I'm perched by the windowsill outside Brenda's French Soul Food as I reflect upon this grim reality: only two weeks remain in the fantastic ride that has been (and, for now, still is) my last co-op term down here in San Francisco. (Why Brenda's? I yelped reasonably-priced breakfast joints and sorted by top rated, and this is what I got.) Two weeks - not enough time to seriously launch into a new project at work, nor enough time to truly complete my haphazard exploration of this most multifaceted of cities. Every end-of-term comes with equal parts trepidation and excitement, and this one is no exception.

What next? I'll be heading back up to Waterloo to cap off my undergraduate education. Before that happens, though, I've got (in no particular order) a company holiday party to attend, a certain club by the name of DNA Lounge to pay one last visit, a game of Capture-the-Flag to play, a bottle of tequila to buy (so I can take advantage of the token customs allowances!), a work term report to write, two presentations to give, a couple of projects at work to bring to a satisfactory close, a handful of friends in Vancouver to visit...the list goes on; as usual, it's so much to do, so little time. I wouldn't have it any other way.

Then what? I've studiously ignored this question for much of the past four years, pausing only briefly to give it any thought whatsoever. As I approach graduation, however, this question seems to be popping up with exponentially increasing frequency. According to the hard-earned wisdom of generations past, it is considered Unconscionably Short-Sighted to not have A Plan - and yet that wisdom seems quaint now, politely antiquated when faced with the constant upheaval that has come to characterize modern life. It has never been so commonplace for best-laid plans to go awry. Insofar as I have made any post-undergrad decisions, here they are:

• My decision to spend a while travelling after undergrad is absolutely non-negotiable. I will have spent the better part of five years in the teeter-totter rat-race training ground that is co-op, flipping like high-voltage AC between work and school, and I desperately crave the opportunity to sample the other possibilities offered by this short existence we have on Earth.
• That said, I'll be signing up for the next round of GREs - why not? - and making the round of grad school applications at some point.
• I'll also keep contacts at the places I've worked for. This is rightly considered Good and Smart, and I've no qualms with jamming my feet into as many doors as humanly possible.

Context switch - having finished my breakfast in the cramped temple to tastiness that is Brenda's (Yelp does not lie - the beef cutlets and grits are indeed both packed with deliciousness, and the bottomless watermelon iced tea is wonderfully pulpy), I've meandered my way over to Ferry Building to borrow wireless and power off Peet's. The hallways are packed on weekends, tourists and locals alike buzzing around in the frantic search for produce to the reverberating refrains of street performers - a lucrative profession in this part of town, where no one sets foot without consciously agreeing to part ways with their gold. This may very well be the last time I set foot in this building for quite some time; next weekend is decidedly busy, and the weekend after is earmarked for the aforementioned jaunt up the coast to Vancouver.

Anything else? I still haven't seen Alcatraz, but I consider this no great loss; the only proper way to see it would be late at night, a sort of reverse infiltration that would ideally be carried out by boat. This is my first real post at the new site; it remains to be seen whether this will precipitate a noticeable shift in writing style. I should start posting more regularly, if only to prepare for my travels next summer - my less itinerant friends and relatives will demand compensation for my absence in the form of chances to live vicariously through me, something which I certainly owe them more of.

Anyways, that's it for now. Owing to my unusually pensive state, I've rambled on for far longer than I had hoped - and so, my fingers having reached exhaustion, I shall leave you all with a simple exhortation: keep posted!

Had the chance to wine and dine in the famed wine-producing region of Napa Valley this last Saturday. I decided to don my only suit jacket (and no socks - hey, it's laundry day) for the occasion so as to meet the requisite minimum standard of pomposity. (I should really source a monocle, kerchief, pocket watch, and top hat. As a general rule, you don't argue with anyone who is actively employing all these objects in the service of highbrowdom.)

The Stanford Canadian Club Thanksgiving dinner was a resounding success as measured by the excess of available foodstuffs; there was turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie in abundance. Yum. Maybe this whole gastronomic shindig should be a weekly affair (or fortnightly, at the very least.) In true seasonal fashion, the leaves are Monty-Python-style suicide-diving off the trees in droves; the air is crisp with that familiar decay-scent, something I had not expected to find this far south.

Important news flash: I just saw a rainbow out the shuttle window. If I were inclined to believe in such nonsense, I'd say that was a good omen for the day.

Yeah, it's been that long. 28 Days Later, stuffs and things at varying orbitals of excitement have been happening with acceptable regularity:

• Not only am I the proud owner of a longboard, but this particular plank of my comprehensive transportation platform now bears the inimitable insignia of one Randall Munroe. (I can only wonder what joyous blasphemies #666 will bring.)
  
• Finally made it out to the infamous DNA Lounge; this SF institution has the peculiar distinction of being owned by ex-Netscape programmer Jamie Zawinski.
• Canadian Thanksgiving shindig, complete with full turkey and pumpkin pie. Need I say more? (No, but I should probably add this: there's another Canadian Thanksgiving dinner this Sunday hosted by the Stanford Canadian Club; despite what their (apparently infrequently updated) site says, it really is this weekend.)
  
• Pretty Lights at The Independent last night. If you haven't seen them, you really should.

How's Facebook? (Come on - if you care enough about me to read my pithy musings, you're probably expecting an answer to this question.) Intense. It pains me to say it, but Facebook has so far provided much more in the way of personal development and work-related awesomeness than Google ever did. How can that be? It comes down to recruiting strategy: Google casts as wide a net as possible, hoping to grab what it considers to be the best of the best before someone else does. In my opinion, this strategy is bound to backfire. You end up with a zillion interns and, well, less than a zillion interesting and/or useful projects; it doesn't take a math major to see that you can't pair each intern up with something worthwhile to work on. (It does take a math major, however, to look at the whole situation and start rambling about bijections.) Here's the point: half of the interns coming out of Google are extremely wary of returning, and that can't be good. ("Half" here is an extremely unscientific guesstimate, but several co-interns (who will obviously remain nameless in such a public forum as The Internet) have expressed similar sentiments.)

23 days to go. After reflecting upon the virtues of getting proper amounts of sleep and not eating takeout Chinese or Pita Factory twice a day, I've decided that my approach to this month has to change. From now on, I'll be experimenting with a strict 11-7 sleep schedule. I've also stocked up on snacks of the apples-and-carrots variety, and I took some time aside last night to concoct container-loads of pasta e fagioli and salad. I'll also try to set some time aside in my daily breaks for exercise.

The hypothesis is that, if applied correctly, this will increase my general alertness and productivity. As a side effect, it will likely contribute to a more psychologically-balanced state. This seems obvious; I'd wager, however, that most students faced with crushing workloads panic and go the graveyard-shift route, a path which I had been following up until last night.

So - 23 days to go, and may each be better than the last!

Decided to try waking up earlier this week. Today: 7:20 am after one false start at 7:07 am. (Yes, I really do set my alarm clock for times like this - my favourite time is 8:08.)

Sugar is wonderful, maple sugar all the more so. I had the inimitable pleasure of visiting a sugar bush on Saturday along with the rest of my office; turns out the uncle of one of our programmer-analysts runs the operation, now in its 27th season of business. Nothing like maple sugar, maple syrup, and maple taffy in one day to mount a buffer overflow attack on your sweet taste buds.

Just found this cool animation off a link posted in a tweet from an ex-coworker; as explained on the video page, it uses data from this site. My $.02: I think all public services, utilities, etc. should be releasing data APIs for the general public to hack on. They could even release the data under a GPL-ish licence that requires any resulting apps to be made publicly available. They could even go one step further - simply hold an online vote to pick the top apps, then host them free of charge on their website. Help us to help you...

Edit: I forgot to post links to the sugar bush photos! Here they are. Additionally, here's some more pics as taken by coworker Boxing Chen and uploaded by the owner, Pierre Joanis.