in case i've neglected to mention...

i'm not always angry at incompetancy (my general philosophy is that (1) i generally try to do my job well and expect others to try to do theirs well too or find a different job... (2) i also try to encourage others when they do things related to what i do, rather than belittle them and point out what i know that they don't, and expect the same. i get frustrated when i feel either of these two axioms is violated.)

that's not the point of this post though... there are things that make me happy too.

here are a few as of late:

* i like experimenting with stuff in my kitchen and today i came up with a definite winner. i was in the mood for pancakes for lunch. once i made the batter (straight out of a box, no effort required), i felt creative, so i threw a bunch of cinnamon into it (not enough to overpower, but enough to taste it well even after the pancakes were made) and used apple butter instead of real butter. *quite* tasty.

* i finished the silver chair last night... you'd think that after 4 volumes you'd start to tire out about some aspects of a series even if you still enjoy it... (even in series i've enjoyed and read dozens of volumes of, there's just something more magical about the first few you touch before you start seeing the trends in every one), while there's a little truth to that with EVERY series, i think, c.s. lewis is amazing at packing in really cool double meanings into every book that you don't expect... what aslan does with caspian at the end of the silver chair is awesome and though the whole book was a good read, that last bit made it *completely* worth it... the whole quest thing is fine and intriguing, but there are wonderful gems of ideas buried in that are new to each book of narnia too... the horse and his boy is next...

* i got invited to give a talk at the REU my undergraduate university is running this summer... we'll see if it actually works out between their summer calendar for the program and the very limited window of time i could actually be there for a talk before my own program begins... it's kinda cool to be *invited* to be a speaker instead of the "submit a talk" algorithm that usually happens, so that made me happy. :)

i think that's the end.

later dudes.