kangaroo sightings

I went to a lecture last night on Geohazards and Large Geographically Distributed Systems presented by Professor Tom O'Rourke from Cornell University. It made me realize two things: 1) I am a huge geek, but I was with 70 or so of my fellow geeks, so all is good. 2) I may be ready to start considering academia again. It was an amazing presentation, but it was on something that really only academia has the time or resources to fully investigate. It gave me another great example of how academia can work for industry though. Helping Professor O'Rourke's presentation (at least in my eyes) was a case study on San Francisco that included many photographs of my beloved and missed city. He also confirmed my thoughts about three places not to live: LA, New Orleans, and Christchurch.

While googling a phrase that keeps repeating itself in a spec I’m reading for work (inter alia), I came across Wikepedia’s List of Latin Phrases. Fascinating resource, especially for someone like me who never received any formal latin education. It’s amazing how many of the phrases seem commonplace to me. However, I did come across one phrase that I believe should be more commonplace. It is near the always popular ‘carpe diem,’ which I am a full supporter of. But I would also like to support this new phrase. Carpe vinum. Seize the wine. I am learning so much today! I plan on practicing my new phrases for the rest of the day. For example, u pon leaving work today I intend to wash away the woes of the week with, inter alia, copious amounts of booze. Carpe vinum. Note on inter alia: Yes, I am familiar with the i.a. abbreviation and use it often. Sadly though I must admit that I never actually knew what it stood for.