Don’t you hate it when you’re sad and people tell you: “Don’t be sad.”
Like, dude, I’m sad not because you want me to be sad. I’m sad because stupid things happen, and that makes me sad.
Random
[Day 290] Did Viraj Mehta really flip off American people on TV?
Being off Facebook, I’ve been entirely oblivious to my friend Viraj’s famed middle-finger. I knew that he has been on Jeopardy and I knew that he’s had some impressive win — the rock I live under isn’t that big — but I wasn’t aware that there was more to that. When I ran into Viraj this afternoon, he was excited:
“Chip, I’m famous now!”
“What? Did you win that $100k?”
“I can’t say, but google my name!”
So I googled “Viraj” and saw this:
Continue reading “[Day 290] Did Viraj Mehta really flip off American people on TV?”
[Day 283] Procrastination
When I’m too busy, I can’t do work because I’m too stressed. But because I haven’t been doing work, I have even more work to do.
Since I’m super stressed with work, I’ve decided to dedicate more of my life into making memes.
Now if you excuse me, I’m gonna go under my blanket thinking about how much work I’ll have to get done.
[Day 169] The magic of phonetic writing
In my anthropology class, there is this lady who comes to every lecture with a peculiar-looking keyboard and transcribes everything everyone says in the room. The average rate for English speakers in the US is 150 wpm, so I estimate her writing speed is well above 150 wpm because she gets everything everyone says right, even manages to insert things like *bell chiming* or *indiscernible sound in the background*. This is really impressive, given that professional typists only have the speed of 75-85 wpm.
So, after the lecture today, I decided to come and introduce myself to her. When I told Sarah, the lady’s name, about my fascination with her typing, she was very excited. She told me she loved talking about that because she thinks it’s magical too. Here is a picture of the setup that she uses:
[Day 164] Life without Facebook
Hey,
I just want to let you know that I’ve been off Facebook for a month, and I haven’t had any desire to get back on it. It’s liberating. Here are some aspects of my life that have become much better without Facebook.
- I feel more connected to people. It’s ironic since Facebook is supposed to help you connect to your friends, but I feel that connections on Facebook are superficial because they are too convenient. Now, people I interact with are people who really want to interact with me. They would go out of their way to get my number or to send me an email. And I do the same to people I want to connect with.
[Day 72] San Francisco’s Chatroulette on the Go
Living a non-driving adult life in the Bay Area means that I will have to Uber a lot. On an average day, I take two Uber trips, and on days when I go out, I’d easily make 5 or 6 trips. In San Francisco, Uber has “UberPool” in which you share an Uber with random strangers. I always feel slightly excited whenever I take an UberPool because you never know who you are going to meet.
As my friend Tucker put it, UberPool is like a chatroulette on the go. With San Francisco being the heart of all kinds of ideologies, movements, tech, arts, expressions and the home of all kinds of people: startup founders, software engineers, activists, artists, chefs, new age bums, hipsters, nouveau riche, old rich, you never know who you are going to meet.
Continue reading “[Day 72] San Francisco’s Chatroulette on the Go”
[Day 61] Caroline
Caroline said it’s her life goal to be on my blog so today, having nothing better to do, I’m going to post a bunch of pictures of us. I have no words to describe her.
This is Caroline. She is very sexy and likes to remind people of how sexy she is.
[Day 54] Things that Mykel Kochenderfer says
Mykel Kochenderfer is my professor for the course “Building Trust in Autonomy” and he’s hilarious.
“Our policy function depends on whether our time horizon is finite or infinite. For example, if you knew that the world was going to end tomorrow, you wouldn’t just go to Tesco and buy green bananas. You would be buying the candies we had at the zoo yesterday instead.”
Continue reading “[Day 54] Things that Mykel Kochenderfer says”
[Day 52] Sun sighted in Edinburgh
Today, thousands of locals flocked to the streets to witness what was considered the first sighting of the sun in Edinburgh since the Great Miss Sunshine in 2001. According to several eyewitnesses, the sky was lit up blue for more than two hours from 11am to 1.10pm, Friday, July 1, 2016. The leaves dried up and suddenly, the locals realized that the leaves were of a cheerful shade of grey, not just a sad shade of grey.
[Day 49] Day at the zoo
So I went to Edinburgh zoo today–you can’t be in Edinburgh without seeing its famous penguin parade–and I was telling Jonas about the giant panda I saw at the zoo.
Me: “I kid you not. That panda is awake for only 8 hours but poops 50 times a day.”
Jonas: “That sounds like a pretty shitty life to me.”
