DominicHamon.com

Life is like a grapefruit

Magical mystery tour

This past week, @mirtos told me to book Friday off as we were going away. She refused, however, to tell me where. I was to be packed by Thursday evening and to pack for rain. Excitement!

As the week went on, she started getting frustrated that I didn’t know where we were going and, further, that I couldn’t help organise anything without knowing. Obviously I refused to be told our mystery destination. Mostly this was so that I would just be swept off to parts unknown like some terrible plot mechanic in a Jennifer Aniston movie, but it was also partly to avoid any responsibility. Cunning!

Thursday rolled around, a car came to pick us up, and on the drive my much better half mentioned to the driver that we would be flying Air Canada. Given our history in Vancouver, it was reasonably clear that that was probably where we were off to, and the mystery was forever lost. We landed in Vancouver a scant three hours later, rather uneventfully apart from the ridiculousness of United Airlines’ check-in procedure.

That isn’t a typo, by the way: The mystery vanished for naught. Le sigh. Disappointing!

Driving through Vancouver after three years away was a strange experience; memories of the roads we drove on were present, but an emotional connection to them was strangely absent. If this was the time that had lapsed since the city was home, the number of other countries that have been home since, or just that an emotional connection was never formed is impossible to determine. The feeling was that of driving through a set from a TV show or movie that I have watched repeatedly. I could anticipate the stores we would drive past, but felt nothing for them. This feeling did not last.

Once the night had past and it was time to start the rigourous schedule of lunches, brunches, dinners and hanging out time that Mirto had planned, the sense of the familiar became stronger and began to feel like nostalgia. This was finally cemented on the last night of our trip when I had the chance to spend a good many hours hanging out with my good friend Jeremy, who is responsible for the ink under the skin of my left arm, and his wonderful, amazing, warm and above-all happy family. Meeting again his son who was barely out of toddling when I last saw him, and having him change into multiple superhero costumes through the evening, was a true pleasure. Meeting for the first time his daughter who is just a few months old but clearly a blissful and settled baby was a delight. Just being allowed to share that loving home for a few hours was worth the trip alone.

That we also saw so many other old friends, and that the weekend showed me they truly are friends ready to change their schedules to make room for us though we abandoned them years ago for other pastures, was a rare treat. That two of those friends gave up a room for us and allowed us to share their lives at a potentially stressful time, and gave us much-needed time with a surrogate puppy, was a bonus.

So this is my attempt at thanking those that made this weekend special, and above all thanking my wonderful, darling wife for making it happen and keeping it a mystery.

Leaving was difficult, and not just because we had to get up at 3am for a tiresomely early flight on a Sunday morning, but because I had been reminded what I left behind. The city may still hold merely a vague feeling of nostalgia for me, but the people are special and it is they that I am missing all over again.

Posted on 2010/03/30 by dominic in personal | Tagged vacation, vancouver, weekend | Leave a comment

I could watch this all day – dogs captured in 1000 fps slow motion.

(via *boingboing**)*

Posted on 2010/03/02 by dominic in personal | Leave a comment

The dog police, part 2

Part 1 here.

And as I said at the end of that, it’s not over yet.

After the last incident, I sent a friendly letter to our neighbourhood git suggesting politely that we might be adult about things and have a conversation about his issues with living next to Oliver. Failing that, perhaps we could reach an agreement regarding our mutual behaviour and avoid each other at all times.

I did not receive a reply.

Instead, I was told by another neighbour that the police had once again been at my apartment as they were called out regarding a vicious attack claim. Being the conscientious young man (read geek) that I am, I started reading about dog law.

‘Potentially dangerous dog’ means any of the following: (a) Any dog which, when unprovoked, ontwo separate occasions within the prior 36-month period, engages in any behavior that requires a defensive action by any person to prevent bodily injury when the person and the dog are off the property of the owner or keeper of the dog. (b) Any dog which, when unprovoked, bites a person causing a less severe injury than as defined in Section 31604. (c) Any dog which, when unprovoked, on two separate occasions within the prior 36-month period, has killed, seriously bitten, inflicted injury, or otherwise caused injury attacking a domestic animal off the property of the owner or keeper of the dog.

‘Vicious dog, means any of the following: (a) Any dog seized under Section 599aa of the Penal Code and upon the sustaining of a conviction of the owner or keeper under subdivision (a) of Section 597.5 of the Penal Code. (b) Any dog which, when unprovoked, in an aggressive manner, inflicts severe injury on or kills a human being.

(c) Any dog previously determined to be and currently listed as a potentially dangerous dog which, after its owner or keeper has been notified of this determination, continues the behavior described in Section 31602 or is maintained in violation of Section 31641, 31642, or 31643.

By these definitions, Oliver is not even a potentially dangerous dog, let alone a vicious dog. I should remind the reader that the gentleman bringing these claims is a lawyer and really should know this stuff.

I should also reiterate that I only know of two occasions when I’ve even seen the neighbour, and he and Oliver never had contact.

Anyway, legal technicalities aside, I have been summoned to a hearing to determine if Oliver poses a danger to society. It would be laughable if it wasn’t so sad that a person can be so bitter, so angry at the world, that he’d rather take the time to file a claim and go to a hearing than just sit down and have a conversation.

So here I am preparing evidence of Oliver’s temperament and pulling up logs of email conversations with my building manager, all to satisfy the whim of some twisted old coot with too much time on his hands. I just hope he realises the seriousness of his actions; that someone who is less prepared and less conscientious might have their dog destroyed, just because he doesn’t like them. I can only, in my optimistic outlook, assume that he really doesn’t understand what a dog means to an owner. How they are part of the family just as much as a child would be.

The alternative, that he understands exactly what he’s doing and is pursuing this nonsense with vindictiveness and determination, is too awful to comprehend.

Posted on 2010/02/19 by dominic in personal | Tagged drama, oliver, pooch | Leave a comment

So you think you can spot green-screen, cgi and compositing at work?

Posted on 2010/02/18 by dominic in personal | Tagged cgi, film | Leave a comment

Jamie Oliver’s talk in acceptance of the TED prize 2010. A brilliant talk reminding us why knowledge is such an important thing to share with the next generation.

Posted on 2010/02/16 by dominic in personal | Tagged food, health, TED | Leave a comment

The dog police

It’s been a while since I’ve had any juicy stories to post, and this is a doozy. First, as always, a little background.

In the first week in this new apartment, I had an interaction with my new neighbour. He was halfway down the corridor outside my apartment, I was at the door. We were a good four metres apart. Oliver, being Oliver, strained at his leash to say ‘Hi’ to this new person. He didn’t bark, he didn’t growl, he may have panted excitedly. A few days later, we received word that an official complaint had been entered against our aggressive dog. This is Oliver we’re talking about.

I felt briefly outraged before putting it down to some childhood experience he’d had with a dog, and resolved to stay out of his way. A few days later we were vindicated as the building manager finally met Oliver and spent some time cooing over him before apologising for the misunderstanding.

Cut to today.

Between then and now, the only glimpses I’ve had of this neighbour have been as he’s been arriving or leaving in his car; there has been no interaction between us at all. Today, as myself and Mirto entered the building with Oliver and Eddie, we saw our neighbour and his wife entering the other end of the lobby. Being the considerate sorts, we stayed at the entrance to allow them to enter the elevator first.

Instead, the neighbour walked towards us in an aggressive manner before dropping some files he was carrying on a bench that runs along the side of the lobby. At this, Oliver reacts quite normally for a dog by barking. Once. Please note that he didn’t stand up, strain at his leash, growl, snarl, snap, slobber or bite. He barked. Once.

Our neighbour uttered a phrase that is about as diplomatic a conversation starter as assassinating Archduke Ferdinand:

“You should put a muzzle on that thing.”

If you don’t own a dog, that may seem like a reasonable suggestion. If you do, however, that’s akin to telling a parent to muzzle their screaming baby. I responded by telling him he was being ridiculous at which point I was informed that if I did not muzzle him, he would report my dog as aggressive.

It’s worth an aside here to note how fearsome this threat is. The power to have a government service swoop in and take a dog from an owner parallels that of having social services swoop in to take a child into care. It is a very powerful threat and should never be used lightly to a dog owner.

Sadly, at this point I lost my temper and called him an arsehole. Not my finest hour, I’ll admit, and I instantly regretted it. Well, almost instantly. First I told his wife she should muzzle her husband.

Anyway, once upstairs I realised I’d crossed a line and decided to apologise immediately. As they exited the elevator I stepped out of my apartment and offered my sincere apologies for swearing at and insulting him. I was told most emphatically that the apology was not accepted and to get lost.

Just as the initial shock of the altercation was dying down, we had some friends arrive and, three-and-a-half hours and a bottle of wine later had mostly forgotten about the incident, or at least had relegated it to the frustrating and disappointing folder.

Then it was time for the nightly walk so we left the apartment and went down to the lobby to find, wait for it, the neighbour, his wife, and two police officers. As we walked through them, I willed Oliver to be on his best behaviour and he was a shining example of well-mannered dogginess. As we got to the front door, I heard “That’s them, officer” and stifled a chuckle at the cliche.

Turning around, I was ushered outside by an officer who asked me to stay around to give my statement. I expressed my surprise and made it clear I wasn’t sure exactly what horrible crime I was meant to be describing, and he made it clear that he didn’t know why he was there either. Skipping the gory details, twenty minutes later the police were driving away as baffled as we were about their inclusion in this tale, and I’m now trying to shrug the whole thing off as the result of a sad little man feeling scared and not knowing how to deal with it.

I have a feeling this is not over yet.

Posted on 2010/02/04 by dominic in personal | Tagged drama, oliver, pooch | Leave a comment

Beautiful retro-inspired luxurious PC from Design Hara (via unplggd)

Posted on 2010/01/07 by dominic in personal | Tagged computer, design | Leave a comment

Just Khan’t Get Enough

This may or may not be a surprise, given where I work, but sometimes geeky questions are asked, and geeky responses are necessary. After one such conversation regarding how many ‘a’s are canon for the imperative “Khaaan!”, I decided further investigation was necessary:

It is clear that a strong power law relation is present for low eigenkhans after the initial spike at eigenkhan 1. However, above eigenkhan 100 we enter a new realm that requires further investigation. In both power law regions we have an exponent of ~-2.68 (-2.60 for Google, -2.77 for Bing), which should be considered the canonical khansponent.

This is a slightly extended version as I have more results than I did when I wrote the first email. I can now see that the extended tail above eigenkahn 100 suggests an exponential relation, however I still do not have enough data to create a conclusive model.

In fact, this data follows a distribution known as the Pareto distribution and is related to the Bradford law of diminishing returns. In this case, the distribution has x_m = 1 and α = 2.68. The expected value is, then, 1.6 with a variance of 11.12. Therefore, anything from “Kahn!” to “Kaaaaahn!” is within expectations, though there is no incorrect length.

…

Better things to do with my time? Why yes, why do you ask?

Posted on 2009/12/22 by dominic in personal | Tagged mathematics, star trek | Leave a comment

Voices of Babylon

I have Google Voice set up for my phone, which is great as it makes me far more reachable wherever I am. It also provides a service that transcribes my voicemail.

Mirto has an accent that floats between Sweden, Greece and London. Google Voice is apparently confused by this which leaves me with wonderfully surreal messages that I like to imagine make sense to some parallel version of me. That or the messages have been translated to-and-from another language. Here is one I just received:

Hey, I’ve got that Boston’s in 5 minutes to take effect until about update,
I found at 12 o’clock shop. If you call me. Let me know what you want.
I was wondering. 14. I’m going to get the size of the coffee.

Posted on 2009/11/22 by dominic in personal | Tagged google voice | Leave a comment

Science meets food meets eggs

Link: Science meets food meets eggs

Combining cooking with science fascinates me, and this article starts from the basics: The perfect egg.

Posted on 2009/11/13 by dominic in personal | Leave a comment

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