1,000 Push ups

Hey Matt and Elpeebee (and anybody else). I am going to do at least 1000 push ups in March. How many are you going to do? I'm at 120. Good form is essential. (It's really not that many; average 40 per day starting tomorrow and you make it to 1000.)

I'm off to San Antonio tomorrow.

Where have you been?

Sorry for the lack of posting. Unfortunately for my many fans, this will have to continue for about a week. Check back next week. I promise the blog is not dying. I have had some birthdays to attend to, a paper to get back to the publisher, some GPU programming code to download and get running, and some significant preparation for an upcoming conference.

By the way, if you're in San Antonio next week, let me know. On Sunday morning (yeah, weird timing) I will be speaking at the 13th International Conference on Approximation Theory. If you're around, I promise it'll be real hoot!

I tasted the Oban. It was so long ago and I can't find my notes, that I'll just have to taste it again.

Crossing the Street

I had a long weekend working on a paper that I submitted today. It's just a conference proceeding paper which for a mathematician means a paper that isn't all that amazing. Mine is cute; it says something interesting, but it isn't very sophisticated. In fact, there aren't really any new ideas in the paper, just a means for interpreting some work and stating what the latest conditions say.

Anyway, in the UK people are very organized. At a bus stop, the "queue up." Seriously, they're not just all standing around at the bus stop even if it is just two people; they stand in a line. (So, no wonder they need to have so many different kinds of whisky, they can't even relax while waiting for a bus.)

One serious positive of all this organization is the way cross walks work, at least in Edinburgh. Traffic light goes green and the cars go with the standard rotation. But then, when it is safe to cross, no cars are moving in any direction. This means you can diagonally cross the street. Ahhhhhhhh! Every single time I am crossing a street diagonally on a green crossing sign I think, "Why do I have to be on a small island with people driving on the wrong side of the street to get to cross diagonally."

Super Bowl in Scotland

So, much like skiing in Switzerland, I forgot my camera. So there are no pictures. (I can hear Amy from here: “You’re such a man.”) I was able to find a Super Bowl party hosted by the Edinburgh Wolves, an American Football team. I figured there would be maybe 100 people at this bar that they rented out for the night. The game was on from 11:00pm to 3:30am. It cost £5 to enter (or $8). Unfortunately, you then also had to pay for your beverages and food (if you wanted any). So, I walked from the Heatherlea to the bar, which took about 30 minutes. I timed it perfectly, walking in the door at the national anthem. Well, it turns out that there is a decent fan base here, and the bar was packed. I would guess there 400-500 people there, not 100. Although there were TVs all over the place, I couldn’t get into position to see one. I looked upstairs and spied a group of three gents seated at a table for 6 with a premium view of a big screen. I decided waiting any longer would spell disaster.

I went to the table, asked if anyone was sitting there. This was the gist of the conversation:

Me: Is anyone sitting here? May I sit here?

Calem: Well, our mate is on the way. Sorry!

Me: So he’s not here? He’s coming later?

Calem: Sorry mate, you can’t sit here ‘cause our friend is coming.

Me: Okay… (throwing my jacket down on the bench seat and sitting)… I’ll get up, no questions asked, as soon as he gets here.

Calem: So you’re gonna sit there anyway, even though I said no?

Me: Yes. (pause) Look, I’m not going to bother you and when the rest of your friends arrive, I’ll get up and leave, no questions.

The response was icy but I didn’t appear to be in danger. I waited a few minutes before making a comment or two. Long story short, Calem, Johnnie, and the other guy were buying me drinks by the end of the Super Bowl and their mate never showed up. Calem spent a good five minutes apologizing for “not being so friendly” at the beginning.

So there were very few if any other Americans at this ordeal. When I asked what people were going to do about work the next day, my new friends simply responded “What do you mean? They’ll just go to work.” I asked, “Won’t they be drunk?” Laughter was followed by a unanimous “This is Scotland!”

The Scottish knew more about the NFL than I thought they would. They knew players, starting lineups, had opinions about players. The strangest thing was that 90% of the bar wanted the Saints to win and they booed Manning when his picture appeared. Like Manning or not, you simply can’t boo the guy. That’s like booing the president or the pope; like them or not, you just don’t boo people of such significance.

I was very excited when the game was clearly going to overtime. I mean, Manning had the ball and all the time in the world. At the interception, the bar rang the bell. Seriously, they still ring a bell here for last call. It means 15 minutes. Second bell means too bad, no more drinks. That has two important points. First, they still use a bell to announce last call. Second, the bartenders knew enough about American Football that the interception triggered last call. I was impressed.

I was able to see the commercials as a one hour continuous episode on Fox Sports. It might still be there. I told these three guys that they were missing one of the most enjoyable parts of the SB, namely the commercials. They thought I was kidding. I never convinced them that we get refills and take restroom breaks during play so as to not miss a commercial.

Fasting and Abstinence

So, does it count as fasting or even abstinence if you eat this epic pile of fish and chips?



So seriously, I didn't eat that on during a fast. Actually, I was walking home a bit late one evening. I don't remember exactly how it happened, but I ended up in the fish and chips place that's always calling my name. They had no fish. I thought, "well, I don't really want to wait," and then the proprietor said, "Mate! Wait five minutes; it'll be worth it. This fish is huge!" And he held it up prior to frying it. To be honest, I didn't need a lot of convincing, but he was right, that fish was huge. The coke can in the picture is a standard size can.

(I felt simultaneously fantastic and awful after eating this beast of a meal.)

The Edges of Edinburgh

When I came back from working so hard in Switzerland, I thought I deserved some rest and relaxation. So I took the weekend off.



Seriously, I hadn’t exercised very much in Villars while eating three course meals. I felt full the entire time. I don’t like feeling full. I don’t want to feel hungry, but feeling full makes me feel lethargic. Also, the only time I exercised was when skiing. So, I had to get moving. On Saturday I did a bit of walking in Edinburgh, but in the afternoon decided it was time I ride my new bike to the Sea. The Scots have a nice rails-to-trails program, and I road along a paved railway for about five miles to the town of Portobello, on the water.



I walked up and down the seaboard for about thirty minutes and then headed back along the same route. Most of you might not be aware of my compulsion to touch water, but for those who are wondering, I went out and touched the water. It was warmer than I anticipated, but even the dogs seemed to think it was too cold to get into.

On Sunday I ran to the Royal Observatory. This is actually the second Royal Observatory in Edinburgh. The first is downtown and was there when the city was small. As the population grew and then electricity introduced, the light from the city made the first observatory far less useful. They built a second that was so far out of town they would never face this issue again. They actually had to protect the land around this “new” one to keep it from being knocked down for flats.

So here I am in front of the observatory.



Turning to the South, you see that this is in some sense the edge of town.



But, now turning east, you see the King’s Buildings, where I work (well, if the picture wasn’t awful, you’d see that).



And, turning a bit to the northeast, you see Edinburgh. The large land forms across the way are Arthur’s Seat (the highest, round portion) and that sheer faced cliff on the left is the Radical Road from a previous post.





I ran down into town to scope out areas of town we might want to live in. When I got to the Meadows, I took this picture of the castle. (On the right, under the tree branch, the castle appears to be sitting on top of buildings surrounding the park.) Yes, indeed, I think we should live very close to this park.



It was a lovely run.

Swiss Wrap-up

The meeting ended, with yet another lovely three course meal served with a desire to be perfect. I had mentioned that Switzerland was expensive, and a colleague replied, “Switzerland is expensive, but you always get the service you’re paying for.” The best way to visit Switzerland, it turns out, is when the EU is paying for your lodging and meals, and the National Science Foundation your airfare.

The weather was not ideal for amazing Alpine views, but it was easy to get the point. Below are a few photos.

After three hours on a train, two flights with a lay-over, and a taxi, I made it home on Friday night. The meeting was very interesting and I began a collaboration with two electrical engineers. Hopefully we can get something out of the project we started during the meeting.

There are many wonderful things about being an academic, in particular a mathematician. One example is a meeting in Switzerland. But each night at dinner, I was reminded of my absolute favorite part of being active in mathematics research. The first night, my dinner table was occupied by an Italian, two Iranians, an Israeli, and me, an American. Think about the power of science in that context. Of the 19 people at this meeting, the participants claimed nationalities from Belgium, France, Greece, India, Iran, Israel, Italy, Serbia, South Korea, Turkey, United Kingdom, and United States. Now that’s a dinner party.

Now it's picture time. When I got on the slopes, I realized I had forgotten my camera, so there are no skiing pictures. (Actually, I think I was still subcontiously contemplating never telling anyone I went skiing with inspiration taken from the pacifist Swiss.)

First, this is the hotel.




My room came with turn down service. They even came in once it was dark to turn on a light for you. (The first day I was confused; I was certain I had turned the lights off.)






This was the view from my room the first day. It snowed and was cloudy the whole time.




The second day, you could see a bit more into the valley.

I tried to capture the mountains across the way, but the camera couldn't really distinguish the mountains from the clouds. This is a doctored version of the photo so you can see the mountains.



Here are some other pictures from off my balcony. I love the houses.





In Austria and Switzerland, they love wood. They never paint it. If it is made of wood, it looks like wood. And they don't go through a big hassle of making it all smooth. The wood looks like wood. Here are some examples:

My room





The meeting room



The restaraunt (I apparently did not take a picture of the very intricate woodworking above the tables we sat at each night.)



the bar



Oh yeah, and look back at the picture of the hotel.

Finally, I snapped this photo on the train down the mountain. I post it here because of the cool effect. If you look carefully in the "sky" you can see me taking the photo. What you can't make out, is I'm sitting with an Iranian, or that strangely, the woman across the aisle is holding a fish bowl, whispering to the fish for the entire hour.