Western vs. Eastern Learning
Today, surfing reminded me of my days doing Tai Chi. OK, you say. Whatever. Hear me out. My buddy and co-worker Dudley said I should do Tai Chi with him. I had seen them do it (since “perform” or “workout” don’t work too well) at the Jardin du Luxembourg one May morning, and it looked blissful. (Plus, twenty years later I manage to get a gratuitous reference to the Jardin du Luxenbourg in a blog post! Continue readingWorking out with a Heart Rate Monitor
A while back, I read an article about the dangers of using heart rate displays on exercise equipment. The gist was that the machine told you to reach a certain heart rate, and if that was too much for you, you could injure yourself. Of course, the advice was sound, but the alarmist title, Are Heart Rate Monitors Dangerous? was not helpful. I found using a HRM one of the biggest improvements to my workouts, so much so that I don’t even like to go to the gym at all if my HRM doesn’t work. Continue readingIs Surfing Dangerous?
Every year, there are reports of surfer deaths. There is the always popular (in the press) shark attack, the horrific vision of a sneaky predator shooting from far under the surface to swallow you in little pieces – or big chunks, as luck would have it. There is the giant freak wave that submerges you for minutes until you drown. But, really, how often does either happen? On the other hand, surfing looks fun and safe. Continue readingRomanizing Esperanto / Romigi Esperanton
When you grow up bilingual, you don’t feel 100% comfortable in either language. The things you say tend to sound odd to most people around you, at least some of the time. You tend to use expressions from the other language, or have a preference for words in one that are shared with the other. Thinking that learning a third language would make things right, I started learning Esperanto. The original goal was never accomplished, as is turns out there are about as many people full of scorn for my Esperanto as there are for my Italian or German (or English). Continue reading
Calibre and the Kindle Fire 2
Quick Summary: All you need for Calibre to detect and connect with the Kindle Fire 2 is an updated libmtp.so that has the correct vendor/product for this eReader. That’s all you need for Linux, but an updated DLL will do the same on Windows, and I presume the same is true for OS X. Calibre is great. I’ve used it since I got my first Kindle, many years ago, to backup my eReader, to push Gutenberg library files to it, and to download RSS feeds. Continue readingSVNFS: a Versioned File System
Working with version control systems can be a pain in the butt. I notice that most frequently when I do a find in an SVN directory and find all the administrative files that go with it. It’s factors more files in there than in the actual directory. At the same time, there are times when you would want every access to a file recorded, so as to be able to undo things. Continue reading
Push and Shove [No Doubt] (MP3)
No Doubt fans had to wait for a long time. Their last album was in 2001, and if was the slightly underwhelming Rock Steady. Then came the long hiatus that saw Gwen Stefani touring the world in her slightly overcommercialized version of pop. Then she ran out of fresh ideas, I guess, and the band reunited. Then they promised an album (I almost said, a CD) for 2010. Then nothing happened. Continue reading
The Meta Romuli and the Mystery of St. Peter's Crucifixion
As some of you know, I started writing the successor to In the Mission, my first published novel. This time around, part of the action will take place in my home town, Rome (Eternal, not New York). Research has been going strong, with the week I spent in Italy dedicated for the most part to research the setting and the details of the plot. One of the things that stands out about Rome and its institution is the obsession with twins. Continue reading