Memoirs of a CPUNERD

I know this point is brought up constantly. And it’s not that I mind it, but… doesn’t it seem really funny that a secular country observes religious holidays [1, 2, 3]? Don’t try and bring up the founding fathers, just don’t. The types of observation vary, but they are indeed observed. Halloween has very little bearing on most people’s lives, but the government is still involved. Easter always falls on a Sunday, and a sizeable portion of the population, including business owners, use the day to celebrate. Christmas is actually recognized by the federal government of the United States. Just food for thought.

Like I said, don’t give me this speech about how America was founded by Christians. That is not the case[4, 5, 6]. America was founded by Freemasons [7, 8, 9, 10]. Those Freemasons did have respect for all religions but fought for a nation in which religion was not a qualifying or discriminatory factor for any person.

Halloween is an interesting holiday to examine. The celebration is largely secular now, but the history lies with Christianity. Local governments even go so far as to plan the specific night on which kids celebrate. Luckily for adults, this celebration doesn’t affect them all that much. They just have to turn on their porch light, hand out candy, and pray (yes, this word was intentional) that their house doesn’t get vandalized.

Now let’s examine the impact of Easter. Sunday comes around, ninety percent of Davis shuts down. Easter might not be a United States Federal Holiday [11], but it is a day in which the country says “I’m taking the day off.” And good for them, I whole-heartedly love the fact that people of any religion here can celebrate their holidays openly.

Christmas is a more iffy situation. It is the one religious holiday that the federal government of the United States recognizes. Fair? Don’t ask me. All I know is that if it weren’t for casinos and movie theatres, there wouldn’t be an open business in half the U.S. cities.

I know this is mainly a collection scattered thoughts, but I just figured they were worth sharing. But being as nobody ever reads these notes, it doesn’t matter. Right God? ; )

[1] - Christmas history - The origins of Christmas and related celebrations…
http://www.christmas-time.com/ct-history.htm

[2] - All Hallows Eve, All Souls and All Saints Day - Halloween’s Christian Roots…
http://www.americancatholic.org/features/halloween/

[3] - CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Easter
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05224d.htm

[4] - The U.S. NOT founded upon Christianity
http://www.nobeliefs.com/Tripoli.htm

[5] - Top 5 myths about america (sic)
http://www.scribd.com/doc/26169/Top-5-myths-about-america

[6] - Our Founding Fathers Were NOT Christians
http://freethought.mbdojo.com/foundingfathers.html

[7] - Freemasonry
http://www.freemasonry.org/

[8] - Freemasons
http://www.nobeliefs.com/freemasons.htm

[9] - Freemasonry, symbolisms of Masonry, art gallery
http://www.religion-cults.com/Secret/Freemasonry/Freemasonry.htm

[10] - Christians beware - of Freemasonry
http://bibleprobe.com/freemasonry.htm

[11] - Holidays and Other Dates in the US Secular Calendar
http://www.smart.net/~mmontes/ushols.html

On Monday, Shakeh and I went back to Jojo’s, hoping that they were actually just closed on Sundays. Turns out they were indeed out of business. What the heck? The owner of the building was there, and he told us that he’s had one hell of a time trying to find a reliable partner to lease the building. After lunch, the cast came off! I received a splint for the next few weeks, but at least I can take that thing off and air the hand out (and wash it).

Justin decided to skip the gym on Tuesday. After doing cardio, I went for a bike ride around Davis again. I visited the MU for lunch. I worked for a bit, then went to Burgers & Brew with Abhi, Shakeh, Martyn, and Sara for dinner.

On Wednesday, I lifted for half an hour, then played three and a half hours of racquetball with John and Chris. Rather intense. I picked up Amanda from the airport and then showed her the campus. Sara and I bowled with her until 1830, then we went to the Farmer’s Market. I overdid things just a bit and ordered a polish dog (good), a paneer wrap (so-so), and a bunless buck (great!). Franci, Javi, Shakeh, and Larry also joined us at the market. We left as the weather was getting cold.

Amanda and I woke up early on Thursday, got ready, picked up Sara, and headed to Posh Bagel and Starbucks. We ordered some breakfast, then headed straight to to SF. We did the usual thing, parking at Daly City and taking the BART in. We visited Union Square park first, then headed to Hyde park. After that, we circled back around to Chinatown to look around, then went to North Beach and visited the Stinking Rose. We went to Washington Square Park and then made our way to Coit Tower. We walked around and wound our way to Pier 39 and checked out the Battlin’ Sea Lions. It was funny, some of them would be in the water, trying to get back up onto a platform. However, other sea lions had opposing plans. As one sea lion would try and get onto a platform, the other sea lion would just butt it off. It was fun to watch. After that, we walked to the wharf and watched the sourdough guys work their magic at the Boudin Bakery, then laughed at all the people getting startled by the bush guy. We went to Ghiradelli Square next and enjoyed some wonderfully decadent then took the trolley back to the BART. We crossed the Golden Gate by car, then headed to Horizon’s in Sausolito. After a long day, we got home and Amanda and I just crashed.

On Friday, Amanda and I went to The Village Bakery for a quick bite, then headed to Berkeley. Amanda and I walked around the campus and checked out a few of the buildings, then headed to Telegraph street for a quick look. We went to Palo Alto along 280, then walked down University Avenue and stopped at Madison and Fifth for lunch. I had a ravioli dish that was really good, but made my stomach hurt. We didn’t get a chance to really check out Stanford because there was absolutely no parking. We went to Google and had a forty-five minute tour, courtesy of Andrew. After that, we headed back to Davis. We got in, met up with Sara, Shakeh, and Javi for dinner at Kathmandu Kitchen. We went home and tried to watch Run Fatboy Run, but ended up watching The Darwin Awards instead.

Saturday we went to breakfast with Sara at Crepeville. Said goodbye (again) = \, then headed to the airport to drop off Martyn. Shakeh, Amanda, and I then went to Old Town Sac. My parental units met up with us, then we walked around and went to a Mexican restaurant for lunch. Shortly after lunch, we headed back to Davis. Amanda and I biked to “The Domes,” then another eight miles around the Davis bike loop. After we got back, we rested for a bit, then went to see Drillbit Taylor with Shakeh and Javi. We went to Sophia’s for dinner after that, then Amanda and I headed back to my place.

A lazy day was had on Easter Sunday. I worked through most of it, as did Amanda. pretty much a lazy day. Amanda and I wandered down to the 3rd and U cafe for lunch, which was closed for Easter (like most of the town apparently). We ended up going to Woodstock’s for lunch since most other things were closed and Bistro was just doing an easter brunch that was ridiculously overpriced. Later that night, Amanda and I met up with Bill, Emma, and Laura at Pluto’s for dinner around 1815, then headed to see the Bank Job.

You know it’s coming, you hope it won’t be that bad, but then it happens. It’s worse = \ Virtually everyone I know at Google is gone. The only one’s left are me, Daniel, Falcon, and Inga. The world just got significantly more lonely. And to make matters worse, Inga and Daniel are leaving in two weeks.

On Monday morning, I woke up, went to gym, and found no one there (obviously). I worked for a while to make up for missing Friday. Tony and Ciderman came over to my place in the afternoon. We played Wii for a bit, then went to Google to play ping pong (stole a game from Tony!). After that, we went home and watched Die Hard 4 with Brian. Andrew was right, I was seriously offended to my core as an engineer.

On Tuesday, Shakeh and I went to Nola’s for our nine-month anniversary. I actually went out of my way to order a fish dish. The food was really good, though the fish was really oily. After dinner, we went back to my place and watched a movie, then I took Shakeh back to her aunt’s place. I didn’t end up getting home until after 23:00.
The gym was exceptionally difficult on Wednesday, and that was probably due to lack of sleep. I went to lunch with Philip, Daniel, and Falcon. We ran into Matt Damon and Tracy. After lunch, I worked for a few hours, then headed to the EngEDU fair. I got my free shirt, said hi to a few people, then took off. I stopped at The Hub for half an hour or so, then went back to work and got my new loaner laptop. I went to dinner at No Name with Daniel, Falcon, and Laurynas. After that, I went back to The Hub with my new laptop and worked while I watched the first one and a half sets of the Roddick-Federer match.

The power went out in our building on Thursday. Tracy, Tibbets, Daniel, and I took a conference bike and rode to the Crittendon campus. We ate at PIC, grabbed some gummy bears, then Tibbits and I went upstairs to go play Wii tennis for a few sets. We rode back, then I scrambled to finish my intern-presentation poster on time. I went to lessons from 1800 until 1930, then ran into Daniel as he was heading to dinner. We ate at No Name, then met Falcon and Tony in the game room back at Crittendon for some Guitar Hero and more tennis. After games, I went back to my place with Tony, Falcon, and Brian. We watched Scanners, a rather awful C-movie from Canada that was made before we were born.

On Friday, I had lunch at Pacific with a bunch of people, including two of Daniels friends. I went to the social TGIF with Tibbits and Tracy, but it wasn’t that exciting. Daniel and I played ping-pong for half an hour or so. Shakeh and Vahe showed up. We grabbed some food, walked around the place for a bit, then headed up to Malibu. Tony met us up there after we were done in the batting cages. Tony and I did four laps on the Grand Prix, then Shakeh, Vahe, and I did some laps on the turbo cars (Vahe doesn’t have a U.S. license). Falcon showed up, so I took Shakeh as a passenger on the Grand Prix and Falcon took Vahe. After two laps, Shakeh and Vahe got out and drove the turbo cars some more while Tony, Falcon, and I did two more laps on the Grand Prix. Once we were done, Tony, Falcon, and I headed to Redwood City to get some food. We walked around for awhile and settled on this place called Citrine. On the way there, we noticed that a fire alarm had been set off, and the entire strip mall (which included a movie theatre) was forced to evacuate and wait outside while the fire department checked it out. On the way back from dinner, Falcon and I got lost and didn’t get back until almost midnight.

I went to a Subaru dealership on Steven’s Creek (which was somewhat confusing to find) to get my alarm battery replaced on Saturday morning. Once that was taken care of, I went to the Hub and watched the U.S. Open and worked for six hours. Falcon showed up somewhere in the middle so I went from The Hub to his working area. Lee met up with me around 1700, so I joined him in gathering some food. Once our bellies were silenced, we went to the AT&T store in Palo Alto so Lee could buy a RAZR2. Once he completed his purchase (I still think he should have bought a 4GB iPhone) we went back down to Mountain View to get dinner with Tony. We went to a Mediterranean place right by the theatre. We saw Shoot ‘em Up, which was great. It was completely satirical and unapologetic. After the movie, Tony went home and Lee and I were going to do the same, then decided to go play some Wii sports. We finished up around Midnight (with me thoroughly spanking Mr. Hendrickson, and him issuing a slew of profanity so constant and obscene it would make a sailor proud), then went home.

I met up with Tony Sunday morning to go to Google for some ping-pong and laundry. Once Tony was done decimating me, we went to the classic arcade by one of the cafes and played some games on the ultracade machine. We spent an hour playing competitive Puzzle-Bobble-4. I believe the final score was Tony-3, Jeff-17. Better luck next time my Haitian friend.

Anyone who’s ever worked out or participated in sports with me knows how much I sweat. It’s not completely excessive, but it is more than normal. Everyone has their theories as to why. Some people think that it’s just genetic, some people blame it on hyperhidrosis. The thing is, I do remember sweating less or not at all when I weighed less. This leads me to believe that the simplest answer for why I sweat more than others is simply thermoregulation and Bergmann’s Rule. Sigh, time to get my butt back on the exercise bike…

Monday wasn’t all too exciting. I went to Off The Grid with Rachel for lunch, and then to No Name and Charlie’s with Andrew for dinner. My B5 quest continues.

The director of UNICEF gave a talk on Tuesday. It was interesting, though it was readily apparent that she is still a politician and a bureaucrat. After lunch, Andrew came by and grabbed all of my B5 while I went to a Vis talk by a professor from Berkeley. And the best part of the day, right as I was settling into working and hitting my stride, my building had a fire drill. Double Hamburgers.

With Wednesday came the Google Intern Scavenger Hunt. The hunt itself is produced by The Go Game. We did a few fun things, though most of it was just running around frantically between Ghiradelli Square and Pier 39. I had the unfortunate duty of singing to a woman in the middle of the street on bended knee. I’m sure no one (myself included) enjoyed hearing me screech. After we got back, I did a tiny amount of work, then went to dinner.

Thursday marked the annual intern open house. Tony and Ciderman came. It was different from last year. Instead of BBQing there was just sushi for everyone (we skipped out and went to No Name for pasta), and instead of shirts, people got a leather bound journal. Oh, and instead of giving away four DS lites, they gave away a Google branded iPod. The talks weren’t quite as interesting this year either, though they were more in the spirit of “Open House” than the previous year.

Yuan showed up for lunch. Daniel, Falcon, Yuan, and I went to No Name for lunch. After work, I played ping-pong with Andrew, then ate dinner with Bill, Scott, and Jonas. Even though I left after traffic should’ve stopped, it still took more time than usual to get into Davis.

On Saturday morning, Shakeh and I watched Heroes before going to the Farmer’s Market. We didn’t stay long though, as Shakeh was running a bit late and the market was almost closed by the time we got there. We each grabbed something frmo The Hotdogger and a homemade popsicle. We ran from the market (drove, really, but eh…) to the movie theatres just in time to catch a showing of The Bourne Ultimatum. However, Shakeh left her glasses at home so we had to run back and grab them. This actually turned out to be better, since it allowed us to get better seats and not rush so much. After the movies, we went back to my place and relaxed for a little bit, then got ready and went to Soga’s for dinner. After Soga’s, we went back to my place and almost finished all of the first season of Heroes.

On Sunday morning, we finished watching Heroes. After that, we went to Cafee Bernardo for breakfast. Shortly after that, I left and headed back to Mountain View. Daniel and I went to Google to do laundry and play ping pong, but Google was out of detergent! I ran to 7-11 to buy some, then headed back to start our laundry and play. Katie showed close to when we were leaving, so we played a game or two, then headed back to my place. I folded my laundry real quick, then Sean showed up so the three of us left. We went to La Strada in Palo Alto for dinner. It was good, and it wasn’t that expensive. After dinner, we headed up the 101 to San Francisco to see Eddie Izzard! We got a parking spot right across from the place, but Lee hadn’t eaten so we had to walk to Union Square for him to find a place to eat. After he ate, we rummaged around Border’s for a bit, then headed back to the show. Izzard was great! Though he didn’t wear any drag. The theatre was really small too, there couldn’t have been more than a few hundred people in the place.

I noticed something peculiar the other day. Many people, myself included, will tell others that the best way to lose weight is to get off your butt and actually exercise. Lifting weights won’t cut it either, one needs to do cardiovascular exercise to get some calories burning and your heart rate going. Of course, since I can no longer work out five hours a day, I decided instead to take my own advice and actually start doing really cardio work. For some reason though, I still haven’t lost any weight. I figured that it might not come off all at once, but after a month, I should’ve lost at least something. I figured there was only one explanation, my diet. Hence, as of Monday, I decided no more greasy meat or an over-abundance of fruit for breakfast, and no more Google-red items from the menus. I’m sure this means more than I realize, but for now, I’m sticking with it.

On Monday, I made a decision to stop eating red items from the Google cafes, and to try and eat healthy when on my own. So, for breakfast, I got a meat-free, cheese-free omelet, and only a small amount of fruit. For lunch, Rachel, Katie, Paul, Andrew, Nathan, Sam, and I had lunch at American Table. I’ve determined I don’t really like the place. Hopefully I won’t ever go back. Andrew and I were set to play tennis at 18:45 at Rengstorff Park, so we set up to have dinner at 18:00. He was half an hour late though (work-related), so we didn’t get to the park until 19:15. I also ended up eating alone because he was late. We played tennis until 20:00 or so, then I showered off and watched some more B5 (episodes 1×11-1×13).

Rachel had never been to Pintxo, so on Tuesday we ate lunch there. It was really good (like last time), but it wasn’t very filling. I blame that both on the serving sizes and on the fact that all the truly filling dishes are typically red, not green or orange. Oh, and all the desserts were red! Double ARGH! In the afternoon, I spent a decent amount of time guiding Adrienne and Lisa from Reno to Mountain View. They decided to go through San Francisco, so I had to take them the long way down 280. The finally showed up here (after missing several turns) at 18:00. They got their visitor badges, then we went to dinner at Charlie’s and No Name. We ate with Falcon, then i showed them around the place. Adrienne admitted later she had no idea why I wanted to show her around an office, but after the tour she was very excited and definitely digging all of the free stuff. After the tour, I said goodbye, then went home and watched some more B5 (episodes 1×14-1×16).

The first rain of the summer came on Wednesday. Though, I wouldn’t even really call it rain, more of a slight drizzle. For lunch, I went with Inga, Katie, and Rachel to Oasis. I ate an enormous amount of food, but I think most of it was vegetables, because I was still hungry. It’s only been three days and I can already tell that finding beef that is non-red will be impossible. After dinner, I went home and did the usual B5 watching.

The Ozzfest was Thursday, and boy was it ever apparent! Daniel and I went to lunch at No Name, then went to a tech-talk on Linux Telephony at 13:00. The talk was really boring though, so we went upstairs, distracted ourselves for a little while, then went in to the Partners Matter demo at 14:00. We get there a little early, which turned out to be a great idea. A lot of other interns got turned away because the demo was supposed to be for full-timers only. After getting two-shirts (which was non-trivial), I headed back to my building and basked in my triumph where other interns had failed.

We had an interesting TGIF on Friday. As you can imagine, there was some discussion about the stock price falling because of missed revenue prediction by The Wall Street Journal. After TGIF, I played ping-pong with Andrew for a while, then played volleyball with some guys. Funny enough, Sergey (as in Brinn) was actually playing as well. It was decent fun, but I got a little sandy and very sweaty, so I had to run home and shower. After the shower, I headed to Castro St. to meet Jeff Wu and Falcon for dinner. We ate at a Thai place called The Bangkok Spoon. It was alright, but I miss Sophia’s…

I had the most relaxing Saturday I had in a long time. I got up at 7:00, out of bed at 7:20, and started watching B5 at 7:30. I didn’t stop watching until 18:30. In that time, I consumed literally no food. I guess my body is finally learning to not tell me it’s hungry when it doesn’t need any full. After I got showered, I headed to Redwood Shores to pick up Shakeh. We headed to Palo Alto to meet up with Lee and Andrew for dinner. Our original plan was to go to Bucca di Bepo, but the place had an hour wait. So instead we went across the street to The Gordon Biersch Brewery. After dinner, Shakeh and I hung out at my place for an hour or so, then I took her back to Redwood Shores.

Sunday was another lazy day. I watched a lot of B5. Around noon, Daniel and I went to Google to do laundry and play ping-pong. Remember that scene in Forrest Gump when Forrest is playing ping-pong against that Chinese guy? Remember how far back they were standing? Daniel and I got into several rallies like that, it was quite cool. After laundry, I went back home and watched a little more B5, then headed to Dave Shreiner’s place for a nice braai. After that, I went back home, watched some more B5 with Falcon, 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