Well, I'm back from honeymoon and very busy (not long before my next interstate and overseas trips), but I'll try and write up some of the highlights. Trouble is that it was such a long trip and we did so much. I'll add to this journal progressively as I get free time.

We visited:

• 上海 (Shanghai), visiting the in-laws and having our Chinese wedding party, where I didn't drink too much, and practicing my 普通话


• Rome, and did as the tourists do and visit all the usual places.


• Venice, with a nice hotel balcony, expensive restaurants, and smelly (if scenic) waterways.


• Nice, which was very nice.


• Cannes, where we spent most of the time shopping, but did get to see the nice beach, and some short films on an outdoor screen (the main ones you had to be part of the convention).


• Monaco, where we had a very expensive snack.


• Paris, and saw the Eiffel tower at night, with lots of pretty flashing lights, and the Louvre (so-so) and the Musée d'Orsay. We also spent a small fortune at the Guy Savoy Restaurant.


• Reims, where pretty much everything was closed, except for the Notre-Dame de Reims and the motor museum.


• Barcelona, where we fell in love with the work of Gaudí


• Madrid, which due to travel plans gone slightly awry, we arrived at late at night, saw some of 于蓝's friends, and then left the next morning for...


• London, with it's loot and towers


• Watchfield, a tiny village in the English countryside, where we stayed with our lovely friends Liz and Dave and their three boys.


• Oxford, where I showed 于蓝 around my old haunts.


• Boston, which was lovely, and made even more so by Sabrina and Leeland showing us around and generally being helpful.


• New York, the city that never sleeps, especially when Obama won. Saw some of the usual things (Central Park, Statue of Liberty, Grand Central Station, etc.) and went to see Phantom of the Opera on Broadway, which was cool. :)


• Pittsburgh, where I spent some time with my genius (or at least, immensely well-read) friend & colleague Cosma


• Chicago, where I gave a talk on agent based modelling at Argonne National Labs, on the day that we didn't get stuck in post-football-game traffic while attempting to do a driving tour around the city.


• Santa Fe, beautiful Santa Fe, where I finally got to visit Bandelier, Abiquiu, and Ghost Ranch, before meeting up with friends Caroline and Aaron


• Los Angeles, where we lived 16km from one of the bushfires for a few days (lots of smoke, and even falling ash). We visited Disneyland and Universal Studios.

I will be posting some photos and videos up after they're all sorted and edited. Unfortunately we lost most of the photos as they were on 于蓝's camera, which had its flash memory die on us (and only found out after we got back).

我最近觉得担心太多了。因为大多于蓝的英国的境签证是来迟了。很失败!

我喜欢这个歌曲：

我在学中文，因为我新家庭是中国人。我在用这是博客为实践。请问，改正我的语法。谢谢。

I was recently asked by a facebook friend who is a publisher of fine books, if I'd review one called A Field Guide to Surreal Botany. Since I had no other info than the title, I wasn't sure what to expect, and my curiosity was sufficiently piqued to ask to review it (with the side effect that I am now having to do some work reviewing it instead of just admiring it :)

I think the web site will give you a sufficient idea of the art, as for the entries, I'll give you a quote from one of my favourite entries, the "Forget-me-bastard" (like the "forget-me-not", only different):
Male and female plant types have been observed, however aggression seems predominately against male humans---observer theorizes that this occurs as a result of the female side in any arguement (sic) being "right" by default, while the male side of an argument is invariably "wrong," and therefore worthy of attack.
[joke]Now that I'm married, I can attest to that.[/joke] (I am really happy with Yulan, and we get on well together, which is why I married her, and I'm only occasionally wrong ;)

The art is gorgeous, and most of the entries are imaginative / clever / humourous in a clever way. A few do feel a little bit forced and don't quite make it, but overall I love the book.

Here are the very first photos from the wedding, taken by my Dad. For comparison I've included wedding photos of my parents and maternal grandparents. I've also scanned in the wedding certificate & stuck that up.

I have it on very good authority that other photos will be ready fairly soon (the ones from the professional photographer might have to wait a little while as she's off to HK for a short trip soon).

I'm a very, very lucky man to have 于蓝 as my wife. Very happy too :)

( photos )

Read me.

Now you are without "isms". A person without "isms" is more like a person. An insect or plant is without "isms". You, too, have a life and will no longer be manipulated by any "isms", and you prefer to be an onlooker living on the fringes of society. Unavoidably, there will be perspectives, views and tendencies, but, finally, no particular "isms". This is the difference between the you of the present and the he that you are investigating.

The PhD is a pathway to many abilities some consider... un-natural.
Congratulations to 于蓝 on getting her driver's licence today. She can now drive without me sitting beside her hanging on for dear life. (Joking of course - she's a good driver :)

A little something I have been working on for a while... I now have a Youtube channel, featuring my favourite videos---still a work in progress, and the movie music duels. How could I have forgotten the lovely one from Electric Dreams? I've also uploaded the videos that 于蓝 took at the farewell / reunion concert (in which I played) for my violin teacher, and director of the string program, and of course conductor of the string orchestra, at Immanuel College (my high school). It was somewhat strange, but definitely a nice feeling to be playing again with people I've known for a long time---I first played in a string orchestra with Lucy back in 1991 (!)---and of course with Mrs Trav up the front conducting.

I've deleted my Facebook profile for a number of reasons:
1. I just wasn't using it, due mainly to lack of time.
2. There are only so many dodgy* memes I can take.
3. As a result of Facebook's dodgy default privacy settings, 于蓝 had her mobile (cell) phone number grabbed by a spammer, and they sent her junk text messages that cost a fortune (A$5 or something) to receive, and then after about 5 or so sent a text message with a number to call (which goes directly to a computer system to "remove", or more likely confirm, your number) and that she'd used up A$30. We shall see what the phone company says tomorrow (no one there to talk to today, grr.)

*dodgy (adj.) = "like a used car salesman"

Part 1 and part 2.

In other news, I'm playing my violin in a string ensemble for the first time in.. oh, around 10 years, on Thursday night. Just a little nervous. :)

I've been with 于蓝 for a little over 20 months now. In some ways it feels like no time at all, in some ways it feels like a lifetime. I couldn't imagine life without her, she is such a perfect fit for me. Someone who accepts me for who I am. Getting engaged was easy because I knew I'd found the right person; someone for whom I can take responsibility for, and someone who can take responsibility for me. Something my future father-in-law told me: 人 (the Chinese character for person) is formed from two strokes that mutually support each other, and that's what a marriage is about.

"That's what getting engaged involves. Marriage involves responsibility. You become independent and accept another person into your life. If you don't take responsibility you can't gain anything."

I think about this world a lot and I cry
And I've seen the films and the eyes
But I'm in this kitchen (say, say, the light)
Everything is beautiful
And she is so beautiful (say, say, the light)
She is so young and old
I look at her and I see the beauty (say, say, the light)
Of the light of music
The voices talking somewhere in the house
Late spring and you're drifting off to sleep
With your teeth in your mouth
You are here with me
You are here with me
You have been here and you are everything

I recommend this little catechism, to be read through in office hours whenever time hangs a little heavy.

Q. Why am I working here?
A. In order that the Jewish stockbrokers may exchange their Rovers for Armstrong-Siddeleys, buy the latest jazz records and spend the week-end at Brighton.
Q. Why do I go on working here?
A. In the hope that I too may some day be able to spend the weekend at Brighton.
Q. What is progress?
A. Progress is stockbrokers, more stockbrokers, and still more stockbrokers.
Q. What is the aim of social reformers?
A. The aim of social reformers is to create a state in which every individual enjoys the greatest possible amount of freedom and leisure.
Q. What will the citizens of this reformed state do with their freedom and leasure?
A. They will do, presumably, what the stockbrokers do with these things to-day, e.g. spend the week-end at Brighton, ride rapidly in motor vehicles and go to the theatre.
Q. On what condition can I live a life of contentment?
A. On the condition that you do not think.
Q. What is the function of newspapers, cinemas, radios, motorbikes, jazz bands, etc.?
A. The function of these things is the prevention of thought and the killing of time. They are the most powerful instruments of human happiness.
Q. What did Buddha consider the most deadly of the deadly sins?
A. Unawareness, stupidity.
Q. And what will happen if I make myself aware, if I actually begin to think?
A. Your swivel chair will turn into a trolley on the mountain railway, the office floor will gracefully slide away from beneath you and you will find yourself launched into the abyss.

Down, down, down! The sensation, though sickening, is really delightful. Most people, I know, find it too much for them and consequently cease to think, in which case the trolley reconverts itself into the swivel chair, the floor closes up, and the hours at the desk seem once more to be hours passed in a perfectly reasonably manner; or else, more rarely, flee in panic horror from the office to bury their heads like ostriches in religion or what not. For a strong-minded and intelligent person both courses are inadmissible; the first because it is stupid and the second because it is cowardly.


Excerpt is from Aldous Huxley's Those Barren Leaves. Any typos are my own. It probably needn't be said, but I do actually work hard, and this and this should probably give a fair indication as to why I don't associate anything with race. Now you'll excuse me while I go off to listen to some jazz...

Watch me.

Edit: though as Cosma points out, he is wrong about the corpus callosum. Cosma is definitely in a position to know, having read more about the brain than anyone else, and in fact read more about anything than anyone else I know, which is a little scary (Cosma is, however, not scary, and is in fact quite a nice person). He makes some very nice points here, in fact. I still think the talk has something valid to say about how we define intelligence, and about the education system. At the very least, it's quite amusing :)