Have you seen my childhood rolling by…have you seen me…have you heard me crying

alone in nightlines, silhouetted in skin, what is it all worth…we’re here and gone

What will it do to lose it all…why even gain it all…the weight of the world’s love is heavy

Lonely…have you seen it? Who are you? Ending in tragedy, destined to resold cd’s.

I need to keep motivated now…more than six months into the phd here, and the journey’s only just begun. I have my doubts, and have to remember to proceed towards my goals. So, here’s a famous poem by Kipling…something to remember. (BTW, did some excellent hiking, and juggling…also a bbq)
[IF]

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:If you can dream–and not make dreams your master,
If you can think–and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ‘em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings–nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And–which is more–you’ll be a Man, my son!

–Rudyard Kipling

Well, my blog crashed on the 19th of March, and I didn’t get it up until just now because I was a bit busy. It’s amazing how not having a blog makes you kinda miss your internet presence. Ahhh it’s refreshing to be able to chat about my life again. I’ll be revising the site this year. I have new goals, and have been considering quite a bit of things. Much more than I usually say. Anyway, today I gave a presentation to a really critical group, and got totally taken to the cleaners. There’s alot more researching to go before I get this phd work structured and ready it would seem. I’m generally happy for the feedback though, as that’s always useful and constructive. Insert other self-psychology here.

Oh, and I’m getting better at chess against the computer. and I am now consistently (12throws) juggling pins.  What else…hmm…this weekend is all about paper reviewing. And next week I’m gonna go looking for a Wii/Tv combo…good times to come.

Cheers.

Hello blog world! In one minute, as I write this my clock is signalling changes. Changes that have taken place over a year. I’ve been through one program, into another, have found new experiences, new friendships, new moments. They’ve been lucky, and they’ve been memorable. I’m happy, to say the least, yet I am hopeful that I can make this new year into something better, stronger and wiser, more poetic, more challenging. The goals must be refreshed…and so must this site. Anyway

Happy BIRTHDAY! Auguri! HAPPY ALEXIAN NEW YEAR!

Well, I’m officially the happiest Bahamian skater in the world! I managed to get my hands on some really really good skates (the blades are Club2000, and worth about $200…the boots are Risport R2 or R3’s, and worth about 100 I think, and a skating bag!)…and I got them secondhand at the Mercatino dell’ Usato for a whopping $50. I’m so lucky that they are my size, right to the button. I was so anxious to try them out, and this Saturday went to an Ice Rink in Pergine (which just happened to be full of kid hockey skaters who wanted me to play “scapare” or tag with them. That was kinda funny because the ringleader kept trying to show me how to hockey stop too…Filipo e Luigi). Anyway, these new skates are absolutely splendid for me. Everything became easier, once I got used to them. Doing a spread eagle, for instance, was so much easier, I could just do a turnout with ease. Doing spins was better too, and since they’re really sharp I could swizzle like a pro, and do that skiing flow thing really well where you keep both boots together but twist the waist alot to move forward. Additionally, I have massive toepicks which I need to learn how to use. Either way it was a beautiful skate.

I’m chuffed!

Wow…today I’ve been skiing, and also yesterday…What a weekend! This time I went skiing with several people. So now I can ski and snowboard. I never skied like this,  I was in the mountaintops! All around was just sunshine and snow, and skiers. The runs were wide, and fast, and I enjoyed the blues, struggled on the reds,  but survived, and fell alot what fun, and boy am I tired.

Hi Blog-roll,

My addictive posting has curbed completely as a result of the automatic updater being on the fritz, so unfortunately, all the perks of sending neat links, or other hard and fast updates is grounded; thus making it more cumbersome to upload new content…sorry, I’m lazy

Anyway, it’s been a pleasant new season and the start of my phd student life has been gentle enough. I spend my days reading the current literature, and trying to find new directions for myself. At the moment I am poring over a new phd thesis on Socio-technical Systems, and gaining quite a few insights about the state of the art. I’ve also been looking at the field of complex systems engineering, especially since NASA has like a handbook about it, and there’s a whole industry of system engineers, thus making it a viable option if I decide to play for the industrial research side of things in the future. Anyway, it would be quite the dream to intern there one of these days. We’ll see what’s what.

On other levels, I have also determined to purchase new figure skating skates; from somewhere near to Pergine, in a town called Civezzanno, which is where the figure skating folks I meet at the ice rink tell me I can find proper skates. I’m so happy that I managed to get out to the rink each week…it’s made me really pleased, and my backwards crossovers, three-turns, mohawks, flatspins (one and two foot), as well as glides, are thanking me. Also, since I’ve been hanging out with fellow skater, and chef, Jessica, I have company on the ice, and there’s plans to frequent a different ice rink each weekend (Adventure Skating Weekends, in fact). There’s lots of other fun stuff planned, although I may not participate in all of it. For instance there’s a road trip to California being planned for later in the year.

Hmm what else? Well, I’ve been reading alot of Isaac Asimov stuff, and the story about Robots meeting Aliens: Changeling, really resonated with me. It was quite fascinating. Hmm, and let’s not forget I’m still getting a good shot at playing chess against the computer and analyzing some of the games from Bobby Fischer on academicchess.com. It’s excellent, java-based matches…you get to see the analysis and it is rather exciting.

Anyway, I gotta run for the bus. Peace to all, and to all a good night.

I’ve been getting my work started here by finding out firstly what the heck I’m researching, and by finding some leads on good authors. That’s been helpful…technically my prof has me looking into Socio-technical Systems and the idea is that we’ll come up with a framework that can direct the design of such systems. This is a really broad area and I don’t really have a good handle on what’s involved yet. Anyway I see that CMU has a good team there about this subject so I’m looking into their resources.

Anyway, in other news I’m broke and waiting for payday so I can get my ski on. I decided to pay off my rent stuff which was behind, so now I’m debt free but low on cash until Jan 30 Anyway I’m learning how to be a miser again. Cooking each day now. And as far as lifestyle goes I’m beginning to actually spend the time in study of Sun Style Taijiquan.

I have the resources, the book from the creator of the style, Sun Lu Tang (long since dead) and all of his detailed explanations about how to move what and where to breath and when…not that I didn’t have this for a year now…but now I also have a cd from Master Jessie Chao showing the form in little bite size chunks. That means I can watch the video copy the moves, then read the book for the details I miss. It’s turning out to be pretty good. I can feel the body respond to the stretch and the turning, and the steps, and I wonder if this is my style. Considering that I’ve been trying Bagua as well but without the vid resource I don’t know if I’ll finish learning all 96 steps.

Oh hmm…and I got in touch with an old friend today, and that really made me happy.

It’s now 5am in the new year…I’ve just walked home in a snowfall…the first in a long time, and it was wonderful because I had a nice walking companion from Russia. The new year celebrations were great too. I got to hang out at Jess (my US American friend who bakes a mean cheesecake and other such desserts) and we had a party with some folks from Australia, Bangladesh, Mauritius, and Edinburgh. What a great time. After some games we hit the square to ring in the new year…in Italian. With snow coming down, and a happy crowd, we counted it all down. And then fireworks and a band playing ABBA music did some singing. Folks were dancing and it was a festive atmosphere. Quite fun. Following this we made our way back to Jess’s place, but not before getting into a huge snowball fight in the street (scraping snow off of people’s cars). Great fun indeed.

All the best for 2009. I think I’m gonna get back into work mode soon.

Hihi…

It’s time for a post after all this while. I’m amazed at how fast the days have swam by. It feels like yesterday since I’ve arrived here from home this summer. Now I’ve got a new apartment and I’m spending some time relaxing, and trying out new things. For instance, I’m learning the game of pool, and recently I’ve begun to improve my strokes and my angles. It’s quite fun. Also, I’m getting really into playing the game of Chess here with friends, and a few cards. As for chess, I’ve not won any real matches, but I’m getting the basics underway, and soon I’ll follow up on what the real chessmasters do. Then I’ll be unstoppable

Anyway, this holiday was good so far…got to go out with Sham for dinner, and played a bit of pool, and some chess. Now I’m gonna relax for a bit before some more food I guess. And maybe play my guitar.

Hmm…also, I’ve decided to start watching some nice things each day: 1) Google Tech Talks 2) Ted Talks 3) Figure Skating vids.

Will post again in the new year!