Midterms!

So after a long night of refreshing news pages, clicking on maps, and getting very little work done, midterm elections for 2010 are more or less over. Votes are still being counted at this point, but most are set (more or less). Let's start with the nationals and work our way down.

The Democrats keep the Senate but lose the House. What can this mean? Honestly, they might as well have lost the Senate. With the House gone, we'll likely see gridlock for the next two years. Some say it'll be a replay of 1994--based on what many of the newly elected Republicans/TP's are promising, it may just turn out that way. The House may try to pass more right-wing initiatives (or as Boehner said, repealing health care is an option), but most won't even pass the Senate. And in the rare event that something works out, Obama will kill it. No matter what the Reps or Obama promises, even fewer of those will get done in the next 2 years than in the last 2. The Senate, with its near even split, is even more useless in that respect.

Of course, there's the possibility of cooperation, but we can ignore that for now. It will likely not happen--the numbers of the opposition party is just too large. With 2012 campaigns starting this very moment, no GOP elect will risk his job and turn back on his voters. Maybe something else will happen later on that would make cooperation more favorable, but right now that's not happening. In that case, the Democrats and Obama can potentially use this to their advantage. Many blogs say that they will be able to use the potential gridlock and uselessness of Congress against the GOP and blame them in 2012. This is a likely scenario and will probably play itself out over the next year.

State. Not much surprise here w.r.t. candidates--nearly every major state position has been won by a Democrat. The only exception is attorney general, but Kamala has some issues of her own that we won't get into here. What's more interesting is the fact that Californians rejected, in general, more conservative candidates who promised to bring a new face to Sacramento. Instead, they preferred incumbents, people with experience; they rejected big business and took in familiarity. While the winners cannot be really described as populist, it may be safe to say that CA was one of the few places that the Tea Party did not infiltrate. (About Newsom defeating Maldonado--no comment.)

Props? There were a number of interesting props on the ballot this time around, far more interesting than the candidates imo. 19 failed, but it's not surprising--with something this radical (such as gay marriage 2 years ago), it will take more than one election for the electorate to shift its attitude from the status quo. It actually lost quite miserably, given the lead that polls gave it over the summer. 23 also failed, but that's to be expected. Advertising for this one was very widespread, and of course this is California we're talking about. When faced with a decision between clean and dirty energy (with a ridiculously fantasized 5.5% unemployment rate), CA'ians will not choose dirty energy. Finally, the last important one was 25. Given the many past years of budget gridlock in Sac, 25 was also easy to pass. If there's anything that CA'ians are pissed about, it's that.

Finally, we have local elections. Candidates are all over the place, and frankly I don't care too much for them. There's the school board (shame that Starchild lost), some districts, and other random ones like Bart director and such. D10 is worth mentioning as that is my district--Tony Kelly is a decent candidate, and although he was not one of my choices, I definitely prefer him over a lot of the others. It is ridiculous how many candidates ran though--21 to be exact--and how spread out the votes were. Some people got ~40 votes, while Kelly numbered in the thousands. It would've been nice to have Marlene Tran win, but guess you can't have everything.

Finally, local props--AA and A we can skip, and B (not surprisingly) lost, but it did so pretty closely. While it does burden city workers, it does seem that there are many who feel the pain of lack of city funds, which explains all the yes votes. In a similar fashion, both J and K failed to pass, while N won. These all show how desperate the city is for money (and the state as well, with its other props not mentioned here). But it's curious how some passed while others didn't. J and K especially, even with the fact that one is a poison pill for the other. On the other hand, the city has decided to not favor Muni drivers anymore with the passage of G--yet another money-saving initiative, as well as a sentiment that Muni desperately needs reform. Also worthy of note are L/M--apparently, sit/lie garnered a lot more public support than polls indicated. It will be fascinating to see how the new law will play out.

In short, everyone won and everyone lost in this election, and with this over, 2012 has officially begun.

Today it is hot

So I think I will blog. Classes start on Thursday, so I go back tomorrow. It's both relieving and somewhat meh at the same time; doing nothing at home is nice and all, but it sucks to be unproductive and all. On the other hand, I'm not looking forward to the workload that will come with the next semester.

I now live on southside with a couple roommates, and I'm also down the hall from several other friends. It's pretty cool having it that way; over summer we had plenty of free time to play mahjong on Thursday nights or Smash. Hopefully this can continue over the semester, due to our not having much class on Fridays. I can finally play mahjong on a more regular basis for the first time since senior year. If you're reading this, you're also invited (you can fly in if you're not around the area).

Uhhhhh so what have I been doing. Okay so this summer, I finished the following: FMA Brotherhood, FMP Fumoffu, Great Teacher Onizuka, Kino's Journey, Mushishi, and The Twelve Kingdoms. Oh yeah, and I also managed to watch all the Pokemon movies that I haven't watched yet (there are currently 12 plus a special). So in that respect I consider this very productive.

FMA Brotherhood was definitely one of the best; the finish of the manga and anime has been anticipated for quite a while, and its story and ending were spectacular. After some more reflection, I definitely think that it's better than the original, not because it actually follows the manga, but more because its storyline is more concrete and character development played out better. There was some funky stuff in the first series, though of course it's hard for any series to be perfect. I'd still recommend watching both though.

In terms of comedy, both Fullmetal Panic? Fumoffu and Great Teacher Onizuka were worth watching in their own aspects. GTO had a good background story, and it also had some interesting characters. The artwork wasn't the best, so I was a tad bored toward the end with the same stuff over and over again. The humor did keep it going though, even though the substories got a bit repetitive and sometimes forced. Overall still good to watch if you have some time. A lot of slapstick and ecchi actually, if you're into that stuff. I might watch the live-action when I get around to it.

I haven't watched the actual FMP series yet, since Fumoffu was sorta like a sidetrack, so I'll talk about it after I do. Now the remaining series are all seinen. Kino's Journey was interesting, though I don't think it's as great as its ratings say it is. It seems like it's actually more ideal for younger audiences, though some of its ideas are thought-provoking. Despite being a bit boring at times, its artwork and soundtrack were worth it, and you might want to watch it if you're into dystopic fantasies. I do plan to watch the movie sometime.

Mushishi was pretty awesome. It's also somewhat fantasy and alternative history, telling the stories of humans who are affected by the "mushi," kind of like bugs or bacteria in our world. Except that they have very peculiar effects on people who get "infected"; the protagonist travels the land to help these people, and the endings aren't always particularly happy. Nevertheless, it's very touching at times, and the music and artwork by themselves are already worth watching for.

Okay, last one (or well, almost). The Twelve Kingdoms, despite its more modest ratings and smaller viewership, definitely made it to one of my top favorites. Well I guess that's because I enjoy the genre, but yeah. In an alternate world there exist 12 kingdoms coexisting on an imaginary land; each is ruled by a king/queen chosen by mythological forces. Fantasy plays a strong role here, and much of that, as well as the politics, is inspired by imperial China. The series tells several stories about the affairs in some of the kingdoms, focusing on some specific characters and their development. Not only is the background (both fantasy and reality) elegantly built by the creator of the series, the music is also one of the best I've ever heard. I realize I enjoy it so much because of its Chinese influence, but you should watch it anyway. I hope they come out with a sequel or something like that soon.

Alright, just a bit more on the Pokemon movies. Hmmm, my favorite has always been and still is Pokemon 2000: The Power of One. I just think that it's the most epic of the series, and none of the ones afterward have been able to match up to it. Some of the storylines are pretty pathetic, like the 3rd movie (Spell of the Unown, come on wtf is this crystal palace and that stupid girl?), while others seem to be much more geared toward kids (which Pokemon should be, but it's bad if it's excessive). My second favorite is probably Lucario and the Mystery of Mew, maybe because there was actually a story to it and a death occurs in the end (yes in Pokemon, gasp!). The Diamond/Pearl trilogy wasn't too bad either. I'm just glad I finished them all.

Right now I'm watching Durarara!! I should finish that soon. In the meantime I am still not looking forward to school and such. Life goes on..

Summer 2010 Ch. 2

I took one class at Cal this summer--Chinese 155, Journey to the West. It was actually session A, so it started at the end of May and went for six weeks til the end of June. I probably should've talked about this earlier, but o well. I'll just bring up whatever comes to mind.

The class is actually Chinese lit, but I got them to approve it for my reading/comp requirement (win!). And I'm so glad that I did, because it was way more chill and interesting than any other actual writing class. We had readings each day, but they were actually doable (since it's summer) and interesting. Obviously, we're reading the novel 西遊記, but there were also other readings, like related works, commentaries, supplements, and stuff like that. Most of the stuff was in English, though there was always the Chinese version of it for reference.

Oh yeah, so forgot to mention that since this was in the Chinese dept, a reading knowledge of classical Chinese was desirable though not required. It might as well have been anyway since all like 12 of us were at or around that level. For me it was definitely a challenge, since I never had that much literary Chinese (okay Chinese school really doesn't count. Seriously.). Thankfully, our professor was very enthusiastic about the material, and knowledge of Chinese wasn't as important as the material itself. And I had my fair share of preliminary knowledge from history classes and just what I learned on my own up to this point. Honestly didn't realize that humanities build up on what you learn from other classes to the extent that technicals do--no offense here.

Grade was based on participation and three relatively short essays. Participation was no problem; no one wanted to participate (no arrogant students in the small class), so I often felt bad and spoke up when the situation looked hopeless. One essay every two weeks, and they were just two 4-5 page and one 6-8. They were also open-ended, which made writing them that much easier. I chose topics that were relatively easy to talk about, and one interesting one with which I wanted to experiment. Grade in the end was a solid A :D

As for the content itself, we looked at background readings, different episodes and different themes in the actual novel, commentaries and criticisms, and finally supplements and modern adaptations. In addition to reading the abridged translation by Wiley (which only includes a few episodes plus beginning/end), we had a couple of (rather nice) readers with other episodes and texts. Background readings were interesting; my historical knowledge helped a lot here, esp. Tang politics and religion from the spring semester. Commentaries were a bit tedious, as the Chinese at this point became more difficult to comprehend. As for the text itself, it's always great to read about Monkey and his group's exploits, as well as following the translation in the original Chinese.

Naturally, this class also contained film screenings. One was Stephen Chow's A Chinese Odyssey, 大話西遊. It was pretty awesome, I have no idea why I haven't seen it before. We watched it in mandarin, because their faction won out (lol), but I borrowed it afterward to rewatch in cantonese. If I had watched it outside of class, I probably would've missed a lot of the things that we discussed afterward. Definitely worth it.

The other film we watched was The World, 世界 by Jia Zhangke (apparently really famous on the mainland, I had no idea). This wasn't explicitly about the Monkey King, though it also pushed the theme of undertaking a journey. It was also cool to be able to watch a film that I probably wouldn't have otherwise. It's one of those bittersweet post-modernist mainland films that are pretty good if you follow. Check it out.

Oh yeah, we also had a "field trip" to the Berkeley Art Museum to look at hell scrolls and demonic art pieces. Overall this class was awesome, definitely worth my summer and >$1k, and a great addition to the list of classes for my Chinese Studies minor. It also got rid of my R&C requirement :)

OK I haven't posted all summer so I'mma split things

WOW where the hell should I even start. Like my new layout? I just noticed that Blogger put out new templates and stuff. It's kinda cool. Don't worry bout it if you read my posts in another reader. Most of you probably do anyway.

Ok, let's get the boring stuff over with first. So "research" with Salahuddin and his grad students didn't really get anywhere this summer. I sorta learned how to use the program PETSc, which is used for solving differential equations in C++. Not that I actually used it for anything--I was supposed to study one of the examples and then write another one based on it, but it never happened. I went into the lab a few times, though I stopped going recently, both because I honestly don't have any interest in it and also because I was busy anyway. Ehhh, there'll be other opportunities...

Other thing is I'm still somewhat employed at the SSL from last summer. Or to be more accurate, I've been "volunteering" since the campus won't let me get paid for over 40 hours a week. O well. I just go up occasionally to work with my supervisor and other engineers on finishing the boards from last time (yes, the process can be extremely slow). It was just a bunch of repetitive tweaks and fixes, with the mechanical details constantly changing and forcing me to adapt. Of course, in the real world things are like this all the time, and engineers of different focuses often have to work closely with one another.

At the SSL I've also been able to put my awesome mandarin skills to use a couple times. I was asked to teach one of the Chinese engineers there how to use the program that I've been using and answer her questions (she's from Shanghai). Here's a snippet of one of our question-and-answer sessions:

Her (mandarin): Ok, so I was wondering why I couldn't import the board outline from this dxf file.
Me: Uhh, 我想这个 file probably 做得不好。我没 encounter 过这个问题。。。
Her (mandarin):  How do I edit the layers on my board?
Me: *pause to digest* Oh, 你先去 Setup menu, 然后 click "Layer Definitions." 你看 by default 全部都是 on 的，所以你要把不用的 close, ok? 你该 click 这个 button...


As you can see, my poor mandarin combined with such a tech-heavy context made for some amusing answers. Afterward, she asked me about my school life and the usual stuff, which was a bit better though still slightly embarrassing. "我是三藩市来的。这个summer 我在 campus 教课, uhh.. introductory circuits. 这个是我第三年，last year 开始在这儿做工."

Life sure is fun.

Helloooooo summer!

Technically, break started last week, but there wasn't anything happening last week so yeah. Or well, all I really did was visit Lowell a couple times (Chan's bbq and then Kermesse) and see some teachers. I've also been driving my sister to school. Waking up at 6:45 am (that's right, AM) daily again is extremely painful, but thankfully they're finishing up soon.

In other news, my free time now consists of Pokemon HGSS (HeartGold & SoulSilver if you're a noob that doesn't know what HGSS stands for =P), FMA Brotherhood (Fullmetal Alchemist if you're a noob that doesn't know what FMA stands for), and various HK films that came out recently. HGSS are the Generation IV remakes of the classic Gold & Silver versions, and they are Hella fun. Not to mention the soundtrack, which is awesome. Everyone should play them, no kidding.

The current running FMA is the second anime of the same name. The first came out years ago and distanced itself from the manga halfway in. It was interesting to watch, but this one (which will finish in a couple weeks), strictly follows the manga and is great to watch. Since I didn't have time to watch anything over the semester, I am catching up now by cramming in as many episodes as I can each day.

I am still following Bleach (both anime and manga).

HK & Chinese films--I still have yet to watch Mulan, but I recently finished Confucius (孔子) and 72 Tenants of Prosperity (七十二家租客). The next ones I plan to watch are Just Another Pandora's Box, 14 Blades, and Little Big Soldier. Look them up if you're interested--most of them have historical allusions and will probably be hard to understand if you don't have the context. YesAsia.com is a pretty nice resource. In fact that's how I found out about them. =D

Okay, so how'd the semester go? Grade-wise, I have a 4.0 (so far). EE, History, and Legal Studies all A's, and Physics was a nice A+. The one thing missing--and it's taking an awfully long time--is CS. I have a bad feeling about this, since it'll probably be the class to kill my GPA. Will update as soon as it comes out. About that--I literally check BearFacts every day right after I wake up, hoping that it got updated the night before. I even had a dream about this, and in it I got a B in the class...

Enough about that, no one gives a damn about grades. Summer plans! I said nothing was happening last week, but this week and onward is a whole new story. Today was the first day of my class. It's 4-6pm M-R, but it seems that it'll be one worth taking: Chinese 155, Journey to the West. This will go until July, at which I start my second class, Philos 153 (Chinese Philosophy). I'm glad you see the theme. I've pretty much decided to finish the Chinese Studies minor this summer, while I still have time and while classes are good.

Though the class is late, I plan to continue live at home for the time being. During the day, I'll hopefully start on the research that I should have worked on last semester (and hence received an Incomplete for that unit because of my lack of effort to do so -_-). Dunno what exactly it involves yet, but I met with my professor today. Something about using a simulation program that involves C, parallel computing, and equation-solving. Apparently I'm solving equations that involves QM (since we're operating within the 45nm scale on transistors), E&M (Maxwell governs the electron density & field they create), and thermo (dynamics of atoms within the transistor). However, the task is very difficult, as hundreds of thousands of matrix elements can easily be generated because we're dealing with many atoms at the same time. I'm lucky enough to be able to barely understand the physics and math behind all this...

Anyway, this pattern should continue until mid-June. Then I start on something else, and hopefully I can do all 3 things at the same time. At that point, I'll probably start living at Cal again, since more of my time will be eaten up.

This third activity will be my job and main source of income this summer. What I'll be doing is... *drumroll*... ok, it's not that impressive, but I'll be TA'ing at $20 an hour for 20 hours a week. The class is EE42/100 (basically circuits for non-EE's). Whoooo. Teaching is going to be interesting--for one, I'm glad it's a class/material that I'm really comfortable with. I just filled out the paperwork today, and I'll probably know more as we get closer to the start-date of that class (6/21).

This summer is going to be fun. It's a shame so many people won't be coming back to SF though =/

Positive Derivative

Thanks to everyone for all the comments and advice from the last post. I am very happy to say that we (I and my apartment-mate) ended up talking about our issues and working things out. The situation now is much better than it was a week ago. And as a result, most of the tension and bad feelings that were just hanging around have disappeared. Hopefully, we can just put all this behind us and move on.

It's been a month or so since I got sick. I honestly do not remember the last time I've been sick for this long, but I think I can confidently say that I'm almost fully recovered. A small cough still bugs me now and then, but give it a few more days and I should be good. With good timing too, because the good weather lately has been encouraging my allergies. (I just used "good" 3 times.) So in comes Claritin to save the day! I've just been taking one pill a day, as it suggests, and it's working great.

Today was Cal Day, the open house for all prospective students (as well as anyone who just wants to come to Cal and see what it has to offer). I spent most of the morning to noon in Cory giving tours and answering questions from incoming freshmen and their parents. It's pretty fun; I feel good about sharing my wisdom (lol) and giving advice, and I'm sure they like to get a student's personal perspective as well.

I finished up at around 2, and afterward Dustin and I went to walk around for a bit. Huge crowds at Sather Gate, and the atmosphere was just lively and full of energy overall. It was a nice break from the monotony of classes. Only two more weeks to go too, can't wait til then.

Finally, apartment hunting has picked up its pace. I'm looking for a one-bedroom place on southside, preferably with a price ceiling of $1600. Hopefully will finalize and just settle on one this coming week or so.

Oh yeah, I've been craving a good game of mahjong lately. By good, I mean with people who can actually play (well). I've also been watching Akagi, an anime based on Japanese mahjong, so that probably helps. In any case, I want at least one good mahjong session before the summer arrives.

Another Downer, Yayyyy

So recently I feel like I've been at a low point, probably one of the lowest within the past couple years. Academically I'm starting to blow things off--it's been a long semester, and I'm starting to lose interest in classes and grades (though I'm sure I will care about grades again come finals). I think that's one disadvantage of the semester system, in that it's sometimes too lengthy and tedious toward the last few weeks. I just finished my last midterms, so I'll probably care even less. Also, the social life is pretty much stagnant / going down the drain, whichever way you want to look at it. I didn't see a single person over break thanks to my cough, and back here it always seems that people are either busy or just have conflicting schedules (including me). I do see HKN people sometimes though, but the committee work is a drag, especially when those that you're working with are seniors who are always busy.

Ok, the real reason why I'm so hateful right now--roommate problems. I won't name the person, though you can ask if you don't know and want to know. It's pretty obvious anyway from my descriptions. It started off benignly; a couple months back, I would get annoyed that he never cleaned up after himself or washed the dishes. But that's virtually nothing compared to what I'm dealing with now.

He then started living on the couch. That probably doesn't sound like anything, but it annoys me. He has his own room and own desk, but he's always just on the couch in the common room with his laptop. Why the hell are you taking over the common space when you have your own? Not only that, but he literally lives on it, as in leaving his stuff and mess on it when he's not here, as if the couch were his. So basically, the rest of us never use it anymore--we can't invite guests over to sit on it, nor can we sit on it to watch TV or play games. My couch, which I donated to be our couch, became his couch.

Let's keep going (how can it get any worse?). After he took over the couch, he started to play his music. Loudly. Enough that I can hear and get distracted by it down the hall in my own room. You see why I don't like his living on the couch? Why can't he just stay in his own room and play his music there, or just use earphones like normal people? And his tunes are horribly annoying too--he plays the kind of music where the beats just don't go away and repeat over and over again.

Ok, now what? He gets speakers. Fucking huge and bass-boosting speakers. And he starts using them. Now the music is even louder, and what's worse is that even with my own earphones on, I can feel his fucking bass. It's not so much a problem when I'm working (relatively), since I just turn up my own music to block it out. But his sleeping patterns are horrendous, and recently I've been having trouble sleeping because he keeps it on after I go to bed. Oh, but wait, there's more!

He started inviting his friends over recently, maybe a week or two ago. Example of problem. Two nights ago, he had three people over. They talked loudly the whole time, so loud that I could clearly hear what they were saying with our door closed. What's worse was that they were all drunk, so what could we do? They stayed up, talking, with the music blasting, until past 4am. And then guess what? A fight breaks out. I don't know the details, but according to Jeff (who also woke up), punches were thrown, things were knocked over, and they ran out of the apartment. In the morning, everything was a huge mess.

Ok, so you ask me, why don't I talk to this roommate about these problems? Obvious solution, but I've tried again and again to no avail. We no longer talk, save for my occasional "Turn down your music, I'm trying to study." Not only does he usually just outright ignore me, but he often retaliates by doing the opposite of what I ask. From my point of view, I really do not understand this immature passive-aggressiveness, nor do I understand such disrespect for others. The other two living here just deal with it, though they don't say much to him either.

For the time being, I find solace during the time that he's out and not here. I've also lost all motivation to stay over on weekends to do things such as attend HKN socials. At this point I am looking forward to the summer, which comes in a month. Then I can finally get out of this place and leave this all behind.

Sickness

Has made this officially my worst break ever. It started a couple days before break started; I woke up on Wednesday morning feeling a bit woozy, with that shit-i'm-gonna-be-sick feeling. I was tired for most of that day, and the night following was pretty bad too. I had a horrible stomachache, and when I went to relieve myself I not only failed but collapsed on the floor, unable to move while just sweating for 10 minutes or so.

The next couple days (I was still at Cal) kinda just stayed the same. During the day I felt a bit fatigued; at night, sleeping was a nightmare, as I woke up every hour needing to go to the bathroom but also needing water. Also, both my head and body were aching like hell.

I was finally able to come home on Friday, but it actually just got worse from there. I stopped getting fevers and chills, but now the cough took over. I don't ever remember coughs being this bad. Once I start, I go on until I feel my lungs give out, or I get the feeling I want to puke. I sometimes even have trouble breathing properly.

Initially, my coughs were dry but hacking--as of now, it feels that my respiratory tubes / lungs have been inflamed, and there is mucus. It gets especially bad at night; I just start coughing a lot more, and they don't stop. I haven't been able to sleep lying down, so I've moved to sleeping by sitting on the couch outside. That's also really annoying, that I can't even sleep on my own bed without dying.

I've been lacking appetite this whole week as well. For lunch and dinner, I have had to force myself to eat what little rice I can. It's as if this illness is purposely preventing me from getting sufficient rest and nutrition to get better.

The only thing I can do is drink fluids. And I've been drinking so much water--I always have my cup with me. I've been taking medication too, though I'm not seeing any effects. My doctor even prescribed me a couple of inhalers to ease the breathing a bit.

Otherwise, I have managed to get some work done. I regret that this break is almost over, and yet I did not see a single person this whole week. I am also afraid of what will happen if I don't get any better before Monday. If I don't, my life will become that much more of a living hell.

UPDATE: I went to my doctor again today. He mentioned the possibility of mono and prescribed me some even stronger medicine. If I don't get better within a week, I'm to go back for blood tests and a lung scan. Seriously people, I really hope I don't have mono. I can already see my GPA spiraling downward.

First One of the Year

Well, it's about time, I guess. The last post was so long ago, and so much has happened between then and now, hummm.....

Let's see. Well, long story short for fall 2009: success. It was an awesome semester. For one, classes were great. The finals week was a bit hellish and somewhat oppressing, but hey the grades speak for themselves. As for the major question, I am still steadily shifting toward the EE side. We'll see where next semester takes us.

What else? HKN and TBP. They filled up my calendar and made it full. There were rarely any blocks on my calendar where I had more than two days without an event. Although sometimes hectic and sometimes stressful, they provided the means of getting away from all that studying and schoolwork. This past year would really have been a waste if it weren't for them.

Oh hai I just went through the Bent and there I am standing triumphantly behind it.

Friends, both old and new. This is when I am glad that so many Lowellites went to Cal. It is great to go through new experiences like this with people that you know so well. The 09ers too--they really made this semester worth it. And not just for the free meals with the meal points. Can't leave out the Cal & EECS people here. Who would I have turned to for help or discussion without them? Finally, people that don't go to Cal but have still remained in touch. I really am grateful to everyone.

Now for 2010. Looking forward to another memorable year. Winter break is also ending soon, along with horrible sleeping schedules and watching anime with no end, which means the start of another semester. Currently I am signed up for 24 units (6 classes); I have been elected as a Tutoring officer in HKN; I am also supposed to continue working on my project for work. I am 99% sure that I will have to drop Something. But it'll be fun--I look forward to the first couple weeks of experimenting.

Speaking of anime (I'd talk about music but that's been done by so many other people), I managed to finish Code Geass and Ouran High School Host Club. Also, currently watching Fullmetal Alchemist. I know that I'm pretty late on watching these, but they made my break That much better.


Oh, I am also completely ecstatic about Windows 7 and its desktop slideshow function. Now I can fill it with awesome wallpapers like these.

Why Is It That

My Ipod Touch is continuously on fail mode. This is the gazillionth time that I've restored it. I tried every available trick in the book, but it just wouldn't turn on. All it does is show the Apple logo, which then disappears after a few seconds. And no, resetting and knocking it did nothing. SSH'ing into it was not possible either, since there was no way for me to get into it while it was being retarded (not that I knew its path either).

Whatever. I've decided that I'm done with the jailbreaking. Every single time I've done it, I wasted too much time for something that I never took advantage of starting a few days after I added all the new illegal stuff. All I use it for is music anyway, which makes me regret not getting a simple Nano. Oh well, I'll live, stupid Apple...

Why Hello There

Over another month since my last post, and we're already looking at the last instructional week of the semester. First, for a quick update on things since then (the important stuff anyway)...

Classes all going fine, or so I like to think. All these problem sets finally coming to an end (until next semester anyway), as well as new material and lectures. The second round of midterms went okay--I don't care so much about my P/NP history, since it's just for interest; the EE curve was much lower than last time so my 86 was good enough. CS70... yes, the average was like a 58%, although how that justifies my 45/60 I'm not sure... even if it is good enough, it just feels kinda retarded. Well, that's what finals are for.

TBP--finally done with candidate semester! Finished all event and miscellaneous requirements and turned them right before Thanksgiving break. For the most part I'm glad I decided to initiate this semester. Busy as I sometimes was, it was cool to meet new people and go to fun events. Besides, I will probably just get busier as I go on, and there are so many HKN people initiating with me this semester that this semester was probably my best chance. And the free food is Always a plus.

On the other hand, HKN got to be a bit too much in the last couple weeks. The first weekend of the month I had to go to Costco and buy loads of food--that means > $250 worth of cookies, muffins, and juices, enough to feed > 1000 people. What for? All the lower-div EECS food runs that would take place the following two weeks. I had to take charge for most of them (except for 40 and 70, since I'm in the classes), and that sure sapped a lot of my time and energy, not to mention coming back with sore arms each time for carrying the shit back and forth across campus. Even with candidates' help, it was not a very fun job by the end of it all, and it's probably because of that reason that I don't want to do StudRel again.

The last thing on the agendum for HKN was Engineering Sports Night last Friday. Finishing the reservation wasn't too tricky; I just had to pry the money out of EJC to repay us for the field reservation. During the days leading up to it, we had fears of the event getting rained out, and it sure rained hard during the day. Luckily for us, it stopped by afternoon, and joint HKN-TBP event turned out moderately successful (the cold probably didn't help).

That Friday, 11/20, was also the day of the massive protests against the fee increases. For the tl;dr version, my opinion is thus: I obviously don't like the fee increases, but I feel that they are necessary at the time; the regents and administration could be run much better and more efficiently, but it's not something that we can control, and we are better off reforming the political process in Sacramento first. As for the protests, they were just appalling--it's wrong to prevent other students from attending classes and receiving education by blockading a building and pulling fire alarms. Those protesters got what was coming to them by doing what they did. If they wanted to show their opinion, there were so many more responsible and peaceful ways to do so. Instead, one of my classes got canceled (thanks to them) and another one was kicked out repeatedly into the rain (thanks to fire alarms).

That rain and cold, plus the stresses from HKN the past couple weeks that left me feeling exhausted each day, was probably too much for my immune system to take in the end. I got sick for the first time in a while on Saturday, which incidentally was also the day we (Chan, Lixia, Wilson) celebrated Fifi's birthday by going to Cheeseboard. I was not feeling my best (and dying), though Fifi was nice enough to make me chicken soup after getting back. I recovered almost fully by the next day though; that was the fastest cold I've ever had.

Work has been relatively boring this month--I haven't felt much incentive to start anything new, and my last project is finishing itself up slowly. I've been mostly going up there and just studying or whatever while doing work-related stuff on the side. The rains and cold, plus the fact that it's getting dark earlier, somehow seem to be sapping my willingness to do much. Hopefully I'll pick it back up this December.

Social situation is static, as usual. No big changes, though I sometimes wish I had more free time to spend with people (or that I had more people to spend it with). Still very much into K-Pop in my free time, though I've been catching up with the latest everything else as well. Animes again soon, probably after finals? I want to start watching Bleach...

Thanksgiving break's been uneventful so far, save for EE project meddling and family dinners. Today I managed to get a new pair of shoes after unsuccessfully searching for a new wallet. Hopefully these shoes are rain-proof, unlike my current pair.

There seems to be a question which I'm obligated to answer at this point--what am I thankful for? My response is why should I be telling you what I am thankful for today when I don't do that any other time? I'm thankful for the stereotypical stuff that everyone else is--friends, family, how lucky we are, etc. Anyone/anything special? If there is, you should know it already (if you are one to read this)--I won't need to name anyone in particular.

I should probably get started on my homework soon, as well as study for my early final coming up on Friday. I apologize for still not having any pictures, though in the future I will try to have shorter posts if that happens. Yup, peace (I need ideas for a closing word).

Busy Busy Busy

Hooray for the end of the first round of midterms (which was a week ago). This past week has been as busy as ever though. It's hard to see how I managed the time to do something every single day since last Saturday (with the exception of Friday) for either TBP or HKN. Not that I really had much of a choice; they were either required or something I had to do eventually. It's been fun, but I'm starting to burn out.

Last Saturday was Photoscav for HKN. The clues were much tougher than last semester's, though it was pretty fun. Some of the traditional stuff included biggest phallic symbol, breakdancing, rolling down 4.0 hill, etc. Other miscellaneous items were things such as most kinky, most recursive, most masochistic, etc. We found a lot of stuff, and of course, my group won again, just like last semester. Overall a tiring but enjoyable day. =D

Sunday was volunteering for TBP at the Blue Angels booth. Since there were so many people, it became more of a "enjoy the show" type of event, but it was nice nonetheless. Before the show we ended up walking around the pier for a bit (me and some other candidates--I showed them around). The planes themselves were pretty cool, and it was the first time I actually watched them for real down at the pier.

Monday was Game Night for TBP, which was okay. Didn't really do much, though I did play a couple games of MJ. The next couple days were general meeting for TBP and HKN, respectively. Free food ftw here--the first was Gypsy's and the second was Chipotle. Although I have to admit, by this time I was getting a bit tired of the Wozniak Lounge, which was where all three events were held each day. At HKN's GM, we met the candidates for our committee--damnit, I just remembered I still hafta plan committee dinner for that.

Thursday was K'Nex Night for TBP. It was pretty fun--we had a bridge competition. It turned out that our opponent's was longer but not very durable--it was way too rigid and collapsed easily. Ours being a suspension bridge was much more flexible and was therefore able to withstand more weight. I think this should be something every engineer should know, and considering how TBP IS the engineering honors society... Ah well, all in good fun.

I finally had a break to catch up in my work yesterday. Which reminds me, I got back all my midterms already. All went relatively well--absolute-wise they all could've been better (mostly B+/A- range), although I guess I have no excuse to worry, seeing as they're all curved anyway. And besides, history I'm making P/NP anyway, so that's another burden lifted.

O yeah, I'm home today after volunteering at the Food Bank with TBP. It was pretty cool, we boxed apples and packaged oats. First time there, so I guess it was somewhat worth it for the experience. The upcoming week looks almost as busy as this one was--I have something planned for almost every day of the week again. Hopefully they'll be less intensive; for once, I'm not ahead on my physics homework. Thankfully, there is no second midterm for that class. Yup, I should probably start doing some work now!

I LIVE

It has been like a month and a half, but I am still alive. School has been in session for over a month now, and I am currently in the midst of midterm season. Which is why I am blogging, but let's not talk about that.

Lots of updates--first up, classes. Some of you may know I started off the semester with 19 units, 23 if you include the waitlisted Philosophy 115. Well, it just so happened that was the first one to go after the second class--it was either that or History 105B, since they actually conflicted with each other. I just wanted to shop around, but it was pretty clear that, as interesting as Political Philosophy is, the professor's accent plus the bitchy GSI just totally turned me off from the class.

On the other hand, the history of the Hellenistic age (Alexander the Great through the rise of Rome) has been extremely fascinating. Frequently I am able to parallel the course of history there to one of my favorite historical periods, the Three Kingdoms era in China some couple hundred years later. Anyway, I just had a midterm for the class a couple days ago, and I feel okay about it. Depending on how I do, I may change it to P/NP; it doesn't really matter to me, since I just want to learn the material. I don't even do most of the readings for the class, instead opting to save money and time on the primary sources. But yeah, it's all good.

The next class I dropped was CS/Physics/Chem C191, one on quantum computation. That was done the following week. As great as that stuff is, I was feeling pretty lost from day 1. I tried my best to comprehend, but I didn't feel like the refresher on quantum was sufficient; it really did seem like it'd be much easier after I take Physics 137A (quantum mechanics), even though it's not a formal prereq. No worries though, I still have a lot of time to take it later, and at this point I still had 16 units.

After I dropped 191, I decided to add CS9E, the self-paced UNIX course. I am glad I did so, as I finally becoming fluent in the OS, and not just the measly few commands that almost everyone else knows. The only bad thing is that I'm a week behind (oops), but I will catch up (one of these days...). As for the assignments and quizzes, they're not too bad, and the readings are also stabilizing, so that I don't have to read too much a week.

My other physics class is 110A (E&M). I am enjoying the class for the most part, as it forces me to basically relearn and constantly use Math 53 material, mainly in vector calculus. At this point we are also learning new concepts and ideas as well, in addition to the stuff that I'm learning for like the fourth time in my life now (honors, AP, 7B, and now 110A, yay). I'm still not entirely sure on the physics minor thing, but I'm working on it. =P

The last two are EE40 and CS70. 40 is fine--basic circuit theory isn't too hard; we just had a midterm, and I feel that I did relatively well. Our professor is a little strange, although I love his very stereotypical Chinese accent. It's just the labs that are annoying. As for 70, the material is getting tougher, but still interesting--we swept from logic to proofs to stable marriage to security algorithims, with some other stuff in between. The main professor, Rao, is not that great; I only look forward to when the other professor, Tse, takes over. Midterm for that plus physics is coming up next week (I should really get studying).

So yeah, that's a total of 17 units. My Monday and Tuesday afternoons are pretty free, so I am still continuing to work up at SSL. As of now, my previous project is at a standstill, waiting for Steve to have time to review my boards. So I am working on a new project, in which I am actually supposed to design a board rather than just reimplement one. It is definitely intimidating--more details to come when I actually start next week.

Social life I'm pretty satisfied with. On the first weekend of school, Eta Kappa Nu had a retreat--we went to Bodega Bay, some 1.5 hours north of here. It was okay for the most part, somewhat boring at times but enjoyable. Learned some new games, met some new people, and froze at the beach, and the usual stuff. Speaking of HKN, I am pretty glad I'm a StudRel officer, or else I'd have a lot more work to do. Trying to reserve the stupid field for Engineering Sports Night is trouble enough on its own, and we have to start organizing food runs for EECS undergrad midterms pretty soon. In other news, we just had our candidate meeting and a Ben & Jerry's Night yesterday; it's pretty cool to meet all these new people, and I've even given out a few challenges already.

Oh yeah, forgot to mention I'm also going to initiate for Tau Beta Pi this semester. It seems pretty fun as well, and I don't see any reason not to (well, there's the membership fee, but I guess it is lifetime). The only weird thing is that I have completely opposite roles with people who are in or initiating for both. That is, I'm an officer for HKN but a candidate for TBP, and I may have to interact with people who are just the reverse. It can be pretty awkward.

What else... the apartment is fine, as well as the apartmentmates. While the place could be cheaper and bigger, I won't deny that it is nice to have work-order services right there. People came up to fix our leaking toilet and clogged sink within the next day of our requesting it. The other thing is that the place has pretty poor ventilation, so it's usually very warm in there. On the bright side, the weather seems to be cooling down, so that's good. Also, having SSBB around isn't always a good thing, but it's useful for stress relief.

How quickly time flies--the fact that the schedule for next semester has been out for almost a week now just reminds you that college speeds through more quickly than any other time of your life. Well, I certainly look forward to whatever may be ahead, so bring it on.

VICTORY

Ok not really, but for the summer yes. On Wednesday I went in after lunch to finish going over my files plus some PADS basics with Jim. We then spent a couple hours with Steve discussing what to do next with the boards and the MAVEN project. Apparently, it is a rather low-priority project right now. For now it looks unlikely that I will continue to work part-time during the semester--I have 19 units right now, 23 if you count waitlisted units. At the least, I'll go in like once a month to stay on payroll.

And as for next summer, we'll see. Jim said that things will really pick up next year, and I'll definitely get hired again, maybe even work with a new undergrad, since I already know the workings of everything. Unless I find a Way better opportunity somewhere else, I'll probably stay on and move this project along. In the meantime, my files will have to be cleaned up, whether by me or by Bruce.

Something else I forgot to mention last time--the Lawrence Hall of Science! It's just below the hill, and it's kind of like an Exploratorium. Lots of different exhibits for kids to explore. I often see school buses taking schoolkids there. There're a fountain and killer whale in the front too! Here are a few pictures:

The last thing that's kinda cool is the radio telescope in the woods a short walk from the SSL. I think it's pretty small, but it's this first one I've seen in real life. This is a shot from the top of the Addition building:

And here's one from behind, except it's on the other side of a fence that I can't cross. -_-

But yeah, there we go. I think that about sums my summer up (on the Berkeley side anyway). Not sure if I'll keep posting, but yup. I'm definitely not done with the SSL yet, so we'll see you guys again soon!

Almost There!

So today I went to work again at the usual time and left at the same time as well. Well, for all the hours I was actually there, I did almost no real work at all. The only reason I went was because I was to help Jim get started in PADS and transfer to him my files. That didn't happen until like after 3 (why did I go in so early? -_-), so the rest of the time I was just fooling around as usual. Pretty uneventful day, as it will be tomorrow as well, but after this I'm pretty much finished.

It was such a nice day today though! Here's a lovely view of north Berkeley from the lab--this is how high up we are.

Here's another one taken on a foggier day from before. You can see the Campanile and the surrounding area (how small it looks from this distance!). Notice the patches of sun in the distance. It was pretty cool to see, especially with the clouds rolling through so quickly.

One last thing: notice that circular thing at the bottom? That's actually the Cyclotron, a miniature version of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. If you still don't know, it's also known as a particle accelerator or atom smasher. Here's a zoom-in of it:

It's part of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBL), owned by the U.S. Department of Energy but managed by the UC. So as you might think, it has quite a well-renowned reputation. Wish I could go there and take a look!

O yeah

I forgot to mention I got a sample of the anode (circular) board with the actual parts attached to it. It's in a sealed plastic bag, as I'm not supposed to take it out. Picture time!

I'm basically done with my work at this point. I didn't go today, but I'll probably go in tomorrow. I need to give my final files to Jim. He also wants me to teach him how to use PADS, having only acquired it recently himself. Classic example of our generation surpassing the baby boomers! Here are a couple snapshots of my product.


I'm a little frustrated that I couldn't get the bottom two sectors to be blue. Well, I could just Make them blue, but the electrical details are still a little different. O well, it still works out in the end; colors are only for aesthetic purposes anyway.

I Finally Went To Work Today

After a week of vacation and "working at home" (which I technically can do, as I have the software and licenses on my laptop), I finally went back to the lab today. I didn't do anything either; it was mostly just updating the final Gerber files of each board for Steve to see. The annoying thing was that for some of the layers, the files were off-center, so I had to reposition each on--especially bad for the TDC board with its six layers and supplementary graphics.

Then I ended up leaving pretty late, because I realized some of the flaws after 3 pm, and I wanted to finish before leaving, which I did around 4:15. So I ended up being stuck in traffic, all the while rushing to downtown to eat dinner before YFAT. Oh well, half an hour late, what can you do? I find that road rage, which usually isn't a problem for me anymore, comes out when I'm late and stuck in traffic. This bitch cut into my (Fastrak) lane when the divider was still solid--obviously you're not supposed to do that. Then as cars in front of her move, she just stays where she is. I honk angrily, and she picks it up and hits the gas. Then the same thing happens again. Only this time she cuts out of the Fastrak lane. See the problem here folks? Why the fuck are you coming into the Fastrak lane and not even moving if you weren't going to stay in the first place?

Also, I HATE cars in the Fastrak lane who stay in and then try to move out at the last minute, holding up all the cars behind while they are waiting for openings in the slower lanes. They should really start ticketing them. I admit that it is inefficient to have Fastrak lanes from an engineering point of view, but we bought these $40 Fastrak transponders for a fucking reason. Get the fuck out of my fucking lane you fucking assfuck.

Anyway, HI! Here are some pretty pictures.

This is the (Samuel) Silver building, one of the two buildings at SSL. It's the main one, and it houses both administrative offices plus labs and such. I don't work at this building though.

As the building looks from the back down the hill. The brown building next to it is not part of the SSL. It's the MSRI, or Mathematical Sciences Research Institute. It looks like this from the front (notice the fog blocking out the rest of Berkeley and Oakland in the backgound -_-):

My experience with the MSRI was not exactly happy. Well, I've never been in there, but I've seen some of the people who work there. They're mostly young (maybe just for the summer?), and way too loud and happy. They used to take the shuttle down at the same times I do, so they hog up all the seats too. Gradually I learned to avoid taking it at those times, and I haven't seen much of them for the past month. But yeah, they were annoying when I had to deal with them.

Finally, here's the Addition building, the second of SSL. This is the building in which I work, on the third floor. I think it's slightly bigger than Silver, since it's an L shape rather than a solid rectangular box.

People and other things!

So I haven't been to work the past couple days, mainly because my supervisor is on vacation and I have little to do--my projects are almost finished. In the meantime, I would like to give a short rundown on the different people I work and interact with regularly.

My supervisor, Jim, was one of my interviewers that day back in the spring, and it was he who took me on for this job. He's a quite friendly guy (white), who's usually pretty chill with most things. Approaching late middle age, he seems to be one of the more important people working there, and he probably also plays a big role in the project that I'm ultimately working for, something called MAVEN. If you are curious, it is something about a mission to Mars some time in the coming years, and the circuit boards I'm doing is for this spacecraft or something. Anyway, he is also very helpful and will usually respond when I need him.

The guy who I share the room with goes by Bruce. Also white and late middle age, I believe he is an electrical engineer by trade. He mainly works on circuit boards (or so I've observed this summer), and currently he's also working on a project with Jim as well--whether it is the same one as the one I'm doing, I have no idea. But anyway, he's been using PADS for about a year now, and it is from him that I learned most of the stuff that I needed to survive. He is extremely patient and willing to explain anything; during the first month, I probably asked him multiple questions each day. He's also really chill, so I can usually do whatever I want, even when I'm blatantly not working.

The last person of note is Steve, another engineer. Also in the same age range and white (notice a pattern here?), he works in the other building in his own room, one that is extremely unorganized and cluttered with electronics--that's something I can never do. Anyway, he has somewhat of an intimidating persona, but I also regularly have to go consult him on the boards, since he was the chief engineer of them for Jim's project. He also sent me the main files I needed (e.g. schematics) to start working. I usually avoid going to him if possible, since it always seems like I'm wasting his time. I've been seeing him a lot less now that my projects are wrapping up.

But yeah, those are the main people that I would bother to name. There are of course lots of other scientists and engineers working at the lab. My physics professor from last semester (who introduced us to the SSL) is among them. There are also a number of other undergrads working over there this summer. Almost all of them work in this room designated for students, just with a lot of computers around the room and food and drink in the corner. I am so glad I was not assigned that room; I love having my room nearly empty (especially when Bruce goes out to lunch) and having the freedom to do what I want without other people seeing. And every time I go to that room to get a snack or drink, they never seem to be having much fun anyway.

The one thing that annoys me is that a few of them regularly come over to the kitchenette at the ground level of my building for lunch. They literally take like a two-hour break. Wtf is that? When I eat, I take fewer than 10 minutes. Double that time to account for waiting for my panini. The main reason my break is like an hour long is because the shuttle going between the campus and the lab comes every half hour. These undergrads, on the other hand, are Always playing cards or goofing off (when not eating). Every time I pass by the room, between 12 and 2, I guarantee you they'll be in there, most likely playing their dumbass card game and not working. They better not put those hours down as working time.

Which reminds me, I never talked about the payroll. So I make exactly $12 an hour before taxes and deductions and all that. Casual undergrads aren't obligated to work any number of hours, but like full-time workers we do record our hours on a time card and turn it in. Strangely enough, they are usually due before the 15th of each month, forcing everyone to "predict" the number of hours for the rest of the month based on the first half. Problem is, no one's really enforcing anything for me. Bruce is the only other one in my room, and he could care less about how much I work versus how much I write down.

So a typical day (M-W) would involve me waking up at 8:20, leaving the house to take the 9x downtown at 9:00 ($2 adult fare, because I loathe carrying quarters and paying $1 rouses the driver's suspicions, which I do not want). I get to downtown before 9:30 and end up taking the 9:50 F at Transbay. That gets me to Cory by 10:30, allowing me to catch the Hill shuttle at 10:40 (which arrives 10 minutes after each half hour at Evans). After a nearly 2-hour commute, I arrive at the lab at like 11.

Then I'd "work" for a couple hours before lunch. That involves first checking my email, Facebook, news, etc., all before actually starting up my projects. Some days it's pretty bad--I am so unable to stay focused I end up going on Facebook or other sites like every 10 minutes. Or I make excuses to myself saying that "I can finish up to here before lunch, so I have time to do other things." Lunch takes about an hour--shuttle at 12:55 (5 minutes before each half hour at the lab), go down to campus, grab a panini or something, get back up at like 1:50.

Finally, I settle for the long haul. Just an extension of the morning. Occasionally I will go over to the other building to the student room to get a drink. Sidetrack--the snacks and drinks aren't free, but almost $0.50 for all of them. It's not a vending machine though; a container is placed next to the snacks and inside the fridge for money, so it's more of an honors system. Honestly though, I think I've actually paid $0.50 for my drink once or twice. The fridge is next to the door, and when I open the fridge door no one can see what the hell I'm getting or putting in. Usually I just empty my spare change or pennies--there were a couple times where I didn't put in any money at all. Ok yeah, that's pretty horrible, but you can't blame me!

Finally, end of the day. My dad usually gets out of work at 5, so I take the 4:55 shuttle back down to campus to hitch a ride from him. In total that's 11-5pm, or 6 hours (5 if you subtract lunch). Guess how much I write down on my timecards? Not 5 or 6. I write down 7 for every frickin weekday. Oh yeah, that also includes the past couple days I'm taking off. And no one knows or cares about it.

Justification! All the money I'm earning right now--I'm not going to see a penny of it. Cal gives me my salary. In a week, all that money goes back to Cal in a different form, something called tuition. So really, does it all matter in the end? Economically and morally, yes. But I am not an econ major, nor am I a moral person (not 100% anyway).

On Thursdays and Fridays I usually drive whether my dad works or not. That's because I usually carpool back some friends on Thursday (thanks guys =]), thus saving myself the $4 bridge toll and allowing myself to wake up later in the morning. On Fridays I usually go to the RSF after work. I wish I could go more often. T_T

Commute-wise, mornings aren't bad at all. I-80 is always empty on the eastbound side, so buses are always on time, and driving typically only takes half an hour. The return trip is the part I despise most about each day. No matter what day it is, as long as it is after 4:30-5ish, I-80 and 101 will clog up, so travel time lengthens to about an hour. Stop-and-go traffic is frustrating no matter whether you are driving or your dad is (the latter is worse =/). And if there is an accident, then cars might back up way before the toll plaza. Even FasTrak, which I use (my mom's) on Fridays, isn't immune to traffic jams. The only fail-safe way is carpool, which I only get on Thursdays.

Btw, here is how the parking lot of the lab looks like:

This is where I and many other people park, because we are too cheap to pay for parking permits from UC:

Or if we are lucky, we can claim a spot in one of the two "lots" off the side of the road:

Cheapness is good, even for engineers making six (or more) digits. =D

My poor eyes

Because I stare at a computer the whole day. Either that, or extremely tiny things on a board. Although my body isn't physically exhausted, I'm usually pretty mentally fatigued by the time I get home in the evening. The other major contributor is the commute, but I will describe more about that later on. Speaking of my computer, I never actually showed you guys how my place looks like. Here's a partial view of the room:

Err, yeah, it's pretty damn messy, especially by my standards. It was like that when I first started, and it's still like that now. I'm pretty sure that all the other rooms in the place are like this as well, and no one really bothers to do anything about it. It's probably because it's not a private office, more like a common usage room. (I have a coworker on the other side of the room.) And here's how my workstation looks like:

The computer is nice, no complaints--Windows XP, fast connection (and who cares about any other specs, I'm only using this for work and not as a storage space for porn or whatever), and super-nice monitor. I don't mind so much the mess around me either, since it doesn't get in the way. The chair sucks though; it's old-ish, and the squeaking is Horrible. I hate it whenever I lean back, and I feel sorry for anyone else in the room as well. All the other chairs in the room are too short, too tall, lack arms, etc. I use the drawers as well, and they sometimes suck too and refuse to open or close.

Anyway, back to my eyes. On account of these things being so small, most engineers have a visor like this one. It's pretty neat--just pop it on, adjust to head size, and pull over eyes. Then everything becomes magnified without worry. No need to clumsily hold a stupid magnifying glass or to look for a microscope (my coworker, incidentally, does have one at his workstation). And finally, we have this:

A digital caliper to help me measure things down to about a tenth of a mil (a mil is a thousandth of an inch). You really didn't expect me to eye things or use a fucking ruler, right? But yes, this is pretty indispensable for getting things into the right place.

As for today, it was just a LOT of measuring and calculating. If you look back at the circular anode board on the bottom, you'll notice the copper skeleton. To find out the relative positions of the lines, I basically used the known radii of the circles and angles of the lines to find their coordinates. Way too much sine and cosine crunching. -_- Hopefully I can actually start placing parts and routing soon, and I'll probably finish up early next week if not tomorrow.

Final Destination

Well, not really--this isn't my last post (the first one was like all of a couple weeks ago), but there Is some progress involved. Actually, I'm on my last board at this point. YAY! Let's do a quick review of my summer thus far. I first started with the very simple (by now, this is literally a piece of cake, even though I was hyperventilating during that first week) preamp board:


There are a few changes since the last time, but everything is essentially the same. It is simply four (with another small one) circuits, mostly identical, running from four connectors in the center and out to the edges. Of the three boards, this one goes in the middle--it sits above the anode and below the TDC board, which is the following:


I finished this yesterday, a proud product of about three weeks' hard work. Main additions from last time are the reference designators, or the names of each of the parts. It wasn't too bad, just tedious rotating and resizing and moving each to fit next to its respective part. Compared to the preamp, this is probably a true test of what I learned. The preamp is just a tutorial if you look at this one. I think being able to do this board actually shows that I can do something, that I can use PADS and get some engineering done. Conceptually, this board was not that much harder than the first (probably even easier in that respect), but it was just a lot more tedious and complex in terms of structure. So I guess the TDC is just a natural extension of the preamp. Oh yeah, if you are curious as to how the actual parts look like on the board...


Looks a lot cooler, doesn't it? And the wires coming out of the back too--this all seems to make a lot more sense when you see it physically.

And finally, we come to the anode board. Here are some pics to get an idea of how it looks like:


It sure doesn't look anything like the other two boards. As you can see, it is Much simpler than the previous two in terms of parts and routing. In fact, there are only two layers on this board, and all the parts that you see on the top make up pretty much everything. The schematic for this is only one page, and it's just the same thing over and over, to be honest:


Why am I so apprehensive? Well, simple as it may be, the conceptual part is Much more difficult to appreciate. All the copper-plated portions of the board have to be shaped on PADS. The top side is a little easier, although the cutouts into the circle will probably be a bit strange. On the other hand, the back contains a skeleton of circles, as well as anodes (the many circular sectors) in between the radial copper lines, but not connected to the skeleton. This board is indeed unusual in many respects, and PADS was not, as far as I know, built to handle such things. My coworker (who has worked with PADS for a year) told me that this is beyond his domain. It's like going from Pre-Calculus to Calculus and then all of a sudden being rudely thrown into Linear Algebra.

At the very least, I do have some idea of how I'm going to approach it. It will be a lot more geometry and creativity on my part, such that I can brute-force PADS to do what I want it to do. More on that coming up, as I work through it. At the very least, my expectation is that it should take no longer than a week to do, 3 times faster than the TDC board. Here is what I did today. Same business--board outline, clean up schematic, create netlist, import parts.