I haven't written anything here in a while, so I guess a sort of update is in order. For a while there was nothing to say, really; it was just same-old-same-old.

• I quit my job at Yahoo!


• Visited friends in LA, Boston, NYC


• ScavHunt!


• Moved to Berlin


• Joan's getting here in less than a week


• Went to the Bürgeramt to get information and forms to apply for German citizenship


• Probably getting my citizenship in the next 6 months or so, which involves giving up my US citizenship before I get my German one, meaning I'll be without any citizenship for a couple days. (Any suggestions of interesting legal situations I can create during this time?)


• Looked at apartments, probably going to just wait until Joan gets here to continue


• Looking for a job or going back to school - I don't really have a focused enough topic to start my Ph. D., so I might do a master's first

So, I'm officially unemployed now and I'm moving back to Berlin end of May. But that's not why I'm writing my first post in a long long time. It's because there is a pressing question to answer: ( What do I name my new laptop? )In related news, now that I'm unemployed I'm going to try working on a personal project that is audacious enough to keep me busy for a while but not so much so that anyone would actually care if I do it or not. The basic overview is... card games, I like them (in particular I've had a healthy dose of chinese poker (technically Big Two) injected into my week thanks to Daniela visiting). So, like everything else I like, I want to analyze, formalize, and program it. But of course simply writing a program that allows me to play chinese poker with other people I'm not in the same room as would be too simple*, so instead what I really want to do is develop a way of expressing the rules of any card game (played with standard playing cards - have to concede to at least one constraint) in a formal language that's simple enough for non-programmers to write. Then, have a website where users can play the games I and others create, with scorekeeping and tracking popular games and whatnot. Oh, and of course you should be able to play over facebook. And iPhones. And possibly carrier pigeons. Bonus points if I can establish a peer-to-peer mode that doesn't require a trusted server to "deal" (though something tells me information theory makes this impossible with any card game where opponent's hands should be secret from each other).

* - Doable in finite time, and thus not interesting enough

"Any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from science."

- Agatha Heterodyne

Date:	2008-11-04 20:55
Subject:	President-Elect Barack Hussein Obama
Security:	Public
Mood:	ecstatic

That is all.

via the Guardian

Not sure what to think about this. What do you think?

Yitz's opinion will be determined by the lucky participant presenting the most cogent argument. Void where prohibited, places of participation may vary, some restrictions may apply.

(Thanks, TechCrunch. ThtechCrunch.)

Well... that sucks. I've never used the "mood" thing on LJ before... but it looks like it doesn't have a "dejected" option, anyway.

I don't disagree that oftentimes uncomfortable compromises are necessary, but this was not one of those times. Obama said, "My view on FISA has always been that the issue of the phone companies per se is not one that overrides the security interests of the American people." In effect, he's claiming national security trumps the right to privacy, the constitution, even the rule of law itself (law with ex-post-facto immunity isn't a law at all). What in the hell happened to "give me liberty or give me death"? Compromise isn't a bad thing, but there are certain things you cannot compromise on - certain, shall we say, unalienable rights.

Maybe I shouldn't have hoped that this time would be any different.

Apparently, two wrongs do make a right. I hate rap music and French, and yet I can't stop listening to this:

Link

Europe, suffering from the crippling effects of universal health care and high, progressive taxes, overtakes the US as world's #1 economy

Also, here's the new $3 bill. Hott!

(Funny story - my raise means I'm earning the same amount in Euros that I was last year this time. Lol, indeed.)

Brainless moron botches marriage proposal to materialistic bitch

I don't think anybody should be accusing teh gays of ruining the institution of marriage. Straight people are still waaay ahead.

CNN estimates that Obama leads Clinton by less than 100 delegates, 1,553 to 1,438.

I made a New Year's resolution. I mean, not really. I don't make New Year's resolutions, but I did more or less make a decision for this year: I'm leaving the USA.

I'm not certain exactly what I'm doing next. There are lots of tempting possibilities: going back to Berlin, maybe doing a start-up with my friend Julius. Going to Dublin, get in touch with my Irish roots (now that I've done that with my American roots) and work in a strong EU tech sector. Maybe do technical development aid in Morocco, learn some Arabic, do some good.

Right now the most likely is, I think, go back to Berlin and finally get my German citizenship. It's something I've been putting off for a while (since having a US citizenship helps when you want to work here), but gosh, it would be nice to vote in a real parliamentary democracy. And my German has gotten noticeably rusty, which always leaves me shaken - this is the language of my home, and I don't even speak it any more? That's scary.

Why now? Well, in October I'll have lived in SF for three years, after living in Chicago for three. I can tell I'm getting more an more American - when Ron Paul starts to sound like he's making some good points, that's one way to know. It's getting harder and harder to leave. I have fantastic friends I don't want to leave behind, but ultimately, I don't want to settle down in America, so I don't want to get stuck there. Every reason to stay is becoming a reason to leave, now before it's too late.

So I'm starting to think - what's on my checklist? If I have less than a year in America, what should I do? Learn to drive? Road-trip across the country? See the Grand Canyon or Yosemite or something?

EDIT: Everyone seems to agree, road trip. Have to admit, a "Goodbye, America!" road trip around the country, visiting friends, maybe having them tag along for bits, is sounding better and better!

You know, two weeks after Bloody Sunday, when the march finally reached Montgomery, Martin Luther King Jr. spoke to the crowd of thousands and said "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice." He's right, but you know what? It doesn't bend on its own. It bends because we help it bend that way. Because people like John Lewis and Hosea Williams and Martin Luther King and Coretta Scott King and Rosa Parks and thousands of ordinary Americans with extraordinary courage have helped bend it that way. And as their examples call out to us from across the generations, we continue to progress as a people because they inspire us to take our own two hands and bend that arc.

Thanks to reddit for reminding me of some of my favorite jokes, including:

At a world brewing convention in the States, the CEOs of various Brewing organizations retired to the bar at the end of each day's conference.
Bruce, CEO of Fosters, shouted to the Barman: "In 'Strylya, we make the best bladdy beer in the world, so pour me a Bladdy Fosters, mate."
Bob, CEO of Budweiser, calls out next: "In the States, we brew the finest beers in the world, and I make the King of them all; gimme a Bud."
Hans steps up next: "In Germany ve invented das beer, verdamt. Give me ein Becks, ya ist Der real King of beers, danke."
Paddy, CEO of Guinness, steps forward "Barman, would ya give me a doyet coke wid ice and lemon. Tanks."
The others stare at him in stunned silence, amazement written all over their faces. Eventually Bruce asks, "Are you not going to have a Guinness, Pat?"
Paddy replies: "Well, if you fookin' pansies aren't drinkin', then neither am I".

Yeah, I've been posting a lot. Don't worry, this probably doesn't interest you - I just wanted to muse out loud.

So, Arc's out. Arc (for those of you keeping score at home) is Paul Graham's "new" Lisp he's been working on for the past 6 years or so. If this is at all the kind of thing that interests you, check it out - if not, you can probably stop reading now, because the rest assumes some (though not much) familiarity with Lisp and the Lambda calculus.

( Read more... )
So, any ideas?

So, the Graduate/Alumni ScavHunt team has a facebook app.

If you're at all interested in joining - even if you're not entirely sure if you can, or if you can't physically come to Chicago - go sign up! People who we can call on do an item or two from afar, or even just help decipher the list, will be a tremendous asset.

For many reasons - none of which, I must emphasize, is the way the residents of Snell-Hitchcock smell - I have decided to scav with the Grad/Alumni team. Dearly as I will miss my brothers and sisters in arms at Snitchcock, it is time to move on, into the future, which is obviously the Grad/Alumni team.

It's time to break the game theory stalemate. Don't say "I'll do it if my friends do it" - just do it, and then convince your friends to come. Join the Facebook group, message Sam Friedman and let him know you'll be there (and if you want to be an officer).

The clock is ticking, ladies and gentlemen. We have a scant 100 days to mobilize the greatest army Scav has ever known - and I do mean that. The group has 77 members right now, the most experience, the scavviest scavvers. Our goal is not to make an impression, or to beat Pierce, it is simply this: Victory.

Oh, and Rockin' Good Times. Victory and Rockin' Good Times.

Yes, we have logistics to work out. Where will be build shit? Where will we sleep? Are the squirrels going to eat us if we camp out on the quads? These will be dealt with. The order of the day now is to stand up and be counted.

Scav be with you. And to my fellow scavvers from Snitchcock to Max, from FIST to... all those other ones, I must recall the words of Lincoln: "We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection[, even if we are so going to kick your asses]."

If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.

Okay. So you all know, presumably, that I live and breathe ScavHunt. If you don't, you don't know me.

Now, I have a bit of a tricksy decision: historically, I've scavved ad majorem snitchcocki gloria - for the greater glory of Snitchcock - but some people are putting together a Grad/Alumni team. There are some arguments to be made in favor of both, obviously, but I won't go into my current mode of thinking. The question is - what do *you* think? Any alumni thinking of doing the Grad/Alumni team who might be swayed with a few more compatriots?

POP QUIZ
1) What comic do you have the longest or most important relationship with?
2) What webcomic do you miss the most?
3) Which webcomic do you wish you could see more of (i.e. would update more frequently)?
4) What is your latest webcomic discovery?

My answers:

1) Girl Genius, to which I was introduced by the ithych (with this page, I believe) and I've re-read approximately 70 bazillion times. I know I've extolled its virtues many times before, but it bears repeating. Also the only webcomic available in printed form in my apartment. Runners up include Nukees (sensing a Mad Science pattern here?) and QC, but neither of them fill me with the kind of breathless anticipation before an update that GG does - seriously, I'll stay up at night until the update comes. If I had to pick a page to sum it up... it's already been done for me.

2) I miss Men In Hats quite a bit. The website puts it best:

Men in Hats is the gripping story of 6 guys who stand around in the desert... talking... sometimes they have breakfast.
It was eventually determined to be too beautiful for this world and discontinued.