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I just came home from my friend Lanie’s birthday libre. It is 4AM and I can’t sleep. I have a long day tomorrow. I was just thinking how time flies so fast. Birthdays come and go and before you know it.. you’re in the late twenty-something range. Things change from the time you were in your late teens. Well, here are some things I learned along the way that I want to share.
1. Get insurance.
2. Get a full medical check-up.
3. It pays to have stability in your life but stability may NOT be necessarily marriage. Stability may be a relationship with your family or friends or a stable career.
4. Not all your acquaintances are friends. You will meet people who will hurt you or betray you. Be careful. Real friends are hard to find. If you have them, take good care of them.
5. Learn. Read. Study.
6. Slowly wean yourself from the vices and bad habits you have accumulated since your teens.
7. Stop trying to compare yourself with others or trying to be like them. It will just make you miserable. And don’t apologize for being true to yourself. Either people will accept you or not. Deal with it!
8. Admit your mistakes.
9. Don’t rush too much. Breathe deeply. Take a walk in the park. Watch the sunset. Or something….
10. Two things: savings and passive income.
Well, I am trying to make this list my personal mantra. Trying, being the operative word. Numbers 6, 8 and 10 are kinda tough. As for the others, well, they are accepted precepts but sometimes, I just don’t care or I forget. But hey, as they say.. try and try.
This was a story of a battered wife, played by Sharon Cuneta (Dianne) who found love in Richard Gomez (Albert) . Edu Manzano (Louie) was scary as a wife beater. After several months of keeping their love under control, they decided to elope to the US. Albert was waiting for her in the international airport. Dianne was in her car, with her bags packed, a few minutes from NAIA departure. She stopped, cried, and decided to forego her personal happiness because she thought of the son (Gelo) she will leave behind.
She decided stay in the Philippines. She had her marriage anulled. After a long time, I think, her anullment was finalized and her kid was all grown up. She had not, even once during all this time communicated with her one-time love, Albert.
Fast forward to several years later. Dianne was driving in the busy streets of Makati, talking on the cellphone, waiting for the traffic light to turn green. She finished her phone call and when she looked at the car beside her, she saw Albert, talking on the phone. Albert caught her eye. The traffic light turned green and horns were blaring, still they could not stop staring at each other oblivous of the busy street. Both were a lot older and more mature and the circumstances were different. Maybe, just maybe… If circumstances forced them apart before, tt may be circumstances that will bring them back together. Then Barry Manilow’s “Somewhere Down the Road” played. The movie ended.
Very nice movie ending.
What can I say? I love Filipino love stories.
Lorenz had a school project where he was asked to bring baby photos. As I looked at the photos, I couldn’t believe how fast time really flies. From a little baby, my son is now a 9-year old. Four years from now, he is going to be a teenager. Gosh! He is indeed a big boy already. No matter how old he is going to be, he will always remain my baby. Love you sweetheart!
Lorenz at 1. At that time, I can carry him easily.
Lorenz at 9. I almost cannot carry him. Too heavy for me! But he is still my little baby! =)
Big Boss is going to help me move my project forward. This is going to be big technical job. Investor Boss is coming mid-August so we have to make preparations. Other Boss is filling up my to do list with important non-technical items. On the home front, Son Boss (Lorenz) is asking me to tutor him for his Mastery Exams. Swamped…I am.
This is a good thing though. I am regaining my sense of urgency. As a virtual office worker, I have nobody physically looking over my shoulder. My bosses don’t follow-up on a regular basis. When they do follow-up, then you know you are in trouble! I don’t have a definite work time. I work whenever I like. For months now, I have been putting in a sub-par performance. I have not put in the effort. I have not been disciplined. I have been distracted. I have not been as productive as I should.
I used to put really long work and study hours both in my previous job and in law school. I am always critical of my performance. Then I became lax. Virtual office did that to me, I guess. I am an adrenaline worker. I work well under pressure. In virtual office, there is no pressure. There is no one looking over my shoulder. With the kind of research I am doing, I have a soft schedule. So I am taking my sweet time. But now I have realized that I can do more. It took machine learning to inspire me to work ! =)
It is Friday night. Normally, I would be preparing to go somewhere at this time. But now, I am more excited in reading Brown Corpora Manual. We will be using its Wall Street Corpus for our Neural Net, SVM and SMO training.
Big Boss is asking me to prepare the input data for his Machine Learning Agent. Investor Boss is requesting me to charter flights for him. Other Boss is asking me to fill some really hard to fill spots.
Never been happier to be swamped with work. Love my Bosses! Bring it on Boss!
Note: Again, I am not writing this to get a raise. My bosses don’t know I have a blog. =)
Big Boss is here. I am simply AMAZED at how intelligent he is.
Aside from being innately bright, he is so disciplined. He is able to discipline his mind to concentrate for 8 hours straight. And I mean that is 8 hours of hard core thinking – abstract thoughts, creative solutions. My God, that is hard core brain work! Sh**t!
As I was looking at the code and the algorithms implemented, I googled it to study it and I googled the concepts behind it. I looked at Support Vector Machines – Regression and Classification and the SMO algorithm to start with. I googled SEE Algorithm that was mentioned in the code. I couldn’t find the SEE and the implementation of the SVM and SMO is different in the code. Why? Because he made the SEE Algo himself and he made other algorithms to enhance the SVM and SMO algorithms. S**t, he makes up equations on-the-fly and he programs from high level to deep down in the registers.
He started explaining the code and the implementation. After a couple of hours, I was exhausted. My brain cranked and creaked. It couldn’t take in anything anymore. But boy, I am excited! I felt burned-out before because I was simply was lost in all the papers and books I have been reading. Now that Big Boss started to explain things to me, I am feeling excited. So much to do!!
What I labor to figure out in a day, he can figure out in 5 to 10 minutes. I have accompanied Big Boss to international conferences, and even his collegues from the academe around the world and the industry are impressed.
I have worked with Big Boss before but this is the first time I have seen and have understood(a little bit) the algorithms and implementation of the software he had been developing.
His thinking is clear, direct to the point and creative and simple. Brilliant… Just brilliant! One of the world’s foremost Computer Scientist!
We are not worthy. *bow* =)
Note: I am not writing this to get a raise. I haven’t shown Big Boss my blog. =)
Here are some pictures courtesy of Rajah. The two pictures below I think are the funniest among the lot.
1. Oh Peter …
Well, the instruction did say expand ….
2. Indeed …
Well, the instruction did say Find X.. and not.. Compute for X
Here are other math problems solved.
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