Racism: Canada and New Zealand
20 Aug 2020
A few months ago, I found out that a former Ontario-based climbing partner was now in Auckland, just 600km to the north of where we’re staying in Wellington. One of the things that came up in our emails was his horror at casual racism among New Zealanders that he interacted with. This prompted me to think about my experiences in Quebec, Ontario, and Wellington. Of course, these are anecdotes and not data. I could speculate on broader politics but I won’t.
July, including a vacation
31 Jul 2020
I’m between trips as I write this. Tomorrow morning we are flying to Invercargill at the end of the South Island and, if weather permits, continuing to Stewart Island/Rakiura. (I’ve learned, however, that we often need to be flexible with these plans, as weather can be from slightly to extremely unfavourable.) Two and a half weeks ago we came back from Christchurch and the West Coast.
I noticed that I promised a writeup for Charleston last month. It’s still to come. The backlog continues to increase.
Pohatu Penguins at Akaroa, Mount Sunday, and Christchurch
24 Jul 2020
Our South Island trip had three distinct components, so it makes sense to post about them separately. This is part 2. Part 1: Heaphy Track. Part 3: Arthur’s Pass and the TranzAlpine. Part 3b: BreakFree on Cashel.
Full galleries at https://gallery.patricklam.ca/index.php?/category/1227.
July 10: French-themed day in Canterbury
After a big day on July 9th, finishing the Heaphy Track and getting to the suburbs of Christchurch, we were scheduled to go see penguins in Akaroa with Pohatu Penguins. MP signed us up for their maximal experience, including getting driven up to the crater rim and enjoying the scenery of Akaroa Harbour, followed by walking down the last bit of the first day of the Banks Track, an evening penguin tour, and sea kayaking the next morning. Well, the maximal experience didn’t include food, but that was good for us. It’s nice to self-cater on trips.
BreakFree on Cashel (Christchurch): A Review
15 Jul 2020
tl;dr
Exceeded expectations. Great value-for-money.
Related Work
See also Yotel: A Review, a stay in AMS Schiphol Yotel back in 2016 after a conference.
Staying near the bus stop
For our night between getting off the TranzAlpine round trip and taking the 7am-bus-then-ferry back to Wellington, we wanted a place close to the bus stop. The BreakFree was as close as you could get (3 minute walk), and also cheap, at C$63 (NZ$70) for an “Inner Urban Double”. More expensive than the Mount Somers Holiday Park at NZ$55, but way more posh, in a more central location, and in particular, with better mattresses. (A review on the Internet also mentioned the mattresses). Apparently cheaper than Yotelair Schiphol, but who can compare prices in these pandemic times anyway.
Level 1 June
4 Jul 2020
This month started in Charleston where I went climbing with Elliott. As I write this I’m going to the Heaphy Track tomorrow morning. We chose to delay for a day due to weather.
The number of active cases in NZ is now 21 but that is a misleading number; all of these cases are in quarantine “at the border”, i.e. found in returning New Zealanders in managed self-isolation. The number of known active cases in the community is 0 which has been a stable number for a while. As Victoria state in Australia shows, though, cases do seem to be capable of escaping at the border, perhaps through a cigarette lighter. But things are good here for now.
About sabbaticals
15 Jun 2020
tl;dr: Sabbaticals are not an unpaid vacation but rather a chance to focus on longer-term scholarly projects.
Sabbaticals are an awesome feature of the academic job. I feel like they are often misunderstood by the world in general. This description is specifically about how sabbaticals work at the University of Waterloo; many North American universities are similar but not identical.
The normal distribution of work for tenure-track and tenured faculty members at the University of Waterloo is 40% teaching, 40% research, and 20% service. In my department, Electrical and Computer Engineering, 40% teaching means 3 one-semester courses per year: typically one term with 2 courses, one with 1 course, and one with no courses. For regular faculty members, service involves sitting on and chairing university committees (internal service), as well as participating in a research community by reviewing papers and being on committees (external service).
May, moving down the levels
3 Jun 2020
It’s astonishing how quickly things have returned to almost-normal in this country. Since May 14 (3 weeks ago already!), we’ve been in Alert Level 2, where most things are open. Physical distancing, capacity controls and mandatory contact tracing remain for now, although there will be another decision next Monday, June 8. The number of known active cases is 1 and the last positive reported case was on May 22.
Haircuts
I had been planning to wait a few more days, but I was walking down the street and noticed a barber open with no line, so I’ve had reasonable hair since May 17. The Onward deadline was with too much hair, but the OOPSLA deadline had the right amount of hair. Very important when spending hours at the computer. Looking through the records, it looks like I feel like I need a haircut after 6 weeks and then wait another 2 weeks to actually get one: Sept 5, Nov 5, Jan 7, Mar 3, May 17. The 10-week interval was excessive.
A Locked-down April
1 May 2020
I’m writing this on April 30, a day after we were originally scheduled to leave Wellington. But that was no surprise to month-ago me.
Most of April has been under NZ Alert Level 4, although we’ve been in Alert Level 3 for a couple of days now. We’ve been in Wellington since March 20 and not in a car between March 25 and April 29, which is some sort of record for me. Usually I can go a week without a car ride, but 4.5 weeks is something. Also my last haircut was March 3, which is also a record. It looks like The Warehouse has a 2 week shipping time for clippers, so I’ll be going a bit longer still.
Leverage deadlines for action
28 Apr 2020
This week’s tip is kind of a meta-tip. When you want someone (possibly yourself) to do something, set a deadline for it. Marketing experts know this. This is why there are “limited time offers”. People have intentions of doing something. But if they can do it anytime, sometimes they never do the thing.
The deadline for the survey is Wednesday, though I guess I could have been more explicit about that.
Moderate multi-pitch in New Zealand, March 11, 2020
21 Apr 2020
On our previous trip to the South Island we stayed around Wanaka cragging and hiking. Although the Darrens were still washed out during our visit, The Remarkables feature some multipitch climbing. In particular, our borrowed Queenstown guidebook listed a dozen climbs above Lake Alta (aka Dimrill Dale). We’d go to Lake Alta and then up to Double Cone and find a moderate climb. To Lake Alta Alpine starts are well advised but difficult, especially after riverboarding the previous day, having dinner in Queenstown with Waterloo students on exchange, and getting back to our Frankton airbnb at 9pm.
