Take Off! My Life and Times in Toronto
My life and work in Toronto, Canada.
My life and work in Toronto, Canada.
Shout out to SUNYA -- I mean the University at Albany -- for being named the top "party school" in the U.S. UT Austin only came in seventh, no doubt to their everlasting shame.
It is the ninth time the University at Albany -- a state-run school with an undergraduate enrollment of 12,000 students -- has been on the party school list. It was No. 1 in 1998 and No. 14 last year. The University of Colorado at Boulder ranked No. 1 last year."If this were a term paper, it would get an 'F' in methodology," university spokeswoman Lisa James-Goldsberry said in a statement. "The rankings are not to be taken seriously, and are certainly not reflective of the serious, hardworking students at Albany."
"It's pretty crazy," said Matt Kazimir, 21, a recent Albany graduate from Danbury, Connecticut. "There's always a party."
Still, some students say Albany's ranking isn't deserved.
"I wouldn't agree it's No. 1," said junior Brian Fessler, 20. "There are certainly a lot of opportunities to party, but it's also a great institution with some top programs. There are great academic opportunities, as well."
Brigham Young was ranked the top "stone-cold sober" school, the survey found. Massachusetts Institute of Technology was the toughest to get into. The happiest students overall were at Pomona College in Claremont, California.
Students most likely to vote for President Bush are in the Republican's home state at Texas A&M University; those most likely to vote for Democratic challenger John Kerry attend Warren Wilson College in Asheville, North Carolina.
Rensselaer considered itself "too professional to rate" in the 70s and 80s, but a school full of nerdy guys is not a party school. Trust me.
I had dinner with Elizabeth Allen (nee Beth Seog), her partner Brian and 18 month old daugther Brianna. We went to her favorite Japanese restaurant, the Sushi-Ya in Newmarket.
We went back to their home in Aurora and chewed the fat until 11:30pm. My god, can I talk! (Tell them, Beth!) It was great seeing Beth again, and her daughter is a delightful handful. Brian is as loving and caring a father as I've seen and I'm so happy for them being together in a great country like Canada.
I'm so sad that I didn't hook up with them before the week I am leaving Toronto!
Had lunch with Mike Weisberg at Stuyvesant Plaza in Albany at the Londonderry sandwich shop. We walked around Stuyvesant and I found another item to add to Anne's birthday gift cache. It was great seeing him again and fortuitous I was in town when he was.
This morning I visited the RPI Approach on 8th St. in Troy. I decided to take some off-beat photos of RPI landmarks that I can use in the WiKi version of Not the Rensselaer Handbook, and this is one of the big landmarks.
After the wedding reception at Averill Park, we all ended up at the Kraus' home.
We ordered pizza and Jenny cooked corn Bill brought from MA (Bill requested a link to the family farm from whom he bought the produce). I opened the icewine I brought and shared it with Bill and Jenny. Amid enormous political discussion, a blogathon of sorts with Mike (we all had laptops out at one point), I was able to engage Mike, Bill and Mike's oldest Nick in a round of Cosmic Encounters.
We played a two hour game that twisted one way and then another, thanks to the Shift moon and the addition of The Filth to the powers in play. In the end, when it seemed like Mike had it in the bag, Nick and I compromised for a win. It was great getting to play Mike again ... he's still the best at this.
Bill and Paul scheming about Noreascon Four, the 2004 WorldCon.
Saturday was pretty busy. I went to the Latham Circle for breakfast, then out to the Chapel at RPI to see the reception at Packy's brother's wedding ending. I saw Karen Purcell, Bill Caloccia, Anne Brinnitzer, Bob Bownes, Joe Phillips and his wife, and the Joneses.
After starting out towards the reception at Averill Park, I decided to return the shorts I bought at Macy's the night before and went out to Crossgates to do this. After that, I started down the Thruway because I misread the directions to Averill Park. I ended up driving down to where I-90 comes into the Thruway, which was 10 miles south of where I wanted to be ... down the other branch of I-90 into Renssealer County.
I found the reception without incident after that.
Crystal Cove lake, I believe.
Mike Jones, Paul Kraus and Bob Bownes at water's edge -- as close as Mike will get.
I wanted to title this Author of 18 1/2 Minute Blog Surrenders to Ashcroft but I'm not sure that'll be funny if it were to really happen. Maybe Don't Shoot! I'm Only the Blogger! would work better?
Yeah, sometimes the camera gets away from me and bad things happen.
Joe Phillips (and the back of his wife). Joe directed a play that he cast me in called Will the Real Jesus Christ Please Stand Up?
I'm in the Capital District this weekend ...
Got my EZ Pass tag and GST refund without incident on Friday. Drove out to meet the Kraus' at Uno's Pizzeria in Latham. Not only was the pizza menu at the back of the menu, the "deep dish" pizza was served on a plain plate. Uno's has lost it's mojo I'm sorry to say.
I dashed out to Crossgates where I picked up a pair of shorts, some Provia film, and even had time to stick my nose in the Apple Store and breath pure Steve Jobs air. Then I took a gamble and went back to Latham Circle to see if I could catch Thunderbirds.
I did. I was the only person in the theater at 10pm ... which means the film is clearly a kid's movie as far as the buying public is concerned. It was easily as enjoyable as Spy Kids and I thought that it was a rather nice hommage to the original series. I'll write a review later, but if you liked the original then this will delight you.
Paul and Jenny had already pulled out the sofa bed and thanks to the previous weekend's N4 meetings, had A/C running the windows. Bliss.
Sunday afternoon was spent at the Kraus Haus in Schenectady, NY. The Kraus' held an Ilk-ish BBQ with a huge bouquet of food stuffs for all tastes. I missed out on the kielbasa, but the hamburgers were really, really good! I put on my roller-skates for a while, just to add some flair to the whole she-bang, but some of the Kraus guests must have thought I was nuts. The Jones' were there with their two sons, and I got to see Anne Brinnizer and Lauri Lynn. It was a great time.
Mike "18½ Minute Gap" Jones and Dennis Parslow.
Terri Jones, Steve "Skates" Staton, and Mike "Jones Bear" Jones.
Lauri Lynn and Anne Brinnitzer.
George Rickey may have named it Six Random Lines Excentric but we will always call it The Chrinitoid. I made a special trip to see the, well, what else can we call it but "the Chrinitoid replacement". I'll always want it to be Two Rectangles Vertical Gyrotory Up but this is a "Rickey" and it's in the right place on campus.
You'd think RPI could keep this plate at least the same rust color.
Tom White found this site detailing the history of the Chrinitoid. It references my Chrintoid photos (and has one), as well as NtRH.
Joe Bob sez check it out!
Short Instructions for the Dial-A-Nuke
The device yield is always on the W scale. The crater radius of the device is always on the W 1/3rd scale at the pointer corresponding to soil type. Crater depth is read on the W 1/4th scale, after setting W and setting soil type on the center piece. Flash is read on wthe W 1/2 scale, for corresponding W, and mass annihalated on the mass scale. Radiation dose at a distance is done by setting W and sighting to the spiral contour lines in the window of the center piece, against the distance scale at the bottom of the window. Radiation dosage is corrected for neutron and gamma ray shielding effects in air being ionized. Percentage dose (gamma versus neutron plus gamma) also corresponds to air-shielded LD-50 for a device of energy W. Shock wave overpressure corresponds to the device energy on the W scale, and a distance set on the W 1/3rd scale, and is read on the center piece's scale. Overpressure is for the singly-shocked wave. Double the value for ground-bursts and for cases where the fireball center is lower than about 30 degrees above the horizon. Double the value again if a back-reflecting object exists within about a meter behind the area of interest. Reverse calculations are done by setting any needed auxiliary values such as soil type, then reading the required device energy on the W scale.
The Dial-a-Nuke does not calculate the effects of fallout, nor electromagnetic pulse effects, and assumes that no atmospheric blow-off will occur. Results should be within 3 dB or better of actual values. Absolutely no classified information is involved in the Dial-a-Nuke. For more detail, assembly instructions, and actual examples, please read the accompanying article.
-- RPI Engineer Magazine, Nov. 1981 issue
I got an email from a chap who's started a WiKi (a kind of user self-generated website) for RPI. He wanted permission to use Not the Rensselaer Handbook in his Wiki. Both Tom and I agreed and sent an email to that affect. Give it a looksie every so often, and if you're RPI alumni, contribute content!
Well I'm delighted to report that I was able to skate almost the entire session. I was exhausted by the end, to the point where I almost could not stand up, but I comported myself rather well on the rink, and I didn't take a single fall.
I wore my loudest Hawaiian shirt, iPod, and my glow-laced Riedell speed boot skates. I had the bearings checked on my trucks and the repair guy on duty said they were fine, I just needed to use them (the last time I rolled in them was at RPI with Alanna in 2002) to open up the grease which had become a bit gummy. They worked fine once I got going. I listened to music on my iPod that would have made the kids there run shreiking from the building ... yes, ABBA and ELO. The hip hop that the rink DJ played on turntables was deafening, but (since almost all the signal is entirely below 120 Hz) didn't interfere with listening to music.
Needless to say, I was an odd sight to the teenagers there. And since when did teenage girls go to skating rinks barely clothed? Those of you who went to RPI will recognize this battle cry: Get the Net!
I had a blast and look forward to going back after I try out the rink closer to home in a couple of weeks.
One last bit of ribald humor. The logo painted on the wall (it's on the Rink's website -- look at the right side wall) is "Cooter". Somehow, that just seemed all too appropriate (and I don't mean as in "old coot").
CNN, proving itself to be the flagship of American journalism, is running a headline about an NYU undergrad who has been sleeping in the NYU Library for eight months. Why they think this is news, let alone a headline is beyond me. In times of economic distress, undergrads do all kinds of things to survive. I recall Russ Brenner living at WRPI for about half a year during the Reagan "boom years". That someone cannot afford housing today is hardly news.
PS. Dude ... read From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler before trying this stunt again.
