Back to Berkeley
I went back to Berkeley last week, specifically from Sunday the 14th to Wednesday the 17th. Why did I go back? It was because my old research had a problem that they couldn’t figure out, so they wanted me to go and fix it for them. My co-worker already tried a couple of weeks to fix it and he couldn’t.
Anyways, the morning of 14th, I was like, screw it, I’m not going to sleep, because my bus was at 6AM and it was 2AM already. But I still neglected to prepare until the last moment. It was 5:30 when I thought to myself, “maybe I should get ready.” So I went and took a shower, and then it was 5:47. So I had to pack all my stuff, my toothbrush, clothes, charger, laptop, and everything else in 10 minutes. That was pretty fun, and I made the bus :-).
But actually, I was not out of danger, yet. Since LAX was not the last stop for Culver City Line 6, I almost missed the drop-off at Parking Lot C, but I didn’t. So it was all good. I checked in, got on the plane, and went to SFO. I flew Virgin America, by the way, which is like the best airline since Southwest. I mean, $50 for LAX-SFO and leather seats and personal entertainment system? Best deal ever. I slept the whole way, though, almost didn’t get my drink.
When I got out from SFO, I was like, yeah, I recognize that feeling. It’s the feeling of December in Bay Area. It all feels so…familiar somehow. It’s like I never left. That’s the way I felt when I arrived at Berkeley, too. Rain greeted my there, which I love. Rain is the best weather in my opinion, but other people would disagree. Then I checked into Bancroft hotel, located on the corner of Bancroft and College. They had this really old TV, which was the exact same model we had when I was back in Taiwan. This brings back memories. I still remember watching the old broadcast TV and playhing the NES through this set.
old Sony TV
From my room, I could see the Campanile and Barrows.
Barrows Hall
Campanile
I could also see Kroeber fountain, and I happened to catch the old 51 bus stopping.
line 51
The hotel I’m staying in is pretty comfortable, it has that nice homely feel, but the restroom was really small. Overall, I really liked it, though. Some people like things that are grand and pretty, but I like stuff that are comfortable, so probably that’s why I like Bancroft Hotel. Plus, free continental breakfast that’s actually good. They had yogurt, pastries, OJ, coffee, anyways, it was good.
bed
SMALL bathtub
Anyways, moving on to the job. So I spent two days trying to figure out the problem. On the morning of the third day, I finally figured it out. It was only one line, and it wasn’t even in the code. The error was in a configuration file. Basically, the ICE message size wasn’t large enough, and that was causing all our video messages to be dropped. I told them when I landed that something that takes this long to fix has to be a very simple one-line problem, and it was. I’m so glad I figured that out, though, because I don’t know what I would have done if I couldn’t figure it out. I also pointed Josh to logstringutils.cpp and logstringutils.h because he was using the ascii log files for his project.
Besides working, of course I met up with some people at Berkeley. I met with Michelle, and we had a nice meal at Akasaka Sushi on 2650 Telegraph Ave. Then that night I gamed with Edison on Metal Slug 3 until the ungodly hour of 4. The next day, I had dinner with Aaron at Taiwan Restaurant. I had beef noodle soup, which was good except they had some old beef mixed in with the fresh ones; the tea also wasn’t as strong as I remembered. The old waitress still recognizes me, though, and we spoke in Taiwanese for a while.
When I was coming back from Berkeley, I COMPLETELY missed my flight. I woke up at 11 and my flight leaves at 11:05. Of course I didn’t make it. But I hurried down to SFO, and since I got there at 12:45, they let me do standby on the next flight free of charge or anything, how nice. When I got back to LA, though, it was raining. Looks like I brought back the rain with me. I wish it could rain like that all the time. Just before I got into my apartment, though, I let up my guard, and I dropped my laptop on the hard, concrete floor, because I thought that hand was holding the clothes bag. Initially I thought it was okay, but it turns out I broke the DVD burner :-(. Fortunately, I have an external one. Well, except for that, I’d say the trip went well. I fixed the problem that they wanted me to fix, had dinner with old friends, it was good.