I’m typing this message from a hotel room in Biloxi, Mississippi, located in the center of a strip of land called the Gulf Coast.  Until yesterday, this part of the globe had somehow escaped my lifelong preternatural obsession with geography.  I’ve always been fairly fascinated by maps.  I can pore over the pages in McNally’s Atlas for thirty minutes without growing bored.  But somehow [...]

2008 was a momentous and fulfilling year in my personal life.  Janeen and I got engaged.  We purchased,  moved into and furnished a new apartment.  We got married.  We went on an amazing honeymoon (I still plan on blogging about this trip, it was unreal).  My life took the figurative sharp left turn at Albuquerque (big ups to Bugs Bunny).  Things have [...]

In our neverending quest to explain the universe around us, we have picked up an odd habit.  We (us humanoids) try to ascribe causality where there is none.  The more absurd and self-indulgent we are about this, the better.
In the realm of gambling our superstitions are obvious.  Most everyone has a lucky article of clothing.  It seems like most poker players have some kind of lucky [...]