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.

Shaky

That was exciting.

Magnitude 5.4 - GREATER LOS ANGELES AREA, CALIFORNIA

World War Z

So, on my way to work at night, I've been listening to the audiobook version of World War Z, which Tom got and read a while back. It took a little while to get into it - the format is just a series of interviews - but by the end of the first disc I was pretty engaged. In addition to the author, Max Brooks, a whole cast of actors is involved in reading the book (Alan Alda, Mark Hamill, Carl & Rob Reiner, and John Turturro, to name a few). I was frustrated at first by the guy who read the part of the Chinese doctor; his accent was distracting and really poorly done. But once I got past the first few segments, the actors did a better job, and it's pretty interesting how much detail Brooks put into his work. His interviewees are quite varied in their backgrounds - military, civillian, government officials, medical personnel - so you get a sense of how the Zombie War played out from many different perspectives, and each one moves forward chronologically just a bit from the last.

Anyway, I'm not quite done with the book (almost 4/5 of the way through), but I think I've heard enough to say that it's worth a read/listen. It's a little creepy, a little slow in the beginning, but entertaining overall.

Intolerable Cuteness

Soren is wearing his little University of Oregon one-piece and hat. I cannot stand it. It is cuter than anything I've ever seen in my entire life.



See?

Got It!

Soren Weight at Three Months

Pictures

We picked up some pictures from my parents when we stopped on our way back to LA. I scanned them in and Susan's been fixing them up during the wee hours. Check them out at my flickr page.

Watching a Bit of Soccer

Message to Ruud Gullit: What are you doing with those bums in your defense? I would be willing to play for a reduced salary. Call me.

God Bless America

Channel surfing, just now, we stumbled upon Alien Nation, en Español. Who among us didn't love the kidney-bean-head aliens and their daring salt-water Russian roulette?

More about "The Economy of Cities"

Okay, in comments there was a question:

So is this book written from the perspective of "I know how to best plan cities"? Without any data, how can the author make a claim that mixed zoning is physically inefficient?

To the first part: no. The author basically claims in this book that the "city planning" we mostly know and loathe is worse than useless, and development should mostly be allowed to occur spontaneously.

To the second: there isn't any data presented, so she can't, if you ask me.

Grand Parents

My dad, much on his dignity, on the floor with my son:

My mom, soothing a weary, tiny, traveler (>700 miles in the car today):

.

Cute Overload!

Hilarity

I haven't laughed this hard at something in a while.

Check it out.

Oh, NPR.

I was listening to a local show which does film reviews on Friday. As they were discussing the movie Mongol, one of the film critics complained that the movie had too many battle scenes. In a movie about Ghengis Khan? Too many battle scenes?

Inefficient Cities as Sources of New Work

As I continue with "The Economy of Cities" there have been a number of assertions that seemed relatively uncontroversial (what with my vast knowledge of development economics). However, there's no data in this book, that I've yet seen.

I've gotten to the point in the book where the author is contending that inefficient cities--those that are somewhat "organic" in their physical and economic layouts--are engines of innovation. The idea seems pretty reasonable: a number of small firms duplicating work (economically inefficient) and/or being lumped hurly-burly next-door to different pursuits, whether business, residential, or commercial (physically inefficient) may lead to new ways of doing work, new firms making new things, what have you.

Never Thought I'd See That in Print

I jussst started reading The Economy of Cities, by Jane Jacobs. Not fifteen pages in, this gem:

...factories in rural West Virginia employed local people who already knew how to sew and possibly even made their own underwear but this should not persuade us that therefore brassiere making developed from subsistence underwear making in West Virginia.

"Subsistence underwear making" is just hilarious. Like, there they are, barely scratching out their chemises and boxer-briefs.

Height

Here you go.

Eating Enough?

Report

Well, that went okay. I fear that my talk was pitched to the wrong
level, but a few people seemed to follow it and even enjoy it a bit.

I had something like fourteen one-half-hour interviews, as well as
lunching and dining with some of the people. Those all went very smoothly.

For someone with actual knowledge of that industry, it seems like it
would be a truly wonderful place.

San Jose

Going up tomorrow afternoon. I have a day of interviews there and will be giving a seminar on my research at a research unit of a well-known tech company. Somewhat nervous, but also not too bad, as I don't think a) there's a single chance in hell I'll get it, b) don't even really want it.

Still... advice?

Soren's Growth

Continuing apace

Oh, Patton. Another Jest!

"Casserole of evil."

That's some good coinage.

Air Talk

Sometimes, I'm terribly surprised at the things I hear on the radio. With the Pope's visit coming up, it seems as though NPR is all Christianity, all the time.

Yesterday, while interviewing a couple of men in seminary, a hostess made the point that the general public don't really know much about what the lives of seminarians and priests are like. She actually said something to the effect that "the perception is that priests live very cloistered lives."

This morning, I got off the phone and turned the radio on and heard a
host talking to a priest--I think it was a priest--about coitus interruptus.

Dawn of the Dead

Hilarious if you leave the captions on. E.g. "Undead gnashing of teeth" and "cadaverous moaning."

Hello, World

Where is my mind?

I like this song by the Pixies. It came on my internet radio station at work. I said to myself, "Tom"--'cause that's what I go by, back home, is 'Tom'--where is your mind?"

Oh - stop

With your feet in the air and your head on the ground Try this trick and spin it, yeah Your head will collapse But there's nothing in it And you'll ask yourself

Where is my mind?

Way out in the water See it swimmin'

I was swimmin' in the Caribbean Animals were hiding behind the rocks Except the little fish But they told me, he swears Tryin' to talk to me, coy koi.

The What Wing?

In the sixth season, there's an episode where the President hosts peace talks between Israel and some Palestinian authority. In comments on the progress of talks, C.J. mentions the great success of the lunch buffet. The menu included Maryland crab cakes.

A big hit with those Israelis and Palestinians? Really?

I'm thinking not.

Sooo, About That Job Interview

I just found out they want to make me an offer.

I Chose A

I'll tell you about it later.

Tie Vote (har har)

As our hero prepares for his big job interview in DC next week, he seeks the wisdom of the people in an important aesthetic decision.

Option A:

Option B:

Commence voting!

I is...

Too tard to moddle.

No, Not Them!

Since Susan and I are planning on a natural childbirth for our soon-to-arrive progeny, I've procured and started to read Husband-Coached Childbirth. An interesting passage:

My personal experience covering forty-six years and over twenty-three thousand babies is a zero maternal mortality rate. This is in spite of the fact that we have a high concentration of high-risk patients--kyphotic dwarfs, pneumonectomy patients, cardiac surgery patients, diabetic patients, and the most frightening of all, the Jehovah's Witnesses who came to us in droves.

Oh no! Not the Jehovah's Witnesses!

Weird Meme

Okay, here it is: find the book closest to you. Turn to page 123. Locate the fifth sentence. Post the sixth, seventh, and eighth sentences.

The book closest to me was The Physics of Information Technology, by Neil Gershenfeld. The selection is below.

To find the field distribution everywhere, it's necessary t o solve Maxwell's equations in cylindrical coordinates for a diverging wave. This is a surprisingly non-trivial calculation [Yariv, 1991], but the result drawn in Figure 8.4 for the fundamental radial and azimuthal mode TEM₀₀ is close to what we just found. At the focus, the phase fronts are parallel and the transverse amplitude has a Gaussian dependence with a standard deviation of w, the beam waist.

So, that was fun! Do it, people of the world!

Very Tired

Between work and moving, there is little rest for the weary, let alone the wicked.

Tourist Tips for D.C.?

Anybody have any? The people at Pentagon directorate did decide to bring me out for an interview.

Fondue or die!

Okay, the organization of the fondue dinner has passed email capability. I'm making a post here to get it all out there. Discuss in comments.

What
Fondue dinner and dessert. Currently we don't have fixed recipe, but the requirements are minimal: gruyere, emmenthaler, dry white wine, garlic, kirsch, and cornstarch for the dip. Suggested victims are: cubes of a nice, slightly stale, bread, lightly seared strips of lamb, pork, and various vegetables (carrots, broccoli, asparagus).

We have access to Demetri's fondue pot. We will need at least one, probably two more (one for a meat-free version, and one for dessert). Mostly, any heavy-walled sauce pan ought to do. We'll need several tea-lights or votive candles and something with which to raise the pots over them (here we could use the grates from Max's stove and some trivets).

If anyone (besides us) has a Lazy Susan, it would be great if we could borrow it, to grant easy access to the dipping-foods.

Dessert seems likely to be chocolate fondue. I don't know a recipe for this, but I'll bet it will involve a bunch of dark chocolate, some small amount of toasted nuts (filberts, maybe?), a bit of milk or cream and a bit of red wine. For dipping we have suggestions: strawberries, tiny oranges.

Where
Max's apartment.

Why
Duh. Cheese.

When
Saturday night, current proposals are 6:30pm, and 7:00pm.

Who
Currently we have Max, Demetri, John, Susan, Tom, Alice, ML, Dan, and Auna M.

Supplies
We can get the "fondue" ingredients. Others want to sign up for the dipping-foods, tea-lights, and anything else we've neglected?

I Can Haz Cheezburger?

Can I?

Even Steven Gets a Pony

Well, career week has come to a close. I had a couple of on-campus screening interviews. One went very well. Unless I completely misjudged the second one, it did not go so very well. That's okay, though: I got a USB key and a golf-towel out of it. No, I didn't mug the interviewer.

The upshot is that a directorate within the Office of the Secretary of Defense is very likely to bring me to D.C. to interview for a position as a staff analyst. Very interesting work, seems pretty important.

David Brooks

The lesson of the Ecology Narrative is that, in most cases, the market corrects itself. Maybe this year banks will change their pay structure so there’s not so much emphasis on short-term results. Maybe companies will change their boards to improve scrutiny over complex new instruments.

Pfffffff. Sure, you bet! Path dependence is a myth, and the principal-agent problem doesn't exist!

The Perfect Reality Show

Wow. Oh. My. Jeez. They're showing new episodes of Chuck, again. As a special treat, they decided to show two episodes tonight. Between, they sandwiched an episode of The Celebrity Apprentice. But this post is not about that! Susan changed the channel so we wouldn't have to see that, and stumbled upon... Celebrity Rehab With Dr. Drew! Interestingly, it is set at his clinic in Pasadena, and (occasionally) at Huntington Memorial Hospital, also in Pasadena. Such luminaries as Daniel Baldwin, Mary Carey, Brigitte Nielsen grace the halls, messy and bizarre.

Man, you really like Tide

At lunch today the topic somehow got turned to historical mathematicians. I think we were talking about Cantor, and how he went crazy. That was a shame. Euler, interestingly, continued to do stuff after he went blind. And he had, like, twelve kids.

We also talked about how several scientists (like artists) had patrons who supported them. We imagined what it would be like if scientists, mathematicians, and philosophers, were sponsored in the modern sense: Isaac Newton's universal gravitation, brought to you by Fidelity! Occam's Razor, brought to you by Gillette!

Better Lucky than Good

Last Friday an old classmate of my advisor came calling at Caltech to do some recruiting. I (all unawares because I thought he'd be around this week for the career fair) met with him and talked for an hour or so about what I've worked on, and what he works on. In the end, he said he'd filled the position in his group but that he was recruiting for several groups at his company and that I ought to send him my curriculum vitae.

After a couple of hours polishing it up a bit (with the help of Susan and Max), I sent it along.

Apparently I made a good impression, because they'll be inviting me for an interview. It may be too soon, as a practical matter, but it is exciting.

Accidents

Ever been rear-ended at the grocery store?

What about by a crazy lady with a cart?

When you were standing in the checkout line?

Gentlemen and ladies, I implore you! Do not run into people's butts with your fully-loaded grocery cart. Those things sting.

What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?

I often get the question: What do you want to do with your degree?

The honest answer is that I don't much care. I can get interested in just about anything.

One possible response I've come up with is that I'd like to find a wealthy benefactor and then just relay interesting information to them. Any wealthy readers in need of a bard, minus the singing?

Thanks

To everyone- going to the gym will be nicer thanks to the tiny little radio Mom and Dad got me, and Barnes & Noble will be a fun excursion thanks to Yaya and the Parents-in-law.

My feet are already enjoying these awesome SmartWool socks Susan got me! Though they got quite wet on the ride in today, my toes are still warm. The magic of wool.

Many thanks...

To Ma & Pa Johnson, for bringing an extremely excellent fellow into the world 28 years ago today.

Just a minute

So I've transitioned from swimming to running for the duration of the Harsh Southern California Winter™. I ended up toting around a lot of water in my ear, which started to get unpleasant, what with the gentle breeze and low daytime temperatures in the high 60s. For a couple of weeks, then, I've been running on the treadmill a bit more every day or two, and swimming less every day or two, in an effort not to foul up my knee again.

On Sunday, after doing a "normal" workout, I did a self-test: I decided to see if I could run a mile at a fair clip. In the end, I ran a mile in 6:39--just one minute slower than I did it ten years ago, when I was a bona fide athlete. Sweet!

I really enjoy the treadmill. A wealth of data.

Grandfathers and Uncles

The lot of you.

Have Boo Boo. Not Yogi.

Last night I went to a Yoga class for the first time ever. I've long been familiar with Yoga, to the point of having people show me some postures so I could stretch more effectively, or whatever, but had until then never even sat on a Yoga mat.

My verdict: okay, perhaps more work than I was hoping for. Knowing and KNOWING that it is a difficult practice are, as ever, two different things.

This is all by way of saying that I've got some soreness today.

What What What?

Listening to NPR the other day, they're concluding a series on "consumption." No, not TB, the wallet-related kind. A few seconds long teaser for the final piece included the following gem: "Hoover dam is the drug dealer, and Las Vegas is the crack whore."

So... Las Vegas has sex with the Hoover dam in return for electricity?

Huh?

Guitar Hero

Is so much fun. Seriously. It's ridiculous.

Good Lyric

Some had crawled their way into your heart
to rend your ventricles apart