Jeff Stuart - Memoirs of a CPUNERD

I know several peopl, myself included, who would be thrilled to have Premiereship games abroad, particularly in the USA. The NFL already has one regular season game played in the UK at Wembley stadium. Why not return the favor? From what I’ve heard, every team in the league would get one game abroad, and seeding would be done to ensure that two teams in the current top-five don’t play (so as not to have one team’s homefield advantage stripped away).

As I said, I’m excited at this prospect. Many Brits are not. And really, I just can’t agree with them. I understand that it would suck to not have that extra home-game, but why not finally let some real football be played in the USA and other countries. Who knows, we might even return the favor with that European NBA division. Oh, let’s just hope you don’t read the last post I wrote…

Shakeh and I ventured to Chipotle for lunch on Monday. Due to all the heavy rain Davis recently endured, my bike was showing some rust and a major lack of oil. So, I did what any reasonable bloke (wait, Rachel said I was a chap) would do and took my bike to the bike shop. While there, I also got the rear wheel adjusted.

Tuesday brought the understanding that I really just need to work on my handstand. Several things will come more naturally I think if I do that. I brought some carrot cake with me to Pluto’s and let Martyn, Alex, and Emma tryt it. Before my meeting, I read at the MU and chatted with Ita. Shakeh got home and we went to Burgers & Brew, then to Salsa.

On Wednesday, Shakeh and I tried Sam’s. The chicken shawerma was awesome.  After that, I went home and worked solid until 2300! Craziness. I did take a small break to cook and eat dinner though. Drat, I had a nice, nine-month streak going where-in I never cooked myself a single meal.

I couldn’t sleep well on Wednesday night, so early Thursday morning I noticed an email from Google EMEA. I played Justin at squash, then Priscilla at racquetball, since I didn’t feel like doing any real cardio. I figured out that I can run my ass off in indoor, and then just sub out. I tend to do much better when I do that (go figure). Tumbling was alright, then I went to hit some tennis balls with Amy, which was so good. It feels great to finally be hitting again. Funny enough, I also got an email from the US Google office. I hurt myself playing indoor at night, I got tripped and fell and used my wrist to break my fall. U played through it for racquetball (which I won), but sat out the men’s indoor game.

I decided to get my wrist checked out on Friday, so I went to health center triage. I joined Shakeh and Javi for lunch at Orange Hut.  Afterwards, I went back to health center and got some X-rays, which came up clean. I watched some of the UCD women’s tennis match, then went home. I worked some more, got another US Google email (when it rains it pours). Shakeh and I went to Thai2k for dinner, then Ciocolat for dessert.

Saturday morning brought a walk to Chipotle. Afterwards, Shakeh and I took a stroll around the neighborhood by 3rd and C. I continued icing my wrist, and watched the Nevada-Hawaii game. I’m happy to say it looks like we’re starting to pick up finally. Javi came over and I helped him with his resume for a bit. We were going to go to Sac with Lee and Verena, but neither Shakeh nor I felt up to it when the time came. We went to manna for dinner instead, then went to watch Fool’s Gold. The movie wasn’t anything special, but it was exciting and fun to watch.

We went to Starbucks and Posh Bagel on Sunday morning. For lunch, Jenny prepared some wonderful food for Lee, Verena, Shakeh, Lindsay, and I. That night, ,y heart sank as I found out that the graphics cards in burn only support compute 1.0, not 1.1. ARGH!

Yes, yes, I know, I know, I’m not actually taking any classes. But still, the end of the quarter is something meaningful. I now have to schedule my daily sport instead of having it handed to me. Not only that, but with the end of the fall quarter comes the departure of several friends. Anuja, Charlotte, Paul, Wijnand, and my Kenny Bear are all departing for good. While I didn’t get to know everyone of them as well as I would have liked, I’m still going to miss them all.

Monday wasn’t very eventful. After my early meeting, I fixed a problem with the splitter (yay!), but not much else happened. Shakeh and I watched the episode of DH that we missed the night before.

Happy Birthday Mr. Kulkarni! Yes, yes, Tuesday was Abhi’s birthday. To celebrate, Vanessa and Charlotte bought a whole Yin-Yang cake from the MU bakery. I stayed and chatted with people until 1400 or so, then went home and got some more work done. I met Shakeh for dinner around 1715 at the new burger place called Burgers and Brew by Crepeville (exquisite, though awful waiting, just go to the Crepeville method). I went home after that and worked until Shakeh picked me up for my IM game. Verena was with her, and so the three of us headed to pick up Ita and Emma. We headed to the fields from there. Long story short, we lost the game. I am now officially against penalty shots. We played the game very well. The final score was 0-0, but the ball encroached onto our side of the field only a handful of times. For the majority of the game, we were pressuring their defense. The opposing team didn’t get a single shot on the goal, while we had several on their goal. And it was a good game too, the other team didn’t play dirty and they didn’t flop, though they did at one point grab onto Leslie’s arm and his shoulder popped out again. This time his arm didn’t go back into the socket though, so there was a very long and unfortunate ordeal for him to get to the hospital. I felt really bad for him since I know almost exactly what he was going through. After the game (which ran until 2230), we gave Ita and Emma a ride home, and then I went home and slept.

Shakeh and I decided to go back to Raja’s for lunch on Wednesday. After lunch, I went to the MU bakery, then talked with Shakeh until 1400. I did some work at the lab, and even to this day am still utterly confused by my machine’s desire to disable its NIC intermittently. For dinner, Google took Elliot, Francis, Daniel, Shakeh, and Justin out to Thai2k for dinner. Afterwards, Shakeh and I went to The Yogurt Shack (on my own nickel, not Google’s) then back to my place for some South Park.

We started doing back-handsprings in tumbling on Thursday. Finally, finally, finally, I took a racquetball game from Coach Clink. I had a really long lunch with everyone, then Went to the lab for some work. I stayed until 1600 or so, then rode home. For dinner, Shakeh, Falcon, and I took Tony to Sophia’s (his choice). After dinner, Shakeh and I went to our first of three extended Salsa lessons. There were significantly less people there, which was very nice. Van went over several of the previous moves, then we went over the Figure-8 turn. After dancing, I met up with Zach and Daniel to go see Enchanted. The movie was alright, though a bit tought to watch. For some reason, disbelief is much more easily suspended with a cartoon then with a live-action sequence.

We had to get a few more things for Abhi and Verena, so on Friday, Shakeh and I went to the Davis Commons. We went to Pluto’s for lunch, then ran to The Gap and Borders afterwards. Google hosted TGIF, and as usual, several people showed up. Getting the food ordered was a bit of a mess though, the silly gift card has some reservations with how much cap is needed for a tip and what not. I eventually had to go to the pizza place in person and get everything situated. After TGIF, I went home and worked for a bit, then took Shakeh to BJ’s in Vacaville for dinner. There was a long wait to get in, but we passed that by having drinks. Shakeh sampled a fruity cocktail that tasted good, while I tried root beer from the tap (it was great). We sat down and decided to split a buffalo chicken pizza. We each ate a slice or two, then boxed everything up and headed home to get some well needed sleep.

Shakeh fell in love on Saturday, this time with a show called Beauty and the Geek. MTV ran the previous seasons and Shakeh couldn’t turn the TV off while it was being played. I managed to tear her away for a bit as we went to look for some wrapping paper and get her some coffee. The time eventually came for us to go to Abhi and Verena’s birthday bash at La Casa de Frederic y Matthias. It was a smart party, so I busted out a tie. We got there and made Abhi open his gifts, which included a wonderful floppy frisbee set featuring the faces of famous Disney princesses. Throughout the night, there was plenty of beer pong and screwing around on the no-stripping strip-pole. Miles screwed around a bit too much though and apparently put two holes in the wall. Woops… Before I left, I danced a bit with the girls, then got thrown into a grid session between Miles and Danny. Luckily there were other girls nearby to pull me to safety.

Before they left town, Shakeh and I met up with Verena and the Bay Area Boys at Burgers & Brew. We all enjoyed our lunch (though don’t get the chili fries), then Shakeh and I headed back to my place to get some work done. We finished off the night with the season finale, which was a bit depressing and weird to say the least.

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. ; )

Moving just sucks, period. It doesn’t really matter how small the move is, it’s still just a pain in the butt. And it doesn’t even have to just be moving! Even if all one is doing is rearranging a room, the process can still take a long time.

On Monday, five of us went to Euro for lunch. We found out that their micro-kitchen has a few cool things. I worked on MGI some. F***ing Cortex is giving me problems with my account whenever someone is running NCS. It’s essentially blocking me from making any progress.

I think I overdid it on the exercise bike on Tuesday. I went for fifty minutes pretty hard. For lunch, I went to 1400 with Tracy, Laurynas, and Tibbits. Daniel was going to come but he didn’t want to bike and thus went to Plymouth with Falcon and Ghassan. The lessons were great today! I still suck, but I’m having fun none the less. I went to No Name with Daniel afterwards, then went home and worked on MGI some more.

I ended up going to a late lunch at MOMA with Andrew. We discussed some of C++’s shortcomings. After work, I went home and worked on MGI some more. I found out that GNUmake likes to use absolute paths instead of symlinks. If it’s not one thing, it’s another >\

All of us took scooters to Seven for lunch. I hit a MAJOR milestone for my intern project! yay! I went to lesson’s and dragged Inga with me. We both really enjoyed it, though Inga had to go early. The instructor was different this time, but still very good with his explanations. After saying goodbye to Inga, I ran and grabbed a burrito for me and Falcon. I dropped Inga off at her car, then went to get Falcon and we headed to D&B. We got lost for half an hour because I thought The Great Mall was west of 880 (wrong!). I got a small bite to eat there (you could get a full entree and a twenty-dollar game card for twenty-five dollars). Juan, BJ, Falcon, Justin, Carol and I were the ones who showed up. We played some games for a while. Justin and I broke even at air hockey. We played some racing games and basketball games, then watched Falcon play House of the Dead before finally taking off. We got home around midnight or so. Needless to say, getting back was much easier =T

I went to lunch with Juan and Justin at PIC on Friday. We had a really entertaining TGIF. I got dinner with Inga and Laurynas, then went back to my place and started packing. Tony showed up around 2100. Daniel and I finished loading up with Tony’s help and took off around 2200. I got in to Davis around 2330, finished moving stuff in, and went to bed at 0100.

Shakeh and I planned on rearranging my room early in the morning, then we were going to go the Farmer’s Market, and then maybe see a movie and relax before going to the BBQ. Of course… that didn’t happen. We started rearranging my room around 09:00. By 11:00, we had just finished moving all the loose stuff out, so we realized the process would take much longer than we expected. We didn’t finish until almost 17:00. Afterwards, we cleaned up, showered off, and then rested for an hour before heading to Elena’s and Marilena’s place. If anyone wants a recommendation for a roommate, go with internationals who know how to cook! Everything there was great. Besides the good food and old friends, I also met a few new people. We stayed at the BBQ until 22:30, enjoyed the best Baklava I’ve ever had, then went home and slept.

Sunday morning, I had grand plans. Part of those plans including avenging my previous loss in tennis to Mr. Kulkarni. I met up with him at 09:00. We warmed up for a bit, then proceeded to play. I started out really well, grabbing the first 6-2. The second set I let up a little though and lost 4-6. I thought I was going to lose the tie breaker again, but I pulled through and clinched it, 10-8. After the match, I went to the ARC to go work out. Turns out the damn thing was closed… For the best I guess. I went home and showered, then Shakeh and I watched The Number 23. It was pretty good, and I really like seeing Jim Carrey in a non-comedic role. After we were done with the movie, we met up with Abhi and more new internationals at Borders. We stayed there and chatted for a few hours, then Shakeh and I went to Pastaq for dinner. When we got home, I messed around for an hour or so and found out that my stupid laptop can’t handle Blu-Ray quality DVD rips, so I had to use my work laptop to watch an HD version of Reign On Me.

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.