The time I gave Michio Kaku’s public presentation (and had him draw a giraffe)

Giraffes Drawn By People Who Should Not Be Drawing Giraffes

For those who do not know, Michio Kaku (website; twitter) is a theoretical physicist at City University of New York and co-founder of string field theory. Just as importantly – and this is the context in which I first discovered him – he is a popularizer of science in the stead of the late Carl Sagan. Essentially he is one of only a handful of scientists taking the initiative to condense great scientific ideas into an easily digestible form. In a world that unfortunately casts a paranoid eye to the sciences, this is a virtue; through his books Physics of the Impossible (2008) and Physics of the Future (2011) Kaku reminds us all that science is, frankly, cool.[1]

So it was under this pretense that I made my way to the University of Minnesota’s Twin Cities campus to attend a lecture and book signing by…

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Blogs I’m paying attention to in 2015

This year was the most prolific I've ever been, and has only solidified my desire to be a writer. I'm not trying to be cute or cliche when I say that I can't wait to see what 2015 holds. If the last few years have shown me anything, it is that we dictate our lives, it is not dictated to us. So call me the dictator (?). Of course, no writer can work in total isolation, which is why I'm including here a list of blogs I'll be religiously following in 2015. Whether you're interested in politics, history, or literature, there's a little bit of everything here. In no particular order:

The Butterfly Patrol: “Don’t Touch the Butterflies!”

Since mid-August I've been working at the Houston Museum of Natural Science in their Visitor Services Department. It's a pretty straightforward job: I'm the guy who tears your ticket, tells you where the nearest rest room is and Please Don't Touch The Butterflies, Thank You. Because, you see, sometimes my job is to patrol the museum's … Continue reading The Butterfly Patrol: “Don’t Touch the Butterflies!”

“I love it so much I read the book every year” – Yeah? Well, I read stuff on the internet a lot.

I've always been impressed with those individuals who, when talking of their favorite novels, say something to the effect of, "I love it so much I read it every year." While there are certainly some books that I look forward to reading again (if only because it has been so long that some of the … Continue reading “I love it so much I read the book every year” – Yeah? Well, I read stuff on the internet a lot.