Daily crono / On bags / A bold plan by the Chinese / Daily energy blogging (9): A good…
If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter. George Washington
My time in Boston is running out. I am getting ready to leave. Today, in the early morning I met with professor Moniz to discuss my PhD-application. He was very busy, but nice still. I hope I will be accepted and can return to MIT again later - when depends on the job I get. If the jobs is interesting, hard, and rewarding, I may stay away from academia for a bit longer. Otherwise, not. The worst thing in life is to get bored, not to learn new things at work.
New England weather tried to play tricks on me, but I took a look at the local weather radar and returned home. I finish my packing for the most part, read, wrote something, then had lunch with Kumar. After lunch I realized that the banks will be closed on Monday. I got in the bank just before it closed and got my money out. It took again 25 minutes to withdraw money. Free museum of technology and business practices.
One Bush, they say, can never hide two thieves. Aristophanes
The Chinese want to take over the car market. They have already introduced a decent sedan and plan to sell it for less than $10000. But the Chinese have one problem: they cannot yet produce modern, efficient engines. So, being clever and bold, they came up with a daring plan: buy a engine factory, disassemble it, ship to China, reassemble and take over the market. There is one modern plant for sale in Brasilia. Let's see if the Western companies are stupid enough to sell the factory to the Chinese.
The Chinese boast:
I have intuitively thought that living 3 kilometres away from work or school is optimal. In 2005 I lived in Beacon Street, which is about 2.5 kilometres away from MIT. It was a nice walk to and from MIT daily. Now that I moved to Dave's for three weeks and have only a 5-minute walk to MIT, I have started deteriorating. I am gaining weight, my mind is slowing down, my back is sore, and my mood is not sad, but a bit not as happy as it was earlier. Having to walk 40 to 50 minutes per day is essential for me.
In China, I sometimes used to take taxi to work and back. It was terrible, I was on bad mood, full of bad thoughts. But when I cycled to work (10 km, 30-40 minutes each way), I was usually in a very good mood the whole day. Or so I remember, but I do not remember much, as everyone knows.
Today, after dinner at the Mall, I walked to the Central Square. It took 30 minutes. My mood got much better and my back is not sore anymore.
It is time to go, time to leave this stage of my life, step in the next one, and make it as nice as this one was. I hope for nice adventures, surprises, joy, happiness, and hard work. Enough money to get by, to rent a one-bedroom home, to buy a few books every month, to buy thai-food from DuDii, maybe even to travel somewhere. And especially, enough time to be with my friends and loved ones.
I was not blind or stupid. I bought the Seagate 160GB hard drive. I connected it to mains and to my laptop and it works as it should. Excellent. The price was $95. Not too expensive.
In the corner of Clinton and Stanton Street, in Lower East Side of New York, is the cafeteria Lotus Lounge. Large windows on both streets let one to see who is in and what they are doing. Usually there are artists, authors, translators, musicians, many with laptop computers. One could mistake the place for a start-up company, if one would not step in.
Inside, one first sees a wooden bar dividing the room in two parts. Closer to the door, there are long benches and small round tables on the left. Larger tables for 4 patrons are on the right. Behind the bar, where they serve alcohol, old and soft sofas and reclining chairs are by a large bookshelf. On the shelf, arts and humanities books lean on each other, in total disorder, just like well-thumbed books should.
Prices are low, a cup of coffee for just $1, bagel with cream cheese for $2. The owners cannot afford fixing anything broken. Thus one wall has wooden panels, the other red bricks, and the wooden floor has seen much since it was last polished. The tables, chairs, and benches, comfortable though they are, can make one trip one's coffee. The ceiling fans dance, while they slowly move the air, and the music: Nico, Tom Waits, Iggy Pop.
Such is Lotus Lounge, my favourite place in New York. I am lucky that S found it last summer.
Being relaxed helps. I broke my earlier record in the Sopranos-pinball. My new record is 83 million points. Not that much — I know one pinball fanatic whose record is 360 million — but a start. Too bad that I do not know whether there is a Sopranos-pinball in Helsinki. Pinball is not in fashion, not the game youngsters play today. When I was young, well, the world was different.
Also, pages of all my pictures are now available. They take quite a while to open.
A bus driver, a middle-aged, clean-shaved, don Corleone-type of man is driving through snowy Brooklyn. A man in thick green overalls with an ample belly waves his hands next to a drift of snow, tries to flag down the bus. The driver stops, lets the man in.
Driver: This does not look anything like a bus stop, does it?
Man: No, it does not, but I was on my way to the bus stop. If I miss this bus, who know when the next comes?
After 30 minutes, in Midtown, Manhattan, the man wants to get out of the bus, presses the button, comes forward to the door, by the driver.
Man: Bye and thanks for letting me in.
Driver: You will get me in trouble, if you wave like that. Do not do it again.
Man: No I won't, it was just because of the snow.
Driver: I can get in trouble by extending a hand. Let me put it this way. If you have to choose between not stopping and extending a hand and getting fired, which one would you choose?
Man: Well, I see, I will not do it again
The man disappears in the blizzard, the bus continues towards the Central Park.
Alun perin julkaistu kuukausikoosteessa "Blogs January to February 2006".
Daily crono
My time in Boston is running out. I am getting ready to leave. Today, in the early morning I met with professor Moniz to discuss my PhD-application. He was very busy, but nice still. I hope I will be accepted and can return to MIT again later - when depends on the job I get. If the jobs is interesting, hard, and rewarding, I may stay away from academia for a bit longer. Otherwise, not. The worst thing in life is to get bored, not to learn new things at work. New England weather tried to play tricks on me, but I took a look at the local weather radar and returned home. I finish my packing for the most part, read, wrote something, then had lunch with Kumar. After lunch I realized that the banks will be closed on Monday. I got in the bank just before it closed and got my money out. It took again 25 minutes to withdraw money. Free museum of technology and business practices.
On bags
I bought a new shoulder bag. I wrote about it earlier. Since then I have had some unexpected discussions on bags in general. Many men seem to share my soft spot for bags. A cultural cliché has it that women collect bags, but my observations tell that it is men who do so.One Bush, they say, can never hide two thieves. Aristophanes
A bold plan by the Chinese
The Chinese want to take over the car market. They have already introduced a decent sedan and plan to sell it for less than $10000. But the Chinese have one problem: they cannot yet produce modern, efficient engines. So, being clever and bold, they came up with a daring plan: buy a engine factory, disassemble it, ship to China, reassemble and take over the market. There is one modern plant for sale in Brasilia. Let's see if the Western companies are stupid enough to sell the factory to the Chinese. The Chinese boast:
"Americans work 5 days a week, we in China work 7 days," he said. "Americans work 8 hours a day, and we work 16 hours."So, I assume we in the West also have to start working longer, give up holidays, etc. As we know, economy is not a servant of man, but man is a servant of economy. So sad.
Daily energy blogging (9): A good proposal
Robert Frank has a good and simple proposal for curing Americas addiction of oil, save a lot of money, reduce congestion, clean up air, and slow down the global warming. Simply, introduce a $2-a-gallon tax on gasoline and lower income taxes accordingly. I am sure the next president must introduce a tax like this one.What is the optimal distance to work/school?
I have intuitively thought that living 3 kilometres away from work or school is optimal. In 2005 I lived in Beacon Street, which is about 2.5 kilometres away from MIT. It was a nice walk to and from MIT daily. Now that I moved to Dave's for three weeks and have only a 5-minute walk to MIT, I have started deteriorating. I am gaining weight, my mind is slowing down, my back is sore, and my mood is not sad, but a bit not as happy as it was earlier. Having to walk 40 to 50 minutes per day is essential for me. In China, I sometimes used to take taxi to work and back. It was terrible, I was on bad mood, full of bad thoughts. But when I cycled to work (10 km, 30-40 minutes each way), I was usually in a very good mood the whole day. Or so I remember, but I do not remember much, as everyone knows.
Today, after dinner at the Mall, I walked to the Central Square. It took 30 minutes. My mood got much better and my back is not sore anymore.
Time to go
I am not as tough, not as independent, and not as bohemian as I tell myself. Now, as I have no real home — a nice place to live though —, no bookshelf, no classes to attend, and no team to work with, I am getting restless, almost bored. And homesick for sure.It is time to go, time to leave this stage of my life, step in the next one, and make it as nice as this one was. I hope for nice adventures, surprises, joy, happiness, and hard work. Enough money to get by, to rent a one-bedroom home, to buy a few books every month, to buy thai-food from DuDii, maybe even to travel somewhere. And especially, enough time to be with my friends and loved ones.
Being stupid is expensive
I wonder why it never before occurred to me that I can send books to Finland by mail. It is cheaper and easier than failing to smuggle them to the airliner. Mailing costs only (about) one dollar per pound (two dollar per kilogram). Lufthansa chages 100 dollars per 30 kilos. Well, not that much cheaper, but a little, and really much easier. And I definitely do not need all the books during the first 3 weeks in Finland. I have already some 30 new, unread books waiting, and 11 books should arrive from Amazon soon enough.The new HD works
I was not blind or stupid. I bought the Seagate 160GB hard drive. I connected it to mains and to my laptop and it works as it should. Excellent. The price was $95. Not too expensive.Quarter economy
Why is it that we nowadays follow economy quarterly? What is so special in a duration of three months? Why not follow the economy with far greater resolution? I assume it would be much better to know, how the last 3.75 weeks compared to the corresponding 3.75 weeks last year. Who would not be interested in how many iPod were sold in the last 234 hours? I think it would be great. We would be so much more informed, the newspapers would have news to print, the accounting industry would create millions new jobs. Everyone would be better off! What are we waiting for?Wednessday, 2006-02-15
Has not every major empire pursued quixotic dreams of global domination — of shaping the world in its image and for its interest — that resulted in internal decay and doom? Cornel WestLast tram adventure
I suddenly realised that I had never taken the green line to Lechmere terminal. There is a reason: the line to Lechmere reopened only a few months ago and I have not been adventuring here lately. Luckily, I happened to be near a tram stop. So, to Lechmere it was. It turned out the the terminal is very close to the Cambridgeside Mall, where I quite often have my dinners (spicy thai noodles and tofu, every time). Now I have seen the whole subway system in Boston. If I only could do the same in New York, Paris, and London. Well, one has to have goals and dreams.Seagate external HD with Mac OS X?
The local Best Buy sells 160 GB external HDs for $90. On the package, the text does not mention Mac OS X. I do not see any reason why it would not work with my iBook. Am I blind and stupid?Lotus Lounge
In the corner of Clinton and Stanton Street, in Lower East Side of New York, is the cafeteria Lotus Lounge. Large windows on both streets let one to see who is in and what they are doing. Usually there are artists, authors, translators, musicians, many with laptop computers. One could mistake the place for a start-up company, if one would not step in. Inside, one first sees a wooden bar dividing the room in two parts. Closer to the door, there are long benches and small round tables on the left. Larger tables for 4 patrons are on the right. Behind the bar, where they serve alcohol, old and soft sofas and reclining chairs are by a large bookshelf. On the shelf, arts and humanities books lean on each other, in total disorder, just like well-thumbed books should.
Prices are low, a cup of coffee for just $1, bagel with cream cheese for $2. The owners cannot afford fixing anything broken. Thus one wall has wooden panels, the other red bricks, and the wooden floor has seen much since it was last polished. The tables, chairs, and benches, comfortable though they are, can make one trip one's coffee. The ceiling fans dance, while they slowly move the air, and the music: Nico, Tom Waits, Iggy Pop.
Such is Lotus Lounge, my favourite place in New York. I am lucky that S found it last summer.
A record
Being relaxed helps. I broke my earlier record in the Sopranos-pinball. My new record is 83 million points. Not that much — I know one pinball fanatic whose record is 360 million — but a start. Too bad that I do not know whether there is a Sopranos-pinball in Helsinki. Pinball is not in fashion, not the game youngsters play today. When I was young, well, the world was different. New feature: permalinks
This blog has a new feature: permalinks. A link to permalinks is on the top of the page. The index has also link to permalink of older blogs. Some of them, not all.Also, pages of all my pictures are now available. They take quite a while to open.
A discussion
A bus driver, a middle-aged, clean-shaved, don Corleone-type of man is driving through snowy Brooklyn. A man in thick green overalls with an ample belly waves his hands next to a drift of snow, tries to flag down the bus. The driver stops, lets the man in. Driver: This does not look anything like a bus stop, does it?
Man: No, it does not, but I was on my way to the bus stop. If I miss this bus, who know when the next comes?
After 30 minutes, in Midtown, Manhattan, the man wants to get out of the bus, presses the button, comes forward to the door, by the driver.
Man: Bye and thanks for letting me in.
Driver: You will get me in trouble, if you wave like that. Do not do it again.
Man: No I won't, it was just because of the snow.
Driver: I can get in trouble by extending a hand. Let me put it this way. If you have to choose between not stopping and extending a hand and getting fired, which one would you choose?
Man: Well, I see, I will not do it again
The man disappears in the blizzard, the bus continues towards the Central Park.
Alun perin julkaistu kuukausikoosteessa "Blogs January to February 2006".
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