though](https://granades.com/?p=1909): People often say that war-themed first-person shooters are completely unreasonable. No one person, they point out, could really do what your in-game avatar does. Ladies and gentlemen, meet Major Robert Henry Cain, recipient of the Victoria Cross. His weapon of choice was the Projector, Infantry, Anti Tank (PIAT), an early rocket-propelled grenade launcher. During the
- [Sadly We Occasionally Run Low on Christian Ska](https://granades.com/?p=1907): Sometimes our non-Christian friends ask us what our church services are like. It's always hard to describe them in words, which is why I'm glad a friend of ours pointed us to the video below. Our services are exactly like this. Zap!
- [For the Record, I Don't Like Peanut Butter and Banana Sandwiches](https://granades.com/?p=1904): When I was in middle school, I was--well, "pudgy" would be the kindest word for it. I weighed about what I weigh now, but was half a foot shorter. I resembled Jerry O'Connell in Stand By Me. When I went to Space Camp, staffers took a picture of me in the Moon gravity chair. I
- [If It's My Fault, Where's My Pile of Filthy Lucre?](https://granades.com/?p=1899): "Wall Street has rocket scientists creating securities.... A scientist sort of in the back room with lots of test tubes and bunsen burners--they've created monsters. They've created these securities that no one has a handle on." Nancy Kimmelman, former Wall Street economist That's right, it's all our fault. We're done creating V-2 rockets to rain
- [Unfortunately, Now You'll Die in Seven Days](https://granades.com/?p=1895): I can't decide whether this is the most brilliant thing I've seen in a while or the scariest, but either way, I wish I'd done this first. (h/t to Nick Mamatas)
- [How I Became a Professional](https://granades.com/?p=1876): I am embarrassed to say that I was a little bit cocky when I graduated from college with my design degree. I didn't understand why people (clients) wouldn't listen to me when I would tell them what was best for their project. I thought that taking their input and making changes to my work was
- [China to Bail Out Faltering US Economy](https://granades.com/?p=1879): Calling the United States "too big to fail", the People's Republic of China today loaned the USA up to US$1 trillion in exchange for a 79.9% equity stake in the country. The country's management will also be replaced, though President Hu Jintao has not yet named the new leaders. "The collapse of the United States
- [If Anyone Has an Extra Hammer, I've Some Thumbs in Need of Smashing](https://granades.com/?p=1874): Nights like this are necessary to remind me that, yes, I really do suck at working with hardware. This is where you should insert a picture of me staring balefully at a Fonera 2100 that is happily bricked despite, or more truthfully because of, my best efforts. On the plus side, this version 1.0 XBox
- [Nerd Font Lurv](https://granades.com/?p=1865): I started seriously paying attention to fonts when I was in college. I switched majors sometime in my junior year and began art/design classes. In one of my first design classes, I cut four Copperplate letter "T's" out of Styrofoam so that I could lock them together, ink them and use them to make pattern
- [Political National Conventions in a Minute](https://granades.com/?p=1862): I can tell I'm reaching the end of a long week: all I'm doing is posting short things. And perhaps you, like me, don't have much time either. In that case, here's the Democratic National Convention and the Republican National Convention boiled down to 1 minute each.
- [If Only Eli Could Have Twittered](https://granades.com/?p=1860): Courtesy of Abovenyquist, the NY Times weighs in on parents writing blog posts in their baby's voice on sites like "Totspot". Really, now. Who would do something like that?
- [Why I Don't Read Monthly Comics](https://granades.com/?p=1858): When I was young, I read a lot of comics. The Hulk, Spiderman, Batman -- I read them as they came out. These days any comics I do read I read as trade paperbacks. I've never thought about why that is, but Andrew's comment made me realize one reason why I stopped, at least for
- [Keep Up to Date on the Large Hadron Collider vs. the Earth](https://granades.com/?p=1855): You've probably seen http://hasthelargehadroncolliderdestroyedtheworldyet.com. But refreshing the page can get old after a while. So why not subscribe to the page's feed? (As I confessed to several friends last night, yes, I looked at the page's HTML source. I am a geek.) ETA: This is not to be confused with http://www.hasthelhcdestroyedtheearth.com, which doesn't have a
- [Tonight's Great Quote from Bravo](https://granades.com/?p=1853): "If the world was to end, and I could plan it because I was God, it would have to be something stupid, like the Chinese have built the Transformers to bomb us back 'cause they were pissed about the Hiroshima bomb." --Top Design contestant Natalie, from Montgomery, AL Yes, that would indeed be something stupid.
- [5 Comics You Should Read Right Now](https://granades.com/?p=1816): I've never been a full-blown comic book addict, but from time to time I go on a bender and read a bunch of comics collected as trade paperbacks. The benefit is that I don't have to wait every month for the next installment, and I can check out reviews to get an idea of which
- [Kat's Visit](https://granades.com/?p=1840): Wonder what we did while Kat was visiting last week? Here's her photos of the trip. Click on the photo to see all of Kat's photos from her visit to Huntsville. We had an awesome time with Kat here while Stephen was gone to Dragon*Con. Thursday, after I had dropped off Kat at her parent's
- [No Room In Your Bag](https://granades.com/?p=1820): We've been Groovlily fans for a while now. Stephen and Brendan became friends over the internet eight or ten years ago and we were fortunate enough to get to see the band play live while we lived in North Carolina. (Brendan playing keyboards, dancing around minus his shoes = the awesomest!) I was doing some
- [It Won't Go So Well For the Hadrons, However](https://granades.com/?p=1818): Dear Internet, The Large Hadron Collider will not kill us all. Sincerely, Your Friendly Neighborhood Physicist P.S. "Look, it's a 10^-19 chance, and you've got a 10^-11 chance of suddenly evaporating while shaving."
- [Things I Learned in Japan About Being Blind](https://granades.com/?p=1783): The large towns in Japan are very blind-friendly.
- [The FrankenMac](https://granades.com/?p=1808): This past May, Stephen asked me if I might want an older Mac laptop his company was retiring. I asked him how old the laptop was and what kind of prices they were asking. The price couldn't be beat! It was missing the bottom cover but it was going for $2. He took the cover
- [What I Learned in Japan About Parking Your Bike](https://granades.com/?p=1803): The English translation on signs does not necessarily tell the whole story.
- [What I Learned in Japan About Drinking Coffee](https://granades.com/?p=1799): Drink Boss Coffee, or Tommy Lee Jones will cut you.
- [What I Learned in Japan About Bathing](https://granades.com/?p=1795): Bubbling is preeminent.
- [What I Learned in Japan About Makeup](https://granades.com/?p=1791): Hello Kitty wants you to be pretty.
- [What I Learned in Japan About Fruits](https://granades.com/?p=1787): Fruits has power.
- [The Fantastic Adventures of Kreeli and Bliza](https://granades.com/?p=1772): We were outside at the playset one afternoon this past week and Eli requested I tell him a story. He's always making up stories so I guess he decided he needed a break from all the work and wanted to hear someone else's made up stuff. I might be crafty with a glue gun and
- [Because I Have the Bestest Friends](https://granades.com/?p=1774): My birthday occurred during Dragon*Con this year. I mentioned it to some of my friends, and said that I wanted to celebrate somehow. Friday, when the convention is getting in full swing and all of my friends are, like me, crazy busy trying to keep things running, they showed up in the room I help
- [What I Did at Dragon*Con 2008](https://granades.com/?p=1768): This year's theme: Stephen's big ego. First, I was recognized by so many people. I blame Brian Richardson. Sure, he's had me doing videos for DCTV, but this year, in his role as director of videography, he started broadcasting panels on the DCTV in-hotel channel. Viewership jumped, and people began recognizing me and several other
- [Back From Dragon*Con](https://granades.com/?p=1766): And boy are my dragon wings tired. I had a fabulous time, my panels went well, and people asked me for my autograph (!) and took their picture with me (!!). I bet you can't wait to hear all about it.
- [Liza & Sleep: How Far We've Come](https://granades.com/?p=1760): Remember the bad old days? The bad old days weren't so long ago. That last part of sleep training was posted May 20th, so only a few months ago. In the past week we've had another step forward in Liza's sleeping. She is now able to tell on her own when she needs a nap.
- [Outside, Today with a Cutesicle](https://granades.com/?p=1747): This afternoon we headed outside for popsicles and swinging. Eli had to show Kat some Jedi moves. Jedi moves involve him jumping from the step while swinging his lightsaber wildly. Here's Liza producing some Spielberg brand looking or maybe it's Bono serious gazing, hard to tell. He was in heaven this afternoon since Kat and
- ["Misty Says, 'Woo!'"](https://granades.com/?p=1739): When we were in college, Stephen took me to see Pink Floyd in concert. This is standard mating ritual for the nerd set. He loaded eight of us into his parent's Suburban and we drove the five hours to Texas Stadium in Dallas to see the show. Sounds like a great college road trip, huh?
- [Stalk Me at Dragon*Con](https://granades.com/?p=1737): For those of you who aren't tracking my every move via my state-mandated ankle bracelet, here's my schedule of panels for Dragon*Con over in Atlanta this Labor Day weekend. A Long, Sad History: Automatic Docking in Orbit In June of 1997, astronauts crashed a resupply ship into the Mir while attempting a manual docking. In
- [I hate Mondays!](https://granades.com/?p=1732): I knew there was a good reason to hate Mondays. Rainy ones are even worse. Vomit and poop make it uglier. 30 minute naps all around after all of the above equal the kind of pain associated with giving birth. Say, when is Daddy coming home?
- [Little Miss Soccer](https://granades.com/?p=1730): Today was Eli's first soccer game, which, in his under-five league, means all the kids bunch up around the ball except for the ones whose attention has wandered elsewhere. All the kids except for this one girl on the opposing team who must have been 8 or 9. She could dribble the ball with either
- [Spinach Dip & Baked Pitas](https://granades.com/?p=1723): This is a recipe that my mom cut out of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette many years ago and I suppose it is the reverse-engineered version of a dip from a restaurant in Little Rock called Trio's. The dip looks like it's still on the menu too. We love it at Casa Granade and I make it
- [What I Learned in Japan About Tokyo](https://granades.com/?p=1682): Tokyo is just like New York.
- [Frying Pans, Fire, You Know the Drill](https://granades.com/?p=1711): I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed today. I realized this afternoon that I have about 17 frying pans in the fire and I'm trying to keep my hair from burning as well. School has started back and I always forget that, even for pre-school aged children, the wheel starts turning again come fall. Eli and Liza
- [KC and the Granade Clan](https://granades.com/?p=1694): This past week has been c-r-a-z-y! We went to Kansas City to visit Andrew and Joy and we had a great time! Eli and Sam played nonstop from the moment they woke in the mornings until we carted their tired butts to bed. I hatched evil plans to send Eli to Kansas City by himself
- [What I Learned in Japan About Barbeque](https://granades.com/?p=1690): My theory of barbeque restaurant signs must be extended.
- [What I Learned in Japan About Language](https://granades.com/?p=1678): English makes everything better.
- [What I Learned in Japan About Using the Bathroom](https://granades.com/?p=1669): Toilets are really complex.
- [What I Learned in Japan About Science](https://granades.com/?p=1673): Physicists have something to be ashamed of.
- [I Pretended to Be a Rocket Scientist and Talked About Gas Mileage](https://granades.com/?p=1666): We're visiting family all weekend, so in the meantime, here's me talking about whether or not you can improve your gas mileage by keeping your tank half full for a MarketWatch story.
- [How I Know It's Olympics Time Again](https://granades.com/?p=1664): Number of searches for "Misty May nude" or "Misty May naked" on our site as a function of time: May 2008: 0-20 June 2008: 0-20 July 2008: 60 August 2008 to date: 260 Happy Olympics, everyone!
- [Flying Without an ID](https://granades.com/?p=1661): Since I just got through flying a bunch, here's a funny story that lightened my mood. It turns out the TSA has been creating a database of some who have flown without an ID and "adding them to a database of people who violated security laws or were questioned for suspicious behavior". You actually can
- [Things I Learned in Japan About Soft Drinks](https://granades.com/?p=1657): Pocari Sweat's taste matches its name.
- [Things I Learned in Japan About Smoking](https://granades.com/?p=1653): A lit cigarette is carried at the height of a child's face.
- [What we do while Dad's away](https://granades.com/?p=1650): Play in the tub for a really long time. Click on the photo to see the whole bath time set.
- [Eight, Eight, Oh-Eight at Eight O'Clock](https://granades.com/?p=1647): Who has Olympic fever? We do! We do! I didn't watch the Olympics when I was a kid. I'm not sure why, I guess I didn't get it. Stephen and I started watching sometime while we lived in Durham. If it's summer, I swear it is my favorite. If it is winter, then that is
- [Kidz Beats Guitar Wins Again](https://granades.com/?p=1643): Some of you may have seen my sporadic and ongoing duel with people who see my comparison of the Guitar Hero controllers with the Kidz Beats guitar and take it very seriously. Since I'm nice that way, I string them along, occasionally abetted by friends. But now, thanks to Misty, I have incontrovertible proof of
- [Baby Products That Should Exist: Maxwell's Li'l Demon](https://granades.com/?p=1641): Baby gates, while useful for safety, are really annoying. If you're lucky enough to be 5'6" or so, they'll come up to your mid-thigh or lower. You can then try to step over it and risk the chance of tripping and smashing your nose on the floor. Or you can remove it, step through, and
- [Buying Tea in Kyoto](https://granades.com/?p=1635): When we talked about buying presents in Japan for our family, one gift I knew ahead of time: green tea for my dad. He's a confirmed green tea drinker, and while he has his supply of Chinese green tea from a friend, he hadn't had Japanese green tea. Beyond the vague shopping list of "tea,
- [The Wrong Trousers](https://granades.com/?p=1631): Liza is a girly girl. She loves shoes and she loves to play dress up. In fact, she'll play dress up when there's only Dad's shorts to dress up in. Needless to say, we have to be pretty careful about leaving dirty clothes on the bathroom floor now. Click on this picture and then see
- [The Move to Big Church](https://granades.com/?p=1629): Until this Sunday, church involved us leaving our kids with other people while we went off and were all godly. That's changed now: Eli is old enough to sit in church with us. More importantly, Eli is now old enough for Children's Church. A quick primer on Children's Church. In our particular flavor of mainline
- [Japan Tales: Osaka](https://granades.com/?p=1617): On Thursday we drove the kids to West Memphis, AR to meet the grandparents. After lunch, we hopped back in the car and drove to Nashville, TN and spent the night with my college roommate, Terry, and her family. We had dinner with them and got our trip off to a great start by hanging
- [Upcycled Altered Tin](https://granades.com/?p=1608): I found this cool craft on one of my craft blogs and I wanted to do it but I didn't have a tin. A few days later, I was digging around in my car for some hand lotion and I found an old round Altoid's Tin. It was almost as good as Christmas. I immediately
- [Do Not Feed the Bear Caffeinated Sodas](https://granades.com/?p=1606): Today starts my month without caffeine. If I'm randomly cranky over the next several days, that's why.
- [Other Biological Imperatives](https://granades.com/?p=1604): "Biological imperatives trump laws." --Orson Scott Card. Polygamy as a biological imperative. Rape as a biological imperative. Murder as a biological imperative. No wonder Card advocates the wholesale overthrow of the government. There are so many laws that must be gotten rid of! This message brought to you by a wacked-out embrace of evolutionary biology.
- [Bigotry Leads to a Cool New Story Site](https://granades.com/?p=1601): In other SFF news, some time ago William Sanders, editor of the SFF webzine Helix, wrote a rejection letter in which he ranted about "sheet heads". People rightly pointed out that Sanders was being a racist dick, and he responded with grace and class: when Yoon Ha Lee asked him to remove her story from
- [Oh OSC No](https://granades.com/?p=1599): Shorter Orson Scott Card: gay marriage scares me, and I think everyone who feels the same should try to overthrow the US government.
- [<i>Child's Play</i> Discussed at Jay is Games](https://granades.com/?p=1597): Jay is Games has featured Child's Play in one of their posts today. That's both amazingly cool and rather daunting, since it's now being played by a lot of non-IF people, and the game's puzzles tend to the difficult as the game goes on.
- [Japan Tales: Hiroshima & Miyajima](https://granades.com/?p=1584): Tuesday was the hardest day. I knew intellectually what had happened at Hiroshima. But there was no way to know until I stood there. I would have thought that I'd be telling you how sad the city of Hiroshima is. How there is this cloud that hangs over it, darkening the mood. But there isn't.
- [The Krebs Family: from Japan](https://granades.com/?p=1567): Eli loves a set of nesting dolls that Stephen's mom has. So when I saw a set of Dharma Dolls in Japan, I knew it was the right gift to bring home for Eli. As Eli was playing with them one day, he began telling me of his adventures in Arkansas. While he was staying
- [July Photo Update](https://granades.com/?p=1575): Since I haven't posted photos of the kids lately. Here's a couple of new ones. This kid loves to rock! Is he 4 or 14? It's hard to tell. Now back to working on Japan posts!
- [Cream Cheese-Banana-Nut Bread](https://granades.com/?p=1562): This is the banana bread recipe I use these days. I like it because the cream cheese makes it moist and the topping of cinnamon makes it breakfast or dessert. I didn't realize until I looked it up in the Southern Living recipe database just now that it was sent in by an Alabamian. So
- [Random Thoughts As We Enter Japan](https://granades.com/?p=1558): The train from Narita airport to Tokyo leapt out of the tunnel and raced across the countryside. I stared out the window, my brain floating in a soup of fatigue poisons, and all I could think was how the kudzu-covered hills looked just like those back home in Alabama. Then we zipped past a small
- [Japan Tales: Kyoto](https://granades.com/?p=1549): Kyoto holds the largest chunk of history of the parts of Japan we saw. The temples and gardens are close enough together that we kept running into the same pack of tourists. Click on any of the pictures to see all of the photos from Kyoto. The Zen garden at Ryoan-Ji was possibly my favorite
- [It's That Time Again](https://granades.com/?p=1547): I'm obsessing about Project Runway again. Misty thinks Suede knows Suede is over the top. Someone told me Tim Gunn had a podcast. Anybody know anything about that?
- [Information or Conversation?](https://granades.com/?p=1545): Some blogs you read for the information they contain, whether that's technical tips or the latest goings-on in a friend's life. Some you read for the conversation among the blog's regulars and its author. I'm curious to know which style, if either, you prefer. I go in cycles. I'm fond of blogs that have good
- [Boom Monkey Update](https://granades.com/?p=1543): Since I was asked: why, yes, I can make an instrumental version of Boom Monkey available.
- [Boom Monkey](https://granades.com/?p=1537): For Christmas, Misty's mom got me a set of boomwhackers. They're pitched plastic tubes -- think handbells for people too nerdy to play handbells. After I got them, I had fun playing various simple songs for Eli. Then I started wondering: could I do something more complex with them? The result, through a chain of
- [Information Wants to be Non-Informative](https://granades.com/?p=1540): From the July 21, 2008 issue of Space News: "Election Could Usher in Big Changes for NASA ... or Not" I believe that covers the waterfront.
- [It's What's for Dinner (Sometime Last Week)](https://granades.com/?p=1532): We have around 900 pictures from Japan. I'm not kidding, after the first cull, we still have 900 photographs. Needless to say, it's going to take me a few days to get back in the swing of things, process all these photos, love on my children, catch up on my mail and projects and remember
- [Can You Improve Gas Mileage By Filling Your Tank Half-Way?](https://granades.com/?p=1528): Here's a question for you: can you improve your car's gas mileage by only filling its tank half-way? Or should you fill your tank completely each time? Since I'm a physicist, I might as well make some back-of-the-envelope calculations and use them as the basis for sweeping generalizations. If you're smart you'll check my work.
- [Home Again, Home Again, Jiggety Jig](https://granades.com/?p=1527): We've returned from the wilds of Japan, land of automatic everything and teeny tiny electronics. We'll have so much more to talk about later, but for now, sleeeep.
- [Billy Bob Thornton Checked Our Bags](https://granades.com/?p=1526): When we checked our bags today in Nashville for our flight to New York, Billy Bob Thornton gave us our baggage claim stubs and told us stories about pets. It wasn't really Billy Bob, but he did resemble him. And boy, did he want to tell us stories. "This one time, a guy wanted to
- [In Death!](https://granades.com/?p=1525): Of late, Misty's been reading a lot of J.D. "Surely No One Will Guess I'm Nora Roberts" Robb books. I didn't realize until I saw the third or fourth that all of their titles end "...in Death." No, really. There's even an Excel spreadsheet listing all of them. This seems a lot more restrictive to
- [Secret Bird Project](https://granades.com/?p=1515): I was making Liza's butterfly when I found this bird pattern on one of my craft blogs. I knew I wanted to make it and combine it with this quote: Use what talent you possess: the woods would be very silent if no birds sang except those who sang best. --Henry Van Dyke I've been
- [Eli and Time's Arrow](https://granades.com/?p=1524): Eli lumps time into two big buckets: now, and next week. Whenever we tell him, "Your friend Josh can't come over right now," he says, "Can he come over next week?" It's kind of like how dogs live in the eternal now. That's right, I just compared my son to a dog. It's just the
- [My New Perfect Song](https://granades.com/?p=1523): Sometimes, a band's disparate elements will come together into a single amazing song. "Antarctica," off of The Weepies' new album Hideaway, is that song for me right now. Antarctica - The Weepies
- [Travel Notes for the Children](https://granades.com/?p=1522): We're headed to Japan tomorrow on vacation so I'm not sure how much internet we'll have. But now I'm looking at that sentence and I'm laughing because I'm quite sure there will be a lot of internet in Japan but I'm not sure how much access to it we will have. So while we potentially
- [What We Can Learn from Reality TV](https://granades.com/?p=1521): Hey, Reality TV contestants, what are your thoughts on friendship? Ah, glad you cleared that up for us.
- [Remaking Children's Books to Have a Message For Adults](https://granades.com/?p=1518): A while back I mentioned Starboortz Fish, a libertarian re-telling of The Rainbow Fish. Now there's Goodnight Bush: An Unauthorized Parody, which is a version of Goodnight Moon with George Bush as the title character. Goodnight Bush apes the look and tone of the original story with great fidelity, but replaces the rabbit, his grandmother,
- [Ask DCTV](https://granades.com/?p=1517): As part of the ongoing fun of Dragon*ConTV, I'm soliciting questions for use in our bumpers. Ask any goofy question, preferably one related to SF or fantasy medium, and if you're lucky I'll use it. If you're really lucky I'll use it and make fun of it.
- [Misty Plays Dress Up with Liza (or Liza the Angry Flower)](https://granades.com/?p=1508): Click the picture for more photos. Update: Here's the Bob the Angry Flower cartoon if you don't know it. Thanks Lisa for pointing out my in joke was a little too in.
- [Paper Dolls: After the Internet](https://granades.com/?p=1512): I loved paper dolls when I was a kid. I know it's rooted in my obsession with paper, so it's not really a surprise that any craft that involves cutting, folding and gluing paper is going to rock my paper socks. Back in the day, paper dolls were hard to come by. When you could
- [Happy Fourth of July](https://granades.com/?p=1511): Did you know that, on this day in 1776, "the Declaration of Independence was approved by the Continental Congress, setting the 13 colonies on the road to freedom as a sovereign nation"? Furthermore, "this most American of holidays will be marked by parades, fireworks and backyard barbecues across the country"? Thanks, US Census Bureau! Of
- [Pizza Technology Marches On](https://granades.com/?p=1509): If you're a packaging engineer, I imagine you have to put up with a certain amount of skepticism about having the word "engineer" in your title. After enough of that, you might want to prove that, dammit, you are too a real engineer. I imagine that's what led to this statement on a Domino's pizza
- [<i>Wall-E</i> as a 1970s Science Fiction Eco-Disaster Movie](https://granades.com/?p=1507): Wall-E is as delightful and enchanting as you've heard. At Metacritic it currently has a score of 93%; at Rotten Tomatoes, 96%. It enthralled the kids (including ours) who were at our showing, and entertained the adults. It wasn't until some hours after I saw it that I realized I'd seen the best 1970s SF
- [A Four-Year-Old Reviews Wall-E](https://granades.com/?p=1506): Where's Waaaaaaall-E? I don't see him. Why is his shelf swinging? Is that Waaaaaaall-E's cricket friend? Why did he leap around? Why did that explode? What are those red lights? What is that? Is that a rocket? What's that robot's name? Why is Eeeeeeva flying around? Look, I folded up in my seat! What does
- [The Five Stages of Kübler-Ross Gardening](https://granades.com/?p=1505): 1. Denial. "This'll be fun! I'll plant some bushes and shrubs and pretty pretty flowers, and the butterflies will cavort in the foliage." 2. Anger. "I don't have a yard, I have a pile of rocks and a thin layer of dirt! And the soil I bought smells like shit! And the sun is hot,
- [Gardening Weekend](https://granades.com/?p=1499): This weekend Stephen decided to get started finishing our front flower beds. This is what they looked like before: This is what two of the three look like now: Yes, Mom, we did use that black edging stuff that you don't like. Unfortunately, there wasn't anything else that go around the curvy bits as well
- [Three Bumper Stickers](https://granades.com/?p=1498): Yesterday we saw a car with three bumper stickers: A "PEACE" circle sticker A "W The President" sticker A "GAS PRICES SUCK!" sticker The car was, of course, a Ford Expedition.
- [Facts I Rediscovered at 10 PM Last Night](https://granades.com/?p=1497): My yard is made of 90% rocks and 10% fire ants.
- [Prog Rock Friday: Porcupine Tree](https://granades.com/?p=1496): Well, neo-prog, really, as Steven Wilson was around six years old during the heyday of prog rock. Caution: overheated lyrics ahead! And if "Gravity Eyelids" is too noodly dreamy for you, how about "Blackest Eyes"?
- [How We Wake Up These Days](https://granades.com/?p=1495): Left to our own devices, Misty and I tend to sleep late. Even after having Eli and Liza -- and isn't that a lovely phrase, "having Eli and Liza"? As if we invited them over for dinner one night and they never left -- we still occasionally got to sleep until 7 or 7:30. That's
- [Stephen Belatedly Gets Into Transformative Remixes](https://granades.com/?p=1494): I've never listened to a lot of mashups. I appreciate a lot of vs. songs, like most of Party Ben's, more than I enjoy them. That's especially true of the Evolution Control Committee's "Pwn Monkey", which layers the vocals from Jonathan Coulton's "Code Monkey" over thirty different songs, all chosen to match the vocals' chord
- [There's Always Farther to Go](https://granades.com/?p=1493): I've been editing videos for some three or four years now. When I look back at my early efforts, I can see how far I've come. Then I see something like this and am reminded of what I have left to learn. Watch especially how Jamin Winans cut setting up and tearing down the turntables,
- [For LanaBob!](https://granades.com/?p=1491): Eli starts soccer camp tomorrow. He's declared these his new favorite shoes.
- [Buh-Fie!](https://granades.com/?p=1490): Liza loves her some butterflies almost as much as our nephew Sam loves trucks. How much does Sam love trucks, you ask? When they get car inserts in their newspaper, Andrew or Joy has to sit with Sam and read the insert cover to cover many, many times and even after that, Sam saves it
- [Picture Week Continues! Now with Swimming Eli!](https://granades.com/?p=1487): Yesterday was the end of Eli's two weeks of swimming lessons. He completely loved it and I think he did pretty well for never having had any instruction whatsoever. The best part is he isn't afraid of the water, which can only mean he'll grow up to be an Olympic swimmer.
- [How I Spent Part of Last Weekend](https://granades.com/?p=1485): Now don't you wish you had a monkey to film. (Pic courtesy of Amy)
- [Backyard](https://granades.com/?p=1484): It was 80° at 3 o'clock this afternoon. We spent a good chunk of time outside then and I snapped these photos. Click through to see the whole set. Liza kills a red popsicle. See those two teeth? There are finally two more coming in on the top! When I ask Eli to smile for
- [Bubba, Read to Me](https://granades.com/?p=1481): Incidentally, while I was taking these photos and several others off the camera tonight, I realized that the picture's filenames had gone back to "img_0001.jpg". We've taken over 10,000 photos with our "new" camera.
- [On Thermostats and Dreams](https://granades.com/?p=1480): Over the past several weeks, I've been slowly upping the temperature in our house to see what the maximum comfortable temp is for working, playing and just plan ol' living inside our house. This past week, I've been working on 77°. Now last summer while I was nursing Liza, this place was regularly down to
- [Misty's Debut Album](https://granades.com/?p=1475): Thanks to Amy for this link on how to figure both the name of my band and the title of my first album. Also, I get cover art out of the deal. I'm glad this is now taken care of because it was weighing on my mind. Update: I didn't realize I faved the photo
- [Search and Replace No Match for SCOTUS](https://granades.com/?p=1478): I've long rolled my eyes at intelligent design proponents claiming that intelligent design is so very different from creation science. The celebrated intelligent design textbook, "Of Pandas and People," originally referred to creation science before a search-and-replace operation changed the references to intelligent design. The current US administration's approach to the war on terror is
- [Pushing Past Dora and Diego to the Better Stuff](https://granades.com/?p=1473): Due to Stephen's LOLprowess, our site now has enough Diggs or Technorati gold stars in heaven to rate us being approached by marketing firms. The first couple of times we got emails, I was like, "Huh? They want to do what? What's the catch?" The catch is that these companies want to send us free
- [Selling Nice Cars to Flawed People](https://granades.com/?p=1474): I am a compulsive reader. At breakfast I'll read the backs of cereal boxes. I can't not read a sign I pass, or even the warnings on the back of a car's visor about le sac gonflable. That's why I read the tag on the back of the new car: SMITHSON'S MOTORS NICE CARS FOR
- [Good Clients](https://granades.com/?p=1469): I've been doing some form of customer service work my whole life. My first job in high school was at the public library. It was a very cushy job in many respects. One of the best parts was the people. People who come to the public library want to be there. They are getting a
- [Eli Tells Jokes](https://granades.com/?p=1472): One of Eli's current favorite websites tells jokes. That, of course, means Eli then tells those jokes to us. A selection of his favorites: Cinderella and her sports-playing ability [audio:cinderella.mp3] Giraffes and their nocturnal habits [audio:giraffe.mp3] Chimps and their ailments [audio:monkeywrench.mp3] Sadly, I wasn't able to capture him saying, "Listen! Listen! I have a joke!"
- [The Greenest of the Green Candidates](https://granades.com/?p=1471): If you're one of the many voters disenchanted with the current presidential choices, consider taking a look at Mitt Zombie. Mitt Zombie: reanimating America one voter at a time.
- [Hear Our Liza Say Words Only Her Parents Understand!](https://granades.com/?p=1470): Now that Liza's talking, we can inflict more audio on you! First up, Liza's favorite new word: "What's that?" If I played the entire recording I made instead of carefully-selected bits, you'd hear the two of us saying "What's that?" "That's a microphone" over and over. [audio:whatsthat.mp3] It started when Liza saw Saber, the dog
- [Eli's Felt Robot](https://granades.com/?p=1461): From one of my craft blogs, I found a pattern on this page of a robot. I decided that it was cute and that I could certainly make it for Eli. Eli picked out the colors from a stack of felt that I had. Purple and green are always favorites, but the orange in the
- [Liza's New Skill](https://granades.com/?p=1459)
- [Grumpy Liza](https://granades.com/?p=1458): Liza had her year check up today and she got shots in both legs and a finger stick. The doctor said she is cutting four upper teeth. So that's why she is grumpy. The only odd thing was that her weight measurement was slightly below average. My girl that eats everything in her path is
- [New Design for Live Granades](https://granades.com/?p=1457): I know, I know, what are we thinking, changing the design every three years or so. Nevertheless, have a new blog design. The only real content change is the "Shrapnel" sidebar on the right. We're going to be dumping links in there that we find interesting but don't feel like writing a full blog post
- [Pirate Wedding Ceremony](https://granades.com/?p=1455): The reason I ended up writing the LOLCat wedding ceremony is because some friends of mine asked me to officiate at a pirate wedding. They wanted something fun and complete secular, and hey, I was glad to help out. Of course, I had to have a costume. (Picture courtesy John Schultz.) I managed to rope
- [Wait Till Your Father Comes Home](https://granades.com/?p=1454): I have reached a milestone in parenting: I have had my first "wait till your father comes home" moment. I knew things weren't going well at home yesterday. Thanks to the miracles of Web 2.0, I don't even have to wait for a phone call to know Eli and Liza are spinning around wildly and
- [A Terrible Breakfast Concoction](https://granades.com/?p=1453): A chocolate fudge Pop-Tart iced with raw chocolate chip cookie dough. Don't look at me like that -- we didn't actually make this breakfast treat. But if any of you do, you have to post pictures and let us know to what hospital we should send your get well flowers. Does anyone else have a
- [Emotive Eli Emotes Emotions](https://granades.com/?p=1451): The past couple of weeks we've been dealing with an new onslaught of what seem like extreme emotions from Eli: Anger when we tell him "no", usually about treats or tv. The anger comes with stamping feet and a yell that makes me duck my head in shame, because the boy is starting to sound
- [New Photos](https://granades.com/?p=1452): This past Memorial Day weekend, we drove to Nashville to visit with my a couple of my college roommates and their families. We had a blast even though we were outnumbered by the kids. This morning we went to the Huntsville Botanical Gardens and played in the water because we hadn't had enough water in
- [Indiana Jones and the Halls of Academe](https://granades.com/?p=1450): Two notes on Indiana Jones, teacher and archaeologist. One, via Andrew, McSweeney's looks at why Dr. Jones was denied tenure. Two, something I didn't realize until last night. At the end of "Raiders of the Lost Ark", the government agents tell Indy that top men are examining the ark. "What are their names?" he demands.
- [See Our Robots Invade Other Planets](https://granades.com/?p=1449): I'm late to the party with this one, but it's still worth talking about: NASA's Phoenix probe, sent to Mars to examine the history of water on Mars, landed safely on May 25th. Not only have we successfully sent another probe to the red planet, we got a picture of it as it deployed its
- [Enjoying my Anniversary Flowers](https://granades.com/?p=1447)
- [Second Day of Continuous Rain](https://granades.com/?p=1443): And you know what that means? My very best secret weapon for being trapped in the house: Fort! Eli shows Liza how to play inside the fort. Liza's verdict: Fort is awesome!
- [Video of the ROFLCon LOLCat Panel](https://granades.com/?p=1442): For your Tuesday entertainment, how about the LOLCat panel from ROFLCon? Watch me and a bunch of other people talk about lolcats for nearly an hour! C'mon, it's only an hour long. What else are you going to do on your lunch break?
- [Prog Rock Friday, Part 2](https://granades.com/?p=1440): I didn't plan on making this a repeat feature, but then this came along: Jon Anderson of Yes singing lead while the students of New Jersey’s Paul Green School of Rock Omega All-Stars play "Close to the Edge". In my misspent youth, I wanted to play keyboards like Rick Wakeman. When I see the keyboardist
- [Memes for Saturday](https://granades.com/?p=1441): Remember how I went to a conference that wanted to bring a bunch of internet memes together in one place? Ever wonder what that would look like set to music? Ladies and gentlemen, Weezer's video for "Pork and Beans".
- [Spoilery Thoughts on Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull](https://granades.com/?p=1439): The short version: diverting entertainment, but nowhere near as much fun as "Raiders" or "Last Crusade". For me, the core of Indy's appeal is that, despite his amazing adventures, he feels like a real person who escapes danger in semi-plausible ways. He charges forward, often getting ahead of his plans and having to improvise frantically
- [Found in Translation](https://granades.com/?p=1438): For those who asked why I didn't use the LOLCat Bible version of 1 Corinthians 13 in my lolcat wedding ceremony: they tend to use the New Internationlol Version, whereas I prefer the Mew Living Translation.
- [Spoiler-Free Comments about Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull](https://granades.com/?p=1437): That was by far the best Indiana Jones movie of the last 19 years. It occurs to me that Indiana Jones is an archaeologist in the same way that Jack Kevorkian is a doctor.
- [LOLCat Wedding Ceremony](https://granades.com/?p=1436): (I'm so sorry.) O hai. We here before all dese ppl and Ceiling Cat sos cat 1 and cat 2 can has marriage. cat 1 and cat 2, marriage iz commitment and all about luv, so if u marry wifout thinkin hard about it, ur doin it wrong. Anyone has visible reason they shud no
- [Tomorrow I'll Teach Him to Yell "Hadouken!"](https://granades.com/?p=1435): Last night, when Eli again asked that we keep playing through Zack and Wiki instead of Mario Kart Wii, I realized that he's most interested in games that involve some semblance of plot. My kid is going to be an adventure game player! Of course, even when a game doesn't have a story, he's happy
- [Sleep Training, Part 5:  Saying Hello to My Own Bed](https://granades.com/?p=1434): One of our faithful readers (Hi! ramona!) asked: did you find with liza that a “switch” went off and she started sleeping longer (my friends who don’t sleep train say that this will be the case at some point). I just wonder because we sleep trained Sean starting at 6 months, and it wasn’t as
- [To Liza on Her First Birthday](https://granades.com/?p=1428): Little lolcat, The other day I turned around and you were one year old. You've developed a personality, can say words you hear a lot like "dad" and "stinky", and are nearly walking. You've grown from a lump of obligation to a speedy blur. Seriously, I had no idea how fast you were going to
- [Because You Have Been Without the Cute for Too Long](https://granades.com/?p=1424)
- [Newsy News about the Kiddos](https://granades.com/?p=1423): Liza is now walking. She stiff-legged it into the kitchen from the living room tonight and was all, "O Hai! I jus walking." Better news: I'm now officially announcing that her sleep problems are over. We've gone for around a month with multiple nights in a row of uninterrupted sleep. We've had a few nights
- [Flummoxed](https://granades.com/?p=1422): For the first time in over a year, everybody at my house ate the same thing for dinner. I never thought I'd be this excited about a frozen pizza.
- [A Little Prog Rock for Friday](https://granades.com/?p=1421): It's been a serious week for us, so in case it's been serious for you as well, let's have some fun. And when I say "fun", I mean "YouTube links to prog rock". And when I say "prog rock", I can only mean one band: YES. I'm a fan of the band, but even I
- [Memories of My Granny](https://granades.com/?p=1419): I wrote this in the car this past Monday. We are home now and glad to be back in our own place. Stephen and I are driving on this bright beautiful May day. It reminds me of summer days spent at my dad's parents' house. In my mind's eye I can see so clearly the
- [The Case of the Missing Marble](https://granades.com/?p=1418): Mumsy bought Eli Hungry, Hungry Hippos while she was visiting this last week because he said he wanted that game specifically. After I assembled it and played a couple of rounds with him, I took a break and Mumsy took my place. "Is that all there is to this game?!?!" she asked after she played.
- [Traveling Today](https://granades.com/?p=1417): And tomorrow, and the day after, and, in fact, yesterday, too, so instead of content, have a link to Michelle Sagara talking about how being a mother is like being a writer.
- [Someone on the Internet Agrees With Me](https://granades.com/?p=1416): It turns out I'm not the only one who thought of George Wallace when Hillary Clinton made her "hard-working Americans, white Americans" comment.
- [Today Liza is One](https://granades.com/?p=1414): Happy birthday, Liza!
- [And Now For Something Sciency](https://granades.com/?p=1413): I ranted about politics a lot yesterday. Let's balance that with some science! (Say it with me: Science!) Did you know the Earth might once have had multiple moons? The theory is that, when the Moon was created by the Earth being hit by something the size of Mars, a bunch of other chunks got
- [Also, Some Simple Math Regarding Delegates Might Be In Order](https://granades.com/?p=1412): Dear Hillary Clinton, I've had a lot of sympathy for you. You had name recognition and a commanding lead in the polls before actual voting and caucusing began, and were making history as the first woman to run for President on a major party ticket, and yet you were never able to deliver the knock-out
- [Score One for Librarians](https://granades.com/?p=1411): Thanks to the Patriot Act's expansion of investigative powers, for years the FBI has been using National Security Letters to gather information about US citizens. Now the Internet Archive, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and the ACLU managed to get the FBI to rescind one such request and make some details public. National Security Letters are
- [The View From the Top](https://granades.com/?p=1410): Before Eli was born, I looked at how much we were spending and how much Eli was likely to cost us. I then took a moment to breathe slowly and deeply into a paper bag while red numbers danced in my vision. It's a natural reaction, and I always figured most parents-to-be experienced it regardless
- [Summer Scheduling](https://granades.com/?p=1409): Summer shouldn't need a schedule. It should be days of waking up and deciding if we're going to get motivated enough to go to the pool or just play in the water sprinkler in the yard. It should not require a shared Google calendar to pull off. And yet for the second time in about
- [Mission Accomplished[citation needed]](https://granades.com/?p=1407): Five years ago, President Bush gave a speech aboard the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln, where he spoke in front of a giant MISSION ACCOMPLISHED banner. Yesterday, White House press secretary Dana Perino explained that the banner needed to be more specific. "President Bush is well aware that the banner should have been much more specific and
- [Misty Loses at Vomit Roulette Once Again](https://granades.com/?p=1406): This morning as I was showering I was thinking of this website and feeling the pressure of not having made a post in a couple of days. I wondered what to write about and decided to see where the day would take me. Eli had a dental checkup this morning and all went well except
- [I'm a Confirmed Dragon*Con Guest](https://granades.com/?p=1405): Hey, look at that. Time to finish my planned presentation on quantum computing, where by "finish" I mean "start".
- [A Four Year Old Reviews <i>Grand Theft Auto IV</i>](https://granades.com/?p=1404): Long ago I reviewed a lot of video games for a dot com, which meant that I got a lot of free games. Even now, years later, I sometimes get free games. So how could I not try out Grand Theft Auto 4? And how could I not see what Eli thought of it? [tags]grand
- [I Survived ROFLCon](https://granades.com/?p=1403): The conference was both stranger than I imagined and far more fun than I could have hoped for. Many of the guest who attended were like me: they did a random thing that became unexpectedly popular. And many of the attendees seemed to find it as fun as I did, and looked to be having
- [Selling Parents Fear](https://granades.com/?p=1398): In March, Lenore Skenazy let her nine-year old son ride home from Bloomingdale's on the New York subway -- by himself. Then she made the mistake of writing about it in the NY Sun. As you can imagine, a lot of parents thought she was nuts. Her son could have been abducted! It wasn't safe!
- [Why Do People Miss Planes?](https://granades.com/?p=1401): I used to stand in the ticket counter line and wonder why people weren't showing up to get on their flight. What causes people to not go on their trips they've planned for months? A death in the family, surely. An emergency root canal, maybe. The nastiest stomach bug I've ever had, yes, yes, and
- [ROFLCon Bingo](https://granades.com/?p=1399): I've finished my panel, which was entirely too entertaining. With luck there will be an online version of it for everyone to see. In the meantime, here is a bingo card for anyone who is actually at ROFLCon and wants a way to pass the time during panels. [tags]roflcon, panels are often annoying[/tags]
- [We're Headed to ROFLCon](https://granades.com/?p=1397): That's right, there's an entire convention about internet memes, and I'm going to be there this Friday on a lolcat panel talking about loltrek. An entire convention about Tron Guy and Leeroy Jenkins taking place at MIT, and I'm one of the invited guests! You know, I used to do serious science and dream of
- [Can't Look Away](https://granades.com/?p=1394): I spotted this picture on Etsy and I want it so bad I can't hardly stand it. Anyone want to contribute to the Tea and Oranges Picture Fund?
- [Blue Plate Cafe](https://granades.com/?p=1393): A couple of weeks ago, Stephen and I hit the Blue Plate Cafe in Huntsville. We went with the specific intention of a review. It's a pretty good place to eat if you dig the "meat and three" kind of lunch. We went early because we'd heard it's always busy. It's a good thing because
- ["Restaurant at the End of the Universe" as a Text Adventure](https://granades.com/?p=1392): Andy Baio has a long post describing Infocom's efforts to make Restaurant at the End of the Universe as a text adventure. It would have been the sequel to their version of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (which you can play online) that's mentioned at the end of the game. Andy has internal Infocom emails
- [A Four Year Old Reviews <i>You Have to Burn the Rope</i>](https://granades.com/?p=1391): Some time ago I showed Eli the Flash game You Have to Burn the Rope. He immediately wanted to play it again. At this point I estimate we've played it twenty times. It got to where he would tell everyone who came to our house about the game. And that's when I wondered, what would
- [A Hike and A Picnic](https://granades.com/?p=1390): Wednesday, Wendy lured us on a small hike with a picnic in the middle and then a hike back. Pause for a moment and think about: 1) me on a hike 2) with Eli the Whiny (when things aren't going his way), 3) Liza the Deaf Maker (when things aren't going her way), and 4)
- [Eli Idol](https://granades.com/?p=1389): It's been a while since we've let you hear Eli singing. He sings all the time, making up songs about whatever is going on in his life, like eating breakfast and playing Zack and Wiki. In this case, he's singing about friends. [audio:eli-sings-friends.mp3]
- [Happy US Tax Day!](https://granades.com/?p=1388): April 15, 1955: The first McDonald's franchise opens. April 15, 1984: Tommy Cooper has a heart attack on live TV and dies. April 15, 1865: Abraham Lincoln dies. April 15, 1989: 96 Liverpool FC fans die in a crush of people exiting Hillsborough Stadium. April 15, 1912: The RMS Titanic sinks. April 15, 1941: The
- [Vidal Sassoon Should Sue](https://granades.com/?p=1383): Let me not indulge in false modesty. I have amazing hair. I easily have the hair of a woman twice my age. People cannot keep their hands off of it. They tousle it. They pet it. They say, "Liza, you have such beautiful hair. How do you get it to be so full, so shiny,
- [Cute Photo Friday](https://granades.com/?p=1379): Late post, I know but it's been busy around here what with the weather and my Frankenstein laptop! (More on that later!) Eli striking a pose! I actually got a photo of him with his eyes open and his mouth closed. Liza doing what Liza loves best -- Looking at books! As if in this
- [Weather](https://granades.com/?p=1378): We were just driving home from a friend's house. I was looking at the clouds back toward where our subdivision is and I thought to myself that it looked like a "funnel cloud." I've never seen a funnel cloud before but it looked exactly like how I've always heard them described. It was moving pretty
- [Look! An Article Written by Liza](https://granades.com/?p=1377): In case you missed it, here's Liza's rather narrow perspective on life: I Can't Imagine Why Anybody Would Want To Stop Crying. Ok, really it's an Onion article, but this part sounds exactly like Liza: Take my parents, for example. If it wasn't for my tireless efforts, they'd sleep through the night! Can you believe
- [Children's Music that Doesn't Make Me Want to Puke](https://granades.com/?p=1370): Before I had kids, I swore I would listen to MY music in the car. Ain't nobody gonna tell me what to listen to or that it's too loud! Now I have kids and we listen to children's music in the car. There's a reason why and I'll let you in on a not-so-secret secret.
- [Play This Game Right Now](https://granades.com/?p=1369): If you haven't already, you must go play You Have to Burn the Rope. Right now.
- [Cheese Grits: Southern Cooking Part 2](https://granades.com/?p=1368): This is May's recipe for grits and truthfully I don't make it often enough. This dish is yummy with a grilled pork chop or chicken. Tastes great for breakfast the next morning too. I actually prefer them for breakfast. Or is that lunch? Or maybe snack? Usually the whole bowl is gone before dinner the
- [Roller Coaster](https://granades.com/?p=1366): Today is the last day of Liza breastfeeding. I've had bittersweet feelings about the end all week. With Eli, I was ready for it to be over. He was too busy to sit in my lap and nurse. He had to be there! Right now! There were things to do! And toys to play with!
- [Things I Have Been Reminded Of Today](https://granades.com/?p=1367): The phrase "our guest needs no introduction" is inevitably followed by a five-minute introduction.
- [Weekend Media Entertainment](https://granades.com/?p=1365): Friday night, Battlestar Galactica returned. Baltar got smacked upside the face with theodicy, and everyone was paranoid and broken. Saturday night, Kansas beat UNC, and did so convincingly despite letting UNC get to within three points after being up 40 to 12. It's nice to see Roy Williams's team fall to the school he left,
- [Welcome, Zachary Xavier Lanterman!](https://granades.com/?p=1363): Our friends Joyce and Aaron are, as of last night, the parents of a child whose name practically guarantees that he'll have superpowers. Hi, ZXL. Welcome to the world. We don't have pictures of him yet, so here's a stock photo of a baby. Update: real pictures!
- [My Accomplishment for Today](https://granades.com/?p=1362): When the LASIK tech who had been evaluating me left to get answers to some of my detailed questions, I never saw her again. Instead, one of the senior assistants came in to give answers.
- [Wherein Misty Reveals Exactly How Geeky She Really Is](https://granades.com/?p=1361): Does anybody remember Farscape? How about the character Jool from the last couple of seasons? Remember that her special talent was the ability to melt metal with her screech? Yeah, she has nothing on Liza when she is denied access to the shower stall while I am in it.
- [Spaceship Autonomously Docks With the <i>ISS</i>](https://granades.com/?p=1360): Hey, look at that: the European Space Agency's Jules Verne docked with the International Space Station under complete computer control. The Jules Verne uses laser-based sensors that are extremely similar to ones I've worked on. This means that the ESA and the Russians can dock to the ISS without a human pilot, but the US
- [Mike Gravel's New Campaign Video](https://granades.com/?p=1359): I have a weakness for completely off-the-wall campaign videos. That's why I'm so excited about Mike Gravel's new video. To my knowledge it's the first one he's made since jumping from the Democratic Party to the Libertarian one to continue running for President. Won't you join me in glorying in the total awesomeness of this
- [The Hams:  They are Very, Very Hammy](https://granades.com/?p=1356): Eli and his best bud, Josh. How do they already look like frat boys at four? Mick Jagger practice.
- [My Two Mimics](https://granades.com/?p=1354): This will come as a shock to everyone, but it appears we are rearing two kids who are 100% ham. Both want people watching them; both like to mimic things you do to get that attention. The other night, Misty & I were talking, and I said something about a death march on a project.
- [Mmm, Schadenfreude](https://granades.com/?p=1353): Psst, Sony BMG. You've been at the forefront of the music labels' anti-piracy efforts, right? After all, you were part of the successful RIAA effort to sue a single mom for $222,000 for sharing 24 songs. I take it you're against piracy in any form? Hm, perhaps not. A small software company has accused major
- [The Inevitable Upgrade](https://granades.com/?p=1352): We've upgraded to WordPress 2.5. Let us know if anything went kablooey.
- [What's for Dinner Tonight? French Beef Au Gratin](https://granades.com/?p=1351): I've been making this recipe for 13 years from a Reader's Digest cookbook (of all things!) I got when I got married. The first time I made it, I had one pot to make it in and I hadn't cooked much, so it was a fair bit of thinking for my 22 year old brain
- [Apostate Fools](https://granades.com/?p=1350): We've never done an April Fools' joke here, and I'd never though about why until someone asked me today. The big reason is that the kind of April Fools' joke that I enjoy takes a fair amount of effort and is so seldom done well. I enjoy April Fools' jokes that are both obvious and
- [Your Opinion Is Stupid](https://granades.com/?p=1349): After careful consideration, I've chosen a new phrase that sets my teeth on edge. I know you're excited to know what that phrase is, so let me get right to it: You have a right to your opinion. People who say this don't mean it. At least, what they say isn't what they mean. What
- [It's a Small but Changing World After All](https://granades.com/?p=1348): Two weeks ago I went to Orlando to take part in an SPIE conference. (My presentation on space docking sensors went very well, thanks for asking.) Since I was down there, I took a half-day and visited Disney World, specifically the Magic Kingdom. While I've been to Epcot recently, the last time I went to
- [You, Internet, Give Me a Warm and Fuzzy Feeling in my Heart](https://granades.com/?p=1347): This week I've talked about vacuums, poppy seed bread, and Liza's teeth, and I've posted pictures of the kids and vacuums. By the way, you people are seriously into vacuum cleaners and I'm not sure if that says more about you for reading about it or me for writing it. I giggled all day yesterday
- [Just for Mumsy](https://granades.com/?p=1346)
- [Parenting as Improvisational Theatre](https://granades.com/?p=1344): My tendency is to plan ahead of time, then try to stick to that plan. I'm not really a make-it-up-as-you-go kind of guy unless I make a conscious effort. That spills over into how I parent Eli. Kids, especially high-energy four-year-olds like Eli, throw off questions and requests and a whole lot of chatter. I
- [Here is the Lame You've Been Waiting For](https://granades.com/?p=1342): Here's the old vacuum: Stephen wanted it to look really bad so he was all art-directing me to pull all the pieces out and make it look really pitiful. Frankly, I didn't have to work that hard. The stuff you can't see: the lever that raises and lowers the top piece has been broken forever,
- [Shake, Shake, Shake, Señora](https://granades.com/?p=1340): Last night Misty shook Liza nearly awake twice. Last night Liza slept very well. This is just crazy. If you shook me nearly awake, I doubt I'd sleep any better. Then again, if you picked me up and shook me up and down, I wouldn't like it very much, yet Liza thinks that's the best
- [Whom the Gods Wish to Destroy They First Make Parents](https://granades.com/?p=1337): After about two weeks of good sleeping, Liza has regressed. It's unfair, like going to a restaurant, ordering off the menu, having your food placed before you, and right as you start to eat, having the food taken away and replaced with rocks. Her poor sleep may have something to do with her teething. Two
- [Because I am Lame](https://granades.com/?p=1336): I am totally excited about my new vacuum cleaner. When Stephen gets home tonight with the camera, I'll even take photos of it for you because it turns out, I'm even lamer than I thought I was when I started writing these sentences.
- [Poppy Seed Bread](https://granades.com/?p=1335): This bread is so easy to make. Once it's baked you'll be glad that it makes two loaves since most of the first one will be gone before they are even cool. This recipe came to me by the same friend that gave me the Mississippi State Sin Dip. Bread 3 c flour 1 1/2
- [Rock Band for the Wii](https://granades.com/?p=1334): Right, there's my free time gone.
- [Things I've Done That You Probably Haven't](https://granades.com/?p=1333): Cook some two-and-a-half gallons of grits. Mind you, they were quick-cook grits, so I mainly had to boil water, throw in salt and butter, and stir the grits in slowly so they didn't turn into a giant hard lump. But still. I and the other deacons also scrambled nearly a gross of eggs, cooked 24
- [Teeth Report](https://granades.com/?p=1332): Since I know every one of you is sitting in your office this Monday morning thinking, "Hey, I wonder if that Liza girl has any more teeth?" The answer is yes, #2 tooth came through in the night last night and #3 is working itself out right now. Apparently, Liza has decided that if she's
- [Happy Easter 2008](https://granades.com/?p=1330): Someday both of my children will look at the camera at the same time. I count on that happening around the same time Liza starts sleeping through the night, so when she's 10. Dr. Suess was well represented in the Easter basket this year. Liza got eggs full of Cheerios and this book for Easter.
- [The Best March Madness Highlights Anywhere](https://granades.com/?p=1327): The NCAA doesn't allow news organizations to show highlights of March Madness tournament games until all of the games are over for the evening. That can really put a crimp in your sports reporting, especially if you're in a college-basketball-crazy market like the North Carolina Triangle region, where Duke, UNC, and NC State are. NBC17
- [Science Fiction Authors Know All](https://granades.com/?p=1326): When I think of people who have a firm grasp on how the world works and what's going on, really, coupled with the ability to make spot-on predictions, I of course think of science fiction authors. In the last few days, that view has been cemented by a couple of blog posts and news reports.
- [A Minor Symptom of Madness](https://granades.com/?p=1325): Dear Coach Calhoun, Suck it. Sincerely, Me
- [Know Thy Neighbor](https://granades.com/?p=1324): A week ago, Lee Roop, a Huntsville Times columnist, was arrested for possession of cocaine and driving under the influence of drugs. He also happens to be a deacon[1] at my church. I'm not going to talk about what Lee did. Instead, I'm going to marvel at one guy's response on the newspaper's forum when
- [Playgroup Easter Egg Hunt 2008](https://granades.com/?p=1323): Easter eggs, brownies, hot dogs, sand, swings, princess dresses, pirate hats and kids, kids, kids! It was all this morning at our playgroup's egg hunt.
- [Messy Liza](https://granades.com/?p=1322): Liza's lunch yesterday was curried peas, mashed potatoes and onions with chicken and Mandarin oranges. Sounds like one of those Lean Cuisine commercials.
- [Arthur C. Clarke, 1917-2008](https://granades.com/?p=1320): I'm back from my conference and am all kinds of tired. I did want to note the passing of Arthur C. Clarke, whose novels I enjoyed and who had the audacity to invent the concept of the geostationary communication satellite.
- [Glenda's Breakfast Casserole](https://granades.com/?p=1319): In honor of LanaBob! visiting this week, here is her mom's breakfast casserole which sits somewhere between eating cheesecake and an omelet for breakfast. I love breakfast dishes like this and I've made tons of them but this one with 14 lbs. of cheese in it is my all time favorite. The best part is
- [My Favorite Conference Talk So Far](https://granades.com/?p=1318): I'm away at a conference for the first part of this week, which is why I haven't been posting and why Misty has been going just a little bit crazy. For your entertainment, I give you my favorite conference talk so far, judging on title alone: Cybersickness determines the affective appraisal of a virtual environment.
- [Today My T-Shirt Says...](https://granades.com/?p=1317): Liza got her first tooth yesterday and all I got was two lousy nights of not much sleep (and counting)... Why yes, I am bitter, why do you ask?
- [Talk Like a Physicist Day](https://granades.com/?p=1313): Well, drat. I missed Talk Like a Physicist Day yesterday. Luckily, I talk like a physicist every day! The Talk Like a Physicist site doesn't actually have that many good examples; luckily, Chad Orzel is here to help. He's collecting examples of physicist speak in the comments. Ones that I use on a non-zero basis:
- [To The Guy Who Was Searching For "funny racist names for an indian"](https://granades.com/?p=1316): Really? We have this incredible computer-mediated network of information, and that's what you want it to tell you? In any case, I hope our site was helpful. Jerkface.
- [Liza inna Bucket](https://granades.com/?p=1315)
- [Liza's Sleep Training, Part 4](https://granades.com/?p=1312): I finally gave up and decided that Liza was a bad sleeper. Not that she was a good sleeper and that we were in a bad patch, but that truly she was a poor sleeper and that chances are decent that it might not get a whole lot better. Not for a while anyway. So
- [Hillary Clinton on Twitter](https://granades.com/?p=1311): I confess: I have a Twitter account. It's a fun little AIM-like application that's a lot like leaving your brain on speakerphone. Some time ago I found Barack Obama's Twitter feed. That didn't surprise me that much -- the Obama campaign has been savvily using social networking sites since the beginning. I was more surprised
- [Mississippi State Sin Dip: Southern Cooking Part 1](https://granades.com/?p=1310): Vika asked for specifically southern foods. Besides grits (which I'll do at a later time) this is just about the most southern recipe I have. Part of it is that it is named after a college in the South and part of it is that it is meat, cream cheese and Worcestershire sauce baked in
- [Playmobil Gets In on the Security Action](https://granades.com/?p=1308): What the hell, people? Who went and told all of the toy companies that the nation's kids were clamoring for security-themed toys? Misty just showed me the Playmobil Security Check Point. I think this is even creepier than Scan-It because it's Playmobil. Look at everyone's blankly happy faces. I guess to make this more realistic
- [Busy Liza](https://granades.com/?p=1306): This is what Liza does while I'm cooking dinner. This is how proud she is of herself after raking all those plastic containers into the floor. I guess I'm gonna have to buy the kid some shoes. She's still not walking on her own but she loves to push things and Eli's wagon is no
- [Snowy Saturday](https://granades.com/?p=1301): Notice two things about this picture: Eli has more snow on his gloves than there is snow on the ground and Liza's very cool snowsuit. It will be the only time she can wear the overalls before she outgrows them. Cutie Dad and Liza on our back porch going out into the wild Alabama winter.
- [Next Up: Toy Cavity Searches](https://granades.com/?p=1298): Here at the Granade household, we're down with the educational toys. If our kids happen to learn things while playing, that's all fine and dandy. Still, I'm not sure I want them playing with a Scan-It, from OPERATION CHECKPOINT: Jr. Airport Security Education Center. It's a toy airport x-ray machine! As the ad copy tells
- [Fresh Spinach Salad](https://granades.com/?p=1297): This isn't so much a salad recipe as it is a way to get the poppy seed dressing into your mouth and to also increase your DBI (daily bacon intake). The spinach and mushrooms are just there so you get to call it a salad. This recipe comes from a Southern Junior League cookbook that
- [Snickers Cake](https://granades.com/?p=1296): This is a recipe that came in my family book from Stephen's mom. The first time I made the cake here for the locals they consumed it like they had never had chocolate before. I think I made Jeff feel bad about eating the last piece. Jeff, I still feel bad about that but it
- [Pesto Orzo with Chicken & Pinenuts](https://granades.com/?p=1295): When we lived in Durham there was a Mediterranean sandwich shop that made a pesto orzo dish with pinenuts. I think I might have been addicted to the stuff because I wanted to eat there all the time. This was my attempt to recreate it so that Stephen would stop gripping about having to take
- [Salsa Chicken Soup](https://granades.com/?p=1294): This is my easiest soup recipe. As long as you have the chicken cooked, it takes no time to throw together. I also monkey with the numbers depending on how many people I’m going to feed. This recipe originally came from a BH&G dieting cookbook. I've changed a few things thought to make it fit
- [Polenta Gratin with Tomato, Fontina & Rosemary](https://granades.com/?p=1293): This is a combination of a about three recipes that I liked pieces of so I decided to combine them. We love the smell of this in the oven and Stephen all but licks the plate after the meal. The sauce, while not completely homemade, does a decent impersonation of sauce made from scratch but
- [Cooking at Casa Granade](https://granades.com/?p=1292): It came to me sometime this week that I don't talk about cooking on the site, which is weird since I actually cook during a huge percentage of my waking time. Presently, I'm making something like nine meals a day. Eli only eats Eli-approved food and Liza has her pureed fare, and then I make
- [What the Kids Have Been Up to Lately](https://granades.com/?p=1290): Liza is now signing sentences. She's stringing signs together and she knows what they all mean. Last night after I finished bathing her and Eli, I pulled her out to dry her off first. She looked at me and then she looked at Eli still sitting in the tub and signed "Eli" "bath" as if
- [<i>Child's Play</i> Nominated for Six XYZZY Awards](https://granades.com/?p=1288): Hey, look at that: while I was all sick and stuff, my text adventure Child's Play was nominated for six XYZZY Awards, including "Best Game" and "Best Writing". The XYZZY Awards are the IF community's Oscar-like awards for the year's best games by category, and I'm tickled pink to be nominated for six. Anyone can
- [U2 Cures the Flu](https://granades.com/?p=1287): Today is day number six of Stephen being ill. He manages to get up and showered and then immediately needs to rest for a few hours before lunch. Following lunch he rests for another few hours before he starts feeling really bad. He's had fever, chills, aches, joint pain, lack of appetite, a hacking cough,
- [Day Five of Being Ill](https://granades.com/?p=1284): I haven't had a bad bout of fever in a while, the kind that would leave me shaking, but I am still weak, tire easily, and my head is so stuffed I'm surprised it doesn't float away and leave the rest of me behind. My entire body feels disturbing and alien, which will happen to
- [A Measure of How Sick Stephen Has Been](https://granades.com/?p=1283): He didn't check his email all day long yesterday.
- [So It Should Take Eli and Me 31 Turns to Play Candy Land](https://granades.com/?p=1282): Yesterday, in one of my brief respites from feeling terrible, I came across a mathematical analysis of Candy Land. He does an analytic analysis which assumes independent draws (i.e. you draw a card and then put it back in and reshuffle the deck) and a Monte Carlo analysis that's much more realistic. According to Lou
- [Liza's Sleep Training, Part 3 (or Maybe it's Misty's Sleep Training Now)](https://granades.com/?p=1281): I haven't freaked out here lately about the lack of sleep I'm getting because of Liza's lousy schedule. The good news is that I'm doing pretty well. Mostly because I go to bed every night between 9 and 10:30. Gasp! Stephen and I have always been hard core night owls. We were bad before we
- [A Fever That You Can Lie Around Listlessly With Part Two](https://granades.com/?p=1280): My gentle bout of post-nasal drip that I woke up with earlier this week has turned into a full-blown viral infection. The doctor cheerfully told me that it wasn't strep and wasn't flu, but that it was a "flu-like viral infection" that I'd get to ride out. It's like I went into the dealer wanting
- [Libertarian Children's Books](https://granades.com/?p=1278): During yesterday's discussion of my dislike of The Giving Tree, we got to discussing The Rainbow Fish. siliconchef pointed out Starboortz Fish, a libertarian re-telling of The Rainbow Fish in which a starfish has to earn the respect of others. That got me to thinking. There aren't really any libertarian children's books I know of,
- [My Friends Taped Jonathan Coulton](https://granades.com/?p=1279): I've been meaning to post about this for days -- days, I tell you -- but was too lazy to do so. But now I have gumption running out the ears! Some time ago, Brian, Crispy and I (in our guise as the robot PODTRON) saw Jonathan Coulton play in Atlanta. Brian and Crispy shot
- [The Co-Dependent Tree](https://granades.com/?p=1121): I read a lot of kids' books when I was young, but I don't remember most of them because I was a kid and had the memory of a goldfish on a three-day bender. Now that I'm an adult and reading even more kids' books, I've discovered that there are good ones and bad ones.
- [Soul Burger](https://granades.com/?p=1277): Last Tuesday we went to Soul Burger on our greater Huntsville restaurant tour. I wish their website did the place justice; sadly, it does not. This place is heavy on personality. Most notably the owner, Kathy, is full of personality and she absolutely lights up the whole place. She's at the register when you come
- [Hey, the Wii Has Adventure Games!](https://granades.com/?p=1276): At least, it has adventure game. Zack and Wiki is, at its heart, a point-and-click adventure game. It's fun seeing a game on a new console make all the same old adventure game mistakes. They do a nice job of keeping things manageable by only letting you carry one thing at a time, which greatly
- [Big Christmas Photo Post](https://granades.com/?p=1275): Here it is! All the Granade family Christmas photos you can handle. Seriously, if you aren't a grandparent or LanaBob! you won't hurt my feelings if you skip 75% of these. LanaBob! will flip through every one just to read the captions I so laboriously wrote for each one. Click on the photos to reach
- [Very Belated Christmas Photo](https://granades.com/?p=1274): This is from Christmas but probably the best photo we have of both of the kids. You know what this means? Big Christmas post soon!!
- [Movie Montages](https://granades.com/?p=1271): Ladies and gentlemen, Transformers in sixty seconds. Okay, they cheated a bit and added in bits from Surf's Up and Disturbia. I often enjoy montages like this. I used to point people to the Ultimate Buster Compilation, a video on YouTube that had every instance of Buster Bluth saying, "Hey, Brother," in the series Arrested
- [Some Days I Am More Clueless Than Others](https://granades.com/?p=1270): You know, I didn't realize a number of you would send me lolcards.
- [Writing Advice "They" Don't Want You To Read](https://granades.com/?p=1269): A few days ago, John Scalzi gave ten pieces of advice about money to writers. He talked about paying off credit card debt, buying good stuff and running it into the ground, and not quitting your day job. A bunch of his writer friends and associates chimed in, praising the article and agreeing with most
- [To Eli On His Fourth Birthday](https://granades.com/?p=1268): This year, for your birthday, we got smart: we outsourced your party to JumpZone! JumpZone! is a magical warehouse filled will bunches of inflatable two-story slides and bouncy obstacle courses. It's so much fun, I'd like to have my birthday party, but it's only for kids. You and thirteen of your friends ran around like
- [Lolcat eCards for Valentine's Day](https://granades.com/?p=1265): I can now reveal the secret project I've been working on: Lolcards. That's right, it's all the saccharine of Valentine's Day cards combined with the stupid of lolcats. Nothing says "love" like an aloof animal that views you merely as a method of conveying food to its bowl, unless it's an aloof animal combined with
- [A Few Notes of Interest from the Weekend](https://granades.com/?p=1263): Eli still has an ear infection so we will be retuning to the doctor sometime today for more antibiotics. Liza has the snottiest nose in the western hemisphere. I am not kidding about this. I'm actually a bit shocked that one 18 lb. baby can produce this much fluid. Stephen has a secret project brewing
- [Hello Internet! Did You Miss Me?](https://granades.com/?p=1262): Yesterday through a series of events brought on by my sheer stupidity, my keyboard drank some apple juice. The irony of my mac keyboard drinking apple juice isn't lost on me. The prospect of cannibalism caused my keyboard to turn up its toes and die. Yesterday morning I was working with a keyboard that didn't
- [Get Out of My Mind!](https://granades.com/?p=1261): I've been thinking about my doorbell. When you gonna ring it? WHEN YOU GONNA RING IT? What's stuck in your head?
- [In 1st Edition D&D, Liza Would Be an Elf](https://granades.com/?p=1260): Liza has developed her superpower early. She has the uncanny ability to sense an open door or drawer, rush to it, and find the most dangerous thing to try to eat. If you leave the pantry door open in the kitchen, she crawls in and begins chewing on the metalized sack of coffee beans. If
- [Steven Brust's Firefly Fanfic Novel](https://granades.com/?p=1259): Steven Brust wrote a Firefly fanfic novel and has released it for free under a Creative Commons license. And, wow, is that a sentence I'd never thought I'd type.
- [How Many Delegates Does Heidi Klum Have?](https://granades.com/?p=1258): I have voted, despite Alabama's attempt to make things as confusing as possible. The ballot has you vote for a candidate and then vote for delegates, and you're only allowed to vote for delegates pledged to your choice of candidates. The Republican ballot at least has delegate competitions in groups of two, so you're only
- [Note to Racists: At Least Be Funny, Part 2](https://granades.com/?p=1257): Does racism eat away at the part of your brain responsible for being funny? I'm beginning to think it might, in which case I'm clearly beginning a never-ending series of posts. This time around, it's SalesGenie's "Ramesh the Indian salesman" ad that aired during the first quarter of the Super Bowl. Perhaps you missed that
- [Birthday Party](https://granades.com/?p=1256)
- [Cute Photo Friday](https://granades.com/?p=1254): Eli got Lincoln Logs for Christmas. He and Stephen spent one whole evening putting all the houses together and then Eli added little lights to his huts and turned out the lights. Stephen snapped this funny photo. OBU sends babies of alumni a Future Tiger shirt and an admission letter for some stupid future date
- [Note to Racists: At Least Be Funny](https://granades.com/?p=1251): Look, I know it's hard to run a small weekly paper like The Independent, a newspaper for Long Island, NY's East End. Even if you potentially have rich readers in the Hamptons to help out, you're still going to run on a shoestring budget. Still, do you think you might pay your writers more so
- [How to Make Your Computer Geek Friends Wince](https://granades.com/?p=1250): Make them listen to the following. Brrr.
- [What I'm Drooling Over](https://granades.com/?p=1249): I ran across this link today on the Craft Magazine Page. It's pictures from the Tokyo International Great Quilt Festival 2008. Surprisingly I don't want the tea cup quilt but the one named "Yeonriji" for the swirly at the top.
- [3 Hours of 1983-era MTV](https://granades.com/?p=1248): I'm a few days behind the power curve here, but when a good friend showed me the link to 3 hours of 1983-era MTV, I knew I had to share it with all of you. Part the first: Part the second: I'm rather retro-nostalgic for this: while I recognize the music, I never really saw
- [A Story and a Smile](https://granades.com/?p=1240): Sam Granade was the tallest man I knew. Sure, when you're little, most everyone is tall. But Granddaddy was immensely tall. When he would pick me up the world would fall away from me and I was higher up even than when I was on my dad's shoulders. When I was young, he wasn't my
- [Review:  Hyper Dash](https://granades.com/?p=1246): Way back in October, I posted about Eli playing with Legos in his room. Then a nice man named Devin Kingdon offered to send Eli a game called Hyper Dash to play with. I said yes and that we'd review it here. Bad Misty. It's nearly February and still no review. So here it is!
- [Eli on Medicine](https://granades.com/?p=1245): Eli has an ear infection. He started complaining about it hurting yesterday afternoon, and occasionally I'd see him tugging on it. An hour after he went to bed he came back out, crying. "My ear is squeaking," he said. He has medicine now. He nearly gagged while taking it tonight. "Are you okay?" we asked.
- [Bad Love Songs of the 1990s](https://granades.com/?p=1243): Yesterday I claimed that the 1990s were terrible years for pop songs about love. Then I wondered, was I being too hard on the decade? I tell you what: you judge. Bryan Adams: (Everything I Do) I Do It for You (1991) In 1991 you could not escape this song. Even if you avoided the
- [How to Know Your Love is Deep and Abiding](https://granades.com/?p=1242): And I said, "What about 'Breakfast at Tiffany's'?" She said, "I think I remember the film, And as I recall, I think we both kinda liked it." And I said, "Well, that's the one thing we've got." --Deep Blue Something, "Breakfast at Tiffany's" Truly, that is the song of a committed couple whose love will
- [Tough Days](https://granades.com/?p=1239): December was hard. Sickness, Liza's sleep issues, travel, a death in the family. January seems to be no better. Liza continues to have sleep issues that are detrimental to the whole family and we've had another death in the family. I'm sure that we'll say more later but right now we sure could use some
- [My Son the Future Writer](https://granades.com/?p=1238): Just now I asked Eli to tell me a story. It started out well enough with a mouse named Gerald. Gerald lived in a green house but oh, yeah, he was really a boy. This part seems good. Nice world building with the green house. It's a fantasy story with a mouse-boy character. I'm starting
- [The Worst Beauty Pageant Ever](https://granades.com/?p=1237)
- [Cassie Edwards, Wide-Ranging Plagiarist](https://granades.com/?p=1234): I swear, I wasn't going to say a thing about romance novelist Cassie Edwards and her sticky-fingered plagiarism problem, but the latest round of revelations regarding her sources is too crazy not to share. Back at the beginning of the month, one of the writers at Smart Bitches Who Love Trashy Books, a weblog reviewing
- [Liza's Sleep Training, Part 2](https://granades.com/?p=1235): So, you may ask, how's the whole sleeping at night thing going? Bad. Then Worse. Then better. Then the worst. And then last night, better. Are we home free yet? I don't know. Are the bad nights due to her cutting approximately five teeth (that I can count) at the same time? Maybe. Here's the
- [The Best MP3 Player Ever](https://granades.com/?p=1233): People praise Apple for their design sense. One of the reasons iPods have sold like they have is because they're made of shiny and dusted with a light coating of tech-sexy. Their interfaces are innovative and easy to use. They made a usable touch-screen interface, for goodness' sake. Every time I see an iPod Touch,
- [Rule of Toys](https://granades.com/?p=1232): I don't know if you've noticed, but with two kids comes about 12 times the number of toys. When Eli was Liza's age, all his toys would fit into this nice little wicker basket. I bought the basket because I thought it would be handy to carry his toys from room to room in it.
- [Oh Where, Oh Where Has My Eli Gone? Oh Where, Oh Where Can He Be?](https://granades.com/?p=1231): Yesterday we made a trip to BabiesRUs to get Liza her next car seat. I had forgotten to jot down the two or three seats we needed to look at so consequently we were hanging out in the store calling our friends to have them look up car seats in their Baby Bargains book. While
- [HDMI Cable Scams](https://granades.com/?p=1229): As part of the ongoing setup of my new work laptop, I had to get an HDMI cable to connect my laptop to my monitor. We ended up with a reasonably low-cost one from an online vendor. When it arrived, I was surprised to see the cable's packaging claim that the cable "drastically reduces signal
- [Grille 29](https://granades.com/?p=1230): As Stephen promised, we have started a campaign to eat around town at more unusual places. Our first try today was Grille 29. It's located in the Village of Providence which is supposed to be a "pedestrian-friendly neighborhood". (The houses there look like the village on Martha's Vineyard except without the excellent ocean views and
- [Eating Out in Huntsville](https://granades.com/?p=1228): Huntsville and Madison are fully stocked with chain restaurants, especially in the part of town where I work. When Misty and I eat lunch out on one of the days when Liza and Eli are in school, many of our options are ones like Ratherbee's, Fettuccine Grille, or Uluru Steakhouse. There are native restaurants in
- [Running Windows Programs From the Keyboard](https://granades.com/?p=1227): At heart I'm a keyboard junkie. From Interactive Fiction to command shells with emacs keybindings to the old Wordstar navigation key commands, I'm best when I'm on the keyboard and not shuttling back and forth to the mouse. In Firefox I use search strings that I can type into the URL bar. One quick ctrl-L,
- [Eli Quote from this Morning's Trip to School During Which He Shot Imaginary Fireballs at the Imaginary Trees and Logs in Our Path](https://granades.com/?p=1226): "General Grievous' Power Star goes to 11!"
- [Why We're Writing about Freak Outs and Sleep](https://granades.com/?p=1225): After yesterday's post, I got one or two questions along the lines of, "Why would you admit that you hated Liza?" So here's the thing. A lot of what parents deal with isn't talked about, and when it is, it comes couched as advice or, worse yet, shared-misery gloating. When we were pregnant with Eli,
- [Liza's Sleep Training](https://granades.com/?p=1221): You might be wondering where we've been. Stephen talked about our Christmas trip to Arkansas and his Freak Out but since then we've been at Sleep Boot Camp. You might remember Potty Boot Camp. Well, this is another round of tough love parenting, except this time it's for Liza to learn to a.) put herself
- [A Parent Freak Out](https://granades.com/?p=1224): Last week I had a parent Freak Out over Liza, and had to leave her crying in her crib. The Freak Out is one of those secrets of parenthood that most parents don't talk about. It is nearly guaranteed that, at some point when your kid is still a baby, you will lose it and
- [The Knitted Companion Cube](https://granades.com/?p=1222): Hey, friends and family who knit, look what Misty showed to me! It's a knitted companion cube! I note in passing that her pattern is licensed under a Creative Commons non-commercial license, and so is freely usable by anyone.
- [Up, Down, Up, Down](https://granades.com/?p=1219): Ah, that's better. We're once again online, after a series of server issues that just about left Geof as bald as I am.
- [The Dentist Report](https://granades.com/?p=1218): I'm back from the dentist. According to the dental hygienist, I have a "small mouth." You may begin making jokes now.
- [Where We've Been](https://granades.com/?p=1217): As you may have noticed, we've been absent from here for a few weeks. A good chunk of that was due to the holidays and our trip home to see our parents. During that time, Liza said her first semi-word: Pop. That would be my dad's nickname among his grandchildren, and given that she only
- [A Few Bright Moments in an Otherwise Frustrating Day](https://granades.com/?p=1214)
- [A Road Block in Liza's Path](https://granades.com/?p=1211): Eli's room is filled with many great, very small toys. I devised this block so that Liza could see Eli and what he was doing but not get into the room to swallow many great very small toys. I don't think it'll last for long but it works for right now.
- [The Anti-Dust](https://granades.com/?p=1209): In Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, there's this stuff called Dust. It's made of an elementary particle that is far more attracted to adults than to children. It turns out we have the opposite in our world. It's called Germs. Yes, Liza is sick again. She's managed to catch some illness from the maelstrom
- [The Real Effect of Electing the Current US Presidential Nominees](https://granades.com/?p=1208): Were you aware that people debate politics a lot on the Internet? I know! It was a surprise to me, too! It's been driven by the eighty-two debates that the Republican and Democratic candidates for US President have had, a product of the ever-earlier campaign season. By 2015 we'll see people running for the 2020
- [Liza, Liza, Faster Than Lightning](https://granades.com/?p=1207): Despite our best efforts, Liza has learned to crawl. Oh, we did all the things concerned and lazy parents do to keep their kid in one place. We dressed her in long pants and full-length onesies that made her knees slip on the wood floor. We held her. We showed her the National Highway Traffic
- [The Force is with Us All](https://granades.com/?p=1206): A few months ago Stephen started playing Lego Star Wars with Eli. Then I started playing too. So now in the evenings, after dinner, we have a round of Star Wars. We played through the second game and have now digressed back to the original. Because of our evenings at Dexter's Diner, Eli had developed
- [First of Many Cherrios & Apple Juice Snacks](https://granades.com/?p=1205): Neither photo conveys her disgust over the taste of food/drink that is not mom's milk.
- [Chirstmas Cookies](https://granades.com/?p=1202): We put up our Christmas tree last weekend. I'll admit I'm pretty bahumbug about the process. It seems ridiculous to drag all that stuff out for less than a month. The house is a wreck the day of. There's boxes everywhere. Eli is in trouble constantly because he can't remember that all this stuff is
- [Eli Wisdom](https://granades.com/?p=1199): I wrote this longish post on the various illnesses my children has suffered over the past three weeks and my worries and fears regarding them but now they are mostly well and I am feeling less out of control so I'll just let you in on this bit of Eli wisdom instead: "Grumpy is what
- [Extending the Life of Internet Memes](https://granades.com/?p=1200): Memes on the Internet are pop culture sped up by several orders of magnitude. Like staph infections, memes mutate quickly, spawning offshoots and mashups and all manner of odd progeny. That makes it tough to keep them going and to make money off of them, since they come, change, and go so quickly. It's even
- [Coughy With a 100% Chance of Ill](https://granades.com/?p=1201): Liza's been sick the last several days, congested like Hartsfield-Jackson Airport at Christmastime. She can't breathe, and when we put her in her crib, she chokes, coughs, and wakes up. The only way we've gotten her to sleep for extended periods of time is by sitting in the recliner in her room and letting her
- [Internet Memes in Wider Culture](https://granades.com/?p=1198): A few days ago, Anil Dash talked about whether or not Internet memes would really impact broader pulp culture. Such a move from Internet to e.g. TV or movies have typically been in the form of passing nods in geek-oriented media, such as Andrew referring to Trogdor in an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer,
- [A Couple of Comic Book Links](https://granades.com/?p=1197): In the late 1980s and early 1990s, I read a fair number of comics thanks to my brother. He's introduced me to a lot of great comics, like James Robinson's fabulous Starman and (more recently) Bill Willingham's Fables. Not all of the comics I've read are good, sadly, though I won't blame those on Andrew.
- [Thanksgiving 2007 Photos](https://granades.com/?p=1196): This photo totally cracks me up. What are they looking at? Click through for more wacky shots of our time at the beach.
- [Will Write for 4¢](https://granades.com/?p=1195): We here at the Granade Casa enjoy our TV watching. We used to watch a fair bit but since the coming of the next generation we've turned down the tap a wee bit. I'm lucky if I can make it through an entire episode of something without falling asleep on the couch after Eli and
- [Stephen vs. Guitar Hero](https://granades.com/?p=1194): If you don't subscribe to our comment feed, you've probably missed the saga involving my comparison of a Guitar Hero controller to a Kidz Beatz toy guitar from last year. The picture that accompanied the post shows up a lot on Google Image searches, so we've gotten a trickle of commentators who take me far
- [Mind Reading Makes You Stupid](https://granades.com/?p=1193): It's clear that, whatever other benefits you gain from being able to read minds, you also become thick as a giant slab of concrete. If Sherlock Holmes had been able to read minds, he might have solved some of his cases faster, but he'd also have been more like Inspector Clouseau. For proof, I only
- [I Can Has New Captions?](https://granades.com/?p=1192): We're back from a Thanksgiving trip to see my family and spend time at the beach and watch Eli run into the surf, then back out, then back in, then back out again. We'll have pictures and whatnot up eventually. In the meantime, life is overwhelming, in that "hey, weren't you gone for a while?"
- [One Cool Physics Program](https://granades.com/?p=1191): Those crazy MIT faculty. What will they think of next? In this case, it's a computer program that lets you sketch simple shapes and then run a kinematic simulation using those shapes. This would have been fabulous to play with when I was teaching physics.
- [Turkish Star Wars](https://granades.com/?p=1190): We've not been posting much lately, due to life being overwhelming. We're going to fix that this week. And what better way to give you the original content you've come to expect from us than by posting YouTube videos! Let's get down to it. Did you know that there's a Turkish version of Star Wars?
- [Jonathan Coulton and the Zendrum](https://granades.com/?p=1189): When I saw Jonathan Coulton perform, at one point he pulled out this weird triangular MIDI controller called a Zendrum. It reminded me of the Synthaxe Drumitar that Future Man used to use when playing with Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, and indeed, looking at the web page for the company, I found out that
- [Happy Thanksgiving!](https://granades.com/?p=1188): Happy Thanksgiving, all of our US friends and readers and whatnot. And if you're not in the US, a happy Thanksgiving to you anyway. The college semester that I spent studying in the UK, when Thanksgiving came around, our friends took me and my three other compatriots out to that most traditional of US Thanksgiving
- [If Eli Had Thoughts on the Writers' Strike](https://granades.com/?p=1187): So Hollywood writers are striking. Good for them. Instead of trying to explain the strike, I'll point to John Rogers, who has a nice rundown on the reason for the strike, as well as some follow-up thoughts. All of that is a lead-up to the following video, which a friend of mine pointed me to,
- [Liza Red in Toothless Maw](https://granades.com/?p=1185): Dear Liza, You've been teething for quite some time now, and frankly, it's time you stopped. It's making you irritable, causing you to wake up six or seven times in the night. You have diarrhea. You have occasional fever. You will not be soothed. We're not doing so well, your mom and I. We'd gotten
- [Where Did the Past Two Weeks Go?](https://granades.com/?p=1183): Wow! The past two weeks have been crazy! LanaBob! was here last week. We had an awesome time and she actually got to stay longer than expected. So I feel like we had a nice long visit where she got to spend time with the kidlets and get to know them better and we got
- [Please Keep All Engine Parts Inside the Vehicle at All Times](https://granades.com/?p=1181): Life is busy here at the Granade compound, what with hating on Guitar Hero and keeping Eli and now Liza in cages. All I have time for is to point out, once again, that rocket science is indeed hard. Armadillo Aerospace tried to win the X Prize Lunar Lander Challenge at the end of October.
- [Paul and Storm and Jonathan Coulton and Podcasters](https://granades.com/?p=1179): Misty was nice enough to let me drive to Atlanta to see Jonathan Coulton in concert on Friday. Paul and Storm, who were half of the a capella group Da Vinci's Notebook, opened for him. They gave up a capella songs just for our friend Liza, though they're still doing very jokey songs, like their
- [Amusing Me this a.m.](https://granades.com/?p=1177): Last night Stephen and I were kicking around websites that are talking about his companion cube piece. Yeah, we are easily amused by our own press. If the internet isn't good for looking at yourself, I'm not sure what else it's good for. (Stop right there before you type "Porn" into my comment box.) So
- [A Second Life PSA](https://granades.com/?p=1175): One of our readers, Joel Dahlquist, asked for my thoughts about a new obesity-prevention PSA from the Ad Council. Hopefully this will be the start of a new trend, since reader requests mean I don't have to think up what to write about and can spend my time more productively by playing Portal. Anyway, here's
- [Maize Maze 2007](https://granades.com/?p=1174)
- [New Photos on Flickr](https://granades.com/?p=1173): I just uploaded a gazillion new photos. Here's a peek: Halloween 2007 Eli told me one day that he was going to be Spiderman for Halloween. It was news to me so I had to hustle to Wal-Mart and get a costume. While we were shopping, I asked Eli if he wanted to wear the
- [My Two Great Photos from Today](https://granades.com/?p=1172): This was the first photo I took of Liza sitting up for the first time. There are several others but this one was the best. Some days it's good to be at home. Notice too she has hair now. She's grown that hair in the last two weeks. These are my flowers that are two
- [When I Am Old I Shall Wear Grouchy like a Purple Hat](https://granades.com/?p=1168): Sometime in the past few years of getting a house and having two babies, I got old. This is something that Stephen and I joke about from time to time when we realize the multitude of 20-somethings on TV. Then sometime in the past few months, I realized that I was older than the people
- [Your Daily Liza and Eli Fix](https://granades.com/?p=1167)
- [Stephen's Big Interview](https://granades.com/?p=1163)
- [Even a Jedi Has to Eat Breakfast](https://granades.com/?p=1161)
- [<i>Portal</i> Was a Triumph](https://granades.com/?p=1159): Let's talk about Portal, the game from Valve. It's a first-person puzzle game in which you place portals that allow you to teleport from one portal to another. You use these portals to reach places you normally couldn't, move objects around, and solve puzzles. You know, putting this in words is difficult. Let me show
- [I've Heard about the Bumbo Recall, Thanks](https://granades.com/?p=1158): Even my mom had to get in on the act this morning. She saw the recall on TV. So she called me to say not to set Liza on a table in the Bumbo. She was the fifth person I've heard it from. So please don't tell me any more horror stories about babies and
- [The Power of Language](https://granades.com/?p=1156): When we lived in North Carolina I met a woman who did sign language with her baby. Ten years ago, it seemed like a fringe baby communication technique. I was pretty impressed anyway, not only with the mom's thoughtfulness but also with the baby's ability to communicate. I told Stephen about it then and suggested
- [Dedication Weekend Photos](https://granades.com/?p=1157): Family Candids from the Weekend All the photos from the Big Hat Party
- [Dangerously Stupid Kids](https://granades.com/?p=1155): In SF Gate, Mark Morford warns of the coming collapse of America due to all of the stupid kids coming out of our educational system. He hints at the horrors an anonymous high-school teacher at Oakland High School has witnessed and warns us that the future shown in Idiocracy is upon us. He has a
- [A Big Hat Party](https://granades.com/?p=1154): There are more photos to come when I have some time tomorrow or Tuesday to process them, but for now you need a peek into the big hat party that happened at our house this afternoon.
- [Sleep or No Sleep](https://granades.com/?p=1152): When babies are little, whenever they make noise, you rush to them to figure out what's wrong. As they get older and their repertoire of sounds increases, things become trickier. Take Liza. She laughs. She coos. She makes this creaky sound that makes you wonder if her parents were a pteradon and an unoiled hinge.
- [Busy, Busy, Busy!](https://granades.com/?p=1150): This weekend we are having baby dedication for Liza at church. So we're going to be up to our eyeballs in company. My dad and step mom are arriving this evening so we can spend a few days visiting. Stephen's parents, two grandmothers and great aunt arrive on Saturday. Sunday is the dedication and then
- [You Needa Liza & Eli Photo](https://granades.com/?p=1147): It was cool on Friday when we went to swing so I used it as an excuse to put Liza in her cutie hat and jacket. Eli makes music out of measuring spoons on Saturday morning.
- [You Needa Liza & Eli Photo](https://granades.com/?p=1148): It was cool on Friday when we went to swing so I used it as an excuse to put Liza in her cutie hat and jacket. Eli makes music out of measuring spoons on Saturday morning.
- [Notes from the National Geographic](https://granades.com/?p=1144): Remember when I said I read National Geographic cover to cover when I get it? I read most of the current issue over the weekend and one of the things that struck me was the article on Biofuels. Check out the one on cellulose. Yes, that's right, we could possibly fuel our future cars on
- [Then He Said, "I Was Going Into Toshi Station to Pick Up Some Power Converters"](https://granades.com/?p=1143): The four of us were playing Lego Star Wars II last night, the one based on the original trilogy. We've been working our way through Star Wars and had reached the final climactic battle. On the TV, the Death Star moved into position around Yavin. ELI: Dad? Dad? Hey, dad, dad. ME: Yes, Eli. ELI:
- [I Love the Internet!](https://granades.com/?p=1142): I know I've said it before and I'll probably say it again, but I love the internet. Yesterday someone posted on my Legos post saying he was from Wild Planet Toys based in San Francisco and that he'd love for Eli to try out a few of their toys. My first thought was, "This is
- [These are the Uplifting and Edifying Things We Do with Our Time During the Day](https://granades.com/?p=1141)
- [The Big Dragon*Con Post](https://granades.com/?p=1139): I was waiting for the audio files from my talks to be available before I made this post, but they're going to be a while coming, and I am impatient. So let's pimp the things I did at Dragon*Con! I gave two talks, one on Bose Einstein Condensates and fermi superfluids, the other on the
- [A Slightly Tilting Bedroom](https://granades.com/?p=1138): I woke up this morning with the world gently tilting out from under me. I think it's some cold or similar thing diddling with my inner ear. When I first got up, standing upright and stationary was nearly impossible. When I closed my eyes I saw a swinging clock pendulum or a sledgehammer pounding back
- [I'm All Cyberpunked Up](https://granades.com/?p=1137): I've had a copy of Neuromancer for a very long time. I've enjoyed the idea of having the book for so long that I think I thought I just might get to know the book by osmosis. I figured having the book made me seem cool. (LanaBob! how many cool points do you get for
- [New Flickr Photos](https://granades.com/?p=1136): Stephen pointed out that I hadn't posted any photos on Flickr in a while. Enjoy! A family comes together with ice cream Photos taken on my birthday with my birthday camera Liza explores Eli's first ice cream truck ice cream Misty makes things
- [I Heart Legos](https://granades.com/?p=1134): Sometime in the past week, my son has fallen in love with Legos. On Friday he played in his room with his legos while listening to books on CD for close to three hours. My son, the extrovert, who thinks that he isn't living a life worth having if someone isn't watching and responding to
- [To Boldly Go Where <i>Heroes</i> Has Gone Before](https://granades.com/?p=1133): It would be unsurprising if the Petrelli boys' father turned out to be alive and was played by veteran actor Leonard Nimoy. This might have to wait, though, if Heroes is governed by a conservation of Star Trek actors law.
- [To The Builders Who Dumped Rocks, Bricks, Nails, and Paper Cups Right Where I Am Digging a Flower Bed](https://granades.com/?p=1132): Thanks. In other news, I continue to prove to myself why the county next to ours is called Limestone County. Every third strike of my mattock, rather than sinking into the clay we laughingly call "soil" around here, strikes a chunk of limestone. I have a pile of rocks on one side of my incipient
- [Welcome Phoebe Grace King!](https://granades.com/?p=1131): I've talked about Rick and Jessica's struggles to have a child. I'm happy to report that Phoebe came this weekend and we couldn't possibly be any more joyful to see her. Congratulations Rick and Jess! We love you guys and Phoebe is fabulous.
- [Cotton Month](https://granades.com/?p=1128): You know what we grow in Alabama? Cotton. Field after field of it. During October it mounds up on the sides of the road and is nicknamed, rightly so, Alabama Snow. We moved to Alabama five years ago this month. I am so glad we moved during October because I got to see the cotton
- [Birthday Fuzzies](https://granades.com/?p=1127): Nothing is better than birthday posts from friends! Update: Another birthday post! I am loved!
- [Pregnant Mothers Versus Fish](https://granades.com/?p=1126): When it comes to seafood, pregnant and breastfeeding moms are in something of a bind. On the one hand, the omega-3 fatty acids from seafood aid in neural development. On the other hand, fish, especially those near the top of the aquatic food chain, have noticeable concentrations of mercury. In 2004, the FDA and EPA
- [Happy 50th Birthday, Sputnik](https://granades.com/?p=1125): Fifty years ago today, the USSR launched Sputnik I into orbit. The USSR and the USA had, as part of the International Geophysical Year, been working on putting satellites into orbit. The USA's efforts had been pulled in several directions: Werner von Braun and the newly-minted Army Ballistic Missile Agency had proposed Project Orbiter, a
- [Keep All Limbs Inside the Crib at All Times](https://granades.com/?p=1124): Liza is leveling up nicely in Baby: The MMORPG. She has reached the point where she responds to us, smiling and laughing when we play with her, looking around at her world, pulling plates and napkins towards her and nearly off the table when I hold her during dinner. Given that I don't much care
- [106 Books](https://granades.com/?p=1122): I thought this was cool, so I stole it from Limax. These are the top 106 books most often marked as "unread" by LibraryThing's users. I've bolded what I've read and italicized what I started but couldn't finish (some italicized I read excerpts of in school). I put an asterisk by the ones we have
- [106 Books: The Stephen Edition](https://granades.com/?p=1123): Misty made me do it! Books in bold I've read; books in italics I only read part of. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell Anna Karenina Crime and Punishment Catch-22 One Hundred Years of Solitude Wuthering Heights The Silmarillion Life of Pi : a novel The Name of the Rose Don Quixote Moby Dick Ulysses Madame
- [Eli's Playlist](https://granades.com/?p=1120): Songs Eli requested on our trip to Home Depot last Saturday. 1. 4-3-2-1 Gun ("Barrel of a Gun", by Guster) 2. 4-3-2-1 Gun 3. 4-3-2-1 Gun 4. Rock Out Song ("Hey", by Honest Bob and the Factory-to-Dealer Incentives) 5. 4-3-2-1 Gun 6. Rock Out Song 7. 4-3-2-1 Gun 8. 4-3-2-1 Gun 9. Rock Out Song
- [Tough Guy](https://granades.com/?p=1119): Notice the chin. It met rather forcefully with the ground this afternoon. We also did stamps. Action packed day all around.
- [Misty's Eight Things](https://granades.com/?p=1117): When people email me these "tell things about yourself" list thingies, I tend to not do them since the person sending me the email usually knows me pretty well already. But this time is different. I got tagged online from a reader (Hi, Plenipotentiary!) who started reading us during the LOLcat days. So she really
- [Economic Realities of Cheap Orbital Access](https://granades.com/?p=1116): I've been quiet here lately due to work, preparation for the yearly interactive fiction competition, and Kingdom Hearts. Since I'm not writing anything here, the least I can do is offer an interesting link, even if by "interesting" I mean "something that only Geof and I are likely to care about". When Physics, Economics, and
- [Because I am Obsessed with Bento](https://granades.com/?p=1115): This is my first attempt at making a Bento Box. I think it might be a little bit rednecked together but I think it turned out ok. Box Wrapped in Napkin Open Box Top left: Pea pods and apple slices. Top Right: Pea pod dip (white circle), pea pods, lobster cheese spreader, square of extra
- [Latest Liza (and Eli) Photos](https://granades.com/?p=1110): It's never too early to start reading in bed. The upright sleeping position adopted this week due to massive amounts of snot. What Liza thinks of Rick and Jessica's shower. It's never too early to start sitting around with your belly hanging out watching TV. Eli and Josh, conjoined twins separated at birth, but somehow
- [Vika's Cows](https://granades.com/?p=1106): I promised Vika a while ago that I would photograph the cows that live right over the hill from us (about a 1/2 mile) so she could see just how rural it is around here. This is one of three herds that live within a mile of our house. Also this week, I'm going to
- [Baby Cards and Bookmarks](https://granades.com/?p=1102): This past week I got the crafty bug and had to make a few things. First up: A baby shower card for Rick and Jessica, well really it is for Jessica because of what it says but I'm guessing Rick will get to change his share of diapers too. It's made with an image from
- [Don't Stop Talking on My Account](https://granades.com/?p=1100): My previous post seems to have generated a lot of discussion. (Very cool!) I am interested in people's opinions and certainly don't want the discussion to stop. Feel free to keep posting on the previous entry or on this one. My only request is that everyone be respectful of opinions that differ from your own.
- [Thank You for Not Touching My Baby](https://granades.com/?p=1099): I had forgotten that older ladies love to handle babies. They would do it with Eli when I went places with him and it is no different with Liza. An older lady will see Liza in her car seat and gush about what a sweet baby she is (this I appreciate) and then they follow
- [The Best Use of Misplaced Quote Marks Ever](https://granades.com/?p=1098)
- [Lolcats Mutate Once More](https://granades.com/?p=1097): By now you've surely seen lolcats. Perhaps you've seen PostSecret. But have you seen lolsecretz? If you're familiar with the lolrus saga, you should definitely look at this one.
- [In the Hall of the Liza Queen](https://granades.com/?p=1096): Liza, like all babies, is a tyrant. Her demands are few but inflexible. She will have naps when she decides to have them. She will have food when she is hungry. She will have members of her court entertain her when she grows bored. We each have assigned roles. Misty is the chamberlain and cup-bearer
- [Noir Liza](https://granades.com/?p=1095)
- [Things to Do with Active Boys](https://granades.com/?p=1090): Eli is a wild man. The only time he is still is during sleep and well, that's it. Even then he sleeps like a wild man, all over the bed with the tossing and the turning and the rumpling of covers. So we have had a hard time coming up with things to do this
- [Jack Thompson May Have Been Right](https://granades.com/?p=1089): It all started with Tasty Planet. Eli wanted to play it all the time. We worked our way through it, but its charms wore off quickly. Every day he would ask to play Tasty Planet again, and every day I would dread playing it even more. Finally I snapped. "Hey, Eli, let's not play Tasty
- [Bento Love](https://granades.com/?p=1088): I have been looking at these pictures of bentos all day! I cannot look away. Don't start looking at them until you have at least half an hour to dedicate to reading all her notes on how she's prepared things. These are so fun now I want to start making them.
- [Robert Jordan is Dead, Alas](https://granades.com/?p=1087): James Rigney, who wrote under the name Robert Jordan, died yesterday from amyloidosis. He'd been ill for a while, but his death still came as a surprise. I never read the Wheel of Time books. Somehow I missed starting the series, and only found out about it some three or four books in. At that
- [There's No Stoppin' This Much Cute](https://granades.com/?p=1086)
- [The More the Crazier, or Alan Keyes Has Entered the Building](https://granades.com/?p=1083): Things have been quiet since Fred Thompson surprised no-one by announcing his candidacy for President. In fact, it's been too quiet. These are the words of Alan Keyes as he declared his candidacy for president on Janet Parshall’s nationally syndicated radio program, "I will be participating in the Values Voter Debate on Monday as a
- [Pondering...One-Sided Relationships (or Maybe it's just Friendship I'm Thinking About)](https://granades.com/?p=311): We've all had them. Relationships with people who take more than they give. I've even had a few where I really liked the individual, felt like I had a lot in common with them, and still had a hard time staying friends with them because I was responsible for their happiness or their problems or
- [When All You Have is the Pareto Principle](https://granades.com/?p=1081): In 1906, 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the population. 80% of the people use 20% of a given software's features. 80% of sales is generated by 20% of your salespeople. 80% of computer processing time is spent running 20% of a program's code. 80% of your business should come
- [Roots & Grubs T-Shirt Design](https://granades.com/?p=1080): A while back a friend of ours, Matthew, did an all call for some t-shirt designs to promote his website, Roots & Grubs. I made something up and sent it to him and now the shirts are available for purchase here. So go support Matthew by buying a cool shirt. Hey I can say the
- [Big Step](https://granades.com/?p=1078): Live Granades has been invited to join an ad network. I have no idea how we got onto these people's radar or why they thought we had the readership (outside of the LOLTrek juggernaut) to support ads, but there it is, we've been approached. It creates a dilemma for me that I had no idea
- [Scoundrels' Refuge](https://granades.com/?p=1079): Of Patriot Day, I have nothing to say beyond wondering if every musical card Hallmark will eventually sell for this young holiday will feature Lee Greenwood's voice. Of the event it notes, I will point you to 110 Stories, by Mike Ford.
- [End of the Day](https://granades.com/?p=1077)
- [Art Boy](https://granades.com/?p=1075): Friday afternoon our doorbell rang and when I answered it was a young man trying to sell his art door to door. He had done several reproductions that he wanted to show me. I told him I was somewhat of an artist myself so my house already had a lot of art. He quickly changed
- [Eli's Always Ready for His Closeup](https://granades.com/?p=1074)
- [Lizas Love Their Ponies](https://granades.com/?p=1072)
- [Timeline of the Launch of Grump 1](https://granades.com/?p=1069): 7:48 P.M. Eli goes to bed. 8:01 P.M. Misty rocks Liza in preparation for getting her to sleep. 8:05 P.M. Eli comes out. "I need a snack," he says, rubbing his stomach. Stephen explains that Eli does not need a snack, and besides, even if he did, he should have eaten his dinner, before leading
- [Thank-You Unnamed Friend in Seattle](https://granades.com/?p=1070): We got a copy of Lilly's Chocolate Heart yesterday in the mail. The card said, "Welcome Baby Liza!" But the card wasn't signed so I don't know who very thoughtfully sent Liza this cute book. Stand up and be thanked, whoever you are.
- [The Haves at the Have-Not Flea Market](https://granades.com/?p=1068): I am a have-more. When I was younger, I thought I was a have-not. I was wrong. I was a have-less, maybe. I grew up and married into a have family. Now I think we might live in the have-more category. I am now so used to being insulated in my community of other have-mores
- [Back from Dragon*Con](https://granades.com/?p=1067): I have survived Dragon*Con. All three of my panels went well, most notably the one on Bose-Einstein condensation. My room was nearly at capacity, I had a lot of questions from the audience, and I got to whirl a ringing alarm clock over my head. Good times. The two space panels were okay, but the
- [My Favorite Day of the Week](https://granades.com/?p=1061): I posted about hating Fridays after the lightening strike and how I had previously had problems with Sunday evenings. It made me start thinking about what my favorite day of the week might be. It's Tuesday. It seems odd to like Tuesday better than say, Saturday, but I have a long history of enjoying Tuesdays.
- [A Day with Mumsy](https://granades.com/?p=1066): Our redneck water slide. We gave Eli a workout with this one. He probably went up the hill about 100 times to slide down it just like this. He ate two hot dogs at lunch and for dinner a grilled cheese and a pancake. I couldn't get him full today so I guess he worked
- [Artist Fingers](https://granades.com/?p=1063)
- [Very Fun Time Waster](https://granades.com/?p=1060): You go try it. It's addictive to get the letters to look right together.
- [Stephen Talks Science at Dragon*Con](https://granades.com/?p=1059): I'm going to be on three science-oriented panels at Dragon*Con, pretending that I know things. If any of you are there, stop by and say hey. My talks are: RETURN TO SPACE PANEL: Ask The Experts Friday, 1:00pm Forsythe (in the Hilton) The President says we're going back to the Moon and then to Mars
- [I'm Starting to Hate Fridays](https://granades.com/?p=1058): When I was a little kid, I hated Sunday nights. Worrying about going back to school on Mondays would make me almost physically ill. Not that there was anything I had to worry about at school really, I just dreaded giving up the leisure of the weekend. I hated getting started back on the weekday
- [I've Been Saving this One](https://granades.com/?p=1057): Eli surprised me by wanting to feed Liza on Sunday when I produced the bottle. He was only interested in doing it long enough for me to snap a few photos though. Still it was a sweet moment.
- [Songs That Must Be Added to Rock Band](https://granades.com/?p=1055): I doubt this will surprise many of you, but we here at the Granade household like to rock out as much as the next Granade household. And nothing helps us rock out like Guitar Hero. Harmonix and MTV are now working on Rock Band, which expands the concept of Guitar Hero to include bass, drums,
- [All Granades Love a Good Book](https://granades.com/?p=1054): Stephen was only home for about an hour last night out of his 20 hour day. I managed to snap these few photos of him and the kids playing on Eli's bed.
- [It's the First Day of School and Eli is Already Bugging the Crap out of Liza](https://granades.com/?p=1052): Today was Eli and Liza's first day of Mother's Morning Out. Eli will go on Tuesdays and Thursdays and Liza will go Tuesdays. Did you hear the Hallelujah Chorus this morning at 9 am? That was for me as I scurried from the church with no children nipping at my heals. Here's their photo from
- [Thirty Years of Voyaging](https://granades.com/?p=1050): The two NASA Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, are sometimes called the little robots that could. They've been chugging along the Martian landscape for over three years, returning scads of excellent data. They've got nothing on the two Voyager probes. Voyager 2 launched on August 20th, 1977; in a reversal of numbering, Voyager 1 launched
- [It's Like Boulder Dash, Only Nicer Looking](https://granades.com/?p=1049): Over at Brass Lantern, I got email about a new Boulder Dash sequel coming out. I hadn't thought of that game in years and years. In it, you run around, digging out dirt, collecting gems, and using rocks to crush your many enemies. You can, of course, download the original game and its many clones
- [Liza and Emily's First Playdate](https://granades.com/?p=1048): Click through for more photos.
- [Let Sleeping Lizas Lie](https://granades.com/?p=1047): This is Liza yesterday morning at 7:23 am. She went to bed at 8:30 pm. Of course, last night she was up at 3:30 starving. She then proceeded to sleep until 7:30 this morning. She woke up cranky because she had managed to roll over in such a way that her legs, heels up, were
- [We Are Back Online](https://granades.com/?p=1045): Hey, we're back! It's been an interesting twenty-four hours. It appears lightning struck some three inches from our house, found the cable line, and thought, Hey, I bet there are sweet sweet electronics in there for me to munch on. And, lo, it was so. As things go, this could have been so much worse.
- ["I could smell the ozone in the kitchen."](https://granades.com/?p=1044): Hello, all. It's probably always a bit alarming when I'm posting instead of Stephen or Misty. I just got off the phone with them, and they were having me help them figure out a recovery plan after a lightning strike hit the house. No fire, everything's okay, the kids are fine. The quote in the
- [Eli Rocks Chuck's House](https://granades.com/?p=1043): Yes, that's Eli kicking his dad's butt in the water pistol game at Chuck E. Cheese's this morning. It might be expensive entertainment but it's cool on the 105° day.
- [Obsessive](https://granades.com/?p=1041): Must stop reading Westerfeld books.
- [Faking Knowledge Using Google and Wikipedia](https://granades.com/?p=1036): Maybe you were participating in a discussion on a blog when someone made a joke about Rowling's latest book, Harry Partch and the Order of the Hobos. Ha! ha! everyone else said while you stewed in a broth of incomprehension. Maybe someone said, "Hey, you're a physicist, right? Can they really get enough energy out
- [Liza Does It All](https://granades.com/?p=1037): I posted about the busy weekend the family had but not about Liza's busy weekend. Saturday morning she rolled over from her stomach to her back. She did it three times in a row and grinned at us the whole time. I don't have photos because I was too busy actually watching her do it.
- [Busy Weekend](https://granades.com/?p=1035): We didn't have a busy weekend planned. It just sorta happened. Saturday, Stephen concocted things in the kitchen and then we had some folks over to taste test. While we were doing that, the power went out for about an hour. We left to go get some dinner and then ran some errands. We returned
- [Today's Scientific Factoid](https://granades.com/?p=1034): It's true that rumors move faster than light. That doesn't actually violate any physical laws, though, as they carry no true information.
- [Being Racist, Being Angerist](https://granades.com/?p=1033): The first time I can remember seeing in person the effects of race, I was about five. Fourth of July was coming up. My dad and I had gone to a fireworks stand to buy things that go boom. We went to a little roadside stand. When we walked up, the man behind the counter
- [One of the Last Days at Playgroup](https://granades.com/?p=1032): Summer is coming to a close and we realized today that next week will be the last time we are able to all get together before "school" starts. So I'm glad that I got some great photos of the kids (and some of the moms!) so we won't forget the good times from this summer.
- [We Finally Got Some Hate Mail! (or Alternately, A Drive By Mom-ing) ](https://granades.com/?p=1031): Back in October we were hanging out at Rick and Jessica's house and Eli looking for something to amuse himself with, crawled in to Molly's crate. In response, Geof posted that he wondered when the hate mail would come. It came today, Geof, and it only took ten months. When I read the email in
- [Tough Guides to Fantasyland and the Known Galaxy](https://granades.com/?p=1030): I've known about Diana Wynne Jones's The Tough Guide to Fantasyland for a while now. The book is a fabulous tour through the clichés of fantasy novels, from Eternal Quests to Dark Lords to Magic Swords. It's written in the form of a tour guide, with the reader taking on the role of tourist to
- [Basket O' Lounge](https://granades.com/?p=1029)
- [Insert Khachaturian's Sabre Dance Here](https://granades.com/?p=1027): Have you ever seen that circus routine that involves spinning many many plates on poles? The idea is that you get plates spinning on poles and the gyroscopic effect keeps them in place. Eventually they slow down, so you have to give them another spin. As you add more poles and more plates, you have
- [A Physicist Grumbles About Jericho](https://granades.com/?p=528): As regular readers know, I've been watching the CBS show "Jericho," about the town of Jericho, Kansas and what happens after Denver vanishes in a nuclear conflagration. The drama has been so-so, but in the pilot I was hooked by the eerie and frightening sight of the mushroom cloud rising into the air. So, into
- [Bowling](https://granades.com/?p=1025): We went bowling last night and I had hoped to have good photos of Eli bowling. Alas, those were only so so but here are two good photos that Stephen took. Me, missing my spare. Jessica, very cutely pregnant.
- [The Fit is Crazy Efficient](https://granades.com/?p=1023): I've been driving the Honda Fit (hereafter referred to as DRBOOM) for some 2,000 miles. I've been tracking its fuel efficiency for a while, but I haven't posted anything about it because I wanted the engine to be more broken in before I said anything. At 2,000 miles, I figure it's broken in well enough

## Pages

- [Finding Stephen Granade Online](https://granades.com/?page_id=4954): If you're looking for the Stephen Granade who's a roboticist, science lecturer, podcaster, and occasional actor, you've found him! I'm active on a number of social networks, including: Google+, where I'm part of an active and thriving science community Twitter, where I make jokes and post links to interesting science Facebook, where I make more
- [Top Posts](https://granades.com/?page_id=946): For those of you who are interested in seeing some of our more interesting or popular posts, here they are sorted by category. Most Popular LOLTrek and the one-off LOLHouse joke. Rubik's Companion Cube, or How to Make a Custom Rubik's Cube. Code Monkey remixed using Boomwhackers. A pirate wedding ceremony and (please forgive me)
- [About Us](https://granades.com/?page_id=237): Stephen Granade is a physicist who likes lasers, software, and long walks in the moonlight. His email address is stephen at this domain. Misty Granade is a graphic designer who once worked for Apple, making her one of those graphic designers. Her email address is misty at this domain. Eli Granade delights and amazes his
- [Comments on Comments](https://granades.com/?page_id=873): We like comments here at Live Granades. We like discussion. We appreciate heated debate supported by reason and logic. We like passion. We do not like bad grammar. We do not like personal attacks, especially those based on race, religion, gender, sexuality, and the like. We will not put up with physical threats. When you
- [Complete Archives](https://granades.com/?page_id=235)

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