Virtual Greg

Friday 11th July

Thanks to jetlag I’m sleepy in the afternoons and evenings – nearly nodded off during a talk at work yesterday – then from midnight to 4am I’m wide awake. I woke at 10am today and had to do some errands before work. First I needed a US phone number, which turned out to be easy, I just went into the first phone shop I could find and bought a three-month prepaid simcard, put it in my Nokia in place of the Telstra simcard, and I have a local phone number, total cost $60.

It took me a while to find this shop because I went to the Stanford shopping centre first (a mall in the US/Aust style). There were no phone stores there other than the Apple store, which had a long queue of people waiting to get in – you can probably guess why. Steve Jobs lives around here I think – this would be his local store – you’d think he’d be in there signing phones. Maybe that explains the queue?

Then I had to get cash from a bank to pay my first month’s rent. This is not as easy as at home because without an account they won’t sell me a bank cheque, and the amount is more than the ATM limit. After showing my passport as ID I was able to withdraw cash against my credit card. A few more errands and I finally got to work, in time to watch the cafeteria closing. I worked the afternoon fueled by a Snickers.

Saturday

An odd combination of things today. First I took part in the third installment of When Worlds Collide, the live+virtual music show that Adam Nash and I do. We have usually performed using twin laptops. This time Adam was at the venue (Afterdark in Northcote) and I was here in Palo Alto. We were due on stage around midnight in Melbourne, which is 7am here. So I woke at 6am, got muesli and coffee from the hotel kitchen, went back to bed, logged the laptop into Second Life and did the gig. Adam said it went well. From my point of view, I didn’t get out of bed.

After that, I packed my things, checked out of the hotel and moved to my permanent house a few blocks away in Oxford Avenue. My new landlady gave me a lift in her car. I didn’t stay long after unpacking as it was a nice day and I wanted to go bike riding. There are only two directions – up or down El Camino Real. I randomly headed down, in the direction of San Jose. When I realized I had reached Mountain View I decided to find Google. I went north a km or two and reached highway 101, a giant freeway that can only be crossed at overpasses. I bought a Silicon Valley map from a service station, and armed with this was able to complete the pilgrimage. I knew Google were near some kind of airport, and as I cycled off I heard a deep mechanical noise. A jet engine, I thought, but as I got closer it became clear it was an outdoor rock concert. Turned out it was it was the Mayhem Festival starring Slipknot.

After I got home we went for a hike. We drove about a km to a large, hilly area of grassland with some walking tracks, along which some locals and students were exercising. There was a great view of Stanford and Palo Alto. We could just see mountains on the other side of SF bay, and even, in the distance, the SF skyline. To top this off, there are two large radio telescopes in the park. There were hundreds of gophers running around, darting in and out of their burrows, and a couple of long-eared rabbits. A guy at work had talked about seeing mountain lions in this area, and a sign near the entrance warned visitors not to let their children stray too far. An amazing walk, easily 8-10 km.

Sunday

On Sunday morning the household walked to the farmers market in California Ave, near where my hotel was. It was outdoors, lots of organic produce, not too crowded, good atmosphere. They blocked off part of the street from car traffic. The heatwave has subsided but the sun is glarey.

In the afternoon I went for another ride, this time in the opposite direction, through Menlo Park, past SRI and the Lindenwood gated suburb, through Atherton and Fair Oaks (lots of large mansions, two Fleetwood Mac members live around here), and down Santa Cruz Avenue to the golf course, through Stanford for a closer look, and back home. The Stanford Uni campus is enormous, and seems to be about one-third official buildings, one-third student residences, one-third empty space (parks, carparks, paddocks).

I spent the late afternoon working on the laptop in the backyard of the house I’m living in. It’s a nice yard, sunny, but some large trees provide shade, with squirrels and birds running around. I’m reading papers from the conference on Virtual Reality Software and Technolgy which might be relevant to my project.