whatknows :: do you?

June 20, 2011

Words from my Father

Filed under: Personal — Jed @ 12:35 pm

I remember Marvin… who lived his adult live in a house surrounded by a quiet forest of tall pine trees.  Until-I-15 came through right next to him.  When asked about how horrible his lot (no pun) was, he simply replied that he was happy for the many years he had enjoyed in the quiet.


November 9, 2010

Over the weekend someone asked me what I am studying…

Filed under: Academic,Personal,Technology — Jed @ 12:08 pm

This about sums it up.


September 8, 2010

If I wasn’t the pastor’s son…

Filed under: Personal — Jed @ 1:33 pm

Random internet find from FOUND Magazine.

From the site, Greg found this note in a middle school:

This was left in class one day as I was getting ready to go. I student-teach at the middle school for 5th and 6th graders. I’m glad to know that even in the Bible Belt South love of any gender can exist. I’m going to keep it.


August 3, 2010

Turducken Cookies… well kinda

Filed under: Personal — Jed @ 12:06 am

Alright, I didn’t really shove a bird in a cookie, but I thought I should share a fun new dessert that I tried for the first time last night. Technically, they are called “pillow cookies.” However, given that the basic idea is to shovel a brownie inside of a chocolate chip cookie, I think “turducken” is more appropriate.

I learned about them when my colleague David challenged me to take my cookies to a new level last Friday, and produced a blog post by Bakerella. I think “new level” might have meant more layers (David kept suggesting we find a way to deep fry them as well), but I decided to surprise them with an invitation to turducken-it up.

More pictures after the jump…

(more…)


July 31, 2010

Hipsters love Missed Connections

Filed under: Personal — Jed @ 12:37 am

Sent by Judy… it is so true. 😉
(From Jeffro’s Anatomy of a Hipster series.)


February 4, 2010

In dedication “to cookies”

Filed under: Academic,Personal — Jed @ 1:26 pm

Free Macro Chewy Cocolate Chip Cookies Creative Commons

So cookies basically helped me make it through my thesis. As Margarita and I madly typed, sitting across from each other at her dinning room table, she buttressed herself against the pain with power smoothies while I sublimated it with coffee and cookies.

During a recent dissertation defense, a colleague joked that she was tempted to dedicate her dissertation “to tea.” While every laughed at the ridiculous and endearing joke, a mild horror crept over me as I realized that I, in fact, had mentioned cookies in the acknowledgements section of my thesis. (more…)


January 31, 2010

Ten Reflections for 2009

Filed under: Academic,Personal — Jed @ 1:20 pm

Those who have known/tolerated me for at least a year probably know this story. It’s the same one I told last year. As children my dad would make us play a game — guess what the local news thought the 10 most notable stories of the year were, and then try creating  a list of our own news.

Top 10’s were popular this year, perhaps inspired by the end of a decade: Top 10 LOLCats, Romantic Comedies, One Hit Wonders of the ’90s, ’80s, ’70s and so on.

One might almost think top 10s passe, but as one friend of mine explained: “I’ve been loving it! I have been looking at all these top 10 movie lists, revisiting favorites, and catching the ones I never got around to.”

Last year was particularly important for me. Particularly with my graduation from Georgetown, and a move to UC Irvine, a lot has changed. How funny — I just realized that a decade ago (1999) was the year I graduated from high school and moved away to college. New beginnings, new opportunities, I suppose.

Well, without further delay, 2009 in 10 bite size pieces. (more…)


December 11, 2009

Discovering the big cube off I-5

Filed under: Personal — Jed @ 2:22 pm