the last quarter

as mentioned, this is my last quarter (hopefully). i'm only taking 1 class (computer architectures) and i'm doing my master's project.

computer architectures is horrible. this class has been the death of me throughout my college education: back at FIT, i double-majored in math and cs. by the end of my 4th year, i had completed all of my CS requirements except for 1 class... computer architectures. the class was taught by a joke of a professor, and everyone receives A's in the class. during my 12-week internship after my 4th year, i was getting paid at a rate that is for if i already had a bachelor's. i confessed i didn't have it yet, so my pay dropped A LOT (about 20k in base salary). just because of this joke class!

i return to FIT, only attend the class to take the tests, which were almost identical to the practice tests. i got an A, blah blah, and graduate in 4.5 years total. at least i'm done w/ the class, right? nope.

at UCLA, we have to fulfill a "breadth requirement." it's good, for it's a way of ensuring we have taken core, important undergraduate classes before we are handed a master's. you generally have to take 1 or 2 courses from numerous sections of classes. well, i've taken almost every single course from every single section. yet, when i tried to get credit for computer architecture', nope. no credit because FIT didn't have a syllabus and we didn't use a book. it wasn't sufficient, and i have to retake the class.

so, here i am at UCLA, just like i was at FIT, where i only need 1 class to graduate--computer architecture's. i look around, and the class is filled with really young undergrads. the kid next to me had a calculus book on his desk. a calculus book, seriously?! haha. that was 7 years ago, man. this is just ridiculous.

as for my project, i just got my proposal approved. i'm basically studying the ability for artificial creatures to evolve communication with one another as they learn tactics to survive as a species. so, roughly, i'm making a program that has different species. each species is simply represented by a distinct colored pixel. i program the species w/ very basic sensor-like intelligence, and then i let them run around and mingle. after a while, they get smart and do fancy things. i give them the ability to sense, emit signals, and walk. they learn how to wisely and timely dig, eat, and mate. with this, survival-of-the-fittest happens and they evolve to become pretty complex little dots.

i'm still here

i doubt anyone reads this anymore, especially since i haven't posted in over 3 months. well, i'm going to start posting semi-regularly again.

as for what i've been up to since i left boston this past summer:

• went to indonesia to visit sheley. proposed and had the time of my life
• fall 08 i took 2 grad classes: (1) algorithms (2) animats-based learning
  
• i didn't focus nearly like i should, and i was a pretty crappy student. i got lucky and ended up with an A and A- and my gpa is now decent at 3.8 i still feel like i'm not working even half as hard as i did at FIT though... i guess just the sheer number of classes i took at FIT made it so hard for me
• i've applied to (3) jobs for full-time employment: (1) mit lincoln lab, (2) nasa/caltech jet propulsion lab, and (3) google.
• i flew sheley home from indo for winter break, so we spent 2 weeks together around christmas time! it was great.
• i'm now starting what i hope to be my last quarter at UCLA. i'm only taking 1 course and i'm finishing my master's project, which concerns using genetic algorithms to create a co-evolutionary animats-based environment.

i started this blog soon as i moved out to california. it was to document my time in california, and here we are now with possibly only 10 weeks left. it has seriously flown by fast, and i still don't feel like it's anything remotely close to something i can call home. i'm still a visitor, just one who now understands what LA is like.

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?