Reading (For Dummies)

Zodiac Tournament

This weekend was the Zodiac Tournament in Rahchestah. Being born on the same day as HAL 9000 was first booted, I was put on the Capricorn team. We played pretty well.

Sean makes a defensive bid

We played 3 games each day. On day one (Saturday), we beat Aries and Gemini, but lost to Aquarius (headed up by Ian, who is an awesome player from Syracuse). Day one ended in slight frustration for me, as I couldn't find the tournament party that night. The league had rented out part of the Water Street Music Hall club, but the directions I got to the place were pretty bad. After spending some time driving in the rain and not finding it, I gave up and headed back to the apartment of Emily(my cousin). Part of my inability to find it was probably my brain's inability to separate signal from noise in the rain. Yet another reason I hate living in and around cities is the light pollution that causes excessive vision problems when the roads are wet (street lights, headlights, taillights, and traffic lights are all causing reflections on the road, making driving a chore).

Day two began with higher spirits as we were challenged by Leo. We put down the mighty tiger...

Tim skies the competition, and makes the point

Our second game against the Scorpios stung us in the afternoon, though. We went down 17-5 I believe. They were a phenomonal team.

After that quick game, we played Libra for 3rd/4th place in the tournie. It was an incredibly goofy game, with such rounds as walking-only (no-one allowed to run, jumps must be straight vertical, and dives involved dropping to your knees and then bidding). The Libras also played suicide squad (everyone on their team dropped to the ground except the mark and the receiver when a pass was made), and the Capricorn defensive strategy of pulling, and then joining hands and blocking the end zone. We also had quite a bit of beer during the last game...

We lost it, not that we cared, so we made 4th place in the tournament. Not bad...not bad at all for a team of people who didn't know each other at the beginning.

The Caps, front to back, left to right: Carrie, Pam, Linda, blah, blah, Tracy, Sean, Stephen, Russ, Brian, Sean, Myself. Not pictured: Ted

Suit

If I were to have one suit, I would very definitely throw away my gold curderoy and buy one of these (the top one).

Wisdom

I am looking for a paper on economic analysis of population growth versus reduction. I have this vague idea of an argument in my head about world population growth control...what effect would it have on world governments if their populations suddenly held steady? Would a government be able to provide health care, education, welfare, retirement, defense, etc to a population that held steady?

Assuming an even population distribution (which is a fairly good assumption in a zero population growth society, though there will always be a little more on the young end and a little less on the old end), and an average lifespan of say 75 for every citizen, you'd have 28% of the population too young to pay taxes (and also involved in the education system), 13% of the population collecting retirement, and the remaining 59% working and paying taxes to support the rest of the population economically.

The question is, could that 59% of the population possibly pay enough in taxes to sustain not only their own social service needs (health care, defense, etc) but also the needs of the rest of the population? I'd say no, and that you need multiplicatively more 21-65 year olds working at any given moment than you have retirees at least (if you want a social security system that allows the retirees to eat and have a roof), and you need to constantly cut back on services for children (since you would need multiplicatively more children than you have adults who can't be bothered to pay taxes to support them and feed themselves too).

In all, I get the feeling that a zero population-growth society would need to be socialist in nature...either that or it would need to find a good way to kill people off as soon as they retire (as an aside, cigarettes might fit that bill nicely...lung cancer right at retirement age!).

A paper on the subject would be infinitely fascinating to me...alas Wisdom has no reviews on such a piece, and I haven't the foggiest idea of where to start looking for one.

Medical scare, part 1

There's nothing like remembering you're mortal...

This little tale involves discussion of testicles. So if such talk bothers you, click here.

A little while ago, I discovered a testicular lump. I took my time getting it checked out, partially because I thought that I didn't have any insurance with which to fall back on, and insurance companies have pretty evil laws about getting pre-existing conditions treated when you've just signed up. I've been quite a bit bummed the last few weeks that the University won't let me subscribe to its insurance policy for this reason.

Fortunately, it turns out that my mother's health insurance is valid until my 24th birthday. The insurance company is even being extremely cooperative (unlike the last few times I had to use them).

I hit up the SU health center where I got checked by one of the local quacks, and am waiting on a referral for a urologist from my primary care physician down in Jersey. The consensus seems to be that it's a benign tumor, at least.

The appointment was rather odd, though. I realize that the university's medical staff is no Johns Hopkins, but I sort of expected more professionality. The folks were nice enough, but the doc seemed rather embarrased at my predicament (which I guess I don't need to point out that I'm not...). It sort of killed me when she asked, "When did you first, er...notice...the...affliction?" It kind of makes me wonder how they treat the folks that come in with VD...

Ohwell, the doc was at least reassuring in stating that, given the location and size, consistency, etc of the lump, it probably is nothing to be too worried about. I'll still be at least a tiny bit nervous until the urologist gives the all-clear. I guess I have a right to be, though...

Finger Lakes Triathlon

Over the weekend was the Finger Lakes Triathlon.

We came, we saw, we 'won'.

There were six of us, including Liz Alexander, Justin Jiunta, Kyongmii Choi, Keisuke Inoue, Keng (of unspecified last name) and myself. Between the six of us, I think we managed somewhere around 2 hours combined sleep the night before, and the 'Old Folks' (the grad student team) were forced into a celebration involving entirely too much wine the night before. Thank you, leader.

Waking up bleary-eyed after 20 minutes of sleep, slightly hung-over, we collected our charges at the Sci-tech parking lot at 4:30am and proceeded to Canandaigua lake. The ride was not very memorable, perhaps because I was asleep at the wheel most of the time. Just kidding.

Bleary-eyed and cold before sunrise: Kyoung Mii, Justin, Liz, and Keng

We arrived without mishap to slight organizational confusion, but found the starting line without too much trouble. Then we froze. The temperature at the lake was 67 degrees ambient at 6am. That does not sound too bad, but the wind was blowing something fierce, which quickly drove the body heat away.

Keisuke shivering before the swim

Keisuke and Liz took up the first leg of the journey, swalking (what happens when you go swimming in water 3.5 - 4 feet deep) through the half-mile water course. The timers were passed off to myself and Keng.

Even though he had a road bike, I managed to stay ahead of him on my trusty Trek 4900 (equipped with road tires). While I must admit that I was passed by no fewer than 18 people (all on several-thousand dollar road bikes...that must have been the reason they could beat me), I did manage to breeze by a number of the old fogies, putting 15 people behind me that I would never see again. You see, I was dropping caltrops throughout the race, chuckling with glee as tires inflated to over 100psi exploded behind me...

Keng and I finished within a minute of each other (we had started with the same gap), so we were certainly equally matched. The timers were passed to Justin and Kyongmii, who dutifully performed their running legs.

Kyoung Mii runs for Team Old Folks (SU Triathlon team 2)

While I regret to admit that the young kids (barely) whomped us in the race, we all had a blast. We even survived the drive home.

We weren't the only ones racing on Canandaigua

The scores are already available. The young ones made 6th place, the grad students made 9th out of 15 teams.

Now I need to start training so I can do an individual sprint...

MK

MK recently sent me a batch of her latest comics and 'zine. I was kind of blown away. We were friends in college, but it seems that I never got to know her well enough. I highly recommend reading the excerpts from her 'Cold as Ice' story, which captures the isolationism and soul-selling of the travelling salesperson on a local scale, with humor and wit to boot. I think her excerpts do not do the piece justice, however...the whole story is a must.

Bikes and Frisbees

I broke down and bought myself a Felt road bike the other day. It will be here in about 2 weeks. I'm drooling with anticipation. I still go off-road a lot, but I seldom go alone anymore. The trails I take are pretty long and pretty rough, and after that wrist-breaking incident some years back, I'm reluctant to go it alone on heftier rides. Besides, I have triathlon training to think of...running shoes will be next stipend check.

We also won our first Ultimate Frisbee game. Indeed, my good professor did go down, though to be fair it was only by one point -- my point. I fumbled a number of catches in the game and only scored once...the final point of the game. We won 15-14 hard-cap due to the sun quickly sinking below the horizon.

Not much else new. Doing a lot of studying, trying to exercise as much as possible. This weekend is a possible triathlon, and failing that, a journey into the caves with SUOC.

Great Customer Service

I was getting ready to lose my domain name when the registration system at my domain registrar started giving me cryptic errors (like logging me in but saying that I had to contact support to renew my domain). Luckily, 000domains totally rocks. I popped off the question to their support line (at 10:30pm EST, mind you), and got back an explanation and my login/pass to my registered contact email address (not the email I sent it from). I got the email back in less than 10 minutes. It takes me longer to pay for lunch at Syr-A-Juice on some days. And they're smart enough to not send the info to the wrong address, thwarting domain hijacking attempts.

God-damned half-Japanese girls

Or native Japanese girls

Today was the first meeting of the SU triathlon club. We went biking and running (well, Miyake-san and I went biking and running, Keisuke and Kyoung Mi went biking and swimming). We have a training schedule worked out, and many more members. It could become a professional group if Keisuke manages things correctly.

I need more work, though. I also need to lose about 15 pounds (I'm up a lot from this time last year). So I will be running every day just about...

We went to dinner afterwards, at a small Japanese restaurant out in the boondocks. We had many interesting conversations, including a dissection of Japanese-Korean relations since the Japanese occupation ended. Keisuke and Chigusa (Miyake) are Japanese, Kyoung Mi is Korean. I tried to play the part of the United Nations.

In other news, I'm signed up for the 'Cuse Fall Ultimate League, my first game is Tuesday. It's going to be a busy semester in more ways than one...

Keisuke wonders if I can do it all and still have time for wine

Interesting Day

I went bike riding this afternoon with Keisuke. I sprung a leak in my rear tire, and we were close to Dr. Oh's house, so we decided to stop by and see if he had an extra tube, or at least a patch kit and a pump.

We got a lot more. Oh so much more.

Jae was missing a few things, like a Presta/Schraeder converter, so he offered to drive us back to campus to get the stuff we needed. We decided to come back and drink some whiskey with him.

Way too much whiskey...

The bottle pictured above was full when the three of us started. And we also drank some of Jae's personal stash of whiskey and beer.

Throughout the course of the night, we debated and discoursed on a number of topics, including artificial intelligence, women (which naturally lead to sex, a subject which any good conversation should gravitate towards), religion (which also drew us to sex), and computability. We made a vow not to disclose any information which was discussed, but I have to say they were intriguing conversations, the likes of which I have not had in a long, long time. Jae is an incredible listener (far better than myself); it makes debate incredibly cool.

Definitely a night to remember (and hopefully repeat), even if those memories may be hazy and unphotographed.

Car Repair (Again)

Went out to NAPA today to get parts necessary for automobile maintenance.

Can you spot the new alternator in this picture?

How about now?

Conclusion: Changing the alternator in a subaru is incredibly easy. There are just 3 bolts to remove the drivebelt cover, and two bolts holding the alternator in place, plus one bolt to adjust the drivebelt tension. The whole job took me 15 minutes.

I also managed to get the brake light off by adding a little more brake fluid. Next job is to replace the pads...

Friday the...12th?

I attempted to go to New Paltz today to visit my brother. The trip was a disaster. Note the word "attempted" in the previous sentence.

About 1.5 hours into the car ride, I had to stop for gas. I realized that I had forgotten my wallet. Not entirely at a loss, as I keep an extra $10 tucked away in a secret location in my car, just in case such an emergency arises. I managed to get $5 of gas (2.8 gallons at highway prices), keeping $5 to turn around and pay tolls with.

An hour later, things go from bad to worse

Note a few details of the above photo. My velocity is what you would expect on the highway. My gas guage is reading well under the empty market. My brake and alternator warning lights are on. My thought process goes something like this, "Okay, today is a good day to die. I will die in one of three ways. Choose your own adventure: (A) Reid's car will run out of gas and he will get plowed down. (B) The battery will finally give give up the ghost and Reid will get plowed down. (C) The brakes will fail and Reid will fly off the exit ramp when he attempts to leave the Thruway.

Fortunately none of these things happened. I did check my alternator when I got back (my car was sputtering). The alternator is only putting out enough voltage to charge the battery at 4,000RPMs, so I need a new one. Cost: $250 (self-installed). The brakes are, I'm guessing, wearing down. No metal on metal yet, but the fluid level has dropped, which is a good indication that the pads are worn to the point that the calipers suck up extra fluid to keep the pads close to the disc surface. So there's that. Then there's the timing belt I still need.

It looks like another stipend check has just disappeared...

Fleep

What would do if you woke up in a phone booth surrounded by concrete, and your only tools to escape were two ballpoint pens, some dental floss, a handful of coins, and a dictionary to translate between two languages that you didn't speak? Logical answers are given in this uber-geeky, wickedly-good comic book by Jason Shiga, called Fleep.

Thanks, Matt!

The Worm

*Sigh*. I was touting for weeks that I had yet to receive a copy of Sobig. Yesterday, everything changed. I've now received a dozen copies of the thing. I suspect that one of the mailing groups I was recently associated with (either the Howard Dean group, or perhaps the mountain biking list) gave it to me. Bummer. I do hope whoever it is cleans up their computer.

Websites back online

Someone formatted the hard disk that my old webserver was on. I made backups, but unfortunately the databases were in the middle of updating when the backup was made, so they got pretty hosed. I've managed to repair them, and to move my MT installation over to using MySQL instead of the horribly wrong and awful Berkeley (File) Database. So, moving should be a whole lot easier from now on.

Darnitall

I was supposed to compete with a few friends in the Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield Triathlon this weekend, but Keisuke's friend backed out, so we couldn't do a relay. And I'm no shape to be swimming half a k, running 5k, and then biking. I guess we'll have to catch the next one. We did get a big turnout signing up for the newly-formed SU Triathlon club, though. Hooray for that.

In place of competing, K and I decided to take a stroll on the bicycles down to Cortland (in particular, Song Mountain), and gosh my legs are sore. I definitely need to get a road bike...it will be good training for weak legs, not to mention a whole lot safer to ride alone.

The Washington Post Misses the Boat

I ran across a fun article on our good friend Mr. Dean. It seems that the Washington Post is completely missing the picture: that being that the internet is where it's at as far as this campaign goes. I don't even own a television; what do I care about how this guy looks on TV when he has a blog? TV is so...20th century. Get with the program, guys (pardon the pun).

Music and updates

I got a new CD today, my first new one in 9 months or so. The CD is by the Kings of Convenience. My Border's employee pal Sarah (warning, amateur web page wackiness ensues) picked it up, excercising her right to save me 20% on CD purchases.

I like to call it, "Music to screw to," as it has a well-paced rhythym reminiscent of booty in the dark.

It's strange, and I've come up with a conspiracy theory; Pete has returned from hiding at the same time. I did some fact-checking -- maternity leave in the UK is 6 months, exactly the duration of Pete's disappearance. I smell a possible case of Ishmael. Petey is now a US citizen though, so he should remember that for the next one, he only gets 4 weeks off. So perhaps he should stay away for a while.

Howard Dean Meetup

I went to my first Howard Dean meetup this evening, at the May Memorial Unitarian Universalist Society in Syracuse/Dewitt. Dan and Stephen were in attendance (Dan drove me over in his turbobrick, which is quite a riot).

The meeting was a disappointment.

Quite a few people showed up

There was quite a crowd. I'm no judge of numbers, but I'd say it was somewhere around 75-100 people. That was a pretty good turnout, seeing as how the last time I stood in that room of the May Memorial church, there were 10 of us (including Lucy Kaplansky). The problem certainly wasn't the attendance, but the people.

Or perhaps person?

No offense meant to whoever the gentleman was that ran things, but the first hour seemed dedicated to bureaucracy -- rambling jaunts on what effect campaign finance reform had on our ability to print out signs, as well as non-rules as to how a meeting shouldn't be run (ie it's supposed to be disorganized. Funny that the moderator of this "disorganized" event had a checklist of things to discuss). This little meeting reminded me of why I like to bitch about politics but hate to get involved.

One thing is for sure, whoever came up with all the nitpicky rules of the latest round of finance reforms definitely had foresight and has put a cockring on the shaft of grassroots campaigning. The whole thing seems like a great idea until the little guy actually wants to do something. I suppose the strength of numbers is something that even the reforms won't be able to deal with; if individuals can only contribute $X, well there are a whole lot of people in the Dean Camp.

To be fair, I really didn't know what to expect from the gathering. I suppose part of my non-existant expectation included some kind of "organized mingling" with the locals, to get us talking and find out about each other. I sort of assume that we all know what the Dean platform stands for, now we're at the phase of finding some friends and hitting the town with some signs as tiny de-centralized units, and having a few beers afterwards. By the time attendees had the chance to talk, patience had worn down to the thickness of a third-hand emo kid's sweater. I managed to get a few names, snag the email address of one person for a possible coffee date, and shoot out of there in one piece.

First week wrap-up

Finished with my first week (plus weekend) of classes, so I thought I'd write.

First, are the classes.

CIS600: Xtreme Reasoning (Dr. Blair). Half the people in this photo will fail.

The course is actually on mathematical reasoning in computer science. The alternate title, "Xtreme Reasoning," was proposed by the professor on the first day of class. Either his sense of humor is getting better, or mine is getting extremely dry these days. Either way, I was the only one chuckling at this title.

CIS657: OS Programming (Dr. Chapin). This title is a misnomer.

CIS657 should really be called "Kernel Programming" since that's all we do in it. Yes, RMS, I completely agree with your views on the name GNU/Linux. But it's just so hard to say.

CIS583: Systems Assurance Seminar (again, Dr. Chapin)

CIS583 should be fun and easy. I'll have to keep my mouth shut in it though. Lots of people like to blab little security and privacy related stories. In the meantime, it's pretty much Chapin preaching to the choir (in my case anyway, but I'm a curmudgeon) a very leftist view of security and privacy. Hopefully he'll make a few more paranoid schizophrenics during the course of the course.

CIS632: Modelling Concurrent Systems (Dr. Older)

This is another easy course (for me). I took a concurrency theory course in Dresden. I did mild on the exam (equivalent to a C), but it was mostly saying stupid things that I realized 5 seconds later I should have worded better. Oral exams are tough.

That's it for courses. Four graduate level courses is 12 credit hours...I was pressured into taking a heavy load by our lovely NSF scholarship board. I think I can handle it though, since I don't have to work a job to keep myself fed...think of it as 20 extra hours a week!

Then there was, of course, the weekend. Pete invited me to a party being held by a member of The Sorority. I walked up and down Euclid, and think I found it...

Cheese it, the cops!

I guess they were serving underagers or something. Tough luck. Not much else happened over the weekend. Henry bought a futon for the living room, so I owe him some exorbitant amount of money.

We've made plans for the living room that will end up making us appear incredibly homosexual. Ohwell.

Calm Coast by Bricher Parkhurst

This is just a (fairly low-quality) reproduction, with some damage in the upper-right. It was trash-picked off of Westcott Street some time around midnight. If I was feeling saucy I might try and touch it up, but neh. Still, the plan is to have paintings and crap in the living room, since we don't have a TV. I'm on the prowl for more artwork, so if you have anything you want to dump, drop me a line.