i haven't updated in a while, but for record-keeping purposes, here are some highlights from the past 40 days:
1. kazi -- a good friend from the undergrad days -- visited me in boston.
back in 2006, we both visited boston together for what would be the first time for each of us. it won us over back then, and this visit was like the reunion.
i housed kazi and showed him around boston.
did a lot and had a good time.
kazi landed a summer internship w/ my employer, and he'll be conducted research similar to mine.
2. i flew to dc for work purposes, again. i also extended the trip into a personal trip:
visited my good friend, dan for a day:
stayed w/ my good friend, g francis for a few days
g francis and i randomly decided to experiment w/ light painting photography one friday night. it ended up being a blast. we learned how to take long exposures and shine light onto subjects in the dark, thereby taking a complete additive approach to the lighting aspect.
this experience has motivated me to try night photography more:
3. visited brown's 3-day open-house event in rhode island.
amazing school and campus. founded in 1764, it's officially "old school."
4. visited santa barbara, california for 5 days for a conference.
i'm rather slow to adopt new technology -- i didn't get a cell phone until feb 2006, and up until last week, i still had a $20 cheap, camera-less GoPhone from bestbuy. i had never been able to share cell phone pictures, download ringtones, or anything like that.
i decided to get w/ the times, so 5 days ago i bought an iPhone 4 for $80 (cosmetic refurbished, but it looks perfectly fine).
i've already found it to be really useful:
FaceTime - i was able to video chat w/ one of my best friends who is currently in law school in indiana. he was in his campus' library and i was able to see it. likewise, i showed him around my boston apartment! (below is not my friend.)
Mobile Internet - while at costco, i was curious how good of a deal a certain product was. i knew how much i usually pay for a similar product, but was unsure of the # of servings it contains. using google, i found it within 1 page click, which allowed me to discover how good of a deal it was at costco.
Subway/Bus times - instead of driving my car, i take public transportation to/from work each day. it's almost 3 hours total. i only have to wait less than 10 minutes for any subway/bus. but, boston's vehicles now all have GPS, so thanks to an app, i can track them! today's temperature was 1 degree outside. so, saving me a few minutes of waiting outside is very useful!
Sleeping - there's an app that monitors your matress' vibrations to detect how soundly you are sleeping. it wakes you up when you are in your lightest sleep within a 30-minute window that you tell it ahead of time. wake up more restful! here's my 1st stats from night 1 of using it:
Gym - for the past 7 years, i've logged my workouts. during the past yr, i would handwrite my workouts, then would transcribe them online to my private blog during my peak times, this would require 15 extra minutes each day. i found a great app -- Gym Buddy -- which is perfect for logging weights very quickly. it literally takes me less than 4 seconds to log any exercise. the app records histories of everything you could want, and it even includes stopwatches! this saves me SOO much time.
PDFs - i have copied PDF slides of a textbook and of course letctures to the iPhone, which allows me to read them during my commute. realistically, i'll probably just stick to hardcopies on this one, but it's still very handy to have this as a backup for times that i don't have the hardcopies on me!
my todo-list on the go! - i use google tasks from multiple computers. it's good to always have access to it while at a computer. now, i can take it with me anywhere! because the list loads as a webpage, i can even load it before leaving my apartment, go offline while outside, and still view the pre-loaded page. of course, i can contribute to the list anytime i want, too. this is very helpful to me.
graphical search - you can take a picture of something that you are unsure about, and google will do an image search for you! this is incredibly useful, although i haven't used it yet.
barcode reading - you can scan barcodes of anything, and it'll search for that product. if it's food, you can view the nutritional info. if it's a product like shampoo, you can see others' prices and info. haven't used it yet. definitely will.
outings - there are a myriad of apps to use for going out, obviously. from yelp, FoodSpotting, Ubranspoon, google maps, google places (hotpot), etc. this will come in handy for when we want to be slightly more unprepared and whimsical.
after just having the iPhone for 5 days, i pretty much believe that it's the most powerful mainstream computer that exists. when i say powerful, i mean not so much its computational abilities, but its degree and variety of utility. sure, a modern laptop has a faster processor, but you can't take it everywhere so easily. moreover, it can't do everything an iphone can -- from its webcam (which as i said, can be used for things such as scanning barcodes to taking pics to live video streaming) to having built-in gps and calling abilities, the doors are obviously open for a somewhat unlimited range of utility -- hence the plethora of apps.
it's obviously a superset of an iPod too. i could ramble on for a while.
basically, i'm sold. i've set ground rules for my usage of it, for i refuse to let it interfere with my normal-day living. yet, i appreciate its power and ability to assist in my daily life, and i plan to use it well.
(note: if you're short on time, just read the bold parts)
the computer scientist and mathematician in me often cause me to think about how to make commonplace situations the most efficient and beneficial for everyone. for example, situations such as:
boarding an airplane -- how to board everyone the quickest w/ minimum hassle
waiting in lines at a store
boston's subway -- how to decide how many subway trains to have, where to place them, and how often to run
placement of products within department stores like target
these types of things naturally cross my mind as i encounter them. yet, lately, i've come to not only accept the fact that the world at large is a massive NP-complete, inexact, sub-optimal system, but that it's often best this way.
for example, while at mike's pastries recently (my favorites there are the chocolate covered ricotta cannoli and german chocolate brownie!), i was thinking about how horribly disorganized that place is: basically, there's one line that forms outside, but once inside the store, there are no lines. you merely force your way up to any of the surrounding glass counters and compete for the attention of a nearby cashier. oh, and they only accept cash.
i've been to mike's pasties tons of times, yet it's always exciting and enjoyable -- even if it does have a huge touristy vibe. while thinking about how long this place has been famous, and how well their system works for them, it then hit me: the seemingly horrible time-inefficiency of their system actually isn't too bad. moreover, their inefficiency actually benefits them and is a vital part of their success! see, the chaotic nature of their store helps facilitate the exciting vibe of being there. if the lines were streamlined and branched off smoothly to cashiers, then the place would be typical. it wouldn't be as fun. this chaotic fun helps make the whole experience better, and probably even influences our perception of how good the food tastes.
lesson learned: what may be seem like an objective benefit to people may not actually be what's best; sometimes the sub-optimal solution is incidentally optimal.
as for unaccountability, lately i've witnessed two tragic events:
a man die by plummeting down a gigantic waterfall (see recent post)
a police raid; unseen to me, police shot a man 10-12 times. the victim merely had a water gun.
the waterfall incident went almost unnoticed. i saw the man fall, and the ~4 nearby people heard my screams and participated in the search. minutes later, hikers entering the trail had no idea what had just happened. it was only the next morning that officials found the victim's body. the incident only received a few sentences on local news sites, and the news was wrongly report too -- for they stated that he had fallen into the river. i would have thought that the park would have been encouraged to post more warnings about the dangers of going beyond the railings, and would have possibly constructed a plague dedication to the victim. nope. it was merely wrongly reported and probably only listed as a park statistic at best.
it baffled me how easily such an important thing like one's life can fail to garner proper action. i realize everyone's short on time, and that there are only a limited amount of resources for everything. yet, i'm constantly amazed and constantly realizing how limited these things actually are, and what's realistic to expect. this isn't some depressing message; it's just my coming to understand the inexactness and imperfections that occur in the world -- that not everything's ideal. of course.
as for the police raid incident, my friend brian and i witnessed ~20 cop cars come to one's home. the police constructed battering rams, kevlar shields, and gigantic guns as they prepared to invade this peron's house. we didn't really know what we were witnessing. days later, i looked online and found essentially no information reported. like the waterfall death, it was merely a 3-sentence blurb stating nothing beyond what we already knew. days later, i looked online again and found a slightly more detailed story: the victim apparently only possessed a water gun, and police supposedly didn't provide the man a chance to cooperate; police merely came in and used him as target practice. victim had 20 holes in him, mostly from gun shots.
what's the consequence? i don't know. i assume the victim's family will try to take to court some of the police, or maybe some policeman might be fired, but i don't know. it's just crazy to think of how large a mistake can be made without proper consequence/punishment/justice -- both justice in the form of police being punished and justice with respect to the story getting recognition in the news. i'm sure it's impossible for this to happen ideally. there are way too many people in the world, and there's no way every death can receive news coverage for everyone who cares. people die all the time, and the world is constantly fighting for everyone's attention. our attention is very very valuable and expensive, apparent by ubiquitous ads and just the nature of our very fast-paced lifestyles.
it's just weird to first-hand witness a life perish, possibly illegally, and for there to be so little accountability. oh yea, i was supposed to talk about accountability. basically, it's alarming, and for the same reasons that i've already said. there's so much going on, and there'll never be enough resources (time, energy, care, money, etc) that can properly do justice to everything. that's impossible and too expensive.
i don't mean for this entry to read as a depressing message. it's merely a reminder and a lesson that our world is imperfect, and that it takes a lot of very special effort, time, and care to make something the way you want it... and that for everything you do see, it's often the product of a lot of care and deliberation. thus, we shouldn't take things for granted. from streets being cleaned to newspapers being delivered, it takes a lot to get something done.
basically, we live in a beautiful mess. we should remember this and be more grateful for the things that do work.
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i've never placed much stock in any car i've had. my old '88 honda accord was quite amazingly ghetto/enjoyable though. it had a leaking sunroof which would sometimes pour in tons of rain after driving it for the 1st time after a big rain. sometimes it wouldn't. it was always a surprise. it had other quirks too, of which i'll spare you.
my current car is a '99 nissan altima, and we've been building a relationship for 3 years now. here it is, street-parked next to my boston apartment (this is 1 of 2 times in months that i havent had to parallel park):
most notable are our following adventures: (1) 50 hours of fall foliage driving; (2) driving from boston to atlanta and back, while almost dying in a multi-hour snow storm w/ no windshield wipers-- forcing me to drive on highway w/ head out the window; (3) car broken into twice...
and now, the latest addition:
the trunk release broke many months ago. my trunk key has never worked. so, i've had no access to the trunk for months. i fiddled around w/ it and learned how the trunk works.
if you slide this metal piece towards the right, the trunk will open.
i tied string around the sharp metal, while adding padding to prevent the string from unraveling.
i ran the string along the base of the trunk, bended it through a loop, then ran it through the back seats towards the front of the car. now, if you pull the string towards the front of the car, the trunk will open.
here i am in the driver's seat, turned towards the back.
it's nothing complicated; i just think it's kind of a funny system.
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my dad does self-employed woodworking for a living and has essentiallynever taken a day off in the last 30 years. so, i flew him up to boston for the first weekend of october. at that time, fall foliage is the best in the nation in nearby new hampshire and vermont. i chauffeured us around for 25 hours during those 3 days, with the intent of enjoying the foliage and 8 waterfalls.
the route:
the first day included torrential rain ALL day long, due to a nearby tropical storm. in fact, local rain records were set, yet we ventured on anyway:
the country roads were pretty empty, especially as we entered the white mountains -- no cell phone reception anywhere. when we pulled over to enter the occasional scenic areas, we'd encounter other photographers and nature lovers. as with any shared activity, there was a certain happy feeling and sense of camaraderie that aired during these hot spots. it provided a nice break from the sparse highway roads and heavy rains. everyone was polite and somewhat talkative.
the rain finally dwindled to a sprinkle as my dad and i entered the tiny gravel lot for sabbaday falls. the trail to the waterfall was only .3 miles, and it was clearly marked with nearby wooden guard rails. the waterfall we were about to see starts w/ a 8 foot drop into a smaller pool, which has a 20 foot drop, then finishes with a 12 foot drop. normally, it's pretty tranquil. today, it's anything but, for therain has made it unlike any waterfall i had ever seen. it literally poured probably hundreds of gallons per second.
as soon as my dad and i get view of the waterfall, i'm taken aback by its force. immediately, i look way up towards the top of the waterfall and see someone slip off of a rock and land right into the waterfall! it happened so fast, and he was facing me as he fell. i immediately scream, "Dad, someone just fell in!!" for a split second, my dad and i see the guy's head bob up in the pool that is 8 feet below. the water rushes hard, and we frantically keep an eye out. there were only ~5 other people out here near the gigantic waterfall, and we were spread out all over. i vividly remember two older women near me frantically scream as they grabbed the sides of their face.
my dad and i looked near the base of the waterfall, as did the others. we didn't see him, so we sprinted up the trail towards the head of the waterfall -- where the guy had fallen. we had all spread out very well. it was a huge panic, and communication was impossible -- due to how far things were and the loudness of the waterfall. my dad and i stayed at the head, but we saw no sign. we were convinced he was still trapped under some rock, either at the middle pool where we had seen him, or at the very bottom pool which received a constant whirlpool of water.
after a few minutes, we ran down to see the others. couldn't find any of the originals, but some new person informed us that people ran out to get cell phone reception to call 911. we had full reason to believe that NOBODY had found him yet. so, my dad and i race back to the waterfall and continue to look. we were the only ones around. after 15 more minutes, my dad and i accept the sad reality that there's no way he is still alive; just a few seconds under the water is enough to kill anyone. in fact, just the 40 foot fall on the rocks could easily kill anyone.
as we headed down, we found it very odd that not a single person had entered the waterfall in all of these 30 minutes. we discussed how ambulances must be at the beginning of the trail, and that they were preventing new people from entering. we were wrong. when we reached the parking lot, we saw new vans of families excitedly about to venture to the falls. not only were they clueless, but it appeared that NOBODY was aware of the situation. not a single person who witnessed it was around. where did they go? what happened? there appeared to be no resolution. there was merely the tragic event that took place, and nobody could be done, and nothing was done.
as we drove away, we saw the original 5 people across the road. we all talked. turns out, they had sadly seen him float downstream, which my dad and i somehow must have briefly missed. they said it was clear that the victim died instantly. they had tried to run downstream to keep up w/ the body, but it was often hard to keep track of it. the emergency crew finally found his body by 9:45 am the next morning.
the 64-year old victim was named Wilfred Chalut. he had walked over the guard rails to stand on a rock that neighbored the very top of the waterfall. i believe i saw a camera in his hand as he fell, and this would be a probable reason for his attempt to get so close. it was reported that his wife and daughter didn't see him as he fell, but had heard someone scream that someone fell in. it's very possibly that they had heard me, and that they were the two women who i saw exclaim.
here's a sad video of sabbaday waterfalls after we had given up hope for being able to rescue him:
it was wrongly reported in the news that he had merely fallen into the river. many news sites then copied this wrong info. for example:
3 years ago (when i lived in LA), my car was broken into. now, the same car was broken into in boston.
generally, i am very minimalistic -- or at least i like to think i am. i don't have much interest in material goods, other than my camera and a few lenses. for example, my cell phone is a $30 bestbuy phone w/ no camera, i don't buy expensive clothes, i only have 10 tv channels and an old-school tube television, and even my new computer was only $480. well, i guess all of this could simply suggests that i'm cheap, haha. well, i have the money to splurge on each of these categories, i just don't think it's worth it and don't care to, so i don't.
well, 10 years ago, while in high school, i was addicted to nice car audio, and it was my materialistic lust. (btw, i was into SQ, not SPL -- aka, sound quality, not loudness). i had a really nice sound system in my old lovely, ghetto '88 honda accord. it was probably worth more than the car. when i moved out to california for grad school, i bought my current non-special car. on my birthday, my parents shipped me 1 of my 2 old huge speakers, so i once again had a decent sound system. however, it was quickly stolen 2 months later. oh well, no biggie. i kind of out-grew the lust for high-quality car sound, just it was a nice treat.
during last christmas, i was home and noticed theother remaining old huge speakers sitting in my closet. so, i brought it back with me to boston. it made my 1.2 hour daily commute more enjoyable. however, 2 months later, i go deaf in left ear, so i can't listen to the sound system anymore. that's fine though, as i'm grateful for at least getting one last taste of high-quality sound while i still had hearing in both ears.
the system was pointlessly living in my occasionally-driven car until last night. someone broke the rear triangular window and stole the amp, my cheap after-market cd player, and my gps charger (i keep the gps in my apartment for this very situation). but what about the speaker?
well, several months ago, my trunk release cable broke. there's no way to open the trunk. the box enclosure for the speaker is so large that you can't pull it out from the trunk through the backseats, haha. the robbers were faced with this very dilemma. here they are presented with a $300 speaker, with a perfect hand-made box from my dad (who does wood working for a living), yet they can't take it out because it's 1/2 inch too big to slide out, haha. oh, plus it weighs 53 pounds, literally.
so what do they do? yep, stab it to death with a screwdriver -- clearly, the natural choice. how pathetic and weird of a choice, right? they couldn't have it, so they didn't want me to have it. what type of mentality is this? my friend mark compared it to setting one's car on fire if they couldn't steal it.
when it was broken into in LA, my car was parked in the apartment's key-access-required parking garage. here in boston, my car is parked in the most expensive neighborhood, and i'm sure my car is the crappiest of the nearby cars. so, i'm not sure what more i can do to make this not happen again. maybe if i just leave it w/o a cd player, or if i get a cassette player :-)
i don't drive too often; just on weekends for errands and occasionally road trips. in fact, i used to drive to work, but 2 months ago i started taking public transportation to work. so, i now do street parking and rent out my parking spot for $325/month. my having to replace the car window only adds to my considering selling the car and using a zipcar instead. there's a zipcar post just 1 street over from me.
Q: has anyone ever had their car broken into? or, has anyone used a zipcar before?
note: if you're in a rush, only read the red text. that's why i made it red.
for the past 4 years, i've been trying to live healthily by eating decently and exercising regularly. i started weight lifting casually 12 years ago, but it was only during these last 4 years that i consistently went 4-5 times a week and tried to make it part of my lifestyle. notwithstanding, during the prior years i definitely had my share of roller coasters of going and not going, just like everyone else. with this, i've noticed how insanely quick muscles can deplete.
i once gym'ed consistently (4-5 times a week) for 2 years straight -- gladly gained about 12+ lbs -- then, after 8 weeks of not going to the gym, all progress completely disappeared and i also lost all 12 lbs.
i resumed gym'ing and went for 1.2 years. due to a weight lifting accident (see previous post), i had to take a break from gym for 8 weeks. once again, all progress was completely lost, and my body weight immediately dropped 12 lbs! :-( moreover, i could lift no more than what i started with before the 1.2 years. oh well, no biggie. my ear drum has re-sealed and is in place, so i've started back at the gym again.
in this writing, i aim to express:
healthiness is a lifestyle; whether if you care to be healthy or not, it's the long-term, holistic direction of one's habits that should be considered
yet, any muscle progress should be taken lightly. it's insanely fleeting, and not much stock should be put into it
don't feel bad if you don't look the way you want. physical appearance is somewhat of an indicator of how healthy one is, but it shouldn't be the primary focus.
disclaimer / why i work out:
before i go further, i must state that in no way am i trying to assert that i'm in great shape, or that i'm strong, or anything like that. at every single gym i've been to, there have been many people stronger than i. plus, i accept that i'll likely always be considered skinny and will weigh less than my recommended healthy body weight. although it's fun for me to see the slight progress that forms,my main joy in the weight room is from the mere pursuit of trying to out-do my former personal lifting records.
ever since i was little, i've had a strange obsession/joy from keeping track of trivial personal records. for example, i remember being 10 and keeping track of how many consecutive basketball lay-ups i could make without missing. even if the task at hand is completely menial and trivial, i've sometimes played this little game. when i was 9, my dad once brought home stilts from a yard sale. i pointlessly kept track of how many consecutive steps i could take on them before getting tired or falling. bizarre, i know.
1. demonstration of muscles quickly depleting:
high school days:
i casually worked out at times but never really had a routine and i didn't know much. i graduated high school at age 17, weighing a measly 130 and bench pressing only 185.
undergraduate days:
every summer i worked out 5 days a week for 12 weeks, but then would completely stop as soon as the school year started. i simply couldn't afford the time commitment. so, any progress i made would be completely gone within 2 months of school starting. that's fine though, cause i enjoyed working out, and i learned a lot. but, it's an odd and interesting situation to really commit yourself to something for 12 weeks even though you know ahead of time that you will not continue beyond week 12 and thus all of your work will be fleeting.
the explicit pics below depict the seemingly pointless game i played every summer.
junior year
age: 20, weight: 143:
that summer, after 12 weeks of gym. i got in decent shape.
age: 21, weight: 153:
2 months later (start of senior year), and woops, back to my old body and 3am studying until i fall asleep! all muscle and strength was gone.
age: 21, weight: 143:
this see-saw happened every summer for 4 years.
graduate school days:
before; completely out of shape. before i started to gym again.
age: 22, weight: 145
then, worked out for almost 2 years straight, starting 9 months before grad school started. i got in okay shape.
age 24, weight: 152:
i then took about 5 months off due to working on master's thesis and vacationing after graduation. so, once again, i completely lost all gains and was back to my old body. notice how i'm wearing the same shirt in this pic and the previous. in the previous, it fits snuggly. then, after no gym for a while, i lost 10 lbs and it's baggy on me.
age 25, weight: 142:
post graduate school:
i then started full-time work and figured i'd have no distractions to keep me from lifting.
after 1.2 years of gym'ing, i got in decent shape.
me awkwardly trying to document any progress i've made.
age 25, weight: 155:
(yes, i had on shorts in this picture.)
then, the weight lifting medical injury forced me to stop weight lifting.
so, after just 4 weeks of no gym, my body had already started to deplete;
age: 26, weight: 145
by week 7 of no gym, all 14 months of progress was gone, and i had lost 12 lbs;
age: 26, weight: 142
the doctors gave me the okay to return to the gym at week 8, and the amount i can now lift is remarkably low. specifically, i can lift no more than what i could before 14 months ago. it's as if the 14 months never happened. how crazy is that? based on atrophy and de-training statistics, it should take me roughly 3 to 6 months to get back my full strength, at best.
after 3 weeks of returning to the gym, i've slowly started to gain back some of the mass;
age: 26, weight: 151
think about it. is there any other area of our body that takes this long to strengthen yet depletes so fast? the brain is much better; it can learn things pretty quickly, takes a while to forget things, and it's really quick on re-learning.
2. healthiness is a lifestyle, not a binge activity:
weight lifting is just for fun, and i view it as just synthetic strength -- as opposed to real -- at best. it's not like the strength that comes from digging ditches and doing construction. plus, being healthy envelopes so much more. i don't claim to be too healthy, but i try:
gym 4-5 times a week since january 2007*
haven't had soda since early 2001
never had coffee
eat out/delivery only once every 2 weeks to 2 months, or sometimes less frequently
rarely eat sweets (i.e., chocolate or ice cream maybe once a month, used to be far rarer)
alcohol rarely more often than every 6 months, although wine a little more often
fruits often, sometimes i mix 6+ fruits in a 1-liter smoothie on a daily basis
eat 5-6 tiny meals per day:
7:30 am = cereal + bagel + protein
9 am = banana + yogurt
11:30 am = lunch (i.e., pork chops, pasta, green beans)
3 pm = lunch part II (leftover lunch or a sandwich)
actually, i don't eat many vegetables, so i guess i don't really eat too healthily. i also probably eat too many starches and carbs, and i drink too much milk.
my biggest hurdles for living healthily are:
doing cardio
eating vegetables
sleeping more
Q: what is your hardest hurdle for living healthier?
