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date: 2026-04-09
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# 2026-04-09

### Morning — Coffee with Izzy, then campus

Starting the day at a coffeeshop with Izzy, then heading to campus.

**Today's plan:**
- Build the robot arm
- TRI meeting
- 567 homework
- Gym
- Dinner at parents'
- Call DMV (see below)

### Vision — "superhero life"

I want to live a life where people go "holy shit." The recipe:
1. **Jacked** — more gym, take physique seriously, become visibly powerful
2. **Persian** — take Farsi lessons, deepen cultural identity, stand out
3. **Robots** — build a great robot, make a startup around it

These three aren't random — they're identity pillars. Physical presence, cultural depth, and technical ambition. Each one compounds the others.

### Car notes — Robot arm sprint plan

**Deadline: Tuesday meeting.** Must have robot arm fully built by then.

**Schedule:**
- **Tomorrow (Thu):** On campus. Design and print end effector (should be a one-day print). Also calibrate the robot arm.
- **Sat + Sun:** Back on campus for assembly and testing.
- **Monday:** Finishing touches, debug anything broken.
- **Rest of next week (by Friday):** Work on a double-jointed version of the arm.

### Car notes — PARA pitch framing

Key insight: pitch PARA in terms of **input/output**, not technical details.

**The pitch:** "We present a robot policy that generalizes better to new camera viewpoints, new object positions, and is more data efficient." Then go into the technical details of how.

Like how you'd pitch DUSt3R: "Input: set of images. Output: poses and geometry in a single forward pass." You wouldn't lead with point maps. Same idea — lead with what it does, not how it works internally.

### DMV registration renewal

**OVERDUE:** Need to renew car registration. Been outstanding for a couple weeks. Didn't call today — **must call tomorrow (Thu).** This is creating background anxiety. Just make the call and get it moving.