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So, the whole astronomy thing made me realize that I should make a master time traveler’s timeline first, which made me realize: the world is only human-habitable for about 1 billion of its 11-billion year existence! Before about 500 million years ago, there’s nothing to eat. About 500 million years from now, the sun will…

Here’s what I’m working on right now for my book project, tentatively titled something like The Time Traveler’s Pocket Reference Guide. I’ve had some input from helpful astronomers at the US Naval Observatory [transcript of conversation so far], and I’m using the unbelievably kick-ass software Starry Night to simulate astronomical observations from ancient times. Basically,…

Kate and I had newborn care class yesterday morning, and breastfeeding class in the afternoon, and the little baby is growing larger and larger and continuing to do fetal karate. I’ve been reading a chapter of Anne of Green Gables to Kate and the baby every night (and now, sometimes in the middle of the…

Kate and I attended our fourth (and last) childbirth class on Monday night. There were ten couples in all; somewhat older than I would have expected (late twenties and early thirties), and much more affluent than I would have guessed (Chester county is more of a Volkswagen area than a Mercedes area, but the cars…

That last Blog post about how I’m not in my twenties any more was kind of lame and fatuous. Please accept my apologies, and check out this much more interesting article: Oh Mikey! — a Japanese show in which all the actors are mannequins.

Sure enough, having a baby changes your priorities. “No kidding,” you say to yourself. “Way to learn life’s weighty lessons, John.” Yes, but listen to this — last week, I located the original Mahnahmahnah song used on the muppet show. Not the version that appears on the Muppets — that’s freaking awesome, but pretty easy…

I spent almost the whole day in the car yesterday, making a business trip to Reston, Virginia. It was my first road trip as an iPod owner; I visited the library last weekend and checked out a couple of audiobooks to rip. “The Mysterious Affair at Styles”, Agatha Christie’s first novel, is a six-CD set,…

Kate and I went to Longwood Gardens today. Longwood is a colossal set of formal conservatory gardens built by the DuPont family (“Sorry”, read a sign coming in through the main entrance, “the east conservatory is closed for renovation. Enjoy our 16 other indoor conservatories and 20 outdoor gardens.”(!)) All the floors are hollow with…

Many infant seat manufacturers, I am delighted to discover, have roots in the aerospace industry. Witness, for example, the “Triumph 5” car seat pictured at right, which clearly has some sort of explosive ejector device in case the toddler needs to make a sudden atmospheric re-entry. Seriously, look at that thing: Ring any bells? Kate…

After the successful conclusion of an eBay auction last week, I bought myself an iPod*. During a 60-minute hole in my afternoon schedule, I went down to the Apple store on Prince street. Okay, I’m going to make this short, since it contains nothing that hasn’t been said a million times by other bloggers: Everyone…