I got a bike shortly after coming to Seattle and have been figuring out the deal about biking around. I've been biking to work and to the store; yesterday I took my first long bike ride on some trails (maybe about 22 miles; it took me an embarrassing 2+ hours)*.
After some thinking, some observation, and some more thinking I realized I am a public menace. First of all, I go on the sidewalk a lot, which is apparently illegal in most cities. :( Secondly, when I go in bike lanes sometimes I go opposing traffic, which is also a terrible thing.
Since I had started doing both of these things after watching other people, I wanted to share this in case you are also a public menace. :o
* I have two questions: 1) how do you prevent the seat from being extremely painful? 2) how do you deal with being hunched over for so long?
Sunday, July 19, 2009
The food situation in Seattle
I haven't yet extensively explored the Seattle food situation, but a cursory investigation reveals that it is pretty good. In particular, the quality of the "bar food" and the diversity of their menus has been impressive. Some places I've been:
This past weekend I attended Bite of Seattle, an annual food festival where local restaurants have booths. There was a really cool alley where you paid $10 and got to try samples from 7 different fairly nice restaurants (Salty's, Cellars, etc.); I am glad I saved room for that but the samples were not big enough to determine whether the restaurant was actually good. I also got to eat a coconut, which was really great.
- Barolo - a nice place to get a drink and eat some really good food. (Check out the menu on the site!) They supposedly have multiple happy hours where things are half-priced; when I took advantage of this it was pretty great.
- Table 219 - a great, well-priced place to eat and people-watch. I had a really good special: red snapper over cucumber salad with some sort of curry.
- Elysian Brewery - a nice place to get a beer with some good (healthy!) bar food. I had a great mushroom reuben sandwich with a good chicken lemon grass soup; my friend had a great tofu salad on soba noodles.
- Random Asian in Redmond - there are a lot of pho places and random Japanese/Korean places are here. I've been to a couple and they are pretty good.
This past weekend I attended Bite of Seattle, an annual food festival where local restaurants have booths. There was a really cool alley where you paid $10 and got to try samples from 7 different fairly nice restaurants (Salty's, Cellars, etc.); I am glad I saved room for that but the samples were not big enough to determine whether the restaurant was actually good. I also got to eat a coconut, which was really great.
Friday, July 17, 2009
Impressions of Seattle
Seattle has been really cool so far*: there is a lot of water and it is surrounded by "big" nature. (On clear days you can see Mt. Rainier in the distance, a pink cartoon mountain stencil in the sky.)
Here are some things I've done up to now**:
* I have been here for 3 weeks now.
** I owe most of these plans to one Ms. Jennifer Nan. <3
Here are some things I've done up to now**:
- Go to Bollywood night at the Baltic Room, which is happening every 2 weeks this summer.
- Get a bike. :)
- Go to the Pride Parade.
- Help set a world record: most zombies in one place at one time!
- Watch the 4th of July fireworks from Bainbridge Island from a sailboat sailing from Shilshole.
- Attend an amazing Decemberists concert at a local park.
- People-watch on Capitol Hill.
- Go to the Space Needle.
* I have been here for 3 weeks now.
** I owe most of these plans to one Ms. Jennifer Nan. <3
Dublin in a nutshell
I was in Dublin a couple of weeks ago for PLDI (Programming Language Design and Implementation conference); what I saw of the city was the important landmarks (that you can get in any guidebook) between Trinity College and the Guiness brewery*. These are about a couple of miles apart, so it is a good day's walk to walk around Dublin between those parts. In between you'll pass by a bunch of churches, Grafton Street (the commerical district), some museums**, and some parks. Further out is the jail; I have heard it is cool and has lots of historical value. If I had more time I would have liked to see that.
I also got to experience Dublin pubs, which I discovered close fairly early (11 or 12) on weeknights. Late drinking supposedly occurs mostly in the Temple Bar, a neighborhood of bars.
It was cool to see the Dublin of James Joyce; it was also cool to discover that James Joyce is all over Dublin.
* This is actually a cool place; at the top you get a good view of the city, labelled (on the windows) with quotes from Joyce relevant to the landmarks (and generally relevant). The Guiness in Dublin is supposedly the best you'll ever have; I'd believe it.
** You see more museums if you take a somewhat meandering route that involves some looping.
I also got to experience Dublin pubs, which I discovered close fairly early (11 or 12) on weeknights. Late drinking supposedly occurs mostly in the Temple Bar, a neighborhood of bars.
It was cool to see the Dublin of James Joyce; it was also cool to discover that James Joyce is all over Dublin.
* This is actually a cool place; at the top you get a good view of the city, labelled (on the windows) with quotes from Joyce relevant to the landmarks (and generally relevant). The Guiness in Dublin is supposedly the best you'll ever have; I'd believe it.
** You see more museums if you take a somewhat meandering route that involves some looping.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Children (Voluntarily) Without Clothes
A cute New York Times article about when it is appropriate to allow kids to run around without clothes. While I think nudity should be more desexualized than it is in our society, it is currently the case that nudity is closely related to sexuality. Allowing children to run around naked could help desexualize nudity, but it could also leave the children confused and frustrated when they become too old and have to start wearing clothes. As someone who wasn't allowed to leave her room until fully dressed (and sometimes with 5+ layers!), I would have certainly appreciated more time to run around with fewer clothes.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Evolutionary psych: take with a grain of salt
Newsweek's Sharon Begley has this very nice article* about why one should be wary of results evolutionary psychology. The reasons Begley gives for this are 1) the assumptions made by many evolutionary psych results are shaky, but people don't often question them because they believe/want to believe them and 2) the claims made by evolutionary psychologists are often untestable and have been proven false by examining people living primitively today. (She gives great examples, debunking the myth about men liking women with 0.7 waist/hip ratios and others; see the article.)
As someone who had recently gotten into what Begley calls "Pleistocene just-so stories" that people like to believe because they are interesting and sexy, I learned to be more wary of the premises of such "results." As evolutionary psychologists are model builders, it is important to recognize that these are models whose assumptions should be rigorously questioned.
* It is surprisingly insightful and nice for something as mainstream as Newsweek. It was so good I considered writing to her; I also considered jumping up and down.
** I found Miller's The Mating Mind a fun read.
As someone who had recently gotten into what Begley calls "Pleistocene just-so stories" that people like to believe because they are interesting and sexy, I learned to be more wary of the premises of such "results." As evolutionary psychologists are model builders, it is important to recognize that these are models whose assumptions should be rigorously questioned.
* It is surprisingly insightful and nice for something as mainstream as Newsweek. It was so good I considered writing to her; I also considered jumping up and down.
** I found Miller's The Mating Mind a fun read.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
"Paper"
This post has two superficial goals: to discuss words in general and to reflect on the word "paper." The real goal is to generate discussion about words and learn more about the cognitive linguistic elements of this from my sagacious readers. (Read: tell me what Pinker says, even though I'll likely disagree.)
Lately I have been thinking about words. There is a theory that people tend to pay more attention to words in their non-native language. (My college roommate once told me that English-as-second-language writers often do more interesting things with words: ex. Nabokov, Jhumpa Lahiri). I don't know if it is for this reason or because I naturally tend to think more in terms of words (rather than pictures or feelings) that I have quite a word fetish. I have quite interesting memories of trying to understand what people were saying to me in pre-school, before I learned English. The most memorable word encounters are with understanding songs: there was a Halloween song with the word "children," which I remembered as "qiu jun" (autumn mushroom) in order to ask my parents when it meant later. No doubt such word associations have colored the way I remembered that period of my life.
I like to think about the subconscious mappings between the written words and 1) the way it sounds (and in some cases, the way they are pronounced by certain people/dialects), 2) its dictionary meaning, 3) the connotations it has in the context of where it appears, and 4) the connotations it has in my life. I like to think about this as a consequence of the brain's heuristics for optimization: we have these mappings to make our lives more efficient (for escaping large animals and falling rocks) and as a consequence we get this interaction with nice emergent properties. ;)
One of my favorite words is "paper" because of all of its connotations. From Online Etymology:
This pretty much summarizes what I want to say about it: in my opinion "paper" is one of the richest words in the English language and the foundation for civilization. ;) It at once symbolizes something very weak and constructed by the mind (paper tiger; "it's only a paper moon") to something with great significance that defines a person (see above definition). It is also deeply a part of the American cultural vernacular with its various meanings: "do you have your papers in order?;" "paper or plastic?" I don't have an example of a good use of "paper" but it is quite a powerful word. If you have good examples I'd like to know of them!
Lately I have been thinking about words. There is a theory that people tend to pay more attention to words in their non-native language. (My college roommate once told me that English-as-second-language writers often do more interesting things with words: ex. Nabokov, Jhumpa Lahiri). I don't know if it is for this reason or because I naturally tend to think more in terms of words (rather than pictures or feelings) that I have quite a word fetish. I have quite interesting memories of trying to understand what people were saying to me in pre-school, before I learned English. The most memorable word encounters are with understanding songs: there was a Halloween song with the word "children," which I remembered as "qiu jun" (autumn mushroom) in order to ask my parents when it meant later. No doubt such word associations have colored the way I remembered that period of my life.
I like to think about the subconscious mappings between the written words and 1) the way it sounds (and in some cases, the way they are pronounced by certain people/dialects), 2) its dictionary meaning, 3) the connotations it has in the context of where it appears, and 4) the connotations it has in my life. I like to think about this as a consequence of the brain's heuristics for optimization: we have these mappings to make our lives more efficient (for escaping large animals and falling rocks) and as a consequence we get this interaction with nice emergent properties. ;)
One of my favorite words is "paper" because of all of its connotations. From Online Etymology:
- paper
- 1341, from Anglo-Fr. paper, from O.Fr. papier, from L. papyrus "paper, paper made of papyrus stalks" (see papyrus). As shortened form of newspaper, first attested 1642. In plural, "collection of papers to establish one's identity, credentials, etc.," it is attested from 1685. The verb meaning "to decorate a room with paper hangings" is attested from 1774. Paperback is from 1899. Paperless is attested from 1971. Paper chase is British slang from 1932. Paper tiger (1952) translates Chinese tsuh lao fu, popularized by Mao Zedong.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Reading recommendations: Chinese people
All of these books are great reads. :)
Cultural Revolution:
Cultural Revolution:
- Wild Swans (Jung Chang) - an autobiographical family history of three generations of women, the first of whom was married to a warlord (I think) and the last of whom grew up as the daughter of somewhat powerful officials during the Cultural Revolution. Grounds a lot of the context one learns about Chinese history surrounding the Cultural Revolution.
- Red Scarf Girl (Ji-Li Jiang) - an autobiographical story of a girl who was a teenager during the Cultural Revolution and had to participate in in Red Guard. I read this when I was around the age of the narrator (12) and it put a lot things into perspective.
- Mao's Last Revolution (Roderick MacFarquhar) - I have not read this whole book but I took a course from Roderick MacFarquhar, who was an amazing lecturer (and amazing person!). (This is the best course I have ever taken--the lectures and readings were unparalleled.) After becoming a reporter in order to go into government, he ended up in China during the Cultural Revolution and became a major Chinese history scholar. I admire how he has tried to get a good picture from all sides with respect to the cultural Revolution and he is able to convey this information in an interesting and clear way. (He was later a member of British Parliament.)
- Tea that Burns (Bruce Hall) - the fourth-generation Chinese American author traces his family's history in context of Chinese immigration to Chinatowns in the 19th century. A great way to learn about the history of Chinese-American immigration.
- Bound Feet and Western Dress (Pang-Mei Natasha Chang) - the American-born, Harvard-educated author writes a dual memoir about her great-aunt Chang Yu-I, a member of an important Chinese family, and her own struggles with discovering her identity as a Chinese American woman. The book talks a lot about Chang Yu-I's struggle to establish a place for herself as a Chinese woman in a changing world: she did not have her feet bound because she cried too much and her brother dissuaded her mother from continuing; she was part of the first modern divorce in China; she became the first woman vice president of a Shanghai bank. This book resonated with my own struggle to resolve my desire to preserve tradition with the fact that many traditional Chinese values devalue women.
Thursday, June 04, 2009
Reading recommendation: Nabokov
This is the first post in my series of themed reading recommendations.
The topic of the day is Vladimir Nabokov, who, according to John Updike, "writes prose the way it should be written... ecstatically." I am currently reading Ada, or Ardor: A Family Chronicle, a tale of an incestuous pair of siblings, and it is one of the most wonderful experiences I have ever had. While Nabokov's stories often feature strange fetishes (and always feature butterflies), the fetish he satisfies most is the one for words. Ada is clever, brilliant, and exhilerating. Nabokov writes of Ada and Van, lovers born to Marina, sister of Aqua:
Their immoderate exploitation of physical joy amounted to madness and would have curtailed their young lives had not summer, which had appeared in prospect as a boundless flow of green glory and freedom, begun to hint hazily at possible failings and fadings, at the fatigue of its fugue—the last resort of nature, felicitous alliterations (when flowers and flies mime one another), the coming of a first pause in late August, a first silence in early September.
If you are getting started with Nabokov I would recommend Lolita: it is his greatest work I've read thus far, for its use of language and the use of the unreliable narrator. Pale Fire is also a favorite; it is more funny than Lolita (and more clever) but less beautiful. My friend David likes his memoir Speak, Memory; I enjoyed it less than his other works for the same reason David likes it: it is Nabokov being a "real person" (and revealing more of a love for words--the original title was Speak, Mnemosyne.) All of these were originally written in English.
Nabokov was also quite prolific in writing novels in Russian; he translated all of them to English himself. I have not read many of these, but one I enjoyed was Laughter in the Dark. The opening passage captivated me:
Once upon a time there lived in Berlin, Germany, a man called Albinus. He was rich, respectable, happy; one day he abandoned his wife for the sake of a youthful mistress; he loved; was not loved; and his life ended in disaster.
My friend Luke's favorite is Invitation to a Beheading, about a man sentenced to death for "gnostical turpitude."
The topic of the day is Vladimir Nabokov, who, according to John Updike, "writes prose the way it should be written... ecstatically." I am currently reading Ada, or Ardor: A Family Chronicle, a tale of an incestuous pair of siblings, and it is one of the most wonderful experiences I have ever had. While Nabokov's stories often feature strange fetishes (and always feature butterflies), the fetish he satisfies most is the one for words. Ada is clever, brilliant, and exhilerating. Nabokov writes of Ada and Van, lovers born to Marina, sister of Aqua:
Their immoderate exploitation of physical joy amounted to madness and would have curtailed their young lives had not summer, which had appeared in prospect as a boundless flow of green glory and freedom, begun to hint hazily at possible failings and fadings, at the fatigue of its fugue—the last resort of nature, felicitous alliterations (when flowers and flies mime one another), the coming of a first pause in late August, a first silence in early September.
If you are getting started with Nabokov I would recommend Lolita: it is his greatest work I've read thus far, for its use of language and the use of the unreliable narrator. Pale Fire is also a favorite; it is more funny than Lolita (and more clever) but less beautiful. My friend David likes his memoir Speak, Memory; I enjoyed it less than his other works for the same reason David likes it: it is Nabokov being a "real person" (and revealing more of a love for words--the original title was Speak, Mnemosyne.) All of these were originally written in English.
Nabokov was also quite prolific in writing novels in Russian; he translated all of them to English himself. I have not read many of these, but one I enjoyed was Laughter in the Dark. The opening passage captivated me:
Once upon a time there lived in Berlin, Germany, a man called Albinus. He was rich, respectable, happy; one day he abandoned his wife for the sake of a youthful mistress; he loved; was not loved; and his life ended in disaster.
My friend Luke's favorite is Invitation to a Beheading, about a man sentenced to death for "gnostical turpitude."
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