I really enjoyed this book, even if the premise was absurd. I like the world building that was done, and how immersive it makes the experience of being in the oasis. It doesn’t feel like a story about a boy who is living in a trailer park, it feels like the story of a hero on a quest. I think that really does justice to the way the people who live their lives for the oasis would feel. I also think that the corporations in the book are scary, and the only think holding back real world corporations form being like that is some vague person ethics. It is a book I could read several times.
I really enjoy Sanderson’s world building, and even if this is my fourth favorite world of his, it is still in my top 10 fantasy/sci fi worlds. The way weaknesses come out in the epics and how firefight/megan turns out at the end of the book is amazing. I feel bad about how prof ends up, but it does make for a great setup to the next book.
Eliot hosted another documentary night, this time about a crazy guy who wanted to paint a vermeer. He painstakingly rebuilt the study and used an optical device to paint a very accurate painting. It wasn’t that good, and I had already seen it before. I still really enjoyed the company and food. The spinach and artichoke dip we made was amazing.
Steph and I went to Half Moon Bay, and made some glass pumpkins. It was a really pretty area, and the shop was cute. There wasn’t much else going on, but the making of the glass pumpkins in this glass shop, but they seemed to be able to produce quite a few. They didn’t let you do too much of it yourself, which makes sense. The whole shop was primarily set up for people who haven’t done any glass work before. I decided to make an orange speckled one with a dark green stem. Steph made a more artistic pumpkin that was a mix of all sorts of colors. I look forward to seeing how they turned out after cooling. We also stopped by the wine tasting right next door, and Steph tried a few of the wines. I had a great time, but I’d want to have a bit more control if I were to do something like this again.
We had a lot of people over to Beachhead and had a tasty potluck. After eating, and drinking, we did each other’s makeup.
Then we played the Newlywed Game. This game is a series of questions where one person of a couple answers a question and the other guesses what that person guessed. Steph and I had a lot of questions where we didn’t quite get the question, like where did you first meet. We had a really good time, despite losing quite badly. Andrew and Debby won with 21 points, Jeremy and Nori were close behind with 20. Lindsay and Kevin as well as Haru and Allana were at about 17, with Steph and I at 14. There were a number of hilarious answers, like Lindsay being a Dead/Withered flower in the morning. Steph knowing I’d want a wooden tie. Steph knew that the superpower of superman’s that I’d want was the ability to turn back time.
I had a great time on Friday going to Napa with the company. We took a party bus up and went to four wineries. The last one served an amazing five course meal. I had a great time and look forward to doing something like that again with all the fun people there.
I went to play Texas Hold ‘Em with Leyan’s group. Jeremy, Andrew, Lindsay, and Keven were there as well. It got up to a 10 person game at points, and I was only able to really think for about 2 hours. I ended up losing $80 that night, but had a pretty good time doing it.
Bo is doing well, but has been going through some rough times with family getting sick. He also had the company he was contracting for go under, but he found another company to contract for. We went to a small cafe for breakfast and had some pretty good food. It was good to see him, and I’m glad I’m able to reconnect with people in the city.
I had an adventure on Monday getting to Paint Nite. I left work around 5:30 to get the train to Steph’s work and ride with her to the Paint Nite in San Jose. As I was getting onto the train, the train attendant was saying that a crash had occurred at Menlo Park. I got on anyway and found a seat in the bike car. I pulled out my computer and pulled up the Caltrain twitter account and watched for any updates. As we got to Milbrae some updates came in that the car was destroyed and the person was on their way to the hospital. The part that worried me was that the train was said to be leaking. The leaking train would mean that we weren’t going anywhere for a while. We then made an unexpected stop in Hayward park instead of making it to Hillsdale. I immediate found the nearest Zipcar, about 10 min away, and rented it for the evening. I eventually found it, and had to call Zipcar support to get in, since I hadn’t planned on using zipcar and didn’t have my card on me. There was an extra in the trunk that they gave me and I threw my bike in the back of the car. I took 380 to 280 to 87 and made it to the event only a few minutes late, and luckily they hadn’t even started.
The paint nite was fun and I really enjoyed getting to do it with Jeff and Patty. Steph did a great job on her painting and I got some complements from the artist on mine. I saw a fellow former Chegg employee there and we chatted for a bit during the break. I was pretty happy with the lower part of my painting where the sky was softer, and the tree had a girl jumping from a swing, a kitty, and two squirrels. Steph put some pretty flowers on her tree, and Jeff did a redwood.
Here are all the paintings I’ve done for Paint Nite so far.
It's an Exciting World 