Small.Island.in.World.Three

I'm feeling a bit odd. Like my proprioceptive sense is suffering from a time lag. I hope it isn't an early symptom of some illness.

I read 1632 by Eric Flint over the past few days. It is the first book I've read on my Nokia770, which did quite well. The book itself is about a town in West Virgina that gets transported back in time and across space to northern Germany. It caught my eye because I occasionally wonder how I would survive in the A Conneticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court scenario. Sort of a "what do I know how to do" thought experiment.

Potluck was quite nice this week, as was Monday night. And the weather today was very nice. Got to open up the windows and air the place out a bit. Living in an environment that does not rob my body of thermal energy is nicer than in one that does.

I didn't go across the state for the weekend (on advice/order from half the reason I had planned to go, my father). Instead, I enjoyed the beautiful snow of the weekend.

I've been reluctant to add any entries to this small island of world three because of the doubts about what I wish to put on this island. I've thought about it by measuring topics on several metrics. Like "level of care I have" and "level of others knowing". On those two, things like SSN, bank accound info, and normal secrets measure high on the first and quite negative on the second. Things like how dirty my floor is or other trivial minutia of life is very near the origin. Some things are like vectors. The fact that I'm a cool person is something with a low level of knowing (for the general public), but I would like to move it higher, still it doesn't rank all that high on the caring metric.

The other major angles I've considered are "audience" and "projected role". Is the writing for me (in which case the public venue is unproductive, to say the least)? Is it for friends? Is it for the future AIs that will someday decide to read the whole internet archive? Future possible employers? Strangers? Each of these has implications on more than just what topics I write on, but also tone, level of detail, etc.

And then there is the "projected role." The bit above about the furture AI might imply a role something like a historian. Some blogs are clearly journalistic in projected role. Both of these, btw, imply some behavior of fact checking, mistake noting, etc. While other blogs are clearly weblink conduits, sometimes with, sometimes without, quick opinion sharing.

In completely other realms. I've just concocted some soup with a creamy butternut squash base. Quite nice. The base goes with all my usual favorites. Potatoes, tomatoes, spinich, carrot, Garam Masala (my favorite spice), several cheeses. At first, I warmed some up alone and then sampled it with each of the others; a fun kind of experiment, I assure you (and one that I should repeat).

Also, I did some cleaning (and moving things) in my place tonight. I'm almost done drinking a blue bottle of spring water that Dave left when he moved out (among the things that were marked "disappearable". I almost just tossed it/poured it out. Then I thought of the resources that my species had put into getting that water in that bottle and that bottle to sitting on my self for too long. If I die by strange water borne contagion, this might be it, but so far it has tasted quite nice. Although, not as good as that overpriced Fiji water that is somehow the best I've had (but still overpriced).

• Audio currently playing: Portishead.
• Game currently playing: Cube, which really deals with 2-d rectangles.

So, I've begun to wonder about the point of this blog. That is, what information I wish to put on it. So far, I've been pretty open on it and taken it as a place to record events for people I know and the unknown public. But I'm starting to think that it might be better to split the practice of making a log into a private one and a public one. Heck, it works for characters on Star Trek.

Dave and I went to a Fayetteville Master Plan public workshop meeting. I came away from it with the feeling that I like most of the other table's results better than the results of the table I was at. Our level of constraints kept changing from moment to moment. Was it glorious vision of the shining future? Was it where things just fit for practical use? Was it to fit/include what some likely prediction shows? Assume some nice public transportation system or don't? Not enough top down coordination, so our result looked less pretty.

Normal class day. Learn, learn, learn.

I have some belief in the general truth of "there are no stupid questions". However, some people very much strain that belief. Or maybe it is only true in some context other than graduate level university classes, in which there can be stupid questions. For when a line of questions imply the impossiblity of some everday thing, like magnifying glasses, then surely other people around sometimes have a right to expect the person asking to think a bit before taking (read: wasting) their time.

Anyway. Monday night out. Good times. Mill talk, my class frustrations (see above), the future of Fay-ville urban design, Dune, my idea of a good wedding, viruses taking our free will, and much more.

Now home, listening to a bit of Sara Thomas.

Friday was eventful, in a sorta average class-day way. I happened upon Ed Minar at the coffee shop. He was my first mentor in philosophy.

After classes, some quick, but planned and well-executed, packing, then the roadtrip began. Driving, driving, driving. The drive down was dominated by a game Eileen suggested (I think she actively collects such word games). Game = movie titles that are suggestive of defecation, or at least funny if thought-of from that angle. Ask any one of us for the next few days, and you will likely get to hear more such titles than you really wanted to know when you do this hypothetical asking. As Brian, Sean, Heather, and Heather's Brian found out.

Texas was windy, and the wind was often cold in the bitter way.

After some time (and samples of E's birthday present from Sean) at Brian's Plano digs (pretty nice apartment), we drove the requisite 20 minutes to get somewhere, which in this case was The Flying Saucer. Nice place, tasty potables. Then back to crash.

Next "morning", we went to a very Plano "village" area for their Mexican food. The area is much better than most of Plano (and Dallas in general), as the buildings are sane distances apart. Still a bit too "modern overstuffed rustic missing nothing" for my taste. Then staging at Brain's and the trip into Dallas.

First stop, the Dallas Museum of Art (my second time there). Mountain Landscape with Approaching Storm is a good one to get lost in. And I was reimpressed with a painting of a windy cemetery by a sea (I don't see it online), for its ability to repeatedly send a particular shiver of cold down my spine. Not enough Monet's, but of course, plenty of nice phallic and yonic representations from those older, strightforward cultures. Some wonderfully gawdy furniture for those with great style and either no or perfect taste (I go back and forth on the matter). Also a nice little multi-angle short-film about death (and life) starring a couple dozen tops; very nice and laugh provoking. Ah, the funny noises we make as we all spin our energy away and wind down.

Then we found a place to crash later, and hunted down an Indian restaurant (score++ for my 770), as was the wish of the B-day boy John. It is a quite good place. I recommend.

Then back to the Ramada to digest, then out to the West End where we found many places closed or closing. Then one open (post-cold-walk). Predictably from there.

This morning, after our fill of the Ramada, we went back to the West End, to locate some food. Heather and her Brian made a very welcome entrance. Happily, she appears to be doing quite well. Although they have lately taken up the risky hobby of a X-tian connected religion.

After dropping Brian back in Plano, we got a flat tire just before the freeway. John and I attached the spare, while Sonia got the, close by, location for the Sam's Club (she had a warrantee). I tried to take the forced delay as a chance, among other things, to look at the artifacts of my own culture with an eye similar to the one(s) I had used the day before in the museum. Only moderate success.

Then the road, and home to Fay-ville. Overall, nice adventure-type weekend, but Texas needs to figure out proper weatherstripping and wall insulation (every other building was drafty in some way).

Classes yesterday went boringly for the most part. The two I have tomorrow both have stuff due. So that is my today.

Went to Dave's place last night. Watched Dr Who's X-mas invasion episode. Then we threw ourselves against the seemingly hopeless task of rolling up the King of All Cosmos. Rumor has it that 3500m will be enough. Dave's previous best was 2800m. After we did individual runs (in which he up-ed his record), we noticed that I did better than he at getting to about the 300m mark, while he did better than I after the 500m mark. So we tag-teamed on the next try. That got us up to 3300m, more than I was really hoping for on our first night of the task. So the once seemingly hopeless task now seems possible, but it will require a near perfect run (roll) from both of us. A map of the large-scale layout wouldn't hurt.

Planning to go to Dallas this weekend (tomorrow). More than plenty to do today.

Sunday was SuperBowl Potluck. Finger food, mostly of the dip type, was the norm. Dave had lots of neighbor-types over, so it was all best behavior and such. Which, happily, doesn't preclude a bit of yelling. A new girl brought little pizza things, and Lance brought some bean dip. Potluck winner was a tie between them, imho.

After an email last night, I'm feeling better. More sane. Which is nice. It is somewhat self-disappointing that I would have felt un-sane to begin with, but we don't get to choose our own workings. And it wasn't altogether surprising. Life will move on.

I missed a class today, by a self-appointed minute. Bad Phil, do better.

Then more dreamy nanotech. The only problem with the class is that questions aren't really welcome. If one asks, "is X possible?" then the answer is "no one knows". It doesn't play as a comfortable answer, so the question turns out to not be comfortable either. It shouldn't be that way, but so it goes.

Monday night fun was nice. Talk of Dune. Talk of Dave's mill. Me volunteering to look into some logistics for this upcoming weekend. Talk of how life has crushed the dreams of everyone and thus made everyone who has lived bitter, but there is no need to speak of it. Oh, and a famous basketball player showing up in the pub. All in all, very nice.

Now home. And Colbert is on. Stuff to do tomorrow, but happily, no miles to go before I sleep. Just a few steps.

Although the benefit is obviously dubious in retrospect, I spent the day in reclusion. I haven't felt good since my errand Friday.

Part of the theory is that by doing little today I will store up more motivation for the future. As opposed to dragging through something today and still dragging more tomorrow. It makes sense, I'm sure. It's validity is unknown.

Just finished up some archiving. I need more HDD space on this machine.

Sean is right. Those glasses at the end of Casino are great.

Going back to an older version of xscreensaver worked.

So my second and last class of the day was cancelled. Which left me the task of trying to get some paperwork done with someone who is perpetually so busy as to make scheduling time near impossible. Quite aggravating.

Usual friday type night in mind. Sci-fi Friday.

This after I do a bank stop, finish the lingering property exchange, and get staples and supplies.

My massive "emerge --deep world" quest is over, and yet xscreensaver is blanking my screen in a most unhelpful and undesirable way. So I guess I'll move back a couple of versions and see if that works.

I've been reading Partially Clips - A Webcomic for Grownups. It reminds me of another great webcomic strip that I remember sharing with David D, but can't remember the name of --or find a link in my vast bookmarks--. I even tried looking through all the our IM logs for all the links he and I have traded (lots).

Oh, well, time to move around and do some things.

Class cycle today (Wed, yesterday by the blog date).

Did some more SW:Battlefront over at Dave's after class.

Today's Nanotech class was fantasy inducing. Heck, they pretty much all are. There are a few clear things that it would be nice for us to know how to do with carbon nanotubes, CNT. And right now there is a great deal of Monte Carlo in the search. But that is really how it should be, I suppose.

• To the point, fine-grained control of the functionalization of the CNT. Like the order of whatevers that are down the length, bonus points for their relative orientations. Perhaps something that walks down the length of the tube letting things on. If it can just walk a bit, cut the tube, and close up the end, then we can call it a drug packing bot.
• And personally, I'm curious about a functionalization that will induce repeatable bending on command. When a tube bends then the inter-carbon distances in the bend region change. So it stands to reason that some arrangement which would force those same distance changes might bend the tube.
• Can they be nicely cut open for the release of what is in them?
• Further, if the overall curvature can be controlled, and a short tube formed into a torus, might a chain of such toruses be useful? Or what about using such toruses to hold bundles of straight tubes together. Or using it like steel ties. I dream of little tied-carbon frames in plastic. Or just alone.
• Basic question: what is the friction between a CNT and one nested inside?

My dad has a nice idea for a business, which entails, as a first step, me needing to do some researching. He needs interweb. As does Dave.

Fayetteville needs a few tunnels through some mountains. Where is an army of programmable robotic ants when you need them? Cause I want a tunnel and a livable cave on/in the moon.

My daily sleep cycle has definitely shifted about +3.5 hours relative to some "norm". It seems fairly stable. But I might see about shifting it to about +2.5 instead.