BIkes, Babes, Booze.
Ok, well, just bikes, actually.
So yesterday was quite uneventful. I woke up around noon, did a few hours of work, went to a coffee shop, did some more math (in the process found a flaw with some projects I thought would come together nicely - oh well). Came home, took a sauna, talked to my mom (hi mom), and went to bed. Ok, that's that.
This morning, I woke up and went to work to see if there would be a seminar today (there wasn't). I then sent a "Really, I can meet with you anytime" email to Pekka, and took off for town. First stop was the used bike store. I met Wahlid, the Sudanese owner. We had a nice conversation. After about 30 minutes, he said, "So, did you need something, or did you just come to introduce yourself?" It was quite funny. Most of the bikes were not in very good condition, and I finally settled on a Finnish brand bike from the 70s. It seemed sturdy at first, but I put it through some not very rigourous tests and managed to a) bust a brake cable and b) crack the rear skewer without even leaving the store.
So I told Wahlid that I would buy the bike if we could fix these things. About an hour later I had a pretty sturdy bike for 60 €. The brakes make A TON of noise but the only thing one can really do about that is replace the pads and I felt bad enough making Wahlid do all that work as it was (it was only a 60 € used bike after all, in a country where the cheapest aside from departments store junk cost at least 600 €). So anyway I might get the brake pads replaced soon because I really do sound like a banchee coming down a hill. That said, it is VERY NICE to be back on a bike again.
A few things about the bike. A) Daphne is better. B) I am out of shape. C) Riding upright is WAY less efficient than all hunched over like on a road bike, but way more comfortable. D) I miss Daphne. E) Riding a bike is about 4GHz faster than walking.
Anyway, after that I did my errands in whirlwind fashion. What would have taken me all day only took about 1 hour! I first went to the post-office (to mail my paper ticket back to the states to get it changed so I can attend that conference in Poland) , but was scared away by a really long line. It was lunch time so I figured that had caused the problem, like in the states. So instead I went out to the Mac place to get my keyboard replaced. What was once an all-day affair took only half an hour on the bike! Yay! So I'm typing away on a fancy-schmancy nice new keyboard, with working space bar and all. Back to the post-office and the line was even longer! I waited for a while but then got suspicious - the line was REALLY long and nobody seemed to have packages, just little sheets of paper. So went up to the front of the line and asked the lady in charge of letting people in to the post office what the deal was. She said "Oh, this line is for voting! I had completely forgot that the runoff election for the Finnish presidency was today! Duh. Anyway, I could have gone right in to use the post office to actually send mail with out any wait at all. So I did, and it was uneventful. Then I went back to the math department, did a little work, ate lunch, and headed off to Finnish class, where I learned to say "Mä tykkään puhua suomea." (I like to speak Finnish) and other similar phrases ("Mä tykkään syödä" - I like to eat). After that, I met some friends for coffee and a little chat, which was nice. I talked a lot to the Polish woman who got me lost the other night and we had a neat conversation about authenticity in photography. I was a little out of my league seeing as how she wrote a master's thesis in anthropology of art.
Then home, eating a sandwhich (mmm cheese and "Meetwurst"), and typing in the blog. That's about it.
Health Status: 80%
Oh, yeah, yesterday was -18F. Today was +26F. Finland is weird.
So yesterday was quite uneventful. I woke up around noon, did a few hours of work, went to a coffee shop, did some more math (in the process found a flaw with some projects I thought would come together nicely - oh well). Came home, took a sauna, talked to my mom (hi mom), and went to bed. Ok, that's that.
This morning, I woke up and went to work to see if there would be a seminar today (there wasn't). I then sent a "Really, I can meet with you anytime" email to Pekka, and took off for town. First stop was the used bike store. I met Wahlid, the Sudanese owner. We had a nice conversation. After about 30 minutes, he said, "So, did you need something, or did you just come to introduce yourself?" It was quite funny. Most of the bikes were not in very good condition, and I finally settled on a Finnish brand bike from the 70s. It seemed sturdy at first, but I put it through some not very rigourous tests and managed to a) bust a brake cable and b) crack the rear skewer without even leaving the store.
So I told Wahlid that I would buy the bike if we could fix these things. About an hour later I had a pretty sturdy bike for 60 €. The brakes make A TON of noise but the only thing one can really do about that is replace the pads and I felt bad enough making Wahlid do all that work as it was (it was only a 60 € used bike after all, in a country where the cheapest aside from departments store junk cost at least 600 €). So anyway I might get the brake pads replaced soon because I really do sound like a banchee coming down a hill. That said, it is VERY NICE to be back on a bike again. A few things about the bike. A) Daphne is better. B) I am out of shape. C) Riding upright is WAY less efficient than all hunched over like on a road bike, but way more comfortable. D) I miss Daphne. E) Riding a bike is about 4GHz faster than walking.
Anyway, after that I did my errands in whirlwind fashion. What would have taken me all day only took about 1 hour! I first went to the post-office (to mail my paper ticket back to the states to get it changed so I can attend that conference in Poland) , but was scared away by a really long line. It was lunch time so I figured that had caused the problem, like in the states. So instead I went out to the Mac place to get my keyboard replaced. What was once an all-day affair took only half an hour on the bike! Yay! So I'm typing away on a fancy-schmancy nice new keyboard, with working space bar and all. Back to the post-office and the line was even longer! I waited for a while but then got suspicious - the line was REALLY long and nobody seemed to have packages, just little sheets of paper. So went up to the front of the line and asked the lady in charge of letting people in to the post office what the deal was. She said "Oh, this line is for voting! I had completely forgot that the runoff election for the Finnish presidency was today! Duh. Anyway, I could have gone right in to use the post office to actually send mail with out any wait at all. So I did, and it was uneventful. Then I went back to the math department, did a little work, ate lunch, and headed off to Finnish class, where I learned to say "Mä tykkään puhua suomea." (I like to speak Finnish) and other similar phrases ("Mä tykkään syödä" - I like to eat). After that, I met some friends for coffee and a little chat, which was nice. I talked a lot to the Polish woman who got me lost the other night and we had a neat conversation about authenticity in photography. I was a little out of my league seeing as how she wrote a master's thesis in anthropology of art.
Then home, eating a sandwhich (mmm cheese and "Meetwurst"), and typing in the blog. That's about it.
Health Status: 80%
Oh, yeah, yesterday was -18F. Today was +26F. Finland is weird.
posted by Kevin at 1:18 PM
4 Comments:
The thought of Kevin Wildrick without a bike was starting to disturb me a little bit, so I'm glad you finally found one that's roadworthy, despite the banshee-brakes.
While we're on the topic, I'd be fascinated to hear more about your conversation on authenticity in photography - seeing as how I'm currently engaged in an inane project related to these issues, and now that I think of it, it does sort of come down to something like an "anthropology of art." At any rate, gimme an email at mkicey@umich.edu.
PS You know you're in a strange country when the "word verification" thingie on Blogger seems to be approximating more and more words from the Finnish language, i.e. "rrrlvgrb" or "eygei".
Anthropology on a mathematician's blog - hooray!
So I agree, visual anthropology is indeed really fascinating...a former professor of mine got me interested in post-colonial photography in Africa (he did a very interesting study of "authenticity" in Gambian studio photography...). Another friend of mine is writing a dissertation on the anthropology of art school - finished his master's in studio art, and is now having fun coming up with all kinds of anthropological things to say about it.
I suppose I don't really have a point - just enjoying not thinking about my own anthropology thesis for a minute :)
Kevin, glad to hear you got a bike! Aren't you impressed - this is the most I've probably ever posted on anyone's blog, mine included :)
Well, our discussion of authenticity mostly consisted of us both saying, "Oh my god, you think this is interesting too?" and "I haven't had an intelligent conversation in weeks!". She sent me some links which you might want to check out.
The World of 1900-1917 in Color
The Empire that was Russia
Pretty cool stuff. We also talked alot about the photographer Seydou Keïta, and how people have been fighting about the rights to make prints from his negatives. I had never really thought about the many choices that going in to making prints - the conversation also made me think about how many important choices about the way people view art are not in the control of the artist.
NYTimes Article about Seydou Keïta
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