This is for you, threadwalker, and for anyone else who enjoys beautifully illustrated children's books.

It seems the link doesn't work, so let s try it this way:
http://www.childrenslibrary.org/icdl/BookPreview?bookid=brmqltm_00260001&route=advanced_84_83_0_English_0_all&lang=English&

Projects for this week: to finish taxes, and to look into renting a 1- or 2-bdr furnished apartment/house in Geneva (mid-July to the end of the year). I'm nervous about getting a place with only internet photos and having no clue what the area is like. I'm asking a few people or entities for advice or information. Anyone know Geneva rather well?

Have you ever been disturbed by teleport? You get destroyed in one place and an exact replica is created elsewhere. No one else notices, but I argue that you sure do! Or, at least, you would if you were still alive.

Then someone might argue that this is silly. What if you replaced you arm with a robotic arm? Would you still be you? And then the other arm. Then both legs, and so on...at what point do you stop being you?

I argue that what matters is the brain, and that as long as the brain gets replaced adiabatically, you're still you. What do you think?

To those of you who have been to Rome and know it pretty well, where should we stay when we go there in March? Where are the nicer parts of town? Are those the same parts of town that are near good things to see? Coliseum? Vatican?

On a slightly different note, will it be a pain pushing a stroller around? Cobbled streets probably near the Coliseum, yeah?

update: wikitravel...

My inclination is to make my Picasa albums public. Is there a reason why I shouldn't?

I want a place to post photos for a large audience. Are my choices limited to sites that require one to sign up before being able to view a photo? If so, what's the best place: Flickr? Picasa?

I found a half-eaten pizza in our patio; the cheese and sauce were missing, having been torn away, and there were ants crawling on what was left. Two of the three neighbors are away and I can't imagine the third as having tossed it this way. [AK] mentioned having seen a big raven visiting the patio earlier.

Maybe this already made the rounds, but I got it from stochasticgirl. High typo rate, but maybe it's a pirate thing.

Spring term started today, and a friend of mine from grad school at UC Berkeley came to interview for a job. His talk was great though I fear the search committee is looking for someone in a different field. I hope not because it would have been a waste of his time to have come. His talk was great and he fielded the questions very well. The work he presented was inspired in part by a field trip to Medicine Lake to look at the largest obsidian flows in N America - Allen and I had been there; in fact, our first wedding anniversary was spent driving back with a professor and post-doc. We had Jack-in-the-Balpha for our anniversary dinner.

It gets foggy or cloudy here a lot. When there are clouds, the sky is spectacular, and we've had 2-3 thunderstorms too. Nothing like the midwest but different from what we're used to. The first thunderstorm was really scary. I felt like I was in a lighthouse on a stormy night and that the sharp, crackling, violent lightning would snap the house in two. It went on like that for hours.

I still feel like I have three full-time jobs: the job for which I get paid, baby care, and home improvements/repairs. Fionn is now 5 months old! He can't sit up yet, but he can very competently roll over and grab and manipulate toys. Just the concept of a toy is a fairly new thing, and it was interesting to see him transition from a needs-only person to a person with wants and desires.

We have such few friends here. I should join a playgroup - if not for myself, at least for the boy to have other babies to play with. One pair of friends, with a baby one week Fionn's junior, are moving back east. They were our only friends here in a baby-related sense. I'm sad to see them go, since their parenting philosophy (and therefore larger life philosophy) is so like ours.

I really ought to go to bed.

Well, it's been a long time since my last entry, and I don't know why the following prompts me to make another entry, but I just love where I work. Here is an e-mail from our MSO this morning: "If you are storing your surf boards in the 1000 building mechanical room, please remove them immediately. Facilities will dispose of them if they are not removed by the end of the day."

from http://www.warandpiece.com/blogdirs/002485.html:

"ZDF News reported that the president's visit was a completely staged event. Their crew witnessed how the open air food distribution point Bush visited in front of the cameras was torn down immediately after the president and the herd of 'news people' had left and that others which were allegedly being set up were abandoned at the same time."

Last Saturday we went to [DT] and [TC]'s place for dinner. They made an entertaining Japanese meal, involving making one's own sushi. Plus we had a hot pan at the table center on which we made sukiyaki. The entire meal was vegetarian except the sukiyaki. My favorites: firm tofu rolled in corn starch and deep-fried in peanut oil. And Japanese eggplant fried in mirin and fermented soy paste.

I've finally finished my virtual set up of a cluster, and was thus able to submit a detailed, professional request for start-up funds at UCSD. I'm sure I've missed a few small things, but I figure that the reduction in price due to negotiating with the company supplying these parts (something I did not factor into the estimate) would compensate.

I do have some gripes, but if I write them down, I'll be reminded of them weeks, months, and years later. Rather I should forget them. I hate feeling as if a dark cloud hovers over me. Best to be distracted, let the unhappy chemicals flow out of my system so that I no longer care.

I'm going to a wedding in Sedona, AZ on the solstice. Since I've been itching for a road trip, I've decided to drive there: Pasadena to Tucson via 10 on Monday; Tucson through Phoenix to Sedona on Tuesday (wedding is at sunset); Sedona through Flagstaff back to Pasadena via the north route.

Does anyone know if there are any nice places to visit along the way? I'd like to take it easy on the driving, with lots of little stops. I considered Quartzsite, where they have a huge gem and mineral show every winter. But I think it's pretty dead much of the rest of the year. I'm afraid Joshua Tree would end up being too huge a detour...

( And I thought they'd say I'm most like Spike! )

( personality defect )

I like Dunkel more than Oeko-Weiss and any light beer. Not that we've gotten out much to try anything else because we've been working all the time. andromedagal has to prepare a presentation for a meeting in Cambridge next week. My first deadline is noon tomorrow. That afternoon I will get on a train for Bayreuth, via Nuernberg. Tomorrow and Wednesday nights will be all the time I have to prepare a talk for Thursday. I realize I'm whining, but all of my "free" time is spoken for, for the next three weeks, and I'm tired, cranky, coming down with the flu, and on my own starting tomorrow.

It is difficult to see beauty in small things lately. I just want to dream...of a shipwreck.

I slept the night through and haven't been tired all day so take that, jetlag. We have been working most of the day, but we went for a 45-minute run across fields and along a river and woods. Now to finish writing a statement of research for a job application. A fine use of my time while in this beautiful country. Tonight we will cook dinner to avoid wasting valuable work time. I am beginning to taste seawater.

4PL_^_^V-^_S\c+\^V>+-%|//ZLVL^^-^-|/-^_+-4/-//L|>*/*x-/\c+|>%4pZ%|/V_^_S-|/

I made a left turn this morning near my house, on my way to Caltech, and then I stopped at a light. The guy in the car next to mine rolled down his window and requested my audience, I assumed to ask for directions, but actually to tell me that the turn I had just made was actually illegal. No shit. I make that illegal left everyday. It says I can't do it from 7am to 6pm, and the road has hardly any cars on it. It's also the most direct route to Caltech and the alternative routes are all a pain in the ass. I was glad when he told me that the ticket was $80, if they ever manage to catch me, because now I know that it's definitely worth the risk.

I spent a month in Santa Barbara this summer, for a program, held at the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics. The meeting included the four major disciplines of deep-earth geophysics: seismology, geodynamics (fluid dynamics mantle and outer core convection), geochemistry, and mineral physics (I think rheology needs to be added). The program turned out wonderfully, and I met a very nice group of new people. The dorm food was horrible. Little did I know it would get worse later, in San Diego (I hid my crankiness well), at a 4-day meeting of young researchers in earth science (MYRES). Lots of beer and wine were consumed, and I wonder whether anyone thinks about what is professional vs unprofessional. I personally don't care, and prefer that people be themselves. </p> I managed, in Santa Barbara, to get someone into NetHack. I played a lot too. At one point, everything happened quickly. It said I killed the poor lump of pudding, and the gods got angry; I then figured out that my cat had bitten a chameleon, turned into the pudding, and in all the confusion with so many monsters, I had killed it. </p> I surfed for the second time in my life and managed to stand up thrice! The longest surf lasted five seconds, when I learned it wasn't too difficult to maintain balance. Scripps Oceanographic Institute is beautiful! My favorite building is called "green IPGP" according to the Scripps map, though it isn't green. It's a rather vertical building, along a small cliff, and almost all wood. There are several main levels to climb to in order to reach terraces. It reminded me of a Japanese graphic adventure game, and I kept listening for the peaceful, repetitious accompanying music. While in San Diego, my sea totem (its particular form is vague even to me) kept tugging at me, to be unconcious in the deep. But on my drive back my wolf totem came back to remind me of cold winter mornings in the woods. These two have fought all my life (the sea and earth elements). Depending on where I am, one always dominates, thus making a fair ultimate choice impossible. But choose I must, when thinking of where to live, and choose I finally did. Even next to the sea I missed the winter wolf, but I've never missed the sea whilst among trees. Perhaps because the wolf totem is more defined? So, I've set aside the sea for vacations, and if I'm lucky, I'll die in the far future by drowning in the sea. I don't believe in the zodiac, so it annoys me that I so befit a Taurus. I'm also annoyed because I'm realizing that I sound like an elf out of Tolkien. </p> The sea is associated with runaway emotions. Anyone having been smacked by a wave, taken by a current, or rocked back and forth might understand. The tide gives and the tide takes. Maybe this is why almost all of the poetry I've written refers to the sea...because I cannot write poetry when I am content. I can't give up the sea, as dangerous as it is, because it is so hypnotic and full of surprises. So, to you all, I recommend the sea every once in a while.