Mischievous Ramblings II

The Ring That Walked Through Walls

The other day, while my wife Sara was preparing for a trip, I heard a 'tink' and a muffled imprecation from the washroom where she was packing something.  Shortly thereafter, she asked me to help her look for one of her rings which she had dropped while drying it off after cleaning.  I went into the washroom and did a quick search, but found nothing.  She was under the gun on time, so I assured her that I would look more carefully and let her know when I found the ring.

Fall Convocation 2008: Simon Fraser University

(Photo: Simon Fraser University)

Last month, I received my MBA from Simon Fraser University. My family persuaded me to attend convocation, although my previous experience (BACS, UC Santa Cruz, 1983) had left me disinclined to attend

I am so very grateful that I was persuaded. After gowning, lining up, precessing, and waiting (since there were no doctorates to be awarded, we MBAs were the first of about 400 students to reach our seats), we were sitting and listening to what I expected would be the traditional boring platitudes about how wonderful we were, how fantastic our experience at school had been, and how we would now proceed to change the world, preferably through good capitalist means.

I had forgotten that I was in Canada.

Dr. Michael Stevenson, President of the university, gave a fantastic speech:

The movement over the last quarter century to lessen the size and cost of the state, and to liberate the market from bureaucratic regulation and inefficiency, has been characterized by many contradictory trends. For example, the promise of less government has been undercut by the continued growth if redirection of government spending; the promise of the free market has been undercut by “irrational exuberance” of poorly regulated capital markets; the assurance of better services has been undercut by the health and safety threats in deregulated water, power and food systems or the increased visibility of homelessness and drug addiction following the deinstitutionalization of mental health care. Domestic “wars” on drugs or crime are as ineffective in achieving their announced objectives as the international War on Terror. And claims to political superiority grounded in the defense of human rights and civil liberties are devalued by arbitrary arrest and the abrogation of legal rights in defense of “homeland security,” and by the more general pressure to liberate executive power from judicial restraint.

For reasons like these, the events of the last few weeks underline the limits of American and North American domination, whether economic, military or political. The world is a much different place than it was even a decade ago, when we celebrated the advent of a new millennium.

As new university graduates you know the world is a more complicated and dangerous place. You know that this is not only a question of the rapid restructuring of economic and political power in the global market and international order. It is also a question of the life of the planet itself…of fundamental changes in climate and ecosystems, the intensified risks of natural disaster and reduced biodiversity, and the hugely complex issues of adaptation to and mitigation of environmental change.

Despite the magnitude of these challenges, and despite the rhetorical drum-beat of electioneering calls for change, the political response is so far not encouraging. Governing and opposition parties still vie for the embrace of lower taxes, knowing apparently that most of us will favour a marginal increase in private consumption over any collective investment in public infrastructure or social services. Courageous leadership on climate issues is the exception rather than the rule, and it is met with opportunistic opposition to carbon taxes, unless they be levied on someone other than ourselves. Public investment in the arts as a means to building the creative economy and improving the quality of life is opposed as a sop to cultural elites and a subsidy to work that affronts the sensibilities of ordinary men and women, as great art tends to do when first produced. And public investments in education, which are so urgently required in order to rethink the fundamentals of our ways of life and to redefine long term strategies for social change, are increasingly targeted to the short-term demands of the existing labour market and to the shortest possible return on investment through the commercialization of research.

Serious discussion of these and other issues is muted by the forces governing our electoral politics. In the age of mass communications simple plurality, first-past-the-post, electoral systems force convergence on issues and differentiation on image. Trash advertising and spin, segmentally targeted to different “demographics,” manipulate political sentiment and undermine rational discussion.

This is a different place.

Snowboarding

As a long-married man, it's dangerous for me to say that I've been inspired by another woman, but since Ducky talked about her (almost) first snowboarding experience this weekend, I guess I need to talk about mine last weekend.

I agreed quite a while ago to go snowboarding with Kiernan, but it's taken at least a month to find a usable weekend day, which turned out to be last Saturday.  Kiernan has taken a few lessons before deciding he liked skiing better, but I haven't been interested in skiing since I was a kid, and boarding seems to have more fascination potential for me.

We started with a two-hour lesson from a young lady named Louise.  Kiernan did better than I did, of course.  Not only does he have some experience, he's a natural athlete.  While Louise showed me how to push myself along, use my edges, go down the hill forward and backward, Kiernan simply did it all.

As Ducky says, boarding is, well, boarding makes you sore :-)

When boarding down hill, you dig in with your uphill edge to slow down, and ease off digging in to go faster.  If you dig in with your downhill edge, you fall down.  Fast.  You slide from side to side by shifting weight from one side to the other.  In order to do all these things, you use your leg muscles.  A lot.  You bend your knees and and shift your weight back and forth (or side to side, depending upon how you look at it) to control direction and speed of travel, as well as to cushion vertical impact.  When getting up, you go from kneeling or sitting to standing using primarily (or exclusively) your calves and thighs.  It's hard work.  When pushing your uphill edge in, you use your calves and feet.  And I, at least, had to use a lot of leg strength to shift my weight enough to go left (right was easier for some reason).  Rest was essential -- and I got it by falling down whenever I needed it.

The night after spending 2 1/2 hours boarding for the first time, I woke up several times with severe thigh cramps (a first for me -- I've had calf and arch cramps, but never as high as the thigh).  I wanted to scream, but we had to get up early to get Sara to the airport, and I wanted her to have as much sleep as possible.  So I went downstairs to scream :-).  A week later, my legs still hurt, and I'm actually bruised on my right thigh.  Bruised from mere exercise.  Quite an experience.

Still, it was fun,and I certainly plan to try it again.

Posted: Sat Sep 16 02:37:13 1989

Yes, 1989.

It's not terribly interesting -- the first interesting post was later, but here it is nonetheless:

Path: gmdzi!unido!mcsun!uunet!portal!cup.portal.com!Bits_of_Magic
From: Bits_of_Ma...@cup.portal.com
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp
Subject: Re: Champions Characters
Message-ID: <22199@cup.portal.com>
Date: 16 Sep 89 01:37:13 GMT
References: <4070@internal.Apple.COM> <13279@reed.UUCP>
<5789@viscous.sco.COM> <521@odin.SGI.COM>
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Lines: 10
Posted: Sat Sep 16 02:37:13 1989

> For 60 points and the Images power from Champs IV you can light up
>a 1300 mile radius. Of course anyone who makes a perception roll will
>know it's fake light...

I've read the Images power very carefully, and I do not think you can
create a "light" image. I think you can create an image of a thing that
is lit, but if you do it in a dark room, nobody will see it.

Evan Robinson
*

via chuqui

Ill

It's winter, and everybody in the house has been ill at least once.  Yesterday and today were my turn.

It actually hit me Wednesday evening about the middle of class.  By the time I got home, I had a raging sore throat and fever.

By the next morning, my judgment was severely impaired.  I emailed work and told them I wasn't coming in.  This morning, I was better, but not well enough to go to work.  I also didn't do Kempo today (obviously), and while my judgment seems to be back, my throat is definitely in business for itself.

What's annoying is that it's midterm time.  I've got a midterm analysis due Wednesday and an in-class midterm on Tuesday.  Not to mention a end-of-term project to be starting (OK, continuing) work on.

I hate being sick.

Hate it, hate it, hate it.

Nice Night in the Dojo

I've been going to the local United Studios of Self-Defense dojo here in North Vancouver for about 6 months. It's not Parker Kenpo, which I studied for about four years with John Sepulveda in Santa Clara, but it's still a good workout and I can certainly use the exercise.

With finals coming up and time getting short to finish assignments, I find that time in the dojo does me extra good. Monday night I went in pretty down and low energy and came out (after a warm-up, an hour of group class, a half-hour of semi-private lesson, and a cool-down) tired but happy.

One reason? I actually got popped in the groin by a fellow student. One of the big differences between my previous study and this school is the level of contact, which is much lower here then I'm used to (or that I used to be used to). When Denny's kick got close enough to tap my cup, it actually felt good. (She was mortified, and the other students were worried that I was hurt, but all Sensei Steve said was "that'd make me keep my distance" :-) )

Work, aka Teaching

Currently I have two part time jobs: TA for an undergraduate business MIS class; and Sr. Programmer for a small game company over town*. Although they seem very different, there is a thread between them: they're both teaching jobs.

The TA job is obviously a teaching job: one day a week I hold three (roughly identical) labs or tutorials in which I demonstrate the basic use of software while the students (mostly) follow along. We've done Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, and Visio so far. Most of the material is very basic. In addition I hold three hours a week (over two days) of office hours. So far I've had a total of two visitors, so the office hours are generally an excuse to sit in a room and do my own reading or homework. The last two weeks I've put in 12 hours or so of grading about 46 papers. For all this I get paid (or at least I'm told I do -- I haven't been paid yet) a reasonable amount, considering that I'm a graduate student and I want to find out what teaching is like. This experience is very different from my teaching at PAVI over the summer semester and I value it for demonstrating what more conventional teaching is like.

The Sr. Programmer job is perhaps less obvious, but it's still a teaching job. The small team I'm working in is new and quite young, as is my boss the CTO (OK, he's only young compared to me). My job is not just to create code, but to provide my experience to the younger programmers and to be a kind of security blanket for the CTO, who's quite competent but overworked. So I review designs and help make overall plans (like how the version control system should be used or how projects should be organized). Even though the projects are small (we're doing casual games) it's still nice to be well organized and the experience of working in a more formalized way will be good for everyone when they work on a more complex and higher-stress project.

Before entering graduate school I did a full set of assessment tests this spring with what they call an "industrial psychologist". The tests included intelligence testing as well as aptitude and interest assessments. The top result was University Professor, which surprised me. Although perhaps it shouldn't have, given that both my parents held advanced degrees and my father taught (statistics and applied mathematics) at Columbia, UCLA, and the University of Oregon. I have generally enjoyed lecturing on development and the mentoring portion of the management job. A significant reason I'm taking the MBA is because I need a master's degree to teach at an accredited game development school in the US, and the MBA is therefore "dual purpose" for me.

So this matter of teaching is looming large...

---

*"over town" is local slang for "in Vancouver proper," or so we're told. It's possible that it's an elaborate gag on the newly arrived Americans, but I don't think so. People don't laugh at us if we say it, and we do occasionally hear others use the phrase. And besides, I think Canadians are generally too nice to do something mean like that.

Morning Grind

I did the Grouse Grind this morning for the first time.

Before Breakfast.

The Grind is a well known local conditioning hike (it has to be for conditioning, there's no view to speak of) that goes up Grouse Mountain roughly under the aerial tram that runs for sensible people.

In 2.9 klicks (not quite 2 miles), the Grind goes up 800 meters (about 2400 feet), which translates to up 1 foot for every 4 feet you go forward, which means it's like going up stairs for 3 kilometers. I can attest that there seem to be parts of the trail where the ratio more than 1 foot up for every 1 foot you go forward, which feels more like going up a ladder.

The world record on the Grind is something like 24 minutes. I took 116, which I'm told is pretty typical for a first time (2 hours), and it was the hardest physical thing I've done in years. There were only two people I saw on the trail who didn't pass me, and one of those would have if the trail had been 50 feet longer.

Music that helped: Riding with Private Malone by David Ball, Standing Outside The Fire from Garth Brooks, Break On Through from The Doors.

I want to do this again, but I'm gonna work out a whole lot more than the 12-16 miles a week I've been doing in the gym for the last few weeks to get ready for it.

9/11

In the rising of the sun and in its going down,

we remember them.

In the blowing of the wind and in the chill of winter,

we remember them.

In the opening of buds and in the rebirth of spring,

we remember them.

In the blueness of the sky and in the warmth of summer,

we remember them.

In the rustling of leaves and in the beauty of autumn,

we remember them.

In the beginning of the year and when it ends,

we remember them.

When we are weary and in need of strength,

we remember them.

When we are lost and sick at heart,

we remember them.

When we have joys we yearn to share,

we remember them.

When we have decisions that are difficult to make,

we remember them.

When we have achievements that are based on theirs,

we remember them.

So long as we live, they too shall live,

for they are now a part of us, as we remember them.

-- Rabbi Roland B. Gittelsohn, found in the Unitarian Hymnal "Singing the Living Tradition" and tracked down using Google.

Scott Rosenberg’s Quiet PC and my iBook

Scott Rosenberg's Links & Comment

I seem to be out of the hardware woods, at last. After my old box died, I thought carefully about its replacement. My computer has, among other things, become my chief music library and source; it's also where I edit family videos. The old computer, an Athlon system I'd rebuilt twice and extended with far too many expansion boards and IDE devices.

Scott tells the story of replacing his old Athlon based PC. There's also a link in there to the story of his "Black Screen of Death". Well-trodden roads -- I've seen several generations of PCs come and go (Atari 800, Commodore 64, Mac 512e, Compaq Deskpro 8086/V30, PC286, PC386, Mac IIfx, PC486, Pentium, Pentium laptop, Pentium II, Pentium III laptop x2, Powerbook Pismo,...). I currently have an old Athlon 1GHz system managing printers, iTunes, and backup storage for the house network. I just retired (from my personal use) a nice Fujitsu 2.8 GHz laptop.

I replaced it (and a 1GHz eMac G4) with a 1.33 GHz 12" iBook G4. The iBook does everything I need unless I'm going to be programming for Windows. There might be a utility or two that I haven't discovered I need yet, but I write with a variety of tools (Omni Outliner Pro, bbEdit, AppleWorks, Pages, NoteTaker, StickyBrain), I use two spreadsheets (Excel, AppleWorks), and I have a whole variety of creative tools available to me that simply aren't available on the PC (FCE, Soundtrack, GarageBand, DVD Studio Pro). And at less than 5 pounds, I can carry the iBook everywhere (and I do).

One of my "tipping points" on moving off Windows was Microsoft's announcement that they would now be scanning hard drives before running Windows Update. To the best of my knowledge I am running no illegitimate software, but I don't want Microsoft (or anyone else) rummaging through my hard drive, my registry, or any other part of my computer. Another was the constant fight against virii -- as household IT, I see malware every time I back up a kid's computer (never on mine, never on Sara's PowerBook, but always on the kid's computers if they are allowed on the network). Yet another was the tweaking necessary to get Windows to behave the way I wanted. I've spent a lot of time accommodating myself to Windows, and I'm tired of doing that.

The eMac will still sit on my desk, but it will be used almost exclusively for creative projects like video editing. Devi is hoping to get into another film class at school this year, and I'd like her to have access to an editing station at home. I like to be able to read email, browse, and write alongside video editing, and the eMac just doesn't have enough power to do that easily. Now the video / sound work happens on one computer and the writing on another. If I'd wanted to shell out $2K - $3K US for a dual G5 I probably could have been happy doing that on one machine, but it wouldn't have been easily portable.

BTW, the MarWare SportFolio neoprene laptop cases are incredibly wondrous. I got a 12" SportFolio II in black for the iBook and I'm incredibly happy with it. It's a minimalist case: you can't carry much more than your laptop, power supply, a couple of accessories (Mighty Mouse!), a thin notebook and a novel, but that's enough for me for almost any occasion. If I want to "dress to impress", I've always got the Zero Halliburton briefcase Sara bought me a couple of years ago (and the iBook will actually fit in it, unlike the Fujitsu!), but for daily use, the SportFolio is for me.