Comments on: Walkabout

By: Out West - Asymptotia

Out West - Asymptotia — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 09:15:10 +0000

[...] Mostly, I just want to disappear for a while. Leave the planet for a bit and go walkabout, like I did last year’s holiday season. That might happen, but I have to be partly available for a little while fror a number of duties. Either way, I need to get out of the old mode, and into the more contemplative one. In order to begin the resetting, I decided to hide away from campus entirely and in the afternoon visit one of my other offices… the beach. [...]

By: The Search for Coffee | Cosmic Variance

The Search for Coffee | Cosmic Variance — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 05:19:20 +0000

[...] Saturday night, and I’m doing a bit of blogging after clearing weeds in the garden. Shouldn’t I be getting ready to go out on the town and live it up a bit? Perhaps. I’ll see how I feel in an hour or so. Let me tell you a bit more about my Taiwan wanderings. I’m cheating a bit by borrowing (heavily edited and abridged!) extracts from one of the other blogs I keep…this one being a real diary that lives on my laptop, which I started while on Walkabout as a means of clearing my head (the point of the trip), by essentially talking to myself. [...]

By: Taipei 101 | Cosmic Variance

Taipei 101 | Cosmic Variance — Fri, 03 Feb 2006 04:42:18 +0000

[...] Just when I came to the Empire State building I stopped and asked if anyone knew which was the world’s tallest building (by three of the four measures that count…so no silly communication structures…..ok Toronto?)… Actually, it did not take long to get the correct answer……after all, we are a major Pacific Rim city, and USC has a large number of asian students….. and I learned from a conversation with our President the other day that USC is one of the main US destinations for students from Taiwan. So yes. The answer was Taipei 101, which is in Taipei. I then realised that precisely one month before that very day – December 31st – I was still on my Walkabout (see also here) and I was at the top of that very building! I mentioned this to them. So it was appropriate to modify the example we were discussing to use Taipei 101 instead of the Empire State Building. [...]

By: The Southern Reaches of Heaven | Cosmic Variance

The Southern Reaches of Heaven | Cosmic Variance — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 08:47:31 +0000

[...] So you’ve got the idea by now (if you’ve been reading about my Walkabout) that Taiwan is wonderful for food. Taipei is said to be the most important city on the world map of Chinese cuisine for the sheer quality, quantity and variety. That may well be true enough….. [...]

By: Yellow Heaven | Cosmic Variance

Yellow Heaven | Cosmic Variance — Sun, 22 Jan 2006 02:57:16 +0000

[...] Well it is a bit late, but I’ve started the task of rampant pruning and other Winter tasks in the garden. This is mostly hedges, various shrubs, a large bougainvillea bush, a couple of fig trees and roses. Then endless organic trash -leaves, berries, citrus detritus, stuff from palm trees blown off in the recent storms, more leaves- needs to be swept up. Over the time I was on Walkabout, it seems that the skunks have battered two huge holes in the back fence, and there are signs of digging everywhere. I will have to rejoin the battle with them, starting first with repairing these holes…. This whole series of things will run over at least two days. [...]

By: Wonderful Food on Walkabout | Cosmic Variance

Wonderful Food on Walkabout | Cosmic Variance — Tue, 17 Jan 2006 01:44:30 +0000

[...] When I dream about food, a likely place to feature is Taiwan, where I was on my walkabout, as described earlier. One of the things I love about the place is the remarkable variety of high quality and delicious food which is available everywhere, and at a wide range of times of the day. I’ll focus on smaller places for now…. street food and small places selling noodles and dumplings. A typical street-food scene is something like this: [...]

By: The Curse Of The Scooter | Cosmic Variance

The Curse Of The Scooter | Cosmic Variance — Thu, 12 Jan 2006 02:56:56 +0000

[...] I really love the cities I’ve visited in Taiwan on my walkabout. I’m particularly excited to see how Taipei has been transformed in so short a time by its wonderful new subway system, and I hope a similar transformation will happen here in LA, once the projects that have been put into motion come to fruition…If they do it all properly. [...]

By: It Just Keeps Getting Better | Cosmic Variance

It Just Keeps Getting Better | Cosmic Variance — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 15:36:38 +0000

[...] So to my surprise yesterday, when I went to take the bus home, a completely new bus design pulled up! It seems that while I was on walkabout, for a month, the MTA made some further improvements. [...]

By: Grooming for the New Semester | Cosmic Variance

Grooming for the New Semester | Cosmic Variance — Mon, 09 Jan 2006 06:31:41 +0000

[...] Why am I telling you this? It’s just because I thought of it this afternoon while I got ready for the new semester starting tomorrow. I was in the middle of a haircut, which involves two mirrors, lots of newspaper on the floor, and a cetain amount of spatial perception and dexterity to get everything right. (Yes, I cut my own hair, what’s the big deal?….. Oh, maybe that’s why he’s single….again). I’d left my hair to grow long (for me) over the last walkabout month, and a serious beard has also appeared. Had to get cleaned up as I could not really turn up on campus looking all shaggy like I’m still on a camping trip. [...]

By: Back To The Future | Cosmic Variance

Back To The Future | Cosmic Variance — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 23:56:00 +0000

[...] For my walkabout, I went Back To The Future. [...]