Blog by Sumana Harihareswara, Changeset founder
Hardball and contradictions
Hi, reader. I wrote this in 2001 and it's now more than five years old. So it may be very out of date; the world, and I, have changed a lot since I wrote it! I'm keeping this up for historical archive purposes, but the me of today may 100% disagree with what I said then. I rarely edit posts after publishing them, but if I do, I usually leave a note in italics to mark the edit and the reason. If this post is particularly offensive or breaches someone's privacy, please contact me.
First, links. This page of thumbnail pictures really makes me nostalgic for Russia. This Page 2 Interview has better questions than answers. And it really reminded me of the IAQ feature over at Brunching Shuttlecocks.
More on handball (and hardball!), Cyrillic protocol, and a sight gag or two.
Sushi. I ate both lunch and dinner yesterday at Tako Sushi, a new, cheap sushi place on Telegraph between Durant and Channing. Lunch was under $3. I'm going to go there rather often, I think.
I had some green tea ice cream as I talked with the people next to me in the restaurant. Right after I had eaten it, as I was debating the merits of open source with one guy, I felt really jittery. I didn't realize that green tea ice cream had so much caffeine in it, and/or that I had so little tolerance for caffeine now that I've cut back so much. I don't even have the daily cup of tea that I had in Russia.
Handball. I'm improving and I really like the game. Last night I went to an 'open house' that the Women's team held, and got some pointers and drills. This game could be really hard on my joints, and the ball hit me a few times, and I was feeling the soreness in my muscles last night and this morning, but darn it, it's so satisfying to thwack that little thing! Perhaps someday I'll even be able to hit it as hard as the Women's team captain could, so that it makes a really interesting "thwing" sound when it hits the wall.
The West Wing. The new season premieres in three weeks. I saw a rerun last night with my sister, which was fun enough. I'm looking forward to the giant compare-and-contrast orgy that will sweep the Political Science department when the new episodes start. President Bartlet v. President Clinton: Liars? Personally despicable? Honest public servants? Discuss!
Cyrillic. Recently I've had a few incidents when I've read or listened to something in Russian and not even realized that it was Russian until afterwards. Very much like John's experience back in the Chinese restaurant in Moscow.
But more relevantly, I dislike the anti-Russian bias in old versions of sendmail that strip off the eighth bit in KOI8-R text such that it turns into almost-gibberish. I may be terrifically wrong, but I think that's what happened to some Russian spam that a friend forwarded to me, and that is now pretty much unreadable in any standard.
Sight gag. A girl got on the elevator in Barrows Hall, the Political Science/Ethnic Studies/Sociology/I don't know what-all building. She was wearing a shirt with a "NO NUCLEAR POWER"-type logo (a cooling tower with the big circle over it and line through the circle). And then she went up one floor.
If you don't want nuclear power stations built, shouldn't you reduce your demand for power by, say, using the stairs when you only have to go up one floor?
I realize that some extenuating circumstances applied, e.g., the elevator was already going up, she might have been in a hurry, &tc. But still. It provoked thought.
Originally published by Sumana Harihareswara at http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2001/8/30/133611/417
