Short Review

I've read a few books recently that I am having trouble writing longer reviews of. So here's short ones:

Accelerando, by Charles Stross. There are nine chapters, divided into three sets of three. Each set follows one main character, roughly, and each chapter is another jump in technology. Each chapter also stands alone pretty well, and I found myself trying to project what the next chapter would be like and found it impossible. But looking at previous ones it fits together perfectly how things got there, so it was a really neat effect. :)

Thirteen, by Richard K. Morgan. Based on other books by this author, I went in expecting a cool main character, an interesting plot with unforeseen twists, and no happy ending whatsoever, though it would also be a good ending. I was not disappointed on any count. The main character was cool and very interesting, the ending I expected happened about 2/3 of the way through the book and the rest was a major twist, and the ending was very good, but not exactly happy. There were also several very interesting ideas about racial/genetic identity and stereotyping, which were in the context of the story.

I seem to remember another book which I should review here, but it escapes me at the moment. It's likely Assassin's Apprentice, as I read that on the plane home from MI, but I don't recall what I was going to say about it.

Remotely leading

Setting up and running something while you're not present to get direct feedback is pretty tough. I was organizing a raid saturday/sunday/monday, and saturday's one I wasn't actually going to be in. This made it pretty hectic of a day, I think I'd have been better off delegating that part to someone else, and just working on the stuff I had for sunday and monday. Oh well, maybe I'll have better sense and try that next time.

Gaming

This friday marks the end of the board gaming era in Pasadena. While I still love board games, one of easiest ways for me to get into playing them is a board games night sort of thing. And this was the last day Mason would be around, and thus there was gaming. It actually went towards guitar hero rather than board games, but the thought was there at least.

Farewell to England, Mason, and I'm looking forward to your visiting. I miss the board game nights already, you were always good about scheduling them :)

Parameterization

Lately I've been going back over some code that uses very large parameter files, comparing how the different source code(s) actually use the energy parameters, and what orderings/permutations they follow. It's been interesting, neither original source is written the way I'd like and how they actually use the different pieces is not always clear, so it takes a bit of work.

I had an idea today that I can't believe I didn't think of earlier though, which was how to actually split up the different file reading codes - I was setting it up as the same object and writing functions that could read either file. Stupid, what I should have done is write two objects that derive from the same class, and make each one read the appropriate type and interface that way. That'd let me use different sized data structures (one of the big issues), as well as being much cleaner for interface and requiring no computational overhead when switching energy models. Sigh, should have thought of that first.

Aroma

I just saw that my previous post was mislabeled as far as days go, guess I missed that. Anyways, that one was tuesday. The mood did go away after dealing with the core roots, which is good.

Today I had a hectic day. This evening was E's birthday party, which was a potluck thing at his place. I managed to make a dish for it, though I took a bit longer than I'd intended, and people seemed to like it. (If you can guess what dish it was, you get a point! Or maybe half a point, it's probably not that hard to guess.) I then just sat around and listened and was generally antisocial and tired, except for some passing comments in a conversation about the time hierarchy theorem which actually got pretty interesting. And now I'm back home, finished reading the book I started on the bus ride to the dentist this morning, and wishing this headache would go away, again. Not sure why headaches have been plaguing me the last week, but I hope it stops.

Mood Swings, part 2

But then there are also some days where I can't seem to shake certain moods, no matter how I concentrate. They feel like I just have to figure out the core of the problem and then they'll go away, but concentration can't do that, and sometimes I don't even know what the problem is.

Hmm...

I have the urge to describe today as a massively multiplayer headache, just because those three words sound right together. I think it's not quite apt though, as the headache experienced by me was probably mine alone, even though several people did have headaches today. It started this morning around 8am, and had some dulled periods where the excedrin worked well, and is still going now, after midnight. *sigh*

Mood Swings

Mood swings are curious things. For no good reason I can think of, there was a period of about an hour today (sunday) where I was just really happy and bouncy. I think I probably could have thought about it and stopped that feeling, but wouldn't really want to so instead just sorta went with that emotion rather than thinking too much, and it was nice.

Do others feel that sometimes? Can you change your emotions by concentrating? I know I can usually think/concentrate and return to a neutral emotional state, but changing it away from neutral is very hard just by concentrating.

Board Games...

... can take a long time to play! We played a game of Order of the Stick this afternoon, and the time flew by, at least for me. Ended up that we played the "short" version and got what was on the order of a 6-8 hour game. I think that may have been due to a bottleneck we created on the stairs to 3rd level, but still was a lot longer than the estimate in the manual. Very fun game though, I got to play Elan and ran around spawning lots of monsters for the rest of the group to kill, and very rarely got to actually kill one myself.

This was also a special day as it could have been in honor of many interesting things: (submitted by email)

- 100 days left in the current Calendar Year

- the 508th Anniversary of Switzerland becoming an independent state

- the 43rd Anniversary of "Fiddler on the Roof" opening on Broadway

- the 27th Anniversary of Iraq invading Iran

- the 20th Anniversary of the airing of the pilot episode of the television show "Full House"

- First saturday in 2007 after international talk like a pirate day
- First palindromic day after international talk like a pirate day
- Tommy Lasorda's 80th birthday
- The day hurricane Hugo hit Charlotte in 1989
- The day in 1915 that Siegfried Wagner got married to his wife Winifred (Wagner? Not sure... More backstory on this one in the email, but doesn't fit the one-line descriptions here.)

And... that's all. See you tomorrow. :)

Group Meeting - Presentation

So I gave a presentation on my simulator yesterday, including some experiments I was trying to reproduce, and also to give a tutorial on using it, to get more people using it so I get more feedback. As it turns out, I didn't have enough time for the tutorial section yesterday because there were lots of very good questions during the overview and experimental sections, which I don't really mind.

There was only one really embarrassing slide, where I managed to completely miss that I wrote one thing and meant another in two different places, and didn't see that on my read-through before giving the talk. Oh well. Other than that, it went really well, and especially nice was the new laptop - I could see on the laptop screen the current slide, the next slide, current times, all sorts of useful info, and thus I very rarely had to look at the projector or anywhere except the audience. Which is one of the keys to a good presentation, in my opinion, as I can gauge how interested people are, and how confused, pretty easily. So that worked very well, and there were a few really tough questions, but E helped me out on those when I couldn't manage them, which I very much appreciated.

Since the tutorial had to be postponed, I gave it instead this afternoon. There was again a really good turn-out for it (the room was full both times) and it went over well even though the material here was a lot drier. Hopefully I'll have a bunch more people working with the simulator soon. :) Also, afterwards I got lots of compliments on both presentations, and E. even said he was very impressed with them. So I'm pretty happy today that everything went well. :)

AFK

So, you may have noticed that I haven't updated the blog in what, 5 days? If not, please continue to not notice, I'll feel better about it perhaps.

If you did notice, well... I was out of town for the weekend, and been having trouble writing anything I think is interesting. More accurately, I keep thinking of interesting things, but not while my computer is available and thus they get lost into my poor memory.

I'm writing this just fifteen minutes before a group meeting, and I'm a bit nervous. I've presented on some of this before, but not with the new computer and not with all this material about experimental data. But I've done what I can, so just writing here as a form of distraction.

Anyways, all I want to say here really is that I'm sad there were no updates since saturday, and if you check back in, you may see me add a little something to each of the missing days, just so there is something there. Right now I'm thinking of just writing about the wedding for sunday, and maybe a bit about the traveling for monday, and the rest I'll just play by ear. I have some various thoughts on money and savings, plus various books I've read that I'd like to write about, so I think it will all be filled, just may take a bit.

Organizing Books

I'm posting this on friday, to fill in for some of the missing posts.

I think that when one goes to organize the bookshelf, it may be a helpful idea to tape the books closed. Not that it would have helped in this case, as L seems to be about 3/4 through Fire Sea, while the intended project was to enter all of our books into the library database on my laptop. I think this book was missing an ISBN on the cover, and so while there was one on the inside, taping it shut would not have been enough. :)

Whoa...

Are those photos? Thanks to Frances for these ones.

Here's one of me and Jonathan. For extra credit, spot the oddity(oddities?) in the picture:


And here's one of the bride:

Friday Flight

Friday was spent traveling and visiting. Went over to Redlands for my grandmother's birthday celebration, at which there were many relatives and lots of talking and stuff. After that it was a mad dash back home and to LAX for the flight out to Detroit. So I'm now out near Ann Arbor, MI, with Frances and Jonathan, getting ready for our friend M's wedding on sunday.

And that's all that goes in this post, sorry!

Stumbling Around

Today I spent a lot of time taking care of errands, just a lot of small stuff that needed doing. Still haven't managed to offload photos onto my laptop so that I can put up a big photo post, but maybe I'll have time for that eventually! Anyways, frisbee was today and we ended up having eight people total, so it was pretty exhausting though after we swapped around a bit the teams were pretty good so it was a fun game. I also finished reading another of the books I bought a few days back - Accelerando. More on that when I get a chance to write a review.

Relief

Wednesday was a day of relief. I'd gotten notice on monday that I would possibly need to file a petition for continuing study, as the candidacy requirements for the CS department are odd, and not what I had thought was the case (must turn in the MS thesis as the requirement), and so I would need more time to complete it and had already used the normal limit. This turns out to not have been the case, as my odd entry term as a grad student led to the system's miscalculating when that would be. So I've still got a few terms left before it's a worry, and so it won't be as I should be good on the requirements in one term, if the writing goes well.

Lies, Lies, Lies!

So, I finished reading The Lies of Locke Lamora, by Scott Lynch. Notably, this author was nominated for an award for best new author, and seeing as that was likely due to this book, I'm sad he didn't win, though perhaps it's a good thing, because that means that the author who did win must have had a BETTER first book. Wow.

You've probably already seen the Arcane Gazebo's review of it. If not, go read it either now or after you're done here. Please note that the following paragraphs may contain mild spoilers.

I really liked this book, and it falls into one of those weird categories of books for me: those that can't be read in a single sitting. This was due to the crazy complexity of the plot, and the quite unexpected turns it took at times, I just felt like I needed a breather before diving back in to the thick of things. This book contains the essence of the group heist movies: Italian Job, Sneakers, Confidence, to name a few that I've seen. No, I have not seen Ocean's 11 yet, though I picked up the DVD cheap. The lead man on the job is quite likable, and the gang is also great. Thus, finding out that this author is one of those for whom characters can and must die was a shock. Not that I mind that type of book, but wasn't quite expecting it here and so when several characters died
it was a very big shock.

Still, the plot was excellent and did a very good job of providing enough information that though it was being deceptive (unreliable narrative point of view, at times) you could still piece together some things before they got revealed, which is pretty satisfying. I'm definitely going to pick up the second book about the title character, as he's enough to keep me interested no matter the book.

Whoa

I just read a great line in an otherwise very sad article's sidebar: the sidebar was essentially a commentary with a professor of physics, Dr. Timothy Gay, about some of the physics involved in football. This leads to the striking line: "[...]' said Gay, who played football at Caltech." (actual quote omitted)

Whoa.

Book Retrieval

Vromann's (a bookstore here in Pasadena) had many books which needed a good home.

I wasn't able to bring many home with me, but I did get more than usual. Here's the new arrivals:

Accelerando, Charles Stross
The Lies of Locke Lamora, Scott Lynch
Darwinia, Robert Charles Wilson
The Last Colony, John Scalzi
Rainbows End, Vernor Vinge

Also, as there's one book still on my to-be-read list from an earlier trip, I'll mention it as well:

Thirteen, Richard K. Morgan

Interesting things about these books: two of the five I bought today acknowledge TNH and PNH of Making Light (and I believe both of those were books which were edited by one of them). Their blog is usually very interesting, and the community which comments on it is one of the best I've seen. I believe both the authors which mention them have posted there, and there's a ton of interesting literary types there (and plenty of interesting non literary types, too).

Four of these books are sci-fi. One is fantasy, the other (Darwinia) I'm not sure how to classify based on the blurb on the cover, but I really liked one of his earlier books, Spin. I have read other books by four of these authors, and one book I got because I read a review of it. The last sentence of this paragraph is not needed to solve the logic puzzle posed therein, as the paragraph does not contain enough information on its own to do so anyways. But it would be cool if there was.

I will hopefully post some short (or long) reviews of these books as I read them, so if you're curious about them, stay tuned. Also, if anyone is particularly interested in one of the ones up there, let me know and I will try to write a longer review, or you can borrow it and write a guest review! :)

So...

The post of awesomeness that will never live up to the teaser posts for it, has been delayed! Oh no! I'm writing this sunday evening, and the time I was going to devote to it this weekend has already been put to more productive use. So... hopefully monday! :)

Whew

Friday was a very relaxing day after getting everything out and taking a breather. The weekend looks to be pretty quiet too, so hopefully next week will be less stressed as well.

Surprises

Thursday was going fine, the paper rewrite was nearly done, the figures were coming together, was going to get to play ultimate frisbee in an hour and then finish it up and send it on, when I get an email. Everything is needed ASAP, the conference organizers have some sort of issues and they need the paper right now. There went my frisbee plans, any semblance of sanity and then a mad rush set in.

Oh well, I did finish it up, Erik thought it looked good and the figures were very good, and I don't have to worry about it now. Or at least, I don't have to worry about it until they complain on zero notice and I have to work on it, but I'm hoping that doesn't happen for at least another two weeks or so. :) I actually got to relax tonight, it was great. Nothing I particularly had to do, at least until I go in to work tomorrow and realize all the other stuff I need to catch up on. But tonight at least was relaxing.

Oh, and the post I've been writing the teasers about is due this weekend.

Wednesday's Mostly Late Post

Wednesday... Well, I messed around with a lot of figures, panicked completely when my simulations that finished were not actually usable for the intended comparison, and rewrote huge swathes of the paper based on the comments the night before.

On the good front wednesday night I got a call from my brother in law (hi!) reminding me that all the stress had me preoccupied and I hadn't tried to work out final details so that I could make it to a mutual friend's wedding. A call to that friend, and some searching later and I was able to find a plane ticket that was still affordable even with my current low available cash problem (due to dentist visits, previous trips, etc). So that's a relief. Also most everything got done that night except analyzing new simulation data which I will likely use in the paper.

Tuesday's Extremely Late Post

Since I am writing this on thursday, this post is very horribly late! What happened on tuesday... well, I know I was doing a lot of work. About the only other thing of note is that we got together for frisbee, but not enough people showed up, so a group of us ended up tossing the disc for a while. Fun, but not as fun as a game. Also late tuesday night I got some feedback on a draft copy of the paper from the organizer, and thus wednesday was very interesting.

Thoughts

Just a quick thought before I get back to work. Often times I look too much at my adviser's faults, the key difficult one for me being a little late with meetings or just general busy-ness. But today I was again reminded of some of the really good qualities, and thought I should mention them.

The last week or so I've been working on a paper draft for a conference at which I'll be presenting, and it's been pretty tough to motivate for, the audience isn't one I'd usually expect, and so I have been getting discouraged easily. Every time this has happened, I've caught up with my adviser for a few minutes and talked about it. He's always really encouraging, and those quick meetings leave me ready to tackle it again and I find it a lot easier to keep going afterwards. Yesterday I sent him my current draft, and met up with him just a few minutes ago to discuss it. I really appreciate the way he offers really helpful constructive comments, and in a very non threatening way - sometimes I get really defensive to criticism, even constructive types, and that never happens with him. I left the meeting with a really good idea of what I needed to change and add, and that he thought my progress was very good.

So, I really appreciate that quality, and it makes it a lot easier to know I can approach him for feedback and get really useful information, without worrying about what he's going to think of it or me.

Teaser Post #3

*waves foot* It's coming...

Saturday Late Post

Saturday was filled with writing and heavy lifting. Wrote for about six hours, and then helped move couches and other heavy stuff for Lemming's move. Went well though exhausting, and it was followed by dinner at Robins with the Arcane Gazebo and his brother, so it was a good day. There was some board gaming later, but as I can't recall the name of the game it would be a little silly to tell you that I would recommend it. But I certainly do, it was enjoyable in a risk or diplomacy like way.