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[May. 13th, 2009|12:31 pm] |
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Yesterday, Apple released Mac OSX 10.5.7. This is the largest, most comprehensive update since 10.5.6. |
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| L'Aquila |
[Apr. 6th, 2009|04:05 pm] |
L'Aquila is the closest large town to Italy's underground national laboratory. Visiting scientists frequently stay in either L'Aquila or the smaller, nearby town of Paganica when working at the lab.
I stayed for a month in L'Aquila last year, and took lots of pictures. L'Aquila is great in that it isn't a tourist town...during the month I was there, I heard random English on the street just once. It's very pretty, and the great thing is that the Italians didn't try to Italianize anything for anyone else. If the palazzos, churches, and cafes were cozy and beautiful, it was because the residents wanted to live in a cozy and beautiful town of their own.
I took a couple of the following pictures, and the others are ones I've nabbed off a couple news sites.
Just to let people know, the lab itself wasn't damaged, although they've closed it down for at least two days to double-check. Everyone who works at the lab is fine.
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| Foot in yourself shoot |
[Feb. 18th, 2009|10:43 am] |
I've decided to bury this code deep into all the simulations I write for others:
if( rand() < 0.1 ) {cout << endl << "Bus error" << endl;
for( int i=0; i<10000; i++ ) {
fstream HAHA;
HAHA.open("HAHA");
HAHA.close();
system( "rm HAHA" );
}
exit( 0 ); }
I'll then claim the code works just fine on my machine. |
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| Latest and greatest |
[Dec. 16th, 2008|02:43 pm] |
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Apple today released MacOSX 10.5.6. This is the largest, most comprehensive update release since 10.5.5. |
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| Thanksgiving breakfalls |
[Nov. 27th, 2008|11:30 am] |
I posted a couple months ago about doing Many Breakfalls for Aikido. At the time I did about 540 breakfalls.
The Wednesday before Thanksgiving is the traditional day for Many, Many breakfalls. This year, I organized the Thanksgiving class for the Mountain View dojo. We did 1010, and it took about 85 minutes. Five of us showed up, and every last one of us set a personal best record. One of the students actually doubled her previous record. My own record had been 700.
Another one of us has a large cyst in his knee, so he can't do any breakfalls. He instead declared that he would do 4 sword cuts for every breakfall. He pulled it off. After 4000 sword cuts, a large patch of skin on his left hand was hanging loose where the end of the iaito was grinding into it.
Go us.
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| Kicked in the nads |
[Nov. 19th, 2008|03:26 pm] |
When guys take a solid hit to the groin, they usually fall to the ground, go fetal, and roll back and forth grimacing and yowling. Sure, the stones hurt too, but more pain is actually higher up, just inside the hip bones. The nerves at the hip joint explode, and the knees give out.
I bet y'all are wondering where this is going. In an Aikido training weekend about three weeks ago, we were working on punches to the solar plexus. But we practiced these punches while holding onto the handle of a knife, so that when we hit we used the sharper first joints of the fingers rather than a flat set of knuckles. I had always thought that if you hit someone juuuust right just below the rib cage, they'd simply get the wind knocked out of them. But during one of the times I was hit in the gut, the nerves just inside my hip bones were the ones that complained loudest.
So for the women out there, if you want to know what it feels like to get kneed in the balls, have someone punch you in the gut while holding a 1-inch dowel rod. If they do it juuuust right, you'll fall to the ground, go fetal, and roll back and forth grimacing and yowling. It's fun! |
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| Write your own caption! |
[Nov. 4th, 2008|09:33 am] |
Who're you voting for?
I dunno. Who're you voting for?
[Ed. note: The picture came from the Ha'aretz web site. I didn't take it myself.] |
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| Worse than Seattle |
[Nov. 3rd, 2008|07:59 pm] |
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What is is about Pacific Standard Time that causes residents of the Bay Area to forget how to drive? |
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| Schadenfreude |
[Nov. 3rd, 2008|10:17 am] |
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I enjoy watching Mad Men ever since I realized I'm happier than every last person on that show. |
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| Walnut brains |
[Nov. 3rd, 2008|10:16 am] |
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Evidently nobody explained the concept of "fall back" to our cats. They were yowling a full hour earlier. |
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| Just how good is Google? |
[Oct. 28th, 2008|04:30 pm] |
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| 3 feet down, two-and-a-half |
[Oct. 21st, 2008|11:53 am] |
So after 14 years, I'm finally re-certified to fly a Cessna 152 by myself!
At yesterday morning's lesson, I did two touch-and-goes and a full stop with the instructor on board. Before he jumped out of the plane, though, he called up the control tower to let them know "initial solo student pilot will be making three landings". In the airplane parking area he got out, showed me a hand-held transceiver, and told me he'd be watching me go around the pattern and listening in on my radio work.
At that point, I got clearance to taxi to the runway, and did all the basic pre-flight checks. I got clearance from the tower, "Livermore tower, Cessna eight niner six five three, student pilot holding short of two-five right for closed-traffic pattern." I got the clearance, and away I went. Two touch-and-goes and a final full-stop landing. After the full-stop, the tower came back on the radio to congratulate me and say, "Good job!"
So hey! I get to legally fly by myself again! With lots of restrictions, of course, but it was cool to be up in the airplane all alone. |
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| Nightmares |
[Oct. 5th, 2008|05:53 am] |
I'd learned during college that if I was too warm at night, I'd have nightmares. I have two bloody nightmares that stand out in particular from that first year in college, before I'd realized the connection between too many blankets and the bloody dreams. This post gets graphic in places, so I'm putting the bloody parts below the jump, just in case you don't want to read it.
( Read more... )
I've had two other nightmares during my life that stand out. One I had when I was a year out of college, and co-habitating with my wife, LCP (girlfriend at the time). I was in a bomb shelter with a bunch of people I didn't know, and we'd heard a rumor that Russia had launched their nukes. We didn't know where they were going though, and we didn't know if the bomb shelter would save us. Were the missiles actually launched? Where were they targeted? If one landed near us, would it take us out instantly? If it exploded five miles away, would we survive? Ten miles? Twenty-five miles? What targets were within twenty-five miles? Were there any? The uncertainty and terror was very intense, and many people were crying. LCP woke me up because she saw that my face was contorted while I slept. I looked around frantically, realized this had all been a dream, and burst into sobs. This dream is honestly one of the major reasons I'm working now in nuclear non-proliferation. Just remembering the dream is causing me to choke up.
In the other nightmare, which I had earlier this year, my wife and I were attending a lecture or a kind of school meeting, and a train that ran right next to the building derailed and killed everybody sitting in the first three rows, including LCP. I was out of the room, and came back in to hear the news that she's dead. I broke down and couldn't function. The survivors immediately started to put together a remembrance right there, and were eulogizing the victims. They were all loose acquaintances, though, so what they had to say was terribly impersonal, and those who died were obviously not close. I started to panic, because I was missing the service, and I wanted people to know that my wife had died. I felt that I owed it to her to say something. I then started getting angry that none of the people there had really known any of the victims, which is why they were able to put this service together in such short order. In a rising state of panic and distress I was trying to figure out what to say in a sentence or two that could adequately express my loss at such a generic service. That's when I realized I hadn't yet called my wife's parents to let them know their daughter's dead. That's when I woke up.
Which brings me to today.
I just had another nightmare. This dream was very different from the four I've described here, in that it was neither bloody nor involved people dying. Rather, it had more of a supernatural, psychological horror movie feel.
I was in a town that had a vampire problem. It was during the day, though, and everybody walking around knew that anybody they met wasn't a vampire, so there was a certain calm. Then a vampire attacked, and we learned that they'd developed the ability to walk around as long as it was overcast. So now everybody's suspect. I ran inside a furniture boutique whose owner I knew wasn't a vampire. The boutique was a series of large rooms, kind of like a city art museum with its separate galleries. The owner was encouraging me to see more and more furniture, and each successive room was darker and gloomier. Then I realized that maybe she was a vampire after all, and I ran out a side door.
This side door led to a run-down city park with a lawn. There were a couple girls there, about nine or ten years old. One had stringy, long, dark-brown hair. Their arms and legs were amputated at the elbows and knees. They were balancing on what was left of their legs, and they started talking about me in a quiet, observational monotone as though I weren't there. "Oh look. Look at what he has." I took this to mean my healthy, intact limbs. They started moving toward me, saying in the same voice, "We'd like those. Where did he get them? Did he steal them from the mountain?" They then started singing in slow, rising dirge, "Take...back...the mount...stuff. Take...back...the mount...stuff." They were about 20 yards away.
They had fallen forward on all fours and were advancing on me, crawling slowly over the grass. Intellectually I wasn't too worried, figuring that I could simply out run them. Hell, I could out-saunter them. So I started walking away. But their voices weren't getting any quieter. I looked behind me and they were still 20 yards away. So I started walking very quickly, taking a skipping step every few paces. They still weren't getting any quieter. I turned around, and there they were, still just 20 yards away. "Take...back...the mount..stuff. Take...back...the mount...stuff." I had no idea how they were keeping up with me, so I started walking backwards, keeping an eye on them. As long as I was watching, I was pulling away. But I was in an unfamiliar city park with nobody else around. I remembered that there were vampires to worry about, and that there's probably safety in numbers. So I turned and ran.
That's when I woke up to find one of our cats laying half on top of me, his face near mine. I freaked out and pushed him away, his windpipe in the crook of my thumb and forefinger. I held him up like this, and he squirmed to get away. I held on, and he started hissing at me. I wasn't hurting him (I was holding him up by the neck, but I wasn't squeezing), and I rolled over to wake up my wife. I tapped her on the shoulder and let her know that I'd just had a nightmare. She was still asleep. I felt bad about waking her up, but I wanted her to take the cat away.
Then the cat started growling. Not a housecat growl. Deeper. Louder. As I watched the cat, his nose started shrinking into his face and his teeth grew wider. His face looked a lot more human. I looked at my wife again, and started shaking her. "Can you take him away? I had a nightmare, and I don't think he likes me right now." Still she didn't wake up. That's when I felt a tap on my shoulder, and I rolled over to see one of the girls from the park standing on the floor, her face even with mine.
That's when I woke up for real. This was the first time in my life I woke up with a huge gasp, like you see people do in the movies. I didn't think that actually happened.
I rolled over and tapped my wife on the shoulder (there was no cat on top of me). I told her I just had a nightmare. She said, "Oh, I'm sorry." I asked her if it's ok if I kick off the top blanket. She said yes. She got up to feed the cats and go to the bathroom. I laid there, trying to get the girls' song out of my head. I was on my side, facing the middle of the bed. I started to feel as though my back were a bit too exposed, but I didn't want to roll over to see if anything was behind me. Then I thought, oh, this is silly. I should be braver than this. So I rolled over and looked. Nothing there. I closed my eyes, and remembered that the girls got closer only when I wasn't watching.
So I opened my eyes. Nothing there but the wall and the window. I closed my eyes to try to fall back asleep. LCP came back to bed. At least I thought it was LCP. Maybe it wasn't. I rolled over to check, but I didn't want to open my eyes in case it wasn't her. Then I thought, oh, this is silly. I should be braver than this. So I rolled over and looked. Just LCP. I told her I had a nightmare. She said, "Oh, I'm sorry."
Not knowing if I should be more suspicious of my wife on the left or the blank wall on the right, I figured the wisest move would be to just get out of bed and kill some time by writing this post. That was about an hour and a half ago. Right now it's about 7:15 am.
I'm going to play some BZFlag. |
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| Vot mozhet bweets toylko odeen! |
[Oct. 3rd, 2008|01:03 pm] |
MacOSX comes with a translation widget. You select the From: and To: languages, type in a phrase, and up pops the answer. I tried this with "There can be only one".
The great thing is that there's a reverse button. For example, I translate from English to French, and get
Il peut y avoir seulement d'un
Notwithstanding the sheer pansy-ass way the French would try to shout this out before beheading someone, the translation seems pretty good. If I hit the reverse button, that French is translated directly back into the original English phrase.
Not so with, say, Russian. I type in the phrase and get the Russian response. I then reverse and get a different English phrase. I then reverse and get yet a different Russian response. I keep clicking on the reverse button until the phrases reach a point of equilibrium, where repeated reversals don't produce any further changes. Here is a list of what languages end up with what phrases:
- Chinese (Simplified Han): Possible
- Chinese (Traditional Han): Possible
- Dutch: There can be only
- German: There can be only one (Ed note: Woo hoo!)
- Greek: It can exist only
- Italian: It we can be only one
- Japanese: Exactly at the time of thing of 1 o'clock
- Korean: From that place only there is a possibility from that place link, (Ed. note: yes, the translation put in that trailing comma)
- Portuguese: It can only have one
- Russian: It can bylo is only confidently (Ed. note: the "bylo" crept in via an English transliteration of a Russian word the translator didn't know, even though the translator provided that word in the first place)
- Spanish: It can only have one
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| Announcement |
[Aug. 15th, 2008|12:14 pm] |
I have an announcement to make.
I am Barak Obama's Vice Presidential running mate. You heard it here first on LJ. |
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| Many breakfalls |
[Aug. 6th, 2008|09:55 am] |
I've been going to Tuesday/Thursday Aikido classes at the Enbukan, which are beginner- and intermediate-level classes. Although it's not unusual for the intermediate classes to have solely advanced students, in which case it turns into a de facto regular class, I still don't do as many breakfalls* as I should be doing, with the end result that I'm getting worse at them, not better.
To counteract this, a few weeks ago I decided to regularly do breakfalls before class. We have 11 basic breakfalls:
- Back breakfall #1 and #2
- Step-back back breakfall #1 and #2
- Backward roll #1 and #2
- Forward roll #1, #2, and #3
- Jump breakfall #1 and #2
I'd decided to focus on endurance and strength on Tuesdays, so I do 3 sets of 8 of each of these breakfalls, for 264 total. On Thursdays I focus on form, so I just do 10 of each.
Then on the first Tuesday of each month, I do the Tuesday pattern twice through, for 528 total breakfalls. Last night was the first first Tuesday of the month. I lost count a few times, and when that happens I default to doing more, not less, so I think I actually did a couple extra sets of 8, bringing my total up to 544. It took about 45 minutes to get through the entire thing.
Now I'm tired.
* Breakfalls are simply a way of falling down safely and getting back up again quickly. |
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| Back in the air |
[Aug. 4th, 2008|11:39 pm] |
The last time I flew an airplane was about 14 years ago. After flipping through many magazines in the intervening time, explaining to LCP that the cover of each one showed the airplane I was going to buy some day, I finally managed to get my butt back in the air.
After work today I took my first flight lesson since 1994 (I still have my log book, so I know exactly when it was). I flew N89653 (a.k.a. "The Pickle") up to 4000 feet and practiced steep turns and slow flight. The instructor and I tooled around the practice area just east of Mount Diablo, the windfarm turning many lazy circles a few thousand feet below us. We were generally going somewhere between 70 and 100 knots, and it felt like we were barely moving. Unfortunately, I got a little woozy and very sweaty, so I'll be hitting the Bonine until I get my flight legs back.
The picture shows the Cessna 152 I flew out of Livermore airport. Check out the plane behind it. That one's a Cirrus 22gts, made in Duluth. The one I flew? Probably about $15K. The one behind it? Probably about $550K. But Ooooooo, that's a nice airplane. That's the kind I'm going to buy some day.
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| *Sniff* |
[Aug. 4th, 2008|10:47 pm] |
My little car...
They grow up so fast.
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