date format + trains

content/blog/2022-10-05-CLRG-cheating-opinion.md

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+---
+title: My Take on CLRG's Cheating Scandal
+date: 2022-10-05
+---
+
+This was originally part of my 
+[technical analysis / explainer](2022-10-04-CLRG-cheating.html)
+post,
+but I've moved it here because it's just opinion.
+
+---
+
+Trees grow up *and* down. The part of the tree you can see is only half of the
+organism: for every meter of Siberian Elm tree I can cut down, there's a meter
+of Siberian Elm tree I need to dig out, and digging is way more work than
+cutting.
+
+I suspect that this racket is deep-rooted and widespread. I imagine the most
+likely outcome will be a lot of social media posts, some funny T shirts, a few
+resignations, maybe some people getting banned from events, and that's about it.
+The only adjudicator this document proves is corrupt is the whisleblower who
+sent in the screen shots. Even people named in these messages stand a decent
+chance of escaping consequences, if they play their cards right.
+
+Don't forget that you need a lot of certified adjudicators for things to run at
+their current scale. They can't just fire everybody and start over: they need
+their current instructors to train up new ones. And if this document is
+representative, half of their current instructor pool is already compromised.
+There's no way to ensure this scheme won't be a part of the new adjudicator
+training.
+
+Somebody is going to have to deliver a candid presentation to the board, or
+whatever they have, about the reality here. The corruption is probably so deep
+that they won't be able to take any significant action without destroying the
+whole organization. And this is just going to embolden the bad actors.
+
+After time passes, the presure from some of these intense and monied parents
+I've met will resume, and everything will be back to the way it was before.
+Sure, there will be some casting changes, but the system that's been built up
+for years--possibly decades--is going to persist long after the furore dies
+down.
+
+We may, however, see a renewed interest in some of the smaller Irish Dance
+organizations like CRN, who already seems to be making some moves.

content/blog/2023-01-06-iceland.md

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+---
+title: Iceland trip
+date: 2023-01-06
+---
+
+We went to Iceland for two weeks over the winter break.
+I couldn't think of anything I wanted to write in this blog about it,
+but someone on somethingawful just asked me for some tips,
+and my reply seems kinda interesting,
+so here it is:
+
+---
+
+> Hey, really random, but saw you mention in the EV thread you just got back
+> from Iceland, got any winter travel tips? I'm going in a few weeks, and I
+> think pretty much everything I've read is focused on visiting in the summer.
+
+I overpacked because I wasn't sure what to expect, but I didn't overpack by
+much. I brought:
+
+* A pair of insulated water-resistant pants (lined with fleece I think, sort of
+  like ski pants). Wore them everywhere.
+* Two pairs of wool socks
+* Waterproof boots: mine were Danner, my wife had Sorel
+* two long-sleeved wool t-shirts
+* two wool sweaters
+* A waterproof parka with a hood
+* A wool hat
+* Warm waterproof gloves with the thing so you can still use the phone
+  touchscreen (this was so great to have)
+
+I had planned to buy one of those Icelandic wool sweaters when I landed, which I
+did, so I could have done without the second sweater I brought. The Icelandic
+one was crazy warm: I found myself stripping off the coat and sometimes the
+sweater while driving, to prevent overheating.
+
+We only did little walks, like a short one to take a photo of Sólheimjökull, a
+little one through Þingvellir. And lots of walking through snow in Reykjavik and
+other rural places we stayed. The stuff we packed was totally adequate. I did
+use the coat's hood way more than I thought I would, and was glad to have it. El
+Cheapo crampons like YakTrax would have been a good idea for Þingvellir if we'd
+wanted to go further, but once we saw the sign saying "if you get stuck past
+here in the winter, we won't come help you", we turned around and found another
+less-icy path. We weren't prepared for glacier climbing on a nature trail.
+
+We traveled with another family, who had the smart idea to buy food at the
+grocery store and prepare meals. That saved us a ton of money and I would highly
+recommend doing it. Eating out was incredibly expensive. Groceries were also
+expensive but more manageable.
+
+For driving, just know your limits. They have these pullouts on the roads,
+marked with a sign and an indication of how long the pullout is. If you are even
+idly considering turning around, take the pullout and have a nice calm think
+through that. I wound up seeing one, thinking "hmm, maybe I should turn around",
+and then doing a K-turn on the freaking highway during a whiteout blizzard.
+Nothing bad happened, thank goodness, but it could have gone very badly for me,
+and I wished I had just taken a couple pullouts to discuss with my wife whether
+we wanted to keep going. So take those pullouts.
+
+Snow on the road is unlike anything I've ever witnessed in the Rocky Mountains,
+and when they say "difficult driving conditions" in safetravel.is, pay
+attention. It's not "if you're from California you'll have a hard time with
+this", it's "if you're from any other country". We quickly learned to respect
+their suggestions.
+
+Lastly, the N1 fuel pumps wanted a PIN on my credit card, which I didn't have. I
+think I could have used an ATM card, but instead we just asked the other family
+to buy fuel for us, and we paid them back when we got home. Maybe bring an ATM
+card and know the PIN! There were other gas stations where I could use Google
+Pay on my phone, or Visa's tap-pay thing, with no problems. And inside the N1, I
+could also use Google Pay. It was really just the pumps at the N1 stations.
+Incidentally, you should pop into an N1 if you pass by one. It's a real trip.
+You can even plan to have a meal there: I saw hot bars, salad bars, frozen
+yogurt bars, nice custom sandwich things...
+
+Overall the trip was great! We especially liked the westernfjörd area. The
+south, near Sólheimjökull, was super touristy and I wouldn't go there on a
+subsequent trip. I'm glad we got to go, and I hope you have a great time!

content/blog/2023-01-07-yurt.md

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+---
+date: 2023-01-07
+title: The Yurt
+---
+
+One day,
+back in the late 1990s,
+I discovered that the content filter appliance at work
+had blocked woozle.org
+for hosting porn.
+
+Because I worked in the group that ran that filter,
+I looked into what triggered this block.
+I was pretty sure I didn't have any porn.
+
+The offending image was called `yurt.png`.
+It was a cartoon drawing of a yurt.
+I told the filter it was a "false positive":
+it wasn't actually porn.
+That got the entire site unblocked.
+
+I don't know why I put that image on my web server,
+but the yurt has stayed on woozle.org ever since.
+
+![A cartoon yurt](/assets/images/yurt.png)

content/blog/2023-01-12-drwho-S04E15-highlanders.md

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+---
+date: 2023-01-12
+tags:
+- drwho
+title: 'Doctor Who S04E15: Dr Who goes to Scotland'
+---
+
+I skipped some episodes in the last year.
+I think there were Cybermen.
+There were definitely Daleks.
+
+## S04E15: The Highlanders (1)
+
+Okay I guess they're in Scotland.
+This is another one of those episodes where all they could recover was 
+a few still frames and the audio,
+so this episode is basically a slideshow.
+
+I'm finding it difficult to care about this,
+although this new doctor has a funny hat,
+which is cute.
+
+A lot of people are grunting in Scottish.
+And there are bagpipes.
+
+Did I mention I'm finding it difficult to care?
+I may be about to decide to skip all the Earth episodes.
+And yet I'm somehow halfway through the episode already.
+
+The plot so far appears to be that the English and Scottish are fighting.
+Some dudes named Grey and Perkins appear to be trying to do something nefarious.
+
+I guess one of the new companions is named Polly.
+She's going to throw a rock at the British in an attempt to stop a hanging.
+Oh, are they hanging the other companion?
+I think the Doctor is pretending to be some official or other again.
+Grey and Perkins show up and stop the hanging,
+looks like they're scavenging prisoners.
+The doctor cites some law to Grey, a Lawyer, and manages to not be hanged.
+
+The women (Polly and a Scottish woman)
+are in a cave now.
+
+I stopped paying attention.
+The women were saying it was dark.
+Then somebody screamed,
+and credits rolled.
+I guess we're still in the "women screaming" era that Susan started.
+
+I am trying really hard but I just don't care.
+I'm sorry.
+I have a lot of things I could be doing with my time right now,
+and almost all of them are more interesting than this.
+

content/blog/2023-03-07-trains.md

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+---
+title: Trains
+date: 2023-03-07
+---
+
+This year I am trying to spend less time on airplanes,
+as part of a global movement motivated by carbon emissions concerns.
+
+Amtrak, the US national passenger rail company
+(the *only* national passenge rail company in the US),
+is in a really sad state right now.
+They keep getting their budget cut,
+and freight companies have found several innovative ways
+to save money at the expense of safety and passenger rail quality.
+So rail exists in the US, technically,
+but it is not generally considered a desirable way to go.
+Maybe that will change as people seek non-airplane methods of travel.
+
+The place where I work will let me take rail,
+but they won't reimburse more than the equivalent flight.
+This has never been a problem for me:
+flying has always come in more expensive than train.
+
+On this upcoming trip, I have to stay overnight in Chicago,
+because there is only one train per day on each line.
+Even though the train is $315 less than the cheapest flight,
+I am not allowed to apply any of that toward lodging reimbursement.
+
+If you assume people are going to take the option that
+lines up closest to their personal economic interest,
+that's 2 points against the train,
+both of which carry an outsized societal burden.
+
+Point 1: Time
+-------------
+
+My time is worth something to me,
+and taking 4 additional days for a work trip kinda sucks.
+A lot of people will stop considering rail travel based just on this point.
+There's a way to fix this,
+by upgrading tracks so that passenger trains can go much faster,
+and by finally addressing how the mega-long freight trains can't yeild to the passenger trains,
+because there aren't stretches of side track long enough for them to do so.
+(People who would know assure me that the freight companies are well aware of what they're doing to passenger rail)
+
+This fix requires two things: a country willing to spend lots of money on passenger rail,
+and the political will to do something that will make freight companies really upset.
+I'm not seeing that the country is excited about any kind of infrastructure spending,
+much less passenger rail.
+And I'm definitely not seeing a country that wants to hurt any kind of commerce.
+But maybe if more scientists are inconvenienced by rail,
+the winds can shift.
+
+
+Point 2: Money
+--------------
+
+Even though it costs fewer dollars for me to take the train,
+my company is not set up to handle this.
+The result is that I have to pay out of pocket for the hotel stays,
+and I will not get reimbursed.
+
+If taking over 3 times longer wasn't enough to dissuade people,
+telling them it will also cost them $400 that won't be reimbursed
+is going to make rail travel look like a bad decision.
+
+The fix for this is easier:
+my company needs to figure out a way to consider that the train is saving them money,
+and allow me to spend some of that savings on the required hotel.
+I've started trying to see what I can do to make that happen.
+It may take a few years, and depends on senior management caring,
+but I think it has a higher chance of happening.
+
+If enough places figure out how to stope penalizing people for taking the cheaper option,
+maybe there will be sufficient public interest in point 1 for something to happen there.
+

content/blog/2023-03-14-universal-date-format.md

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+---
+title: Universal Date Format
+date: 2023-03-14
+---
+
+YYYY🌍MM🌙DD 
+
+If we use this, we won't have to re-do date formats again when we colonize another planet.
+
+Posting here to bolster any future claim that I thought of this first.