A musing Beam

A short rant -- why can't people correctly use apostrophes?   Heck, let's simplify: Why don't people use apostrophes AT ALL? I understand if you sometimes flub on "its" and "it's" .... It's a difficult distinction to make.   But the difference between "were" and "we're"?   They don't even sound the same! My guess is that this development is a confluence of a few forces: (1) Punctuation is not viewed to be important anymore, even by some teachers; (2) it takes an extra stroke to type an apostrophe on an iPhone (and several if you are using the old texting method); and (3) internationalization via the internet has made it more likely to see non-native speakers' work. Correctly using the language is not that difficult, and the rules are not really onerous. Though we shouldn't shoot for perfection, I think caring about how we communicate might increase online civility a touch ... and heaven knows it's nee

It is difficult to think of a more contentious debate in the U.S. than that surrounding the law and abortion.   This blog is an attempt to step through much of the contours of the debate, pointing out where decision points and clarifications should be made to reach a consistent position.   Though I don't think it is overly relevant to what I'm trying to do here, in the spirit of full disclosure I will say that I favor a sliding scale of difficulty in acquiring an abortion ... so pretty close to current law. This is extremely long.  I would apologize for that, but this is not a simple topic, and anyone that tries to make it so is not considering many important issues.  (And this discussion is not even close to comprehensive -- it just touches on many important areas.) Items to consider: 1) The definiton of "person" and its importance 2) The existence of a right to self autonomy, and its possible applicability 3) The existence of life versus the quality of life 4

I find it hard to understand how wrapped up some get in other people's relationships.  I've had many friends and family split from their significant others in the last couple of years, and watching the dynamics of how various people reacted has been ... entertaining, maybe?  Certainly interesting.  I have sometimes found myself feeling like Bones, scratching my head and saying, "I don't know what that means."  Here are some examples, anonymized as much as possible. 1)  A friend splits up with her husband.  Okay, I get the normal splitting of friends (though I think, with mature groups of people, that is unnecessary).  What I don't get is anger at the split.  Why would people get mad at their friends for splitting with their spouses?  What sort of investment do I have in that relationship?  The answer should be none.  I mean, it may make situations socially awkward, and it may inconvenience me now ... but actual anger?  Recriminations?  Now, this isn't to

(This blog has been in the hopper for quite awhile, but I had forgotten where I put the draft -- yet another reason to leave everything in the default folders ...) Okay, the title is purposely provocative.   What I really mean is that I don't want you to have an artificially high self esteem:   I want you to (eventually) have a healthy self esteem that deserves to be high.   For a long, long time, well-meaning people have been preaching high self esteem -- don't do that to your kid, it will hurt his self esteem ....   While not being a jerk is good advice, especially when it comes to those that you have a special relationship with such as kids, in theory what you do should have very little effect on someone else's SELF esteem. Your self esteem should be based on how well you measure up to your personal values.   Because these values are personal, most of what other people say should only inform your own opinions, and as you become more self aware the importance of othe

I normally muse about philosophical things on this blog, but this entry is specific to a very practical matter.  What are the most productivity enhancing keyboard shortucts (For Windows) that you can do solely with your left hand?  (Why solely with your left hand? Because (a) most of the cool shortcuts are left-handed, and (b) many of these shortcuts can benefit from also using the mouse, which most people use with their right hands.)  This is by no means an exhaustive list -- it's just a list of productivity-increasing keys that I use a lot. I will put these together based on the "special" key that accompanies it. 1. Alt-tab.  If you don't know alt-tab, your productivity may as much as double for certain jobs.  Alt-tab allows you to switch between applications without using the mouse and without going to the taskbar. If you keep holding alt, you can tap tab and rotate through the open applications.  And if this doesn't make sense, try it.  Now, imagine you are