Bounded in a Nutshell

So I'm sure I'd planned to do something with my evening. It might have been productive --- I've got a draft of a paper that wants finishing printed out and ready for my attentions --- but probably not; after dinner, I walked down to the library to pick up a book on the history of coffee that they were holding for me.

Of course, shortly after I arrived at the library I was told that there was a tornado watch in effect, and that the library was closing for business until it was lifted. (They weren't closing the doors --- they're apparently a designated shelter in such circumstances --- but I'd be unable to check out my book for a while.) Since I didn't feel like hanging out in a library bathroom for the next while, I decided to head home and try again tomorrow.

Of course, when I got home I found out that power was out in the neighbourhood. I'm still not unpacked enough that it was easy for me to find matches, though candles were quickly located; it took even longer before I found matches that worked, rather than cheap cardboard matchbooks from crappy hotel chains.

So by the time the power came back on, whatever it was that I'd planned to do had been totally driven out of my head. Maybe I'll have better luck tomorrow.

This round-the-world trip planner provides me with much amusement. Right now my current daydream involves a travel itinerary next summer along the lines of:

• Toronto
• Boston
• Prague
• Bratislava
• Prague (I guess Bratislava International doesn't give very many options?)
• London
• Accra
• Istanbul (and that's a direct flight, apparently; who knew?)
• Bangkok
• Brisbane
• Bangkok again
• Vancouver
• Toronto

…thus managing to attend two week-long math conferences and then visit nearly everyone I know outside of North America.

I'm wondering whether a trip to New Zealand after Brisbane might let me avoid doubling back through Bangkok, but the app crashed before telling me how much more money that was likely to cost. Or maybe while I'm at it I should try and squeeze in a visit to Buenos Aires, thereby hitting every (populated) continent in my first jaunt outside of NA.

All of which, of course, would be contingent upon finding some source of funding that would let me get away with this, or perhaps becoming independently wealthy by dint of my native charm and moxie. In other words, maybe I need a new plan.

I like this idea: a public pizza-topping database, which presumably lets you generate random lists of pizza toppings which will satisfy groups of folk.

Unfortunately, it's organized very oddly: tomato sauce is listed as an "essential" with other sauces (all of which also contain tomato usually) listed as "sauces"; meanwhile Basil Pesto is a "vegetable" and choices like olive-oil and cream sauce are nowhere to be found. The only explanation I can think of is that they've been Gotten To by the Tomato Conspiracy.

So it's the first day of classes for the fall at my Urban Commuter Campus, which means that I'm wasting time by playing around with new software. I've been trying out a couple of apps: ecto, a blogging tool, and Shrook, an RSS aggregator. Supposedly the two are capable of working in tandem, but that assumes that both of the tools work; ecto is apparently having trouble figuring out my settings for this space, and hence its not looking like it's going to be terribly useful.

The main advantage to Shrook seems to be that it interfaces with a web server, which means that even if one is away from the computer one can still keep up on one's feeds. (Presumably, this also means that one can run Shrook from two separate computers and have them automatically synchronize through the server.) The main disadvantage I've found so far is a stubborn resistance to being drag-and-drop like all good Mac apps should be. What would really be nice is an app or add-on that would run through my Safari bookmarks and find web pages with associated feeds. Anyone know of such a thing?

As of yesterday, I'm older. I've come not to expect much from birthdays, at least while mine coincides so perfectly with the beginning of classes & hence my need to be here while nearly all of my close friends are there, there, there, and in one case way over freakin' there. Despite the distance, though, I did receive many calls, e-mail, and e-cards from people, and I'm grateful for them. (Yes, even the one with the annoying song on repeat.) I did have every intention of going to a local bakery and picking out a small cake for myself, but for some reason that didn't happen. (Or, I should say hasn't happened, since I guess it still might.)

It seems to me that one's birthday is a good time for the making of resolutions, since it's really marking a New Year in a relative sense. As such, I'd like to say that I'll be blogging more often in the coming weeks/months, except that such resolutions tend to be hard to keep, for me (and others in my family) at least. Still, I'll throw it out there as a good intention; I figure once a week shouldn't be impossible to maintain.

OK, enough of that. To work! (And when I mean "To work!", I'm not actually toasting the idea of work, although I always feel like I should be when I emply that particular turn of phrase.)

Nearly three weeks after the initial scheduled activation date, DSL has arrived at my new place.

Now I'm beginning to feel at home.