It's my belief that every actor/actress in hollywood has at some point guest starred on Law and Order (of any variety). Just in the past few days, I've run across: Lewis Black, Philip Seymour Hoffman , Maura Tierney, Greg Germann, and Lisa Nicole Carson. There are of course many more I've run across through the hundreds of L&O episodes but it just really struck me the other day.
I'm badly in need of a new, every-day purse since the zippers on my Target one have shredded the lining on top and keep getting caught. Unfortunately, I absolutely HATE purse shopping. All purses are huge, ugly, and lack the compartments and organization that I want. I went to 4 different stores today in search of a simple black purse, and came away disgusted. I figured I could easily find the perfect purse online at ebags.com or zappos.com, but they're just as ugly and expensive. It really makes me want to design my own purse, but I wouldn't know where to start or how to have one made.
It's really a shame... I love shoes and see the beauty in every pair. Too bad a sense of shoe style isn't linked to purse style.
I get really irritated when I'm shopping for something specific and can't find it. I'm totally grossed out.
For example, in the preview, this purse look promising:
I grew up with the Russian New Years tree (yelka), Ded Moroz ("Grandpa Frost" ala Santa), and Snegoorochka (no translation, no equivalent). I gotta say, I've been missing it. I remember fondly getting the tree with my dad and helping him decorate it with ornaments, and waking up early the next morning to find chocolates and other candy hanging on the tree. New Year's eve, presents would appear under the tree, to be opened at midnight (or whenever my little self would get tired). The tree was a national symbol of celebrating the new year, completely devoid of religious meaning. Coincidentally, an overwhelming majority of Christians in the former USSR are Orthodox, who (secretly) celebrated Rozhdestvo (loosely defined as "the birth") sometime in the middle of January. As far as I know, Rozhdestvo is a purely religious holiday that would be sacrilege to commercialize.
Either way, since my family came to the US we gave up our New Years traditions. No more trees, or decorations or gifts. I wouldn't call my family religious, but having the ability to finally publicly admit to being Jewish, I suppose there was no desire to pick up a Christian holiday. Among Jews, even the appearance of Christmas decorations is a big no-no. But I do miss it. I've been told that Christmas in the US being a national commercial holiday rather than a religious celebration these days, but it still feels "dirty" to celebrate it.
Anyways, I just ran across this interesting article about the Western Christmas creeping into Russia. It's pretty funny in certain places, to me at least. Enjoy.
About 90% of things I want can be found on Amazon.com, but for the few that can't, I've signed up for a kaboodle wishlist. I just signed up so I'll update it over the next week or so.
My Kaboodle wishlist: http://www.kaboodle.com/drone1218/
And my Amazon.com wishlist direct link:
Make your own wishlist! (and let me know)
I'm so happy, I'm about to cry! No seriously, I'm tearing up. In searching for birthday/holiday gifts for people, I ran across this: http://store.russiananimation.com/cheburashka.html
I grew up with this cartoon and I would do anything to own copies of it again! It would be a fantastic gift for someone to get me (hint hint) but I don't know if I want to risk it selling out. I think I'm just going to buy it for myself. I've also added these to my amazon.com wishlist.
I really never thought I would be able to relive any part of my childhood from the USSR. But after finding this, I'm beginning to think that in another few years, much of the media from that time/region will become available to the public. There are so many other shows and movies that I would love to have. Somehow, I will have them all!
unfortunately, today is "tree trimming day" so there are guys with loud chainsaws outside my window cutting branches since 8am. Damn them! My first day of not waking up at 5am and I can't even sleep in. I guess I'll have to nap later.
So the craziness of working all the time is finally over! Now I get to stay out here in cali till after Thanksgiving. What will I do with myself? I have work to catch up on but that won't take up too much time. But since Alex and everyone else out here works (sheesh!), my days will be pretty dull and uneventful. I'd like to sleep in, but it's likely that people from work will call me in the morning (afternoon their time). I hope to start going to the gym at our building. There's even a yoga class every Wednesday, and kickboxing on Tuesdays I think.
I wanted to write down a few interesting observations from my train commuting days. Yesterday, I sat across the aisle from 2 middle aged women knitting scarves. There was something weird about that. From time to time they would discuss different stitches and yarn they used for different projects. I wondered if they know each other outside the train-knitting, or if they are kindred souls who found each other during the commute one day and then decided to sit together.
Last week, a woman sitting behind me offered her paper to a man sitting across the aisle from me when she was finished with it. He took it gracefully, flipped through the sections, and picked out the standard male section: sports. I then saw a very interesting thing which led me to conclude that the man was illiterate in English (he was most likely an immigrant). He opened the paper to the middle and just held it up in front of his face. I could see his reflection in my window (because it was so freaking dark out at 5am) and he wasn't looking at the paper at all. He would look up, down, left right, anywhere but the paper. Once, he turned the page and then did the same hiding behind the paper bit. It must be difficult for him in social situations like this one. I hope he takes the time to learn to read, because it's hard to be so isolated from the world around you.
Oh and WOOHOO for the Democrats winning Congress and for Rumsfeld leaving. The next 2 years of politics will be awesome! When is the last time both parties had presidential primaries at the same time? It'll be really really interesting, and historic. Alex and I have decided to not get cable because comcrap doesn't deserve our money, but it'll be tempting to sign up just to watch the news and debates.
I've been out in California for the last 3 weeks working. This has been planned for a while now, so it's a great coincidence to have Alex living out here. Unfortunately, our apartment is in Mountain View and my work is up in San Francisco, which means a very long and painful commute. It's particularly painful since I have to be at work by 7am. So I get up at 4:50am every morning, leave at 5:30 and take a beautiful 15 minute walk up to the CalTrain station for the 5:56 train. Recently, I've been picking up breakfast of English Breakfast black tea and a blueberry muffin from a little coffee stand at the station to eat on the train (as that's the only way I'm going to get breakfast). I arrive in SF at 6:42 am, and have to take a cab to where I work (since time is of the essence). I usually don't get out of work till 6pm these days (which used to be 7:30, and once, 9:30pm!). Getting out at 6pm, I usually catch the 6:56 train home and get home around 7. That's just enough time to eat and shower and get 5 hours of sleep to do it all over again!
I haven't had much time or energy to do anything else here yet. I went to a friend's Halloween party, out to see Borat, and to the Lines Ballet, and that's about it. The ballet thing was hosted by Technoratti, and was unfortunately on a weekday (this past Weds). By the end of the evening I was so tired, I felt nauseous. I avoided hurling and was able to get 5 hours of sleep. Fortunately, I should be done with my work here on Tuesday. Then I'm staying out here for a week to relax and catch up on sleep. I will be heading back to the Pitts after Thanksgiving.
I actually kind of miss Pittsburgh... particularly my bed. It's nice having a real mattress. An Aerobed is pretty nice for an inflatable mattress, but it's not quite the real thing. I also miss TV. I have lots of shows to catch up on. But that's pretty much all I miss about Pittsburgh.
That brings me to today.... It's Veteran's Day which means I have a day off (who knew?). I woke up at 10, checked my email and did some work-related online errands till about 11:30. Then I went out to drop some clothes off for alterations and picked up lunch (Indian curry soup in a sourdough bread bowl - yum!). I ate my soup at home while watching Baseketball (really lame movie) since my only entertainment is limited to whatever DVDs I brought with me that play on my laptop. Then I read the manual for our fancy Halcyon Inverter cooling/heating unit which was originally written in Japanese and translated (very poorly) into English. After figuring out how to turn off the stupid timer setting someone else had set, I felt tired and in need of a nap.
I crawled under the covers at 1:50 and set my alarm for 3:30. Unfortunately, I didn't change AM to PM, and woke up at 5:30 once it was dark out. It's always depressing waking up when it's already dark. My only consolation is that my day is going to get better since I'm having a girls' night out with all the lovely ladies of Cornell who live out here. We're going to the Korean House for dinner (all the reviews say that the place is run by old Korean moms who yell at you for not eating enough), and possibly a movie after. Speaking of... I should get out of my PJs and brush my teeth and all that.
I've gotten into the habit of watching something short, light, sweet, and innocent before bed. Something I don't have to think about but just sit back and be entertained.
I've now gone through all episodes of Bewitched, The Brady Bunch, I Love Lucy, and The Munsters. Now I don't know what to move on to. In the past I've just restarted the cycle but maybe it's time to move on (for a little while at least). Should I move on to something less wholesome yet still light and entertaining? Cheers? nah.. not light enough. Golden Girls? hey, that's an idea. I should check if that's on somewhere. Maybe something cartoony like Flinstones or Jetsons? I never really gave I Dream of Jeanne a fair chance. [[sigh]]
Any suggestions?
Yesterday, my Sony digital camera finally croaked after 4.5 years of decent service. I say decent because I've had several problems with it through out those years, but at least I had a camera.
This is the last picture it took:
Article: To be married is to be outnumbered
For the first time in history the percent of married households in the US is in the minority 49.7%. Unmarried couples sharing households is 5% of all households (that's 5.2 million couples), which apparently rose 14% since 2000 (that took me a second to untangle).
I don't think the statistics will make any parents or grandparents happy. It'll just reinforce their belief that their children/grandchildren are amoral liberals living in sin. Surprisingly, the comments by the conservative groups aren't that scathing and condescending. Not surprisingly, Utah has the highest percent of married households (69%).
Senior year of Cornell, my roommate Tara and I discovered Hershey's "Shell" ice cream syrup. It would solidify when hitting the cold ice cream, forming a layer of chocolate or peanut butter around the top. We loved it.
A few days ago I bought Edy's Dibs ice cream, and it's amazing. It's like having Shell and ice cream come mixed together in tiny chocolate covered ice cream bites. It's so yummy! (I don't usually use that word.)
I've managed to hurt my foot, somehow. I've been limping along for 3 days now. I think it's my achilles tendon. It's so tight that my foot actually creaks when I try to stretch it.
NYC last weekend was good. The weather was awesome! Chilly and slightly breezy but very sunny. The perfect fall weekend. I got to see Maggie, Katie, Diorella and Ann and have some delicious food along the way.. including dessert from Tasti-DLite twice. Unfortunately, Aris decided to premier ITTV on a Monday night. Weirdo! So I had to miss the party.
Other random updates...
TV:
I broke down and decided to watch all of SG-1 on DVD from Netflix. I finished the pilot yesterday and it wasn't bad. Not great... but not bad. I have a feeling the show improves as the seasons go on, given that the spinoff got its own spinoff (SG Atlantis).
I'm also all caught up on Lost. It's a really good show, but I wouldn't call myself an obsessed fan. I was spoiled by watching the first 2 seasons on DVD because I was able to watch all the episodes back to back. Watching them on TV once a week makes each episode seem so short and incomplete. Now that I've given in to the Lost craze, I start hearing about this "Grey's Anatomy." Eh... I'm not that desperate for entertainment yet.
BSG is back! But I'm determined to rewatch the last season on DVD before I start watching the new ones, so no spoilers!
Food:
I've been eating out a lot lately. There's just no incentive to cook well for 1 person. I also haven't been grocery shopping in a while. I did however buy myself a nice slow cooker recipe book, but I haven't gotten around to cooking anything yet. Maybe this weekend. A Qdoba opened up on my drive home from work, so I've stopped by there to pick up dinner. Bad, bad me!
I've also given up on bringing lunch to work. Mostly because I'm lazy, but also because there's always at least 1 other person who goes out for lunch and it gives me an excuse to go out somewhere.
Music:
Justin Timberlake's Sexyback is a damn sexy song. Every time I hear it, it makes me want to dirty dance.
It's nap time!
There's at least 1 lady in my office building who is unfamiliar with the proper use of a toilet. Either she doesn't realize that the toilet doesn't have a motion-sensor automated flusher, or she's too weak to pull the handle properly. I personally find "evidence" of her visits to the restroom at least once a week, every week. It has been like this for the past several months.
Yesterday I'd had enough. I put up a flyer inside the stall saying "Please make sure the toilet is completely flushed before exiting the stall, thank you." I felt like a kindergarden teacher telling kids not to play with their poo.
The whole thing is absurd! This is an office building filled with adults... not a port-a-potty in an alley, or the public restroom in a McDonald's. It's also not a simple one-time mistake... it's an ongoing problem. I have no idea how this woman can not realize that she never flushes the toilet. Either she lives alone, and constantly finds her own toilet unflushed, or she lives with her husband/boyfriend/roommate and they must constantly tell her to flush. Is she senile? Or are there 15 different women who don't flush? I'm puzzled and annoyed.
I'm trying to format my old Dell laptop to give to my brother this weekend, but it's just not happening. I've made 3 different boot disks but the Dell refuses to boot off any of them. I just get a single prompt in the middle of the screen and that's it.
!!!!!!
Yesterday I had lunch at Primanti Brothers, and had the traditional Pittsburgh sandwhich - with french fries and cole slaw piled right on the bread. See the picture on their home page. It was alright. I got the "cheese combo" (3 kinds of cheese) with all that stuff on top. Surprisingly, the fries don't fall out as much as you'd expect them to.
In Pittsburgh, they put french fries on everything.
I'm taking an online CME course for industry reps who work in hospitals, and my favorite slide so far is:
"Any person entering the operating room should practice personal hygiene."I don't think personal hygiene should be exclusive to the medical staff. But maybe that's just me.
In the last 2 weeks I've bought a lot of stuff... and I mean a lot. Then of course I start to feel guilty, and unsure of my purchases, so now comes the task of returning half of what I bought. Arg. For example, I bought new sneakers from Gordon's Shoes, then I found a cheaper pair at Dick's sporting goods (teehee) so I bought those too. I knew with 98% certainty that I'd find cheaper shoes at Dick's but I went ahead and bought the ones from Gordon's anyways and now I have to go back to the mall to return them.
I also bought a pair of black pants and jeans from Banana Republic's new petites line, 'cause they were having a special on petites. I didn't really like either one so I went to return them today. I walked out of the store with a jersey wrap dress. It was pretty expensive and now I'm regretting that decision. When I go to the mall to return the sneakers, I'll stop by Ann Taylor Loft and Macy's to see if I can find a similar dress for less and then go back to BR to return the current one (I really like it though).
Indecision... thou art my nemesis.
I also stopped by Victoria's Secret to use a coupon for $10 off a bra. They had several varieties that the coupon applied to, most of which were push-up style. For fun, I decided to try one on. I can't even describe how hilarious someone my size looks in a push-up bra. In fact, I'm amazed that push-up bras come in my size (and up). I looked really absurd. That's all I'll say.
My final stop on tonight's shopping tour was Williams-Sonoma where I bought myself a slow-cooker recipe book. I've already stocked up on some ingredients and I can't wait to try them! In particular, I'm looking forward to the garlic potato soup, the cilantro potato bisque, and the chicken chili.
..must...stop...shopping...
I also need to find my checkbooks. My current pack only has 2 checks left and I need to write at least 3 in the next 2 weeks.
In a not-so-close 14-1 vote, the city council passed a public smoking ban for Allegheny County! Woohoo!
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06269/725251-100.stm
We got a water cooler at the office that does both cold AND hot water. That's pretty exciting! Now I don't have to go to the main kitchen around the corner to get my tea. I also bought some nicer "Market District" (Tasty Eagle brand) teas so I'm not limited to Lipton anymore. My Earl Grey is cooling down at the moment. It'll be great on this cool, gray, rainy day.
Anyone who reads this already knows the big news, but I haven't actually posted it here yet. Alex got a job at the Mozilla Corporation! It's an awesome job (designing the UI of Firefox 3), in an awesome location (Mountain View, CA). You can check out videos of the Mozilla peeps and the making of the firefox crop circle here.
Alex is moving next week :( I, however, am staying in Pgh for a few more months. I don't know how many. It all depends on how business is going. It'll be lonely and sad being in the pitts, but there's a very good ending in store. I can't wait to move out to Mt. View. Most of my Cornell friends are already out there, and I LOVE our new apartment. We'll be living in Park Place which is right in downtown Mt View with lots of restaurants and walking distance to the CalTrain. There's a pool and gym (of course) and a Starbucks around the corner. We're on the 3rd floor and we have a balcony and a large walk-in pantry in the kitchen. Did I mention there was a pool?
More about moving later....
As I was going through my old posts this weekend adding labels, I noticed that I didn’t have a post about 9/11/01. I wish I did. It’s one of those moments that you only live through once (hopefully) and writing down the experiences/emotions/facts in the moment is invaluable. So I guess I’ll recount that moment right now, 5 years after the fact. The whole day was surreal and hazy so I’m actually trying to reconstruct my morning based on the timeline presented here.
I grew up in NYC (age 8+). Maybe 3 years after we were here I actually went up to the observation floor of the WTC with a friend. It was really cool.
In September 2001, instead of being upstate in
On 9/11/01, I don’t remember if we turned the radio on in the middle of the show, or whether I only tuned in half-way through, but Elliot was talking about something happening in NYC, something big. Then I heard him say something about “another one, there’s been another one.” I think he was referring to the 3rd plane (flight 77) that struck the Pentagon at 9:37am. Looking at the timeline, I don’t think I would’ve been in the lab yet for when the second plane crashed into the WTC. For the first few minutes I thought Elliot was just doing his regular shtick (he used to do a lot of crank calls on this old show). But then the people I was working with started trying to figure out what was going on. Everyone tried to get to the news online but all the sites were down (probably due to high traffic). I think I finally got Reuters.com to load and saw pictures of smoke billowing out of the twin towers.
There were 3 of us in our bay and we went on a search for a TV. Above a few floors of research labs was a dozen or so floors of patient rooms. We ended up in a waiting room on one of the top floors. We could see a little bit of smoke from the Pentagon from out the waiting room window. We turned on the TV just a few minutes before the first of the twin towers collapsed. The video was so surreal, it was like watching a movie. I had been to the WTC and around the area so many times, yet I could barely feel anything. I was just watching it dumbfounded. Then I suddenly realized that my dad drives around the city all day so I went back down to the lab to call home. I got through to my grandmother and she said she had heard from my dad and he was fine and away from the commotion. But then she said that they had been worried about me and why I hadn’t called yet. I guess the fact that DC was also a target and that I was in any possible danger never crossed my mind.
It took another hour or so for the NIH to call for an evacuation of all non-essential personnel. I took the metro home. My roommate Christine who externed at the American Museum of History had to walk back to DuPont Circle (where we lived) because by the time her building was evacuated, the metro had shut down. For the next few hours, I and my 2 roommates just watched the news. Christine was much more emotional than I was. I envied her emotional release. In a way, I also felt like a bad NYer for not being more distraught. By the evening, when video of the planes actually hitting the twin towers began to run, we’d had enough. I don’t think we turned the TV on for the following week. We just couldn’t watch it anymore. The smoke, the collapse, the rain of ash, the constant replay of the planes hitting the buildings…
Although I had worked at the NIH for about 2 weeks already, I didn’t have an ID badge since security had been non-existent. I stayed home for the next few days since security at all government buildings had suddenly tightened and I had no way of getting in.
To this day I can’t watch footage, listen to, or even read stories about 9/11/01. This morning, I watched about 10 minutes of the Today Show’s special, including the moment of silence at 8:46am, when the first plane (flight 11) flew into the north tower. Then I had to turn it off. The timeline on the Cooperative Research site is actually the first details about 9/11 that I’d read. Ever. I have no compulsion to see the Flight 93 movie, or the new WTC movie. Maybe in another 5 years. It's just so morbid. I don't need to know what the last words of the flight attendants and passengers were. It also seems inappropriate and too soon for the commercialization of this tragedy, no matter how tasteful these movies are.
Sometimes, "beta" actually means beta. Definately lots of glitches, but I have faith!
How are the new colors? Too much?
I'm in the process of adding labels to my old posts, which will of course take a while. I also noticed that I gave up transferring my LiveJournal posts after 2002, so I'm missing all of 2003. I need to get to that as well.
There are also privacy options for posts now. Not sure how that works (meaning, how do I add my friends)? I guess I'll figure it all out in time.
Another question... should I start integrating my various online identities? Should I put a link to my MySpace account on here? My LinkedIn account? My google pages website? I don't know. I like the scattered nature of my online presence but I don't think that'll last very long. The internet is a total mess right now and it's very easy to get away with having a half dozen email addresses and register a few dozen blogs and networking sites to these various emails. At some point, I think everyone will have to integrate their web presence into one singular, complete "persona."
IM client (i.e. AIM) -- social networking (i.e. MySpace) -- business networking (i.e. LinkedIn) -- homepage (i.e. Google pages) -- blog (i.e. blogger) -- message boards (i.e. hashkafah) -- calendar (i.e. Google calendar) -- picture repository (i.e. Flickr) -- movie rental (i.e. Netflix)
Should anyone who stumbles on one of these be able to trace me all the way through? Right now, I don't think even my friends could do it. Should there be 2 distinct personas - the personal, and the professional, and never shall the twain meet? I'm getting increasingly aware of online privacy issues... not that I can do much about it except keep my accounts separate, and where possible, restrict access (private posts, private pictures, etc).
Last night I finished Knights of the Old Republic. This is the first game I ever played on the "new" consoles (not counting SNES). Alex suggested I play this since he loved it and thought I would as well. He watched, and only occasionally helped me out (like 2 or 3 times total).
It's a great game, and highly recommended for Star Wars fans. I'm still behind the times of course, since KOTOR II has been out for a while now. Now that it's done, I don't know what to play (if anything). They don't really make games for nerdy couples to play together. Tetris and Mario Kart don't count. I mean a game that's story-based, not a dumb first-person shooter. I don't really want a MMP on-line game either like SW Galaxies or WOW. Those don't have enough structure or story line.
Alright... /nerdiness
Alex and I have been back from vacation for 2 weeks now, so it's a good time to recap our week in cali as an attempt to relive the fun.
We flew into San Jose and stayed in the Bay area for the first half of the week. We met up with lots of our friends who now live in the area. We made it up to San Francisco for a few hours.
UN Category: Liberal Democratic Socialists
Civil Rights: Good
Economy: Fragile
Political Freedoms: Excellent
The Exhausted Estates of Vitaaborg is a huge, safe nation, notable for its devotion to social welfare. Its compassionate, intelligent population of 706 million love a good election, and the government gives them plenty of them. Universities tend to be full of students debating the merits of various civil and political rights, while businesses are tightly regulated and the wealthy viewed with suspicion.
It is difficult to tell where the omnipresent, socially-minded government stops and the rest of society begins, but it juggles the competing demands of Education, Healthcare, and Social Welfare. The average income tax rate is 66%, and even higher for the wealthy. A substantial private sector is dominated by the Cheese Exports industry.
The government extracts trade concessions from poor nations in exchange for humanitarian aid, the government has undertaken a massive education and health program to combat VODAIS, the latest Harry Potter book is a bestseller, and welfare funding has recently gone through the roof. Crime is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Vitaaborg's national animal is the Droid, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its currency is the Virtual Borg.
Vitaaborg is ranked 118th in the region and 49,736th in the world for Largest Mining Sector.
Scientists decide Pluto’s no longer a planet - Space News - MSNBC.com
That's really too bad. Sucks to be a science textbook publisher... you have to suddenly revise every textbook and workbook. I wonder if this decision will cause confusion 50 years from now when students no longer know of the 2006 IAU decision and go back to read old astronomy journals and textbooks.
I was about to write a long update about my trip to cali when I run in to a blogger login-in problem. At first I thought I was going crazy and forgot my login information, then I realized that Google has finally taken charge of Blogger and was trying to get me to sign in with my Google account. So I finally sign in and they give this nice little screen about the new Blogger Beta and "switch now!" Blogger is in DIRE need of new features and some usability fixes so of course I'm very excited. Let's go for it! I accept the new terms and impatiently wait for my new blog to load when BAM!
"Sorry, we're only switching a limited number of users at this point and you're not cool enough to switch."
In other words: DENIED!
I'm sad. I want a new Blogger!!
This past weekend was my second NYC trip in a month. The weather was picturesque, although a little too warm for my taste. My days were filled with friends and fun activities. I couldn’t have asked for more.
My JetBlue flight on Friday was on time and very smooth. I had a delicious portabella and goat cheese sandwich from Au Bon Pain for dinner on the plane. I decided to take the subway to
I brought my mom and grandma presents (last week was my mom’s birthday). I got her a nice new loofa and Pearberry shower gel from
Saturday I headed out to meet n.A and M for brunch, but got a surprise when T joined us! We were going to go to Republic in
My goal was to find a larger purse/tote to bring on trips. As much as I love my backpack, I wanted something more classy. We must have walked into every store with purses along Canal. I wasn’t exactly sure what I was looking for, but it was one of those “I’ll know it when I see it” mentalities. I’m way too picky about purses, mostly because I think all purses are ugly. Some women see a beauty in purses which I totally lack. I’m more of a shoe girl.
With my new purse in hand I headed east on
Sunday I headed out to
In 4 days Alex and I will be on vacation in beautiful
I've falled out of the blog habit again. I think partly it's because I have so many other blogs/journals (as part of the other sites I'm on) that I forget to take the extra effort to blog here. Besides, I don't think anyone actually reads these, except Alex, and then only to censor the media.
I never wrote about my relaxing 4th of July trip to Florida, or about yesterday's smoke fiasco, or my exciting upcoming trip to NYC. Deal with it.
To change topics, e-mail spam used to be crass and embarrassing to open ("enlarge your penis by 30%" or "hot young chicks want to f*** you all night"). But the "new spam" is intruiging, almost poetic. If I ever used drugs, it would be a lot of fun to read it on a high.
I've added line breaks for effect, the punctuation is original. It is called "sole purpoise," enjoy:
pawn an shutter a!There was of course much more to this particular poem. In a few hundred years when technological architects (or perhaps aliens) dig up archived email, they will find mostly spam (as it probably outnumbers normal email) and they will try to decipher what they say. They will be baffled how we were able to communicate and build technology since we never rose above gibberish. Or maybe they'll assign new meaning to words and think that language must've really evolved.
sheen the holy that nippy calcium
geologist faucet was dork odor
advance willfully a wares topic
sentence of courageous hurrah
the evangelist pay phone.
uncommon the cave with score was yes
populace that conspicuous icebox
incorrigible afflict pagoda,
a surf stifling of reliance,
as refill
I didn't see the first Pirates of the Caribbean till a few weeks ago (netflix). When it first came out, I didn't see the appeal of a pirate movie. I don't like pirates. After seeing it though, Alex and I both thought it was fun and entertaining so we decided to see the second movie.
We decided to try out the Lowes Club - VIP seating and dinner at the Lowes restaurant. It may sound cheesy, but it was actually a lot of fun. The tickets are $5.50 more than regular seating, but we got 2 $3.50 coupons for dinner at the Lowes Club restaurant. The food at the Lowes Club restaurant was cheaper than any of the restaurants at the shopping center (most dishes ~$10), the menu had good variety, and the food was delicious. We got a quesedilla for an appetizer, I had an artichoke pesto pizza, Alex had some beer battered chicken fingers with really good fries and a really good honey mustard sauce, and we split a delicious dessert of vanilla ice cream with oreo cookie crust and crumbles of Snickers. Alex also had an alcoholic Oreo Mudslide and I had an iced tea - which with the coupons came to $31! You can also pick up beer and other drinks from the bar at the Club and take it into the theater with you (we didn't do that).
We then went through the upstairs restaurant into the theater. There were 4 rows of "VIP" seating. Since it was opening weekend, normally we would've waited in a long line outside the theater for 40 mins to get in and scramble for some good seats. But yesterday, we came in 10 mins before the show and sat in our reserved seats - really wide leather chairs, wooden floors (instead of sticky nasty carpet), wide ailes, and wide leather armrests. It was awesome!
If there's a theater near you with the Lowes Club, I highly recommend it for a special movie you've been looking forward to.
Civil Rights: Very Good
Economy: Good
Political Freedoms: Good
The Federation of Vitaaborg is a huge, socially progressive nation, renowned for its burgeoning Droid population. Its compassionate, hard-working population of 406 million have some civil rights, but not too many, enjoy the freedom to spend their money however they like, to a point, and take part in free and open elections, although not too often.
It is difficult to tell where the omnipresent government stops and the rest of society begins, but it juggles the competing demands of Healthcare, Education, and Law & Order. The average income tax rate is 44%. A substantial private sector is led by the Cheese Exports industry, followed by Gambling and Basket Weaving.
All major public areas are watched by police surveillance cameras, government-run screening operations remove embryos with severe genetic disorders, the nation has opened its arms to an influx of refugees, and pharmacies close down as medicinal drugs are sold freely by the government. Crime is well under control, thanks to the all-pervasive police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Vitaaborg's national animal is the Droid, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its currency is the Virtual Borg.
Vitaaborg is ranked 132nd in the region and 47,892nd in the world for Largest Public Sector.
I received a letter today stating that my credit limit has been increased! Great! Allow me to paraphrase the letter for you:
"We've noticed that you've been able to pay all your credit card bills in full, on time. Please, allow us to increase your credit limit and give you another chance to go in to debt.
Have you been putting off buying something expensive that you can't afford? Well, now you can buy it!
Don't forget to use your credit card for everything.
Did you also know that you can pay off one credit card, with another credit card?"
Don't Date Him Girl Homepage
This is hillarious! I didn't know it existed until I saw a short article on a local website. A Pittsburgh man is suing the founder of the website for his "loss of reputation." haha!
Mine aren't! Alex says that "normal" people's eyelids are opaque and that I'm abnormal.
If you have your eyes closed in a dark room, and a small bedside lamp goes on, can you tell? I certainly can. I can tell when the iPod is on, and can even sense it's flickering between different screens. I find it highly irritating, but Alex says I'm just weird because I shouldn't be able to tell light changes through closed eyelids.
How "thick" are your eyelids?
...in movies/TV.
Yesterday, Alex finally signed us up for Netflix. I have a long list of movies I need to see. Some of them I really want to (i.e. Broken Flowers), some I feel I have to just because everyone else has (i.e. Crouching Tiger...). I also want to watch Lost. I've never seen any of it, but I hear that I'm really missing out, so I'm going to try to catch up on that.
Netflix has really gone down hill since the last time I looked into signing up. I remember they had packages where you could have as many as 7 DVDs out at a time, now the most is 3?!?! And the prices have also soared. Free trials used to last 1 month (or more), now it's 2 weeks. ::sigh::
Anyway, there's a "friends" feature in Netflix which allows you to see what your friends have on their queue and how they've rated movies they've seen, and make recommendations to each other. If anyone's interested in becoming my "netflix friend," let me know.
Last week was the busiest week I had in a long time. It started with my trip out to San Diego Monday-Wednesday. It was for business and my very first time in Cali (or past Denver, really). I'll skip the boring work details. One of my coworkers (DP) is staying out there for 1-2 months while we do business in SD. After a failed search for a private apt to sublet for a few weeks, he ended up subletting a room in an apt. His apt-mate is a 40-something lady, who is also a Buddhist. I don't say that in a bad way, just that I've never run into a practicing Buddhist before. Since I came out for a few days and then another coworker had to come out, we sort of turned her apt into a mini motel. I hope she didn't mind.
On to the highlights. Lots of good (occasionally expensive) food was had. DP had a list of restaurants he wanted to try while out in SD. The list was based on good reviews in Food & Wine Magazine and/or a food critic for the Washington Post (I think?). I didn't mind of course :) I also had a chance to read the Food & Wine special California wines issue as well as one issue of the Wine Spectator. It really made me with I knew more about wines. Ordering wine with dinner is really hit or miss if you don't know what you're doing. So my goal is to learn more about wines.
First night, we went to Zenbu (reviews). I had 2 Mai Tai's, a delicious salad with fresh tuna, and some sushi of course. Next evening we went to George's Ocean Terrace (review). Unfortunately, it was too overcast to see the great ocean view, but it was still very pleasant outside and the food was also delicious. I had a glass of sauvignon blanc (Isabella vineyard). My last evening in SD we went to Confidential (review). This is a tapas restaurant with ,appropriately, no sign out front. Everything was absolutely delicious, especially the portobello mushroom salad. I had a pinot blanc (I think) from Inez Valley. I wish I remembered more than that haha.
Comments on San Diego: it is probably the most colorful place I've been to. The buildings are various shades of pink, orange, coral, and yellow. It was almost too cliche. La Jolla is a very interesting/fancy/chic/beach town. Every other shop was an art gallery. The water was still too cold and the sky was overcast but we walked down to the beach anyway. There was a colony of seals hanging out on the sand which was very cool. Across the street from this bay was... a retirement home. That's right. My future retirement home. There were also people snorkeling over the ecological preserve next to the shore. (Crazy people who like to freeze!) There were huge mansions sitting on the hills overlooking the bay and the other neighboring hills. It must be a very expensive place to live, but I can see its attraction.
I flew out of SD at 10:45pm Wednesday and arrived in Pgh 6:15am Thursday. Same day, 6:45pm, Alex and I departed for Boston. We stayed at the John Jeffries House, and to save space, you can read my review of it here. Friday was the MIT graduation where Alex received his actual Masters diploma. The speaker was Dr. Bernanke, recently minted chairman of the FED. He was good, but unsurprisinglykind of dull. For the next 2.5 hours, ~2,000 names were called as actual diplomas were handed out. It's great that everyone gets the same kind of attention, and received their degree in front of all their classmates and the entire audience, but it was really mind numbing. Fortunately, it didn't rain.
In celebration of the event, we (with Alex's parents) went to Top of the Hub (review) for an early dinner. Another amazing meal with a bottle of Merlot (Benziger), followed by a plate of freshly baked cookies (hadn't seen that in a fancy restaurant before, but they were very delicious).
Saturday we took a commuter train out to Needham to visit Alex's cousin and her family. I haven't spent much time in real New England suburbs. They are so cute!!! That evening we met up with a college friend, J who was in Boston for a few days. We played a few games of pool at Felt (which is kind of snobby if you're not dressed to party) before we saw An Inconvenient Truth. I highly recommend everyone see it. The movie resulted in feelings of frustration and desperation about global warming, but at the same time it was inspiring. There is still hope, and we have it within our powers to alter the course of Earth's history (for the better this time).
Sunday afternoon we flew back to Pgh, but not without some minor drama. To get the pool balls at Felt, I surrendered by driver's licence to the front desk, which they forgot to give me when we left. I suppose its partly my fault for forgetting to ask for it. I didn't realize this until we were on the T heading to the airport (1pm). Felt doesn't open till 5, and no one answered the phone. So there I was, going to the airport without any official form of ID. The only card with my picture I had on me was my Sam's Club membership card. It was annoying and a bit nervewrecking but everything was fine. I had to submit to an "extra" security search and I was on my way.
The drama isn't over yet. I finally got someone live on the phone at Felt, and they put all the left IDs and credit cards in a safe every evening. They can't open it till tomorrow so I still have no idea whether they have my ID or if I managed to lose it somewhere else.
Whew! That was long.
The building fire alarm went off this morning at 4:40am! It rang for 20 mins. It's one of those really annoying, single (high) pitch squealling alarms. That's the rudest awakening I can think of. For a few seconds I didn't realize what the hell was happening.
Alex and I considered evacuating, briefly, but decided to say put. There wasn't any sign of trouble in the hallway, and 10 flights down in pjs is a long way. Sitting there, covering my ears, I thought "what would all my childhood principals think if they saw me sitting around my apartment during a fire alarm? All that time they spent drilling us to evacuate..." haha. Sorry.
I don't know what it was but there was no sign of any problems in the building when I left this morning. Whoever set that alarm off is a jackass. Did they really need to smoke at 4:40am? Or burn something in their oven? Blah!
I saw a TV ad this morning for Toro garden tools. I think it's the first ad for garden tools I've ever seen! There aren't enough lawns in NYC to warrant ads of that type I guess. weird.
UN Category: Inoffensive Centrist Democracy
Civil Rights: Excellent
Economy: Strong
Political Freedoms: Very Good
The Federation of Vitaaborg is a very large, safe nation, renowned for its burgeoning Droid population. Its hard-working, intelligent population of 149 million have some civil rights, but not too many, enjoy the freedom to spend their money however they like, to a point, and take part in free and open elections, although not too often.
The enormous government juggles the competing demands of Education, Law & Order, and Social Equality. The average income tax rate is 35%. A substantial private sector is led by the Cheese Exports industry, followed by Gambling and Information Technology.
The Vitaaborg Automotive Racing Series draws millions of spectators annually while those near the tracks complain about the noise, reporters often lose their jobs over fact-checking errors, voting has become a nightmare since everyone keeps selecting "None of the above", and abortions are routinely performed in Vitaaborg's hospitals. Crime -- especially youth-related -- is well under control, thanks to the all-pervasive police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Vitaaborg's national animal is the Droid, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its currency is the Virtual Borg.
Vitaaborg is ranked 152nd in the region and 56,797th in the world for Most Comprehensive Public Healthcare.
Our office building is located in a pretty run-down, empty part of town and the only parking available is our employee lot, which doesn't have enough spots for everyone in the building. People have actually created illegal spots within the lot (extra car on the end of each parking row). All of the local streets are "no parking anytime" zones, but of course, they are filled end-to-end with cars b/c there just isn't enough space for everyone. As you can imagine, every once in a while cops will come by and probably fill their entire month's parking ticket quota in about an hour.
In January, I got one such ticket (about 10 mins before I came out to my car), for like $95!!! Sure I was parked illegally, but there really weren't any other options. So I decided to fight it.
Today I went to traffic court... my first time as a defendent, teehee. The judge was very nice. She is actually a good friend of the owner of our office building and comes here often. She said she's parked illegally there too! haha. She let me off. Awesome!
I'm getting all 4 wisdom teeth removed tomorrow morning. I'm a little nervous. I've never had any kind of surgical procedure or been anesthetised. I also get nervous when they ask "are you allergic to any medications?" Because I've never taken any medications! What if I say no, and end up being terribly allergic to something?
I also hear conflicting stories about the amount of pain following the procedure. I don't want "dry sockets" and I don't like the possible risk of temporary/permanent numbness of the lower face. But I get to stay home, in bed, for 2-3 days, and that doesn't sound so bad. Yogurt smoothies and frozen fruit pops, here I come!
...that's a sarcastic "thank you" to my neighbors, not the movie. A few months ago, a chain smoker (or two or three) moved in next door. So every evening our apartment fills with smoke. I don't know how much they smoke, but it's so much, that the entire hallway and our apartment end up reeking like an ashtray. It's very disgusting and annoying. We've stuffed a towel under the door, but that hardly does anything. Fortunately, if we notice the smell in time (which we always do) we can close the bedroom door and have at least some reprieve from the smell.
It's bad enough that every restaurant in Pittsburgh is an ashtray, but it's nor fair that my apartment smells like one! I want a non-smoking floor. damnit.
April 30th my childhood best friend got married which prompted a trip to NYC for the weekend. It was a very good weekend overall. Friday I got to hang out with Steve... pardon, "Aris," at (of all places) Brighton Beach!!! That's a place I wouldn't go to with my Russian friends, and here I am heading there of my own free will to hang out with Americans. It wasn't just hanging out though, there was business involved. I hadn't been to Brighton in a few years and was quite surprised to find a massive "upscale" development: Oceana. Apparently, the ghetto of Brighton is getting gentrified. If I had a few million bucks sitting around, I might actually get a condo there. It's on the beach, with a pool, gym and all that other good stuff, and a few minutes from the B/Q trains which take you into the heart of Manhattan in ~40 minutes.
Friday night I went out with the bride, groom and a few of their friends to a hooka bar. Saturday I went to the city to meet up with the lovely ladies of the G&D department up in Washington Heights. Dallas BBQ fun for all! Off to the museum of natural history for the new planetarium show "cosmic collisions" (which was awesome!), a stroll through the street fair outside the museum, a cream puff from Beard Papa, and Thank You For Smoking at the Lincoln Center movie theater.
Being with friends all weekend made me realize how much I miss everyone and how lonely it is here in Pgh. I still don't really know anyone I can call up to hang out :(
On to Sunday, the purpose of my visit: the wedding! Alex and I rode in the limo with Elena and a few others to the restaurant. The ceremony was beautiful. The food was plentiful. I did not catch the bouquet, but I did manage to spill red wine all over my cream colored dress. Alex did not catch the garter, but we're both kind of glad he didn't. The guy who caught it had to put it on the leg of the bouquet-girl. The bride's father intervened, and sat in the girl's stead (the garter-guy was blind folded). We have video of it, it's quite hillarious. For anyone interested, pics can be found here.
About half of my building has been given to CMU and Pitt for student housing. Over the past few weeks Pitt students have been moving out, and I think CMU is done this coming week.
Just now I saw a new notice posted above the garbage shoot:
"Please do not throw small appliances such as a toaster, microwave or blender down the trash shoot."
haha. did someone actually throw these things down the shoot? It's not a very large shoot, I can't imagine "small appliances" even fitting into the opening! (Well, maybe the blender.)
Thank You Stephen Colbert.
If you haven't seen video of this year's White House Correspondents' Dinner, prepare yourself. It's almost painful to watch. (Painful in a good way.)
Where is everybody? No one has been posting in their blogs lately. I used to check my google reader every day and have lots to read, but it's been mostly empty for over a month now. What's up with that? Is the blog fad over? Why didn't anyone tell me?
I feel like I need to redeem the last post with some actual nice things to say about this year’s Passover. The weather was gorgeous! I stayed with a very nice family with a cute baby and a cute 2 year old who was the funniest kid I’ve seen in a long time. He had been part of some school production and he kept showing me the dance he did. Adorable! There were some great conversations, and more babies to hold :)
I love shmurah matzah and marror. The Seders, which seemed to last an eternity when I was a kid, didn’t seem long at all. The food, while repetitive (due to the dietary constraints) was delicious. I love potato kugel. This is also the second year since I’ve realized that one could shower during a holiday, and that made life much easier.It’s been a while since I’ve written an actual post, so there’s much to update. Lets start with Passover.
Before I start with Passover though, I feel like I need to back up a bit. Having gone to Orthodox day schools as a child, I was always left with a deep respect and yearning for the Orthodox lifestyle. Everyone always seems so happy. The children (as far as I’ve seen) are not rebellious, husbands and wives get along, and there’s so much tradition in the homes that you feel like you are being transported to a totally different place. There’s peace, serenity and even a holiness that you can actually feel in an observant Jewish home. Anyways, that’s what I was taught, that’s what I saw a lot, and that’s what I wanted. Of course with all that comes an almost fanatical sort of religiosity which makes the whole package possible.
Recently (in the last ~4 months or so) I came across the “frum skeptics” (religious skeptics) groups online (isn’t the internet wonderful?) and have begun to see a totally different side of Orthodox Judaism. It has made me stop and think about the underlying beliefs, requirements and sacrifices that come with living that kind of life. For a while I felt like I wanted to distance myself from the zealotry and fanaticism of the “ultra Orthodox” beliefs, which to me meant that life would be shallow and bland.
Then came Passover. Of all the Jewish holidays, except Yom Kippur which isn’t really a “holiday” in the traditional sense, Passover is the most demanding. You have to clean hour house inside out to get rid of all bread – you even have to clean all your books to make sure you didn’t drop any crumbs between the pages while reading. It is absolutely forbidden to have a single crumb of bread in your house for 8 days. In addition, there are the 2 Seders, and 4/8 days of the holiday are “yom tov” which means you can’t do any work. That’s a lot. I also think it is one of the most beautiful holidays. I love the whole Seder – it’s nothing but lots of tradition, which is awesome. This year I stayed with one family and had all my meals at the Chabad House. And at some point I got the same feeling I used to – how beautiful everything was and how much I wanted to be a part of this in the future.
However, this year, in the back of my mind was a more critical observation of the whole event – for example, the Chabad family’s tradition is to not eat any fruit or vegetables that can’t be peeled, and no prepared food of any kind (they even make their own mayonnaise). I thought to myself: why can’t I have the beauty and tradition of Passover without going crazy with all the extras? Why do I have to be limited to not eating kitniyos (rice, beans, corn, soy products, etc) just because I happened to be born into an Easter European family and not a Middle Eastern family? Accident of birth shouldn’t make my life more difficult. I always knew that a lot of the Orthodox laws and customs are just that – customs and traditions. I always knew that, but never questioned it. In school you are taught to accept the law (custom) as law, no questions asked. Well, after listening in on some online conversations (via blogs, comments, message boards, etc) I’ve realized that the core of Judaism is to question everything. So why don’t we question the very essence of Judaism? Why is that off limits? We don’t eat rice during Passover because there was no rice in
So now I think that I can still incorporate the true laws and reasonable (logical) customs without becoming a crazy fanatic. It all comes down to the fact that Jewish law was derived from the interpretation of the Torah by men. And by “men” I don’t mean “humanity” but “old white men”), whose opinions were the result of their upbringing in a time very different from ours. Why does Judaism inherit from the mother? Because men (and women) would sleep around and move on and it would be difficult to know whether the real father was Jewish, but you always know who the mother was. Why are women prohibited from participating in clerical positions or deep learning? It’s outright sexism and nothing more. The whole “women are holier so they are not required to do X” is just apologetics, and Jewish women have swallowed it for hundreds of years. The fanatical claim that “we adapt to the Torah, the Torah doesn’t adapt to us” doesn’t make sense to me anymore. The Torah was always adapted to the times, that’s the whole point of interpretation, which by its very nature is subject to the time and society where the interpretation is done. Electricity didn't always exist, polygamy used to be legal, a father had the right to sell his daughter into marriage on her 12th birthday, and you’re supposed to tie your left shoe before your right shoe. Does G-d really care which shoe I tie first? I highly doubt it. And to assert that He does is downright loony. Flipping a light switch is not the same as lighting a match. I could go on and on.
There’s much more to say on the subject but I’m getting increasingly frustrated writing about it so I’ll stop now. I think the last paragraph made it sound like I’m abandoning Judaism, but that’s not it. The point I was trying to make is that I want the beauty and tradition without being a blind follower. Is that possible? I don’t know if it is. But I think I’d like to try.
Pigasus Award - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
one of the many wonderous tid bits I've come across on Wikipedia.
The following is today's report on the progress of Vitaaborg, including [my comments]:
| UN Category: Capitalist Paradise | ||
| Civil Rights: Excellent | Economy: Very Strong | Political Freedoms: Excellent |
The Federation of Vitaaborg is a small, socially progressive nation, remarkable for its barren, inhospitable landscape. Its hard-nosed, hard-working, intelligent population of 10 million are either ruled by a small, efficient government or a conglomerate of multinational corporations; it's difficult to tell which.
[what? i don't know which of my decisions confused NS but that's pretty funny. I guess it's my inconsistent choices on the role of business in govn't. For example, I didn't let business donate unlimited funds to campaigns, but I also didn't intervene in the cheese workers' union strike. ]
The medium-sized, pro-business government juggles the competing demands of Law & Order, Education, and Social Equality. Citizens pay a flat income tax of 7%. A large private sector is led by the Cheese Exports industry, followed by Gambling and Basket Weaving.
[My national "industries" were randomly generated... I like cheese.]
A large-scale revitalization of the education system is underway, same-sex marriages are increasingly common, marijuana is legal in the privacy of your own home, and euthanasia is legal. Crime is a serious problem. Vitaaborg's national animal is the Droid and its currency is the Virtual Borg.
[Anyone care to move to Vitaaborg? I think that sounds pretty good... except for the crime thing, but they haven't given me the chance to correct that yet. Well... actually I chose to put money into education over police. Hmmmm]
Vitaaborg is ranked 54th in the region and 19,253rd in the world for Largest Basket Weaving Sector.
[Finally, the Basket Weaving industry is bringing some recognition to the Federation!]NationStates
I wouldn't really call it a "game" but it's an interesting community.
Make your own virtual nation and run it any way you see fit (by responding to issues). I just started. Visit the Federation of Vitaaborg.
It just started pouring... looks like there'll be no sun for at least the next 4 days.
1) I went in to a post office today for the first time. It was amazing. there was no bullet-proof glass separating the patrons from the postal workers!!! It was a nice long counter where you could interact with the teller without speaking into a microphone and having to alternate putting the sides of the glass cage where the package goes.
...I just realized that my bank also doesn't have crazy glass cages for the tellers!
2) Living in NYC for the last 2 years, I was very fortunate to be spared driving. No one needs a car in NYC. Now that I'm in Pgh, and have to drive around, I've remembered how many horrific drivers there are in the world. The major problem Pgh drivers have is they don't understand the concept of "lanes." They think they can just drive down the middle of any road, whether there's traffic or not. Sometimes I want to honk at them and yell "PICK A FUCKING LANE!" but I have (so far) been able to control myself. It's not easy.
First off, I'm obsessed with online communities - my profile, others' profiles, how many friends I have, what groups I join, etc... HELP!
2 weekends ago I joined MySpace. I obsessed over my profile, and found some old friends. I still haven't gotten Alex to put up a picture. I'm trying.
This past weekend I joined Orkut. The online community that requires an invitation to join. This of course inhibits its growth and popularity, but I think that's what they're going for. Keep out the spammers and all that, not that it works. There's plenty of spammers there. Browsing the groups and members, I noticed that there was a fairly large Brazilian base. I suppose that's not too strange. Then I noticed that ALL news bulletins from Orkut, and almost all groups have portugese descriptions. So today I ran across this! Almost 73% of the members are Brazilian! (And only 11% are from the US, mostly from CA - I assume Google employees.)
I found a few people I know on there, but their profiles look abandoned. I wanted to join the Cornell Jewish Students/Alumni group, but their last post was in 2004! The other groups I joined have a lot of 1 message threads (if you can call them that)... someone will post a question/discussion topic, and no one will ever respond. Pretty sad. I'm sure it's more lively in the Brazilian groups.
So I think I'll pass on Orkut. I'll keep my profile up, and check on my groups occasionally, but until more people show up there, it's really pointless.
If you are at work, and would be annoyed/embarrassed/reprimanded if you get an instant message, then don't sign on! If you are logged in to a messaging service, you are stating your openness to receiving IMs. It is not the sender's responsibility to intuit whether you are currently in a meeting, left your desk for lunch, or are in the middle of a presentation. If you need to check if someone is online without actually chatting, learn how to "ghost."
It is the sender's responsibility to be appropriate with their IMs until they are certain that "the coast is clear." So please don't send an obscenity in your first message. And don’t say anything embarrassing about someone’s roommate/boyfriend/colleague/sibling if there is a possibility they may be nearby, unless it is your intent to be completely rude and possibly start an argument.
I'm debating (with myself) whether I should undertake the tedious task of moving all my old LJ posts to Blogspot. I have entries going back to January 2001. It would also be nice to have all my posts in one place. There's no easy way to port the posts over, so I'd have to copy them over manually (and backdate them). Is it worth the effort? Am I bored enough? Do I have the time?
hmm...
edit: I've started doing it.. we'll see how long it lasts. My appologies to anyone using RSS reader. You may see a high volume of very old posts.
edit2: 2001 is now moved. It's really fun to read my old posts. Some of them are quite funny.
Dear Anna,
I am writing to offer you an interview for the Genetic Counseling graduate program at the University of Pittsburgh. ....
So today I joined yet another online community (MySpace) in an effort to meet people. I've been a member of Friendster for a long time, but that's been pretty useless. Anywho, as I was joining, I realized just how many places I've joined throughout the years. It's hard to keep track of all of them. So here's my list (in no particular order):
I have no friends (locally). This is an everyday fact of life, but every once in a while it hits me, hard. Of course this isn't a unique time in my life, I've often gone through periods of not having friends (lots of school switching when I was younger), but at least at all those previous times I was in constant contact with lots of different people. So even if I wasn't "friends" with any of them, I was forced into social situations.
My inability to make friends is a large reason why I hated Cornell for the first semester. Everyone around me had formed cliques, and even had cute little names for the cliques (and each other). They had designated group activities (tv watching, lunch, movie night, fancy dinner night, etc...) I wasn't doing well in classes and I had no one to talk to. If my grades had been better, I would've transferred to a different school, but given that they weren't so stellar, anywhere I went would've been a step down academically, so I had no choice but to stick with Cornell. Fortunately, things ended up working out, but there were lots of rough times.
I'm not at all outgoing. Making friends is very difficult for me. I really don't put any "effort" into finding friends. I don't go to bars or clubs or social events for the sake of meeting people. In fact, I hate going to such events unless I already know people there, which creates a vicious circle of loneliness. But I'd like to think that given the opportunity, I'm very nice to people. It's just that there aren't any opportunities. If I get indirectly invited to a social event (party of a friend of a friend) I would feel really lonely and sad standing in a corner all by myself, but I would feel equally as depressed staying home. There's just no winning with me. I happen to think I'm pretty funny and witty, but I can't really be "myself" with new people b/c I'm not sure what would offend them. So making friends is a slow, and very rare process.
I love Alex, and hanging out with him is great. Then there are my co-workers, who are all very nice and friendly, but hardly friends. There's only 3 of them, and I try to keep it professional. I took a class last semester, but most of the ppl there were undergrads, and class is hardly a place to socialize. I know people at Chabad, but spending 3 hours a week together over dinner leaves little time to really get to know them. So that sums up my social exposure over the last 6 months. I have absolutely no one to call up to go to a movie, or shopping, or meet for lunch, etc... Pretty pathetic. And now I'm totally bummed.
I'm almost tempted to put an ad on Craigslist for a friend. They have a section in the personals called "strictly platonic." There are always ppl looking for someone to go to a movie with, jog with, go to a museum exhibit; people who are new in town looking to meet others, gay guys looking for "fag hags" (their words, not mine), etc... Some of the posts are a bit sketchy but I think the majority are genuine. There's a totally different section for sketchy encounters which attracts the freaks.
Hopefully, if I end up back in school this September, I'll have an opportunity to make new friends. It'll be a small group (10 people, 99% female), and we'll be in the same classes, study together, etc... I'm sure it'll still take me a while to consider any of them good friends, but at least there's a possibility. Of course this is all IF I go to school. In either case, September is another 6 months away. What do I do till then?
:(
AIM Acronyms
Since I started perusing blogs, I've run in to a lot of acronyms that were completely foreign to me. Time to study up!
Every once in a while, I have a few days where my skin feels like it's on fire. Last night I couldn't bear to have the covers over me b/c I felt like I was going to burn up. I couldn't sleep. I kept alternating between uncovering myself to cool down, and covering again b/c I thought maybe I finally got cold enough, and then trying a combination of one foot in/one out. It's just my legs too. When I place my hand on my thigh I can feel how much hotter my legs are. It didn't help that Alex was snoring next to me b/c I blamed my inability to sleep on him. In retrospect, it was the ridiculous temperature differential in my body. Sorry Alex!
I also finally pumiced my heels last night. They had gotten so dry that the skin was cracking and getting caught on my socks. It was painful. But now they're much more tame. Yay for that.
For the last few weeks my company has been running our clinical trial at the hospital, which involves me getting up at 5:30 to get to a 6:30am meeting. That's no fun! Hurray for naps though. And I get to come home ~3pm.
I hope I don't combust tonight.
Happy Anniversary to me and the US. 16 years ago, February 23, 1990, PanAm flight something-or-other landed in JFK carrying the 10 members of my clan who made the arduous 4 month journey from the Ukraine to New York. Back then, when my classmates said they'd been in the US 3, 5, 7 years, it seemed like such a long time! Wow! 7 years?? You must be a real American.
I've been a citizen for 2.5 years now. I've voted in 1 presidential election. I've become skeptical and judgmental of my government, and I'm starting to forget the words to the anthem. I'm a true American. (Is it "...what so proudly we held" or "hailed"? Is it perilous fight or flight?)
16 years. Many ups and downs (currently on a very big, deep, "down"). But I'm hopeful this country can be the great beacon of freedom and acceptance it once was.
Back in early December I bought a gift for someone. The item was greatly enjoyed, but took forever to ship and was therefore late. I bought it through Amazon.com's "marketplace" (3rd parties selling through Amazon.com). Amazon asks people who bought items from the Marketplace to rate the 3rd party merchants so that others know how reliable the company is. I left what I felt was an honest, overall neutral review basically saying "the product is really great, but the delivery took too long."
Yesterday I received an email from said merchant appologizing for my poor experience, and offering to compensate me with a free item of my choice (from a short list) *if* I remove my "negative feedback." So... should I accept the bribe, or let other consumers know the full picture? The email provided a very reasonable explanation for the delay - it was the holiday season, they had received a lot of publicity and were not expecting the huge amount of orders they received.
The company has 1300 3100+ reviews, only 6% of those are "negative." Are they so concerned with their image that they want it to be 0%? How many other companies have artificial ratings because they bribe unhappy customers to retract honest (but negative) reviews? I think if I had had a trully bad experience (like the item never showed up and they didn't give me a refund), no amount of bribery would make me remove that information. But in this case, what happened wasn't that bad, and has a good explanation.
Update: technically, my review is considered "neutral" by Amazon. I was just reading through some of the real "negative" reviews and they tend to be very bitter and angry. I don't think these people would sell out for a $15 gesture. I think the company is probably only trying to appease the 3% of the neutral reviewers.
What to do?
How can I be getting sick again, after just getting over a cold a week ago? ARG!
I just had a wave of very powerful nausea, hopefully some tea will calm the inner storm. Of course I should be back at the OR tomorrow for the trial, and I don't think they'd appreciate a sick observer.
message boards are fun! (although some are extremely frustrating)
Ok, according to the NCDC (national climactic data center) information:
The building where my company is located provides heat and utilities for all the offices (we don't have to pay for it). As a result of increasing energy costs, the building has decided to cut down it's heating costs by turning the thermostat down during the day, and off after 5pm. So now it's freaking cold in here!
The space heaters arrived today! Yay! I'm nice and toasty. I actually think I need to turn the heater down a bit.
Yesterday was the Steelers' parade downtown, and I was unfortunate enough to be running an errand downtown right before the parade. As a result, I got stuck behind the barricades, and what should have been a 5 minute trip to the office took 1 hour as I weaved my way all the way around the parade and took a back way to the north shore. One of the more annoying hours in recent history.
Native Pittsburghers (yes, that's what they're called) take their sports *very* seriously. So seriously, that I was afraid to leave the apartment on Superbowl Sunday. But other than a lot of honking, screaming, a few cop cars, and a helicopter with search lights, not much happened after the big victory. The non-native 'burghers (that's my name for them) are happy for the win b/c it means the town won't be as depressing for at least the next few weeks. I recently heard that Pittsburgh has an average of 65 sunny days/year. Is that better than Ithaca? If so, then it's only slightly.
In other news, my application to Pitt has been verified to be complete, and was forwarded to the Human Genetics department for review yesterday! Yay! I was a little worried they'd tell me my GREs were outdated.
