I stayed up pretty late last night, rearranging the stereo and TV equipment in our living room (I get the “move stuff around” bug whenever Jodi leaves) and watching CSI and “Firefly”. Consequently, I was still sleeping when Jodi rang me from Dublin at 08:30. She and her sister arrived […]
Jodi and her sister have left for Ireland. This is a long-planned trip, one that they’ve dreamt about since they were teenagers. Half of their family hails from Ireland, and this trip offers a chance for relaxation and history. In fact, Jodi’s sister has spent several months assembling geneology information […]
I hate spiders. When I lived in Atherton, as a student, I often woke up in the middle of the night only to see a 1.5-inch long brown, armored spider slowly trekking across the ceiling. Ick. I guess that’s why I am fascinated by them. Our recent acquisition of a […]
Just in case I ever find myself doubting that I gave a seminar at the University of Chicago, here’s some proof!
The internet has only been available to me in starts and fits these past three days. It began with my departure from home via San Jose Airport to Denver, then onto Chicago. For the fourth time in three months, I was on my way to give a talk. This time, […]
Jodi is soon off to Ireland, at the end of the coming week. IN preparation for this, we finally did all our homework and purchased a really high-quality digital camera. We’ve been using older cameras, and camera phones, for our quick photo needs. A beautiful land, rich in history in […]
When I obtain a new computer, the very first thing that happens is that Windows is removed and Linux is installed. However, over the years I have retained Windows on a few limited systems, for a few limited purposes. Jodi and I have desktop PCs, on which we run dual-boot […]
It’s been a few days since I returned from Sweden. The flight back was uneventful, and I highly recommend Scandinavian Airlines for traveling to northern Europe. They were very nice, generous with food and alcohol, and nice planes. Not bad for cross-Atlantic coach! Today, I checked the workshop website and […]
This is my last full day in Uppsala, a chance to finish out the workshop and then pound the pavement looking at museums, parks, and palaces. This has been an extraordinary trip, both in terms of the wonder of Sweden and the breadth of physics covered at this workshop. My […]
“Are you here for business or personal?” “Business,” I replied. “Sekula . . . is that Finnish?” “Lithuanian,” I said, “Sekulavich”. “Oh ya, that makes sense.” And with that, the passport control officer at Swedish customs waved me through. I found it interesting that my time in Sweden began with […]
I’ve been taking a vacation from vacation. After returning from the Minnesota-Wisconsin-Illinois extravaganza, which was itself a recovery from Moscow, I spend the past few weeks recovering from vacation. At first, I was absolutely unmotivated to do anything. Writing the two talks, one for ICHEP and a much longer one […]
When I lived in Boston, I fell in love with TechTV. This coincided with the decline of TV for me and Jodi – we grew to realize that we liked, less and less, the crap you’re forced to buy on cable. In an era of “on demand” content, podcasts, and […]