Posts Tagged california
The Drivers Are Ruthless
Now that I’ve been biking on the roads again for about a month, I’m again coming to grips with being the target of of road rage. About once a week in Williamsburg, I’ve gotten some kind of gesture/horn/scream from someone. People need to relax.
It’s bad enough that several times every week I get one of those “Oh crap!” moments where a car is about to pull out in front of me or run a red light and hit me. This morning, for example, someone at a stop sign didn’t look in my direction before nearly pulling out into me. No more do I even think about going through a stoplight. I stop at every one and really make sure nobody is blowing through the yellow before the light turns green. I’ve had too many close calls when following the rules to justify taking any more risks.
I think the pervasiveness of cell phones and texting is making things worse than it ever used to be. A few weeks ago I was out on a lightly traveled farm road when a massive Suburban speeding in the oncoming direction swerved into the my lane. Through the windshield I could see two hands and a cell phone at the top of the steering wheel. Luckily, they corrected and went back into their own lane.
The attitude of most drivers is that cyclists have no business being on the road. The attitude of most cyclists is that the cyclists have a right to be there. I think “right” is too strong a word. Like a driver’s license, it’s more a privilege. As many before me have said: there are drivers that shouldn’t be driving, and cyclists who shouldn’t be cycling. However, cyclists who follow all the rules still get more than their share of grief. It seems that the main reason drivers hate cyclists is that they hold up traffic. Drivers can’t stand having to wait behind a long line of cars at 25 mph because a cyclist is in front. But, that isn’t any excuse to keep them from the roads, and especially not an excuse to get angry at the cyclist. A cyclist in a 45 mph zone during a typical rush hour will hold up a car for what? 20 seconds? I can’t remember having to wait much longer than that when driving behind one.
I ride at least two feet to the left of the edge of the pavement to make sure I’ve got plenty of space to maneuver in case something happens. I also prefer to be away from the edge since that is where all the nails, rocks, and glass are ready to slice my tires to shreds. Legally, I could ride right down the middle of the lane. I try to stay out far enough so that cars don’t do something stupid and try to squeeze between me and a car in the lane next to mine. Sometimes I get crap for that, but it’s better being safe.
When I was in California, in the Bay Area, every single street had a bike lane. Every single intersection had a magnetometer to specifically detect bikes. Traffic was way worse, but people were way nicer. Back east, we don’t have those niceties, in both the infrastructure and the people. In Virginia Beach, the best they do is put down an extra-wide sidewalk along the road, peppered with protruding manholes and construction debris. It’s actually illegal to ride a bike on the sidewalk in Virginia Beach, but there are no bike lanes to be seen. In Williamsburg there are a few, which do make a difference when the road is busy. More bike lanes would help, but the problem is that with 90 percent of the constituents having the “no business on the road” attitude, no local money would ever be spent for cyclists.
For now, I will try to limit my time in Virginia Beach so I don’t have to bike there very often. Last time I was there, on the weekend, it took less than three minutes from when I started to get the middle finger. Some guy on a motorcycle leaned on his horn while I was on Atlantic. It wasn’t as bad as this incident a few years ago, but it was still pretty insane, especially since a guy got killed recently on his bike really close to where I go. The terrible attitude towards cyclists really comes out in the comments section of that article.
Until everyone learns to get along, it will be tough going on the bike. I really should just start running again.
There Will Be Blood: Terrible
Posted by Matt in Uncategorized on April 13, 2008
I don’t see how it got a 92% on Rotten Tomatoes. Does anyone that actually likes the movie want to chime in as to why it was any good? The acting was good, but that was about it.
There was almost no plot development. The whole thing was slow, long, and the soundtrack was really bizarre. There was very little dialog. Mainly, the story was about how just about everyone was a dishonest piece of work out to scam everyone else out of their money. The main character, Plainview, was the worst of them all, beating the crap out of just about everyone and even killing a few people for no reason. Plainview didn’t get any kind of payback for what he did — there was no moral to the story and no real resolution. Instead, Plainview just gets more and more drunk and more and more out of control. The whole movie kind of spirals out of control with him, making you feel as though you were getting drunk right along with the guy. It just didn’t make any sense.
The only one that was honest was Plainview’s adopted kid. He gets smacked around by his father, blown up in an oil rig explosion, loses his hearing, and gets sent off to a boarding school. Eventually he has the guts to part ways with his father later in life.
I guess you could say that the point was to illustrate how cutthroat the oil business was in early twentieth century California. Everyone was looking out for themselves. Maybe there was something I missed, I’m just not sure.
September
Posted by Matt in Uncategorized on September 26, 2007
Since I started school I practiced with the team for a week and a half or so, did two fairly easy workouts and then the left achilles gave out. I guess I really screwed myself up over the summer.
I started biking last week and the last time I biked was right when I got home from California. I noticed I felt a lot stronger this time. Before I would go up a small hill and feel exhausted after I got to the top. Now, I get tired, but then recover quickly.
I noticed recently that I am becoming more motivated again. For awhile I didn’t feel like doing anything but now I’m getting back into doing schoolwork, games are becoming more entertaining and can hold my attention, and little itch-scratching project ideas are returning. For example, I wish RSS feeds/sites would display the full text of their articles. That way I don’t have to look at a page jammed with irritating ads flashing crap all over the place. In addition, links and other text and images that I don’t want to see would also be gone. I could create a condensed report from all my favorite sites, print it out, and read it when I am somewhere with no computer. So, the challenge would be to recognize news/post article text while discarding everything else. The RSS partial feed would help identify the start of the full text, but some web pages cram in ads and other formatting inside the article text. An HTML parser would help some, but some kind of language recognition would be needed to detect something that doesn’t fit with the rest of the text.
So, I’ve been on my own most of the time since school really seems to have picked up. Biking takes a lot more time than running and it’s nice to be able to do things when I want to (in the morning if I can) and not screw around. At the same time I really miss going to the meetings and talking to everyone. It’s a lot easier and more enjoyable to run and bike if there are other people to go with.
I got a bunch of stuff to do for class projects which has been taking up a big portion of my time, but it’s better to get started early than to cram everything in at the end. I also spoke with one of my professors about a Master’s project which I can get started on anytime. I’ll probably wait until winter break when I don’t have all the other classes bearing down on me. Everything is about set up to work with the people at Ames from school and I’ll get some kind of plan as to what to do this week. Unfortunately, everything got set up just as all the school work started.
So, I am starting to get things done. It’s hard to get started on stuff, but once you get going it isn’t too bad.
Over the past month, I’ve played and beat Bioshock. It was the first game I’ve played through in a long time. It was a solid game, but was missing much of the RPG element I expected. System Shock 2 had much more of that in it. I liked the game mostly because the atmosphere and gameplay were different than the average FPS. The plasmids and weapons were unusual and made things interesting. The ability to hack stuff and change your abilities with different plasmids made things fun too. Some of it was dumbed down from System Shock though. The plot, however, was almost exactly like System Shock. The same exact plot twist happened at the same exact point in the game. I knew it was coming from the start.
I also started on Tiberium Wars this weekend and so far it’s another sequel that keeps the spirit of the original. The cut scenes really help with the whole C&C vibe and I recognize a ton of the actors from other TV shows/movies, which usually isn’t the case in a video game. I’ve played a few missions as GDI and so far it feels very similar to the first C&C as well as Red Alert. Tiberium Wars seems to be a bit faster paced, if not chaotic. I tend to build a bunch of units and then wind up hurling them at the enemy base or protecting my own if I’m under attack. Many times I find it hard to build a reasonable strategy since it seems things happen so fast. Air support is underrated, though. I’ve used it several times to sneak past enemy lines and take out objectives and win without a direct assault on the enemy base.
Apparently my dad got an Xbox along with Halo 3 so that might be the impetus to go home again this weekend, given my achilles holds up. Home cooked food is another enticement. I’ll also be able to see Sarah again. I just have to make sure I am on top of my work. I get most of my computer games from him when he finishes them, but I’m surprised he got a console. The xbox is probably the best choice out of all the consoles in terms of hardware and games that interest me, especially since most cross platform games seem to run and look better on the console from what I hear. Then they do a crappy port to the PC.
That brings back another memory. I remember we were the first household I knew of to set up a LAN, I think it was in late 1995 or 1996. It used that coaxial cable like the TV cable uses and was decentralized in such a way that you didn’t need a hub or router, 10 Base-T I think. The first thing we did with it was play games. I remember Mechwarrior, Quake, and Red Alert took on a whole new level of excitement with multiplayer, especially since dial-up was so slow for stuff like that. It’s probably why I liked the original C&C games so much. I would play long battles with my dad and middle school friends and it was a huge change from playing against dumb AI opponents. Plus you could hear the screams of someone in the next room when you pummeled them with a rocket launcher or steamed a fleet of cruisers alongside their base. But now, multiplayer is the norm, and so some of that excitement has worn away. I just wish some of the people I knew played computer games. Plenty of them play console games, so maybe I should convert.
Back East
Posted by Matt in Uncategorized on August 24, 2007
It’s all over now. This summer is, at least.
Last week my presentation went pretty well, but I lost my place twice and forgot what I was going to say. I stood there like an idiot for a few seconds until I could remember. That’s how it goes, I guess. You just have to practice until you get it right.
Before I left, I met with my supervisor who said I could work part time during school if I wanted. That sounds great since it would be really flexible, unlike becoming a TA/grader with the Computer Science department. I could only work a few hours a week if school got tough. He also said I could go full time during winter break and I could work completely from home just like a few of the other guys in our team. Hopefully I can get everything set up for that within a few weeks because the beginning of school always has the least amount of work.
My mom came in Thursday afternoon and took Caltrain from the airport to Mountain View. I came by around noon and picked her up. That was pretty easy.
On Friday I met with everyone for the last time and went over my source code. I was very surprised nobody really complained about it. In fact, nobody really made any suggestions about changing my code, which was really surprising. Everyone said if I was able to fix the few bugs that still remain it could be released in the next version.
Friday afternoon I was able to leave early and my mom and I drove into San Francisco and walked along the Embarcadero. We went into Pier 39 and saw sea lions duking it out on the dock. We bought some sourdough bread which we took with us on the trip back and was really good.
For dinner we met our old neighbors again at the Fog City Diner. I got this dish with crab, scallops, clams, and scallops in a broth. I had never ordered anything before where you had to break apart the crab to get at the meat. It was kind of messy for only a little meat, but still good.
On the way back I realized that this was my last trip to San Francisco and down the 101 towards Moffett. I really didn’t want to leave.
Day 1 (Saturday): Mountain View, CA to Williams, AZ:
The following morning I got up early and biked on the usual route, but there wasn’t nearly as much traffic so I wasn’t caught at all the lights. It was weird realizing that this was also my last few hours in California and I would be heading home.
We got the car packed up and left around 9:30 from Moffett and headed down 101, crossed over to I-5 around Gilroy, and then took CA 58 through Bakersfield and Barstow before getting on I-40. We stopped outside of Bakersfield at a Subway for lunch. They served avocados on their subs That part of California isn’t that nice. It’s hot, dry, and smoggy. I definitely wouldn’t want to live there. There were also tons of trucks carrying tomatoes and melons. After getting on I-40, we passed into the Sierra Nevada — this far south it wasn’t nearly as spectacular as on I-80, more like a handful of desert hills. There were a lot of ghost towns out there.
There was an aircraft graveyard and a ton of windmills in Mojave. The whole area was hot, dusty, and dry. I can’t believe that Dan and his friend hiked through that for the first month or so of their trip on the Pacific Crest Trail. That whole area is inhospitable and I couldn’t imagine walking for days in the desert.
We got to Needles, CA, along the Colorado, at around 6 PM Pacific and stopped at a Denny’s. It was the only place around. Needles was a ghost town, even on a Saturday evening. Gas there was insane — like $3.57 or something, while even in Mountain View it was under $3.00. Afterwards, my mom and I continued across the Colorado into Arizona with anothe two and a half hours to go until Williams. I drove the windy, hilly, and desolate roads through the sunset and into the dark. Signs every mile warned of deer and elk and everyone around us had their high beams on to look out for them. We passed a place called Black Mesa. It wasn’t much different looking than the Black Mesa from Half Life. There were plenty of striated sandstone mesas that faded into the darkness along the way. We finally got to Williams around 9:30 Pacific and we were both exhausted. It was over 10 and a half hours of driving that day.
Day 2 (Sunday): Williams, AZ to Amarillo, TX:
The second day sucked because of the time change. We lost two hours that day because Arizona is on Pacific time for the summer and Mountain time in the winter. Finishing the day in Texas meant we would be on Central time, so we only went 9 hours that day. My mom had thought about driving up to the Grand Canyon, but a couple hours out of the way would have slowed things down a lot. Instead, we headed out of Williams on I-40 instead of going north to the Grand Canyon.
This day had a lot of scenery changes. Near Flagstaff there were mountains and forests of pine trees, but crossing into the eastern part of the state there were more deserts. We went by the Painted Desert, Meteor Crater, and the Petrified Forest. I had been to all of these places when I was little and only remembered bits and pieces. It was possible to see chunks of petrified logs as well as some of the Painted Desert from the interstate.
New Mexico was more arid and dry and was like Mojave, but with more scrubby vegetation. There were also bigger mountains. We drove through a few canyons which were pretty cool. When we got to Albuquerque, we went into the downtown area and drove around the Old Town and stopped at the University of New Mexico. Their classes were starting the next day. It was also incredibly hot there but fortunately no humidity.
The rest of New Mexico was pretty desolate and flat. There was some grass and cattle, and that was about it. We stopped at a steakhouse for dinner in some forgotten town. The beef was good, though. Not long after, we passed into Texas, which was more of the same endless flat terrain.
Day 3 (Monday): Amarillo, TX to Forrest City, AR:
We got in over ten hours this day and had time to do some sightseeing since we were on Central time the whole day. Texas on I-40 was just flat and grass as it had been the day before. There was almost nothing there. Oklahoma had some of that, but more trees cropped up as we headed east towards Oklahoma City.
We stopped in Oklahoma City at a deli for lunch and walked to the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial. I remember seeing the memorial on the news when it was finished. It was pretty interesting to see. There is a big reflecting pool and a metal chair for each person who died. I remember hearing somewhere that no references to the bombers themselves are made either in the memorial or the museum next door. I didn’t see any.
I nearly fell asleep on the drive from Oklahoma until we stopped in Little Rock for dinner. It was just rolling hills and trees and wasn’t much different than I-64 from Williamsburg to Richmond. We went to a Cracker Barrel and got a huge pile of food. My mom and I shared everything we got and I wound up eating most of her pecan pancakes. They were really good. There was also this hash brown casserole which I liked that I got as part of my dish.
From Little Rock it was only about another 45 minutes or so to Forrest City.
Day 4 (Tuesday): Forrest City, AR to Christiansburg, VA:
This was the last full day of driving and was another ten hours. We started the day just switching to Eastern time so it would be easier later on. There wasn’t much traffic going into Memphis, but there were a few nasty car accidents on the other side of the highway that made things a mess for everyone going the other way. Looking at the map, I noticed Mississippi was only about 10 miles from where we were so my mom drove 20 minutes out of the way just so I could say I had been there. Now I’ve been to all the southern states. I doubt I would have reason to return to Mississippi, so I’m glad we stopped.
There was well over 500 miles of driving in Tennessee, about as much as Sarah and I did in Nebraska on the way out, but this was a lot better since there were several big cities (Memphis, Nashville, Knoxville), more traffic, and hills and mountains. Still, I made sure to get a Mountain Dew at lunch so that I could stay awake for my portion of the drive. I don’t drink stuff with caffeine much so I can really feel it when I get some. It’s like chemically induced awakeness — I can tell I’m not supposed to be as alert as I am. When it wears off I can really tell too, but by that time we had almost made it to Virginia after getting off I-40 and on to I-81.
I had never been to that little corner of Virginia before, so even that was a first for me. There was a Bob Evans in Wyethville that we stopped at for dinner, and again, it wasn’t much farther to Christiansburg.
Day 5 (Wednesday): Christiansburg, VA to Virginia Beach, VA:
Finally, the last day of driving. The car was a mess on the outside and I was anxious since I hadn’t run or biked since we left California. It was a little over 5 hours on US 460 from Christiansburg back to Virginia Beach. There was almost no traffic until we got to Petersburg, so it was probably a good way to go.
It was weird coming back home after all this time and especially after driving from the west coast. It was great to get out of the car and bike. I went down to the oceanfront and back and it was a welcome release. Of course, it was overcast with jungle-esque humidity with some rain.
My achilles was really sore the day after I tried running on it before I left California. I tried again yesterday but it was pretty tight during the run so I cut it short after about 20 minutes. Fortunately, it wasn’t sore today, only pretty tight. I may try going in the afternoons instead of the morning so it will be looser. Hopefully it will improve soon.
Basically I only have a day or two before I go back to school with school starting next Wednesday. I feel really rushed, but that’s how it goes. Going back to school always sucks, but after a week or so I get into a routine and it’s fine.
Well, my trip this summer has come full circle and now it’s back to the same old stuff. I’m glad I had this experience, though, because it was like nothing else I’ve ever done.
It couldn’t be any nicer
Posted by Matt in Uncategorized on August 1, 2007
I’ve really been enjoying each morning with the cool and dry weather. I’ve been thinking on my runs about how bad it will be when I go home and back to school. At least I will miss the worst of the summer, which is punishing Virginia right now. When I get back there will only be a month or more of nastiness before it gets tolerable again.
I talked to Dan several times, but decided not to try and meet him since it was so far away and I had more or less committed to visiting some friends. Some former neighbors that now live in Davis asked me to go up for the weekend, so visiting them consisted of the majority of my time on Saturday and Sunday.
Last Saturday I ran from Moffett to Rancho San Antonio. However, most of the time I was on Grant Rd. since it turned out the park was about six miles away. I got about five minutes into the park before I turned around. Overall it wasn’t bad since it was a gradual uphill on the way out and downhill on the way back. The park itself seemed pretty cool but it was packed with people running/walking/biking, much more than any other park I’ve been to.
I got on the road towards Sacramento at about 11:30 or so and it took me about 3 hours to get to Davis. Traffic was terrible and it was only a weekday afternoon. It’s only about 90 miles to Davis. Interstate 80 was a parking lot. I should have taken 680 around the East Bay, but I wanted to get some pictures of San Francisco from Yerba Buena Island. I got a few good ones, but the spot I have seen so many pictures taken from had nowhere to park. I might go back if I have time.
By the time I got to Davis, it was late afternoon and I met everyone and we just hung around the house and talked. Our ex-neighbors have a daughter, Laura, that is several years older than I am and used to baby sit me when I was little. She just got married in the fall so I met her husband for the first time. It was interesting talking to everyone and filling them in on everything that had been going on in the past ten years or so since they had moved. I had been to their house right after they first moved to Davis, in the summer after my fourth grade, so everything seemed familiar. The calico cat, Charlie, I remember being so energetic was now 17 years old and showing his age.
We piled into the car and drove through the central valley through orchards until we reached the East Bay hills. The road turned into another one of those windy, hilly roads that are so prolific in this area. We passed a large dam and stopped to take some pictures. Farther along, there were some large vineyards in between the hills. Some of the hills were charred black from recent fires.
We got to Napa at around 5 or so and met Pico’s (Laura’s husband) mom for dinner at a place called the General Store. Dinner consisted of more weird California food, mostly a variety of eclectic salads, sushi, and specialty pizza. It was all very good, but was stuff that I don’t eat on a regular basis and was a good change of pace. Afterwards, we walked around Downtown Napa and stopped at a bakery for dessert. The place had these small individual sized cakes. I got a white chocolate cheesecake, which was excellent. I traded a piece with Laura’s mom, who got a fudge cake. It was probably the densest and thickest cake I’ve ever had.
During all this, the temperature went from about 100 degrees to 60. Of course, 100 degrees out here is equivalent to about 85 at home considering the humidity. It’s just weird to have the temperature plummet like that and then shoot up again in the morning.
We got back to Davis after dark. On the drive back, the moon loomed large near the horizon. It was one of the largest moons I’ve ever seen. Pico commented that this usually happens when the moon is nearly, but not completely full. The distant mountains lit up by the setting sun combined with the moon made for some cool scenery. After we got back, I crashed and slept until after 8 the next morning.
I ran through UC Davis and its Arboretum on Sunday morning. I didn’t feel particularly great, but it was nice to run somewhere new. Davis is really designed with cyclists in mind. Every road has bike lanes as large as normal car lanes in addition to separate bike paths. There weren’t many soft surface trails except for in the Arboretum, but it was still cool to see this huge network of bike paths.
I ate breakfast with Laura’s parents afterwards. Blueberry waffles and sausage, probably the first hot breakfast I’ve had in months. Later, we drove into Sacramento to an aviation museum at decommissoned McClellan AFB. There was an exhibit on Leonardo DaVinci and the machines he had drawn on paper. The exhibit attempted to create some of these machines, but it was obvious many of them needed to be fleshed out in order to work properly. Some of the stuff, like a bicycle, seemed way ahead of the time and made me wonder if the drawings were even real. There were lots of fighter jets at the museum, too, including some MiGs, so I got some pictures of those.
We met Laura and her husband at their house in Sacramento, just blocks from where she works as a physical therapist at a hospital. It must be nice to walk to work every day. Her parents and I only stayed for a few minutes since it was getting to be mid afternoon. Laura talked about how her cat got acne from plastic food dishes. I had no idea cats could even get acne. Our cat at home has been eating out of plastic dishes and has never had any trouble. Apparently, it can get really bad if untreated.
Laura gave me a bunch of fresh vegetables from her garden before I left, which I made in a stir fry on Monday. They were all very good and about ten times better than anything from the store. After returning to Davis, I said goodbye to Laura’s parents and proceeded to sit in another jam on I-80. This time, I got off early and took 680 back around the East Bay, which was much faster.
Now I’ve only got two more weekends here in California. On one of them I want to go back to San Francisco. This weekend I want to see the Bourne Ultimatum and maybe go to the Winchester Mystery House or something. It seems there is a lot to do here, but with work, there isn’t much time.
Mt. Diablo
On Sunday I drove to the top of Mt. Diablo, near Walnut Creek. I’ve seen the mountain looming in the background on nearly all my visits to the area and looked it up on the internet to see what it was. It took over an hour to get to the state park, but then another 30-45 minutes to drive a narrow, twisting road to the summit. The summit road had lots of cool views and I took some pictures. There were plenty of cyclists suffering up the hill (and flying down it). I saw a few people running, too, which surprised me.
At the top, I could see everything. To the east was the Central Valley with the Sierra Nevada on the horizon. To the north, I could see Suisun Bay and the Sacramento River. In the distance, Mt. Lassen was barely visible, the southernmost volcano in the Cascades. The entire Bay Area was visible to the west, but much of it was covered in fog. The skyline of San Francisco just barely stuck out of the fog, along with the Golden Gate.
That was a pretty cool trip. I spent a fair amount of time walking around the summit and taking pictures. It was like being on an airplane with the views.
On Saturday I did a loop around the Palo Alto Baylands for my long run. I had been there before, but turned around instead of doing a loop. This time I went farther and came back along 101 instead of retracing my steps. One of the best things about this area is that there are so many good places to run, just right out the door. Then, of course, there are all the parks in the Santa Cruz mountains. If you took all the parks I’ve been to in Eastern Virginia and combined them into one, they still wouldn’t be as cool as one of the open space preserves in and around the Santa Cruz.
I’ve also watched a few movies lately. I saw Zodiac, which I was surprised I hadn’t heard of before. I was really impressed by it, but the ending was a bit anti-climactic. It was also kind of weird because it took place in the SF Bay Area. It seems most movies I see are set in a place I have little connection to, so the setting made it a little more meaningful.
I also saw The Prestige. This was really good. I had wanted to see this for a while and finally got my chance. The ending was excellent and almost completely unexpected. Spoiler: I had an idea of what would happen, but the reveal of the true “good” and “bad” magician really blew me away.
The whole food thing is working out well, but is starting to encroach on my free time. Planning what I am going to make and especially going to the grocery store is wearing on me. Each week it becomes a pain to figure out what I can make that is relatively easy, since I don’t feel like doing much after work. The weekends don’t matter as much, so I can afford to spend more time. However, going to the store takes awhile and sometimes I wind up going to several places since not every store has all the stuff I want. Of course, I usually forget something and then have to go back again to get it.
This weekend I did a stir fry with shrimp and rice, which turned out great. I made another peanut butter pie, this time with cream cheese and a chocolate crust. It’s kept in the freezer and with the cream cheese tastes like a cheesecake/ice cream combo. It’s also really dense despite using low fat ingredients. At this point I’m pretty confident I’ll just get a minimal meal plan and eat most of my dinners in the caf. All the overhead of going to the store and planning things out would be a real pain while at school. It might work out better if I had a roommate that I could switch off cooking with. That way I also wouldn’t make something that would last for three days.
I’m pretty much getting done what everyone at work has given me to do. My visualization tool has been integrated into the Composer IDE and now I’m just adding more features. The work isn’t terribly challenging, but it’s much better than the previous summers.
Dan called to tell me he should be in Echo Lake on Saturday afternoon on his way up the Pacific Crest Trail. It’s a four hour drive from here, so I thought about going to see him, but it’s hard to tell if he would be there by then. Yesterday was the last time he could call before the weekend. I don’t want to go all the way out there only to miss him. There are some friends in Davis that I will probably go see instead.
My mom was planning on driving back with me and was just talking about going back the same way I drove out. I don’t know if I want to do that. It might be interesting to go the southern route since it’s something new. I’ll get to go to three new states: New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. It’s pretty much Interstate 40 from California to Tennessee. It would probably be hot and consist of a lot more boring plains and deserts, so I’m kind of unsure on the issue. I’m also not too keen of another endless drive through Nebraska. There’s still a few more weeks to decide, but not too many.
Taxes = Death
Posted by Matt in Uncategorized on June 25, 2007
I got killed on taxes today. The California state taxes weren’t that much, but the federal stuff was a real kick to the shins. The tax increase seems to be exponential compared to what you make. What I really don’t get is Social Security. I don’t get why the government can’t let everyone save for their own retirement. I can guarantee that I won’t get nearly as much out of Social Security as I put into it. If I put all the money taken out by Social Security into my own retirement account I would be much better off.
On Saturday I took the train into San Francisco. I don’t ride trains very often so it was a cool experience. I drove to the station in Mountain View, which is only a mile or two away. I could have biked, I guess, but the trains only leave every hour on the weekend and I didn’t want to be late. Good thing they don’t make you pay for parking on the weekend either, because they have some weird pay system for parking that I couldn’t figure out until after I left. I guess you have to pay at some kind of stand that gives you a ticket to put on your dash. Everywhere at home you can’t get into a lot without paying first or paying a cashier as you leave.
The train took about an hour and 15 minutes because it made all the stops. It was pretty full, too and I wound up sitting next to some people who were drinking vodka and lemonade out of plastic cups. They were out of it from the start and it was kind of funny to listen to their conversations. The train cars themselves had two levels of seating and there was a hole in the center ceiling so you could see everyone above you, which was weird. The entire ride was above ground except for a few tunnels and the tracks pretty much paralleled 101.
The train dumped everyone off pretty far outside the CBD, so I had to walk to get into the main part of the city. The train station was in a pretty sketchy area, at least by my standards, so I didn’t want to be there long. It was a straight shot from there to Union Square, up 4th Street. At Union Square, I more or less just hung out there for awhile. I got a drink and just watched everyone go by. There were some people with megaphones protesting the Iraq conflict as well as a band playing. There were mobs of people going in every direction. There were lots of foreigners, mostly Asian. There aren’t many Asian tourists at home — Canada is about as exotic as it gets. I probably could have sat there all day watching everything that went on. It was nice just to get away from work and the lodge.
Eventually I got up, and on my way out, noticed there was a Niketown. Niketowns are supposed to be the high-end retail stores for Nike, but they still didn’t carry any normal running shorts. All they had were the giant knee length basketball-style shorts. The last Niketown I was in at least had regular running shorts and it was only a fraction of the size of the one in San Francisco. I gave up and headed down Market towards the waterfront.
I walked around by the waterfront for awhile and got dinner in the ferry building: a hamburger on sourdough with sweet potato fries. The hamburger had barbecue sauce on it, which was unusual, but provided good flavor. The fries were great — they didn’t need any ketchup. The food was good overall, but expensive, and was the first time I’ve eaten out anywhere since my first week.
At this point I realized it was getting pretty late and I rushed back to the train station just before the train left. Gobs of Giants fans were pouring out into the streets at the same time. It had taken 13 innings for the Giants to beat the Yankees, so everyone on the train was going nuts, especially the conductor. He had some weird comment to make at every stop. Eventually, I got off and was relieved to find out my car hadn’t been towed.
Yesterday was grocery day and I picked up a few frozen things along with a salmon fillet. I figure there would be some good seafood here, so I decided to get some. But, I drive 3000 miles away from the Atlantic and the first thing I see in the seafood section is Atlantic salmon. There was also Copper River salmon, which is what I wound up getting. I got some shrimp, too, as well as some fresh Rainier cherries which we get at home sometimes.
This morning I was finishing my run when I saw the guy from last week that had put on a real show. I saw him in nearly the same place as before — just as I was about to cross the 101 and go into the base. I passed him just as I went through the gate onto the base. I figured he lived in the base housing (and was military) since he turned off as soon as we went in. That would explain why he chased me over the bridge last week. There isn’t much reason to go over the bridge unless you are going to the base. Then, after I get to the lodge and am just about to go into my room, the guy comes around the corner and I see his face for the first time. The weird thing is that I already know him — he is an intern who sits two cubicles down from me. How weird is that? We talked for a minute and went on. At least I’m not the only one here who takes running seriously.
Big Changes
Posted by Matt in Uncategorized on June 11, 2007
More than I imagined, the past week has been much different than in any normal summer. I seem so far removed from everything I thought to be normal — going to class, then practice, dinner in the caf with everyone on the team, and then back to my room to do work. The whole team environment was a big part of my life and even in the summer I felt part of it with my training schedule and goals for the fall. Now I don’t have any of that. It’s like I’ve walked into a whole new world.
The wireless usb card came late last week. Unfortunately, it didn’t give me much of a signal boost but I can at least use my computer from the desk instead of jamming it awkwardly against the window. The connection is generally good enough so that I can browse the internet but I can’t upload or download any large files. I’ve got pictures from the trip and the past week that I’ve wanted to post, but I will probably have to walk to somewhere in range of the Ames network to do that. I can’t download any software updates either which have been released for my Mac.
I’ve been more or less cut loose to work on the agent communication visualization graphs and I’m in the process of trying to extract simulation data from a database and get it into prefuse so that I can make cool graphs. Everyone seems to be working on their own little projects here, but I don’t mind it. A lot of the other interns here aren’t computer science necessarily, some are more math oriented and one is in aerospace engineering I think, so they all don’t do software. Everyone who I’ve met who works here full time is a PhD, so I guess if I want to wind up here eventually, that’s what I have to do. I’m not really sure about spending that much more time in school, though. Also, most people who work here are contractors from an outside company — no more than a third from what I can tell actually work for NASA. Even within each group there are people from different companies.
On Saturday I went to Sacramento to see Keith since he would be there until Sunday night. He had been there all week because of his race. It sounded like other than the race, he didn’t do a whole lot except sit in the hotel, and it seemed to be getting to him. It took a little more than two hours to get there with some traffic. I will say that traffic on a weekend afternoon in the Bay Area is as bad as rush hour at home. I probably won’t complain about traffic at home much more.
Compared to Mountain View, Sacramento was hot. It was easily 20 degrees warmer. I met Keith at the hotel and we just hung out for some of the afternoon and talked about everything coming up. Like me, he wasn’t too happy about his college running career being over, but his graduate program will give him a lot to look forward to. In a month, he will be doing some work at CERN in Switzerland and then afterwards will be starting a grad program at Stanford.
In the late afternoon we walked across the street to a Jamba Juice. I’ve never been to one of those before and they seem to be all over the place around here. It wasn’t bad, but smoothies are something that aren’t that hard to make yourself if you have the right stuff (I don’t). Since I’m out here, I’ve always heard a lot about In N Out as well, so I’ll try to make it there within the next couple of weeks to see what all the hype is about. I’ve heard their fries can be a little weird.
I went with Keith and my coach to see Ocean’s 13, which I thought was pretty good. It was definitely better than the second one, but the plot was a lot like the first. There weren’t any romantic interludes or anything, they just cut straight to the chase. It also seemed like they tried to squeeze everyone from the first two movies into this one and a lot of the characters got brushed over. So far it’s been the only movie I’ve seen this summer and there are a bunch more I also want to see.
Following that, Keith and I got in the car and drove into Downtown Sacramento to get some dinner. We went into Old Town Sacramento which had buildings that looked like an Old West town. We walked around for awhile and then found a place along the river where we sat outside. We split a sourdough cheese loaf and I had a tuna steak, both of which were very good. It really highlighted how bland the food was that I’ve been eating all week.
I wound up staying until the next morning and we went out for a run along the Sacramento river. There were plenty of bike paths and trail offshoots like in Mountain View. We went through the Sacramento State campus and by the track where the meet was before heading back to the hotel. Too bad the more interesting stuff was during the week, otherwise I would have come to watch. It was also much warmer early in the morning than in Mountain View. The past week it has been in the 50s when I get up to run, which is weird to me. It’s a lot better than the 90+ degree days and nasty thunderstorms at home.
I headed out from the hotel in the late morning and on the way back thought about how weird everything is now that I don’t have a training plan or practice or anything structured like that. It’s more or less do whatever I want. I think being so far from home caught up to me while driving by the brown grassy hills that look nothing like where I live. I realized that so many people I’ve known at school have gone away to do their own things and it’s starting to happen to me too. Even though I’ll still be at school next year, a large number of teammates who I have known very well won’t be returning. And I won’t be obligated to go to practice, heck, I don’t know if I’ll even be allowed at practice if I want to go every day. I bet I won’t even have my locker anymore. But, sometimes you can tell when it is time to move on to something else, and I’ve had that feeling for awhile.
Instead of going back to the base, I went to the coast and drove for a bit on the PCH. It was a much nicer day than the only other time I’ve been there but it was still so much different than the coast I know at home. It was an interesting drive back into the mountains towards my new home. There were some big redwood forests and narrow windy roads. The trees were huge and almost blotted out the sun completely. The roads carved their way around rocks and cliffs and every so often some insane motorcyclist would come up behind me and pass despite the double yellow line and the blind curves.
I was thinking about how dangerous that was as another guy on a motorcycle suddenly appeared behind me and was about to pass. Then, around the next curve, another motorcyclist was sprawled out on the pavement with pieces of motorcycle and car all over the road. The motorcycle and car had both taken a lot of damage but the girl who was in the car seemed okay but was in shock as she walked over to the guy lying in the road. Some people behind me pulled over to help, but since there seemed to be enough people around, I just kept going since I’m not familiar to the area at all and probably wouldn’t be of much use.
Out of the redwood forests, I went along Skyline for awhile and stopped at a park to take some pictures. You could see all the way to San Francisco in one direction and to San Jose in the other. I could also see the tower at Stanford and the huge wind tunnel at Ames in the distance. It was a pretty cool view. As I looked I could hear some sirens wailing in the distance, probably for the accident that I just passed.
I found Page Mill Road, which made a long, windy descent into Palo Alto. There were tons of cyclists going up the other way and none of them looked to be having a good time. Before coming out here, I thought about taking a bike trip to the coast, and now I know what I’ll be facing: pain. There was at least eight miles of switchbacks and steep hills until the road straightened out.
I got the car washed and got a bunch of frozen stuff from Trader Joe’s for dinner the next couple nights. I would rather subsist on something other than frozen food, but it will be hard with the kitchen pretty far away. I put in a lasagna when I got back to the base and had some of that.
This morning, it was up again at 6:30 to run and then to work. As soon as I left the lodge and headed for the gate, there was a guy running up ahead of me. He was moving pretty good, almost as fast as I was. I turned towards the gate when I reached him and thought he kept going straight. I didn’t think much of it until I got out on the levee and had the feeling someone was following me. I don’t get that feeling much, and when I do, it’s usually a cyclist or one of my teammates when I’m at school. I turn to go across a bridge towards Shoreline and I see the guy is right back there, following me. When I get to Shoreline and turn again, I see he is even closer. This means war, and the battlefield couldn’t be any better. The big hill by the Shoreline Amphitheater is only around the block so I pick it up and then tear up the steepest part of the hill until I get to the top. That seemed to do the trick. I didn’t see him after that. It got me wondering though. How long will it be before I start getting older and slower and everyone is passing me on their runs?
And that was my first weekend here in California. My plan from now on is to try to do something interesting at least once every week while I am here. Next weekend I would like to run in one of those parks in the mountains that I’ve heard a lot about.
Work
Posted by Matt in Uncategorized on June 7, 2007
This summer looks to be much more interesting in terms of my work. The people I am working with are all really upbeat and excited about their jobs, which is definitely a good sign. I will be working with a mobile agent simulator and it looks like I will be doing a project to visualize some of the data generated by the simulator.
On my first day, my mentor was interviewing a PhD candidate from USC whose work was just slashdotted today: http://slashdot.org/articles/07/06/07/0319215.shtml. That was surprising see while browsing slashdot.
Making my own food hasn’t been all that great since I’ve only got a microwave and fridge in my room. There is a community kitchen but I’ve got to go outside and upstairs to use it so it’s kind of a pain. It also seems everything I make lasts for quite awhile so it gets old. It sounds like a lot of the frozen stuff at Trader Joe’s is pretty good so I’ll try to go there to get most of my food.
Keith runs in Sacramento tonight, but with this being my first week I don’t think it’s a good idea to leave early. He and my coach will be there through Sunday so I might go up there on the weekend and hang out. Hopefully the tickets won’t be too much. It will be my first time going to a meet like that as a spectator.
So far, I’ve been getting up early and hitting up the Stevens Creek Trail on my runs. It’s nice, but I know there are a lot more interesting places in the area. On the weekends, I’ll try to drive to some of the parks in the mountains that I hear are really cool. I don’t have to get up as early since the commute is only 5 minutes on my bike from the lodge. This no commute stuff is great. It’s like being at school.
I’m still waiting for the wireless USB adapter to come from Newegg. I thought it was going to come yesterday, but then this happened:
| Jun 6, 2007 | 6:40 PM | At local FedEx facility | SUNNYVALE, CA | |
| 6:28 PM | At local FedEx facility | SUNNYVALE, CA | Package not due for delivery | |
| 7:16 AM | On FedEx vehicle for delivery | SUNNYVALE, CA | ||
| 7:13 AM | At local FedEx facility | SUNNYVALE, CA |
The tracking said it would arrive before 4:30 PM today, June 7th. They put it on a delivery truck yesterday, but didn’t deliver it! I paid extra for FedEx since they seem to be better than UPS, but it seems to not have mattered. What’s more is that it has to go to the Moffett Field post office before I can get it so it might not even be until tomorrow.
I also hadn’t realized until after I ordered it that I was charged for tax. I guess even with a billing address in Virginia, if the shipping address is in California I will still be taxed. I’m hoping it will make getting on the internet a lot easier than awkwardly mashing my computer against the window of my room to get a wireless signal.
Well, things are off to an interesting start.
Road Trip
Posted by Matt in Uncategorized on June 3, 2007
I made it.
The road trip across the country was nothing like I expected. My main surprise was that so much of the country is filled with open space. I’m used to the east coast, where all the cities butt up against each other and there isn’t any land that hasn’t been plowed or paved. Once you get past St. Louis, that all changes.
The route was pretty simple: I-64 West until St. Louis, then I-70 from there to Kansas City. From Kansas City we took I-29 to Nebraska City, NE and then NE 2 to Lincoln. Then, from Lincoln all the way to San Francisco we were on I-80.
The first day we went from Virginia Beach to Shelbyville, Kentucky. I left at about 9:15 from my house to pick up Sarah and we got going around 9:45. She drove the first half of the day until we got near the West Virginia border. The highways in West Virginia were hilly and snaked in between the mountains. The turns were much tighter than any of the other mountain ranges we crossed and there was plenty of traffic as we approached Charleston. This was also the only toll section of the trip, with the exception of the two bridge tolls (San Rafael-Richmond and Golden Gate) we encountered near San Francisco. At Huntington, the interstate was closed off completely and everyone was forced to exit into a huge mess towards the city. The road atlas we had got us around that through some narrow back roads until we got to an interstate entrance farther along. I learned later there was a fatal accident that caused that. We got dinner at a Fazoli’s in Morehead and then made it to the Days Inn in Shelbyville around 9:00 that night. I was probably the most tired after this day than any of the others.
The second day we went from Shelbyville, Kentucky to Nebraska City, Nebraska. The Days Inn wasn’t the best place to run, but I managed to get in about 5 miles around the hotel and along US 60 in Shelbyville. The humidity was insane. US 60 parallels I-64 the entire way to St. Louis and they intersect countless times. It seemed that every other exit was for US 60. Along the way, we passed through Louisville before entering Indiana and then Illinois, which were mostly farms. The farther we went, the fewer trees there were and the less like home it looked.
We got to St. Louis, crossed the Mississippi and got off to see the Arch. It was really hot and humid but there were tons of people around. The arch was a lot taller than I expected but wasn’t very big around. We headed back to the car and I took over driving for the rest of the day, going through Kansas City, stopping for dinner, and then continuing north on I-29 until we passed into Iowa. We got to Nebraska City not long afterwards and checked in to a Super 8.
With the hotels, we booked everything one day in advance. The night before, I looked up driving distances on Google Maps to see how far we could get in 9 – 10 hours of driving. Then, I looked up hotels in that area on Orbitz or Expedia to find ones with the best price. I also made sure they had internet access so I could book a room for the next night the same way. It worked out pretty well.
The next morning I tried to run into Nebraska from the hotel, since the hotel was actually still in Iowa. It wound up being too far and I had to turn around. The wind was insane and there wasn’t much around to stop it. What few trees there were had all grown slanted due to the wind. It was also a lot cooler than the previous day.
The third day was from Nebraska City to Rawlins, Wyoming and consisted mostly of endless miles of I-80 in Nebraska. I-80 covers nearly 500 miles in Nebraska, but we didn’t do all of it since we cut over on NE 2 from Nebraska City. Still, it was pretty bad, just straight and flat with nothing interesting to look at. The wind was rough, too. We did a quick turn off into Colorado and then came back just to say we went there. That part of Colorado was nothing like Denver or the mountains near Steamboat Springs I had visited before. Instead, it was just like Nebraska: mostly flat and covered with farmland.
Towards Wyoming, the terrain got hillier and some small mesas started to appear. There was also a huge cluster of nasty thunderstorms. Somehow we managed to escape most of it. Mainly, I was worried about hail since I had heard there was golf ball sized hail in Denver the day before. There were also auto body shops along the way that had signs proclaiming “Hail Repair”. That wasn’t a good sign, but the storms only gave us rain.
We stopped in Cheyenne for awhile and walked around. It was a nice town, but it seemed really deserted considering it was only 4 PM. Some of the parking spaces had signs indicating “Horse Parking”, which was interesting. I wonder who would take a horse to work instead of a car. We walked in front of the capital and took some pictures. It was really weird with almost nobody around, but if I remember correctly, the entire state has a population of about that of Virginia Beach but has an area about twice the size of Virginia. There was a pizza place off one of the main streets that we ate at that had an interesting combination of cheeses. I think it was similar to what I’ve heard to be called St. Louis-style pizza, but I’m not sure. It was really good, but also much different than anything I’ve had before. Going back to the car, a little girl made some comment about the Virginia license plate on the car. I guess they don’t get too many visitors in Cheyenne.
After dinner, we hit the road again and made it to Rawlins just as it got dark. Along the way there were some snow covered peaks, the first big mountains in the trip. We also passed a few large refineries, which may explain why the gas prices got cheaper. The other weird thing I noticed about the gas was that in Wyoming, Utah, and Nevada, the octane rating for regular gas was 85 instead of the usual 87. I’m thinking it has something to do with the altitude.
Rawlins was more or less a no-frills town. It seemed the people there just wanted to survive and didn’t care too much for aesthetics. I could easily see it being an old west town with muddy streets and saloons with the swinging doors. There weren’t any trees, just dust, scrubby little weeds, and mountains. Definitely nothing like Steamboat Springs, which was only about two hours to the south. The hotel I got wasn’t any better. Everything else I found was way expensive or overbooked. The lady working the front desk said that Rawlins was one of the few towns along I-80 with hotels so everyone wanted to stay in what few hotels there were. She also said that some places in the next town (150 miles west) were booked three weeks in advance. The place didn’t have internet either, but I had written down the numbers for several hotels for the next night in Fernley, Nevada and managed to get a reservation.
The next morning I got my first experience running “at altitude”. Rawlins was at 6800 feet, so I don’t know exactly how that weighs in with high altitude training, but I’ve heard that anything over a mile can get to you. I ran from the hotel along a paved bike path and then onto some BLM dirt trails outside the town and then back. It was freezing outside, too, in the 30s, which was a huge change from the 90s in St. Louis and at home. I felt a little lightheaded and maybe a little tired during the run, but that was about it. I bet if I was racing it would be a lot tougher.
The fourth day was from Rawlins to Fernley, Nevada. Sarah drove the rest of Wyoming, which was extremely barren. No towns for 200 miles, except for Rock Springs, no trees, and almost no vegetation, either. I thought Scotland was desolate, but this took the cake. Road signs periodically announced there were no services for 60 or 70 miles. Run out of gas out here and you’re toast. Very few cars, either – most of the traffic was trucks. There weren’t many mountains, either. There were some snow-covered mountains out in the distance at one point, but that was about it.
The real mountains came when we entered Utah and went into a big canyon. The road wound around large, towering peaks, and continued to do so even as we approached Salt Lake City and the traffic became heavy. We went by Park City and saw what appeared to be the ski jump facilities from the Olympics. We also made a quick stop in Salt Lake to get gas and wash the car. The car was a huge mess after several days of travel and was covered in dirt and bugs.
Then began the trek into the desert. Salt Lake City dropped away as quickly as it had appeared and then we passed by the Great Salt Lake. That too soon disappeared and we were driving down an endless stretch of road in the middle of a flat, barren desert. There were mountains lurking in the background and the whole thing seemed like some kind of old video game where the road and cars move, but the background doesn’t. Eventually the mountains got closer, and upon reaching them, we entered Nevada.
Nevada was just like Wyoming in terms of desolation, except that it was hotter. Again there were plenty of signs indicating that you better get your gas or food now or you may regret it. There were a few small mountain ranges to cross and a few small towns. Like Wyoming, there were no radio stations. Sometimes we got NPR or some random country station, but they all faded out quickly with all the mountains. Occasionally there was a house or building with trees surrounding it, which was obviously irrigated at a hefty price. At a truck stop, another person made a comment when seeing the car about how far away from home we were. Indeed.
The speed limits for all these western states were 75 mph, starting in Nebraska. I found that to be plenty fast, since the car could barely handle 80 with all the stuff in it, including the bike mounted to the back. Most cars and trucks didn’t seem to go that fast, so we did a lot of passing. Occasionally, someone would blaze past us, and they were almost always from out of state. I didn’t see but a few cop cars in those western states, either.
We stopped in Battle Mountain at a diner type place, which wasn’t too bad for the price. Half of the place was filled with slot machines. Tumbleweeds blew across the street as we ate. Another two hours and we were in Fernley, which had the nicest hotel we stayed at for the whole trip. It was also the most expensive.
The next morning I went out past some industrial warehouses, including one for Amazon, and found another BLM trail network that went out into the desert. It was probably at least 80 degrees but it felt much cooler than that because there wasn’t any humidity. It was strange running in such a place with the mountains, sand, and scrubby weeds. Someone had turned part of the trail into a shooting range, which was covered in hundreds of pistol and shotgun shell casings. I ran into some power lines that were low hanging and sizzling. The trail went underneath them, but I turned around, not wanting to decrease my life expectancy by going near those things.
The fifth, and last day was from Fernley to Mountain View, California. The terrain stayed desert-like and mountainous until we reached Reno. From there, it was into the Sierra Nevada, where there were plenty of snow covered mountains. A sign announced we entered California and the mountains began to sprout trees and finally began to resemble more of Northern California than the desert we left behind. On top of the mountains, we took an exit for the Pacific Crest Trailhead and stopped to look around. We hiked a small trail that led to the PCT that still had snow on the ground, despite it being over 70 degrees. It must have taken a ton of accumulation for the snow to still be there. Horsefly sized mosquitoes attacked from all directions as we hiked, but it was really nice with the large fir trees and views of nearby mountains.
A thousand miles to the south, Dan and his friend are making their way up the entire length of the PCT. Here’s to hoping they will make it to where we were and beyond to Oregon and Washington.
We got back in the car and began a long descent towards Sacramento. It seemed the downhill was much longer than the uphill. Nevada must have been at a much higher altitude to begin with. The traffic became worse as we approached Sacramento. Despite the 65 mph speed limit, everyone was hauling past us.
We passed Sacramento and approached San Francisco on 580, going over the San Rafael-Richmond bridge, and then onto 101 and the Golden Gate. The bay and the city were covered with clouds and fog and it was a cool 50 degrees. We stopped on the San Francisco side of the bridge and walked around for a bit and took some pictures. It was so weird to be here with the car and to realize that we drove here. All the other times I’ve flown. There seemed to be a disconnect between places I’ve been in a car and places I’ve flown and now that gap has been closed. All that driving can be cancelled out by a five hour plane flight. The car started with over 41,000 miles and now it had well over 44,000.
We drove into San Francisco, passing through the Presidio. Giant Russian Hill loomed in front of us. The hill got worse and worse as we approached the top. The manual gearshift didn’t help, but I made it without flying backwards down the hill. I also managed to parallel park the car on the hill too, even with the bike and all the other junk in it. We walked over the top to the crooked part of Lombard and took a few more pictures. The place was crammed with tourists, which made me wonder what all the residents think of living there. I guess they knew what they were getting into when they moved in.
By then it was about 4PM on Friday and the 101 to Mountain View was a parking lot. It took an hour or more to get to Moffett Field, but checking into the lodge proved easy. There were some other interns hanging around the base, reading in a grass field, and walking around the lodge. The room was much nicer than I expected, with a TV, microwave, and full-sized fridge. My main complaint is that I can’t get a signal for the NASA-provided wireless internet from my room. I can get a crappy signal from Google’s free Mountain View wifi if I put the computer against the window, but it works great if I go outside.
Sarah and I went to Buca di Beppo in Palo Alto for dinner, which has provided me with leftovers for the past two days. It was nice to go back there again. It was also weird since all the other times I had a big race coming up, but this time was different. I have no idea what to expect since everything is new. After that I tried in vain to find a grocery store, but just wound up driving in circles for 30 minutes. In the morning, I ran loops around the base, exploring. It wasn’t as big as I thought it was, mainly because parts of it are restricted. It was also really deserted.
That afternoon I drove Sarah to the airport and waited for her flight back home to leave. It was strange going to that airport and not going home. Every time I’ve been there I was always coming from home and going home, but yesterday I wasn’t doing that. This is now my home, at least for a few months. This is basically the first time I’ve moved anywhere, since going to school in Williamsburg isn’t that far from home and I was already pretty familiar with the area.
Driving back, I stopped at a Fry’s, the first time I’ve ever been to one. They need to open up a couple in Virginia – they have everything. I got a high gain wireless antenna and extension cable for a USB wireless adapter that I ordered on Newegg today. I finally found the grocery store and a Trader Joe’s and wound up blowing over $100 on food. I got as much non-perishable stuff as I could as well as things that I could easily make. After getting back, I got the whole room organized and found it hard to believe that I had actually made the trip and everything was actually happening. It’s a huge change from being at school or at home.
Overall, the trip probably ran over $800 including gas, hotels, and food for the two of us. It came in well under the $1000 I had expected, mostly due to lower hotel and gas prices. Gas mileage was spot on 24 mpg, which is the government estimate. I paid as much as $3.40 in Illinois and as little as $3.05 in Covington, VA. I don’t think many places have cheaper gas than at home. Yesterday I paid $3.47 in Los Altos.
This morning I ran outside the gate to the Stevens Creek Trail, which was really cool – it went along the bay and has plenty of dirt sections that parallel the bike path. There seem to be a lot of these type trails in the area and I hope to explore all of them. I also want to drive to a couple of the nearby parks and run there, as well as possibly bike from here to the coast.
The base is really weird. Most of it is vacant since most of the NASA stuff goes on at the Research Park, which is its own little area. There are large airship hangars and some planes on the tarmac. The buildings look like they are right out of Black Mesa in Half Life. I went looking for the laundry room, but it’s actually more of a laundry “bunker”. The building is recessed into the ground and three sides of it are sloped and covered in grass. It’s surrounded by abandoned living quarters with asbestos warnings.
Well, tomorrow is the start of my first day of work. I’m sure it will be an experience, no matter what happens. This whole trip so far has been a real change of pace and nothing like anything I’ve ever done before. It’s exactly why I decided to do this. Something new and exciting.
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