Anotherblog

Enschede & Rennes

There’s almost too much to write about, which has lead to a wee bit of blog-paralysis. But to summarise, it was a very good trip. The only dull moments were on the plane flights, of which we had eight. Approximately three days of the trip were in airports or on flights.

Highlights: the hill in the Netherlands. The windmill on the hill. The pub nearby the windmill on the hill. The fields and forests and blackberries and horses and cows and goats and sheep and rabbits in the areas surrounding Enschede. The excellent beers in the Netherlands. The enjoyably wacky and enthusiastic crowd of people at the SVG open. Presentations that were, incredibly, fascinating. The astonishingly good airport in Amsterdam. The food in Rennes, of course. Casually superb throughout. We went to a random restaurant on the last day, and it was probably the best of the lot. The kind of nouvelle quisine that you don’t mind when you aren’t completely stuffed, because you don’t want to lose the flavour in your mouth. The medieval restaurant. The company at the working group, somehow much younger and more interesting than I was expecting.

And we didn’t get lost, or lose anything, or miss any trains or flights. It was good. But now I am jetlagged.

In Enschede

I’m in Twente University. The SVG Open tutorials have been pretty interesting so far, mostly for the way they’re confirming things I recently read about over the last couple of weeks, and on the plane. The thing about specs is that although they give the data about what should be implemented, they don’t really give an impression of what is popular, what is controversial, what is really difficult to implement, and so on. I’m getting a lot of this context now, and it’s quite pleasing. I think I have a quite good grasp of it now.

Also, I have a sore bum from the bike seat. I hadn’t really thought of it before, but having ridden a wide-seated bicycle for two days now, I begin to understand why bike seats are usually narrow. With the wide seats, you rest mostly on your hip bones, which gets increasingly uncomfortable the more you ride. The narrow seats allow you to rest on more padded bits of your bum. It wasn’t obvious at all until I tried it - I’d have thought the wide seats would be more comfortable in the same way as a chair is comfortable. I wander why it isn’t.

…and that’s lunch finished. Time to get back into it, as soon as I finish my glass of buttermilk, which the locals have forced upon me. It tastes like a cross between sour cream and liquid cream cheese.

In Hengelo

We arrived in Hengelo yesterday morning, after a biglong plane flight and a bit of a train trip, of which there is little to report except that the weather in Hong Kong was very, very thundery, and we had an almost-landing in which the pilot pulled out of the approach ’cause it was too rough. And yeah, I was right with him on that one. Funny: the plane engines make a really unmelodic whiny sound when they’re pulling a plane back up to circling altitude in heavy rain.

Anyway, we’re here, in the hotel used for the film “The Shining”, by which I mean the interior decor is quite remarkable and not a little scary. There was a minor kerfuffle with the hotel booking: it had been cancelled by our imfamously inept travel agents. Fortunately, we were able to rebook without any trouble.

Hengelo on a Sunday is very, very quiet. There’s a very big pedestrian area in the centre of town - about a dozen street’s worth - and for most of the day it was completely deserted as Craig N. and I wandered around looking for something to do. In the end, we hired bikes (of which there are lots and lots) and rode to Enschede, where the University (and the SVG Open conference) is. There are separate bike lanes, bike lights, and incredibly, a completely separate bike lane, separated by islands, on the roundabouts. I’m just beginning to get used to riding on the other side of the road again.

Anyhoo. Dutch cuisine is more or less nonexistant, so we concentrated on the local brews last night, which means that this morning I am a little woozy. Nothing a bike ride won’t fix.

Photos to come. Craig N. has a camera with him.

Writing

So, I’m struggling with a recalcitrant plot. It’s just not twisting in the way that I want it to: there are elements that just don’t want to be moved, and I need them out of the way. I call Jon in despair and say I can’t make it work; we’ll just have to go with what we have, which is perfectly decent as it is. But it still doesn’t feel *quite* clever enough.

Today, I realise these recalcitrant elements - the ones that don’t want to move - are, in fact, virtues. They are perfect just where they are. I was trying to have the plot avoid them, when it works even better if the plot smashes straight into them instead.

I slap my forehead, dash off a quick note to Jon, and now feel happy.

What prompted this realisation? It was a game of “Cow Trader” I played at lunchtime. The end-game of Cow Trader can be very complicated, and has to be managed carefully. Occasionally, you will be in a position where you have one card of a set, and someone else has the remaining three. In order to win their three, you have to win two trades. The trouble is, spending too much on the first trade means you lose the second trade. It’s a very fine balance, and there’s a tipping point: sometimes you bluff, sometimes you put forward an honest bid, as low as you dare, and sometimes you go all out.

Anyway, I won both trades, and the game (which isn’t the point - two of the opponents were first-time players) with big, sudden inversions. And I realised, right there, that there was a similar fine balance in the story, and that it could be similarly inverted.

So, that’ll be a couple of ‘nerd’ points for me, then.

Preparing for trip

I’m frantically preparing for the trip to the Netherlands and France, swotting my way through the standards documents, reading up on the history of the group, doing action-items, and getting the trip details sorted. Meanwhile, I managed to do a FF on “Land of the Dead” on the weekend, and did some work on the novel proposal, as well as the usual musical interludes (Walk on the wild side! The dual bass parts on it are really funky and surprisingly easy) and DVD watching. Tomorrow night I’m running the gladiator D&D game, which will need preparation. There are the midnight teleconferences tonight and on Thursday.

This week is pretty packed.

Crappy Rare Tournament

I won all 6 matches to win the crappy rare tournament. The last match was with Andrew C., who’s deck was very powerful but a little slower than my one. He won the first game quite convincingly, but my deck applied more pressure in the second and third games. He had to play defensively, and that was that. In both of my winning games, I took an early lead, he played some bigger creatures, and I jokulhaups-ed to remove everything from play and shortly afterwards laid down an ankh of mishra (2 damage when laying down land).

Badminton

The games against Ian this lunchtime were notable mainly because it was the first time I’ve ever beaten Ian such that he got a zero score. We played five games; I lost the first four to the tune of 15-10 or so, and then blitzed through the last one to win 15-0. He wasn’t even tired. It was just one of those things. If either of us knew what happened to cause this sudden collapse and why, we would no doubt be much better players.

Weekend

Anna left for Alice Springs & South Australia on Saturday morning, to visit her mom and brother, and I sat around and watch footy all weekend.

I support the Crows, in that I will usually watch them on the telly if they’re playing, and I read their results in the paper. If the Crows aren’t playing, I support Sydney. Otherwise, anyone who is playing against Port Adelaide. So it was a really, really good weekend for footy results.

And there was playing of music, and watching of Battlestar Galactica with Jon & Kate, and I went over to their place last night as well for more of the same. The plot outline is in fine shape at the moment, but I still want to fiddle with it.

Finally, hooray for me! I finished the Hulk film forensic. Now I can go on and do something easier, and never face up against Ang Lee again.

Things I have learned about jogging

Do not jog after dinner.

Avoid jogging during the day. If you ‘must’, go as early or late as possible.

Don’t try to synchronise your breathing to your steps. I actually used to do this: breathe in for two steps, out for two steps. And when I got more tired, in for one step, out for two steps. And so on. I’m still not sure why I tried to do this, but it didn’t work.

Buy better shoes.

Slow down lots when you go up hills. If you go slowly enough, they’re no different to level ground, and you don’t get puffed at all. I used to get very daunted by hills.

Warm up muchly, before and afterwards. It feels good.

Take your spare keys with you, not your normal keys. If you transfer your keys from your jeans to your shorts instead, you’ll forget to transfer them back again, ’cause you’ll be tired, and then you’ll lock yourself out the next day.