Hearts of Space

I was recently directed to a podcast called RadioLab. It is delightful, stimulating, and often bittersweet. I have yet to encounter an episode that didn't thrill me in some fashion. For those interested in my discipline of choice, Statistics, you could do far worse as an introduction to the field than to listen to Radiolab's episode entitled Stochasticity.

But this is cursory to the impetus for me to dust off the old blog and share something with the internets. When I was looking through different podcasts the idea suddenly came upon me to look for a radio program I used to listen to in high school. This program came on MPR every Sunday night around 8 or 9 o'clock and featured esoteric, new-agey, ethereal music. I would catch it whenever I could and was always entranced by the exotic sounds that would drift through speakers. The show was Hearts of Space and the host of the show would always end each episode by saying "Safe journey, Spacefans, wherever you are."

Hearts of Space was special to me for several reasons, not the least of which was I often shared the experience with my dear friend, Fast Eddie. Additionally, back then I didn't spend a lot of time listening to music. I mean, music was a pretty consistent backdrop to most of my activities, but I rarely listened to music for the sake of the music itself. HoS was different. When 9:00 rolled around, I would turn up the music, darken the room, and give myself to the music. This was long before my experiments with psychotropics, and I think this music sent me into something of an altered state. 

I remember one night in particular. I came home late from somewhere and since Mom was away for the weekend and Brother was at college, I had the house to myself. I realized that HoS had already started so I went upstairs, turned on the stereo in the living room, and dialed in to MPR. The sound was a lone soprano voice over a barely audible orchestra. It was something medieval, something dark and lovely. I turned off the lights, lay on the couch, and immediately I was taken somewhere, some mist shrouded castle in Ireland where a spectre drifting through the halls sung her tale of loneliness. I could feel the damp, cold fog. I could see the pale half-moon languishing as the wisps of clouds grew denser. I could hear past her foreign tongue to the tale she wove with every crystalline note. 

The episode ended, and like a doctor helping the recently anesthetized to their feet the host gently released us back into reality with his reassuring "Safe journey, Spacefans, wherever you are."

And so I'm digging through all the old shows, looking for that specific episode. I wonder if I'll find it. Sometimes I feel like I should stop looking. Maybe the narrative above is more than pure recollection. Maybe it's some amalgam of memory and desire. Whatever the case, I'm glad I can rediscover this show. It feels good. It feels like two old friends visiting for the weekend. Playing frisbee and boardgames and reminiscing. It is comforting beyond expression.

Safe Journeys.

How I Met Josh Radnor

I know I've broken the blogging world record by posting twice in three days, but try to keep up.



Josh Radnor, star of the hit television series "How I Met Your Mother" (take a minute to chuckle at the title of this post) was in Bexley Ohio tonight to premiere his new movie HappyThankYouMorePlease. Mr. Radnor, a native of Bexley returned to the theater he used to visit as a child. During his speech before the movie he said "I wouldn't be making movies if it weren't for this theater." All in all he seems like a really nice guy and, perhaps surprisingly, very much like Ted Mosby, the character he plays in How I Met Your Mother (don't chuckle again, that's just condescending). So where do I fit in amongst the rich and powerful patrons who attended this showing? Well, it just so happens that my girlfriend is the Director of the Bexley Public Library. And it just so happens that the president of the library board is Alan Radnor, Josh Randor's father. So girlfriend and I attend the premiere (spoiler alert: the movie is freaking awesome), then we go to the afterparty. We see Josh Radnor talking to people, laughing, hugging, and being an all around nice guy.
Let me pause here to say that apart from a brief wave from Robert Guillaume when I was very very little, I have never met a famous person. So girlfriend and I were waiting to met Josh Radnor and I'm getting nervous. My heart is pounding and I'm thinking of what I should say and then girlfriend walks up to him and shakes his hand. The music is loud so Josh Radnor bends over to catch her name. She tells him her name and he says "Oh yes! I've heard a lot of great things about you." This hot-shot up and coming star of television and film has heard great things about my girlfriend. It's true, she's a rockstar.
They chat a little bit and then he looks over at me. Extends his hand and says "Hi, I'm Josh." So simple, so kind and unpretentious. I smile and shake his hand.

And that is how I met Josh Radnor. If you haven't seen his tv show, you owe it to yourself. It plays pitch perfectly to my (and probably your) generation, plus Alyson Hannigan is hot. The movie HappyThankYouMorePlease will be in theaters in February.

Sprocketplug Out

Summer Time

So here's what's been going on in my life.

August was a busy month. I gave a presentation on the work I've been doing this summer regarding some survey design research involving propensity scores. I tested for and received my yellow belt in hapkido.

Finally, I took my second qualifying examination for my Ph.D. program. If I pass this exam the next stage is passing a candidacy exam before starting work on my dissertation. Luckily this exam was something of a final hurdle. The two qualifying examinations act as a weeding out process for the department. If you fail the exams, they send you packing. If you pass the exams, however, you're almost guaranteed to graduate. The department doesn't give you your candidacy exam until they think you can pass it.

The qualifier was an ordeal, but it's over and I'm starting to wind down from all the stress. I still get a knot in my stomach when I think about it, but for the next week (until I get the results) I'm going to try to push it out of my mind.

On an unrelated note, I took my car in today for an oil change and had them look into a noise I was hearing from the passenger side front suspension. Turns out something or the other was broken and they didn't want me driving it for fear of a tire puncture during a hard turn. So I picked up a car from Budget which I'll be driving until the part comes in and they install it (a couple of days on the outside).

The car is fairly new Dodge Avenger. I like how the exterior looks, kinda badass, but it doesn't handle like it looks it might. Looks like a dolphin, handles like a manatee. I think it should trademark that in case dodge wants to use it in advertisements.

I had an "interesting" conversation with another patron at Carmax while my car was being inspected. I was sitting in the waiting area and SportsCenter was on. I was reading "With the Lightenings" a great novel by David Drake, and this dude sits down by me and starts commenting on the story being covered by ESPN. The story was about Roger Clemens. I don't follow sports, but I do remember the congressional hearings on performance enhancing drugs. Why was Roger Clemens returning to Congress?

From the LA Times:

The charges stem from Clemens' testimony before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform in 2008. Clemens, who was mentioned multiple times in the Mitchell Report, told the committee he had "never taken steroids or HGH."

So this guy said "You think the government has more important things to do then bring Roger Clemens back."

I glanced up and he was looking right at me. I think he's missing the point, but I just shrug and go back to my novel. So he said "I mean it costs them hundreds of thousands of dollar to do this and that could be money better spent making jobs for people." I was about to say something, but thought otherwise and said "Yeah, probably." And back to my book.

A few minutes later he says "I mean I've been a cop for 20 years and there's tons of more dangerous drugs out there. Heroin, cocaine, and these guys get all worked up because baseball players want to make themselves a little bigger."

Finally I said

"Well...I agree that congress probably had better things to do than investigate drug use in major league baseball, however, Roger Clemens is under fire now because he most likely committed several acts of perjury. Whether or not you believe HGH and steroids are bad, and regardless of what you think of the original investigation, the man gave false testimony to the United States Congress, and that cannot stand."

The man looked at me for a few seconds then said "Yeah, but there are tons of drugs that are more dangerous that you can get on the street."

I opened my mouth, then I closed my mouth and went back to my novel. The voice of my good friend Fast Eddie in my ear "Pick your battles, dude. Pick your battles."

the way of coordinated power

Much has happened in the past month. Spring quarter ended, Summer quarter began, I moved in with The Fighting Librarian, and I started (in earnest) a Korean martial art called Hapkido.

Some of you may know that I tried my hand (no pun intended) at the Japanese martial art, Aikido, a while back. The philosophy of Aikido was extremely interesting to me. The best way I can describe Aikido is that it is a non-violent martial art. It emphasizes balance, coordinated motion, and respect for your attacker. Your goal in Aikido is to take your opponents energy and us it against him/her. It rarely, if ever, teaches strength vs. strength. Anecdotally, I once practiced with a woman who was probably 50 years old, probably 5' tall and a biscuit over 100 pounds. Using some simple techniques, she threw my 200 pounds around the mat like i was a rag doll. We were taught ways to redirect the attacker's force and use that same energy to subdue, pin, or generally immobilize the attacker. There were ways to make the techniques more unpleasant for the attacker, but in general it felt like you were putting your opponent to bed. You took their energy and used it to put them on the ground. Then you applied a wrist or arm lock until they felt uncomfortable and asked you to stop (tapped out). Then you released and backed away. Aikido is often called a soft form, or a soft martial art. If someone throws a punch, you don't try to block it, you simply blend with it, redirecting the energy and putting it to your own use. Since you never meet force head on with more force, Aikido is called a soft form or a soft martial art.
A practitioner of a hard martial art once said that fighting a practitioner of Aikido was like trying to fight a ghost.
There are several Dojos that teach aikido in the greater columbus area, but I decided to join The Fighting Librarian's Dojang where I knew some people and my friend Sam wanted to start at the same time.

Now, Hapkido is very similar to Aikido as you can probably tell from the name. The difference being Hapkido incorporates some hard forms and also some weapons training. On one of the first days after I joined, we were doing some techniques that are similar to Aikido. In Aikido, if someone were grabbing your wrist, you can turn their arm, take their balance, and put them on the ground. In Hapkido, we learned to turn the attacker's arm, take his balance....but now you take his arm across your leg, strike down to shatter the elbow, then strike across to break the jaw. Therein lies the difference.
In Aikido, you leave your attacker in a position where he doesn't want to you attack you again. In Hapkido, you leave your attacker in a position where he isn't physically able to attack you again.

I'm very much enjoying my practice as it gives me an escape from my otherwise sedentary lifestyle. That, and it gives me a better chance against Fast Eddie's attack ninjas. I take my yellow belt test August 13th. I'll let you all know how it goes.

-SP

When does the searching stop?

 "Bang Pop" is in the running to be the next Freshman on MTV's Freshman 5. 

Vote for their video here:http://freshmen.mtvu.com/

This picture is awesome.

From the time I was a little boy I always imagined what it would be like to have my house filled with water. Not in the flash flood/my life is ruined, kind of way. I just wondered what it would feel like to swim through my.....
UGH!
I just got stuck in a 20 minute "conversation" with my neighbor. She has two dogs Bella and Petey. I have my back door opened to get a breeze and I heard her say "Peter?" I thought she was talking to her dog, but then a minute later I heard her say "Hey Peter?" so I poked my head out and said, "Marci? Are you talking to me?" and she said "No, my dog. But how are you?"
Now, I try to avoid my neighbor because although she is nice and well intentioned she communicates as though most of her brain has been burned away by a decades long addiction to crystal meth...probably because as far as I can tell her brain has been burned away by a decades long addiction to crystal meth.
She talks and she talks and she wanders from one subject to another, so "we" start out talking about her day and how she was cleaning houses with her daughter (who is pretty cool) and then I get to learn about her former 80 year old boyfriend in cleveland who retired at 51 and I get to hear about how she loves the jewish community up there because they are such big tippers during Christmas.
Me: "You mean Hanukah?"
Marci: "What?"
Me: "Well, the Jews usually-."
Marci: "And you know we used to clean houses of all the rich doctors and they didn't live in really nice neighborhoods and my son is going to fix my car because someone hit my car when it was parked on the street and..."

And so I stand and watch her little dogs bound around our shared backyard and I listen for the slightest pause so I can say "I really need to get back in..." but there is no such pause. The woman must be circularly breathing or something. I just can't interrupt people, at least not people I don't know very well. When telemarketers call, when greenpeace comes knocking at my door... as long as they keep talking I keep listening.

Eventually I get a word in and tell her I have to go back inside to do school work.
Marci: "Oh Sure, I understand."
Peter opens his door and gets one foot inside.
Marci: "So how is school, you acing everything?"
Peter: "Yep, school is going very well. Well goodnight!"
Marci: "How much do you have left before you graduate."
Peter: "Probably a couple of years. Have a nice night."
Marci: "That's great. Are you ready to....

UGH. Finally I have to interrupt her. I apologize profusely but I REALLY have to get some more work done. She stares at me blankly and I take this as my cue to run inside and throw the deadbolt.

I will never, ever try crystal meth.

Hoppy Birsdai to me