Blog Archives: June, 2004
Lost my favourite fleece
In Venice, with my fleece When I was waiting in the airport on my way to Italy last week, I lost my favourite green fleece from MEC, and while I didn’t need to wear it hot and humid Florence, I am now lacking in warm tops to wear around the house. All I’ve got now is my memories. We went everywhere together – to far-off places like California, Italy, and Switzerland, and to everyday places like the grocery store and classes. It can never be replaced. Well, actually it can, as soon as I get to the nearest MEC store. But until then, it can’t be replaced.
LaTeX Blackboard Bold 1
LaTeX blackboard bold one A request to my math-oriented readers. Does anyone know how to do a good blackboard bold 1 (one) in LaTeX? The simple \mathbb{1} doesn’t work because the numbers aren’t defined in the mathbb font. I’ve come up with the following hack, which produces the image at left, but it’s not perfect, because it’s not actually a font glyph but a 1 with a line. If you’ve got a better way, please let me know.
\newcommand{\1}{{\rm 1\hspace*{-0.4ex}%
\rule{0.1ex}{1.52ex}\hspace*{0.2ex}}}
Florence and Pisa
With Frank outside the Duomo, Florence Earlier this week I spent 3 days in Italy, visiting Florence and Pisa. I was visiting my high school friend Frank who was spending a month in Florence on a language course.
Florence is a magnificent old city, dating from Roman times. It has a rich history, most notably as the home of the powerful Medici family, whose money and influence can still be seen in the buildings existing today.
Il Duomo, Florence In the centre of the city is the Cathedral Square, which contains the Duomo (cathedral) of Florence. The cavernous interior is quite spartan, but you can climb to the top of the dome for a good look out over the city.
Outside the Gates of Paradise of the Baptistery, Florence Also in cathedral square are the bell tower and baptistery of the cathedral. There are a number of other great churches in Florence, including Santa Croce and San Lorenzo (the parish church of the Medici family).
After spending 2 days in Florence with Frank, I went to Pisa for my final morning in Italy. Pisa is a small city, but it is said to have the most scenic piazza in the world: the Piazza dei Miracoli, which contains the Duomo (cathedral) of Pisa, its baptistry, and its famous bell tower.
Fixing the Leaning Tower of Pisa The Leaning Tower of Pisa is an 8-storey bell tower that started to lean immediately during its construction. Its lean became so acute that, in 1990, the tower was closed until the foundation could be stabilised. Fortunately for me, the tower reopened in 2001 and I was able to climb to the top. I also visited the cathedral, which has a magnificent interior.
There are more pictures of Florence and Pisa in my photo gallery. Many of the pictures have detailed text describing the monument.
Oxford to Florence
High Table at Christ Church Last week was quite a busy week. I was working on my final project for the courses I’m taking this year and playing host to Donny, who was visiting Oxford and Cambridge to meet their quantum information people. Donny got to dine on high table at Christ Church (picture at left), which must be one of the coolest places to dine in Oxford. We went to see a wonderful outdoor production of Much Ado About Nothing in Oxford on Friday, and then saw Georges Bizet’s Carmen on Saturday in London with Patrick. That was my first time to the opera, and the experience itself was quite nice. I’m not so convinced on the story, though. The plot seems to consist of two guys in love with the same girl, but the entire extent of one man’s love is that he kisses her hand and then two months later he’s willing to fight to the death for her. But the singing was nice.
Frank and I And now I’m off to Florence, Italy, to spend a few days with Frank, a good friend from high school. He’s spending a month in Florence to practice his Italian, and I decided to invite myself down there.
ourvote.ca
Kirk has set up a website, called ourvote.ca, with information for Canadian youth aged 18-24 who are voting in the upcoming federal election. Technically I’m not in the target demographic, but some of my readers might be.
Apparently things are heating up in the campaign, with the parties very close in the polls right now. If you’re living abroad as I am, you can still vote by mail-in ballot, although you’ll have to hurry now to get one. Check out the Elections Canada website for more information. Do consider voting. With the parties close in the polls, individual votes have more effect on the overall outcome (I’m sure there’s a mathematical way to quantify this, but I’m no mathematician… oh wait…).
Wizards
Wizards, part 1: Yesterday AnnoyinglyTannedHousemateEmily and I went to see Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Certainly the best of the Harry Potter films to date. It has a new director who comes from an art-house cinema background, and it shows. One of my complaints with the first two movies is that they would be so much better if the pacing was just a tad slower. This third film gives you a chance to breathe as you watch it, to take in the stunning visuals. And the music is great. A completely new score by John Williams (the music on the second movie was a great disappointment as it was just a rehash by another composer of Williams’ score for the first movie). One of the features of this score is “Double Trouble”, a renaissance musical setting for the “Double, double, toil and trouble” speech from Shakespeare’s MacBeth. Oh, and in case you want proof that I’m actually listening to the soundtrack, you can check out a new feature I’ve added to the website. On the right-hand bar on my blog, there’s a box labelled “Now Playing”, that shows the song I’m currently listening to (or most recently listened to) in iTunes. It’s put there automatically by a cute little program called RecentTunes. So even if I’m not writing new entries, you can still see what I’m listening to.
Wizards, part 2: I’m currently reading Body of Secrets, by James Bamford. It’s about signals intelligence operations by the NSA and GCHQ. One third of the book in, I’ve read about sigint operations from World War II through to the Vietnam War, with fascinating stories of cryptographers on dangerous missions in little frigates sailing defenselessly in the waters of countries that don’t want them there. (Oh, and the wizards reference? After I got home from the movie and opened the book to continue reading, the first two words I saw were “One wizard”, referring to a cryptanalyst aboard a Navy ship.)
An Oxford weekend
A post about the past weekend when the next weekend is almost here? Sorry for the lack of posts lately. I will endeavour to lead a more exciting life for you to read about.
Crowds along the shore, Oxford Eights 2004 This past weekend was a very typical Oxford weekend. Saturday was the last day of Summer Eights, the biggest inter-collegiate rowing races at Oxford. The Pembroke men’s and women’s 1st VIIIs boats both won head of the river last year and hence both started in first. The women got bumped on the second last day and came second to New College; the men got bumped twice and came third. The river is amazing to see during Eights. 
Pembroke College rowing in Oxford Eights 2004 There are thousands of Oxonians crowded around a 300 metre stretch of river. Lots of current students, but a good number of “old boys” alumni and their families. And everyone’s drinking Pimm’s and lemonade, an incredibly popular Oxford drink that probably no one else in the world drinks (the main liquor store on Oxford’s High Street sells the most Pimm’s of any store in the entire world).
Walking in the Cotswolds with Ellie the dog Sunday I went on another walk in the Cotswolds with other graduate students from Pembroke, the Master, his wife, and their dog Ellie. We had a picnic part way through our walk, but this picnic feature quiche, couscous, and fresh organic strawberries with cream. Now that’s a good picnic.
And now life is all about the thesis. I’ve started typesetting the introduction and background. It’s slow, lots of definitions so far. But I’ve still got 11 weeks, not that I’m counting.
