Wikipedia is great. I love that it exists, though I’ve only occasionally contributed to it. But I’m hardly the first to notice that it sometimes fails for the general reader.

Here, for instance is a section from the entry for “Chebyshev polynomials”:

In 1952, Cornelius Lanczos showed that the Chebyshev polynomials are important in approximation theory for the solution of linear systems; the roots of T_n(x), which are also called Chebyshev nodes, are used as matching points for optimizing polynomial interpolation. The resulting interpolation polynomial minimizes the problem of Runge’s phenomenon and provides an approximation that is close to the best polynomial approximation to a continuous function under the maximum norm, also called the “minimax” criterion. This approximation leads directly to the method of Clenshaw–Curtis quadrature. (internal citations omitted)

I’m sure this makes sense if you know what Chebyshev polynomials are…in which case you probably wouldn’t look it up in an encyclopedia.

I’ve added a new section to the blog: “Links.” I’ve been using RSS¹ off and on since it was invented to keep up with stuff around the web.² I’ll be posting (theoretically weekly) a roundup of whatever I found interesting that crossed my path (via RSS or any other way), but which for whatever reason I don’t have much to say about beyond that. Note that the key word here is “interesting,” not “correct”—and definitely not “endorsed.” This will be its own section, but will still appear on the main page of the site and in the main feed.

¹ By which I mean “a feed” of whatever sort, whether technically RSS or something like Atom or the newfangled JSON. It’ll be “RSS” forever, I’m afraid, just like basically everybody still says “SSL” instead of “TLS.”

² The demise of Google Reader was a stumbling block, but not a fatal one. These days I use a self-hosted Miniflux instance; I’ve self-hosted FreshRSS in the past and also used Inoreader.

This is my first real post. I am almost too tired to write, but if I don’t start, I’ll never start. And I didn’t set up this blog in order to not start.

Wednesday of last week, I flew into MSP for the wedding of a friend’s son. That leg of the trip was uneventful—in the good way, meaning there were no problems. I flew in, found my Airbnb, went to Vigil that evening at St. Herman’s and Liturgy on Thursday morning, and the wedding that afternoon (at a different church) was beautiful. Unlike some people, I don’t actively miss the hymns from my Protestant upbringing,¹ but it was genuinely great to hear so many people singing together.

The return leg of the trip started off fine, from MSP to CLT, but thereupon things became uneventful in the bad way, meaning nothing happened. My flight home was delayed, then cancelled. Then I got rebooked with an additional stop through DFW (not ideal, but fine, whatever)…which then itself got delayed to the point that by the time I arrived there, my actual flight home to JAN would already have left. Then I was able to get rebooked again on a CLT to JAN direct flight, which was then cancelled about an hour before it was supposed to board. And on and on. Long story short, I finally crawled into bed about 1:30 AM Monday morning, just slightly over 48 hours after.

I’m tempted to badmouth American Airlines here out of sheer frustration; but I won’t, since they (as far as I know) can’t control the weather, and in any case I’ve had similar experiences with other carriers. I will say, throughout all this, every American employee I interacted with was unfailingly polite, personable, and as helpful as they could be under the circumstances. That didn’t make the experience good or fun, but at least I wasn’t also seething with rage.

Okay, that’s an entry. More soon.

¹ Probably because I still sing the ones I like to myself, even if they don’t get an airing in church.

OK. Textpattern is installed. Now to actually write things.

In 2025, I finished the following books:

1. Yendi by Steven Brust.
2. Issola by Steven Brust.
3. At All Costs by David Weber.
4. Orca by Steven Brust.
5. Dragon by Steven Brust.
6. Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne.
7. Jhereg by Steven Brust.
8. Athyra by Steven Brust.
9. Phoenix by Steven Brust.
10. Dzur by Steven Brust.
11. Taltos by Steven Brust.
12. Jhegaala by Steven Brust.
13. Iorich by Steven Brust.
14. Tiassa by Steven Brust.
15. A Rising Thunder by David Weber.
16. Hawk by Steven Brust.
17. Vallista by Steven Brust.
18. Teckla by Steven Brust.
19. Strong Poison by Dorothy L. Sayers.
20. Everyone’s Austistic: A Memoir on the Spectrum by Jeff Romanczuk.
21. The First Seven Ecumenical Councils (325–787): Their History and Theology by Leo D. Davis.
22. The Five Red Herrings by Dorothy L. Sayers.
23. The Byzantine Rite: A Short History by Robert Taft.
24. The Bible in the Syriac Tradition by Sebastian P. Brock.
25. The Crime at Black Dudley by Margery Allingham.
26. The Winter Soldier by Daniel Mason.
27. Look to the Lady by Margery Allingham.
28. Mystery Mile by Margery Allingham.
29. The Eye of Osiris by Austin R. Freeman.
30. The Dain Curse by Dashiell Hammett.
31. Police at the Funeral by Margery Allingham.
32. Death of a Ghost by Margery Allingham.
33. The Case of the Late Pig by Margery Allingham.
34. The Fashion in Shrouds by Margery Allingham.
35. Traitor’s Purse by Margery Allingham.
36. Out of the Soylent Planet by Robert Kroese.
37. The Wrath of Cons by Robert Kroese.
38. A Scammer Darkly by Robert Kroese.
39. A Grift Too Far by Robert Kroese.
40. High Plains Grifter by Robert Kroese.
41. Pearls before Swine by Margery Allingham.
42. The Tiger in the Smoke by Margery Allingham.
43. Hide My Eyes by Margery Allingham.
44. The China Governess by Margery Allingham.
45. The Way of a Pilgrim by Anonymous.
46. The Church at Prayer by Aimilianos of Simonopetra.
47. The Dignity of Dependence: A Feminist Manifesto by Leah Libresco Sergeant.
48. The Mystery of 31 New Inn by Austin R. Freeman.
49. The Burning of the World: A Memoir of 1914 by Béla Zombory-Moldován.