To both long-time readers and those who have stumbled upon my site by chance, I wish you all a merry Christmas. Drive safely and have a good time with friends and family!
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Christmas · Katamari
Since it’s a common question, I thought I’d address it with a quick guide to pronouncing the word quixotic. The confusion is well warranted; while it’s derived from the Man of La Mancha, Don Quixote (roughly KEE-HOE-TAY), the word quixotic has an anglicized pronunciation (KWIK-SO-TIC).
I found a few definitions of the word on the net, but I most preferred this one from Wikipedia: “Quixotism is the description of a person or an act that is caught up in the romance of noble deeds and the pursuit of unreachable goals. It also serves to describe an idealism without regard to practicality.” Engineers are practical by definition, but as a nerd who believes in open-source software, video games as art and harnessing nuclear fusion (someday!), I can’t help but feel like a dreamer at times.
Today is Remembrance Day in Canada and the commonwealth, and Veteran’s day in the U.S.A. In that spirit, I thought I’d take a moment to thank my cousin Adam. As an American / Canadian dual citizen, Adam was eligeable to sign up with the U.S. Marines. He has since served two tours as a sniper in Iraq, and is currently training to become an officer and military pilot. It takes a certain kind of man to volunteer to leave a peaceful and plentiful country like Canada for a country where bombings and gunfire are everyday occurances. Soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan face terrible asymmetric warfare (IEDs, ambushes, suicide bombers and worse) from desperate guerrillas not bound by the Geneva Convention or international laws. Thank you for your incredible courage and sacrifice, Adam.
Soldiers and veterans deserve all of our support, since the government does not do nearly enough for returning soldiers (ex: one in four homeless people is a military veteran). Political speeches and flag waving don’t do our courageous men and women any good. Here are a few organizations that are really making a difference:
You may or may not know that I’ve been a long-time of proponent of the Segway Personal Transporter. Why, you might ask, would I support these silly devices? I have two important personal reasons.
Firstly, they’re a triumph of engineering. As vehicles that constantly appear to be in peril of falling over, they defy our expectations by remaining in perfect balance using a combination of computers and gyroscopes. Anything that harnesses the power of physics to do something counter-intuitive (see the levitating frog experiment) is alright in my books.
Secondly, it is literally impossible to look cool on a Segway. They’re the dorkiest things imaginable, something out of a bad sci-fi film. In that sense, they’re the antithesis of the modern trend of form over function. If buying an SUV is supposed to make you look sporty and tough, then a Segway gives you a vibe somewhere between a mad scientist and Comic Book Guy from the Simpsons. Therefore, riding one anyways is a giant “fuck you” to the modern fashion obsessed, cosmetic surgery, teeth whitening madness; I look like a huge nerd and I don’t care!
Need further proof that Segways are awesome? How about the Chicago police officer who chased down a shooting suspect on his Segway. Cruising at 12.5 mph, the officer wore down the suspect to the point of exhaustion then jumped off and arrested him. As District Commander Kevin Ryan put it: “These don’t wear down — people do.” What I wouldn’t give to have seen THAT chase scene.
Would I actually buy a Segway? No, they cost upwards of 5000 USD and I’m already a big fan of walking and biking. Despite what some enthusiasts believe, I don’t think that any able person can really justify personally owning a Segway. I do, however, see potential in the device for tourism, police patrols and post offices. They rent Segways in the Old Port of Montreal, and one of these days I’m going to make the time to give one a whirl.
[Thanks to Clive Thompson at Collision Detection for the Segway Policeman Story]
As of last Monday, I have officially begun my career in programming… as an intern (or stagiaire as we say in La Belle Province). As part of Concordia’s co-op program, I’ll be spending my fall semester working full time as a programmer at a Montreal company called 123 Certification. The job involves working with a small team on their largest product, the Arc Simulator, which is designed to teach welding in a way that is safe and cost-effective. It is quite literally virtual reality; the student wears a sort of VR helmet and uses motion-sensing tools.
Needless to say, it’s been a dramatic learning experience so far. I’ve spent a good part of the last week reading code and documentation, and have just recently had a chance to get my hands metaphorically dirty with some code debugging. I’m hoping to learn a great deal about handling 3D objects, working on a large scale project and coding professionally!
