The Akashic Field Chronicle

For anyone still reading this blog. No, seriously, I’ve been trying to post so bad, and I always run out of time. If only there was more than 24 hours in a day. Then, I guess I’ll have more time to procrastinate and still fail to blog. LOL.

Anyways, just some quick updates:

Summer

The school year is officially over. Yeah! My first school year ever (3 quarters to be exact). Oh, wait, what?! Summer’s only for undergrads and liberal arts majors?! Darn. Sad but true. I guess ‘the research’ never sleeps. Moving on then.

Moving Out

Lots of changes going on here, especially in the housing front. People moving, sublets being subleased, graduating and going elsewhere, getting jobs (what’s that?!). I am no exception of course. My contract at Weyburn Terrace ends at June 30th and I already have a new place around Santa Monica, thanks to my friend Allan Kelley.

• Pros:
  • Close to the beach!
  • Close to 3rd St. Promenade!
  • Close to a lot of other cool stuff!
  • A good deal cheaper
  • Weyburn just has this feeling of being part of the school. I feel like I’m always in school (sort of like a dorm)
  • Great people to share the house with.
• Cons:
  • Not so close to UCLA. I have to take a bus, and they are far apart and stops roughly every 2 blocks.
  • I have to say goodbye to the insanely fast UCLA residential internet access. Goodbye!
  • I really enjoy biking to school. If I still want to do that, I have to figure out how not to sweat

Overall a great blessing if I may say so.

Goodbye Weyburn! I will not miss your prohibitively steep roads.

WordPress 3.0

Speaking of updates, this blog has been updated. Woohoo. WordPress 3.0 is here. I haven’t really explored that much. So far, the only thing I’ve noticed is a slightly different color scheme. I’m sure a more thorough exploration will reveal what great new features these awesome developers have in store for us.

P.S. Oussama, another member of our lab just started a blog, which kinda reminded me that I also had one, which has recently fallen into neglect, thus prompting me to do this update post. Thanks and I’ll be watching your blog (ok, not really, but I’ll subscribe to your feed and in effect be watching your blog, only in a more efficient manner).

I remember running around the University of the Philippines Diliman Acad Oval while I was doing my masters (good times) and even joining a short race (thanks to Wilson). Sad to say though, apart from 1 or 2 times when I first arrived at UCLA, I haven’t really ran that much since I got here. Come to think of it, I haven’t done any sort of physical activity .

And I feel it. You know that feeling you get when you’ve been sleeping the entire day after not sleeping the entire night and then having to get up because you’re really really hungry (having skipped all the usual meals)? Sort of like that, but for months. So I decided to try and get back into shape by running around the UCLA campus more regularly. Boy, did it feel good!

Since I was always more of a ‘geek’ than a ‘runner’, I decided to tech it up and make my running route Google Maps style. I dunno why, but making routes that passed through unofficial roads were tough on Google Maps. It’s either roads only, or manual trails only. Good thing they have a great API and some guy was able to make this webapp just for making running maps. Here’s mine:

Around the campus (7km only?!) My apartment is on the DOT

I have to say, this webapp is really nice, especially for guys like me without a GPS device. It gives you km markers (or miles if you want to be English about it). It even gives you calories burned (if you’re interested in that kind of stuff). I was shocked to find that the entire UCLA campus is barely 7km! I’d bet that’s a tiny fraction of the UP campus. Then again, land prices in this part of LA are steep, being so close to Beverly Hills. To compensate, UCLA is building upwards.

What’s different?

So last week was my first time to run this route. Some key differences I noticed compared to running around UP Campus:

• Freezing - I know it’s spring already, but it’s still cold in the afternoon (the only time I can run). I had to wear a jacket wile running. And here I was thinking that Manny Pacquiao was just trying to look cool.
• Tough Terrain - UP is generally flat. UCLA = Hills. So most of the time, you’re either sweating profusely while climbing up a slope or trying to prevent yourself from going downhill too fast.
• Anytime Running - here’s one weird thing I immediately noticed when I got here. People run here anytime of the day. In the Philippines, only the crazy guys run at noon (heat stroke anyone? skin cancer?)

Here’s one similarity though, both campuses look stunning at dusk. Too bad I didn’t have a camera the last time (so un-yuppy-like of me). Hopefully next time, I can snap some photos. My plan is to try a different route every time so that I get to see the entire campus in a few months. Besides, I don’t want to get bored of running the same route every single time. Wish me luck on sticking to my schedule.

Quick-ees:

• I passed Prelims! woohoo! (Quoting the email: We advise you now to concentrate on your research). Hehehe. I guess I have no choice
• Passed the english for teaching exam – will probably be TAing next year.
• Prof. Joel Marciano (UP EEEI) presented our paper entitled: “Combining Parallel Sequence Spread Spectrum (PSSS) with OFDM – Concept and Simulation Results” this week in IEEE WCNC 2010 in Sydney, Australia.