Update for 4/29/2018

A short-ish update for once. I still procrastinated on it.

Life maintenance

😐

My lease is up at the end of July, and this year I’m planning on making myself move into a bigger place. I’ve been putting it off for a few years because moving’s a pain. But last week I took the first couple of steps. I now have a general rent figure to fit into my budget and a list of search results to narrow down.

Work

😏

Work’s been an adventure lately. They’re replacing a bunch of carpet, so the halls are cluttered with moved furniture, and the building has become a reconfigurable maze of places we’re not allowed to walk. On Friday afternoon they started on my department’s room, so I left after lunch to work from home.

Thinking

🤔

While pondering how to explain my modeling project, I discovered that contrary to my assumption, people do recognize a form of modeling that crosses disciplines. It’s called conceptual modeling. So that’s the project’s new name. Unfortunately that’s also the term software engineering has adopted for their own version, so I’ll need to make that distinction. I still need to update the article to reflect these recent changes.

As my notes for this project have piled up, I’ve been casting about for a way to organize them, which will also become part of the method as a recommendation for how to organize other modeling work. For help I’m looking at advice on academic writing, particularly from Peg Boyce Single’s Demystifying Dissertation Writing.

Beliefs report

🤔

Reading Valerie Tarico’s Trusting Doubt is reminding me that when I’m looking at debates about evangelicalism, I want to pay special attention to the replies each side gives to each other’s arguments. It’s one thing to see the claims a worldview makes for itself and the rumors it tells about its neighbors; it’s far more enlightening to see how competing worldviews interact.

Comics

😎

This coming Saturday is Free Comic Book Day. Go to your friendly local comic book store and pick up a few from this year’s list! If you’re looking for a way to get into comics, I’ve written a guide. FCBD snuck up on me this year, so I didn’t get around to the big updates I have planned for that guide, but this week I’ll give it a small update and post a note on the blog when I do.

Something else that snuck up on me was Tabletop Day, which was Saturday of last week. I didn’t do anything for it. Oh well, maybe next year!