The Twilight Report

P.O. Box 1663

2006-02-14T01:51:00

e and d came out for a few days. I'm sad because now that they are gone again I realize it will be a long time before I see them again. Tell me again why I can't just bring my friends to Australia with me? e said she would try to come out within a couple of years. It's going to be hard getting used to not being able to meet up with her and Jack after herding practice to go for a hike in New Jersey.

On the bright side, It was great to see them, and I was pleased that e finally got to meet my mum. The first day they were here we went skiing at Brighton. d said that he actually liked skiing so he may be back for more at some point.

That night we had Posole (prepared by myself) and invited Clare and Val over as well so we had an interesting discussion about whether or not Biology could ever be a predictive science or not. We also discussed the stupidity of large organizations, such as IBM and LANL, and how open systems are safer to closed ones.

Everyone had seconds, and some even had thirds. Right before I left New York, e told me that she likes Mexican food... all these years I thought she was just being polite and eating the food that I make for Enchilada Night. Seriously.

The second day we took a drive to Park City to see two photography galleries. We drive through the mountains and took a number of pictures and had lunch at somebodyorother's Grill. That night e and d took us to the Red Iguana, where we had more good Mexican food.

Personal Notes:

2004-12-26T23:25:00

At Clare's, I read an article in some main stream scientific magazine which referred to Privacy Journal which would be interesting to keep tabs on. Someone in the mall today asked me for my phone number when I was buying something and I said "I'm sorry, but I would rather not give you my phone number."

To which she responded: "Well, do you know anyone's phone number?" as though I would respect someone else's privacy less than my own. It seems to fluster a small percentage of the clerks that I deal with when I refuse to give out my phone number or my zip code. They should have privacy education in this country, but instead the whole system is designed to allow corporations to swallow up as much information as possible from unsuspecting consumers.

Clare said that George Bush "supposedly" said this:

"The problem with the French is that they don't have a word for entrepreneur."

- origin unknown

Which would have been hilarious if true, but according to Wikiquote, it is misattributed. Too bad.

In addition to WikiPedia there are also slew of "sister" projects which will probably prove useful for reference. The only drawback seems to be that they can be quite slow at times. WikiQuote should put IdeaBank out of business, if we were really in business to begin with.

The poorly known "founding father" my mother was talking about during our Christmas Eve political discussion was Charles Thomson. The Wikipedia entry for him is pretty short, but I did find some additional information on him here:

http://www.rebelswithavision.com/CharlesThomson.com/

which corroborates most of the elements of the story that my mother has been telling.

From the Sublime to the Ridiculous

2004-12-25T05:09:00

Yesterday we went up to visit my mother's friend and mentor, Clare, at her rustic cabin home which looks over Bear Lake. Last July I took a photograph which now is on the welcome page of my web site up there. For "Christmas" dinner, we had fish. Although I am not a fan of fish and I did not have seconds, it did taste pretty good. We also drank lots of Australian wine; that probably helped.

(The Sublime)

In short, our range of topics was both wide and deep, and intellectually stimulating.

Then we drove back to Salt Lake City where we attended the annual Christmas Eve party for Don's (my step father) family. Gosh... where to begin. (The Ridiculous)