I am King of the Geeks

A picture is worth 10^3 words.

I Passed!

Tonight I learned that I passed my nikyu (brown belt) test, which I took on 08 Dec. Next class (Thursday) we'll have a bit of a ceremony where all the other people who passed their grading and I will get to put on our new belts. It will be good to wear my brown belt again. But there is more pressure on the higher belts to be good role models.

Je m'appelle Flocon de Neige!

We had a quite a snowfall yesterday and last night, accumulating 6 inches or so here in Wildwood. Here's a picture of our house the day after, which Mason took with his cool camera.

Thanks to Sheldon Foisy of GenoLogics for the title of this entry. He doesn't yet know of his contribution, significant though it is.  :-)

Kindle is Cool

I got an Amazon Kindle this week, just in time for my recent trip to Groton, CT. I was a little bit worried about that purchase, because it is a bit pricey and there was a fair amount of controversy in what people were saying about it. But I really love to read, and the Kindle was just too perfect a fusion of cool things for me to pass up. So, I validated my early-adopter status and bought it.

I'm not at all sorry. The only bit of criticism about the device that really stands up is that the Next Page and Previous Page buttons on the side are too easy to hit -- they really are, and it's annoying. Other than that, it has worked flawlessly for me, and reading books with it is a very pleasant experience. And when I got stuck in Hartford because of their big snowstorm on Thursday, and I finished my book (Stephen Colbert's "I Am America, And So Can You!", which was absolutely hilarious), I was able to browse the online Kindle Store, buy another one (Jon Krakauer's "Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith," which is just as scary as you'd think it would be), and immediately start reading it without even leaving my chair at RDU.

Very cool.

Ice, Ice, Baby

Ice storm tonight in the St. Louis area. I enjoy snow much better, but I don't think we'll get too much of that down here.

Karate Grading

Yesterday at my dojo (Missouri Karate Association) we had a grading session. Such sessions are sometimes called "belt tests." In very traditional dojos, like this one (which teaches Shotokan), you don't ask to be graded; instead, the instructors invite you to test because they feel like you're ready. More importantly, you don't just automatically get graded because you've been there for 2 months since the last time or something like that. Every belt you get, every level you attain, you have to work hard for. And the higher up you go, the more you realize that you have so much to learn, and the journey never ends. In fact, first dan (shodan, or black belt) really just means that you've finally gotten the basics down sufficiently to really start learning karate.

The instructors at MKA are three brothers: Barry (the chief instructor), Brian, and Darrell Power. All excellent, and champions in their own right. For this grading session, we were very fortunate that their father, Barry F. Power Sensei, flew in from Vancouver. He also ran a couple of seminars prior to the grading, both of which were incredibly instructive. I hope to see him again.

Anyway, I was testing for nikyu. Usually, karateka (students of karate) begin at 10th kyu, almost always a white belt, and go all the way up to 1st kyu (ikkyu), almost always a brown belt. In between can be a whole bunch of different colored belts, but there isn't too much standardization for those. You can really only rely on white, brown, and black. Anyway, nikyu (2nd kyu) is usually a brown belt, as it is at MKA.

Grading in Shotokan has the same kind of form as almost every regular class session: kihon (basics), kata (formal exercises, or forms), and kumite (sparring). Kihon comprises the basics of karate: stances, punching, blocking, kicking. Kata are the things that are almost like dances that you'll see individuals or teams do; sequences of moves that you do in a very particular way, and you can spend your whole karate career perfecting them (same with kihon, for that matter). Kumite is when you and a sparring partner get together and "fight;" in some dojos, you really fight, but not in Shotokan (which works for me; "no pain, no pain!").

As you might imagine, the kihon, kata, and kumite that you have to do to attain each new level get more and more difficult as you move up the ranks. Nikyu is pretty demanding, and ikkyu is harder still, etc. You definitely spend some time during the grading trying to catch your breath, because with every punch, kick, and block, you're really putting everything you have into it. And your brain has to be working all the time, remembering exactly what to do and how to do it.

For nikyu, I had to do a fairly substantial chunk of kihon (you can read about it here). I tested alongside another guy in the dojo, who's been really helpful to me since I started there a few months ago (he accidently kicked another guy's knee during the seminar right before the testing, and his left great toe was pretty screwed up; he doesn't think he broke it, but it sure looked purple and painful!). We had to do the kata called Bassai Dai, which is probably my favorite kata (so far, anyway). Then we were asked to do another kata, whatever was our favorite other kata. I almost chose Heian Godan, but I like Tekki Shodan as well, and it's quite different from Bassai Dai and the Heian kata (the plural of "kata" is "kata," I believe) I know, so I (like my test-mate) chose to do that one. And then we did some ippon kumite, which is a kihon kind of one-step sparring. Then we got some well-deserved critique from Brian F. Power Sensei. And then it was over!

I'm feeling it today. Class on Thursday, seminar Friday, seminar Saturday morning, and then grading, have all left me with some sore muscles. I need to get into better shape! We won't find out how we did for a few class sessions. Of course I hope I passed, but you never know. I really just want to be ranked where I should be ranked (I was a brown belt in Bill Bly Sensei's dojo in North Carolina, but I've been wearing my white belt since I came to MKA), and it is absolutely up to the instructors to say where that is. 

If I get some pictures, I'll post them! And I'll let you know how I did when I find out.

Johnny Rose

An ex-Moonie named John drove me home from the airport tonight. He told me his father was a preacher (Church of Christ, with which I'm not familiar) and a schoolteacher in New Jersey. When he graduated from high school his parents gave him a deal: if he went to the whatever religious college they wanted him to attend for a year, they'd pay for that school or whatever other school he wanted for the rest of the time. His year at the religious college was difficult (this was back in the early 70s, and the school had an issue with hair that was long enough to touch the collar), so after that he went to the University of Texas.

Right after he got there, he met the Moonies on campus. Moonies, of course, are the followers of Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church. I have to admit that I'm not too familiar with these guys, either. But John got involved with their fundraising arm pretty much right off the bat. And he raised money for the Moonies for the next 11 years. He visited the Rev. Moon about 1 month into it, at his multimillion dollar mansion in Tarrytown, NY; that helped me understand why the fundraising was so important.

One of the things the Moonies did (do?) was sell roses in bars. I suppose guys would buy them for whoever they were with at the bar, but the first thing that I thought of was guys buying them for their wives so they don't get too busted when they stagger home. John laughed at that and said that he always told guys to knock on their door and throw the rose inside; if it didn't come back, the guy was in relatively good shape with domestic governance.

John said his parents really had a good time with him with all this. He mentioned that he had a younger brother, so I asked him about how his brother turned out. He said that one summer when he was staying at the Rev. Moon's mansion, his brother came to visit him and told him that he was gay. John asked whether he had told their parents, and he said that he had. At that time, their grandmother was living with their parents. Evidently, when all that came out, she told the brother, "I don't know why they're making such a big deal about this. When your father was your age, he was queer as a three-dollar bill."

John still sells those roses in bars on Friday and Saturday nights. Everybody calls him "Johnny Rose." He says sometimes he gives away more roses than he sells. Sounds about right.

Leopard is Out

Tonight Apple Computer released the latest version of Mac OS X, called Leopard. Mason and I went to the St. Louis Galleria to the Apple Store there, and waited in line with a few hundred other people until 18.00, when the nice Apple guys threw open the doors so we could buy the our own copies of the coolest OS on the planet.

Before they opened the place up, the Apple guys were toddling around the line taking pictures with their iPhones. They were pretty excited about the whole thing.

Mason and I got free t-shirts, having been among the first 500 people in the store. The funniest shirt they had showed the Windoze logo in some crosshairs, with the words "Hasta la Vista" above. Nice.

The Leopard installation onto my MacBook Pro actually did not go without a hitch; I had a bit of trouble initially. But I more or less magically got out of it, and all seems to be well.

I saw my friend Errol Sandler just before I got in the store. Errol is a former colleague from Ann Arbor, and it was great to see him.

Stinkhorns Again

The thing about mushrooms is that they can be pretty hard to identify. I posted recently about some stinkhorns I found in my backyard, and I identified them as Phallus impudicus, the common stinkhorn. Well, I looked them up in another really great mushroom book I have, "Mushrooms of Northeast North America" by George Barron, and I also checked out a voucher specimen at the Missouri Mycological Society's website. That voucher specimen is of Phallus ravenelii, or Ravenel's stinkhorn, and it looks an awful lot like the common stinkhorn. So now I'm wondering whether the ones I saw are P. ravenelii rather than P. impudicus.

The way to distinguish the two, according to Barron, is to look for the chambered ("morel-like") head after the spore-mass is removed from P. impudicus. Oops, too late for that! The picture of the voucher specimen (collected by Brad Bomanz) appears to show some of the spore-mass removed, but I have to say that the head of that specimen doesn't look particularly morel-like to me. For an example of a morel, check out the same collector's picture of Morchella deliciosa.

See? Told you mushrooms are fun!

Radiohead's Latest

Radiohead have shaken things up a little bit by making their latest album, "In Rainbows," available only from their website, and for exactly as much as you feel like paying for it. Yep, that's right, pay what you want for it and download away, DRM-free. As I write this, the last song of the album is playing on my iPod. The whole album, start to finish, is brilliant, well worth what I paid for it.

And just how much did I pay for it, seeing as I could pay whatever I wanted? Well, I sort of took what I thought was the average cost of a 10-song album on iTunes, converted that amount to pounds, and paid that much. The only disappointment I had was that there was no album art associated with the mp3 files; no worries, there are plenty of candidates out there for you to download. Anyway, I hope you buy the album, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Kata

This evening I've been practicing my Shotokan kata. Since I started training again after a long absence, I've mostly been doing Heian Shodan and Heian Nidan when we're asked to practice "our kata" in the dojo. I'd pretty much forgotten all the ones I'd learned in North Carolina, and I really need to get them back and train them hard. It finally dawned on me (duh) that I'm probably not going to be able to do that by just going to class; I'm going to have to work on them outside of class as well.

So, tonight I worked on Heian Sandan, Heian Yondan, and Heian Godan. I'm still a bit rusty, but I think I can at least make it all the way through each of them now. There's still some muscle memory left for a lot of parts, which helps. I'll work on these until I get them down again, then I'll work on Tekki Shodan and Bassai Dai (my favorite of all the kata I've learned). Once I get those, that will pretty much get me back to where I was before I moved to Massachusetts and stopped training in Shotokan.

By the way, I've been training at the Missouri Karate Association for about 2 months now (minus a couple of weeks for business travel), and I think the instruction there is great.

Stinkhorns

When I was just a little kid (I think we were living in Columbia, MO, at this time), my dad took my brother and me out into the woods to look for mushrooms. It must've been autumn, because there were lots of dead brown leaves on the ground. In some of those leaves, I found a single morel mushroom, which we picked and brought home and sauteed in butter. This outing left a pretty big impression on me, because I remember it to this day, and I still very much enjoy mushroom hunting and mycology in general.

Today while I was mowing the lawn (in Wildwood, MO) I found a few very interesting mushrooms in the backyard. These mushrooms are called stinkhorns. They're members of the Phallaceae, for reasons which should be obvious from this photo. In particular, these are Phallus impudicus, the common stinkhorn.

David Arora, in his excellent book "Mushrooms Demystified," says that the stinkhorns' most outlandish feature is the unpleasant odor of the mature spore slime, aptly described as "indiscreet." As proof of this I need offer no further evidence than to point out the green bottle fly perched atop the center specimen, apparently enjoying himself. Stinkhorns are malodorous (and, frankly, kind of funny) but not overtly poisonous, and can be hunted by their scent alone.

I'm not going to eat these, despite the fact that they aren't poisonous. The fruiting bodies evidently grow from "eggs" which one Cpt. Charles McIlvaine said "demand to be eaten." I'm kind of thinking, um, not so much. But aren't mushrooms fun?

Prius

I ordered a Prius Friday night. I'm kind of exited about it. I very much like the fact that they're better for the environment than most vehicles -- I want to do my part. I also like the fact that it's such a techy car. The number of bells & whistles on this thing for geeks is just amazing.

Not that I'm a geek or anything. I hasten to add.

I know this will get me in trouble with my brother's wife, who does marketing for Hummer. I think I'll just get 48 mpg driving over that bridge when I come to it. ;-)

Top 10 Ideas presentations

I recently read somewhere that Guy Kawasaki has been giving presentations unlike the usual PowerPoint presentations we usually see. He's been presenting the top 10 ideas in a particular area: 10 slides, 1 idea per slide. This format was supposed to be nice because each slide can be very simple, just a picture really to help get the idea across, and because your audience can always tell just how much more of your drivel they're going to have to take.

I gave a presentation at work yesterday using that format, and it seemed to go over really well. I think I'll use it again.

I also put the presentation together using Apple Keynote '08, which makes wicked good looking presentations. Of course, I had to export it to PowerPoint to show it at work, but I notice that one of my coworkers used my background for his slide deck, too.

Kayak Rolling

On my most recent visit to Groton, CT, my good friend Stephen Dobson and his long-suffering fiance Angela took me kayak rolling. This was a pretty humbling experience, I have to admit.

I've rented kayaks many times before, usually on various rivers in Michigan, and I've really enjoyed my time in them. Stephen and Angela refer to these kayaks (with no small amount of disdain) as "rec boats." It turns out that these kayaks are much more stable than the ocean kayak that Stephen put me in. Which might explain why, after some valuable dry-land training in the kayak, I was able to get maybe 3 meters after Stephen pushed me out to sea before I promptly flipped upside down. That was the first of many experiences that evening of hanging upside down in the water, strapped into the kayak and kind of wondering how I was going to get upright again.

It's pretty hard, I have to say. I'm pretty sure that in slightly more than an hour, I was able to roll myself back up twice (which I'm told is pretty good, but Stephen and Angela make it look so easy that I couldn't help being a bit disappointed in myself). Two things helped me, I think. First, I'm a PADI Assistant Instructor, so when I do find myself underwater like that, I really don't feel uncomfortable. Second, it turns out that a bit of hip action is beneficial when you're trying to get the boat back over, and karate is great for that hip action. You never know what experience is going to help you in any given situation.

Anyway, Stephen told me to bring my "kit" for Wednesday evening when I'm back in Groton -- evidently a 2-week absorption phase is a good thing. I'll let you know how I do!

Haiku Hijinx

Enough people have been amused by this story that I think I should tell it out loud once and for all. Besides, I think the statute of limitations has run out on my crimes, so I think I'm safe.

When I got out of graduate school (for the second time -- story for another day), I did a brief stint at a little start-up company that had spun out of General Atomics in La Jolla. One day when I was at work, inspiration struck me and in that instant I was obliged to write on the bathroom wall the only thing I've ever saw fit to write in such an inauspicious place.

What I wrote was a haiku. Which was inevitable, if you know me. I reproduce it for you here, word for word, so that you might be amused by it as some few others have before you.

a bowel movement

is a very private thing

one person per stall

Despite its somewhat pedestrian nature (see my early meta-post on Haiku 1), I hope you find it and its circumstances enjoyable.  :-)

MO Speed!

I got my Missouri license plates for my car today. I don't want to put them on, though. According to my careful field observations, Missouri license plates cause cars to go about 10 mph slower than they otherwise woud go.

So much has changed

To quote the literary genius Jim Anchower, "I know it's been a long time since I rapped at ya, but things got crazy, if you know what I mean." The last time I wrote it was from Bend, OR, where I was interviewing because my company announced the closure of my site in Ann Arbor, MI. We just finished moving away from there, but not to Bend (which was nice, but probably not the right place for us). Nor did we move to Seattle, or Cambridge, or Groton, or Indianapolis, or La Jolla, or Thousand Oaks, or someplace in New Jersey of which I'd never heard.

Where we did move is Wildwood, MO. Turns out to be a pretty nice place actually, despite the punishing heat in the summertime. My new job is very cool, the people here are fantastic. The move went pretty smoothly, actually, although we did have couple of issues that were kind of a drag to deal with. But, that part is pretty much over now. The truth is, relocation is incredibly disruptive and time-consuming, but moving to a new place can be pretty interesting.

The proverbial fly in all of this relocation ointment is leaving our friends from Ann Arbor behind. We all had great friends there, and it was very hard to leave them behind. Lots of my friends moved to Groton, CT, one of whom I miss terribly (you know who you are). That's the real cost of moving.

One good thing about moving here is that I've taken up Shotokan karate again. I used to train at Sensei Bill Bly's excellent dojo in Cary, NC. I was pretty pleased to find a Shotokan dojo very near where I work in Chesterfield, the Missouri Karate Association. I really like doing Shotokan, and I think the people at MKA are great.

More later. Peace out.

New Hams

Yesterday I played the role of an ARRL Volunteer Examiner (VE) at a ham radio testing session for the first time. I had a lot of fun, for two reasons. First, it's great to see people taking an interest in amateur radio and passing their licensing exams to become new hams. And second, the other VE's were very knowledgeable and more than happy to share their knowledge with the new guy -- very typical ham behavior, I hasten to add.

One interesting aspect of the whole thing is that we have to be very, very careful about everything we do as a VE team in a testing session. We want everything to be exactly right, so we triple-check everything. Which is good, because what I and the other VEs have at stake in the matter is our own amateur radio licenses.

Such a cool hobby, ham radio.

This Just In: Egg Rolls Edition

I just learned that the best egg rolls to be had at any price in all the land are the Shrimp Egg Rolls served by Mr. Chan at Chan's Chinese in Bend, Oregon. Not only are they incredibly delicious, but they are presented to the delighted diner at a temperature perfectly compatible with immediate consumption.

Thank you, Mr. Chan!

Bend

I'm in Bend tonight, a town of about 75,000 in the high desert of Central Oregon. When I left Detroit this morning it was about 7 degrees F outside, and when I arrived here it was about 70. Pretty nice! This is a pretty cool little town, with lots of funky restaurants and lots of people out walking around the downtown area.

One thing I couldn't figure out was that some of the cars driving by had tires that were making all kinds of noise as they rolled down the street. At first I thought there must be a bunch of gravel in the treads, but I finally figured out that these were snow tires with studs on them. I have to say that I grew up in Muskegon, Michigan, and we got a lot of lake-effect snow there; we never had tires with studs on them. Sometimes we put snow tires on the car, sometimes we didn't. It reminded me of when I went to California for the first time one Chistmastime, and during a drive into the mountains we saw signs talking about the requirement for chains. Chains! Crazy.

The Popularity of Anti-intellectualism

I just read in my local paper that Fox just debuted a new TV game show to record numbers, 26.5 million, on Tuesday. This not only makes it the most-watched series debut in Fox history, but the most popular debut of any series since 1998 (according to Nielsen). The show is called, "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?" The rapt viewer of this show is evidently treated to the hijinks which ensue when adults are quizzed on the knowledge to be found in elementary school textbooks.

I hope that all of those viewers (a set of which I am not a member) were merely exhibiting a kind of morbid curiosity, wondering (as I do) whether the show's contestants were really up to that kind of challenge.

But I worry that most of those viewers were really wondering whether they themselves were smarter than a fifth grader. And when I think about how maybe some non-trivial fraction of them found themselves deficient, I just imagine them laughing as they tell their sympathetic friends, "I didn't hardly know none of them questions!"

Is this really be the standard to which Americans want to compare themselves?

This is all good, harmless fun, I suppose. Until somebody gets up in front of a school board somewhere, let's say, and wants to make an argument one way or another about something that takes maybe a bit more than a fifth-grade education to really understand. Then I think it's not so much funny as it is dangerous.

We don't merely tolerate ignorance, we embrace it, even encourage it. I think we should all stop acting like a bunch of fifth graders. Ignorance is not funny, or cool; it's just ignorance.

Interviewing

A bit over a month ago, my company announced the closure of my entire site (dig what Josh blogged about it here). This is a drag in a lot of ways, not only for those of us at the site but for a lot of people in the community and for the great state of Michigan as well. One of the unpleasant upshots of this closure is that I'm back in the job market, which means that I have to interview.

It's like being in a beauty contest every day. And it kind of wears on you. The uncertainty is the worst. But I was thinking about a book I read recently, "The Hungry Years: A Narrative History of the Great Depression in America," by T. H. Watkins. Maybe I don't have it so bad. I have the luxury of viewing this whole experience as an opportunity, as opposed to a disaster.

Carbon Leaf in Ann Arbor

My favorite band, Carbon Leaf, played the Blind Pig in Ann Arbor last night (20 Feb 2007). I knew from their recordings that they are phenomenal musicians, but you should see them live. It's just so great to see people doing what they're really good at and really enjoying it.

Carter Gravatt, the lead guitarist, really impressed me. I'm hoping for another "Carter Administration" soon. ;-)

Carbon Leaf started the show by beginning to play along with a recording of The Crane Wife 3, a very cool song by The Decemberists. A nice touch.

Kelly, thanks for getting us tickets and giving up your soccer game to go see Carbon Leaf with me!

A Word About Haiku 1

Haiku 1 has its merits, but it's really not a haiku. Sure, it has three lines, the first with 5 syllables, the second with 7, and the last with 5 again, for a total of 17 syllables. The 5-7-5 syllable (onji) form happens to occur naturally in the Japanese language; a haiku in English can be anywhere from just a few syllables up to 17 syllables (rarely more than that).

What makes a haiku a haiku is that it captures the essence of a relationship between Nature and human nature. Alan Watts characterized haiku as "wordless poems," the idea being that a good haiku is so concise that the reader doesn't even really have to read the words to experience the moment of the poem.

Haiku 1 is more of a senryu maybe, which genre is more about human nature and human relationships and is often humorous. Whatever it is, it's pretty pedestrian, I'd say.

And there's more where that came from!

Matteo, thank you so much for the haiku book, from which I learned a lot of this information. If you'd like a copy for yourself, you might want to look it up: The Haiku Anthology, Expanded Edition. Cor van den Heuvel, editor.

Haiku 1

Japanese Gothic:
MacDonald-san had a farm,
E-I-E-I-O.

Amateur Extra

Yesterday morning I passed my Amateur Extra Class exam. I've been in ham radio for a long time, and have held an Advanced Class license for most of that time. I was really happy to finally be an Extra, though. It's good to set a goal for yourself and hit it.

I'm keeping my Advanced-format call, though. It's the only format left that proves you knew Morse code at one time (something I want to pick up again).

Maybe I'll hear you on the air.

73,
N6QXA/AE

P.S. Thank you to the ARROW VEs for giving up their time!

Hello, world!

(print (list 'hello 'world))

Gotta start somewhere!