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Well this is my last update from the East Coast. I'm flying out tomorrow morning to Berkeley to resume my life as an academic. These last few weeks have been a whirlwind. There were a couple of missed opportunities: a second mountain biking trip up to Mt. Killington (our ride had his cell phone alarm set to vibrate instead of ring), an American Analog Set concert at TT's that I was dying to go to (tragically, sold out shortly before I got there), a BUDA Good Cause ultimate tournament (hmm... missed for personal reasons). Regardless, I did get to do a lot of fun stuff. Wing, John, Jordi and I took Lee to Six Flags New England for his "bachelor party"... we had a blast going on all the coasters and the water park rides. Superman is still the best roller coaster I've ever been on. Then, of course, there was Lee's actual wedding itself. Elias gave me a ride down to New York, where we picked up Jeff and Wing and headed on to New Jersey. The wedding (my first ever!) was in a beautiful country club with lavish decorations and fantastic food. We were all very proud to see Lee and Lynn together at last. It was also a pleasure just hanging out with friends. I went home one weekend for the annual fantasy football draft with my high school buds. We made the usual Damon's run and then chowed down on pizza and engaged in our customary (hilarious) banter while doing the draft. Then there was a lot of hanging out with people in Boston and the guys in the house (they even took me out to dinner once!). Of course every meeting was bittersweet; I'm not sure when I can come back up to the northeast to see my friends again. I've had a fantastic time here and have to say I'm really happy I took a year off before grad school. My ultimate team played its season-ending tournament this past weekend. We had an amazing regular season, finishing 7-1. The one game we lost was by the score of 15-13, and the main reason we lost is that we only had three women that night, so they had to play savage (no subs) for all 28 points. So we headed into the tourney with a lot of confidence. James even arranged to stop in Boston for a day on his way back to Minnesota from DC to play. Turns out our confidence was well founded, as we were on fire: we crushed the first three teams we played, 13-1, 13-4, and 10-5. That last game was against the team that had beaten us during the season. It felt good to show them what we were like with a full squad :). Next up was the semifinal match, in which we played a team that bizarrely had never won a game the whole season... somehow they had been doing really well in the tournament. Well, it turns out that they had enlisted several ringers from local college teams. So they walked over us, which was very frustrating. At least it was good to know that we were the best non-ringer team out there. And playing with my team was a complete blast. Everyone is at least a solid player (some of my teammates were outstanding), and our collective sense of humor was laugh-out-loud nasty. I made a lot of great friends this season, and one special one. So I spent this past week at home with my family. I saw John for a day, and we spent it as we usually do, talking about girls and life (is there much of a difference between the two?). He's teaching English in China next year, so it may be a while before I see him again. Anyway, the rest of the week I hung out with my parents and sisters (who even helped me shop for clothes!). It's been very fun and relaxing.
The next time I update this webpage I'll be in California. It may be in a while, as my to-do list is about a mile long (register for classes, open a bank account, get a cell phone, go to all kinds of orientations, get a California driver's license, register to vote, blah blah), and my earthly possessions may be in transit for a while. I ditched about half of the stuff I own (which was really fun, actually), and the other half I'm shipping cross-country with some moving company. I don't even own a computer anymore! Hard to believe, isn't it? Liberating, though... So: it's been a great trip, kids. Talk to you in Pacific Time. |
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I only have two weeks left in Boston, and it's becoming increasingly difficult to simultaneously take care of moving details, tie up all the loose ends, and still try to have a good last East Coast summer. Dan and Matt (Bosse) stayed with us for a couple of days, which was a ton of fun; five Cheshire guys in the same house is always fun :). We talked and played a lot of ball. We're trying to schedule a draft day for sometime next month back in Cheshire, but if that falls through (which it may, considering that the eight of us are all over the U.S. right now, from Hawaii to Florida), this may have been the last time I see Dan for a while, as he's just moved from Vermont to Texas. More goodbyes: Jess had a going-away party for those of us leaving town: Kerry, Jeff, James and me. It's sad to see all of my friends (well, myself included) scattered to the winds in such a short period of time. Of course, I have to say goodbye to everyone who's staying in Boston too. Yes, I am already getting nostalgic ;). I saw two bad movies in the past week: Road to Perdition and Austin Powers 3. Neither is worth watching. On a better note, my ultimate team is doing well, although we lost our last game in the final minutes, 15-13. We're 4-1, though, and should head to the tourney with a lot of confidence. Pickup soccer is also fantastic... so many people show up these days that we always play 9-v-9 or more, full field with big goals. I had forgotten how fun it is to shoot at real goals! Saw the Tragically Hip at Somerville Theater on Saturday. The show was, as usual, full of enery and packed with Canadians. Even though they played for a good 100 minutes, as James put it, "I can't argue with their setlist, but I wish they had played another two hours." That's generally the sign of a good show :). |
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The title refers to an American Analog Set album (I'm listening to them right now) but of course it's quite appropriate for this time of year anyway. If you've been reading this site for a while, you may have noticed that my recent updates have been somewhat stilted. I basically kind of got sick of writing updates and just went through the motions. I've resolved not to do that again; if I don't feel like writing an update, I just won't, no matter how long it's been. So it goes without saying (what a stupid expression that is!) that I want to write one now. Hopefully you'll notice the difference :). Oops, during the first version of this update, I forgot to mention that Wing is back after three weeks in LA and China. We missed him -- welcome back, Wing! Boston's kind of going crazy now, actually. It's past 11pm and weather.com tells me that outside it's 89F but feels like 97F. Damn. The humidity is through the roof. I'm sitting here with my windows open and lights off, and I'm still boiling. Oh, what I'd give for a good AC right now... Tomorrow's supposed to be equally bad, but things are supposed to cool down a bit (read: mid-80s) later in the week. I certainly hope so. That aside, these past couple of weeks have been a blast. I've been hanging out with a lot of different friends after work. In fact, there was one 9-day period in which I didn't eat dinner home. I never thought I'd yearn for my own cooking, but after eating out that much, it was quite a welcome relief :). We also had two surprise parties, for James and Matt. Happy birthday, guys! The whitewater trip the weekend before last was a rousing success. Maine was beautiful, the weather was very bearable (chilly, even), and the rapids were in good form. We drove up on a Saturday afternoon and camped out that night, staying up way too late playing Taboo. Sunday morning we got up early and met our raft guide, Marta. She was incredibly experienced, having rafted on several continents. Her expertise proved particularly valuable during one huge hit, as they call them in the business, in which our raft smashed against a rock so hard that it was knocked perfectly vertical and we all hung on for dear life -- except for Jimming, who was thrown from the raft into the river. As soon as the boat stabilized, we strove to help him get back aboard, only to have Marta yell at us to paddle hard right. Sure enough, in front of us, forgotten in the confusion of the previous hit, was a sharp rock outcropping. Jimming managed to grab onto Marta's paddle as we navigated the rest of the rapids and narrowly avoided smashing into the rocks and causing Jimming serious injury. Phew. Further down the river we encountered some rapids that were apparently safe enough to swim down, provided you set yourself up in the proper formation: arms to the side and feet straight out in front of you. It sounded cool so we all jumped out of the boat. Strangely enough, even thought I was one of the last people out of the boat, I found myself flying past everyone else at a tremendous speed: I had somehow landed in a swift current. The waves were big and turbulent, and the next time I righted myself I glanced around me and didn't see anyone. Slightly ahead of me was another raft. The guide in that raft shouted back at me, "Get back on your raft! There's some serious rapids up ahead!" Uh oh. I was starting to get nervous. I craned my head around and saw my raft (and my raftmates) about 40 yards upstream. I was right in the middle of the river and the current was strong enough that I had to swim quite arduously just to keep from drifting further down the river. Luckily I managed to hold on until my raft caught up with me. Phew again. The rest of the trip was far more relaxing :). Shameless plug: my mom and little sister were featured in a New York Times article last week. There's even a huge picture of our living room in the print edition. I'm very proud of them! Check it out. Even though it's insanely hot I've been getting my fair share of sports in recently. My ultimate team is 3-0, which rocks. Summer soccer is brutal (we usually play in the afternoon) but a ton of fun. And I've even been playing some tennis recently. I feel like I might actually get into shape. Now that I don't have to wake up at ridiculous hours for the World Cup anymore, I feel like I'm in better shape, at least :).A few words about the recent Pledge of Allegiance ruling: I totally agree with it. Just replace "God" with "Allah" and it's pretty obviously unconstitutional. It's depressing how uninformed the general public is about the issue, and worse, how reactionary the Senate is. What a bunch of lamers. This whole attitude of "national pride at any cost" hearkens back to the days when "under God" was actually added to the Pledge, the 1950s. I thought we had outgrown that phase. It's just unfortunate that the judges' only course of action was to effectively ban the Pledge rather than motioning to remove the "under God" clause, thus making the decision seem more like an affront to American patriotism rather than the separation of church and state ruling that it actually is. |
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I'm leaving in about an hour and a half to go camping and whitewater rafting up in Maine with a couple of friends. I haven't packed any stuff yet so I better write this update quickly. The last couple of weeks have been pretty wacky. I've been watching a lot of World Cup games, which means that my sleep schedule is totally nuts: early bedtimes, hour-long naps between early morning games, and a general lethargy throughout the day. The Cup was a great success in some ways: both of my teams, England and the US, did very well, reaching the quarterfinals. The US finally managed to earn some respect from snobby internationals who thought that since most Americans don't care about soccer (which is true), the US team must be bad and any victories by the team were lucky. Some dynamite performances indicated otherwise. England, of course, were brilliant at times and completely lackluster at others, especially during their loss to Brazil. It was also great fun watching some of the other teams play. I was rooting for Spain this morning (figuring they had the best chance of taking out Brazil), but they were absolutely robbed by bad reffing. Hopefully FIFA will see the light and add a second on-field ref like I've been saying for years :). Last weekend I went home; Umesh was also back from California, so it was a little family reunion. We celebrated Father's Day, held a party, and did a lot of fun family stuff. Umesh, my mom, and I did the requisite soccer watching late at night (and early in the morning). Meera fell while rollerblading a couple of days ago and was injured seriously enough that she had to spend a couple of days in the hospital. Luckily she's back home now and getting better, which is a relief. Get well soon, Meera! I saw two concerts in the past couple of weeks. First, I went to the Avalon with Lee and Dodzie to see Ben Folds. I was initially surprised to see that he had no backup band, but he more than compensated with his energetic piano playing and hilarious stage banter. A top-notch show. Then I went with a bunch of people from work (Lonnie, Leo, Christine, and Martha) to see Beth Orton at the Paradise. The show started about 75 minutes later. At that point I was practically hallucinating because I had stayed up the night before to watch a World Cup match, so the show had an interesting quality to it :). She played some of my favorites, including an awesome version of "A Galaxy of Emptiness". Grant and I went out to dinner last night with two of our friends from Cheshire, Julie and Juhi. We ate in Chinatown and the saw Minority Report at the Loews in Boston Commons. It had a few weaknesses, most notably some gaping plot holes, but on the whole it was fantastically well done. Spielberg's depiction of the future rings true (as opposed to in "A.I."), the cinematography is spooky, and the story is riveting. There's a dirty, eerie edge to the movie, reminiscent of "Seven", that kept me tense through all 140 minutes. It's a difficult movie to get through, but the results are well worth it; I'd give it a 9 out of 10.Summer ultimate season has started, and my new team looks good. We won our first game and I can't wait till the next one. Oh yeah, we've started up summer soccer as well. It'll be good to get in shape for Berkeley in the fall. |
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The NBA Western Conference Finals just ended. Game 7 was incredibly, unbelievably painful. My stomach was knotted the whole time. I hate the Lakers passionately (probably more than you can imagine), and the Kings did just well enough to practically give me an ulcer going into Game 7. Of course, the Lakers won out in the end, in soul-crushing fashion, and it looks like it'll be another long year before I can start hoping that they don't win the championship. One upside is that I've gained a huge appreciation for the Kings during this series (we don't see many Western Conference games here in Boston). In particular, I've gotten a good chance to analyze Chris Webber's game, and I've come away totally amazed. He's an offensive threat, can pull down boards, has great passing vision, and is completely unselfish. Sure he's not flashy, and therefore won't get as many props as, say, Kobe, but I've always favored playmakers and team players over one-man shows. As Grant said, "When was the last time you saw Kobe set a screen for anyone?" If if ever got good at basketball, it's his game that I'd like to emulate. I think when I head out to Berkeley, I'm going to become a Kings fan :). Of course, this is the latest in a series of bad sporting occurrences for me. Earlier today, England put up a miserable performance against Sweden in the World Cup, and was ("were") lucky to come away with the draw. Doesn't bode well for the rest of the Cup. And on Friday night, in addition to the Kings's loss to the Lakers, the Celtics bowed out to the Nets in Game 6. Friday morning was good, though: James and I got up early to see the first game of the World Cup, and Senegal pulled off a major upset of France. Other stuff has been going well. I went home last weekend and enjoyed the home cooking and the company. Oh yeah, my Mother's Day present for my mom was tickets to a Sox-Yankees game -- and of course we got to see the Sox get beaten, 3-2. Great. The next day, my little sister Maya got sick so I also went with my mom to a Pink concert. My mom's a big fan. It turned out to be a fun show: Pink has a bunch of catchy songs, and she's got some major vocal chops. Then on Monday Wing and Lee stopped by for lunch on their way up from New York, which was fun. Yesterday was unreal. James and I went with Brendan, his girlfriend Frances, and an Extreme Blue alum, Alex, up to Mt. Killington to go downhill mountain biking. We rented some awesome full suspension bikes (they run for a couple grand if you want to buy one) and were off to the races. You take a gondola up to the top of the mountain and then bike down on one of several trails. I didn't fully anticipate the nature of the trails, though: they are very steep, very twisty and absolutely covered with gravel, roots, and huge rocks. Just holding onto your handlebars feels like you're operating a jackhammer. And then there's the added element of going insanely fast and constantly being on the edge of losing control and crashing on all of these unpleasant surfaces. And in fact, that's what happened to several of us: Frances totalled on the first run so badly that she had to eventually be taken to the hospital (but no serious injuries though!), James flipped off his bike twice, and ended up with lacerations covering his legs and all over his arms and shoulders, Brendan fell off while doing a jump, and Alex ripped two huge gashes in his shorts while trying to avoid sliding off the trail. I managed to remain relatively unscathed, but I'm sure I'll have something coming to me the next time I go :). Anyway, it requires immense amounts of concentration (if you even blink too long, you could go flying), which I'm generally not good at, but the combination of speed, chaos, scenery, and imminent destruction is ineffable. I guess "exhilarating" is a potential word, but it doesn't do it justice. I can't wait to go again -- it was the most fun thing I've done this year. Then yesterday night James and I rushed home, showered, and went to the Richard Shindell concert with Erin and Kerry. Lori McKenna did an excellent opening set and Richard was in fine form, playing a great set of songs. Also, as my guitar playing improves, I begin to appreciate that aspect of concerts more. Richard really is a top-notch guitarist, and I really enjoyed observing him play. Eek, it's nearly 3 am and I've gotta go to work tomorrow. Good night! |
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It's been pouring for the last couple of days, and it's been miserable. Rain is pretty much the most annoying kind of weather for me. Well, you know that old saying: April showers bring... May showers, apparently. Boston continues to have a great sports year. The Celtics are doing great, and the Sox have the best record, ERA, and batting average in the AL. Not bad. We're going to try to go to a Celts-Nets game, assuming they both win. That would be awesome. Two weekends ago I had a lot of fun: Friday night Percy and Brendan and I did our usual cards thing, chowing down on some good Chinese food first and then playing a bunch of games all night. Speaking of Percy, I checked out his piano quintet's recital this past Friday, and it sounded great. Anyway, that Saturday I went to Harvard's Springfest with Cy and Jess and co., where we went on a bunch of rides and ate the free food. The Verve Pipe was the band they got, and they were actually quite good. Maybe I should re-listen to that CD of theirs I picked up a couple of years ago :). I also scraped my head racing Cy through an obstacle course, which was pretty funny. That night, Grant, Matt, and I went to a party hosted by Sarah Wu (a friend of Grant and mine from high school) and Cat Ng (one of Wing's friends from high school). It was pretty sweet and we met some cool people there. I went to two concerts in the last couple of weeks: first, Belle and Sebastian, whom I have never seen before. I have all of their CDs, though, so when Ben Mathis-Lilley, a friend from school, emailed me that he had an extra ticket, I was all over it. It was a ton of fun, mostly because B&S's songs are so joyful, even (paradoxically) the sad ones. It's hard to explain, but each song is just imbued with a lot of vitality. Their best songs are gorgeous: catchy, insightful, well-arranged. And Stuart Murdoch is a great singer, which I wasn't expecting. Then this past weekend Kerry, Wing and I saw Luna at the Paradise. Their setlist was fantastic: they played only one song all night that wasn't a favorite of mine. Their new album is excellent, by the way. Saw Spider-Man on opening day with a bunch of the guys from work. It was a ton of fun, although, unlike many reviewers, I found the romance to be pretty trite. Okay, it was better than most action-movie romances, but it was pretty damn bad. That said, though, seeing Spidey web his way through New York is exhilarating. Last night I saw Monsoon Wedding with Jess and Kerry. The plot was predictable (usually a big negative for me) but the rest of the movie was so well constructed that it didn't detract at all from the experience. It was very inspiring and the best movie I've seen in the last year or so -- check it out! I have more stuff to say, actually, but I want to go downstairs and catch the rest of the basketball game. Later... |
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So it's spring, and I'm sitting inside updating my webpage even though it's like 70 outside. That's okay; I'm going to play soccer later today. Ultimate season has started too, and my team's second game is tomorrow. Man, I love that game. I've been doing some cleaning up of good ol' Splag, removing some more boring bits and updating the personal info crap. I actually added to the "Huh?" section for the first time in forever. Oh yeah, since I'm so criminally negligent about updating this page, I added an automatic update thingy (see above) so that you don't have to check to see when I've updated; you'll just get a nice email in your inbox when the time comes. I got the idea from Lee's site; thanks, Lee! SashXB, the project that Wing, John and I have been working on at IBM for the better part of a year, has finally been released. We were in the office for about 80 hours the week before release: till 10 pm M-Th, 4 am on Friday (!) and then 10-8 on Sunday. We each rewrote several major modules as late as the day before release, and hoped to bring all of our independent changes together in time. Anyone who's done software development knows that this is a recipe for disaster. Amazingly, all of our code worked perfectly together. It was insane, pretty much the best hack I've experienced. The release has been quite successful so far: SashXB has gotten some good press, we've received many emails from people inquiring about it, and the discussion list has been growing daily. Hopefully this momentum will continue. Saw "Panic Room" a couple of weeks ago. It was pretty good... had a lot of potential but didn't really capitalize on it. So the UConn women won the national championship, which was terrific. The championship game itself was one of their worst (of the ones I've seen, at least), but it nevertheless capped a ridiculously successful season. Congrats to them. The men had a very successful season, too; not many people thought they had the experience and maturity to get to the Elite Eight. All in all, a satisfying season for CT. So the Dream Theater concert I want to right after my last update was pretty awesome. Those guys have got chops: the concert was over three hours long and they had no problems playing through some epic tracks (many over ten minutes long) that I had previously thought were mostly studio concoctions. I left totally satisfied -- and nearly deaf. My ears were ringing for two days afterwards, enough to scare me into getting a pair of musicians' earplugs (the kind that defeats all frequencies evenly, unlike normal plugs, so that music doesn't sound distorted). Luckily the ringing finally went away and now I'm much more careful about my hearing; it's too precious to lose! This past Monday, Leonard, Lonnie, Brian and I saw Yo La Tengo at the Somerville Theater. They played a live soundtrack to several short underwater animal documentaries filmed by this French dude, Painleve. They did an admirable job accompanying, and the films themselves were fascinating. I've seen much more than my share of nature films, but some of the footage (especially the scenes with the octopi crawling around out of the water) were riveting. I have to admit, though, that I was hoping that YLT would come back at the end of the show and play a track or two from their studio albums. The title of this update, "You Can Have It All", is of course a track from their extraordinary album "And then nothing turned itself inside-out". I got a chance to try out my new earplugs at the Avalon this past Friday at the Beta Band show. Their set was pretty good (some of the tracks from their new album, most notably "Al Sharp", are awesome in any incarnation) but I was a bit disappointed by their heavy use of prerecorded tracks. Yeah, they're a sample and dub-heavy band, but they should have found ways to work around that rather than just singing and playing along to their studio tracks (which is what it seemed like they were doing). Or maybe it was just my earplugs =). Jeff came up last week for his spring break. Apparently the worst is over for him, so med school should be a piece of cake from now on, right? ;). It was great to hang out with him again, and as always he was an exceptionally courteous guest. We had a big party last Saturday night, and we got to see Kristen, who was up from Florida, in addition to the usual gang. We played Monkey Ball and Taboo, and it was a ton of fun. Speaking of Monkey Ball, it's about done. Super Monkey ball is a game for the Game Cube that involves manipulating cute little monkeys in clear balls. It sounds simple but it's addicting and really fun, and is our house's latest obsession. Before that was Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3, which we (mostly Wing, with help from Matt and Grant) had to beat 22 times to unlock all the secrets. Once that was done, Monkey Ball became de rigueur. There are a ton of small games that come with it, each of which has surprising depth. Grant made it a goal of his to bowl a perfect 300 on Monkey Bowling, which he did, and he and Matt are dueling it out on Monkey Target (with Matt being the current leader). Anyway we beat the expert level of the main game at 2:30 on Friday night (after I came back from the Beta Band concert). It was very satisfying, but I think it's time to move on to something new =). Yesterday was a great day. The weather was beautiful and Wing, Jordi and his new fiancee Jen (congrats, guys!), and I went to the aquarium. Although I've been there a couple of times before, it was still lots of fun -- I love observing animals! Then Jordi and Lee came over last night and we all (including John) played poker. The reward was of course in the company, not in the dough, although I did make a bit of money =). For my little sis: hi Maya! |
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I've gotta leave in about 10 minutes so I better make this fast. Hmmm. March Madness. Ridiculously awesome, as usual (how many things can you say that about?). This is the first year in quite a while in which I didn't submit a bracket. I wanted to see what it was like to watch a game and pick who I wanted to win based on how I liked the teams, not on who I had picked in my bracket. Well, this was a great year to do it because there have been so many good upsets that a) had I put in a bracket, I would have been creamed and b) it's been tremendous fun to root for the underdogs and actually have them win. Particularly sweet was Duke's upset last night. We were all going nuts. Money! And UConn's been holding in there. The games have been close, which makes me worry, but of course before the tourney I was afraid they'd go out in the first round so I can't really complain. They're playing tonight against Southern Illinois but I won't be able to watch it (see below). My rationalization is that if they lose to an 11th seeded team whose mascot is the Saluki then I probably wouldn't have enjoyed watching it anyway, and if they win, I can watch them in the next round. In any case, go UConn! The UConn women play tomorrow and I'll definitely be around to watch them. The reason I can't watch the game tonight (and the reason I have to leave soon) is that I'm going to see Dream Theater at the Orpheum tonight. I've never seen them in concert and I'm quite excited. Other concerts.... oh yeah, Carla clued me in to the fact that Dave Brubeck was playing at Sanders Theater the Monday before last so we (and her roommate) sneaked in at intermission. We got what appeared to be the only three seats available in the entire theater. Talk about lucky. Dave Brubeck looks, walks and talks like he's incredibly old (well, he is), but his playing is astoundingly vital and virtuosic. It was a great show. Then this past Monday James and I saw Ryan Adams at the Avalon. He is a very talented singer and I really like his style of guitar playing. I was a bit disappointed that some of the songs were too over the top in an effort to be "rockin'" but they were counterbalanced by some great renditions of others from his two albums and some powerhouse covers, too. Work is going exceedingly well. The official release for our product, SashXB, is April 2nd, and we're working furiously towards that deadline. Components are falling into place and we're getting a bit excited and nervous. I'll keep you posted as to how the release goes. In other work news, we're having a (small) foosball tournament with high-low doubles pairings. So unfortunately my partner is the worst seed in the competition, but we've been improving and should make it to the playoffs. Eep, looks like it's time to go. Later! |
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Well, so much stuff has happened that I'm going to have to apply the "big events only" filter. Even so, this is going to be a long one. I watched a lot of the Olympics this time around. Before college, I used to be a huge Olympics fiend, watching far too much coverage. Once at school, though, faced with actual work and no television, my interest quickly declined. I'm back on track now, though. Of course, I've got to present my typical cynical take on the Games. It's amazing how much the Olympics are about depression and defeat. For every athlete who is thrilled to win, least two who are witnessing four years of intense training culminating in failure. And don't give me that crap about athletes who are "happy just to be there"; sure, there are a few, but on the whole, Olympic athletes are incredibly ambitious (that's how they got so far in the first place). Even the bronze and silver medalists generally wish they had done better. So that's a depressing thought. Also, the events are so specialized and esoteric that I have absolutely no confidence that the athletes at the Games are really the best in the world, in terms of potential. Of course, this is true for any sport, but at least for the Summer Olympics, many more people have tried the events. Every kid growing up in this country (for example) knows approximately how good a runner he is, but no one I know -- not a single person -- even knows anyone who's ever tried bobsledding. Heck, one of my co-workers could have world-champion skeleton potential, for all I know. These Games just seem to have a much greater emphasis on privilege and association than the Summer Games or (especially) the World Cup. That said (and I really had to get it off my back :), drama and courage were on display to an enormous degree at Salt Lake. It takes guts to put years of your life at stake for a minute-long race. Just being able to compete under such pressure (never mind attaining the skill to do a given event) is an accomplishment. I mean, I got butterflies when I lined up in high school cross country races. I can't imagine what Michelle Kwan felt when she stepped on the ice for the long program. I saw Cats again with Kerry. Cats is one of those love-it-or-hate-it things, like Billy Joel and spinach and, now that I think about it, Andrew Lloyd Webber in general. It has a very tenuous plot and mostly involves actors dressed up as cats dancing around to vignettes of individuals with weird names: Grizabella, Jenny Anydots, Rum Tum Tugger, Macavity, and so on. Either you dig it or you don't. I do: musicals tend to have thin, easily predictable, overly-melodramatic plots and Cats's approach is refreshing. Plus the lyrics are excellent and Lloyd Webber doesn't shy away from using inventive song structures to match T.S. Eliot's complex meters. Screw all this formal analysis; somehow whenever I watch it I find it incredibly effective, and this time was no different. My mom and I went to see Mamma Mia on Broadway as part of my birthday present to her. The show was predictable but funny. My main pleasure was to hear all those great ABBA tunes played live. The craftsmanship present in some of those songs is amazing. Very enjoyable. Went with a bunch of people to see Gorillaz play at the Avalon. The "actual" band members played behind a screen while they showed videos of the cartoon band. It's not as cool as it sounds because many of the videos were pretty boring and after a while you began to wish that you could see the real band for a minute, just to make sure it's really them. All you could see were shadows. All in all, an okay show. Big acquisitions: James got a new care (a Dodge Neon) and Wing bought Lonnie's 36" TV since he (Lonnie) bought an incredible 57" flat screen HDTV for the Super Bowl party. So now our house is pimped out ... sort of (foreshadowing, here). My brother Umesh turned 24. Happy birthday! Lee has put up his own web log. It promises to be a good read. Go Lee! I've been playing more soccer and basketball recently, and it feels good. I'm still hopeless at shooting a basketball, but I've been working on improving my passing and defensive skills so that I won't be such a liability all the time :). James and I went to see Over the Rhine this past weekend upstairs at the Middle East. They were very good, with beautiful, emotive singing and good arrangements. I think they should stay away from improvising solos, though... I'm trying to convince myself that putting this item so low will somehow render it less significant... fat chance. Turns out our house got burglarized on Monday while we were all at work. We lost over a thousand dollars worth of stuff. I personally got hit with about $250: $80 cash, my discman, and my camera. Wing's Dreamcast, 30 games, and a ton of accessories (~= $800) were all stolen. And strangely enough, the thieves went through each of our rooms and stole our cameras. The whole thing sucked big time, and it was profoundly unsettling. It could have been much worse, of course, and so I'm strangely thankful that all the items they took were easily replaceable, if costly. We're taking precautions this time around so that if someone tries break in again he's going to get his ass kicked, but once is enough to screw you up, really. Albums I've been especially "digging" recently: Gold by Ryan Adams, Rockin' the Suburbs by Ben Folds, and The Golden Band by American Analog Set. |
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... that I'm updating so quickly! I'm so proud of myself. My ears are still recovering: Rufus Wainwright at the Avalon on Friday, and the Freezepop CD release party at the Paradise last night at midnight. Both shows were quite good. Lifestyle opened for Freezepop and I enjoyed them very much, too. I might pick up one of their CDs. My ticket-buying woes are continuing, though: I'm still planning on trying to scalp a ticket to the Breeders concert this week, after trying to buy one more than three weeks ago and finding out they were sold out. Then yesterday I found out that the Indigo Girls concert on March 1st is also sold out. Oh well. This past week was quite enjoyable... we were down in Southbury, CT for IBM events from Monday through Wednesday. We drove down in Lee's car on Monday afternoon and attended a retirement party at corporate headquarters in Armonk, NY, for our boss's boss's boss. Then that night we stayed up late at the hotel playing the XBox that Lonnie and Brian brought down. Tuesday morning I got up quite late, around 11:30, and enjoyed a good buffet lunch at the hotel restaurant. Then Lee and I played some racquetball and table tennis, followed by an epic water polo match with most of the Cambridge group. That night we attended another IBM party and played a lot of poker (the bar had chips and a nice poker table). Wednesday we finally had to pay our dues by going to the Southbury IBM site all day for the Internet Technologies Kickoff 2002, which was just a day full of (often boring) presentations. Overall, though, it was quite a fun trip. I finally finished the Foundation series. I must admit that the last book and a half (4.5 - 5) was quite a disappointment. Asimov's plot twists were by this time either utterly predictable or so outlandish as to be humorous. Apparently the last two books were written about thirty years after the first three, which may explain the significant difference in quality, but it certainly doesn't excuse it. I think I'll get around to reading the preludes eventually; hopefully those will be better. I'm currently in the middle of High Fidelity (the book on which the movie was based). It's great reading, at the same time pleasurable and profound. One particular incident, in which the narrator notes that one of his problems is that he is both a "romantic and a cynic", resonated with me, as sometimes I feel that's my curse, too :). I used to talk about that with John Chin. I wonder if he remembers. Okay, I've gotta call home and then go play some soccer, for the first time in far too long. |
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Of course, it's been far too long since I've updated. I've been meaning to for the last two weeks, at least, but when I sat down to do it I just had nothing to say... probably because I had too much to say and didn't know where to start. I finally admitted to myself that obviously the situation isn't going to get any better and that I might as well write this thing already. So here I am. There hasn't been any big news -- just a lot of small stuff. India was quite an experience, a much more pleasurable one than I had expected. While there were some downsides (mosquitoes, the general filth, etc.), there were so many positive aspects that I came back feeling quite thankful that I had gone. The weather was pleasant, the scenery was beautiful, the food was fantastic, and I really enjoyed visiting my relatives. And there is no other food on this earth quite as delicious as a baby coconut. Yum! If you've read my previous updates, you might remember that Maya came up to Boston in October to film a commercial. Well, it's finally been produced and it looks great. It's currently airing on public television and will hopefully be shown on major networks soon. I'm really psyched for her. My parents came up to Boston a few times this month for various conferences and meetings and we had dinner several times. We relished discussing our respective situations. (Mine mostly involved whining about how painful grad school fellowship apps were -- thank god they're done.) I think I've finally reached the age when their lives seem as big a deal to me as mine does :). A couple of weeks ago Lee's parents came up to Boston and they were kind enough to invite Wing, Grant and me to see the Harvard-Princeton basketball game that weekend. It was actually the first Harvard bball game I'd ever been to, and it was surprisingly fun. In the last decade, Princeton has been by far the dominant team, but this game was incredibly close. It was sold out, and when Harvard forced a turnover to get the last possession of the game with Princeton up by two, the house was going nuts. Of course, Harvard blew it and Princeton won, 50-48, but it was still a great game. A few of my friends came to visit this month. Jeff was up here for a weekend, on a break from med school at Columbia. We watched football, relaxed, and generally had an enjoyable time discussing life. Jeff was hilarious as usual, easy to commiserate with (something we all love doing with each other, haha), and also a gracious guest -- I already miss having him as a roommate. We've just got to get him to come up here more. The following weekend, Dan, one of our (me, Matt, Grant) best friends from high school, came down. He went to college at Cornell with Grant and now coincidentally works for IBM in Burlington, Vermont. We, hmm, watched football, relaxed, and generally had an enjoyable time discussing life. Heh, I seem to have similar relationships with all of my friends :). Oh yeah, he did accompany Wing, Grant, Matt and me down to Ashland to see the high school girls' basketball team that Matt coaches beat the living snot out of one of its opponents. Matt's team is pretty amazing: they're 11-1 and their average margin of victory is something like 20 points (these are games in which the winning team usually scores about 40 points, by the way). And we found out that Matt got voted Teacher of the Term by the students at his high school -- congrats! Anyway, I'm really glad that Jeff and Dan came to see us... unfortunately it's just another reminder of the friends I'll be missing when I go to California in the fall. I'm starting to get better at guitar again, following a three week hiatus around winter break. I finally strung up the old Fender Prodigy (American-made) that I found in the basement and fooled around with it a bit (using my computer as an amp since I don't have a real one). I was quite surprised at how much easier it is to play than my acoustic-electric. It's tempting to switch but I know I'll develop better technique with the acoustic. Wing and Lee have been bugging me to read the Foundation series by Isaac Asimov, which I'm finally doing. I'm halfway through book four. So far it's been quite excellent. There are a few quirks to Asimov's style: his characters don't often interact with each other naturally, instead conversing in these ultra-logical statements that further the plot much in the same way a lemma furthers a proof. Luckily, the plot itself is exceedingly well constructed, with cliffhangers and surprise twists aplenty (although I'm afraid I've finally begun to figure out his technique, as I've successfully predicted the last few surprises), which makes the books quite gripping. Recommended. Okay, this is getting to be too long, so I'll be terse. We're having a Super Bowl party this weekend at Lonnie and Brian's. It should be especially fun since the Pats are playing. I'll unashamedly admit that I've become a bandwagon fan this year, since around week 3. Go Pats! :) I'm going to a bunch of cool upcoming concerts: Rufus Wainwright, Freezepop, the Breeders (sold out but I'm going to try to scalp), Mamma Mia (taking my mom to Broadway), Gorillaz, Dream Theater, and maybe Dave Brubeck and Nick Cage. Looks to be another great spring. |
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Well, I don't have much time: I have to leave in about 45 minutes to take a bus to the T to South Station to a bus to New Haven to Meera's dorm room. And I haven't eaten yet... so I'm going to type quickly :). So I'm staying with Meera tonight, and then tomorrow morning we're taking a shuttle to JFK, where we're going to fly to Madras via Frankfurt, which is basically a two day ordeal, when you consider the 10.5 hour time difference. We'll be in India for two weeks, enough time for me to see my grandparents and relatives, and to enjoy the warmth (it's 80+ degrees over there right now). This last week was totally awesome. I just gave up any pretense of doing fellowship applications and had a good time. Last Thursday Brian, Jordi, Lonnie, Elias and I drove down to Southbury, CT for an office party. The party was fun, but the insanity (and hilarity) that took place on the ride down and back was ten times better. I love those guys. Then Friday I went to Lee's birthday celebration with Wing and John. Well, actually, Wing and I went to Lee's house beforehand and played some PS2 first :). Anyway, the party was at Jake Ivory's, a pretty cool place on Landsdown Street. They have two pianists who can play pretty much every popular song of the last 40 years on request (it was terribly impressive to watch) and basically just perform all night. That was cool. Then on Saturday Kerry and I went to see Martin Sexton at the Somerville Theater. I had been looking forward to the concert for several weeks, as Martin is just an electrifying performer. If you're a longtime reader of this page you'll remember my previous Martin Sexton concert experiences... so I won't throw out too many superlatives here. The man is ridiculous: he's the single best live performer I have witnessed (and that includes people like Yo-Yo Ma, Wynton Marsalis, etc.). You have to see him live. I can't wait till he comes around again. Sunday, John, Wing, Kerry and I went to see Freezepop at the Middle East. They were opening for another band so they only played for 30 minutes. Still a great show -- and the Duke was wearing his ultra cool "graphic equalizer" shirt again. It has an LCD display on the chest that matches the music being played. And afterwards, they remembered me and gave Wing and me free signed posters! Tuesday I went down to Providence with James and stayed at Erin's place. We went to Bob's, where I cashed in my $10 gift certificate that Bob's mailed to me for my birthday. It was quite a relaxing trip, and we came back up to Boston the next morning. Wednesday night a big bunch of us went to the Fellowship of the Ring opening night show. While it wasn't perfect (I had some issues with the pacing in the middle -- it seemed like a whirlwind tour of Middle Earth, and I was dying to see the places in the time frame the book had allotted -- which kind of brought the story out of its epic scope and into a narrower, more limiting adventure-style story, I felt; and I wish they could have done with less of that wood flute or panpipe or whatever the hell it was in the score that kept on reminding me of Titanic), it was very, very well done. The casting was spot-on and the last hour, from the Balrog on, was spectacular. I can't wait till next Christmas :). Anyway, I don't have much time left, and I'm hungry. Happy holidays! |
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So I've dedicated this afternoon to doing stuff I've been putting off for too long: re-applying to Berkeley (they need this to admit me after my deferral), working on some graduate fellowships, finishing off the CD of the brass quintet concert we did in May, and, of course, updating this page. Since this requires the least brainwork, I'm doing it first :). Lonnie, Brian, Wing, John and I saw Ocean's 11 last night. It's not a particularly deep movie, but it's good fun and certainly worth checking out. A bunch of us have already purchased tickets for the opening night of Lord of the Rings, December 19th. I'm nearly done re-reading the books, and they are magnificent. The amazing thing is that the movie has been getting fantastic reviews as well (... at least the reviews were great until a few days ago when I forced myself to stop reading them). And it's supposed to be three hours long, which is a positive sign too. I'm trying not to get too excited :). Jess celebrated her birthday with us on Thursday by going candlepin bowling. It's not quite as satisfying as real bowling, but still fun nonetheless. Happy birthday, Jess! Actually my birthday was last weekend, too: I'm 22 now. One more year till I'm in my "mid-twenties"... eep. I went home last weekend to see Meera performing in an Indian dance show; she did a great job, despite never having done Indian dance before. (It's one of those rediscover-your-roots-after-leaving-home things). Then on Saturday, my birthday, I went with my parents and Maya to New York. We dropped Maya off and Juilliard and went to check out the WTC area. It was a beautiful day, cloudless and mid-70s, and the weather provided a bizarre juxtaposition with the sorrowful tributes left all around ground zero. That evening Maya played the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto at a benefit concert. She sounded awesome, and got a standing ovation. The cool thing is that Saturday was also her birthday (she's exactly six years younger than me) and so the concert was a great treat for her. My job was the carry the multi-hundred-thousand-dollar violin she played that night, on loan from an NYC violin company. I've introduced myself to a lot of good music lately: The Magnetic Fields's "69 Love Songs", Band of Gypsys (Jimi Hendrix), Dave Brubeck's "Nightshift", and a few others. I was a bit disappointed with Luscious Jackson's "Electric Honey"... it didn't have quite the inventiveness that I appreciated in their other records. Anyway, the album I've been obsessing over is The Flaming Lips's "The Soft Bulletin". I have an earlier album of theirs that is quite good, but somehow I didn't pick up this release when it came out two years ago. Anyway, Lonnie clued me in at work a few weeks ago, and since then I've been hooked. It's one of the best albums I've heard in the last few years, and it took a great effort of will to pull it out of my CD changer today after possibly the longest stay in there by any CD in recent memory. Check it out. Speaking of music, the Martin Sexton concert is next weekend. I'm psyched! Then, after that, I'm off to India with my family for two weeks. I haven't been there in about eight years so it should be an interesting experience, provided I don't die of typhoid (don't worry... I got a vaccine for that two weeks ago). I get to see my grandparents and also some of the fascinating wildlife in the country. Coolness. |
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So this is going to be a mammoth update. I hope I have enough time to finish it before Matt gets home from work and we head home to Cheshire for break. A bunch of my friends have online journals now, and they're all interesting, and updated way more often than mine, and that's kind shamed me into updating more often. I will definitely try to add to this thing once a week. It's only fair since I get to read their new updates all the time :). So: sports first. The Diamondbacks won the World Series. What an amazing event... I watched games 3-7 and was so sure that the Yanks were going to win. You've gotta give them some props for pulling off the (nearly) impossible over and over again. So when the end of Game 7 came around, and they were in a great position, with Rivera pitching and the bottom of Arizona's order at the plate, the conclusion was all but foregone. They weren't in some ridiculous come-from-behind situation (out of which they had pulled themselves twice already) so I (and 80% of the people watching the game) practically handed them the victory. Hoooooly crap. The bottom of the ninth was one of my best baseball moments ever. Ultimate season ended with a tournament at the beginning of November. The weather was outstanding again: low 70s! My team did quite well, going 2-1-1. The team we tied was the #1 team in the tournament, and the game we lost was by one point (and we were up 9-7 before blowing it, too!). Incredibly, that means that every game we lost this entire season (that one, and the three other losses) has been by one point! If a few things had gone our way, we could have been undefeated. Anyway, I had a great time and can't wait for the spring season to start. Conveniently now that ultimate's over, indoor soccer has started. It is a ludicrous amount of fun and each week I can't wait for our games on Friday and Sunday. Wing and I went to two concerts in the last few weeks. The first was They Might Be Giants's annual gig at the Avalon, which they played with their characteristic energy and goofiness. Always a great show. The second was Cake at the Orpheum. The concert had sold out so we went there an hour early to try to scalp tickets. That turned out not to be too difficult: after rejecting some crazy offers (like $125 for an orchestra seat), we got two tickets a few rows apart for $40 each (everyone stood up during the concert so we got to stand together anyway). The difficulty arose when we tried to get in with Wing's digital camera, which he had inadvertently brought. They were checking everyone's bags, and then frisking everyone, and they wouldn't let you check anything in. So, faced with either dropping the camera off at work (a 40 minute round trip, at minimum), or trying to sneak it in, we opted for the latter. It was quite amusing. This is how things played out. Pretty pathetic, huh? :) We found our lame-brained antics hilariously dumb. But even though I ended up going through security four times, we still got in with the goods and had a great time at the show. Wing even took some pictures! Score. In other news, Wing and I submitted our paper on Gnarli to SIGMOD. Its chance for acceptance is pretty low (after all, it's the biggest database conference in the country) but we're happy to have gotten it off our backs. This past weekend was the Harvard-Yale game. James, Jeff, William, Jess, Jen, and Kristen all crashed at my house on Friday night and we had a great time hanging out until the wee morning hours. Saturday was the game. The sky was blue and the temperature was mild. It was a well-played game, and Harvard won, finishing the season undefeated for the first time in nearly 90 years. I ran into a lot of people at the game that I hadn't seen in a while, which was cool. Then on Saturday night we went to this new Chinese buffet place that we'd never been to before. It turned out to be pretty bad, but that wasn't a big deal. Saturday night, Jeff, Jen, William and I watched "The American President." Jeff and I had seen it already (I think it's a great movie), and William, despite all his snide remarks at the beginning of the movie, had to given it some grudging compliments at the end. Then on Sunday morning we woke up at 5 am to see the meteor shower, which was beautiful and quite surreal. Anyway, this is getting way too long. I'll leave you with three things: first, I'm still very happy (see my last update). That's good. Second, William is a total stud. At the end of last school year, it was Jeff's turn; now, William has the mantle firmly in his grasp. Yeah! Third, here's a great quote, pointed out by Old Man Murray, from a recent Deus Ex 2 preview on pc.ign.com: "There's a tendency among the press to attribute the creation of a game to a single person," says Warren Spector, creator of Thief and Deus Ex.It's quite hilarious, once you stare at it for a while. |
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The weather's still great: mid to high 60s at the end of October! I have vague memories of being bundled up in layers and layers of winter clothes around Halloween time, at times enduring freezing rain. Well, I'm not complaining. This is my last New England fall for a long time, and it's been just about perfect so far. My right knee is still really screwed up. Of course, it took me three doctor's visits (starting in July) before I could get a referral to an orthopedist -- and then they set up the appointment for December 3rd! I'm definitely going to call and give some kind of sob story to get it moved up; I'm definitely worried that I've done something serious to my knee and I don't think an extra month and a half of walking and running on it is going to do much good. To supplement my screwed up knee, I also twisted my ankle very badly this past weekend at an ultimate frisbee charity tournament. The tournament itself was great fun (went well with the great weather), and all proceeds and entrance fees went straight to the Red Cross so that was cool. But during the last game of the day I slid on a rut in the field while going full steam and collapsed "like a sack of corned beef", as Paul Simon would say. So my ankle swelled up to literally twice its normal width and I had serious trouble walked. Wing lent me his aircast though so it's made things a lot easier. I have a league game today, and I hope it has improved enough that I can run on it! What else... oh, last Monday I saw Tori Amos at the Wang Center. The concert was pretty good: some of the songs were outstanding (including an awesome cover of Led Zeppelin's "Thank You"), but some were overplayed and overemoted, too much bombast and not enough... song. Of course there were about eight gazillion women there going nuts over her every nuance, so maybe I'm just missing something ;). I really did appreciate when she played some of her older material, though. Her first few CDs (well, first, second, fourth) are outstanding. Then this past Saturday Wing, Zach (one of Wing's college roommates), and I saw Freezepop at TT the Bears. They played a few songs from their upcoming EP, and all of them sounded really good. I can't wait to get it. They have such a true pop sense that they can write a little pop gem -- and then subvert it just enough with a twist of phrase or melody to keeps things interesting. Go check 'em out. Maya and my mom were up in Boston again, this time because Maya was being featured in a commercial for From the Top that's going to start airing on TV after January 1st. Pretty cool! On Monday Grant sent me a short email that convinced me that complaining about life is a waste of time (this coming from one of our generation's greatest complainers, I might add). But he was dead on and I've been very happy as a result. Those of you know know me and my cynical nature might be skeptical of such a claim, but it's true. Life is good. =). |
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Things are pretty much back to normal now. I saw Maya and my mom yesterday: Maya played a concert at the NEC for an NPR show, "From the Top". It was fun to see them... I think I'm going home next weekend, too. Barry Bonds breaks the HR record. Tony Gwynn (one of my favorite players) retires. Ichiro and his Seattle teammates tie the all-time win record. And so on. At least statistically, this baseball season was awesome ;). I saw Tool in concert a few weeks ago. The security was insane: they frisked and metal-detected everyone, and even though it was raining they wouldn't let anyone bring umbrellas in. Also it was at the Tweeter Center, which is about 40 miles from Boston, and I had no way of getting back. I ended up meeting some other concertgoers at a gas station after the show and with them paying a local guy to drive us to the nearest commuter rail stop, a few miles away. I got the last train into Boston, then the last T to Harvard Square, and got back home around 1:30. Quite an adventure. The show was cool, too :). The following Tuesday I dragged Grant, Wing, and Mary to see the Black Eyed Peas at Axis. The performance was quite awesome: there was a ton of much-needed energy and excitement in the wake of Sept 11. I'm beginning to start worrying about grad school stuff: re-"applying" to Berkeley, finishing gNarLI, applying for a bunch of fellowships. The latter promises to be particularly painful. Well, I guess there's more to be said but I'm too lazy to say it. Perhaps if I forced myself to write about a particular topic every time, rather than just the general "goings-on", I might have more success. Writing about my life can get pretty boring... I don't even want to think about what it's like to read about it ;). So, next time: abortion, assisted suicide, the death penalty. ....... yeah right! Oh, I forgot. I tried to get tickets for the U2 show in Providence on Oct 30th, but failed miserably. I guess that's not so bad, since I can see TMBG instead at their yearly show at the Avalon, this time in support of their new album, Mink Car. It's very eclectic and pretty good. Other upcoming concerts I'm looking forward to: Tori Amos, Freezepop, the Nields, and Martin Sexton. (ahem. "to which I'm looking forward".) Okay, the zaniness (zanity? as opposed to "inzanity", which is I suppose the opposite of "insanity") ends now. Toodle-oo. |
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So I had planned to write about many things in this update: the PJ Harvey concert, moving (it was twice as bad as I had feared), the new house, fall ultimate season, etc. Of course, the events in my life have been trivialized by the events of this past week. It was surreal, then shocking, then outrageous. Much of what I would say has been said (more effectively) by others. I have one fear that merits mentioning, though: our country offers unparalled freedom, and it is partly because of this very freedom that such terrorist attacks occurred. Unless we become a police state, there's not much we can ever do to stop the damage caused by someone who's willing to kill himself, or by someone who has enough money. So airport security increases; what's to prevent a terrorist with the appropriate wherewithal (such as bin Laden) from leasing or timesharing a large private jet and causing nearly as much mayhem anyway? It's a scary idea. No more depressing thoughts. The tragedy gave us enough of those already. I'll leave you with this. |
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A succinct title for a far from succinct operation. We're moving in two days. I've found out that the only thing that moving in the real world has to do with moving in the fake world of college life is that you have to pack and unpack your stuff. Everything else is ten times more annoying. We have to cancel utilities at the old place and start them up at the new one; we have to clean up our current apartment or suffer exorbitant "cleaning deductions" from our security deposit; I have to change my addresses with a host of magazines, banks, credit cards, and so on; we have to deal with UHaul, one of the worst companies ever (making a "reservation" with UHaul does not guarantee you'll get a truck at the time you requested, or even the place; in fact, it doesn't even guarantee that you'll get a truck at all. The only thing that's guaranteed is that UHaul has your money); landlords are anal and we have to put up with the paradox that the only legal time for us to move is midnight on September 1st, and that someone will be pissed off when we necessarily move at a convenient time; and finally in this case, we have to furnish the whole place. I'll be sleeping on the floor for the first few days. So yeah, I'm a bit stressed by it all. But up till this week, things were great. I went home last week, slept a lot (although on a bizarre schedule), and went to a lot of Pilot Pen tennis with my parents. We saw Lindsey Davenport, Kim Clijsters take out Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario, and finally a great match between Venus Williams and Jennifer Capriati. We also saw the "Beach Boys" in concert, which was actually two Boys and a backup band. So that's three Beach Boys I've seen this summer... not bad ;). Oh yeah, the Radiohead concert the week before was pretty good. The crowd was huge. Problem is, Radiohead's newer stuff is more sit-down than stand-up (I think) so the atmosphere just felt wrong... although the songs they played from their earlier albums rocked. I haven't played any sports (or done any physical activity, really) in about three weeks, and I'm feeling it. I guess I'll be doing a lot of heavy lifting this weekend, at least :) Packing up my books today, I thought about whether it's worth it to reread books. I mean, on the one hand, if you really like a book, there doesn't seem to be any harm in enjoying it a second time. But then I got to thinking, I've read probably less than a thousand books in my life (as have most people, I'm guessing), so does it really make sense to read one of those select few again rather than delving into one of the millions of others out there? There is a deeper philosophical point there, but it's (paradoxically, kind of) a trite one. |
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The fact that I haven't updated in a month means either a) I've been really busy or b) I've been having too much fun. Well actually, it's both. Work has been pretty intense but exciting; The piece software on which we've been working is nearly ready to be released, and that's a relief. There's still another month or two smoothing out the edges but the framework is there, and it's good. I know I repeat myself, but summer in Boston is just ridiculously fun. I'm dreading the start fall and cold weather. At the last minute I decided not to take that MIT class, which is retrospect should be an excellent decision :). Ultimate frisbee has been great as usual; I went to a tournament last weekend and had the most fun I've had in years. I also ripped up my left knee laying out, so it now has a big wound to complement my screwed up right knee (which has a more serious problem). Concerts were sweet, too. Paul Simon was fantastic, and he played 8 (!) encores, including Hearts and Bones, which he said he hadn't played live in 10 years. Also he did a new rendition of I Am A Rock that was just awesome. Tricky was nuts. Radiohead's coming up just over a week from now, and I just found out that PJ Harvey is playing at the Orpheum in September... I'm there. I've also been to a bunch of movies, ranging from bad to good: Legally Blonde, Jurassic Park, Sexy Beast, and Final Fantasy. I had pretty low expectations for Final Fantasy, and yeah, the plot was pretty cheesy. But the visuals were outstanding and as far as action movies go, it was quite exciting. Definitely better than most of the other movies I've seen this summer. Kerry has been nice enough to let us visit Alex and the other parrots at her lab, so I've seen them twice this summer. Not only are they pretty adorable, it's fascinating to see how the react to people and, well, talk. Once when I was there, Alex started blurting out answers to the questions they were posing to another parrot. He also tried to court me... apparently he only likes male humans. A gay African Gray parrot? :) I've started learning how to play guitar. Over the past two weeks I've built up the calluses on my fingertips so now the physical pain is gone, but I had forgotten how mentally tiresome it is to learn a new instrument. I've been playing trumpet for so long now that when I try to learn a new technique, I can focus on it and with some practice, it's there. But with the guitar, everything is so foreign (even tuning strings, I found out, takes practice when you're used to tuning a wind instrument) that when I want to learn anything, I have to concentrate and pay attention to so many details. Such diligence is good for someone as lazy as me, I guess :). My friend Andrew Wu did a cool and funny project. Gotta love that guy :). Okay, I can't waste any more of this Saturday... later. |
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