stop backing into me!

note: if you're viewing this from facebook, the google maps won't appear, so please go to omggetthis.blogspot.com

i've been lucky in that during my 10 yrs of driving, i've never been in a car accident. well, kind of. i've had 2 people back into me, and lately, 2 more people come very close to backing into me. how strange -- does this happen to others often? here's the play-by-play:

1. july 2002, norcross, georgia. back home in georgia before i left for college. i was waiting in the designated left turning lane (seen to the right of the google map below) at position #2. the woman ahead of me was waaay in the middle of traffic (center of map below), waiting to turn. yet, when the light changed from yellow to red, she didn't turn. cars to our right started to cross the intersection, but she was so far in the middle of the road that she was in their way. they honked at her. so, naturally, instead of turning left, she tried to retreat back into her turning lane by reversing into me. before she hit me, i frantically tried to honk, but my 88 honda's horn buttons were not in the center like most cars; they were 4 tiny buttons on the outer center pad. the funniest thing is that after hitting me, she refused to get out of her car and exchange info. she spoke almost no english and gave me her phone #, which had 8 digits.
   
   
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2. september 2002, melbourne, florida. during my first semester at florida tech. i was driving my good friend francisco to a local check cashing place. while waiting to exit the parking lot, the car in front of me saw a bicyclist approaching from the right. the car was blocking the sidewalk path, so he reversed into me, despite my repeated honking. this is the parking lot we were exiting:
   
   
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3. october, 2009, quechee gorge, vermont. as mentioned in my last post, i went on a solo sight-seeing road trip. i got away from the city life for a few days, but apparently i couldn't get away from crazy drivers trying to hit me. quechee gorge is a huge gorge, and there is an overpass bridge which allows everyone to look at the gorge. it's a tiny bridge, and there are crosswalks both before and after it. toooons of people were on the bridge, and cars were very respectful/cautious of pedestrians on this tiny road. apparently they weren't cautious of other cars though.

   
   i was trying to leave the gravel parking lot which was located immediately before the bridge and the crosswalks. i waited for the slow-moving cars to clear before turning onto the bridge road. i started to pull out, but the last car just kind of stopped prematurely before the crosswalk. so, i'm half out of the parking lot, half on the road, waiting to fully pull-out as we are in this stop-sign-type place. but yea, why did the car in front of me stop? he wasn't even quite at the crosswalk section yet. i was just inches behind him as i saw his reverse lights come on. flashbacks from 7 yrs ago came back to me. i know how to handle this situation. the driver started to reverse FAST into me, as if he was trying to back into the exit-only direction of the parking lot. he clearly had no idea that i was exiting the parking lot, and maybe he was just trying to gain clearance before making an illegal u-turn. eitherway, i held down my horn and simultaneously threw the car into reverse as fast as i could. i stepped on the gas pedal hard. really hard. our cars reversed together, really fast, while being just inches from one another. it was like synchronized ice skating or something, without the ice skating. i admit, i'm not an amazing driver, for i'm not that great at parallel parking, and many city drivers are better than i. in that i'm too cautious at times and don't change lanes as carefree as others. with that said, i gotta say though that this stunt was pretty slick, and i felt like i did some maneuver from a movie. my heart was racing big time. luckily, i avoided getting hit.
   the parking lot i was exiting:
   
   
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4. november, 2009, boston, ma. i was leaving my apartment's parking lot. the exit is a narrow 1 lane passage that feeds into a neighborhood street. exiting requires making a sharp left turn, and to be careful not to hit all of the cars that are packed in like sardines on the side of the road. as i made the left turn, someone was trying parallel park into me. there was no way i could reverse back into the narrow passage in a bourne-identity-esque manner that i did previously. so, i relied on my horn. it was a close call, but they didn't hit me.

   the alleyway from which i exited, and to the right is the spot in which the car was trying to parallel park:
   
   View Larger Map
   

based on my history, i expect 2016 to include 2 incidents of cars trying to rear-end me, within a 2 month span.

solo road trip to new hampshire and vermont

first, if you're viewing this from facebook, please go to my blog to see the original posting; facebook fails to import videos, so go to http://omggetthis.blogspot.com

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two weekends ago, i took a solo 3-day road trip to new hampshire and vermont. yea, that was a while ago, but before it got any longer, i just wanted to document it here. to most of my friends, this trip is old news.

as for new content, i finally uploaded a video of my trip:


i didn't take video clips too often; i mainly just took tons of pics. below are 3 albums, 1 for each successive day:
(1)

new hampshire foliage - day 1 - 10/10/09

(2)

vermont foliage - day 2 - 10/11/09

(3)

vermont foliage drive home - day 3

basically, i woke up super early on saturday. i drove to new hampshire and explored the white mountains. that day, i saw 4 waterfalls, went on some mini-hikes into the woods, and went to 2-3 state parks. very late at night i arrived at my remote, sketchy hostel that was located about 2 hours away from civilization. (i stayed there because it was perfectly en route to my path to vermont for the next day).

the hostel was the most interesting and unique hostel at which i've ever stayed. i arrived there after 9pm, and after driving on gravel and dirt roads for a while, i finally found it at the end of a 1-mile-long dead-end road. upon entering the hostel, i was greeted by a hippie. the house was really decked-out and well-groomed. but, everything was organic. yep, i quickly learned why my 18-person shared room was called the "yoga room" -- there were no mattresses, but only 18 yoga mats on the floor. after having been awake and driving for the entire day, lying down on that yoga mat was far from comfortable. oh, the bathroom looked amazing. seriously. it was probably the nicest shower i've ever been in, including nice hotels. however, the toilet, which although nice looking, was actually rigged-up like an outhouse. there was a long chute down somewhere, and there was a nearby bucket of woodchunks and instructions to use 1 cup of woodchucks per bathroom visit. as i read the sign that stated urination was encouraged outdoors, i quickly wondered what type of place have i got myself into.

anyway, it was definitely an interesting place, and the hippie owner offered chai tea and cookies. i had none.

sunday, i drove down to the border b/w new hampshire and vermont, to see the longest covered bridge in the nation. i explored some nearby areas then drove all the way up through vermont's green mountains. like new hampshire, everything was really pretty. i had never seen leaves that looked like this. even when the skies were overcast, the roads appeared to be lit due to the radiating, saturated tree leaves. i saw 2 waterfalls on sunday and went on a hike. at one time, i slipped and fell a few feet down a bank. if i slid further, well, it was pretty much a 180-degree cliff that dropped a long ways until a river. it was fun though. sunday night, i was exhausted, and i checked in early at 6pm into the next hostel.

this hostel was also interesting, but for brevity, i'll just say it was really well set-up and was owned by (2) 25-year olds. very impressive. they even fully owned and operated a restaurant and bar within the hostel, with the help of their sister and friend. very professional and good.

by the time i went to sleep on sunday -- day 2 -- i could see orange leaves everytime i closed my eyes. for this reason, i decided to not explore much on monday. instead of heading further north up until being a few miles shy of canada, i decided to just head home. yet, even though my eyes had been over-saturated by the leaves, i still couldn't resist pulling off the road several times to take pics, of barns, rivers, and trees. the drive home ended up taking many hours.

it was a very fun, unforgettable trip.

the pursuit of happyness healthiness

i love that movie.

now that i've finally become an adult (i.e., finished school and started a full-time job), i'm not allowed to make any more excuses regarding not having enough time to do the things and live the way i want. when i was a student, i would tell myself that school is a never-ending time commitment, and that a full-time job will provide me with tons of free time to do what i want. haha, well, apparently that's not quite true. i still wish to do way more than what i actually do. my week days are often not too action-packed, but the schedule seems to still fill up quickly. typically:

• wake up at 7am-something
• make a 1-liter morning shake by throwing ~7 of the following items into blender:
  • 2 cups of milk
    
  • 2 cups of oats
  • 5+ strawberries
  • handfuls of blueberries
  • 1 apple
  • 1 plum
  • 1 nectarine
  • 1 kiwi fruit
  • limes
  • 1 banana
  • 40g strawberry whey protein
• commute to work (35-45 minute drive)
• work 8 hours
• gym for 1 hour
• commute home (40-50 minute drive)
• cook dinner
• do misc chores (i.e., dishes, laundry)
• talk with sheley
  

BAM, it's 10pm already!

on the days that i go out or have some errand to run, something from the list above gets dropped.

i wish i made enough time to:

• learn to play guitar
• learn to play piano
• learn mandarin
• play basketball
  
• play baseball on a team
• jog regularly
• paint
  
• take more random photography walks
• work on a AI-side project
• do volunteer work
  
• read
  

these things have been on my to-do list for a long time, and there have been like 10 books on my to-read list for the last few years. i'm finally making the time to do some of these, but i definitely have a long way to go.

i don't like making excuses, and i hate the idea of one not being in his peak. well, it's sad when people reminisce about how they were so much better at sport-whatever or skill-whatever "back in the day." well, i'm starting to ramble/stray. i guess i'll just say that i hate slacking, and i fear (1) not taking the time to do the activities i enjoy, and (2) becoming worse at them than what i once was.

specifically, art and baseball used to be my biggest passions until i went off to college. i was pretty good at drawing and painting, but i haven't painted since like 2004. i never produced earth-shattering work, but i was good, and most importantly, i enjoyed it. as for baseball, i definitely wasn't on the level of being able to receive a college scholarship for it, but i was pretty good. many of the best times of my life are from playing baseball with friends, and i still dream about it at night every few weeks. i took time to play on ucla's intramural softball team, but the season was short, and i still crave it all the time.

so yea, i'm trying to have a healthy balance of fitting in everything that i enjoy; i'm trying not to desert my interests, leaving them to become merely faded memories. recently, i've been exercising:

• my heart by reading some about religions and going to church every week for over a year now -- i had never been before then
  
• my mind by working at mit lincoln lab
• my body by going to the gym 5 days a week

regarding that last note, well, i counted calories one day recently and realized i consume about 3,000 - 4,000 calories a day. so, maybe i'm not living so healthy after all. haha.

purple berry in the making:



kiwi berry in the making:



pink berry, ready:

a blast from the past - brandon williams?

i love coincidences, so this is kind of long. sorry.

i was reared in a lower middle class / working class suburban home in a town neighboring atlanta. growing up, i was fortunate to have a great childhood. i cannot complain at all, and one of the main things that made it so great was the tight-knit friendships i had. out of the 6 houses on my street, 4 of them belonged to families who had a kid. in fact, each of us kids was not only an "only child," but we were all the same age. how rare and cool is that. so, we were essentially each other's siblings. i could go on forever about our adventures, but just picture the wonder years, the sandlot, and the goonies all rolled into one -- minus sloth.

my best friend was brandon. my neighborhood had a vintage feel and nobody ever moved. well, until brandon moved to north carolina when we were 12 (1996).





in 2001, he moved back to GA and we went to the same high school, but we shared no classes, and our schedules were just busy with different after-school sports. so, sadly, we never really made time to hang out. the love was still there though. in 2002, i went to college out-of-state and we had lost touch. no contact info. imagine: we had no cell phones, no facebook, and were not google-able. back then, all i had was a phone card and an email address, and i would not return to live in GA again. at best, i fly home to GA for roughly 2-3 weeks per year.

over the years, i'd occasionally think of him and search for him online. no results. one christmas when i was back home visiting parents, i even asked my neighbor if he had brandon's dad's phone #, since they've always been good friends. he gave me a few #s. none worked. oh well. :-( i tried, but i realized he's off the grid. he's probably in some nearby state, just doing construction or grading like his dad, and enjoying life in some remote, country town. oh well, at least we had great times and memories.

late july, 2009: it's a thursday, i'm living in boston, and tomorrow i'm flying to GA for a weekend wedding reception. someone told me of some amazing coincidences of running into old colleagues. with home on my mind, i casually think to myself, "it's no big deal that i can't contact brandon; i bet one of these days, maybe within the next 20 yrs, i'll run into him at an airport or something. it'll happen. well, there are 6 billion people, but we'll see."

the very next day, i'm spending time with sheley in GA. it's around midnight, so i'm about to drive her from my house to hers. as i got into my car, i realized i had left my cell inside my house. why would i need it, though? i hadn't lived in GA in 7 years, and it's midnight. yet, i run back inside and get it. it's 1:30am, and sheley and i are just talking. i had just brought my phone into her room, too. i get a call. i'm finally in the same city w/ sheley. this is my time w/ her. should i even look at who's calling? it's sean -- a best friend from h.s. why in the world would he be calling, and why at this hour? and, he's supposed to be at national guard training... so i pick up:

sean: yo, chris, i hope i didn't wake you! you won't believe who i'm sitting next to in this bar!
chris: who?
sean: brandon williams!

sean hands the phone to brandon, and we're so excited to finally hear from one another. brandon mentions having no cell #, so he had to just give me his dad's #. remember, he's at a bar, so i had to try hard just to hear the #s correctly.

the next day, i call brandon's dad, and man, his dad was so excited to hear from me. he mentioned that brandon came home at 3am and woke him up just to say that he heard from me. his dad and i reminisced on the phone for a while. he told me heart-felt stories about how every time he drives through our old town, he still has flashbacks about brandon and me playing baseball in the streets every day. brandon and i first started playing baseball on those streets 18 years ago. the seasons would come and go, but the one thing constant was our playing outside.

brandon and i met up, and it was like we picked up where things left off. brandon was just as funny as ever, and man, he surely remembered tons, from the colors of our first baseball gloves, to our endless adventures in our backyard woods. a few hours later, i was on a plane back to boston.

it was a great day. it was a really great day.

reasons #7, 8, and 9 for why i love boston

today i decided to enjoy the sunny weather.

reason #7:
after realizing i was low on produce, i decided to walk to haymarket's farmer's market for produce. food is insanely cheap there!

here's someone's video. (the first 40 seconds are the worst.):

i bought:

• 1 container of strawberries= $1
• 2lbs of cherries = $2
• 2 lbs of greenbeans = $1
  
• 1 lb of bananas $1
• 1 bag of grapes = $2
  
• 9 apples = $1

how cool is it that i'm within walking distance of it?

reason #8:
decided to do something that often sounds good in my head but that i never actually bring myself to doing: reading in the park. the oldest park in the nation is within 800 feet of my apartment. it's huge and good.


reason #9:
found out that the temptations are playing for free at the hatch shell on the charle's river tonight! that's also just 800 feet from my apartment. i'm so lucky.

welcome to adulthood

holy moly, it's been nearly 3 months since my last post! woops.

basically, i finished school in march. before starting my job, i went on a 5-week vacation, visiting:

• BP in seattle
• kazi at berkeley
• sheley in indonesia

it was a great time, and i think i wrote about some of this in past posts. during this vacation time, i also rewrote my entire master's project and re-submitted it to my adviser. he loved it. that made me happy.

in june, i moved to boston. it's small, but i'm trying to make it cozy and make it mine. as previously mentioned, it's $1600/month, has a parking spot, washer and dryer, and is in the heart of boston (beacon hill). after 4 trips to ikea, i'm finally pretty much done furnishing it :-) i'll post a video of it later.

as for my job, i love mit lincoln lab. i cannot imagine a better place for me. i interned here last summer, so i had an idea as to what i was getting myself into. but, i'm now further convinced that this is where i belong.

short version, i love it because:

• im researching and developing ai and data mining algorithms
• unique opportunities and applications of the work
• industry jobs would require me to have phd in order to do anything remotely comparable
• the environment/atmosphere
• it's challenging
• benefits are great

long version, i love it because:
i am on 2 projects: (1) face recognition; (2) stream analytics. both are in its infancy, and are VERY small teams. the work includes ai and data-mining-related algorithms. i love it. that's what i went to grad school for.

also, it's not just a code development job. MITLL is a FFRDC (federally funded research and development center). so, research is a large role. that's awesome. i am essentially tasked with doing stuff that i wouldn't have the opportunity to do anywhere else, unless i had a phd and a strong publication record. so i just saved myself from wasting like 3+ years of my life. yet, the stuff i learned in grad school is part of the stuff i work on and read every single day. i am really glad i took the classes i did. oh, and the application of our work is really cool, too. our sponsors are some pretty cool organizations :-)

the environment is kind of like a glorified grad school environment. i am in group 62, "information assurance." the group has many people and is essentially divided into two halves: (1) speech; (2) networking. i am the only person who has a project on each side of the group :-) everyone's office door is always open. it's understood that everyone is responsible and will work 40+ hours. with this, the hours are pretty flexible. people sometimes come in to work a few hours late, work from home occasionally, etc. don't confuse this with slackness. the employees are smart and definitely get work done. some of the people in our group are highly well-known, and a couple have written textbooks. the group consistently ranks well in world-wide speech competitions. it's a great environment, and it's challenging work that i enjoy.

i'm becoming more acquited with boston, and i look forward to knowing it more.

sheley is visiting next week! i can't wait.

the new boston apartment!

i decided to go with choice #1 from the previous post.

it's located here:

View Larger Map

it's considered "walker's paradise," with a score of 95/100:
http://walkscore.com/get-score.php?street=78+phillips+street+boston%2C+ma&go=Go

although it's within walking distance of tons of things, the ones that matter most to me are:

• 600 feet to the subway (redline)
• 1,100 feet to whole foods grocery store!
• 1,100 feet to a parking garage that allows monthly parking
• 1,400 feet to the park (boston commons -- oldest in the nation)
• 850 feet to post office
• 1,000 feet to gym
  
• in the heart of tons of restaurants and shops

the main attributes of the place:

• 1 bedroom
• my own private parking spot behind apartment, 24/7
• washer and dryer within apartment
• no dish washer
• free heat and hot water
• $1,600/month
  
• 4 month lease, can extend in increments of 1 yr at a time
• 1st and last month rent upfront, $800 finders fee, $500 security deposit
• pointless notes: ive become friends w/ the realtor, and landlord is an mit prof

it's small, so i made a sketch of my tentative layout. the dimensions of every object are as accurate as i could get... should generally be within a ~8" error: