Edward's Book of Nonsense

Switching Over

Wed, 17 May 2006 19:35:11 GMT

Dear All,

I've started a new Blog at blogspot, and will probably be solely updating that one from hereforth (although I might document my summer travels here). So feel free to check it out (or subscribe to the RSS feed).

I've still got quite a few of your LJs on my safari RSS feeds, so I'll be checking around.

-- Edward.

The ol' dusty trail

Wed, 19 Apr 2006 23:19:13 GMT

Goddamn, five weeks till the first exam, which I'm not that ready for... then again who is?
My schedule as it stands:
This week: Revise
Next week: Hand in homework on special relativity (yay)
and head home for my father's birthday for the weekend.
In two weeks: hand in two philosophy papers I've barely read up on (busy with physics), and homework on solids (which is going to be the epitome of the anti-piece-of-cake).
Then it's pretty much cool and calm for two whole weeks... then exam season starts.
I'm not too worried about the philosophy stuff, which accounts for more than 2/3rds of my semester, just about the physics.

They gave us really packed modules this semester. I mean, both physics modules I have are half modules (10 credits each) but each involve probably 15 credits worth of work to keep on top of things. To make things worse, one of the is actually two modules rolled into half a module, and as far as reading and practicing are concerned, involves as much work as a whole physics module. It doesn't really seem fair, does it? Unfortunately, it remains far easier to get high marks in physics than in philosophy...

Speaking of which, we still haven't got our essays back from half-term. Hopefully they'll give 'em back during the first week, so I can ascertain the lower boundary for my philosophy modules (they take the best of two essays, so if I've secured some firsts, I'll try something a bit more experimental for these upcoming papers). It's annoying having to wait for these things.

Anywhooo, better get to bed. I've set myself a pretty harsh reading schedule for the next few weeks, in preparation for exams. I wonder if I'll manage to stick to it. I hear the main library is open 24/7 until then, so I might make good use of it. Oh, and to make things even easier (read: academic suicide), I've agreed to teach a group some conversation french, which will necessitate preparing three hours worth of classes per week. I'm fairly confident I can fit it in (it's not like I've been having much of a social life these past two months anyway, because of papers/journals/conferences), and the money will be quite nice.

Pray for an extension

Fri, 03 Mar 2006 07:58:23 GMT

Ah, the joys of posting in the morning...

I went to a gig last night at my old hall o' rez. Good stuff. The Patricians, a band composed of four of my friends (whom incidentally, I knew independently as half the band does physics with me, and the other half does philosophy). And while I was there, I heard two good things. The first was the band playing, and the second was Doug telling me we may have a week's extension on our quantum mechanics homework (due in a few hours). This would pretty much save my life, as I have so many projects on the line and things to wrap up over the next few days... To help with things, I'm also going on a philosophical retreat of some sorts with the department, over the weekend.

Anyway, I pride myself in meeting my deadlines, so I'm sure I'll manage to work something out. Besides, how boring would life be without a little pressure?

So much to write, so little time

Fri, 24 Feb 2006 19:47:30 GMT

Man, I've somehow fallen a bit behind on all my reading -_-

I've been asked to write up a small book review for the British Journal of Undergraduate Philosophy, which I'm quite honoured by. Of course, it's not exactly the same as having your work published in it. Then again that would require my writing something good (enough). I'm doing some reading for that, actually. I don't know how exactly this came across me, but I've come to think it'd be interesting to write a paper on the phenomenological interpretation of Wittgenstein's Tractatus. Will it be good? Will it be crap? Probably the latter, but wait and see.

Quite a few papers to go through too, and I've gotta catch up on the quantum mechanic lectures as well.

I feel this weekend isn't going to involve much going out.

One more to go...

Mon, 30 Jan 2006 09:55:22 GMT

Ugh... One more exam, this wednesday: Quantum Mechanics. -_-

Not really looking forward to this. But hey, it'll be nice to relax once it's all over.
Back to studying...

*ZOOOOMMM*

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more...

Wed, 25 Jan 2006 12:35:14 GMT

Halfway through exams. Got logic coming up on friday which should be cool. Quantum mechanics next wednesday should be a bit of a bother though. But hey, good things coming up after exams are over.

First we've got the Sheffield BUPS Conference coming up, which should be really great stuff. It's a bit of a shame I didn't really have time to prepare the paper I had intended for it, but I'll keep the notes handy so I can put some time towards it whenever time becomes available. Anywhoo, some good people to meet up with there. Looking forward to it.

Then there are some pretty cool plays coming up at the Crucible, there's Japan day at the union meaning good food is on the way, there's the start of the new semester...

Speaking of which, yesterday I got an email stating that Stephen Laurence, the lecturer teaching second year philosophy of mind, is leaving for the semester. That's a bit of a bummer (actually it really sucks) since I was looking forward to having him lecture that particular module. Not the best bit of news...

Oh well, wait and see...

Catching up

Thu, 05 Jan 2006 11:28:19 GMT

Sorry I haven't posted here for a while. I've been pretty busy with various things, some of them probably contributing to giving me an ulcer.

I'm in France for the duration of the holidays, until next wednesday (11/01/06), busy revising for my exams, working on a few projects including a complete commentary of thirty-eight (38) poems I have produced over the past year and a half. Not out of personal pride or anything, it's just that that way, if I die tomorrow (and I reassure you, I have absolutely no plans on dying soon) I can at least say I've left something behind somewhere along the line.

But hey, 'tis been a fun holiday. Spending Xmas with the family, new years with friends in grenoble. Shame it's ruined by post-holiday exams. Speaking of which, I'm halfway done with my undergrad. In 18 months, no more undergrad exams...

So tired... so much work to do. Better get back to it.

Make LOVE to the camera

Thu, 24 Nov 2005 23:53:45 GMT

Had my photo shoot today. A photographer has turned the post-grad lounge (with a view over the city) into a bit of a studio, and I spent 10 minutes getting a dozen pictures of me taken. It was fun being a model with the guy going all "yeah look over here, a little to the left. Yeah eyes on the camera. Now look down a bit, (etc etc)", and well worth the time, as it was payed 20 pounds. Word.

I'll post the pictures here when I get them (most likely after the Xmas break).

New stuff, and stuff...

Thu, 17 Nov 2005 14:46:12 GMT

Long time since my last update... thought I'd take a quick work from studying to write this, to chill out a bit.

One of my housemates is acting like a freaking little PMSing neurotic teen girl these days. One minute he's cool and a great guy to talk to, and the next he's a jerk. We all know he has issues (don't we all?) but man, it pisses me off when people take out their bad mood on their friends.

Anyway, beyond that it's all fairly good news. Scoring top marks in all my homeworks for now, keeping track of my courses quite nicely, and enjoying it all thus far. Still getting involved with Open Space amongst other things, so all's good.

I applied for a job at the Apple store that's going to open in Meadowhall soon, mainly for some extra cash and the cool t-shirts. Haven't heard back from them yet...

On a final note, my department mailed me asking if I was up for a photo-shoot so my picture could go in the departmental prospectus for next year. Quite flattering, really, although I don't really understand their choice as there are quite a few attractive people in the department. But hey, extra exposure and 20 pounds in vouchers: can't really refuse, eh?

Well what do you know...

Thu, 10 Nov 2005 13:14:36 GMT

Oh well, there go my dreams of stability as far as internet connection go. The ethernet thing died despite my many attempts of getting it running.

I guess I'll have to work with an iffy wireless connection.

Man, if it weren't for the fact I'm close to university, and am quite happy with the people I'm living with, I'd be in a pretty bad mood. It's not a bad house, physically. It's just that it's soooo not worth the £65 per week (per person) we're forking into it.

Oh well, guess we'll have to do better next year.

Whew

Wed, 09 Nov 2005 18:35:42 GMT

Yay, finally got a stable internet connection. Or the nearest thing.

I had to fiddle around with wires for an hour to get to this and I'm not touching anything anymore. Now at least I know that if my line goes down I can get it up and running by just replugging my ethernet cable. I'm trying to get some fancy-shmancy commandline script to do the same thing for me.

Anyway, it's nice to have a fast connection again.

Where to start? Not much, much news really.

It's reading week, which means I'm lazing around trying to reread stuff... Very exciting, as I feel I'm not being very effective in this task... Better than nothing nonetheless.

Soooo, yeah. Pretty damn cold here these days.

Back on the web, where's the spider

Thu, 13 Oct 2005 01:59:39 GMT

Finally got the net in my new house in Sheffield, and life's damn good. Pretty damn good...

Where to start, where to start...

The first week would probably be a good start. Spent most of my days (and part of the night) at Stephenson (my former hall of residence) helping freshers move in, get around and get down with the party that is life away from home (okay that's a lie, I was mainly being a responsible ball-buster talking to them about the "studying" part of student life - yes there is one). It was quite a rich experience, and it was nice to walk around with everyone knowing your name (namely because it was printed on the back of my shirt, but still, people would still say my name when the shirt came off).

My father was asking me the other day if I had gotten down from the post conference high. Well, thanks to the espresso machine they got me for my birthday (which was last friday, I'll get to that), not really. On a more serious note, not really at all. I mean, I got back here and got parachuted back into the philosophical jungle with my advisor giving me lists of journals to read, me getting loads of new and exciting books on thermal physics and quantum mechanics, and maths, and logic (and god I love this year's bibliography ^-^) and loads of debates to go to, discussions to get into, people to meet (I'll probably address that part in a private post) and stuff to generally, you know... do.

Anywhoooo, moving in was rather thrilling. I love my new house to bits, though I could do without the area surrounding it. We're really on the fringe of the student area and things can get a tad dodgy, but nothing really bad. I'm living in a house of 8 guys (including myself) and an approximately equal number of girls as semi-residents (although this number fluctuates with time, not unlike the waves we study *geek alert*) and communal life has been quite pleasant thus far. We're all fairly different, but that seems to just work out. We're all fairly serious people, fairly organized and quite tidy, although there was a bit of talking going on over the latter two points of order during the first weeks (but things seem to be going quite smoothly now). It's a 10 minute trek to the campus center from door to door (quite literally 10 minutes) so as far as sleeping in goes, life could not be better (especially since I have loads of 11 o'clock/noon starts).

My birthday was last friday, and I was treated to a late start because the Thermal Physics lecture was cancelled, my afternoon labs were so productive we all experimental error with seven hours to burn, the plumber/electrician came to fix my draughty window and radiator ,and the evening come, we had one hell of a party at my place with all my friends. I got some fantastic presents too, including an espresso machine (I loves me some coffee, yessir) and some books on poetry and philosophy and... drumrolllllll... the Feinman Lectures!!! (Any physicist would understand how freakishly COOL a present this is), and in HARDCOVER too so I can keep 'em all my life. They're still in the mail though. Can't wait. I got "Possession" by A. S. Byatt too, which I'm currently reading and enjoying immensely. The materialist within me was sorta hoping for an iPod nano so I could carry loads of music around with me without unstitching my coat pockets

That's about all I can think of right now. Good stuff all around.
And if you managed to make it all the way down here without falling asleep and drowning in your own drool, the reward is links (which still should work) to the pdf of my conference paper, and the podcast (sorry about the .wmv format).

Conference Paper
Conference Podcast

Catch you all later.

Woohoo

Tue, 30 Aug 2005 21:16:24 GMT

Had an absolute BLAST in Morzine. Weekend of partying and enjoyment.

I'll get into that later, perhaps tomorrow.

But first, behold:

http://www.bups.org/prog.htm

Yes, that's my name on the 9:30 slot of the second day. And yes, most of those other speakers are from Oxford or Cambridge.

This is gonna look fucking good on my CV ^-^

Yipee kai yeah MF

Mon, 22 Aug 2005 11:45:26 GMT

Flippin' ace! My paper not only got accepted for the conference, it's gonna be recommended for publication! Me talking at a conference and potentially getting published in an academic journal... Just wow. I didn't think things would go this fast.

This is just pure gloating because I'm so insanely happy, but here 'tis (with suitable omissions).

I am delighted to let you know that your paper for the British Undergraduate Philosophy Conference 2005 has been accepted, subject to some minor revisions, and will also be recommended for publication in New Minds.

You will be presenting your paper in a 45 minute slot. You will have 10-15 minutes to read your work. There will then be a 5/6 minute response given by a postgrad or undergrad who has read your paper in advance. You will know in advance what this will focus on, and will have 2 minutes to reply. The chaired floor debate will take up the rest of the slot, in which attendees will be asking you unprepared questions about your paper.

-- Cut-out --

Well done on your paper - competition was quite tough!

We look forward to seeing you at the conference.

Robert Charleston
---
Chair, BUPS

Hahaha, it all begins here.

Holy Shizznit

Sun, 14 Aug 2005 04:17:08 GMT

Fuck fuckitty fuck fuck fuck I just checked my ticket.
My flight back to Paris (via Zurich) leaves Narita at 10:10 AM.
That means I need to be there at 8:10 AM.
This means I need to leave here around 6 AM.
Woot. I'm just gonna looooove tuesday.

What's more, I need to finish writing post cards and shit...

Those major landmarks

Sun, 14 Aug 2005 04:14:33 GMT

So I was standing in front of the Lexington Queen in Roppongi last night, minding my own business and chatting with some friends when out of nowhere, this not-untrattactive girl walking by gropes me and runs away laughing.

Now were I a woman, to whom this sort of thing probably happens a lot, I'd understandably pissed off. I personally wasn't too much though, as I understand people do stupid things when drunk. Furthermore, while it isn't one of life's major landmarks, I'm kind of glad it happened.

You see, I would have been rather disappointed to have had to leave japan without getting groped at least once (especially after the third year in a row).

Dakara, that's one more thing off my checklist of things to experience here.
Some things left are:

- Get a seizure from watching flashy signs.
- Play pachinko at least once.
- Try all the types of Shochu.
- etc etc...

It's all fuckin' over

Sat, 13 Aug 2005 04:02:05 GMT

Shit I mean it feels like I got here yesterday, and the program's over already...
Got my pay today, a nice ¥40k, and said bye to the students. I'm gonna leave in a few minutes to meet up with the other staff peeps for a late lunch in Futako-Tamagawa, which will probably lead up to a pretty wild night in Roppongi. Tomorrow I'm gonna go out with some senior teachers for a few drinks as well, and monday I might head down to another friend's place near the beach for a BBQ and some beer. So yeah, with all that I need to write my post cards, send 'em, get some presents and all that jazz. Gonna be hard.

Anywhooooo off I go. I wish I could stay longer.

Oh yeah, and the program directors said I could get a senior teaching position as soon as a graduate (or find a suitable way of "proving" I'm qualified academically) so probably not next summer, but certainly the one after. Man, that'd be good! I'd cover the cost of my flight in a week, and then it'd be aaaaalll profits.

Last minute heaven!

Thu, 11 Aug 2005 09:04:51 GMT

They moved me to Q class, to teach the advanced highschool group today. I had an absolute blast, it was really cool, being able to do my thing and talk about more advanced methodology, vocab, body language and expression tips, and discuss cultural anecdotes and all.

Good stuff. I'm looking forward to tomorrow and saturday. Sucks that I have to leave so soon though...

What a day...

Wed, 10 Aug 2005 12:39:30 GMT

Man what a day. So last night they tell me they want to a create a separate high-school group for advances students, and I would teach alone. So I spent 2 hours preparing something to do the next day, trying to balance amusing and stimulant as a keywords for the work. I get in to work early this morning, set up the class room, bring the students to it, and go to the office to check that the guy replacing me in K class is here, and it turns out he's not here, and they tell me they would feel comfortable if I was there to take care of the problem class instead, so it's back to K class. The senior teacher is really pissed off that parents have been complaining about his teaching (which I can dig) and by noon he decides to quit, which the office notifies me in secret. So by midday I'm like "Oh shit... There goes the neighbourhood".

So yah, tomorrow we're supervised by a new guy, I think. He doesn't have a program ready, I'm told, so I basically get to run things like I want. Thing is the remaining students suck, speak japanese even when I tell them no to, and need more help than I can really give them. I mean I usually teach the advanced group, and now I'm stuck with these guys. So these next three days are not gonna be the sort of challenge I wanted to end the program with. Oh well... That's part of the risks, I guess. Just gotta handle it professionally (ie. not killing students).

The bossman brought me out for a 6 course dinner with his son (who's the program supervisor) and daughter (who's in the junior high class) and wife. 'Twas yum, but I'm so freaking full now.

I want to go to the o-furo again but I need to digest a bit yet. I don't think I could withstand the heat with such a full stomach.

Waaaah Atsuiiiiiii

Tue, 09 Aug 2005 13:47:40 GMT

Wooot survived the O-furo (japanese public baths). It was kinda intimidating to go, but everything went smoothly and I had a great time. It felt very local, to say the least. My boss was telling me how when he was young it used to cost 20¥. It's more like 400¥, which is still a great price next to the 1000-3000¥ you'll throw down to get into an onsen (though I strongly intend to hit an onsen before leaving), and it's almost as good.

For those who are unfamiliar with the whole o-furo/onsen scene. Here's the deal.

------------------------Japanese Baths 101------------------------

- You take your shampoo, soap, large towel (to dry yourself) and small towel (to wash and bathe with) with you in a small plastic basket.

- You go into the building through a main entrance, where you discard your shoes and can leave them in little boxes that lock with a system that's rather interesting, but that I'll have a hard time describing beyond the fact it involves little thick wooden cards in slots. Old-school locks, in a word.

- You pay a person at the entrance to the men/woman's baths (typically they are next to each other and the person sits in a little boxed off area that connects both men and women's changing rooms.

- You strip nekkid and leave your clothes and large towel in a small locker that has a locking system like the shoe lockers. I admit that the prospect of being naked amongst other men/women is not something westerners are used to, but you generally end up not giving a damn unless you're a freaking moron (I mean who'd give up on a relaxing hot bath because of a little nudity which is perfectly natural).

- Here comes the long part. You enter the baths and there are rows of little plastic stools and plastic bowl-like things in front of shower-heads and hot and cold taps. Typically you spend 20 minutes washing up and shampooing twice. And by washing up I mean you gotta be fucking clean or the locals tend to scowl at you. You use your small towel to make sure your back and neck are as clean as every other nook and cranny. Then you rinse yourself abundantly by pouring buckets of hot water over your head and body, and rinse your towel clean.

- Entering the bath can be tricky, as the water is between 40 and 48 degrees C (104F to 119F), so you can't really dive bomb in (as that will also result in you getting kicked out). Typically you modestly hold your small towel in front of your genitalia when walking to the bath (but who gives a damn anyway) and then wet the towel (in the bath, duh) and place it on across your lap when you're soaking your legs, across your shoulders when you're sitting in the bath, and folded up on your head when you're fully immersed (this really helps you withstand the heat). You basically soak around for a while, get out and soak your legs and cool off a bit, then go back in and repeat until you feel relaxed (or can't stand the heat).

- You then rinse yourself off again (some people soap up again) with warm or cold water (feel REAL nice), go back to the changing room and usually purchase a drink from the vending machine (cold teas like mugi-cha and cold green tea, electrolytes, and cold milk are popular choices), and sit down to relax a bit before going home.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So yeah, it was really really relaxing. I really enjoyed it even if the bath was really hot. I've only been taking showers in the past year (since I don't have a bath) and wasn't really used to really hot baths anymore, but after a bit it felt really nice.

Naturally I didn't pay attention to the warnings on the baths which were in furigana (how nice) and stepped into the electric bath right next to the cathode. Yowza!

A good experience, well worth the 400¥. I think I'll go back tomorrow.

Attention please

Mon, 08 Aug 2005 11:57:52 GMT

Attention please, people of the internet!

As Junichiro Koizumi

has the sexiest hair on the planet, I now proclaim him to be my new avatar.

Heeeeey

Mon, 08 Aug 2005 11:26:16 GMT

I just realized I didn't have scanner, but I could just take pictures of the pictures. Sure the quality isn't great, but it sure beats making you guys wait another month.

Here goes, a few of 'em (including some rare ones from my camera. I hate taking pictures in a touristy way. Nature photography, on the other hand...)

Let's start off with the connections.
The senior staff of the program and I (on the right, lookin' cool):

The prized highschool class. Dunno why the senior staff is in the picture:

The first week's highschool class. It was rather small so the senior teacher dude (who was soooo cool) didn't split it. Teaching with him was really really fun.

Three pictures of us teaching in action. Pretty cool atmosphere, eh? You can see the "Cool-biz" approach is now quite popular. Sure beats wearing a suit.

The first week's class. As you can see, it's pretty small.

Me looking dazed while teaching kids how not to drown. Notice the great tshirt tan. My skin is so fucking white. I mean usually I tan, but I didn't have time to since I spent most of early summer in the UK.

Me, leading a fresh new batch to their doom.

Two pics of the class party two saturdays ago:

Some purikura I did with the second week's class. The quality sucks, but then the original picture is pretty sucky anyway as I couldn't use a flash so close.
You can't really see much except the fact that we're fucking packed in there:

....

Okay, and now for the two horror shots of the day.

This is me after a day of work, after an hour a half wading in chlorine, after a weekend in roppongi.

No I'm not stoned but baby do I wish I was.

As a contrast, here's me throwing a psycho-slap-happy smile-n'-thumbs-up because I've just been payed 800 bucks.

That's all folks. Hope you liked em.

Foodzors!

Mon, 08 Aug 2005 11:15:52 GMT

What am I eating these days, you ask?

Unagi:

and a different form of unagi, obviously chopped up, which naturally justifies the entirely different name for it:

Screw these people.

You'll notice that the plastic covering the chopsticks clearly indicates that one should watch out when opening the wrapping, for there is a sharp toothpick and one runs the risk of spiking one's finger.

Naturally with this in mind, I've spiked my finger opening the wrapping hastily about five times.

On a side note (love that expression), Asahi Super Dry is infinitely superior to that Kirin crap, or most western beers.

Another one of those pesky earthquakes

Sun, 07 Aug 2005 15:09:23 GMT

Yay my whole apartment is moving again...
Sheesh this one is lasting a long time.

Fortunately it's not very strong...

This Edward Grefenstette. Live from Earthquake land...

Wow... wouldya look at that...

Sun, 07 Aug 2005 14:49:35 GMT

I'm not sure if this is entirely true as I can't be bothered to count, but I believe I've posted more in my livejournal since I've come to Japan than I ever have. That's certainly true for the public posts, as 90% of my prior posts were friend locked.

'Tis a nice change.