Idiomatic Expression

I am not cool enough to have a currently reading bit on my web page, so just in case you are wondering…

Current:
Antique Maps by Carl Moreland & David Bannister; A great book if you are interested in antique maps, otherwise it will probably put you to sleep.
December issue of the Washingtonian always a winner
December issue of Metropolis; Cool articles on the Vancouver skyline and ads in NYC, plus great pictures and ads.
Summer/Autumn 2003 issue of The Elliot School of International Affairs, International Affairs Review; Good so far…

Recent:
Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson; great book once you get past the first 100 pages.
Eating in America by Waverly root & Richard De Rochemont; Dry dry dry! With a lot of interesting facts, and a lot of 70’s era opinions regarding the American diet.
November issue of Harper’s Magazine; Two promising articles that quickly got tedious.
November issue of Washingtonian still a winner
November issue of Vegetarian Times great Thanksgiving recipes which I ignored.

The diary of Samuel Pepys is up in electronic form here. Samuel Pepys a 17th century civil servant known chiefly for the aforementioned diary. Which documents such cheery incidents as the Great Plague and the Great Fire of London. Interesting reading if you need to kill hours upon hours at work (not that I have that luxury).

I of course found this through the metaweb project associated with Neal Stephenson’s book Quicksilver.

If you are attempting to get through Quicksilver, it gets better after page one hundred and twenty or so.

I haven’t seen this reported in a US paper yet, so for your reading enjoyment. The Taipei Times is reporting that Citibank is admiting to a “computer error” that disclosed the personal information of over 2000 customers. The article doesn’t specifically state this, but I believe this was limited to Citibank’s Chinese language website based in Taiwan.

No, I am not talking about the 1997 movie starring Ethan Hawk and Uma Thurman (that would be Gattaca). For those of you that don’t know I have been home bound this week with an inflammation of the sciatic nerve (sciatica). Thankfully the symptoms are finally starting to lessen in severity. I can now walk with very little pain, but sitting in a ‘normal’ position is still impossible for more than ten minutes at a time. Of course as a computer consultant my job involves mostly sitting. Sitting at work, sitting in the cab from the airport, and worst of all (for my current condition) sitting in a cramped coach seat on an airplane.

I have finally worked my way up to being able to put my own shoes on (it is really hard to lead a normal life without shoes), but tying the shoes can still be quite a problem depending on the time of day.

Why is it that all of my problems start with an ‘S’ (sinusitis, sciatica, stress, socks, etc)?