Kookster

Moved

2007-01-04T15:02:00.000-05:00

Well, I've decided to run my own blog on my own site.
So from now on, find me on begins in wonder. For historical laziness, this will remain, but look for me elsewhere. or on Technorati.

hours of halloween audio fun

2006-10-24T13:46:00.000-04:00

Checkout the scream stream of free halloween public radio, brought to you for gratis by the fine folks at PRX.

FeedTools and FeedUpdater fun

2006-09-19T16:55:00.000-04:00

Playing around with FeedTools and FeedUpdater.
Fun stuff.

Had a few lessons learned I wanted to share:

1) load the rails app feed config file

To get FeedUpdater to find my 'feed_updater.yml' file, I had to make a small change to some of the file loading logic. It kept loading the example/default comfig - so I changed the list of paths to look for my file first, by climbing out of the vendor directory, and getting the file in the regular rails app config directory.


config_file = FileStalker.hunt([
"./feed_updater.yml",
"../config/feed_updater.yml"
])

to:

config_file = FileStalker.hunt([
"../../../config/feed_updater.yml",
"./feed_updater.yml",
"../config/feed_updater.yml"])

2) Use the rails app model objects in the custom updater script.

This took some experimentation to figure out.

As the rails wiki says, you need to require the environment script to be able to use the rails app goodies in a standalone script. But where, pray-tell, should you put this require?

Use the on_begin method of the custom script.
So if you have in your 'feed_updater.yml':


load_script: lib/my_feed_updater.rb

Then in this file, you need something like the following:


class MyFeedUpdater < FeedTools::FeedUpdater

  on_begin do
    #load all thing needed to use rails app stuff
    require File.dirname(__FILE__) + '/../config/environment'

    #use your model like its going out of style
  end
  
  on_update do |feed, seconds|
    self.logger.info("Loaded '#{feed.href}'. Updated (#{feed.title}) in #{seconds} seconds.")
  end
  
  on_error do |href, error|
    self.logger.info("Error updating '#{href}':")
    self.logger.info(error)
  end

  on_complete do |updated_feed_hrefs|
  end
end

Hope someone else gets some fun out of this.

Decreation - Anne Carson, triple threat

2006-04-02T16:35:00.000-04:00

Working my way through Decreation by Anne Carson.

I got tipped by a literati family member to Autobiography of Red awhile back, and so when my local amazing bookstore posted the new book to their poetry section, I snagged it. And then a week or so later came the review in the aptly named Boston Review.

I can't do it justice, I'm just trying to appreciate it - go read for yourself.

The Knopf site has clips of the author performing pieces of this. Can you beat that?

grups

2006-04-02T09:40:00.000-04:00

Grups, at least the etymology is a clever repurposing from "speculative" pseudo-Twilight Zone original Star Trek sci-fi, monosyllabic, and easy to remember.

Gen-x is too old, gen-y is too young, and a guy who would rather buy scissors for $5 and cut his own hair than spend $100 at a salon cannot be described as "metro"; but now, it seems, I have been labeled. sigh.

I feel less than comforted, and it certainly makes me rethink buying a 3rd pair of pumas (oh, yeah wore them before they were cool and had a huge Newbury St. store).
I haven't bought distressed jeans since an embarrassing acid wash incident in the actual 80s - most folks I know got their distressed blues by never throwing them away (and for a few of us, by still being able to fit into what we bought 15 yrs ago).

Maybe it will catch on, maybe it won't. I just can't get all that excited by yet another attempt to establish a stereotype for fertile aging cool kids. Besides I have more jazz than Interpol on my iPod, thanks very much.

I think this may be like writing a horoscope for the 30-ish; there is enough there in its 8 pages for us all to read and find a few things applicable, while remaining vague, superficial and a bit obvious.

You don't want to wear a suit!
You wear jeans and a hoody!
You would rather snowboard than work!
You never stopped listening to new music!
GRUP!

too long, and too much is wrong

2006-04-01T18:37:00.000-05:00

Way too long since I last posted, but more time is at hand.

Talked to my brother, he's hopefully dodging an ID card since he is already in Scotland, and is legal and all.

What a lovely time. Tech makes nations and geography less important (arguably), while politicians highlight the importance of national origin as the difference between criminal and patriot.

Does it need to be said? Villainizing illegal immigrants is a PC way to hate minorities. You know, it's not that they are different and poor and not white, it's that they are criminals (they're illegal , so that means they're criminals, right?) and probably terrorists to boot (right out of the country).

Besides, they are all thieves because they are stealing our jobs. I wonder if the politicians noticed that these "criminals" can't vote before they made them into congressional punching bags?

So maybe, just maybe, this is all code - some subtle form of racism (on second thought, not all that subtle).

When the riots start, please remember I am a petite liberal and not worth smashing.

Kooser for President

2006-01-02T12:11:00.000-05:00

As the talk about the 2008 race gets started, my vote is for a Kooser/Walken ticket.

The 2005 Mark Twain Prize celebrating Steve Martin

2005-12-31T23:53:00.000-05:00

The Kennedy Center Presents: The 2005 Mark Twain Prize celebrating Steve Martin . Home | PBS

In a similar vein, Steve Martin is still funnier than you.
Get used to it.

Worst Job Ever - ad nauseum

2005-12-31T19:40:00.001-05:00

Yes yes yes...

Sweet lord that is some good comedy.

Makes you wonder why there is so much drivel on television (i.e. mad tv, snl) when you see something like this. At least Chapelle is coming back.

Remembering those we lost

2005-12-31T08:57:00.000-05:00

We lost many artists this year, and I see the press about the biggest names like Richard Pryor, Pat Morita, and Carson. But look, here is one that touched a nerve for me: Jerry Juhl.

The guy created Super Grover, wrote Gonzo out of thin air, and then made up the Fraggles - where would you be without them?

I only wish Avenue Q would spark a new puppetry rennaisance, it's about time.

Thanks Jerry.

2005: Lost lives that touched our own: "Jerry Juhl, 67, who was head writer for 'The Muppet Show' before he co-created 'Fraggle Rock.' Juhl worked as a puppeteer on Jim Henson's first television show, 'Sam and Friends,' and later spent six years writing for 'Sesame Street' after its 1969 premiere. Juhl was head writer for 'The Muppet Show' from 1977-81, receiving two Emmys for his work."

End-of-Year Reflections from Ted Kooser

2005-12-31T08:20:00.000-05:00

I am a Ted Kooser fan. Why aren't you reading his work every day?

I read Delights and Shadows last month, and am ready to buy more of this retired insurance salesman/poet laureate's work. Please don't let me try and do justice to describing his work, but I will say it reminds me of Charles Wright - I heard him speak once in NYC, I think he read from Black Zodiac.

Differently, I also enjoyed his Poetry Home Repair Manual, which I am almost done reading, and only started digesting.

And even if you could care less, he has excellent citations/examples, so you are also getting poems that have stuck with Kooser, like this oft-mentioned one from Joseph Hutchinson:

Artichoke
O heart weighed down by so many wings.

To paraphrase Kooser, after you read that, can you ever see, or think about an artichoke the same way?

If all else fails to convince, I like that he writes for those of us without advanced degrees in Ulysses, and most of you will like that too.

Today, while it has a 'rural elitist' slant (i.e. urbanites are spoiled, real life is in the country, the nobility of a rugged individual accomplishing of small things, etc.), he provides a bit on the end of the year. It's a breath of cold air to sweep the year into the dust bin.

NPR : End-of-Year Reflections from Ted Kooser:

december 31
Cold and snowing.

The opening pages forgotten,
then the sadness of my mother's death
in the cold, wet chapters of spring.

For me, featureless text of summer
burning with illness, a long convalescence,
then a conclusion in which
the first hard frosts are lovingly described.

A bibliography of falling leaves,
an index of bare trees,
and finally, a crow flying like a signature
over the soft white endpapers of the year.

poetry

2005-12-29T16:28:00.000-05:00

If for some reason you are still reading poetry even though you are no longer in school, nor work at a university humanities department, then this site is for you. Get your daily dose, for bitter or verse.

video ipod at last

2005-12-29T09:21:00.000-05:00

After much thought (nano vs. video) I finally bought my own xmas present (with the encouragement of my lovely bride). I got the 60gig vid ipod - I am such a little consumer.

A few problems: my laptop does not have sufficiently powered USB port (though they are usb2 hi-speed) to charge it. So I need to get a cradle...perhaps one like this. Seriously, the cottage industry of ipod accessories must be a larger than farming in the US.

Also made a trip to Waaa-wa-chusett (excuse me, I have allergies), but with many other options in the area, all I need is for the weather to cooperate. Mainly, since I have friends who are much better riders than I am, the Wa was mostly a remember-what-I-am-doing kinda thing.

2005-12-13T23:02:00.000-05:00

I miss my monkeypatch.

If you have done a decent amount of python code, you've probably run into monkey patching - if you haven't, you're missing out. But in java, where I use an ever increasing number of open source libraries, I missed this lovely feature I was able to use to good effect in Plone. But no more, now there is AspectJ to the rescue.

First off, the problem I had was to extend the code generation capabilities in Axis 1.3 to generate java code from a WSDL (which is better than the other way around). But WSDL2Java extension is limited, and I don't feel like downloading all the Axis source and changing it and recompiling it myself. All I wanted to do was to make the java code that was created include a unique ID to make the objects easier to persist in hibernate (and just to be a show-off, yes I am using Spring too, but not for code generation - it's not good for everything :).

So how to do it? Easy enough, use the cuckoo's egg design pattern to replace Axis's current java class generator with an instance of my own when the constructor is called:


import java.util.Vector;
import org.apache.axis.wsdl.symbolTable.TypeEntry;
import org.apache.axis.wsdl.toJava.Emitter;
import org.apache.axis.wsdl.toJava.JavaBeanWriter;
import org.apache.axis.wsdl.toJava.JavaWriter;
import org.kookster.PersistentJavaBeanWriter;

/**
* Use this to change the behaviour of the WSDL2Java axis code gen
*
* @author kookster
*/
public aspect ReplaceJavaBeanWriterAspect {

//here's a pointcut to get the public constructor of Axis JavaBeanWriter
public pointcut javaBeanWriterConstructor( Emitter emitter,
                                         TypeEntry type,
                                         Vector elements,
                                         TypeEntry extendType,
                                         Vector attributes,
                                         JavaWriter helper ):
  call( JavaBeanWriter.new( Emitter,TypeEntry,Vector,TypeEntry,Vector,JavaWriter )) &&
  args( emitter,type,elements,extendType,attributes,helper );

//here is the advice which calls the constructor for my object instead
JavaBeanWriter around( Emitter emitter,
                      TypeEntry type,
                      Vector elements,
                      TypeEntry extendType,
                      Vector attributes,
                      JavaWriter helper) :
javaBeanWriterConstructor( emitter,type,elements,extendType,attributes,helper )
{
  return new PersistentJavaBeanWriter(emitter,type,elements,extendType,attributes,helper);
}

}

2005-12-13T08:18:00.000-05:00

well, finally.

I spent the last few days trying to revive an old pII/350mhz PC.
Having excorsized redhat9, an ill-timed installation as this particular curse damned itself in favor of fedora days after I installed, I had to pick a sexy new distro to play with...so what else, but go with little-miss-popular, i.e. ubuntu?

After downloading the ISO twice, burning four CDs at various speeds and orientations to the crab nebula and burning bushes, I got one that installed on my eighth attempt. My kung-fu is the best. So far so good, I am typing on it now, and looking for other fun to put it through its paces. Actually pretty usable for all that it is ancient - gee, maybe you don't need to gigs of memory to be happy after all.

I also need some better way to get it networked, as I have no wifi card for it, and it is across the house from my hub. Like everyone else I am sure, I have a 50' ethernet cable around I am using at present, but as I don't wish to make yet another electrical hazard in my home, this is not a permanent solution...

2005-12-10T14:59:00.000-05:00

So my brother, an aspiring evil scientist, plotting to take over a flat of his own, has relocated to the land of golf, sheep, and men in skirts. He too has caught the blogger-flu, and now reports from Mighty Reason.

The real question is how much to extort from him in order to prevent me telling mom his new URL. Of course, there is the efficacy of mutually assured destruction . Hmm. I'll have to find another means to extort the secrets of his evil plans from him.

2005-07-24T11:46:00.000-04:00

WLST fun

I've been having somefun of late with BEA's WLST tools. I'm using 8.1 so the fun is that there are 2 versions, one online (while connected to a running admin server or instance), and one offline for doing configuration and creation of instances much as you would through the configuration wizard application.

So here's the fun - it's jython based, but the tools start their own interpreter by default, but if you want to, you can create an ini file so you can import WLST as a module into a regular jython script.
But, for whatever reason, the offline version does not work for this...you always have to run the wlst offline class as the interpreter. I am testing a workaround, which since it is not particularly well documented, I am not quite ready to release into the world, but I am hopeful :)

2004-07-28T11:20:00.000-04:00

So here in covention land, I beheld some weirdness.

First off, faneuil hall has been a great for seeing big media, especially with MSNBC stationed there. They are not all my favorites - I watch CNN much more - but still amusing.

Of that crew, I got to see Joe Scarborough (not that exciting) and Tom Brokaw (very cool).
Tom was actually a couple of blocks away, talking on his cell, and on his own walking around down town and trying to keep a low profile. I almost didn't recognize him with his wind blown hair, but talking into his cell phone was a dead give away - that voice cannot be missed.

More fun than celebrities are the regular folks out to make a statement. One convertible promoting voter registration is rolling around with effigies of the candidates propped up in back. I don't think they'll be getting into the carpool lane, but clever none the less.

Also on the T I stood next to a woman in medical white carting around a massage chair - her plan being to support the conventioneers (Californian in particular) by offering free massage.

A less positive message was the site of 3 billboard sided trucks touring downtown and quincy market. The bill boards were blown up pictures of aborted late term fetuses - the kind of abortion where the fetus is broken up into pieces when removed. The pieces had been positioned to once again resemble a small baby (though not so small on the side of a truck) - which oddly enough is part of the procedure, so that the doctors can be sure the entire fetus was removed.

Look, I'm pro-choice, so take my views how you will, but those billboards are just gross. At the same time, there are very few medical operations I would want to see blown up and displayed on the side of a truck touring the food court where I am eating. I wouldn't want to see a gall bladder or appendix after it had been removed, but that doesn't make me want to ban appendectomies; it just means I'm too squeamish to be a surgeon. There are pictures you could take of the most vital and life saving procedures, including birth itself, that I just do not want to see 10 feet tall and moving down the road while I am eating.

Also amusing is the relatively common presence of supporters for LaRouche.
I have found his pamphlets all over the place.

And finally, my run in with a Nader-phile. Sitting in the Park T station, chatting with a friend, a Nader support tentatively asked if we were registered voters. We explained we were both registered democrats, and would both be voting for Kerry. She happily and helpfully explained we could still sign the petition to get Nader on the MA ballot. In a moment of great restraint, I managed to say only "I would prefer not to", rather than ripping the clipboard from her hands and shredding it and the republican-aiding signatures while she watched. But I would never subvert the democratic process that way - I'm just tempted.

2004-07-16T10:27:00.000-04:00

Remind me to leave scraps of writing around other than phone numbers on ATM receipts; would you do that for me?
BlueEar.com Message: Albert Einstein's last words (Isa Daudpota): "In essence, the conflict that exists today is no more than an old-style struggle for power, once again presented to mankind in semi-religious trap..."

2004-07-02T09:44:00.000-04:00

Easily my favorite 7/4 related song -

Today’s the fourth of july
Another june has gone by
And when they light up our town I just think
What a waste of gunpowder and sky
I’m certain that I am alone
In harbouring thoughts of our home
It’s one of my faults that I can’t quell my past
I ought to have gotten it gone

-Aimee Mann

2004-07-02T09:43:00.000-04:00

If toast always lands butter-side down, and cats always land on their feet, what happens if you strap toast on the back of a cat and drop it?

Perhaps some one can figure this out

2004-06-29T17:42:00.000-04:00

Nil mortifi, sine lucre. == No killing without payment.

If you haven't spent some quality time at everything2.com, get your hide over there and soak up the url-light.

I'm not sure what is geekier, that I

like phrases in latin

like terry prachett

used "==" to mean equals

CowboyNeal*

The value of a human life (thing)@Everything2.com

* probably using CowboyNeal as an option is actual geekier than the other 4 reasons.

2004-06-26T23:05:00.000-04:00

Just got back from a tap jam at the BCCA.

I've gone a few times, and think I danced better at some of them, but this time was really fun, not leastwise because I ran into my friend Matt who I had neglected seeing in quite a while, and he knew many folks there around our age to whom I had not been introduced before.

So in other words, good tap, good time.

2004-06-26T14:25:00.000-04:00

Writing code is like flying a helicopter...sounds like the start of a bad, or only slightly dirty joke. I'll have to think of a good punchline.

Orthogonality and the DRY Principle: "We've all worked on systems where you make one small change over here, and another problem pops out over there. So you go over there and fix it, but two more problems pop out somewhere else. You constantly push them back?4like that Whack-a-Mole game?4and you just never finish."

2004-06-26T14:04:00.000-04:00

Nice to see JPMC/Bank One getting on the F/OSS train.

It should surprise no one to see financial services companies getting on board new technology - they have the need and the resources to use all the good tech.

Open Source Working Group

2004-06-26T13:34:00.000-04:00

If only this fable were a children's book so I could jump start the indoctrination of my unborn children

Bloggle: The Coffee Odyssey: The Legend of Kaldi

2004-06-25T17:43:00.000-04:00

Got myself a gmail account - yes I am a lucky bastard, and yes, it is cooler than whatever email service stepped up to 1gig+ this week.

Gotta say it though, seems like google is keeping this beta/invite only thing alive as a marketing gimmick - surely it is stable enough to launch by now. That said, it is all too human to feel superior because I have some ice cream, and you don't got none, na na-na na naa-na

2004-06-25T17:37:00.000-04:00

Plone
My current obsession - I'm working furiously to use it for project management and repository at work. Python makes me happy.

plone.org - Welcome to plone.org: "What is Plone?

Plone is easy to use. The Plone Team includes usability experts who have made Plone easy and attractive for content managers to add, update, and maintain content."

2004-06-25T17:09:00.000-04:00

Changing the look since it was more than a bit outdated.
Planning to try to do this a bit more, but best laid plans...

2003-03-08T08:39:00.000-05:00

the weeks have been long but good.

there is some satisfaction to creating things, especially when you start seeing them work. So although work has taken a huge piece of my time, attention, and energy...well, I won't say it is worth it, but it is less a waste of time when the results crystallize.

Here's a gem for you, homestarrunner.

On another note, had my first math exam on 3/3 since about 1995. Don't have the results yet, but I finished it which is better than most of the class (only one other person was done before time). There was one problem I pretty much had to learn how to solve while in the exam, but hey, that's what's good about open book/note exams - no matter how obscure the question, your real enemy is time.

Anyway, another day of snowboarding today - quite likely the last this year looking at the weeks to come.

2003-02-15T13:12:00.000-05:00

So Matt J, a friend of his I don't know, and I are all going for a day of snowboarding. De-lite-full.

I must say I need a bit of a break, though my intern wife wins in that catehgory, its been 2 weeks of 80+ hours a piece, and no end in sight. Well, actually April is the end in sight, but its awfully hazy at the moment. Haven't even read a page of a book, or turned on my PS2 in weeks, in spite of acquiiring new and interesting volumes and games. ho hum, even as I write this, my other computer beside me is chewing through some code gen and compilation for work, perhaps I should give it some more attention.

Got a b-day present of Mr.Show DVDs from my bro. As a non-HBO watcher, this is but one of the delights I apparently have missed. Perhaps when I retire it'll fill some time to catch up on the Sopranos, 6 feet under, and sex and the city.

On another note, very interesting article about Prof. Peter Singer and more importantly one of his critics is to be found in the NY Times magazine. I don't like Singer answers, I respect his approach, but mostly I am disturbed that I battle with liking the purity of his views, but also disliking that he cannot see the damage that their acceptance could cause in our obviously impure world. Similar to my stance on the death penalty - its a weaker argument against the death penalty when its proponants start with "Assume you know without a doubt the person is guilty..." - which is fine for logical debate, but a poor assumption when translating your conclusions to policy.
Anyway, judge for yourself.

2003-02-03T06:31:00.000-05:00

TISD closed

I remember one rare Texas winter when it looked like we would have actual snow. This happened once every few winters, but only rarely enough to cause a "snow day". It only took a bit of snow to cause a panic, I wasn't asking for much. So I remember one fine pre-dawn in the first week of February, waiting by the radio praying to hear school was closed on my birthday. It was a natural - 1st week of Feb is always a misery. My parents even tell me my dad had to shovel the driveway so he could get the car out to drive my mom to the hospital the day I was born. Surely if anyone could get a TX style "white" birthday, it was me. Inevitabily though, in all my 13 years of public school in Texas, it never happened.

Why do I mention (at length) this small, selfish, and childish desire long left unsatisfied and half-forgotten? My b-day is this week, and the entire Tyler Independent School District is closed ... so they can search for toxic debris from the Columbia craft and crew. Damn. Be careful what you wish for: even years later I feel guilty, and I imagine this day off will be a guilty pleasure. A bitter holiday for the kids of East TX, and an impromptu memorial day for fallen heroes.

Anyway, I'm starting to wax all sentimental and crap. National distasters do that to me I guess. I'll stop.

My bro passed on the following apropos stanza:

Out ride the sons of Terra,
Far drives the thundering jet,
Up leaps a race of Earthmen,
Out, far, and onward yet ---

We pray for one last landing
On the globe that gave us birth;
Let us rest our eyes on the friendly skies
And the cool, green hills of Earth.

-- Robert A. Heinlein

2003-02-02T12:18:00.000-05:00

new (to me) feature

just added the shout outs so folks can comment on posts.
cool.
stolen from matt jans' site.
enjoy.

2003-02-02T11:27:00.000-05:00

Tyler, Texas 75703

Perhaps the best thing I ever did is leave my hometown.

Now, a few months ago if you were not familiar with this fine town in East Texas, I would not be shocked. Waco people know. Dallas people think they know. But Tyler?

Then a few weeks ago came the NYTimes front-page series on the iron and steel plant in Tyler, and how callous, greedy and dehumanizing are its practices. For the record, I worked in the Tyler Pipe factory a few days, and I could not believe people worked there any longer than that. And I only worked a few night shifts - and not at all the hardest of the work there. Probably its just another sign of how soft my life has been, but while I was somewhat aghast the people around me seemed pleased pink to be working there - probably because they had no other choice for beating a MickeyD's salary.

Now here comes the Columbia disaster. Look, the commentary has hit the points that first come to my mind as well as yours. It is terrible, and worse that we are desensitized to the dangers of space travel so only disasters transgress into our TV and radio habits. But the personal point I have to make here is that once again the NYTimes had footage from Tyler - this time the debris streaked skies above. And there in the news I see the names of towns and counties I last saw when I would travel by school bus between them for high school debate and academic decathalon competitions. Rusk is not a town that ever makes the news, even in Texas. I mean, they aren't even that good at football. Now there are some faux non-accented american english newscasters on CNN trying to pronounce Palestine as if they were natives. Kinda like the old jokes about the rampant overly 'correct' accents used for all non-english names by the same news readers - except now they are trying to talk like the 60-year-old retired patroleom workers from Green Acres Baptist Church.

It is shocking to see such disasters, but uncanny to see such things against the backdrop of my childhood and adolescence. It's as if they happened in neverland or epcot - don't these places only exist in the recesses of my memory? How did they end up on the front-page and Dan Rather's lips? Such is the power of disaster - space travel is interesting again, and Rusk is famous.

-A

2003-02-02T10:51:00.000-05:00

Homework again.

So I made it to my first class (5 minutes late, but that is what work and a med emergency on the T will do for ya).

The professor (freedman) is fine; knows his stuff, seems to care, and teaches the same class during the day - so it is not some night school hack pressed into service. This is a real, wizened, tenured, full professor. How do you like that?

And not to be exceedingly arrogant, but compared with the folks sitting around me I felt like I will have no trouble with this class. Now, maybe not everyone has this pathology of wondering if they are in tyhe top of their class, but old habits die hard, and being back at a 1 piece chair/desk in a drop ceiling aquare tiled classroom has me reverting not back to college, but high school attitudes.

I came in late, having missed the first class, not having done the homework (as It didn't know what it was - I had called the prof to find out what I had missed, but he had not actually told me the homework assignment). Given these relative handicaps, I still ended up picking up on what we were doing enough that by the break my neighbors were asking me for help. Granted, the young lady to my left simply needed help reading what passes for writing that our prof does no the blackboard, but still, as someone who doesn't need to write backwards to keep my notes private, I find I have an edge here. It is worth mentioning that the prof's writing is great when he writes equations and numbers, no matter the complexity or rapidity, but when he tries to write an english sentance, make sure you listen to what he is saying while he writes so you will have some crib to work from in deciphering. The fellow to my left, who noticed me on the T coming in late together from our jobs downtown, did actually comment on needing help with inductive proofs, but I am not such an egg that I offered to help, especially as the prof was doing just that 4 feet away. It's probably not fair to say that this guy noticed me on the T, really what he noticed was my new fly sony clie nx70c pda. Probably similar to the staring I did when I first saw one in person in an intern's hand. First I lusted, then I resented him affording one, then I plotted to be casually nice to him to I could play with it. Finally, to make the seperation easier, I told myself it wasn't worth it, which was convincing just long enough to get me to pay attention to something else. But I digress.

I am seriously enjoying the work. It is light, and generally interesting - discreet math is nice because everything can be related to some real life situation. I can't count the number of times I have found myself putting books in order on a shelf, or how often I have pulled colored marbles out of a bag. Course if I could count those things, I wouldn't be taking this class. But seriously, I get the relevance to programming, I am not annoyed by having to take this pre req.

One of the guys that works next to me doing GUI programming is a Math Phd. I mentioned to him one of the problems classified under 'later' by my prof when he presented it without solution. The next morning, this guy could hardly say hello before telling me the problem had bothered him so much the night before he had sat down and solved it. I guess these things become compulsive if you feed the addiction all the way to a doctorate.

On another note, I need to go snowboarding. It was too much fun last year to let work and general life eclipse such a perfect escape from this dreary season.

Perhaps it is also that my birthday is next week, and as I spent this weekend cleaning, taking out trash, washing dishes, cooking, doing homework, and watching CNN (more on that), I am feeling a bit like an adult, and I don't like it.

Maybe a freezing cold bike ride will work that out of my system. And I could pick up a few groceries.

-A

2003-01-10T14:43:00.000-05:00

Sorry to hear about L's grandmother passing. :(

I didn't realize you were back in school! Is this your first semester? And CS is the subject? I started and second MA program last fall, and am taking 2 classes this spring *crossing my fingers*. Just slightly less applicable than yours, it's in Critical and Creative Thinking (more on my blog soon). Was thinking of doing a CS program but there are just too many pre-req's, since I don't have any formal comp training...hoping to slip a programming course or two in soon...

Later :)

2003-01-10T13:37:00.000-05:00

So L's grandmother just died last night.

She was fairly old (90+), and had very poor eyesight, so for the first few times we met, her epithet for me was the guy in the striped shirt.

For me it is not so bad, I didn't know her long or well, but in fact I saw her more often than my own grandmother who died the summer before our wedding. I also cannot relate as much to L's grief for the same reason; my family simply isn't as close as hers. Most of my grief was regret that I knew my own grandmother so little, and failed so often to call, write, or think about her. I never visited her, even when I was old enough to do so on my own. Probably it never occurred to me since this is just not how my family operates, and I was already doing a good amount of travelling even to see my parents and brother, never mind anyone else.

The wake is Sunday, the funereal on Monday. We'll probably go see her parents this weekend then accompany them for the rest.

Perhaps I will miss my first night of class on Monday. I am sure the prof won't care.

My job was immediately sympathetic and accommodating - for some reason this still surprises me a bit when people do the right thing about such life changes.

2003-01-09T12:32:00.000-05:00

So class begins shortly.

The next 6 months at work are looking to be exceptionally busy/challenging, so I decided to return to academia with only one class.

I need to do a pre-req before my philosophy degree and a few CS class background can get into a CS MS program at the BU Metropolitan college. BU MET is the adult/continuing ed. college, and offers an actual MS in CS, unlike say Harvard's extension school which does not.

So it's "CS 248 - Introduction to Discrete Mathematics" every Monday from 6-9 pm for me for a while.
Joy.

Luckily it seems as though my rather, uhh, diverse academic interests have not left me completely ignorant of the subject (cs, statistics, and logic classes seem to cover alot of the syllabus). A perusal of the text makes me feel relatively confidant this will not require herculean effort.

So I snagged the text from the BU bookstore - I had to call the CS dept. to find out which text I needed since the BU bookstore has kept a monopoly on that information.

Also, since I wanted to buy the book a whole 2 weeks before classes start, the text book section of the B&N pretending to be a university bookstore was not yet open to the public - but they had a single copy of the text book in their general mathematics section, so luck day for me. Oddly, the price to buy it there was $5 cheaper than amazon or B&N, and no shipping time or cost.
Happy day.

2002-06-19T10:12:00.000-04:00

Thinking about a return to school.
So one question is whether to suck it up and admit I am no real engineer and go the business/finance route.
Could be true, but I also dislike this type of work compared with the technical side of work.
So the other possibility is just to suck it up and go become the engineer I wish I already was.
That seems like a possibly frustrating path to a truer end...and a happier end as well (I hope).
But this is the essence of the problem, not the natural history. I've been kicking the tires on this idea for awhile, considering a multitude of angles, yet always come back to the same conclusion. And yet I am not moving very fast to realize it, so what is the source of the lag if I know what I ought to do? Why am I so slow to even try to get started with getting schooled again?
Time to bite the bullet and get started.

2002-04-11T09:10:00.000-04:00

so how about a new laptop?
how about 2?
1 from the new job, complete with port replicator (does someone own hte patent on the term docking station?)
IBM Thinkpad A21p

1 for me, myself, and I for home and family use
Dell Inspiron 8100

Sweet.
Initial impression is that I like them both, but I'll post more comments as I come to a better opinion.

2002-04-10T09:35:00.000-04:00

first week at a new yab (that's bostonese for job you the uninitiated).
all strangely familar, as I got hired by a place I used to consult.
and 2 other guys from SAPE headed over here as well.
of the people I know from the last lay-off, we are the first to be placed, and the only ones I know to be placed.

in less weighty news, I have been drooling over the Treo device from Handspring (all gadgets in one, cool)
but as usual, sounds like version 1, named the 180, doesn't live up to the hope nor hype it inspired.

2002-03-27T18:29:00.000-05:00

Got laid off from sapient, end of february.
Hard to feel bad about it, since it is a large group of laid off alumni I join.
Already have a new and better paying job.
Again, hard to feel bad about it.
So how should I spend my severence?

2001-10-08T17:17:00.000-04:00

I guess the point is that too much thinking and moral system building can end up leaving out some really obvious facts, when convenient, that or this is just funny : God Angrily Clarifies 'Don't Kill' Rule

2001-10-05T15:25:00.000-04:00

For those wondering where to invest in the middle of so much failure, turn to a specialist: Exponent

2001-10-03T17:17:00.000-04:00

If you code, especially you consultants out there who inevitably have to pass their code on and disappear, then this is for you.

2001-10-02T18:46:00.000-04:00

For those who have forgotten, please work on how to tread water

2001-10-02T18:26:00.000-04:00

A nice account of the Pentagon (oh yeah, that got hit too, oh yeah people died there too) from McSweeney's : The Works of Humankind

2001-10-01T13:11:00.000-04:00

A quick rant - lots of folks are lately writing about how human rights and such are being stomped in the quest for terrorists (perhaps crusade is a better term).
Fair enough. This is definitely happening, and shame on anyone who is invoking the current crisis in their acts of probably pre-existing prejudice.
And its also true to say that the levels of security that are being increased could be considered losses of personal freedom. Guys with machine guns may be a common place sight in other parts of the world, but not here, and arguably this is a hallmark of a move towards draconian enforcement of governmental wonts.

But does it still strike anyone else that this is also a great example of progress?

Sure, we are seeing more hate/fear towards anyone that looks like they could be arab/muslim, but when was the last time that was such outspoken response or protective media coverage? I don't see any camps being set-up, so maybe the current generation has learned from history.

Human rights are getting stomped, particularly privacy, but I see this as part of the dialogue between citizen and government that is part of a health state. Since the civil rights movement there has been popular support for more rights and protections, be it for African Americans, in what language we should use, in how all people should act in the workplace. In a crisis, we now see the popular dialogue swaying back to empowering the government - this is temporary, I really believe, as is our general shock and fear - but it is these back and forth motions of opinion that home in on a better future state, perhaps several generations from now.

So yes, please, everyone keep attuned to the disgraceful treatment of innocent people who resemble the terrorists we all fear, and fight it and speak out against it.
And likewise, make sure we don't allow our privacy to be lost to the immenent domain of new staging grounds for the war on terrorism.

But also take a step back and think what would have happened if this disaster had been perpetrated a generation ago, or two, and how we would want the next generation to react.

2001-10-01T11:50:00.000-04:00

I guiltily enjoyed this free sample of The Cynic's Dictionary, a book I would never buy. Not nearly as clever as this could have been (not that I am volunteering to do better).

2001-07-20T13:16:00.000-04:00

A first message - how boring