I have to admit I hate the expression 'shout out'. I'd rather say 'tip of the hat' or something similar, but that would be lexically incorrect, On tip of the hat hmmm, maybe On tips of the hat.
Anyway I think it appropriate that I thank Georg for a good laugh. I have not had one of those from a comment here in quite some time. Have I actually had a funny comment before? (I rather doubt it.)
My plan yesterday, now that my muscles are no longer a frozen mass of protein, was to skate to practice. One little problem, an intense headwind, according to Jacky Schu(see Passion On Wheels on the right) it was 70km/h with gusts up to 83km/h. (I have to admit, I find that hard to believe, but perhaps around 20km/h with periodic gusts to 40km/h seem a little more believable, when I skated with the wind I was able to keep up with debris that was being carried by the wind.)
The wind was from the west, and I had to go west to get to practice. I think the wind alone would not have broken my will, but the cold did. I make a lousy Canadian, I just cannot take the cold.
When we arrived in Texas back in late February, or was it March 1? I remember driving out of Dallas Fort Worth Airport and seeing a couple hard core cyclists on the roads of Irving TX. Hardcore not because of the the weather, about 20 degrees and sunny, but because they were out on suburban roads with reckless drivers. When I think back to that divine temperature, I think to myself I could live in Texas, then I remember the concealed weapons laws and I think... uhm, no so much. But San Francisco? Or maybe San Diego, one of these days I'd like to see what San Diego is like, I've been told its very nice there.
Oh here is a great post recovery snack I've dreamed up that works well for me. Take some instant almond paste soup from a Chinese supermarket, add glutamine and boiling water. That is probably the easiest way, besides perhaps, chocolate milk, to get glutamine into your system. Since I am lactose intolerant that is probably the best way to get glutamine.
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Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
On Humor
Love your enemies. It makes them so damned mad.
This was from a letter, that I really liked, in the Saturday (March 29) Globe and Mail.
About that Canadian bacon
You should have modified the Associated Press obituary of Herb Peterson (March 28) for Canadian readers. The obituary of the creator of the Egg McMuffin listed its ingredients which included "Canadian bacon." It should should have been called back bacon.
My wife and I discovered this difference between American and Canadian English the first week we arrived in Canada from the U.S. My wife asked a butch, "Is that Canadian bacon?" The butch quipped, "Lady, all our meat is Canadian!" - Peter A. Reich, Toronto.
Actually when I was young I remember we used to call it Peameal bacon. When we went to New England in the summer of '93 we were at a restaurant that served Canadian bacon on the side, dad, a third generation Canadian had no idea what Canadian bacon was. Its a cute little letter, I liked it, I imagine the butcher knew exactly what the Mrs. Reich was asking for, but hey any chance to poke fun at the little differences.
Anyway I went skating today and it was COLD, too cold, gave up and went home. After dinner I am going to hit the elliptical machine - I want warmer weather dammit!
-P.D. East
This was from a letter, that I really liked, in the Saturday (March 29) Globe and Mail.
About that Canadian bacon
You should have modified the Associated Press obituary of Herb Peterson (March 28) for Canadian readers. The obituary of the creator of the Egg McMuffin listed its ingredients which included "Canadian bacon." It should should have been called back bacon.
My wife and I discovered this difference between American and Canadian English the first week we arrived in Canada from the U.S. My wife asked a butch, "Is that Canadian bacon?" The butch quipped, "Lady, all our meat is Canadian!" - Peter A. Reich, Toronto.
Actually when I was young I remember we used to call it Peameal bacon. When we went to New England in the summer of '93 we were at a restaurant that served Canadian bacon on the side, dad, a third generation Canadian had no idea what Canadian bacon was. Its a cute little letter, I liked it, I imagine the butcher knew exactly what the Mrs. Reich was asking for, but hey any chance to poke fun at the little differences.
Anyway I went skating today and it was COLD, too cold, gave up and went home. After dinner I am going to hit the elliptical machine - I want warmer weather dammit!
Monday, March 31, 2008
On Spring
Its raining! I do believe that this horrible winter is finally at long last over. Its raining!
Oh well, no skating for me today. On the other hand, tomorrow is supposed to be pretty warm. To anyone from TISC who might come across this, no I cannot make practice, too much is going on at home right now, with the move and all that, but I am going to try to hit the trail and do at least a lap of the Martin Goodman. I should be able to get to TISC practice by the start of May.
In other news I called the store where my bike is, and have arranged to pickup my bike on April 18. So by my rough numbers one million four hundred seventy six thousand seconds separate me from my new bike! One million four hundred seventy five thousand nine hundred ninety nine, ninety eight... (When the thousands get into the single digits I will probably have trouble sleeping... then again ten thousand seconds is less than three hours.)
Definition: Michael in winter - bio-mechanical apparatus for converting food into fat.
Definition: Michael in summer - bio-mechanical apparatus for converting fat into kinetic energy.
Lord knows I lived up to my winter definition pretty effectively.
Oh well, no skating for me today. On the other hand, tomorrow is supposed to be pretty warm. To anyone from TISC who might come across this, no I cannot make practice, too much is going on at home right now, with the move and all that, but I am going to try to hit the trail and do at least a lap of the Martin Goodman. I should be able to get to TISC practice by the start of May.
In other news I called the store where my bike is, and have arranged to pickup my bike on April 18. So by my rough numbers one million four hundred seventy six thousand seconds separate me from my new bike! One million four hundred seventy five thousand nine hundred ninety nine, ninety eight... (When the thousands get into the single digits I will probably have trouble sleeping... then again ten thousand seconds is less than three hours.)
Definition: Michael in winter - bio-mechanical apparatus for converting food into fat.
Definition: Michael in summer - bio-mechanical apparatus for converting fat into kinetic energy.
Lord knows I lived up to my winter definition pretty effectively.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
On arguments and more on Tibet
I suppose in a way I cannot claim surprise at the reaction to my post, On random thoughts. After all I wrote that: [this post will] say something that I know some of my readers will have strong objections to, I think the civilized world ought to boycott the Olympic Games in Beijing this summer. I have thought at length about what I wrote and I am not backing down, to the contrary, it was a well written post that I believe a number of people read and misunderstood.
I'd like to point out that in the couple paragraphs I wrote about Tibet I contrasted the government of the People's Republic of China with the Bush Administration. As anyone who is a regular reader of my blog is no doubt only too well aware my views on America on complex and many dimensioned.
Let me be completely blunt. What is going on in Tibet is complicated, its ugly, there are no winners in this, as Isaac Asimov said, violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. I am confident that I am being exposed to something that amounts to western propaganda but I am even more confident that reports coming from the Eastern (i.e. Chinese) media are even more slanted and one sided. Ultimately this propaganda is leading to strong emotions and ill considered thoughts.
I am reminded of a line from the movie 13 Days where John McCone as played by Peter White states: "Bobby [RFK] sometimes there is only one right choice and you thank God when it's so clear." The fact is that is not true, almost always, even the example I just cited, McCone was advocating a sneak attack on Cuba to remove the Nuclear MRBMs the Soviets had placed on that Island in October of 1962.
On the other hand this blind acceptance that what we read in the paper, or watch on T.V. is the unadulterated truth is a criminal waste of a wonderfully sophisticated and fantastic instrument known as the human mind.
So do I believe that boycotting the games is a good thing? Yes absolutely, the people of China are not going to suffer or gain from an Olympics in the long term and the civilized World owes it to the government of China to say, this treatment of your own citizens, it is not acceptable, we won't tolerate it any longer.
Does this attitude represent a contradiction from past policies of our governments? Yes it does, and that's just life, its long past time for people to realize that no matter what we do, there will be some sort of reaction. We say nothing and the Olympics go on, ultimately the people of Tibet will hate us and possibly follow in the path of Osama Bin Laden. Just as we enabled the Shah of Iran then Saddam Hussein then the House of Saud, which as we know lead to the rise of Al Qaeda, our silent consent emboldens the rulers of China which I fear will ultimately lead to the same blow back we have seen already.
No matter what we do, there will be blow back, our break from our own ideals, by our complacency and sometimes by our design has landed us in this Catch-22. But if at least - to use the words of JFK - we say, let the word ring forth from this time and this place that no longer will we stand ideally by and allow our ideals to be sacrificed for the all mighty dollar, at least then when the blow back comes, we know it came for being true to our principals and not because we were intellectually or morally lazy.
This will, I hope be the last posting on this particular subject. I know I have angered some people and that's not a bad thing, when it is put to a constructive end. Go write a comment, or start a whole blog. Tell my why you think I am completely wrong, use well thought out ideals, sleep on your thoughts, put them together well so that in the end I must submit to your superior logic. But do not allow your emotions to cloud your judgment or cramp your writing, overly agitated thoughts make for bad writing.
I'd like to point out that in the couple paragraphs I wrote about Tibet I contrasted the government of the People's Republic of China with the Bush Administration. As anyone who is a regular reader of my blog is no doubt only too well aware my views on America on complex and many dimensioned.
Let me be completely blunt. What is going on in Tibet is complicated, its ugly, there are no winners in this, as Isaac Asimov said, violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. I am confident that I am being exposed to something that amounts to western propaganda but I am even more confident that reports coming from the Eastern (i.e. Chinese) media are even more slanted and one sided. Ultimately this propaganda is leading to strong emotions and ill considered thoughts.
I am reminded of a line from the movie 13 Days where John McCone as played by Peter White states: "Bobby [RFK] sometimes there is only one right choice and you thank God when it's so clear." The fact is that is not true, almost always, even the example I just cited, McCone was advocating a sneak attack on Cuba to remove the Nuclear MRBMs the Soviets had placed on that Island in October of 1962.
On the other hand this blind acceptance that what we read in the paper, or watch on T.V. is the unadulterated truth is a criminal waste of a wonderfully sophisticated and fantastic instrument known as the human mind.
So do I believe that boycotting the games is a good thing? Yes absolutely, the people of China are not going to suffer or gain from an Olympics in the long term and the civilized World owes it to the government of China to say, this treatment of your own citizens, it is not acceptable, we won't tolerate it any longer.
Does this attitude represent a contradiction from past policies of our governments? Yes it does, and that's just life, its long past time for people to realize that no matter what we do, there will be some sort of reaction. We say nothing and the Olympics go on, ultimately the people of Tibet will hate us and possibly follow in the path of Osama Bin Laden. Just as we enabled the Shah of Iran then Saddam Hussein then the House of Saud, which as we know lead to the rise of Al Qaeda, our silent consent emboldens the rulers of China which I fear will ultimately lead to the same blow back we have seen already.
No matter what we do, there will be blow back, our break from our own ideals, by our complacency and sometimes by our design has landed us in this Catch-22. But if at least - to use the words of JFK - we say, let the word ring forth from this time and this place that no longer will we stand ideally by and allow our ideals to be sacrificed for the all mighty dollar, at least then when the blow back comes, we know it came for being true to our principals and not because we were intellectually or morally lazy.
This will, I hope be the last posting on this particular subject. I know I have angered some people and that's not a bad thing, when it is put to a constructive end. Go write a comment, or start a whole blog. Tell my why you think I am completely wrong, use well thought out ideals, sleep on your thoughts, put them together well so that in the end I must submit to your superior logic. But do not allow your emotions to cloud your judgment or cramp your writing, overly agitated thoughts make for bad writing.
Monday, March 24, 2008
On unsigned comments
For those of you who don't read the comments on my blog, check out the first (so far only) response to my previous post, On Random Thoughts.
To Anonymous, you obviously have your own thoughts on my posting that you felt strongly about (or you would not have bothered with your 200 word tirade). Word of advice, read what you wrote two or three times before you hit submit. I can confidently tell a sum total of two things based on what you said:
To Anonymous, you obviously have your own thoughts on my posting that you felt strongly about (or you would not have bothered with your 200 word tirade). Word of advice, read what you wrote two or three times before you hit submit. I can confidently tell a sum total of two things based on what you said:
- You don't much care for much of what I had to say.
- You are a racist. (And you even know it. "I could have used language that would have been appropriate but it might have offended the Chinese")
Given that I have spent almost a year in China, I have taught ESL in Shanghai, I have been all over China, Yunnan, Beijing, Xian, Gungdong, Hong Kong and of course Shanghai even my wife is Chinese! I am not inclined to care much for the racist tirades of anonymous. (I should add, that it also appears that 'anonymous' doesn't really know what the hell they are talking about: "A spirit robbing peoples being subjugated by an adult population that has more values and doesn't condone black wizardry" On second thought, I don't really know what anonymous was talking about either!)
This is a free country, and I'd like to think I am reasonably open to all ideas in this blog, provided they do not constitute hate or advocate violence, but when I see a posting like this I have one thing to say. When I write something I put on name on it, I don't bark at the moon and run away. Anonymous, you are a coward!
Saturday, March 22, 2008
On random thoughts
I have been working on an article for 2600 Magazine, not really sure if it constitutes something suitable for a hacker magazine, more a computer networking thing, but I'll see how I feel about it when I am done tweaking. It's actually inspired by my article, On 802.11 networking.
This brings me around to a question my mother asked me this evening, when did The Internet start? Well actually that's a really easy question, surprising though that may sound, August 30, 1969. On the second last day of August, just 41 days after Neil Armstrong kicked up moon dust, an IMP (Interface Message Processor) was connected to a SDS Sigma-7 Minicomputer at UCLA. On October 1, 1969 a similar IMP was connected to an SDS-940 at the Stanford Research Institute. The first message to go over The Internet was "log", the Standford machine crashed before completing the first "login", a few minutes later the bug was fixed and The Internet began. IMPs would evolve into routers, although Europeans call them Intermediate Systems (hence the routing protocol, IS-IS.)
Tonight my father and I watched the movie, There Will Be Blood. That movie serves as a good reminder of how greed has always been such a driving force behind the oil industry. There is no industry that I know of, that is as corrupting as big oil. I am still trying to come to terms with what I saw, but I will say this, the camera work was outstanding, little wonder it won an Oscar for cinematography, it was well earned. Daniel Day Lewis's acting was also first rate, as was much of the rest of the cast.
On matters less technical. Lately I've spent a lot of time thinking about Tibet. I've never actually been there, but I came pretty close in the summer of 2002. Events in and around Tibet are, to put things mildly, upsetting. Frankly, and I am going to say something that I know some of my readers will have strong objections to, I think the civilized world ought to boycott the Olympic Games in Beijing this summer. Quite possibly the lamest argument against a boycott, by an athlete in the letters to the editor of the paper a few days ago, was that the Olympics are about sport and Tibet is politics. First anyone who disputes the claim that sport is political is so out to lunch I don't even want to argue with them. About the only thing I know of that is more political than sport is oil. No matter it was Jesse Owens whipping the Germans in Berlin in '36, or the Black Power salute of the '68 games in Mexico city. And don't even get me started on the quadrennial selection of future sites of the games, the Olympics are so political they can, and often do, leave politicians blushing. If the Olympics are about peoples of the World coming together in the spirit of peace and fraternity, like the Israeli athletes in Munich, then putting the Olympics in Beijing is an insult to the intelligence of all people, everywhere. Besides, sending athletes to Beijing to breath the air there is, foolish at best.
I believe that the government of China is a two sided entity, one side we can call it the George Bush side, wants to show off how advanced it is, the greatness of the Chinese space program, the Olympics, the World Expo in Shanghai in 2010, the maglev from Pudong Airport to Shanghai and so on. The other side, the Dick Chenney part of the communist party was evident in Tien-An-Men Square in 1989 and is visible today in Tibet. Personally I will continue to voice my opposition to the 2008 Olympics and I can only hope that athletes out there consider that by going to Beijing they are silent in the face of tyranny. Tyranny does not require our support, simply our silence.
This brings me around to a question my mother asked me this evening, when did The Internet start? Well actually that's a really easy question, surprising though that may sound, August 30, 1969. On the second last day of August, just 41 days after Neil Armstrong kicked up moon dust, an IMP (Interface Message Processor) was connected to a SDS Sigma-7 Minicomputer at UCLA. On October 1, 1969 a similar IMP was connected to an SDS-940 at the Stanford Research Institute. The first message to go over The Internet was "log", the Standford machine crashed before completing the first "login", a few minutes later the bug was fixed and The Internet began. IMPs would evolve into routers, although Europeans call them Intermediate Systems (hence the routing protocol, IS-IS.)
Tonight my father and I watched the movie, There Will Be Blood. That movie serves as a good reminder of how greed has always been such a driving force behind the oil industry. There is no industry that I know of, that is as corrupting as big oil. I am still trying to come to terms with what I saw, but I will say this, the camera work was outstanding, little wonder it won an Oscar for cinematography, it was well earned. Daniel Day Lewis's acting was also first rate, as was much of the rest of the cast.
On matters less technical. Lately I've spent a lot of time thinking about Tibet. I've never actually been there, but I came pretty close in the summer of 2002. Events in and around Tibet are, to put things mildly, upsetting. Frankly, and I am going to say something that I know some of my readers will have strong objections to, I think the civilized world ought to boycott the Olympic Games in Beijing this summer. Quite possibly the lamest argument against a boycott, by an athlete in the letters to the editor of the paper a few days ago, was that the Olympics are about sport and Tibet is politics. First anyone who disputes the claim that sport is political is so out to lunch I don't even want to argue with them. About the only thing I know of that is more political than sport is oil. No matter it was Jesse Owens whipping the Germans in Berlin in '36, or the Black Power salute of the '68 games in Mexico city. And don't even get me started on the quadrennial selection of future sites of the games, the Olympics are so political they can, and often do, leave politicians blushing. If the Olympics are about peoples of the World coming together in the spirit of peace and fraternity, like the Israeli athletes in Munich, then putting the Olympics in Beijing is an insult to the intelligence of all people, everywhere. Besides, sending athletes to Beijing to breath the air there is, foolish at best.
I believe that the government of China is a two sided entity, one side we can call it the George Bush side, wants to show off how advanced it is, the greatness of the Chinese space program, the Olympics, the World Expo in Shanghai in 2010, the maglev from Pudong Airport to Shanghai and so on. The other side, the Dick Chenney part of the communist party was evident in Tien-An-Men Square in 1989 and is visible today in Tibet. Personally I will continue to voice my opposition to the 2008 Olympics and I can only hope that athletes out there consider that by going to Beijing they are silent in the face of tyranny. Tyranny does not require our support, simply our silence.
Saturday, March 15, 2008
On volunteering
I have decided to become a Big Brother. I am not entirely sure this is the best way for me to volunteer my time (will I have as positive an impact as I would working at the Food Bank?), but it is the best I can think to do. I guess I have been inspired by the secret service agent in the third season of The West Wing, Simon Donavon.
Lately I have found myself thinking of Cynthia Lennon, a few years ago I read an excerpt from her book and recent discussion about Silda Wall Spitzer (former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer's wife) brings the first Mrs. Lennon to mind. (Actually I just found out, Silda was married to someone for 29 days before divorcing prior to marring Eliot, not that that particular fact should matter.)
Anyway the story with Cynthia is, she was returning from a vacation with her girl friends in Greece, it was 1968, the Lennon's were doing pretty well, the Beatles were a sensation by then. That morning Cynthia had her breakfast in Rome before flying on to Paris where she stopped for some lunch before continuing on to London. When she got home she thought it would be great to go have dinner with John in London so that she could say she had breakfast in Rome, lunch in Paris and dinner in London.
Cynthia gets home, to Kenwood, enters the house and there is John and Yoko Ono sitting on the floor facing each other. Now according to the Wikipedia article John and Yoko are simply looking into each other's eyes, but as I remember from the excerpt I just read they were doing all of the above, naked. Cynthia said something to the effect of: I was on auto-pilot, I blurted out "do you want to go out for dinner, I thought it would be fun if I could say I had breakfast in Rome, lunch in Paris and dinner in London" John said "no thanks". I managed to gather up a few things and leave the house.
Every time I think of Cynthia's description of that evening I just feel so awful. People can be really awful sometimes. Anyway I am going to volunteer, I don't want to be an awful person.
Lately I have found myself thinking of Cynthia Lennon, a few years ago I read an excerpt from her book and recent discussion about Silda Wall Spitzer (former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer's wife) brings the first Mrs. Lennon to mind. (Actually I just found out, Silda was married to someone for 29 days before divorcing prior to marring Eliot, not that that particular fact should matter.)
Anyway the story with Cynthia is, she was returning from a vacation with her girl friends in Greece, it was 1968, the Lennon's were doing pretty well, the Beatles were a sensation by then. That morning Cynthia had her breakfast in Rome before flying on to Paris where she stopped for some lunch before continuing on to London. When she got home she thought it would be great to go have dinner with John in London so that she could say she had breakfast in Rome, lunch in Paris and dinner in London.
Cynthia gets home, to Kenwood, enters the house and there is John and Yoko Ono sitting on the floor facing each other. Now according to the Wikipedia article John and Yoko are simply looking into each other's eyes, but as I remember from the excerpt I just read they were doing all of the above, naked. Cynthia said something to the effect of: I was on auto-pilot, I blurted out "do you want to go out for dinner, I thought it would be fun if I could say I had breakfast in Rome, lunch in Paris and dinner in London" John said "no thanks". I managed to gather up a few things and leave the house.
Every time I think of Cynthia's description of that evening I just feel so awful. People can be really awful sometimes. Anyway I am going to volunteer, I don't want to be an awful person.
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