|
|
Wed, May. 21st, 2008, 08:38 pm
Happy experimental scientist's day of the Omer.
Mon, May. 19th, 2008, 02:13 pm
I think I'm gonna like it here
Today's lunch conversation included a debate on whether, when our manager said "I have a 1:00", the words "one o'clock" were metonymy or synecdoche. (We decided on metonymy, since "1:00" is an attribute of but not a part of the meeting.) Sun, May. 18th, 2008, 11:15 pm
We just watched the Doctor Who episodes "Human Nature" and "The Family of Blood." Simply brilliant. ( Spoilers ) Sun, May. 18th, 2008, 09:39 pm
They shoot horses, don't they?
In all the media coverage about Eight Belles's tragic end at the Kentucky Derby, I've been struck by the following: On WGBH radio, James Carroll compared it to the destruction of an artistic masterpiece; in the New York Times there was an article that described the horses as racing's most valuable asset. Completely lost seems to be the fact that animals are dying painfully for the sake of human entertainment. Oh, not as directly and certainly as Michael Vick's dogs, perhaps, but inevitably as these horses are bred and raced with regard primarily for victory rather than for the safety of the animals. I'm not a vegetarian. I'm not an animal rights activist. There are times when an animal's death serves a legitimate human purpose. If canaries dying in mines saved miners' lives, that's a worthwhile tradeoff. But what's going on in horse racing disgusts me.
Sun, May. 18th, 2008, 08:56 pm
Ironic, isn't it?
Sun, May. 18th, 2008, 01:26 pm
Seven-year-olds have an amazing ability to suspend disbelief
We had Tani's birthday party today. (Yes, a month late. First was Pesach, then the Walk for Hunger, then Mothers' Day.) He wanted "detectives" as his theme, so we started off with "detective school" involving teaching the kids the rudiments of fingerprinting, lemon-juice writing, etc. Then we had a "graduation ceremony" where they got their badges, and then I went into the house to get their goody bags. I barged out of the house, letting the screen door slam, and cried out, "Oh, no! The goody bags have been stolen! We're going to need detectives to look for clues! Where can we find detectives?" The looks on their faces were worth a million bucks. They immediately started running all over the yard looking for clues. I wish we'd trusted their enthusiasm more, and had actually bothered to hide the clues, instead of planning on staging the discoveries. ( The rest of the Micro Mystery Hunt )The kids all really threw themselves into the role-playing, accepted our role-playing, and seemed to have a good time with the puzzles. The puzzles were at just the right level of difficulty; none of them was a "gimme" but neither did we have to give extra hints to forestall frustration. Tani was thrilled. And the timing worked out perfectly.
Fri, May. 16th, 2008, 07:20 am
You heard it here first?
How sad is it that I learned of the Debian weak-SSH-key vulnerability from xkcd and not from Bruce Schneier or SANS (to be fair, the SANS email was waiting in my inbox this morning, but I read xkcd first.) And how long is it before CBS buys xkcd? :-) Thu, May. 15th, 2008, 10:10 am
Inspired by gnomi
![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) gnomi has an interesting post in which she asks her readers to suggest words that only she uses and that deserve a definition. I like that idea, but I'll broaden it a little. Which words that I use, that are either unique to me or that I use often, would you like to hear my definition of? (And gosh darnit, just because I'm copying gnomi doesn't turn this into a meme! I don't do memes!) Wed, May. 14th, 2008, 10:57 pm
We're planning a detective-mystery-themed birthday party for Tani, and tonight we did a dry run. For part of it, I wrote with lemon juice on a piece of paper, and H went to try making it visible. From the other room, I suddenly heard her exclaim: "These are all friggin' CFLs!" Um, oops. We need a plan B. :-) Wed, May. 14th, 2008, 08:31 am
Halfway to Heaven?
It is now 24.5 days of the Omer, making 50% of the Omer.
Tue, May. 13th, 2008, 04:49 pm
Feeling useful
This morning at the weekly team meeting I gave a demo of the work that I've done in the last week. It went very well; I was able to show the basic functionality of the feature that I was assigned to add, and people seemed quite pleased. There's still a bit more work to productize it, but it's nice to hit the ground running. This afternoon we had a spec review, and afterwards the person whose spec we were reviewing expressed that he was pleased with my contributions to the discussion. I proposed a few ideas for resolving some problems that came up, and I suggested a few failure cases that hadn't been considered. So I really feel like I'm contributing already, which is a wonderful feeling considering that it's only my seventh day on the job. And I got to have a picnic lunch with H and Alissa today.
Mon, May. 12th, 2008, 09:39 pm
Voice lesson update
It's been a while since I posted about my voice lessons. The last few weeks we've been working on Winterreise and it's been awesome. Tonight I really felt that I was producing performance-quality sound without being self-conscious about it; my posture just fell into the correct position and the resonance and emotional expressivity were there.
Sun, May. 11th, 2008, 11:50 am
Review of "Onkelos on the Torah"
As a member of LibraryThing, I sometimes receive books to review based on what's already in my library. Last week I received a copy of Onkelos on the Torah: Understanding the Bible Text Leviticus by Israel Drazin, published by Gefen Books. I was quite impressed with it. My first reaction when I found out about this book was to wonder "What's the point?" It's a translation into English of a translation into Aramaic of the Torah; how would that differ from a direct translation into English? ( My review ) Rabbis Drazen and Wagner have constructed a book that succeeds both as a work of scholarship accessible to the lay reader and as a contribution to limud Torah.
Thu, May. 8th, 2008, 09:56 am
Sha!
Programs that make noise should always have an obvious way to tell them to shut up. And the OS should offer a tool to identify the most recent program to play a sound. To get my new computer to stop annoying me every time a new email message arrives took going five levels deep, including clicking a button labeled "Advanced Email Options". Grrr..... Thu, May. 8th, 2008, 08:52 am
Great Israeli songs from the last three decades?
Why is it that just about all the Israeli music I have in my collection was written before 1978? Did they stop writing great songs after that? What songs should I be listening to?
Wed, May. 7th, 2008, 09:23 pm
Happy Yom ha-Atzmaut!
Today is the 60th anniversary (on the Jewish calendar) of the establishment of the state of Israel. On all other days, I gripe freely about many aspects and actions of the Israeli government. But on this night, I celebrate the improbable --- nay, miraculous --- fact that Israel has survived for sixty years. I am proud that there exists a sovereign Jewish nation. I feel more secure knowing that when antisemitism rears its ugly head, there is a place where Jews can flee. Am Yisrael Chai! Mon, May. 5th, 2008, 08:22 pm
My first day at work
Pretty productive for a first day, I thought. Got my new machine configured, checked out the sources, built the software and ran it under the debugger. Read some internal documentation. Was assigned a pretty neat first project. Oh, and are you ready for a shock? ( Here's my new computer ) Mon, May. 5th, 2008, 12:14 pm
I'm here!
Just a quick note to check in and say that I'm settling into my new office. Obviously I now have enough connectivity to post to LJ. Sun, May. 4th, 2008, 08:08 pm
Some more thoughts on my last days at my previous job
I must say, I got a really nice send-off. About twenty people walked from Cambridge to downtown Boston with me on Thursday for my farewell lunch. We were so many, in fact, and the weather was so nice, that we did takeout from Milk St. and walked over to the Post Office Square park. They have stacks of vinyl seat pads there, and we laid claim to an area of the lawn. I was able to sit in the middle of a large circle and rotate as the meal went on, so I got a chance to chat with just about everyone. Friday afternoon there was a farewell coffee in the kitchen. (For context, I and a few of my co-workers would make a point of having coffee and a snack together at about 3pm every day.) Again there was a large turnout, along with lots of pastreis from Kupel's. The VP of R&D and the head of QA each spoke quite warmly about me. I was very touched by their comments and by the wishes on my going away card. My friends gave me a three-month subscription to Scharffen Berger chocolates and a Starbucks card. I guess after eleven years I got predictable. :-) The timing was just about right. I was putting the final touches on my articles in the internal Wiki on Friday morning, and Friday afternoon I backed up all my data one last time and finished uninstalling software and wiping my personal data from the machine. The last article I added to the "how to" section of the wiki was "How to Organize the Annual A Cappella Group for the Holiday Party." I hope someone notices it before the autumn. :-) Sun, May. 4th, 2008, 08:06 pm
Wow
I'm so proud of myself --- I solved the Panda metapuzzle in under a week! (Yes, I know it has been out for eight days, but I didn't have a chance to download it until Monday night.) That was a lot of fun. Fri, May. 2nd, 2008, 04:19 pm
The end of an era
So this is it. In a few minutes I will walk out the door, and this phase of my life will come to a close. Someone referred to it as the end of a chapter, but it feels more like the end of a tractate.
Here's part of my farewell e-mail to my co-workers. Some of you may enjoy it:
I'm horrible at goodbyes.
But I'm pretty good at puzzles.
So here are some famous goodbyes --- famous last words of real and fictional mammals, and last lines from literature. Once you've gotten them all, reading the first letter of each line in order will give you a final message from me.
( The puzzle ) Thu, May. 1st, 2008, 08:22 pm
Alissa humor
Alissa asked: "Where do sheep go?" ( And the answer is... )
Wed, Apr. 30th, 2008, 09:49 am
Title bout
I had a very fruitful meeting last night at the synagogue to plan a commemorative book for our 25th anniversary. Since the shul was founded on Sukkot, the plan is to produce an enhanced Sukkot bentscher. We quickly adopted as our Hebrew (well, Aramaic) title אזמן לסעודתי; we're at a loss for a good English title. We're agreed that it should relate to the Aramaic, but it does not need to be a literal translation. First of all, we couldn't agree on a translation that captures all the nuances of אזמן. Second, what makes אזמן לסעודתי a great title is the way it both quotes the Ushpizin text from inside the book while also serving as a description of the book's purpose; once we're working in English the reference will be lost anyway. So, any suggestions? Mon, Apr. 28th, 2008, 04:49 pm
Well, that was fast
Mailed in my old passport Fri. Apr. 18 Received my new passport Sat. Apr. 26 Not bad, State Department! (I'm curious, though: I mailed it to an address in Philly and the new passport was mailed from New Hampshire. Is the Philly address "virtual" and the USPS redirects directly to the local office, or did it actually make it through Philly and still arrive in about a week?)
Speaking of "about a week," today is the 8th day of the Omer, which is 1 week and 1 day. Mon, Apr. 28th, 2008, 07:11 am
There once was a guy on LiveJournal Who took part in "Blank Verse Week" infernal. Was away; now he's back To take up a new tack: And to other verse forms now he turn'll.
Fri, Apr. 25th, 2008, 04:43 pm
The sun is setting; now I shall go *poof*
Here's one last post ere Blank Verse Blog Week ends to note that I will be offline until Sometime on Monday morning. Passover will end on Sunday night at 8:30, but then we'll have to pack away the things we use for Pesach, and unpack the stuff we use throughout the year. So don't expect to hear from me again 'til Monday morn. Shabbat Shalom and Chag Sameach, all!
Today has been the fifth day of The Count. Thu, Apr. 24th, 2008, 09:55 am
Last night we saw "The Drowsy Chaperone"
Last night we saw The Drowsy Chaperone. Our friends mabfan and gnomi came with us. We had a blast. "I love this show so much!" ( My full review, in prose, behind the cut. )One final thing that I have to include, For qaqaq: Monkey! Monkey! Monkey! (Done)
Today the Omer's number reaches four
Wed, Apr. 23rd, 2008, 09:29 am
I cannot wait until seven o'clock!
Tonight we'll see The Drowsy Chaperone!
Tue, Apr. 22nd, 2008, 09:34 pm
A minhag that I'd never seen before
This morning, someone came to me at shul And pointed to the luach (calendar) which said that there are those whose practice is to keep wearing tefillin on this day until the Torah reading has been done. ( Behind the cut is 'why'. I'm wond'ring 'whence' )
It's after dark, so sfirah's count's now three
|
