SrSpaceMonkey

Awesome

2008-01-29T22:30:00.000-05:00

I wish I was this awesome.

2007-12-29T13:46:00.000-05:00

To all of those people who say the Earth's atmosphere is too big to be affected by human activity, here is a photo of Beijing on December 28, 2007:
That gray sky is not natural!

(source NY Times, December 29, 2007)

In Vegas, everything is done to the extreme

2007-11-15T12:07:00.000-05:00

This is the fanciest destruction of a building I've ever seen. Goodbye frontier casino:

Vote for Java 6 on Mac OS X

2007-11-08T14:05:00.000-05:00

Vote for Java 6 on Mac OSX!

This is the magic string:

13949712720901ForOSX

What the heck is this? Check out this link.

I realize this is silly, but I'm curious to see how this goes. To see how many people voted search Google for 13949712720901ForOSX

The 2007 Red Sox Parade

2007-10-30T15:17:00.000-04:00

I just posted this video from the 2007 Red Sox Parade. Manny Delcarmen and his bullpen band gave us a little concert:

Congrats to the 2007 World Champion Boston Red Sox!

More Photos are here.

This is my life ...

2007-10-21T12:37:00.000-04:00

...in OPN/OPM notation:

Terrorism quote

2007-10-19T13:25:00.001-04:00

As a systems academic, I really enjoyed this quote:

Global terrorism is extreme both in its lack of realistic goals and in its cynical exploitation of the vulnerability of complex systems. Jurgen Habermas

I found it on Matti's blog. A functioning democratic society and economy requires that the people feel safe to go about their daily business. By disrupting the feeling of security, the whole complex system can fall apart. This is how we end up with Americans defending the Bush administration's right to torture captives without due process. Where are our principles? The terrorists have damaged a part of our "complex system", but they still haven't gotten any closer to achieving their goals. We both lose.

Yesterday's attacks in Pakistan were quite horrible, I must say. These types of attacks are becoming so common now that we barely even notice. That is sad.

World Solar Insolation vs. Solar Installation

2007-10-16T13:39:00.001-04:00

This is an interesting chart that showed up in the IEEE Spectrum magazine, October 2007. Green areas show where solar power is installed, and yellow areas show regions with the most sunlight. It shows how the politics can influence technical decisions. Germany, New York, and Japan have many installations of solar power, but relatively little sunlight. It's interesting to note that China seems to be a prime spot for solar installation, but doesn't use a significant amount. Is this a possible part of the solution to China's smog problem?

The other interesting fact, pointed out by a friend of mine who is a solar power buff, is that the whole world has installed 3705 MW of solar power (as of 2005), which is about the same amount of power a single new nuclear power plant with twin reactors could generate. (I wasn't able to verify this, if someone can, please post a comment).

Happy 50th Birthday, Sputnik!

2007-10-04T09:41:00.000-04:00

Still the coolest looking satellite ever!

Read more about Sputnik at Wikipedia.

Best Boston Halloween costume of 2006!

2007-09-20T13:05:00.001-04:00

I came across these two photos on the internet. I have no idea who this kid is, but the costume is great!:

and, a close up:

For those of you who don't remember, there were several incidents involving the Fung Wah Boston to New York (Chinatown to Chinatown). In one, the bus caught fire. The driver just stopped the bus and jumped out without warning the passengers.

an old red sox joke

2007-09-06T22:49:00.000-04:00

This was forwarded to me this week. It's been going around the internet for years.

A Red Sox fan liked to amuse himself by scaring every Yankees fan he saw strutting down the street in an obnoxious NY pinstripe shirt. He would swerve his van as if to hit them, then swerve back just missing them.

One day while driving along, he saw a priest. He thought he would do a good deed, so he pulled over and asked the priest, "Where are you going, Father?"

"I'm going to give Mass at St. Francis church, about two miles down the road," replied the priest.

"Climb in, Father. I'll give you a lift!" The priest climbed into the passenger sea t, and they continued down the road.

Suddenly, the driver saw a Yankees fan walking down the road, and he instinctively swerved as if to hit him. But, as usual, he swerved back onto the road just in time.

Even though he was certain that he had missed the guy, he still heard a loud THUD. not knowing where the noise came from, he glanced in his mirrors but still didn't see anything.

He then remembered the priest, and he turned to the priest and said, sorry Father, I almost hit that Yankees fan."

"That's OK," replied the priest "I got him with the door."

no posts for a while

2007-08-29T11:21:00.001-04:00

Sorry, there will be no more posts on this blog for a while. My advisor basically said he would [harm] me if he catches me working on something besides my thesis. This is ok with me, because there are few things that I want more than to finish my degree and move on.

Please come back in a few months.

Return of Isabella

2007-07-23T08:28:00.000-04:00

Today my friend Isabella returns from her long journey through South America and Antarctica. Check out her blog for some fantastic photos and stories.

random thoughts

2007-06-27T16:27:00.001-04:00

When you "play it by ear", could that mean you are playing mean playing Ear Guitar?

I am ... in Beijing

2007-05-28T00:01:00.000-04:00

My blog readers (all two of them!) have been asking me to post something, please! I am currently in Beijing working frantically collaborating on research with my colleague Ben. He is currently a professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China.

We are working on an encoding for the interactions of decisions.

I'll just post quickly, because I need to get back to work. The first day I arrived, I immediately noticed a difference from Shanghai. First of all, the taxi drivers drive in a reasonable way. It's still a little hectic, compared to driving in the US, however, nothing like the haphazard suicidal driving habits of the Shanghainese! The other thing I noticed is that it's much dryer here. It's been over 90 degrees F, but it's bearable because the humity is low.

I am staying with Ben in the Northwest part of the city. We are a 15 minute walk from the University. There are many foreign students living around here because many Chinese language schools are nearby. I have found this area welcoming and livable. more on why i think this in some other post....

pictures soon...

The MBTA is bi-lingual

2007-04-23T09:59:00.001-04:00

I was on the red line T the other day. It's the first time I noticed that they have bilingual announcements.

As we were approaching Park Street Station, a recorded annoucement in a deep male voice came over the PA system:

"Park Street. Change here for the Green Line".

Then, the train conductor made an announcement:

"Paahk Steet. Change he-ah fah da green line-h".

I guess, if you are a native of Boston, you might not understand English, unless it has a Boston accent!

Trip to Isreal

2007-04-05T10:13:00.001-04:00

I've had fun reading Bella's exciting stories from the bottom of the world.   In return, I should at least post my impression so of Israel, right?

The trip was really great. Although I was very busy at the conference, I was do a couple of touristy things. The conference organized a trip to visit Akko (also called "Acre"), which is a 2000+ year old town north of Haifa. It was amazing to walk through the historic structures from the jews, the romans, the greeks, the crusaders, the ottomans, the Arabs, and whoever else was there. There were secret tunnels of the Templar Knights and huge buildings that has only recently been uncovered.   A very cool experience.

The second thing I did was visit Jerusalem with an Israeli friend I met at the conference. We visited the Tower of David. They had an interesting video on the history of Jerusalem. Bottom line message in the video: Jerusalem belongs to the Jews. It's not surprising they would say this.       The next stop, after some Turkish coffee was the Golgotha , a place where many Catholics believe Jesus was crucified.    It was quite a powerful experience. I didn't expect it to be, but it was. I had no idea that these places existed.   I'm not a particularly religious person, but there's something very moving about being in these locations.   It's as if the whole history of the world, good and bad, is flowing through you while you stand there.   Many people pray here and leave gifts.    We also saw the tablet where Jesus was supposedly laid down after he was taken down from the cross. Then, we waited in the line to see the empty tomb. (of course, it's empty because he was resurrected, as the story goes...).

Next, we tried to visit the temple mount, but we were told it was for Arabs only on that day.   This is too bad.     This is the second holiest site in Islam. It's built on top of a rock that Muslim's believe was the spot where Mohamed was before he ascended to Heaven.     Unfortunately, this is was built on top of a holy spot for Jews.   They believe this is the spot where the world was created, and also a spot where two great temples once stood (before it was destroyed by invasions). They believe that when the next messiah comes, they are supposed to build a third great temple here.   Do you think will cause any trouble? anyone?

The final stop, before a late lunch of kebabs, was a trip to the Western Wall. This is considered the last standing piece of the great temples.

Sorry, my pictures are not that good. I might post them later....

first couple of days in Israel

2007-03-19T11:54:00.000-04:00

Right now I'm in Herzliya or Herzlya or Herzlyya, Israel. There may be other spellings for it! There seems to be no consistent way to translate Hebrew into English, so it can get really confusing here. Apparently, the problem is that there are no written vowels in Hebrew? Not sure. In a couple of days I'm going to Haifa, which is also spelled Jafa. I am attending the ICSEM 2007 conference. At the conference, they are running a tour to Acre, which is also Acco, or Akko. yikes! No wonder I had so much trouble finding maps of Israel on the web.

The things that have surprised me the most are: Hebrew is everywhere. Some people speak English, but only as a second language. Most signs are in Hebrew only. It's like walking around China. When you walking into buildings, you are always checked by a security guard. The weather is pretty temperate here. 65 deg. F and dry. Pretty nice. Even thought I saw the forecast, I always imagined it to be extremely hot here.

More later...

Hypocrisy

2007-03-09T11:29:00.000-05:00

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich acknowledged he was having an extramarital affair even as he led the charge against President Clinton over the Monica Lewinsky affair, he acknowledged in an interview with a conservative Christian group.

I have nothing to say in response to this NY Times article.

Weekend Project

2007-03-01T15:22:00.000-05:00

Awesome! Thanks to centime for sending this to me.

The Infinte Cat Project

2007-03-01T11:45:00.000-05:00

One of the silliest things on the internet that I've seen for a while....

Credit goes to Matti for finding this.

Beware of the Galleria

2007-03-01T09:26:00.000-05:00

Something weird happened last night. M and I were at the Cambridgeside Galleria Mall running a few errands after work. We decided to get some drinks and have dinner at either the California Pizza Kitchen or the Cheesecake Factory. (we just weren't in the Taco Bell/Sbarro/Food Court mood last night). After some debating, we decided to sit at the bar of the Cheesecake factory.

After about 10 minutes, all kinds of police cars, ambulances, and fire trucks showed up outside the window. We just mostly ignored it. Eventually they left. no big deal...

After going home, we flipped on the news. It turns out that three guys were stabbed outside the Galleria last night. They ran into the mall for help. Two of them hid in the California Pizza Kitchen, bleeding all over the place, and one ran up to Borders. We had no idea. Scary. We were almost in the middle of it.

Construction of the World's Highest Bridge

2007-02-22T18:10:00.001-05:00

I just found this on digg:

The Millau bridge over the River Tarn in the Massif Central mountains is more than 300m (984ft) high - taller even than the Eiffel Tower. With its concrete and steel pillars soaring high above the morning fog in the Tarn Valley, the construction makes a spectacular sight.

Incredible Stories from Antarctica

2007-02-22T15:59:00.000-05:00

My friend Bella is down in Antarctica on a cruise from Argentina. Check out her super-cool photos and stories.

efiling my taxes

2007-02-09T18:14:00.001-05:00

Why do I have to pay to efile my taxes? People should have to pay to paper file. It doesn't make any sense.

Cute Autonomous Snowplow

2007-02-09T16:35:00.000-05:00

As an engineer and somone who has shoveled too much snow in his life, I wonder how well this Cute Autonomous Snowplow really works.... and how dangerous it could be..

Moon Landing a Hoax?

2007-02-04T15:43:00.000-05:00

Wow! I had no idea that posting a animated gif of the moon over 28 days would bring in so many comments!

One person brought up the fact that he doesn't believe that we actually landed on the moon in the 60s. This always amazes me. I've studied under the many people who part of the Apollo program. This includes: Robert Stengel, Robert C. Seamans, Jack Kerrebrock, Dan Lickly, amoung others.

Project Apollo involved tens of thousands of engineers, scientists, politicians, press, and astronauts. It's just not possible for it to be a complete fabrication. In order for that to happen all of these people would have to be fooled or compliant. Any well-trained aerospace engineer knows that there is nothing impossible about landing on the moon. It's just very expensive and difficult.

If you still have doubts, or know of evidence "evidence", please check out this site: Moan Hoax.

the moon over 28 days

2007-01-30T08:58:00.001-05:00

My friend Paul sent me this cool time lapse image of the moon over it's 28 day cycle.

Update: This post has been Revised, because a brave "Anonymous" commenter scolded me for linking directly to the Wikipedia server. Thanks for your polite language, Mr. Anonymous.

it's getting colder....

2007-01-26T15:52:00.001-05:00

today the wind chill in Boston is -15F. Yikes! According to the Boston Globe, the temperature at the North Pole exceeds the temperature here.

In the article, they specifically mention that Buenos Aires is a pleasant 71 degrees today.

It's cold here.

2007-01-23T08:10:00.000-05:00

Yesterday the Charles River was partially frozen. Today, I took this photo from the 1 Bus going over the Harvard Bridge (Massachusetts Ave.) from Boston to Cambridge:

An odor of gas has permeated New York City

2007-01-08T14:58:00.001-05:00

... who farted?

for the music fan who has almost everything...

2007-01-03T18:10:00.000-05:00

here's a gift everyone needs:

Yes, just in case you love music so much that you can't stop listening while you poo, you can have an iPod dock complete with speakers which doubles as a toilet paper holder! Fortunately, it has buttons on it so that you don't have to touch you iPod with your poo-covered hands to change tracks!

I'm not making this up. It's on sale for 89.95.

Time to Waste

2006-12-04T12:52:00.000-05:00

I finished my exam at 3:20am this morning. M was nice enough to drive me to school at 8:30am to turn it in, then turn back around and drive me all the way back to my bed. Becuase I worked my ass off for the last 72 hours, I am now awake and fully committed to wasting time.

Just because Bellasaurus decided to make subtly make fun of my work/time plot, I'll post it one more time...
Finished with 8% of time to spare!

Since I can't possibly avoid seeming nerdy now, I might as well tell exactly what I've been up to. Since I want to maximally waste my time, I first read some news, which lead to do some research about who is Zalmay Khalilzad, a possible candidate to replace UN ambassador John "jacka#$" Bolton. This lead me to wikipedia, which eventually lead me to the Wikipedia page of the day, "Weird Al" Yankovic.

I was a huge fan of Weird Al when I was a kid. I learned some new things today. Weird Al's parents choose accordion lessons for him over guitar lessons as a kid simply because "they figured there should be at least one more accordion-playing Yankovic in the world," referring to Frankie Yankovic, to whom he has no relation! Funny how these little things that occur during your childhood can change your whole life. Weird Al became one of the very few rock and roll accordion stars.

The only reason I'm posting this is that while reading about Weird Al, I came across his new video "White & Nerdy". It's really good. You'll noticed that he has changed his look. He doesn't have glasses or a mustache anymore. (except when he wears nerdy glasses in the video). This is one the best Weird Al videos I've ever seen. There's even a wikipedia page about it, where they identify all of the cameo appearances (Donny Osmond!) and make criticize the fact that they using the the wrong symbol for Plank's constant in the background (it should be a h with a line though it, not just a regular h! duh!)

If I find more good ways to waste time, I'll let you know. Perhaps this video about the joys of scrabble by zefrank will interest you?

My General Exam

2006-12-02T20:53:00.000-05:00

I'm working late into the night on Saturday for my Ph.D. General Exam. It's a 72 hour take-home marathon exam (HOORAY!). I received questions from three professors on Friday at 9am. I must turn in written answers to all questions at 9am on Monday.

Because I'm a geek, I made a plot of my progress so far.. I'm exactly at the half-way point in time at 9pm tonight. The top bar shows how much time has passed in green. The bottom bar shows how much work I have completed. Right now, I'm slightly ahead on the work.. However, this does not take into account that I want to sleep at night. I'm going to push to see how much I can get done before midnight.

p.s... Blogging isn't helping me, so you probably wont hear from me until next week. ;)

8 Ways to fight poverty

2006-11-28T23:19:00.000-05:00

An interesting, fascinating, well-written story about 8 effective ways to fight global poverty. I originally found this one the ONE blog.

three kinds of tube

2006-11-02T09:46:00.000-05:00

I read this morning that Utube is suing YouTube for damages because ever since YouTube became popular, Utube was forced to spend a lot of money upgrading their servers to deal with the traffic. A slashdot commenter wondered if they were also planning to sue EweTube too?

Here is a sampling from EweTube:
(Some SheepCam Action)

But seriously, Utube is thinking about this all the wrong way. They should be using the excess traffic generated from people looking YouTube to grow their business! (I guess they are in a way: If they collect damages... litigation is one way to raise revenue...)

cool House race map

2006-11-01T14:32:00.000-05:00

Here is a cool map of the house races. Very nicely done.

2006 Election

2006-10-31T12:57:00.000-05:00

The election this year is becoming exciting. In the US, we vote next Tuesday. Electoral-Vote.com, which was a really cool site to track the 2004 election, is up and running again with polls for the senate and house races in 2006.

My prediction is that the Democrats will take both the house and the senate, because many Republicans may choose not to show up while at the same time many Democrats are angry and motivated to get out there and vote.

Old $20 Found

2006-10-18T16:44:00.000-04:00

(sorry for not updating for a while... here is a silly/nerdy story for you).

Something strange happened the other day. I used the Bank of America ATM at the MIT Student Center to withdraw $60. I received the money as 3 crisp $20 bills. The strange thing is that it was one 1950 bill and two 1969 bills. I was a little surprised because it's been a long time since I've seen the old "small head" design of the 20. I immediately started to wonder where the bank came across these old bills in crisp condition. Did someone find a stash of cash when their grandfather died? Was this part of some Mafia breakup? Are these fake bills printed in North Korea? The old US currency is one of the easiest to confereit, or so I hear.

There is a second cool thing about this. The bill from 1950 says:

"THIS NOTE IS LEGAL TENDER FOR ALL DEBTS, PUBLIC AND PRIVATE, AND IS REDEEMABLE IN LAWFUL MONEY AT THE UNITED STATES TREASURY, OR AT ANY FEDERAL RESERVE BANK"

This means that this 20 dates back to the Gold Standard, which meant that you could switch your $20 bill for $20 worth of gold or silver. Pretty cool? I wonder if I could still do it, because the bill says I can. ( I doubt it).

This brings up one more little known fact. This bill does not say "In God we Trust". The words "In God We Trust" were not always on US Currency, like so many people believe. They were added all over the place in the US during the cold war to show that we are not a "godless country" like the evil communists. This is not the whole story though.. According to the wikipedia article, these words were added to coins dating back to the civil war. Also according to the wikipedia article, replacing the words "redeemable in lawful money" with "In God We Trust" is a subtle irony... which I found to be subtly funny.

My personal opinion is that these words are a clear violation of the principle of the separation of church and state. The words imply that the whole nation, "we", trust in God. I interpret this as a command from the government to the people. This is saying, if you're really one of us, you must believe (trust) in god. There is no need for this on our currency. In my opinion it should be taken to the Supreme Court and found unconstitutional, but no one is willing to challenge religious sentiment these days.

Just one more thing... for the curious, $20 in 1950 is worth $168 in today's dollars accord to the consumer price index. This means that whoever stuffed a crisp stack of these $20's in a safe was probably very wealthy. If this $20 had been invested (and returned to circulation) instead of stored somewhere, it would be worth $300 at 5% interest or $6900 (wow!) at 11% interest (the approximate historical return for the stock market since then...). Lesson: Don't stuff you money in a box....Unless you are trying to excite a nerd (me) someday...

Missing! Can you help?

2006-09-12T13:43:00.000-04:00

from Jeff Sherffius.

Pluto is not a planet, get over it!

2006-09-11T20:23:00.000-04:00

Since this blog is called "Sr. Space Monkey", I might as well have some space news, right?

So, I came across pleasesavepluto.org today. They are starting a petition to get the IAU to reconsider their decision. Each signer can leave a "comment". There are nearly zero intellegent comments... but tons of funny ones.. These people are crazy.

Here are some good ones... read the rest at pleasesavepluto.org!

631. Jordan Jodway | September 8th, 2006 at 1:46 am

The astronomers who say that Pluto is not a planet are f***ing retarded. I think I made my point! SAVE PLUTO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

571. Sarah | September 5th, 2006 at 7:57 pm

OMG I LUV PLUTO DONT TAKE HIM AWAY FROM ME!!!!! DON’T!!!!!!!!!!!

387. Jim Vaillancourt | August 31st, 2006 at 2:25 am

I am compelled not to let a mere 5 % of the worlds astronomers decide what I have learned as fact.

381. Rufus Bocephus | August 31st, 2006 at 12:00 am

Maybe we should change the name of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) to IDIOTS AMONG US. No scientific reason for this at all. Not to mention the cost associated with rewriting text books. All because some group of worms wanted to go down in history. Oh, believe me, you’re going down in history…as the group of 424 astronomers who needed to feel important and were overturned by public outcry.

You mean to tell me the quorum for a decision this big is only 5 percent of the Professional Astronomers?

You shouldn’t call yourselves Astronomers; you should be called Asscucumbers.

332. Adam Morehart | August 30th, 2006 at 2:23 am

What did Pluto ever do to you? It is a historically significant discovery and as such deserves recognition in it’s original form…A PLANET!

223. Tim Rocks Everyday | August 28th, 2006 at 7:54 pm

Give us the *\%&@#! planet back!

Asscucumbers? seriously?

Californians are worried about the instability of universal constants!

2006-09-07T08:15:00.000-04:00

I came across this California HR assembly house resolution (it's real!) condeming the IAU for demoting Pluto from planetary status.

I've highlighted the good bits. Serisously, don't they have something better to do?

BILL NUMBER: HR 36 INTRODUCED
BILL TEXT

INTRODUCED BY Assembly Members Richman and Canciamilla
(Coauthors: Assembly Members Aghazarian, Bass, Benoit, Berg,
Bermudez, Blakeslee, Bogh, Calderon, Chan, Chavez, Cogdill, Cohn,
Coto, Daucher, DeVore, Emmerson, Frommer, Garcia, Goldberg, Haynes,
Jerome Horton, Shirley Horton, Houston, Huff, Karnette, Keene,
Koretz, La Malfa, Laird, Leno, Lieber, Liu, Matthews, Maze, Mountjoy,
Mullin, Nakanishi, Nation, Negrete McLeod, Niello, Parra, Plescia,
Ridley-Thomas, Sharon Runner, Ruskin, Salinas, Strickland, Tran,
Walters, Wolk, Wyland, and Yee)

AUGUST 24, 2006

Relative to Pluto's planetary status.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
HOUSE OR SENATE RESOLUTIONS DO NOT CONTAIN A DIGEST

WHEREAS, Recent astronomical discoveries, including Pluto's oblong
orbit and the sighting of a slightly larger Kuiper Belt object, have
led astronomers to question the planetary status of Pluto; and
WHEREAS, The mean-spirited International Astronomical Union
decided on August 24, 2006, to disrespect Pluto by stripping Pluto of
its planetary status and reclassifying it as a lowly dwarf planet;
and
WHEREAS, Pluto was discovered in 1930 by an American, Clyde
Tombaugh, at the Lowell Observatory in Arizona, and this discovery
resulted in millions of Californians being taught that Pluto was the
ninth planet in the solar system; and
WHEREAS, Pluto, named after the Roman God of the underworld and
affectionately sharing the name of California's most famous animated
dog, has a special connection to California history and culture; and
WHEREAS, Downgrading Pluto's status will cause psychological harm
to some Californians who question their place in the universe and
worry about the instability of universal constants; and
WHEREAS, The deletion of Pluto as a planet renders millions of
text books, museum displays, and children's refrigerator art projects
obsolete, and represents a substantial unfunded mandate that must be
paid by dwindling Proposition 98 education funds, thereby harming
California's children and widening its budget deficits; and
WHEREAS, The deletion of Pluto as a planet is a hasty,
ill-considered scientific heresy similar to questioning the
Copernican theory, drawing maps of a round world, and proving the
existence of the time and space continuum; and
WHEREAS, The downgrading of Pluto reduces the number of planets
available for legislative leaders to hide redistricting legislation
and other inconvenient political reform measures; and
WHEREAS, The California Legislature, in the closing days of the
2005-06 session, has been considering few matters important to the
future of California, and the status of Pluto takes precedence and is
worthy of this body's immediate attention; now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the Assembly of the State of California, That the
Assembly hereby condemns the International Astronomical Union's
decision to strip Pluto of its planetary status for its tremendous
impact on the people of California and the state's long term fiscal
health; and be it further
Resolved, That the Assembly Clerk shall send a copy of the
resolution to the International Astronomical Union and to any
Californian who, believing that his or her legislator is addressing
the problems that threaten the future of the Golden State, requests a
copy of the resolution.

Crikey!

2006-09-05T14:29:00.000-04:00

Long live the crocodile hunter!

Sometimes you get the sting ray, sometimes the sting ray gets you...., mate..

A sad, but expected, end for one crazy dude.

Are you sure you want to read this post?

2006-09-01T10:00:00.000-04:00

A great post by Matti:

Stupid questions

My Nokia E61-phone has an irritating habit of asking for confirmations. If I select "close application", it always ask "are you sure?". It does not make any sense. When I say I want to close an application, I mean it. Windows application have similar habits.

Imagine how fun it will be, when the engineers of stupid questions will design and build a house. You close a door, it pops open and asks you whether you really want to close it. Turning of lights when leaving a room will require repetitive flipping of the light switch. And when you try to get some snacks from the fridge, the door will shut down on you fingers while a nasty voice ask whether you really want to open the fridge.

I agree. This is annoying. Especially on slow devices like a cell phone.

I think the refrigerator idea might actually be a good weight loss technique. I used to have car that would shock me every time I opened the door. I suppose this made me a little weary of driving, and therefore encouraged me to burn less gas.

leaving today..

2006-08-27T20:56:00.000-04:00

That's it for posts from China, I'm leaving today.... more later.. I have so much to say.. but, not enough time to write.. I have to do real work! (and pack...)

Nanjing and More

2006-08-27T06:04:00.000-04:00

Ben's Friend Chen-Ming came for a quick visit from Taiwan, so we decided to go to Nanjing overnight last Friday for a visit. Ben's friend's Will and Susan live There. Chen-Ming is a friend from Ben's junior college in Taiwan (waaaaay back) and Will was Ben's roommate in Tang Hall during his first year at MIT as a grad student.

Najing was the captical of China at least twice. Once during the Ming dynasty, and also when the Republic of China (ROC) was formed 1912. (This is not the same as the PRC).

It's was a great trip. Way too much to tell, so I'll have to summarize...

I posted a photo gallery of my trip here: Bill's trip to Shanghai. It's got most of the stuff in the captions. Too much to write.

1) We took a cab to the train station. It was the scariest cab ride of my life! Driver in Shanghai are completely nuts. I was getting used to it, but this guy probably watched a little too much F-1 racing (which is really big over here). He was darting in and out of traffic and narrowly missing pedestrians and bikes so many times I almost...

2) The train station was amazing. There were so many people there. Like a million or something. You say, "it can't be a million!", but think about it. China has a billion people. A million is only like 0.1%, so it's not that much of a fraction.

3) We arrived in Nanjing after about 2 1/2 hours and met up with Ben's friend Will and his wife Susan.

4) After lunch, we were off to a park near the Purple Mountain. It's named that because it has some purple rocks, apparently. I didn't see any.... The first thing we saw was some 800 year-old monuments to the Ming Dynasty.

5) We first went to visit a mosoluem dedicated to Dr. Sun Yat-sen, the founder of the ROC. It involved a lot of steps, and it was very hot.

6) Next, we stopped by a buddhist temple.

7) Next, we climbed a giant pagoda. Tough climb in the heat, but a great view from the top!

8) later we had dinner, then we went to a Concert run by Will's wife Susan. It was concert featuring the Erhu. There were many Erhu and musicians of all ages. It was fantastic!

9) The next day, before we caught the train back to Shanghai, we went to visit the former presidential palace of the ROC. It was also the same site as a former regional king's palace in Nanjing.

where have I been?

2006-08-24T07:19:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the delay in posting. I was pretty sick yesterday. I went out for Thai food 2 nights ago and the next morning my stomach was not to happy with me. You can guess what happened next.    My advice is to be careful what you eat when traveling.   And, if you are not careful, then make sure you bring "intestinal" medicine and stomach medicine just in case.   I was lucky I could just sleep at the apartment all day.   Imagine if I were on a plane or train. Ugh. that would be miserable. (I'm ok now).

Today Ben and I went to the tailor to pick up some pants that I ordered. The taxi dropped us off in the wrong place, so we had to walk really far to get there. We went through a working class neighborhood.   It was actually pretty cool.   There were lots of people selling stuff on the street. Clothes, snacks, dishes, household goods, comic books, videos... just about everything might want. I always thought this is the way a city should be laid out. Everything you need is right at your doorstep. No need to drive. The sidewalks were filled with vendors, so we had to walk in the street. Every now and then a bike, motor scooter, or occasionally a car would beep at us to get out of the way.    The thing that impressed me the most about this street was that the people seemed really calm, laid back, and generally content. No one was pressuring me to buy things. I felt very safe there. (perhaps i am naïve?).

In the evenings, the TV is usually on in Ben's apartment. Their satellite dish is broken, so they only get the approved Chinese channels. There are about 12 CCTV (China Central TV) channels run by the government. There are also some mandarin channels from Hong Kong and Taiwan that are available.    One CCTV channel is in English.   The state run channels are heavily business focused with a little bit of international news.   The government's influence can clearly be seen in the available programs. The international news is almost always negative. (like the recent plane crash in Russia, for example). The China news is always positive.    The business news is mostly a collection of short feature stories about successful, well-behaved business people in China. Occasionally, they have a story about a business person from another country to teach how they became good business people.   There was one story about the new train from Beijing to Tibet. They were talking about how great it will be for Tibet. Many non-Tibetan Chinese are now moving there and setting up businesses to take advantage of the tourist trade. They are mostly importing good from Eastern China, so the local people don't have to bother to even make goods or work in stores for the expected influx of new tourists. So, Tibetans are really happy about this. (right!) The story ends with a quick interview with some old Tibetan woman praying and some statement like, "no one knows what will happen to the Tibetan people and their culture".... Well, it's good thing the Tibetans are happy!

I will post photos soon. Unfortunately, I am at a café with poor internet connection.   I'll be on a faster one later.

past couple of days in SH

2006-08-20T21:30:00.000-04:00

I've had a good couple of days here... I'll post a couple pictures soon. We've been working a lot, but we've also taken the time do a couple of social/tourist things.

On Saturday we met up with a group called the "Sea Turtles" at an American Bar and Grill-type restaurant. The Sea Turtles are a group of Chinese who left China to study overseas and have returned to "lay eggs". (Sea turtles always return to the beach where they were born to lay eggs). It was an interesting time. There were many engineers, finance people, and entrepreneurs who were trying to network with each other. I get invited to these kinds of alumni events in Boston all the time (now that I have attended 4 different schools of higher ed.)... I've never go, but maybe I should. It's probably a good chance to make some contacts.

On Sunday we went met up with a friend of the Koo's for lunch. We went to a Shanghainese restaurant with a great view. It was in the "Super Brand Mall". The food was really tasty. Definitely the best that I've had on this trip. The Super Brand mall is an amazing place in itself. It's an 8 story mall filled with mostly fancy Western shops. It's so big inside that it reminds me of the huge canyons in the west of the US. It's so big that when you look up from the ground floor you can't really conceptualize the imense size. There are two things that make it even more amazing: This is not the biggest mall in China (yikes!) and there are two more floors in the basement that house an gargantuan department store/supermarket. We went down there to buy some water. It was bigger than any store in the US that I've ever seen. Quite amazing. I guess with the cheap cost of labor here, you can build anything.

Later on, we went to a fabric gallery across the river. There, I ordered two pairs of pants custom made for me. I probably paid too much ($40 for two), but I picked out the most expensive fabric they have and ordered all the finishing options possible. I hope it comes out well. I've had trouble fitting in commercially sold pants, so maybe custom cut pants will suit me well. (SO LUXURIOUS!) If this goes well, maybe I'll order a suit next time I'm in China.

Next, we walked along the Bund. The Bund is series of English-built buildings along the river. They are all in a classic late-colonial style. The buildings housed various banks, customs houses, and hotels. The Brits used this as a trading port. One building in particular was really amazing. The ceiling was painted with a fabulous mural depicting the reach and influence of British empire. This ceiling was covered by fleeing British to prevent it from being destroyed by Mao's army. It has been recently restored. Unfortunately, due to the Chinese national firewall, I can't find any links to photos.. There might be some here at Wikipedia. Strangly there is a message on ceiling that says, "ALL MEN ARE EQUALS ON THE HIGH SEAS". Really, "all men"? I have a hard time believing that was true in 1930.

I'll post more photos soon... back to work...

cultural differences

2006-08-18T04:55:00.000-04:00

Ben and I are spending the day at a local coffee shop. They have wireless Internet and it's fairly quiet here. We have come to this place twice before. The food, coffee, and waitstaff are good.... and, best of all: it's clean.

A couple of strange things happened today. They are strange for me, but I suppose it's normal here.

Early in the day, we ordered a pot of coffee. While rearranging our books and laptops on the table, I accidentally knocked a cheap plastic napkin holder onto the floor. It broke into two pieces. I was not surprised, because it was basically two pieces of plastic glued together. The waitress brought over a replacement and then told Ben that she was adding 15 RMB (less than $2) to the bill for the damage. I was a little surprised, but he said this is normal here. In the US, if such a thing happened a customer would throw a fit. I thought it was pretty rude. This place is actually a pretty expensive restaurant. Many of their specialty drinks are $10-$20. Later, the waitress came over and told us that it because it was "the fault of the staff", she would take 40% off the charge. So, now we owe 9 RMB for the plastic thing. ok, whatever...

In the afternoon, suddenly all of the male waiters in the cafe marched in unison to a location right outside our window. They stood at attention as the manager carefully inspected each of them. He especially checked to see if their fingernails were clean by holding a white piece of paper under their hands. Then, they all chanted some Chinese phrases in unison. (I suppose it's something like: "we are polite to customers! we keep our fingernails clean! we will charge customers for all damage to napkin holders!). Then, they marched in formation back into the restaurant. Ben shook his head and said it's likely that the manager is x-military. This is his way of keeping quality standards high.

OK, back to work. hopefully, I can refrain from breaking any more napkin holders.

2nd Trip to Shanghai

2006-08-17T19:06:00.000-04:00

Here is my report of my first couple of days...

I flew to Shanghai via Chicago on tuesday the 15th. It was a pretty decent flight. I'm a little dissapointed in the quality of American Airlines International Coach. They have a nice entertainment systems with screens at your seat, but the quality of the movies has definately dropped. Some manager probably said, "Get cheaper movies!", so they did. The best movie was "RV" with Robin Williams. yikes. This is about a family that rents an RV and has crazy adventures. They probably got that for free. Additionally, my controller was faulty, so I had trouble changing the volumes. Oh yeah. The earphones were of poor quality too. The sound was highly distorted (squeaky) and they hurt my ears after about 30 minutes of use. Luckily, I had my own set in my carry-on bag. ugh. You know how else they "saved" money? They cancelled all of the on-board magazines. That must have saved them about $25 for the flight. Good job! But, I got here safely, which is the important thing...

ok, that is the end of my ranting. I wont talk about the service or food.

This time, upon arrival in Shanghai, Ben picked me up and we took the new MagLev train to get to his apartment. The train is built on an elevated track system and has electromagnets that can levitate it above the track while it's moving. This allows it to move extremely fast. We reached a top speed of 430 kph (267 mph)! This is about half the speed of an aircraft. In 7 minutes we were within a mile or so of his apartment. Last time I came to Shanghai it took 45 minutes by car to get here. Ben told me that I am one of a very tiny fraction of people in the world that have ridden on a working MagLev train! Here is the photo:

We have spent the first couple of days working at home and catching up on eachothers research. I have a few good meals already... M is jealous about the good food I am able to eat here, so I wont go into too much detail!

Everywhere we go, we bring little Henry Koo. He is 7 1/2 months old and very well behaved. Here is a photo of Ben and Henry taking a quick nap at the Hagen-Dasz across from the Bund:

More photos and stories later... On Sunday we are planning to take a break and spend some time seeing the sights of Shanghai.

3 things!

2006-08-13T23:38:00.000-04:00

1) Today we ate the first tomato! It tasted fantastic. My two tomato plants are both 5 feet tall now. Each has about 5 or 6 tomatoes growing on it. I'll post a picture when I get a chance.

2) We finally moved our furniture around today to create a bathroom for Gracie. She loves it! She has a green curtain to cover up her kitty litter. Now she can finally have some privacy when nature calls.

3) On Tuesday I'm leave for Shanghai on a research trip. This time I will be there for two weeks. It's going to be a lot of work, but I'm really excited to just be in one city for two weeks, instead of hopping around like last time.

Soaring in Vermont

2006-08-09T16:47:00.000-04:00

On Monday I drove up to Vermont with Bruce C. (a grad school peer of mine) to stay at my advisor's cabin in Vermont.   My advisor is a soaring enthusiast.   I always thought gliding was sort of an odd hobby and couldn't possibly safe or fun. (Why wouldn't you want an engine??) But, it is actually really fun, exciting, and amazing. Too bad I didn't bring my camera. I'll include some photos from the gliding club's website.

We pulled out the two-seat glider (an SGS 1-26) onto the runway at the Sugarbush airport.    It's a very small runway with a few hangars a little control tower.    The glider only has wheels along it's centerline, so one person tows it with a golf cart while the other person (me) holds up the wings. Although it's about 40 feet across (the wingspan), it's actually very light and easy to hold up a wing.

We next hooked the glider up a tow plane.   I expected a large tow plane, but it's actually a fairly small plane. Only one seat and one propeller. It doesn't take very much to lift the glider. The tow rope is carefully laid on the ground in a big S pattern to prevent any knots or loops from forming.

I strapped myself in the front seat while Ed did a pre-flight check of all the mechanisms. It's actually quite hot inside once the glass canopy is closed. There no powered fan or air conditioning inside the glider. There is only one small battery to run the radio.   Once we were flying, small adjustable air vents provided the comfort controls. The whole idea of gliding is to take advantage of the forces of nature as much as possible.

Once everything was all set and we were strapped in, Ed radioed to the tow pilot and the control tower that we were ready.   One of the club members held up one wing while we waiting. The tow plane started pulling us off the grass onto the runway. Within seconds the club member was able to let go of the wing because we were already producing enough lift to keep the glider upright on it's own.

Within 10 seconds were were in the air just above the runway. The glider actually lifts off before the tow plane because it is optimized to generate as much lift as possible. The next couple of minutes are actually some the most difficult in the glider flight. The pilot of the glider has to be careful to stay behind the tow plane with tension on the tow rope. It's easy to accidentally shoot ahead of the plane or cause a loop in the rope if you are not careful.

At about 4000 feet, Ed pulled a yellow knob in the cockpit which released the rope. We were freely soaring at that point!   In order to stay aloft, a glider needs to find one of three sources of lift: thermals, ridge lift, or wave lift.   Ed was able to identify some cloud formations that indicated wave lift nearby. We gently guided the glider towards them.    He was right, as we were soon rising at a rate of 2 to 5 knots.

For the next 30 to 40 minutes we gently circled higher and higher above the clouds. It was a bit hazy, but you could still see the wonderful landscape of the Mad River Valley in Vermont.   We reached 10,000 feet and decided that we should head down so that Bruce could also get a ride. (If we had kept going we would have to stop at 14,000 feet because we were not carrying oxygen). Ed let me take control of the glider for a little while, so I could gently glide around the clouds and fully experience the thrill of soaring like a hawk. It was really wonderful.

We actually had a tough time getting the glider to go down. We had to use the spoilers (used like an airbrake) to slow down the glider.   Ed told me that some people fly for years without finding a strong source of lift like I did on my first flight. I guess I'm just lucky.

The landing was interesting/thrilling too.   We circled the runway a few times so that we could gently lose enough altitude to land.    I always thought the idea of gliding was dangerous, but actually, it actually takes some work to get the glider to go down. A trained pilot should always have enough time to get back to a runway considering how slowly the glider descends.

I highly recommending going for a glider ride if you ever get a chance!

no news is good news...

2006-07-31T23:51:00.000-04:00

It's been a mild week... Many people have told me, "you no going to know what to do with your free time after you get married." Oh, they are so wrong. I want to do everything and nothing. Everything I missed (movies, visiting friends and family, going out to dinner), and NOTHING when I don't want to do anything at all.

M and I went Kayaking on the Charles River on Saturday. We rented a two person Kayak in Newton. It was super hot, but that was no problem for us because we were out on the water enjoying nature.   We saw a screaming hawk (aaaaw! aAAAAwww! aaaaWWWWahh!), 5 small turtles, 6 swans, many ducks, and a heron. It was really nice. We brought a picnic with us and we ate while we drifted downstream towards Waltham.

On Sunday we say two movies. We went to the theater to see Pirates of the Caribbean 2. It sucked. I'm starting to get bored of movies that have lots of action and special effects, but no dialog, no interesting plot, and bad jokes. What's the point? With the computer generated graphics today, we have just about seen everything. The only thing that impresses me now is a good plot and clever dialog. (go back to the basics!) We also saw Brokeback Mountain, which we rented with NetFlix.   This was actually good, and fairly original. I expected a bit more because of all the hype, but it was still a very good movie. Very different for Ang Lee.

I have a softball game planned for Wednesday, but it's supposed to be 106 degrees on the heat index.    This is probably not a smart idea. Oh well.

100 funniest (US) movies of all time??

2006-07-28T11:30:00.000-04:00

I noticed this list on Boston.com this morning. Apparently it was ranked by the Bravo network. It's an interesting list. For the most part, it's probably a pretty good list. I'm not sure about the ranking order though. I would promote Zoolander, Happy Gilmore, and the Blues Brothers higher up the list, for sure. Shrek as number 3? It was funny, but not that funny! I would also say that Team America was funnier than the South Park movie (but, both were equally disgusting.) This is Spinal Tap should definitely be promoted a bit higher.... possibly to number 11!

I'm having a a lot of trouble thinking of a movie that's not on this list. Can you think of one?

100. Anchorman
99. The Birdcage
98. School of Rock
97. Happy Gilmore
96. Four Weddings and a Funeral
95. Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle
94. Waiting for Guffman
93. The Aristocrats
92. Father of the Bride
91. Revenge of the Nerds
90. Clueless
89. Slapshot
88. Team America
87. The Kentucky Fried Movie
86. Zoolander
85. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
84. Silver Streak
83. Sister Act
82. Tootsie
81. Half Baked
80. Lost in America
79. Three Amigos
78. Bananas
77. Flirting with Disaster
76. Ghostbusters
75. Dumb and Dumber
74. Trading Places
73. City Slickers
72. Moonstruck
71. Roxanne
70. The Nutty Professor (Eddie Murphy)
69. The Blues Brothers
68. Broadcast News
67. Kingpin
66. Dazed and Confused
65. Office Space
64. This is Spinal Tap
63. Manhattan
62. The Pink Panther
61. Election
60. When Harry Met Sally
59. Police Academy Series
58. Private Benjamin
57. Swingers
56. Young Frankenstein
55. Bull Durham
54. Ferris Bueller's Day Off
53. Dr. Strangelove
52. Meet the Parents
51. National Lampoon's Vacation
50. The Princess Bride
49. American Pie
48. American Graffiti
47. 9 to 5
46. The Incredibles
45. Raising Arizona
44. Sixteen Candles
43. What About Bob?
42. Harold and Maude
41. Austin Powers
40. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
39. Mrs. Doubtfire
38. Best In Show
37. Dodgeball
36. Good Morning Vietnam
35. Beetlejuice
34. Rushmore
33. Clerks
32. Groundhog Day
31. The Big Lebowski
30. The 40 Year Old Virgin
29. Legally Blonde
28. Annie Hall
27. A Fish Called Wanda
26. Wayne's World
25. Meet the Fockers
24. Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure
23. Big
22. Beverly Hills Cop
21. Shampoo
20. The Jerk
19. Wedding Crashers
18. Stripes
17. M*A*S*H
16. Old School
15. Fast Times At Ridgemont High
14. Napoleon Dynamite
13. Naked Gun Series
12. The Producers
11. Pee-Wee's Big Adventure
10. Arthur
9. Ace Ventura: Pet Detective
8. Blazing Saddles
7. The Wedding Singer
6. Airplane
5. South Park: Bigger, Longer, Uncut
4. There's Something About Mary
3. Shrek
2. Caddyshack
1. Animal House

Solar Powered Trash Compactors

2006-07-26T11:21:00.000-04:00

I read this morning about the new Solar Powered Trash Compactors in Boston. They have installed 50 of them downtown to reduce the number of times that each trash can needs to be emptied.

Apparently these devices store energy from the sun in some sort of battery. Once the level of trash reaches a certain point a chain powered compactor crushes the trash. The company that produces them, Seahorse Power claims it can store up to 150 gallons of trash before it must be emptied. This prevents trash from overflowing bins from flying around in the wind.

I think this is a great idea. Most people in the forums on Boston.com thinks it's a waste of money. But, I have a feeling that even at a cost of $4300 each, it will save the city money in terms of man-hours for trash collection. If it also prevents overflowing trash from blowing around the streets it also delivers more value. The article claims that some traditional trash cans in Boston are emptied up to 15 times per day.

One good objection was raised: Where do we put recyclables? There are very few bins for recyclables in Boston. I think these fancy trash cans should installed along side recycle bins. The bins for bottles and cans are "self-emptying" in some sense. Someone always comes by and empties them so they can cash in the contents for 5 cents each.

We're back! (updated with photo!)

2006-07-19T11:29:00.000-04:00

We're back from our honeymoon. We had a great time in Canada. I'm now at work answering hundreds of emails... so, I'll post some photos and stories soon.

Thank you to those people who have sent me their own photos already!

a big day

2006-07-01T14:22:00.000-04:00

Today I marry my best friend.

Week in Review

2006-06-26T10:00:00.000-04:00

Hi Blog Readers:

Sorry for the sporadic updates.. It's been a crazy month! As many of your know, I'm getting married to M on Saturday.   We are doing much of the work ourselves to save money. It's been very hectic, but in the end, I think it will be a great ceremony and reception. I'd like to give a shout out to people who have been helping us along the past few weeks... Centime, Tung Lee, Sarenna Stein, Brian Thomas, Isabella, Z. Alonso, Margaret, Vuto, and the many others who I am too frazzled to mention at the moment!

In other news, I had a pretty good week last week. I gave a one hour talk at Draper Labs for my year-end review on June 22. A research grant from Draper is funding my education, so I am grateful for that. The talk went very well. My current research is in graph-based information handling and manipulation for engineering systems architecting. Twenty people showed up at my talk, which is a very good turnout for these types of things. 19 of 20 liked it. The one guy who objected, didn't object too strongly, he just didn't like being told/didn't believe that my way of doing things is better than his way. We'll see... ;)

I had a good game of softball last week. Our manager, Dan Kwon writes up funny articles after each game in our softball blog. I hit a game winning double to end the game on Wednesday. It was a great feeling, because my hitting has really stunk recently. (I think I've been too distracted by off-field stuff!)

Last week M and I watched two movies at home: Il Postino and Everything is Illuminated. Both were fantastic, and I highly recommend them to almost anyone.   However, if you only like action movies and hate reading subtitles, these are not for you.    Il Postino is mostly in Italian with a bit of Spanish. Everything is Illuminated is a mixture of English and Ukrainian.

I went to an appointment with Margaret's Radiation Oncologist on Wednesday. She was her normal self, messing with the staff a bit. This is the first appointment she has had since the radiation stopped three months ago. The radiation used to treat her tumor takes about 6 months to 2 years to take effect. The staff was very impressed by the improvement they could see in her.    There was one particularly funny exchange between Margaret and her doctor:

Margaret (in a gruff voice): "GENERAL!, has the radiation infiltrated the battlefield?"
Dr. Ramakrishna (standing tall, in respect): "Yes, Margaret! Our intelligence images are showing the enemy may have begun a retreat. It appears the enemy is not successful in it's attempt to call reinforcements, however we need more time to see the full effect of our attack!"
Margaret: "Great job, general!"

[In other words, so far so good. There is some indication that the tumor is shrinking, but it's still too early too tell.... The good news is that the radiation did not cause the tumor to grow and did not cause any new swelling of brain tissue. This is fantastic... The next MRI and appointment is another 3 months from now.]

That's all for now. I'll post more when I can. Large numbers of family and friends are flying in soon, so I'll do what I can...

funny things happen on the way to work

2006-06-20T12:33:00.000-04:00

Well, this is mildly funny... I was waiting for the #1 bus at the Mass. Ave. station bus stop
when a dark brown van marked "Boston Department of Public Health" drove up. There were 4 or 5 guys in it. The guy in the passenger seat had unlit cigarette in his mouth. As soon as he got out of the van, he lit it up. I get the feeling it's not the only cigarette he is having today. Hopefully he is not on his way to some sort of public health education program.

Adventures on Craigslist

2006-06-19T17:56:00.000-04:00

So, yesterday I bought a 27" inch TV for M's mom on Craigslist. I've been trying to get one for two weeks to replace one that was broken. I was getting frustrated with the routine. I saw ads for good deals. I would then email the person and get no response. It seems that once something is sold, people just ignore the emails. It would be nice to know either way.

I ended up getting a nice 27" Sony for $75. Great deal! In the end I just sat the computer, hitting refresh every couple of minutes, when I saw a good deal I immediately called or email the person. Crazy. It's like sniping on Ebay.

Here's a tip if you looking for a TV: Many people are selling nice TVs cheap these days because they are upgrading to $1000+ LCD flat screens and such. There are tons of them on craigslist.

Isabella Returns

2006-06-15T10:13:00.000-04:00

My friend Isabella will soon be in Boston!

Another set of updates...

2006-06-12T09:58:00.000-04:00

Here is a photo of my tomato plants taken on May 25th. They are now about 3 times bigger. I'll take a new photo soon. I can't wait to eat my very own tomatoes. I've also planted rosemary, parsley, oregano, mint, basil, cilantro, jalapeños and a couple of strawberry plants. We were recently given lavender and catnip plants, so I'll plant those too.

The past couple of weeks have been busy. The wedding is just 18 days away. I am also working towards the year-end review with my funder on June 22.

Isabella is writing about the excitment about the World Cup in Argentina. In the US, you would hardly know it's going on. There is very little advertising or conversation about it here. Too bad!

I recently bought a used bike from my Finnish friend, Matti. It's quite a nice ride and I'm excited to try biking to MIT sometime.

That's all for now... back to the grind..

The egg was first.

2006-05-26T13:48:00.000-04:00

So, according to CNN, the chicken and egg question has been solved.

The article says a geneticist, chicken-farmer, and philosopher have agreed that it was definitely the egg that came first. This is because genetic material doesn't change throughout an animal's life, so the first chicken must have come from an egg that contained some slightly mutated DNA.

Wow. I always say it was the chicken. This is because chicken tastes better than eggs.

updates

2006-05-24T15:23:00.000-04:00

Not much new to report over the last couple of days. I'm digging into a summer of full-time researching and, so far it's tough to get motivated.

I'm still waiting to hear for sure if they car is totaled.   We are thinking about what do about getting a car. One possible choice is a Honda Fit. It's new to the US this year, although it's been selling well in other countries as the Honda Jazz.

Today is the first game of the summer intramural softball season.

M and I are planning to travel to Prince Edward Island, Canada after our wedding.   We haven't booked anything yet. We planned to drive up there, but now we have no car.    Most likely that will be worked out in some way before July.   Recently, M and I have been watching old videos of Anne of Green Gables, which is based in PEI.

I wonder if all the recent immigration protests in the US are really helping.   It is bringing a lot of attention to the issue and lighting a fire under the people who think "all laws should be enforced".    Of course, these people don't believe that the federal wiretapping laws should be also be enforced. Americans seem to be especially good at having extremely strongly held, yet conflicting beliefs.   I suppose you can find examples of double standards in many cultures.

It seems that the immigration system was better a few years ago (before 9/11) when it's faults were swept under the rug. People could get into the country and leave with an enormous amount of trouble. The path to a green card or even a visa was somewhat murky, but do-able. Now there is constant harassment of people trying to enter the country by the INS. "are you a terrorist???" When my colleague came to work with us from Taiwan, his visa was delayed for 5 weeks to make sure he wasn't a terrorist or a 'threat' to immigrate.   The USA would be lucky if he did immigrate.

Tomorrow I have jury duty in Boston at 8AM. This is my first time.   I was called for jury duty in Colorado once. I delayed it, but they never called me again.

I planted my tomatoes a couple of weeks ago.   Right before the rainstorm.. they seemed to have survived. I'll post some pictures soon. I also planted some herbs and a jalapeño plant.

Goodbye, faithful car.

2006-05-21T16:21:00.000-04:00

Here's the interior of my car. Unfortunately my camera battery died soon after taking this one picture.

I went over to A&B towing today to get my stuff out of the car. Unfortunately, it's much worse than just a missing engine. They took nearly everything from under the hood: the engine, the radiator, the distributor, the clutch... When you look under the hood you basically see straight through to the ground. I wish I had a photo, because it's quite dramatic. They even took a 4-year-old battery and all the belts and hoses. My aluminum wheels and tires were also gone. However, the thieves were nice enough to replace them with cheap-o rusty wheels from an 80's honda civic. I think the only thing left behind was a windshield wiper fluid reservoir. Oh, and the windshield wipers themselves. Totally sucks. There is no chance of repairing this car. As you can see in the picture, they even took the shifter knob.

This was a great car. I am pissed off and sad at the same time.

my car was found, but...

2006-05-20T23:46:00.000-04:00

it has no engine.

I got a call from the Police tonight. They told me that my car was found at 25 Business St., Hyde Park. It was towed by A&B Towing. The police officer said he was told there was "some engine damage". He told me to call the towing company. I called them and they said, "engine damage? there's no engine."

There's a good chance the car will be totaled. I will visit it tomorrow.

More updates later.

Dude, where's my car?

2006-05-18T21:21:00.000-04:00

Sometime in the wee hours of the morning someone stole my car from right behind my house. It was parked in our designated spot.    It's been reported to the police and my insurance has set me up with a Nissan Altima while I wait to see if it turns up.

I am remorseful. I paid for that car with my own money soon after I started my first job and I really feel very attached to it.   It's in great shape and I have carefully maintained it for 7 years. It has 119,000 miles on it, and I hoped to keep it for at least 3 more years. This is the 5th time I've been robbed in the last 10 years. Two years ago some thieves took the distributor (an $800 part) from this car while it was parked on my street.   It's frustrating. The sad part is that after a while I am getting used to this.

My insurance agent says that 80% of stolen cars turn up in two weeks, so I have to wait until then for them to pay out.     However, the guy from Enterprise rent-a-car told me that from time-to-time some organized crime group steals a large number of Acuras and Hondas are all in one night and drives them to Canada. Once they cross the border they are loaded on freighters to be resold in Asia.   It seems a little bit of a complex operation for my '95 Acura Integra. I have a feeling that the same people who stole my distributor two years ago needed more parts. I just hope it doesn't come back totaled.

Well. In other news, I'm almost done with the semester. This incident has put a damper on my push to the finish, but what can you do.

Red Sox-Yankees

2006-05-02T10:37:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I was lucky enough to score some tickets to the first Red Sox-Yankees game of the year. My friend Hilary got the tickets from a business contact... Luckily (for me) her fiance had to work late so I got to go! The fans were all hyped up for this one. It was the first game in Boston for Johnny Damon. He was booed at first, then he tipped his helmet to fans in the crowd and got a mixture of boos and cheers. I think the fans still appreciate what he did for us for four great years, but now he is a Yankee and things are different now.

The sox won 7-4. David Ortiz sealed the deal with a three-run monster homerun to the bullpen which felt like it took like a minute to come down.

The Red Sox made a last minute trade yesterday. Tim Wakefield was pitching and Josh Bard, the backup catchter they were training to replace Mirabelli, was having a lot of trouble this year. I think he had 10 passed balls in the month of April. The sox made a trade to get Mirabelli back just in time for the game. He flew into Logan Airport and was picked up by a black SUV and a police escort. He changed in the car and got to the field by 7:13pm just in time to catch Wakefield's first knuckleball. Only in Boston would city police provide such a service!

Some great screen captures from the evening news (captured by some dude on SonsOfSamHorn):

What's up this week?

2006-04-28T21:08:00.000-04:00

Hello Readers (woof woof to you, Brody),

This week has been pretty busy at school.. so here are some quickies:

Maddy and I passed the 4 year mark on Monday. We first went out on April 24, 2002.

Gracie is doing well. She is jumping and playing like the old days. Everything will be back to normal once she gets her hair back on her chest!

The Red Sox have been sucking this week. This was pointed out by Jaime, who is a Yankees fan and who happens to have almost the exact same blog template as I do. It's not exactly the same, because I'm a geek and I actually modified it just a little.... couldn't resist..

We are nearly out of heating oil and it's somewhat cold here. I don't want to buy any more because it's almost May and the price of heating oil is the highest it's been in 5 years (i think). The risk is that the oil line will run dry and out boiler system may get damaged. I'm going to just stick it out and hope spring really arrives soon!

This week, my research abstract titled, "A computational Method for Mapping the Decision Space of the Lunar Exploration Program" was accepted for presentation at the International Astronautical Congress 2006 in Valencia, Spain. I'm so excited for this one. I've never been to Spain, and now MIT is going to pay for it. Of course, I will have to work my butt off this summer to get the research done....

I haven't planted my tomatoes yet, but the lilac tree I planted last year is growing new leaves. I've be sure to give an exciting play-by-play of how the planting is going. I suppose watching plants grow may be a little less exciting than waiting for water to boil.

My brother, Bob, pointed out this blog of Ridiculous Hypotheticals. It's pretty good... Although it doesn't compare the ridiculous hypotheticals that Mike Northrop and I used to come up with when we were kids. (Although, I have to give most of the credit to Mike, he was the wackier one of the two of us). We always used the baseline, "Would you rather drink a gallon of melted slugs, or [...]". Surprisingly, sometimes drinking a gallon of melted slugs was preferred.

This Confirms it

2006-04-21T22:06:00.000-04:00

I will never be a professional baseball player. Bummer!

I took the "which Red Sox Player are you?" quiz. I am Theo Epstein...

You scored as Theo Epstein. Wait a minute, you're not a Red Sox player... you're Theo Epstein! Extremely smart and successful, you work the magic from behind the scenes. You take a lot of risks, but it always works out. You're not too bad on the eyes either!!

Theo Epstein

83%

Curt Schilling

63%

David Ortiz

60%

Johnny Damon

60%

Jason Varitek

57%

Kevin Millar

57%

Mark Bellhorn

53%

Manny Ramirez

40%

Which Red Sox Player Are You?
created with QuizFarm.com

Immigration Crackdown

2006-04-20T16:50:00.000-04:00

From the New York Times. This is what happens when you vote for someone like GWB:

U.S. Cracks Down on Hiring of Illegal Immigrants
By ERIC LIPTON
Published: April 20, 2006

WASHINGTON, April 20 The apprehension on Wednesday of more than 1,100 illegal immigrants employed by a Houston-based pallet supply company, as well as the arrest of seven of its managers, represents the kickoff of a more aggressive federal immigration enforcement campaign intended to hold employers accountable for breaking the law, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said today.

Saying the hiring by companies nationwide of millions of undocumented workers is often a form of organized crime, Mr. Chertoff, a former federal prosecutor, said the government will now attempt to combat the practice with techniques similar to those used to try to shut down the mob.

"We target those organizations, we use intelligence to define the scope of the organization, and then we use all of the tools we have whether it's criminal enforcement or the immigration laws to make sure we come down as hard as possible and break the back of those organizations," Mr. Chertoff said during a news conference at the headquarters of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement Division.

The news conference came the day after immigration officials apprehended 1,187 illegal immigrants who worked in 26 states for IFCO Systems North America, a company that supplies plastic and wood pallets used to ship everything from produce to pet food.

...

This is great. I'm so glad the US Government is spending my tax dollars cracking down on these "horrible" people that want to immigrate to the US. These are hard working people who want to support their families by earning a bit of money to send home to loved ones. They would pay taxes if they were allowed to. All they want to do is hard labor for low pay. Doing the jobs that American don't really want and keeping the economy rolling. The worst thing about this is that every single one of the people screaming for more immigration enforcement are descendants of an immigrant.

To these people: remember the poem at the base of the Statue of Liberty:

Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me:
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.

Updates

2006-04-20T09:24:00.000-04:00

I haven't posted for a while... So I should give some updates... or I might lose my fan base! (Brody, don't go!)

Gracie is doing great. She got her staples removed on Saturday and is slowly regrowing her grey and white coat. Everyday she gets more lively and back to normal.

The weather in Boston keeps getting better and better. This weekend I hope to start my great tomato experiment. I love tomatoes, and I want to learn how to grow my own. Last year I grew some cilantro and planted a lilac tree.

I have just 4 weeks left in this semester. There are two final projects to go. I am hoping this is the last graded course I will ever have to take. I think I've reached my lifetime maximum. In all my graduate school years, I've taken almost 30 courses. That is insane and must be stopped.

Su Jen came to visit this past weekend! It was a bit of a suprise. Her brother, Wei, decided to have a wedding reception on rather short notice, so Su Jen flew in from San Francisco for 5 days. We ate dinner at the newly opened Cafe D on Center Street in Jamaica Plain. The food was great, for the most part. Everything was either excellent, or at least pretty good. The dish that made the biggest impression was the white gazpacho. Fantasic!

Today, my good friend and old Princeton roommate Catherine Malmberg is in town. She is working on a building development project in Kendall square. Hopefully we will get a chance to have lunch or coffee or something.

From now on, it's work, work, work... I just need to get this semester over with!

It was only a matter of time...

2006-04-13T10:26:00.000-04:00

So, I've been at MIT for a while now... Yesterday I got this email forwarded to our research group from one of the full-time research staffers:

Here you go geeks. :) Ray Begin forwarded message: From: Micah Hatch <Micah@bostoncasting.com> Date: April 11, 2006 3:04:21 PM EDT To: Micah@bostoncasting.com Subject: Seeking men and women Good day to you. Last August, we were working on the second season of the WB's hit show, "Beauty and the Geek". We are hoping for your help with the upcoming season of "Beauty and the Geek 3". if you could, please distribute this to your students, we would be very appreciative. Thank you in advance Micah J Hatch ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Seeking Men and Woman - Tuesday, April 11th, 2006 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Boston Casting is casting BEAUTY & THE GEEK Season three The WB & Boston Casting are currently seeking beautiful women 21-28 and highly intelligent men 21- 30 who can compete together for the opportunity to win a SUBSTANTIAL CASH PRIZE!! This is not a dating show, but a competition. Open call April 15th, 10:00 AM-3:00 PM at Boston Casting 129 Braintree Street in Allston. For directions, please visit our website at www.bostoncasting.com Please pass this along! ****************************************

Señorita SpaceCat is Home

2006-04-07T12:06:00.000-04:00

Gracie came home last night. When she got here she did exactly the same things I would do if I were in the hospital for a few days:

First, she went to her own bathroom.

Second, she ate some of her own food.

Third, she gave herself a bath (We took her cone off and I was careful to make sure she didn't lick her incision).

Last, she curled up on the couch next to Madeline (Señora SpaceMonkey) and went to sleep.

She seems to be recovering well, but is pretty tired most of the time, which is understandable. We are so happy to have her back!

GRACIE HOME!

2006-04-06T13:58:00.000-04:00

I just got a voicemail from Dr. Rollings. He said Gracie is a
"superstar" and she is up and about, eating and looking great, so he
wants to discharge her today! We will be picking her up after 5.

Caltech, are you missing something?

2006-04-06T13:31:00.000-04:00

There was another "hack" today. This morning the Caltech cannon appeared on Campus with an MIT ring on it. This photo was taken with my super-crappy camera phone:

This is apparently in response to a series of pranks by caltech students visiting MIT one year ago. Those pranks were called "LAME!", so the Caltech students became irratated and responded by daring MIT students to "Show us what you got!".

One, two, three, four, I declare a nerd war!

I've heard that there is a plan to have a large number of bikini-clad women appear at the cannon at 4:30pm for a photo op. This would be a very impressive accomplishment. Stealing a 1000-pound historic campus installation and hualing it accross the country is no challenge compared to finding women wearing bikinis at MIT!

There are better pictures here, and there is a slashdot story here.

Gracie Update 2

2006-04-06T09:06:00.000-04:00

Hi Gracie fans:

We went to see her at the CCU (the Critical Cat Unit) again last night. She is doing better, but she is still on heavy drugs. She sat up to say hello to us. She has trouble walking with the IV in her arm and the cone on her head. It's frustrating her, because she can't clean herself. She flopped down on her left side for about 20 minutes so that we could pet that side. Then, she got up and flipped over so we could pet her right side too. She is a good kitty and is behaving very well for the vet staff. There is a chance she will be able to come home tonight.

Gracie Update

2006-04-05T16:04:00.000-04:00

I just spoke with Dr. Rollings. He said Gracie is doing well today.
She ate two teaspoons of wet food today. This is her first meal she has
kept down since last week!

He said that she is recovering fast enough that he will consider
discharging her on Thursday night instead of Friday.

A Hard Day, but Gracie is ok

2006-04-04T22:07:00.000-04:00

Today was a hard day for us. For the last five days Gracie, our cat, has been vomiting through the night keeping us both awake. I was up about once a hour to clean up the mess and comfort her. Yesterday she didn't eat or drink at all. She just sat next to her food and looked sad and tired. We took her to the vet this morning and they suspected that she had eaten something that she shouldn't have.    They took X-rays and found a long string stuck in her intestine.

She had emergency surgery at Angell Memorial this morning. We waited all day to hear if she was ok.   At around 5pm, the doctor called to say she was recovering well. They removed a long elastic string that was stuck all the way from her stomach to her colon.    There was a lot of swelling, so she will have to stay in CCU under 24-hour care until Friday. (We call CCU the "critical cat unit").

We went to visit her for an hour this evening. She has a long scar down her tummy, an IV in her arm, a cone around her neck, and is heavily drugged for pain. She seemed to recognize Maddy and I because she wanted to smell our hands and rub her head against us.   Otherwise, she looks ok. We are very lucky that we have one of the best animal hospitals in the northeast US just a couple miles from our house.

To all the pet owners out there: Be careful what you leave in the reach of you cat or dog. Sometimes they can confuse a coin, a small child's toy, or an elastic band for a toy.    It can be very dangerous if they eat something they shouldn't.

Our house feels empty without her. We miss her a lot.

First Ph.D. Committee Meeting

2006-03-29T11:47:00.000-05:00

My first Ph.D. Committee meeting is today. Today my newly formed committee will review my coursework and progress on research. This is a big milestone for me. One more step towards my graduation.

Maybe Next Time

2006-03-27T14:05:00.000-05:00

I found this Craigslist "missed connections" posting on implieddissent. I agree... I have no idea why this didn't work out for that guy. I guess next time he should carry some emergency one dollar bills on him, just in case.

SpaceX Falcon I Fails

2006-03-26T09:52:00.000-05:00

SpaceX's first attempt at a privately funded satellite launch failed on Friday. This is a shame. Although I was fully expecting a failure, due to to their over ambitious claims about their ability do this better than everyone else, I am dissapointed. I was hoping I was wrong and they could suceed on the first try. When engineers get cocky they also get sloppy. The initial study of the telemetry data indicates that some sort of fuel leak started a fire, leading to an explosion about 1 minute after liftoff.

Hopefully, they will fix the problem and get another Falcon I ready to launch soon. Amazingly, it appears that they payload, a tiny research satellite, may have been saved!

The image shows the fire starting at the "business end" of the rocket:

Those red-orange flames at the rear of the fuel tank are not supposed to be there.

Ben

2006-03-23T16:40:00.000-05:00

My friend/colleague Ben has just arrived from Taiwan. We will be working together on our research projects for the next 10 days. Surprisingly, he is awake and alert after his long flight and wants get to work right away.

We have a Piper Down!

2006-03-19T21:53:00.000-05:00

Hey everybody! It's a pipe off!

Maddy and I went to Doyles in Jamaica Plain on Saturday night for a Pipe-Off. Yeah, that's right, a battle of the Bappipes. New York Police Bagpipers vs. Boston Police Bagpipers. There were 50 Bagpipers from each group. This conversation was overheard on the street:

NYPD Piper: Whadaya, Whadaya you talking to me? Yeah, you think you the best pipers? Fagetaboutit!

Boston Pie-pah: You Yankee Pie-pahs are wickahd retahded! Boston is wicked aweeeesome!

NYPD Piper: I challenge you to a pipe off!

Boston Pie-pah: You bet-tah bring it! You guys' piping is gahbidge!

NYPD Piper: It's been brought-en!

Me: This is a wicked pissah!

Well... it was frigid last night and there was no way we were going to get inside, but we did get to hear the first 45 minutes or so of the piping before running home before we froze our toes off.

Some friends of mine were supposed to go, because of cold weather and other various reason. In fact, Deb Howell (deb's lame-o web site) alterted me that this was going on in my own neighborhood! Maddy was even a bit unsure about going, but I told her that one absolute principle in life is: "When 100 Bagpipers come to your neighborhood, you show up!" And so we went!

Here's some photos from outside:

New York Pipers Along Washington Street:

Maddy braves the cold weather:

The Boston Bagpipers Marching:

The New York Bagpipers Marching:

Bagpipe trivia: What's the best movie (ever) with a Bagpipe scene? So I Married an Ax Murderer, with Mike Myers. I was once read in Amtrak Magazine that this was Mike Myers worst movie. When I told Maddy this, her response was, "Have they seen The Cat in the Hat?"

Gracie Update

2006-03-16T08:55:00.000-05:00

Catherine "the Malmburger" Malmberg requested more Gracie photos, so here is one! She is a great cat (Gracie, not Catherine!). Unfortunately, she is getting in the habbit of waking us up in the morning as soon as the alarm goes off for the first time. I think she doesn't get the concept of snooze!

By the way, this post also goes out to Brody!

Weird Day

2006-03-15T17:03:00.000-05:00

Today it has been about 38 to 40 degrees F and it's snowing, windy, and sunny outside. I've never seen snow above freezing like this... at least not for many hours. Very strange!

Beware the Ides of March!

Google Mars

2006-03-13T21:25:00.000-05:00

In case you haven't heard, Google has launched Google Mars. It's a cool way to browse the surface of Mars. Soon they will be launching Mars version of Google Earth.

In other Mars news, the Mars Recognizance Orbiter (MRO) fired it's thrusters on Friday and captured into Mars Orbit. This new mission features a camera with a huge ~20 inch lens for making excellent maps of the surface.

Learning Java, Good Weekend

2006-03-13T20:55:00.000-05:00

Today I am learning Java. I have put this off long enough. I used to pick up new programming languages all the time, but recently, I've been a bit lazy about it. Since I will need to be well versed in this in about one week, now's the time to start... Or maybe that was earlier.

This past weekend was fun. Margaret stay over Saturday night and Madeline's friend Amanda Painter came down to stay over Sunday Night. We went to Tung Lee's house on Saturday night for a mini-barbecue. It was finally nice out, so Tung's husband, Alan cooked skewered meats on their deck. On Sunday, I made a big breakfast for Margaret, Madeline, and Sarenna: My mom's thin-style pancakes, scrambled eggs with tomatoes, turkey bacon, and fresh coffee. Sunday afternoon we stopped by the JP local bookstore for a jazz jam session run by Sarenna's father John Stein. He is sucessful jazz musician and music professor. He plays with the John Stein Trio.

By the way, today is Monday. Margaret's last day of radiation! She finished six weeks of daily treatments.

First Day With No Jacket

2006-03-11T10:08:00.000-05:00

Today is the first day in 2006 that I have left the house without
bringing a jacket. As you can see from my handy weather thingy in the
sidebar, it's over 50 degrees F today!

Should This Blog Get Serious?

2006-03-10T22:39:00.000-05:00

Should I post anything important in my blog? For now, it is a bit of a playground. I'd like to keep it that way. I figure I have about 5 readers... Each of them leaves comments occasionally... Hello, Bella, Anda, Jaime, Maddy, and Matti! I think that's about it for fans!

This has been a tough week. I have been struggling to keep with school work and life and sleep all at the same time. Usually sleep suffers the most. Personsal life suffers the second most. School work/research seems to get the most atttention. It seems that I am taking my priorities in the wrong order.

Today, I turned in an abstract for a paper at the International Astonautical Congress, October 2-6, 2006 in Valencia, Spain. The abstract may have been a bit over ambitious in it's claims. I have to actually accomplish what I put in the abstract. I really believe I can do it, with hard work. My advisor told me that if I really get all of the stuff done that I claimed I would do, it would be enough of an accomplishment to award me a PhD (well, that and Generals Exams, Disseration, and the Dissertation Defense...). I hope he really means it. Not only will I have completed the hard part of my PhD, I will get a trip to Spain to present my work... These are the fringe benfits of living on a graduate stipend. I just hope they have donut burgers in Valencia.

Want to Lose Weight?

2006-03-10T22:23:00.000-05:00

Try the Donut Burger! A hamburger topped with cheddar cheese and two slices of bacon, in between two halfs of a krispy kreme glazed donut! CRAZY DELICIOUS!

Back from Virginia

2006-03-05T19:34:00.000-05:00

I just got back from visiting my family in Arlington, Virginia, which includes my crazy nephew Patrick and brand new niece Isabella. Isabella was baptised on Saturday as Isabella Louise Schulz. Patrick, who is hanging upside down, had a nice time too! My brother Bob is guy on the right who is right side up.

MIT gets a gold medal and other Hacks

2006-02-28T21:39:00.000-05:00

There was a "hack" at MIT today. I snapped a photo with my camera phone. Someone hung a Torino 2006 gold medal from the top of the big dome. Hacks are humorous tricks that MIT students set up on campus from time to time. The last one I saw was a Mario Brother hanging from the top of Lobby 7 in December 2005:

More hacks can be found at hacks.mit.edu. Perhaps the most famous hack was when they put a replica of the Wright Brother's Flyer on the top of the dome in 2003 to celebrate 100 years of flight.

Bart Simpson's take on Grad Students

2006-02-24T13:30:00.000-05:00

This windows media player video has been floating around the MIT today... see Bart Simpson's take on grad students [1.4 MB, requires windows media player].

Did I make a bad choice?

Fenway Park Improvements via Helicopter

2006-02-24T09:10:00.000-05:00

On Wednesday, February 22, my friend Bruce Cameron took a flight in a helicopter over Boston. He snapped a number of good pictures with his high-end digital camera. My favorite is this one of Fenway Park:
Click on the photo above to see it in high resolution! The new infield upper decks are visible to the left and right of the infield. There are some new upper deck seats just behind home plate. The glass on the 409 club has moved much father back, so there is more open air seating.

The new Trilogy building is visible in the background.

Long Time, No Posts...

2006-02-21T19:34:00.000-05:00

It's been a while since I last posted here. I'm sitting at home with my cat Literaly. She has decided that my desk chair is her favorite spot. Everytime I get up for more than 5 seconds, she takes it. Very frustrating! So, I've decided to split the space with her. She gets the back half, and I get the front. I can still get my work done, and she can smell my booty. A fair trade.

This seemed to work for a while, but just now she decided to put all four feet up against the back of the chair and then push as hard as she could. She was trying to kick ME off the chair! Too bad that she's a 9 pound weakling! I WIN!

oh wait... I gave half my chair to a cat...

Mr. Pibb + Red Vines = Delicious!

2005-12-27T17:27:00.000-05:00

Double True!

If you haven't checked it out, you have to go see "Lazy Sunday", otherwise known as the Chronicles of Narnia rap...

One of the funiest things I've seen in a long time. Well done Chris Parnell and Andy Samberg!

There's a high-quality version of it available from iTunes. Don't worry, you wont have to drop any Hamiltons for this one, because it's free (for a limited time)! You have to poke around the TV shows section of the iTunes. I found it under NBC and Saturday Night Live.

My Dreams Come True!

2005-12-14T20:05:00.000-05:00

It's here! It's finally here! A five-bladed razor! Woo-hoo! this will definately work better than those crummy 4, 3, or 2 bladed razors... In fact, this razor has a 6th blade on the back for facial hair trimming!

For years, I have been telling people that I would not buy one of the fancier razors until they have at least 5 blades. Now, I guess my dreams came true.

How did I live without a 5+1 bladed razor? Take the totally rediculous virtual tour here.

What's next? 7 blades? How about enough blades so that it covers my whole face and I barely have to move it to get a complete shave!

I'm back

2005-10-29T15:17:00.000-04:00

This is me recovering from jet lag... You can see that our cat, Gracie, is happy to get some rest with me.

More on Japan, HK, later...

Business Travel

2005-10-20T07:11:00.000-04:00

I came to realize something about business travel. You can't judge a city when you are there for work. I've been to the LA area three times for work, and each time I didn't like it. The weekend before I flew to Asia, Madeline and I attended Shun Zhang and Danny Sam's wedding there and stayed for three nights. We had a nice time that weekend. Although there are some things that I still don't like about LA (the constant driving required, for example), I now think it's a nice place. We had great food there and the weather was beautiful.

I'm having a ok time here in Japan because I'm working too hard. It's much more important that Ben and I spend some time working out details of our research than spend time sightseeing. We will not get an opportunity to work face-to-face often. Even, given that, I think Japan is a really facinating place. (What does that say about it in comparison to LA?) I hope I get to see some more of it on Friday!