UW Update Saturday 4/25/15

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Back to our regular program...

1.     UW Update Saturday 4/25/15

a.     Woke around 11:00, decided that 10 hours was enough (contrary to habit), and went through backlog of emails. Reviewed tricky CS material. Xin texted me about lunch, then showed up in my room, at about 1:00. We tried to grab Brandon, but he was heading to the gym. So we decided to join him there; we played some badminton against a much better player. It was fun training against him, and I could definitely feel improvement.

b.     Walked to the Ave with Xin and Brandon and grabbed lunch at Mee Sum.  Got some bao and traded pieces of them for Brandon’s sweet and sour chicken and Xin’s curry brisket (yes, Mee Sum makes everything J). Very tasty. Then, we walked up to this bizarre Asian dessert place called O-Dessert and split a large “sundae” of flavored, creamy shave ice with tapioca and diced fruit. Bizarre, yes, but awesome? Definitely.

c.      Returned to Haggett and met up with Dad, who had driven to Seattle for the Husky spring game and to meet with an old friend, Jim. We drove around some cool neighborhoods where he had lived while attending UW, then walked through Ravenna Park. Talked about housing, the way Jim thought of accounting not as algorithmic boredom but as the science and engineering behind business (much as engineering is often taught as boring algorithms, but the good engineers know the art and subtlety and why of the subjects the algorithms address). Got updated on the… mumble, mumble, proprietary… efforts of Dad and Ken.

d.     Returned to Haggett, showed Dad my whiteboard array, then got to work. Did my prelab, postlab, tutorial. I texted Ayush about grabbing dinner, but he had already obtained dinner… from this crazy delivery startup that was basically handing out free food to gain traction. He referred me, we both got $15 in food credit. Plus the intro boost of $10, I was able to buy $13 of food with $20 of credit, plus $2 gratuity and $5 delivery fee. I ordered this sweet Cuban sandwich and fried plantains. Then I worked on my physics tutorial. The food arrived on time, I picked it up grinning with the knowledge that TANSTAAFL is false, grateful for the world’s generosity. I chowed down in the lounge reading Diaspora and enjoying myself immensely. There was something magical about the combination of free, delicious, different food and the constraint-less software world of Diaspora. Maybe the two worlds can be the same, insisted my naïve mind. Constraints and scarcity begone!

e.     Finished physics tutorial, finished linear homework with the help of my whiteboard. Went to Denny, met David, played some intense one-on-one. I’ve been realizing recently that I don’t take advantage of the two steps I get after my last dribble, unless I’m going at a full run. Today, I took ample advantage of my two steps and long stride to execute fast drives from midcourt—it really makes a remarkable difference to be conscious of the steps you have. Then we shot around for a bit.

f.      Returned to Haggett, replied to email, wrote this log, and went to bed.