The last few months

My setup before I had a bed. It wasn't comfortable.

Three ways to use the yellow pages. Elan is demonstrating how to easily rip one apart. (He succeeded eventually.)

That one time at Justin and Bill's place when I was somehow coerced into helping them build a toilet. Justin named it after me. -____-

A to-do list I found in a throw-away pile in my apartment complex. This kid reminds me of myself.

(I also found a bunch of random volumes of Naruto, which I scavenged because I don't like see manga go to waste... even if it is Naruto.)

Lord of the Rings in Concert at Oracle Arena! They played the entire first movie with orchestra accompaniment. The entire Bridge of Khazad-dum sequence might've been my favorite part. I never really noticed the choir and vocal parts when I saw the movie originally; it made a really big difference having them singing right in front of you.

One of the managers in my group after a Halloween themed "how fast can you wrap your manager" contest.

First attempt at rendang!

The desktop I built. This thing kept me up till 4 in the morning. It scared me for a moment when I finally turned it on and it responded, only to shut down for 15 seconds... and then start up again. Apparently that is normal behavior for Gigabyte motherboards though.

"Oh fat people! Oh wait those are bears." - Jade
(Christmas in the Park San Jose)

Free Online Courses

So apparently Stanford decided to add a bunch of courses I would've wanted to take if I went there for grad school to their free online course offering for next year (Jan/Feb 2012).

Natural Language Processing @ nlp-class.org
Software Engineering for SAAS @ saas-class.org
Game Theory @ game-theory-class.org
Probabilistic Graphical Models @ pgm-class.org
Machine Learning @ jan2012.ml-class.org (Same class as current ml-class.org)
Computer Security @ security-class.org
Information Theory @ infotheory-class.org

plus Anatomy and then a few other courses I'm not as interested in. I definitely wouldn't be able to keep up with all of these though. I already gave up trying to keep up with two courses this quarter, although I'm sort of following along at my own sluggish pace anyway. Sigh.

I went ahead and signed up for all of them anyway just for the heck of it since I'd probably want to watch the lectures at least. With all of these courses being put up for free online now I'm starting to wonder if I really want to go to grad school anyway... although granted, as far as ml-class this fall started off, they're probably going to be a bit dumbed down compared to the actual on-campus class. We shall see.

Working Life

Life is good, but I feel restless. Living alone makes me more aware of how hard it is to connect with people sometimes, especially when it takes a lot more effort to do so as they're not in close proximity anymore. I still feel that disconnect even when I do see or talk to people - like something's missing.

In previous days I'd stay up till 4 or 5 trying to elaborate more, but it is now 12:50 and past my bedtime. Good night.

Frustrations

Some things are better left said in person, but whenever I have someone to talk to I find that I don't want to say anything.

I feel inclined to both like and have little faith in people.

I wish I were more grounded in reality and instead of not really being there. I tend to lose myself without realizing it to the point that when I come to I'm doing something stupid.

There are moments where I loathe being an introvert, even though according to stupid Myers Briggs I'm 100% introverted. I actually like being around people a lot, even when I come across as distant... which doesn't help much.

Nintendo of America needs to freaking localize Xenoblade already.

Sleep, why do you hate me so?

insert middle-of-the-night frustration here

make it stop -_-

"A bear there was, a bear, A BEAR!
All black and brown and covered with hair!"

The above two lines have been stuck in my head for the past few days since I've been reading A Storm of Swords. That, and "fun fun fun." aaaagh.

(from 5 Years Time by Noah and the Whale, not that other stupid song you're probably thinking of with 4 fun's in a row.)

Home Fried Rice

Just made fried rice that actually kinda tastes like what my family makes at home! I feel too tempted to eat the entire batch of it right now.

Recipe note for future reference:

- green onions, cooked in oil with some garlic cloves
- an onion, chopped
- batch of day old rice
- corned beef
- a couple of eggs, scrambled
- ketjap medja (indonesian soy sauce)

The only thing that was really missing from what I used to make in college was corned beef; it makes a big difference in taste. I actually used to have some in the apartment sophomore year, but then someone discovered it in the fridge (since the can had been opened) and thought it was disgusting, so I never bought corned beef again... and hence never managed to make fried rice that I really liked till now. Kinda stupid on my part, cause I love corned beef.

oh oh, I can also make corned beef-green onion-ketjap medja omelettes now! I am happy.