Yhippa's Blog

Two weeks ago I happened to arrive at the fine culinary establishment known as "Sheetz." Sheetz is a national chain whose business proposition is mostly gasoline and as the trend in most gas station businesses, value-added services such as car washes and food service. One of the marvels of this particular place is that they have a list of highly customizable menu items ranging from nachos that you can construct with as many or as little options as you choose (lettuce, peppers, etc.). One curious abomination I ran across during this particular post-party visit was that one of my partners-in-crime was able to order a fried chicken and egg biscuit. This brings up all sorts of ethical questions. Mother and child, all on one delicious platform. Is this the unholy union of one of nature's most sacred processes? It really didn't weird me out at first but in retrospect it is really disturbing. I suppose technically it is all just matter in the form of human nutrition. I mean

Ahh yes, Richmond, VA AKA "Chocolate City." Well not really. Isn't that supposed to be Washington, D.C.? It is tough being a person of brown skin. I was travelling with some friends once to Tampa, FL. We were in line to have our bags checked. I didn't know it but one of my friends in front of me had a switchblade in his backpack. Somehow he got through the scanners unscathed. Me, they pulled me out of line and asked me fun questions and checked my bags thoroughly. It may or may not have to do with the fact that I'm brown but considering I'm almost always being pulled aside out of line I'm going to err on the side of the fact that the TSA hates me. Also growing up brown in VA has been difficult. If you live in Richmond or central VA you know what I'm talking about. The stares when you walk into a room. People assuming you are Indian (dots, not feathers), Filipino, or Mexican. The worst part is getting a date in Richmond. The unfortunate thing about

Whenever I run I typically have a lot of time to think. It helps pass the time when you're running through some lame-ass suburban neighborhoods. This post is going to be a little bit "out there" so bear with me. Think of it as a thought experiment. One of the classes I took in engineering school was about computers, their organization, and design. I believe it was called Computer Architecture. It was one of the most interesting classes I took becuase I really enjoy understanding how things work. And being a computer engineer, you can imagine this was pretty exciting to me. At the heart of the computer is the CPU which performs arithmetic logic and communication tasks. You have RAM and hard drive storage which are two different types but essentially similar way of storing (caching) information that the CPU uses. Then you have all sorts of other subsystems (which are typically discrete and separate systems) such as the graphics card which works hard to generate da

I don't know how I feel about them. I used to despise them with a passion. I think I might be starting to soften my stance on them though. One of the things I like to do in Richmond is to try different restaurants particularly ones that are unique. I figure that there's a T.G.I. Friday's every half-mile on my side of town so I could go there anytime. After going to my fair share of restaurants around town I can see why people would go to a chain. I am not going to name names but I have been to a few restaurants in Richmond that have been hyped up only to deal with atrocious customer service once I get there. I mean we're talking Waffle House bad. No, worse than that. I guess the plus of the chain is that the food and service is fairly consistent from one restaurant to the next and that the food is of a certain quality. I didn't say good necessarily. I find that the food usually tastes good at a chain restaurant but that is mainly due to the excess fat and s