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Meet Summer and Zoe
Even though I’ve been building computers since somewhere around Windows 95, Tess was my first torrid affair. In 2005’s nether summer between high school and college, Jason and I researched components, ordered them from Newegg, and built cutting-edge sister machines. Between her hardware and my Windows customizations, Tess was the hottest computer in Erickson West, if…
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Snow in Southern California
Perhaps as a result of Loma Linda University being a private graduate school (and the increased tuition income that allows), the Student Association’s Christmas party this week was fantastic. In addition to folks spending Monday through Thursday wrapping every vertical object near the party area with lights, they brought in snow. In Southern California, where…
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Operation Turkey Cook
Let’s start with the news you were dying to hear: Operation Turkey Cook was a success. In addition to preparing a delicious bird, Rachel and I created a sumptuous feast that is bound to have us eating leftovers for a week or more. While listening to This American Life, we made cranberry sauce, asparagus, cornbread…
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Is “Academic Integrity” a Significant Issue or Just Another Moral Panic?
This story showed up on TechDirt the other day and it dovetails nicely with another “hot button” topic in academia we’ve been discussing in class: Plagiarism. Over the past several years, the academic world has worked itself into a bit of a frenzy over these issues, turning to anti-plagiarism tools like Turnitin.com and, in my…
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Here’s the Windup
We’ve got our second test on Monday, so this week I’ve been more and more occupied with studying and preparing for that. In other words, I’m going to be less busy starting this coming Tuesday. Last week our good friend Kyle (formerly of this now-defunct blog, currently with no internet home sans Facebook) made good…
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Trick or Treat? [Updated]
Hallowe’en is fast approaching, and once again I am caught without a costume. I was thinking of hunting down a few accessories at a thrift store so I could be Hipster Hitler, but I’m not sure how well that would go over with folks not privy to the comic. There’s also the possibility of making…
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Mouth-Watering Barbecue
A bunch of us in my class wanted to have a post-test celebration, but since the exam was on a Monday we had school and lab obligations all week. Thus, our Post-Test Party was a kind of extended lunch at the creatively-named “Korea House,” a Korean barbecue forty minutes away from Loma Linda. I’d never…
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First Test Down
My grad school class had its first test yesterday. I’d say that it went pretty well, and not just because the multiple-choice section was accidentally made from the answer key. The essay questions will likely carry a lot more weight now, but I’m as cautiously optimistic as I can be after a test I spent…
Matter, Energy, and Life of Michaela A. Castello.
Category: Long Reads
Stories that take a bit longer to get through.