External Linkery

Maths

Math Fun Facts: From my alma mater, Harvey Mudd College. Definitely a good time-waster.
75 Proofs of the Pythagorean Theorem, in case the standard "square-inside-larger-square" isn't exciting enough.
An introductory video to the world of maths; yes, this is what I do for a living.
ARML is a national math competition for high school students that I write problems for. On the 2007 contest, #10 on the Team Event - which I wrote! - was solved by nobody. HA!
San Diego Math Circle - I've been teaching / coaching here since Spring 2007. These kids be smart.

Comics & Periodicals

I don't frequent many comics, but my sense of humor and news-gathering is more or less captured by the following:

Penny Arcade
xkcd
Tom the Dancing Bug
This Modern World
The Onion - I know I'm the trillionth person to link here, but I think I can claim seniority over most people; I have old paper copies from 1997, for crying out loud!
AV Club, the Onion's awesome-beyond-words media coverage. I owe my love of music to reading this paper's "Best of the Year" music round-ups back in college.
San Diego CityBeat - lots like the Reader, only better writing, more coverage of neat local events, and not run by ultra-conservative dingbats.
City Pages, the Minneapolis version. (I grew up in Minny; this paper was my local bible.)

Musics

I likes my musics. Some of the sites I go to for inspiration:

Metacritic, a site whose core idea is either totally awesome or incredibly dumb. I'm still undecided. Either way, I've found some good stuff off of them.
Pitchfork, a site devoted to Elitist Music Reviews By Unhappy Lit Majors. Seriously. Their news section is awesome, though, and occasionally I learn about a new band here. Just don't expect them to give props to any record you hold dear. These people live in a perpetual state of self-loathing.
Least Essential Albums of the Year, an annual feature at the AV Club that is never anything short of undistilled hilarity.

The bands I've seen live:

Electric Six, twice in 2003. Their recent album sucks, though.
Belle & Sebastian in 2006. I have nothing to apologize for here.
Massive Attack in 2006. Every bit as awesome as I had hoped for.
Zero 7 in 2006. Jose Gonzalez played his solo album before the main show, and he was incredible.
Pop Levi was at the Casbah in 2007. I thought he was the main act (the ad said so!), but it turns out he was the opener for some bland rock outfit, meaning he only played for about 30 minutes. 30 awesome minutes.
The New Pornographers at HOB in 2007. The entire band was there, including Neko Case and Dan Bejar. 90 minutes of the NP's is a dangerous amount of awesome. Bonus fun fact! I spotted two of my profs at the show.
Justice at Canes in 2007. So loud! So awesome!
Kraftwerk in St. Paul in April 2008. Squee!!
The Fiery Furnaces in Solana Beach in June 2008. I refuse to apologize for my like of Blueberry Boat, heh.
Wolf Parade at Canes in July 2008. I will, in fact, believe in anything.

Sports & Games

LA Marathon. I signed up on a whim in 2004, at a time when I did not jog regularly. It was actually not that hard to finish the race, and I've run it every year since. Jogging in general is hella boring, but when there are 30,000 other participants, it's a blast.
Blokus, a board game that can be clumsily described as full-contact tetris. Er, yeah.
Robo Rally, a board game that became a weekend staple at Mudd. You don't know nerdy until you've Rallied.
Sheepshead, a 5-player trick-taking card game I picked up in high school. Think Euchre, but fun.
Cribbage, a thoroughly midwestern card game. I believe it's required that one eat sunflower seeds and listen to baseball on the radio while playing.
Snooker, which is to 8-ball and 9-ball what chess is to checkers. It's downright criminal that there aren't more places to play it in the States. When in Minnesota the best place to play is Fat Boy Billiards.

Food & Drink

Olive Tree, my local deli.
Hodads is to In-N-Out as In-N-Out is to McDonald's; it's the only burger joint I'm willing to endorse with a bumper sticker.
Adams Avenue Grill has some mighty tasty American food.
Thee Bungalow & 3rd Corner, two affiliated French restaurants in Ocean Beach. The former is quite fancy (read: expensive), whereas the latter is more mid-range in prices and just as tasty.
Kemo Sabe in Hillcrest, where the skirt steak is outta this world. Every other dish I've tried there has been a home run, too.
El Zarape in North Park, for delicious, cheap Mexican foodness.
Stone makes my favorite beers. Located in Escondido, their brewery houses an excellent bistro and the single most impressive draft selection I've ever some across.

Minneapolis

112 Eatery; best meal in Minneapolis. Period.
The Independent; best happy hour in Minneapolis. Period.
Chino Latino; trendiest, most exciting meal in Minneapolis. Close 2nd on the happy hour totem pole. The drink menu is a laugh and a half, I tell you what.
Chiang Mai Thai, Uptown's best bet for tasty Thai. As with all Uptown locales, the happy hour here is also fantastic.

Those last 3 places are all within a block of each other. $20 is more than enough to have an extended, tasty evening hopping all around Uptown.

Back to Home