View from My Window

Well, I made it to my hotel. And I got about 5 hours of sleep before waking up and desparately waiting for my room service breakfast. The last time I was here, I discovered that ordering breakfast that way got me my most reliably edible meal of the day -- especially after I started ignoring the standard choices and writing "Coca-Cola" under the beverage section.

I am giving myself a leisurely morning. The conference registration doesn't start until 3 pm (It's currently 9:30 AM Sunday here, despite what the timestamp may say.) Since the conference hasn't started yet, I'm having to pay (gasp) for the Internet access. Actually, 1/2 an hour is free. (I wonder how many free half hours I could get?) But since I'm being leisurely, I paid the 5000 won for a full hour.

How much is 5000 won, you might ask? Around $5. The exchange rate is rougly 1000:1. This led to a certain amount of confusion last night when I was taking the taxi to the hotel. I asked the fare, and the taxi manager (or whoever he was) said, "three hundred". I'm thinking...that can't be in won (30 cents for an hour in a taxi), and it better not be in dollars. Eventually, after I repeated "three hundred?" enough times in a sufficiently incredulous voice, he realized his mistake and said "thirty thousand." That sounded about right.

I don't remember having a nice view from my window last time (it's not among the pictures I linked to here) -- maybe I was just too discombobulated to notice. Even though I'm in the less expensive "mountainview" room, I did enjoy the following views...

Back in Korea

I left home slightly over 25 hours ago. This is what I look like after that much time on the road...

Greetings from the Asiana lounge in the Gimpo Airport in Seoul. Since my last trip to Korea, they've opened a new airport -- Incheon Airport. But Incheon is (mainly) for international flights, and Gimpo is (mainly) for domestic flights, so after my 13 hour flight from San Francisco, I had to clear immigration and customs and hop a bus here. All has gone well so far. My flight for Jeju (formerly Cheju) leaves in 45 minutes, so I'm going to wrap up this post and head through security. More later!

I think that I shall never see...

Christina took some pictures on our drive home.

Hanging out with the Nephews

This evening, we went to see Mia and KC and the boys.



Witt showed us his new scooter.



Luke isn't quite old enough to play Robo Rally, but he still gets his own cards.



Christina tries to find the exact card selection that will allow her to shoot my robot. Witt, cards already placed, watches Planes, Trains and Automobiles.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving from Winston-Salem! Here are some pictures of our lunch today at Christina's grandmother's residence.



Here's Christina's Dad, our nephew Luke, Christina's Mom and me at lunch.



Here's Christina's sister Mia, her grandmother, Mia's husband KC, our nephew Witt and Christina at lunch.


Posing for a family portrait is not always without risk.

I did it eBay.

Well, after buying a bunch of stuff on eBay over the years, I'm finally selling something. After unsuccessfully trying to give away my Redskins tickets for the Giants game, I'm putting them up for bid. Given the way they're playing this year, I just hope I get one bid.

Goopta

I had a question answered in this week's Gene Weingarten chat on washingtonpost.com. The question was:

University Park, Md.: About this week's poll:

Are you sure Thaves knows how to spell "Gupta"?

For context, see the weekly poll for the chat and the comic it references.

The answer?

Gene Weingarten: Well, no. That would be even more pathetic.

Google Scholar

Google just introduced a new search engine called Google Scholar.

"The goal is to allow and enable users to search over scholarly content," said Anurag Acharya, a Google engineer leading the project.

Well, upon hearing this news, my natural instinct was to Google myself. Surprisingly, I found some interesting (to me) stuff.

One of my papers has been cited 10 times. OK, I knew about them, and a few may be duplicates, but I still found it cool.

More surprisingly, my first paper, which I was very down on at the time I wrote it, has been cited twice. I'm not quite sure why -- I can read one of them for the low, low price of $56.23. The other is someone's dissertation, where he says, "It is also known that..." then cites a simple fact I prove at the beginning of my paper.

Well, looks like I should get back to work putting more scholarly work out there for Google to index. I've been having fun lately doing research for a planned talk at a conference next month in Vegas.

951 Places Left To See

On a recent layover in the Denver airport, Christina and I picked up a book called 1,000 Places to See Before You Die. Here are the places on the list I've seen:

• The Costwolds -- mentioned, for example, here.
  
• Canterbury Cathedral -- some colleagues and I visited it on September 8, 2001.
  
• London -- for example, here.
  
• Hadrian's Wall -- I visited it with my parents in the summer of 1994 or 1995.
  
• Bath -- Christina and I went there in 2003.
  
• Stratford-upon-Avon -- I saw a play here in September 2003.
  
• Stonehenge -- Christina and I visited here in April 2003.
  
• York Minster -- I'm pretty sure I visited there in the 1993-95 time frame.
  
• Scotch Whisky Trail -- We stopped here on a trip to Scotland I took with my parents in the summer of 1994.
  
• Highland Games -- This was the highlight of the aforementioned trip. The Queen was there, too!
  
• Edinburgh Castle -- for example, here.
  
• Bruges -- I went there in May 2000.
  
• The Blue Mountains -- Christina and I visited there in July 2002.
  
• Sydney Opera House -- We visited there on that trip, too.
  
• The Great Barrier Reef -- Ditto.
  
• The Inside Passage -- I visited there in September 1996.
  
• The Getty Center -- Christina and I visited there in June 2002.
  
• Hollywood -- We visited there on the same trip.
  
• Monterey Peninsula -- I visited there in December 1995.
  
• The Pacific Coast Highway -- I first drove it in 1992.
  
• Everglades National Park -- I visited there in January 2003.
  
• Walt Disney World Resort -- I went there with my parents in 1976 and 1980.
  
• Savannah -- I visited there around 1995.
  
• Art Institute of Chicago -- I went there in November 2003.
  
• The French Quarter -- Christina and I visited there in April 2001.
  
• The New Orleans Restaurant Scene -- same trip.
  
• New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival -- same trip.
  
• Chesapeake Bay -- Right in my backyard.
  
• Bellagio -- We went there in our August 2001 trip to Vegas for Martin and Jeanene's wedding.
  
• The Las Vegas Strip -- same trip.
  
• The Adirondacks -- I visited there in June 2004.
  
• Finger Lakes -- I visited there in May 1998.
  
• New York City -- I visited there on a 7th grade field trip.
  
• Gettysburg -- I visited there on a 6th grade trip.
  
• Pennsylvania Dutch Country -- I went to "math camp" there several summers in the mid-1980s.
  
• Philly Food -- Christina and I sampled it on our trip in August 2003.
  
• Independence National Park -- same trip.
  
• Beaufort and the Low Country -- circa 1997.
  
• The Heart of Charleston -- I first went there for a conference in 1994.
  
• Low Country Cuisine -- circa 1997.
  
• Monticello -- Christina and I went there right after our wedding in October 2002.
  
• Colonial Williamsburg -- I visited there on an 8th grade field trip. Boy, they knew how to pick those field trips, I guess!
  
• The National Mall -- in my backyard.
  
• The Smithsonian -- also in my backyard.
  
• Banff -- We visited there in May 2003.
  
• Niagara Falls -- I first visited there in conjunction with a debate tournament in Buffalo in 1987. It's also the first time I ever left the US (albeit briefly).
  
• Vieux Montreal -- I visited there on a trip in May 2002.
  
• Chichen Itza -- We went there on our honeymoon in October 2003.
  

Wow, there were a lot of neat moments captured on that list. What amazes me is that 23 of them -- almost half -- are place I've only visited in the 4 1/2 years since I started this blog. I think it's partially because I've opened my eyes and tried to look for new opportunities to see the world. It's also partially because Christina has encouraged me to look around and see more of the world.

I don't think this is as good to use as a "checklist" as the World Heritage list -- there are far too many expensive hotels on the list. But it's interesting to see what I've managed to visit. I'll probably look around for things on the list that are possibilities for future visits, and I'll note it here when I visit them.

Hot Streaks

Here are the longest active NCAA Division I Men's Basketball winning streaks:

• University of Connecticut: 9
  
• University of Michigan: 5
  
• McNeese State University: 4
  
• Birmingham-Southern College: 3
  
• Columbia University: 2
  
• University of Tennessee at Martin: 2
  
• Brown University: 1
  
• Gardner-Webb University: 1
  
• Qunnipiac University: 1
  

As Tony Kornheiser would say, "That's it. That's the list." All other teams lost their last game. Why? 63 teams lost in the NCAA tournament. 39 lost in the NIT. Most teams that didn't make those tournaments played in their conference tournaments. In general, if they didn't make the NCAA tournament, they must have lost in the conference tournament. That leaves the teams that didn't play in the conference tournament. Those teams are generally really bad, and thus unlikely to have won their last game. So how did the teams on the list make it?

• University of Connecticut: Won NCAA tournament.
  
• University of Michigan: Won NIT tournament.
  
• McNeese State University: Won last 4 games despite being really bad.
  
• Birmingham-Southern College: Won conference tournament, ineligible for automatic bid to NCAA tournament.
  
• Columbia University: No Conference Tournament in Ivy League.
  
• University of Tennessee at Martin: Won last 2 games despite being really bad.
  
• Brown University: No Conference Tournament in Ivy League.
  
• Gardner-Webb University: Won last game despite being really bad.
  
• Qunnipiac University: Won last game despite being really bad.
  

Why do I notice this? I just think it's funny that the University of Michigan (my alma mater) has the second longest winning streak despite being in the "others receiving votes" category of the AP Poll.

Last Minute Prediction

I'm going to make 3 last minute predictions for the record. Contrary to conventional wisdom,

1. We will know the winner by 3 AM EST.
   
2. The winner will win by a margin of more than 1.5% of the popular vote. (I almost went to 2, but I chickened out.)
   
3. The winner will win by 50 electoral votes.
   

I'm not greatly confident of these, but it's my gut feeling, and I wanted to get it out there "in print" before the election.

The Mysterious Question F

In a previous post, I gave my election endorsements. I relied on this article from the Gazette to guide me as to the meaning of Question F. The article said

Question F...would prevent any council members who have served two terms from running for an at-large seat in the 2006 election, assuming at-large seats are added.

Now comes the Washington Post with their endorsement. They say,

We...urge a "yes" vote on...Question F, which would allow a district council member who has maxed out under Prince George County's two-term limit to run again for an at-large seat.

What? That would be the opposite of what the other paper said. Let's look at the text.

To provide that members of the County Council may not be elected to more than two consecutive terms...

So the Post recommended a yes vote based on a complete misreading of the Question.

You know, I was going to change my vote on Questions A-E, since the Post recommends a yes vote, but now I just feel like they're not really paying attention.

The Great War: American Front

I recently finished listening to Harry Turtledove's the 21 CDs that comprise The Great War: American Front, the sequel to How Few Remain, which I mentioned here last month. As before, I may include spoilers, so if you're planning to read the book (let's face it; you're not), consider yourself forewarned.

First recall that we're talking about an alternate history where the South won the Civil War with the help of England and France. This book takes us to 1914, where World War I is starting. It's England, France, Russia and the Confederates (the "Quadruple Entente") versus the US, Germany, and presumably Austria and the Ottoman Empire. (If the latter two get a mention, it's very brief.) In North America, the war is primarily a struggle of the US versus the Confederates and Canada.

The book is, like How Few Remain, told from a variety of perspectives. Unlike HFR, however, TGWAF (are those acronyms annoying enough?) tells the story from the perspective of common people. There are some historical figures present -- I counted Teddy Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, George Custer, Eugene Debs and Marcel Duchamp, but I'm sure there were more. These characters, however, are secondary to the everyday folk -- the New England fisherman, the Confederate Army major with the unfortunate surname "Lincoln", the black butler in a South Carolina mansion...

There's less excitement in "I wonder what a New England fisherman would do in this timeline" than "I wonder what Abe Lincoln would do if he lost the war (and survived)." The book at times sounded like one of those histories where they try to convince you that the life of ordinary people is more worth studying than the life of kings and statesmen. Sounds fun, huh? Nevertheless, the book succeeded in making me think about World War I in different terms -- by hearing Virginia ripped apart by trench warfare, I could more readily imagine the psychological shock to Europeans. And I could more readily appreciate the benefit to America of not having a war on our home soil during the twentieth century.

One of the book's drawbacks is its large cast of characters that makes it hard to remember who's who. Sometimes I had to wait until a soldier cursed the other side to remember which side he was on. Another is that everything is very slow developing and telegraphed. In an early scene, Confederate President Woodrow Wilson is giving a speech in Richmond, and soldiers fire bullets into the air to scare away the crowd. Is it really necessary to have a character wonder to himself what will happen when the bullets come back down? It doesn't move the plot along, and it doesn't really provide any "flavor" to the story.

Nevertheless, the alternate history is fairly compelling. By the end of the book, the USA has advanced across most fronts, though the war is stalling. The USA has also pushed the CSA out of Pennsylvania and is trying to retake the parts of Maryland and DC that have fallen. The South is starting to be disrupted by a Marxist revolution led by blacks. That's one of Turtledove's cleverer ideas, and I'm waiting to see how this will play out.

"I'm waiting to see how this will play out" will probably keep me reading through the next three books in the series. Yes, reading, because the next book is only available on cassettes for some reason. At least by reading the book, I can skip over some of the slow parts.

Wine Update: 3 New Wines

It's been a while since my last update, but we've only tried 3 new wines at home in the interim. This is partially due to traveling, and partially due to enjoying another bottle of the Hardys Stamp Shiraz, previously reviewed here.

1998 Chateau Labarde (Bordeaux)

This is the first Bordeaux we've tried. Despite being the most expensive wine we've tried, it was not from a particularly prestigious Chateau. Some quick Googling turned up this article, which indicates that Labarde is the tertiary vineyard of a Chateau that had fallen on hard times, but is coming back. Still, it is a Bordeaux, and they do make good wine there. We enjoyed this wine, but I don't think it really whet our appetite to get deeper into French wines. We may stick with our apparent preference for Southern Hemisphere wines.

2002 Di Majo Norante Sangiovese

This wine was enjoyable -- fruity, with a medium body, but not too oaky or tannic. I think we'd try it again if we came across it, but we're willing to consider other Sangioveses.

2001 Hardys Nottage Hill Merlot

I picked up this wine at Franklin's after a recent trip. Franklin's is a restaurant and general store just over a mile from where we live, and it makes the best hamburger around. As a bonus, you don't have to fight the students for parking -- just the crowds of locals who show up for good food and the beer from their brewpub.

We both enjoyed this wine; it's the best Merlot we've had in a while. I wonder if the Hardys Stamp Merlot, which generally runs $2/bottle cheaper, would be of similar quality. Christina said she tends to prefer Cabernets to Merlots, so maybe we'll look for a good, reliable Cabernet, although we have several Merlots in the chiller to help us out in that direction.

The Android's Dungeon Endorses!

I have to fill out my absentee ballot, so I thought I'd share the research I did to come to my decisions. So long secret ballot -- take that, Australia!

President

I think Jon Stewart summed it up best: "If one guy drove me into a ditch and said, 'Don't worry, I know how to get us out of this,' I'd give the keys to a 7-year-old." The Android's Dungeon recommends a vote for John Kerry.

U.S. Senator

Let's take a look at an article about the Mikulski/Pipkin debate, since I, like 99% of Marylanders, didn't watch it. Let's see. Pipkin criticized Mikulski for voting to raise taxes "350 times", opposing the Medicare prescription drug bill, and opposing some of Bush's court nominees. On the first charge, if he's using the same math Bush uses to count how many times Kerry has voted to raise taxes, he's lying. Also, even if she has, we have a deficit spiraling out of control, so maybe we should send her back to keep trying. On the second charge, the prescription drug bill was a big waste. The Bush administration covered up the bill's true costs. Finally, the Constitution gives the Senate the task of approving judicial nominees. Inherent in that is the right to disapprove. If Mikulski says she voted for 95% of the Bush nominees, that seems a bit high. The Android's Dungeon recommends a vote for Barbara Mikulski.

Representative

We've got the second most powerful Democrat in the House representing us. Why mess up a good thing? The Android's Dungeon recommends a vote for Steny Hoyer.

Judge of the Circuit Court

"Vote for No More Than Three"? Conveniently, there are only three people on the ballot. I tend to think judges should stay in office unless they embarrass themselves significantly. In fact, I'm not sure we should be voting on them. So I Googled the candidates to see if I came up with anything embarrassing. I didn't find anything embarrassing -- well, not for them, but I think the State of Maryland should be embarrassed for misspelling "Judge". The Android's Dungeon doesn't really care how you vote on this one.

Judge, Court of Special Appeals

This one is a "for continuance in office" that passes the Google test.

Ballot Questions

Questions A-E are for approving bonds allowing the county to borrow money for roads, libraries, public safety, county buildings and community colleges. The League of Women Voters directs me to a web site where I can look up the text of these bills. Unfortunately, the text just gives a list of projects and refers me to the county "capital program" for details. I can't find the county capital program on-line. They're making this too difficult. In general, I'm going to vote no. But the roads need help, and I find it hard to believe that libraries can't use the money, so yes on A & B, no on C, D & E.

Questions F, G, H and I are a big mess, but it's basically explained here. The key here is Question H, which will add 2 at-large seats to the County Council. Seems reasonable enough. But it will also make the top vote-getter from the two at-large seats the Council Chair. That seems a little pointless. Question G will overturn that second provision. Question F will amend the term limits rules to prevent my council member from running for one of the at-large seats. I hate term limits, so no on that. Question I will make the at-large members non-voting members. This is just a big waste of time. So yes on G & H, no on F & I.

Question J reduces the number of hours the county can hire temporary employees for. If they want me to vote for this, they need to explain it better. No on J.

Hampton Comes Alive

I just finished a two night stay at the Hampton Inn in Woodbridge, NJ. This is enough, in theory, to bring me up to 36 nights and Gold VIP status. I say "in theory" because there is some debate on FlyerTalk about whether free nights count. But I'll make it next week either way.

I originally had a stay at an Embassy Suites, but when the new hotel per diem rates came out, the allowable rate had dropped by around $35, and I had to switch hotels.

The Hampton I ended up with is the first one I've stayed at that has implemented the brand's new "Make It Hampton" enhancements. So, how do the enhancements measure up? Let's take a look.

• Complimentary High Speed Wireless Internet Access will be available in the hotel public areas. I don't spend time in the hotel public areas, so this wasn't too useful.
  
• Complimentary High Speed Internet Access in all guestrooms. This was great, although I wish it were wireless instead of wired.
  
• Enjoy our new complimentary hot breakfast items on rotating menus, so you're sure to enjoy a variety of flavorful meals, including sausage patties and scrambled eggs. The scrambled eggs were pretty good this morning.
  
• A new blend of robust coffee awaits you in a unique presentation guaranteed to make you smile. I hate coffee. I didn't smile; do I get my money back?
  
• If you are in a hurry, ask the breakfast hostess for the new On the Go Breakfast Bag™, complete with water, fruit, a muffin, and a breakfast bar. This was very useful yesterday morning, when I was in a hurry to get to the conference. I didn't even have to ask; they had the bag ready.
  
• Curved shower rods for extended shower space. I didn't notice this, which probably means it's a plus.
  
• A one-of-a-kind alarm clock making it easier to set your alarm time in three simple steps, as well as find your favorite music. I liked the feature on the alarm clock where it told you both the time and the time the alarm was set for. Three "simple" steps? I guess holding down one button for a long time because an hour button is too complicated is "simple". I was disappointed there was no indicator whether or not you had pressed the snooze button.
  
• A portable lap desk that allows you to work in comfort from anywhere in the room. This is a neat idea that would be more useful if the Internet access were wireless.
  
• Our new Hampton alarm clock and lap desk are also available for purchase! If you would like to enjoy these new products each retail for $29 plus tax, shipping and handling. Please call 1-888-224-7730 for more information. I won't be calling.
  

All in all, I enjoyed the experience. There were other nice little touches -- the plastic utensils were actually labeled at breakfast -- no more digging around to find out if you had spoons or forks. I just hope they don't raise prices past the per diem to pay for all these improvements...

Primary Inversion

As I mentioned in a recent post, I am continuing to read Nebula-award winning novels. As I also mentioned, I will only read books in series order.

That caused me to read Catherine Asaro's Primary Inversion, which is the first book in the "Saga of the Skolian Empire." (The author corrected Michael Dirda at the National Book Festival when he referred to it as a series. Since she is not here to correct me, I will continue to refer to it as a series.)

Primary Inversion is what I'd call "Space Opera", which is unusual in "serious" science fiction these days. By "serious" I suppose I mean "award-winning". I think "faster than light" travel has gotten less popular because people finally got it in their heads that it's impossible, and thus more suited to fantasy than science fiction. Fortunately for the genre, Asaro's a physicist, so she's more than qualified to imagine an FTL drive that's just as plausible as most things found in SF books these days.

"Primary Inversion" was enjoyable, but I'd characterize it as a relatively light, fun read. I suppose I will have to wait until Book Six to get to the Nebula, so it's not fair to compare it to other such award winners. I found out during Asaro's talk that The Quantum Rose, which won the Nebula, is an allegory for quantum field theory. That sounded pretty cool, and I told her so when I went to get a book signed. I mentioned that my background was in mathematics, and she said that I should read Spherical Harmonic, which was about the spherical harmonic. I didn't have the heart to tell her that I was a number theorist, and thus had no clue what the spherical harmonic was.

I've started Catch the Lightning, the second book. It's set in an alternate history 1987, which is weird in and of itself. Most of the book so far has to do with a poor girl meeting a space pilot from the future. The "Are you really from space?" dynamic recalls almost every Star Trek time travel episode ever. I'm only mildly enthused, and have put the book aside for another book, which I thought would be more promising. But that's another post...

Fun With Gmail

So I'm reading my Michigan Sports News e-mail when I notice the ads that Gmail is displaying for me. "Eliminate Ground Moles"? "Effective Pest Control"? Where is this coming from?

Then I see the final link. "Get rid of those Gophers". Ah, yes, Michigan did that.

FlyerTalk

I mentioned FlyerTalk in my previous post. It's frequent flyer discussion site. If anyone would be particularly amused by looking at my posts, you can see them here.

Flying the Ted Skies

For last week's trip to Arizona, we, as is our wont, flew United. For the BWI to Denver segments, I upgraded us into first class, which was a nice perk. For the Denver to Phoenix segments, we were on Ted, United's discount carrier. This was our first experience with Ted, but I thought it would be OK, especially since I didn't have enough upgrades for those segments anyway.

The Denver to Phoenix Ted flight was just like a regular United flight, without a first class cabin (which made getting on and off the plane easier), with orange headphones, where they would only give you half a can of soda (probably more than I need anyway), and where the overhead vent didn't really work. The last was annoying, but I'm not sure we can blame that on Ted.

The return trip was a different story. Apparently the original Ted aircraft wasn't available, so our plane was replaced by a non-Ted plane. And we got a complimentary upgrade! It was just like being in first class on a regular flight, except they would only give you half a can of soda...

Anyway, to prove I've actually flown in first class on Ted to the folks at FlyerTalk, here's my boarding pass... (Name and frequent flier number removed to protect my secret identity...)

Parables

As part of my Nebula reading project, I read Darwin's Radio in June. I also read the sequel, Darwin's Children. Not as good.

The latest (15th) book I've read in that project is Parable of the Talents. But first, I had to read Parable of the Sower, the first book in the series.

Yep, had to read it. I can't stand to pick up the middle book in a series and start there. When I was a kid, I read all of the Hardy Boys books in order, up until, I think, Number 33. I read them in order, even though the only connection each book had with others in the series was in the beginning, where the book would say something like, "The young detectives had recently broken a car theft ring...", or at the end, with, "The young detectives did not know that events were already occurring which would soon involve them in another challenging case, The Great Airport Mystery."

(I stopped reading when I thought I had lost Book 33. It turned out, I think, that I had forgotten returning the book to the library. Still, the experience spooked me enough to stop reading the series. Yes, I was the kind of child who was spooked by overdue library books.)

Where was I? Ah, yes, the Parable of the Sower. The book is set in a dystopian near-future in the US where climate change and...er, something or other...fuel shortages, I think...have plunged the United States into something approaching Third World status. I found the whole scenario fairly implausible, but then I noticed the word "parable" in the title. Well, why was I taking things so literally? But then, after finishing the book, I read the author interview that was included with the "reading group" edition. Apparently, this book reflects the path that she feels the country is headed down if things continue as they are.

Huh. I sort of recognize this point of view from my days on college campuses --- it's a particular kind of leftist "things are doomed" worldview. I say this, please understand, as a registered Democrat who thinks we aren't taking climate change and alternate fuels seriously enough. But America doesn't rely on a good climate and oil supplies for its position in the world economy. If anything, Third World economies are more dependent on raw materials (oil, food) than the US. So I found the premise of the book (well, both books) hard to swallow.

That said, I found the narrative fairly compelling, if bleak. The characters were extremely nuanced and human --- unfortunately a rarer occurrence than it should be in science fiction. They were books I had a hard time putting down, but I was also happy to be done with them and to move onto lighter fare.

Monday Night Football

OK, I think I'm finally done clearing off the digital camera. Behold, the pictures of Monday Night Football.

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When you start tailgating 5 hours before the game, you'd better bring cards. And beer.

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On our way to the stadium, we had to dodge a guy burning a Dallas jersey.

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On the way to our gate, there was a contest where you could win a cap by throwing a football through a hole. Christina walked away with one.

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And then there was the game. Sigh.

Visiting My Cousin

A couple of weeks ago, since I was in the UK on business, I went up to Sheffield (that's in South Yorkshire, which is in northern England) to see my cousin Diane. She had married Mark, an Englishman, in August, so I went to visit them.

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They have a very nice house.

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Isn't this a great window?

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Here are Mark, me and Diane.

Visit to the Boneyard

Today my parents, Christina and I went to visit the Boneyard, where the Air Force mothballs planes. According to our guide, there are $27 billion worth of planes there. Pretty cool.

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OK, here's my "picture of a stealth fighter" gag picture.

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Here's an A-10 "Warthog".

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After the tour, we went to the Pima Air & Space Museum. Here's Christina looking cute in a cockpit.

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The museum had Kennedy and Johnson's Air Force One available for touring. This, of course, is the Presidential Potty.

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Here are my parents in front of an SR-71 Blackbird. What a plane. Coast to coast in 68 minutes.

No Ad

Some of you may have noticed ads on the side of this weblog recently. I signed up with Google AdSense to put ads on the side of the page. When people clicked on the ads, I would get a commission. When my total reached $100, I would get paid. I decided to see what rate I was earning money, and judge how soon I'd get the first check. If it was in the far, far future, I would give up. If not, I'd hang in there and wait to collect the money.

I should mention that one of the terms of signing up is that you're not allowed to publicize how much money you're making. I'm going to break that condition right now. Why? According to their stats, nobody ever clicked on an ad. That's right, I earned $0.00. At this rate, it would take an infinite amount of time to earn $1, let alone $100.

So I'm taking the ads off. It was amusing to see what it thought was related, but I'm declaring this experiment a failure and moving on. The ads will gradually disappear as I get around to re-publishing pages without them.

How Few Remain

I recently started listening to books on CD in my car. The second one I worked through is How Few Remain, which is an alternate history novel based on the assumption that the South won the Civil War. First of all, I have a problem with the plausibility of the premise. I don't think one minor event (as in the book) could have changed the course of the war -- I think the industrial might of the North pre-determined the outcome. I was glad to see an essay in the book Alternate Gettysburgs from a professional historian which supported this point of view. Still, it's interesting to think "What If?" (Warning, spoilers follow.)

This book is set in 1881, just after the USA has finally elected another Republican president. The Confederate States of America decide to purchase two Mexican provinces from the "Empire of Mexico." (Lack of a strong USA has let French interference in Mexico persist.) The USA, fearful of a stronger CSA stretching to the Pacific, declares war. The book is the story of the war told by looks at various famous people (Abraham Lincoln, George Custer, Samuel Clemens, Stonewall Jackson, Jeb Stuart, Teddy Roosevelt and a few more).

It was definitely well-researched, and I found it all very plausible, except for the whole idea that the North wouldn't wipe the floor with the South. Then again, with the CSA having English and French allies, the balance is tipped against the USA. One thing I noticed is that the author takes a lot of care only to include things that would follow from the premise --- nothing too unexpected ever happens. This is good for the believability, but takes something away from the excitement in the novel. Also, some of the details can be a little bit mind-numbing. Yes, Germans would be puzzled by American idioms. No, that doesn't need to be mentioned every time it happens. These flaws, however, are less of an issue for a book-on-CD, when I also have my fellow motorists to entertain me.

In my view, the major flaw was the sex scenes. Having a guy affecting a 19th century way of talking read you descriptions of Sam Clemens, George Custer and Teddy Roosevelt doing the wild thing is not an experience I recommend to you. Thankfully, that only occurred three times in the entire 21-CD book.

I did worry a little bit about potential pro-South bias in the book. (They were the ones with slaves, which in my mind makes them the bad guys.) I don't think there was any --- the author (also, I must admit, a professional historian) was following the original idea to its logical conclusion. The book did end with the CSA "winning" --- they got to keep part of Mexico, and the Brits annexed part of Maine. But that just made me want to read the next book so I could hear the USA get revenge (I hope). "Remember...Maine!"

Opening Day

Well, hopefully this week of vacation will allow me to catch up on my weblog, including posting pictures I took earlier.

Here are some pictures from the Redskins' opening day victory over the Buccaneers. We had a good time getting ready, tailgating, and watching the game before I headed off to England.

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We managed to find an open seat next to us for Ben, who couldn't find anybody to take his other ticket. What happened to the traditional demand for Redskins tickets?

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This picture gives you a good idea of the view from our seats.

Casa Grande Again

Greetings from Arizona. We flew in last night and stayed with my Aunt Pam. Today, Christina and I drove to my parents, passing by Casa Grande Ruins National Monument. I had visited there in 2001, but Christina had never been there, so we stopped and looked around.

With my new digital camera, I can now upload pictures wherever I am (yeah, I know, welcome to the 21st century). So here's our visit in pictures.

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Sheffield Marriott

After my stay at the Hilton Puckrup Hall, I headed north to Sheffield, to visit my cousin and her husband. (They got married last month.) More on that later. Here are a couple of pictures of the hotel.



As you can see, it's another converted manor. The walk down the hallway was even longer. At one point, I had to drag my suitcase up the stairs and push past an oblivious wedding guest. The hotel was hosting two weddings that night, and I believe the next night, too. My cousin and her husband looked at this place, but it wasn't really the sort of intimate setting they were looking for.



My gold status with Marriott did me some good, as it got me upgraded to this "executive room" which was nice and big.

John's Adventures

My friend, John "George" Grayson, now has a weblog of his own.

Having a Blast

My father and his golfing partner took "low gross" at the MountainView Men’s Golf Association "5th Annual Member-Member Blast". Congratulations!

Hilton Puckrup Hall

The first hotel I stayed in last week was the Hilton Puckrup Hall in, or, well, near, Tewksbury. It's on a golf course, which would be nicer for me if I played golf. Still, it got me up to 34 Hilton nights for the year (36=gold). And it was a nice place to stay, though I still haven't found the ultimate place to stay in the area.

My room was towards the end of a very, very long corridor. A colleague who was even closer to the end would hum the "Get Smart" theme on the way to his room. I guess that's what you get when you build a hotel out of an old manor.

I used my new digital camera to take pictures of the view from the room.

This is a neat window:


And this is the golf hole I could see from the window:


And this is the room:

Mailing list.

I'm conducting an experiment. There are web pages that I check often to see if they're updated. It would be easier if those pages let me know when they were updated.

I suspect some of my readers are in the same situation. So I have created a Google Group that is supposed to e-mail you when I have a new posting. You are welcome to go there and try to sign up. I'd be interested to know if this works!

Wine Update: Less Heavy Wines Under $8

Since my last wine update we've tried five wines. Looking over the list, I've noticed all five are in the $7-$8 range, and all five are light or medium bodied. I've been making an attempt to identify enjoyable wines that can be paired with lighter foods. Also, I paid less for some of these wines -- I've been taking advantage of coupons.

2000 George Duboeuf Pinot Noir

Pinot Noir is supposed to be the wine that goes with everything. It's a little tricky to find one in a budget price range. Duboeuf is a well-known mass-market brand, so this seemed like a safe choice.

It was a decent, if not memorable, wine.

2002 Buffalo Grove Pinot Noir

This is the first wine I've bought off a tasting at Corridor Wine. I think usually they're pushing wines that they have some particular interest in selling. The week I bought this wine, the store managers hadn't received direction about which wines for tasting, so they picked out some of their favorites. I thought this was an enjoyable Pinot Noir. Christina was less impressed; I think she ranks this on par with the Duboeuf Pinot Noir.

2001 Don Sebastiani & Sons Smoking Loon Pinot Noir

We got this one since we liked the Syrah from the same winery. I think it ranks near the other Pinots -- enjoyable, but not a "must buy".

2001 George Duboeuf Chateau de Buffavent Beaujolais

Beaujolais is a well-known lighter, fruity wine, so I thought we'd give it a whirl. I had a nice half-bottle when I was in La Jolla. Duboeuf is primarily known for its Beaujolais. I think we'll try other Beaujolais, but not necessarily this variety.

2000 Montecillo Rioja Crianza

We had this tonight -- it was our first Spanish wine. We both enjoyed it; I think I'll pick up another Rioja soon.

Adios, Mario

The guy who used to cut my hair (who made a cameo appearance in this weblog 4 years ago) was apparently murdered last week. That's disturbing.

I found out earlier this year that he no longer worked at Bananas. I realized the only reason I continued to get my hair cut there was, in a sense, inertia -- it's annoying to work through several people who do a crappy job of cutting my hair to find someone who knows what they're doing. Mario, as goofy as he was, did a good job, but it was weird since I had no idea what he was saying half the time, and the other time he was ranting about the Cowboys or politics or something.

Anyway, I learned stuff from the obituary that I hadn't known -- he had retired, not just moved to another place. And he was 66 -- I would have guessed he was in his 50s, at most.

Some details were in the article only, I suspect, because it was written by a college student, who has yet to learn about not speaking ill of the recently departed...

"No one really liked him, but everyone knew who he was," Pruskowski said.

People have egged his home more than once, Miller said, and pumpkins were smashed in front of his house on Halloween.

"He got on people's nerves ... but he never had any serious altercations," she said.

Neighbors said they often saw Alonso walking his dog and telling people where they should park in the complex's parking lot. He had residents' cars towed, Miller said, and frequently pestered residents to keep their lawns clean.

Well, heck, that was Mario. He'd often wander away from cutting my hair to tell someone else how to live their life. It may be better to have an un-sanitized remembrance printed. It shows some of his character, and he certainly was a character.

Rest in peace, Mario.

Born in the USA

I've been enjoying watching the Olympics on TV this year, but I have to question the playing of the song "Born in the USA" after various American triumphs. US reputation abroad isn't too great these days; I don't think it's improved by playing a song with lyrics like,

So they put a rifle in my hand
Sent me off to a foreign land
To go and kill the yellow man

I'm going to assume that Greeks, and not the USOC, are behind this.

Santa Barbara Pictures

Well, I'm back, and I've downloaded the pictures from the digital camera. Not a lot of excitement. You can also reminisce with pictures from 2000 and 2003.

Here is a picture from my winery visits...



Here's a shot from the rump session...



Here's a picture I seem to take each year...the beach barbeque...



My hotel had a bunch of drinks named after defense contractors and other entities. It was interesting, but perhaps more interesting if I had the resolution to get the drinks corresponding to each contractor...

No Tri-Tip This Time

Last year I visited the Old Town Tavern to play NTN at lunchtime during this conference. I headed back there again today. I sat down and asked for a Coke and a menu. (Happily, I didn't even have to ask for an NTN board, as they were set up along the bar.) The bartender obliged with the Coke, but said that their cook had quit, so they didn't have any food.

Hmm. This looked like it was going to put a crimp in my NTN plans, but the bartender suggested that I could get take-out from the Chinese restaurant across the street and eat it at the bar. A little bit weird, but at least I got my NTN fix in.

Comments

I've enabled a feature to add comments to this weblog. I think it would be nice if this site were more interactive, but I will probably end up turning off this feature if I get no comments, or annoying comments from random people. (Annoying comments from people I know are expected, however.)

Wine Tastings

Today was our free afternoon for the conference, so I decided to head to a winery. What better way to get a souvenir, I thought, than to taste some wine at a winery, and then bring a bottle of my favorite back home?

I selected the Fess Parker Winery on the basis that it was relatively close to my hotel, and I had heard of it. Granted, I had heard of it mostly through the Fess Parker Doubletree Resort, which I couldn't afford to stay in, but I had definitely heard of it. I try to avoid "celebrity" wines, but I gave this one pass on the basis that I was a little bit unsure who Fess Parker was. (It turns out he's most famous for playing Davy Crockett.)

I tasted the wines, and they were OK. In particular, the Sauvingon Blanc managed to overcome my usual distaste for whites. But I figured I should do better than OK, so I left with my only souvenir as a glass with a coonskin cap logo on it. It was tempting to get an actual coonskin cap to replace the one I had as a boy, but I restrained myself.

Still in search of my California wine to bring home, I headed down the road to Firestone Vineyard. Again, the wine was OK, and I left with another souvenir glass. I also left with an admonition to try the wine at Curtis Winery. My souvenir Firestone winery would get me a free tasting at Curtis. I tried the reds there (to avoid getting too wine-d up to drive, I poured out a lot of the stuff I didn't like), but was unimpressed.

There was a recurring taste that put me off, and I wish I could name it, so I could find out how to avoid it in the future. Maybe it's a component of Santa Barbara county wines inherent in the soil? I don't know whether to call it licorice, plastic, chemical or what. I taste it in a number of wines at Corridor Wine, our local wine mega-store, where I go to weekly tastings.

Well, at least I have my two glasses.

Really Not In Santa Barbara...

Last year when I came out here for a conference, I was staying over half an hour away from the university as part of my quest to make 50 nights with Marriott, and the associated gold status. Well, I made the 50 nights, I have the gold status, but I couldn't get a room there to enjoy the status.

No matter. Gold status with Marriott was last year's goal. Hilton is this year's goal. Hilton requires 14 fewer nights, allows me to count 13 nights that Christina stayed, and counts free stays (2 nights so far this year). That puts me 29 nights closer without really trying. 21 to go -- of which I've had 11 already this year. So I'm staying at an Embassy Suites. Ironically, I pass the Marriott and drive 20 miles past to get to the Embassy Suites in Lompoc.

It's a nice enough drive, unless Avis has upgraded you with an Isuzu Rodeo without great shocks and you've generally overindulged the previous 24 hours (brats while tailgating before the football game the previous night, 4 hours of sleep, too much creamy pasta and free booze on the upgrade to first class from BWI to LAX, all-you-can-eat shrimp and salmon at the conference's opening reception... Not a pretty sight.

The hotel itself was nice, but as there are evening receptions for the conference each day, I don't plan to see too much of it. It's set up like a compound of villas around a pool and a garden. The "suite" is really spacious and comfortable. The cook-to-order breakfast was nice this morning. I'm booked into an Embassy Suites in New Jersey in October; it should be nice if I end up going to the associated conference.

Herb Scrambled Eggs

I noticed we had some eggs that are due to expire in a few days, so I decided to have scrambled eggs for dinner. I am a very recipe-dependent cook, so I turned to the Ultimate Southern Living Cookbook that Christina recently recommended. The very straightforward recipe has several variations; I chose the "cheese" and "herb" options (and cut the recipe in half). I changed two things -- one, I used olive oil, instead of butter (which I lacked). Two, I used American cheese. Why? Because Oma made it that way.

Oh, and as previously mentioned, I halved the recipe.

It turned out pretty well. Since I still have two days left on these eggs, I may make it again. I think I'd cut back on the oregano, or possibly use another spice, though -- it was a bit over-herbed.