Thane Plambeck

No Victoria Cross

It turns out that Victoria Cross medals can sell for over $120,000, and Joshua hasn't bought one, after all. But we did take some photos of the Dead Man's Penny (medal + documents) that he bought at auction.

In the trenches

1) I've been reading books about World War I (again), this time this one and this one, both loaned to me by Joshua. Tomorrow I return them and he's going to show me the WWI medals he's been buying online at auction. With any luck, I'll go away with a photo of myself wearing the Victoria Cross. I'm also desirous of visiting WWI battlefields, although it's hard for me to picture dragging Gloria and the kids there. I need to find some kind of technology conference in Verdun or Ypres.

2) Succeed in excavating my office to desktop surfaces, paying bills and once again identifying the key clutter issue—I have too many books.

3) Have got the first draft The Phi-Values of Various Games done, in its entirety, all 78 pages of it (and it's going to get longer) but can't make further progress (or at least, have convinced myself that I can't make meaningful further progress) until Aaron comes back from Burning Man. Greg and others are at Burning Man, too. Maybe I'll go sometime—ha! I dont think so. The problem with Burning Man is the same problem with Nebraska and with the novels of Willa Cather—they are too sandy. I'm not fooled when they call it a playa, instead. I'm going to be happier when I'm out of the mode of writing up math papers and can return to trying to solve math problems, instead. It's much more interesting and although I usually have little tangible to show after a day of working on math problems, it's more gratifying somehow. Just a little adventure, like a trip to a Jelly Bean factory, or an exploration of a castle. That's how I think of it. No one writes papers about trips to Jelly bean factories or castles, right? You just go, and have fun. Going to the Halifax Games at DAL meeting only reaffirmed this desire to actually do math, and not talk about it, or write about it. Yet if I indulge this desire to work on the math instead of writing about it, I will condemn Phi Values to be late. So, no—must keep writing/editing. Am I burning out?

Mental images summoned as I attempt my IT band stretching exercises

1) Flimsy screen door and granite boulder, immovably positioned behind the bottom of the door. Rock allows the door to be pushed open only 2 inches. Exercise: "Pushing the top of the door only to its full range of motion, hold for 30 seconds. Repeat." Will door snap off hinges? Probably.

2) Ancient elastic bands under high tension surround a box full of undetonated and highly unstable explosives. Exercise: "Extend band twelve inches from box. Reach full range of motion and hold for 30 seconds. KISS YOUR A** GOODBYE."

3) Corpse with developing rigor mortis on putrefying pillow. Exercise: "Grasping leg of corpse firmly with one one hand, bend it backward behind you. Make sure you keep squeezing the pillow between your legs and hold for thirty seconds." No, thank you.

Laptop on deathbed

dead screen laptop
Originally uploaded by thane.

It's hard to have a meaningful interaction with one's laptop after the screen goes belly up. I was lucky to have this flat panel sitting around. I'm already used to typing on the laptop, and looking somewhere else.

Better than a disk crash, I guess. Anyway, time to get a new laptop.

Michiko Kakutani buries bloggers and Franzen in mass grave

Not really about bloggers, but still:

While some readers will want to give Mr. Franzen points for being so revealing about himself, there is something oddly preening about his self-inventory of sins, as though he actually reveled in being so disagreeable. And while it doubtless takes a degree of self-absorption for anyone to write a memoir [read—blog], in the case of this book the author's self-involvement not only makes for an incredibly annoying portrait, but also funnels the narrative into a dismayingly narrow channel.

—from this book review of The Discomfort Zone.

Shostakovich Prelude and Fugue in G minor [1951]

g-minor-prelude-piano-shostakovich
Originally uploaded by thane.

Positively ghostly

Tasso street party

Street party
Originally uploaded by thane.

With Lenny Susskind and frog cookie

Working out the misere transition algebra T(*2) with Meghan Allen and Angela Siegel

Working out the misere transition algebra T(*2) with Meghan Allen and Angela Siegel
Originally uploaded by thane.

Some books I bought at Erin & Chris's garage sale for $1

1) The Making of the President, 1960 [ Theodore H White. Always wanted to read it. Or so I thought. At least this is my big chance. ]

2) Justine [ Lawrence Durrell [1957]—the first of the "Alexandria Quartet." Like the names of various flowers, French cities, and events of the 14th century, this book has flitted in and out of my attention, always whispering "Ah—but you should know more." Also, there was the little matter of the Sigmund Freud quotation on the frontispiece: "I am accustoming myself to the idea of regarding every sexual act as a process in which four persons are involved. We shall have a lot to discuss about that." Clearly it wouldn't do to leave this book unpurchased? ]

3) State of the Nation, John dos Passos.

4) MRS. BJORKEN'S DIARY OF 1974 RUSSIAN VISIT, just next to In Memoriam: Joan G Bjorken, (1936-1983), and I thought, "ah, samizdat!" documents, or at least self-published. I've now worked out that she was the wife of James D. Bjorken, a physicist and senior administrator at FermiLab, now possibly still affiliated with the Stanford physics department.

In reading through these interesting pamphlets, I learned that Joan Bjorken established the Infant Care Center at Fermilab [Introduction of the "In Memoriam" pamphlet, by Leon Lederman].

With this fantastic photo of her talking to kids, presumably at Fermilab:

The things you find at a Palo Alto garage sale!

Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia

DSC07098
Originally uploaded by thane.

There were plenty of people wandering around, but for a moment they were all hidden behind the lighthouse, and I took this photo.

"If there is a doctor on this flight, would you please identify yourself?"

DSC07182
Originally uploaded by thane.

Thankfully, I'm not the sort of Dr. that "does anyone any good."

I took this photo just after we landed in San Francisco and pulled up at the gate (from Toronto, as scheduled). You can just about see the doctor's white hair and the EMT guy standing behind him in the center of the photo. You can't see the patient, even if you enlarge the photo. He's sitting down. After I took the photo, the patient got up and walked off the plane, seemingly without any problem.

Diagnosis

After today's MRI and a meeting with a sports medicine guy at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation, I've got a diagnosis for my pesky left knee problems— Iliotibial Band Syndrome.

"There's no need for surgery—you need to stretch and strengthen your left leg. I'd give you a PT referral, but it all comes down to the stretching."

I'd gotten this probable diagnosis already from Christine (Gloria's personal trainer), 10 months ago.

She knew what she was talking about (even as she marvelled at my inflexibility).

"The MRI scans do not lie," summarized the Sports medicine guy.

JP about to enter the mysterious 2 and 1/2th floor of the Dalhousie math department

DSC07026
Originally uploaded by thane.

Games @ DAL

DSC07010
Originally uploaded by thane.

Page served to me at YouTube

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[ I think there are some growing pains at YouTube nowadays ]

Water loving animals

I watched the cat obsessed with toilet flushing. Then I heard a repeated knocking sound outside my office door. Pearl the dog was in the grips of a water obsession of her own.

Someone should let that dog go outside!

1975 Diary

diary
Originally uploaded by thane.

I've had this in my office for a few years. I was a 7th, then (in the fall) an eighth-grader at Kearney Junior High School in Kearney, Nebraska. During the summer, it's mostly a record of tennis tournament results and some notes on "practical jokes" and magic.

Seems like I should type it in, even though it's impossibly boring [such concerns haven't stopped me in the past—why now? ]

Finger pointing

I stubbed my right pinky finger at morning basketball, but only have myself to blame. It was an easy pass to me and I was lazy in catching it.

The photo doesn't do justice to the color; it's ugly. Maybe it's broken?

We visited Cole's soon-to-be middle school today and I was reminded of another playtime mishap. It happened when I was in middle school (of course, it was called "Junior High" back then). Some girls were playing a game where they took one of their saddle shoes almost off their foot, leaving toes still in the shoe. They were having a contest to see who could kick off their shoe the hardest at a wall, about 20 feet away. I could hear the loud whack as each black and white and shoe slammed into the wall. The wall had a ledge, and I climbed up on top of it. I surprised them by jumping to the ground between the high velocity saddleshoes and the wall. I took Mary Luth's right saddleshoe directly in the left eye, which survived despite this Darwinian pressure in favor of its extinction.

in the Guardian

For example, it was very difficult for an Me-109 to shoot down a Stringbag. The trick was to wait for the enemy to come almost within range, then cut right back on speed, and make the steepest possible turn at 60 knots. This was a "sixpence inside a half-crown" and the fighter could not bring its guns to bear.

[ From an obituary of Lord Kilbracken. I've got to figure out how to get myself a cool title like that—"Lord Kilbracken." Nice. I like these Guardian "Old Boy" obituaries, with their inevitable introductions describing youthful indiscretions—"Born in Belgravia, he had just finished with Eton, and was ready for Oxford, when he chose to enlist. School life had not been uneventful; he had been Eton's unofficial bookmaker (with a daily turnover of £30) and was almost expelled when discovered..."—and then later, more sober accomplishments. The best obituaries are always Churchillian. Joshua said is it's possible to buy certain similar-sounding titles, maybe he said "Lord of the Manor" is one of that type? He did say that the droit du seigneur no longer applies. I must enquire. ]

Looks like Bruce has a new 3D photo rig?

IMG_1616
Originally uploaded by entros.

I'm not sure, but this looks fancier than the one he had at G4G7.

He took these photos there.