2004: may
| may
| apr
| mar
| feb
| jan
2003: dec
| nov
| oct
| sept
| aug
| jul
| jun
| may
| apr
| mar
2003: wv2wa
| halloween
| pittsburgh
| austin
| ecs03
| sas03
| sanfran
| seke03
| garageSale
| helenGraduates
| drive3000
| icse03
2001: jan
2000: dec | oct
1997: aug
4004 bc: oct
|
Feb 29, 2004 |
Happy leap year! Not! Awesome bout of depression for the last two
weeks as certain hard realities hit home:
- Unemployment rates of
EE and CS are at
an all time high.
- NASA software research funds (i.e. mine) may all get swallowed
up by Bush's push to Mars or, worse yet, be hit by a massive NASA budget cut
(Bush snr. announced a big NASA program prior to big budget cuts at
exactly this time before his second election. And Bush jnr. has a nasty habit of
following in daddy's footsteps).
- Academic jobs are getting really scarce. I'm chasing jobs at various places
and I'm being told they they are seeing hundreds of applicants per job.
This years is one Phd-generation after the height of the dot-com boom. And all
those boomers are now out in the market. One place
got 550 applicants for a position I applied to- my application
disappeared into quantum dust.
Things look good for 2008 but a boy could get mighty thin by then.
Time for a new career! Or a trip to
the beach. Here's me looking bleakly at my new reduced place in life,
Manzanita Beach, Northern Oregon.
Same beach, different person, different
reaction.
Welcome to the new world. Helen full of joie de vivre and Tim
locked in the glums.
Manzanita is a place of big ocean, big views.
A moody broody space with mists combining
from land
and sea.
This is a cup half-full, half-empty kind of place. And both halves are raining
down on the beach.
Landscape with one thousand shades of silver gray.
Peppered with huge hunks of driftwood.
Sculpted by wind and salt and sand.
Even the seals are sad here.
The octopus had no comment.
Neither did the jelly fish.
Further north, then east. The town of Rainier. Very crappy.
What to do? Fuck it.
Back to Vancouver for a party.
Here's us with David at Michelle's 19th 21st birthday. Many
small children and dancing. Left when they started playing ACDC.
Spoke
much to a welsh-American man (who was nice++ but darn if I can remember his name)
and we decided that the problem with
Americans is that they don't hate very well. The French and English,
have had centuries of productive hatred. Generations of conflict that ensure
every Franco/Anglo can go somewhere exotic and alien any weekend they want.
Teaches them tolerance with a smile. The Americans live too far away
from their enemies. So they are too quick to respond to distant threats
they don't understand with deadly enthusiasm (MAD redundancy for all!).
|
|
Feb 21,2004 |
So much time, so little blogs. Been maniacally focused on the
data mining subject's
web site. Gosh darn there is a book in me BURSTING
to get out.
Been working too hard and not sleeping (Claratin-D: just say no).
Finally got to the IEEE TSE draft on TAR3/LURCH
and that was like shitting glass. Now its time for an NSF grant. More
glass.
The good news is that I finally (almost) understand the
Drunzdel argument- most reachable states are reached very rarely and
most reached states are reached very often. Falls out from the central
limit theorem and some simple algebra. Explains the success of
LURCH/TAR3 brilliantly.
Spent Saturday driving out on "Historic Highway 14" up the Columbia gorge. It starts through
farm land and then rises up to the Portland Women's Forum pull out. A monument to
a time when women called themselves by their husband's names.
From here we saw
Vista point- a wind-blown a spot as you'll ever find. We tried walking round there but the
gale coming up the gorge was just a little too brisk (read "'uckin' cold!").
Further on, a waterfall.
Oh, another waterfall.
About so high.
Not as big
as the next one.. We think the elves
built Multnomah Falls for the Lord of the Rings.
A 540 foot drop down to a boiling pool of roaring
foam.
After the gorge, back to Portland where the concrete and girders
grow like vines.
Went down to Portland's Pearl district
for some lunch. Wondered round like losers unable to find any of Portland's
1,000,000 inner city cafes.
Instead, we found many little galleries and young arty types with flamboyant
hair colors
and little arty shops full of many shiny things. But no carrot cake.
Finally, found a cool Vietnamese place- and their kitchen
was closing! We rushed ordering and sat round reminding ourselves that Portland Oregon
is still an alien land to us folks from way up north in Vancouver.
After dining, made the obligatory pilgrimage to
Powell's
world
of
books.
Powell's has heaven in paperback,
nirvana on every shelf and
librarian action figures (with built-in SUSSH!-ing action).
Outside, the most wonderful sculpture. If you push the testicle-like thing at the bottom,
the whiskers-like thing at the top quivers and oscillates for a while.
Helen protests at my description- in her view,
this looks nothing like testicles.
Well. I think I have a little expertise in that department.
But I can't stop to argue- those whiskers want some more
quivering.
|
|
Feb 7,2004 |
Intelligent life discovered in Portland.
Here's Greg and Suzanne and,er,
young mammalian whose name was told to use but since no one gave us a web page we
can't bookmark it so how can we be expected to remember a thing like that?
Spring is thinking about springing.
Mt. Hood is coming out of hibernation.
As is Saint Helen.
And certain native animals.
Clear skies in the Pacific North West? Suspicious.
Some pretty light at sunset
Rainbows during the day.
Spring is doing strange things to the wildlife.
Helen is cooking (shock). And, darn it, is doing MUCH better than me. Now I live in fear
of dinner. Helen produces wonderful subtle Indian combos and all I have in reply
are my meat-axe
stir fries. Time for a new cook book!
We went for a walk around Helen's campus. Here's a bell
dedicated to extinct species.
Never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.
Some cool sculpture on-campus.
At WSU, art=rocks+bottle caps.
Meanwhile, at home, much boasting about where we have traveled.
Strangely, this boasting did not move her highness, Queen Lucy.