Memoirs of a CPUNERD

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

Okay, so the weekly recap…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The plan for the night was to go to Craig’s place so people could consume the wine from our Sonoma Trip. While most people from the trip departed from their internships, Carl, Matt, Alden, Ross, and I were still here. Matt, Carl, and I went to Google for dinner with Alden and Ross. Carl had never seen the Google-plex during daylight, so he was letting out the essential “ahs” and such.

While at Google, we ran into Aaron. Sadly enough, he’s leaving for Waterloo at the end of August. We sat down with him and had dinner. For dessert, Carl tried eating one of the Ben & Jerry’s mini-servings from the freezer. Fortunately for us, he tried eating it with the microscopic plastic spoon that comes with each serving. It was quite hilarious, I swear at one point he was going to either break the thing or send ice cream flying into poor Ross.

After dinner and dessert, we headed up to San Carlos to Craig’s place. We didn’t have time to get cheese, so we just made do with our wine. Dave Shreiner, whom you might remember from here, was joining us for the night.

We started off the night with a light wine, something that Carl brought. I wasn’t drinking any, and Craig would have none of that, so he retrieved this wine-cooler like beverage that tasted really good. It was 4% alchoholic though, so I only had two small glasses. In the meantime, the guys were down three bottles, and making headway into a cabernet.

After some general conversation and cheese, we went down to Craig’s hot tub. He brought a bottle of Moscat from Ravenswood, of which I partook a small drink. Somehow, we ended up in the hot tub for three hours, from 10:30 PM until 1:30 PM, after which we promptly departed so I wouldn’t fall asleep driving.