November Housekeeping Post

1. Ever read Less Wrong? Consider yourself part of the “rationality community”? You are eligible to take the new 2013 Less Wrong Census/Survey, now including a MONETARY REWARD (of course, this is from the website that brought you the Counterfactual Mugging, so the reward can’t be simple). Go to http://lesswrong.com/lw/j4y/2013_less_wrong_censussurvey/ for more information and a link.

2. By an unexpected positive conjunction of my work schedule and financial situation, contrary to my previous claims I will being going to Raemon’s solstice celebration in New York City this year. I look forward to meeting a lot of new people and catching up with the old ones. I’ll be arriving in NYC on the 13th and staying until the 16th. Does anyone have a quiet space in town I could stay in for that time? You can email me at scott [at] shireroth [dot] org. Also, grumble grumble what’s the point of having three girlfriends if none of them can make it to the biggest rationalist social event of the year grumble anyone want to be my date to the party?

3. There will be a second Detroit/Ann Arbor Less Wrong/Slate Star Codex meetup at my house. Tentative date is January 3rd or 4th. Special guests Alicorn, Mike Blume, and Ozymandias will probably be attending. I will post more about this closer to the date and once everything has been confirmed, but if you live in the area please save the date (well, combination of dates).

4. Since this is titled “housekeeping post”, maybe I can ask about actual housekeeping! Large patches of my lawn are turning brown. I figured this was because of Winter and It Being Below Freezing, but this doesn’t seem to be happening to other patches or to my neighbors’ lawns. I mow my lawn irregularly and don’t water it because it rains a lot. Is there anything I’m doing wrong, or should I just wait for the snow to bury my problem?