Categories
projects

The Limits of the Ancient Egyptian World

Let me start with the story of Osiris and Isis. In Egyptian mythology, Osiris was the god ruler of Egypt. After returning home after a business trip, his brother Set (also brother to Osiris’s wife, Isis; don’t worry too much about familial relations) had a plan to take over: he built a chest the exact […]

Categories
tabletop games technology

My Google+ Hangout Success Story

This past weekend, 3 friends and I met up to play Dungeons & Dragons in the early morning, mid-afternoon, and late night, in California, Washington, the UK, and Korea. Simultaneously. And we could all see each other and share notes and drawings with each other. Technology just works when we can easily do things we […]

Categories
projects software engineering

Introducing chronoline.js, a JavaScript library for timelines

Sadly, a lot of my work at Zanbato is behind closed doors, but recently, I have been working on a widget that is definitely not proprietary and is available for all of you to use, extend, or even just look at: chronoline.js. chronoline.js is a library for making a chronology timeline out of events on […]

Categories
food

A Dessert for the Indecisive and Inquisitive

In general, I don’t think I’m very good at making desserts. I have had many disasters with oven temperatures that cause burned cookies, tough cupcakes, liquid-y banana bread, and more. Fortunately, most things turn out well enough when enough sugar is added, and because I’m usually willing to stomach my own mistakes, food usually gets […]

Categories
personal

Two Unrelated Stories

Story 1 A few weeks ago, I was a little hungry late in the afternoon at work. I wasn’t hungry enough to even eat a granola bar, but definitely needed something to nibble on. While wandering through the mini-kitchen, I spotted a single fortune cookie sitting on the counter, left over from lunch a day […]

Categories
video games

My Thoughts on the Diablo 3 Beta

Hopefully those of you who also spent years in Diablo 2 didn’t miss the big news last weekend that Diablo 3 was in open beta for stress testing. The servers were up and down as Blizzard presumably was testing various capacities and training staff responses, but it was a tremendous opportunity for many fans of […]

Categories
food

Potlucking Like It’s Your Job

My friends and I have a lot of potlucks. We haven’t had as many recently, but last summer, we had them weekly on Friday nights, and I thought it was a great way to hang out. It’s cheaper than going to a restaurant, exposes you to interesting creations, and hopefully gives you something to be […]

Categories
psychology

From Marshmallows to Tracking in the American West

(Update 07/31/12: I just heard that Jonah Lehrer fabricated Bob Dylan quotes for “Imagine”, the book that inspired this post. Although I didn’t really rely on his work for this post, it seems prudent for you to keep that fact in mind while reading this. Let this be a reminder that science writing can sometimes […]

Categories
board games

A Brief Introduction to Arkham Horror

(Note: post was started last weekend, so the dates are a little off) As of a week and a half ago, I’m done with school. I took my last final, graded a ton of exams, and promptly got on with all of the things that I didn’t do because of classes. The most concrete of […]

Categories
coursework psychology

Project Presentation for Natural Language Understanding

If you’re interested in what I’ve been doing for classes this quarter, I recorded myself rehearsing a final presentation for CS224U, Natural Language Understanding. I feel like I really fly through this material, but it might give you a sense of my work. Embedded below, and also a link here. And if you’re interested in […]