S. Worthen | Weblog

How can Kiran have died? I was going to go to his talk next week in Toronto. I was looking forward to seeing him again. I moved to London and he was moving to Vancouver, but at least I had a chance to hug him goodbye before he moved cross-country. Having read about his death less than five minutes ago, it hasn't even begun to sink in. He was a fellow PhD student in my department. At least he died doing something he loved, rowing. He was an Olympic-level rower. (How can it be 'was'?)

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The London Transport Oyster card is an RFID-embedded card which can hold weekly and monthly travelcard for the London transit network, and also a limited amount of money for pay-as-you-go. To pay on a trip by trip basis, it's necessary to touch the card in to the system at both the beginning and end of the trip. Since I lived on the Docklands Light Railway, which has no barriers to access, it's entirely too easy to forget to touch in and out every single time. Also, due to lack of barriers, even when I touch my card to the system, it won't know if I'm touching in and out. Which is to say, I managed to find myself touching in rather than out at the end of my travels last night, having missed out one touch somewhere along my five segment travels yesterday. I'll be so glad to be back on a month pass in a few weeks.

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Can I bribe anyone vaguely in or near London to take me to Ikea in three weeks or so, i.e. when I'm back from my forthcoming travels? I can do weekends or weekdays. I'm particularly fond of bribing people with food.