The temptation, I suppose, is to compensate for my post-post deficit by rattling off a list of “personal updates” that account for the intervening 117 days. (Blogging aside: Lists generally lend themselves to blog posts. A blog itself is basically a poorly organized list. Slapping in some sublists creates the illusion of structure.) I will resist this urge, and opting to save these pearls for the impending swarm of summer blogging. (Second blogging aside: overly long posts are a blight on the casual blogger.)

Instead, I simply note that on April 28th my doctoral fate was all but sealed with the successful presentation of my long awaited thesis proposal. This strongly suggests that my thesis defense will take place in the fall, and that the up-and-coming fall semester will be my last at Brown. An extremely timely exit, since a delay of even a few months would permit me to make the dubious claim that “my tenure as a student at Brown spanned 3 decades”. At that point, I assume I’d be a lock for graduate student orator at my graduation ceremony next May, but my preference is still to acquire a PhD in time for my 10 year high school reunion (slated for Thanksgiving weekend).

With the uncertainty of my post-Brown existence drifting closer by the day, the need for a more regular blogging regiment is at an all-time high. Expect more updates shortly.

Psychological stopping-blocks aside, there is also a very concrete reason for my recent reluctance to write. “Overheard in Providence” is now a lie (bold-faced)! In June I began cohabiting a lovely one-bed room with my lovely girlfriend in my lovely hometown (a.k.a Manhattan). As of September, I ceased paying rent in Providence altogether. Thus, for this month and last, I have been unable to consider myself a resident of Providence.

When I started this blog, I had the misguided notion that I would post actual quotations that had actually been overheard in actual Providence. Despite a carefully crafted submission form, this did not happen (thanks a lot, general public). Instead I was forced to fill this blog with my own musings (take that, public), but I kept the name, despite criticism mind you, because I felt that it accurately reflected my status as a New Yorker livin’ n’ bloggin’ in PVD. Now, however, it mainly reflects the fact that I own the domain name “overheardinprovidence.com”. (sidenote: I also own the domain providencehalloweendayparade.com, so if Providence wants to have a Halloween Day Parade anytime soon, I’d better be on board.)

And there you have it; I’m a New Yorker, anew. I now reside on 116th St. and Frederick Douglas Blvd. (formerly 8th Ave and/or Central Park West), although I haven’t severed all ties to Providence. Besides my inappropriately named blog and my tenuous status as a contributer to the (newly redesigned!) Providence Daily Dose, my perpetual status as a Brown University CS graduate student ensures my frequent contact with this blog’s namesake.

Perhaps one day, in the distant, distant future, I’ll cease attending Brown University. When that day comes, I may find myself inclined to change the name of my blog. For now though, I’m contented with my newly modified header and this vaguely apologetic post. I will continue to be overheard.

Update: I actually registered providencehalloweenparade.com, as Dave (below) points out, providencehalloweendayparade.com is a profoundly stupid url. Providence needs a “Halloween Parade”, not a “Halloween Day Parade”.

As I mentioned last month, one reason for my dearth of posts was that I was busy teaching a class on computational complexity. I was also rushing to submit a paper to a workshop (but then the deadline got extended), and to submit a finalized version of this paper. Despite my absence from the Providence blogging community, however, I’ve remained fully entrenched in the blogging lifestyle.

First off, despite my dire predictions, Passive-Aggressive Notes did end up winning a Webby. It turns out that there was both a “People’s Voice Winner”, and a “Webby Award Winner”, which I assume was awarded by a select panel of internet experts (along with David Bowie). It’s no surprise that Passive-Aggressive Notes is the clear preference among educated elite, where as the web surfing masses mostly enjoy crudely captioned pictures of confused cats. (Speaking of which, I saw faildogs.com for the first time yesterday, frickin’ awesome!)

Now I know what you’re thinking, with Passive-Aggressive Notes already having won both a Webby and the SXSWi Best Blog Award, how am I going to continue to fill this blog with posts devoted to the winning of web awards (or “award winning posts” as I like to call them). That was my primary concern as well, which is why I shrewdly decide to support a second found-content blog. Last Thursday was the official debut of the EERac-supported version of Postcards From Yo Momma.

Postcards From Yo Momma is a collection of motherly emails and instant messages. The site’s creators were previously hosting it on tumblr, which is a bit sparse for my taste (particularly for a site that’s already landed a book deal). Since we were able to get the new version of the site up in time for Mother’s Day (Hi Mom!), its launch happened to coincide with it being featured on newsweek.com and npr.

Now that the madness of getting the site up in time has subsided, I’d love to hear suggestions for making the site better. In fact, several of my friends were already kind enough to explain to me why my initial design totally sucked. A few of the sites few commenters have also echoed their concerns, but the internet does tend to lend itself to that sort of thing. At the very least, I’m confident that if we switched back to the old, ultra-minimal design, there’d be a lot more complaints (except no one would hear them because the old site didn’t even allow for comments).

So there you have it, a new award and a new site. Plus two weeks ago I went to a book-release party for prominent political blogger (also my childhood friend), Matthew Yglesias. Viva la blogosphere!

Update: Passive-Aggressive Notes is victorious! Best Blog of 2007!!! Also I’d like to note that Eugene Mirman is a surprisingly entertaining emcee.

This month it is my truly unexpected pleasure to announce that this blog has been included in the Providence Pheonix’s annual Best of Providence survey. That’s right folks, Overheard in Providence has officially a Providence institution, as it is one of four blogs listed in the Best Providence Blog/Podcast category (also there’s a field for write-ins). I must say, I see myself as a long shot, but it’s certainly nice to be listed right below the Providence Daily Dose), since the whole incident once again brings the three blogs I’m affiliated with into cosmic alignment.

I’ve always felt that one of the best things about going out in Providence and/or Rhode Island is that, because of the state’s tiny size, almost everywhere you go has obtained either Best in Providence or Best in Rhode Island recognition. In fact, if an establishment isn’t new, and it lacks any such award, it may safely be considered one of the worst places in Rhode Island. Even if I come in last in the Pheonix’s survey, I am deeply honored to take part in the grand tradition of Rhode Island greatness bestness.

Update: Solidifying my theory, I’ve just discovered that my housemates band was named 2007’s best “riff on a marching band” by the editor’s of Rhode Island Monthly.

The most successful of these blogs is passiveaggressivenotes.com, which averages over 10,000 unique visitors a day, and it was even featured on NPR. If you’ve taken the time to read every post I ever written, you already know that this is my friend Kerry’s blog (plus she has a book deal!), and I’m just the support staff. Still, I recently added a bunch of hot features like post-it notes in the sidebar and the ability to post comments that respond to other comments, so check it out. Currently I’m working on improving the comment rating system (you have to register to use it).

The other, more up-and-coming, blog I’m involved with is the Providence Daily Dose, a cultural blog for Providence (like gothamist for New York). I’ve only written about five posts for this blog, but fortunately some of my ultra hip friends are much more prolific (my housemate, however, is not). The Dose just had it’s first official event, a holiday party at Local 121 (a very classy locale by Providence standards). Amazingly, this event was featured on the cover of the Providence Journal. As a result, today is our most successful day to date!

So there you have it, a brief overview of my blogtastic lifestyle. What lies ahead? SXSW Interactive for one (I’m told it’s like spring break for us 20 something web 2.0 types).

The spinning silhouette is a parallel projection of a twirling dance. Since the it’s not a perspective projection, her limbs do not get larger when they move forward. For any given frame of the animation, there is no way to tell if the dancer is facing forwards or backwards. Similarly, when her arms or legs cross, you have no way of knowing which is in front.

The ambiguity of the image forces your brain to make an arbitrary choice as to which limbs are in front. It then sticks with this choice from frame to frame. The result is that the dancer either spins clockwise or counterclockwise, although getting it to switch directions is tricky.

I can get the dancer to change directions by staring at her leg then blinking when it swings all the way to the right (or left). As I blink, I imagine her changing direction, and if I time it right, she’s changed direction when I open my eyes. I’ve seen this illusion before, and I’ve always like the idea that getting her to switch directions make the illusion interactive, even though the animation doesn’t change one bit.

Anyway, for some reason both Steven and Tyler appear a bit too eager to believe the article’s completely baseless claim that which way you see the dancer spins depends on whether you are left or right brain dominate. I’m not sure what left and right have to do with clockwise and counterclockwise, but regardless both of these economists/bloggers have asked their readers to leave a comment stating which way they see the dancer spinning along with their profession.

Here’s my concern with the survey. If you tell someone the dancer is spinning one way before they see the image, they will have a bias. Their brain will likely interpret the image as spinning the way they were told it should. Tyler does not provide such a bias, but Steven (who now has about 600 comments) says he sees the image as spinning clockwise but his wife sees the image as spinning counter-clockwise. I expect for Freakonomics fans, this is a bias towards clockwise. Perhaps tomorrow he will provide a tally of his results.

Update: Steven just posted a tally of the first 219 respondents. There was a very strong bias towards clockwise, as predicted.

Thus far I’ve only reposted two posts from this site, but I fully intend on writing some original content soon. I guess if I write something really great I’ll post it here as well, but more likely I’ll just change the name of this blog when the domain expires in November.