1. Hands that freeze easily despite gloves, hot water, pockets, or hand warmers
2. Feet that freeze easily despite thick socks.
3. Sweaty palms, which makes gloves rather miserable.
4. Two left feet.
5. Being tone-deaf.
6. Being half deaf.
7. Dry skin.
8. Tenderfeet.
Friday, September 21, 2007
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
How to make vending machine trail mix healthier.
The vending machine trail mix is unsalted, but a tiny packet contains two servings, each of which sports 120 calories and 6 grams fat. Here's how I made it healthier:
1. Open packet.
2. Dump packet contents into a clean styrofoam cup.
3. Discard packet so I won't read the nutrition label.
4. Enjoy!
1. Open packet.
2. Dump packet contents into a clean styrofoam cup.
3. Discard packet so I won't read the nutrition label.
4. Enjoy!
Friday, September 07, 2007
Back in the USA.
Harry Potter is a horrible book to travel with. I managed to get halfway through with hardly any effort. His only redeeming quality is he can keep your immigration/customs declarations forms uncrinkled.
小笼包 is not something that should be eaten every day.
HK has fewer opportunities these days.
There is no food in the fridge.
The guy who was supposed to be my boss left the company during my absence. Interestingly, the offer letter still went through. Fortunately, my previous colleagues still seem to love me and are calling for my return.
Seoul was the cleanest city visited on this trip and filled with incredibly polite and helpful people, even if we didn't speak the same language. It's too bad the food is so expensive.
I have no idea what horrors lie in my mailbox.
There was a giant cobweb stretching across the second floor. I walked right into it.
I dozed off this afternoon, which was a very bad thing to do. On the other hand, driving to the grocery store in a fog isn't such a great idea either.
小笼包 is not something that should be eaten every day.
HK has fewer opportunities these days.
There is no food in the fridge.
The guy who was supposed to be my boss left the company during my absence. Interestingly, the offer letter still went through. Fortunately, my previous colleagues still seem to love me and are calling for my return.
Seoul was the cleanest city visited on this trip and filled with incredibly polite and helpful people, even if we didn't speak the same language. It's too bad the food is so expensive.
I have no idea what horrors lie in my mailbox.
There was a giant cobweb stretching across the second floor. I walked right into it.
I dozed off this afternoon, which was a very bad thing to do. On the other hand, driving to the grocery store in a fog isn't such a great idea either.
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
The Curse of the Harry Potter.
The first book was great. I looked forward to reading every book...until this one. The last one looks thick, heavy, and even less well crafted than the others of late. It will take up a ton of space in my backpack. It's hardcover to boot.
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Question of the day.
If people are drinking more soda and bottled water, are taking these with their meals and are getting obese as a result, is milk really the staple they say it is, and is the increase in price of milk really such a cause for concern?
Monday, August 13, 2007
Why I love my job. A rant.
I love my job because my coworkers and I all know how to write. We don't turn out finely tuned prose like J and Z, but what we write gets the job done. It may be riddled with grammatical inconsistencies, but our peer review process quickly irons those out. And I don't see the problem with starting sentences with conjunctions in a blog.
When I studied for the GMAT, many test questions contained many examples of God-awful phrases and sentences. I used to wonder, "Isn't this obvious? Who on earth would write like that?"
My classmates, that's who. They really do write that poorly, when they can be bothered to write at all. I am not just talking about the engineers. The ones who majored in other things, the ones who really *should* know about writing because they would have taken several writing courses in college, these are the people churning out documents that would have made me blush in middle school.
If these are the college-educated, how are the high schoolers writing?
I am generally willing to give some leeway to those who do not speak English as a first language. I'm impressed at how Z writes so well (and how I write so poorly) considering.
But this quarter's project took the cake. There were four people on my team. The Girl (as in the other female besides me) just sat and nodded her head. She kept saying she understood things conceptually, but couldn't put the numbers to them, and that she was going to study how to do the numbers in detail. I wanted to scream, "You keep saying that, but wouldn't it be easier just to do your homework?"
The First Guy was a little lazy at first, but eventually came through. At least he checked all of my numbers (and by God there were a lot), helped conduct the final analysis, and actually read through and critiqued my argument.
The Second Guy was a moron, almost as bad as the Girl. His major contributions were the templates for the slides and the report. He simply believed all of my numbers. At first glance you'd think he was simply an agreeable, happy guy. It turned out he was just believing everything. Every modification he made to the report I had to undo. His grammar was terrible, and he couldn't decide between past and present tense, very often in the same sentence. His last significant contribution to the report was to move our assumptions from the start of the document to the very end, after our recommendations.
I had to point out to him that it is traditional to end reports with your conclusions, not the assumptions you made while crunching the data. Call me old-fashioned, but I firmly believe reports should end with conclusions.
I downloaded the report at midnight Saturday night. Up until then, I had not been able to look at it, because I did all the numbers for the project. I did all the numbers because FG was checking my numbers, SG was too stupid to replicate the formulas, and the Girl had no idea what was going on. I expected to find a decent argument, to which FG and I needed only to add figures, reference to figures, and analysis of the figures.
Boy, was I wrong. The last time I saw a report this bad was in middle school.
It took me half an hour to adjust the page numbers so the cover page wasn't page 1. He reverted that, at which point I decided I didn't have half an hour to change it back.
He kept losing my tables and figures, substituting his own captions instead. Around version 7 I practically screamed at the group to make damn sure they didn't lose the figures. This was at 5AM Sunday morning.
I wanted to spend Sunday cramming for the final. Instead I was updating the report because SG kept screwing it up. I think I failed the exam as a result.
Now how can I make this known to the professor without sounding whiny?
When I studied for the GMAT, many test questions contained many examples of God-awful phrases and sentences. I used to wonder, "Isn't this obvious? Who on earth would write like that?"
My classmates, that's who. They really do write that poorly, when they can be bothered to write at all. I am not just talking about the engineers. The ones who majored in other things, the ones who really *should* know about writing because they would have taken several writing courses in college, these are the people churning out documents that would have made me blush in middle school.
If these are the college-educated, how are the high schoolers writing?
I am generally willing to give some leeway to those who do not speak English as a first language. I'm impressed at how Z writes so well (and how I write so poorly) considering.
But this quarter's project took the cake. There were four people on my team. The Girl (as in the other female besides me) just sat and nodded her head. She kept saying she understood things conceptually, but couldn't put the numbers to them, and that she was going to study how to do the numbers in detail. I wanted to scream, "You keep saying that, but wouldn't it be easier just to do your homework?"
The First Guy was a little lazy at first, but eventually came through. At least he checked all of my numbers (and by God there were a lot), helped conduct the final analysis, and actually read through and critiqued my argument.
The Second Guy was a moron, almost as bad as the Girl. His major contributions were the templates for the slides and the report. He simply believed all of my numbers. At first glance you'd think he was simply an agreeable, happy guy. It turned out he was just believing everything. Every modification he made to the report I had to undo. His grammar was terrible, and he couldn't decide between past and present tense, very often in the same sentence. His last significant contribution to the report was to move our assumptions from the start of the document to the very end, after our recommendations.
I had to point out to him that it is traditional to end reports with your conclusions, not the assumptions you made while crunching the data. Call me old-fashioned, but I firmly believe reports should end with conclusions.
I downloaded the report at midnight Saturday night. Up until then, I had not been able to look at it, because I did all the numbers for the project. I did all the numbers because FG was checking my numbers, SG was too stupid to replicate the formulas, and the Girl had no idea what was going on. I expected to find a decent argument, to which FG and I needed only to add figures, reference to figures, and analysis of the figures.
Boy, was I wrong. The last time I saw a report this bad was in middle school.
It took me half an hour to adjust the page numbers so the cover page wasn't page 1. He reverted that, at which point I decided I didn't have half an hour to change it back.
He kept losing my tables and figures, substituting his own captions instead. Around version 7 I practically screamed at the group to make damn sure they didn't lose the figures. This was at 5AM Sunday morning.
I wanted to spend Sunday cramming for the final. Instead I was updating the report because SG kept screwing it up. I think I failed the exam as a result.
Now how can I make this known to the professor without sounding whiny?
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
Five minutes: a study of the mundane.
I bought an electric kettle. It cost $20 plus tax.
It has nearly paid for itself. Here's why: it has given back five minutes of my time every morning. This is because I can boil water while showering, leaving the tea bag to steep while the toast goes. That's five minutes that can now run in parallel with the rest of breakfast assembly time.
Told you it was a study of the mundane.
It has nearly paid for itself. Here's why: it has given back five minutes of my time every morning. This is because I can boil water while showering, leaving the tea bag to steep while the toast goes. That's five minutes that can now run in parallel with the rest of breakfast assembly time.
Told you it was a study of the mundane.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Musings.
I am coveting an ice cream maker. Either that or a mandolin. The ice cream maker would be much safer. Less chance of taking a finger off.
Do I really need an ice cream maker? Couldn't I rig up something that works equally well? Here is what I am thinking:
* big metal bowl filled with ice cubes and salt
* smaller metal bowl that has been frozen overnight
* hand mixer blades frozen overnight
* sherbet/sorbet/ice cream mixture refrigerated overnight
Would this be sufficient to freeze the mixture while beating air into it? After all, with the ice cream maker, I would still need to freeze the bowl overnight. The ice cream maker would probably be more convenient (only 1 thing to freeze, no need to hold the mixer) but would also take up cabinet space when not in use. The advantages of the rig are it uses things I already own, and by proxy, it would take up less space. Also, the rig wouldn't cost me anything extra.
Do I really need an ice cream maker? Couldn't I rig up something that works equally well? Here is what I am thinking:
* big metal bowl filled with ice cubes and salt
* smaller metal bowl that has been frozen overnight
* hand mixer blades frozen overnight
* sherbet/sorbet/ice cream mixture refrigerated overnight
Would this be sufficient to freeze the mixture while beating air into it? After all, with the ice cream maker, I would still need to freeze the bowl overnight. The ice cream maker would probably be more convenient (only 1 thing to freeze, no need to hold the mixer) but would also take up cabinet space when not in use. The advantages of the rig are it uses things I already own, and by proxy, it would take up less space. Also, the rig wouldn't cost me anything extra.
Question of the day.
How did I get an A- on the midterm? I had the world's biggest cramp that day combined with a nasty headache.
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Reasons to be happy despite being in a fog, however mundane they are.
1. The Saturday midterm was tough but didn't go as badly as thought. At least I hope it went well. I am sure I bombed one of the cash flow problems but accidentally got the future value one correct.
2. The professor complimented me on my use of notes during the exam. (It was an open-book, open-note exam. The only reason it was tough was it involved a lot of computation that can be very time-consuming.)
3. I have now replaced everything about my work laptop except the power brick. The new 6 hour mega-battery is fantastic. Much better than the wimpy old 2 hour one. Even better, I can claim in jest my mega-battery was swiped off an intern.
4. I did quite well on the first Thurdsay midterm.
5. I believe I have made some inroads with the Dean and our invited guest that evening, a professor from a local university.
6. The new Trader Joe's has opened.
7. They will be opening a new Costco in a month. It will be very close to a rather decent 99 Ranch, assuming they didn't build on the 99 Ranch site. The 99 Ranch is in the same plaza as a lovely dessert place that sells one of the more passable mango desserts you can find in the states. It's not mango pudding, but then, hardly anybody does mango pudding for some reason.
8. I had a coupon for the pizza.
9. I haven't had ribs in a long time.
10. The weather is nice and mild.
11. The ancient water filter still works.
12. Dried black currants are surprisingly tasty.
13. The Harry Potter book arrived. If I had checked my mailbox earlier, I would have received it on the day it was released. It's not like I have any time at the moment to read it. Pity it's so thick. I will be rather grumpy when I lug the thing on my next plane trip. But it's here! And it's an easier read than 99% of the other books on my to-read pile! So it will fly by quickly and weigh a ton.
14. 247 people registered so far.
15. Dark chocolate mints, with the gooey center.
16. The grapes from two weeks ago haven't molded over. They are a little shriveled, but that's to be expected.
17. Slightly molten peanut butter cups.
18. Clean dishes.
2. The professor complimented me on my use of notes during the exam. (It was an open-book, open-note exam. The only reason it was tough was it involved a lot of computation that can be very time-consuming.)
3. I have now replaced everything about my work laptop except the power brick. The new 6 hour mega-battery is fantastic. Much better than the wimpy old 2 hour one. Even better, I can claim in jest my mega-battery was swiped off an intern.
4. I did quite well on the first Thurdsay midterm.
5. I believe I have made some inroads with the Dean and our invited guest that evening, a professor from a local university.
6. The new Trader Joe's has opened.
7. They will be opening a new Costco in a month. It will be very close to a rather decent 99 Ranch, assuming they didn't build on the 99 Ranch site. The 99 Ranch is in the same plaza as a lovely dessert place that sells one of the more passable mango desserts you can find in the states. It's not mango pudding, but then, hardly anybody does mango pudding for some reason.
8. I had a coupon for the pizza.
9. I haven't had ribs in a long time.
10. The weather is nice and mild.
11. The ancient water filter still works.
12. Dried black currants are surprisingly tasty.
13. The Harry Potter book arrived. If I had checked my mailbox earlier, I would have received it on the day it was released. It's not like I have any time at the moment to read it. Pity it's so thick. I will be rather grumpy when I lug the thing on my next plane trip. But it's here! And it's an easier read than 99% of the other books on my to-read pile! So it will fly by quickly and weigh a ton.
14. 247 people registered so far.
15. Dark chocolate mints, with the gooey center.
16. The grapes from two weeks ago haven't molded over. They are a little shriveled, but that's to be expected.
17. Slightly molten peanut butter cups.
18. Clean dishes.
Friday, July 20, 2007
More to do.
1. Wednesday's conference. The joy of trying to assemble a decorative rig in high heels.
2. Midterm Thursday. Can't remember if I included it last time.
2. Midterm Thursday. Can't remember if I included it last time.
Thursday, July 19, 2007
To do.
1. Research a language horribly unsuited to the goals of my group, and present interesting discussion topics about the language. Research done (took all of yesterday), presentation in 15 minutes.
2. Fix my code so it builds with the new toolset.
3. Finish adapting my code to the new specs. Which would be done now, except migrating to the new toolset was higher priority. At this point having things running with the new tools is completely useless because it's not like anybody else is using the code. Which is why I wanted to finish the adaptation before migrating. But nooooo, satisfying the boss' ego is more important, which is why the code is now broken in two different ways.
4. Run statistics on the unbroken code. Again, to satisfy the boss' ego. Nobody else is interested in performance, because we're all too busy trying to fix the code.
5. Class. Tonight and tomorrow night.
6. Midterm. Saturday.
7. Problem set. Tuesday.
8. Project. Next Saturday.
9. Midterm. Week after. Thursday, I think.
10. Book report. By the end of month.
2. Fix my code so it builds with the new toolset.
3. Finish adapting my code to the new specs. Which would be done now, except migrating to the new toolset was higher priority. At this point having things running with the new tools is completely useless because it's not like anybody else is using the code. Which is why I wanted to finish the adaptation before migrating. But nooooo, satisfying the boss' ego is more important, which is why the code is now broken in two different ways.
4. Run statistics on the unbroken code. Again, to satisfy the boss' ego. Nobody else is interested in performance, because we're all too busy trying to fix the code.
5. Class. Tonight and tomorrow night.
6. Midterm. Saturday.
7. Problem set. Tuesday.
8. Project. Next Saturday.
9. Midterm. Week after. Thursday, I think.
10. Book report. By the end of month.
Monday, July 16, 2007
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Annoyed
Midterm tomorrow. We just learned the last of the material for the midterm last night, which leaves tonight to cram, practice, and write up the cheat sheet.
The midterm was originally called "quiz/exam" because the professor wanted to put us at ease. Bullspit. It's a midterm. What is more, it is the first of two midterms in a compressed quarter. We already know that professors who have two midterms plus a required final in a normal quarter are insane.
The midterm requires a scantron and a bluebook, both of which I have to dash out and purchase today.
The bookstore opens late (8:30) and closes early (6:00). It is also not open during the weekends this month and you can be sure they won't mail me the scantrons and bluebooks.
Also there is a midterm for the other class next week, which I am not prepared for because I have been catching up for tomorrow's exam.
I got home late from class last night, mostly because the class ends late. I have not had enough sleep for over a quarter now. As a result I am halfway through a 12-pack of Diet Pepsi, and it's only the third week of the quarter. This is in addition to the usual tea habit.
The study abroad book report is due at the end of this month. While it is mercifully short (800-1000 words) and the book is a fast read, I am only 70 pages into the book, and have zero time to actually read it. This is because I have to spend all the other nights of the week studying for the two classes.
Having classes on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday has turned out most inconvenient. At first I enjoyed having half my Saturday back. Now I'm rethinking that. Not only do you lose Tuesday and Thursday as study days, you have effectively locked in Monday and Wednesday (prep for Thursday's session) and Friday (prep for Saturday's session). So that leaves only Saturday and Sunday as flexible days wherein you can choose to study more for the class you're weaker at.
I quit my job. More specifically, I am transferring to a job in another department. It turns out that quitting mid-project makes you Loved, more Loved than you would be at review time, and so Old Boss and New Boss are negotiating the transfer date and the details of the transfer. I am waiting, just waiting, for them to each take an arm and make a wish. At least that would settle things very quickly. In the meantime, I am trying to be very discreet while at the same time divesting myself of all kinds of administrivia junk that, if left unattended, would eat up tons of time just when I need to deliver on my technical promises.
This means transferring ownership of many, many machines to the guy in the organization (okay, one of two) whose job it is to take care of the machines. He asked me why I was transferring everything to him, then said he didn't want the machines. Well, hell. I haven't wanted them for several years either. It sounds petty, but it's one reason I wanted the transfer in the first place.
The department that is supposed to pickup unwanted, unused, and decrepit machines is being stubborn. I want to get rid of an ancient, decrepit machine that I inherited during my first year. It was ancient and decrepit by the time I inherited it. Anyway, the serial number no longer seems to be registered anywhere, which is bad, because you need a record in the database to submit the request to have it collected. They keep insisting I need to give them the record, and I keep insisting there is no record.
Oh, and I found out you can stuff a lot of junk in the cabinet in your cubicle. This will make moving an all-day ordeal, even if I just dump the lot into the moving boxes without sorting or winnowing.
The midterm was originally called "quiz/exam" because the professor wanted to put us at ease. Bullspit. It's a midterm. What is more, it is the first of two midterms in a compressed quarter. We already know that professors who have two midterms plus a required final in a normal quarter are insane.
The midterm requires a scantron and a bluebook, both of which I have to dash out and purchase today.
The bookstore opens late (8:30) and closes early (6:00). It is also not open during the weekends this month and you can be sure they won't mail me the scantrons and bluebooks.
Also there is a midterm for the other class next week, which I am not prepared for because I have been catching up for tomorrow's exam.
I got home late from class last night, mostly because the class ends late. I have not had enough sleep for over a quarter now. As a result I am halfway through a 12-pack of Diet Pepsi, and it's only the third week of the quarter. This is in addition to the usual tea habit.
The study abroad book report is due at the end of this month. While it is mercifully short (800-1000 words) and the book is a fast read, I am only 70 pages into the book, and have zero time to actually read it. This is because I have to spend all the other nights of the week studying for the two classes.
Having classes on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday has turned out most inconvenient. At first I enjoyed having half my Saturday back. Now I'm rethinking that. Not only do you lose Tuesday and Thursday as study days, you have effectively locked in Monday and Wednesday (prep for Thursday's session) and Friday (prep for Saturday's session). So that leaves only Saturday and Sunday as flexible days wherein you can choose to study more for the class you're weaker at.
I quit my job. More specifically, I am transferring to a job in another department. It turns out that quitting mid-project makes you Loved, more Loved than you would be at review time, and so Old Boss and New Boss are negotiating the transfer date and the details of the transfer. I am waiting, just waiting, for them to each take an arm and make a wish. At least that would settle things very quickly. In the meantime, I am trying to be very discreet while at the same time divesting myself of all kinds of administrivia junk that, if left unattended, would eat up tons of time just when I need to deliver on my technical promises.
This means transferring ownership of many, many machines to the guy in the organization (okay, one of two) whose job it is to take care of the machines. He asked me why I was transferring everything to him, then said he didn't want the machines. Well, hell. I haven't wanted them for several years either. It sounds petty, but it's one reason I wanted the transfer in the first place.
The department that is supposed to pickup unwanted, unused, and decrepit machines is being stubborn. I want to get rid of an ancient, decrepit machine that I inherited during my first year. It was ancient and decrepit by the time I inherited it. Anyway, the serial number no longer seems to be registered anywhere, which is bad, because you need a record in the database to submit the request to have it collected. They keep insisting I need to give them the record, and I keep insisting there is no record.
Oh, and I found out you can stuff a lot of junk in the cabinet in your cubicle. This will make moving an all-day ordeal, even if I just dump the lot into the moving boxes without sorting or winnowing.
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Sunday, July 08, 2007
Condensed milk in ice coffee cracked.
The trick is to warm your coffee gently (about 1 minute) in the microwave so it's still cool, but just warm enough to allow the condensed milk to integrate. Stir well, and add a couple ice cubes to help dilute the solution and bring down the temperature.
It helps if you've made the coffee and ice with pristine water, and not the stuff from my tap that tastes like a swimming pool and appears to have floaties in it.
It helps if you've made the coffee and ice with pristine water, and not the stuff from my tap that tastes like a swimming pool and appears to have floaties in it.
How MBA school is like Harry Potter.
More specifically, MBA school is a lot like Hogwarts.
Although there is a degree of specialization, it is not nearly to the same degree as an undergraduate education. You learn about a lot of different subjects, not all of which are necessarily directly related to each other, but which somehow manage to come in handy in a later class.
Your classmates are all over the map, some academically inclined, others less so.
Your instructors are also all over the map, some competent, some less so, some seeking fame.
Your magic wand is your financial calculator. It is a bit mysterious at first, but then later becomes nearly indispensible.
The ghosts of more famous alumni haunt the halls.
Okay, we don't wear robes and hats. I suppose if we all wore suits, that would count.
Although there is a degree of specialization, it is not nearly to the same degree as an undergraduate education. You learn about a lot of different subjects, not all of which are necessarily directly related to each other, but which somehow manage to come in handy in a later class.
Your classmates are all over the map, some academically inclined, others less so.
Your instructors are also all over the map, some competent, some less so, some seeking fame.
Your magic wand is your financial calculator. It is a bit mysterious at first, but then later becomes nearly indispensible.
The ghosts of more famous alumni haunt the halls.
Okay, we don't wear robes and hats. I suppose if we all wore suits, that would count.
Friday, July 06, 2007
Question of the day.
To all of you who object to the Nathan's hot dog eating contest because it glorifies binge eating in an already obese society.
Shall we ban NASCAR too because it glorifies speeding?
Shall we ban NASCAR too because it glorifies speeding?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)