I went to yum cha yesterday with a group from the department. (If you don’t know what yum cha is, it’s the same thing as dim sum. If you don’t know what dim sum is, it's a meal composed of a lot of little dishes, like Chinese tapas.) They call it yum cha, but it was more like yuk cha to me. I was severely disappointed. A few years ago I had a Chinese roommate who would occasionally cook up an extravagant meal of what he called real Chinese food (he would mock me if he saw me eating orange chicken or something like that), and it was always super delicious, so I was really looking forward to this meal, because this restaurant was supposedly terrific – the real deal. What a letdown. Some dishes were average, some were bad. Nothing was good.
One of the bad dishes was chicken feet. Now, I was wary of this dish when it was ordered. It certainly doesn’t sound very appetizing (it looks worse), but I thought, “Screw it. I eat chicken wings, what’s the big difference?” Turns out a lot. A chicken foot is just gristle, skin, and bone – it’s disgusting. Even if you can get over the fact that you’re eating a foot, which is not easy, it’s still terrible. Everybody else loved them though (“mm, I found that foot quite enjoyable” is an actual quote from the table). When the beef tripe came out next I cried uncle. I wouldn’t touch the stuff, despite some peer pressure. I ate a few dumplings that were so-so, a pork roll that was decent, and some subpar vegetables in oyster sauce. I enjoyed the company, but from a food perspective, the only thing that I really liked was going out for coffee afterward. They put ice cream in the iced coffee here. That’s a nice touch, a nice touch indeed.
Anyway… I’ve been listening to a lot of podcasts lately, one of which is Adam Carolla’s, and I decided that I should do my own podcast, because I find myself listening to him rant about things that I was just ranting about – how Lady Gaga isn’t sexy, how Heidi Klum is annoying*, the whereabouts of Yahoo Serious – you know, the important things in life.
Another podcast I listen to is Fresh Air with Terry Gross. Recently, she had a guest on who was discussing how intrusive modern communications can be, and the topic of multi-tasking came up. Here is a bit of the interview.
GROSS: "Well, that's very ironic because we think when we're multi-tasking that we're really doing great, we're getting two things done for the price of one or three things done in the amount of time it should take to do one thing. But what are scientists learning about how efficiently we're doing any of those two or three things when we do them at the same time?"
MR. RICHTEL: "Yeah, this is another place where I don't have to equivocate. It's pretty clear to scientists you cannot do more than one thing at a time. This research goes back years... What you are basically doing is switching rapidly among those tasks, not doing them at the same time. And all the research says when you switch among those tasks, you cut your effectiveness at each one of them by a significant degree."
I’ve always thought this was true about multi-tasking, so I feel vindicated by this discussion. S is a chronic multi-tasker. She’ll have work, email, gchat, Skype, and the TV going all at the same time. The merits of multi-tasking (or lack thereof) is an ongoing battle between us. I always tell her she would actually save time by doing things in succession, and she always makes fun of me for “zoning out” and not being able to handle the simplest of tasks simultaneously. I emailed her the transcript above, but her response is that for her personally multi-tasking works – it actually saves time. My response to that is that she probably just thinks multi-tasking works for her, and if she actually did some sort of objective test, she would find that this isn’t the case. I seriously doubt such a test will ever be administered, however, so the battle will go on. It’s okay though, it’s a friendly battle, for the most part.**
* While writing this I thought of Seal and wondered why his face is scarred, so I Googled, “what’s wrong with se” and the number one suggestion was “what’s wrong with seal’s face?” Think of all the things it could’ve been: “what’s wrong with seattle’s sports teams?”, “what’s wrong with secondary education in the US?”, “what’s wrong with sex before marriage?” Nope. “what’s wrong with seal’s face”, number one. And it’s what I wanted. Turns out he had a rare disease that causes scarring, if you were wondering.
** I’m finding that all our friendly spousal battles require the “for the most part” qualifier, because there are always those moments when we’ll catch each other on a bad day or hit a nerve and it goes from laughing and joking to S suddenly being in her PJs and under the covers at 7 pm, while I’m in the other room brooding over a game of online Scrabble. That shows you how self-absorbed I can be, by the way. I have to entertain myself while I brood. I'll storm out of a room in a fit of anger, but be sure to grab the crossword puzzle, a pencil, and my glasses before I go.
Monday, August 30, 2010
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Entry 12: Gift Giving
Today is my birthday, well sort of. Here in Australia, it’s the date of my birth, but not in the States where I was born, so I’m not sure if it qualifies as my birthday or not. (It’s a pretty moot distinction.) If today is my birthday, then it’s been a good one. I did many loads of laundry, went to the gym, listened to a variety of podcasts, played a little online Scrabble, and later I’m going to get some takeout. You might think I’m being facetious when I say it’s been a good day, but I’m not. I’ve enjoyed it. I think once you past the age of, say, twelve, you can treat your birthday as any other day. That’s not to say I’m anti-birthday or anti-celebration, because I’m not. It’s just that my birthday isn’t really more special than any other day of the year.
I feel this way about holidays in general. I like holidays, because they are usually a time when people don’t have to work, and I often get to spend time with family and friends I don’t get to see on a regular basis, but there is nothing magical to me about a certain holiday, per se. As an example, one Christmas, when I was living in Maryland I was supposed to visit family in New York, however, snow storms made the roads very bad, so I wasn’t able to go. Instead, I spent Christmas lounging around my house (all my roommates where gone which was great) watching football and eating junk food. A few days later when the roads were a little better I got to see my family. I didn’t really miss out on anything important, but when I would tell people what happened the usual response was, “Oh my gosh! I’m so sorry you had to spend to Christmas alone! That’s terrible!” I didn’t think it was terrible. I was slightly irritated that my plans to see my family were postponed, but that was it. Eventually when people asked me how my Christmas was I just said, “Good.”
Another thing about holidays is the gift giving. I am sort of anti-gift giving, at least I’m anti-obligatory gift giving. In a way, obligation defeats the purpose. S got me a very nice gift before she left when I wasn’t expecting anything. I really appreciated it. That’s how it should be – no expectations, just a genuine, heartfelt gesture. Also, I’m a terrible gift giver. I never know what to get people, especially S. I actually find it very stressful to come up with gift ideas. Some years ago I told S that her birthday gift to me would be that I didn’t have to get her a gift when it was her birthday. I thought this was an ingenious idea, but it turned out to completely backfire, because by the time her birthday came along (some nine months later) the sentiment of my birthday was long forgotten, so the obligation was still there. I could have stuck to the letter of law, but it didn’t feel right. I think I bought her a handbag.*
Anyway... I’m hungry now (that earlier talk of takeout has really whetted my appetite) so I’m going to end this entry. I was going to say something about multi-tasking and how science has validated my long held disdain for it, but I think I’ll save that for another entry. That is, if it’s still on my mind when I write my next entry. Sometimes I think of something to write about, but then when I actually get a chance to sit down and write I've changed my mind.
*It was a nice bag, but it was subsequently disposed of a few months later, when we broke up (before getting back together and getting married, of course). Hey, all’s well that ends well.
I feel this way about holidays in general. I like holidays, because they are usually a time when people don’t have to work, and I often get to spend time with family and friends I don’t get to see on a regular basis, but there is nothing magical to me about a certain holiday, per se. As an example, one Christmas, when I was living in Maryland I was supposed to visit family in New York, however, snow storms made the roads very bad, so I wasn’t able to go. Instead, I spent Christmas lounging around my house (all my roommates where gone which was great) watching football and eating junk food. A few days later when the roads were a little better I got to see my family. I didn’t really miss out on anything important, but when I would tell people what happened the usual response was, “Oh my gosh! I’m so sorry you had to spend to Christmas alone! That’s terrible!” I didn’t think it was terrible. I was slightly irritated that my plans to see my family were postponed, but that was it. Eventually when people asked me how my Christmas was I just said, “Good.”
Another thing about holidays is the gift giving. I am sort of anti-gift giving, at least I’m anti-obligatory gift giving. In a way, obligation defeats the purpose. S got me a very nice gift before she left when I wasn’t expecting anything. I really appreciated it. That’s how it should be – no expectations, just a genuine, heartfelt gesture. Also, I’m a terrible gift giver. I never know what to get people, especially S. I actually find it very stressful to come up with gift ideas. Some years ago I told S that her birthday gift to me would be that I didn’t have to get her a gift when it was her birthday. I thought this was an ingenious idea, but it turned out to completely backfire, because by the time her birthday came along (some nine months later) the sentiment of my birthday was long forgotten, so the obligation was still there. I could have stuck to the letter of law, but it didn’t feel right. I think I bought her a handbag.*
Anyway... I’m hungry now (that earlier talk of takeout has really whetted my appetite) so I’m going to end this entry. I was going to say something about multi-tasking and how science has validated my long held disdain for it, but I think I’ll save that for another entry. That is, if it’s still on my mind when I write my next entry. Sometimes I think of something to write about, but then when I actually get a chance to sit down and write I've changed my mind.
*It was a nice bag, but it was subsequently disposed of a few months later, when we broke up (before getting back together and getting married, of course). Hey, all’s well that ends well.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Entry 11: From Alight to Zed
It's the little differences. Here is a letter-by-letter list of things and sayings they have in Australia, that we don’t have or say in the States.
Alight – Dismount (I actually knew this before coming here, but it confused S, “When you alight from the train… what?”)
Brekky – Breakfast (Abbreviating words and adding a 'y' or an 'o' at the end seems to be quite popular here.)
Chemist – Drug Store (I went into the local chemist looking for some HB3O3 and came away quite disappointed.)
Doco – Documentary (See, I told you. They love shortening words.)
Entrees – Appetizers (This one utterly confused me at first, because it basically means the exact opposite of what it means in the States.)
Fortnight – Two weeks (I like this one, it’s quite handy. We should use it in the States. Incidentally, I'm paid fortnightly.)
Going – Doing (As in the expression, “how you going”. It’s like a hybrid of “how're you doing” and “how’s it going”.)
Hungry Jack's – Burger King (Almost undoubtedly this has to do with a copyright issue. Probably already a Burger King here. Quick check of Wikipedia… yep.)
Idear – Idea (Overall, I like the Australian accent, but I don't like this particularly linguistic habit. Not at all. It just grates the ears. There’s no state in the US called Florider, nor is there a fish called a tuner, and I’m collecting data, not dater.)
Jandals – Flip-flops (A portmanteau of Japanese and sandals. Is it offensive? I’m not sure. To be on the safe side I'm not using it.)
Kerb – Curb ("Kerb Your Enthusiasm" -- great show, mate.)
Lamington – A cream filled cake coated with a hard chocolate shell and coconut shavings (I think it’s from New Zealand originally. Incidentally, I had my first one today, and it was gooo-ood.)
Maths – Math (I won't call it maths. I refuse.)
[What the hell is that 's' doing there?]
No Worries – Don’t worry about it
Oz – Australia
Pie – Potpie (Savory pies seem to be the default pie here, and they are quite popular as a quick snack. I've eaten a few, but they aren't very healthy. Today for lunch I got the combo special at the pie shop -- a pie, a lamington, and a pint of vanilla malted milk. I think I hit my saturated fat limit for the rest of 2010. In my defense, the queue at Subway was too long, so I went to the pie shop.)
Queue – Line (Used a fair amount in the States as well, but we would never say, “the queue at Subway was too long, so I went to the pie shop.”)
Rellies – Relatives
Salads – Vegetable toppings (I went into Subway and they asked me what salads I wanted on my sandwich. “Wow,” I thought to myself, “you can get entire salads on top of sandwiches here!” I told them to throw on a chicken Caesar, a Cobb, and a spicy Asian noodle. That was embarrassing.)
Tyre – Tire
Ute – All terrain vehicle (There’s an expression here, “root in a ute”. You’ll have to look up root yourself. Let’s just say I’m never going to tell anybody I "root" for a sports team.)
Vegemite – Yeasty dredge (See Entry 4 of this blog.)
Walking – Hiking (Sometimes called bush walking.)
XXXX – Brand of beer (I've never actually seen this beer, but I'm aware of it's existence. You know what other beer I have yet to see here? Foster’s. Turns out it’s not actually Australian for beer.)
Yeeees – Yes (Pronounced with a very emphasized long ‘e’ sound.)
Zed – The letter ‘z’ (“What number is this?” “It’s a letter, baby.” “What letter is this?” “It’s a zed.” “What’s a zed?” “Zed’s dead, baby. Zed’s dead.”)
Alight – Dismount (I actually knew this before coming here, but it confused S, “When you alight from the train… what?”)
Brekky – Breakfast (Abbreviating words and adding a 'y' or an 'o' at the end seems to be quite popular here.)
Chemist – Drug Store (I went into the local chemist looking for some HB3O3 and came away quite disappointed.)
[A chemist in Newcastle. You won't even find a period table inside.]
Doco – Documentary (See, I told you. They love shortening words.)
Entrees – Appetizers (This one utterly confused me at first, because it basically means the exact opposite of what it means in the States.)
Fortnight – Two weeks (I like this one, it’s quite handy. We should use it in the States. Incidentally, I'm paid fortnightly.)
Going – Doing (As in the expression, “how you going”. It’s like a hybrid of “how're you doing” and “how’s it going”.)
Hungry Jack's – Burger King (Almost undoubtedly this has to do with a copyright issue. Probably already a Burger King here. Quick check of Wikipedia… yep.)
Idear – Idea (Overall, I like the Australian accent, but I don't like this particularly linguistic habit. Not at all. It just grates the ears. There’s no state in the US called Florider, nor is there a fish called a tuner, and I’m collecting data, not dater.)
Jandals – Flip-flops (A portmanteau of Japanese and sandals. Is it offensive? I’m not sure. To be on the safe side I'm not using it.)
Kerb – Curb ("Kerb Your Enthusiasm" -- great show, mate.)
Lamington – A cream filled cake coated with a hard chocolate shell and coconut shavings (I think it’s from New Zealand originally. Incidentally, I had my first one today, and it was gooo-ood.)
Maths – Math (I won't call it maths. I refuse.)
[What the hell is that 's' doing there?]No Worries – Don’t worry about it
Oz – Australia
Pie – Potpie (Savory pies seem to be the default pie here, and they are quite popular as a quick snack. I've eaten a few, but they aren't very healthy. Today for lunch I got the combo special at the pie shop -- a pie, a lamington, and a pint of vanilla malted milk. I think I hit my saturated fat limit for the rest of 2010. In my defense, the queue at Subway was too long, so I went to the pie shop.)
Queue – Line (Used a fair amount in the States as well, but we would never say, “the queue at Subway was too long, so I went to the pie shop.”)
Rellies – Relatives
Salads – Vegetable toppings (I went into Subway and they asked me what salads I wanted on my sandwich. “Wow,” I thought to myself, “you can get entire salads on top of sandwiches here!” I told them to throw on a chicken Caesar, a Cobb, and a spicy Asian noodle. That was embarrassing.)
Tyre – Tire
Ute – All terrain vehicle (There’s an expression here, “root in a ute”. You’ll have to look up root yourself. Let’s just say I’m never going to tell anybody I "root" for a sports team.)
Vegemite – Yeasty dredge (See Entry 4 of this blog.)
Walking – Hiking (Sometimes called bush walking.)
XXXX – Brand of beer (I've never actually seen this beer, but I'm aware of it's existence. You know what other beer I have yet to see here? Foster’s. Turns out it’s not actually Australian for beer.)
Yeeees – Yes (Pronounced with a very emphasized long ‘e’ sound.)
Zed – The letter ‘z’ (“What number is this?” “It’s a letter, baby.” “What letter is this?” “It’s a zed.” “What’s a zed?” “Zed’s dead, baby. Zed’s dead.”)
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Entry 10: Pics!
S left last night for a few weeks to do some work in Africa. I’m going to miss her tons, but I’m glad she went. She’s been trying to get her foot in the door with short term work assignments, so this is good for her.
Also, her absence means I can implement without protest some of the ideas I’ve had for the apartment, e.g., my trash in the fridge policy. We live in a cozy (read small) apartment. Due to space constraints, our trash can is basically in our living room (there isn’t a definitive line between our kitchen and our living room). We also don’t have a garbage disposal, so getting rid of imminent stink-ables – egg shells, vegetable stalks, fruit rinds, etc. – is a bit of an issue. We don’t want these things sitting in the trash right by our sofa for too long, but we (or at least I) also don’t want to take out the trash every time I eat a banana. So, my solution is to have a trash bag in the fridge just for items like those mentioned above. It would be small, you could tuck it in the back completely unnoticeable, and you could chuck it every few days. No smell, all's swell. It’s really a great idea, but I couldn’t sell it to S. She’s too unnerved by the thought of having trash in the refrigerator. I get that it’s kinda weird, but c’mon, it’s a great outside-the-box (or should I say inside-the-box?) solution. Anyway…
Another thing about her being gone is that I was motivated to get out and explore, not that I can’t explore with her, but sometimes it’s easier to roll solo. I’ll end this entry with some photos from my neighborhood and adjacent environs.
Bar Beach from a different angle.
Also, her absence means I can implement without protest some of the ideas I’ve had for the apartment, e.g., my trash in the fridge policy. We live in a cozy (read small) apartment. Due to space constraints, our trash can is basically in our living room (there isn’t a definitive line between our kitchen and our living room). We also don’t have a garbage disposal, so getting rid of imminent stink-ables – egg shells, vegetable stalks, fruit rinds, etc. – is a bit of an issue. We don’t want these things sitting in the trash right by our sofa for too long, but we (or at least I) also don’t want to take out the trash every time I eat a banana. So, my solution is to have a trash bag in the fridge just for items like those mentioned above. It would be small, you could tuck it in the back completely unnoticeable, and you could chuck it every few days. No smell, all's swell. It’s really a great idea, but I couldn’t sell it to S. She’s too unnerved by the thought of having trash in the refrigerator. I get that it’s kinda weird, but c’mon, it’s a great outside-the-box (or should I say inside-the-box?) solution. Anyway…
Another thing about her being gone is that I was motivated to get out and explore, not that I can’t explore with her, but sometimes it’s easier to roll solo. I’ll end this entry with some photos from my neighborhood and adjacent environs.
Bar Beach. This is a ten minute walk from my apartment. Admit it, you're kinda jealous. Also, notice how empty it is. Are the locals bored with it?
Bar Beachgoers.
Bar Beach from a different angle.
Some presumably sad surfers. I didn't see many big waves.
Some old folks lawn bowling. Notice the sign doesn't include the word "lawn". Is this the default bowling here?
A chubby girl partaking in some sort of basketballesque game where there is no net nor backboard and players wear skirts.
The Hunter River. Ten minutes (in the opposite direction as Bar Beach) from my apartment. I think the massive structure is a coal terminal.
The Hunter River in the other direction. I think the structure on the point is Knobbys Lighthouse. One of these days I'm going to run along this river and see how close I can get to it. It looks like you might be able to get all the way there.
Darby Street. A scene from my doorstep. I'd eat at these cafes all the time if they weren't so damn expensive!
Monday, August 16, 2010
Entry 9: Connected
Finally, we are connected! In honor of this occasion I give you “Connected” by Stereo MCs*.
This morning I handicapped us actually getting a working DSL connection by the end of the day. I put the odds at 1-1, even money. The events of the recent past left me extremely pessimistic, but somebody was supposedly coming out to help us. When you get somebody’s actual physical presence you usually get way better service. They can’t just transfer you. Anyway, the coin flip came up our way today, and we’re now online.
I’m still planning on not using Internet much at night. Like I said before, I’m enjoying doing other things, but it’s nice to have it here if I want it. It’s very good for S though, she can work now without cursing that little Mac rainbow spinner, download “Project Runway,”** and call friends and family in the States on our Vonage phone during the day (when it’s still a reasonable hour over there). She’s happy now, and I think our marriage is secure again.
In other news, mathematical/computer science news, about a week ago a man named Vinay Deolalikar produced a draft of a “proof” that P does not equal NP. This is one of the most famous open problems in mathematics and one of the Millennium Million Dollar Prize Problems. Although, I don’t have a super deep background in this area of mathematics (complexity theory), I can give a layperson’s description.
There are two prominent sets of problems in theoretical computer science. One is classified as NP problems, the other as P problems. NP problems are those you can “efficiently” check a solution for if you already have one. P problems are those you can “efficiently” find a solution for. It’s well-established that all problems in P are also in NP. What isn’t currently known is whether or not there are problems in NP that are not in P. That is, does P = NP? I believe it’s safe to say that most experts think the answer is no*** (perhaps, if for no deeper reason than, it would be pretty weird if the answer is yes), but there is no verified proof.
Dr. Deolalikar has yet to produce a finished journal paper for referee review (the review could, literally, take years to complete), but based on the draft, experts are skeptical. Apparently, there are a few issues that don’t seem immediately fixable. The verdict is very much still out though, so we will all wait and see. (You're on pins and needles, I'm sure.)
In other, other news, sporting news, I’ve taken up squash. I’m a pretty good racquetball player, but there are no courts here, so I’m trying a related game. I like squash, but I find it frustrating because it’s not racquetball – the game I already know and like and can play well. I’ve gone to club a few times, but I haven’t won a match yet. I even lost 2 of 3 to a woman I’d peg as being in her mid-50s. (The saddest part of this is that I was happy to win one.) I could hit much harder than her and outrun her, but she just stood in the middle of the court and hit these nicely placed dinkers. Still, I think I’m not bad for a beginner – I have to keep in mind that most people in the club have played hundreds, maybe even thousands of games, I’ve played about 10 – so I’ll keep going with it. I spent $90 on the racket, after all, and it’s very good exercise (especially when you are constantly out of position like me). It beats the treadmill, so that’s something.
* Stereo MCs are (were?) a British quasi-electronic rap group. They had a few radio hits in the early 90s, but are mostly unknown. I always kinda dug them though.
** I’ve sorta gotten into this show. Considering all the garbage S watches, I figured it’d be awful, but it’s not bad. I don’t really watch an entire episode intently, but I’ll come in and out and then watch the runway part at the end.
*** From Wikipedia: In a 2002 poll of 100 researchers, 61 believed the answer to be no, 9 believed the answer is yes, and 22 were unsure; 8 believed the question may be independent of the currently accepted axioms and so impossible to prove or disprove.
This morning I handicapped us actually getting a working DSL connection by the end of the day. I put the odds at 1-1, even money. The events of the recent past left me extremely pessimistic, but somebody was supposedly coming out to help us. When you get somebody’s actual physical presence you usually get way better service. They can’t just transfer you. Anyway, the coin flip came up our way today, and we’re now online.
[Our marriage-saving modem.]
I’m still planning on not using Internet much at night. Like I said before, I’m enjoying doing other things, but it’s nice to have it here if I want it. It’s very good for S though, she can work now without cursing that little Mac rainbow spinner, download “Project Runway,”** and call friends and family in the States on our Vonage phone during the day (when it’s still a reasonable hour over there). She’s happy now, and I think our marriage is secure again.
In other news, mathematical/computer science news, about a week ago a man named Vinay Deolalikar produced a draft of a “proof” that P does not equal NP. This is one of the most famous open problems in mathematics and one of the Millennium Million Dollar Prize Problems. Although, I don’t have a super deep background in this area of mathematics (complexity theory), I can give a layperson’s description.
There are two prominent sets of problems in theoretical computer science. One is classified as NP problems, the other as P problems. NP problems are those you can “efficiently” check a solution for if you already have one. P problems are those you can “efficiently” find a solution for. It’s well-established that all problems in P are also in NP. What isn’t currently known is whether or not there are problems in NP that are not in P. That is, does P = NP? I believe it’s safe to say that most experts think the answer is no*** (perhaps, if for no deeper reason than, it would be pretty weird if the answer is yes), but there is no verified proof.
Dr. Deolalikar has yet to produce a finished journal paper for referee review (the review could, literally, take years to complete), but based on the draft, experts are skeptical. Apparently, there are a few issues that don’t seem immediately fixable. The verdict is very much still out though, so we will all wait and see. (You're on pins and needles, I'm sure.)
In other, other news, sporting news, I’ve taken up squash. I’m a pretty good racquetball player, but there are no courts here, so I’m trying a related game. I like squash, but I find it frustrating because it’s not racquetball – the game I already know and like and can play well. I’ve gone to club a few times, but I haven’t won a match yet. I even lost 2 of 3 to a woman I’d peg as being in her mid-50s. (The saddest part of this is that I was happy to win one.) I could hit much harder than her and outrun her, but she just stood in the middle of the court and hit these nicely placed dinkers. Still, I think I’m not bad for a beginner – I have to keep in mind that most people in the club have played hundreds, maybe even thousands of games, I’ve played about 10 – so I’ll keep going with it. I spent $90 on the racket, after all, and it’s very good exercise (especially when you are constantly out of position like me). It beats the treadmill, so that’s something.
* Stereo MCs are (were?) a British quasi-electronic rap group. They had a few radio hits in the early 90s, but are mostly unknown. I always kinda dug them though.
** I’ve sorta gotten into this show. Considering all the garbage S watches, I figured it’d be awful, but it’s not bad. I don’t really watch an entire episode intently, but I’ll come in and out and then watch the runway part at the end.
*** From Wikipedia: In a 2002 poll of 100 researchers, 61 believed the answer to be no, 9 believed the answer is yes, and 22 were unsure; 8 believed the question may be independent of the currently accepted axioms and so impossible to prove or disprove.
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Entry 8: Left Behind and Cricket
Quick Internet update: after several more rounds of phone calls, Telstra finally sent the modem. It arrived yesterday. Unfortunately, we don’t have an active phone line to plug into it. Why not? Nobody knows. Telstra is supposed to send somebody out to determine what the problem is on Monday. I’m not optimistic about this getting resolved soon. It’s weird how difficult it is to give Telstra our business. We want to give them money (probably foolishly). We actually contemplated giving up with Telstra and trying a new company, but decided against it. If we start over with the other big provider that we know of, what are the chances that they are going to be any better? (Is Verizon any better than Comcast, or vice versa?) We probably would just go through the same bullshit we already went through, and just be less far along in the process. If we go with a smaller provider, we have been told that, ultimately, it all comes back to one of the big providers, anyway, as the smaller ones just piggyback on their networks.
Anyway…
I moved offices. Before I was sharing with one Ph. D. student which wasn’t bad, but now a second Ph. D. student has moved in and it got bad. One is OK, because if you don’t talk then it’s quiet, because your officemate has nobody to talk to. With two they can talk to each other, and it is basically impossible for me to work if two people are having a conversation a yard away from me. So, I moved out, and now I have my own office, which is good, but it’s two floors down from where all my colleagues sit (which is why I didn’t just go there in the first place) which sorta sucks, especially if you are relatively new, because it’s harder just to pop in and ask people things, and you get left out of the loop more easily.
For example, every Thursday a group of people in the department go out to dinner. I was planning on getting in on the fun, so a young professor F, whom I’ve gotten to know a bit, said he would give me a ride around 6:00. So come 6:00, I go up to his office, but hear him in a meeting with my “boss” N in her office. I can’t very well disturb their meeting, so I go back down to my office. Every few minutes, though, I walk up near N’s office and crane my neck to hear if they are still meeting. I do this until about 6:30 and then think, “Screw it. I can’t do this all night. I’m just going to wait in my office and work until he comes down to get me.” At 7:00, he still hasn’t come, and the next bus for a long time is coming in five minutes, so I pack up, go up to N’s office, which is now closed and quiet, and leave.
I find out later, that of course, he forgot I had moved offices (despite me sending him an email that day about it), went to my old office after his meeting, found it locked, thought I had tired of waiting and left, so he just went to the restaurant without me. Obviously, this wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t moved offices, but it also wouldn’t have happened if I moved into a new office on the same floor, because I would have heard him leaving his meeting and knocking on my old office door. That’s the danger of having an office two floors down.
Anyway, he was very apologetic about it the next day (and the night it happened actually, he called our mobile once he realized his mistake), but I just told him “no worries”, and then we had a good conversation about the play of cricket. It sounds sorta cool. Kind of like baseball only longer (a match can go six hours a day, for five days), with more “bunting”, and less power hitting, so basically like baseball with the least desirable things about baseball emphasized.
F (who’s a Kiwi) and another professor J (who’s Australian) told me about a famous cricket match, Australia vs. New Zealand in 1981. New Zealand was on their last hit and needed 6 runs to tie the game – this is the most you can score in cricket on a single hit. (To get “a six” you have to hit the ball over the boundary. It’s similar to a baseball homerun.) Unlike in baseball where you can continue to bat until you have three outs, in Cricket, you usually have a fixed number of “at bats”, so this was the last chance for New Zealand – a six or they lose. The Australian captain then had his bowler (who incidentally was the captain’s brother) roll the ball on the ground underhand (or underarm as they apparently call it here) making it impossible to hit for any distance. Although this was technically not against the rules, it was apparently so unsportsmanlike, that it rocked the international cricket community. (It must have been a big deal if it is well-remembered nearly 30 years later.) In reading the Wikipedia entry on this incident, my favorite quote is from the New Zealand PM at the time Robert Muldoon “it was an act of true cowardice and I consider it appropriate that the Australian team were wearing yellow”. Ooh… diss! There’s just no reply to that.
Anyway…
I moved offices. Before I was sharing with one Ph. D. student which wasn’t bad, but now a second Ph. D. student has moved in and it got bad. One is OK, because if you don’t talk then it’s quiet, because your officemate has nobody to talk to. With two they can talk to each other, and it is basically impossible for me to work if two people are having a conversation a yard away from me. So, I moved out, and now I have my own office, which is good, but it’s two floors down from where all my colleagues sit (which is why I didn’t just go there in the first place) which sorta sucks, especially if you are relatively new, because it’s harder just to pop in and ask people things, and you get left out of the loop more easily.
For example, every Thursday a group of people in the department go out to dinner. I was planning on getting in on the fun, so a young professor F, whom I’ve gotten to know a bit, said he would give me a ride around 6:00. So come 6:00, I go up to his office, but hear him in a meeting with my “boss” N in her office. I can’t very well disturb their meeting, so I go back down to my office. Every few minutes, though, I walk up near N’s office and crane my neck to hear if they are still meeting. I do this until about 6:30 and then think, “Screw it. I can’t do this all night. I’m just going to wait in my office and work until he comes down to get me.” At 7:00, he still hasn’t come, and the next bus for a long time is coming in five minutes, so I pack up, go up to N’s office, which is now closed and quiet, and leave.
I find out later, that of course, he forgot I had moved offices (despite me sending him an email that day about it), went to my old office after his meeting, found it locked, thought I had tired of waiting and left, so he just went to the restaurant without me. Obviously, this wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t moved offices, but it also wouldn’t have happened if I moved into a new office on the same floor, because I would have heard him leaving his meeting and knocking on my old office door. That’s the danger of having an office two floors down.
Anyway, he was very apologetic about it the next day (and the night it happened actually, he called our mobile once he realized his mistake), but I just told him “no worries”, and then we had a good conversation about the play of cricket. It sounds sorta cool. Kind of like baseball only longer (a match can go six hours a day, for five days), with more “bunting”, and less power hitting, so basically like baseball with the least desirable things about baseball emphasized.
F (who’s a Kiwi) and another professor J (who’s Australian) told me about a famous cricket match, Australia vs. New Zealand in 1981. New Zealand was on their last hit and needed 6 runs to tie the game – this is the most you can score in cricket on a single hit. (To get “a six” you have to hit the ball over the boundary. It’s similar to a baseball homerun.) Unlike in baseball where you can continue to bat until you have three outs, in Cricket, you usually have a fixed number of “at bats”, so this was the last chance for New Zealand – a six or they lose. The Australian captain then had his bowler (who incidentally was the captain’s brother) roll the ball on the ground underhand (or underarm as they apparently call it here) making it impossible to hit for any distance. Although this was technically not against the rules, it was apparently so unsportsmanlike, that it rocked the international cricket community. (It must have been a big deal if it is well-remembered nearly 30 years later.) In reading the Wikipedia entry on this incident, my favorite quote is from the New Zealand PM at the time Robert Muldoon “it was an act of true cowardice and I consider it appropriate that the Australian team were wearing yellow”. Ooh… diss! There’s just no reply to that.
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Entry 7: Internet Woes
[Mayim Bialik and our piece of crap USB Internet connector]
The title of this entry made me think of the ‘90s sitcom Blossom, because Joey Lawrence (who played Blossom’s brother on the show) had the catchphrase “Whoa!” Maybe a wittier title would have been “Internet Whoas!” Blossom was one of those shows I liked at the time, but imagine would be completely unwatchable now. I used to call this girl in my 8th grade history class Blossom, because I thought she had a weird resemblance to Mayim Bialik. I had a small crush on her. She subsequently went on to run with the “bad crowd”, put on fifty pounds, and get pregnant by this other kid in my class. That pretty much ended the weird resemblance to Mayim Bialik. The crush was over long before that.
Unlike an episode of Blossom, though, this Internet problem is no laughing matter. It sucks. All we have for Internet at home is this crappy USB stick that’s supposed to pick up a signal from god knows where.* Sometimes it works (meaning gmail only takes 3 minutes to load), often it just flat out doesn’t work. For me, it’s not such a huge deal. If I can’t log on to post a blog entry (I type them all out on Word beforehand) or check my fantasy baseball teams, so be it. I have good access at work. I don’t like spending time online at work, because it’s a really bad habit, and seriously decreases my productivity, but I can if I want to. Work Internet is enough for me.**
For S it’s a different story, because she has to log on to a remote server to do her contracting work (a substantial part of our income at the moment). Also, a lot of her leisure activities (gchat, Skype, NPR, People, “Project Runway”) are online. Basically, without Internet she can’t do anything. To make matters worse, we are getting the run around from Telstra (an Australian communications giant) in trying to get a decent DSL connection. Seriously, this company has me longing for Comcast. Listen to this…
First, we ordered a modem and they told us it would arrive in a few days. When it didn’t, S called and was told that they can’t mail the modem until we activate our phone line (which we were planning on doing soon), so they just canceled the order – no notification or anything. Next, we tried to activate the phone line and were told we needed to provide proof of residence. So, S walked to a Telstra office at the end of our block to show them our rental contract, but it turned out to be a corporate office not a customer service center. However, somebody was nice (and incompetent, but I’m getting ahead of myself) and faxed the rental contract to the customer service center, so that our phone could be activated and a modem could be mailed. S then called today to ensure that our modem was being mailed, and they said yes – it should arrive Friday. Then at about 7:00pm this evening, we get a text saying that only the cover sheet for the fax had been sent. S immediately called and confirmed that, yes, we would have to refax it – back to square one.
Ugh… It literally brought S to tears of frustration and then I tried to help, but couldn’t really do much, because it’s not like I have Internet in my pocket that I’ve been hiding, and then her frustration got directed at me, and then I got upset, and it turned into a tense situation. Like I said, this whole thing sucks. If Telstra leads to the demise of my marriage, they will get a sternly worded letter from me. I assure you of that.
* It’s not like the States here, where you can go into a Starbucks (or almost any other café), buy a latte, and get free wi-fi for the day.
** I actually am enjoying not having leisurely access to the Internet. I am reading a lot, exercising, and I’ve starting dabbling in Chess. I got a book on strategy and have been playing against my computer. I’m still not that good though, the computer beats me nearly 65% of the time, on difficulty level 5 of 10.
Unlike an episode of Blossom, though, this Internet problem is no laughing matter. It sucks. All we have for Internet at home is this crappy USB stick that’s supposed to pick up a signal from god knows where.* Sometimes it works (meaning gmail only takes 3 minutes to load), often it just flat out doesn’t work. For me, it’s not such a huge deal. If I can’t log on to post a blog entry (I type them all out on Word beforehand) or check my fantasy baseball teams, so be it. I have good access at work. I don’t like spending time online at work, because it’s a really bad habit, and seriously decreases my productivity, but I can if I want to. Work Internet is enough for me.**
For S it’s a different story, because she has to log on to a remote server to do her contracting work (a substantial part of our income at the moment). Also, a lot of her leisure activities (gchat, Skype, NPR, People, “Project Runway”) are online. Basically, without Internet she can’t do anything. To make matters worse, we are getting the run around from Telstra (an Australian communications giant) in trying to get a decent DSL connection. Seriously, this company has me longing for Comcast. Listen to this…
First, we ordered a modem and they told us it would arrive in a few days. When it didn’t, S called and was told that they can’t mail the modem until we activate our phone line (which we were planning on doing soon), so they just canceled the order – no notification or anything. Next, we tried to activate the phone line and were told we needed to provide proof of residence. So, S walked to a Telstra office at the end of our block to show them our rental contract, but it turned out to be a corporate office not a customer service center. However, somebody was nice (and incompetent, but I’m getting ahead of myself) and faxed the rental contract to the customer service center, so that our phone could be activated and a modem could be mailed. S then called today to ensure that our modem was being mailed, and they said yes – it should arrive Friday. Then at about 7:00pm this evening, we get a text saying that only the cover sheet for the fax had been sent. S immediately called and confirmed that, yes, we would have to refax it – back to square one.
Ugh… It literally brought S to tears of frustration and then I tried to help, but couldn’t really do much, because it’s not like I have Internet in my pocket that I’ve been hiding, and then her frustration got directed at me, and then I got upset, and it turned into a tense situation. Like I said, this whole thing sucks. If Telstra leads to the demise of my marriage, they will get a sternly worded letter from me. I assure you of that.
* It’s not like the States here, where you can go into a Starbucks (or almost any other café), buy a latte, and get free wi-fi for the day.
** I actually am enjoying not having leisurely access to the Internet. I am reading a lot, exercising, and I’ve starting dabbling in Chess. I got a book on strategy and have been playing against my computer. I’m still not that good though, the computer beats me nearly 65% of the time, on difficulty level 5 of 10.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Entry 6: Moving and Driving
[Our new living room.]
We moved. It’s nice to have that settled. It turned out to be a bit of an ordeal, the actual moving part that is, but it’s done. We borrowed my “boss’s” car for the move. It was very nice of her. It would have taken us all day to move via public transportation. It was also very brave of her, being that neither S nor I have an Australian driver’s license (or should I say, licence), nor have we ever driven on the left side of the street, nor have we ever operated a car with the steering wheel on the right side.
To make things a bit more interesting, it was raining. Hard. Like monsoon season hard – torrential downpour. Visibility was awful and we were often working from a map. Plus, I had a fear of driving through a massive puddle (of which there were many) and having the engine seize. I would have felt uncomfortable driving in that weather in any country, but S didn’t want to drive, so I did all of it. (Given the conditions, there is no way my male ego would have let me cede the driver’s seat to her, anyway.) I drove, she navigated. It went okay. Not perfect – for example, I kept turning on and off the blinker instead of the windshield wipers and vice-versa (they are on the opposite side as I am used to) and parallel parking was a bitch – but all things considered, I’m happy with our performance.
The weather broke for a few hours (meaning it was just raining very hard instead of ridiculously hard) after we finished moving, so we decided to take the opportunity to make a trip to the mall. We had to buy some linens and things. Actually, I just ate lunch at the mall. S did the shopping and took the bus back. Conveniently, I had to get to work – no time for me to shop.
Speaking of work, it’s going pretty well. I’m working on two projects, which is good because when I get stuck on one (which is inevitable in the math biz) I can work on the other and not feel like I’m completely wasting time. Things have gotten to the point where I can work on my own and still accomplish things. For now, at least, because I’m just trying to formulate the problem I’ll be working on, which I can basically do with just pen and paper. Once I start trying to solve the problem and I have to learn all the software platforms and integrate new code with what’s already been developed, that’s going to be a whole other story. But, I’ll deal with that later. Just like Sick Boy from Trainspotting said, “tomorrow will take care aw itself.”*
To make things a bit more interesting, it was raining. Hard. Like monsoon season hard – torrential downpour. Visibility was awful and we were often working from a map. Plus, I had a fear of driving through a massive puddle (of which there were many) and having the engine seize. I would have felt uncomfortable driving in that weather in any country, but S didn’t want to drive, so I did all of it. (Given the conditions, there is no way my male ego would have let me cede the driver’s seat to her, anyway.) I drove, she navigated. It went okay. Not perfect – for example, I kept turning on and off the blinker instead of the windshield wipers and vice-versa (they are on the opposite side as I am used to) and parallel parking was a bitch – but all things considered, I’m happy with our performance.
The weather broke for a few hours (meaning it was just raining very hard instead of ridiculously hard) after we finished moving, so we decided to take the opportunity to make a trip to the mall. We had to buy some linens and things. Actually, I just ate lunch at the mall. S did the shopping and took the bus back. Conveniently, I had to get to work – no time for me to shop.
Speaking of work, it’s going pretty well. I’m working on two projects, which is good because when I get stuck on one (which is inevitable in the math biz) I can work on the other and not feel like I’m completely wasting time. Things have gotten to the point where I can work on my own and still accomplish things. For now, at least, because I’m just trying to formulate the problem I’ll be working on, which I can basically do with just pen and paper. Once I start trying to solve the problem and I have to learn all the software platforms and integrate new code with what’s already been developed, that’s going to be a whole other story. But, I’ll deal with that later. Just like Sick Boy from Trainspotting said, “tomorrow will take care aw itself.”*
*I’m about 20 pages from finishing Irvine Welsh’s collection of short stories, Reheated Cabbage, so I have his characters fresh in my head.
Monday, August 2, 2010
Entry 5: To Sydney and Back
(Note: the pictures are all from Sydney -- a scene from the waterfront of Cockle Bay, the opera house as viewed from the bar, and the Harbor Bridge.)
So, we found a place to live. It’s not one of the three I mentioned in my last post. In fact, we put down a deposit on the nice but expensive place, but then this other place came out of nowhere. It’s not quite as nice, but it’s also furnished and about 75% of the cost. We decided to go for it, as even if we lose the deposit on the other place we would still come out ahead by the end of the month because of the rent differential. We are signing the papers, and hopefully moving in, tomorrow. It’s close to loads of restaurants, a bus line to my work, a gym, and the beach – really it sounds great.
Also, we went to Sydney this weekend. We took the train down on Saturday morning, stayed the night and headed back Sunday afternoon. It was a short, but pleasant trip. The forecast called for rain, but it was mostly blue skies, which in a way was annoying, as I specifically did not wear sneakers because I hate wearing sneakers in the rain. Instead, I wore my treated leather shoes which are better in the rain, but otherwise less comfortable. So although, I would much rather have it not rain than rain, I was irritated that I wasn’t wearing sneakers. To make matters worse I only had a single pair of clean socks (the ones on my feet), because when I went to do laundry the night before I realized we had no detergent and all the stores in our neighborhood were closed.
Anyway, we took the train down early Saturday morning. After arriving, we walked down to Cockle Bay and had nice lunch overlooking the water. We then bummed around the city a bit and ended up at this massive market in Chinatown where all sorts of gimcracks and knockoffs of major brands are sold. (They had baseball caps of American teams that were all a little bit off. Like, the NY didn’t quite look right, or the shade wasn’t quite Dodger Blue. It was pretty funny.) We bought a few souvenirs and I bought some socks with the Australian flag on them.
At night, we met a few friends of friends at the Opera House Bar. It was really terrific – great backdrop for a drink, and the weather was decent even though it is winter here. We had a few drinks and then moved on to a different bar to meet some more people. In all there were six of us – five girls and me. I was the sole bloke, but I didn’t mind. Five to one is a pretty good ratio. I thought about slipping the ring off and laying some game down, but then I remembered that one of the five was my wife, so it probably wouldn’t go over too well. Fun time, though. We watched some rugby (The All Blacks routed The Wallabies), had some libations, and listened to some good music. That latter one is huge. Music can make or break a night. There is nothing worse than being in a club or a bar and listening to crap all night. * They didn’t have the trough in the men's room at this establishment, which is good, but their urinals were still quite bizarre. They were long flat plates that looked like something you’d see in an old movie set in the future (think, the original Rollerball). You peed on the plates and then it ran down into a long common grate – very strange.
The next morning we woke up a little bit groggy and cranky (particularly me), so we just ate a little, did a little shopping (which only added to my crankiness, although I did get a cool new wallet), and then headed back to Newcastle. We thought about going up the Sydney Tower – the view is probably pretty cool, but it was sorta expensive and we had already spent a lot of money.**
The train ride back was a fiasco. Somehow, we ended up in a section with three families that were all together, and their kids were running and screaming the entire ride. I know that getting kids to behave is difficult, but these parents were especially terrible at it.*** The only saving grace was our iPods. A few weeks ago, S convinced me to buy these really nice Bose headphones and I am so glad that I did. They are awesome and they blocked out a lot of the commotion. About two thirds of the way through the trip, the train thinned out enough for us to move to a new section. The ride was much better after that and we made it home without incident. I’m not sure when we’ll go back to Sydney, but hopefully it’ll be soon.
* At this bar, they played “Pressure” by Queen (featuring David Bowie), and then a few songs later played “Ice Ice Baby” by Vanilla Nice – a very nice touch in my opinion.
**We dropped like $50 on a light lunch at one of those conveyor belt sushi restaurants, because I didn’t realize that there were royal blue plates ($5.60) and baby blue plates ($2.00), so I grabbed a bunch of expensive pieces thinking they were cheap. Very sneaky coloring scheme, if you ask me.
***To use a South Park reference, these parents were a lot more like Kenny’s parents than Kyle’s. Of the couple sitting directly in front of us, the dad looked like a mixture between the guy who played Frank Sobotka on The Wire and John C. Reilly, and the mom looked like a heavier, less attractive version of Rosanne Barr. It’s sad when the inability to stand up is what’s preventing you from disciplining your child.
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