Journal Entries
Waves and currents
Posted Jul 29, 2005
I'm still trying to get several thousand lines of regimented fortran to do it's job. It is supposed to model ocean surface waves including the effects of ocean currents. We are doing this because currents can bunch waves together, causing extreme waves which can, and do, sink ships, even big ones, and we want to forecast them, but I've been pearing through a labyrinth of fortran for weeks. I'd go mad, but I don't know how to. I remember once, before my university finals, being stressed up to the hilt and casually asking a fellow student how it was that you could achieve the goal of having a nervous breakdown. He thought seriously for a moment, then waved his arms in the air and shreaked 'bleah bleah bleah' at high pitch. These days, I don't have access to this morale-boosting chap, but whenever I'm stressed I watch a Muppet Show video, and this has much the same effect.
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Latest reply: Jul 29, 2005
An elevating discussion
Posted Jun 27, 2005
A working man meets an avant garde artist in a lift.
Man: Hullo. I recognise you. Now what in blazes is your name?
Art: Cytra Nime. The artist, you know?
Man: You're the twit who cobbles that pretentious crap aren't you?
Art: I beg your pardon?
Man: I read once that one of your exhibits was mistaken for trash by a cleaner and thrown out! Ha, what was it: oh yes, a chicken made out of toilet rolls? If I was ever made pope I'd 'a sainted that cleaner.
Art: Tell me. Why do you wear only a vest?
Man: Let me tell you, this vest was washed a few days ago.
Art: How about what you keep inside it. Was that washed a few days ago?
Man: Lady. I may be less than pristine, but at least it's honest sweat from an honest days slog in the workshop. I'm not a con artist.
Art: Neither am I!
Man: Go on: tell me what useful purpose your toilet roll chicken serves.
Art: Alright. For what it's worth, here it is. God said to me one day, he said: Cytra, with communism defunct, capitalist society has gone mad..
Man: I wouldn't argue with you there.
Art: The only problem is, God said, society doesn't realise that it's gone mad. The rich do, but don't care because they're in charge of the asylum. We need to show the general public what's going on. How do we do it?
Man: OK, how?
Art: My plan was to get the rich to buy and display my rubbish, thus making it obvious to the general public, who have to scrimp and save to even buy a roof to go over their heads, that the rich have obscenely more money than they need. The result? Revolution!
Man: Bloody hell! That's brilliant! I never even suspected. You're great! You're like that Spanish bloke ..er.. Picasso. He painted Guernica to point out the violence of the Nazis to the world.
Art: I didn't know you knew about art!
Man: You're doing the same thing for the super-rich! I bow before you.
Art: Well thanks. However, there is now a problem...
Man: What could possibly go wrong?
Art: Last week I sold 100,000 postcard prints of my toilet roll chicken to the general public! It seems they want to emulate the rich...
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Latest reply: Jun 27, 2005
Mark Cycles Ethiopia
Posted Jun 24, 2005
I've been thinking of writting two journals. One in which I dutifully record what I did that day, and another to record what I would have done if I could do exactly what I want. I might try it. It might be useful in that eventually I'll try and make the spiel in the two diaries converge.
On a far more moral note: in October a friend of mine is going to cycle 350km from the capital of Ethiopia (Addis Abbaba) out to a little village to raise money for saving lives in childbirth in Africa. If you'd like to support him, he's set up a web page for donations at: http://justgiving.com/markcyclesethiopia
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Latest reply: Jun 24, 2005
Waking Up
Posted Jun 22, 2005
I'm now car sharing, which is sociable and eco-friendly. However, I used to wake up late, and somehow I've chosen two colleagues, who are as pleasant as they come, but who depart at 8:15am! This is painful, but is beginning to feel good, because I'm at work before 9 for the first time in years. Previously I'd begun to stay so late in the evening that I was seeing more of the cleaning staff than my fiancee-wife (I'll explain this compound noun later) and I think my boss isn't quite sure whether I'm there at 9 because I've finally turned over a new leaf, or because I arrived horribly late, and had to work on through the night.
I'm dissapointed about the Planetary Society's Cosmos-1 Solar Sail project. It was launched from an old Russian ICBM in the Barents Sea but the spaceship seems to have been lost. This project was like a breath of fresh air: bold and elegant (see http://www.planetary.org/).
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Latest reply: Jun 22, 2005
Mike McCulloch
Researcher U246476
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