and an earing (in the left ear this time):
x
Friday, November 27, 2009
Accessorize
As soon as I felt comfortable enough, I thought I should shake things up a bit. I now have an a mohawk kinda thing (it goes all the way down the back, kinda mullet like):
and an earing (in the left ear this time):
x
and an earing (in the left ear this time):
x
Thanksdrinking
Wow, its been almost a month since I last wrote - I guess the pace of change here is slowing down. I also feel a lot more comfortable, so I guess I have less need to reach out to you all. I've also been spending a lot of my spare time making mixes instead of writing this. If you haven't checked them out already, there are now three, all of which can be found at mixcloud.com. Its great to have an outlet for my tracks - I still haven't played any real gigs here, and I'm not meeting the right people to do so at the moment so I don't envisage playing any for a while.
So I mentioned that I'm feeling a lot more comfortable now, and a big part of that has to do with the fact that I now know that the future of my department is secure. For those of you that didn't know, there were rumours that nearly all the big probability professors were going to leave at the end of year and go there separate ways, leaving me up the proverbial creek without the proverbial paddle. However, I spoke to a professor about the future of the probability department and was told that 'rumours of the immanent demise of the berkeley probability department have been greatly exaggerated'. So it appears that the rumours were just rumours.
I have begun to do some reading for that professor - it's pretty scary - he wrote almost all the papers on this particular subject and is a giant in the field. Exciting too though. It's hard stuff, but that makes it remarkably interesting. The professor also has an awesome beard.
In addition to concerns about my particular subject area, everyone in Berkeley has had to deal with growing budgetary concerns. Berkeley and the University of California in general is at the moment mega fucked. The state government dropped their funding by hundreds of millions of dollars (maybe 700?) and as a result every department is facing a 15-30% permanent budget cut, with the arts departments being worst affected. Worse than that, student fees are being raised to over $10,000 a year. Only 6 years ago they were a third of that. There are serious protests - student occupied a building on campus and had to be ejected by riot police after a eight hour siege that made the front page of CNN - I stood around there for a while along with hundreds of other students that were forming a wall to protect the building - it was pretty crazy - true berkeley style. As a graduate student, all this doesn't effect me too much, but it does mean that money is very tight in the department and I can't expect there to be any cash bonuses, which is a shame as money is quite tight, although a proper spending review should fix that. And by a proper spending review I mean not buying drinks in bars. Yay home drinking.
On a different note, it was Thanksgiving yesterday - I had no idea it was such a big deal! It's like Christmas a month early; everybody goes back to their families, you get two days off work (making a super long four day weekend which I really need to catch up with my reading), and everybody eats turkey. I went to the house of a couple who are friends of Alex's and it was fantastic. They had an open bar and an open stash. All round good times.
That's probably enough for now. I plan to do a more anthropological and less personal entry next time (edit: turns out the next entry was all about me again. the one after will not be.)
Truk no keepon.
x
So I mentioned that I'm feeling a lot more comfortable now, and a big part of that has to do with the fact that I now know that the future of my department is secure. For those of you that didn't know, there were rumours that nearly all the big probability professors were going to leave at the end of year and go there separate ways, leaving me up the proverbial creek without the proverbial paddle. However, I spoke to a professor about the future of the probability department and was told that 'rumours of the immanent demise of the berkeley probability department have been greatly exaggerated'. So it appears that the rumours were just rumours.
I have begun to do some reading for that professor - it's pretty scary - he wrote almost all the papers on this particular subject and is a giant in the field. Exciting too though. It's hard stuff, but that makes it remarkably interesting. The professor also has an awesome beard.
In addition to concerns about my particular subject area, everyone in Berkeley has had to deal with growing budgetary concerns. Berkeley and the University of California in general is at the moment mega fucked. The state government dropped their funding by hundreds of millions of dollars (maybe 700?) and as a result every department is facing a 15-30% permanent budget cut, with the arts departments being worst affected. Worse than that, student fees are being raised to over $10,000 a year. Only 6 years ago they were a third of that. There are serious protests - student occupied a building on campus and had to be ejected by riot police after a eight hour siege that made the front page of CNN - I stood around there for a while along with hundreds of other students that were forming a wall to protect the building - it was pretty crazy - true berkeley style. As a graduate student, all this doesn't effect me too much, but it does mean that money is very tight in the department and I can't expect there to be any cash bonuses, which is a shame as money is quite tight, although a proper spending review should fix that. And by a proper spending review I mean not buying drinks in bars. Yay home drinking.
On a different note, it was Thanksgiving yesterday - I had no idea it was such a big deal! It's like Christmas a month early; everybody goes back to their families, you get two days off work (making a super long four day weekend which I really need to catch up with my reading), and everybody eats turkey. I went to the house of a couple who are friends of Alex's and it was fantastic. They had an open bar and an open stash. All round good times.
That's probably enough for now. I plan to do a more anthropological and less personal entry next time (edit: turns out the next entry was all about me again. the one after will not be.)
Truk no keepon.
x
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Halloween audio visual extravobonanza
To celebrate halloween, I present to you the funniest 90 seconds of your month (drunkenness is as ever probably a prerequisite for the humor). It's the stupid ending of Lord of the Rings Voiced over by some Swedish guys.
Whilst your at it, check out this, this and this.
Possibly the greatest benefit of meeting new people in the Web 2.0 age is that you get to find out about this sorta shit. It used to be that you'd find out about new music, or new authors, or new ideas, but now its just virals.
Happy Halloween x
Whilst your at it, check out this, this and this.
Possibly the greatest benefit of meeting new people in the Web 2.0 age is that you get to find out about this sorta shit. It used to be that you'd find out about new music, or new authors, or new ideas, but now its just virals.
Happy Halloween x
Mirror
I can see my father there,
standing upright on a beach in the sun. A thick mustache
adorns his lip.
Here is a man in his prime. Mid 20's, freshly qualified, newly married, toned and tanned. I can see my father there, 30 years ago, childless but in love. Behind him on the table top another photo, black and white this time, a man standing next to an old fashioned push bike.
Its my father again, but from 80 years ago.
The same mustache, the same chin.
I feel at once connected to the grand cycle.
I feel the history echoing back, centuries of fathers, standing upright, eyes focused on the distance.
Forward!
For a while, my head is empty. I am standing as an animal, my existence is everything and there are no questions.
**********************
I look like my father when I have a mustache. I shaved it off straight way though, so no pictures this time. But it does look good, and if wasn't the beginning of 'no shave November' I would have kept it - the rule is you can't shave or trim, and you have to be clean shaven at the beginning. A simple game, but good male bonding. Expect to see a mustache in the years to come.
x
**********************
standing upright on a beach in the sun. A thick mustache
adorns his lip.
Here is a man in his prime. Mid 20's, freshly qualified, newly married, toned and tanned. I can see my father there, 30 years ago, childless but in love. Behind him on the table top another photo, black and white this time, a man standing next to an old fashioned push bike.
Its my father again, but from 80 years ago.
The same mustache, the same chin.
I feel at once connected to the grand cycle.
I feel the history echoing back, centuries of fathers, standing upright, eyes focused on the distance.
Forward!
For a while, my head is empty. I am standing as an animal, my existence is everything and there are no questions.
**********************
I look like my father when I have a mustache. I shaved it off straight way though, so no pictures this time. But it does look good, and if wasn't the beginning of 'no shave November' I would have kept it - the rule is you can't shave or trim, and you have to be clean shaven at the beginning. A simple game, but good male bonding. Expect to see a mustache in the years to come.
x
**********************
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