Jeff Stuart - Memoirs of a CPUNERD

So here’s the gist. I went to a Candidates@Google talk this week with a republican (actually he’s a constitutionalist) congressman named Ron Paul. At first I happy to see him talk. I’d never really heard of him, but supposedly he has decent support and some of his ideas seemed interesting. Then he opened his mouth… Most people, as they get older, begin to be very cynical about the world and its people. Therefore, this guy is either senile or naive (or both). He has many republican views (no gun-control, minimalist government, etc.) but he takes them to an extreme. After twenty-five minutes of the talk, I knew I would never vote for him. After thirty-five minutes, I was both proud and frustrated for my country that someone like this not only exists, but made it to prominence. After forty-five minutes, I just left. I’d heard enough to know that I would never want to talk with this person. We disagree on so many things that the only thing we’d be able to do is give each other respectful silence… But you, judge him for yourself. Look through the propaganda and see exactly what it is he stands for. You never know, he could be the republican candidate for 2008, and maybe even president again (doubtful though, I don’t think this country will ever vote in another Texas Republican as president).

I watched two Babylon 5 things on Monday. The first was the movie, In The Beginning. I never actually saw this movie. It was a background-story movie made after the series had started. It was actually done well, and added some depth to the plot that didn’t exist at first. I also watched episode 1×00, The Gathering, which is the pilot for the series. I found it funny that many of the primary characters changed, as well as the make up of the alien races. I didn’t actually get to finish the episode though. It is a double episode and it was time for bed about half-way through.

After work on Tuesday, Andrew and I played tennis at Ames. Andrew is pretty good, and he is giving me some helpful tips. We played for awhile, then played double with Paul and Katie when they showed up. After that was done, we played a few rounds of first-to-five, then played some King of the Court until 21:00, at which time I promptly departed for home. I finished watching The Gathering, then went to sleep.

Brian came to dinner on Wednesday night. Rachel and Andrew joined us. Brian had things to do, so he didn’t stay for long afterwards. When I got home, I watched more B5. Episodes 1×01-1×03 to be precise. I also realized that, with 1) these episodes being forty-three minutes long, 2) each season having twenty-two episodes, 3) there being five seasons, and 4) me having approximately two and a half hours a day after work of spare time, it will take me ten weeks to finish the series if I don’t have a few weekends for marathons.

On Thursday, I finished my “Tour de Cafe Google” with The Lunch Box. While there, Andrew, Michael, Dan, and I noted how nice the Crittendon part of the campus actually is, and how it is incredibly obvious engineers don’t work in the buildings (at least not in abundance). I watched more B5 again (get used to this every night people…), this time episodes 1×04-1×06. I like how the show is advancing already. Even though most episodes are just day-to-day random occurrences on the station, there is an underlying story that is bigger than any one episode, and it is unfolding slowly.

On Friday, I went to see Ron Paul talk. And well… you know how I feel about him now. We had a social TGIF, which consisted of a latin band and lots of food/drinks, but no talking. It was a lot of fun, but unfortunately there was no real dinner being served. I ate as much snack food as I could stomach, then headed to Davis. Traffic sucked, I left at 18:10 and got there around 21:00. Once I get there, Shakeh and I got to Sarah Koch’s farewell BBQ, stayed for an hour or so, then went home.

Shakeh and I watched South Park in the morning on Saturday, then went to the market. On the way, we stopped by the bank, and ran into Sarah, Simone, and Abhi. We went with them to the market and got food and (for some) coffee. While there, we found out that Simone was also leaving! Everyone will be gone! After the market (at which we didn’t eat lunch), we walked with Abhi for a bit, then went to The Village Bakery for lunch. We met up with Rawi at 13:00 to see Transformers. I enjoyed most of the movie, but all in all it was pretty terrible. After the movies, Shakeh and I went to Big 5 so I could purchase a ping-pong paddle. After that, it was so hot that we wanted to get something to cool us down and be somewhere with wonderfully powerful A/C. Shakeh went to Ben & Jerry’s and I went to Jamba Juice. We then went to Borders for a bit. There is a new Lost Chronicles book, Dragon’s of the Highlord Skies. I’m waiting for Amber & Blood still, but I have a feeling that will be awhile. After Borders, we hung out for an hour or so, then went to Fuzio for dinner. We split a Japanese noodle-dish and the firecracker pasta. Both were really good. After dinner, we went to The Marble Slab, then went home.

Shakeh mentioned that she wanted to try Crepeville for breakfast, so on Sunday, that’s exactly what we did. We drove around Davis for awhile after that, listening to Beethoven’s Last Night, then eventually found ourselves at Pedrick’s. We bought a bunch of stuff, most was Shakeh’s = p, then drove home. I dropped Shakeh off, then headed back to Mountain View. Conny, Dan, and I did laundry at Google and played ping-pong. After getting home and putting our laundry away, we went to P. F. Chang’s for dinner in Sunnyvale. Conny and Daniel had never been, so I figured they might enjoy it. They both really liked it. They took awhile to order, but we eventually came to an agreement. Conny got some double-friend noodles (which were most delicious), Daniel got the Sweet & Sour Pork, and I got the Crispy Honey Chicken. All were great, though the chicken was my favorite. After dinner, I just went home and watched episodes 1×07-1×10 of B5, then went to sleep.

Funny enough, I actually believe it this summer. Last summer, working for NVIDIA was good, but I never was given the opportunity. I made many a surreptitious effort while there, but the code was so obscure and intertwined that it was just impossible. I went about doing what was asked of me, and by the end of the summer, felt like I contributed virtually nothing and was paid to sit and read code instead of make/debug code. But with Google, I hit the ground running. Even after my first week, I’m already able to make a meaningful application that runs on Google’s hardware and software infrastructure. I feel that given fifteen more weeks, I, too, can truly make a difference (even if it is minuscule).

But first, I think Google should make a small difference for me! I went to the gym at Google for the first time, and discovered that there is no decline bench for dumbbells! ARGH! This throws my workout regime for a loop since I really like doing dumbbells, and I really hate asking for spots. Since I don’t have the option of playing sports for three hours a day, I instead chose to start doing interval training on the exercise bike. Well, that didn’t quite work out as I had planned. I got my heart rate up to one-eighty, and then wasn’t able to drop it down until twenty-five minutes later. So… I think I’ll just do cardio from this point forward. Oh, another crappy thing. I had to wait ten minutes for a shower, since the gym only has four of them. I hope it isn’t like this every day, but I think Monday would be the least busy day, not the most. I ate breakfast solo after working out. I got my desk for a few hours, then went to go see Michael Bloomberg talk. Andrew and Rachel also came along. After the talk, I got lunch with Andrew while Rachel waited in line with her business buddies to get a picture with Bloomberg. After lunch, I got back to my desk and did some more work for a few hours. I then went to a status meeting for an internal project. It was in this meeting that I learned something I should’ve learned a long time ago: Keep your mouth shut at all costs. So the story goes like this. Person A says something about an info-vis concept. I know that this person is spewing garbage and is not only wrong, but is completely, one-hundred percent wrong. I correct Person A. Person B makes the same mistake later. I correct person B. Neither person has a problem being corrected, and welcomes the input. Person C asks a question, and I volunteer the answer since no one else seems willing to do the same. At the end of the meeting, Person B volunteers to write a document. Our manager says “You know, you’re very busy, we should have Jeff write it since he seems to understand what’s going on.” Lesson learned, I’m shutting my mouth from now on so as to avoid even more work. Now I have the wonderful responsibility of writing a design document for a horribly complex thing.

The gym was significantly better on Tuesday. All the machines I needed were there. Cardio was a pain though. I got off of the bike and was literally one-hundred percent covered in sweat. Luckily though, I didnt have to wait for shower. The class that was cancelled the previous week I skipped today. It was about writing unit tests, and honestly, my project won’t be unit-testable. Well, it won’t be worth-while to write unit-tests. I went to lunch with Inga, Andrew, and Andrew’s friend Ilya. After lunch I played pool with Ilya while Andrew and Inga tried DDR. For dinner, I think I ate too much. I felt a little sick afterwards. Anyways, Andrew came over to my place and we watched the “Cartmanland” and “The Entity” episodes of South Park. I went through the first full lesson of Rosetta Stone as well.

I went to the No-Name cafe for lunch on Wednesday. I got my food, but then Inga grabbed me and told me to get into a shirt line. As luck would have it, I was able to secure a nice Google shirt, and then I went back and got three ladie’s shirts for my womenz = ) Apparently it’s next to impossible to get more than one male-sized shirt. I went to dinner with Rachel, Jessica, and Katie, and met another guy named Sid. After dinner I went home and did some Rosetta Stone, then went to a hookah bar in Palo Alto with Rachel, Jessica, and their friend Nate.

Funny enough, I really didn’t do anything on Thursday outside of work. I even just grabbed dinner by myself and went home.

Friday was TGIF. I stayed for the whole thinig, but took off before dinner as we were going camping! Yay! We set up the tents, had “pasta” then went to sleep.

I woke up fairly early on Saturday. Shakeh and I went to the ranger station to get firewood, then started a fire. We had a wonderful breakfast of donuts, cold bagels, horrid coffee (that I had none of, of course), and Naked Juice. We chose to go on a nice, five-mile hike. However, it turned into a six-mile hike because our trail was closed off. It was really fun though, and very beautiful. However, the difference in our group’s fitness levels started showing up as we began a large uphill hike. We had to stop every few minutes for people to catch their breath. The hike eventually got over after three hours, and we all went back and started a nice, eight-hour camp-fire. We sat around, ate, told jokes, related stories, and had a generally pleasant time before going to sleep.

On Sunday, we woke up and began packing right away. When we got back to Mountain View, we showered, then I took Shakeh out to Chevy’s for lunch. After Shakeh left, I went to IKEA with Andrew, then did my laundry at Google. Freaking Sebastian got me playing another addictive flash game, the link for which I shall not show so as to avoid you becoming addicted. I went to Conniel’s for a bit, then had to settle for gross fast food for dinner since everything was closed already (Seriously people, it’s only 21:15, you don’t have to shut down your store so freaking early).

For pictures from camping: http://jeff.bleugris.com/photos

That’s right… school is already back in session. And of course, what day does school begin, not on a Monday like a sane person would expect, but on a Wednesday. I guess I was ready to go back, but come on! I’m used to having several weeks of break, not just two. And to make things worse, Spring Break won’t be much better.

Weekly roll:

Monday was “The Day After.” I cleaned up the place, worked for awhile, then waited for my Mike and Bri to get into town. I was originally going to go to dinner with Sunny and them, but they got in too late, and Sunny was already going to Franci’s to watch a movie. I too was going to go, but after dinner. Mike and Bri got in, checked out my place, then we headed to pick Sunny up and drop her off at Franci’s. After that, we went to Pluto’s for some yummy salads. Shakeh called me while we were eating and told me that Kolby had just left (this was around 2100), so her and Ninette would join us at my place. In the meantime, Mike, Bri, and I went back to my place to watch some South Park. Shakeh and Ninette showed up about half an hour later. I assisted with introductions, then we sat and talked for another half an hour, at which point in time Mike and Bri had to leave. The three of us remaining were all still hungry to some extent, so Shakeh and I went to In ‘N Out while Ninette took a nice nap.

Tuesday, Shakeh, Ninette, and I hung out. We went to Posh Bagel, then went back to Shakeh’s to help Ninette pack up her stuff. I went home and worked while they packed, then we all met up again and went to the movie theatres on F street to watch Happy Feet. After the movie, we went to Kabul for some Afghani, then headed to the airport to drop off Ninette.

Wednesday school started… ugh! I walked with Shakeh to campus, then biked to the ARC. I worked out for an hour or so, then headed off to my classes for the usual instruction. Racquetball seems like it might be fun, volleyball definitely will be (there were enough people that we just played pick-up), and I don’t really know about basketball. After class, I went home, showered, and then got some work done. I had a meeting to go to, so I biked back to campus. Shakeh was out of class and we met at the MU for food. After we ate, we went back to my place for a bit to rest and get some work done, before Shakeh had to go to class. I dropped her off at her class, then went home, worked for awhile, and came back to pick her up.

Thursday I had my other classes, soccer, badminton, and tumbling. I’m really excited about tumbling! It seems like it’s going to be a ton of fun, and I might learn some cool stuff. After class I went home and showered, then met up with Shakeh and a bunch of the international students for lunch. I walked Shakeh to her class, then headed over to my weekly meeting. I worked for a little bit after the meeting, then went to my Volume Visualization class. Once that was out, I went home and ate. Shakeh and I went to Delta of Venus where we met up with the international students again. We hung out for awhile, then went home to get some sleep.

Friday I had the wonderful experience of getting another filling put in my mouth. I went home and did some work, then met Shakeh at her place after she got out of class. We were going to go to the mall, but neither of us really felt like it, so we just chilled instead. Meaning we grabbed some In ‘N Out, went to my place, and watched a bunch of South Park and worked. I went bowling with Abhi and the gang that night while Shakeh stayed and worked at my place. We had to wait almost two hours to get a lane, but we had some fun once we finally got bowling.

Saturday, Shakeh and I just worked a bunch until I had to leave for SFO. Rachel was due to arrive at SFO around 1830, so I headed out around 1630. I drove over the San Mateo bridge, which I must say is the longest bridge I can recall ever being on. I thought the Bay Bridge might be, but it is split in two by Treasure Island, and even with that, I think the San Mateo Bridge might be longer. Anyways, I picked up Rachel, refueled, then began the trek back home to Davis. We got in, dropped Rachel’s stuff off, then spent almost an hour getting her to Camran’s place. It wouldn’t have been nearly that hard, except that we couldn’t get ahold of anyone who knew where he lived. After I dropped Rachel off, Shakeh and I had dinner, got ready, and then headed to Chiara’s party at Miles’ place. We stayed there for about an hour, but I was way too tired, and I didn’t want to fall asleep driving back.

Sunday, my parents came into town. We walked to Posh Bagel, then I took them on a small walk around the campus. After we finished with the campus, we walked back through downtown again to look at some of the local shops, then headed home to meet Shakeh. Once we were all gathered, we went back into town to eat at Chef’s Market. What happens though? The damn place is gone! Completely disappeared altogether. We instead went to Woodstock’s and had some good pizza. After that, my parent’s took off, and Shakeh and I hung out at my place and worked until 2100, when we stopped to watch some TV.

Maybe something is missing in my life now. Something big, yet something I can’t place. I’m saying this, because as I write it’s Christmas Eve. Yet… something just isn’t right. Maybe it’s the lack of snow on the ground, or the indifference I have towards receiving gifts, but it doesn’t feel like Christmas is coming in just a few more minutes. Something hit me though, this isn’t the first old feeling that is missing. I thought that the quarter ending would bring a familiar sense to me, but it didn’t. Now Christmas Eve… Is it just a coincidence, or is something truly missing now? I guess time will tell. Perhaps New Years Eve will bring in a familiar feeling, though I doubt that, being that the bringing of a New Year is nothing special to me, and it never was.

Monday Lee and I recovered wonderfully from our weekend. After we cleaned ourselves up, we went to lunch at the MU with Verena, Miles, Gwen, and Simon. Lee walked back with Verena to drop her off while I ran by the bank. When I got home, I started packing up my stuff and got ready to hit the road. I got into Reno around 17:30, then spent the entire night working and restoring my mom’s computer.

Tuesday I worked basically all day, except for a few hours I took off to go out to lunch with some old IGT friends, lift weights, play racquetball, and go out to Bully’s. I lifted in a different way and still did not feel sore from it… I need to find something that will make my muscles tremble again, otherwise I’m afraid my body will start to stagnate.

Wednesday I went out to lunch with Brian from IGT. After that I went home and worked basically for the rest of the night. I was going to cook dinner for my parents, but my mom had an appointment and thus wouldn’t have been able to make it anyways.

Thursday was a lot of fun. After working all day, my mom, dad, cousin, and uncle all went out to go look at Christmas lights. While the light display this year was definitely inferior to previous years, it was still a lot of fun. Pictures are up in the usual place, I’m too tired to paste them into this post. We stopped by a Starbucks and I overdosed on sugar from the venti caramel apple cider with quintuple caramel that I ordered. After we got back from the lights, Jon and I headed out to meet Sebastian for martinis at Roxie’s. While there, we ran into Tunya and Alicia. Being as Roxie’s was on last call, we headed to the Little Waldorf Saloon (The Wal) and hung out there until 03:00.

Friday I worked again all day. At night, Bei and Kenyon came over, then Shane, Sinead, and Vicki showed up. With my parents, we played Scene it, had some dinner (I cooked!), and then hung out. Bei was leaving for China, so I would’ve liked to hang out with her more. Unfortunately, I couldn’t even keep my eyes open, so I called it a night early.

Saturday I (you guessed it) worked again. We went over to my aunt Lisa’s place at 14:00 for some games and food, and stayed there until 16:00 or so. I had to get back home to try and finish up some work. Shane, Jon, and I eventually left for downtown again around 21:30. We hit up the Brew Brothers’ at the Eldorado, then went to West Second Street to watch some wonderful karaoke. After that, I took off while Randy, Jon, and Shane stuck around. I got to sleep around 03:00…

Sunday I woke up, got ready, then called Jon and Shane to figure out what happened. Jon was home, while Shane apparently crashed at Randy’s. I went to do a little bit of shopping (spent a bit too much…) and then went to Randy’s. We played the 360 for awhile, then went out to Bully’s for lunch. After lunch, we went bowling, then to an arcade (DDR!!!!). We then went to pick up dinner and drop Randy off. When Shane and I got home, everyone was waiting for us. We ate, then watched Max open some presents. After Max was done, we did our gift exchange, then I called it a night and went to bed around midnight. Pictures of our gift exchange are up in the usual place.

This quarter has been a lot of fun, but I’m feeling something I’m not used. Well, actually I should say that I’m not feeling something I usually do; the sense of finality that comes with a quarter being finished. Now this obviously has something to do with the fact that I didn’t take any real classes, and none of my P.E. classes had any finals. I noticed this primarily because all my friends were talking about how they were so happy finals were over. I remember feeling that before, a lot actually, but alas, it seems those times are now over. Perhaps I’ll get a similar feeling whenever I finish a big paper or project.

Okay, so the weekly recap…

Monday I made a pretty decent breakthrough on my research. Now i just have to make the final push and clear it before it’s too late!

Tuesday I convinced Rachel to come to the gym and lift weights with me. After I got home, I tried to pick up my room a little bit since Joe and Sebastian were due to arrive in less than twenty-four hours.

Wednesday was an incredibly busy day. I worked out in the morning, then biked straight from the gym (still sweaty) to the lab in the Academic Surge for the research meeting. After the meeting, I had to hurry back home to shower, since I had a dentist appointment at 12:30. After the dentist appointment, Joe, Sebastian, and I went to play racquetball at the ARC.

After racquetball, I walked home to shower, being as I forgot a few essential articles of clothing. I then met back up with Joe and Sebastian, and we hung out with Monica for a little bit before her final.

After talking with Monica, we headed over to the GSA office for the CS GSA party. The party was fun. It was a potluck with karaoke and DDR. Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! I forgot how much I love DDR! I want to find a machine (perhaps while I’m in Reno). After the GSA party, we went back to my place to get my car. Joe and Sebastian went to Bistro to get some food while I went to pick up Sara, Chiara, and Sunny. As it turns out, the bar at Bistro closed at 22:30, so we didn’t have the option of going there. We though about Sudwerks because they give people wristbands when they ID them. Of course, Sudwerks proceeded to tell us that even though they gave everyone wristbands, they wouldn’t allow people under twenty-one inside (it’s okay Sunny, we forgive you… this time). With that in mind, we decided to head to Delta of Venus. Joe and Sebastian were still on foot. We got there right as they were walking out, telling us that the keepers had just made last call… ARGH!!! Joe and Sebastian decided to just hit up the corner store for some al-key-hol and Jack In The Box for some food while Chiara, Sara, Sunny, and I headed back home. We had a nice time the rest of the night, just hanging out and watching Joe entertain us all.

Thursday, Joe, Sebastian, and I went to San Francisco for the day. We parked over at Daly City, BART’ed in to Union Square, and made our way up to the House of Nanking for Chinese food. The waiters there are taught to read first-time visitors and simply get their order for them. The chef who took our order did a good job. It wasn’t what we had originally wanted, but it was good food, and it was something that we would not have ordered ourselves. After that, we wandered up to Pier 39 to the Hard Rock so Joe could get some souvenirs. In the meantime, we stopped at the sports memorabilia store, and got some… interesting… pictures. After that, we headed to the Wharf and to Ghirardelli Square. We all bought too much chocolate, then proceeded to order some awe-some-o sundays. We were all tired from the walking and racquetball of the previous day, and the walking of the current day, so we hopped the trolly back to the BART. We headed over to Lee’s place in Palo Alto. We hung out there for a little while, then met up with the NVIDIA gang on University. We went out for some delectable (but not as good as Sophia’s) Thai food, then hit up the gelato place. Joe, Sebastian, and I didn’t get back to Davis until 00:15, at which time Joe crashed immediately, while Sebastian and I headed to Delta of Venus to meet up with some friends. Luis just turned twenty-one, so we wished him happy birthday, then, Sebastian and I went back to my place. I think I fell asleep around 02:00.

Friday, I went out to lunch with Shakeh at Round Table, then we went to Arden Fair for an hour or so, so Shakeh could look for some gifts for her family. She didn’t find anything she needed, but I found some Banana Republic clothing that I liked. After we got back, I dropped her off at her place, then I went to go help Rachel run some errands. After errands we played racquetball for an hour or so, then headed home. For dinner, the girls (Shakeh, Sara, Chiara, Sunny, and yes… me) went over to Sara’s place for Tapas and fun. Chiara has these pictures, I promise I’ll put them up when I get them.

Saturday I helped Kim (Brian’s girlfriend) move from Elk Grove to Davis. The moving was such a joy… but oh well, we got a ton of free pizza for it, and I got a free couch out of it as well = ). We got done with lunch around 14:15, at which time I headed home, changed, and then went to the ARC to meet Justin and Jeff for racquetball. We played until 17:00, at which point I headed home to rest for a iittle bit. Lee got in around 18:30, so we had just enough time to drop his stuff off and chat for a few minutes before heading out to Sushi Nobu. We met Abhi, Gwen, Verena, Ziv, and Jin there. After Sushi Nobu, we went to the Little Prague bakery for dessert. Ziv had to bail, but Monti took his spot. Oh man, I have to go back there. The desserts were awesome. The dinner food there isn’t that great, but I would definitely recommend the dessert, especially the tortes. After dessert, Lee and I headed to Francesca’s to pick her up, and then over to Luis’ for his party. We stayed at Luis’ until 12:30 or so. After that, we went to Elena’s new place. I hung out there until 01:30, at which time Francesca and I departed and I dropped her off at her place. Lee stayed with Abhi and Verena, and didn’t get to sleep until 04:30…

Sunday was both a blast and a blur. At this point, I was going off of fifteen hours of sleep over the past four days. Lee was going off of two hours of sleep in general, and well, some others had it even worse. I woke up at 06:00, showered, and then woke Lee up at 06:30. We headed over to Rachel’s to pick her up, then went back to Elena’s to pick up Elena and Sara, both of whom were still up from the party. We gassed up, then made our way to SFO. We dropped Rachel off around 08:30, then went to North Beach to get some breakfast at a place called “Melt!” which I would not really recommend. Maybe their lunch and dinner is better, but their breakfast was disappointing. After breakfast, we headed over to the Golden Gate bridge so Elena could get pictures. We walked until the one-third marker on the bridge, at which point it was starting to get really cold. We turned around, then headed to Golden Gate park. We had some nice tea in the gardens, then walked around for an hour or so. By that time, we were ready to get out of their and drop off Sara and Elena. From SFO, we headed down to the South Bay to hang out with the NVIDIA people and Shakeh. Lee, Shakeh, and I went to lunch at the University Cafe in Palo Alto, then we met the NVidiots for half an hour at a local mini-golf and go-kart place. After that, Lee and I dropped Shakeh off, then headed back to Davis. We got stuck in traffic in SF for a long time. We got back into town kind of late, but went out to see a movie at the G street theatre and get some coffee before going home and getting some sleep.