Conversational

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Met a friend I haven't seen in a while. As good grad students, we chatted about research. I talked about my quantum physics simulations and he talked about MOS cap parameter extraction and modeling...

And then I managed to turn a conversation about the new football-themed decor at a campus dining place into a dialogue about philosophy, religion, and science :-P

"So many football pictures here... people are obsessed!"

"Yeah, the whole sports fan concept is like a religion... hardcore fans almost worship their favorite teams and/or players..."

"Are you Christian?"

"No, you?"

"I'm Buddhist."

"Buddhism is more like a philosophy... Christianity is more similar to sports team worshipping :-P"

"So do you believe in anything?"

"This may sound a little strange... I believe in the laws of Nature."

"Like Newton's Laws and such?"

"Yes, although they're only a subset of Nature's laws because they only work part of the time... And we won't ever discover all the laws because of our limited perception..."

(Then we talked about scientific discoveries and technological advancement... and decided that anything could happen in the next thousand years.)

Random outing and random sighting

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Was having dinner at a popular student hangout near campus, with my friend from school, her bf, her bf's friend, her sister, a mutual friend of her sis and her bf. One can draw a relationship graph with weighted edges! We were all programmers to various degrees as well.

Had some pretty good catching up and conversations, mostly about work and research. Talked about puzzle hunts too.

There was a brief Mark Zuckerberg sighting as he was leaving with his Asian girlfriend. I stared for about 2 seconds when he was outside texting, just to confirm :-P We were thinking about doing a group stare but didn't happen, too bad!

Iris Zero, Arago

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Came across a curious manga series about high schoolers who are born with individualized special power called "Irises". And Toru, who apparently has no such power, is known as "Iris Zero".

Since he has no special powers, he is constantly bullied and thus adopts a "minimal exposure" philosophy to life. Although after a popular girl singles him out by confessing to him and hanging around him everyday, this situation turns complicated rather quickly...

As Buddy from The Incredibles says, "When everyone is super, no one is." That only applies if everyone's super along the same dimensions. It is interesting to note that because Toru has no "Iris", he compensates for it by developing a razor sharp intuition about people's intents and motivations. I must say this is a pretty special power that I'd like to have too...

Watching this story unfold is rather entertaining and adorable. This and Arago have been my good finds of the day...

Arago feels like Black Cat + Master Keaton + Dresden Files. Take an impetuous rookie police detective, a father-figure/mentor chief inspector, a childhood friend who becomes a weapons specialist in the same department, and lots of Anglo-Celtic-Gothic supernatural legends against the contemporary Scotland Yard & London backdrop. This one is a fun read too.

Revisiting Bleach

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[Spoiler alert! Arrancar arc]

I was curious about a pairing I've seen a few times between Orihime and Ulquiorra, which I suspected to be a case of Stockholm Syndrome, so I read all the Bleach chapters since Soul Society arc... and I realize the appeal.

Ulquiorra represents Nihilism, which initially struck me as a psychic deadness with dark circles around his eyes and marking that resembles tear-streaked eyeliner :-P And he has minimal facial expressions and minimal emotions. However, he's extremely perceptive and logical, kind of like L from Death Note... Serious resemblance :-P

There's always a tension between Ulquiorra's interaction with Orihime when she is kept captive at Aizen's palace. He never does more than what's necessary (e.g. gratuitous violence), and is generally civil. He does not understand why Core Crew (her school buddies) are coming to save her, although he seems genuinely curious about how this motivation arises. A bit like the Bicentennial Man robot. I can see how the Stockholm Syndrome (and a bit of Lima) comes about... especially as he turns to ash after battle w/ hollow Ichigo.

Oh and the Shinigami training academy is like Hogwarts + Quantico. =P

Oh the humanity...

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(12:27:12 AM) friend: The cat just jumped on my lap and demands to be petted.
(12:27:36 AM) me: I see
(12:27:48 AM) me: I wonder if having a pet would make me feel more useful
(12:27:54 AM) me: although I might accidentally kill it
(12:28:02 AM) me: due to neglect
(12:28:31 AM) friend: I had a student with this dilemma
(12:29:00 AM) me: existing track record?
(12:29:01 AM) me: :P
(12:29:12 AM) friend: Her friends started her off with a cactus plant.
(12:29:16 AM) me: it died.
(12:29:22 AM) friend: Alas she killed it.
(12:29:37 AM) me: I had a pot of African violet
(12:29:49 AM) me: the flowers died after 1 week
(12:29:58 AM) me: and then it never flowered again
(12:30:05 AM) me: and it died after a few months
(12:30:24 AM) friend: Don't take it too personally
(12:30:28 AM) me: haha
(12:30:50 AM) friend: It happens to other people too like cactus girl.
(12:32:19 AM) me: cactus is pretty hard to kill.
(12:33:02 AM) friend: Yes that's why cactus girl was distraught
(12:33:09 AM) me: oh no
(12:33:18 AM) me: what is she like?
(12:33:32 AM) friend: Very attractive, I dunno.
(12:33:36 AM) me: :P
(12:33:39 AM) friend: Talkative.
(12:33:40 AM) me: temperament
(12:33:41 AM) me: really
(12:33:44 AM) me: curious
(12:33:58 AM) me: so one possibility is that she completely forgot about it
(12:34:36 AM) friend: She thought it didn't get enough light, and wanted me to design a giant parabolic mirror for her to concentrate light.
(12:35:05 AM) friend: I said that was stupid, but not quite so bluntly.
(12:35:25 AM) me: well, it would set the cactus on fire
(12:35:48 AM) friend: Yeah, well english majors don't know that.
(12:36:03 AM) me: oh man, I was laughing too hard at that one

More quizzes...

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My Political Views
I am a left social moderate
Left: 5.02, Authoritarian: 0

Political Spectrum Quiz

My Foreign Policy Views
Score: -4.2

Political Spectrum Quiz

My Culture War Stance
Score: -6.03

Political Spectrum Quiz

For the greater good...

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Currently running (not all simultaneously) Folding@Home, AQUA@Home, and climateprediction.net from the list of distributed computing projects.

Donated to Wikipedia. After all, I use it many times every day :-P

I would like to think that I'm helping out... even when I'm goofing... especially when I'm goofing.