indonesia - day 1!

it's so amazing. a few sentences can't do it justice, so i won't even try. just imagine: canals, stray goats, roosters, traffic beyond nyc but w/ ojeks and motorbikes, and a full meal for $3. sheley's amazing, and she's fluent enough to takte care of us :)

we're goin to bali tomorrow!

boston - week 11 (final)

the last week was pretty good. my work at mit came to a close, and i was in a huge rush to finish all of my work. kind of sad to leave boston. in all honesty, for some reason it seems like home way more than LA does. i'm not just sayin that cause i've wanted it to be home for so long, but i think it's because of all the things i did while i was there. i'm pretty sure i explored boston during those 11 weeks than i have LA in the 52 weeks. it's definitely possible since school consumes much more time than a 8-5 job, and being around tons of intern friends helps too. nevertheless, this was one of my best summer's ever. i realize i can't directly compare summers, as they each provided something unique, but it was definitely very enjoyable.

on a funny note, you know how i've had a notoriously bad relationship w/ the postage system? during the last 2 years, i've had probably a 50% success rate on receiving packages. USPS is the worse, followed by UPS. i believe FEDEX and I have an almost flawless relationship. she's definitely becoming my favorite. if you remember, earlier i blogged about how an RA stole one of my packages for sheley. then, i had a huge fiasco w/ another. well, i ordered 4gb memory stick for my camera, along w/ a lens cleaner kit. it shipped on august 15th. 4 weeks later as i leave boston, i still never received it. in fact, it was 'lost in cambridge,' for over 2 weeks. workers at the harvard location of USPS knew me by name and phone # as they tried to help during that time, and they said they've never seen something like it before. haha. great. so, i just ordered it all again and shipped it to LA. i came home last night and saw a failed delivery attempt, lol. man, they really have it out for me.

oh, and holy cow LA/life-in-general is expensive. during the last 24 hours:

• taxi to airport (5 miles)= $47
• 2 carry-on luggage bags = $40
• food at logan airport = $15
• food at LAX airport = $15
• rent for september = $1,700
• gas bill = $30
• car insurance payment = $300
• fill up gas tank = $45
• few groceries to last me for 2+ days = $40
• misc cvs items = $20
• laundry = $5
  
• books for my flights = $30
• commute to and from ucla gym = 50 cents

i like the last one the best.

okay, and the most exciting news of all:
tomorrow night i'm flying to see sheley in indonesia!!! it's been 6 months since we've seen each other! i'm coming back on the 27th or so. i bought us plane tickets to bali, too :) i'll probably take at least a picture or two while i'm there.

boston - week 9 and 10

okay, clearly history repeats itself. i've somehow gone two weeks again without posting. so, i'm not really sure what all has happened in the meantime, but it's definitely been good. i've felt really grateful lately for this summer--being able to live in boston, and turns out the internship only has a 10% acceptance rate. i had no idea. it's been a blast. all the other interns left 2 weeks ago, as their schools are normal (i.e. on the semester system, not quarter). so, it's just been me chillin in my new harvard/porter square apartment, and going to work each day. i realized that my schedule is pretty tight: leave front door for work at 7:30am, commute, work, gym, commute home, and it's 8pm. cook and eat, then it's 9pm. oh well.

last week, i walked to harvard to take some pics. originally i was taking pics of their grandiose, 1700s style buildings, but i ended up getting distracted by a garden of flowers and a bee. so, that consumed most of my pictures. i realize that sounds very masculine.






today was an amazing day. my tuition stuff was accepted, and i get to save $5k per quarter! (my 10-week tuition goes down from 8.3k to 3.3k). that's so hard to believe. that's soooo cheap compared to florida tech. 3.3k x 3 quarters = ~10k/yr. FIT is ~33k. yay for public schools. also, i think i got a new roommate today, and work is going well.

this week's indo lesson for the readers:
boleh saya minta aire botol = may i have a bottle of water
"bo-lay sigh-ya mean-ta eye-rrree bo-tall"

i have a feeling i'll be saying that very often when i'm there. it's quite possibly the most important phrase i've learned.

boston/cambridge - week 7 & 8

(pics of the charles river, which my room overlooked)

i really shouldn't go two weeks without writing, as i know i'm leaving out much.

at the end of week 7, all of us MIT lincoln lab interns had to leave our on-campus housing due to the incoming mit students' needing to move in. sad day. it was definitely an amazing place to stay. plus, one can only imagine how fun and easy it is to find housing in boston for only a 4 week stay. i should have started my search earlier. i had many craigslist people stand me up and back out just hours before i was going to come and pay. oh well. i finally got a nice, little place near porter sq (north of harvard). it was only $750/month, so i got a steal. :) only catch is there is no closet, so i improvised w/ the wall and the bookshelf in the neighboring room. it's only half a mile from the T (subway station), and the neighborhood definitely has a nice homely, old-school, historical, pot-hole-ridden street feel to it. it's good. its suburbian feel reminds me a lot of georgia's.




what i really like is how accessible and well-connected the town is--this applies to all of boston and cambridge. its walk-ability has helped me fall in love w/ this city. but yea, the streets here are uncommonly empty of cars, and are overwhelmed w/ joggers in all directions. i remember noticing this one day as i walked home from work in my dress shoes. as i crossed the intersection, i could see no cars in sight, but i saw a young woman pushing a baby stroller in the middle of the street to my left, someone w/ laundry on the sidewalk to my right, and a jogger coming towards me. later that day, we had a thunderstorm, and i just opened my windows and enjoyed it. i could definitely live here. at least i say this now, having not experienced the notorious winters. i don't want to be a snowman.

recently, i've been to a few restaurants, including a thai one and a more generic malayasian and chinese one. i need practice for when i go to indonesia. oh, and i've been learning some indonesian. i can only say basic phrases such as greetings, name exchanges, where i'm from, expressing what i like/dislike, want, need, etc, and just a tad concerning food, drink, direction/location. if anyone says anything beyond these exact phrases, i'm probably hopeless, heh. good thing i'll have my loving sidekick to help me out ;) she's pretty much fluent.

Q: which language do you wish to learn?

boston - week 6

the past two weeks have had the best sunsets i've ever seen in my life. the above pics were taken on different days, each with my cheap, old point-and-shoot camera (my main camera was still in the shop).

this past week, tim, one of my best friends from college (florida tech) was in town from nyc for a software engineering conference. so, we hung out, quite a few times... went to some restaurants, walked through boston, hung out w/ some of my boston friends, and went to a comedy show again. definitely good times, as i hadn't seen him in a 1.5 yrs, back when we were both visiting our parents in atlanta.

i ordered myself a new camera lens a while back, and it was scheduled for delivery this past friday. that's exciting since i rarely buy myself anything, and since i'll then have a really nice lens for when i visit sheley in indo. well, it wasn't gonna be too exciting since my camera body was still supposed to be in the shop for 1 more week. anyway, i called the repair guy while at work, and turns it out it was ready! the shop was closing soon and was 1.5 hrs away from me. so, i urgently called around and got ryan, who was close by, to walk there and pay the guy $200 cash for me :) what a good friend. so, it was great to be able to use my camera and its new lens on friday, instead of having until monday. that would have been annoying, but surely would have tested my patience, heh. here are some pics i took:





sunday, i went to a good church on park street for the 1st time. the sermon was very good. afterwards, ben and i went to a famous pastry shop. let's just say anyone with taste buds and eyes will immediately have their mouth watering upon walking in. actually, now that i write this, it's got me drooling again. in fact, im gonna go eat my last canolli from the fridge now :)

Q: what's your favorite dessert?

boston - week 4 and 5

i didn't take time to post last week, so i'm sure i'm leaving out stuff. the things that come to mind now are:

• went to Improv Boston. 4 groups. most were decent, 1 was amazing
• took my camera to repair shop :( out of commission for 3 weeks
• ordered canon 100mm f/2.8 USM lens! along w/ some other accessories :)
• got vaccinations for my trip to indonesia
• had an RA steal my mail package
  

oh, and one morning at 7:30, all the interns and i were walkin to the bus stop, as usual. as i crossed the crosswalk, i looked up and saw a guy walkin diagonally towards me. we were abt to collide and neither of us wanted to budge. so, naturally, he brought his elbow up to body check my shoulder as he said, 'get the [freckles] out of my way!' lol, it was pretty funny. who does that, especially at 7:30 in the morning? too much hatred.

as for the package stealing, i ordered a gift for sheley. i came home, saw the slip in my box signifying that i have a package. we interns were in a rush to go see the improv show, so i figured i'd get it when i come home. yet, at 11:30pm, the slip had magically disappeared from my box. nobody has access to my box, other than the RA behind the desk, as the boxes are open from the back, and the RAs are the ones who put the slips in. i asked the girl RA on duty--let's call her ms. jerkface--how that's possible. i saw my name on the list of ppl who had packages awaiting them, too. yet, my package was nowhere behind the RA desk. gone. she refused to even look through all of the packages for me and told me to come back tomorrow. how nice of her. 2 hrs of convos and investigation later, management and i confirmed that nobody had been accidentally handed my package, and that mrs. jerkface was the only person on duty during the span of time from when i first saw the slip and from when the slip was gone. clearly, she stole it, but they refuse to accuse her of such. i feel sorry for her, though. that's pretty low. management might reimburse me, though. yay.

boston - week 2

this past week has been fun-filled w/ so many events that i can't even recall them all. well, the ones that stick out at least are:

• going to see blue man group
• 4th of july fireworks on the charles bridge (and the pre-show on the 3rd)
• u.s.s. constitution parade
  
• my birthday

blue man group was pretty sweet, and the venue was much smaller than i expected. definitely worth the $25 we paid, but definitely not worth the retail price tag of $60.

3rd of july pre-show was marked w/ a huge downpour right before the show started, which cause huge lines as the ~200k people crammed into the grassy venue area once the rained stopped. the boston pops orchestra performed, along w/ the rascal flatts (country). a few people clapped for the flatts, but i believe they were clapping moreso from being happy that the flatts were done. it really amazed me that the theme included baseball so much, which definitely made me feel right at home here. i'm falling in love w/ boston. on the 4th, we saw the fireworks from the bridge. best show i've ever seen--the works went in tune w/ the orchestra. very nice :)

for my birthday, we went to one of the supposed top 18 seafood places in the nation. it only seats ~15 people. somehow, we managed to gather ~9 people to go... mostly intern friends and a few homeless people. good food, and not too expensive. afterwards, we walked by fenway and played pool. pretty much the best pool place i've ever been to. well, it rivals mr. cues II in chamblee tucker, ga. mr. cues is more for pros, though. anyway, it was all good. apparently ryan likes to use the [bleep] stick in pool, though... just incase anyone wants to know.

oh, and here's a map of pretty much all the significant places i've been to so far:

View Larger Map

boston - week 1

my 1st week in boston has been amazing. in fact, i couldn't have written a better script. within minutes of arriving in my MIT resident hall, ryan, brian, and i met up, which is the 1st time Team TacoBell has re-united since our internship 2 yrs ago in dc. mayhem was guaranteed to take place. well, we mostly just had ryan show us all around boston and cambridge since he's been livin here for a year. highlights from that 1st weekend when i arrived include:

• brian running through a public fountain
• brian being asked by a park ranger lady to put on a shirt, after which he jokingly ran at her
• brian's insane convo w/ ghandi
• ryan's friend, sushi. enough said

okay, i realize most of memories are inside stories and way too much to type, so i'll stop. basically, it was great. also, work at the lab is pretty amazing, too. right now, i'm researchin 2d pattern matching. i'm trying to find and implement the fastest possible way to determine if 1 image is found within another. i really hope i can do good work, and the environment isn't nearly as rigid as "taco bell's." this weekend was pretty great, too.

just within the one week i've been here, i've been to about 10 places, including some good japanese, chinese, and american eateries. i really appreciate boston's walkable-ness and how much it has to offer. i aim to visit more art-related places soon. i've met some pretty cool friends here, and my room overlooks the charles river and charles bridge. so, i live right at the brink of cambridge and boston. it doesn't get much better than that :) oh, and i'm making a google maps map of all the significant places i visit. i'll post it sometime.

if you could visit for 12 weeks any city in the states, which would it be and why?

it's summer time!

okay, trivial post:

this spring quarter has been very stress-free, as i was only taking 1 undergrad class, 1 grad class, and was a TA for 1 class. plus, the ugrad class was only comprised of 2 tests, and the grad class was only comprised of 2 projects. nothing else too significant. however, just to be cruel, both ugrad tests were pretty much on the same exact day that the grad projects were due. so, my entire quarter basically only had 2 real days.

so, the past few days have been crazy. the to-do list follows:
-wed @ 8-11am = cs181 final worth 60% of my grade
-thurs @ 3pm = cs263 project and 8-page technical report worth 40% of my grade
-friday @ 2pm = cs33 deadline for my grading all the projects
-friday @ midnight = cs201 little seminar summaries due
-need to pack my entire room (for my flying to atl, boston, indo) and cause i'm sub-letting my room this summer.

oh, to make it more interesting, apparently i booked my flight home to ATL to be at thursday at 9am--way before i was done with everything. wednesday, i awoke on 5 hrs of sleep, at 6 am, for my 8am final. soon as it was over, i picked up leslie, headed to my place, and we worked on the project and started writing the paper. after 16 consecutive hrs of work, we finished at 4am. came home, packed, and slept from 5:30am - 6:15am... a whopping 45 minutes, for a friend was driving me to the airport at 630am. needless to say, i slept on the plane rides :) yet, i was fortunate enough to wake up to some pretty scenery:




let the summer begin :)
boston, baby! it was all a dream.

huntington beach and climbing things

this past weekend was pretty amazing.

kenny, one of my good friends from high school in atlanta, was out here in cali, so we met up this saturday in long beach. we then drove to huntington beach and newport beach with his 9 sisters (+/- 5) and 1 cousin. we toasted hotdogs, smores, and of course corn. then, ~6 more friends of his cousin met us on the beach, and we all played football until the sun set. within the last 6 years, i've always lived within 5 miles of either the atlantic of pacific ocean. but this confirmed for me that wherever i choose to live once when i'm done with school, i want it to be near an ocean.

sunday, i joined ucla's outdoor adventure group to go rock climbing. i had only rock climbed twice before, both of which were indoors. so, apparently outdoor rocks are not the same as indoor ones. the rocks aren't made of hard plastic w/ semi-conveniently-located handle grips strategically placed throughout. the event lasted around 8 hrs and was an amazing time.



it's good to know our lives were in good hands.

Simpang Asia + NLP Proj 2

out of all the foreign food restaurants i've eaten at in LA, somehow i've never had food from the indonesian restaurant Simpang Asia. so, sometime last week, i gave it a try. i ordered:

• Nasi Warteg (entree): Turmeric fried chicken, jackfruit curry, telor ceplok balado, fried noodle, tasty tofu tempeh, tiny salted fish, steamed rice; all wrapped in banana leaf. Est. September 2005.

• Roti Bakar (dessert): Indo sweet grilled cheese bread. Delicious w/ condensed milk and chocolate topping.

overall, it was pretty good stuff! halfway through, though, my tongue realized that something wasn't right and asked me what the heck i was doing to it. it felt like i had eaten 3 bags of hot fries simultaneously. nevertheless, it was a really cool place and the dessert was seriously one of the best desserts i've ever had. the only immediate thing that comes to mind that was better is google's catered strawberry/chocolate/waffer/pudding/cracker things. my mouth is watering now, so i should stop talking about it.

for my NLP class, we get to choose anything we want for project 2. leslie and i decided to create a system that (1) automatically classifies stories as being adult stories (i.e. regular text for adults, not x-rated stuff) or children stories; (2) converts adult stories to children stories. we have 1.5 weeks left, so it'll be fun. i did #1, already. now it's time for the fun parts.

FIT vs UCLA (part 3)

3 years ago at FIT, i took the course titled formal languages and automata theory (FLAT). for my master's at UCLA, we have to take a certain # of ugrad classes. i liked FLAT, so i decided to retake it. to show how UCLA's tests generally differ from FIT's, i took a picture of both exams. see original-sized images. in FIT's defense, FIT only gave 75 minutes instead of UCLA's 110.

also, when i was a freshmen at FIT, our endowment was $10 mill. they claim to have $30 mill now. today, in the Daily Bruin, one of the articles mentioned that the UCLA business school received a $10 million grant from someone. that's enough money to almost BUY florida tech, but here, it's just an article in our daily newspaper and some scholarship and departmental plans.

math + religion + passport = longest post ever

(sorry for the long post. if anyone reads all of this, i'll be impressed).

lately, i've given a lot of thought towards religion and trying to figure out what i believe in. i've always believed in a god, especially due to some highly fortunate things that have happened in my life--stuff that i would like to think goes way beyond sheer coincidence or probability. yet, i've never vehemently agreed or advocated any particular religion over another. i guess my outlook is that there are thousands of religions spanning the entire world, many of which started thousands of years ago. i find it hard to assert that one set of beliefs is the true one, and that all the others are just misled, misguided, ill-directed faiths. i don't feel i'm that wise, and can't currently speak with such conviction. nevertheless, i've been remaining open and have been actively trying to figure out what i precisely believe in.

apparently these thoughts have affected my dreams. i woke up in the middle of the night, took some dayquil to ease my sore throat, then immediately went back to sleep. yet, during those few seconds as i shifted from being awake to dreaming, i remember having this bizarre stream of consciousness. well, first, i've occasionally wondered about math and its existence. particularly, it seems fascinating to me that everything works out. how does our number system and all of the myriad of mathematical operations all cohesively work together. not only that, but math is defined in such a way and has an infrastructure whereby mathematicians are constantly formalizing new theorems, making new discoveries, and are furthering fields that all branched from the foundations that were laid out of thousands of years ago. how is this possible?

this yields to question the very nature of math. what does 1 + 1 really mean? does it only mean something to us due to the notation and language that we define for it; is there really no basis of the underlying meaning, and we only assign meaning to things based on the grammars that we define? is math just something we've invented? things like gravity, centripetal force, and sound are all real elements that exist, and we can very precisely define them. we can accurately study chaos, probability, patterns, etc, and it seems to work out; our numbers and equations are justified. they do the job, and we slowly discover more powerful methods that allow us to understand more about our world. so, maybe the language isn't just babel; maybe there is some underlying meaning found within nature and the physical world. maybe there is some truth, and we are merely discovering it as we evolve this language we call math. this platonic view would suggest that these elements of truth would exist even if humans didn't discover and realize them. moreover, they would exist even if humans didn't exist. now, that's just weird to think about. what about poorly constructed bridges that may collapse under the right conditions due to their structure being vulnerable to particular harmonic motion. (you know, those videos of crazy bridges that rock out of control like an ocean wave until they break?) humans may have never built bridges, but these properties of force would still exist anyways, eh?

well, as i was falling asleep and started to dream, i had this epiphany that religious beliefs often parallel this; however, instead of having one convention--one system--of math notation to represent the underlying meaning, we have thousands. we have thousands of religions and sets of beliefs, where each one is its own system. each of these systems is in attempt to model the underlying truth, and asserts that it is the oracle--that its representation is right. and yet, we have other people who do not follow a particular religion. these people may question the same particulars of math--do religions concern the actual truth of some unknown force, and that our believing in a religion is our way of discovery. or rather, these people would assert that religions are merely invented, and are humans' way of defining a truth.

well, a difference in this analogy is that most religious beliefs stem from actual historical accounts. there is recorded evidence of many religious figures that are subject of prayer and worship. so, this should encourage one to believe that at least one of these religions is based on true events and that it's the oracle. yet, say one accepts that, say for example, Jesus Christ, Prince Siddhartha, Prophet Muhammad, Guru Nanak, and Prophet Zoroaster all existed and were actual mortals. even with this acceptance, the battle still begins because one must determine which system to believe in--which one is the truth and actually has significance to our existence.

just remember that this questioning all happened in a dream. (i later went on to have a nerdy dream about a graph theory talk at a math conference, and that i told the lady presenter that calculating what she called the "chocolate value" at each vertex with respect to every other vertex would be in worst case O(n^2)). anyway, i don't feel too comfortable (or feel that it's kosher) publicly talking about my actual, specific religious beliefs yet. moreover, having these subconscious questions represents my yearning to find out my "actual, specific beliefs." i'm on a quest, and i'll get back to you guys later :)

in other news, i recently applied for my first passport, to see sheley! i was warned by the department of state that it takes approximately 4-6 weeks to receive a passport. i listed that i plan to visit india in just 4 weeks after the date when i applied. apparently this motivated them :) i got my passport in 8 days! i'm not going to india now, so the joke is on them.

so, what are your views on the math stuff, and if you could visit any country, which would it be and why?

halftime show

it looks like my career at ucla will last for a total of 5 quarters--10 weeks each. well, today is wednesday of the 5th week of my 3rd quarter here. that's exactly half-way over. i just realized that today. i find this really hard to believe, and i find it incredibly easy to opt out of doing events, meeting people, or getting involved on-campus due to the thought that i'll be gone from here in only 25 weeks from. i'm trying not to do this, though.


during the last week, i attended ucla's/LA times' annual festival of books. it has 140,000 attendees, 6 stages of entertainment, enough food to feed a small country, and tons of book signings. i got the autograph and picture of kareem abdul-jabbar and winnie cooper. today, i attended an on-campus event, too--bj novak (ryan from the office) spoke and had Q&A. afterwards, he had 1-1 time, allowing select students to individually come up and speak w/ and photograph him. i left, did some math proof(s), then went back upstairs, hoping that he'll be done with everyone and maybe i could see him. somehow, my timing could not have been more perfect. i was very lucky: i walked up into the empty 4,000-person-capacity room and saw him and the ucla CAB-rep walking toward me. i casually went up to him and said, 'hey bj, ah, i hoped you might still be here.' i then asked for his autograph and said that i really enjoy the show and that he does good work. we gave head nods, i walked off, and then joined the remaining circle of 5 other ucla CAB students and his manager. sweet.

anyway, yea, it's sobering to think that my time here in LA is half-way over. i don't think i've done nearly as many arsty or culturally-based events as i planned to do. i've seen more celebrities than i imagined (flava flav, pharrell, kevin smith, steve balmer, creators of google, etc), but that was never my interest or goal.

i guess my time in california can be divided into 4 distinct periods:
(1) summer at google: much fun w/ interns; basic touristy exploration
(2) 1st quarter at UCLA: pretty disciplined, yet hung out w/ brian tons of times. we had a blast, but he's pretty much an alcoholic. jk. but seriously, he's infertile.
(3) 2nd quarter at UCLA: did almost no school work. flew out of town 4 times during the quarter, and interviewed w/ tons of places--most didn't want me
(4) 3rd quarter at UCLA: finally getting a decent balance and trying to be healthy.

it's all about semantics

i'm in a very blissful state right now. i don't want it to end. what's even better is that i see no reason for things to really change, either. hopefully. i'm in a good state of mind, i have a lot for which to be grateful, and i just need to continue to stay true and put forth work, time, and care into everything that i am currently doing. everything's perfect:

• i enjoy my daily routine, the classes i take, my commitment to the gym, and bringing my lil lunchbox to school each day
  
• i'm a TA for 'computer architecture. i've never taught before, and i really enjoy the challenge. it's fun
• this summer, i'll be working at MIT lincoln lab. it has 2,000 employees and an annual budget ~$600 million.
• i am registered to play intramural softball on a UCLA comp sci team this quarter. i haven't played competitively played baseball since my high school days. i didn't really even workout during those days. i am looking forward to playing very much. i've been craving doing so for years.
  
• i have an amazing, loving girlfriend, and i couldn't ask for anything more. this year, we'll spend our first Christmas together in indonesia. :)
  

also, for my NLP class (natural language processing; cs263a), we have 2 weeks to do a project. it's very open-ended and unguided. basically, we have to build software that can take a story as input and determine the underlying meaning of each sentence. it then has to construct conceptual dependency diagrams to represent these meanings (independent of any human language). then, it has to take questions, interpret the meanings of those questions, then output the answers in the form of english sentences. this last step is supposedly the hardest. the paragraph and questions we will be given follow:

Bob was famished. His fridge was empty so he got his car. Leones was crowded so the hostess asked him to share a table. Alice immediately introduced herself. He thought she was very attractive and they hit it off. When the waitress brought the menus she ordered the salad and he the steak. He asked her to come back to his place afterwards and she agreed. Bob was very hopeful. After the food came Bob said McCain should be president because government health care in England is bad. Alice got angry. She said he was too senile to be president. Bob felt bad. Bob's hopes were dashed.

Here are the questions your system should read, along with (reasonably likely) answers. Note that your answers need NOT be identical to those shown below.

Q1 Why didn't Bob eat at home? BOB'S FRIDGE WAS EMPTY

Q2 How did Bob get to Leones? BOB DROVE

Q3 Why did the waitress ask Bob sit with Alice? LEONES WAS VERY CROWDED

Q4 How did Bob know Alice's name? ALICE INTRODUCED HERSELF.

Q5 Why did Bob invite Alice to his place? BOB HOPED TO HAVE SEX WITH ALICE.

Q6 Why does Bob believe McCain should be president? BOB BELIEVES THAT ANY GOVERNMENT WILL RUN HEALH CARE POORLY AND THAT MCCAIN IS AGAINST THE U.S. GOVERNMENT RUNNING U.S. HEALTH CARE.

Q7 Why does Alice believe McCain should not be president? ALICE BELIEVES THAT ANY SENILE PERSON WILL RUN THE U.S. POORLY AND THAT MCCAIN IS SENILE.

Q8 What did Alice agree to do? ALICE AGREED TO GO BACK TO BOB'S PLACE.

Q9 Why did Alice become angry? ALICE DISAGREED WITH BOB ABOUT WHO SHOULD BE PRESIDENT.

Q10 What is the moral of this story? DON'T SAY ANYTHING CONTROVERSIAL WHEN YOU'RE HOPING TO HAVE SEX.

it was the winter

this quarter has been probably the most ill-directed, confusing, uncertain time periods i've ever had. additionally, it was probably the one where i lacked the most ambition and had the least amount of focus. ever since my sophomore yr of college, my drive has been slowly down-shifting and has been weakened by my growing interest in being as well-balanced as i can. i still have goals, but coursework is just a chore to me, for the most part.

there are some classes that interest me, but i'm sadly becoming a lazy, cocky student, i guess? the coursework here at ucla is the most challenging i've had, but because we are not flooded with assignments, it's easy to lose discipline. plus, the caliber of the work here is almost discouraging a bit. for example, at florida tech, say i knew enough to get a 98 on an exam. with that same knowledge, it doesn't guarantee me anything beyond a 50 here. so, it's difficult to have the motivation to really master the material to that degree. i'm not burned out; rather, it's just that i've had the full-cycle of experiences as a student. i know what it's like to fail, to succeed, to be without hope, and to be overwhelmed with work. i've witnessed it all. it's just labor now. it's just repeating history. i'm not complaining; i'm just trying to understand why i'm so careless as a student lately.

well, i think my 4 flights out of town within this 10-week quarter made it really tough for me to focus on school and treat it seriously. i didn't even know where i was going to work this summer. and, i wasn't nearly as self-disciplined with my personal life as i should have been. i needed to exercise better time management skills. it made finals week hell. it's one thing to cram a whole course into 2 days of studying at florida tech. here, it's just impossible for me. i don't want to be that horrible position again. so, i have goals for next quarter:

• classes + studying should = ~8 hours (i did absolutely no studying at all this quarter. just hw and classes)
• gym each day (i luckily kept this up)
• weekends = brief review of school + an LA event each weekend
• stay on campus more during the days (laptop should help)
• attend a ucla campus event at least 1 per 2 weeks (there are numerous per day)
• bring a lunch each day (i need a lunchbox. wow, kindergarten days all over again)
• speak up in class (i did a few times during the 1st week of ucla, but thats the only time in my 18 yrs)
• go to teacher's office hrs if needbe (i never have, usually because i'm still trying to learn the stuff first)

well, at 5am tomorrow, i'm hopping on a plane to go back home for spring break. i can't wait.

king of deals

i know i've posted a similar post in the past, where i brag about some deals i've gotten. but man, i'm really proud of this one. i finally broke down and decided to buy a laptop.

ibm's thinkpad lenovo series has won many awards for producing good, small laptops. i basically just wanted something small, simple, and dependable. something with which i can travel. my approach to finding deals is that i spend over half the time researching what i want to buy, then the remaining time on where to buy it. i figured i would buy it from ebay, but turned out that ibm's site had a deal too good to pass:

my chosen laptop was regularly $956 (after upgrades from a $825 base model)

1. today was the last day of a 25%-off-all-laptops sale ($956 => $717)
2. i told the site that i was a student at Calvin College, giving me 5% off ($717 => $618.13)
3. i found a 10% off eCoupon that was good for only today ($618.13 => $613.02)
4. + taxes = $669
5. + free shipping = $669

so, what would normally be $1,040 shipped, i got for $669 :) my ultimate bargaining goal is to pursue something worth~$20, convince the salesman that he owes me money, and to walk out of the store with $5 more than what i came in with. that would be sweet.

incase anyone wants the nerdy details, the specs follow:

• intel core 2 duo processor (dual 1.6 ghz CPUs w/ 2mb cache)
• 14.1" wxga (aka widescreen), extra bright monitor w/ embedded webcam
• 2 gb ram (pc2-5300 ddr2 @ 667MHz)
• 80gig hd @ 5400rpm
• 6 cell battery (5.7 hr lifespan)
• it's pretty small: 13"x9"x1.5"
  

10-year plan

so, apparently i've always been a planner. my mom recently reminded me how i've always had a plan for my future... she remembers my making to-do lists and lists of goals ever since i was 6. i don't really remember this too much. anyway, i'm possibly gonna be done w/ school 1 yr from now, so i've been giving my future a lot of thought. my tentative plan follows:

(1) 12/15/2008 = apply to phd programs, just in case
(2) 12/2008 (or 03/2009) = finish master's at UCLA
(3) travel to italy, greece, france, spain for 2-3 months. i'll take a few pictures
(4) summer internship in 2009
(5) then choose to (a) get a full-time job or (b) get a phd somewhere

i'll probably be tired of school and may not get a phd. (5) all depends on how i feel by 04/2009ish. whichever choice i make, i want it to allow me to live in a good, thriving city w/ an appreciation of art, culture, entertainment, education.

i plan to live in san francisco, boston, new york city, each for ~3 years. so, my tour of these cities should be done in roughly 9 years from when i get my master's. hmm, so 2018ish. i'll be 34. holy cow that's old. the tour will likely get cut short as i'll fall in love (w/ a girl and/or the current job and/or current city). that's fine w/ me. hopefully i'll start a family sometime before i'm 34, also. at which point i would like to stay in the current city... i think it's important not to move during one's childhood. anyway, we'll see if the future unravels even remotely similar to this.

camera + theives

i'm going to start a "time lapse" project where i take a pic of myself each day for a long time, inspired by noah. after taking the very first pic, i noticed it came out insanely dark. after 1 hr of adjusting every setting i could think, i concluded it was broken :( i even tried my other lens--which had the same results--and i really didn't like the idea of having to spend a few hundred dollars to repair the camera's body. well, later i discovered that it was merely the lens' electronic contacts that were having a problem. after cleaning them, everything was back to normal! so, naturally, i took a picture of my recently purchased bananas as a means to celebrate:



on a similar note, i found out that someone ordered one of my photos from my zazzle.com collection... i get 10% revenue... which somehow was $11! can't believe someone spent $110 on a customized product that used my picture.

also, in the month of january alone, there have been 8 cars broken into within my two-level parking garage. that's so horrible. why can't people just respect other people's stuff? and why can't UC facilities install a cheap monitor system?

i met a 15 billion-dollar man

microsoft flew me up to seattle/redmond, washington for interviews. i haven't heard anything yet from google :-/

• i met steve ballmer, microsoft's ceo, who has a net worth of 15 billion. the 1st pic wasn't too good, as ballmer's head was downward. i told him, 'ah, you look evil!' he laughed so we took another. microsoft asked me for the 2nd pic for their blog, which gets 1 million views a month!
• in the lobby, and in my hotel's elevator, i also coincidentally ran into a fellow UCLA friend who was my TA last quarter. turns out, we were both interviewing the exact same day!
• in the hotel, i ran into a kid who i worked w/ at google in santa monica, ca last summer! turns out, we were both interviewing the exact same day!
• my 3 interviews (1+ hr each) went okay. the questions are outlined below
• i went on a tour of seattle the next day, and i met up w/ a good florida tech friend, "c biscuit."

interview 1:

• write code to implement an append() function for a Vector data structure
• write code to solve this problem: you are given an n x n matrix where each index corresponds to a given letter that is unknown to you until you chose to visit that index/spot. (like the board game Boggle.) so, when you visit a spot, you are presented with a letter. you are also given a dictionary of words. your goal is to spell these dictionary words by wisely visiting spots, while minimizing the number of incorrect moves and wasted visits. specifically, devise an algorithm that traverses all of the correct paths, and that does so with minimal space and time complexity. explain your algorithm's space and time complexity (Big-O notation).
• write code that represents how a text editor loads a file. what data structures would you use to store the ascii text? how would you devise your data structures for the case when the user needs to be able to (1) go to any line he desires and (2) insert a letter at any place in the file. what's the time complexity?

interview 2 (occurred during lunch and then afterwards):

• how would you design code for a system/database that stores license plates? what type of functionality would you allow? what data is associated with your classes? who would use this, and how does that affect your design decisions?
• write code that allows one to quickly (faster than linear time, but without using a HashMap) find any given license plate and obtain the corresponding info that is associated with it. we assume that each license plate is merely a 6-digit, natural number. write code for a special binary search that take its guesses based on the # that you are looking for with respect to the range in which it is looking. when would this outperform and under perform regular binary search?
  

interview 3 (w/ some higher-up manager type person):

• we talked about my past work for 30 minutes, then discussed how i present technical material in a dumbed-down, succinct manner
  
• write code to convert any integer (positive or negative) to a String without using any built-in functions provided by your language of choice.
  

UCLA is the best

okay, so my 1st quarter at UCLA was pretty exhausting in the sense of maintaining a healthy balance; i worked out daily, got 7-8 hrs of sleep a night, went out many weekends, commuted via bus, which all ultimately left me to about 1 hr of studying per day. and, there were personal things that drained me, such as my credit card being stolen, car broken into, and family stuff. somehow, i still got a 4.0. go figure.

well, i've fallen in love w/ UCLA. there are so many things that make me proud to be here, from the:

• the academic rigor
• abundance of smart people (avg gpa of entering class is 4.3 (out of 4))
• my program's faculty is ranked 10th in nation
• check out our nationally-ranked programs
  
• multi-dimensionality:
• people with real humanity majors, such as art and journalism.. and they're VERY good at it
• real sports teams--we've won more NCAA championships than anyone
• resources:
• 10th biggest library system in the nation
• 3 floors dedicated just to computer science, not just 1/2 of a small floor like at FIT
• just walk around campus... you'll see what i mean

and mainly, the thing that made me comfortable being here is finally getting some financial assistance. they told me it was nearly impossible to get funding as a master's student. well, i came here, forced my way in, and by my 2nd quarter, i'm a half TA for AI. tuition isn't fully covered, but i'm on my way.

oh, this quarter is very taxing, so, just as a head's up. i might have to drop a class. don't expect a 4.0 from me. i'm happy to be here. this is where i want to be. i can't imagine a better school in the world. it's in LA, man. i'm glad i didn't choose columbia or brown, definitely.