Sunday, December 25, 2005
Christmas 2005
My Christmas was a traditional one at home in the Southwick Estate. Presents-opening started soon after I woke up at the crack of oh-thirteen-hundred-hours. My haul was relatively nondescript this year, but I didn't ask for much, so I was not disappointed. The one thing I knew I had to have was Green Day's DVD, "Bullet in a Bible." (Am I too obsessed with Green Day's "American Idiot" 2004-2005 tour? Survey says: I don't care woo! woo! woo! I don't care woo! woo! woo! I don't care!!)
The Southwick Estate was flooded with guests. Representing the Hoffmans, we had my dad, grandma, and grandpa. Representing the Davidsons, we had my mom, grandma, grandpa (in spirit), grandma's friend, aunt, uncle, two cousins, cousins' old sitter, and uncle's aunt. Dinner was delicious goose (et al) cooked by my mom with help from aunt, uncle, and my Christmas present (a couple of Wüsthof chef's knives--you know they're quality because they have ümlaüts).
The more exciting news is that the Southwick Estate is now equipped with HDTV on a 37" plasma Panasonic and cable internet, although getting it all up and running was a several-day ordeal. Good friggin' riddance to the 28.8kbps dialup.
The only "Merry Christmas" email I got Christmas morning, besides Dahling of course, was from the one-armed Chilean surfer, and he wasn't even sure if I celebrated it. (It's time for every Stanford friend's favorite game show, "How Jewish Is Hoff?")
There might be more, but it's not even still Christmas on PST time (aka "K time") so I'd better hit the haysack. (Clarifying edit: I opened blogger at 10:35pm, and didn't publish til 3:14am. Craaazy.)
The Southwick Estate was flooded with guests. Representing the Hoffmans, we had my dad, grandma, and grandpa. Representing the Davidsons, we had my mom, grandma, grandpa (in spirit), grandma's friend, aunt, uncle, two cousins, cousins' old sitter, and uncle's aunt. Dinner was delicious goose (et al) cooked by my mom with help from aunt, uncle, and my Christmas present (a couple of Wüsthof chef's knives--you know they're quality because they have ümlaüts).
The more exciting news is that the Southwick Estate is now equipped with HDTV on a 37" plasma Panasonic and cable internet, although getting it all up and running was a several-day ordeal. Good friggin' riddance to the 28.8kbps dialup.
The only "Merry Christmas" email I got Christmas morning, besides Dahling of course, was from the one-armed Chilean surfer, and he wasn't even sure if I celebrated it. (It's time for every Stanford friend's favorite game show, "How Jewish Is Hoff?")
There might be more, but it's not even still Christmas on PST time (aka "K time") so I'd better hit the haysack. (Clarifying edit: I opened blogger at 10:35pm, and didn't publish til 3:14am. Craaazy.)
Friday, December 16, 2005
CS 229 = high school
Om and I, displaying our poster triumphantly in my room.
You can see the gluestick remains of previous users of the posterboard; the CS department provides us with loaner boards.
60-second oral presentation in about 300 minutes, so I'm out.
Thursday, December 15, 2005
Ling 1 = high school
I just took the most high-school-esque final in my college career. (Not counting relatively straightforward math and physics type exams, which are kinda expected to have the same "remember the right formula and plug it in" types of problems.)
I probably shouldn't post specific questions in case someone's taking a late make-up exam--and technically the exam doesn't even end for another 30 minutes--but, man... some of the short answer/fill-in-the-blank/true or false questions were just juvenile.
"In language X, the sentence "bla bla" can be used as a question in a conversation or as a ______."
(I decided to be a smartass and draw an proofread-style "transpose" loop around "as a question/in a conversation".)
"X, Y, and Z are examples of _________."
(They're a lot of things. Terms used by linguists. Words appearing on this sheet of paper. Shall I go on?)
T/F: "X is a main reason that Y."
(You say main, I zader madermorts.)
Bah. On to real hard classes like Machine Learning and Analysis of Algorithms.
Edit: To clarify,
1) The exam had three "long answer" problems. (BCR's, in AP test lingo)
2) The exam was 40% (!!) of the quarter grade.
3) I called gadæm velar consonants fʌkɪŋ palatals. X-/
I probably shouldn't post specific questions in case someone's taking a late make-up exam--and technically the exam doesn't even end for another 30 minutes--but, man... some of the short answer/fill-in-the-blank/true or false questions were just juvenile.
"In language X, the sentence "bla bla" can be used as a question in a conversation or as a ______."
(I decided to be a smartass and draw an proofread-style "transpose" loop around "as a question/in a conversation".)
"X, Y, and Z are examples of _________."
(They're a lot of things. Terms used by linguists. Words appearing on this sheet of paper. Shall I go on?)
T/F: "X is a main reason that Y."
(You say main, I zader madermorts.)
Bah. On to real hard classes like Machine Learning and Analysis of Algorithms.
Edit: To clarify,
1) The exam had three "long answer" problems. (BCR's, in AP test lingo)
2) The exam was 40% (!!) of the quarter grade.
3) I called gadæm velar consonants fʌkɪŋ palatals. X-/
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Sure, why not
fill my blog with trivial frivolity? (Thank you thesaurus.com.) It's not like I got a whole lot else going on.
| Your 2005 Song Is |
 Feel Good Inc by Gorillaz "Love forever love is free. Let's turn forever you and me." In 2005, you were loving life and feeling no pain. |
Finals week -- CS ensues
I have been working on CS229 Machine Learning about 12 hours a day for the last four days. Things are finally coming to a head. We should have plenty to talk about in our one-minute poster presentation and five-page project writeup. (So much work to go into such a small space...) Sadly, our resulting data is likely to be kinda meaningless, but that's really out of limitations on time and computational resources.
I'm also really nervous about the CS161 final. But I aced the last problem set for that class after struggling in some of the earlier ones, so maybe things are looking up.
Now to shave for the first time in five days...
I'm also really nervous about the CS161 final. But I aced the last problem set for that class after struggling in some of the earlier ones, so maybe things are looking up.
Now to shave for the first time in five days...
Monday, December 05, 2005
Das Futon
Today I made the most significant material upgrade to my college life: I bought a used futon. My only other big acquisition (besides the stuff I started freshmen year with: desktop, bike, and my dad's old acoustic guitar) was buying a used laptop on craigslist last spring. (After that are such trivial items as the mattress pad and small shelf unit from Bed, Bath, and Beyond and the folding card table from Target, all of which I got at the start of sophomore year in the penthouse.)
The lightweight metal frame quite easily folds out into bed form. Right now the futon is plopped against one wall, with that wall's former contents (a shelf, a lamp, and miscellany like bottled water and my backpack) shoved against my dresser. I hope I don't need clothes soon... Yea, my room needs reorganization. (And the futon needs covering.)
Here are pictures.
It's very exciting!
Oh, and I have infinite work for the next two weeks. So, um, I'll get back on that.
Next Thursday, the 15th, I have the Ling 1 final at 8:30-11:30am and then the CS 161 final at 7:00-10:00pm. The next morning, Friday the 16th, I have a CS 229 research project poster presentation at 8:30am and the final project writeup due at 11:59pm. Then on Saturday the 17th, they kick us out of the dorms at noon. So... no sleep from the 14th to the 17th. Wheee... Parents, please pick me up from the airport and deposit me to my bed.
I'll be home in Maryland from Dec 17 to Jan 8.
The lightweight metal frame quite easily folds out into bed form. Right now the futon is plopped against one wall, with that wall's former contents (a shelf, a lamp, and miscellany like bottled water and my backpack) shoved against my dresser. I hope I don't need clothes soon... Yea, my room needs reorganization. (And the futon needs covering.)
Here are pictures.
It's very exciting!
Oh, and I have infinite work for the next two weeks. So, um, I'll get back on that.
Next Thursday, the 15th, I have the Ling 1 final at 8:30-11:30am and then the CS 161 final at 7:00-10:00pm. The next morning, Friday the 16th, I have a CS 229 research project poster presentation at 8:30am and the final project writeup due at 11:59pm. Then on Saturday the 17th, they kick us out of the dorms at noon. So... no sleep from the 14th to the 17th. Wheee... Parents, please pick me up from the airport and deposit me to my bed.
I'll be home in Maryland from Dec 17 to Jan 8.
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