Vacation highlights

Vacation is a few days over, and I've been back to work. My last post of the year will be how my brain works: all the referential highlights, with none of the downtime buffer between. I love my family. Today, the last day of 2008, is one second longer than a normal day! (It has a leap second added.) So go enjoy your extra second of new year's eve party!

My vacation, montage-style:

Exchanging the lock on a bag of M&Ms, since it was too narrow for both of us to fit our hands in at once.

A simulated depth-first search with some interesting vertices. Kingsly.

Death by chocolate. Semi-literally. So much chocolate, ice cream, candy, and souffle that I felt a little sick. More than once.

"In order to understand recursion, you must first understand recursion."

"Mennonite ankle porn" and learning Japanese from anime. "Take anything you want! Leave me my life!" あぶない！にんじゃです。Thereafter, nearly everything was declared あぶない.

Delighted by ducklings.

"Safari action adventure Lila"

Pandora (which I've now set up to work from Canada). Listen to this song, it's amazing.

It's so hard to find a really snootily-educated man these days.

"E., Mom's worried about something in particular. But I'm just worried. About curtains, about the bed, about gravity..." (Note: his room has increased gravity. For training purposes.)

A stray lawn dart killed my only bunny. Twice.

While giving a back massage, E.: "It's like your shoulders are reinforced!"

This island.

Benjamin Button? Not as good as watching Atonement for the third time in 24 hours.

Ithacan holiday

I spent this morning reading about bryozoa and siphonophora (so cool!), and yesterday's front-page headline in the local paper was, "Weather doesn't dampen rutabaga contest." You just can't make stuff like that up. This afternoon I have to do some real work on ongoing projects, but now that other people are awake, I'm headed to the gym.


This post's theme word: thalassic, "relating to the sea."

Noteworthy scientific research

I love the scientific method in all its wonderful applications.

Noteworthy research of late? Well, octopodes have no personalities. But the good news is that they like HD TV!

And have you heard about the cutting-edge research happening now to answer that age-old question: do sharks like Christmas music?

I just don't understand all this recent talk about money for fundamental scientific research (like this!) being cut because of "the economy." Knowing that octopodes prefer to see HD video, or that sharks like Christmas pop songs, is vitally important to my life; merely reading about it has completely brightened my outlook! (Not sarcasm!) Wow, do I love science. Even if scientists sometimes bicker.

(Both via Slashdot.)


This post's theme word: internecine, "conflict within a group/organization." As in, the internecine science conflict between physicists and computer scientists. Or biologists and chemists. Or whatever. In the end, it's us against the literature students.

Easy wind and downy flake

The weather here is excellent, lacking only in people (snowball targets). Canadians have gone home, and all the international students who are staying are griping about the weather. I have to go back to the office later tonight to gather the truckload of material that I'm taking home with me, and the only complaint I have is this: the city of Toronto has no idea how to deal with snow. Main streets are a few inches deep in it, and secondary streets have a completely unplowed 6 or so inches. I wish my office had a window, so I could have watched the streets fill up with snow.


This post's theme word: flocculent, "having fluffy character or appearance."

Thesis

{\sc Yes, I am trying to finish my thesis now. This week. Thanks for all your good wishes, but every time you ask me about it, another grain of stress is added to the pile I'm lugging around with me. So please just rest assured that I am working hard, and you will certainly hear the jubilant shouts -- followed by silence as I catch up on sleep -- when I'm done.}


This post's theme word: boustrophedon, "a method of writing in which lines alternate left-to-right and right-to-left."

Pumpkin pies

I baked some pumpkin pies for American Thanksgiving a few weeks ago. One of them was accidentally more vegan than intended (though still not at all vegan). They were both delicious.


This post's featured word: macadamize, "to pave with gravel." I remember the meaning by visualizing a road paved in macadamia nuts.

Healthy nachos

These were visually pleasing, so I photographed them.They were gustatorily pleasing, too.


This post's featured word: thurible, "a censer."

My discomfort with blogging

My discomfort with blogging is waxing. Why? It's so public. But I certainly knew that when I started.

This post's theme word: coprolite, "fossilized excrement." The internet is full of it... you have betrayed me for the last time, Google.

Dishes!

Just overheard from the next room: "Ok. Dishes. Ow. What?!"

This post's theme word: hyaloid, "transparent; glassy."

Wendy and Lucy

Postpostpre recommends Wendy and Lucy. Postpostpre is never wrong, but in case you have any doubt, the NYTimes review is here, and includes the following:

“Wendy and Lucy” is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). It has some swearing, a little drug use and a brief implication of violence, but no nudity, sex or murder. The rating seems to reflect, above all, an impulse to protect children from learning that people are lonely and that life can be hard.

We should protect children from that. Also, adults.


This post's theme word: homiletic, "to do with preaching."

No light propitious shone

I awoke from overheating 30 minutes before my alarm, to the dulcet tones of Crazy Lady swearing through the wall and the heartening sight of ample snow falling on the pre-dawn street. William Cowper's "The Castaway" was running through my head, but I could only remember the first and last stanzas, so I'm printing it out to memorize at the gym this morning.


This post's theme word: logy, "lethargic, groggy."

In which I wish gchat were real life

If I could only be physically present with all my gchat co-existers, I would be in a room with the most awesome people all the time, from all over the world. My gchat list reads like a dream team of the best party I could think of... and between us, someone is always awake and logged-in. So there's always someone available for solace.


This post's theme word is locum, "a person filling in for another, especially a doctor or clergyman." Modern conveniences like gchat provide locums at any locus.

Woohoo!

It's Saturday, it's snowing, and I am happy.

Yesterday was 4 hours of office hours, and board games, and finding the Madison, and three sets of quite enthusiastic guitar-playing. Today is laundry and swim practice and finishing the write-up of the formal theory we're calling VMod2L. And then some more socializing.


This post's theme word: bawd, "prostitute." No one playing Scrabble yesterday knew it, but by the time it was my turn, that place on the board had been taken. When I go home I intend to play Dictionary, and revel in the expansive collective family vocabulary.

Research meeting debriefing

I have this experience approximately once a week:

A meeting approaches. I dread it, I feel confused and unprepared. I briefly consider dropping out of grad school to professionally serve fries or perhaps tutor rich kids.

The meeting happens. I leave the meeting with enthusiasm and newfound understanding. Life is suddenly full of delicious opportunities.

Someday, I want to be the kind of advisor that inspires students this way. (And maybe I'll be lucky enough to have students who are more competent grad students than I am now.)


This post's theme word: quiddity, "the essence of someone/something," or "a trifling." It has the nice property of having two meanings, and serving as its own opposite.

Where is everyone?

Usually by this time the office is full of grad students; right now there are only four, counting me. Where is everyone? Is today a holiday that I don't know about?

I'm not complaining. The quiet and lack of interruptions means that I've been fairly productive with a minimal amount of stress.

And yet... deadlines loom. Thesis!


This post's theme word: sciolist, "dabbler; an amateur who engages in an activity without serious intentions and who pretends to have knowledge."

Sore and tired

I erged (ergged?) yesterday and did my abs workout. This is a bad combination. Today all the muscles on the dorsal side of my body are achingly sore. On the bright side, I went to bed so early that I awoke before my super-early alarm. This is good, because I was so tired that I forgot to set the alarm.

It rained yesterday and all the snow melted and washed away. It was a pretty dismal day. (Exception: I got to talk to D., which was excellent.) I miss my family, my Harvard friends, and being able to use words like "pallor" in casual conversation without having to spell and define them. I don't mind having to do this for non-native English speakers, but for crying out loud -- doesn't anyone read books anymore? I would go hang out with grad students in the humanities, but they wouldn't understand my nerdy jokes. Sigh. It's so hard to be an academic elitist sometimes.

Perhaps next I'll memorize the alliterative v monologue from "V for Vendetta."

Good news: in a few weeks, I'll be at home. Cookie swap, Geometry Wars, pies, Patapon 2! Not soon enough!

Bad news: in a few weeks - ε, I want to submit a complete draft of my Master's work. Too soon!


This post's theme word: cacology, "poor choice of words" or "incorrect pronunciation."

Hiatus

Sorry for the recent silence; I've been very busy. Things are going well, I'm getting enough sleep and food and socialization. I am accumulating posts (and photos) I want to post, I just have no time to organize my thoughts. There will be a deluge here after December 15.


This post's theme word: macropterous, "with well-developed long wings."

Snow!

It's supposed to snow today! Huzzah! I have oodles of work but I might go stand outside at lunch just to be snowed upon.


This post's theme word: piccalilli, "relish of chopped pickled cucumbers and green peppers and onion." M. lost the spelling bee on this one.

Swim meet

This weekend I had [flavorless, colorless] gelatin applied to my head with a paintbrush, glitter applied to my face, and a purple (6th place) ribbon applied to my synchronized swimming team. Photos and a video of our performance are available on facebook (as long as you are in the right network to align with privacy settings).
It was fun, but I prefer rugby, pain, and mud to swimming, asphyxiation, and makeup. No surprises there. It rained the entire weekend, which didn't really matter since we were mostly inside (and wet anyway).


This post's theme word: flouse, "to splash."

What is a PhD good for?

In a momentary lapse of grad student stamina, I had the following conversation. (I actually think that a PhD has real value.)

A: What is a PhD good for, anyway?
L: To make your parents proud?
A: Nope.
L: For personal betterment?
A: No.
L: Papier-mâché?
A: Yes!
L: I think there are easier ways to obtain paper for papier-mâché.

This post is dedicated to new reader Y. It also has a featured mantra: "no more smiling sports." Repeat it to yourself; I know I will. The first synchronized swimming meet is on Saturday.


This post's theme word: paragoge, "The addition of a letter or syllable at the end of a word, either through natural development or to add emphasis. For example, height-th for height."

Puzzle challenge 2008

My team did a lot better this year. You can see the puzzles and solutions here, if you're interested.


This post's featured quote (interchange):

- Now I know how a dynamic programming algorithm feels.
- And how is that?
- Confused.

NP-complete person

Earlier today I updated my facebook status to be "Lila is a complete person. NP-complete."

Just now, I had the following conversation with Y.:

Y: You are an NP-complete person?
L: Yes. I haven't figured out a solution, but I also haven't figured out how to do anything nondeterministically yet...
Y: So it takes... time... ?
L: Well, it's an open problem.
Y: Of course, right, it's just a conjecture.


This post's theme quote is from Robert Heinlein['s character Lazarus Long]:

Anyone who cannot cope with mathematics is not fully human. At best he is a tolerable subhuman who has learned to wear shoes, bathe, and not make messes in the house.

Runner's high, election high

I felt kind of gypped yesterday, because I ran three miles in the morning and didn't get the elated "runner's high" that I was expecting (and that I usually experience).

I ended up getting my high in the evening instead, watching the election. That ungypped me, fast. Huzzah for voting!

Today my knee is sore and a little swollen, but I'm happy.

Back to work! ... thesis thesis thesis thesis thesis thesis...


This post's theme quote, in honor of the internet-savvy seen in this campaign, is from William Gibson (via):

The limitation to what you can find on Youtube is basically your own imagination. When I think of something, if I don’t automatically think of searching for it on Youtube, I will never see it. When something comes to mind, I try to train myself to google it and then look on Youtube, often with the most amazing results. I think, in the end, if we just kind of run this technology out to its logical conclusion, we will end up with something like a single retina that covers the entire inner surface of a sphere, looking at itself, being quite self-sufficient, and made completely of Youtube videos.

High stakes

I know that I am a fairly confident, competent public speaker. I have given good presentations on subjects not in my field while an undergraduate. Yet I just finished leading a[nother] one-hour student seminar and I feel like I've walked through flames (psychologically, at least). I'm not so self-conscious that I refused to admit my nervousness, though -- in fact, I cited it often, since admitting that I'm nervous actually helps me to be more relaxed.

Afterwards, Y. told me that I had nothing to be worried about; he followed the whole thing, it was fine. But in the reciprocal situation, he is often nervous and I always have no trouble following.

I've experienced the same effect in writing; it's much harder to write in my field that outside. (I wrote some terrific English, history, and opera papers!) What it amounts to is this:

The cost of failure is very high.

If I botched a paper in a humanities course, it meant very little to me; it was not a field where I had declared any interest or professional intent. Compare that with now, writing my master's research paper: every word seems heavy with meaning, and not just because the topic matter is dense. It has import; the stakes are much higher, since this is something I want to do well in, something that affects my planned career path.

Unfortunately, the only way to overcome this performance anxiety is to just keep writing and giving presentations until it becomes natural.


This post's theme quote is from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe:

Mathematicians are like Frenchmen: Whatever you say to them they translate into their own language, and forthwith it is something entirely different.

A. is standing

It's such a big event that she requested I blog it.


This post's theme word: obamulate, "to walk about." She's doing that now.

Tired

Fine, not very hot. One egg.

This week was very tiring, and the weekend is totally booked; no downtime.

That is all.


This post's theme word: orthoepy, "study of the pronunciation of words" or "customary pronunciation of a language."

Traffic spike!

A week ago I must have been crawled by some Google spider, because my previous maximum visits-per-day was 6. Since then, I've had between 8 and 47 hits per day. FORTY-SEVEN. I think I interact with fewer than 47 people each day. WHO ARE YOU OUT THERE IN THE INTERTUBES? (intertubes intertubes intertubes...)

Only two of you came from my departmental page, and five from my facebook profile. 97 new visitors came from Google images. Where? When I Google image search my name, I get some hits for me but none for LilaPrime.

Welcome to all my new, anonymous internet stalkers. I guess I have to be even more careful and paranoid about what I post. (This blog has come so far since its early days as a public status update to my mother.) I invite you to leave comments, so that (1) I know who you are, and (2) I get feedback. These will both contribute to a more enjoyable blog-reading experience for you, o my anonymous and numerous readers.


This post's theme word: asperse, "to spread false and malicious charges against someone" or "to sprinkle with holy water. " It is a transitive verb, as in, "Lila aspersed him on her blog."

Hair

I have 19 inches of hair and I don't particularly want it. What should I do with it? Please suggest uses for the hair. Also, haircuts. It is very curly when short.

I've donated to Locks of Love in the past, and might again.


This post's theme word: caruncle, "a fleshy growth" (e.g., rooster's comb).

Snow!

It's snowing! I love this country.


This post's theme word: col (rhymes with "doll"), "a mountain pass."

All I want for Christmas...

All I want for Christmas is:

• to finish my MSc thesis;
• an Xbox 360;*
• a green Xbox controller, if it exists;
  
• socks; and
  
• Wegmans purple-top triple-fruit jam.
  

Prices just finished adjusting to the $1 CAN = $1 US conversion rate, but it's now more like $1 CAN = $0.73 US. Thus, things are now cheaper in Canada, even with slightly higher prices. Witness the Xbox: $300 in both countries, but $300 CAN = $230 US; maybe I should just buy one here. This is also the case with the computer I'm coveting, but I don't need it and can't justify its purchase. Quine is still alive and well.

Come to think of it, I can't really justify my desire for an Xbox, either. It would be fun. Back to work, now!

* This is somewhat expensive, and I don't really expect to get it as a gift.


This post's theme game: geometry wars.

Crazy Lady

Our crazy neighbor is at it again. I keep waking up in the middle of the night to loud, loud music. Recently (last night? the night before? memories are hazy) I awoke to particularly loud music. As I lay in bed, trying to remember where I put my earplugs so that I wouldn't have to turn on a light, the downstairs neighbors (or maybe her downstairs neighbors) banged on the ceiling/wall and shouted 'BE QUIET!' She screamed back something unintelligible. And continued playing her music.

This is typical.

I know that aggression is an unworkable tactic. (Evidence: the above-recounted event; also, I personally witnessed her life meltdown, recounted in screaming at a soon-to-be-ex-boyfriend, from 4am-6am one night, loud enough that earplugs made no difference.) Passive-aggressive tactics also seem bad; besides, what can we do that would affect only her, and not our other long-suffering neighbors? A. and I are thinking of maybe mounting some speakers pointed into the wall we share with Crazy Lady's apartment. Or maybe not... I feel really sorry for her, since I have been witness (albeit against my will) to her intense personal suffering.

Recent musical selections: "Jolene" (on an endless loop), "Sexyback," and unidentifiable loud-bass-beat hip-hop/pop/whatever.

My earplugs have a new permanent resting place reachable from bed, in the dark, with sleep-addled clumsiness.


This post's theme word: quidnunc, "a nosy or gossipy person."

Leaves

Fall is my favorite season. I like the textures:... and the colors:
... and my new camera.


This post's theme word: serein, "Fine rain falling from an apparently cloudless sky, typically observed after sunset." Not today -- the rain was heavy and the clouds, visible.

Another weekend bites the dust

I spent another Sunday on grading. Then swim practice. Laundry was aborted because of rain. In the hour or so of consciousness I have left, I shall write letters and tidy up my mental space in preparation for the week.
While grading, I took a break to photograph this lovely tree outside my apartment. Still playing with the different modes of my camera. Above, everything black-and-white except the tree; it is very dramatic. Below, I color-sampled other things and (in-camera) changed the leaves to those colors.

First, a red-covered magazine from the side of my bed:
Then, one of my green shirts reverses autumn:My purple bedspread makes a landscape reminiscent of Dr. Seuss:
This post's theme quote comes from "The Nerd Handbook" (via MetaFilter). I don't agree with everything in the essay, but this rings true:

[The nerd] sees the world as a system which, given enough time and effort, is completely knowable.

Mathematics is fixed again

Earlier this week I thought I had broken mathematics. A meeting with my advisor today cleared this up, and mathematics is fixed again.

I recall breaking mathematics a few times as an undergrad, but always on small problems. Like breaking off a corner of mathematics. Now that I've moved on to larger problems, my mistakes and misunderstandings cause much larger rents in the fabric of the mathematical universe.

Luckily enough for everyone, the thoughts in my head have no direct effect on the universe. You are all safe.


This post's theme word: palinode, "a poem in which the author retracts something said in an earlier poem." If I had to write up my research in poem form, it would be even more unreadable than it is now.

Empowered

I mailed my absentee ballot today, and it should arrive well before the deadline. Woohoo! I voted!

I am empowered in other ways, too: I am not starving; I do not have to struggle every day to find housing, clothing, safety, food, or positive social interactions; I am free to pursue arcane studies of my choosing. In fact, I am almost completely self-determined, and not compelled to engage in any activity I don't choose for myself. I pick my friends, my modes of social interaction, my food, my housing, my psychological and physical surroundings.

I take my life for granted, but it does make me happy. The situation I'm in. Everything.


This post's theme word: demagogue, "a political leader who seeks support by appealing to popular desires and prejudices rather by using than rational argument."

Leaf

I found a gorgeous leaf on the way home, but in the time between this afternoon and now, when I scanned it, it dessicated and lost some of its glorious color. (Also on the way home: two girls, dressed as zombies, complete with prosthetic bleeding wounds and grisly makeup, sprinted past me on the sidewalk. Zombie sprinting... what a weird concept.)Yes, it is a leaf. Yes, it was more red, and had a more vibrant gradient, this afternoon. Yes, I am done posting now and am going to bed. Goodnight.


This post's theme word: wifty, "silly, eccentric, scatterbrained."

Crossing the gap

I stumbled across this visual metaphor for how I feel about the thesis-writing process.

Slow. Bridging a gap. Beautifully detailed.


This post's theme quote comes from Bertrand Russell:

Mathematics may be defined as the subject in which we never know what we are talking about, nor whether what we are saying is true.

Blowdry a lamb

Because sometimes, you just gotta.
This post's theme word: croft, "a small rented farm."

Daal

I made a double batch of daal over the weekend, to tide me through the week. The mixture of colors and textures was very nice. (And I'm still in the new-camera-photograph-everything honeymoon period.)
This post's theme word: fugacious, "lasting a very short time." I love daal, and it never lasts.

Eggplant curry

I adapted this recipe for eggplant curry, adding green pepper, an extra tomato, and quintupling the called-for curry. (I like my food hot-hot-hot; also, I wanted to finish my curry paste.)
That last change proved to be fatal... or nearly so. (Hyperbole!) I ate what I could, until my lips and tongue were completely numb. It was delicious (while I was able to taste it). And it will last a long time, since I can only eat it in small quantities.


This post's theme word: linctus, "a syrupy liquid medicine, especially for treating coughs." I am certain that all the bacteria in my throat were purged in the curry-genocide.

Local goals reviewed

This weekend, I successfully

• emptied one inbox (zero!),
• finished my grading,
• straightened out business with former landlord,
• had two synchro practices and went running,
• cooked (a week's supply of daal and cookies),
• did laundry (necessary),
• gained another RSS subscriber (yo R.!),
• caught up on my desperate sleep debt from the end of last week, and
  
• ordered a new keyboard (but not the swanky one C. lent me).
  

It remains to

• empty the other inbox (41),
• read a paper before the M11 seminar,
• find my ballot,
• complete an assignment,
• achieve my weekly thesis-writing goals (particularly large this week),
• find the necessary receipts to be reimbursed, and
  
• follow-up on the many contacts I've made this month.

I could accomplish all these things tomorrow if I set aside the thesis-writing, but that strategy generalizes poorly. And if all I do is thesis-writing, then I won't accomplish any of the goals, plus I'll burn out all my mathematical neurons in one session. Moderation.


This post's theme quote reflects my puzzlement at some students' solutions:

On two occasions I have been asked, ‘Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?’
I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question. -- Charles Babbage

Make your grader smile!

When, in the course of marking, I read,

This is where inequalities kick butt, literally.

... it made me smile. Take some time to be kind to your grader today! It is appreciated.


This post's theme quote, from Colin Renfrew:

The days of the innumerate are numbered.

Pretty Oktoberfest pictures

I could not resist photographing the variety of colors and textures, even though it meant that I created a clog in the already-overcongested pedestrian traffic.I marvel at the wide angle of my new camera's lens.
This post's theme word: snood, "fleshy appendage over the beak of a turkey." Not related to Dr. Seuss' sneeds.

Self-portrait

... with my new camera, taken this weekend in the Kirkland courtyard as I waited for E.


This post's theme word: skeuomorph, "A design feature copied from a similar artifact in another material, even when not functionally necessary. For example, the click sound of a shutter in an analog camera that is now reproduced in a digital camera by playing a sound clip. " My camera is on "mute."

Local goals

After my last meeting with my advisor, I have a goal:

Submit my thesis by December 15.

This is to allow enough time for it to be read, and for me to amend mistakes. It does not, however, allow a lot more time for me to wander about the topic, wildly flailing my mental tendrils as I absorb the problem from every angle. I have to be direct and effective, without reading every article ever written on the subject.

I have a lot of other things -- a veritable swarm -- hovering over me, emails to write, internships to apply for, articles to read, cleaning to do, posts to write (yes, I still have my GHC reflections bouncing around in my head), and miscellaneous tasks. (It would be nice to have food in the kitchen so I don't starve.) These things are all on pause while I cram in some more work before my weekly meeting with my advisor; as soon as I leave his office tomorrow, I'm going to go on a task-completing rampage.

My more local goal is to get back down to inbox zero, which I achieved over the summer and maintained up until two weeks ago. A more long-term goal is to pick up where I left off with Project Simplify.


This post's theme quote is from Siméon Poisson:

Life is good for only two things, discovering mathematics and teaching mathematics.

Keyboard recommendations?

My keyboard is limping to its death after a recent encounter with a cup [read: lake] of tea. I'm looking to buy a new keyboard which is:

1. suitable for small hands,
2. ergonomic (slightly tilted/curved, different hands' keys separated),
3. has a number pad, F keys, arrows and insert/delete/home/end/page up/page down, and
4. has a satisfying action (not too mushy; an audible click on key depression is ok).

I went yesterday to Best Buy and Future Shop, and wasn't too impressed with the small selections of keyboards there. However, I'm hesitant to buy a keyboard online, since I can't test it out.

Any suggestions? Do you love your keyboard?


This post's theme word: bosset, "a small protuberance or knob."

Tall personality, short physique

I spoke with G. on the phone this afternoon. Approximately:

G: You sound more assertive on the phone.
L: Really? How?
G: Well, I don't know... more assertive than in person.
[A beat while I think: if anything, I'm more assertive in person.]
L: Do you mean that I sound taller on the phone?
G: Yes.

I have heard similar things before, namely, that my personality is taller/bigger/whatever-er than my actual, physical body. Yes. I know I'm short. That doesn't mean I'm a passive, docile munchkin. (Nothing against passive, docile munchkins.)

G. also mentioned that he sometimes reads this blog to see what I'm up to. It is very strange for me to hear about readers of this blog, even though I obviously write here with the expectation of nonzero readership. Sometimes, while I am having a conversation with someone, he references (directly or indirectly) this blog, and it takes me a moment (or several) to realize what is happening.

I dedicate this post to my latest RSS subscriber, D. Welcome!

Would you like a post dedicated to you? Well, now's your chance! I'm looking for an easy way to monitor my RSS subscribers. (I'd be happy just to know the number, but other data would also be nice.) If you can tell me how to easily do this within Blogger, I will dedicate a post to you. And I'll probably make it one that involves you, or relates you somehow, so this is your chance to be famous amongst my readership! Immortality! Take it, it's yours!


This post's theme word: bespoke, "made to order."

King Lear

Y. had some tickets to King Lear that he could not use, and he kindly gave them to me. Thus did I unexpectedly end up at the theater tonight with R. (And that is why I am blogging at 2am; once I'm done here, I'll pack for my flight tomorrow.) Wow, do I love Shakespeare - antiquated usages of words, clever puns, and every once in a while, the lines rhyme! Plus everyone dies at the end. Woo hoo!

This spring, I added a used $3 edition of King Lear to my collection of books stored in my gym locker, for reading on the stationary bicycle. I read it twice, a few months ago. (Back when my knee forced me to do a lot of stationary biking.) So I knew the plot, and was ready for the clever outdated-usage puns. And I could explain it to R., whose English is not quite up to Shakespeare-comprehension level. (Oddly, this is now the second Shakespeare play I've seen with him.)

Seeing it performed was much better than reading it.

When I read, I imagined Regan and Goneril as scheming and conniving from the start; they were played as vaguely unsavory characters who gradually worsened, until their tragic-and-unavoidable last-scene deaths. They were more believable when staged than imagined.

It was easy to read a scene with stage directions "plucks out his eyes," but they actually did it onstage. Not his actual eyes, of course, but some fake eyes that appeared to come from his face by clever slight-of-hand. It was messy and bloody and convincingly nauseating. And totally unexpected; I had imagined that it would be staged with him behind a screen or something, then... whoa! Where did all that blood come from? It was dripping down his face and chest, and all over the hands of the eye-plucker. Then, for good measure, Goneril squashed one of the "eyes" on his chest. Poor Gloucester.

The most delightful difference between reading and watching King Lear was Edmund. Kudos to Benjamin Blais, who played Edmund delightfully. Really. Even though Edmund is the villain, and ultimately causes > 8 deaths (his own included), he was a joy to watch. He had as much fun in his convoluted scheming as Iago! And his lines earned more laughs than any other character's. (Holding a knife to his arm, about to self-inflict a wound: "I have seen drunkards do more than this in sport." Delivered in an offhand way, straight to the audience.) Even though King Lear is a tragedy (whose moral, the man sitting in front of us said, is "never have daughters"), I fell in love with Edmund the bastard. When he died, R. leaned over and said, "There goes all the fun."

It's playing at Hart House through October 18; if you're in Toronto, I recommend that you see it. Yay culture!


This post's theme word: dreadnought, either "a battleship that has big guns all of the same caliber" or "a large acoustic steel-string guitar." I'm sure there are clever double-entendres to be made here. I wish Shakespeare were around; he'd have a field day with modern English.

Week o' productivity

I have many reflections on Grace Hopper, women, computer science, and myself. (I did, eventually, collect many answers to the question, "What is the value of a PhD?") And many other things to do this week, making up for my absence last week. I plan to have an especially productive week, and then celebrate it with my Canadian Thanksgiving weekend trip to Boston.


This post's theme quote, from FemaleScienceProfessor:

If the aliens are studying us, I hope at least that they are collecting systematic data, taking good notes, making interesting graphs, and publishing their results.

Keystone, Colorado

Keystone, Colorado, is beautiful.The loquacious desk clerk/multipurpose hotel staffer at the front desk engaged me in several hours of chit-chat upon check-in (and when I went to ask where a restaurant was, and when I picked up a bus schedule, and when I was making tea, and ..., and at check-out). He completely talked me in to returning to Colorado to ski. They are starting to make snow next week -- that is, the second week of October. How fantastic is that?

Here I am, having escaped his society to attend the conference:This picture makes me look like a wrestler. Big shoulders, small legs. I don't like it. But I did like the scenery, and this is proof that I was there (and had a totally legitimizing nametag, too!).
Due to the altitude, quite a few people had altitude sickness for the duration of the conference. I'm still not clear on what causes it, but its symptoms are headaches, tiredness, and easily being winded (that one makes sense, oxygen is less available up here). It can be combated by drinking lots of water and getting plenty of sleep. We were reminded to drink water at the beginning of each session, and also at meals, in hallways, and while chatting between events. There was water (and free logo-emblazoned water bottles) everywhere.


This post's theme word: monadock, "An isolated hill or mountain that, having resisted erosion, rises above a plain."