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April 25, 2006
Taking a break
On May 6, this blog will have been appearing almost daily for a couple of years.
The text alone for the entries runs to 2.5 M of ASCII. Each day I clean the junk comments and trackbacks away, leave some more content on a disk at our ISP, spend time writing stuff down that'll be forgotten soon, perhaps post a picture relatives and friends can look at once or twice.
Many of you have added your comments to entries. Thanks for those, and thanks for reading along.
It's time to take a break.
Posted by Mark at 09:26 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
Just before the rain
Commuting last night and tonight, I've managed to miss the raindrops. The sky menaces however. I plan to be caked in mud at some point this week.
Posted by Mark at 08:40 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
April 24, 2006
Rats
Nath's watching a made-for-TV movie in which the rats attack Paris. She's been enjoying the shivers.
They just blew up a building with thousands of rats standing by, ready to eat whole animals and people in a sudden frenzy. A guy got stuck in the explosion. He was going back for his white rat.
Now he's coming out of the building with a few smudges. (That's it, the people who've been trying to get me to wear my helmet and my seatbelt are lying. If he can survive that explosion, the least I can do is survive a head on collision on the autoroute or falling off my bike and having a truck run over my head.)
Aha! They're panning out to show a few rat survivors, starting a litter in a bale of hay atop some apartment downtown. The scary music is playing...
Posted by Mark at 10:25 PM | TrackBack
Rough circles
This morning as I rolled into work on the bike, the weather was great. As I knew a huge pile of things to do awaits me here, I decided to enjoy the ride.
Saturday I replaced the SPD pedals on the mountain bike. The new pedals grip the cleats better. I tried an exercise suggested in one of the articles Andy found. The exercise consists of putting the bike in an easy gear and using only one leg to pedal. Very strange. I'm definitely not making perfectly smooth circles yet. There's sort of a whoosh on the downstroke and nothing on parts of the upstroke.
Posted by Mark at 09:03 AM | TrackBack
941
Only 941 emails in my Inbox after a week... but that's after filtering out as many into various lists and so forth. I'm tempted to delete everything not addressed directly to me and wait for folks to retry.
Posted by Mark at 09:00 AM | TrackBack
April 23, 2006
Hike above Montfort
We went for a hike up to the ruined castle in Montfort, next to Lumbin.
Unfortunately, the castle was such a ruin that we couldn't get close.
Things went fine until Diane fell over and skinned her hand. After that I had to carry her on my shoulders.
Still, they all enjoyed it a lot. Spring is definitely here.
Posted by Mark at 08:40 PM | TrackBack
Emma's glasses
Emma got her glasses yesterday afternoon. She's happy about them.
She still had trouble reading the menu last night at the restaurant, but it didn't seem related to vision.
Posted by Mark at 11:08 AM | TrackBack
April 22, 2006
Hedge clipping time
Twice a year I clip the hedges. If you let it go longer, you end up having to get the hand saw and cut individual branches.
This year I've noticed many leaves with holes or brown spots. Mom said it looks like a fungus. It's also on other leaves, like the ivy Nath has out back. Hope it doesn't eat up the nice plants.
Posted by Mark at 04:02 PM | TrackBack
53:21/154
3 x 1600 m repeats at the track in Pontcharra. 5:58, 5:57, 5:57. I'm not in the same shape I was in last summer, when I could run these faster almost easily. Right shin hurts. This coming week I'm going to take it easy.
Posted by Mark at 11:43 AM | TrackBack
April 21, 2006
Frog legs
Mom wanted to eat frog legs while she's here. She also wanted to eat snails, which we had the other day. Frog legs, we decided, are also eaten in the US. More than snails in any case.
Since we had them fried in beurre d'escargot (butter with parsley and garlic) last time, and since we couldn't get any the other day from the local Cambodian restaurant, we had them batter fried today.
It turns out they're better with parsley and garlic. Frog legs do not have a strong flavor. Breaded and fried, they were too bland.
Posted by Mark at 08:28 PM | TrackBack
1:10:37/167
Rode harder than I initially intended to, but not too far. The weather was warm. Since I could go mid-afternoon today, I rode in shorts and a short-sleeved shirt.
This heart rate is artificially high, though perhaps not by a lot. I saw the monitor giving strange readings (202, 199, etc.) at the outset of the ride.
Worked some of the time on maintaining a high cadence in an attempt to get smoother. My form starts to deteriorate at cadences higher than 120. That, and my weak legs, no doubt explain why I'm not a power rider. The fastest I could sprint down the hill outside Goncelin was 74.3 kph (46.2 mph). Track riders do better than that on the flats.
Posted by Mark at 06:19 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
April 20, 2006
Grasshoppers
Since we took Tim down to the manmade lake near Pontcharra yesterday, where he saw a couple of tiny frogs, his brain's been hopping. Yesterday Mom had to sew plastic bags onto wire loops at the end of bamboo poles. One for each child, though Diane's not yet returned from up north.
Today at lunch, Tim explained to his grandmother he needed her to gather 50 fat grasshoppers per child. (We have not yet prayed for a plague of locusts, and are not sure where we're going to get 150 fat grasshoppers this time of year.) He's planning to use sewing thread to tie a grasshopper at a time to each pole. The frogs will go after the fat grasshoppers, and as they do, the children will be able to scoop them into the plastic bags.
Next they'll transfer the frogs to three plastic pop bottles Tim has clipped for the occasion. He says the bottles will be too tall for the frogs to jump out, but that I'll nevertheless have to take a large bucket with a lid to hold the overflow as the bottles are filled with frogs.
Emma hadn't gone to the lake. She asked me what size the frogs were. She'd been talking to Tim, and had gotten the impression each frog was about the size of a basketball.
Both were convinced I should prepare by buying a large aquarium and filling it with the sort of things frogs would like to have around. Sticks and water and lilypads and so forth. They'll be angry and suspect me of stalling when they get home for their snack.
Posted by Mark at 02:58 PM | TrackBack
Emma's eyes
Emma and I went to see an eye doctor this morning. Her regular doctor had seen a huge fall off in her vision at the last checkup.
Today the verdict was that she does in fact need glasses for the classroom and for reading, but that she's only a bit nearsighted with slight astigmatism. Nothing that would force her to wear glasses all the time.
On the way back from the appointment, she was happy to know she wouldn't have to wear her glasses all the time, but she was already sulking. I asked her why. She said she'd looked at the prescription and was going to have to have round glasses, because the drawing on the prescription sheet was round. Her idea was that the eye doctor would prescribe the particular pair of glasses Emma needed. (The guy we saw was no doubt inadequately fashion conscious in Emma's eyes.)
I explained to my incredulous daughter that all the eye doctor was doing in his office was determining how the lenses needed to be ground so as to improve her vision and make it easier for her to read and see things far away. She was sure she wouldn't be able to get the square glasses she wanted. I'm not sure she believed me.
She also didn't believe me when I agreed to discuss with her mom whether she can get blond highlights next time she goes to the hairdresser. The world's a rough place when you're 7 years old.
Posted by Mark at 02:36 PM | TrackBack
54:24/153
This was a relatively easy run around Pontcharra, but I was dragging. The weather's nice again today.
I'm finding it difficult to deal with tired, wooden legs and the feeling that I cannot get going. My right shin hurt when I finished, too. Not a good sign.
Maybe I need to bite the bullet and quit running or cycling hard for a whole week. Perhaps I could compensate by working upper body muscles instead. Trouble is I'd be sore after one good session.
Posted by Mark at 02:24 PM | TrackBack
High Mach
Digg had a link to this test of how Machiavellian you are. My score was 63/100.
You are a high Mach, you endorse Machiavelli's opinions.
That didn't surprise me much. To get a low score, you'd need to be twistedly Machiavellian enough not to admit to yourself that you're manipulative.
Posted by Mark at 02:15 PM | TrackBack
Older, wiser
Sports Illustrated online has a short article to say that Lance Armstrong is planning to run the NYC marathon, and to do so without, "plans to run marathons ... professionally." After a few months off the bike, he finally came to his senses, realizing sports involving special equipment and machines are less direct and natural than running. Or maybe he just wore himself out to the point where he figures training for a marathon is a rest.
Posted by Mark at 07:03 AM | TrackBack
Nightmares
Yet another early morning of eerie nightmares. For the last few days the nightmares have involved ghoulish surgical violence, moods of capitulation, despair that persists on awaking.
I went to bed almost an hour earlier than usual. Managed to read about a page before feeling too tired to focus, but then could not fall asleep normally, and instead tossed and turned.
It took almost half an hour to get out of bed. I wondered about people who say they like to lie in their beds in the morning, going back to sleep after they wake up. Nath says she likes to stay in bed. People who do must not be lying there feeling crushed by depression or illness. Instead they actually feel better than when they get up and get going. Amazing.
Posted by Mark at 06:32 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
April 19, 2006
Libertarianism in One Lesson
David Bergland ran for US president on the Libertarian ticket in 1984. Dad bought me his book, Libertarianism in One Lesson, which has gone through eight printings at least.
What interested me in reading this book was to compare my own leanings to those of a Libertarian who has thought out his position and written it up. Libertarianism seems like an ascendant current in US politics for two reasons in my very humble opinion. The first reason is that Libertarians greatly favor self-determination and freedom, even if it's at ones own expense, a position more and more Americans consider the right one. The second reason is that Libertarians see the free market as a better solution to economic problems, and most Americans agree with that.
On the one hand, I found much to agree with in this book. I definitely agree that free markets were and are better than having the king decide what commerce can take place, and are better than having some "representative" bureaucracy decide in place of the king. (The current US and Western European economies have this kind of state intervention to varying degrees.)
On the other hand, I don't agree that we cannot do better than free markets, nor that we cannot think about alternatives. Bergland would call parecon Utopian, then he would continue believing in a magical free market alternative that has never existed either at scale. Some experimentation is called for.
Posted by Mark at 06:45 PM | TrackBack
49:55/155
Another nice day. My legs are still dead and sore. I went cycling. The odometer says I went precisely 26 km.
Posted by Mark at 06:40 PM | TrackBack
Big plans
Tim's first question this morning when he got up was whether I could buy him a color photocopier. My answer was that color photocopiers are not cheap. I did not elaborate to say that several hundred or a thousand euros (color laser printer) seemed like a lot to print reams of Star Wars and shark JPEGs that would be ripped up and thrown away shortly after being printed.
Tim's next question was what career should he choose to make lots of money. He'd consulted with his buddies and found that baker probably doesn't pay very well, and is hard work, so he'd changed his mind about that. He's sticking with the idea of being a biologist. I suggested that if he wants to make lots of money, he should see whether he might like sales and running a business.
He shook his head at the idea of sales. He didn't mind the idea of running a business, as long as he doesn't have to do any of the work. He did get the idea that he'd need money to start a business. I explained the idea of venture capitalists, and how they require that you come with a good idea and a well thoughtout plan of how you'll manage to bring them return on their investment.
Tim found it hard to get his head around that, but he had the right idea. If you cannot do something yourself, delegate. So he says it's up to me to come up with the idea and the business plan.
He's not very good at employee motivation yet, however. Right after he left me with the problem of figuring out how to raise funds and figure out what his business would do, he told me about working conditions at his biology laboratory (where the product they'll make is nature films of sharks). Apparently the biologists will all buy their own equipment, and they'll work shoulder to shoulder "24 hours a day, 7 days a week" basically for no pay. Tim didn't think he'd have enough money left over to pay workers. He also asked where he could get a manager to take care of the day-to-day activities while he travelled through the Amazon jungle in search of interesting animals to examine.
Posted by Mark at 08:42 AM | TrackBack
April 18, 2006
Up north, part II
We had Nath and Diane on the phone towards the end of dinner. Their first train was very late, but they had enough of a layover in Lyon to be on time for the TGV.
Nath says Diane's not having fun. Maui, Nicholas and Jenny's baby, still sleeps a lot. Diane said she thought his eyes hurt. Nath says Diane misses Tim and Emma. She has no one her age to play with until tomorrow. I heard her say she was ready to come home.
Nath sounded fine. Hope she can get some sleep even with Diane in her bed.
Posted by Mark at 08:33 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
First cut
Dana helped me finish the first cut of the grass this season. Between us I believe we spent just over 3 hours.
He said our grass is nevertheless easier to cut is some ways than many lawns. At least with ours the growth is fairly even in the spring. You don't have parts where the mower gets clogged alongside other parts where you cannot yet see you've already cut a row.
If anybody around Barraux needs grass clippings, let me know.
Posted by Mark at 08:27 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
36:47/156
Ran over to Chapareillan and back. The inner side of my right shin still has not recovered yet.
Posted by Mark at 10:48 AM | TrackBack
April 17, 2006
Up north
Nath and Diane are taking the train tomorrow morning at 8:05. They're going to see Nicholas and his family.
Nath was packing during Diane's bath, so Diane wanted to get into the act. After she got out of the bath, she packed a huge pack of equipment for her babies. She could barely haul it over her shoulder. When we told her she was going to have to sleep here tonight -- that the pyjamas she had on were specifically for that occasion -- she was inconsolable until the next interesting idea crossed her mind.
Nath is expecting nice weather up north for once. She's looking forward to a few days away from Tim and Emma's constant bickering. Unfortunately she'll have to share her bed with Diane.
Posted by Mark at 08:55 PM | TrackBack
Later than normal
Nath had me go with her last night to a combination birthday party and anniversary of one of her friends. I was born too old for this stuff, and so left my watch here. We were there with many of her friends and acquantainces from Barraux.
We got down to La Gache just after 7:30 pm, and finally came back up the hill sometime around 2:30 am. Was tired by the time we got to the table.
One thing I still find curious about France is how you always have to dance the La chenille before dessert. What's the cultural equivalent of that in the US?
In the end I got about 4 1/2 hours sleep last night. Nath let me take a nap this afternoon, though.
Posted by Mark at 08:33 PM | TrackBack
1:17:53/153
Today was beautiful for cycling. I went this morning, feeling tired. My legs felt dead. Guess I need to back off somewhat for another week.
This ride was up to Chambery and back. Don't think I've ever seen so many cyclists. Several times I had to slow down as there were too many people out to pass. Had my legs felt good I'd've gone for longer, or for a climb.
Heart rate on the bike is definitely lower than on foot. 153 bpm average feels like 160 running. Perhaps that's also because my legs are weak and sore.
Posted by Mark at 08:16 PM | TrackBack
April 16, 2006
Happy Easter
Some people consider Easter the ultimate Christian holiday. Other people get up at 6:58 am worried about whether their brother got a head start looking for chocolate.
It rained too much last night to have an Easter egg hunt in the yard. The Easter Bunny left them all right next to the house, under the eaves.
Posted by Mark at 05:05 PM | TrackBack
April 15, 2006
Track cycling
We watched track cycling this afternoon. Strange sport in some respects.
The speeds those track cyclists reach are amazing, especially considering they're on the flats. The teams of four typically covered 4 km in just over 4 minutes. In one race a guy managed to average over 71 kph (44 mph) for a one lap sprint. I need a good downhill slope to achieve that as my max speed.
Posted by Mark at 06:23 PM | TrackBack
Magnolia
The magnolia has blossomed. The rain will no doubt carry off the petals soon.
Posted by Mark at 06:07 PM | TrackBack
40:47/145
Went down to the track in Pontcharra and did 6 x 200 m as hard as possible with 400 m slow jogging to recover in between. My legs are still not fully recovered, and I felt tired, as if I couldn't quite make it to my maximum. Maybe I'm coming down with Emma's cold now.
Posted by Mark at 06:01 PM | TrackBack
April 14, 2006
Ubik
Reread this book again. Still not sure what to make of it.
Philip K. Dick published Ubik for the first time at the close of the 1960s. His 1992 has people who've not changed much since then. Except the protagonists' line of work is protecting people against folks who've evolved extra sensory perceptions, precognitions, and standard PKD psi-fi fare.
At the core of the story is that battle for half-dead people's souls, and the difficulty of knowing whether what you're experiencing is reality or only a very good fake thereof. What I like about PKD is that he comes out more blatantly than Borges with the conclusion that it's all fake.
If you were a storyteller, would you not want it to turn out that way?
Posted by Mark at 08:23 PM | TrackBack
1:13:09/150
Rode home from work after taking the train in this morning. The MTB is definitely heavier. Was tired when I got home.
Posted by Mark at 08:19 PM | TrackBack
April 13, 2006
Toy soldiers
This is our living room floor since yesterday morning at 11:00 am. A battleground.
Posted by Mark at 10:04 PM | TrackBack
Meat eater
Of the three children, Diane is the one who likes red meat the most. Nath bought a big steak to put on the grill. Diane kept wanting more. Finally we gave her the bone to gnaw.
Posted by Mark at 09:57 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Dinner theater
We had theater after dinner tonight. In fact when I arrived home on my bike, Emma and Tim were on the front porch with Mom, telling me I had to hurry up. Their show was starting right away.
It turned out that we had to eat almost right away, immediately after I took a shower. So we had to wait for the show after all. I missed the show on roller skates.
After dinner, though, we were all more or less forced to watch the impromptu singing and dancing. Emma did a silent dance around the living room, while I physically held Tim back. (He was mad because she got to go first.) Then Tim sang, and Emma sang again. Even Diane got into the act.
Posted by Mark at 09:47 PM | TrackBack
46:04/151
Up to Rochasson with Phil and Jerome, which was pretty easy for me at that speed. Then they continued on to Corenc, so I came back down alone, working on my downhill form. Maybe that's not so good, as my legs took a kind of pounding.
Posted by Mark at 01:18 PM | TrackBack
April 12, 2006
Not exactly real time
This arrived in my mailbox at 10:55 am this morning:
Flight NW 40 departed Detroit-Wayne County Int'l, MI at 3:56 pm on April 11 from Gate A34 and arrived in Amsterdam-Schiphol, Netherlands at 5:30 am. Gate subject to change. Verify at airport.
I'd requested to receive an update 2 hours before arrival. Good thing I wasn't counting on that notification.
Posted by Mark at 08:52 PM | TrackBack
Arrival
Mom and Dana arrived today with their luggage no less. Their flights had been on time all along the way.
Mom said not too many people seem to be flying here in mid April. The plane from Amsterday Dana said seemed about only 1/3 full.
The children were delighted to find that the suitcase full of presents had made it through and arrived at the same time as the grandparents who brought it. Tim in particular got just what he ordered, which was small, green plastic soldiers. Mom brought a whole box full of them.
She was then obliged to play with Tim. Setting up the soldiers. Sorting them by color, size, and weapon. Standing by as Tim made gun and explosion sound effects. He was having a great time.
Mom also helped Emma to get started with a stylist's drawing kit to draw clothes for Barbie and other girls. Mom and Emma spent quite a while working on a sand drawing, where you stick colored sand to a board having color-by-numbers stickers that you peel off to reveal adhesive underneath. The sand is supposed to glow in the dark, but Emma hasn't tried it out yet.
Dana, Emma, Diane, and I managed to play a game of children's Monopoly, a simplified version of the real thing. Trouble is, Emma didn't win. Papy Dana won. At least Diane and Dad lost, too.
Diane got Papy Dana to read to her for a while. She had a great time playing along with the other various games and activities. Mom also found some time to play with Diane, who has a set of flat colored foam pieces that she can stick to paper in the form of animals.
In the end, Dana had to take a nap this afternoon. Mom was almost asleep in the couch before dinner. And that's just round 1. Good thing the children are going to school while the grandparents recover from their jet lag.
Posted by Mark at 08:35 PM | TrackBack
1:47:39/155
Off today to pick Mom and Dana up from the airport. I got to ride for a while. Legs still very tired today. Had a headwind coming back. At one point I was really forcing it to stay at 20 mph (32 kph) down a 3-4% grade.
Posted by Mark at 08:22 PM | TrackBack
April 11, 2006
Mass protests
Mass protests... but not in France. BBC News online has an article covering mass protests in the US, in favor of rights for immigrants including people who don't have legal permission.
On Friday, the US Senate failed to reach agreement on a compromise deal that would allow an estimated 11.5 million illegal immigrants apply for US citizenship.President George W Bush backs the guest-worker scheme but faces stiff opposition within his Republican party.
As a long-term guest in another country, I was ready to find myself biased off the scale on yet another issue here. Yet my actual position is perhaps close to moderate. I agree superficially with the President, at least insofar as this article reflects his position on the question.
Folks who go that far out of their way to make their lives in the US should have the opportunity to apply for citizenship.
One of the concerns current US citizens may have about this is more people arriving to compete for a limited number of jobs. (Not as big a deal in the US job market as in France or Germany, but nonetheless a real point.) There I'm virtually certain of having off-the-scale opinions. However I believe a reasonable argument can be made to say that those willingly leaving their home country to make a better life elsewhere are unlikely to add to the general level of slack in an economy. On the contrary they're likely to come with a lot of energy, appetite, and willingness to pitch in.
In the US where nearly everyone is descendant from immigrants, it seems fair that we'd lower barriers of entry. Not without serious discussion, of course. But the country should welcome those who honestly want to be there for most of the same reasons the folks already there want to stay.
Posted by Mark at 09:33 PM | TrackBack
~45:00/~145
As my right shin is bothering me, I planned to ride, but ended up not even riding at noon. Instead I measured myself riding home, and doubled that to get about 45 minutes at a heart rate of about 145 for the 4 short bike legs of the trip.
My muscles are exhausted. I notice that more on the bike than on foot. On foot the soreness and stiffness is obvious, but the lack of muscle power is not. On the bike the lack of muscle power is clear. So Matt was no doubt right. The best training I can do right now is to recover.
Posted by Mark at 09:04 PM | TrackBack
La grippe à bière
Diane's noticed some of the children in her class have been absent. She's explained to Nath for the last three days that they're out with la grippe à bière (beer flu).
The world's definitely going downhill if alcoholism is rampant among three-year-old Barrolin children.
Posted by Mark at 08:02 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
April 10, 2006
How powerful is the virtual pen
Andy wrote an entry covering his letter to the editor about unsafe helitour practices where he lives. He seems to have spent some time researching the situation.
How powerful will Andy's virtual pen prove to be? I presume the Garden Island News letters to the editor are going to remain online and get indexed. That wouldn't happen with paper news. Will knowing the admonitions are just a click away in the search engine from the company name discourage irresponsible flying?
Posted by Mark at 08:07 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
21:36/141
Recovery run in the rain on sore legs. My right leg is giving me the same problem that cropped up just before injury. Guess my body cannot take this much training compared to the recovery.
Matt suggested I back off and ride for a while to get off my feet. His wife ran herself over the limit in 2004 and it took her months to get back into good shape.
Posted by Mark at 03:08 PM | TrackBack
April 09, 2006
Paris and Paris-Roubaix
Didn't watch any of the Paris Marathon this morning. Looks like Gashaw Melese won in 2:08:03.
Watched the last 50 km of Paris-Roubaix. France 2 was having trouble with the cameras. Fabien Cancellara won, breaking away less than 20 km before the end. He rode for a bit over 6:07, including the rough paved sections, at 42.24 kph on average into headwinds much of the way. He could not speak to the reporters when he finished. Looked like he was having a heart attack or something.
Tom Boonen seems to have run out of gas around the last attack. The announcers thought one of the reasons nobody went after Cancellara right away is because they were waiting to ride in Boonen's wake.
The rough paved sections are truly rough. Hincapie went down and seems to have fractured his collarbone or something. He didn't get a flat. His handlebars broke.
UPDATE: Looks like Tom Boonen got second place, although he finished fifth! Three guys got disqualified in the end for crossing train tracks when the bars were lowered. That's against the law and against race rules. You're allowed to kill yourself in a crash but not by potentially getting hit by a train.
Cancellara's lucky too. What if the train had been 30 seconds faster and he'd've been disqualified?
The only reason Boonen and the guys he was with stopped is because the train was literally going through the intersection when they arrived.
Posted by Mark at 05:10 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Overtired
Last night by 8 pm I was tired enough to want to go to bed. Probably should have. Diane woke us up this morning, 5:18 am. Couldn't get back to sleep.
All I managed to do this morning was take all the now tires off the cars and put the summer tires on. Very bad temper. Neck still hurts from being angry. Paranoid thoughts.
Tried to sleep this afternoon. Slept maybe half an hour and woke up feeling worse than before. Then the girls came to jump on the bed.
Not sure what to do. It's like being sick.
Posted by Mark at 04:04 PM | TrackBack
April 08, 2006
1:55:15/155
A bunch of 1s and 5s. Ran four big laps around Pontcharra. The last lap felt tough. Haven't run that far in a while, and yesterday's speedwork left me with stiff, slightly sore legs from the first step. These days are the nicest running days of the year, though. Need to get out and enjoy them before it gets too warm.
The marketing organization from the Paris half-marathon sent me a diploma that arrived yesterday with a questionnaire. Nathalie looked at it, then asked me whether she ought to frame it. She already did that with my computer science diploma. I came home one day and it was hanging over my desk. After that I made sure to hide my other diplomas. Here's the one from the race, since it'll fall off the front page after a couple of days:
Tim ought to run races like that. He'd really be happy to get all the marketing goodies they hand out. Medals, diplomas, T-shirts, sacks with sponsors' logos, and so forth.
Posted by Mark at 01:45 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
April 07, 2006
Lila: An Inquiry Into Morals
Stuart lent me Pirsig's other book, Lila: An Inquiry Into Morals. Not sure what to make of it. In this one Pirsig expounds on his Metaphysics of Quality, setting up Dynamic Quality as that from which everything else flows.
On one hand, the atmosphere of the book reminds me of those thoughts you have at 4 am, thoughts that seem visionary insights when they show up in the insomniac consciousness. Later in the day the thoughts you esteemed so well early in the morning turn out embarrassing. I had the impression throughout that Pirsig was grasping at straws.
On the other hand, this book is a novel, not a treatise. So what's Pirsig telling us? Maybe it'll come to me at 4 am.
Posted by Mark at 10:58 PM | TrackBack
Global warming fatalism
The Straight Dope has Cecil's answer to the question, "Is global warming for real?"
The human contribution to atmospheric carbon in the form of CO2 is small, less than 5 percent of the total carbon reservoir. Ergo, humans aren't causing global warming. I omit a lot of ancillary discussion, but that's the nub.One might raise scientific objections to this reasoning, but there's no point. Fact is, there's little that can be done to reduce CO2 emissions regardless of their impact on the environment.
Cecil goes on to say the real challenge is the gradual disappearance of fossil fuels. That we're going to have to do something about, whether we want to face it or not.
Posted by Mark at 10:47 PM | TrackBack
Constraints
Andy sent along a link to an article by Paul Graham on software patents. It's balm for my conscience, since I've used a few second-rate ideas to try to get patents for my employer. Invention disclosures are perhaps the only self-serve bonus available in engineering.
Paul does however write that, "it's better, even from a purely selfish point of view, to be constrained by principles than by stupidity." Let's just say some of us are too dumb to understand what he means.
In a nutshell, Paul figures that patents are obligatory defensive weapons in a system where, "Business is a kind of ritualized warfare." Yet because they're similar to nukes as defensive weapons, young startups needn't worry about accidentally infringing a patent or two. You only need to worry if you're very successful. He concludes that patents are better than earlier alternatives in history, like secrecy and severe punishment for revealing things.
Posted by Mark at 10:11 PM | TrackBack
1:01:58/165
5 x 1 km with warmup and cool down. Splits were 3:32, 3:35, 3:38, 3:41, 3:38.
Posted by Mark at 03:02 PM | TrackBack
April 06, 2006
Insomnia
Today at lunch there must've been a dozen of us sitting around the table. I was surprised to hear that several of my colleagues have occasional trouble with insomnia. One guy I work with says when something wakes him up only 15 minutes after he drifts off to sleep, that can be it for the night. At least a couple of people have been waking up about 4 am, not able to get back to sleep.
I wonder if that's normal for people over 30. Perhaps it is. I also wonder how closely related it is to worries about work.
I then wondered later whether being this far north makes a difference. In France it's so dark all winter, then suddenly in spring it starts getting light early, staying light late. In summer it's light very late indeed, since time is set up to be two hours ahead of the sun. That's why all the bedrooms over here have shutters or blinds.
Even if you sleep in a dark room, the sun no doubt has an effect on your biological clock.
Posted by Mark at 09:46 PM | TrackBack
Liars
Nath was telling me a few minutes ago that she's catching the children lying sometimes. Diane's still too young to do that, but Emma and Tim are old enough.
They don't lie about the same things. Emma apparently lies about how much homework she has. Nath says Emma isn't very good at lying. It's so obvious, Nath can tell from her expression when Emma's not telling the truth. Emma doesn't go so far as to fail to note the homework she has in her assignment notebook, so all one has to do is look at that to check.
Nath has a harder time with Tim. He doesn't lie about homework. (He does sometimes forget very quickly.) Timothee lies about personal hygiene. It used to be he'd "take a shower" so fast the water wouldn't even have had time to drop from the faucet to the bathtub, yet he'd already be finished. Now he actually runs the water. Just not on his body. The funny part is that although he doesn't want to take a shower, he's extremely apprehensive about touching his dirty socks or underwear.
That reminds me of how Matt and I used to "brush our teeth," which consisted of waiting for adults to be elsewhere and then thorougly wetting the toothbrush.
Posted by Mark at 09:24 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
37:45/121
Easy recovery jog with Karine and Phil.
Posted by Mark at 02:24 PM | TrackBack
April 05, 2006
How's that for reactivity
A bunch of us updated our versions of Ubuntu this afternoon. update-notifier 0.41.11 had a problem that caused it to crash when Gnome started.
Three hours later the problem was fixed.
My goodness do I feel bad about all of my old bugs now. Maybe I need to get us into a mode like this. Emotionally I'm not a very just-in-time guy, but there are some things to be said for operating like that.
Posted by Mark at 08:17 PM | TrackBack
CUPS web interface
The CUPS system lets you manage printers by connecting to http://localhost:631. I'd not used this before. Just tried it on Ubuntu 6.06 (alpha) and it's great. Better than the Gnome printer setup application.
Posted by Mark at 02:32 PM | TrackBack
32:38/141
Up to Montbonnot and back down with Phil. He was in a hurry, so we didn't go very far.
Posted by Mark at 02:21 PM | TrackBack
April 04, 2006
File sharing and legal trouble
BBC News online has an article about how music industry middlemen are fighting to sue people for sharing tunes they bought (or got from somebody else). The problem is apparently big enough to eat into sales and profits.
What's file sharing going to be like a few years from now? Will home bandwidth increase by a factor of 10 over the next 10 years? If so, the legislation is going to take us in the direction of drug legislation now, except that children will be sharing movies, music, and video games rather than getting high.
I can imagine the police knocking on my door to lead me away to jail because one of the three kids downloaded a cracked version of some recently released movie. That said, maybe I'll be unemployable by then and won't even be able to afford normal wireless Internet access.
Posted by Mark at 08:45 PM | TrackBack
A new hobby
C|Net has an article about advertisers looking to have other people do their ads in their spare time:
"Traditional marketing methods have fallen short," Decker said in explaining why he expects viewer-created ads to take off in the market, particularly for the 18- to 34-year-olds who watch Current TV. "This demographic does not respond positively to something overly produced and (that is a) hard sell."
At what point does it sink in that people just don't need any more of your stuff?
"The holy grail for me as a marketer would be to have an entertaining viral video that was getting passed around and it doubled as a commercial," said Brian Monahan, who oversees online and offline ad campaigns for Microsoft at the Universal McCann ad agency. "Can we produce work like that? I don't know. But I'm counting on the kid in his bedroom who has a really funny idea."
The main problem seems to be with volunteers who aren't sticking to the script. They end up making ads the companies don't really like.
Posted by Mark at 06:03 PM | TrackBack
43:53/167
This started off as a jog, then morphed into a tempo run. Too angry to do a tempo run. At the halfway point I ran as hard as I could get myself to go until it hurt enough that I didn't feel angry anymore. Then recovered until the anger came back and sprinted again. Felt rough at the end, but slightly calmer.
Posted by Mark at 02:27 PM | TrackBack
April 03, 2006
32:01/154
This heart rate seems wrong. Still in bad shape.
Posted by Mark at 12:52 PM | TrackBack
Fatigue
Diane didn't wake up for whatever reasons she normally does. During the night this time it was a cough.
When I finally gave up and got out of bed at 5:45 am, I realized although I was exhausted Friday, I'm even more tired now. Nath seems to feel that way too. She was trying to go back to sleep.
Posted by Mark at 07:00 AM | TrackBack
April 02, 2006
Portrait of a birthday girl
Diane wanted to look through old photos on the computer. We found a portrait of Emma that Diane liked.
Click the image for a full size shot (779 KB).
Posted by Mark at 06:03 PM | TrackBack
Vacuum cleaner
One of Emma's presents today was a big surprise.
Her grandparents got her a vacuum cleaner. She tried it out immediately in her room. (Should've lent it to her brother, too.)
Emma was proud of the seven candles on her chocolate cake.
Posted by Mark at 05:30 PM | TrackBack
Washboard stomach coming up
Since he got back from his friend's birthday party yesterday, Tim's been exercising to develop a washboard stomach.
He figures that if he does 1000 abdominal exercises a day, in three days he'll look like a guy from an underwear ad. Every few repetitions he stops to examine his progress. He claims to see a lot of progress already. The first thing he said when he woke up this morning was that he could see it was going well.
Situps are too tiring, so most of the exercises are twists, whereby you stand upright and rotate your shoulders.
He was going to work on his pectoral muscles as well, but pushups are too difficult.
Posted by Mark at 10:26 AM | TrackBack
April 01, 2006
First birthday
Emma has the first birthday of the year. Tomorrow is the day.
We had the birthday party today, since Saturday is easier for most people than Sunday. As it was raining outside, the children ran riot in the house.
After two and a half or three hours, we were all tired.
Posted by Mark at 07:36 PM | TrackBack
48:56
Body exhausted. Thoughts toxic. Time to rest.