Thursday, March 31, 2005
Death and not-death
I see that Terry Schiavo has finally died. And that the Pope has a high temperature as the result of a urinary tract infection.
While both of these are sad events for the people involved and their friends, relatives, millions of people across the globe etc., they have lead me to wondering: What happens if the Pope slips into a coma or a vegetative state?
I'm sure the church would insist that he be kept alive by all possible means, which could, in theory, have him lingering for a number of years. But if he's effectively brain dead, is he still God's representative on Earth? And never mind the theological questions, what happens to the day-to-day running of the Vatican in the meantime? It must be their worst nightmare - a pontiff who physically and intellectually cannot take part in any decision process whatsoever.
Actually, just writing that made me think of another scenario - suppose a pontiff comes down with Alzheimers or another of the senile dementias? Would that be even worse, a Pope who's still alive and, presumably, still God's personal representative but doesn't have the foggiest idea what he is doing? Could we see another horse appointed to the position of cardinal?
It's quite worrying to think what someone with that much power could do. Consider Dubya. He's 59, so could be expected to have a few years left yet before symptoms became a problem - although they can strike early. Would the American system allow a president to step down on medical grounds? Or would they try to hide it and keep him going to the end of his term, unable to admit that the world's remaining superpower was led by someone who was, through no fault of his own, losing his marbles?
Of course, this is conspiracy theorist heaven. Neither power can be seen to weaken, so it would be perfectly justifiable to arrange for the afflicted individual to be helped along a bit. Hmm... if you're a cardinal who has collaborated in enabling the Pope to meet his maker a little earlier than planned but you confess it afterwards, are you in the clear?
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While both of these are sad events for the people involved and their friends, relatives, millions of people across the globe etc., they have lead me to wondering: What happens if the Pope slips into a coma or a vegetative state?
I'm sure the church would insist that he be kept alive by all possible means, which could, in theory, have him lingering for a number of years. But if he's effectively brain dead, is he still God's representative on Earth? And never mind the theological questions, what happens to the day-to-day running of the Vatican in the meantime? It must be their worst nightmare - a pontiff who physically and intellectually cannot take part in any decision process whatsoever.
Actually, just writing that made me think of another scenario - suppose a pontiff comes down with Alzheimers or another of the senile dementias? Would that be even worse, a Pope who's still alive and, presumably, still God's personal representative but doesn't have the foggiest idea what he is doing? Could we see another horse appointed to the position of cardinal?
It's quite worrying to think what someone with that much power could do. Consider Dubya. He's 59, so could be expected to have a few years left yet before symptoms became a problem - although they can strike early. Would the American system allow a president to step down on medical grounds? Or would they try to hide it and keep him going to the end of his term, unable to admit that the world's remaining superpower was led by someone who was, through no fault of his own, losing his marbles?
Of course, this is conspiracy theorist heaven. Neither power can be seen to weaken, so it would be perfectly justifiable to arrange for the afflicted individual to be helped along a bit. Hmm... if you're a cardinal who has collaborated in enabling the Pope to meet his maker a little earlier than planned but you confess it afterwards, are you in the clear?
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Wednesday, March 30, 2005
Sad news
Just after I wrote yesterday's entry I downloaded my email. My bright and bouncy mood evaporated immediately as I read that the mother of a very good friend has died.
Grandma Di (as everyone knew her) had lead an active and inspirational life until the middle of last year when she was diagnosed with a brain tumour. She had surgery and chemotherapy in the US and, at the time, was expected to make a good recovery. She did for a while, but then began to get confused and have trouble moving. She moved over to Scotland to live with her family there but was admitted to the Cottage Hospital just before Christmas, where she died on Sunday night.
What was probably the most difficult thing for her was that she knew exactly what was going on, having been a nurse in the Phillipines during WWII and then an ER nurse for many years in the US.
I saw her when I was up in Scotland over the new year, and although it was great to see her she definitely wasn't her normal lively self. Before that, when we met we would gross out the rest of the family talking about things like the latest outbreak of Ebola, or (a favourite of both of us) the shortcomings of the fantasy TV show The Burning Zone. Prior to that she'd regularly give us a heads-up on the best SF series coming out of the US. At new year I could tell that she was getting very frustrated and angry at not being able to concentrate sufficiently to hold anything longer than a short conversation on any topic.
The news of Grandma Di's death sparked off memories of my own grandparents, and how much I miss them still. My Nana died just over ten years ago and it still hurts to think about it. It was a major turning point in my life, as suddenly the person I told my troubles to was no longer there.
Unfortunately I can't get over to the funeral, which disappoints me. I'd have liked to have gone back to say goodbye for the last time. I think that there's going to be a cancer charity receiving a donation in her memory instead.
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Grandma Di (as everyone knew her) had lead an active and inspirational life until the middle of last year when she was diagnosed with a brain tumour. She had surgery and chemotherapy in the US and, at the time, was expected to make a good recovery. She did for a while, but then began to get confused and have trouble moving. She moved over to Scotland to live with her family there but was admitted to the Cottage Hospital just before Christmas, where she died on Sunday night.
What was probably the most difficult thing for her was that she knew exactly what was going on, having been a nurse in the Phillipines during WWII and then an ER nurse for many years in the US.
I saw her when I was up in Scotland over the new year, and although it was great to see her she definitely wasn't her normal lively self. Before that, when we met we would gross out the rest of the family talking about things like the latest outbreak of Ebola, or (a favourite of both of us) the shortcomings of the fantasy TV show The Burning Zone. Prior to that she'd regularly give us a heads-up on the best SF series coming out of the US. At new year I could tell that she was getting very frustrated and angry at not being able to concentrate sufficiently to hold anything longer than a short conversation on any topic.
The news of Grandma Di's death sparked off memories of my own grandparents, and how much I miss them still. My Nana died just over ten years ago and it still hurts to think about it. It was a major turning point in my life, as suddenly the person I told my troubles to was no longer there.
Unfortunately I can't get over to the funeral, which disappoints me. I'd have liked to have gone back to say goodbye for the last time. I think that there's going to be a cancer charity receiving a donation in her memory instead.
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Tuesday, March 29, 2005
A happy prune
Yes, I am a happy prune.
I've just driven the 70 miles back from Mývatn Nature Baths, the north of Iceland's equivalent of the Blue Lagoon, where I spent a marvellous hour relaxing in geothermally-heated mineral-rich waters. It is definitely the best way to sunbathe - sitting on a rock with your body immersed in wonderful warm water, while a cool breeze fans your face and the sun beats down from a cloudless sky.
Best of all, there was only me and one other chap there because they weren't open yet so I had the pool practically to myself. Syed, Asra and I did the Blue Mud expedition today - Goðafoss, the underground grottos, the blue mud and whistling fumaroles of Hverir, and finally the Green Lagoon (as the Mývatn pool is known). Syed and Asra went for a walk while I had a soak, and although the pool wasn't officially open until 16:00 I was allowed in as there were folks working there anyway.
It was a lot hotter than last time. Previously I kept to one area of the pool where it was warmest; this time I couldn't get anywhere near that area because it was too hot. I've come out looking like a prune, but at least I'm a happy and relaxed prune.
Am I making you jealous? If so, why not come along to the Klakavirki Rapier Practice in (probably) September? Lots of fencing plus a trip to the Blue Lagoon, the larger geothermal spa down near Keflavik. :)
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I've just driven the 70 miles back from Mývatn Nature Baths, the north of Iceland's equivalent of the Blue Lagoon, where I spent a marvellous hour relaxing in geothermally-heated mineral-rich waters. It is definitely the best way to sunbathe - sitting on a rock with your body immersed in wonderful warm water, while a cool breeze fans your face and the sun beats down from a cloudless sky.
Best of all, there was only me and one other chap there because they weren't open yet so I had the pool practically to myself. Syed, Asra and I did the Blue Mud expedition today - Goðafoss, the underground grottos, the blue mud and whistling fumaroles of Hverir, and finally the Green Lagoon (as the Mývatn pool is known). Syed and Asra went for a walk while I had a soak, and although the pool wasn't officially open until 16:00 I was allowed in as there were folks working there anyway.
It was a lot hotter than last time. Previously I kept to one area of the pool where it was warmest; this time I couldn't get anywhere near that area because it was too hot. I've come out looking like a prune, but at least I'm a happy and relaxed prune.
Am I making you jealous? If so, why not come along to the Klakavirki Rapier Practice in (probably) September? Lots of fencing plus a trip to the Blue Lagoon, the larger geothermal spa down near Keflavik. :)
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Monday, March 28, 2005
Needlelace continued
I considered doing a number of things today, including going swimming at the local pool, going swimming at a pool just up the coast in Dalvik, and going swimming at a pool rather further away north of Mývatn. In the end I have stayed at home and completed the the centre section of another badge, this time in needlelace.
It took about 8 hours - The Day of the Jackal on Saturday night and then eleven episodes of The Goodies today. I do like having stuff I can listen to with half a mind while doing complicated emroidery stuff. :)
Needlelace 1a
Needlelace section of badge number eleven.
I'm going to appliqué this onto red fabric to mount as a badge in the same way that I did for the cutwork ones. It's quite surprising how solid the piece is; it's made up in medium crochet thread, rather than cotton as it may need to be quite hardwearing. I'm planning to do some handkerchief inserts as well, but I think I'll do those with a slightly finer thread. The instructions I followed suggested using a heavy thread to start with, and I can see why - it builds up fairly rapidly and is quite easy to work with. I suspect that the finer threads will be more prone to knotting.
I didn't get anything done yesterday as the four of us spent the afternoon and evening over at Jim & Wendy's apartment. Jim joined the department at the same time as me and has brought his family over from the US with him. They invited us for a truly delicious Easter meal and we then sat around and nattered until well past nine in the evening. A good time was, I believe, had by all. I certainly enjoyed myself.
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It took about 8 hours - The Day of the Jackal on Saturday night and then eleven episodes of The Goodies today. I do like having stuff I can listen to with half a mind while doing complicated emroidery stuff. :)
Needlelace 1a
Needlelace section of badge number eleven.
I'm going to appliqué this onto red fabric to mount as a badge in the same way that I did for the cutwork ones. It's quite surprising how solid the piece is; it's made up in medium crochet thread, rather than cotton as it may need to be quite hardwearing. I'm planning to do some handkerchief inserts as well, but I think I'll do those with a slightly finer thread. The instructions I followed suggested using a heavy thread to start with, and I can see why - it builds up fairly rapidly and is quite easy to work with. I suspect that the finer threads will be more prone to knotting.
I didn't get anything done yesterday as the four of us spent the afternoon and evening over at Jim & Wendy's apartment. Jim joined the department at the same time as me and has brought his family over from the US with him. They invited us for a truly delicious Easter meal and we then sat around and nattered until well past nine in the evening. A good time was, I believe, had by all. I certainly enjoyed myself.
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Sunday, March 27, 2005
Paskardagur
On friday the flags were all at half mast. Today, Páskardagur, they're all back to full mast again. Also today I was woken by church bells at 07:45. And again at 08:45. It must be Easter or something.
Most things seem to have shut down, although it looks like that's only for Good Friday and Easter Sunday rather than the whole weekend, which is good. Well, I think it's good - I'm sufficiently consumer-oriented that I like to think I can get milk and bread at any time. Fortunately I discovered that the garage down the road is quite well stocked just in case of emergencies when I went down to wash the car.
It's definitely an eastre sort of day - the sun is shining, the snow has receeded, there are the occasional hints of green in the brown grass. Around lunchtime two starlings decided to have a song-battle in the budding tree outside my window. I'd forgotten that songbirds could be quite so loud.
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Most things seem to have shut down, although it looks like that's only for Good Friday and Easter Sunday rather than the whole weekend, which is good. Well, I think it's good - I'm sufficiently consumer-oriented that I like to think I can get milk and bread at any time. Fortunately I discovered that the garage down the road is quite well stocked just in case of emergencies when I went down to wash the car.
It's definitely an eastre sort of day - the sun is shining, the snow has receeded, there are the occasional hints of green in the brown grass. Around lunchtime two starlings decided to have a song-battle in the budding tree outside my window. I'd forgotten that songbirds could be quite so loud.
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Saturday, March 26, 2005
Confusing holidays
Damn! One SF show per week and I miss it. It's this holiday thing, I'm sure. It's confused me having real days off work. :)
This afternoon Syed, Asra and I went skating. We'd normally go on Friday evening but as it's Easter weekend a lot of opening hours have changed. Asra hadn't really skated before, and it took a bit of persuading her to get onto the ice, but once she did she got the hang of the whole balance thing quite quickly.
For me, it was a chance to try out my new girlie white ice skates. I take a slightly embarrassed pleasure in having girlie white ice skates, as I'm not normally a very girlie person. But they're white and a bit more stylish than the normal big clumpy mens blue boots that I've ended up with when I've hired boots.
They're also sharp - much sharper than any of the hire skates I've had in the past. I hadn't realised just how much of a difference very sharp skates make. I know how awkward very blunt skates can be, and the bluntness of the last pair I hired were one of the things that prompted me to finally go out and buy my own skates. That and the fact I've wanted my own pair for about twenty years but have never had the money and the justification at the same time. :)
On the way back we did the quick tour of Akureyri. It doesn't take long - after all, we only have two parallel shopping streets with fewer shops than the centre of St. Andrews. I expected the place to be deserted, but there was a surprising amount of activity with quite a few shops open.
After that though, we went up to Hlíðarfjall so that Asra could get close up and personal with snow. :) Unfortunately there's not a lot left right now - the temperature here today peaked at 16° Celcius - but they've been quite active keeping the pistes in a skiable shape (barely, by the looks of it) and there is a pisted run from the lodge down to the chair lift which counted for photographic purposes.
So we came back, I pootled around for a bit, did a bit of reading, had a snooze... and missed Enterprise. Ah well, it could have been worse. I could have missed the new Doctor Who.
Oh drat. I have. Something to do with living in Iceland, I think.
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This afternoon Syed, Asra and I went skating. We'd normally go on Friday evening but as it's Easter weekend a lot of opening hours have changed. Asra hadn't really skated before, and it took a bit of persuading her to get onto the ice, but once she did she got the hang of the whole balance thing quite quickly.
For me, it was a chance to try out my new girlie white ice skates. I take a slightly embarrassed pleasure in having girlie white ice skates, as I'm not normally a very girlie person. But they're white and a bit more stylish than the normal big clumpy mens blue boots that I've ended up with when I've hired boots.
They're also sharp - much sharper than any of the hire skates I've had in the past. I hadn't realised just how much of a difference very sharp skates make. I know how awkward very blunt skates can be, and the bluntness of the last pair I hired were one of the things that prompted me to finally go out and buy my own skates. That and the fact I've wanted my own pair for about twenty years but have never had the money and the justification at the same time. :)
On the way back we did the quick tour of Akureyri. It doesn't take long - after all, we only have two parallel shopping streets with fewer shops than the centre of St. Andrews. I expected the place to be deserted, but there was a surprising amount of activity with quite a few shops open.
After that though, we went up to Hlíðarfjall so that Asra could get close up and personal with snow. :) Unfortunately there's not a lot left right now - the temperature here today peaked at 16° Celcius - but they've been quite active keeping the pistes in a skiable shape (barely, by the looks of it) and there is a pisted run from the lodge down to the chair lift which counted for photographic purposes.
So we came back, I pootled around for a bit, did a bit of reading, had a snooze... and missed Enterprise. Ah well, it could have been worse. I could have missed the new Doctor Who.
Oh drat. I have. Something to do with living in Iceland, I think.
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Friday, March 25, 2005
A needlework challenge
I've discovered a form of embroidery that is providing me with quite a challenge - needlelace.
So far I have started a test piece twice, and both times I have had to cut it off the card and start again. It is getting a little easier, but it's certainly more difficult than any of the other new forms I've tried recently. It's quite impressive how something that has only two basic stitch forms can be so tricky.
Thanks to an early start in the office today I have now finished all the marking I needed to do and also released the final coursework for one of my courses. This means that I can relax for the rest of the long weekend without feeling too guilty.
This was good timing, as it also meant that I had everything finished before Syed and I went to the airport to collect his wife Asra who's come over for a couple of weeks. When we got back to the house I admit to a bit of slobbing watching Stargate SG1 and then the battle with the needlelace.
I do not intend to let this beat me. Apart from anything else, I intend to master every single style on the Drachenwald embroiderers guild's list, just to prove to myself that I can. Certainly, this one's the toughest so far, but I Will Beat It!
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So far I have started a test piece twice, and both times I have had to cut it off the card and start again. It is getting a little easier, but it's certainly more difficult than any of the other new forms I've tried recently. It's quite impressive how something that has only two basic stitch forms can be so tricky.
Thanks to an early start in the office today I have now finished all the marking I needed to do and also released the final coursework for one of my courses. This means that I can relax for the rest of the long weekend without feeling too guilty.
This was good timing, as it also meant that I had everything finished before Syed and I went to the airport to collect his wife Asra who's come over for a couple of weeks. When we got back to the house I admit to a bit of slobbing watching Stargate SG1 and then the battle with the needlelace.
I do not intend to let this beat me. Apart from anything else, I intend to master every single style on the Drachenwald embroiderers guild's list, just to prove to myself that I can. Certainly, this one's the toughest so far, but I Will Beat It!
0 comments
Thursday, March 24, 2005
Easter approaches
And Iceland is shutting down for the duration.
The university is at present closed for the week around Easter. It's a little strange, as this is the first time I've been in Iceland and officially on holiday. It's the flip side of being an academic in a country where you don't have to go into the office if you're not lecturing - when you really, really don't have to go into the office on a weekday it feels quite odd.
Iceland itself seems to be closing down for the feast, with shops closing for the full six days - Thursday to Tuesday - and the supermarkets opening for their Sunday hours. I'm told that things today are a lot busier than they were three or four years ago, when even the supermarkets closed and if you'd forgotten to buy milk then you lived without it for the duration.
The religious aspect of Easter is more important than it is in the UK. I'm told that over 2000 13-14 year olds will be confirmed at the two churches in Akureyri over the coming couple of days. This is deemed to be the most propitious time for such ceremonies, which are followed by large family parties. Which explains why everyone else in Bonus yesterday seemed to be shopping for a party while I just wanted cornflakes and milk.
As it turned out, I went into the office today anyway. There was this big pile of guilt sitting on my computer under the nom-de-guerre of coursework waiting to be marked. I wasn't the only one in, either, and I suspect that I'll find the same tomorrow. The second pile of guilt is calling itself exam papers to be written, and I really do need to make some more progress on those.
After that though, I hope to have a nice relaxed weekend, Monday and Tuesday. Possibly with a trip to a hot spring somewhere, possibly with a trip up to the slopes while there's still some snow left.
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The university is at present closed for the week around Easter. It's a little strange, as this is the first time I've been in Iceland and officially on holiday. It's the flip side of being an academic in a country where you don't have to go into the office if you're not lecturing - when you really, really don't have to go into the office on a weekday it feels quite odd.
Iceland itself seems to be closing down for the feast, with shops closing for the full six days - Thursday to Tuesday - and the supermarkets opening for their Sunday hours. I'm told that things today are a lot busier than they were three or four years ago, when even the supermarkets closed and if you'd forgotten to buy milk then you lived without it for the duration.
The religious aspect of Easter is more important than it is in the UK. I'm told that over 2000 13-14 year olds will be confirmed at the two churches in Akureyri over the coming couple of days. This is deemed to be the most propitious time for such ceremonies, which are followed by large family parties. Which explains why everyone else in Bonus yesterday seemed to be shopping for a party while I just wanted cornflakes and milk.
As it turned out, I went into the office today anyway. There was this big pile of guilt sitting on my computer under the nom-de-guerre of coursework waiting to be marked. I wasn't the only one in, either, and I suspect that I'll find the same tomorrow. The second pile of guilt is calling itself exam papers to be written, and I really do need to make some more progress on those.
After that though, I hope to have a nice relaxed weekend, Monday and Tuesday. Possibly with a trip to a hot spring somewhere, possibly with a trip up to the slopes while there's still some snow left.
0 comments
Wednesday, March 23, 2005
News from Iceland
Big news! Icelandic citizen numbers increase by one!
So what's the fuss? That one just happens to be chess grandmaster and generally all-round mister not-very-nice guy, Bobby Fischer. Yesterday the Alþingi voted to give him citizenship and today Japan has said that it will allow him to leave for Iceland rather than being extradited to the US for the heinous crime of playing chess in Yugoslavia.
This has been one of the biggest news stories in Iceland for a while, as the country took Fischer to heart after the 1972 chess world championships held in Reykjavik, where US challenger Fischer beat the reigning world champion, the Russian Boris Spassky. Iceland was so delighted that this battle (and subsequent defeat of the entire Soviet chess machine) happened on its soil that they issued stamps and all sorts of stuff to commemorate not only the championship but the individual matches.
Chess is big in Iceland. Something to do on the long winter nights. Even within the department there is a chess championship going on, and next year it may even be organised. I suspect that chess going to get bigger again for a while with all of this publicity.
That's fine by me - I just need some practice first.
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So what's the fuss? That one just happens to be chess grandmaster and generally all-round mister not-very-nice guy, Bobby Fischer. Yesterday the Alþingi voted to give him citizenship and today Japan has said that it will allow him to leave for Iceland rather than being extradited to the US for the heinous crime of playing chess in Yugoslavia.
This has been one of the biggest news stories in Iceland for a while, as the country took Fischer to heart after the 1972 chess world championships held in Reykjavik, where US challenger Fischer beat the reigning world champion, the Russian Boris Spassky. Iceland was so delighted that this battle (and subsequent defeat of the entire Soviet chess machine) happened on its soil that they issued stamps and all sorts of stuff to commemorate not only the championship but the individual matches.
Chess is big in Iceland. Something to do on the long winter nights. Even within the department there is a chess championship going on, and next year it may even be organised. I suspect that chess going to get bigger again for a while with all of this publicity.
That's fine by me - I just need some practice first.
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Tuesday, March 22, 2005
Happy, bouncy, sore
I haven't felt this sore since the day after playing my prize at Unicorn's Inspiration last year. In spite of that I have spent the day practically bouncing.
For the non-Drachenwalders out there, playing the prize is a test of fencing skill, style and stamina that involves facing several people with several weapon forms and then taking on all comers continuously for a period afterwards. And believe me, while you get through the rest of the day on adrenaline, it does hit you the next day.
That's what yesterday's lesson has done to me... except this time I have a bruised bum as well. But the other aftereffects, the feeling happy and bouncy and pleased with myself are there too. I practically floated through today's lectures and even the staff meeting that followed. The positive comments I got from folks who'd seen me yesterday only served to further brighten my day.
Unfortunately it is now getting quite warm and the snow has disappeared from the town and is disappearing fast from the slopes, otherwise I'd be very tempted to go back up tomorrow. Or at least Thursday. :)
Cancel summer! Bring back the snow!
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For the non-Drachenwalders out there, playing the prize is a test of fencing skill, style and stamina that involves facing several people with several weapon forms and then taking on all comers continuously for a period afterwards. And believe me, while you get through the rest of the day on adrenaline, it does hit you the next day.
That's what yesterday's lesson has done to me... except this time I have a bruised bum as well. But the other aftereffects, the feeling happy and bouncy and pleased with myself are there too. I practically floated through today's lectures and even the staff meeting that followed. The positive comments I got from folks who'd seen me yesterday only served to further brighten my day.
Unfortunately it is now getting quite warm and the snow has disappeared from the town and is disappearing fast from the slopes, otherwise I'd be very tempted to go back up tomorrow. Or at least Thursday. :)
Cancel summer! Bring back the snow!
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Monday, March 21, 2005
Return of the Tumbling Conker
I am still in one piece, having managed to break precisely zero bones on the slopes.
It was quite daunting going for this lesson, because I'm still having the 'what do I think I'm doing?' crises of confidence. My tutor, Krístjan (early twenties, blond and gorgeous, for those who Need To Know these things) was very patient and encouraged but didn't rush me into doing anything.
As the temperature has been quite high for the last couple of days the lower slopes were pretty grotty so we ended up going up on the big ski lift and coming down blue trail number 6 - suðurgil. Part of that was also that there was very little chance of me making it to the top of the button lift for the nursery slopes. :) I've never liked button lifts, even on skis, and it's worse on a board.
I've no idea what the distance was, but I made it about 80% of the way down before the piste became really wet and unpleasant and we walked the final bit. Nevertheless, 80% is 80%! Naturally I did quite a lot of falling over, especially to start with, but by the time I got about half way down I was getting the hang of it. Even better, I can actually get up on my own! That's something I was a bit worried about, as when I went skiing, if I fell over I had to take one ski off, get up, then put it back on again. That's a bit tricker with a board, so being able to get up with a board attached is a great help.
The only problem with this is that I can only get up facing uphill. I am far better at staying upright when I'm facing downhill. Unfortunately I'm currently incapable of turning from uphill to downhill without falling over. Clearly this needs some work on a not-very-steep slope. Looks like I'm going to have to get the hang of that button lift after all.
By the end of my hour and a half lesson I was definitely feeling tired. Tired, but happy, as I'd achieved more than I ever imagined I would. And sore, as my calf muscles were beginning to protest. I dread to think what they're going to be like tomorrow.
Maybe I can lecture sitting down...
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It was quite daunting going for this lesson, because I'm still having the 'what do I think I'm doing?' crises of confidence. My tutor, Krístjan (early twenties, blond and gorgeous, for those who Need To Know these things) was very patient and encouraged but didn't rush me into doing anything.
As the temperature has been quite high for the last couple of days the lower slopes were pretty grotty so we ended up going up on the big ski lift and coming down blue trail number 6 - suðurgil. Part of that was also that there was very little chance of me making it to the top of the button lift for the nursery slopes. :) I've never liked button lifts, even on skis, and it's worse on a board.
I've no idea what the distance was, but I made it about 80% of the way down before the piste became really wet and unpleasant and we walked the final bit. Nevertheless, 80% is 80%! Naturally I did quite a lot of falling over, especially to start with, but by the time I got about half way down I was getting the hang of it. Even better, I can actually get up on my own! That's something I was a bit worried about, as when I went skiing, if I fell over I had to take one ski off, get up, then put it back on again. That's a bit tricker with a board, so being able to get up with a board attached is a great help.
The only problem with this is that I can only get up facing uphill. I am far better at staying upright when I'm facing downhill. Unfortunately I'm currently incapable of turning from uphill to downhill without falling over. Clearly this needs some work on a not-very-steep slope. Looks like I'm going to have to get the hang of that button lift after all.
By the end of my hour and a half lesson I was definitely feeling tired. Tired, but happy, as I'd achieved more than I ever imagined I would. And sore, as my calf muscles were beginning to protest. I dread to think what they're going to be like tomorrow.
Maybe I can lecture sitting down...
0 comments
Sunday, March 20, 2005
Blogger problems
I just thought I'd say something about the recent problems with postings appearing multiple times. No, I haven't gone mad, but it appears that Blogger may have. First it hangs when I'm trying to post something and manages to post it four or five times, now it tells me that there's an error with my logon. Which there isn't, and it posts it anyway. Several times.
If it happens much more I may move from Blogger to another engine, but whatever happens, my assorted ramblings will still appear on this page.
0 comments
If it happens much more I may move from Blogger to another engine, but whatever happens, my assorted ramblings will still appear on this page.
0 comments
Too much reading
Can you do too much reading? I feel a bit guilty about having spent the day doing just that where there are other more constructive things I could be doing (like writing part of Tuesday's lecture, for instance).
As well as the Three Musketeers, I'm currently reading Manda Scott's Dreaming the Bull which, as I'm sure I've mentioned before, is the second part of her Boudicca trilogy. I know that historical accuracy is impossible with this particular subject, but she has created a world that I am enjoying and, like a film, enjoyment is all I ask of a book. Except for text books, which are a different matter entirely, of course.
Another bit of reading I did today was the latest issue of Time magazine, which has taken to appearing on the dinner table from time to time. The dinner table, I should perhaps add, is where most magazines end up so that the whole household can peruse them while preparing meals. My latest contribution is the Fortean Times, a little different to the normal fare. :)
The item of interest was about how the Protestant churches are rediscovering the Virgin Mary as an object of... er... veneration, I suppose. Until now she has been carefully airbrushed out of everything except Christmas (which even I have to admit would be difficult) because she was so popular with the Catholic church.
It turns out that on actually reading the New Testament, Mary turns up more often than any other character than Jesus himself. And while there's been all of the fuss about Mary Magdalene and whether some of the disciples were Jesus' biological brothers, Mary the mother has been quietly ignored.
This, seemingly, is all about to change. Mary is being welcomed back into the limelight as the First Apostle - after all, she questioned Gabriel at the Annunciation, considered the situation and then accepted it, thus being the first person to accept the divine mission of Christ.
Or something like that. I shall watch for further developments with interest. My money is on it causing yet another split in the Anglican church. After all, the acceptance of Mary suggests compassion and understanding, something that seems rather lacking in their current stance on gay priests.
0 comments
As well as the Three Musketeers, I'm currently reading Manda Scott's Dreaming the Bull which, as I'm sure I've mentioned before, is the second part of her Boudicca trilogy. I know that historical accuracy is impossible with this particular subject, but she has created a world that I am enjoying and, like a film, enjoyment is all I ask of a book. Except for text books, which are a different matter entirely, of course.
Another bit of reading I did today was the latest issue of Time magazine, which has taken to appearing on the dinner table from time to time. The dinner table, I should perhaps add, is where most magazines end up so that the whole household can peruse them while preparing meals. My latest contribution is the Fortean Times, a little different to the normal fare. :)
The item of interest was about how the Protestant churches are rediscovering the Virgin Mary as an object of... er... veneration, I suppose. Until now she has been carefully airbrushed out of everything except Christmas (which even I have to admit would be difficult) because she was so popular with the Catholic church.
It turns out that on actually reading the New Testament, Mary turns up more often than any other character than Jesus himself. And while there's been all of the fuss about Mary Magdalene and whether some of the disciples were Jesus' biological brothers, Mary the mother has been quietly ignored.
This, seemingly, is all about to change. Mary is being welcomed back into the limelight as the First Apostle - after all, she questioned Gabriel at the Annunciation, considered the situation and then accepted it, thus being the first person to accept the divine mission of Christ.
Or something like that. I shall watch for further developments with interest. My money is on it causing yet another split in the Anglican church. After all, the acceptance of Mary suggests compassion and understanding, something that seems rather lacking in their current stance on gay priests.
0 comments
Saturday, March 19, 2005
A terrible thing it is...
... To be a designated driver at a St. Patrick's Day party. Particularly when your host has a selection of eleven Irish whiskeys, seven of which you're never tried before. But that's OK - after Easter I'm going back for a quieter whiskey tasting session instead. :)
Mark, the Dean of IT (and therefore my boss) is an exiled scouser of Irish descent and every year he holds a St. Patrick's Day party to celebrate. So last night I packed the car with myself and Syed, then picked up another colleague and his wife and drove up the fjord to the farm on the edges of nowhere where Mark and his family live. It was quite an active party, as the students were invited as well, and even I ended up dancing a reel with Viggi, one of my project students.
My main contribution though, was about three tonnes of freshly made potato cakes. Well... maybe three kilos rather than three tonnes, but it was quite a few cakes and they went went down passably well.
In the car on the way there Syed and I decided to go up to the slopes this morning. Syed skis, and I took the board up. I didn't actually do very much, to be honest, because I had several major crises of confidence - what was a blob like me doing there in the first place, that sort of thing - but I did do some of the sliding about on the flat and on the near-flat with one foot in the bindings and the other free for propulsion and emergency stabilisation.
Oh yes, and I love my kneepads! When I fell over and had to get myself onto my knees to get back up I wasn't in agony the way I was at Rent-A-Don. I think that kneepads are likely to become part of my standard fencing gear as well as my 'boarding gear. And the nice thing is that you won't be able to see them beneath my ropa. Hurrah!
While I was up at the slopes I decided that if I'm ever going to do anything with this board then I really ought to take a lesson or two. Or three or... so I booked one for Monday. Yes, I know Monday is a work day, but in the season here if you haven't got lectures then it's perfectly normal to be on the ski slopes during the day instead. it does, though, mean that I have a lecture to write tomorrow. On the plus side, they're only about £30 for an hour and a half one-to-one tuition and I've got a week off at Easter when I can maybe take a couple of them.
So I pootled about a bit on the flat then went up to the cafe, where I met the rest of the department, who agreed that taking a lesson or two was a good idea. They're mostly skiiers apart from the Moose and Liz, who are just plain mad. :) I mean, they do mountaineering and long distance running and cycling and other scary sporty stuff...
Needless to say, I got back and my body complained. I dread to think what I'm going to be like on Monday evening.
0 comments
Mark, the Dean of IT (and therefore my boss) is an exiled scouser of Irish descent and every year he holds a St. Patrick's Day party to celebrate. So last night I packed the car with myself and Syed, then picked up another colleague and his wife and drove up the fjord to the farm on the edges of nowhere where Mark and his family live. It was quite an active party, as the students were invited as well, and even I ended up dancing a reel with Viggi, one of my project students.
My main contribution though, was about three tonnes of freshly made potato cakes. Well... maybe three kilos rather than three tonnes, but it was quite a few cakes and they went went down passably well.
In the car on the way there Syed and I decided to go up to the slopes this morning. Syed skis, and I took the board up. I didn't actually do very much, to be honest, because I had several major crises of confidence - what was a blob like me doing there in the first place, that sort of thing - but I did do some of the sliding about on the flat and on the near-flat with one foot in the bindings and the other free for propulsion and emergency stabilisation.
Oh yes, and I love my kneepads! When I fell over and had to get myself onto my knees to get back up I wasn't in agony the way I was at Rent-A-Don. I think that kneepads are likely to become part of my standard fencing gear as well as my 'boarding gear. And the nice thing is that you won't be able to see them beneath my ropa. Hurrah!
While I was up at the slopes I decided that if I'm ever going to do anything with this board then I really ought to take a lesson or two. Or three or... so I booked one for Monday. Yes, I know Monday is a work day, but in the season here if you haven't got lectures then it's perfectly normal to be on the ski slopes during the day instead. it does, though, mean that I have a lecture to write tomorrow. On the plus side, they're only about £30 for an hour and a half one-to-one tuition and I've got a week off at Easter when I can maybe take a couple of them.
So I pootled about a bit on the flat then went up to the cafe, where I met the rest of the department, who agreed that taking a lesson or two was a good idea. They're mostly skiiers apart from the Moose and Liz, who are just plain mad. :) I mean, they do mountaineering and long distance running and cycling and other scary sporty stuff...
Needless to say, I got back and my body complained. I dread to think what I'm going to be like on Monday evening.
0 comments
Friday, March 18, 2005
A couple of triumphs
Today (so far) has been a day of minor and not so minor triumphs.
To start with, I had a meeting with my slightly surprised second year project group. And why were they surprised, you may ask? Because they had just coded quite a complex programming project in two days. This may sound like a minor thing, but the other groups have been coding since before Christmas and still have problems.
I like to think of this as striking a blow for good software engineering practices. My group were forced to do design. And more design. And more design, until they had worked out all of their problems through use case modelling and just had to write a number of relatively simple classes which took just two days. There are now four more people in this world who really understand the importance of design.
My second triumph is that I have filed my tax return. This involved going into town and finding the office (which was a floor below the one I'd been directed to) then interacting with various receptionists in Icelandic to find the appropriate chap to sort things out for me. Admittedly, the sorting out was done in English, but I've never had to do a tax return before in English, let alone Icelandic.
Tax return complete I popped into Subway for a sandwich. I seem to have taken to doing that if I'm up that end of town nowadays. I can now order a meatball sub on parmesan oregano bread without salad or sauce quite successfully. My accent even seems to be improving, as one of the assistants assumed I was actually Icelandic on the strength of my order.
The only minor disappointment was that I couldn't find any Asterix books in Icelandic. Tin-Tin books, yes, but I've always preferred Asterix myself. Never mind though - compared to the rest of the morning I can live without Icelandic Asterix books.
0 comments
To start with, I had a meeting with my slightly surprised second year project group. And why were they surprised, you may ask? Because they had just coded quite a complex programming project in two days. This may sound like a minor thing, but the other groups have been coding since before Christmas and still have problems.
I like to think of this as striking a blow for good software engineering practices. My group were forced to do design. And more design. And more design, until they had worked out all of their problems through use case modelling and just had to write a number of relatively simple classes which took just two days. There are now four more people in this world who really understand the importance of design.
My second triumph is that I have filed my tax return. This involved going into town and finding the office (which was a floor below the one I'd been directed to) then interacting with various receptionists in Icelandic to find the appropriate chap to sort things out for me. Admittedly, the sorting out was done in English, but I've never had to do a tax return before in English, let alone Icelandic.
Tax return complete I popped into Subway for a sandwich. I seem to have taken to doing that if I'm up that end of town nowadays. I can now order a meatball sub on parmesan oregano bread without salad or sauce quite successfully. My accent even seems to be improving, as one of the assistants assumed I was actually Icelandic on the strength of my order.
The only minor disappointment was that I couldn't find any Asterix books in Icelandic. Tin-Tin books, yes, but I've always preferred Asterix myself. Never mind though - compared to the rest of the morning I can live without Icelandic Asterix books.
0 comments
Thursday, March 17, 2005
Getting a bit blase
It had never really occurred to me that I could become blasé about snow.
My colleagues warned me about it, but I've always loved the stuff. I have been a 'snow optimist', as the Moose describes it. But when I looked out of my office window this afternoon I thought 'Oh. It's snowing again' and turned back to writing an exam paper.
This is not how it's supposed to be! It's snowing, dammit! Snow is fun! Actually, I've come to the conclusion that there is an ideal amount of snow. It's about two or three inches on the ground but not on the roads. That way driving is unaffected but everywhere looks pretty and bright white.
Something I'm not at all blasé about is the really interesting bit of particle physics news today. A research group at the RHIC at Brookhaven, New York, have created something that looks astonishingly like a small black hole. Quite sensibly, they're not claiming that it is a man-made black hole, just that it acts a manner consistent with current theories of black holes.
I think that's pretty damned impressive. If we can create and harness black holes then we can do all sorts of fun stuff. FTL travel becomes an engineering problem (see Bob Forward's book Indistinguishable From Magic for further details). I did try reading the original paper at arxiv.org, but it's a bit heavy going. Even the abstract sent my mind spinning - I think it was the mention of colour glass condensates that did it; I know roughly what it means but I wouldn't like to have to explain it.
If you're feeling particularly brave you can find the abstract here.
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My colleagues warned me about it, but I've always loved the stuff. I have been a 'snow optimist', as the Moose describes it. But when I looked out of my office window this afternoon I thought 'Oh. It's snowing again' and turned back to writing an exam paper.
This is not how it's supposed to be! It's snowing, dammit! Snow is fun! Actually, I've come to the conclusion that there is an ideal amount of snow. It's about two or three inches on the ground but not on the roads. That way driving is unaffected but everywhere looks pretty and bright white.
Something I'm not at all blasé about is the really interesting bit of particle physics news today. A research group at the RHIC at Brookhaven, New York, have created something that looks astonishingly like a small black hole. Quite sensibly, they're not claiming that it is a man-made black hole, just that it acts a manner consistent with current theories of black holes.
I think that's pretty damned impressive. If we can create and harness black holes then we can do all sorts of fun stuff. FTL travel becomes an engineering problem (see Bob Forward's book Indistinguishable From Magic for further details). I did try reading the original paper at arxiv.org, but it's a bit heavy going. Even the abstract sent my mind spinning - I think it was the mention of colour glass condensates that did it; I know roughly what it means but I wouldn't like to have to explain it.
If you're feeling particularly brave you can find the abstract here.
0 comments
A new embroidery style
I hadn't done cutwork before, so Gonz's badges were a good opportunity to give it a try (I've been meaning to try it for a while).
The idea with cutwork is to work a blanket stitch line around an area that is then removed from the main body of the fabric. I've extended the idea to make the teardrop section of the chirurgeon badge as a single piece that can be appliquéd onto a second piece of fabric to form the badge proper. I'll upload the images of the final badges once they're complete. In the meantime, the other eight badges are available here.
Cutwork1a (Left)
Badge nine of eight. I really don't like the beadwork so I'm doing another two to replace them. This is the central cutwork section of the badge.
Cutwork 2a (Right)
Badge ten of eight. The cutwork section of the second cutwork badge.
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The idea with cutwork is to work a blanket stitch line around an area that is then removed from the main body of the fabric. I've extended the idea to make the teardrop section of the chirurgeon badge as a single piece that can be appliquéd onto a second piece of fabric to form the badge proper. I'll upload the images of the final badges once they're complete. In the meantime, the other eight badges are available here.
Cutwork1a (Left)
Badge nine of eight. I really don't like the beadwork so I'm doing another two to replace them. This is the central cutwork section of the badge.
Cutwork 2a (Right)
Badge ten of eight. The cutwork section of the second cutwork badge.
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Wednesday, March 16, 2005
Write something, dammit!
There are days when I no more want to sit at the computer and write a blog entry than I want to take part in Big Brother. Today is one of those days.
So why am I still doing it? I think it's got something to do with self-discipline. If I can force myself to write something every day for at least a year (although I may well try to hold out for three) I can prove to myself that I do have some self-discipline after all. It might help persuade me that I can exercise three times a week or do some rapier practise more outside SCA events - it's less than once a day so it must be easier, right?
After the first six months here life has settled down to a mundane routine. Get up, go into work, do work, come home, look at the TV listings to see if there's anything watchable on TV, then delve into the DVD collection while I do some embroidery or listen to music while I read. Weekends are a little different - they don't require that I go into work so I get through more DVDs and books.
So what have my latest entertainment experiences been, then? M*A*S*H and Stargate SG1, plus I've also got the first season of 24 on the go as well. I've recently watched Conan the Destroyer and Windtalkers. Bookwise I'm on The Three Musketeers series (as e-books), Dreaming the Bull (book two in the Boudicca series by Manda Scott) and my electronically-delivered New Scientist (which I must finish tonight as the next one will download itself tomorrow).
I've finally finished and made up Gonz's chirurgeon badges but I didn's like the beadwork ones so I'm in the middle of another two using cutwork, another embroidery first for me. One thing about these badges, they have given me an excuse to pick up two entirely new techniques (laid and couched work and cutwork). I'm still giving thought to doing another pair on or nué, as it's a goldwork technique I haven't tried. Eight badges may therefore miraculously transform themselves into twelve.
Well, that's managed to fill a posting. Hopefully something will happen tomorrow, or I'll have a bright idea, and I'll write something a bit more interesting. Sorry about that - normal service will now be resumed.
0 comments
So why am I still doing it? I think it's got something to do with self-discipline. If I can force myself to write something every day for at least a year (although I may well try to hold out for three) I can prove to myself that I do have some self-discipline after all. It might help persuade me that I can exercise three times a week or do some rapier practise more outside SCA events - it's less than once a day so it must be easier, right?
After the first six months here life has settled down to a mundane routine. Get up, go into work, do work, come home, look at the TV listings to see if there's anything watchable on TV, then delve into the DVD collection while I do some embroidery or listen to music while I read. Weekends are a little different - they don't require that I go into work so I get through more DVDs and books.
So what have my latest entertainment experiences been, then? M*A*S*H and Stargate SG1, plus I've also got the first season of 24 on the go as well. I've recently watched Conan the Destroyer and Windtalkers. Bookwise I'm on The Three Musketeers series (as e-books), Dreaming the Bull (book two in the Boudicca series by Manda Scott) and my electronically-delivered New Scientist (which I must finish tonight as the next one will download itself tomorrow).
I've finally finished and made up Gonz's chirurgeon badges but I didn's like the beadwork ones so I'm in the middle of another two using cutwork, another embroidery first for me. One thing about these badges, they have given me an excuse to pick up two entirely new techniques (laid and couched work and cutwork). I'm still giving thought to doing another pair on or nué, as it's a goldwork technique I haven't tried. Eight badges may therefore miraculously transform themselves into twelve.
Well, that's managed to fill a posting. Hopefully something will happen tomorrow, or I'll have a bright idea, and I'll write something a bit more interesting. Sorry about that - normal service will now be resumed.
0 comments
Tuesday, March 15, 2005
The sky is big
No, I know that sounds silly, but bear with me for a bit.
The building I work in is one of the tallest builings in town, having four floors and a seven storey tower. There are some apartment blocks of a similar height, but they're way across town towards the ski slopes and therefore don't stand out on the skyline.
Once I've left the immediate vicinity of the university there is not much between me, the mountains, and the sky, as none of the other buildings top three storeys. They are also spread well apart, making them seem smaller. When look north I see the sea. When I look anywhere else I see mountains. The sky fills practically the complete upper 180° of my world.
As I came home from work then, the upper hemisphere of my vision is a crisp blue, while the lower is a brilliant white. The sun has only just dropped behind the mountains to the south, bringing the town into shadow while the mountains around it still blaze in direct sunlight.
But it's the expanse of the sky that amazes me. I am struck by how little of it I used to see in Aberdeen. When I walked from the flat to the university I was surrounded by three- or four-storey buildings crammed close together, giving me maybe 60° of sky at most. I can see more sky from my bedroom window here than I could standing outdoors practically anywhere in Aberdeen except the beach.
I imagine that this means that the coming months are going to be very light indeed. Without the shadows of tall buildings the brilliance may be inescapable. Perhaps a wide-brimmed hat is going to be the order of the day.
0 comments
The building I work in is one of the tallest builings in town, having four floors and a seven storey tower. There are some apartment blocks of a similar height, but they're way across town towards the ski slopes and therefore don't stand out on the skyline.
Once I've left the immediate vicinity of the university there is not much between me, the mountains, and the sky, as none of the other buildings top three storeys. They are also spread well apart, making them seem smaller. When look north I see the sea. When I look anywhere else I see mountains. The sky fills practically the complete upper 180° of my world.
As I came home from work then, the upper hemisphere of my vision is a crisp blue, while the lower is a brilliant white. The sun has only just dropped behind the mountains to the south, bringing the town into shadow while the mountains around it still blaze in direct sunlight.
But it's the expanse of the sky that amazes me. I am struck by how little of it I used to see in Aberdeen. When I walked from the flat to the university I was surrounded by three- or four-storey buildings crammed close together, giving me maybe 60° of sky at most. I can see more sky from my bedroom window here than I could standing outdoors practically anywhere in Aberdeen except the beach.
I imagine that this means that the coming months are going to be very light indeed. Without the shadows of tall buildings the brilliance may be inescapable. Perhaps a wide-brimmed hat is going to be the order of the day.
0 comments
Monday, March 14, 2005
Talking to Viktor
I don't know what's wrong with me today. By the time I left work I was feeling faint. Now, after some sugar, I've made it as far as tired, mentally hyper and faint. Must be the weather or something.
I went into work this morning all bright and cheerful, ready to finish my current lecture and so forth; and I did indeed finish it and get everything ready for my lectures tomorrow. This leaves me free for tomorrow afternoon, Wednesday and Thursday to kick my next lab into shape (oh, the joys of compilation errors!).
A curious thing did happen on the way home from work though. As I drove along the back path from the main road to the house I received a cheery grin from a young Icelander (probably aged about 10) on a bike. So I waved back. When I got out of the car he was there waiting for me and we proceeded to have a very strange conversation in broken English and Icelandic about the fact that I have a strange foreign car with a foreign number plate while the older man who lives in the house with me - but who is not my husband, father or grandfather... I really must look up the words for 'colleague' and 'friend' - has an Icelandic one. We also touched on the fact that sometimes my rucksack's belt gets stuck in the door and trails along the outside, so clearly he's had me under surveillance for a while.
It turns out that his name is Viktor and he seemed very impressed by the fact that I teach computing at the university. Well, either that or he was very impressed that I could pronounce the name of the department at the university in Icelandic.
Still, I will chalk it up as another successful interaction with a local in (mostly) Icelandic.
0 comments
I went into work this morning all bright and cheerful, ready to finish my current lecture and so forth; and I did indeed finish it and get everything ready for my lectures tomorrow. This leaves me free for tomorrow afternoon, Wednesday and Thursday to kick my next lab into shape (oh, the joys of compilation errors!).
A curious thing did happen on the way home from work though. As I drove along the back path from the main road to the house I received a cheery grin from a young Icelander (probably aged about 10) on a bike. So I waved back. When I got out of the car he was there waiting for me and we proceeded to have a very strange conversation in broken English and Icelandic about the fact that I have a strange foreign car with a foreign number plate while the older man who lives in the house with me - but who is not my husband, father or grandfather... I really must look up the words for 'colleague' and 'friend' - has an Icelandic one. We also touched on the fact that sometimes my rucksack's belt gets stuck in the door and trails along the outside, so clearly he's had me under surveillance for a while.
It turns out that his name is Viktor and he seemed very impressed by the fact that I teach computing at the university. Well, either that or he was very impressed that I could pronounce the name of the department at the university in Icelandic.
Still, I will chalk it up as another successful interaction with a local in (mostly) Icelandic.
0 comments
Sunday, March 13, 2005
Madeira, m'dear
Well, I'm sitting here at the computer snug and warm inside while we have a small blizzard outside. My sister Kayte would probably despair if she knew it, but I'm also enjoying a not-so-small glass of Madeira.
What, me, a Madeira drinker? Yes. It's not a single-variety cider or an Irish whiskey, as most of you who've been around me whilst drinking would expect, but I quite like the stuff. Definitely something with which to wind down a Sunday evening. And with me coming through duty free several times a year nowadays... well, you can only get through so many bottles of spirits, can't you? Although I suppose I could bring them in for other more regular drinkers.
But this time I brought back something for me. I'm now off to watch an episode of Stargate before bed, so goodnight, and skál!
0 comments
What, me, a Madeira drinker? Yes. It's not a single-variety cider or an Irish whiskey, as most of you who've been around me whilst drinking would expect, but I quite like the stuff. Definitely something with which to wind down a Sunday evening. And with me coming through duty free several times a year nowadays... well, you can only get through so many bottles of spirits, can't you? Although I suppose I could bring them in for other more regular drinkers.
But this time I brought back something for me. I'm now off to watch an episode of Stargate before bed, so goodnight, and skál!
0 comments
Terror has many guises
A week ago today I found myself standing in Lincoln Castle looking at a copy of the Magna Carta.
The first thing that occurred to me was how small the writing was. I do calligraphy but I tend to write far larger than that in the document, probably because when I write it tends to be for show and I have ready access to large amounts of paper so I don't have to write small.
After a while though, my A&S thoughts were displaced by the reason I had really gone to look at it: the UK government's now-successful attempt to introduce a law to overturn one of its articles, that which has become known as Habeas Corpus.
Habeas Corpus are the opening words of the mediaeval writ that could be issued against any person or group holding an individual prisoner. It required that the individual be brought before a judge to investigate if the detainment is valid. If it was, then the detainee would face trial, otherwise he would be set free.
Although not specifically cited as habeas corpus in the Magna Carta an article of the same purpose does exist. Article 39 states that
No freeman shall be taken or imprisoned or disseised or exiled or in any way destroyed, nor will we go upon him nor will we send upon him except upon the lawful judgement of his peers or the law of the land.
It was officially enshrined in law in 1659 to prevent kings from interfering in the legal process.
Although kings may no longer interfere, that hasn't stopped politicians from suspending the act in times of war to intern political opponents or other undesirables. The most recent case was of course the introduction of internment in Northern Ireland in order to shut down the IRA. A job in which it was so successful that we're still dealing with the aftermath 30-odd years later.
Tony Blair claims that we are at war again, this time as part of President Bush's acclaimed war on terror. I'm not going to turn this into a diatribe against the war on Iraq; we're there, we have to try to make something good out of it and get out as soon as we can without leaving chaos in our wake. What does concern me is that whenever our mediaeval right to a trial has been suspended, the resulting ill-will has been far more disruptive than the actions of those it was meant to stop.
Bringing someone before a judge nowadays is easy; a quick phonecall is all it often needs. Imprisoning someone on the basis of intelligence alone is sometimes necessary, I'll admit that. But it should always be on the order of a judge, not a politician. If a special court subsystem has to be set up with specially-cleared judges and lawyers, then so be it. Otherwise we could find ourselves in the same situation we did in 1793 and 1817 when the people interned were parliamentary reformers, not terrorists.
If terrorism is the art and science of forcing people to do your bidding through the application of terror, then at what point do the government themselves become the terrorists?
0 comments
The first thing that occurred to me was how small the writing was. I do calligraphy but I tend to write far larger than that in the document, probably because when I write it tends to be for show and I have ready access to large amounts of paper so I don't have to write small.
After a while though, my A&S thoughts were displaced by the reason I had really gone to look at it: the UK government's now-successful attempt to introduce a law to overturn one of its articles, that which has become known as Habeas Corpus.
Habeas Corpus are the opening words of the mediaeval writ that could be issued against any person or group holding an individual prisoner. It required that the individual be brought before a judge to investigate if the detainment is valid. If it was, then the detainee would face trial, otherwise he would be set free.
Although not specifically cited as habeas corpus in the Magna Carta an article of the same purpose does exist. Article 39 states that
No freeman shall be taken or imprisoned or disseised or exiled or in any way destroyed, nor will we go upon him nor will we send upon him except upon the lawful judgement of his peers or the law of the land.
It was officially enshrined in law in 1659 to prevent kings from interfering in the legal process.
Although kings may no longer interfere, that hasn't stopped politicians from suspending the act in times of war to intern political opponents or other undesirables. The most recent case was of course the introduction of internment in Northern Ireland in order to shut down the IRA. A job in which it was so successful that we're still dealing with the aftermath 30-odd years later.
Tony Blair claims that we are at war again, this time as part of President Bush's acclaimed war on terror. I'm not going to turn this into a diatribe against the war on Iraq; we're there, we have to try to make something good out of it and get out as soon as we can without leaving chaos in our wake. What does concern me is that whenever our mediaeval right to a trial has been suspended, the resulting ill-will has been far more disruptive than the actions of those it was meant to stop.
Bringing someone before a judge nowadays is easy; a quick phonecall is all it often needs. Imprisoning someone on the basis of intelligence alone is sometimes necessary, I'll admit that. But it should always be on the order of a judge, not a politician. If a special court subsystem has to be set up with specially-cleared judges and lawyers, then so be it. Otherwise we could find ourselves in the same situation we did in 1793 and 1817 when the people interned were parliamentary reformers, not terrorists.
If terrorism is the art and science of forcing people to do your bidding through the application of terror, then at what point do the government themselves become the terrorists?
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Saturday, March 12, 2005
SF! They *do* show SF!
Icelandic television does show science fiction after all.
Well ok, to be more precise they show Geimskipið Enterprise, but it's close enough. :) Yes, RÚV are showing the third season of Star Trek: Enterprise. Now if only they'll show Stargate (either version) as well. Or instead, even.
So I am a slightly happier bunny than I was on the tv front. It doesn't make up for the endless repeats of US cop shows, sitcoms and mindless reality shows on S1, but it does lessen the blow of having lost Dead Like Me and CSI: Miami, which were definitely the best of the imports.
Actually, I caved in and bought season one of Stargate SG-1 while I was in the UK and have started watching it already. I am definitely suffering from SF-withdrawl. I need laser guns! Give me starships! Bring on the weird aliens! When I move I am so going to get Sky. It's worth giving serious consideration to buying a house just so that I know I can install a dish.
There was also a strange thing on RÚV just before Enterprise. I'm used to certain bulletins on News 24 having someone superimposed on the side of the picture signing the news, but RÚV have a ten-minute full-scale signed news bulletin. Well, sort of full-scale - it has a chap on the screen signing the news. Nothing else, no sound, no backup pictures, nothing. I'm still trying to work out if it's a step forward in accepting the Deaf community by having a prime-time broadcast (6pm Saturday evening) or whether it's just saying 'we have to make some sort of effort and this is the least we can legally do'.
It's back to the DVD for the evening then. Aliens is a high possibility, or maybe the old George Pal War of the Worlds. Something to remind me that there are worlds out there beyond the snow (yes, it has started snowing again).
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Well ok, to be more precise they show Geimskipið Enterprise, but it's close enough. :) Yes, RÚV are showing the third season of Star Trek: Enterprise. Now if only they'll show Stargate (either version) as well. Or instead, even.
So I am a slightly happier bunny than I was on the tv front. It doesn't make up for the endless repeats of US cop shows, sitcoms and mindless reality shows on S1, but it does lessen the blow of having lost Dead Like Me and CSI: Miami, which were definitely the best of the imports.
Actually, I caved in and bought season one of Stargate SG-1 while I was in the UK and have started watching it already. I am definitely suffering from SF-withdrawl. I need laser guns! Give me starships! Bring on the weird aliens! When I move I am so going to get Sky. It's worth giving serious consideration to buying a house just so that I know I can install a dish.
There was also a strange thing on RÚV just before Enterprise. I'm used to certain bulletins on News 24 having someone superimposed on the side of the picture signing the news, but RÚV have a ten-minute full-scale signed news bulletin. Well, sort of full-scale - it has a chap on the screen signing the news. Nothing else, no sound, no backup pictures, nothing. I'm still trying to work out if it's a step forward in accepting the Deaf community by having a prime-time broadcast (6pm Saturday evening) or whether it's just saying 'we have to make some sort of effort and this is the least we can legally do'.
It's back to the DVD for the evening then. Aliens is a high possibility, or maybe the old George Pal War of the Worlds. Something to remind me that there are worlds out there beyond the snow (yes, it has started snowing again).
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Friday, March 11, 2005
Strange things afoot
Is the Earth about to be hit by a giant meteorite? Has Iceland got itself into a shooting war with Norway over herring fishing?
Something strange is definitely going on. I went into Bonus, the cheap and cheerful supermarket on my way home from work to find it packed almost solid. The car park was full and people had taken to parking on the roadside. The queues inside stretched back along the aisles and many of the shelves were, if not empty, at least getting damned close to it.
This is not normal, not even for Iceland, where supermarkets are small and have a limited range of stock. Not even for Bonus, which bears the same resemblance to your average ASDA that a four-pack of WKD bears to a magnum of Bolly. Normally I can go into Bonus on a Friday afternoon, wander around, pick up my few groceries and be out again in ten minutes. Three quarters of an hour it took to buy a box of cornflakes, two litres of UHT milk and a packet of Toffeepops.
I hear rumours that there's a big price war going on between Bonus and the other low-price supermarket (whose name eludes me as we don't seem to have one here in Akureyri) which has lead to a litre of milk dropping below 1 ISK - that's about 0.8p sterling. This has led to quite a fuss in the press as the owner of the other supermarket chain also owns the free morning newspaper, this making the price war headline news.
No, having just looked at my bill I don't see any signs of massive discounting in the cereal and g-mjolk department. Maybe we're going to have winter instead, and everyone's just stocking up against it. It's certainly colder today than it has been all week, and we're getting some of that 'too dense to be snow but too diffuse to be hail' white stuff right now.
Ah well. If that's the case, at least I'm sorted for breakfasts.
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Something strange is definitely going on. I went into Bonus, the cheap and cheerful supermarket on my way home from work to find it packed almost solid. The car park was full and people had taken to parking on the roadside. The queues inside stretched back along the aisles and many of the shelves were, if not empty, at least getting damned close to it.
This is not normal, not even for Iceland, where supermarkets are small and have a limited range of stock. Not even for Bonus, which bears the same resemblance to your average ASDA that a four-pack of WKD bears to a magnum of Bolly. Normally I can go into Bonus on a Friday afternoon, wander around, pick up my few groceries and be out again in ten minutes. Three quarters of an hour it took to buy a box of cornflakes, two litres of UHT milk and a packet of Toffeepops.
I hear rumours that there's a big price war going on between Bonus and the other low-price supermarket (whose name eludes me as we don't seem to have one here in Akureyri) which has lead to a litre of milk dropping below 1 ISK - that's about 0.8p sterling. This has led to quite a fuss in the press as the owner of the other supermarket chain also owns the free morning newspaper, this making the price war headline news.
No, having just looked at my bill I don't see any signs of massive discounting in the cereal and g-mjolk department. Maybe we're going to have winter instead, and everyone's just stocking up against it. It's certainly colder today than it has been all week, and we're getting some of that 'too dense to be snow but too diffuse to be hail' white stuff right now.
Ah well. If that's the case, at least I'm sorted for breakfasts.
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Thursday, March 10, 2005
eZines are wonderful things
I know this, as I've just discovered how to get New Scientist delivered to my desktop every Thursday morning for 21% of the UK cover price.
When you add to that the overseas shipping it must be down to about 10% of the cost of the hardcopy version. All I have to do is print out the pages I'm interested in (so I skip the adverts and the job sections for now) and I can bring it home to read as well. Plus I end up with an electronic archive of the year that I can access offline if I need it and the ability to print off articles to give to my students as necessary. NS (and a host of other magazines and newspapers) are available from NewsStand. Don't you just love the internet?
The bug is still at it, although it seems to be settling into my throat and chest, which is not a good thing for the folks around me. Fortunately I invested in plenty of Benylin, Lemsip and Strepsils a couple of UK trips back so at least I'm self-sufficient.
I'm trying to work out whether it's the bug making me less appreciative than ususal or that The Day After Tomorrow is actually a truly awful film. So far I've fallen asleep twice, but I'm hoping to finish it this evening. I normally like disaster movies - Volcano was jolly good fun, and I greatly enjoyed a recent repeat of Earthquake but this one just doesn't do anything for me.
I am, however, determined to see it through to the end. Then I shall reward myself with something more interesting... like maybe a couple of episodes of M*A*S*H, or the pilot episode of Stargate SGI.
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When you add to that the overseas shipping it must be down to about 10% of the cost of the hardcopy version. All I have to do is print out the pages I'm interested in (so I skip the adverts and the job sections for now) and I can bring it home to read as well. Plus I end up with an electronic archive of the year that I can access offline if I need it and the ability to print off articles to give to my students as necessary. NS (and a host of other magazines and newspapers) are available from NewsStand. Don't you just love the internet?
The bug is still at it, although it seems to be settling into my throat and chest, which is not a good thing for the folks around me. Fortunately I invested in plenty of Benylin, Lemsip and Strepsils a couple of UK trips back so at least I'm self-sufficient.
I'm trying to work out whether it's the bug making me less appreciative than ususal or that The Day After Tomorrow is actually a truly awful film. So far I've fallen asleep twice, but I'm hoping to finish it this evening. I normally like disaster movies - Volcano was jolly good fun, and I greatly enjoyed a recent repeat of Earthquake but this one just doesn't do anything for me.
I am, however, determined to see it through to the end. Then I shall reward myself with something more interesting... like maybe a couple of episodes of M*A*S*H, or the pilot episode of Stargate SGI.
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Wednesday, March 09, 2005
Getting better
The fever broke sometime between 04:00 and 07:00 this morning, and I'm very happy about it.
I'm now just down to being a bit sneezy/snuffly and my voice is doing the Marlene Dietrich thing again. Still, I was well enough this morning to appreciate a rhododactylous* dawn at 07:15.
The days are getting longer. It is now getting light when I wake up, and remaining so until long after I've left work. The mountains are more dusted with snow than covered with it, although I'm told it's due to get cold and snowy by the end of the week.
It used to be the case that Akureyri could depend on snow into April, so much so that the extreme sports event is scheduled then. Last year they had to ship in snow from the nearby glacier, but this year even the glacier is looking a bit bald and so they may have to ship it in from further afield. Shipping snow to Iceland - what a crazy idea.
Now to other sporting news. One of the local basketball teams, Thór, won the Icelandic league over the weekend. Two of the players are in my first year class, and one of them was named joint MVP of the match. Congratulations all round, I think!
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I'm now just down to being a bit sneezy/snuffly and my voice is doing the Marlene Dietrich thing again. Still, I was well enough this morning to appreciate a rhododactylous* dawn at 07:15.
The days are getting longer. It is now getting light when I wake up, and remaining so until long after I've left work. The mountains are more dusted with snow than covered with it, although I'm told it's due to get cold and snowy by the end of the week.
It used to be the case that Akureyri could depend on snow into April, so much so that the extreme sports event is scheduled then. Last year they had to ship in snow from the nearby glacier, but this year even the glacier is looking a bit bald and so they may have to ship it in from further afield. Shipping snow to Iceland - what a crazy idea.
Now to other sporting news. One of the local basketball teams, Thór, won the Icelandic league over the weekend. Two of the players are in my first year class, and one of them was named joint MVP of the match. Congratulations all round, I think!
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Tuesday, March 08, 2005
Ill...
... too ill to write much. My bed is calling to me in melifluous tones...
I managed the early start, although I'd far rather have been in bed, and flew up to Akureyri where it was bright, sunny and relatively warm. As a result the car started without complaint and I made it in to my 10:00 lecture. It wasn't the best I've ever given, and the HCI lecture at 12:35 was not a good one either, but by that point the fever had set in and I could barely think straight.
I just about made it through the rest of the day but now I'm going to bed.
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I managed the early start, although I'd far rather have been in bed, and flew up to Akureyri where it was bright, sunny and relatively warm. As a result the car started without complaint and I made it in to my 10:00 lecture. It wasn't the best I've ever given, and the HCI lecture at 12:35 was not a good one either, but by that point the fever had set in and I could barely think straight.
I just about made it through the rest of the day but now I'm going to bed.
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Monday, March 07, 2005
Buses and planes again
When you arrive at Keflavik on an Iceland Express flight, the first thing that they say over the intercom is 'Velkominn heim' or 'welcome home'.
The assumption must be that only Icelanders speak Icelandic, so anyone who can understand it will appreciate the sentiment. Imagine if British Airways did this; if every international flight into the UK welcomed people home. I'm sure the lawyers would use it as an implicit acceptance that as soon as you landed you had a right to residence.
I got into the hostel in Reykjavik at 01:30, after leaving Nottingham at 09:55. In the intervening period I spent two hours at Golders Green bus station pondering the workings of that transport of delight, the big six-wheeler scarlet-painted London transport diesel-engined 97-horsepower omnibus, as Flanders and Swann so descriptively put it. My National Express bus to Stanstead was nothing so romantic, nor was the 737-300 that carried me across the north atlantic back to this remote island.
At least they both seemed to function adequately, which is more than could be said for the bus that took me from Keflavik to Reykjavik. The luggage doors didn't close properly, requiring us to travel at about 30 miles an hour all the way, during which the heater was stuck on full on rendering the cabin somewhat like a sauna.
On top of all of this I think I've picked up a bug at Rent-A-Don. I started sneezing yesterday evening and have continued throughout today. My only consolation is that this time it's me infecting everyone on the flight rather than being infected myself.
Early start tomorrow - 07:45 flight up to Akureyri in time for a lecture at 10:00. Now I really must get some sleep
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The assumption must be that only Icelanders speak Icelandic, so anyone who can understand it will appreciate the sentiment. Imagine if British Airways did this; if every international flight into the UK welcomed people home. I'm sure the lawyers would use it as an implicit acceptance that as soon as you landed you had a right to residence.
I got into the hostel in Reykjavik at 01:30, after leaving Nottingham at 09:55. In the intervening period I spent two hours at Golders Green bus station pondering the workings of that transport of delight, the big six-wheeler scarlet-painted London transport diesel-engined 97-horsepower omnibus, as Flanders and Swann so descriptively put it. My National Express bus to Stanstead was nothing so romantic, nor was the 737-300 that carried me across the north atlantic back to this remote island.
At least they both seemed to function adequately, which is more than could be said for the bus that took me from Keflavik to Reykjavik. The luggage doors didn't close properly, requiring us to travel at about 30 miles an hour all the way, during which the heater was stuck on full on rendering the cabin somewhat like a sauna.
On top of all of this I think I've picked up a bug at Rent-A-Don. I started sneezing yesterday evening and have continued throughout today. My only consolation is that this time it's me infecting everyone on the flight rather than being infected myself.
Early start tomorrow - 07:45 flight up to Akureyri in time for a lecture at 10:00. Now I really must get some sleep
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Sunday, March 06, 2005
A bit sore
Last night, rather than chancing the deflatable bed again, I lined up a pile of chairs in the main hall and slept on them instead.
This was feasible as I was the last person awake (having previously given serious consideration to not sleeping at all). I must remember this trick for Rent-A-Don next year. My luggage limitations do not really allow for a big inflatable that isn't going to deflate, so I'm having to look for other options.
I was a bit peeved this morning as I made Gloriana porridge, carefully arranging for a heater downstairs so that it wouldn't set, then while I went off in search of a shop that sold milk, someone of the massed hordes turned the heat up and burned it so no-one ate it. Grrrr.
Then there was the Big Parliament Thingy. I have to admit that I escaped as soon as I could because I have no liking for politics. I could quite see the reason for the question that caused all the trouble, but I don't think that the two hours of discussion really did anything to solve the problems at the heart of the matter - not enough people actively involved and not enough good heavy fighters to hold a creditable Viceroy/Principality tourney.
But then, I don't agree with the SCA limiting all of its important tournaments to heavies in the first place. :) It would be nice if things rotated from heavy to light to A&S to archery; I'm sure we'd get far more entries that way. Unfortunately Corpora effectively says that AC is God. :(
By the end of the day I was shattered, thanks to two nights of little sleep, so when Kayte collected me from Lincoln and took me back to her pub in Nottingham to stay the night I was too tired to even stay awake through the Discovery Channel's programme on the Aurora project. Damn!
A good thing that Kayte was busy running the pub, or I'd have felt really guilty about not being bright, cheery and sociable.
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This was feasible as I was the last person awake (having previously given serious consideration to not sleeping at all). I must remember this trick for Rent-A-Don next year. My luggage limitations do not really allow for a big inflatable that isn't going to deflate, so I'm having to look for other options.
I was a bit peeved this morning as I made Gloriana porridge, carefully arranging for a heater downstairs so that it wouldn't set, then while I went off in search of a shop that sold milk, someone of the massed hordes turned the heat up and burned it so no-one ate it. Grrrr.
Then there was the Big Parliament Thingy. I have to admit that I escaped as soon as I could because I have no liking for politics. I could quite see the reason for the question that caused all the trouble, but I don't think that the two hours of discussion really did anything to solve the problems at the heart of the matter - not enough people actively involved and not enough good heavy fighters to hold a creditable Viceroy/Principality tourney.
But then, I don't agree with the SCA limiting all of its important tournaments to heavies in the first place. :) It would be nice if things rotated from heavy to light to A&S to archery; I'm sure we'd get far more entries that way. Unfortunately Corpora effectively says that AC is God. :(
By the end of the day I was shattered, thanks to two nights of little sleep, so when Kayte collected me from Lincoln and took me back to her pub in Nottingham to stay the night I was too tired to even stay awake through the Discovery Channel's programme on the Aurora project. Damn!
A good thing that Kayte was busy running the pub, or I'd have felt really guilty about not being bright, cheery and sociable.
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Saturday, March 05, 2005
Only in the SCA...
... would you wake up to find a drunken viking climbing into your bed at three in the morning.
It wasn't a good night. Not particularly because of said viking, but because the inflatable bed deflated and between the floor and the cold I ended up with a really nasty muscle strain that got me out of bed at 05:30 in the hope of getting more comfortable somewhere else and (while I was at it) not disturbing the other folks in the room with my cries of pain.
Fortunately it turned out not to be a slipped disk as initially feared, and with the aid of copious amounts of heat and painkillers I managed to make it through a day of classes and a couple of prize fights. Which was good, in a way, as I'm not convinced that I'd have made it through a day of real fighting.
One thing that particularly intrigued me was Baron Gwyllwm's research on the lunge. I've never been able to lunge properly, as my knees won't take it, but his 'new' renaissance lunge where you go ball of the foot first, rather than heel first, is much easier on the legs. I must try to remember it for those odd occasions when I fence Italian.
My ruff works very well indeed in conjunction with my gorget, and I'm very pleased about that. I've also got some braid from Sagadís that will provide the finishing touch to my ropa in time for Warbands.
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It wasn't a good night. Not particularly because of said viking, but because the inflatable bed deflated and between the floor and the cold I ended up with a really nasty muscle strain that got me out of bed at 05:30 in the hope of getting more comfortable somewhere else and (while I was at it) not disturbing the other folks in the room with my cries of pain.
Fortunately it turned out not to be a slipped disk as initially feared, and with the aid of copious amounts of heat and painkillers I managed to make it through a day of classes and a couple of prize fights. Which was good, in a way, as I'm not convinced that I'd have made it through a day of real fighting.
One thing that particularly intrigued me was Baron Gwyllwm's research on the lunge. I've never been able to lunge properly, as my knees won't take it, but his 'new' renaissance lunge where you go ball of the foot first, rather than heel first, is much easier on the legs. I must try to remember it for those odd occasions when I fence Italian.
My ruff works very well indeed in conjunction with my gorget, and I'm very pleased about that. I've also got some braid from Sagadís that will provide the finishing touch to my ropa in time for Warbands.
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Friday, March 04, 2005
Another journay from hell
I think I'm growing to hate travelling.
This morning I made it to the station without too much problem, but they wouldn't let us onto the train until about 5 minutes before it left. It was full - which probably means it was an economic success. The GNER 125 service is considerably inferior to the Virgin Wobblino service, having no power, radio nor even a bright and cheerful interior.
I did at least get my veil hemmed and more of Gonz's badges completed before I changed at Peterborough for a grotty little local train. This journey, nominally 1 hour 45 minutes, took 3 hours 15 minutes thanks to an accident at a level crossing about ten minutes form Lincoln. A speeding car hit the barriers and damaged them sufficiently to prevent them opening to let the train through. The local constabulary had to do a forensic investigation of the scene before anything the transport police could sort things and get the train moving again.
Wenny and Stephen met me at the station and we then went on an expedition to Tesco. That's expedition in the 'search for the source of the Nile' sense, as it involved going round in circles, asking locals for direction and eventually giving in and resorting to asking the police instead.
Tesco... ah, what a place of wonders and rare goods from the East. I'm sure that taking me there was a breach of my human rights. So many basic foods and other things that I can't get in Iceland. Such low prices. A selection of ciders. Needless to say I availed myself of the opportunity to indulge in alcohol and culinary delights.
Then off to the castle for Rent-A-Don proper. More of that tomorrow.
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This morning I made it to the station without too much problem, but they wouldn't let us onto the train until about 5 minutes before it left. It was full - which probably means it was an economic success. The GNER 125 service is considerably inferior to the Virgin Wobblino service, having no power, radio nor even a bright and cheerful interior.
I did at least get my veil hemmed and more of Gonz's badges completed before I changed at Peterborough for a grotty little local train. This journey, nominally 1 hour 45 minutes, took 3 hours 15 minutes thanks to an accident at a level crossing about ten minutes form Lincoln. A speeding car hit the barriers and damaged them sufficiently to prevent them opening to let the train through. The local constabulary had to do a forensic investigation of the scene before anything the transport police could sort things and get the train moving again.
Wenny and Stephen met me at the station and we then went on an expedition to Tesco. That's expedition in the 'search for the source of the Nile' sense, as it involved going round in circles, asking locals for direction and eventually giving in and resorting to asking the police instead.
Tesco... ah, what a place of wonders and rare goods from the East. I'm sure that taking me there was a breach of my human rights. So many basic foods and other things that I can't get in Iceland. Such low prices. A selection of ciders. Needless to say I availed myself of the opportunity to indulge in alcohol and culinary delights.
Then off to the castle for Rent-A-Don proper. More of that tomorrow.
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Thursday, March 03, 2005
A long, good Thursday
Being back at RGU has been a very strange experience.
I hadn't realised how much I missed some very simple things, like going for coffee with Nic, Frank, Stuart and Gordon, and the research-related discussions that occur at Costa's as a result. Or waking up in the morning to the Today programme and lying there in bed listening to what the world has been up to overnight.
The morning thing has been particularly strange. I am, by inclination, a morning person. In Iceland though, I've found it more and more difficult to get up and have become more and more nocturnal as a result. I assumed that it was down to the light issues, but I wonder if the change in my old familiar routine of listening to the news in the morning might have something to do with it. Clearly, when I move I need to get satellite just to get Radio 4, never mind BBC2,
Today then, has been a day for wrapping things up. I travel to Lincoln tomorrow and while I may well get some research writing done on the train I'm not going to get any coding done. (I assuaged my guilt complex by having worked over last weekend instead.) The accommodation bill was paid, the Mother's Day present bought, the research meeting attended and the results of the week burned onto a couple of CDs. I didn't quite get as far as I'd hoped, but that's because an unforeseen problem raised its head. I now have to go back to Iceland and decide whether to carry on with the current version or to streamline and rewrite it in C# rather than have two versions of Visual Studio on my office machine. Still, my approach is rather more mathematical than Apkar had realised, which is probably why it needs a bit more tweaking than we had initially thought.
It looks like I'll be coming back in June. I've pretty much agreed to give a research seminar when I come back for Warbands at the beginning of the month, so I'm thinking of doing a week of research then. I'd be over here for a holiday anyway, so I won't need to claim it back from my pot of research funds; I'll just take advantage of being in the right place at the right time.
For now then, I shall just go and enjoy Horizon (whatever its subject this week) while I finish some more of my needlework tasks.
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I hadn't realised how much I missed some very simple things, like going for coffee with Nic, Frank, Stuart and Gordon, and the research-related discussions that occur at Costa's as a result. Or waking up in the morning to the Today programme and lying there in bed listening to what the world has been up to overnight.
The morning thing has been particularly strange. I am, by inclination, a morning person. In Iceland though, I've found it more and more difficult to get up and have become more and more nocturnal as a result. I assumed that it was down to the light issues, but I wonder if the change in my old familiar routine of listening to the news in the morning might have something to do with it. Clearly, when I move I need to get satellite just to get Radio 4, never mind BBC2,
Today then, has been a day for wrapping things up. I travel to Lincoln tomorrow and while I may well get some research writing done on the train I'm not going to get any coding done. (I assuaged my guilt complex by having worked over last weekend instead.) The accommodation bill was paid, the Mother's Day present bought, the research meeting attended and the results of the week burned onto a couple of CDs. I didn't quite get as far as I'd hoped, but that's because an unforeseen problem raised its head. I now have to go back to Iceland and decide whether to carry on with the current version or to streamline and rewrite it in C# rather than have two versions of Visual Studio on my office machine. Still, my approach is rather more mathematical than Apkar had realised, which is probably why it needs a bit more tweaking than we had initially thought.
It looks like I'll be coming back in June. I've pretty much agreed to give a research seminar when I come back for Warbands at the beginning of the month, so I'm thinking of doing a week of research then. I'd be over here for a holiday anyway, so I won't need to claim it back from my pot of research funds; I'll just take advantage of being in the right place at the right time.
For now then, I shall just go and enjoy Horizon (whatever its subject this week) while I finish some more of my needlework tasks.
0 comments
Wednesday, March 02, 2005
Good days, bad days
One of the disadvantages of doing research can be the emotional roller-coaster as you try out new ideas. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't.
Today has been one of those days. I went into the office this morning ready to do battle with an unexpected program excursion. It took a while, but I eventually found an unfriendly divide-by-zero instruction that was causing the problem, and at last I could read and process the entire data file.
This was something of a mixed blessing as, while the code now worked, it didn't give me the results I was expecting. That flummoxed me for a while, as I sat there thinking that nothing was going to work and what was I doing thinking I could do research in the first place (this is not uncommon, I'm told). Then I went back to my original idea and thought OK, that parameter's not going to help. What about the other one? The program is now displaying this other parameter and there are suggestions that it might be a little more useful.
I was going to the jazz gig tonight, but I really didn't fancy another evening in a smoky bar - particularly as jazz bars do have a reputation for being very smoky indeed. Hopefully the government (or at least the Scottish assembly) will get their finger out and ban smoking in pubs in time for next year's festival.
Instead I have now finished the beaded circlet. It's a bit shiny, being made of glass beads, so I don't know whether I'll use it or not. Ah well, if not the I shall consider it another experiment in beading. Next I have to turn Gonz's badges from embroidered designs into actual badges ready to sew onto things.
No rest for the paranoid.
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Today has been one of those days. I went into the office this morning ready to do battle with an unexpected program excursion. It took a while, but I eventually found an unfriendly divide-by-zero instruction that was causing the problem, and at last I could read and process the entire data file.
This was something of a mixed blessing as, while the code now worked, it didn't give me the results I was expecting. That flummoxed me for a while, as I sat there thinking that nothing was going to work and what was I doing thinking I could do research in the first place (this is not uncommon, I'm told). Then I went back to my original idea and thought OK, that parameter's not going to help. What about the other one? The program is now displaying this other parameter and there are suggestions that it might be a little more useful.
I was going to the jazz gig tonight, but I really didn't fancy another evening in a smoky bar - particularly as jazz bars do have a reputation for being very smoky indeed. Hopefully the government (or at least the Scottish assembly) will get their finger out and ban smoking in pubs in time for next year's festival.
Instead I have now finished the beaded circlet. It's a bit shiny, being made of glass beads, so I don't know whether I'll use it or not. Ah well, if not the I shall consider it another experiment in beading. Next I have to turn Gonz's badges from embroidered designs into actual badges ready to sew onto things.
No rest for the paranoid.
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Tuesday, March 01, 2005
One ruff, circa 1560
Three hours of work and three metres of ribbon later, and I have a ruff.
I'm rather pleased with it, as it actually does look like a ruff. Not only that, but I stitched it all by hand as, of course, I don't have a sewing machine with me in Aberdeen.
I now find myself looking at the remnants of fabric from left from making my ropa and wondering if I have time to make an attifet to go with it. I have two evenings and an eight-hour train journey. Hmm...
No. I must be firm with myself. I have other stuff to finish and besides, I can make it when I get more fabric to make the sleeves. I shall be strong and finish the veil for my Saxon garb instead. After all, I can't really go to the feast in my fencing gear, no matter how wonderful I think my new ropa is.
Apart from being moderately creative this evening I've also been moderately creative doing research during the day (although I did have one of those 'what the hell does that actually mean' moments this afternoon). I know the software is doing what it is supposed to do, I just have to work out how to display it.
Next: a beaded circlet.
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I'm rather pleased with it, as it actually does look like a ruff. Not only that, but I stitched it all by hand as, of course, I don't have a sewing machine with me in Aberdeen.
I now find myself looking at the remnants of fabric from left from making my ropa and wondering if I have time to make an attifet to go with it. I have two evenings and an eight-hour train journey. Hmm...
No. I must be firm with myself. I have other stuff to finish and besides, I can make it when I get more fabric to make the sleeves. I shall be strong and finish the veil for my Saxon garb instead. After all, I can't really go to the feast in my fencing gear, no matter how wonderful I think my new ropa is.
Apart from being moderately creative this evening I've also been moderately creative doing research during the day (although I did have one of those 'what the hell does that actually mean' moments this afternoon). I know the software is doing what it is supposed to do, I just have to work out how to display it.
Next: a beaded circlet.
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