Geek of All Trades

That's quite a trip

From an AP article on the Washington Nationals' Alfonso Soriano, who has thus far refused a move to the outfield:

Another big moment comes Wednesday, when the Nationals travel to Jupiter for an exhibition game against the St. Louis Cardinals.

I hope they packed lots of snacks.

An evening's practice

इस शाम मैंने कुछ दोस्तों से मिलकर हिंदी में बात करने की कोशिश की | ये दोस्त मेरी हिंदी की क्लास में हैं | हम लोगों को अहिस्ते बोलना पड़ता है -- हमें सोचने के लिये रुकना पड़ता है | लेकिन हमने सब बहुत कोशिश की, और साथ साथ हिंदी बोलने की कोशिश बहुत मज़ेदार थी | मुझे आशा है कि फिर हम लोग कुछ और आभ्यास के लिये मिलेंगे |

एक नज़्दीक बैठी लड़की हमको सुनकर हमारी मेज़ को आ गयी | मुसकाराकर उसने कहा "क्या आप लोग हिंदी पढ़ रहे हैं?" उसने बताया कि वह हिंदी बोलनेवाली थी, दिल्ली से | उसे बहुत पसंद था कि हमने उसकी भाषा सीखने की इतनी बहुत कोशिश की | उसने हमको बहुत अहिस्ते और साफ़ बोला, और हमसे कुछ आसान सवाल पूछे | यह लड़की हमें बहुत अच्छी थी!

अब मैं सो जा रही हूँ -- ख़ुश और हिंदी के बारे में सोचती हूँ |

This evening, I met some friends and tried to converse in Hindi.  These friends are in my Hindi class.  We all had to speak very slowly - we had to stop and think.  But we all tried very hard, and trying to speak Hindi together was a lot of fun.  I hope that we will meet again for more practice.

A young woman sitting nearby heard us and came over to our table.  Smiling, she said, "Are you all studying Hindi?"  She told us that she was a Hindi speaker from Delhi.  She was very pleased that we were trying so hard to learn her language.  She spoke to us slowly and clearly, and asked us simple questions.  This young woman was very nice to us!

Now I am going to sleep, happy and thinking about Hindi.



 

Some interesting things

A few interesting items today on a couple of other blogs I sometimes read.

• Mark Liberman of Language Log writes a post that highlights the importance of the serial comma, which in my view is never optional. 
• Cosmic Variance's Sean Carroll explains the newly-published results of the WMAP survey of the cosmic background radiation.  Some of the details required me to think back to the cosmology course I took in college and might be a bit esoteric if your physics isn't up to snuff, but the post is interesting nevertheless.  As a former metrologist, I particularly enjoyed this observation, highlighting the importance of making precise measurements where scientists generally agree on what the answer will be:

The reason why verifying a successful model is such a big deal is that the model itself - LambdaCDM with inflationary perturbations - is such an incredible extrapolation from everyday experience into the far reaches of space and time.  When we're talking about inflation, we're dealing with the first 10^-35 seconds in the history of the universe.  When we speak about dark matter and dark energy, we're dealing with substances that are completely outside the very successful Standard Model of particle physics.  These are dramatic ideas that need to be tested over and over again, and we're going to keep looking for chinks in their armor until we're satisfied beyond any reasonable doubt that we're on the right track.

• And, finally, a nice little application that generates maps of where you have been in the United States or where you have been in the world.  My own maps give me a stark look at how narrow and uncosmopolitan my experiences really are:

 

Cousin

David's cousin Robin, who is studying music here in Boston, sent me links to some of her art, which I thought was quite good.  Here also are links to her music and her blog, in which she said a sweet thing about me and David. 

"Raja Hindustani"

इस ब्लोग के एक पढ़नेवाले ने सुझाव दिया कि मैं एक पोस्टिंग हिन्दी में लिखूँ, तो यहाँ मेरी पहली कोशिश है |

कल दोपहर मैंने फ़िल्म "राजा हिन्दुस्तानी" देखी | यह फ़िल्म, आमीर ख़ान और करिश्म कपूर के साथ, बिलकुल "मसाला" है | "मसाला" कहकर मेरा मतलब है कि सब कुछ इस फ़िल्म में मिल-जुलकर है -- इश्क़ है, नाटक है, हिंसा है, और ज़रूर नाच-गाना है |

"राजा हिन्दुस्तानी" ख़राब फ़िल्म नहीं थी | लेकिन, अगर आप कोइ "मसाला" फ़िल्म नहीं देख चुके हैं, तो मैं सुझाव नहीं देती कि आप इस फ़िल्म के साथ शुरू करें | अगर आपको "बालीवुद" फ़िल्मों के लिये स्वाद नहीं हो, तो "राजा हिन्दुस्तानी" बहुत अजीब और बेवक़ूफ़ भी लगेगी |

लेकिन फ़िल्म तो मज़ेदार है, कभी कभी मीठी भी है | आमीर ख़ान मुझको हमेशा बहुत पसन्द है, और उसका "राजा" बहुत नेक है | फ़िल्म के गाने काफ़ी अच्छे हैं, ख़ास तौर पर "परदेसी परदेसी जाना नहीं", एक बहुत सुन्दर गाना | और फ़िल्म का राजनीतिक आर्थ, अमीर लोगों और ग़रीब लोगों के संबंध के बारे में, बहुत दिल्चस्प है |

इसको पढ़ने के लिये बहुत धन्यवाद | माफ़ कीजिए मेरे सरल विचारों के लिये | मैं बहुत-से हिन्दी शब्द नहीं जानती हूँ, तो पेचीदी चीज़ें हिन्दी में लिखना मुश्किल है | मैं तो अभी सीख रही हूँ !

A reader of this blog suggested that I write a posting in Hindi, so here is my first attempt. 

Yesterday afternoon I watched the film "Raja Hindustani."  This film, with Aamir Khan and Karishma Kapoor, is pure "masala."  When I say "masala" I mean that it has everything mixed together - there is romance, drama, violence, and of course song and dance.

"Raja Hindustani" was not a bad film.  But, if you have not already seen any "masala" film, then I would not suggest that you start with this film.  If you do not have a taste for Bollywood films, then "Raja Hindustani" will strike you as strange or even stupid. 

But it's an enjoyable film, sometimes even sweet.  I always like Aamir Khan, and his character Raja is good and decent.  The film's songs are quite good, especially "Pardesi pardesi jaana nahin," a very pretty song.  And the film's political meaning, about the relationship of rich people and poor people, is very interesting.

Thanks you for reading this.  Forgive me for my simple thoughts.  I don't know very many Hindi words, so writing complex things in Hindi is difficult.  I am still learning! 

Filing day sleepy

It's Friday afternoon, and I've just gotten a brief filed, the third of three briefs I had due this week.  It wasn't a huge filing - an 18 page brief, with 15 supporting exhibits - but it's been a long tough week with all the other filings due, and now I'm beat.

Filing days are brutal, but they are short, because the court closes at the end of the business day and the filing needs to be finalized and ready for copying, scanning, etc. in time to make that deadline.  With the advent of electronic filing, filings are often right down to the wire - still tweaking and proofreading and gathering exhibits minutes before the filing deadline.  Today's filing, though, could not be submitted electronically.  I cited the other party's confidential information in making my arguments, and so I submitted the brief and exhibits "under seal" - unlike court documents filed electronically, this briefing is not available to the public.  Documents filed under seal have to be delivered to the court by hand, and so everything had to be ready to be handed to the courier at around 4:15pm.  (My former law firm was down the street from the federal courthouse, and we'd occasionally cut it so close to the wire that we'd run filings there ourselves.  Now I'm all the way over in Cambridge, though, so we rely on couriers and try to give them plenty of time.)

So as crazy as filing day can be, it's over quick, and now I get to sit still for a couple of minutes and rest my sleep-deprived eyes and brain.  I do enjoy this feeling of post-filing bliss, and especially when it comes on a Friday.  I probably won't do any more work today - I'll just clean off my desk, put away the materials I was using to write the brief, toss the markups and drafts that are lying around, and head out early to enjoy a nice walk along the river and today's taste of spring. 

Not quite ready for bilingual prime time

In this GOAT post from a few months back, a friendly visitor recently left me a nice comment in Hindi.  He suggests that I make a regular habit of posting in Hindi, so that the Hindi-speaking community can share in my thoughts.  To this very kind visitor I can only say,

हिन्दी में लिखना अभी मेरे लिये मुश्किल है | यह बहुत काम होगा, लेकिन मैं कोशिश करूँगी | 

Writing in Hindi is still difficult for me.  It will be a lot of work, but I will try. 

Another reason to dread the baseball season

Sports Illustrated reports that a new book provides meticulous detail - and evidence - of Barry Bonds's steroid use over the last eight years.  According to the book, Bonds began using steroids and other illegal supplements after the 1998 season, jealous that his 37 home runs received little attention in the shadow of the feats of Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa that season. 

I won't recount the details here - you can read the article.  And if you follow sports news at all, I am sure every gory facet of this story will be unavoidable over the coming weeks and months. 

Bonds is just a handful of home runs away from Babe Ruth's career mark, and if he stays healthy and plays he could even pass Hank Aaron's all time total this season or the next.  But I'd put even odds that, under pressure from these new revelations, he retires before the season begins, never admitting to anything.

It's not a terrible surprise that there's evidence that Bonds used steroids.  But it's still sad, another blemish on this beautiful game, and another distraction that will make baseball less fun to watch and to follow this year. 

(The photo above is a picture I took of Barry Bonds two seasons ago at the ballpark formerly known as Bank One Ballpark, in Phoenix.  He is the only player I took pictures of.  I was just thrilled to have the chance to see him play.  Today I just feel sad.)

... because it sure ain't looking good

Susie Bright is rightly depressed about the state of reproductive rights.  She and the other sources she links to make the astute point that much of the anti-choice force isn't about the lives of babies; it's about imposing control over women and their sexuality.