tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80151002026-04-06T22:09:49.866+02:00Udgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01949287559886228889noreply@blogger.comBlogger1034125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8015100.post-79487453292363577572014-01-07T16:15:00.001+01:002014-01-07T16:17:30.574+01:00

A few weeks ago I caused a fuss on Facebook by sharing a post which suggested that the responsibility for women getting raped lies with the men who rape them. Some (male) readers disagreed with that statement, suggesting that women shared the responsibility for not being raped, and that they could avoid it by changing how they dressed or staying away from certain parts of the city. One reader

Udgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01949287559886228889noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8015100.post-90139427847871573692013-11-18T13:41:00.001+01:002013-11-18T13:42:22.344+01:00

Eight things you didn't know about me (demanded by Stephanie). 1. Whenever I walk past a door or window-that-could-be-walked-through that should be shut, I give it a push or a pull to confirm that it is. This can happen several times an hour. 2. I alternate between rising very early and staying up very late, over a cycle of many years. For the last five or six years it's been the late phase,

Udgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01949287559886228889noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8015100.post-61750234705570917042013-10-03T10:16:00.003+02:002013-10-03T10:19:28.734+02:00

Why does the GOP hate health care reform? Simple: look where the savings actually come from: reducing the amount of money people pay insurance companies. Health care reform would reduce the insurers' profits. Rich people stand to lose money. That is abhorrent to a Republican. They don't give a shit about your health or your finances or which doctor you see; the GOP is protecting the wealth of

Udgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01949287559886228889noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8015100.post-20307528053220710232013-07-20T12:59:00.002+02:002013-07-20T13:15:56.550+02:00

Cognitive dissonance is the distress and confusion that sane people experience when they discover that they are holding two beliefs which contradict each other. We need a word which expresses the opposite of that for people who hold contradictory beliefs while experiencing no distress or confusion whatsoever, either because they don't understand the contradiction or because they are actively

Udgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01949287559886228889noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8015100.post-60629518742187876042013-05-11T01:44:00.002+02:002013-05-11T01:46:22.914+02:00

This is a compendium of posts from another place, gathered here for your convenience. (March 20) I guess it is Spring after all. I saw a ladybug and killed a mosquito yesterday. (April 12) Signs of Spring: moving the plants outdoors again. (April 14) Just had coffee and cake in bright sunshine, in the garden behind the office. I'd say that it is a good 12 °C (20 °F) warmer than on Friday. Perhaps

Udgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01949287559886228889noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8015100.post-25807391911844008622013-04-13T00:11:00.002+02:002013-04-13T00:12:06.556+02:00

It occurs to me that password security could be simply but greatly enhanced if the systems were to consider not only what we type but how we type it. I just had one of those strange standing-outside-yourself moments as I watched my hands entering my password for WoW, and realized that the way I type is nearly as distinctive as what I typed. A system that ignored the letters and paid attention to

Udgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01949287559886228889noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8015100.post-85560675666536442752013-04-02T21:35:00.002+02:002013-04-02T21:35:57.256+02:00

Just had a strange little brain fart (as we in the trade call it). To set the scene, I'm in the kitchen intending to make tea. The teapot is sitting there with its lid on, still holding the dregs of last night's cuppa. Next to it is the coffee maker, and next to that the kettle which is coming to boil. While standing around, I notice that the coffee maker is closed, and intuit that this morning's

Udgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01949287559886228889noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8015100.post-51616872157003675782013-03-08T01:19:00.001+01:002013-03-08T01:21:51.251+01:00

At home, having a day off while the boss is in the Black Forest. Listening to the sound of birdsong through the open window, for the first time in 2013. Spring surprises and delights me afresh every year, this sudden transition from silence to symphony, from absence to abundant presence, from stillness to activity, from midafternoon darkness to the Blaue Stunde as I walk home after work. I saw a

Udgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01949287559886228889noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8015100.post-7430869101370013392013-01-13T03:30:00.007+01:002013-01-13T03:32:39.870+01:00

Starting a new year in a new place. Sis and BIL have moved from Regina and are now living and working in Victoria, on the Pacific coast. As I write I can see the sun glinting off the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and Olympic Mountains behind that. I think I'll miss Regina, but this seems a very pleasant place to live. I wasn't intending to be here, actually, I should have been back home in Germany a

Udgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01949287559886228889noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8015100.post-21488897575585878992012-12-01T13:38:00.002+01:002012-12-01T13:42:08.199+01:00

Were someone to ask me to curate a collection of [pick a number] significant human-made objects, one of the first to come on board would be a pull-toy mouse from the British Museum's Egyptian collection. I'm not sure of the date, but the number "4000" is in there somewhere: either 4000 BCE or four thousand years old; I tend to the former. It's small, not much bigger than lifesize, and fairly

Udgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01949287559886228889noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8015100.post-46053500909105355552012-10-08T00:57:00.001+02:002012-10-08T00:57:32.312+02:00

The strangest thing just happened. I was lying on my back on the floor (stretching out my back after a day spent mostly sitting) meditating with my eyes closed — and I had the impression that a large black dog entered the room. I knew it wouldn't attack me, it wasn't even particularly interested in me, but still I found it hard to close my eyes again. Eventually I felt that it was not in the room

Udgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01949287559886228889noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8015100.post-2931930843815616912012-09-26T12:01:00.001+02:002012-09-26T12:34:09.909+02:00

Sitting in the quiet of a shared rental apartment, drinking coffee (not cappuccino) and eating chocolate-filled croissants. This is the first time I've been here in about six years, according to the blog and to my notebook. Certainly I haven't been since G and U stopped going because of their kids, which is five years ago. Venice sounds like Sunday, no traffic and hardly any voices. The

Udgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01949287559886228889noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8015100.post-60928512385193222352012-01-22T20:22:00.005+01:002012-01-22T21:17:35.278+01:00

Readers may — should — be aware of PostSecret, a kind of anonymous clearinghouse for secrets that people write on postcards and send to Frank, who posts (a selection of) them on the web. (To be clear: people post their own secrets, it's not for outing your friends or even enemies.) I read the site every Sunday (it updates once a week), and am always moved by at least one of the

Udgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01949287559886228889noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8015100.post-27692250714985910772011-12-30T21:10:00.005+01:002011-12-30T22:08:59.510+01:00

Hello blogosphere, it's been a long time since we met. I've missed writing, and I deeply regret the loss of the community that had developed here and in the blogs I read. I'm not going to promise to write every N days in 2012, as that would just be another stick to beat myself with when I missed a date; but I will start writing again.I'm in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan with cousins and other

Udgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01949287559886228889noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8015100.post-40919078010758577252011-06-06T05:58:00.003+02:002011-06-06T06:19:32.938+02:00

Woke at 5:30 after around three and a half hours' sleep. Milk is cooking for hot chocolate, and I am hoping to get back to sleep after writing this note.Had a good day yesterday at the racetrack in Baden-Baden with G and U and their kids, despite torrential rain on the way there and a dead car battery and nearly 90 minutes of delay in tailbacks on the autobahn on the return journey. I spent …

Udgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01949287559886228889noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8015100.post-55125944356266826122011-04-25T12:12:00.008+02:002011-04-25T13:21:44.431+02:00

I'm in the Big Apple, in a moderately lousy (but also moderately priced) hotel. I woke just before 5am local time, 11am my time, after getting to sleep around 6am my time. I'm unsure whether or not to call this "insomnia", but it is far earlier than I hoped to rise.I have to give a kick in the head to the airport bus service (can't remember the name, will update this if I do) for lousy service.

Udgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01949287559886228889noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8015100.post-10660399333885920342011-04-06T05:18:00.005+02:002011-04-06T05:57:47.789+02:00

I'm sick. Only moderately, I believe and hope, but I've been sick off and on for nearly a month now. It started as a sinus infection, for which I had two different antibiotics and a week off work (for the first time in recent memory). The second antibiotic did the trick on my sinuses, mostly, but left a dry cough. Last night, for whatever reason, the cough "itched" so strongly that I've now

Udgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01949287559886228889noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8015100.post-64485390356349926802011-03-13T11:49:00.003+01:002011-03-13T14:19:38.239+01:00

Like everyone else, I spent much of Friday (and indeed yesterday) following the events in Japan. I too was shocked and appalled, and frightened, by the force of Nature unleash'd (as the poet said) and the — what to call it? — the futility and uselessness of our technology and science in dealing with it. What exactly should we find awesome about nuclear power or the theory of quantum mechanics if

Udgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01949287559886228889noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8015100.post-31873030332426344652011-02-07T17:45:00.006+01:002011-04-25T13:10:42.037+02:00

We sent the competition off at 3 o'clock this afternoon, and I have been lazing about since. The weather is wonderful, sunny and warmish and a perfectly blue sky, the air is fresh and clean and smells of the forest. After finishing up and debriefing, I walked downtown for lunch (at 3:30) and then bought supplies for dinner. I'm going to cook tonight and tomorrow, which I haven't done in ages,

Udgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01949287559886228889noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8015100.post-34735700758728300582011-01-31T06:30:00.002+01:002011-01-31T06:43:16.547+01:00

Hello world, it's been a while since we spoke. It is 6:30am as I'm writing, but I have been awake and drifting since around 5am (having previously woken at 2am but gone back to sleep) so I am calling this "night" and "insomnia." Hot chocolate is in the making, and I will head back to bed after drinking and posting.We are approaching the deadline for a competition aka the chance to have some work

Udgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01949287559886228889noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8015100.post-51102259351594029212011-01-01T17:36:00.002+01:002011-01-01T17:40:53.104+01:00

Happy New Year, my dears. May it be peaceful and enjoyable, and may you find happiness and fulfillment (in whatever forms you seek them in).

Udgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01949287559886228889noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8015100.post-58349614775917138682010-12-30T21:29:00.005+01:002010-12-30T22:00:11.187+01:00

So I was out on the frozen flatnesses of the Canadian Prairies (like the "boundless and bare … lone and level sands" of Ozymandias, with added snow) for Christmas (with Sis and BIL and their kids and our parents), and a goodish time was had by all. The only hint of trouble, significantly larger than a single cloud on the horizon, could be summed up in the phrase "getting old sucks." Not that

Udgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01949287559886228889noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8015100.post-1285572373063620142010-12-27T01:02:00.003+01:002010-12-27T01:13:35.326+01:00

Just so you don't think I'm a totally blind-and-gullible koolaid-swallowing Apple fanboy, here's a bit of bad news for users of Apple's Migration Assistant (which means any non-first-time-buyer). I wrote about this disparagingly last Spring, when I got my newest Mac Mini and tried to use the MA to import my data from the old one.Well, I found some new and exciting borkage in the current MA while

Udgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01949287559886228889noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8015100.post-63049757770988858422010-12-17T11:04:00.005+01:002010-12-17T18:23:10.009+01:00

That's Japanese for "miscellany," or so Google tells me, and who would know better? I have quite a lot of odds and ends left to report from my trip to Japan, though I've been home for nearly two weeks and will be flying to Canada on Sunday (weather-gods willing).Many of the oddities that one notices in Japan are social, differences in the way people move and behave within society. Social space

Udgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01949287559886228889noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8015100.post-51691324561019854932010-12-02T03:03:00.007+01:002010-12-02T08:43:11.381+01:00

Trainblogging again on the way home from Tokyo, heading into the sunset. For the first half-hour or so out of Tokyo, the train follows the coastline; as when travelling along the Mediterranean coast of France/Italy one gets tantalizing glimpses of the sea between the tunnels. [Written on Wednesday, but I was too tired to post it. It's funny, I am not having any of the usual jetlag symptoms, but I

Udgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01949287559886228889noreply@blogger.com3