The Urminskys

This says it all

Filed under: Uncategorized — David @ 3:40 pm Comments 5

Distance

Filed under: Uncategorized — David @ 10:38 am Comments 4

As alot of you readers may already know, I walk alot. I walk to and from school pretty much every day. The past few times I have counted the number of steps that I take. Yes, that is right, I count… i don’t use a pedometer or anything, i just count (in a low wisper). Well I have averaged the number of steps it take me to get to school and I came up with approximately 6793 steps from our flat to my office. By the way… that is one way. So, just in walking to and from school I take at least 13586 steps a day. That turns into 67930 steps a week or 271720 step a month just walking back and forth from school.

For those who play ultimate 6793 steps turns into 56.6 lengths of an ultimate field. Or, it is equivalent to walking about 40 times around an ultimate field (the dimensions of an ultimate field are 120 x 40 steps).

Whe I calculated the distance from our flat to school using www.multimap.com, it spit out 3.8 miles (or 6.12 km) one way. This means that I take approximately 1787.6 steps per mile or 1109.9 steps per kilometer. If you continue to do the math, 1.1 of my steps is one meter.

It also means that if I were to walk to the sun, I would have to take approximately 166,485,000,000 steps to get there. Of course I would probably burn up way before then.

If I were to walk to and from school 1456 times, it would be equivalent to walking around the coast of Great Britain. By the way, that would take me about 9890608 steps.

If I were to walk to and from school every day for three years (the length of the PHD), I would take approximately 10597080 steps (yes… this more steps than i require to walk around the coast of Great Britian).

Anyway…. If people are feeling generous… you can buy me new shoes!!!

A Weekend of Firsts

Filed under: Uncategorized — David @ 11:20 am Comments 1

The past weekend found me trying some beers which were new to my digestive system.

Beer #1
The Flying Scottsman
This is a nice dark stout with a strong after taste. I wouldn’t be against having it damaging my liver again but if it and a guinness were the same price, I would probably go with a guinness.

Beer #2
Black Sheep Bitter
This is a yummy beer. I would definately have it again. Don’t really know how to describe it though. It isn’t the best Bitter I have ever had, but it is something i would recommend to others.

Beer #3
SheepHead Stout
Dark, Bold, and tasty. Strong after taste. Not really to my liking, but if someone put it down in front of me (and I didn’t have to pay) I wouldn’t turn it away.

Beer #4
FORGET THE NAME OF THIS ONE
Found this at a pub down in leith. The beer was good but more importantly, we were introduced to cool pub to bring people to when the visit. This pub changes their beers on tap regularly so you get a variety. A Plus is that they serve a selection of Scottish Beers.

Although I am enjoying the varitey of hops here, I do miss some of my more regular beers in Canada. These include:
Upper Canada (lager or dark… it’s a great Ontario beer)
Wart Hog Cream Ale (it a Big Rock beer from out west)
Sleeman’s (cream ale of the honey brown)
MooseHead (yummy beer from the east coast)

I’ll always miss discovering new beers out west with my friend JP. He needs to come visit and taste the local beers with me. What was that beer with the killer whale on it JP?

View this link for some interresting media on beer in Canada.

Home

Filed under: Uncategorized — Neyir @ 7:56 pm Comments 1

So I am back or home except before I left I kept saying I was going home and when I was there I would say that I was going ‘home’ (to Edinburgh) on such and such a day. Strange. The notion of home is always changing for me and yet somehow always staying the same.

I had a great visit and trip/auditions. I highly recommend the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. I had a few extra hours in London and went there, it is a museum dedicated to all things that are hand-crafted, needless to say I did not even get out of the fashion section!!!!

I found this visit one of the more difficult, I think I finally came to the realisation that I have not lived close to home for the last 9 years and will not be for some time yet! Somehow it feels like everyone I know is progressing on to the next level of their lives and I am still in the same place. I think that is probably due to the fact that I am always away from my ‘zone’ when I visit with people and they are in theirs. Yet when I returned to Edinburgh I was somehow more at peace with it, it is like now I have a clearer idea of where we will be when David finishes school or soon there after. I always knew we wanted to settle close to home but this was a good solid reminder.

insomnia

Filed under: Uncategorized — David @ 2:27 pm Comments 5

*sigh*

Suffered from a bout of insomnia last night. Now i am barely able to function. It sucks when you have to multiply octonions together. Well, that is easy compared to finding a map from 3 to 8 space.

Something truely scottish happened to me today.

I went to the registar’s office today to get some forms signed for my income tax (*sigh*… what income). The nice lady behind the desk said “We will you when they are signed.” Alarm bells went off in my head… so i asked “Can i just wait here until they are signed?” She replied forcefully with “NO, come back on monday.” Her niceness level was going way down in my opinion. Sceptically, i asked “ARe you open on monday?”. She replied, “No, we are closed monday and tuesday”. She became evil in my mind at that point.

I thanked her politely and left.

I hope i get those forms back!

Customer service in scotland sucks big freeking donkeys

Newton in plastic

Filed under: Uncategorized — David @ 1:16 pm Comments 5

Ahhh…. so the highlight of the weekend for me was holding a 400 yr old copy of Newton’s Principa in my hands. Granted its cover was covered in platic, but I didn’t mind. Way better than flipping through Stephen Hawkings “A Brief History of Time”!

This opportunity was granted at the huge book sale going on at St. Andrews St. Georges church here in Edinburgh.

There wasn’t alot of stuff that I wanted at the book sale (after all…. how often do you find a math book of interrest at a booksale). My mission was to find George Macdonald books for my friend JP back in Vancouver. Alas, none were to be found. Sorry JP.

After that, Neyir, I and the gang went to Suruchi’s Indian restaurant for a cheap lunch. Mmmmmm… i like going to lunch there because one person can eat for 5.95GBP and not have to have dinner later in the day! Plus… the food is excellent.

Pot Luck

Filed under: Uncategorized — David @ 11:48 am Comments 3

Last night we had a pot luck dinner with some friends of ours here. The theme for the dinner was

Communial Frugality: All you Need is Love (and 5 pounds)

The Menu included:

Curried Chick Peas on rice
Speghetti-O’s with sausage
spinach and artichoke dip with tortilla chips and bread
Rice Chrispy Squares

Along with plenty of wine and other alcoholic beverages

The menu seems a little strange but I think everyone had a good time.

Here is the Recipie for the Curried Chick Peas (makes enough for 2)

1 14oz can of Chick Peas
1 onion, minced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
2 Tbs medium curry power
1 Ganny Smith apple (pealed, diced)
Juice of one lemon
3 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup yogurt

Optional - 1 cup chopped fozen spinach 1 pound for 4 cups worth
- if you have ground coconut add a few tbps of that as well.

1- heat oil in deep dish pan.
2- add onions, garlic and curry. Suate for 5 min.
3- add chick peas and apple (and spinach). Saute for another 5-10 min (or until spinach has thawed and heated up)
4- add yorgurt and lemon juice. Saute for 5 more min.

Serve over rice 1cups worth (serves 2) is about 15pence

total price…. 3.15 GBP… of course, this wasn’t including the cost of the in stock items

Cleaned my desk

Filed under: Uncategorized — David @ 1:05 pm Comments 4

So today I cleaned my desk. Well….. tidy’d it is more accurate. I notice that i was working on top of 3 layes of papers. That is like an Upper Bound for me. Once you start to get past that 3 layer mark it is time to do some tidying…. Note that i say tidy and not clean. Let’s not get carried away here.

So Neyir got back yesterday from Canada. She managed to score a whole bunch of stuff off of our parents. Some of the stash includes:

- A Canadian Flag, and Canadian flag patches.
- Cloaths… cloaths and more cloaths.
- 7 seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Mmmmmm Sarah Michelle Geller)
- about 200 Mach III razors (don’t ask me why)

Now I need to figure out where to hang the Canadian flag. Can anyone give me a suggestion?

For those who want to comment to the dead literary Giants

Filed under: Uncategorized — David @ 10:12 am Comments 1

For those dedicated readers of this blog…

If you have enjoyed (or not enjoyed) the writings of Jane Austen on this blog you are in luck (or not in luck). The author has come back from the dead and has continued her writing career on a blog.

Well… lets face it… no one will belive that… it is really just a bunch of math people who have great imaginations.

You can check out their rantings at http://room4620.blogspot.com.

I hope you all enjoy their rantings as much as I.

Look Austen!!!! Free advertising… I hope this link helps your google ranking!

More Canadian Ranting

Filed under: Uncategorized — David @ 1:59 pm Comments 6

I stumbled upon the following quote today.

I read and learned and fretted more about Canada after I left than I ever did while I was home. I absorbed anything I could on topics that ranged from Folklore to history to political manifestos… I ranted and raved and seethed about things beyond my control. In short I acted like a Canadian.
- Will Ferguson

To some degree, the quote sums up how I feel about home right now. The scary thing is, I read, learned and fretted alot about Canada before I left. You can imagine how I feel now!!!

Ah well…. perhaps the following quote will help those understand more:

The beaver, which has come to represent Canada as the eagle does the United States and the lion Britain, is a flat-tailed, slow-witted, toothy rodent known to bite off it’s own testicles or to stand under its own falling trees.
- June Callwood

Gosh I miss it.

News from Canada… aparently my Mother has put together a load a canadian stuff together to send home with Neyir!

BTW: Did anyone else notice that Canada beat the US in World Hockey Championship yesterday!!