The hackathon didn't exactly pan out as we had expected it to be. We got there on Saturday morning and the first complaint we had was that they didn't serve any breakfast. The one rule about hackathons is that food will always be provided. After that we noticed that there really was no agenda or goals to be met other than promoting interest in space. Finally, the coordinators showed that they were not coordinating well among each other. We spent a couple of hours talking to others and working on three.js coding before we broke for lunch. Before we got into the car we discussed if this hackathon is worth going forward with and we decided that it wasn't. Our weekend plans were torn up in a moment but that didn't stop us from making the weekend count for something. We went to Smash Burger and had a pretty good lunch. I had a truffle burger with a Reese's Milkshake, a killer combination. During lunch I suggested that we do a trip to Mount Hamilton in East San Jose. One guy just wanted to go home so the remaining three: VT, AS, and I, went.
The trip up the hill was scary. The roads were narrow and steep. The hills had many corners, making it difficult to spot an incoming car and I almost collided with another car. We finally made it to the top and it was worth it cause we got an amazing view of the Bay Area: from San Jose to SF. We explored the Lick Observatory and VT encouraged us to check out the abandoned houses nearby. He was convinced that they were the scenes of murders and secret societies. We were on top of the east hills and I pointed out that if we kept driving the same path we'd start going downhill and end up in Merced County and San Joaquin Valley. VT said that we should just keep driving. I told him that if we do we won't be coming home tonight and he was down if I was too. I paused... sure, why not? I already have my toothbrush and a set of spare clothes packed up in the trunk for tomorrow. We'll be a bunch of drifters off seeing the world. There is a lot of world to see anyway. But then AS said that she would rather go home and we didn't want to make her do something she didn't want to, so we headed back.
The trip down the mountain was a lot faster and safer. VT felt that we could have gone faster but I reminded him that I'd rather play it safe than take the chance of falling off the cliff. We made it down to civilization and drove back to the dojo. On our way there we talked about tomorrow and VT and I agreed to check out Great America. AS didn't want to go so we called another classmate from South Korea, RP, and we all decided to meet in the morning.
The following day we picked up RP, had breakfast at IHOP, and then drove to Great America. Since VT is from the UK and RP is from South Korea they spent a good chunk of time criticizing America and pointing out the necessity to describe America as being "Great" even it does behave like a contradiction. They did admit however that the park was a lot bigger and nicer than any of the amusement parks from their respective home countries. It was Sunday and the park crowd was light, so we didn't have to wait in lines too long. We rode almost all the rides at least once, including the dreaded Drop Zone, which had been renamed Drop Tower from the last time I was there. I've lived in San Jose my entire life and the tower had been a permanent fix and symbol of fear since childbirth but VT encouraged me to get on it and once I fell it wasn't as bad as I thought it was. You got to love VT for that, he makes my fear irrelevant. We ended the park trip with a bunch of water rides and walked out of the there soaking wet. RP behaved like a child the entire trip, which was hilarious for a 23-year-old guy. The sun was still up and VT wasn't ready to call it a day and he asked what should we do next. Some quick thinking and we drove to the Apple headquarters in Cupertino where the guys had to have their pictures taken in front of the building and the hilarious "1 Infinite Loop" address. We grabbed dinner at BJ's and I had the pleasure of introducing them to beer that was superior to what they drank back home and a true testimony of American ingenuity. Great pizza, with great beer, and great people. They said that I should come visit them in their home countries some day and believe me that I will. After dinner we were all spent and I drove them all back home and I got home around 9PM and passed out immediately from the long day. I was cold, wet, and tired from the last two days of adventures and exploration but it had been worth it. Life is about collecting experiences, which was why I slept with the feeling of accomplishment.
Today we covered Frank Powered by Sinatra, which is a framework that worked on top of Sinatra. I couldn't really see the difference but I played along. Tomorrow we begin the actual Rails material.
I'm still pretty tired from the weekend so see you later.
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