Congratulations Team USA!

Gabby Douglas, Kyla Ross, Jordan Wieber, McKayla Maroney, and Aly Raisman, well done. While I wish I could have watched it, Shawn Johnson's live tweets told me everything that I needed to know about this gymnastics final. Each and every one of you looked unstoppable.

Proud of Team 'MURICA,
Brown CS Girl

Last Summer Weekend in Pittsburgh? Check.

Unfortunately, this past weekend was my last weekend in the beautiful city of Pittsburgh. I have to say, it is much, much nicer in the summer than it is during the school year, although I'm sure that that is because I actually have time to do something other than work during the summer.

Quick recap of the weekend:

Friday night, my friend came. My big and I took him to the Delt House and then Half Price at Fuel and Fuddle.

Saturday: For some reason, my body decided that sleeping at 3:30 am and waking up at 8:30 am was perfectly normal, and so at noon, after being awake for 3.5 hours, vacuuming the house, washing the dishes, and doing laundry, I went grocery shopping, walking both to and from Squirrel Hill since I missed the bus both ways by no more than 10 seconds. By the time I finally got back, my friend was finally awake, so we went to lunch in Shadyside (we went to Chica Loca Taco, a small little taco place) and then hit the AXO house to visit my other friends. After that, he needed to buy some things in Southside, so off we went. Then came dinner at Silk Elephant, a fantastic Thai restaurant in Squirrel Hill, although I was a little disappointed that when I asked for a spicy level 10 Thai Green Curry with Chicken (the spice levels go from 1 to 10, 1 being the mildest), it was not very spicy at all. Nonetheless, Thai food is Thai food, and it was delicious. That night, we all went to a friend's house to chill.

Sunday: My friend was due to leave at 4 pm today, so after waking up at 10:30 am, we decided to just walk around Forbes and Fifth Avenues. Breakfast/Brunch was at Crepes Parisiennes on Craig, then Rita's because it was really, really hot and humid. The only non-food purchases of the day was a $600 smartphone that my friend bought and a $3 shirt that I bought. As we were leaving, we saw some of my friends from the previous night, and they were heading to lunch, so we joined them, although I didn't actually eat anything. By that time, it was already 3 pm, so we returned back to my house and he packed and left for the airport. Afterwards, I worked in Gates for a few hours, walked to Shadyside in an attempt to find an iPhone case (forgetting that most stores are closed on Sunday), worked out, and ate dinner while watching the Titanic (I've never seen it).

A somewhat-relaxing-somewhat-hectic-weekend,
Brown CS Girl

Greek Life

Is something I'm not a part of. But after the events of yesterday, is something that I wish I had joined.

Yesterday, a good friend of mine from New York City came down to visit me here in Pittsburgh. He goes to school in UCLA, and happens to be a member of the fraternity Delta Tau Delta (DTD), which happens to be a fraternity that Carnegie Mellon also has (surprising, I know). So after we (my big and I) picked him up from the airport, we brought him to the Delt house.

And the way the other Delts greeted him and interacted with him was something that completely surprised me. It was like he was a brother at CMU's DTD chapter, like they had known him forever. He was introduced to everyone, and was immediately asked, "Hey, wanna beer?" And afterwards, 9 of us went out to eat dinner, and even there, everyone was super nice and welcoming towards him. To the point where, afterwards, one of the brothers invited him to a party tonight and asked him if he wanted to watch The Dark Knight Rises with the other brothers. They had met less than 2 hours ago, and already, plans were being made for the rest of his weekend there.

Surprised but oddly content,
Brown CS Girl

Musings

Yesterday, Thursday, July 26th, 2012, I skipped work. I decided to email the office and say that I was doing something with my big, and therefore, I couldn't go to work. My "excuse" was partially true,  I mean, I was with my big, her boyfriend, and two other DTD brothers, but the true reason I decided to not go to work was because the five of us decided to take a road trip down to Cumberland, Maryland - where my big and one of the Delt brothers is from.

Why, you ask? Well, my big needed to pick up her glasses from the eye doctor, and after hearing so much about Cumberland and the people there, I needed to visit the place. And when the other three heard we were going to take a 2 hour long road trip down to Maryland, they decided to join in as well.

Which brings me to the point of this blog post. Was it irresponsible for me to skip work yesterday? Most definitely. Was it irresponsible for me to go to Cumberland without telling my parents? Absolutely. But it was adventures like this one that make you - as cliched as it sounds - stop and smell the roses. Leaving for the day with five friends was exhilarating, exciting, and one of the best things I've done all summer. And, to be honest, we didn't even do that much. Once we got to Cumberland, we ate lunch at my big's favorite Asian restaurant. We then picked up her glasses, walked around downtown Cumberland for a bit, saw the two high schools, went to the two houses of the people who lived there, ate dinner, and left. OH and we also went to a state park, Rocky Gap. It was gorgeous! A huge, quintessentially-blue lake in the middle of the park, with mountains surrounding most of the lake, and on the part not surrounded by mountains was a small beach area, the clubhouse, and the backdrop of a beautiful golf course.

And that was where this thought of "living a little" came up. One of the Delt brothers was continuously complaining about how it was hot, or how he needed to get back to play Dungeons and Dragons, or how there was nothing to do etc. But at the moment in State Park, his brother turned around and said, "You know what? Just live a little."

Yes, we all have work to do, places to go, people to meet. But sometimes, all you need to do is live a little. Forget about all of the work and all of the stress of the "real world". Forget that you need a flat-screen TV or a Lamborghini or a penthouse in New York City. Rather than investing in the material goods, invest in the experiences. The memories will stay with you forever.

Living a little,
Brown CS Girl

Mashup Music

Almost every day at work, a significant amount of time will be spent coding with my headphones in. And while there are songs that I like to listen to over and over again (We Found Love by Rihanna? Played that one 400 times in a row), occasionally I do get bored. So yesterday, I went to check out kapslap.com.

For anyone who likes mashups of popular songs and techno/electronic music, this is the guy for you. He's a DJ from Lehigh University, and his mashups are some of the best that I have heard. Who would have ever though you could remix Call Me Maybe with techno? Enter Call me Greyhound, one of my favorite Kapslap mashups. Although my friend, who happens to be a member of the frat Delta Tau Delta at UCLA and had Kapslap actually come for one of their parties, recommended Satisfied Like A G6, which to steal a colloquialism from the Cali kids, is hella good.

Girl who wishes she was in California,
A Brown CS Girl

It's 12:02 pm

And half of the people at work have cleared out of the office.

My motivation to continue working has exponentially decreased. Partially because of the fact that no one is *actually* working today, but also because, in about 10 hours, a group of us will be going to watch the Dark Knight Rises! For those of you who have already seen it, how was it? Could you recognize some of the Carnegie Mellon buildings?

Can't wait for the weekend,
A Brown CS girl

Just crossed 1000 views!

Thank you everyone for reading my blog!

Here are two links that my great friends (thanks Vidur and Lucas!) showed me yesterday. The first one is hilarious, the second one shows a lighter side of Facebook and their engineers.

1.http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/wp3w5/which_famous_person_needs_to_come_out_already/

2.http://techcrunch.com/2012/07/16/pr-done-right-facebook-engineer-apologizes-on-reddit-for-imgur-mistake/

Happy reading!
A grateful Brown CS girl

Interesting Article

http://techcrunch.com/2012/07/16/civicscience-2-86-million-new-atlantic-ventures-cox/

Cheers,
Brown CS Girl

New Music?

As I'm sitting at work, waiting for another case, I've been looking at different types of music on Spotify.

And I think I've been converted. Into a Penn Masala fan girl. I always liked their music, but after listening to a few of their songs, I have come to appreciate the way they fuse Indian and Western music together. It's so effortless, so fluid, and their voices perfectly blend together in a way that just reminds you of dark, silky chocolate and makes you melt.

My personal favorites are Aadat/Apologize, Aicha, and of course, Viva la vida/Jashn-e-bahara.
New fan girl in the room,
A Brown CS Girl

Kennywood!

My apologies for the lack of posting this weekend, but it was one of the most busy, fun-filled weekends  that I've had all summer. On Saturday, six of my friends and I went to Pittsburgh's local amusement park, Kennywood. We were expecting long lines and huge crowds, but luckily, the weather was overcast with a chance of rain, so although we had to suffer through the rain occasionally, we never had to wait for over 20 minutes for any ride.

Saturday morning, 10:30 am, the seven of us were on a bus to go to Kennywood. Why is the time important? Because all of us are college students, meaning 10:30 am may as well be 6:00 am on a weekend. But, we did it because all of us were super excited to go, and wanted to hit as many rides as possible.

After buying tickets, we began our ride adventure. I won't go into detail on all of them, but if any of you are planning to visit Kennywood, I highly recommend the Black Widow, Phantom's Revenge, and the Thunderbolt. The Black Widow is Kennywood's newest ride, Phantom's Revenge is just fantastic, and the Thunderbolt is one of Kennywood's famous wooden rollercoasters, and was my favorite ride of all.

Also during our Kennywood adventure, we decided to eat as much food as possible. And while we didn't have enough room to try the fried oreos, we ate some of their famous fries, cotton candy, dipping dots, funnel cake, and of course, tons and tons of lemonade. And dinner was Indian food at half-price, which means the seven of us ate a huge meal for approximately $50.


To fun-and-food-filled-days,
A Brown CS Girl

Birthday shenanigans :)

This is the first birthday that I have celebrated away from my parents, and let me tell you, the shenanigans were endless! Here's a small summary of everything that happened yesterday.

3:45 am - I woke up in my home in New Jersey to catch a 6:30 plane back to Pittsburgh. As I later found out, my best friend and I were in the same terminal at the same time. 

9:00 am - 4:00 pm - Work. Nothing much to say here, other than the fact that by 4 pm, I was exhausted, and just wanted to celebrate my birthday. 

4:30 pm - 5:30 pm - Chilled in my favorite place of all, Gates. I was helping a few of my friends with their math homework - Set Theory - which was actually very relaxing, and lots of fun. 

5:30 pm - 9:30 pm - Let phase 1 of the shenanigans begin. At 5:30, I went over to one of my good friend's house. He had slept for "9 hours over 3 days", so I made the executive decision that he needed to ingest some form of caffeine (granted, I was also exhausted from waking up at 3:45 am, but I had already downed a Diet Coke, so I was in a bit of a better place than he was). He, knowing that I love caffeine, decided that we would go to the Starbucks in Squirrel Hill, and drink the John Wayne shot. Now this shot isn't on the menu, and isn't available everywhere. It's 2 shots of espresso with a layer of a flavored cream at the bottom. Now, because he also had no faith in my coffee-drinking abilities, he made me order a tall iced cafe mocha as well, in order to "chase" the espresso. I've never had espresso shots before, so I was nervous, but hey! It was my 19th birthday, so why not? Once the John Wayne shots arrived, we waited for them to cool down, and downed them, similar to how people may down, say, shots of alcohol. It was delicious! I had chosen vanilla creme, which beautifully complimented the bitterness of the espresso. Now, I had no need for the iced cafe mocha, but started sipping it merely to finish it, because coffee should not be wasted. He decides to try the triple John Wayne shot (so 3 shots of espresso instead of 2) and buys me another one - this time with cinnamon creme. By the time I finish this shot, I feel the caffeine-induced jitters begin. And I have more coffee to finish. And we go to Rite Aid to buy caffeine pills for him (that I end up taking). Between 6:30 and about 8:30, I was probably the most hyper person in Pittsburgh. We went and chilled on the cut from 6:30 - 9:00, and while we had one of the most fantastic conversations I've had in a while, I could probably have just talked for 2.5 hours straight, and not been bored. It was terrible. If this is what ADD is like, my heart goes out to those who have it. At 9:00, we returned to his house to attempt to eat dinner - I say attempt because caffeine is an appetite suppressant, which means he tried to eat because he knew that he had to eat at some point, while I gave it and decided that it was fine to skip dinner. Or was it?

9:30 pm - 10:30 pm - The last bit ended with a question because at 9:30, I was "kidnapped" and taken to dinner by two of my good friends. And because I absolutely in love with  Chipotle, we went to Chipotle for my birthday dinner! It was fantastic. Good food, and even better company. At 10:30, we ended up at my house, where a few people were going to come over to chill. 

10:30 pm - 2:30 am - SURPRISE! My friends threw me a surprise party, in my house, inviting all of my friends. It was an incredible party, especially for a Monday night :) We had a Google Hangout going as well, and my friends from Cali called in to wish me a happy birthday. The cake was incredible as well. Since there are four of us who have birthdays very close to each other, and we were all turning 19, the cake had all four of our names on it, and during the "Happy Birthday", the candles were lit four times so we could all blow them out. It was amazing! But unfortunately, it had to end at 2:30, because I had work the next, er, later that morning. 

7:30 am - Birthday over, first day of being 19. Walk downstairs, the house is a mess and I am exhausted and have to make it to work in an hour. But hey, it was a pretty spectacular 19th birthday, one that is definitely unforgettable :)

Nineteen-years-and-one-day-old, 

Brown CS Girl

IT'S MY BIRTHDAY! :)

And, because my mom is a fantastic card-maker, she made me a gorgeous card after our fantastic dinner at the Cheesecake factory last night!

Here's the link to her blog, and specifically the card, she made for me:
http://pixielifeforever.blogspot.com/2012/07/dream.html


In her last teen year,
A Brown CS girl

July 4th festivities

Yesterday, of course, was Independence Day for the United States. A day normally reserved for spending time with family, eating, and relaxing. And while my family wasn't here to enjoy the festivities, three of my friends and I celebrated the day in true American fashion - by going to Heinz Field! Home of the Pittsburgh Steelers, it truly is an awe-inspiring stadium. We were merely feet away from the turf that has seen the like of Ben Roethelisberger, Hines Ward, Tom Brady, Joe Flacco, and many other NFL players. For the four days leading up to the Fourth of July, the stadium and surrounding area turns into a massive carnival-esque scene. There was rock climbing, shaved ice, funnel cake, football tosses, even a live band. Of course, we tried the shaved ice (twice) and I attempted to rock climb ( I say attempted because I made it one foot off of the ground).

We decided to eat dinner at the Melting Pot, and that is possibly where most of our "shenanigans" occurred. Let's just say that the delicious food (if you go, make sure to get the Fiesta cheese and the Pure Milk Chocolate fondues), the company, and the atmosphere led to a night of ridiculousness. It's possibly the most fun I've had in a long time, and as one of my friends put it, "this is one of the stories that you tell your grandkids".

European Champions!

Are, as predicted, La Roja! Well done to my Spanish boys, you played fantastically and definitely cleared up any doubts about how you were playing during the tournament. Special call outs to Silva, Alba, Torres, and Mata for your goals, and especially Torres, for also winning the golden boot :)

Fabregas with the trophy, with Torres looking on.