modern methow cabin
Well it’s that time of year. The WSDOT has announced that they are starting the yearly challenge of clearing off Highway 20. Last year I predicted the pass would be clear on April 5th and the actual date was April 3. Nailed. It. OK, now I’ve jinxed this year.
I’ve added last years data to the prediction. Here is the chart. 
Using the depth on 3/1/2016 of 39 inches from snotel this means my prediction for this year is April 12 (there is some carefulness about leap year that I am ignoring.)
How to Write a Lot: A Practical Guide to Productive Academic Writing
Summary: Fairly self explanatory: how to write a lot of psychology papers. Intro, silly barriers, motivational tools, support groups, a side rant on style, some specific advice for the field of psychology.
Rating: The advice is simple, mostly set a schedule and keep it. The cheeky way in which it conveys this advice, however, is worth reading, and I suppose the book would be useful as a reminder when you fall of the writing bandwagon.
Two contrasting scifi reads.
Rainbows End
Summary: Vernor Vinge does Neal Stephenson circa the Diamond Age. A novel of the future in which a former master poet, Richard Gu, reemerges after being cured of Alzheimers mixed in with a techno-political thriller. Vinge tries imaging a future in which augmented related plays a large role, and does so with some considerable insight into the tools (wearables) that will allow this. Also the spelling in the title is intentional.
Rating: If you like Stephenson, definite recommend. It has some YA elements, read it for the tech.
Perion Synthetics
Summary: The story of a company bent on building ultimate robots, synthetics, as it’s founder lies dying because he won’t accept the technology of another major company that could cure him. A world in which people were devices to broadcast their life to feeds which big corporations battle to dominate.
Rating: To me this read like an action flick plus some pretty routine “what happens when robots pass the Turing test” stuff. Not my personal cup of tea.