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"From an email we (hopefully) sent to all those who already responded:
Survey says...
Party in Mountain View!
The party will be held at Tortuga, Mountain View, CA. Saturday 6/27, 7pm till whenever you're done with good booze and better company.
Bring some tequila, appetizers, and, most importantly, a discerning palate.
See you soon!
-- Chris (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) inferno0069) and Avani
In case anyone wants to come who didn't really want to commit when there wasn't a date, now's your chance!
Most of you know where Tortuga is and how to contact one of us, but if not please comment here. There's also a wiki page with tequilas (and potentially other stuff) that people will bring; I can IM or email you the address but I can't publicly post it here.
Previous posts are here and here. "Current Music: Pacific Avenue in all its glory |
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I find this article very insightful. He makes the case that as a culture we expect children to learn by doing in sports (which we understand), and yet are terrified of the smaller risks involved in hands-on science education (since we don't understand why chemicals go "Boom!", or even what that means).:
[...]
But no one who has heard an oxy-hydrogen soap bubble explode in a lecture hall can ever doubt the value of stoichiometric calculations. Do you believe that the Apollo moon rocket ran on diesel fuel, just like a truck? I can show you an experiment that will make you believe it could as easily have run on bacon.
Teachers should be able to do this kind of science, and many would love to, but cannot because of the fear of what would happen if there were ever an accident. A student suffering even a relatively minor injury from a dangerous chemical would be front page news anywhere in the U.S., even if the same student spending a week in the hospital due to a sports injury would go completely unnoticed (unless perhaps he's the star quarterback).
The science teacher would likely lose their job, while the coach would be offered condolences on the loss of their star player.
http://www.powells.com/blog/?p=6721
Current Music: Green Day -=- Holiday |
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Apparently I only post these days when I have a lot of work to do. There are so many awesome adventures that I need to write up and haven't yet. We've tasted so many wines, gone hiking in beautiful places, gone on a long drive chasing the sunset and ended up on an elk preserve where the water looked frozen in place, watched some great (and some terrible) movies, seen Opeth, hung out with lots of very awesome people, and generally been having a great time. I also got in to my first systems conference as first author (MASCOTS), so I'm going to London for a week in September, which I'm pretty stoked about. In the process, I acquired an Erdös number of 3.
Those are all the times I don't think to post, though. Too much happening, making the rare moments I'm alone too precious to spend at a computer. Right now, I'm in finals crunch and feeling lonely, so I post to LJ :P I'm taking a break to go visit mtbg Saturday, but otherwise I'm stuck at my apartment until next Thursday when this is all turned in and I get my 3 whole days of summer vacation (that I need to spend doing the camera ready copy of my conference paper and taking my *1 week, 3 question* security final. The first question is "a) Outline the steps to create a web site that is completely untraceable to you by an omnipotent, suspicious adversary, b) Collect money off this site while maintaining anonymity, and Extra Credit: Frame someone else convincingly for your site.") before starting at Google on Monday, where I'm there for a week before heading to San Diego for another conference (USENIX).
So, there's an update for all ya'll. I'm going to go back to making pretty pictures to toss onto this poster.
Current Mood:  thoughtful |
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Chris and I are throwing a tequila-tasting party sometime in the next
few months and we're trying to gauge interest and pick a date.
The idea is to try some quality tequilas and share our
findings without anyone having to buy all the bottles themselves. We'll buy a few bottles off this funwiki list. If you find anything on there interesting (or have a favorite tequila outside that), please bring some to share! We'll also try to have some thematically appropriate appetizers on hand and are looking for more ideas there.
Party will likely be in El Cerrito and there is some crash space
available for South Bay folks.
Poll #1400089
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: AllAre you interested in this bold venture?
For more information, see:
http://inferno0069.livejournal.com/85769.html
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Yesterday's Supreme Court decision supporting the FCC ban on ``fleeting expletives'' seems unreal to me. I have trouble believing that 5 mature, blindingly intelligent adults really believe there exist magic words that zap away little pieces of children's brains and fill them with butter (it's surprisingly hard to think of something to put into kids brains that isn't delicious). Their argument is essentially "kids mimic what they hear, and so they'll be harmed by hearing bad words and saying them to each other". I will admit that every coarse English word I know I learned on the school bus, but I'll also point out that kids are just as excited to call each other 'boogers' as 'shitheads'. The sentiment doesn't go away if you change the words they say to words you were brainwashed into thinking are less dirty[*]. If you don't want your kid to be comparing items to excrement, you tell them what it means, and you discipline them if they continue using it. This protects children so much more than blanket regulations. For example, I'd much prefer my future children swear like sailors but never hear them say ``that's gay'' or even ``meh'' or ``I dunno''.
It's like a hard to believe science fiction society where you're allowed to talk about anything except exploding hippopotami, because the king's mother finds them gross and would rather everyone just talk about beheadings like good little children.
This is degenerating quickly. I may expand this into a real essay when I have time.
Current Music: Chopin: Prelude #10 in C Sharp Minor, Op. 28 |
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My favorite thing in the world today is this command:
defaults write -g NSNavPanelExpandedStateForSaveMode -bool TRUE
This simple little command turns this:
into this:
After learning this, I finally stopped swearing at the gods of bad design decisions and proceeded to happily download papers and save them to where I wanted in a single step, just as nature intended.
While I'm at it, here some of my other favorite OS X modifications. Most of them are just little settings tweaks:
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
# Show hidden files
defaults write com.apple.screencapture type png
# Screenshots to PNG
defaults write com.apple.Terminal FocusFollowsMouse TRUE
# Sloppy Focus in Terminal
defaults write com.apple.finder _FXShowPosixPathInTitle -bool TRUE
# Show POSIX path in title
defaults write com.apple.dock no-glass -boolean TRUE; killall Dock
# Make Leopard dock non-hideous.
I also found this one today that sets your screensaver as your background. I tried it out, but it doesn't work as well as I'd like. For one, the clock stays sticky over all your windows, and the transparent menuar shows your old desktop. Still, it was kind of cute.:
/System/Library/Frameworks/ScreenSaver.framework/Resources/ScreenSaverEngine.app/\
Contents/MacOS/ScreenSaverEngine -background &
I suppose I should get back to real work now.
Apr. 22nd, 2029 @ 05:06 pm
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| » Rules |
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Avani's rules of life #1: There is very little wrong in life that a good, painful massage and facial can't cure.
Avani's rules of life #2: Reading research papers can be interesting, inspiring, even riveting. Reading research papers with a Baileys and coffee magnifies these effects.
To be continued...
Apr. 15th, 2029 @ 06:07 pm
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| » [Silly] Buns |
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This is just unfair. We've got countless Mexican grocers in the area, but somehow not a single Asian grocer of any stripe closer than Watsonville. I am craving steam buns so hard right now, and the local restaurant only has vegetarian, and I had them yesterday, and they're really not that good.
Mar. 26th, 2029 @ 05:42 pm
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| » A Place on the Internet |
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I'm in the process of moving my Speakeasy DSL to my new apartment. In doing so, I went over the other options, and realized that if I let go of my static IP (along with competent techs, network maps, etc.), I can save $60/month by going to AT&T.
As a poor college student who has the ability to go in to lab whenever there is an outage at home, this should be a no-brainer... yet, I feel pretty attached to having my own IP that I can know and trust to be there. I've used DynDNS in the past and have no real complaints with their service, but it's not quite enough for some reason.
Is this common? Am I just weird?
Mar. 24th, 2029 @ 05:36 pm
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| » Restaurant Recap: Chapeau! |
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Last night, Chris and I went with my sister A- to Chapeau! in the Outer Richmond. For a restaurant with this quality of ingredients, it was an amazing value (4 course menu for $45/person with wines starting at $15/bottle). The Yelp reviews imply that there may even be a special happy hour pricing. They are better than many places I've been to that have Michelin stars.
Also, they put out a hat with the check in it ^_^
( The food )
EDIT:
The biggest downside was that they were very slow. We got there for a 7:45 reservation and didn't make it out until after 10:30, which resulted in us being a half hour late to Watchmen. They are also a little on the loud side.
I'm certainly up for coming back here. It is great to be able to think of a place that serves foie gras and is still borderline affordable.
Mar. 9th, 2029 @ 12:19 pm
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| » Tortuga Party Time! |
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Saturday February 28 starting at 4pm:
Mountain View, CA (map)
Do you have a snazzy formal suit or dress that you'd love an excuse to wear? Do you need an excuse to buy one?
Now is your chance! Please come to our Tortuga Winter Formal and show off your best.
There will be:
- Drink Luge!
- Ice Slip-n-Slide!
- Frozen drinks!
- Hot drinks!
- Warm, fuzzy blankets to share with a friend!
- Rock Band!
Elegant attire admired but not required.
Link to the invite: http://www.mypunchbowl.com/partypage/de8b6e394bf2ebca
Feb. 3rd, 2029 @ 05:55 pm
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| » Music and Posting! |
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inferno0069 and I went to go see JoCo at Great American last Saturday. It was a fun show, even though I can't for the life of me get some of the songs out of my head. In particular,
The openers, Paul and Storm, were fantastic as always, including handing a thong to a little boy in the front row...
Also, this makes two entries in one day. Watch out, inferno0069!
Jan. 20th, 2029 @ 11:59 pm
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| » Sleepy Inauguration Ramble |
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I felt tingly several times during Obama's speech, most of all when we said that America was a friend to all nations. Also, he said we should "put science back in it's rightful place" and included non-believers in his litany of groups of citizens. My favorite quote of the night was "We reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals."
I'm thrilled Bush is gone. I'm separately, and more surprisingly, thrilled that we have someone in office whom I respect intellectually, and whom I truly believe has the presence and the persistence to shape history around him.
I'm proud to be an American under President Barack Hussein Obama.
Jan. 20th, 2029 @ 11:53 pm
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| » Moving Help? |
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Are any of you free this weekend to help inferno0069 move / help me distract him from moving? He's in El Cerrito and moving downstairs(!) in the same complex he's currently in. So, there are stairs, but there isn't much stuff or much distance, and we don't need to be done this weekend.
Here is a link to his post: http://inferno0069.livejournal.com/84956.html
Thanks!
Jan. 14th, 2029 @ 12:42 pm
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| » Victory! |
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The protesters whimpered away (thanks in no small part to the 20+ police officers monitoring the construction site), the birds sang, and now we have some beautiful logs on Science Hill.
Dec. 18th, 2028 @ 11:14 am
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| » From the "You've got to be kidding me" Department. |
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( Tree infestation )
I fail to understand why these negotiations are even taking place. We've got dirty hippies (quite literally.. you should see the mess they leave in the bathrooms) trespassing in our trees. In any sane place, they'd be arrested and barred from campus. For the most part, they aren't even students! They are townies who have decided they have nothing better to do than prevent the university from opening up a bio-medical sciences building.
I consider myself a reasonable person. I would even support pitching in for the trampoline after we cut the tree out from under them. Maybe, just maybe, if I was feeling really nice, it could be there before.
Dec. 11th, 2028 @ 11:35 am
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| » Killers? |
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inferno0069 and I are considering going to go see The Killers (and Death Cab for Cutie, Bloc Party, Franz Fernidad, and Jack's Mannequin) at the Oracle Arena on 12/11 (concert link).
Cheap tickets are roughly $45 ($70 for good ones). We're not completely sold on it yet, given that it's a big venue and, while I'm a Killers fan, we're pretty much lukewarm on the rest.
Reply with either:
A.) How awesome the other bands are in concert, and we should really go!
B.) You want to go to the concert, and we should come with you!
C.) Dude, don't waste your time.
ETA: D.) Monkeys!
Much obliged,
-- Avani
Nov. 20th, 2028 @ 05:12 pm
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| » Love |
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A very well spoken plea for gay marriage.
Nov. 11th, 2028 @ 02:33 pm
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| » Annual Reminder |
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If you are from a culture that celebrates Diwali, today's the day. Go call your mother.
Oct. 28th, 2028 @ 09:55 am
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| » No on 8 |
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For most issues in politics, I can understand the other side. I am pro-choice, but I wish we lived in a world where abortions didn't have to happen, and I can understand people not being able to understand that they can't legislate that world into being. I'm pro-gun, but I can see how they scare people, especially people who have enough faith in government to honestly believe criminals could be barred from having guns too. I'm mostly anti-tax, but have doubts as to whether there really is enough philanthropy out there to take care of those who can't care for themselves...
However, homosexual marriage is an exception. For those who haven't heard, Proposition 8 on the California ballot this election would eliminate the right of homosexual people to marry. This is an issue completely removed from those against it (I hope! I haven't seen any reports of homosexual people being pro-8), but there are also no negative externalities. Oh no, more children will be raised by two parents. It's not like the homosexual people would otherwise go find nice heterosexual partners. It's not like anyone is going to take away tax-exempt status from a church that doesn't sanction homosexual marriages, unlike the Yes on 8 smear campaign claims (http://www.noonprop8.com/about/fact-vs-fiction). Gay marriage is legal in California this very day. There are no meteors hailing from the sky, no forcibly taught tolerance in schools, and LA isn't really burning any more than normal. If you're straight and don't have homosexual friends, you probably can't even tell something is allowed that didn't used to be. If you're not, I think it's safe to say that all of the changes you've seen are for the better.
A personal story: two months ago, I went to the wedding of a woman I grew up with in our local Indian community. M- married K-, a Japanese woman. Indians in general are a racist, sexist, intolerant lot, but M- didn't care that so few Indians showed up. She and her family ignored the pomp and circumstance that usually surrounds Indian couples... couples who've frequently only known each other for a few days and are only getting married because they have to. It was the most heartfelt and emotionally compelling Indian wedding I've ever been to, including my own. There is love that is docile and dormant, and there is love that had to fight, and these two clearly had had to fight for everything they had. I've never seen M- so happy, or her father so proud. Part of me feels that marriage should only be for people like that, regardless of gender.
Finally, a good friend of mine (who is straight) wrote this essay on what the right of marriage meant to him and his family. I'm a mean hard-hearted person, and it made me cry to think that this could actually be taken away from people: http://snailprincess.livejournal.com/210625.html
If you live in California, Vote No on 8 and please please tell everyone you know to do the same.
Oct. 17th, 2028 @ 12:02 pm
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