Author: cdwan

Speaking of charismatic leaders and physical fitness, here’s a picture of Putin (president for life of Russia) published by GQ.

Yep. That’s the Bond-villain evil genius whose “soul” Bush saw on his very first trip.

We’re so doomed.

I think I may have found a Republican that I can vote for:

Thanks to fanw for finding this one.

12 gallons of wine is in the bottle. Slightly less than 12 gallons, actually. 29 bottles of Pinot Grigio and 28 bottles of Cabernet Sauvignon have been siphoned into the cobolt blue bottles. This marks year two of the grand wine experiment … and preliminary reports indicate that we’re making progress. Tasters report:

“The white isn’t too bad.”
–redmed

“The red has a nice aftertaste, are you sure you got all the carbonation out?”
–redmed

“Huh. “
–fdmts

For the record, we still have 8 of the red from last year, plus 5 (unexploded) of the 2007 white.

The cellar is stocked. Bring the snow!

pictures from supercomputing and from today’s bottling are now online.

I am returned. The red eye really bites. I got back to Boston at 6 this morning, and met redmed at the Braintree train station around 7:15, as she was going to work. We traded off the car, and home I went.

After a decent nap, I’m still feeling muddle-headed and stuffy. The desert air really messed with my sinuses, and I think that I probably got Cholera or something from touching a slot machine. Does Cholera give you a stuffy head?

On the other hand, the conference was awesome.

Had a good time at the SC parties this evening.

Started out in the cab line at the hotel. Long line, bunch of people going the same place I was. I flashed my invitations to the various parties and said “anyone going to one of these? They’re all next to each other.” The guys at the front of the line said “yeah, hop in.”

On the way, they asked the taxi driver to take us to the National Bowling Stadium. One of them asked “is that a good time?” The cabbie paused and answered, “you want a good time, or you want bowling?” The sign on top of his cab advertised hookers. We opted for bowling.

I wandered to the Intel party, where I hung out with a new friend. We talked about controlling your life by understanding what, within your perceptions, is absolute vs what is just your own overlay. Nice guy. Then, out of the blue, a sales rep with big boobs showed up. She wanted to talk about anything *except* reality. After listening for a few minutes, I said that I was going bowling. She said that she was having another drink. I told my new friend that he needed to make a choice … and then I went bowling alone. I hope he’s having a good night. I know I am:

I bowled 5 games. Game 4, I bowled 159. Boo-yah.

A friend I haven’t seen since high school offered me a ride home, pretty much out of the blue.

Life is good.

My computer has lost its mind, and is now downloading 43,000 email messages … dated 2006 to present.

I wish to scream.

In other news, Reno is as expected, though the conference is pretty cool. I’m going to bed. Maybe my computer will sort itself out overnight.

Tomorrow, I board a plane for Reno. Actually, I board a plane for New Mexico, and then another plane for Reno. I’ll be there until Thursday evening, when I board a truly brutal red-eye which gets me back to Boston at 6am on Friday.

I’ll be at the Supercomputing conference.

If anyone who reads this journal is there, come on by the Silicon Mechanics booth. You can have one of my awesome new business cards. Did I mention that our awesome “branding and media messaging” company produced new business cards for me? I’m quite excited.

Also, if there’s anything awesome in Reno that doesn’t include gambling, booze, and prostitutes … could one of you please let me know? It’s looking a little eensy bit like a desolate hole in the middle of the desert from what I read on the internet.

Also, pictures from yesterday are up.

Today was a red letter day for seeing friends. I woke up with a house full of robotify from the previous evening. After a breakfast unusually filled with scrambled eggs, I dropped him at the train station, and headed south to meet up with judovitch, saratchka, amnesiadust, Mo, Brent, and two children, aged 2.5 and 9 months.

We ate brunch, and then found our way to amnesiadust‘s apartment to bounce children on our knees, discuss international diplomacy, child rearing, the economic future of the united states, quantum physics, and other topics. We took calls from the people who look after our deceased grandfather’s houses, planned for christmas readings of Shakespeare, recalled high school, shared gossip about old friends, and finally called it a day and wished that we had more time to live these deeper realities of our lives.

I made my way back to Boston … saying ‘hi’ to redmed in passing, and thence to an art opening (ever so fashionable!) with capital_l and technolope.

And now, sleep.

Last night I went out with robotify, redmed, and Dustin to the Ani Difranco concert. Over dinner (“Zen” sushi, yay!) I shared the fact that I don’t feel particularly inspired by any of the candidates for president this year. Later, As we were walking into the Orpheum, I was gently moved aside. I turned, and Dennis Kucinich was – like – less than five feet away from me.

more

More than one person has recently asked me for thoughts on the Buddhist idea of emptiness, or no-thing. My gut reaction was that it’s not a nihilist denial, but an affirmation of some deeper and more profound existence, but I wasn’t sure why I thought that. This is why I read a lot:

In Buddhism, emptiness does not mean the absence of apparent existence. Emptiness is not like a black hole or darkness, or like an empty house or an empty bottle. Emptiness is fullness and openness and flexibility. Because of emptiness it is possible for phenomena to function, for beings to see and hear, and for things to move and change. It is called emptiness because when we examine things we cannot find anything that substantially and solidly exists. There is nothing that has a truly existent nature. Everything we perceive appears through ever-changing causes and conditions, without an independent, solid basis. Although from a relative perspective things appear, they arise from emptiness and they dissolve into emptiness. All appearances are like water bubbles or the reflection of the moon in water.

–from Opening to our Primordial Nature by Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche and Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche, published by Snow Lion Publications