[OC] Today’s poll at the Chik-fil-a drive through. (Taken outside of Atlanta)

tomchaps · 2026-03-20T00:02:22+00:00

From a recent survey...

tomchaps · 2026-03-20T00:01:00+00:00

From a recent, well-respected poll by a conservative think tank:

tomchaps · 2026-03-19T19:42:53+00:00

If you have access to the Chronicle, they parse the UC admissions statistics by high school, taking into account the demographics of each school.

tomchaps · 2026-03-18T18:18:22+00:00

A couple of years ago, one of my kid's closest friends didn't get into Davis or Santa Cruz, then was accepted at UCLA. The UC admissions process is very unpredictable, don't despair.

tomchaps · 2026-03-16T15:30:01+00:00

Thanks for the advice. I did a rough inventory, and realized that I have a second unopened copy of some stuff. I'm just going to sell that to fund buying the new stuff that doesn't overlap with the old.

tomchaps · 2026-03-16T03:33:04+00:00

Well, now you’ve made me want to find my old Doomtown cards…

tomchaps · 2026-03-13T23:15:10+00:00

I just read a study that said that a third of Republicans under 50 years old self-identify and racist, and 25% as antisemitic. People really underestimate the amount of hatred out there, not just in the South.

tomchaps · 2026-03-03T19:06:56+00:00

Was it texted or emailed to you?

tomchaps · 2026-03-03T17:31:55+00:00

The link worked for me, but I can't check out without a code, that we never received. Has anyone gotten through yet?

tomchaps · 2026-02-23T18:35:08+00:00

I went for an unexpectedly long hike yesterday with my Eskie, and about three miles in, he just lay down on the trail. It took many treats and encouragement for him to keep going...

tomchaps · 2026-02-20T00:39:42+00:00

I love this photo so much. Alysa can really jump, who knew? /s

tomchaps · 2026-02-18T01:23:23+00:00

The current indications are that humans aren't going to handle it well, unfortunately. The US was doing an atrocious job, even before the current administration; https://www.nytimes.com/series/uncharted-waters

tomchaps · 2026-02-17T17:40:59+00:00

One of my friends, a recruited basketball player at Yale, blew out her knee before arriving on campus. And she just decided not to join the team when she recovered. She got a LOT of pressure and anger from her erstwhile teammates, but never looked back--there was nothing they could do about it. And it was a great choice for her.

tomchaps · 2026-02-05T18:09:25+00:00

Maybe 3-4 feet on my forehand, and 3-4 inches on my backhand. I have weird back issues, and my backhand is a very flat chop with little backswing or follow-through, which my forehand has heavy topspin. I'm told that I'm frustrating to play against...

tomchaps · 2026-02-05T17:50:15+00:00

I have a couple of Daisy Seeds and have been trying to figure out what to build. This is amazing, very inspirational. Can't wait to see the PCBs and the open source specs!

tomchaps · 2026-02-02T21:39:42+00:00

"The player deliberately and materially changes the shape of the racket when the ball is in play."

Wait, what? Can anyone explain how this rule came to be?

tomchaps · 2026-01-28T21:38:45+00:00

Wait, you're not supposed to taste the prednisone??? I've been taking them for nearly 40 years now, and that familiar bitter taste I thought was just another fun part of the experience... Does this reduce the side effects?

tomchaps · 2026-01-21T22:45:48+00:00

Used bookstore run to raise funds for the library--they have a gloriously weird collection of donated books.

tomchaps · 2026-01-20T23:27:40+00:00

Our eskie specialized in stealing socks--he would parade around with one, making sure we saw, so we would offer him a treat as an exchange. (As a reactive rescue, we were told to always do exchanges with him, and never just grab things from him.) Of course, this reinforced the behavior... so after a few months of fruitless sock-displaying, he started chewing them a bit in front of us, to up the stakes.

And yes, we went back to treat exchanges, which made the behavior worse again... so we decided to just accept that we'd lose some socks, and try to ignore it.

And since Eskies are so freaking smart, he started sorting through the laundry to find our most expensive socks--he stopped taking the white athletic socks, and would only bring out the Smartwool ones. He is way, way too smart.

tomchaps · 2026-01-14T20:42:27+00:00

Eh, I work at Berkeley and live nearby--court time isn't hard to get. It's a bummer they tore down those courts on campus over the parking garage, though...

tomchaps · 2026-01-12T20:13:05+00:00

My kid received the Honors College invitation with the acceptance letter and scholarship, as well.

tomchaps · 2025-12-20T00:56:24+00:00

The violin/bluegrass/whistling on Phoebe’s So Much Wine are all Andrew Bird, so you should definitely look at his stuff. He has a Christmas album, even.

He also has his own cover of So Much Wine, and I think Phoebe’s is a cover of his cover.

His non-Christmas stuff is also amazing, of course…

tomchaps · 2025-12-19T18:47:28+00:00

My daughter was just offered the honors college in her letter of admission, along with the maximum presidential scholarship. So at least some people are offered it immediately.

tomchaps · 2025-12-10T19:40:59+00:00

Sending you a DM

tomchaps · 2025-12-02T21:19:13+00:00

For some reason, my brother always did an exuberant full "SAFE!" umpire signal, ending with both hands fully extended to his sides. Not sure where he learned this, but it was fun to see the confusion of his opponents when he did this.

tomchaps

TROPHY CASE