Ktria's Little World

I'm moving again! I've followed the crowds to LiveJournal, so here is my new home. (Happy now, Jeff?)

I realize this post will look very strange to those of you who read my blog via LJ feed, because you already saw my first entry over there. But then, this isn't news to you anyway. :)

I'm writing from a hotel room in Tampa - but a different hotel this time! Who says I don't have variety in my life? Anyway, to get onto the annoyingly slow wireless internet at this new hotel, I had to click through the usual disclaimer. Except that this time I actually read the disclaimer, because the following excerpt caught my eye:

In offering Internet access, Rapid Systems Inc, cannot guarantee that information found through the Internet is either accurate, authoritative, or factual. If you feel that information you have obtained via the Internet is inaccurate or offensive, we suggest you contact the original producer/distributor of that information.

Gasp! The Internet might lie to me! The Internet might offend me! And if either of these terrible things should happen, my first inclination would surely be to blame the obvious culprit: the company that administers the network for the hotel where I logged on to the Internet that brought me such trauma. Clearly they're the ones at fault here.

Because this disclaimer is here, it's entirely likely that this actually was somebody's thought process. That's what worries me.

The disclaimer also says that you can't download porn. Not that I was planning to, but I wonder what their justification is. It's legal (and anyway, there's a whole separate section that prohibits illegal activities). Does it put the ISP at risk in any way, technically or legally? Or is this just an extra layer of ass-covering? Your opinions...

Today what makes me happy is a Hyundai Sonata with a sunroof. I finally got a rental car that isn't a piece of crap!

Much as I detest l33t-speak, I get a giggle out of the latest internet fad - and more generally, the idea of putting funny captions on cute pictures of cats.


I want a kitten now!

Today what makes me happy is hanging up a "My Goodness, My Guinness!" poster in our dining room. This condo is now officially awesome.

Remember the day after Halloween when you were a kid? You had more candy than you knew what to do with, and so did all your friends. So you laid it all out and traded around until you got rid of all the stuff that you didn't want (those weird skull-shaped lollipops) and got even more of the stuff you did (chocolate!) It was like being filthy rich, in a currency that actually mattered to kids.

Today, the day after Halloween, I went into work with a bag of candy. Ed and I did have a few trick-or-treaters last night (our first ever! We drank champagne to celebrate the big occasion) but of course there was a lot of candy left over, and I thought I would share it around the office. But almost every one of my co-workers walked in the door with a similar bag of candy. "No trick-or-treaters at your place either?" "Nope." A bunch of newly independent twenty-somethings, we stood around and bemoaned the lack of trick-or-treaters in apartment complexes. "You'd think it would be a jackpot for kids." "I even bought whole Hershey bars, and no one showed up!" My ears perked up at this. "You have whole Hershey bars?" I said. "I have Reese's and Snickers. Wanna trade?"

Some things never change.

Today what makes me happy is being home for two whole weeks. It's about time!

I don't know why they block YouTube at my office. There is so much educational stuff on there.

[14:29] Ed: it's a video of a shrimp running on a treadmill
[14:29] Ed: yes, you read right
[14:29] Me: wtf?
[14:29] Ed: it's a shrimp... on a treadmill
[14:29] Ed: I know
[14:29] Ed: my mind was blown too
[14:30] Me: My mind is blown already, and I haven't even seen it yet.

As an added bonus, after I finally got home and was able to watch the shrimp-on-a-treadmill video, YouTube suggested I follow it up with the classic Lobster Magnet. And people wonder why Google is paying so much money for this site. :)

Seriously tempted to leave "Lobster Magnet" on repeat to annoy my next-door neighbors, who were having loud sex last night when I was trying to go to sleep. I think it's a fair trade. *squeaky squeaky squeaky* LOBSTER STICKS TO MAGNET!

Today what makes me happy is figuring out how to load and render a search table with 10,000 rows in a reasonable amount of time. Also deciding on a DJ for the reception. Ah, the many lives I lead...

[Edit: The shrimp-on-a-treadmill professor went to W&M! Haha. Silly bio majors.]

Yes, I know I'm not posting in this thing anymore. I'm not supposed to talk about work, and I haven't been doing much else. Still in Tampa. Coding so hard I actually think I'm burning calories. I wonder if anybody's done a study on that? That would sure be a nice side effect.

Anyway, my co-workers were loopier than usual today (I think we're all getting steadily weirder, as the long hours and lack of sleep take their toll) and as you all know, I could never let a silly quote go without a quote board. So for your amusement, this is what goes on in my office:

"If the stormtroopers were all clones, and Luke was a little short for a stormtrooper, wouldn't somebody have noticed right away?"

"It's that whole Adam and Eve and Adam thing."

"I have brainarreaha. It's like a brain fart, but worse."

Bug report: "Cancel button on the medications form isn't working, causing the user intestinal pain."
Developer response: "Fixed in the next build. User may alleviate intestinal pain either by clicking 'Cancel' or by adding 'Tums' to the medications form."


And you thought that late-night-in-the-lab craziness was over when you graduated...

I guess I should post in this thing once in a while...

Update on my life: Back in Tampa. Will be here, five days a week, for the majority of August and September. Being determinedly optimistic about the whole situation. I took this job because I figured it would be a lot like college, in a fun and familiar way. Well, I was more right than I knew. Sitting in the office in the evening, somewhere around my tenth hour of work and third caffeinated beverage, shoes long since kicked under the desk, surrounded by teammates working just as hard - this has been my life for the past six years, and as much as I complained, I also loved every minute of it. And to some extent, I still do. Sometimes I think I'm only content with my life when I'm working this hard. (Oh, William & Mary, how you screwed up our brains...) But the hours and the travel are really taking a toll on the rest of my life. I'm realizing that this lifestyle corresponds to a set of priorities that I have been living by without ever really questioning them: Do well in school/work, whatever it takes; friendships, relationships, exercise, partying, sleep are all important, but can be set aside when the work really needs to get done. That always made sense to me before. But now that I'm out in the real world and making my own decisions, I'm starting to wonder: is that really what I want out of life?

Well, that was a heavy topic for this blog, but it's what's been on my mind, and maybe some of you have dealt with the same dilemma. Any advice?

On a lighter note, I did have a very fun weekend in Mystic, Connecticut. Congrats to the newlyweds, Ed and Sarah Murphy! Even if I can't possibly measure up to the coolness of their reception, which was held in an aquarium. :) We spent the weekend doing the tourist thing in Mystic, which is basically Williamsburg with boats. We went to an art festival, climbed around some really cool old ships, and I tried (unsuccessfully) to teach Ed the difference between a boat and a ship. It was much fun. I also got described as "one of the guys," which I thought was pretty cool, until I realized that it mostly just enabled the guys to have detailed discussions about their farts in front of me. Hmm...can I go back to being a girl?

Today what makes me happy is airplanes that get satellite TV. Because watching TV doesn't count as being lazy if you do it while traveling, right? :)