a little last-minute Festivus shopping

All I really wanted was a simple, casual, comfortable jersey dress. I had found ones I liked at Eddie Bauer and Ann Taylor Loft (online).



So I headed over to the Waterfront to hit the local stores in search of one. I ended up going to Kaufmann's, TJ Max, Marshall's, Filene's Basement, Old Navy, and Dress Barn, Gap, Ann Taylor Loft, Express and a few others, but alas, not a single store had casual, warm dresses! There were hoochie dresses for bars, and old lady dresses, but nothing sophisticated and comfortable :(

Once I realized my trip was turning into a waste, I appeased myself by getting a few other lovely things. These are my Festivus gifts for myself.

My first purchase was a pair of "apartment shoes" - really pretty shoes, to be worn inside the apartment only, for when I want to feel more dressed up (maybe with company around or something).


I also, finally, got myself a denim skirt. It's been pretty hard to find one that was soft and flexible yet warm and with a shape. Yay.

That silvery turtleneck sweater is also a new acquisition. For some reason, all sweaters were on sale, everywhere! I guess once Christmas arrives, winter is over?


I got a few more sweaters. I think I'm going to return/exchange the last one. The other pink one is made from that really soft, plushy material, it's sooo comfy! Although I really splurged, I honestly don't have very many decent sweaters. I mostly have Old Navy long-sleeve t-shirts, and most of those have bleach stains. And it's very cold in the office, so I need warm sweaters. So get off my back!


BTW, my head is cropped b/c I'm having a horrible hair day.

a Festivus for the rest of us!

Happy Festivus everyone!

Make time to air all your grievances. Here's a worksheet in case you need help.

If you haven't bought your festivus pole yet, it's not too late. No tinsel.

Good luck to you all in your feats of strength.

And don't forget to donate to the Human Fund. It's money for people, people!

best book ever

I'm almost done rereading The Foundation (by Isaac Asimov). This either the 3rd or 4th time I'm reading it, and each time, I'm reminded of how amazing this book is. It is definitely my favorite book. Even though my reading is limited to books of the SciFi/Fantasy genre, I've read quite a few of those, and this is by far the best one.

While it's interesting to read about a weird future utopia or dystopia, and some scientific ethical dilemma or alien invasion that occurs in a moment in that society, I much rather prefer to read books on the history of the future. How did the society get from where we are today to where they are. What choices were made that created the fantastical world the author is presenting. The Foundation is all about that. It's about the unfolding of the future.

The rest of the series goes downhill, as even Asimov doesn't like the future he's constructing, but I think he should've kept it on the original path. I was very disappointed by the ending.

I want to get Alex to read at least The Foundation. I think I'll move on to the Tripod series. I think it was the first scifi book I read, and I don't think I ever finished the entire series.

It's like I'm walking on my hands!

creepy... but fun!

bad dreams

I don't know why, but for about 20 mins last night I decided to watch Dracula 3000 starring Coolio and Heather Graham (whose name you won't find in the credits on IMDB... she probably had it removed b/c of how horrible the movie was...)

My last dream this morning (the one that woke me up) had Coolio in it! As a gangster, living with a bunch of other gangsters, who are raising a bunch of random kids together. Suddenly all these cops and helicopters came down on the large apartment building where they lived, and Coolio and his crew (and kids in tow) came out with their big guns to defend themselves. Turns out that *this time* the cops weren't after them, but after a much more dangerous convict who had escaped from prison. The cops left after not finding him. Then Coolio noticed that he had left the door to their apartment open when everyone ran out to the roof, so he suspected the escapee was hiding somewhere in their apartment.

Then the perspective changed... suddenly I was seeing things from the eyes of one of the kids in the dream... he must've been like 5 years old. And he's watching Coolio check the various rooms for the convict, and not finding anything. Then the kid opens the door to his own room, and sees the convict under his bed. That's when I woke up really scared and freaked out and glad that my bed doesn't have an "under" (the box spring is right on the floor).

best new source of wallpaper

Wikipedia:Featured pictures

Some of these are really amazing.

p.s. happy birthday to me

fantastic dinner

I just made a delicious dinner using Iron Chef's General Tso's sauce. Yum! I know it's supposed to be for chicken, but it was just as delicious with haddock. If only I could master the art of making non-soggy rice :(

Implicit Association Tests

Implicit Association Tests

Kind of interesting, although without knowing the stats behind the analysis, it seems a bit hokey.

So far, I've done 3 tests and:
1) I have a slight automatic preference for young people over old people,
2) I have a slight automatic association of women with science and males with liberal arts (which counters the general public association of women with liberal arts and men with science)
and 3) I have a slight automatic association of men with careers and women with families (yeah, yeah)

I miss NY in the late fall/winter. Everything is so colorful and busy. The air is brisk. Going to Macy's may be a pain with all the people and lines, but it's also fun. There's a certain energy that grips the city. I miss that :(

I haven't really made a dent in all the stuff I have to do. It's going to be a long, rough weekend.

To Do

A million things piling up... no time... aaahhh

1. move in (put all my stuff away in the new bedroom furniture)
2. catch up on Soc class reading
3. make up Womansplace classes
4. finish training hours at the shelter
5. write paper for Angela about old project
6. write article for the Koach e-zine
7. start thinking of birthday/holiday gifts
   

if I think of anything else, this post will be edited

current ARG!

I've been battling with Amazon.com to add BSG season 2.0 to my wishlist, but I keep getting an error
-------

We're sorry!

An error occurred when we tried to process your request. Rest assured, we're working to resolve the problem as soon as possible.

--------------

poop. I MUST HAVE my BSG!

crazy world and HP:GOF

Fri night, Alex and I went to see Zathura (really cute!!) at the Waterfront Loews - the closest and nicest/biggest movie theater in the area. When we got home, Alex noticed this on Google News:

Fatal shooting at Waterfront movie theater leaves a trail of blood

We even stood next to the arcade games to look at them after the movie. We didn't notice anything out of place or any "trail of blood." Really weird to find out though.

We're going back of course. We bought tickets to the new Harry Potter movie for this coming Fri. Yay!! Really looking forward to that. And random acts of violence between thugs aren't going to spoil it for me.

Bushism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bushism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

HAHA! Really funny.

Diwali lunch

Yesterday, I went with some people to lunch at an Indian restaurant in honor of Diwali. We went to Udipi Cafe, which was pretty far from town (25 min drive), but is supposed to be one of the best, most authentic restaurants for south Indian cuisine. It was definitely different from the northern Indian cuisine than I'm used to - the spices were more mild and the presentation was really cool. The southern region of India is also more religious/traditional, so the cuisine is vegetarian. Hence, the food was heavy on the carbs - flat/puffed/rolled breads with dips/chutneys. It took a little while to get used to eating with just my fingers (utensils aren't very useful for eating bread). We got 3 dishes for 3 people and didn't even finish it all. I was so full after lunch, I couldn't eat anything for dinner. Usually, if I don't have dinner, I wake up famished, but I wasn't really hungry for breakfast either :)

stupid reminders

I just had a very upsetting experience.

I logged in to my AOL mail for the first time in at least a year, and in my inbox was a reminder for my grandfather's birthday coming up in 14 days. My grandfather passed away 2 years ago and I guess I never changed the reminders (because I don't really use AOL anymore). Just seeing the reminder in my mailbox is really unpleasant. He would've been 87 this year.

:`(

Happy All Hallow's Eve

Halloween Horoscope for Sagittarius

Halloween is your time to be flirtatious, sexy, and hot hot hot! You love to tempt people into evil, even if it's just for one night. Costume suggestions: A sexy devil or a dark fairy Signature Halloween candy: Anything spiked with booze

What's Your Halloween Horoscope?

5 hours on Sunday

In the last few days of domestic violence awareness month, Womansplace set up a table at Wal-Mart to let people know of their services. One of their volunteers couldn't make it, so they asked me to table 11-4 this past Sunday, and I said yes. I wasn't really sure what to expect. I'd never done anything like this. We had a small pamphlet listing some of the legal services Womansplace provides, but of course there are many other things we do, which we would tell anyone who was interested. 11-2 there was another volunteer with me, but for the last 2 hours I was there alone.

It was really an amazing experience. Several women stopped by who had been victims of domestic violence but were now free, they thanked us for getting the word out about domestic violence and the help that was available. A few of them shared their stories. One woman came by and showed me her PFA (Protection From Abuse) document, which she was about to serve to her husband that afternoon - but she needed a police escort to do it because she was afaid to go home. Another woman stopped by to pick up a brochure for a friend who needed a shelter; another man needed help for his sister. Many people said their neighbor or friend was in abusive relationship. Some blamed the women for not leaving. Towards the end, a woman stopped by smiling, and told me that she had been one of the driving forces in the formation of the National Task Force to End Sexual and Domestic Violence Against Women with NOW right after she left her abusive marriage in the '70s.

A few men passed by with their wives and jokingly said "what about violence against men? this one over here (pointing to his wive) is really a menace!" haha. i know they were trying to be funny, but I don't know how appropriate that kind of humor is. 95% of victims of domestic violence are women. Besides, one man stopped and seriously asked for help - his wife was actually violent and he didn't know what to do - he was afraid to defend himself lest he be considered an abuser, but he was afraid she'd really hurt him. He took our pamphlet and went to sit down with his friends - not before he grabbed a Wal-Mart flyer and put our pamphlet inside it though.

I'm really glad I volunteered yesterday.

proud liberal

for whatever these short quizzes are worth (which isn't a whole lot):

Your Political Profile

Overall: 15% Conservative, 85% Liberal

Social Issues: 0% Conservative, 100% Liberal

Personal Responsibility: 0% Conservative, 100% Liberal

Fiscal Issues: 25% Conservative, 75% Liberal

Ethics: 0% Conservative, 100% Liberal

Defense and Crime: 50% Conservative, 50% Liberal

How Liberal / Conservative Are You?

where's the party?

I don't know, but it's not here.

The lonely days came and went. Some furniture has been built. And I violently dug out my winter coats. I *love* my blue pea-coat. Most of my warm shirts/nice sweaters are still entombed somewhere. (Is "entombed" a word?)

Alex and I finally made it out to the Scion dealer last night. I felt so dumb. We'd looked at all the stuff online, looked at the car, and then we really had nothing to ask the guy or to say to him. There were a few awkward silences. He kept asking if we had any questions but I felt like saying "what should we be asking?"

Anyways, the Scion is a nice car. They didn't have any automatics on the lot (kind of odd), so if we were to get the car from them, it'd take 2-3 weeks till we had it.

I got another rental upgrade from Enterprise yesterday. They didn't have any "compact" cars on hand, so they gave me a Jeep Liberty. I hated it. It was way too high and large. And most importantly, the brake pedal was very weirdly placed... it was much closer than the gas pedal. I had to move my foot pretty far to switch pedals. That's a very bad design, what if you need to break in an emergency?? You can totally hurt yourself trying to find that pedal. I returned it this morning eventhough I had reserved it for an extra day.

I've also been looking at portable GPS navigation devices for the car. They look so cool and useful! Driving in Pittsburgh is crazy! None of the streets are labeled, they aren't straight, and in the downtown area, only buses are allowed to make left turns.

Home Alone, Day 5: too busy to be alone

Today started out slow, like the rest of the week, but then things really picked up! Due to some complicated regulations, we had to push up our deadline for all the Pitt paperwork, so instead of submitting a single copy of our application next friday, we have to submit 26 copies of our application by tomorrow noon. We found this out around 4pm today and I had to leave by 5 to be in McKeesport by 6. Sorry if that's all a bit vague, NDA and all that.

I had my last official domestic violence class today for Womansplace. I'm not officially certified yet, since I've missed 6 out of the 10 classes (5 because of my Soc class on Mondays, and one due to Yom Kippur). I'll have to make it up with home study and quizzes. I hope I can start volunteering before I finish though.

Then it was back home and more work. And I'll be going in by 7am tomorrow so that we get everything done by noon. Yikes!

I'm tempted to go to Conservative services tomorrow instead of Chabad services. But since it's Sukkot, I'm not sure if I should. I don't know if they do Hallel and all the extra stuff.

I also wrote some comments about a Koach e-zine article, and the editor asked me if I wanted to write articles for them! I have to think about that... I've never really written in that sort of capacity before. It might be fun. I'm not officially a "Koach" member, although I'm not sure whether that matters, or how one becomes a member. I'll sleep on it.

Home Alone, Days 2-4: still alone + pics

Work, class, leisheiv ba sukkah, this and that. Unexpected sounds are still frightening. I'm exhausted.

I've been meaning to take pictures of the apt and work with a real camera, but I just can't get my act together. So here's a temporary solution: camera-phone. I have one! They're not the greatest quality but it's something.

Coming in for landing at PIT:

Where I work:


Building where I work (apparently an old flower mill):


My corner:


Kitchenette/"rec" area:


Working hard, or....?


Path along the river, right next to RCI:


View of downtown from the path:


Bus stop, right next to the Warhol museum:


Bridge to downtown:


that's all for now.

the age old question... what to do with my hair?

I've been thinking about my hair recently. It's getting to that hard to handle "in-between" stage.

I can't decide if I should grow it out again:




or keep it my signature shoulder-length:




One thing I know, it will never be this short again:




Looking back at it, the short hair wasn't *that* bad, but I just didn't feel like myself. And the long hair makes me look tired and worn out... but for some reason I'm really tempted to grow it long again. I think I've learned a lot about how to handle my hair in the last year, and I think I could do a better job of taking care of long hair. Then again, it might bug me to no end.

Opinions?

I *almost*....

Does your body ever incorporate its physical needs into your dreams to alert you to things, like for example, you have to go to the bathroom?

I was having another of my highly entertaining and imaginative dreams last night:

People found out they were being abducted by aliens for scientific experiments. In fact, they were being abducted by 2 different groups of aliens, one group from Mars, and another from far outside our solar system. How did they find out? Well, the aliens told us. Each sent us a little note saying "i will be taking people Mondays" and the other "Tuesday and Thursday." So at first we were outraged that there were 2 groups of aliens doing this. We thought that if we notified each group of aliens about the other, they would stop their experiments - mostly because they would realize that their test results are probably inaccurate since the same subject population is being used for 2 different studies. So we wrote up such notes and carried them in our pockets hoping that when the aliens abduct someone, they will read the note. Then suddenly we realized that this revelation might not make the aliens stop experimenting, but might just lead them to destroy the planet. So things were getting a little tense. Somehow, I was on a train with a bunch of people (escaping the aliens? I don't remember) and while we're discussing the possible reprecussions of telling the aliens the truth, my dream self realized I had to use the bathroom. As I'm in the train bathroom, my conscious mind is thinking - am I really peeing? So I wake up, afraid I'd just peed in my sleep. Luckily, I hadn't, but I did have to go to the real bathroom very badly. I chose not to continue that dream when I got back... it was getting a little too frightening.

Home Alone, Day 1: so far so good

The day started out by sending Alex off to Boston :(

This was followed by some more work on my "opinion paper" for my sociology class. The last article I picked sounded more interesting than it turned out to be "Examining family rituals." The other 2 articles were “Go Ahead, Kiss Your Cousin. Heck, Marry Her If You Want To.” and “No Wedding? No Ring? No Problem.”

Then I went to the ATM to make a deposit and finally get some cash. It is so great to have an ATM card with a locally available machine that doesn't charge you $5 for taking out a $20.

Following my windfall, I headed over to Chabad to help build the Succah. That was a lot of fun! Scratchy, pine-needles-poking-at-you, dirt-flying-in-your-eye fun! I mean it though, I really enjoyed myself. A Rabbi looks weird in jeans. The foundation had already been built, and a bunch of people drove out in the morning to cut down some schach (covering for the Succah, consisting of pine branches). So the rest of the day was spent sorting the various sizes of the branches and then finally putting them up on the roof. It'll be great to go eat in the Succah, knowing I helped build it.

All scratched up and covered in flecks of dirt, I went over to the ghetto Tasty Eagle (aka Giant Eagle) to get some supplies for my lonely week - mostly fish fillets, milk and cereal. I also picked up some eggs, as an accessory to my Bacos! Haha! I had heard that Bacos (fake bacon bits) were great with eggs, so I made an omelet for dinner. It was pretty good. I had planned to do some laundry, but it was more important that I wash various branch bits out of my hair. Also, every time I blow my nose, little black specs come out... I can't imagine how much dirt I inhaled during my 3 hours of schach sorting.

The day ended with some more sociology reading and editing my essay. And now I'm off to bed.

all alone

Alex just left to go to Boston for the week. That leaves me free to roam the very large apartment by myself. A little sad and scary, but I have always wanted to live alone. I've met a lot of nice people here, but they're still at the "acquintance" stage, so I don't really have anyone to hang out with. :( To add to it all, Alex is staying with Tara. I wish I was staying with Tara.

off I go... roaming...

Alex and I are still ordering out a lot because it's hard to cook when you're not settled in to the kitchen/dining room. I usually pick up the food, and I usually wear the same thing - my blue or brown PJ pants with a zipup hoodie.

A few nights ago as I was coming back with the food and walking past the security guard, he says to me "One of these nights you'll get all dressed up to go out and I probably won't recognize you."

I think he just called me frumpy. What do you reply to that? So I smiled and said "probably not." How odd. He's also one of those guards who keeps asking you to share the food. Once, I offered it to him, so he admitted that he's a diabetic and can't actually take it anyways. But since that incident, he still keeps asking for food.

Another time, I asked him whether he was there to protect the students or the shops on the first floor. He replied "I'm here to protect the public in general from the students." Ok. Thanks.

In other news - Alex and I made it to IKEA on Sunday and our furniture is on its way!! YAY!

on a chair

That's right! I'm finally sitting on a chair... at my very own desk, with my computer set up properly! A month of sitting on the floor with my monitor and keyboard, and my desktop on the windowsill was fun, but I like my setup now much better. You'd be surprised how much your knees start to hurt from sitting "Indian Style" all the time. Hopefully the damage isn't permanent.

I'll put up some pics soon.

Yay!! I finally started Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince! Just finished chapter one, so far it's excellent.

I'm exhausted, but I must keep reading!

...and we're back to @#$#@^%

FUCKING PENNSYLVANIA! None of the streets/intersections are labeled. You can be driving for 30 minutes and not actually know what street you're on. (That isn't just PA either, it's pretty much every place outside of NYC.) A 17 mile, 30 minute trip took me 2 hours. I've seen parts of McKeesport that no one should ever see. I've talked to more gas station attendants than I care to. That's my new hobby, stopping at every gas station.

I was an hour late to my seminar tonight, and I got lost AGAIN on the way back. This time I stopped at a gas station after only 5 minutes on an unmarked road. VERY fortunately, the station owner was leaving and going in my direction, so he told me to follow him back. He got me probably 1/2 way home and then gave me directions for the rest of the way. Of course then I get off at the Oakland highway exit and I had no idea where in Oakland I was! Again, fortunately, the Pitt tower is the tallest thing around, so I just followed it like a beacon.

I FUCKING hate driving. Not because I can't, but because I hate going to new places and getting lost and driving in circles. I hate it with a passion. All streets should be labeled and/or in alphabetical order, so even if you only catch the street name every 10 minutes, you'll at least have the satisfaction of knowing if you're going in the right direction.

FUCK!

brand new day

I just picked up my Neon rental car. It's cute, and new, and great to drive! I'm driving again! I hate driving, but the freedom is addictive.

I also measured the trunk/backseat area, and I can fit my Ikea desk into it! It's been held hostage at the office for the past week, but today I will rescue it!

Yay!

(ActiveSync can still bite my a**)

No device connected.

I hate ActiveSync! What a total piece of crap. Totally unusable. A long time ago, I decided to use BlueTooth to sync my smartphone. After a few hours wasted trying to set it up according to Microsoft's instructions, I google'd my problem and found a pdf guide someone had written about the process. It's like 10 pages long, with screen shots and very detailed instructions and highly unintuitive steps. There are more "advanced" and "option" menus than you'd think. But I finally had it working!

Then I shipped my computer off to Pgh. When I got here, the first thing I did was set up my USB wireless adaptor, which totally FRAKED UP my bluetooth! Both USB adaptors are IOGear and somewhere along the way I lost the proper COM port for my phone. But of course now that I've had bluetooth set up, it's impossible to sync with the regular USB adaptor, so there's no way for me to sync my phone. [EXPLETIVE]

So now I think I'm going to have to reset my phone, and reinstall ActiveSync.

Oh, and another problem with ActiveSync was it's complete inability to allow my phone to sync with 2 computers. After I set it up to sync with my lab computer, I noticed that all my appointments/events were off by an hour. The time was set correctly on all 3 devices, but that didn't matter apparently.

Total piece of crap!!!

It feels good to get these things off your chest.

Kudos to JetBlue and Airbus

Wow.. amazing video of that JetBlue flight landing. Some of the most exciting television I've seen in a long time. Amazingly, no injuries or real damage.

phew!

No, it wasn't lost, Blogger was just spazzing out. It kept giving me publishing errors, but the post was still there! yay!

ARG #$#%

I finally wrote an update, to have my wireless cut out just as I was submitting. It was all lost.

FRAK!

update

First, a few small discoveries that make life a little easier:

1 - Alex and I finally discovered how to lock the bathroom doors - which was a little difficult without any obvious push buttons or twist knobs

2 - I found the option to turn on time/date notification on my voice mail! For the past 8 months I've been very frustrated not knowing when people leave me messages, or how old the message I'm listening to is... well, now everything will be clear!

I'm rereading Harry Potter book 5 in preparation for book 6 (which I haven't started yet).

Without an actual TV, we've been watching a lot of DVDs, including all of the existing HP movies. The first is my favorite. Although the third book was my favorite, the third movie is unfortunately my least favorite at this point. I wouldn't go as far as to equate it to the blasphemy that was Star Trek Nemesis (which doesn't exist in my mind), but it was pretty upsetting. You don't walk in to the middle of a franchise and start messing shit up! Anywho...

A new GOF trailer came out recently, and that looks amazing. I've learned my lesson though - don't reread the book before the movie. That only leads to great disappointment.

Work is good. Hopefully I'll have some pics soon. The office is across the river from downtown Pitt, so it's a really nice view, with a little trail people use for biking/running.

I got to observe a real surgery today! It was an abdominal panniculectomy (aka "tummy tuck"). It was really cool. There's an amazingly thick layer of skin/fat in the abdominal region.

Ok, back to book 5!

All Hail Craigslist!

Sometimes sketchy, sometimes unreliable, sometimes surprising... always worth it! I've sold most of my furniture on NYC's Craigslist, and now I've found a volunteer job and a regular job on Pgh's (that's "Pittsburgh's") Craigslist. You get a lot of responces to weed through, but if both sides are vigilant, things work out. Yay.

I start work tomorrow.

http://pittsburgh.craigslist.com/

:*

WHAAA!

I've been reduced to the status of a teething baby - one of my wisdom teeth came in yesterday!! I can actually see half of it sticking out. It hurts and I have a terrible headache :(

the impossible map

For anyone who complains that the NYC subway map is hard to read, take a look at this beauty:

Pittsburgh bus map

WTF??? what are the arrows between lines? And which busses represent which lines?

Custom bobblehead dolls

Custom bobblehead dolls made from your photo

I WANT ONE!!!

the power of music

It's amazing how listening to a song will bring back powerful memories and emotions from the past. I came across some really old songs on my iPod playlist and I vividly remembered walking to work in high school, and the things I was thinking, the people I was with, etc... I must have looked absolutely crazy to the other people on the subway because at various points I was tearing up, and then I would close my eyes and mouth the words and really focus, but it's really awesome be recall the past like that.

I love music. I love singing. I miss singing.

I wonder if I'll ever get to do it again in some organized way.

relaxing day

It was really hot outside (108F with heat index), and then there was a pretty big thunder storm, so I stayed inside all day. Really, I barely even left my room, or changed out of my pajamas.

After a year and ~3 months I finally finished the Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - that's right, a book that hasn't even been released yet! And it ends absolutely nothing like the movie does. Understandably so... if the movie actually followed the book (even remotely), it would have been at least 10 hours long. They should make a SciFi miniseries with it, that would be really entertaining.

I also continued HP:OotP. I want to refresh my memory before I embark on HP:HBP. I'm almost 1/4 through. I forgot how thick it was. That's ok b/c book 6 is buried somewhere in my boxes.

Alex and I also began planning our whirlwind 4-city hopping tour during thanksgiving: Pittsburgh, Virginia, NYC, Orlando -- and back again 4 days later. Woohoo! At least this time we'll have a car of our own.

Congratulations to Alfred. Today he announced his engagement to his girlfriend Alida.

So that's 4 friends who've become engaged since January. I guess it's about time the dominoes started falling... and I mean that in a good way. Really.

When did this happen??

Daylight savings extended by 1 month, starting March 2007

Daylight Savings Time

justice!

From the dean:

---------------------------------------------------

Those of you residing in the Towers are painfully aware of the chiller unit problem that left you without air conditioning for 6 days. I've discussed the matter with the Housing Office and they are developing a response that will most likely include some form of rent rebate. The decision as to the nature of any such rebate will be communicated to you in a few weeks, after the new students finish moving-in.

--------------------------------------------------

I was considering deducting those days from my rent anyways, but I was afraid of the wrath of the housing office. I guess I can pay the rent now.

hire me, please! pretty please?

For the last 2 weeks I've been submitting my resume to listings at pretty much every job search engine out there (including Craigslist), and Pitt and CMU. Today someone actually called me back! I have a tentative interview next week (he'll be in NYC on business).

At first I was really excited (because no one has responded to my other 20 resume submissions), but now all I keep thinking about is "what if I said something dumb on the phone?" or "I had a typo in my email, they definately won't want to talk to me now" (I did indeed notice a typo in my email about scheduling the interview). So I'm trying to talk myself down... I probably won't hear back from them.

I think part of the reason they called me in the first place is that they were totally shocked to receive my resume and called me out of curiosity. The very first comment I got was "I must say you're very overqualified for this position! Can you please tell me your motivation for applying to this job?" (as office manager), and the other comment was "why would anyone from NYC move to Pittsburgh?"

Now I must say the whole thing was a bit informal. It's a startup by 2 guys who are only a few years older than me... actually, one of them graduated from Cornell in 2000. So maybe my little slip ups will slide by? Arg.

Can anyone just find my blog by google or something? Maybe I should stop writing things like this for random people to read. Live and learn.

the AC is a marvelous invention

This morning at 8:30 am the AC finally came on. I wasn't here, but that's what the maintenance update in the elevator said. However, yesterday, the very long maintenance sheet had a very complicated story about the power unit on the chiller burning out, creating some sort of feedback such that it caused a leak in the system. So when they replaced all the broken equipment Monday, they found that the chiller wasn't actually chilling anything because all the air was escaping. So they shut it down again to try and trace the leak. At this point, I'd had enough so I did what I should've done for the previous 4 nights - I slept in lab.

I did not vandalize this sign... either Katie or my boss did:

It was actually pretty comfortable, except my toes got really really cold at night. I wish I'd brought some socks.

too hot to live

The AC is *still* down from Thursday. I haven't slept more than 3-5 hours a night in a few days. Sometimes it's ok to fall asleep when there's a slight breeze coming from the window. But by 5 am the breeze stops and I always wake up feeling the pressure of hot, stagnant, humid air covering me like a very thick and unpleasant blanket.

The maintenance updates that are hanging in the elevators have all been graffitied with things like "I'm not paying rent for these days," or "no Christmas bonus for you!" and "We will remember!"

I actually spent some time looking up NYC tenant's bill of rights today. Technically, the landlord is supposed to provide a "safe, habitable" environment.. and I would definately say the last few days have not been habitable, but on the grand scale of things, I doubt the housing dep't would agree. They deal with things like rat infestations, and drug needles lying around. There's a heating requirement for landlords, but nothing mentioning maintenance of central air systems. The best the tenant can do is withhold paying rent until the problem is solved, but in the end I think you have to pay it all. Or, go to an arbitrator to determine the real value of the apartment without AC and then deduct that from the rent. Luckily I haven't paid my rent yet. I think I'll hold out for a bit and send a nasty letter along with my payment. Not that it will do any good. I can deduct the rent for the last few days but I have a feeling they'd just take it out of my security deposit.

I'm so exhausted, I can barely keep my eyes open :(

...too...hot...

The AC unit for the whole building is broken, AGAIN (3rd time in 7 days)... if they don't get it fixed soon i'm not going to be able to fall asleep. My skin feels like it's on fire!

my reward

When I finally have a job and am settled in Pittsburgh (apartment set up, car taken care of, etc...) I'm going to reward myself with a beautiful blue topaz ring from www.ice.com. I'm not sure which one yet, there are a few that I think are really really gorgeous. Yay!

and she's away!

...the full truck that is.

We loaded all my stuff onto Alex's truck today. Took a while... pulling out of the driveway took pretty long too, but now I don't have to worry about renting my own truck and driving it to Pittsburgh myself.

my room is really big without stuff in it though.

weird morning routine

I woke up at 7am to go to the bathroom, and since my alarm was set for 8:30, I decided to just go back to bed for the extra 1.5 hours. Unfortunately, I couldn't fall asleep so I just kept laying there, relaxing. Then at 8:30 my alarm went off and I hit the snooze, like I usually do. I figured 8:30 is still too early to get up, I'll just snooze a few minutes. Well, the second I hit the snooze, I fell asleep!! I've conditioned myself to sleep through my alarm, so that when it went off, it was actually a trigger to nap! So I ended up sleeping/snoozing for another 1.5 hours.

In other news... no matter how many boxes I pack, my room still has a lot of stuff and looks like a few tornados swept through it. I keep underestimaing how heavy full boxes are... even if they are filled with nothing but comforters and coats.

My foxy dress came last night... and it's great!

Help! I'm being boxed.  

DVD cover from my favorite childhood movie, "Guests from the Future."

getting off... long rat tail 

guy on subway, sleeping standing up with his pet rat riding on his shoulder... only in NYC

Today I splurged and bought this dress which I think is *really* beautiful/sexy/delicate/hot. I hope it fits when it arrives! I'll be so disappointed if it doesn't. 

Google Moon

Google Moon - Lunar Landing Sites

Lord of the Rings Risk

Lord of the Rings Risk gold, pure gold!

This weekend I finally had dinner at the restaurant of my dreams (literally) - Aqua Marina. An Italian restaurant in a Dominican neighborhood (go figure).

Today I put up a resume on Monster and MonsterTrak. I hate making resumes. I picked up a career booklet from the Columbia "Center for Career Education" and it has all sorts of suggestions and guidelines for resumes - "don't use I," "use 'action verbs,'" and other nonsense. There's especially a guide for graduate students to translate their skills into something employable - grading exams is apparently a transferable skill. Arg. I just need money!

StreetWars: Killer - NYC

StreetWars: Killer - NYC

This is one of the funnier things I've heard lately.

European Red

Yay! The Bride's Maids' dresses came in! They're pretty. I'm going to have to alter mine a bit.. I hope it still looks good after :\

express?

Is the "A" really express?? I came down the steps to the platform just to see the last car of an A train pull out of the station. I got on the "C" which is always parked across the platform and 3 minutes later we actually started moving. We stopped at 163rd (a really useless stop, considering the next one is 168!), and then on to 155th, and on to 145. To my surprise, about 10 seconds AFTER we pulled in to 145th, the "A" rolles up across the platform. So, to sum up, the A is really really freaking slow. I switched trains anyways, and we ended up passing the C by 86th street. Which means the C was faster than us from 145th to 86th streets. So the A was technicaly 5 minutes faster. Big Whoop! So annoying!

Eurika! It hit me in the midde of my linkage class last week - the perfect career that combines the 3 things I love: genetic counseling! I wanted to jump up and down in the middle of class and tell everyone, but I restrained myself.

For the longest time I've been just "going with the flow" as far as my life is concerned. Going to grad school after college just seemed like "the thing to do" because I knew I wanted more than just to be a lab technician (which is all you're qualified to be with a BA in biology). But I've never really loved research. I find it challenging and stimulating, but day to day, it's very mundane and repetitive. I convinced myself that this is what I had to do to get the kind of job I wanted - although I really had no idea what kind of job I wanted. Unfortunately, I wasn't fooling too many other people, particularly my adviser. She noticed that I wasn't totally happy and ecstatic about my work, and she sort of forced me to deal with that fact.

So, I'm going to tie up the loose ends on my project and publish my work by the end of the summer, and then I'm moving to Pittsburgh to live with Alex while he goes to Carnegie Mellon, AND, very fortunately, the University of Pittsburgh (which is across the street from CMU) has a genetic counseling program. It's a 2 year masters - first year is classes and second year is just internships at local hospitals. I'm really excited!

We've gone through the Ikea catalog and picked out the things to furnish our apartment with. It'll be so great living in a real apartment! I HATE living out of my bedroom - I sleep here, I watch TV here, I usually eat here, and I don't even have a couch or anything comfortable to sit on (except my bed of course). I hate the redundancy of living with others - multiple bottles of ketchup, cartons of milk, bags of fruit, tubs of ice cream, a million sets of dishes and utensils - there's so much wasted space! Up till now my life has been "on hold." I've been living in an academic bubble, mostly because it's safe, but it's also not at all "real life." So I'm looking forward to finally growing up. I've never really taken any risks, so there's a certain thrill in making a huge change like this. But it also feels great to have a direction, to have a career goal.

wear your hat!

Katie and I went to lay out on the roof of Bard Hall to tan a little. I had my SPF 45 on, but decided to leave my hat at home... 50 mins later, I'm having heart palpitations and am very lightheaded :(

1% stay / 99% go!

and i'm very excited :)

Boop ...BoopBoop

My TiVo is getting more retarded by the day. I don't know if it's just getting old, or if it's the new software upgrades, but it takes several seconds for the menus to change, and a few seconds after I hit the fast-forward for it to actually start doing anything.

boop.

help

what should I do with my life? I was thinking about what my real interests are... what excites me and I've come up with the following (in no particular order):

- technology
- biology
- babies

so, how can I combine these 3 passions into a career?

FYI

1) NYC busses still take coins! I left my metrocard in another purse and was really worried that I wouldn't be able to get on the bus (there are no subways on the East side... and there are no crosstown lines at all)

2) REALLY fancy people take the bus on the upper east side!

3) girls who pluck/wax their entire eyebrows and draw in new ones - that are shaped totally differently from their natural brow line - are kidding themselves if they think that looks good

update:

9% stay /91% go

15% stay/85% go

silly me

A few days ago I was really out of it in the morning, I don't remember why, maybe I'd gone to bed late. So I walk out of my apartment with my lunch in one hand (in a bag) and a bag of trash in the other hand. I press the elevator button and while I'm waiting for it, I open the trash room door and throw a bag in. The elevator arrives right after I'm done and I get on... and notice that I'm still holding a bag of trash in my hand. That's right. I threw my bag of lunch into the trash room. What did I do? I went and got my lunch and threw the real trash into the room.

I really enjoyed my salad that day too... I haven't done anything that silly in a while so I thought I'd share :)

Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

Macbeth, Scene V, Act V

Surprisingly, this was posted in the subway in one of those "Poetry in Motion" clip.

randomness

The Mediterranean salad from Wendy's is surprisingly good.

This weekend I tried to style my hair the way I was taught at Ouidad, and I'd say I was about ~60% successful on my first attempt. I'll try again tonight.

I've also been pretty persistent in my gym-going. I've gone 3 days per week for the last few months (excluding my week in Florida). I'm actually looking forward to trying on the bride's maid dress (bride's maid's dress? where's the possessive on this one?).

bad morning

i was going to take the 9am Greyhound bus out of Boston, so when I got on the T at 8:30, it was the perfect time to take my Dramamine (anti-motion sickness pill) which you're supposed to take 30 mins - 1hr before travel. Unfortunately, the bus was 30 minutes late, and by 9:30 I my blood pressure really dropped and I got the typical weakness, blurred/darkened vision, hearing impairment and was really about to faint as the driver finally pulled up and started taking tickets. It took all the energy I had to remain standing and walk towards the driver. There was really a period of about 2 minutes where I seriously considered getting out of line and lying down on the floor to rest. But there were only 4 people left in front of me so I tried to hold down that instinct. The second I made it up the steps of the bus, I plopped my stuff down onto an empty seat and basically collapsed on the other seat.

That Dramamine is some powerful stuff! I guess now I know how it works.

self vs. self

Can a person overpower their instincts/emotions with cool logic? What is reality - is it what is commonly accepted as being real, or what is real in your own head? When is it okay to be selfish and demand things that may disregard some parts of "reality" (or "that's just how the world is")? Can these questions be answered while in an illogical/emotinal state? Should they be?

If only life were simpler.

oui, Ouidad!

My last haircut was in August 2004 and it was free since I donated my hair to locks of love. Before that, I got my haircuts in Ithaca (tuesday $10 special) or in Staten Island ($15). I was going to try and find the cheapest/free place possible (perhaps a salon school) but I ended up doing the complete opposite - going to the most expensive place I could find :) hehe

I've always wanted to walk in to a really fancy/famous salon, and let the experts do their thing, and that's exactly what I did. There are 2 salons in the city that specialize in cutting curly hair, Devachan and Ouidad. Alison has cut her hair in both of them and suggested Ouidad. It was a 1.5 hour appointment where they taught me how to wash and style my hair, and they used their own line of curly hair products (which they offered to sell me for some ridiculous price). I actually learned a lot today, and I hope I can recreate the look myself. It's pretty simple, but sort of time consuming. I'm pretty happy. I think I'll go back for my next cut.

Grocery Store Wars

Grocery Store Wars | Join the Organic Rebellion

really funny.

nerdy pickup line

Worf speaking to Jadzia in "Let he who is without sin...":

"A few months ago when I was commanding the Defiant on a scouting mission in the Gamma Quadrant, we encountered a protostar cluster - swirling mass of color set against the background of glowing clouds and burning sky. It was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen. Until now."

subway pet peeve

someone picking out a ringtone on their phone

if i can hear it through my headphones, i can't imagine how annoying it is to someone without the benefit of their own earplugs/music.

movie time

This past thursday Alex and I saw an advance screening of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (very expensive tickets, for charity).. and it was FANTASTIC. I can't wait to see it again. I won't give anything away, but there are some moments that were so good, I keep running them through my mind.

Hitch hicker's Guide wasn't as great as I expected, but it was still good. I'll finish the Ultimage guide one of these days (~200 pages left).

Oh but that Episode III....

almost there?

hopefully, everything will be more clear after today. of course getting through the day is a challenge.

i'm nervous.

I ain't scared of no ghost!

...that's a lie. i'm really scared. the room above me, and my lab are both haunted :\

still :(

I feel like crying, but i can't bring myself to do it.

I just had almost an entire texas-size margharitta from BBQ, and i poured myself a glass of wine the minute i got home. i've been depressed and out-of-it all week. it's affecting my day-to-day work. i just don't care. i feel burned out even though i'm not really doing anything. i just want it all settled.

bummed

the quarterlife crisis has hit... big time. the details aren't interesting to anyone but me, so i'll spare you.

life sucks.

white-board wars

ARG!

One of my roommates, Ami, always washes food down the sink and then lets it sit rotting in the drain. That is gross and inconsiderate. Not only does it smell (particularly in the summer), but the water pools up when I try to do my dishes. She's been doing this for as long as I've lived here and usually I suck it up and throw it out myself.

A few weeks ago she did it again and it pissed me off, so I wrote a note on our whiteboard (on the fridge) that basically said: "If you wash food into the sink, please throw it out because it sits there rotting."

For a few weeks it was ok, then she washed her pasta-roni down the drain. Since I had already resolved to stop cleaning up after her, I took the drain trap (with the pasta) out of the sink and put it on the side (where I thought she'd see it). Well... the pasta dried out in the trap, she used it again, and took it back out to the side (with the dried pasta still in it). And I know it's her pasta b/c Katie and I ate out that night.

Two days ago, she was making salad, and threw a mushroom and some other nonsense into the sink and left it there (again). So last night I wrote another note on the board that said "there is food in the sink, let's clean up after ourselves." And this morning she wrote back "sorry that was my mushroom, but it'd be a lot easier to clean the food out of the sink if there's a drain trap in it."

NO SHIT! of course it's easier to take the food out when there's a trap, but a step before that is NOTICING THAT YOU ARE WASHING LARGE CHUNKS OF FOOD INTO THE SINK! It doesn't matter if there's a trapif you never clean it out anyways! WHAT A RETARD!

i hate her.

[the need to vent was overwhelming, but i'll try to post more positive things in the future]

robot warriors

US plans 'robot troops' for Iraq

...and so it begins.

Maybe I've watched too much sci-fi, but for some reason, putting guns on robots doesn't seem like a very good idea to me. Before you know it, they'll be demanding rights which we will of course deny them, and then they'll kill us all.

brrr

the good thing about taking a luke-warm shower in an unheated bathroom when it's 0 degrees outside is that when you get out of the shower, you're not cold (is that because you're hypothermic?)

fantastic!

..that wasn't sarcastic.

this is the most useful website i've come up on in a very very long time: Amazon.Com Customer Service Phone number!!!

US/Canada: (800) 201-7575

sick... again

this time with a fever: 101.6

every muscle and bone aches...

head is splitting...

i'm going to test out Tylenol cold since Nyquil is a no-no.

I hate cell phone companies

For 2 weeks I drove Alex and myself crazy deciding what cell phone to get and what carrier to go with. It resulted in a mini panic attack and sleepless nights, but I think it'll be worthit in the end.

I love my new phone

images of the tsunami-hit areas

MSNBC image gallery

sleepless night

I hate confrontations, and tomorrow I have the mother of all confrontations - me vs. Verizon. I have cell phone issues which I've driven Alex mad with over the last 2 weeks. I'm not even officially a Verizon customer and I'm already having to confront them. I won't get in to my woes here, but woe :(

I'm so worked up I can't fall asleep. My heart is literally racing. I just keep running all the lines for all the different scenarios over in my head. I hate talking to customer service on the phone. I'd much rather do a live online chat. Email doesn't work because they always give you a pasted generic reply, no matter what your question was. At least in a chat room maybe you could corner one into actually talking to you like they're human.

Anyways, my triumphant closing line, if things don't go well, is "I'm taking my business elsewhere!" I don't think that'll really phase them though. How about "thanks for not being helpful at all."