what does 3 million seconds feel like?
A lot happened last month:
I went to Lake Tahoe! The night before, everyone slept over at my mom's house (as if we were kids!) I really enjoyed the snowshoeing and views of the lake.
I started using a flip phone! It's reducing my late-night and absentminded phone time. I feel like T9 is already "retro".
(Nostalgia) I played through a few Flash games, like Fishy and Bloons. With Flash support dwindling, they'll be "retro" soon enough. Plus, great theme music!
I've been taking an astrophysics class!
* It's new material for me (fluid mechanics), and nice to see the derivations from first principles.
* So many uses (especially air and water)! Drag, pressure waves (sound!), shock waves, supernovae, weather, kayaking, you name it...
* The course gives me perspective, because we work in such vast time and length scales (dare I say "astronomical"!). I enjoy feeling like a speck of a much larger, connected system. (The universe definitely doesn't revolve around us, see for yourself...)
Work is busy. People use Pandora 24 hours a day, and my team's software has been crashing and taking down all of Pandora. I'm learning new things: about concurrency and threading, and also about working with people (i.e. my team) under stress.
I'm finding my "go-to" spots. I've lived in Berkeley for many years, but I frequent some new places that I never visited in college:
* Happy Donuts (san pablo // gilman and 24-hour san pablo // marin) - actual $1 donuts, no-frills, good distance to run. I usually get a chocolate old-fashioned (but lately, the chocolate powdery one!).
* Albatross (san pablo // university) - busy and unpretentious neighborhood bar, $1 unlimited popcorn and darts, lots of room to sit. I get the "Downtown Brown".
* Lucky House Thai (oxford // university) - great Thai restaurant, under $10, always room to sit. I get the peanut curry with tofu.
I'm also making pizza several times a week (from pre-made dough). It's a quick, tasty dinner, with room for plenty of veggies. I often prepare it with a friend instead of going out for dinner -- there's enough food for two!
Trees/flowers are starting to bloom. Spring is on its way! D.C. doesn't have a monopoly on cherry blossoms :-) But even in California, I can't wait for sunny days that feel like they last forever.
Things I've liked or thought about recently:
Art and Comics
- Flamin Hot Cheetos Font - https://flaminhotcheetosfont.github.io
- polygons in contact // islamic geometry - https://ynasser.github.io/pic/pic.html, also hear the talk)
- a eulogy in space - https://xkcd.com/2111/
- monkeys in traffic - https://xkcd.com/1075/
- it's in the journey, not the destination - https://xkcd.com/572/
- animals aren't special - http://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/2012-04-28
Learning
- Tell me more about New York Public Library - https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2019/02/15/all-the-details-of-the-new-york-public-library/?informz=1
- Brain teasers!! - https://256stuff.com/gray/teasers/
- NASA went to Jupiter - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5SuUY7dF1w&index=18&list=PLTiv_XWHnOZpM1iLQr95P4KDXYiYnJUOE
- do you remember vector algebra? - http://www.robots.ox.ac.uk/~sjrob/Teaching/Vectors/slides5.pdf
- what is cargo cult thinking? - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=an0kEqsnW3U
- Royen's proof of GCI - https://www.quantamagazine.org/statistician-proves-gaussian-correlation-inequality-20170328/ (arXiv link here)
Blogs
- do I keep working in tech? - https://shoehornwithteeth.com/ramblings/2018/08/my-future-in-tech/
- what are the implications of my work? - https://www.calebthompson.io/talks/dont-get-distracted/
- how do I keep learning but not burn out? - https://codewithoutrules.com/2018/02/01/too-much-to-learn/
- load balancers and toasters - https://rachelbythebay.com/w/2018/04/21/lb/
- software engineering takeaways - https://blog.regehr.org/archives/1594
- This is a big deal! - https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/press-room/uc-terminates-subscriptions-worlds-largest-scientific-publisher-push-open-access-publicly
Music
- make your own music! - https://tonematrix.audiotool.com/ (from a friend)
- pretty good carillon concert - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXmy31BiWrs&list=PLmtIKHIFz1_zTMQcR8z5vRZQiR32pglHU&index=17
- occasional foray into pop-country - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQrv-cgfnVw
- ambient, mellow, head-moving https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Yoao_7y1zI (from my friend Lee)
Send me what's on your mind! Or just send a "hello" :-)