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.
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!
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**)
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.
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.
No, it wasn't lost, Blogger was just spazzing out. It kept giving me publishing errors, but the post was still there! yay!
I finally wrote an update, to have my wireless cut out just as I was submitting. It was all lost.
FRAK!
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!
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/
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