:: Life of Dave ::

Carlos Sanchez, a.k.a. Juan Valdez, has decided to retire after 37 years of representing Columbian coffee to the world. According to the BBC, the schedule had become too hectic for the 71-year-old actor-cum-ambassador. But he notes that it certainly has been fun:
"I feel like a flag, like a national anthem," said Mr Sanchez as he told a news conference about his memories of playing the iconic coffee grower since 1969, including meeting Bill Clinton and the Spanish royal family.
The new Juan Valdez will be a younger person, and will reportedly focus on newer ideas, like environmentalism. But, no fear, the president of the National Federation of Coffee Growers has confirmed that the new guy "has to have a bushy moustache".
:: David (17:47 in Michigan, 23:47 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[1]

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Some of you may have heard that John Updike has a new novel out. The title is Terrorist, and as soon as I heard the name I knew I would need to read it. The New York Times recently did an interview with the author, which made me even more certain I was going to need to read this book. They quote the author as follows:
I think I felt I could understand the animosity and hatred which an Islamic believer would have for our system. Nobody's trying to see it from that point of view. I guess I have stuck my neck out here in a number of ways, but that's what writers are for, maybe.
Which seems to me to be an excellent summary of exactly what writers are for. It may be uncomfortable (in fact, I'll be amazed if it isn't), but it sounds like something that somebody needed to say.
Blatant merchandising alert! If you feel like this book is something you'd like to read, you can buy the novel at Amazon (it comes out the sixth of June, and they're having a pretty good sale right now), and I'll get a cut of the proceeds. I just found out I have to earn ten bucks from Amazon before I get paid, and I'm only at one dollar seventy-five, so I guess I have to do a bit more shilling before I get my check!
:: David (13:33 in Michigan, 19:33 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[1]

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While pinging the goat, I noted that there was a google ad for a blog by a woman soon-to-be-married. I thought 'how odd - why is she advertising her blog? That's expensive!' So I clicked. Color me a viral marketing sucker. At first I thought she was a graphic artist, and was making drawings of the whole thing. But no - in fact it's all an ad campaign. Very clever, though.
:: David (7:58 in Michigan, 13:58 in Paris) - Comment

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I ran across an article recently that I was quite interested in reading - it was in Foreign Policy magazine, and it was all about how several governments around the world have chosen to use open source software (like the Linux operating system). However, as I was reading it I felt like it wasn't a very well balanced piece at all. I was not at all surprised at its cautionary tone, but it seemed downright negative. As I approached the end of the piece I noted they had a bio of the author at the bottom, and I skipped to it to try and figure out who this person was who had written such an oddly off-balance piece. The answer surprised me, though perhaps it should not have:
Caroline Benner is a fellow at the University of Washington’s Institute for International Policy. From 2001 to 2003, Ms. Benner was a consultant with the geopolitical policy and strategy group at Microsoft.
Now it may be that I am biased, and the piece is in fact well written, thoughtful, and fair. But it didn't strike me as such. And then to see that the author was a consultant for Microsoft, well, strikes me as problematic. I tend to expect Foreign Policy to do a better job than that. I mean, they're no Economist, but the appearance of a conflict of interest in that article seems a bit strong for any magazine to ignore.
:: David (7:46 in Michigan, 13:46 in Paris) - Comment

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:: Tuesday, May 30 2006 ::

An interesting social experiment will take place in Ireland over the coming months: according to the BBC, an investment scheme created by the previous finance minister will come to maturity for more than one million Irish nationals. As I understand it, the scheme was pretty simple - put four pounds in, and the government will put in one. According to oasis, the Irish government's web portal, the scheme started on 1 May 2001, and you had to contribute by 30 April 2002. The accounts mature 5 years after opening them (hence the fact that this is starting to be big news.
Of course, the fear is that everyone will spend their money, and this will push up prices. The government appears to have come up with at least one idea to combat this, offering a further bonus to people who roll their SSIA into a pension fund.
There are a lot of interesting things about this - evidence from many sources indicates that people will spend large sums of money received all at once in a different way than they would spend small sums of money received over time. This will be an excellent chance to see if the rule holds true. I'll also be interested to see what the Irish government does with all the tax money it will receive - when the SSIA matures, there is a 23 percent tax on earned interest. I expect that will be a sizeable chunk of change, and it will be interesting to see if, like an individual, the Irish government splurges on silly expensive baubles. Either way, lots of interesting stuff happening across the water.
:: David (23:47 in Michigan, 5:47 in Paris) - Comment

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:: Monday, May 29 2006 ::

A random side note on wine - apparently the so-called 'Judgement of Paris' has been re-enacted, with similar results to the first time around. A&L Daily alerted me to the story, which is being trumpeted around the (English speaking) globe as being proof that all that terroir just leads to musty old wines, and California is where the happening is. Whatever.
While hunting around for an Australian report on the, ah, tasting heard 'round the world, I discovered a rather more interesting story. It seems there is a glut in some of the Australian wine areas, though from the way the article reads, it may be more than that:
ANGRY grape growers accused politicians of inaction and corporate wineries of intimidation yesterday at a fiery rally in South Australia's Riverland wine-growing region.
The industry is pushing for payments to help growers through the grape glut, and the power to collectively bargain for reasonable prices from wine companies.
The bit that interests me is that 'collective bargaining' phrase. I don't know how many small Australian winemakers there are, but I know there are a few big ones. I wonder if all that market power is leading to some interesting struggles down under?
:: David (22:54 in Michigan, 4:54 in Paris) - Comment

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I added a section called 'recommended recipes' to my food section today. It is, as with all new things, relatively spartan. I'm hoping to fill it out at some point with all the tasty things we eat, and good stuff we find online. For the moment it has one recipe, which I will be eating this evening for dinner.
For those who want to geek out a bit, this is one of the first times I have used a style sheet on a page (you can view the source of the page and follow the link to see the style sheet, which is less than one full page long, for the moment). I have become somewhat fond of style sheets, although I still think they are, as with all toys, overused and abused by many web people these days. Style sheets that run 20 pages don't really help me in designing web pages.
:: David (15:15 in Michigan, 21:15 in Paris) - Comment

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Hot. Yucky hot. It's 86F/30C right now, and the air conditioner is working like a dog trying to keep it relatively cool in the living room, where we have both taken refuge. I think we may need to take refuge in the car at some point, where the air conditioning is colder.
We went to Kalamazoo yesterday to show the car to my folks, and also to drop the old car (my white Corolla) off. It really isn't clear what we're going to do with it at this point, although it may become, like many things, property of the place where it is now stored. Which is on some level easier than having to deal with it.
My folks asked me how much the payments on my new car were, and I realized I had no idea. I'm sure it's in the paperwork somewhere, but I was totally unconcerned, so didn't bother to look. We'll see if that comes back to bite me. I think when you divide a small number by many months, the payments are generally not very large. At least, I hope that is the case....
Today is dedicated to getting some work done, and various odds and ends I've been meaning to tie up. We'll see how much I actually get done before I melt.
:: David (11:13 in Michigan, 17:13 in Paris) - Comment

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:: Saturday, May 27 2006 ::

It was hot here in Michigan today, so we decided to fire up the air conditioner, partly for the cool factor, partly to get it out of our study. We got it open and spread the parts all over, then started to really look at how it would go in the window. It was at this point I realized that our windows were made of metal, and thus we wouldn't be able to attach the air conditioner to the window (without doing serious damage to the window). In addition, it wasn't clear that the window would support the weight of the air conditioner. We stopped, thought about it, and headed back to Circuit City to return the A/C unit and replace it with a free-standing unit. We stopped several places to look at the free standing units, and finally bought the one at Circuit City (because it was easy to do - drop off the old unit, pick up the new one, and we didn't even have to move the car!) Now we're waiting for the two hours to pass after transport so we can fire it up and see how much better it makes the house feel. Or see how loud it is and how much it annoys us to have it on. We'll see in a bit which way it goes!
You may remember when we bought the original A/C unit, they gave us a more expensive unit on accident. I wondered if anyone would notice that the receipt didn't match what was being returned. They did not. I bet Circuit City has one heck of a bizarre inventory. This may explain why, whenever I ask if something is available, they look in the computer, go to fetch the product reported by the computer as available, and finally, after a long period of time, come back to tell me that in fact that product is unavailable and the computer was wrong.
:: David (18:24 in Michigan, 0:24 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[1]

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:: Friday, May 26 2006 ::

Lisa felt I should post some photos of the car, and I agreed, so we went outside this evening before the sun got too low and took some. It was actually kind of amusing - on the one hand, I've never been that concerned about my car (which is why the interior of my Corolla is a little grimy), so standing outside taking pictures of the car felt a little surreal. But it was a big move, so it seems important to document it.
:: David (20:05 in Michigan, 2:05 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[3]

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How many people does it take to make a My Lai massacre? Unfortunately, the news trickling out of Washington sounds disturbingly familiar - lots of dead civilians, several different stories on how the deaths occurred (the first of which has now been more or less shown to be false), and nervousness at the top. Will Haditha be a name to evoke military brutality before this is all done? The New York Times has more details.
:: David (17:31 in Michigan, 23:31 in Paris) - Comment

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That was really, really too easy. I am now slightly less than 15K in debt, and all it took was wandering in and signing some papers. Crazy. But we have a very cute Yaris, so all is forgiven!
:: David (0:46 in Michigan, 6:46 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[1]

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:: Thursday, May 25 2006 ::

Naturally, the dealership did want to see my license. Thankfully, it got me thinking about the fact that I had recently made a digital copy of my license, to get out of jury duty in Kalamazoo county (apparently they don't update their list of residents very often). So I called home and had Sasha look in the scanner. Sure enough, there it was.
:: David (14:23 in Michigan, 20:23 in Paris) - Comment

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On Tuesday we bought an air conditioner, and it looks like it was a good idea, as the temperature today will be 83 degrees (or 28 degrees, if centigrade's your thing). The purchase was quite a little adventure, as the person who brought the air conditioner to the car was not the same person who sold us the air conditioner, and they had a little communication difficulty (at first the guy couldn't tell 'right' from 'left', then he failed to check the box to see whether he had gotten the right one). It all worked out in the end, with us getting a small upgrade in the process (from 12K BTU to 14K BTU). Unfortunately, the air conditioner will only fit in a couple of windows in the house, so we have to decide where we should keep cool, and how cool we should keep it. But it will be a whole lot better than coming back to a hot apartment!
:: David (9:07 in Michigan, 15:07 in Paris) - Comment

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A rather interesting confluence of events here this fine Thursday - yesterday we got a call to go over to the Toyota dealership to see our Yaris. It's cute! We scheduled delivery for today (although we still haven't discussed price - when do we get around to that, do you suppose?) Interestingly, I seem to have lost my driver's license. We've been through all the usual spots and some pretty unusual ones, and still haven't found it. This would be a pretty ironic way to screw up our car purchase. I don't know that it will - he's already seen my license, so it may not get asked for. Maybe. But it's a fairly amusing situation.
:: David (7:50 in Michigan, 13:50 in Paris) - Comment

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:: Tuesday, May 23 2006 ::

I don't know how many of you have been following the saga of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Dutch (formerly) Member of Parlaiment (formerly) who is now coming to spread joy and love in the United States, but it's well worth your attention.
In a nutshell, she applied for asylum in the Netherlands from somewhere in Africa (depending on who you ask) to escape an arranged marriage (depending on who you ask), becomes an MP, writes a film about violence against muslim women which gets her partner, Theo van Gogh, killed by a radical Islamist, and finally had her citizenship revoked after a documentary (re-)reveals that she had falsified her asylum claim. She is now en route to a job at a conservative think tank in the US, the American Enterprise Institute. According to the BBC article, "Time magazine has named her one of the most influential thinkers of our time." On the other hand, when I see the 'thinkers' Time usually seems to surround itself with, I cannot be too impressed by that.
:: David (22:25 in Michigan, 4:25 in Paris) - Comment

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Nothing makes you feel quite as sheepish as blowing away someone's work accidentally with a few strokes of the keyboard. Let's hope the backup people have done their job, or I'm going to be in the doghouse for the foreseeable future....
:: David (18:18 in Michigan, 0:18 in Paris) - Comment

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Well, we made it back. We got to the airport fairly early yesterday, on the advice of Fin, who indicated traffic would get fairly hairy as rush hour approached (our plane left at 18:30 (6:30pm), so we would have been driving at the height of rush hour). We spent the morning and early afternoon tooling about the DC area (well, Fairfax, I guess), eating lunch and getting bird food and other random somesuch. The day before, Sunday, I managed to catch up with an old friend from college days, Jackie, who lives in the DC area. There are, or will be, just enough people out DC way that I could seriously consider living there. That said, heat and suburbia might dissuade me if I think about it too much. Now, Tuesday, it's time to begin the somewhat foreshortened work-week. And next week Monday is a holiday in the US (Memorial Day), so no work for me! Well, at least, no going into the office!
:: David (8:24 in Michigan, 14:24 in Paris) - Comment

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:: Sunday, May 21 2006 ::

Busy, busy day in our nation's capitol. We woke up early-ish and went out for coffee (fin and misty being mid-move, the coffee apparati were MIA). Then we headed in with Sasha's family to see some family friends. As they live by the zoo, we stopped off to see the pandas. Then we headed to the Phillip's collection, to see 'the boating party', a painting by Renoir made at the restaurant (fournaise) next to our old apartment in Chatou. Next dinner, and then off to the shakespeare theater to see a production of 'the persians' by Aeschylus. Finally we headed to Denny's, where we met Fin, who spent the day moving house. Now we're back, chatting.
:: David (0:55 in Michigan, 6:55 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[3]

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Busy, busy day in our nation's capitol. We woke up early-ish and went out for coffee (fin and misty being mid-move, the coffee apparati were MIA). Then we headed in with Sasha's family to see some family friends. As they live by the zoo, we stopped off to see the pandas. Then we headed to the Phillip's collection, to see 'the boating party', a painting by Renoir made at the restaurant (fournaise) next to our old apartment in Chatou. Next dinner, and then off to the shakespeare theater to see a production of 'the persians' by Aeschylus. Finally we headed to Denny's, where we met Fin, who spent the day moving house. Now we're back, chatting.
:: David (0:55 in Michigan, 6:55 in Paris) - Comment

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Busy, busy day in our nation's capitol. We woke up early-ish and went out for coffee (fin and misty being mid-move, the coffee apparati were MIA). Then we headed in with Sasha's family to see some family friends. As they live by the zoo, we stopped off to see the pandas. Then we headed to the Phillip's collection, to see 'the boating party', a painting by Renoir made at the restaurant (fournaise) next to our old apartment in Chatou. Next dinner, and then off to the shakespeare theater to see a production of 'the persians' by Aeschylus. Finally we headed to Denny's, where we met Fin, who spent the day moving house. Now we're back, chatting.
:: David (0:05 in Michigan, 6:05 in Paris) - Comment

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:: Friday, May 19 2006 ::

I hadn't noticed before, but the only languages announcements are made in at detroit are english, japanese, and chinese. I think it used to be just english and japanese. Indicative, perhaps, of where this city's interests lie. Given that this is the motor city (and given that chrystler (sp) now sports a daimler in its name, I wonder what this says about this airport's opinion of the future of european autos. The fact that no european languages (nor spanish, interestingly) are spoken seems a bad sign...
:: David (10:02 in Michigan, 16:02 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[2]

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Off to DC, I am, to see friends and things like that. The flight is at 10:30, so I figure being out of the house at 8 makes me immune to another incident like the one going to Austin. We're going to do some sightseeing, see a play, blather on, and probably play a lot of cards. Fun.
:: David (7:14 in Michigan, 13:14 in Paris) - Comment

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:: Wednesday, May 17 2006 ::

I'm not sure the NYT review of The DaVinci Code makes me want to see the film, but it certainly makes me want to read more reviews by their film person:
To their credit, the director and his screenwriter, Akiva Goldsman [...], have streamlined Mr. Brown's story and refrained from trying to capture his, um, prose style. "Almost inconceivably, the gun into which she was now staring was clutched in the pale hand of an enormous albino with long white hair." Such language â€” note the exquisite "almost" and the fastidious tucking of the "which" after the preposition â€” can only live on the page.
Not only does the writer smack Dan Brown around in a straightforward 'what utter tripe!' manner, they also do it in an underhanded manner:
Briefly stated: an old man (Jean-Pierre Marielle) is killed after hours in the Louvre, shot in the stomach, almost inconceivably, by a hooded assailant.
Even if the film is questionable, which this reviewer seems to think ("I certainly can't support any calls for boycotting or protesting this busy, trivial, inoffensive film. Which is not to say I'm recommending you go see it."), and which RFI this morning also reported (calling the press' reaction to the pre-screening at Cannes 'glacial' - repeatedly), I'm sure it will do just fine.
:: David (14:37 in Michigan, 20:37 in Paris) - Comment

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I created a Google Notebook a couple days ago. It has a great backend, wonderful display using the browser plugin, but the public view is absolutely terrible. I don't know why you would make the back end all smooth and slick, and make the part the world can see all kludgey. Oh well - I'll use it for a while and see if it sticks. I like the ability to keep track of websites, and let others see what I'm looking at (and why, thanks to the note feature).
:: David (11:31 in Michigan, 17:31 in Paris) - Comment

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I know it's crazy risky, but the idea of peer to peer lending attracts me as a concept. I may need to stick some money in and see what comes out. It's interesting for a number of reasons - the basic idea, which seems to be going to a website and saying 'I have x dollars to lend' and seeng who turns up to borrow it. I also like the fact that it's so cutting edge, yet accessible to anyone with a web browser - I often feel like the truly advanced financial instruments are closed to small investors - in some cases with good reason (I can't cover a 300 million dollar debt swap), but mostly I tend to feel institutional investors simply aren't interested in opening some of their more lucrative products, except to the big guys. It cuts down on their overhead, for a start, because who wants to track that many people, none of whom individually have much of an effect on your bottom line. Easier to require some serious cash up front. So the idea of taking all that out of the equation makes me happy. But as with all things, I'll wait and see how it all pans out - it's just as easy to find yourself in a fraudulent ebay situation as in a situation which is simply risky due to (honest) default. via Slashdot.
:: David (9:12 in Michigan, 15:12 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[4]

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:: Tuesday, May 16 2006 ::

Some random statistics: percent of people in the United States age 15 and over with a BA (four year college degree): 25 percent. With an MA (six year college degree): 9 percent. With a PhD: 1 percent.
Some even crazier statistics: percentage of people age 16 and over who have a BA or above but don't have a job: 24 percent. Percentage in the population as a whole: 38 percent. Percentage of those with less than a BA: 43 percent.
This all stems from a conversation a couple weeks back where someone told me that only 4 percent of people have an MA or above. I thought that sounded dubious, so I went to look (which reminds me: Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Educational Attainment in the United States: 2004). The speaker was both right and wrong - if we look at total population, which is very close to 300 million, the percentage is lower - about 3 percent of the population. But if we look only at the adult population, which I think was more what we had in mind during the conversation, it's a much higher number.
Worth noting: I thought about throwing out people under 18, but doing so would have eliminated the approximately 4000 16- and 17-year-olds who have BAs. Who knew?
:: David (2:33 in Michigan, 8:33 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[7]

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Oh my:
The Louvre, the Paris gallery at the heart of The Da Vinci Code plot, will offer fans an interactive audio tour to tie in with the film's release.
French actor Jean Reno, who plays detective Bezu Fache in the Hollywood adaptation, narrates the guided tour.
[...]
The audio tour is expected to be popular with US tourists, who make up 20% of the Louvre's 7.5 million foreign visitors each year.

I guess they have to find some way to make money, now that I've let my membership lapse.
Although I think the above quote covers it quite nicely, you can read the full article at the BBC.
:: David (1:39 in Michigan, 7:39 in Paris) - Comment

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Age

Q. How old are you?

< 18
15%

18-25
31%

26-35
23%

> 36
29%

I was over at findmyhosting, an excellent site for finding web hosting, which I may be in need of soon, as my bandwidth continues to exceed my expectations, and the limits of my current provider. I had just searched for sites meeting my criteria (cheap, good) and I noted they had a poll asking people's ages. Well, I'm a sucker for cheap demographics, so I gave them my age and they gave me the results, which I have copied at right. I thought it was tremendously interesting (a) that they had chosen to break down their demographics in the way that they had, and that (b) it seemed a pretty evenly balanced breakdown. Now, of course, the data is suspect in so many ways it isn't funny, but if we assume that tech savvy people of any age are equally likely (or nearly equally likely) to click a box, we find that the over 40 crowd isn't big in IT. Which I could believe, but it seems a little unnerving to think that soon (if not already) I will be one of the 'old men' of tech.
:: David (1:17 in Michigan, 7:17 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[2]

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:: Monday, May 15 2006 ::

I got my hair cut here in town, at what is either (a) the oddest hair establishment in the universe, or (b) a typical Ann Arbor hair place. I chose the place because it was about two blocks from my workplace, but I think I'll return for the totally surreal conversation and completely sleep-deprived staff. As The Whitlams would say, "you gotta love this city". Actually, you could probably even continue the song - "for its body, and not its brain".
:: David (22:46 in Michigan, 4:46 in Paris) - Comment

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This whole car-buying thing is beginning to be amusing. I got a call at 6, 7, and 9pm today from our person at the dealership. I was blissfully asleep, which worked out well. We're getting closer and closer to having our very own tasty Yaris. It's exciting, but a little weird - getting a loan, even for a relatively tiny amount (well, 10K) seems to take more legwork than I would expect. I'll be glad when it's all done.
:: David (22:41 in Michigan, 4:41 in Paris) - Comment

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:: Sunday, May 14 2006 ::

Sometimes the computer works a whole lot harder than I do. I decided a while back to consolidate some of my data onto separate disks - music gets 160GB of its own, movies get 250GB of their own, etc. But then comes the point when you have to shift all the files around, and hope nothing breaks in the middle (because nothing is worse than starting a long operation, then going to bed, and waking in the morning to find it stopped five minutes in to ask a question or report a problem).
As you may have noted, the operation in question happened on a mac - I have become quite fond of the little iMac, despite the fact that it doesn't go quite as quickly as you might hope. I even got the scanner set up on it. With the network in the house working as well as it has been between the PC and the mac, I've had no reason not to use the mac as much as I like, and then for the heavy lifting (photo editing, for example) go back to my (much newer, and thus more powerful) PC.
:: David (22:50 in Michigan, 4:50 in Paris) - Comment

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On Monday, my dad's cancer re-asserted itself. You may remember he had surgery several years ago, and it appeared that everything had been got. Last week however, my folks found out some more had been found. We're still waiting on more information. They're going to do a bone scan to determine exactly where things are, and go from there. For the moment: waiting.
:: David (16:10 in Michigan, 22:10 in Paris) - Comment

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Funny file sharing story - seems there's a show in Sweden that gives money to someone (a private citizen) to promote a political question. Apparently the winner this time round was someone who wanted to promote free file sharing. So a percentage of his winnings were donated to the Pirate Bay, a bittorrent tracking site. You can read the whole story at Slyck News, including the grand finale where the TV show figured out how to avoid making as large a donation as had been originally planned.
:: David (11:39 in Michigan, 17:39 in Paris) - Comment

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Wil Wheaton would like to remind everyone that mother's day is good for national security.
:: David (11:26 in Michigan, 17:26 in Paris) - Comment

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:: Saturday, May 13 2006 ::

I have only recently become aware of universities for the deaf, at least to the point of knowing where they were and some of their names. I think the process of working at them, or running them, must be complex beyond belief. So it comes as no surprise to me that one of them, Gallaudet, is having something of a crisis of succession. One of the reasons for the crisis, on the other hand, caught me by surprise. Apparently there is some question as to the role of American Sign Language at the University.
:: David (2:31 in Michigan, 8:31 in Paris) - Comment

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:: Friday, May 12 2006 ::

Is this administration really as corrupt as it seems? The BBC is reporting that the home of the former third-in-command of the CIA has been raided, in association with a variety of naughty acts. Now, even if he isn't guilty, a lot of damage has been done just by virtue of suspicion falling on him (and one presumes quite a lot of suspicion, to have his home raided). I'm sure it has not escaped a lot of Republicans' attention that an election year is not the best time for a series of scandals. But I'm just trying to figure out if it just seems like an awful lot of people associated with this administration have done (or have been accused of) bad things, or if it really is a lot more than usual.... Does anyone know if there is some sort of scandal counter out there?
:: David (18:28 in Michigan, 0:28 in Paris) - Comment

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The New York Times has a quite depressing article on the state of higher education in France. It points out, for example, that the government spends 40 percent less per student for university students than it spends on high school students. The article also details a university we used to live quite close to. The description is not very flattering.
:: David (7:56 in Michigan, 13:56 in Paris) - Comment

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:: Thursday, May 11 2006 ::

We spotted a pair of northern flickers vying for position on a neighbouring rooftop yesterday. I'm not clear if they are supposed to be in this area or not - the map at Cornell seems to indicate 'no', but a government survey seemed to indicate 'yes'. Either way, they were definitely birds we had never seen before. Given our ant infestation, I wonder if our house is like a giant bird feeder for them!
:: David (8:59 in Michigan, 14:59 in Paris) - Comment

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:: Wednesday, May 10 2006 ::

It looks like TagCloud is a victim of its own success. According to the letter they've posted, things got a little out of hand, and now they're re-tooling to make things work properly. Hopefully they'll also get some money for the project, as it seems pretty darned cool.
:: David (11:29 in Michigan, 17:29 in Paris) - Comment

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Although it contains nothing new for people who are aware of French politics, those of you who do not follow its twists and turns should read the BBC's bio of Nicolas Sarkozy to get a peek at the man many think will be the next President of France.
:: David (8:10 in Michigan, 14:10 in Paris) - Comment

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:: Monday, May 8 2006 ::

I posted some random photos from my night of gaming on Saturday/Sunday. Lots of fun, no sleep at all, and too much sugar and caffiene. Just the way a boys' night out ought to be....
:: David (19:07 in Michigan, 1:07 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[5]

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:: Saturday, May 6 2006 ::

Safe at home. A 3:30 wake up, a drive to the airport, and two flights later, and I'm safely back at home, visiting my kitten. Sasha is still in Kalamazoo, but I'll pick her up tomorrow. She presented a paper at the conference they have there, which reportedly went well.
:: David (13:17 in Michigan, 19:17 in Paris) - Comment

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:: Friday, May 5 2006 ::

Slashdot pointed me to a pretty funny event that happened recently - about 80 people got dressed up in blue shirts and khakis, and then, one at a time, wandered in to a best buy. For those who don't know, best buy is an electronics store, and the uniform is... a blue shirt and khakis. The even was staged by a group called Improv Everywhere, and if you visit their site they have photos, videos, and written accounts of the fun.
:: David (23:08 in Michigan, 5:08 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[4]

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So I turned on the news to hear the weatherman repeat 'stay indoors, do not get on the highway in the Austin area'. I, of course, knew that, having just gotten in from driving on the highway up from Austin.
I went in to Austin to see an old friend of Sasha's. We chatted and went out for Japanese, and then headed back. I wanted to get some work done (and get some sleep) so I started to leave. That was when it started hailing. And the power went out. So I waited for the storm to die down a bit, and we then made an excursion to my car (all three of us, with two umbrellas). They warned me as I left to watch out for running water and low-lying areas, due to flash floods. Very reassuring. I drove to the highway, only slightly waylaid by the malfunctioning train signal which forced me to get creative in order to get to an entrance ramp. Once on the highway I made it about a mile before finding my way blocked by a plethora of police lights. I thought they had closed the highway, but in fact it was only two lanes, as a pair of semis had had some sort of encounter which left one of them jacknifed across two lanes. After that it was a fairly uneventful drive, alternating between comfortable cruising and stark terror when the lines on the road were no longer visible due to the rain. Oh, and admiring the massive bolts of lighting striking all around.
:: David (0:37 in Michigan, 6:37 in Paris) - Comment

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:: Thursday, May 4 2006 ::

A perfectly normal workday, except in Texas. Tonight I'm going out with a friend of Sasha's (or perhaps staying in - I don't know). Tomorrow I have a meeting with a person I'm doing an SPSS workshop with. I hope I don't look too stupid, given my knowledge of SPSS is zero....
:: David (19:31 in Michigan, 1:31 in Paris) - Comment

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:: Wednesday, May 3 2006 ::

My Lemony Snicket day continued: the plane out of Houston got to the runway, powered up the engines, then powered them back down. The pilot came on the Tannoy to tell us that a warning light had come on, so he was going to switch to the other system to verify the results, which meant powering down and powering back up the engines. He did this, then came back on to tell us that yes, there really was a problem with the engines, and that we were going to head back to visit the mechanics. They gave the engine a thorough going-over and we were on our way. I think we managed to leave at nearly the exact moment we were supposed to have arrived. So that didn't work so well.
Finally, I headed to Georgetown, where Southwestern University lives. Sadly, google maps failed me, directing me to take a road that didn't exist. So I ended up driving past the town. Thankfully, I decided that things had gone awry, and my stopgap measure to take the next exit and head back from whence I had come worked like a charm. So I was able to visit the campus, get settled in my office, and get some work done.
Well, all but the work part - my password had expired for the system (email, development website, network, everything) and somehow the reset didn't work - my password became neither my old password, nor the new password I gave it. So I was locked out of everything. It was an excellent cap to the day. It was finally solved just as I was getting ready to leave the building.
Since then, things haven't been bad. I drove in to Austin and had a nice dinner, and then drove back to the airport. I realized I was at the airport, and turned around, finally finding my hotel. And now, having slept hardly at all this week, I intend to get several tasty hours of sleep.
:: David (23:29 in Michigan, 5:29 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[4]

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I would have said leaving at 5 for a 6:30 flight was plenty of time. in fact, I did say it. but I was wrong, so I get to have a nice stay in the terminal. whoopie! The worst part was missing by 5 minutes. I got to watch my plane sit at the gate, then fly off without me. sigh.
:: David (7:06 in Michigan, 13:06 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[1]

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If going to bed at 3 and waking at 7 is bad, going to bed at 12:30 and getting up at 4:30 is also pretty crummy. I can't blame anyone else, tho - I booked my own flight.
We had folks over to eat, drink, and be merry last night. It was good fun all around. So I've no regrets, although as the day wears on I may start....
:: David (4:57 in Michigan, 10:57 in Paris) - Comment

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:: Tuesday, May 2 2006 ::

So... Sleepy... I guess going to bed at 3 and getting up at 7 is a bad idea. Ah well - the gods smiled on me today, and made everyone else take the day off, so it's peaceful and quiet in the office. So peaceful... so quiet... *snore*
:: David (13:03 in Michigan, 19:03 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[1]

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The proper way to leave any club is to wait until they turn all the lights on and start playing Paula Abdul covers. Disturbingly, this was my second encounter with her music this week. I believe the world may be ending....
:: David (2:46 in Michigan, 8:46 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[1]

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:: Monday, May 1 2006 ::

My social life runneth over. We closed a bar on Saturday, now we're going clubbing on a Monday. Even if it is to some lame-o Ann Arbor club, I'm still pretty impressed at my ability to party all night. And tomorrow, we have dinner guests. And Wednesday, I fly to Texas. Whew!
:: David (21:23 in Michigan, 3:23 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[5]

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On a much lighter note than my previous post, Family Guy is damned funny sometimes! When the manatees are on, they're really on!
:: David (0:19 in Michigan, 6:19 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[1]

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While I was living in Paris, I posted the link to the Paris Webring on my blog, and from time to time I visit it, to see what's up in the mind of people living in France. I got a random one today that made me think about terrorism, of all things, and security. The post is a somewhat funny story about a security guard stopping Carmen Electra. What's interesting about it is the information the blogger has revealed about security at CDG airport. One could, were one of that mindset, use that information to bypass or work around airport security. What it proves is that we are never going to be able to lock all those opportunities down - we can never be safe exclusively through hard core security, because someone will always say something that the right people can use. Rather, we have to rely on the same thing we've relied on for probably thousands of years - trust in the generally good nature of our fellow human beings.
:: David (0:13 in Michigan, 6:13 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[1]