Thoughts

I now feel like a geriatric, I purchased Caltrate today.
Matt::CoolPoints--;


I went to Pellegrini's again tonight. Awesome coffee. Rocky was there and he tried to slip me some free cake. I felt bad for turning it down as I do not think it was vegan. He is totally cool, he tried to give me the coffee for free, so I tipped them the price of the brew. It was very good. I sat alone and removed my head from the computer so I could focus on some of the logical aspects of my research. Mainly, just thinking about region based memory management, writing down some examples of test-cases, and formulating an idea where we can allocate all space at once if we can guarantee how big the region of memory will be. The latter would assume there is no loops for variables of said region.

Walking home, a dude spotted my 2600 hoodie, and we chatted for a bit. Way cool!

I have to pee.

-Matt

Hoe hoe hoe!

Man the xmas spirit is truly amazing out here. Maybe its the weather, or rather less than American sense of decorating. I never really decorated much or any for xmas anyways. Well, I was in the research lab today, and my professor/advisor rocks in and asks if I want to come over for dinner. On Christmas Eve... SURE! So I go home with him. He and his wife made an incredible dinner, and we had some pastry's and tea and juice. They opened presents and lit the Christmas Tree... which I think got part of its glow that their son was bewildered by, due to the candles actually lighting-up part of the tree. A real tree with real candles and fire! So awesome. But when they were opening presents, they gave me some! They had two presents wrapped and labeled for me! Totally a surprise, thats the true spirit, a big surprise. I had no idea this was going to happen, he just invited me over today!

Earlier in the day I stopped by the Vic market and visited my friend Dave, my buckwheat dealer. He also sells grain and nuts and stuff. Well, I kinda feel like its making a drug deal 'cause I by the metric system, in other words, I but like a quarter-kilo. I love that I by based on the kilo metric-standard unit, like professional drug dealers. Well Dave hooked me up with more than I asked for and charged me so little, it was so humbling! Lots of mixed nuts, and lots of friendliness.

Even earlier this week I went to Pellegrini's Italian joint on Bourke near Spring Street. Matt is awesome. He pulls some great espresso, as I have been going to this Italian place the past few weeks, we recognize each other. Well I was doin' the ole fold-the-US-20-dollar bill trick so that the graphics on the bill look like 9-11 and collapsing twin-towers. Matt wanted the money, and he paid me AUD for my USD. And he even gave me and my friend, Vegan Dave free espresso. He then didn't even want us to pay! I was like... man that's so nice. What a holiday gift! I still paid him as a tip. So cool!

Last weekend I went to a friend's wedding. It was unitarian. I knew I was in the right place when I ended up chatting with a dude sporting an Amon Amarth T-Shirt. But the whole deal was so cool. There was no song or dance or any other wedding BS. Straight-up, to the point. Basically can be paraphrased... "Ok your married... lets party" Ok maybe not like a crazy party scene, it was a nice reception and then the offsite party/reception. I didn't go to the latter, but the reception at the unitarian place was nice! Congrats Lev!

So here is the deal. May the holidays bring everyone a smile. Lets forget about brain washing and religion, and just recognize the love we have inside for one another. Strip-away the social corruption, we are simply animals. We can love or hate. Love is fun, its better to smile than be pissed. We are all playing this game. Either we can make life sucky by creating enemies, or simply love each other and laugh. Love is easier.

-Matt

More Aussie Curiosities, Santa in Speedos, Compiler Hack1n, and Metal!!!

Ok so I wanna keep this post brief. I must first start with a major way-cool discovery I have made. There is, in fact, Outback Steakhouse restaurants, just like in the US... here. Isn't that just a shear mockery of the Australian culture. On behalf of America, I apologize to all Australians. Proof: http://www.outbacksteakhouse.com.au <---- notice the '.au' suffix.

Aye! What's that in the air? A fecal tenge of consumerism, the celebration of money and corporate whorism, Christmas time! Actually, I'm not sure how present-driven it is out here. I noticed that, while it's Christmas, my neighborhood doesn't really seem to decorate much. That's fine with me. I much rather celebrate Yule and the change of seasons. Krampus is pretty cool too. One thing I did notice is that it seems most Christmas decorations feature "stars" versus the "snowflakes" that the Northern Hemisphere litters Christmas with. Since it is summer, that does make sense. However, not everything is free from the snow and its contradictory summertime Santa Clause affiliation with the Southern Hemisphere. Santa still pilots a sleigh. Maybe that's for like when Mr. Clause decides to get trashed and cart-around in the "bush."

The "bush," apparently the term outback is more of an Americanism. The Aussies do not seem to understand that term so much, in fact, I do believe they refer to it as the "bush."

My research is finally going. I have been hackin' away on the Go front-end for the GCC compiler in an effort to implement region-based memory management. Ian Taylor did a fantabolous job, the guy (I think he is a machine) is a marvelous developer.

So I was walkin' down Smith Street this evening. I stepped into the Blue Tile Lounge and catch some metal. The band covered some Pantera. I was totally humbled, it made me feel energy! I was happy, they sang New Level, and I can't recall ever hearing a cover of that badadadaasssss track!

This post is dedicated to Mitch, who encouraged me to update this blog, and the letter X for being often used as an algebraic variable.

Skeptics

So I decided to go catch the Brian Dunning and Rebecca Watson talk last Wednesday. Awesome! A ton of skeptics were there, including the Victorian Skeptics and University Secular Society of Uni Melbourne. Possibly other groups. Anyways, friendly people. Some let me sit at their table! Anyways, Dunning, from Skeptoid spoke on "Strange Sounds" recorded underwater, from numbers stations, and backwards masking, etc. Fun talk! Rebecca, from The Skeptics Guide to the Universe and Skepchick gave a hilarious talk on "How to Ruin Christmas." I chatted one-on-one after the Q&A session with Brian, totally cool guy!

-Matt