super size me

Hey! :) So last night I went to go see Super Size me with Elizabeth! Fun times! And a great movie!! Although it's always weird to be watching a documentary in a theater! If you haven't heard about it, it's a movie about this guy (who has a vegan chef girlfriend!!) who decides to eat nothing but mc donald's for 30 days. He ends up gaining a ton of weight and almost destroying his liver and amazes several doctors on the way. More than that though, it's about Americans and their changing eating habits, over-reliance on convenient fast food, and total lack of understanding about nutrition. Go see it!! And it features crazy IL high school PE classes which some of you still don't believe me about!!! And if anyone in Chicago wants to see it, I might be able to be talked into going again :) I know I promised a few of you I'd see it with you!

The storms seem to be over and the cubbies won today! What better day could there be?? :) I hope you all had great memorial day weekends where ever you are! :)

yay quizzes...

So I filled out this little personality thing today and I've never seen anything so dead-on. Here's me in a few bullet points :)

- The unwritten message you may believe in, but not communicate fully to others, is to live life to its fullest and to do as much as possible to enrich personal experiences.

- You are optimistic and tend to make others feel good about themselves.

- You want to be seen as an innovator, but at times may forget some of the small details necessary to carry out the plan.

- You tend to be influential in decision-making situations. Others often turn to you for advice.

- You are a big thinker with big plans and a big image that usually carries through.

- You are usually enthusiastic about activities and planning.

- You are always striving for individuality, and take every opportunity to ensure that you enjoy it in an unusual and free lifestyle. You prefer an unstructured approach that can change at your will.

- You take a "never say never" approach to new opportunities, and strongly desire attempting the untried. As a result, you may undertake things which have never been suggested before.

- You communicate honestly and forthrightly with others. You offer quick reactions, and sometimes shoot from the hip, causing others to balk occasionally at your directness. You have a strong need to be truthful and straight in communications.

- More quiet and conventional people may find you to be unconventional and uninhibited in your interactions with others. Your bluntness and directness may shock some.

- You are not wishy-washy about ideas or opinions. You are firm, direct, persistent and opinionated about activities. Others always know right where you stand on all issues.

- In making decisions and communicating those decisions to others, you may seem somewhat arbitrary about certain ideas. Others may view you as a "hip-shooter."

- You are very good at communicating with others and seeing their point of view.

- You like to resolve issues well the first time, and then move on.

- You tend to be self-reliant and not enjoy relying solely on others.

- You are skilled at finding "win-win" solutions when conflicts arise.

- You don't get bogged down when the going gets tough in a relationship.

- You are passionate about your ideals.

- You want no close supervision--you don't want people to hang over your shoulder.

- You want freedom from many rules and regulations and the ability to write your own rules.

- You want equal relations with others.

Pretty scarily right, I'd say! :)

music is good...

So going to the metro last night really got me into this "I really want to go see bands this summer" phase. So if you want to come see bands with me, let me know :) Music is awesome! :)

*clarification* I mean like real bands, not like big fancy bands you've heard of before. Let's go see some cool local bands no one has heard of and probably never will!! :)

yay for neofuturists!

Hey everyone! So 30 bands in 60 minutes was truly awesome! Such a fun time and a really great group of local bands. A lot of political flavor to things, like in the neofuturist plays themselves, and that made things even more fun. I mean come on, a concert sponsored by the onion???!!! It has to rock :)

Then I hung out with a friend from work and some of her friends. That was cool and fun to hang out in wrigleyville :) I seem to be spending a lot of time down that way lately :) :) At least it's someplace besides Jonny O'Hagans :) Although, Susan, anytime you're in town, I'm always up for that place!

Goodnight everyone! I must sleep now so I can make it to work tomorrow!!

rain rain go away...

So it took me two hours to drive home today. There are like two roads open over the river right now, and only one anywhere near where I want to go, so traffic was horrid. :( Oh well!

But I did have a great meeting up in Libertyville this morning!! Yay! And ran into an old FIRST mentor *IN* the meeting! How awesome is that!!??!!?? She's like, woah, what are you doing here?? I was like, um, I'm presenting :) It was great :)

Not much else new here...I'm off to read another larry book right now :) Should be interesting...

way cool...

The brain just rocks...

http://www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=1902700

monkey...

So I came to the realization today that I really enjoy being a code monkey. There's just some joy in writing code for me. And, I know right, anyone who knows me knows that I never really liked writing code all the much before. But seriously, I miss it, a lot. So let's hope we pick something at work that involves a whole bunch of coding for me and whoever our new hire turns out to be :) :)

Maybe I should have my head examined ;)

woah...clear duct tape

3M is now making clear duct tape!! Craziness!

the flag

so yesterday I just remembered another reason why I love chicago so much. And it has to do with a little blue W on a white flag. Nothing beats riding in the el past Addison just after the game is over and hearing the whole car of people cheer when they look out the window and see that W flag flying in the wind over the bleachers. Aw yeah. Go cubbies!! :)

tired...

I'm really tired of people who feel that they have to get drunk or stoned to meet someone. Long story, but I just got back from a party at a friend's where people were puking all over and everyone was really drunk and hitting on each other. Yeah, that might be fine in college or whatever, but man, I'm way beyond that. I don't want to hook up with someone cause I think they're hot after a few drinks and a few hits, you know? I want to really get to know someone for who they are, not who they think they are after a few beers. And it's like, come on, we're all like 24 or 25, you think we could all get through a night without all passing out. It's not like we're all 18 again! And why does everyone feel a need to try to meet that "someone" at a party like that. I will never understand!

Anyway, a sad night, but I ran into a few old high school friends and some of Jen's friends from law school, so that was kinda fun! :) Oh well, there's some better way to meet people out there I'm sure. Someday I'll find that single, cool, outdoors-loving, environmentalist, economist and onion reading, intelligent, fun girl with a positive attitude! :)

Goodnight all!

abstraction in life

I'm on a deep thought kick this week. I was talking to a friend again today about how cool the weather is - and the ability to predict when a storm would hit to the minute. Which turned into a talk about how cool life is in general. And how cool it is that we can keep breaking down ideas to deeper and deeper levels. Like how we can think about large storm systems moving, or look at local wind changes, or look at all the little particles moving around, or think about what all those particles are made out of and how they interact...and it just keeps going. Not only is that cool, but it's cool that we can think about all that...like that we're all wired up to be able to think about things like that. It amazes me :) Life is cool :):)

Not much new here. Just relaxing tonight and staying in and staying dry. Does anyone want to go see "Super Size Me" in Evanston sometime?? It looks really good! I'm on a movie kick this week :)

chicago, chicago, that's my kind of town

So I had a conversation with a friend tonight about Chicago...and then went to go see "This Old Cub" (more about that in a minute)...but both of those just really reminded me of the fact that I really do love this city. I love the neighborhoods, all the restaurants, downtown, the el, fun theater, really great people, and of course the wonderful cubbies. As much as I think San Francisco is cool, Chicago will always be home and a really comfortable place with TONS to do. But yet there are totally times when I think of "What would it be like to live in california...or back in boston?" And maybe it's just me being a 7 and wanting things that are "new", but you know, there's *so* much to do out there and so much to experience. Who really knows what's best to do?

Anyway, thanks for listening to my ramblings...maybe someone can make sense of that!

Now onto the good stuff!! This Old Cub!!! Amazing. Truly amazing. Every cubs fan needs to watch it. And cry, and laugh, and feel that wonderful feeling you get whenever you see wrigley. It's an amazing story of Ron Santo and his journey to play through diabetes and his longing to see the cubs win and get into the hall of fame. And more than that, it's about the fans, the team, and the place that is wrigley field and how it's just a cultural part of chicago, passed through the generations. Watch it! :)

And Shrek 2 is *awesome*...in entirely different ways, but it made me crack up so many times! You need to see that too!!!

Thanks to Laura and Em for coming out tonight!! It was fun!!! :) Sad you couldn't make it Stacie! :(

And chicago people...please let me in on your top beer garden picks!

i love the city

Walking around downtown today on the way to a meeting at our michigan ave. office I was reminded as I always am down there how much I love the city. The buildings, the people, *all* the people, walking past the museums, seeing grant park and the lake out the window, all the stores, and all the people :) It's wonderful! :) Man, I wish I could live down there! But my drive is long enough as it is!

Not much else new around here. Went to a FIRST meeting again tonight that the students put on. They're taking the robot over to a junior high to try to get some interest in our team among the kids coming into meadows next year! It's awesome...totally their initiative...totally planned by them! It's so great to see them so involved!! :)

Oh, if anyone wants to go see the Ron Santo movie, This Old Cub, tomorrow night at 7:35 at Streets of Woodfield, let me know!!! I've heard it's AWESOME!!! And hey...maybe shrek 2 afterwards??? Yeah!

i'm a dork

yes, I admit to being a total nerd. but I liked this! What OS are you????


Which OS are You?

evanston is nice :)

bonjour! I just got back from my french class and wondering around evanston for a while. It really reminded me how much I really like this city....just the fact that I could walk from one of the most beautiful campuses around out to the lake and down into a part of town with a million restaurants and a great library and then back up to my apartment is awesome :) Being able to walk places is good :) So is having 1/2 of my french class be vegetarian!! And learning phrases like "I despise meat" and "I don't eat beef" and "I am a vegetarian." yay! Oh, and libraries that have c# books are cool too! :)

I am saddened by the fact that microsoft tools are so easy to use. I mean, yes, I should have assumed, but man, picking up visual studio .net today and not ever having used it or knowing anything about c#, I was able to write a simple GUI application and cross compile it and put it on an ipaq in about 15 minutes. It blew my mind!

I'm also trying to figure out how to best asses people's programming skills. We're bringing three people in for interviews next week. So if you've been on a great interview or have asked some interesting questions you think worked really well, let me know!!!

Have a great night everyone!!

yay for FIRST!

Tonight was our FIRST awards ceremony and it brought back a lot of great old memories of being on WildStang in high school. They still give out a lot of the same old awards and the student awards are just as funny as ever. I got an award for always smiling so much, which I thought was pretty cute :) Then of course we all went out afterwards which was great as usual!!! :)

But now I've gotta head off to bed cause it's getting late! :) Hope you all had wonderful days! :)

good food and good music!

Today was another wonderful day! An old friend from high school was down from Madison and we had a wonderful dinner at Blind Faith (mmm...best veggie restaurant ever!) and then went off to an Early Music concert at Alice Millar! :) It was a great time and a wonderful ending to a really nice weekend! Hopefully this week at work will be just as wonderful :)

There's not a whole lot else going on with me right now. Just a lot of thinking about what I want to do with my life...where I want to go...what experiences I want to have. Debating back and forth every day if going back to school is what I want to do. I really enjoy having my own projects to work on...things that are truly my own or just shared with a group of people...not things that are "managed" by people not involved in the work itself. And unfortunately there's like two places where that can happen...in school, or at Microsoft research :) And let's just say I'm not ready to move to seattle yet, although I've heard it's beautiful up there. I just don't think I could handle the rain!! But in the mean time, we'll see what crysta and I and whoever we hire can cook up to work on at work. If we get to go ahead with what we have planned, it should be an awesome summer!! But someday I know san francisco is calling my name :)

yay for the cubbies!

So today turned out to be a really fun day! :) I ended up going shopping for some nice spring clothes at an outlet mall up by stacie in wisconsin ;) And then met up with her for dinner and to watch the cubbies win!!! :) It's always great to spend a good evening with a good old friend! And even better when it involves the olive garden and the cubs!!!

Hope you're all having a wonderful weekend! Looks like I'll be spending much of tomorrow doing some work! It's ok...cause as soon as this more boring work is done, we'll be able to do some really cool and interesting research!!! :)

And I almost forgot that I get to go to blind faith with my friend Elizabeth from high school tomorrow! yay for fun weekends with friends :)

Smiling Frank returns :)

So I've resolved to try my hardest to return to my old optimistic self! :) I've just been really down lately in so many areas of my life and that's just not at all who I am and how I want to live! So starting today things are looking up! :) I'm going to do all I can at work to make it a happy place and a place where we can really work on some interesting ideas and collaborate with others who want to work on interesting ideas. And I'm not going to be all sad about not seeing anyone right now. I'm just gonna have fun being where I'm at right now! :)

So I'm sending a big old smile back out to all of you and saying that the good old frank is back!!!! :) :) Yay! :) :)

Spaces that make people talk...

It's amazing how important physical space is to being able to be creative! One of the biggest problems that I find at work is that it's very hard to run into people who are doing interesting work in the labs. Even people on our own labs on the other side of a high cube wall are not easily accessible. I guess after all those years working in *the* cube at the media lab or the intelligent room or vision common space at the AI lab, I just came to appreciate a bunch of people working in a big common area and the interactions that that sort of activity supports across projects. That's the single biggest weakness of the labs at motorola. Anyway, there's a new building at MIT designed especially for interaction. Check it out! :)

Happy work :)

Much better day at work today although it involved writing a very painful document. It seems like people are seeing the value in the ideas we came up with and that we'll be able to go ahead with them!! Yay! And that we're gonna move it into high gear really soon! Yay, cause I'm sick of writing requirements documents that should be done by product groups! :)

What's going on??

You know things are bad when your manager tells you that, yes, things really are messed up in your company and that you just have to learn to work with it! Anyway, long lunch today...looks like we'll be able to work on our stuff after all. Yet still too much messed up stuff around. So...do what I did at just watch this and laugh :)

Back to school?

I'll write more later...but the question of the day is "What should I do next year?" Options are Media Lab, Berkeley, Stanford, Google, HP Labs, Microsoft (grr), Northwestern MPD with my own money while staying at moto, ... Be creative... :)

Sadness...

Work sucked today. I need a hug. And a new job.

enneagrams are fun...

I'm a 7. Apparantly so is everyone else... What are you??


free enneagram test

Living like a rock star...

So this is shaping up to be a pretty good week :) And I just realized that I'll be going out drinking every night until Friday, which should be a blast for sure! Who wants to go out on Saturday ;)

Last night a bunch of the high school students got together to have a meeting about how we can help spread the message of FIRST to other schools...working with junior highs to get information about FIRST Lego League and FIRST to them, and also working to get some sponsors for high school teams and getting other schools interested in starting teams. It was awesome, and great to see some student initiative!! Hopefully next year will be a lot better on the team and we can really work to involve the students *so* much more! That's my goal anyway :) So after the meeting we wen't out for the obligatory after-monday-night-meeting drinks (without the students of course!)

Today was interesting. We talked with our manager about what we want to work on over some beers and it's clear we have a different idea from her about what we should be working on this year. But it looks like we'll be able to do our own thing, so that's exciting :)

And I just got back from French class at NU, which always makes me happy! Yay for class :) Wow..never thought those words would be coming out of my mouth...but there they are. I miss school :) Or maybe I just miss being around a lot of motivated people, who are interested in doing all sort of things, who really want to be involved and want to learn and really do great things? One of the guys in the class made a comment about Motorola "sucking the life out of engineers" There may be some truth to that! We'll see if things can get better here soon...hopefully with new management and new hires, things will get a lot better!

big robot!

Is this for real??? A robot that eats CARS!!!!! Woah...

nokia being mean to animals ;)

This just cracked me up. And I can assure you that no animals were hurt! :) It is an interesting commentary on what you would use a "video clip" for on a cell phone. "It's not a home video...it's a phone video." If you have a video-capable cell phone (or even digital camera) what sort of stuff do you take video clips of?

Amelie rocks my world...

I was tired of coding, and sad after the cubbies lost today, so I just finished watching Amelie, which always cheers me up! That movie totally rocks...and bonus, it lets me practice my french. Granted that consists of catching random "Je suis"s and "bon jour"s and "oui"s..but hey, at least I understand something ;)