why is this one worse than the other one?

Chris Brown confessed to punching his girlfriend Rihanna several times in the face on Saturday. This happened after they got into an argument in the car, driving home from a pre-Grammy party.

Here they are during happier times:



The most common response to this sorry tale is "that's the end of his career". I hope this is the case. That would be just.

However, I don't understand why there's a double standard between this versus Kobe Bryant being accused of raping a woman in 2003.



Kobe Bryant's career did not end at all. Now he's one of the most revered sports stars in the world. During the Olympics, entire stadiums would chant his name.

Is it because Kobe never admitted guilt, whereas Chris Brown has?

Or because domestic violence is considered worse than rape?

love is in the air

It is February, and there is a significant date coming up soon. On this day, I plan to celebrate a timeless love. I have high hopes that it will be a memory to cherish for the rest of my years.

That's right, the Amazon Kindle 2 is allegedly shipping on February 24!!!

When I was ten years old, I read a sci-fi short story about a classroom of kids in the future. Each of them used a digital pad that could access all the world's writing. One day, they came across a reference to "carrying books". Upon questioning the teacher, they were shocked to discover that primitive humans actually lugged around volumes of paper, each of which only contained a single book's contents.

Soon I can stop being one of those primitive humans! The first Kindle book I'm going to read is "A Random Walk Down Wall Street".

I want "Infinite Jest" to become available on Kindle. That book is enormous! Also Knuth's books. Alas, neither are, but "Kite Runner" and "Outliers" (two sorry pieces of crap that somehow pass for books) are available as Kindle titles. Grrr.

I will carry my Kindle everywhere. If you're a stranger who reads my blog, and you spot someone at a Mountain View cafe who looks like me, instead of going up to them and asking "Are you Niniane?", you can just check if they're holding a Kindle. If not, then it's just some other woman who looks like me.

sad news article

Today I read a news article that was terribly sad:

A Texas district court judge Friday reversed the conviction of a man who died in prison nearly a decade ago, almost two decades into a prison sentence for a rape he swore he did not commit, CNN affiliate KXAN reported.

... Then a student at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Mallin was walking to her car, intending to move it to another parking lot, when a man approached her asking about jumper cables, she said. In a matter of seconds, he put her in a choke hold and held a knife to her neck. He forced himself into her car and drove her to the outskirts of town, where he raped her.

... Cole, like Mallin, was a student at Texas Tech. He had finished two years of college previously and was returning to school after spending two years in the Army, his brother said.

But his dreams of getting married and having children never materialized. He was arrested and charged with Mallin's rape, declining a plea bargain offer that would have put him on probation. A jury convicted him and imposed a 25-year sentence.

That night, "he hugged my mother and he said, 'Mother, why these people lie on me, why they do this to me?'" Cole's brother Reggie Session recounted for the Avalanche-Journal, which published a three-part series on the case in June.

"He said, 'They know I ain't done nothing to that girl. I don't even know that girl. Why they do this to me, mother?' ... He cried in my mother's arms on the floor."

Reading the article, it seems there were many hints indicating against it being Cole. He had asthma and never smoked, but the rapist was a heavy smoker. Cole's lawyer even suspected who the real rapist was, and tried to make a case for it.

Now everyone -- Cole's family, the victim, even the real rapist -- is working together to clear Cole's name. I'm sure it's cathartic, and should be done, but it's so little consolation.

blitz of albatross

Chatting to my brother about the recession, while sitting side-by-side on our respective computers.

Tom: "The games industry has been hit by the recession, especially some of the smaller studios."

Me: "You probably aren't affected much since you're working on Sims 3, not some obscure game like if you were making, um.... [spotting a banner on my screen labeled 'Ad Blitz'] ... Blitz of ... Albatross."

Tom: [pounding fist into right palm] "Blitz of Albatross is an excellent game, I'll have you know!"

Me: [laughing]

Tom: [turning to his screen and typing] "No google results for Blitz of Albatross. Well, if you ever wanted to make that game, you're in the clear."

Me: "So how would Blitz of Alcatraz -- "

Tom: "Albatross! Get the name right!"

---

The next evening, at dinner with Dan and Peggy.

Me: "... my brother and I came up with a game title: Blitz of Albatross."

Dan: "So how does this game work?"

Me: "Oh, uh... you are on a lovely island. It has a coconut tree. But every night you are biltzed by albatross."

Dan: "A flock of them?"

Me: "What? Isn't it a fish?"

Dan: "No, it's a bird."



Me: "Oh, I always thought it was a fish because of those puzzle stories where a man on a deserted island only has albatross to eat. Anyway, getting blitzed by a bunch of birds is too scary, Alfred Hitchcock style."

Peggy: "It could be just one bird."

Me: [laughing] "So the game is that you periodically get blitzed by a single albatross?"

...

I am now coining this phrase. Please use it amply when speaking with me.

Grilled unexpectedly during a business meeting? That's a blitz of albatross.

Sudden pang of nostalgia and wistfulness at 2am? Blitz of albatross.

"Game of the Year" in 2010? Definitely Blitz of Albatross.

angelina

My friend David was visiting from New York last week.

Me: "Angelina Jolie's bodyguard is writing a tell-all book about her. The book claims she cheated on Brad Pitt."

David: "Why should she be content with one guy? She's Angelina."

Me: "But it's Brad Pitt! Why would anyone cheat on Brad Pitt?"

David: "She did all that crazy stuff before, with the blood vials and marrying Billy Bob Thorton."

Me: "She does have a wild past, that's true. Another part of the book says she won over Brad Pitt by fulfilling all of his sexual fantasies. I'm not surprised by this."

David: "Right. So why should you be surprised that she wants to fulfill all of her own sexual fantasies? Including cheating on people."

don't you want to know what kind of MUD it was?

Chatting with my brother in my kitchen yesterday, while making a salad:

Me: "I met a new friend on Friday. She used to program MUDs, and now runs a startup making an MMO."

Tom: "Does she have a younger sister?"

Me: "I don't think so. Actually, come to think of it, she's your type physically. She's chinese, with long straight hair, and really skinny."

Tom: "Her younger sister is?"

Me: "No! She doesn't have a younger sister!"

Tom: "Bah, so useless!" [gets up and leaves]

Chef Charlie's new restaurant

Charlie, former head chef at Google, is opening a restaurant at Town and Country Village in Palo Alto. It's called Calafia.

I managed to elicit an invite to his Friends and Family pre-opening tasting event this past Sunday. This was very exciting for me.

My reservation was at 9pm, and by 5:30pm I was ravenous. I cooked some pasta with meat sauce to tide myself over.


My handiwork, in progress.


Tom gave me advice on cooking this meal.

I asked him, "Which do you think will taste better, this pasta or dinner at Charlie's restaurant?"

This was supposed to be a joke, because Charlie is a famous chef with a cookbook of his own recipes, whereas I can't even get my own mother to acknowledge that I can cook.

But Tom thought carefully, trying to come up with an answer that wouldn't hurt my feelings. Finally he said, "If this meal is better, that would mean we can open our own restaurant. So I think the other one will taste better."

Finally the ordained hour arrived, and I drove to Calafia.


The interior space just inside the door.


Bar area. The font on the wall boards (over-exposed in this photo) reminds me of Google cafe fonts, for some reason.


Lovely open space for the kitchen.


I had the fiery bbq pork rice bowl (with brown rice, yay!). It was great.


Happy.

It was better than my pasta, I can tell you.

true friendship = responding in the middle of a puzzle hunt

Something came up that frustrated me. I sent a venting email to Dan. Then, because he came online the next minute:

niniane: i am frustrated!
niniane: just want to express my frustration through as many mediums as possible
niniane: next i will send you a sms
niniane: and then skywrite it
niniane: with flares
niniane: in the night
dan: Lol
dan: MIT mystery hunt is this weekend, I'm in the middle of it
dan: I validate your frustration!
niniane: sorry
niniane: go go go
niniane: go beavers!
niniane: caltech beavers only
niniane: do not go, MIT beavers
dan: [silence]

or maybe a balanced binary tree

At breakfast, I was chatting with "Lenny" about meetings. In particular, we discussed meetings that leave you feeling drained vs. ones that don't take up energy.

Lenny: "It's different when you're meeting with someone new. That's more draining."

Me: "That's true. Because you are creating a new entry in your memory, rather than appending to an existing entry."

Lenny: "Yes, it's expensive to make a new entry."

Me: "Deletion is also time-consuming."

Lenny: "Human memory must be a sorted linked list."

yelp elite

Tom: "Are you registered on yelp?"

Me: "Yup."

Tom: "Are you elite?"

Me: "No, that would take too much time."

Tom: "But you satisfy two of the three criteria embodied by all yelp elite."

Me: "What, female and ...?"

Tom: "Female, Asian, and angsty. Seriously, go to any yelp restaurant page and read the elite review. You'll see that I'm right. Or in rare cases, the reviewer is a guy, but if you click on his photo and scroll to the right, he'll be standing next to an Asian woman who probably writes all of his reviews for him."

just in time for new year's resolutions

I think it's good when the president serves as a role model.

The paparazzi snapped a photo of Obama in swimming trunks. Now guys are taking his photo into the gym as inspiration.

I saw a news clip of a Midwestern-looking man asking a personal trainer, "Can I go from here (gesturing toward his gut) to here (gesturing at Obama photo)? Is there hope?"

"There's hope," said the trainer, studying the photo. "There's hope."

:)



Maybe men will copy his haircut too. Instead of "the Rachel", we'll have "the Barack".

group weddings and celebrating the elderly

Over Christmas I visited a friend in China. We first spent a couple days in the city of Kunming.


I found a random hotel through Google Maps. It had Victorian statues of Venus all about the grounds.


My hotel was home to a "group wedding" tour group. All these couples came on this tour to get married. I've never seen this before. The tour guide provided bouquets, corsages, red scarves, and red umbrellas in case of rain. (Red is the lucky wedding color in China.) Later they were all going to their honeymoon in Lijiang.

I wonder if group wedding tours happen in other countries. I can't imagine it taking off in the States.


This mango juice stand is cute, from the name "Mango Tango", to the 2-d grid of mangoes in glass cases.


Bamboo patch in the Western Hills.

...

I liked seeing how Chinese culture respects the elderly. The Kunming newspaper ran a promotion in collusion with the local hospital, offering free glaucoma operations to anyone who has celebrated their diamond wedding anniversary (60 years). Gold wedding anniversaries get a huge discount, silver gets a small discount, etc.

The newspaper kept referring to elderly women as "little old ladies" in an affectionate way. It was sweet.

customer service around the world

A few days ago, I purchased a VPS plan (virtual private server) for a fun site I'm making with a college friend. The VPS company has a 7-day moneyback guarantee, which is common since people want to test connection speeds, uptime, reliability.

I was not happy with one aspect, so I asked for my money back. To my surprise, the company started arguing. I am used to US service, and this company is based in the UK, so maybe that is the reason for the different expectations. In the US, you can return shoes to Nordstroms after 3 months without a receipt.

I recall one British friend saying that customer service in America is so fakely sweet that it discomfits her. Is this just a culture difference then? Are the Brits actually happier with their tougher customer service reps?

It seems that China is moving toward the US model. Chinese stores used to be pretty gruff, but in recent times I keep hearing them say, "The customer is God".

collapsing the waveform

Last night, my macbook started having short freezes, and iPhoto wouldn't launch. I rebooted. The start sequence got stuck at the apple logo loading screen. Many reboots (safe mode, taking out and replacing battery, etc) all stayed at this screen.

I decided to take it to the Apple Store. Best case: running a disk utility would repair the error and make things good as new in 10 minutes. Worse: the logic board is broken, but no data loss. Even worse: the hard drive is hosed.

All morning I found myself mentally assessing the probabilities of each, hoping for a good outcome.

In late afternoon, I went to my appointment at the Apple Genius Bar. They connected an external hard drive and quickly declared that my hard drive failed, such that the partition is unreadable. "Your data is gone," they said cheerfully, to make sure I understood.

As I walked out of the store, I was surprised to find that I felt better. This was one of the worse outcomes. But now my mental background processes could start cataloguing the list of apps I need to reinstall, and non-backed up scripts to rewrite. Collapsing the waveform brought its own relief.

I think it's due to my myers-briggs being a J rather than a P. If I were a P, perhaps I would prefer the time of innocence, before knowing with certainty that my hard drive is toast.

especially if you taught them using emacs

Today I received an email where the sig was very amusing:

If you give someone a program, you will frustrate them for a day;
if you teach them how to program, you will frustrate them for a lifetime.
--- Anonymous

I showed it to my programmer friend, and we both fell about laughing.

crumpets

Keith: "The XX bakery has new management, and it's not as good as before. One of the three original founders died from a heart attack."

Me: "Oh, that's too bad."

Keith: "His name was on the lease so his wife or girlfriend kicked out the other two, and took it over."

Me: "That's terrible! Was she his wife or his girlfriend?"

Keith: "Both."

Me: "He was married and had a mistress?"

Keith: "Yes."

Me: "So which one took over the lease?"

Keith: "They did it together."

Me: "Wow. Well, I guess they had similar tastes."

Keith: "United by their grief and greed."

Me: "Like many a capitalistic venture."

doormat decision

My townhouse came with a doormat, which is now at least four years old. My brother calls it "the pile of unidentifiable material which used to be a doormat".

I've narrowed down my decision to three choices.

A. Throw it away, and have no doormat at all.

B. Buy this amusing doormat, which may quickly get dirty as people wipe their feet on it:


C. Buy a normal-looking doormat, like this:


Suggestions?

chair proof

My brother is moving into my townhouse. We're going to be housemates for the next three months, potentially longer.

Yesterday we loaded up his Accord with small furniture pieces. Around 8pm, we began stuffing his computer chair into the front passenger seat.



Me: [after a couple minutes of pushing] "We got three of the wheels in. By induction, we should be able to get all five."

Tom: "Induction is awesome."

Both of us: [shoving against the chair]

Tom: "Though I'd say we're using the brute force method more."

$

I was IM-ing with my friend John about choices for health insurance, and he said something I found funny:

"I am what is known as 'bad with money', i.e. my math skills are great until I see a dollar sign."

This reminded me of something he said a few years ago:

John: My checking account is almost overdrawn.

Me: How come this is happening now when it never did before?

John: Well, I used to have a system of checks and balances, in that I would check my balance.

my doctor's story

Today I went for an annual physical from my doctor at Kaiser.

The actual physical took three minutes, and we spent twenty minutes talking. My doctor is a chinese woman in her 40s.

When she was my age, she was working at a Berkeley medical lab as a technician. She wasn't satisfied with the work, so she decided to take the medical board exam to be qualified to practice medicine in the US. She quit her job, and lived off savings for a year while studying.

She had the knowledge from medical school in China, but her english was rough. After a year, she took the exam, and failed by one point. But this gave her courage that after another year, she would be able to pass.

She said it was stressful sometimes, studying and not remembering english vocabulary, looking it up and not comprehending the definition, wondering if she should instead spend her time getting a boyfriend.

At the end of the two years, she passed the exams, and embarked on the road to practicing as a doctor. Later she married a chinese friend she'd known from Berkeley.

I was really moved by the story. I was planning to switch from Kaiser HMO to Cigna PPO, but now I'm wavering because I like my doctor so much.

poem from my brother

From: Tom Wang

I wrote you a lovely haiku – this is what happened when I was bored last night and surfing the internet.

Curiosity
What’s This ‘Two Girls One Cup’?
Traumatized Brother

funny hacking conversation

This hacker chat transcript that Alipé found is really funny. I am LOL'ing.

<bitchchecker> shut up i hack you
<Elch> ok, i’m quiet, hope you don’t show us how good a hacker you are ^^
<bitchchecker> tell me your network number man then you’re dead
<Elch> Eh, it’s 129.0.0.1
<Elch> or maybe 127.0.0.1
<Elch> yes exactly that’s it: 127.0.0.1 I’m waiting for you great attack
<bitchchecker> in five minutes your hard drive is deleted
<Elch> Now I’m frightened
<bitchchecker> shut up you’ll be gone
<bitchchecker> i have a program where i enter your ip and you’re dead

fobby lol

A reader pointed me to the sites mymomisafob.com and mydadisafob.com. These are so funny!

no need for expensive birthday wishes:

Me: Happy birthday Dad!
Dad: Thank you.
Me: What did —
Dad: T-Mobile have no more minutes, call me tonight when it’s free. [hangs up]

Self-celebratory text message:

Dad: happy birth to me!
Me: sorry, dad…i knew it was your birthday, but i didn’t have a chance to call you before class
Dad: oh ok i just want you to share glorious happy birth!

weight gain:

Dad: People get old, get fat; gray hair, move slow….that’s life; young ones/next generation take over.
Philip: ya
Philip: but you got fat really fast
Dad: ok, I’ll try to lose weight; it’s not easy; I get hungry.

low income voters against prop 8?

By current tallies, Prop 8 to eliminate gay marriage is leaning toward passing, 52% to 48%. It's disappointing.

You can see the voting broken down by age, gender, race, education on this CNN page.

As expected, the younger the voters, the more likely they are to oppose the proposition (i.e. favor gay marriage). The more educated they are, the more likely they are to oppose it. The highest income brackets are more likely to oppose it than middle-income brackets.

However, I find it interesting that the lowest income brackets (<$30k) also oppose the proposition. Why would this be? It goes against the education correlation.

The only explanation I could concoct is that perhaps younger voters are more likely to earn less than $30,000, so the income is more correlated to age than to education.

uWink

There's a new restaurant in downtown Mountain View, where you place orders via a computer monitor, and can play games while you wait.

Dan went there and said the games were horrible. He maintains that they are cheesy and not sociable enough. This made me curious, so I went with Sha-mayn the following week. We loved it!

I especially liked the trivia game.

A debate ensued between Dan and me. Spread over several conversations, we debated the merits of uWink. This culminated last Thursday in a bet.

The bet concerns whether the uWink company will go out of business within two years (10/30/2010). Dan bets that it will, and I bet that it will not. The loser will cook for the winner for one month.

Reza, who was eating dinner with us when we determined the bet, is the arbiter.

After we finalized the bet terms, the three of us jauntered over to uWink to watch the crowd. It was one-third full, not terrible for a weeknight. We noticed that it was about 70% Asians. The Asians were laughing, playing the games, having a great time. The non-Asians sat away from the computer monitors, looking bored as they chatted with each other.

Maybe uWink is an Asian thing.


Sha-mayn across the table from me.


Ordering via menu.


The "spicy" First Date game. (It's not very spicy.)


Sha-mayn took this photo of me.

amazon mystery

Last time I visited the library, I borrowed a book from the new arrivals section.



I tried to read it today, and it was horrible. I kept cringing from the writing and the unbelievable characters. I stopped after twenty pages.

Yet this book averages four stars on Amazon! How can this be? One review says:

"This book could have been alot better if it shaved off about 250 pages.

I wasn't too pleased with this one."

Yet the reviewer still gave three stars! I've lost some faith in Amazon reviews after this. Perhaps the author somehow tapped into a readership who is eager to please and reluctant to criticize.

gallows humor

This "Overheard in New York" installment is funny:

Hobo on subway to man in suit: Spare change? Anyone? Spare change for the homeless? You look like you worked for Lehman Brothers, you're excused.

--51st St

why are so many songs about love?

I was switching between radio stations yesterday, and every station was playing a love song. Half the songs are about how great it feels to be in love, and the other half are about the sorrows of losing that love.

How did it become a social standard that pop songs are all about love? I suppose the experience is more universal, as opposed to politics, where any song will alienate a portion of the population. Or songs about a particular line of work, which would bore people from other professions. Love appeals to all ages, from teenagers to seniors.

Regardless, there are so many other facets to life. Why aren't there more songs along the lines of "I'm worried about the health of my grandparents" or "I love my job" or "The global gloom-and-doom is a difficult thing"?

germans being funny

In the Google Munich office. I'm temporarily sitting in an office with two German engineers.

Me: [dialing a number into the phone] "Hello? Oh, I'm sorry. I got the wrong number."

Munich Googler #1: [overhearing] "Did you dial 7 to get to an outside line?"

Me: "Yes, but it didn't work. I'm trying to call this number: 4916..."

Munich Googler #1: "Replace 49 with 0. You are in Germany, so you don't need the top-level namespace."

Munich Googler #2: "Why don't you just say 'Don't dial the country code' like a normal person?"

Munich Googler #1: [confidently] "This is more understandable."

I thought it was cute.

Sarah Palin song

This is funny.

Also it's sweet how the woman keeps looking over at the guy.

endpoints

I'm in Europe this week, and I miss my friends back home. Luckily there is gmail-integrated IM.

Pellinore: also, i've been very sick.
niniane: awwww, i'm sorry that you're sick.
Pellinore: i am going to the hospital on tues for a lot of tests
niniane: what kind of illness?
niniane: what symptoms?
Pellinore: it's a long story... but something is wrong with my GI track... nobody really knows why
Pellinore: so they need to go in and take a look...
Pellinore: they're going to send in little cameras for one or both endpoints (that's what they call it)!!
Pellinore: i need to drink this shit tomorrow to completely clear my system for my tests on tuesday
niniane: endpoints! wow
niniane: what color is the drink?
niniane: how long have you been ill like this?
Pellinore: last week, i went to this new dermatologist about 3 random skin problems
Pellinore: he gave me an antibiotic... these pills were awful. they made me so so so sick
niniane: so this is a reaction to the pills?
Pellinore: yeah, that's the frustrating part
Pellinore: i'm not very good at listening to doctors...
niniane: it's because you rebel against authority :)
Pellinore: my grandfather's brothers were all doctors... growing up, i remember hearing them talk about things over dinner all the time and i always thought they were like car mechanics... or like us... just putting useless print statements to see what's going on...
niniane: yeah, why did you take the antibiotics then? :)
Pellinore: i thought i should try it.
Pellinore: i made the mistake of listening
Pellinore: and now i'm making a bigger mistake by letting them put cameras up and down my endpoints
Pellinore: what if the two cameras crash into each other!
Pellinore: what if they form a knot and they can't get them out!
Pellinore: i hope they're doing this one at a time.
niniane: why do they need to do two cameras
niniane: i guess it depends on the direction it's pointed
niniane: i hope they don't just wash it and use it in the other direction
Pellinore: :)
Pellinore: thanks for listening to my story
niniane: oh, it was great.
niniane: the endpoints, and camera collisions
niniane: it was just like work

photos of hotness

Omst took our mutual friend Lauren to the Google vegetable garden. When his back was turned, she picked a pepper.

Five of us (including Omst and Lauren) were scheduled to meet for dinner. Lauren decided that if anyone was late, their penalty was to eat the pepper.

Dan was late. Here he is, holding his punishment.



This is a video of him eating it.



On the subject of food pictures, I'm now addicted to yogurt. Fresh yogurt, not the cannister type. Last week, I had yogurt four days in a row, at Fraiche Yogurt in Palo Alto.

You cannot actually see the yogurt here, since it's covered with pineapple and dark chocolate shavings. But it's very good.



Another novelty food item I recently ate was winter melon soup, inside a big winter melon. In chinese fashion, the saran wrap was not removed from the melon. Have you ever gone to a chinese person's house and noticed that they kept the protective covering on their chairs or remote control? We're like that.



By the way, if you were wondering about the title of the post, it's because the pepper was hot.

i'll recreate encountering Gates McFadden in the Google bathroom

I am very excited today to see this article: Scientist: Holographic television to become reality:

Picture this: you've sat down for the Football World Cup final, or a long-awaited sequel to the "Sex and the City" movie and you're watching all the action unfold in 3-D on your coffee table.

...
The reason for renewed optimism in three-dimensional technology is a breakthrough in rewritable and erasable holographic systems made earlier this year by researchers at the University of Arizona.

I don't care about watching TV in 3-d. That's boring. But if we can get high-res 3-d projections, then we can write AI and get closer to making the Star Trek holodeck!

I will not have walked this earth in vain, if one day I can make software that emulates the Star Trek holodeck.



It might not happen until I'm seventy years old, and the touch aspect won't work and my holodecks would be immediately overtaken by porn. But I would still be happy.

This part of the article makes me skeptical:

The researchers produced displays that can be erased and rewritten in a matter of minutes.

To create television sets the images would need to be changing multiple times each second -- but Peyghambarian is very optimistic this can happen.

...
"It took us a while to make that first breakthrough, but as soon as you have the first element of it working the rest often comes more rapidly," he said. "What we are doing now is trying to make the model better. What we showed is just one color, what we are doing now is trying to use three colors. The original display was four inches by four inches and now we're going for something at least as big as a computer screen."

There are no more great barriers to overcome now, he said.

Really? Projecting a single color a few times per hour is not much harder than a high-resolution model at 24 frames per second? I guess if you say so...

Oh, and the best part: If we can have 3-d projections from a portable source which emanates audio, then...

holographic miniature pig

cumulus

Alipé sent me this link for New Virtual Earth with 3D Clouds.

Seeing my clouds in this video was like seeing an old friend.

overheard at dinner

Walking out from dinner on Monday, Dan and I passed a young couple.

Dan: "That was an interesting sentence to overhear."

Me: "What was it? I wasn't paying attention."

Dan: "She said, 'Don't just tell me, 'Do whatever you want.''"

Me: "So they were arguing?"

Dan: "Yeah. He thinks he's being flexible, by agreeing to whatever she wants to do. But what she really wants is for him to be an emotional participant in the latest crisis of the moment. A crisis that she probably manufactured in order to get a reaction from him."

Me: "That's quite the analysis."

Dan: [noises of humility]

Me: "We can be momentarily smug that each of us is not embroiled in this type of argument. For two months."

Dan: "Until those exact words are said to us?"

Me: "Right."

Dan: "In your case, you'd be the one saying them."

conversations about Caltech

Today Megan had me do this exercise:


I was not as graceful as the woman depicted above.

Megan: "Shoulders over your wrists! Raise your leg! You're not raising your leg high enough! Are you listening to what I'm saying?"

Me: [struggling] "This is hard."

Megan: "I know you can figure this out! You went to Caltech."

Me: [out of breath] "We did not learn this at Caltech."

...

A better example of the Caltech lifestyle happened during a conversation last month with my college friend C3. He has always been an avid video game player, and would disappear for weeks after the release of a Blizzard title.

Me: "So do you play World of Warcraft?"

C3: "I stayed away from it, since I figured that would mark the end of my corporeal existence."

I told this later to Ono, who said while laughing, "Note how he says it's not the end of his entire existence, since he'll still have an existence through WoW."

pretty

My friend made a very pretty room in Lively. It made me happy.

telling someone they've gotten fat

I'm impressed by this spiel for telling your spouse that they've gotten fat.

I’ve been worried lately because my dad, mom, grandfather, other blood relative, coworker, long time friend or acquaintance… died from a heart attack (or has been ill). I’ve been really thinking about it a lot lately. And I have been trying to come to grips with that for some time. Not because they died (or are ill), but because I know it could have been prevented. They were (pick one or some) overweight, didn’t get any exercise, smoked, drank, were depressed… and I keep asking myself why they chose not to do anything about it? And then I took a hard look at us. I’m wondering if we’re falling into that same rut of complacency. I’ve been reading about the fact that positive lifestyle changes can add years to our lives together. And not just that, but add MEANINGFUL years to our lives.

I think we need to change some things about how we are living, and I’d like your help figuring out what changes we can make. I’ve got some ideas, if you’d be willing to listen: “I think we both need to change what we’re eating. The fast food is convenient, but it’s killing us slowly. I’m willing to do more around the house so that we can make time to eat healthier.” (Dietary habits are key to weight loss)

“I’d also like us to commit to getting in better shape. We both need to get out there. I’m not saying we have to join a gym or be muscle heads. But I know that if we just started walking or playing more that we’d feel better physically and emotionally.”

“I’d also like us to get rid of the junk food in the house and stop buying it. Cheetos, ice cream sandwiches and snack cakes are things I feel we eat too much of. I’m not saying that once in a while is bad, but I think we eat too much of that stuff right now. And if it’s there, I know I’ll go grab it because it’s convenient. Can we work on replacing the junk with healthier alternatives?”

Close by looking deep into their eyes lovingly, and placing your hand on the back of their neck, draw them closer to you. It helps cement communication. Say softly: “Honey, we’re a ‘we’. I depend on you so much for strength and support, and I don’t think I can make these changes without you. I need you in this with me and to be part of the solution for both of us. Can we do this together? I’ll help you and you can help me.”

What do you think, gentle readers? Would you rather hear this, or something straightforward?

hand soaps.

Online soap shopping is challenging! First, you must decide the texture:

• moisturing
  
• deep cleansing
  
• gentle foam
  

and then the bombardment of aromas, without being able to smell them:

• cherry blossom
  
• japanese cherry blossom
  
• orange ginger
  
• wild honeysuckle
  
• sweet pea
  
• irresistible apple
  
• eucalyptus spearmint
  
• lavendar vanilla
  

But I had to get through it. I am having a soap issue.

I used Costco clear soap for four years. Then I visited a coworker's house, and it opened my eyes to how wonderful soap can be. I know now that soap doesn't have to be just a tool for fighting bacteria. It can be a source of joy and stress relief and energy, depending on the aroma.

Now it will be my turn to have great soap. My soaps will be so satisfying that when people need to go to the bathroom, they'll drive from their house to my house so that they can wash their hands with my soap afterwards.

funny LHC links

The LHC webcam.

http://hasthelhcdestroyedtheearth.com. It has an RSS feed.

A LHC photo that may shock you.

traffic spike

Over instant messenger.

niniane: did you wish sha-mayn happy bday?
alipé : yep
alipé : Facebook was down for a while early this morning.
alipé : probably due to the overwhelming volume of people wishing her happy birthday
niniane: lol

happy birthday Sha-mayn

The world is a better place with Sha-mayn.

not the first time someone got fired because of Steve Jobs

At a Mexican taqueria with my brother.

Me: "Did you hear about how Bloomberg accidentally published an obituary for Steve Jobs last week?"

Tom: "No!"

Me: "It was in the news. At a conference the other day, Steve Jobs said, 'The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated.'"

Tom: "That's a good one. Oh, I bet that Bloomberg reporter got fired."

Me: "You think so? Yeah, heads probably rolled."

Tom: "Someone ran into his office and said, 'In thirty seconds, prepare to write your own obituary!'"

House Bunny mysteries

Recently I watched "The House Bunny" with my brother. It's an entertaining movie.



The premise is that a playboy bunny gets kicked out of Hef's mansion, and becomes house mother of a geeky sorority. She gives them makeovers, and they teach her to value her smarts.

Here is the before picture of the sorority girls:


and the after photo:


If the movie genre isn't clear, here's another hint: one of the previews featured Richard Gere.

I liked the movie. It reminded me of Caltech (sorry, Beavers). However, there were several mysteries that are disturbing my enjoyment of the film. If you can concoct a reasonable hypothesis for any of them, please leave a comment.

Believable explanations only! No elaborate tales. Also no useless comments like "it's a movie" or "it's all made up".

1. How come the geeky sorority girls have such nice figures? I realize they're in waterbras and heels, but they still have unnaturally good material to start from. Maybe because they're 19 with the youthful metabolisms.

2. Where did they get the money for the makeovers and parties? Manicure / pedicures cost around $50. Hair extensions cost upward of $200. Is this coming from the university sorority budget?

3. How come Oliver gives Shelley (the playboy bunny) another chance even though he wants a smart upstanding woman (plus she lied to him)?

4. After the epiphany about embracing their true selves, why does Natalie still go for this guy who noticed her most when she pretended to be less knowledgeable (about the Aztecs)?

I hope we can resolve these mysteries, so that the path will be paved for House Bunny 2.

For sale: one filing cabinet

Over brunch at University Cafe.

RB: "Did you get my card?"

Me: "Oh, I haven't gone through my mail in a month. It takes so long to file the papers into my filing cabinet."

RB: "Why don't you just dump them into a shoe box?"

Me: "I file them into individual folders for bills, insurance, mortgage, etc."

RB: "How often do you go back to look something up?"

Me: "Almost never. Maybe once a year."

RB: "So you do frequent writes, and infrequent lookups. Why would you choose to pay the cost on write? Just dump everything into a box and then sort through it if you ever need to look for a particular item! You would never design a software system this way."

Me: [stunned into epiphany]

Chinese view on weddings

I keep hearing about a mentality amongst American women where they daydream about their wedding day since they were a little girl. I find the phenomenon interesting, because as far as I can tell, Chinese women don't share it.

Last week, I was talking to my mother about how my cousin recently re-married.

Me: "Did my cousin hold a wedding this time?"

My mother: "No. He wanted to do it quickly. If he did hold a dinner or some type of event, your aunt and uncle didn't know about it."

Me: "Don't worry. When I get married, I'll have a wedding."

My mother: "Will you invite me?"

revolting

Two nights before leaving Beijing, I saw this dish on a restaurant menu: "Cold Fresh Walnuts with Cherry Blossoms". I ordered it out of curiosity.

Surprisingly, the restaurant actually had cherry blossoms on hand. Maybe it was from a can.



I learned that there's a reason why people don't usually eat cherry blossoms. They are absolutely revolting. I had to let the whole dish go to waste, because even the walnuts were tainted and thereby disgusting.



Here is a photo of food which is actually good. On the right is a stack of cucumber segments. Chinese cucumbers have more taste than American ones, and it's common to eat a whole raw cucumber as a snack.



I was amused by the translation of this restaurant name.



The translation is "American Owl Restaurant". I don't think that was the original intent behind the name "Hooters".

olympics pics

Working out of the Beijing Google office turned up unforeseen difficulties, to my dismay.

But the air of Olympics fervor throughout the city was eye-opening. Here are photos from the events I watched.



Water Cube aquatics center, built just for the Olympics.



Ceiling inside the Water Cube.



Swimmers stretching before 200-meter medley semifinals. Phelps is third from the right.

You can see the cameraman in Phelps's lane, on the far right of the photo. As each athlete was announced, he ran up to them, zooming the camera on their facial expression. In the middle of #7, he abandoned his close-ups and hightailed it back to lane 3 for Phelps. There was no footage of #8 getting introduced, because the cameraman spent all that time prepping the perfect shot of Michael Phelps.



Outside of the Bird's Nest athletics center, lit up at night.



USA vs Brazil in the women's soccer gold-medal match.

I found it interesting to watch an entire soccer game from start to finish. There is so much buildup after 90 minutes go by without a goal. By the time the ball actually lands in the net, the anticipation is extreme.



USA basketball Team of Redemption against Argentina.

The main advantage of the US team seemed to be the ability to defend without committing fouls. Argentina fouled over and over again. At one point, the US was permitted three free throws due to a foul. A few minutes later, the US was permitted four free throws for a single foul.

The fouls added up to much more than the point spread.



James Blake serving. I got to see the drama firsthand of Blake petitioning the referee over this shot (full article):

Blake powered a forehand toward Gonzalez, who was standing close to the net. The ball flew long but Blake immediately claimed it had brushed his opponent’s racket.

Television replays backed up his assertion.

But umpire Yan Kuszak saw nothing, and Gonzalez remained mute at the back of the court instead of calling a point against himself.

While tennis continues to embrace technology, with HawkEye used to settle disputes on line calls, it is not used to settle disputes such as this one.

“Playing in the Olympics, in what’s supposed to be considered a gentleman’s sport, that’s a time to call it on yourself,” said a fuming Blake in his post-match news conference. “Fernando looked me square in the eye and didn’t call it.

“If that happened the other way, I never would have finished the match because my father would have pulled me off the court if I had acted that way.

“That’s a disappointing way to exit the tournament when you not only lose the match, but you lose a little faith in your fellow competitor.”

I spent a long time afterwards reading stories of bad and good sportsmanship.

This sailing rescue is my favorite story of sportsmanship.

courtesy of Sha-mayn

gymnastics amazingness

This gymnastics routine is awe-inspiring.