Mambo Taxi

We just bought a condo in downtown Kitchener. It used to be the Arrow Shirt Factory. There were four floors, and they've built 4 more floors with a set-back. Ours is the first level of the new construction, the only level with terraces. It's 1500 square feet of usable space, it will be complete some time between March and late Summer of next year, and we have ten days from yesterday to have second thoughts.

To say I'm excited is an understatement. Last night as I tried to get to sleep, my brain took me on a walk around the new neighbourhood, with little jolts as I realized what was within roughly ten minutes walk. Victoria Park! persephoneplace! nobodyhere! thefateyouare! Kitchener Market! Kitchener Market Light Rail Stop (hopefully)! Pho! Jerk Chicken! KWArtzlab hackerspace! A somewhat OK video rental store! Eventually I ran out of exclamation-marks and started falling asleep, until I was jolted awake (repeatedly) with we just bought property sight unseen!

The process, last night, was a zoo. They had an open-house for agents, but I had just called the afternoon before to find out when we could look at the demo unit, and they said we were welcome to come with our agent (who we trust very well- she sold us this house, and similarly for many of melted_snowball's colleagues). Mary was a bedrock. She was the one who suggested a few weeks ago that we be open to downtown Kitchener (it's where she lives) instead of close to the University. She was the first to tell us that the unit we were looking at was quite likely the most sensible layout in the building (I've since heard similar feedback, scarily enough) and when she left us last night, she was considering buying a smaller unit in the building to rent out.

Meanwhile, there were 40 other people talking in the non-noise-canceled sales office. Imagine like: a narrow Apple Store with wine and canapes. We got time to tour the demo units (there were two set up). 14-foot ceilings, exposed original pillars of the factory, and a lot of beige. One unit was very snark-worthy (Mary had some sotto zingers about the design and the agent who was telling everybody how great it was) and the other was fairly nice except for one feature: the loft bedroom. It turns out most units have an (optional) raised bedroom with half-height walls and sort-of wraparound windows to let in the light. We kind of want to have noise isolation in the bedroom, so that was a non-starter, even though the storage area underneath the loft was sort of cool.

Our unit only has 9-foot ceilings, but it's got 32 feet of windows, a fairly good amount of storage space, and best of all, the condo allows pets. (That was actually the first question I asked when we arrived. The first two helper-people said, "I don't know, let's find somebody who does." and the third person explained their two-pet minimum, I mean maximum.

A last bit of condo-buying usefulness: we can move whenever they say our unit is finished. However, beyond our 10% deposit, we're not on the hook for the rest of the price until 75% the units are sold, which is possibly not going to happen for a few months after. Which means we get to move first, then sell our place, assuming things line up OK.

What could possibly go wrong?

(*wibble*)

Working at a university is, I think, good for my sense of perspective and a good antidote for the occasional work-a-day ennui.

Yesterday I was thinking of last fall, when I was hurrying through an Engineering building to catch a bus and I passed a student observing (not driving) a small, silent four-rotored helicopter. That's what they're doing these days. Autonomic helicoptors.

But I was thinking of that student yesterday, when I went to watch a bit of a competitive program the University has hosted for a number of years. On an indoor field I watched two teams of robots, oversized roombas sucking up soccer balls, bumping over barriers and each other, spitting them into goals. These weren't undergrad projects: they were designed, built, and driven by high-school teams. The round I watched, the red team had much more agile and powerful soccer-bots. They handily won 8-1. Spectators cheered and held up big signs saying "Go 1148!"

Yesterday was a symposium for the final projects of the inaugural graduating class of nanotechnology engineers on campus, a program which will soon get its Quantum Nano Building, considerably larger than the name might suggest. At this nanotech symposium, one particular project caught my eye: carbon nanotubes absorbing IR radiation. See, night-vision goggles are apparently foiled by nano-tube-embedded fibers. They demoed a cotton mitt, one side treated; the one side is invisible to night-vision goggles, and the other side you can see the hand inside the glove.

While this property of carbon nanotubes has apparently been known for a while, these undergrads came up with a way to use them... safely. The poster ended with a cheerful message: "SAFETY CONCERNS: though industry is still wary of using CNTs in commercial products, there are a number of experiments that show the safety of CNTs [...]" and I thought, oh swell.

They continue by saying that IF the nanotubes are tightly bound to a substrate (say, cotton, which they claim it binds to easily), it will be safe. So they won't go loose in the environment and cause cancer or who-knows-what reactions with materials. Because we don't know, yet, because they cause all sorts of unpredictable reactions at quantum levels.

I think this is a different realm of "not ready for prime-time" than autonomous helicopters.

The nano building is one of five large construction projects on campus at the moment. The Quantum Nano building will be the biggest addition, shiny reflective glass next to the 60's-era ugly brick Brutalist Math and Computer building, once upon a time the most exciting thing happening on campus. It contained one big IBM computer. The biggest in Canada, in '67.

Yesterday I mentioned the symposium to a coworker's thirteen year old son, who is writing a school report on nanotechnology. He enthusiastically went down with notebook and pencil to take notes. And five years from now, he might possibly be studying nanotechnology in that building.

Heaven knows what they will be demoing in the hallways.

My day today included:

- a losing battle with pexpect on Solaris. Works from the cli! Fails from Apache! Needs a pseudo-terminal it cannot find for some reason! Whee!
- [solved with an update to pexpect, discovered while writing this journal entry]

- lunch with two friends & a service puppy-in-training. With a tiny little service puppy jacket. Twelve-week-old Golden Retriever! Biggest Paws Evar! She curled up under the table and slept.

- email with melted_snowball, still in India.

- email with an American friend visiting $EUROPEAN_CITY who was just offered a job. (!)

- email with a Canadian friend shortly to leave for Uganda.

- reading the latest from [far-away] friends visiting in Japan, [local friend] newly back from Haiti, and all y'all who are currently staying put.

I'm not sure if today even particularly stands out. It was better than yesterday, and possibly less busy than tomorrow.

[Edits Wednesday 7:12am]

I just went to the going-away reception for a colleague of dan's, a man of many talents who is moving west to become a CTO at another University. There were hors d'oeuvre, wine, cheese. And there were many speeches; some entirely professional and largely boring, some more heartfelt messages with personal touches. But you could tell this man will be missed for his even-keeled and wise service to the University.

And so, walking Rover just now, I was trying to determine exactly what I was feeling in response. I thought, for a while, that it was sort of a proxy pride-mixed-with-loyalty; watching all of these people who'd been working together for decades, showing honour to one of their beloved colleagues.

I'd be feeling it by proxy because of course it's second-hand imagining of their pride and loyalty, recognizing their depth of connections over the decades. And while I do feel loyalty to the University (as an excellent employer, as a source of social and societal good, as somewhere I hope to work for a long time) it's not anywhere near the loyalty of someone who had given it his all, for multiple decades, in a career he'd spent his entire life in.

So, I figured this proxy feeling was best personally described as "inspiration". And that was OK.

But you know, that's not quite it. As I watched Rover run in the school-yard I realized something else was more true. What struck me, hearing these profs pay their respects, was a personal profound sense of getting older.

Not in a negative sense, at all. Or, yes, but not only. Realizing it's the way of things. You spend your time on earth in whatever you're going to do; and possibly you pay attention and get better at things (and possibly the things you're better at, manage to find you). And perhaps you are recognized for the things you do, or perhaps you just know, yourself, and that's OK. And maybe if you're very lucky, it makes a great story; or maybe it seems dull.

But it's your life, every step, and you wouldn't be here if you hadn't been there first. And the you, now, can see a lot further because of it. And it's like seeing a photo of yourself from a decade ago with that hair and clothes and realizing shit, I really thought that would look good on me? And like listening to a Quaker friend's twelve-year-old go on about how much he loves watching The Wizard of Oz over and over, and as he gesticulates wildly with his hands, keeping the Cheshire grin to yourself (and thanking God for his parents not being bigots). And it's like recognizing to yourself the dues you've paid, ultimately OK with them even if they were crazy over-priced stupid dues.

And maybe, looking honestly and lovingly at the you-of-half-your-lifespan-ago and whether, if the two of you met, younger-you would laugh out loud in surprise (and maybe awe) at the you-of-now. And you're mostly looking forward to discovering the you-of-the-same-timespan in the future. Shit, he really thought that was a good idea then, didn't he? By God, yes, I do. And you'll please be keeping that smirk to yourself, future-me?

And maybe they won't throw a party with canapés and the University President, which is probably better off if they don't; and maybe actually the worst is yet to come. But maybe you get to use that as a stepping-off point to something even better than you'd ever imagine from here, the you-of-now who is getting older and paying attention and being open to the chance that the best is yet to come.