baby a. arrived!

sounds from downstairs

... remembering our summer of 2007.

Singapore

Sweaty, hot and happy... mini-reunion at ACL in Singapore. We wish the rest of you were here!

Amsterdam

Reut and Jette in Reut's beautiful bright apartment :)

I got an internship at a company called Verilogue in Horsham Pennsylvannia! So I'm moving to the east coast! I'll be making some money and soon, very soon I will travel to all the exotic places you fabulous people live. But first I'm going to hang out with Filipa in NY!

4 frozen

s, a, y and r (from top clockwise) @ nijmegen

getting back to life today...

Happy New Year Everyone!

Wishing you a great 2009 filled with hope, love and happy days. :)

at the very end of 2008...

a., s. and r. on the way to pick up y. at schipol airport. more news soon.

in Amsterdam

Dear gangsters,
Another partial Gang reunion has occurred! Rui and I met Reut in Amsterdam! First we met her at her place (a very nice and cozy one, I must say) and then we had lunch nearby. It is such a good feeling to see another member of the Gang and put the conversation up-to-date!
Reut suggested a New Year's Eve party at her place. Rui and I will be in the Netherlands by then. Who's in?... This is serious!
Love and miss you all,
Su

not gone or out.

Hello Everyone,

No I have not forgotten about you, my sweet friends. This has been a rough few months for me. Classes start back up next week so I'm ready finish up and make some money. That way I can come see all of you.

The summer got off to a good start until the end of June when my sister (who is also my roommate) was in a terrible horseback riding accident. She was riding along when the horse spooked, reared up and fell backwards on top of her! Alison shattered her pelvis in ten places and cracked the ball part at the top of the femur (thigh bone). She was had surgery and was in the hospital for two weeks. Afterwards she moved to a nursing home for eight weeks. She has come home and is now nearly back to normal. Now she can walk without crutches, drive her car, and ride her bike! (Though, as an older brother I was not happy about the bike riding.)

In the mean time, I have been trying to find a job. Which, it seems, is nearly impossible for people like me. Apparently, a lot of people are out of work...

Hope to hear from you all soon, my friends. I miss you all dearly.

-G

naira @ lisboa

nota bene: i'm the one 'saari'ed.

jette @ lisboa

yonatan @ lisboa

My Lisboa!

(this was long overdue.)

While everyone blogged about their adventures *in* Lisboa, mine started even before I got there (and not in a good way). It began with, of course, my usual conundrums of getting a visa, as I discovered there is no Portuguese embassy in Dhaka and in order to get a visa I would have to fly to Delhi. Let's just say that didn't suit my schedule. :) Now the way to circumvent that is to get a visa from any other of the schengen state embassies, namely dutch, french or italian. The italian is supposed to be the most lenient (don't know why), so I applied there (which involved heaps and heaps of paperwork) and waited with bated breath and crossed fingers. now that's only the visa, then began travel problems of getting flights and connections. if I get an italian visa then italy has to be my port of entry, and I couldn't get a connection to lisbon, at least not from Dhaka. and when I finally did get something online, the stupid site wouldn't accept my amercian credit card even though it's Visa. seriously, I was running across the strangest problems, and in the meantime driving all my friends (Bengali and Portuguese) up the wall with my travel planning and qualms therein. I'm actually so accustomed to traveling with every single detail planned out beforehand that this was a good experience for me. So with my halfbaked plans I finally flew on the 2nd of June (I think), and I actually had a presentation that morning, ran home, de-'saari'ed, grabbed my suitcase and passport and rushed to the airport. after a 7 hour layover in dubai and another 7 hour layover in milan, I finally FINALLY reached lisboa, and all my troubles and stress melted away to Ana's beautiful smile, her gorgeous apartment on rua do saco, Rui and Su's warm welcoming hugs, beautiful and unusual tiled architecture, vivid mirradouros, the amazing neighbourhood of alfama, a bright fuchsia bougainvillea tree, vintage trams that go up and down, the stunning view from rui and su's apartment, the amazingly steep staircases, church bells that won't let you lose track of time, ana's enchanting marionettes that hang over the doorway and lovely little stories, su's superb parking skills and a fabulous new haircut, rui forever in stripes, warm dinner with friends and yummy bacalhau à brás, the best port wine I've ever tasted, requejão with honey and groselha, decorating the patio for santa antonia, fado music wafting here and there, the most delicious grilled sardines with sangria on a warm afternoon, driving to and fro from expo(parque das nacões) and nearly losing Mac the Ripper (goodness) in rushing to the feira do livro, watching little pidgeons dunk their heads into the waterspouts at praça martim moniz, meeting an interesting painter at castelo são jorge whose boyfriend can speak Bengali, menus that start with fish items, fat fluffy cats sitting contentedly under every hedge or bush, beautiful red-roofed houses spread out at hitherto heights reflecting the funky terrain, the amazingly ornate terrreira do paço, exploring belém and visiting le corbusier's mesmerising exhibition, taking a wonderful nap on the sunlit grass in jardim gulbenkian, rushing to Sisimbra and then rushing back to cheer for Portugal and watch them win against turkey:), failing to read the map and getting lost only to find fellow bangladeshis and indians at every corner ready to help, sweet conversations with ana, a breathtaking half molten church, taking the train to Sintra to get lost in the grottoes and secret passages of Quinta da Regaleira, and my favourites - talking the night away with Ana, going to sleep in Rui and Su's place staring into the stars, and of course Pastéis de Belém. :) :) :)

guess what...

Did anyone hear about......... this!? http://lsa2009.berkeley.edu/
Ok, who's in?
I am!

Gmail

Ever notice that people you sent emails to eons ago suddently appear on your contact list?
Well in the last 24 hours Dan Klein is on my buddy list.
He is ALWAYS online.

one year ago

our lake beautifully captured by jette                   

You will never guess

who I just saw here in CogSci 2008:

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FERMIN MOSCOSO PRADO DEL MARTIN

needless to say I almost fainted

Happy Anniversary!! :)

It really has been a year since we met! I think I met Jette first and then Jonathan and Geoff and then Ana and then Rui & Su and Reut. It's joss that we're in touch and that some of us have also met up intermittently within this one year. Love you all. Beijinhos and lots of ador.

How about a 23 day conference-free adventure...

If all goes well in the coming months, then this is being labeled as "The World's Greatest Journey by Rail" where the journey begins in London and ends in Dhaka.
"An intrepid traveler will soon be able to leave London for Brussels, Cologne, Vienna, Bucharest, Istanbul, Tehran, Quetta, Lahore, Amritsar, Delhi and Calcutta before reaching the end of the line in Dhaka."

Lisboa!!

I'm in Lisboa! It's raining and I'm tired and busy (everyone is) - but I'm in Lisboa!!!! :D
A&S&R picked me up from the airport and it almost made me cry to see them all standing there and waving. I don't think I've been picked up by that many people from an airport since the first time I came home from Lisbon for Christmas 1998 when my whole family turned up.
Everything is just as ever, only Su's hair is shorter - and looks great! ;) Ana has a great big flat, I'm really impressed, especially compared to other people's houses I've seen in Lisbon. Well, I guess that makes her a bit more grown-up... but really I'm only jealous. It's crazy to think that it's already almost a year ago since we all met!
Now I'm going to crawl into Ana's bed and tomorrow I'll see how much I remember of my favourite city.

Songs of death

Today is 'Yom Hazikaron' (day of remembrance) - The day of commemoration for soldiers who died in Israeli wars in the last 60 years. I am sitting at home listening the radio playing mourning songs and watching movies on young men and women who died prematurely.

http://www.zemereshet.co.il/song.asp?id=435

Tonight Yom Hazikaron will end and our independence day will begin.

Shubho Nobo Borsho: Happy (Bengali) New Year! 1415.

Shubho Noboborsho for the Bengali year of 1415!

love you all. miss you dearly.

Lisboa - day 4

.Hello once again - day 4.

Well, since in this very packed vacation there is no mercy for the guests, we woke up at 900 although we went to bed at 0300. R and S picked A and I in their car and we headed East!!!

We drove to Monsaraz. We got to Monte do Limpo and met Simao, Su's brother. Monte do Limpo is a vineyard and a ranch, and Simao and Claudia, his wife run it. I think it's originally owned by Claudia's family but I am not sure. We met there Su's niece, Carolina, what a gorgeous baby! and so smiley and friendly!!! We also met more family of Su. First Simao took us to eat lunch since we were starving. We went to a gorgoues reataurant in Tilheiro the nearby town where the houses are painted white and blue and everything is filled with serenity. Oh, the countryside is just marvelous. The restaurant is in this place they used to make oil in, there is a lot of art hung and it is absolutely an amazing place to eat. We had a very big 4 course lunch there and we were very very very happy.

We got back to the ranch and hung out there for a few ours again having some coffee and drinks. Simao gave a a tour of the wine factory which is ultra interesting. The process of making wine is fascinating. We saw where you make the wine, where it is stored to age, in barrels where it is later brought and where it is bottled. Of course we tasted different wines from the harvest that is still not even bottled. You can imagine this is quite a unique experience. So after being fed and getting drunk and resting and meeting family and talking and buying bottles for family and friends we drove up to the castle of Monsaraz which has another beautiful town in it and there are ruins from the Roman times I guess, the ancient walls protecting this town. We climbed on the wall and saw the amazing view of Alentejo - just vast vast open space of green and fields and an artificial lake that was formed when they build a dam 60 kms from there 5 years ago. So the views are amazing the atmoshpere peaceful, oh what a day what a day!!!

We drove from there to Evora a small town where Simao lives. We walked in the very well kept clean and beatiful city. Saw Diana's temple. A temple from the 2C for probably Diana, walked the streets, saw the Castle that dates to the 12-13c. saw the chapel of bones and went to a wonderful garden to rest. of course we had some coffee and eaten... Oh, all this was done also with Ana the friend of the gang who I met the day before in Bairro Alto.

We went to the new beautiful apartment of Simao and had dinner with them... Simao is quite a Chef.... From there we drove home and got home around 0130. What a long and exciting day!!!!

That's day 4!

Lisboa - day 3

Hello! day 3.

Ana and I went for a trip in the outskirts of Lisbon this day.
We woke up around 900 and took her car. we drove along the cost until we got to Cascais. it's a city on the Atlantic very very very picturesque and beautifu. with painted buildings and small alleys and a really good vibe all around.

First we had breakfast at this bakery place - had some bread and cheese and Croissants. Yummy. Then we walked in the alleys. I got a present for my sis - filigrana. it's silver earings that are covered with gold made of little threads of metal. really delicate and beautiful work. Then we had the best ice cream in Santini and walked more in the small town.

From there we went to Boca do inferno (mouth of hell) where the Atlantic meets a rocky cliff and sometimes it's scary apparently the way that the waves hit the cliff but the ocean was quite calm that day (great weather, did I mention?). So we sat and watched the ocean what could possibly be better than that?

We continued our journey along the Atlantic and got to a nice beach with a lot of kids and people skipping school apparently and walked a long walk along the beach. Ana spent the entire day teaching me about portuguese culture and slang it was great....

From there we went to the most western point in Europe and watched the ocean once more (Roca... I can't rem the name). Then we drove through a valley and got to an enchanting fish restaurant by a lovely beach and had lunch there. A tried to feed me weird stuff. That's all I am willing to say.

Later we went to Sintra another very colorful and lovely town surrounded my mountains. we saw the palace but didn't have time to go to the castle. We did have time to walk in the narrow alleys and nice streets, see the colorful houses and of course eat some queijadas. We really are suckers for sweets!

Then we headed back and met R and S who came back from Algarve. we had only 15 minutes to meet them but it was still enough time for a drink. We were in Chapito which is a very nice restaurant with yet again an amazing view of Lisbon. Apparently there is a circus there and the stars are all children that didn't have homes and they train then and put shows on. Nice!

Then A and I went to the amazing show of the diva Adriana Calcanhotto. it was in this antique classic concert. This was a closed concert and the opening for the new album of Adriana but somehow A got tickets and we were lucky enough to attend it. we are humming it all week it was just a once in a lifetime experience.

We later met R and A with two new friends, Vasco and Ana. We went to the clubbing scene of Lisbon which is weirdly enough outside. we stood at the corner of a street with many bars and clubs in Bairro Alto the clubbing area apparently. the street was absolutely packed with people and we hung around there and also in another corner for a few hours. There is a great atmoshpere there so many yound and beautiful people out in the street drinking and having fun. The only problem as always was that every night I am SOOO tired from the very long day I had....

We walked home from there.
And that's day 3.

Lisboa - day 2

So on Thu I woke up and R and A both had stuff to do. Su was still in Algarve.
So following A's advice I took the tram 15 to Belem from praca da Figueira (btw - if I didn't mention it of course I am very settled with a local mobile phone a public transportation ticket. We got everything on day 1).

Belem is a really really beautiful place. Again following advice I immediately went to eat pasteis de Belem which are kind of cream cakes that are very very famous. So two cakes and a coffee and I was good to go. I went up a very high monument shaped like a ship commemorating the great portuguese expeditions that started in Belem. it's really high and you get great view from there of the city and "the golden gate" bridge. afterwards I went to the chuch and monestary of Jeronimos that are really interesting architectually. Vasco de Gama and Camoes the poet are put to rest there and the whole place is made of carved stone, the ceilings are really high all in the 16th century manueline style.

Later I went to the museum of modern art where I saw a photo exhibition by a friend of Ana's - Daniel. There is some nice surreal exhibition. Of course there were a lot of kids there. I climbed the tower of belem which also gives good view and a perspective about life here 500 years ago nad then I took the tram back to have lunch with Rui

We had lunch in a hip cafe called Noo Bai in a very nice neighborhood. it was really tasty and the company was great as always. I think we talked mainly politics that day... after lunch we went to Chiado to see an exhibition by a friend of Rui. it's interactive art - a really cool thing - this guy built the Pong video game using a camera, some printer cartridges, a hair dryer and all kinds of stuff. really cool. So Rui and I played against each other.

From there we walked to R's place which is also in a very beautiful neighborhood and is really really beautiful, amazing view. They do know how to live our friends here in Lisbon. We hung out a bit and then met Ana at her place. They had to work a bit so I just read and stuff. then afterwards we had dinner together at Ana's and went to sleep since we were so tired!!!!

And that was day 2.

Lisboa - day 1

I thought I would like to remember my days here, and Rui suggested I would do it on the blog, so hey why not? I will be not very elaborate though. sorry....

I landed in Lisbon on Tuesday night. Not very surprisingly S, R and A were there to welcome me. Su got a new haircut, very movie star from the 20's looks great on her. R on the other hand grew her on the front of his head and not just the back of his head and is not homo-hairyus - a very intelligent but still wild form of life.

So you know we don't like to waste time and we immediately went for a drive in Lisbon to a few observation points from which we saw the river, the bridges the nice neighborhood of Alfama and some more I don't remember the names of, the center etc. Lisbon is kind of a hilly chaotic maze on hills with a river a lot of tiled roofs etc. very beautiful.

I am staying at A's place. which a gorgeous apartment here in the center, everything about the place is so Ana. it's just beautiful. On Wed Su had to go to Algarve to teach untul Fri. A had to go to a meeting at uni so I walked with her and she left me at the Galubenkian foundation where I went to a museum with quite an impressive collection of art from all periods. I liked the Egyptian and European rooms.

At noon I met Rui for lunch at the patio of the museum. It has a really nice garden and it was such a sunny and glorious day and we sat and talk endlessly (which is our most prominent talent undoubtedly). An hour later R had to leave but A took his place and we kept on talking. As always I had desert before the meal. Yes!

When we were done with sitting in the warming sun of the garden A and I went to the modertnart museum which had some nice exhibitions, noth video and paintings. There were many kids at the museum. I find it marvelous that there are so many young children taken to all these cultural activities. I find Portuguese people quite cultural. later A and I took a walk in Lisbon, sadly I can' t remember the names of all the places but we started more or less in a monument for the 70's revolution, walked down the gardens until Avenida de Liberdade, went through Baixa until the Praca do Comercio, and got to the river. We had a great ice cream and visited Chiado which is a fancy place where we picked up our Adriana Calcanhotto tickets. woohoo!!!!!

We kept walking home and I took a nap. then we went out for dinner downtown in this big old building like an old palace that serves food from alentego! it was really great! very nice atmoshpere and food.

After that R joined us and we went to Maxime to see a concert by Walter Benjamin a yound Portugeuse underground artist. the place is really nice (it is also a Cabaret some nights) and we sat in a booth. the music was kind of American, David Bowey, Lou Reed vibe to it. it was really a very authentic experience.

Then we went home to sleep!

And that was day 1.

I'm gonig craaaaazy

Yonatansito, it sounds as if Israeli telly is lots of fun. I'm jealous because Aussie telly sucks, but ours is always on, so I watch way to much of it. Luckily, we get a few decent British shows and this cool Danish detective show where all the detectives are cheating on their (life not police) partners and it's totally normal, no big deal. Ah, the Scandinavians... so cool and relaxed.

Anyway, I just wanted to let you all know that I'm going CRAZY because I'm running web experiments and writing papers and all at the very last second as always and Easter is coming up and I should be going to Narrandera and just hang out and a childhood friend of mine is coming on Saturday who I haven't seen in 11 years or so but I'll have no time for her because work just doesn't stop anymore for the next few weeks.

And also, I miss you all. Lots. I'm so jealous that you guys are close together and can just visit each other for a weekend and chat all day, while I'm asleep (sorry, Geoff, I know I know).

How about you all come over to Australia for my 30th birthday in December? I think that's an excellent plan! Come on!!!

Ok, I better run and get some sleep before another 14 hour work day.

Kisses, jxx

I'm with stupid

Sometimes I think I should get a blog just to write random thoughts, but hey I have you guys! Too bad you don't speak Heb and I have to translate everything in my mind. So this will basically be a lot of bla bla bla.

So today I had to give a talk, therefore I became tired, therefore I went home early, therefore I didn't feel like doing anything (i.e. drink beer with friends), therefore I laid down horizontally in my bed and watched the stupidity box (well I actually do that every time I am tired from the day and don't eel like getting pissed/social so my long apology may be a bit deceptive, so let's just assume that you don't think I am an idiot for watching the teli for hours).

So I watched two shows that cracked me up and had something in common - and I will not hold you in suspense - the key to the success is this: the world is filled with idiots! ( I assume someone will google this and use this against me at some point, hopefully I will be rich and famous and just not care by then).

So the first is the Israeli version for Survivors. I think it's season gazillion in the US but here in Israel it's season 1 and no one has ever heard of it until a few months ago but now it is a MASSIVE hit. And because no one has heard of it is a bit different than in the US. I mean, the thing about americans is that they have a system. Despite the economical crisis I still believe in you guys!!! though I hate you for the dollar going down and my scholarship losing 20%!!!!!!

So, Americans make a show, the show has a system and the system works - you know, American idol, survivors etc. etc. the people change but the system remains. Well, here in the heated Mid-East things are different. We are not about being organized and having a system. We are about people, so while in the US survivors is a bunch of ugly people trying to survive on an island and having strategic battles. In Israel they just gathered a bunch of well-tanned chicks with 300cc of you know what in their pair of you know what, and the fact that they have the intelligence of an ape (95% percent genetically identical to humans mind you) is irrelevant - Hey, they are wearing a bikini for 58 days!!!!

So what actually happens on the show is that everyone is really stupid except for this one really smart guy, and basically the entire show is seeing them being dumb-asses and him manipulating them and doing what he wants. And it's amazing - how stupid can they be. Of course they become celebs, but is being a celeb really worth the entire nation seeing that you are brainless? I am confused.

Anyway this is the first show - a massive hit. The second show is called "money cab" I don't know where the format is from. And the point is that there is this taxy driver picking up people on the street and having a game show with then - you know trivia and stuff like that. So it's a regular trivia game show only with random people from the streets. And again - it's so successful I guess because you are absolutely stunned by what type of weird ass creepos exist all around us. what is wrong with the world? why are all these weird people everywhere? So the host is basically asking the passengers questions while making fun with/of them.

So like you see I found the formula for successful tv (and very high quality as you may have noticed) - just have one smart person with a lot of weird/stupid/creepy ones and they will be happy to be famous despite being presented as stupid and everybody is entertained.

Hey! I just spent 10 minutes writing this! Yay me!








PS - I am in Lisbon too in 2 weeks moo-ha-ha-ha-ha.

Lisboa!

I'm coming! I'm coming!
The ticket isn't paid yet, but I'm so pissed of with the uni admin bullshit combined with travel booking complications I had to deal with all morning that I decided to take half an hour to paddle to the surface of the work flood that is trying to drown me and instead write to you guys. By Monday it should be all watertight. And guess what: the Lisbon trip costs me a whole AUD$85 extra on top of the university travel that they hopefully will pay for! Even I can afford that!

Ah, Lisboa! If everything goes to plan, I'll be arriving on Thursday, 22 May, leaving Sunday, 25 May. I know, it sucks that there is only one full weekend day, but it was so hard to get flights anyway and there are so many other places I have to go to. Like Marrakech... poor me!
This also means that I won't be able to spend any time in Amsterdam, although I will be flying out of there to Lisbon. But Reut, we'll be seeing each other in Marrakech. Now that the flight is almost booked we should start looking for accommodation. It seems as if LREC is the reason why flights in and out of Marrakech are getting so expensive, so maybe accommodation will become a problem too.

I suppose any real blogger would be appalled by this entry which should much rather be an email, but hey... we need to get something up here once in a while.

Lots of kisses to all of you! jxx

CompLing conferences and journals

Hello CompSci geeks I need your help!

For some political reasons I am unable to publish in the ACL (boring you don't want to hear it). I was wondering if you could recommend: which is better COLING or CoNLL? I know one is much more specific but maybe there is some prestige issue as well.

In addition, journals you recommend? I know that most CompLing stuff is in conferences but there are some journals as well so do tell me.

Thanks!
hope you are all happy happy happy

wake up, guys!...

it's her birthday today!

from the gang's partial reunion

a, n & y @ kensington gardens, london

I'm ok...

Thank you so much for your concern.

I'm sorry it took me so long to get in touch with people but everything was offline and we didn't have any power all over the nation for 24 hours. The power is back on but not fully functional, comes and goes.

For us living in the concrete jungle of Dhaka city the extent of damage is primarily uprooted trees and broken lamposts and some injured pedestrians. The casualties primarily occurred around the coastal areas. The death toll is well into the thousands and still rising.

If anyone is interested in helping,
Here's a list of organizations that are accepting donations for Cyclone Sidr victims:

Bangladesh Red Crescent Society
http://www.bdrcs.org/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=5

Save the Children – US
https://secure.ga4.org/01/bangladesh_cyclone_1107

International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
http://donate.ifrc.org/?navid=02_02
http://www.ifrc.org/Docs/News/07/07111602/index.asp

Naira

As you heard on the news a massive cyclone hit Bangladesh and some of you asked me if I had heard anything from Naira. Sadly, I must admit that i haven't had any contact with her since the cyclone hit BD (I didn't realize until yesterday that it was such a disaster).

From what I saw in the news the cyclone's main effect was in South-East BD, but it did pass through Dhaka before dying out. There are supposed to be many communication and electricity shut downs throughout the country so let's all pray all is well and only the com is down.

I promise to update as soon as I hear something.

Postcard from London

O amor não faz girar o mundo. O amor é o que faz que o trajeto valha a pena.

londoner squirrel

a photo for jette

Finally!

Oh, I'm so glad someone finally wrote something. I was starting to wonder if anyone else actually still looked at this page once in a while. I check it twenty times a day hoping there is something to read and wondering whether I should bore you with another of my rambles or rather try to do work.
I'll try out iProcrastinate. Although I already have a plethora of strategies against procrastinating and none of them help. Let's see. I'll keep you posted.
What is everyone else up to?
All I know is that A, Y, and N just met up in London and saw a very green musical, Y visited R in Amsterdam, G is busy with phonetics and his new bar job, and I am working fairly productively on a research plan, a paper and becoming strong in the climbing gym.
What about Stripey and his Princesa? Now that they're reunited they seem to be very busy (with each other?) ;)
How are you all? Tell me, tell me! I miss you! Still... or again ?

especially for you

our queen, i hope this helps.

part of us...

went to this show!

STATISTICS SUCKS SO MUCH I WANT TO BREAK SOMETHING!

Trying to understand the stats involved in designing a psychological experiment just pissed me off more than anything since I found out what a dick my ex is! Anova, F-statistic, t-test, variance, standard deviation, moment generating functions, latin square designs...
I always thought I was halfway intelligent, I mean I was good in school, maths was always my favourite subject, I understood all this stats shit at uni, even got good grades... *I* used to be the smart kid in class!! F%#@! I heaved at least 3 of my friends through uni maths and stats by letting them copy homework and explaining everything to them a hundred times! What happened? When did I become so DUMB?? Man, I just screamed along to Led Zeppelin, yelled at my flatmate and my friend who's visiting from Germany, did 30 push ups and drank two glasses of straight vodka and I'm still *totally* pissed off!
It all just makes me think of what else I should do with my life instead - and be happy. Why did I not become a professional skiing instructor? A carpenter? An architect even? Gardener? Taylor? (Bad) singer? TV presenter? Eremite? Super model? Pornstar? BOXER! Marketer? Farmer? Anything!! Aaaaaaaaaarrgghhhhhhh.........

Less talk more action

Well after we have talked a lot about a gang reunion some of us are actually doing something about it (and no, Rui and Susana meeting does NOT count). so I am proud to announce that after it seemed like it is not gonna happen there will be a small gang reunion in London between the 16th-17th of Oct that will include Ana, Nai and myself
be jealous!
love,
me (super-busy lately but still loving you)

Self-proclaimed Queen of Procrastination

How unfair is it that some people seem to never ever procrastinate (for example my mum) and I have to do all their procrastination for them? I spent ALL of last week NOT doing three really urgent things and now I'm going crazy not knowing what to do first. I think that was the problem in the first place. I don't know what to start with, unless something is due yesterday.
I don't get it! How do people make themselves do stuff they don't really feel like doing ON TIME?? If you happen to be part of this mysterious species, please leave me a note on what it takes.

Stuff I do like doing: planting tomatoes and capsicum in the garden and eradicating (even more thoroughly) another bush on the weekend.. ah it was so much fun! And going to a mate's parents' luxury farm (we call it the palatial palace, complete with spa and amazing view.) down the coast for the upcoming long weekend for some hard (on the Jette-scale ;) outdoor climbing to get back in the game. AND (!) welcoming summer! It's getting warmer and warmer, soon it'll be water-skiing time at Smithy's parent's place and then absurdly hot Christmas and perfectly warm New Year's Eve, just right for a pool party - if someone has a pool.. hmpf, well, there's always the ocean. :)
Unfortunately that reminds me of missing Christmas at home, long dark evenings with lots of candles, eating lots of good food and baking biscuits and having a real Christmas tree with real candles and real snow outside, not just spray-on white chemicals on shop windows. And skiing! I missed the Southern season again. Maybe I'll never ski again? :(

Right... rambling. I'll get back to writing the report I was supposed to have done by yesterday.

Kisses to all of you and especially each of you ;) jxx

I miss the CoHo

Something, somehow reminded me of the CoHo... the sporadic evenings spent there... the quaint lacquer tables... the din of the absolutely packed crowds drowned out by the absolutely brilliant jazz... and the exasperatingly loooong unending queues that led to the little pieces of heaven called nutella crepes. :)

I miss those nights. I miss you all.

And thank you Rui, I will be forever indebted to you for introducing me to nutella crepes.

Happy New Year!

Happy Ramadan!


I'm still not moved in after a whole month. I've been trying to be slick and stain these shelves that will hold my copious amounts of books, and it is taking forever! So after what seems like 20 coats of this junk, I'm moving on to the polyurethane coat. Lets hope I only need one of these.

Uni starts in T-minus 9 days! I finally got the information about registering for classes. I can't really do anything until I get my fafsa money. Which is our finical aid system. And let me tell you, they follow their own clock!

My mom has been freaking me out lately. She got this pendulum so she could ask it questions about her life. If the weight spins in a circle thats a NO, if it moves back and forth thats a YES. The damn thing scares the hell out of me! She keeps trying to get me to ask it things; who wants to to know about their future?! I'm perfectly happy letting the future come to me!

Thats all for now kids,

Godspeed,

G

Ramadan Mubarak

And our holy month of Ramadan (month of fasting) began today, so wishing you a blessed month. [I may be a little temperamental (mostly cranky) this month so apologies in advance (:]

Rosh Hashana or a bit of Judaism

Well this evening we will celebrate Rosh Hashana ("head of the year" or "beginning of the year" literally). In judaism the new day begins when the stars come out and not at midnight so this evening it will begin. The first month is in Hebrew calender is Tishrey (in Arabic Tishrin is the gregorian month that happens around Tishrey) and the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet is Aleph (yes the same aleph from Borges's short story and the same aleph from infinte sets in math, since Cantor was a fan) so the date is Aleph Tishrey

the month of Tishrey is filled with holidays. Rosh Hashana starts a period of 10 days in which people are supposed to abandon their sins and beg forgiveness from god and their friends. on the tenth day it's Yom Kipur which is a 25 hour fast where you pray a lot and according to tradition in that day god decides your destiny for the year to come.

5 days after Yom Kipur there is a 7 day holiday called Sukut in which you are supposed to lodge in a temporary home outside your house commemorating the 40 year journey of Israel from Egypt to Israel. people today though only build it and eat there but otherwise stay at home. one day afterwards is simxat tora (joy of the Torah) which is a celebration in honor of the Torah - the first part of our bible.

As for me I am going to go home tonight and stay there until Saturday eating and hopefully reading a lot

So I wish you all on the brink of a new year (the year 5768 according to our calender) that you have a Shana tova umetuka - i.e. a good and sweet year. and if you wish to practice some Jewish costumes you can:

a. eat apple with honey - to help make the year sweet
b. eat the head of fish - so we will lead and not follow
c. eat a pomegranate - so we will have as many good deeds as the pomegranate has seeds
d. wish your friends to be written in the book of life
e. wear white which is the color of purity
f. wear something new in honor of the new year

Happy new year guys!

The good the bad and the ugly

the good - I FINALLY got Neo connected to my wireless router after one of the weirdest malfunctions in the history of the internet. but when i changed my ISP connection from a dialer one to a fixed IP one everything was resloved

the bad - Portugal just beat Israel in the European basketball championship - I hate Portugal!!!!!

the ugly - I am back from the army! well it's not ugly but I just neede to tell you that.

that's it!

Hehe.. I told you GeorgeW is in town right? Well, this morning he did two things: went to a museum for an hour and talked to the Australian opposition leader (and most likely winner of the federal elections in about 2 months time). Both times his motorcade of 20 cars totally stopped the traffic in the city. It's crazy! You know what this whole APEC meeting is costing Australia?! It was budgeted at 300 million AU$ (~250 million US$) but blew out by another 40 million when W decided to rock up 2 days early. Nutsnutsnuts!
Around midday or so, the team from "The Chaser's War on Everything" a comedy/satire TV show managed to get into the high security zone and all the way to W's hotel by driving around in a motorcade with Canadian flags without ever even being asked who they were. They were arrested when they got out of the cars and one of them was dressed as Osama. They can be hold now until Monday when APAC is over. I mean all they did was show that all these millions spent on W's security are completely useless because Osama could get in any minute if he wanted. Or alternatively, that it's not at all about terrorists (as the government says) but about pissing of protesters and keeping them away from "the international world leaders" so the Australian government can be proud.
This is all so crazy! Apparently restaurants within the security zone aren't allowed to leave knives and forks on tables. This is so totally over the top!

Can't wait to leave tomorrow and sit in my tent for a week and climb a bit and miss this stupid summit and give the city and uni and all this stress the finger!
- Oh yeah, I'll be out of internet and mobile coverage for about 9 days from Friday arvo, so don't be alarmed if I stop bugging you on Skype and gtalk ;) Unfortunately that means I'm probably going to miss out on my chance to be part of the world mooning record :(

I wish I could take you all camping - and climbing! And not be sick and impatient at the same time...

Hugs and kisses - jxx

Bush eradication

I might have already told a few of you - with a lot of grrrrrrrrs and aaaaawwwwws and fist shaking and tantrum faking - what I did on Sunday instead of work or meeting friends: I eradicated a bush:

All the dirt bits without grass were covered by the sprouts of this nasty bush trying to take over our whole garden. So I spent 6 hours cutting off sprouts, ripping the out and digging through the dirt getting all the roots out.

Aaaahhh... nothing more rewarding than eradicating a bush.

It's almost symbolic as well, because George W arrived in Sydney today for some stupid convention costing Australia unbelievable amounts of money and all Sydneysiders an enormous amount of nerves. They're shutting down parts of the CBD around GeorgeW's hotel (yes, he rented a whole hotel for his entourage of 300) all week, mobiles won't work when motorcades are on their way, they introduced an extra holiday and told people to better leave the city altogether. Excuse me? I live here! I don't want GeorgeW or any other world leader around discussing stuff without outcomes. What b/s!!!
Ah, there's lots of other things going on to throw tantrums over - poor G knows all about it. Well, part of the tantrum throwing is due to Skype's bad connections, so maybe he was lucky and most of my rant(s) were blurred out ;)

Ramble... I'll go to bed now so that I can get up early and write a paper tomorrow by 8pm and send it to my supervisor the magic paper fixer...

Have I mentioned lately, that I still really miss you guys?

Oh yeah, we have our very own BLOG!

I completely forgot about the blog! But no worries, I didn't forget about you kids!

Heres a quick run down of the past few weeks:

Working around 50 hours a week flipping a house over. I'm replacing the plumbing, re-tiling the floors, and painting the interior and exterior, and really really hoping the next few weeks come and go fast. I can't keep doing this shit!

Also, I finally moved from Bellingham, where I have been living for the past few years and going to underUni. I've moved back in my parents for a little while while I things get up and off the ground with my new Uni.

I just came back from a wedding in Idaho (one state east of me) for my cousin, who is in the Air Force. It was a semi formal wedding, and thanks to a "What Would Yonatin Wear" attitude ended up being the most attractive and best dressed guy there. Unfortunately, I didn't meet anyone that I didn't already know and wasn't related to me and everyone on that side of the family has some mental complex. We're like those generic examples from Psyche Textbooks. Pretty sad, hopefully you'll all get to meet these people at my wedding. Should that reality ever manifest.

Finally, well to be honest, there is no finally. It just keeps going on and on and on and on. . . . . .

T minus 22 days until the 24 Sept. The first day of classes! Ah, I feel like a little kid again.

Cheers!

Geoff

I'm a grandma!!

Kamrunnahar went into labour this afternoon, and now I'm the proud grandmother of two beautiful kittens!

The name Kamrunnahar (Kamrun for short) is a little odd (...quite odd actually) in a Bengali context in that it is a human name of previous generations. However, my mother kept this name for a different reason: it's because my cat bites a lot and 'to bite' in Bengali is 'kamrano' and so she thought the name was very apt. Now when guests come over to our house I have to refrain from calling Kamrun because inevitably someone's mother or grandmother is called Kamrunnahar. So at first they get very shocked and possibly even offended when they see my furry little black and white baby strutting in under the name of Kamrunnahar but once they overcome the shock they usually guffaw when they hear the name was kept because Kamrun bites. 'kamrunnahar kamray!'

Sunday at noon...

Working through weekends is not a good idea.
You are probably think "Duh, of course not, silly! Why would you do that!?" And that's what I'm wondering. I had a reason to work through this and last weekend because of a paper deadline tomorrow, which I'm now not going to make anyway. But when I think back to the months before my trip, I was working through pretty much every weekend for about 10 weeks before I left. And I didn't have or didn't try to make any deadlines. There really wasn't anything stressing me. Of course, it also doesn't actually mean that I'm more productive during these times. When I say "working" that doesn't only doing stuff directly related to my PhD. It includes all the other things I need to do on my computer and that often need to get out of the way first. Some of it is procrastination, some of it is semi PhD-related like things to do with this SIG that I'm on the board of, uni admin stuff, teaching (actually, that was about 90% of what I did last semester) etc.
So what are the real reasons?
I think the first one is not a real problem: when you're doing a PhD there is always more to do. You can always try out something else, read a bit more, think about a new domain/experiment/data set/technique... (not that I do that bit much ;). That's the same for everyone and I know how easily I can stop thinking about all these things when something more fun comes along.
The second reason is more to the point: I'm a lame crowd animal - in case you haven't noticed. I just do what the people around me do and wait for something to happen (i.e. someone to call up and suggest doing something). Lately, in Sydney the people around me were Smithy. No-one else has been calling up (my fault for never calling anyone myself I guess) and Smithy's been busy 24/7 writing his thesis and with building the suspension of the solar car that he's designed in his thesis. So, it's been way too easy to simply pretend to be superbusy too and do nothing fun on the weekend because hey, I had to do work.
Can you believe this?? I'm sitting at my laptop for a whole weekend because it seems easier than organising to go climbing or camping or walking or at least have a coffee with a friend! I'm using "I'm such a diligent stressed-out little working bee" as a cover-up for "I'm such a sad boring lonely lazy bum".
So, it's 12 noon on Sunday now and I'm going to call everyone I can think of until I find someone to hang out with right now. Stuff the paper I'm not going to write anyway, stuff the conference reviews I have to have finished before Thursday, and stuff my stupid laptop for an afternoon! I'm sure it can keep itself amused.

If you catch me online, you have official permission to call me pathetic!

i'm ok, guys!

... already in campinas and moving to são paulo today.

thanks, naira and yonatan, for your concern.

Shab-e-Barat

I'm still not clear as to the origins of this religious festival, but Shab-e-Barat, ( also known as 'All Souls Day' as well as the 'Day of Atonement') is an Islamic occasion that is solely celebrated in the subcontinent. Classical muslims (as Jonathan calls the Arabs... although I'm still not clear as to why I can't be a classical muslim) apparently do not celebrate this occasion. In fact Wahabis even denounce our celebration of it. The tradition of Shab-e-Barat is that on the 15th of Shaban (arabic calendar) we make halwa (a kind of sweet dish made with fruits or vegetables or nuts etc. boiled in sugar) which we exchange with our neighbours and relatives, feed the poor, light candles and incense, pray for the dearly departed, and pray for our own atonement. The myth of Shab-e-Barat is that on this day, God writes down the path that we are to take for the next one year in some ominous volume of the book of destiny and on this night we are given an opportunity to ask for God's forgiveness (hence the name 'day of atonement'). It also said that on this day the souls of our beloved dead descend on Earth to see how we're faring ('all souls day').
I can see why ultra-conservative muslims would denounce it, in that there's no mention of it in the Quran (except for a vague inkling in Sura Dukhan) and also because apparently the celebratory rituals are reminiscent of the Hindu practice of Diwali and this amalgamation was started by the Mughal emperor Akbar in order to create a harmonious balance between Hindus and Muslims in the subcontinent. However, I personally see no wrong in devoting a day to renewing ties with neighbours and relatives, feeding the poor and destitute, remembering the dearly departed, and just praying. I guess this is one of those fuzzy boundaries where religion meets culture.

So yesterday was Shab-e-Barat, and it was halwa galore: my mother made chickpea halwa and egg halwa, our cook made papaya halwa and semolina halwa, I made peanut halwa and strawberry cream cheese mousse (for anyone who wanted a break from all the halwa!). We distributed semolina halwa and naan bread in some city slums, and then the halwas started pouring in from the neighbours and aunts and uncles, and we had to quickly send out ours (I guess we were a bit late as you're supposed to send it before people go off for prayers). We usually arrange it in plates and decorate it with nuts and raisins and edible silver leaves. After all the distribution onus is over and done with, you are supposed to take a cleansing shower which is said to be symbolic of washing away your sins (and I know this is definitely not Islamic but very Bengali). Well, after the shower (which I took because I was in the hot kitchen not for my sins) we went over to my aunt's place, around 11 pm, where my other aunts and cousins had come over and we all prayed together (I have not prayed communally with my family since I left for NC so this was really nice). And then at 1 am we all went to the cemetery to pray at my grandmother's grave. On this night the cemetery, which is usually deserted, is filled with people visiting their unearthly beloved and is lit up with candles and lights, taking on a haunting but hallowed presence. We visited my grandmother, lit candles and incense around her grave, and prayed for her. I think I came home at 2 am. It was a beautiful day and a beautiful night.

On the upshot

Well things have certainly settled down. I'm really impressed with the way the interim government is handling the situation. The curfew was lifted intermittently each day, progressively increasing the hours so that life can resume to some semblance of normalcy. But every night it was re-enforced with cellphones being turned off in order to prevent organized riots or protests. The upside was that, for the few days that we were trapped at home, my brother's friends, my cousin and his friends, and my sister and her hubby were all staying over. So we got a lot of food and movies and it was quite a party. I say I'm impressed because it instantly put an end to the riots but it was nevertheless claustrophobic. On the 2nd day, when the curfew was lifted for just 2 hours, EVERYONE was out on the streets! Unfortunately the uni I work at is still closed, but the private univs have re-opened. So I hope to start research work from tomorrow even though I can't get an appointment letter without DU re-opening. But if I don't start office tomorrow I will go out of my mind and I will drive Jonathan crazy too (if I haven't already).

winter in rio . 33º

today i went to the beach after spending two days in petrópolis, the imperial city in the mountains. you can see more pictures here.

yes, jette, i bought a pair of silver havaianas, just like the ones elizabeth had in stanford. and i love them!...

Amazing!!!!

I have nothing to say and yet I am writing.
Well since I haven't heard from you guys in a while (except for Jette that I bugged for a few minutes today and Susana who I bugged for a few minutes yesterday and Naira who I constantly bug) I thought it would be a good time to tell some random things like the fact that I have a test in algorithms next Sun and I have to go on reserve duty to the army for a few days next weekend.

how about you guys?

Greetings from planet Bangladesh

Here's a slice of my world: I came back and was looking forward to the monsoon rains, but was also feeling guilty about enjoying the rains due to the bad flood situash, and thought I would plunge into relief work once my paperwork and other chores subsided. I had to submit an application to 'resume duties' immediately as my leave had already run out. However my chairperson, being the paragon of bureaucracy, decided that the application had to be approved by an academic committee and until that I was not to take any classes. So I was to wait until an academic committee was formed (which depended on when various faculty members responded to the proposal of forming one for the aforesaid agenda). You have to love these government-run institutions and their convoluted web of red tape. In the meantime some senior teachers (who have long-standing issues of animosity with the chairperson) got whiff of all the unnecessary paperwork and decided to make my issue the crux of their political battles. And the battle raged for one and a half weeks while I sat in the sidelines and watched people yell at each other where my name was mentioned in every second syllable. However, by Saturday, things had been sorted out and I started planning the rest of this semester, in hopes of finishing my syllabus. Sunday I started classes and Tuesday they were to start full swing. Tuesday morning, I wake up to find in big bold letters in the morning paper: 'Dhaka University classes called off due to indefinite strike'. Apparently on Monday there was some petty skirmish between students and army personnel at a football match where the students were beaten up. This then led to riots and processions on campus whereby students and teachers clashed with the army and police. The Pro-VC and the proctor along with a huge number of students were injured and this led to further rioting all through Monday night. On Tuesday the riots escalated and spread throughout the country as students from other universities joined in the protest and all educational institutions had to be closed down. On Wednesday all the masses joined in and it became a free-for-all protest against the army all over the country to the extent that a country-wide indefinite curfew has been called. So I'm stuck at home on a forced paid leave, which is kind of nice because I need the break, but kind of claustrophobic as well. But what's really bothering me is the impediment to the flood relief work, as it is we're not being able to reach every one. For the sake of the flood-affected, I just hope all of this gets sorted out quickly although I don't see how. Tomorrow is going to be an interesting day for the country... (Yes, yes I do come from a different world.)

proposal

after lisboa 2008 (in june), i propose that the next reunion of the gang is in rio!

What is wrong with the world????

I just wanted to come home and get back to life easily.
but nnooooooooooooooo
everybody seems to have waited for my arrival to ask for all sorts of stuff:
mom needs a presentation
friends need programming assignment help
brother needs babysitting and someone to go to a show with the kids
other friends think it is essential that I go on a blind date this week
other friends think it is really not Ok that I can't go to Jerusalem this week to meet them
other friends want me to help plan a party

uuuuuuuuuuuuuffffffffffffffffff.
let me be. I can't even crap without the phone ringing.
love you guys.

Bus'io went to have therapy

Last Friday started early in the morning... The idea was to pick up Tom (my fellow PhD colleague and office-mate) and Uli at 6am and go to San Francisco to the APA (American Psychological Association) convention that is taking place from Friday until Monday.

Bus'io, as you well know is a car with a strong personality disorder and I was able to realize soon that it was decided not to move in that chilly August morning. To have a car like Bus'io is always a challenge.

The key didn't work (exactly as in the Tuolomne Meadows) and so I didn't manage to start the engine, even after trying for almost an hour... Bus'io kept its original willing of not leaving the parking lot that day.

I finally called the tow service and Bus'io is now in the garage to repair its personality disorder. Let's hope that Bobby (the therapist) can solve this problem...

I now totally understand Zach's issues with the "high maintenance" chick in Ithaca.

SKYPE IS ROOTED!!

Just for the record, so that we never forget this horrible time: I feel VERY let down by Skype!

Dots & Stripes - the (now) happy bike!

Hi guys!

Do you remember Ana's bike? That little, tiny, reaaaaally small bike with lots of dots, stripes and a crazy dynamo light that Ana bought for $10 (or was it $15?!) in Davis?

Well... The bike was kind of sad because it was missing deeply its beloved owner and, as an unhelpful factor, it has been stopped, more precisely parked under the stairs... To cheer up the bike's mood, yesterday when I went running Susana took the bike for an astonishing 11km ride over the Davis greenbelt.

The ‘Dots & Stripes’ is now a happy bike that sends kisses and hugs to all gang, especially, of course, its much-loved and most missed Ana (aka 'Aniscas Pataniscas' or 'Aninhas Sardaniscas')...

See you guys soon!

The world is small

So I met Zach in Ithaca.
And after a month of listening on his conversations with his girlfriend we were finally introduced
and lo and behold,
We know each other!
She lives really close to my hotel and last year we danced a few times swing when she used to go there with her previous boyfriend. it was quite awkward at first since I knew her in the context of her old boyfriend - but a few beers took care of that!
Isn't that freeky?
Y.

Pixpixpix

Just in case you guys aren't in constant search of procrastination and therefore haven't noticed it yet: I've finally uploaded all my (view-worthy) pictures from Stanford, SF and Yosemite. When I get my next bad pang of saudade (G, that's the most important word in Portuguese, especially when you're away from people and places you love. No real translation. Work it out...) for you and need to look a the pictures again, I might re-sort them... if that seriously messes up links to particular pictures you've sent to people, let me know and I'll try to restrain myself - at least for a while.
It's not very likely to happen soon anyway. I have unbelievable amounts of work piling up, can't get around some of the reading that really needs to get done, and there still are hundreds of pictures from my pre-LSA Europe trip to be sorted and put online. Oh and this bloody Google womens scholarship... I guess some of you heard about my horrible Monday, where I had to write about 6000 words for this application, thought I'd never make it, my car battery finally died completely on me but I still had to drive the 30km to uni and hope I'd find someone who'd give me jump start later, I forgot the power supply for my macbook at home, started hating myself for my incredible slack-arsedness that never lets me start anything before it's actually too late (well, at least the pix are online now...), and finally heard that the deadline was extended by 6 days and that I only need to write 2500 words. Life was suddenly so beautiful for a couple of hours. I'm a sucker for deadline extensions! Love 'em, love 'em, love 'em. Almost as much as I love you guys!
Btw, not sunny and warm here anymore, so I am getting a bit of "winter" after all - or at least what they call winter here. I might get to the snow one of these weekends, ha how fantastic would that be! And it's pretty much decided that I'll go climbing at Mt Arapiles in Victoria in September. That's THE climbing Mecca of Australia and I've never not had a great time there. Stuff uni! I don't care if I miss another 2 weeks. My motivation is below zero anyway, so I'm only getting depressed in this windowless dungeon.

Enough... someone else write something now!
Beijinhos, j

bike riding - take II

Yesterday I also had a memorable bike riding... but for the opposite reasons. My beautiful more-than-perfect-Funk'enstein was riding happily through the parking lot in front of the ARC (activities and recreation center), on my way from home to the office, when I needed to brake to avoid a Funk’enstein-car collision… What happened, you may ask? The only brake that Funk’enstein has available suddenly broke and I didn’t manage to stop. Fortunately, because Davis is this peaceful community – although not as gorgeous as Ithaca – the guy managed to stop and avoid the mentioned collision.

Apart from this episode, we also had a very interesting lunch-experience in the Davis Farmer’s Market (as you can see, although far way, the gang keeps in synch). Susana, Uli and I went there to have an Afghani lunch. We bought some stuff and ended up seating in the grass of the Central Park to enjoy the magnificent food. I was just reliving some of our meals while on the gang-yosemite-tour.

Miss you guys!

rui

@ ipanema

querido gang,

yesterday i felt so disappointed (desperate!) 'cause i couldn't access the internet with my (gorgeous) laptop. how would i survive two weeks like this?!... but, you know, i've just discovered that i can access a non-secure wireless account from my room. thanks, fatal_escritorio!

so, about my morning... breakfast at 7 - bread, cheese and fruits - and two hours walking on praia de ipanema and lagoa rodrigo de freitas. i'm right in the middle of the two!

New link for Yosemite photos

Tada - here comes the first blog post OF MY LIFE. Another thing I thought I didn't need before LSA. Now I'm a facebooker and a blogger - and I like America. I'm a changed woman!

Jonathan must be spending about as much time looking for stuff online to procrastinate as I am spending putting stuff online to procrastinate... he found the Y pix before I could change the album name.
I've changed the link now to www.jettte.net/g1/Yosemite2007
I'm in the process of uploading more pictures and re-arranging everything (again), so the easiest way to keep track of the pix is to go to www.jettte.net/g1/Stanford2007 - all subfolders will be linked in there.

Jette posted Yosemite pictures!

source: http://www.jettte.net/g1/album05/Y4_at_the_camp_14


source: http://www.jettte.net/g1/album05/Y7_last_day_07

Bike riding

Hi guys,
just watned to tell you I just got back from a great bike trip around Ithaca around Cayuga lake, during which we (Prof and yours truely) stopped at a farmer's market and devoured a whole rib! man that was good!
Ithaca is so beautiful people! saw so much water - lakes, gorges, creeks. highly recommended!
Y.

very interesting!

i'm in!...
tomorrow i'll be flying to brazil and i'll start posting news from the winter of rio de janeiro.

a

A blog for the GANG

Dear all,

Gangsters,

I was wondering about an idea to keep the gang in touch (apart from the endless other resources that we have already implemented to miss each other as less as possible - emails, skype, gtalk, etc.)... And the blogang-idea came by!

First, I thought about making a Picasa account to have photos from the gang at the LSA and Yosemite, and also to have photos that each gang member would want to share with the gang community... Afterwards I realized that a blog with various authors (as many as the gang members) would be far more interesting. And this is it!

This is THE BLOG OF THE GANG... A gang that emerged spontaneously in the Stanford-LSA complex social/relational networks and is here to last, to keep hanging around in the years to come (Lisbon next year, the following LSA in Berkeley, etc.). A gang of a bunch of linguistics researchers and a psychology researcher that more than anything else are beautiful and interesting people that know that life is pleasant and that among the most important sources of happiness is friendship, specially the surprisingly and fascinating relationships that are unexpected. To meet special people is always… Special!

So, the blog isn’t just reporting from the intense LSA experience (long lasting memories will remain), but also to prepare the next year's gang reunion in Lisbon, with lots of sardines, beer and wine, and everything else that is gang-relevant. That is, we can take the blog as a resource to the gang community, posting messages and pics that we want to share among us...

Does this sound interesting?

rui