From Hilbert Space to Dilbert Space

A good birthday

Fri, 16 May 2008 02:11:35 GMT

Yesterday, May 14, was my birthday, when I turned 30 (if you count in base 19). It was a good time--one of my best birthdays. I am very gratified by the good wishes I got from all of my family and friends.

Monday Night Irish Class, May 12, 2008

Tue, 13 May 2008 23:32:09 GMT

Irish class, May 12, 2008

We began with an English→Irish translation exercise. Not a lot of restrictions; just use whatever Irish we could to give the general sense. Even so, this was quite hard.


cuma	appearance, shape, form - f4
Bhí cuma báisteach.	It looked like rain.
seas	stand (v)
Bhí sé ag seasamh.	He was standing.
Bhí sé ina sheasamh.	He was standing. lit: "He was in his standing."
a lámha ina bpocaí	Their hands in their pockets (Plural posessive pronouns eclipse)
Bhí a fhios acu go ....	They knew that ....
mbeadh	would. Cond. of bí. Pron. /məx/
saibhreas	fortune, riches (m1)
Taibhair	give. pron. /to:r/. p. thug
thug sé amadán orm	he called me a fool [example from FP]
coileán	puppy
Cé go	Although
uacht	will (n., as in "last will and testament")
in a uacht	in her will

Administrivia

5/19 All class session
6/16 Dun Bros. on East Lake, Minneapolis, 7 PM
6/30 Johana's. Directions to come.
We will meet 7/7, not 7/14, because of Nick's trip.

Irish has two forms of "if"
má	present & future	lenites
dá	conditional	eclipses

chomh maith	as well
ar fáil	to be gotten, available. From faigh, "get"
meastar	it is thought. Aut. of meas

buntáiste	advantage (m4)
ina bhuntáiste	advantageous lit. "in its advantageness"
ina measc	among them, included, in the midst of


úinéir	owner, proprietor
Foinse	fountain, spring, source
céad	hundred
ceist	question
cuir	put
cuid	share, portion
ag fiosru	investigating

Chicago in the Twin Cities

Mon, 12 May 2008 03:26:45 GMT

In the early afternoon we picked up Tom at the Crisis Center (where he is actually doing just fine) and took him for a walk in South Minneapolis. We parked at Lake Hiawatha, which is much less crowded than the fashionable area around Lake Harriet and Lake Calhoun. We stopped for a bite (snack for Tom, lunch for mia_mcdavid and me) at the Minneapolis location of Chris and Rob's Chicago Taste Authority. We got some French fries for Tom and split a Chicago-style Hot Dog and an Italian Beef between ourselves. The Hot Dog was OK, but basically a ritual expression of loyalty. The Italian Beef was much better, but very messy.

They have a patio, but we ate indoors. If weather permits, next time we will eat on the patio. The decor inside is mostly memorabilia from the championships of Chicago professional sports teams. All very well, and we remember the Bulls and the Bears from their glory years, but Chris and Rob will not have to redecorate very often.

We will also bring a couple pins to mark our Chicago residences on the map there--they had run out. Just the Rogers Park, and possibly the Hyde Park addresses--the map does not extend to the 'burbs.

Actually, for Chicago Memorabilia up here, I like the U-505 poster at Merlin's Rest. Not sure how it fits in there, but I enjoy it.

Pentecost

Mon, 12 May 2008 02:47:06 GMT

From The War on Whitsunday

Today is Pentecost, one of the three chief festivals in the Western Christian church year. It would be hard to imagine a complete lack of coverage of Christmas or Easter but Pentecost, the least commercial or secularized of the three days, doesn’t receive much media coverage at all.

I rather like it that way.

Heard in Church

Sun, 11 May 2008 17:46:19 GMT

Today is the Feast of Pentecost. At St. Mary's, as at other churches I have known, part of one of the Bible lessons was read in multiple foreign languages (See Acts 2: 1-11). Afterwards a small but very clear voice in the congregation said: "That was freaky."

Made a decision

Sun, 11 May 2008 02:37:48 GMT

Whatever other remodeling projects we undertake in this house, we are not removing the popcorn ceilings in any of the other rooms. Right, mia_mcdavid??

Bicycle and bus

Thu, 08 May 2008 21:42:03 GMT

I rode my bicycle to and from the Rosedale park-and-ride (about three miles each way) both Monday and Tuesday. From there I took an express bus to work in downtown Minneapolis as I usually do. I gave my knees a break yesterday and drove to Rosedale, but I was back on the bike this morning. I hope to manage 3-4 carless commutes each week through the summer and early fall.

Long ago I read an article arguing that per passenger mile the bicycle was the most energy-efficient form of transportation known, not only to homo sapiens, but throughout the animal kingdom. It was in a reputable scientific publication, Physics Today IIRC, with plenty of numbers, equations, and graphs. I wonder if I could track down a copy of it.

Monday Night Irish Class, May 5, 2008

Wed, 07 May 2008 01:57:56 GMT

Irish class, May 5, 2008

First exercise. Two lists of foods, in Irish and in English, but not in the same order. We had to match them up, doing as much as possible without the dictionary.

After unscrambling
apple pie and cream	pióg úll agus uachtar
beans	pónairí
beef	mairteoil
biscuit	briosca
boiled egg	ubh bhruite
cauliflower	cóilis
cheesecake	císte cáise
chips	sceallóga
chop	gríscín
chowder	seabhdar
cornflakes	calóga arbhair
dessert	milseog
fried eggs	uibheacha friochta
fruit	torthaí
fruit salad	sailéad torthaí
garlic	gairleog
garlic mushrooms	beacáin ghairleoige
ginger	sinséar
ham	liamhás
herbs	luibheanna
lamb	uaineoil
lemon	liomóid

I was able to get about half of them before opening up Foclóir Póca. This was not so much because of my vocabulary as by logic. E.g. I knew gairleog was "garlic", so beacáin ghairleoige had to be "garlic mushrooms. Sailéad torthaí was the only salad, so it had to be "fruit salad", which gave me torthaí, "fruit", etc.

Also, just by pronouncing seabhdar and sinséar I instantly recognized them. They are the same words as in English, just spelled according to Irish rules.

Other vocabulary
leath	half, side, part
cóisir	party [the fun kind, not political]
eolaíocht	science

There followed one of our inverted games of 20 questions. We each had a name tag stuck on our back where we could not see it but everybody else could. The name was of some famous person. We had to ask questions as Gaeilge to figure out who we were. This accounts for the odd questions below.


An fear mé?	Am I a man?
An bean mé?	Am I a woman?
An ceoltóir mé?	Am I a musician?

These and similar questions use the copula, and are answered Sea/Ní hea.


An bhfuil mé beo?	Am I alive?
An bhfuil mé marbh?	Am I dead?
An bhfuil mé pósta?	Am I married?
An bhfuil conaí orm i ____ ?	Do I live in _____?

These and similar questions use bí, and are answered Tá/Níl. Some questions can be asked either way. The An ____ mé? copula form is preferable in those cases.

Other vocabulary
álainn	beautiful
amhranaí	singer
file	poet
uachtarán	president
sagart	priest
bean rialta	nun [Those of us who had watched An Grá Faoi Ghlas all grinned at this point.]
fear/bean gnó	businessman/woman
dlíodoir	lawyer

Alternatively An bhfuair mé bás?--Am I dead? Fuair is the past of faigh "get", so I suppose literally this is something like "Did I get death?"

I was tagged as Eliot Spitzer. It took me a while, and quite a few hints, to figure that out. We did not go over the Irish vocabulary to describe his downfall.

Accents matter in Irish. Today's example: post "job" (noun), pósta "married" (adj).

Administrivia: Summer scheduling

Our last spring class at the High School is June 2 (Recall we have May 26 off).

Summer schedule:

June 16, 30
July 14, 28 (July is iffy because Nick will be in Ireland during precisely this period)
August 11, 25

The planned location is the Dunn Bros. at

Minneapolis- East Lake St
4648 E Lake Street
Minneapolis, MN 55406

assuming the wheelchair accessibility is satisfactory.

We are invited to look at the GaelMinn Moodle for Will's class.

The rest of class was about reading and translating the first few paragraphs of the newspaper article "Pictiúrlann i nGaoth Dobhair?"

vocabulary
Pictiúrlann	cinema
á ← do + a	to its
roimh	before
cur	setting
ag teacht	is coming
níos cóngaraí	closer, nearer
laetha	var. of laethanta "days", sing. lá
na laetha seo	these days here
togra	choice, selection
tús	before
á thabhairt	to be given
dá ← do + a	to its [?]
leithéid	like, counterpart
má
suim	interest [here], amount, sum, regard
forbairt	development, growth

chomh maith	as well
blianta ó shin	years ago
Chlochán Liath	Gray Stones [place name]
iarthuaisceart	northwest
ag iarraidh	trying
caithfidh	have to, must
tiomáint	driving

go háirithe	especially
líon	line, amount
as ceantracha	from the district
ag freastal ar	attending

plean	plan
molta	praise
teaglach gnó	business community
ní dheachaigh	did not go (dependent past of téigh

Another form of the past tense
Tá sé ___-ta/te agam.	plan
Tá sé leite agam.	I have read it.
Bhí sé molta agam.	I have praised it

Why tá vs. bhí? Should the 2^nd example be translated "I had praised it." ? (present perfect and past perfect)

For Political Junkies

Tue, 06 May 2008 17:50:47 GMT

Things You Will Hear Most Often on Cable TV Through Wednesday (Depending on What Happens…).

Bicycle Commuting Note

Mon, 05 May 2008 13:26:43 GMT

I rode my bicycle to the Rosedale park-and-ride this morning, instead of driving there.

The standard belt clip on a Blackberry is not suitable for cycling. The upward hip motion while pedalling tends to dislodge it.

Fortunately, I discovered this before the thing fell on the pavement. From now on I will keep it in my briefcase or a bag while riding.

The weekend

Mon, 05 May 2008 00:55:26 GMT

I had to get up early on Saturday, and be at work by 8 AM. There was a server upgrade, one of those things that can only be done outside of business hours. This is a part of my job, and it is not a totally negative experience. For one thing, I am only dealing with my co-workers. No managers are around.

This went OK. Not great, but it did work out. I was done, I thought, before 10 AM, and the others said I could go home. So I did, and went back to bed, but mia_mcdavid woke me when one of my co-workers called, reporting intermittent connectivity problems. Without leaving bed I gave my first answer to this kind of question: Suggesting that the ODBC data source explicitly specify the correct TCP/IP port. Our production SQL Servers use port 1435, rather than the Microsoft default of 1433. This apparently took care of this problem, or at least I heard no more about it.

However, I was quite awake by now, so I went out and did some shopping for my hobbies. I got home about 2:30 PM to find another message from downtown, asking me to change a database setting to fix a security problem. Of course, they asked me to change a non-existent column in an ambiguously referenced row. I got that straightened out and made the change from home. It did not do what the vendor rep wanted (It was his problem, not my employers). This was some kind of bit-mapped field. The change did not do what they wanted, so they asked me to change another value. I did. No joy. They asked me to look at the same parameter on another system and copy the value from there. I did. Still did not work. I heroically restrained myself from suggesting that testing the other 2¹⁷-3 (at least) possibilities would make for a very long day. Eventually they decided they could live with the second value.

Between these various e-mails I managed to get some things done at home. With some grade ZZZ 1x2's from Home Depot I was able to create some extra storage in the basement rafters, and put some larger leather pieces there so they wound be safe but out of the way. I also was able to (mostly) clean my work bench, dye a belt I worked on the previous weekend, and, later, to start rebuilding my big shaving horse--I have not been happy with the legs on it, and I want to replace the English bodger mechanism with a continental style dumbhead. More strength and versatility, at the cost of being less optimized for one particular kind of work.

Sunday morning we made it to church on time. LeAnne's sermon (podcast) was largely about global warming and climate change. Thoroughly scary, the more so because I knew it was absolutely correct. I could have added even more examples.

However, I have to wonder about her timing. There was a baptism after the sermon, and it is a good thing that the little guy was too young to understand what she was saying about the world he would be growing up in. E.g., telling his parents to take him to Glacier National Pack while there were still glaciers to see there.

Upon reflection, I realized this was actually the 21^st century of the classic hell-and-damnation sermon: Because our great sins we are all going to hell. The difference is that we are making hell by ourselves, and we are watching the process as it is happening.

This is my own analysis: I don't think LeAnne thought of it that way. LeAnne is a great preacher--she gives me a lot to think about God and the world, even beyond what she may intend. That is OK. In fact, it is much more than OK

Afterwards we went home. mia_mcdavid, still convalescent, needed a nap. Fired-up by that sermon, I decided to lube my bicycle and get it back into working order. This worked out so well that I decided to take it for a ride to the Living Green Expo at the State Fairgrounds. This is about a 5 mile ride each way. Perhaps a bit much for a 57 year old out-of-shape man on his first ride of the season, but I did OK.

The expo was quite interesting. A lot of ideas. Some good, some (e.g. corn-based ethanol) very questionable. But overall my impression was positive. There is no silver bullet for these problems, but enough small steps in the right direction might make a difference. I ran into basil80 and tmancer there and we had a nice chat.

After getting home I decided to do some woodwork. I picked a piece from the ash branches that had defeated me back in March. I was able to split it with my froe and work on it with my Bodger Bord--portable shaving horse on the front porch. Obviously I was not thinking ahead when I dismantled the big shaving horse on Saturday. I am not sure I will get anything usable out of the wood, but I was able to practice my skills, and I made a lot of kindling for our next camping trip.

As you may have guessed, the weather today was lovely. LeAnne's blessing this morning began

Giver of life, we praise you for the smell of freshly tilled earth, for its fertility and promise, especially to us here in Minnesota who have survived a tenacious winter and long for the promise of spring.

A good weekend for me. Just wish mia_mcdavid were feeling better.

E-mail blooper of the day

Fri, 02 May 2008 14:05:25 GMT

From our Building Operations Manager:

Property Services is in the process of investigating a water leak in the A-Tower. In order to investigate this further, all water in A-Tower has been shut off, which includes the restrooms. We apologize for the incontinence, please use the restrooms in C-Tower until further notice.

Last Man Standing

Fri, 02 May 2008 12:28:36 GMT

As mia_mcdavid wrote last night, she is home sick today. I got up this morning to find a note from our son J in the kitchen table. He is also unwell, and is staying home today. People I know from work, church, and colgaffneyis are also under the weather.

However, I am feeling OK, if a bit tired (perhaps more on that later), and am on my way to the office.

Lesbians vs. Lesbians

Thu, 01 May 2008 17:40:50 GMT

Lesbos islanders dispute gay name

Beannachtaí ná Bhealtaine daoibh

Thu, 01 May 2008 16:29:03 GMT

(Bealtaine/May blessings to you!)

For geeky (really geeky) chocoholics

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 13:35:47 GMT

The Physics of Chocolate

Monday Night Irish Class, April 28, 2008

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 23:01:36 GMT

Irish Class, April 28, 2008

Notes for a scéal which I did not present. I may use it next week:

Champáil mé agus mo bhean cheile an deireadh seachtaine. Bhí oíche Deardaoine an-báistiúl. Bhí oíche Aoine níos measa. Ní raibh báisteach, ach tháinig gaoth láidir agus fuar aniar. Shilamar gur titfeadh an puball síos. Ní chodalamar. Thiománomar abhaile Dé Sathairn. Bhíomar slán agus tirim, ach an tuirseach.

I am trying to use more of the synthetic verb forms when they are part of the Caighdeán, but I probably got some of them wrong. Also tried an indirect statement with a conditional.

This class was a break from our usual routine. Mary R was out so her class joined ours. We did several rounds of a guessing game as Gaeilge.

Misc. vocabulary
ainmhí	animal	m4 pl ainmhíthe
éan	bird
eitil	fly	(verb)
luch	mouse
othar	patient, invalid	m1
otharlann	hospital	f2
corcra	purple
flannbhuí	orange	color
muc	pig	f2 (I'd have guessed m1)
capall	horse	m1
crann	tree	m1
fata = práta	potato	Never saw fata before
dúch	ink
mair	live	(verb)
spéir	sky	f2 pl -éatha
nigh	wash	(verb)
faigh	get	Irr. verb.--need to keep working on those.
cead ceann eile	lit. "first thing other", next [thing]	"pass" in a game (e.g. cards)

There was one round concerning body parts.

The last part of the class was for interviewing each other as Gaeilge. There were three questions, one being "What is you favorite Irish word?" After a moment's thought I settled on beoir ("beer"). Of course, someone in the class answered that question with póg mo thóin.

Sir Archy on Barack Obama's temperament

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 03:28:24 GMT

"As the Ghost of a Person dead these 250 Years and more, who had seen enough of Bedlam..."

And his next comment:

I should forbear to remark on any Physick of my Day to restore the Balance of Humours, except to note this Image of Mrs. Moore, the Actress much taken with Bleeding by Leeches as a Means of Cleansing the Blood, &c.

"Tis to be hoped that Sen. Obama does not need to make similar Resort to these Creatures to keep his Humours in Repair.

What is in a name?

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 03:16:00 GMT

Irish village gets its 'harlot' back.

Via Agus Araile.

Clann Tartan at Charles City

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 03:00:26 GMT

This was a lot of work. We had only seven people on Friday, and six on Saturday. Setting up and tearing down camp for colgaffneyis involves a certain fixed amount of work no matter how many people show. So if only a few people show, a heavier burden falls on them. I have tried to argue for a lighter kit for lightly attended shows, but other members like the visual impression of all that ~~shit~~stuff. That visual impression is burning us out, particularly since it is the same few members who do these shows.

The weather was bad. Heavy rain all Thursday night. Our tent did not leak, but it was not peaceful and we did not sleep well. Friday night was worse. No rain, but very cold with high winds. It found every gap in the canvas (mia_mcdavid discovered the next morning that we had not tied down everything on the windward side), and when we could bury ourself deep enough in our multiple blankets, we were still awake wondering if our tent, or one of the large corporate tents, would be blown down. No sleep at all.

Charles City is a "time-line" event: There are groups reenacting multiple historical periods, from the middle ages on. Our period is c. 1630. All of our tents stayed up through the high winds Friday night. So did all of the tents from the SCA (Middle Ages) group. But a big tent belonging to some World War II re-enactors was blown down. It isn't the technology, it is your ability to use it :-)>

Daytime was not so bad. We did have some fun, and if the workers were few, they were hardy and good-natured. We ate well. I was able to recognize the WWII German and Russian re-enactors by the uniforms, and greeted them in the appropriate languages. I was pleased that they responded in kind, and one of the "Russians" gave my memory of the language a serious workout.

Driving down in the rain I noticed a couple wind turbine farms. In the clear late afternoon drive home yesterday I saw several more. After Friday night I can appreciate their presence: It is a natural cash crop in northern Iowa :-)>

Off to Charles City...

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 21:03:06 GMT

...For colgaffneyis first camping event of the season. mia_mcdavid is hauling the trailer of our corporate gear behind a borrowed van (Thank you, LS!). She called a few minutes ago as they passed Owatonna.

I am going home now. I will pick up a few things that were left behind, put them in our car (packed last night) and then be on my way as well.

Monday Night Irish Class -- April 21, 2008

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 20:31:32 GMT

Irish class, April 21, 2008

Bígi reidh le caint ar rud suimiúil atá ar siúl.
Be prepared to talk about something interesting that is happening.

I thought about saying something about the weekend's activities with colgaffneyis, but quickly rejected that--it is hard enough to explain as Bearla (in English). Instead:

Tá orm strus mór ag obair. Tá agam bainisteoir olc. Is tíoránach suarach é. Is fuath le na hoibrithe é. Beidh agam bainisteoir nua go luath b'fhéidir.

Misc. Vocabulary
Tá a fhios agam go ____	I know that _____
beidh tú i d'aonar	you will be alone (lit. "in your oneness")
pléigh	discuss
de ghnáth	usually
ullmhaigh	prepare

Indirect Speech


Téann sí	She goes
Dúirt sé go dtéann sí	He said she goes
Dúirt sé nach dtéann sí	He said she does not go

Key point: The verb in the dependent clause is eclipsed (urú).

Present Tense
Duirt	sé sí	go nach	dtéann gcloiseann bhfaigeann dtagann	sé sí siad
Said	he she	that does not [negative]	go(es) hear(s) get(s) come(s)	he she they

Note: clois "hear" pron. /klis'/. FP has /klos'/.

Past dependent Forms

General rule
go nach	}→{		gur nár

The dependent verb is lenited, whenever possible. Of course, in the past tense all such regular verbs are lenited anyway. According to Mac Congail, pp. 169 & 174, this rule holds for regular verbs and the irregulars beir, clois/cluin, ith, tabhair & tar. However, Stenson apparently disagrees about the irregulars: On pp.118-119 there are examples of clois and tabhair using both go and gur with the verb correspondingly ecliped or lenited. I need some clarification about dependent past tense forms of irregular verbs.

Another complication: Some of the irregular verbs have two past tense forms. One is for direct use, the other for indirect (including negatives and questions) forms.

	"do"	"see"	"go"
imperative	déan	feic	téigh
independent	rinne	chonaic	chuaigh
dependent	dearna	faca	deachaigh

According to Mac Congail, these three troublemakers also use go/nach in the past dependent forms, rather than gur/nár.

*aimsir caite* -Past Tense
Duirt	sé sí	gur	shead fhan imir	sé sí siad
Said	he she	that	stood stayed played	he she they

Duirt	sé sí	nár	shead fhan imir	sé sí siad
Said	he she	that...did not	stand stay play	he she they

Note imir, not d'imir. IIRC, the d'- prefix for the past tense of verbs beginning with vowels is a remnant of a particle that has otherwise disappeared from the language. So it makes sense that it would not be used with the particles gur & nár.

However (Stenson, p. 118):

Sílim go bhfaca mé iad
I think that he saw them.

Deir sé nach bhfaca sé thú
He says he did not see you

A couple reminders about eclipsis and lenition

Vowels eclipse with n-: ólann "drinks" → n-ólann. itheann "eats" → n-itheann.
Vowels do not lenite.

The last part of the class was about writing answers to some questions about food, from page 3 of “Liam agus Bairbre” 1

Politics 3. Science 0.

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 19:38:58 GMT

Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton join John McCain in pandering to antivaccinationists

Clinton and Obama parrot the "vaccine and autism connection inconclusive" line

Via Bad Astronomy

Show Time!

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 02:42:02 GMT

Again following-up on last night's post from mia_mcdavid, yesterday we loaded colgaffneyis trailer for our first camping show of the season, in Charles City, Iowa. Setup is Thursday evening, down there. I am busy Monday (Irish Class), Tuesday (colgaffneyis dance), and Wednesday (Church choir), so I got my traveling woodworking kit together (I hope) this afternoon, and did most of my other packing this evening.

On the Roller Coaster

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 02:27:27 GMT

As mia_mcdavid posted last night our son Tom had not been doing well after moving back to his group home; he had reverted to the bad habits that got him sent to the crisis center. So today we went to visit him and take him to lunch, prepared for the worst.

Instead we got there and the staff on duty said he had been doing OK for the last couple days. They are on the front line, so they should know. We had pleasant walk (about 1/2 mile) to a cheap (but good) restaurant nearby and then a pleasant lunch there. As usual, Tom did quite well. He recognizes the type of institution and knows that if he sits for a while, good food will come his way. Meanwhile, the general bustle of activity seemed interest him. We took a longer route back, just to get a little more exercise. No problem with Tom.