I feel much better today than yesterday: a very few sneezing fits, but mostly back to normal, especially by comparison with yesterday. Now if I could just find the hours in the day to fit everything in --- there are a bunch of students who have to defend their theses over the next couple of weeks, and I have meetings galore with undergraduates who need to schedule their courses for next semester.
And in addition to all that, I have to meet with the rowers tomorrow evening, from 8pm to somewhere near --- or even after --- midnight, while they elect their new board. Ugh! Still, it's just once a year. And I don't teach the following morning until 9:30, and I've only two meetings scheduled before that, so I'll almost have time to drive home and sleep in between:-)
Yours, slam-jammed in the schedule,
N.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Monday, March 30, 2009
Ugh, redux
I wondered about the synchronicity here. And so I went back to last year's postings, and found that March 30 last year was the day I came down with the ughs. I hope that this isn't going to be a perpetual calendar.
Yours, sniffuffering,
N.
Yours, sniffuffering,
N.
Sniff
I'd sniff. But I can't. My nose is plugged, except when it's dripping. If it's allergies, they're as bad as I've ever had. If it's a cold or the flu, it's miserable, but at least it will go away in another two or three weeks.
Yours, ugh,
N.
Yours, ugh,
N.
Congratulations
to my graduate student, who successfully defended a thesis this afternoon!
Yours, welcoming another all-but-Dr to the academic world,
N.
Yours, welcoming another all-but-Dr to the academic world,
N.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Rather a lovely birthday:-)
The day was rather lovely: in spite of yesterdays whining, it turned out that our neighbour gets the channel I was missing, and so I got to watch the boat race after all. And while I'd have preferred a different outcome, the first few minutes were exciting, and it was wonderful to see first class rowing on television for an extended period.
After the race was over, we drove down to Best Buy, where LOML bought me a piano --- of the electronic variety: a very nice feeling and sounding Casio. Not that I play -- I've always regretted the fact that my parents didn't push me to learn (they'd been forced to take piano lessons, so my generation was skipped) but we're planning for Boo and me to take lessons together. There's a teacher in town who apparently gives very good lessons for parent and child, and perhaps once we have a little more time this summer we can start. For now, she and her brother are getting tremendous joy from playing scales and more.
Yours, feeling noteworthy,
N.
After the race was over, we drove down to Best Buy, where LOML bought me a piano --- of the electronic variety: a very nice feeling and sounding Casio. Not that I play -- I've always regretted the fact that my parents didn't push me to learn (they'd been forced to take piano lessons, so my generation was skipped) but we're planning for Boo and me to take lessons together. There's a teacher in town who apparently gives very good lessons for parent and child, and perhaps once we have a little more time this summer we can start. For now, she and her brother are getting tremendous joy from playing scales and more.
Yours, feeling noteworthy,
N.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Watching rowing
Two days when I would love to have watched rowing: today and tomorrow.
Today was the local team's annual regatta --- but we had strong thunderstorms come through the area. Tomorrow is the rather larger event -- the Boat Race (which requires no extra qualifiers, except, perhaps the year). Unfortunately, the owners of the rights to the race are greedy, and as such are unwilling to provide a live internet feed to the world. Instead, it is available on a channel I don't have access to.
Were it a Saturday race, I could go down to my local bar and ask them to play it, but since in this neck of the woods the bars are shut on Sundays, I'm out of luck.
And so, once again, I'm going to hope that my slow dsl connection stays connected for the span of the race (four or five years ago the connection died half an hour before the start of the race, and I spent two hours on the phone waiting for tech support to tell me how to fix it) and that I can at least listen with my ears and imagine with my eyes.
Yours, pissed off tremendously at the fact that I can't watch the race live,
N.
Today was the local team's annual regatta --- but we had strong thunderstorms come through the area. Tomorrow is the rather larger event -- the Boat Race (which requires no extra qualifiers, except, perhaps the year). Unfortunately, the owners of the rights to the race are greedy, and as such are unwilling to provide a live internet feed to the world. Instead, it is available on a channel I don't have access to.
Were it a Saturday race, I could go down to my local bar and ask them to play it, but since in this neck of the woods the bars are shut on Sundays, I'm out of luck.
And so, once again, I'm going to hope that my slow dsl connection stays connected for the span of the race (four or five years ago the connection died half an hour before the start of the race, and I spent two hours on the phone waiting for tech support to tell me how to fix it) and that I can at least listen with my ears and imagine with my eyes.
Yours, pissed off tremendously at the fact that I can't watch the race live,
N.
Friday, March 27, 2009
New technology
I saw a TED talk today (online, of course --- there's no way I could ever afford the $6000 it costs to attend live!) which I've felt the need to share: it is a description and demonstration of a nascent technology, or rather a nascent convergence of existing technologies. All it needs is a bunch of databases to be built - Google, are you listening?
Watch this. If it doesn't have you saying "I want one of those!" I will be surprised.
Yours, thinking this is so cool it gives me chills,
N.
Watch this. If it doesn't have you saying "I want one of those!" I will be surprised.
Yours, thinking this is so cool it gives me chills,
N.
Boo is going to be a blogger...
or a tweeter, or whatever follows that by the time she's old enough to participate.
We went to the local geology museum this afternoon: the Boo had a half-day at school, and Skibo gets off at midday anyway, and it was pouring with rain, so we decided an afternoon looking at minerals and fossils and the like would be fun.
And Boo surprised us: she brought along her journal and her coloured pens and promptly drew pictures of everything she saw -- from ripples of water flowing down the sloped driveway in the parking lot, to the fluorescing rocks in the UV blacklight room. It was as though she was taking pictures to share with everyone later --- only without a camera:-)
Yours, prepared to be a fossil when she discovers technology...
N.
We went to the local geology museum this afternoon: the Boo had a half-day at school, and Skibo gets off at midday anyway, and it was pouring with rain, so we decided an afternoon looking at minerals and fossils and the like would be fun.
And Boo surprised us: she brought along her journal and her coloured pens and promptly drew pictures of everything she saw -- from ripples of water flowing down the sloped driveway in the parking lot, to the fluorescing rocks in the UV blacklight room. It was as though she was taking pictures to share with everyone later --- only without a camera:-)
Yours, prepared to be a fossil when she discovers technology...
N.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Happy Birthday, Uncle Paul
He would have been 96 today. Much missed, thirteen years on.
Yours, in memoriam,
N.
Yours, in memoriam,
N.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
My student is heading to a conference this weekend, at which she may run into a friend of mine, and so today at a committee meeting I folded some little pieces of origami for said friend's young son.
I asked Skibo what he thought I should fold, and he suggested an elephant.... mainly, I suspect, because that was what I folded for his class on Monday. So I folded an elephant, and in addition my t-rex, kangaroo and palmetto tree designs. And then the colleague to my right asked if I could fold a penguin. Immediately I replied that I couldn't.
And almost as soon, I thought a little, and within seconds had a very simple (essentially seven folds -- one reverse fold, one crimp, and the rest just valley folds) penguin. And naturally, I immediately folded another to send with the other pieces. I've folded a few more to make sure that I remember it --- but really what I need to do is just photograph it. It's that simple.
A nice feeling. The model is simple enough that it can't be new -- but it's lovely to be able to invent it on the fly!
Yours, realising the benefits of 99% perspiration,
N.
I asked Skibo what he thought I should fold, and he suggested an elephant.... mainly, I suspect, because that was what I folded for his class on Monday. So I folded an elephant, and in addition my t-rex, kangaroo and palmetto tree designs. And then the colleague to my right asked if I could fold a penguin. Immediately I replied that I couldn't.
And almost as soon, I thought a little, and within seconds had a very simple (essentially seven folds -- one reverse fold, one crimp, and the rest just valley folds) penguin. And naturally, I immediately folded another to send with the other pieces. I've folded a few more to make sure that I remember it --- but really what I need to do is just photograph it. It's that simple.
A nice feeling. The model is simple enough that it can't be new -- but it's lovely to be able to invent it on the fly!
Yours, realising the benefits of 99% perspiration,
N.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Pens
I'm a pen lover. I like beautiful writing instruments. They don't have to be pretty, they don't have to be expensive, but they have to write beautifully.
Unfortunately, champagne tastes and a budweiser budget lead to fewer choices. But fortunately, I have some nice inexpensive fountain pens, and most especially, a whole bunch of very cheap, and relatively nice disposable ones. Pilot makes a pen they call "Varsity", running $2-3 a pen: it writes smoothly, comes in a delightful range of colours, and is now available (in a more restricted range of colours) at Staples, one of the better local office supply stores.
But the delightful part about all of this is that a few days ago I walked into the back room: Boo ducked down so that I wouldn't see what she was doing. I persuaded her to let me see, and with some trepidation she pulled out one of my disposable pens: she was using it to do one of her drawings. I could be mad -- "That's one of my special pens!!!" but especially now they are available locally,
I had to smile.
The only downside is that I'm left handed, and she is not, so it is harder for me to demonstrate to her how to hold the pen at the appropriate angle to the paper. And so that is now LOML's job (who also likes appropriating my pens:-)
Yours, delighted that I've inspired a six year old to want to use a fountain pen,
N.
Unfortunately, champagne tastes and a budweiser budget lead to fewer choices. But fortunately, I have some nice inexpensive fountain pens, and most especially, a whole bunch of very cheap, and relatively nice disposable ones. Pilot makes a pen they call "Varsity", running $2-3 a pen: it writes smoothly, comes in a delightful range of colours, and is now available (in a more restricted range of colours) at Staples, one of the better local office supply stores.
But the delightful part about all of this is that a few days ago I walked into the back room: Boo ducked down so that I wouldn't see what she was doing. I persuaded her to let me see, and with some trepidation she pulled out one of my disposable pens: she was using it to do one of her drawings. I could be mad -- "That's one of my special pens!!!" but especially now they are available locally,
I had to smile.
The only downside is that I'm left handed, and she is not, so it is harder for me to demonstrate to her how to hold the pen at the appropriate angle to the paper. And so that is now LOML's job (who also likes appropriating my pens:-)
Yours, delighted that I've inspired a six year old to want to use a fountain pen,
N.
Monday, March 23, 2009
A sea change
A sea change in Boo's reading: not only is she reading very fluently, pausing only occasionally to stumble on a word, or to sound out the letters, she's also choosing to read much more: almost every evening at bedtime she'll choose to read a book to Skibo and LOML or me --- and then on Saturday, when feeling miserable and unwell, she went and lay on her bed. I went into her room a few minutes later to discover that she was reading to herself, for pleasure:-)
Yours, reading the signs,
N.
Yours, reading the signs,
N.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Relaxing
Of course, as it always happens --- we get past the weekend of work, get through the planting and constructing etc of yesterday, and we all fall apart. Skibo's not too bad, though he's coughing a bit: LOML and I are worse off: LOML has a nasty cough, and I can feel flu-like symptoms coursing through my arms and legs: but Boo is worst off: she has the worst cough we've ever known her to have, a slight fever, etc etc etc. Definitely calling for a trip to the doctor's office tomorrow.
Fortunately, we've transferred the childrens' files to the local general practitioners down the street, so it's only a two minute drive instead of twenty. But her coughing is absolutely awful.
Yours, distressed,
N.
Fortunately, we've transferred the childrens' files to the local general practitioners down the street, so it's only a two minute drive instead of twenty. But her coughing is absolutely awful.
Yours, distressed,
N.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Sixty people, a few hours
We went out today, sixty some people did, and transformed a space. We took a space that was essentially barren, and changed it into a garden. And it was almost all LOML's doing.
Now I lie a little: the space had grass growing on most of it: it had been set aside as a memorial garden, and LOML has taken charge of getting it from a barren grassed area to a true learning space, vital with vegetables, fruitful with flowers, heaped with herbs. And has also obtained enough grant funding to do things like buy wood for raised beds, soil, mulch and gravel to fill them, seeds to plant, and trellises for them to grow up.
But LOML is the one who went out there and arranged for sixty or more people to show up, to volunteer because their children were at the school too, to put their backs into a spade in the garden, to fill a wheelbarrow and fill a bed with gravel, to mulch an area that's going to be filled with flowers in the shades of a rainbow.
Here's to LOML!
Yours, in praise,
N.
Now I lie a little: the space had grass growing on most of it: it had been set aside as a memorial garden, and LOML has taken charge of getting it from a barren grassed area to a true learning space, vital with vegetables, fruitful with flowers, heaped with herbs. And has also obtained enough grant funding to do things like buy wood for raised beds, soil, mulch and gravel to fill them, seeds to plant, and trellises for them to grow up.
But LOML is the one who went out there and arranged for sixty or more people to show up, to volunteer because their children were at the school too, to put their backs into a spade in the garden, to fill a wheelbarrow and fill a bed with gravel, to mulch an area that's going to be filled with flowers in the shades of a rainbow.
Here's to LOML!
Yours, in praise,
N.
Friday, March 20, 2009
On bonuses
I've been hearing over the past few days that there are tax advantages to corporations to paying large parts of compensation as bonuses instead of salaries: so today I tried to find something out about this: it was not clear from the many pages I read why this would be: bonuses appear to be taxed (for the individual who earns them) at the same rate as income (or possibly higher): and I saw no suggestion of corporate tax breaks either.
So, this suggestion is probably bunk: but if there is a difference in the taxes paid by individuals or corporations when bonuses are paid, perhaps we should simplify things and have them treated the same: that is, bonuses should be viewed as income in the tax year they are paid, and should be liable to the same income/payroll/other taxes as other compensation.
The other obvious advantage of bonuses is that they can be used to make a base salary look lower. That is, to obfuscate. Just as stock options and other packages are used to make base salaries look lower, more reasonable, less outrageous. Case in point? Citi Bank's Vikram Pandit claiming that his salary a couple of years ago was under a million dollars, when in fact his compensation was more than ten times that amount.
When folks complain about the complexity of the tax code, call for a tax form that could be filled out on the back of a postcard, and then suggest that a flat tax is the necessary method to achieve that, I have some sympathy: simplifying the tax code is a great idea. But I am not convinced that the flat rate is the method to achieve this. After all, even if the tax is a flat rate, how many people will do the multiplication by hand and enter the figures. No, all once needs is a simple look-up table to return, given a taxable figure, the tax owed on the amount. The complications in the tax code are a result of deductions for this, allowances for that, and other special laws, rules, exemptions etc. Sure, the tax code could easily be simplified, but it can be maintained as a progressive code as well.
Yours, rambling through the tax fields,
N.
So, this suggestion is probably bunk: but if there is a difference in the taxes paid by individuals or corporations when bonuses are paid, perhaps we should simplify things and have them treated the same: that is, bonuses should be viewed as income in the tax year they are paid, and should be liable to the same income/payroll/other taxes as other compensation.
The other obvious advantage of bonuses is that they can be used to make a base salary look lower. That is, to obfuscate. Just as stock options and other packages are used to make base salaries look lower, more reasonable, less outrageous. Case in point? Citi Bank's Vikram Pandit claiming that his salary a couple of years ago was under a million dollars, when in fact his compensation was more than ten times that amount.
When folks complain about the complexity of the tax code, call for a tax form that could be filled out on the back of a postcard, and then suggest that a flat tax is the necessary method to achieve that, I have some sympathy: simplifying the tax code is a great idea. But I am not convinced that the flat rate is the method to achieve this. After all, even if the tax is a flat rate, how many people will do the multiplication by hand and enter the figures. No, all once needs is a simple look-up table to return, given a taxable figure, the tax owed on the amount. The complications in the tax code are a result of deductions for this, allowances for that, and other special laws, rules, exemptions etc. Sure, the tax code could easily be simplified, but it can be maintained as a progressive code as well.
Yours, rambling through the tax fields,
N.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Spring break is almost over
Spring break is almost over --- one day left --- and since the children have been in school all week (except Monday) it's been essentially wasted. We have to get up as early in the morning as always, since Boo has to eat breakfast, get dressed, and be at school by 7:45.... she's 6, for goodness sake!
Still, it has been almost relaxing --- I've only been into work three of the four days, and I've been able to stay home while the plumbers come in and fix the sink.
We now have a newly re-glued sink (it had been threatening to come loose from the granite countertop) together with new faucet fixtures --- the old one started spraying randomly a year or more ago, but we couldn't bring ourselves to buy a new one. A couple of hundred bucks later, and we are thrilled with the result.
Yours, waiting for spring to start, even though the break is almost over,
N.
Still, it has been almost relaxing --- I've only been into work three of the four days, and I've been able to stay home while the plumbers come in and fix the sink.
We now have a newly re-glued sink (it had been threatening to come loose from the granite countertop) together with new faucet fixtures --- the old one started spraying randomly a year or more ago, but we couldn't bring ourselves to buy a new one. A couple of hundred bucks later, and we are thrilled with the result.
Yours, waiting for spring to start, even though the break is almost over,
N.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Skibo's off to school
We signed Skibo up for kindergarten this morning:for the non-US based readers here, that's the class you go into once you are at least 5 at the beginning of the school year, which Skibo is, by about 5 days --- so he's going to be the youngest in his year (which is fortunate, as it will give the other children in his class time to catch up with him).
I felt this less as a sad time, less a time for crying about how quickly our children are growing up, and more a celebration: he's ready, let's give him the opportunity to learn!
The flip side of all of this is --- he's going to be five, of course he should be in school! And yet, universal kindergarten still seems unaccepted by a segment of the population, and indeed, I'm not sure that it is required for children once they reach age five. I really feel that he has blossomed in the past year --- he's been in a private preschool program, having tested out on the high end of entering what is called here "4K" --- and I know that his teachers are going to miss him (and everyone else: the children in his class are lovely). The idea that a child of that age is not ready to sponge up knowledge and understanding is ridiculous!
Yours, happy for Skibo,
N.
I felt this less as a sad time, less a time for crying about how quickly our children are growing up, and more a celebration: he's ready, let's give him the opportunity to learn!
The flip side of all of this is --- he's going to be five, of course he should be in school! And yet, universal kindergarten still seems unaccepted by a segment of the population, and indeed, I'm not sure that it is required for children once they reach age five. I really feel that he has blossomed in the past year --- he's been in a private preschool program, having tested out on the high end of entering what is called here "4K" --- and I know that his teachers are going to miss him (and everyone else: the children in his class are lovely). The idea that a child of that age is not ready to sponge up knowledge and understanding is ridiculous!
Yours, happy for Skibo,
N.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Shocked, shocked
I'm shocked! Shocked, I tell you, to discover that there was torture going on.
And now it has been confirmed by the ICRC, the international body charged with actually making sure that this sort of thing doesn't happen.
Now what?
Yours, not expecting any reasons to be given to future generations of US politicians to actually, you know, obey the law!
N.
And now it has been confirmed by the ICRC, the international body charged with actually making sure that this sort of thing doesn't happen.
Now what?
Yours, not expecting any reasons to be given to future generations of US politicians to actually, you know, obey the law!
N.
Monday, March 16, 2009
Naming and shaming
Bonuses are a way of life in some fields, it appears. Not in mine, and not, I suspect in the lives of many in this country.
But I recognise that bonuses are a way to reward excellent behaviour, and some companies insist that it's better to give a big, temporary reward instead of a smaller, but permanent raise. (As opposed to my field, where we didn't get raises this year, but that's another story).
Anyway, let's suppose that some people deserve bonuses under the current system in their industry. Let's make some of them justify what they did to deserve it --- or at least, make them think about it. Let's see a list, say, of all those whose bonuses exceeded, say the median income for a family of four. Or if you want to be nicer to those executives (the ones, it seems, who got AIG into the problems which are causing our economy to plummet) let's put a $100K limit: if you made more than that in bonuses last year, I'm inviting you to come forth and explain why it is that you deserve a bonus of this size.... just how is it that you helped your company, rather than leading it to disaster? Please! A hundred grand? Surely you can spend a few minutes justifying why you deserve a bonus of that much!
Yours, modestly proposing,
N.
But I recognise that bonuses are a way to reward excellent behaviour, and some companies insist that it's better to give a big, temporary reward instead of a smaller, but permanent raise. (As opposed to my field, where we didn't get raises this year, but that's another story).
Anyway, let's suppose that some people deserve bonuses under the current system in their industry. Let's make some of them justify what they did to deserve it --- or at least, make them think about it. Let's see a list, say, of all those whose bonuses exceeded, say the median income for a family of four. Or if you want to be nicer to those executives (the ones, it seems, who got AIG into the problems which are causing our economy to plummet) let's put a $100K limit: if you made more than that in bonuses last year, I'm inviting you to come forth and explain why it is that you deserve a bonus of this size.... just how is it that you helped your company, rather than leading it to disaster? Please! A hundred grand? Surely you can spend a few minutes justifying why you deserve a bonus of that much!
Yours, modestly proposing,
N.
A day of folding, a day of children, a day of cooking
Today was rather wonderful fun: friends of ours (more strictly speaking, the daughter of friends of ours, with her family) were in town for a couple of days: their daughter is about four months younger than Boo, so we decided to have lunch at the local cafe, to eat, and then teach Boo's new friend some folds.
It was a huge hit, with the little girl picking things up wonderfully --- we ended up all going back to our house (since Boo and Skibo, being off school for the day had another play date lined up for the afternoon), where at least for a while we continued to fold.
And then children ran around the house. Like crazy! Annoyingly so at times, but tolerable because it was wonderful that they were getting their energy out that way.
I made bread, roast beef (following Cook's Country's recipe for top sirloin --- some chewy bits, but great flavour), potatoes (the regular ones were great: the fingerlings I was experimenting with were awful: gritty, nasty texture, and I wasn't a fan of the flavour: I'll have to investigate why) and other veggies.
And I put together stew for tomorrow, it being St Patrick's day (and our having our sink fixed in the morning meaning that cooking this afternoon if possible was far preferable to waiting until we have no sink for a couple of days!)
And so to bed.
Yours, worn out by the running,
N.
It was a huge hit, with the little girl picking things up wonderfully --- we ended up all going back to our house (since Boo and Skibo, being off school for the day had another play date lined up for the afternoon), where at least for a while we continued to fold.
And then children ran around the house. Like crazy! Annoyingly so at times, but tolerable because it was wonderful that they were getting their energy out that way.
I made bread, roast beef (following Cook's Country's recipe for top sirloin --- some chewy bits, but great flavour), potatoes (the regular ones were great: the fingerlings I was experimenting with were awful: gritty, nasty texture, and I wasn't a fan of the flavour: I'll have to investigate why) and other veggies.
And I put together stew for tomorrow, it being St Patrick's day (and our having our sink fixed in the morning meaning that cooking this afternoon if possible was far preferable to waiting until we have no sink for a couple of days!)
And so to bed.
Yours, worn out by the running,
N.
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