June 22, 2008

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It's been a while since the last update, but I've been incredibly busy with work. See the post below for all the details on the project that took over my life for the first half of June.

At the moment I'm stuck in the Tampa airport, waiting for some severe storms to pass before they'll let us start getting on the planes. Actually right as I write this is when my flight was originally scheduled to leave, but at the moment it's been delayed an hour and a half, with no signs of how much longer it could get.

The saving grace in all of this is that I have my newspapers (NY Times, St Pete Times, and USA Today (every time I travel, for one day, I know all there is to know about what is going on in the world. But then it gets outdated pretty much instantaneously)) to read and Tampa does their airport right and provides free wireless. It bugs me to no end that airports and hotels charge for wireless internet, to me it's like charging to use the restroom or use the tram shuttle to get between terminals. It should be a free utility to make using the airport just a little bit better.

Apparently there is a "Code 20" going on right now. Have no idea what that means, maybe they're re-opening the airport?

The weekend was really fun seeing old high school and college friends, and going to all the cool dance clubs that Tampa has. That's the one thing I don't like about Austin, is that there are no good places that play good music. I keep saying I should just start one, since I think it'd be really popular and a great investment. I am looking forward to getting home though, since I have Rock Band waiting for me.

Speaking of videogames, here's a fun one to play in your favorite bar's bathroom. I think it's a great idea, I would definitely play it!

Firefox 3 was released this week, with some pretty big improvements in security and usability features. It's slowly but surely becoming the defacto browser.

New York Times Magazine had a fascinating article about equality in marriage. Most people would say they like the idea of “equally shared parenting", but all the data shows that that pretty much never happens. So this piece explorers why that happens, looking at all the decisions people make that shape what happens when they have kids. How couples decide who stays home and who continues on to a career. Of course most of the time it's the person who is making less is the one who stays home, why then why is that person makes less, why did they chose to do a career that doesn't have as much flexibility or less career advancement. One of the more interesting studies when people were presented a hypothetical couple that was randomly assigned the role of a professor or physician. And regardless of which career each person in that couple was assigned, both sexes would agree that it was the man's job that was less flexible. Or why women are in general more willing to give up a career versus the man. Or the things that men have to go through to get maternity leave or flexible hours to spend more time as a parent, since it's commonly seen as a "woman's" thing even today. And even just how the definition of "clean" differs between the sexes which is also what causes the housework inequality.

I think it's interesting to see what gender stereotypes are ingrained in us.

Could Texas turn blue in the 2008 election? maybe



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