Glassblowing!

I went to a glasswork class with my friend Ione, in San Jose.



Ione making a glass paperweight. It is extremely hot in the glass studio, and we all regretted wearing black.



Me using tongs to pull on the edges of my glass flower.



The glass is fluid, so we had to roll it back and forth to avoid it dripping into a puddle on the ground. Here you can see the flower in progress, from the side.



The finished glass flower. I gave it to Elaine as a Sunfire flower ornament.



The finished paperweight. I gave it to Yishan as a Sunfire paperweight.

I eventually passed 4 songs on Hard!

Playing "Rock Band" with a few friends, including a work colleague.  I am doing the vocals.

Me: "I am going to switch from Medium to Hard!"

Friend: "Time for hubris, I see."

Me: "It's hubris if we fail.  If we succeed, it's called ambition."

Colleague: "I think we'll be saying that one a lot."

Flood of tweets (fleets?)

Eating burritos with LG (now working at Twitter), Jon, and EDX.

Me: "LG, have you been watching the World Cup?"

LG: "Yes, in fact I watch the games very intensely, because the instant a goal is scored, we switch the Twitter GSLBs to point to a colo with better write performance.  Usually traffic is optimized for reads instead of writes."

Me: "Awesome."

funny chart

starcraft, chess

Conversation with a Korean games company executive, "Jun".

Greg: "Why didn't anyone in Korea make an RTS to compete with Starcraft? You guys had ten years!"

Jun: "That's like saying, 'Do you play Go? Why didn't you make another version of Go? That game is 5000 years old.' We didn't make another version because we were already playing Starcraft!"

Me: [lol]

Jun: "It's like if you said to someone, 'Would you like to play chess, or a chess-like game whose rules I made up?' They'd say, 'No, I'll play chess!'"

Spoiler alert for Sixth Sense, Star Wars, 300

Today LG and Jon drove down from SF to work out of Sunfire for the day.  During lunch at a kosher restaurant:

LG: "I have a T-shirt that spoils a whole bunch of movies.  Like, it says 'Darth is Luke's father.'"

Me: "That shirt is horrible.  I read several lines on it before realizing they were spoilers."

LG: "Haha yeah!  Or 'Bruce Willis is a ghost'."

Me: "That's so bad.  Sixth Sense is such an amazing movie when you get the twist."

LG: "Or '299 die.'"

Me: "Wait, what's that?  I don't know that one.  [horrified realization] Oh my God!!  LG!  Why did you do that?  Argh!"

LG: [laughing sheepishly] "You haven't watched it yet?  I'm sorry!  I didn't know!"

Me: "I can't believe that shirt ruined another movie when you're not even wearing it."

Retrofitting

At Sunfire yesterday, we had a couple of visitors from Google.

Me: "I got several recommendations to read this book called 'Good Calories, Bad Calories'."

Reena: "Don't all those nutrition books say the same thing?"

Me: "No.  For example, they differ over whether meat is good for you or bad.

Reena: "It's bad for you."

Me: "This book says it's fine."

Augustus: [joining in] "Oh, I want that book.  I'm looking for a book that will recommend the way I'm already eating."

Me: [lol]

iceland gay marriage

This is great!

Iceland Legalizes Gay Marriage, Prime Minister Marries Partner

Iceland has not only legalized gay marriage this past weekend, but its Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir married her long-term partner on the day it took effect, making her the world's only national leader with a same-sex spouse

Original article.

amusing iphone video

Thanks Sharam for showing me this.

yield a step, give an inch

My aunt has a best friend "Bea" in China.  I've met Bea a few times.  She is always cheerful, with a big smile.  She talks often about how she appreciates her husband of 30+ years for his kind heart and loyalty. Three years ago, I told her during a trip to Beijing how much I wanted to eat candied gourds, because I read about them in books but never ate them.  She took me around street vendors until we found a good place that sold them.

Once, Bea told us about how much she loves the fruit market near her house.  She said that the vendors all know her and greet her by name (or call her "sister" as is the local custom).  They save her favorite fruits for her, off to the side.

My aunt was curious, so she went the next day with Bea.  Afterwards she told me, "Those vendors gave her fruit that was over-ripe!  Those fruits are going to rot in a couple days. They were basically cheating her, yet she's still so happy."

I felt sympathy that Bea was being scammed and didn't even know it.  I thought my aunt is so much more sensible for catching on to the fruit vendors' tricks. But now I think Bea is the wisest one of us all.  She is happy-go-lucky and carefree, eating her overripe fruits, surrounded by a legion of friends because she is so fun to be around. She has one of the best marriages I've seen. Her daughter and son-in-law get along perfectly with her, and visit her frequently.  She is over 60 but looks at least 10 years younger. 

Bea gave me a hand fan once, which said in calligraphy, "Cherish being oblivious". 



As she gave it to me, she said that if you calculate every penny and argue every grievance, life is exhausting.  Instead, let yourself be oblivious sometimes.  "Yield a step," she said, "Give an inch.  And you will see that life is as limitless as the ocean and the sky."

technically your friend was correct

(All names have been changed.)

Rob: "I went on a date with this woman Melissa. It was a setup by my friend. She said that Melissa is smart, has an interesting job, and is stunning." [showing me a photo of Melissa, who is not attractive]

Me: "Did you know what she looked like when you went on the date?"

Rob: "Melissa sent me a different photo beforehand which looked a lot better than she does in real life. I was tricked because my friend said she's 'stunning'."

Me: "Well, you were stunned, right?"