Month: September 2007

Football: That Was Quick

I don’t normally pay much attention to preseason or off-season sports, and my isolation has been better than usual this year with regard to the NFL, what with being in Japan for the past three weeks. As a result, I vaguely expected my Giants to suck this year, but I was not prepared for the… Continue reading Football: That Was Quick

Thanks, Aaron and Nathan

Many thanks to Aaron and Nathan, my guest bloggers over the past few weeks– they did a great job, and if anything probably raised the tone around here. If you’ve got an academic job opening, and aren’t afraid of those blog-reading types, they’re both looking for permanent positions… Hint, hint. They both posted expressing amazement… Continue reading Thanks, Aaron and Nathan

Adieu

Well, as a lot people seem to have written in my high-school yearbook, “it’s been real.” I’ve enjoyed standing in for Dr. Oilcan and appreciate his gracious offer to have an experimentalist representative on his guest-blogging squad. As Aaron said, I don’t know how he does it, but whatever juice he’s on, he sets a… Continue reading Adieu

Published
Categorized as Nathan

Sayonara

Well, Chad’s back, and I guess that means that this guest-blogging stint has come to an end (free! I’m free!). I want to thank Chad again for the opportunity to play in his sandbox for a few weeks. I didn’t get the chance to write every post I had planned. Real life — or at… Continue reading Sayonara

Short Japan Observations

A few general observations from three weeks on vacation in Japan, in no particular order: Thirteen hours is a long goddamn time to spend on a plane. The Japanese can and will pickle damn near anything. The Japanese love paper. This is not an exotic-art-of-origami reference, either: every commercial transaction in the country generates at… Continue reading Short Japan Observations

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Categorized as Japan

It’s Good to Be Home

Friday morning, we woke up in Osaka, and from there, the “day” went something like this: 1 hour on the train from Osaka Station to Kansai Airport 2 hours at the airport 12 hours on a plane to Detroit 2 hours in the airport at Detroit 2 hours on a plant to JFK 2 hours… Continue reading It’s Good to Be Home

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Categorized as Personal

The Loss of Night

I remember the last time I saw the milky way. I was at my aunt’s house in the foothills of the Sierras, and late at night the dense river of stars emerges. But that is still not the true milky way, or so I hear. And, in more urban areas, the detritus of our incandescent… Continue reading The Loss of Night

Huzzah!

Ah, what loyal citizen of California doesn’t remember singing the state song, I Love You, California, every morning. Or was it saying the Pledge…my memory’s hazy. The reason I bring up state songs is not to bring up the ill-fated campaign to make “Born to Run” the New Jersey state song (this town rips the… Continue reading Huzzah!

Teh AMO hottness

I should probably sneak in a few posts before Chad gets back. It’s been a hectic week, as the time came for my current experiment (as it does for all experiments) where one stops futzing around trying to make things better, and takes the actual data, with an eye to moving on. This means that… Continue reading Teh AMO hottness