I. Intro I finished my last assignment for my Master's in Library Science today. Or, more accurately, the a Masters of Science in Library and Information Science (MS/LIS) to the folks at the University of Illinois. Oh hey, look at that. I spelled "Illinois" correctly. Glad I got there eventually. If I could do it … Continue reading Almost Technically a Master →

As part of my Master's in Library and Information science, I registered for a course called "Fundamentals of Information Processing", thinking to myself that that would be a very useful thing to learn. When the class started, I found out, to my surprise, that the whole class is learning how to code in Python. Not … Continue reading Rock, Pyper, What? →

Now you are strong And we are but grapes aching with ripeness. Crush us! Squeeze from us all the brave life Contained in these full skins. But ours is a subtle strength Potent with centuries of yearning, Of being kegged and shut away In dark forgotten places. We shall endure To steal your senses In … Continue reading Three Poets →

I recently ran into some Muscovy Ducks. I've seen them before, and never really liked them, mostly for the superficial reason that I think they're pretty hideous. However, I wanted to learn more about them and see if my disdain was founded in any fact. Pretty quickly, I ran into a news article by the … Continue reading Muscovy Ducks, an Internet Discourse →

For my 26th birthday, my fiancee surprised me with a book called Bible Road, which is a collection of photographs by Sam Fentress. It is essentially a compilation of religiously themed billboards, placards, graffiti, murals, and other signage collected from everywhere in the United States over 25 years. The book is very good, and I … Continue reading God is Like . . . →

This past semester I've been enrolled in a class on the capital punishment, and it's been one of the most intense and eye opening experiences of my legal education, if not my civic education or my life. It is blatantly obvious to anyone who has looked into the matter of the death penalty in the … Continue reading Visions of American Death →

Lately I've been reading a little more, and one series that I've totally fallen in love with is the Three Body Problem by Liu Cixin. It's masterfully written, and depicts a narrative which interweaves not only baffling technological and scientific innovation on an overwhelming scale, it also contains human characters written in a beautiful and … Continue reading Science Fiction Proper Nouns →

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2q8fXT60ZPo&feature=youtu.be Getting into photography as a beginner is challenging if for no other reason than the fact that gear confusing. There are a ton of really good resources out there, but there's no way to get around the fact that it's a lot of information. I wanted to make a video about my equipment journey … Continue reading Trying to Figure Out Equipment →

I remember sitting in an introductory course at the beginning of my political science degree and learning basics from a professor who otherwise only taught graduate level courses, but was forced to teach an intro class every now and then. The result is that it wasn't a great class because he assumed we knew much … Continue reading Legitimacy and the Use of Force →

I had a flight this morning which left around 5, which means I got to the airport around 3 and had a little time to burn. Between the current global pandemic and it being the butt crack of morning, there were was not a lot of activity in the airport. Of course, with the extra … Continue reading Early Morning Musings →