The highest compliment

Hello, World (comp sci ref for those not in the know)

I couldn't have asked for a better trip back to Michigan last weekend..actually the getting sick upon return could have been left out... but it was so great to be back home for a few days.



I left here, got on a red eye flight, and was probably the only person awake, eventually made it home. Kris picked me up, he trimmed his beard as promised but his hair was so long!!! I guess I need to be more specific next time.. Friday we got back to my house and my mom had lunch ready for us! Roxy was insanely happy to see us, which made me insanely happy to see her! Her fur is so long and silky! I love her! We went out to eat with some friends in Royal Oak and then saw "The Invention of Lying". That movie was okay...but apparently not lying makes people really rude and idiotic.

Saturday we had planned to go to the apple orchard but it was rainy which means mud. So we went to Great Lakes Mall before meeting up with two of my favorite ladies Shannon and Nadia for dinner at Chef Aaron's restaurant: The Union Woodshop. GOOD LORD, best BBQ we've ever had! Please eat there! It's in Clarkston! They don't have a website but should to show you the awesome atmosphere and food.

BTW there are several reasons I love Kris. One of them is when he thinks out loud. Most memorable lately is what he said when he was with me here in August: "A hot dog is nothing more than a ketchup and mustard transport device" ...which is true becuase we both could eat ketchup and mustard on bread and be happy. Another is the kinds of things we talk about. What do you consider beauty? Is a scenic valley expanse pretty? Is a picture of that expanse pretty? I don't particularly think so. We'd rather say it's impressive, and not pretty, the way a girl is pretty. It's different. The word impressive means so much more. He pretty much always impresses me. We are both pretty lucky.

And then I'm back in California where I am faced with the reality of exemplary cases of really non-down to earth people who are nice enough. Regardless its really interesting being here. I went to a study room where there was a group of senior EE students doign homework, and watching the conversation unfold was like watching myself and my friends at school 6 years ago. People are not very different anywhere you go! It's like 10 billion parallel realities, all within 6 hours of each other. Heck maybe even more realities within a smaller time span. I meet people who are exact replicas or at least shadows of people I know back home. What's worse is meeting people who are more than shadows of myself not many years ago.

It makes me sorry that I didn't figure this out sooner. I am here, and I am the same person I was back home. I thought I would change instantly somehow, but a lot of my flaws that I ignored have become very apparent, yet a lot of the things I used to fret about don't matter. These might have been all of the things I missed out on by not going away to college. I might be here for the wrong reason. Several weeks ago I beat myself up very badly for that but I guess better late than never...so here I am.


Also here is what is going on in school:
Linear Controls: I enjoy this class. I've had it before so its a little easier and the instructor is very traditional in his teaching which I like. Also the lecture is recorded so I can go to class and its okay if I happen to zone out because I watch each lecture and take notes like 4 or 5 times.

Robotics Sensing and Planning: Holy cow hard stuff. My group decided to be ambitious and do a hard project. We are simulation audio localization. Basically, some remote says "chirp!" and the robot tries to calculate how far away that sound is and navigate. Ha, so the project has been stripped down to "How the hell do we figure out how far away the sound is?" (Hint: It's not the calculation that's hard...) If anyone has good ideas PLEASE let me know.

Linear Algebra: What a god damn waste of time. This prof is driving me crazy... worst instructor ever, never assigns homework so I don't have a reason to stay focused. And hes fucking teaching my Linear Systems Theory class next semester.

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