Awesome!! I've always wanted to live abroad for an extended period, but never have. Maybe some day... But this is so cool. To your point about Scandinavia, there's some saying about the Sámi people in Arctic Scandinavia that they can farm out of a rock or something like that. Human ingenuity is amazing. ..I met Olivier Sibony at a confer…
Awesome!! I've always wanted to live abroad for an extended period, but never have. Maybe some day... But this is so cool. To your point about Scandinavia, there's some saying about the Sámi people in Arctic Scandinavia that they can farm out of a rock or something like that. Human ingenuity is amazing. ..I met Olivier Sibony at a conference a few months ago, and he gave an entertaining litany of all the natural disasters Iceland had experienced, and suggested that maybe the people had been naturally selected for psychological hardiness or something like that. In any case, human ingenuity never ceases to amaze me — to both good and bad ends, honestly.
I have no read Project Hail Mary. Do you recommend it?
Your travels in England sound amazing. The bells, what a great story. You reminded me of this great film called "Pulse," which is basically an hour that shows Stomp's musical influences from around the world, and it includes amazing footage from a church belfry. Did you have to use any hearing protection? And how did you manage to play Star Wars so quickly?! ....I love the fact about the tuning.
I really want to visit Stratford-upon-Avon. I'm very susceptible to awe at historical sites. As far as the Folio, I was sort of partly aware of this. I read an annotated version of Hamlet at one point, and there were a lot of notes to the effect of: "The Folio uses X word here, and the quarto uses Y. Most editions use X because...." So I started to understand that the Bard's oeuvre was cobbled together. Makes one wonder what HAS been lost to history, right?
In terms of travel recs, sounds like you're doing a great job! I was in Edinburgh in the spring, and totally loved it. You can walk out of the heart of the city and be up on a sheer cliff of an extinct volcano ("Arthur's Seat") in 45 minutes to an hour. Literally five minutes out of my hotel downtown, I could be up on Calton Hill, taking in the same meditative views that David Hume did on his walking/thinking path. The history is amazing, and there are all sorts of little treasures. Pop into one doorway right off the street, and you see the only statue of Abraham Lincoln, the only US president to have a memorial in Scotland, and the first in Europe. (Edinburgh played an important, and not good role in the slave trade.) I popped into one "close," (like a little alley, of which there are many), and ran into Adam Smith's grave. Edinburgh has an incredible intellectual history, so I loved stuff like the surgery museum. Anyway, I'd never thought much about Edinburgh, but went for work, and absolutely loved it. Last one: my first big trip with my wife was a road trip in the west of Ireland, partly because I was so into Martin McDonagh's plays that are set there. It was phenomenal. We visited an island where people still speak Gaelic first. Highly recommend.
How amazing! I don't know much yet about Olivier Sibony, but I'll entertain any theory from a man co-authored a book with Kahneman and Sunstein. And yes, I'd recommend Project Hail Mary. It's amazing how much science and creative problem solving Weir packs into his novels.
Wow I need to check out that film! I played the French Horn all throughout middle and high school. Our orchestra only ever played classical music, but my friend and I delighted in learning different movie themes: James Bond, Star Wars, Jurassic Park -- it turns out a lot of famous themes have strong brass components. Thankfully, the organist thought to adjust the stop knobs to a reasonable volume.
Yes I agree! Apparently there is at least one Shakespeare work that is confirmed to have been lost to history: The History of Cardenio. I can't help but think what else.
That sounds amazing. I had been thinking about Edinburgh, and now I will definitely make a point of going. It sounds like there is such a great variety of things to see in such a small proximity. In the meantime, I'll have to check out some of the works by Hume and McDonagh in the meantime to really get the most out of the trip.
Awesome!! I've always wanted to live abroad for an extended period, but never have. Maybe some day... But this is so cool. To your point about Scandinavia, there's some saying about the Sámi people in Arctic Scandinavia that they can farm out of a rock or something like that. Human ingenuity is amazing. ..I met Olivier Sibony at a conference a few months ago, and he gave an entertaining litany of all the natural disasters Iceland had experienced, and suggested that maybe the people had been naturally selected for psychological hardiness or something like that. In any case, human ingenuity never ceases to amaze me — to both good and bad ends, honestly.
I have no read Project Hail Mary. Do you recommend it?
Your travels in England sound amazing. The bells, what a great story. You reminded me of this great film called "Pulse," which is basically an hour that shows Stomp's musical influences from around the world, and it includes amazing footage from a church belfry. Did you have to use any hearing protection? And how did you manage to play Star Wars so quickly?! ....I love the fact about the tuning.
I really want to visit Stratford-upon-Avon. I'm very susceptible to awe at historical sites. As far as the Folio, I was sort of partly aware of this. I read an annotated version of Hamlet at one point, and there were a lot of notes to the effect of: "The Folio uses X word here, and the quarto uses Y. Most editions use X because...." So I started to understand that the Bard's oeuvre was cobbled together. Makes one wonder what HAS been lost to history, right?
In terms of travel recs, sounds like you're doing a great job! I was in Edinburgh in the spring, and totally loved it. You can walk out of the heart of the city and be up on a sheer cliff of an extinct volcano ("Arthur's Seat") in 45 minutes to an hour. Literally five minutes out of my hotel downtown, I could be up on Calton Hill, taking in the same meditative views that David Hume did on his walking/thinking path. The history is amazing, and there are all sorts of little treasures. Pop into one doorway right off the street, and you see the only statue of Abraham Lincoln, the only US president to have a memorial in Scotland, and the first in Europe. (Edinburgh played an important, and not good role in the slave trade.) I popped into one "close," (like a little alley, of which there are many), and ran into Adam Smith's grave. Edinburgh has an incredible intellectual history, so I loved stuff like the surgery museum. Anyway, I'd never thought much about Edinburgh, but went for work, and absolutely loved it. Last one: my first big trip with my wife was a road trip in the west of Ireland, partly because I was so into Martin McDonagh's plays that are set there. It was phenomenal. We visited an island where people still speak Gaelic first. Highly recommend.
How amazing! I don't know much yet about Olivier Sibony, but I'll entertain any theory from a man co-authored a book with Kahneman and Sunstein. And yes, I'd recommend Project Hail Mary. It's amazing how much science and creative problem solving Weir packs into his novels.
Wow I need to check out that film! I played the French Horn all throughout middle and high school. Our orchestra only ever played classical music, but my friend and I delighted in learning different movie themes: James Bond, Star Wars, Jurassic Park -- it turns out a lot of famous themes have strong brass components. Thankfully, the organist thought to adjust the stop knobs to a reasonable volume.
Yes I agree! Apparently there is at least one Shakespeare work that is confirmed to have been lost to history: The History of Cardenio. I can't help but think what else.
That sounds amazing. I had been thinking about Edinburgh, and now I will definitely make a point of going. It sounds like there is such a great variety of things to see in such a small proximity. In the meantime, I'll have to check out some of the works by Hume and McDonagh in the meantime to really get the most out of the trip.