:)

An article on Feynman, or by Feynman, always puts me in a good mood. Its titled, 'Richard Feynman and The Connection Machine', by W. Daniel Hillis

Nobel prize winner physicist Richard Feynman played a critical role in developing the first parallel-processing computer and finding innovative uses for it in numerical computing and building neural networks as well as physical simulation with cellular-automata (such as turbulent fluid flow), working with Stephen Wolfram.

Thawing

It is what happens to your feet when you walk out of your house into a 4 C cold breezy night in shorts, turn back and run into your house again where the has been set to 24 C.

Tada!

1) Ask a policeman if it is alright to go on the beach at midnight, and when he says that you cannot stay there after 1 am, you proceed to the beach and play volleyball until a strange drunk man comes to watch you play. Then you pack off and have "breakfast" at Waffle House that tops off the awesome Udipi dinner you had.

2) Drive through a fog that almost results in zero visibility at 3 am since you want to reach the Florida Keys early next morning. Later, watch the sun rise over the Atlantic as you drive along US highway 1, somewhere between Homestead, Fl and Key Largo. In the west, you see mist and fog over the small ponds around which awesome expensive houses have been built, and over the marshes that make up the Everglades.

3) Stroll along the beach, play volleyball and then take a 90 min nap in the blazing sun while the guys who didn't drive swim and play frisbee in the water.

4) Lunch at IHOP, nap in the motel room that you booked, dine at Burger King, and head to Key West to check the party scene at Duval Street. After an awesome time there, head back and stop at the 7 mile bridge to look at the sky. Top off another day by sighting some shooting stars.

5) Head to Key West, stop again at the 7 mile bridge to take some photos in daylight. Reach Key West, find an awesome free parking spot right next to the pier, walk around, take the sunset snorkeling cruise, snorkel around 7 miles away from the shore (drink some seawater in the process and see some awesome fish). Sea food for dinner on Duval Street, and hang around to see people partying.

6) Laze around the Bahia Beach while Onkar and Nikhil kayak. Go to Miami, reach South Beach, park the car and walk around Ocean Drive. Take a cab to the Bayside Market Area to watch the live music concert and fireworks. Enjoy the kick that beer gives you, roam around and enjoy the fireworks. Take a cab back to South Beach and hang around. Watch the ppl. A couple of guys are already high and out, so enjoy their pearls of wisdom.

7) Leave Miami at 4:30 am on the 1st of January 2009. Drive for about 2 hours and have breakfast, which makes you drowsy. Some scary 40 minutes of drowsy driving later, you pull over at the next service plaza and just plain go to sleep. Reach Gainesville, have lunch and go to sleep again!

Happy New Year.

Last year started off sucky and ended up being awesome. I guess this one should end up awesomer.