I’ve been hit by the seven by seven meme. Well, I guess this is okay, because seven times seven is forty nine, and I grew up a devout 49er fan. And besides, as Cosma points out this is a good way to procrastinate on working on lecture notes.
1. Seven things to do before I die
Things that I will air in the public: 1) Program a big quantum computer. 2) Ski down Mt. Shasta. 3) Live on a tropical island. 4) Live in a ski town. 5) Write an academic book. 6) Write a science fiction novel. 7) Discover the secrets of the universe. Okay, I’ll admit that last one is a bit ambitious.
2. Seven things I cannot do
1) Not laugh. 2) Ride a unicycle. 3) Understand what motivates mathematicians. 4) Tie my shoes correctly. 5) Be pessimistic. 6) Abandon reason. 7) Get enough sleep.
3. Seven things that attract me to [Seattle]
1) My sister. 2) My mother. 3) A girl I met in Hawaii. 4) My cousins! 5) Snow. 6) Blue. 7) The generosity of the computer science department and Mark Oskin for getting me my position here.
4. Seven things I say most often
1) “Sweet!” 2) “Dude.” 3) [beginning of sentence] “qubits” [end of sentence]. 4) “Off like a herd of turtles.” 5) “Vamanos?” 6) “It’s time to get up, it’s time to get up, it’s time to get up in the morning!” 7) “A man, a plan, a canal, Panama.”
5. Seven books (or series) that I love
1) Labyrinths
6.Seven movies that I watch over and over again (or would if I had the time)
1) Dr. Strangelove
7. Seven people I want to join in, too.
1) Scott Aaronson. 2) Aram. 3) Mic. 4) Steve Hsu. 5) Lisa. 6) Michael Nielsen. 7) Suz
O brave new quantum world!
I thought you were supposed to live in New York once (you’ve already done the NorCal thing…).
Live in NY? Whatever for? Once you’ve been in the promised land of the westside, why leave? And yes I’m joking. Heh.
Ok, I joined in.
You defintely cannot “not laugh”!!! 🙂
“A screaming comes across the sky….”
Won’t ever forget standing at the college bookstore and the “frisson” I experienced reading that first line (Gravity’s Rainbow).
“Mason & Dixon” isn’t half bad either – something from an author who may have grown a bit more sentimental in his outlook through the years, but still Knows More Than You Do, as Mr. Science would say.
Idle thought: First “big” Pynchon novel was V; invert the V. Then “Gravity’s Rainbow,” a parabola – the inverted V has relaxed a bit. Then “Mason & Dixon,” the (flat) line. A sign that this is the final big book Pynchon planned?
“A screaming comes across the sky. It has happened before, but there is nothing to compare it to now.
It is too late. The Evacuation still proceeds, but it’s all theatre. There are no lights inside the cars. No light anywhere. Above him lift girders old as an iron queen, and glass somewhere far above that would let the light of day through. But it’s night. He’s afraid of the way the glass will fall-soon-it will be a spectable: the fall of a crystal palace. But coming down in total blackout, without one glint of light, only great invisible crashing.”
…
“They have begun to move. They pass in line out of the main station, out of downtown , and begin pushing into older and more desolate parts of the city. Is this the way out? Faces turn to the windows, but no one dares ask, not out loud. Rain comes down. No, this is not a disentanglement from, but a progressive knotting into-…”
Awesome stuff that Gravity’s Rainbow.
Awwwww. Dave, I’ll watch Strangelove or Apocalypse Now with you any day, or sit in another room proving complexity theorems while you watch the ending sequence of 2001.
For some unaccountable reason, the “great invisible crashing” image reminds me of one of my favorite rock lyrics (from REM’s “Fall on Me”): “Feathers hit the ground before the weight can leave the air,” which IIRC Michael Stipe said was inspired by TV of Galileo’s experiment as carried out by an astronaut on the Moon using a hammer and feather.
This film never bored me.