Great weekend!

Classes are done.  My first programming competition is submitted.  I'm relaxing for a little bit.  This past weekend I had time to hang out with friends, chill out, and sleep.

I watched the first 7 episodes of the new HBO series Game of Thrones.  It came as a recommendation from a friend and he was right, I got hooked right at episode 1.  It's pretty much a mature Lord of the Rings.  It's done nicely in that every fight or sexual act is done to further the plot instead of 'just because'.  HBO's been coming out with a lot of good shows lately (like the Living Dead, which still needs to come out with Season 2).

I also started and finished the game Portal.  The first thing that stands out is that the design and game play mechanics are innovative; you can shoot a blue and red portal, you enter from one and exit the other.  Combine this with physics and puzzles and there's a lot to do.

The part that I find fascinating is Portal's reuse of the same, limited resources to keep the game fresh.  I believe the game was originally designed by two DigiPen students and given the small team, it makes sense using the same models (sentries, companion cube) and design elements (acid ground, moving tiles).  They didn't overextend themselves, they knew their limits.

I got to see an interesting "battle of the random bands" this weekend.  A group of people were picked (based on their instrument), placed in a lotto, and randomly selected to form a band.  They had a month to come up with their songs and practice.  As expected, some groups worked surprisingly well and some were plain terrible.  The one that did work out really well was a group that had an older man singing with a younger girl playing some sick banjo.

Another thing I finally noticed is that I get frustrated driving.  I hate it.  It's not that I'm bad at it, I just get really irate when I drive around congested areas (like LA or any downtown areas).

Anyways, I'm going to be brainstorming new ideas this weekend.  I want to get started on my next project.

Flu Aware App published!

After much programming, I released my first app!

Please vote for my app here for the CDC Flu Challenge:
http://fluapp.challenge.gov/submissions/3096-flu-aware

It's available for free on the Android Market:
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.wliu.cdcfluaware&feature=search_result

Here's a few screen shots:

Pictures say it all

It's so obvious, duh... oh wait...

This is how I feel when I'm programming.



This pretty much describes my next month. I have work (possible go live of a physician search for the hospital - will be putting in extra hours there), classes w/ two finals, and a programming competition deadline.

I'm pretty much writing off my social life (or what was left of it). I'll make up for it next month by taking a trip, possibly to New York City or somewhere in the East Coast, I'll see if some Peace Corps friends want to get together.

The programming has been slow in terms of completed/finalized code (and I doubt that I can finish the program before time's up), but I've learned so much in the meantime.

My idea's to download live data through an XML feed, get the phone's current location, convert that location from geocode to an actual usable location, run the location against the parsed XML data, and return with info pertinent to the user.

I haven't been able to parse all the XML data correctly and I've only got the geocode locations to return from the phone. I found an API that takes in geocode locations and converts them to real addresses. Still so much to do...

The deadline is starting to get stressful. When did hobbies get stressful?!

Reminds me of...

Saw a good web comic that's a bit depressing, but it reminded me of an old relationship and made me think about life.

http://imgur.com/a/mTWpc

I love how the comic can be interpreted in so many ways.
* You can take it at face value as someone struggling to get their dream job
* It might be that the dream job is so out of reach and ridiculous that it's akin to applying to be a walrus or lighthouse
* It could be seen as some guy's pride and a sense of entitlement (deserving more than a Wendy's job)
* Maybe it's idealism versus realism (some people take Wendy's job first because they're realistic, then apply to their dream jobs whereas this guy does the opposite)
* It could be the guy struggling against depression
* Or this might just be a crazy man with some serious mental issues

Hopefully he doesn't stay at Wendy's. I guess there comes a point in our lives when our day job becomes our only job and we stop looking for other things, whether for better or worse.

Side note: Neat technology with http://www.tineye.com/ where it allows you to do a reverse image search.

This weekend's google searches

android dev sqlite
android sqlite rawQuery
sqlite browser
cdc influenza rates
US census
united states map
creative commons license
photoshop eyedropper toolbar display
stock paper image
propaganda posters
photoshop vintage effect
android logo andy
cheap plane tickets chile
how to make fried twinkies
how to make beer batter
how to make mimosas
giacomo puccini

f(x)

Sometimes I think in terms of math. It's kind of funny because I'm not too good at it.

So when I'm thinking of relationships and soul mates, it's weird that I default to formulas and statistics.

Let's say two people are together. At that very moment, I'll think "x = y". Well, people are more complex than a simple x or y, but I think we're all slaves to our genetics and life's experiences (for simplicity's sake let's say that sums up to a nice equation of sorts).

Then we need to factor time into our equations. People aren't constants, people change. Johnny started drinking and Susie really let herself go. We're more like f(x) and y(x).

What's the odds that you'll grow out of your partner and want something completely different? Were you the same person you were a year ago? 5 years ago? 10 years ago? How will your partner react if you're not the same person he/she married?

So we're each a unique formula that's changing, some more so than others. Not only do we have to find the right formula that matches us, we also have to make sure we're on the same timeline. I could be a x^2 and she could be an x^2, but if I'm at x=3 and she's at x=5, we're at different places in life.

Communication and time helps manage expectations and solidifies who you are, but maybe some formulas are too different. Maybe some people don't have any single soul mate.

Maybe some of us are a variation of pi. Or maybe this is all crazy thinking and I'm just being irrational.