gaffetheorist

Anyone know a good reason why central air conditioning might cause noise on the phone line & interfere with DSL service? And/or how one might ameliorate it?

I'm in Turkey!

The trip over was a little troublesome; two of my three flights were delayed taking off by over an hour, though neither of these actually caused a disruption, and my cab driver had never heard of the university where I was going, and had to stop for directions a couple of times. I've mostly adjusted to the time zone shift by the expedient of believing what nearby clocks tell me, but I'm still at the point of nodding off several times a day (and not just during conference talks).

The days have been full of math talks of varying degrees of interest, punctuated by breaks wherein I realize (a) how very little Turkish I speak (i.e. none) and (b) how very flexible Turkish is about borrowing words (If you speak a lot of Arabic, a little English, and a little French then you can almost certainly read a standard restaurant menu, for instance). The nights have been socials: Monday a reception by the university swimming pool, Tuesday a boat cruise around the Bosporus. Alcohol has been free and plentiful at these events, and there's no sign of that changing.

So far, so good. Further impressions of the city and the conference soon.

It may be what they call "The Muppet Show", but is that what the Muppet Show really is?

Just a quick update to verify my continued status among the breathing:

I'm in Halifax at present, and will be for the next several days. Suggestions for ways to amuse myself are welcome.

My sister's wedding went off with only the expected hitch. She and her new husband were both serene through the whole thing. I'd arrived in town early to help with last-minute errands, but that proved to be (mostly) unnecessary. I have many cool cousins who I don't see enough of.

It's just so true.

freakykitten has chided me for not updating frequently enough. Let's see what we can do about that.

Last Wednesday was a very long day, in part because it was continuous with last Tuesday. I left my house at 5:30am (Eastern) to drive across town to the local "International" airport; thence followed a flight to Atlanta, a connection to Seattle, and then a bus to Vancouver. You may well object that flying via Atlanta cannot possibly be the right choice for such an itinerary, but I was flying on points & hence had a somewhat limited selection of itineraries. I was pretty dozy on the flights, as you might expect. The bus was struck in construction traffic (on top of the holiday traffic) for much of the ride, but I'd packed the DVD of "Brick" to amuse myself with & hence didn't notice.

( In Vancouver )

The key to skillful travelling, I think, is time: if one gives oneself an ample cushion of time, it makes dealing with unexpected circumstances with serenity that much easier. I took a 9:00 shuttle from my hotel to the airport for my 11:30 flight; this gave me sufficient space in which to repack my bags to my satisfaction, for instance, and also to discover that my flight to Cincinatti was being delayed & I was therefore in severe danger of missing my connection. I got rebooked on a slightly later flight through Detroit without much incident, and ended up with sufficient time to check out a wine tasting bar called Vino Volo at the airport & still make my flight in good order. After that the trip went without incident, if we all agree that getting totally turned around on the way out of the airport and going off in the wrong direction for a few minutes doesn't count as "incident" and in fact will never be mentioned again.

( footnotes! )

For those who like to keep track of these things: I'm looking to be in Ontario this weekend and also probably the weekend of the 15th. I'll be South the weekend of the 30th, spinning tunes at trimmje's wedding reception. It's very likely that I'll be in Chicago for at least part of the weekend of the 23rd. That leaves only the weekend of the 9th when I'm doing nothing, except that "nothing" should be understood here to mean something very like "grant proposals".

I'll sleep when I'm dead, and also late on Wednesday mornings.

So I'm glancing through the problem set for the chapter I've going to cover in one of my classes; all of the problems are along the lines of "here's an argument, is it logically valid?" And I come to question #13:

If Chris studies, then he will pass the class test. If Chris does not play cards, then he will study. Chris did not pass the class test. Therefore, Chris played cards.

…and all of a sudden, it's ten years ago and I'm sitting across a table in the Lounge, playing bridge with the_real_crispy, who was at the time skipping his topology midterm. (Or was it algebraic number theory? I can't recall.)

Anyhow, vaguely spooky.

Since I know there's at least three people on my flist who might be affected by this: Apple's announced a battery recall and exchange for certain iBook and PowerBook models.

Having just found out about this now, I fully expect that when I go home in the next couple of hours, it will develop that my laptop's battery is one of those affected, and that it will demonstrate this by having overheated and set my house on fire. OK, "fully expect" is perhaps a bit strong, but still.

Update (18:09): Yes, my battery is one of the ones affected; no, my house didn't burn down. But 4-6 weeks for the replacement to arrive is irksome.

Tagged by lizcase

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the next 4 sentences on your LJ along with these instructions.
5. Don’t you dare dig for that "cool" or "intellectual" book in your closet! I know you were thinking about it! Just pick up whatever is closest.
6. Tag five people.

It's a good thing that I read this at home; had I been at the office, then y'all would now be treated to four sentences out of some math text. As it happens, the closest book to me is/was Freedom and Necessity, a novel by Emma Bull and Steven Brust:

"…That way I don't have to keep track."

"Welcoming me, then, would be a pretense."

The mantel was shoulder-high on him. He rested one arm along it and leaned there, his eyes half-closed and wholly impersonal.

Too lazy to tag anyone; if you feel like playing, then consider yourself tagged.

From his post: It works like this: You reply to this post and I give you a letter of the alphabet. Then you drudge up 10 songs that start with said letter and put them in your journal (with these or similar instructions). Google/Discogs/iTunes playlists are for Bell Ends.

My letter, appropriately enough, is "G".

1. Great big sea/Gone by the board, Great Big Sea.
2. Groove is in the heart, Dee-lite.
3. Ghost, the Indigo Girls.
4. Georgia on my mind, Ray Charles. (And probably lots of other people.)
5. Georgia Lee, Tom Waits.
6. Gamble, the Lowest of the Low.
7. Getting mighty crowded, Elvis Costello & the Attractions.
8. Guitar man, Cake. (But originally someone else; Bread, maybe?)
9. Ghost of a chance, Rush.
10. Good mother, Jann Arden.

Sent out my change of address form to the post office today: as of Friday, the change should be in effect, so this weekend's the target one way or another. I've contacted the various utilities to get service started up (or, in the case of the phone company, transferred); filed change of addresses with my bank and my car finance company. (And the insurance provider, who's upping my rates on the basis of my now having a slightly more urban/central ZIP code as far as I can tell. Not sure I get it, but whatever.) Still need to touch base with various local businesses and services (i.e. public library, grocery co-op, etc.) and my out-of-town banks and credit cards.

I've decided that it's pleasant to deceive myself into thinking that four people will make a sufficient moving party. And assuming that I get my current place well and truly prepped (read: cleaned and packed), it might not even be a lie. (Ooh, mental note: book moving van.) The plan is to pack small things (= books) into boxes & bring them over a small load at a time during the week, since I'm already pretty much heading to the new place anyway when I come to campus. Large items of furniture are what the moving party is for, and any remaining small things — and any cleaning — can be left until later.

This will work. Even though I feel like I'm forgetting something major.

In other news, got my invoice for my ICA dues today. When I joined last year I was an Associate Fellow, which roughly translates to junior faculty; this year I've been upgraded to Fellow. (From the "About the ICA" letter: Fellows are established scholars and will typically have the rank of Associate Professor or higher.) Since I haven't been promoted, I can only assume that when the ICA gives you a medal they consider you established. Or they just wanted to charge me an extra $20/year. Whichever.

OK, so overly short summary of the last few weeks:

• Much general hanging around Ontario, seeing people that I feel I don't see enough of.


• fanlain and hukuma's wedding, of course, and the attendant parties. An excellent time was had by all.


• The watching of soccer. Go Black Stars!


• Some work, believe it or not, got done. Granted, much of this work involved revising and submitting papers which were already written, but that still counts, right? I've got one journal that's decided that --- contrary to the evidence of my e-mail address, and the little note at the bottom of the manuscript giving the name of the corresponding author --- since I'm one who submitted the paper, I must be the first author. (Note that this might make sense in other fields, but the convention in mathematics has authors listed alphabetically.)

I feel like I've omitted most of the story, but that's probably because I'm tired from the road and am thinking longingly of my bed (which has actual springs in it and everything, unless the residence-room cot I've been using the last couple of weeks). More details might follow.

Oh, hey Dr. trimmje: I don't know that I've got a good e-mail address for you now that you've graduated and all. Get in touch --- that opportunity I mentioned a month or two ago might be coming to fruition.

Professor gaffetheorist:

We were going through the files of $JOURNAL and discovered a manuscript that you submitted a year and a half ago. The file had been marked complete but no referee's report was included; we believe this is because the referee died.

Did you still want this paper published?

The Kirkman medal is given by the ICA (Institute for Combinatorics and its Applications) every year to recent Ph.D.s with "a record of achievement" in discrete mathematics research. Award winners are announced at the Southeastern Combinatorics Conference in March.

One of the medalists for 2005 is, apparently, me.

Cool.

This is truly a happening month in my corner of the Midwest. Over the next few weeks, the local Big Venue will be playing host to such luminaries as Nickelback, Mötley Crüe, and Nine Inch Nails.

I am actually sort of tempted to see NIN live, particuarly since it's on a Thursday & so I won't have anyplace I need to be -- and, more importantly, anything I need to hear -- until the following Monday. We'll see; while the most recent album has its moments, I'm not convinced that I could stand a two-hour-plus set. There is no force in the 'verse that could compel me to go see Nickelback in concert.

And Mötley Crüe? How is it that they aren't dead yet?

Going through the mail that piled up during my three-week sojourn away: the usual raft of flyers and end-of-month bills, along with a couple of slightly tardy Christmas cards (hi elbieinwaterloo!) and some courses-for-adults booklets from local educational institutions. And a "save the date" card from fanlain and hukuma, which included -- and this is the brilliant part -- a fridge magnet with their photo and the date to be saved on it. How very cool.

Kitchener-Waterloo folks: I'm planning to be at McMullen's (King Street at Princess, on the off chance that you don't know) for some while on the evening of the 28th (= Wednesday). If you want to come hang out, then please do. (If you don't, or if that doesn't work for you, no worries; I'll be hanging about the region for the next week or so.) I'm planning on being there by 8:00pm or so.

So I've been good all day. Even though my Shiny New Toy arrived at my aparment shortly before I left for work, I've been getting grading done and teaching classes and drawing pictures for my upcoming talk and all the stuff I'm supposed to be doing. And not once have I seriously considered skipping out to go and play.

And now my day's work is over. It's playtime.

(Which of course makes me apprehensive... in that way that maybe there's something important that I've managed to forget about completely, which will occur to me tomorrow sometime around Kentucky or so, and which will become the key to my destruction. But I guess everyone feels that way now and again, right?)

So it's like Week 3 of the term, which still seems cah-razy to me since Labour Day was yesterday. You'd think that after six years in the American semester system I'd be used to this sort of thing by now, but apparently not.

Anyhow, today's when it's really sunk in that this is a new term. For today is the day the first assignments are due.

I'm not terrifically optimistic, really. Partly this is my general cast of mind, but it's also prompted by the fact that I had no one come and ask me any questions outside of class... until this morning. And, of course, in class right before the assignments were due.

We'll see.