"C'mon, Marge, it's like kissing a peanut!"
Date: Sunday, April 8, 2012
Current Location: Fullerton
Time of Entry: 7:55PM
It has been a long time coming, this first and last post of the quarter, and the last post about Stanford. The stress, workload, and general lack of anything interesting to talk about during the school year have left me continually putting this blog on the shelf, but now I have the time to put in these last final touches. I'm done and I can't believe it. Five quarters ago I was just an anxious student eager for the campus experience, knowing nothing about grad life, about Stanford, or about Northern California. And just as I came sputtering to campus that first day with almost no gas and a sketchy bike rack, I had to travel back home along these same lines. My last final was on March 21 and I was kicked out of my apartment on March 25. I've been home ever since catching up on sleep, working in the yard, helping out with things at home, and trying to figure out where to go from here. To recap the quarter, I spent my last months taking two classes, CS106B (Programming Abstractions) and CS108 (Object Oriented Programming). These were more than enough for me; 108 proved to be much more work than I had anticipated, while the rest of my time was filled with applying to jobs, catching up with friends, and figuring out graduation details. At the beginning of the quarter I was seriously considering taking one more class, CS107. Good thing I didn't, I probably would've been dead by now.
The first few weeks of the quarter was snow time. Following a fantastic snow season last year, this year was one of the worst, as evidenced by the pictures. Nevertheless, that didn't deter
anyone from hitting the slopes. I was able to go to Kirkwood and Diamond Peak with a group of med students, and Northstar with the SEG students. Both were fun, although the snow could have been
better. I can't recall anything that happened out of the ordinary on these trips, except that I hit my leg on a rail trying to do a trick. I wouldn't suggest doing that because it hurts a lot.
The little snow also meant little rain. This year has been surprisingly dry, warm, and pleasant, especially compared to last year's constant downpour. Plants got all confused and started blooming
like it was spring already. I always find the plant life around here very pretty, which makes biking to class actually quite enjoyable. The first picture above is of the trees lining the parking
lot right outside my apartment. I don't think they are cherry blossoms, but they look pretty similar.
Tulips (I think) lining the street. For some reason it's hard to capture the brilliance of these flowers with my camera. Maybe it's too old.
Some last few things about buildings on this campus. I realized I had never seen the inside of the church before. Heck, I didn't even know you could just walk in until I saw a group of Chinese
tourists doing so. The inside was quite awe inspiring and a lot bigger than I thought it could be. I hear that you can have weddings in this church, although it's probably reserved for only alumni.
I'm not sure if showing these pictures is sacrilegious or not, but here it is anyway.
In the beginning of last year I was really excited to check out two buildings named 'Bambi' and 'Godzilla'. Boy, was I disappointed. It turned out that the coolest named buildings on campus
were just portables, and why they were there I have not a clue. Other schools have weird names for buildings like 'Middle Earth' at UCI, but at least the building is actually of some importance
(dormitory). All these buildings did was block my path between me and the dining halls.
I don't really have any more pictures to share. Most of the things that have happened at Stanford cannot be captured by a lens, nor would it be interesting enough to write about anyway. I guess
you could ask what I thought of the whole experience, now that it's done and I can look back upon my time there. I can say that much of it was a blur. Graduate life is a far cry from being an
undergrad. There's no more time for clubs, activities, no social dorms, or the giddy anticipation of learning what it is to be a college student. You spend most of your time amongst those in your
department, and can form much closer relationships with the professors. People start talking more about research, about jobs, and about being TA's. Compared to undergrad there is much less hand
holding and, to my surprise, much less grade inflation. Coming in, I know that many of us were expecting Undergrad: Part 2, but it rarely turned out that way. In short, grad life is less about
exploring, and much more about work.
But it wasn't all bad. Stanford attracts a diverse field of people, all of them commanding respect for their myriad accomplishments. I've met people in the medical program here, people from
electrical and mechanical engineering, biochemistry, philosophy, asian studies, and on and on. I've met people from Canada, China, India, Germany, Chile, Colombia, Johannesburg, people from all
over the east coast and midwest, and on and on. You definitely live among the cream of the crop at this school, and it was always a pleasure to do so. You also learn from the best in the industry.
Taking any class here exposes you to the cutting edge in research and application. Certain departments, like CS, are world famous and are taught by some pretty legendary people. I would say
that just being exposed to such accomplished people all the time was one of the best parts of attending this school.
My experience at Stanford was a diverse one. There were both good and bad parts, but I guess what really matters is that at the end it was hard to say goodbye. I will miss it, and I'm glad I did
it, with all its ups and downs and everything it had to throw at me. Thanks to anyone who ever took the time to look at my writings. I am always moved when people comment to me about how they
read my latest post or liked this or that. If I ever have anything else worth posting about I'll definitely do it, although I'm not sure if I will lose my webspace on the Stanford server
anytime soon. For now, to all of you I bid thee farewell.
Brian
Date: Monday, December 5, 2011
Current Location: McFarland, Escondido Village
Time of Entry: 12:48AM
Seems like interesting things always happen around finals time, just in time for me to make an excuse to not study and write stuff in an online blog that nobody will see. Last week my programming class was graced with a guest lecture from none other than Mark Zuckerberg, who basically held an hour long Q&A session with the class. His comments were quite insightful, and ranged from talking about the tech industry to his views on the direction and management of Facebook to The Social Network and to his own life lessons. I forgot to bring my camera that day, but here are some screens from the video recording of the lecture, so you know that I'm not just making this up.
His philosophy on the function of Facebook is very fascinating. Here's an excerpt:
"My thesis, kind of from the beginning, is that it actually, it is fun, right, but that's not actually the point. I think people use [Facebook] because it's actually a utility... I have this theory that society just systematically, at every step along the way, culturally devalues relationships. And that's why I think on an intuitive level people understand that connecting with someone is this good thing and that's why it's rewarding when you do it... There's all these ways to understand why having relationships with people is valuable. One is, like, you don't know how valuable a relationship will be down the line either for having fun or maybe you'll learn something through that person or maybe you'll move to a city and they'll introduce you to someone and you'll get a job through them or maybe you'll end up dating them down the line or who knows? There are all these reasons why that may be a really useful thing and I just think, in economics you'd call that option value, in society you would value that as nothing, like having these superfluous relationships, or keeping in touch with people, and, I don't know, so that's my theory at least. It's like, would you say you're addicted to glasses? No, you wouldn't, right, you use your glasses because they are useful, right? It's not like 'Oh I put my glasses on every day, I'm addicted.' So I think that Facebook is actually more like that than people think, although I just don't think that as a society we necessarily have the language to talk about that today and therefore a lot of it just ends up being 'fun.'" On a completely different note, Stanford campus always has something pretty to look at. I like the dynamics of the trees around here, turning color and shedding in the fall, flowering in the spring, and practically glowing green in the summer. Okay, so Norcal may not be the most seasonal place on earth, but for a person who grew up in the LA area, this is pretty cool.
A ginko tree right before the leaves all fall off. Many trees have neat rainbows of red, orange, yellow, and green, but I liked how solidly yellow this guy was. Not something I see everyday. In fact, the next week all the leaves were gone.
More views of the Clark Center, but this time at night. It's hard to capture what this looks like in reality. Haunting in a way, very still yet lit up like the glowing windows on spaceships
straight out of Star Wars or Star Trek. Majestic, I suppose. Kudos to the architect (Norman Foster).
Well, this is probably the last that you'll hear of me this quarter. Just two more weeks until winter break, two weeks in which it will be impossible to accrue enough interesting material for
another post. So unless Bill Gates shows up in my next Java lecture, see ya next year!
Date: Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Current Location: McFarland, Escondido Village
Time of Entry: 11:46PM
Well the universe is shaped exactly like the earth
If you go straight long enough you'll end up where you were
And the universe is shaped exactly like the earth
If you go straight long enough you'll end up where you were
The universe is shaped exactly like the earth
Date: Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Current Location: McFarland, Escondido Village
Time of Entry: 2:31AM
I liked the earth when it was warm
The sun doth bathed my skin in D
And frolic I did happily
'Neath trees of brightest, purest green
And on oceans warm and saline
I used to look at the skies above
How much one color one could love
The softest, gentlest, cleanest blue
And only then could such a hue
Paint my skin and burn my eyes
In ways that only satisfy
The sun doth shine in gray today
And the clouds doth bathe me in wet
For the time being it's all I get
And free showers do nothing to ease the thought
Of a world that time has already forgot
But I remember, and I recite in rhyme
And all I can think of in the meantime
There is only one thing I can really say
The weather sucks balls today
Date: Monday, September 26, 2011
Current Location: McFarland, Escondido Village
Time of Entry: 10:32PM
Hello, everyone. It is that time of year again. The time for school, classes, the time for grey matter stretching of eager and ready students, also the time for unceasing psychological anguish, soul destroying academic mental games, and stress that can rupture a w44x335 steel beam. Fall Quarter 2011 has now begun, a fact for me that is both exciting and terrifying. Didn't I just graduate high school yesterday? Being a second year is an interesting perspective. I have a general idea of what to expect from the school, and what not to expect I suppose. I know people here already, the area, the stuff to do (nothing), and the level to which I am expected to perform. I think that last year was somewhat of a disappointment because I was comparing my experiences here too much with that of my undergrad experience at UCLA. Well, this is not a UC nor is it in LA. I think my viewpoint this time around will make my second year that much more enjoyable and satisfying, at least that's the hope. This quarter schedule is not finalized just yet, but the plan is to take CEE210 (Building Information Modeling), CEE285B (Advanced Structural Steel Behavior and Design), CEE385 (Performance Based Earthquake Engineering), and CS106A (Programming Methodology in Java). Somehow I managed to fit four classes in 10 units. Not sure if this is a good thing.
I spent this past summer up here in the Bay Area doing an internship at Degenkolb and learning to surf on the weekends at Santa Cruz or Half Moon Bay. Both work and my free time were pretty great.
My job was in the R&D department call the New Technologies Group where I worked a lot with Microsoft Access, analysis programs, 3D modeling, and nonstructural isolation tables. On the water I
learned a lot about timing and catching waves, the concept of sets, surf board properties, standing up, and wiping out with the grace and diginity of a dead jellyfish. I don't have any pictures
to compliment either of these experiences, but trust me, they were both cool.
The only pictures I have that are new are of my new apartment. My roommate and I were unexpectedly moved during the middle of summer to McFarland, essentially an identical building to Abrams but
located in a spot closer to campus. I think it worked out. I am now occupying the living room instead of the bedroom, but the living room has much more space and more furniture so I'm pretty
happy about it. This is our view from the balcony, which overlooks our parking lot and parts of Escondido Village. It's nice.
Another advantage is that I am now closer to Rains, the social hub of the graduate community, and Ray's, an on-campus diner. Food around Palo Alto in general is not very memorable with one
exception being Ray's and their ridiculously good Mongolian Beef. I don't know why I like it so much. If it wasn't so expensive I would get it a lot more.
I'll end this post with a neat shot of the clouds I saw as I was driving back up to Norcal from Orange County. It was beautiful and actually quite humbling. They remind me of crashing waves.
Waves crashing on you is also quite a humbling experience I might add.
Look for posts in the coming weeks. No guarantees of a timeframe, but if something interesting happens I'll be sure to let you all know.
Current Location: Fullerton
Time of Entry: 7:55PM
It has been a long time coming, this first and last post of the quarter, and the last post about Stanford. The stress, workload, and general lack of anything interesting to talk about during the school year have left me continually putting this blog on the shelf, but now I have the time to put in these last final touches. I'm done and I can't believe it. Five quarters ago I was just an anxious student eager for the campus experience, knowing nothing about grad life, about Stanford, or about Northern California. And just as I came sputtering to campus that first day with almost no gas and a sketchy bike rack, I had to travel back home along these same lines. My last final was on March 21 and I was kicked out of my apartment on March 25. I've been home ever since catching up on sleep, working in the yard, helping out with things at home, and trying to figure out where to go from here. To recap the quarter, I spent my last months taking two classes, CS106B (Programming Abstractions) and CS108 (Object Oriented Programming). These were more than enough for me; 108 proved to be much more work than I had anticipated, while the rest of my time was filled with applying to jobs, catching up with friends, and figuring out graduation details. At the beginning of the quarter I was seriously considering taking one more class, CS107. Good thing I didn't, I probably would've been dead by now.
Date: Monday, December 5, 2011
Current Location: McFarland, Escondido Village
Time of Entry: 12:48AM
Seems like interesting things always happen around finals time, just in time for me to make an excuse to not study and write stuff in an online blog that nobody will see. Last week my programming class was graced with a guest lecture from none other than Mark Zuckerberg, who basically held an hour long Q&A session with the class. His comments were quite insightful, and ranged from talking about the tech industry to his views on the direction and management of Facebook to The Social Network and to his own life lessons. I forgot to bring my camera that day, but here are some screens from the video recording of the lecture, so you know that I'm not just making this up.
"My thesis, kind of from the beginning, is that it actually, it is fun, right, but that's not actually the point. I think people use [Facebook] because it's actually a utility... I have this theory that society just systematically, at every step along the way, culturally devalues relationships. And that's why I think on an intuitive level people understand that connecting with someone is this good thing and that's why it's rewarding when you do it... There's all these ways to understand why having relationships with people is valuable. One is, like, you don't know how valuable a relationship will be down the line either for having fun or maybe you'll learn something through that person or maybe you'll move to a city and they'll introduce you to someone and you'll get a job through them or maybe you'll end up dating them down the line or who knows? There are all these reasons why that may be a really useful thing and I just think, in economics you'd call that option value, in society you would value that as nothing, like having these superfluous relationships, or keeping in touch with people, and, I don't know, so that's my theory at least. It's like, would you say you're addicted to glasses? No, you wouldn't, right, you use your glasses because they are useful, right? It's not like 'Oh I put my glasses on every day, I'm addicted.' So I think that Facebook is actually more like that than people think, although I just don't think that as a society we necessarily have the language to talk about that today and therefore a lot of it just ends up being 'fun.'" On a completely different note, Stanford campus always has something pretty to look at. I like the dynamics of the trees around here, turning color and shedding in the fall, flowering in the spring, and practically glowing green in the summer. Okay, so Norcal may not be the most seasonal place on earth, but for a person who grew up in the LA area, this is pretty cool.
A ginko tree right before the leaves all fall off. Many trees have neat rainbows of red, orange, yellow, and green, but I liked how solidly yellow this guy was. Not something I see everyday. In fact, the next week all the leaves were gone.
Date: Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Current Location: McFarland, Escondido Village
Time of Entry: 11:46PM
Well the universe is shaped exactly like the earth
If you go straight long enough you'll end up where you were
And the universe is shaped exactly like the earth
If you go straight long enough you'll end up where you were
The universe is shaped exactly like the earth
Date: Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Current Location: McFarland, Escondido Village
Time of Entry: 2:31AM
I liked the earth when it was warm
The sun doth bathed my skin in D
And frolic I did happily
'Neath trees of brightest, purest green
And on oceans warm and saline
I used to look at the skies above
How much one color one could love
The softest, gentlest, cleanest blue
And only then could such a hue
Paint my skin and burn my eyes
In ways that only satisfy
The sun doth shine in gray today
And the clouds doth bathe me in wet
For the time being it's all I get
And free showers do nothing to ease the thought
Of a world that time has already forgot
But I remember, and I recite in rhyme
And all I can think of in the meantime
There is only one thing I can really say
The weather sucks balls today
Date: Monday, September 26, 2011
Current Location: McFarland, Escondido Village
Time of Entry: 10:32PM
Hello, everyone. It is that time of year again. The time for school, classes, the time for grey matter stretching of eager and ready students, also the time for unceasing psychological anguish, soul destroying academic mental games, and stress that can rupture a w44x335 steel beam. Fall Quarter 2011 has now begun, a fact for me that is both exciting and terrifying. Didn't I just graduate high school yesterday? Being a second year is an interesting perspective. I have a general idea of what to expect from the school, and what not to expect I suppose. I know people here already, the area, the stuff to do (nothing), and the level to which I am expected to perform. I think that last year was somewhat of a disappointment because I was comparing my experiences here too much with that of my undergrad experience at UCLA. Well, this is not a UC nor is it in LA. I think my viewpoint this time around will make my second year that much more enjoyable and satisfying, at least that's the hope. This quarter schedule is not finalized just yet, but the plan is to take CEE210 (Building Information Modeling), CEE285B (Advanced Structural Steel Behavior and Design), CEE385 (Performance Based Earthquake Engineering), and CS106A (Programming Methodology in Java). Somehow I managed to fit four classes in 10 units. Not sure if this is a good thing.