dracil

Hmm.... these new grad students. Never used Java, never used SSH, don't know how to use basic Unix commands, no concept of a submit directory.... O_o

I guess university education is pretty different outside the US.

One benefit is being able to meet people...
Currently feeling apprehensive

dracil

Thank you David, for the T-shirt! So yes, I'm blogging this.

People really seem to be confused by Python's interpreter. Combined with unfamiliarity with Linux commandlines, they can't seem to tell the difference between the two.

Some finds on Youtube that you should watch.

Trusted Computing for non-techies
DRM for non-techies
Legal consent (funny)

Oh yes, one of the new students remarked in a conversation that I have a lot of personality. Xia then chimed in that being told you have a lot of personality is synonymous with being told that you're weird. =/
Currently feeling okay

dracil

First off, happy birthday David (not the one from today, but from yesterday)!

Today was also the birthday celebration for Aaron and I. Ate at Sushi House, David, Jenny, Catherine, Eric, Sophia, and Nancy also came. Went to Jenny's place to play a bit of light pseudo-party games. Most of us separated after that, although David, Aaron, and I went to a Korean place for dinner, and then Quickly's for boba and then calling it a night.

Thanks everyone who came, and sorry for the awkward moments today.

I somtimes wonder if I'm mainly just a burden to people...
Currently feeling hmm....

dracil

Well then, until Roy (creator of Tabulas) here does something about the tagboard spam, it is offically disabled until further notice.
Currently feeling annoyed

dracil

Well, the questions seem to be getting better. Less "Help me fix everything!" and more "What does the professor mean?"

Other than that, busy busy.
Currently feeling sleepy

dracil

The thing we've been waiting for! Lunch at Espetus! So the final group (besides me) was Xia, Ben, Philip, Annie.

Lesson learned: Don't drive there.

We spent about 1-1.5 hours looking for parking, and still ended up paying $9 for all day parking.

Ok, so the restaurant itself was higher-class and smaller than I thought. They did have only half the restaurant open, but most of the people there looked pretty rich. For some reason I had imagined something that was hotter since this is supposed to be a meat buffet.

So the waiters come around and slice off strips of meat for you. Generally pretty good, all sorts of sirloin, sometimes with cheese or garlic. Most of the people didn't like the sausage, but loved the chicken heart. We also all loved the cheese bread, which didn't taste very cheesy itself, but the texture was very cheesy. Most incredible bread I've ever had.

I lasted longest since I did start prepping since the night before.

So afterwards, Annie went home, then we tried a game of Settlers of Catan that got cut short because Xia needed to get to the post office before it closed. By the time we ended, everyone had declared me as the evil person who can't be trusted (only because I traded away my sheep and then took it all back with a Monopoly card). Everyone bought development cards right after that. I had a city, and Ben had his 3rd settlement, the robber was on my good wheat grid, with both Xia and Philip with Soldier cards, but I also had a road building card which I tossed down when we ended so I had the +2 points for longest road.

Spent the rest of the night grading homework assignments. First assignment and already there are signs of plagiarism. that, and only about 1/4 of the people had flawlessly working code.
Currently feeling content

dracil

It's surprisingly hard to give away something free, but limited.

It's also pretty stressing when most of the people around you don't share your interests, or even if they do, nowhere to the same level of passion. I think that's what drives so many people to the Internet. But it's still a poor substitute in the long run.

I also remember reading something about friends and how after a decade or two of knowing them, they will have become so different that if you had first met them today, you would no longer be friends. It is only the specific circumstances that created the bond 10 or so years ago that you even keep in touch with them.

Which is a depressing thought given that as you grow older, the number of people in the world of your age range (the ones you can probably relate to the best) just grows smaller and smaller as they die off.

Which makes it all the more important to know as many people as you can as soon as you can, because either you will forever lose the opportunity to do so, or you will regret all the wasted years during which you didn't know them. This is especially true from a dating/marriage standpoint.

If only life came with a save/reload option.

Edit: Which brings me to some more thoughts about current friendships. If you lose touch with someone for too long, even if contact is established again, it can become like meeting the person for the first time, in the changed state. Which means the previous bonds that were formed during the original circumstances may not be strong enough to keep the friendship maintained. Sure, you may still say hi and chat a bit, but generally, you've become apathetic about their existence, until perhaps one day, 50 years later, you hear that they've died. Then you may or may not attend their funeral, wonder how many will be left to attend your own funeral, and that's that.

I wonder if that's why I don't keep in contact with almost all my pre-Cal friends. And even of the Cal ones, only the ones I met during the last 2 years. I don't keep in contact with most people I met in the dorms (1st year), nor most of those I met in fellowships (2nd to 3rd years).

My main form of contact with people is through IMs. Even without that, if I can still see people semi-regularly for extended periods of time, or at the very least, correspond through email, then there is still contact. Most of these people are people who were both physically separated and were not online addicts, and even those who did start coming back online later, were already long relegated to the bottom of the list and not spoken to as there were "fresher" people on top to talk to. They become... the forgotten.

Well, certainly this is one of the reasons. But it's just one of several. The others, well, maybe some other time. But I do think I have hikikomori tendencies.

Also, distance is not the only thing that causes these disappearances from social circles. Significant Others are actually a major cause of this as well. At least within the BST circle, and it is something most of the "remaining" ones notice every time we have any sort gathering. Ah yes, we're probably missing so-and-so because of...

Anyway, I'm sure this is not a very uplifting post, and probably somewhat contradictory based on what I'm doing and what I'm claiming should be done. It's most likely not very original and has been said by many people as well (as Haruhi said, given the number of people in the world, everything we find interesting and unique is actually experienced by MANY other people, so it's really very mundane and very boring [and even this thought is not original]). But still, that's what's going through my head on this Sunday night.
Currently feeling normal, given the subject

dracil

Madrone Lounge.

$2 well drinks.

Very very dark.

Did I mention the drinks?

Good.

'cause I didn't drink. Sorry to disappoint! (Then again, the ones who've tried to get me to drink don't really read my blog)

No, the reason I was there was actually to play Settlers of Catan with some strangers. A lady called Morita, and a guy called Greg. Morita was the most experienced player who'd played with friends and family a lot (she brought the game, and it was pretty worn). Greg had 3 games under his belt, played at SF Games. Meanwhile, I'm the rules lawyer gamer with only practice against the AI (except for the unfinished game on Friday).

Greg won the first game, mainly from doing the most trading. Second game, I was ganged up on repeatedly for no reason, but with 3 cities close by (giving me 4 resources on two die rolls), and being lucky (despite having the Robber on my tiles most of the game, I wasn't really lose any production to the Robber, but lost cards by having them being stolen), I still managed to draw loads of cards and sneaked in a win by stealing the Longest Road from Greg and revealing my 1 VP development card.

I guess it also helped that I was probably the only sober person by the end of the night.

There were people playing all sorts of other games, as Mondays are apparently game nights here. Our table was the only table with a eurogame though, and Settlers of Catan is considered one of the main gateway games most likely known by non-gamers.

A good break from the weekend of non-stop IMs for help. I think I'm going to stop answering IMs and force them to email me. IMs from so many different people which requires another dozen windows/tabs being open just interrupts my flow way too much and I can't get any work done.
Currently feeling content

dracil

Well, Xia insisted that she treat me to something, we ended up going to a Chinese restaurant we'd gone in before but decided to leave. Wasn't bad for the amount we had. Seems to be cheaper than BFT. 3 dishes was $10 + some dim sum.

Thank you Xia!
Currently feeling happy

dracil

Oh boy, it's taken me around 5 hours to just grade half of HW2.

I'm definitely not getting paid enough for this (10 hours/week).

Or maybe I should just stop testing their code so thoroughly and give them a 0 if it doesn't work.

That said, I've gone through the more troublesome ones already, the ones left should go by much faster.
Currently feeling tired

dracil

Hmm, a review of the different elements of today.

Cousin: Last minute notices (2 days actually) don't work out well =/

So my cousin said he was coming to visit a friend and see if we could meet up for a bit before he leaves for college next week.

In order to do that, I waited until 11 and was about to give up because he didn't call me and I couldn't reach him (cell phone crutch! It's only as good as your ability to notice it ringing!). Finally managed to get through. Decided let's just meet at Japantown instead at 2:30. Stuff happen, I leave what I was doing to look for them. Not there. Wait 20 minutes, call, no pick up (again with your cell phone people!). Wait another 20 minutes, call, finally picked up and they'd finally arrived. So the girl was one Jennifer who's I think the VP of the undergrad Taiwanese club here. She's also a Junior so I thought it was weird for him to know her. But apparently she'd also gone to ISB earlier, so that's where he'd known her from (but she's +3 years to him). That brings me to the other thing, but I think they were holding hands when I first saw them. Or maybe that was my imagination. But they were walking pretty closely the entire time. Anyway, the circumstances of today made it feel to both of us as if we were intruding on each others plans, so it was generally pretty awkward. So we actually ended up separating after about another 15 minutes. =/

My cousin wasn't the only person competing for my time either. The students I'm TAing actually also wanted me to go to Fisherman's Wharf with them today, well one of them anyway. But she was really interested in the "famous" soup in a bowl. I told her that Fisherman's Wharf wasn't the only location, and there was one close by (the same one I mentioned that I went to when I was sick and really wanting hot clam chowder in a bowl only to find it was closed). Apparently she contacted me again today anyway on IM, although it might've been to ask The TA some questions about homework.

Ok, so about the convention: After I arrived, I wasted about 15 minutes looking for the registration place because I didn't notice they'd changed the location in the 2nd confirmation email. So by the time I was nice and ready it was 12, 2 hours later than I had originally planned (aka 2 hours after it had started). Then it seems like right after I register, they place a sign pointing to the registration area. =/ Before this, their main website had disappeared for a week. I'm assuming that's just the way it is with smaller conventions that probably can't get a ton of volunteers.

Tabletop and Gaming Room: One of the first places I went to actually, and spent a significant chunk of the day here. Pretty much dominated by console gaming. Some guy tried to start a game of Munchkin at the beginning but I wasn't interested. Naruto looked interesting, and people were playing Melty Blood earlier which piqued my interest a bit. Didn't play anything in here though.

Live Music room: Where I spent most of the day by far. I heard Gen Taiko from outside the room when I first arrived. Caught the tale end of Shogunate which was pretty much hip-hop stuff. Akai Sky did covers, which was great when I knew the song. Left early and skipped Stephanie Yanez with SLY to meet my cousin. Random Ninjas is when I came back. They had a nice mock fight sequence with four people done to live Naruto BGM music. They had quite a bit of fans already. I ended up buying a demo CD. Not sure if it was worth it as it was only a demo CD, but I didn't notice it until later. Neko Punch was cute... sort of like Random Ninjas but more inexperienced. The vocalist tended to be drowned out by the music, so I couldn't tell what she was singing. I noticed earplugs and that's when I remembered that I could make them with some tissue so the rest of the day I was able to sit much closer. It would've really helped with Random Ninjas though as I did feel some hearing loss standing close to watch the fight sequence. Quarter Circle Jab was mainly game music, most of which I didn't recognize for some reason. They had... a lot of kinetic energy. Mari Iijima was the "big shot" of the day. She's the voice actress for the original Macross's Lynn Minmay. I dunno, only really liked her last song, and from what I overheard, some others felt the same. She felt really out of place though, as she gives off a somewhat "corporate" vibe. She was using recorded music for the missing band members (she was here by herself unlike all the other bands). She was also talking about videos of her on Youtube, how people were saying she talks too much (so she's trying to talk less), which was fine. But then she said her kids were saying high view count on Youtube = good so she's popular, but her reactions are more mixed and talking about the videos not being authorized. That word immediately conjured up thoughts of RIAA BS. Oh, and seems like all her songs are about love.

Dealer room: Small, crowded. $4 Fate/Stay Night playing cards was the only thing that grabbed my interest really. Didn't buy anything though.

Artist Alley/Swap Meet: Some of the artists did have really nice drawings, but... eh, it'll probably just get damaged with my messy nature, especially when I next need to move. Now, if they were in a book form, I might be more interested. I did buy a convention T-shirt though, as a sort of souvenir to state that I finally went to an anime convention.

Panel Room: Empty most of the day, will probably have more stuff tomorrow since the Hotel area is closed.

Video Room: Interesting, but never sat down long enough to really watch anything. Wanted to watch Death Trance but they couldn't get the dubbing off.

Cosplayers: Mostly Naruto and Bleach. Some look pretty good. There was also a cute Haruhi. Too bad there weren't any Rozen Maidens though.

Food: Andersen's Bakery for lunch, Pesto bread was nice, the bottle of water was overpriced as heck. Dinner I ate at Sophie's Crepes. The chicken salad crepe was tasty but I finished it too fast. Then I went to this Japanese convenience store that I've been to several times with Xia when we came to Japantown to get a cheap bottle of water.

Bus: Going there was fine. Coming back was nice. Xia made a comment in the past when we were on a crowded bus that they weren't nearly as crowded as the buses in China. They were today. Apparently the bus was the first bus in a very long time, so it was completely packed. I actually had to push a bit as the bus driver was refusing to take off until people were squeezed back enough.

Tomorrow's main event is the Cosplay Contest and it's only half as long as today. Makes me wish I had a good camera actually. Also, seeing all the groups of people together... remember what I said several days ago about not having friends who share my interests? To some extent, coming to the convention was for myself, and it's nice to have the freedom to do anything, but it's still sad that there's nobody to share the experience with. And of course, the whole hotel experience with friends. After a day of doing whatever, retiring to rooms to play some games and joke around for a while. Although the thing with that is that usually costs quite a bit (to need a hotel room means a lot of traveling).
Currently feeling tired but a little hyper

dracil

Oh yeah, forgot to mention that the Japanese Consulate also gave out some goodies yesterday.

So today I really only went for the Cosplay Event. Was shorter than expected, as I guess a lot of cosplayers don't actually wanna compete and all that. There were some funny skits, including a Jiraiya yelling "I'm a pervert!" I could totally do that role.

Checked out the Artist Alley some more today. There were three tables I found notable.

First is the Bay Area Artist Union. http://baau.syste.ms Notable because it seems like a cool thing and they actually had a published book, but I ended up not buying it even though I did say this was the kind of thing I was looking for yesterday. The drawings just didn't really grab me enough. Oh yeah, the guy asked if I could draw. I wish. =/

Second is http://lilythescorpio.deviantart.com/ or http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~cliu. Yes, the Berkeley URL is one of the notable things (Cal student!), and I thought her chibi drawings were cute, but the lamination wasn't done well. But other than that, I can actually picture them on random accessories being sold in actual stores. And her cat drawing was great, but it might be because I like cats. She was also cosplaying as one of the Bleach shinigami squad members (which is probably why a lot of her drawings were of Bleach)

Third one is http://lilkitty.deviantart.com whose drawings I thought were really nicely colored. Generally original drawings. She was also doing anime-style drawings of people. Considered it for use online, then decided against it.

Non-convention stuff: Props to Kuishinbo for a waitress who spoke Japanese to me all the way to the end. Of course, the only word I said was "Katsudon" the entire time I was there. Kinokuniya though, were as sharp as usual, but they did slip and finally say the price to me in Japanese at first. But my 1 second hesitation from the surprise made them switch immediately back to English. Phooey. Yeah, this is a little exercise/game I play when I go to the shops in Japantown to see if I can blend in.

I actually left early today, because without the live music, there isn't really any place worth sitting around until convention end.

Just realized something missing from this convention. No anime music videos.
Currently feeling sleepy

dracil

Forgot to mention, during that live music part, some guy did the Night of Fire para para dance.

And while watching some Haruhi stuff, I just realized someone should've done the Haruhi dance for the Cosplay Contest.
Currently feeling amused

dracil

On MSN, with one of the new students.

J:are there any girls who dont like anime
J:those are not real girls

Spoken like a real girl.
Currently feeling fine

dracil

Got an email from my dad in the morning about it. Hopefully it'll end peacefully. Since the army is using the king, I'm assuming if the king tells them to stop it and go home, that will be the end of it. However, I've read some stuff about the king not liking Thaksin (ok, pretty much nobody likes him), so he may actually side with the military, then who knows what will happen.

One of the people over at RBJ in Thailand was saying something about losing internet and phone soon, but not sure if that's for real, or that's what she's thinking will happen.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14906669/
Currently feeling a bit worried

dracil

So looks like the king has given his support for the coup.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/09/20/thailand.coup.ap/

Also looks like most people in Thailand support the coup.

http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_2001563,00.html

Which is actually a pretty interesting contrast to the opinions of the rest of the world, who feel the coup is a destruction of democracy. But then again, because of corruption issues of the just deposed government, many also feel that Thailand wasn't really under a true democracy anymore anyway.

That said, because of the massive support they have inside the country, it's unlikely for anything bad to happen.
Currently feeling fine

dracil

So I've been making a serious attempt at trying to learn Orange Range's Asterisk song. Forget tongue twisters. Just try saying this in 1.5 seconds.

chikara aru kagiri ikitekunda kyoumo

I can finally do it somewhat consistently.
Currently feeling sleepy

dracil

What happened to my weekend plans? An old friend was supposed to have come, but then we lost contact. She has my # I don't have hers, and I never got a call.

This weekend was also SF's Moon Festival, which is around 2 weeks early. Ended up not going to it either.
Currently feeling blah

dracil

Hmm, pretty busy week because of needing to demo stuff. Also the latest homework grading was a little more involved. I'm definitely spending more time than I'm being paid for (10 hours/week) on TA stuff. Then again, the professor has told me several times not to "kill myself" over it so it's probably my own fault.

I think I have a reputation for being "mean" as well. I don't think I have the patience required to answer things that I think are... trivial, although this may be related to the previous paragraph. It also doesn't help that they insist on writing in Simplified Chinese to me, and there are other differences in language as well (e.g. what they call "computer" means "calculator" to me)

Meanwhile my HCI team is definitely less than ideal. One person I trust, two strangers that are probably ok, and one inexperienced team member, as opposed to the original all familiar+experienced members I had been going for. The thing is, I probably *could* have gotten that original group, but I reluctantly broke it up because the inexperienced team member insisted on being with us, which would've made the group too large.

So I'm not sure. Does this make me a bad person for my initial reluctance, an idiot for relenting, or both?

Maybe this will help you decide. So this pic has been floating around some forums for this nuclear warfare game that just got released. My reactions were as follows: 1) Woah that's bad. 2) But it's pretty funny too and makes a point about the sad state of the HIV situation there. 3) I guess it's pretty bad I laughed.

Aside from the original forums, seems like everyone else just stops at 1).
Currently feeling morally bankrupt?