A saga of 14 friends: returning to California

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When I was a young lad, my pediatrician asked me how many friends I had, demanding an exact number. Then to make sure I wasn't bluffing, he had me name all the friends. This doctor would be very impressed with my recent 10-day trip to California where I saw 14 bonafide friends. That is over 1 friend per day! To prove it, here are their names: Supna, Hlawitschka, Diego & Marissa, Nina, Sierra, Caca, Toto & Julie, Benjamin, Alvaro & Nell, Cyrus, Rocky, Willie, Jerome (new), and Olivier.

The primary purpose of the trip was vocational. Two members of the Greene Lab at Penn (myself and a graduate student named David) visited a lab at Stanford, which creates some software David uses for his project. How then was I able to see so many friends? It turns out that two years ago, I moved to Philadelelphia after having lived in San Francisco for 5 years. Many of these friends were remnants from my past domicile. Others like Hlawitschka and Sierra had relocated to the area.

The journey began as all airborne journeys of 2018 begin… at the Centurion PHL Lounge. I was lucky to have a travel companion. Her name was Supna:

I would later find out that a colleague named Katerina had spotted us in the lounge. Katerina is an all-star churner, and I am excited to collaborate with her in the future. Luckily we work just a dozen paces apart.

Once in San Francisco, I headed for chez Hlawitschka where we played pong (the first of two pong sessions on this trip) and tasted the very fine Jeppson's Malört Liqueur. Then I hiked from Noe Valley to the Haight District, where I arrived at the historic apartment of Diego & Marissa. The next day Marissa and I summitted Buena Vista Park, while walking to Diego's tennis match. Relive this moment with the following image (hint: when looking at a picture of San Francisco, replace "Waldo" with the "Golden Gates").

Diego is on a winning streak. As such, his team decimated their tennis opponents. During this time, I ran in Golden Gate park and found a premium natural ultralight trekking pole. Afterwards, I photographed the couple, engaged in love:

In the afternoon, a very special gathering occurred on Duboce Park, graced by the presences of Nina, Gloria, and Sierra. One of these three ladies told a fascinating story about marriage and infidelity. Sierra grew up in Vermont, near New Hampshire, and was initally a friend of my younger brother. It was a Joy to see her in Cali! Watch Nina chill the sun below the horizon from a hammock:

That night, Caca and I had an impromptu hangout at an undisclosed location in the Panhandle. Caca was in the process of cutting off his dreadlocks (i.e. Jaṭā). One dread per month. At this rate, it'll take him years.

The following Sunday, I scooted to Chinatown (the first of three Scoots on this trip, combined rental cost of $0.90). There we met Marissa's brother and two Czechoslovakian women. Marissa's brother required us to attend two lectures on tea, as per his eternal quest for sophistication. These tea tastings took a long time, as they served very expensive teas that grow at high elevation before arriving to the Port of Philadelphia. At the second shop an 88-year old Chinese man, presumably the owner, kept yelling about how he would beat us into pulps. However, when he asked one of the Czechoslovakian ladies over to privately enjoy some wine and she declined, he did not beat anyone up. What a bluffer.

Afterwards, Diego and I headed to Golden Gate Park for 18-holes of disc golf. On the way, I found an unopened beer on the street (the first of two unopened beers discovered on this trip). Diego continued his win streak at the golf course, and I explained to him the cryptoeconomics of Steem.

I had brought three discs, which after the game, I donated to Diego. These discs as well as my hammock composed the Chill System from my ultralight packing list. In total, I completed this 10-day trip with base weight of just 9.26 pounds! This was one secret to being able to see so many friends… people like people who pack light, and mobility is key.

That Sunday night I visited Toto in the Mission District. Toto is a double Iron Man and is the proud host to a dying tooth. The next morning, I took a Baby Bullet to Palo Alto and then hiked to Stanford University. After the first day of work, we had an inspirational meeting with a pivotal person from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. Then I hiked to East Palo Alto to chez Alvaro, where I'd stay for the duration of the workweek.

On Tuesday, Supna had her birthday and decided to enroll in medical school starting this upcoming academic year! To celebrate, she used the hammock on Stanford's campus:

On Wednesday, I began a great pull request on the Snorkel software created by the Sanford Lab. This pull request enables installing Snorkel as a Python package. Previously, it was very difficult to integrate Snorkel into a computational environment. My PR was massive and touched many files in the repository. Unfortunately, our handler Stephen merged the PR in a 0.7.0-alpha branch rather than master. Note to self: if they let this branch linger and my changes get conflicted and abandoned, I will never forgive them.

The trip was very productive and it helped us get closer to our goal: creating an open hetnet of all biomedical knowledge by text-mining scientific literature. Pictured below are David, @dhimmel, and Stephen outside of the Gates Building at Stanford. As a child in New Hampshire running Windows 95, I used to pie Bill Gates in the face. Now I labor in his shadow, while running GNU/Linux.

Alvaro, Nelle, and I went running atop an old landfill turning into a bayside wildlife refuge. The park was overrun with gourmet snails, jackrabbits, and birds: all beautiful creatures. Alvaro lent me his Trek racing bike, so I was able to commute with great speed from Stanford to the lemon trees of East Palo Alto. Alvaro also kindly gifted me an Applied Materials mug, which he had purchased from his employer at great personal expense.

During the days, I snorkeled and stockpiled large amounts of the free food from Stanford. On Thursday I saw my old friend and colleague Cyrus. Cyrus had recently broke his back in two places after he took a tumble of an undisclosed nature 🐦. After this accident, Cyrus, displaying his true power, had ripped the medical cords off his body and left the hospital before being discharged since the hospital was not being respectful of his time. On Friday, I saw Rocky, a Philly transplant with big scientific ambitions and abilities now studying at Stanford. I will have to return to the area sometime to shoot her hammocking from the gates of hell.

Friday afternoon, I bike-n-hiked from Stanford's campus to Facebook's headquarters in Menlo Park. There I met a frenchman named Benjamin, who gave me a tour of the facilities, before we drove north to Tahoe.

Having arrived to Tahoe City, Jerome (new) explained the backcountry and told us how to choose which of two buried friends to save in an avalanche: whichever one you transceive/locate first. On Saturday, some men headed to the backcountry. Benjamin and I hit the Resort of Squaw, where on the 5th of May there was still a snowpack taller than myself. I only saw one skiing moon (i.e. pair of asscheecks).

That night I went to Willie's house. When I moved away from San Francisco two years ago, I left many possessions at Willie's house. These included a baseball bat, snowboard gear, and my friend's deer head. Willie and I played a game of pong on the custom table from my PhD.

On the final day of Sunday, Diego and I hiked the Burton Creek Loop (see our tracks on ViewRanger). Check out this action video:

Diego is a good friend:

After the hike we drove back to the Bay. The ride was a real blast as we investigated the edge-case behavior of a small electronic device. Back in the Haight, I began the final preparations for my aeronautic adventure back to Philly. Diego helped me tape the tips, as recommended by American Airline's antler policy:

You can travel with antlers if they are:

• As free of residue as possible
• Wrapped with protected tips

Once at SFO, I had no trouble transporting the "taxidermy with antlers". In fact, it passed through security twice without issue. In the Centurion Lounge, I completed the SFO Challenge, sampling each of the 8 specialty cocktails. The bartender would not serve an extra drink for my taxidermied travel companion, but otherwise was OKAY. Showering in an airport with a deer head — wow!

The red-eye flight home went by quickly. Thanks to the pilot for such a smooth ride:

The final morning I quickly stopped by the Centurion Lounge PHL, so that my travel companion could take a quick business call.

Steemian Boss Series

This is the tenth post in the popular Steemian Boss Series. Previous posts include:

1. Ultralight travel to Key West
2. Sights aboard a twinjet, Philly to Boston style
3. How to hammock like a Steemian Boss in Cambridge
4. Glory aboard American Airlines flight 501
5. The Centurion PHL Challenge: 8 specialty crafted cocktails
6. The Delta Sky Club ATL Challenge: all 2 specialty cocktails
7. Mississippi's best hiking: backpacking in Noxubee Hills
8. Epic 80-mile bike ride to Limerick's Nuclear Reactors
9. The Centurion SFO Challenge: revealing 8 exclusive cocktails

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