Blog Archives 061017 to 060917

Old pointless chatter instead of new pointless chatter.

 

061017 Davis, CA
The visit was tiring but fun. As usual, when visiting with E. and C. and the kids, I stayed up quite late, despite knowing that a teething Daniel would be waking the house up in the middle of the night and knowing that the kids tend to be up and bouncing around sometime just before dawn. Life as those kids seems to be a constant stream of "I know, let's go do THAT! Yeah!". High energy but very cute.

Since coming back from China, where I had very little English language reading material, I have been reading up a storm. The latest one is The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett. It's a kid's book (appropriate for ages 9-12, I think), but like the Harry Potter stories, the book is entertaining for adults as well.

The only other news is that I have overhauled my wine reviews and separated them from my whisky reviews page. Oh, there is one other thing: I was looking at a computer game site for the game Guild Wars: Nightfall. One of the little bonus things you get for ordering the game before it's release is a special "Dance" for your character; apparently you can trigger a move series that will make your character dance in the game. Here's an example (click link to download file): ftp://ftp.guildwars.com/movies/MaleParagonDance.zip I thought it was the funniest thing I'd seen in a while. It was all Michael Jackson moves. One wierd-ass Michael Jackson signature move after another. The bouncy scamper, the leg-swirl, the random pelvic thrusts and spins... Pure MJ. I just love the idea of some programmer spending weeks staring at video clips, working to get it just right. Man... I wish I could somehow import that move command series and somehow whip it out in other games to surprise people. Picture the possibilities: I'm playing a gritty first person shooter game and the Sniper has me in his sights, so I trigger my secret move combo to make me harder to hit... Uhn! Pelvic thrust, pose, twirl, moonwalk, uhn!, scamper, pose!

061014 Davis, CA
My father found and sent me a link to a site about Spleen (aka Splean, aka Splin aka Сплин). On that site, They have links to the official band site (no music, just random pictures) and to two songs: No Way Out (Vyhoda net, Выхода нет) and Fellini (Феллини). The lyrics are menancholy, but the music is pretty standard pop rock. Still, it is always interesting to stumble on something new.

I'd better get going. I'm driving down to San Jose this weekend to visit with my bro' and his family.

061012 Davis, CA
Hrm. It'd be nice if I had any close friends left. You see, I'm still in the "this sucks" part of moving. Sure, I lived in Davis before, but at that time I was not focused on putting down roots: I was busy getting rid of most of my stuff and stripping down for the wandering life. I only made a few friends outside of work and they have left the area now. So, I'm back at square one - the "I just moved to town" phase where you have no friends in the new town. I have some friendly acquaintences at work, but they either have the responsibility of school-age kids with lots of after school activities or are finishing an advanced degree in the evenings or are traveling a lot due to work projects.

So, I need to find my own gang to socialize with after work. It'll happen, it just takes time and I've been back in the US for less than a month. And that's the part that sucks: it always takes a couple of months until you've re-established a social circle. Without anyone to socialize with in the evening, being in the new town is a bit lonely and boring... unless you like the whole bar/disco-hopping scene. I don't, at least I don't enjoy doing it solo. This is why living in Davis suits me even though it has no nightlife (unlike Sacramento). Still, It'd be nice to have something social to do in the evenings.

Oh, I posted the pictures from my trip to Guilin (桂林) and Longsheng (龙胜). Guilin is the city on the plains with those odd upthrust karst hills and plateaus and Longsheng is the one in the mountains with those famous terraced hillsides. I need to add captions to all the photos, but at least the pictures are now in my picture gallery and viewable.

061011 Davis, CA
This past week, I read an interesting book: Nightwatch (Ночной дозор) by Sergei Lukyanenko (Сергей Лукьяненко), as translated by Andrew Bromfield. It is a fantasy book set in modern Moscow and contained some interesting glimpses into the feel of Moscow, as a Moscovite sees it. One reason I liked the book was the chunks of poetry in it... Well, not exactly poetry. The main character often is listening to music on a portable player and the song lyrics were quoted in the book on occasion, when the song was said to fit the situation. Here's an example (from a song by the group "Spleen", as quoted by Sergei Lukyanenko and translated by Andrew Bromfield):

Who's to blame if you're so tired?
And haven't found what you were longing for?
Lost everything you sought so hard,
Flown up to the sky and fallen back again?
Whose fault is it that day after day
Life walks on other people's paths
But your home has become lonely,
With darkness behind its windows,
And the light dims and sounds die.
And your hands seek new torment,
And if your pain should ease,
It means a new disaster's on the way.

Who's to blame, tell me, brother,
One is married, another's rich,
One is funny, another's in love.
One's a fool, another's your enemy,
And whose fault is it that there and here
They wait for each other, it's how they live,

And the day is dreary, the night is empty,
The warm places are crowded out,
And the light dims and sounds die,
And your hands seek new torment,
And if your pain should ease,
It means a new disaster's on the way.

Who's to blame and what's the secret,
Why is there no grief or happiness
No victories without defeats,
And the score of luck and disaster is even.
And whose fault is it you're alone,
And your one life so very long,
And so dreary and you're still waiting,
Hoping some day you will die.

Dark, but good at evoking a mood. I've looked for information on the band on-line, just to hear what the song sounds like, but the lyrics were translated in the book and are not on-line in English. Translating "Spleen" to Russian results in finding lots of highly questionable medical sites, so I think I'm unlikely to find the music. Oh well. Still, it was a good read.

061010 Davis, CA
I just saw a depressing news article: "War, sex scandal sinking Republicans in polls". You might ask why I find that depressing, since I am not at all happy with the policies of the Neocons who currently dominate the Republican party... Well, there are two reasons this is depressing. The first is that the Democracts don't seem to have any policy other than saying "Me too, but with fewer rights violations than the Republicans" when the public seems to vaguely favor legislation and saying "Uh, we are not Republicans" when the public seems discontented. The fact that the Democrats may benefit from a Republican fall has nothing to do with positive traits and everything to do with the fact that we have no viable third party in the US as an alternative. The second reason is related to the issues to which the public has apparently chosen to react. Was it a big issue like corruption? Violation of civil rights of US citizens? Torture of foreigners? Gross mismanagement (too many examples to list, ranging from Katrina to the environment to the economy to national debt to the opening stages of the invasion of Iraq)? Lying to the public (again too many examples to list, ranging from deliberate misrepresentation of intelligence reports to lying about economic forcasts to lying about environmental forcasts to lying about the projected impact of rights-reducing legislation on security)? No. The public is excited about some sleazy emails and IMs from a Senator to some pages. The public is also fed up with the war in Iraq. On the war in Iraq, you hear the Republicans promising to stay and some Democrats promising to get out ASAP. What you don't hear is the US Army College of War's intelligence estimate of timelines for intelligently exiting with a stable transition. "Out now!" is as simplistic and stupid as "We will stay until every terrorist we have created is dead!".

The only bright light in the landscape is the fact that the public frustration and titilated disgust is overwhelming the messages of fear the current administration relies on to secure continued Neocon Republican dominance. I look forward to the day that the Republican party has recovered and will itself look on these days of corruption, rights violations, and mismanagement as a dark period for both the party and the nation. Here's to change. I just wish it were someone other than those useless Democrats to replace the Neocon Republicans.

061006 Davis, CA
I took care of a very small part of the backlog of pictures by posting some of the pictures from the Great Wall (长城) (Jinshanling (金山岭) section) and some pictures from Yangshuo (阳朔, in Guangxi (广西) in south China) to my picture gallery. I still need to post the pictures from the Great Wall (长城) (Mutianyu (慕田屿) section), Guilin (桂林, also in in Guangxi (广西) in south China), and Suzhou (苏州)... I'll get to it eventually.

061005 Davis, CA
Well, my love affair with IKEA is over. Sure you can get some OK furniture for nice low prices, but I've had poor luck with their quality control. I've exchanged 50 percent of the things I purchased there, due to either misdrilled holes not quite lining up, joints fitting solidly, but with obvious gaps, or simply finding the pieces came already scratched or dented. Yeah, the stuff I have now (after exchanging the bum pieces) is quality stuff for the price, but my time is worth something too. I'm keeping an end table which has a scratch down one side and a couple of dents in the top. I'm keeping it for two reasons: I can't be bothered to go back to IKEA yet again for yet another exchange and, while the flaws are not obvious from a few feet away, they will serve as a reminder why I'm done with buying furnishings at IKEA. Oh well.

In other news, I finally opened and tried a package of pressed tea that I'd brought back from China. I'd bought a wide variety of teas in China but had only tried one small sip of a pressed tea. The pressed teas were invented for ease of transport from tea growing areas to remote places like Tibet. The tea is chopped, fermented, and pressed into a tight block of tea (although that may not be the order of events). This way, as solid blocks, the tea merchents lost very little product when having the tea carried by mule-back on the steep mountain trails. I guess the big bales of loose tea were more easily lost due to wind... I don't know. Anyway, I'd had a tasting of an expensive pressed tea in China and it was OK, although the fermentation left a signature flavor that was quite different from even the loose black teas (which are also fermented). The stuff I sampled tonight was an inexpensive pressed tea... Ugh! The most accurate description of the flavor would be "barnyard sweepings".

As is my habit, I was giving the tea a chance: I was continuing to drink it past the initial repulsive taste, sipping my way through a cup in order to determine if there was a pleasant or worthwhile flavor hiding in there somewhere, once my tastebuds managed to adapt to the main (disgusting) flavor... Eventually, I realized what I was doing (drinking a hot manure-flavored mug of nastiness) and I dumped out the cup and the whole pot.

After that revolting experience, I cleansed my mouth with some water and a bite of Granny Smith apple before moving on to something I knew would be nice: some Buena Vista Cream Sherry. I'd picked this up during the side trip to Sonoma with my parents and brother during the camping trip. Smooth as silk, filling the mouth, and containing nice buttery toffee notes, the sherry was a very pleasant way to end the evening. Good stuff.

061002 Davis, CA
Back from vacation, which was three nights camping with my parents and my brother and his family. It was a needed break from work and really great to see everyone. I've now put 300 miles on the new car, averaged about 45 mpg over that span, and figured out how all the features work. It is a nice car.

One thing that I noticed during the camping trip is that it is tough to be a kid: Everything is new, you're not sure how things work, what the rules are, what is safe and what is a bad idea. You also have very little emotional control, so you've got euphoric happiness one moment and crushing sadness the next. The other thing I noticed is that being a parent is exhausting.

One afternoon, Chris went off with the kids and Eric, the parents, and I went off to Sonoma for a few winery visits. We found some nice wines... Normally, I'd not pay more than 15 USD for a bottle of wine (if you know the right wineries, you can get very nice wines for about 10), but on this trip I bought a few 30-dollar wines. When I drink them, I'll have to add the reviews to my booze page.

On the political side of things, I was surprised that the Senate agreed to do damage to habeas corpus rights. I am very disappointed.

060925 Davis, CA
My old car is over 13 years old now, has been parked for 18 months, and is definitely showing its age. It still drives fine, but the cruise control has not worked for about four-five years, the side plastic strips (a knee-height decorative element) have fallen off, and sun damage (from sitting under the Utah desert sun for four years) has cracked the plastic interior and left the paintjob with leperous white or grey fade patches. The bluebook value on the car says it is worth maybe 1,200 USD, but that is probably not taking into account the de-valuing effect of appearance of the car. I think I'd be lucky to sell the car for 600 USD... I already offered it to someone at that price and they chose not to take me up on it.

Now that I've (re)settled in the US, I decided to treat myself to my first new car ever. I'd decided to go for a hybrid electric, primarily because I felt it was time that I backed up my pro-hybrid talk with my wallet. I decided to go for a Toyota Prius, because I have driven that one before (my friend J. owns one), they have the "cool tech" edge (sporting features such as "regenerative breaking"), and their customer satisfaction numbers are very high. Anyway, I figured there was no big hurry on this, since the 2007 Prius was not out yet and the waiting time on a Prius tends to be 2-4 months (demand is far higher than prodution rate).

Well, this past Thursday, I sent email to several dealers saying that I was interested in a 2007 Prius. Thursday afternoon, I found out that the 2007s were being sent to dealers, although their availability had not yet been announced. Friday morning, I found out that there was one available (in a decent color and a package I was willing to get) that would be delivered sometime before the 30th. Friday afternoon, I had verbally agreed to buy the car. Friday evening, the VIN was emailed to me. Sunday morning, I arranged insurance for the car on-line. Sunday evening, I received a phone call telling me that the car would be at the dealer Monday morning and ready for pickup by Monday evening.

This evening (Monday), I went down, signed the paperwork, and drove home in the car. I went from "yeah, a Prius sounds good" to driving away in one in about five days. When I was shopping for the used Nissan Sentra XE, I spent weeks studying Bluebook value comparison charts and getting friends to drive me from dealership to dealership, bargain-hunting and negotiating. I got lucky with this and the whole Prius experience was fast and painless.

Anyway, enough of the details. This is all just to say I have a brand-spanking-new car and it seems to be nice. The Prius has a very high customer satisfaction rating and I know I was pleased by the 50 mile/gallon efficiency rating during my drive home tonight.

060924 Davis, CA
My parents are here for the week, visiting with my brother and sister-in-law and the nephew micro-herd (three kids ages 6, 4, and 2... Cute as bugs and very high energy). After having flight delays that caused their travel to take all day Saturday, my parents were still willing to be packed into a minivan for a mass commute from San Jose to Davis. Heck, I was impressed that E. and C. were willing to load the three high-energy young'uns into a van to make the trip, much less load seven human beings up go visit one human being. Efficiency dictates I make the drive rather than them. Still, they were willing to come up. It was really nice to see everyone and get the chance to show off Davis. It is a cute little town, with a nice amount of greenspace and parks and such.

The visit was an interesting lesson for me, though. My apartment is not kid-unfriendly, i.e. I don't have knives and rat poison laying about on low-lying tables, but it is not very kid-friendly either. It is boring; no blocks, no toys other than a few cards, and lots of things that are decorative, not fun. Until the boys came by, I had not looked at the place in that way. For next time they visit, I'll have to find a few things that are more interesting to the six-and-under set and put those things out.

I enjoyed the visit. We went to lunch then to a park then to a section of the Univ. of California, Davis arboretum. Considering the amount of time the gang spent in the auto for the round trip (estimated at 3 hrs 30 min), I'm not sure if the gang thought the trip worth-while in total... It all depends on how well the kids handled being in the van for the trip.

In other news, since my wandering is at an end, I'll be overhauling the site a bit. All the information on "current location", "next location", "exchange rates", etc. is now unnecessary. The blog will continue; I'm just trimming away the bits that no longer apply. The information will still be here someplace, just not on the front page.

060923 Davis, CA
Ahrgh! Bloody Americans. The whole world is standardizing on one electricity standard, one set of mobile phone frequencies, one set of measurement units (metric), one paper size, etc., but the bloody Americans just have to be special, marching into the future with a pile of anachronistic and incompatable systems.

OK, I can see why shifting over the power grid would be difficult, but it is certainly do-able: many modern devices are already being made with the capability of handling both power types (necessary for world-wide sales). The mobile phone frequency debacle is purely due to corporate pressure and an unwillingness by the legislature to take the necessary steps to shift bandwidth utilization in the US. The failure to go metric is a nearly inexcusable piece of stupidity. Pretty much every other country on the planet has made the shift and public planners have a wealth of information on how to do it intelligently with minimal disruption. Heck, the US scientific community has already gone metric since it simply makes sense. I just don't understand why the US sticks with a set of nonsensible, local-only incompatible, anachronistic "standards".

What inspired this rant, by the way, is a very trivial matter: A4 paper. I'm printing scientific articles here in the US and I'm back to having the bottom lines cut off by the bloody printer, unless I remember to set the printer to resize (shrink and center) the articles. The rest of the world has standardized on A4 paper, which is taller and less wide than the US "letter" format. Having lived abroad for a bit, I'd gotten used to things fitting together. Now I'm back in the US and more aware than ever of the inconvenience of having incompatabilities with the rest of the world. Wouldn't it make sense to switch over to the standards embraced by the rest of the world?

060922 Davis, CA
If you have been wondering about the lack of updates here, it is not because I'm finding life back in the US to be boring and not comment-worthy; it is because I am a bit overwhelmed. I don't mind being a bit whelmed, but I'm definitely over-whelmed at this point. I'm starting the new project and taking a lead in defining what needs to be done and how to do it. This means needing to get up to speed very fast. So, work has been pretty demanding.

Outside of work, I'm doing a few minor things: looking for a permanent place to stay, buying furniture (things I need but don't have in storage), assembling the bought furniture, buying a new car (probably a 2007 Toyota Prius hybrid-electric, with package #3 or #4), arranging to sell or trade in my old car, re-establishing car insurance, arranging a local doctor, arranging for moving the majority of my things from storage in New York (thanks parents!) to Davis, making sure the transition of the rental agreements works out (some rental furniture out as bought furniture arrives, all rental furniture out before moving, housing rental contracts set to minimize overlap, etc.). All in all, it doesn't leave much time for typing things up. It will be nice to have things all put in place relatively quickly, although it is pretty stressful right now.

060917 Davis, CA
The last place I was in was a hotel room. This (temporary) place is an apartment. The hotel room had pictures and such already decorating the small space, so there wall little need for or space for additional wall hangings. The apartment, on the other hand, is minimally furnished with rented furniture and had no wall hangings. I spent this weekend moving in, putting food in the fridge, taking things out of boxes, rediscovering things (ex. "Ohhh. So *that* is where my tax paperwork ended up."), and cleaning up the packing paper. In the already-decorated hotel room in China, I thought I was probably buying *way* too many scrolls. It turns out, here in the otherwise bare-walled apartment in Davis, that I seem to have just the right number. The place doesn't look too bad now, if I say so myself. This has got to be the fastest I have made any apartment look inhabited... I remember looking about my place in Utah sometime after the two-year mark and realizing I still had partially unpacked cardboard boxes laying about.

Page Last Modified: 2007 01 12, 13:46:18

 

 

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