A Day in the City
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posted by flyingroc
on 11/16/08
This morning (well, noonish), I woke up with a choice: clean the apartment so it's presentable when my friends Rob and Ben come visit, or go to the Seattle Art Museum to ogle at Edward Hopper's women. The decision was simple; I took the 550 bus to Seattle, leaving my apartment in its usual mess.
Edward Hopper is one of my favorite painters, and SAM provided 10 Hopper paintings of various women. The man often depicts people in those quiet pensive moments. Hopper's work seem quite apt for Seattle, a town that has its fair share of loners and introspective people. The Seattle Art Museum is not very big, certainly it's small in comparison to the museums in NYC or DC. But exhibits like this are why I paid the annual membership fee.
Continuing with the art theme, I resolved to go to Seattle Center to go check out an arts and crafts fair. Along the way, I stepped into a gay marriage rally.
Despite the Prop. 8 setback, I think it's only a matter of time for gay marriage to be well accepted in society. The protesters looked tame enough, but the police seemed to be taking things seriously. And so did some street preachers.
I didn't know how to get to Seattle Center by bus, so I just followed the monorail. A short walk later I was at the Space Needle.
I don't have a picture of the arts fair. It was nice, I walked around the booths a bit. I couldn't afford what I liked. So I headed back to downtown seattle, and waited for the bus. The guy a few feet away started puking. While that wasn't pleasant, it's part of the charm of Seattle, where gay activists and fire and brimstone preachers coexist. Where a museum housing timeless art is across a strip club proudly showcasing "Erectoral College".
Quite an eventful day. A couple more pictures are over at Flickr
Fun Fact
(3 comments)
posted by flyingroc
on 11/11/08
There are 3 times more teriyaki places in Seattle than McDonald's, Burger King, and Jack in the Box combined.
Sweet and salty chicken, yeah.
Stocking up my pantry
(2 comments)
posted by flyingroc
on 11/07/08
One of the annoyances of living by yourself is cooking for just one. I bought a dozen eggs a few weeks ago, and I still have 6 in my fridge. I don't even know if they're still good. I try not to keep too much food in the apartment, but not having the right ingredients discourages cooking, and not cooking enough gives rise to more spoilage... leading to less food in the house. Which leads to late night runs to wendy's.
To break this downward spiral, I am trying to stock up on non-perishable items. Dry pasta, canned tomatoes, etc. What should be part of a well-stocked pantry? Can I use powdered milk as a substitute for regular milk in recipes? What kind of vegetable oil should I keep that wont go rancid too quickly? Got any good recipes with just pantry food? Inquiring minds want to know!
The other thing I have to do is go to work and get home at some sane hour so I can cook.
So now that the election is over...
(4 comments)
posted by flyingroc
on 11/05/08
It's time to gear up for the next one! Ron Paul 2012, anyone?
Uh...
(2 comments)
posted by flyingroc
on 10/12/08
You need to watch the whole thing.
Just a little background--Microsoft's PDC (Professional Developers' Conference) is a conference held every few years, usually when Microsoft announces some big things.
Plato, Kant, quantum theory, a critique of postmodernism, and the arrow of abstraction
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posted by flyingroc
on 10/09/08
I've been sleeping at 3:00 am the last few nights reading Neal Stephenson's latest novel Anathem. It's one of the most fascinating things I've read in a long while. I think Stephenson writes novels with compelling geeky characters and interesting stories mostly as vehicles to present a series of mini-lectures about whatever he is thinking about at the moment. In this book he's gotten close to the ideal story to frame his thoughts.
The story is set in a world where scientific thinkers are separated from the rest of the world. But a strange thing seen in the sky is threatening the secular powers, and things are about to change. It's an engaging story of a young man who has to navigate the complexities of living in a walled town of intellectuals, and then thrust into the world. But beyond the story, there are the ideas.
Stephenson presents plenty of ideas in the book. Some of them, I'm familiar with. I recognized that he draws from the tradition that goes through Plato and Kant, for which I thank my undergrad education at UA&P--there have been points in the book where I wished I had Fr. de Torre's modern philosophy textbook at hand). We take romps through math, and cosmology, and quantum physics. At one point Stephenson launches what seems to be a critique of postmodernism, or a least an extreme version of it that claims everything is culturally constructed.
It's a rare book that has directed acyclic graphs as an essential part of the story, but here is one! Interestingly, in the story there is a two-box diagram between the real world and the HTW (his version of the world of forms) and goes like this [HTW] -> [this world]. I would have drawn it the other way, like I've been taught in school [HTW] <- [this world]. The arrow is the arrow of abstraction; we perceive many different trees, and from our observation of it form an abstraction or concept of trees (but perhaps this is in the tradition of Aristotle rather than Plato).
There is a direct analogy to computer science in the two-box picture, it can easily depict the relationship between specifications and implementations; or the relationship between classes and instances.
In any case, I better stop rambling, or I'll be sleeping at 3:00 am again. Suffice it to say, it's the best piece of fiction that I've read so far this year.
Song of the week
(3 comments)
posted by flyingroc
on 10/05/08
"Human" by The Killers.
I am totally mystified by the lyrics: "Are we human, or are we dancer?" -- whuh?
. It's one of the most fascinating things I've read in a long while. I think Stephenson writes novels with compelling geeky characters and interesting stories mostly as vehicles to present a series of mini-lectures about whatever he is thinking about at the moment. In this book he's gotten close to the ideal story to frame his thoughts.
