Mindless Philosopher

Last weekend I partook in the quintessential New Jersey experience: using its highways to travel to Philadelphia and New York City. On Saturday, Gayle and I decided to be tourists in Philly (since my previous experiences with the city of brotherly love have been less than ideal). First stop was the Constitution Center. This relatively new museum was quite interactive (in fact, the first exhibit is a historical high-tech, 360º video show with a live actor narrating). The rest of the museum is in the shape of a donut, with the general idea being that you move forward in time, learning how the constitution has evolved. The problem is that they have so little space, that information on modern-day politics gets mixed in with the Jeffersonian artifacts. So, it’s a bit discombobulated.
The most interesting interactive device was the “Can you vote?” machine. At each time period, you picked a state, and answered questions about yourself (age, race, gender, etc.). And when you answered a question in such a way to disenfranchise you, the machine made a loud buzz and displayed a red “DENIED” on the screen. A good wake-up call for what “democracy” really meant in the first two-thirds of our country’s history. (Go late 1700’s New Jersey, though!)
We had an early all-you-can-eat dim sum dinner before playing Philadelphia mini-golf. Franklin square had a course set up with all the sites of Philly as holes: Love park, boat house row, art museum, Ben Franklin bridge, etc. So I got to see all those sites, without actually having to go to the sites :) We finished off the evening with the “Lights of Liberty,” a video show that is projected on historic buildings in the historic district. The content was a bit less informative than I had hoped, but it was an appropriate ending to an educational day.
My New York City experience, on Sunday, was more social than enlightening. I hung out with Alissa, as we enjoyed the weather and gossiped about politics. Then I saw lots of old MIT Hillel folk at Andy & Bracha’s engagement party. Quite the amount of yummy food.
On an entirely different topic, today I hope my party comrades in Connecticut and Georgia can knock off two of my least favorite Democrats. For predictions, I’m going with Lamont 56 – Lieberman 44 in the CT-Sen primary and Johnson 59 – McKinney 41 in the GA-4 run-off election.
If Lamont does win, I hope the pundits can move past the war issue and see, as Rahm Emanuel does, that:

“What’s playing out here is that being a rubber stamp for George Bush is politically dangerous to life-threatening.”

Progressive Dems want their party to be an opposition party, and if you represent a state or district filled with progressive Dems (see: CT), don’t enable GW Bush and the Republicans.

Update to previous post: I forgot to post the question I submitted. Needless to say, I wasn’t picked:

Ms. Rowling: You’ve said the first characters you thought of were: Harry, Ron, Hagrid, Nearly Headless Nick, and Peeves — all male. From the Order to the Marauders, women seem to be in the minority when it comes to important roles in the books. And while I find Hermione’s blurring of gender lines positive, it seems that the characters with feminine traits are either mean (Umbridge) or trivial (the twins). I would love your thoughts on feminine role models in your books.

Thanks to Chicklet for the general idea of the question. Taren brought up Mrs. Weasley, but it doesn’t seem that she does much for the Order and Dumbledore even makes fun of her motherly instincts in HBP. Janeite thinks Ginny exhibits feminine qualities, though I’m not so sure (Quidditch team star and all). I think Tonks might be a good exception…other thoughts?

Well, my softball team lost, but I had a grand time in NYC at the JK Rowling, John Irving, and Stephen King event. My brother came down from Boston to join me for the event since he’s a huge Stephen King fan. I’ll give a rundown of the event here, but I think there are videos available at fan sites.
First, Whoopi Goldberg introduced the whole event. She was moderately funny, and some of her side comments made it clear that she hadn’t actually written the material in front of her (she skipped whole paragraph-jokes at one point). She let us know that we were going to see lots of famous people tonight — more than just the highly successful authors, and welcomed Kathy Bates onto the stage so that she could intro Stephen King. Each author got their own mini-stage with a seat to read from. King’s looked very rural (true to his Maine roots) and he read a story about a kid that throws up at a pie eating contest and makes everyone else vomit.
Next came the guy from Homicide: Life on the Street to introduce John Irving. Irving sat in a high-brow, leather chair befitting of the academic that he is. Irving read from Owen Meany — the part where Owen convinces Barb and Rev Wiggin to change the Christmas pageant. Marc and I agreed that the Volkswagen scene would have been funnier, but as the WaPo pointed out, the chosen scene was more kid-friendly.
Next, Jon Stewart came out to introduce Jo. He received the second loudest applause of the evening. Jon cracked jokes about Mel Gibson, his kids being Potter maniacs (funnier since his youngest if 5 months old), and how books are killing his television career. The audience corrected him on his pronunciation of Rowling (rhymes with bowling). At long last, Rowling was welcomed on stage, to a half-standing-ovation. She read from Half-Blood Prince — the scene where Albus tells Tom Riddle that he is a wizard.
JK, as well as the others, answered questions. Alas, we couldn’t torture any information out of her that pertains to Book 7. We found out that all potions have a magical element to them (thus a Muggle can’t brew a potion), and that Ollivander has chosen his wand cores because of the magical creatures indigenous to the UK — and because Phoenix, Dragon, and Unicorn were JK’s favorite :) Stephen King admitted that he gets scared of everything and intimated that he once got a good story idea while having sex.
The Tuesday crowd apparently got JK to reveal that Dumbledore is actually dead.
I took some pics on my cell phone but they turned out terribly: better ones are here.
Update: I forgot to post the question I submitted. Nedless to say, I wasn’t picked:

You’ve said the first characters you thought of were: Harry, Ron, Hagrid, Nearly Headless Nick, and Peeves — all male. From the Order to the Marauders, women seem to be in the minority when it comes to important roles in the books. And while I find Hermione’s blurring of gender lines positive, it seems that the characters with feminine traits are either mean (Umbridge) or trivial (the twins). I would love your thoughts on feminine role models in your books.

Not such a happy couple days for me sports-wise. First, I went to cheer on the local women’s soccer team, the New Jersey Wildcats, as they played their rivals the Ottawa Fury for in the Eastern Conference championship. Unfortunately for the unbeaten Wildcats, before the day even started they lost two of their better players to Canadian National Team Duty and one more to injury. But devastation occurred in the 30th minute when a hard tackle took our Brazilian star, Formiga, out of the game. But those 30 minutes were practically worth the price of admission. That women can do amazing feats with the soccer ball — she was literally two cuts above anyone else on the field. She had the assist on NJ’s first goal (the game’s opener), but then Ottawa came back with three unanswered to bring us into halftime down 3-1. We got one more back after the break, but it wasn’t enough, and the Wildcats’ (formerly-) perfect season came to a close.
Today’s A-league softball playoff game was even more disappointing. We were up the whole game and led 11-6 going into the final inning. Our opponents then proceeded to score 7 runs and take the lead. With one out in our half of the inning, I got on base, but the top of the lineup (I hit last) just couldn’t get it done, and I was stranded on second to end the game. The only silver lining is that the tourney is double-elimination. The team just has to win four straight, including a double-header tomorrow.
I actually won’t be able to play tomorrow night, as I’m attending “An Evening With Harry, Carrie and Garp.” But more on that in tomorrow’s post.
And lest I forget, as fashiongrrl mentioned: CONGRATS to “Enjaborg and Enjaboi.” (Update: Enjanerd’s post is up.)

So, the conference was fine. Made some good contacts. Presented my poster. Got some good ideas (possibly even my first “new, good idea” that’s so crucial for research.) Oh, yeah, and it was 110°F…and the A/C broke. Ick. But enough of that, let’s reminisce about the good old days of Spain. Who needs Lonely Planet when you’ve got:
How to Survive in Spain on 20 Euros a Day

• Breakfast should be served by your youth hostel in the common area and be free, provided that you wake up before 10am. Seems like all the hostels collude are serve exactly the same thing: orange juice, one non-sugared flaky cereal, one sugared chocolate rice crispie-ish cereal, and bread. Enjoy!
• During the day you’ll want to tour whichever city you are in, and visit some museums. The museums are usually dirt cheap (if not free), assuming that you haven’t left your international student ID card home. Spend about 2.50€ on site-seeing. Make sure you’re indoors for the dreaded noon-2pm period: trust me, you don’t want to be in the sun then.
• While walking around, invest in a large bottled water for you and your companion: 0.80€.
• Lunch should be around 3pm. I hope you’re hungry, because lunches in Spain are huge. Get the “Menu del Dia,” which consists of a drink, bread, two courses, and dessert. Walk around the city, surveying the restaurants until you find a meal from a nice place for 7€. (You’ll find deals from disreputable places for 6€ or 6.50€ — avoid.) Eat up as dinner won’t be until late in the evening.
• Walk around some more in the afternoon, visiting a nice garden to relax in. Grab some ice cream (or “helado”) for 1.50€ and then head back to the hostel for your daily siesta.
• Dinner is around 8pm or, more likely, 9pm and should consist of tapas. The more you ate for lunch, the less you’ll have to spend on dinner. One tapas serving, plus drink and a shared dessert should cost you at most 8€.
• Head over to the main part of the city and start collecting the special invites to clubs. Tons of poorly-paid street workers will be handing out these coupons. They’ll get you in free to a mediocre place (that’s guaranteed to be filled, since everyone is doing the same thing you are). If you’re lucky, your coupon will also get you a drink. Dance the night away.
• Sleepwalk back to the hostel and crash. But wake up before 10am so that breakfast is free!

Let’s see: 0.80 + 7 + 2.5 + 8 + 1.5 = 19.80€ … and you get to pocket that extra 20 euro cents!

Had (/am having) some flight adventures today as I slowly make my way toward UC-Davis for the Political Methodology Conference. It started when I slept through my New Jersey Transit airport stop. I’ve been sleeping on buses, subways, and trains ever since I was a kid, and I believe the last time I failed to wake up for my stop was in elementary school. (In that case, I woke up as the bus doors were closing on my corner, and I alerted the bus driver halfway up the next street.) Back in 2000, I woke up suddenly thinking that the Metro was at my stop, hurriedly jumped out, only to realize that it was the stop before mine. But today my streak ended as I fell victim to a confluence of unfortunate events: I had to hurry to catch the train so I was tired; I didn’t intend to fall asleep so I didn’t prepare my body to wake up when the train stopped; they weren’t announcing stops over the PA; the train was running early so when I woke up and looked at my watch I thought my stop was next, when in fact we were at the stop after mine; the stop after mine was Newark Penn Station, and I failed to realize that Newark Airport comes before Newark Penn Station. Thus, when I finally realized my predicament, the plan was a relatively simple one: get off at Secaucus Junction and take the short cab ride. That plan was foiled when the train zoomed past Secaucus–I had somehow picked one of two off-peak trains that don’t stop at Secaucus. Instead, I found myself in Manhattan. Thankfully, since the train was still ahead of schedule, I was able to hop on the first train leaving NYC in the opposite direction, and I arrived at the airport in time to get on the stand-by list, and then finally grab a seat. (My professor, it turned out, was on the same flight–in first class of course!)
My adventures didn’t stop there, however. Though we arrived in Minneapolis with plenty of time to make our connection, the flight to Sacramento was cancelled due to mechanical problems. So we scurried over to a counter as asked if there was anyway to get to either Sac., San Fran, or Oakland. The answer was initially “no” (weather problems in Minn. exacerbated the issue), but the friendly woman found a flight to SF through Vegas. San Fran is a good two hours away from Davis, so I enlisted the help of Chicklet as we tried to find suitable ground transport.
Several calls to van services resulted in nothing. And the rental call companies wouldn’t let us pick up the car in SF and leave in elsewhere. So we went back to a Northwest counter to turn in our tickets and resign ourselves for an overnight stay in MN. But, the woman checked again, and *now* there were seats available on a later flight to Sacramento! What luck (kind of). So now I’m killing three hours in the twin cities (or, the airport thereof)…if we had stayed overnight I would have tried to get in contact with DogNewTricks, but there’s really no point now.
And thus, hopefully (!), ends our saga.

Haven’t blogged since I returned from Spain (via London and DC). I blame the bad cold/mild fever I caught on my last day in Barcelona. Thanks to Janeite and Rupa for taking care of me in London. To wrap up the goings-ons of the trip: Saturday we went to Figueres (Salvador Dali museum) and then Girona (Roman ruins and Jewish museum), both of which were a Train ride from Barca. The Dali museum had some very inventive “art”. For instance, you would look through this pair of reverse-binoculars and the room which you had been walking through all of a sudden turned into a face. Girona’s Jewish museum had gravestones from the 13th Century and other ancient artifacts (e.g., Passover Haggadahs).
Sunday, we met up with the Utes and headed off to the beach. As with most beaches in Europe, the women were not nearly as modest as they are in the States. A fully naked guy was told to move to the nude beaches around the bend — though there was some “disagreement” on that point. He managed to gain a few followers who also dropped trou in a display of civil liberties solidarity. Coincidentally, we later saw Naked Guy walking the streets of Barcelona in his usual outfit! No cops harassing him there though.
Then, one French head-butt later, Italy WON THE WORLD CUP, and the streets of Barca went nuts. A couple of flash mobs sparked in the vicinity of our hostel — see pics for visuals, and note the guy who has climbed the lamppost. Obviously there were bigger celebrations in Italy (Elf traveled to Rome just in time for the parade the next day), but it was still a cool sight.
Monday, my rhinovirus and I traveled back to London, where Janeite, Rupa, and I swapped stories for the previous week before heading to the Royal Opera House for a performance of Turnadot. The plot outline promised riddles, but they weren’t very good ones…though I guess the whole point of Opera is the music and singing. Both of those features were impressive, but to be honest, I wouldn’t really know.
And now I’m back, working (and procrastinating) on projects before the methods conference in California (UC-Davis) at the end of this week.

I feel as though I’m only able to blog a third to a half of my experiences, hopefully I can fill in some of the gaps when I’m back in the States. Today we toured all of Gaudí’s works, starting with the huge Sagrada Familia. It’s this amazing church (not a cathedral) still under construction about 100 years after work was started on it. Those in charge of construction estimate that the project will be completed by around 2020. I truly cannot express how incredible the architecture is. Please do a google search and check it out for yourself. Gaudí’s other creations that we visited weren’t as impressive, but were still quite creative.
This evening we met up with Utes (amazingly we had the same schedule: Madrid, Sevilla, Barcelona) and traveled up to Montjuic, a hill that overlooks the city. The elevated area includes a national palace, a castle, gardens, and the “Magic Fountain,” which I described as the Epcot fountains on ‘roids, and put to music. Elf’s better digital camera was more able to capture the fluorescent colors of the light on the water: she´ll post her pics after her Italy trip and hopefully you’ll get a sense of the “magic” then.
Tonight we’re hitting the clubs of Las Ramblas again. Last night we successfully found a free club with decent music. Hopefully we’ll be able to repeat or improve upon that experience. Tomorrow, the Utes and us are off to Girona (ancient Roman city) and the Salvador Dali museum a few towns further west.

anI don´t have nearly as much time to blog as I did in London or my first day in Madrid, but suffice it to say that the trip is going fabulusly. I´m in Sevilla, with Elf and the Utes, plus their Brazilian friends who have been studyind Spanish at the local University for the past month. In Madrid, we checked out the night life (which rivals NYC´s), the Royal Palace, and the Modern Art Museum. Here in Sevilla, we´ve seen the huge Cathedral, the Royal fort/palace, Flamenco Dancing, and the old Jewish quarter (lots of small alleys, but no synagogues left). We´ve also been eating a lot of Tapas and Paella.
Hasta Luego!

Well, my Spanish still sucks. Turns out that three years of HS Spanish doesn´t exactly cut it in Madrid. The good news is that most people who sell goods or services know a little English. The true test will be on Tuesday when Elf and I travel to the smaller city of Sevilla. I think we´re less likely to run into English speakers there.
Madrid is a wonderful city, despite cautions to the contrary by former travelers. The streets are very pedestrian friendly and fabulous cafes dot the main plazas. We´re staying downtown in a youth hostel (Elf arrives tomorrow) and I´ve already made some good friends from teh University of Utah. The only big thing on the agenda today was going to the Prado. We (the Utes and I) saw paintings by El Greco, El Busco, and Picasso — they also had the Adam & Eve pair of paintings, recently made more famous by the cartoon intro to Desperate Housewives.
My time´s almost up at this Internet Cafe — I´m off to explore Madrid´s clubbing scene :)