Quick Updates

I have several things on my "to-blog-about" list, but I haven't been able to pull my thoughts together, so in the meantime here's a quick update on what's going on here.

• The sparklines software is kind of cool, but kind of buggy. This is a problem since I need it to prepare a conference paper in two weeks.
• I was annoyed by the schmaltzy American Idol "charity" event this week. I've been debating about blogging on this topic because it feels wrong to criticize any attempt to alleviate poverty. Yet, at the same time, American Idol doesn't exactly fit the definition of charity very well.
• I missed the first Democratic debate, but I hope to catch it on the web.
• I went to an interesting lecture yesterday on the "Gendering of Academia." There will definitely be a post about this topic forthcoming.
• Weekend plans -- grading.