Strangely Consistent

Theory, practice, and languages, braided together

November 19 2009 — a feeling of power, a feeling of release

24 years ago yesterday, the leaders of the US and of Soviet Russia met for the first time to discuss the cold war.

On November 19, 1985, U.S. president Ronald Reagan and Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev met for the first time, in Geneva, to hold talks on international diplomatic relations and the arms race. Gorbachev later said, regarding the summit, “We viewed the Geneva meeting realistically, without grand expectations, yet we hoped to lay the foundations for a serious dialogue in the future.” Similar to former president Eisenhower in 1955, Reagan believed that a personal relationship among leaders was the necessary first step to breaking down the barriers of tension that existed between the two countries. Reagan’s goal was to convince Gorbachev that America desired peace above all else.

The section in Wikipedia has a famous picture, in which the leaders, though their smiles look a little forced, perhaps, at least appear to be optimizing for fun.

Sitting in the lobby of Hotel Koventa in Rīga, about to release Rakudo #23 "Lisbon", I suddenly realized that I had left home without a battery charger.

On the remaining battery life, I did the necessary steps of the release guide. It speaks to the release guide's advantage that you can actually follow it in a light state of panic, and get a good release out. Then my battery was extinguished, and I, having slept only about 90 minutes that night, was pretty much extinguished too. That's why there wasn't any November blog post yesterday. Sorry! ☹

First thing today, jnthn and I went to the only Apple retailer in Rīga, and I bought me a new charger. I can haz power. The rest of the day I'll be spending finishing my slides for tomorrow. Not sure I'll get much November- or Perl 6-related work done, but I'm pretty sure I'll manage to get a post out.