On museums

This weekend I went to the Seattle Art Museum (SAM) to see their exhibition of Edward Hopper. I don’t usually go to museums, but I like Hopper, and I thought I would give the SAM a fair shot. Fortunately, it was a small exhibition, and I was done quickly. I wandered around, and found some beautiful pieces. All in all, I was out in under 45 minutes, which, if you ask me, is the right amount of time for museums. Any longer, and my knees start to hurt. Museums are cruel, as are churches. I can walk five hours with a heavy backpack, I can run for an hour and a half, I can play two full games of basketball back to back, but I cannot stand still, or amble around a room at snail’s pace, for more than 40 minutes.

Aside from the physical discomfort, I view museums as a wasted space. When in museums, the art gets so banal for me, that I start admiring the architecture, the high ceilings, the well-kept parquet, the pastel colored walls. I imagine having a billiards table there, or a basketball court, or an astronomical observatory, or a ballroom. So many possibilities, and they get wasted in favor of having people shuffling around, trying to sound knowledgeable.

Not that I’m anti-art, far from it. I just prefer to experience it in a book, curled up in a comfortable sofa. I suppose I am a philistine.

I like blogging

When I started this blog in May, I had no expectations. The balance of these six months writing posts is very positive. It has been a good way of communicating, but it has had a small audience. Aside from family, not more than four friends ever check the posts. Consequently, I still get asked the silly question “How’s it going in Seattle?”, which I was hoping to preempt.

I wouldn’t call the blog a failure, however. Quite the opposite. Aside from communicating with a small audience, this blog is helping me improve my writing, and sort out my thoughts. Seeing my arguments typed and published and replied to, gives them new life. When I read old posts, I notice patterns I don’t like, and I take care to avoid them in newer posts. It is also nice to keep a record of thoughts and events.

I like the pattern of creating blog articles so much, I’ve decided to use it to keep track of my heroic attempts to teach myself higher maths and physics, and in general, of technical tidbits that don’t have a place in “Lost among Americans”.

So, this is an announcement of the birth of my new blog on the side: Lost among notes
I still have to figure how I’m going to put math equations on there, but I’ve written the first post.

As much as I appreciate your patronage, dear readers, I don’t expect you to follow the new blog. Just don’t ask me “How’s it going in Seattle?”.

On the home stretch

I love this time of the year. The gray skies, the crisp air, the warmth of bed.

Next weekend I’m going to New York, where I’ll be spending the week of Thanksgiving. I haven’t been there since February. Then, Christmas and New Year in Madrid. Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, work should be a bit less stressful than it has been in the last months. The year is winding down, and it’s been a busy one, closing shop in New York and moving to Seattle, with the Nepal trip in between.

I’ve always liked the season. It’s not as beautiful as October, but there’s a special energy. It has become especially important since moving to the US. Going home on or around Christmas is necessary for my sanity.

Trick or treat?

Last Friday was Halloween. At work they took this seriously: the assistants printed out sheets of paper that said “Treats available in this office”. People who had sweets pasted those sheets on their office doors. At 3pm, the children of employees started showing up in their hunt for candy. It was cute to see their parents trying to teach them manners: “Now say Thank You!”.

My colleague Jim has very nice children. The older one was dressed up as Spiderman, and I asked “Wow, are you dressed as Batman?”. He said: “No, Spiderman!”. I said: “Oh, yeah? Well, where’s the spider?”. To this he froze, not knowing how to answer. He probably hadn’t considered that Spiderman was related to spiders. His mother chuckled, asked him to say thanks for the candy, and pushed him on to the next office.

I was struck by the lack of curiosity on the part of most of the children. None of them seemed to be talkative, or to want to show off their costumes, or to want to play. It was all about the candy, they were all on a mission. I told this to my office-mate Jon, and he said: “Well, remember these are children of software developers!” to which we both laughed. I found the explanation a bit jarring, though.

I have become as suspicious of a tech profession given as an explanation for poor social skills, as I have of arguments citing evolution to explain gender differences. Every time I hear “Well, if you think about it, it makes sense: men were historically hunters, whereas women …” I want to slap the person saying it. Please, new explanations, these are total rubbish!

About the children: I have seen children in the office at other times, and they seemed freer. For instance, Jim’s children were fascinated with my ID badge, which hangs off a retractable reel from my belt. They kept pulling it and letting it go, and excitedly told me about the last game they had played and how fun it had been.

I wonder about this Halloween trick-or-treating custom. I’m not sure I like it.

Location, location, location.

I need to remember not to underestimate the power of convenience.

Last week, the power chord of my MacBook finally died. I had to rely on my iMac, which was at the other corner of the house. It made me realize that I had an inconvenient electronic setup, and so, I reorganized.
Now my iMac, and my desk, are in the living room, next to the window. The recliner looks towards the window, and the sofa is oriented North. Not huge, but now I make better use of space, and better use of the windows.

By now I have a replacement power source for my MacBook, but since I have a desk in the room, I’m using the laptop there, instead of sprawled on the sofa. I have a nice view:

A consequence of using the laptop on my desk is that I’m mixing tasks less. I had developed a habit of using the laptop on the sofa while I listened to music or watched TV. That was not bad in itself, but I ended spending more time doing all these tasks than I should.
Now that I sit at the desk to use the computer, I’m using it less, and with more focus. The same is true of my music listening and TV or DVD watching. A net gain, if you ask me.

Something similar happened at work. My office was next to the “Think Tank”, an area with sofas, a sink, a microwave oven and a water cooler, designed to be a gather and rest area for us programmers. By company policy, there is a vending machine with free sodas, and another, not free, with sweets. The higher ups expect only positive returns from all that sugar.
During the frequent periods of stress, I had gotten in the habit of taking sweets or sodas once a day. Sugar is bad for my Crohn’s, but no healthy snacks are available anywhere near.
A month ago, we went through a move, and my new office is far from the Think Tank. In the last round of stressful days, I’ve noticed I have no desire to get sodas or sweets. This is better than Pavlovian conditioning.

Note to self: always try the easiest solutions first, they are often the best.

Paul Krugman wins Economics Nobel

He’s almost the only reason I keep reading the New York Times. I find their other lead writers, like Friedman and Dowd, both sanctimonious and unimaginative. There is another writer I like, Dan Schnur, who worked for McCain’s campaign in the previous election. Schnur, like Krugman, is willing to speak clearly, and ruffle feathers inside his own newspaper and readership.

I’ve bought five of Krugman’s books, including his textbook on microeconomics (which I haven’t yet read). He’s a whistle blower, warning of America’s economic and social maladies even at times when others say everything is Great. His last, The Conscience of a Liberal, was scathing.
I’m happy he won; I consider him my personal economist.

A couple of articles:
Krugman on the “old” Paulson rescue plan
Krugman on home ownership
Schnur on Deomcratic smugness