Memoirs of a CPUNERD

Or so it seems. This stupid cold that started out easy just hasn’t let up. Something similar to this happened last year. I came down with a cold, it was really weak, and it went away in a few days. However, less than a week after the cold went away, it came back with a vengeance and wouldn’t let up. I think this has something to do with me not stopping my workout while sick. I’m under the belief now that this stupid cold is never going to go away. It might get a little better, but it’s not going to leave.

Monday morning I was still feeling horrible. I worked out, and the cardio was easier. I think the rest helped. Tennis was good, I’m getting the new serve down. It doesn’t have the zip my old serve had, but it has top-spin and control, two things that my old serve found in short supply. I looked for an armband for my new iPod Nano at the MU bookstore but couldn’t find one. I left lunch at the exact moment when everyone else began to arrive. After my first meeting, I went to the lab and watched The Family Guy while my machine was busy compiling code. Right before the MGI meeting, X finished compiling and was working. However, I didn’t have the NVIDIA driver downloaded… I met up with Shakeh after the meeting and then rode home. I finished the split code and began preparations to run it on the Boeing.

I didn’t feel much better on Tuesday than I did on Monday. I even had to sit out for frisbee because I just couldn’t run. Afterwards, I went home and then ran went to lunch, though I didn’t eat. I took Shakeh to health center, then went home for work. I picked shakeh up from her place before we stopped by Chipotle for dinner. We went to the fields and watched our team win the first playoff game. I was very pissed off at the other team though. The guys knew the ref, so the ref called two handballs on our team when the other team had several uncalled ones themselves. We still won 3-2 though. Ken just f***ing crushed their best player though. The guy was being a brute and a general asshole, so Ken waited for the ball to come near him, then just ran right towards the ball, crossed the guys line, lowered his head and shoulder, and just sent the guy flying. And the best part you ask? All perfectly legal. I took Ken to Safeway and then home afterwards, then went home myself.

With Wednesday came my first round of hitting with Andrea. She (of course) worked me over. Two funny things happened though. She lobbed me while I was at the net, and I smashed it right above her head. She screamed and ducked. I didn’t mean to aim at her, she just happened to be standing right in the way. We both laughed after she uncovered her head and looked up. The second funny thing was off of a rally. Andrea was standing at the T as she should have, I hit to her right, and as she was turning to go get it, she just collapsed. I was afraid at first that she twisted her ankle, and thus I actually ran and jumped the net to make sure she was okay, but when I went there she said she was fine. We both laughed at it, then continued hitting. Shakeh and I went to the Great Wall for their lunch buffet. After that, I headed to Reno. Frank and I went to see Hitman, then Bei and I went to the Circus-Circus for a bit. We went to BJ’s for dinner around 2120. We ordered pizza, but about thirty seconds after we ordered, the waitress came over and told us they were all out of pizza dough! So we took the menus back and then decided on Nachos and a Chili-cheese baked-potato. So we order, thirty seconds later, the waitress comes back and says they’re out of both of those as well! We then ask for the menu again. We didnt find anything, so we just said we wanted the check. The manager came over and apologized and offered us salads, but we politely said we understood they were just very busy that day and it was okay, and that we were fine with just paying and taking off. She said okay, but comped my OJ and gave us each $15 gift certificates.

Happy Thanksgiving! Yes, Thursday was turkey day. However, I woke up feeling really crappy. Because of that, I didn’t eat anything in the morning or for lunch. Instead I worked most of the morning. I went over to Dina’s boyfriend’s place around 1400. There was so much snack food, I just couldn’t resist. When dinner came around an hour and a half later, I was so full I barely ate anything (which sucks ’cause there was so much good stuff!). I stuck around and watched football for a bit, then went home around 1800 as I was starting to feel crappy. I fell asleep on the couch watching the USC-ASU game.

I woke up early Friday morning, packed my stuff, said goodbye to the parents, then headed back to Davis. I got in, unloaded, grabbed a blanket and pillow, then headed over to Dani’s. Apparently there was a miscommunication about the time, so I ended up waking him. Martyn showed up shortly after though, and Dani was ready really quickly. We just headed straight out, not stopping until we crossed a Subway in Santa Rosa. We continued on to Guerneville from there, meeting up with the gang at Safeway. We bought a few items, then Ita, Charlotte, Martyn and I headed back to the place to drop stuff off. We got back to Safeway, then decided to try and find a local place to eat. We went down one road and stumbled into a dive that actually allowed smoking! However, they didn’t serve food, and thus we were forced back down to the main street. We ended up going into a pizza place. The food was good, though the service was atrocious and they forced an 18% tip upon us. Afterwards, it was already 1645, so we went back to the cabin and started playing some card games (ERF Sean!). We played until about 2300, mixing ERF with king cup. afterwards, people started getting ready for bed and we eventually settled down around 0130.

I woke up Saturday (from the floor) around 0730. I was working on my laptop quietly, when out of the corner of my eye, I saw David just kinda standing there, looking at me. I was a little freaked out at first, but he was just waiting for me to notice him so he could ask where my laptop was. Over the next two hours, people started getting ready and cleaning up the place. We got out right at noon, then headed back. Bill played us some British pop, and then some JT. Emma and Charlotte enjoyed it, I’ll hold my opinion ; ) We stopped off for lunch at a Carl’s Jr. in Fairfield. Bill made the mistake of wearing jeans before ordering a Double Six-Dollar Burger. He had to change into sweats afterwards because he was so bloated and full. Some of the people decided they wanted to shop a bit in Vacaville, so we met up with Ita and the people carrier at the outlet strip mall. Emma got out and shopped while Dani and David rode back with me. I dropped everyone off, then went home and rested. Ita and the gang got back around 1800, and I went over to Ita’s place to join up with people around 1900. We had dinner, smores, enjoyed some funny youtube clips, and then I left to go home at 2100 as they were about ot watch Children of Men (an excellent movie by the way, I highly recommend it). I got home and was thinking of going to Giovanni’s goodbye party, but I just felt too crappy so I jumped right into bed and went to sleep.

On Sunday, Shakeh got back into town around noon. We watched Fantastic Four Two: Rise of the Silver Surfer, then some South Park. We went to see August Rush at 1600, then met up with my Mom and Vicky after picking up Miles and meeting up with Rawi. Mom and Vicky picked up Chipotle for us (luckily, otherwise I would have surely starved). We all got into the cars and then headed to the TSO concert. It was great as usual, though I realize now how numb one becomes from the lights, loud music, and constant snow fall. ; )

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!).

Seriously people, when you have to make a turn to stay on the same street, there’s a problem! Case in point, check out this. Look specifically at how, if one is heading north, one must turn west to stay on Rengstorff. Then, go North just slightly and see how Charleston, without actually crossing the freeway, is on BOTH sides of the freeway! Don’t even get me started on Highway 84 through Fremont…
I discovered through unfortunate circumstances that cold showers absolutely suck. The hot water in gym was busted on Monday, so everyone was forced to tough it out and take cold showers. I’m getting short of breath and chest pains just remember it. I had lunch at the reopening of Cafe 150. Everything had bacon! After lunch, I did a user study but didn’t get a shirt (dab nabbit!), then went back to my cube and worked for a bit. Wyclef Jean did an improptu appearance and performance at Charlie’s. His presence was very humorous, and I even enjoyed the music a bit. He jokingly threatened the sound guy because the sound kept screwing up, then performed some live songs (Gone Till November, If I Were President, and a few more). He even managed to get into a push-up match with some random guy in the audience. It was all really entertaining. After his performance, he talked some more about Haiti and answered some questions from the audience. Someone asked him to rap in Creole, another person was forced by Wyclef to freestyle on the spot. All in all a very entertaining day.

Chris and Katie joined me in the gym on Tuesday morning. They were about twenty minutes later than they said they would be, but oh well. We did some cardio together, then I finished up and took off. For lunch, Falcon and i biked to Crittendon to meet up with some business interns for lunch. As luck would have it, Katie was the only one who showed up. We ate at Pure Ingredients then went into 1400 to check out the gym and 1500 to nab some gummy bears. After work, Sean, Ciderman, and Lee came up for dinner at No Name. We ate with Andrew and Michael, talked for a little while, then left. I gave Reva a ride back to Ames, then talked with her for almost an hour before leaving.

Per Katie’s request, I went to the gym in Crittendon on Wednesday. Chris and Katie met me again, and again they were significantly later than they said they would be. After lifting, Katie and I rode on some weird bikes with computer-generated scenery. We then proceeded to workout on an interesting machine that somewhat simulates a surfboard. After that, the three of us went for a jog around the area. Chris and I finished up, then got breakfast with Rachel at Fourteen. I ended up having lunch with michael, Falcon, and Andrew at Cafe 7, then went back to work for a bit. i went to a talk given by an engineer about how business people can get along with and deal with engineers. Daniel accompanied me, as we both thought it was just going to be a slew of stereotypes getting tossed around left and right. The talk was interesting, but not as funny as we thought it would be. It even gave some business interns the wrong idea about engineers. So much so that they immediately developed an active disdain for us… After the talk, I went back to my building for a meeting, then headed to the shuttles for the boat cruise. The busses got into SF around 1830. After that, we boarded the boat, then grabbed some food in the dining hall. Once dinner was over and the boat had set sail, we went out and around the deck, checking out all the cool sites. The boat went past Alcatraz, Sausolito, into the middle of the bay, and then back to Pier 3 over the course of three hours. We danced for almost two hours during the cruise, then at the end watched a summer intern slideshow. It was all really fun. We didn’t get back to Google until 2300 though, so I got to sleep really late.

Thursday morning Katie and Chris joined me in the gym, and yep, they were late again. After the gym, Chris and I grabbed food at No Name, then got to our desks around 915. We worked for two hours, then boarded the busses for the Engineering Picnic. The picnic rocked! There was (of course) free food and alcohol, and tons of game. Everything from ping-pong to an inflatable gauntlet to human fooz-ball to ultimate. We started with some frisbee, then progressed to ping-pong for awhile. After we were done with that, we got some food and (for others) yummy cocktails. Andrew and I then raced each other at the inflatable gauntlet. I won, but only because Andrew slipped up and hurt his foot. I also had a rather bad dismount. (Tipsy) Michael and Inga then raced each other, but Inga got lost really quick so Michael won with no problems. After that, we just wandered around some more, then eventually settled into the line for henna tattoos and caricatures.

On Firday, I finished up the initial version of a project (finally). I tried to check it in but got blocked on a few fronts. After struggling to fix the problem, I went to my host for some help. That turned out to be a bad idea, as he insisted upon fixing a ton of stuff right there, and thus I had to skip TGIF. After work was over, I gave Chris a ride to Caltrain, then went back to Google to play ping-pong with Daniel. I was originally going to go see Superbad, but I felt like crap so I decided to just go home. Falcon brought Kim, Dan, and Brian over to our place, so we watched some Youtube videos (Planet Unicorn Heyyy!!!), and by the end of that it was late enough that everyone left and I just went to bed.

Luckily, when I woke up on Saturday, I was feeling better. I watched some B5 until Matt and Ray showed up at my place. Once they did, we took off to Google to get some supplies. We then met Reva at the Caltrain in Mountain View so I could give her a ticket to Rock the Bells. Once done with that, we took 280 up to SF and proceeded to downtown. We parked at this little lot at Second and Howard, then walked to Third Street and crossed the bridge to get to the parking lot. I’m not going to lie, I paid ninety dollars to see Rage Against The Machine. Everything else was just fluff for me. As it turns out, it really was just fluff. Mos Def, The Roots, Public Enemy, Cypress Hill, and Wu-Tang Clan all played before Rage. For the most part, I wasn’t really digging any of it. There were a few Cypress Hill songs that I liked, but that was it. Oh well, Rage rocked, and so did the crowd, so that’s all I cared about. And as it turns out, walking back to the car was about as fun as the rest of the concert. You haven’t seen crazy until you see eighty-thousand people walking up Third Street at 2200, screaming randomly and blocking traffic because there are simply too many people for the sidewalks. And I don’t know why, but everyone and their mother was driving on Saturday night on the 101. It took us an hour and half to get back to Mountain View.

I did two major things on Sunday: 1) I finished B5, and 2) I slept in until 900, which I haven’t done since last summer. I was planning on a bike ride, but due to the doubling of expected duration (the bike ride was supposed to be two hours, but then two hours of driving got added), those plans were cancelled. I ended up playing ping-pong and doing laundry with Daniel, Lee, and Ciderman. In the middle of it all, Lee and I biked to Crittendon and scoured the buildings for gummy bears, but they were all gone. We looked through eight micro-kitchens to no avail. After dropping my laundry off at home, we headed to Shoreline Grille for dinner. We couldn’t find the place though, so instead we just went to Chipotle. Apparently my hunger from the last two days was catching up with me, because I was freaking starving! If someone had put several burritos in front of me, I think I would have ate at least three. After Chipotle, we headed to Google to kill some time, then went to the movie theatres to see Stardust. I highly recommend this movie. The acting was a bit cheesy at times, but it was still funny and very good.

No! Not with someone else, I mean relish your time-off from work! The lessons from this week taught me that when you really push yourself at work, don’t plan an action-packed weekend! Yes, playing hard is important, but every once in awhile, one needs to simply take some time off from the world and recuperate. Admittedly, I thoroughly enjoyed myself this weekend, but I didn’t get much rest and I know I’m going to be screwed the first few days of next week…
On Monday, I didn’t waste any time getting to programming. I met with Jing about her data formats, then got cracking. I worked most of the day on getting a converter working. There were still a few kinks left in my original code though, so I had to spend the majority of Monday working those out. Daniel had yet to go to Cafe Fourteen, so we went there for lunch. Katie ended up joining us, as did Rachel and Sam. Rachel originally wasn’t planning on joining us, but she changed her mind after no one else wanted to leave the building for lunch. After lunch, I got cracking again on coding. I worked a little more with Jing and got something going for her. I had to bail early though. The democratic debate on CNN, Youchoose, was being aired at Charlie’s at 16:00, so I went there a little early to get a seat. Rachel, Katie, and Sam joined me. Michael came in a little later after he got back from the gym. The debate was really nice. A few of the candidates didn’t get much airtime, but it was still nice to be able to hear from a group of strong candidates. After the debate, I ate dinner and then headed home.

Andrew joined me in the gym on Tuesday morning. He said his shoulders were sore from volleyball on Friday, so I told him to lift with me on Tuesday and I would show him a few exercises that would help him. He unfortunately showed up too late, so he missed the shoulder exercises… oh well. A bunch of us went to Pintxo for lunch. I liked the food, but again, such tiny servings! Luckily they had vegan brownies! I actually got to have a somewhat decadent but non-red dessert from somewhere besides No Name. Jing and I got our stuff talking that afternoon, and I showed my host and manager. Both liked it, but they needed more. After talking with Jing, she said that what she had would be very hard to adapt, so around 17:00, I commenced working on something myself. I, of course, didn’t stay too much longer though, so I didn’t get very far. I went to lunch with Daniel and Falcon, and actually ended up sitting with the recruiter that worked for Daniel and me. It was interesting talking to her about the hiring process and the full gambit that interns run.

I was in a mad rush all day Wednesday to finish some work for my host. Because of that, I just went with Inga to Pintxo, but only for a little bit. For those who know me, what I’m about to say might shock you, but here goes. I ate fish for lunch… It actually wasn’t that bad. It was really salty, but it didn’t taste fishy, so I was fine with it. After lunch, I went straight back to work, basically ignoring all social obligations in the afternoon and just kept working. Around 17:00, I finished my mini-project. It was a good thing I finished when I did, as my brain was completely fried. I showed the program to my host, who seemed impressed. I then spent what little was left of the day working on something small but necessary. I got a rather dissatisfying dinner with Falcon, then headed home to meet Brian. He dropped off Bruce (Kim’s cat), then took off to finish packing his stuff. Over the course of the next few hours (and several episodes of B5, whole ‘nother story), Bruce warmed up to us and stopped running frantically all over the place. As for B5… On Tuesday, I meant to watch several episodes. I stopped halfway through one and went to sleep though, since I was tired. Of course, the last episode I intended to watch for this night was the first in a two parter, so long story short, I ended up not getting to sleep until 23:30. Luckily Falcon let Bruce go in his room.

Shakeh came for dinner on Thursday night. We went to No Name to get food, then ate with Daniel, Inga, and Falcon. We were going to eat with Andrew but he was already sitting with some other friends. After Dinner, Shakeh and I went home and watched a few episodes of Heroes. I forgot how much I really liked this show. I left off at the climax of the first half of the season. Picking up was really easy, and I got into again right away. Unfortunately for me, I had to work the next morning, so we ended at a relatively early time.

Due to the picnic, all of the cafes on campus were opening late, at 10:00. I held out until 10:00, then went to Oasis with Inga. I got back just in time for my 11:00 o’clock meeting. Unfortunately, I still had some last minute work to do, so I skipped out from the meeting early and worked until 14:45. At that time, Shakeh showed up, so Daniel, Michael, Inga, and I joined up with Shakeh and starting walking to the picnic. We met up with Andrew at the volleyball courts, then proceeded to picnic. We got there and waded through the crowds of people to find some shade and open space. The midway was packed, so we didn’t play any games. We found a spot in the shade and sat there for a bit while Andrew went to get food.

After Andrew got food, we went in to the amphitheatre to watch the San Francisco Cirq(us) and Google Idol. There were a lot of really cool acts by the SFC, the coolest was probably the woman dancing amidst two strands of cloth. There was a rather humorous jester who was also very good at juggling. There also was an act of two performers balancing off of each other. They were good, but I saw Cirq Du Soleis in Reno a few years ago, and the balancing performance I saw there blew away anything the two SFC performers did.

After the SFC finished, Google Idol started. There was some pretty good performers there. At the end, a Google-themed blues-song won. There was an act team called DecaDance that warmed up the crowd, and after the competition, they did a dance to the infamous PB&J song. A video can be found here.

After Google Idol was finished, we met up with Conny and Daniel, then waited for Andrew, Falcon, and Inga to finish their margaritas. In the meantime, Shakeh and I went to check out the rest of the place. We stumbled across the reptile display, and Shakeh couldn’t resist. She had to get a picture taken with the snake.

After the picnic, Shakeh, Andrew, and I made our way to the Shoreline theatres to go see The Simpsons Movie. Coming from a long time Simpsons fan, the movie was great. I liked the story, the freedom granted via PG-13, and certain special appearances. Without spoiling anything, I just wish that Mr. Burns had a bigger role and that the movie was a little longer. But it was definitely worth seeing on opening night.

Saturday was just as action packed as Friday. Once we were up and showered, Shakeh and I went to get something to eat. While operating a coffee machine (that wasn’t cleaned properly! GRRR!), the grounds exploded on my clothes. I tried washing them as best as possible, but it didnt completely work. After getting some food, Shakeh and I headed back home. I watched B5 with Falcon (he tried escaping, but a limited battery life on his laptop drew him back) while Shakeh studied. The three of us went out around noon to get some miscellaneous supplies (I needed a stain-stick now), then to a Hawaiian BBQ place for lunch. After lunch, Shakeh studied some more, then she and I went to see I now pronounce you Chuck & Larry. It was actually really funny, and much better than I thought (as was Jessica Biel…). After the movie, Shakeh and went to Castro Street in Mountain View and walked up and down the place, scouting out a good place to eat. We tried a Thai-Fusion place called 3TA. It was good, but I think I’ll stick with fusion-less Thai for now. After dinner, we walked back up the street until we got to a BofA ATM. We got cash, then we ran off and got gelato!

Sunday was even more jam-packed them Saturday and Friday! I got up a little earlier than Shakeh, so I watched an episode of B5 while she was getting ready. After she was ready, we went to Google. I did laundry while she played the piano. After I was done with my laundry, we gave Ciderman a call, told him to head over, then went back to my place and hung up my laundry. After Ciderman got there, we went to Quizno’s to get some food, then headed to Projekt Revolution at Shoreline. We got there around 14:00, just as Saosin was taking the stage. We watched Saosin play for a little while, biding our time until Mindless Self Indulgence’s (MSI) scheduled time. 15:05 finally came around, and MSI took the stage. They were AWESOME! Almost everyone in the crowd was there to see Linkin Park and My Chemical Romance, so it was very cool to see how MSI managed to get the crowd going regardless. MSI’s set lasted a little under an hour. They played a lot of personal favorites, including Faget, Shut Me Up, Planet of the Apes, and Kill the Rock. Jimmy Urine, MSI’s front man, was also really funny without being too vulgar. Ciderman pointed out something else; besides just being all-around energetic, the entire band seemed to be really enjoying themselves. They were smiling, laughing, jumping around, having fun, and at one point even stage-dived. It was great!

After MSI finished, we headed to the Amphitheatre to secure our seats. We sat down, and plowed through Julien-K, Placebo, HIM, and My Chemical Romance, with a few interludes to get outrageously-priced and greasy, fatty, unhealthy food. Right around 21:15, Linkin Park came on. The last time I saw Linkin Park live was six years ago at the Ozzfest at the Sac-Valley Amphitheatre (I think it’s in Marysville, I don’t remember). They weren’t that good. Besides not being able to get the crowd stirred up (not surprising, they aren’t really an Ozzfest type band), the music came out bad because there is so much electronics in their studio album that simply isn’t reproducible live. This time though, a completely different story. The crowd was very much with them this time, and the music sounded very good. Perhaps my ears have adapted to live music in a more forgiving manner, but regardless, I actually enjoyed the music. Plus, it was very cool to hear forty-thousand people singing along to the music. MSI played a lot of songs. This is kind of obvious since they have roughly one-hundred minutes of songs, and their set lasted eighty-minutes plus a ten-minute encore. They played a few songs from Minutes to Midnight including What I’ve Done, Bleed It Out, No More Sorrow, and two others to which I do not know the names. They played a lot of favorites from Hybrid Theory and Meteora including Points of Authority, Papercut, Numb, Crawling, In The End, a half-unplugged version of Breaking the Habit, Somewhere I Belong, and at least five more. Needless to say, it was an awesome concert. Now if only I didn’t have to be at work so early the next morning…

Have you ever had a truly great power nap? The kind where, when you get up afterwards, you are almost instantly refreshed and un-groggified. have you ever noticed that those naps are never long in length? I discovered something this year in school. I tried taking naps of varying lengths. The ones that worked best for me were the ones where I would lay down for thirty minutes at most. Even if I didn’t fall asleep, I at least would shut my eyes and let my body relax. It sounds crazy I know, but it’s true. When I was out for an extended perior of time (forty-five minutes or more), I would wake up extremely groggy, sometimes even more tired than I was prior to napping. I’ve heard all sorts of theories on this, but so far none of them I truly buy. Anyone got any good ones out there to explain this phenomenon? I should also say that I am primarily a six-to-eight hours a night sleeper, and (during school anyways) I work out five hours a day.

Speaking of theories, I have one for Mondays at Google. I believe that most of the guys in the locker room on Mondays are all gung-ho from a good night’s sleep, and thus get to the gym slightly earlier than usual. Where as I, sticking to my routine as always, get there at the same time. Thus, the lines in the shower that seem to form only on Mondays, are explained. For lunch, Andrew, Inga, Ilya and I went to Euro. It was alright, but I don’t think we’ll be going back anytime soon. I got back, worked for a bit, then went to a status meeting. I left a bit early to catch the bus to the Giants game. Of course, being the early birds that we are, we all got on the wrong bus. The shuttle which we boarded was being reserved for a handicapped intern, and thus we sat around and watched five other full shuttles depart. After fifteen minutes, we got off the shuttle and switched to another one. After a long drive, we got to the stadium right on time. We found our seats right as the first pitch was thrown. We did lots of fun things while at the game. Most of our activities involved watching other (mostly drunk) people make asses of themselves. We left in the ninth inning and headed for the shuttle stop. Luckily, other interns had done the same, so the shuttle was full enough that we could leave right away. Rachel gave Andrew and I a ride to my car, then I gave Andrew a ride home. I ended up getting home at 2315. I went to bed, but didn’t fall asleep unil roughly midnight.

On Tuesday, Andrew, Inga, and I went to lunch at Pintxo. It served great food, but it was tapas style, so I ended up with ten plates on a tray for something that could have easily been held on a single plate. After lunch, I finished my research presentation material. I went to dinner at Charlie’s with Rachel, Katie, Andrew, Marlena, Marlena’s sisten Monika, Sam, and Nathan. After dinner, I went back to my building and played DDR for thirty minutes, then went home and convinced Ciderman to come over for some South Park.

Wednesday, Daniel and I went to Oasis for lunch. It was great! They had a salad bar very similar to Pluto’s! After lunch, I worked for a bit, then left to pick up Sara from the Caltrain station at 1630. I dropped her off at my place, then went to Charlies with Daniel and Andrew. After dinner, Sara and I went to get a copy of the apartment key made, then came back home and just watched South Park.

Chris Cameron came up to Google for lunch on Thursday. It was nice seeing him again, I hadn’t hung out with him since last summer right before he left to go back to school. For dinner, I went to Charlie’s with Rachel, Marlena, Monika, and Jack. I don’t know where Andrew was, but he never ended up arriving. I left for home and watched some of the NBA draft… Poor Nick, he slipped into the second round. I feel bad for him, he stayed in school all four years and played really well, I just don’t know if he’s meant for the NBA. Dallas took him though, so maybe they’ll throw some more weight on him and get him in prime condition to play backup for Nowitski. Oh, and Ramon Sessions almost didn’t get picked. He went at the end of the second round to the Milwaukee Bucks. Luckily, they are having point guard issues, so he might actually get to play soon. For some reason, I was really tired, so I ended up going to sleep at 2130.

I finally arranged a tennis match. I met up with another intern to play at 0700 on Friday morning. However, twenty minutes into playing, he broke not only his strings, but his racquet as well. Lunch was uneventful, but I had a meeting afterwards at 1410. I almost fell asleep in the meeting, so I had to excuse myself about half way through to go take a quick walk and wake myself up. Anyways, after TGIF, I headed home to get Shakeh and Sara. I called Dan, and the four of us headed to Palo Alto to go to The Cheesecake Factory. We only had a ten minute wait, which is just unheard of. To kill the time, Sara fed her addiction while Dan, Shakeh, and I went to the Apple Store. It was the debut day of the iPhone, and there was actually a line just go get into the store. The line went really quick though, but we still didn’t bother going in. We walked back to the restaurant, then got seated and enjoyed our dinner. We got home and watched some more South Park before going to sleep.

Shakeh, Sara, and I got up and got ready to go out for the day. We headed to Google and got there around saturday: got up, got ready, and went to Google. I gave Sara and Shakeh a tour of the place, which included the massage chair, bouncy balls, and plenty of free drinks/food.

 

After finishing at Google, we went to pick Dan up, then headed to Half Moon Bay. The drive there was really pretty, though backed up with traffic. We walked down main street for a bit, then headed back to the car and to a restaurant to get food. After we were done eating, Dan headed back to Davis and Sara, Shakeh, and I headed back to my place at Mountain View to rest for a bit.

  

  

  

After taking a nap, we watched an episode of Planet Earth, then headed to the movies to see Evan Almighty. It was surprisingly good. It was virtually nothing like Bruce Almighty, but still very good. After the movie, we went to Chipotle and got burritos, then headed home, ate, watched more South Park, then went to sleep.

I got up at 0715 on Sunday to do laundry. Shakeh went with me. While doing laundry, we played pool, Marble Madness, and Shakeh used the massage chair. I learned how to use the espresso machine too! I of course didn’t have any, but Shakeh did. After the laundry was finished, I went back home, waited for people to show up, then headed out to the Warped Tour. The official roster was me, Ray, Fa’y, Ciderman, Justin, and Sara. Melli and Matthias met up with us later, around 1700. We saw a ton of good bands, including Tiger Army, Bad Religion, The Vandals, Yellowcard, Anberlin, Pennywise, the Circle Jerks, Killswitch Engage, New Found Glory, and a few lesser know bands. We got done around 2100, headed back to Google to rehydrate, then went home and called it a night.