http://race.change.org/blog/view/10_facts_you_may_not_know_about_asian-american_history
Interesting stuff. I still have yet to visit Angel Island. Maybe I'll go with X and Indonesian friends.
Friday, May 28, 2010
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Geologic field trip
I'm going on a field trip for my geology class to see sites where landslides happened. The last sentence of the reading for the field trip:
"An appropriate alternative use for this land would be a park for educational geologic field trips..."
"An appropriate alternative use for this land would be a park for educational geologic field trips..."
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Bento lunches
http://community.livejournal.com/bentolunch/tag/nilmandra
This blog has some awesome bento lunches. I especially love the soy sauce container. See if you can spot it. It is crazy cute. I've subscribed to this blog!
This blog has some awesome bento lunches. I especially love the soy sauce container. See if you can spot it. It is crazy cute. I've subscribed to this blog!
Adventurous Friday
Yesterday (Friday) was a crazy day of fun (and subsequently no work). After my morning class, I went to a meeting for ESW. There are two students from Andalas University visiting us for three weeks. They are here to learn about what we do and for us to learn from them. I think this is a really unique opportunity. We're always focused on sending people to developing countries to do work and learn but rarely do people think about sending people the other way. I think there's probably more value in sending people from developing countries to developed countries. In the end, they're the one who will continue the work.
We had lunch together after the meeting. I find that I can understand very simple conversations in Indonesian. So at this point, if I don't learn the language, it's out of shear laziness. This language is so easy compared to other ones out there.
I went grocery shopping after that. I biked to Trader Joes but only managed to get meat. The vegetables there are expensive and there are not a lot of choices. I decided to go to the Milk Pail the next day because they have good and cheap produce. So much more variety as well. I decided to buy some cream top milk and muscat grapes. They're both amazingly good.
After groceries, I went to play capture the flag with some people in my department. We played in this huge jungle-like area off of Campus Drive. There were tons of trees and bushes. The dirt was super compressible and was full of holes from ground animals (?). Anyway, it made for a couple of interesting games. After we were all tired out from playing two games, we headed to the department happy hour. We had some really good Thai food. I stayed a long time chatting with various people. At one point, a few of us were discussing the varieties of durian and how to tell if they're ripped. And I found out one of the guys here has a twin brother who goes to UIUC. Oat, who also goes to UIUC and visiting Stanford for the weekend, came to that conclusion towards the end of the happy hour. Again, coincidences like this is always so funny and shocking at the same time.
By the time we were ready to leave, it was already way pass 9pm. My neighborhood at Rains held a block party scheduled for 9pm - 1am. I went to this party for a little bit but it was too cold outside. This party was attended by a lot of civil engineers. I knew quite a few people.
I'm cooking for some people later today. These dinners always go for a while so I'm hoping I still have some motivation to do work after that. Going on a geology field trip tomorrow. We're going to see some landslides. Hopefully it will be warmer out, especially while we're in Daly City.
We had lunch together after the meeting. I find that I can understand very simple conversations in Indonesian. So at this point, if I don't learn the language, it's out of shear laziness. This language is so easy compared to other ones out there.
I went grocery shopping after that. I biked to Trader Joes but only managed to get meat. The vegetables there are expensive and there are not a lot of choices. I decided to go to the Milk Pail the next day because they have good and cheap produce. So much more variety as well. I decided to buy some cream top milk and muscat grapes. They're both amazingly good.
After groceries, I went to play capture the flag with some people in my department. We played in this huge jungle-like area off of Campus Drive. There were tons of trees and bushes. The dirt was super compressible and was full of holes from ground animals (?). Anyway, it made for a couple of interesting games. After we were all tired out from playing two games, we headed to the department happy hour. We had some really good Thai food. I stayed a long time chatting with various people. At one point, a few of us were discussing the varieties of durian and how to tell if they're ripped. And I found out one of the guys here has a twin brother who goes to UIUC. Oat, who also goes to UIUC and visiting Stanford for the weekend, came to that conclusion towards the end of the happy hour. Again, coincidences like this is always so funny and shocking at the same time.
By the time we were ready to leave, it was already way pass 9pm. My neighborhood at Rains held a block party scheduled for 9pm - 1am. I went to this party for a little bit but it was too cold outside. This party was attended by a lot of civil engineers. I knew quite a few people.
I'm cooking for some people later today. These dinners always go for a while so I'm hoping I still have some motivation to do work after that. Going on a geology field trip tomorrow. We're going to see some landslides. Hopefully it will be warmer out, especially while we're in Daly City.
Friday, May 21, 2010
Networking within a small net
Wow, another day of small-world-ness. I went to a GEER (Geo-Engineering Earthquake Reconnaissance) talk/dinner meeting for the SFGI (San Francisco Geo-Institute). They do reconnaissance trips after earthquakes in order to learn more about geology, geotechnical engineering, and hopefully find things that can help the engineering community. I arrived for the social chit-chatting before the dinner and after I introduced myself to two people, one of the asked me if I went to MIT. I was a little surprised (I wasn’t wearing a brass rat or anything), and said yes. Turns out he’s a friend of Xiumin’s! He said that Xiumin mentioned that she has a friend named Lucy. I also vaguely remember Xiumin talking about a friend who did his Masters at MIT. Such an interesting coincidence. I also remember seeing him at an ASCE event last month and had wanted to talk to him because he works at Geomatrix, a pretty big geotech firm. I didn’t get a chance that time. Very glad I did this time though.
The actual presentation was really interesting. The two guys giving the presentation went to Haiti on a recon trip with a team of geologists and geotechnical engineers. They spent 6 days in the country about 2 weeks after the earthquake. They basically went around looking at structural and geological features for damage trying to find evidence of faulting. Their conclusion was that the earthquake did not happened on the well known fault in Haiti but that it actually happened on a fault that has not been mapped yet. Very, very interesting, mystery solving trip. They’re still analyzing data from the trip to map figure out the actual fault that had ruptured. They also did a lot of simple geotechnical tests with hand instruments. I really wanted to ask them about that stuff to see if its feasible/appropriate to do in Padang this summer. But I didn’t get a chance because I was trying to get a ride to a BART station. I think I’ll email the guy though.
They are also talking about holding a geotech recon training sometime in the fall. That would be so awesome. I need to join this organization (GEER)! I wrote about professional organizations in a previous post. And I’ve always thought that I would get more involved later, when I have an actual job and settle down and such. But maybe not since I get really good deals at events as a student. Companies will pay for professional society memberships but usually only one or two, not the four or five that I would like to join.
The actual presentation was really interesting. The two guys giving the presentation went to Haiti on a recon trip with a team of geologists and geotechnical engineers. They spent 6 days in the country about 2 weeks after the earthquake. They basically went around looking at structural and geological features for damage trying to find evidence of faulting. Their conclusion was that the earthquake did not happened on the well known fault in Haiti but that it actually happened on a fault that has not been mapped yet. Very, very interesting, mystery solving trip. They’re still analyzing data from the trip to map figure out the actual fault that had ruptured. They also did a lot of simple geotechnical tests with hand instruments. I really wanted to ask them about that stuff to see if its feasible/appropriate to do in Padang this summer. But I didn’t get a chance because I was trying to get a ride to a BART station. I think I’ll email the guy though.
They are also talking about holding a geotech recon training sometime in the fall. That would be so awesome. I need to join this organization (GEER)! I wrote about professional organizations in a previous post. And I’ve always thought that I would get more involved later, when I have an actual job and settle down and such. But maybe not since I get really good deals at events as a student. Companies will pay for professional society memberships but usually only one or two, not the four or five that I would like to join.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Meetings, activities, dinners, etc.
I can't believe it's still so rainy in May. I'm not sure weather.com is a very good weather predictor. But now I've gotten used to using it. One of the guys at work uses BBC. Maybe I should too. Only 2 more weeks at work. 5 days. woah.... time goes by very fast. I think this internship has been satisfying. I've been doing more and more actual work. Not sure if I will have time to work in the fall. I think I will have time to do something in the winter since I would only be taking 5 units worth of classes. Or should I just audit a whole bunch of classes? I really want to know what people are doing after they graduate. I think a whole bunch of people are graduating from my program after this quarter. Don't know where they're headed off to.
I think I need to get more involved in professional societies. I'm in a few: ASCE (GI), SWE, SEAONC (I think?). I think some people are very involved and sit on technical committees and organize events. I think it would be interesting to get involved in a technical committee. Not sure what that would entail. Pretty sure I don't qualify to do the work at this point. Anyway, I'll probably get involved in the Younger Member Forum(s) in the future.
Our visitors from Indonesia arrived today! Yay. There were all sorts of visa problems for them. At first they couldn't get an appointment at the US embassy until June but magic things happened and they are now here! I really need to get on top of this learning Indonesian thing. I sort of stopped because the lessons got harder. Very bad excuse, I know. But some of the lessons don't seem relevant to me. I also wish I had a book that focused more on the grammar. Maybe it's time for another visit to the library?
I told a friend today that I feel like I have too much social life. In addition to going to work tomorrow, I am meeting with a former coworker for lunch, and then going to a SFGI dinner after work. Hopefully, I can get back in time for the Thursday Night Thing at Rains. Then Friday, the department is having capture the flag and happy hour in the afternoon. Saturday and Sunday nights I'm having dinner with people. I will be cooking. This means I need to go grocery shopping sometime on Friday. Oh, and geology field trip on Sunday to some landslide sites.
I think I need to get more involved in professional societies. I'm in a few: ASCE (GI), SWE, SEAONC (I think?). I think some people are very involved and sit on technical committees and organize events. I think it would be interesting to get involved in a technical committee. Not sure what that would entail. Pretty sure I don't qualify to do the work at this point. Anyway, I'll probably get involved in the Younger Member Forum(s) in the future.
Our visitors from Indonesia arrived today! Yay. There were all sorts of visa problems for them. At first they couldn't get an appointment at the US embassy until June but magic things happened and they are now here! I really need to get on top of this learning Indonesian thing. I sort of stopped because the lessons got harder. Very bad excuse, I know. But some of the lessons don't seem relevant to me. I also wish I had a book that focused more on the grammar. Maybe it's time for another visit to the library?
I told a friend today that I feel like I have too much social life. In addition to going to work tomorrow, I am meeting with a former coworker for lunch, and then going to a SFGI dinner after work. Hopefully, I can get back in time for the Thursday Night Thing at Rains. Then Friday, the department is having capture the flag and happy hour in the afternoon. Saturday and Sunday nights I'm having dinner with people. I will be cooking. This means I need to go grocery shopping sometime on Friday. Oh, and geology field trip on Sunday to some landslide sites.
Monday, May 17, 2010
B2B: a San Franciscan race
I ran Bay to Breakers yesterday! The course is 12km (7.45 miles) long. I managed to run the entire way because I was running with a friend. We had planned to take the Caltrain up to San Francisco but managed to get a ride. Normally, it is impossible to be in the city by Caltrain on a weekend at 8am. But Caltrain decided to run special services just for Bay to Breakers (B2B). The Caltrain was packed like crazy! I think they should've ran the newer trains because they have more room for standing. The trains were probably over capacity.
It was pretty chilly the whole day, around 50s and slightly windy. Once I warmed up, it was fine. We ran at a steady pace of 12 min/mile the entire way. I think I would've been able to speed up after I warmed up (2 miles) but after 2 miles, we hit the Hayes hill. That hill got pretty steep at the end. But we keep manage to hold a steady pace all the way up to the top. It was all downhill after that. Actually, at the end, I was kind of surprised at how fast it all went by. The end of the half marathon seemed to drag on forever. This race just had us exiting the park at the Great Highway and the finish was right around the corner. I spent a minute or two debating whether the big orange thing was actually the finish line.
Extremely sore today but otherwise, I think I'm doing fine. I felt fine cardo-wise. I think I was breathing only through my nose half the time. No panting or feeling short of breath at all.
There were a lot of crazy costumes. There were some middle school aged kids running as a centipede (tied together). They were cute. There were also many families. Definitely more diverse than the usual road race crowd. There were 33,000 people registered and probably around 60,000 people actually on the course. So crowded! We had were constantly dodging and passing people.
I ate a huge lunch when I got back and slept for a few hours before finishing up two homeworks while being bombarded by people on gchat. Getting up early for B2B was good because I have been getting up later and later on non-work days. This makes me feel tired when getting up for work, which I don't like. Only 3 more weeks left at work. 4 more weeks until the quarter is all over. These last few weeks always seem to drag by with no end in sight. It's worse this quarter since people at other schools are out for the summer, graduating, etc.
It was pretty chilly the whole day, around 50s and slightly windy. Once I warmed up, it was fine. We ran at a steady pace of 12 min/mile the entire way. I think I would've been able to speed up after I warmed up (2 miles) but after 2 miles, we hit the Hayes hill. That hill got pretty steep at the end. But we keep manage to hold a steady pace all the way up to the top. It was all downhill after that. Actually, at the end, I was kind of surprised at how fast it all went by. The end of the half marathon seemed to drag on forever. This race just had us exiting the park at the Great Highway and the finish was right around the corner. I spent a minute or two debating whether the big orange thing was actually the finish line.
Extremely sore today but otherwise, I think I'm doing fine. I felt fine cardo-wise. I think I was breathing only through my nose half the time. No panting or feeling short of breath at all.
There were a lot of crazy costumes. There were some middle school aged kids running as a centipede (tied together). They were cute. There were also many families. Definitely more diverse than the usual road race crowd. There were 33,000 people registered and probably around 60,000 people actually on the course. So crowded! We had were constantly dodging and passing people.
I ate a huge lunch when I got back and slept for a few hours before finishing up two homeworks while being bombarded by people on gchat. Getting up early for B2B was good because I have been getting up later and later on non-work days. This makes me feel tired when getting up for work, which I don't like. Only 3 more weeks left at work. 4 more weeks until the quarter is all over. These last few weeks always seem to drag by with no end in sight. It's worse this quarter since people at other schools are out for the summer, graduating, etc.
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