Miscellaneous

Notes

Various things to do in

  • Brisbane, Australia
    • Free BBQs at Kangaroo Point cliffs. Buy things to cook for an early dinner and watch the night close in.
    • The Barra Boys, 1007 Stanley St. Great fish and chips.
    • Pizza Caffe at the University of Queensland. Great pizza and you can walk around the uni - don't miss the Ig Nobel winning pitch experiment.
    • Go for a run along the river. Start at about the Southbank Ferry Terminal, then cross the Goodwill Bridge, then either turn left for a shorter run (cross back on Kurilpa Bridge which will be about 5 km) or turn right and stick along the river and keep going until you get too tired---making it to Sydney Street Ferry Terminal is great, but even better to try to get to New Farm Park Ferry Terminal---then get a City Cat back to Southbank. That will end up about 10-15km depending on specifics.
    • Go to the Sunshine Coast. Hire a car the day before, then starting early in the day, drive an hour north to Moffat Beach (not patrolled) then Dicky Beach (patrolled), and finally Kings Beach (patrolled). (Train + bus works also.)
  • Canberra, Australia
    • The Cupping Room, 1 University Ave. Great coffee.
    • Rizla, 24 Lonsdale St. Great food and Riesling.
    • Volstead Repeal, 32 Mort St. Great drinks.
    • ONA Coffee House, 68 Wollongong St. This is in Fyshwick, but it's worth the trip. There are second hand book shops across the road that are worth going to also.
    • Cosmorex, 47 Kembla St, Fyshwick. Again, in Fyshwick, but worth the trip.
    • A run from Civic down to the lake, and ideally making it across both bridges is pretty great. Will end up at about 8-10km depending on where you're leaving from in Civic.
  • Melbourne, Australia
    • Patricia Coffee Brewers, Rear of 493-495 Little Bourke St. Incredible coffee.
    • Flora Indian Restaurant, 238 Flinders St. Cheap but great Indian food.
    • Brunetti, 250 Flinders Ln. Over the top cakes and pastries.
    • You can book a meeting room at the State library if you're a member (free to join).
  • Sydney, Australia
    • Campos Coffee, 193 Missenden Road, Newtown. Great coffee. Get an affogato. And a flat white. And a long black.
    • Go to Manly. Take a ferry from Circular Quay to Manly Ferry---get the commuter one, not the "fast" one. At Manly you can go to the beach, get coffee, and the walk to Shelly Beach is nice.
    • "Central" station isn't actually that central---you'll likely want Wynyard.
    • Ampersand, 78 Oxford St, Paddington. Get a cup of coffee and sit amongst the books.
  • San Francisco, California
    • Twin Peaks. Brilliant views of the city. Pick a clear time of day (early afternoon is safest if you're not flexible). You could walk up, but it's a bit of effort.
    • Baker Beach. Great beach for views of the Golden Gate Bridge. Can be a bit breezy.
    • Ike's Place, 3489 16th St. Brilliant sandwiches. Go early or late or call to avoid large lines. Get the Dutch Crunch bread.
    • Bi-Rite Creamery, 3692 18th Street. Nice ice cream. Don't miss the lavender one.
    • Tartine Bakery, 600 Guerrero Street. Very nice cakes. Avoid peak times otherwise there's big lines and it's hard to get a table.
    • Sightglass, 270 7th Street. Nice coffee. Nice place to sit down and see the SF people. No Wi-Fi.
    • La Taqueria, 2889 Mission Street. Carnitas burrito is better than beef burrito. Get sour cream but not super. Carnitas taco is better than chicken taco but both are great.
    • Taquerias El Farolito, 2779 Mission Street. Enormous burritos and delicious tacos. Everything is great.
  • Berkeley, California
    • Bobby G's Pizzeria, 2072 University Ave. Great pizza. Sometimes has Pliny on tap!
    • Cheese Board Collective Pizzeria, 1512 Shattuck Ave. One type of pizza each day. Always vegetarian. Always great.
    • Hotsy Totsy, 601 San Pablo Ave. Great dive bar.
    • Tacos El Autlense, taco truck that parks in the Hotsy Totsy car park. Brilliant food. And you can take the food into the bar.
  • Toronto, Canada
    • California Sandwiches, 244 Claremont St. Great but cheap sandwiches.
    • Good Egg, 156 Augusta Ave. A book shop in Kensington Market that is focused on kitchen books. It sounds niche, and it is, but it's also great. [HT: Ryan Briggs].
    • Vietnam Lovely Noodle, 378 Bloor St W. Great but cheap noodles.
    • Evangeline Toronto, 51 Camden St. This is a bar on Level 14 of the Ace Hotel. Go early on a nice evening and try for the outside table around the corner for a great view.
    • Tap Phong, 360 Spadina Ave. This shop in Chinatown provides an incredible selection of kitchen supplies at decent prices. Again, sounds weird, but it's a Toronto institution.
    • The best pizza in Toronto is Pizzeria Badiali, 181 Dovercourt Rd. The best value pizza in Toronto is Fresca Pizza and Pasta, 302 College St, $5 for a slice!. A great middle ground is Maker Pizza, 59 Cameron St.
    • According to Monica and Edward, the definitive ranking of smashburgers is: 1) Rudy's, 2) Matty's, 3) Harry's, 4) Rosie's.
    • The best place for cheap berries (very relevant when you have young children) and fruit more generally is Bloor Fruit Market, 662 Bloor St.
    • Grey Gardens, 199 Augusta Ave. For nice dinner out. Somewhat expensive (maybe average $80 per person or so, before alcohol) but doesn't disappoint. Their martini is excellent.
    • Bun Saigon Vietnamese Restaurant, 275 Spadina Ave. Great but cheap Vietnamese.
    • Nick's Custom Footwear & Shoe Repair, 119 Yonge St. Best place to resole shoes.
    • The AGO has a family room in the basement, which is excellent if the weather is bad - enter through the main doors but turn right immediately and continue past coat check then go down. There's a food court a block away - Village by the Grange - which has excellent asian options, especially Manpuku, as well as McDonalds for the children.
  • Oxford, UK
    • Good coffee: New Ground Coffee Oxford, Ship St (some seating, eduroam works); Society CafĂ©, 12-16 St Michael's Street (much seating); Missing Bean, 14 Turl St (some seating, limited space but high turnover, eduroam works).
    • Good tea and scones: The Independent Cafe, 85-87 St Aldate's, (much seating); Vaults and Garden, 1 Radcliffe Sq (try to go in the morning on a weekday to avoid huge crowd).
    • You can get inexpensive access to the Bodleian Libraries with a 'Reader' application.

The best books that I read in

  • 2025
    • Wang, Dan, "Breakneck: China's Quest to Engineer the Future"
    • Dryden, Ken, "The Game" [HT: Peter Loewen]
    • Metz, Cade, "Genius Makers: The Mavericks Who Brought AI to Google, Facebook, and the World"
    • Gold, Alex, "DevOps for Data Science"
    • Tartt, Donna, "The Goldfinch"
  • 2024
    • Alammar, Jay, and Maarten Grootendorst, "Hands-On Language Models"
    • Huyen, Chip, "Designing Machine Learning Systems"
    • Macdonald, Helen, "H is for Hawk"
    • Rebanks, James, "The Shepherd's Life"
    • Seth, Vikram, "A Suitable Boy"
    • Zuckerman, Gregory, "The Man Who Solved the Market" [HT: Michaela]
  • 2023
    • Bouk, Dan, "Democracy's Data" [HT: Emily Riederer]
    • DeWitt, Helen, "The English Understand Wool"
    • Kellaway, Lucy, "Re-educated"
    • Loftus, Peter, "The Messenger"
    • Miller, Chris, "Chip War"
    • Sturge, Georgina, "Bad Data"
    • Wulf, Andrea, "The Invention of Nature"
  • 2022
    • Efron & Hastie, "Computer Age Statistical Inference" [HT: Monica]
    • Kuang, R. F., "Babel, or the Necessity of Violence"
    • Light, Singer & Willett, "By Design"
    • Mindell, David, "Digital Apollo" [HT: Dan Ryan]
    • Morange, Michel "A History of Biology"
  • 2021
    • Another baby was born in 2021.
  • 2020
    • There was a pandemic.
  • 2019
    • The baby was born in 2019.
  • 2018
    • Agassi, Andre, "Open"
    • Carreyrou, John, "Bad Blood"
    • Chozick, Amy, "Chasing Hillary"
    • DeWitt, Helen, "Some Trick"
    • Green, Joshua, "Devil's Bargain"
    • Petzinger, Thomas, "Hard Landing"
    • Price, David A, "The Pixar Touch"
    • Waldrop, Mitchell M, "The Dream Machine"

Something to read