flooey.org

My Year In Cities, 2008

Following Jason Kottke's example, here is the list of cities I visited during 2008, in chronological order.

New York, NY*
Philadelphia, PA
Chicago, IL
London, United Kingdom
North Kingstown, RI*
Las Vegas, NV
Acapulco, Mexico
Oakland, CA*
Barkeyville, PA
St. Louis, MO

One or more nights were spent at each. Cities marked with an * were visited multiple times on non-consecutive days.

The vast majority of my traveling was done early in the year and in spurts; the trips to Chicago, London, and Rhode Island had no weekend at home in between, as did the trips to Acapulco and Oakland.

New Cars on the C line

The introduction of the R160s is finally making its presence felt in my commute. While none of the lines I regularly ride are getting any of the new cars, the C used to run entirely R38s, which are being retired. So, starting this week, I've been riding entirely on R40Ms and R42s (I can't tell them apart), presumably relocated from the N, Q, W, and other lines that are getting the new 160s.

Interestingly, it seems like they haven't quite gotten all their ducks in a row yet. The C has historically always run 8-car trains, but this week I've definitely run on at least one 10-car train and one 6-car train. I expect it will return to 8-car trains eventually, though (the C is a bit crowded at rush hour, but not painfully so).

Constrictor Available

I've worked on Constrictor enough that I feel confident in allowing other people to be exposed to it. Some of the details might not yet be in their final form, but I think it's in pretty good shape right now. You can check out the Constrictor area of my site to get documentation, which still a bit sparse, or a pointer to the code.

If anyone starts using Constrictor, I'd be interested in hearing about your experiences or any suggestions you have.

Constrictor

This site used to be hosted with Drupal, which is a very capable and high-powered content management system. However, I had always felt that it was a bit more complicated than I needed; I didn't actually know how large portions of it worked, and it had lots of features I had no interest in using but added to the complexity even if turned off.

So, after hearing about it from Mark Dominus' blog, I decided to look at blosxom. It turns out that it's pretty much exactly what I want: a blogging tool that's dead simple but very capable and extensible by plugins (I love plugins). However, it's written in Perl, which I didn't want to have to deal with. There was a port of it to Python, which would be my language of choice, but looking at the documentation, it's a lot more complicated than the original (the distribution has 72 files!).

So, long story short, I wrote my own direct port of blosxom to Python. I'm calling it constrictor, since the whole purpose is to constrict the feature set. I've always been a fan of simple, sharp tools, and having worked with this intimately for a couple weeks this fits the bill pretty well. The plugin architecture is largely the same as blosxom's as well, and as a result I've already got three constrictor plugins going: one for allowing raw python in the interpolation, one to disable posts in a particular directory from being displayed in the date-based listings, and one to massage my posts to add paragraph tags and such. Porting blosxom plugins is pretty direct as well, so I expect to have more shortly.

I'll be futzing with the layout and things for a while, but overall I think things are good to go.

London, Day 1, Addendum

I forgot to mention that on Sunday afternoon I also headed over to Buckingham Palace while I was waiting for a room to be made available at my hotel. Perhaps 100 yards away from the palace is the Canadian War Memorial.

In my view, the Canadian War Memorial is right beside the Vietnam Veterans Memorial as the most potent war memorial I've ever seen. But where the Vietnam Memorial provides an overall impression of solemness, and possibly sadness or regret, the Canadian War Memorial evokes a profound sense of gratitude. It's a water cascade over a granite diamond that has images of maple leaves embedded into it, and the memorial is surrounded by maple trees. In autumn, the leaves from the trees fall onto the memorial and mix with the carvings. It's just stunning.

Image courtesy flickr user OwenBlacker

If you're ever in London, do yourself a favor and pop over to Green Park, right by Buckingham Palace. The palace is rather nice to look at as well.

London, Day 1

I have arrived in London, where I'll be working for two weeks. So far, everything is going well.

Immigration was ridiculously fast. I mean, literally, I walked into the room and up to an available desk. The immigration officer did the usual routine of complete non-interest except when I mentioned I worked for Google, to which I got a "Oh, mhmm."

The hotel I'm staying in is really nice. Probably nicer than I deserve. The mirror in the bathroom has a section of fogproof glass. I can see the top of Big Ben's tower and the parliament building from the window.

It's also creepy. The minibar is computer controlled. If you remove anything from its spot, it bills your room. When I arrived, I opened up the minibar hoping that it had space to be used as a fridge (it doesn't). About 15 minutes later, a room service guy arrived with a can of Red Bull and put it in the minibar, and he implied that they had noticed that I had opened the minibar but hadn't taken anything out, so they wanted to restock the can in case I wanted it.

I spent last night wandering about the Square Mile, which is also creepy after dark (5:30) on a weekend. Nothing is open, including museums and things, and you can walk for blocks without seeing anyone. I originally went out to go see The Monument, but it's closed for renovations for 18 months, so I decided to just wander about. Guildhall is really impressive, though, even at night when you can't go inside. In fact, the whole city has this really cool feel from being a mixture of old medieval architecture and beautiful modern stuff. Walking along a long slim overstreet walkway and looking over to see a ruined section of the London Wall is awesome. I unfortunately don't have any pictures, as it was dark and my only photographic device is my phone, but trust me, it's great.

Also, 140 London Wall is perhaps the greatest address ever.

Cars driving on the opposite side of the road are kind of unsettling, too. I didn't realize to what extent I have subconscious feelings about what direction I have to watch out for cars, but when you're walking along the left side of the road and a car whips by from behind you, it's quite surprising.

The London office is quite a lot like New York. My major impression is that it's smaller and has better junk food.

So, it appears that my impression of London so far this time is impressive, yet creepy. More tales as the trip progresses.

Vacation musings

As I sit here in my parents' house on the last night before I fly back to New York, gazing into the thick fog that's settled over the neighborhood, I feel compelled to take stock of my life. The last week has been a really great time, and it's going to be tough to leave, though I know I have to. Knowing how hard it is on my mom doesn't help either.

Overall, I feel like my life in New York is pretty good. Looking at it from the outside, it certainly looks awesome: I live in a great place, I work at one of the most desired places to work, and so forth. But for the most part, I feel unfulfilled, and I can't quantify exactly why. Part of it is that work isn't that interesting to me; I work on interesting projects, but the complete disconnect from the customer dampens my enthusiasm dramatically. I don't feel like that's it, though. Hopefully I can find what I need to change to feel better.

In other news, there are some exciting developments on this side of the country.

My parents have a new cat, and she's absolutely adorable. Her name is Gina, and she's quite small, roughly 2/3 the size of what I think of as a normal cat. She's got plenty of spunk, though, as she'll happily climb up onto my (six foot high) bed or chase a wine bottle cork around the house.

There's a new Catholic cathedral going up in Oakland right on Lake Merritt, and it's pretty impressive. It looks to be about eight stories tall, judging by the neighboring buildings, and is faced with glass panels in a elegant curve shape with a angled indent. Andrew Sherman has been keeping a log of its construction with a large helping of pictures.

Speaking of Lake Merritt, they're finally doing planning and construction for the southern end improvements, most notably: redesigning 12th Street and Lakeshore, adding more park space, and removing the horrible tunnels that go under the expressway. The design looks really good, though there are concerns about the number of trees being removed (both there and elsewhere), and I'm not convinced that the new restaurant that's being put where the boathouse used to be will be worth anything. There've previously been restaurants on the Lake and all of them have gone out of business. I wouldn't mind living in a high-rise apartment overlooking the lake someday, though.

Also, SCO was delisted in the last couple days, though not as a result of low share price (which it was already under advisement from NASDAQ about), but due to filing for bankruptcy.

No More DC Power in NYC

New York City has had direct current electrical service since 1882, but that ended today with the disconnecting of 10 E. 40th Street, the last DC customer in the city. Plenty of systems still use DC, most notably the subway, but ConEd has gradually moved the responsibility for AC/DC conversion to the customers, allowing ConEd to stop delivering DC power off the grid.

What does this mean to you?

Impression From A Weekend

New Haven consists largely of parking lots and medical emergencies.

Deriving Importance From Maps

The God Plays Dice blog that I've been reading recently had an interesting entry on trying to derive the importance of intersections from a map of a city. The core observation is that a good first approximation of importance of an intersection is the number of roads leading into and out of it.

Manhattan has some qualities that make this interesting to ponder. Primarily, the city was allowed to evolve naturally until 1811, when the Commissioner's Plan set forth the layout from 14th Street to the north side of Harlem, and the most important locations in Manhattan (depending on your point of view) are split between the Financial District, which is unplanned, and Midtown, which is planned.

In the planned section, the given approximation works out well. The plan included one major irregularity: Broadway, which cuts across diagonally from about 77th Street to 10th Street. As a result, the grid section includes 6 intersections that have 6 roads leading into and out of them instead of four:

72nd and Amsterdam Avenue (10th Avenue in Midtown): a central location on the Upper West Side
66th and Columbus Avenue (9th Avenue in Midtown): a corner of Lincoln Center
59th and 8th Avenue: Columbus Circle and a corner of Central Park
42nd and 7th Avenue: Times Square
34th and 6th Avenue: Herald Square and a corner of Macy's
23rd and 5th Avenue: Madison Square Park, home (sort of) of the Met Life Tower and Flatiron Building
14th and Park Avenue: Union Square

All of these are major intersections, and certainly rank highly among the most important intersections in the City.

Below 14th Street, though, the theory breaks down heavily. The West Village in particular has streets going all different directions and includes many intersections of 6 roads, some of as many as 8. However, none of those intersections are particularly important to the city as a whole (though some have local importance). Partly this is because Greenwich Village is built on land that is unsuitable for large buildings and partly it is because of the history of the area (which was once a literal village for people who didn't want to live in the bustling metropolis that was lower Manhattan).

Perhaps the core of the matter, though, is that the importance of an intersection is proportionate to the importance of the streets that intersect there. Intersections with more streets thus stand a better chance of being important simply because there are more streets that might contribute some importance. In that manner, we could find important intersections by trying to find the important streets. Ideas for what features one might look for to determine that could include unusual streets (such as Broadway), streets which are further apart from similar streets (such as the Avenues), streets that carry two-way traffic (as these tend to be larger than one-way streets), and streets on the edges of major parks.

Isabel also includes a side note about subways and why she feels that Boston has a thorough subway system while Philadelphia doesn't. She compares Manhattan to Philadelphia in that the system is a grid, so there aren't "obvious" places to put subway stops, but that isn't actually true for Manhattan. The Commissioner's Plan designated fifteen Streets (14th, 23rd, 34th, 42nd, etc) to be wider than normal, and many carry two-way traffic nowadays (which is very unusual in Manhattan, even the Avenues are largely one-way). Because they're regularly placed and main thoroughfares, these became the obvious places for subway stops when the system came along. That's why there are 4 separate stops on 125th Street, but no stops on any of 117th-124th or 126th-134th.

We Made The New York Times

The New York Times posted an article about the recent release of our product to hundreds of thousands of additional advertisers. Pretty exciting stuff.

Poor Greenland

Despite football (soccer) being the national sport of Greenland, they are not a member of FIFA. Why, you ask? Because it's impossible to grow grass in Greenland that meets FIFA's standards.

I Didn't Really Want It Anyway

I've never been so pleased to be denied a service in my life.

Thank you for your interest in Chase Identity Protection
What Happened:
We are sorry to inform you that we are unable to fulfill your request to participate in this program. The benefits of our product are based on the information and activity that takes place in your credit file. At this time, there is not enough information in your credit file so we cannot provide you with this service and you will not be charged.

So, basically, the bank says that they don't know enough about me to have any idea what would be normal or abnormal financial activity. That sounds like good news to me!

British Launch Skynet

Oh noes, the end is nigh!

Yes, the British launched the first of the Skynet 5 family of satellites. It's rather amusing that a modern high technology product shares its name with the computer from the Terminator movies.

It's less amusing that people persist in accusing the UK of being arrogant or dumb, considering the first Skynet satellite was launched in 1969. Come on, there're plenty of things to make fun of the UK for, pick one that's actually true :)

A Source of Difficulty

"He's trying to phonetically spell words he can't pronounce."

- Me

Goodbye Evil Dead: The Musical

Unfortunately, Evil Dead: The Musical is closing. I will be sad to see it go, but hopefully it will find a home elsewhere.

The Secret Project

My secret project is finally ready to be revealed! Behold, this xkcd comic translated into a Google Maps map! When I first read that comic and the the associated blag post, I knew the idea had a lot of potential for additional geekiness. Oliver had been messing with the Google Maps API the previous few days for an unrelated project, so this immediately sprung to mind.

The details of exactly what the map is representing are explained in the blag post, but the short version is that this is a map of the IPv4 address space. Each IP address is treated as an integer from 0 to 4,294,967,295 mapped into a 16th order Hilbert curve. The advantage of using Hilbert curves is that any aligned block of 4^n addresses maps to a square and any aligned block of 2^n addresses maps to a rectangle.

To build the maps, I wrote a Python program that reads an input file that represents everything that should show up on the map and then builds the images. Each record in the file contains a name, importance, a range of zoom levels to appear at, a background color, and one or more address blocks in CIDR notation. So, for instance, a record might look like "HP,2,2,,company,,15.0.0.0/8,16.0.0.0/8" or "Multicast,-1,-1,,metaspace,,224.0.0.0/4". The file can also include color aliases, so that I can write "registrar" instead of "#f5eecc".

The program uses the Python Imaging Library to do the drawing. For each zoom level, it begins with a 16k x 16k image and draws all the blocks on that, then resizes it to the proper resolution and tiles it into 256 x 256 images for use by Google Maps. I originally wanted to use a 65k x 65k original image, because then each address maps to a unique pixel, but in 24-bit color that comes out to 12 GB of raw image data. Not entirely surprisingly, trying to allocate that much memory on a 32-bit system causes Python to crash. On the machine I run it on, it takes about half an hour to render all five zoom levels, with about 90% of that time spent downsizing the most zoomed-in level.

The data is obtained through a combination of DNS and the various whois databases, the same as the original. In looking up the address information for the organizations I put on the map, I discovered a lot of interesting bits of trivia. For instance, neither Google nor Yahoo! is assigned a block that's /16 or larger. On the other hand, despite being assigned a /8 block, IBM has many other sizable address blocks scattered all over the IPv4 address space.

Suggestions for other landmarks to include or other improvements are welcome.

JaredCode

Oliver (12:39:43 PM): I love jared code. Oliver (12:40:03 PM): if (someterriblyobscurecondition) then do some retarded shit else do something bewildering . Oliver (12:40:09 PM): (that's pseudo-code)

Evil Dead: The Musical

Last night I saw Evil Dead: The Musical at the New World Stages. In short, it was amazingly ridiculous. The entire show takes "not taking itself too seriously" to a new level. The story follows the plot of Evil Dead and Evil Dead 2, with some of the most popular lines from Army of Darkness thrown in to please the crowd. Though the fourth wall isn't ever directly broken, the musical is filled to the brim with references to the essence of the whole thing (such as characters acting confused about the choreography they're performing). And everything is simply done completely over the top, from the incredibly campy lines to the coreography to the immense amount of fake blood and gore.

The writing in particular is just ludicrous. For instance, one of the songs starts with "God damn you bitch / You fucking stabbed me!", sung in full-on musical style. Everything is like that, taking every cheap laugh and stupid idea to its most extreme extent, which turns out absolutely hilarious if you're into that kind of thing.

In particular, the guy doing Ash is the spitting image of Bruce Campbell in almost every way. The only qualm I had was that he really can't deliver Campbell's lines the way Campbell does, but he tries to do so, which leads to a few lines (such as "Lady, I'm going to have to ask you to leave the store") that sort of fall flat. But otherwise, he's just awesome.

Overall, it's highly recommended.

Catching Up

Wow, it has been a long while since I posted. Here's a quick recap of what's been going on in my busy busy life. I officially received an offer from Google and accepted it, and will be beginning work on March 26th. That should be awesome. To answer the question I receive most: I don't know what project I'll be working on; after I go through training and orientation and such things, I'll be assigned to a project that they and I think I'm suited for.

On Wednesday the 6th and Friday the 8th I went to see New Model Army in Brooklyn and Hoboken, respectively, which was absolutely fantastic. I hadn't heard of them until Kat asked if I wanted to go, but I'm a big fan now. Their studio versions of songs have a different feel than the live ones, which I also enjoy but in a different way.

I'm basically done with school now, only one assignment to go and that's due tomorrow. Assuming I pass all my classes (which I can't imagine I won't), that'll be the end of schooling for me for the next while. I'm very much looking forward to it, homework is just incredibly annoying at this point.

I've been working on a super secret coding project that will be unveiled in the coming days or weeks, depending on how much time I get to work on it. It is far more geeky than probably most people will be interested in.

And tonight, I saw Evil Dead: The Musical. More on that in a follow-up post.

Flooey's First Rule Of Fun

People + Stuff = Fun

It was funny, too

"That joke had perfect forward comedy."

- Justin

Fun For The Whole Family

I have the best family sometimes.

On Thursday, my sister needed some rum for her apple pie, and mentioned that she'd never tried straight rum before, so we gave her a little bit of rum to try, which was very entertaining to watch.

Last night, I'm not entirely sure how it started since I wasn't in the room, but for some reason my dad brought out a green drink that's basically Armenian moonshine and had us try it. That started a whole sequence where we poked through the liquor cabinet and pulled out everything we wanted to try and sampled it.

We ended up pouring samples of fifteen different liquors.

Armenian moonshine
Armenian brandy - The label on this was in Cyrillic, so I don't know what brand it was.
Courvoisier VS cognac
Hennessey cognac
Napa valley cognac-like brandy - Since it's not made in France, it's not truly a cognac, but it's made in the same way as a cognac would be.
Maker's Mark bourbon
Calvados bourbon
Peruvian pisco - Don't know the brand
McCormick bourbon
Early Times bourbon
Jack Daniel's whiskey
Canadian Club whiskey
Seagram's Canadian whiskey
Seagram's 7 whiskey
Baileys Irish Cream - We all knew what Baileys tasted like, we just poured some because we wanted it.

After that, we finished off with tumbleweeds, which are ice cream, Kahlua, and white creme de cacao. Very tasty. Overall, my favorites were the Maker's Mark, Hennessey, McCormick, and Seagram's Canadian whiskey, plus of course Baileys. The Pisco and Armenian moonshine were easily the worst; those were incredibly harsh.

All in all, it was probably the most drinking I've ever done in one sitting. Once we were done, I had a good time annoying Coley and Melissa with my drunken ramblings in instant messages, which they seemed entertained by. I mentioned it to Kat and she thinks there should be a term akin to "drunken dialing" but for IMs, which seems reasonable.

I definitely should drink more often. For most folks the exact opposite is probably true, but I found that I don't really mind myself when drunk. I've always had this fear that if I got really drunk I'd become someone that I don't like, since I'm a very controlled person with lots of stuff I don't like that I've decided against being over the years. It turns out, though, I just do the same things I do when I'm tired (which generally means acting silly and childlike), with the added bonus of a slightly fuzzy feeling and a loss of motor control. It's actually pretty nice to know that I'm not some kind of angry or mean drunk.

Thanksgiving Postmortem

Thanksgiving with my family is an event with a long tradition behind it, and this year followed in the same basic footprints as the others. Since my parents just had their kitchen redone, this year's Thanksgiving was held at our house. A total of fifteen folks were in attendance: our four family, our family friend Mark, and all the Pete Smyths.

I'll start off with the food, which our family does quite well. In all, the menu consisted of two turkeys (one barbecued, one roasted), turkey pilaf, stuffing, borags, yams, brussel sprouts, green beans, spinach salad, and Waldorf salad. Plus the usual selection of breads, olives, pickles, cranberry sauce, and the like. For dessert, there was apple pie, pumpkin pie, and pumpkin cheesecake. It was fantastic.

Aside from the food, pretty much we just hung around and talked. After dinner, in order to clear out the house a bit so that people could clean up, all the little kids, their parents, and myself went off to my old elementary school. I love playing with little kids, it's just a joyous time. I'm not entirely sure about having kids of my own, at least for the time being, but enjoying the kids of other people is just fantastic.

Perhaps most interesting to me about these kinds of days, from an intellectual perspective, is to watch how the social dynamics play out. Aside from Mark and the kids, all these people have known each other for somewhere between several years (for the spouses) to several decades (for the blood relatives). In a group like that, it's very interesting to see what the topics of conversation are, who talks to whom, who sits next to whom at the dinner table, and so forth.

Also interesting is the postmortem that always happens at the end of an event like this. Once all the folks go home, when our four family finally gets a chance to relax, we inevitably discuss all the funny stories and awkward moments, as well as the simple truths about everyone who showed up.

Overall, though, a very enjoyable day.

Conversations With Strangers

Today on the subway, as I headed home from seeing a show with my sister, a guy on the subway commented on the fact that I was only wearing a short-sleeved shirt and slacks despite the cold. This kind of thing just doesn't really happen to me, and it always seems a little odd when it does. I always feel like the person has some kind of alternate motive for speaking to me. We had a decently pleasant conversation, though, but the whole time I couldn't shake the feeling that he was just talking me up to ask me for money or try to convert me to his religion or something.

I'm not sure why I think that of other people. If I had to guess, it's probably because I've had it happen a number of times before. It just seems like I should give people the benefit of the doubt more.

ZOMG

Evil Dead: The Musical.

My sister got tickets.

So. Awesome.

Spring Awakening

I got a chance to see Spring Awakening last night at an invitation-only dress rehearsal, because my sister is way better connected than I am.

The musical is based on a play written by Frank Wedekind in 1891, and it explores the sexual experiences of a set of teenagers in a German town that's heavily religious. When the play was originally released, it was banned in a number of locations, as it contains scenes that involve masturbation, sex, homosexuality, and suicide.

Considering how long ago the play was written, it's remarkable how well the messages reverberate in the modern day. The musical adaptation is quite faithful to the original; it maintains the original 1892 setting, and while it rearranges when some events occur, the majority of the content exists in the original.

The most striking thing about the musical is the contrast between the setting and the score, which is modern rock. The first time the cast breaks into song, the transition is really startling. The score is excellent, though, and by the middle of the first act the switches are expected and not jarring at all. I actually think the choice of score is a good one, as it helps show how the characters could fit in the modern day despite being set a hundred years in the past.

The cast for the show is great. The major characters are all incredibly good, though there are some weaknesses in the minor characters. In particular, the scene in which Ernst and Hanschen kiss seemed rather weak, but that may have been preview jitters, since this was the first time the cast had played to a full Broadway-sized crowd. The major characters didn't seem to have any trouble, with the climactic scenes being downright heart wrenching.

Technically, there were some minor sound mishaps, such as a buzz in a microphone or volume difficulties, but it was solid overall. The lighting in particular was exceptional. The design uses a number of different effects that are elegant while being striking, such as a set of lights that drop in from above and illicit an image of stars or fireflies. The majority of the show is lit more traditionally, though, so the new effects maintain their sparkle and don't overwhelm the audience with a "look what we can do now that we're on Broadway!" feeling. The set is sparsely decorated, but with a couple tricks I won't reveal that are nice touches.

All that said, I'm not sure how well Spring Awakening will play. It definitely has the potential to follow in the footsteps of a Rent or Avenue Q. On the other hand, it could end up falling by the wayside as another teen angst show. For my money, though, it's an excellent show that's well worth seeing.

What Google Needs

"So they've got Spreadsheet, they've got Writely, they've got Calendar, they've got e-mail, they've got wiki. What more does Google need?"

"The love of a good woman."

- TWiT #75

Old Post: A Tale Of Two Transit Systems

This is an old post I made a bit over a year ago.

I just got back from a two week vacation, one week in New York City (sorry Ratty and crew, was with the family) and one week in London, and being the guy that I am, I spent a lot of time paying attention to the two transit systems we used to get everywhere: the New York City Subway and the London Underground ("the Tube"). I figured I'd throw my thoughts up here in case anyone is interested. I should note that, as we were playing tourist, I only saw a subset of each system, so it's quite possible that my experience isn't representative of each system as a whole. Specifically, I mostly saw Manhattan (most of my time was spent on the A-C-E, 4-5-6, 1-9, and B-D-F-V lines) and Central London (most of my time was spent on the District, Circle, Picadilly, and Central lines). I also am not currently a resident of either city, so I view them as a visitor rather than a local.

History: - The Underground began in 1863, the first underground railway system in the world. It used steam locomotives when it began, but switched to electric at the start of the 1900s. - The Subway began in 1904, using electric trains for its entire history.

Scope and Size: - The Underground has 275 stations and runs from 5:30 to 00:30 Monday to Saturday, 7:30 to 23:30 Sundays. - The Subway has 468 stations (35 less than the number of subway stations in the rest of the US combined) and runs 24 hours a day.

Names: - The lines on the Underground are named actual names (eg, the Picadilly, Jubilee, District, or Metropolitan lines), and the stations are (mostly) named after where they're at. Some are misnomers (eg, Mansion House station is actually further away from Mansion House than Bank station) and some aren't actually meaningful unless you know the station's or area's history (eg, Arsenal station is named after the football team that plays there). This definitely gives them a lot of character, but without looking at a map you can't tell if, for instance, Marble Arch is before, after, or even anywhere near Queensway*. - The lines on the Subway are named by letters or numbers (eg, the A, D, 1, or 6 line), along with having a color, and the stations are named after the street they're located on (if the line runs north-south, it's usually the east-west street, and vice-versa, from what I could tell), with an addition of a notable landmark they're located at (eg, 42nd St/Times Square station). This makes things pretty easy to figure out, as even without a map you know that if you want to go to 8th Avenue and 123th Street then you need to take an A-C train (which runs along 8th Avenue) to 125th Street station and walk 2 blocks south**. When lines of the same color run along the same section of track, they're commonly referred to in combination, as in the A-C-E line. As far as I know, lines never branch***.

Stations: - Underground stations are largely well-built and architecturally interesting, the southern Jubilee line stations especially are quite nice (being very new). Some of them are also ridiculously cavernous. In a couple cases, it takes three giant escalators and a network of winding passages to get down to the lowest platform. - Subway stations are pretty much just concrete. They all have a tile facade on the platforms that shows which station it is and is pretty nice, though.

Lines and Service: - Underground lines are quite annoying the way they're set up, if you're not a local. Many lines split into several forks, though each branch shares the line's name, with the train announcing where its final destination is. As well, you'll often find trains that only travel partway down a line, stopping a few stations before the actual last station on the line. Combined with the fact that the station names don't follow a logical pattern, you really need to look at the map a whole lot when you're traveling. - Subway lines always go all the way to the end, as far as I know, and none of them have branches. Lines are also classified as express or local, where express lines skip a number of less-important stations. Late nights, some express lines run local (meaning they stop at the stations they'd usually skip), but in practice that's not confusing at all, you just may end up taking longer to get to your destination than you thought.

Schedules: - The Underground appears to have a schedule that they follow. Each station also has an electronic display that scrolls through the next 3 or 4 trains and their ETA (amazingly, some London bus stops have the same thing), and it appears to be based on the train locators rather than the schedule, as it's quite accurate in my experience. Our average wait time for a midday train was probably 2-3 minutes. - The Subway doesn't appear to really have a schedule in the strictest sense of the word. It just basically runs under the situation that trains arrive when they arrive, and you'll darn well wait until they do, and that trains should arrive once every so many minutes at certain times of the day (eg, midday in Midtown, you should see a train every 10 minutes). Our average wait time for a midday train was probably 5-8 minutes, depending on the line. My sister and I once waited half an hour for an uptown C, but then again, it was 2:00 am at the time.

Trains: - The trains on the Underground are rather nice, with very little graffiti or grime. They don't always line up with the platforms properly, though, for whatever reason, leaving a gap. - The trains on the Subway vary from fairly nice to fairly grungy.

Street Musicians: Underground street musicians are a lot higher class than those on the Subway. Over the course of a week, on the Underground, I saw one guitarist, one flutist, two violinists, and one lady playing a french horn. You don't get french horns on the Subway that I saw.

In general, my impression of the Underground was that it was a nice, usable system that was fairly complicated for a non-local to use. My impression of the Subway was that it was a system that sacrificed character for efficiency.

* As an example, the stations on the District line between Earl's Court, where our hotel was, and Tower Hill, where you get off to see the Tower of London, are Gloucester Road, South Kensington, Sloane Square, Victoria, St. James's Park, Westminster, Embankment, Temple, Blackfriars, Mansion House, Cannon Street, and Monument. ** As an example, the stations in between 42 St/Port Authority, where we caught the C to my sister's place, and 168 St/Washington Heights, the station to get to my sister's place, are 50 St, 59 St/Columbus Circle, 72 St, 81 St/Museum of Natural History, 86 St, 96 St, 103 St, 110 St/Cathedral Parkway, 116 St, 125 St, 135 St, 145 St, 155 St, and 163 St/Amsterdam Ave. *** Technically, lines are actually sections of track, and routes are designations of pathways that trains take (and thus, a single line may service several routes and a single route may pass over several lines). In the local lingo, though, routes are usually called lines.

TAing at Columbia

"They give you like 10 bucks and a pen." - Justin

A Living History...

One of the best things about being in New York City is the theatre. The sheer volume of it is just astounding. And being both a theatre geek and the brother of a dancer and arts organization employee, I'm fortunate in that I get a chance to see a lot of different stuff.

Today I went to see a reading of A Living History of Revivalism and Socialism Amongst the Harpist Community at Eminence, Indiana. In case you're not familiar with the concept, a reading is just what it sounds like. The actors sit in chairs and read the script, with a narrator reading the scene descriptions and stage directions so that you have an idea of what's going on. Obviously, it's a very different experience than seeing a show. It's much more like having a novel read to you than it is traditional theatre. It's also a much more intimate experience, since there tend not to be many folks there (this one had maybe 30 people in attendance).

I actually very much enjoyed the reading. The play is a small affair; there are only four on-stage characters, plus one more major and a couple minor characters that are only heard over the telephone. There are some sections that didn't work well, but mostly that was because they are clearly built for the stage and didn't come through with the narrating of the stage directions (for instance, when it takes several sentences to describe a movement an actor will take a couple seconds to do, reading the stage directions throws the rhythm off). The actors themselves were quite excellent in their roles, really breathing life into the characters, despite the lack of costume or makeup.

As far as the play itself, it was worthy of the treatment these actors were providing it. I don't want to ruin it, so I won't discuss the plot, but it brings up some very interesting questions regarding faith, the treatment of people as commodities or sources of power, and our view and treatment of history. There are a couple rough spots and areas it could be tightened up a little, but overall it holds together surprisingly well.

I have some doubts as to how well the play will transfer to the actual stage, though. As I said, the general feeling is of a small affair, a close look into the lives of these four characters. However, the book currently calls for fairly expansive sets and set pieces, and I think they'll run into difficulty because of that. If they manage to go all out and do everything, the intimate feeling of being right inside the lives of these characters has a good chance of being lost. On the other hand, there are some images in the play that seem to really require an expansive set dressing in order to achieve their full impact. I'll be interested in seeing what decision they make.

Overall, it was a very pleasant outing, and I look forward to the play developing further and hopefully seeing it again on stage.

The Dust Is Beginning To Settle

At this point, I've seen Kat every day since last Thursday, and I'll be seeing her again tonight. I've spent the last two nights at her apartment. When I walked her to the train station this morning, I asked if I was going to see her tonight, and she looked at me with this "Do you really have to ask?" expression on her face. Perhaps the best part is that we're both on the same page about the situation. I like her, and she likes me. She has a boyfriend, and she's going to stay committed to that as long as it's there. For the time being, the boundaries are set, and we're just enjoying ourselves within those limits. I expect we'll continue that for some time, too. It's really quite amazing. It's like the hot-and-heavy part of the start of a relationship, but on a strictly emotional and intellectual level.

It's hard to describe how I'm feeling right now. Obviously, I'm really delighted at how things have progressed, though a bit amazed at how quickly. Spending time with Kat is just plain fulfilling, though. Very surprisingly, I'm also not feeling like I'm missing anything. Certainly, there's a desire there that's unfulfilled, but I don't really mind. I've accepted that that's how it is, and there's nothing else to say.

Considering the level of bond I've got with Kat, I really feel like she's my girlfriend. However, we're very clear that she's not. I feel like I need to come up with some way to refer to her that indicates that properly, though what that would be I have no idea.

Holy Crap

It's 4:30 in the morning. My ears are ringing. I can't sleep.

I had a fantastic time tonight. Let me just start with that.

About 7:00 tonight Kat sent me a text message asking if I wanted to go to a goth club later. I was a little apprehensive, admittedly, but I figured, why not? While it's not a scene I'm intimately familiar with, I'm quite comfortable in that crowd.

In short, I had a blast. The music ranged from good to great, I drank enough that I had trouble walking straight (2 fuzzy navels), the people were fun. I refused to dance, as is my nature, but I definitely was feeling the groove, and when I go again, I think I'll dance for sure. Regardless of the lack of dancing, I had a very good time.

Kat also appeared to enjoy herself and enjoy my company. She went ahead and danced rather than sit by my non-participatory side, which I was glad to see. The hug when I arrived at her place was firm, the hug at the end of the night when we parted ways lifted me onto one foot. Oh, and she fell asleep under my arm on the ride home. While I scritched her head.

I think it'd be fair to say that I'm smitten.

The unfortunate truth, though, is that she has a boyfriend. He's in Ireland. And everything I can sense says that she is really in love with him. So, I'm caught between a temptation to be an undermining jackass and being an upright and supporting individual. Obviously I'll go with being upright and supporting, there's no question of that, it's just an unfortunate set of circumstances.

I also met three very nice people at the club who are friends of Kat's: Matthew, Karen, and the DJ in one of the rooms whose name I regretfully can't remember. Karen and the DJ were nice enough to drive us home, which I don't really think I thanked them for enough. I also had my drinks purchased for me, which I didn't get a chance to reciprocate, so I'll have to rectify that oversight at some point.

I feel like I could go on and on about Kat here, but I'll save that for another time. It's getting close to 5:00, and I'm getting sleepy. So, off to bed with me. We'll see what tomorrow brings. Or today. Whatever.

Google's On The Phone

I have a phone interview of sorts with Google on Tuesday. I hope that goes well.

Adventures in Adventuring

I had an excellent time last night adventuring with a pair of lovely ladies doing some things which I'm reticent to detail for fear of incrimination, but you may contact me for details.

I was quite pleased at Boriana being game for the adventure and also for her keeping with it all the way through. She had told me beforehand that she needed to be done by 10:00, so when we surfaced around 9:30 or so she headed home. She kept up the pace and went along with everything, though.

I was similarly pleased at Kat ("cute girl" to Oliver) being available and also being as much fun as she was, though not particularly surprised. Hanging out with her reminds me of back home quite a bit. Columbians in general are fairly straightlaced mainstream types, and despite my whitebreadedness, I really feel more comfortable with a more counterculture element. That's probably why I like GS people so much. It's good to have some of that outside GS again.

It's funny to think about the number of circles in which I participate, and my varying levels of comfort in each. I've found that I'm something of a chameleon in personality, I can adjust to fit in with pretty much whatever group I'm in. I operate just fine whether among corporate suits, academics, geeks, potheads, or goths. However, I find that I enjoy myself more when the sarcasm, intelligence, and childish spirit are emphasized, which is sometimes hard to find, so I'm glad I appear to have found the beginnings of an outlet for that here.

New York City and Me

You know, I really like New York City.

When I was living in Los Angeles, I didn't really like it. I tolerated it. I knew some people there, my job was great, there were certainly things to recommend it. But the city itself wasn't of any interest to me. I didn't like the average Los Angelino, I didn't like the traffic, I didn't like the weather, I didn't like the culture. I accepted those things because I had people and stuff there I did like.

In New York, though, I actually like the city. New Yorkers are pretty cool. Snow and seasons are pretty cool. The subway is ridiculously cool. The culture is fun. The fires of hell that New Yorkers call summer are absolutely not cool, but as far as downsides go, that's an acceptable one.

I also seem to fit better here. Over the past week, I've eaten meals with a total of 20 different people, I've seen a Broadway show, I've spent multiple hours on multiple nights just chatting with folks, and I've been in 4 different states. I never did that kind of stuff in LA. I've made more friends here in a little over a year than I made in LA in five.

Between everything I've mentioned and having moved something like 8 times in the past 6 years, it's probably not surprising that the prospect of leaving to go back to LA is not exactly one I'm looking forward to. That's been my plan for the last few months, though, and the time of departure is fast approaching.

So, to cut a long story short, I've decided that I'm going to try to stay. I had a friend of mine that works at Google throw my resume into the referral pile, and I'm going to investigate other companies I might work for. I'm loathe to consider leaving my job in LA, but if that's what it takes to stay here, I'm willing to do so.

Weekend in Rhode Island

I had an awesome time this most recent weekend. Everything began Thursday night with Heather, a player in GemStone, coming into town for an interview. My friend Oliver drove in and we met up with her and Brad, we had dinner and a couple drinks, then Oliver and I hung out in Heather's hotel room for a while before heading back to my place, finally getting there at like 5 AM.

The following day, we went and got a dozen cupcakes from Crumbs before heading up to Jenny's for the weekend. Oliver and I had previously attempted to bring cupcakes from Magnolia's to Jenny's but failed miserably. I won't say whose fault it was, but Oliver left them on the table. Unlike Magnolia's cupcakes, which have delicious frosting but are slightly dry on the cake end and somewhat small, Crumbs cupcakes are very moist when fresh with equally delicious frosting. They're also as big as your fist. Literally.

Jenny's kids are ridiculously cute, so it's always a joyous time at her house. Dan and Holly were there, too, and we managed to convince them both to reopen their World of Warcraft accounts. I don't get to be a bad influence too often, so it was a nice change of pace.

We went to a relatively small (in my estimation) zoo in Massachusetts, which was an interesting experience. The only zoos I've ever really spent real time at are the Oakland Zoo (which isn't huge, but has a fairly wide variety of animals, along with an excellent elephant exhibit) and the San Diego Zoo (one of the largest in the country), so my perspective is probably skewed, but it was a little weird to go to a zoo that had a somewhat limited range of animals. It was still a good time, though. I got to carry Jenny's youngest around so she could see over the railings.

Aside from that, we pretty much just hung out. Which was good.

I took the train home, which was my first time doing that from Rhode Island. You have to take Amtrak to get across the RI/CT border, since apparently the commuter train systems centered around Boston and New York City each think the other has the cooties, so I transferred at New Haven and took Metro North back into the City.

I was totally going to work on a presentation I had to give Monday over the weekend and totally didn't, so I ended up finishing it at 3 AM Monday morning, but it was completely worth it.