This evening I attended a reception at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in association with the International Moonbase Conference. Impressive collection, which included SpaceShipOne. I also saw an I-Max film, Magnificent Desolation, in 3D no less, which was quite inspiring. It gave credence to the expression “if they can put a man on the moon…”
The marketing campaign for the new season of Curb Your Enthusiasm is brilliant: Deep inside, you know you’re him. For me, maybe not that deep. I just had a Larry David moment yesterday, though it’s not worth the typing effort to explain it.
In other extremely inane news, I’m pretty sure that on my computer keyboard at work, the “S” on the s-key is upside-down. So I removed the key, and tried puttng it on the other way, but it wouldn’t fit. So, yes, you guessed it, I went to the store and bought a new keyboard. Nah, I’m too cheap for that. OK, actually, I just snuck over to someone else’s cube and switched the keys. Just kidding. Not a bad idea, though, which scares me, because I was just conjecturing on what someone like, say, Adrian Monk would do.
Since my last post, I defended my PhD, left Boulder, Colorado, drove to Maryland via St. Louis and Wheeling WV, and began a ten-week fellowship at the National Adademy of Sciences. Currently I’m helping out with what’s known as the “Prospering study”.
The program has an extensive orientation on policy-making and how the NAS works. One presenter was talking about the peer-review process each Academy study goes through. Apparently a reviewer can disagree with the report’s conclusions, but still accept that it makes a convincing argument. Huh? I asked how that could be: If the argument was truly convincing, how could the reviewer disagree with it? Wouldn’t he be convinced?
I understand that people do not always completely articulate their reasons for holding a point of view, and hence could find an argument convincing, but still hold our because of unresolved and/or unarticulated conflicts. Often our intuition about these, or mine at least, is quite useful, and can be articlulated with some work. Certainly it’s worth the time to do this with a National Academies Report. If anything, perhaps the reviewer can agree with a narrower version of the “convincing” conclusions.
I was at Target last night looking at the iPods, and three college-age guys are looking for ping-pong balls. “They’re seasonal,” the Target employee says, while agreeing that it did not make any sense. The guys walk off, wondering where they can find the objects of their desire at nearly 10 PM on a Saturday night. Other stores are announcing closing hours as they deliberate. “Walmart?” I hear one of them say. I shiver at the thought. And since the Boulder city government wants to protect its citizens from evil (and favor the small business lobby), the nearest Walmart is twenty minutes away.
They walk off, and I realize that I might have one in my car. I tell them I might have one, as paddles have been in my car for years. They follow me to my car as they tell me about an informal tournament they’re having the next day. They need to practice. They watch the drama unfold as I rummage through a baseball helmet, softball bat, Pictionary (need to part with that), plastic practice baseballs (with holes, but not Wiffle), and finally, two ping pong paddles. The ball could not be far. Ah hah! I hold it in the lights of the Target parking lot like a precious orb and give it to them.
One guy offers to give me a dollar for it, and without any thought decline. It would not seem right. Perhaps I was paid enough, silly as this sounds, knowing that the ball is put to good use. And perhaps the thought of these guys playing ping pong on a Saturday night instead of being loud and drunk vandals who enjoy music with heavy bass. (Boulder – it’s a college town.)
I was at a bank the other day to deposit a check, and there were signs indicating that if the teller does not mention their deal on mortgage rates, the customer gets $5. Having just locked my bike outside at what I’d say are the second most poorly designed bike racks (another story entirely), I wondered I could get the teller talking about bike racks while she made the transaction. Apparently it worked, in a Larry David moment* for me, as the transaction is clearly over and I’m standing there thinking that “(a) I have places to me, and (b) I cannot in my right mind get $5 out of this, this is such a stupid policy.” So I mention that she did not mention the deal. “Um, I didn’t take you to be a home owner.” Me: “Oh, so now you’re stereotyping me.” Her: “Have a nice day.” Yeah, I can be a real pain in the ass, and should smile more.
* This does resemble a Seinfeld episode.
Last night I joined my friend Duff and his friends for karaoke at the Outback Saloon in North Boulder. I’ve been in Boulder for six years, and it’s the first time I’ve done karoke here. (Not including a foiled attempt a few years ago.) The karaoke DJ was great: enthusiastic, affable, participated in songs when needed, and has props (inflatable guitar!). I submitted my usual, a Talking Heads song, but then did “Dancing With Myself” by Billy Idol. Could use some work. Then I joined another guy for the theme to Gilligan’s Island, my request. That was a good one, but for some reason I seemed to be the only one who knew the second verse (at least well enough to get the cadence, the key to karaoke!). People were quite impressed.
Had I posted this a few weeks ago, I might have used the word thesis, but Tyr informed me that dissertation refers specifically to a PhD. Anyway, an academic journal has accepted for publication what will become chapter 3 (of 6) of my dissertation, “not counting the mezzanine,” err, introduction.
For the final chapter I need to compile some Fortran code. Fortran 77, actually, which reminds me of Talking Heads 77 in nomeclature. Anyway, I don’t have a clue about this language, so I went poking around the Electrical and Computer Engineering department (“my” department), asked a the computer systems manager if he knew anyone. He did not, but a professor working in the room at the time chimed in and said he knew Fortran, and helped me in the way I needed. I knew there was something I was not getting, but did not know what, and he cleared that up within 30 seconds. So that is great.
He also prefers being addressed as “Professor,” which is a first for me in all my years as an undergraduate and a graduate. I said that was refreshing, but could not quite articulate why beyong it’s being similar to dressing up to go to work. It has to do with rank and respect for achievement and wisdom. And clearly in that situation, as this professor had knowledge of a computer program that is becoming increasingly scarce. Still, I’m not completely comfortable with it, but there’s something to it.
I was biking home from work the other day, and a two kids, 6 and 9 years old, I’d guess, were riding toward me on “my side” of the street. Amused, I go the the left side, and suddenly they turn around on their tiny bikes, and say “Let’s race.” So we did, until I turned off to my driveway. Perhaps they were inspired by the Tour de France. In any case, it was nice; especially because my street has many immigrants from Mexico, and I suppose there are some cultural/language barriers, among the adults, at least.
How about this article about how the 9/11 hijackers passed through airport “security.”
Al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi had been known to be associated with al-Qaida since early 1999 by the National Security Agency, and were put on a terrorism watch list on Aug. 24, 2001.
Hmm, if I ran an airline, I might want to know something about my customers, and perhaps not sell tickets to such people? Might that even be something to advertise, along with, of course, pilots and crew who are trained to respond to terrorists with appropriate self-defense skills and tools.
I just Googled the above. Woah. I was not prepared for the first link that came up. Still, it’s not as good as Googling “amature,” or if you can hangle it, “amatur”. Yikes! For the contrast, Google “amateur.” I’m staying away from Google images on this one.
The photos from the first private manned space flight are inspiring. Also, moviemistakes.com is a pretty neat site, despite the ads. Now on to my story, which could be an an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm:
Since my softball game was rained out, I joined some friends at an Indian restaurant last night, where I saw a young woman wearing a white baseball/cycling-style hat. At first I thought she was on one of the teams in my campus league, but then figured she was not. Still, I was not sure, so I approach her table and ask if she plays softball. She replies my explaining that, no, she’s not on a team, and that she was not expecting to go out to dinner, that is, that she was under-dressed. I commented on her hooded sweatshirt, joked that “not everyone in the restaurant was talking about it,” and continued on my way to the restroom. A minute later, while washing my hands, I it struck me. Doh! The woman probably thought I was teasing her about playing softball, and that my purpose was to point out her being under-dressed, and not that I was sincerely asking if she played softball. Still, I considered clarifying that on my way back to my table, but it just seemed too odd. Sometimes you just can’t win. 
