There was an insightful article in The Washington Post Magazine last Sunday, about the true meaning of the fable of My Pet Goat. Or maybe not insightful, just hilarious.
Entries from July 2004:
Gene Weingarten on "My Pet Goat"
July 21st, 2004 — Links, Politics
Federal Marriage Amendment: Your Help Requested
July 7th, 2004 — Politics
The U.S. Senate has scheduled a vote on the Federal Marriage Amendment for mid-July. The FMA is the constitutional amendment which would deny equal rights to gay Americans. It is designed to prevent gay people from getting married by the state, even in states which would otherwise allow them. By declaring gays to be second-class citizens, it also has the potential to provide constitutional justification for many other discriminatory laws.
It’s very important that our senators recongnize that this is a bad idea. To that end, it would be helpful if you could send letters to your senators expressing this viewpoint. Human Rights Campaign has made it really easy to do so. You can go to their website and fill out their online form in just a few seconds.
Every letter helps. It would mean a lot to me, and it will help show the Senate that discrimination does not make good politics. Thanks!
San Francisco trip
July 7th, 2004 — Personal
Sorry I don’t keep this up-to-date better! I just got back from a week in San Francisco for the JavaOne software development conference, followed by the wedding of two of my good friends from college. Both trips were great, though now I’m glad to be in town for a while. I took the red-eye flight back to DC on Thursday night, got in at 6AM, and had to leave for the wedding around noon! That was no fun.
At the conference, the website TopCoder.com was running a small programming competition. They had a bunch of computers set up in the exhibit hall, where you can try your luck at the competition. Each day they give you a short problem and you have 30 minutes to solve the problem. The fastest correct solution wins. Each day the top 4 people qualify for a second round, with two problems to solve in an hour. Everyone that’s in the second round gets some kind of prize.
Well, I didn’t really have much interest in this, but I had time to kill one day, so I tried it. I managed to solve the problem, and ridiculously quickly! So I qualified for the second round! To compete in the second round, I had to sign a big release/waiver, but when it was all done, I came in 2nd place!
Anyway, I’ve got photos available from my recent trips — and even some photos of the programming competition. Take a look!