Stuff

Well it's been a bit since the last post so I'll just hit a few random thoughts and events.

2nd to most recently - I just discovered why Irish dancing is all about doing crazy footwork while keeping the upper body perfectly stiff - normally seems very silly but it is actually ingenious - what other form of dancing allows you to get really into it and yet not spill or even shake your drink? I ended up at an Irish pub in Venice and the crowd was both the standard bar hopping crowd you'd expect in Venice as well as a few people who clearly had specifically picked the Irish bar and the band seemed to go back and forth between songs for each crowd. At one point during the Irish songs one guy started dancing and when I looked up from the crazy footwork I saw his beer held perfectly steady (and felt like I should be in a feedback systems class) and the whole form of dance clicked for me. (For those that are wondering - yes I just sat and watched - although at one point I did a little foot tapping from my stool).

Also that night I made an observation - in Boston I found quite a few good restaurants with indian, thai, vietnamese... food, although other than maybe a few in China town, I somewhat question the authenticity. In CA when I go on my own I am typically disappointed by the asian food, but when I go with someone from asia or of asian decent, the food is really good and seems to be more authentic. Of course there are a lot of other factors - such as who I hang out with and living in the city vs far outside and only driving in when I have plans with others. I will leave coming up with hypotheses on the topic as an exercise to the reader (note I said hypotheses and not theories, because ever since the intelligent design craze I try to use the scientific meanings of the words rather than the common english meanings - not that I'm consistent, but at least I did it once).

Most recently - went to Legoland - it was good to see my uncle and his family. Legoland is a cool place - it's actually more of an amusement park than I expected - I think a lot of the people may go not really caring about the lego part. But there are a few cool lego oriented items and of course the park is decorated in lego statues and there is a lego world area where they have different cities reconstructed in lego.

Boston - went to Boston to see friends from school. Very good time - thanks to Mike and Laura for letting me crash at their place - Laura, again, tried to starve me. Thanks to mom and dad for the plane tickets. Saw Body Worlds which was very interesting, and ate at most of the old spots. Would go on but most of the people reading this were there.

Not sure if Evan reads this but thanks for inviting me up to Pasadena.

In general:
I'm enjoying my job. It has a lot of variety (well within analog integrated circuit design) and moves at a good pace. Lately I have been putting in a lot of hours which is part of the reason for a lack of posts, although I set a time limit on the 80 hour weeks so I'm back to just a lot of hours rather than having it take over my life. For a while there I was dreaming about work every night. On the weekends I've been meeting up with people in LA - it's a bit of a drive but fun to get into the city and see the previous comments about food. Work has been taking me up to San Jose - ate at a few good restaurants but haven't really taken the time to explore the city while I've been up there.

I have a lot to say on the subject of the recent travel restrictions, but I think they have hit a level of absurdity it's not even worth pointing it out. But I will make one comment. After people used box cutters to take over planes the TSA outlawed sharp objects on planes. After a guy tried to blow up a plane with his shoe the TSA made people take their shoes off at security. After some people tried to blow up planes with liquids the TSA told people they cannot bring liquids on the plane (again resisting temptation to go into the flaws of that plan). So I cannot wait for someone to attempt (but not succeed) to get explosive powder on a plane by hiding it in their clothes. Actually I think the consequences could really help convince Americans to get in better shape and fight the obesity problem.

I do have a new proposal for baggage handling. I think that the airlines should give you the option to have your bags fedex'ed (or ups'ed or dhl'ed or some other company name as a past tense verb). Especially if you are heading home and you just have clothes and some toiletries in your checked bags wouldn't you rather have them show up a couple days later and know they won't get lost or damaged rather than maybe get them when you show up and have to wait for them at the baggage claim? Well hopefully all the airline execs are reading my blog and will implement this (just in case someone is reading this - I put this idea in the public domain - in case the airline exec is worried about me suing).

Alright I think that should be enough to hold off the "new post" comments for at least a little bit.