Recent entries

Two graphs depicting the distance run in the past year, split by week and by month. Notice a blip in June (post-Marathon), and in December (finishing thesis), and an almost complete absence since then (post-submission). In fact, if I were to go the same distance in May as December, the last 6 months would still lose to November.

Hi from Budapest.

I'm here for the ETAPS conference, or specifically to give a talk at the GaLoP workshop. Here until Monday...

My ongoing reading 'project': read every book which has ever won the Hugo award for best novel. I hope to maintain the list of read/unread by updating this post as I go along; as of now I have read 17, 6 of those this year. I know some of these books may be difficult to get hold of (in particular I know The Forever Machine, which has the reputation of being easily the worst book ever to win a Hugo, is). Hopefully more will be available second hand, or for the borrowing.

Unread:

• 2007 Vernor Vinge Rainbows End
• 2006 Robert Charles Wilson Spin
• 2004 Lois McMaster Bujold Paladin of Souls
• 2003 Robert J. Sawyer Hominids
• 2000 Vernor Vinge A Deepness in the Sky
• 1995 Lois McMaster Bujold Mirror Dance
• 1993 Vernor Vinge A Fire Upon the Deep
• 1993 Connie Willis Doomsday Book
• 1992 Lois McMaster Bujold Barrayar
• 1991 Lois McMaster Bujold The Vor Game
• 1990 Dan Simmons Hyperion
• 1989 C.J. Cherryh Cyteen
• 1988 David Brin The Uplift War
• 1987 Orson Scott Card Speaker for the Dead
• 1986 Orson Scott Card Ender's Game
• 1982 C.J. Cherryh Downbelow Station
• 1981 Joan D. Vinge The Snow Queen
• 1979 Vonda N. McIntyre Dreamsnake
• 1978 Frederik Pohl Gateway
• 1977 Kate Wilhelm Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang
• 1975 Ursula K. Le Guin The Dispossessed
• 1974 Arthur C. Clarke Rendezvous with Rama
• 1973 Isaac Asimov The Gods Themselves
• 1972 Philip José Farmer To Your Scattered Bodies Go
• 1970 Ursula K. Le Guin The Left Hand of Darkness
• 1969 John Brunner Stand on Zanzibar
• 1968 Roger Zelazny Lord of Light
• 1967 Robert A. Heinlein The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
• 1966 Roger Zelazny This Immortal
• 1965 Fritz Leiber The Wanderer
• 1964 Clifford D. Simak Way Station
• 1962 Robert A. Heinlein Stranger in a Strange Land
• 1961 Walter M. Miller, Jr. A Canticle for Leibowitz
• 1960 Robert A. Heinlein Starship Troopers
• 1959 James Blish A Case of Conscience
• 1958 Fritz Leiber The Big Time
• 1956 Robert A. Heinlein Double Star
• 1955 Mark Clifton & Frank Riley The Forever Machine
• 1953 Alfred Bester The Demolished Man
• 1951 Robert A. Heinlein Farmer in the Sky (retro)

Read:

• 2005 Susanna Clarke Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
• 2002 Neil Gaiman American Gods
• 2001 J.K. Rowling Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
• 1999 Connie Willis To Say Nothing of the Dog
• 1998 Joe Haldeman Forever Peace
• 1997 Kim Stanley Robinson Blue Mars
• 1996 Neal Stephenson The Diamond Age
• 1994 Kim Stanley Robinson Green Mars
• 1985 William Gibson Neuromancer
• 1984 David Brin Startide Rising
• 1983 Isaac Asimov Foundation's Edge
• 1980 Arthur C. Clarke The Fountains of Paradise
• 1976 Joe Haldeman The Forever War
• 1971 Larry Niven Ringworld
• 1966 Frank Herbert Dune
• 1963 Philip K. Dick The Man in the High Castle
• 1954 Ray Bradbury Fahrenheit 451 (retro)
• 1946 Isaac Asimov The Mule (retro)

Since mid-December I have not really been running. The hectic last few weeks of my PhD left no time for it, and the last couple of post-PhD months I have not felt like doing much at all. I've started back a few times, but not kept it up. So today I raced a half-marathon on ridiculously low training (my one February run was 10 miles on Wednesday). Nine loops around the meadows. Not at all easy, and I'll pay for it for the next few days, but I got around some time under 1:40. Slower than my first half, but then I did train for that.

Got another in 2 weeks, hopefully I will be starting to get some fitness back by then.

Happy new year.

We didn't have a white Christmas, but I am having a white thesis submission day! Rather appropriate, as I have been looking forward to this moment for a long time. Of course I'm not really finished, in that my thesis is as yet unread, I have to have my viva voce, make corrections and then hopefully be awarded a PhD. But I've handed in a huge stack of paper to the appropriate people, and I'm finished for now.

I had a nice relaxing few days up at my mothers, seeing family and enjoying a lovely Christmas dinner (as always). Since then I've been doing not much at all, mostly playing games. I bought a new PC for gaming as I finished my thesis, and I've mostly been playing Portal (sheer brilliance), Team Fortress 2 (addictive) and a bit of Hellgate: London (shiny). I've still to get into Oblivion and Supreme Commander, and I've not even opened Neverwinter Nights 2...

Now it is back to work. I am still around here for the next three months, after which...?