I have friends

The winner of the 2007/2008 Race To Berkeley is Billy.

Originally from Singapore [EDIT (4:12PM September 27): the Philippines (sorry, Billy)], Bill "Daniel Wang" y attended an international American school before heading to Vancouver to study mathematics at UBC. He was precocious and took algebra courses a year earlier than normal, which meant that neither he nor I properly learned Galois theory because we were too busy bickering quietly enough that we didn't get yelled at by our friends sitting in front of us. Currently working in the hot field of wavelets at the University of Oregon in lovely Eugene, Billy turned in a dominant performance in this year's Race, claiming victory in the first week of the Race without even announcing his entry by coming to the Bay Area to visit his brother on his birthday.

The quick victory is a shot in the arm that the Race needed coming off a difficult year which saw first prize go unclaimed, despite an honourable mention for 2005/2006 winner Regan Yuen, who passed through San Francisco with her family on vacation. Two-time runner-up Jowen Yeo couldn't mount a charge. Inaugural Race winner Adam Pauls now actually lives in Berkeley, leaving him ineligible. A final push by fellow LUG Victor Ho failed at the very last minute when his scheduled trip to Disneyland put him in Redding the day I flew home for the summer. Compounding this disappointment was the narrow failure of Frances Tong to claim the inaugural Race To Vancouver when her asshole brother vetoed a family vacation to Vancouver in favour of Utah¹.

Billy was also the first winner to not stay at my house and consume my resources. Thanks, Billy.

Unfortunately, I didn't have a chance to take the winner to the Sizzler or In-N-Out, nor did I have the good sense to take the customary picture with the winner. Here, instead, is a picture of Billy that I have expertly Photoshopped² myself into.



Congratulations to the winner, and to the rest of you, I hate you all so much.

Current Music: Neil Finn - Try Whistling This

1. To be fair to Frances' asshole brother, they went to Yellowstone, which is probably quite nice.
2. More accurately, "Microsoft Paint-ed".