Memoirs of a CPUNERD

I love dogs as much as most people. I’ve lived with them all my life and loved everyone I’ve had.  One kind of dog I’ve never owned though, is a pit bull. If a nice, ordinary dog is man’s best friend, pit bulls are surely man’s worst enemy. I know that pit bulls are very friendly towards humans, even though they’d devour another dog in a second. Pit bulls are also known for their stupidity. And I think we all know that stupid beings can cause a lot of harm (thank you President Bush). I present another case of this. Upon leaving my aunt’s place on Monday night, my cousin Adrienne, aunt Lisa, and I dropped a friend name Ginger off at her house. Adrienne wanted to go inside to see Ginger’s son’s pit bull. The pit bull comes in from the backyard very happy and excited. He jumps on me as I’m used to all dogs doing. Though this time, I can just feel the power in his front legs. Looking down, I swear his shoulders were as broad as mine. I got him down and petted him a bit, then went to wait by the front door. While there, I took my headphones out and put them around my neck, such that the cord was laying diagonal across the front of me. When Adrienne and Lisa are ready to leave, they open the bedroom door and out comes the pit bull, still very happy and excited. He jumps on me again, though this time his legs can’t get down because of the cord. Instead of doing what a normal dog would do, which is to hang there waiting for someone to help, this dog just says “what the heck, I’m big, and obviously pulling this cord won’t hurt me” so sure enough, the dog just brings his legs down and proceeds to break an earphone off from the head set, snap the wire from the headset, and break the input jack to the iPod. ARGH!!! But wait, who am I kidding, aren’t women supposed to be man’s worst enemy ; )

Monday brought Javi’s departure. I woke up at 0630 to get a shower before I drove him to the Reno Amtrak station. I finished wrapping my gifts once I got home, and then I went to Quizno’s and Jamba Juice for lunch. For some reason I was still tired, so I took a nap and then headed with my parents over to Michelle’s place. I had way too many wonderful snacks and proceeded to basically stuff myself on sugar and fat whilest enjoying some quality time with my family. Max had a book on logic puzzles so I spent some time working on that. I actually found a grammatical flaw in the book, so HA! Later on, we watched some of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. I rode back home with Adrienne, Ginger, and Lisa, and got back around 2100. I watched the tail-end of the MNF game, then went straight to bed.

Christmas came on Tuesday morning, though without much ado. Frank, Mom, Grandmother and I exchanged gifts in the morning. Highlights of my gifts included my parents stuffing my stocking with items I’d left behind and they had been pushing me to take for years, a real cashmere scarf straight from Italy, a printer/scanner, and Rachel got me a paperback copy of The Golden Compass (formerly The Northern Lights). I got my mom an iPod and $100 to the iTunes store, and I got Frank the usual $100 to the movie theatres. I got them both more things, but those were the most notable. After the gift exchange we cleaned up and I helped with preparing some more food. Dina and Paul (who got me something quite… interesting) showed up, followed by Michael (I got him some books and he got me I Am America! (And So Can You) by Stephen Colbert) and Bri, Vicki and Sinead, then Lisa, Adrienne, Aunt Barbara, and Lisa’s Mike. We did some more gift exchanging, then ate. I don’t know why, probably because of the comfortable seats and general comatose nature induced by the food, but the entire family ended up playing 20 Questions (though some turned into 40 or 60 questions) for a long period of time. Afterwards, probably around 2130 or so, I went up stairs and went to bed.

On Wednesday, the first thing I did after waking up was read for an hour or so. I didn’t realize how long it had been (practically fifteen months) since I read fiction, because I was reading so slow. After I got out of the shower and packed my stuff up, I helped Mother with her computer, then headed to Davis. I got back in around noon after almost running out of gas on the freeway (shut up, I know, I’m a moron). I went to lunch at Burgers & Brew with Claudia and Victor, the went home and worked for a while. I watched some Family Guy with Abhi at my place before Claudia and Victor joined us to go see National Treasure: Book of Secrets.

I decided that my gluttony was getting the best of me and I need some exercise on Thursday morning. I went to the gym, and then got home and did some work and read some more. Shakeh got in, and then we went to lunch at Pluto’s. We drove back to my place afterwards and relaxed for a few hours, then went to Guadalajara for dinner before going to see Juno at the G Street threatre (which was absolutely packed, might I add). Juno turned out to be a very good movie. It wasn’t as funny as I had hoped, but it had a lot more substance than most of the crap that found its way into the threatres.

Shakeh and I spent virtually all of Friday watching Heroes. We had a brief intermission when Mike and Brianna stopped by for lunch. We went to a deserted Burgers & Brew, then hung out and talked for a while at my place. They eventually took off and headed to Sac to visit Bri’s family. Due to the obscene amount of snacking we did, we skipped dinner in favor of not destroying ourselves.

Saturday brought a wonderfully relaxing day. After showering, Shakeh and I read for a few hours, then headed downtown to Chipotle to get some lunch. We ate there for about half an hour, then went next door to Peet’s to get some coffee. However, the place was packed for some reason, so we instead went to Bogey’s and tried to take advantage of their seventy-five percent off sale. I ended up getting The Fellowship of the Rings, The Return of the King, and two books for Mike. After Bogey’s we went back to Peet’s and found a spot to sit, only to have it overtaken by an unfortunate smelling, seemingly homeless man. We didn’t want to be rude, but it was hard to be around him and enjoy ourselves, so we moved to another table and talked about books we read as kids. After forty-five minutes or so, we went to Border’s so I could pick up The Hobbit and The Two Towers. We also picked up a nice five-hundred piece puzzle depicting a waterfall in Yosemite National Park. On the way back home, we stopped at The Chocolate House to try some truffles and ended up staying there for more than an hour playing chess. We got home around 1700, so I worked while watching the Patriots-Giants game (yay, I can say I saw somethingh historic in sports). After that, Shakeh and I watched Hairspray.

We worked for most of Sunday on the puzzle we bought from Borders. While doing so, we also managed to finish off at least one full season of The Family Guy. Shakeh really wanted soup for lunch, so first we drove to Stone’s Cafe over by Sushi Nobu. Turns out that Stone’s is closed on Sunday, so we went all over Davis and spent about thirty minutes looking for a place to eat. We ended up going to Noodle City. After lunch, we went to the theatres and saw I Am Legend. The movie was a bit disturbing, so when we got home, we turned on all the lights, worked on the puzzle some more, enjoyed some pizza from Round Table, and watched This Film Is Not Yet Rated.

Now that Christmas is almost here, let’s all pig out! At least, that’s what the voices in my head are screaming. Something about the constant surroundings of sugar and fat, it’s just so hard to resist! When you come back, and you see a blob-like thing slithering through the Davis campus, come by and say hello. Otherwise, I might just eat you!

I got up at a just ungodly hour on Monday. Ken’s flight departed from the Sac airport, so I had to be up at 0345 to pick him up by 0355. Alex escorted us to the airport, where we got to say our goodbyes. Ken was actually the most awake of any of us, probably due to the fact that he didn’t sleep. Alex and I headed back to Davis at that point. Though I guess I should say I headed back, since Alex was quite fast asleep in the passenger seat before we even got out of the airport. I got home around 0500 and went right back to sleep. I woke up and decided to skip the gym in favor of getting some more rest. Once I was actually up, I helped Shakeh ready her things, then took her to the airport, dropping her off around 0930. yes, that means I drove one-hundred and twenty miles in one morning. But it was worth it to be able to see people off. I got back into Davis and met up with Rachel, then we went and picked up Javi. We headed to Arden Fair Mall and got there around 1030. We walked in through Sears and proceeded directly to Cinnabon (first thing to eat for me besides a builder’s bar all morning). I ordered a cinnabon and almost ended up throwing half of it away. It was so sweet! It made the back of my throat burn from the all the sugar. The three of us went around to a bunch of shops. In Anchor Blue, I tried on a pair of jeans. The funny thing about them, they fit my waist perfectly, but when I looked in the mirror, I was wearing tights! No kidding, it was quite ridiculous. Obviously I didn’t buy them. We continued our jaunt around the mall, escorting Rachel around until 1500 or so. The three of us grabbed smoothies from Jamba Juice (so… intake for the day is tons of sugar, nothing else) on the way out. About halfway back, all three of us were starting to feel sick, sleepy, and lightheaded from the overdose of sugar and lack of any real food. We got back into town and went to Crepeville as fast as legally possible. I polished off everything on my plate at a speed of which even Mr. Hendrickson would be proud. After lunner (my word!), we went back to my place so I could send a few emails and Rachel could change, then we dropped Javi off. We headed to the basketball games, where Ish was already waiting. We ran into Dani on the way in so Rachel go to say hi. The women played the opener, and won, almost breaking the century mark. For some reason though, they chose to hold instead of hitting the number. After the game, Ish was quite tired so she left right away. The men were up next, and Javi wandered in to replace Ish just in time. I was actually quite surprised by the height of the men’s team. Eleven out of thirteen of the players were at least one-hundred and ninety centimeters (thats 6′4″ for the metrically challenged). The men’s game was good to watch as well. with luck, they’ll be competing for the conference before I graduate. After the gam, we were all tired so we just headed home and slept.

Tuesday morning came the removal of Rachel’s stitches. My apologies, but you’ll have to wander over to Facebook to view the video. It’s over nine minutes long, but most of the good stuff is in the beginning. Before going, we chatted with Verena for an hour or so while the ladies had their morning tea. Rachel made plans to hang out with Danny, so Verena and I schemed to get a few people together for lunch at Zia’s. As Rachel and I were walking out of Verena’s place, a parking attendant was parked by my car. I ran over and quietly explained that I was just picking up Rachel. He said okay, and didn’t bother writing the ticket. I was quite upset at the matter though. I know that the area outside of Verena’s complex requires a resident’s pass to park, but there was NO OTHER CAR to be seen on the block. The attendant really could’ve let that slide… I dropped Rachel off downtown to get some shoes and meet up with Danny, and then I went to run a few errands before lunch. I picked up Alex and then headed to Zia’s to meet up with Ish, Verena, Justin, and Javi. Apparently half the group hadn’t been before, and luckily they enjoyed it. While there, we had a discussion about how within virtually every country, dialects are always present. For example, I know at least fifteen people from Deutschland, and none of them speak with the same accent. At some point in the conversation, Verena showed us her lovely Prussian accent that she uses to scare her students into doing their homework. After lunch, Alex and I dropped Ish off, then headed to the MU to pick up a few things. One of those things happened to be Ken’s old bike that was given to Alex. We found it outside by the fountain, then walked it to B&L to get a basket installed. After we dropped her bike off, I dropped her off at her place and went back to mine with Javi. We watched some Family Guy and messed around on our computers for a few hours, then Rachel showed back up so we switched to watching some basketball. She headed out around 1830 for dinner with her friend, and then Javi headed to Guadalajara while I swung by Alex’s to pick her up on the way. We met up with Justin and his friend Lindsay for dinner. After some wonderful conversation about injuries from sports, we headed over to Cold Stone to partake in some dessert. Unfortunately for us, the place had just closed. Justin and Javi suggested going to Safeway right next door, so we did just that. I got some of Stephen Colbert’s flavor from Ben & Jerry’s, I think it’s called Americone Dream. The four of us took our ice cream and headed to my place for a movie. We all sat and talked on the couch for a bit and somehow got to mentioning Stephen Colbert (I think due to my ice cream) and his appearance at the White House Correspondent Dinner. We ended up going to my room to watch some Youtube clips, including the Stephen Colbert clips. Instead of watching a movie, we just did that for a few hours. I must add that I think I finally met my match in ice-cream eating. Somehow Alex finished off her pint before I did mine! Astonishing. We watched some Happy Tree Friends, Flight of the Conchords, and a few more random clips. Everyone was tired by the end, so we called it a night and people went home.

I finally went to the gym on Wednesday. Justin staggered in at the tail end of my workout so he just did some cardio with me. After the seventeen miles of biking, I walked over to meet up with Rachel, and then we walked even more to go to The Grad. We stopped off at the Starbucks at the University Mall to get her some breakfast food that wasn’t rich in fat, then we headed over to watch the Chelsea-Liverpool match. While watching the match, I took the opportunity to use my free lunch card. The match was good, though sadly Liverpool lost. They also got hit with a red card. Some guy went at someone elses knees with both feet and his spikes showing. That would have hurt. After the match, javi went home for food and Rachel and I went to the market. I didn’t have any cash, so I went to the bank first while Rachel headed to the market to meet up with Jeff. While at the bank, I realized that we had left the speakerbox on the table! Woops… I briskly walked home and then drove back to get my ID. After that, I drove and parked at the market, and then met up with Rachel, Jeff, and not much later, Alex and her shiny man-bike. There were only a handful of vendors at the market, so we stayed only long enough to get some apple juice and cookies. After that, we walked to a few bookstores looking for a “Californian” bookmark for Rachel’s mother. We had no luck with this unfortunately. So we headed back to the park and gave Alex and her manly bike a ride home. Rachel and I then went and picked up Justin and gave him a ride to the airport. And of course, what would a night be without watching some basketball = ) Later on, Abhi, Alex, Javi, and Wijnand joined Rachel and I at Thai2K, followed by some yummy Cinnabread from Woodstock’s.  I dropped Alex off at home and then met up with everyone at my place for some Family Guy.

I managed to get my lazy butt to the gym again on Thursday morning. After I got home and showered, I headed to the airport to pick up Shakeh. We dropped her stuff off at her place, then went to Habit Burger for lunch. We each went back to our places after that and did some wrapping. Rachel got back later in the afternoon, so we hung out for an hour or so, then went to Safeway for some party supplies and Dos Coyotes for Rachel’s last burrito of her trip. We went back home and got the stuff all prepped for the party. A lot of people showed up, I think fourteen in total. There was Franci and Larry, Pieter and Anne, Victor and Claudia, Matthias and Frederic, Shakeh and I, Rachel and Abhi, and Javi and Sebastian. Franci brought some wonderful pumpkin-bread, and the germans, bless them, brought some PBR ; ) The gift exchange was quite fun, and people got away with some, umm, interesting (?) gifts. Not a whole lot of stealing was going on though, at least until near the end. Once we got to the last four people or so, everyone started large chains, which made for some lovely fun.

Friday morning Shakeh and I joined Rachel and Abh at Crepeville for Rachel’s final breakfast in Davis. After that, Shakeh ran to the registrar to pay for her tuition. picked up shakeh from the campus when she was done paying her bills. When she was done, I surprised her with a full day at the movies. First, we went ot the G Street theatre to see Charlie Wilson’s War. We went to Burgers & Brew for a few minutes after that to say goodbye to Charlotte, as she was leaving the next morning. After saying goodbye, we went to Chipotle to get some lunch, and then rushed to the movie theatre to see Sweeney Todd. I needed to move my car once the movie was over, so I did that, and then came back in and we watched Walk Hard. I liked all of the movies, though the first was my favorite from the bunch. After the movies, we went home for a few hours and did some more gift-wrapping, then went to dinner at Cafe Mediteranee.

We got up early on Saturday and packed up our stuff. I headed over to pick up Javi, and then we were off to Reno! We stopped off in Auburn for gas and in Truckee to get some pictures of the landscape. Once we got in, we dropped off our stuff and talked with my parents for an hour or so. We headed to Jamba Juice and then over to the university to check out the campus. While there, I stopped off in the bookstore and bought some items for myself. We headed back home after that, and then went to Bully’s for lunch. The Nevada bowl game ws on while we were there, but they were doing terrible. By the end of the game, Nevada didn’t score a single point. After lunch, Javi and I went downtown and tried our luck at some of the Circus-Circus games. Javi had more luck than I, as he actually won something. After the games, we went to the ice-rink on First street and tried our luck. Neither of us really knew what we were doing, but by the end we were both capable of skating around without holding the railing. We headed home after that and watched Love Actually, then went to sleep.

After Javi got up on Sunday, I took him to enjoy one of the worst (for you) American things one can imagine, Krispy Kreme. After getting breakfast, we headed to Sparky’s to watch the Madrid-Barcelona match. Madrid actually won! Javi was quite pleased, being as he is from Spain, not Catalunya. After the match we headed around to Reno to check out some of the landscape and local architecture. I took Javi to Windy Hill and Grandview before we headed home. At 1730, we went to check out the Christmas lights. As a surprise for everyone, I rented a limo. The problem… The limo would only seat eight people and we had sixteen to come along. The other slight inconvenience was that even though I had requested the limo for checking out Christmas lights, the driver had never done so. He didn’t even know where Hidden Valley was. It wasn’t that big of a problem though. We got to just sit back and relax. We ended up going to Idle Wild Park, Hidden Valley, Moana and Skyline, and the Los Altos Hills.

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!).

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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