Hypotyposis on a Good Day

Thanks to Catherine for pointing

Thanks to Catherine for pointing out the article on time travel. Because I am reading Bill Bryson's Short History of Everything right now, I'm more attuned to popular science writing. I've also seen in passing various headlines about time travel. No, it's not possible. Oh, not so quick....maybe it is possible. And so on.

Was pleased to see this "Remembrance of Things Future" article today. It's been a while since I really followed the topic of time travel closely, but it's still close to my heart. There's a short story percolating in my head about it, if I can ever get it out in a comprehensible form.

[Good Texan]

A sidenote: if you want to have links to the New York Times that don't expire after 7 days, make use of the New York Times Link Generator. I generated the following link for the article in question: Remembrance of Things Future.

seating chart for our wedding

As Laura and I were sorting through our wedding paraphernalia, we found the seating chart that my sister Shirley was creative and kind enough to make for us. Unfortunately, the tables did not even end up arranged in the pattern laid out in the chart -- so people had to fend for themselves after all. Oh well.

suggest gratuity on bills

I find it interesting that increasing number of restaurants are providing tables of suggest gratuities. Not surprisingly the minimum is 15%. (There is no entry for 10% or 12%, for instance.) Neither is than entry for 17%, which is the minimum acceptable tip for decent service according to the Shitty Tipper Database.

I am glad to see that the figures are based on the pre-tax bill and not the post-tax bill. I'm particularly annoyed by restaurants that charge a 15% gratuity on top of the tax and then present the amount as for the customer's convenience.

BTW, the buffet at India Palace was a really tasty.

I don't quite get this bumper sticker

"Plants & animals disappear to make room for your fat ass" is the phrase for this bumper sticker. To be honest, I don't quite get the message bumper sticker is meant to convey in this context. The phrase can't be an anti-car message -- otherwise the "fat ass" could end up being self-referential. Is the sentence an anti-SUV message, in which case the "fat ass" is that of big cars? Maybe the driver is really thin, so possibly fewer plants and animals died for the driver's thin ass.

Anyone help me understand this?

giant bowling pins from the Staff Appreciation Day 2005

It was nice to hang around outside during Staff Appreciation afternoon.

CD Sampler at Barnes and Noble

At the local Barnes and Noble, I came across a gadget that let customers sample any CD in the store by swiping the barcode reader with the CD of choice. My initial reaction was "cool!"; I was lulled into believing that I can listen to any CD and everything on it. Too good to be true: 30 second clips; not every track was available. The reality made more sense than the fantasy of having a celestial jukebox at the local bookseller. Even though I could listen to more music than before, I was still disappointed that I could not listen to everything that I wanted to.

is 1-800 rent-a-van a real phone number?

I called 1-800-rent-a-van to confirm that indeed it is a legitimate phone number for Enterprise.

housing bubble?

TechnologyReview.com - Housing Bubble:

Didier Sornette's and Wei-Xing Zhou's analysis differs from just two years ago, when there was no sign of the faster-than-exponential growth characteristic of a bubble. Their conclusions are strengthened by their successful prediction of a housing bubble in the United Kingdom in 2003, where housing prices began dropping in July 2004. Their analysis is nifty, and the mathematics are simple and straightforward. "Soon" might be a good time to sell.

I'm planning to read Zhou's and Sornette's Is There a Real-Estate Bubble in the US?. I'm really scared to buy a house right now -- but it's also scary not to!

Ka'ahumanu Church

On our honeymoon in Maui, Laura and I visited Ka'ahumanu Church, the church pastored by Lloyd's parents. See it on a map.

chocolate-covered sunflower seeds

For a moment, the idea of chocolate-covered sunflower seeds was off-putting -- until I remembered how much I like chocolate-covered peanut cups!

"Why Waste Water on Weeds?"

I was delighted by Josh McPaul's message: that God's desire is for the "full harvest", that God wants to extract every possible goodness from creation. The sermon is available online.

nice parallel parking, eh?

Driving a car in Berkeley demands that I get pretty good at parallel parking. This morning, I was particularly proud of my parking. (I know that I'm being silly boasting about parking....)

Miyazaki retrospective at the PFA

I'm grateful that some friends, Laura, and I will be able to see at least one film this coming Sunday in the retrospective.. Tickets have sold out quickly!

Anyone tried the Adagia Restaurant yet?

A friend mentioned the restaurant to me yesterday, wondering whether I had eaten there. Surprisingly, I've not eaten there -- even though I was on the board of Westminster House when we approved proposals for what ultimately became the Adagia Restaurant.

Laura and I have been married a month now!

The one-month date of Laura's and my wedding was reinforced to me when I filled in the date for today's parking permit.

Why does the back window fog up overnight but not the others?

I feel that I should know the answer but don't.

birthday lunch for Chris at Jupiter

Jim, Lynn, Chris, Isaac, Tom, and I were at Jupiter for lunch to celebrate Chris' birthday.

My passport renewal is on the way

Canadian passports expire after five years. Today, I sent off my application. It was actually a real pain to pull together. Now, I understand that it's important to make faking passports difficult. But I was annoyed the various hoops I had to jump through.

It's also scary to send off my existing passport and my birth certificate in the mail. At this moment, I don't have any official proof that I'm a Canadian. What happens if I need to make an emergency return to Canada? I'm not sure.

I'm hoping that I just worry too much!

Happy Birthday, Chris!

Forty-Eight Birthday Drawings. 48 is a very special number in my mind: the number of preludes and fugues in the two books of JSB's Well-Tempered Clavier May there be another set of 48 in 48 years!

Notelets for 2005.06.10

I want to read The Next Sweet Thing to better understand the increasing interest in high-end chocolate that I see in myself and my friends.

I missed the Berkeley Edge festival but have some interest in learning more about Terry Riley, especially since I once saw his name associated with J. S. Bach.

Is it "Laura and my home" or "Laura's and my home"? The latter is correct.

 

a good way to move?

As I'm about to move in the next month or two, I'm wondering whether to use a service like Door To Door or instead to rent a moving van. Any thoughts?

Coca-Cola Zero: what is it?

The first time I've ever seen or heard of yet another Coca-Cola product: Coca-Cola Zero At any rate, It's available in El Cerrito, CA.

The Onion is now available on the newsstand!

I've enjoyed The Onion sporadically in its online incarnation. I'm not sure yet whether I'll make the effort to pick up the paper version to read it.

Photos for the expert to take

I'm in the process of renewing my Canadian passport. I thought that I'd be able to take my own passport photos, but the requirements made it rather onerous. It was a relief to get my photos taken by a local photo shop. There I learned about all the other types of government (or media-) mandated photos. Apparently, all the photos have different requirements. Why can't the world just agree on some standard photo formats -- or at least fewer formats?

free pamplets for the home repair person

Maybe I can become a fix-it up man myself! (Flyers are at Berkeley Ace Hardware)

water bubbles on branches

It's easy to expect sunny skies all the time in Berkeley. So when the rains come, I remind myself to see the beauty in water that eludes us for much of the year, including rain on trees.

rain and pictures

Yesterday, during my walk to campus, I had the opportunity to celebrate the after-rain environment by taking a lot of pictures:

China Illustrated -- a new book at Moffitt Library

China Illustrated is a book I'm interested in more closely examing. It was checked out the last I looked (see melvyl for the University of California system.)

campus tour

I like seeing crowds of visitors taking a tour of the Berkeley campus. Imagine the thoughts and feelings going through the hearts and minds of prospective students and their parents. The scene takes me back to the first days as a 1st year student at the University of Toronto for me.

Relaxed and focusing

My honeymoon was by far the best vacation I've ever had. Undoubtedly, I've had many wonderful trips in my life, but none has been as deeply relaxing and fun as my ten days away with my best friend and now wife, when we had little of great concern besides feeding ourselves and enjoying the aloha spirit of Maui's people and land. Though I'm back in the office, feeling relaxed and energetic, I'm still getting up to speed on the many things that have happened since I was last in the office.

We're back

Laura and I just got back from honeymoon in Maui on Sunday night. It was a wonderful, wonderful trip. Still, we're both happy to be back, ready to build our new life together back in Berkeley.

Needless to say, we took a lot of pictures. The following is an obligatory we-were-in-Hawaii picture:

More pictures to come....