A little over a year ago a massive snow storm had blanketed northern California. The kind of storm that hits the area about once every ten years. Upwards of three feet of snow had fallen in the area around my parent’s home in Yreka, stranding holiday motorists in the metropolis of Yreka because the pass over the hill to Oregon, the Siskiyou summit, was closed. After the roads had opened, my dad decided to check on our cabin outside of the small hamlet of Etna. My dad was always active. Not in that hyper way that shouted out that he needed attention, but in the manner of someone who must have woken up some morning and thought “gee there’s a lot of good stuff to do!” So before my dad left to head over the Forest summet to our cabin, he halled in some logs and kindling from outside, crumpled up newspapers, and set our fireplace ready for a fire. He didn’t light a fire, he just set it up in case my mom or sister might want to start a fire to keep warm.
A year ago today, my dad never returned to light or find a lit fire. He had a heartattack when he arrived at our cabin. It’s a cliche to say it, but there’s not a day that I don’t think about him. My dad was, in many ways, my spiritual mentor (certainly one of the reasons I am not a religious person.) In my parent’s home (my home) until today, we never lit that fire my dad set ready.
Today, as you can surely imagine, was destined to be a tough day for my mom. So she had a brunch with some our close friends and she decided, after a year, to light the fire. At first I was sad for the loss of the symbol of my dad’s love for his family. And then I began to laugh. A good laugh straight from the belly. Because I thought: while many men’s fire goes out the day they die, my dad cheated and his fire got an extra year on life.
Connections
When you are bored, you do silly things. Today I discovered that on quant-ph, I am a coauthor with 18 people who are in turn coauthors with 295 more people.
Merry Christmas
Quoteth Saint Lennon:
And so this is Christmas, and what have you done?
Another year over, and a new one just begun.
And so this is Christmas, I hope you have fun,
The near and the dear ones, the old and the young.
A very Merry Christmas,
And a Happy New Year.
Let’s hope it’s a good one,
Without any fear.
And so this is Christmas, for weak and for strong,
For rich and for poor ones, the war is so wrong.
And so happy Christmas, for black and for white,
For yellow and red ones, let’s stop all the fight.
A very Merry Christmas,
And a Happy New Year.
Let’s hope it’s a good one,
Without any fear.
So this is Christmas, and what have you done?
Another year over, and a new one just begun.
And so happy Christmas, I hope you have fun,
The near and the dear ones, the old and the young.
A very Merry Christmas,
And a Happy New Year.
Let’s hope it’s a good one,
Without any fear.
Old Bacon
From Scott Aaronson’s upcoming thesis:
For better or worse, my conception of what a thesis should be was influence by Dave Bacon, quantum computing’s elder clown, who entitled the first chapter of his own 451-page behemoth “Philosonomicon.”
Isn’t it great to be in a field where at age 29 you can be considered “elder”? In fact I was just looking at the schedule for the upcoming QIP conference at MIT and was a bit taken back by the youthfulness of the invited speaker list.
The Itchy and Scratchy Show
Crap. Poison oak from an offtrail hike last week to look at an interesting landslide on the Klamath river. Itch.
Wrong Number
My friend Lon Christensen is the CTO of a company called Quorum Systems in San Diego which makes chipsets which can access both GSM and WLAN networks simultaneously. If you Google for “quorum systems” you will realize why it’s important not to name your company after a technical computer science term.
Snow Day
When you wake up to a few inches of snow, what’s the first thing you do? Well if you’re still a kid, the first thing you do is you turn on the radio to see if school is canceled. At the Santa Fe Institute, the institute closes whenever the public schools close. So now I get to be a kid all over again and today when I woke up to some snow I quickly turned on the radio and heard that the public schools in Santa Fe were closed. Whoop! Snow day!
Life After Tech
From Jim Harrington, a picture of the whiteboard near my office at Caltech. Funny I don’t feel dead. But then again, do I feel reborn?
Voting
In from the brisk 26 degree cold, when was the last time I’ve been in a Parish building? 200 feet away, through the window, the MoveOn heard stands freezing their rears in the hopes of changing one last mind? Precinct 26 or 27? Look at my card, whooop, I’m 26, so there’s no line. No line to stand in, instead there is the infamous line of the aged volunteers ready to check me in. Yep, I’m in the book, says middle aged woman number one bedecked in her red, white, and blue sweat shirt. The grandma one over has me put my John Hancock on a line. But mine isn’t nearly as loud and shouting and revolutionary. Then its to the booth where a mighty poster board of choices await my decision. Green lights flicker as I consult my list of choices. Kerry for president. 1 Republican for my dad. 2 Greens for revolution. And then the lonely button to cast my vote is pressed. The lights go out and bits go somewhere hopefully safe from tamper. And back out into the 26 degree morning. 26. Huh. Hopefully a lucky number.
Where's Da Moon?
Happy Lunar Eclipse! I was born on a lunar eclipse. Kind of explains things, doesn’t it?
Also: Is it a coincidence that the lunar eclipse happens to be on the night the Red Sox finally beat the curse? Also notice: Cardinals are as Red as they get. An omen for Nov. 2? I’ll take any ounce of hope I can get.