The World of Little Little Bird

来到美国,我已经搬了7次家了.除了第一次是刚到美国,拖着两只大箱子就走之外,其他的都费了一定功夫.其中包括从04年从Pittsburgh驱车1800迈,搬家到了Austin.当然更多的时候是我帮别人搬家.一直让我不解的是,象我那么身材娇小,为什么每次走会受到搬家邀请呢?掰着手指头算算,其中包括了联合主演的昕,冬,雪,勇先,敏,洪舟,亮,老朱xN,Daniel,当然还有很多友情客串的.其中印象深刻的有从中午搬到凌晨的洪舟,在那次有人发明了流水操作.所谓流水操作就是一个人负责把东西从车上拿下,一个负责把东西搬到apartment门口,然后每个层面站一个人,最后由主人拿进房去.这种方式目前被国内工厂普遍采用,因为能最大限度的利用劳动力.还有老朱的那N(N>5)次.最令我郁闷的就是土人从来不打包,从地上捡起来什么就往他的nissan altima里扔,扔满了就运,运回来再捡.另外老朱的那只破空调,巨重无比,但是每次都要搬.不过总算在我们后来打牌的时候,做出了点贡献.

记得疯狂的石头里面,高手用了各种高科技手段去偷翡翠,而黑皮却一直叫嚣着用榔头一砸,拿了就跑.咋一听,黑皮的办法似乎很可笑.但是,真的实施起来,不看过程只看结果的话,简单粗暴有时候反而更有效.可能是在两年前,在上海南京路一家金店,就有一个人假装买首饰,在试戴的时候,抓起就跑,当时也没有被抓住.说了半天废话,大家肯定不耐烦了.这个小小鸟到底要说什么.好吧.上周六,和人去打桌球(台湾同胞称之为撞球,他们的桌球是我们的乒乓球).有两个说是高手.我心有惴惴的跟着去了.结果,在我的简单粗暴之下,高手并没有占到任何便宜.而我居然也被称作高手了.想想我的其他项目,比如说,壁球,简单粗暴,网球,简单粗暴,羽毛球,简单粗暴,保龄球,简单粗暴.反正就象以前单田芳评书里说的,叫以力降实惠.往往高手们也没能耐我何,嘻嘻.有时候还能乱拳打死老师傅.

经常会有人问我为什么叫小小鸟。我的回答总是，我也不记得了，反正很久以前就用了。的确很久以前就用了，现在年纪大了，事情多了，脑子也不如以前灵光了。但是，别人总觉得我是在敷衍他们，搞的我也很郁闷。于是，我昨天特地花了点时间思考小小鸟的由来。经过长考，总算有个交待。最早使用小小鸟要回到５年多前。铛铛铛铛，来点掌声。那时刚拿到来美国的offer。马上就要飞越重洋，对自己的将来很迷茫。所以就叫自己小小鸟了。后来，也懒得改了。

公司里面很多人都喜欢发群体邮件，回的时候也是要回所有人，以显示他们的知识，能力，whatever。昨天，有人给整个department发了信，说 在某个女厕所捡到手机一部，请失主去认领。结果有好事之徒回信给所有人说，Jim，你的手机找到了。Jim是department某男性大佬。那人本来想 拍马屁，结果没搞清楚，拍到了马脚上。后来估计别人提醒了他，他连续发了两封recall email。哈哈，水都泼出去了，还怎么收啊？顿时成为我们site大佬 的笑话。
今天，有个加州的国人发信给整个department求助，说一个常用工具不工作了。结果有个越南人回信说：Work for me。结果马上有人回信：You're not a manager, you can't tell her to work for you! 老越的本意是那个工具在他那边能work。结果土人英语不灵光，被人抓牢扳头。哈哈。

我们组里有一个型男同事.身材健硕,说话嗡声嗡气的.今天整个department开会,我们site的所有人都去了.Boston site的老大在那边说的时候,他就跃跃欲试.终于,找到一个空隙,他插进去问问题了.这符合他一贯的风格.只是他问的不很客气,问对方:是不是假设所有人都和你一样思考问题的.结果被别人弹回来.接下来,型男的举动让所有在场的人惊讶.他站起来说,I'm not gonna do this.然后就甩门离场了.太有型了.那一瞬间,所有人都目瞪口呆.

San Antonio Spurs got their 4th NBA championship title in 9 years. What an achievement! Congratulations to the Spurs. In the finals with Cavs, they appeared to be a much better team. Cavs simply can't stop Tony Parker, the pretty. :) He teased the Cav's defense and is too fast for them to handle. Tim is still strong, cool and determined. Manu got hot again and again. Bruce did a fantastic job containing "King" James, though I think he is hyped. Big shot rob kept shooting big threes and did a great job on the defense and he now has 7 rings. Brent propelled with his contribution from bench esp. on Game 3 when Manu was ice cold. Michael finally got his first championship after so many years in NBA. As Tony said, he made a good decision coming to Spurs from Mavs. Coach Popovich made it possible by his disciplines and control of the game. Of course, all others also did a wonderful job. It was enjoyable to watch the games though there was not much suspense. The ex-head coach of Rox, Jeff Van Gundy was one of the onsite commentators. He made some great comments. Onr example is that he was questioning how Tony Parker could get all good stuffs, as Tony is a multi-millionare, is a top guard in NBA, and is going to marry Eva Longoria who is the beautiful star of Desperate Houswives. Jeff claimed that Tony could only pick two. Someone passed that question to Tony, and Tony said he wanted Money and Beauty. Haha.

As I mentioned in the previous post, I worked hard this week and my brain was like glue. Here are some examples. I told my manager that I found out that runing a test case in two modes, one gave 207 violations and the other gave 198 violations. That ain't right. So the manager asked someone else to look at the issue. However, it turned out that the first mode gave 107 errors instead of 207. I was driving along Mopac tonight, but my speed was below 60. I hit my pedal hard, but my car was still slow, even though the engine was already at 4000+RPM . Usually, it takes less than 3000RPM to reach 65. I was like what the heck but immediately realized that I put my transmission at D3. Faint. I exitted Mopac right away and switched the gear. When I am tired, my brain is slow. I don't wanna talk, I don't wanna think. I just wanna 发呆.

Thanks God It's Friday. Have been working darn hard this week to make up my DAC week. Worked from 9 to 8 everyday with brain like glue. Well, the main reason of being so exhausted is that I did something that I don't quite understand. So I had to try again and again to hit some luck. Glad it is over now. Happy weekend is ahead... Yeah~~~

I shall jog three times plus swim twice every week until the goal is achieved.

I saw one of my high school classmates in HEB the other day. When I first saw him, I told myself that I knew him. Meanwhile, I knew that he was studying his Phd in Dallas. That might be a similar-looking Asian since it has been 12 years when I last saw him. When I got home, I saw a post looking for tennis partner in Farwest on UT Austin Chinese student bbs. Detective Little Bird started googling immediately. In five minutes, his identity has been confirmed and he was my classmate. I sent him an email today and we talked on the phone just now. Amazingly, we even live in the same apartment complex.

得回来说说正题.我这次有两篇paper.是和学校合作写的,都不用我来present.在第一篇paper所在的session,有另一篇paper,基本上是照搬了我05年DAC paper的思路,做了点变化,结果还远不如我的那篇.这篇文章在今年初的TAU就发表过了.当时我客气地提了问题.让我不爽的是,TAU那个session的chair是那篇文章的第二作者,他一看presenter也就是他师弟回答不上来,就cut off了我的提问,说让我们私下讨论.靠,既然让我问了,就说明有时间.一般私下讨论适用于双方各持己见,但是presenter一句话也没说呢.这次,在DAC我当仁不让,再次指出他们的问题,不过就远没有上次那么客气了.不再是提问presenter,而是告诉他,哪里不行.也算给Kelvin出口气,因为Kelvin的一篇文章给他们锯了3次.后来session结束时候,碰到大萝卜,大萝卜暧昧地问我:Having fun?我倒.
我的第二篇文章,present的学生受到了session chair的殴打.chair问的不是具体的算法问题,而是high level的flow问题.我看学生有点懵,就跳了出来说我来解释.然后在整个session结束后,又和Mr. chair进行了交流.双方答成了共识.Mr. chair还邀请学生去他公司intern.
这是我第一次开会冲出去问问题,觉得比以前aggressive了不少.估计是工作了没有心理负担的原因吧.
注:殴打是我们用的哩语,指对presenter进行提问,指出他的问题.

由于没有好运气,也没有那份执着,我放弃了对IPOD/XBOX360/WII/PS3等等的幻想.于是把目标转向无需运气的玩具狗玩具熊.只要去听个15分钟的presentation,就能拿到的.来到A公司,就坐在那里边吃免费水果,哈跟达斯,边上网.一会儿,presentation开始了.主持人会问一些吹捧自己的问题.比如说最好的XXX工具是什么啊?答案当然是他们公司罗.所以,只要哪个观众先说他们公司名字,他就会把手里的纪念品扔过来.两个回合过后,大家都知道了trick,所以大家基本上都会同时叫他们公司名字,主持人不管,他就把东西随便扔.扔在两三个人中间的时候,谁先抓到,就是谁的了.我看上他们的一只玩具狗狗.说时迟,那时快,在我上网的时候,隐约看到一只狗狗向我飞来.我一扬手,抓住了狗腿,嘻嘻,大功告成,啊,不对,由于我的抓狗动作,我腿上的laptop开始往地上掉.连忙伸出另一只手,一把抓住laptop.在旁人笑话说这是公司的laptop的时候,我暗暗对自己说,快手就是这样练成的.
注:laptop是我自己的,不是公司的.

每年DAC除了paper presentations之外,最吸引人的就是N多的vendor exhibition.而对去开会的学生,当然也包括我,来说,除了present paper之外,就是那些vendor booth里五花八门的小纪念品了.一些大的公司还有大的奖品.比如说,某I公司,每个小时会抽取一个XBOX360,某S公司,每20分钟会抽取一个IPOD.那天我一早在S公司前面看到一个UT的学生在抽取IPOD.我逛了一圈回来,12点的时候他还在那里抽.等我吃完午饭,上网工作,再次经过S公司的时候,已经是下午5点了,他还在那里,一脸疲惫的抽.在6点,我再次碰到他的时候,我有点惊讶的问他,你怎么不在S公司抽IPOD?他说,终于在5:20的时候抽到了一个.看来工夫不负有心人啊.至少我没有那份执着,最后两手空空的回来了.不然说不定我也能抱个XBOX什么的.

在San Diego呆了一个星期参加DAC.虽然conference program很一般,paper质量有下降趋势,但是还是有挺多高兴的事情,比如说,碰到了海坤.也知道有多少年没有见面了,记得一起读本科,踢球.然后就分开了.如今大家都已经是屁挨着地了. 海坤夫妇带着我去吃了上海早点.豆浆,油条,小笼,菜包...我特喜欢油条蘸着酱油吃.觉得那油条做得比我回国时在永和大王吃的要好.然后去参观了他们的高级公寓.天南地北的聊天.他们还带我去看了西班牙人最早登陆美国的地方,Cabrillo National Monument.要再次感谢东道主的接待.

在昨天的TPC meeting得知UT的玛格利达过世了。真是让人感慨人生苦短。我是在去年的ICCAD TPC Meeting认识她的。一个很nice的女教授，同样是来自Austin，而且还是CMU毕业的。还认识她的学生。当时聊得挺愉快的。据说是6个月前得了癌症，没有挺住，就这样走了。估计上个月莱瑞来Austin就是来看她的。人生苦短啊，要多注意身体。这次回来后一定要坚持跑步。

受一个朋友的邀请去参加了他老婆的钢琴独奏recital.他老婆在UT读musical art的phd.按学校要求,要有四次recital.到了UT,recital hall里坐了好几十号人.我找了一个靠边的位置坐下,免得我这个音盲影响了其他人的欣赏.看了节目单,看不懂,只知道有四首曲子,第一首是贝多芬的.朋友老婆开始弹琴了.小牛我也听不懂,只是看她弹的很认真,很投入.我很佩服她,要把谱都背下来,还要弹那么长时间,手肯定很酸啦.不过很争气的是我这只牛居然没有睡着.环顾四周,起码有3-4个老哥睡了.嘻嘻.这对于一个从小学开始音乐成绩都没有上过及格的人来说,真是莫大的成就啊.不过有一点不爽.那个hall的空调暴冷,出来后就感冒了,估计是最近比较累,抵抗力下降...