seantime

Lots has happened since the last post: finished grad school, Europe trip, moved to a new apartment,  started working. I don’t have much desire to write about how crazy Danish high schoolers are when they graduate, how starkly awesome fjords are, or how very French Paris is, but maybe another time.

• It’s amazing to me how quickly one becomes acclimated to one’s surroundings. Here, I am talking about working at the Googs (endearingly, the “Googlag”), and how quickly I can start complaining about the free stuff that they give me. But still, I see why it is my friend says working here (in engineering) is akin to winning at life: super smart coworkers, interesting problems with lots of data, and billions of dollars to throw around. Do I really need a 30″ monitor and a Dell workstation to basically work out of a browser and terminal? Probably not.
• However, my body still hasn’t adjusted to the working schedule. I’m still super tired after a day’s work, and most days I don’t feel like I’ve been particularly productive. Learning the ropes takes time, but maybe it should take a little less time.
• Will Elana Altman get promoted to principal this coming season? I think there’s a good chance, though far from certain. I guess it’s also still a little early to tell. It would be fun to see SFB in CPH, but oh well.
• Still have random dreams about tp girl. Emotions are really mixed about this, but unattainable perfection always incites thus. Also haven’t seen google girl in a long time.
• Bought Starcraft 2 and am slowly getting through the single player campaign. I haven’t had the desire to play against crazy Koreans online yet.
• Finished reading Ulysses a short while ago, a momentous achievement and a release of a great burden. Now I can read a bunch of other crap without that book looming over my head.
• Should I buy Stanford WVB tickets? A friend thinks it’s weird to go to games post graduation. Maybe he’s right, but maybe I also have nothing better to do on Friday and Saturday nights.

• It’s hot and the memory foam mattress seems like a terrible idea.
• Complete lack of ambition to finish up the last Computational Biology project, or to study for Stochastic Processes.
• College girls back in open adult classes. There’s something really magical about really tall girls on pointe.
• Desktop computer is crashing because I haven’t done anything about the broken video card fan.
• NBA Finals! Lakers off to a great start.

Just a few more days to go, and then sadness.

• Found an apartment in Mountain View. It’s kind of expensive, but close to work, so hopefully it’s worth it. Plus it has air conditioning, which will be very useful if this weekend is any indication of the summer weather. On the plus side, maybe the rainy season is finally over.
• Moving means that I have to start throwing things away. Packing all this stuff up will take forever. It was probably a bad idea to buy backpacking gear that I won’t even use on the Europe trip right before moving.
• I think I might throw out this stockpile of old hard drives. I started the erasing of them, but it seems like it’ll take quite some time to do these secure erasing passes. Considering one pass takes hours, maybe I should’ve chosen a slightly less aggressive wipe.
• Day by day the end of school draws near. This time around, I don’t really feel like graduating.
• This importance sampling project for computational biology is driving me crazy. I just can’t seem to focus long enough to make any real progress on it.
• Can’t tell if I’m in love or not, especially because the “with whom” part is elusive. I hope life sorts itself out for me at some point, hopefully soon.

Finally found an oldies radio station: AM 1550. It’s a bit staticky, but works, except under bridges.

Song of the moment: “Sweet Little Sixteen” – Chuck Berry

• Saw the swingtime show and the tap th@t show. Swing and tap look kind of fun. Sometimes I wonder about ballet a little. Seeing tp girl there was nice.
• Also saw Sofiane Sylve teach a master class at Stanford. She has a ridiculous (as in, ridiculously awesome) accent: it’s like some strange fusion of French, British, and American. It’s also kind of crazy how fast the girls in the advanced class can pick up choreography. I suppose anything becomes easy after 10+ years of practice, but it’s still amazing to see just how many people can specialize in something as specific as ballet; these aren’t professional dancers, either.
• A google girl sighting this morning, which has become a rather rare event of late.
• Motivation to finish up this quarter is waning rapidly. Just a few more weeks, then a tearful second goodbye.

As excited as I am to finally go to these parts of Europe, I’m definitely not excited on the planning of the trip. It probably doesn’t help that somehow I have to figure out when to move as well. The next 2 months are going to be action packed.

Rough itinerary:

Paris – 4 nights

Brussels and the rest of Belgium – 2 nights

Amsterdam, windmills, tulips – 3 nights

Copenhagen and that crazy Doug character – 3 nights

Stockholm – 2 nights

Oslo, Bergen, fjords – 4 nights or so

Back to CPH and then back to the US

Somehow I don’t think it’s possible to make it to Svalbard or Tromso in under a week. It’d be pretty awesome to be able to visit the Arctic… maybe some other time. This might have to constitute a preliminary trip to an actual Scandinavia trip in the future. I am pretty excited about a lot of these cities, though.

Any suggestions of places to visit, places to stay, things to do, food to eat, beer to drink, etc. in any of the places above?

I wonder if I post on diverse enough topics, whether it’s possible for someone to emulate me to a sufficient degree to pass a “friend test” akin to the Turing test.

The bonus question is, if so, whether that’s a good or bad thing.

Finally started a reformat of my dear thinkpad, which is over 6 years old now and still running strong(ish). I figured that a 20-minute boot time is not really that acceptable. Hopefully the reinstall goes without too many problems.

Next week is going to be quite eventful. I’m not sure I’ve had this many things lined up in a week. It should be pretty exciting. Maybe I’ll also get some homework and stuff done as well.

• Tues: screening of La Danse
• Fri: Into the Woods
• Sat: SF Ballet program 6
• Sun: Taylor Swift concert

Sellers who ship media mail and don’t put tracking numbers make me sad. And I can’t do my homework because I don’t have the textbooks.

“Please Mr. Postman” – seantime edition

Originally performed by The Marvelettes, 1961

(Stop)
Oh yes, wait a minute Mister Postman
(Wait)
Wait Mister Postman

Please Mister Postman, look and see
(Oh yeah)
If there’s a package in your bag for me
(Please, Please Mister Postman)
Why’s it takin’ such a long time
(Oh yeah)
For me to get that textbook of mine

There must be some word today
From my seller so far away
Please Mister Postman, look and see
If there’s a package, a package for me

I’ve been standin’ here waitin’ Mister Postman
So patiently
For just an email or a tracking number
Sayin’ it’s coming soon to me

(Mister Postman)
Mister Postman, look and see
(Oh yeah)
If there’s a package in your bag for me
(Please, Please Mister Postman)
Why’s it takin’ such a long time
(Oh yeah)
For me to get that textbook of mine

So many days you passed me by
See me waiting so anxiously
You wouldn’t stop a second to linger
And leave for me a textbook from Springer

(Mister Postman)
Please Mister Postman, look and see
(Oh yeah)
If there’s a package in your bag for me
(Please, Please Mister Postman)
Why’s it takin’ such a long time

(Why don’t you check it and see one more time for me, you gotta)
Wait a minute
Wait a minute
Wait a minute
Wait a minute
(Mister Postman)
Mister Postman, look and see

(C’mon deliver the textbook, so I can do my homework)
Mister Postman

She wasn’t there. My life has lost all meaning, the sun has left the sky and all is darkness, and so on and so forth.

• Bought a Thermarest prolite from REI yesterday. It’s kind of expensive, but the accumulation of a set of backpacking gear has begun.
• Finally got around to watching Delicatessen. Now, the only Jeunet movie I haven’t seen is Alien: Resurrection. Maybe I shouldn’t have saved that for the last. Micmacs looks like it’ll be pretty good.
• It’s the first day of the quarter. I still don’t know what to take. All I know is that social dance is going to be a frightening experience.