Boy's Breakfast

Back home in Vancouver I go out every Sunday morning for breakfast with some buddies to the Edge Cafe. It is almost always only men, hence my nickname for it in the title. I have enjoyed it as a regular event to transition from one week to the next, and miss the camaraderie when I am out of town. I made my own breakfast this morning. Quite nice but I had to make it myself, will have to do the dishes afterwards, and there were no buddies to enjoy it with.

Sweet Lorraine's Mac n Cheez

Macaroni and cheese is a real comfort food (unless you are lactose intolerant, I guess). It was one of my favourite meals as a kid, although what my mother made back then was pretty boring compared to what you can do. My latest place to get it was "Sweet Lorraine's Mac n Cheez" in East Lansing. It is part of a small chain, local to Michigan.

I had their macaroni and cheese with bacon, tomatoes and spinach, and a garden salad. It was pretty good - I would go back there again, although I am set up to do my own cooking in the little apartment I have on campus now, so won't be eating out very much for the rest of the visit. The best macaroni and cheese I have ever had was at the Crow's Nest and Country Store outside of Tlell on Haida Gwaii. It is a bit out of the way. Of course the best should have been one I made myself (I do like my own cooking) but I just haven't hit the right note yet. 

Minecraft Regrowth Modpack

I have been playing the Regrowth modpack for Minecraft 1.7.10, available as a third party pack on the Feed the Beast launcher. It is a quest driven pack, with the aim to restore the world after it has been left devoid of plant, animal and villager life, and depleted of all mineral resources. It has the flavour of Agrarian Skies and Skyblock, in that you have to follow the quests to gain access to basic and then more advanced plants, trees, and other materials. This one does start you on solid ground, although it is a wasteland. It has Botania as one of the major mods, which I have come to enjoy quite a lot. It's crafting system works really well extended to quest driven progression, as well. One of the other major mods is Witchery, which I have never really been able to get in to. It seems like so much work with so many fiddly details and not much interesting comes out. I should work through to the end of the Witchery quests in this pack and see if anything changes my mind. The main tech mod is Mekanism, which I have never seen before. It is interesting, but pipes don't seem to always work as you would like, so in that sense Thermal Expansion is still my favourite for basic technology. I will end with a picture of my base tower, a variant on my current architectural design:

Back in exciting East Lansing, Michigan

I am back in East Lansing, visiting Keith Promislow at Michigan State University. It is pretty familiar as this is the fifth or sixth visit I have made here for a month in the Spring. I guess I visited Keith before that on shorter visits. I don't remember much from those visits and I know I didn't try and settle in.

I am here earlier than usual this year, so the geese on the river have younger offspring:

I am am here so early that the term had not quite ended, so I am in a temporary dorm room for a few days before the apartment I will be in for the rest of the visit opens up. That apartment is in a women's only (during the main terms) dorm and they realized at some point I just wouldn't fit in. So, I am in a glorified prison cell, with internet, a bar fridge and a microwave for a few more days. I am adaptable, so this is working out fine. I make sure to eat a big lunch out and have a few simple things in the bar fridge for other meals. The only "hardship" is not having coffee on my own first thing when I get up. 

I have rented a bike, taken out a membership at the local gym I go to when I am here, shopped for some gin and some cables to get connected to the internet in my cell, started something new with Keith and worked out a few things on a project I brought with me (that I am scheduled to speak about in a workshop coming up soon). So, settling in like it is a routine. 

Alternatives to Lost

"Lost" was a network TV show from a few years ago. I watched some of the early seasons and apparently it was critically acclaimed for its entire run, but I was not impressed. It really seemed that the writers had no clue where they were going, and it was just one mystery after another with nothing ever explained. There is no way I could go back and re-watch the entire series just to see whether I hadn't given it a fair chance.

If you like that genre, there are a couple of things you could check out. I should say I haven't finished them (and one is not yet complete) so these are only preliminary recommendations.

• Area X: the Southern Reach Trilogy, by Jeff VanderMeer. I read the first book, "Area X", which is like a precis "Lost" in novella form. Well written and clearly Jeff had a plan the whole way. Satisfying but ambiguous ending. My daughter gave me this for Christmas. 
• The Lost Village: is an anime, currently being shown. It is available dubbed on Crunchyroll (a monthly subscription Japanese and Korean media site). So far, it is pretty interesting with the same basic concept of Lost. I should probably not recommend it, since Lost was pretty interesting at the beginning and just lost it's way. Still, anime series are often short and wrap up in a satisfying way. 

I am the Loverboy of research math professors

This post will be less interesting than the title suggests.

I am applying for a job at UCLA, as the director of the Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics (IPAM). I am happy at UBC but have been here 25 years and a chance to change up my career a bit would be welcome. I tell my friends that it is a long shot and they are surprised. I guess they believed me when I said I was an "international expert" and that "being a research mathematician is as unusual as being a successful rock musician". Well, rock stars come in different kinds. I am the Loverboy of research mathematicians. It puts it into perspective that I probably have to explain to you who Loverboy is. They were (still are) a local band that had some success in the eighties. I have one of their songs, "turn me loose" on a playlist. It is pretty catchy. I have written some research papers that people liked. But UCLA is a top place, a notch above UBC, and IPAM is a serious outfit. They are looking for a David Bowie class mathematician. I have made multiple playlists of only Bowie tunes. Of course, I still have a chance at the job since no mathematician of that class may want it. Or, maybe they really want someone in tight red leather pants (you have to watch a Loverboy video to understand this comment). For me the equivalent to the pants is my track record of collaboration outside of mathematics with Engineering and Industry. 

Google Dozen Playlist: Canadiana

Hi all,

For those of you that subscribe to Google Music, here is my latest, totally awesome playlist, featuring Canadian bands.

https://play.google.com/music/playlist/AMaBXym8R9pBbWdffM17WQBAHHlYqeVrcwSPSr6EygP1G1C5AQT9pMxg4JR1BZX_jK2h-TtvyVjjR_T8E_xnaRb0HOih82piww==

There is a point of view that such national playlists should have songs about Canada as well as by Canadians, but I just don't subscribe to that restriction. We are a nation that generates great music beyond wilderness, maple syrup, hockey and mockery of Americans. Limiting to a dozen songs in my google format was tricky. Some things I thought of including before they got cut:

• Stan Rogers, Northwest Passage
• Corey Hart, Sunglasses at Night (*) 
• No Means No, Rag 'n Bones (*) 
• Sweeny Todd, Roxy Roller
• Doug and the Slugs, Too Bad
• Joni Mitchell, Big Yellow Taxi 
• Trooper, Boys in the Bright White Sports Car 
• Purity Ring, Body Ache 

The (*)'d entries are ones not available on Google Music. This was the first time I had identified major holes in their collection. Hopefully they will be added at some point, although I don't know how successful Google Music has been and whether they plan to expand.