August 31, 2003

August 31, 2003 August 17, 2003 Aug 14, 2003 Aug 9, 2003 Aug 6, 2003 Aug 2, 2003

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Weather: Its still summer and the new flat is hot and stuffy. I throw open my front door to get a cool breeze and listen to the benign sounds coming out of the wall of jungle next to me. I love my couch, sitting here taping away on the laptop while listening to the hum outside.

Greencard: Been working on the greencard paperwork. For some reason, all 22 questions on the biographical details form have to be filled out by hand four frigging times. Guys! Heads up! There's something called a photocopier that I think you should check out.

Work: Lot of stuff at work- bees buzzing around the (??)4M DDF money for 2004. Doing a big-old brainstorm Tuesday to gather ideas for UI and DDF proposals. Running at least two teleconferences a week with folks looking at proposal generation.

Turn of season: America turns off summer on the Labor Day long weekend (this one). Parks shut and the swimming pools are drained. But before that happens, one last ritual of summer: the Dog day at Mirillia Park pool.

The summer whine: It has to be said- this is a generally fussy and fretful time of life. A great time to pout and have pointless tantrums:

• My piggybank is still reeling from moving house and paying for the deer strike (insurance paid most of it, but there's was nearly a grand in incidentals). And now I need to pay for:
  • The Greencard application (large hundreds).
  • A new fuel pump for the car (cost=??)
  • An airfare to Australia and WVU is late paying me back thousands of travel dollars (again!).
• But I shouldn't talk. Over at Portland, Helen is living on a shoe string till her first pay (Sept 10). On top of that, she is ultra busy and work-stressed. In this month she has:
  • 2 trips to Pullman (main campus of WSU) for some orientation stuff;
  • A trip to Utah to pick up the repaired car;
  • And a trip to Vancouver, Canada, so she can get the right entry stamp on her visa.
  And if that wasn't enough:
  • She has three classes to teach. Someone else is off sick this term so they dumped the class at the last millisecond on the most junior faculty member. Guess who?
  • The doctors have just changed her meds. Some things are constants: another year, another medical fad.
  • She's been rushing around looking for a flat. Found one that sounds alight- a loft with much light for stay-at-homes like me to work in. With a swimming pool (and hot tub) and exercise room.
• The stress is even getting to my computer- it died and had to be rebuilt. And the rebuild is going slow. Right now I've lost the key to the wireless card, the cable card is missing a part.

What can I say but AAAARGHHHHH!!!!?

Weekends: Went walking this morning down by the Morgantown river. A new Radisson Hotel has opened. Such a big-ass building seems sooo out of place in two-storey Morgantown.

Failed to find to the facility picnic last weekend. Which is a shame- I was quite looking forward to it. Apparently, in America, the way the alpha members of the herd show off their alpha-ness is to let betas dunk them in large tanks of water. You sit in a chair and they throw things at some target thing. If they get the bulls-eye, you get dropped into the vat below. To my surprise, I was scheduled to be one the alpha dunk-ees, not one of the beta dunk-ers. Wow! Recognition at last! And the message of this circus? Maybe its "look- I'm so in charge that I permit you to drown me".

So I put on my best second-best outfit, bought a mess of party food, and drove off to find the picnic at some place called Happy Valley. Several drive-bys of happiness later I realized that (a) the picnic was at NONE of the pretty parks I was passing and that (b) I was hungry. So I picked one little park and sat on a wooded hill by myself and ate my bag of party food.

Missing that party was kind of a metaphor for life right now. Helen hasn't even been gone a month and I am having bad wife withdrawals. Feeling very much a man apart. Crowds aren't good for me right now. The nights are best- the other folks have gone away and I can live happily alone.

Actually, I found the site of the party about two days later. Its a drop-dead gorgeous spot by the Fairmont river. I sat there, silent and awed, for a while. Trees bigger than houses gracing the river banks. Swans tracing graceful "V-s" against the current of a powerful river. I haven't been so moved by a location in a long time- and this is just 6 minutes out of my normal path to work.

Of course, this is West Virginia so no one goes there unless they are in a jet ski. Go figure. Also, the water is not real safe to swim in (too many strange chemicals about) and, get this, this huge great hunk of beauty is a private park. That shocked me. Every little city council in Australia runs some little pretty park. West Virginia does none of that. Beauty is a resource to be hoarded and ignored or mined.

Teaching: Teaching is going well. Got 44 people in the data mining class and had to fight off several more. I don't know what it is like for them but I'm having a blast. Got WEKA tamed as a command-line thing and I'm getting the students writing bash and gawk scripts to compare different learners.

Hacking: Speaking of learning, Kareem has a mountain of data on IQ. It looks promising- its at least as good as other learners (in accuracy) and it can do treatment learning as well.

I've turned some corner with gawk. Find it a clear language to work in. Been working on a gawk Bayesian classifier. Wondering if I can turn that into a treatment learner? Also, been reading about Python a lot. Its a nice language. Sigh. So little time, so much to code.

Movies: 12 Monkeys (4/5) Bruce Willis with sad, sad eyes. Lions walking the parapets of tall buildings and roaring a challenge to the streets below.

The Fifth Element (4/5) Worth watching the whole thing but Chris Tucker's entrance as the media-hyper-mega-star Rudy Red is simply breathtaking.

Daredevil (3.5/5) flawed but scored high marks for Jennifer garner flexing muscles in leather. Loved Ben Afleck bouncing over the buildings. Also, Colin Farrel was most wonderfully Irish badman.

Angel Eyes (5/5) A great film that really appeals to my history. J'Lo kicks ass as a kick ass workaholic cop struggling with her family problems and her new enigmatic boyfriend.

The Truman Show (5/5) Peter Weir can do the impossible. He can take comic actors (Robyn Williams, Harrison Ford, Jim Carey) and cast them in the darkest, most thoughtful, most arts-ey roles. And they shine. Remember Robyn Williams telling them all to seize the day? Harrison Ford dancing in the loft with Amish babe? Jim Carey bashing the clouds as he struggles to escape from his prison? Great, great stuff.

Practical Magic (3/5) Strong script, well acted in parts, but overall it didn't quite work for me. Oh well. You take what you can get. And what we get is Nicole Kidman being great as a great mad witch (perfect casting- was she ever this evil before? yes- in "To Die For"). Sandra Bullock seems like her usual quirky perky girl, but there's a nice twist. In this film she is the world's most reluctant witch who clumsily hides her powers while desperately trying to fit in with a conservative country town. But no one is fooled. At one point, she urgently needs a coven to unhex Nicole. So she calls round all the other grade school Mums to convince them that (a) she really is a witch (which they already knew) and (b) they should grab a broom and come round. Its a lovely moment. For most of the film, these women spent their time fearing witches and magic and Sandra and Nicole. Now they drop everything, grab their brooms, and rush round to Sandra's place so they can finally practice "the little witch in every woman". Now that's good writing.

August 17, 2003

August 31, 2003 August 17, 2003 Aug 14, 2003 Aug 9, 2003 Aug 6, 2003 Aug 2, 2003

Check out what a month this has been. Helen left for Portland and I won't be seeing her for far too long. And if that wasn't enough, in the last 17 days, I've had to move to a new place; clean up the old place; organize my green card papers; do the SAS; write grants for ECS; and organize my teaching for the new term. With all the moving, I lost Internet at home so I wrote project1 in the Blue Moose (where they have wireless Internet). I hope it make sense to the poor students.

And the August fun-fest continues. Come Monday, I get my vaccinations for the green card. It might make me run a temperature for a day or two. Seems to be an American, I need to first enter a trance-like fever for a few days (maybe to simulate the American high school system?).

Its been so hot. The sort of heat that would make Helen collapse complaining into a chair with her cry of "HOT!" (the temperature broils her brain and all she can manage is monosyllables). Then she'd do this explosive "PHETT!" thing with her lips- just to blow some air round her face.

Hmmm... obsessing on little details of life with Helen? Acutely aware that I won't we seeing her for months and months and months? I think so.

Spent the weekend on the move to the new place which is right on the edge of town. Here's how out-of-the-mainstream this place is- West Virginia National Public Radio broadcasts from a little shack down the road.

All in all, the move went very smooth. Helen did all the ringing round sorting out the utilities for which I am very grateful. One little hiccup- Friday the water board came round to read the meter and next Monday the cleaning service is coming to blitz the house. Apart an hour after I saw the water man leave with the water meter in his hand, it filters through to my feeble mind that there is no water in the house. Which means no water for cleaning Monday. Doh! Rang up the water board and had them put it all back. Sigh.

Interesting week on the grant front:

• The grant with Jim Kipers and Martin got into round2 of ECS: they'll be funding 19 of the 44 proposals that got into this round. I like dem odds! Time to put an effort into the round two proposal.
• Got an email yesterday from someone who runs a computational intelligence lab at PSU. They want to talk about something to do with a current proposal they are writing. Not sure that that is about but it could a good contact.

Been really enjoying this photography stuff. How can I possibly make money out of this hobby? Darn Internet- there's already too many amateur porn sites.

Also been enjoying Bill Bryrson's "Travels in a Sunburnt Country" in the car. I so envy his light yet learned writing style (by now it must be the most emulated style on the planet).

Television: none, till cable is connected at the new place. None! Cold turkey. No West Wing at midnight, no Stargate Mondays, photon withdrawal

Movies: 12 angry men (5/5) Henry Fonda's sincerity talks round a jury from 11 to 1 (for guilty) to 12 to 0 (for acquital). Takes place in semi-real-time. Never thought one little jury room could offer so many camera angles.

Spy Kids- 3D (3/5) good use of graphics, nice to see a final chapter to it all. They couldn't use the girl much (too much maturity in the chest) so most of the action was with the younger boy. But if I hadn't seen the other "Spy Kid" movies, this one would not have done much for me.

Match maker (3/5) The guy who did "SpotsWood" doing a quirky Irish comedy. Didn't work. Too American.

Moonstruck (5/5) Awww... so sweet. Fiesty New York Italians sorting out their love life. Cher looking vulnerable, needy, empowered,,.. oh yeah: and drop-dead gorgeous.

Aug 14, 2003

August 31, 2003 August 17, 2003 Aug 14, 2003 Aug 9, 2003 Aug 6, 2003 Aug 2, 2003

Record heat across the northern hemisphere. Power black outs across North Eastern America from New York to Detroit to Toronto.

Last day of cable for a while. I'm moving and the cable company screwed up the appointment date for reconnection. How will I live for a week without 100 channels of Spanish programming?

Living by myself. Glad I'm so busy- moving, doing green card stuff.

Speaking of which- good news on the immigration front. Three months after the package goes in, I get an employment card and permission to travel overseas.

Actually had a day on research- first time in ages. Trying to squeeze all by ideas on treatment learning into one package. Hard work.

Television: West Wing (5/5): Great. I'd forgotten how good good writing can be.

Queer Eye for the Straight Guy (5/5): Gays are "in" this year. And they are sharp and funny.

Aug 9, 2003

August 31, 2003 August 17, 2003 Aug 14, 2003 Aug 9, 2003 Aug 6, 2003 Aug 2, 2003

Day spent packing up. All day, dust and boxes.

I feel that there is only so much order my disorganized self can organize per day. And all the sorting and packing blows my quota. One more decision of "that box or this box" and I will scream.

Fortunately, excellent distraction offered this pm. Ken called me down to Fairmont and we tried to launch his 1-in-24 scale model of the Wright brother's flier.

Afterwards, dinner with Bojan at Back Bay. Much good fish food.

Aug 6, 2003

August 31, 2003 August 17, 2003 Aug 14, 2003 Aug 9, 2003 Aug 6, 2003 Aug 2, 2003

Helen/Joe roadtrip: Helen and Lucie and Joe are en route to Portland. They hit a deer just outside of Utah. 1:30 in the morning, 72 miles per an hour. One less Bambi in the world.

A highway patrol guy was on the scene in minutes and as the cop was dragging the dead deer off the road, a semi came over the hill and turned that deer into jam.

Good thing they were driving the jeep. The front is a little bent (one smashed radiator) but in a smaller car the deer would have come over the bonnet and taken out the wind screen.

Helen was all excited over the phone. Giggling and kind of high. Like she was calling from some party and hitting that deer was the BEST THING to happen to all her all year. And to think, only a year ago, she was a vegetarian.

All up, the crashed caused $4645.00 in damages, and the car was left sitting lonely in a repair shop in Logan, UT. However, there's always a silver lining. Helen got a rental car for three weeks; it's a GMC Yukon and super-plushy. She wishes she could keep it; as Jeannette says, it's like driving a recliner to work. Mmmmm... recliner.

New glasses today: Composite lens. Peering around to find something in focus. Currently a pain in the arse.

Quiet house: Helen and Lucie gone. Quiet house. Quiet quiet quiet.

Aug 2, 2003

August 31, 2003 August 17, 2003 Aug 14, 2003 Aug 9, 2003 Aug 6, 2003 Aug 2, 2003

So tired after SAS. Three days of early starts, late returns, talking 1000mph in between.

And, at the end of SAS, a 9 hour session to select projects for next year. Three layers of proposal cull: 88 down to a:32; down to b:20 down to c:10. I lasted through culls "a&b" but I could not last through "c". Came home late Friday night to pass out next to my wife- whom I have barely seen all week. And this is the woman who is moving away for five months.

Movies: Hackers(3/5) Scores so high only because I saw saw Angelia Jolie's pubescent nipples. Speaking as a great fan of Lara Croft's nipples, I have decided she had a boob job for later life.

Stargate(4/5) : not the movie, but the tv series. wonderful under-stated. Builds nicely.