September 2004 Archives

Here's a wakeup call for those of you who think Chipotle's burritos are healthy: "Fresh Mex: Not Always Health Mex." There's something just not right about a Vegetarian Burrito that weighs in at over 1,000 calories. And you've gotta love it when the article describes Chipotle's carnitas burrito as "an artillery shell filled with a day's worth of saturated fat and sodium."

I've always kinda suspected this. After all, Chipotle is "financially supported" by McDonald's (they get prickly when you say "owned by McDonald's"), and nothing that big could possibly be that good for you. I guess that's partly why I don't kid myself and prefer to get my burrito fix at Guad, since with names like "Super Giant Burrito," you know exactly what you're getting yourself into.

Incidentally, I've created a new entry category called "Food," because I keep finding myself talking about tasty things on this blog. If you like reading about food online, you should check out Yimay's site.

On Tuesday, shortly after Nathan and I had completed our 6^th (according to him…I haven't been keeping count) sushi-eating showdown, we were lounging on a bench, trying to recover.

A girl walked up to a nearby trashcan, threw something away, and walked off. My eyes followed her, because she bore an uncanny resemblance to someone I knew from a past life, when I was a precocious expatriat eighth-grader attending ISK. Of course it wasn't her, because that was nearly nine years ago in Africa. What would she be doing in California, and Davis, of all places?

I happened to acquire this girl's email address back in 2000 when a number of ISK alums started contacting each other. We hadn't communicated since, and there's a good chance she no longer used her Hotmail account, but I nonetheless sent her an email asking her what she's up to these days.

As it turned out, she's studying for a master's degree—at UC Davis.

What are the odds? Two people who haven't seen each other in nearly nine years happen to run into each other, on the other side of the world? It's mind-blowing.

8:10pm Update: Yowsers! It turns out she actually lives a couple blocks down the street from me. This is getting weirder and weirder.

Since this entry is sure to generate another round of "You used to live where?" questions, I suppose this is a good time to point out a new addition to my Profile on this site: a nifty map of various places around the world that I've lived in or visited, courtesy of Bryan Boyer's IndyJunior. It's not totally comprehensive, either because I wasn't able to find coordinates for some of the places I've visited (especially in Kenya and Madagascar), or because they wouldn't fit on the map (most notably, various sites in Greece and Italy). Also, the inclusion of Dar es Salaam and Bahrain is a little questionable, since in both locations I only spent one night, and didn't see much more than the inside of a hotel room. But they sure made the red route lines more interesting. :)

A picture is worth a thousand words.

I've always wanted to be a regular somewhere. There's a strange appeal in being able to walk into an establishment, grin at the maitre d', and have them direct me to a seat and ask if I want "the usual." But I guess there's an art to becoming a regular, which probably starts with being, well, a regular.

There are a couple of places where I might be headed in that direction. I passed the lady from Mr. Chan's today, and she recognized me, smiled and waved…which is interesting, since I haven't been there in months. The lady at Hometown Chinese Restaurant knows my family well enough to ask me how my mother's doing. Back when I worked at Computer Tutor, I visited Starbucks' regularly—particularly when I was having a rough quarter, or was about to teach rough kids (if any of my students' parents are reading this, I assure you, I'm not talking about your child.) And it's odd if I walk into Cafe Mediterranee and don't know someone who's working there.

But with the exception of Cafe Mediterranee, I'm not on a first-name basis with anyone at those establishments. And I've never been asked if I want "the usual," even though I often have one. General Chicken at Hometown, Roast Duck over Rice at Hoa Viet, and a Chocolate Brownie Frap at Starbucks (though that's rapidly being supplanted by a double-shot espresso on ice).

I read somewhere that the secret is to tip well and visit on slow nights. But that seems like such a commitment for something so trivial—stopping by the same place every Tuesday, ordering the same thing, and being sure to read the server's nametag and leave a couple extra bills on the table—all in the hope that as I walk out, the hostess smiles and nods at me, saying "Good night, Aliotsy. See you next week."

On Scampi

This is kinda funny. A picture from my shrimp scampi entry comes up pretty high on the results page for a Google image search for "scampi." Consequently, most of the hits I've been getting lately have been from people searching for images of scampi. The goofy thing is, what I made wasn't so much scampi as it was shrimp stir-fry. Nonetheless, people seem to like the picture.

On Computer Science

One of the truly depressing things about being a Computer Science major—other than the long hours and the fact that you're doomed to a life of complete social ineptitude—is the process of picking elective classes in the major. Many of the truly interesting classes are either offered rarely (we're talking every couple of years in some cases), or are very impacted. The other classes aren't necessarily bad, but choosing the right one is like playing Russian roulette. All too often, it's not a question of picking the course that you're most interested in, or that will be most useful for a career. Rather, you pick courses based on which instructors will do the least damage to your GPA.

It's a sad fact of the major, really. My longtime lab partner told me a few quarters ago that he admitted to an academic advisor that he would pick his remaining courses based solely on how easy it is to get an A—even if that means picking an instructor who won't adequately challenge him or prepare him for the future. Experience had left him with a cynical, pragmatic view of the major. Much to his surprise, the academic advisor said "That sounds like a pretty good strategy to me." Go figure.

Some instructors are great—their courses are challenging without being unreasonably difficult, and they teach with a genuine concern for student success. They aren't necessarily easy graders, but they don't give out impossible assignments, either (yes, I have had a class where the instructor acknowledged he'd given us an impossible problem).

Good instructors are hard to find, though. I often go to RateMyProfessors.com to see what other students thought of a professor's course before signing up. What gets really frustrating is when all the potential instructors are rated poorly. Then you have to guess blindly. Thankfully, RateMyProfessors.com has been wrong on occasion, and I've found some poorly rated professors to be dynamic, engaging instructors with interesting assignments. Unfortunately, the site has also been very accurate about poor instructors.

Man, this is a depressing post, huh? I'll try for something happier later, I promise.