sunuva

Well, my tubular invention was definitely homogeneous and distributive but unfortunately it wasnt a lattice. Back to the drawing tube.
I just got back from a bike ride in the park. I look forward to sore legs.
I finally learned what the hell is going on in Vim, a text editor with initially cryptic controls.

tube-ular!

I came up with a clever way to build a homogeneous distributive lattice that codes the halting problem -- draw it on a tube!

And by the way...

I played "groom" in scrabble.

Ideat Village

I spent the bulk of today at the final day of Ideat Village. However, before that, I picked up a couple of awesome shirts. Why can't i just trade in all my old clothes and get new ones at a severe discount? Picked up bike from the bike shop where it got a tube transplant. I rode around town a bit. At ideat village I hung out with Trixalot, Betroy, Jacroy, Adsub, etc. Lots of bottles in paper bags but I didn't drink anything until Trixalot came home from work. Pure comedy. I rode home to meet her when she got in from work so we could ride downtown together. But OOPS! She left early and was on her way there when I was leaving. No problemo, boblemo.
Played scrabble twice and got lucky! We also discovered an awesome middle eastern restaurant -- king falafel. T got some chicken shawerma and it was unstoppably delicious. It evoked some taste memory which I could not place. It came with a "homemade" garlic sauce which also tore the roof off the sucka. It looked a lot like aioli but I hold out hope that it was yogurt based. I dont know why I have a grudge against mayonnaise. BOY HOWDY was it dee-lish. Dee-lish. I got a deluxe falafel sandwich which was like a garden variety falafel but it had fried eggplant and cauliflower jammed in there too, along with some option pickles. It was a monster that required teamwork to defeat. There was a beautiful picture menu -- it looked like they had taken photos of their own food, which makes it seem truly like WYSIWYG.
After watching the American Ideat finals (a mix of pleasant and painful) we bopped on over to "bank street" which is not named "bank street" but houses the corporate buildings of our banks, and more importantly houses ATMs. Outside we could hear some delicious funk from the arts&ideas festival. We pedaled over there and caught some of the action in front of the stage. The band was called "bomb squad" and I wish we caught more of their set. High-energy, a tenor and baritone sax plus the usual rhythm section. The guitarist looked like a blend of various people I knew in highschool and struck me as possibly that young. The bassist also struck me as a single person I knew in highschool but he was named merlyn and I sorta doubted that he was actually a member of BombSquad.
Back to ideat village for the highly ritualized and percussion-oriented pie fight. It took place in the center/bottom of a spiral ramp adorning the local parking garage. Very Akira.
It's hot as a bastard in here.

Empty Hope

Before heading to the festivities yesterday, I went to the Mt. Hope park on rte 89. Its a neato lil' place. The first time I went I saw a deer and a lady's slipper. This time I saw a heron, and one other suprise animal. I was walking along a ridge bordering the pond, and heard some motion in the leaves nearby. It sounded a little bit louder than a squirrel. It was being too noisy for a squirrel though, so I took a few steps forward and watched in the general direction of the noise. I was suprised to see a turtle, heading down the ridge for the water. I think the main suprise was not to see a turtle in the woods near a pond but rather to see a turtle several feet up a steep hill to begin with. Maybe I don't give turtles enough athletic credit. Anyhoo, I caught up to the turtle and picked it up carefully. It peed, but I held it head-up so the pee-tactic was ineffective. I probably should have looked at the shell and markings more to appreciate them, but I put the turtle back down and then thought again and put it right next to the water.
I sat for a while on one of the reclining benches and just looked at the sky and trees, then closed my eyes and listened to see what I could hear. A few times I thought I heard music coming on the breeze from very far away and tried to figure out what tune it was. Then I got a James Carter version of a Django song in my head and tried whistling it and imagining the opening guitar line which seems to me harmonically complex.
I, for some time, have had a thesis that there are two things about mosquitos in connecticut. For one, there arent very many of them. For two, the ones there are seem quite unenthusiastic about biting you. The only bugs bugging me in the park were one mosquito who sat on my leg for a good two minutes before getting around to being swatted and some bigger insect like a horsefly that circled my head except when I was sitting in the sunshine being still.
I met three people and two dogs (and a turtle). Two of the dog people had interesting hairstyles and massive piercings.
I happened upon a narrow sandy track that ran along the riverside, apparently used for fishing. I quite like narrow sandy tracks by riversides. I suppose the thing that compensates for the lack of annoying mosquitos is the ticks carrying lyme disease. I can't go romping in the tall grass, of which there is plenty, unless I wear pants. I'd still be creeped out.

Meany Tahini

Albox makes mean one. I can't stop eating it. With everything. Summer squash, wheatas (wheat pitas), mushrooms, fake chicken nuggs, spinach...I think I might turn into a mean grean tahini machine.

8 days a week

I learned something handy last week. The DMV is a great place to study, as long as you're hopelessly waiting. The material seemed to be soo much more interesting when its only competition was the scrolling repetitive newsbar. My neighbor didn't even want to play "dots." Aside from being undercharged (which will not be overlooked), it went quite smoothly.
Iron & Wine was an interesting concert. It seemed much like a jekyll/hyde thing between wanting to rock out and wanting to be the most mellow beautiful thing ever. I had deja vu several times at the ends of songs.
I helped some friends paint their new house on friday. The house is nice but the backyard is fantastic! It's large, neat, and has some gigantic oak trees so tall that I'm not sure that I managed to look all the way up to the top. Also, there's a bottle opener mounted on the exterior wall. Apparently a locally-known weatherman with an aquatic nickname used to live there.
Today I have a music date, which should be lots of fun. I had oddly obsessive dreams this morning, like the ones I have when I take nyquil. But this was somehow about parking and shopping and a hand-grip. I think the seinfeld characters were also in it.
I have been thinking about jobs lately, because I think I would enjoy having something concrete to do that earned money, and there are some things I want like a bicycle (though I've managed to stifle my musical instrument acquisition syndrome this summer). I feel though, that I'd surely end up giving up on math this summer and using the job as an excuse.

Bycicle

I just borrowed Rob's bike, and rode it back from the frame shop. Whee! It's hot out but its so much more fun than most other forms of excercise. I think i want taller handlebars and a taller seat too, lets see what we can do.

An Emission of Guilt

So, on a lark, I got the camry tested for CT emissions, and it totally passed -- like WAY below the tolerances passed. This could mean an interesting car shuffle in the near future. Went to the beach last night and let iggy run around and become a true salty dog. It was humid and misty, but much cooler than indoors at least. I started reading the book on lattice-ordered groups and my eyelids got heavy FAST. I might hustle downtown and ingest some coffee and just WRITE down the stuff. It's odd, but for what I'm doing, I really have to just see HOW things are proved and not so much get the meaning of it until later. Basically, I am hoping that I can basically do the same thing my advisor did for his doctorate except in a slightly different context. A lot of the beginning stuff hopefully will be routine verification of something which i still get to write down :-)
dindin with 2 sets of parpars this sunsun. I think it'll be funfun.
I tot fixed trix's fan. There was a plastic bag stuck in the blower. Even though I am a one-trick pony so far when it comes to car repair, I am happy with my trick.

Totally Jellin'

You're in the swimming hole right now...I just KNOW it.

That Crawdad Hole

I've had an appropriately summery weekend. Stopped into NoHo on the way back home and snuck in a little hike that made me feel disgustingly hot and sweaty. I thought "maybe I should check out that swimming hole down the road" but I took a shower and backed up my computer instead. Then, on sunday, I actually went to the swimming hole with Trixie. I saw a crawdad about 3 inches long scuttling around. The swimmin' was fantastic. Its a small hole, like the one near the bridge in Alstead, but i'm sure there is room for more exploration upstream. I haven't swum in SOOOOO LONG. And to think that I've been living so close to it all this time... well i'll just gloss over that regret, since I will be living close to it still.
Then, off to the park for a picnic replete with great guac, local sodal, mushcaps, and rubber-band powered balsa planes. Tossed the frisbee around. Am I the only one who can't seem to find frisbees for sale?
Airk is on to something with his comments about frisbees and running. I am totally willing to run after a frisbee at full speed.

Han-D

So I managed to find and clean out the blower fan in the truck. It was pretty easy to do actually, and as soon as I saw it, I knew it was the problem. There was a big lump of insulation and some pine needles sitting in there, and once it was gone: presto! a quieter and more blowy blower!
I think I can fix trixie's in the same way, too!

Ooops

I didnt read before posting. Double Horseshoe Crab Action! Tsching! Tsching!
When I got in last night, my mom showed me a spot in the side lawn where a lady's slipper was growing! I just looked again, and there are two of them! I dont know if she even saw the other one or not. To see 3 in such a short while seems very lucky!

Recent D-velopments

So, I like the truck. It was weird driving stick again. The blower fan sounds, just like in Trixie's car, like a garbage disposal when its on a speed other than 2. Apparently this is because the fan is unbalanced or deformed or full of acorns or what-not. I hope its accessible from under the glovebox. The whereabouts of the title is also a big question mark. Hopefully its sitting in a bag of related paperwork so that I dont have to wait an extra MONTH for the replacement to arrive.
My uncle, a vietnam vet, apparently recently changed from an unknown medication to paxil and seems remarkably more social and talkative. It'll be interesting to talk to him, because I remember him as quiet, but willing to talk. He has a banjo and used to play it, but I got the impression that he was too shy to play it anymore or just didnt want to. maybe he does now? haha!
I almost forgot to tell you about the crab rescue mission on thursday. Trixie and I were at the beach and noticed a horseshoe crab upside down in the sand. We poked it with our shoes and it was alive so we carried it by its tail over to the water and dropped him in, where he revived instantly and set to using the current to clean the seaweed out of his bidness. Then we noticed about 7 more crabs that needed rescuing. Some were dead. As we looked further along the shore we could see many many more upsidedown horseshoe crabs on the sand, and I said "let's never come back to the beach at low tide again."

To Do To Do To Doot Doot Doot

Hi!

Didja miss me?

A lilbit'?

I have been crazy. Ask A. He knows.

But we have done a lot! We sent out invites. Met with the caterer. Got a band to at least SAY they are playing the wedding.

And then, we saved no less than 10-15 Horseshoe crabs from becoming Seagull Delight yesterday at the beach!!

Alex was a real trooper. Carrying those guys (sometimes three at a time) to the water's edge and placing them in so they could swim away from imminent 1st course mealdom. They are so incredible. Prehistoric and creepy. And intelligent and funny. They are like tanks. And it was not unlike a miniature (and clearly MUCH LESS GRUESOME AND TERRIBLE) beach at Normandy. I believe Alex even referred to them as soldiers. And they DO look like helmets...once righted anyway. We thought they were all dead already, but I guess, they were just resigned to their fates. As soon as you toed them a little there pincers started GOING CRAZY!!!!!! Many of those guys still had alot of vim and vigor left in them and I couldn't imagine letting them cook out in the noonday sun. What an awful way to die...or to be eaten alive!

I don't know how they could see...but one guy, who's belly was FULL of seaweed and debris (I saw a lollypop stick and a cigarette butt wrapped up in there...so SAD!). Anyway, he was too heavy to pick up and I was worried I would break his tail so I just flipped him over and away he went, towards the water. I asked Alex "How does he see where he's going?" And Alex said "I think he just knows he is going downhill." Which makes sense I suppose. A lot of those lil creatures work in very different ways...by instinct and other senses. But still...such TRUST in uphill downhill-ness!

And I gotta tell you...there was some SNAIL action going on as well. A lot of snails that seemed to be um...doing snail things like gyrating around on top of each other. And if you looked low to the ground and across an expense of the sandbar you could see little geyers everywhere from the clams spitting out from under the sand.

The beach. It's a veritable classroom.

Well, duh.

Hamp Du Nord

So, I'm on a brief sabbatical in N.H. As I drove north I could smell pines and earth more and more. I somehow managed to get about 15 mosquito bites in the time it took to get indoors, which is pretty amazing since I hadn't seen any mosquitos in CT yet. I suppose the outdoors seems more outdoorsy the longer you've been away. I wonder why it doesn't smell like that even in rural CT? Maybe it does?
There were great views of the hills around sunset in the Pioneer Valley.
I was reflecting the other day on how thankful I am for the collaborative efforts between Wes Anderson and Bill Murray. A lot.

Drivin with Stripes

I'm about to hit the road to check out "the truck." I think i'll have to make another trip to deal with "the truck"'s registration and transportation if I buy it.
Just about done wrangling with tiger on the cube. I'm impressed. Makes me want it!