A while back my fitted sheet started coming apart somehow; I dug out leftovers (from my 1st-year roommate?) but it's not really long enough. I finally went to Target to replace it properly. Few colors or patterns I wanted, especially at the 600 thread count 100% cotton level. I kept looking and dithering, and noticing the smell rising from the plastic containers, or maybe the sheets inside the bags. Then I noticed organic cotton sheets, claiming no or minimal chemicals. Colors weren't great, only 250 thread count, but still felt decent, and avoiding toxic smells started seeming good. Only, all they had in stock were twin and king sizes, and I've got a double/full bed. I went away frustrated, thinking of the Internet.

My backpack, which is pretty nice, and I got for I don't remember how much in my neighborhood in Chicago, but probably under $30, has a hole in the bottom. I've been thinking of taking it to the A Stich In Time for repairs, but haven't, and Anime Central is this weekend and I might go to it. So I checked out the backpacks section as well... $50-60 everywhere, and the air reeked of plastic fumes. Didn't get anything, and I'm thinking fondly of my old leather backpack, which I finally gave up; probably left it behind as trash in Chicago. The padded straps on my current one are more comfortable, really.

I reserve the right to edit this post in the indefinite future, as I think of new things, it's basically a crystallization (well, spew) of musings I've had for a while. I suppose a web page would be more logical.

Life-defining tastes I don't have to share: Douglas Adams, Pratchett, science fiction/fantasy in general, Buffy, Firefly, Lem's Cyberiad, Feynman's autobiographies. Not that all my friends are into all of them, but they're pretty common. Babylon-5 was defining back at Caltech, but seems rarer now, not sure if that's age or B-5 not being all that good in retrospect. OTOH anime in a general sense is very common in my local circles and probably scarce among my older Tech friends, except Fanw's been watching Cowboy Bebop and maybe Miyazaki?

Tastes I've had and shared, or tried to, or had shared with me: P. C. Hodgell (from roommate, spread as much as I could), followed by McKinley's Sunshine (Barbara put me onto McKinley, I've been spreading Sunshine). Fanw roped me into Buffy, I roped Liz. mlc23 got me into weightlifting, and one of us got the other into Andrew Tobias's The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need. Michael Pollan's going around, though I don't remember the causal links; he might even be in the first category.

Tastes that seem to be just me, or one other person: Tech-Sarah introduced me to filk, and fanw accidentally re-introduced me by singing the Horse-Tamer's Daughter, but the latter was a one-off and I'm mostly unique among my friends. Except I think saganhawk may have some too, an issue never deeply probed. Honestly, I'm used to being all alone in my musical tastes. Grew up with parental classical, latched onto Steeleye Span, which Lisa had as well but she's gone, I got into Celtic in general which Caitlin shared, but she's far away. Friends like John knew about my filk interest but nothing really got shared, and I don't even try... but maybe someone here would appreciate Meg Davis.

Parents gave me Calvin Trillin, and I didn't even think to try to share it for a long time, though now akashiver got given the Tummy Trilogy and lyceum's borrowed Uncivil Liberties. It's a big part of the shared family humor. The Taste of America by John and Karen Hess, was another parental one -- a book on the degradation of the American palate over the centuries. I got Blake, the food snob/gourmet in our San Fran circle, to get it, but that's it. Sarah and I shared C. J. Cherryh, and later Lois Bujold, I think both passing from her to me like the filk. We both liked the children's book The Griffin and the Minor Canon -- I used my knowledge of that to make her pay attention to me as a real person, not just another freshman bugging the junior. :) My parents gave me Oscar Williams's collection of English verse, which I lent to her, then had to buy a replacement for because she wouldn't let it go. I think she introduced me to Griffin and Sabine, or John did both of us? and I used that as gifts to my mother for a while. anima latched onto Lud-in-the-Mist, which I knew only from the SF library at Caltech. John and I shared Amber and Books of Swords interests, though he kept not branching out to Empire of the East. Shared Doom as well, including mastering odd weapons in it (him, the shotgun; me the chainsaw, or the rocket launcher with the ammo cheat), and Star Control II. ("Frungy, the sport of kings!") No one close played nethack, though some newer people have, as did my girlfriend here.

Then there's all the popular music, movies, and computer game interests that other people have and I don't. :) I still haven't seen Real Genius, official movie of Caltech...

If life was the Illuminati or CryptNet, I would now be of the highest degree.

Got the usual call from John (he always remembers), and a surprise one from mrs_feltner. Didn't do much else yesterday, but had a small dinner tonight at Bombay House. Out of coffee and tandoori lamb, but the chai and tan. chicken was good, and afterwards people were in my place for the first time since July, perhaps. (Place is a lot more crowded after bringing boxes back from the house.) All the books lying around were good for starting little conversations, though, and lyceum borrowed Uncivil Liberties -- Calvin Trillin being a parental taste I haven't spread around my friends enough, along with Taste of America, and boco's got my Juuni Kokki.

I stayed up to 6am working on the wikip Transhumanism page,so today was pretty much dead between then and dinner time.

Unrelated: the state of the US electrical grid

Dubai construction craziness. I figure crappy outdoors + oil == build lots of indoors. An RPG.net thread discusses how much of that is underpaid near-slave labor.

I'm back from spending the past week+ in Boston. Fun time! THe main goal was visiting Fanw, who I hadn't seen in *four years*. What was I thinking? Fortunately, while I've had various other friendships drift apart, I felt as comfortable with her as ever, after all this time. I'm grateful.

I didn't explore Boston nearly as much as I might have -- museums, seafood? MIT? natch -- but I don't feel bad about it. I've always gotten more out of travelling to people than to places, and I ran into a lot of sleep deprivation... some brought with me, some incurred by staying up a bit too late, but also incurred from housemates getting up ungodly early, downstairs neighbors starting a dance party at 1am, 50 mph winds making the house creak scarily, and so on. Basically I'm a noise-sensitive sleeper, and it was a noisy house, so past the weekend I semi-crashed until the evenings.

Which were fun too, as I roped in more people. The evening that I got in, she took me to a Caltech reception and talk from the current president. That was nicer than expected -- seems to appreciate the student culture. He also said a band or choir will be performing at Carnegie Hall, and amused me by saying "they probably won't be the best to ever perform there, but (stuff I forget)", which amused me, as it seemed a sign of engineer's honesty, saying things normal people shouldn't even patently true. But anyway, besides seeing Riiiiich! briefly, I met and chatted with an alum from around my time, and we got to talking about dancing, she said she had no coordination, I said it was probably just a matter of practice, and the next day I thought to try inviting her to a Monday swing dance that I'd noticed a post-it for on Fanw's fridge. We met first for Vietnamese -- my first pho -- and then went dancing, my tutoring bracketing a rather well-done lindy hop lesson from the organizers, where I thought she did decently well for a newbie with no confidence or experience, and she said it was more fun than she expected. Then the next night I lured her out again, for dinner with Mad (who has webcomic) and husband.

Wednesday I mostly did hide indoor, after a walk, but that moves us to linkage:
subvocalization tech approaches; moving the Earth is proposed via comet fly-bys, which is actually a rather slow and conservative method (format: ZIPfile of GIFs); Charlie "githyanki" Stross writes up the US Presidential candidates as D&D monsters; British Columbia starts a decently well done carbon tax (via a_steep_hill); and someone fanwanks Palpatine's plots into making sense. Grey goo may not be such a big threat, if you run some numbers; an oil company in Chad is experimenting with being socially responsible; someone writes up Geoffrey Landis's Venusian aerostats for Transhuman Space.

Also, I read Steven Brust's Firefly fanfic novel, My Own Kind of Freedom, which I liked a lot. Slid into the mood of it in just a few pages, and had to remind myself later that it wasn't canon -- characters and lines felt very on the mark.

Fanw took me by a game store nearby, which compared to Bloomington's Game Preserve felt a lot more 'standard' -- dingy looks (something about all those bagged miniatures on the wall and lack of decor) and very male -- she was the only girl there, and it was pretty crowded at 10pm Saturday, with a couple of basement rooms filled with boys gaming. OTOH, it also had more *stuff* than Game Preserve -- well, possibly fewer board games, but a lot more RPG books, and more than just d20, Warhammer, and a smattering of White Wolf; more like full White Wolf and a lot of GURPS. And a box full of out of print on-sale books whose volume nearly matched everything the Game Preserve sells. I got Technocracy Assembled 2 and GURPS Space.

And today's special: Justus Möser, conservative concern troll from 1772. "On the Diminished Disgrace of Whores and Their Children in Our Day.

Haven't been posting much with all the traveling. Sister/Spokane for Christmas, Ohayocon (anime con) this past weekend. Highlights: photos of Spokane (now with captions) and Ohayocon. I got to help coach Jenny in driving, which is less frightening than it should sound at first. I only saw one episode of actual anime at the con, Hyper-Dolls, which sucked; Jenny and I fled the gratuitious fanservice and bad 1980s animation. I went to the dance/raves Friday and Saturday, trying to figure out (a) conventional dance and (b) conventional dance and mating protocols. (a) was perhaps somewhat successful. (b) was not, though a girl did grope my butt as she left. I did better just talking to people in line, though I still feel starved for sex in particular and human touch in general. The dance the first night didn't start until at least an hour late, among other chaos. You'd think a con which has been in the same hotel for 8 years would be more efficient. Yuri panels run by women are better than yuri panels run by men. Or at least those were. I told the story of the Collins Banshee in a ghost stories circle.

What the hell is part-skim milk anyway, and why is it used so much? From rubbery mozzarella to the Kroger parmesan I just bought and shouldn't have. Well, maybe it'll be okay grated, and when it comes to eating straight I've always preferred Romano anyway, but.

( Mercy cut )

Hey Fanw, maybe it's mostly those who have complaints who say something about Christmas...

I'm in Spokane, with my sister. It's been fun -- of course, last Christmas my father was dying, with the strokes and the seizures and the loss of verbal ability. I've suffered through the Fellowship movie again, enjoyed the third Pirates movie again, given Lego Mindstorms (might arrive before I leave) and Photographing Farm Labor in California (my niece has photography and journalism interests., been given a book on feathered dinosaurs and Robinson's Variable Star.

Today I went roller skating, for the first time since childhood. I ignored exhortations to just get on the floor and go, wanting to feel safe, and split time on the carpet and on the hardwood floor but near a wall. 45 minutes on skates showed some minor improvement, and I switched to blades to (a) try it and (b) listen to all the people suggesting they might be easier. They were easier, and I even went around the floor a couple of times, though not without falling, or almost falling but catching myself on a bench in such way to wrench my shoulders. Never got fast and comfortable, but made progress. For a real feeling of safety I'd want very strong wrist support, since that's the weak point when I catch myself. I learned how to turn corners on a bicycle without falling once, so I like to believe one can slowly learn without falling a lot.

Niece figured out the Pickover ESP page pretty quickly; I'm proud. A safeish driver, too.

Food? Turkey dinner, enchiladas, some tasty and easy to eat seedless mandarins, the best beef jerky ever. Turkey didn't get proper gravy with flour and such, just partially reduced broth -- which for my tastes is probably better.

Having a laptop's been fun. And if I get stuck in a hotel due to weather I'll have tons of e-books, anime, and Go stuff to amuse me. Much easier to overload a hard drive than to carry enough books.

Edit: I'm sad that no one pointed out the editing error in the post before I caught it.

Oldest animal, a clam, found and killed. It beat the previous record-holder, also a clam. (Via james_nicoll)

Other things today: I wandered by Caveat Emptor, and left with a replacement copy of Sunshine and a big book of Michael Whelan's art. I think I now know where akashiver's default icon comes from. Also one of swan_tower's, but I knew that already. I also looked at The Risen Empire, and looked very briefly at Yamato, a 1990 book about space-Shogunate vs. space-Amerika [sic] via plucky independent ship.

I hadn't been to swing dance for a while on account of a cold, but returned last night. Yay! And I'll hint vaguely at interesting things afterwards.

A few days ago I hacked around with my LJ style settings. The results may or may not please. I couldn't find an optimal intersection of provided style and provided features.

I finally got a copy of de Camp's Ancient Engineers, and it prompted a return to my morning math musings during today's insomnia. He'd been talking about the pyramids, and how the Great Pyramid is very square and aligned to true north, and we don't know how but a good guess is of marking star rise and set and bisecting the resulting angle. Which got me thinking about those elementary geometric constructions, and given that I took geometry in 6th grade (regular, not honors) and haven't used much since, I mostly remember simple truths like side-angle-side congruence, not compass and straightedge stuff. But I figured a fair bit out: perpendicual bisector, angle bisector, constructing equilateral triangles, squares, and derived polygons, parallel line through a point.

So now if I ever run across someone talking about forgotten secret arts the Egyptians must have used in building the pyramids, I can say "yes, the forgotten art of geometry. Bet you don't remember it either."

So, I use Ununtu on this laptop. I had most things working. Then it wanted to upgrade itself to Gutsy. Okay...

I followed recommendations and wireless stopped working. I was able to undo that, though.

Password prompt no long comes up when I close and open the laptop lid.

And the biggie... the default media program no longer played WMA or AVI files. For comparison,when I installed Feisty, the program said "I can't run these... would you like me to get the software to run them?" So they've managed to degrade performance. I've installed all recommendations I can find, and can actually play video with a couple of other programs -- unfortunately, their interfaces are inferior, and I'd like my old one. Help has not sprung forth, yet.

Also I note the font I'm seeing in this text entry box is different.

akashiver volunteered a makeover for me, which has resulted in some change of wardrobe, and a new haircut. Today I added a shave of the beard -- not so much that I want to get rid of it but I figured I'd see what it looked like now, and probably also start a new beard from scratch, since trimming was always a bit enh.

Dump of photos is here. Page of small thumbnails which link to modest 640x480 pictures which link to fullsize count-the-nosehairs pictures, per usual.

As usual, my trying to smile for the camera results in what I see as a hideous grimace.

[EDIT: added a few more. 841 doesn't seem too bad.]

It has Vista. This needs to change. Question is, to what?
Linux choices:
Fedora
Debian
Ubuntu
Slackware
SUSE
Mandriva

BSD:
Free
Net
Open

Probably no point to Net. I liked OpenBSD, back in the day. Then again, laptop. Also, no static IP.

Turkuaz is never a bad answer to that question. I'll miss the place, if I ever escape Bloomington; nowhere else so combines delectable tastiness and cheapness and atmosphere. I saw a young woman and mother peering at the menu, earlier, and encouraged them to go in. "What's good?" "Pides!" But Eric and I went pricier -- kebab for him, and a chicken saute for me, which I'd never seen anyone get before. Tasty. Familiar -- probably the same meat as chicken on pides. But seasoned juicy meat never gets old, and the yogurt, rice, and beans go well.

Eric tells me that yes, chess does have named concepts beyond the inadequate set I know, analogous to the concepts I know for Go. Stuff *not* in the Complete Chess Course, despite the name.

Swing club callout was large as usual, overflowing Frangipani. There's a salsa club (new?) which probably stole Alumni Hall from us.

And there's an upright (or synthesizer? Yamaha) piano in the IMU food court now. I inflicted pentatonics on the staff. Because it's hard not to sound at least half-decent if you just play on the black keys.

I went to Mandalay Restaurant; the buffet is back. I think it's cheaper, $7.99 vs. $9.99. Didn't seem as good, but that might have been because I was there at 1:30 for a buffet which ends at 2; they were nearly *out* of most things (and what they weren't, I helped along.)

Ami, the white and red cafe nearby, has expanded to Real Food, specifically a Korean buffet. Saw what seemed to be the owner looking out, forlornly. Will have to try it -- hey, lyceum, we have a lunch schedule to resume!

On one side of Buskirk-Chumley used to be a truffle shop, long since replaced by Greek's Pizzeria. On the other, we now have Blu Boy, serving truffle like things. Shopboy wasn't sure if dark chocolate qualified as proper "truffle". I was just out from Mandalay, so didn't buy any yet.

CS Department Red Hat Enterprise 5, KDE interface, takes forever to log in. GNOME is faster. So is my TWM setup, not changed much since Caltech 1992.

The public library has a stand offering bike information and asking for input on their Plans.

Last night I bought and read Order of the Stick: Dungeon Crawlin' Fools (the first 120 strips) and Start of Darkness (Prequel of EEEVIL, and quite good.)

News I'm not linking to since it was Yahoo articles, which expire:
Sony has a sugar-powered battery.
"Out of body experiences" have been induced in the lab, though it read more like telepresence than "going into the light".
Japan is hit by smog, China blamed.
There's a billion light-year void in the universe, empty of light or dark matter, as far as they can tell.
A common kind of killer pneumonia causes bleeding in the lungs. It took them this long to figure that out?

And in conclusion, I need a Carthago delenda est, except meaning "Arcologies must be built" or "Weather must be controlled."

I just got to apply the Pigeonhole Principle:

"these socks do not match, I only have two kinds of white sock, I need a third white sock".

I intend to try going to contra-dancing. How much I can do seems questionable, I'm hitting the woozy stage.

I forgot to gripe about having forgotten half my Mere Christianity notes in Chicago. Guess I'll have to re-read. I hope FedEx didn't dmaage my mother's computer, because mine is starting to hit mosquito levels again.

House: in process of being sold. Barring nothing going wrong.
House contents: sold to bookstores; taken away for auctioning; left behind for presumed next owner to pick over and have hauled away; taken away to long term storage; being FedExed to me. As of just yesterday for the last, and I came home today to find a delivery note on my door. That was fast!
Me: in need of a couple months of twelve-hour sleepnights. Funded for next year, and assigned to C/assembly language rather than "teaching HTML and Excel to the unwilling masses".

( After this, the deluge )

My mother was into lamb, among other meats; I used to think it tended to be too greasy. But I've gotten the idea that it has a better chance of being grass fed than commercial beef, so have been trying it some more. Tasty. Helps that the local store *has* lots of lamb, unlike Kroger at home (which lacks a meat counter, too.) ... another local store has a truly impressive array of jams, many imported -- I've been enjoying some Marco Polo raspberry which seems to have sugar crystals at the bottom -- but no peanut butter other than Skippy. Lettuce is under a dollar a bunch. Red bell peppers are $1.49/pound.

Got a bunch of paperwork done today, bills and stopping payments and sending inheritance money.

I just watched "Howl's Moving Castle". My first thought: she has a nose! I'm used to Miyazaki heroines having round faces and almost no nose, but Sophie was oval and nosy. Soon to become even nosier. Good film, but I have a feeling a bunch of additions and subtractions were made via the book, and a scene which went "Everyone out!" *house falls down* "Everyone back inside!" confused me.

Empathy in mice

Texas Board of Education to be headed by Creationist (from James.)

From Facebook:
"Why did you stop believing in Santa? Because you found alternative explanations to the phenomenon of presents appearing on Christmas morning, explanations that were more provable and did not require a supernatural character. Same can be said about God." -- Claudio D'Amato

I was thinking that practical languages to me to learn would be French (opens access to two nice countries to live in) and Chinese (I for one welcome...) Maybe Japanese for the tech, plus leveraging the fscking kanji/characters, though of course there's a big cultural draw. Spanish? Italian? Not sending the same "I want to live there" signals. I get the impression the Dutch and Swedish all speak English anyway, so those languages can be put off until an actual emigration. Plus, you know, relative literature sizes.

30 July New Yorker has had a bunch of interesting articles: an apostate Israeli Speaker; prosthetics; head of Death Row in California; debunking the pacifist bonobo.

Horse meat is pretty popular outside of the Anglosphere, unlike changing one's maiden name

Two realtors have looked at the house, with an 80 grand spread of projected prices.

Amusing alternate 7th book: HP Widdershins (much shorter, and illustrated) That said, I've read and enjoyed the real Deathly Hallows.

I've seen Pan's Labyrinth, The Queen, the Battle of Algiers, and Secretary. Two Miyazakis came today (Howl, Castle) but haven't watched yet.

I've discovered the artists Aubrey Beardsley and Arthur Rackham; both seem neat.

India has its first woman president, as of a few days ago. China controls 80% of the vitamin C market. Wisconsin is fighting over universal care -- more "expand and subsidize", not a full reform.

The new Gilded Age

River Tam interviews (embedded QuickTime)


Religion beat killed reporter's faith. Which randomly made me think of God as metaphor.

I've been learning Ocaml again. I haven't done much with the house yet. Sleep still sucks.

'Cuz I can't think of a title.
Esan Thai pad see ew (widenoodle dish), tasty though bland, not as tasty as what I had in Chicago.
Killed 2 hours between Game Preserve and Borders looking, but not buying, Exalted books. Just call me an RPG groupie.
I tried boosting my Cingular service to a contract. The store wasn't sure they could carry over my balance and told me to call 611. 611 had previously told me to go into a store. Oh yay. As for buying a discounted phone at the start of contract... they were out of the ones I'd want to buy. Woot. IU discount: 8% off monthly fee, plus $50 off a phone purchase.

The sunglasses I lost were really nice by my standards, goggles with side panels, full protection. Target and the mall had nothing like them. I went to CVS. They did have them. And... I rediscovered the dilemma I'd run into in Boston, which I'd punted then: those don't say anything about UV protection. I eventually, sadly, got something which did claim "100% UV protection", some polarized glasses. Hmmph.

Mozzarella balls steeped in olive oil and basil are expensive, though not so much more so than the fresh mozzarella balls themselves. But when you're done eating them, there's all that flavored olive oil to pour (or spoon) over pasta, or dip bread into! *checks ingredients* Oh wait, it's canola oil, then olive oil. And probably not extra virgin.

I've got books to write up, but swing dancing to go to. Cha cha!

I went to Le Petit Cafe for the first time in a while. Good, though less ecstatic than before; highlights would be the pasta with pesto, and the dessert. But I left stuffed, without having eaten everything; I think it needs to be shared.

Does one tip at a place where the server clearly owns the establishment? I did, but it feels weird.

I went by the new Bloomingfood's for the first time. It's got a cafe, like Eastside. Looked decent otherwise; don't know if it has more than downtown, or just more space. More fridges, I guess, and including Traderspoint 100% grassfed milk! At $3.49/32 oz, making it twice the price of the last milk mentioned, and about 4x the price of normal milk.

I seem to have lost my sunglasses, which is very very unfortunate. I walked to a lot of possible lost/found places, but no luck.

I seem to have gained 6 pounds in the last 13 days, which implies an extra 1700 calories a day, which seems implausible.

So, my birthday's in May, at which time I'd just arrived in Chicago and was trying to convince my mother to go see a doctor, since she was having little problems like not eating and decreasing physical energy and increasing chest pains, on account of which nothing happened apart from a few e-mails or phone calls.

I've lived in this apartment -- "D-flat Minor" -- for two years without having many people over, let alone a group, largely because, as you may or may not be able tell from the few photos I put up, it's rather small -- 30 square meters, or so.

But I decided to bite the bullet and have a late party for myself, actually in my apartment, not off at Turkuaz like last year.

( Blather )