List

1. I'm watching the new Heroes, and while this episode and the entire season are on average compensating me in terms of joy for the 45 minutes it takes to watch it, only barely. The main problem seems to be the ensemble narrative. There are so many characters, and since there's a fairly big narrative told each season, it seems to shortchange the characters in terms of dialogue and development. It's cliche'd, but characters come off existing to propel the narrative. I enjoy the narrative a lot, but the dialogue! Even this comic geek is getting tired. But, I will say that the most recent episode is showing certain characters migrating from the good side to the bad side and others unexpectedly from the bad side to the good side, and that's one of the best things that's happened to this series in a while.

2. I've got a co-author that is apparently Mr. Hyde. He took a job after graduation at a consulting firm, and a project we had together has suffered. Which is fine - I expected things would be slow as he moved out of academia. But I wasn't expecting this. He quit responding to my emails and phone calls six weeks ago. I finally reached him at his office, had a brief conversation in which he said he'd call me later in the day, and still nothing. I'm now wondering if I have to take more drastic measures, and am considering trying to replicate the results from the entire paper and take his name off it.

3. Loury discusses the trappings of "group identity" and Sullivan explains why he blogs. Both interesting, very personal essays.