Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in eapen's LiveJournal:

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Thursday, October 9th, 2008
8:31 pm	On Movies I rarely make it out to the movies, but I was surfing RottenTomatoes and noticed that Ellen Burstyn (who I remember from a stunning performance in Requiem for a Dream) is in a movie coming out soon called the Elephant King. Haven't seen much more than the blurb on Rottentomatoes, but I'm sure it'll be a good movie. My real question: What's Darren Aronofsky up to? Requiem and Pi, despite being difficult to watch, remain two of my favorite movies, and I'm curious if Aronofsky is doing or has done anything since of that caliber. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
2:48 pm	On Irreducible Computability Stephen Wolfram, the dude who came up with Mathematica, discusses fractal science and non-linear dynamical systems in his rather weighty-did-we-really-have-to-kill-all-these-trees size book, A New Kind of Science. Some basic ideas. Even simple systems based on simple rules can exhibit staggeringly complex behavior. Additionally, such systems are computationally irreducible, that is to say, you can't take easy shortcuts to figuring out the behavior of most systems: you have to be willing to slog through the computation. Example: take simple functions, iterate them a couple million times (while varying the initial conditions), and see what happens. Then perform the thought experiment of trying to articulate how the functions behave. More thoughts later. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, October 8th, 2008
11:28 pm	Reading Paglia on Palin: The Evolution of American Feminism Camille Paglia's been getting lots of attention for her views on Sarah Palin. I think that Paglia's essentially correct in her arguments (at least I don't have the perspective to be able to challenge them) as my views on feminism are very reductionist (I believe in being courteous and respectful to people regardless of sex or gender and don't find within my personal relationships any instances where sex or gender based norms are forced. If I am wrong, correct me). Part of this is because as a single male living the bohemian work/study college life I don't engage many structures that are overtly and consciously repressive, at least on the level from which I'm engaging them. In any case, I think that what Paglia has to say is important. Perhaps not this specific text, but the collection of Paglia's discussion on Sarah Palin is important. I think that my thoughts on Paglia speaking about Palin are irrelevant to my beliefs that Sarah Palin is not remotely educated enough to be Vice President and was a terrible choice for John McCain. In any case, I'm not even sure I have an audience on this blog anymore, but if anyone feels like starting a real discussion via internet or in person I'd love to hear more perspectives. Link to page 4 of the Salon story here. (Comment on this)
Thursday, October 2nd, 2008
1:07 pm	On the Presidential Election I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Barack Obama's presidential campaign has got to be the smartest presidential campaign ever run. I won't provide an exhaustive list of reasons, but I will note his willingness to chase even the most marginal of voters. And he bought a cable tv channel (73 on Dish Network). How badass is that?   OH AND THE SMASHING PUMPKINS ARE COMING TO MISSOURI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Comment on this)
Saturday, September 27th, 2008
5:34 pm	The World's Most Romantic Wines Culled from Jay McInerney's 'Bacchus & Me: Adventures in the WIne Cellar', from the first Appendix, titled appropriately, The World's Most Romantic Wines. Some commentary has been culled; my thoughts are in italics. 1. Dom Perignon (Try a vintage that's older than the current 1999/1997 vintages; even better if you find a vintage before 1990). 2. Rose champagne, especially: Billecart-Salmon DP Dom Ruinart Egly-Ouriet Krug Veuve Cliquot La Grande Dame Taittinger Comtes du Champagne   3. Condrieu (because of its perfume) 4. Chambolle-Musigny, Les Amoureuse (premier cru red burgundy aka pinot noir) 5. Chateau Calon-Segur 6. Domaine Ott Rose (on a deserted beach) 7. Chateau d'Yquem   Never had a Calon-Segur, a Egly-Ouriet, a Condrieu, or a Krug, but I've been lucky enough to sample the rest, most memorably, 3 distinct vintages of d'Yquem, though they were certainly way too young. My list would include Belle Glos Pinot Noir (the Clark & Telephone bottling) as well as Bryant Family Cabernet Sauvignon, which has to be the best cabernet I've ever had (I got to try the 2000 vintage). (Comment on this)
11:25 am	On Paul Newman  b-:  Paul Newman passed  me:  I heard i guess i'll drown my my miseries in spaghetti sauce  b-:  lol that's awful (Comment on this)
Saturday, September 20th, 2008
9:47 am	Easily Amused I'm not sure what I'll do tonight. There's a big football game in town (MU vs. Buffalo) so there'll be a lot of drunken debauchery downtown. But I feel like something quiet and essential: maybe I'll sit around and re-watch The Thin Red Line, or maybe I'll continue on reading the glorious mess that's Gravity's Rainbow. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, September 17th, 2008
1:09 am	On Poems Dana Gioia has a sweet article in the 1991 Atlantic titled Can Poetry Matter? I highly recommend this article for lovers of the subject. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, September 16th, 2008
1:18 pm	Rationally Voting? I can't vote for McCain/Palin. McCain's too old and even though I genuinely think a small/divided quasi-libertarian administration (which is what I imagine McCain's adminstration would look like) I can't take Sarah Palin as a serious VP and god forbid she becomes president with absolutely no knowledge of macroeconomics or how NATO works. Seriously, it's like a sweet journal article: How NATO Works, or How Not to Start Nuclear War with Russia. (Comment on this)
Monday, September 15th, 2008
9:11 am	Good Advice from Robert Heinlein 1. You must write. 2. You must finish what you write. 3. You must never rewrite, except to the editor’s/publisher’s specs. 4. You must submit what you write a market. 5. You must keep submitting it until it sells. (Comment on this)
Saturday, September 13th, 2008
8:58 am	Quote of the Day Found on my sister's away message: You better hope your family marries you off to a chair, because no one can stand you. Oh, the irony. In her case, it might be true... (Comment on this)
Wednesday, September 10th, 2008
10:45 pm	From Dr. Brady Deaton To Students, Faculty and Staff:   Most of us remember exactly where we were seven years ago on September 11 when we first heard our country had been attacked.  We watched the horror unfold as thousands of innocent people lost their lives. Citizens of all nations mourned with us as we sought to understand and prepare ourselves for a world forever changed.  As a university community, we believe that education offers the greatest hope for dealing with this change as we prepare our students to be responsible, global citizens.   On Thursday at 8:46 a.m., MU will remember the victims of 9/11 by tolling the bells of Switzler Hall on Francis Quadrangle and Memorial Union. We honor their memory – and those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our country – by recommitting ourselves to creating a future that values knowledge, reason, tolerance and peace.  I ask that the campus observe moments of silence while the bells ring.   Brady J. Deaton Chancellor --------------------------------------------------- My thoughts later. (Comment on this)
Monday, September 8th, 2008
11:04 am	Various Thoughts On Ennui ---------------------------------------------------- Am currently reading "Whistling Season" by Doig on a recommendation from a friend. The writer appears to be really good but so far I have found little that is profound in the book; or at least it hasn't slapped me in the face yet. Will probably put it down halfway through and continue this really interesting paper that Hal Varian co-wrote in '94 on optimal allocative mechanisms for things that experience congestion, like internet traffic or takeoff lanes for airplanes. Also I recently began re-reading "Portrait of an Artist as A Young Man" by Joyce in preparation for my eventual and unlikely goal of ever actually reading "Ulysses" all the way through (though I did read the last chapter the other night in a very emo mood). Late Harvest Muscat from Australia ----------------------------------------------------- Anyone who hangs out with me on a consistent basis knows how much I like sauternes, icewines, or late harvest dessert wines. Sticky, sweet, and oh so seductive; had a glass on Saturday night and it hit the spot. I especially like the wines from Australia and New Zealand; where sauternes or icewines can be crazy expensive, you can get a good quality wines from the Southern Hemisphere for under $20. I am saving the rest of that late harvest muscat (I think the producer is Rutherglen) for this weekend, when I make a dessert out of the figs I got from Gerbes. O yah. Election Squabbles ---------------------------------------------------- Probably the most interesting election in memory; McCain seems to have made a very smart pick and the Intrade betting markets are swinging very close to 50/50 after McCain's astonishing bounce in the composite poll data (accessible at RealClearPolitics). I am as usual discouraged that the candidates don't appear to be noticeably channelling the advice they must be getting from their economists (and there are some pretty good names in there) and I am especially discouraged by the lack of rigorous thought and refusal to accept simple dichotomies that non-economists (ie the general public) display when trying to think about jobs or immigration or globalization. But it's par for the course and if the public were in general markedly better at understanding the world, my future career prospects would be limited. Ummm---on that note there are a few good comments about why statistical thinking is not intuitive for human beings though it is the paradigm through which rational actors would act that I read on Marginal Revolution (marginalrevolution.blogs.com) the other day that is really interesting. On Flashbacks --------------------------------------------------- The old memory seems to be in tip-top shape; but lately I've had very vivid daydreams and regular dreams that happen within particular memories. Most intense, strangely enough, was the vivid synthestic memory of drinking a 2003 Spottswoode cabernet sauvignon, along with the time I spent an entire week holed up in the law school library cramming for finals, fueled by a potent cocktail of Red Bull, energy bars, and Spaghetti-O's. On Writing -------------------------------------------------- Overcoming writer's block is hard. I've found the best way to engage it is to start writing whatever comes out; eventually I'll spit out something that can be used and then it's fun to shape it. The best metaphor I can think of to that joy is that of a sculptor revealing the beauty in a block of marble. On Friends -------------------------------------------------- Some disappoint painfully; others come through unexpectedly. Since Chance died I've tried to renew connections with old friends, which is, as I implied before, both incredibly rewarding and very painful. And I've made some new friends; the key here is not to be so scatterbrained and to try to be content with existence and focus on the immediate instead of living in perpetual hope for a new killer experience. On Math -------------------------------------------------- The Helmholtz equation is interesting. Fractal geometry is interesting. Daydreaming in class is interesting. Learning to deal with abstraction is tough but rewarding. On the Future ------------------------------------------------- Dr. J- tells me I should pursue my dream of going to law school. Says that the world needs attorneys with integrity and understanding. I'm flattered and very cynical. But the truth is that with all these doors open I'm having difficulty deciding. Pie-in-the-sky dream: I become a full time writer. Get-rich-quick scheme: Imitate the bad writing that seems to be endemic in the current Terry Goodkind/Twilight Series/Dan Brown kind of way and sell my pride for lots of royalty dollars. (Comment on this)
Monday, September 1st, 2008
8:06 pm	Training Goal: Sub 6:00 mile by Sept. 13th Sept. 1st. -- 1.5 miles cross-country, up to 1000 abs              I was either in way worse shape than I imagined or my choice to do this middle of the afternoon was extremely bad because I was overwhelmed by the heat and humidity and had to break this up into 500 and 800 meter runs. Sept 2 -- 4x400 minimum 90 second per rep, complete recovery, up to 500 abs Sept 3 -- 2 miles cross-country at 8 min/mile pace, up to 1000 abs Sept. 4 -- True speed day. 2x3x100m sprints, min 3 min rest between reps, 6 min between sets., 500 abs. Weights: Jumpsquats, 8 sets of 10 seconds, SS, DB. Static back extension, 3 sets, hold top as long as possible, with 25lb plate. Dips and pullups, 1 to 10 in successive sets. Sept. 5 --  4 miles cross-country, 8min/mile pace, up to 1000 abs Sept. 6 -- 5x300m, full recovery, up to 500 abs Sept. 7 -- Planned going out night. General weights circuit for 20 min (push, pull, a squat, an ab move -- continuously for 20 mins) Sept. 8 -- The 'Michael'. As fast as possible, 3 rounds 800m + 50 pushups, 50 situps. Sept. 9. -- 2 miles crosscountry, 8 min pace up to 1000 abs. At least 20 min stretching Sept. 10 -- 4x400m, 75 seconds or faster, at least 5 minutes rest between reps Sept 11 -- overdistance run, 3 miles crosscountry. slower than 8 min pace, up to 1000 abs. Sept. 12 -- Completely off. Restorative means only -- massage, meals? Sept. 13 -- 1 mile, maximum effort. 'Push, pace, position, passion.' Thanks to Goldenblum. (Comment on this)
Sunday, August 31st, 2008
6:28 pm	Markets in Fitness I made a bet with a friend on Thursday, the terms of which are as follows: I have two weeks to be able to run a 6 minute mile, with the stakes being a bottle of Batard-Montrachet, which is the appellation for very expensive chardonnay made in Burgundy. With the stakes that high, my response has been phenomenal; I've been training very hard since then, starting with a 5 mile run last night. The lesson: Incentives matter. There are companies now (mostly in ultra large cities) that will contract you to much the same bet: Deposit X with them and they set up a training plan to help you lose Y pounds in Z time. If you achieve the goal you get your money back and they bill you for use of their services; if you don't, well, you're not so fortunate. (Comment on this)
Sunday, August 24th, 2008
10:30 pm	Time Stops I'm hanging out with my friend Scott tonight; we met up after our respective dinners. He and I are big on a lot of those avant-garde musical styles (think stuff like GYSBE! or Sigur Ros) and I introduced him to Explosions in the Sky and God is an Astronaut. These bands can be typified by their expansive, landscape sound; they are very fugal, they make intense, loopy tracks, they draw you in by their long, sometimes orchestral, progressions. Explosions in the Sky is more industrial; God is an Astronaut produces a very spacy, airy, sometimes ethereal sound. Rarely do you have vocals. The only vocal track I'm familiar with is this emotional, intense soliloquy from the soundtrack to the movie The Thin Red Line and it is this haunting, frightening montage of music evoking the horror of Vietnam. ------------------------------------------------- Winter Landscape, with Rooks Sylvia Plath Water in the millrace, through a sluice of stone, plunges headlong into that black pond where, absurd and out-of-season, a single swan floats chast as snow, taunting the clouded mind which hungers to haul the white reflection down. The austere sun descends above the fen, an orange cyclops-eye, scorning to look longer on this landscape of chagrin; feathered dark in thought, I stalk like a rook, brooding as the winter night comes on. Last summer's reeds are all engraved in ice as is your image in my eye; dry frost glazes the window of my hurt; what solace can be struck from rock to make heart's waste grow green again? Who'd walk in this bleak place? Current Music: Time Stops - Explosions in the Sky (Comment on this)
5:05 pm	A couple good lines Old man, you surface seldom. Then you come in with the tide's coming When seas wash cold, foam- Capped: white hair, white beard, far-flung, A dragnet, rising, falling, as waves Crest and trough. Miles long Extend the radial sheaves Of your spread hair, in which wrin- kling skeins Knotted, caught, survives The old myth of orgins Unimaginable. You float near As kneeled ice-mountains Of the north, to be steered clear Of, not fathomed. All obscurity Starts with a danger: Your dangers are many. I Cannot look much but your form suffers Some strange injury And seems to die: so vapors Ravel to clearness on the dawn sea. The muddy rumors Of your burial move me To half-believe: your reappearance Proves rumors shallow, For the archaic trenched lines Of your grained face shed time in runnels: Ages beat like rains On the unbeaten channels Of the ocean. Such sage humor and Durance are whirlpools To make away with the ground- Work of the earth and the sky's ridgepole. Waist down, you may wind One labyrinthine tangle To root deep among knuckles, shin- bones, Skulls. Inscrutable, Below shoulders not once Seen by any man who kept his head, You defy questions; You defy godhood. I walk dry on your kingdom's border Exiled to no good. Your shelled bed I remember. Father, this thick air is murderous. I would breathe water. -Full Fathom Five, Sylvia Plath FERDINAND Where should this music be? i' the air or the earth? It sounds no more: and sure, it waits upon Some god o' the island. Sitting on a bank, Weeping again the king my father's wreck, This music crept by me upon the waters, Allaying both their fury and my passion With its sweet air: thence I have follow'd it, Or it hath drawn me rather. But 'tis gone. No, it begins again. ARIEL sings Full fathom five thy father lies; Of his bones are coral made; Those are pearls that were his eyes: Nothing of him that doth fade But doth suffer a sea-change Into something rich and strange. Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell Burthen Ding-dong Hark! now I hear them,--Ding-dong, bell.   -Act I, Scene II, The Tempest, Willam Shakespeare Current Music: Ani Difranco/Dar Williams - Comfortably Numb (Comment on this)
Thursday, August 21st, 2008
10:17 am	Markets in Everything: Arbitrage in California Cabernets From the NY Times, here: The 25 largest California wineries produce 90 percent of the state’s wine, but half the wineries produce fewer than 5,000 cases each annually. Some of the smallest wineries, like Harlan Estate, Bryant Family, Screaming Eagle and Williams Selyem, are so highly regarded that they have long waiting lists for their tiny quantities. Screaming Eagle produces only 500 cases in most years, which may be why a Los Angeles shop recently listed a Screaming Eagle 1997 at $3,995 a bottle. Often, consumers on these wineries’ waiting lists sell their allocations to retailers who set their own prices. Those on waiting lists usually pay much less, sometimes from $200 to $400 a bottle.   (Comment on this)
Monday, August 18th, 2008
3:25 pm	On Death    A close friend of mine, Chance Harp, died on Saturday. I was pretty depressed about it, but later on I realized that Chance's life was one lived without fear and that gave me great peace. Seriously, this guy was probably the most hardcore person I've ever met and had just gotten accepted into Wash U economics graduate program. If anyone reading this knew him and would like to come to the services, contact me. (Comment on this)
Saturday, July 26th, 2008
2:55 pm	On Dar Williams Last night I downloaded 7 albums by Dar Williams, which I recommend highly. Wikipedia entry here. (Comment on this)