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SubscriptionsSites I Read
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| As my girlfriend has noticed, I've been steadily adding facebook friends over the past few weeks. Most of these are people I've recently met, but some are people I've known for years. With the latter group, there's always a moments hesitation when clicking the request button. Will they think I'm strange for adding them after having not spoken for years? Were were we friends before and they removed me and I just forgot? Did I already add this person in the past and they ignored me? I really don't know. And really there's no 'friend pending' list, so if they do ignore you, then they just kind of slip out of consciousness until the next time you chance upon their profile, only to repeat the dilemma. | | |
| I just witnessed the insanity of the iPhone first hand yesterday. Some people from my class wanted to exchange phone numbers. The late adopters among us did things the old fashioned way: What's your phone number? 555-5555. Cool, what's yours? 777-7777. Sweet. *save*
But the iPhone kids were too cool for that. What? Talk? You've got to be kidding me. Enter bump, an iPhone app that lets you exchange information by bumping your phones together. That in itself is actually a pretty cool idea. But the fact is, they spent like 3 minutes just trying to get the damn thing to work! Not only that, but according to the bump website what happens is that your information (from two people who are standing right next to each other) is sent halfway around the world to bump servers, where a complex algorithm matches you to your partner based on location, time, and various other factors, and then it's sent back over the internet to your exact location.
Kind of makes you wonder what the world would be like if other exchanges worked like bump. | | |
| Review of this week
Honestly life's been really crazy these days. Everything's a blur. I'm always in motion. I'm so busy I don't have time to think. I think back on last year and wonder how I had the luxury and time to sit on the benches on campus and just relax and read. I spent time wandering around, looking for good place to hang out. Ironic now that I'm so close I don't have time to do such things.
Last week L came by and that threw everything off balance. I nudged work around that fact. She didn't leave until Monday, which really left me with only half a week to complete my assignments.
I've been completely busy with projects in all my classes. It's really too hectic. I have projects due in all 3 classes 2 weeks from now within a day of one another. All of them were only assigned recently. All of them are non-trivial probably 20-30 hours each.
Aside from that I've been scrambling to find time to apply for jobs and attend info sessions. I've been fed by a different company every night this week. User experience jobs are not easy to come by. Google analytics told me yesterday that over half the visitors to my portfolio run Safari. I didn't test in Safari. In fact, my website still has some bugs. Couple this with the fact that I wasn't really happy with the look of it in the first place and I get this sinking feeling that things may not turn out well.
My project is due in 2 hours. It only passes some of the tests some of the time. I don't know what's wrong. At this point I don't think I care. The class is P/NP and I think it should be enough to pass. But the worrying thing is that my other projects are getting similar attitudes. I know I can do more and better on them. But there's too much to do and I don't have the time. The mind gets tired.
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| Since I traditionally have trouble getting work done in my room, libraries are big for me. At Berkeley I had my favorites. At Stanford, I'm struggling to find replacements.
I'll give an overview of the ones that I've gone to.
Berkeley
Commonly Visited
- Music
- Perhaps my favorite library at Berkeley. New spacious, quiet. Large clean desks. Shiny lamps. First floor has a quiet room with nice carpet. Lower level has huge windows.
- Doe - North Reading Room
- My second favorite. Huge open room (think Harry Potter). Really big desks. Huge windows. Basically what I think of when I think of college library working area. And in the afternoon the sun comes in at a really nice angle for some extra warmth.
- Doe - East Reading Room
- Similar to the north reading room, but with less windows.
- Architecture
- Excellent place to work. They have great small desks set up along a wall that is floor to ceiling windows. The chairs are new and rolly. The only drawback is that there aren't any plugs for your laptop.
- VLSB
- A staple for any student. Greeted with a T-Rex skeleton as you enter. There are many study areas here that have tables ranging from medium to large. The 2nd floor also has private rooms that you can grab for extra quiet/hidden.
- East Asian Library
- Brand new. Large. Excellent. Again huge windows nearby.
- Engineering
- Mezzanine level is fun and it's very close to class. Go down to the normal level to be hidden away from all distractions (it's deathly quiet in a corner).
Other
- Chemistry
- Pretty large, although the furniture is old and it smells a bit old.
- Doe - Morrison
- Really great for naps. In fact, that's all it's used for. But, there is a second mezzanine level that is pretty fun as well. You have to check out a CD go there.
- Moffitt - Above Ground
- Old. Tiny desks. No corners to hide in. Almost always has lots of undergrads.
- Moffitt - Main Stacks
- Huge and many cornerse to hide in. Great for finals. Could get lost for days in there. But being underground is really pretty depressing.
- Bancroft Library
- Really fun if you can check it out. Houses all kinds of old and exotic documents.
- Math
- Small library, but can be useful for a place to hang out if you are around.
- Education-Psychology
- Pretty deserted usually, so it's a good place if you are around. Although very few outlets for your laptop.
- Earth Sciences
- Small library. But this one is pretty decent for studying if you get a good corner.
Stanford
Commonly Visited
- Law
- I like the law library because it's new and spacious. Probably reminds me most of the Music library, although lacking in charm. Lots of law kids there, who tend to chat a lot.
- Green - East Wing
- East Wing has good study areas downstairs and upstairs. The trick is finding a spot that doesn't have too many people.
- Green - Bing Wing
- The Bing Wing has a great reading room, although not as big as the North Reading room. It's prettymuch the same idea though.
Other
- Biology
- The biology library was really old and only had a few people in there. It was pretty quiet. Maybe too much so.
- Chemistry
- This library was really small and not really so great.
- Engineering
- By far the worst. Really small for engineering and old, and crowded. I think it's also in the math building or something ridiculous like that.
- Business
- Pretty new, lots of computers, but not many spots for actually studying. No real tables to hang out at.
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| It's late. It's like 1am right now and I'm not really sleepy at all.
I had a double shot iced latte just before dinner. I wonder if that had something to do with it. I have a nagging suspicion that I am addicted to caffeine. Without it I'm constantly tired and lethargic. And I get headaches that last the entire day. I've been holding off for a few days, and I've never felt as awake as I did this afternoon after that coffee.
I've also been working on my website constantly. It's not great. The design is pretty simple, but with only a few weeks of summer left, I have to pump out something. So I've been pretty furiously working on it. And it's addicting too. I don't think about it when I'm not doing it, but I just work on it so much that it takes up the whole day. Missing sleep and meals and other necessary breaks. It's just so much easier to get carried away if no one's making you do it.
I've also been reading Michael Crichton's State of Fear a lot. It started out pretty slow and boring, but now it's picked up. It's not as good as his other stuff, I would say. We'll have to see. I'm 3/4 done at this point. | | |
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