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May. 17th, 2012 @ 05:08 pm A Celebration of Love
Current Mood: cheerfulcheerful
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Xave and Patti's ceremony last weekend was lovely. Congrats to the two of them, it was good to see those who could make it in to town for the occasion, and I look forward to still seeing mutual friends and acquaintances that couldn't in the not-too-distant future.

As you might guess from the fact that I'm posting about the weekend on Thursday, I continue to be quite busy. This coming weekend, I'm looking forward to a bit of gardening (helping with it, anyways). I did the work of renting a Zipcar to haul home some dirt for a raised bed this morning.
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May. 9th, 2012 @ 12:30 am Lots of Win
Current Mood: happyhappy
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Last weekend was ROFLCon (the conference on internet memes), which is always fun and hilarious, and it was particularly great this year:
1. It got a huge amount of attention in the local free press (features in the Metro and the Phoenix and an entire issue of the Weekly Dig).
2. The parties were amazing (with thanks to the generosity of the Cheezburger Network).
3. The keynote was amazing and panels were also amazing.
4. Isaiah Mustafa couldn't attend but still managed to do a Q&A via Skype.

Sunday evening, I went to see the Avengers with Film Club, but the showing was sold out, so saw Cabin in the Woods instead. Highly recommend that one if you like horror movies. It's a movie that's hard to say anything about without spoilers, so I'll just say it adds a little extra something to the usual slasher-movie plot, it's written by Joss Whedon, and it's good both as a serious horror movie and a bit of a send-up of the horror movie genre.

Also, Dumpling Cafe in Chinatown is great after a movie.

On Monday, climbed harder courses than before, but still no harder than v1+.

Today at work, completed the first round shadowing an interview. Can't say anything about the specific interview, obviously, but I do feel I got a good feel for the process, and it's interesting to be involved in that side of recruiting.
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May. 2nd, 2012 @ 06:53 pm Mini-Vacation
Current Mood: cheerfulcheerful
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Last weekend, I took a jaunt to NYC with Julie. On Saturday, we ate amazing croissants in Harlem and caught up with a long list of acquaintances: Emmett (a high school friend and animator), his sister Clio (chef and pudding shop entrepreneur), [info]kmo (podcaster and online acquaintence who I had the pleasure of speaking with in person for the first time) and Olga K. ([info]kmo's girlfriend, also a podcaster), and one of Julie's college friends. On Sunday, we joined Nikki for brunch on the town and ventured to an out-of-the-way gallery in Brooklyn to see some unusual art.
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Apr. 17th, 2012 @ 12:47 am More Grip Work
Current Mood: tiredtired
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Bouldering today: Passed a v1+, failed a v2 repeatedly, failed a v1 repeatedly, passed a funky v0, failed a v1+ until I was exhusted.

Good day, but now my hands are pretty sore.
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Apr. 12th, 2012 @ 12:40 pm Stock Market Spec
Current Mood: amusedamused
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I sold a bunch of stock yesterday, bringing some ill-advised speculation to an abrupt end. At net a slight loss, but as far as ways to learn you're terrible at stock-market speculation go, it could be worse.

Of course, most of my long-term savings is in sensible things like low-cost index funds and a savings account. But how boring is that? So for the sake of entertainment, a bit of discussion on some stocks I own, and why I own them:

Zipcar: The price had declined somewhat from the IPO, but I figured it was cheap at that point. Unfortunately, the market didn't agree, and the price continued to decline by almost half. I'm was optimistic about the long-term prospects of the company, for basically the reasons enumerated here. I'm still optimistic, but wish I'd bought more later instead.

Netflix: Basically the same story, bought in significantly after the first bubble popped. Has declined a bit since, but it's a company I like, and I'm optimistic about their long-term success.

Microsoft: Bought for kicks, on speculation that Ballmer might step down. But Ballmer's sticking around and the value went up 30%. So whatever.

Illumina and Life: Both are developing technologies that might bring whole-genome-sequencing within the reach of the average consumer. I think that will be very valuable tech in a future with cheap data crunching and rising healthcare costs.

Nintendo: Wanted to own a bit of the company, and it's cheap now. Maybe some future innovative product will boost the price as much of the Wii did. (That's unlikely in an increasingly competitive market, but I expect they'll continue to try innovative things.)

SPDR Gold Trust ETF: $_$
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Apr. 10th, 2012 @ 03:18 pm PAX Easter
Current Mood: cheerfulcheerful
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This past weekend was the weekend when everything was scheduled all at once: No fewer than three major events that I would have considered going to, plus Passover and Easter. What I did end up going to was PAX East, with a break on Friday to attend a Passover seder with my extended family.

PAX was fun this year. I spent far less time on the expo floor than I did in past years, since I wanted to take in more of the tabletop games with Julie. I focused a lot on old-favorites, played two M:tG tournaments (both a mini-master format, where players receive far too few cards to build their starting decks, but winners of each round get to move on to the next with additional cards and the chance to rebuild), a few rounds of Dominion, and a not-yet-released lines-and-dots game of castle building.

I didn't miss the expo floor entirely: I played a demo of a stylish heist game, flailed around in front of a screen playing Fruit Ninja Kinect, played far too many rounds of Jetpack Joyride, and puzzled through a few levels of Lawnmower Challenge. I also got to pick up a 3DS for the first time. I'm not sure if the 3D display will really make any game better, but it's a rather magical gimmick.
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Apr. 4th, 2012 @ 06:02 pm Catch-Up Jumble
Current Mood: cheerfulcheerful
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Did I fail to mention (here) that Cape Air has been running ITA's airline reservations system since March? In other Google product news, evidently the Google AR glasses thing is real. I'm not sure it's good for me to be even more plugged in than I already am, but I'd probably buy something like that, especially if it gave me a shot to replace my faulty recall for names/faces with technology.

I write too little here lately, and end up accumulating stuff until it's terribly disorganized. I should try to write short posts again when I have something to say, but here's a jumble of what I've been up to lately:
  • I've gotten back to playing Skyward Sword, which is fun, but the control scheme is often more of an annoyance than an improvement.
  • This weekend, watched Sita Sings the Blues (a retelling of the Ramayana set to the music of Annette Hanshaw), an odd (and good) movie that almost didn't get released due to copyright-law brokenness.
  • Delicious brunch at East by Northeast in Inman!
  • Returned a letter to the post office that was misdelivered because they'd confused "St." for "Ave." and my city, state, and country for an entirely different one.
  • Saw Tjani, Dillon Francis, and Nero in concert at the House of Blues. Good stuff, though I think I liked the opening acts better. Big-effects shows can really detract from the music.
  • Squares has been fun lately, when I get the chance to go.
  • Spent all of Monday evening failing v1s and v2s bouldering. My climbing skill has really plateaued, even though I'm getting stronger in some ways.
  • Fitness stuff continues, though I haven't written about that in ages. My big goal lately is to get up to a (back-)squat of two plates (225 lbs.), did six reps of 205 today.
Edit: Corrected weights.
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Mar. 26th, 2012 @ 03:17 pm The Latest Spectacle
Current Mood: awakeawake
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Saw The Hunger Games last night. I thought the film was about as faithful an adaptation of the book as one could hope for, given the constraints of perspective, running time, and the movie business. Worth watching if you like dystopian fiction.

There's a good round-up on the adaptation choices here. BoingBoing has a good review, and OverthinkingIt discusses the movie and the books.

It is worth noting that the movie (as the book) plays the scenario dead-straight, unlike similar stories like Battle Royale which color their over-the-top scenarios with grim irony and dark humor. The movie even more so than the book because of the lack of internal monologue. Actually, the movie seems very precisely calculated to avoid irony in it's presentation to the greatest extent possible, just as precisely as it avoids receiving that R rating.
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Mar. 15th, 2012 @ 03:04 pm Sky Blogging
Current Mood: excitedexcited
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Back from PyCon and the Googleplex! On my way back, anyways. There's (surprisingly good) wifi on the plane.

PyCon was great, in particular the tutorials on iPython (the latest versions have an awesome Mathematica-like notebook interface, where you can make rich multimedia documents with runnable code snippets) and the scikit-learn library (a powerful machine-learning toolkit).

Google's HQ is also cool (and huge!). Reminds me of college, really has a "summer camp for engineers"-type vibe. Despite some hassles involved in remoting, I was still able to get a fair amount of work done.

Looking forward to being back in Boston!
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Mar. 5th, 2012 @ 04:45 pm Convention, Conference
Current Mood: awakeawake
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Intercon was fun this year! Played in a few games:

BloodNet - Based on this MicroProse game from '93, about what it said on the tin.

The Madrian Secret - A game with a retro sci-fi atmosphere.

Life at the Securemarket - Based on this, which you should consider reading if you like Snow Crash and the like.

Dreams of Peace, Dreams of War - League of Nations IN SPACE but despite that description played dead straight and serious (despite being mostly people talking around one table, the game managed to be tense, dramatic, and interesting).

Flew the Coop - Silly, chickens were involved.

This week and next I'm heading to PyCon for professional development, and visiting the Google HQ at Mountain View.
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Feb. 22nd, 2012 @ 07:43 pm A Few Links, Not Organized
Current Mood: awakeawake
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For DFW fans, The Decemberists Play Eschaton.

The real message of the Susan G. Komen / Planned Parenthood controversy.

An essay urging Americans to Raise the Crime Rate.

A 60-minutes interview with free-climber Alex Honnold.
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Feb. 20th, 2012 @ 06:24 pm One Sort of Cold
Current Mood: sicksick
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The weather remains unseasonable, but the viruses of winter are still making the rounds.

This weekend: Boston Lamb Jam (lamb and beer tasting even) was fun and delicious, though I was not as hungry as ideal. Today I have the day off, but I'm just resting. Evening plans: Cooking soup!
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Feb. 14th, 2012 @ 06:29 pm More Links on the Prop 8 Appeal
Current Mood: thoughtfulthoughtful
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A few interesting things to share:

A post on why marriage bans are sex discrimination and thus subject to intermediate scrutiny (must further an important government interest in a way that is substantially related to that interest). The argument is logically rock solid. If two people are in court and changing the gender of one of those people changes the decision, the law that effects that change discriminates based on gender and must meet the standards of intermediate scrutiny, period (regardless of whether the law disadvantages one gender or another, regardless of whether the effect of the discrimination is somehow symmetrical or balanced). On the other hand, that argument will be ignored because it seems to be a technicality, the real effect of such laws is to discriminate between homosexuals and heterosexuals, not men and women.

A post on what counts as rational basis in the context of such laws. The big question, does rebuking "activist judges" count as a rational basis? Commenter Joe hits the important point in his response:
The means of "rebuking" matters. Justice Stevens in Carey v. Population Services:

Although the State may properly perform a teaching function, it seems to me that an attempt to persuade by inflicting harm on the listener is an unacceptable means of conveying a message that is otherwise legitimate.
(If rebuking the judiciary is a rational basis (as pointed out by another commenter), the test is pretty meaningless, since it now means only that a discriminatory law has to be passed twice.)

A very interesting op-ed on the case in the context of Lawrence v. Texas, arguing that Prop 8 and the "homosexual conduct law" overturned in Lawrence fail the rational basis test similarly, in the context of a transformed legal order (in Texas, sweeping reform of sexual conduct laws that struck many restrictions from the books the very same year the law overturned in Lawrence was passed; in California, a transformed system of family law that grants homosexuals the full system of marriage rights and obligations sans the word "marriage"). The rational basis in question is not for denying gays marriage, but why just gays, why just "marriage"?

Finally, an interesting post on Kennedy's Ratchet (referring to Justice Kennedy's opinion in Roemer cited in the recent ruling). The author of the post speculates that SCOTUS could uphold the very narrow version of the ruling from the appeal, where states would not be forced to grant marriage rights to homosexuals, but would not be able to pass laws that take (just) those rights away once granted.
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Feb. 7th, 2012 @ 10:41 pm Another Step Towards SCOTUS in the Prop 8 Case
Current Mood: awakeawake
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Very interesting!

The 9th District Court of Appeals has issued a 2-1 panel ruling affirming the lower-court ruling that overturned CA's Prop 8. The full ruling is quite long, I haven't been able to get into it yet, but here are the key points from the summaries I've read:

1. The stay is still in effect, pending deadlines for filing an appeal, so nothing changes for those seeking to get married in CA. The Prop 8 Proponents will probably ask for a longer stay as they continue the appeal process (if the Circuit Court of Appeals refuses as stay, they could ask for a stay from SCOTUS).

2. The next step in appeals is to ask for the entire set of 9th Circuit Court Judges rule on the case en banc.

3. The ruling seems to be on rational basis instead of strict scrutiny grounds, so doesn't require argument about whether laws regarding sexual orientation require stricter review.

4. It's a narrow ruling, in that it specifically looks at the issue in the context of CA, which has marriage-minus-"marriage" civil unions (both before and after Prop 8). A lot of the arguments that Prop 8 serves a legitimate government interest refer to interests that are not in fact served merely by removing the term "marriage". The ruling concludes: "Proposition 8 serves no purpose and has no effect, other than to lessen the status and human dignity of gays and lesbians in California, and to officially reclassify their relationships and families as inferior to those of opposite-sex couples." It is an attempt at "separate but equal" which cannot be constitutional.

If SCOTUS ever ends up hearing this case, I'd hope they wouldn't be so restrained in scope and not rule against "separate but equal" in a way that leaves open the question of whether states can simply ditch the "but equal" part on this particular issue (leading to a scramble to repeal long-established compromises on civil partnerships / civil unions). But making a narrow ruling increases the probability that SCOTUS will just decline to review the case, letting it stand for now (until other circuit courts have a chance to rule on it, anyways).
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Jan. 25th, 2012 @ 04:31 pm You Win!
Current Mood: cheerfulcheerful
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Maximum congratulations to Julie, who late late last week finished the final level of her PhD.

The weekend was spent lifting boxes with the help of her folks. Now all is ready for the next adventure.
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Jan. 15th, 2012 @ 10:16 pm Showtime for Hunters at MIT
Current Mood: cheerfulcheerful
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The MIT Mystery Hunt was this weekend. It was fun. This year's Hunt was themed after "The Producers"; Max and Leo are up to their usual schemes and require the teams' help to make their new scam plays into sure-fire box-office flops (included rounds of puzzles like "A Circus Line" (meta-puzzle solution: ELEPHANT IN A TUTU), "Okla-Holmes-a" (CORNY CLUES), and "Into the Woodstock" (RAPUNZEL HAS AFRO)).

Puzzles and solutions are here. Cool puzzles I helped on:
Pure and Simple (figured out the form when the Muse struck, helped solve the rest)
Zugzwaang (someone pointed out the misspelling, I figured out the form from that plus Wikipedia and helped solve)
Tax... In... Space... (this is a straightforward(ish) puzzle)
Winning Condtions (someone else figure out the form, I wrote a program to help solve it)
Sounds Good to Me (Xave figured out the form, I helped solve)

The above are all pretty decent puzzles to try if you like puzzles (the answer to Hunt puzzles is always a word or short phrase), or just to look at the solutions if you're curious how such things are designed.

In unrelated Boston news, it is now COLD.
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Jan. 3rd, 2012 @ 06:09 pm Officially Winter Now
Current Mood: blahblah
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Happy New Year! The New Year's celebrations were good!

2011 was interesting. 2012 will likely be more interesting. Crazy thought.

Today should be my first work day of the year, but I am home sick.

I have a new phone (the Verizon model of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus) courtesy of my employer. On the one hand, I miss some of the extra features HTC Sense adds to the Android platform (better dialer interface, Facebook integration in the address book and better merging of duplicate contacts). But it's certainly a powerful phone with a very cool UI and a huge screen.

I started playing the Portal 2 "Peer Review" DLC (pretty fun).

If I had something more interesting to post, it's completely slipped my mind.
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Dec. 28th, 2011 @ 11:06 pm White Christmas, New Year Approaches
Current Mood: cheerfulcheerful
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Last weekend, I went to visit Julie's family, and it was a rare white Christmas in Lubbock, Texas (enough to give the yards and rooftops a uniform coat of white, little enough to vanish without a trace the moment the sun came out on the 26th). It was good to see her folks under less-hectic circumstances, and it was a very pleasant and relaxing weekend. We watched Cats (the musical, on DVD), played catch with the most energetic German shepherd I've ever met, and had a fantastic Christmas dinner. I kept Julie company, reading while she continued to grind out the last bit of her thesis, and I played some games of cribbage with her dad and brother (wasn't nearly as rusty as I expected).

The flight there was smooth, but the flight home was marred by a 4.5 hour delay and subsequent missed connection. At least American put me up in a hotel nice enough to almost make me forgive them for the delay (the Grand Hyatt at DFW).

Then back home and back to work. Trying to wrap up end-of-year stuff and get some good work done in the quiet office.

Winter has been delayed here, but seems to be dragging itself in the door.

Can't believe 2011 is almost over.
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Dec. 16th, 2011 @ 01:59 pm A Variety of Shows
Current Mood: awakeawake
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Going to concerts reminds me that I need to go to more concerts.

A few weeks ago, ventured to Northampton with friends to see Dar Williams at Iron Horse Music Hall (opening act was Hannah & Maggie). Both modern folk bands in a classic style (which is to say, vocals and guitars without much embellishment). Good stuff.

This week, went to see Dir En Grey at Paradise Rock Club. They put on a well-produced show, but I preferred the opening band, The Birthday Massacre. Partially, that's just because I was more familiar with the opening band, but I also like being able to make out the lyrics (helps that Paradise has good sound for their opening acts). Dir En Grey's selection for the concert leaned more towards death-metal, I like some of their more melodic stuff better.
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Dec. 6th, 2011 @ 01:02 am Cambridge, Occupied
Current Mood: worriedworried
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Harvard Yard remains closed as "Occupy Harvard" student protests continue. By day, the gates are heavily guarded by campus police and private security. By night, all gates are padlocked, save for one tiny gate defended by 2-3 guards.

It's quite disturbing to see Harvard Yard closed to the public, since it's been major pedestrian thoroughfare for years (including being part of the direct route from Harvard Square to my neighborhood). Maybe it's just considering the sorts of situations for which one would expect the Yard to be closed (martial law, violent crime spree, general anarchy). Or maybe it's considering the fact that there's no such threat, that Harvard is merely trying to curtail the free speech of some students. Are they that afraid of the students? That afraid that Harvard Square's wide variety of campers might relocate some hundred yards or so given the presence of a tent city on campus proper? The former is perhaps a more reasonable worry.

So far, Harvard Square remains relatively calm, but Harvard's barred gates create quite an ominous mood.
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