Sharing (Stealing) Movies

While none of it was terribly surprising I still found this article interesting.

Super Mario and Writers

I had a very productive weekend. Evan and I beat super mario world (the one for super nintendo). I think that when we were kids Eric beat the game, but I don't think I ever made it that far. I will admit that this time Evan took on a majority of the levels, but I was playing my part the whole time so I'm claiming success.

Ok writers and studios, I give in. I'll give you whatever terms you want, just end the strike. I'll even stop complaining about NBC doing its own site instead of letting me pay them for shows through itunes (do they really make more than $2 per show per person from ads? - oh, right, I'm not complaining). At one point I thought that I sided with one of the groups, but now I don't even care who wins. Maybe just give me the daily show back to keep me going through the strike - kind of like if airline workers strike they might still do emergency flights.

HP 5

Finished up HP 5 which in my round about way of reading the books finishes up the series for me.

In case you hadn't heard it is a good series.

In general I like everything about the books more than the movies, largely due to the increased detail. However, I'm a bit torn on the fight between dumbledore and voldemort. I think the book's version is a bit more true to the characters and story (voldemort has raw evil power, dumbledore has power, but uses his cleverness and allies - using the fountain and faulks). But I do think the movie version was much "cooler". Really I thought the whole ministry of mysteries section was "cooler" in the movie than in the book. Although it was nice that the book told you what the hell was going on with that archway.

Given what they did with the end of 5 for the movie, the end of 7 could have some serious potential if they go for looks instead of explaining the finer points of wand ownership.

SoCal Experience

My dentist asked to move my appointment since the waves are really big today and he wanted a bit longer to surf.

Holmes and House

At some point after reading Sherlock Holmes, I decided that House is just a Holmes recreation. I was going to list all the reasons why I thought this, then I did a google search and found that others had already done this for me and apparently it is not just a crazy theory since the producer says it is somewhat true.

What I learned over Thanksgiving break

I learned that I needed to give a bit more instructions on the asia pictures page. If you just click here you will see the China pictures. If you also want to see the Japan pictures then click on the Japan link at the top of the page.

Two more pictures from Japan and Flatliners Game #8

While we were at one of the temples we visited in Japan there was a group of students from the town Gifu (I think they were middle school students). Each student was supposed to approach a white person and talk to them in English about the town they were from. Once they were done with the little talk a teacher would take a picture of the kid with the white person (I know saying white person seems a bit odd, but not sure how else to describe it). Mike, Laura, and I all ended up talking to a kid then Mike and Laura were faster at walking away and I ended up talking to another (not that there was anything wrong with talking to them, but after one it seemed like time to get on seeing the site).

Anyway, they both sent the photos.







I thought last week was the last game, but while I was in Asia one of the games was canceled due to fire. We hit the mercy rule in the 5th inning (not the best way to end the season). Catching, there was one really high pop fly that I had in my glove, but it hit my palm and bounced out. First at bat got to second and eventually home! Next at bat got to second then the base coach said run on anything, and while I don't take directions well at work, I do exactly what I'm told on the field, even if the ball goes straight to the third baseman and he is standing in my way with the ball (doh!). Well, I was defining glory as catching a fly, but if I redefine it to scoring a run, I succeeded in my final chance for glory! (Wow, defining success after the fact is awesome!)

Sherlock Holmes, Zodiac, China Road

While in Asia (and on the plane rides to and from) I got a chance to read The Complete Sherlock Holmes Volume 1, Zodiac, and China Road.

China road was a good introduction to modern China. A road trip across China is the background for the author's commentary on the country. It tells some rather shocking tales about corruption (particularly local governments) such as stories about enforcing the one child policy, and an attempt in one area to buy blood from people without much concern for hygiene. But also talks about the immense amount of growth and questions if a non-democratic government is that big of a deal if it means you get out of poverty faster. If you read the last post then you heard enough of me talking about China for a bit so if you're interested I'd recommend the book. The one part I didn't care for is the author is somewhat pro-Christianity which influences some of his observations and theories.

Zodiac is awesome! When Neal Stephenson limits himself to a reasonable number of pages he can write an incredible novel. While fictional it is about current day Boston (it even more fun to read if you are from Boston because you know all the places he's talking about, but you also realize his descriptions are a bit over the top) and is an eco-thriller. If you are a Neal Stephenson fan at all you should read it. I would try to describe it, but it sounds really boring to say the book is about a guy that fights pollution, but it is about a guy who fights pollution in the same way that snow crash is about a guy trying to stop a computer virus.

Sherlock Holmes was very cool (now that I've given my approval I'm sure people will start to discover this little known set of stories). It's odd because I thought I knew a lot about Holmes and Dr. Watson, but it was quite different than the image I had. I did not realize the degree to which Holmes is a logic machine and that Watson just comes along for the adventure and does almost no detective work. I also expected more Moriarty, but apparently he is only in a couple of stories. Anyway, at some point here I'm sure I'll get to volume two. Thanks to Angie for the recommendation.

Asia

Part of me thinks I should detail everything I did and saw while in Japan and China, luckily for you, most of me realizes that's not the way to go (I actually started doing that and got bored somewhere around day 2). I'm not quite sure how to organize all of this so I'll try to hit some of the highlights and concentrate on the interesting observations rather than individual events. Ok, enough meta-discussion.

First off I have to toot my own horn (do people still use that phrase?). Between work and multiple degrees and life in general I should really be used to the idea of setting goals and achieving them, but I must admit I'm quite pleased that on Sept 30, 2006 I posted that I was going to Asia some time before Sept 2008 and thirteen months later I landed in Tokyo.

Mike and Laura joined me for the Japan part of the trip. It was great getting a chance to hang out with them and it was also nice to have friends around for my first experience on the other side of the world (and most important they split hotel room costs with me).

In both countries I learned two words, hello and thank you, which were basically start interaction and end interaction. In many cases I actually really liked not speaking the language. There is so much background noise and not being able to understand it, makes it noise rather than something to think about. When I got back hearing things like ads at the gas station really annoyed me because I was forced to listen to something so stupid.

Everything I am about to say is a massive generalization based on a small number of experiences over a small period of time (aka the definition of stereotyping).

Some observations about Japan:

• It is super clean. We saw a team of people scrubbing the side walk at one point.
  
• Tokyo is big, like really, really, big. On many streets its almost like you are inside because the buildings form such tall walls
  
• Guys wear suits everywhere. I saw a college baseball game on TV and the guys in the audience were wearing suits. And there are lots of stern looking older guys wearing suits (it is like seeing Hiro's father everywhere). While most people go for conformity a few go for crazy fashion. And the two ways most people seem to distinguish themselves are their hair and what is hanging off their cell phone.
  
• Vending machines are everywhere, especially in Tokyo. I mean if you don't like the one in front of you walk a block or two. Most are selling iced tea, soft drinks, coffee and energy drinks, but there's some variety. Although you see very few people walking down the street with drinks.
  
• The electronics area in Tokyo (Akihabara) was amazing. It was like being in a digikey wearhouse. I wanted to buy something, but didn't need a connector or network analyzer at the moment. It is a combination of small vendors all specializing in a particular item (almost like a swap meet) and huge stores. One of the funniest parts was the health level of a big store where they had numerous scales that told you everything about yourself, toilet seats with so many functions they came with remote controls, and an exercise machine which was basically a mechanical bull.
  
• The craziest thing I had in Japan was seared horse sushi - it was really really good.
  
• I do not have an appreciation for traditional Japanese (or Chinese) music. Of course I also do not have an appreciation for traditional western music either so it is probably actually really good.
  
• Kubuki theater was interesting, although a bit slow and it would have been good to find out before hand that it is common for audience members to yell things out in the middle of a performance.
  
• I thought that China's sites were on a much grander scale than those in Japan and that the gardens were nicer in China, but in Japan people actually know how to be quiet. So the serene gardens were actually serene. I actually enjoying sitting and contemplating a rock garden (if I didn't have TV and a computer I could see doing it more often).
  
• The subway in Tokyo was sometimes packed, but everyone was silent and super polite and instead of talking on cell phones, everyone was texting (or using the internet or playing games or some other use for cellphones we've never heard of). The Tokyo subway is like an underground city complete with shopping malls and gardens.
  
• The popular cellphone shape was actually a bit disappointing it was a bit box shaped, but apparently that is the in thing.
  
• Kyoto is far more traditional than Tokyo. Many more women in Kimonos, lots more bowing (that took a bit to get used to), and many temples interspersed with the modern city.
  
• The cross walk in front of the Kyoto train station makes the same sound as the cross walk in the animatrix (the one with the haunted house).
  
• I know that in the US we often significantly change foods from other countries so it was funny to see what was called French pastries in Japan (mostly pastries filled with red bean paste or curry).
  
• There are many places where you are supposed to take your shoes off (especially temples), except you do not have to take your shoes off at the airport...
  
• Either I just got the wrong thing in Japan or I am much more a fan of Chinese tea. Most of the tea I had in Japan was either a bit bitter or was dry roasted which was ok, but didn't compare to the green, oolong, and jasmine teas I had in China.
  
• Did I mention how polite people are? If you know about the whole business card protocol (two handed presentation), the same thing is done with money and receipts. As train attendants go from one car to the next they bow multiple times to the people on the train.
  
• Nara is a small town near Kyoto that has a park with a bunch of temples. It was fun to see and the temples were not super extravagant, but they were nicely mixed in with nature. There are also lots of deer running free through the park. Nara also caused me to wonder, if you visit Japan and you go to a tourist trap aimed at Japanese people, was it a tourist trap for you or part of the experience? (Nara wasn't a trap, but a few of the streets leading up the park clearly were).
  
• After Kyoto we headed to Hakone for a day on the way back to Tokyo. Hakone is a town in a big park which is known for the hot springs. We stayed at a Ryokan (traditional Japanese Inn - nothing on the floor, when it is time to eat they bring out trays, when it is time to get up they unfold mats, when it is time to get up (according to them) they take the mats away). In addition to the huge dinner the really nice part was the outdoor hot baths.
  
• Mike pointed out that in one day traveling around Hakone and heading back to Tokyo we took 6 different kinds of trains.
  
• An observation from having seen lots of western Europe and now a small portion of Asia - America wins for most standardized bathrooms. I'm not saying they are the best, but growing up in the US you would think there is only one way to make a toilet or urinal, but there are actually a huge number of possibilities.
  
• I think that we often take one aspect of another country's food and then use it in every restaurant. Like if there are 10 common ways of eating eel (which you quickly find by going to an eel restaurant) in the US every Japanese restaurant will have the same one or two ways of eating it. So it is not like the food in the US is totally made up, it is just one example of how to eat a particular item, well then there is some added creativity, such as stuffing 5 different things into a sushi roll.
  

Quick breather.....




I had sort of figured that going to Japan first would be a good way to get used to Asia before heading onto China. I think that makes as much sense as someone going to California for the first time going to Beverly Hills and Napa Valley to get ready for a stay in Compton and Oakland. (Not that Japan is like Beverly Hills - the people in Beverly Hills are not that polite, and I'm not saying China is Compton - there's actually not much violent crime in China, but you get the idea).

When I first got into Shanghai I took the maglev train in to town. It was only going 300 km/hr (185 mph), not its max speed of 450 km/hr (280 mph), but it did feel more like an airplane taking off than a normal train. It drops you off at a subway station. I waited outside with a bunch of people for a cab, but none were showing up. Eventually I decided to figure out the subway (it had been reasonably simple in Tokyo once you had figure out which of the million lines you needed to take). It turned out there was only one line at the station and it was the one I needed so I got a ticket and got on the train. As I stood there with my bags, more and more people got on. Not the quiet, try not to bump into you type, but people yelling to each other, talking on their phones, and full force pushing their way on when the train was overflowing. I got to my stop and pushed my way to the door. As I was just about to get off people started getting on. I pushed as much as I could, but it didn't look like I was actually going to make it off (it seemed like people were mad at me and were yelling something). Then the sea of people parted as a train attendant pushed them to the side. I thought that was nice and started making my way off again, then the attendant reached in, grabbed me and pulled me off the train. At that point I knew this was not a similar culture to Japan, but rather the exact opposite.

Disclaimer: I really got into the cheapness of things in China. When I bartered I went after that last 10 yuan ($1.50). I did not stay in hostels, but I spent less than $50 per night on hotels (in central locations) and most of my meals were under $4 and some were $0.75 (and I was plenty full, even walking 6 hours a day). Occasionally I would go crazy and spend $15 on a meal and it was clear that if you are willing to pay closer to America prices for things you can have a completely different experience. Such as if you are willing to spend $3 you can take a cab across town instead of spending $0.25 to take the subway.

Also I was mostly in at least somewhat touristy areas so I was dealing with people trying to sell me stuff. I ran into a number of very nice, helpful people in China, particularly as I got away from tourist spots. So while I paint a certain sterotype, that clearly is not everyone.

Some observations:

Every part of the country I saw was under construction, I think it is in overdrive due to the olympics, but the olympics are far from the only reason.

I really got into bartering. At some points I felt bad because I would push to save what are tiny amounts of money to me, but probably several days worth of food for the other person. But I felt better when I remembered that he still probably charged me 5 times what it is worth. I got things for anywhere from 1/2 the starting price to 1/9 the starting price. It is a bit odd telling someone that you will pay 1/10 what they are asking and then starting to walk away when they act offended (of course as you do, they pull out their calculator and type a much lower price).

As a white guy who looks college age walking around alone it was like I had a giant target on me. In touristy areas people were nonstop trying to sell me stuff, the list was typically a subset of "Shoes? No. Clothes? No. DVDs? No. Watches? No. Women? No. Massage? No. Sex? No." then they gave up and the next person started (eventually I realized that if they bother you, you say nothing and keep walking like they don't exist (although I did that to one woman who threw the t-shirt she was trying to sell on my shoulder)). At one point I tried saying "Je ne parles pas anglais", but apparently the assumption is that if you are white you speak english because they just kept on going.

I also had tons of people wanting to be my friend and walk with me and eventually suggest getting tea or going to a tea ceremony (according to the tour book, when you get there they charge you hundreds of dollars for the tea). And the most intense were the guys selling rickshaw rides. The best scam was a girl with two guys and the girl started by asking me to take their picture. Eventually I realized I could use all these "friends" to my advantage and would have them take my picture in front of stuff (since I was traveling alone and the self photos come out really bad) and if I had questions about China I would ask them then make it clear I'm going somewhere else. The ones that had me take their picture explained to me the meaning of the dragon (male) and the phoenix (female) and why they are everywhere (for those following the Dumbledore is gay thing - his "symbol" was the phoenix...)

One striking aspect of China (particularly Shanghai) is the combination of poverty and wealth. Right next to a Ferrari dealership or Rolex store will be a tiny alleyway where people live in tiny connected homes and wash their clothes on washing boards in the alleyway (not exaggerations). In Beijing it is a bit different because instead of building nice stores in front of the poor homes, they just wiped away most of the poor homes and replaced them with tall apartment buildings and modern shops (culturally seems bad, but it means people get things like heat and running water and sometimes air conditioning). Parts of Beijing called hutong are preserved areas of small roads and traditional housing. This was really fun to walk around. Partially because you get away from heavy tourist areas, although anywhere with shops comes with people yelling out to you.

There are lots of street vendors who have carts with heaters and they heat up food for you on the street. The hygiene is questionable, but they cook it in front of you so probably not much worse than a restaurant. It is super cheap and fairly good. One of my favorites was spicy squid on a stick.

When I would wander around I would sometimes end up in restaurants where no one spoke english - it was fun to either point at what others were eating or keep pointing at the waitress till she picked for me (if it was no good I would go find another $4 meal, although it was usually really good). One cool thing about China is it is quite large so there are a huge number of types of food so almost every place I went was something new.

In China I ate a lot of crazy stuff, most of which I cannot list because I do not know what it was. I did go to a Sichuan style restaurant where I had beef tripe in duck blood soup, which was the spiciest thing I've ever had. I comes with black numbing peppers in the soup which I kept chewing on to cool my mouth down, eventually I had to spread it on my lips because they were hurting.

From Shanghai I went on a day trip to Suzhou (a little place about a half hour from Shanghai - little meaning over 1 million people). It is known for its gardens and temples. I saw a garden, a Daoist temple, Buddhist temple, and Confucius temple. Confucianism seemed very interesting because it is all about the proper way to rule and largely based around education. However, I do not quite get having a temple for a guy who was a good educator and did not believe in spirits (not criticizing, just do not understand). One cool thing about seeing the Buddhist temples in China and Japan was seeing people there praying (it's one thing to see a Buddha statue, but another to see people burning incense and bowing to it).

Shanghai was a great city to walk around, but Beijing had the huge tourist sites: forbidden city, near the great wall, temple of heaven, lama temple...

Since Mike reads this - traveling with Mike and Laura was clearly better than traveling alone. But traveling alone was really interesting because if I felt like going somewhere on a whim I just did it without any discussion or concern of what others wanted (I think that is part of what is making re-entry so hard is losing that huge level of freedom). It was also a lot easier to try something I thought could be lame because if it was I could just leave, I did not have to worry about boring others. It was also really easy to just meander around places (like the forbidden city) because I could just choose which direction to go at any given moment. On the other side when I saw something really cool or crazy I could not tell anyone about it (it was nice because I could at least call home and talk about the craziest parts - thanks mom and dad for the cell phones).

The way I would describe most of China is think of when that one gift everyone has to have for their kids comes out and people stomp each other to get it, now imagine that is everything (remember I was in huge cities so probably applies less elsewhere). The airport was just like that, but once we were on the plane it was great. It wasn't quite the imagines of airlines in the US when the first started, but somewhere between that and what US airlines are like now.

I supposedly met the nephew of the last emperor of China while I was at the forbidden city (no idea if it was true or not, but I wish I had something more clever to say than "Ni Hao").

In China I met my crazy eating limit. I had heard that you can get cooked scorpions on a stick in China. When I finally saw it (they also had centipedes and silk worms) at first I was determined to try it, but after looking for a moment I could not do it. I had met my match.

Going to parks was interesting because people were out there doing tai chi, other exercises I couldn't identify, playing hackie sack with a thing with feathers coming out it, playing go, chinese checkers, and card games. Also lots of musicians - although the funny part was different musical groups would sit 5 feet from each other and perform different songs. On the small streets there were rooms dedicated to people playing mahjong.

I ate a vegetarian restaurant near a Tibetan style temple (lama temple) and there were people there in monk robes. It was interesting because I think they were trying to make things look and taste like meat dishes, but meat dishes I had never had. It was good, but odd to not even know what it was supposed to look like.

There were lots of tea stores where you can sample tea and buy it. They do a whole ceremony for the tasting. Sampling was a lot of fun.

The great wall was cool to see - it was like the pictures, but I was there. Unfortunately, part of the amazing part of the great wall is it is over 6,000 miles long, but of course you can only see a tiny part, but one aspect I did not realize is that it wanders along the tops of hills so it is not very straight, but twists around a lot.

Ok, I should eat so probably a good stopping point (and this is too long to proofread - sorry). At some point when I get the rest of the pictures up I'll post a link (see previous post for the first batch - the site does not work with IE, so, um, don't use IE). This is far from all my stories and observations, I'll save some in case people were to talk to me more directly.

Asia Pictures

I've got my top set of pictures (if you want to see all 400 pictures that will take a bit longer because I do not think I have enough bandwidth on my mailmight account to support that) up here (This might get updated one day when Mike and Laura send me their pictures - hint, hint).

That was my first time using iWeb and really using mailmight to host a website so let me know if you have issues.

Fixing up pictures with iPhoto was very cool. It really made up for my lack of holding a camera straight and the cropping is the only reason I have pictures in China where I'm the only person in the photo. I also turned up the exposure and sharpness in some of the shots - let me know if you see any where you think it is obvious (of course the posted pics are not full resolution so it is probably tough to tell).

Actual text to come next time I cannot fall asleep due to jet lag.

Flatliners Game #7 - Being a Warm Body

Yesterday (Sunday) I got back from ASIA (which at some point here I really will talk about). I got a whole 1 hour of sleep over the course of 30 hours (not so bad compared to a college all nighter, but add to that a bouncing plane and some time zone confusion and it's not so fun - plus I'm old now). I did sleep fairly well last night, but was still worn down today and a bit out of it. I told the flatliners coach that I would play if they needed a warm body to avoid forfeit. Well, he called me on what should have been a bluff so after work (which was really just a day of talking to people about the trip) I headed off to the softball field.

Now I was never that good so it's not like the jet lag could really make things much worse. My first at bat I got on base and made it to second then got forced out running back to second due to a caught fly. My next two at bats both times I swung at the first pitch and missed and then didn't swing at a strike (when you only get two strikes that's not the best strategy). As catcher I was able to pick up the ball from the ground and throw it back to the pitcher, but one fly ball came back and I had it in my glove then I ended up bobbling it with both hands and dropping it - I totally blame that on jet lag. During the first inning there was a play at home and I missed the ball (ok that was just me) - after that anytime there could have been a play at home the pitcher ran over to take over - normally I would have been irritated, but I was so tired I was very appreciative.

Well, I would say that I kept the team from losing by showing up, but we lost (not just lost, but mercy rule in the 5th inning). So, I, uh, delayed losing by about 40 minutes - hey that's something.

After talking about how tired I am I'm up blogging at 11:30 pm - perhaps it is time for my brain to override my body's clock and make myself go to bed (although I assume my body's clock is in my brain - medical types: which parts of my brain are overriding and being overridden?).

ASIA Post #1

I'm in Asia, how crazy is that?

Right now I'm in Beijing. I've been keeping notes so you'll be able to read far more than you ever wanted to know about the trip when I get back.

Japan was amazing - super clean and everyone was very nice and helpful.

China has some incredable sites and very cheap food, although you have to spend a lot more effort looking out for yourself.

I'm good - sore legs from all the walking and still trying to get past the last bits of a cold, but having a great time.

HA!

HA!

Communism

As part of the prep for China I read Quotations From Chairman Mao Tsetung (aka The Little Red Book) and The Communist Manifesto.

The Communist Manifesto is actually very short. Most of the version I have is preface, the actual manifesto is only 40 pages. It starts off with complaints about capitalism. The interesting part there is they are all the same complaints that people have now. I wonder if they are just the obvious fundamental issues or if people today are just repeating what Marx said. I actually read this a few months ago so I'm having trouble thinking of examples. It was interesting because at first I figured I was in the category of bourgeois as I am reasonably well off in a rich country, but as he described it I realized I'm really a proletarian. While all of his complaints are still discussed today, I agreed with some of them. However, as soon as he started describing his solution (communism) he lost me. Once he said put all power in the hands of the government I knew I was not going to be a big fan. A lot of the ideas seemed a bit arbitrary, although maybe that is just because it is a brief manifesto and a longer description would make more sense.

Quotations from Chairman Mao Tsetung is very different from the communist manifesto. This book is really a big collection of quotations. It is organized in chapters and the quotations are put in an order so that there is a somewhat constant flow of ideas within a chapter even though most quotations are a paragraph or two long. It actually says very little about the concept of communism and takes it as a given that Marxist-Leninist communism is the best form of government. A lot of the quotations are directly or indirectly about the army and war which makes some sense since he ran the country during a civil war and world war II. It was a bit weird reading it because a lot of what is said are really good ideas, but it becomes fairly clear that it is mostly propaganda and lies. There is a lot of talk about the important of criticism and listening to the people which doesn't exactly match the fact that I'm not sure which email accounts I'll have access to there since they block so many websites in order to keep people from seeing criticism of the country.

Well I'm headed off to Asia in a couple days. I'm not bringing a computer so I'm not sure exactly how I'll be communicating with people in the US. I may or may not blog much while I'm there. If not I'm sure when I get back you'll hear more than you ever wanted to know about my vacation.

For those that make it to the end of my posts - previously I said I was going to observe an implant. The patient had something come up so the procedure was rescheduled. So instead I got to spend the day at work in nice clothes explaining to everyone why I was dressed up. (I'm not irritated though - the patient had a good reason for having the procedure rescheduled).

Flatliners Game #6 - Last Chance for Glory

Well tonight was probably my last game as a flatliner (well the last game of the season is the day after I fly back from China so if it turns out that I learn the anti-jet lag spell then I'll get another game - of course if I could cast spells like Harry Potter I might have used some to help win the games...). Of course there's always the possibility that we'll make it to the playoffs, well fine I'd put my money on the anti-jet lag spell.

Tonight ended 27 to 11 and we celebrated making it through all 7 innings without hitting the mercy rule. Actually it wasn't so bad - we only had 9 players so we only had 3 outfielders instead of 4.

Since this was my last game (if you ignore all the insanity in the first paragraph) it was also my last chance at glory. As catcher I didn't really have any chances at glory. I did have one goof, although it wasn't too bad. A batter hit the ball so it landed between me and the pitcher, but closer to me. Both of us ran for it. As we got close the pitcher told me to go to home, but by the time I processed that I had reached for the ball - we both grabbed the ball and each other's hand which if you think about the timing is pretty crazy. I let go and he motioned to throw to first, but it was too late. As I looked around I realized that there had been a runner on third who had made it home while I was racing the pitcher for the ball. Guess that guy on third was why I was supposed to stay on home plate... oh well.

One almost amazing play was the ball was hit between our center fielder and second baseman. They both ran for it. The ball bounced off the glove of the center fielder then it bounced off the second fielder's glove then bare hand. In the end it hit the ground.

Ok - back to me and my quest for glory. First at bat I determined to do something amazing. So I swung at a ball over the opposite side batter's box and fouled it. Then I decided to only swing if it was a really good pitch, well I realized I was a bit too discerning as it hit the strike zone. At least I knew when to walk away from the plate. Although on my way back I questioned if I had walked away too soon since I wasn't sure how the foul counted. Then I was glad I was out because that would have looked really stupid.

Next at bat I slowed it down a bit and had a beautiful hit - it was the only hit I really watched - I could tell it went far enough I didn't have to sprint all out to first. Well I basked in the glory of a slightly high line drive to left center all the way into the left center fielder's glove.

In the 6th inning I was up again and if I didn't hate the tortoise and the hare so much I might say something about slow and steady. I hit a dinky nothing somewhere between the pitcher and the catcher and raced to first - made it there and they over threw the ball so I raced to second. Then from two other people's hits I made it to third and then home. Not exactly glory, but at least contributing almost my fair share to the score.

In the last inning I swung at a low pitch and popped it up to center field. They caught it, but it gave the guy on third enough time to make it home.

Well, no real glory, but had some fun. And possibly the best part is I now have two bright red shirts that say Flatliners on them. I'll need to get a yard so that I have yard work so I have a time when I can wear them. Maybe I can wear them when I'm in Asia and claim to be a famous baseball player.

For those who have made it this far - in other news the A/C at work is broken and is supposed to get fixed at some point tomorrow so management said wear whatever you want, but I have to go in formal business clothes because I'm going to watch a device implant (or put another way - I get to go watch a device implant tomorrow!). Well after I recover from fainting I'm sure I'll write more about that.

Medtronic Lead Problem

I've been told that telling people to not read further can have the opposite impact (I actually want to use the word affect or effect instead of impact, but I cannot remember which one is right) so instead I'll just say that if you are tired of hearing me talk about work read on at your own risk of boredom. But if you heard the news about Medtronic and wonder how it relates to what I do at work then read on.

Today there were articles in the NYT and Wall Street Journal about Medtronic pulling its ICD (implantable cardioverter-defibrillator) lead off the market. The lead is the group of wires that travels through a vein into the heart. It contains the wires that are used for sensing signals from the heart and the wires used to deliver a shock.

Leads are very troublesome for many reasons, most of which stem from them going into the heart. One reason is that every time the heart beats the lead bends. If you are wondering why this is bad try bending a paper clip once a second for 20 years (or maybe save some time and just imagine it). If a lead breaks the device might detect it, but it can cause the device to become confused causing false shocks, and worst of all it can stop the device from providing appropriate therapy (either by messing up the sensing or not providing an electrical path). Another issue is that leads are really dangerous to remove, because the vein wall grows around them over time and they are often screwed into the heart wall. Sometimes when a new lead is required they will not take out the first one, but instead just put in another one.

Having said this - very often the benefit of a defibrillator out weights these risks. If you have a device, are considering a device or know someone with a device this article should NOT prompt anyone to demand their device be removed or refuse to get one. Discuss the benefits and risks with a doctor who can help with the individual's risk benefit tradeoff. I'm not just saying this to be legally proper, I really believe that it is important to listen to your doctor and to take this report into account, but not be scared by it.

The device the company I work for is designing still has a lead, but it does not go in the heart or veins (it sits just under the skin). So it is not subjected to the same amount of bending (it does bend with breathing, but that is a much smaller movement and less often) and thus is much less likely to fracture. It is also much easier and safer to remove should there be an issue.

You might think that we would have been celebrating that the top company in the field had a failure directly related to what distinguishes our company, but people were actually very good at seeing the big picture that bad things happening to patients is not something to be happy about.

This article mentions that Chenney does have a medtronic ICD, but an older lead model that does not show this issue.

HP 4

In my slow attempt to catch up with everyone else I read HP 4.

I wonder to what degree kids catch the whole don't trust the government, don't believe the news message. I know people were protesting the HP books, but I think that was some insane thing about witch craft, but I do not feel like anyone ever objects to it being a kids book that has idiots and evil people as government officials and liars writing the newspapers. Don't get me wrong - I think it is great and I do hope it has a lasting impact on kids - but I would have expected some people to not be so thrilled about it. I almost wonder if no one sane wants to say anything about the books because they are afraid of being associated with the crazies.

I'm going to wait to finish the series with 5 (in my round about way of reading them) before I comment too much on the elf stuff. Although at the end of 4 the message is very questionable. Claiming that it is ok that a group of people works as slaves is ok because they like it that way seems like an odd message. It seems closer to a feudal or caste system than slavery, which would fit better with English history, but still not a good thing to have all but one character approve of. I guess if Harry disapproved it would be one thing, but he seems to treat those "under" him well, but does not object to the system as a whole, only Hermione does that. Well so much for not saying much. I guess that when I get to 5 I might have to take back some of what I said here, although based on 6 and 7 I don't think so.

I may have brought this up before, but is it just me or are the Goblins every negative Jewish stereotype put together? Ok, maybe not every negative stereotype, but I challenge anyone to name a characteristic of Goblins that is not a Jewish stereotype. They're short, have big noses, are clever, greedy, and tricky and control all the money through banking...

Whenever Percy was talking about caldron thickness I totally understood what he was talking about and was rather disturb by it (no - I don't know about caldron thickness, but I do spend a bunch of time at work making sure components are designed properly and used within specifications and regulations for long term reliability).

Hm, after all that I guess I should clarify that I actually really liked the book.

Chris Matthews On the Daily Show

If you have not seen a good Jon Stewart interview in a while then this blog is here to the rescue:

Flatliners Game #5 - Back to Reality

A game that ends 26 to 20 in the 6th inning has a lot of highlights. Unfortunately I peaked early. First hit was solid and I got to first. Then they over threw the ball into the dugout, but I didn't run, but apparently you get the next base free anyway. It was nice getting the base, but I felt silly having a bunch of people telling me to go to 2nd and having no idea why. Next inning an ok hit got me to first then barely forced out at second. By the third at bat my head had left the game. I swung at two terrible pitches and then had my zoolander at the awards show moment as I got ready to swing and the ump had to remind me that we start at 1 and 1 so I had struck out.

Fielding I had one guy tip the ball and I had it in my glove, but it bounced out. The other catcher on our team (we do every other inning) caught a fly ball so now that we are even I've challenged him to see who will catch the most fly balls. Then my moment for glory came as the runner was headed home the ball was thrown to me. The ball and the runner were arriving at the exact same moment and my attention was split between the two as the ball went right past me... DOH!

Having scored 20 runs the flatliners were still in a good mood even after losing.

Well one more game for me to earn glory before heading to the other side of the world.

Reliability Control for Electronic Systems

Last night I finished up Reliability Control for Electronic Systems (again for work). I was thinking there was even less people would be interested in from this book than the burn-in book, but there is one thing that is sorta interesting.

If you've ever seen a company advertise a brand new product and then guarantee that it will last 5 years and wonder how the hell they know that, well basically the answer is they got it really hot and then ran it for a much shorter period of time. If you've never wondered about this then stop reading here and save your patients for future posts.

Actually there are several ways to accelerate life testing.

The most straight forward is to increase the duty cycle. Ex: if you assume someone will use a light bulb 4 hours a day then by running the bulb 24 hours a day you can accelerate the life test by a factor of 6 so a 5 year life requires less than 1 year of test. With some things like cell phones which are actually communicating a tiny portion of the time this method can be a huge benefit.

Another method is if turning a device on and off puts more stress on it than just leaving it on, then for life testing it can quickly be turned on and off to simulate a much longer life.

The first two methods depend on the usage pattern of the device - the method that can be used for anything is to increase the stress on the device. For an electrical product the supplies can be run at a higher voltage than normal. For mechanical the device can be stretched or vibrated or... But the main one is to just increase the temperature since this accelerates basically all failure mechanisms. The amount it accelerates each mechanism varies significantly. But if the primary failure mechanism is known then the acceleration factor can be calculated. A very common method in electronics is to run the device at 125 C (257 F) because it is hot enough to get decent acceleration, but not so hot that it generates failures just because of the temperature (such as melting the packaging).

The methods are all a bit questionable, but it gives a decent chance of getting the life right (or at least making people feel comfortable that most devices will last at least as long as the guarantee (or at least something to show the judge to prove you didn't just pull a number out of the air)).

Flatliners Game #4 - The Win!

First a quick tip: cooking up tofu with a bag of frozen spinach on the stove using some olive oil makes for a good meal, but, here's the important part, not just before a softball game. Nothing too bad, but some definite stomach grumbling during the game.

Next, the important part - me. As catcher I didn't do anything special (although the whole paying attention thing is working out well). Picked up the ball and threw it back a bunch of times. Once tried to catch a fly ball but it hit the back fence and I missed it coming down along the fence (not actually sure if that would have counted or not). Had the ball thrown to me during one play, it was fairly far away and I missed it, but the guy had made it home long before the ball got there.

The other team did not have a strong pitcher so our team did a lot of walking. First at bat walked and eventually made it home. Second at bat had a sissy hit that landed about equidistant between the catcher, pitcher and third baseman so made it to first and eventually home. Third was a good line drive, flew between second and short stop to the outfield, and got to first but next play was forced out at second. Fourth was a line drive to about the same spot, but much softer and got forced out at first.

Finally the crazy part (well if you don't count the flatteners winning as crazy). While we were fielding (I was doing my inning on the bench) the other team had two guys standing around as first base coach. They were talking to each other fairly loud. Our first baseman asked them to quiet down so he could concentrate on the game. One of their guys said, "It's softball we can be as loud as we want. Instead of complaining about talking, why not tell your team to stop being sissies and swing at the ball." After that he made similar comments to other players on our team. It didn't get to anyone on our team due to the combination of not taking it that seriously and being so happy that we actually won.

Oh, and if you hadn't noticed - WE WON!

Boston, when will you learn?

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!.

When are people (and by people I mean the Boston police) going to learn that lights do not imply bomb! In fact, I would bet that most bomb makers avoid putting flashy lights on their bombs.

One key point to notice near the bottom of the article - she did not go through security, she was just waiting around for her boyfriend and some guy at an information desk alerted the police. I do not blame the guy for alerting the police, but who considers deadly force on someone in a waiting area of an airport?

If you want to see the Scary device.

Also for those that don't get the back of the shirt, VI = 6 in roman numerals and 6 is the number for EECS at MIT.

Burn-In

Last night I read Burn-In: An Engineering Approach to the Design and Analysis of Burn-In Procedures. This only sort of counts since it was for work, and I'm quite certain no one reading this cares about burn-in so I'll keep the post short.

If you are for some reason interested in burn-in (a procedure for sorting out weaker than normal components and components damaged by manufacturing) it is a nice quick read. The funny thing about the book is it has pages and pages of statistics and reasonably advanced math to come up with some very precise formulas. But they are all based on knowing the reliability of components which is going to be a total guess (by orders of magnitude). One formula is actually proportional to e^C where C is a factor that is generally unknown. Anyway, I found it silly, but I'll stop now since no one cares.

Flatliners Game #3

Well this game the Flatliners earned their name. Once the score hit 19 to 0 in the first inning I stopped tracking it. Luckily the mercy rule does not kick in until the 5th inning or else I would not have gotten to play at all. After the first inning we actually did reasonably well. Not sure if we would have won if we didn't count the first inning but we would have done ok (of course the other team may have eased up a bit after the first inning - when the third baseman told one of our runners to go ahead and go for home it was a bit of a hint).

Personally, I did nothing special at bat - forced out at first both times. But I did get my first out. The batter hit the ball fairly high, straight up and I walked over and caught it. I feel like I should have charged to get under it and pushed the batter out of the way, but instead I sort of walked around him like I was worried about getting in his way.

I learned that you are supposed to hold a softball like a baseball (two fingers and the thumb) which was very useful. I also realized that my arm getting tired isn't the problem, but rather my attention dropping off. Along the same lines that I tend to remember stuff if I pay attention to begin with, I get a lot closer to my target if I take a moment to actually focus on throwing the ball.

Yom Kippur Hollywood Style

I am once again a proud owner of a passport - the chinese government gave it back without too much of a fight (although they did get $100 out of me). But now my passport has a picture of the great wall in it.

I took Friday off to get my passport. Once I got it back I had some time to kill. First I headed to Rodeo Drive. I'm sure it's exciting if you are looking to spend $100,000 on art or clothes or want to look at either of those. But just walking along the street was not as impressive as I expected. If I was going to walk around a fancy shopping area I would go to fashion island instead, although I don't usually walk around fancy shopping areas so not sure how much my opinion counts.

After that I still had some time so I went to the WB studio tour. That was fun. It was a bit weird because there was a group who drove up from dallas, a guy from philly, a girl from australia and I had just headed over to kill some time. When everyone else started taking pictures of everything I realized I probably should have brought a camera. I already realized that movies and TV are fake, but this really helped it sink in. When you look at the front of a house on TV the back of the house is probably the front of another house on the show. The NYC park where they play football in Friends is a tiny stretch of grass in a studio in LA. And of course practically everything is some setup in a sound stage. I did get to see Morpheus's car from the Matrix and the flying car from Harry Potter and I was sorted by the sorting hat (apparently there are 6 that they used, but the one that talks is all green just like a green screen), but I did not appreciate the house it put me in. In case you are curious, I think it is fairly obvious which house I think I should be in, and of course being in the same house as Harry would be good, and I actually don't mind going for pure power.

After the tour and through the next day it actually rained somewhat hard (ok everyone in Boston would laugh, but hard for LA). The craziest thing was over the course of Saturday I saw 9 cars broken down, some of them in the middle of the road. I have no idea why rain would cause cars to break down, it's not like they are special LA cars that aren't made for the rain. But it was way too many cars in one day to be a coincidence. I also got to see the LA river actually be a river (normally it is just a concrete thing that provides a good spot for filming car chases).

On Saturday I went to the Laugh Factory for services with Evan. This time we didn't show up ahead of time and ended up in the overflow room which was the first time I've ever watched the Rabbi on a giant flat screen. It was a bit silly watching on TV, although the room is setup as a lounge so it made for a much more comfortable services experience. Evan was fasting so I went with it. That was an experience I will not repeat soon (well, at least for another year). We were both so tired from not eating we spent the whole day watching TV (sometime someone is going to explain to me how not eating helps people concentrate on praying). For break the fast we went for a giant steak dinner. I was expecting to not be able to eat much, but I cleaned my plate.

Flatliners Game #2

Tonight the flatliners declared a "moral victory". It's not that we won, but the final score was something respectable like 9 to 6 and we made it through all 7 innings!

Apparently I need to work on my skills picking up the ball and tossing it back to the pitcher because I was demoted from catcher to every other inning catcher (I actually do, after a few innings my arm gets tired and the pitcher ends up running after the ball). Although, I did get on base twice. It's sort of crazy because I have no idea where my hits went - actually I can't remember the time between hitting the ball and being about 5 steps into running.

Rosh Hashanah Hollywood Style

On Rosh Hashanah I headed up to Hollywood to go to Rosh Hashanah services with Evan. Why Hollywood? Well, there is a free service at The Laugh Factory. I had no idea what to expect, but turned out to be a fairly standard service that just used the laugh factory as a room to hold it. I think it was the first time I had balcony seats for services. For the most part the crowd was what you would expect from services anywhere. Although no teenagers (I assume any family with kids around that age belong to a synagogue). Well, mostly what you would expect - the blond, plastic looking grandmother who sat next to me had a very large purse. After the purse made a sound she opened it for a moment and there was a small poodle in it. I was wondering if the service would include anything weird since it was in Hollywood. The only thing that was a bit different is the last song we sang was about peace and we sang it in both Hebrew and Arabic. They also had apples, honey and challah for everyone afterwards. Apparently someone sponsors the whole thing and requests that people in return make a charitable donation of their choosing.

After services we headed to the Chinese Consulate in downtown LA. I would describe it as somewhere between a post office and the DMV, but primarily in Chinese. When they finally called my number I handed the person my forms and passport, expecting her to look at them and give back the passport. She put a rubber band around them all, tossed them in a box, handed me a piece of paper and said come back Tuesday. So now the Chinese government has my passport until I drive back to LA (on a week day between 9 am and 3 pm with $100).

Next we headed to wait in the standby line for The Tonight Show. We got in, but sat in the very back next to the guy running the spot light. The guests were Terry Bradshaw, Marie Osmond, and Michael Buble. The show had some good jokes and it was interesting to see what happened off camera. The part I did not realize is that they go through in a single run and the breaks between segments are the same amount of time as commercial breaks. So while it is not actually live, it is taped like it is.

Probably the most unusual Rosh Hashanah I've ever had, although not nearly as odd as it could have been.

Flatliners Game 1

Well the flatliners (aren't we clever and funny....) just had our first softball game. I am bigger than one guy on the team we played against. I played catcher which in softball is somewhere around playing right field and sitting out. I did make it to first once since the guy playing first fumbled the ball for a moment.

I am proud to say we made it to the 5th inning before the score reached 18 to 3 and the mercy rule kicked it. Considering the other team had 14 runs in the first inning it actually lasted longer than expected.

Here's something I do think is clever and funny:

The after after life

For this blog post let's assume there is an after life. Then I wonder if people, souls, whatever, in the after life believe in an after after life and feel that they have to live their after life in a certain way to be rewarded in the after after life.

It might seem silly to think there would be an after after life since the after life lasts for eternity so what is this after after life to worry about. I'm thinking something along the lines that the number of seconds spent in the after life equals the number of integers (aleph_0), but the number of seconds in the after after life equals the number of real numbers (aleph_1). So you better be good during the after life because the after after life is infinitely longer.

Now you might argue that if the after life lasts an infinite amount of time how could there be something after it. Logically it doesn't work. Well, first of all, an after life doesn't work logically either (I can just hear someone saying "you can't prove there's nothing after eternity" and someone else groaning in frustration). Remember I'm only asking if people in the after life believe in an after after life, not if an after after life exists. Plus if there was an after life all of the believers would have really shown up the skeptics so people would probably be willing to believe just about anything. Every argument would be ended by "you said the same thing about the after life." Can you imagine hearing that line an infinite number of times?

Of course the logical extension is to ask about an after after after life, although that would require a lot of discussion of Godel and your choice of axioms (although people in the after after life who are into faith would love it because you truly could not prove it either way...). I figure I've got a while before I have to worry about the after after after life, so I'll stop here for now.

Excel

I was quite surprised by the following information so I feel the need to make a public service announcement about the stdev function in excel. I normally try to resist posting about math, but I think that lots of people use the stdev function.

If you ever use the stdev function in excel it may not be doing what you expect.

Typically the formula for the standard deviation of a set of points is
sqrt(sum((x-m)^2)/n)
where x is each point, m is the mean, and n is the number of points. This formula applies when you have all the points from a population. However, if you only have a sampling of points from a population then the correct formula is actually
sqrt(sum((x-m)^2)/(n-1))
I'll explain why below.

In excel the stdev function actually uses the n-1 formula. If you want the formula that divides by n the correct function is stdevp. Clearly picking the correct one only matters if you have a small number of points, since as n gets big the difference between the two becomes small. But if you are looking for the standard deviation of a few points it can make a big difference.

Standard deviation is about the distance of points from the mean. If you have the full population then you know the mean of the population and you know the distance from every point to the mean. So you have n distances that you are using. However, if you are only taking samples from a population then you do not know the mean of the population. So you create a mean from the points you have. But if you have two points then you really only have one distance, and you cut it in half by using the mean of your samples. So in this case you really have n-1 distances (by not having the population mean you have one less degree of freedom).

A quick check: If the entire population is one point then the mean equals that point and you divide by 1 so the standard deviation is zero. If you take one sample point from a larger population then the sample mean equals the one point so the numerator is zero and n-1 = 0 so it's 0/0 which is indeterminate which makes sense since if you only take a single sample you cannot estimate the standard deviation of the population.

I had never heard of the n-1 case before today and pieced together this explanation so don't trust it too much, but do be careful if using stdev with a small number of points.

The tortoise and the hare

I'm sure everyone remembers the tortoise and the hare and the lesson that slow and steady wins the race. I have no problem with the moral, in fact I've been making arguments along similar lines lately, which is what got me thinking about the story. But the fable never struck me quite right. I now realize it is because the moral and the story don't fit together. The moral is don't be an idiot or don't be an arrogant ass or... Slow and steady wins the race doesn't fit, because a hare that was actually determined to win would have gone fast and left the tortoise in the dust, and in fact if there was another rabbit in the race the one that loses in the story might have won since he would have taken it seriously and not bothered with the nap. Maybe the moral is actually to challenge yourself. If the fable was changed to where the rabbit had to take a nap because he was so tired from sprinting then the moral would fit.

That has been bothering me since childhood and I'm glad that we now have technology that allows me to broadcast that frustration to the world.

HP 2&3

I read HP 2&3. It seems like the series gets better as it goes. Similar to the movies I was much more into 3 than 1 or 2.

I have never been that convinced by the arguments that violence on TV causes people to be violent (maybe one of the trained neuroscientists reading this will actually know if that is true or not). But I have noticed that what I watch and read does impact what I eat. When I watch firefly I go in search of fruit - Kaylee just looks so happy when she has strawberries. When I was reading HP 3 I bought chocolate for the first time in months, maybe even a year - for some reason I pictured them eating standard milk chocolate, but I go for 70% or bust. Luckily all that BSG watching hasn't enticed me to start smoking or drink ambrosia (although they usually don't look that happy about either one).

For the firefly fans out there, who don't track xkcd (probably a null set, but anyway):
http://xkcd.com/311/

In case it is not clear from the rest of this post - I spent a lot of time inside reading HP and watching BSG over labor day weekend. Southern California let me down with a 100 degree weekend. Luckily it cooled back down by tonight for my company's softball team's second practice.

HP1 and Rain

First - There is a thunderstorm in Southern California in August! WTF Mate! Glad I got to the beach yesterday.

I read HP1, in my opinion not as good as 6, but at least we didn't have to follow Moses through the desert for 40 years (or more likely Jesus in his 40 days of wandering - although it felt more like 40 years than 40 days) like in 7. It was interesting to see how many items she setup for later books. I wonder if she really had it planned that well or if when she wrote later books she just made sure to reference specific items in earlier books. I'm sure I'm far from the first person to ask this, but now it's my turn.

Freed from society

It must, in some ways, be nice to have so few morals and care so little about what others think about you that you can actually work to take away money for poor, sick children.

RAW

I worked on this when it was the RAW project! Sure, I only wrote the beginnings of a shared memory network that probably never went anywhere, but still I wonder if Anat would toss me some stock... Of course that was back before I realized how much cooler analog engineers are than digital weenies who think writing some verilog code is circuit design.

Exercise Wikipedia Hiro

I was reading a set of articles about exercise while waiting for a haircut. The first was claiming that aerobic exercise causes some chemical to be released into the blood stream which causes increased neuron growth. I'm a bit skeptical on that one (although maybe someone reading this knows more about it). The next was talking about the general benefits. But what caught my eye is someone was proposing rather than coming up with drugs to mimic the effects of exercise to instead come up with drugs or some other medical method to make people more prone to exercise.

The NYT has an article about a website that helps track when companies and other organizations change wikipedia articles. According to the article, wikipedia is actually ok with companies correcting factual information, but think it should be limited to that due to the conflict of interest. Wikiscanner lets you look up a company and see which wikipedia articles they have edited (it works based on the ip address - so if the company is even a little clever they can get around it). The NYT article has a nice list of some of the companies that have been caught.

This week I started watching Heroes. I also had a crazy week at work. Friday I came home expecting to crash, but ended up watching the last 12 episodes (finally got to bed at 6 am). Which is really strange since lately I struggle to stay up past midnight. I really liked the show. Well, for the first several episodes I was skeptical that it was going to turn out to be lame, but by time they saved the cheerleader I was into it. Something about Mohinder grates on my nerves, not even counting his many wrong science facts. Hiro is of course awesome! I wonder at what point in making the show they knew Sulu would be part of the cast. I think it would be great to get together a group of comic book and sci fi fans and try to spot all the references.

What I learned this weekend

Raw crab covered in garlic sauce tastes a lot like garlic.

At Korean bbq if 2 out of 3 people are asian they leave cooking the meat to you, but if it is 2 out of 4 then they get a lot more involved.

Jason Bourne is Wolverine.

If you leave a pen in a pocket and then do some laundry it will leave black stains on your clothes and drier that even bleach cannot remove. And then your hands will continue to spell like bleach no matter how many times you wash them.

HP6 and 7

This week I read HP6 and 7. I won't say much about them since practically everyone else has already read them. But to those who encouraged me to read them (which, again is practically everyone) - fine, you were right. I finished 6 at about 8 pm on Sunday and by 10 pm I had purchased and started reading 7.

Over the weekend I also headed to The Improv with Evan, ironically The Improv is a standup comedy place with no improv... The comics were great and the main comic was Mike Birbiglia who was funniest when interacting with one of the crazy audience members.

Cheney

After seeing this headline I figured I'd explain a little about what happened to Cheney (no he did not have his "heart battery" replaced - blocks of ice don't require batteries). Although, first I have to share my favorite take on the situation.

Implantable defibrillators (ICDs) and pacemakers come in two pieces - the can and the electrode. The electrode is the wire which in traditional devices go though a vein into the heart. The can in a tradition device sits under the skin near the top of the chest. The battery is incorporated in the can along with all of the electronics. When the battery runs down (typically indicated by the device beeping at some interval) the entire can is replaced. Both because once you open the can you don't want to seal it up again and re-implant it and because after 6 years it's good to upgrade to the latest model.

Vegas and Car Fire

Over the weekend I headed to Vegas for my class's pi reunion (3.14159265 years since graduation). It was a lot of fun - thanks to those who organized it and read this. It was good to see people I don't see much any more and even though there were a lot of people I didn't know it was nice to hang out in a crowd of MIT students again. It was also interesting to see the group of people in a different environment. And it was nice to see that I'm not the only person who has gotten old and can't stay up late anymore or eat as much.

Not that my life is in significant flux, but in the three years since undergrad I've lived three different places and had three different jobs (if you count grad school as a job). While there were some people who have settled into grad school or jobs, it was good to see that plenty of other people are also still bouncing around.

We stayed at the Wynn which was very nice. It was super hot in Las Vegas (on Saturday I was in a swimming pool, in the shade, and was still warm). Saw Cirque du Soleil's Mystere which was very cool and very weird. Won $7 playing video blackjack. And ate plenty of buffet food.

The drive out wasn't bad at all. But on the drive back we hit some serious traffic. Then on the final stretch of the ride things slowed down and there were flares blocking the right most lane because there was a car on fire! I'm talking beginning of Scrubs season 4 on fire (just before they get scooters), with three guys standing about 10 feet away watching the car burn.

Taoism

Well, if you've been following my reading pattern it is probably no surprise to see that Taoism by Jennifer Oldstone-Moore was up next. First thing I learned - Taosim and Daoism are the same thing.

I was going to say something about Taoism being to Confucianism as Kabbalah is to Judaism, but then I realized that I actually know less about Kabbalah than Taoism. Anyway, Taoism and Confucianism have the same base of ideas, but Taoism goes more into mysticism.

The Tao is "the way" and is the force that brought the world into existence. It's not a god, but rather a force (there are plenty of other gods - I think somewhere between Confucianism and Shinto for number of types of gods). People are not supposed to go against the Tao. Yin-Yang and Qi (Chi) are both key concepts in Taoism. Feng-Shui is also involved in Taoism.

The more mystical side of Taoism is that it involves searching for immortality through several means, one of which is alchemy (it is interesting the alchemy in the Neal Stephenson series I just finished is much closer to that of Taoism than what I would normally think of alchemy). Apparently gun powder was discovered in Taoist pursuit of immortality as well as several other scientific advancements. Also if you need an exorcism a Taoist priest is the way to go.

Confucianism

Just finished Confucianism by Jennifer Oldstone-Moore. I know that Confucianism and Shinto influenced each other, and I'm reading fairly brief descriptions of the religions, but they seem to have a lot of similarities. Although Shinto does have way more types of spirits.

Confucianism seems to have a somewhat unusual story since a lot of it was established long before Confucius came around. It seems like a lot of the spiritual side was already established as well as some of the social theory. Then Confucius promoted a view of government and family relationships and all together it became Confucianism (Confucius was not actually that into talking about the spiritual side). On the spiritual side, spirits are dead ancestors and the spirit world in many ways mirrors the living world and the two interact. The concept of yin-yang comes from Confucianism as well as qi (chi). And the book didn't talk about it much, but divination is also somewhere in there. On the social side, families and the government are supposed to have well defined roles. Children are supposed to be respectful of their parents. Parents are supposed to educate their children and be compassionate. The role between the government and the people is supposed to be a lot like the role between parents and children. Part of the tradition is exams to determine who gets government jobs. Like most religions some of the ideas sound great (promoting education for everyone and compassionate government), but some aren't so hot (very unequal gender roles and obedience to a monarchy).

The connection between the emperor to the spirit world is a lot stronger than for others and there are a lot of rituals that only the emperor could perform. I think that a lot of the big tourist sites in China are Confucian temples where the emperor would perform ceremonies.

HP

Since both of the comments on my last post talked about Harry Potter I figured I'd share my "Harry Potter situation" and an observation. Also note that in this post I compare HP to LOTR. I am in no way trying to say one is better than the other. LOTR is just a good comparison point as a long fantasy series that was recently turned into films.

I've seen all of the Harry Potter movies (the early ones multiple times). I listened to most of book 5 on tape while in Bar Harbor. At one point (sometime around when movie 3 came out) I started reading book 1 at the Harvard Coop. I'm not someone who typically re-reads a book (LOTR is a rare exception, but the gap was about 10 years) and already knowing the major points from the movie I was having trouble getting into it (I realize it wasn't a fair try since Harry hadn't even gotten to Hogwarts so I may give it another try at some point). And I was told the major plot points of book 6 (I'm almost tempted to contact that person to find out what happens in book 7 since she's probably done by now).

I like all the movies, but the last two seemed like they were rushing to hit the major plot points and unable to spend time on the character and background development that the other movies were able to capture (yeah, I think I stole this theory from someone else, but I'm going with it). I know hardcore Harry fans think that all of the movies had left out major details and I didn't know if listening to book 5 was throwing off my opinion so I decided to look at just how rushed the movies were.

Name	Book [pages]	Film [minutes]	Book/Film [pages/minute]
LOTR	1200	558	2.15
LOTR DVD	1200	682	1.76
HP 1	309	152	2.03
HP 2	256	161	1.59
HP 3	320	141	2.27
HP 4	752	157	4.79
HP 5	870	138	6.30

I think it is fairly clear that the movies were trying to pack a reasonable amount in at the beginning, but the last two have been trying to fit in way more book per minute. And the first few books were about in line with LOTR's page/minute rate. Given the length of books 6 and 7 I hope they consider making longer movies or even splitting them into multiple movies (or I guess I could just break down and read the books rather than depending on film makers to cover all the details).

Final thoughts - I enjoyed the fight scene between Dumbledore and Voldemort although I spent a lot of it wondering when Harry was going to get up and do something useful (although when Dumbledore tossed him on his ass with a flick of the wrist I realized he was way out of his league). Perhaps someone knows the answer to this - for the kids it seems like a major portion of spell casting is saying the right word, but adults don't seem to have to say anything to cast spells. What's up with that?

The System of the World and Shinto

This week I finished The System of the World by Neal Stephenson. In an episode of Family Guy Peter turns down a boat for a mystery box then about 2 minutes later he turns to Lois and says, "hey remember the time I turned down the boat for the mystery box?". This book has a few lines like that, but they are referring to the first book in the series, which I read over a year ago so it actually made sense. I was going to write about how it seemed weird reading the series over the course of a year, but I realized that it is nothing to compared to what all the Harry Potter fans have been going through.

Anyway, Neal did pull a bit of his classic style of starting crazy and then ending super crazy, but it was a bit more muted since the starting point was real history and the end point had to fit into history. I give Neal credit for doing something different, but I do hope he gets back to futuristic novels. The series talks a lot about alchemy and at work we had sorted some parts into piles we called gold and silver then we found a way to make silvers into golds so I started calling it alchemy and it caught on. So now a few people at work refer to the group that figured it out as alchemists.

And apparently Randall Munroe is also spying on me (yeah I know the alt-text is about Cryptonomicron, but close enough).

I also read Shinto by Scott Littleton. Those who know far more about Shinto feel free to correct me. It's odd, other than Jess talking about it, I don't think I had heard of Shinto before, but apparently it is the major religion in Japan. One of the main things I got from the book is that in Japan they are much more willing to mix religions. Both taking parts of others and incorporating them and being both Shinto and Buddhist and picking which parts of each to celebrate. Such as, most marriages are the Shinto custom and most funerals are the Buddhist tradition (in general Shinto is more about what happens when alive and Buddhism is more about after death).

Shinto has a huge number of spirits of varying types and ranks. To me it is interesting since Judaism prides itself so much on being the first monotheistic religion that growing up Jewish it gave me a sense that monotheism is in some way more advanced, but really there's no reason that's true. Also having tons of gods and spirits seems way more interesting. It also seems to allow for better stories since the gods are not all powerful and interact rather than just having this unknowable all powerful force.

Spying

I think Scott Adams is spying on me.

Will It Blend? - iPhone

Santa Barbara for the 4th

At work they were nice enough to give us the 2nd and 3rd as well as the 4th as vacation days. So on Sunday I headed up to Santa Barbara and stayed with my Uncle's family and came back the morning of the 5th. It was great to see everyone.

In addition to enjoying time with my Uncle, Aunt, and two Cousins the trip provided a great break from my normal schedule. For the 4th we went to the beach to hang out and again at night for the fireworks. The day before I went biking with one of my cousins down to the wharf. I won a game made up by my other cousin thanks to my mad dice rolling skillz. I found it ironic that between riding in a convertible and spending time on the beach, it was when I sat outside reading a book that I got a sun burn (it was a pretty funny burn since it was the difference between that day's shirt and my normal tan line and was only on one side).

Thank you to my Uncle's family for hosting, feeding, and entertaining me.

Oh, and it was the first time I took public transportation in Southern California. I took the train there and back. It was a bit slower than driving with no traffic, but I'm guessing there was some traffic that weekend and it was great because I got to read instead of staring at the car ahead of me. They also had outlets for every seat so on the way back I watched a few episodes of the Sarah Silverman Program.

Buddha

I figured that if I'm going to visit two countries where I'll see a bunch of Buddhist stuff it would be nice to know something about Buddhism other than that Buddha was a fat, happy, Chinese guy (oh, guess it is good I read a book, since he was actually a skinny Indian guy who thought that life is suffering).

Well I'm not claiming to be an expert, or really know much at all about it since I read Buddha, A Very Short Introduction and well it was very short. What I did pick up is that Buddhism assumes reincarnation and a lot of the religion is instruction in how to meditate and what you should be searching for when meditating. At least how the author presented it, unlike Western religions that are mostly about god and the instructions he hands down by talking to people, Buddhism developed more like philosophy. Buddha worked with many teachers of different religions and methods of meditation and using reasoning he developed a new set of views. While there was some divine intervention, the teachings are presented as Buddha's thoughts and findings.

Estimation

< rant >

I've been reading tour books about China and Japan and either it is just the books or people need a lesson on estimation (from what I remember of the other members of the Italy tour (pre-euro), it's not just the books)! Yes, I realize that the readers of this blog are a quite educated group and probably don't need this lesson, but this is my only forum for posting stuff like this so here it goes...

First off - going between celsius and fahrenheit (some of the credit for the following goes to one of my family members - I think my dad, but I don't remember) telling people to multiply by 9/5 and add 32 may be an attempt to improve American's mental math abilities, but is pretty darn silly when talking about the weather. Let's say that when you are discussing the weather you're typically talking about somewhere between 0 F and 100 F. If instead of taking a celsius value and multiplying by 9/5 and adding 32 you multiply by 2 and add 30 you will at most be off by 5.6 F at either end (I don't think you'll do anything different if it is -5.6 F vs 0 F or 105.6 F vs 100 F). For a more typical temperature like 70 F you'll only be off by 2 F. And if the temperature is outside the range 0 F to 100 F then the estimation is even easier - either too cold or too hot.

Next - exchange rates. If you are making major purchases or have just enough money then go ahead and use the exact exchange rate. However, if the exchange rate is 95 to 1 go ahead and divide by 100! (That's 100 said as an exclamation, not 100 factorial, that would be a horrible estimation.) Even if the exchange rate is say 8 to 1 for minor purchases decide if you want to over or under estimate and divide by either 5 or 10. It's a little off, but you'll act like a normal person instead of adding yet another barrier to communication (plus when you screw up dividing by 95 or even 8 you'll be a lot further off than if you had just estimated). For those headed to Europe I would say make life easy on yourself and say 1 euro = 1 dollar (again, if making a big purchase than take the time to do the calculation).

< /rant >

Animal Rights

I just finished Animal Rights, A Very Short Introduction by David DeGrazia. You might be wondering why I read this book, even given that my reading list has become somewhat eclectic over the last year. Well, I recently designed an animal experiment for the first time. The experiment is for work. I won't go into many details for a number of reasons, but the experiment is about as humane as animal research can be and my experiment piggy-backs (no pun intended) on another set of experiments so really my experiment caused absolutely no harm. While my feeling is that if any animal research is justified, life saving research that does not involve torturing the animal would be it, I thought it would be interesting to see what others have to say about it since I'm still not completely sure how I feel about it.

As you might expect the book does not really resolve any issues, but it does clarify various positions on the topics of animal research and the conclusions that can be drawn from each position. While the author makes his favorite positions known, actually picking one is of course left to the reader. The book builds up the position that animals (at least higher level ones) do suffer and so they should have a certain level of rights. The major split is if animals, like humans, have rights that should not be dismissed even if it would overall benefit society (or even more protected since animals can never give informed consent). There is also a question of if there should be a sliding scale of rights based on the mental abilities of animals. Another interesting discussion point is if killing an animal harmlessly is cruelty or not. There are a number of ways of looking at it. One point is that humans have lots of future goals and killing a human stops them from accomplishing those goals vs an animal which does not have future goals. Another perspective is like opportunity cost - how much positive experience are you depriving the animal by killing it.

While I didn't pick a particular position, the book did help me put animal experiments in perspective. When I hear the term animal experiments my first thought is injecting awake animals with cosmetics to see what harm it causes. This is of course very different from the research I am involved with. One of the main points I got from the book is that I did way more harm to animals by eating meat for dinner than by my involvement in these experiments. When I jokingly suggested that I should keep track of how many animals are killed due to decisions I make, a co-worker pointed out that all the animals I eat would far out number anything else. What the book further illustrated is that the animals killed for food also have much worse lives and endure far greater suffering.

Overall I'm still a bit hesitant about animal testing and will try to minimize the amount required, but I now realize that small alterations to my eating habits would make a far bigger difference. I was hesitant to even talk about animal testing on this blog so I probably won't go into more details here, but if you are curious about it, I'm fine with discussing on the phone or over email.

Random Ramblings (again)

The following are a random assortment of thoughts with no unifying thread.

I just saw Knocked Up. It was very funny and I would recommend it, but it was blog worthy because the girl from UCB who I discussed here (toward the end) and here had several lines in the movie. At some point I'll leave detailing her career to IMDB, but for now I still find it crazy, and proof I shouldn't be a hollywood talent agent.

I recommend Twisted Oak 2004 Petite Sirah (pdf, but worth it, especially if you like to know the pH of your wine...).

For those that have seen me recently you have probably noticed my slowly growing sideburns which eventually made it all the way to my jawbone. Well, they're gone! And I may have over done it a bit since I barely left any, but I'm sure they'll creep back down again. It is interesting that people misinterpret laziness as fashion sense.

If you have not seen iTunes U, it is worth checking out. They have lectures from a number of schools (including one I'm fond of) on line as podcasts - both video and audio (for free). The selection is still a bit limited, but if you are just looking for a taste of a subject they are worthwhile. If you go to the iTunes store it's in the list on the left under the heading iTunes Store.

I was so glad to see Jon Stewart make fun of giving weapons to Sunni insurgents on the June 13 episode. I felt the need to rant about it, but watching him satisfied my need. The part I find amazing is that it is a strategy that has been tried numerous times and is almost always regretted.

San Diego

Two friends from college came out to San Diego (I'm avoiding names since they don't keep blogs so I don't want to make the decision to post info about them) and two of their friends also met us in San Diego. They were nice enough to let me stay in their hotel room so it was like I took a vacation to San Diego and I took off Friday so it was like a real trip.

On Friday we went to the wild animal park. It is mostly African animals which makes sense since the park is in the desert east of San Diego. The setup was very well done - the animals were given a lot of area to move around and the fences were subtile enough that it didn't have that caged animals look. That night we went to Jakes Del Mar which is a great restaurant along the beach.

One of the friends found a desert tour that started in Borrego Springs. We rode around in an old army jeep through the desert and went on a short hike. There were some plants and some of them were interesting plants that I had never seen before, but it was also interesting just how barren a giant amount of land can be. One day I'll get pictures from the other members of the group (hint, hint) and post them rather than describing everything. The most amazing part was when we got out of the jeep and the tour guide told us to look down until he told us to stop. When we looked up we were a foot from the edge of a cliff from which you could see for about 60 miles in almost every direction including seeing out into mexico. The view was unending brown hills. Brown hills don't sound that amazing and I'm not sure that the pictures will capture it, but the immensity was incredible. The weather was interesting because it was in the high 90s or low 100s but was so dry that it actually didn't feel that bad; although, I did feel the dryness making its way down my throat - it was like the scene in the matrix where neo first enters the real world - but instead of melted glass creeping down it was dryness. After the tour we had dinner in Borrego Springs and then went out for some star gazing. I haven't seen that many stars since scout camp in the middle of Missouri. Saw a couple satellites flying along and one shooting star.

Next day we started with breakfast/lunch at a french pastry restaurant. Then made our way tokayaking/snorkeling in La Jolla. We kayaked out to some caves and then snorkeled in them. I enjoyed the event, but did see quite as much while snorkeling as I expected; although, when kayaking we saw a bunch of seals and some small sharks (only about 5 feet long and supposedly don't attack people). Also saw a bird dive into the water. For dinner we headed to old town where we ate at The Old Town Mexican Cafe.

Overall had a very good time and thanks to my friends for planning the whole weekend and letting me stay in their room.

I'm back!

I'm back in SoCal! Well, actually I've been back since the 20th. But since I had half a day for a weekend and then a crazy work week, I'm considering this weekend my re-entry to california. I think this was the first trip I've ever taken where I got back and it took me a little bit to remember where everything is in my apartment (which is pretty crazy since it is not that big of an apartment).

The interesting thing about getting most of my "media" from iTunes TV and podcasts is coming back from a long trip I have a pile of stuff to watch and listen to. My knowledge of what's going on is almost caught back up with the present (I'm actually not that out of it thanks to nyt emails and TV in the hotels).

Since I'm now reliving the whole war spending bill stuff I'm doubly irritated. I realized that there had to be some level of compromise, but the assumption everyone seemed to make is that it was Congress that needed a bill to pass. If congress did not pass a war spending bill that would not mean that the troops would be underfunded. It would mean that Bush would have a choice to either bring them home or keep them there underfunded. It would be Bush who sent underfunded troops to Iraq. Now the cool thing is that if congress decided that it did not HAVE to fund the troops they would be in an incredible negotiating position and would eventually force Bush to sign a bill with time tables or at least benchmarks with real consequences. At that point the bill would pass and the troops would get funding. Actually, now that I think about it, it's really simple game theory. There was a round of signaling before they started playing. Bush sent the ultimate signal in game theory - I'm crazy and will stick to my guns no matter how irrational it might be. While he's crazy, congress knows he's not that crazy and would eventually cave somewhat (although he has done a good job of building up that image). But congress didn't match his signaling. If they would have said, we're not the ones keeping troops there. If troops suffer because of a lack of funding then it is Bush's fault, they would be on a level playing field. But instead they bought into the lie that if they don't fund the war that they are the ones causing harm to the troops. At that point they had already lost. Really I think the underlying issue is that congress thinks Americans are idiots (I'm not saying they are wrong) and can't see through Bush's lie that congress not funding the troops is what is putting them in harms way.