Current terror alert level:
Cost of the Wars since 2001
Quotes of the Day
Some Outside Data
Spaf has an entry in Wikipedia! It appears fairly accurate (and no, I didn't enter it myself :-).
Obituary
Spaf has prewritten his obituary to save some effort and attempts at fiction for when the time comes.
Science Scouts
Science Scouts homepage is found online. If you read my bio and/or meet me, you know I have qualified for the following badges:
My Most Recent April Fools Joke
I have a tradition of big April Fools jokes, although not every year. Here's one from 2008, along with pictures.
Some Philosophy
Here are the quotes from my .plan file. I add quotes when I find any that strongly resonate with my own world view. Your mileage may vary. I have a much longer collection I will put online someday.
TPILB Page
This website features a Blank Page according to the recommendations of the TPILB-Project.
Erdös Number
Spaf's Erdös number is 2. I've co-authored at least three papers with people with Erdös number 1.
Personality
According to the on-line Keirsey Temperament Sorter, I'm on the cusp between being a "Champion Idealist" (ENFP) and an "Inventor"(ENTP).
According to Myers-Briggs, I am ENTP (Extrovert-Intuitive-Thinking-Perceiving).
Geek Code
Spaf's Geek Code:
-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK----- Version: 3.1 GCS/AT d++(--)@ s:+> a+>? C++(++++)$ U++++$ P++(++++) L+ E++(---) W+++(++) !N K+++ w--- O M++ V(--) PS+ PE(+) Y+(++) PGP++ t(+) 5++(+++) X@ R* tv(++)>- b+++ DI++++ D--- g e++++(+++++)$ h---- r+++(--) y++++ ------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------
Places I've Been
I've had the opportunity to travel to a lot of places to speak, and simply to sight-see. Here's a list of a few places I've been.
United States
| Alabama | Arizona | Arkansas |
| California | Colorado | Connecticut |
| Delaware | Florida | Georgia |
| Hawaii | Idaho | Illinois |
| Indiana | Iowa | Kansas |
| Kentucky | Louisiana | Maine |
| Maryland | Massachusetts | Michigan |
| Minnesota | Mississippi | Missouri |
| Montana | Nebraska | Nevada |
| New Hampshire | New Jersey | New Mexico |
| New York | North Carolina | Ohio |
| Oklahoma | Oregon | Pennsylvania |
| Rhode Island | South Carolina | Tennessee |
| Texas | Utah | Vermont |
| Virginia | Washington | Washington, D.C. |
| West Virginia | Wisconsin | Wyoming |
| (These are the states I have yet to visit.) | ||
| Alaska | North Dakota | South Dakota |
create your own personalized map of the USA or write about it on the open travel guide
Other Countries/Territories
| Australia | Austria | Bailiwick of Jersey |
| Belgium | Canada | Denmark |
| England | France | Germany |
| Ireland | Italy | Japan |
| Liechtenstein | Luxembourg | Mexico |
| Monoco | Netherlands | New Zealand |
| Norway | Poland | Puerto Rico |
| Scotland | South Korea | Sweden |
| Switzerland |
Lots more yet to see!
create your own visited country map or write about it on the open travel guide
Europe, in particular...
create your personalized map of Europe
Some Humor(?)
Humor is very important in my life. I delight in the absurd and in the unexpected. i really enjoy puns and wordplay. However, as someone with few taboos, my humor may be a little edgy for many people.
- Spaf's Journal contains various narratives of my travels and experiences. Many people find these to be somewhat amusing as I tend to have ...er... adventures.
- The Yucks Digest is something I have been moderating since 1990. It is a digest of the peculiar, repulsive, bizarre, tasteless, ironic, and sometimes humorous. It has appeared sporadically in recent years.
- One of my students, Mahesh Tripunitara, has constructed a WWW page of analogies that I have used in class, in talks and in advising. He seems to find these amusing, as do the people who contribute to the page.
- The web-heads list is something I started in late 1994 as an informal means of exchanging pointers to strange and interesting web sites. Many people seem to share my views. Several of the links are to sites with "adult" themes, so beware!
- Recycling. What do you do with your computer mice when they are worn out? Donate them to Purdue's Project Viper for recycling!
- What does Spaf look like in the morning before several cups of coffee? Not a pretty sight! Get some brewed!
The Spafford Family
A distant cousin, Robert Spafford, has put up a WWW page with some information on the origin of the family name, and the migration of the Spaffords to North America. Visit his page, especially if you're another Spafford!
Here's a page refering to the ancestral Viking origins.
Here is some history of the family prior to the emigration to North America. Here's a Google map image of Spofforth castle ruins.
Here is a view of the Spafford family crest and motto, courtesy of Robert Whitlock. Here is a somewhat different version.
A book published in 1888 written by Jeremiah Spofford has some of the definitive early history of the Spafford/Spofford family. It is available online.
Spaf as the Net's Vegan
Back in the days when Usenet was actually interesting, and when people posting things spent time and effort to be creative and amusing, Spaf was known as the Net's resident extraterrestrial (from Vega). This led to many instances where confused people asked about Vegans (the ultra-orthodox vegetarians) and Spaf replied. This, of course, was back before Spaf basically quit the Usenet.
I have a large archive of amusing things from the early days on the net. These are a few of the postings that most people seem to remember for some reason. Interestingly, a search of Google does not find all of these.
- In my role as an alien on the net, I felt compelled to provide answers to questions that sometimes weren' even posed to me, for instance an essay on Vegans and honey.
- Vegans on gender
- Vegans on tonga plugs. This started when someone (either myself or Rich Rosen, the usual instigators of this form of nonsense) made a posting mentioning "tonga plugs" (the prior post). Several people who didn't know better inquired, and this is what they got (see also the followup).
- Vegan tonga plugs redux
