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.