Doug Orleans's Journal

Lately I've been listening to music files on my computer sorted by album name. (No, I didn't start at A; I've been randomly skipping around from time to time.) This is essentially a random album shuffle, since album titles aren't particularly correlated with style or artist. But, over the last few days I've listened to:

Various Artists, Dope, Guns, 'n Fucking in the Streets (3CD compilation of '90s Amphetamine Reptile bands)
Sleep, Dopesmoker
Monster Magnet, Dopes to Infinity
Electric Wizard, Dopethrone

It's been a nice stretch of mega-heavy rock. Right now I'm listening to Curve's Doppelgänger, but next up is Hawkwind's Doremi Fasol Latido, which fits in nicely as well.

I'll be heading back to Fort Lauderdale for work this Sunday, for three weeks. Do I know anyone who will be in South Florida during that time (Feb 12–Mar 3)? (I doubt it, but I was wrong last time...)

My niece, Harper Marie Griest, was born yesterday morning. Apparently it was a short and uncomplicated labor, and mother and baby are healthy and happy. I think Danielle was hoping for 11/11/11, but this way Harper will have some cool Friday the 13th birthday parties to look forward to.

On the T today, I saw this sign:

But, from where I was sitting, a crossbar was blocking out the "Supporting" line, so it looked like it was saying:

"Breastfeeding employees helps your bottom line."

John McCarthy died on Monday. He coined the term "artificial intelligence", and created the programming language Lisp in 1958. The Stanford obituary has a good overview of his career; jwz's post has a nice little anecdote.

I had a very minor McCarthy encounter myself: I stood near him at a book reading at a bookstore in Palo Alto in the early '90s. I don't remember the author or book, but it was about how strong AI is impossible without embodiment. (It might have been Hubert Dreyfus, but I think it was someone younger/less established.) I don't remember if McCarthy had some question or comment, or if someone just pointed him out to me, but I remember later realizing that I had made some comment about Scheme to a friend while within earshot of the inventor of Lisp.

At some point I discovered his web pages about the sustainability of human progress, which are fascinating if sometimes seeming to veer into crackpottery. I hope Stanford keeps these pages up permanently, because I never made it all the way through their somewhat confusing organization, and I think McCarthy had continued to add to them until pretty recently.

One thing I was surprised to learn from his obituary is that he was married to Carolyn Talcott, whose name I know from programming language theory literature. In fact, she was on the PhD thesis committee of someone who was on my PhD thesis committee, so I guess, academically, she's my grandmother!

John McCarthy was also known as the Programming: You're Doing It Completely Wrong guy. Rest in peace.

Well, I'm back. More trip details to follow, but first I want to follow up on my tweet from Heathrow yesterday. I asked whether it was better to exchange my pound notes for dollars at Heathrow Airport in London, Logan Airport in Boston, or my local bank at home (Bank of America). The most common advice I got was to keep them for the next time I go back to the UK, but I have no plans to be back anytime soon, and pound notes do expire. Also, my uncle went kind of overboard buying pound notes, and gave me all his leftovers, so it was a not-inconsiderable amount of money to be sitting on indefinitely. So, I ended up checking the exchange rate on the Bank of America website, which was $1.48 per pound, while the Bureau de Change kiosk at Heathrow was showing a $1.42 rate, so I decided to wait until I got home. I went today, and got $1.47 (actually $1.474305), but that included the exchange fees, which may not have been included in the airport rate. Anyway, my conclusion for money-changing is: avoid exchange bureaus, and go straight to a bank. (They also deposit the money directly into your account, which may contribute to the better rate, but is also more convenient than having to make a separate transaction to deposit the cash.)

I'm leaving for the UK tonight. My Uncle David is taking me on a bus tour through England, Scotland, and Wales. I'll probably be uploading pictures to Flickr (which will then get auto-posted to Facebook). And let me know if you want a postcard!

I'll be back on Oct 2nd. Try not to burn the country down while I'm gone...

Apparently my previous post worked: I suddenly have a girlfriend. Her name is Julie, and she's pretty awesome. And, miraculously, she seems to think I'm pretty awesome too. Thanks, talking_sock, for setting us up on that blind date!

On Memorial Day weekend, we took a road trip around New England to ride some roller coasters: two each in Canobie Lake Park, Palace Playland, and Funtown Splashtown USA. Our favorite was Excalibur at Funtown, a large wooden coaster. We got to the park a little after 11am on Memorial Day, and there was no line at all—we ended up riding it three times.

We also managed to squeeze in a night of camping in the White Mountains (with campfire-grilled sausages and s'mores), a game of disc golf on a ski slope, a moose spotting (!), cotton candy, skee-ball, and a late-night wade in the ocean. Fun weekend!

The essence of ________ is ________.

Posted via LjBeetle

My grandma Cathie died on Sunday night (probably pretty close to the actual equinox time, come to think of it). In her 40s, she was diagnosed with a genetic (and incurable) polycystic kidney disease, and she always knew she would have to go on dialysis eventually. She managed to last until her mid-80s before starting a thrice-weekly dialysis regimen. This winter, she broke her pelvis and was in a rehab center for a couple months; while she was there, she developed pneumonia, and was on many antibiotics and other medication. On Friday, March 11, she had trouble breathing and had to take oxygen, and I guess at that point she decided she had had enough. Her quality of life had deterioriated such that the cures were worse than the illnesses, so she halted all treatments, including the dialysis. She was moved to hospice care, and after a couple days moved back to her home at the beach in Manasquan, NJ. She was in good spirits in her last week, happy to be able to eat whatever she wanted (after five years of dietary restrictions), and happy to have her family around (four of her children, including my dad, were able to be with her all week). I'm not sure if it was the pneumonia or the kidney failure that was the final cause of death, but either way, her days were numbered, and on Sunday night she stopped breathing. She was 91 years old.

I only ever saw any of my grandparents a few times a year at most, but they all played a large part in my childhood and in making me who I am. Grandma Cathie in particular was always up for playing board and card games, and in her later years when she moved to the shore I was happy to spend a few afternoons each summer sitting on the beach with her, with crossword puzzle books in both our laps. She also made the best scrambled eggs ever, and I never was quite able to learn to make them come out as good as hers. I talked to her on the phone on the Saturday after I learned she was dying, and was able to tell her I loved her very much and to thank her for all she had done for me; she told me she thought about me a lot and prayed for me, and told me to always take things one day at a time. It's a cliche, I know, but it really is profound advice.

She had a long, full life, raising a big family and enjoying a long retirement at the shore, which she loved. I wish she could have stuck around for a few more summer beach visits, but I'm glad she could go out on her own terms and have her final days be happy and comfortable. I'll be driving down to NJ tomorrow for the Thursday morning funeral service, and it will be good to see all the Orleanses in one place again.

Her obituary has more details about her life and family.