hamlet as performed by violent criminals

driving back from the outer banks this summer, i happened upon this american life on npr doing a piece about hamlet. they began by playing snippets of lines from various performances around the country. ira glass wondered how any of…

off to cali

so i’m heading to california tomorrow to do some work on the project that previously sent me to kazakhstan, cambodia, and tanzania. this time i’m going to be working on a set of health and policy indicators for west africa,…

food work food work

just sitting on my bed in my hotel room. exhausted! made up for missing happy hour by having an excellent dinner at the very posh, very swank slanted door in san francisco. tried two different unfiltered belgium beers. had pork…

gut-check time!

oh my god, the debate last night was SO awesome. my friend casey lives in berkeley in a house with 5 other people, all of whom brought friends over to watch the debate and drink beer. after working all day,…

i woke up late this morning

the alarm clock plug had fallen out of the outlet. i got up, opened the windows. the light coming in is getting yellower as the colors of the leaves change. i was surprised last spring how much darker my bedroom…

today i woke up somewhat earlier

i pressed snooze many times. it seemed like the alarm was going off every 5 minutes. i got up around 10am and showered. i brought my cd player upstairs to listen to the modest mouse cd while i shaved. i…

Generating Microsoft Access Reports as PDFs

Motivation for a Database It seems like a good idea from the start. Take data that’s getting out of control in a massive Word document (or documents) and put it in a database like Microsoft Access. The advantages being the…

file this under “things not to do at 70mph”

pilot mountain in my side view mirror update: i’ve posted more pictures of my trip to pilot mountain.

Pilot Mountain

Drove to Pilot Mountain north of Winston Salem (about 1.5hrs from Carrboro) to do some hiking and take some pictures. approaching pilot mountain from US-52

i ate three types of meat on a stick!

gator (sausage) on a stick (marinated beef) shish kabob (country-fried) pork chop on a stick! it’s nc state fair time again, and i wish i had brought my camera. i’ve gone at least twice before this year. it’s really a…

on choosing a major

My brothers didn’t have trouble in finding their direction and I am lost beyond belief. oh katie. i understand how hopeless things feel. but the truth is i had just as hard a time as you are. surely mom and…

in london en route to accra

seems like just a bit ago i was racing through the office getting last minute things done while a halloween party was happening around me. children in costumes, small dogs in costumes, even phill in a costume (with fangs). and…

in accra, getting to the guesthouse

theresa and i arrived in accra last night after a longish flight from london. there were no jetways getting off the airplane, so i got a strong whiff of the air, which is warm and smokey, almost pungent. i spent…