Category: General

Tipped off by WBUR this morning, I present the commencement speech given by David McCullough Jr. (Son of the famous historian) at Wellesley High School, where he is a well loved English teacher.

The media has been calling this the ‘You’re Not Special’ speech, because this phrase is repeated a number of times.  I think there are too many negative connotations in summarizing the speech into those three words.  And it misses the context and the meaning put into those three words.  I think this is a great speech, and a healthy counterweight measure to the prevailing trends in putting every child onto a pedestal, a trend that has gone so far as to put every one of them at the same elevation, while falsely promising that they are better than the rest.

Who wants to go bowling with me sometime?  LivingSocial has a deal for a burger, shake, and two strings of candlepin (small ball) bowling (with shoe rental) for $12 (half price).  It’s been too long since I went to the lanes, so I’m in.  It’s at the Acton Bowladrome, which is right out off Rt 2 for you city dwellers.  I’ve been there before and it is a nice little alley.  Full deal at http://t.livingsocial.com/deals/233194?ref=email-jp&rpi=53366140

It’s alive!

It’s been a long time since I’ve built a computer, and an even longer time since I’ve had a new primary computer…. but here I am, posting from the new machine. Still need a name for it. Suggestions welcome.

Oh, and are you looking for a new case? Somewhere between spec’ing out the machine and ordering the parts, I ended up getting an mATX case and an ATX motherboard. I love the case, and it’s slightly larger sibling arrived today to complete the build. But shipping and restocking fees make it ridiculous to send the first one back, so if you’d like a smaller sibling to mine, let me know, we’ll talk shop.

To add a few details, you’d be getting this: http://www.fractal-design.com/?view=product&prod=58 , a lovely case with nice solid construction, near silent operation, great cable routing, plenty of room, and most importantly, doesn’t look like a reject from a B sci-fi alien spaceship.

Lately I’ve been listening to a podcast series from The British Museum called “A History of the World in 100 Objects”. And if any of that sentence at all caught your attention, I highly recommend the series. Find it at http://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/ .