UC Botanical Garden
PSA for folks in the Bay Area: The University of California Botanical Garden has re-opened for limited, outdoor-only visits. Seems like a nice (and
reasonably) safe place to go during the pandemic. It's July, so not much is in bloom, but it's still beautiful.
25
As every company I've ever bought a product from has been reminding me all morning, today is my birthday. 32 revolutions around the sun. Still ticking.
Obviously it's been a pretty busy year; most of that is in my post from last month. According to the accelerometer on my wrist, I've walked 2,904,398 steps in the last year but I'm mostly still in the same place as I was. Probably by the time I hit 33 revolutions around the sun, it'll be a very different story. Still got that baby on the way (another ~6 weeks to …
read more
Life Updates
Hey, so, it's been a while since I posted. I guess I just wanted to post and update. Let's see… what has happened
since February 2020....
Family

Yeah, so, we're having a baby. If you didn't see that on other social media already. He's due at the end of July.
Lockdown
As you and everyone else knows, the world has been in lockdown since March due to the outbreak of
SARS-CoV-2 causing
COVID-19. My company sent us all on mandatory work-from-home
on March 12th and I haven't been across the bridge into San Francisco since. Working from home …
read more
New Car
After more than 10 years of avoiding it, I've finally rejoined the ranks of the private-car-owning bourgeois. $SPOUSE
and I spent the past few weeks doing research and reading reviews, spent Saturday and Sunday test-driving a bunch of
vehicles, and ended up buying a brand new Cosmic Blue 2020 Honda Insight yesterday
afternoon.

read more
Twenty-Teens in Review
Well, here it is, the end of 2019, the end of the decade. 🎉 The end of the decade of my twenties, so probably the most
eventful decade I'll experience. Ten years ago, I was at my parents' house in Fall River, a senior in college
on my last Christmas break of all time. I'd just accepted an offer from
Yelp to start as a Software Engineer in June, 2010, reporting to Neil Kumar. The world
was uncertain before me. Today, I am sitting in my own house, married, working for my third employer, sitting
pretty in …
read more
DMV
I went to the DMV today to get a REAL ID upgrade for my license, and to get it reprinted
with my correct address so I don't need to carry the paper change-of-address confirmation any more.
The DMV is always a fascinating microcosm of human behavior, and a unique experience to simultaneously
see the best and worst in people.
For those of you who haven't been in a California DMV, the process follows several stages:
- (optional) Make an appointment. The North Oakland DMV doesn't have any appointments available in the next six
months, and then next DMV available anywhere in …
read more