SIGGRAPH
2026
Day 1
Lost Puppies
Day 1
Me and my friends had just landed in LAX and went to Denny's to grab a bite to eat. Luckily the car rental place was only 20 minutes away walking so the first thing I did when I woke up in the morning was get a red-colored SUV. The vibe was right and I swear that on the way their I saw a guy in the parking lot dancing to "California Love"!
After I got back to the hotel and woke up my friends, I looked up some spots that were closest to us and we decided to hit up Santa Monica. Our plan was to visit as many places as possible on this trip and get some good pictures and videos in each of them. After we explored the pier and I took a dip in the ocean, I picked up a childhood friend of mine at the train station who we later dubbed the "Galactic Incapacitor". After our first visit to the convention center my friends were already tired so I went with the Galactic Incapacitor to attend a keynote on Bolt Graphics, who were revolutionizing the GPU space. I got to meet the CEO and his wife and will probably follow up with them after I get back. Even though they are competing in a tough market dominated by NVIDIA and AMD, the fact that a dedicated CPU and Linux operating system can run on their graphics card was really mind-blowing for me.
Now that we were up to 4 people, I gave my friends the shirts I made for the business and dressed in a button-up shirt like I was the boss. Even if they technically weren't my employees I had an LLC and this was pretty much a business trip where they looked like they all worked for me. We went around the conference, visited some booths, took some pictures and later on dropped off the Galactic Incapacitor before heading to Griffith Park in central LA. A chick I was hoping to meet up with had sent me a party list earlier and after I brought my friends for the free food and drinks I actually ended up running into a friend who I'd been running into every year at the conference and who does technical talks there. I also talked to my professor from Princeton who said he could say hi from me to Ken Perlin after I missed him at the convention!
Earlier at the hotel we had looked up how close San Diego was and it turned out to be only a 2 hour drive, so we decided to visit Oceanside that evening, which turned out to be my favorite beach of the entire trip. Unfortunately, my friends were acting like complete idiots with one urinating right by the tire of another car and the other one hiding beer cans in the bushes, both of which were huge no-no's for me. I'm like "guys, your leaving a crime scene here in the middle of the night!" Me and my roommate ended up walking around the beach while the camera guy ran around like a maniac, according to him because apparently the jet-lag had subsided. We even had an incident at a gas station where it looked like the attendant and a customer where beginning to fight and our idiot friend just kept dragging the situation out even further! All I wanted to do was fall asleep, which -- after the two raised their voices in the car for a while -- I finally got a little bit of rest in. That night I thought to myself that I may have took on a bit more than I can chew. When I look back on this moment I feel like I brought 3 puppies on the trip with me: 1 that couldn't feed himself, 1 that kept running away, and 1 that couldn’t understand me!
Day 2
Wine & Dine
Day 2
We woke up on Oceanside at the beginning of the second day and the water couldn't have been more inviting on any beach. We took some music video footage under the pier and along a slab of rocks that extended into the water before heading back to our car and making our next move.
We were supposed to meet with a CTO connection of mine right after we left the beach but it seems like he was preoccupied with work after a bug came up in his company's app. They are building a social networking product similar to Omegle on phones so I figured we would meet up in Orange County before going back to the conference, but --because something came up -- we decided to go straight to the convention instead. We visited a few booths, took some pictures, and looked at some technical papers, the most impressive of which was an AR presentation where you actually touch "frequency nodes" that influence what appears on the screen. It was very good inspiration for me and my work because I'm glad I'm not the only person who wants to combine visual and auditory elements into software products.
Since we hadn't approached the Hollywood Sign the day before when we drove up that way, we decided to go towards Bronson Caves where I thought we would get a good view of the sign. I liked the caves, the stone circles scattered around the area reminded me of magic portals, and I think I got a good picture of the Hollywood Sign where we looked like we were holding it in the background.
I knew my 2 friends weren't really conference guys but I told them that one last visit was necessary because a chick wanted to meet up with us. Honestly, if I didn’t have to bring them with me I would have been chilling with her the whole conference but she was presenting during an event called Appy Hour so I figured at the very least I'd be able to stop in and say hello. When me and my camera-guy came to the event we found out it was unfortunately closed to the lowest-tier of badges, so after I got her attention and she gave me a friendly shoulder tap we agreed to meet after 7pm. I brought my audio and video guy to a Vulkan party hosted by the Khronos Group but when I was offering them free food and drinks they were already gassed out from the beer they had been wasting money on all day! I was awaiting an answer from the app developer chick while meeting some cool people at the party, one of which was a graphics hardware guy who literally lives a town over from us.
When the girl finally showed up, we had the most spectacular time in the 30 or so minutes I had with her. She showed me a demo of a real-time AI conversation with Marie Curie in an immersive 3D space! As we drank wine and talked about our projects I told her how much her work inspired me ever since we met at a party at SIGGRAPH 2 years ago after she had just finished speaking on stage in front of hundreds. I think my friends gave a good impression too since it looked like they were working for me and when it came to part ways she was feeling up on me like she wanted much more than just a hug farewell. I just wish the moment lasted a little longer, but I knew my team couldn’t handle the late-night parties after drinking all day and our journey north had to continue.
Day 3
Gold Hour Rush
Day 3
We woke up in the mountains of Santa Clarita to shoot another music video and the scenery couldn't have been more gorgeous. I decided to come here because it's where I was interviewing with doctors and scientists exactly a year ago for a senior role. I pointed out where the medical buildings are all located before taking them to the same breakfast place the interviewers took to out for lunch. If I didn’t get my first choice of living in San Franscisco, this place and scenery would definitely be in second place!
After the 5 hour drive Sacramento we walked around downtown and to the old area where the buildings looked like they were straight out of a western saloon. The visit there has never been high on my bucket list but I know I would regret it if I didn't visit the California capital at least once in my life, the same way I regret not stopping by Ottawa on my journey across Canada. After spending a few hours there I sped to the car so that we wouldn't miss the sun set over the Pacific ocean. Hopefully I wouldn't get pulled over again like I just did a few hours ago while begging our video guy not to drink in the car and hide the beer when the cop was right on our tail.
With nightfall approaching fast I knew we had to make it west on time, so we decided to route to Point Reyes National Seashore which ended up being one of the most beautiful cliffsides I'd ever seen. Unfortunately, on the ride there one of my friends had the bright idea of asking me to smoke weed in the rental car while the other one had pretty much drank through the whole bottle of hard liquor we brought with us. By the time I was about to toast to the sunset with them all the alcohol was gone and they didn't have a lighter for the joints, meaning the one appropriate time we had to get wasted was also ruined!
I admit that I was a little bit mad at this point. If you have the money to spend on liquor at least have enough to split gas among yourselves! If the gas was the only thing they covered I'd be fine with it but now I'm having to put my foot down and say we are splitting the car, hotel, and gas three ways. And when they complained about not smoking on the way I told them "your not the ones paying for the fine" as if they had no common sense. If I didn't have to pay rent next month I wouldn't have made a big deal about it but it was at that moment I knew I'd not picked the best people to travel with. I ended up meeting an LA photographer capturing nature just to get away from them for a bit and after the journey I do hope they end up paying me back.
Day 3
Gold Hour Rush
Day 3
We woke up in the mountains of Santa Clarita to shoot another music video and the scenery couldn't have been more gorgeous. I decided to come here because it's where I was interviewing with doctors and scientists exactly a year ago for a senior role. I pointed out where the medical buildings are all located before taking them to the same breakfast place the interviewers took to out for lunch. If I didn’t get my first choice of living in San Franscisco, this place and scenery would definitely be in second place!
After the 5 hour drive Sacramento we walked around downtown and to the old area where the buildings looked like they were straight out of a western saloon. The visit there has never been high on my bucket list but I know I would regret it if I didn't visit the California capital at least once in my life, the same way I regret not stopping by Ottawa on my journey across Canada. After spending a few hours there I sped to the car so that we wouldn't miss the sun set over the Pacific ocean. Hopefully I wouldn't get pulled over again like I just did a few hours ago while begging our video guy not to drink in the car and hide the beer when the cop was right on our tail.
With nightfall approaching fast I knew we had to make it west on time, so we decided to route to Point Reyes National Seashore which ended up being one of the most beautiful cliffsides I'd ever seen. Unfortunately, on the ride there one of my friends had the bright idea of asking me to smoke weed in the rental car while the other one had pretty much drank through the whole bottle of hard liquor we brought with us. By the time I was about to toast to the sunset with them all the alcohol was gone and they didn't have a lighter for the joints, meaning the one appropriate time we had to get wasted was also ruined!
I admit that I was a little bit mad at this point. If you have the money to spend on liquor at least have enough to split gas among yourselves! If the gas was the only thing they covered I'd be fine with it but now I'm having to put my foot down and say we are splitting the car, hotel, and gas three ways. And when they complained about not smoking on the way I told them "your not the ones paying for the fine" as if they had no common sense. If I didn't have to pay rent next month I wouldn't have made a big deal about it but it was at that moment I knew I'd not picked the best people to travel with. I ended up meeting an LA photographer capturing nature just to get away from them for a bit and after the journey I do hope they end up paying me back.
Day 4
A Final Toast
Day 4
After waking up on the cliffs overlooking the Pacific ocean we knew we were bound for our final destination. San Francisco was the city I had been waiting for! After we drove there we made sure to visit my favorite spots, including the Palace of Fine Arts, the park by the Golden Gate Bridge, pier 39, and the Long Now Foundation café which I like to call the hidden gem of the city.
By the time we sat down to eat dinner I thought my roommate would have hit up his family there, but due to poor planning I knew we were gonna spend our last day sleeping in the car and having to feed both of us. The Russian girl I'd fell for last time I was I was in the Bay ended up being spiteful after seeing the hot conference chick in my stories, deciding to return the favor by snapping a picture with her own man. I thought we'd be meeting up with the girl who introduced us, another musician woman I had met at the NAMM show, and the most recent one I just met up with, but they were either preoccupied or needed to recover after a long convention.
After a brief detour to the Silicon Valley and Sunnyvale we headed to the Cliff House to toast to the sunset which we had missed out on the day before. I admit, that was the only time I got carried away during the trip and drank so much till I was literally falling over into the sand. I'm not sure what I'd been talking about but it was probably about the mission, keeping the big picture in mind, and not letting women be a distraction like they had been for me. I think I ended up
Sword for Tools
I thought I'd have to do a roofing leak repair the day after my trip on Sunday but the friend I was splitting the job with was unresponsive. I ended up talking to the client who told me to come in on a later date which was a huge relief because I had no energy and I was starting to feel the ache from my sunburns. Instead I hung out with a girlfriend and the dungeon master buddy of mine who I filled in with on my experience from the trip. I told the girl that the friend who introduced me to the Russian chick at Cali was hitting me up this morning acting like she didn’t know I was back. My friend who understands their psychology as a female told they were probably gossiping and sending screenshots the whole time I was out there, which I found kind of hilarious. Meanwhile my other friend offered more intellectual insights and we shared our thoughts about how difficult it is to bring a new GPU to the market.
I spent Monday posting on LinkedIn while texting back-and-forth with my conference girl and replying on each other's posts. I had a buddy of mine reply and linked to the website where I reference his work as well. Probably the most interesting part of the day however was the interview I had to do at the public library because a storm took out all the power at my place. The interviewers were from a tool-manufacturer literally less than a 30 minute commute away who's resume caught my eye despite me not having the seniority or education of other candidates. Nevertheless -- out of the 200 candidates or so -- they shortlisted me out of like 5 people so I still have a shot. I told them I know who their customers are because I use tools for construction regularly, how I can contribute to the company with my Bluetooth expertise, and how I have lots of cross-platform experience with C++ and mobile in particular.
Today I still feel like I'm not back to 100% but I'm trying to be more productive and motivated. I wrote down a long list of goals -- including making a trip to the gym where I have a free membership -- but I don’t know if I'm going to get through it all today. I ended up trading in my katana for a mallet and some power tools since I'm looking forward to helping my house-builder friends demo a house tomorrow. After that we will also have band rehearsal for which I created a long list of songs to cover as a group just like I know I will have to set priorities for the technical projects, including documenting app flows and revising the existing demos I've written in C++. It's definitely a lot to get done and there's certainly a lot more that I need to accomplish, but I'm hoping to take it one step at a time.