A return to the blogosphere

So after a number of weeks not posting anywhere, not commenting anywhere, and barely even reading a blog anywhere, I have dropped back in for a quick update. Is it just a fleeting visit or an indication of things to come? Time will tell.

I have returned to Australia, moved to Sydney, and started a new job in the actuarial field with a big consulting company. So that's all good. Living in Balmain, working in the City with a nice view of Darling Harbour, and playing backgammon at the Exhibition Hotel every Tuesday night. It's all good. Except that Silvia is on the other side of the world. Oh well, I'll fix that later.

Riding in the snow

Ah, so today I rode a bike in the snow for the first time in my life. The snow on the ground wasn't very thick at all, in fact it was almost non existant, but snow was definately falling through the air. It's kinda cool to ride through - much better than riding in the rain anyway.
I visited the IPM Global Village in Amsterdam today. Indoors, thankfully. Great to catch up with some more friends again. Photos of all my travels will definately have to wait until I get home to Australia, which is only a few days away now. Tomorrow, back to London. Then Friday off to Hong Kong, 12 hours there, and then jetting off to Sydney where I'll land Sunday morning. Then back to Canberra for a while. Cool indeed. I'll be happy to put this northern hemisphere winter behind me. I've had around 9 days of winter in the last 18 months, and that's still 9 days too much. The snow was good though.

Hello and goodbye from Brasil

So, here I am at Sao Paulo airport, about to leave South America for quite a while. I'll be back, but I'm buggered if I know when exactly that will be.
I actually left South America last thursday, only to return on Saturday morning (the result of going from Colombia to Miami, having a day in Miami, and then flying from Miami to Sao Paulo.)

But in 90 minutes my plane shall depart and cross over the Atlantic, bound for a much colder Europe.
U2 were playing in Sao Paulo last night (and again tonight). Some of the friends I was staying with were fortunate enough to go see them. I myself watched the whole show on Brazilian television (a lucky find while channel surfing at the same time the show was starting.) As would be expected, they were awesome. I need to find a way to get to one of their sold out shows in Sydney. I wonder what profit margin scalpers operate on...

Anyway, my slow and scenic journey from my home in Colombia to my home in Australia is going well. I am looking forward to the next leg and seeing some more old friends. Getting onto my flight from Bogota to Miami is a slightly interesting story, but perhaps one for another time if at all. And Sao Paulo is a bloody big city. Way too big.

Leave comments and make me happy.
Photos to come later (probably after I am home).
Cheers

Goin' camping for a week

I'm off to see the sights of San Gil, Santander.
Now wasn't that worth reading? :)

Australia really is at the end of the world

And New Zealand has fallen off the map.

So this is the routing of my journey home to Oz during the second half of February and start of March. Not the most direct route to be sure, and including approximately 44 hours of flight time (not counting waiting in airports or any other such things), but it should be fun I think. I get a number of quick visits to new cities, get to return to some cities I already know, and I get to add 3 more countries to my visited-countries count.
I might even do some land travel in Europe that's not shown on the map... (Cities marked are Bogota, Miami, Sao Paulo, London, Madrid, London, Bangkok, Singapore, Sydney and Canberra if you're curious.)

Let me know if I'm coming by near you.

Too bloddy tired...

Thanks to everyone who dropped some birthday well-wishes to me yesterday. Periodically seeing new comments throughout the day as I was working was much appreciated.

Can't say I feel any older though. Tom, it's a little difficult for me to answer if I am older than you or not because I'm not sure exactly how old you are. This could prove an impasse if neither of us feels like revealing our age first. Or I think you could just check Insight for my details / date of birth (which is accurate) if you care that much. I can't do the same first because I'm on that damn alumni status... I'm almost certain we are within 12 months of each other though.

Cali can be a crazy city, full of roadrage turning into fist fights, and football results turing into roadside celebration. The weather is much better than Bogota though :)

Oh how I am longing for the day when I can go to bed at night, and not wake up to an alarm in the morning...

Happy Birthday to me!

Today is my birthday! Send me some birthday love.
I'm just wondering though, since my current timezone is 16 hours behind the timezone I was born in, I kind of feel like a great part of my birthday happened yesterday...

Greetings from Cali

Yes, I'm still here, and no, I still can't think of much worth writing about.

I'm presently in the great city of Cali, Colombia, and will be until December 22. Ah, the joys of work. I even get to work on my birthday next Wednesday (December 14 for those who can't do the calendar math). Oh what fun that shall be.

Cali is quite nice. Much warmer than Bogota, and it's not 2300 metres above sea level, so the air is easier to breath (and cleaner too).
Colombians really get into their christmas decorations. They take it much more seriously and enthusiastically than Australians do. Kinda nice actually.

Well, back to work (at 7:10 pm.....)
Enjoy.

Time to update this thing

Traditionally, the title of a post should peak your interest and give you some sort of indication as to the theme of the post below it. Well, the best theme I can think of for this post is that it's just a general update, and so my title shall stand as is.
Now there's 15 seconds of your life gone that you're never getting back. Moving on...

I've recently started searching for job options in Melbourne for next year. Given my uncommon surname, it is rather easy for any potential employer to find this blog should they choose to look for a little extra information about me on Google. (I wonder how many employers actually do that...) I shall fear not though, for I am who I am, and have nothing to hide, warped sense of humour and all.

I've also arranged my travel plans for getting back to Australia from Colombia. Although I still have some flexibility in dates and destinations if I want, the picture is currently looking something like this:
Leaving Colombia in mid February, and over the next 2 and a half weeks stopping off for quick visits in Sao Paulo, London, perhaps Belgium or the Netherlands, Madrid, Bangkok and Singapore before touching down in Sydney. I'll be looking to meet up with fellow nomadlifers in each place too, so drop a comment if you're interested.

Colombia has a lot of public holidays. Last weekend was a long weekend. This weekend is a long weekend. I have no idea what they are for, but I'm taking them.

I'm feeling the urge right now to compose and post another problem of the week, but they don't seem to have hit the mark with my audience the way I would like. So instead, I'll offer some friendly advice to go read an Adelaide-composed comic about a slightly disturbed clown, created by some slightly less but still equally troubling disturbed people. Start in the archives.

Well this was unexpected

So here is a photo of a frisbee I saw for sale in one of those shops full of cheap stuff from China that nobody ever really needs (like the Reject Shop in Australia).  Ordinarily, that's no big deal.  Except that this particular frisbee, of which you can buy two for less than US$1.50, has a logo on it that will be familiar to any Australian, and that I saw it at a shop in Bogota, Colombia.  Interesting indeed.

Time for an update

Okay, well since someone has specifically requested an update (you could also just email me and ask for one, you'd probably have more luck), I shall reward my loyal (but limited) fan base and provide that which is requested.

So, some highlights between September 1 and now:

1) At the start of September I missed 2 weeks of work due to a nasty little illness that I picked up in my South American travels. During this time when all I could really do was sit in bed and read, I was finally introduced to the world of the Harry Potter books. I have read the first 3, and shall enjoy reading the rest.
2) My trip to California was wonderful. I just realised that I have not introduced the wonderful Silvia on this blog yet. Well, now I shall. Silvia is my lovely Colombian girlfriend (we've been going out for a good number of months now) and quite simply the greatest girl ever. She joined me on my trip to California where I also caught up with my mother and stepfather, who were holidaying there at the time. To summarise a few learnings from the trip, Disneyland is amazing and has a much more magical atmosphere than Knott's Berry Farm, but the later has some cool rollercoasters. San Francisco is a much better city than Los Angeles. The exercise yard at the former Alcatraz prison is really windy. LAX airport sucks. This poster kicks ass.

3) I am moving house tomorrow, where my new roommate will be much more quiet and cleaner than my current roommates.
4) I've decided to return to Australia in February or March next year, and the current plan is to go to Melbourne and make a life there for a while.
5) I haven't shaved in 4 weeks.
Oh, and for the first time ever in all my travels, my luggage and I finally ended up in different places after I got off a plane. When I returned to Bogota from Los Angeles (via Houston), my luggage decided to stay in Houston for an extra couple of days. In its defence, I was only in Houston for the exact amount of time that it took me to run between two gates in the same airport terminal (about 4 minutes), since my flight into Houston landed just 20 minutes before my flight out of Houston took off. So I didn't get the chance to browse the duty free shops.

So there is an update. Time to get back to work.
Here's a pic of Silvia and I at Disneyland :)

A return to Problems of the Week.

So I’ve been quite quiet on the blogging front recently. But, having recently recovered from one of those pesky travel-related illnesses (which I was vaccinated for back in Australia; it seems the vaccine didn’t work too well) I am now back and saying hello to anyone reading this again.

Last night a neat little mathematics problem entered my head, so I’ve decided to post it up here. But before I get to that, I’ll also include a quick English problem:

Should the title of this post be “Problems of the Weeks”? I mean, one problem of the week is simply the Problem of the Week. If I had many problems, all in the same week, then they would be Problems of the Week. But, as is the case here, where I have multiple problems spread out over multiple weeks, what is the correct grammatical description?

Now that the English-nerds have something to keep them occupied, I’ll move on to the much more entertaining mathematics problem.

Suppose I am collecting basketball cards. There are n cards in the set, and every time I purchase a card I have an equal chance (1 in n) of receiving any particular card. The first time I get a double (ie receive a card that I already have a copy of) is when I receive my 50th card. What is the most likely (integer) value for n?

Stated another way, the problem is this: Positive integers between 1 and n inclusive are uniformly randomly generated with replacement. The first time a number is generated that has already been generated is on the 50th generation. What is the MLE (maximum likelihood estimate) for n?

Good luck! I have no idea what the answer is myself, I haven’t stopped to think about it yet. This weekend I am heading off to Los Angeles for a week’s worth of holidays (woohoo!) so I’ll try to provide an answer by the end of that. Cheers.

A few things that piss me off

So after my regular morning ritual of reading the news and checking some other websites, I have been reminded of a few things that I really don't like much.

1) Americans that spell the country of Colombia as "Columbia".
2) Newspapers that misquote or deliberately misrepresent a politician in order to make a headline sound more sensational.
3) Politicians that are too stupid and disrespectful to have the jobs that they do.
4) Censorship that goes too far.
5) Workplace managers having the authority to monitor staff's emails and internet usage, and to be able to dismiss staff for what they deem as inappropriate, even when no laws have been broken.

And, one additional thing that doesn't piss me off as such, but does get me thinking, is this, and is related to the issue of personal liberty and civic responsibility:

A guy in Western Australia wants a few days to himself, away from the world and his regular life. So he decides to go walking. Having been reported as missing by someone else, the police and State Emergency Services begin a coslty and resource-intensive search for him. A few days later a family friend recognises him in a shopping mall and notifies police, whereby our protagonist is then told there was a huge search for him. He apologises for all the fuss.
There are now some people saying that this guy should pay for the cost of the search if he is able to.

This is what gets me thinking. The guy broke no laws, never asked for the search to happen, and was simply choosing to be master of his own actions. So should he be responsible for the resources used up in the subsequent search?

This reminds me of something I was thinking about last week. In today's explored world, people generally can't choose to be stateless. The vast majority of people are born a citizen of somewhere, and while this does afford you the use of certain government services, it also forces you to meet obligations to that government (taxes, adhering to laws etc) or face consequences of liberty. And the only way to choose to end this is to go become a citizen of another sovereign nation which comes with its own set of rights and responsibilities (and some people don't even get that choice). Nowhere is it possible to officially "drop off the system", sustain yourself on your own bit of land, and give up all responsibilities and adherence to any government (and of course giving up the benefits that come from being a citizen of that government's nation too). All land on earth has a claim already laid to it that is recognised by the international community. Of course, there are some groups of people around the world (various independence movements) that are fighting for this very same self-autonomy and their claim to a bit of land right now, but even then the only way they can get it is by figthing force, which is beyond the means of an individual and may be beyond their morals too.

There are indeed limits to personal liberty.

Ah, my adopted country...

So last week, in what must have been a bit of a slow news week back home in Australia, there was a big outcry by many current and former federal politicians about how the security staff at Australia's Parliament House had been instructed that it was inappropriate to greet visitors with the term "mate". Some of the quotes were quite laughable, with the instruction being described as "un-Australian", a "bloody outrage", and I remember one MP saying she was "highly offended", even though the situation had absolutely nothing to do with her at all.

But this morning I have discovered that what counts for an intriguing story about visitors and staff in Australia's halls of power can not but hold a candle to what occurs amongst visitors and staff in Colombia's same halls.

It seems that cocaine dealers have been able to find a willing market for their product inside the halls of Congress, helped by security being so poor and some politicians so utterly devoid of integrity.

"Biscuit sellers, shoe sellers, astrologers and marijuana and cocaine dealers all enter Congress" according to the Senate Vice-President, whilst also adding that none of the closed circuit security cameras worked, and that around 10,000 people possessed ID badges for the building, and most of the badges were fake.

But my favourite part is this. A fellow senator and also presidential candidate for next year's elections expressed surprise at the allegations, supporting his reaction of astonishment with the following quote:

"Speaking for myself, nobody has offered me any."

Full story here.

Reports of my death have been exaggerated

Problem of the week 5:
Why has it been so long since my previous posting?
Points awarded for creativity, even more awarded for truth.

Welcome back to me

So here I am back home in Bogotá after 23 days away in Cartagena. And it does indeed have the familiarity of home. I was in Cartagena for a combination of work, holidaying, an AIESEC conference, and then 2 more days of holidaying. During the 12 days that made up the holidaying-conference-holidaying stage, I was on the internet only once, for a grand total of 30 minutes. What really surprised me when I got back to Bogotá and back online again was the realisation that I didn't actually miss anything of importance at all. Going two weeks without checking email, reading blogs, randomly browsing, or reading online newspapers is not the disaster that it's made out to be.

In fact it was remarkably pleasant, and the sort of thing that should be done more often. I was in a great place, with great company, having a great time, not following a tight agenda each day, and concerned more or less only with that moment and that place, happy to take bugger all interest in reading about the rest of the world. The largest news story of those 12 days, the bombings in London, I managed to learn about through a cable television news network that was playing in the background during the AIESEC conference. It made me realise that almost every news story really does have a 15 minute lifespan, and it makes me wonder why I read the news online so eagerly each day when I am at the office.

There is something to be said for being selective about the things you choose to care about. I'm going to need to give this more thought (because on the other hand, I like reading and being well-informed, and knowing as much as I can about everything, past and present).

In the meantime, a few photos of my time in Cartagena can be found here. I particulary like the Egyptian themed sand structures that were made on the beach. Not quite the real thing (see contrast below), but very impressive nonetheless. Cheers.

Pyramids in Cairo

Pyramids in Cartagena

A return to Cartagena

Last weekend I came back to the wonderful city of Cartagena, on the north coast of Colombia, for the first time in 3.5 years. My first international AIESEC conference, Americas Expros 2002, was in Cartagena, in the section of the city called Boca Grande, and that's exactly where I have been all week.

Going for a walk on Sunday afternoon brought back good memories. The conference was my favourite AIESEC conference out of all that I've been to. I walked past the hotel where the conference was. There is now a McDonald's in front of the Hotel Costa del Sol that definately was not there the first time I walked past.

I am also staying in the Hilton Hotel this time, which is a step up from last time, but with less cultural charm. And my spanish is much better this time than it was last time too, which is nice.

I am here for work (hence staying at the Hilton) and have been doing 12 hour days each day, so haven't had much of a chance to look around. But work shall be finished by mid next week, and then I am staying in Cartagena until July 12, a combination of relaxing and AIESEC conferencing (the Colombian NATS conference will be in Cartagena in early July).

So all in all, it's good to be back here. What I am wondering is how much Bogotá will feel like "home" when I go back there after 24 days away...

Why men are happier than women

Men Are Just Happier People-- What do you expect from such simple creatures? Your last name stays put. The garage is all yours. Wedding plans take care of themselves. Chocolate is just another snack.

You can be President. You can never be pregnant. You can wear a white T-shirt to a water park. You can wear NO shirt to a water park. Car mechanics tell you the truth.

The world is your urinal. You never have to drive to another gas station restroom because this one is just too icky. You don't have to stop and think of which way to turn a nut on a bolt. Same work, more pay. Wrinkles add character. Wedding dress $5000. Tux rental-$100. People never stare at your chest when you're talking to them.

The occasional well-rendered belch is practically expected. New shoes don't cut, blister, or mangle your feet. One mood all the time. Phone conversations are over in 30 seconds flat. You know stuff about tanks. A five-day vacation requires only one suitcase. You can open all your own jars. You get extra credit for the slightest act of thoughtfulness. If someone forgets to invite you, he or she can still be your friend.

Your underwear is $8.95 for a three-pack. Three pairs of shoes are more than enough. You almost never have strap problems in public. You are unable to see wrinkles in your clothes. Everything on your face stays its original color. The same hairstyle lasts for years, maybe decades. You only have to shave your face and neck.

You can play with toys all your life. Your belly usually hides your big hips. One wallet and one pair of shoes one color for all seasons. You can wear shorts no matter how your legs look. You can "do" your nails with a pocket knife. You have freedom of choice concerning growing a mustache.

You can do Christmas shopping for 25 relatives on December 24 in 25 minutes.

No wonder men are happier!

A weekend of camping

Due to Monday June 6 being a public holiday here in Colombia, and due to my host AIESEC LC having a lot of new members who hadn?t really got to know each other in a social setting yet, the LC decided to go on a camping trip for two days over last Sunday and Monday. So myself, one Brazilian and 18 Colombians embarked for 2 cold, wet, and thoroughly outstanding days at Neusa, around 90 minutes away from Bogot�.

Camping, for anyone who?s been already knows, is much more enjoyable when things aren?t always smooth smiling. If you wanted an easy comfortable weekend you should just stay home. And in that sense, this trip was truly excellent. It began in typical Colombian fashion with us departing in 4 cars from our scheduled meeting point in Bogot� two hours after the scheduled meeting time. One the way we passed this very random theme-park type complex, that has giant replicas of the Taj Mahal and a dozen other oversized buildings, just sitting there in the middle of nowhere and completely devoid of people. The logic of this eluded me at the time, and still does.

Once we were in the park grounds and very almost at our campsite, a tree branch that we ran over decided it wanted some revenge, and slashed one of the rear tyres of the car I was in. After emptying the boot of camping gear and adapting to the commencing rain, we changed this tyre with the spare, only to discover upon letting the jack down that the spare was flat. So someone went off with the spare to find a pump while I sat down on the road with a beer and started playing chess.

What followed was 2 days and one night of cold weather, on and off rain, wet socks, wet shoes, cheap food, 20 people trying to sleep in two tents, many fun and games with cool AIESECers from the LC, the occasional sporting injury from said games, and plenty of beer. Oh, and the entire grass campsite area was a minefield of horse-pats.

And then finally, in the car on our way out of the camp site, another group of people flag us down and us ask to help jumpstart their car, as their battery had died. So we willingly obliged and headed down the muddy access road to get from the main road where we were to the grass area where they were. We got their car started, but then whilst trying to get back up the access road, we got bogged. Or, to be more correct, we got bogged if we tried to go up, but could quite easily just role back down (so we weren?t stuck, just trapped). And so I went about thinking for another solution. We went driving along the grass by the side of the lake to see if there was another access road connected to this bit of grass somewhere. One was found. So far so good. We started to drive up it. Also good. But then, with the main road in site, we discovered this access road was entirely blocked by cut down tree branches (and quite a lot of them). And with this the final teamwork activity of the weekend could begin. A dozen AIESECers and 20 minutes of working in the rain later, plus one more jump start (this time to us), plus helping to push two more cars up this access road, and we were on our way back to Bogot�.

The way camping should be. Like I said, I had an absolute ball :)
I?ll post some pics if I get copies of them from other people.

The actual problem of the week #3

Well of course I wasn't being serious with expecting people to solve one of those millenium problems in the space of one week, so here is my actual problem of the week 3, this time a probability problem (a wonderful mathematical skill that is sadly lacking in most people). Although I'll admit, that in the case of this particular problem, figuring out the solution is mostly a problem in algebra.

The problem goes like this:

You have a bag (which you can't see inside of) that contains r red marbles and b black marbles, identical in every way except for colour (or color to you americans). You reach in, randomly pull out a marble, and then without replacement, reach in again and randomly pull out another marble. If the probability that you pull out two red marbles is exactly 0.5, what are some possible values for r and b? (i.e. the number of red and black marbles originally in the bag)

And yes, for this question both r and b must be positive integers.

There is more than one answer. In fact there are many answers. Full points if you can find a general way (or formula) of expressing all the answers.

And well done to Sherif for solving problem of the week 2.