Forgotten How

I've more or less forgotten how to play chess. I still know the rules, and basically what is going on, but my (admittedly never razor-sharp) Spidey Sense has disappeared. I used to enjoy playing quite a bit, and even got somewhat good for a few months in college, playing with a post doc in the physics department at U of O. Now, however, I have downloaded a little chess app for the iPod, and reliably lose at just its third level of difficulty. Moreover, it is due to mortifying stupidity!

Delicious

I made a grilled pepper and beet and bacon salad as a side dish tonight. With a honey-balsalmic vinegarette. It was really good. Roughly, I julienned each, then grilled them (on the Foreman grill). Used 3 pieces of bacon, 1/2 bell pepper, and three steamed beets. This was slightly too much bacon. You'll want to make this bacon crispy, and develop a bit of char if possible, here and there.

Winning Streak Fail

We had a makeup game for our previously abandoned match (caused by a power outage at the facility) last night. It was my team's last choice of time/date. In fact, it was the worst option for which we could literally field a team, and that with just two men and four women. We had a straggler male arrive with about 20 minutes left in the second half. So I'm pretty tired; I was our team's only outfield male player (the other guy played in goal) for a full 30 minutes. That's too much for me right now, really.

Fortunately no injuries or problems other than fatigue. I guess I have a good bruise forming on my instep where a got his heel-studs in the way of my shot. Ouchie for me. I scored again, but overall was too gassed to play very well after the first 20 minutes.

Think We Have Coaching Problems?

From here:

The serious qualification is the Grade A UEFA license, at which level Spain have 750 qualified and England 150. Of those, 640 of the Spanish Grade A licensed coaches work with children and youth players, compared to none in England.

Well, I don't know, honestly, what boat we're in. Hard information about USSF operations is hard to come by.

Bad Calls

With all the bad calls in the World Cup, the head of FIFA has said that the question of "using technology" to assist in officiating will be reopened after being rejected some time ago. Some fancy-pants former player of great stature has, in response, said that "goal-line" technology and video review should not be used, but extra refs would possibly be okay.

Well, of course that's what he's going to say. He can drum up more work for his friends that way!

Google Auto Suggest

When typing in "How long i" I get the following auto suggestions:

• How long is the w&od bike trail
• How long is the great wall of China
• How long is a 5k
• How long is a marathon
• How long is iron man 2
• How long is avatar
• How long is a meter
• How long is pinkeye contagious
• How long is the SAT
• How long is a baseball game

Wow. How long is a 5k? What color was Napoleon's white horse?

Done Returned

Yester-evening I played on my indoor soccer team for the first time since in about six weeks. Between the never-ending quad injuries and then my back spasm, I've been spending a lot of frustrating time on the sidelines. Mostly organizing subs and acting as a hortator.

It went well, despite the fact that I was weak and giddy from not eating until too late and then eating too little. I hate that feeling, don't you? I could tell while warming up (something I did a lot of today) that the fitness I'd built up has decayed alarmingly, too.

We won, something like 8-5. I scored a brace (on three shots), and had a pair of assists too! Should have been three of each, but I was robbed by a brilliantly lucky deflection by a lunging defender (another goal) and then a poor control of my through-ball by one of my team-mates.

Best of all: I feel pretty good this morning. No twinges in the back, no problems in the quads. I didn't really unload on any shots or passes or anything, though. Figure I should take it easy for a while longer, maybe do some purposeful additional rehab-type exercises.

Google Auto Suggest

When typing in "What is this o" I get auto suggestions that say:

• What is this object
• What is this ominous light that threatens to engulf us
• What is this of which you speak
• What is this on my lip
• What is this old man about
• What is this on the impossible test
• What is this one rule to a flat stomach
• What is this old tool
• What is this oil spill
• What is this octopus thinking

This isn't as funny of a list as the last one. I guess herpes is just intrinsically funny.

Nose, Face, Meet Politeness

I generally support good manners. I try to be curteous in most situations (as with everyone, I certainly lapse now and again). Some times, however, that "polite gesture" is just a pain in the rear for everyone else around you.

Mornings lately I've been taking the complex shuttle (e^{i ride}?), and have been fairly aggravated by this one fellow's consistent behavior. Typically a line forms up for entry. He is in line, and stops at the door and offers people to get on before him. His gallantry delays everyone just that little bit, for no discernable reason: DUDE, you are in a line, are you unaware of the function?

As ever, I think the best rule is to try and act to minimize the hassle (technically defined as the product of the time to accomplish the task with the sum of WTFs and "No you first"s [Interesting: hassle has units of time. That seems right, actually.]) for all parties. The result is that when everyone else is clearly operating by the "first come, first served" rule, your adoption of the polite persona imposes a cost on everyone else. Thanks!

Enjoying Paul Krugman Lately?

He's quite a Debbie Downer, not that I can gainsay him. But he's also been hilarious of late:

On fears of inflation, Krugman introduces invisible bond vigilantes. Indeed: invisible bond vigilantes are invisible.

On freshwater economics, Krugman busts out the epicycles (more on epicycles)

A Reminder

The phrase "I don't understand why they don't just" is very rarely followed by anything insightful. In most cases, the low-hanging fruit has been picked. Not always.

Coinage

John Maynard Keynes once wrote:

The long run is a misleading guide to current affairs. In the long run we are all dead. Economists set themselves too easy, too useless a task if in tempestuous seasons they can only tell us that when the storm is past the ocean is flat again. (emphasis added)

Once, a few years several months ago, I was in some seminar and the Simon-Ehrlich wager came up. This was a bet about scarcity of commodity metals (really as a proxy for general resource scarcity due to greatly expanding population). Ehrlich (who believed the prices would go up) lost, and badly.(Edited for subtraction error)

My reply was, of course, that while the term of the wager specified a 10-year period, time might still tell, and Simon had already "entered the long run."

The economist who was presenting snort-laughed and said something like "you must be an economist".

"Goodness, no," I replied.

This would have been in May of 2009. Google says that would have been the first time for that metaphor to appear on the internet... had I actually blogged it. Oops!

Crashing Out

USMNT: Glad you advanced, was hoping for more. Once again, you showed incredible heart, and fair craft at times, both of which things I love. Hold your heads up, have fantastic club seasons, and I will absolutely tune in whenever y'all are on.

ESPN/ABC/Other networks: all(Ed: some*) of your sponsors deserve and will get some business from me. Show more soccer; do it year-round (you can, since MLS runs a counter-schedule). You really did pretty good, and I enjoyed your broadcasts. Except those damn vuvuzelas.

MLS: we need a reserve division or league, and more academy signings. Only some of our talent can be developed in other countries!

USSF: more friendlies--do some in the PNW (the setting up of a nice triangle rivalry between Vancouver, Portland, and Seattle MLS franchises is very exciting!)

*some are just a bridge too far, though. I hate that damn Bing commercial. And the Adidas commercials aren't doing Adidas any favors. Just so stupid. Though I was amused briefly by the one where the narrator says "Late to a contest of speed. The irony."

Too Much Time with Toddlers

Last Thursday we had another indoor game. I'm still not ready to play (back spasm is much better but not fully relieved and I'm terrified that my quad will strain again--seriously, why, God?) but I'm the manager and so I go to keep track of substitutions, and coach the players a little bit (almost entirely regarding positioning, since we have NO natural defenders).

One of our players took a big shot and nailed one of the other team's players. Unthinking, I shouted out "Oh! Bonk!"

So embarrassing.

Seriously, Can I Buy a Break?

Last Wednesday afternoon I tweaked my back again and was terribly uncomfortable (lower back-related-spasm activities). Thought it was going to be all better yesterday, felt pretty good all day. Sitting in my desk I twisted a bit and felt like I'd been hit by lightning, followed by a general re-clenching of the back muscles that'd just been insulted.

So, that was really painful. Bad enough that I begged off work the rest of the afternoon and set an appointment at the doctor's office for this morning.

The usual prodding plus a spinal x-ray later, they sent me off with a scrip for something to release the spasms. I am hoping that will set things right.

Google Auto Suggest

When typing in "Looks like he" I get auto suggestions that say:

• looks like herpes but is not
• looks like helen hunt
• looks like herpes but isn't
• looks like he hit the tree jim
• looks like herpes but not
• looks like helvetica
• looks like henbit
• looks like heat rash
• looks like herpes but it's not
• looks like heaven

Googlers: be safe, please.

Something I Do Not Like

I'm not a big fan of the use of "How's it going?" or "How are you doing?" as a generic greeting. These are both questions, and demand something other than "hi," or worse, "How are you?" I know it is more difficult, but either ask/answer the question, or stop doing that!

Albion's Seed: A Capsule Review

David Hackett Fischer's Albion's Seed:Four British Folkways in America is quite the tome. In it, Fischer uses historiographic techniques to (ultimately) reflect on the question: What are the determinants of a free society? Clocking in at 972 pages, it can take a while even for the dedicated reader. For the distracted reader, it takes on almost epic dimensions. I found that the best strategy for me (the distracted reader) was to treat the main sections as separate books.

In turn, Fischer considers four great migrations from Britain to the US: the Puritan migration from the East of England to New England (mainly 1630-1640), the migration of fancypants from the South of England to Virginia (~1640-1670), the Quakers coming from the North Midlands of England to the Deleware River Valley (~1680-1730), and the migration of the riff-raff to the Appalachian back country (~1720-1780). He examines a variety of aspects of life, including religion, magic, work, age, architecture, sport, conceptions of liberty, marriage and sex, language and literacy, and child rearing (among a few others). Each of the great migrations is examined at length, so as you read each section, you get quite a portrait of the people and times.

In the concluding materials of the book, Fischer synthesizes the whole into a view that is fairly commonplace (though I don't know how much it was so during the peak of his work and work-life): regionalism in the United States is extremely alive and well, and has been with the exception of very brief interludes in our history. Still, it was absolutely worth reading, if only for the diary excerpts and the interesting discussion of characteristic architecture of the migrants in their new homelands (turns out it was a lot like the architecture of wherever they came from). I'll recreate from memory one example of the great diary excerpts...

A certain Southern Gentleman and his wife had an extremely contentious marriage. They fought all the time, didn't seem to like each other very much at all. One day, some hours after a loud spat, the Colonel asked his wife along for a carriage ride. They went, and after some time, he turned off the road and drove straight into the Chesapeake. Asked by the wife where he was headed, he replied "to Hell, Madam." The horses began to swim, and she said "Carry on. Anyplace is better than Arlington."

Now, this is funny but sad, of course. They really didn't make each other happy--when he died, he had left direction that his unhappiness in marriage was to be commemorated on his grave-marker. This was to read something like "Colonel John Custis, died at 71 years, but alive only 7, when he kept a bachelor's apartment". Talk about acrimony!

Also amusing was the discussion of place names in Appalachia. I won't reproduce it, but they were... earthy.

Awesome

Just caught an episode of Magnum PI while packing up before I check out tomorrow. It was a crossover ep. With Murder She Wrote. Thoroughly outstanding.

Spill Cam Multifeed

Here

Another Week Another Injury?

No, no. I'm just not done whining about my last one. I can still feel a little tenderness to the touch, but none from scuffing my feet (seriously that was an uncomfortable and weird symptom), and just a hint while walking quickly.

In order to not slob out with my period of injury I decided to try to swim. Ordinarily you might think, "Gee, Tom, people kick when they swim and kicking is what got you into this mess in the first place!" However, it turns out that my legs are pretty much just fleshly drogues when it comes to swimming. I don't know why this is, but I discovered it some while back when I was swimming for exercise--there's no difference in my speed between when I kick and when I don't (at least in the crawl). That shouldn't be, since the kick is supposed to stabilize you and result in a higher position in the water (both helpful, speedier, things). One time, back in school, one of the swim coaches gave me a pointer as I clung to the wall gasping after a set. I tried it and immediately went much faster. But it disappeared from my body's memory like a dream that also disappeared from my mind's memory... The upshot is that swimming kicks my butt, and I don't kick much at all when I swim, so Robert's my relation.

In additional swimming-related news, I found that when I breathe once every fifth arm recovery I go significantly faster, at the expense of only being able to go about 100 yds before I need to do some catch-up breathing. Weird. Or not. I really don't know. Also, doing laps in a 25' long pool sucks, because I really want to push off the wall all fast, since that feels cool, but it isn't as good at exercising you, so I have to be extra vigilant about lackadaisically turning in a lame fashion.

Stupid Old Muscles

Went to the doctor today, since my leg was feeling distinctly worse after pushing the kitty litter box out of the hall with my foot on Saturday night. He confirmed my guess that I had a mild Grade II strain (very mild ecchymosis along with the other signs like sharp pain, inability to play on, pain on touching, etc).

Apparently it can take up to 10 weeks to get all the way better from that. SUCKS.

So what cardio can I do in the meantime? I'm not buying a crank bike (Aside: my first search at Amazon for this led to Wrenching 101).

More Games

Two weeks ago I kinda strained my quad, so took it pretty easy over the next week, with only light running, etc. Thought it was better last week, but discovered during our game that it was not. Came out of that game with a nice goal, a near loss, and TWO strained quads.

This week I've done no running at all, spent the first couple of days with ice packs and then alternating heat and ice, and am planning on playing half in the goal, and not shooting for the half I'm not the goalie!

I am hopeful that by next week I'll actually be up to working out, and then playing, but we'll see. Being prematurely old is no good.

In other news, I read two of Nassim Nicholas Taleb's books (The Black Swan and Fooled by Randomness. I found these to be substantially the same book! Furthermore, he's kind of a showoff, rubbing your nose in his erudition. Ordinarily that isn't too bad... I mean, I thought the same thing when I started reading American Gods... but unlike with American Gods, that feeling did not go away with Taleb's books. Take from that what you will. I guess I tend to be okay with any level of snobbery less than or equal to my own?

Content-wise, I'd say the motivating ideas are worth consideration, though a fair bit of the social science research he discusses is better presented in Nudge, or even in the original works. (See, I am too well educated, Taleb. You jerk.)

First Game

Didn't go well, score-wise. I think it was 3-3 or so after the first half, but we just didn't have the energy to keep it up in the second! Still, it was fun, though frustrating that the mind knows what to do but the body is unwilling. This, despite all the running and exercising I've done since the end of February, when I decided I wanted to be "ready."

Soccer

First game is this Thursday. Hope we have fun!

Possibly Mankind's Greatest Achievement

Turkey Hill Extreme Cookies 'N Cream ice cream. It is AMAZING. It contains decent chocolate ice cream and that crunchy stuff from inside Thin Mints. NOM NOM NOM NOM

Retirement Party

First one I've been to, on Tuesday. The General who'd been acting as the head of our Directorate is all done with us, heading off to greener pastures. Many gag gifts were given, and then a sweet golf-bag in the Marine Corps colors with a custom embroidered Corps logo and stars in the number he's leaving behind.

In connection with the golf bag, he was also given some Army and Navy towels... with which to wash his balls.

Safe and Sound

No idea what happened this evening at the Pentagon Metro entrance; while I do go through there every day, I was home and in the gym by the time that today's crazy events unfolded.

Weird Overheard

Walking home from the metro station, I passed a big thuggish looking fellow talking into his cell phone. I'm a pretty swift walker, and he was heading the opposite direction, so I only caught a very small tidbit of his conversation. He said, "I'm talkin' cuddlin' an' sh*t!"

Objectivity

Well, there are some more Olympics happening again, so it is time for another rant about the subset of Olympic activities that are subjective spectacles frequently misnamed as "sports." The lack of an objective "counter" (e.g., "a goal" or "a basket", etc.) makes these events inherently unfair--so much the worse that the judging is rendered in-auditable by the viewer!

Since a fair portion of the appeal of these events is aesthetic--which is immune to adjudication--we are left with the conundrum of how to tell who wins. My simple solution is this: HORSE. Have all parties do a program of tricks to qualify--make it tough and go ahead and use a judging panel--and then have subsets of the qualifiers do ascending round-robins of HORSE to determine the qualifiers for an 8 person HORSE tournament with random seedings. The need to master the fundamentals is preserved, and the need to outdo one's competitor would continually raise the bar of competition, making the athletic and innovative skaters shine even more!

Note: in order to make the judging panel fair, increase the membership significantly and select a random subset of the scores--always excluding judges from the competitors' countries.

Metro Train Derailment

Was on a different line, and quite a bit after I got off at work. Won't affect me appreciably.

Oh Dear God

Eleri actually pooped on me today. That is a feat which Soren never managed, and which I thought I might have been destined to avoid. No longer. I feel so unclean.

Preposterous

I've probably shoveled snow for about 8 or 9 hours this winter. It is fairly good exercise. But you know, when your hands are very cold, it is possible to bruise the heck out of them and not know it until rather later.

A Sentence

Soren said "Daddy, lie down, please!" This morning. He wanted airplane-type games.

Soccer and Cheese?

We were watching the AC Milan vs. Siena match this morning. Massimo Maccarone had a golden opportunity about 25 minutes into the first half--an 8 yard sitter, which he skied over the goal. I called out, "Come on, Maccarone! You have to do better!"

Soren immediately parroted, "Come on, Mac Cheese!"

Animal Cruelty in Harney County, OR

Over 100 dogs were rescued from a property 20 miles south of Burns, OR earlier this month. It is the worst case of animal neglect in the state's history. This is wintertime in the desert which means it has been 15 below and all of these dogs were kept outside. Most of them had never had real dog food, instead fed on livestock carcass their owners threw to them. Steel drums housed deceased dogs. There were even some sickly looking horses running around. The owners released most of those dogs, in exchange for them getting to keep 20 of their dogs. OHS has been relocating the dogs to shelters around the state that have any space, and Greenhill has four. Many are feral and could possibly be put down. Three of the dogs we have a really frightened, but one of them will be ready for adoption soon once she gets altered! You can watch the video here of OHS's rescue. And the local news talking to my supervisor at Greenhill.

Cute Attack

He was using a fork to pick up bits of tortilla from his tray--when he'd lose a piece before it reached his maw he'd say "Almost!"

Happy Birthday

To ME! Thanks, Mom and Dad.

The Story of English (4XY)

The Story of English, by Mario Pei (this edition from 1952), was an interesting, but really long, tour of the English language. From its Anglo-Saxon roots, up through its long period of reckless appropriation of words from essentially any source.

Some of the great metaphors from Beowulf are listed by way of defending the Anglo-Saxon literature from charges of un-sophistication, grimness, and lack of thought-progression, and I found them delightful. The sea is called the "road of whales" or "playground of the winds," and woman the "ornament of the home."

Apparently it was estimated that Shakespeare used a lexicon of about twenty thousand words in his works. Fewer than six thousand appear in the King James version of the Bible. Milton apparently reached eleven thousand. Some interesting scale: comprehensive dictionaries of Anglo-Saxon fall short of fifty thousand words. Not a whole lot! In the 1950s, it was thought that only about twenty thousand English words were in widespread and consistent use... of them, about twenty percent were of Anglo-Saxon origin ,and about sixty (!) percent of Latin, Greek, or French origin!

The word "remacadamized" (basically this means to repave, in a particular way) can be broken down through its prefixes, suffixes and whatnots, and through that process be revealed to be of Latin-Celtic-Hebrew-Greek-English origin. (re-, Mc-, Adam, -ize, -ed, respectively). Similarly, "Torpenhow Hill," a place near Plymouth (in England), means "Hillhillhill Hill."

To return to a hobbyhorse of mine-the personal names of Puritans-here is a doozy: If-Christ-Had-Not-Died-For-Thee-Thou-Hadst-Been-Damned Barebone. For convenience, he was known as Damned Barebone. In the same vein, a man named Breech Loading Cannon fought in the Revolution, and a fellow named Genuine English Tweed in the war of 1812.

In 1646, St. Isaas Jogues related that the 500 souls of (what would be come) New York City spoke eighteen different languages.

Interestingly, the author held out hope in the 1950s, that professionalization of school teachers would not yield a persistent jargon that would find its way into the popular discourse. "Despite PTA meetings and much drum-beating on the part of 'progressive' educators, there seems to be little likelihood that this class jargon wil to any great extent infiltrate the general language." Some examples of the dreaded pedageese? Motivation, frustration, ambivalence, workshop, and K-9.

Excellent Names We Will Not Be Using

Juniper. Prairie.

Capsule Review (0XY & 1XY)

Library: an Unquiet History by Matthew Battles (0XY), was actually very interesting. Overwritten and laggy, but pretty interesting. I enjoyed some of the anecdotes about biblioclasms--the destruction of books and/or libraries. The possibly apocryphal story of the final burning of the library of Alexandria was cute... the Caliph was asked what to do with the books. He replied "If the books agree with the Koran, they are not required. If they disagree, they are not desired. Therefore, destroy them."

Also, the author has an unhealthy obsession with the Widener Library. Just... ick.

The Origins of Knowledge and Imagination, by Jacob Bronowski (1XY) was disappointing. I was hoping for a much better account of epistemology. Or an epistemology. Instead, was treated to a lot of outdated material devoted to the obvious proposition that our sense-impressions are not necessarily in close congruence with reality, and a half-hearted disavowal of reductionism in either science or philosophy. Oddly, the most interesting bit, to my mind, was when he gave account of the McCarran act and the difficulties it created for intellectuals visiting or living in the U.S.

I was led to read a bit about it and found that before he became Prime Minister, Pierre Trudeau was unable to enter the U.S., because of his political leanings. The world was a crazy place when we were all terrified of communism.

Currently I'm reading The Story of English, by Mario Pei (4XY). Pretty good! Frisian!

On Deck

Next to be reviewed are: 0XY and 1XY. They're in the hopper.

Religion (2XY)

This book, The Bible in Translation: Ancient and English Versions, by Bruce M. Metzger, briefly surveys the most important translations of the Bible, from antiquity to the recent modern era (roughly 2000). Its simultaneous brevity and scope (it covers some 59 translations in just under 200 pages) make it the "88 Lines About 44 Women"of Biblical scholarship.

Despite the relative economy of exposition, I learned quite a bit, and enjoyed this one a fair bit. Interestingly, among the first translations of the Hebrew Scriptures into Old Greek, the Septaguint, was later repudiated by Talmudic scholars, who declared that the day on which the Law was translated into Greek was as awful as the day the Golden Calf was cast. They appointed a fast day to remember the day of infamy.

Another important translation, called the Codex Argenteus, dating from the sixth century, was written on purple parchment in silver ink. Only about a half of the leaves remain, but: silver ink. It narrowly survived a watery demise during a shipwreck in the seventeenth century; the protective wrappings served their purpose.

Translation is tough, make no mistake: in the translating the King James Bible the translators utilized many English words for the same Hebrew or Greek words, without necessarily taking into account the denotations! An interest in "equity" led to katargeo, appearing twenty-seven times in the New Testament, is rendered as eighteen English words. The opposite problem also occurred: the translators made the word "trouble" represent a dozen different Greek words; "bring" took on the duty of translating thirty-nine Hebrew words; "destroy" served for forty-nine Hebrew words: weaksauce

Time prohibits much of a recounting here, but I also learned about the remarkable Julia E. Smith and her Bible: impressive lady!

Finally, there was a neat tabular accounting for changes between the Revised Standard Version and the New Revised Standard Version. In order to reduce ambiguity, for example, Psalm 50:9 was changed to "I will not accept a bull from your house" from the delightful "I will accept no bull from your house." I know I think the latter would be better: the Psalmist as Shaft.

Social Sciences (3XY)

This book, People and Politics: an Introduction to Political Science, by Herbert Winter and Thomas Bellows (DDC = 32W.XYZ) , was terrible. Puerile and poorly written, it is easy to understand why it took so very long to read (even leaving aside the fact that I've only been reading a few minutes a day in the evening). The few passages and footnotes worthy of... well... note, are noted below.

Paul Goodman, "The First American Party System" in William Nesbitt Chambers and Walter Dean Burnham, eds., The American Party Systems: Stages of Political Development (New York: Oxford University Press, 1967), does not refer to some awesome entertainment manual compiled by George Washington.

From a British MP's letter to a constituent:

You know, and I know, that I bought this constituency. You know, and I know, that I am now determined to sell it, and you know what you think I don't know, that you are now looking for another buyer, and I know, what you certainly don't know, that I have now found another constituency to buy.

About what you said about the excise [tax]: may God's curse light upon you all, and may it make your homes as open and free to the excise officers as you wives and daughters have always been to me while I have represented your rascally constituency

Robert Bendiner, Obstacle Course on Capitol Hill (New Your: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1964). An obstacle course on Capitol Hill would be rad. I'm picturing something like Double Dare, with legislators rooting through slime to get at the phone numbers of wealthy donors.

For your amusement

Eavesdrop D.C. is frequently quite funny. Today's post is particularly hilarious.

Fun Times

Got back from Ft. Benning this afternoon. It was pretty neat. For part of the exercise I was in the gunner's seat in a Bradley fighting vehicle. Fired off a bunch of rounds of its 25mm Bushmaster cannon--and its 7.62mm coaxial medium machine gun--at some old tanks down range. Here's a picture: (photo by Spc. Rodney L. Foliente, 4th Inf. Div. PAO, here)

Also exciting was firing the M240B light machine gun, pictured above.

Super cool, and kicking like a mule, the .50 cal M107 sniper rifle was a lot of fun. I put my shots where I was aiming, at 450 meters. Here's what that lovely lady looks like. It was highly amusing.

Dewey Decimal System? You Bet We Do!

The Dewey Decimal System is a library indexing method developed in the 19th century by Melvil Dewey. You know the one--a three digit number followed by a decimal sign, some more numbers and possibly a few letters. The first digit sorts the books broadly into categories: Generalities (0XY), Philosophy and Psychology (1XY), Religion (2XY), Social Sciences (3XY), Language (4XY), Natural Sciences & Mathematics (5XY), Technology (6XY), The Arts (7XY), Literature & Rhetoric (8XY), and Geography & History (9XY).

Of course there are deeper levels to this rabbit warren. Each of those classes is subdivided and then divided some more. This attempt to classify all knowledge is, of course, flawed. However, it gives me an idea: read your way 'round the library!

I made a foray to the nearby branch of the Alexandria public library last weekend to assess the plausibility. I checked out the following volumes:

1. Library: an Unquiet History, by Matthew Battles. DDC = 02W.XYZ
2. The Origins of Knowledge and Imagination, by Jacob Bronowski. DDC = 12W.XYZ
3. The Bible in Translation: Ancient and English Versions, by Bruce Metzger. DDC = 22W.XYZ
4. People and Politics: an Introduction to Political Science, by Herbert Winter and Thomas Bellows. DDC = 32W.XYZ
5. The Story of English, by Mario Pei. DDC = 42W.XYZ
6. The Astronomer's Universe: Stars, Galaxies, and Cosmos, by Herbert Friedman. DDC = 52W.XYZ
7. The Tower and the Bridge, by David Ballington. DDC = 62W.XYZ
8. Elements of the Art of Architecture, by William Muschenheim. DDC = 72W.XYZ
9. A History of English Literature, by William Neilson and Ashley Thorndike. DDC = 82W.XYZ
10. The Borgias, by Ivan Cloulas. DDC = 92W.XYZ

Now, be it known: finding books that represent the classes is not necessarily straightforward. For one thing, I decided that I might want to do more than just the ten books. I might want to do the full century. Another: the library's holdings are limited, and not all librarians classify the same book in the same way; some books can be shelved as multiple classifications. They didn't even have Life of Samuel Johnson, which I really wanted to get for the 92W.XYZ classification, as 92W.XYZ is the clearest opportunity for biography--and I've never read it! Last: if you are willing to specialize a bit, you need to remember that the different subclasses aren't necessarily analogous maps into the classes.

Anticipating that I might decide to do the full hundred, or at least give it a real shot,I chose to arbitrarily go with the W2.XYZ call number, but one could chose others, or not worry about the division.

What do you think?

UPDATE: Also, I read Moneyball, by Michael Lewis, recently: pretty good. I'm reading Thinking in Time: the Uses of History by Decision Makers, by Richard Neustadt and Ernest May: really pretty neat.

That Went Better Than Expected

At Susan's urging, I located a group of people that plays pickup soccer in the area; this morning I went to play. There was nobody there when I arrived (on time), but folks trickled in pretty regularly after about five minutes.

We played three-on-three for a bit, and then four-on-four when some more folks arrived. I was very tired after the first half hour of play, though it was not so bad. I was definitely not the worst player there! I haven't played since (I think) Spring of 2000! My big toe and its pad (on both feet) are blistered! I think I'll go back next weekend!

More Books

Susan reminded me that I forgot a book in the last update: Making Money, by Terry Pratchett, which was amusing, as his books always are. I recently read a few of the Stephanie Plum novels by Janet Evanovich--they're funny but pulp. There was also another Carl Hiaasen book--Double Whammy; I enjoyed it. I'm reading Bacardi and the Long Fight for Cuba: The Biography of a Cause, by Tom Gjelten; it is a tough slog, so far.

Diploma

Pretty cool.

Metro Accident

Tom's fine. It was a nasty wreck, but one far from where he rides the train for work, on a different line and everything.

Cute

Leo was curled up on Soren's changing table, watching the little rugrat play with his toys. I discovered this because Leo's high-volume purrs were audible through the baby monitor as I was cleaning the kitchen; the sound made me suspect catly misbehavior, so I investigated.

Recent Reading

• Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell--ok, interesting vignettes.
• Basket Case by Carl Hiaasen--very funny.
• Friday Night Lights by H.G Bissinger--bad writing, engrossing story.
• No Cry Sleep Solution by Elizabeth Pantley--we've made a lot of progress.
• Spin by Robert Charles Wilson--slow start, gets engrossing.
• Consider The Lobster by David Foster Wallace--really good. The footnotes get a bit obnoxious after a while.
• Dragon Wing by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman--fun. The system of magic is based on quantum mechanics. Sort of.
• Sandworms of Dune by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson--ok, an interesting premise.
• A Short History of the 20th Century by Geoffry Blainey--not bad so far. Reading it during my commute.
• The One Percent Doctrine by Ron Susskind--it is horrifying and terribly written. Reading it before bed.

UPDATE: Susan was right. Also: Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson--pretty darn good though he should watch it with the perving. Fool by Chris Moore--amusing as always. The Life and Times of the Thumderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson--affecting.

Really, California?

Okay, I just cannot tolerate it anymore. The fact that Californians passed Prop. 8 in the first place, okay. I can understand that. There are conservative parts of California. Well I don't understand it, but at least it was a legal, clean, vote. But the for the courts to uphold it-that just flabbergasts me. Since when is it okay for a majority to take away rights from a minority? I guess that in 2009 we really aren't as progressive as we thought. I mean this is America people, we should have equal rights for everybody! Not just every other person or those who fit the religious standards that we are supposed to be protected from with the first amendment. But I guess that doesn't matter either. I mean, I feel like being gay is my Scarlet Letter. And don't get me started on Oregon. We have Portland, we have Eugene...centers of community and cultural diversity. How could this happen? And does this mean that really there are more homophobic people here in Eugene than I initially thought? Gay people are just the new "other", some ubiquitous sub culture that mainstream culture hates for no real basis, just pure stupidity and all hatred. The saddest part to me is that when gay people are finally treated equally, there will just be a new "other".

Words

Your evil twin is someone who looks just like you, but more sinister. Your dopplegansgster is someone who looks just like you, but with saggy pants and bling.

Is That Even Allowed?

At the training course I went to last week, I saw a woman--a civilian employee of the US Army--reading "Atlas Shrugged."

The Job

Thus far, my experience has been good. There was a minor bureaucratic snag in the first couple of days. A lack of coordination left me computerless, but I found some pertinent documentation left by my predecessors and went through it for a couple of days so I wasn't completely at loose ends.

I spent some time interacting with some of the contractors involved with what I ought to be working on, which was useful.

My immediate colleagues seem like nice folks. A couple of long time guys and another new analyst from my same school (different option; she studied chemistry).

Still Transmitting

We went into the district to hang out with Max, this morning. The plan was to go check out a farmers market. Selection-wise, the produce was unimpressive. However, the assortment of yuppie strivers on display was notable. Also important to remember is that strollers aren't really so great in crowds. I know we know it, but maybe it just isn't in our bones. Soren will just have to walk. He nearly could--but he'd be squished in an instant because he tends to stagger from side to side a fair bit, until he builds up some momentum.

Drunken monkey style kung fu

Update

So you know, I am emailable in the mail domain of that company that claims their motto is "Don't be evil." And the proper place to direct said missives is johnson.thomas.j... Also, our phone numbers have changed so when you'd like to call, email first and I'll get you that information. Susan did an excellent job getting us situated here in Alexandria, finding a place to live and a conveyance to carry folks about. It isn't a rickshaw, though. That would be silly. I'm getting set up at work, taking required trainings and filling out lots of forms and trying to learn as much as I can before I get fully tasked. Some interesting things about work: There is a buttload of Colonels (and Captains) and Lieutenant Colonels (and Commanders and such). Boats-full of Majors... I get lost with some frequency, as the portion of the building I need to traverse the most is under heavy construction and so corridors that should go through do not, requiring one to go up a floor before the obstruction and down, after. I totally feel like I'm playing dress-up, with the fancy clothes. I don't know how everyone does it so earnestly. Also, wearing nice clothes takes more time because you have to care for them, and avoid cat hair. The train in is less crowded than the train out, by quite a bit. Bringing my own lunch will be a much better option than anything there. The food places are farr too mall-like. There is a Sbarro. My new wakeup is 0620, which is earlier than I'd prefer, but not too bad. Max picked me up at the metro station on the way home, yesterday, and came over for dinner. We both had little attache-case things and fancy clothes on. It was surreal. Not exactly the same old jeans+T-shirt for me, khakis and long-sleeved T-shirt for Max.

Here

I have arrived! Susan's done an excellent job setting things up. Soren is enormous and so very interactive now. Running around, making all kinds of noises, mimicking us and the cats. I got a coat, since I didn't have anything suitable to rain or temperatures below 60 F. That was Thursday, because I had no energy left after the red-eye.

Defended

Success. Now I just have to get and make whatever pesky corrections they want, and some paperwork, and then get the hell out of Dodge.

Band Name

Plans, Nickles, Etc.

Inoculations

Depressions have some utility: makes it easy to avoid affluenza.

Submission

Started the process, have printed hard copies for committee members, proofreader. Very tired, though. Still have a lot to do before I can go get some sleep.

Ruth Bada$$ Ginsburg

Returned to work yesterday.

Something I Like to Hear

Stop being afraid: the world may be dangerous, but we have strength and resilience. Being scared won't make you safe.

Something I Just Never Got

The pencil-case. I see a lot of these things around. Perhaps it's an affectation of the well-off dork (in my cohort). I don't want a little bag for my writing utensils. Nor a hard-sided case. It just doesn't appeal to me.

Libertarians

I have questions for you, if you ever see this.

Do you see any practical way to get where you want to go? I mean that figuratively, not literally, though of course large-scale roads are awfully hard to imagine coming about as the result of market forces. Not impossible, just... really unlikely.

If we get where you want to go, how long do you think that state will persist? Can you close the door to feature creep and still maintain responsiveness to the requirements of the constituents? That is, will there be some iron laws that will never be changed?

Questions Forthcoming, I Swear

So there's some push-back against the economic stimulus bill winding its way through congress... Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison was on Meet The Press saying she hoped (and that many like her hoped) that they could remove the "social spending," and keep the spending that is stimulative or oriented towards job creation. I think the "social spending" she referred to was expanded unemployment benefits and food stamps and perhaps direct aid to the states.

It seems to me that most people can't be blamed when their job is cut back or curtailed when they're the last domino in the line that began with Wall Street-types generating bets on whether about the bets another Wall Street-type made. Also, when folks are paycheck-to-paycheck, if you eliminate their paychecks, you cut back demand in the economy. I'd think, then, that these folks are ones you'd want to be subsidizing when you're combating a slowdown. This is, I understand, a pretty common view... So I'm a bit skeptical about the skepticism.

Similarly, the states and localities provide a lot of services that we need... garbage, sewer, a certain amount of transit-related services, jails, hospitals, etc. I guess we could eliminate all the velvet-lined foster homes... but after that, you're really running up against the fact that most places just don't spend huge amounts on things that the people don't need. I agree that I see things that might be absurd, but these things just aren't large budget items. When you cut them, you get a small savings, to be sure, but the state revenues aren't going down by a small amount--they're going down a large amount, and possibly a huge amount, depending on where you are. I'm not sure that a drastic reduction in the quality of life is what Sen. Hutchison is hoping to achieve, but that seems to be a very likely result if she gets her way.

As far as gov't investment in the future goes, well, I think that'd be nice. Certainly, we can help lay down a nice foundation for growth. Example? Reduction in road transport costs opened up new markets for internal producers--NIDA under Eisenhower probably had just a little to do with that, and it was, at the time, a public works project of an unheard-of size. We could try more things like this with the understanding that the ultimate benefits may be down the line some, but good luck getting support for that. Instead, we may have a series of smaller projects that look unimportant right now: a big push for subsidizing broadband infrastructure; modernization of utilities (especially power); increasing the penetration of rail transport and transit; improvements to educational facilities.

What's great about things like that is that they may reduce the costs of moving things and people where you need or want them to be, may reduce the costs of getting the factors of production where you need or want them to be, etc. By doing that you may make possible products and companies you never dreamed of--something that undeniably happened after the interstate highway revolution. Now, not a lot of people would argue that the quality of life decreased precipitously (or even did anything other than increase rapidly [on average]) over the generation or two after that, I think--such investments can pay off!

So I'm not sure, but I think the idea of stimulus is possibly workable. I also think that Sen. Hutchison is wrong to divorce the "social spending" from the stimulus. Will it work? Maybe, maybe not: nobody knows, and only those who experienced the depression know how bad it can and has gotten in the U.S.

Has Anyone Seen Them Together?

Matthew Lesko (from: here).

Tom Daschle.

NOT a great disguise.

25 Things

1. I click my teeth together and modulate the sound with my oral cavity to play little songs. In completely unrelated news, I'll probably need to get fake teeth at some point.
2. Salt and vinegar potato chips are probably my favorite, but they're disgusting. Go figure.
3. I read and re-read lame "swords and sorcery"-type books when I'm feeling a lot of stress.(cf. here,here, and here)
4. I hate turning left (in a car, not on the runway) and think it really ought to be eliminated entirely.
5. When I was a little kid I wanted for some time to be an FBI agent. I made a huge mess with fingerprint powder.
6. I have a really unpleasant dependence on caffeine that I'd like to one day kick.
7. My nose developed this mole right on the end in high school. Thanks, mole.
8. I actually kind of like plaid flannel shirts.
9. I used to wear socks around the house when I was a lad. But I kept stepping in wet stuff (e.g. drops of water in the kitchen) which made me insane. I'm doing it again, though.
10. Bright light gives me a headache. Not a migraine, just a headache.
11. I've only ever gotten the tiniest effect from poison oak, and only once, in the crook of my elbow. Since then I've hauled myself uphill with the stuff, spattered my face with its pulp whilst weed-whacking, etc., with no ill effect.
12. I overslept and then mismanaged time on my wedding day, leading to a bit of an overly speedy drive to the site. I arrived in plenty--PLENTY!--of time.
13. I had a not-bad golf-swing when I was younger.
14. I swallowed LEGOs as a kid. Not just the tiny ones. It was an experiment.
15. I find wood-splitting to be a ton of fun.
16. These days I find it difficult to go to sleep without a pillow over my face.
17. When I die I'd like to be cremated. Compress my ashes into a diamond, or something.
18. I am growing more liberal, conservative, and libertarian, with time.
19. I am abjectly terrified of spiders, this despite the fact I used to play with them a lot.
20. I am pretty afraid of heights, but I love to fly, ride roller coasters.
21. I caught a few minutes of the super bowl last night, more, I think, than the last few years.
22. My favorite food is probably ribs.
23. My least favorite food is probably offal.
24. I love fall. I think spring may be too ostentatious.
25. I have freakish luck with one-shot impersonations. I can never repeat the performance.

Wait, What?

This is very confusing on many levels. Apparently a congressman thinks that a suspected terrorist may be released to wander the country, and one of the dangerous consequences is that he might apply for citizenship? Also, he seems to think that could happen when, upon release, he steps into a US embassy... But we don't have any US embassies, you know, inside the US.

Why would he apply for citizenship? Would he then hate himself for his freedoms?

Lament

Trying to schedule my defense is already a pain, having heard back from only two of my possible committee members. I should have found some under house-arrest.

9 month stats

Weight - 20 lbs, 9.1 oz


Length - 30 in

Well Would You Look at That?

So many freezing people!

Golden Boy

Soren wearing Caroline's gold medal from Beijing. VERY COOL.

Go Ducks!

Read the game was good. Go ducks!

Top Chef

Anthony Bourdain wrote in Kitchen Confidential, that the folks cooking in the Michelin-two-star restaurant you booked for your anniversary dinner are "wacked-out moral degenerates, dope fiends, refugees, a thuggish assortment of drunks, sneak thieves, sluts, and psychopaths."

This is not what we see on Top Chef. More's the pity.

Two-Item Grocery Lists of the Damned

The Sylvia

• Razor blades
• Bubble bath

The Rock Star

• Tylenol PM
• Jack Daniels

The Surprised Redneck

• Lighter fluid
• Lighter fluid

The Drunk Driver

• Peppermint Schnapps
• Breath mints

The Misinformed Tween

• Coke
• Pop rocks

The Spartans

• 1M Persians
• Body oil

Uncanny

NPR needs to stay out of my mp3 player. I've had it up to here with hearing my songs as bumper music.

My Old Kentucky Home: Whaaa?

This has to be read...

It's in the Genes?

I have always enjoyed the movie Gattaca.

Hope

Like many of my fellow citizens of the United States and Earth, I hope the President-Elect doesn't disappoint me too badly in the coming months and years. I'm sure he's probably saying Alan Shepard's prayer:"Please, dear God, don't let me f**k up."

A little belated, the six month stats

Weight: 17 lbs, 15.3 oz


Length: 27.75 inches

Plague!

Whatever bug Susan got has laid me low since Friday evening. Yesterday was extremely unpleasant, as was this morning. I'm not a big fan of colds that invade your sinuses, and am thankful that I've not had too many of them... but is there anything worse in this world than when you get all worked up to sneeze and the urge subsides?

The Weakly Standered

Soren just pulled himself from a sitting position to a standing position in his crib. Oh, goodness. He's been doing great going from prone or supine to sitting position and then back, crawling a bit and rolling with intent... now he's bouldering in his crib.

Time Machine or Decapitation Hazard?

Right now I think I'm just glad that gull-wing doors are rare. I was biking in to campus this morning at a fair clip--in order to keep with traffic--when I was hit with a door.

A delivery-type truck-door popped into my field of vision, it's edge barely far enough out to catch me. Had it been a passenger car, I'd have cleared it easily. Instead I was thrown around/over the door, rolling out towards the sidewalk so I didn't damage myself in the landing.

Even so, it really wasn't great. I'm bruised and scraped and was very, very startled at the speed with which crap happened. I'm okay, but I don't want any part of that again, and my bicycle is the worse for the wear. The two lower-geared drive sprockets are bent--the lowest-gear bent dramatically--presumably from impacting the door. The cross-post has a big streak of the door's paint. Poor bicycle.

Vote!

I filled out my absentee ballot the other day. Good times. California is quite odd.

Walter in the West Wing

Well, Walter Mondale was the first Vice President to have an office in the White House. I certainly understand that the active role is new, but c'mon! That's insane!

Whoa

If Google's weather reporting is to be believed, it's going to be ten degrees cooler tomorrow than it's been the last few days, and thirty degrees cooler by Saturday. Awesome.

Tom thinks starfish are creepy

Max: Do you like starfruit?
Tom: It's all right. It's not the five-fold symmetry that bothers me.
Max: That quote totally has to go up on the blog.

The Osmotic Governor

I'm thinking a list is in order

• Idaho's Butch Otter: legislative, executive, and military experience, a Catholic.
• North Dakota's John Hoeven: very popular, nation's longest serving gov, former CEO, a conservative Catholic.
• Minnesota's Tim Pawlenty: legislative and executive experience, a former executive of a company, Evangelical. Interacted with officials from India, China, Mexico, Canada on matters of trade.
• Vermont's Jim Douglas: political wunderkind with legislative and executive experience. Established a sister city in Russia, fluent in Russian. No doubt deals with Canadian syrup poachers. A Freemason!
• Florida's Charlie Crist: right there in the name. Methodist swing-state gov.
• From the former Republic of Texas, Rick Perry: long-serving gov, former Air Force officer, legislative experience, social conservative. On the other hand, Endorsed Giuliani.
• Hawaii's Linda Lingle: long-serving Jewish gov. Mayor, council-member, high approval rating. Hawaii is very close to a number of other countries... compared to a lot of states.

So, I'm not sure... but do you think one of these border-state governors might have more experience than the one up for VP? Maybe even useful experience? No? Seriously? Alaska?

Soren Stats - 4 Months

Length


Weight

Ruud the Day

Shoulda read my blog, Ruud.

Read This One Rich

The book I couldn't recall was The Calculus of Consent:Logical Foundations of Constitutional Democracy, by Gordon Tullock and James Buchanan. It enumerates the cases pretty convincingly, and points out that in determining the optimal decision-making procedure one has to consider the increase in coordination costs vs the imposition of external costs.

Ultimately, I was not happy with their assumptions, though--I can't recall which, exactly, though, unsettled me.

Another book I couldn't recall was by Michael Pollan, and called The Botany of Desire:A Plant's-Eye View of the World. It talked about the coevolution of humans and plants.

Little Flyer

Soren came through the flights with ease and as much aplomb as a baby can muster, much as he seems to come through everything.

In order to facilitate logistics, we asked Susan's folks to front us a car seat that we'd buy from them as we left. We came away with a very nice Britax Marathon carseat. It should be good for Soren up to 49 inches standing height and 65 pounds. Hopefully that won't be, per our friend A.M., at 17 months old, or whatever her extrapolation was. The very nice thing about this seat is that the straps are padded a little, and don't come as close to the rapidly growing neck of the little 'un. Also, we have a "blowout protection" pad, to catch any runaway poos.

It was really only a matter of time, wasn't it?

Wookieepedia

Carrot Salad

We had a salad-themed dinner last evening. Potato, fruit, pasta, carrot, and cucumber salads were on parade. M and D made the potato and fruit salads, Susan made the pasta salad, and I made carrot and cucumber salads. I made a pretty normal cucumber salad that we all know and love, though I made it undersweet, much to my chagrin. The carrot salad I got from Mark Bittman, and it was delicious.
More or less, it goes like this:

• peel and grate 1 1/2 lbs carrots
• combine juice 2 oranges, 1 lemon and 2 tbsp olive oil
• add 1 tsp cumin to liquid
• toss the carrots in the liquid, salt and pepper to taste

It was delicious.

My Ties Are Cooler Than Me

I don't know how that happened. Well, I do know how I got them and I'm painfully aware of my level of coolness, but it still seems somewhat of a mystery how these cool ties got into my closet.