Last Monday, I went to see a band called Battles play in San Francisco. They were very good. If you find yourself listening to something they've recorded, make sure to turn it up really really loud in order to enjoy it the most, and then go see them live because the recordings really don't capture much of what's there.
On Wednesday, I returned to San Francisco to see fireworks. They were firework-ish, as expected. The return trip was pretty rough, because apparently all of the Bay area chose to go see the same fireworks in the same spot, using the same Caltrain to get there. One would think I would have thought of that beforehand.
That is all. I have a new mini-project that involves lots of reading Ruby, which is unfortunate, because I love writing Ruby but it is absolute torture to read.
08 July, 2007
30 June, 2007
TAJ is an Acronym for Jazz
I went to see this dude on Friday, because of the Stanford Jazz Workshop.
It started out pretty awful by my standards. The first song was horribly compositional to begin with, and then for no particular reason went into a "let's just play notes and see what happens" mode. Also, they were all playing way too loud, and seeing how I couldn't tell what was going on, and I was sitting Way Back Here, and they were All The Way Up There, they probably couldn't either. I stuck around though, because I had hope for them, and because my ride wanted to stay.
They improved drastically over the course of the two sets, especially after the intermission. Although the drummer insisted on punishing his drums to no end until probably the last song where he sounded laid-back enough to be in a jazz band, they all got to a point pretty quickly after they came back where they were actually jamming together, and seemed "in the groove" (TM?). The one thing I couldn't get past was the saxophonist, who really had only one tone, and, while it was soothing, the "velvety-soft" thing doesn't really make it seem like you're improvising, and I don't think he was. Thankfully, as the only member of the band on a wind instrument, he had to take frequent breaks, so the rest of the band could play some good music while he rested to come back and monotonize it up again. Although I've spent some time bashing most of them, by the encore they had come around fully, and were extremely good, at one point even playing something I would consider applying the label "rockin' jams" to. 'Twas worth it, by the end.
Today I slept all day. That is all.
It started out pretty awful by my standards. The first song was horribly compositional to begin with, and then for no particular reason went into a "let's just play notes and see what happens" mode. Also, they were all playing way too loud, and seeing how I couldn't tell what was going on, and I was sitting Way Back Here, and they were All The Way Up There, they probably couldn't either. I stuck around though, because I had hope for them, and because my ride wanted to stay.
They improved drastically over the course of the two sets, especially after the intermission. Although the drummer insisted on punishing his drums to no end until probably the last song where he sounded laid-back enough to be in a jazz band, they all got to a point pretty quickly after they came back where they were actually jamming together, and seemed "in the groove" (TM?). The one thing I couldn't get past was the saxophonist, who really had only one tone, and, while it was soothing, the "velvety-soft" thing doesn't really make it seem like you're improvising, and I don't think he was. Thankfully, as the only member of the band on a wind instrument, he had to take frequent breaks, so the rest of the band could play some good music while he rested to come back and monotonize it up again. Although I've spent some time bashing most of them, by the encore they had come around fully, and were extremely good, at one point even playing something I would consider applying the label "rockin' jams" to. 'Twas worth it, by the end.
Today I slept all day. That is all.
24 June, 2007
Gooooogol Conglomerate
This weekend, two interesting things happened:
1) My computer decided to completely bork itself, particularly in the area of connecting to the internet, and then when I got it working again, a new feature appeared that wasn't working before.
2) I participated in the first ever puzzlehunt at Google! There is a good definition and list of related links here, and the challenge's website (with soon-to-come full puzzletext, I think) here. Those sources will do a much better job of explaining it than I ever could, so I'll list only my personal reactions below, and leave the exposition to better sourced people:
Wheeeeee!
1) My computer decided to completely bork itself, particularly in the area of connecting to the internet, and then when I got it working again, a new feature appeared that wasn't working before.
2) I participated in the first ever puzzlehunt at Google! There is a good definition and list of related links here, and the challenge's website (with soon-to-come full puzzletext, I think) here. Those sources will do a much better job of explaining it than I ever could, so I'll list only my personal reactions below, and leave the exposition to better sourced people:
Wheeeeee!
21 June, 2007
Usability
I went to a thingamajigger today where I won some entries into a raffle, some silly putty, and some chances for all of you to participate in google.
If any of you want to be registered for google's User Experience Research participant database, go here and use the Referral Code "MV2" to sign up.
Enjoy.
If any of you want to be registered for google's User Experience Research participant database, go here and use the Referral Code "MV2" to sign up.
Enjoy.
20 June, 2007
Pier 39
So I haven't updated this in (let's see...) six days (or so). Here goes, for the important stuff:
Saturday, I went to Big Basin with a few other interns, and walked around for a bit. The trail was fairly uninteresting (almost disappointing), but there were a few really great sights. Not many great views, because of the Huge Freaking Trees Everywhere Around You Effect, but there were a few pretty amazing picture chances (yet another reminder that I need to yell at Radio Shack, again). Also, we did the whole walk-on-a-log-spanning-a-river-to-get-to-the-other-side thing, which was fun. There really isn't anything more to say about that, which is why I wish I had my camera.
Sunday, I finally checked out Fry's Electronics. I don't know if it's because it was the one in Palo Alto, but I was pretty disappointed. Most of it was like a large-ish Best Buy, with one section for Large Appliances (washers and dryers...?). The only interesting section was where they had cases, motherboards, ram, CPUs, etc. all for sale separately, but unfortunately, the selection was puny compared to what I was expecting. I was later told that the original store is in Sunnyvale, so I might have to try that out. Anyway, I continued on my way to the Caltrain, which I took into San Francisco to meet up with Jason (for the uninformed, he was at Stony Brook last year on exchange, and is now back in Hawaii where he will be staying. He was visiting San Francisco, which is why I went to meet him). I biked from the Caltrain station there, along The Embarcadero (the northeast coast of SF), where it was quite windy, up to Pier 39 (protip: The piers are not numbered the way you would expect. Get a map.), where I walked around for a while until I met up with Jason. Yes, I did see the sea lions, yes, they looked exactly like sea lions always do on TV and in zoos, no, they weren't that special, but yes, the view of the ocean was pretty cool. Pier 39 was Yet Another Tourist Trap, so we played some arcade games, walked around, visited a magic shop, and ate dinner at the Hard Rock cafe (which of course made us both feel like awful human beings), and then I biked back to the Caltrain station as fast as I could because it was almost nine and the last train out leaves at nine on Sunday nights and oh my gosh what will happen if I don't make it I don't have anywhere to stay well maybe I can stay with Jason? but how will I get to work in the morning man this hill is steep what were they thinking when they planned this damn city?.... I got to the station just before the train left (I think I was the second- or third-to-last person on), and got home safely.
Apart from those adventures, I've just been working (my code finally compiles! Yay! But some of the unnecessary dependencies are broken! Boo!), eating great food, and relaxing with the other interns every night. This is actually the first time in a while that I've left work before midnight. Oh, and I got (Yet Another) free t-shirt today! Hooray for schwag!
Saturday, I went to Big Basin with a few other interns, and walked around for a bit. The trail was fairly uninteresting (almost disappointing), but there were a few really great sights. Not many great views, because of the Huge Freaking Trees Everywhere Around You Effect, but there were a few pretty amazing picture chances (yet another reminder that I need to yell at Radio Shack, again). Also, we did the whole walk-on-a-log-spanning-a-river-to-get-to-the-other-side thing, which was fun. There really isn't anything more to say about that, which is why I wish I had my camera.
Sunday, I finally checked out Fry's Electronics. I don't know if it's because it was the one in Palo Alto, but I was pretty disappointed. Most of it was like a large-ish Best Buy, with one section for Large Appliances (washers and dryers...?). The only interesting section was where they had cases, motherboards, ram, CPUs, etc. all for sale separately, but unfortunately, the selection was puny compared to what I was expecting. I was later told that the original store is in Sunnyvale, so I might have to try that out. Anyway, I continued on my way to the Caltrain, which I took into San Francisco to meet up with Jason (for the uninformed, he was at Stony Brook last year on exchange, and is now back in Hawaii where he will be staying. He was visiting San Francisco, which is why I went to meet him). I biked from the Caltrain station there, along The Embarcadero (the northeast coast of SF), where it was quite windy, up to Pier 39 (protip: The piers are not numbered the way you would expect. Get a map.), where I walked around for a while until I met up with Jason. Yes, I did see the sea lions, yes, they looked exactly like sea lions always do on TV and in zoos, no, they weren't that special, but yes, the view of the ocean was pretty cool. Pier 39 was Yet Another Tourist Trap, so we played some arcade games, walked around, visited a magic shop, and ate dinner at the Hard Rock cafe (which of course made us both feel like awful human beings), and then I biked back to the Caltrain station as fast as I could because it was almost nine and the last train out leaves at nine on Sunday nights and oh my gosh what will happen if I don't make it I don't have anywhere to stay well maybe I can stay with Jason? but how will I get to work in the morning man this hill is steep what were they thinking when they planned this damn city?.... I got to the station just before the train left (I think I was the second- or third-to-last person on), and got home safely.
Apart from those adventures, I've just been working (my code finally compiles! Yay! But some of the unnecessary dependencies are broken! Boo!), eating great food, and relaxing with the other interns every night. This is actually the first time in a while that I've left work before midnight. Oh, and I got (Yet Another) free t-shirt today! Hooray for schwag!
14 June, 2007
#00FF00, #000000, and #0000FF make the colors in the sky.
Today I found a DDR 5th mix arcade machine in my office.
Apparently it had been out on loan somewhere for a few months, and returned today.
This just doesn't stop getting better, does it?
Apparently it had been out on loan somewhere for a few months, and returned today.
This just doesn't stop getting better, does it?
12 June, 2007
Suggestions
I'm starting to think about a side-project to do at work (with my 20% time), and although I can't talk about any of the ideas I'm working with right now, I'd like to open the floor to all of you. If there's anything you ever wanted to see the internet do (and don't want to keep the idea for yourself), let me know. I figure now's the best time to do something cool, since I already have tons of nice libraries to work with, so if you have anything, say it soon.
You can post here if you have an account (or want to create one, it's not hard), or e-mail me at "walshl" at the domain you'd think of. A human should be able to do here what a robot should not, which is to add an "at" symbol (@) followed by "google", a period, and the letters 'c', 'o', and 'm'. Eat that, CAPTCHA.
You can post here if you have an account (or want to create one, it's not hard), or e-mail me at "walshl" at the domain you'd think of. A human should be able to do here what a robot should not, which is to add an "at" symbol (@) followed by "google", a period, and the letters 'c', 'o', and 'm'. Eat that, CAPTCHA.
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