Well, we held a birthday party recently for one of my friends at the local tapas restaurant. Good food, better drinks, worth a visit should you find yourselves here in the capital of Cajun country. Yet, I think my body must have been thrown out of balance by the overindulgence and I found myself with the need for something simple.

So, a few days later I found myself fixing a variation of a nice little pot of chicken and rice. As I wanted something outside the realm of jambalaya/paella, I figured I try something spiced more on the Indian side. This is a variation of a recipe found in one of Chris Kimball’s (of America’s Test Kitchen fame) cookbooks:

Indian-style Chicken and Rice

Adapted from Chris Kimball’s The Yellow Farmhouse Cookbook

2 lbs. chicken
2 Tbs. olive oil
1 tbs. cinnamon
1 tbs. turmeric
1 tbs. ground coriander
1 tbs. ground cumin
1 medium onion, chopped fine
2 bell peppers, chopped fine
3 cloves garlic, minced
1.5 cups white rice
1 c. canned tomatoes
1/2 c. white wine
2 c. water

• Rinse and pat dry chicken parts. Season with salt and pepper. Heat oil in large Dutch oven. Brown chicken until rather dark. Pour off all but 2 Tbs. of fat.
• Add spices and allow to bloom in oil for about 20 seconds. Add onions, peppers, and garlic and saute until soft (about 5 to 6 minutes)
• Add rice and stir for 1 minute. Add remaining ingredients.
• If using mix of white and dark meat, add thighs, legs, and such into pot, cover with lid and let cook for 15 minutes. Uncover, add breast pieces and stir. Recover and cook for another 10 to 15 minutes until rice is done

Note that this cooks enough for 5-6 people. So, I save some for leftovers, and put some up in the freezer for those days when I have to take my lunch to work (or it’s towards the end of the month and I want to save money by not eating out at lunch).

Subtract out the cinnamon, turmeric, coriander, cumin, and bell peppers and you have Kimball’s base reciepe. It can be varied quite easily if you want something more like a paella, a Mexican-style arroz con pollo, or lots of others. Easy, quick and, most importantly, simple food for a simple evening.

Selah.

One week in… the device still has that “shiny” hold over me. Having spent the week visiting with my parents, I had the opportunity to subject the device to the ultimate survival test: my brother’s granddaughters, aged 3 and 2. The tablet has survived the experience with only minor smudges on the screen.

I think the little one has the most potential to be a computer scientist as she found the Sesame Street iPhone game that I downloaded for the kids without any prompting from me. The application worked well even when you used the “2X” option to have it fill the screen. Speaking about iPhone apps, I’ve found that the iPad does well with most of the iPhone apps; the only one that puked on me was the Dropbox application.

I’m still working out how to insert the iPad into my workflow. I’m using the OmniGroup’s OmniFocus iPhone app for the moment to do DayTimer sorts of things. I don’t think that I’ll be really effective with the device until I get the iPad version of that package. The iPad is just making my addiction to Evernote even more pronounced as I use that note-taking application as my offline storage for my brain. I purchased a really nice SSH/VNC client that works on both the iPad and iPhone. It’s a really strange feeling to be editing files on a Solaris box using EMACS or vi over a terminal connection from my iPhone.

Still haven’t got a handle on the question of data storage. The way that Apple has the OS locked down makes the application workflow really cumbersome. It’s sad as they have the stuff in place with MobileMe to make this work right; as it is, I’m waiting to see what solution comes out from Dropbox. Speaking of which, go register w/ Dropbox now if you haven’t already done so. They’re the only people I’ve seen to date to figure out a workable way of dealing with storing user data on cloud servers.

The only solution I’ve found for linking the iPad into my research paper workflow would require that I switch from using BibDesk to Papers. I’m loathe to do that as it’s a $40+ investment ($26 for the student edition of their Mac version + $14.99 for the iPad/iPhone app). I use BibDesk as BibTeX is its native file format while Papers would require import/export from its database followed by additional editing on the Mac with EMACS/Auctex. Adds multiple steps into my workflow.

No clear winner has emerged for me in the battle between iBooks and the Kindle iPad application. The reading experiences are about the same between the two applications but the Kindle application has the advantage of being available for multiple platforms + Amazon’s selection is far more extensive. OTOH, iBooks has imported most of the titles from Project Gutenberg which gives a really good collection of classic literature from which I can make selections. I can see this turning into a major soak for my credit card very quickly if I don’t apply some self-control. Of course, you see how well that worked with purchasing the iPad.

There have been times over the past week where I’ve thought to myself that I should have waited to buy the 3G version. Mostly this happened when I wasn’t able to find an open access point at a time when I really wanted to use the device. However, I still lean towards the idea of using a 3G to 802.11 bridge like the Sprint MiFi given that the MiFi will allow me to connect multiple devices. It’s a cost thing as I know that I’ll still have a laptop with me most of the time for work purposes. I think most people will be fine w/ spending $25/month with AT&T.

I’m going to have to get some sort of external keyboard for those cases when I need to do serious typing. The on-screen keyboard works well for causal stuff (e-mail, short notes in Evernote, and web surfing) but not if you’re using it as an occasional laptop replacement. You can still buy a folding BT keyboard similar to what Targus used to sell for the WindowsCE-based PDAs. Sadly, I sold the one I used to have for my old HP PDA so have to look at purchasing new.

Assessment after one week of use: still impressed + still think it a good investment. Still working out how it fits into my daily workflow. Let’s see what I think on my next report when I reach the 1 month anniversary.

Selah.

OK, I admit that I have a total lack of self-discipline. Truthfully, I was perfectly aware that if I walked into an Apple Store today that I would without a doubt walk out the door with an iPad. Call me a fanboy if you like but… it was just so … Oh, well, what can I say.

As is typical with Apple products, it was obvious that they put thought into the packaging. Clean, simple, and not a lot of extra poop to deal with in the package. Wish more vendors would take the time to apply the same sort of good industrial design to how they package their product.

To visualize the hardware form-factor, think about what a computer would be like if you were to take the screen from one better netbooks and put a processor in it. Weight-wise, it’s about the same weight as your typical notepad portfolio, has about the same feel as well; esp. if you get the Apple case for the machine.

One thing the pundits got right is that the OS makes the machine feel just a like an upsized iPod Touch. All of the UI paradigm stuff you’re used to if you have one of those devices exists in the iPad OS. The default applications have been changed to take advantage of the extra real estate and the touch capabilities you get in this form factor that you don’t have with the smaller device.

I’ve not had much time to play around with some of the applications from the App Store. I did get a chance to play around a bit with the iPad versions of Twitterific and Evernote applications. The Evernote application is pretty impressive. Expect to see more “wow” to come out in the store over the next weeks. I’m really interested in seeing what Omnigroup does with the iPad version of their OmniFocus application.

Initial assessment: an impressive device. The iPad does for the slate/tablet form factor what the iPhone did for the smartphone: it’s glues together hardware, software, and user experience into something that can be used by someone other than than a geek like myself. Look for additional observations from me as I piddle with the device over the next few days.

Selah.

P.S., I still hold to what I said earlier; getting EMACS running on it would just make the iPad perfect.

So, what can you do? There are lightweight distributions like Puppy Linux and Damn Small Linux that are designed to work on less powerful machines. However, I have found these distributions to be either too limited, too buggy, or both. Some people suggest to just fall back onto using older versions of common distributions. That’s not a good solution for me given what I do for a living. So, I have to find a way to thin down the current version of one of the popular distributions.

The first question is which distribution? Almost every distribution supports minimal installs so what I suggest is to go as far upstream as possible. So that means work with Debian, Slackware, or RHEL/CENTOS. For today’s discussion, let’s use Debian. Go to the Debian web page and download the minimal net-install ISO from www.debian.org (or one of its mirrors).

Go through the standard steps of a net-install up to the point where the installer runs APT to get stuff from one of the mirrors. At this point, de-select the entry for the “Desktop Environment” packages. Complete the install and reboot.

You have the first useful minimal configuration: a base system that boots to a command-line prompt. If you’re building a server, you can stop here and start loading server things (which is a topic for another post).

As we’re building a minimal desktop machine, log-on as root and let’s do some magic with apt-get:

• Install the X.org xserver by issuing an “apt-get install xserver-xorg-core xorg”
• You have two options here. You can install a full desktop environment like GNOME or KDE but why didn’t you use the standard install if that’s what you wanted? Rather install one of the lightweight desktop environments like LXDE: “apt-get install lxde”. This will install a base set of packages and themes as well.
• The other option is to go light and just install a window manager plus application packages. This is best for really old machines or if you want to get the best performance with the least overhead.
  • Install a login manager. I prefer xdm for this purpose: “apt-get install xdm”
  • You will need a window manager. The most popular of the lightweight WMs is either Fluxbox, Openbox, FWM, or JWM. If you prefer something that feels like Windows, then go with JWM: “apt-get install jwm”
  • I’d suggest installing a web browser: “apt-get install iceweasel” will do the trick if you’re using Debian Lenny

Now reboot and you should have a nice, clean, minimal Linux install with X/Windows. Use the package manager to download other stuff you may need or want.

One recipe that I really like is a variation of one found in Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything cookbook called “Braised Tofu with Eggplant and Shitakes”:

Braised Tofu with Eggplant and Shiitake Mushrooms

From Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything

1 lb tofu
1/4 cup peanut oil or corn oil
1 c. shiitake mushrooms (soaked and drained)
Salt & pepper, to taste
1 TB garlic, minced
1 TB ginger, minced
1.5 lbs eggplant
1 TB siracha chille sauce
0.5 c. water
2 TB soy sauce
1 TB sesame oil
1 TB toasted sesame seeds
2 TB chopped green onions

• Drain tofu and cut in half lengthwise. Place in-between four sheets of paper towels and then weight down the tofu (no more than 2 lbs weight). Let set for a minimum of 30 minutes but as long as possible.
• Trim eggplant, cut into cubes and place in colander or strainers. Sprinkle liberally with salt and let eggplant drain for 30 minutes. Rinse and then pat dry.
• Saute shiitakes w/ half of oil in deep skillet or wok w/ salt and peper until mushrooms are crisp (about 5 to 10 minutes). Remove to plate.
• Add remaining oil and then saute garlic and ginger for about a minute. Then add eggplant and saute for until it browns. Add chile sauce and water and cook until eggplant is tender; add more water if needed.
• Add tofu and soy sauce. Cook until tofu is heated. Add reserved mushrooms and turn off heat. Add sesame oil. Garish w/ seasame seeds and chopped green onions

What’s nice about this recipe is that you can adjust it quite easily if you have meat eaters in the house by replacing the mushrooms with chicken or shrimp (or in addition to the shiitakes). Another variation is to replace both the eggplant and mushrooms with ground pork. Good, quick, and easy way to do something far better than any Chinese takeout you get buy.

The article I found most interesting was Galen Gruman’s recent post on Infoworld’s recent post entitled “The iPad questions Apple won’t answer”. As you might expect, I think he gets most of his opinions, oops “answers”, wrong. And as usual, it’s wrapped with a lot of whining about Apple not wanting to talk to the press. Well, given how people like Gruman approach Apple, I can see why they’re not so willing to talk with them. That’s all I’ll say about that topic; instead, I’ll see if I can give some serious technical opinions about the device.

Let’s get the general comments out of the way at the start. First, the iPad is, like all of Apple’s mobile products and most of the laptop/desktop products, a consumer-oriented device. Fitting the device into the enterprise is a lot of “round peg, square hole” work. Second, go look again at Job’s presentation during the product announcement. In particular, look at the slide put the device being announced smack in the middle between the iPhone and the MacBook. Think about that for a moment… The device isn’t meant to replace your laptop or phone but to complement them both.

Now let’s look at each of Gruman’s eight questions.

Can you save and transfer documents to the iPad?

Gruman totally neglects the idea of storage in the cloud. Apple has the service called “MobileMe” which happens to have a service called “iDisk”. iDisk allows you to store stuff files up on the MobileMe server and access them as if they were local + keep things in sync between multiple machines.

The issue will be whether or not you can use other WebDAV based services with the device. For example, many people are like me and hooked on Dropbox (go get it now if you don’t have it). Will they allow other services like this to tie into the file store? That’s the question I’d like to hear Apple answer.

Does the iPad support Microsoft Exchange email?

Again their intent is for the iPad to be a consumer device and so the guess would be maybe not. But the support does exist already in the Mail client on the mobile version of OS X running on the iPhone and iPad Touch. So, this one’s a push at the moment.

Does the iPad support VPN and configuration management?

Much the same response to the previous question. Here, though, you have to consider that the device’s primary focus is the consumer market. Much higher chance of Gruman being correct about the feature not being on the device.

Can you use media services other than iTunes on the iPad?

Now you’re getting to the really interesting questions. I don’t think Apple would be able to sustain not allowing applications like the Netflix streaming application on the iPad. Apple is going to want to emphasize their own infrastructure; yet, I think they’re smart enough to understand the blowback they’ll get from the market if they try to block some of these other devices from the market.

Much the same issue arises with e-books. Amazon already has a “Kindle” application for the iPhone and the delta from iPhone application to iPad application is small enough that it’s reasonable to expect that application to be available by the time the iPad is released. Again, does Apple have the balls to try to keep it out of the AppStore? Again, I don’t think they want to deal with the consumer blowback.

The point about AT&T is interesting. The AT&T 3G network is stressed to the point of breaking in major metropolitan areas like NY and SF. The iPad would seem to put a more larger stress on those networks. How this plays out will be “most interesting” in the “evil genius” interpretation of “interesting”.

Can the iPad be used for videoconferencing?

Not including a camera is a major foobar on Apple’s part. If it’s not included in the release, look for it to come in the version 2.0 of the hardware. Will be major complaint point for those of us who will be early adopters.

Will the iPad’s internal storage be upgradable?

Dude… you start out talking about storage and then bring out the old bon-mot about switching batteries? Have you had to replace an iPod battery recently? And see my response to Question 1 to get an answer to the question about storage.

Will the iPad allow multiple apps to run simultaneously?

Key to my response is the fact that I think Gruman’s wrong about iPad users wanting to be able to run iPad apps simultaneously. That’s ignoring one of the key aspects about the use cases of a tablet in that the use cases are more like that of a phone than a PC. More interesting would be the ability as a developer to run some threads and processes in the background. It will be interesting to see how clients to do IM and microblogging (i.e., access Twitter) work in this environment vs. the iPhone.

Will Apple allow the use of Flash on the iPad?

Who cares? Reasonable alternatives exists and most websites appear to have adapted to the iPhone at this point. OK, I’m not certain how tenable this opinion is given the demand but I think Apple has enough pull to where they might be able to win this war with Adobe.

So, do I buy one?

So where does this leave us? Gruman’s conclusion that if Apple doesn’t respond to these questions then you shouldn’t buy one is just bogus whining on the part of someone who feels slighted by the lack of response on Apple’s part. Many of the other pundits complaints in the press about the iPad have the same feel.

Is the device a good fit into the enterprise and is it a full-time laptop replacement? Nope. As a consumer device, it’s interesting enough to me that I’ll see if I can scrimp enough on my grad student salary to get one.

Selah.

First, download and install AUCTEX from the appropriate place on gnu.org. I had no problems following the standard steps in the “Configure/make/make install” cycle.

Now we start the tweaking of Emacs adding the following lines to .emacs file to load AUCTEX and Preview LaTeX when Emacs loads:

(load "auctex.el" nil t t)
(load "preview-latex.el" nil t t)

(add-hook 'LaTeX-mode-hook '(lambda ()
                 (TeX-fold-mode 1)
                 (outline-minor-mode 1)
                   ))

The first two ELisp expressions load the extensions into Emacs while the second adds an additional expression to the list of expressions called whenever someone attempts to load a LaTeX file into the editor. In this particular case, we enable the AUCTEX “Folding mode” and “Outline modes”

Now we add some additional expressions that I like to add to the mode hook to make things work in cleaner fashion:

  (add-hook 'LaTeX-mode-hook '(lambda () (setq fill-column 72)))
  (add-hook 'LaTeX-mode-hook 'TeX-PDF-mode)
  (add-hook 'LaTeX-mode-hook '(lambda () (setq TeX-DVI-via-PDFTeX t)))

In this case, I’m telling Emacs to automatically word wrap at 72 characters, always use PDFlatex to generate output, and generate both DVI and PDF files for output.

A new feature in Emacs 23 is “Doc View” which is an integrated viewer for PDF, PS, and DVI files. There are some configuration adjustments you have to make to get this feature playing politely with AUCTEX. First, you need to tell Emacs to automatically start in server mode when it loads. Do this by including the following in your .emacs file:

(server-start)
(add-hook 'server-switch-hook
 	  (lambda nil
 	    (let ((sevrver-buf (current-buffer)))
	      (bury-buffer)
 	      (switch-to-buffer-other-frame server-buf))))
(add-hook 'server-done-hook (lambda nil (kill-buffer nil)))

The first expression tells this instance of Emacs to act as a server. The second expression modifies the server-switch-hook to always service new incoming client requests in a new frame while the second kills the server buffer when the server says it’s through with the current buffer.

Then you need to configure AUCTEX to use the emacsclient utility whenever Emacs attempts to open PDF, PS, or dvi files. You do this by changing the value of the TeX-output-view-style variable:

    (setq TeX-output-view-style
	  (quote
	   (
	    ("^dvi$" "." "/Applications//Applications/Emacs.app/Contents/MacOS/bin/emacsclientemacsclient %o")
	    ("^pdf$" "." "/Applications/Emacs.app/Contents/MacOS/bin/emacsclient %o")
	    ("^html?$" "." "open -A Safari.app %o")
	    )
	   )

Using other tools (such as Preview or Skim) as a viewer just require that you change the matching value in Tex-output-view-style.

I should note that DocView doesn’t work very well in the Windows version of Emacs 23. You can make some configuration changes to make it work but it’s best to just stick with an external viewer.

Selah.

Today is one of those days where my thoughts keep returning to this old
hymn. In spite of all the tragedies that affected the hymn’s author, he
stood upon his faith as an anchor amongst all that might have been
buffeting him physically, psychologically, and spiritually.

So, as I struggle today with the stress of graduate school, being upset
with family and friends, and ills of body caused by the flu, I fall back
upon the words of this hymn and remind myself that “It is well with my
soul!”

Selah.

The hardware:

• The Desktop: A Mac Pro with 2 Dual-core Intel Xeon processors running a 2GHz with 2GB RAM.
• The Laptop: An early MacBook with a single Dual Core Intel Core Duo with 2GB RAM.

The operating system was upgraded in place on each machine with no application changes. The Desktop is my school machine and is connected to the campus network and authenticates against a Windows Active Directory server. The Laptop is my primary machine and is a standalone machine connected to my home network.

Didn’t have any major problems with installing on either machine. The only issue was a problem with the physical install media on the Desktop.

Observations:

• Some of the tech pundits have complained that this release should have been treated as a maintenance release on Leopard. They’re wrong. While the visual experience isn’t very different, the changes in underlying infrastructure are wide and have far-reaching implications.
• Which leads to the first point: 64-bit support. The OS went for 64-bit mode on the Desktop. Broke a ton of kexts that I had to manually remove. However, it did seem to improve application performance on that machine, esp. for apps that have been ported to 64-bit.
• Had to upgrade a bunch of applications to new versions. Waiting on some vendors to release versions of their applications with Snow Leopard support. Biggest problem so far as been with Growl. Had to completely turn it off on the Desktop. Had some problems with R2009a version of MATLAB; MathWorks just released R2009b with major revamp of their OS X support. Snow Leopard still ships the broken version of the X Server and we are waiting on an update from the XQuartz team for a more recent version that can handle the SL changes.
• Just had to punt on some applications. Snow Leopard cannot tolerate the early versions of the Parallels hypervisor (anything earlier than v4.0).
• Lot’s of people pointed out the issues with Flash application. There are other applications that suffer the same issue.
• There’s an issue with Software Update blowing chow on you when you attempt to perform an update while logged on a remote user authenticated with ActiveDirectory. Was able to update to 10.6.1 by
  running Software Update using a local user.

• Ran into the issue multiple times with older applications requiring you to install Rosetta. Have been able to just delete these applications in most cases as I was either no longer using them or the functions they provided is now provided by Apple as part of the Operating System.

Assessment

Wait about a month unless you’re buying a new machine. Seeing too many little gotchas that need to be ironed out before most people should do the upgrade. The transition from Leopard to Snow Leopard has much of the same feel as the transition from Jaguar to Panther.

Just as with the 10.2->10.3 transition, lots of stuff that appears to be same at the user level in fact works very differently under the covers. Need to give Apple some time to react to feedback and make some adjustments in a few maintenance releases before you make the leap.

Selah.

• Pick better passwords. Avoid the use of words from the dictionary. Use punctuation characters and capital letters in your passwords. Makes it harder for people to use brute-force dictionary scanners on your account.
• Don’t use the same password for every account! That limits the damage if someone does guess your password on one account.
• Don’t assume that you’re safe just because you’re using an Apple computer or running Linux. Most successful hacking is social engineering based; remember that PEBKAC (Problem Exists Between Keyboard and Chair) is quite accurate.
• Use a firewall. Almost all of the home routers sold today include a built-in NAT firewall. Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux all include firewall software. Turn them on if your router doesn’t include a firewall.
• Make certain to turn on automatic updates for your operating system. This is EXTREMELY important for Windows users.
• Use anti-virus software on Windows. There are very good free products that you can download. Make certain that you keep the software and virus signature data up-to-date. This is less of a concern for Linux and Mac OS X but the truly paranoid run anti-virus software on those operating systems as well.
• Don’t open e-mail attachments and don’t click on web pages embedded in e-mails unless you’re 120% certain you know who sent you the message. And be worried even in that case.
• Avoid Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. Even the most recent version has its problems. Use Firefox, Safari, or Opera instead. If you do use IE, make certain to upgrade to most recent version.
• Turn off HTML mail if you use a dedicated e-mail client. Outlook and Outlook Express have gotten better recently at not letting malicious HTML code cause problems but the risk is still high enough where you’re better off turning off this feature.

Will this prevent you getting hacked, infected, or otherwise pwned? Not completely but practicing this sort of good hygiene will significantly reduce your exposure to this type of maleficence in the future.

Selah.

So I remembered a recipe I had seen a few months ago in an issue of Cooks Illustrated that I had been mean meaning to try. However, I figured I’d just modify the recipe a bit rather than leaving the house to go buy the ingredients I was missing. So, here’s how I modified Cooks Illustrated‘s version to match what I had in the pantry:

1       Pork Tenderloin Roast (about 2 lbs)
1/4 c.  maple syrup
1/4 c.  Steen's cane syrup (orig. recipe used molasses)
2 TB    Bourbon
2 t.    Cayenne Pepper
1 t.    Cinnamon
1/2 t.  Cloves, ground
1/4 c.  Cornstarch
2 TB    Sugar
1 TB    Salt
2 t.    Black Pepper
2 T.    vegetable oil

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
• Mix together syrups, bourbon, cayenne pepper, cinnamon, and cloves in a small bowl. In larger bowl, mix together the cornstarch, salt, and black pepper.
• Use paper towels to dry the roast completely and then dredge the roast in the cornstarch mixture. Use paper towels to remove excess cornstarch mixture. This is important as you want just enough left on the roast to provide something for glaze to adhere too. The magazine article made a really big deal about this.
• Heat the oil in a skillet large enough to fit the roasts. Brown the roast on all sides and place on a rack in a baking sheet.
• Add syrup mixture to skillet, deglaze the pan, and then allow mixture to reduce to about 1/2 c.
• Glaze roasts with 1/3 reduced mixture and place in oven. Roast until instant read thermometer reads 130 degrees. Glaze again with 1/3 of mixture. Return to oven until roast reaches 140 degrees. Glaze with remaining mixture and allow to rest uncovered for 10 to 15 minutes. Slice and serve.

Notes:

• The original recipe had you reserve some of the glaze and mix with dark mustard and more maple syrup to do a final glaze before slicing. That didn’t seem to add much for me so I removed it from my modified recipe.
• Just taking the dry spices, salt, cayenne, and black pepper would make a pretty decent dry rub for pork.
• Line your baking sheet with some tin foil. It’ll make the clean-up a lot easier.
• Reserve some of the pork roast to make sandwiches the next day.

Selah.

So, what should you see posted in the near future? How about:

• some rants on education
• a discussion about my research: why and what
• some more recipes and commentary
• not to mention just some typical random rants and raves

BTW, I had turned off the feed of articles from here to my Facebook Notes page due to IP issues I had with the Facebook Terms of Service. The updates that FB recently made to their ToS plus marking stuff here on my blog as Creative Commons Share/Share alike resolve those issues. So, I’ll start cross-posting stuff again.

Selah.

1. I have stood on the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem and watched the Sun rise over the Mount of Olives.
2. I’ve been programming computers for almost 30 years.
3. I wonder why it took me 15 years to realize that I would be much happier if I finished my Ph.D.
4. I am allergic to coffee and marijuana.
5. My mother is amazed by the fact that I like to work in my yard and to garden given how little effort I put into helping in the yard and garden when I was little.
6. Only one baby picture of me survived the fire that destroyed my parent’s mobile home when I was five years old.
7. I hate vacuum cleaners as result of my brother always making me vacuum the house when he babysat my sister and I when we were growing up. This explains why I get along so well with the Dust Bunnies in my home.
8. I am terribly afraid of bees, hornets, and wasps due to an emotionally scarring experience at a family picnic when I was 4 years old.
9. However, it was that same picnic where I first learned to fear bees that resulted in my fascination to this day with trains.
10. I was a complete and total emotional train wreck during most of my undergraduate years at Sewanee.
11. Of all the courses I took at Sewanee, I have found that the acting classes have best prepared me best to work in academia due to fact that I treat every lecture as a performance.
12. I suspect that I’m like every other graduate of Sewanee who’s is working on or has completed their Ph.D.: I wonder if I could ever join the faculty?
13. As much as I love to read science fiction novels, I really cannot stand most of the science fiction on television and in the movies.
14. People always seem to underestimate the comic genius of The Three Stooges.
15. I spent New Years Eve of the Millennium Year 2000 in a trauma center in my hometown awaiting gall bladder surgery. You see the most fascinating things in a trauma center on the New Years Eve of the Millennium.
16. I have spent extended periods of time in London, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and Mexico City.
17. I have been to every state except for New Hampshire and Vermont. I intend on rectifying this deficiency once I complete my Ph.D.
18. I have a great fear of heights.
19. Someday I hope to be invited to lunch with Nero Wolfe and see the orchids in the greenhouse on the roof of his brownstone.
20. Someday I hope to be able to play Shakespeare’s merry rogue, Falstaff.
21. It is difficult to write, it is damned difficult to write well.
22. Guilty admission time: I really like The Benny Hill Show.
23. I will continue to practice until I can consistently make a good pan of biscuits.
24. Someday travel plans: go back to the Holy Land, visit the Isle of Lewis in Scotland, again drink a pint in a country pub in England, ride the train over the Andes in Chile, drink wine in the wineries of South Australia, and see the Taj Mahal.
25. I have been greatly blessed by all of those whom I’ve had the great fortune to have met over the years, hope to be able to meet the rest of you, and wish you all “Bon Chance” and “Auf wiedersehen” wherever you may go and whatever you may do.

So, in that light, here’s a recipe for the bourbon barbeque sauce. It’s based on one from The Fannie Farmer Cookbook that I’ve tweaked a bit. Enjoy!

Bourbon Barbeque Sauce

1 medium onion, finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 chipotle pepper, seeded & finely chopped
3/4 c. bourbon
2 c. ketchup
1/3 c. white vinegar
1/4 c. tomato paste
1/2 c. dark brown sugar
3/4 c. cane syrup (use molasses if you can find cane syrup)
1 t. adobo sauce (sauce from chipotle pepper can)
1 t. Worcestershire sauce
1 t. soy sauce
salt and pepper to taste

Saute onion, garlic, and pepper until onions are transparent. Add remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer until sauce thickens and coats the back of sauce. Make certain to stir often to prevent sauce from burning.

Note: A lot of people I know don’t like a chunky BBQ sauce. If you’re in that category; after the vegetables saute, combine everything together in the blender and give it a whirl. Strain through a fine mesh strainer into the saucepan.

Light Fruitcake


1 pound mixed candied fruit, diced
1 cup pitted dates, chopped coarsely
2 cups chopped pecans
1 cup raisins
3 ½ cups sifted flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 ½ teaspoons salt
1 ½ teaspoons ground nutmeg
1 ½ sticks soft butter
1 ½ cups sugar
4 eggs
1 cup sour cream





Preheat oven to 300 F (150 C).



Place the candied fruit, dates, pecans and raisins in a large mixing bowl. Add 1 cup of the flour and stir until they are all coated with the flour. This helps suspend them in the cake.



Sift together the remaining 2 ½ cups flour, the baking soda, salt and nutmeg. Cream the soft butter. Gradually beat in the sugar and then the eggs, one at a time. Beat until light and fluffy.



Add the dry ingredients alternately with the sour cream, about 1/3 of the dry ingredients and ½ of the sour cream at one time. Then thoroughly mix in the fruit mixture. Place either in a greased and floured 10 x 4-inch tube pan or in two standard loaf pans. Bake 3 to 3 ½ hours for the tube pan, 2 to 2 ½ hours for the loaves, until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool, then remove. Let ripen for at least 24 hours. May be garnished with whole cherries and pecans.

A classmate from graduate school was recently hired to teach at a small teaching-oriented institution in the Midwest. Like many newly-minted Ph.Ds, he is now finding that he’s being asked to think more about the metaphysics of teaching rather than worrying about how to teach people how to program. This person asked my opinions on the following “meta-questions” about teaching:

1. How would you define excellence in teaching?
2. How would you define the scholarship of teaching?
3. How do these concepts tie together?

They’re all very open-ended and difficult to answer. Note that the following responses are slanted towards my opinions on the subject and may differ from accepted norms. Standard disclaimers apply; your mileage may vary…

These terms are rather well defined amongst professional educators (by which I mean people who get the “Ed.D” degree from a Department of Education who are experts in the theory of teaching). Look at some of the information that you can find on the website for the “Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching” (yes, the same Andrew Carnegie who founded what is now US Steel Corp. and was one of the principal benefactors of Carnegie-Mellon University, go lookup his bio on Wikipedia).

The Carnegie Foundation defines “scholarship in teaching” in three parts:

1. Scholarship of discovery: research and performance that adds to a knowledge base and the intellectual climate of an institution
2. Scholarship of integration: drawing together and interpreting diverse kinds of knowledge
3. Scholarship of application: applying knowledge to practical problems

Working from those definitions, you can define excellence in teaching by measuring, preferably in a quantifiable manner, how well an individual working within a program or a program in an educational institution addresses each of these areas. This is the equivalent of business planning in industry; you must define a set of objectives that you put in place to address these concerns and a set of goals that you must achieve to meet those objectives. Then a set of quantifiable measures are put in place that define whether or not you achieved the goals you have set for yourself.

In a perfect world, an institution’s policies, practices, and infrastructure are aligned with these goals. An institution has to evaluate anything it does against the measures it has put in place for itself and adjust, enhance, eliminate, and/or introduce polices, practices, and structures as required.

These are interesting questions that deserve further thought and ruminations. Look for more posts from me on this subject in the near future.

References:

• The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching

Banana Nut Cake

4 eggs
½ c. AP flour
½ t. baking powder
¼ t. baking soda
1 recipe Cream Cheese Filling
½ t. vanilla
1/3 c. granulated sugar
½ c. mashed ripe banana
½ c. finely chopped walnuts or pecans
½ c. granulated sugar
1 recipe Cream Cheese Icing

Separate eggs. Let stand at room temp. for 30 minutes. Lightly grease a 15x10x1 in. jelly roll pan. Line bottom with wax paper, grease the paper, and set aside. For cake: stir together flour, baking powder, and baking soda; set aside.

Prepare Cream Cheese Filling; spread in the prepared pan.

In a small mixing bowl: beat the egg yolks and vanilla with an electric mixer on high speed about 5 minutes or until thick and lemon colored. Gradually add the 1/3 c. sugar, beating on high speed until sugar is dissolved. Stir in banana and nuts.

Thoroughly wash the beaters. In a large mixing bowl, beat the egg whites on medium speed until soft peaks form. Gradually add the ½ c. sugar, beating until stiff peaks form. Fold yolk mixture into whites. Sprinkle flour mixture evenly over egg mixture and gently fold the mixture into whites until combined. Gently spoon batter over filling in pan. Carefully spread evenly over filling.

Bake in 375 degree oven for 15 to 20 minutes or until cake springs back when lightly touched. Immediately loosen cake from pan and turn cake out onto a towel with sifted powdered sugar. Carefully peel off waxed paper. Starting from a short side, roll cake into a spiral using the cake as a guide; do not roll towel into cake. Cool on a wire rack. Spread top with Cream Cheese Icing and finely chopped nuts (if desired).

Cream Cheese Filling: In a mixing bowl combine one 8-oz. package and one 3-oz. package of softened cream cheese and ½ c. sugar. Beat with mixer until smooth. Add 1 egg and 3 T. milk; beat thoroughly.

Cream Cheese Icing: In a small mixing bowl combine one 3-oz. package softened cream cheese and 1 t. vanilla. Beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in 2 c. sifted powdered sugar. Beat in enough milk (1 to 2 T.) to reach spreading consistency.

It reminded me of a conversation I had with some my co-workers about business models. So many of these Web 2.0 companies put themselves out on the market without a clear indication of how they would make money. You will see a lot more of this consolidation and failure over the next few months as the economy continues its downtown.

Selah.

People down here describe this weather as being “gumbo weather”. So, in that spirit, here’s my favorite gumbo recipe. It’s adapted from one that John Folse included in one of his cookbooks. It’s a bit complicated but mais, cher’, it’s good. If you can’t get good oysters, feel free to use shrimp.

Duck and Sausage Gumbo

Stock
4 (1 ½ pound) mallards or similar ducks
4 ½ qt. water
3 ribs celery, cut into chunks
1 carrot, cut into half
15 peppercorns
4 bay leaves
1 ¼ t. salt
1 t. dried thyme
¼ t. garlic powder
¼ t. red pepper flakes
Gumbo
¾ c. all-purpose flour
¾ c. vegetable oil
2 c. chopped onions
2 c. chopped celery
1 c. chopped green bell pepper
2 carrots, sliced
1 T. chopped garlic
1 lb. andouille or similar smoked sausage, cut into slices
2/3 c. oyster liquor
1/3 c. port
2 bay leaves
½ t. freshly ground black pepper
¼ t. cayenne pepper
2 doz. Oysters
½ c. chopped green onion tops
¼ c. chopped fresh parsley
steamed rice
File’ powder

Stock

Combine the ducks and all other ingredients in a stockpot. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 3 to 4 hours or until the ducks are tender. Remove the ducks and chop, discarding the skin and bones. Strain the stock into a container discarding the solids. Chill until the fat has congealed on the stock. Remove the fat and reserve for other purposes (Potatoes fried in duck fat, while quite deadly from a coronary aspect, are quite tasty).

Gumbo

Make a roux with the flour and water in a large heavy pot. Add the vegetables and garlic. Cook until vegetables are tender. Add 3 quarts of the duck stock, reserved duck meat, the sausage, oyster liquor, port, bay leaves, black pepper, and cayenne pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 1 hour. Stir in the oysters, green onion tops, and parsley. Cook for 10 minutes longer. Remove and discard bay leaves. Ladle the gumbo over steamed rice to serve. Sprinkle with file’ powder if desired.

Terms:
Client: machine starting the SSH session
Server: machine running the SSH session

On Client:
Use ssh-keygen to generate a new public/private keypair:
ssh-keygen -t dsa
Take the defaults (except for passphrase if you want to be picky)

Now append the genreated public key (id_dsa.pub) onto the authorized keys for server:
cat id_dsa.pub | ssh uname@server 'cat >>.ssh/authorized_keys2'

Make certain that .ssh directory is configured with permission 0700 and contents are permission 0600.

I’m a full time grad student. That means I’m always looking for recipes that have four characteristics: (1) easy, (2) don’t require a lot of effort, (3) make for lots of leftovers, and (4) doesn’t break the bank account to make. This recipe for pot roast fits quite well into those requirements.

1 4-6 lb. Chuck roast
1 1/2 cups carrots, finely diced
1 cup celery, finely diced
1 medium onion, finely diced
3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
4 tablespoons catsup
1 1/2 tablespoons steak sauce
2 tablespoons hot sauce
3 cups beef stock
salt
pepper

Pre-heat oven to 325°F. Using paring knife, cut slits into beef and insert garlic slices into slits. Season beef with salt and pepper. Heat an oven-proof Dutch oven on the stovetop. Sear all sides of beef in Dutch oven. Remove beef to holding tray. Sweat carrots, celery, and onion in Dutch oven. Add catsup, steak sauce, and hot sauce. Stir. Deglaze pan using beef stock. Adjust seasoning to taste with salt and pepper. Return beef to pan and cover. Cook in oven for 2-3 hours until tender.

Here on the blog you can expect to see a short treatise on what applications I use on my Mac to do research and the start of two new series on food and restaurant dining. I’ve had enough people come ask to help setup their new, shiny Apple computers that I thought it be best for me to produce a list of the things that I use to do research and write papers for conferences and journals. That way I can just point people here to the blog and tell them to have at it.

The mad rush to get this paper out the door means that I’ve been eating out a lot recently. That got me thinking about the restaurant experience a bit and so I figured I should start getting some of those thoughts written down somewhere. Look for the start of an on-going series of commentary and reviews. In addition, all of that eating out reminds me of how nice it is to stay at home and just cook. So, look for a new series of recipes and experiences to start showing up here on my blog as I hope to be able to spend more time around home.

With that, time to go back to work on school stuff…

Selah.

A number of people in the “blogosphere” have noticed the same, especially that you’re looking at the demographic moving towards us “older folk”. The early adopters in this tech wave was in the 14-25 year old demographic. Even more, I think studies are going to find that the first wave of social networking users were skewed towards the lower end of that age group. Yet, as both the early adopters and the technology matures, you’ll see that first wave move towards other technologies or change their habits on they use the existing stuff. And that how people use the technology will change as people in the older demographics finally figure out just what those darn kids have doing all this time and start to “grok” how to use social networking.

So where am I going with all of this? Think back to the early lead held by MySpace amongst the social networking sites. Think about the reasons why NewsCorp spent so much money purchasing MySpace. Now look at how the demographic is changing. People are starting to figure out that’s social networking is more than just a bunch of teenage girls talking about the latest boy-band. Looking at the recent MySpace site redesign makes you wonder of the marketing people at NewsCorp understand that change is a-coming?

Selah.

To paraphrase Jack Webb’s famous intro to Dragnet: This is the story of the conversion.

The first step was to clean out the website from my host account. Can you say: Let’s have fun with an FTP client! This was a four step process: download a decent FTP client from the web, replace the existing “index.htm” with a “We’ll be right back” placeholder, download and archive the old site, and then clean everything out.

Next was getting WordPress installed on the hosting server. I was aware of the steps required from the intial setup of this blog. WordPress is nice enough to have the ability to work with an existing MySQL database if one already exists. You have to adjust the prefix that WordPress appends to table names to something other than default. Once that’s done, make certain to create a static page and then change the “Front page displays” setting in the Reading settings to display that page. You’ll also will want to create a second page to hold blog posts and set the matching setting here as well. Finally, you’ll need to adjust the page order so that everything displays in the correct order. Rather than hacking through PHP to do this change, I suggest downloading the “MyPageOrder” plugin from the WordPress plugin page and use it to set the page order. The plugin will be quite useful down the road.

Now, you’re pretty much done. What? You don’t like the default theme? This is where you start applying the creativity side of web design by taking advantages of the use a CMS. Grab a theme that you like from the web and get it working with your site. You can then use design tools like Dreamweaver to customize the appearance of the theme by modifying the theme’s PHP code (get the Tag-stenstion DW plugin if you use DW). Other things you can do? Get some of the media plugins from the WordPress site and start adding in things like connections to Flckr or Picasa, link to social networking sites like MySpace or Facebook, or tie into microblogging sites like Twitter or Plurk.

Overall this was a much less painful experience than I was expecting. I had the basics up and running within two hours and have been tuning content since then. It’s nice when the technology actually works like you expect and like it’s been advertised to work.

Selah.

Yet, you can still find traces of that bygone era when you travel amongst today’s society. In my case, it was watching the flight attendants on my recent trip on Delta from Atlanta to Shanghai. Most of these ladies were of the age where you could tell they were trained during the golden era of commercial air transport. It was also obvious in how well they managed a flight of over 200 very tired people once we boarded our flight after a seven hour delay.

The amazing thing was that the flight attendant who was at the exit door when we landed told me that she had two days rest and then had to do the Shanghai trip all over again. And she seemed quite excited about the prospect. To be able to do the job those folks do everyday, on every flight, and in this era of cost reductions and attempts to squeeze every iota of revenue from passengers gives a smidgen of hope that the air travel may not get any more painful than it currently has become.

So, a salute to the ladies in cabin crew of Delta Flight 18 on 29May2008! And thanks for what you do.

Selah.

This is my first time ever to be in China. Of course, it’s difficult to draw conclusions about a country based on visiting a single city. That would be like drawing conclusions about the United States by only visiting Chicago. However, here’s the conclusions that I’ve drawn about Shanghai:

• Overall, the people have been rather nice. There’s also a whole of lot of people.
• I’ll admit to having that “Stranger in a Strange Land” feeling. That was really true the other evening when I took a walk with one of our faculty members who happens to be a Shanghai native who returns home every summer. I think I can understand how many of the people from here feel when they come to the United States.
• I’m not certain people here have lots of experience with Americans who may be “dimensionally challenged”. I say this given some of the comments people made to me while I was out walking that night. With a single exception, I think it was all meant in good fun but it was uncomfortable.
• The touts in this town are relentless when they see a foreigner on the street. It’s almost impossible to go on a walk without one of them trying to sell you a fake Rolex or cheap clothing. And they don’t take “no” for an answer until you get rude with them.
• The older parts of the city are quite beautiful from an architecture standpoint. It’s true that you think you’re in someplace like London or Paris… at least, until you see the people living and working in the buildings. You get some serious cultural dissonance with that.
• On the other hand, the new part of city on the Pudong side of the river has this really amazing modern architecture with all of these really tall buildings. The conference had its banquet in the revolving restaurant at the Oriental Pearl Tower. That’s the third largest building in the world. There was a thunderstorm going on at the time and we were actually in the midst of the clouds.
• Speaking of cultural dissonance, I certainly had that experience with the food. I did an omelet one morning for breakfast in the hotel and noticed what I thought were sliced pickled jalapeno peppers. Turns out they were sliced candied jalapeno peppers. Not the taste that I was expecting.
• In general, the food was good eating. One of our department head’s former students invited us out to lunch one day and we ate in a smaller Shanghai style restaurant near our hotel. In general, it was quite good, especially if you put aside some of the cultural prejudices one may have developed over time
• Want to see the pictures from the trip? You can see them on Flckr
  

So, what do I think in general? Shanghai is an interesting city. I don’t rank it as a favorite compared to some of the places I’ve been to in Europe, the Middle East, and Latin America. I would come back if I had the chance.

Selah.

• temperance – eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation,
• silence – speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation,
• order – let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time,
• resolution – resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve,
• frugality – make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e. waste nothing,  
• industry – lose no time; be always employed in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions,
• sincerity – use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and, if you speak, speak accordingly,
• justice – wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty,
• moderation – avoid extremes; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think  they deserve,
• cleanliness – tolerate no uncleanliness in body, clothing, or habitation,
• tranquility – be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable,
• chastity – rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dullness,      weakness, or the injury of your own or another’s peace or reputation, and
• humility – imitate Jesus and Socrates.  

Selah.

Does make it disappointing that they didn’t include a cellular modem with the machine.

Post WWDC update
It will be interesting to see what happens with Mobile Me. If what Apple is promising with Mobile Me works as promised then much of what I talked about or implied in the original post becomes even easier to do. Makes it even more irritating that you have to use a dongle and USB device to get access to the 3G network. I’m still holding some hope that Apple will be able to convince AT&T to let you tether the 3G iPhone to your laptop.

Selah.

As one working in the deepest bowels of higher education, both as a graduate student and occasional instructor, I believe that we have two goals towards which we must strive. First, we must be able to answer Mr. Lytle’s questions for ourselves so that we can answer without thought or hesitation: “This is who I am!”, “These are my people!”, and “This is me!” Then, we have to answer to the more difficult challenge: coaxing, convincing, and maybe just a little bit of forcing those whom we teach to be able to answer those questions for themselves with the same sort of verve and elan that we expect of ourselves.

Selah.

Wikipedia’s biography of Andrew Lytle
The University of the South

Now the date of Easter is determined by a set of rules that can be traced back to the First Council of Nicaea held in 325 CE and revised over time as the Western world switched from Julian to the Gregorian calendar. The rules define the date of Easter in the following way:

• Easter falls on the first Sunday following the first ecclesiastical full moon that occurs on or after the day of vernal equinox
• This particular ecclesiastical full moon is the 14th day of a tabular lunation (new moon)
• The vernal equinox is set as being March 21st

The “ecclesiastical full moon” is determined from a set of tables that is almost but not quite in step with the astronomical Moon. As result of all this, the date of Easter always falls in a range between March 22nd and April 25th of each year. Then, of course, you subtract the length of the Lenten season from that to get the date of Mardi Gras.

The end result is that Mardi Gras 2008 is the earliest date that Mardi Gras has fallen upon in almost a century. In fact, the earliest date that Mardi Gras can fall on is only one day sooner than this year’s date.

For more info, check out the places where I found most of this stuff:
Side by Side Easter Calendar reference for the 22nd Century
The Date of Easter in the U.S. Naval Observatory’s FAQ page

Lassiez le bon ton roulet!

Selah.

That worked fine until graduate school came around again…

Self-motiviation is the name of the game here. Your advisor really can’t help you in this regard. You have to identify the work that needs to be done, figure out how to prioritize and schedule it, and then go do it. I don’t see how the kids who just got the B.A. or B.S. degrees deal with it all. Time management isn’t taught very well (not at all, really) in any undergraduate curriculum that I know. I would be struggling more than what I am if it wasn’t for the fact that I’ve experienced deadline pressure in industry.

So, how does someone who isn’t a natural planner force themselves into doing planning? First, pick a system. I’ve been through all the Franklin Covey stuff and just about every other personal planning methodology that’s been fostered upon us in the past twenty years. So far the best that I’ve found for the geek types like myself has been David Allen’s Getting Things Done (GTD) methodology. It panders the most towards how people like us geeks think.

Next, pick some tools to help you do this. It could be as non-technology oriented as a set of manilla folders (for organizing things) and a collection of notepads. For me, I use a combination of Google Calendar, iCal, and Omni Group’s OmniFocus application. OmniFocus is the central repository for contexts and actions. I use the sync features in OmniFocus to keep things sync’ed with iCal and then SpanningSync to keep Google Calendar sync’ed up.

My iPhone is my scratchpad. I use the iPhone notes application to keep track of new actions. I mail those to a special address on my ISP and use OmniFocus’s Mail Rules and Applescripts to get that stuff from my iPhone into the tool. Calendar sync works with the tools you expect. For note taking, I use Yojimbo on the laptop and desktop. On the iPhone, I’m currently using mail rules and applescript to get stuff into Yojimbo. I’m evaluating MarkSpace’s new iPhone sync software to see that better meets the need.

I know, it seems complicated and convoluted. But it’s a system that is starting to work for me and I’m getting to take advantage of the fancy gadgets I’m bought for myself. Time will tell if it’s going to work well enough to keep me focused on getting stuff done on the dissertation.

Selah. ]]> http://blog.awlconsulting.com/?feed=rss2&p=8 0 http://blog.awlconsulting.com/?p=7 http://blog.awlconsulting.com/?p=7#comments Fri, 25 Jan 2008 02:17:26 +0000 adaml http://blog.awlconsulting.com/?p=7 So, you may have noticed that I’ve not posted up here in a long time. Like I said in my first post, it’s hard for me to post on a regular basis. We’ll see how things go now that I’ve started both a new year and a new semester.

I was at “unnamed company” for 15 years. The last five of those years was spent living in that grey area between being a software developer, project manager, and department manager. At a point, it became clear that I was becoming bored doing the same thing over and over as a software developer, stressed out to the point of a heart attack as project manager, and hitting the glass wall of moving any further up the food chain as a manager.

That was when I realized it was time to leave “unnamed company”. I had joined “unnamed company” with all intent of only giving it five years and going on to get my Ph.D. Then, I woke up 15 years later. That was when I rolled the dice, broke all the connections I had with “unnamed company” and became a graduate student.

So, it’s now three years later, I’m struggling to get good traction on my dissertation, and the money is getting thin. But you know what, I’m still damn glad I made that leap.

Selah.

OTOH, it was painful to experience the restaurant brush-off the other day. Eating alone in a restaurant is bad enough. You get all of the “luser” stares from the staff. I just don’t like being hurried out of a place when the staff brings you the bill long before you’ve had the chance to finish your entree. It’s sad, as that restaurant is one of the better pizza places here in Lafayette and it’ll be awhile before I go back.

I collect old magazines. I was digging around through some stuff I had in storage and found some copies of Playboy and Penthouse from the 1970s. At the same time, I had picked up a copy of the most recent issue of FHM while recently traveling. The pictures in the FHM issue was far more racy than anything that was in those old magazines.

I think you see the same thing with television. A lot of the stuff you see on the fringes of your cable dial today (and I’m talking the mainstream stuff, not the adult channels) talk about stuff that was confined to the hard-core porn magazines back in the 1970s.

It makes you wonder which way social mores are going to go over the next 20 years. Will we have a backlash to today’s popular culture and what sort of extreme social change will occur to cause it? If not, what comes next?

Selah.

I had started this blog using Apple’s .Mac service.   After a while, it became clear that it wasn’t working well keeping stuff over there.  So, I’m starting by moving some of the entries from that blog over here.   I’ll be adding new content whenever the feeling to rant hits me again.