Secretly I hoped that AT&T Park would give my iPhone some kind of super-reception, perhaps unlocking a sixth bar. It certainly wasn't doing anything for the Mets, who didn't even score a run in this series until the third game, yesterday. Their futility made me doubt my decision to make time to attend the fourth and final game. Would I merely be on ( Read more... )

I am an unapologetic fan of C++, a programming language that unquestionably has its foibles. I am furthermore a fan of C++ templates, despite the inscrutable compiler errors and other issues. I still remember the sheer joy that came with two critical realizations about the Standard Template Library (STL). In college, I learned that the STL ( Read more... )

Sarah and I celebrated a year of marriage with a quiet but lovely weekend. We finally made our way to Greens to partake of their splendid prix fixe dinner, and I dared a carefree weekend shirking my thesis. The fact that I'm still struggling to finish this thing saddens me, but our anniversary gave us a pleasant peek at what we're calling the ( Read more... )

Between life at Apple and working on my thesis, today was my first full day off since last September. It took a sick day. Runny nose, constant coughing, and muscle aches aside, it was pretty nice. Sarah (whom I infected) and I watched a bunch of NCIS from season 1-we're amazed at how strong the show was from the beginning. (NCIS quickly became my ( Read more... )

It's strange to think how much my life has changed since a year ago. I interviewed for my first full-time job, after some 23 years in school. I married Sarah, after years of being just friends and then growing closer together. I moved to San Francisco, after seven years living in Austin. I began earning a living at Apple, after a lifetime of ( Read more... )

I think I'm where I want to be. My first few weeks at Apple have been good, great, splendid. The first week overwhelmed me with a multitude of logins to sort out, development tools to learn, and code to explore. After three weeks, I am more or less oriented. Xcode is one more IDE in which I can work. Objective C is one more programming ( Read more... )

After a week in nice but bland corporate housing, we found a place to call home. Today we signed a lease for a flat in Noe Valley, a neighborhood that enchanted us during our vacation to San Francisco last year. It blends the idyllic charm of a community secluded from the city center with the vivacity of a thriving main drag. We'll be one ( Read more... )

I only realized we were possibly too white and privileged to get the apartment towards the end of the hour-long showing with a particularly inquisitive potential landlord. At the time it didn't seem odd that she'd be curious where we grew up, but maybe I should have been more alarmed when she asked what our parents did and where my parents were ( Read more... )

Our journey to San Francisco turned out to be less Oregon Trail and more a monotonous test of endurance. We never had to ford any rivers, not because of the existence of bridges but because we traversed only desert and mountains. Instead of hunting buffalo, we ate at the (reliable and vegetarian friendly) Subway restaurants that seem to flourish ( Read more... )

Emily entered into service with the Jong family in 2000, but she did not become the first car I owned until spring break, 2002. Today that service came to an end, and by comparing the amount I paid my mother to the amount I just received, you could say I made a 40000% profit. Of course, we all know that the journey is more important than the ( Read more... )