Posted on Wed, February 24 2010 at 5:46 pm
i guess that’s the motto of a verification engineer. code is never verified unless you test it. otherwise, you have to assume that it doesn’t work.
that’s what happened today. we got a new release of the AC code, so i ran through my basic sanity tests. things were fine. but then, this test had a new feature, and the designers said they “tested” it, and it worked. but i didn’t take their word for it, so i went ahead and wrote two tests of my own to exercise the new feature. they failed. yup. i dug through the code, looked at some waveforms, and there was a glaring mistake in the RTL. motherfucker! WTF? how could they have tested it and gotten it to pass? i don’t get it.
anyways, i made a fix to the code, and i’m re-running the test right now. we’ll see if i did the right thing. it’s a really good thing that i didn’t just trust their claim that the feature worked, otherwise we would have been hosed. this feature is critical to the AC’s functionality, and without it, we would have been fucked.
so what does this mean? probably another 8:30am conference call tomorrow morning. ugh.
AI was really boring last night. nobody blew me away. i was mildly interested in siobhan magnus’s rendition of “wicked game,” but that was mainly because it was a girl singing it. i have to say, janell wheeler is quite attractive. haeley vaughn looks scary. and that’s all of my thoughts on last night’s TWO hours of tv. yeah, boring, huh? let’s hope the guys do better tonight. i swear, SYTYCD is such a better show.
i’m slowly learning the names of all of the contestants on AI. as you know by now, i’m a freak when it comes to lists. i can still recite the bottom 12 (in order) of seasons 6 and 7 on AI. (strangely, i can’t recite the top 12 of any season, though.) but yeah, this year, the format is conducive to me doing it again, so i keep staring at the names when they come up. for some reason, i have a really hard time learning paige miles’s last name. it’s just so plain.
i’ve noticed that the three turkish engineers in my company love fried chicken. like, the golden chicken at dusita (it’s breaded, deep-fried chicken) and stuff like chicken katsu at japanese restaurants. is this akin to some popular turkish dish? i can’t eat too much katsu-type stuff without sauce; the fried breaded grease gets to me. i once got 6 mcd’s chicken mcnuggets without sauce, and i couldn’t eat more than two of them plain. it was just gross. it’s amazing what a big difference sauce makes.
lots of visitors coming into town the next few months. gina’s coming next week, then my dad a few days later, then my dad again the following week, then emi from LA, and then dave and carolyn’s family in april. i love having visitors; it really breaks the monotony of the routine of workdays/weekends.
i ate baked ziti for the first time last night. the volleyball crew decided to go to frankie, johnnie and luigi’s last night instead of fu lam mum, and ann reminded me that the last time we went to FJ&L’s, i promised myself i would order the baked ziti. it was not bad. it was quite a struggle to finish the whole thing; i could have gone with just eating half of it. but i powered through. one thing i didn’t eat was the entire piece of congealed cheese on the top, though; my heart probably thanked me for doing that.
one funny thing was when i tried to put some parmesan cheese on my dish. the cheese had stuck in the holes of the shaker, and i couldn’t get any more of the parmesan out. i looked over at ann helplessly. she just took it, pounded the shaker on the table, and voila! the cheese shook free of the holes! i felt so stupid for not thinking of doing that. i guess somethings are just common sense to people. *bonk*
when my dad gets here next saturday, there’s taiko performance featuring three collegiate groups, including my old group, stanford taiko. i’m debating whether i should take him. i don’t know how interested my dad is in seeing people bang on drums, you know? i’d personally love to go. my parents were never really big on the fine arts and performances and stuff. i mean, i grew up taking classical piano lessons, but we never went to the symphony or opera or anything like that. i don’t know if it’s because we didn’t have the money, or if my parents were just not interested.
i had a dream about work this morning. it was very stressful, like the dream was about me having half a dozen issues to deal with and work on. that’s a bad sign. i think it means i’m getting too involved with my job. when i first started working, i was waaaay too into it. i would get headaches at the end of the workday, i would dream about work, i would think about it when i was in the shower, in the car, etc. lately, i’ve been so embroiled in this audio verification that apparently it’s seeping into my subconscious. bad, bad, bad! i need a break. luckily, this weekend, i’m going to get one. and hopefully, no more dreams about work.
have you seen the trailers for the new _the karate kid_? it stars will smith’s son jaden, and jackie chan as the mentor. it’s set in china, where a black family moves there, and the young black kid gets picked on, and jackie chan teaches him kung-fu. hm. kung-fu ain’t karate. so why call it _the karate kid_? the trailer seems decent, as the scenery and stuff looks nice and all. the fighting looks more choreographed and artistic than the original. but still, i just don’t think they should have made it stem from the original. they should have called it _kung-fu black boy_. haha. i kid.
ok. i’m blogging earlier and earlier, it seems.
Tags: dreams, food, friends, movies, tv, wonderment, work
general mundane shit » No Comments
Posted on Tue, February 23 2010 at 5:50 pm
i had a crazy dream this morning at 6am. (i always seem to wake up at 6am these days.) i was part of a military force, and i was packing a pistol. my regiment was scanning around a plaza or something, and suddenly, we identified a suicide bomber. (i remembered that i thought he looked suspicious and out of place earlier in my dream when i was scanning the public.) everyone panicked, and the bomber started CHASING ME. i ran backwards, trying to shoot him with my pistol, but i couldn’t hit him. he was gaining on me, so i turned around and started running as fast as i could. then, he must have detonated himself, because then i woke up. (i’ve never died in my dreams before.)
what a dream, eh? i am chalking it up to another one of my crazy nicotine patch dreams. and i think it was influenced by watching _the hurt locker_ a few weeks ago. nuts. i didn’t like this one so much. 
i am maxed out on vacation again. i just checked my latest paycheck. 320 hours of PTO. EIGHT WEEKS. crazy, huh? so i talked to the project manager, and i am taking monday off. it will be nice to have a 3-day weekend. my PM basically told me to get my audio testing done this week, and he’ll put me on some other assignments starting next week.
last night’s _the bachelor: the women tell all_ was very disturbing. there was one point where one of the girls and rozlyn were telling very different stories about rozlyn’s alleged romance with one of the producers, and they both swore that they were telling the truth. the girl swore on her dog’s life (and she said that her dog is the most important thing to her in her life), and rozlyn swore on her kid’s life. but *someone* had to be lying. how can one of these women swear so flippantly? i don’t get it. anyways, i can’t wait to see what happens in next week’s finale. last night, chris harrison asked jake if he was happy with his final decision, and jake said simply, “i’m happy.” not “i’m ecstatic” or “i’m SO happy.” so sabrina and i are wondering if jake picked no one at the end. JUICY. yeah, i’m so sucked into this trashy show. and if ali gets picked to be the next bachelorette, you know i am TOTALLY watching it.
i had pho with jay last night. he’s going to french laundry tonight with margaret. i’m jealous. not that i want to spent $250 a person on a prie fixe 9-course meal, but i just want to get the french laundry experience. it’s touted as one of the very best restaurants ever, so yeah, i want to go one of these days. i’m actually not that into fancy food, but once in a while, it’s a good luxury to have. i wonder if they have good whiskey.
speaking of whiskey, we went to grab pho (again, but i got a rice plate instead) for lunch today, and after the meal, i walked over to the convenience/liquor store next door and bought a $40 bottle of 12-year jameson reserve. i’m running low on whiskey at home, and when my dad comes in a few weeks, i want to have something to offer him to drink. i’ve only got a little bit of black bush and a few drops of sheep dip left in my kitchen.
i’m excited about my dad coming. the only thing is, he’ll want to smoke with me, and i can’t. ever since he started to smoke recreationally, we’ve had a lot of bonding moments over our cigarette breaks, but now that i’ve quit, i’ll have to be firm with him and tell him that i can’t do it anymore. maybe he can smoke, and i can have an altoid or something. i have a feeling that my dad smokes more than recreationally, because he told me that he’s tried to quit five times. but anyways, i resolve not to smoke with him. i just can’t do it.
well, _american idol_ starts tonight. two hours of karaoke tonight (girls), and two more hours of it tomorrow (boys). ugh. i am NOT looking forward to it. but i have to watch. i feel like this is such a big part of american pop culture that i have to keep with it. but honestly, i’d rather not if i had the choice. it just seems tedious to me. there are only two contestants that i like this year: didi the girl and andrew garcia. i’m slightly interested in john park the korean guy, but they haven’t shown much footage of him throughout the audition process, so i don’t know what to make of him. but he’s asian, so i support him. i just hope he’s not another paul kim, the barefoot korean dude a few seasons ago who sang “careless whisper” and got booted out in the first week.
of course, with AI comes a whole new round of memorization. yes, i memorize who gets eliminated every year. i can still recite the bottom 12 of seasons 6 and 7. (not season 8 because the format made it too difficult.) however, what’s funny is that while i can remember the bottom 12, i can’t remember the top 12. weird, huh? ah, me and my obsession with lists.
i finally heard from gina the other day. gina is a taiko friend from stanford. she completely disappeared from the face of the planet when she went to NYC for medical residency. i would call her, e-mail her, but no response. but this past saturday, she resurfaced, and she’s coming out for an interview at stanford next thursday! i am going to give her grief about ignoring me these past few years. but yes, i missed her. i will always remember her making me “her bitch” for one afternoon, where i had to carry her stuff and do her bidding that entire time. ha!
ok, i’m off soon for a haircut.
Tags: dreams, food, friends, smoking, tv
general mundane shit » No Comments
Posted on Mon, February 22 2010 at 6:05 pm
so today, i was in the office bathroom, taking a dump. when i finished, i wiped (twice, of course), got up, flushed, zipped up, and then stepped out of the stall. then, i realized that i needed to take a piss. however, someone was at the urinal (there are two). i didn’t want to use the other urinal because i thought the guy might think it was strange that i didn’t take a leak while i was sitting on the toilet. so in the end, i just left the bathroom, took the elevator to the first floor, and took a leak there. am i weird?
this does happen to me sometimes, i.e. taking a dump, not “feeling” a piss coming on, and then finishing the dump and realizing i need to do a #1 afterward. i guess i am just not that self-aware of my own body sometimes, which is REALLY strange, because sometimes i am hyper-aware of my body’s state. *shrug*
so i had yet another 8:30am conference call with the UK and israel today. this was my third one. getting up for it is painful. luckily, i can be at home for these, so i just get my cordless landline phone, keep it next to me in bed, and i call in while i’m still laying down, snuggling in my blankets. it turns out that the changes (clock dividers) i made last week aren’t needed, so that was all for naught. oh well. that actually frees up part of my work, because otherwise i would have had to edit two netlists, run formal verification on them, etc. yay for that.
this morning, i dreamt that i was eating huge bowl of apple jacks. apple jacks rule. they are way better than froot loops. before that, i also had a dream where i was sitting on a ledge naked, and i clearly remember playing with my foreskin, like peeling it back and staring at the ridge of the head and stuff. in the past week or so, my dreams have been less vivid, and my ability to remember them have diminished. perhaps i’m getting used to the nicotine patch? hm.
over the weekend, i watched an ex-coworker’s daughter on a tv show, _veronica’s blog_. it’s a pretty low-budget teenage sitcom that’s shot in the bay area, and it shows on saturdays on UPN. it just so happened that i got home from buying the sprinkles cupcakes, and i logged on facebook, and an update told me that it was on. i remember my ex-coworker saying that her daughter was going to be featured on an upcoming episode, so it turned it on. and what do you know, she was right there! she got to sing on the show (the episode was about a talent show), and she did a pretty good job. that’s pretty cool.
it must be hard trying to get into show business. i mean, how do you get discovered? we know of people who get big breaks, but for every actor or actress who gets discovered, there are hundreds, perhaps thousands, who fail. it must be so tough.
i need to do my taxes. hm. when can i do them? i need to find a few hours one of these weekends when i can come into the office and just rip them out. i’m getting thousands of dollars back this time because of my mortgage interest, so i’m excited.
tonight, i’m going over to jimmy and sabrina’s place to watch _the bachelor: the women tell all_. it should be super-trashy fun. apparently, this reality steve guy knows a lot of stuff about these shows. how does he get this information? how does the info get leaked to him? he knows about all the strings that the producers pull for the sake of ratings and stuff, etc. crazy, to have such inside knowledge. and sort of sad, too, to be so embroiled by something so junky as reality tv. but hey, the public loves it, so there’s a demand for this sort of stuff.
i saw a great youtube video the other day. it’s a polka (it think it’s polka) band doing katy perry’s “hot and cold.” i don’t have the link handy, but do a search for it. i think the band’s name is “los colorados.” it made me smile.
i get a lot more sleep than everyone else i know. i don’t think it’s a good thing. i mean, someday there might come a day when i’ll have kids, and the number of hours of sleep i’ll get will go down drastically. right now, i get about 10 hours of sleep a day. that’s a lot, right? i have a friend on the east coast who goes to bed the same real time as me, and she gets up way earlier than me. it boggles my mind. i really need to learn how to function normally on less sleep.
i got this google phrase hit today: “public tekoki competition.” huh? what is that? how do you “compete” in tekoki? whichever girl gets the guy to blow his wad first? that’s the only thing i can think of. but different guys have different sensitivities, so that wouldn’t be an unbiased contest, right? i don’t get it. i’d love to know more about this.
woah, it’s after 6pm. i need to call jay. ok, i’m going to end it here, folks. have a nice day.
Tags: bodily functions, dreams, dumpage, tv, work
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Posted on Mon, February 22 2010 at 3:58 pm
friday night, my cousin D was visiting SF from LA, and he took the 8:40 caltrain down to come to my place. before he got here at 9:50pm or so, i watched the celtics/trailblazers game. rajon rondo can’t really score, but he’s a pretty damn good point guard otherwise.
i picked up D from the MV caltrain stop, and then we went to the duke of edinburgh for dinner and drinks. D seemed unsure of what drink to get, so he just copied me and got a black bush on the rocks, even though he’s not a real whiskey drinker. i don’t think he liked it very much. he got a burger, and i got a BLT with extra mayo, just like the night before. this time, they gave me the mayo on the side, so i dunked my sandwich generously in the white stuff.
we chatted about D’s 2-month travels around the globe (thailand, nepal, jordan, europe) and stuff. D seems to be doing some soul-searching. then, i drove him back up to the city. on the drive down, i was getting really sleepy, so i blasted some music and cold air in my car.
i got a drunk text and drunk dial that night, so i talked to my friend for a while before going to bed.
saturday, i had brunch at hobee’s with barden. hobee’s was having olympics-themed special, so barden got the apolo ohno omelette. i got my usual: stanford cardinal omelette, with pork sausage instead of chicken. damn good.
then, i went into work for a bit, as i got a call from the project manager to send over some files to the israel guys. i was only there for about half an hour, thank goodness. then, i drove to stanford shopping center and picked up a dozen sprinkles cupcakes for the party at night.
i drove home, relaxed a bit, and then headed off to alviso for geoff’s big sendoff party. he’s headed to iraq to do a military tour of duty. yeah, it’s heavy stuff. i will do some agnostic praying for him while he’s gone. he says he’ll be gone for about five months, but i don’t know what obama’s plan is for the iraqi occupation, so we’ll see about that. i just hope that geoff will be ok and come back safe and sound.
the party was held at alvin and jen’s house in alviso. alviso is in the middle of nowhere, but damn, they have a nice, big house. it was over 2,500 sq ft, which is more than twice as big as my place. crazy, man. they own a bunny named “cadbury,” and it just roamed around the living room as the party went on. cute, but a little odd. i had a fun time hanging out with the bowling crowd. and this time, i made sure i said a proper goodbye and good luck to geoff when i left.
sunday, i had dim sum at dynasty with 7 other people, an outing that was organized by jen. and that was all the in-person social interaction i had that day. i went home and napped for two hours, and then watched olympics and basketball the rest of the day. i played some piano (man, that chopin piece is NOT coming back to me), chatted with eriko on the phone, talked to S, got another drunk dial, talked to jay, talked to alan (multiple times), etc. so at least i did some stuff.
anyways, this upcoming weekend will be BIG. i’m very excited for it, and i’m already getting a little preoccupied with it. details will be revealed later.
Tags: food, friends
weekend updates » No Comments
Posted on Fri, February 19 2010 at 6:02 pm
this morning, i had a really scary experience. i got to work, and i sat at my cubicle and immediately started to do some work after a few minutes. then, my brain just started to freak out. it sped up faster and faster, and suddenly, i felt like my head was in hyperspace. it’s hard to describe, but it felt like my brain was about to explode, like it was speeding up to a ludicrous speed. have you guys ever felt like that before? the last time i got one of these spells was a few years ago.
i don’t know what caused it, but if i had to venture a guess, maybe it’s because of work stress. i worked really hard yesterday debugging the audio testcase, and i noticed that i got this weird attack when i started writing my second test. i don’t quite remember what made it stop, though, but i do remember at after about 15-20 minutes, my brain just started slowing down, and eventually things went back to normal.
it was really scary. i was in a state of hyper-awareness; i could still type and function, but i felt like i was about to burst in a million little pieces. ugh. i *almost* went out for a cigarette just to calm myself down. i don’t know if i would have worked, though.
anyways…
work-wise, i made good progress today. i wrote the remaining three tests from the test plan that i drafted. i realized, however, that i probably have to write one or two more tests to fully exercise all the hardware. oh well.
i’m trying to finish all the work i have left early so there are no reason that my bosses can use to keep me from going to taiwan in mid-march. it’s coming up soon, and i don’t want my dad to have to reschedule my flights and pay penalties. plus, as it stands right now, we’re flying back together, and i really would like to do that.
i’m chewing gum right now. i was curious to see how that could affect my nicotine craving, you know, keeping my mouth busy and all that. so far, it’s pretty good. i added a second piece of gum so i can blow bubbles. i still know how to do it! haha. is there a difference between chewing gum and bubble gum? like, in the formulation or anything?
my cousin david is in SF right now. we’re planning on meeting up tonight. i told him to take the caltrain down, and that i would take him to the duke of edinburgh for drinks. funny, i just went there last night with tim for dinner and drinks. i wanted to celebrate my triumph at work with whiskey and a BLT with extra mayo. that was one fucking delicious BLT. mayo makes all the difference.
ok, my jaw is starting to get tired and sore from all this gum chewing. but i can’t stop! it something’s in my mouth, i have to chew it. arrgh. should i spit it out? i love blowing bubbles!
we had our free company lunch today. to celebrate lunar new year, we had chinese food, made by the regular catering people that serve the daily lunches/dinners. it was horrible. the only decent dish was the hot and sour soup. the worst things by far were the eggrolls, which resembled oily flaccid penises. ick. my favorite part of company lunch day is the fact that they stock the fridges with free drinks, and that means… free dr pepper! i’ve had three today. i might get one more after i write this. yes, i know, too much soda. but it’s only once a month that i do this.
so today is day 14. tomorrow morning, i’ll be done with one box of nicotine patches. then, i’ll start another 2-week regimen of 21mg patches, and then it’ll be one box of 14mg, and then finally one box of 7mg. six more weeks to go before i’m completely nicotine-free. i’m really curious how it’ll go when i step down from 21mg to 14mg. will i/my body notice it? will i get physiological nicotine withdrawal symptoms? we shall see.
we were talking about my quitting smoking during lunch today, and i showed one of my coworkers my patch. i did so by pulling down the neckhole of my t-shirt and exposing my left upper chest. the manager, P, was like, “oh, i thought you were going to show her your breast implant.” *sarcastic laugh* i guess it’s sort of suggestive when i show someone my chest, huh? at least i’m not exposing nipple or anything.
CIGNA, my company’s PPO health insurance provider, gave everyone in the company (even those not enrolled with CIGNA) two rubber squeezy balls. they’re blue. haha, two blue balls. i guess they’re for stress relief? have times really gotten so hectic and stressful that people need to be handing out these things? i wonder what that says about the perceived atmosphere in the workplace.
i don’t like the new e*trade baby. the old one was cuter. but i guess he probably grew too old, and the advertising agency had to replace him with the new baby. shucks. the new one’s pretty ugly-looking. that’s the problem with using a real person as an anchor for a commercial; when that person dies or gets old or something, you’ve got a problem. companies like geico, jack in the box and wendy’s were smart by using characters that don’t depend on actual humans.
ok, 6pm. i’m off to find some more dr pepper. and then i’m off. have a STUPENDOUS weekend, darling pups!
Tags: food, health, smoking, tv, wonderment, work
general mundane shit » No Comments
Posted on Thu, February 18 2010 at 7:03 pm
so i found a weird issue in my test today, one which could explain why it’s failing.
so suppose you have a clock that’s sampling another signal. and in your simulation, at the clock’s edge, the other signal changes at the exact same time. which value do you get then? ah, that’s the million dollar question, and that’s the problem i ran into today. it was getting the latter value, and it screwed up the serial-to-parallel converter in the audio CODEC that i was simulating. eureka!
i’m tired. last night, i fell asleep in front of my tv until about 1am. i watched AI, and then the olympics. shaun white is cool. i didn’t feel offended when his coach started cursing, but i think NBC’s west coast feed muffled out what he was saying. double mctwist 1260! then, i watched the news, which was interesting because there was that plane crash in palo alto that knocked power out in that entire city for 10 hours. then, i watched more olympics, and passed out. i was all groggy and stuff, so i skipped taking a shower and just went to bed.
this morning, i woke up at 8:25am and got on a conference call while i was still in bed. it lasted for about 35 minutes. then, i went back asleep, and the next thing i new, it was almost 11am. so i jammed and hurried into the office.
i quickly fired off a simulation to reproduce some debussy waveforms, FTP’ed the results, and then went to my coworker’s farewell lunch. upon my suggestion, we went to fu lam mum. their dim sum is quite good! i was surprised. the best thing by far was their leek dumplings. they were HOT (temperature-wise, the hottest i’ve ever had them ever), flavorful, and juicy. total yums. i would go there again for dim sum. of course, i had massive food coma afterward.
then, i was asked to debug the audio test, which i wasn’t planning on doing, so i did it begrudgingly. the code that i was supposed to debug was like a massive 4MB jumbled mess of a file, so i was like, “what? i don’t want to do that!” however, i’m glad i did, because i found a serious problem (that race condition thing). i discussed it with the project manager at length, and i modified the code, and i’m running it now.
i just took a look at the test. it seems to be working! WOO-HOO!
well, that’s a load off of my chest.
this has been a long week. it *feels* long. i know we had a holiday on monday, but today feels like a friday already. i guess i’ve been embroiled in this audio testing so much that i’m completely spent. and getting up early for these conference calls and going into work on monday didn’t help, either. *sigh* i’m ready to have a whiskey or two this weekend. my cousin D might come down tomorrow for drinks, so i’m excited about that.
i keep burping up my dim sum. i can’t tell which food exactly that is giving me gas. usually, it’s the leeks, but these burps don’t taste like leeks. could it be the turnip cake? i did eat a lot of those. hm. my turkish coworker C took one bite of the turnip cakes and put the rest on his plate. i guess those aren’t for everyone. turnip cakes are my favorite dim sum dish; my earliest memory of going to dim sum in boston was eating those. i remember gagging on the “long noodles” as a kid, but now i actually enjoy them, especially the bbq pork ones.
did i tell you it was my brother’s birthday two days ago? it’s the year of the tiger, so he turned two cycles old, or 24. (his chinese nickname is “little tiger.”) i sent him a $100 amazon.com gift card, and he said that his wife got him a lebron james basketball jersey. i also called him after he was done with his church meeting. his throat clearing tic is getting pretty bad, and i’m getting concerned for him.
it’s the time of cycle birthdays. both my parents are oxes, and they celebrated their 5th cycles (60 years) last year. this year is my brother’s 2nd cycle, and next year (year of the rabbit) is my 3rd cycle (36 years). ah, the chinese zodiac.
i want a whiskey NOW. i’m IM’ing tim, and we might meet up tonight for dinner. my vote is for the duke of edinburgh so i get a black bush on the rocks. and, of course, a BLT with extra mayo.
what is the buzz on martin scorsese’s latest film, _shutter island_? the reviews on rottentomatoes.com are lukewarm, hovering around 60%. jim asked me today if i wanted to see a sneak preview tonight, but i was very iffy on that. first, it seemed scary, and second, i’m not a big fan of leonardo dicaprio. maybe i’ll talk to jim tomorrow and see what he thought of it before making a decision.
i’m excited. after weeks of effort, my test is finally passing. i feel like having a celebratory cigarette. not because i crave cigarettes, but because smoking is a way to celebrate. ugh. well, i just popped an altoid. that’ll have to do. btw, today is day 13.
my doctor hasn’t called me about my high alkaline phosphatase level test results yet. i wonder if she’s stumped on it or something, like she can’t figure out why it’s sky high. i got more blood test results back yesterday, and they all came back negative. should i be worried?
ok, sorry to be to scatterbrained on this entry. my thoughts are somewhere else today. it’s been quite a day of debugging and sleuthing.
Tags: food, health, movies, sports, tv, work
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Posted on Wed, February 17 2010 at 7:13 pm
since vegetarian coworker R is in india, i’m taking the opportunity to eat lunch at places where we couldn’t go before, i.e. places with no veggie options. so today, i suggested that the four of us go to adamsons french dip in sunnyvale. the only non-meat options that adamsons has are french fries, onion rings, and a root beer float.
adamsons is pretty good. their meat is great, and my only gripe is that their bread isn’t nearly thick enough to soak up all the au jus. but that’s probably just as good, though, because ingesting even more au jus would probably send my daily sodium intake through the roof; i already use up all of the stuff that they give me with one sandwich.
aside from IM’ing with S for a while after lunch, i worked quite a bit today. i modified my test to incorporate the changes to the audio clocking that i made yesterday, and i ran the test before lunch. it didn’t work, so i had the architect come over and review the register settings, and i reran the test. it still didn’t work, so i am a bit frustrated. i’ll have to consult the israel branch for help, but i don’t know if they’ll be responsive. i don’t think i have any other options.
i still haven’t asked the management about my trip to taiwan in mid-march. the trip is just under 4 weeks away, and i don’t know if i’ll be finished with my work on this current project. my dad has already bought the tickets, and the current plan is to fly back with him after his visit to the US. i’m not looking forward to the long flights across the pacific. what’s worse is that i’ll have to fly through narita (japan) in both directions.
american idol is very boring. but, i do like didi, the girl who is inspired by the death of her friend. her friend was actually really cute. that’s a shame. tonight, they will reveal the next 17 of the top 24. i’ll try to see who i will root for. last year, i was an adam lambert fan from his very first audition.
downtown palo alto lost widespread power this morning. the reason, which i found out on facebook, was because of a small plane crash which claimed three lives. how sad. i wonder what happened, and why the plane went down. it scares me that human life is so easily lost. and yet the whole world just moves on.
today is day 12. it’s getting easier. i think. one thing that i’ve noticed at work is that i no longer watch the clock. before, when i used to smoke, i used to wait impatiently for the clock to strike every hour so i could go out and have my hourly cigarette break. now, i don’t clockwatch any more. i mean, every once in a while, i’ll feel like i need to stretch or go out and breathe some fresh air, but i don’t itch for it.
today, i only went outside twice, and i’ve only had like 4-5 altoids. so yes, i do think it’s getting better.
i think my body is adjusting to the nicotine levels of my patch. the reason why i think so is because i’m not having crazy dreams anymore. also, i can’t remember my dreams either. i mean, i do remember dreaming, but the moment i wake up, the memories of them instantly fade into nothingness, like a long lost memory that i just can’t dig up.
at adamsons, my coworker H told us about a really disturbing dream he had last night. he was chained to a bed, and he had a bomb strapped to him. and in his bathroom, a bomb diffuser guy was there, but he was strapped down, too, so he couldn’t help my coworker. so basically the bomb specialist had to tell him how to disarm the bomb by giving him instructions from afar. how stressful is that?
i’ve been shot by a gun in a dream before. when the bullet hit me, it didn’t hurt; it just felt all tingly and jangly, like it twanged a nerve. and then i woke up. i don’t remember having violent, macabre dreams. and very few nightmares, at all, unless i’m having a nervous breakdown about work or something. last year, i did have that one night where i obsessed about work the entire night, whether i was awake or asleep. that was horrible. but otherwise, i usually sleep and dream pretty well.
i just saw that eric tweeted about a _sports science_ video about “the world record kick to the groin.” basically, they had this american gladiator/MMA athlete kick this season veteran (meaning he’s been kicked in the balls many times) in the nuts. upon getting a massive 1,100 pounds-of-force foot in the crotch, the dude didn’t even flinch. wtf? crazy! they said that he’s been kicked so many times that his testicles and pelvic bone have hardened. and, it’s such an old habit that his brain only releases 10% of the pain chemicals that say “ouch!” that a normal person would feel. his heart rate didn’t even change after the kick! all i have to say is wow. i wonder how difficult the journey to get there was, though, like how he started out and how many times he crumpled to the ground in a fetal position after a kick and bawled like a baby.
i have pretty sensitive nuts. you know, in some sex scenes, where the women fiddle with the guy’s scrotum and its contents while they’re giving a blowjob? well, i don’t think i would enjoy that. it would detract from the pleasure i would be deriving from the blowjob itself. yes, best to stay away from my gonads AT ALL TIMES. you’ve been warned.
ok, on that note, i’m headed out.
Tags: dreams, food, sex, smoking, tv, work
general mundane shit » No Comments
Posted on Tue, February 16 2010 at 6:43 pm
so at work, last week, i reported a problem in the audio clocking. yesterday, at 8:30am, i had a conference call with a bunch of people that lasted an hour and a half that involved talking about how to fix it. it ended with us assigning the task to our israel branch to fix the problem.
this morning, we had another meeting here to discuss whether we should go ahead and implement another similar change on our side just in case the israel branch is delayed. a redundant fix, if you will. in the end, the management decided to do it. and guess who got to be the lucky soul to get assigned the wonderful task of doing this go-ahead fix? ha! MOI.
*sigh*
these days, i don’t really get excited when i get a task. since i’m a seasoned engineer, i don’t see them as neat challenges. i have enough experience that all i see is how much work it’s going to take. this task isn’t that hard, but it’s just tedious. so i went to play basketball, and i was a bit bummed out, so i just played one game and left. nevermind the fact that we had 5-on-5 for the first time in months, and i should have been stoked about that.
i came back and started working on it. the actual coding part was fun as always, but then, i discovered all these little nuances that became annoying. like resynchronizing resets, clock glitching issues, mapping state machines to gates using synthesis instead of doing it by hand, etc.
ok, i’m done bitching. i should be glad that i have work to do. and that i have a job. this isn’t so bad, right?
anyways, it’s finally public (to me at least) that my next door neighbor (cubicle-wise) is leaving the company this friday. i’m sad. he is a good guy, and i will miss him. i wonder why he’s leaving. i can’t really talk to him about it in public. my company is really hush-hush about these things, and i don’t like it. i mean, if a person is going somewhere else, why can’t he talk about it? it’s not like it’s a big deal or anything. the morale can’t really get any worse, right?
after my blood test yesterday, the nurse strapped on some gauze to the inside of my forearm, right on the inside of my elbow. she told me to keep it there for 10-20 minutes. well, i kept it on all day. when i finally ripped it off, the tape was so strong that it left blood welts on my skin. it looks disgusting. when adam saw it last night at dinner (i took it off when i when to the bathroom at athena grill), he was like, “eww.” yeah, it looks gross.
i don’t know if it’s because of the nicotine patches and the great, intense dreams, but i feel like i’ve been getting more restful sleep lately. i tend to want to get up earlier in the mornings these days. however, since i don’t have that much stuff to do, and i don’t want to go to work earlier, i’ve been forcing myself to stay in bed despite the fact that my body has gotten enough rest. but yeah, what gives? are the patches giving me more restorative REM cycles?
yesterday, i was watching the olympics, and they showed the gold medal ceremony of that canadian dude who won the men’s moguls. it was the first time a canadian had won gold on home soil. it was funny, because before they played the canadian national anthem, bob costas characterized the tune as “melodious” or “enjoyable” or something like that. i mean, that was kind of biased, wasn’t it? i mean, if the song sucked or was cacophonous, would he have said so? hehe.
i was watching a bit of TBS or TNT the other night, and i noticed that they had syndicated _entourage_. i had never seen this show, so i started watching. i couldn’t get into it, though. perhaps i need to start watching from the beginning. anyways, the only interesting thing i noticed is that they didn’t censor the word “shit.” can they do that? i mean, if “shit” isn’t off-limits, why don’t more shows use it? it’s such a commonplace word nowadays.
i think tv censors are really inconsistent. like, espn’s sportscenter censors everything, even the benign “ass.” however, one time, mtv had this show where troubled kids were shipped off to face real prison inmates, and the inmates were like, “motherfucker” this and “motherfucker” that. there’s a wide range of language on various channels that’s allowed. i don’t understand when certain channels censor some words and when other channels allow others. is there no uniform standard?
today is day 11 of no smoking. i’m in double digits now. i think i’m getting there. my altoid consumption is diminishing, but i still need them when i get the craving for a smoke. the key time is when i drive. i used to always want a cigarette when i got behind the wheel. but since i was working hard this afternoon, i got through my work day much more easily. i only went outside twice the entire workday.
i am, however, worried about how my metabolism will drop when i get off the patch. i’ve heard from multiple sources that i will gain weight when i do. i’ve been trying to limit my food intake these past few days, and my weight’s been stabilizing around 180 or 181. we’ll see what happens in the next two months when i lower the nicotine levels in my patches.
i’m a little worried about my liver problem. i got the lab results from yesterday’s blood test back this morning, and they were normal. so what’s wrong with my alkaline phosphatase levels? i hope my doctor can figure it out. but i really, really hope i don’t have to give *another* blood sample.
happy 24th birthday (he’s a tiger, 2 cycles, that’s big!) to my little brother!
ok. i’m out.
Tags: health, smoking, wonderment, work
general mundane shit » No Comments
Posted on Tue, February 16 2010 at 12:01 pm
friday night, i had dinner with nelson and mikeC at the prolific oven. the last time i went there, i got the tuna sandwich, and i lusted after nelson’s chipotle chicken pasta, so this time, i didn’t make the same mistake. the pasta was good.
then, i went home and watched the olympics opening ceremony. it was definitely not as spectacular as that of the beijing olympics, but i didn’t expected it to be so. i fast forwarded through the athletes’ entrance, but i did pause to see when taiwan would enter, under “chinese taipei.” it was curious that north and south korea didn’t come in as one country. then, i fell asleep, so i didn’t see the last 50 minutes or so. i’ll watch it later.
saturday, i woke up at 8am to call alan and ting to wish them a safe flight to hawaii, but they didn’t pick up. so i was already awake, so i called up S on the east coast and talked to her for 30 minutes or so. then, i just got up. i was terribly bored, as i was not used to being up so early in the morning.
i got a 6″ subway sandwich (trying to cut down on calories), and then tim called me, so i met up with him at za zang and ordered four potstickers. then, we went to costco to buy toilet paper and target, where i bought socks and my second set of nicotine patches for cheaper than safeway. on the way out of target, i spied an orange julius, so i got one (i hadn’t had one in YEARS).
then, we went to tim’s dad’s house, and we went to elephant bar to celebrate chinese new year’s eve. all three of us got the lamb shank. it was damn good, but i’m ready to try some new dishes there.
then, we went to see _valentine’s day_. i wasn’t expecting a good movie, since it got 16% on rottentomatoes.com. but i thought it was pleasant. it was generic and cliched, but it wrapped up nicely, and i enjoyed how bradley cooper and julia roberts’s roles were revealed in the end.
sunday, i met up with tim and his dad again, and his dad took us out for chinese new year dim sum at dynasty.
while walking through macy’s to my car, i spied this white ecko track jacket with green stripes. i just had to have it. unfortunately, the size large was a return, and it had some black smudges on it. so what to do? well, i found one on a mannequin, and it was size large, so i ripped it off of the dummy and bought it. and it was 30% off! yay! my fifth green purchase.
i went home and took a nap to the olympics. S woke me up, and we chatted for a good 40 minutes or so. for dinner, i figured that most of my friends (who are in couples) were occupied for v-day, so i called up barden, and we went to gombei and had a fantastic meal. i got the 3-combo: sashimi, fried seafood, and stuffed tofu. then, i went home and watched the olympics.
monday, i had to get up at 8:30 for a conference call with the company branches in the UK and israel. it lasted for almost an hour and a half, and it was very painful at times, when the people were arguing with each other and stuff.
after that was over, i went over to PAMF and got my blood drawn for the second time. my first blood test showed that i had an elevated alkaline phosphatase level, so the doctor wanted to do some more tests. luckily, the place was deserted, so i got my blood drawn right away.
then, i went into work (i was asked to test out some new code), but the power was out, so i went home and then met up with paul and his ex-coworker hasan at in ‘n out for lunch. hasan is a heavy smoker, so i talked to him about how i quit and stuff. then, i checked out paul’s new piaggio motorcycle/scooter. it’s cool. but not cool that he’s riding. it’s so dangerous!
then, i went into work again, and i got my shit done, and i went home and took a nap. i putzed around for a bit, and drove to athena grill to meet up with adam, rae and tim for dinner at 6. i ate way too much, and we chatted for two hours. i didn’t talk much, as most of the conversation revolved around adam and tim talking about photography.
i went home and watched _the bachelor_. ARGH, ali! poor girl. i hope she becomes the new bachelorette. i’d watch that. then, i watched pairs figure skating on the olympics, and william arrived late to crash at my place.
and that was it. it was a good weekend. i’m a little worried about my alkaline phosphatase level, though. what’s wrong with my body?
Tags: clothes, food, friends, health, movies, sports, tv
weekend updates » No Comments
Posted on Fri, February 12 2010 at 6:05 pm
well, it’s friday, and i am looking forward to getting out of here. i am torn between enjoying a nice dinner with my friends and watching the opening ceremonies of the olympics. i mean, it’s the *olympics*! gotta watch that, right? it seems like the beijing ones were just a few months ago; the opening for those were awesome. i feel like if i watch the vancouver ones, i’ll be let down, because there’s no way in hell they can match the chinese version in scope and scale. but still, i want to see. i *heart* the olympics.
i did hear about the georgian (not the american state, but the soviet republic) luger who died while on a practice run. *frowns* that’s so sad. apparently, he crashed and flew over a wall into an unpadded steel post. *horror* what a way to begin the olympics. i feel really bad for his family and his country and everyone involved.
so this morning, i got up early for an 8:30am teleconference with my coworkers and a guy from our UK branch. i called in, and then the project manager said that the UK guy wasn’t going to be there, so we cancelled the meeting. WTF?
what’s worse, we rescheduled the meeting for 8:30am… MONDAY MORNING. WHAT? that’s a holiday! you’re telling me i won’t be able to sleep in? fuck. ridiculous. i am pretty sore about that. oh well. (what’s worse is that one of the participants will be in hawaii, so he’ll have to get up at FIVE AM.) maybe i’ll just finish that meeting and watch the olympics all morning long.
i can’t remember my dreams from last night. i know i had some good ones, and i had one to report from this morning, but now i can’t remember it. oh well.
during a long meeting this afternoon, my primary care physician called me. apparently, there are some abnormalities with my liver. (remember that “alkaline something” test being sky high?) so i have to go in for some more blood tests when i get a chance. uh oh. i hope nothing’s wrong with me. i might have to get a liver ultrasound, too. *shiver*
_valentine’s day_ got a 16% on rottentomatoes.com. ouch. i was hoping it was at least decent. now i don’t know if i want to watch it. why can’t they make good relationship movies like _love, actually_? *RAAR*
last night, i noticed that the letter “MNIK” were trending on twitter. i clicked on it. apparently, they stand for a bollywood movie called “my name is khan.” it’s a little controversial because the lead actor is a muslim, but he is the most popular actor in india, the “king of bollywood,” if you will. i asked two of my indian coworkers about it today, and the funny thing is that neither of them wanted to see it, but they said they would because their wives wanted to see it. clearly, this actor dude has a lot of way with the ladies. sort of like a harrison ford or something. (i don’t know if that comparison is accurate, btw.)
one of my friends just called me. she’s engaged! CONGRATS! i love it when i hear good news.
i’m listening to 808 state right now, the _ex:el_ album. (i have moved beyond the A-Z letters and ventured into the numbered artists.) i got into 808 state in late high school/early college. i saw them in concert with meat beat manifesto. what a combination. the first thing 808 state wheeled onstage was a macintosh computer. it was awesome. i still have that concert t-shirt somewhere; that t-shirt is almost *20* years old!
i sort of just want domino’s pizza and olympics tonight. maybe i’ll call up tim about that.
speaking of vancouver, it got voted as the “most desirable city to live in” according to some article i read last night. no US city was in the top 10. i think some city in australia was #2, but i’m not sure.
after today, i’ll have gone a week of not smoking. one week! so far, so good. the first 4 days presented at least one tough challenge, but these past 3 days were not so bad. i mean, even today, there were times when i wanted a cigarette, but they wasn’t overwhelming or anything. i was just bored, and when i am bored, i naturally get fidgety, and smoking is usually the first thing that comes to mind as something to do. i mean, it’s hard to correct a long-term habit in just a week, right? we’ll see how i am when i get to the two-week mark.
i think one of the things that helps me is the fact that i have told *so* many people about quitting that if i slipped up, i would feel like i was letting them down. and that pressure keeps me from falling off the wagon. it’s like reverse peer pressure, pressure to *not* smoke, you know?
i had pho today. i rarely crave it, but when i do have it, it’s so good. why is it good? because i put in a shitload of sriracha, and it gets super-spicy. i mean, the soup becomes RED. i was duped, though, today. the two sizes were something like “premium” and “super-large,” and i was scared off by the latter, so i just got “premium.” but what i found out was that it just meant medium. so i didn’t get enough food, and i later had to order an eggroll to feel satisfied. i got major food coma afterward. i hope the spice doesn’t give me crackly shits tonight.
can you believe that premium seats to cirque du soleil are $250? that’s super-expensive. i felt bad for J, my buddy the facilities guy, because he wanted to take his wife out for valentine’s, but he showed me the price, and he couldn’t afford the $500 for two tickets. i mean, i can afford it, but i’m not sure i would want to pay half a grand for that anyway.
ok, 6:04. time to get outta here. happy olympics, happy new year, happy valentine’s, and happy president’s day!
Tags: food, health, movies, music, smoking, sports, work
general mundane shit » 1 Comment
