My Attempt

...at a short, simple, non-epic blog post, following Carolyn's sound advice (btw, people, Carolyn is a fantastic blogger :). I'm trying to break out of the mindset that says every good blog post begins with "For the last X days/weeks/months, I have done Y, and here is my profound and expert analysis." Maybe this change of philosophy will finally be the thing that makes for more frequent blog posts.

Anyway.

I think I have a 'pet' spider. It lives in the gap between my kitchen stove and counter, about an inch below surface. It's kinda cute in that it disappears everytime I start up one of the burners, but always reappears in its usual place, without fail, after a couple of hours. This has been going on since last May, at least.

I like to think that this little spider and I have a silent, mutual agreement: It's never tried venturing up north, and as a result, I've never tried killing it. Given my long history of extreme arachnophobia, this is somewhat endearing for me. But it makes me oscillate between two thoughts: 1) I hope it doesn't abuse my generosity and start making babies, and 2) Maybe I should give it a name.

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I've given some thought to the 'intelligence' of spiders, and its ability to perform regular tasks with great precision. More than once this summer, I've sat (in the company of a good friend who sometimes values insects more highly than humans) and watched spiders arduously weave webs by moonlight.

Once, curious, we threw a good-sized twig up into a web. The spider immediately scurried from center field and made a cursory sweep around the twig before deciding that it was no good. In an extremely skillfull manner, it worked its way around the twig, 'unknotting' the least number of intersections necessary in order to cut out the parts of the web that were stuck to the twig (notice that it did not simply free the twig; parts of the web came with it too). Within just five minutes, we got a nice "screw you" as the twig came tumbling back down at us.

We just stared, stunned by the precision and efficiency of its handiwork.

The spider finished off by repairing the torn bits of its web -- which wasn't very much at all -- before settling back into the center of the web. Like clock-work.

It was a simple discovery, but the reasons behind the basic web structure became clear to us for the first time: damage control! The concentric circles intersected by radiating lines is actually a brilliant little piece of structural engineering that makes it easy for parts of the web to be isolated, lest there be a need for removal. This maximizes the area that is unaffected, keeping the overall structure of the web robustly intact.

(Kind of like those mattresses that let you toss and turn all you want while keeping your partner relatively undisturbed...)

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My photography has actually spurred more of my interest in these 'little' guys, the Garden Spider:

This one was almost 3 inches long and nearly gave me a heart attack everytime I went in for a shot. Note the beautiful zig-zagging pattern down the center line! Wikipedia details its web making process almost as if describing an algorithm -- kind of neat to observe robotic-like execution in nature. I wish I were as skillful at some things as these little guys are.

Unfortunately, all of this does not change the fact that spiders are ugly, have more than four legs, and thus, still warrant blood-curling screams upon unexpected discovery.

Also, I think I fell for the epic-"for the last X months"-blog template again. Crap.

Maybe I Should Start Blogging Again... ?

I find myself having random thoughts lately... but nowhere to store them!

But now that I've caught the photo bug, words seem so last year... It's all about the photoblog now, and everyone knows a picture is worth a thousand words.

Still, the 'for some reason diane needs to publicly express things' persona seems to be missing something... Hm. What could it be?

Hello, Sunday Morning!

The best mornings ever: (1) wake up at noon to streaming sunshine, (2) walk over to Von's to pick up a box of strawberries, (3) make pancakes.

Um, oh yeah, and (4)... work on ECE homework? :(

How To Study for a Midterm

(I'm sure I've posted blogs with similar titles back at UW. But, guys, this is 'how to study for a midterm' grad-school style. Not fooling around here.)

1. Repair your toilet. The toilet's been leaking for months now; somehow it didn't bother me until this morning. Was about to call the repairs people when I thought... maybe google has something to say about this. Sure enough, it did -- in the form of some great DIY websites. Spent a good while studying up on refill valves and flush valves and finally realized that I needed to repair the flapper. $4 and a trip to Home Depot later... my toilet is fixed! (Also did a thorough cleaning of the entire bathroom while I was at it.)

2. Fix the chair that has been broken for over a year. While at Home Depot, I decided that I should also buy the screw that's been keeping me from assembling one of my dining room chairs. Because Home Depot didn't have the correct model, they referred me to Ace Hardware. To Ace Hardware I went. Came back, assembled the chair... dining table is now symmetic with two chairs on each side!

3. Redecorate your room. I bought a gorgeous little flower print about two months ago and never got around to framing it. This morning, I felt it necessary to hit up Aaron & Brothers, Target, and Rite Aid to find the perfect 5 x 5 pewter picture frame. I also dug around my closet and found my favorite Kandinsky poster that I never got around to hanging up since moving to San Diego. Also, re-arranged all of my photos that line the top of my desk, made my bed, vacuumed... My room is now much prettier.

4. Go online shoe shopping. I recently discovered Zappos.com. Having spent three months scouring for a pair of nice, black pumps at a non-ridiculous price, this website was heaven. The selection is huge, prices are decent, all orders = 2-day shipping = much more efficient turn-around time for buying/returning, shipping is free *both* ways (i.e. returning too), 365-day return policy, etc. The best part, however, is that the website is terribly easy to browse, with nice filters that even a CS person finds semi-satisfying (in particular, IT LETS YOU SEARCH BY HEEL HEIGHT...UUUGHHH SO SATISFYING). Found my shoes after about three tries... (!)

5. Pick up a new musical instrument. I ordered my first guitar online! It came today! Pranced around in front of the mirror for a bit with the guitar slung across my shoulder. Someday I might actually be able to play it. But in the meantime, it does make my room look prettier...

6. Invest in a CD. My lovely online bank account makes this type of thing so easy that I feel like I am actually playing a game of Monopoly.

7. Blog. Of course. How else would you, the reader, be entertained at this very moment?

So, that's what I've been up to in the last 8 hours with my ECE midterm pending in half a day. Pretty productive, if you ask me.

Black Thursday

Thursdays should have been glorious. But now, they shall be black.

:(

Vegas Is More Than Just _____

Last week, Jie and I took a roadtrip to Vegas for ICASSP 2008 where we presented a poster on our work with the Sight-Reading Tutor. A funny place to hold a nerdfest, I know... Throughout the week, we would play our own version of "hot or not" -- which effectively translated to "ICASSP? or not" as it was amusingly easy to identify clumps of ICASSP attendees on the crowded Strip.

This marks my fourth time in Vegas. List of hotels I have stayed at: The Golden Nugget, MGM, Luxor, Excalibur, and The Stratosphere. Now, I get to add Caesar's Palace to that list (thanks, ICASSP!!).

I have great respect for Vegas and I think it's a shame that some people know it only for its sensual side. Of course, I won't deny its rampant promotion of adult entertainment and shameless plug for some not-so-virtuous values. But even as a kid, I was far more inspired by Vegas than Disneyland/Universal Studios/Sea World combined (why my parents took me to Vegas for the first time as a middle-schooler... I dunno).

My first ride through The Strip felt more like a parade into fantasy land -- everything is supersized, magnificent, showered with glitz and glory. Ordinary lodging spaces are transformed into whimsical pyramids and castles and palaces and ships, a three-ring circus, famous cities (New York, Venice, Rome, Paris). Ginormous statues line hotel entrances, roller coasters weave in and out of skyscrapers. You don't check in at some counter with some nice flower arrangement on the side -- you check in at the atrium of a PALACE where the registration counter seems to run like a quarter-mile long against a backdrop of grandiose paintings that stand two stories high. Everything -- design, architecture, lighting, decor, aura -- every inch of these monstrous structures is covered in perfect, amazing detail.

And the shows... They are always hyped, but probably never over-hyped. This time, we saw Cirque du Soleil's KA, an intricate weave of art, acrobatics, theatrics, and mechanics that achieves such perfection that it was literally unbelievable. It was 90 minutes of pure eye/ear-candy and they don't even give you the chance to blink.

I don't think I'm the type to enjoy what Vegas is stereotypically known for... but more than anything, Vegas appeals to the (visual) perfectionist in me. It might boast something as superficial and trivial as 'entertainment', but I've got great respect for anything that's of extreme, high-caliber, and Vegas definitely does entertainment like no other.

So, When Is Your NLP Due?

I have been asked this question many times throughout the quarter, and the answer is usually, "um... two weeks ago?"

It's been an unconventionally rough quarter :(