A Bug's Life

From covertmusic:
Favourite thing about Edinburgh so far?
And on that note, where's your favourite place (and why)?
Saw you're picking up Tai Chi. Curiosity, fitness, any deeper reason?
I know you're big into SF - books in general - but do any plays or poetry (or movies, lyrics, whatever - they're all the same thing, honest!) grab you in the same kind of way?
Why databases?


1. Favourite thing about Edinburgh so far?
The course is great, though I expect I'd think that if it were in Sheffield, or Edgware, or The Bahamas. I love the way you can be in the middle of the city, possibly on a twisty ancient street, then turn a corner and see the hills :-) I've usually thought of hills as something you had to make a long journey to see, and it amazes me that they're just There. If you did a vocubulary analysis of my recent LJ posts and Flickr captions you'd probably see Arthur's Seat at a fairly high incidence.

2. And on that note, where's your favourite place (and why)?
I am a) too enthusiastic about all the great places I've been to pick just one and b) too pragmatic to believe that any momentary favourite would remain true for long enough to be statistically meaningful. So ner. Here are a few:

Arizona in August (step outside and you practically desiccate; Joshua trees; Grand Canyon which I'd like to hike down one day); New Zealand (fabulous geothermal activity; gorgeous coastline; kava chips); Madison (lively university town; inhabitants have GSOH and are obsessed with cheese); Happisburgh (childhood nostalgia; solitude/retreat AND a good pub; constant reminder of the power of the ocean); New York (has everything and a cheap subway system); the Carlton Arms on a Thursday (when it's quite enough to talk and a really good conversation comes along); the Hampstead Everyman and the Manchester Cornerhouse (formative influence cinemas); the commons and meadows of Cambridge.

3. Saw you're picking up Tai Chi. Curiosity, fitness, any deeper reason?
I started Tai Chi about 13 years ago, at the suggestion of my GP when I went to him with early bad back symptoms, and I've done it on and off since then as work schedule/house location allows. I like it a lot, and feel much better when I do it regularly; it is relaxed and yet very hard work (you get very strong thighs). I typically leave a session feeling an inch taller, and like I could push a car all the way home. The martial aspects are fun, but mostly it's about the biomechanics, strength and balance, and controlling slow movements so you don't use momentum/twitch muscles at all. And then learn to do it effortlessly, as if you were silk floating in water :-)

I'm ambivalent about the spiritual aspects, and few of my classes have dwelt on it, but it can be a useful mental focus while practicing.

4. I know you're big into SF - books in general - but do any plays or poetry (or movies, lyrics, whatever - they're all the same thing, honest!) grab you in the same kind of way?
There's nothing quite like SF: a novel contains a whole world, wrapped up in a tangible book, which can be very satisfying to hold and read. The heft of the tome, the smell of good paper :-) But I've not read a novel in nearly two months.

I like a movie, especially in a good cinema. It can be as immersive, more so with respect to the characters' emotional journeys - films move me a lot more than books tend to. There can be some great moments in films. I also like the ritual as you settle into your seat, the lights go down, and the flicker starts; watching the movie to the sound of a whirring projector.

Thoughts I had not had before this question: I have the same sense of anticipation when I pick up a book or the main feature starts at the cinema as I do when presented with a particularly mouth-watering dessert. Visual art grabs me in the same way as SF: the new concept, the sense of wonder, the artist's world in a frame, the tangibility, the lone artisan. Thank you :-)

5. Why databases?
It is the area where I find it easiest to make intuitive leaps, to see relationships and distributed truths and how to transform the data so that other people can see and use this information. Add a desire for efficiency and effectiveness, relentless logic, a double handful of auditor-nature and wide experience of real world systems.

Some people make these leaps in fiction, plotting so that characters will meet at a point of maximum conflict; some make them in music, scoring an orchestra so each line and instruments adds to the other (I can't see how it doesn't always end up a cacophony); some in maths, or marketing (they see the benefits that make someone want the product/service/lifestyle). But I always come back to databases. And I'm happy with that.


Ask if you want questions.