My Christmas was lovely except I got in a bit of a fistfight.
I was telling some guy that Gödel's theory of the incompleteness of first-order mathematics was not the upheaval of modern logic that commentators say and he was getting all worked up about it and countered with how Turing's halting problem was just a ‘neat trick’ and had nothing to do with the development of computing and, I admit, I lost my temper and said something rude about Hegelian dialectics and he hit me in the face.
My very best wishes for all of us. Have a lovely New Year's.
¶ 7:20 pm 7 comments
A year or two ago it was the week before Christmas that
was outrageously busy and full of social engagements and
parties and drinks and stuff.
This year for me it was last week — that is, the week before the week before Christmas that was the busy one. Six dinners out, two sessions of drinks in our backyard; throw in a cricket game and an exam as well and I've been left a little fatigued. But it was the consumption, I think, that is killing me.
Do you remember Mr Creosote from Monty Python's Meaning Of Life? Or perhaps Jabba The Hut from Return Of The Jedi? Cross that with eight days straight of the alcohol intake of Oliver Reed at an Irish wedding.
And then end the week with a family do full of two-year-old nephews getting tired and cranky. By that stage I wanted to hurl myself to the carpet and grizzle with them.
Anybody got any parties this week to invite me to? I want to do it all again.
The very best of the season to everybody.
¶ 3:10 pm 3 comments
Was able to ride my bike this morning for the first time
in more than a month. What cheer. We are so lucky to be
in a city that lets us ride our bikes so much: we have
much to thank Bicycle Victoria for — every time you
see a bike path by a river or a bike lane painted on the
road, do think of BV and praise their pretty cotton
socks.
I went all engineer on my fair chariot¹ last night and cleaned the drive-train and oiled up the chain and tightened bolts and fiddled with knobs and everything and this morning it ran like a sweet, sweet dream.
The weather is delicious here in Melbourne today and riding a bike could not have been more enjoyable. The sun was fingering my face, there was a hint of a breeze to let you know you were outside, the traffic was rider-friendly, the other riders were all cheerful and wearing shorts and looking hot.
Bike-riding. A simple pleasure but isn't it good.
¹ I actually have a name for my bike: Statler,
after the Muppet. Go ahead: call me a freak.
Family drinks yesterday at my aunt's place when
the very welcome cold change came through. Roughly
two-thirds of the people there were lawyers.
I discovered during the afternoon that there were more readers of this blog there than I actually knew about and, as a result, regular readers here may notice that I have edited all references to blow jobs and porn out of my archives.
And I've completely removed that story about the vacuum cleaner.
¶ 11:15 am 4 comments
Sometimes you feel like things are all going just nicely.
Like you've just found a shiny $2 coin on the footpath,
like an awesome song is playing on the radio, like somebody
else has cleaned the dishes. Everything is going nicely.
Sometimes you feel as though you are firing on all cylinders, tuned sweetly and you are just humming down the highway.
Sometimes you feel like everybody you meet are good friends who have big smiles and warm greetings.
Sometimes you feel as though you can handle anything. Whatever is thrown at you, you can gobble up and spit out and still have cycles free to file your nails.
Sometimes you feel like a walk in the sunshine is the best thing in the entire world.
Sometimes all it takes is a slice of pizza and I feel cheerful.
¶ 11:20 pm 6 comments
