Daily crono / You are what you read / Results from the human experiment / WSJ: Greed…
A Mentor is someone whose hindsight can become your foresight. Chinese proverb
Lunch with Kumar at Pho Pasteur. There was a huge mobile crane dismantling another non-mobile crane in Chinatown. Very interesting. Kumar went to movies, I went to the park for coffee and then home writing thesis. My thesis On complexity measures for systems architecture models has now 30 pages of text and 22 bibliographic references. Not bad. Another 30 pages will be enough for finishing it. I have the information in my head already. Now, I think, might be a good time to cycle to MIT and play some pinball.
So, where should I submit a proposal for this kind of TV-program? Anyone willing to work on this idea?
Preliminary results. It seems, that working in the night is productive but very problematic. When I stay awake until 3am, I cannot get up before 11am. Then, after having lunch etc, I am ready to start writing at 2am or later. The problem is that I seem to be either sleeping or working. Not good. All work and no fun is not good for me. Or anyone. So, I will start another experiment: waking up latest at 7am, and working until 6pm or so. Then I could go to movies or whatever. Let's try this schedule for a few weeks.
Anyway, writing thesis alone at home is not the intellectual activity I really excell at. I am way too extroverted, I need to suck energy from intellectual discussion, or just from being amoung people. I wonder whether I should take a pen and some paper and take a tram somewhere and write.
Wall Street Journal has an attitude problem. Today's editorial discusses (factually quite OK) the problem of managing internet: ICANN or UN. But the text is infuriating as it reads: "The Saudi-Arabias, Chinas, and Frances" and "France, Iran, Cuba". I do not know what it means, but the only thing I can figure is that any country, which has ever opposed e.g. illegal wars waged by the USA, are of equal value. If this is the level of argumentation and reasoning, why should I believe any business articles of WSJ? Maybe they have no more sense, no more intellectual honesty. Writing sloppy editorials does bring down the value of the whole newspaper.
They also support the use of torture - the only problem, according to WSJ, is that the Bush administration is so bad in defending the practice of its (modest, when compared to Saddam's, says WSJ - I wonder why they do not mention things the French did in Algeria!) torture and secret prisons.
The temperature seems to stay above 16C without any extra heating. Old-fashioned light bulbs are enough to keep this place warn enough. Any warmer and I will loose me remaining edge.
Alun perin julkaistu kuukausikoosteessa "Blogs November 2005".
Daily crono
Lunch with Kumar at Pho Pasteur. There was a huge mobile crane dismantling another non-mobile crane in Chinatown. Very interesting. Kumar went to movies, I went to the park for coffee and then home writing thesis. My thesis On complexity measures for systems architecture models has now 30 pages of text and 22 bibliographic references. Not bad. Another 30 pages will be enough for finishing it. I have the information in my head already. Now, I think, might be a good time to cycle to MIT and play some pinball.You are what you read
I heard, that there is a program called You are what you eat in the Finnish television. The idea is to show fat and unfit people how they can lose weight and become healthier and fitter by changing their eating habits. I think there is a need for such a program, as obesity is epidemic. But depression is also epidemic, and changing diets will not cure it. I think there would be a market for a program called You are what you read. In this program the depressed would be given hints about great books and advice how to read the books. The depressed would then go about their lives while reading as prescribed. I am sure, that they would become much happier and less depressed. Not reading, or just reading the yellow-press and simple, entertainment novels, is one of the main reasons for depression (not the deep, clinical one, but the less severe feeling of being down). Reading nourishes soul, gives hope, enhances imagination, and feed utopian thinking.So, where should I submit a proposal for this kind of TV-program? Anyone willing to work on this idea?
Results from the human experiment
Preliminary results. It seems, that working in the night is productive but very problematic. When I stay awake until 3am, I cannot get up before 11am. Then, after having lunch etc, I am ready to start writing at 2am or later. The problem is that I seem to be either sleeping or working. Not good. All work and no fun is not good for me. Or anyone. So, I will start another experiment: waking up latest at 7am, and working until 6pm or so. Then I could go to movies or whatever. Let's try this schedule for a few weeks. Anyway, writing thesis alone at home is not the intellectual activity I really excell at. I am way too extroverted, I need to suck energy from intellectual discussion, or just from being amoung people. I wonder whether I should take a pen and some paper and take a tram somewhere and write.
WSJ: Greed and hatred
Wall Street Journal has an attitude problem. Today's editorial discusses (factually quite OK) the problem of managing internet: ICANN or UN. But the text is infuriating as it reads: "The Saudi-Arabias, Chinas, and Frances" and "France, Iran, Cuba". I do not know what it means, but the only thing I can figure is that any country, which has ever opposed e.g. illegal wars waged by the USA, are of equal value. If this is the level of argumentation and reasoning, why should I believe any business articles of WSJ? Maybe they have no more sense, no more intellectual honesty. Writing sloppy editorials does bring down the value of the whole newspaper.They also support the use of torture - the only problem, according to WSJ, is that the Bush administration is so bad in defending the practice of its (modest, when compared to Saddam's, says WSJ - I wonder why they do not mention things the French did in Algeria!) torture and secret prisons.
Getting colder
Yesternight, when I returned from the bar, the temperature was just +1C. Not, at 11am, it is +7C. I seem to have forgotten the window open when going to bed at 3pm. Inside my cave, I have now 15.5C. Rather refreshing, woke me up fast enough. Again, here is one benefit of not being tiny: one does not cold too easily. 15.5C is OK for me, but when S arrives, I have to get used to higher temperatures.The temperature seems to stay above 16C without any extra heating. Old-fashioned light bulbs are enough to keep this place warn enough. Any warmer and I will loose me remaining edge.
US-things I miss, part 2
- National public radio
- Food-truch in the MIT campus
- Acccess to MIT-library etc databases
- Wall Street Journal's opinion pages - naked greed
- Vietnamese restaurants: Pho Pasteur
- Blossoming magnolias in Back Bay
- Enjoying picnic in cafe - liberal use of disposable dishes
- Saying/hearing: thank you, excuse me, sorry, please, how do you do, bless you
- Being outsider, an alien, and thus seeing things in a different light
Alun perin julkaistu kuukausikoosteessa "Blogs November 2005".
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