Scifi Safari

I went on a little sci-fi safari recently and thought I’d write to my immense readership about it. The three books I read were Orson Scott Card’s Lost Boys, Robert J Sawyer’s Rollback, and Orson Scott Card’s Children of the Mind. I keep returning to Card because, in my opinion, he’s one of the few sci-fi authors who can actually write…

Static on the Radio

On Wed June 11 2008 I passed my M.Sc. oral exam. Besides the minor revisions I have to make, this is the end of the road.

It’s getting hard to remember everything that happened, so this is a good time to take stock of the last three years…

Machine Learning Book

Here is a webpage hosting a downloadable version of the book Machine Learning, Neural and Statistical Classification. It’s old (1994) but on first glance seems to be well-organized and written. What’s more, it’s free…

[Edit: Donald Michie (editor) recently passed away.]

Never a frown

Tonight was the first time I’ve been choked to unconsciousness! I was in my partner’s guard (a jujutsu player who really knows the ground), neglecting to posture up (that’s lesson #1 for tonight) when he put on a cross-lapel choke that I struggled to escape for maybe five seconds before deciding to tap out.

Ketchup

Hello, devoted readers! My absence is mostly due to the fact that, for the past few weeks, every day & all day has been spent writing my thesis. It really doesn’t leave me with much of a desire to write here (I don’t know how some people do it!). But today I’m taking it easy, so I thought I’d play some catch up.

Ratpoison

A Window Manager, commonly abbreviated wm, is a program that controls the way your windows appear and behave. A good wm can be likened to an operating system: it provides a necessary service, but you barely know it’s there it because it doesn’t get in the way.

ratpoison is founded on the (apparently drug-induced) notion of a window manager that doesn’t get in the way. It does this by being constraining, inflexible, and primitive.

Slicks ‘N’ Slide (1993)

Gunfire peppers the side of your car, shattering your windows. As you spin out of control, a green motorcycle buzzes past and takes the lead. Enraged, you slam your fist onto a red button, launching a heat-seeking missile after your attacker. The missile follows the motorcycle into a tunnel … then bits of green plastic spit out the other side.

It’s Slicks ‘N’ Slide by Timo Kauppinen!

Judo

From judo the other night:

• An effective defense against full mount is to lock your opponent’s leg in a figure eight. Wrap your left leg around your opponent’s right leg (or vice versa) and create a figure four (or triangle) with your left ankle in the crook of your right leg. Now hook your right ankle under their shin and straighten your legs.
  • Note: I did this the other way around (i.e., my right leg holding the acute angle) and my partner commented on the discomfort. I need more practise before I can decide which I prefer.
• From a one-handed lefty grip on the lapel (or vice versa):
  • Step in for osoto gaeri just as you would were your left hand on the sleeve. Because your arm has to bend more for your shoulder to connect with your opponent’s, you must be very loose.
  • Step in for ippon seio nage by bringing your right arm under their right arm. I prefer this to the grip on the sleeve because it simplifies the approach — I can worry less about what my opponent is doing with his/her right arm.

In light of the 2nd point above, I’m going to try to develop my one-handed stance during tachi waza.

Melancholia

“it’s more than all right to descend into introspective gloom.”

Gym

This morning I had an efficient visit to the gym:

1. Stairs, ~15 minutes (ended with backwards crawl up the stairs, as usual)
2. Bicycle, 10 minutes (leisurely, only ~100 kcal)
3. Circuit, 4 sets of 3 exercises:
   1. Chin-ups (10, 10, 6, barely 6)
   2. Goblet squats (10, 10, 10, 10)
   3. V-sits (20, 20, 20, 20)
4. Misc. rotator cuffs on the cable stacks
5. Pullovers (20, 20, 10, 10)

The circuit in particular was very good: it kept my heart-rate up while the different muscle groups recovered. Next time I’ll have more than yogurt for breakfast and squeeze out more sets.