Kendall Giles

Here are four books on writing I just finished reading that you may find of interest. These books give insight into the nuts and bolts of the writing life, fill in the backstory of how writers craft their ideas, show how to read critically, and discuss why books and writing are important.

How to be a writer in an internet world

This book, Booklife: Strategies and Survival Tips for the 21st Century Writer, by Jeff Vandermeer, is probably the best, single-volume source for how to be a writer today. It contains strategies, tips, plans, advice, guidance, and motivation for almost all phases of life as a writer, from setting up a healthy and productive work schedule to networking to using social media platforms like Facebook to working with editors to dealing with fame and publicity.

Really, this is a useful book.

Reading like a writer

In Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them, Francine Prose walks us through pieces of model stories written by great writers, helping us train our eye for good technique in the elements of writing good fiction, focusing on individual words, sentences, and paragraphs, as well as dialogue, character, and other components important in making a work enduring and memorable.

Listening in as an author writes a story

In Ron Carlson Writes a Story, author Ron Carlson lets us listen in, piece by piece and draft by draft, to his thoughts and motivations as he writes a short story. Kind of like looking over the shoulder of a professional writer at work.

Reflections on the life of a writer

In A Dangerous Profession: A Book About the Writing Life author Frederick Busch presents a collection of essays musing on authors and works he likes as well as insights into the life of a writer based on his own experiences as novelist, critic, and teacher.

A month or so ago I found a little bird in my basement. I wasn't sure how he got in there --- maybe he came in when I had the outside door opened for a couple hours? I am not a biologist, so I don't know what type of bird it was, but if I had to make a guess, I would say some sort of nuthatch? He had brown stripes, and seemed just as happy sitting on the basement floor as he did hanging upside down on the cinder block wall. Very quick movements --- I couldn't see him in flight, but would just see him appear in a new location, much like the X-man Nightcrawler, teleporting from place to place. Oh, there he is. Oh, now he's gone.

Anyway, I felt really bad that this bird was trapped in my basement. So I put out water and food, and opened the door for hours at a time for several days in a row, hoping he would sense the open outside door and fly to freedom. I was in knots, worried the bird would die, trapped in my dark basement.

But after several days of Operation: Rescue the Little Bird, the stubborn bird was still there.

So, finally, in a fit of desperation, I opened the door to the outside and made a big production of stomping and waving my arms, shaking a broom like a Wild Thing, trying to scare the bird out the door. I was willing to be the angry monster, for a short time, if it meant the bird would survive.

But the little bird just looked at me, hopped from clothes line to rafter, then promptly left via the tiny unused dryer vent leading outside.

So then I felt bad that I had scared the bird, who knew what he was doing the whole time.

Weeks went by with no sign of the little bird in my basement, and me with guilt for being the big bully.

So tonight when I went down to do laundry I was happy to see the little bird again, teleporting to and fro in my basement. And this time I didn't stomp around or wave my arms, but quietly walked back upstairs.

Be sure to check out the forthcoming Richmond Noir, an anthology of original noir stories by Dean King, Laura Browder, Howard Owen, Yazmina Beverly, Tom De Haven, X.C. Atkins, Meagan Saunders, Anne Soffee, Clint McCowan, Conrad Persons, Clay Chapman, Pir Rothenberg, David Robbins, Hermine Pinson, and Dennis Danvers.

With a Foreward by Tom Robbins.

Edited by Andrew Blossom, Brian Castleberry, and Tom De Haven.

By the way, rumor has it that the tomb pictured above houses the Richmond vampire...

Happy 4th of July!

And this weekend I picked up a new (used, new to me) 32 KG DragonDoor kettlebell! Helpfully painted a nice cheery red.

Now the hard part will be figuring out how to incorporate Red into my training, such that I don't hurt myself or damage nearby objects.

Sherlock Holmes.

Remember him?

If you will recall, he was quite skilled at thinking his way through problems. But he was also no couch potato --- in fact, he was quite skilled in the martial arts, and these skills aided him in his adventures. In specific, he was skilled at the art called Bartitsu, and this was mentioned in The Adventure of the Empty House.

Developed by Edward William Barton-Wright in England in the late 1800's, Bartitsu is what might be considered to be the first MMA, or mixed martial art, as it combined elements from Western wrestling, jujutsu, British boxing, French savate, Western stick fighting (la canne), and a strong physical culture foundation. Some techniques were published in a self-defence article from 1901 --- "Self-defence with a Walking-stick: The Different Methods of Defending Oneself with a Walking-Stick or Umbrella when Attacked under Unequal Conditions".

Although the art fell out of style, it has lately seen a resurgence of interest. The Bartitsu Society has thoroughly researched the history of the art, publishing two books on its history, and Tony Wolf prepared a short documentary:

Bartitsu is also discussed in the book Absinthe & Flamethrowers: Projects and Ruminations on the Art of Living Dangerously, and fighting techniques from that art are said to be featured in the upcoming Sherlock Holmes movie by Guy Ritchie.

OK --- summer's here and school's out --- time to get serious and get back into shape. My plan of attack is to use the TRX Force Kit, a suspension training system by Fitness Anywhere, and attempt their infamous 12-week training program.

I am assessing this system because I have a crazy travel and work schedule, which prevent me from typical gym usage. The TRX system is light and can be taken with you almost anywhere. I think this system will be a key part of the perfect mobile gym/program I am putting together --- thus the assessment.

What is a suspension system? The basic idea is that you attach a set of cables to any elevated anchor point --- door, tree, fence, bar, etc. --- and use your body weight to effect a large variety of exercises. Moreover, because the exercises do not occur in just one plane of motion, like traditional weight training, you develop core strength through functional training.

Will I make it through all 12 weeks? Or will I crumple into a ball of sweat and agony?

Stay tuned...Day 1 starts today.

Here are two simple questions:

1. who wants to be healthy?
2. who wants to be rich?

Probably most of you raised your hands to both questions.

But considering that the National Center for Health Statistics reports that more than 34% of Americans are obese (and with another 33% overweight), and considering that the average American has about $10,000 in credit card debt, there seems to be a big difference between what people say they want to be (the answer to the above questions) and what they actually are (unhealthy and in debt).

I'll leave getting fit for another post, but at least there's a great resource you can tap if you actually want to be rich --- the unambiguously titled new book I Will Teach You To Be Rich.

The book contains a six-week program to get your finances in order, get you out of debt, and help you be rich. But it is important to note that this is not the typical "buy hot stocks" or "hedge funds are great" or "to be rich you need to be an expert in finance" investment books. Rather, this book contains basic, fundamental, core principles and steps you can actually implement, today, to get out of debt and save lots of money. For example, regarding credit cards, the author includes actual scripts you can use to turn the tables on the credit card companies (like the scripts the telemarketers use on you to get you to buy things) and get them to waive your finance charges, lower your APR, and resolve missed payments. The book also includes examples, solid advice, explanations and reasons, and practical tips for getting out of debt and becoming rich.

This book is best for those people in their 20's and 30's -- those most likely to make naive finance mistakes (like going into credit card debt) and those most able to take advantage of the long-term view to money management. But everyone can learn something from the book, from how to negotiate, how to automate your bills and investments, and how to make investment decisions that won't require you to spend a lot of your own time managing them and won't require you to become a finance expert beforehand.

From the current state of the economy, it is clear that a lot of people do not have a basic understanding of how to manage their money. If they really want to become rich, then they should buy the book and actually do something about it, starting today.

Currently available from Amazon in paperback or kindle editions.

One basic theme of the book Emergency: This Book Will Save Your Life is the simple question: what will you do in an emergency?

For example, consider the reaction of most people --- if they see a car wreck, their response is likely to be "call 911". Or if the power goes out they will likely say "call the power company". Or if they hear someone breaking into their home, they could say "call the police".

But how do you handle an emergency if there is no one else to cry to for help? What if the responsibility for the response falls onto your shoulders?

For example, after Hurricane Katrina, where local, state, and federal agencies where simply not up to the task of dealing with the disaster, "call 911" was not enough.

Or consider man-made disasters --- just this morning the news headlines read that North Korea fired a long-range missile, against international condemnation. What will you do if a war breaks out?

What will you do in a riot, natural disaster, attack by religious extremists, economic collapse, or other event where you must act in order to save your family and yourself?

Author Neil Strauss considers these questions in an entertaining description of how he transformed himself from a typical "city slicker" into someone who knows how to respond to each of the above scenarios. He describes how he learned to protect his assets, how to "disappear" in a crowd, how to defend himself, how to find water if stranded at sea, how to travel unhindered through police/emergency barriers, how to remain "invisible" as an American when traveling abroad, and even how to turn a credit card into a knife.

This book is not a how-to manual for all of the above, but by considering the experiences and questions raised by the author, it may lead you to consider increasing your skills and knowledge so that you can save yourself rather than depend on someone else to come to your rescue, especially in the event that no one else can or will.

From the book:

When the shit hits the fan, you're going to want to find me. And you'll want to be doing whatever I'm doing. Because I've learned from the best.

You can call me crazy if you want.

Or you can listen to the story of the eight years it took to open my eyes, realize my country can't protect me, and do something about it.

It just may save your life.

What will you do in an emergency?

Available from Amazon: Emergency: This Book Will Save Your Life.

UPDATE [25 November 2009]: The Kindle 2 now has support for viewing PDF documents with the 2.3 software update! This update also allows for screen rotation, so you can read your books in portrait mode or landscape mode.

UPDATE: I've posted my review of the Kindle DX ebook reader, here. You might say it's the new Kendall book reader, since my wife swiped my Kindle 2 (review below of the Kindle 2).

So I just received the new Kindle 2 book reader, available from Amazon, and reading has never been as much fun --- especially with the recent price drop!

The design and build quality of the new kindle book reader (now called the kendall book reader by my wife) is much improved over the original kindle. The next-page buttons are better-placed, the case is sturdier, it holds a lot more books (about 1500), and the 5-way direction stick allows for easier navigation and selection.

Buying any of the over 240,000 available books (with more being added daily) is very easy, as is subscribing to magazines, newspapers, and blogs. Reading text with the e-ink display and turn-page buttons makes the device "disappear" --- you aren't constantly reminded that you are using an electronic device to read a book, as perhaps with other book readers or devices (like your cell phone ?!).

Battery life is great, since the e-ink displays do not drain the battery to refresh the screen --- only on the turn of the page (which may confuse some flight attendants).

The cellular, free connectivity is very handy, especially since I am often on travel and without an Internet connection --- you can download new books, surf, and access your content even if you are not near a wifi network using Amazon's Whispernet service. Again, for free. This means you can access Amazon and even the WWW via the built-in web browser without having to be tethered to your computer or be near a wifi access point. (Note that some websites are creating mobile versions --- webpages that look good when rendered on a small mobile device screen.)

In addition to reading commercial content, you can view your own documents or documents sent to you from other people. Amazon charges a small fee to convert these documents for wireless download to your kindle (which some people gripe about), but I figured out that this conversion service is actually free if you send the converted pdf/document first to your computer, then to your kindle, rather than directly to your kindle over the cellular network from Amazon.

The kindle also plays audio books from Audible.com (review) as well as mp3 files --- you can even have your favorite song playing in the background while you read your book.

The graphics are much improved over the original kindle, as can be seen in the images on this page.

In case you want to travel with your kindle --- which is one of the main benefits of the kindle, since you can carry a truck load of books with you in the palm of your hand --- you may want to purchase a travel case in which to carry your kindle, such as the Belkin Neoprene Sleeve Case, shown below.

I should point out that this device is not an iPhone --- you can't interact with the device by touching the screen, for example, and other user-interface decisions are different from the iPhone experience. But this device provides a reading environment better than any other electronic device. In addition, it provides other advanced features (such as text-to-speech, and taking notes within the book) that are way-beyond the capabilities of other devices.

In all, the Kindle 2 is what it was meant to be --- a great book reader.

Here's my review of the Kindle 2 book reader.

But from the article "10 reasons to buy a Kindle 2 and 10 reasons not to", here's one of the reasons why you might not want to buy a Kindle:

7. Flight attendants will tell you to turn it off on take off and landing. You can't explain that it's epaper and uses no current. You just can't. It's like explaining heaven to bears.

UPDATE [November 25, 2009]: There have been a lot of improvements to the Kindle 2 since this post was written: the Kindle 2 now has support for viewing PDF files, allows for manual screen rotation, and provides for *global* wireless access.

The Kindle 2 shipped on Feb 23, (and now that mine has arrived, here is my review of the kindle book reader), but here is a roundup of a few interesting pre-reviews:

• http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2009/02/amazon-unveils.html

  A little more than a year after the Kindle made its debut, Amazon announced a new, updated version of its popular e-book reader Monday with a big endorsement from Stephen King.

• http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/feb2009/id2009029_980088.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index+-+temp_top+story

  Kindle 2 is more than just a prettier version of its Kindle 1. Though the 10-oz. machine is only one-third of an inch thick--that's 25% thinner than an iPhone--it stores up to 1,500 books vs. 200 in the original. And it offers sharper on-screen images, with 16 shades of gray to offer graphic nuances. Amazon added these based on e-mails from Kindle customers, says Laura Porco, director of Kindle Books. "We're always listening to customers," she says. "We took their feedback to design some things: They said, We want Kindles to hold more books, and we want crisper images."

• http://www.macworld.com/article/138722/2009/02/kindle2_handson.html?lsrc=rss_main

  The Kindle 2 now powers up from USB--a boon for all of us who hated carrying an extra charger with the original device. The mini-USB port at the bottom works not only for power but also for allowing the Kindle 2 to act as a USB mass-storage device, in the event you want to drag and drop files to the handheld.

• http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2340721,00.asp

  So, yes, there are many reasons to dislike the Amazon Kindle 2, but as I see it, the benefits still far outweigh the disadvantages. Trust me, you're going to want a Kindle 2.

• http://ireaderreview.com/2009/02/09/kindle-20-review-should-you-buy-kindle-20/

  WhisperNet and Amazon's great range of book titles (over 230,000 titles including 7,000+ free public domain classics etc.) are still the 31 feature and make the Kindle 2.0 the best eReader available.

It is interesting to hear about Google's mobile book service, just days before Amazon's rumored announcement of a new Kindle:

Today we are excited to announce the launch of a mobile version of Google Book Search, opening up over 1.5 million mobile public domain books in the US (and over half a million outside the US) for you to browse while buying your postage. While these books were already available on Google Book Search, these new mobile editions are optimized to be read on a small screen.

The OCR'd text looks pretty good on my iPod touch.

Our cat had kittens, in a box. Here is a short video of her new babies.

If you like wine, want to learn good ways to tell the differences between all those grape varieties, or maybe even want to know which wines to pair with which foods, then you might want to check out The Wine Guy : Everything You Want to Know about Buying and Enjoying Wine from Someone Who Sells It, by Andy Besch.

Andy, a former television executive, turned his love of wine into a very successful Manhattan wine store called West Side Wine. In The Wine Guy, he condenses his passion, knowledge, and love of wines into a very readable and useful book. You will learn not only about the different grapes, the different wine regions, and how to taste the wines, but you will also gain the confidence and knowledge you need to buy the wines you like, pair wines with foods, and try new wines you might enjoy. In a sense, this book trains you to be your own Wine Guy.

In addition, the book contains handy charts and tables so that you can learn to decipher wine bottle labels, pick wines according to desired flavors, decide which lesser-known wines to try based on your current preferences, pick which wines to try based on which grape, and determine which are the primary grapes of the different geographic wine regions. Amusing stories and insightful tips---from how to buy wine in restaurants to how to calculate the number of bottles of wine you will need for a party---add to the useful tables and wine knowledge, resulting in a very enjoyable book.

Cheers!

The coming holiday season, especially Yule, is a very appropriate time to enjoy The Children of Hurin, by J.R.R. Tolkien---the first complete book by Tolkien since The Silmarillion in 1977.

Tolkien had started the story before 1920 and made several revisions after, but did not finish it before his death in 1973. His son Christopher edited the manuscripts and was able to complete the tale.

The time of the story is from the First Age of Middle-Earth---before that of Frodo, Bilbo, Gandalf, The Hobbit and the The Lord of the Rings. Morgoth, the first Dark Lord, is trying to conquer Middle Earth, but is being resisted by the Elves and, eventually, Men. Hurin is the first Man to defy Morgoth, and for that, Morgoth places a curse upon Hurin and his family. This curse affects Hurin's son, Turin, and his daughter Nienor, and most of the book focuses on the struggles of his children.

This is a much darker tale than Lord of the Rings, and traits and concepts that seem forgotten in today's time, such as honor, luck, valor, loyalty, courage, and duty, play great roles in the story. Even the style of writing harkens back to a time long forgotten, yet is somehow familiar and elemental and right. Thus it is perhaps not a light reading, but one that is nevertheless very satisfying.

Ancient Wisdom for a Modern World

There is much wisdom contained in the sayings and writings of our ancestors. Unfortunately, especially as evidenced by today's many crises, this wisdom has been forgotten.

If you care to learn some of this ancient wisdom, then you might want to see the new application I wrote for the iPhone and iPod touch called Wise Words.

Now the ancient wisdom of the Havamal, from the Poetic Edda, can always be at your fingertips, for quick inspiration and guidance, or for long-term study, meditation, and growth. The Poetic Edda is a collection of Old Norse poems written in the 13th century from oral traditions, and the Havamal gives practical advice about life, love, and living.

Available now on the iPhone App Store.

Quantum of Solace: The Complete James Bond Short Stories is the new collection of James Bond short stories, written by Ian Fleming, and Quantum of Solace is the name of one of the short stories contained therein. This collection is the first time all nine of Ian Fleming's James Bond short stories have appeared in one volume together. Also, their publication coincides with the upcoming new James Bond film, Quantum of Solace, starring Daniel Craig.

Interestingly, the film Quantum of Solace is not based on the short story of the same name. Nevertheless, these short stories offer glimpses into James Bond and the sorts of adventures he undertakes not available from the longer novels. In fact, one of the most compelling stories in the collection, Quantum of Solace, is just a conversation between James Bond and the Governor of the Bahamas---this story alone is worth the purchase price of the collection.

The entire list of short stories is:

"From a View to a Kill" 
"For Your Eyes Only" 
"Quantum of Solace" 
"Risico" 
"The Hildebrand Rarity" 
"Octopussy" 
"The Property of a Lady" 
"The Living Daylights" 
"007 in New York"

Cheers.

One night a raccoon came to our window in Richmond, VA. Note the cat ears at the bottom of the pic and the raccoon hand against the window - it was quite the stare-down - neither party knew what to make of the other.

Live and Let Die is the second James Bond novel by Ian Fleming, and it wasn't until my first trip to New York that I really appreciated and understood some parts of the book.

Here, James must uncover a gold-smuggling ring, sponsored by the Communist SMERSH government agency. The leader of the smuggling ring is Mr. Big, who wields control of his crime network, stretching from Harlem to Jamaica, through fear from the practice of Voodoo.

Bond must travel to Harlem in his investigations, and there has an unfortunate encounter with Mr. Big. Bond also meets the Voodoo fortune teller Solitaire, who catches Bond's eye with her beauty. But a reversal of fortunes for Bond and Solitaire has them cross paths again in a race across the country, ending with underwater operations, and excitement, in Jamaica.

We also meet with CIA operative Felix Leiter again, and we learn how and why Leiter appears with a hook for an arm in later Bond stories.

As with other Bond stories, this one has a tight and fast-paced plot, lots of action, and Ian Fleming's eye for detail and succinct description.

The movie version, with Roger Moore, is worth it just for the Paul McCartney Live and Let Die theme music.

So I've long had "learn to play the guitar" on my list of goals. However, despite several attempts at learning such, life, travel, work, and other higher-priority items have jumped ahead in the queue. I know a couple of chords, and can probably pick my way through some simple tablature, but I can in no way say I know how to play the guitar.

Of course, the ideal way to learn is probably to find a professional instructor and take classes on a regular basis. Alas, the major difficulties of frequent, weekly travel and intense work schedules remain a constant in my life, so the luxury of finding an instructor is out.

And I've tried learning from a book before---that doesn't work, for me, either (or maybe I just haven't found the right book). However, perhaps the perfect storm of software, high-tech, and computer-controlled LED goodness offered by Fretlight is the missing key.

There are a couple of things different about the Fretlight system. First, there's the FG-421 guitar:

While their first models from years ago evidently had some quality issues, their current 400 series are solid and seem very well made. In fact, I bought mine from Ebay and it is just like new.

It looks like a regular electric guitar (they have acoustic models as well). However, here's the same guitar, with the lights dimmed:

As hinted by its name, the fretlight guitar has LEDs embedded in its polymer fretboard, and the lights can be controlled to indicate chord and note finger placements.

But if that were all the Fretlight guitar promised, then this would be not much better than a digital version of the old analog system for learning guitar promoted by Roy Clark, where stickers placed on the fretboard indicated where you put your fingers.

Perhaps it is the second differentiator in the Fretlight guitar that is most significant---the guitar jacks into the computer (in addition to the normal amplifier connection in typical electric guitars), allowing for software control of the LED lights. Interactive software lights the LEDs, steps you through complicated finger patterns on lead and rhythm guitar selections, and converts tablature songs into tempo-controlled patterns so you can learn any song you like. Loops, chord progressions, lessons on music theory, lessons on different music styles, video lessons, comprehensive chord charts, improvisation lessons, song editing, and even a GarageBand plug-in round out their offerings. Downloading new lesson packs and songs is painless, and their website interface seems well done. And, they support Macs!

So we'll see if this method works, or if this is just a Guitar Hero for adults.

Snap-Apple Night, was painted by Irish artist Daniel Maclise in 1833. Supposedly he painted this after attending a Halloween party in Blarney, Ireland, in 1832. The group on the left are playing divination games, the group in the middle are playing "Snap Apple", a game where an apple is dangling from a string and people, with their arms tied behind their back, try to bite the apple. The first person who bites the coin in the apple wins. The group on the right are bobbing for apples. The caption in the first exhibit catalogue:

There Peggy was dancing with Dan
While Maureen the lead was melting,
To prove how their fortunes ran
With the Cards ould Nancy dealt in;
There was Kate, and her sweet-heart Will,
In nuts their true-love burning,
And poor Norah, though smiling still
She'd missed the snap-apple turning.
On the Festival of Hallow Eve.

Halloween is a great tradition, born in Europe and celebrated all across the world. Falling between Autumn Equinox and Winter Solstice, Halloween is significant in many ways, most notably as it marks the change in the seasons from the brightness of Summer and Fall into the darkness of Winter, and as a chance to reflect on our departed ancestors.

Upon that night, when fairies light
On Cassilis Downans dance,
Or owre the lays, in splendid blaze,
On sprightly coursers prance;
Or for Colean the rout is ta'en,
Beneath the moon's pale beams;
There, up the Cove, to stray an' rove,
Amang the rocks and streams
To sport that night;

Amang the bonie winding banks,
Where Doon rins , wimplin , clear;
Where Bruce ance rul'd the martial ranks,
An' shook his Carrick spear;
Some merry, friendly, countra-folks
Together did convene,
To burn their nits , an' pou their stocks ,
An' haud their Halloween
Fu' blythe that night.

Many other countries in Europe celebrate the traditional customs of Halloween under festivals of different names. For example, the Roman Catholic Church moved All Souls Day to the time of Halloween in order to put a Christian spin on a traditional Heathen festival (as the church has also tried to do with Yule/Christmas and Easter). And the traditional Halloween festival is also known as All Saints Day in England, Portugal, Spain, and Mexico. St. Martin's Day, Allerheiligen, and Martinmas are also names associated with the Halloween tradition.

In Scotland they hollow out turnips to use as lanterns, bob for apples, and make Dirge Loaves out of oat flour to keep the souls of the dead safe. In Ireland, there lived a man named "Stingy Jack" who was so mean that we couldn't get into Heaven or Hell, and so was forced to walk the earth for eternity carrying a turnip candle with an ember from Hell inside. Today, we carve Jack O'Lanterns to ward off the ghost of Stingy Jack.

From Italy, here is a recipe for Fave dei Morti, or Ossa dei Morti (bones of the dead), which is a type of cookie made with pine nuts, almonds, spices, flour, and sugar, and baked in commemoration of the dead. This tradition and cookie is thought to have originated from the Roman indigenous religious traditions, and then adopted by the Catholic church.

Even Japan has a festival, called o-bon (pronounced like "oh bone") where the spirits of their ancestors are invited back into the homes - in rural areas they even sweep a path from the gravesites to the home, where the spirits are welcomed with 'welcoming fires'. There are also dances and other festivities, as well as getting together with family.

So while it may not be called "Halloween" in Japan, the spirit of the tradition is very similar. Most countries have strong spiritual traditions that recognize that, during certain times of the year, the "veil" between our world and other worlds, between this life and the afterlife, becomes very thin, allowing for certain, um, transitions, and sometimes disturbances, to occur. During those certain times of the year we are more apt to hear the floor creak unexpectedly, or see something out of the corner of our eye. Or we might even get an unexpected chill when walking outside at night. It could be a departed ancestor trying to reach across the veil to a family member, or it could be something else entirely...

So have a Happy Halloween, eat a candy apple, drink some cider, bob for apples, wear an interesting costume, think of your ancestors, protect yourself from Stingy Jack, and prepare for the coming Winter.

Oh, and don't forget to say "BOO!".

Auric Goldfinger is one of the more memorable villains to cross paths and wits with James Bond. Ian Fleming, in Goldfinger, even makes a game of golf between Goldfinger and Bond a very suspenseful and memorable read.

But there are many more memorable scenes and characters in this James Bond novel, such as the high-stakes card game, the lethal character named Oddjob, tracking Goldfinger on a drive through scenic Europe, and watching James try his hand at being Goldfinger's secretary.

The DVD version of Goldfinger, with Sean Connery, is also considered one of the best movie versions.

But while this story was very entertaining, there were a couple of plot twists in the book that were a little hard to believe (like when James was about to be sawed in half). But what is a James Bond story without a little suspension of belief?

So, from that perspective, the story really is golden.

As noted in The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 27, Thomas Jefferson writes, after touring through the vineyards of France:

There are four crops of them more famous than all the rest. These are Chateau-Margau, Tour de Segur, Haut-brion, and de la Fite. They cost 3 livres bottle, old: But are so engaged before hand that it is impossible to get them.

Jefferson brought back his knowledge and love of wine to America to try to "elevate the tastes" of America by instilling in them a love of fine wine.

Some of these efforts can be seen by visiting Jefferson's main estate, Monticello, near Charlottesville, Virginia:

Larger but very similar to his summer retreat, Poplar Forest, Monticello is where, among other pursuits, Jefferson cultivated and promoted his love of wine---trying to establish the Virginia region as a center of wine-making in the Americas.

Here is a portion of the vineyard at Monticello:

Though the Europeans have had many hundreds if not thousands of years to develop hardy and tasty grape varieties suitable for wine-making, Jefferson had to start mostly from scratch in Virginia. But while initial efforts were frustrated by a harsh climate and ruthless insects, today Virginia boasts some 108 wineries, producing great wines.

If you are in the Virginia area, you may be interested in taking a wine tour through Monticello. The "Jefferson and Wine Tour" gives information on Jefferson and his wine-making efforts, even allowing for some unique access to Monticello not available on the standard Monticello tour package. The tour ends with a wine-tasting, hosted by Barboursville Vineyards---an award-winning Virginia winery located on the grounds of the former estate house designed by Jefferson for Governor James Barbour.

Cheers.

If you like, I've just set up a Twitter account for my blog - you can get updates via Twitter by following kegblog.

I am sure you recognize the interface by now:



Yes, it's Apple's new iPod Touch 2.0, dubbed "the funnest iPod ever" by Steve Jobs.

It has a new outer design - sleeker than the first generation iPod Touch, now with a shiny stainless steel design. There are also volume control buttons on the side - convenient when you want to quickly change the volume of a song without having to activate the interface. It also has a built-in speaker - convenient for when you want to set a wake-up alarm, but not too useful when you want to listen to music or watch a movie in a crowded subway - you'll still want your earphones in that case.

It also has built-in Nike+ sensor software - you just need to add the shoe sensor and you can save your running workouts directly to your iPod Touch. Also, there is longer battery life - up to 36 hours of audio or 6 hours of video, plus the built-in accelerometer, which adds new dimensions to user interface possibilities.

Speaking of which, perhaps the best feature of the new iPod is the AppStore. Apple opened up their development environment to allow anyone to create games, utilities, reference applications, entertainment packages, and other finance, sports, social networking, productivity, weather, travel, photography, news, navigation, music, lifestyle, healthcare and fitness, education, business, and book applications, and offer them for free and for sale through their App Store. Downloading and installing new software packages is trivial, and the number of useful software packages will only increase going forward.

And there's even a built-in stock tracker, in case you would like to keep track of how poorly your stocks are doing.

The built-in Safari browser renders web pages in a very readable format, and the ability to zoom in at-will with the Touch's unique interface makes reading and surfing very enjoyable on such a small device.

But one of the main reasons I got one was because I travel a lot, and like to listen to audio books while on the road. Especially if you have an audible.com account, the iPod is perfect for this.

As for where to buy them, I tried hard to buy it from an Apple retail store. I called prior to going there to see if they had them in stock - they didn't, and didn't know when they would get them in stock. Might be soon, they said.

After waiting a week, I called again and they said they *did* have them in stock. But by the time I drove all the way out to the store, they didn't have any more in the 32 GB version.

So rather than deal with the hassle, I finally decided to order it online. If you order from the Apple store, then you can get free engraving, as well as free shipping. Interestingly, with the default shipping option, my iPod travelled from the engraving factory in Kunshan, China, to my doorstep in Virginia in three days, stopping briefly in Shanghai, China, Anchorage, Alaska, Indianapolis, Indiana, and a few more little towns on the way to my doorstep.

iPod Touch

Prices as of 23 September 2008:

Apple iPod touch 8 GB (2nd Generation)$219.94

Apple iPod touch 16 GB (2nd Generation)$289.94

Apple iPod touch 32 GB (2nd Generation) $379.94

Some say that Thunderball, by Ian Fleming, was the book that really started James Bond on his path of world-wide fame and recognition as a literary icon. For Thunderball was the first of the Blofeld trilogy - that iconic villain Ernest Stavro Blofeld.

Here, we are introduced to SPECTRE via their plot to steal two nuclear warheads and explode them at key locations in a ransom plot for money. James gets involved, accidentally, when a chance encounter with someone involved in the SPECTRE plot sets off a series of unfortunate incidents, resulting in James being sent to the Bahamas as a scout for the missing nuclear warheads. James teams up with CIA agent friend Felix Leiter, falls in love with the beautiful Domino, and winds up in the clutches of Blofeld's number one agent, Emilio Largo. That Domino seems to be Emilio's lover only adds to the spice, and trouble for Bond.

But while the movie version is pure action-oriented James Bond thriller that we know and love, the book version actually adds more subtle and introspective layers to the James Bond character that I would have never known from only watching Sean Connery. So while the movie is nice, I find the book much more authentic and, frankly, gripping.

At the end of On Her Majesty's Secret Service, James Bond loses the love of his life. Falling into a downward spiral of depression and loneliness, James loses his fire, his will to live, and perhaps, his job.

On one last assignment to see if he has anything left, in You Only Live Twice, by Ian Fleming, James must go to Japan to recover secret spy technology and intercepts by the Japanese. While there, James soon finds himself on the trail of a mysterious and sinister foreigner who has created an island of death, filled with macabre poison plants, piranhas-filled lakes, and scalding lava pits. But James is rejuvenated through the mentor relationship with Tiger Tanaka and the chance for revenge when James discovers something important about the mysterious creator of the island of death. The love of an island fisher girl saves him though, in a very touching side to the typical action-oriented James Bond thriller.

This book finds an end to the Blofeld trilogy, and is actually a very satisfying conclusion. It resolves many of the inner demons inside James, and rekindles the fire that makes our favorite 00-agent tick. We also get to see a bit of the inside of Japanese culture, experienced through the eyes of a British agent.

The plot of the movie version deviates somewhat from the real storyline, but Sean Connery nevertheless provides a commendable rendition of the James we know and love on the silver screen.

Note that reading this book completes part of one task of my 101 Goals in 1001 Days project.

It is clear to most that the politicians of today are no where near the caliber of our Founding Fathers, and we have been reminded of this fact quite frequently during this campaign season. For example, even John F. Kennedy knew where to tip his hat: in 1962 the former President was entertaining forty-nine Nobel Prize winners at the White House, where he said,

"I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent and of human knowledge that has ever been gathered together at the White House---with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone."

If you find yourself needing a reminder of those who helped forge our nation, or want to gain some small insight into their lives, one suggestion is to visit their former homes---even the homes of Jefferson himself, perhaps.

While many know of Jefferson's main retreat in Charlottesville, Virginia, called Monticello, fewer know of his summer home about 90 miles South in Forest, Virginia, called Poplar Forest.

Jefferson, also an architect especially excelling in the Palladian style, designed Poplar Forest to be his private retreat to get away from the constant interruptions and visitors at Monticello, and work began on the home in 1805. Jefferson wrote of his home in 1812:

"When finished, it will be the best dwelling house in the state, except that of Monticello; perhaps preferable to that, as more proportioned to the faculties of a private citizen."

Visitors to the home today can see the progress being made in restoring the house and grounds to what they would have been like in Jefferson's time.

So if all the hot air in Washington gets you down, you may want to consider retreating to Poplar Forest, as Jefferson did, for some contemplation and rejuvenation.

Of the Bond books I've read so far, I would have to say that On Her Majesty's Secret Service, by Ian Fleming, is one of his best.

This book encompasses a lot for changes for Bond. Picking up Bond's life after Thunderball, Bond is about ready to quit his job as a 00 after becoming discouraged tracking down Ernst Blofeld, the leader of SPECTRE, and is just ready to hand in his resignation letter. But a series of events involving money and a woman at a casino soon leads Bond into the depths of the French mafia. From there, he receives a tip on the whereabouts of Blofeld, and Bond goes undercover to investigate Blofeld's operation. But before he leaves, he finds that he has fallen in love with the woman from the casino, Tracy---true love, perhaps for the first time in his life.

While on the mountain, Bond uncovers a dire plot involving biowarfare and the action really picks up from there. However, the most emotional moments occur when Bond gets back together with Tracy, and his life is changed forever.

This story is good not only because of the Bond action we have come to expect, but also because we get to see a personal and emotional side of him not often shown.

I have not seen the movie version of the book yet - my understanding is that it stars George Lazenby as Bond, instead of Sean Connery, Daniel Craig, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, or Pierce Brosnan.

Note that reading this book completes part of one task of my 101 Goals in 1001 Days project.

Doctor No, by Ian Fleming, picks up immediately after where From Russia with Love left off.

After recovering from the poisoning at the end of the previous novel, James Bond is sent to Jamaica to investigate the disappearance of a section chief on the island. Once there, Bond starts to uncover clues around many secret and strange activities of a certain Dr. No on Crab Key Island. Investigating further, Bond finds himself in the middle of a large, diabolical plot by Dr. No to gain power and wealth.

He is soon captured, and Bond must struggle to stay alive while trying to save the life of an innocent girl also caught by Dr. No, the beautiful Honey Ryder. Mr. Fleming shows his creative talents in devising various punishments and traps for Bond, and Dr. No becomes a legendary Bond Villain. A thrilling and unforgettable story.

The film version of Dr. No was actually the first Bond film with Sean Connery.

Note that reading this book completes part of one task of my 101 Goals in 1001 Days project.

It was from a different time, a somehow more refined time that bred James Bond. It was a time before fancy gadgets, suicide bombers, and the Internet. It was a time of heroes, when the clack of the train as it runs along the rails promised a certain romance, and when the trace of a hidden door in a wall panel brought danger. A double-edged throwing knife, bullets smuggled through airport security, vodka martinis.

Such is the world in the James Bond thriller From Russia with Love, by Ian Fleming, thought by some to be the best of the Bond novels (and is said to have been adapted well onto the screen version, with Sean Connery).

In the book, James travels to Istanbul to retrieve a cypher machine, but gets entangled and distracted by the captivating Tatiana Romanova. Along the way Bond meets a few friends, but many enemies, including Russia's SMERSH organization, and the story comes to a climax during a perilous trip on the Orient Express. There is a surprise ending, and we can't help but wonder if Bond makes it out alive.

Note that reading this book completes part of one task of my 101 Goals in 1001 Days project.

If one were to pause for a moment and consider what "good government" would be like, we might think of one that would serve the people, upholding the Constitution, working to help the citizens in time of need, offering services to enrich the quality of life, promoting science, innovation, and education, defending the country in time of crisis, and serving as a shining example to other nations.

Now, if you were to reflect on the government you've seen in action recently, then your two visions might not exactly match.

In his book Your Government Failed You: Breaking the Cycle of National Security Disasters, Richard Clarke, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence, and Special Advisor to the President on Cybersecurity and Cyberterrorism, among other important federal government roles, provides a frank, honest, and professional assessment as to why your vision of your current government does not come close to your vision of "good government", especially with regard to national security matters.

Beginning with the failures before and after 9/11, he also analyses intelligence efforts, homeland security, energy policies, and, in my opinion most importantly, cyberspace and cybersecurity.

We need more professionals like Richard Clarke in government, to lead, guide, and provide wisdom to our elected officials. As the individuals with the experience, dedication, and ability are run out of government by an increasingly polarized and politicized administration, one wonders who will sound the voice of reason, rationality, and intelligence going forward.

Note that reading this book completes one task of my 101 Goals in 1001 Days project.

There are a number of tools that have become available recently that overlay population features on top of geographic maps (thanks NumbersGuy). The data is from government surveys, crime logs, census logs, etc., and have been available for a very long time. However, by adding the geographic component and a web interface, the data is suddenly much more accessible and useful, especially to the individual.

For example, are you going to buy a new home and want to check out neighborhoods for various factors, such as crime, income, education opportunities, neighborhood walkability, etc.? Or are you interested in checking out your current neighborhood? Do you want to open a business and so want to target specific markets?

Below are a number of online tools that you may help you answer these questions:

• SpotCrime: shows crime statistics for a given address
• PolicyMap: shows census, real estate analysis, crime, mortgage origination, education, income, demographic, job, energy, and other statistics
• Walk Score: rates a given address on its walkability - a measure of the quality of life around a given address when walking
• Criminal Searches: search a given neighborhood or even people for crimes and offences.

As the first of several examples, here is an image of the distribution of household incomes around VCU in the year 2000, using the PolicyMap service. The free version unfortunately only gives access to old data (e.g., year 2000 for incomes), and the resolution is a little course (does not give block-by-block resolution), but you still can see overall trends. In the figure, the regions shaded with the darker colors indicate higher median household incomes.

The image below, from SpotCrime, shows the various crimes that were reported and logged by police from March 4, 2008 to May 4, 2008 around VCU. The different icons indicate different types of crimes, such as assaults, thefts, arson, arrests, robbery, burglary, vandalism, etc. While the number of crimes over just a two month period might seem high, VCU is an urban university in the middle of a low-income part of town (see previous median income image) with a dense population, so some amount of crime is unfortunately probably to be expected without better enforcement and more security.

Finally, on the bright side, VCU does appear to be a neighborhood that is quite walkable, as seen in the following graphic, where WalkScore gives VCU a walkability score of 88 out of 100, where 100 is the best walkability score you can get. Each icon represents a grocery store, restaurant, coffee shop, bar, movie theatre, school, park, library, bookstore, fitness center, drug store, etc., that are good to have within walking distance - the more of these establishments there are, the higher the walkability score.

You might be interested in checking out a post I made on my university blog, where I discuss a table showing numbers of degrees being produced versus projected job demand in several disciplines. The results may surprise you (and may give insight into why the U.S. keeps outsourcing high-tech jobs).

Hint: where are the students?

Stephen Hawking in A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes recounts the following exchange:

A well-known scientist (some say it was Bertrand Russell) once gave a public lecture on astronomy. He described how the earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the center of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy. At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said: "What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise." The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, "What is the tortoise standing on?" "You're very clever, young man, very clever," said the old lady. "But it's turtles all the way down!"

So, "turtles all the way down" refers to a belief about how the universe is constructed--our world rests on the back of a turtle, which rests on the back of a second turtle, which rests on the back of a third, etc.---and more generally refers to an infinite regression type of situation or problem or argument.

The turtle stacking nexus must be somewhere in Virginia, because so far this summer I've had to relocate seven turtles, going the wrong way on busy streets or otherwise getting themselves into trouble.

First, there was this turtle, then that turtle, then the following quick succession of honorable turtles:

Here's Turtle Three:

Turtles Four and Five:

Turtle Six:

Turtle Seven:

So how many turtles support the world on their backs?

Well, at least seven.

If you think that you make rational, reasoned decisions, or that you are the master of your domain, etc., then you might consider reading Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions by Dan Ariely.

This book provides a very interesting glimpse into just how humans make decisions in real life---it turns out that in a variety of situations, humans are not the masters of rationality that we assume them to be.

Economics is very good at making lots of models to predict supply and demand, though a core assumption is that humans will always make rational decisions. One look at the current economy gives weight to the statement that economists have a very hard time with getting their complex models to reflect, in any reasonable way, reality. Dan's take on economics is that humans, more often than not, make irrational decisions, leading to a new field called Behavioral Economics. Through a series of very interesting experiments, Dan shows that his suppositions are correct---humans make irrational decisions a lot, and the results of his experiments give insight into why and how people respond as they do to life situations.

Example experiments include testing human decision making when we have lots of options, how our decision making is distorted when we are sexually aroused, why we are dishonest, and how we are influenced by the placebo effect and the power of suggestion.

I found this book very entertaining---now I know why a 50-cent Aspirin works and a 1-cent Aspirin doesn't---and I do think Dan has done a great service in highlighting and investigating how humans really make decisions, as opposed to how traditional economists assume we make decisions.

Finally, reading this book finishes one of my 101 goals in 1001 days.

I just created a set of 101 resolutions/goals/things-to-do that should keep me occupied for the next 1001 days.

I first read about the project, called 101 Things To Do in 1001 Days, on Robert Talbert's blog, and then visited the triplux site for more information. It seems like an interesting way to structure getting things done, so I figured it is worth a shot.

Remember, 1001 days is equivalent to about 2.75 years, so I'll be (hopefully) ticking off tasks as I accomplish them for some time to come, but if I go too long without accomplishing anything, feel free to ping me.

Also, you might want to consider joining in on the fun by creating your own set of 101 Goals or things you want to do and then, well, doing them.

Just yesterday I paid $4.09/gallon for 87 octane gas in Baltimore. Many people, lured into buying bloated, inefficient cars, trucks, and SUVs made and marketed by Detroit, are now feeling similar pains in the wallet. An ABC news story suggests that gas may soon cost $7/gallon.

But it is not just the high price of gas that is causing concern. All across the U.S., hundreds of thousands of people are losing their homes to foreclosure or are unable to sell their homes, and the crown jewels of the U.S. are being bought up by unsavory foreign governments taking advantage of the weak dollar.

Everyone wants to just throw their hands into the air, but if you have wondered why these events are happening, then you might consider reading The Trillion Dollar Meltdown: Easy Money, High Rollers, and the Great Credit Crash by Charles R. Morris.

This book won't help you get out of debt, sell your house, or improve the degrading quality of the education system. But what it will do is put the current economic crisis into context, give insight into how economic and personal spending practices contributed to the problem, and help us understand what can be done to improve our national situation. It will also help you realize why and how the much heralded Alan Greenspan and his Chicago economics theories may have actually led to our current economic downward spiral, as did the lack of critical thinking skills by the millions of Americans who tried to buy houses when they could not afford to, assisted by greedy banks, other lenders, and Wall Street. It will also show how the follies of the current Presidential administration led to the decline of American economic standing in the world, with potentially dire implications for us all going forward.

There are no quick fixes for the current situation we voted and spent ourselves into, but this book at least paints a plausible explanation for why we are here. Where we go from here depends in large part on the resilience and fortitude of the American peoples, and this book at least helps show a reality clearly the result of causes and effects rather than from forces outside our control.

Human's have it pretty good. Unlike, say, the koala, which only has to consider which eucalyptus tree to climb in order to have yet another meal of eucalyptus leaves, humans are omnivores, able to make a meal from a variety of plants, animals, and fungi. This has, in part, allowed humans to live in all parts of the world - from the humid tropics of the jungle, to the dry, sandy deserts of the middle east, to the cold, unforgiving quiet of the frozen tundra.

But this ease of making a meal, no matter what the environment, has turned what was once a survival advantage for our species, when humans first struggled to spread across the globe tens of thousands of years ago, into a bit of a disadvantage in an industrialized world over-populated with people and, ironically, with too much of the wrong kind of food. Overpopulation and the need to feed so many mouths has led to the industrialization of food production, transforming small family farms into large monocultures of genetically-modified cornfields and acre-sized metal sheds of captive, steroid and antibiotic-injected cows. We might have once thought this scaling up of food production to be a good thing, but is it?

But why stop asking questions there? Just where does that McDonald's meal come from, really? Why does the U.S. grow so much corn? Why do the factory farms plant thousands of acres of corn, and only corn? And with so much corn, why does the government subsidize the factory farms to grow more of it? Is "corn-fed beef" a delicacy, or a perorative? How is Whole Foods, at the same time, different from and just like the modern factory farm? Why might Joel Salatin's Polyface Farm, in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley, represent the best farm in the U.S.?

Why indeed. And you might be surprised at the answers to each of the above questions.

So if you have ever wondered about the food you unpackage from its plastic shrink wrap and plop into the microwave, if you have ever considered the moral hazard of eating meat - or corn, and if you have ever wanted to gather wild mushrooms, then you might want to read The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan.

With an admirable investigative tenacity and a gift for telling a good story, Michael details how our food is grown, produced, cooked, and eaten by examining the life story behind four meals - one bought from a fast food chain, one made from items bought in an organic store, one made from foods grown and raised on a sustainable farm, and one made from foods foraged from the wild. In reading about Michael's adventures, you will discover what it takes to get the food on your table to your table, and you will likely never think about corn the same again.

Modern humans have lost the connection to the land and the food it provides. Overweight, overpopulated, and increasingly unhealthy, Michael's look into what we eat and how it was made is perhaps the just desserts.

If you've ever wanted to combine staying healthy with literature, then you might want to consider walking, biking, swimming, or rowing to Rivendell.

Here's the idea: Karen Fonstad (sadly, when writing up this post, I saw that Karen died in 2005 due to complications from breast cancer) reverse-engineered the route Frodo and Company took on their way to Rivendell in her book The Atlas of Middle-Earth. For example: leaving Bag End, heading west through the gate into a lane, following the lane for a bit, then following the hedgerows south is about a 3 mile trip.

In her Rivendell mileage chart, Karen notes the cumulative miles, miles between each milepost, and the description of each milepost location. So if you are just starting out and log 3 miles on today's run, then you would make a note in your notebook your mileage run for the day and the cumulative miles you have run. That way you can compare your progress against the progress of the Company as they (and you) head to Rivendell.

All this may sound a bit geeky, but it does work---I have started the journey, though extensive, non-fitness travel has kept me away from too much "Hobbit-walking", as my wife calls it. Nevertheless, yesterday I jogged 2.25 miles, which brings my cumulative total to 36.84 miles. On the Rivendell journey, this puts me just beyond that incident with the Black Rider, but before they meet up with the Elves on the Road.

As a final note: in case you are not familiar with Rivendell, Hobbits, or J.R.R. Tolkien, get thee to Amazon and buy the books, or at least the movies. Getting back into shape can wait until you finish - one has to have priorities.

If you are interested in quality, intelligent entertainment, then you might want to check out the series Numb3rs, available on DVD or by individual episode download.

The series depicts an FBI agent who is helped by his mathematics whiz brother in solving crimes - kind of like CSI with equations rather than microscopes. But don't let the equations scare you off - the conflict caused by the two different methods of problem solving, characterized by the FBI agent brother and the mathematics brother, along with the various crimes and bad guys, actually provides for exciting drama.

As an example, in the pilot episode a serial rapist/killer is loose in Los Angeles. The FBI agent has a map of the city showing the locations of the crimes, but is otherwise stumped on how to track the killer and predict where the killer will strike next. The mathematician studies the pattern of the crime locations and, rather than try to predict the location of the next crime, he estimates the location of where the killer lives. The analogy is that of a garden water sprinkler - it is difficult to predict where the next water droplet will land, but if you study the pattern of the drops of water, you can estimate where the water sprinkler must be located.

Note that the math used in the episodes is real, and if you are interested in finding more about the different techniques used in the various episodes, then you might want to take a look at the book The Numbers Behind NUMB3RS: Solving Crime with Mathematics.

I've uploaded Part 1 Chapters 8 and 9 of Beowulf.

I've uploaded Part 1 Chapter 7 of Beowulf.

I've uploaded Part 1 Chapter 6 of Beowulf.

Technorati Tags: book, culture

I've uploaded Part 1 Chapter 5 of Beowulf.

Technorati Tags: culture

The wonderful folks at Synthesize.us have made a Star Trek theme for the Nokia N810, so now it has an LCARS display just like those PADD tablets they use on Enterprise:

Energize!

Technorati Tags: culture, technology

I couldn't resist, on this St. Patrick's Day:

here's Danny Boy, as sung by Beaker, Swedish Chef, and Animal.

Technorati Tags: culture

WHEN: Saturday, May 10th, 2008

One hundred thousand welcomes to Maryland's Scottish Event! Enjoy bagpipes, Scottish and Irish dancing, shopping, traditional food and afternoon tea. Watch kilted, professional Highland athletes compete for victory - tossing trees and throwing heavy weights. Enjoy bagpipe music as you stroll through Vendor's Row featuring Celtic goods and delicious foods from across the pond and America as well. Free genealogy service will be available as well, with over 30 clans on hand to further assist and educate about your family's heritage and tartan.

For more information, go to their website: http://www.sasmm.com/celtic_festival.htm

Technorati Tags: culture, living, spirit

It is sometimes interesting to investigate history a little in order to determine the context of modern events.

Take Easter, for example.

While many Christians view Easter as the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus, Easter as a religious event goes back much farther than that.

"Easter" comes from the ancient Germanic Goddess of spring, nature, and renewal, Eostre, or Ostara. This Goddess was symbolized by the hare and eggs, for reproduction and fertility during a time of year when the Germanic folk celebrated the coming warmth of spring and the planting of new crops, at a time marked by the Spring Equinox.

People would often color these Easter eggs, give them as gifts, eat them for good luck, and even hang them from trees to welcome good spirits:

The display and gift-giving of colored eggs was a common springtime practice among ancient Saxons, Greeks, Romans, Persians, Egyptians, and other pagan peoples.

This celebration continues today as the Ostara Rite, or Easter, though the Christians have adjusted the storyline a bit.

Even the Easter Bunny comes from the ancient Germanic religions:

Germans brought the legend of the Easter rabbit to America, though Easter itself wasn't widely celebrated in America until after the Civil War.

So give thanks to Eostre by coloring an egg (and you can refer to a previous post on some egg coloring ideas for the computationally inclined), eating a chocolate bunny, and welcoming the warmth of spring. These rituals are much more traditional than you might have previously thought.

Technorati Tags: culture, spirit

I just thought these links might be of interest for those wanting to decorate eggs, perhaps using your computer:

• with Mathematica: http://www.kathryncramer.com/kathryn_cramer/2008/03/who-among-you-a.html
• ovals and egg curves: http://www.mathematische-basteleien.de/eggcurves.htm

Technorati Tags: culture, spirit

When a colleague invited me to a recent birthday party for her one year old son, I was not sure what to give as a gift, until I happened onto the Build A Bear Workshop store.

The way the store works is that, you guessed it, you build a bear or stuffed animal.

First, you get to choose the type of stuffed animal you want to build - the classic teddy bear, or a bunny rabbit, or a baby chick. The animal you picked is essentially just the skin - no stuffing is in it yet.

Then, you go over to a large machine with a rotating arm that fluffs up the stuffing, kind of like a large cotton candy machine. When you step on a lever, the stuffing shoots out of a nozzle and the store attendant directs this into the animal skin, filling the body with stuffing, kind of like a reverse vacuum cleaner. You get to choose how stuffed you want the animal to be. You also get to insert a sound chip if you want, and you also get to insert a tiny plush heart. The attendant then closes the hole in the back of the skin and you have a new friend ready to go home with you.

But you might want some clothes for your new friend!

The store carries a wide variety of outfits, and most are interchangeable no matter what animal type you picked out. I chose a Buzz Lightyear space suit, though if I was going to keep the bear for myself I would have chosen the Harley Davidson motorcycle jacket.

If you give your new friend a name, they will print off a birth certificate, and you are on your way home with a relatively inexpensive, customized gift.

The store also has an online bearville where kids can enter information about their bear, play games, watch little movies, etc. I could see how a child would find the whole process very entertaining, and the parents might like the ability to customize the gift as well.

Technorati Tags: culture

Richmond regularly tops lists of high-crime cities, and just a few weeks into my new job there, I was "reacquainted" with this unfortunate aspect.

While walking to my car late one night from the office on campus, sick with the flu and carrying a couple bags of books, it seems that I was selected as the target of a gang initiation, whereby the candidate inductee must start a fight with the victim. Luckily I kept my cool during the incident and all ended OK, but it was not a pleasant experience, and it was a good reminder that, when in the real world, all is not milk and honey.

Thinking now of practical self-defense options, here is a movie made in about 2002 by a Western martial arts group who got together at Frogmore Grange, Coventry, England. Participants enjoyed tea and crumpets before the days' activities of walking stick fighting, pugilism, and jiujitsu, followed by a three-course meal in a Victorian dining room:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGiTAtJI_uU

Self-defense laws being what they are, especially on university campuses, certain self-defense options are precluded from consideration. However, the cane or walking stick certainly seems viable. Here is a transcription of a self-defence article from 1901:

"Self-defence with a Walking-stick: The Different Methods of Defending Oneself with a Walking-Stick or Umbrella when Attacked under Unequal Conditions"

Self-defense with a cane is a component of Bartitsu, the martial art made popular in the Sherlock Holmes stories. Other resources for this line of self-defense and training include:

• The Bartitsu Society
• canes at woodenswords
• Defense Dans La Rue
• Bartitsu Wikipedia entry

Be safe, and be prepared!

Technorati Tags: culture, defense, fitness, martial arts, security, virginia

Tonight I've uploaded Part 1 Chapter 4 of Beowulf.

Technorati Tags: book, culture

Now this is a heritage celebration: the largest fire festival in Europe, Up Helly Aa, takes place each year in Shetland the last Tuesday in January.

"Guizers" form a torch-light procession and proceed to ceremonially burn a full-size replica Viking longship.

I think most folks in the U.S. are too short-sighted to try something like that here.

Technorati Tags: culture, living, spirit

I've been on the road lately, and so have not had a chance to make many audio recordings.

Tonight I tried a new audio source, and have added Part 1 Chapter 3 of Beowulf.

I'll need to play some more with my mobile audio setup, as the recording levels and room echo are not currently quite what I am looking for.

Technorati Tags: book, culture

Early this morning, at 01:08AM EST, marked Winter Solstice, the longest night of the year, the return of the sun (Sunna) and warmth, and the official beginning of winter.

Demarest goes on to explain the intricacies of the Norse Yule tradition. "For the ancient Norse people, winter was a very difficult time,the growing season had ended and the shortened days meant that the life-giving sun was disappearing, leaving them in darkness and extreme cold. The winter solstice marked their triumph over darkness and the return of the warmth and a new year. The Yule season is twelve days long, beginning the night before the winter solstice. The most important aspect of those twelve days is that our world and the world of the Gods and Goddesses are together, and it is a blessing to be close to them and have a connection -- it is at this time that we look back over the old year and make oaths for the new year."

Here is a link to an article in the Washington Post about the National Yule Log in the U.S. (which burns continuously from Dec 7 to Jan 2).

So whatever form of celebration you have this time of year, have safe travels, good food, warmth, and fellowship with family and friends this Yule!

Technorati Tags: culture, spirit

The latest installment of the Beowulf Project is up, Part 1, Chapters 1-2.

Technorati Tags: book, culture

As another piece of our cultural history, and given the timeliness (and timelessness) of this hero, I've started a series of Beowulf readings.

After all, according to Wired magazine, this is the year of the Viking:

Why this sudden interest in the savage tribes who roamed across what became the UK and Scandinavia? Maybe because they combine the best of zombies, ninjas, and robots. Their cool ships and armor are sort of the Dark Ages equivalent of high tech, their fighting skillz are fully ninja, and of course they shamble along in rags with chopped-off limbs just like zombies do. Really, you just can't go wrong with Vikings.

And, Valhalla knows, we could all use a real hero these days.

Technorati Tags: book, culture

Entry number three for the Younger Edda audio project is chapters three and four from The Fooling of Gylfe.

Technorati Tags: book, culture

Entry number two for the Younger Edda audio project is chapters one and two from The Fooling of Gylfe.

Technorati Tags: culture, religion, spirit

I've started a page for my audio projects, and the first entry is the preface to Anderson's The Younger Edda.

The Younger Edda is a 13th century collection of stories about the Teutonic Gods and Goddesses from the traditional, pre-Christian religion of the Northern Europeans. Rasmus Anderson translated the Old Norse Prose Edda, or Snorri's Edda, into English in 1879. Since I am a fan of tradition, history, and ancestral culture, I decided to make audio recordings of this work. I also wanted to learn more about recording technology and audio engineering.

The first entry is an MP3 of the preface from Anderson's translation.

Technorati Tags: academia, culture, religion, spirit, technology

One of my friends is a falconer, and so I got to see some of her raptors up close.

A Saker Falcon.

A Goshawk.

A Harris Hawk.

Technorati Tags: culture, living

Before you get too excited, no, it is not a museum of hammers. When I first saw the museum in Los Angeles' Westwood area, I thought how great to have a museum on hammers - battle hammers or maybe even Thor's Hammers!

Alas, that was not the case, but you should visit it anyway if you are in the area. The Hammer Museum houses some of the art collected by the late Armand Hammer, who was an American industrialist (no, Armand Hammer did not create the Arm and Hammer baking soda). He collected art his entire life, and amassed a very large collection. This museum displays some works from his collection and rotates through other exhibitions. On Thursdays there is free admission, so this is a prime time to visit.

From Hammer's private collection, we saw paintings by French 19th century masters, other European master paintings, and 18th-20th century American artists. There were van Goghs, Monets, a Rubens, and very nice Rembrandts, including Rembrandt's Juno and Portrait of a Man Holding a Black Hat.

There was also an exhibition of 17th-19th century advertisements called broadsides that depicted showings like Toby the sapient pig, a dulcimer player with no arms, the real-life Tom Thumb, and fortune telling ponies.

There was also a modern art media exhibition showing, for example, a guy pushing a block of ice through a city until it melted.

There are many events held at the museum throughout the year, and the museum itself is managed by UCLA.

Technorati Tags: academia, culture, living, travel

Snap-Apple Night, was painted by Irish artist Daniel Maclise in 1833. Supposedly he painted this after attending a Halloween party in Blarney, Ireland, in 1832. The group on the left are playing divination games, the group in the middle are playing "Snap Apple", a game where an apple is dangling from a string and people, with their arms tied behind their back, try to bite the apple. The first person who bites the coin in the apple wins. The group on the right are bobbing for apples. The caption in the first exhibit catalogue:

There Peggy was dancing with Dan
While Maureen the lead was melting,
To prove how their fortunes ran
With the Cards ould Nancy dealt in;
There was Kate, and her sweet-heart Will,
In nuts their true-love burning,
And poor Norah, though smiling still
She'd missed the snap-apple turning.
On the Festival of Hallow Eve.

Halloween is a great tradition, born in Europe and celebrated all across the world. Falling between Autumn Equinox and Winter Solstice, Halloween is significant in many ways, most notably as it marks the change in the seasons from the brightness of Summer and Fall into the darkness of Winter, and as a chance to reflect on our departed ancestors.

Upon that night, when fairies light
On Cassilis Downans dance,
Or owre the lays, in splendid blaze,
On sprightly coursers prance;
Or for Colean the rout is ta'en,
Beneath the moon's pale beams;
There, up the Cove, to stray an' rove,
Amang the rocks and streams
To sport that night;

Amang the bonie winding banks,
Where Doon rins , wimplin , clear;
Where Bruce ance rul'd the martial ranks,
An' shook his Carrick spear;
Some merry, friendly, countra-folks
Together did convene,
To burn their nits , an' pou their stocks ,
An' haud their Halloween
Fu' blythe that night.

Many other countries in Europe celebrate the traditional customs of Halloween under festivals of different names. For example, the Roman Catholic Church moved All Souls Day to the time of Halloween in order to put a Christian spin on a traditional Heathen festival (as the church has also tried to do with Yule/Christmas and Easter). And the traditional Halloween festival is also known as All Saints Day in England, Portugal, Spain, and Mexico. St. Martin's Day, Allerheiligen, and Martinmas are also names associated with the Halloween tradition.

In Scotland they hollow out turnips to use as lanterns, bob for apples, and make Dirge Loaves out of oat flour to keep the souls of the dead safe. In Ireland, there lived a man named "Stingy Jack" who was so mean that we couldn't get into Heaven or Hell, and so was forced to walk the earth for eternity carrying a turnip candle with an ember from Hell inside. Today, we carve Jack O'Lanterns to ward off the ghost of Stingy Jack.

From Italy, here is a recipe for Fave dei Morti, or Ossa dei Morti (bones of the dead), which is a type of cookie made with pine nuts, almonds, spices, flour, and sugar, and baked in commemoration of the dead. This tradition and cookie is thought to have originated from the Roman indigenous religious traditions, and co-opted by the Catholic church.

Even Japan has a festival, called o-bon (pronounced like "oh bone") where the spirits of their ancestors are invited back into the homes - in rural areas they even sweep a path from the gravesites to the home, where the spirits are welcomed with 'welcoming fires'. There are also dances and other festivities, as well as getting together with family.

So while it may not be called "Halloween" in Japan, the spirit of the tradition is very similar. Most countries have strong spiritual traditions that recognize that, during certain times of the year, the "veil" between our world and other worlds, between this life and the afterlife, becomes very thin, allowing for certain, um, transitions, and sometimes disturbances, to occur. During those certain times of the year we are more apt to hear the floor creak unexpectedly, or see something out of the corner of our eye. Or we might even get an unexpected chill when walking outside at night. It could be a departed ancestor trying to reach across the veil to a family member, or it could be something else entirely...

So have a Happy Halloween, eat a candy apple, drink some cider, bob for apples, wear an interesting costume, think of your ancestors, protect yourself from Stingy Jack, and prepare for the coming Winter.

Oh, and don't forget to say "BOO!".

Technorati Tags: culture, living, religion, spirit

There will be an an event held at Virginia Tech titled "Bellerophon to Beowulf to Batman: The Image of the Hero", Wednesday, November 7, 2007, 7-9pm, in 113 McBryde Hall. Free and open to the public.

Motivating questions include: What is a hero? Has "heroism" changed? Does Buffy have anything to do with Beowulf?

It sounds like undergraduates will be presenting some of their research, followed by a faculty roundtable, including:

* Terry Papillon (Classics & Honors Program) - ancient world 
* Karen Swenson (English) - Norse sagas 
* Charlene Eska (English) - King Arthur 
* Stephen Prince (Communication) - modern pop culture 
* Kaye Graham (English) - Harry Potter and children's literature 
* LtCol. William Stringer (Corps of Cadets) - modern military 

Technorati Tags: academia, culture, living, virginia

A Viking ship that was built in 1892 and sailed across the Atlantic, down the Erie Canal, through the Great Lakes and to Chicago for the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893, is currently in need of your help. The image above is of this ship moored in front of Manufactures, Chicago, in 1893.

This 76-foot ship, known as The Viking, is currently housed in Geneva at Good Templar Park (near Chicago). Left to neglect, this ship is doomed unless a restoration project receives funds.

From an article by the Norwegian National League:

The "Viking" was built at Framnes Shipyard in Sandefjord, Norway in 1892. It was copied after the ancient Viking ship "Gokstad". Excavated in 1880, the "Gokstad" had been called the most beautiful ship ever built. The "Viking" is approximately 76 feet long, 17 feet wide, and 7 feet high from the bottom of the keel to the gunwale. Clinker built with planking hand split from green logs, the "Viking" made 11 knots and the hull was observed to flex with the waves.

Most importantly, the Viking ship was declared one of ten most endangered historic sites in Illinois by a statewide historic preservation group.

American Express is running a competition for projects to receive funds, and the Viking ship is in the runoff. Some of the other projects and buildings in the competition might be nice things to do, but are not in as imminent danger of being destroyed --- the Viking ship will decay into the water unless we take action now to preserve this important cultural icon.

How can you help?

Go to: the partnership in preservation site, register, and VOTE FOR THE VIKING SHIP - you can vote ONCE A DAY, EVERY DAY, until voting ends on October 10, 2007.

Other links of interest on Vikings and Viking Ships:

• http://www.vikingship.us
• http://www.stigombord.dk/index_uk.html
• http://www.abc.se/~m10354/bld/viking.htm
• http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/vikings/ships.html
• http://sio.midco.net/danstopicalstamps/gokstad.htm
• http://www.cdli.ca/CITE/vikingteacher.htm
• http://www.bullfrogfilms.com/catalog/norse.html

Technorati Tags: academia, culture, living, technology

There is a new graphic novel out now called Gods of Asgard, by Eric Evensen. It looks to be an interpretation of the Norse mythology - you know, Odin, Thor, Tyr, Frigga, the Valkyries, ... from the author's website:

The Norse gods are the pagan deities worshipped in pre-Christian Scandinavia. Although not as well-known as the gods from Greek and Roman mythology, they were no less unique. The Norse gods were powerful, revered and respected, sometimes feared. They were mortal, and they knew through prophecy of the end of their reign. And their fame lives on today, in literature, movies, comics, opera, and the days of the week.

This looks to be a very interesting and entertaining new book, though the author is only partially correct in stating that the Norse Gods were worshipped in pre-Christian Scandinavia. The Gods were also worshipped by the Germanic peoples all across Europe - even North America, and continue to be so today - from an article in the University of South Alabama's paper The Vanguard:

Within the last 30 years, a lot of people have been trying to get back to their roots, to reconnect with what their ancestors believed and how they lived. One of the faiths that has sought to re-establish itself is Asatru.

Asatru can best be defined as the revival of the ways, beliefs and customs of the ancient Germanic tribes of northern Europe which inhabited, at differing times in history, the modern nations of England, Germany, Ireland, Iceland, Scotland, Wales, Belgium, France, the Netherlands, West Poland, Northern Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, and Finland. These countries are currently seeing a revival of this very ancient pre-Christian faith.

Technorati Tags: book, culture, religion, spirit

Here is a pic from a visit to the new National Museum of the American Indian (to the left of the U.S. Capitol Building) in Washington D.C. It is on the National Mall, next to the National Air and Space Museum.

The museum was worth going to see.

Technorati Tags: culture

Certainly, movie versions of Beowulf have been done before. But, in general, past movie versions have been rather bad. I am hoping quality will triumph with this fall's movie release of Beowulf.

Beowulf, of course, is one of the oldest pieces of literature in the English language, and one of the noblest and heroic stories in the world. Beowulf, the young hero of the Geats, battles the monster Grendel, who is terrorizing Heorot in Denmark. After defeating Grendel, Beowulf then must fight Grendel's mother. Beowulf then becomes King, when he is called upon to fight a terrible dragon. He kills the dragon, but is mortally wounded, and is then buried in a barrow.

The upcoming movie version will be released on November 16, 2007, in conventional theatres AND in 3D! Even better---the script was written by Roger Avary and Neil Gaiman.

Roger Avary is a well-known director, producer, and screenwriter, especially known for Pulp Fiction.

Neil Gaiman, of course, is the very talented author of, among other works, The Sandman comic series, American Gods, and Stardust (which was made into a movie that is currently (August, 2007) in theatres).

The film has a strong cast, with Angelina Jolie as Grendel's mother, Anthony Hopkins as King Hrothgar, Ray Winstone as Beowulf, along with John Malkovich, Brendan Gleeson, Dominic Keating, Alison Lohman, and Robin Wright Penn. Initial reviews from screenings at Comic-Con 2007 and other viewings have been very positive. I still haven't understood quite how Angelina Jolie was cast as Grendel's mother, but I guess we will all see how well that decision worked in November. Anyway, Neil says he was blown away after seeing portions of the actual film, and that the newest film making techniques were used to produce one of the oldest stories in the English language.

You can see trailers, author interviews, and a plot summary on the movieweb site, and you will soon be able to collect Beowulf action figures.

It only takes one look around at the state of the world today to see that we are in dire need of heroes in our society. Strength, courage, honor, and noble deeds have been missing from the news for quite a while now. The time is right for Beowulf to return. Let's hope Roger and Neil do him justice.

Technorati Tags: book, culture

I mentioned here earlier about how a reconstructed Viking ship was going to trace historic routes in order to test theories on Viking navigation. Nearly 1,000 years after the original sank of the coast of Denmark, and after a trip of about 1,000 miles, the Sea Stallion pulled into Dublin.

From the Reuters news article on the arrival of the Viking ship in Dublin:

"You have come here on a voyage of discovery," said Dublin's Lord Mayor Paddy Bourke as the vessel and its volunteer crew of men and women docked.

Crafted from the wood of 300 oak trees, the 30-metre (100-foot) long, 4-metre wide Sea Stallion is the world's largest reconstructed Viking vessel, its builders say.

Technorati Tags: culture, travel

At the moment, the biggest star in Los Angeles is David Beckham.

Technorati Tags: culture, travel

If you are filled with the D.C. Beltway Blues, or are tired of all the big-city grime, crime, and lack-of-time, then a trip to the Marriott Ranch might be just the escape you need.

About 45 miles outside the beltway, Marriott Ranch is a working cattle ranch in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, in Hume, Virginia. The ranch has about 4,200 acres, and, in addition to cattle, has a bed and breakfast called the Inn at Fairfield Farm. You can also go horseback riding, hiking, off-road jeeping, and fishing. In addition to people wanting to get back to nature, the site is also a popular destination for company retreats and weddings. Around the ranch there are vineyards and wineries, fishing, rafting, canoeing, Civil War Trails, the Shenandoah National Park, and the Skyline Drive.

We went on a guided trail ride and had a great time. We have been to other destinations for trail rides, but this one was much better---the horses were healthy and well-kept, and the trail ride was more relaxed and natural than some other rides I have been on.

My horse was not too thrilled with having his picture taken.

Saddle-up!

Here's one happy camper.

Here we are, heading out.

This is an active cattle ranch, so sometimes you see some of the other residents.

Great scenery too!

And an old timey saloon is a great place for a picnic after a hard day's ride.

They also offer other rides in addition to the basic trail ride: you can go on overnight rides, mountain rides, cattle drives, and even learn how to be a cowpoke.

Technorati Tags: culture, living, review, travel, virginia

Be more than just the master of your own domain:

• Find exactly what you are looking for on the web
• Outbid everyone on eBay
• Share one WiFi connection with multiple computers
• Learn how to make your own blog and wiki

Your friends will be amazed!

Seriously, if you are looking to turbo-charge your online experience, then you should pick up the new book Rule the Web: How to Do Anything and Everything on the Internet---Better, Faster, Easier by Mark Frauenfelder.

I went to Mark's book signing in Santa Monica tonight, held at the Barnes and Noble in the 3rd Street Promenade. There, Mark entertained a room full of people with talk about the origins of BoingBoing, the future of the music industry, the future of the publishing industry, lots of examples from his book, and insight into how the book came about.

Mark is a really nice guy and has lots of insight into how to use the Internet and Web effectively to increase your productivity and, well, happiness.

And Mark was wearing a Scott eVest shirt like I was also wearing, so not only is he smart, but he's cool too.

Technorati Tags: book, culture, review, technology

How many of you are a little tired of all the really long, complex, rights-waiving, non-negotiated licensing agreements foisted upon us when we install software, buy products at Best Buy, or download songs from an online music service? My guess is that you really don't read those agreements, but if you did, you would see how silly these companies are getting.

However, the good folks over at reasonableagreement.org have the right idea. They have an anti-EULA that they suggest you put on your credit card slips when you sign them, or include with your warranty cards when you mail them back, or put them at the bottom of your emails.

So, while you can go to their site and see how this agreement can be customized for your particular use, here is a reasonable agreement for this webpage:

READ CAREFULLY. By reading this webpage you agree, on behalf of your employer, to release me from all obligations and waivers arising from any and all NON-NEGOTIATED agreements, licenses, terms-of-service, shrinkwrap, clickwrap, browsewrap, confidentiality, non-disclosure, non-compete and acceptable use policies (”BOGUS AGREEMENTS”) that I have entered into with your employer, its partners, licensors, agents and assigns, in perpetuity, without prejudice to my ongoing rights and privileges. You further represent that you have the authority to release me from any BOGUS AGREEMENTS on behalf of your employer.

Technorati Tags: culture, living

Officially called Mount San Antonio, but known as Mount Baldy because of the absence of trees at the summit, this mountain has the highest peak in the San Gabriel mountain range. This mountain range is located in northern Los Angeles County and western San Bernardino County, California. If you are on the Los Angeles side of the mountain, on the other side is the Mojave Desert.

There is plenty of hiking available, which affords wonderful views.

Supposedly, from this view above, you can see the ocean, which is about 50-60 miles away. However, when I was there it was too hazy. But there is actually a house for sale on the mountain that actually advertises "Ocean View" in the listing, because on the one or two days a year when it is not too hazy, you can actually catch a glimpse of the ocean while in your mountain home 5,000 feet up and 60 miles away.

Many of the tops of the large cone bristle pine trees were sheared off---the wood of this type of tree is very brittle, and the tops get sheared off from the howling winds.

We hiked up to a small waterfall, at about 6,300 feet elevation.

What struck me most, besides the views, was the extreme dryness. The waterfall was a trickle compared to its normal flow, and some of the housing developments have their water shut off every night in order for their tanks to refill. It is easy to see why the area catches fire, since a careless tourist can easily catch the mountain on fire.

Besides the noisy Harleys that constantly thunder up and down the mountain on weekends, visiting the lodge and bar there, the locals also complain of bears. With the extreme lack of water, and therefore food, the bears have learned that, since Thursday is garbage day, the humans who live in the mountain village put their garbage out Wednesday night. And food thrown away by humans is tasty to starving bears.

There is a nice ski resort that becomes active in the winter. The resort is the largest and steepest in Southern California, offering 26 runs spanning 3 mountains and 2,100 vertical feet. However, given the desert-like atmosphere during the summer, it is hard to imagine the mountains having any snow. But, an old postcard helps explain why the ski resort is still in business.

We also saw the house where some scenes from Commando were filmed.

I guess now I have to rewatch that movie!

Technorati Tags: culture, travel

Ever wanted to read more, but never seem to have the time?

If so, you may be interested in DailyLit, a site that will break up a book you want to read into easily-digestible chunks and send you one chunk per day (or more, if you like). The chunks are small enough that you can read them in less than five minutes, and so by reading a little each day, in between your moments of busyness, you can complete books that you have been meaning to read, but never quite have the time for.

The books you subscribe to can be sent to you via email or RSS. The service is free, and the books are free too.

Because if you are like us, you spend hours each day reading email but don't find the time to read books. DailyLit brings books right into your inbox in convenient small messages that take less than 5 minutes to read. This works incredibly well not just on your computer but also on a Treo, Blackberry, Sidekick or whatever the PDA of your choice. In the words of Dr. Seuss: Try it, you might like it! (Oops -- it would appear that the actual quote from Green Eggs and Ham is "You do not like them. So you say. Try them! Try them! And you may.")

Do you believe in elves? They are not just for Tolkienites, you know.

As an Icelander, I am aware that invisible creatures are lurking about all around us. Growing up in the countryside, I lived on a farm at the foot of a mountain, where consideration toward the hidden world was as common as the courtesy you pay any other farm denizen.

"Don't touch the cows while they're milking!" 
"Don't handle the lambs or the ewes won't take to them!" 
"Don't climb up on that rock because you'll disturb the
 elves!"
"Don't feed the horses before you ride. It'll make them
 gassy."
"Don't make so much noise by that hill there. Someone 
might be trying to sleep inside it!"

I've been to Iceland, and I believe!

Note that it's never to late to pursue your dream.

Recently, the famed guitarist for the music group Queen, 60-year old Brian May, handed in his PhD thesis, 36 years after interrupting his studies to play in the band.

His area of study is Astronomy at the Imperial College, London, and the title of his thesis is "Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud". He still has to defend his thesis, which will happen on 23 August of this year. Nevertheless, the completion of his thesis, especially with such a significant gap in this studies, is a significant accomplishment.

From the BBC article:

The rock star is also preparing a concert to mark the inauguration of a telescope at the Observatory of the Roque de Los Muchachos in La Palma, Tenerife, where he completed his studies last month.

Finally, for a bit of Lord of the Rings humor, you may find the following animated gif amusing:

Technorati Tags: academia, book, culture, living, spirit

A friend has gifted me with a new book: Are We Rome?: The Fall of an Empire and the Fate of America.

Recently published, this book takes the reader on a tour of the last several thousand years, specifically analyzing the comparisons between the United States and Rome---as cultures and as models for nations. The arguments advanced by the author, Cullen Murphy, who was the editor of The Atlantic magazine and is now the editor of Vanity Fair, seem to be thoughtfully put together, rather than the alarmist and shallow chatter so often heard on talk radio and in Washington D.C.

So, I am definitely looking forward to reading this!

Technorati Tags: academia, book, culture, living, review

Viking treasure found in Britain!

"We were astonished when we finally discovered what it contained."

The ancient objects come from as far afield as Afghanistan in the East and Ireland in the West, as well as Russia, Scandinavia and continental Europe.

The hoard contains 617 silver coins and 65 other objects, including a gold arm-ring and a gilt silver vessel.

Dr Jonathan Williams, keeper of prehistory in Europe at the British Museum, said: "[The cup] is beautifully decorated and was made in France or Germany at around AD900.

"It is fantastically rare - there are only a handful of others known around the world. It will be stunning when it is fully conserved."

There are many responsible approaches countries can do to help decrease dependence on polluting petroleum products and move a country's industries and population to a more sustainable lifestyle.

Italy has answered this noble challenge by...banning ties:

"Taking your tie off immediately lowers the body temperature by 2 to 3 degrees Celsius," the ministry said in a statement. "Allowing a more sensible use of air conditioning that yields electricity savings and protects the environment."

However, Italy's tie-makers aren't taking this well:

"Italy confirms that it is a strange country," Flavio Cima said in a letter to financial daily Il Sole 24 Ore under the headline: "I, tie maker, am responsible for global warming".

"We can now happily continue with our lifestyle, using cars, consuming fuel, heating and cooling our homes at leisure. On one condition: we should not wear a tie while we do so," he wrote.

Remember, all you need to do is write.

Josh Catone over at Read/WriteWeb has posted a self-publishing toolkit---how to write and publish a novel.

Follow his approach, using 100% online tools, and you will have something, guaranteed. His best idea is to check out the National Novel Writing Month as a strong motivator to get yourself writing, and Sitepoint, where you can take bids on your novel's book cover designs, for example.

Finally, sometimes you just never know what you are going to see when you look outside your bedroom window.

Technorati Tags: academia, book, culture, living, religion, spirit

For an increasing number of people, that answer is yes.

Facebook is a (free!) online social networking site that allows you to have a "profile" where you display contact and other information of interest that you want other people to see. You can link to other people you know that are also on Facebook and you can see their updates and messages in your profile. In a way, it is like a digital Rolodex --- at an instant, you can see a quick summary of the messages and information about people that are important to you.

Via Josh Catone @ readwriteweb.com:

"Facebook IS the internet portal of 2007." - Jeff Pulver

"Facebook could easily become the Microsoft Windows of tomorrow." - Duncan Riley

"No matter how you look at it Facebook is the one. Right now." - Robert Scoble

"Facebook will reach 50 million, then 100 million, then 200 million users, and beyond." - Paul Allen

"Last time an inward looking ecosystem caught the imagination of developers, it was Windows 95, the defining moment for Microsoft. The winner of that movement: Microsoft." - Om Malik on the Facebook platform

"There's a chance that someday, Facebook will be the preferred place to read this blog because of all the social apps that will be built around it." - Fred Wilson

The idea is similar to the old networking sites like Friendster or Myspace. But there are several reasons why Facebook is the current place to be in the online world. First, there is this idea of what networks you belong to. With Myspace, anyone can join, but with a low barrier to entry, there was a lot of noise for small bits of useful signal. However, Facebook raises the bar of entry to a requirement that you belong to a particular network.

Originally started at Harvard, Facebook grew to more universities, then to companies, and finally now anyone can join if they have links to an appropriate network. I joined the Johns Hopkins network because I am an alumni of Johns Hopkins University. Now that I am on the Johns Hopkins network, I can see the 15,580 other members on that network. This allows me to stay in close contact with classmates and professors who went there. Since I am also a Virginia Tech alumni, I am able to join the Virginia Tech network and visit with the 44,996 other Virginia Tech members. And so on for all universities you may go to or went to. As you interact with more people, your network will grow.

But there are also networks for companies too (i.e., if you work for Microsoft you could join the Microsoft Facebook network, etc.), there is an option of joining via the "no network" for those who want to join but do not have a regular network point of entry, or you can be invited. With this networking concept, Facebook allows you to limit who gets to see the information on your profile. For example, I could limit my profile information to be limited to the Virginia Tech network, and anyone on the Virginia Tech network could see my profile, send me a message, view my friends and groups I belong to, etc. Or I could limit my profile information to just my friends, or to everyone.

For example, there is a quote about Facebook above by Robert Scoble. Who is Robert Scoble? Well, he is the author of Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers and has one of the most popular blogs on the Internet. In Facebook he is also my friend, and I see just by looking at my profile that currently:

Robert is reading reports from WordCamp in SF. I am staying home to do chores, jealous of those that are there.

I do not have to go to his profile to see that information---quick status updates are flashed to my profile for my friends so that I can quickly and easily get the information sent to me that may be interesting or useful.

Another reason Facebook is growing is that they have an "open platform," meaning that anyone can write applications to the Facebook API. The other networking applications are closed systems, meaning that only the employees of those networking site companies write the applications. But with Facebook's open API, the world is now writing and porting applications that work within the Facebook framework.

As examples of some of the applications, I can embed a Stock Quote widget into my profile so that I can monitor how much money I am making/losing, or maybe To-Do list and calendar applications to keep me on schedule. There are games I can play, I can keep track of over 200,000 different bands to find out where they are coming to play in my area, and I can watch videos, listen to audio, monitor newsfeeds, share recipes, or just draw pictures. All these creative and useful applications are available, for free, for anyone to embed on their profile.

So, are you on Facebook? If not, you might want to check it out. It is like having your address book, Outlook contacts list, calendar, television, and messaging system all in one spot. Will Facebook ever be replaced? Signs point to yes, since people will move to the new thing if the new thing provides more benefits and features than the old thing. But for now, Facebook is the thing.

You can visit my public profile and add me as a friend, if you like.

Technorati Tags: culture, technology

Paul Erdös was (1913-1996) a Hungarian-born mathematician known for being prolific (about 1,500 papers with about 510 co-authors) and eccentric. As to the latter, he spent most of his life traveling from place to place, staying in the homes of colleagues. Most of his possessions fit into his suitcase, and after staying a few days he would move on to the next colleague, for another few days of collaboration.

In this way, Paul demonstrated that science is a social enterprise. Research is conducted and papers are published through clusters networked scientists working together. In fact, Paul is known for research in random graph theory with Alfred Renyi (the latter is also known for saying that "a mathematician is a machine for turning coffee into theorems").

Because of Paul's research and behaviors, we was a bit of a star in the scientific community. Then, and perhaps more so today, it is popular to calculate one's Erdös Number, which is basically a way of measuring the publication distance between one person and Paul Erdös.

For example, someone who co-authored a paper with Paul would have an Erdös Number of 1, and there are about 510 people with this Erdös Number. Someone who wrote a paper with a co-author of Paul Erdös would have an Erdös Number of 2, etc.

Note that having a small Erdös Number is something that many people take quite seriously.

Currently, my Erdös Number is 4 (which also happens to be the Erdös Number of Bill Gates), and I also happen to have 4 separate publication paths to Paul, each of length 4.

The Erdös Number Project is organized to study research collaborations, and contains a large amount of information about collaboration research, information about Paul Erdös, and even allows you to calculate your own Erdös Number. This project is a subset of a much larger field of study on random graphs, clustering, the structure of the Internet, computer networks, data analysis, and social networks. If you have ever heard someone say "It's a small world!!!" or have ever played the game Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, then in a sense all this research about the structure of networks is about explaining this small-world phenomenon.

A quote from the book Linked: How Everything Is Connected to Everything Else and What It Means perhaps summarizes the intense interest in the Erdös Number and the structure of networks:

The very existence of the Erdös Number demonstrates that the scientific community forms a highly interconnected network in which all scientists are linked to each other through the papers they have written. The smallness of most Erdös Numbers indicates that this web of science truly is a small world.

Technorati Tags: academia, book, culture, science

The Secret History of the Sword: Adventures in Ancient Martial Arts, by J. Christopher Amberger

An amazing treasure-house of anecdotes, accountings, and historical musings on sword play across the generations and cultures. Its loose presentation style lends it to reading in frenetic bursts. I really enjoyed his commentary and analysis of fencing training and combat arts. One criticism is that he's not very strong on pre-Renaissance swordsmanship or history. But his pre-Renaissance discussion is just at the beginning of the book and that can be quickly skimmed -- the rest of the book is great.

Technorati Tags: book, culture, fitness, martial arts, review

Without a doubt, the Getty Museum is one of the places every visitor to Los Angeles should see.

Jean Paul Getty (1892 - 1976) was an American who made his money by founding the Getty Oil Company. A collector of art and other antiquities, when he died his money went into the J. Paul Getty Trust, which funds and operates the Getty Museum. The museum is a part of the larger Getty Center, which operates a research institute, conservation institute, grant program, and leadership institute.

The museum contains classical:

manuscripts

furniture

art

in addition to being flanked by a 134,000 sq. ft. garden

There are many more sights to see there, but you know they did things right when half your pictures turn out to be just of the building itself.

Oh, and best of all, entrance to the museum is free -- you only have to pay for parking.

Technorati Tags: academia, culture, travel

A friend gifted me with a new book: The End of the Certain World: The Life and Science of Max Born.

Max Born was a German mathematician and physicist who won the 1954 Nobel Prize in Physics, and gave to the world the foundation for quantum mechanics. I look forward to diving into this story about one of the world's best scientists.

And, just glancing at the back cover, it turns out Olivia Newton-John is his granddaughter!

Technorati Tags: academia, book, culture, science

So today I decided to make a tour around the UCLA campus.

The University of California, Los Angeles, or UCLA, has the largest enrollment of any university in the state and consistently ranks as one of the top universities in the world.

The campus is large (about 419 acres) and the buildings have a detailed, solid architectural style (Romanesque Revival?). As an example, the building below is the Powell Libary, which is the main undergraduate library. Interestingly, it was one of the original four buildings on campus.

In 1995, according to wikipedia, of the 36 PhD programs that were examined by the National Research Council, 11 departments made the top ten list.

Also, since 1998, no American university has had more applicants -- out of 50,732 applicants for fall 2007, 11,860 (23.38%) were admitted.

The building below is the IPAM building, or the Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics. The mission of IPAM is to serve as a collaboration center for mathematicians, engineers, and scientists to work on a wide variety of interdisciplinary problems. For example, during the summer IPAM organizes RIPS, which is a research program for talented undergraduates to solve a variety of problems for a variety of companies, such as Symantec, Pixar, and some of the national labs (LANL, LLNL, JPL).

The IPAM building, though a break from the main architectural style of the campus, was designed by noted architect Frank Gehry in the mid-1970s. Inside there is an open design with large windows that provides a lot of light and helps foster collaboration spaces for visiting researchers.

Another building that moves to the minimalist end of design is the Ronald Reagan Medical Center, below.

Finally, on my way back to my room after touring around the campus, I stopped by a small cafe for some food. Of course, I was riding my folding bike, so when I went in to order my food I naturally carried it with me.

While I was waiting for my food, this man and woman had pulled up on a large BMW motorcycle. The lady rider, in leather jacket and helmet, came into the cafe through the door as I was exiting through the door, still carrying my little folding bike. She saw it and gave me an "All right!". So either she really approved of me and my bike, or she was greatly amused -- I am not quite sure which.

Technorati Tags: academia, culture, living, science, travel

OK, genealogy, and academic genealogy at that - perhaps not the most stimulating of topics.

However, thanks to the Mathematics Genealogy Project, and some curiosity, I was able to trace back my academic genealogy from my advisor, to his advisor, to his advisor, etc., all the way back until the records gave out. (Note: I did a quick initial search -- I may continue this project in the future as time permits.)

Amazingly, I was able to trace my academic heritage all the way back to 1650, to an academic ancestor named Erhard Weigel, who was a German mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher.

And here is his picture:

Below, starting with Erhard, for each person I state the name and the year of his dissertation, if it is known. A link to the appropriate Wikipedia page is also given, if I could find one. In two cases, for Joseph Liouville and Jacques Hadamard, there are two advisors.

Erhard Weigel, 1650
       |
       |
Gottfried Liebniz, 1666
       |
       |
Jacob Bernoulli, 1684
       |
       |
Johann Bernoulli, 1694
       |
       |
Leonhard Euler, 1726                
       |  
       |                          
Joseph Lagrange                     ?
       |                            |
       |                            |
Simeon Poisson                Louis Thenard
       |                            |
       |                            |
           Joseph Liouville, 1835
       |
Eugene-Charles Catalan, 1841
       |
       |
Charles Hermite                     ?
       |                            |
       |                            |
Jules Tannery             C. Emile Picard, 1877
       |                            |
       |                            |
           Jacques Hadamard, 1892
       |
       |
Szolem Mandelbrojt, 1923
       |
       |
Hugh Daniel Brunk, 1944
       |
       |
Timothy Robertson, 1966
       |
       |
Edward Wegman, 1968
       |
       |
Carey Priebe, 1993 (and David Marchette, 1996)
       |
       |
Kendall Giles, 2007

Technorati Tags: academia, culture, science

I took my first real ride on my Downtube Mini folding bike over the weekend. I mentioned earlier that I had brought the folding bike with me to Los Angeles, since I wouldn't have a car while I was here.

Someone at work had mentioned that San Vincente Boulevard was a nice road to take to the beach, so I thought that would be a nice way to test out the new bike and to see some of the sights. The route I ended up taking is highlighted in purple (UCLA is in the upper right corner; Santa Monica pier is in the lower left corner).

The first task was to find San Vincente Boulevard. So I started at UCLA, headed South on Westwood Boulevard, and followed the Bike Path signs west on Wilshire Boulevard. The first ten minutes of my trip went fine.

However, my first mistake was to ride in traffic along Wilshire Boulevard. I am not a bike rider, but I knew that it is best to ride in the right-most lane. And after all, I was following the Bike Route signs. So all was fine, until I discovered suddenly that my lane, and the one to my left, turn into feeder lanes for the 405 San Diego Freeway.

Luckily, the Downtube Mini has a sharp turning radius, and after a bit of dodge and weave, I managed to get out of that situation.

Once I got west of the 405, I turned right onto San Vincente Boulevard. This was a much nicer road -- with a real bike lane, lots of nice houses, and being generally a pleasant place to ride a bike, as the following pictures show.

My second mistake was to not apply sunscreen. There is quite a bit of sun in L.A., especially at the beach. So about six miles into the trip, which put me near where San Vincente hits Ocean Avenue, I was starting to feel the heat. However, all discomfort was forgotten once I saw the view:

Note that in the second beach picture, the pier in the distance is Santa Monica Pier.

Also note that these pictures were taken from Ocean Avenue, which is on top of a small cliff, above the Pacific Coast Highway and above the beach.

However, when you have a folding bike (which weighs 24.5 pounds), cliffs are not a problem. No, I did not fall off the cliff, for once, but I did find some stairs going down the cliff. This picture is looking back after I carried my bike down the stairs and crossed the bridge over the Pacific Coast Highway:

However, by this time I realized my third mistake. On my next trip I will leave my backpack containing my laptop computer and some textbooks in my room. Evidently these sorts of things aren't really needed at the beach.

The fourth mistake dawned soon after -- riding a bike a long distance in the sun makes one thirsty and hungry.

Nevertheless, I rode my bike along the beach until I got to the Santa Monica Pier. There were the usual things one finds on a pier -- people fishing, people walking, people selling trinkets, people playing musical instruments -- though this was the first time I have seen a 9-story ferris wheel on a pier before:

My return trip was similar to my outbound trip, except that I rode back to San Vincente along Ocean Avenue instead of along the beach, so that I would not have to carry my bike, backpack, laptop, and books back up those stairs.

The round-trip was about 15 miles.

Technorati Tags: bike, culture, fitness, living, travel

So, iPhones have been available for a couple of hours now on the East Coast, and in just a few minutes will be available on the West Coast. As expected, the demand is great, and there are lines.

Here is the situation on Westwood Avenue in Los Angeles, where there is a line in front of the AT&T store (limit 1 per customer):

Technorati Tags: culture, living, travel

Well, at least using my experience with one trip, it works.

In my previous post, "In theory: how to survive when on travel without a car - the folding bike", I discussed this idea for staying in a city without a car. I showed a picture of the bike and a picture of the bike folded in a suitcase.

Here is a photo of the bike, unpacked from the suitcase, after a trip of 2,329 miles via airplane:

Technorati Tags: culture, living, travel

So for a period of time in the near future I will be working and doing research in a place where I will not have a car. This might not be so bad if it were not for the commute back and forth to the office.

So my solution, perhaps with my engineering background showing a bit too much, was to buy a folding bike.

The bike I chose: a Downtube Mini.

In theory:

wake up --> ride folding bike to office --> fold bike and carry into office --> work --> ride folding bike back to where I am staying --> fold bike and carry inside.

This way, I have convenient transportation, the bike won't be stolen by leaving it outside chained to some bike-rack, and, perhaps best/worst of all, I will be able to carry my bike with me on the airplane!

So here is the bike:

And here is the bike in my suitcase:

But, airports being what they are these days, hopefully I will not suffer the same fate as Stephen Orsak who, upon riding his bike from the Minneapolis St Paul International Airport, enjoined discussions with the police that did not end in his favor:

As I lay still on the pavement, Officer Wingate walked over to my glasses and smashed them into the ground with his boot. I was handcuffed, body searched and baggage searched. Reinforcements were called in, a total of (4) squad cars and a paramedic unit.

Note: If you thought this article was interesting or useful, please help it be more visible to others by clicking on "digg it" below:

Technorati Tags: academia, culture, job, living, travel, work

I thought John Wesley's Top 5 Ways to Build a Wonderful Life were pretty good:

• Live Below Your Means
• Put Your Money to Work
• Educate Yourself
• Develop Lasting Personal Relationships
• Work Towards a Dream You're Passionate About

The scientists who died and are in heaven
decide to play hide-n-seek.

Unfortunately Einstein is the one who is it first...........
He is supposed to count up to 100...and
then start searching.....

Everyone starts hiding except Newton.........

Newton just draws a square of 1 meter and stands in
it right in front of Einstein.

Einstein's counting:
1,2,3......97,98,99.....100........ He opens his eyes
and finds Newton standing right in front of him........

Einstein says "Newton's out..Newton's out....."

Newton denies this and says "I am not out........I am not
Newton......"

All the scientists come out to see how he proves that
he is not Newton.

Newton says "I am standing in an area of 1 sq
meter..... That makes me Newton per square
meter...... Since one Newton per square meter is one
Pascal, I'm Pascal, Therefore Pascal is OUT.......!

Technorati Tags: academia, culture, living, science, travel

Jesse Byock: Viking Age Iceland

I read this book prior to my trip to Iceland, and it really served to give me a good sense of the country, how it was settled, who settled it, and how the population grew over time. It also explained the desolation of the countryside - when you travel from the airport to Reykjavik, the land is like much like on the moon - treeless crags abound. The book explains how this came to be. In addition, the book gives a good background to the sagas and other adventures of the people of Iceland, and those who came to its shores.

NB: I saw this guy while in Iceland - how cool is that?

Technorati Tags: book, culture, living

This is a tanjo.

Technorati Tags: culture, defense, martial arts

If you want to get up-close and personal with the events in Iraq, you really should check out Michael Yon's Online Magazine. Mike is reporting on Iraq by embedding with the troops there, on the ground, with the bullets and bombs. Thus, he brings a perspective unmatched by any news broadcast from New York or the Green Zone. Not only his stories, but his images too capture a previously unseen view of life and war in Iraq. From his "A Memorial Day Message" article:

Yet Mosul is still dangerous. In January, a Humvee with five passengers rolled over a massive IED. The vehicle was completely destroyed. My first mission with James Pippin was the recovery of the five men killed. CSM Pippin set the leadership tone that horrible day and demonstrated moral strength far above and beyond what I believe most men could bear. CSM Pippin and I had just been swapping some emails within the past week, when a message came less than 24 hours ago that he, too, had been shot in Mosul.

As we toured the bar, a man approached, got uncomfortably close, and snarled his contemptuous opinion of our short haircuts in Steve's face. A brown belt with an Indian head buckle marked the border between his blue pants and beige shirt. He wore a white metal necklace, and on his right arm was a tattoo, which seemed to be a marijuana leaf. I'd experimented a little myself during the waning months of high school. It confused me-but not enough to celebrate with a tattoo. On his left arm he had taken pains to emblazon in red: Death Before Dishonor-a clear warning to all of dangerous waters, like a sign that says "No Swimming-Crocodiles".

Technorati Tags: academia, book, culture, defense, guns, living, security

OK, so maybe I made a mistake.

Maybe I totally missed out on one of the best TV shows to come along in, well, forever.

I mean, who ever heard of a vampire slayer named Buffy?! After all, I was in the middle of watching The X-Files and Babylon 5 when Buffy aired on TV - who had time for a high-school girl in red leather pants with a vampire problem?

But after watching just the first two episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I am enjoying every vamp patrol and all the resulting vampire slayage goodness.

Of course, having one of the main characters have the same surname as I do helps, as does lots of vampire killing action, plus well-written scripts, great acting, and interesting characters. And, well, the leather pants turned out to be, how should I put this, assets to the characters who wear them. I mean, I've commented on Buffy's, and my wife has commented on Angel's, so I guess there's asset-admiring all around.

Currently we are in the middle of season 5, and tonight I hope to catch up on Buffy and the gang. You can see what you have been missing too - best to get the whole series (or at least the first seven seasons) and plan on not getting much else done for a couple of weeks.

Just don't say I didn't warn you.

"What can I tell you, baby? I've always been bad."
     ---Spike, "Fool For Love".

Technorati Tags: book, culture, living

News reports indicate that Jerry Falwell died today.

Leading US conservative evangelist Rev Jerry Falwell has died in hospital in Virginia after being found unconscious in his office, his assistants said.

Aug. 11, 1933: Jerry Lamon Falwell is born in Lynchburg, Va.

June 1956: Shortly after graduating from Baptist Bible College in 
Springfield, Mo., Falwell becomes pastor of the new Thomas Road Baptist 
Church of Lynchburg, Va.

April 12, 1958: Falwell marries Macel Pate.

1967: Falwell creates the Lynchburg Christian Academy, a fully 
accredited Christian day school offering K-12 education.

1971: Falwell founds Liberty University.

1972: The SEC files charges of "fraud and deceit" against Falwell's 
church for the issuance of $6.5 million in uninsured bonds. The 
organization wins its case in 1973, but Liberty University files for bankruptcy and 
reorganizes, losing millions in church investors' money.

June 1979: Falwell organizes the Moral Majority, a political lobbyist 
group tasked with bringing Christianity to the forefront of the 
Republican Party platform. The group considers itself the force that 
elected Ronald Reagan to the presidency.

1981: Penthouse publishes a Falwell interview given to freelance 
reporters and Falwell files a $10 million lawsuit against the 
magazine, stating that the interview was sold without his consent. The 
case is dismissed.

1983: Falwell sues Hustler for featuring a parody of him in an 
advertisement. Although the jury denied compensation for his claims of 
libel and invasion of privacy, they awarded him damages for "emotional 
distress." Hustler founder Larry Flynt appealed the decision, and in 
1988 the Supreme Court ruled unanimously in favor of the magazine.

1987: Televangelist Jim Bakker passes control of his PTL Ministry to 
Falwell after a series of financial and adultery scandals, most notably 
Bakker's conviction for fraud that sends him to prison for five years. 
Within months, PTL files for bankruptcy. Falwell and the PTL board of 
directors resign.

1989: Having helped the Republican Party win three presidential 
elections, Falwell officially disbands the Moral Majority, saying, 
"Our mission is accomplished."

1995: Falwell begins publishing the National Liberty Journal.

Sept. 2001: Falwell comes under fire after he blames gays, abortionists, 
the ACLU, and other groups for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. He 
publicly apologizes for his remarks.

2003: Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore loses his seat on 
the bench for refusing to remove a monument to the Ten Commandments from 
the courthouse grounds. Falwell defends Moore's actions, comparing him 
to Martin Luther King Jr.

2004: Falwell founds the Moral Majority Coalition, a "21st century 
resurrection of the Moral Majority" and pledges to lead the organization 
for a minimum of four years.

2006: Relations between Falwell and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) warm after 
McCain speaks at Liberty University. During a campaign speech for the 
2000 presidential election urging the country to return to social 
moderation, McCain referred to Falwell (and others) as "agents of 
intolerance."

May 15, 2007: Falwell dies in Lynchburg, Va.

Technorati Tags: culture, lynchburg, religion, virginia

Now this is a house.

Architect:
Archer & Buchanan Ltd.
West Chester, PA 
610-692-9112
www.archerbuchanan.com

Builder:
Richard Owens Construction
Chester County, PA
610-827-0972

Custom doors and windows:
Premium Grade Cabinetry Inc.
Newark, DE.
302-369-1982

Hardware:
Michael M. Coldren Co, Inc.
North East, MD
410-287-2082
www.coldrencompany.com

Technorati Tags: academia, culture, living

This year marks the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown. Though Europeans had visited this land long before, Jamestown, settled in 1607, was the first permanent English settlement in the Americas. Many festivities and events are taking place this year. This weekend, for example, sees a replica of the boat that settler John Smith used to explore the Chesapeake Bay set sail on a 121-day journey to retrace his voyage. This past Friday saw Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II return to Virginia, revisiting Richmond, Jamestown, and William & Mary.



Just in case you are wondering, that's the Queen, on the right, and Former Supreme Court Justice and current W&M Chancellor Sandra Day O'Connor on the left, at W&M.

Technorati Tags: academia, culture, living, virginia

News reports are still coming in, but it looks as though today's shooting spree at Virginia Tech, in Blacksburg, Virginia, may be one of the largest mass shootings in U.S. history. The death toll is up to 30 students and faculty killed. From University President Charles Steger:

The university was struck today with a tragedy of monumental proportions. There were two shootings on campus. In each case, there were fatalities. The university is shocked and horrified that this would befall our campus. I want to extend my deepest, sincerest and most profound sympathies to the families of these victims which include students.

Technorati Tags: academia, defense, security, virginia

Technorati Tags: academia, culture, defense, guns, living, security, virginia

Michael Yon has been reporting on Iraq for some time now, along with a lot of other pundits and TV personalities. However, unlike the others, Michael is actually on the ground in Iraq. In fact, he travels outside the safe Green Zone in order to win direct, personal, and insightful coverage of events there.

As he recently mentioned:

There are two types of media sources covering this war: the ones who are here, and those who are not. The media is Missing In Action, and reporting from afar. Yesterday, for instance, major media reported on an attack in a small village north of Mosul. None of those sources actually visited the village. I did.

So please check-out his online magazine. Michael is walking the talk, and is making a difference.

Technorati Tags: culture, defense

I spend a great deal of time both in Richmond and in Baltimore, so it is natural that I have an affinity for Edgar Allan Poe. One of the world's greatest writers, Poe's works cross a variety of genres and styles.

Richmond sports an Edgar Allan Poe museum, and it is worth a visit. There is even an annual Young Writer's Conference held there.

I made an audio recording of "Edgar Allan Poe: An Appreciation", by W. H. R. While the language used in the appreciation's writing is somewhat stilted due to its age, it does serve as a brief introduction to Poe and some of his works.

Listen to Edgar Allan Poe: An Appreciation (.MP3, 14.7MB).

I've issued this recording under the Creative Commons License. While you can click the link below to investigate the details, basically you can listen to it and copy it as you like - you just can't use it commercially or derive works from it.

Technorati Tags: book, culture, virginia

There are are a couple of new books out or coming out that seem worth investigating.

The first is a book by Majorie Burns titled Perilous Realms: Celtic And Norse in Tolkien's Middle-Earth. From a review in the Rutland Herald:

There's a new book out on the "Lord of the Rings" and its accompanying volumes that says J. R. R. Tolkien's writing is much more subtle and nuanced than most people have realized. Marjorie Burns, a professor in the Department of English at Portland State University, says Tolkien blended Norse and Celtic factors in a delicate, abstruse manner that makes the works as scholarly as they are entertaining.

The second looks to be a special collected edition called the Runes of Ragnan. From an announcement on the upcoming collected edition:

This Fall, Silent Devil will unleash the Viking epic Runes of Ragnan in a collected edition containing the complete four-issue mini-series. Written by Ty Gorton, drawn in high action detail by Josh Medors (G.I. Joe, In The Blood, FUSED!), with colors by Jay Fotos (Spawn: The Dark Ages, Vampirella, The Nail), the collected edition will include a 5-page prequel, an exclusive short story with visuals by Bud Cook, contest winning artwork, and a behind the scenes feature.

From a review of the original series:

Runes of Ragnan is a comic that delivers a great story that blends elements of fantasy and actual Viking lore. Gorton’s story quickly sucks you into the comic, and keeps your interest through every page. Most important, the first issue leaves you wanting more, and not completely sure where Gorton is going with his story.

The third is a new edition of the Dictionary of Northern Mythology by Rodolf Simek and Angela Hall.

Technorati Tags: book, culture, review

The Thomas B. Fordham Institute released a comprehensive review of U.S. state science standards, the first since 2000. State science class standards lay out the course work and expectations for students in each grade - from kindergarten through high school.

For Virginians, the report gave some good news, as Virginia received an 'A', which shows that Virginia is serious about teaching science and educating their public school students. Other states that received 'A' grades are: California, South Carolina, Massachusetts, Indiana, New York, and New Mexico.

However, the report had more bad news than good, especially for other states and for the U.S. as a whole. Though the majority of states have reworked, often from scratch, their science standards since 2000, they have little to show for it. Also, it seems that the No Child Left Behind law has actually hindered quality education and has directed attention away from science. More bad news: there are more 'F' states than 'A' states. States that received an 'F' grade include: Alabama, Oregon, Hawaii, Montana, Nebraska, Wyoming, New Hampshire, Idaho, Texas, Wisconsin, Alaska, and Kansas. Of these, Kansas in particular it appears has actually worked very hard over the last several years to hurt public school education (witness the shenanigans of the previous School Board that was recently voted out), and their 'hard work' is reflected in their grade - amazingly, but not surprisingly, Kansas did the worst of any state with an 'F-'.

I find it very troublesome that so many states do such a poor job in educating children and with so much money wasted. On the other hand, I am sure that other countries, such as India and China, are very happy that the U.S. is not serious about science education - since those countries do seem to invest in quality education, future science and technology jobs will likely be filled quite readily by their workers if folks in the U.S. are not up to the task.

Technorati Tags: academia, culture, science, virginia

Today was a perfect day for the 93rd annual National Cherry Blossom Festival in our nation's Capital. Our group, the Capital Area Budokai, put on a martial arts demonstration in downtown Washington D.C. for the festival. The skies were blue, the blossoms were at their peak, our stage had a great view of the Capitol, and lots of people came out to see us.

Here are a few photos from the demo. Note that though my wife took lots of great pictures, by the time we went on, the sun had moved us into shadows. Thus, I had to wrangle with the brightness and contrast in the pictures to make them even partially visible.

The intro however was in bright sunlight. Here you can get a feel for the crowds, the stage, and the stage floor - it was a squishy gym mat that soaked up the sun's rays. Also, note that this image shows things as they should be: the jo player standing over the defeated swordsman:

For the tanjo set, here I am doing Kote Migi:

followed by Sutemi. Note that I got a good strong block on my opponent's strike, though I really should have caught both elbows:

For the jo set, here is the group at the beginning of Tachi Otoshi. Note how small the stage is: I had to pull a lot of my suigetsu strikes to prevent my opponent from sailing off the stage:

In the first part of Tachi Otoshi, I strike at my opponent's head: luckily (for him) he was able to block my strike:

He tried to counter by striking my neck, but the photo shows me just before my kuritsuke catches his tsuka for a block:

All in all it was a fun demonstration and a lot of people got to see some traditional Japanese martial arts. Maybe next year, if the stage is a little higher (so more people can see) and a little larger (so we can move around without worrying about falling off), it will be even better.

Technorati Tags: culture, fitness, martial arts, virginia

Winery in Virginia has come a long way since the early colonists struggled to replicate the wines they produced and loved in Europe. It was much harder here, since the Virginia climate has harsh winters, hot summers, and plentiful rains that cause a host of problems for tender grape vines.

But the struggles of the good people of Virginia paid off, as today Virginia produces world-class wines: they have cultured vine hybrids that are rugged enough to thrive in the climate, have experimented with the soil types and elevations to know which terrains and locations are most suitable for plantings, and through many years of experience and support of fellow Vintners have developed the know-how to produce wines that everyone can love. There are more than 80 wineries scattered across the state, in scenic settings run by good, friendly people.

I think Thomas Jefferson would be proud.

Technorati Tags: culture, living, virginia

Lately, with work, school, research, travel, and family obligations, I have not had as much time as I would like for MA training. However, I did jump through quite a few hoops in order to be able to attend a two-day seminar on Italian Dueling Sabre this past weekend in Annapolis, MD. The seminar was taught by Maestro Sean Hayes, master of arms at the Northwest Academy of Arms, and was sponsored by MASHS

Dueling sabre was from a time where swordsmen developed exquisite technique as well as the highest levels of health and conditioning in order to not only excel at their sword art, but also to survive its direct application in the form of duels.

The seminar was excellent and Maestro Hayes is a superb instructor. He took a well-attended but diverse audience, all new to the dueling aspects of sabre, from initial positions to the Countertime Theory, a great example of time and action in the later 19th century Italian schools.

Dueling sabre, as taught by Maestro Hayes is a living tradition of a historical martial art, and I look forward to exploring its subtleties and power in the future.

Technorati Tags: defense, fitness, martial arts

Here's an interesting quote from Noam Chomsky about people who like to wring their hands about this or that problem, but then don't follow up with action.

To tell you the honest truth, when I see a huge mob, which is pretty common these days, I have a mixture of feelings. Partly, I'm sort of depressed about it, for a lot of reasons. For one thing, there's just too much personalization. It doesn't make any sense. It's worrisome. The other thing is that the ratio of passive participation to active engagement is way too high. These were well-arranged talks. For example, they did what a lot of people don't do and ought to do. Every place I went there were a dozen tables outside with every conceivable organization having leaflets and handouts and sign-up sheets and telling what they're up to. So if people want to do anything, there are easy answers to what you can do in your own community. The question that comes up over and over again, and I don't really have an answer still -- really, I don't know any other people who have answers to them -- is, 'It's terrible, awful, getting worse. What do we do? Tell me the answer.' The trouble is, there has not in history ever been any answer other than, 'Get to work on it.'

There are a thousand different ways to get to work on it. For one thing, there's no "it." There's lots of different things. You can think of long-term goals and visions you have in mind, but even if that's what you're focused on, you're going to have to take steps towards them. The steps can be in all kinds of directions, from caring about starving children in Central America or Africa, to working on the rights of working people here, to worrying about the fact that the environment's in serious danger. There's no one thing that's the right thing to do. It depends on what your interests are and what's going on and what the problems are, and so on. And you have to deal with them. There's very little that anybody can do about these things alone. Occasionally somebody can, but it's marginal. Mainly you work with other people to try to develop ideas and learn more about it and figure out appropriate tactics for the situation in question and deal with them and try to develop more support. That's the way everything happens, whether it's small changes or huge changes.

If there is a magic answer, I don't know it. But it sounds to me as if the tone of the questions and part of the disparity between listening and acting suggests -- I'm sure this is unfair -- "Tell me something that's going to work pretty soon or else I'm not going to bother, because I've got other things to do." Nothing is going to work pretty soon, at least if it's worth doing, nor has that ever been the case.

Technorati Tags: culture, living