Off to Vienna

I wanted to stop and work at the field hospital and fall in love with the local beauty, but also be home in a week so I could do so many other things, fifty life-directions all seemed equally appealing and possible — shark wrangler! Whatever happened to training to be a goddamned shark wrangler?

Just in time for my trip to Vienna for CHI (thanks IBM!) (with a sidetrip to see Madhan at Oxford that made the plane tickets cheaper!), I have finished reading You Shall Know Our Velocity, which, despite some parts where it drags, is a really incredible book, especially with the twist which is apparently only present in the paperback version. It's one of those books that really makes you take stock of things.

Also thematically appropriate (insofar as Germany is near Austria), I saw Goodbye, Lenin tonight. It gets a little absurd, but is sweet in the end.

And also just in time, my Pentax S4 arrived. Hopefully I'll have some good pictures to share when I return.

As an aside, sadly (ironically?) I never got to post my thoughts on BloggerCon, though some of them appear in the replies here.

Mm, restaurants

It's not quite Green Line Menus, but this little list is handy for finding restaurants in Cambridge. Somehow it's just easier to use than Boston.com, Citysearch, or Opentable. I just went to the Cambridge Brewing Company yesterday, and though it's not as good as Beer Works, it is nicely close to work.

Back from DC

Had an awesome time visiting Mike in DC. Saw cherry blossoms, went to the Spy Museum (highlights included an explanation of lock picking, a video about Aldrich Ames, an Aston-Martin, eyeglasses with cyanide in them, miniature recording devices and guns and knives, stuff about pigeons carrying cameras and the tunnel under the Berlin Wall and the enigma and ways of blowing up trains and disguises and modern-day Trojan horses and...) and to the outlet malls at Leesburg and went out in Arlington. Now I'm quite sleepy, though. Note to self: don't make plans involving getting to BWI early in the morning. Also played lots of Dreamcast Tetris and made use of Mike's nice cell data service from Verizon.

Also had dinner before I left at Chez Henri, which was the only place we could find with vegetarian French food. It's weird that it's so hard to find vegetarian French food, since the few times I've had it, it's been awesome.

The Swan

is awful. I mean, the girls were normal looking, and they made them ugly. And then they tell one person in each episode that they're pretty, but not pretty enough. The whole thing is twisted. And the message was clear: nobody will think you're pretty unless you let (male) surgeons and trainers remake your body. Maybe the FCC could fine Fox for this nonsense instead? This account of the discussion boards is pretty interesting (as are the boards themselves), but reading the blogs on Technorati was equally fascinating. I'm surprised that any people actually find the show acceptable.

Lisa

took pictures! Hopefully she will visit us again, since I have yet to see her adequately intoxicated.

An apple a day

probably would not have kept my wisdom teeth from needing to be removed, which is apparently the case. I went to the dentist today, and at least I have no cavities. I also confess that I really like my dentist, Dr. Keohan. I just picked the closest preferred provider to the office, so it's kind of surprising that it worked out. And I was kind of sketched out the first time I went, since it's just this tiny little old school storefront, but everybody there (all three of them) is very nice and relaxed and funny and there's a fish tank and the radio playing. Much more pleasant than Harvard Vanguard, which cost me money, anyway. Go figure.

Donald

The Trump is quite funny on SNL. If it, say, happens to be sitting on your TiVo, watch it! Also, The Economist has an interesting take on the show:

Slugging it out, say, in the jungles of Borneo for a $1m prize, a more typical reality-TV formula, is unlikely to illuminate the real lives of most American middle managers. The drama that Mr Trump offers cuts closer to the bone.... the show is the second-most popular series on television among 18-49-year-olds with incomes over $100,000, lagging only “The West Wing”...

O.C. soundtrack (at last!)

Bought the new O.C. soundtrack at the recently-enlarged Newbury Comics. A fun listen, and it includes a link to a web site with video of the scenes containing each song. While wandering the net, I also ran across fashion from the O.C..

Mmm

Lisa's in town so Andrea tooks us to Peking Tom. I highly recommend the banana rolls and green tea ice cream dessert.