Cryptonomicon - Neal Stephenson

 I just finished reading Cryptonomicon by Neil Stephenson, and because it was unlike any other book I've ever read, I decided I would a write a sort of book review on it.

Why was it unlike any other book I've ever read? Because everything only clicks after about 80% of the book has gone through. In most books, there's a plot line that carries the reader through. While the reader may not know exactly what will happen at the end of the book, there are enough clues that the reader can have a blurry picture of the resolution of the conflict in the book. Not so in Cryptonomicon. The lack of clarity with regards to the plot line did two things:

1. When everything finally clicks, there's this moment of absolute clarity. It's the mother of all "AHA" moments.

2. You spend 79% of the book trying to figure out what you're reading and how it's connected. Which makes it hard to motivate yourself to actually read the book.

Point number 2 is definitely one of the biggest cons of the book. There were times in the initial 79% of the book where I just wanted to quit. Put the book down and never look at it again. The reason I kept going is because the people who recommended it to me said that this was a perfectly normal feeling to be having when reading one of Stephenson's books, and that eventually it will all make sense. To be fair, they were correct. But I'm not sure that spending 79% of the book in frustration and confusion is something I would like to repeat.

That being said, there are a lot of pros to the book. One, it interweaves two stories very well. The first story concerns the code-breaking efforts in World War II (along with other military efforts), and the second is a story in the present day about a group of people starting a financial corporation. One thing that I really liked was that Stephenson rotated between five different characters to tell the story. Each of the characters had a distinct personality which made for some interesting chapters. There were also many other characters present in the story - which made it difficult to to keep track all of them, but also allowed for a lot of great interactions between characters. Example quote from one of these conversations - "Plato's Cave - the Veg-o-matic of metaphors".

Overall, go ahead and read this book. You will learn more about cryptography and computer systems than you probably expect (or want). You've now also been warned - the first 80% of the book will be a struggle to get through.

#imnoangel

This morning, Lane Bryant started a hashtag/modeling campaign entitled "#imnoangel" (read about it here).

I'm all for body diversity, but I dislike campaigns like these that seem to put down people who do have the Victoria Secret models' physique. If, for example, there was a hashtag campaign that did the opposite of this hashtag - say, #imnotplussized, there would be a huge uproar. Society would scream and shout and say that this was a completely ridiculous campaign that was hurting the body image of people who were plus sized and making them feel bad. So why is it okay for people to make it seem as though it's a bad thing to be skinny or to "be an angel"?

Just like some people can't lose weight for x,y, and z reasons, not everyone wishes to be this skinny (and have a boyish physique). Believe me. 

Nopalito's

Saturday night, the bf, fambam and some family friends of the bf, and I all decided to head to Nopalito's for dinner.

Now Nopalito's is a self-described "sustainable organic Mexican kitchen" located in Inner Sunset. Obviously, I love Mexican food, and so I was excited to try this place that looked nicer than your average taqueria.

We began with an appetizer of Totopos con Chile, which was a classier version of nachos, minus the beans, guacamole, and jalapeños. I know that was a lot of minuses, but it was pretty good! The chips themselves were coated in some sort of spice, which meant that you didn't really want (or need) the jalapeños for the kick.

For the main course, the bf and I shared the Tacos Dorados de Papa (potato taquitos), Panucho de Pollo al Pibil (some sort of chicken on top of a crispy taco that was filled with a black bean mash, topped with cabbage and salsa), and this shrimp enchilada thing (which I couldn't find on the menu, which is why you get the description rather than the actual name of the dish). The potato taquitos were the best - the outside was perfectly crispy while the inside had the consistency of mashed potatoes.

I didn't like the other two dishes - the panucho had pulled chicken, which I tend to not like anyway, and not only that, the way the pulled chicken was marinated was not very yummy. As for the shrimp, it wasn't very flavorful, and the flavors didn't mesh together very well.

I do love Mexican food, but I did not love Nopalito's. And this may be because I don't like "high class" Mexican food. When I think of Mexican food, I think of taquerias, and my mind wants taqueria burritos and quesadilla, which Nopalito's was most definitely not. It might have just been an issue of reality not meeting expectations, because the expectations weren't reasonable. Regardless, I don't think I'll be coming here again. 

uberPool

I work for a company that whole-heartedly believes in the sharing economy, and yet I refused to take an uberPool because I didn't know what it would be like to share a car with a stranger. And yet companies like Airbnb are asking people to do more - they're asking people to open their homes to complete strangers. What's amazing is that people actually do it. And so if people can open their residences and share with strangers, I figured I could share a stranger's car with another stranger.

I'll be honest, I was a little apprehensive when I saw that there would be another rider sharing the car - would they be weird (it's San Francisco)? Would they be quiet or chatty? Would they be nosy? After watching too many crime shows, my overactive imagination was acting up. But thankfully, I had nothing to worry about. The woman I was sharing the uberPool was a nice, sweet person, who had lots of advice on various yoga and pilates studios after I mentioned to her that I was looking to start going to barre class. In fact, she highly recommended a place that I was looking at (and that I have an employee discount too), so WIN.

Taking an uber out the event I had tonight was $18.37, but taking an uberPool back was a flat $7. With that kind of pricing, I can't complain. 

California Pizza Kitchen Dinner

So tonight, the bf and I ordered food from California Pizza Kitchen (duh, hence the title). We had been recommended the restaurant by both his parents and my dad, so we figured that pizza + beer + Mission Impossible 2 would be perfect for a Sunday night.

This first pizza was the Tostada Pizza - it was a thin crust pizza, covered in cheese, black beans, lettuce, sour cream, and some type of salsa. I love thin crust pizza and Mexican food, and this definitely combined the two well. There was a little too much lettuce on the pizza though, so next time I'll probably go a little bit lighter on spreading the lettuce out.  

This was the Spicy Chipotle Chicken pizza. It came with a lime crema sauce, corn salsa, chipotle chicken and poblano peppers. This was also good, but the chicken (which was covered in adobo sauce) was a little too sweet for my taste. 

This was definitely a fantastic meal though, and the sheer variety of pizza on the California Pizza Kitchen menu means that I'll definitely be coming back. 

Food Truck Review - Señor Sisig

Yesterday, the bf and I decided to eat at a food truck for lunch, since his work didn't have any good lunch and I didn't want to Postmates again. He had heard from his work buddies that Señor Sisig was good, so off we went.

It was a food truck serving Filipino-Mexican food (think burritos, but with Filipino meat), and I have to say it was delicious. I ordered a California Sisig burrito, which contained chicken, french fries, shredded cheese, guacamole, pico de gallo, and sour cream. The bf ordered the Super Sisig burrito, which had adobo garlic rice, pinto beans, lettuce, pico de gallo, and a cilantro cream sauce. The burritos were huge, so I ate half yesterday, and half today. It still tasted good the second day, which is saying something.

As usual, pictures and captions below.

Unwrapping the delicious burrito. Not only was it long, but it was also heavier than most burritos.

The french fries are visible in the bottom of the burrito. At first, I thought that french fries in a burrito would taste weird. Then I tasted the burrito, and realized that I was mistaken.

All in all, I would definitely eat at this food truck again. The line is absolutely worth it. For $9.75, this is a delicious burrito, albeit a little pricier than most.

 Score: 9/10

Starbucks shouldn't be allowed to close at 5:30pm

How else am I supposed to get my caffeine fix? 

Finally back

 In the land of the free and the home of the brave, and the home of LTE and the land where my phone can be used for more than taking pictures. 

A picture a day

makes everyone happy!

South Indian Temple in Nadi, Fiji. It's apparently the largest one in the Southern Hemisphere.

Experiment number 1

Obviously having to do with bracelet making. This time I tried to do a square knot bracelet with some (fake) golden pearls. I was following picture instructions and while a picture may be worth a thousand words, in this case, I wish there was some clarifying words put underneath the picture because it took me an hour and a half and a lot of untying and retying to get the bracelet to look okay. Granted, I'm still not super happy with the way it looks, but I'll try and survive. 

Side note - apologies if my pictures are not centered. They look centered on my iPhone screen, but when I was looking at my blog on my laptop, they were left justified. My bad! 

TOO CUTE

I plan on being this kind of mom, regardless of whether I have a son or daughter.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/crystalro/adorable-motherdaughter-matching-outfits#.rjDBorN8nk

Fishtail bracelet

Red and white fishtail bracelet! Definitely the most complicated bracelet I've made so far, and I also cut the string too short so I had to cheat and add a metal clasp and jump ring so it would fit around my wrist (picture below). It required 8 different strings, and then you just brought the outer left string to the inner right, and the outer right to the inner lwft and then repeated. Better instructions are pinned on my pinterest board entitled Bracelets (I think). Otherwise just search honestlywtf diy bracelet on Pinterest (honestywtf is the name of the blog I originally found the bracelet on) and directions/pictures should come up! 

Happy bracelet making! 

A tragedy in bracelet making

So I set out today to make a bracelet that I had made yesterday, but in a blue string as opposed to a brown one. Things started off well AND I even remembered to document the process so I could share it with you wonderful people. 

Navy blue and gold, classic combination. Here you can see the beginning of the bracelet.

And almost done!  Now the instructions said that when you were finished with the main part of the bracelet (what you see above), you could thread the excess string through two knots from the back with a needle. I didn't have a needle, so I used superglue instead- I just superglued part of the string to the back, and then snipped off the extra. So far so good.

The last part of the bracelet required making a sliding closure, which is where you essentially take the four super long center strings (two from each side) and then you overlap them and create the same knots for about half an inch. Now I did that, and like before I decided to use superglue to help secure the ends.

Which is when it all went wrong. Because some of the superglue went through the bracelet and the sliding part was no longer slide-able. It was stuck. Two hours of work and 110 inches of hemp wasted.

Tragedy. In bracelet making. I experienced it today. I hope none of you ever have to go through it. 

Made a new hemp bracelet

This time with a new technique. It's definitely a little rough, but I like the way it looks! 

Another bracelet

Which is actually another version of the same bracelet I made earlier, but in a different base color. 

Added another bracelet

These are so easy to make and they look so dainty and beautiful. Love it! 

Hemp Bracelet number 2

This time, I tried to be a little bit fancier by trying the trickier square knot, as opposed to the simple braid. It worked! I also added a bead to make it a little more visually appealing. This was a bit tricky because the bead wasn't circular, but with a little bit of glue I was able to get the string to stay in place. First picture is of the bracelet I made today, second picture is the two bracelets together.

Hemp Bracelet Attempt 1

After coming back from Fiji, I've wanted to recreate the "stacked bracelet" look. Now because my wrists are tiny, traditional bracelets tend to fall off, so I decided to make some hemp bracelets instead. There was also someone on base who had the stacked hemp bracelet look, and she looked gorgeous, so why not copy a pretty thing?

Attempt 1:

A simple braided bracelet with 3 beads strung in. 

This view

I will never get tired of it. Ever.

Back from Fiji!

And let me tell you, I miss it like none other.

Silana Village, you were too kind to me. Even with the roosters crowing at 3:40 in the morning, and the dogs barking whenever they pleased, and the frogs pooping in the middle of the room, I wish I was back on base. Being with 30 other people, all who come from different places, have experienced different things, and have different plans for the future was amazing. There's so much to learn from everyone (and lemme tell you, I learned some key German phrases) that I wish I was back. And my class at Navunisea District School was the best. Super sassy and sweet, and eager to learn.

See you when I see you, Fiji.

MIA for two weeks

Hi!

I'll be away from a computer for about 2 weeks, so there will be no cool infographics, unfortunately.

However, I did do some scripting today, and while I didn't have time to create an infographic, here's what I discovered:

There are 2 Warlock mech cards
The Warlock mech cards are:
['Anima Golem', 'Fel Cannon']


There are 4 Warrior mech cards
The Warrior mech cards are:
['Iron Juggernaut', 'Screwjank Clunker', 'Siege Engine', 'Warbot']


There are 2 Paladin mech cards
The Paladin mech cards are:
['Cobalt Guardian', 'Shielded Minibot']


There are 2 Priest mech cards
The Priest mech cards are:
['Shadowboxer', 'Upgraded Repair Bot']


There are 1 Hunter mech cards
The Hunter mech cards are:
['Metaltooth Leaper']


There are 2 Druid mech cards
The Druid mech cards are:
['Anodized Robo Cub', 'Mech-Bear-Cat']

There are 2 Rogue mech cards
The Rogue mech cards are:
['Goblin Auto-Barber', 'Iron Sensei']


There are 1 Shaman mech cards
The Shaman mech cards are:
['Whirling Zap-o-matic']


There are 3 Mage mech cards
The Mage mech cards are:
['Flame Leviathan', 'Snowchugger', 'Soot Spewer']


There are 27 Neutral mech cards
The Neutral mech cards are:
['Alarm-o-Bot',
 'Demolisher',
 'Harvest Golem',
 'Annoy-o-Tron',
 'Antique Healbot',
 'Arcane Nullifier X-21',
 'Blingtron 3000',
 'Clockwork Giant',
 'Clockwork Gnome',
 'Enhance-o Mechano',
 'Explosive Sheep',
 'Fel Reaver',
 'Flying Machine',
 'Foe Reaper 4000',
 'Force-Tank MAX',
 'Jeeves',
 'Junkbot',
 'Mechanical Yeti',
 'Mechwarper',
 'Mekgineer Thermaplugg',
 'Micro Machine',
 "Mimiron's Head",
 'Piloted Shredder',
 'Piloted Sky Golem',
 "Sneed's Old Shredder",
 'Spider Tank',
 'Target Dummy']

Mech Mechanics

Hi! I was curious about how many Mechs had various "mechanics" - taunts, deathrattles, battlecries, etc - so I created an infographic with the "mechanic" and then pictures of cards that had aforementioned "mechanic" underneath. Enjoy!

Hearthstone Mech Stats

Hi again!

So last time, I analyzed a single card. This time, I'm going to be analyzing a specific "race" of cards - specifically, the Mech cards.

Background
Mech cards were added in the Goblins vs Gnomes expansion pack, and since then, there have been many "Mech decks" created - mostly with Mage. Part of what makes the Mech deck so fun to play is the fact that there is "substantial synergy" (quoting the Hearthstone Gamepedia here). And unlike other races, where it is advantageous to have as many of one race on the board as possible to create the maximum synergy (who can ever forget the days of the Timber Wolf + Starving Buzzard + Unleash the Hounds combo?), Mech synergy requires there to be only one friendly Mech on your board (Cogmaster and Goblin Blastmage, I'm looking at you here)

Mana Curve

    As you can see, unlike the overall minion mana curve, which was a left-centered bell curve, this one seems to have less structure, with the most minions around the 2-5 mana cost.

Looking at the extremes, the 0 mana minion happens to be the "Target Dummy" taunt, which has 0 attack and 2 health. The 12 mana minion happens to be one of the Giants; called the "Clockwork Giant", it has 8 attack and 8 health, and costs one less for every card in your opponent's hand. Oh, this would be magical against Priests.

Legendaries: There are 7 legendaries, not including the V-07-TR-ON, which is formed from another legendary + 3 mechs. That is a scary, scary minion.

Now I've realized that other than the graph, everything I've said is better said on the Gampedia site (and there are pictures of the cards), so tomorrow I will be doing a more in-depth analysis on Mechs (perhaps, even, create an infographic for the Mech class)

Unstable Portal Analysis

Hi all!

So the graph I did yesterday was an initial, exploratory analysis on all Hearthstone cards. Today I decided to work on analyzing one card - Unstable Portal. I also decided to go ahead and create an infographic, because why not?

Initial Hearthstone Analysis

Yes, I know this graph is ugly, but I'll fix it tomorrow.

For, now I just wanted to see if I could actually do it (hint, I can. Although installing things is annoying)