Memoirs of a CPUNERD

Just in case you completely missed it, the playoffs are back in full swing. This is the one time of the year, aside from the start of the season when all the rookies get to play and they still haven’t been tainted by the ‘we play eighty-two games so let’s go easy until the fourth’ bug, when I can actually stomach, no better yet, enjoy watching the NBA. I haven’t had a chance to catch all the games so far, but I’m rooting for the Celtics and the Jazz or Hornets. However, my money is on a Celtics-Lakers matchup. I will be forced to destroy the NBA if the Pistons and Spurs meet again in the finals. I’m all for defense, but let’s at least try for offense, shall we guys?

I tried doing backrolls in tumbling on Monday, that was a mistake. I tweaked my neck, again, because I couldn’t support myself on my hands. I went to the MU with Shakeh for lunch, then later that night helped her with her passport issues. Once we finished with that, we went to La Esperanza for dinner.

I snapped my strings in tennis on Tuesday, d’oh! Racquetball went better, I got ten points off of the coach again. Frisbee was nice and slow again. I think that a lot of people are losing sleep do to finals and such, so it’s affecting their game. For lunch, Shakeh and I had some leftovers. I worked between lunch and dinner, at which point we went to Chipotle for dinner. I feel bad because I convinced Verena to see the new Harold & Kumar movie, and it wasn’t anywhere near as good as the first, which she had not seen. After the movie, Shakeh wasn’t feel up for it, so we had to skip Sophia’s and trivia night.

Justin didn’t show up in the gym on Wednesday. I played squash with Alex, and afterwards was really too tired to do much else. I went to The Orange Hut with Shakeh for lunch. Right before my meeting, I went to Jamba Juice. Man, I am really digging their breakfast granola smoothies. For dinner, Shakeh and I went to Cafe Mediterannee. We were going to go to Baskin Robbins, but the line was huuuuuuuuuuuuuuge. I met up with Javier, Mauricio, and Anita at Sophia’s for an hour or so, then headed home.

Thursday didn’t have Justin in the gym either. That was fine though, I was really dead in the morning. I played racquetball with John from 0800 to 0900. We played some mini-doubles in tennis. And I finally beat the coach in racquetball! Fifteen to ten. I met with the guys for lunch, then with Ita, Meiken, and Ita’s cousin. I made a quick trip to the STA for DC plans, and they weren’t much help unfortunately. I skipped dinner and went straight to the football game, which we won 3-0. Once I got home, I showered then went to Crepeville for dinner.

Once I got up on Friday, I got right back to work. I kept working until 1315, at which point I left to meet up with Javi for lunch at Raja’s. Once I was done there, I met up with Shakeh for a bit at the MU, then went home and worked some more. I booked everything for DC, then went to Steve’s Pizza for the Club-I dinner. We had a bunch to plan, so we stopped by Emma’s for fifteen minutes, then went home and kept looking up things for DC.

Shakeh and I went to In & Out and then the Green Belt on Saturday. The place was really nice, and well kept. We went to Sophia’s for dinner. We tried some new dishes, nothing stuck as a new favorite. After dinner, we went to see Made of Honor. Predictable, but entertaining.

Sunday was the one and a half year anniversary for Shakeh and I. Somehow, we’re both still alive and not charged with murdering the other. I must say I’m impressed. We went to lunch with Lee and Verena at Woodstock’s. After lunch, we went home and worked. Around 1800, we went to Borders to get a Washington DC travel book, then to Seasons for a celebratory dinner. We finished off the night with a trip to Mishka’s and then home for some rest.

I, like most people, thoroughly enjoy the variety, diversity, and quality of food in Davis. I, unlike most people, frequent the restaurants in Davis, as in virtually every day. I find myself wanting more now. For example, the only Caribbean place in town is not that great. And yes, I have enjoyed good Caribbean food elsewhere. We have no Moroccon, Ethiopan, or other African food. We have some absolutely great Armenian food from Cafe Mediteranee, but we have no Persian or Turkish food. We have magnificent Thai food, but no Malaysian. We have a severe lack of good Indian food (Indyna Bistro is expensive and you don’t get what you would expect for the price). The only “South American” food we have is actually food native to New Mexico, not Mexico. There isn’t really any place that serves French cuisine, and I mean more than quiche and crepes. One can get good Czech food, but I’ve yet to sample any Northern European or British Isle food in the confines of Davis. And of course, don’t get me started on the lack of a good steakhouse within Davis. Buckhorn is absolutely amazing, but it’s a twenty-five minute drive. Am I the only one who feels this way? Is it because I pretty much live off of the restaurants here? What do you think?

Monday is fun day! Well, kinda. We did another ladder in racquetball, and I’m pretty sure we’ll keep doing this until the end of the quarter. I’m actually quite fine with that as it allows for variety on more than a day-by-day basis.

I was really tired on Tuesday for some reason. I got enough sleep I felt, so perhaps it was something else. We worked on volleys in tennis, and even though one wouldn’t think it, that wore me out even more. I played a racquetball match against the coach and lost 8-15. He’s better than I thought. I had lunch at the MU with Alex and a few others, then watched Hitman again with Shakeh. We went to Woodstock’s for dinner pretty late, it was “Turntable Tuesday” where one of the employees spins some techno for a few hours in the bar room.

If I was tired on Tuesday, then I was practically sleeping on Wednesday. Everything was a struggle, even biking to the gym. I played racquetball with John, and that seemed to get me going. I couldn’t do much in tumbling though, my lower calves were starting to hurt. After tumbling I met up with Shakeh for lunch at the MU. Before my research meeting, I snagged some delectable pastries that were left over from Hari’s defense. For dinner, Shakeh and I went to the Farmer’s Market. Mmmm steak… I went to Sudwerks to meet up with everyone, but no one was there. Instead, a few people were at Delta of Venus so I drove over and hung out for a bit. After that, I headed to Sudwerks but didn’t stay very long. I got home around 2230 and pretty much went straight to bed.

My body was not any better come Thursday. I did well in tennis, got my opponent to 5-5, but then we had to go. I somehow managed to get nine points out of Mike in racquetball, and ten points out of the coach. Frisbee was really slow. No one was into running I guess. That was fine by me, I just didn’t feel like massive self exertion today. For lunch, I went to the MU with Tony, Daniel, and Falcon, then we stopped by 3rd and U with Bbhi, Tony, Falcon, and Shakeh. Afterwards I headed home, worked some more, then took Shakeh to Delta of Venus for dinner. Wouldn’t recommend it for dinner entrees… We had a football match at 2000, which we won, and then Shakeh and I went to see Serenity at 2200.

Early Friday morning I had a meeting with Ken. Afterwards I stumbled over to coffee and bagel day at the GSA office. I worked until lunch time, then went to Zia’s with Shakeh. I then proceeded to Wal Mart to get my oil changed and buy some groceries. After I got back, I got ready and picked up Shakeh, then headed to the Mondavi Center to see the Merce Cunningham dance show. Luckily there was free pizza, otherwise we both would’ve starved. The dance show was alright, though definitely not my thing. I found that often the dancers were forced to perform moves such that they had to forcefully exert their bodies or hold grueling poses, neither of which looked graceful. Not to mention the dancing was not in sync with the music. Yes, I know that was intentional. Even with all that in mind, I still say that I enjoyed it, I just don’t think I’d go to something like that again voluntarily.

Shakeh and I went to the market early on Saturday. I ran into a bunch of people there, a popular place I must say. For lunch, we went to Verena’s, then to headed to the theatres to see Forgetting Sarah Marshall. The movie was actually really good. The writer has produced a lot of great comedies thus far, I’m glad he’s accepted in Hollywood. For dinner, Shakeh and I ventured to The Old Spaghetti Factory. Once we got home, we watched some South Park, then went to sleep.

We finished South Park thus far on Sunday. We polished off the piave cheese I purchased from V. Sattui for brunch. I, like an idiot, decided to bike to Safeway. Yes, that is normally not a bad idea. However, biking back with thirty pounds of fruit was not part of my original equation. Woops… For dinner, Shakeh and indulged our inner carnivores and went to Burgers & Brew.

Pictures below! 

So comes Monday, and my paper is not due thanks to a deadline extension. Grrr…. I landed two front flips in tumbling! I’m trying to get a decent backhand in tennis, though it’s not quite working yet. I met up with shakeh at the MU and we went up top to eat. I headed home and finished up some stuff with the paper, then went to get my haircut whilest Cygwin was updating. I went to Woodstock’s for Martyn’s party. It was supposed to be a dual celebration, but it wasn’t as my stupid deadline was extended. It was awesome to go though, tons of people were there. We stayed and watched the Kansas-Memphis championship game. It was great! Chalmer’s last second shot to send it to overtime was classic! The entire bar and restaurant were glued to the game. After finishing up there, we all headed to Yogurt Shack. Kathy and her roommate Sue showed up and gave Martyn a dead hooker from there trunk (joking of course). A bunch of us headed to Froggy’s. Only Vanessa, Kathy, Sue, Martyn, and I went in though, age limits and all. Everyone else had drinks, then I took off and headed home due to the time.

Tuesday: t-minus six days. I had leftovers for lunch and continued working on paper. Shakeh and I went to Kathmandu Kitchen for dinner. It was awful. I mean really, really, really bad. The soup was cold, the portions were smaller than usual, the service was the worst I’ve had in Davis, and all in all it was just a horrible experience. After the failure of dinner, we got Baskin Robbins then went to see Horton Hears a Who. That helped cheer us both up again. The movie was really funny! I know that in some people’s minds, Dr. Seuss movies are corny and meant for kids, but some of that stuff is actually really funny.

Wednesday: t-minus five days. Racquetball was pretty boring and tennis was dreadful. I just couldn’t hit right for some reason. I practiced flipping more in tumbling. finished up some work, then went to the MU for lunch. I went to STA and checked on some prices before my meeting, just inquiring about Europe. I grabbed some Burgers & Brew takeout, then came home and watched Run Fat Boy Run.

Thursday: t-minus four days. I worked out in the morning but had to skip classes to go home and pack. I went to Posh Bagel and *$ with Shakeh, then got back right in time for Javi to pick me up. He dropped me off at the airport, and I realized I was stupid. I never checked my flight, and as luck would have it, it was delayed for an hour and a half. I arrived in Seattle and got in to the hotel around 1700. I went to dinner at Qdoba with andrew and his friend Alec, then headed back to hotel, stopping at Cold Stone for some dessert.

Friday: t-minus three days. I woke up, got breakfast, then headed to MS. I waited in the lobby and was greeted by Ben. He gave me the low-down, then took a personalized ride over to building 113. I talked there with someone named Jeff. After that, a Russian named Evgene (pronounced Yev-ghen-ee) took me to lunch courtesy of MS at a place called Todai. After getting back, I talked with a guy named Ted, and then a manager named Marek. I met back up with Ben as I was right about to play Rock Band. After the end of the day, I headed back to the hotel to work for a bit. Later, I drove to the airport to pick up Javi. We met up with Andrew at the Space Needle and had a really nice dinner, then got lost going back to Redmond.

Saturday: t-minus two days. Javi and I got breakfast at the hotel, then went to the Bellevue Botanical Gardens. It was a very nice place, and completely disconnected from Bellevue I’m sure. Once done there, we picked up Andrew up from the MS football fields and went to his place. He got ready, then we headed to Pike’s Place Market. I had a piroshok, plural being piroshki, from a little hole in the wall called Piroshki! Piroshki! We saw the first Starbucks, which kept it’s original sign. I got see the famous fish huck, huge produce, and in general a ton of people with no clue as to what to do. Us included of course. Once done at the market, the three of us ventured to the Seattle library. We spent about an hour there, then went back to the car and headed off to UW. We ate at a local cafe, which turned out to be an ordeal. Our order got lost and it took over thirty minutes to realize it. Once done with lunch, we walked around the campus, it was gorgeous. Their quad area was not only nice, but it was filled with people too. Something, for the weekends, I’m not used to. After walking around the campus, we wandered over to a liquor store then a grocery market. Once Andrew supplied up for the night, we dropped him off at his place and headed back to the hotel to do some work. Later that night, we drove back to Seattle and picked up Yuan from her new abode. We went to dinner at a place called Harvest Vine. It was a little hole in the wall that served great Spanish food. Javi was incredibly excited for Jamon Serrano. After a great dinner, the three of us headed to Andrew’s for his house-warming party. We stayed for awhile, talked with some new people, but left around midnight.

Sunday: t-minus one day. We got up early after only sleeping six hours, then tried to go to the aquarium in Seattle. As it turns out, there is no parking anywhere near the place, even on Sundays. So… we ended up going to the flight museum near the Boeing Air Field. After that, we just headed to the airport a little early. We went to a Chili’s for lunch, then wandered to our gates and awaited the flights. Once back in Sacramento, Shakeh picked me up and we headed to Davis. The temperature was nice and warm, so much so that we actually had to use the A/C again. We went to Sophia’s for dinner and were ambushed by Tony! Afterwards, we went to Safeway for some supplies, then I headed back and commenced work on the final stages of the paper.

Coding is fun, writing is not. That is all, goodbye.

Yet another quarter began on Monday. I’m taking beginning racquetball with Coach Nosek, intermediate tennis with Coach Maze, and intermediate tumbling with John. As is custom, there was nothing to do on the first day of P.E. classes (which I find backwards). For lunch, I just had leftover pizza. I got right to work afterwards. Shakeh and I made a brief jaunt to Chipotle for dinner, then again, back to work for me.

Tuesday saw my other three classes happening. I’m taking ultimate frisbee with Maryclaire, advanced racquetball with Coach Biggs, and beginning tennis with Coach Lee. I have a feeling I might have to swap something though. After playing pick-up frisbee the first day, I couldn’t run in racquetball. Something’s gotta give. After classes, I wandered over to the MU for lunch, then took care of some travel. I bet you can’t guess what I did inbetween lunch and dinner?! Shakeh and I went to Sophia’s for dinner, always a wonderful choice.

On Wednesday came the realization that my beginning racquetball class might be a bit too beginning for me now. There are a few people in the class who seem to know what they’re doing, but I have to play 2v1 or cut throat to get competition = \ Hopefully the coach will play and that won’t be an issue. Tennis went fine, Tam is in the class so we’ve been playing a lot. I started working on front flips in tumbling. With any luck, they won’t be a problem. The lunch special at Hunan was calling, so Shakeh and I stopped by there. I bi8ked to the bank for rent money, then after some confusion, signed next year’s lease. Next up was my uneventful research meeting, followed by… You guessed it! I actually watched some racquetball on TV at night while working, it was pretty cool.

I had to swap my frisbee and tennis classes, so on Thursday, I did just that. Amazingly enough, thirty-six people are in frisbee! After class, went to the MU for lunch, then worked a lot. Shakeh and I went to dinner at Chipotle right before going to the theatres to see Dark City. It was a very cool movie, and I’m glad the first time I saw it was in a theatre, not on a TV screen.

I worked pretty much all day Friday, with two brief interludes to Cafe Mediterannee with Javi and Pastaq for dinner with Shakeh. Yes, that really is all.

Saturday, and you know it, work again. Can’t this damn paper just write itself? I had to go to the lab to switch out some graphics cards. Let’s see, besides that, when else did I get out of the house… Well, Shakeh and I went to 3rd an U for lunch. I did manage to catch the UCLA-Memphis game. I also watched Kansas rock UNC, then almost implode, then rock ‘em again. It’s funny, I hate that both of these teams will just blow out opponents as I feel that shows a lack of class. However, it was really nice to see it happen to one of them. If only it had happened to both of them earlier, then I would have been really happy. For dinner, Shakeh and I grabbed Woodstocks and watched SNL for the first time in years.

I’m not even going to bother writing about Sunday. Seriously, this is beyond depressing.

Okay, I’m getting tired of people telling me that P.F. Chang’s is not “Chinese food.” Yes, I know that! I know that virtually no Chinese place in the U.S. is not actually “Chinese food,” I understand that authentic Chinese food is usually just rice, fish, and some sauces poured over to make things taste better. But you know what? It doesn’t matter to me. Do I call you out for referring to burritos at Chipotle or fajitas at Chevy’s Mexican food? No. Of course not, even though that food is actually New-Mexican, not Mexican. I think it is a well understood fact that when we say a food is X, we really mean the food is an American-bastardized form of X. Remember this next time you wish to be pretentious. If you don’t, you’ll probably just end up sounding sophomoric. Just some American food for thought.

I got up and got ready early Monday morning. Justin and Justine picked Amanda and me up around 0840. I got to the airport, checked in, and boarded fairly quickly. The flight was quite pleasant, I flew on an EMB-145. There was no real turbulence, and I was able to listen to XM while flying. Once landed, I headed to the rental-car pickup and made the way out. The car they gave me was a bit of a beast, a Chrysler 300. I stopped off in downtown Albuquerque for lunch at a local pizza joint, then headed to Santa Fe. I didn’t want to book any hotels in advance, so I had to drive around for a bit. Luckily the Hilton in Santa Fe had a big garage and good Wi-Fi signal. After looking up hotels, the new destination was the Old Santa Fe Inn. A quite nice place actually, fairly rustic but kept up well. The one problem was that the Wi-Fi signal there didn’t reach the room, thus I couldn’t look up any places to see or restaurants without going outside, a bit annoying. Once settled in, Santa Fe presented a new problem: being as the population is roughly that of Davis but with working professionals instead of students, everything fun to do closes at 1700. For dinner, the destination was a place on Canyon Road (the local art-gallery road) called Geronimo. The restaurant was recommended by the tennis coach. I can see why now. The food there is awesome, though definitely pricey. I think my meal was at least sixty-five dollars. Parking there was a bit silly. There was a small lot, and the attendant came up to my window and asked if we were eating there. I said yes. He then asked if we had reservations. I told him no. He informed that the parking lot was only for reservation-holding customers, so I drove off, went to the side of the road, and made a reservation for fifteen minutes in the future. Then I went straight back to the valet and had him park. Sigh… As for food, I had a wonderful salad with macadamia nuts, venison loin, and for dessert I had banana-cream pie. Yum.

Tuesday morning started with an early wake up and a short but very-scenic trip to Los Alamos. The Inn had a nice burrito bar, so that made for a good breakfast. I checked out of the Inn since I wasn’t sure I’d be back in Santa Fe that night. I met up with Pat McCormick at Los Alamos around 1000 and had a nice conversation with him and a few others. Pat showed me some of the clusters they were using, and explained some of the expansion cards he had in them. I had originally written a presentation, but it was much easier to just have a conversation and get the facts out in the beginning, then take a bunch of questions to clarify everything. We got lunch from the local cafe, then went back and talked a little more about my work. Pat dropped me off with a man named Scott Pakin who developed a small MPI for the Cell processor. I walked back to the cafe with him, then parted ways there after some discussion. After the cafe, the next stop was an old army-surplus store called The Black Hole. Nothing much was there to see, just a bunch of old-military junk (no, I was not surprised). After the store, I drove to Bandelier National Monument to do a small amount of hiking. Turns out they charged twelve dollars just to get in, pfft! Cave-dwelling Native Americans used to live there, and the bases of their structures were still around, though far from intact. Seeing the remnants was very cool, and the hike was far from strenuous. The last part of the hike actually reminded me a lot of the arboretum in Davis, except drier and no swarms of gnats. After the hike, I drove back to Santa Fe and again required the borrowing of a wireless connection. The Hilton said they were booked solid, as did El Dorado, so a place called the Hotel Plaza Real became my bed for the night. It was really nice, surprisingly so. For dinner, there was a well rated place called La Plazuela located in the interior of the downtown plaza. The food there was authentic New Mexican, and quite delicious. Of course, the meal ended with sopapillas and honey. The hotel was a warm welcome after the chilly walk back on a wonderfully-full stomach.

A local place called The Pantry Kitchen served breakfast to me on Wednesday. I had a breakfast burrito with green chiles. It was great, and the chiles were mild enough that they added flavor without hurting. After breakfast, we stopped by a place called Jackalope. It sold all manner of things, and generally came off to be a single-person-owned flea market. After Jackalope, the downtown area in Santa Fe was tempting enough to be the next stop. There wasn’t a ton to see there. Canyon road, a street somewhat far away, had a bunch of art galleries that did not get my patronage. The rest of the area was basically a bunch of shops for tourists. A nice area around which to walk, but not to spend money for me. There was one nice place, an extremely beautiful cathedral. After seeing that though, there was nothing left. Next stop, the Sandia Tramway! Up at Sandia peak, outside of Albuquerque, there exists a sky tram. At the time of construction, it was the longest tram in the world. It spanned a vertical distance of one kilometer and a horizontal distance of four kilometers. The cost to ride wasn’t that bad, so I gave it a shot. I’m somewhat afraid of heights, so being suspended so high up amidst the thirty kilometer per hour winds in a little box with twenty other people was nerve racking at times. At the peak there was still snow and people were skiing. The restaurant there was overpriced of course, but I was hungry and didn’t care. Once the descent finished, it was time to find a hotel. The choice ended up just being one near the airport. After checking in and finding local restaurants, a place called Sadie’s stood out. The place reminded me of a chain restaurant, but apparently it was the only of its kind. It served authentic New-Mexican food (again) and holy crap were the portions huge. The food was so cheap too, but it was very good. Afterwards, the malt shop I found online turned out to be closed, so no dessert.

Thursday morning saw the invasion of the Frontier Cafe and the UNM campus in Albuquerque. The cafe was awesome. Of course I got a breakfast burrito, but I also got a cinnamon roll. Oh man, that was a mistake to get both. The cinnamon roll was absolutely covered in butter and sugar instead of icing, but I ate the whole thing anyways, as well as the burrito. After breakfast, the UNM campus had to put up with me. I always feel a little strange taking pictures of everything, and I felt even more so while taking pictures on the campus. I just couldn’t help it though, every building everywhere was adobe style (well, not every building, but most). After the campus came the atomic museum and Old Town Albuquerque. The museum was really cool. There was an entire wall tracing the foundation of the atom bomb. There was of course more, but that was the most interesting part to me. Old Town Albuquerque was pretty lame. Just another shopping district, as most all Old Town areas tend to be. The downtown area of Albuquerque came next. The place was very touristy, and in all honesty, didn’t have that much to do. It seems like a happening place at night, but it felt like a less yuppy version of Santana Row. After visiting the downtown area, it was time to go to the airport. After taking forever in security, I sat down and watched the North Carolina game. I must say that I was saddened to see UNC run away the way they did, I figured Louisville would put up more of a fight. While watching the game, I had some food at the bar and sipped a caramel-apple martini. I didn’t even finish half of it. Once the game was over, it was time to board the flight and head back to Davis!

Come Friday, it was back to the grind. Luckily my brother and Brianna stopped by to provide some midday entertainment. Mike, being the picky-ass bastard he is, had a hard time finding something to eat at Cafe Mediterannee. Shakeh, Brianna and I had to order him something fairly plain. By the end of the meal, he was opening up though and trying the sides the rest of us ordered. The best part of lunch came when Mike ordered a dessert item. As it disintegrated to nothing, he would just pick up all the pieces and put it in his palm, proceeding to devour it like a horse with a carrot offering. We were all laughing at him, but he cared not. Funny enough, this is why I love the guy, always entertaining and completely unapologetic. After lunch, we all walked back to my place and I got right back to work. Shakeh continued to watch some of her shows, and I watched some basketball. We grabbed some Chipotle for dinner, then went to see 21. The movie was actually very good! Several friends were afraid the movie would ruin the book and try to be very flashy and action packed. In the end though, the movie was definitely more about the kid’s life and story then about guns and women.

On Saturday I woke up and got right back to work. Shakeh and I ended up going to Zia’s for lunch, but we had to walk back as there were no seats available. I somehow convinced Shakeh to watch Firefly, and after the second episode, she was hooked. We continued watching, and I also watched basketball, for the rest of the day. We wandered over to Pluto’s for dinner, but just took the food to go because Shakeh wanted to keep watching Firefly. By the end of the night, we were already to the third disc.

Same ol’ on Sunday. Get up, get to work. I started actually writing the paper and discovered that writing an abstract is much harder to write when the rest of the paper is not present. Sometime in the morning, we finished Firefly. Shakeh then went back to watching her shows. For lunch, we visited the 3rd and U cafe. The food was alright, and since no one else was there, the service was quite snappy. I can imagine though, based on what I witnessed, that the service during a peak time would be bad. After lunch, we went back to work. After bringing home Woodstock’s for dinner, we watched The Pianist without subtitles. Funny how the meaning of a movie or scene in a movie can be conveyed through acting, even without an understanding of the dialog.