george washington

there are a lot of things i like about matt. 

one thing -- we can have a serious, half-hour conversation about calculating the probability that george washington's pee is in our five gallon batch of beer.

facts.  there is approximately 10^21 liters of H20, the average person pees 4 x 10^4 liters, and there are 20 liters in 5 gallons of beer. 

solution.  there is approximately 1 / 10^16 chance that any of george washington's pee is in our beer.

beer o'clock and life notes

matt and i bought a "beer kit."  we attended a class at brewcraft, our local homebrew shop.  our first experiment is a pale ale.  feeling excited.

 

reading:

• this article about east vs. west attitudes about the role of government in business is interesting.
• cadillac desert, a book about water policy and the west.  a great article from grist, explaining the situation.
• how to change the world, a book about social entrepreneurship.

met an amazing woman.  she had three children at a young age.  she raised them, worked, and took one class per quarter at UC Davis for 17 years until she graduated with a degree in political science.  pretty cool.

 

corner office.  i got moved from my corner office (with view of bay bridge) to another corner office (with a view angel island).  come to think of it, i've always had a corner office, even in menlo park.  though, that was just had view of el camino real and a parking lot.

holy buni empire, 2009

suzanne took this picture from amy and amartya's wedding. everyone looks good. i like it a lot.

the less i do, the less i do

it's inertia. 

 

camping at costanoa with matt and the gang, slightly south of pescadero.  fancy camping.  the bathrooms had heated floors, showers, and saunas. 

 

trying to get my application together is slow going.

cooking notes

recent meals prepared:

• white spinach lasagna.  modified the cook's illustrated recipe to include broccoli and carrots, went lighter on the cheese, and used whole wheat lasgna noodles.
• ratatouille.  also a cook's illustrated recipe. used dried instead of fresh herbs.  i'm very pleased, it tastes great!
• cold shanghai noodles, inspired by this blog post.  i used somen instead of ramen.  i think ramen would have been better. 
  

burning man

i went to burning man this year.

 

 

things i enjoyed:

• art cars.  i liked seeing all of the creative and cute vehicles driving around -- dragons, bumble bees, jellyfish, pirate ships.
• surprise.  trying to get to places and being distracted by so many wonderful things along the way.  for example, on a simple excursion to visit some friends, matt and i also tried some homebrew, hula hooped, waited in line to climb up the staircase of a fire truck, ate watermelon, and swung on couch-swings.
• riding bikes in any direction on the playa.  a little scary in the dark, but pretty fun.
• cool art. playing on cool art.
• fire.  watching the man burn.  seriously awesome.
• relax.  with matt, emily, derek.

things i didn't enjoy:

• dry.  i felt constantly thirsty --> constantly drinking water --> constantly peeing. 
• sandstorms, whiteouts.
• slumdog.  feeling a little bit like i'm pretending to live in a shanty town of a developing country.

 

a good experience, but probably not enough to repeat.

 

texas

i was in texas two weekends ago for amy and amartya's wedding.  impressions:

• beautifully coordinated
• nice to see everyone, especially vivian.  inspired to learn more about gardening at a community garden and to make beer.
• it wasn't enough time with the family.  each visit is shorter and the time in between is longer.