more reasons to like son kite...

They don't have lyrics, and if you don't have lyrics then you don't say anything about love.

I think I need to take a break from the radio...it was making me too sad!

two experiences...

So in stark contrast to going into the 1980s era UPS pickup facility, my trip to FedEd today was just wonderful! They had plasma screens up showing happy FedEx people delivering packages, new nicely designed counters, a conveyor belt that brought packages out, and gasp, computers with network connections at the front desk!! :) Needless to say I was in and out in less than 3 minutes and had quite the good experience :)

good night...

Today was a good night and kept my mind occupied with fun thoughts :)

First, I got my Motorola Wireless Router! Which I'm excited about because my old one was making these buzzing and hissing sounds...and since they use microwaves, I decided that maybe I didn't want my body to be cooking :) It was an old Microsoft one, and I'm glad to get rid of it! Of course getting the router meant standing around at UPS for 45 minutes while they tried to hunt down my package that the driver promised would be there by 6pm. Apparently it was left in the back room, and after searching the totally unorganized shelves in the front room for about 20 minutes, they decided to call the guys in the back and get them to bring it up on a truck...a truck for a little router that weighed 2 pounds. Oh well, I got it! :) Although I can't say I'm very impressed with UPS, once again...

But then the fun part of the evening! Corona and Cubs at Lauraf's and then off to see Hitchhikers!! Which was awesome!! So so so good! :) If you liked the book, you won't be dissapointed with the movie!

But now I must head off to bed! Good night everyone!

Freakonomics...

I think watching the daily show is causing me to buy too many books. Hmm...too many books, is that even a possibility? Anyway, the latest additions are Freakonomics and Blink. There's an awesome review of Freakonomics here. Should be really good!! I mean how can looking at the numbers behind various social trends not be totally interesting. Too bad I can't start reading it today! :)

code red is my hero...

So yeah, after not really sleeping last night, I needed a little something to get me through the day. And wow, Code Red is my hero :) A couple bottles of that and you're just cruzin' through the day!

I went for a nice long workout after work today too and that helped get my mind off things a little bit. Anyway, Code Red, it's awesome stuff! HIghly recommended.

On a positive note, cause I need all of those I can get, my couches are coming on Tuesday!! And I got my 1% cash back on my house from iNest.com! So at least all is not bad news today.

Have a wonderful friday and weekend everyone! I will certainly try... Hitchhiker's tomorrow! Yay!

sad...

So the more I think about it, the more I probably don't have to explain last night's post at all. Almost all of you have been consulted about this over the past few weeks or months and can probably guess what would have made me so sad. More sad I think than after the whole beauty queen debacle. Let's just say it wasn't at all how I expected the conversation to go. And now I feel bad for bringing it all up in such a busy week.

Some lyrics from a song that iTunes decided to play while I was in the shower this morning:

"But I mean nothing to you and I don't know why"

Yeah. I still maintain the fact that iTunes is haunted.

OK...have a good day everyone, and I'll try to smile...hopefully...

long day....

It's been a long crazy day...I'll write more about it later, but right now I'm just going to bed to cry for a little bit...

songs...

I have two free songs on iTunes...what should I get?

back...

So I'm back in the world of the Internet-connected today! Long story, but the gist is that SBC didn't get the idea of a "transfer" of service and decided to set me up with a new DSL package and everything, which was set to take over a week to come. After talking with them, they said there was no way they could do it faster. So I called Comcast at 5pm on friday and they were like, we can send a guy monday morning to get you all set up :) And that souded like a wonderful plan to me! So I have internet! And fast cable internet now!! Yay!! :)

It was a good weekend, despite the fact that I didn't have access to email or the web or IM! :) Finished assembling my furniture and then got to hang out with Stacie yesterday and pick out towels and other fun things for my bathrooms :) And of course catch up on watching Numb3rs :) I totally love that show!! Yay for Math! And math grad students who could never exist in real life! And we had some of Helen's yummy tea from England in my brand new teapot! :-D

Not a whole lot else new...lots on my mind, but not in a format to write about yet. Although I do feel like I've aged about 10 years in the past few weeks, buying a house, furniture, appliances, vacuuming, parking indoors ;) just a lot of changes but I must say that living in the suburbs isn't so bad...especially with an awesome 10 minute commute to work :) OK...off to go watch The Daily Show now :) Good night! :)

Comcast!

I have internet at home!! Yay!! :)

internet-less

FYI, I'm internetless at home for at least the next 5 days :( Long story. Anyway, call me if you need me!

robot racers!

This is amazing!!! Wow! Robots replacing the little boys that race camels in Qatar.

old things...

So you find the most interesting things when you move...for some reason years and years ago, like when I was 13, as a part of sunday school or a confirmation class or something we had to make lists of the things important to us in finding someone. And it's amazing how accurate it all still is.

My list from circa 1993:
hard worker
friendly
kind
a thinker
smart
a leader
smiles a lot

Interesting...my list is a bit longer now, but I can't say the really important ones are much different.

Lots of other interesting things found in the depths of my dresser as well :) Fun times...

I can't wait to be done moving!!

more work at the condo...

So I got a new washer and dryer today! And they are awesome!!! The washer is *so* quiet and the dryer knows how dry the clothes are are adjusts appropriately. And wash time = dry time. So sweet :) And I sealed most of my grout tonight too! Fun fun. Lots more work to go though!

OK...off to bed...more pictures coming soon!

painting and patriots!

Painting today went really well!! The office is done, the bedroom is 3/4 done, and the living room is 1/2 done! Should be able to finish tomorrow maybe even!! That would be excellent! Thanks to those who came to help out today! Couldn't have gotten it done without you!!! Pictures so far are here

Then went to see Patriots at the Neofuturarium with lauraf and dustin! Great show!! (but of course!) An interesting look about what it means to be a Patriot and a ton of interesting quotes from Walt Whitman and Strom Thurmond. Yes, very interesting. :) Go see it if you're in Chicago or will be soon! :)

Painting day!!

Today is painting day!! :) If you want to help, give me a call! A big thanks to Stacie who came over last night to pick out colors and eat at Thai Garden...mmm.. :) I'll take some pictures of the process and post them soon!

Have a great weekend everyone!!

homeowner!!

I closed today!! I'm a homeowner!! :) More details later!!

american english quiz...

Your Linguistic Profile:

70% General American English

15% Upper Midwestern

10% Yankee

5% Midwestern

0% Dixie

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

choice and closing!

So I finished the book on choice last night! It's really interesting when you think about it. How having so many choices in life really end up making us second guess ourselves and makes us sadder about our decisions and life. And the difference between people who satisfice vs. people who try to optimize. It made me feel good about my decision making in some areas of my life...I try to not spend too much time on most of the decisions that don't have a huge impact on me. Or being able to stop when I see something I really like and just get it. It's interesting if you think of this process applied to relationships, jobs, houses, and other "big" aspects of life. I need to think about that all more before saying anything profound :)

I finally got the HUD paperwork from the Title Company tonight (the estimate of figures for closing including taxes due, fees, down payment, etc.) It's mostly right but still off by about $2000. But I'm feeling good about the chances of closing on time...after the conference call from hell with all the involved parties tonight taken from the back seat of my car with documentation all over the place in the Prarie Rock parking lot :) But things are coming together! Hopefully tomorrow at this time I can blog about being a homeowner!! :)

stressed....

getting ready for closing sucks when people are not on top of things. I still don't think my title info has been sent to the loan people. Why don't people just do their jobs!?!? Ugh. So yeah, you all know I never get stressed about anything, but this is just craziness! Who knows what my taxes will be? Who knows my final monthly payments? Who knows anything about this? No one!

OK...anyway, it's annoying, but I got to see how jen's closing paperwork came out, so at least I'm more confident and know sort of what to expect! That helped a ton :) I just can't believe that this process is so last minute and ad-hoc. I mean how many people close on loans everyday in this country? And there is no better process than this? Seems crazy to me! Oh well, 36 hours and all of this will be over...hopefully :)

Now I'm off to start a new book and destress a little bit :)

disgusting - online hunting

This is just wrong

War with Caltech at CPW!

This is great. Now we just have to get them back next weekend :)

snuck...

Did you know that the word 'snuck' is controversial. Me neither :) gmail spell check caught me on it, and I was like, that is so a word...guess not for those super-educated google-phds :-D

more fun with pat and ron...

Pat: Ron, I know you get your blood tested often. I heard last time you tested positive for Old Style.

:)

-and later-

Pat: At least I pay for my own cars!
Ron: I pay for my cars now!
Pat: You weren't looking me in the eye...

dyslexia and appliances

Interesting article in the Chicago Reader this week about dyslexia across languages. Apparently people who are dyslexic in our language might not be so in another since different areas of the brain are used for different languages...e.g. pictogram analysis vs. forming phoenemic analysis...very interesting!! Also interesting that dyslexia can still be an issue in pictographic languages.

I am now the proud owner of a washer and dryer! Yay! Man, I'm getting old! :) I got a really awesome deal though thanks to the guys at ABT. And thanks to wearing an MIT shirt and carrying my a780. The guy was like, have you ever shopped here before? as he looked at my phone (I had just gotten a txt when he walked up to me). I was like, nope. He's like, well welcome to ABT, let's get you our special pricing! Of course later he was like, you know if you ever come back I can help you with anything else in the store :) Anyway, he beat Sears' price by almost $200 on the pair!! Very cool and exciting! It'll be very nice to not have to walk down the back fire escape to do laundry! Man, I can't wait to move!!!

Cubs fans...

So someone wrote into Pat and Ron today and told them that his daughter was dating this guy. And he was a big cubs fan, but he was also a *gasp* packers fan. And he wanted their opinions on if he should tell him to get lost. Pat decided it was ok to let her keep dating him until October. Ron said he was ok in his book since he was a big cubs fan :) Ah...rivalries...

I was almost scared I couldn't get the game today...my tivo didn't know about Comcast Sports Net. But it knows now, so all is good :) Why doesn't it auto add the new channels by default?

Yay cubbies with the 4-0 win today!!! :)

New Hard Drive technology...

Who would have *ever* thought that something like this would ever be made. If you need to smile, laugh, or just be amused, you have to watch this flash animation by the guys at HItachi. It's HILARIOUS!

fun fun night! :)

Tonight was actually one of the most fun nights I've had in a while! Of course the fact that it was at the end of a super frustrating day at work trying to get something that should be so simple to show up someplace you'd assume it should be might have helped matters :) It all started with buying the Friedman book, and then meeting up with my friend stacie for some good wine and yummy tofu at PF Changs. And then, well, it's the day of the cubs home opener, so we had to do something baseball related...so we went to go see Fever Pitch! It was awesome!! Tons of shots of Fenway, Boston, and highlights from games...a cute story...and an obsession with baseball...what's not to totally love?? So good! :)

So yay! That was my night! Time to go read some more so I can actually get to this Friedman book someday! Goodnight!! :)

CHI short papers too!!

More fun CHI papers....

Rüüg: long-distance communication
Adriana Thompson, Aurelia Friedland, Jenny Cargiuolo
Pages: 1829 - 1832

That one is fun! It's a lot like my masters thesis in using a physical device to convey presence and activity, but it uses a rug! :) Fun!

Remember when: development of an interactive reminiscence device
Niamh Caprani, Nuala Dwyer, Kim Harrison, Karen O' Brien
Pages: 2070 - 2073

Interesting that they took the slant towards elderly. Very cool though.


I saw this and thought of you: some social uses of camera phones
Tim Kindberg, Mirjana Spasojevic, Rowanne Fleck, Abigail Sellen
Pages: 1545 - 1548

Sharing the big apple: a survey study of people, place and locatability
Sukeshini A. Grandhi, Quentin Jones, Samer Karam
Pages: 1407 - 1410

CHI!

CHI papers are posted on the ACM website! :)

To those of you that still have access to fun things like acm, here are some I thought were really good!

Location disclosure to social relations: why, when, & what people want to share
Sunny Consolvo, Ian E. Smith, Tara Matthews, Anthony LaMarca, Jason Tabert, Pauline Powledge
Pages: 81 - 90

Mediating intimacy: designing technologies to support strong-tie relationships
Frank Vetere, Martin R. Gibbs, Jesper Kjeldskov, Steve Howard, Florian 'Floyd' Mueller, Sonja Pedell, Karen Mecoles, Marcus Bunyan
Pages: 471 - 480

StudioBRIDGE: using group, location, and event information to bridge online and offline encounters for co-located learning groups
Susan Yee, Kat S. Park
Pages: 551 - 560

All you architects may like the last one! It's a way for people in Studio at MIT to know who all is around, what they know about, and what activities are going on around campus. Fun stuff!

summer!

It was almost like summertime today! Upper 70s and sunny...just a totally beautiful day! And nice to get to eat lunch outside and just relax a little bit in the middle of the day. Good times :)

I get to see my condo tomorrow!! *SO* excited!! :) Only one more week until closing!! Ah!!! :)

Friedman, relatives, and Son Kite

Friedman was on the Daily Show tonight! I want this book!! He was great...talking about how the world is flattening...how people everywhere are contributing ideas and technologies on an equal level (or at least a more equal level). And how the kids in America don't aspire to be engineers and scientists. Ah! My book list is too long!!! I can't wait until I move and have my extra 1 1/2 hours a day!

Yay for hanging out with a ton of relatives! It's fun to live near them all! My mom just called at 4:30 and was like, hey, dinner with your aunts, uncles, and cousins? And I was like, sounds good :)

And I'm totally addicted to Son Kite now thanks to a link I saw on a blog the other day. SUCH good coding music!!!

OK...time to head off to bed! Goodnight everyone!!

C

I coded in C today...and I liked it!?! What's wrong with me??? :)

painting party!!

So here's the details for the painting party!! Saturday, April 16th, painting all afternoon...feel free to come by anytime after 11am or so. Whoever is around for dinner time maybe we could order some Thai Garden or other suburban food. And then whoever wants to, how about a trip down to see Patriots? If you're in, let me know!! Yeah, so basically a lot of non-painting going on...but the paint's gotta dry, right?? :)

friendster horoscopes...

So friendster started putting "joint horoscopes" up between you and all your friends. And honestly it scared me! There were some interesting details in there that were like, um, how on earth could they know :) But I guess that's the point of a horoscope to be vague enough that it applies to everyone. Still, details about a "spark" or overambition or so many other things...craziness!

cubbies :)

You know the cubbies are doing well when pat and ron start talking about the taste of chewing tobacco :) Yay for winning the opener by 10 runs!!! :)

I also love how Ron goes "look at that." Um, Ron, you're on the radio in case no one told you :) But I guess probably at least half the people are watching on TV with Pat and Ron on the radio!

And as a ramdom aside, I totally love days when you can go out to lunch without a coat! It was *beautiful* in Chicago today!!! Yay for Spring time!

hi

A nice relaxing day today! Shopped for paint colors online "with" Helen and then went to go look at the colors at the store :) For samples of how things might look, check out the bottom of this page. Votes on color choices or new suggestions are always welcome :)

MIT admit lunch was fun! Got to meet some of the new admits and hang out with some old MIT friends which is always fun!!

Not much else new here...just a nice relaxing weekend!

more couches...

opinions on couches 3 and 4? I'll give my opinions later :)

gmail quotas, april 1, parents

OK...so how geeky is it to get excited about watching my gmail quota slowly inch up to 2GB throughout the day today? :)

Think Geek did a whole bunch of fun April fools jokes today! Yay for companies that have fun with April 1 :)
- Pong
- Plane Tracker
- iCopulate

And my parents are back from FL! Fun! Went to dinner with them tonight!

OK...I'm off to bed! Have a great weekend everyone!! :)