Matt

I'd sure like to meet the other 2%...

2009-07-08T23:33:41Z

Eating in NZ II

2009-07-08T06:43:43Z

Pizza places sell sides of squid rings. How great is that? A 4-topping medium pizza and a side of squid rings came to US$12.25 tonight, tax included (as it nearly always is in posted prices). In general, there is a much smaller premium for eating out in NZ than in the US (relative to cooking at home). In order to clue in to this, one has to remember that there's never any tipping or extra tax on the bill.

Birds

2009-06-24T03:54:24Z

The Tui has become my favorite NZ bird. Not only are they cool looking, they have fascinating, distinctive calls that resemble one another in style but are ultimately unique to each individual. I've heard them every time I've stepped in to the bush, am frequently able to get close to them, and can even identify them by the sound of their flight.

Generally, the birds of NZ are fascinating to see, hear, and learn about. The three parrots alone are cool enough: the Kākā we saw early on at Karori; the Kea, rated the smartest bird and the only alpine parrot; and the Kakapo, the only flightless parrot, a nocturnal one at that, and perhaps the longest living bird (95 yr avg life expectancy).

Today I approached a couple Australian Magpie, which while an introduced pest was pretty nonetheless, quite closely on foot.

Good Mussels

2009-06-21T06:42:05Z

I bought some New Zealand green-lipped mussels at the supermarket yesterday. This evening, I steamed them in a typical onions, garlic, white wine fashion and we ate them with rice & veggies cooked in stock I'd made from the carcass of a smoked chicken. It was quite tasty.

Ah, the smoked chicken. Piled up in Kiwi supermarkets are these whole smoked chickens, seal-a-mealed in thick plastic much like comes on stuff like Canadian bacon in the US. They cost about US$7 apiece. The meat is cooked by the Manuka smoke, and the smoky flavor goes all the way to the bone. We're on our second one right now, and I couldn't see wasting the carcass of the first one, so I made a stock from it in our poorly-appointed kitchenette today. It worked out great, and goes to show that you don't need a fancy kitchen to build delightful meals.

Modern, private telecom is neat

2009-06-20T00:19:44Z

I just got a TXT on my NZ prepaid phone (actually the same GSM phone I used in the States; I just bought a prepaid SIM the other day) telling me I had Skype voice mail. I log in to Skype, and there's the voice mail: my bank had called my USA SkypeIn phone number (the only number I currently have over there) checking on recent overseas debit card activity. They have no idea where I am. I had to talk to no humans to set up any of this, and I paid a grand total of US$50 for several months of SkypeIn and the prepaid SIM. 20-30 years ago, this would have been a level of convenience and "follow me" connectivity that might have been available to rich executives with a lot of work on the part of corporate underlings and hotel staff, or eventually hauling around a bag phone. To everybody else it would have seemed hopelessly out of reach. Now, not only is it possible, it's easy and within almost anyone's reach.

Climbing in NZ

2009-06-17T20:16:57Z

At the climbing gym yesterday, I walked up to the counter, paid my NZ$12, and that was that. The fella didn't ask my name, put me in a computer, ask me to sign anything (e.g., the States-usual "I acknowledge I might die; I indemnify the gym."), or do any safety check-out. They had 2 autobelays which I was welcome to use, but I had to go out of my way to ask for instruction (though they are dead simple).

I rode the bus out to the Hutt Valley suburbs to do this. With all the natural beauty, it seems vaguely goofy to go out of my way and spend money to climb indoors, but it also serves to drop me in to a social context, and besides I just like to climb. I think I'll also poke around looking for places to boulder.

Karori Sanctuary

2009-06-16T20:59:33Z

On Sunday, Angela and I rode the Wellington Cable Car to the top, then took a nice walk along the ridgetop roads to Karori Wildlife Sanctuary, where we saw or heard, in the space of a day: Grey Warbler, Saddleback, Tui, Kaka, Weka, Tuatara, Weta, and some very enormous fern trees, and learned a great deal about the native flora and fauna of New Zealand.

Pictures start here. Sadly, I left the CF card out of my DSLR, so the only wildlife shots we got are with digital zoom on the P&S.

We were both unaware that New Zealand has no native mammals. The lack of mammal predators is the primary reason many birds lost the ability to fly. The Māori probably brought the Polynesian Rat with them, but Europeans eventually introduced rabbits, mice, stoats (ermine), and housecats.

In order for this sanctuary, literally just a hike up the hill from our apartment in Wellington, to have any hope of success, predators have to be excluded. Construction thus began with a 5½ mile predator-proof fence, which is pretty clever in design. For more, see http://www.sanctuary.org.nz/.

That's more like it!

2009-06-14T23:21:29Z

At the library now:

Hotel bandwidth

2009-06-14T20:25:05Z

We get "free internet" at the apartment hotel we're in. It's free and it's internet, and despite what I suspected earlier, they aren't blocking ports. That said, it is craptacularly slow and laggy, and I don't think this is entirely to do with being an extra 100ms or so from California.

Even given those numbers, Angela had a successful video chat using Skype with her parents in Indiana.

Still, I'll be venturing out to use some cafe wifi today and see how that goes. There is a single provider for the vast majority of wifi in cafes and assorted other buildings, including the library. And it's a pay service, so hopefully that means high quality and high bandwidth.

T minus 94.86 hours

2009-06-06T22:15:12Z

Departure to Wellington is imminent. I have assured assorted parties that I will try to blog about—and post pictures to flickr of—my experiences while there. Both a P&S and a DSLR have been accorded space in our luggage.

The flights themselves will take 23 hours including time spent in airports from takeoff in Indiana to touchdown in Wellington. It's better than a full day when you include arriving early to the airport. Not sure how well that's going to work, but we've laid in copious quantities of melatonin and benadryl (couldn't get to the Dr in time for Lunesta), so here's hoping.

See you soon, Kiwis!

Test

2009-04-21T19:32:37Z

Well well.

Posted via LiveJournal.app.

Furnished Apt Wanted in Wellington NZ, mid-June to mid-August

2009-03-19T01:26:47Z

ursulas_mom and I will be living in Wellington from about June 11 to about August 17, and we are looking for a furnished apartment in the CBD, preferably walking distance to Te Papa museum. Any help would be greatly appreciated: web sites with ads, good experiences, bad experiences, or direct referalls. Thanks!

UPDATE: 1 bedroom, and broadband internet or its availability is a must.

Protecting against the falling dollar?

2008-07-12T12:55:38Z

Dear Lazyweb,

My concern about the ongoing value of the dollar continues to grow, as does that of almost everyone who's paying attention. For long-term investments, it is easy enough to distribute money into international funds. What should I do with liquid assets (savings account, emergency savings)?

I looked at Everbank's products, including their CDs and MMs, but the rates in tempting currencies, like CHF, seem less than tempting. Can one open an account directly with a Swiss bank and achieve a better yield? Is there a better option than simply using the same kind of vehicle I've been using here (CD, high-interest savings) but denominated in a foreign currency?

Success

2008-06-19T23:07:02Z

I conquered this climb today. There is a stop sign at that Y intersection, so I have to start with no momentum, and then it's up, then UP, then up some more. The highlighted part averages 12%, but I think the steepest part is >20%.

People who live near actual mountains would probably think this climb is ridiculously short, but I have to train with what I have, and it's plenty steep for my weak ass. And it comes in at about mile 40 or so on the (not flat) ride I did today. This was my 4th time up this hill and my only time without stopping. I deliberately took it easy, found my cadence, and breathed carefully all the way up. At the top, I could not help myself hollering "Fuck yeah!".

In preparation for the D2R2, I'm ramping up my mileage each week. This week will be 155. Peak weekly mileage will be 225 for a couple weeks, then 2 weeks of less mileage but intervals, then 2 weeks of taking it relatively easy before the ride. I am led to believe that all this is the standard sort of modern preparation people do, though mine is perhaps on an abbreviated schedule.

Wed 18 Jun 2008

2008-06-18T23:41:02Z

I rode my bike for exploring and errands today, read Beat to Quarters (Forester, Hornblower) under a nice tree in a deserted park adjacent to grazing cattle, raced (and beat) a thunderstorm to the library, waited it out, picked up disc 2 of Ken Burns' Baseball (disc 1 was really good), stopped by the comic book shop and picked up like 6 Buffys from my box, then rode home on wet streets. And I didn't even have to use my AK.

Nice ride

2008-06-12T20:38:11Z

Just got back from doing this 50 mile ride. I took quite a few stops to cool off in streams and whatnot, so I wasn't super fast. But it was good enough and it was a beautiful day out there.

I'm signed up to do the D2R2 in August, so I'm trying to get mileage in every week and make sure that every day I ride the bike includes some steep climbs and some gravel. Today's route included both.

The equipment for this ride looks like it's going to be my Cross-Check with lowered gearing, Ostrich handlebar bag, and 700x37c Paselas. I'd had 32s on it up 'til now. There is a 37 on the rear and another 37 on order. So far, the new tire has acquitted itself just fine. I can't wait to get one on the front for gravel descents.

current interests and projects

2008-03-20T01:57:28Z

I'm trying to narrow my focus, at least for the next little while. In order to do that, I'm trying to enumerate what I'm interested in right now, so I can decide what not to do. For those who are curious what I'm up to, these are the pots that are on the stove, or at least near it, as far as I can recall.

Weird ideas about time telling
- Developing a "natural calendar" in which the gross form of the calendar is based on astronomical/natural facts/events (like the solar longitude, the seasons, the moon phases) and the Western cultural calendrical aspects are just noted as details. This inverts the relationship on typical calendars, where months and the work week dominate the form of the calendar, and vernal equinox and full moon are penciled in here and there.
- Developing a "natural watch" or "natural clock" which, rather than showing you the "time of day" based on the arbitrary time zone in your area, tells you how long since/until the nearest sunrise/sunset/solar noon at your latitude and longitude.
- Both ideas could have appeal just as "art" projects, but I find myself wanting both for personal planning reasons. The prototype calendar I already have taped to the wall makes my march through the year much more plain. It helps me plan activities and goals associated with the outdoors. Similarly, when outside for a day of adventure, knowing how long until sunset is generally more valuable than knowing the "time of day".
Under the general rubric of electronics
- Developing an open source fixed cellular terminal (a device that hooks up your GSM cell service to the ordinary PSTN phone wires that may be lying dormant in your house or apartment). One for myself, then publish schematics and sell either a kit or a product, with open source firmware inside. A 1-line model will be the first prototype, but I hope to do a 2-line version (his & hers) with a second GSM module. Calls to his SIM card would ring on the ordinary red/green pair, while calls to hers would ring the black/yellow pair, possibly with an alternate ring pattern.
- A physical interface to online chat (e.g., AIM) which consists of a series of little dolls or paper cutouts each representing one of your close friends with whom you chat. The doll faces you, turns around, or disappears entirely depending on if the person is available, idle/away, or offline. Perhaps a light blinks under that doll when the person sends you a message, and if you press a button under a given doll, iChat switches to the foreground and starts a chat with them.
- A budget DIY split-flap display, which should make it easy to build little microcontroller projects with affordable, large, power-efficient displays. The basic idea is a cardboard tube, stiff card, a servo, and a specially formed box. If this could be made reliable, just as an example, a display of the current time and temp could be done in 8" high numerals much more cheaply than with any other display technology I know of.
- Generally just fooling around with electronics and learning to prototype, design, build and debug circuits, both digital and analog.
I want to build things that fly. Ornithopters, model airplanes, kites, blimps, etc. In particular, I kind of want to master balsa and tissue construction. My grandpa has made rubber-powered planes out of it since I was little.
Biking
- Just want to keep exploring back roads in the country on longer and longer rides
- Want to take S24Os
- Want to do a multi-day tour.
- Really want to do a really long tour some day, like riding across {America,Africa,Iceland,whatever}.
(Moribund?) A debugger for in-client Javascript code that can be operated from the server side. A client-side debugger runtime in Javascript speaks over HTTP to the server-side debugger interface.
Climbing. I just want to go out and climb. Don't care about grades, style, or any of that. I just miss climbing on rocks outside.
Truck
- Finish the platform. It only needs 2 little things to be good enough to see what's not good enough.
- Take some road trips in it this summer. Where? To what end or goal? With whom? No one? To visit distant friends in a cheap way, and along the way recreate in an outdoor fashion? I know I want the truck/platform I've put together, but I can't quite decide what I want to use it for now.
Learn to paraglide. Oh, man, yes.
Get some income, perhaps intermittently, but not a Real Job.
Bike biz ideas
- I have a pile of wacky ideas for bicycle clothing especially suited to riding in hot, humid summers like in the midwest. That is, to maximizing evaporative cooling and minimize solar heating.
- There are some practical products out there that aren't easily obtainable in the US.
- I have several ideas for DIY chaincases
Juggling
- I can do the 3-ball cascade without any issue. I've easily gone over 100 catches and can stop at will once warmed up.
- I'm learning 3 clubs with some borrowed clubs.
- I'd like to learn club passing
- I'd like to learn 4 balls, but I only have 3 shitty Klutz bean bags
Keep doing Crossfit or something like it in a 3-on/1-off fashion (I have stopped since the end of Feb)
Keep eating better: veggies and protein.
Set up a non-livejournal blog where I can talk about what I'm doing without the audience being forced to listen to personal life stuff that seems better kept on LJ, with friends filtering and all.

This is just what's on the pad right now. I keep adding to it.

Note the poor showing of software, or at least, software that is not directly connected to some hardware. Perhaps I'm warming up to what Alan Kay said: "People who are really serious about software should make their own hardware." More likely, I'm just getting bored and following my bliss. :)

(Although I think I'd be happy doing a contract in the software biz, I'm pretty sure I'm done for awhile being able to self-motivate on software that only concerns itself with the keyboard, the mouse, the screen, and data. I want it to do something more. I myself am tired of only interacting with these machines through my keyboard, screen, and mouse.)

relative merit ranges of rural rambling and wage slavery

2008-03-13T22:30:47Z

I think I can confirm that the worst day spent wandering the countryside with your dog is better than the best day at work.

Brandywine Valley ramble

2008-03-04T22:36:25Z

Today I rode out to Winterthur for lunch with Angela, then rambled around that part of Delaware which is North of there, and a little bit of Pennsylvania. (map)

The vein I want to explore is up the Brandywine Creek and then west toward Lancaster. Much of what I saw, heard, and smelled today was beautiful, but I didn't stop to photograph much, and it was overcast (which is actually great weather for putting in the miles by bike: 60s and overcast). What pictures I got are on flickr.

Arden

2008-03-03T21:52:38Z

I got on my bike today and rode to Arden, which is a quaint, artsy "garden city" community which has been around in something like its current form since the turn of the century.

The Village of Arden was founded in 1900 by sculptor Frank Stephens and architect Will Price, with financial help from Joseph Fels, the soap manufacturer. One of 17 land trusts founded between 1894 and 1950, Arden is based on the Single-Tax economic philosophy of Henry George. As a result, a person's house is not taxed, only the land it sits on. The land is owned in common and managed by three trustees. Inspired by the Garden-City Movement, half the land is woods and open space. Foot paths criss-cross the village. Arden is known for its artists and also for its theater. Stages abound, including two at the Arden Club and one at the outdoor Field Theatre. In nearby Ardentown, you will find the New Candlelight Dinner Theatre. The entire community is registered as a Historic Place by the federal government, as are Ardentown and Ardencroft.

Arden in its early decades was the summer home of artists, musicians, theater people and leftists. In those times it had a summer camp atmosphere. It still feels like a summer camp in many ways, all year long. Once a year, the Saturday of Labor Day weekend, we host the Arden Fair. Every month, the Arden Community Recreation Association hosts a family event. Every week, October through May, there is a Saturday supper in Gild Hall prepared by a different Dinner Gild crew. Four days a week, people enjoy the Arden Library. Every day in summer, folks cool off at the Arden Pool. And at different days throughout the year, people enjoy the productions of the Concert Gild, Ardensingers, Folk Gild, Shakespeare Gild, and Arden Club Theater. And there's time to garden and to learn about the economic philosophy of Henry George, upon which the village was founded.

Arden is an amazingly weird spot of artsy nature nestled right up against I-95 in an otherwise unpleasant area. As Angela and I drive around (not just in Delaware), I often say "WTF do people have against trees?" They cut them down, they fail to plant new ones when the old ones die. And then they never spend any time in their front yards anyway. The residents of Arden clearly have nothing against the trees. They live with trees, wildlife, birds, and pleasant views all around, just a stone's throw from the Eastern Corridor and I-95. I made some photos of bits of Arden.

DIY Bike Rack

2008-03-03T20:19:24Z

The other day I finally got all four of our bikes off the floor in the office. This makes it much more pleasant to walk through, and also makes it possible to work on something (say, a bicycle) and still walk through the office and get to everything.

I put illustrations on flickr. The key technology that made this go off reasonably well is the newer heavy-duty hollow wall anchors, some of which can hold up to 100 lbs apiece.

I'd like to do a nice HTML write-up with the illustrations, but I just don't have the patience to do the HTML and styling by hand to get my images to float near the text that describes them, or number them Fig. 1 and refer to the figures or whatever. I could do an instructable, I guess, but... instructables are just kind of mleh.

I realize it's not rocket science, but it is a nice alternative for apartment dwellers who don't have a lot of space and don't want to spend a fortune on ridiculous overpriced boutique bike stands.

Idea: Book & Barbell Club

2008-02-11T20:03:13Z

"Please do not drop or abuse the weights," the sign says. "Since when is dropping weights on to a padded rubber floor abuse," I do not ask aloud. I want to do heavy cleans today, but to approach max effort, I'm going to have to be able to dump the weight safely when I go too far. Since that's against the rules, I just take it easy, only lifting weights I know I can control. Anybody who's done training of any kind (with or without weights) knows that if you only ever attempt that which you are certain you can accomplish, you will only improve very slowly.

At this point in my training, I'm still really going through the motions and learning, so it's not much hardship. But all CrossFitters eventually struggle with this issue and either decide to build their own gym in their garage (if they even have a garage). Or, if they have one nearby, they pay for the privilege of using a commercial CrossFit affiliate. Rates are typically by the workout, and quite a bit more than the Y in the long run.

The idea I had while trying to sleep last night was a middle ground between the garage gym and the instructed, by-the-workout fees of a CrossFit affiliate. Why not make a co-op of it? Collect a few interested parties, pool equipment and cash, and rent some sort of marginal, run-down industrial space. It would have an organizational structure not unlike a fraternal order or social club, and would survive on minimal dues, volunteer effort, and voluntary donations.

Free to all.
Ain't that something?
It is actually.

"Free to all" would be an important ethic for such a thing. We'd have to be willing to waive the dues for some folks.

I got this idea all on my own. But reading over some of the stuff at Gym Jones, I kind of get the feeling that maybe it began with a similar idea. I would feel better about kicking off such a venture if I felt I was going to stay in this place awhile. But this summer I won't really be around, nor next summer. Who knows about '09-10?

The above is the basic idea. I could also imagine such a club including a library. As well, since I continue to be on the lookout for affordable office space outside my house, I would try to create a carrel for myself to work there. So when I imagine it a step further, I imagine it also includes this library/reading room and that we are willing to rent carrels to members who want a sort of outside-the-home study or den. Is that part crazy? Would duality of purpose ruin the sharp focus of the workout space?

Nostalgia

2008-02-06T07:47:58Z

I feel nostalgic for the time when small downtowns could hold places that people didn't go in to very often. Bloomington (and many towns like it) has had the rent go up too much to support such places it seems.

For example, the place on Kirkwood that was filled with random 'antiques' (mostly western in flavor) and had motorcycle racing stickers on the door and nobody was ever there. Or 25th Century Five and Dime: what a great place to get introduced to Slack, or The Emperor Wears No Clothes. (Where do collegiate types learn that some folks color outside the lines these days? The Internet I guess.)

One should not submit to nostalgia too often. A critical eye is usually warranted.

Sleeping

2008-02-05T03:37:43Z

I applied a great deal of liquid polyurethane to plywood today. Fred as rolling bed gets a tick closer.

Book: A History of Technology. Singer, C., et al., eds.

2008-02-04T06:10:48Z

I just started reading this, supposedly a definitive 7-volume work on the history of technology as it has affected the Western world. The first 5 volumes were written while Charles Singer was still alive and released from 1954 to 1958. The last 2 volumes were published in 1979 and edited by T.K.Derry and Trevor I. Williams.

I found out about this book by running across A Short History of Technology at Dover Publications (I love Dover) only to find out that the latter is a summary of the out of print 7-volume work. But the UDel Library has all 7 volumes. So I got started.

I'll try to update and integrate this entry as a kind of evolving review as I make my way through the books. I might periodically point back to it when I have made significant changes.

The main text of V.1 is 803 pp. The first bit covers skill as a human possession. It talks about tool use of various kinds in lower animals (including some wasps) and primates, and then talks about what appear to be the differentiating features of early man, and eventually Homo sapiens.

The drawings to accompany the text always seem to be there when you want them, they are clear, and they are frequently large. The book itself is printed on heavy paper and is clearly designed to last. The whole has the feel of a really well thought out, well wrought work.