Jonathan Cheng
@jonathancheng
English Literature PhD turned ML Researcher. I medicate my imposter syndrome with cold brews. Current: Foundation Models @ Apple Prev: LLMs/World Models @ Riot Games RecSys @ Apple NYC 🏳️🌈
TIL Stonington Burrow contains one of TSwift’s homes and, perhaps more importantly, a nautical art museum! I’ve learned that “haunted galley” is generally what I’m looking for.
Upsides of heatwave, sneaking into usually busy restaurant, staring into David Bowie’s eyes. Downsides, *faints*
I have never seen the polar bear at the Lincoln park zoo so mobile!
Cooking up silly conspiracy theories with my partner -- and don't worry folks, i'm ever-vigilant for circumstantial signs that winter cheer is declining over time.
At a bookstore, getting out of the way of someone, bumped into this bookshelf: “Yes, it’s in the room with us, I always see it lurking a few steps behind me.” 😂
The special Korean exhibit at the Art institute has taught me an important lesson… If I am part owner of Samsung — I too can own priceless historical artifacts and lend them at my leisure.
“No no, I’m not a weeb, I just *love* Japanese woodblock prints!” (From the current rotation of prints at the chicago art institute)
Currently at the art institute of chicago: not the vase we need but the vase we deserve.
When you happen to look down from a pier and a harbor seal emerges, looking up at you— before going underwater again, teasing me into waiting with my binoculars for half an hour… — Dear reader, the cute harbor seal did not return. 😔😔😔 instead I was treated to a smorgasbord of sea lions
My partner and I were looking for the last few edge pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, but there were quite a few pieces to sort through. So as a joke he took a picture of all the pieces asked it to find them, and… it found them 😂 Fun benchmark idea: visual needle in a haystack (if not already a thing)
TIL, San Luis Obispo features the very first Jamba Juice. Which in my historical mental model was the popularizer of the health smoothie? Idk if there was one before that?
California’s state slogan should really be “nothing you do will make your state as beautiful as ours, surrender.”
Little does Katseye know that 21st century kpop stars 🤝 19th century horticulturists
Will post prettier pics in a bit, but today I got to witness 3 park rangers coral a bobcat away from humans. Barely visible in this picture.
The tour guide’s sermon on the perils of yellow journalism doesn’t quite have the intended effect when you follow it up with the afforded opulence.
Monarch butterfly grove near Mismo beach! The sleeping clusters are very hard to spot. Also bonus image of sleepy California beach towns being unreal.
There’s a breakfast place in Ballard that has this *extremely* cozy bar in the back. And I now suddenly feel compelled to drink warm alcoholic beverages.
Look, uiuc is great for many academic reasons, but if you’re a food motivated critter:
Boss: “hey I saw your one of your training jobs errored out, is there some cluster issue we need to report?” Me: *humming, adorning yet another stuffed tiger in a wreath* My jobs may have been submitted with priority 1, but little does my boss know that there’s an even *higher* priority!
Art institute questions of the day: 1) how many thoughts between that child and that goat? 2) what would a Flemish painter put on Mary Magdalen’s lap? 3) have the French ever seen a pelican?