Monday, April 18, 2005
Desert wildflowers
Junko, two of our friends, and I spent Saturday night camping out in Anza Borrego Desert State Park. We were out to see the spring bloom since the winter was extraordinarily wet. We had seen spectacular photos in the March 13 LA Times, and we wanted to go. Unfortunately, we weren't able to get reservations for the campsite until this past weekend. The weather was hot (92 F) and the flowers were dying. We missed the heat since we arrived late in the day and left before noon, but it was hot enough for us. The ranger told us that we'd have to go to higher elevations since the flowers on the desert floor were past their prime. But, she said, that we'd probably need a 4-wheel drive vehicle! So much for that! On our way out, we did see some fields of flowers, but I don't think they're the same variety. But after all this, who cares! Here are some pictures from this roadtrip.
Monday, April 11, 2005
Documentation
For those who don't follow geek speak, allow me to elucidate a couple of subtle points.
The title of my blog is "pacho source code". Like reading the source code can help one to understand how a program behaves, this space will be used as a window into what makes me tick.
The second point is about my first posting, "Hello, World!". The Hello-World program is usually the first program folks learning a programming language execute. It simply prints "Hello, World!" to the screen. I couldn't help it. Sorry from the inner geek.
Anyways, I digress from the topic at hand: "Documentation". Why am I blogging?
This may come as a shock (since I am a ph.d. student), but my memory is pretty poor. So, it is important for me to document things - writing events in the calendar, taking pictures from vacations, etc. One my fav songs these days is "Take a picture" by Filter where he asks "could you take my picture - 'Cuz I won't remember". This blog format seems like an easy way for me document important thoughts and events on the web, without having to code html. As you may know, I've been trying to keep things current on my webpage. But, it's difficult. Recently, I have shifted from personally-made Travel-logs to simply posting my pictures captionless on Yahoo!Photos. Hopefully, this forum (with the help of Picasa and Hello from Google) will facilitate an intermediate ground where I show a few select pictures with some commentary.
Besides, it's good practice to keep good notes. I have learned this good lesson several times now as a grad student. Trying to remember exactly what you did in an experiment several months ago is very difficult if you don't take copious notes. :P
The title of my blog is "pacho source code". Like reading the source code can help one to understand how a program behaves, this space will be used as a window into what makes me tick.
The second point is about my first posting, "Hello, World!". The Hello-World program is usually the first program folks learning a programming language execute. It simply prints "Hello, World!" to the screen. I couldn't help it. Sorry from the inner geek.
Anyways, I digress from the topic at hand: "Documentation". Why am I blogging?
This may come as a shock (since I am a ph.d. student), but my memory is pretty poor. So, it is important for me to document things - writing events in the calendar, taking pictures from vacations, etc. One my fav songs these days is "Take a picture" by Filter where he asks "could you take my picture - 'Cuz I won't remember". This blog format seems like an easy way for me document important thoughts and events on the web, without having to code html. As you may know, I've been trying to keep things current on my webpage. But, it's difficult. Recently, I have shifted from personally-made Travel-logs to simply posting my pictures captionless on Yahoo!Photos. Hopefully, this forum (with the help of Picasa and Hello from Google) will facilitate an intermediate ground where I show a few select pictures with some commentary.
Besides, it's good practice to keep good notes. I have learned this good lesson several times now as a grad student. Trying to remember exactly what you did in an experiment several months ago is very difficult if you don't take copious notes. :P
Sunday, April 10, 2005
Hello, World!
This is my first venture into the world of the blog. This promises to be a good forum for me to provide updates in life and thinking without having to specifically code html as I have tried to do before.
What to expect in this virtual space: glimpses of success and failures as I inch towards being PhinisheD, the joys and fears of being a first time father, and random thoughts from the media (books, articles, tv, radio, movies, etc.)
I hope some of these thoughts to come will not be a waste of your time.
What to expect in this virtual space: glimpses of success and failures as I inch towards being PhinisheD, the joys and fears of being a first time father, and random thoughts from the media (books, articles, tv, radio, movies, etc.)
I hope some of these thoughts to come will not be a waste of your time.
