Cogito, Ergo Sumana for 2001 December

# 01 Dec 2001, 09:20AM: Yesterday I had four or more good conversations.

Before my Russian History class, I saw my cousin Vinay and sat with him on an out-of-the-way log bench near Sproul Plaza and we discussed my recent theistic belief changes. After that lecture, I talked film with classmate Alan, who recommended Hitchcock's The 39 Steps -- one of his earlier works, while he was still British. The whole day, I conversed with Kris over email. Kris is the neatest person I've met electronically since Leonard. And then after the movie I swapped stories with Ethan.

Me: I was born in New Jersey, spent some time there, then I lived in Pennsylvania, then in Missouri. I spent about half my life before coming here, so I still have some natural, well, some learned resistance to cold.
Ethan: I knew you weren't a Californian!
Me: Because you like me?
Ethan: Yes.

# 02 Dec 2001, 06:22PM GMT+5:30: I waited so long to pick up The One Best Way again that the time period it covers is the same as the time period we're covering now in my Imperial Russian History class. Three more lectures to the revolution!

Filed under: Reading

# 03 Dec 2001, 12:47PM GMT+5:30: This Fredrick W. Taylor biography rocks. It confirms the dictum I read in stained glass at the Library of Congress half a year ago: "The history of the world is the biographies of great men." Sometime in the next few years I want to read biographies of other recent historical figures: Freud, Darwin, Marx, Truman, Hitler, Stalin, Mao, the usual suspects.

The next few pleasure books I read will include Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke. My sister and the fellow next to me on the BART recommended it highly. In addition, I must finish Guns, Germs, and Steel. The last time I read any of it, I was riding on a bus from Novgorod to St. Petersburg.

Filed under: Reading

# 03 Dec 2001, 05:01PM: I learned in school, and from journalism stylebooks, that when referring to an entity consisting of more than one person (e.g., "company," "team," "couple"), one should use the singular (e.g., "the team played three games and it did well"). Properly, the writer or speaker is referring to the organization, not the members of the organization, and it only confuses to use the plural (e.g., "the company's president resigned because they're in bad shape financially").

But sometimes it makes about as much or more sense to refer to the members of the organization, and not the group itself (e.g., "the company's president resigned because they're insane and she wouldn't drink the Kool-Aid"). And, as Leonard noted, the British seem to take the pluralist view (e.g., "The BBC present My Word!").

[Yes, I know, that's a lot of "e.g."s. Just so it's worth it, Merriam-Webster tells me that "e.g." comes from the Latin for exempli gratia ("for example"), and that "i.e." is the short form of the Latin id est ("that is"). Remember, don't confuse them, and use two periods.]

In any case, I should hope, writers especially should take care to use the chosen number consistently, either singular or plural. But Pete Carey's San Jose Mercury News debunking of the Cisco Systems creation myth strains the grammar-checker's patience on this matter:

Founding legends are a specialty of Silicon Valley, and none is more appealing than that of Cisco Systems: In the 1980s a young Stanford University couple invent the multiprotocol router and starts Cisco in their living room, using their own credit cards for financing.

I remember when my Russian grammar teacher in St. Petersburg suggested that I was inventing a new case. Perhaps Pete Carey is inventing a new grammatical number.

Update, Sept 2003: Pete Carey has written me and tells me that this is the original:

...legends are a specialty of Silicon Valley, and none is more appealing than that of Cisco Systems: In the 1980s a young Stanford University couple invent the multiprotocol router and start [emphasis Sumana's] Cisco in their living room, using their own credit cards for financing.

Dude, all I know is what I copied-and-pasted, but Mr. Carey says the archives bear him out. Okay.

# 03 Dec 2001, 05:09PM: Adam, linguist extraordinaire, recommended this introduction to phonetics. Aaaah! I'm taking an introductory linguistics class next semester, supposedly for kicks, and I'll have to memorize all this? Aaaaah!

On the up side, it might make my tongue and lips more agile, which could be useful.

# 03 Dec 2001, 05:17PM: During Astronomy 10 lecture today, Professor Filippenko explained physicists' search for a Theory of Everything and a Grand Unified Theory. "We want fewer equations! We want everything to fit on a T-shirt!"

But I completely cracked up when he continued on, "One Force to Rule them all, One Force to find them, One Force to bring them all and in the darkness bind them."

# 03 Dec 2001, 05:26PM: Why did I think this speech would be by Bruce Schneier and not Bruce Sterling?

# 03 Dec 2001, 09:02PM GMT+5:30: When I took Political Science 2 (Comparative Politics) my freshman year of college, Simon Stow pointed out a passage near the end of some article in our reader. "Some people say that [dangerously-close-to-straw-man argument]. They are wrong." Stow told us to remember that sentence, since we'd never again see "They are wrong" in any other article by a political scientist.

Slate just published a New Republic editor's hard-nosed exposé of Republicans' culpability for the current recession. The sentence that reminded me of "They are wrong":

"It wasn't just some giant miscalculation. It was a lie."

From the same article, another great comment that touches on a Leonard gripe:

"So the previous tax cut was supposedly needed to make the surplus disappear. The next one is needed to bring it back. Whatever."

Filed under: Reading

# 03 Dec 2001, 09:30PM: Kris: "Yeah, it's always about accidentally invoking unnamable horrors with me."

# 04 Dec 2001, 08:44AM: When I see the Slashdot.org headline "Rent Music Over Net," I think of my freshman year of college, when my roommate Michal played the Rent soundtrack over and over and over.

Streaming audio is exactly the sort of thing that Rent would make fun of if Rent had been written five or ten years later.

# 04 Dec 2001, 08:47AM: Last night was the first time in quite a while that I got an email from Dan. Funny how larger events percolate down to our daily lives. Excite/AT&T@Home stopped service, so Dan started using his university-provided dialup account, but I had been using that account ever since he set it up for me long ago, and so yesterday morning my internet access died for no reason that I could discern. Then Dan saw me in the OCF and told me what had happened and told me what I could do to fix the problem by using my own account. It was the longest, most civil conversation we've had in a while.

Dan referred to "the reason why you weren't able to get onto the Internet this morning" -- he didn't know that I'd tried. He just guessed. Just another consequence of being -- as I've realized he and I are -- strangers who know each other really well.

# 04 Dec 2001, 08:50AM: Another thing that hasn't happened in a while: feeling my heart speed up and my breath shorten as I go to dailycal.org. But the list of columnists for next semester will appear in Thursday's issue and not today's, or it's only in the print edition, or both. I have to go to campus early to record "Little Red Riding Hood" in Russian, so I'll pick up the Daily Cal in about an hour and find out how I'll feel today.

# 04 Dec 2001, 09:24AM: I just keep listening to "Michigan Militia" by Moxy Früvous on the You Will Go to the Moon album. I like the lyrics, I like the melody, I like the faux country-and-western/hip-hop sensibility. I like it all.

# 04 Dec 2001, 12:46PM: Yesterday, Professor Filippenko showed a slide detailing possible splittings-off of forces (electromagnetic, strong nuclear, weak nuclear, gravity) during the earliest moments of the Big Bang. The complete lack of scale cracked me up. At the top, with one Grand Unified force: t=0. A third of the way down: t=10^-35 seconds. Two thirds of the way down: t=10^-27 seconds. At the bottom, with four separate forces: TODAY.

One reason this made me laugh is that -- and I had forgotten this until yesterday -- for years a TIME-LIFE poster hung in my bedroom that depicted culture-streams through history growing or dying and affecting each other. At the top, each vertical inch represented a thousand years, but by the bottom, each inch represented about ten years. You and I usually see wild disproportionate scales in that direction, and not with the opposite perspective, as with Filippenko's graph.

# 04 Dec 2001, 01:06PM: I recorded my rendition of Krasnaya Shapochka (Little Red Riding Hood) this morning. If you knew me, you'd predict that I would use silly voices. But I didn't, really. Jeff and Sean, on the other hand, are each a regular Robin Williams these days. Jeff and Sean, I think, aren't silly enough in their everyday lives, so they have very few outlets and therefore their silliness comes across potently in the silly voices and plots they use for Russian class exercises.

We've been reading and translating humorous Russian anecdotes for the past few days. The relevant story for today: our narrator comes across a woman who's almost drowned, and urges action, but for every action he suggests (e.g., artificial respiration, calling a doctor), the nearby fat man says that it would be useless. In bewilderment and anger, the narrator finally says to him that he would care more if he thought of this woman as, perhaps, someone's wife. "What do you mean?" he replies. "She is someone's wife -- mine!"

Our instructor set up the silliness by assigning to Jeff the role of the pessimist, and to Sean that of the optimist, in a conversation about a putative stain on Jeff's pants.

"Oh, what an awful stain. And there's nothing to be done about it. These pants are ruined."
"No, no! We can go to the laundromat. And, while the pants are washing, we can have a good conversation!"
"No, I don't want to go to the laundromat. It's too far and too expensive. And look, the stain will never come out."
"Well, what kind of stain is it?"
"It's ketchup. And look, it's the red ketchup and that new green ketchup, too. I look like Christmas. And I'm Jewish."
"That's okay. I love Christmas and I love the Jews. Hey, let's go to Israel!"
"No, I don't want to go to Israel."

Jeff later mentioned that he doesn't like Israel, but he was very quick to add, half-panicked, that he only dislikes the weather because it's too hot for his taste. Sure, Jeff. Sure.

# 04 Dec 2001, 01:16PM: Last night, for the first time in months, I dreamt a particular sort of dream: I spoke to someone, realized that they didn't understand me, and had to switch to my stumbling Russian. This reminds me of my only analogous real-life memory:

One day in St. Petersburg, probably Monday 18 June, I unexpectedly stayed late talking with John at the hostel, and called my host mother to tell her I'd be late. "Vera, hi, I'm sorry I didn't call before, I'm going to be late, but I'll be home by 7:30 or 8. [Pause. Realize that Vera didn't understand any of that. Try to switch into Russian mode.] Vera, privyet. Aaah, ya chut'-chut', uhh, [John supplies the word for "late," but in the masculine, but I'm so anxious I use it anyway] opazdal, no, uh, ya dumayu chto, uh..."

Not the worst gaffe I made in Russia (war bookstore, anyone?) but the worst I made that week.

# 04 Dec 2001, 01:38PM: Tomorrow, and the next day, and the next, but not quite till the last syllable of recorded time, my Russian class will take tests. So, celebrating the last real day of Russian class, my instructor gave us each a helium-filled balloon (mine flies proudly from my neck as I type this), and Sean brought in his guitar and played a few tunes, two in Russian and the other by Bob Dylan.

He started, but did not continue, a Russian song that goes, "when love leaves, the blues start." I loved it: "Kogda ukhodit liubov', nachinaetsa blues." Not only does Russian just use "blues," but the word is treated as a singular!

# 04 Dec 2001, 01:46PM: I will not find out until Thursday my status with regard to the columnist position. Anticipation, bleah.

# 04 Dec 2001, 05:09PM: Last night I realized one reason that Professor Reginald Zelnik completely impresses me. He gives every lecture without notes. If he has some text to quote verbatim, or tests or handouts to distribute, then he brings those to class, but otherwise, he's completely emptyhanded. And he gives well-organized and fantastically detailed lectures on this very complex subject of imperial Russian history. He has incredible cred.

# 04 Dec 2001, 10:56PM: I think I've set up my schedule for my final semester. Basic Musicianship, Intro to Linguistics, Intro to Logic, and Advanced Russian Conversation. It all sounds so Cognitive Science! Well, not just the linguistics and logic, but the eclectic mix. I'd take some yoga, too, but I waited too long and even the waiting list is full. Ah, well.

# 05 Dec 2001, 08:54AM: Some fella from an antivirus/computer security company, referring to Goner, sounded really exasperated in his comment to an NPR reporter. "You would think that, when a file is this patently a virus, people wouldn't click on it, but they do."

# 05 Dec 2001, 12:02PM: My friend Shweta Narayan drew an insightful comic that references an out-of-context remark by George Lakoff you might have heard about. What's Going On? She'll tell you!

I always forget the difference between metonymy and synecdoche.

# 05 Dec 2001, 12:59PM: Hey, neat. I just ran into Jade, who tells me that she is also taking Intro to Logic next semester. It's been too long since I had a study buddy. We can sharpen each other's ears into points!

# 06 Dec 2001, 12:04PM: I didn't make Daily Cal columnist. Shoot. That plus the boring gray foggy rainy weather gets me down. Maybe I really wouldn't want to live in Seattle or on the East Coast, if the weather there is like this half the year.

On the up side, I have the new Heuristic Squelch. And today Kevin the Political Science instructor will hand back our quizzes. My quiz contains much spontaneous poetry, e.g.,

I like leaders
Who put up bird feeders.
Gosh, I wish I'd
Looked more in the readers.

# 06 Dec 2001, 12:23PM: After I queried Leonard on his favorite logical fallacy (send me yours!), he sent me a link to a giant list of fallacies. Oi, how depressing. I probably commit six of these before breakfast.

# 06 Dec 2001, 04:33PM: Allow me to retract my earlier comment. The weather has had no effect whatsoever on the logic of my blues. If today had been as sunny as delight, I would have thought, "what an opposite-of-inspiring contrast between my melancholy and my surroundings!"

I really needed to laugh. Thank you, Michael Kinsley. Michael Kinsley could write for Guster!

# 06 Dec 2001, 07:39PM: Wow, the Amtrak.com website has improved its usability greatly since I last had to interface with it. I can now recommend it!

My classmate Jeff Good, graduate student in linguistics: "there are limits to my ability to gather intelligence on the Slavic dept."

# 06 Dec 2001, 10:43PM GMT+5:30: I finished The One Best Way yesterday evening. I enjoyed it, although Kanigel rather maddeningly draws no concrete conclusions about the benefits and disadvantages of Taylorism today. At least he presents much evidence and argument for several sides.

One reason I chose to read a biography of Taylor: for years and years I have tried to figure out why I worry about wasting little tiny bits of time. These days, I try to indulge myself in the decadence of leisure, taking scenic routes and enjoying the hot massage of the shower, but even so, efficiency hovers over me, the false god of my world.

Steve and I agree that there's a difference between "really inefficient" and "waste." An important distinction.

Filed under: Reading

# 06 Dec 2001, 10:45PM: BreakupGirl.com. LaughPage.com. Important, popular, useful sites that I visited perhaps a hundred times. Gone, gone.

# 07 Dec 2001, 12:21AM: Steve likes "slothful induction" (cf. the giant list of fallacies) because of the image it conjures: huge furry three-toed animals debating propositions of logic.

I still haven't perused the list. Every time I look at it I need to lie down. Come to think of it, I should go to sleep.

# 07 Dec 2001, 08:21AM: It's Friday, the last day of classes, and today I get to hear about the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the search for extraterrestrial life, and in Kandahar Taliban forces are surrendering. Why am I not happy? Perhaps because I gave myself too little sleep.

So, before I go to my 11 o'clock Russian test, I want to do a few errands, including the purchase of a gift for the Russian TA. And somewhere during the day I have to fill out and turn in two evaluations and I want to return the stack of library books that I borrowed during my Political Psychology research frenzy. And that other thing on the B level of Dwinelle. And call my sister to remind her to pick me up. Okay. Okay.

# 07 Dec 2001, 08:25AM: Slashdot Science headline: Global Warming Mostly Confirmed - On Mars, That Is!

Cinzia, my classmate in Russian and a graduate student in sociology, spells "moola" as "mula."

# 07 Dec 2001, 12:09PM: Okay redux. Contacting my sister: done. Bouquet for Zhenia: bought and given. Russian test: taken. The secret errand: done for now. I'm not going to go home, to get my phone or to get library books to return, but I will fill out those evaluations and turn them in before history and astronomy lectures.

Yeah, you're reading my to-do list and its progress. Feel free to puff yourself up in superiority or spur yourself on to greatness with me as an example or whatever.

# 07 Dec 2001, 12:14PM: I found out today that I won't have a Russian final, even though Zhenia told us that the past three days' tests wouldn't count for anything unless we did very well. Wheee! Okay, then, I have two finals, a week apart. This I can handle better!

Today's test included questions in the form "blah blah blah ______ blah blah blah," where I had to choose the conjunction multiple-choice style. One set contained the choice between "therefore" or "because." Is Pavel a good friend because he loves everybody, or does Pavel love everybody because he's a good friend?

# 07 Dec 2001, 12:44PM: Leonard and I have noted that Hagar the Horrible is uniquely suited to oblique discussion of the current military situation.

# 07 Dec 2001, 01:10PM: My landlord raised my rent again, as per his right to make yearly cost-of-living adjustments. So I'm looking for a new place to live. I just put up a Craig's List post. Anyone know of a shared apartment or room in Berkeley for $550 or less per month (plus utilities), starting in January or so? Please tell me.

# 08 Dec 2001, 05:53PM: I don't know the proper superlatives to explain how deeply Professor Alexei Filippenko's final Astronomy 10 lecture moved me. The hour after I heard him speak yesterday was one of the happiest hours of my life. Jade and I spent our conversation in wonder at the wonder he had awakened within us, awed at our own awe and at the unique, thrilling beauty of human intelligence, and oh, there was more, a thousand lifetimes' worth of wonder.

I used to believe that I would despair if I believed that humanity were the most amazing thing in the universe. Now I believe that I could celebrate that. Now I believe that I could be a happy atheist.

You can also watch the lecture using the lecture webcast archives. Mind-expanding bliss not guaranteed.

# 09 Dec 2001, 08:35AM: Have I yet mentioned how terrific the TakeTransit Automated Trip Planner is? It's awesome! When it comes to San Francisco Bay area public transit, TransitInfo's Trip Planner is as good as gold -- or, better, as good as Google.

For a random sample trip, a detailed itinerary with fares and times and everything. And the usability! Forget classified ads -- here is where the filtering/pull capacities of modern technology shine.

I sound like Jon Katz. Stop! Stop! Get it off me!

# 10 Dec 2001, 11:15AM: Jon Carroll today:

...we must, as an act of common sense, practice kindness, cultivate compassion, search for the sacred in the mundane.
That does not mean shrinking from a fight. That means understanding that violence is sorrow and that after the violence we are still alone in our souls, trying to find the ember of hope.

# 10 Dec 2001, 11:32AM: I really enjoy "Guinea Pig" by Moxy Früvous on the C album.

# 11 Dec 2001, 09:32AM: Rob Walker in Moneybox today:

At this point, [Enron] seems to be pursuing a strategy of looking as shifty, untrustworthy, and arrogant as possible. In fact, I wouldn't be particularly surprised to see CEO Kenneth Lay grow a thin mustache and start twirling it obsessively while answering questions with an evil laugh.

# 11 Dec 2001, 09:44AM: That previous entry, with its villainous cackle, reminds me of The Great Muppet Caper, which Leonard and I watched last night. Terrific! I got a bunch of jokes that I'm sure I didn't get the last time I watched it, which was probably ten years ago. I had forgotten how self-aware the Muppets get, and perhaps had never noticed how much humans in human-Muppet scenes must overact to keep up with Muppetry.

We might have watched, say, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai first, but Leonard said, "I demand the Muppets!" and so the die was cast.

We did get through the first two hours of Kuch Kuch last night. I last saw that three years ago. And it might have been better last time, when I didn't have the benefit of subtitles. Most of the translation is good, but sometimes I wonder whether it's an inane song lyric on its own, in the original Hindi, or whether the senior translator was on a coffee break. "Either I was insane previously or I've just become so" is an example.

Muppet Muppet Muppet Muppet Muppet.

# 11 Dec 2001, 09:47AM: I hereby pat Jeana on the back.

I think Jeana's emotional state in that post mirrors my career-hunting state all the time.

# 11 Dec 2001, 10:31AM: My family evidently gave away our copy of The Muppets Take Manhattan, which I loved to watch when I was young. Anyone else got a copy you'll loan me? The Great Muppet Caper whetted my appetite for hot Muppet action.

# 11 Dec 2001, 11:13AM: Jeana's doctrine of emotional autarky (self-reliance) strikes me as sort of Deepak Chopra Meets Ayn Rand, but in a good way!

# 11 Dec 2001, 05:31PM: Well, sometime in the next 40 hours or so I have to commit to memory the gists of about six weeks' worth of reading for Political Psychology. I imagine that'll take about four to six hours, if I keep at it. BART rides are good for that sort of stuff.

During the review session today, Kevin Wallsten (my Graduate Student Instructor) said something very much like, "I really have to start wearing sunglasses to class; your wisdom is blinding me." Mr. Hatch, my favorite high school English teacher, said something very similar once, four or five years ago.

# 11 Dec 2001, 08:24PM: I have a headache. I should read at least a few articles before I go to sleep. I'm eating bread and cheese. My sister is unhappy with me. I have to call my parents.

But I'll feel better tomorrow morning.

# 12 Dec 2001, 12:23PM: Expression of dismay and frustration. This morning, my computer developed an incomprehensibly sudden dysfunction in booting up and automatically starting X. Thus, I spent a bunch of time futzing around with X-related files (many props to Leonard for patiently working the tech support gig) and then, once it became evident that I'm stuck in Command-Line World for now, I spent a bunch of time being defeated by ppp. So now I'm on campus in the OCF so I can type this and check my email.

# 12 Dec 2001, 12:38PM: Aside from my computing difficulties, I should add, I'm feeling fine. My sister is no longer unhappy with me and my parents are sated. Today I study and watch the teevee.

I've been listening to Dar Williams's "Better Things" from The End of the Summer.

# 12 Dec 2001, 01:10PM: My First Final is in fewer than twenty-four hours.

# 12 Dec 2001, 01:21PM: Wil Wheaton says that he just knows what he reads on Slashdot. This is like Cokie Roberts posting in The Fray on Slate.

# 12 Dec 2001, 01:51PM: I just read an article evaluating different theories that explain the Los Angeles riots of 1992. The five theories include "A Black Protest," "Multiethnic Conflict," and "The Bladerunner Scenario."

Politics in Modern Science Fiction and Science Fiction in Modern Politics! Robots! Run-down malls! Genetically engineered superintelligent cats!

# 12 Dec 2001, 05:30PM: An academic paper I'm reading mentions Plato's proposed myth (as seen in Republic!) that different levels of quality in personalities originate in their different "metals". I've got bronze in me, you've got silver, let's call the whole thing off.

# 13 Dec 2001, 10:43AM: Off to my final. Oh, I should buy a bluebook first.

# 13 Dec 2001, 05:33PM: I took my final and now it's over. That was Political Psychology. My next final: Wednesday from 5 till 8 pm. Not only will it demand that I catch up on all my Russian history reading, but it will also force me to miss "Enterprise." Bleah.

I thoroughly enjoyed last night's The West Wing. I was expecting a self-indulgent flashback episode, and yet the self-indulgence was no more than usual and the flashbacks served a purpose (as opposed to the giant flashback that was Star Wars: Episode I).

Heard in the OCF:

"I don't have any exes to be uncomfortable about."
"You want one? You can have one of mine."

# 13 Dec 2001, 05:41PM:

For the final final SANE [Students for a Nonreligious Ethos] event of the semester, we're going to be meeting at Mel's diner on Thursday night (Dec. 13) at 8:30 PM. Mel's is on the corner of Shattuck and Kittredge, I think (two blocks from the south-west corner of campus). Bring some money for your own meal and it'll just be socialintellectual fun -- Meet new people! Meet old people! Take a break from studying and finals! Get a milkshake!

I'm going. Are you?

Wow, this will be the very first SANE event I *ever* attend!

# 13 Dec 2001, 05:43PM: Heller Lounge, in MLK Student Union, stays open 24 hours every day. An informative leaflet tells me that it will continue to be open until 20 December. In addition, "No sleeping, sleeping bags, blankets, pillows, etc. Naps are ok."

Um, how do the relevant authorities intend to tell napping from sleeping? Stopwatches?

# 13 Dec 2001, 05:56PM: I got to hang out with Jeana a few hours ago. Thought-provoking as always. (Neat factoid: She now knows a guy who knows Eve of InPassing fame!)

Today, in handing in my test, I got back not only my term paper (B, better than I deserve), but also the pop quiz my TA gave a month or so back. He gave us the option of writing poems or drawing pictures instead of trying to answer questions we found impossible, so I did. And he gave me a ten out of ten for creativity. Very neat.

When Jeana and I walked into Smart Alec's and I ordered a small order of french fries, I happened to still be carrying the quiz. My cashier asked, "Is that an A grade?" I, surprised, answered in the affirmative. He said, "then it's free," and stamped my paper with the "A+" Smart Alec's logo.

Free fries!

# 14 Dec 2001, 09:50AM: Yay! X works again for no discernible reason!

# 14 Dec 2001, 09:51AM: My fellow OCF-hangers-out and I decided that the criteria for discerning "napping" from "sleeping" might be preparation. If one looks very uncomfortable and seems to have passed out from sheer exhaustion, without deliberation, then that's "napping" and okay. If one seems to have prepared for falling asleep (e.g., stretching out, clearing a space on the desk for one's head, taking off glasses), then the study lounge kicks her out.

# 14 Dec 2001, 10:07AM: A few nights ago, Leonard played for me his Age of Reason trilogy. I had previously heard the first and third songs, but not the second, which I adore. I encourage you to agitate and force Mr. Richardson to release a recording of Age of Reason so that we, the people, may derive enjoyment from his work without having to go to his house. It's cold and you have to walk up a hill.

# 14 Dec 2001, 10:52AM: So last night, for the first time ever, I attended a SANE event. SANE held an end-of-the-semester party at Mel's, a "'50s diner," and I went and had a grand old time. As predicted, I knew at least one person there (if only because I had met him in the OCF three hours before), and I discovered one-degree connections between myself and three of my new acquaintances. (I know Kenny Byerly who knows Keith because they both take film classes; I know Melissa Coats who knows Alex Wallerstein because they went to the same high school and even went to the prom together; I know Jeff Good and Julianna who know Pierre via Quiz Bowl). Very satisfying.

Alex proclaimed that he had seen a free preview screening of "Brotherhood of Wolves" and thought it pretentious and silly. Native Americans who know kung fu? Slow-mo shots of water splashing? His comment card asked which of three scenes he had liked or disliked, and he scribbled, "It was all goddamn ridiculous." I found this hilarious.

I felt as though I'd met Pierre before, but I guess I've just met other sardonic erudite mid-to-late-twenties types before. We conversed even after the party. He was impressed that I knew about Linear A and transsubstantiation and the blasphemy of chewing the communion wafer (I hear you're supposed to just let it melt on your tongue). I was impressed, among other things, that he pegged me as a youngest child, what with my tendencies towards rebellion, lack of discipline, and use of comedy to get approval from others. As he put it, "score one for psychology." Remind me not to dis birth-order patterns.

# 14 Dec 2001, 10:56AM: I missed the review sessions for history. Oh well. More time to clean my apartment before my mom comes over.

"Wonderful" by Everclear is, well, wonderful.

# 14 Dec 2001, 11:20AM: Columnists Who Are Not Really Pundits Roundup:

Dave Barry, whom I used to love but whose columns I now find repetitive (although his other work is better), points out:
Anyway, Dr. Kelly's goal is for SlugBot to be able -- without any human assistance -- to catch slugs, turn them into energy, then use this energy to proceed with its mission, which is, well, catching more slugs. If that sounds pointless to you, ask yourself this question: In what significant way is SlugBot's lifestyle different from yours?
Jon Carroll is, I can safely assume, getting annoyed that politicians are falling over themselves to dissolve the inconvenient parts of the Constitution and associated processes:

Lieberman said that Moussaoui was a "big fish" and that trying him in court was tantamount to letting him "get away."
ONE HATES TO be unpatriotic, but technically Moussaoui is innocent until proved guilty. He has been charged with the crimes, but we are not sure whether he committed the crimes. (Writing these columns is getting more like "Schoolhouse Rock.")

# 14 Dec 2001, 01:46PM GMT+5:30: I've been reading The Dispossessed by Le Guin. Enjoyable and thought-provoking. Better get to the housecleaning, though.

Filed under: Reading

# 14 Dec 2001, 10:59PM: I saw Much Ado About Nothing with my mom and sister at the Berkeley Repertory Theater. I enjoyed it quite a bit, except for some of what I for lack of a better term must call overacting. Benedick is a terrific creation.

Suzanne R. emailed me! My goodness! It turns out that I had used some address that she no longer checks frequently. She wished me luck on my finals and said that it was good to hear from me. I think this closes the book -- well, one of the books -- on high school.

# 15 Dec 2001, 04:23PM: Woo hoo, Kuro5hin is back up! Thing to do very soon: finish backing up all the weblog entries I made there.

I'm finally deleting my Windows partition, after something like a year of solely using GNU/Linux. I need the disk space. I think my full disk was causing those weird errors recently, and even if it wasn't, it's time to do this anyway. I feel some trepidation, since I'm really burning my bridges now. Sometimes the knowledge of inevitability doesn't help.

# 16 Dec 2001, 04:58PM: Kuch Kuch Hota Hai is better than I'd thought. Wow, subtitles help.

I beat Leonard at Girl Genius by cunningly and unexpectedly popping a dirigible that, since I had two submarines in my score pile, gave me the game, even though he was twenty points ahead of me. Hurrah!

# 16 Dec 2001, 07:55PM: I should note that Alexei is solely responsible for introducing Leonard and me to the Girl Genius game.

# 17 Dec 2001, 12:23PM: Eating Double Gloucester cheese straight, as I am doing now, reminds me of Michal, my freshman-year roommate. She liked cheddar and used a special cheese slicer that cut cheese with a wire.

An hour or so ago I picked up stuff I had left at Dan's half a year ago. I remembered the street and the building and the way in; I didn't remember the apartment number or the security code.

His roommate and virtual roommate (roommate's girlfriend who doesn't call herself his girlfriend) were civil to me, even nice, although they all conversed and laughed about the intricacies of some role-playing game the whole time I was there, which was as familiar as the table and the chairs and the dirty dishes.

Aside from the OCF, the main way Dan and I relate to each other these days is to tie up the loose ends we left in each other's lives, property and computer accounts. Very High Fidelity, except that the movie has shifted after the first half and now Rob, not Ian, shows up only at distant intervals.

# 17 Dec 2001, 12:45PM: My dad shanghaied me into serving as Youth Editor for this year's Kannada Koota magazine. (My parents hail from Karnataka, a state in southern India, where the native language is Kannada and the people are Kannadigas. Kannadigas in the United States have formed various local Kannada organizations, often called "[Area] Kannada Koota.")

Last night my dad asked me to edit the last few submissions, the ones that had come in just under the wire, and to write up a little editorial introducing the section. I whipped something up and edited it with some suggestions from Leonard. My parents and Leonard loved it, to my surprise, so you might too.

# 17 Dec 2001, 04:20PM: Is Guster hip? I've seen the band's name pop up among my friends recently, and a bunch of the a cappella groups on campus have been performing its songs for years and I didn't even know it, and I've found several lyrics that I really like. Examples: all of "Center of Attention" and the line "Learn to love the price you pay" from "Airport Song".

# 17 Dec 2001, 06:07PM: Leonard once evinced amazement that some bit of human knowledge was unavailable on the Web. Now it's my turn. Where, sweet civilization, where are the lyrics to "Insomniac," originally (one site alleges) performed by one Billy Pilgrim (a Vonnegut reference?) and covered by Capitol Green and On The Rocks?

I dig my head down deep
so I can't hear the cars
outside on the street
The stars are laughing
They get a kick out of my misery

I've tried everything short of Aristotle
to Dramamine and the whiskey bottle
Pray for the day when my ship comes in
and I can sleep the sleep of the just again...

I can hear your bare feet on the kitchen floor
I don't have to have these dreams no more
and I found someone to hold me tight
hold the insomniac all night

That's from my mp3 of On The Rocks's cover. Can you tell it's good?

# 18 Dec 2001, 09:59AM: If I didn't have a final on Wednesday night, I'd attend Dmitry's freedom party.

At first I thought the name of the venue was the "22nd Amendment," which doesn't make nearly as much sense, unless you really hate FDR.

# 18 Dec 2001, 10:49AM: Adam told me that Guster is not only hip, but good.

Wow, I really have no idea what Carol Lay is going to do next. Nor, despite Kris's fears, do I have any idea what the next Checkerboard Nightmare plot twist will be.

# 18 Dec 2001, 11:02AM GMT+5:30: Last night I conversed with my sister on many topics. She came over to discuss Beggars in Spain by Nancy Kress, which I had lent her, and which had set her head abuzz. (Kress and Le Guin do political fiction so much better than Rand! Unless The Fountainhead, which I have not read, is somehow several orders of magnitude better than Anthem and Atlas Shrugged, both of which I have read.) I recommend Kress's work and haven't read nearly enough of it, as my wishlist attests.

Nandini and I also mentioned our growing distaste for advice columnists. She told me that the new Salon columnist isn't bad, and that she now only reads letters at Slate's "Dear Prudence," not Prudie's responses. What an innovation! This could change my entire advice-column-reading experience paradigm!

Slate recently revealed that Prudie is the daughter of Ann Landers. Nandini voiced doubt that simple heredity gives one advice-giving prowess. I noted that perhaps Prudie is the George W. Bush of advice columnists.

Filed under: Reading

# 18 Dec 2001, 01:03PM: I just discovered ESheep, a comic site I like.

# 18 Dec 2001, 04:42PM: I studied for about fifteen minutes before I had to put the book down and converse with Dan for an hour and a half. This is plus the two and a half hours we talked last night. I think we might even be friends now!

Oh, how sad, AdCritic has died. I used AdCritic to see, among others, the Molson's beer ads. Molson's : Canada :: Foster's :: Australia.

# 19 Dec 2001, 10:28AM: I can't wait for the Self-Made Critic to critique the Lord of the Rings movie. As it is, his Vanilla Sky review amused me:

The sad thing about the film, aside from the idea of millions of people watching it and being left cold and empty, is that they tried to make a good movie. They really did. There's lots of sex in it, that's always a good thing, right? There's some violence, a car crash, plenty of drinking, being disrespectful to one's parents and/or authority. Basically, it's filled to the brim with junk that would have pissed off the CAP Alert guy if he were still around.

# 19 Dec 2001, 10:34AM: In less than twelve hours, I will be done with the seventh semester of my college career. Today isn't nearly as wrenching as the last day of my sixth semester was. I only did one impossible thing before breakfast today.

# 19 Dec 2001, 01:02PM: One reason that Tsar Alexander II emancipated the serfs: a minister of his, Miliutin, pointed out that serfdom interfered with the making and maintenance of a good military. Russia's army was too big to support, yet too small to really respond to its defense needs (remember that this was just after Russia ran home with its tail between its legs at the Crimean War). So, it needed a small army with a large reserve corps. But training serfs and then sending them back to the villages would facilitate peasant unrest. The solution: end serfdom.

As I go through the lecture notes, I see that Professor Zelnik warned us that every year, at least one person says on the final that this is the reason for emancipation, and writes one sweeping answer that disregards all other explanations (e.g., the need to industrialise). Got it. Glad I caught myself.

# 19 Dec 2001, 02:23PM: My mom and dad have okayed my proposed move to a new apartment. I hope the people there call or email me back really soon so that I can give my current landlord a thirty-day notice, as required by law or something. I'll save a load of money with this move, so I really hope it pans out.

# 19 Dec 2001, 04:10PM: Off to my final. Jesus, I'm scared. Reminds me of something Steve Hofstetter said about the last final of the semester: you forget to bring a pencil, you can't remember the TA's name to write on your bluebook, and you just can't care enough to do more than try to breeze through the questions and do all the essays half-assed and leave an hour early. Why is that okay? Because everyone else is doing the same damn thing.

# 19 Dec 2001, 10:33PM: Sing, O Muse, of the blessed sweetness of finishing one's semester, of feeling free to live and love and pay no attention to the Treaty of San Stefano or the Land Captains or the constitution of Loris-Melikov or Zubatov's policy or the coup d'état of 3 June 1907.

I'm done! I'm done! I have finished my semester and tomorrow I go see Lord of the Rings and probably visit Seth and the next day I prepare for my vacation. Set phasers to fun!

I saw a nonbad Enterprise repeat and a good West Wing repeat and discussed the Beggars trilogy with my sister over Chinese food from King Dong. A good way to spend the night after my last final of the semester.

I should go to sleep now since I have to wake up at 6 or so tomorrow morning...

# 20 Dec 2001, 06:23AM: The Dostoyevsky pun in today's Jon Carroll made me groan.

Argh, I forgot to plug in my phone before I went to sleep and I have to leave in twenty minutes so I'll have to unplug it before it's fully charged and it'll develop a bad battery memory just like my cordless. Argh.

# 20 Dec 2001, 06:37AM: Salon's AP ticker just don't seem right in its mix of stories. Ebola confirmed in Gabon, suspected terrorist held without bail, India considers making war against Pakistan, state of siege declared in Argentina, and Barry Bonds to stay with the Giants.

# 20 Dec 2001, 06:58PM GMT+5:30: Today felt terrific. I finished The Dispossessed, started Hofstadter's book, and watched The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, and spent time with agreeable people, and liked it all. This is what vacation should be.

I'm probably going to try to sell a bunch of books tomorrow to Ned's and Moe's and whomever will take them.

Filed under: Reading

# 20 Dec 2001, 07:02PM: Wow, a lot of people have time for this extropian nonsense.

Relatedly, today I commemmorate the fourth anniversary of the start of Leonard's current weblog. He's changed a bit.

# 20 Dec 2001, 08:17PM GMT+5:30: Certain bits of television I'd like to watch all the way through. Examples: Baseball and The Civil War by Ken Burns. The seasons of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine that I never saw, and all of Babylon 5. And some Nova and Frontline episodes. Fortunately enough, the transcripts for those last two shows are online at pbs.org, and every so often I go reread the transcript for "The Proof."

STACY KEACH (NARRATOR): The task was to prove that no numbers, other than 2, fit the equation. But when computers came along, couldn't they check each number one by one and show that none of them worked?
JOHN CONWAY: Well, how many numbers are there to be dealt with? You've got to do it for infinitely many numbers. So, after you've done it for one, how much closer have you got? Well, there's still infinitely many left. After you've done it for a thousand numbers, how many, how much closer have you got? Well, there's still infinitely many left. After you've done it for a million, well, there's still infinitely many left. In fact, you haven't done very many, have you?

Filed under: Reading

# 21 Dec 2001, 03:25PM: Wow, today I saw one of those

rm -rf /bin/laden

bumper stickers for the first time, on an orange VW Bug on Channing.

I spent several quite productive hours selling back books, finalising agreement with the master tenant (not an Ibsen character) on the new apartment, and buying Christmas merchandise.

# 22 Dec 2001, 06:04AM: What a symmetry between today and a life-shattering day seven months ago! For example, last night Seth, Leonard and I hung out.

# 23 Dec 2001, 11:56AM: I went to a "ComedySportz" performance and was chosen as an audience volunteer. I made noises to accompany an improvised skit. Evidently I did very well! Great!

Filed under: Comedy

# 24 Dec 2001, 10:09PM: Having a terrific time -- glad I'm here.

I frosted cookies today. The most artistic thing I've done in months.

# 24 Dec 2001, 10:11PM: I think I understand Christmas now.

# 25 Dec 2001, 03:06PM: Best Christmas ever! Books, pens, candles, candy, sheets, and a festive, warm family environment. I'm having a fantastic time.

# 27 Dec 2001, 01:17PM: I played Monopoly with people and we didn't have enough houses and hotels so we used red and green M&Ms. I played Cranium with people and it was really fun and now I'll laugh at reminders of John F. Kennedy, Jr. and "YMCA" and sans serif Is that look like Ls and Daffy Duck/Porky Pig confusion. I met many new friends and we laughed very, very hard at the oeuvre of Clifford Pickover. And I got lots of candy.

# 27 Dec 2001, 08:28PM: Back in Berkeley. I believe that the good times, as I told Seth, have temporarily stopped rolling, but I had a terrific week or so of vacation.

I'm cleaning and sorting -- err, arranging. My mother is visiting tomorrow and when she leaves she'll take with her a pile o'stuff that I don't want to take to my new, smaller digs. I'm selling, giving away, and archiving many books. I have to fight the packrat tendencies I learned from my dad and (less) my mom; must...discard...useless...notes...from...years...ago!

I think I'll feel better when I have less stuff weighing down my soul. I mean both belongings and intangibles (guilt, &tc.).

# 27 Dec 2001, 08:36PM: By the way, you may wish to check out holiday pictures and Kris's, Susanna's, Leonard's, and Frances's recollections of the season..

# 27 Dec 2001, 08:50PM: Cingular Wireless has gotten on my nerves to an extent normally reserved for members of my family. The fella who sold us a Family Plan at the Stockton store made us several -- I'd say "promises" in everyday life -- statements that have since proven untrue.

He told us that all mobile-to-mobile (cell-to-cell) (do-si-do) calls would be free. After the bill came, my sister had to straighten this out with a Cingular rep.
The Stockton rep told us that long-distance calls would incur no additional charge (the base charge applying during Peak Hours usage). Again, the bill came and this savings had not been applied and some Cingular rep bore my sister's wrath.
I may be forgetting another scammish "forgetting" of a deal we got, but the most recent twist: the Stockton Cingular spokesperson told us that portions of phone calls under 30 seconds would not count as a "minute," whilst portions of 30 seconds and over would. Knowing this, I tried to keep my non-cell-to-cell calls below 30 seconds (or 1:30, or 2:30, ...). But this was in vain, my sister discovered today from some phone rep: even a single second over a minute counts as another minute!

I'd ask whether anyone else has had horror-story experiences with Cingular, but I know it's true, and I know that suckularwireless.org or some such probably contains several Hellmouth rants on the topic, and I have begun to understand why Joel and Cam seem to spend a quarter of their time as David Horowitz (not the race-controversy one) from Fight Back! (old consumer-activism TV show).

I know, I know, I know that markets are imperfect (conversations). And I try to seek out good news. So: What's the good stuff (that kids go for)? Tell me about a better mousetrap! Tell me about a cell phone service company that provides adequate or superior service! Please!

# 27 Dec 2001, 11:38PM: Spent too much time reading books instead of brutally eliminating them from "must have in new flat" selection. Now, checking my grades. And... they're all in! B in Imperial Russian History, B in Political Psych, pass (duh) in handball, and -- wait -- B+ in Russian?! I was sure I took that pass/no pass! Oh well. I think we get 3.25 or some such around here for B+s, and that'll help my GPA.

I'd really like to keep/get my cumulative GPA to 3.5 after next semester and graduation. I hear that'll help keep my options open for fellowships and grad school and such.

# 27 Dec 2001, 11:47PM: I am considering making a New Year's Resolution. I should probably make any such goal manageable. "Reduce clutter" and the like might be good. I can start the new palindromic year with elegant open spaces and not piles of junk. Perhaps "clean up my living space once a week whether it needs it or not."

I must go to bed so that I can awaken early enough to actually clean (that thing I didn't do today, bleargh) so my mom won't embarrass me by cleaning when she gets here tomorrow with the guest/relative.

# 28 Dec 2001, 09:42AM: Today's Papers gives me good news and bad news. Bad news: the India/Pakistan situation seems to steadily move towards war. Dammit! Good news: a leaked draft implies that the military tribunals won't be as horrendous vis-à-vis civil liberties as originally believed.

# 28 Dec 2001, 12:46PM: This set of links on Gödel, Escher, Bach includes a reference to...Clifford Pickover!

# 29 Dec 2001, 09:51AM: Yesterday I tried to "show San Francisco" to a cousin, Anand-from-Michigan. Of course, that went miserably, because the wonder and loveliness of San Francisco is the many little neighborhoods with distinctive characters, and the bookstores, and the restaurants, and the open and friendly people, and the value people place on freedom of expression, and the geographic unity of the city that enables mass transit as a plausible transit option (cough, cough, LA), and the beautiful views, and the sights and sounds of a million people living their everyday lives. And we were in SF for about four hours on a cold and rainy Friday night between Christmas and New Year's.

So I did the chicken pseudoreality tourist thing and we took the cable car to and from Fisherman's Wharf. We had to wait in long lines for both trips, and on the way there, the car stopped for long intervals for no discernible reason. The windows got so fogged up that we could hardly see the storefronts, much less fabulous views of the Bay. And aside from restaurants and souvenir shops, none of the tourist-trap Fisherman's Wharf stuff was open. We ended up walking around and waiting a lot in the rain while I expounded on my theories of San Francisco vs. Los Angeles (unity vs. fragmentation, togetherness vs. aloneness, joy vs. despair, etc.)

But before Anand and I took the BART back to Berkeley, I took him with me to a nice viewpoint in South San Francisco. In the BART on the way there, between two stations, the car halted, and a voice said that we would have a power outage for about a minute whilst power was shunted from one doodad to another. The car's lights went out, systems audibly powered down, and everything went dark save a light mounted inside the tunnel. I had never seen the inside of a BART tunnel before. It seemed a holy moment, and that we should match its silence with our own. (Anand, however, did not perceive this, and persisted in making conversation.)

(Exit the Balboa Park BART station via the south stairs, turn left, cross the overpass, choose any of the first four or five streets to turn left, go to the top of the hill, look down from both sides of the street.)

The city spread out beneath us, a thousand lights only slightly twinkled by fog and rain, stars above us and stars below.

# 29 Dec 2001, 02:04PM GMT+5:30: Reread Anurag Mathur's book The Inscrutable Americans. Much like R.K. Narayan's My Dateless Diary, which is better and which mentions Berkeley.

The funniest portion of the Mathur novel concerns our Indian visitor's discovery of American girls in the springtime sunning themselves and so on.

Randy walked in and found that Gopal was not in the mood for subtleties.
"Naked women," ranted Gopal. "Bloody damn fool naked women are lying everywhere. Wherever I am going there are damn fool naked women lying everywhere. Why?"
"Yes," said Randy. "I agree completely. Ain't life grand?"
Gopal glared at him. "For you maybe. What about me?"
Randy began to understand. "No luck still?"
Gopal snarled.
"Wow," admired Randy. "Years and years of celibacy. Like Gandhi, huh?"
"Gandhi is not having bloody damn fool naked women lying for miles and miles all around," Gopal groused bitterly.

Filed under: Reading