I was completely taken in by Doug's prank at TOPP today. (Fake "Out of office / work from home" emails from almost everyone before I'd reached the office in the morning.) Mad props, Doug.

Rent. I saw Rent. On Broadway. With I.House people. Wow. Wow. <Brain explodes here.>

For MetaOlin folks: "All models are wrong. Some are useful." From but... for what?

(C'mon, Mel's thought-coherence. Where did you go? You are not here tonight. I will speak in simple sentences so as to not confuse myself right now.)

If you're of the scientific bent (or like motorcycles), read this paper snippet that Tim found in the Journal of Applied Physiology. I laughed so hard that I was in danger of choking on my chocolate soy milk.

I'm an unconference fan, and found these notes on ecocamp (from the midst of yet another event planning discussion - I'm finding that I really like it) to be insightful. They've done some things like "no presentations" (!!) that I've never seen at an unconference before, but want to try next round.

(C'mon, Mel's usual habit of placing statements in a broader context and adding insights on them instead of simply repeating with vague "it is great!" descriptions and providing links. Where are you? Not here tonight. Mel is too tired.)

I'm better at getting other people to write code than I am at writing code myself. Should this change? Does it make sense for it to change?

I dearly wish that I could take this class. I think I'm at the point where something like it - a short, intense class on things I've vaguely seen some things from before, but haven't really made-click in my brain - would seriously solidify and quantum-leap my Python knowledge. I also want to learn how to teach non-school classes (what do they call those? professional development?) because the audience of busy working people is one that I'm very unfamiliar with - hurrah for comfort zones and pushing out of them. It's far more than I can afford right now, though, especially with a plane ticket.

I wonder if they'd accept a week or two of "work my butt off" labor in exchange for a discount? Even just the plane tickets would be a stretch, though. And - and really, it's not like I can't learn this stuff in other ways, and... I should be inventive and creative enough to do it. (C'mon, Mel's-learning-fu. Where are you? You can do this.)

Sinigang sa bayabas (a sour Filipino soup) is delicious even when firm tofu replaces seafood (vegetarian-style, yo). Kaldereta, on the other hand, is way better with meat. Replacing beef with ripped-up frozen veggie burgers is... suboptimal. Filipino cuisine is seriously the opposite of vegetarian cuisine - perhaps they're tied with churrascarias, but seriously, that's it.

The Story Jam was mindblowingly great, but I haven't yet processed everything - and I have less than 2 weeks left at TOPP, and lots to cram into that time.

Hello, Mel's rapidly mounting sleep debt. How are you? Beginning to subside? Ah, good.

My brain is really scattered out right now. I'm happy, but exhausted and all over the place. I'm going to turn off my computer, walk upstairs, and just sit quietly and think for while, and then sleep. I've definitely been shortchanging myself on alone-time, thinking-time, and just plain ol' Mel-time; I get jazzed up from being around a lot of awesome people, but it also drains me, and I do need solo stints to really recharge. Sometimes I just need to get out, walk around, listen, and be alone.

I'll go do that now.