Overheard the other day....

What's the difference between knowledge and wisdom?

Knowledge is knowing that tomatoes are fruit. Wisdom is not putting them in fruit salad.

Really Foreign Languages

There are lots of languages people speak in the world. But there are also a lot of artificial ones and constructed ones as well. This article is a book review but touches on a few...(here).

Esperanto is a constructed language that continues...

Then of course there is Klingon, in case you need to communicate during your inter-galactic travels.

Newer Zealand

Inspired by both neighbors, curiosity, and the forward looking Virgin airlines, I found the Flight of the Conchords, a show that only New Zealanders could make. The dry delivery coupled with extraordinarily ordinary situations makes it a laugh riot.

Each episode has two or three songs that serve as a vehicle for moving the plot forward (or are extended comments on the absurdity of the situation) and are a summary of various styles of music. This is one of my favorites, the French Foo Doo Fa Fa.

The Middle Kingdom

I was fortunate enough to go to China for the past few weeks (hence no recent posts). Beijing, Xi'an, Shanghai, and some points in between. Far from being an easy confirmation of my expectations, I am still working on a summary that captures the contradictions. It's big and friendly, dirty and orderly, exasperating and rewarding, rich and poor, etc....

But that barely scratches the surface. Eating skewers in dingy alleyways ("hutongs"), sleeping on open carriage night trains with 75 Chinese, The Great Wall, drastic and unavoidable differences between urban and rural existence, the tallest building one can walk on, daredevil Chinese driving, train ticket lines, ....

As I took 1,350 pictures, I'll be whittling them down to a manageable 250 or so and adding a link here but for now:

Strange in a strange way

Yeah, I know. It's weird....

Quite Amazing Actually

I may have mentioned that I started painting in order to make my flat a bit more liveable. I ended up having an art exhibition.

Well, it started. You can view the pictures here. I'll link to the other artist's painting when I get it.

Note: I know that they aren't 'high art' but I had a lot of fun doing them.

Rock, Inc.

Got the very fortunate chance to see The Vessels again last night in London. Yes, they rock and are a great group of guys to know. Talented, open hearted, and funny.

They are on tour and you should take the chance if you get it to go see them (or better yet, as the saying goes, make your own luck and go).

A sample of their complex style is here.

By the way, London was in rare sunny form yesterday.

Language

I am often asked how I was able to get around several East European countries for several years without speaking each of the languages. That is a good question.

Much of what is communicated when speaking is actually visual. Facial expressions, hand gestures, body language do a great deal in expressing what is being said. As such, I got pretty good at anticipating questions, punchlines, and offers (inter alia). That isn't to say that I didn't pick up some of each language (or completely fail to understand) but overall, I was able to rely on my increasingly honed skill of 'watching to hear'.

Although I must confess, in Bulgaria, this was sometimes a bit trickier.

For an example of this, below is a "French" language discussion of a flying machine (yes, it's a flying sheep). I'm sure you can figure exactly what is being said without understanding a word. Enjoy.

Just funny

Look at it and laugh and then think about it some more. Still funny.

And to everyone that I forced this on, I'm sorry.

In like a lion

Defying belief, the past week has been, well, pleasant. We've had sunny skies and warm (sit outside during the day) temperatures. What is most striking is the less-than-subtle change in people's attitudes and dispositions. It's like living on a different rock.

This of course prompted me to scrub the grill clean. The accumulation on the grill itself was impressive given that we didn't clean it before not using it for the past 7 months. But, it sparkles now and lies in wait for a sunny afternoon (when my friends aren't working, otherwise, I'd have a BBQ every day!).

PS - St. Patrick's Day is not real big around here.

This Rocks!

Conspiratorial stones, plotting against the king....



At the end of February, there was a confluence of birthdays. To celebrate, I organized a field trip. In the Oxfordshire and Wiltshire counties, there are dozens of stone circles, barrows (long graves), and man made hills (yes, they really look different). AND they are several thousand years old (seriously, like '5000 years old' old). Far beyond mere Stonehenge, there are many accessible and roughly intact stone circle, many of them linked in a way that they were only discovered with aerial photography.

A group of 8 intrepid explorers were rounded up (of 5 nationalities: Hungarian, New Zealand, American, Italian, and English - the last to interpret and speak with the locals) and we found not only the above mentioned types of sights but also the 'famous' Bourton-on-the-Water model village (1/9 scale village). And as one of the Kiwis pointed out, the scale of the village had a scaled scale version of it (1/9 scale, 1/81 scale, ....ad infinitum...). Neato!



Avebury, where the stone circle goes around the entire village. You can walk around and touch the stones. Most of them, as you can see by comparison with the people in the picture, are quite large.


We also saw White Horses carved into the sides of mountains:

Are you experienced?

Graduate school is not simply 'more college' (not that I can make anyone understand this). And there are few smarter ways to explain this than through comedy.

An example:

Please note that this comes from: http://www.phdcomics.com/. I borrow this only because I like it and do not take authorship!

The Meaning of Life

At the conclusion of Monty Python's Meaning of Life:

Graham Chapman (dressed as a woman): "Well, that's the end of the film. Now, here's the meaning of life [opening an envelope]...Well, it's nothing very special. Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and again, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.

Nice.

26 February 2009

38.

whaddayagonnado?

As my dad says, having a birthday beats the alternative.

Not normal

Well, i don't normally do this but when you witness the confluence of science and great music, it's hard to pass up.

It is my impression that scientists, and more broadly academics, are actually secret rockers and like to have a good time. AND they appreciate thoughtfulness and the effort to do a good job at whatever you do.

Thus, we have the merging of views from the Hubble telescope and the music of Tool, with some neato math thrown in for good measure. For those of you unfamiliar with either/both: The Hubble telescope is essentially the most far seeing visual instrument known to man. It has been headed 'outward' (from our perspective) into space, taking photographs of stuff even farther away, and sending them back. Tool's music is '...a Mulligan stew of progressive rock, Bulgarian folk metal, rock ’n’ roll, ’80s disco and Christian rap that we like to call Munge,' (as the lead singer - somewhat facetiously - describes them). Be careful, they have a lot of energy.

Here is the video (it's about 10 minutes long).

Fog

Woke up to a foggy morning after a delightful evening in Barton Stacey. We stayed in the Swan Inn. Given room number 1, we realized that we were staying on The Street thus giving us the generic address, if only for one night, of '1 The Street'. I tried to check in as 'John Smith' to complete the exercise but identification was required.

Fog, by the way, is the meteorological conflict of warm and cold weather. I take it as the harbinger of spring finding its way back to the isle on which I live.

Sending off the Slovaks

Among the many people that I get to meet, I find that I either attract or am inexplicably drawn to East Europeans. Sunday night was the last night in the UK for some Slovak friends. Characters both, off to seek fortune and fame.

To Cyril and Metod, thanks guys!

Ode to snowmen

One of the funny things about it snowing for the last week was the proliferation of snowmen in various shapes and forms. The University Gardens literally took on a gruesome post-battle look late in the week as a myriad of snowmen, in various stages of completion/disintegration, dotted the open fields.

More snow fun from the brilliant Calvin & Hobbes

More, more snow

Oxford got today what London got yesterday. Late last night, the snow began to fall. I awoke to silence that was the absence of the morning trains whizzing past my window (it's really not that close but you do get used to hearing them and notice the lack of, well, whiz).

Didn't work (well, got some things done) but instead spent the morning and early afternoon on a long walk through the Port Meadows and Christchurch Meadows with my neighbors.

Quite lovely actually.

The walk.

And the neighbors.

What work looks like....

The "home office" is essentially not the sleeping area. And I have updated (and greatly improved) my seating arrangement.

He done moved again!

He done moved again! Go, Grande, go!!

More snow

Growing up in a southern US state, any snow, any chance of snow, and the city would seize. A mere prediction of snow would send families to the local grocery market to buy a month's supply of milk and white bread. Schools would sometimes 'make the call' on the night before, even if there was no snow at that point!

Of course, as a kid, staying up to peek out the window to look for the first flakes from the frozen sky was excitement rivaling Christmas morn.

As I got older, it was entertaining, in fact, it still IS entertaining, to watch cars slip and slide all over the crested roads (and let's be honest, tiny 'hills') of our neighborhood. You'd think that people might have figured out that snow and 'flooring it' don't mix, but that's between you and me.

Me? I like driving on snow. I like to 'power steer' and even tug gently the parking brake every now and again. But, I don't have a car so it's back to watching the British accrue slightly higher insurance premiums.

London 4 February 2009:

They're back!

The Vessels have decided that they prefer to rock. And after what can only have been a long period of struggle, they have produced an awesome album that can be found here.

Be sure to visit the website and rock out with the cool videos!

2 February 2009

After two days of bitter wind and clear skies, Oxford woke up to snow on the ground and more falling from the sky. This is a nice change from January's sharp chill but soggy skies. while the morning snow resembled weak tea, the late morning snow looks more like the healthy, cotton balls of high mountains.

It doesn't however bode well for the next few weeks. As a more famous meteorologist might suggest, we are likely to have six more weeks of winter.

Yes, I am referring to today as Groundhog Day. There is the story of Groundhog Day and the film. Both famous but for different reasons.

For the former, if a groundhog comes out of its burrow and sees its shadow, we have six more weeks of winter. Determining whether or not this occurs is an obvious matter for debate but a fun, annual event.

Except if you are Bill Murray. In the film version, he gets stuck in a time loop that makes everyday Groundhog day, over and over and over.... After testing whether in fact he could 'get away with some mild tomfoolery', he resigns himself only to discover that he is immortal (or at least unable to end the cycle by killing himself). After all this, and finally [and this is the message of the film] he settles on self-improvement and eventually finds a way to move forward.

There is an Italian remake, È già ieri, which takes place on the Canary Islands archipelago on August 13 (vs. 2 Feb). And, instead of groundhogs, it is storks.

Painting, Part II

Well, in a state one evening, I produced a painting that was the child of a late night, frustration, and only two colors. Turns out that it was a lot of fun and not too terribly bad.

Of all the hobbies that I have tried (and I've tried a few), painting is near the top on feeling rewarded for your effort. I would suggest that guitar playing takes the cake but painting - especially untrained, abstract, one-shot painting like mine -is a close second.

Second, and I am not sure why, but this photo of this painting attempt also looks like an optical illusion like....