Chance News 20

It's been released here.

The Ballad of Ricky Bobby

Tonight is American movie night in the graduate student lounge. We're watching This is Spinal Tap and Slap Shot at my recommendation. The first is about a British rock-and-roll band and the second is about a Canadian hockey team. Neither of which reflects the US of A. I suggested Spinal Tap because the grad students would often talk about a band of nobodies assembled by a radio station. The mock band will release its third album soon. The Brown Album. Please. I don't recall why Slap Shot will be viewed. I think that we talked about local sports such as Aussie rules football, rugby league, baseball, lacrosse, and ice hockey. I can't think of a rugby movie. It's too hard to decide what the best baseball movie is, but the best ice hockey movie by far is Slap Shot. I know that they'll find Spinal Tap funny, but I don't remember Slap Shot clearly.

Unfortunately, if the students want immersion in modern American culture, neither of the movies will do as well as Talladega Nights. Or at least presenting what a Yankee thinks of the south. My sister and I went last night and were in hysterics. I don't think the Kiwis understood half of the jokes. Why is being thrown out of an Applebees funny? It's the funniest Will Ferrell movie I've seen. My favorite part was when Ricky Bobby had to face his fear. The movie also pokes fun at my favorite movie of all time.

Whitewater Kayaking

Last Saturday and three Saturdays ago on the ninth, I went kayaking on Hurunui River, which is about 2 hours north of Christchurch. I hadn't been whitewater kayaking in two years since the spring of 2004 when I was last in Seattle. I went with people associated with the University Canterbury Canoe Club.

I paddled very well on the first trip. I only rolled once and had little problems with the rapids. I was in a big creek boat with lots of stability and lots of volume. The second trip I didn't paddle as well. I was in a tiny play boat with no back support. I rolled countless times and swam once in the gorge. The gorge is class III part of the river. I swam because I was stuck in a hole and the foamy water makes rolling difficult. I don't know why my roll still fails one time in twenty. To top it off, I was verging on hypothermia at the end of the run. The swim was mild. I held onto my paddle and another easily retreived the boat. I was on shore quickly.

River kayaking is one of the more frustrating sports to learn. Differences in athletic ability and metal attitude are magnified. Some people learn to roll on their first try and never miss another one. Some don't learn until their one thousandth attempt. The consequences of missing a roll and rolling are radically different. You can guess which type of person usually goes on in this sport. I like to think that rolling a kayak is tied into the challenges that I face in my research and in my social life. I know in theory that to break out of a hole while you're up-side-down look for the "green" or flowing water. Putting a paddle into it will pop you out. Plus, the average human can hold their breath much longer than the intermediate kayaker waits to pull their skirt. Why can't I execute in practice?

Last Saturday evening, I went out to bars with the kayakers. We started at the Dux-De-Lux, went to the Rockpool, and finished at the Treehouse. Again, the difference between theory and practice haunted me. Very late in the evening at the Treehouse, some in our group wanted to sing Sweet Caroline and they wanted me to come on stage with them. They knew that I was from Boston and had seen a Red Sox game or two. I whimped out. In theory, it would've been fun, but in practice, I was too shy. I like this quote that I read on someone's email signature once,

In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they're different.

Skiing in September

I always find it amazing how far I can fall behind on things. The articles that I want to post on my blog are building up. I haven't even written about my trip to Napier and that was on the 15th of July. To my detriment, I don't adhere to my self-imposed daily publishing schedule.

Two weeks ago from tomorrow, September 7, I went skiing at Mt Hutt with a graduate student, Dan, and another graduate student's brother and sister, Tom and Ruth. I borrowed a season pass so I only paid for gas and rental skis. The day was gorgeous, as you can see in the photo of Dan and me. The scenery was spectacular and those are the Canterbury Plains in the background. But the terrain was rather blah. The lift lines were short, but we used only one lift. There weren't many ways to go down the mountain. We tried one extremely steep trail. I didn't ski it well, because it required some aggressive jump turns. If I had done the turns at the beginning, it would've been easier. Like most things in life, a little aggression pays off.

As you can tell from the tone of this post, I'm not an avid skier. However, now I can say I've skied the southern hemisphere and skied in September.

Murderball

On Saturday, my youngest sister, Margee, and I went to the finals of the World Wheelchair Rugby Championships being held in Christchurch. It was the USA versus New Zealand. I don't think there's another sport in which New Zealand will battle the USA for the championship of the world. There might be a few rowing events. The US won 29 to 26, of course. Wheelchair rugby was the subject of the movie Murderball, and we saw the USA star player who was featured in the documentary and on the poster on the IMDB site.

We wanted to dress up and be rowdy Americans. I don't have any red, white, and blue clothes. I belted the national anthem and we joined in with the almost continuous USA chants. I think that the USA supporters were louder than the NZ supporters. Westpac arena was small but it was almost full. Many wore black. I snagged a water bottle that was tossed into the crowd at halftime.

The game closest to wheelchair rugby is canoe polo. I use one sport you don't know to describe another sport you don't know. It's the perfect analogy. They can pass the ball forward, ram each other, and are confined to a vehicle that you must sit in. Wheelchairs move like kayaks too. Team USA missed only one pass the entire game. The Wheel Blacks only three. My kayak polo team could learn something from them. The Wheel Blacks had two strong players and the US used more subs. Players are given a disability rating between 0.5 and 3.5 with 0.5 being the most disabled, and the four on the floor can have a most a total rating of 8. You get one point for a touchdown.

How to Succeed in Evil

I'm hooked on an Internet radio show that Jon recommended, How to Succeed in Evil. It's the story of how a consultant for super villains goes into business for himself. I like the writing a lot and here are my favorite lines so far.

Edwin didn't bother to explain that there would be no next time. A plan that relied on the extraordinary acts of one person was not a good plan. Edwin was a little ashamed that he couldn't have come up with something better. Edwin desired that all his machinations be inexorable, rather than spectacular. He did not mean to seize glory but, rather, crush it out of circumstance, as an anaconda kills its prey.

How to Succeed in Evil, Episode 4. Patrick Mclean

Canterbury Gliding Club

A few weeks ago, I received a cryptic message from the head of the math department about an open house at the Canterbury Gliding Club. They offered $40 winch launches on Father's Day. (In New Zealand, Father's Day is on September 3rd).

I drove to their airstrip in Hororata in the morning. I didn't know what a winch a launch was. I arrived at 11 am and was the first nonmember to show. For a winch launch, they place a winch at the end of the runway and it drags the glider along at a fast pace, launching the glider to 1,500 feet. The flight lasts 2 to 3 minutes. However, they didn't have the winch, so the head of the club said they'd do plane launches that would bring you to 1,500 feet for $40. The usual price for an introductory flight was $135. I jumped at the opportunity.

I had a blast with the flight. It started with me and another member dragging the glider from the shed to the runway using a minivan. The first time we pulled the glider, the rope snapped off, because we had left the parking brake on. Another glider landed while the pilot was showing me the controls. The glider slammed into the ground. I asked if all landings were that hard, and the pilot said that one was particularly bad.

I sat in the front seat and the pilot behind. It was exciting being pulled by the plane. I took a lot of photos in the air. At one point, the pilot asked if I could find the runway. I couldn't. I could've kept my hands on the controls as long as I didn't interfere with the pilot, but I was into the photography. I included two photos of the Canterbury Plains. I attempted to upload the video of the landing, but Blogger wouldn't accept it.

Kumeu River Village Chardonnay

This week I tried a very nice chardonnay from the Kumeu River Wines. It's dry and not woody. I had trouble discerning flavors in this one because I think it was too cold. I kept the bottle in the fridge. We'll call it subtle.

Nature's Science Bloggers

Again, this is another post that I meant to write a while back and it's a rant that's not about New Zealand. About two months ago, Nature published a list of the top 50 science blogs. The rankings were based on their Technorati ranking and were required to be written by a practicing scientist. I followed all 50 blogs using an RSS feed reader, Newsgator. (RSS readers and social bookmarking sites, such as del.icio.us, are the biggest improvements to the web since Google.)

I was disappointed by the quality of most of the science blogs. Most were about the scientist's cats or regurgitations of The Panda's Thumb or Pharyngula. My criterion for judging is solely focus. From BlogPire's success, I extrapolate that focus is what separates the good from the bad. Here's my list of the 13 most useless of Nature's top 50 science blogs in alphabetical order.

• A Blog Around the Clock
  
• A Questionable Authority
  
• blog.bioethics.net
  
• Deltoid
  
• Living the Scientific Life
  
• Mike the Mad Biologist
  
• Stranger Fruit
  
• The Daily Transcript
  
• The Disgruntled Chemist
  
• The Quantum Pontiff
  
• Thoughts from Kansas
  
• Three-Toed Sloth
  
• Uncertain Principles
  

I feel that some of these might not be on Nature's list. Oh well, no time to check. I'm politically aligned with most of these blogs, but there're better political blogs out there, Think Progress for one.

Two science blogs stood out from the rest.

• Good Math, Bad Math
  
• John Hawks Anthropology Weblog
  

Signing off from the 1.6 millionth most rambling blog.

Gentleman in the Water

Yesterday, I woke to the sound of water flowing. The noise came from my neighbor's apartment and the carpet at the end of my hall next to his abode was soaked. I had experienced this before in Seattle, when the neighbor's water heater overflowed and flooded my place. The puddle looked similar, but smaller.

I ran over and banged on my neighbor's door. He answered and his responses were ludicrous. I told him about the sound of water flowing, and he said that the Avon rivers flowed and we lived in a marsh. I asked if one of his faucets was broken and he joked, "Faucet? Faucet? Force it. No, I didn't force my washing machine." I was annoyed but kept it to myself. And then he said, "Oh, my car, it's gone." We stood on his porch, I looked, and it wasn't there. I asked if he wanted to call the police, but he declined. Because of other conversations from the weekend, I thought that he was on a bender. I thought that he had left his car at a friend's house. I left not wanting to provoke him. The water noise had stopped when I returned to my place.


After my shower, he stopped by. I pointed out the water and he said that his bathroom, kitchen, and washing machine were on the far side of the apartment away from my hallway. I agreed. At this point, I thought it was a freak incident and I would check on the situation in the evening after school.


Curiosity got the better of me, and I left school at 4. When I returned home, I heard the water running again and the pool had drastically increased in size. I called the landlord because I thought a pipe had burst somewhere. Soaked carpets must be dried immediately or else they're destroyed. My landlord stopped by in hour and went to visit the neighbor. The neighbor wasn't there and my landlord let himself in. The neighbor had trashed his apartment, blocked the drains in the sinks, and left the water running. That caused the pool. His apartment looked like the hotel scene in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. My landlord called the police, who then notified the neighbor's brother, who later stopped by. The brother said that the neighbor is mentally ill, but the condition can be treated with medication. He must have stopped taking his medication over the weekend. He was arrested earlier in the day and was at a hospital now.

I cross my fingers and hope that's the last of it. I feel mildly guilty that I recognized that something was up and I didn't do something sooner, but my neighbor needed help that was far beyond what I could offer. The damage to his apartment, apart from the cosmetic, appears to minimal. I hope that the hospital is able to help and he didn't damage himself. It sucks that he'll have to move when he's in such a state, but he needs to live with people who care about him rather than living by himself. The photos are of the pile of carpet we removed from my apartment and the bare floor where the carpet was.

Google Ad

I finally got the Google Ad to mention wine after two months of trying. Now watch it mention Google after this post.

Gunn Estate Unoaked Chardonnay

I've had the worst luck trying to ski in New Zealand. Today I'm supposed to be at Porter Heights on a trip with the Recreation Centre at the university. However this morning, I received a text message on my cell phone stating that the trip was cancelled due to "Gale force winds expected all day." This gives me time to do spring-cleaning, buy groceries, and finish the answer sheet for my students.

I'm in the midst of having lunch. It's pretentious. I'm having nan, salami, young leyden cheese, and next weeks wine. I stopped by the butchers, the wine shop I discovered last week, and the Indian supermarket this morning. The wine shop has to be one of the better ones in Christchurch because it was busy at 11 am on a Saturday morning.

This week's wine is good and I don't feel that I gave it a fair shot. It's Gunn Estate 2005 unoaked chardonnay from Gisborne. I must start to describe the flavors to become a better connoisseur. This wine tasted like a decent chardonnay. I like my chardonnay to be as antiseptic as possible and this was. Tree flavor is too much for most whites, but some reds can handle it.