Category: Uncategorized

Fourteen years ago this June, I moved to Minneapolis after two particularly unpleasant years spent in upstate New York.  I found a great apartment, got a part-time job in a lab down at the university, and spent most of the summer reading. 

One of the first books I picked up that summer was Grammatical Man by Jeremy Campbell.   Though it’s a little dated (and was when I first read it) this is a really wonderful book, as suggested by the subtltle: “Information, Entropy, Language, and Life.”  It’s about all sorts of cool things like error-correcting codes used in spacecraft telemetry and viral DNA and the entropy of language.

It’s also where I first heard about the Voynich Manuscript.

In the past 3 weeks, I’ve read over 1300 manuscript pages for the purpose of critiquing or blurbing.  That’s not excessive by the standards of some writers, critiquers and/or editors, but it’s a hell of a lot for me.  I read slowly, and I don’t like to read entire books on screen—I much prefer paper.  (But given the choice I’ll read on screen rather than print out an entire book!)

Or, more accurately, I should say I don’t gravitate toward reading novels on my laptop.  But I don’t mind at all when I’m so engaged in what I’m reading.  As was the case these past few weeks!

It occurred to me today, while doing my 2010 taxes, that filling out income tax forms is quite a bit like a labyrinthine and depressing Choose Your Own Adventure game for adults.  (Or maybe Lose Your Own Adventure is more apt.)

If you choose to try sneaking past the Audit Dragon, fill out form 1040-Schedule X.  If you choose to wield the Wand of Deferred Tax Credits For First Time Home Owners Who Are Also World War I Veterans, fill out form 1040-6652N…

Earlier this week, I got a note from an old friend of mine.  I’ve known Bob for nigh on 25 years (!!!) and though we don’t see each other very often, we keep in somewhat sporadic contact with each other.  So I’ve been able to keep track of Bob and his wife as they’ve moved to all manner of exotic locations around the world.

So anyway, he told me our high school graduating class is having a reunion this summer.  And I thought, “Wait… that reunion?  Are you sure?  That isn’t possible.”

How in the world did so much time pass?  What have I been doing all these years?

This is the kind of conversation I occasionally hear in the hallway:

“…so I found a company and got a price, but in the end I decided I just didn’t need to own that much tantalum.”