...more recent posts
I don't have a link, but I was interested to read in the paper that baseball statistics (sabrematrician) guru Bill James has been hired by the Boston Red Sox. Among other duties he will consult on all trades.
I started buying Bill James' yearly Baseball Abstract when I was a kid growing up in Massachusetts. What little mathematical facility I have is due in large part to my fascination with his elaborate and rather arcane formula for quantitizing player performance. Great great stuff. And the idea that he will be helping the utterly hapless BoSox is icing on the cake. I'd like to see it work, but I'm not sure even Bill the great can turn baseball in that town around.
Austria 2002. What a short decadent trip it's been.
I have the new upload scripts working. And I've uploaded all my Austria pictures. It works pretty well. I'm about half way through writing the small amount of textual explanation I want to include. Doing so has made me realize how much my writing style has degenerated. This is thanks to blogging, but I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing.
I could write better. But then I wouldn't write very much. Everything you see on this page is straight off the top of my head. It's unusual that I even proof read one time. Obviously this leads to lots of sloppy writing. It's probably embarassing even, but I don't notice. I'd rather write more, poorly, then not as much. Of course, your mileage may vary.
Still, I used to be able to write better. Which is to say, I used to go over my words many times. Reread and rewrite and rethink. That's fun, for sure, but I don't have time for it. Blogging takes up so much time already. If I made myself proof read, or even think twice about what I was saying, then I wouldn't have any time for it at all.
I guess that's why some people don't understand what I'm doing. I can see that it could seem low quality. It's just that it's not the quality that I'm after. It's the constantness. Is that even a word? See, I don't care. You know what I mean.
Or do you? I think it will become more clear as things turn more multi media. Bandwidth is still a bit constrained for pictures, and certainly for video. So text is where it's at right now. But it's all about the immediacy. Rewriting is something else. I hope I haven't lost the ability to do it, but I seldom run across the instance where I want to give it any practice.
In any case, I should have the pictures all done by tomorrow. Not that it's so interesting. It's almost like it's too late now. That's what I mean by immediacy. If I could have been broadcasting live it would be more interesting. Like you could have come along on my vacation with me. Now that it's after the fact it's more like I'm boring you with lame vacation pictures. But I'll put them up anyway.
I guess the other side of the coin is that they might be interesting to me many years from now. Probably at that point I will wish I would have proof read more. Or maybe I'll just be happy that I kept a record at all. I wonder...
We're back. Safe and happy. A little heavier around the middle and a little lighter in the wallet. Always nice to come back to NYC.
I am denying all rumors that I ordered a rack of lamb on the final night.
This was possibly the most well documented vacation ever. Lots of pictures coming, but I have to implement my new photo management scheme first. Hopefully tomorrow.
Very tired at this point, even though I had a long night of sleep. I guess these things are always a bit of an ordeal. I don't think I could handle a real wine trip. But of course that's not my business. I can see that Mike is good at it.
It's late morning now and we're getting ready to leave the Steigenberger Avance Hotel in Krems. Long drive (3 plus hours) to the final wine maker today. They have kidnapped us for the afternoon, evening, and night. Nobody is sure what to expect from this one. I'm not familiar with their wines at all.
It has been very foggy every day, so it's hard to get too much sense of the country side. Rudi Pichler took us up into the steeply terraced gruner veltliner vinyards. The stone work of the terraces is very impressive. Quite ancient stuff. We would have had some great views of the Wachau valley, but it was left mostly to our imagination. Looks like more of the same today.
Everyone is getting along well. It's nice to have the laptop, and all my music, in the car. Now if only there was wi-fi data connections everywhere.
Tomorrow we're headed back into Vienna.
It's not the morning yet, but I think I made it. Amazing. Nice to have an internet terminal in the lobby.
I've still been dreaming a lot every night, but not so dramtically. In between each dream I wake up and think about the picture upload system which is really bugging me. I know I don't have it thought out correctly. But I have some new ideas I'll run by Tom when I get home. I think I might be close to the solution. It's comforting to have a problem in any case.
And, oh yeah, the wine is out of control.
Well, of course I had the schedule a little wrong. Tuesday we were still in Vienna. Had a massive lunch where I ate some pork and duck (ok, just a bite or two.) We took it easy last night, and then this morning we were up early to get the car.
Morning appointment at my favorite wine maker, Knoll. Maybe Frank remembers from GSI. We got the tour and then tasted 4 2002 from the barell and then a bunch of 2001's in the celler with Emerich Jr. After that we got a quick lunch and then another tasting with Rudi Pichler.
After that I was basically out of gas, but the Wheel keeps turning, and all that, so now after checking into the hotel we're headed back to Knoll for dinner. More in the morning if I make it.
Long flight. Thank god it was direct. That really makes all the difference. We left JFK at 6:50 and arrived 8:00 hours later which was 9:00 am in Austria. Took a cab to the hotel and went right to breakfast. Wasn't feeling so hot at that point.
But we forced ourselves to stay up. MB and I took a walk around the neighborhood waiting for Mike and Linda and Alex to arrive. A few hours later we ran into them in the street and we all did some more looking around. The architecture is amazing.
Vienna is beautiful. We're staying right in the heart of the city near St. Stephen's church. I have lots of pictures, but it doesn't seem like I will be able to get my machine on line (I'm at a cafe right now.)
Around 2:00 we went back to the hotel and I slept until 4:00. Surprisingly, having not slept at all the night before, this was enough to feel pretty good. At 6:00 we took a cab a half hour out of town to a winery where we took a short tour and then had dinner with the owner. Great guy. Great meal. Great wine. More details on all that should be coming from Mike.
Today was more touring around the city. Tonight is a bigger meal in Vienna, and then tomorrow we head out for the country and more wineries. Very fun so far.
Last night I had the strongest, clearest, and most numerous dreams of my life. Quite strange toward morning. Luckily I can report that the plot to take over the world using ingestible tablet microcomputers was foiled when the giant Amanita mushroom spaceship broke free and escaped.
Two days until Knoll, the expected highlight of the trip. More reports to follow.
Yes, I'm in my usual pre travel panic state. This is a low grade panic - you might even mistake it for indifference - but it's panic nonetheless. 28 hours until take off.
The Brown Daily Herald has the first interview with geek babe Ellen Feiss. Unsurprisingly the site is completely slashdotted.