Memoirs of a CPUNERD

So… I’m never taking a red eye flight again if I can manage it. After sleeping a broken two hours on a five hour flight, we landed in the International Airport at Dulles (IAD) at 0600 Eastern Time. Bleary eyed as hell, but with a decent drive and a long day ahead of us. Forture favored us, as when we got to the Iranian desk at the Pakistani Embassy, there was only one person in line, so we were able to drop the stuff off and then galavant about for a bit.

Oh, before I forget, pictures of the DC trip are up on Facebook and http://jeff.bleugris.com/photos. To kill time, we checked out Arlington National Cemetary, finding the place and parking was a bit rough, but we managed. Don’t ask me how, but the sleep was staying away, probably because we were up walking around and not sitting down in a comfortable chair somewhere. As for the cemetary, if you haven’t been, it’s truly an experience. Tourist maps are provided, and there’s at least twenty different significant sites to see. My favorite was probably the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, though not the changing of the guard (it just didn’t touch me like everyone said it would…). The entire cemetary was amazing to view, and it really took one’s breath away (not in a good way necessarily) to see countless thousands of graves.

After the cemetary, that’s when things got interesting. We went back to the Iranian desk, and I waited in the car. Apparently Shakeh got the break of her life. She went in there, and there were at least one-hundred people ahead of her. She went up to take a number. There was an old woman in front of her, complaining to the man that the line was too long and she was in a hurry. He apparently told her in a gruff manner that there was nothing he could and she needed to wait. Shakeh’s heart sank at this. She went to ask for a number, and the guy told her with a smile “Just so I don’t have to pronounce your name again, (her name is Armenian) give me your stuff and you can go.” That made us both feel better.

While she was in the Embassy, I was looking up restaurants, and I found a Lebanese place. The food was great, but right after I finished (I finished before Shakeh), I apparently fell asleep sitting up in my chair. Shakeh had to wake me up several times, and so finally we paid the bill and went back to the hotel to recover. What was supposed to be a half hour nap at the hotel turned into three hours.

We had dinner near Dupont Circle, apparently the local gay area. The place felt quite safe, especially for a big city in the US. We went to a place called James Hoban’s and had some Shepherd’s Pie and Lamb Stew. We then split a rhubarb crumble and bread pudding, and Shakeh had an Irish Coffee while I had a Guinness. After that, we took the stroll back to the hotel, it was a bit more creepy at night. But nothing happened obviously.

And apparently jet lag doesn’t work quite the way I wanted it to. We woke up way late, and thus got a late start to the day. Luckly we brought umbrellas, because shortly after we got off the subway at the National Mall, it started pouring rain. We walked through a few of the Smithsonian buildings, then headed over to the Capital Building. We would’ve had to wait in line for two hours in the rain, so we decided to skip that and instead head to get a quick bite for lunch.

After lunch, we went to the Library of Congress (more art there than some art museums!). It was especially beautiful, and I’m sure it cost a ton of money. The complexity of the art was great. There were, in some cases, works composed of up to nine separate pieces. If you’ve never been to the library, I suggest you go. To get in, you have to have a purpose. Once you show that, you get a desk for a basically infinite amount of time, unless someone with more priority needs it. You then get full access to the library, though you can’t take anything home. Supposedly one of the largest collections in the world sits right there.

Once we were done at the library, we walked to the Supreme Court and took a self-guided tour. I was again astounded at the architecture. By the time we got out, the rain had subsided and we made our way to the East Wing National Gallery. Most of it was modern art, so it wasn’t too exciting for us. We visited the West Wing next, and met up with Shane and his friend there. The West Wing was awesome, there was so much renaissance and gothic art, it was just amazing.

Two or three hours later, we headed to the WWII, Lincoln, Vietnam, and Women’s memorials. The WWII memorial was arranged somewhat randomly, though it was of course marvelous to behold. The Reflecting Pool was really nice as well, since it was finally clear and not windy, you could see the Washington Monument reflected perfectly. The Lincoln Memorial was the last we saw for the day, and it was as big as I had come to assume. The number of people taking pictures there was a bit frustrating, but I got over it (Seriously, do you need a picture of every letter written on the memorial? Can’t you just look that up online).

After freshening up from the rain, Shane and his girlfriend met us downstairs at our hotel and we went to a “Southern” place for dinner. I use quotes because we were expecting Soul Food, and we got gourmet southern food, which happened to cost about $50/person. It was good, don’t get me wrong, but not what we were expecting.

Saturday morning, we got up and set out on our plan to spite Sean. We drove an hour to go to the Waffle House in Richmond. After sending Sean several MMSes, we finished our greasy food and drove back to the Capital. We visited the Jefferson and FDR memorial, then the Anderson House (oldest house in DC),  and then finished with a trip to the National Cathedral. We were trying to go to the Spy Museum, but we couldn’t find parking for at least ten blocks. Luckily we decided not to go, because we got to the airport basically just in time to catch a bite to eat and fly home.

This week brought me to my first academic and commercial conference, Supercomputing 2007. I must say that I was pleased with the experience. I attended workshops the first two days, both of which were informative. The next three days, I wandered around the exhibit hall, talking with vendors, universities, national labs, and getting a bunch of free stuff. I planned to attend two more paper presentations, but when I went to see them at their scheduled day and time, neither was there. I think that there were room and schedule changes that were not propagated. The conference ended with a performance by the Blue Man Group at the Grand Sierra Resort. I think I would’ve enjoyed the entire conference much more if I wasn’t sick, but it was still very worthwhile.

On Monday morning, I went to the first half of the Ultrascale Visualization workshop. Kwan-Liu hosted it, in conjunction with Chris Johnson of Utah University. Chad presented some work as well. After the first half, Chad, Hongfeng, and I went out to lunch at the Claim Jumper. Another SciDAC student from Virginia named Blake joined us. I skipped the second half of the workshop and went to Sinead’s birthday party for a few hours. The highlight was probably the numerous games of twister. After the party, I went back home, got changed, and then went to Silver Peak with Chad, John, Sebastian, and Jesse. After dinner, Chad and I went to the gala. We walked around, grabbed some free stuff, and talked with some new people. After the gala, Chad and I went to the Little Wal. I went to the men’s room to call Shakeh, and while in there, some girl walked in. The conversation went thusly:

Me: “Yes, you have the wrong room.”

Her: “…”

Me: “…”

Her: “… Do you have a cigarette?”

Me: “No”

At this point she looks at me from head to toe back to head. I feel it is also prudent at this point to mention that I was wearing a blue glowstick necklace from Intel.

Me: “I’m sorry. I don’t smoke.”

Her: “Do you have any ecstacy?”

Now I’m looking at her with the most serious face I can muster.

Me: “No”

Her: “Then why are you wearing that necklace?”

Me: “Oh. I got this from a conference. Bye.”

She leaves now. I finish my conversation with Shakeh, then go back out to the table. I look in horror as I sit down and notice that this girl has joined our table and is trying to talk to Chad. Chad also recognizes the face I made and just laughs. As time progresses, this girl talks in such ways as to make it completely obvious that she is on something, and not just alcohol. She goes to buy a pitcher of beer so that she can stay at our table. I am not pleased, but Chad could deal with the free beer so I don’t completely mind. She wanders off a little later, and Chad interjects that he thinks he can get a picture of her breasts if he tried. I told him that he could (she mentioned that she “liked” him when Chad was not at the table), and that he should try. He said that he couldn’t do something like that. When she came back to the table, I asked if we could get a picture of her. She didn’t seem too thrilled, but then Chad said “Yeah, let us get a picture of you” and she was immediately up for it. She stood behind me, Chad aimed the camera, and right before it went click, she decides to flash the camera! Yes, Chad got the picture. No, you can’t see it. Anyways, more crazy conversation happens, she tells Chad she wants to marry him, we get tired of her, and then we leave. Now Chad has a “I met a crazy girl in Reno” story.

I slept in on Tuesday, getting up at 0745. I worked out for an hour and a half, then went to Jamba Juice on the way to the convention center. I spent pretty much all day trying to get entries for free iPods and 360s. For lunch, Adrienne, John, Chad, Eric, and I wen to P. F. Chang’s. Chad and I went back to the conference for the afternoon, then up to Bully’s Galena for pizza with Bei. After about three hours, we left and went home. Chad and I went to Brew Brothers with Randy for a few hours.

Wednesday morning I went to Jamba Juice for breakfast (again, this is a recurring theme). This time, instead of gathering free stuff, I spent most of the day talking to national labs instead of trying to get free stuff. Chad left with Kwan-Liu at lunch time, so Dan Coming and I went to lunch. We went to Red Robin, and I was actually quite impressed with their chicken burgers. In the afternoon, I went to a Mellanox presentation, and at the end of the day, I won a nano video! w00t! For dinner, I went to Silver Peak on Wonder street with Sebastian, Jesse, Lance, and Dan.

Thursday brought another day and another round of Jamba Juice for breakfast. The cold that I thought I was over came back with a vengeance. I met up with Dan in the Atlantis parking lot, then wandered around the exhibit floor again. I looked at a lot of the sci vis booths, went to another Mellanox presentation, and won$50 to iTunes. Dan and I went to Chevy’s for lunch. In the afternoon, Lance and I got tickets to see the Blue Man Group at the GSR. Before the show, I went to grab a quick bite at Jimmy John’s with my Mike. I didn’t stay long though. Due to some misleading information, I got to the GSR almost two hours early. Argh! After the show, went upstairs to get some free food, then went hom because I was feeling like absolute crap.

On Friday, I woke up, took a survey of swag (it is swag, not schwag! you can only say schwag if you’re german. schwag is bad weed, swag is free stuff. Don’t believe me? Go look it up). I got back into Davis around 1300, then headed into the lab to fill out my reimbursement forms. After that, I went home and rested, then headed to Woodland to pick up Shakeh and Ita. Shakeh and I went to Fuzio for dinner around 2000, then stopped by Safeway for some cold medicine. After that, we went home, and I just went to sleep.

We had Noah’s for “brunch” at 1100. We went back home and worked through the afternoon. For dinner, Shakeh and I tried to La Esperanza. We then headed to the movie theatre on G street to see Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium. After the movie, we went to Matthias’ place for Family Guy and to watch people play beer pong.

Sunday was an incredibly uneventful day. We went to Posh Bagel for breakfast, and then just worked most of the afternoon. I joined the guys for football practice, but I wasn’t feeling well so I just watched.

In case you were wondering, following is a final list of all the crap I got from SC07. Some pictures can be found here.

one 8GB iPod nano video.

$50 to iTunes.

three backpacks. one pleather from SC, one single-shoulder bag from intel. one really nice high sierra bag from MS.

one laser pointer, one torch (flashlight).

at least thirty pens.

three necklace lanyards

four pint glasses (a la intel) and one martini glass. ZERO shot glasses (wtf?!)

6 containers of mints, one bag of nvidia m&ms.

one fake seashell necklace.

three coffee mugs.

one water bottle.

one set of juggling balls.

one black top hat (MS branded)

10GB of thumb drives. three verari 1GB, two intel 1GB, one MS 1GB, one MS 4GB (i dont think this was supposed to be given away).

four bundles of blue glow sticks.

four sets of ipod speakers.

1 rubik’s cube.

three sets of playing cards (one round set).

four shirts. none of which i intend to wear.

one TSA approved luggage lock.

three luggage tags.

one usb powered (ie meant for laptops) light.

one 9cm flimsy frisbee.

nine tote bags (finally, no more plastic bags at the grocery store!).

My guess is that most of my friends who read this are somewhat democratic/liberal in their thoughts. Obviously there are some exceptions, but this piece of prose is directed at those who will be voting in the democratic primary. I was talking with my brother the other day, and he related a very interesting predicament. As anyone who isn’t living under a rock knows, the two democratic front-runners are Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. As far as republican front-runners go… I have no idea. My brother pointed me towards an interesting survey. Many republicans surveyed said that they are so disheartened by their party’s recent performance that they were even considering voting for a democrat. However, this came with a stipulation. Virtually every one polled also said that they are tired of government dynasties, the Bush family is an example. What they don’t want is another Clinton in the White House. What does this mean to you? Well, if you believe the poll, this means that many republicans might vote fordemocrat, unless Hillary is the democratic nominee. Now, I haven’t decided my vote for the democratic nominee, but should I take this poll seriously? Should I be bullied into blindly voting for the next best thing besides Hillary (assuming I wanted to vote for her, which right now I don’t)? Personally, I think that most polls like these are utter crap and will just vote for the candidate that I feel will do the best job. But that’s me. What about you? Would results like these sway your vote? What would the numbers have to be to sway you from voting for your favorite candidate in fears that republicans would pull another 2000 or 2004?

On Monday, I forgot my headphones. Argh! To make matters worse, I had to ride a recumbent bike since all the regular bikes were in use. I’ve now come to realize that the muscles used while riding a recumbent bike are indeed different than when riding an upright bike. After the bike, I went to tennis and continued working on my serve. It’s coming along, though I still need a lot of practice and repetition. Volleyball was also good, in that my arm wasn’t giving my any crap. I went to the MU for lunch and was joined by a few extras including Justin, Vanessa, and Miles’ girlfriend Jen. I headed to my research meeting and then to the lab to get a memtest going. While the test was running, I met with Bill for some bowling and billiards. I’m pleased to say I didn’t lose at everything = \ I headed back for our MGI meeting and found that my machine did indeed have memory problems, hurray… After the meeting, I went home and worked while watching MNF.

I tumbled again on Tuesday, and I didn’t have any problems. I played John in racquetball after I finished a squash match against Coach Clink. We had an extended football practice, even going so far as to venture to the fields at Hutchison. After practice, I went to Applebee’s with the guys. Shakeh called near the end, and I was treated to my first “bloke in a pub” treatment. I took off from the restaurant, picked her up, took her to Fuji’s, then went to B&R for some wonderful dessert.

I went to Pluto’s for lunch with Shakeh on Wednesday. I ventured to the lab afterwards to run another memtest, then went to an in-person interview with Apple. The interview went fine, and I was told I would get at least a phone interview later on. Later that night, I met up with Javi, Daniel, Justin, and Pieter for dinner. We went to Thai Recipes. The food was actually really good there, and it was hot enough for Justin (he was actually sweating). There were two girls sitting near us at another table who were both very entertaining and incredibly annoying. The sentence “like totally actually for sure” serves to sum it up quite nicely. After dinner, I quickly ran to Sophia’s to say happy birthday to Paloma, then we all went to get some yogurt at the Yogurt Shack. Paul met up with us there as daniel was leaving. After yogurt, we went back to my place and watched Snatch. I forgot how much I liked that movie. Though… will someone please explain to me why Brad Pitt was one of the four guys involved in the diamond robbery?

Holy crap! My bike’s derailer literally exploded Thursday on my way to the gym. I was riding, and my chain came off. When that happens, I usually can just keep pedaling and the chain will catch again and re-engage. However, this time, the chain got pulled very tight, then snapped loose, wrapped around itself, and formed a kink. Before I could stop, that kink went into the derailer and BAM!!! I stopped, turned around, and walked my bike back on foot. Luckily, I had my other bike. Unluckily, I practically have an ulcer whenever that bike is not parked safely indoors. Anyways, I’m looking forward to going to Reno, and not just for the conference. Working out in the morning is just killing me. I think it’s all the extra sports that I’m playing, because when I do my cardio ride in the morning, I can’t keep my heart rate up because it’s so hard on my leg muscles. In racquetball, I played four matches with John, winning one and losing three. I take consolation in the fact that two out of the three that I lost, I lost 14-15. In frisbee, we played a full game instead of two small games. When I got home, I got a call from Shakeh. She was really rushed and freaking out about her lab report, so I helped her format it. After I got back home, I showered, then took my bike to the bike shop. I got into the MU at 1345. I ate lunch and chatted with some friends, then headed with Ita and Pphelie to meet Shakeh at the Commons. We got Jamba Juice while Shakeh got Habit Burger. After that, I went back to the bike shop to sign off on my bike. Two-hundred and thirty dollars! Jesus… When I got home, I headed to pick up Ken, then we headed back to my place and watched some Family Guy. After that was over, we headed to the match. Unfortunately we were handed our first loss of the season, 2-3. It wasn’t that bad of a loss, except the guys we played against were a bunch of floppers. I’m not just saying that, and I’m not sour grapes. Several times, when one of our guys had an advantage on a ball, their guy would create contact and fall down in an attempt to draw a whistle. It was really pathetic. I really, Really, REALLY, wanted to level one or two of them, because all they would do is bitch and moan instead of actually playing. The worst part you ask? One of them spiked Bill hard, and instead of stopping play, they continued playing. I had to literally scream at them and run up and almost crash into their ball handler to get them to stop. Luckily, they had some guys who were genuinely good. They were very fast, and technically sound. Those guys I had no problem with. Afterwards, shakeh and I got ready and went to our salsa lessons. We learned the hook turn, and we were also shown two cross-body turns. We finished with that, then went to Kathmandu Kitchen to say hello to Giovanni and his group, and we also caught Anuja and Bbhi’s group. After saying hello and goodbye, we went to Woodstock’s for dinner, then to Ita’s for an after-match night cap. I was getting really tired though, so we only stayed for an hour and a half (though she was kicking everyone out at 0030 anyways).

On Friday, I went out to lunch with Shakeh at Raja’s. I dont know why I’ve been avoiding the place! It was very decent Indian food, and they have a lunch buffet! I drove from there straight to Reno. I made it over the hill and home just in time for my phone interview with Apple. For dinner, I met up with Jesse, Dye, Kenyon, and Randy at the Bully’s at the mall. We had some good old-fashioned nerd conversation for three hours, then I went home after that and hung out with the parents for an hour before going to sleep.

With Saturday came the realization that the conference was holding only something for the education program (so I came down a day early pretty much). I decided to work out early in the morning so I wouldn’t have to do that during the week. I watched College Game Day and finished my workout. The parents and I went to see Fred Claus around noon. The movie was good, though a bit too childish for my taste. I still enjoyed it though. After the movie, I went home and worked on some seismology stuff, then had dinner with the parents and Vicky. Frank cooked steaks. Holy crap! It has been so long since I’ve had a real steak, it tasted so good. For dessert, I bought some Coldstone for the first time in several months. Tasty indeed.

Sunday was the first real day of the conference. I went to the first half of the petascale storage workshop. I had to bail early so I could go to the mall and get a present for Sinead. I also took the opportunity to look for pants, but didn’t have much luck. I headed home home and worked for a while longer, before going to Lisa’s for dinner. I got to meet Adrienne’s boyfriend Eric. He seemed like a very nerdy person, so we got along great. I also got to see Michelle and Michael for the first time in several months.

Yes yes, I’m officially on the wrong side of my twenties. Luckily, my friends were more than willing to console me. Do you ever wonder why people get so worked up over arbitrary birthdays? There are some momentous birthdays, like sixteen (get your driver’s license), eighteen (go out and vote you damn punk!), twenty (no longer a crappy teenager!), and twenty-one (enjoy alcohol legally within the U.S.). But after that, everyone gets all worked up over their twenty-fifth birthday, their thirtieth, fourtieth, and so on. it’s obvious to everyone that you didn’t suddenly age an entire when you transitioned from twenty-four and three-hundred and sixty-four days to twenty-five. No, you simply aged a day, yet the mark that you have been alive for a quarter century is just depressing for some (me quasi-included).

After my PE classes on Monday, I scrambled to get to the MU for lunch, then I went to my group meeting. I spent the vast majority of my day responding to the massive amount of “Happy Birthday” wishes I got (thanks again everyone!). Shakeh came over to my place for dinner. We ended up watching the first episode of the new season, and then most of Team America before going to sleep.

Tuesday marked my first real day of sports classes for the quarter. I went to lunch at the MU (this will be a recurring theme, be warned), then went home and worked. I went to Wal-Mart with Charlotte to return Paulo (he decided to give out on her and blow a gasket). We headed back to Davis to pick up Miles and Sebastian and drop Charlotte off, then the three guys headed to REI. We shopped around for an hour or so, but it wasn’t enough time to make the commitment involved in buying several hundred dollars worth of outdoor clothes. After that, we went back to Davis and grabbed dinner at Bistro 33 from 2130-2230. After dinner, I went to Shakeh’s for a few minutes before I ended my night.

I think the Experimental College needs an online registration system. After lunch at the MU, Shakeh and I went to the Experimental College to register for Salsa, but it was all sold out. And why didn’t I register earlier you ask? Because there wasn’t any online registration and I couldn’t make it to the office on the previous days.

Thursday was a blast. More than twenty of us went to dinner at Crepeville for my birthday. The crowd was almost entirely internationals, but there were a few CS people (Justin included) who showed, as well as some non-exchange internationals. Cider-man and Chief Justice even made it down. Verena and Shakeh brought party favors (e.g. hats, and the cakes). After Crepeville, most everyone went to Delta of Venus. Shakeh and I stayed for an hour and a half, then went home.

Friday afternoon, Shakeh and I went to go see Across the Universe. It was actually a very good movie. I don’t really like The Beatles that much, but the music selection was good. I also really liked how the music was performed by the actors, or should I say the acting was performed by the musicians. It was all very well done, and the story lent itself well to expression through song. After the movie, we hung out at Shakeh’s for an hour or so, then went to Thai Nakorn for dinner. It was pretty darn good. I hadn’t eaten there in almost a year. After dinner, we went to Ciocolat for dessert. I think it was a bad idea, since I was already full from dinner… Oh well.

I took Shakeh to Konditorei for breakfast on Saturday. Afterwards, I went back home and spent three hours rearranging my closet and messing around with youtube playlists. We decided to go to Arden for the afternoon, so we stopped over at California Pizza Kitchen for a late lunch (’round 1400). We shopped around Arden for a few hours, then on the way back, got stuck in traffic for an hour. We didn’t make it back to my place until 2000. I dropped Shakeh off at her place, and we both got ready for the Club-I Dance. I blame the relative failure (sorry Ish, I know you tried = ( …. ) on the fact that the dance couldn’t go past 2300, and Club-I was not allowed to sell alcohol. The dance was still entertaining though. During the middle, Shakeh and I drove Ish and her best-friend Calli back to Ish’s place to go pick something up. There are few things funnier than absolutely smashed twenty-year old girls. Calli couldn’t help but mention certain things about her anatomy that are better left out to maintain a PG rating. After the dance, Shakeh, Verena, Lee, Javi, and I met up with Giovanni, Victor, Claudia, and a few of the G-Man’s friends at Soga’s. There were actually people dancing there…

Sunday morning, Shakeh and I went to Posh Bagel and Staruhbuckuhsuh for breakfast. I worked for a a few hours, then got ready and went Thai 2K for dinner. After that, Shakeh and I went to go see a performance by a group of Shaolin monks at the Mondavi Center. The performance was awesome! The Kung-Fu moves were extremely impressive. There were funny parts thrown in as well, like whenever the monks got audience participation. Some of the acts we were able to see included a balancing act done on two spear points against a guys jaw and his stomach, eight year old monks-in-training doing forward rolls on their necks, audience members trying to take out a vase that was held against a monk’s stomach solely by his clenched abs (they failed, by the way), and many, many more cool things.

It’s funny, until you actually try something, you never really have the right opinion about it. Well, at least that’s what I thought. Funny enough, after my first experience in the Castro, I don’t really believe that. It was A TON of fun, and it played out almost exactly as I thought it would.

Probably the nicest part about being straight in a gay bar or club is that there is no artificial pressure to do anything but have fun. It was a really refreshing feeling to be out and about and just hanging around with friends, and having no obligations. And the funny part was of course that every guy there got his ass grabbed at least once, whether they’ll admit it or not… you know who you are = )p

Tuesday was the Google Dance! I was pleasantly surprised by how cool it was. I kept thinking all the way up to it that it would be pretty lame and I would just leave after I got a shirt. Turns out I was wrong. There was the usual Google hospitality which included free shirts, booze, and food. Then there was more. The courtyard of the complex was completely rigged with club lighting. There were two karaoke booths, a bunch of couches and pool tables, four Wiis, and much, much more. Then, inside of Charlie’s, there were tons of multi-player racing games and a DJ. Around 20:00, a lot of my friends moved indoors and most of us danced until 21:30, at which point I took off to go home. I dropped Chris off at Ames first, then went back to my place and watched an episode of The Sopranos before going to bed.

A bunch of us went to go see Superbad on Wednesday. The movie was pretty good, and very funny. It was way more adult-friendly than the trailer made it out to be (hard to imagine, I know). However, throughout the entire movie, I kept getting the feeling that I was just slightly older than the target age-group. As it would turn out, the screenplay was written when the writer was just graduating from high school.

Inga, Chris, Falcon, Daniel, Dale, Andrew, and I went up to Malibu on Thursday night for go-karting and miniature golf. The go-karts were a lot of fun. Normal go-karts don’t have anywhere near as much power as these did, so it was great. I was almost the fastest person on the course. I blame the weight difference between me and Dale his win ; )

On Friday night, for Andrew and Michael’s last day, we went out to the Castro. Chris, Inga, Daniel and I drove up ourselves and went to The Metro. The place was nice, and was basically exactly like a chill-bar anywhere else, except guys were hitting on other guys instead of girls. Daniel got offered a drink buy this man who was at least fifty years of age. Daniel accepted though, and ended up talking to the guy for another hour and a half. Michael showed up with more people around 23:10 (they were late getting to BART). We hung out at the bar until a little before midnight, then headed over to the Cafe. Daniel actually stayed a while longer to talk to the guy, meeting up with us around 00:30. We got the place and were immediately confronted with the most packed club I had ever seen. It seemed pretty normal, and by that I mean ninety-five percent guys… Hey, at least this time most of the guys were getting some action while there instead of hanging around waiting for some potential to show up. The club was a lot of fun, especially once the Go-Go dancers came out and Inga seemed very embarrassed. We tried to get her to put a dollar note in one of the dancer’s G-strings, but she wouldn’t. Michael had no qualms though… The dance floor was insanely busy. You couldn’t move one way or the other without hitting someone. We eventually left the place around 1:45, then Michael told us we should all go get pizza. So we went to a drunken pizza place down on Castro. We ended up leaving around 2:45. Michael and his friends took cabs home. Andrew, Dale, and Dave drunkenly stumbled back to Dave’s place in SF, and Chris, Inga, Daniel, and I walked back to my car and headed home. I don’t understand why, but there was traffic at 03:00 on a Saturday morning on the 101. WTF?! I didn’t end up getting into my bed until five minutes to 04:00.

I woke up fairly late on Saturday, I think around 09:30. I went into Google to meet with Chris. We then met the Canadians at the Shoreline theatre and saw War. It wasn’t really that great. Afterwards, I was going to go to dinner, but instead just went home and watched the start of The 25th Hour. I left in the middle though, to go to Redwood City and see Shakeh and her cousins for a bit. After that, I went back down to the South Bay, picked up Chris, then went mini-golfing with him and a guy named Arjin (who it turns out I met at my one of my neighbor’s parties in Davis, small freaking world).

On Sunday, I finished watching The 25th Hour. Rusiniak and I met up in Sunnyvale and played squash for a while. After squash, I went home, showered, and then headed to Google to play ping-pong and do some laundry. After laundry, I went home and watched The Chronicles of Narnia, surfed the net, and then went to bed.