I actually blame Mike Wagner for getting me into podcasts and public radio. He sent me a link to You Look Nice Today, and while I was stuck in North Carolina running an experiment with the Marines, I needed something to do to keep my brain from dying at the hotel. The Internet connection they had was awful, but I pulled down some episodes and was hooked. I'd always assumed podcasts were all very boring, very self-important talks about things. Podcast comedy, though? Awesome.

After that, it was inevitable that I'd find This American Life. If you have never listened to the program, it's an absolutely fantastic collection of real-life stories. But the real find for me was The Sound of Young America and Jordan, Jesse, Go!, both of which are hosted by Jesse Thorn. You need to listen to them. You want to listen to them. If you can't get behind the enthusiasm and joy Jesse and Jordan bring to JJ Go and TSOYA, you're probably a horrible person who can't enjoy things in life.

My job involves a lot of writing, and while I'm writing, I like to listen to music. It's a pretty nice way to help me focus, and it drowns out the office noise. The end result of this is that I listen to a whole lot of music. And the best part of listening to a lot of music is finding a great band you've never heard of. That's what the Music section is for -- by reviewing or writing about the music I'm listening to, I'm hoping that other people looking for some good new music to listen to will find something new.

It's not the most revolutionary idea, and there's certainly no lack of web sites dedicated to reviewing music. But hey, you're at this site. Maybe you're trying to figure out why I listen to some sort of awful noise. This is where you'll get to find out.

And if there's one thing I can promise, it's that this will sound nothing like Pitchfork's reviews.

So what is this Projects section going to be about? There's three main things I'm involved in that are projects: science, design, and programming. The latter is something I'm desperately trying to avoid, but the former two somehow end up requiring code. If you know me, you know that I'm currently a grad student and working at the Institute for Simulation & Training. That means I spend a lot of time writing, and, if I have my way, doing studies. Some of my own work, which focuses on aesthetics and usability, will be detailed here.

That might sound rather boring to some, but I'm going to try to make it all accessible and interesting. We get to study some pretty cool stuff at IST, like game-based learning (serious games). Should be interesting, and at least an exercise in writing about science for a non-journal audience.

I'm also involved in a good amount of odd problem-solving with the various programs, testbeds, and web sites we use. When something interesting crops up, you'll find a post-mortem here (assuming I can talk about it).

Getting things into gear...