I've been having problems with getting my Spanish and German versions of the same construct right (or at least, similar constructs, but maybe they only seem similar because I don't grasp them correctly). In English, we describe the state of the world using phrases like "It is XXXX", where "it" is understood, absent some topic of conversation that might compete for its attention ("it" is very jealous!), to be the beginning of what I think of as a "special construct" in English. "It is cold", "It's not safe to talk to them when they're arguing", etc. In some cases, Spanish uses phrases with the verb hacer for this idiom, e.g. "hace frio" for "it is cold". In some cases, German uses "es gibt" (it gives) for this idiom, e.g. "Es gibt Berge". In both languages, I *think* there are circumstances where one would conjugate ser/sein instead of using the idiom. If someone fluent in either/both languages would clarify for me when each usage is appropriate, I would be appreciative. Given that I occasionally communicate with people in German and Spanish, getting it right would be helpful :)

Also, to people who have studied linguistics, is there a name for that "it is" idiomatic construct?

This reminds me of that old LISP joke: "State-of-the-universe-p?" "Yes, the universe has a state"...

First experiment with making "Quizzes" - sets of interesting questions that people might want to look into, primarily dealing with current events and history, sometimes asking for analysis, sometimes more concrete. Answers and/or discussions on any of the topics would be welcome by email or comment on the Livejournal version of my blog.

(view full entry for contents)

That's probably enough for a first go :)

Not exactly mopey, but definitely introspective and meandering into meaning-of-life philosophy..(view full entry for contents)

I was recently weirded out to discover the reason that my server was getting hammered is that a spam/pr0n site (surprising how many of those there are) randomly (?) selected an image of my face that was included from Livejournal and included it in a bunch of machine-generated text (in Spanish). Not that it would stop the hammering bit, but I told Apache to give a 304 redirect for any requests with a referrer set to that site to a giant picture of an Iguana on Wikipedia. I find Iguanas beautiful, perhaps purveyors of pr0n will too (even if they're not particularly sexy).

woot.com's daily stories they use to showcase their item-of-the-day really crack me up.

Le Mond: (view full entry for contents)

Would people be interested if I made "quizzes" every so often that would ask interesting questions about current events and history in a short-answer/essay invitation format? I would suspect they might lead people to look into events and history that they otherwise might not, and that might lead people to a better understanding of how the world fits together today.

Productive second phone interview - things have progressed to the point of beginning paperwork. At this point, I should probably should be thinking seriously about what I can throw/give away and start packing more seriously. I'm pretty nervous. (view full entry for contents)

Idea: Use IETF-style vocabulary when constructing abstract models of government that a real movement (with all the internal disagreement and partial/full solidarity/communion that entails) could adopt. The grammar would help establish a clear pale and spur discussion on the differences between dogma (Fard), things proscribed (Haraam), and similar middling terms (mubaah, mandoob, etc).

I had a nice walk in the woods today - I was in the CMU area to enter some passwords in my ex-workplace (weird to be there again), had two lunches (one due to randomly running into Elise), and on the way back home, whim pulled me deep into Schenley Park. I sometimes wonder if I would remember the trails I used to run on were I to return to the Brecksville metroparks - remembering these things is not a matter of explicit memory so much as a collection of "it feels right to take this path given the choice I see before me" given one's goals of reaching someplace in particular.

6 May 2008 snapshot of my BLOG/Wiki software

I would post a list of changes, but I don't remember when I last posted a version.

Wow! The b43 wireless driver for my (main) laptop's wireless adapter actually works now (previous versions hardlocked the system as soon as they loaded, and ndiswrapper never worked very well). After all these years of making do without, I now can reliably use the built-in wireless on my laptop... and I'm still the new 21" laptops that are starting to come out :)

People who have ever played the old PC game Digger may find this to be interesting.

I just wrapped up a phone interview with the Perl shop in SB(view full entry for contents)This'd be a good place to work, I think.

Looking a bit at SB apartments on Craigslist, I discovered that I shall have to pass go much more frequently in order to have a comparable standard of living. As stated, $500/month would "buy me a toilet" in SB, even though in Pittsburgh it gets me my reasonably nice apartment. I'd feel weird asking for a salary with precisely adjusted cost-of-living stuff (a place like what I have now would probably be $1500/month there), and I've been pretty happy being able to live comfortably while saving money on salaries in the 40s-50s range. I suppose if I had a family, I'd want more money though.

So, having made my resumé public again has led to a lot of phone calls and emails by local recruiters (mainly folk looking for a sysadmin) - it's nice how after I've told some of them that I'm not looking locally, a barrier goes down and I've had some good tech conversations with people I don't know. Some of them are other sysadmins looking to hire their replacement(!) - once one has some stuff on one's resumé, there's a lot of good jobs floating around locally for a unix sysadmin - good to know :)

Foodwise, I have been neglecting to occasionally drink alcohol, and that's made it hard for me to enjoy fondue or a cup of wine with dinner. I'm coming to think of it as a duty - if I can manage to get my alcohol tolerance up to something sane over the next year, that would be good. Also, Dominic said that there's a Cajun restaurant somewhere on the northside - I want to give that a try soon. Alsø Alsø wik, I must visit Abay again soon. Company for either/both of these would be welcome.

Amusing connection of ideas: Unix shell tab completion, hash buckets, English-unix vocabulary. My tab key on most of my keyboards is much more worn than almost any key (except possibly the space bar (view full entry for contents)"we like that typing is happening, and that we're in control, but we like it more when most of the typing is not being done by us"). It is left to the reader to think about how unix tab-completion can be connected productively to the idea of Markov chains.

Incidentally, sometime in the future, there will be pop-punk covers of most songs by Death Cab for Cutie, and it will be fantastic. In the closer future, there are nine days until their next album is out - they and Radiohead together form the core for what seems to be a circle of music with almost universal likability in people I know. I've always hoped Firewater and Plaid Tongued Devils would hit that status, but I think they're hurt by not being on a major record label.

I sometimes wonder what it would be like if we lived in a society where we could directly ask someone something like "What's the basis of your self esteem?" - I suspect a lot of us have a list of things that it is important for us to believe we are - popular, just, intelligent, tough, stylish, a good member of X ethnic group, on the path to being a tv star, etc. For some of us, we wear these on our sleeve - people who not only need to believe that they are X but need to believe everyone around them thinks them to be X as well. This creates problems, of course, when others do not believe it (and selects their circle of friends/acquaintences, in many cases). For others, it's enough that they believe it and they can disregard what most (or all) others think on the matter.

If one is observant enough, of course, one can see parts of this in others, but I suspect that many times, even with really close friends (maybe spouses too) one never gets the whole picture. I don't think I've ever thought to ask this of anyone I've dated or known nor has anyone ever asked it of me. I'm not sure I'd want to give an honest answer anyhow both because these kinds of things often sound arrogant or weird and having others know the honest truth of it gives a terrible vulnerability - the lines to self-esteem are disruptable in many cases.

It's interesting to think about what one can do if one finds that one's self esteem is based on things that are either unhealthy or lead one to actions that are against one's values (anorexics are an example of the former).

Strangely entertaining (for me) dream:(view full entry for contents)