![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
The Last Update of 2013 - Odds and Ends
Dec. 31st, 2013 10:27 amVarious odds and ends:
The Joys of Home Ownership
For the past week or so, my furnace in my house is making a clicking noise. Turns out that it's a two-stage burner, and the high stage is not working. Since the low stage is working, I have heat, but it takes a while to get up to temperature. The repair guy will be back Thursday with parts to fix.
Travel
I'm planning a trip to London for Worldcon, and I was reading a travel book about London which said "confirm your passport has at least six months left before it expires." I checked my passport (who tracks the expiration date?) and discovered it had expired in 2010. Oops. Renewal in process.
I also reviewed my luggage situation. I tend to travel light, and can get a week's worth of stuff in a carry-on bag. But I'm going for two weeks, and my large bag (bought for my last European trip in 1994) has a busted wheel. So, I bought a new one - got a $400 Sampsonite 4-wheel bag for $200 at Carson's.
Culture
Over the weekend, I went to see American Hustle, the new movie out. It was well worth the ticket price. I did rather marvel at Amy Adam's wardrobe - she spent most of the movie dressed for open-heart surgery - and Jennifer Lawrence stole every scene she was in. Highly recommended.
I also was given a copy of Nate Silver's book The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail - but Some Don't. It was also highly interesting, if a bit denser than American Hustle. One of the most interesting chapters was on Global Warming. Nate, a math wizard and not a climatologist, ran the temperature numbers. He discovered that, even if global warming is true, there is a 15% chance that any given decade will show a temperature decline. That's the "noise" in the signal about global warming.
Well, I'll be back here next year. Have a happy one!
The Joys of Home Ownership
For the past week or so, my furnace in my house is making a clicking noise. Turns out that it's a two-stage burner, and the high stage is not working. Since the low stage is working, I have heat, but it takes a while to get up to temperature. The repair guy will be back Thursday with parts to fix.
Travel
I'm planning a trip to London for Worldcon, and I was reading a travel book about London which said "confirm your passport has at least six months left before it expires." I checked my passport (who tracks the expiration date?) and discovered it had expired in 2010. Oops. Renewal in process.
I also reviewed my luggage situation. I tend to travel light, and can get a week's worth of stuff in a carry-on bag. But I'm going for two weeks, and my large bag (bought for my last European trip in 1994) has a busted wheel. So, I bought a new one - got a $400 Sampsonite 4-wheel bag for $200 at Carson's.
Culture
Over the weekend, I went to see American Hustle, the new movie out. It was well worth the ticket price. I did rather marvel at Amy Adam's wardrobe - she spent most of the movie dressed for open-heart surgery - and Jennifer Lawrence stole every scene she was in. Highly recommended.
I also was given a copy of Nate Silver's book The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail - but Some Don't. It was also highly interesting, if a bit denser than American Hustle. One of the most interesting chapters was on Global Warming. Nate, a math wizard and not a climatologist, ran the temperature numbers. He discovered that, even if global warming is true, there is a 15% chance that any given decade will show a temperature decline. That's the "noise" in the signal about global warming.
Well, I'll be back here next year. Have a happy one!