Mind-Heart Disconnect

Spamming for 10 minutes of face time...

2009-05-18T23:19:46Z

With my no-longer-employed status, I've decided to fill up my time in other ways... so I invite you to see West Bay Opera's Madama Butterfly, playing in Palo Alto this weekend and next! I'm in the on-stage chorus (who are present for a total of 10 minutes, but the rest of the opera is still quite good even when the best performers are off-stage. :-P )

PERFORMANCE DATES
Friday, May 22, 2009 at 8:00 PM
Sunday, May 24, 2009 at 2:00 PM
Saturday, May 30, 2009 at 8:00 PM
Sunday, May 31, 2009 at 2:00 PM

LOCATION
Lucie Stern Theatre, 1305 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto, CA 94301

More information at http://www.wbopera.org/0809/Butterfly/index.html

Teehee! He said bad words...

2009-02-19T21:32:20Z

http://www.aprilwinchell.com/wp-content/cache/supercache/www.aprilwinchell.com/2009/02/05/barack-obama-is-tired-of-your-motherfucking-shit//index.html

Systems software geeking out...

2009-02-19T03:40:30Z

A little tidbit that was publicly acknowledged in Jeff Dean's talk at the WSDM conference (someone's notes available at http://glinden.blogspot.com/2009/02/jeff-dean-keynote-at-wsdm-2009.html):

Google holds the entire index of the internet in RAM. Not on hard drives. RAM.

If you extrapolate, that's a helluvalotta RAM in our datacenters.

And then there's that tweak that was done for other projects, where they used only the outermost portion of the disk, since due to the constant angular velocity of a disk, sectors of data get read more quickly from the outer edges than the inner portion. (Plus with the read head not having to swing as far, you get lower seek times too.)

Those were some of the coolest things I found out when I joined (cooler than the Chrome or GPhone things.) It annoyed I couldn't mention those things to anyone... until now.

Damn, I'm going to miss it.

I'd rather not puzzle solo...

2009-01-06T07:35:21Z

Anyone interested in participating in the Bay Area simulcast of the Microsoft Puzzle Hunt? Details at this Google doc. I want to find a team!

Other ways to cyberstalk...

2008-12-20T23:45:24Z

Did you know that the smog test history of your car (and any other car in California) is public record and accessible online, along with information about where it was tested?

From Slashdot...

2008-12-15T23:19:03Z

Would you buy these teaching guides?

Calculus: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1593271948
Statistics: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1593271891
Databases: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1593271905

Here's the description of the database book:

Princess Ruruna is stressed out. With the king and queen away, she has to manage the Kingdom of Kod's humongous fruit-selling empire. Overseas departments, scads of inventory, conflicting prices, and so many customers! It's all such a confusing mess. But a mysterious book and a helpful fairy promise to solve her organizational problemsâ"with the practical magic of databases.

In The Manga Guide to Databases, Tico the fairy teaches the Princess how to simplify her data management. We follow along as they design a relational database, understand the entity-relationship model, perform basic database operations, and delve into more advanced topics. Once the Princess is familiar with transactions and basic SQL statements, she can keep her data timely and accurate for the entire kingdom. Finally, Tico explains ways to make the database more efficient and secure, and they discuss methods for concurrency and replication.

They're still not as hilariously non sequitur as this guide to semiconductor physics.

Stayin Alive...

2008-10-17T17:33:52Z

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hwFew2vQ69x6-RFPFXQPyPFCceGgD93RQIM81

Nu-ku-lar...

2008-10-03T21:27:51Z

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/03/sarah-palin-debate-flowch_n_131607.html

How do you get funding for this research?

2008-08-26T00:53:27Z

M
O
O

Does she eat balut?

2008-08-12T07:48:02Z

Whoa... US Olympic gold medal swimmer Natalie Coughlin is 1/4 Filipina.

Large Hadron Rap

2008-08-08T21:00:46Z

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j50ZssEojtM

I vant to suck your blood...

2008-07-24T02:19:35Z

So I asked one of the site reliability engineers if he knew where I could borrow a Nerf gun, who walked me over to another SRE. The following exchange ensued:

SRE #1: What do you need the Nerf gun for?
SRE #2: It isn't for that Zombies vs. Vampires game is it?
Me (sheepishly): Um, ya...
SRE #2: When did Google turn into a freshman dorm?
SRE #1: When was Google ever *not* like a freshman dorm?

He then proceeded to show me my choices. Not as extensive as berkeleyjew's, but passable. I bit 2 people today, and tomorrow I get to defend myself from the zombie hordes with a 6-shooter. The funniest thing was watching my first victim come out of his meeting with the gun at the ready. I still got him, but not his teammate in that meeting.

I wouldn't have had to borrow the gun if they had just ruled in favor of my existing stash of Finger Missiles. Alas, if I miss, it could poke the eye out of someone quite far away.
--
In unrelated blogging, it looks like I'm moving to Palo Alto. Finalizing it today.

Bad decisions...

2008-06-30T06:21:06Z

I've decided I can't move to SF. I really want to. The Mission would've been nice. Noe Valley or the Sunset too. But I can't justify the commute times there.

I almost moved to SOMA. In fact, I'm still top of the list for a place at Fifth and Harrison, managed by this Filipino family who I got along with swimmingly when I saw them on Saturday. (I watch the Pacquiao/Diaz boxing match with them in fact.) SOMA was the only place with a passable commute. But tonight I decided that it would be too much of a compromise; any place in SOMA really doesn't have the feel of the rest of SF I was looking for, and the place I'm currently on the list for raises too many questions about my safety walking to and from trains/buses.

So that leaves me moving to Palo Alto. Downtown PA would make it slightly bearable.

But now that brings me to the sad retrospective on my decision from a few months ago. I had predicated picking Stanford upon moving to the City. Now that's no longer going to happen.

I am isolated from my friends down here. Hell, given how often I see people, is anyone even reading this still friends rather than just acquaintances? :-( I feel so lonely down in the South Bay. I'm not forming the friends at work like I'd hoped. I can't stand my roommate's reality TV watching/living room hogging habits. I just cut out the other a cappella group that was keeping me sane. The energetic Newman friends that were keeping me sane in Berkeley have moved to L.A. The frustrations of a hell-ish group partnership from last quarter - the 2nd such crappy partnership - make me question the quality of education I'd receive. (Not the quality of the profs, more the quality of the students I'd be stuck with as a master's student.) And because of the hellish partnership, my shot at trying to establish a research project through the class I took are shot to pieces. And now, the close friends I'd hoped to be nearby in SF will remain far away.

My dreams are dying a death by a thousand cuts. It wouldn't have been so bad if it all happened at once, like would've happened if I'd made a different decision a few months ago. In that case, I could've completely changed gears rather than holding on to what few pieces are left. However, the cuts are happening one at a time, one every few months since I made the other decision. Each time a little part of that dream dies, I search for something else to grasp on to, but then that gets cut too.

So what's left to grasp for?
* The hope that I can establish myself on a research project. Given everything I hear, I'll have to come up with my own idea and not be able to rely on a single shred of help from a professor since I'm "just a master's student".
* Hoping my 20% time project at work (which ties into the research area I want to be in) blossoms into something bigger.

That's it. And neither is very concrete. And every bit I've grasped on to previously has been cut, so what says that these won't disappear too?

I am hoping this is the last time I feel this, but it probably won't: I should have moved to Vancouver.

My cube is getting more and more bizarre...

2008-06-24T19:08:30Z

Quotes overheard at work:

"I think robots make for good office decorations."

Pictures of my new office mates coming soon.

A tourist in my own town...

2008-06-22T06:09:33Z

I'm staying the night in the hostel at Fisherman's Wharf. Just cuz.

(And because I just didn't feel like BARTing back to Millbrae to get my car, only to drive back to Berkeley again tomorrow.)

I can say I've watched one for the first time... sorta....

2008-06-21T05:00:20Z

I think that swordfighting in front of a priest is just something I should learn to expect in opera. I also find it amusing that wearing a tartan cloth is all that is necessary to establish the setting as being in Scotland. I also think that garlic fries and buffalo wings make for a great meal while watching opera.

As if I haven't moved enough...

2008-06-21T02:25:14Z

The South Bay is so isolating. I really really really want to move to San Francisco. But, given my plans, I probably should be moving to Palo Alto.

Anyone know of people looking for roommates in either of those 2 cities? If SF, I'm trying to be BART or CalTrain accessible, so like the Mission or SOMA.

Yarrr....

2008-06-13T07:15:46Z

I have 20 things to go to this weekend, so I'm probably not going here, but in case anyone else may be interested...

Northern California Pirate Festival in Vallejo, June 14/15

I survived the quarter. Barely. I may start posting again now that I have time.

If I could just write code this quickly...

2008-04-27T02:03:47Z

http://www.cracked.com/article_16219_200-comics-in-under-12-hours.html

I likely won't reach n + 1...

2008-04-18T07:39:33Z

nⁿ where n = 3
--
This photo of a gag present I received 2 Christmas's ago best displays my decision:

Okay, I'm actually much happier than that photo portrays about my school choice. But damn, I'm such a traitor. I'll just wear that Cal jacket from the photo around campus all day.

(So for those who saw my previous post I ended up clicking the button on the left.)

So, given that, here are the consequences of that decision:

* I won't have to learn to say aboot and eh and won't have to love hockey. Although Vancouver was a very very nice city that almost pulled me away from 2 1/2 decades of living in California. (And if I am successful in my decade long plans... it would be a very nice place to be an assistant professor in....)

* I'm staying in the Bay Area, but I'm moving to "anywhere but Sunnyvale" ASAP. My original plans involved moving to the City and shuttling to and from work for a year before I become a full time student. Assuming I go with that plan, does anyone know of people looking for roommates in the Mission or some other neighborhood that's BART/CalTrain accessible (preferred), or at least close to a shuttle stop for work? If I go with the other plan... anyone looking for roommates in Palo Alto? (Or if I go with plan #3, I could quit work at the end of summer and live in student housing. And I would've gone with that plan if my company's earning reports were shitty today, but they weren't.)

* To free up time to massively study study study, I will be leaving Redshift at least until I prove I can make it into a PhD program (which is a good 2 years away).

However, that means you can see my last show on Thursday ~~May 1~~; a joint concert with the Richter Scales! It will be somewhere in the South Bay, details coming soon.

EDIT 4/20 8:32PM: Make that Thursday May 8, Palo Alto Arts Center Auditorium, 1313 Newell Road, Palo Alto, CA.

Just a screenshot...

2008-04-16T00:19:31Z

Which button should I press? After 2 months of deliberating, I honestly don't know.

How many noodles could you stack on a hippopotamus?

2008-04-07T21:39:52Z

We may never know the answer to this blog post title, but we can see how many biscuits we can stack on a dog: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLmSgjPLJPs

Plug for local businesses...

2008-03-30T06:04:24Z

In case you are ever in Vancouver, check out the sketch comedy troupe Grimaldi's Asylum. They're hilarious!

I'm also finding myself addicted to British Columbia coffee chain Blenz Coffee. I feel like a consumer whore for pumping a chain, but they're mostly in BC with random locations in Japan, China and UAE. I'm also feeling weird pumping a coffee shop when I don't drink coffee, but they have so many non-coffee choices and pastry choices that I don't ever feel like my choices are limited, unlike Starbuck's. They have really good hot chocolate (3 kinds!) and chai drinks and tea based drinks that are all quite good.

(I wonder if you can guess which way I'm leaning based on my postings...)
(As of right now, I think your guess would be wrong.)

Oh Canada...

2008-03-30T01:27:36Z

I've been here 3 days. And it's snowed on me every day. And strangely, I kind of like it. Falling snow is calming. But it's looking like I may not like it enough.

I have some resolve on my decision today. I'm about 69% of the way to making one. I have about 3 more people to talk to who can sway my decision.

In the meantime, I've got to find some way to talking to people in this hostel.

Benedict Arnold...

2008-03-26T05:39:26Z

Option #3:

Michael A. Barrientos
(Unfunded, Initially Part Time, No Research Position Guaranteed) Master's Student
Department of Computer Science
Stanfurd University
~~Palo Alto~~Stanfurd, CA