bloody phd :(

I know how Hiren feels. Goddamn PhD >:( If you get a choice - don't waste your time with such a stunningly frustrating academic exercise. Grr.

Oh well, at least vtk 5.0 is finally offically released :D

MMVR 2006

So yeah, I'm in LA, and I went to MMVR2006. I got called in at the as a last-minute stand-in to present a paper on some of the physically-based modeling work we've been working on at the lab. I took a couple of photos; all I've got so far is here.

The flight was fairly turbulent, but I managed to sleep through it ok. Crossing the international date-line from east to west meant the whole arriving-before-I-left thing happened, which is always amusing :)

Anyway, the conference went well; it finished a couple of hours ago. With certain commitments, jetlag, giving a talk and running about trying to find out about possible life post-PhD, I'm industrial-grade tired. The talk was well received, and I got to meet all sorts of crazy folk from the all the big simulation groups - notably Stanford, Harvard and MIT.

The hotel I'm staying at is the Long Beach Hyatt, and the view out of the window isn't too bad:

That's the Queen Mary outside in the left of the picture, next to the giant-dome thing which used to be the hangar for the Spruce Goose. A good account of the Gooses' rather sad demise can be found here.

LA is big, smoggy, and a little bit daunting if you are unhinged enough to try and see it on foot. I did that last time I was in Long Beach (from the previous MMVR, which was also here!), it took me a good couple of hours to get from the upper end of the actual beach on Long Beach down to the other end, which was as far as I could work out I could go on foot ;) Anyway, I've got the day in LA tomorrow before I get on a plane back home; I'll wander around with the camera and take more happy snaps. I'll write that up when I get back. Anyway, probably time to get some sleep :P

i'm in LA

Alrighty then. I'm in Los Angeles. Much less than a week ago, I didn't even know I was going to be here. There were come complications at the lab, and I'm a stand in to present a paper at MMVR14. I'm quite streched for time, but I took lots of happy snaps.... I'll update soon :)

battlestar galactica season 2: redux

Battlestar back on the box

Battlestar Galactica is back on the telly, and I wasn't disappointed with the start of the second half of the second series (??).

Family meeting time on Colonial One

Things have already taken quite a dark turn, and as the episode progresses, things seem to keep on getting darker. If you take any of the scuttlebutt seriously, there's plenty of nuggety plot in store for the rest of the season.

Stuff not blowing up

Disappointingly, unlike previous pyrotechnically inclined episodes, there wasn't a whole heap of stuff blowing up. However..

This thing probably will blow up. Eventually.

..I think they were building up expectations for an earth shattering kaboom. The storyline seems to be focusing on the whole human vs. human thing (us lot seem to be good at it), and if rumour is to be believed, there is a pile of cylon vs. cylon stuff coming up as well.

Doctor what?

Sat down and watched the Dr. Who 2005 Christmas special, and I reckon it was a bit of alright. It's not exactly the most stimulating of dramas, but thoroughly enjoyable nevertheless.

David Tennant, looking alarmed in his jimjams.

David Tennant was a bit creepy, but I think that might have been the idea. Christopher Eccleston tried to be a bit menacing in the last series, but, eh.. I wasn't really convinced. We'll wait and see how this turns out when it re-starts in full in a couple of months.

In the meantime.. draw your own conclusions:

Dr. Hiren? He will be (eventually) :P