I dreaded today (mainly the whole gift-giving thing), but it turned out to be really fun. The highlight was the build-up to Mohammed not getting a specific gift as everyone else opened theirs. Mona then asked Mohammed to go to the outside garage and get orange juice. He got all excited and smiley, and within seconds we heard a ‘No!’ which I thought was a happy sort of ‘No!’ because he got Rock Band.
Turns out that the Rock Band he got was not for his XBox360, but, a Playstation 3! Poor kid. That was so much worse than not getting Rock Band at all, let alone Maman telling him he couldn't have opened it anyway because of a grade in one class. We still couldn't help but laugh. Would his situation be an ironic paradox?
Family quirks aside, it was all good. I got a 1gb iPod Shuffle, so I can put on Pimsleur language programs and get fluent in Farsi and Japanese without relying on the laptop.
Tomorrow is going to be ridiculously busy. We're going to Illinois on Thursday. I'm going to miss the little munchkins.
Ever since I've been dabbling with developing Facebook applications, I'm liking Facebook [in general] more and more. Practically everything on the site – all the design and functionality – is executed so well and flows together. I'm really impressed that they've got their shit together despite how fast they grow.
Doesn't mean I'll be spending my hours poking around everyone's profiles.
Asma and I ran the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Turkey Chase 10k yesterday. It was the first time I ‘ran’ more than 1.5 miles in the past three weeks, and I finished at least 20 minutes faster than I thought I would (around 1:13:00).
My knee did act up at around 2.25 miles, so it was sporadic attempts to run since then. I experimented with different forms to keep the stress going directly to my kneecap, and found out that pointing my toes slightly out did the trick. Not a good or permanent solution, but it worked overall.
Asma and I started and finished together, and we walked 5 miles to and from the race. So in all, we covered 11 miles on foot. And because we didn't have any post-race food, there was a 40-minute delay in getting in calories. Poor bodies. We ended up feeling exhausted for the day.
We ate good foods in the end, though. Big feast at her parents' house. And Evan Almighty wasn't nearly as bad as people (critics?) say. I liked it. License to Wed stupid, though, except for the flipbook.
I'm going to be working some of today. Fun.
Mishti had a dicey couple of weeks (due to my negligence three weeks ago), but she is all fine now. Yay.
Me: Aside from work a couple of times, I haven't eaten Pizza Hut, Papa John's, or anything like that. Hasan: Really? Me: Yeah, we make pizza every week. It's a lot better than that stuff. Hasan: Yeah… Taco Bell? Me: Huh?
I finally figured out how to shut off the DSL modem's firewall and make it act only as a modem. Now changes I make to the wireless router will actually work.
Good thing #1: I can develop Facebook apps directly on my computer, instead of through another server.
Good thing #2 (pending): torrents will work on Oink's replacement. They stopped working on Oink months ago. Never figured out why. Annoyed the hell out of me.
I injured my right knee just over a week ago (the 4th) during a 7-mile run. Around 4.5 miles in, Asma thought it would be fun to match the pace of a faster runner in front of us, so I played along. Things felt a little off, but it wasn't until after a minute or two that I felt a shock run up my right leg.
After that, any sort of running motion at any pace aggravated my knee – it was a vice gradually tightening around the joints. Even walking up and down stairs was painful. I tried jogging on Wednesday but couldn't get more than a mile without the pain starting up again.
I went to an orthopedist last Thursday who told me, after X-rays, that the tendons around my knee were inflamed. He gave me a prescription for an anti-inflammatory medicine and instructions to stay away from running for 2 to 3 weeks, unless the inflammation goes away before then. Biking was fine, and possibly elliptical (of course, if it hurt, I should avoid it).
That was the news I didn't want to hear. What could actually replace running? I don't like biking, and elliptical just wouldn't have the same feeling, at least that's what I thought. Still, I forced myself to go to the gym and try the stationary bike. Sucked. My ass hurt and I couldn't get my heart rate up enough.
(Our department went to ESPN Zone on Friday to celebrate the launch of the Beta 1 site, and I did two games of boxing. I will now start looking for boxing gyms. More on this in the future.)
My general inactivity over the week was really starting to get out of hand and bother me today, so I went back to the gym and tried the elliptical this time. It wasn't a typical elliptical, though – it had an adjustable incline. I tried it out a couple of times months ago and didn't like it then, but it was all that was open at the moment.
Turns out to be a good machine, but that had more to do with me being much better shape than I was in May. I got my heart rate up doing a movement that was comfortable to me, and purged a lot of the junk that had been building up. I might just go back tomorrow.
As if that wasn't enough to make me happy [healthwise], I got my CPAP equipment today! They sent the mask I didn't want, but I'm not hooked up to wires this time, so it might actually be comfortable. If it all works out, I'm going to experience a true, restful night of sleep for the first time (barring anything related to a particular substance) in maybe 15 years.
Honestly, I don't really know how long it's been. But maybe now I'll just remember the bad nights and not have to stress about feeling tired, burnt out, etc. It might just be a revolutionary experience, this sleep thing.
I beat Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (LoZ:PH lol) a couple of weekends ago. I wasn't happy with the ending – like much of the game, the storyline had gaps in details. That didn't make the actual gameplay bad. In fact, it was a lot more fun than I expected it to be. It made full use of what the DS can actually do, and a lot of the weapons had creative uses (like tying the grappling hook to two heavy items and using it as a tightrope or rubberband).
Still, the game was over, and I found everything it had to offer. My DS would go back to being unused for a few months again.
At least that's what I thought until Asma got me an R4 as an anniversary present. It's practically a DS emulator for the DS. The bottom line is that I can download whatever games people have ripped (which I'll eventually buy, of course).
Of the few games that looked interesting, I chose Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime because I saw it at Costco once and the cover art and screenshots looked fun. So far it isn't really challenging (and I don't think it ever will be), but it is the cutest game: cute music, cute characters, cute dialogue, ridiculous story. Beyond Animal Crossing, I think (AC is too spacey/disjointed). On top of that, it's pixel art all over the place, which quadruples the cuteness and charm. I love it.
So my hands and eyes won't be bored on commutes. Yay for Asma and Dragon Quest!
Today's been a good day. One of the best Saturdays ever, if not only for food. (Eh, maybe there have been better food days, but my tummy is really happy right now.)
So this morning we started off with french fries, scrambled eggs, and sauteed veggies. It was a breakfast/lunch thing, but not brunch. Afterwards, Asma was planning how to reorganize the bathroom, but then we decided to keep it simple because we can't really do much while we rent. But once Asma gets a job we'll be in good place to buy next year?
We also went to Adams Morgan this evening, just to walk around and see the neighborhoods (we found an area where we want to run 7 miles tomorrow morning), but mainly to get falafels from Amsterdam. It's ridiculously good. I wish I got the large, but we were going to Tryst after that and I wanted a mocha, and I'm a little bit better nowadays in not overdoing all the good foods.
And now we're back home. Early night. I am probably going to do some work, or maybe just read my ‘Dragon Book’ (Compilers: Principles, Techniques, and Tools), which I just got in the mail today. It's the book on compiler designer, and it's 20 years old (the second edition only came out last year, but it's too expensive).
I'm not quite sure why, but my brain is just wanting to wrap itself more and more in software development. I never expected or meant for it to happen, but I'm good at it, and I realize how much better I am than a lot of other people. I'm not saying that out of arrogance; it's more that people come to trust a lot of code in their day-to-day lives, so one would hope that a lot of care and obsession goes into the product.
Not often the case.
Everyone is in a rush to get things out, or maybe things grow fast unexpectedly, and you can't pause to go back and polish things up. I think it's more the latter. I'm really appreciating Apple's approach: keep things simple and update often. I also love their decision to build on top of Unix, and all the possibilities they open up for developers – it's pretty much free to develop and customize software easily in OS X, but you'd have to have Visual C++ for Windows (or Visual Windows). Not at all accessible for anyone wanting to tinker.
And then there's this stigma of open source or anything non-Windows and non-Java as not being industrial strength. Which is completely stupid to believe. How many of the most popular sites are built on an open source foundation?
But that's not the point. I've got an idea in my head for a programming language, and I'm hoping I can actually build it in the near future. I love PHP and all, but there are shortcomings to it, and I haven't been able to really embrace anything else (though Ruby (not Rails, gross) might potentially be something I'll get into). Looking at the source of PHP, it's very messy, almost haphazardly so. I can't believe that there's a good reason the source is so ugly.
It's funny that, a few years after hating computer science [as a major], I would almost willingly get a B.S. in it now if I had the choice (and didn't already have one). There's so much to software that I want to tinker with, and hopefully impact other things in a good way with it. It's my art. I think I can live with the idea of never being a good graphic designer.
At the same time, I am so tired of this world. I can't understand why propaganda spreads so quickly and gets imprinted into the public's head. Ahmedinejad, even if he wasn't grossly misquoted on Israel (which he was, according to Asma and a lot of scholars), isn't saying something that the Israelis themselves haven't already said about Palestine. Many (most?) Zionists don't believe Palestine should exist. Where's the WWIII alert on them? Where's truth and balance to anything any politicians say? Why are people so complacent?
Whatever. I feel blessed with the life and opportunities I have. And I hope that I can use that to deflect some of this bullshit off other people.
I need to squoosh Mishti now. She is the embodiment of all that is good in the universe.
I wrote about my knee pain a few weeks ago and how getting the right shoes helped to improve things. But during runs, I'd still feel an imbalance in my legs, mainly in my right calf being more stressed than my left, and my left knee being more stressed than my right.
Last Sunday, Asma and I went on our longest run at the time: 5 miles. It was more of the same for my knees and calves, but as we neared the end, I noticed that my right calf didn't seem as stressed as before. It was a couple of days later that I realized that my left knee's pain went down even more, to the point of practically vanishing (a vanishing point?).
Maybe the running re-aligned my knee (the pain definitely flared up during specific movements), but who really cares for the time being. My knee is happy. And sometime soon, I'll go see a sports therapist to make sure things aren't actually getting worse.
Oh, and we ran 6.2 miles today. In a year, it'll be a marathon. Watch and wait.
Asma is graduating in less than three months. And then she's going to be a professional in the world of demography and urban planning – briefcase, business casual dress clothes, hair bow and all.
Zelda: Phantom Hourglass is pretty awesome. For some reason I get the feeling that the game is already coming to an end, but there has to be a lot more to it and I'm just being paranoid (no Zelda game is as short as I think this will be). I like that the opening screen is reminescent of A Link to the Past.
We took Mishti and Shirin to the vet on Saturday. Mishti was given Gentocin for her left eye, and it already looks like it's working really well. Yay. Mishti is also becoming a little fatty. Shirin, however has been slowly losing weight; she's not eating as much as she used to, but it looks like her appetite is picking up again. She loves Critical Care and Nibble Rings, though. Doesn't seem like a dental issue if she can chew the rings easily.
I over-stressed my calves about three weeks, and it's been difficult to get myself to not run. It's so weird that I actually enjoy it now. If I was physically able, I would run every day. I'm wondering if I'm doing more damage by not taking an entire week off? Running every 2–3 days isn't a problem, though. Maybe it's just going to take more time for my legs to get used to it all. I love running.
We went to Yuan Fu last night. It's the best Chinese I've ever had, and it's vegetarian. The fake meat is amazing. I want to go every week.
Trent is no longer bound to any recording contracts, apparently. We're happy.
Basil was born yesterday. Jasmine is proving to be a very good older sister.
Back in 1992 (maybe '91), my parents bought me SimCity for the SNES. I used to wake up at around 5 AM every school day to get in a couple of hours of play. I think that went on for several weeks.
Needless to say, I was addicted. But I got to a point where I felt I'd mastered it, so I sold it to a family friend – that would've been around '93. I had a bit of regret from time to time for having sold it, so Asma bought for me three years ago as part of a birthday present.
I just opened the game yesterday. And as I'm putting the cartridge in, the theme song starts playing in my head. But what surprised me is that I actually had it right, even though I hadn't heard it in over fourteen years.
I'm wondering how many people have good long-term memory for music? It seems like it's one of those universal things, remembering fragments of a melody or an entire song. Probably because there's no memory to fudge? It's either clear or it isn't. A song is practically self-correcting, because it won't sound right without the right note placement. Unless your melody processor is off.
Anyway, I want to start dabbling in it again, along with the long backlog of a hundred other things that I should be doing. Maybe work my way up from SimCity 2000? Why is Apple still selling SimCity 4 for $60? It's pretty cheap for Windows now. Not fair.
Yesterday, Asma and I went out with the family to pick/scavenge for persimmon on the UMD campus. Asma accidentally stumbled upon a solitary persimmon tree while walking to a class earlier in the week, and she and her parents were super excited. (Iranians are happy to find sour cherries, persimmon, and other edible knick-knacks. I think it would be the same as an American finding orange and apple trees in Africa? Actually, I don't know if there are universal culture things that Americans identify with or get excited over. There's so much American influence anywhere that I'm unpleasantly surprised to see and hear about things. Like thousands of KFC and McDonald's in China.)
Afterwards, we went to Ikea at Mona's insistence, and after a hot dog/frozen yogurt break, we started to look around. Our time was cut short, but before we had to leave Asma found a cast iron pan. For $8.
I was excited about it even though I'd never actually used one before. But it got me to think about breakfast the next day.
This morning I was prepping for breakfast. I gave the pan a water rinse, then put it on the stove over medium heat for a couple of minutes to evaporate some water. After turning the stove off, I passed by the pan again over 10 minutes later – it was still warm.
I was anxious to actually get food on there at that point, and I have to admit that it's an epiphany. Cast iron skillets are the most amazing piece of cookware I've ever used. Food just never stops sizzling after you get it on the pan, and the whole character of the final product is much livelier. And you can stick it in the oven! Pan pizza!
So today's breakfast consisted of sauteed and seasoned onions and mushroom, home fries (literally, fries made at home, not cubed potatoes), and scrambled eggs. And I think the most amazing thing about this is that you can make great fries with only 2–3 tablespoons of olive oil. I feel like you can crisp practically anything that isn't too thick. You don't need a deep fryer ever. Amazing.
I am so excited to make use of this thing. I might just have to channel my life goals into cooking.
I could also just be over-excited because the weather continues to be amazing.
Asma and I have been noticing that most outside foods are made unnecessarily rich. Is this just an American thing, or have restaurants across the world traditionally gone overboard with oils and cheese and sugar? It's not just because of the fries. We make pizza at least once a week, and we don't get anywhere close to using the amount of cheese that chains use, yet it never's lacking of it. The days we do put on a little more cheese than usual, it always feels so much richer, but it's still nothing like other pizzas. I think Ryan could attest to that.
Anyway, the other good finds yesterday were a $12 French press (compared to the $30 Bodum French presses that look to be the only other option at fine retailers across this country), and a sharp knife for $5 that we will hopefully take care of. We need to go back next weekend and see what other cheap and awesome kitchen items they have.
My dad is coming to town today for a conference. We were all supposed to go out to dinner tonight, but he missed his flight this morning, so that will be postponed until tomorrow or Tuesday. Poop.
And I end it with this: I will jog over 4 miles today, and it will be excellent. Jogging regularly has made a big difference in the amount of fat I'm losing. I've never experienced this before, and I haven't made any big or conscious shifts in my eating habits to make it happen (not that I'm eating unhealthy in general). I like it.
As all of you probably don't know, my beloved email client, Eudora, moved to open source earlier this summer and will no long continue new development or support.
Maybe that's a good sign – I couldn't move to Eudora for Mac because I couldn't convert my Windows mail correctly (and all the special things attached to each message, like labels, wouldn't carry over), but since it's named after our budgie, it'll magically fix all the gripes I've had in trying to use a native program.
But it might be interesting to see if I can hold out and use it for another 10 years (on emulated software!). 20 years of using the same program has to be a record of some sort.
