So most of you know I am a big fan of KCRW (to the point I send my NPR money to them, not our local station). I am also a huge U2 fan. So I was quite surprised to hear this very odd cover of U2’s Desire (one of my favorites). It was odd.

Pride by Nouvell Vague from their Bande a Part album (iTunes link)

[Updated] I ended up buying the album. Cool stuff.

If someone had told me a few years ago that I would find myself in a situation where I would not be spending more than one evening a week at home, I would have called them crazy. I have always considered myself to be a stay at home and have quiet evenings type of guy. This is such a new experience for me, but I am finding myself almost addicted to it; the friendships I have developed (and those I already had) that make this possible have truly increased my quality of life in many ways. I hope you all know who you are; thanks.

So what have I been up to?

• Work: Hrm. This is a toughy to talk about without sounding completely grumpy. I like technology and the workings of technology; it is what I am good at. Recent events have required a delving into politics that has stretched my patience lately. There are many questions for me in this, none of which I’m ready to share.
• School: I am taking the single required course of the CS Masters program this semester, Advanced Analysis of Algorithms. I realized very quickly why it is required. Normally a class is required because it represents a core set of knowledge for a discipline and while this could be said of Algorithms, I don’t think that is the reason in this case. My feeling is the primary reason is no one would take it otherwise. I don’t like saying that; the professor is wonderful and she does what I think is the best job of making the material interesting but there is only so far one person can go. And the material is quite challenging; it is the type of material that has what I refer to as an “aha moment.” There is rarely a gradual grasping of a solution; at one moment there is no grasp of the situation, then something clicks and you just have to document it. Very bad for partial credit. So this is going to be a tough semester.
• Soccer: Now we get to the fun categories. The Big-Os sports season has started up again with indoor soccer. I played outdoor soccer for many years as a kid, but indoor is a totally different game. Thankfully we have enough people to field a very large team allowing for rapid rotations, but the five minutes I am in has got to be the longest five minutes of my life. I am happy that I have been able to make contact with the ball and I generally seem to be able to advance the position of the team. We won our first game 7-4; hopefully we continue the trend this week.
• Ultimate: Lots of good ultimate and my knee seems to be holding out. A fair number of the new grad students have joined us and they have fit right in to our style of play. Now that weather is far more conducive to play, I hope we get lots of games in.
• Other: Lots of other stuff, just nothing that fits into a nice neat category. So here is some other stuff in no particular order. Still playing Warcraft, not as much as before (see paragraph about not being at home). Reading some to maintain a moderate level of sanity in all the craziness; nothing new lately, I’ve fallen back on some of my old standbys. Being a bowling league groupie for friends. Watching movies; getting back into watching Alias (yeh for seasons 1 & 2), catching up on The 4400, getting roped into a new Aaron Sorkin show (thanks Jim).

So that’s it in a medium sized nutshell. Got anything else you want to add to my list? I’m hooked on doing stuff, so IM, call, or email. :)

So I finally did it; I made it to an Apple Store opening and it was cool. It was campy, filled with cheesy enthusiasm, and reminiscent of high school pep rallies. But it was wonderful. Being surrounded by hundreds of crazy Apple fanboys (and girls) is a unique experience to say the least. The whole trip was just fun.

Being squeezed into Jim’s car with 4 other people wouldn’t normally seem like a good idea, but somehow it just added a certain extra crazy atmosphere to the whole trip. How often do you get to squash into a car with other Apple geeks and spend the entire ride down to Norfolk talking about the various pros and cons of different Apple coding techniques?

So thank you to Jim for organizing, and Adam, Tiffany, and Q for a great trip. Oh yeh, I got a t-shirt :)

Picture: Apple Store MacArthur Center Opening

Just follow the link and watch the trailer.

Man of the Year

Hello everyone. I hope you had a great weekend and enjoyed the respite from the oppressive weather. Sunday morning, I decided to pull out my bike and go for a ride down into town. I packed a book with me in case I got down there and didn’t feel like riding straight back as the ride into town is mostly downhill. Sadly, this implies that the ride back is mostly uphill, bad planning on somebody’s part. But the ride in and back went quite well; I planned on heading into town on Monticello, then in through campus to the Capital Building in CW, then back up Jamestown Rd and home. The hill on Jamestown was my chief concern, but it turned out to not be bad at all. I’m not in as bad shape as I expected :)

But I had no idea how long the ride was. (Key segue to geek topic.) So I searched online and found this very cool site, GMaps Pedometer. It allows you to pull up a Google Map, set waypoints on it, and then it calculates the milage.

So, my trip? 10.5 miles. Not bad for a first go at it.

Hey everyone. Although I think I deserve some credit for the photo posts, I don’t think they really count all that much. As most of you know, there has been a lot going on recently that isn’t really the best for internet wide broadcasting, so I honestly haven’t had much to say. But enough excuses, on with the post!

So last night I went to a friends for a very nice dinner (thanks!) and watched The Chronicles of Narnia. I hadn’t seen it before. Now, I did not read the series as a kid, only reading the one when I was in high school. (Mostly because it was suggested by a girl I had a crush on. What? Can you think of a better reason to read a book?) As a result I can’t really comment on how close the movie was to the book, but I don’t remember howls of outrage from people when the movie came out, so I am hoping they did a good job. It did feel to me however that they pulled most of the religious overtones out of the story; I can see why they would, but it seems wrong to take out one of the underlying themes of the books in making the transition.

As a contemporary (and friend) of J.R.R. Tolkien, it is interesting to see the way in which the authors handled a difficult time in their country’s history in their work. I see the The Chronicles of Narnia as more a parallel to The Hobbit rather than the Lord of the Rings as the story (although having tragic events in the middle) pretty much turns out positively in the end. I am no literary scholar, but I found it interesting that C.S. Lewis took the route of basing his story on children who were being displaced due to horrendous events while J.R.R. Tolkien wrote stories that although they dealt with struggles paralleling the real world, had no direct connection to them. On a less serious note, I’m not sure it would be a blessing or a curse to live probably 20-30 years in a magical realm only to find yourself transported back to your adolescent bodies all of a sudden; probably a little bit of both.

And for whatever reason, the movie resulted in me having some seriously wacked out dreams last night. Very strange.

I took a walk Sunday morning, camera at the ready.

[Updated] Would have been good if I put a link - Photo Page

As some of you know, I have been lusting after a digital SLR for quite a while. The limitations of a point and shoot camera were getting more and more frustrating to the point that I had stopped taking pictures, which is no fun at all. So after a fun discussion last weekend about photography, I decided that I should just bite the bullet and get the camera I wanted, a Canon EOS 20D. Well, let me tell you, it is a very nice camera. My primary complaint with my old digital camera was the lack of manual controls; well the 20D does not lack in manual controls. I have quite a bit of learning in fornt of me, but I am looking forward to it.

I have posted a first set of pictures I took wandering on the paths that surround lake Matoka on campus. Enjoy.

Photo Page

Why? Because it is funny, and I can. Oh, and because I got a pretty high score. Stay away from me with that needle.

The story didn’t end with the last post (here).

Shipping: I got notified that my laptop had shipped back to me complete with a tracking number for DHL. Apple wisely ships things next day air, so I knew exactely when it was going to arrive. I also knew that it was being shipped to my house; on a weekday; to be delivered at 10:30 am. The question of whether a signature would be required was paramount in my mind. So, I called the DHL number and asked if it would require a signature; seems simple enough, wouldn’t you think? The woman said it would not. Being paranoid I kept checking the DHL tracking website to see when it got there. At around 10:45 I saw a new notice: “Delivery attempted. Will attempt next business day.” CRAP! So I called DHL back and spoke with a wonderfully nice woman in the local office. She was quite considerate and said that if I could go and sign the delivery ticket they would swing back around that afternoon. So I did, and they did. The package got left at my door and I eagerly went home at 4:00 to see how the repairs had gone.

Unpacking: When I unpacked the box, everything initially looked ok. I saw from the letter included that they had replaced the inverter board (as expected) and the LCD screen. Unfortunately, when I powered it up, I noticed two long scratches down the right side of the LCD. the more I looked, I noticed that at the top of the LCD (where the iSight camera is mounted), the bezel surrounding the LCD was not fully seated in the case, and as a result it had gotten bent. Not good.

Tech Support: So I called Apple again and explained the situation. The guy on the phone was not particularly apologetic, but he also was perfectly accepting of my explanation and opened another support ticket. My MacBook Pro was going to take a second trip.

Home again, home again: I got my laptop back today, and everything is in good shape. Apple replaced both the LCD and the bezel that was bent. I’m happy.

Oh. The picture? I find it very commendable that the support guy verified that the iSight camera was working. I find it amusing he forgot to empty the trash. But since this is the second support guy (the one who fixed everything properly) I can only raise my hat to this unnamed Apple employee for doing a much better job than the last guy and getting my MacBook Pro back in only 2 business days