books

1 Reading

Artisan Bread in Five Minutes A Day by Jeff Hertzberg - Even grad students have five minutes!
The Book of New Israeli Food: A Culinary Journey by Janna Gur - Yes! You can make laffa easily at home.
Barefoot Contessa Parties! By Ina Garten - We have eaten countless apple crostatas! Everything I have made from here is a winner.
Examples of Papers That I Love to Read
- Michael Elad's K-SVD.
  - I really enjoyed reading this paper and will use it as a paradigm for when I make papers. The clarity, introduction, and development make it very easy to follow through and Elad introduces great references all along the way.
- Ron Kimmel Fast Edge Integration.
  - This paper, in a manner similar to Elad's (not surprising because they work next to each other!), starts with a generous introduction that is not condescending in the least bit and clearly sets the stage for the rest of the paper. However, don't confuse this with simplicity or lack of depth. Kimmel introduces each formula in a logical order such that you really feel like he has a firm idea at the end of the road, and, no formula has any terms where the definition is not easy to spot. I really enjoyed talking with him at the Technion.
- I need to add links

Blogs/Sites
- Tao
- mathgoespop
- wanderings in the nullspace
- Alexander Holobrenko
Other
Lifehacks
- The original lifehack.org
- reddit.com/r/frugal

Anki - Awesome! When I finish my grad school apps, I want to make it possible for visitors to submit their own words and add automatically to my anki decks.
Forvo - This site is invaluable for language learning. For mathematicians, you may find it interesting to hear how the French actually say 'Legendre' or 'D'Alembert'.
Wiktionary - This site is really cool and I have tried intermittenly to use it to automate creation of Anki cards with mixed results. This is possible because it is easy to grab the data from Wiktionary and then use some simple regular expressions to grab the relevent info to put on the Anki cards. In some cases, there is too much info, and it would be cool to link this to Forvo (which allows access to their API…). It would also be interesting to use text-to-speech from the IPA when Forvo does not have an entry.

Symptoms of Inner Peace - I love the poster everytime I see it at Soulfoods.
Grow Organic - I bought a very healthy kalamata olive tree from them! It shipped beautifully and quickly to Seattle.
Shipping Solutions Worldwide - If you need to ship a car or container from any where from Paraguay to Ashdod, to Tashkent to Kaula Lumpur, they are the ones! (especially if you are in the D.C. area). Just tell Raul or Edgar that, "Andy sent you" and I promise you will be fine.

Stanford Philopsophy Library - I referenced this often during my philosophy club days.
The Arava Institute for Environmental Studies - I am interested in doing research here in the future, or suggesting my sister go there. The wonderful thing about computers is we get to choose our environments and I am still deciding whether the desert is a place I want to experience for an extended time.
The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity - I worked on an ethics essay but unfortunately did not make it on time.
Rocky Mountain Institute - Check out their blog! It would be wonderful to visit if I get into any Colorado schools.
Yes! Magazine - One of my favorite magazines! They are native to the NW and I cannot recommend them highly enough.
Ode Magazine - Also a worthwhile read.
IRC (International Refugee Co) - Watch this video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYCA6g9bNg0). Listen to your heart. Go volunteer!

SoulFood Books- come visit if you are in Seattle! - I cannot overstate this. This place is a home away from home. Make sure you check out an open-mic, preferably in person, or online through their webstream.
Redmond Eye Clinic - Fixed my glasses for free MANY times. Always helpful.
Sustainable Seattle - Take the survey! You may learn something about yourself.
Sushiland - Redmond
Iman - Wonderful Persian lessons.
Zoka (only in Kirkland though!) - Very nice and friendly neighborhood cafe.
Persepolis - Nice
Hilda's Gallery - Compelling, local art. The owners make wonderful conversation.
Gastronom - The relatively inexpensive sunflower and raisin halva is a great, high fat energy source. Really nice rusticky and seedy breads without some of the pretentiousness and high price of some recent 'artisan' bakeries.
Eltana - Wood-Fired Bagel Cafe on Capitol Hill - Inspiration for my own bagel experiments.