| Monday, July 13th, 2009 |
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| The e-Science program/panel is turning out to be really good, and kind of makes me want to study computational biology... | ||||||
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I'm having severe getting-around-to-actually-doing-the-wor I've ported the “Ref” facility from E; this is necessary as CapTP is built on Ref semantics (promises, proxies, broken refs). I hope to very soon get the actual CapTP connection module up, then (as I wrote before) “define, document and implement a CapTP-over-HTTP protocol”. (I previously mentioned implementing the Surgeon (serialization tool) but I then remembered that that's actually irrelevant to CapTP.) Also: working without Internet access removes a whole lot of potential distractions — and one’s access to online documentation. Luckily I had some source code around which provided examples. |
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 Good morning, Odin Originally uploaded by ConcreteWaffer. |
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Common Lisp provides compile-file whose purposes is to convert a CL source file into an (implementation-defined) format which usually has precompiled code and is designed for faster loading into a lisp system. compile-file takes the pathname of a textual lisp source file. But what if you want to compile some Lisp code that's not in a file already, perhaps because you translated/compiled it from some not-amenable-to-the-Lisp-reader input syntax, or because it contains unREADable literals? You can use a "universal Lisp file", which I know two ways to create (use whichever you find cleaner): or(cl:in-package :mypackage) #.mypackage::*program* (cl:in-package :mypackage) (macrolet ((it () *program*)) (it)) Suppose this is in "universal.lisp". Then to use it: This is just a minimal example; you'll also want to appropriately handle the return value from compile-file, provide an appropriate pathname to the universal file, etc. For example, here's an excerpt of the relevant code from E-on-CL, where I have used this technique to compile non-CL sources (emakers) into fasls: Note that the pathname is computed relative to the ASDF system containing the universal file; also note the use of a variable *efasl-result* to simulate a "return value" from the compiled file, and the use of a lambda to provide a nonempty lexical environment, both of which are features not directly provided by the CL compiled file facility. |
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A few nights ago, I came into da house from my evening walkie, and Alfa Female noticed I was really happy. She asked Alfa Male why I looked so hoppy. I said I could tell her why I was so hoppy, so I sung a song! I squished da Bunny Now please give me a doggy treat! oh! I squished da Bunny Now please give me a doggy treat! oh! Yeah! all around in my home town, He was hopping around; Alfa Male said he'd bring me in For a yummy doggy treat, For the munch of a doggie treat. And I say: Oh, now, now. oh! I squished da Bunny - da Bunny. (I swear it was by da wrought-iron fence.) Ooh, ooh, oo-oh yeah! I say: I squished da Bunny - da Bunny. (I swear it was by da wrought-iron fence.) Yeah! (ooh, ooh, oo-oh) yeah! I always hated dat Bunny, For what, I dont know: Every time Alfa Female plant a seed, He ate it before it grow - He ate dem before they grow. And so: Read it in the news: I squished da Bunny - da Bunny. (I swear it was by da wrought-iron fence.) Where is my doggy treat? (oo-oo-oh) I squished da Bunny - da Bunny. (I swear it was by da wrought-iron fence.) Walkies came my way And I started on my rounds, yeah! All of a sudden I saw da Bunny brown Aiming to hop around down, So I jumped - I jumped - I squished him down and I say: I am glad da Bunny is gone away. I squished da Bunny But I still don't see my doggy treat, I want my doggy treat (oh, no-oh), oh no! I squished da Bunny. I did! But I still don't have a doggy treat. oh! (oo-oo-ooh) Reflexes had got the better of da Bunny And what is to be must be: Every day the bucket a-go a well, One day the bottom a-go drop out, One day the bottom a-go drop out. I say: I - I - I - I squished the Bunny. Lord, give me my doggy treat. Yeah! I - I squished da Bunny Because I am a good doggie! Yeah! Yeah! I was so proud of squishing da Bunny, and so proud of my song. But den Alfa Male reminded me dat Alfa Female can't hear, so I had to write dis down for her. I squished da Bunny! |
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accomplished.
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Original: craschworks - comments |
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| Sunday, July 12th, 2009 |
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In a philosophical conversation with ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} spoonless today, I expressed my view succinctly:"To me, the purpose of axioms should be to discover truths about mathematics, not to make truths." If the Goldbach conjecture is false, all good axiom systems will agree about this. (You can replace "Goldbach conjecture" with any statement about the integers) The situation is not the same for infinitary questions. The truth of statements like the Continuum Hypothesis, the determinacy of infinite games, etc is axiom-dependent. Therefore, these statements don't have an objective truth-value. Their meaning is thus relative to a model. --- UPDATE: I found someone talking about the phenomenon of axioms making truths: "Their existence is axiomatic" -Robert Alain, about the non-standard integers Such fictional objects are useful to the extent that they can give us information about the real objects. Of course, even standard real analysis deals with non-real objects (the real real numbers are the computable real numbers, which form a countable set). Theorems in real analysis are useful because they tell us something about the computable real numbers. |
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| Monday, July 13th, 2009 |
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Almost anyone can see, sense, whatever, ghosts from times past. It’s not a particularly difficult skill. More people have a talent for it than realize it, too. The thing is, most of them don’t believe their own senses. Now you imagine having a far rarer ability, one so unusual that nobody’s ever heard of it. Well, it’s one thing to be thought to be making up the kinds of stories everyone does, but it’s quite another to be told you have a unique imagination. It’s not precognition, or clairvoyance, or whatever the hell you call it. It’s ghosts. It’s just ghosts of the future, is all. All I’m saying is that you won’t be able to help but be here on January 14th, 2012. Yeah. I knew you wouldn’t thank me.       |
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| Sunday, July 12th, 2009 |
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I have a new job. Well, it's more like an arrangement than a job: I'm subcontracting for Appleseed Software Consulting, a.k.a. prog. Basically he slices off chunks from his clients' tasks (currently, Perl web app stuff using Catalyst) and hands them to me, and pays me slightly less than he charges his clients (the difference paying for his managerial overhead, not to mention the fact that he finds and deals with clients so I don't have to). It's not an exclusive contract, so in theory I could call myself a full-fledged consultant and find my own clients, but unless something falls into my lap this is not generally likely to happen. (In fact, something did just fall into my lap, but I'm still thinking over whether I want to do it. It's somewhat southeast of center in the How To Be Happy In Business Venn diagram: I'm not sure I want to do it, and I'm not sure I can do it. Weirdly, though, these sort of cancel each other out. We'll see.) My job search, which started with gusto in mid-February and petered out sometime last month, was a big bust. I inquired at about 15 places, went to interviews at four of them (Vistaprint, BAE/AIT, Google, and Ab Initio), and got zero offers. I limited my inquiries to places where I knew someone; I could have spread my net much further and more vigorously, but by the time I realized I was going to turn up dry with my contact network, the whole job search process had left a bad taste in my mouth and I was not inspired to start sending out "cold" applications. I could write a lot more about my interview experiences, but it's really hard to avoid it sounding like sour grapes—and who knows, maybe it is just sour grapes; that, or it's just a symptom of the bad job market. And I don't want to burn any bridges... But, honestly, I did get the feeling I was being jerked around more than necessary. Enough said for now. Once I made up my mind to stop looking for a full-time salary job, I started looking for a new place to live. I had moved to Billerica to reduce the commute to my job in Burlington, but that's been moot for 19 months now, and lately I've been driving to Somerville almost as often as I was commuting to Burlington when I lived in Somerville. So, after another lengthy, exhausting, and somewhat demoralizing search, I settled on an apartment pretty close to where I used to live, right near Powderhouse Square. I'll post more details after I sign the lease this week. An interesting footnote: right as I was about to commit to staying in the Boston area for another year, I got two out-of-town job nibbles, one from Amazon.com in Seattle, the other from a very interesting-sounding startup in Silicon Valley. If these had arrived a couple months earlier, I would have seriously considered them, but the timing was just off so I passed. But, if you're interested in a Silicon Valley startup job that involves a "pure-functional, lazily-evaluated, functional-reactive language that compiles to JavaScript for execution on both the server and the browser", ping me and I'll connect you up. |
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Dinner with prince_corwin, desdenova, and publius1 last night, then the former two and I repaired to Kingston Mines for some music and bevvies. Joanna Connor was playing and I like her, though the set was a bit geared to the tourist-and-college crowd. Well done though. Kingston Mines reportedly alternates two acts on two separate stages until 5am, and someday I want to stick around to hear what gets played after even the college kids have given up and gone to bed. That was not last night, though; I had a thing at 7 this morning and I'm sorry to say that my ability to stay up all night and through the next day seems to have vanished with my 20s. So it goes.
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contemplative.
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Top Tech Trends might've been more exciting if I didn't already read all these people's blogs. I did go to a park by the lake and spin for a bit between sessions. Also got lost in a moderately sketchy neighborhood looking for a vendor reception. Bah. No club tonight for me, I think. I may repair to the hotel bar and write for a bit; like any addiction, if I don't feed the writing habit regularly I get twitchy, cranky, and difficult to deal with. (I mean more than usual.) I really want to come back here for the Chicago Blues Fest. Before any more of the artists I started listening to in my teens pass away. (Koko Taylor died recently and I never did hear her sing live.) Approaching conference burnout. Tomorrow is the e-Science session, OCLC president's lunch, and as many vendor exhibits as I can stand. |
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tired.
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I just upgraded to 3.5, and the navigation buttons aren't working. I have been to the forum, and followed the suggestions here--the simple "reboot," and the more complicated "remove or rename places.sqlite and places.sqlite-journal". The problem persists. I have posted a question to the forum, but it also seems worth asking here. (One suggestion there, which I hope not to have to follow, is to create a new profile.) Does anyone have any other suggestions for fixing this directly? Failing that, thoughts on Chrome versus Opera? [This is Windows XP, if that's relevant]. Or have you tried reinstalling an earlier 3.x after Firefox 3.5? |
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This month's book list is a little longer than the last, because I didn't do much rereading in June. I wasn't intending this, but looking at my list of books, it's (among other things) showing a significant amount of the range that the term "fantasy" can cover, without including anything that would reasonably be compared to The Lord of the Rings. Naomi Mitchison, Travel Light oursin has to some extent infected me with her interest in Mitchison, whose work is very hard to find. (The only one I'd managed before this was Memoirs of a Spacewoman, a second-hand paperback that is literally falling apart.) This is somewhere in the border between fantasy and fairy tale: the main character is Halla Bearsbairn, so named because she is fostered for a while by a bear, or maybe a were-bear: her foster-mother had been her nurse, who rescued her when her parents decided they couldn't keep her and their newborn son. The bears can't keep her for long, they have to hibernate, so she winds up with a dragon, who is treating her partly as his child, partly as one of the elements of his treasure. And on from there, adventures over what turn out to be several centuries, including a meeting with the all-father (who advises her to travel light) and repeated encounters with a valkyrie who tries to recruit her for that team. Recommended if you come across it; I picked it up at a warehouse-clearance sale from Small Beer Press, who have reissued it.Daniel Abraham, A Betrayal in Winter Volume 2 of the "Long Price Quartet," more of Otah Machi's story. This one takes us to a different part of the same culture, several years after the ending of A Shadow in Summer, which disappointed me because I was hoping to see more of how Amat's plans came out after she decided she had to leave the trading house she had been working for, for reasons to do with different kinds of loyalty.( As papersky noted on Tor.com, Amat is an unusual hero for a fantasy novel (or, indeed, any novel), a middle-aged woman, an accountant whose leg hurts all the time, and hurts more when she has to hide out and doesn't have her medicine.) That said, this is well-written, with good characterization, if a somewhat odd political system. In the previous book, we saw a bit of how the khaiate handles succession; this one foregrounds the expected fratricidal conflicts between the incumbent's sons. We also get more about the andat, the reified verbs, magical beings whose great desire is not to exist, but who would be pleased to take a few, or a few thousand, humans with them on their way to nonexistence. The city of Machi controls, and is powerful and prosperous because of, one called Stone-Made-Soft. The applications to mining and manufacture are obvious; walking through mine tunnels with a being that is thinking about what it would take to bring them down on your head is unnerving.MCA Hogarth, Flight of the Godkin Griffin (serialized at godkin Fantasy again, in this case about people who are decidedly not human: what they are is less clear, in part because they vary a great deal. Angharad is a Mistress-Commander in the Godson's army, all set to retire when she is appointed governor of a newly conquered province. The province, predictably, is not entirely conquered. She is also dealing with personal issues, and with her doubts about the basic motivation of her culture: to interbreed with people as different as possible in order to produce a god. The goal and project are both bizarre from outside, but the cross-breeding works at least in the sense of producing a wide variety of different intelligent beings, some with wings, different kinds of fur, or antlers. As she was writing, Hogarth periodically posted polls, things like "should this conversation turn romantic?" or "how much do you want to hear about Ragna?" and used the results to guide the story. I don't think it made much difference to my connection to the story, but others' mileage may have varied. The print version, expected soon, won't have those: it's not a choose-your-own adventure book, maybe something closer to Philip K. Dick using the I Ching to guide his plotting. Sarah Monette, Corambis The fourth and final volume of Monette's Doctrine of Labyrinths series. These are set in a world where magic works, and many people mistrust magicians, often including other magicians. The ongoing story is about two brothers, Felix (a magician) and Mildmay (who has no magical ability, a former cat burglar and hitman whose most respectable skill is card playing). They are entangled in a variety of ways, emotionally, despite (or because of) not having grown up together, though they had similar poor and abusive upbringings, and are both damaged by their pasts, physically as well as mentally. Mildmay feels responsible for Felix, for reasons that may not make sense to either of them; they could also be the poster children for communication problems in a relationship. Much of the time, they aren't just wading through their own past arguments and resentments, they seem to be taking out all their anger at everyone else who neglected or mistreated them on each other. The world has magic and wizardry, and Felix has tasks to do with that, and with his past, but much of the story is about Mildmay's illness, and his and Felix's need to pay bills. The other thread here is about a margrave, Kay, who participates in an attempt to use magic to help a rebellion. Everyone else in the room is killed by the thing they awaken; he survives, blind, and is captured, and displayed by a vindictive man on the winning side, and then taken away from that and tries to figure out what is wanted from him, believing that, blind and defeated, he is by definition useless. A good book, including the drop into a somewhat higher-tech part of the continent: Felix asks "what's a train" when told, in his travels, that he will need to take one, and the person who told him explains, being used to foreigners not knowing. The railroad system is complicated enough that a large timetable (aftermarket documentation) sells well, as does the series of supplements. Enjoyed isn't the word for all of my reaction: the communications difficulties were convincing, and not fun to read. I suspect this book would be confusing and unsatisfying to someone who hadn't read the others. In fact, I wish I'd gotten this sooner, when they were fresher in my memory. (I may see about borrowing them again to reread; I bought a copy of Corambis at Wiscon, to support an author and a bookstore I like as much as because I was impatient.) Rebecca Ore, Centuries Ago and Very Fast This one is weird, but fun. Vel is about 12,000 years old, and no explanation is given for why he, alone among anyone, lives so long, nor why he can travel back and forth in time. He moves with some care: he can't always get out of the time he's in, and has learned that not all injuries heal. We see Vel, and his "sisters" (by now greatn nieces, and his lovers. There's a lot of sex in this book, mostly between men, often explicit, and intended to be both arousing and in character. Out of bed and in, Vel tells stories: mammoth hunting, traveling, being treated as an extremely minor god, seeing his friends imprisoned or killed for homosexuality, the sort of low-key investment that you can make over time if you can see the future. When a necklace is stolen from him, Vel just waits and takes it from the thief's grave, decades later. In the afterword, Ore says that this book was inspired (at least in part) by slash fiction. I would say "recommended if you like that kind of thing," but I don't read much of that kind of thing, and I enjoyed it. On the other hand, one advantage of original characters over slash is that an author working with her own characters doesn't use the shortcut of assuming the reader already knows what they're like or the back story, which I often don't. P. C. Hodgell, God Stalk and Dark of the Moon (in an omnibus volume as The Godstalker Chronicles) This feels almost like a parody in some ways: the viewpoint character is one of a created race/organization of powerful beings whose God has handed them the task of fighting evil. The evil force is called Perimal Darkling, and the agents of God include two more-or-less-humanoid species and one species of very wise, almost-immortal felines. The viewpoint character Jame (who goes by various other names at different points, including "the talisman") is a young woman of the Kendyr, one of those three people's. She has almost no memory of, well, anything, who stumbles out of the lands controlled by the dark force into a city, where she finds herself offered an apprenticeship as a thief, moves in many different social circles, and gradually regains at least some of her memories. God Stalk moves fast enough that I didn't much mind that the plot was more "and then...and then...and then" in which neither reader nor characters have time to get their feet under them. By the end of that book, Jame has gotten tangled with some of the local gods of the city she stumbled into; she talks about what the existence of other gods might mean for her rigidly monotheistic (in a trinitarian way) people, but is too busy with other things to really seem troubled by that point. She is convincingly concerned about why she can remember so little of her past, and by some of the things she can remember. This wouldn't be a problem if the title and story weren't setting Jame up as a destroyer and restorer of gods. Dark of the Moon has Jame regaining more memory, and shows battles in a larger area, and I found it less convincing. Events seemed to take place because they suited the author's convenience, not because they followed one from the next or because things happen at least somewhat by chance. In addition to the formless but powerful Perimal Darkling, the threats this time include a vague group of tribes called the Horde, who we are told have been proceeding in a slow circle, consuming everything in front of them and fighting internal, cannibalistic battles for several centuries. It's not remotely clear why none of them ever broke away, in search of safely and fresher pastures. I was also both unconvinced and annoyed by the statement that the Kendyr had started restricting the powerful "Highborn" women, but not the men, after a specific woman had gone over to the dark side: because it is made clear, by the characters as well as the third-person narration, that she had done so following her twin brother. Yes, some men might find that a convenient excuse, but nobody, female or male, seems to notice that it's inconsistent, not only unfair but insufficient to provide the safety it is allegedly aimed at. You either restrict all of your powerful and potentially treasonous human weapons as much as possible, or train all of them because you need them to fight against the forces of Darkness. I'd recommend reading God Stalk and stopping there, which is easier if you find a used copy of God Stalk rather than the two-novel omnibus. (This isn't a "don't go there" warning that the second book ruins the first, just that I liked the first and found the second less fun and less plausible.) [crossposting by hand between LJ and DW, comment wherever you like] |
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| Annoyance of the day: program book does not list exhibit hours. I have to plan my visits in half hour increments, because salespeople give me a headache. | ||||||
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This summer, I will be appearing at two events (but only one of them in person) One: As Shaenon has pointed out, "The Cartoon Art Museum of San Francisco (www.cartoonart.org) is organizing "Monsters of Webcomics," a showcase of cutting-edge webcomics work." Some original art will be on display there for this show from August 8 - December 6, 2009. My original art is small and looks exactly the same on paper as it does when it is posted online, so prepare to have a reaction that is blasé. But then look at the amazing line up of talent they have otherwise and prepare to be amazed! Two: Vancouver! Are you going to be in Vancouver on August 23rd? So am I! Robin Bougie posted this one. Pretty cool, I haven't seen the west coast in a while, but I miss the mountains. 
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Culturally, SF feels quite different from most places that I know: * LOTS of people wear T-shirts containing funny text, seemingly original * unusual places: classical music café (in Berkeley), garlic restaurant, Pittsburgh-themed bar * getting hugged by people I just met (in some cases before they know my name); getting a back-cracking bear-hug from a total stranger today * zombies protesting at City Hall, and signing petitions in favor of gay marriage * DNA lounge: at a non-gay club, seeing ~50% of kisses were same-sex; mashup karaoke It feels to me like San Francisco is the creative capital of the world. People here like to experiment. |
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| Saturday, July 11th, 2009 |
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Would anyone out there have a pretty recent copy of MATLAB (would need OO programming) thst they're not using and wouldn't mind loaning to me? This would be for educational purposes (several job listiings that woud otherwise be appropriate mention it as a required skill -- I have used MATLAB before, but nnot in the past decade) Thanks... someone has to work soon, or else (where 'else' involves stuff like not paying rent, bankruptcy, and other unpleasantnesses) |
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I've been doing a better job than I expected of watering and tending my gardens this year. The tomatoes I've planted in the containers in the back patio are thriving, and quite a lot of fruit is set. I'm even managing to remember to fertilize them once a week. I've been thinking about doing a boulevard garden, so I've been paying attention to other people's gardens as I drive around my neighborhood. Today, I was driving back from an errand and saw a man outside watering a perfectly gorgeous one, and impulsively, I stopped the car and got out and asked him about it. He called his wife in from the backyard, and she was pleased to answer my questions. In fact, hearing my admiration, she offered to show me her back yard and the plantings there, and she spent about a half hour answering my questions. I was awestruck by the haven they'd created back there. They didn't have a speck of grass; it was all flowers and vegetables. They had created a pergola which they had covered with wisteria, and it was the most charming little seating area imaginable. There was a fountain and bird feeders and a patio with a table and chairs, under a magnolia tree. She gave me her phone number, and she said she'd be happy to split some of her perennials once I figured out what I might want. I came away with my brain teeming with ideas and plans. Don't know if I'll put them into action. But it was lovely to see the possibilities. Bee balm. Echinecea. Coreopsis. Daisies. Cornflowers. Roses. Lavender. Delphiniums. Lupine. Phlox. Beauty. |
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It felt really weird getting off the train in Paris at Gare du Nord. London was easy, since I speak the language. Yeah, there are a few expressions they have that are different, and their accents are different, but by and large it did not feel quite as different from the US as I had expected. All that changed upon arriving in Paris. I guess language makes a huge difference. Maybe lots of other people around could speak English, but I didn't hear any of it, just a lot of French conversations... made me feel nervous about getting onto the Metro and navigating my way to my hostel where I was supposed to meet up with my friend burdges around 11pm. I had no working cellphone, and no number to call even if I had had one. I had looked at the routes very carefully beforehand, so theoretically I knew what I was doing, and I bought an French-English dictionary the day before just in case (which turned out pretty handy). I had also had the foresight to get 20 Euros (and 20 Pounds) from my bank before I left the US, just in case anything went wrong and none of my cards were accepted when I arrived. Sure enough, I was glad I'd done that. The machine to ride the Metro rejected all of my cards. It didn't even have an English option on it, but I could figure out enough of it to know that for some reason, it didn't like my cards. I felt a little bit of a panic, but remained calm and thanked myself for going out of my way to get the 20 Euros, despite others telling me not to bother. A guy in an SNCF uniform saw me having trouble and came up to me to try to help. Not understanding any of his French, I asked if he spoke English... he shook his head back and forth, no. He took my card though and turned it over... then he shook his head again and sighed in a hopeless way... confirming what I suspected, for some reason it couldn't read foreign credit cards. I tried to ask him if there was anyone else around who spoke English, motioning with my hands, but he didn't understand. I held out a 5 Euro bill and said "change?" trying to pronounce it in as French a way as I could. He still didn't seem to understand, and wandered off to help someone else who was having trouble, someone who spoke French. I waited a bit, looking around. Then after he sent the other guy somewhere, I went up to him again and tried the "change?" thing again pronouncing it carefully "shanjay?", a word I had happened to read an hour earlier on the Eurostar but wasn't sure of the pronunciation or if the meaning was right in this context. He pointed for me to follow the other guy he had sent somewhere and said "follow", the first time he said anything in English. Turned out, there was a window with a guy around the corner, and he gave me the change I needed, then I put it in the machine. Retrospectively, I should have just looked around for this in the first place... but for some reason because it was almost 10:30pm I thought there wouldn't be any windows open. Went to the nearest machine and put the coins in and got my ticket... whew! From there on, everything went pretty smoothly... and I discovered that there were a decent number of people around usually who did speak English, and also figuring out what French words on signs meant wasn't quite as difficult as I had thought it would be originally. After being in Paris for a few days, I felt so much more comfortable, even getting around by myself when my French-speaking friend wasn't there. I guess being mostly a virgin to this sort of thing, you get used to it after a while... not speaking the language somewhere can be a challenge, but in many ways it makes for a more fun adventure. I was glad I did it in stages though... first England, where it's mostly the same language, then Paris which is pretty cosmopolitan and there were a lot of other tourists who spoke English, then Lyon where very few people spoke English... although most people still knew at least some words. And by that point I had gotten down a lot of the most basic French interaction words. I had actually been listening to French audio tapes for a while (started doing that for fun independent of this trip) and that helped, but being there even for a few days helps so much more with picking stuff up. I really can't imagine how people from here get by in Asian or Middle Eastern countries, though, where the letters on signs aren't even the same alphabet! I'm sure that's a whole nother level of challenging.After meeting up at the hostel, it was almost midnight but we had both come from earlier timezones and weren't tired so we went out to a bar. Wow! I was really enamoured of Paris right from the start. Among other things, we encountered a drunken rant by some guy there to us (in broken English) on how Americans "have no love" for the rest of the world, and how France is all about love, and somehow the Tour Eifel was proof of that. It was getting late, so eventually the bartender asked him to leave, but he didn't leave without first giving us each a big hug to prove that France had more love than the US. Spent less time sightseeing while I was in Paris and more time hanging out with friends of burdges. Although at some point I did go by the Eifel Tower, saw the Arc de Triomphe, and walked all the way down the Champs Elysees. Also went to the French Pantheon, where I saw many famous French people's tombs, including Marie Curie, Alexandre Dumas, and Voltaire.Spent a lot of time going to bars and hanging out on the banks of the Seine river, where there were many other young people drinking and having a good time every night. One night, they were playing old classic American movies with French subtitles, projecting them on to a screen in public right on the river bank. Saw couples sitting on tableclothes there hanging out drinking wine... I'd love to come back there for a honeymoon or something if I get a chance. Most of the people we hung out with were originally from other places, like Italy or Asia. But of the 2 people whom I spent time talking to who had actually grown up near Paris, both of them (on separate occasions) insisted that it was a really boring city and they would love to get out and travel to somewhere "exotic" like California. One of them was obsessed with London and the British in general, and is hoping to go there to do a PhD on British literature. Having just been to London, I had a hard time understanding what she found so romantic about it compared to Paris... it makes me think that the grass is always greener, wherever you are. Not surprising, but it probably means the best thing to do is keep moving around or things will get boring wherever you are. Ate some pretty fancy food while I was there, and more in Lyon. burdges seems to have acquired ridiculously snobbish food tastes since living in France... every time we went in to a bakery he turned up his nose and said "don't buy any of this crap... we can do better, let's keep looking." I think there may have been one where he said "this might be ok" but I was kind of smiling to myself the whole time about that, and he jokingly apologized at the end of the week for it.My French-English dictionary screwed me over in one way, despite being otherwise useful. It had a section describing what it calls the "kissing" of friends when they meet up in Paris. It specified that friends typically kiss each other 3 times on the cheek when greeting each other or parting. So the first time I met up with people, and was introduced to burdges' attractive Italian friend, she presented one of her cheeks to me immediately. I didn't know what to do, so naturally I kissed it. Later, I found out that people don't actually kiss the cheek, they just rub cheeks together and blow a kiss in the air... which is what all of the rest of the people with us did to her after I was done. Oops--tres embarras! Upon parting, she gave me another chance though and I did it correctly.Just stayed in Lyon for 2 days; they had a really nice cathedral, probably the best of all of them that I saw in Europe, and an old Roman ampetheater built out of huge stones which is still being used for outdoor plays and events. We spent the evenings drinking Pastis on various boat bars (boats docked on the river that are licensed to serve alcohol) and singing I'm On a Boat (the latest work from the group who brought you Jizz in My Pants if you haven't heard it). He had to explain at some point to someone in French what we were singing, which was rather amusing. Next up: Geneva and LHC, but I probably won't get to it tonight. |
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 At the zoo Originally uploaded by ConcreteWaffer. |
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The trainer brought Gracie back. The second she entered, she and Harry pounced on each other and started playing wildly. Later I took a brief nap on the couch with two dogs sprawled over me and considered the advantages of being an organic creature. When I was very, very small, I used to try to get back to what I thought of as "the Grey Place," where you could float around as a disembodied mind. (Don't ask me, I'm just reporting.) When I learned about Heaven, I decided the Grey Place must be Heaven, and if I could just remove myself mentally from my surroundings and get in the right frame of mind, I'd break through to it. I still think immortality without a body must be a pretty cool thing. But would we be able to communicate with dogs? What else can we offer each other but the comfort of our solidity? The hand on the head, the trust of crossing physical boundaries. Of course, we can offer physical comfort to other humans, too, but we can also comfort them in other ways -- we can comfort them in a flow of electrons, for instance, or the pages of a book, or a talk over coffee about the aesthetics of Wittgenstein's house. Would we be as enthralled with the mental life of dogs? (Perhaps we would. I'd like to think we would.) But the organic language of a head lying on one's thigh offers a promise of alliance that's hard to translate. In other news, Gracie hasn't gone to the bathroom in the house. Yet. |
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I've spent the past 16 days in Europe. I'm back briefly for a few days and then will be flying to Florida for a week to attend my grandfather's 90th birthday celebration and associated family reunion. I hope in another 21 years we will be celebrating his "eleventy-first" although his health is not what it used to be so I wouldn't bet on it. Main cities visited: London, Paris, Lyon, Geneva. I'd only ever been in Europe once before--when I was 17, I went on a summer trip to Germany, Austria, Italy, Slovenia, and Slovakia with classmates in my German class. So seeing some of France, England, and Switzerland filled in some big gaps. Next time I go back, Rome, Amsterdam, and Barcelona are at the top of my list to see although I cannot predict what other circumstances may lead me elsewhere. Rome because it has the most history, Amsterdam and Barcelona because I've heard that they're just really fun cities. Although who knows, maybe I would rather go to Asia or Africa next time neither of which I've been to at all? London: Went to a gothic industrial event known as Antichrist with luxvalence. We were originally planning on going to Slimelight the night after too, but we were both pretty warn out by then and the Antichrist event (which happened to be their 5th anniversary celebration) was a hefty 25 Pound ($40) cover, enough for me to spend on clubbing for a while. But let me tell you, the London goth scene is far from dead! These people really know how to dress, and how to throw an event. Much bigger than any goth event I've been to in the US, had lots of big rooms with some live acts and some DJ's, a bdsm room, a pitch black makeout/sex room with bowls of condoms at the door, a strip tease (boys vs. girls), a fire swallowing act, and a cross you can crucify yourself on and get your photo taken in your sexy outfit, for another hefty fee. Got dragged into the makeout room by a pretty hot goth guy with long blond hair who liked to bite and scratch... since we hadn't even talked at all (just danced a bit) I felt uncomfortable going all the way with him so I stopped things after they started going too far; I did feel like a bit of a tease, although it was really good practice for me in asserting my boundaries and feeling free to say no. London also has a bunch of free museums that I went to. Had tea and scones in the afternoon with luxvalence, and fish and chips and bangers and mash at a British pub later on. Saw Buckingham Palace and various other touristy things, although not inside or anything. Did my best to Mind the Gap while I was riding the tube! Oh, and I went to a cool place called Cyberdog in Camden, which I have pictures of... and ate some curry on Brick Lane which was difficult to describe but pretty cool.Took the Eurostar 1st class from London to Paris, through the Chunnel. (For some reason for this particular time and day the 2nd class seats were actually more expensive than 1st class... and I think it was because 1st class was cheaper than usual.) The meal they served on it was excellent, and my first taste of French food which was a remarkably sudden change from British food. I was also just generally very impressed with how much more comfortable trains are than airplanes to travel... much more leg room, don't have to turn your cellphone or laptop off, no annoying rumbling and loud noise the whole time, normal air instead of dried out recirculated airplane air, quicker time through security... the list goes on. Why does the US use airplanes again? I never realized just how much they suck until experiencing the alternative. I'm saving Paris and Geneva for the next post (or two). |
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I just spent four hours going to and from the radiology place in Yonkers to get my old films. Yes, the buses are less frequent on weekends. But this is why I wanted to do that, so from now on I can go to the West Side, and use up far less time. Three buses in each direction, one of them instead of a subway and incredibly slow for the first mile or thereabouts. For reference: Yonkers is the city just north of New York. There are bus connections between the Westchester "Bee Line" system and NYC transit, and in fact the systems are sufficiently integrated that I can use my unlimited-ride metrocard on the Westchester buses as well. On the other hand, the receptionist at the radiology place was helpful and efficient. Also, on the way up, I noticed a little bit of parkland labeled "Tail of Van Cortlandt." It's tucked in next to the street, just south of the actual Van Cortlandt Park; I suspect the nice plantings, benches, and names are all recent. |
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tired.
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I have more dreamwidth invite codes. If you want them, let me know. If you're reading this offer, it applies to you. |
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  They were careless people, Tom and Daisy-they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money and vast carelessness bonus specialtude: the complex Bush brother apparently has his own issues with long words. That's not actually how "collectivism" works, but since Jeb! supports his brother's bailout, I'm kind of charmed to hear that he thinks so. 
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Last night biznamshiznit and I went out to dinner in Greektown, where the restaurants all have names like Zeus and Athena and Parthenon (we ate at a place called Santorini, heh), then saw Linsey Alexander at Rosa's Lounge. The bouncer had to call us a taxi and the driver was a total gamer (after 8 CPD cars drove past us with lights flashing, followed by a paddy wagon, he said: "It's like when you've beaten all the monsters on the level and then the big boss comes out." Heh). On the elevator back to my room I met a curious individual who wanted to tell me all about his 22-year-old mail-order bride. Oooooo-kay. O_o Off to find breakfast and then learn all about making the library appealing to freshmen. |
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awake.
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Today was an interesting day. Today I got Ethiopian lunch in Oakland with Richard and Adam, who is studying to be a Catholic priest.At 7pm, I hung out with Akiva and Boriss. We saw zombies chillin at a Starbucks after their protest. Then I returned to Berkeley to meet with ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small} Brian and Ellen. After a mushroom pizza at Jupiter, we went to Albatross to meet Rion and some of his lab colleagues from Stanford, one or two of whom I knew, sort of.
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It feels truly great to be back in Munich after being on the road for 2 weeks. I had a 2-night stop in Frankfurt then 9 nights in Paris. The work was medium-intense. Most of it was testing work which is pretty easy but there was a background of so much other work that I felt very pressured to keep up. I really had no days that I could finish work for the day and feel good about it. When I went to bed each night it felt like I was giving up rather than rewarding myself after a job well done. Anyway, more on Paris later. Today I feel very good! I slept in, but not too late. I ate a quick meal of the only food I have in the house - 2 eggs and a block of cheese. After showering and starting laundry I felt clean. Also I shaved today with a real razor, not my electric shaver, so I feel like a new man. Even put on some of the cologne I bought in Paris just for the hell of it. Now going to get some groceries. Then will just have to see. Maybe Emily will want to meet in a beer garden to chat for a bit, or else I might go on a walk. At some point I want to go run a few miles and work out at the gym. But I also have a mountain of tasks inside to handle. I don't care too much. For some reason even though the weather outside is gorgeous I don't feel like I have to go outside to enjoy it. I am happy just to be home and be getting things done. |
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Original: craschworks - comments |
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