There was quite a bit of socialization with all the people in April, in all the places: Waterloo, Montreal, Peru, Brampton. For instance, I had my grad students (and former students) over for lunch at my place. I had activities with judo referees in Brampton and in Lima. Mixed results on the research front: what I felt was a terribly unfair NSERC Discovery rejection, but also a TOPLAS accept for presentation at PLDI.

Inca terns; Humboldt penguin; seminar location; Circuito Mágico del Agua; chipping sparrow; on the mat at Torii; Montréal alleys.

COVID

Am I going to talk about this forever? I still don’t think it’s actually over, though for practical purposes, I do go to restaurants. Still, I try to avoid overcrowded ones. Apparently unlike everyone in Europe, I still wear masks on planes and public transit. I do think that science really could develop more effective vaccines, and some are still in development, but the recent US regime change is setting things back decades, if not centuries.

Professional

I thought I had a good 2024, most of which showed up on my NSERC Discovery application, but then the single reviewer (?) did not like my proposal or my publication record. My department had also thought I had a good 2024. Go figure. I’m quite unhappy about that.

On the other hand, I’m psyched about the TOPLAS accept (not surprised after the reviews we got from the last round, but grateful) with my Estonian collaborators. While I still have no PLDI papers, this paper was accepted for presentation at PLDI, which is nice. It’s kind of like a PLDI paper, I guess. This was the paper that had gotten rejected from PLDI and OOPSLA last year; I got advice from colleagues, and we reworked the fundamental structure of the paper

Much less work for teaching in April, though certainly not zero. Even not quite zero in May! But now it’s definitely time to get back into research.

Days worked was a more reasonable 22 in April compared to March’s 29. And May should also be good for work/life balance.

Teaching

There was only 1 lecture to deliver in April, but there was a heck of a lot of admin for SE 465. I did mark one ECE 459 subproblem for the final. Even that minimal amount was a lot × 450 exam papers. I also gave an oral exam for ECE 459 and have two others to administer in May. I’m glad that we’re not expected to mark our finals. That would be a lot.

As I write this, I am now finally done with teaching for Winter 2025, though it did extend a bit into May.

Grad students/mentees/collaborators

I was ramping up grad student meetings and made it to 11 this month. Also had 3 Walks as a Service with undergrads.

Collegiality/Service

FAUW governance reform, STAT PhD final exam committee (no technical expertise but asked questions about context), another HKRGC review.

Trips

Two trips: one to Lima, and one multi-stop trip to Brampton, Ottawa, Montreal, Tallinn, and Tartu (in progress).

Lima, April 11 – 18

Full trip report for Lima

It turned out that the two exams I was supposed to give ended up being at the beginning and end of the exam period, so that I could make it to the referee seminar in Lima which was right in the middle of the exam period.

The Air Canada flight options were not especially well timed, but at least I didn’t have to change planes in the US. I flew via Bogota, both times flying through the night. I guess this is like the flight from Auckland to French Polynesia, attempting to maximize aircraft utilization.

I arrived in Lima a couple of days early. Even though there is minimal time difference, flying all night is tiring.

Tropical kingbird; Huaca Huallamarca walls; Amazilia hummingbird; black-crowned night heron; Sally Lightfoot crab; Inca terns; Humboldt penguin; Peruvian pelican; spirited sea lion conversation; oystercatcher at work; sunset over the pier in Paracas; Peruvian things at a Lima market; seminar location; lights at Circuito Mágico del Agua.

Before the seminar

Right off the plane, I walked around Lima the first day and spotted some parrots and other birds, as well as the nearby Huaca Huallamarca; I walked right by the larger Huaca Pucllana but had all my stuff on me and never did get a chance to visit it. The Bosque El Oliver isn’t actually a forest, but it is a park and well-used urban space.

Long-tailed mockingbird; West Peruvian dove; red-masked parakeet; blue-and-white swallow; saffron finch; croaking ground dove; Western honey bee; flying parakeets; Amazilia hummingbird.

The next day I took the bus 3 hours to Paracas, leaving at 5am (needed to take an Uber to and from the bus station). Then I took the boat to Isla Blanca (normally Islas Ballestas but bad weather); both have penguins, pelicans, Inca terns, and boobies. I also went to the Paracas reserve in a bus tour, visiting a bunch of the scenery, and talking to other people on the tour (a mechanical engineer from the Basque; a couple from Norway; and a couple of surgeons including a Peruvian-American, who lived in Lima). Finally, I rented a bicycle and rode around, though there was a lot of wind in my face in the afternoon.

Boarding the Cruz del Sur bus to Paracas; candelabra; me and Playa Roja; barren scenery; another beach; busy Playa La Mina; souvenirs in the reserve; fishing; statue of an engineer; hanging out on the beach in Paracas.

Ruddy turnstone; neotropic cormorant; pelican crowd; pelicans on a slope; snowy egret; turkey vulture; rufous-collared sparrow.

The seminar

Lunchtime for Belcher's gull; Larcomar beach; cat lying down; La Virgen Milagrosa; red-masked parakeet; Inka Plaza; figurines for sale; more Peruvian things.

Not much to say here. Someone who had been to the Istanbul seminar in December as well as this one said that this one was more chill. They used the same videos but had refined some of the answers. There were some practical exercises where we tried to do things that weren’t allowed by the rules, so that we could see what they were like.

After the seminar

Since my flight left at 2am, I had another full day in Lima after the seminar as well as half a night. I thus was able to make it to the Circuito Mágico del Agua, which is in a park and has lots of fountains. After dark, they have a light show set to music. The guy at the gate didn’t like my fancy camera (“no professional photography”) but let me in as long as I didn’t take pictures from it. Of course, they have a lot of rules and don’t necessarily enforce them: there are a lot of signs about not buying food from non-official itinerant vendors and lots of such vendors around.

Bloque; cat at bloque; Shingitai judo club in Lima; Fuente de soda; cherry blossom fest in Lima; domed tower of the Parroquia Santa Teresita del Niño Jesús; red and blue lights; red, blue, green, orange; crossing the streams; mountains, projected; battle; mask; spiral fountain.

I did have to do a bunch of things from real life on this trip: exam marking, OAC Board meeting, travel planning for the summer trip to Europe…

Brampton, Ottawa, Montreal, and Tallinn, April 26 – May 12

Bob Hunter Memorial Park at Rouge; class 1 track; tree swallow; well.

I’d be in Waterloo for a week before I had more travels coming up. For the purpose of this report, I was in Brampton for the Tora Annual Shiai for a weekend, driving back to Waterloo on the Saturday night and packing and then back to Brampton on Sunday; sent my suit back to Waterloo on Sunday while continuing onwards to Ottawa (with a stop at the Rouge National Urban Park, super accessible from Toronto and hence busy); dropped in on the International Conference on Software Engineering in Ottawa for a day (lots of Canadians); then was in Montreal for three days and met up with a bunch of people. Thanks to Michael for letting me use his apartment on the Plateau while he was off at a conference. It really is located in a vibrant part of Montreal.

Canada Revenue Agency; the late Baie d'Hudson; not-purple cross on Mount Royal; Rose Bloc; waiting for the REM; into the métro; McGill College through circle.

Travel Planning

This April, I planned parts of the Peru trip (two weeks ahead of the trip), figured out how I’d actually get to NZ in May, and booked accommodation in Tallinn.

Movement statistics

Not much walking. Bunch of biking. Couple of driving trips.

Movement statistics:

🚶 Walking: 74km on 15 days
🚲 Biking: 217km on 17 days
🚗 Driving: 1119km on 6 days (mostly Brampton and Montreal-via-Ottawa)
🚗 Taxi: 36km (Lima)
🚆 Train: 62km on 3 days (UP Express, Montreal including commuter rail, REM)
🚌 Bus: 758km on 7 days (535km from Lima to Paracas roundtrip, plus other Lima)
🚆 Metro: 28km
✈ Plane: 12542km (YYZ-BOG-LIM roundtrip)
⛴ Boat: 29km (Paracas to Isla Blanca)

Transit was 847km.

Walks

There was a bunch of walking in Lima, but no official hikes.

Reesor Way/Tanglewood Trail at Rouge National Urban Park, quite accessible and not hardcore at all.

Pictures

I had zero time in March and processed just 151 photos in 2 sets (from Japan). April was more normal. But I also added a lot of sets of photos to process: 7 in March and 12 in April, with the April sets being substantial. More digging of myself into a hole, I guess.

Picture logs still available. As always, pictures are clickable to go to the full gallery.

Sets of pictures posted: April=9, March=2, February=9
Total pictures posted: April=352, March=54, February=244
Total pictures in selection pool: 1664 (February 700)
Accept rate: 24% (min 11%, max 50%) (35%)
Pictures posted on this page: 64

Manastirea Sinaia; greenish looking South from Wellington; green-grey fruit dove; tropical island view; daurian redstart; Osaka Castle; owner of Stock Outdoor in Tanabe; red-tailed hawk; black vulture; stairs at Huaca Hallamarca; flying parakeets.

Miscellaneous

Without the Lima trip, it would have been a pretty “normal” month. Also, the Tallinn trip had a lot of sidetrips. But I was in Waterloo for 18 days of the month.

I voted super early, by special ballot, on April 6; I knew I would be in Ottawa on election day on April 27, and wasn’t sure about the normal early voting days. At ICSE, me and someone else did give a third person from BC a hard time about not voting; the third person was in Elizabeth May’s riding, too, so by no means a foregone conclusion. I left my taxes until pretty late (though still before the deadline).

Acquisitions

used Framework laptop from Jon, just before leaving for Brampton
various plane tickets
another glasses case
2 NA to Euro plug adapters
icewine as gift for Estonian collaborators
birthday plant for mother-in-law

De-acquisitions

donated a few things to the thrift shop
looks like my X1 Carbon is defunct: USB-C port failure even after repair

Sports

The quantity of judo was good, managed to get to practice 7×, including once in Lima and twice at my old club in Anjou. Climbing (bouldering) also good, with 5× at Grand River Rocks, once at Rose Bloc (Brossard), and once at Bloque (Lima).

There was also physio for some weird muscle issue.

Food

Some trips and hence some restaurants.

Peru

La Terraza Del Pardo, Lima: eggs Benedict on brioche??
Primos Chicken Bar, Lima: BBQ chicken, maybe better than St Hubert?
Sol de Oro, Paracas, with anti-tout from competitor: good ceviche and daily menu of arroz
Mangos, Larcomar, Lima: Peruvian food suitable for gringos
La Cristina, Lima: OK vegetable quichey thing
La Baguette, Lima: chicken salad croissant was good light dinner

Ontario

Ikkousha Ramen Chicken, Toronto: right next door to the normal Ikkousha ramen. Quite enjoyable, even if I didn’t actually have ramen.
Aulde Dubliner, Ottawa: standard pub food
made pho at my place twice, and hosted my grad students for lunch (also chicken for lunch, in instant pot)

Quebec

Royal Sushi-Poke, Montreal: also had banh mi on the menu, though the staff on duty on Monday night didn’t seem Vietnamese
Lulu, Boucherville: good bistro on the south shore
Au Kouing Ammann, Montreal: failed to order a non-huge kouign amann, got a croissant instead
Trip de Bouffe, Montreal: zataar is underrated as breakfast in the West