The one where I'm FINALLY getting faster

4:30! On a Monday puzzle, but still, it's a big improvement...for me... Hey, I need to be excited about _something_ in my life.

Instead of trying to remember my best crossword times for each day from the past, I decided to set goals for each day and then start keeping track once I get them.

My initial goals:

• Monday - 5 min
• Tuesday - 6 min
• Wednesday - 10 min
• Thursday - 12 min
• Friday - 20 min
• Saturday - 30 min
• Sunday - 30 min

I got the Friday in 18:xx a couple of weeks ago (Jan 4, 2008), so now we're gonna go with 16 min. And last Sunday (Jan 13, 2008) was 29:58, so the new goal is maybe 25 min.
As for Monday, I'll catch Bannister yet!

sg

The one with hits

Welcome, tennis fans!

A year ago today I saw my first match of the 2007 Australian Open, Richard Gasquet over Gael Monfils in 4 sets. I mention it now because the 2008 Open is going on right now, and I've been getting some hits recently from tennis fans who find me on yahoo or google. Recent searches that found me include

• ashley harkleroad pics cute pretty
• Vince Spadea is a chump
• vordika
• joy of seth
• Nobody beats Vitas Gerulaitis seventeen times in a row

Feel free to link to this post so google likes me even more.

Anyway, I'm sure you're really all here to find out about week three. Duck took on Lady Zerks last night. At 11pm--I took a nap first. And _really_ thought about not going...did I mention it's a bit nippy out right now?

The team won, I dunno, 13-6 or so. No big runs, we just kept scoring about twice for every one they got. We had 6 guys, 3 or 4 women.

My game....was a very mixed bag.

For example, I skied a 6'6" guy (I cut deep just as TO got the disc, had a 5- or 6-step lead, the throw floated, I slowed, he caught up but let me keep my position, I let it come directly over my head and went up at the right place to catch it near my peak, which is probably right about level with his chin...). Landed about 5 yards out and threw an easy score to Jill when she and Cristy split him.

Then, the very next point, we forced backhand and I had no idea. Isn't it always force wall in indoor? They scored very easily.

Overally, I played 9 points with a +3 differential. Did have my first turnover of the year, a backhand to Charlie that was a bit behind him. Okay, he was 10 feet from me, and it was 8 feet behind him. Caught a goal, threw a goal.

Went to the bar afterwards, got home about 2:20. It was -15, and windy.

Today I wanna head over to Lake Nokomis, where the US Pond Hockey Championships are going on. Less than a mile from my house is a hockey tournament that ESPN called one of the "101 Things All Sports Fans Should Experience Before They Die". There are 225 teams on 26 outdoor rinks. Which would be awesome if it only felt sixty degrees warmer out, (which would still put us just below freezing), but it is what it is.

And what it was, and what it shall be,
sg

The one with invested powers

No job yet, but I did land a consulting gig. Of sorts--on May 18th, I'll officiate at my 3rd wedding. If you or someone you love wants to get hitched in Minnesota, check with me to confirm scheduling--I have very reasonable rates, must less than the other guy charges!

I should have a tag line, but "Reverend Doctor Seth, for all your nuptial needs" is lame, inaccurate, and the only thing I can think of right now. You work on that, I'll get started on my logo and look into ad space.

In other news, we're 2-0 in the big winter league season. The schedule toughened up a bit as we played the "Alumni from the other school in Northfield that plays ultimate, but never had any success". Kind of a weird team name. They had Trueslut, Schmelzle, BK, Solarz, some others. We had I think 8 boys and 9 girls, perfect numbers for playing 3/2 on a Friday night.

The game was close for a while, I think they were up 3-2 at one point. Then I had a monster (er, I mean phantom) d that sparked a decisive 9 point run to let us put the game away. This was kinda an ideal winter league game--we started at a perfectly reasonable 8pm, and with our numbers I didn't really need to pay that close attention...I guess we were up 11-3 at one point, a point at which I don't think I could have told you whether we were winning or not. I think it was 13-6 at the end, good enough to vault us in to 2nd place in the league standings for now.

My stats, again, were very unimpressive. 6 points played, +2, 1 goal, one lucky assist. I had a bad position at one point to let my defender get an easy poach.

Now I'm supposed to discuss best/worst vs worst/best, but I won't do that for fear of finding out where I stand. Though I assume in my case it's more middling/average vs average/middling.

chao,
sg

The one where I'm a driver, I'm a winner

Hey, I've missed you guys. Happy new year!

Sorry about my absence. I was planning to write up the trial for which I actually served on the jury, but never did. I will now, if you're interested, though I assume no one reads this anymore so I won't unless you ask for it. But I don't mind, and I've got notes, so feel free to ask away.

Then I was gonna post a note about the Irony Of The Year, an actual irony and not just an Alanis thing that sucked, when I saw this lede: "BELOIT, WIS. (AP) -- Ken Hendricks, a roofing company billionaire, has died after falling through his roof."

Then I think I was gonna post something else, or maybe it was some other thing, but I didn't. So now we're here.

The end of last year was...inauspicious. But, like Beck says, things are gonna change, I can feel it. This'll be a busy month, with lots planned. Accomplishments so far include

• broke the 20-minute barrier for a NY Times Friday puzzle (by a bunch, and I should have broken 15)
• called a girl
• installed my cd/dvd player
• bought dining room chairs

Stay tuned for an end-of-month fiesta to rock G's house.

In ultimate news, Wanna Buy a Duck is off to a strong start in Friday night winter indoor. Now 1-0 on the year. We beat Christian Science Reading Room, 21-0. (In 50 minutes, and goals count 1 pt each.) Thanks to the vagaries of our system, we're currently ranked in 4th place in the league.

Anyway, to the game. I played awesome. I was just so stoked to be playing ultimate frisbee again. I was +5 (only played 5 points). I had 1 goal, 2 assists. No turns, as Dave caught the one shitty pass I threw. For some reason we used a Wham-O, which my experienced hands sensed immediately.

K, I'm audi. Betcha I know what responses will focus on! And I of course mean the Steelers game.
Here we go, Steelers, Here we go! (4X),
sg

The one where I'm bored on a Monday

THE JOY OF SETH INDEX

Average number of cases in the Hennepin County Court system scheduled each week : 200.
Number of cases in the Hennepin County Court system scheduled this week : 25.
Average number of cases scheduled each Monday : 65.
Number of cases scheduled for this Monday : 21.
Number of cases settled or postponed so far this morning with no need for a jury : 11.
Number of cases scheduled for Tuesday : 3.
Number of cases scheduled for Wednesday : 1.
Number of cases scheduled for Thursday : 0.
Number of cases scheduled for Friday : 0.
Number of people who spent all morning in the jury room with me : 250.
Number of people who have so far been excused from jury duty : 0.
Length of my required jury service, in weeks : 2.
Combined number of words I've exchanged with others in the jury pool : 10.
Percent chance that I'll be required to complete my service, roughly : 0.
Minutes until I need to be back in the room so bye for now : 12.

The one where I found an income opportunity but I'm gonna keep looking

On Zanzibar, the spice island of Tanzania, I went on Mr. Mitu's Spice Tour. We tried lotsa kinds of Zanzibari fruits.

And while I was there the PABs were in Thailand, where they ate some of the same fruits. I was jealous when I saw Phil's picture of the mangosteen 'cause my shot hadn't come out.

Then, a couple of days later there was a note in the NYTimes saying that mangosteens, which "had been barred as imports from Thailand because they could harbor harmful insects...will be allowed in when irradiated at low doses to kill or sterilize the pests."

So when I saw the poster in the library advertising a meeting to learn more about mangosteens I thought I should go. Hey, I left my house!

The meeting...was not about the fruit.

Turns out, if you take the fruit and mash it up, then mix it with apple juice concentrate, pear juice concentrate, grape juice concentrate, pear puree, blueberry juice concentrate, raspberry juice concentrate, strawberry juice concentrate, cranberry juice concentrate, cherry juice concentrate, and some other ingredients to make juice, you can sell it for $25 per bottle, buy by the case! Mangosteens contain xanthones, so they call it XanGo.

The meeting was led by Brian and his ?assistant distributor? Keith, a pharmacist. We wore name tags and told our stories. The other people were old and talked about health problems, I talked about discovering the fruit on an island off the coast of Tanzania. I knew more about the fruit than Brian or Keith did.

Brian kept joking about his inability to spell when filling out people's name tags. One Asian woman walked in (with her Caucasian husband) and Brian said "Well, I just know I'm gonna have a problem with your name." Her name was Jenny. There were about 8 people total, and the meeting followed two paths.

First, if you drink a couple ounces of XanGo a day (or even rub it on) you can reduce inflammation, maintain intestinal health, support the immune system, neutralize free radicals, support cartilage and joint function, and promote a healthy seasonal respiratory system!

Second, if you sell it to others, and have them sell it to others, who sell it to others, you can make a lot of money!

Keith, told the story of his friend, who fell off a roof and broke both heels. Ibuprofen wasn't helping enough with the pain, but after drinking just an ounce of mangosteen juice three times a day for just a month the pain was virtually gone! He didn't even need the Tylenol anymore! (And yes, I know that Tylenol isn't ibu, but Keith seemed confused...)

The meeting leader, Brian, did some math on the whiteboard. See, if you tell someone about XanGo and they buy it you get 30% of their initial order. And 5-15% of other orders you or they are involved in. So you recruit just one person per month to buy just one case, and each of them recruits just one person each month to buy a case, and each of them recruits just one person each month to buy one case...

After 12 months of this, assuming everyone continues buying and recruiting, your network will be buying 2048 cases per month. That's 5% of $204,800, or $10,000 per month!

I didn't point out to him that under the same assumptions you'd make $20K in month 13, $650,000 in month 18, and $4,000,000 in month 24.

They probably didn't break the fraud laws against pyramid schemes since they're selling a real juice, even if it's at really inflated prices. They probably did break the laws against making health claims for a product that they say isn't subject to FDA approval, but who am I to say. (The FDA issued a warning letter last year, though the company would probably claim that the people at the meeting were independent distributors who weren't strictly following company policies.)

I didn't bring this up at the meeting because some of the people there were really sick (congestive heart failure, lung cancer) and I didn't want to take away their hope that this really is a miracle product. But maybe I should have.

In any case, we're gonna pass up this opportunity and keep looking.

Sorry about all the exclamation points,
sg

The one where I _really_ need to get out more

NBA stars are playing Family Feud against their moms all week.

Richard Jefferson's mom is named Meekness LeCato.

Harry Shearer beat Isaac Mizrahi and Soledad O'Brien on Celebrity Jeopardy.

I need to get out more.
sg

The one where it's November

There're too many people involved and too much time to go for me to really get too interested at this point in the presidential primaries. And I know that I won't vote in mine until February, or offer housing to some RNC protesters until next summer.

And sometimes you see election results from a couple of random races around the country on some random day in April. I usually figure it's just a primary somewhere with a weird schedule or that someone died or something. So that's what I thought of this week when I saw that Haley Barbour romped again in Mississippi and that the Democrats picked up a governor in Kentucky.

Turns out, it was a normal election day, and I completely missed it. There was none of the stuff you need to pay attention to on off years (or at least I didn't know about it). We just had our city races in 2005, and I don't randomly come across the STrib's election supplement in the lunch room anymore to find out about the park board or library council candidates and remind me it's time to vote.

It's been years since I've missed an election. And I didn't even realize I'd missed it until I happened to glance at the header while reading paper this morning, the first time I'd gotten an actual newspaper in weeks rather than just reading the e-version. Uh, it's November 11th already.

Even the fact that it's Veterans Day didn't clue me in--I just thought I was confused about Memorial Day when I heard people talking about it coming up. (Apparently very confused--I had to mix it up with Labor Day first before I could confuse it with this one...)

So vets, thanks for your sacrifices. Sorry I haven't been honoring them and have been completely unengaged,
sg

The one where we lost again

Just got back from Sarasota. Welcome back to long posts about Ultimate!

With the Masters division format, the 12 teams are split into two 6-team pools. Each team plays each of the other 5 teams in its pool, then the top 4 teams in each pool move on to the quarterfinals against each other (1A vs 4B, 2A-3B, 3A-2B, 4A-1B) while the others go on to play games no one really cares about to rank the bottom finishers.

In the Open division, where I used to play with Sub-Zero, there are several tournaments throughout the year where the top teams go to play each other. For example, this year Zero played tournaments against other elite teams in Denver, Seattle and Chicago, and in previous years in Boston and Santa Cruz, too. The end result is that by the time nationals rolls around most of the teams have already played several times against the others so the nationals seedings can be largely based on those tournaments' results.

The Masters division, in which I played this year with Surly, ain't like that. A few of the teams play and practice together through the year, though most of the tournaments they go to will tend to be against middle-level Open teams, often with just a fraction of the players that will play with them in the fall. Other teams exist only to compete in the Championship series. They're usually based on a core of players who've played together a lot in the past, sometimes _way_ in the past. It's hard to know which teams will be particularly strong in any given year other than by looking at the roster and guessing how in-shape some stars from the past will be today.

This year's Surly team was much different than those of the past, with some overlap but with a large influx of fresh talent. We wound up entering the tournament as the 7 seed overall, ranked 4th in the A pool. And while seeding is a challenge, we knew our pool (with winners of 4 of the 6 regions) would be tough.

This year we've had trouble at the start of tournaments, and we had trouble at the start of this one. It didn't help that some of us (like, say, me) had had about 4 hours sleep the night before. We started at 9:30 Thursday morning facing the tournament's 6 seed, Mileage (Dallas). They have a really good tall guy and one or two other good receivers, and their offense is to throw them a lot of long passes and let them jump up high to catch them. Which they do very well, and we had trouble getting into synch offensively. So we had several leads in the game, but we kept letting them back into it, in the end losing 17-16.

Next up was the tournament's 1 seed, Troubled Past (mostly Bay Area). They'd won the Northwest Region, home of both of the finalists from last year, in their first tournament, and some of the players hadn't been able to make it, so Nationals was their first time together. I think they were still learning each others' names. But they have several players who'd competed at the top levels of the game, and they were also able to come back after we'd opened up a lead. It was tight through most of the second half, and at 14-13 they intercepted a pass in our own end-zone for the 15-13 win. 0-2.

The third game finally went better. Boneyard (NC) was apparently pretty weak in past years. This year they'd picked up a couple of big-name former Open players, but they were pretty old, most of them 40+. Apologies to any actual grown-ups who read this...I'll just point out that the Masters age in swimming is 25+... We were in control the whole time and beat them 15-8 (which turned out to be their worst loss of the weekend). We ended the day 1-2, but still in okay position for a spot in quarters.

Dinner back at the condos, we grilled out and looked at the ocean (bay, gulf, whatever). I slept.

Friday morning was against Ironwood (CO), the 5th seed in our pool. They weren't very deep, and their uniforms were ugly. Bright yellow? We didn't have much trouble beating them. 2-2.

Our final game in the pool was against DoG (Boston). The core of the team had won six straight national titles in the open division in the '90s. And they'd won all of their games so far (17-16 vs Troubled Past, I think 15-13 against Mileage). At this point they'd clinched the top finish in our pool. And we'd clinched a spot in quarterfinals as at least the #4 finisher in the pool. To move up to #3 we'd need to win and get help--Ironwood would need to beat Troubled Past, which seemed pretty unlikely. Each team's reserves (including me) got a lot of playing time while we saved our stars' energy for the next round, and everyone was pretty relaxed. They won.

2-3, fourth in our pool, we get the honor of facing the top finisher in the other pool in quarters on Friday afternoon. Old And In The Way (CO) had finished in the top 3 in this tournament for 9 years running. They were not psyched to have to face us in the quarterfinals.

With good reason. We started out trading points for much of the first half, then we got a break at the end to go into halftime up 8-6. Or 8-7, but definitely up a break in the worst conditions so far in the tournament. And we came out strong to start the second. We score on O, then PBo had a layout D where he beat his guy to the disc by at least a yard to give us a short field. Then another break to go up 11-7. It's kinda cold (well, for Florida) and it's raining. We exchange scores, give back the break, and they get a D and are on O when the lightning break comes with us up 12-10. The weather cleared pretty much right away, and I went to hang out in the pavilion while we waited the mandatory half-hour. After about 15 minutes to warm up again they score. But then I think we got two in a row to 14-11, they got two for 14-13, and we receive the disc for the win. Turtle had the disc about 45 yards out and makes eye contact with Boardman. They mark him with two guys, but he finds some way to get off an inside out huck that's _high_ in the air. Then....silence. Everyone figures there must be a call, and no one's moving. Dave's defender is on the goal line, with Dave about 15 yards behind him in the end zone. The defender looks up, hangs his head, and Dave patiently waits for the disc to come down for an easy catch. Surly's in the semis.

We were happy. And, better news, we got the rematch we'd hoped for. As suspected, the A pool had been tough--DoG, Troubled Past and Mileage had all won their quarters as well. Yeah seedings. But we get to play Mileage in Semis, and we were confident we could play better. For now, back to the condos. We'll grill out, and we've got 2 massage therapists coming by for the evening. Fifteen minutes on the table did wonders for my calves--turns out, my ankles don't bend far enough to stretch them out.

Saturday was...less exciting. We led the whole way in the semis and it was never close. We were glad to win (15-10), but we'd expected to all along. We popped over to watch the end of the DoG/Troubled Past game. DoG had been up, TP had come back, then they traded points to 14-14. Then, after some sloppiness from both sides, TP has an unforced error on game point and DoG punched it in for the 16-14 (or 17-15) win.

Several hours later, we play DoG in the finals. We play on the showcase field. Lots of people went to the beach or the beer garden, but there's still a crowd (which grows after the Open semis end) and they're filming the game for the DVD. But I didn't really notice.

Unfortunately, we played pretty flat. We had some unforced errors, and DoG got some Ds. And, well, they didn't give us the disc much. They jumped out to an early lead. We got back a few late in the first half, but still went into half down 8-4 or 5. And more of the same in the second half. I think they had a total of 5 or 6 turns in the whole game, and we weren't nearly efficient enough to counteract that.

I got in on D in the second half. I get down on the pull quickly and shut down their first throw. I'm covering the dump, and they don't get it to him at all. They wind up on the line about 25 yards out, and my only goal is to prevent an up-line throw. My man goes back for the dump, I follow, then he cuts up-line. I can't recover in time and I'm nowhere near him when he gets the disc and throws a continue for the score. Because I'm that good.

They wind up beating us 15-9 or so. So no World Championships next year for us. But we still had a fairly successful year, and we still have a lot of good beer to drink. We drink it. We actually wound up winning the Spirit award, too, which isn't that big of a deal but is still kinda neat. In every other division it went to the last seed in the tournament, so it's nice to win it while not sucking. Kinda like, say, DoG, who was known for being gentlemen during their 90s run.

Not much else to report. The finals in the other divisions were not that exciting either. Open was a close game, but really sloppy. Sammy actually dropped the pull on game point, but Bravo's first throw got D'd. Mixed started out 5-0. There were a total of 55 turns, which was actually way under our projection. I think 3 points had no turns, 1 point had 13. And the women's final score was 15-6.

Halloween was okay, nothing special. Most of my ladies are or were recently pregnant, so I only had a couple to hang with at the bar, which was packed with annoying young loud (mostly Zero) guys. After we left I tried to find Ellie's team's party but failed.

Hope all is well. Next installment: the G bar mitzvah!
Ta,
sg

The one where someone else was piqued

I hab a cold. Probably from getting to sleep really late for a couple of nights in a row in Florida, followed by waking up at 4:55am to catch my flight home.

This comes just in time for this weekend's trip to see the whole G family.

I'll post an entry about nationals in the next day or two (short version: we finished 2nd and won the spirit award.) For now, there was an interesting article in this weekend's Play Magazine about a travel writer's Mt Kilimanjaro climb. If you recall, I climbed in June, and my account is here.

ta,
sg

The one with Ultimate Christmas Crosswords

Ultimate

It's time for Nationals. I don't play for Zero anymore--I moved up to the old(er) man division.

We leave tomorrow and play Thursday, Friday and Saturday. See results here (they should be updated after each game), or read about the action at this page.

Masters is definitely different--tonight we had our only team meeting of the year, which was entirely about the logistics of getting more than 400 pounds of Surly beer to Sarasota.

Christmas

Houston, we have a problem. I have no idea what it is, but The Christmas Cottage has been delayed until 2008.

Actually, I assume the problem is just that the movie sucks.

Crosswords

I'm okay, getting better, at doing crossword puzzles, or at least the New York Times'. (Different puzzles have different styles, conventions, etc. Once you do them for a while, you even get to know something about the different constructors...I'm not there yet.)

But I'm slow. I recently solved a Saturday in about 40 minutes (they get harder throughout the week, and Saturdays are the hardest) , probably the fastest I've ever done. If I finish one of these in less than an hour I think I've done well. Fast solvers are in a whole nother world; for example, the fellow Carleton grad who's one of the best there is did it in under 6 minutes, faster than I can do even the easy Monday puzzles.

I am trying to improve at least a bit, and I've started following some bloggers (Carleton woman, a slightly more mortal SUNY English Prof) who write about each day's puzzles.

Note that I generally enjoy the puzzles a bunch, but if you read this on Wednesday, October 24 (or December 5 if you do the syndicated puzzle) I hope I haven't inspired you to try it out. Today's was dumb, unless you're the type who happens to remember that the Latin term for 'the die is cast' is ALEA IACTA EST. Trust me, that's not normal.

Go Surly,
sg

The one where omigodimsoexcited

The Steelers were just like Homer said. But at least I got to watch it among fellow fans.

Headed to Tulsa this weekend for regionals. It would take some work for us to not win. Thankfully, they've backed off the original forecast--now it looks like it might only be in the low-to-mid 80s instead of the 90 they originally called for. And, not sure if this fits CY's schedule, but we should be done in time to catch the game at Cowboy Sharkies.

I'll be in Sarasota for Nationals at the end of October, Philly for a bar mitzvah the next week, and home for the holiday, which in my family means Thanksgiving.

Finally, and here's what's so exciting, this year's presumptive Best Picture comes out November 30. Anyone want to see The Christmas Cottage with me opening night?

bask in the light,
sg

The one where it be September 19th

Ahoy, mateys! It be International Talk Like A Pirate Day!

My Pirate Name Is...

Privateer Mad Tongue

What's Your Pirate Name?

Since we last talked, I bought a car. Her name is Roberta, but you can call her Bobbi. And I've done...not much else. Hopefully I'll have a resume soon, because I probably need to unretire at some point.

But I'm not feeling overly ambitious yet, so give me a call if ye wanna hang out.

yarr,
sg

The one where I should date more beauty queens

My trip probably gave me a better sense for the geography of the world than the average American. Here, as pointed out by a Freakonomist, is an average American.




Anyway, I've made at least a little bit of progress.

• I helped Dave make a turducken (chicken in a duck in a turkey) and a turcordon bleu (ham and cheese in a Cornish game hen in a turkey).
• I met Peter. He looks like his brother.
• I ran 60s and 90s. (This week is 50-50-60-60-70-70-80-80-90-90-100-100, rest, 100-100-90-90-80-80-70-70-60-60-50-50.)
• I've done some car research...maybe a '94 Plymouth Colt wagon!
• I'm probably gonna to buy a laptop tomorrow so I'll be able to do work without being stranded sitting on my floor in the corner, which will hopefully motivate me to do more work.
• I'm gonna devote 2 hours a day to stuff around the house.
• I'm gonna start yet another new blog. It'll be just for me for a couple of weeks. Then, if I'm happy with where it's going, I'll open 'er up. Tentative name is Math in the Media, but that's the name of an existing column so I might have to think of a better one.
• I made my first Tom Yum Gai. It was okay, and will be better next time.

chao,
sg

The one where I am like Costello

I'm a b-a-a-a-d boy. And, like Chuck Berry and MC5, I'm back in the USA.

Hey, I'm home! I just neglected to tell you that...

I'll write lots more about the trip (and more) in the near future. In the meantime, in no particular order (well, a particular order, just not the one in which I'll do the stuff), here's some of the stuff on my to-do list:

• buy a car
• buy a mounting bracket for my bike lock
• calculate some travel statistics
• create a map of the places I've been
• decide how to support myself
• emails to people I knew before
• emails to people I met
• frame some pictures and posters
• gather the stuff people brought home from Australia for me
• get a cat
• get Colleen to make me dinnerware
• get estimates for a new bathroom
• give loads of stuff to Goodwill
• have a Welcome Home/Housewarming party
• help Dave and Charlie make a turducken
• learn to make tom yum, dolamades and more
• meet Allison Joy, Bart, Bella, Echo, Henry, Kristina Jr, Leo, Peter
• name my last ~500 pictures
• play for Surly
• replace the pot I ruined
• run a 60-90-60-90-60-90-60-90-60-90-60-90-60-90-60-90-60-90-60-90
• spend more time with 3 Ys
• tell you why you should never fly Olympic Airlines
• track down the $840 Olympic Airlines owes me
• work on my house
• write a resume
• write about Athens, Istanbul, Meteora, New York, Santorini

Sorry about the lack of entries, and thanks to those of you who prodded me to get moving. I'll keep working on this stuff, and if you wanna help, or want my help, or just wanna say hi, give me a call. We can hang out--I'm pretty much free any time!

ta,
sg

The one with the weirdest dream yet

No reason to think it's from the medication, but I had another weird dream.

28 July 2007, 3:30 am, Perissa, Santorini, Greece
The Dream:

I'm driving along on my way up nort dere. When I get to Analfi, MN, I see a series of signs along the road commemorating the highest scorer each year on AHSME, the American High School Mathematics Examination.

One sign has a bunch of flags around it. I stop to check it out--it turns out that this was the guy that set the state record, and I'm surprised to find that I know him. It's Virgil Amundsen, my friend Christine's dad.

As I'm looking at the sign Virgil walks over and says hi. He's old, and he's wearing an eye patch.

He shows me some recent press clippings from some newspaper in Pennsylvania, I didn't catch its name, that just did a story about his accomplishment. The article also mentioned that the other person on the math team the same years as Virgil was Nelson Muntz, who barely qualified but of course went on to become a famous comedian.

I wake up.

Some notes: Christine is from North Carolina, and I'm fairly sure her maiden name wasn't Amundsen--her parents are Korean. I don't actually know anyone named Virgil or Amundsen. I don't think there is an Analfi, MN, and if there is I've never been there. Nelson Muntz is a character on The Simpsons who once said "That's like asking the square root of a million. No one will ever know." And, in case you didn't know it, I was myself a high school mathlete.

Snu, you never got around to analyzing my other dreams, but feel free to have a go at this.
sg

The one where I leave in one week

Greetings from Santorini!

Since we last talked I've visited Alexandropolis, Istanbul, and the monasteries of Meteora. All of which I'll tell you about...later.

It's been really hot--CNN reported that Athens hit 107 the other day, while other parts of the region have been even hotter.

So I mostly stayed in my room, which had air conditioning, for a coupla days when I first got here. Now it's cooler, so I've been able to get some beach time in. Today I moved to a (much cheaper) campground, and tomorrow I'm gonna rent a car or an ATV and spend another couple of days exploring the island. (I wanted to get a scooter but I've never ridden one before, I have skin, and I'd like to keep it.)

Then, Tuesday I'll catch a ferry back to Athens. Wednesday and Thursday I'll finish up my tourist stuff, and I leave for the airport at 5am Friday morning. Let me know if you want anything (small) from Athens!

I was thinking of having a get together at some New York bar next Saturday, but I think the only people I know in New York right now are Andrea and Snu. But the G parents will be in town, so let me know if you'll be around and wanna hang out.


Okay, off to dinner. I'm gonna try rabbit for the first time.

αντίο,
sg

The one where I'm in Ελλάδα

I was in Αθήνα
I spent a couple of days in Athens, wandering around some of the historic sites, eating gyros, and practicing my reading skills on every sign I saw.

Overall, Athens is beautiful. Every time you turn a corner you hit some other ancient ruin or something. And from all over the city you can see the Acropolis (a collection of temples and such, including the Parthenon, atop a hill--acropolis means "high city"). And the taller hill in town, Mt. Lycabettus. And from the Acropolis or Lycabettus you can see the surrounding mountains and islands--I always forget, or never knew, that Athens is right on the sea.

At night, they light up all the historic sites. Very pretty.

I saw the Parthenon!


Oh, sorry, that's the replica in Nashville. What I really saw was a whole mess of people and construction.


The historic sites, especially the Acropolis, were extremely crowded. And everything is under construction--the old stuff is still okay, but the repairs they made in the 1920s (or even 1990's) all need re-repair.

I also saw a Putzmeister.

I also saw the changing of the guard. (Hey, I took movies of that, too, which you can watch at my new video site!) When they've changed, they wander off down the street. Not sure how they do it in England, but I always pictured them just walking inside or something.

I am in Θεσσαλονίκη
Thessaloniki is second largest Greek city and the main center of Macedonia. It's also called Salonica, as in Gardens of.

Took the train to get here. Decided to take the overnight train so that I could avoid a night in a hotel and have all day Saturday if necessary to find a place to stay here. Turns out, I didn't have a seat. Spent some time in a virtual cattle car. Saw Greece on fire. Standing all night wasn't really an option, so I eventually made my way with some Spanish students to a car where there was some room on the side to lay down in the aisle. Right under the air conditioner...brr.

I'm Jewish (and a Sethicist!), but I don't get so excited about Jew Tours. The Jews of Central Australia or such just doesn't interest me. But, and I didn't know this until I got here, Thessaloniki has a fascinating Jewish history--apparently, this used to be Hymietown.

I went to the the Jewish Museum of Thessaloniki. Some facts:

• In 1492, 60 years after it was conquered by the Turks, the total population was 11,000. When the Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492, 15-20,000 moved here.
• By the 1870s there were 70,000 Jews in town, half the population
• In August, 1917 a fire wiped out much of the city. 31 synagogues were destroyed and 54,000 Jews were left homeless
• There were 50,000 left in 1940. The Axis powers occupied the city in 1941.
• From March-August '43, 19 train "shipments" carried most of the Jewish population to Auschwitz/Birkenau. Over 95% of the Jews of Thessaloniki were killed.
• Today, there are about 1000 Jews here (out of a total population of 800,000)
  

Also, I think every American Jew in Greece was at the museum while I was there.

Language
My reading is getting better. I still wind up having to sound out a lot of words, but I'm getting quicker.

Basically, Β is 'v', Γ is 'g' or 'y', Δ is 'd', Η is 'ee', Θ is 'th', Ι is 'ee' or 'y', Λ is 'l', Ξ is 'x', Π is 'p', Ρ is 'r', Σ is 's', Υ is ü, Φ is 'f', Χ is 'ch', Ψ is 'ps', Ω is 'o', MΠ can be 'b', TZ serves as a 'j' in foreign words and names, and the rest are pretty much the same. And of course some letters look a bit different in lowercase than in the block printing on street signs, where A is α, Γ is γ, Δ is δ, Z is ζ, H is η, Λ is λ, M is μ, N is ν, Ξ is ξ, Σ is σ or ς, Υ is υ and Ω is ω. This should all be familiar to you if you studied math or science or went to a school with fraternities.

Tennis
I went to T.G.I. Friday's to watch the Wimbledon finals. It was the only place I could find a tv. I have _not_ been to the Applebee's or Ruby Tuesdays that are just around the corner--it's great to be back in civilization!

I showed up to see that Venus, who I was expecting, was playing someone named Bartoli. She looks awkward, but gets great depth and placement, especially with her backhand. I haven't seen enough of her game to judge, maybe, but it seemed like she should be more active in approaching, especially with the deep up-the-lines. I'd never heard of her before...wonder if we'll see her for the next ten years or never again...?

Overall, not too exciting. Especially the maybe the 15 minute break where they both got medical treatments.

The men's matchup was what I expected. My overall impression: Roger Federer is a god, and I'm not sure Rafael Nadal is mortal either. They're so quick, and move so well, and get great placement and pace and hit such impossible angles. Federer's serve is more dangerous, and that helps him most here. But the rest Nadal's

Best Wimbledon quote:
"I saw Pierce Brosnan in the crowd, one of my favourite actors. I said to myself, it's not possible I play so bad in front of him. Because he watch me and I play so bad, it was unbelievable. So I try to feel it a bit more the ball, play more smartly. I saw he was cheering for me. I kept going and I won, so maybe a little bit for Pierce Brosnan. I was focusing on Pierce Brosnan because he is so beautiful."
-Marion Bartoli (the 18 seed), on her comeback to win the semis over the Justine Henin (the 1 seed) after losing the first set 6-1.

Best tennis quote ever:
"Nobody beats Vitas Gerulaitis seventeen times in a row"
-Vitas Gerulaitis, on beating Jimmy Connors after he'd lost their previous sixteen matches

What else to do in Greece
I showed up in Auckland at the end of November with a ticket out of Christchurch a month later and no other plans. I went to the tourism office the first day and they were super helpful--the woman basically sat down with me and we mapped out a month's itinerary.

I went to the tourism office in Athens. I said "I will be here for one month. Where should I go?" and the guy got mad at me for asking such an idiotic question. How should I know where you should go? It's a big country. How could you ask my favourite place? I like them all. Here, here's a stack of brochures. Go away!

There's too many islands to see them all, or even each island group, but I know I want to spend at least a little island time. And not sure where to go on the mainland, either. But I found a postcard stand today that had a bunch of cards of places that looked nice, so I bought cards for where I want to go, and I'll plan my trip around those.

Hey, it's no more random than why I came to Greece in the first place. Have I mentioned that? I was on the phone with the travel agent, giving him my itinerary. I was eating hummus, and thought "I wish I had some olives right now". So, while he was pricing stuff anyway I asked what it would cost to add a stop in Greece. He said the flights would be $100 more, I said "yeah, let's add a month there at the end."

Okay, it's really late, I'm off to bed.

ta,
σγ

The one where I'm in Greece

I'm in Greece.

No flight problems other than the fact that I didn't get here until 23 hours after I left there.

I've eaten gyros and some hummus, but no olives yet.

ta,
sg

The one with piscine crania

I have a coupla random things for you. And in my mind, and I'm pretty sure nowhere else, they're both related to Fish Heads, a wonderful novelty song from my (and Erin's) youth.



They can't play baseball
But maybe they can play cards. Paige and I have invented a wonderful game: FishWar! And it's certainly roly and poly.

You start out by playing Go Fish. Each time you successfully get a pair you add the cards to your pile. Then, once you've worked your way through the deck you use your piles as your starting hands for a game of War.

The strategy elements (having a pair of aces is good, having a bunch of 2s, 3s, 4s and such doesn't do anything for you) add a fascinating layer of complexity to your game of Go Fish and truly invest you in the outcome of your game of War.

You scoff only because you haven't tried it.

We're working on a drinking game version and will let you know when it's complete; for the basic version, patents are pending.

They don't wear sweaters.
But you know who does? Evo Morales, el presidente of Bolivia. We were sitting around the lunch table today and I opened a copy of The Economist to a picture of EM. He was just wearing a shirt, but I told Phil and Paige about seeing a recent press conference of his.

FIFA, the world soccer governing body, had decided that international matches could no longer be played at altitudes over 2500 meters. La Paz, Bolivia is at 3600 meters, and soccer's hugely important throughout South America, so it was a big issue. They called a special cabinet meeting, and at the ensuing press conference his cabinet ministers, wearing suits, lined up behind Morales, who was wearing jeans and this ugly sweater.

I described his sweater as something I wore in 1988 or so. And I'm not now, and certainly wasn't then, known for my fashion sense.

Turns out, he really likes the sweater. And I'm not the first to notice--I started laughing so hard I had trouble breathing when I saw that the BBC website had a slide show of him wearing it on normally formal occasions.

I've gotta tell Bad Sweater Guy about this...

Okay, tomorrow I leave for Greece. And I'll be home in 36 days, so if you have any ideas about what I should do with my life you could maybe let me know?

Eat them up yum,
sg