Spent most of the day cleaning the apartment. Most of the week was spent organizing but today I did cleaning. Vacuumed the apartment sucking up little dust balls that had accumulated in the corners. Those dust balls are gone now! The apartment stills need to be organized some more but I now have a framework to build on. I’ve paid a large startup cost but the price of maintenance and improvements will be smaller (hopefully!).

I’ve made lots of progress with Haskell. Large parts of the “Gentle Introduction to Haskell” now make sense to me. Infinite Data Structures still throw me for a loop and it’s something I need to revisit.

2 more new recipes under my belt. Marinara sauce and Polenta. That makes it 6 or 7 new recipies I’ve tried depending on the criteria. Polenta with Marinara sauce is really filling. I was going to make Lentil soup for dinner but was still full from the lunch I had. I’ll try to make the Lentil soup with Lamb chops tomorrow. I figure I’ll get to at least 8 new recipes. A little short of my goal of 10 but a good accomplishment for me.

Link: Buzz Game: Home.

The Tech Buzz Game is a fantasy prediction market for high-tech products, concepts, and trends

A fun little game where you pick technologies like stock.
My picks:
Javascript
Skype
Mac OS X Tiger
Wordpress
Mac Hardware
Podcasting
Lisp
REST
43 Things
FireFox
Ubuntu
Ruby On Rails
Ruby
Groovy

Spent most of the morning at University Village getting items to help me organize the apartment better. I finally picked up a confetti cut shredder. I’m going to spend tonight shredding away a bunch of old receipts, bank statements and other documents. Confetti cut is the best technology available to the consumer. But a determined attacker can still piece together the various bits of confetti. Ideally, I want my shredder to reduce what I feed to it into little pieces of nano particles. Then it burns the nano particles with a nuclear fusion powered incinerator. Afterward it ships my burnt nano particles to a nuclear waste facility. I like to see someone try to reassemble my documents after that process.

I’m going to try and make pasta with marinara sauce today. I’ve got the list of ingredients in my pocket and I’ll make a run to the grocery store later.

I’ve spent the last 4 days at the Victrola with my PowerBook. The Caffe Ladro is a nicer place to read but the Victrola is better if you want to use your computer cos they have Wifi.

Link: O’Reilly Network Safari Bookshelf - Hackers & Painters.

What big companies do instead of implementing features is plan them.
- Paul Graham

All of us had been trained by Kelly Johnson and believed fanatically in his insistence that an airplane that looked beautiful would fly the same way.
- Ben Rich, Skunk Works

I just got done with “Hackers and Painters”. If you have not read the essays on PG’s website, then this would be a great purchase. There is a good mixture of essays ranging from lisp advocacy, programming language discussions to starting a startup. Most of the essays can be read on his website. There only seem to be minor tweaks in the book. Nothing major.

Two of the strongest essays I’ve enjoyed are “The Other Road Ahead” and “Taste for Makers”. Although TORA starts talking about the web replacing the PC, it goes off to discussing how big companies don’t get anything until much later. That notion rings true to me after events from the last couple of months. The PG quote from above was taken from this essay. TFM should be read by people who plan on designing and making things. The entire essay tries to drill various design heuristics into your brain. If you stop and think about it, they make sense especially if put into context of beautifully designed things (for me they were: SR-71, Porsche 911, Armani Suits, Lisp).

Sometimes I’m irked by his elitist attitude (LFM vs LFSP, Python Paradox) but I finally understand why I enjoy Paul Graham’s writing. He is a programmer who can write. Or a writer who can program. When I’m reading his essays, there are numerous moments where I go “That’s Exactly It!”. He writes what I’m thinking subconsciously but not able to express consciously.

Go Dawgs!

Update: Darn! The Huskies went down in the sweet 16.

Woke up earlier even though I went to bed later last night. I browsed the web for a couple of minutes and then went running. Muscles are still a little sore. I don’t usually get sore from running. My only explanation is that I don’t normally run on concrete. I tend to run on asphalt and other softer surfaces. The concrete is something I need to get used to and be wary of injuries arising from running on it. I ran for the same amount of time but I had to tackle a uphill headwind route this morning. So my quick assessment is that I did better today. It’s still too cold for me though. I found it hard to suck down oxygen especially towards the end.

Dinner last night didn’t go so bad. Made something in between a stew and porridge with onion, garlic, rosemary, mushrooms, rice and beef stock. Fairly tasty and I have quite a bit leftover. Looks like I’m not cooking anything for dinner today. On the subject of cooking, I’ve been wondering what else to make this week. Here are some thoughts

• Spaghetti with Marinara sauce
• Penne with Vodka sauce
• Tomatoes stuffed with rice
• Lentil soup
• Grilled lamb chops

The only one I’m unsure about is the tomatoes stuffed with rice. I’m a little oven phobic but the dish looks pretty straightforward. This is should get me close to my goal of 10 new dishes. I’ve made 4 new dishes. Another 6 to go. I’ll come close to my goal if I don’t accomplish it.

“Hackers and Painters: Big Ideas from the Computer Age” (Paul Graham) is now available on Safari. I’ve read most of PG’s essays online but there appear to be a few that are exclusive to the book. It should make for a quick enjoyable read over the next couple of days.

Starting hacking on haskell yesterday and today, didn’t get too much into it. Fiddled around with the haskell mode on emacs because it wasn’t indenting things to my liking.

When I woke up this morning, I felt really good. Like an enormous weigh that had been on my chest had been lifted. It was the first time in ages I had slept that well. Interesting what a nice bit of rigorous cardiovascular exercise does to the body and soul. The hamstring and upper back feel a little sore though. Guess I’m not getting any younger. Oh well, we do what we can to fight back the ravages of time :)

I’m still well after the minor disaster in cooking yesterday. The chicken was burning but I wasn’t sure the meat had been cooked completely. It looked alright and the fact I’m still standing must mean I didn’t mess up too badly. Need to be careful with meat; sometimes it feels like a game of russian roulette. It didn’t turn out too badly though. The chicken was only slightly charred but it tasted alright. I need to marinate the meat better to prevent it from burning up so quickly. The balsamic vinegar, olive oil, rosemary marinate (courtesy of the Rachael Ray book) worked well. Next time, instead of using a skillet I might use a grill instead and put some olive oil on the surface in case I didn’t marinate properly again.

Watched an episode of “7 Days” and enjoyed it. Wondered why it got cancelled. Probably because it was science fiction. Pity! Spent an hour clearing up the clutter around the house and got rid of a small pile. Couple more piles to go….

Decided to head to the Victrola and get a cup of coffee. Brought the PowerBook to write this entry. The weather in Seattle has been a little schizo the last couple of days. Over the weekend, we been treated to strong winds and torrential rains. I woke up one morning last week and just lay in bed listening to the wind howl outside my window. I thought global climate change (ala Day After Tomorrow) had meant typhoons were coming to Seattle. But when I opened my eyes this morning, I was treated to a burst of sunshine coming through the blinds.

I’m definitely feeling carefree today. In part because I’m on vacation, the nice weather, and the endorphin rush from the run yesterday. I’m hoping it continues for the rest of the week.

Link: The Eyes of Nye. (taken from slashdot)

We were just talking about him the other day when a colleague was firing his Nerf guns at me. My comment “Looks like something Bill Nye the science guy came up with. Wonder what happened to him?” Wonder no more! Looks like his coming back with a new show. KCTS April 5, 8 p.m. Remember to add to my Tivo recording schedule.