Look Upon My Works, Ye Mighty, And Despair

[anarchist_nomad]

Astute readers will have noticed that I have not yet written the promised summary of January and February. Do not abandon hope, all ye faithful! I still plan to do a synopsis, as there were several important events and milestones in that time. Not least of which were two weekend adventures -- one in Cambridge and one in Essex[*] -- to celebrate important anniversaries. At the very minimum, I plan to write a travelogue for each before embarking on my next weekend adventure in eight days!

Meanwhile, what has March (i.e., this week) brought to everybody's favourite Nomad?

For starters, I have been doing a fair bit of bell ringing. On Monday evening, I visited mattp in north London to ring at his tower[**]. This is the first time that I have rung outside of Oxford, and only the fifth church that I have rung at. The band is definitely inexperienced, but I had a good time and even called for the first time. Just one course of Plain Hunt -- so nothing noteworthy -- but still a first for me. After the practice, we all went out to the pub for a bit, then mattp and I went back to his place where he introduced me to Project Euler. On Tuesday, I rang with the OUSCR and practiced my Plain Bob Major a couple of times. Right now, as I write this, I am on the Oxford Tube, heading back to London for the weekly ringing practice at St. Giles... where I hope to practice some touches of the newest method that I am learning: Grandsire Doubles.

During the day, progress at work has been good, which never fails to make me a happy camper physicist! With the start of the month, our three first year students have finally completed all of their coursework and other responsibilities. This means that, from here on in, their only purpose is to do research. Two of them have opted to work on tasks related to Super-Kamiokande, which is my specialty in our group. That makes them effectively "my" students, to train and to work with. There takes a bit of effort in the beginning, when they don't know anything, but in time it should prove to be quite a productive relationship. In any case, having them present keeps me more focused during the day. This means that I am less likely to be found poking about online, either for fun or mundane tasks, but it also means that progress in physics proceeds as a quicker pace! I came up with a particularly clever idea yesterday, solving a problem that had consumed most of Tuesday, which made me feel rather smart. That's good -- I like feeling smart.

In between work during the day and my extracurricular activities in the evening, I seem to have taken up a new sport: Bus racing. Or, to be more specific, bus versus bicycle racing. The score currently stands at 3 to 1... with me in the lead. It started about a week ago, when I drove cheshcat to a morning appointment. Traffic in Oxford make the short drive take far longer than it should have, which started making me stressed about getting to work. When I was finally ready to head in, I saw the bus in the distance as I cycled towards the stop. Missing it by under a minute, I decided to race it to the next stop rather than wait until the next bus arrived. I am not known for my patience at waiting, and I figured that I had nothing to lose. Indeed, I won and got on the bus. Nomad: 1, Bus: 0. Seems that bus racing is addictive, though. In the past twenty-five hours, I have ended up racing the bus three more times. Yesterday, I had a dinner date with TW, dr_jen, and cheshcat. Leaving Kensington Gardens, I saw the coach pulling up behind me. No problem -- this has happened before. The coach passes me just before the stop, and I catch up whilst it is picking up passengers. Except that, this time, there were none at the stop so the coach kept right on going. Eeep! Once again, I figured that I had nothing to lose and did not want to be late for dinner. Thus, I kicked myself into overdrive and chased the bus from Notting Hill Gate to Shepard's Bush... and won! Nomad: 2, Bus: 0. This morning, as I cycled to the bus stop, I saw the coach pulling away in the distance. What the heck, why not race it again? I was starting from further behind this time, so I did not make it to the next stop before the bus had left. However, there is one more stop left in Oxford, at the Thornhill Park & Ride. So I kept on going and made it, once again! Nomad: 3, Bus: 0. Alas, all good things must come to an end! Leaving work this evening, I saw the bus pulling away from the Notting Hill Gate stop when I was a couple of blocks away. I was starting from much behind than in any of the previous cases, but I decided to give it a go. It was close... but this time the bus won. It pulled away from Shepard's Bus -- the last stop in London -- just seconds before I caught up with it! Nomad: 3, Bus: 1. Not sure why I have been just barely missing the bus at my regular stops lately, but it is nice to know that I can [usually] catch up! The extra exercise certainly doesn't hurt any, either![***]

Also this week, I have been re-reading The Watchmen, in preparation for seeing the film on Friday. I originally read this series in late 2000 -- over eight years ago! I loved it then and I think that I might even appreciate it even more now! With over twenty years of collecting experience, I can confidently say that it is definitely one of the best comic books that I have ever read. Possibly the best. The level of detail is incredible! Just as Edgar Allen Poe once said that one must choose every word carefully when writing a short story, the level of detail in the writing and the art in this book is astounding! Usually, a comic book takes me ten to fifteen minutes to read. In contrast, each of the twelve issues of The Watchmen takes me one to two hours to get through! I scrutinize each panel... and it pays off! It would be possible to read this at a much faster pace, but then you would miss so much.I once loaned the series to cassiopia to read, and was amazed when she seemed unimpressed. Thinking back now, I think that she may have read it without actually reading it. Indeed, I had expected this second read to be quicker, since I have read it before. Instead, it is just as slow -- if not slower -- as I notice new things. Some just escaped me before, others I can appreciate because I know how the story ends... so the signs and portents are noticeable to me. Ten issues down, two to go before seeing the film tomorrow evening.

That said, although I am ridiculously re-excited about reading The Watchmen, I am fairly certain that the film is going to suck. For years, I had used this story as an example of something that you couldn't make a movie of. There is just too much there to make it work. Alan Moore, the writer, agrees. According to this article, he will be "spitting venom all over it." I think that gyades had the right idea when he said that this sounds have been done as a television mini-series[***]. That would give the time to properly develop the story and do it justice. Whilst I dearly hope to be wrong, I fully expect my impression of the film tomorrow to be quite negative. Good special effects, I am sure, with a pathetic translation of the plot. We shall see...

What else has been noteworthy this week? As mentioned above, since there was no bell ringing last night, the extracurricular for the evening was a very nice dinner -- which I was on time for! -- with cheshcat and TW and dr_jen at a Turkish restaurant in Headington. Although it is very near to our [as yet unnamed] flat, I had not been there before. The food was quite good, so I expect that I shall be back there again. The company was quite good, too, though I cannot credit the restaurant for that!

Finally, in the interest of presenting the bad with the good, there has been one negative to this week: I seem to be plagued with a lack of sleep. Even when I go to bed early, I have been having trouble getting good quality sleep... and I can feel the effects during the day. It cuts into productivity and also makes me less my normal bouncy self when out with friends (like mattp on Monday or dr_jen on Wednesday) or when talking to special people (like the delightful tawneypup) on the phone. Thankfully, I think I understand what is causing the trouble... which means that I should have a decent shot at solving it.

Still, I don't like to end on a negative note -- even a small one -- so I will say that I am very much looking forward to seeing some of you bright and shiny people very soon, this weekend, at Brighton BiFest! Yay!!!

So that is the Great Nomad Update (GNU) for this week! Tune in next time, gentle readers, for more... ah, but that would be telling, wouldn't it?

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[*] Specifically Colchester, Southend-on-Sea, and Chelmsford.

[**] By use of the possessive here, I mean that he is the tower captain.

[***] Actually, sometimes it does hurt in the short run... but in a way that is ultimately good for me.

[****] Which balances nicely, aesthetically speaking, as the story was originally a comic book mini-series.