March 2008

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My 25th Year

March 24, 2008 in General | No comments

I turned 25 years old yesterday, and I’m really having issues coming to grasps with the fact that I’m a quarter of a century old. Also, according some stupid source I read when I was younger, male gymnasts reach their physical peak around 24, so its all down hill for me from here in terms of my gymnastics.

That being said, I would have to say that my 25th birthday was rather amazing (except for one minor note that I will mention below). I up early and played some sports with my roommate before work. I’m realizing that it is taking more for me to stay in shape these days, so I’m looking for any and all reasons to work out.

I had a great day at work. I have a new job (which is a story for another post), and the work that I’m doing is really rather interesting compared to the stuff that I have done in the past.

After work, my friend Mike took me out to dinner at a very nice Indian restaurant in Mountain View. I recently started eating Indian, but this was by far the best I’ve had to date. The night was capped off by some birthday cake with Aaron, Katy, and Mike.

So, the one bad event that happened was a phone call I had with California Sports Complex, where they told me that anyone over the age of 23 can not practice gymnastics in the state of California unless you are instructor. I was really torn up about this, and while I believed them temporarily, after calling a few more gyms I found out that this is not the case. California Sports Complex does not allow you, but you can go to places like Gold Star Gymnastic.

I really hate to bad mouth a gym or location, but I am going to say that California Sports Complex really upset on my birthday, so I won’t be sending any business their way in the near future. Apparently they are unaware of the competition or are so into making a profit that they won’t redirect someone in the case where they don’t have a program to cover a potential clients needs.

Nuances in C: Struct Assignment in C

March 13, 2008 in C/C++, Programming | 1 comment

When I started this post, it was going to be a revolutionary post, talking about something that was really bothering me. As I have spent more time thinking about this, the answer seems so simple and obvious, still there was a time where I did not get this concept, so I here is a brief post on the topic,

The question is, in straight C, will this work:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>

typedef struct point_t {
  int x,y;
} Point;

int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
  Point a,b;
  int c[4] = {1, 2, 3, 4};

  d = c;

  printf("b(%p) is now b[x] = %d, b[y] = %d\n", &b, b.x, b.y);

  return 0;
}

In C++ this works no problem. Structs are teated like classes where all members have public scope. Assigning one struct to another simple implements the copy constructor that is created by the C++ language, but what about straight C?

Well, like I said the answer is the obvious one, IT WORKS! The reason this originally confused me was because you CAN’T do this:

   int a[4] = { 1, 2, 3, 4};
   int b[4];

   b = a;

Why not? The compiler knows how big each of these integer arrays are. If you run sizeof(a); and it will give you the same thing as sizeof(b);. Copying an array is as simple as copying over the bytes (bit for bit), using memset() or something similar.

The reason structs work and arrays don’t is simple. Basically we are doing a type check on the object. If the object is a struct of defined type, we know how to do an assignment because we have the size. If the item is an array of integers, we would have to do a size comparison and the compiler doesn’t do that.

Okay, so I hope that explains the obvious, good luck.

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Snowboarding in Taheo

March 12, 2008 in General | No comments

Goggles And BoardLast weekend I was “dragged” by some friends up to Lake Tahoe for some fun in the snow. So, I’m not as much of an ace as I thought I’d be, but I had a good time, and I hope to get better. It was a good time and I was with some good friends, and I wish I had a photo of all of us together, but I don’t. (Even though a few of my friends, who will remain nameless, managed to bring me down a double black on my second day of snowboarding in 2 years).

Also of note, I’m a northeast skier, so I’m used to hard ice and carving sounds. For the most part the snow was really soft of and nice. I wouldn’t say I’m convinced never to ski on the east coast again, but I did have a good time with the different snow.

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Competition Etiquette

March 5, 2008 in Cheerleading | No comments

Yesterday I attended a cheerleading competition in San Jose put on by an organization known as GSSA 1Spirit. It was the first time I’ve actually been spectating at an All Star competition in quite a while. I watched about seven hours of cheerleading and was quite impressed by some of the west coast teams, especially some of the tumbling which is not as strong back in CT.

I have one global comment that I need to make. We need to push cheerleading competition etiquette. Seriously people, we are all there to watch the sport, but I feel that people get so concerned with seeing their team compete, that they forget that there are tons of other parents, coaches and cheerleaders looking to watch the competition. Here are my general suggestions:

  • If you are standing, check behind you to make sure you are not blocking anyone’s vision. It is best to stand in front of a post, or other physical barrier, or by the edges.
  • If you are sitting, please don’t talk to your buddies during the routines, especially if there are people sitting around you. Moving to get closer to talk quietly can also affect the eyesight of the people behind you and cause them to readjust.
  • Don’t get up from your seat in the middle of a routine. It is generally disrespectful to move during a routine. Routines are only 2:30 at the longest, please wait to move.
  • Remember to clap at the end of every routine. We have our favorites, but everyone is putting forth effort to compete and they deserve some applause.

Okay, so the last one gets into a whole different argument, but I think these are a few simple rules that could really make a cheerleading competition more enjoyable for everyone.

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