Worms!

What do you get when you add Spring + Rain? Earthworms! Everywhere! Dozens of them, squirming over pavements, basking under trees, just sidewalk after sidewalk of the little creatures. It's funny, it's been so long since I've seen one, that at first I didn't even recognize them -- I actually thought they were sticks, until Steve pointed one out... and then, wham! Suddenly, we were surrounded by wormlife.

Steve says they come out like this when it rains because if they stayed underground, they'd actually drown. Kind of a cool nature fact, until you realize that the tragic part is that when they surface, the driest place to go is the pavements... and that's precisely where bikes, cars, and bipeds have the best chance of stepping on them. So you get hundreds of worms, and hundreds of squished little bodies. A regular wormicide! Poor little guys.

I made an effort to save one today, maybe that counts for something. He was a rather fat fellow, rolling lazily across a broad stretch of road, unaware of the imminent danger. I managed to find a Y-shaped stick, scoop him up, and deposit him in the grass on the other side. I hope he didn't mind the transplant! He appeared to be burrowing happily in the grass as I left -- maybe he found some nice juicy soils.

On reflection, I think there's really too many of the creatures for the odd bike to pose a significant threat to wormery at large. But still... they're so soft and squishy. I wonder how many will be left tomorrow?

Weird nature!

Random quotes

It works! Instead of a constant tagline, I inserted a little javascript into the subtitle up there to randomly display some of my favorite quotes. You can see a different one each time the page is refreshed. If you have any suggestions for quotes let me know! :)

EDIT 4/19: Thank you, everyone, for all the quotes!! I've incorporated them into the script. If you want to see the complete set, actually (without hitting "f5" over and over ;)) you can view the source code for this page, too.

PvP Online

I know, I know, I read waaay too many webcomics, but this one made me laugh too hard not to share (I just love the expression on the cat's face!):



Hope it gives you a chuckle.

CherryCam

Cherries, part II: the UW website has a live CherryCam pointed at the Quad, so visitors can enjoy the blooms remotely. They're really into their hanami!

At least we'll have a nice view...

A quote from a Seattle radio DJ: "We built this city on Rock 'n' Roll! And an earthquake fault line. In a tsunami zone. Next to a big volcano."

Ha! (thanks, Amy!)

Updates!

A thank you to the alert readers who pointed out that my new Updating Action seemed to be malfunctioning! I looked into the problem and found that there was some busyness and general blog neglect clogging the instruments. After applying some cleaning solutions (with "fresh, Spring Break scent!") and a good scrubbing, the mechanism is fixed and should be running for a little while (but we'll see how long... never can tell with these Grad School products!).

In the meanwhile, I posted some pics and missives from this past month that were long overdue. Enjoy! Hope everyone in internet land is happy and healthy. :)

Cherry Blossoms

Spring has sprung! And how! Before yesterday, I had a dim sort of awareness that there was a reason people started settling in Seattle to begin with, but among all the dark and wet and cold and dark of winter, I couldn't remember exactly what it was. But now... behold!

This is a central green on campus, full of cherry trees. Last time I saw this place it was grey and framed with dreary tree skeletons, and now suddenly... acre upon acre of fluffy beauty. Steve and I went crazy taking pictures of them; I wish I could include all of the pics here, but alas, I don't think they do the real scene justice. Walking under something like this is almost otherworldly in its beauty: you're surrounded by gently waving branches of soft, lacy pink, while falling blossoms swirl around you. Steve says when these trees bloom it's a national holiday in Japan, and boy howdy to I believe it. Whoever conceived of heaven being full of just clouds had clearly not seen cherry trees.


I decided at some point I needed to get up close and personal with one of these, so clambered as gently as a two-footed, boot-wearing creature could into the branches. Steve snapped evidence, and I snapped a closeup.

Amy's been tree-spotting, too -- after getting all excited about these, I ran into her just in time for her to tell me about seeing the most "magically pink" tree! I advised her, of course, to visit the campus asap :) I'm not sure how long these babies last, but I have a feeling it's one of those glimpses of heaven that you have to catch when you can. When Robert Frost said nothing gold can stay, I think he really meant to say pink.

Peninsula trip

I tend to forget that there's a whole 'nother chunk of land separating Seattle from the actual Pacific (Puget sound is fantastic, but it's only an arm of the Real Thing), so it's nice to be reminded of what open sea really looks like. Steve gallantly offered to drive out to the Olympic Peninsula last weekend, so we could see the national park (just the mountains, really), the rainforest (yes! we actually have a rain forest out there!) and the coast.

It was really amazing. The Olympic mountains are just as beautiful and snow-sparkly up close as from the city across the Sound (just bigger and more looming). We didn't actually hike up in them or anything, but they made a nice view from the highway. The rainforest is also different from what one would expect, say, a tropical rainforest to look like, as it's comprised of mostly temperate-zone trees like pines and douglas firs, but they're all covered in moss; seas and seas of swirling moss, covering the forest floor, dripping from tree branches, and splashing up on tree feet. Also, ferns and a few other exotica are scattered among the more northwesterly flora. I imagine this sort of place is really spectacular in the summer, when there is more sunshine and the plants are fuller, but in February, it's a little... spooky. And with the mists and fluffy peat floor, a little like something from the Jim Henson workshop. Wooooooooo....

The coast was as cold and grey as one would have expected, but surprisingly beautiful in spite of it. The greyness lent it a sort of quiet, timeless feel, and we got to watch the sun set over it while contemplating the ages upon ages that those waves had probably been splashing on that shore. Pretty spiffy.

To top off the trip, we took the ferry back across the Sound (instead of driving around it), and got a fantastic view of the city skyline, ablaze with nightlights as we approached from the west. So many things to do around here, so little time off. :) Maybe when Nik and Michael come visit, we can go back to the sea and do some whale-watching!

Mad guitar skillz!

Gallucci posted a short story over on his myspace blog: I am the Best Guitarist at Guitar Center! He spends a lot of time in music stores, and I imagine encounters a few of these types! :P Hahaha... It's very cleverly written, I got a good laugh (warning: a little bit of language, so maybe not for Chloe/Katie reading ;) )

TREC Track

(...paddiwack, give a dog a bone!)

We're tackling TREC! A handful of us Compling students have decided that we're going to get together over the next few months to build something to submit to TREC, the "Text REtrieval Conference." Basically, it's a sort of evaluation conference, where they organize IR tasks and problems and compile resources, and participants build programs to use the resources to attack the problems. Ultimately you run your program on the TREC evaluation data, and present your results. Winners get, well, fame and glory, and some nice things to say on their CVs.

The track we've decided to apply to is Question Answering, which is REALLY ambitious. I'm not certain we stand a snowball's chance (well, maybe in the outer circles), since most of the people working in this area have been doing so for years, and have a lot of resources and experience at their disposal. But in its favor, this type of problem covers all of the topics we've discussed in our coursework so far, and easily breaks down into sub-tasks that we can tackle one piece at a time.

Most of all, though, this is the exact task that got me interested in this field in the first place. And here we're going to BUILD a real system!

I'm so excited I can hardly stand it. Even if we don't get anything finished in time, or even if we finish and it sucks, the experience is still going to be invaluable, not to mention fun in the meanwhile. Wish me luck!!! :)

Buckling buildings, Batman!

Holy smokes! I'm glad I don't have class in either of these:

Shifting Floor Prompts Evacuations At 2 UW Buildings

Tiles popping out of the floor?! Yikes... I think I'll avoid these buildings for a little bit :P

Phd comics comes to UW!

On a lighter note, Jorge Cham, the creator of the comic strip "Piled Higher and Deeper", was the guest speaker at the CSE colloquium last week! I'm a fan, in case anyone noticed from the PhD comics link in my list on the right... :)

His talk on The Power of Procrastination was very engaging, and does his reputation justice. You can find an excerpt here. Plus, I got to get a signed copy of one of the printed books. Yay!

RIP Dr. Ladefoged

Peter Ladefoged has passed away! It was in London three days ago, on his way back from doing fieldwork in India. He was 80yrs old.

For those who aren't familiar with the name, Dr. Ladefoged was a linguistics professor at UCLA, and a very influential figure in phonetics and phonology (my phonetics textbook is his). There's a memorial page on his website.

Godspeed, Peter!

Feds to Google: "Hand over the milk money!"

..."Or prepare to suffer a severe wedgie!"

Have you guys read this? Basically, some government folks need some research data in order to push a new law through, and they want to get it from Google. Their way? Order the company to turn over their entire search database for their perusal. Naturally, Google has refused, claiming that compliance with such a request would reveal sensitive personal information about their users (and violate users' trust), not to mention company trade secrets. So, an official subpoena has been issued.

I'm... well, I'm shocked! I can't believe that the government can just walk into someone's (in this case, a corporation's) living room and say, "We want your stuff for our research. Hand it over. Cause we're the government." Google has nothing to do with their case -- the government just thinks it would be convenient to use their data, so issues this heavy-handed order to procure it.

Fed 1: "Hey, where can we get a lot of info for our research?"
Fed 2: "Whenever I need info, I use Google!"
Fed 1: "Good idea. Order them to give us their stuff, or else."
Fed 2: "MUAHAHAHAHAHA...!"

(Okay, maybe I'm getting a little carried away with that last part...)

What further chaps my ass about this is the government's justification for their request: they claim they are attempting to push through an important child-protection law, and that the importance of such a matter trumps Google's privacy concerns. They even claim their law has something to do with child porn. If this were the case, it would be grave indeed, and I would have a hard time "choosing" sides. But here's the thing: it's nothing to do with child porn! It has to do with restricting websites that minors can access, including porn sites. This sounds significantly less dire than "child porn" -- and besides, isn't which websites a minor visits the parents' responsibility? It's like passing a law in order to restrict what kind of tv shows or channels a child watches.

This is all about restricting information flow under the guise of protecting children. And it doesn't even have the cloak of "national security", for pete's sake... Sigh! The whole thing smells fishy. I'll be interested to see how Google responds when the pressure increases, and what public opinion is. Not to mention how this matter may hurt Google stock.

Mele Kalikimaka

Ms. Shauna -- and Amy and Nikki -- go to paradise!

We actually went the beginning of January right before the term started, but I've still been collecting pictures and haven't gotten any post about it up yet. Two words: bee-yootiful! It was about as lovely and relaxing a trip as one could ask for. Amy headed out to the big island right after Christmas to hang out and visit her parents, and Nik and I joined her about a week later. Alice and Tom, the most gracious aforementioned parents, used their combined powers to nab us a stay at the Hapuna Beach Prince hotel for the first two nights (local rates!). The first pic here has Nik making her ocean debut; the second, the view from the lobby terrace of the hotel.

It's hard to believe, but the place is even more beautiful in person. Especially at night -- nothing but moon, stars, and silver surf... I was always a little proud of Arizona's claim to stargazing fame, but really, Hapuna almost puts it to shame. If only (in addition to the cool rhyme it makes) because the pleasanter temperature, soft air, and gently lapping waves make for a more comfy experience.

The third day/night was spent snorkeling, swimming, hiking, sunbathing, and camping on Spencer's beach. Subsequent days we stayed at Alice and Tom's place in Hilo and explored the west side of the island. In this third pic you can see intrepid explorers Amy and Nikki as they venture into the steaming Kiluea Iki volcano crater.

I wonder if this trip has something to do with why the cold wetness of Seattle in the winter feels like it hardly phases me -- I've probably stored enough photons and happy sunshine rays to last until April! Sometimes one just needs to stop and smell the plumeria... and how beautiful when you can actually do it now and then :)

MaxH = Max "sigh"!

Mostly, my classes are going well so far this quarter, but I'm beginning to feel a little out of my depth in the Machine Translation seminar. A couple of the (phd) students already have extensive experience in this domain, so understandably -- and rather inevitably -- dominate the discussion. I've twice had the misfortune of sitting right between them, turning my head and watching them volley from one to the other as if I were in the middle of a tennis game. Or the unlucky middle of a game of intellectual Keep Away, if I want to be more pessimistic.

On the plus side, I get to give a 1 hour presentation in a couple of weeks, on a subject I know nothing about! To be honest, I'm not really that worried -- but it does mean I better start crackin!

Bum food

I bought a sandwich for a homeless guy today -- it may have been a rather foolish thing to do, as I'm not sure he really wanted the money he was asking for for food anyway, or whether he would eat food from a stranger, or whether he even ate bacon (it was a chicken club). But he did ask for "5 bucks for dinner" on my way by, and I shook my head, citing the usual lack of cash. He looked really thin and a bit in a bad way, so I ducked into Subway, then walked out and handed the sandwich to him. He looked surprised. Even if he didn't eat it, I think the 5+change is worth the possibility.

No recordbreaking this year

Ach! The streak has ended. The rain got tired and went home today -- back to the Cascades, or wherever the heck it winters. Not that it was exactly clear and sunny today, but no drops were actually falling from the sky. Someday, the record shall be broken, but not this season... not yet...

Until then...

Columbus Day Merrymaking

Since I'm on the topic of rainy encounters, let me tell you another story that I meant to blog a long time ago. It happened within a couple weeks of my getting here, and I think encapsulates the character of the city rather well:

The rain was rainily raining as usual, and my friend Steve and I were going to the post office. As we approached the building, a handful of people were milling around outside a bit, nothing really that noticeable. We reached the entrance, I went for the door handle, pulled, and... it was locked. Looked up to see a sign on the door, "Closed for Columbus Day holiday." AT THAT MOMENT, the little group of people next to us sprang to life: as one they they turned toward us, threw their arms in the air, and yelled, "Happy Columbus Day!!!" One of the men (I AM NOT MAKING THIS UP) whipped out a guitar, and his compatriots started dancing and frolicking in the rain, singing something like "Happy happy Columbus Day! Let's be merry and be gay"... Steve and I stood there, an audience of two, staring from under our little umbrella. One of the dancers waved around a posterboard with a drawing of a map of the New World, and a little Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria. They finished their song, and we clapped awkwardly ("clap... clap... clappity"), then the guitar guy held out an Albertson's Bakery box. "Cookie?"

Steve: "Er, no thanks."
Me: "Yes! Thank you."

As we walked away, we saw someone pass us and turn the corner into the post office. Not a few seconds after, a distant "Happy happy Columbus Day..."

Awesome.

More rainy contemplations

You know... every time I have the How-Much-It-Rains-Here conversation with non-Seattlites, I inevitably hear a comment about high suicide rates. Usually accompanied by a knowing shrug: "well, you know..."

But a funny thing... since I got back into town, right in the middle of this rainy streak, I've become aware of a general cheerfulness in the locals. I'm not sure how reliable my sample size is, but it seems that the rainier the weather, the lighter the attitude on the street. Grins from strangers under hoods, a cheerful "shewee! lookat it come down" from a guy coming into Rite Aid... I was plowing my way through the streaming streets to the registration building today, and a tattooed, very pierced man flashed me a huge grin and jaunty head nod on his way by, seemingly oblivious to the drops splashing his bald head. Just on the way out of the registration office, I almost blindsided another stranger walking by the door.

Me: "Oh! Excuse me!"
Him: "No worries! Where are you off to?"
Me (a little taken aback): "Um, well... lunch, hopefully."
Him: "Ah! I go to procure the coffee."
Me: "You're certainly in the right place for it."
Him: "Yes indeed. Enjoy your lunch!" (waves)

There must be something in the municipal water.