I’ll be taking a short trip to Portland, Oregon to see some of my high school friends. Oh, the joys of flying Southwest airlines–where they force you to make a layover in Reno when flying from San Jose to Portland.

Expect the next post to be on Tuesday. In the meantime, enjoy my photoblog.

When I find myself losing concentration during my studies, I go to the bookstore. But as usual, the over-commercialization of bookstore chains have wrought theatrical foods to pop up alongside the stacks. It reminds of a conversation in the Simpsons:

Lisa: Let’s go the bookstore.
Marge: Sure, I could use a muffin.

We have pumped one more arena with artery clogging tidbits of goodness.

Tippy and I decided to go to Barnes and Nobles, and I couldn’t resist being tempted by the chocolate items. I’m a big fan of dark chocolate, especially surrounded by concoctions made of flour and butter. I decided to get the chocolate chunk brownie–and oh, was it good. Tippy doesn’t like dark chocolate too much–she finds it bitter. But I find the bitter and intense sweetness to be primally filling.

In any case, the chocolate brownie was as good as it looks (pictured above). They don’t skimp on the chocolate chunks, and even add milk chocolate chunks for good measure.

Whenever I eat really sweet desserts I tend to eat it fast. I think this is rather abnormal. Usually, people enjoy their rich desserts slowly. I wish I could do that; it always seems like desserts taste better going down fast. Yes, I am abnormal.

Going to the library to study can be quite distracting. I always get drawn to the magazines and articles section–quietly “wasting” my time reading.

I picked up a running magazine just for kicks. My relationship with jogging has been ambivalent–sometimes I hate it, sometimes I love it. Currently, Tippy and I are pretty consistent in running 3 miles everyday. In any case, the stories in these running magazines are crazy compared to our meager and slow jogging miles. There is this guy that is shooting to run 300 miles nonstop. That, is ridiculously far.

He continues to say that after running marathons for a while, he would actually run TO the marathon–sometimes over 100 miles, and then he runs the marathon. He’s also run 150 miles uphill from sea level to 8000 feet in 24 hours (and in 100 degree weather). I think I’d proud of myself I could do that for just one mile.

I’ve always concluded that it’s genetics that will stop me from running that far and fast. Professional runners have all their genes stacked in their favor–yielding bigger and stronger hearts and muscles.

Max’s is one of those hidden Italian gems frequented by locals in the east village. The restaurant front is unadorned and discreet, bearing no signs or letterings at all. I was a bit skeptical, to say the least. But my skepticism soon turned to excitement upon crossing the threshold.

The place is a bustle of people having a good time. Come early, because seats fill up very quickly and stay that way for a while. In the meantime, you can enjoy a refreshing glass of sangria at the bar. But, it was crowded even there, so we decided to take a brisk walk while waiting for our table to clear.

Max’s is a down to earth restaurant. The kitchen is located in the center, rather than being hidden away in the back. It’s also open so that anyone can inspect the foodstaff toiling away at the pasta.

The food is the primary focus at Max’s. There’s pasta, and then, there’s really good pasta. Max’s is lightyears above really good pasta. The photo above doesn’t do it any sort of justice. The pasta is made fresh everyday, and actually tastes like it too.

We ordered three items: lasagne, spaghetti with veal bolognese, and fettucine with duck (pictured). All the items were marvelous. The lasagne literally melted in my mouth, and the spaghetti had actual chunks of veal (rather than ground), and the duck was plentiful in the fettucine. On top of this, each item was less than $15, which is quite rare for this caliber of noodle.

I can’t stress enough how fresh the pasta is at Max’s. It’s the freshest I’ve ever tasted. So the next time you’re in the east village and you see a nondescript looking restaurant with tons of people inside. Take a gander, you won’t be sorry.

If anyone knows the actual address of this place, please tell me. I can’t seem to find any listing online anywhere!

I’m currently taking a philosophy of science class, and have come to one conclusion–philosophers worry too much.

I’ve gone through numerous texts that always claim that a statement merely begs the question. Philosophers are never satisfied. Maybe this is necessary in some circumstances, but I’ve found that they are usually altogether too cynical.

Being a philosopher seems like it would take too many years off your life. Could someone perhaps point me to some optimistic philosophy? I’m sure there are tons out there. It just seems like pessimistic philosophy is more in fashion.

I’m not so sure I want to try “poopy seeds”.

I saw this typo at a Starbucks in Chicago airport.

Whenever I meet someone, they always ask me if I go by Jim. I’ve never liked the name Jim, nor have I ever wanted to be called Jim. I find the name a bit too glib. But people like to translate James as Jim for some reason. It’s as if it’s an automatic conversion for them.

But no!

I don’t want to be called Jim. I politely say,”No, I go by James.” It’s at this point where I detect a hint of sadness over the person’s face, as if calling me James is such a traumatic loss for them. I even feel a little guilty. Is this at all normal?

On top of this, my last name is Yu. Don’t even get me started on that.

I’m currently being flooded with lots of trackback spam. For now, all trackbacks are closed until I figure out a good method to stop the spam.

I’ve decided to start my photoblog, A Daily View (http://photo.jamesjyu.info/). I intend it to be more of an exercise/study for myself. I’ll post a photo a day (thus explaining the Daily part of the title) that I think turned out well, which in my case can be quite mediocre.

I’ve really gotten into digital photography lately, influenced by avant garde photobloggers like Eliot Shepard. I’m currently working with my dinky little snapshot (a PowerShot S110, Digital Elph), but hope to upgrade to an SLR like a Canon Digital Rebel XT, which I’ve been eyeing.

I also plan not to put any descriptions on my photos–I really do believe in having the pictures speak for itself. Or, as Ansel Adams says

A true photograph need not be explained, nor can it be contained in words.

But, if indeed a particular photograph is worth spilling over to print, then I’ll indulge myself.

In any case, comments, whether they be technical or aesthetical, are very welcome–just hit the comment button on my photoblog. Also, you’ll find a link to my photoblog on the upper right hand corner (yes, I’ve finally added a menu!) I’m still working on the “about” section, so don’t hold your breath.

It’s now official, the job hunt is over. I’m going start working for Dolby this June. Yes, I’m very excited.

I’ll be working as a design engineer on a fast moving team within the company. I know one thing for sure: there’s going to be a lot of learning. Dolby, which recently went public, is at the top of its game right now, and is expanding rapidly. The particular team I will be working on is a central and pivotal audio design team. I’ll be exposed to many elements of real world audio engineering; it’s going to be a rocking time.

Tippy is, of course, ecstatic as well.

We’ll probably be moving to San Francisco in the near future. I’ll be finishing my MS at Stanford this June, and things will be moving fast from there.

It’s a bit weird to finally know where I’m headed after college. Tippy keeps saying that this is the moment where I actually “grow up” and get an actual full time job. I, on the other hand, see it as a natural progression–not as much a sudden jarring change.

In any case, the city is going to be fun, and we’re going to live it up as much as possible. Now, which district should I live in? Anyone got any suggestions?