The Oxford Byzantine#

Wed, 28 Nov 2001 02:41:48 +0000

The Oxford Byzantine Society were showing slides of their visit to Constantinople this September; trotted along on the promise of wine and mince pies. Given that this is an English November, it may be excusable that the impression I took away was mostly of sunlight and blue skies.

We (not the society; a bunch of friends) went to Istanbul back in April, so I recognized some of the pictures. It would be nice to be outdoors again. At a cafe, with a coffee, by the Hippodrome, listening to the muezzins call the faithful to prayer.

After slides and a post-slides beer, it was time to stick pizza in the oven and "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" in the VCR. Awesome. I wish I could fly like that. </orville>

Also today, read Paul Graham's proposal for Arc, a new Lisp. Has some interesting ideas, but I can't help wondering if a new language designed to run server-side applications is not, like, several years too late to get really enthusiastic about. More on this later when I've thought about it.

Day 3 with emacs 21. Still haven't tried to start ILISP, though.