Book Faire

The Book Fair today: A lot of books. At really low prices (and I mean a quarter per book, with hardbacks at 50 cents.)

Additionally the following happened today: Sorting through a lot of books, meeting someone who was the subject of a 1960’s book, buying some books (The Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns, The DaVinci Code, Angels & Demons) for $1.25, finding three rows of The Baby-Sitters Club books, watching others buy tons of them, and remembering a bit of my past through a ‘Top Secret’ informational book.

Fun Fact: I used to have full subscriptions of Which Way USA and Top Secret Adventures. I only have the maps and guide books now, which they are in some ways useful.

Coding Hell

It's pretty easy to see the concept of the problem, but can you actually code it? That's the question.

NOTE: For computer programming experts, this is Problem B in the ICPC 2009 competition, Northwest division.

It seems the better way to solve this is not determining all of the possible ways the snake would fit in the grid, but work instead in a tree / recursive fashion to determine if each move is valid. When it reaches the end, count the number of moves made.

Signs

Strange find today: The crosswalk sign at Baxter Walkway has wiiiings on it. (Assuming the soda is like a Red Bull can, it makes sense).

Note: It surfaced this year and the crosswalk sign on the other end of the crosswalk doesn’t have him holding the can. The attachments were later removed by next semester.

Fall 2010 in Pictures

A picture is worth a thousand words.

Next semester I have decided to live off campus, particularly because the costs are becoming too high to live on campus (essentially I would be paying more if I used the scholarship than if I didn't.) As a result, I have all the resources available at my disposal, instead of the stripped down equipment that I would normally have in the dorm.

So here we go. This next semester... I'll try to express stuff in pictures, keeping the word count to a minimum. Why? It's been one year since my first posts and my posts have been a bit... wordy. (300+ words on average per post) So I'll try a different tactic. I learned this summer that you do things to satisfy yourself, not necessarily for the purpose of impressing others.

Let's see how long I can keep this up.

(BTW, the page layout will change slightly so the image will be 70% bigger. And stats show that people hardly use the navigation panel on the left. Just fyi)

Day Zero Project

Overview:
The Day Zero Project is a derivation of a personal Global To-Do list (consisting of thousands of to-do list items) which were condensed into 101 goals that are both challenging and stimulating. Some goals may be adjusted for disambiguation or to make them more reasonable.

A small portion of this goal list was influenced by Gail's Day Zero Project goal list, and gave me the idea to create one.

Although the goal list is long over, it will still count goals completed after the end date.

Start Date: August 31, 2009
End Date: May 21, 2012

Notes:

• All counters start from the date when the goal list starts. Ex. Any IM messages before that start date will NOT be counted.
• The Deviantart 1,000 hits in one month will not start unless the account is up and at least one deviation is submitted. The goal can be failed if the conditions are not achieved after 30 days.
• Puzzle books start from however many puzzles were completed beforehand.
• 'Like' on posts must persist for three days before being counted.
• Some links may be broken from the time the link was originally checked.
• Day Zero Project image by K. Lam aka MigratoryEagle

Legend:
In progress
Completed and usually with date completed and link or proof
Failed goal

Academic/School:
1. Get A’s in all classes this semester. (best was 3/4)
2. Get together or study with at least 15 students from my college. (Completed 12/1/09 using best-case scenario and 4/19/10 with all rules followed)
3. Get together and talk with my close friends back in high school at least once (physically talked to 6, got together with 14)
4. Get a perfect score on at least one exam. (Counting Lab Practical as Midterm)
Communications:
5. Send a total of 10,000 IM messages. (Could not be counted accurately)
6. Get 20 notifications on Facebook since the lack check. (Completed 11/12/09 with 22 notifications including apps, and 3/10/10 with no app notifications)
7. Attend at least one of the Dota Gaming Sessions (Completed 9/25/09)
8. Get into the Circle K club
9. Reach 150 friends on FB [163/150] (Completed on 9/19/09)
10. Attend at least one Lan Network Games event (Completed 10/31/09)
11. Respond in the same language when sent a message that isn't in English
    
    • Learn Chinese (Cantonese) for translation for extended family conversation and above goal
    • Learn Korean for interpreting Starcraft Battle Report Movies
    • Learn Spanish for future career opportunities
12. Talk to a stranger or fellow student who I haven't met before and don't get rejected. (Completed 9/10/09)
13. Start 10 conversations on AIM which at least 40 posts were sent.
    • 3 attempted, 2 success (66%), 1 counts towards goal
    • 0 AIM, 1 FB, 1 YIM, Longest Conv 42 posts, avg 26
    • Goal was aborted in 2011 when AIM was no longer used.

Computer Stuff and Gaming:
14. Build a more powerful computer (the one built in 2011)
15. Complete the campaign for Starcraft
16. Create a good script for the campaign
17. Get 1 million in Bejeweled Twist (Completed 11/16/09 with a score of 1,298,250)
18. Reach 500k in the NEW Bejeweled Blitz (Completed 9/11/09) (best: 596,100 new ver)
19. Map out the world map for Dungeon Siege
20. Play Eve Online
21. Play and beat Final Fantasy VII (Completed 8/13/11)
22. Get at least 40k in Tetris Ultra
23. Try out the game “Crysis” or FarCry (Completed 2013)
24. Record a speedrun demo for a game (Robot Wants Kitty)
25. Finish a game in the Fallout series (Fallout 3)
26. Fully play out a game of Civilization IV
27. Complete all four games in the Halo Series [0/4]
28. Win a game of Risk
29. Play Starcraft II. (game purchased on 4/23/10, played on 5/24/10)
30. Play DDR at least once in the arcade and finish the game.
31. Play a MMORPG for a month (Completed 2/28/10 and leveled a character up to 35 in Maplestory)
32. Get 1st place in a racing arcade game.
33. Win at least 2,000 tickets in one session. (Completed 7/8/10 at Boomers)

Design:
34. Get a Canon SX200 IS(Completed 12/25/09, received as a gift)
35. Purchase a stylus. (Completed 12/25/09, received as a gift)
36. Create a 3d model from a 2d figure
37. Convert this logo into a 3d logo.
38. Design a Photography Website (Basic site completed 1/25/10, version 2 6/17/10 with assistance)
39. Compose or remix a song in either Fruity Loops or REAPER (Completed 3/19/10)
40. Create a DeviantArt and accrue at least 1,000 hits on the first month.
41. Create a model in Blender and use it as a profile picture
42. Redesign the “Tech” one word project
43. Design my room / dorm room using Sketchup
44. Sketchup my college campus
45. Design a good building for Simcity 4 using gmax
46. Create a music video (Completed 5/29/10, rendered a music video for SECA)
47. Create a banner using Adobe Flash
48. Create a distinct HDR image using an SLR Camera.

Programming:
49. Learn PHP (Completed 2012)
50. Create a game in C++ (Completed 2013, the Americana Dawn dev build)
51. Learn ASM
Reading, Movies and stuff:
52. Finish the Vocab Book
53. Read Simien’s series on the Delta Artifact
54. Read the books on my reading list.
55. Read all the Starcraft novels. [0/5]
56. Watch all the episodes of South Park [8 seasons completed]
57. Watch the series of Numb3rs [67/102]
58. Watch a full season of 24 (Completed 2/5/10, Season 1)
59. Watch Mythbusters [2/142]
60. Watch 50 movies [50/50] (Completed 5/28/10)
61. Watch at least one season of an anime show (Completed Apr 2015, Makai Senki Disgaea)
62. Fully read a newspaper inside out. (Done)
63. Read and finish a book that's not on the computer. (Ender's Game)

Long Term Goals:
64. Learn to play piano better (aka play at least a two minute song).
65. Build a second time capsule. (Completed 1/1/10)
66. Get a driver's license and enough money to buy a car (Completed March 2015)
67. Finish up the book of Kakuro / Sudoku puzzles [52/273].
68. Learn how to ride a bike, scooter, or skateboard
69. Take at least 50 panorama shots.(Goal Completed 5/31/10, all 50 were uploaded)
70. Get an online blog with at least 20 posts. [31/20] (This blog)
71. Fill a photo album with postcards. (Completed November 2014)
72. Try out all the flavors of ice cream at ColdStone [2/20].
73. Get a GPS Receiver [1/1] (completed June 2013)

Exploration:
74. Reach and explore the Grand Canyon
75. Find and hammer in all 50 state quarters [50/50] (Completed 1/26/13)
76. Navigate the corn maze in the dark. (Completed 10/1/10)
77. Visit at least 30 major malls in California. [30/30] (Completed 6/16/13)
78. Visit all the Fry’s locations in California. [9/9] (Completed 6/14/11, however the San Diego ones were not completed until June 2014)
79. Go hiking somewhere with someone else. (Completed June 2012)
Out of the ordinary:
80. Work on and finish at least one crossword puzzle.
81. Try the different menu items in the dining hall at least once [36/36] (Completed 5/13/10)
82. Run 5 miles in one session
83. Visit the gym twice a week for three months
84. Complete all 1600 tangrams in the book
85. Translate a newspaper article written in Chinese
86. Ride a real roller coaster. (Completed 6/13/11)
87. Have Angelle like at least five posted status messages. [5/5] (Completed 2/21/10)
    Have a status report liked by at least five people [best: 5 on 11/08/10]
    -OR-
    get a cumulative total of 100 likes on all status reports and posts. (Completed)
88. Don't listen to music for one day. (Goal Completed 6/13/10)
89. Get referenced or mentioned by someone else in 50 different places (Excluding FB). [7/50]
    • Friends: 6 (1 blog, 2 MS, 1 tumblr, 1 photobucket, 1 youtube video)
    • USC: 1 (CSSF)
    • Lodi News Sentinel: 1 (Grad)
    • Chess Newsletter: 1
    • Appears one time in a Zuma Blitz discussion board.
90. Get a better friendship with someone back in high school who currently doesn't see me as a close friend.
91. Enclose a message to the future about what it looks like now. (Completed 11/3/09)
92. Attend at least one dance or party.
93. Stay up for at least 24 hours. (Completed 1/8/11)
94. Create 100 tweets. (Completed 4/4/10, the 100th tweet is exactly what it says)
95. Enclose a message addressing #91 after reading it and after completing at least 90% of the goals.
96. Do at least 10 hours of community service [11/10] (Completed 10/28/09)
97. Listen to at least five songs that I haven't played before each day for a month (Completed 11/14/09)
98. Don't get a to-go box for lunch for a week.(Completed after not getting boxes and used paper wrappers instead)
99. Don't open the RSS feed window for a week. (Completed 11/16/09)
100. Don't play any games for a week.
101. Do something for the purpose of impressing someone else. (Person TBA)

102. Open up searching and accumulate 1,000 hits on the blog. (Completed 5/26/10 at 02:47:33)