Ktria's Little World

Redirect

2007-01-03T19:32:00.000-05:00

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. :)

Breaking news: People are crazy

2006-11-14T22:31:00.000-05:00

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!

Cuteness overload

2006-11-12T16:03:00.000-05:00

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.

The day after Halloween

2006-11-01T21:07:00.000-05:00

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!

Oh, YouTube

2006-10-11T21:27:00.000-04:00

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.]

The exciting life I lead...

2006-09-21T23:21:00.000-04:00

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...

Yes, I'm still alive

2006-08-13T21:46:00.000-04:00

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? :)

On the road

2006-07-18T21:14:00.000-04:00

I guess I haven't updated this for a while...and I might as well, since I'm sitting in a hotel room with nothing better to do. Yes, my glamorous consulting job has finally sent me on travel; I'm in Tampa for the week. It's been kind of a mixed bag. The trip down on Sunday evening was a thoroughly sucky experience; just one of those "the universe hates me" days. The lines at Dulles were awful and I literally had to run for the plane (in heels, no less!). I made it on board, had an uneventful flight to Tampa, and realized at landing that my cell phone had fallen out of my purse and slid away somewhere. (Thanks to my helpful fellow passengers, it was eventually found under a seat two rows back.) My co-workers and I went to retrieve our luggage, only to discover that my suitcase had not made it on the plane. So it was a good thing after all that I was wearing a nice outfit...because I wore it to work on Monday! And my suitcase did show up that afternoon, so everything worked out in the end.

Anyway, being on travel is an interesting experience. It's kind of nice not to have to worry about the normal day-to-day chores - staying in a hotel where somebody else does the cleaning, driving a rental car, eating all my meals at restaurants. And it's fun getting to hang out with my co-workers, especially the ones who I don't usually see because they're down here full-time. But it's also hard work (we put in 10-hour days, so we can have Friday off) and I miss being home and getting to see Ed. It's nice traveling every once in a while, for a change of pace, but I hope I don't get put on a project where I'm away all the time.

Today what makes me happy is getting a fairly major piece of code to work, and having my group leader do a little victory dance in the middle of the office because of it. :)

Like finding quarters in your couch

2006-07-06T20:55:00.000-04:00

I decided tonight that it was about time I cleaned up my computer desktop, which I clearly haven't done in a while. There were random homework assignments from two semesters ago, assorted crap copied from my old computer, old iTunes install files...you get the picture. There was also this image. I have no idea where it came from (more than likely I stole it from one of you) or what I was originally going to do with it, but finding it just made the whole cleaning process worthwhile.

Just thought I'd share. :)

Ooh, the sparkly...

2006-07-05T19:28:00.000-04:00

Just to warn you...extreme narcissism and a fair amount of sappiness ahead. But what are blogs for, right? :)

As many of you know, Ed's and my engagement was not accompanied by any large sparkly jewelry - which made sense, as we were both poor grad students at the time. He got me a lovely Irish silver ring, and that was perfect. But a few weekends ago (the day of the Dave Matthews concert, in fact), we went to the jewelry store to - as I thought - get an idea of what they had. And before I quite knew what was going on, we were sitting down with a saleslady and getting a crash course on the different characteristics of diamonds, and suddenly somehow we had picked out a ring! I got shooed away at this point - presumably so I could pretend not to know how much it cost - and when they finally finished, all Ed told me was that it would take a few weeks to have it set and sized and he would pick it up when it was ready.

Fast forward to the following Wednesday morning, when Ed's alarm went off at 6 a.m. as usual - and as usual, I groaned and set mine for 6:15 and went back to sleep. But when I woke up again, there was a surprise waiting for me - Ed handed me a jewelry box, and in it was the ring! He had made up that whole story about a few weeks' delay, and I totally fell for it. He had actually gone back and picked up the ring later that same day, and had it in his pocket through the whole Dave Matthews concert, intending to give it to me there. But somehow, the pouring rain and mudsliding frat boys didn't create quite the right mood!

Anyway, it's on my finger now, and I've had lots of narcissistic fun waving it around and waiting for my co-workers to notice. I had my doubts that the guys would notice at all, but apparently they do pay attention to this particular piece of jewelry! Best reaction was from the guy who sits behind me, who sent me an IM which read: "Hey, can you turn that shit down? You're blinding me." Did I mention my co-workers are awesome?

There - that's my sappy story. And it's probably the most sappiness you'll hear out of me for a while, because my life has been taken over by - eek - wedding planning! At least until we find a reception site. Then I can ignore it for at least a few more months.

I have been doing other things with my life, like throwing parties and watching fireworks and walking the whole $%*#@ length of Arlington afterwards because nobody wanted to take the Metro, but this post is long enough already. :)

Today what makes me happy, and what will make you laugh, is that I was running on the treadmill and listening to my iPod today and the "All Your Base Are Belong To Us" techno remix came on my playlist. I can't believe I still own that. But you know, it's actually a really great workout song!

All wet

2006-06-27T16:09:00.000-04:00

Note to self: Next time you decide to spend your weekend going to an outdoor concert and an outdoor beer festival, try to find a weekend where it doesn't pour rain for TWO SOLID DAYS.

That was pretty much the story of my weekend. But it turned out to be a lot more fun than you would guess from that! Ed and I went to a Dave Matthews concert on Saturday night. Because of the rain (or because we're still underestimating how much NoVA traffic can suck) it took us an hour longer to get there than we expected, and we missed the opening band and lost our reserved spots on the lawn. We got there just in time to see Dave come on. It was still pouring rain, of course, so we were soaked in no time. But by this point things were going so badly that it had started to be kind of funny. It was certainly an experience! And the rest of the crowd thought so too (most of them were drunk and/or high, which probably helped) so they were really into it, which always makes for a fun concert. The music itself was fun, of course, though he played a lot of songs I didn't know. Afterwards, we discovered how bad the traffic flow is getting out of Nissan Pavilion. We sat in our parking spot for two and a half hours before our section even started to move! Not fun. But there was some entertainment there too: eavesdropping on the bunch of Dook frat boys in the car next to us, who were telling funny drunk stories.

The next afternoon, along with some other W&M friends, we went to the Dominion Beer Festival. A bunch of local microbreweries were there, so I got to try a lot of new stuff. The rain had let up a bit by this point, and after a few beers, we didn't care anyway. :) We stayed a few hours, but there wasn't much going on, so everyone came back to our place and ate pizza and played board games for a while. Fun stuff.

And now the work week has started again, and my life is suddenly much less interesting. Except that I've suddenly decided it might be time to start thinking about wedding plans. Yikes! Scary thought!

Today what makes me happy is having my group leader tell me he owes me a drink - even though I haven't met him in person yet. :)

Still pretending I'm not a tourist

2006-06-19T21:07:00.000-04:00

Just a quick update, because I know I haven't posted in a while. The real world continues to go well. Things are good at work - I'm getting used to putting in 8-hour days, and starting to get to know people there as well. Ed and I had our first houseguests (condoguests?) this weekend - his sister Erin and her friend Kristen. On Saturday afternoon we went to the Potomac Celtic Festival, where there were many cool things for sale and many weird people. Also many weird things for sale, notably the Utilikilt. Wonderfully quotable conversation with the owner of the booth:

Utilikilt Guy, to Ed: "You, sir, are surrounded by three women - why do you still have your pants on?"
Ed, glaring at Utilikilt Guy: "Because one of them is my sister."
Utilikilt Guy, completely unrepentant and looking at me now: "I assume you two are together? Let me bring two things to your attention. First, easy access! Also, you can fit twenty-three bottles of beer in one of these things."
Utilikilt Guy then proceeds to show off all the pockets that could be used to stash beer, while singing "Twenty-three bottles of beer in my kilt..."

Sadly, I did not buy a Utilikilt. But I did get introduced to a very good and completely nutty Irish band, Scythian, who play in the DC area. It was a fun concert and the audience got very into it (I think a lot of them had been drinking Guinness all day!) So much good music around here - I could really get used to living in (or near) a big city!

The next day we all went into DC. On a whim, we decided to try and go to the Nationals/Yankees game, but it was sold out. So we reverted to our original plan and went to the Holocaust Museum. It was really interesting to see - not something I could describe as "fun," obviously, but very powerful. The architecture of the building was amazing - I've never seen anything quite like that before. Afterwards we took the Metro back out to Clarendon, where Ed and I actually knew some good restaurants (thanks to an impromptu tour from Pat a few days before!) So we got to play hosts and pretend we knew what we were doing, even though it was the first time we'd been into the city since we moved here. I think that's one of the lasting legacies of a W&M education - a permanent conviction that, no matter where we are and whether we've ever been there before, we're way better than those annoying tourists. :)

Anyway, it's about bedtime for me. Today what makes me happy is my car passing VA inspection. One more moving-related chore to cross off the list!

Nerdiness on a stick

2006-06-13T07:17:00.000-04:00

What happens when two W&M graduates move in together...

Ed: "Well, that's annoying on a stick."
Claire: "No, that doesn't work. You have to say 'annoyance on a stick.'"
Ed: "What's wrong with my way?"
Claire: "Well, you can't put an adjective on a stick!"
Ed: "Why not?"
Claire: "Because it would slide off!"

(This actually happened a few weeks ago, but I just remembered it this morning and thought I would share.)

Summertime!

2006-06-08T21:42:00.000-04:00

First of all, I want to say that I'm not going to talk about work in this blog anymore. I've been trying to be sufficiently vague not to compromise anybody, but apparently there was a recent incident with another employee's blog and the company is now rather paranoid, so I'm going to play it safe. Even if I can't seriously believe that this blog has an audience of more than about ten people :)

Luckily, I'm actually managing to have a life outside of work, so I still have something to talk about! The weather has been great the last few days, and Ed and I have been taking advantage of our awesome porch by having dinner out there. We've been so domestic - cooking good dinners, installing lights on our ceiling fans, reading the newspaper together in the morning. Ack, we're turning into our parents! :) But it's a good life. Tonight we went out after work and saw the new X-Men movie. I know it's gotten mixed reviews, but I liked it. I never knew the original storyline, so I wasn't expecting Phoenix, and she was a pretty awesome character. The theater in town isn't that great though; I've gotten spoiled by all the big new stadium-seating ones. Can any of you NoVA people recommend a better one?

Today what makes me happy is new clothes. This job does give me a good excuse to go shopping!

What a glamorous life I lead...

2006-06-06T17:50:00.000-04:00

Well, it's certainly been an interesting day so far. Ed got up at 6 this morning; I hit my snooze button and got out of bed at 6:15, just in time to find our toilet overflowing and our bathroom floor flooded. Eek! Frantic attempts to shut the water off ensued, and once we managed that, frantic attempts to mop up the water with bath towels before it got to the carpet and/or the computers. Luckily, disaster was averted. But not really my preferred way to wake up in the morning!

[Edit to not talk about work anymore - see above.]

After work I ran over to the DMV, which of course was crowded and annoying but no worse than I expected. And I won the hearts of the women at the counter by having my papers in order and actually not yelling at them. I think one of them actually skipped me to the front of the line to have my picture taken. So now I have my Virginia license! It feels very strange, after all these years of sort of living in VA, to be an actual resident. Now I just have to get the million or so inspections, tags and stickers I need for my car...

Looking back on this entry, I have to laugh at myself. I sat down totally expecting this to be a rant, because I thought it would be fun to write and hopefully fun for you to read (in the proud tradition of B's awesome rants) but it still somehow came out sounding cheerful. I guess I'm just pathologically optimistic. (Wow, say that five times fast.)

First week of work

2006-06-04T11:12:00.000-04:00

Well, I've officially started my new job. And I think I'm going to like it! Of course, there's a lot I have to learn. First impression was "Oh crap, these people are all way more experienced and confident and better dressed than me, I am never going to be able to pull off this consultant thing." That made for a pretty stressful first week, but I'm now at the point where I can see light ahead. I've learned a lot of the stuff I need to know for this project, and I should be able to start doing useful work pretty soon. I still feel like I have a big "Fresh Out Of College" sign on my forehead, but there will be more grads coming in over the next few weeks, so I won't be alone for long. And the people are awesome. Everybody's young (I'm actually not the youngest!) and friendly and helpful, and after just a few days I already feel like I can banter with them. Once I get something to do that isn't reading a large stack of O'Reilly books, I think I'll really have fun at this place.

And I have to say, weekends are much better without homework hanging over your head. Ed and I had enough else to keep us busy! On Friday night we threw a housewarming party and had over some of the W&Mers in the area. Our new grill (electric, because we're not allowed a real one on our deck, but still pretty spiffy) showed up just in time, and we cooked out and had lots of yummy food. And lots and lots of beer. Apparently the drinking party thing doesn't end when you graduate from college! It was a good time. And our apartment has now had beer spilled on it, which seems like a pretty good housewarming ritual. At least for this crowd. :)

Today what makes me happy is the Sunday comics section in the Washington Post. I know I've been laughing at you Post fanatics for years, but...nine pages of comics. I understand now!

The end of vacation

2006-05-29T23:00:00.000-04:00

First of all, thanks for all the congratulations :) You guys are great, and I wish I could have told you all the big news in person. I'll be sure to keep you updated!

The last few days of my "summer vacation" have gone pretty well. Ed and I went up to see my grandparents in Maryland yesterday - my parents and a lot of the extended family were in town for the weekend - and we got to make the announcement to them. My grandfather, true to form, immediately had a good comeback...

Me: "Ed and I are engaged."
Granddaddy: "To who?"

But it was all very fun, and my dad even managed to have a bottle of champagne on hand for a toast.

Today my parents came by to see our new place, and Ed and I took them around Reston a bit before they had to leave for the airport. Then we spent the afternoon doing more setting-up-the-apartment stuff. (Note to self and anybody else who's interested: Going to Home Depot on Memorial Day is a really bad idea.) Later on we went to the pool in our complex, which just opened up a few days ago. Apparently it's really the social center of the neighborhood; we've seen people out there swimming and sunbathing pretty much the entire time it's been open. We sat over there and read for a while, and did end up chatting with some of our new neighbors.

Anyway, I should be off to bed before too long. Tomorrow is the big day - my first day of work! I'm feeling pretty good about it. I've definitely been hanging around doing nothing for long enough; it will be good to get back into a routine, and I'm excited about starting something new. Also, my fiancé is cooking me a nice dinner tomorrow night to celebrate.

Today what makes me happy is getting to say "my fiancé" in the previous sentence. Yes, I'm still pretty giddy about this. :)

Big news!

2006-05-26T12:05:00.000-04:00

It's been an insane couple of weeks. I can hardly believe that I graduated from UNC less than two weeks ago - so much has happened since. Ed and I finished moving into the new place in Reston. We're mostly unpacked and starting to find our way around town; we found a possible gym, a possible church, and most of the important stores. We had a great vacation in New York City, saw Wicked on Broadway - which was incredible, by the way - and ate lots of great food. We stopped in Philadelphia on the way back and saw the sights there. I'm really enjoying living in the north; these places are all so close by. It's only 4 or 5 hours to New York (depending on traffic) which is close enough to go for the weekend!

But none of the above is the big news, because I haven't told you yet about the best part of the New York trip. Ed and I got engaged! :) Now that we're both done with grad school and not long distance any more, we decided it was the right time. We haven't set a date yet - we have enough to deal with right now, with new jobs and everything - but it's very exciting. :)

I think you know now what makes me happy today!

Moving towards the real world

2006-05-17T15:50:00.000-04:00

Oof - what a whirlwind few days it has been! Here's the short version:

My 24th birthday was on Saturday. My parents were in town for the weekend, and Ed and his mom drove down for the day as well, so it was a party! I gave them the walking tour of campus and downtown, and we went out for a big late lunch at the Carolina Brewery. I got a fun new toy from my parents - a navigation system for my car. This may be a comment on my complete inability to find my way around, but it's very useful considering I'm moving to a new town!

Of course, I graduated from Carolina on Sunday! I went to the big ceremony in the morning, which was fun. The graduate students were down on the field, and there weren't very many of us, so I actually felt like I wasn't just one of the herd. The ceremony went smoothly - everything was a bit chaotic, but it was very well organized chaos. I liked W&M's better though. I guess these things are mostly for the undergrads. The departmental ceremony was in the afternoon, and it seemed a lot more relevant. There were a few brief speeches, we all got our fake diplomas, and the PhD students had their advisors talk about their research. The reception afterwards was crowded and pretty crazy, so we left before too long. But it's official now - I have my Master's degree!

And then it was time for all the packing I'd been putting off :) Time to move to Virginia! I got a U-Haul yesterday morning, loaded it up with the help of Tim and Julia (you guys are awesome!) and drove it to Williamsburg. At that point, Ed and I realized that we both had more stuff than we thought, and it wasn't all going to fit in the truck. Doh! We managed to get all his furniture in the truck, and he rented a van to carry the boxes. (One of the perks of being 25...) I drove the truck up to Reston early this afternoon, to avoid rush hour traffic. Going through the mixing bowl/Tyson's/etc in a truck was a bit crazy, but I made it all right. And that's where I am now - sitting on the living room floor of our empty apartment with my laptop, stealing wireless from the neighbors. Ed is on his way up with the van, and our next volunteer moving crew is coming over this evening, after they get off work. Then it's finally time for the last round of moving furniture, and the fun part begins - unpacking and setting up our new place!

So that's the latest news from my end. I hope everybody else's summer is starting off well - keep me updated!

Today what makes me happy is climbing all over boxes and furniture in the truck this morning - I felt like a five-year-old climbing trees. Of course, I scraped up my legs pretty well in the process, so now I also look like I've been climbing trees!

Moving and other madness

2006-05-10T19:46:00.000-04:00

Yes, I know I haven't posted in forever and ever. Oddly enough, I seem to write in this blog less when I have a lot of free time...maybe that says something about my motivation for doing it in the first place, and how much of it is connected to avoiding work!

Anyway, I won't give a play-by-play of the last few weeks. They've involved (among other things) some pirates, a new apartment, a lot of beer, a lot of food, and a lot of very good friends. I have to make the most of my last days here! And it's still going on - I'm off to Bailey's in a few minutes for yet another party. I just wanted to let everybody know that yes, I'm still alive, don't give up on checking this blog. The last few days have included a lot of "Goodbye, stay in touch!", and Jeff T. pointed out to me today that blogs are one way to do that. (Or, to be more catchy about it, blog-stalking is the new AIM-stalking.) So I will try my best to keep this updated, for those of you who want to know all about my new life in the real world (a.k.a. Virginia). I'm sure I'll be able to find some work I want to avoid!

Today what makes me happy is making friends with waiters, and subsequently having said waiters recommend that you not order a particular dessert. Heehee.

Zombies under my window...

2006-04-23T11:56:00.000-04:00

This is why, as much as I'm excited about my move to the real world, I'm also really going to miss college:

My roommates and I all went to bed around midnight last night (yes, we're losers like that). I had my bedroom window open because it was so nice out, and as I was getting into bed, I heard two guys talking under the window. Our building backs onto the woods and there's hardly ever anyone out there, so I looked to see what was going on. They seemed to be running an extension cord up into the trees, and after a couple of minutes, they managed to rig up a light in a clump of trees just to one side of the building. I heard "Okay guys, we've got light!" and a whole group of other people came running over to join the party.

At this point, I needed backup. Either a bunch of drunk people were being obnoxious and we needed to call the cops on them, or something really amusing was going on and I had to share it. So I went and got Julia, and together we tried to figure out what the heck was going on out there. Eventually our spying paid off: we heard something like "No, move the camera, there are still houses in the shot." They were filming a movie! Not only that, it turned out - they were filming a ZOMBIE movie! This was highly amusing. They were pretty serious and organized about it too - they had a soundtrack and costumes and everything. We continued to eavesdrop as they staged a dramatic scene in which a poor human victim is sacrificed to Satan. They did take after take, to the point where Julia and I had both memorized the scene.

So we decided we had to prank them a little bit. They were being loud outside our window, and we weren't going to call the cops because they were actually working on something, but we had to get our own back somehow. Plus, we had gone to all this effort in figuring out what was going on, and that shouldn't be wasted. It took us a while to come up with an appropriate response, and a while longer to work up the nerve. But eventually, as they ended yet another take with the knife poised over the victim, a voice (me and Julia trying to sound scary in unison) boomed out from our window:

"THIS IS SATAN. YOU HAVE SUMMONED ME. I WILL ACCEPT MY GIFT NOW."

Moment of stunned silence. Then, from one of the girls: "Um...will you accept jewelry?"

"Sure! We take checks too. And chocolate."

Then they went back to work, while Julia and I fell over laughing.

So on the off chance that anybody knows the intrepid cast and crew of this mysterious zombie movie: We expect tickets to the premiere. And maybe a mention in the credits: "Special thanks to Satan"?

I love college.

What is this shit? ...part two.

2006-04-19T21:29:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the lack of posting recently. There's not been much interesting to report - I've been sick with the same cold/sore throat/whatever that everybody else at UNC seems to have, compounded by the fact that I was stubborn enough to sing all the Holy Week services anyway. (It was totally worth it.) Anyway, I seem to be getting better now. I went to kickboxing tonight and made it through without too much difficulty, so that's a good sign.

In any case, I think it's about time I kept my promise and posted the cover of Laurie's book in its full glory. So here it is. It's in two images here (for the front and back) - click on them to view them full size.

Best coffee table book EVER. :)

Two things of note

2006-04-10T17:55:00.000-04:00

Firstly: The Second Annual CS Department Pub Crawl was a great success. I wasn't hardcore enough to start drinking at 3 in the afternoon like some people; I met up with the party at around 7, which still gave me a chance to visit plenty of bars! B was in town to join the fun, and she and I made it through the night by splitting beers. Some random amusing moments: weird Spanish talk shows on the TV at Hector's; pushup contests; trivia at BW3's; encountering several groups of sorority girls playing bar golf, complete with plastic golf clubs. B and I made it home at about 3 a.m., completely exhausted. It was a good time. Though I wouldn't want to do it any more often than once a year!

Secondly: WE GOT THE CONDO! After much red tape and non-communication, and an exciting detour in which my roommates and I managed to convince our current apartment complex that they should not be mad at us for ignoring a renewal notice that they never actually sent us, Ed's and my application to rent a condo in Reston was approved today. Yay! That's one less thing to stress about. Unfortunately, it also raises my senioritis level by another notch, which means I have very little motivation to get through all the work I have left this semester. Oh well...

And on that note, I think I shall put off my homework and go out to dinner. Today what made me happy (besides the condo, obviously!) was an impromptu lunchtime gathering in the halls of Sitterson to tell stories about the pub crawl. :)

Google Maps easter egg/bug?

2006-04-05T23:54:00.000-04:00

Hmm, I seem to blog in spurts. No updates for weeks, and suddenly I have all kinds of things I want to post. (Yes, Aimee, I will put up the rest of the pictures from Laurie's book!) But this is too amusing not to share. I was just using Google Maps to drool over downtown Reston and our prospective condo, and as I was scrolling around the map, this appeared:

Yes, that's right. Apparently, there's some guy skiing just west of our apartment complex. Take a closer look...

If this is a bug, it's a really weird one (how could that picture even be in the same database as the satellite images?) I'm inclined to think it's an Easter egg put in there by some coder. It doesn't seem to show up consistently - it's not there when I look up the map in IE, and Tim doesn't see it on his computer either. Want to check it out yourself? Googlemap "Lake Shore Crest Dr, Reston, VA" and zoom all the way in, then scroll slightly south and west. If you see the Mystery Skiier, let me know!

Haiku goodness!

2006-04-05T23:03:00.000-04:00

Because B is awesome (and trying to avoid doing work) she wrote me a haiku. So I'm posting it here. To show off her awesome poetic skills, of course. Not a bit of narcissism here. What do you think this is, a blog?

Sing Wicked with me
computers, dancing, and beer
butterfly spirit

This probably won't make any sense to anybody except me and B (and possibly those who have been unlucky enough to be stuck in a car and/or dorm room with us) but it makes me happy anyway. :)

Exhausting weekend

2006-04-03T22:40:00.000-04:00

This weekend was apartment hunting, part two. Ed and I spent Saturday driving around Reston looking at apartments/condos - an exhausting process, of course, though slightly simplified by the fact that we ended up with a real estate agent who showed us most of the places. To simplify things further, we both instantly fell in love with the last place we saw. It's a condo in a nice development, walking distance from downtown (and my office!) and with plenty of space and a big porch out front. We put in an application for it, and should hear back later this week. Keep your fingers crossed!

We also got to hang out with Colin and Dee, which was a lot of fun - they introduced us to California Tortilla, we watched the George Mason game, and Dee and I tried to trick the guys into watching a chick flick. (It didn't work.) She and I have decided that once I move up there, we'll be football widows together. :)

Then I drove back to Chapel Hill and arrived just in time for dinner - it was Laurie's birthday! Julia and I had put together the best present ever, if I do say so myself: a manuscript (well, okay, the cover) of Laurie's upcoming first book.

Complete with quotes from reviewers, an "About the Author" bio, and a blurb on the inside front cover. An excerpt, written by Julia, who is awesome:

Was Brahms secretly a homosexual? Did his clandestine yearnings not for Clara but for Robert seep through the notes of his esteemed Requiem? Do we catch the masturbatory practices of Tchaikovsky among the themes in his masterpiece, Swan Lake? Was Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries really a yearning for a pale and delicate shade of pink? Are these questions not stupid and inane in the first place? ... [McManus's] revolutionary methods of applying logic and factual information to music interpretation reach to wider circles as well. ...There really is no longer any excuse for this shit to exist in academia, unless for our own amusement.

When Laurie actually writes this book and it becomes world-famous, just remember - you heard it here first. ;)

Okay, I've rambled on long enough for one blog post. Today what makes me happy is getting to say stuff like "Oh, our real estate agent is going to talk to their agent and call me back." It's fun being a grownup - or at least pretending to be one!

Fun with domain names

2006-03-30T13:49:00.000-05:00

In case you're looking for a distraction, here's a fun link I found on Digg - an analysis of currently registered domain names. Pretty interesting stuff actually, though some of the graphs would be really amusing taken out of context...

heh heh heh

2006-03-29T22:58:00.000-05:00

Swiped from Jeff's blog, on the theory that our readerships don't entirely overlap, and everybody should get a chance to see this one. But mostly because it made me laugh. Apparently this is a poster in Sutton's?

Today what makes me happy (or amused anyway) is getting a real estate agent, somewhat by accident. I feel so grown up!

Start Something SILLY

2006-03-25T21:47:00.000-05:00

(Cool points to anybody who can tell me which company's recruiting campaign I'm picking on here...)

I mentioned in this blog quite a while ago that I was up to a bit of geeky mischief. This was a one-evening I-don't-feel-like-doing-my-homework project that subsequently got forgotten, but I think it's about time to revive it. It was inspired by a Wired column which describes how to post on an Internet message board without actually having any knowledge or opinion about the topic. As someone who went through a brief and unhealthy phase of actually reading the comments on Slashdot articles, I instantly recognized the effectiveness of this method. Just think of the possibilities if someone were to code it up! Instant Slashdot comments! So...I did it.

The Slashdot Comment Generator

Or, for extra level of meta-irony (and more variety in the articles), you can attach it to the Slashdot Story Generator and get:

fake comments on fake stories

It actually works pretty well - at least, I find it amusing. The current problem is, it's only amusing once or twice. There just aren't that many phrases for the script to choose from. So I'm appealing to you, my blog readers, for help in coming up with more material. Have you ever come across a completely useless and annoying online post that you would like to mock? (If not, you can find plenty of the above by looking in the real Slashdot comments - that's where I got a lot of my examples...) Or perhaps a legitimate post that would still work if you just changed the subject? Or would you just like to be part of something silly? If so, suggest a comment for the generator! To get an idea of the ones I have in there already, you can look at the code.

If we can get this working well enough, I'll send it to the guy with the Slashdot Story Generator, and we will have created a complete replacement for Slashdot. :)

Today's random thoughts

2006-03-22T22:44:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago, Ed and I were discussing an interesting rumor I had heard that Google might open an office in Virginia. I'm about 99% sure this is completely unfounded; as far as I know, the entire chain of evidence for it goes "Google hired Vint Cerf, and he lives in Virginia." In any case, it led to the question of whether either of us would want to work for Google someday. And though this may seem like a no-brainer, I'm kind of up in the air about it. Here's the big question in my mind: what does a Google employee DO? I'm sure there's a significant amount of maintenance/tweaking/upgrading required to keep everything running, but that can't be their main business or they wouldn't need a staff of genius coders. We all know that the employees get to spend 20% of their time working on the Next Big Thing, but what do they do with the other 80%? I suppose they must have a couple of projects in development (along the lines of Gmail, Google Maps, etc) that they're hoping will pan out, but it just doesn't seem to add up to the amount of code I would expect a big software company to produce.

So my questions for you:
If location/cost-of-living wasn't a factor, would YOU work at Google?
And what are they doing in there?
Discuss.

(Yes, this is a blatant attempt to get comments. But I also thought it might be more interesting all around than me rambling on about how my day was.)

Gray day

2006-03-21T16:13:00.000-05:00

It's really kind of sad how much my mood is tied to the weather. When it's nice out, I end up in a good mood for no particular reason. Now it's cold and gray and rainy, and I'm grumpy for no particular reason. Clearly, I just need to move to southern California to be happy forever...

Mood swings aside, it's been a very up-and-down sort of day so far. Just watch:

The good news: I woke up half an hour before my alarm clock this morning...and actually got out of bed instead of just lying there until the alarm went off. This may be a first. I made it to an earlier bus than usual, which was very full, and I was the last person to make it on board. Though the bus driver totally could have fit more people in there. He's new - he'll learn.

The bad news: Once I got to campus, I pulled up my research code to start working on it again, and discovered that all my changes from the last few weeks (and there have been many) were missing! I still don't know quite what happened, and neither do their techies. I know they've been doing some work on that server, so my best guess is that somebody restored it with an old backup copy. Good job, guys. And I didn't have my own backups, having trusted the admin types to deal with that sort of thing.

The good news: I responded to this discovery somewhat constructively by deciding not to trust other people with my code in the future, and setting up CVS to back up the code to my space on the CS department servers. I do trust our department techies, who have saved me from my own stupid mistakes more than once.

The bad news: Advil, while a good thing in general, pretty much kills my capacity to do work or stay awake in class. Especially when I have no coffee to counteract it. So today was pretty unproductive.

The really good news: After several hours of panic, I discovered that my code editing program had cached my recent files in a well-hidden temp directory. My work isn't lost! My undying thanks to dinky little freeware programs that don't clean up after themselves!

And some tentatively good news: I'm going to (probably) get (some undetermined amount of) relocation money from Amentra. Yay for not having to pay for my own move!

The bad news: Despite the good news, I'm still grumpy. I blame the weather.

Okay, my optimistic side won't let me end the post on that note. Today what makes me happy is being a week ahead on my digital logic labs. :)

Comedians on a plane!

2006-03-15T23:18:00.000-05:00

Lots of traveling today - drove back from Williamsburg to Chapel Hill this morning, then flew from Raleigh to Orlando this evening, and here I am in Merritt Island. We definitely had a goofy couple of flight attendants on the plane (it was Southwest, which tends to be pretty laid-back anyway). Some choice quotes that I can remember:

"In the event of a sudden pressure loss, quit screaming and put on the mask that will drop from the ceiling. If someone next to you is a child or is just acting like a child, put on your mask first before assisting them."

"The button with the light bulb on it turns on your reading light. The button with the flight attendant on it does NOT turn on the flight attendant."

"Remember, if you marry one of us, you fly for free! Gentlemen, Lisa here is single. She likes pina coladas and getting caught in the rain, and her favorite color is clear. And ladies, our pilot is also single. He's wearing a Speedo...it's neon orange."

Luckily for me, however, this plane contained neither snakes nor Samuel L. Jackson. Though I totally saw this kid. He was wearing the same orange shirt and everything, but no bling.

Anyway, now to kick back and enjoy the Florida sunshine and drink the free beer for a few days!

Spring break!

2006-03-13T12:17:00.000-05:00

Whew - it's only Monday of my spring break, and I'm already exhausted! Apparently, being lazy is hard work! :) Actually, it's been a very productive weekend. I've taken my next step towards the real world: the Great Apartment Hunt is underway! Ed and I spent Saturday wandering around northern VA, to get a bit more familiar with the area before we start looking for apartments. We figured out where our respective offices are; unfortunately there's no good "halfway point" between them, but there are some options where we would both have a reasonable commute. We both really liked Reston, which has a nice downtown area - to live around there would be ideal (I could actually be within walking distance of work!) though possibly not in our price range. We'll see!

Well, that's the most exciting news from the past few days. Watched Carolina play in the ACC tournament - they couldn't get past BC, but oh well. It's still a rebuilding year, in spite of the insanely good streak they've been on lately. Anyway, last year they got knocked out of the ACC tournament in the semifinals, and look what happened next! Now I'm hanging out in Williamsburg for a few days, before I catch a plane down to Florida to visit my parents for the rest of the week. Should be fun!

Today what makes me happy is outwitting W&M Parking Services. I agreed to meet Ed for lunch on campus, and only remembered when I got there that I couldn't legally park on campus anymore. But I gambled and got away with it. I knew there was a reason I never took off that old parking sticker from 2 years ago!

Good weekend

2006-03-08T11:09:00.000-05:00

Of course I had a good weekend. Everybody in Chapel Hill had a good weekend. :) Ed came down for the weekend, since he's on spring break - he got into town on Saturday afternoon. We went up to Franklin Street early in the evening to save seats for the game, and after discovering that several places were full already (three hours in advance!) we ended up at our usual spot, Goldie's. A good group of CS people showed up, and we had dinner and beer and played some extremely fast-paced card games. And then it was game time! Of course the place was packed by this point - the bartenders had resorted to selling bottles of Bud Light in six-packs, probably because they were running out of everything else. We found ourselves a spot with a decent view of a TV, and watched the game! After the initial slow start, which I've pretty much come to expect from Carolina, it was neck and neck almost the entire way through. Very exciting, and very stressful! I'll admit, I came into this not knowing what to expect - Duke is very good this year, and while Carolina has really been on a roll lately, we're still such a young team. But as we continued to hang in there, my hopes kept going up! We built up a decent lead at the end, managed to hang onto it, and almost before I knew it the clock ran out and we had won! The usual chaos erupted in Goldie's, then spilled out onto Franklin Street. Bonfires, people climbing trees and telephone poles, rude chants about Duke in general and J.J. Redick in particular. I couldn't convince Ed to join the mob around the bonfire, so we just watched the craziness for a while. And of course, took some pictures of it.
At one point, there were three or four guys standing on top of that crosswalk sign; I'm fairly sure it has a dent in the top of it now! It was definitely a pretty crazy party, though it didn't approach the proportions of last year's championship celebration. Still, I'm glad that we got the opportunity to celebrate - and that I got Ed down here for it, so I could show him how crazy this town really is about basketball!

Of course, that was the big excitement of the weekend. Ed stayed for a few more days, and we had a good lazy time - went bowling, took some walks, hung out with the roommates. I was picking up the spring break mood from him - it's hard to convince myself that I'm not on spring break yet! And on that note, I'd probably better go do some work...

Today what makes me happy is the weekly return of the warm weather - 74 degrees tomorrow!

March madness

2006-03-01T23:00:00.000-05:00

Last home basketball game tonight. How did the season go by so fast this year? I didn't get to go to as many games, and of course it's not the same just watching it on TV, so that might be why. Anyway, that was a lovely way to end our season at home - beating UVA by an embarassing 45 points. And for an added bonus today, Duke lost! :) We've really been on a roll these past few weeks. Can we keep it up and kick Duke's ass in Durham this weekend? I can certainly hope...

Today was also Ash Wednesday, so I fasted...sort of. I've never quite understood the Catholic definition of fasting as "one full meal and a few snacks" because that's not too different from what I eat on a normal basis... Anyway, I ended up having one snack and a small dinner, which seemed to be a good compromise. For Lent this year, I've decided to give up coffee. Right now, this seems like a pretty easy sacrifice - I'm actually getting enough sleep, so caffeine is not necessary for life, just a comfort thing. We'll see if I can keep it up once I start getting into final-project time!

And on that note, I'm headed to bed. Today what makes me happy is the fact that my hair has gotten (barely) long enough to put up with hairsticks. Sometimes it even stays up!

Senioritis sets in

2006-02-26T21:28:00.000-05:00

You knew the frequent updates of this blog wouldn't last too long...:) Really, there's nothing too new and exciting to report in my life. Classes are starting to pick up a bit; digital logic looks like it might take over my life by the end of the semester, though in a good way. Still, this is the least stressful semester I've had since...um...high school? Which is fine by me. Now that I have the job situation all settled, I'm ready to be done with grad school and move on to the real world. Saying goodbye to all my friends here is going to suck, and I'm glad I don't have to do that quite yet.

Carolina basketball is also picking up in a good way, with two impressive blowout wins against NC State and Maryland. I watched the State game at Hamm's with Jeff and Sasa, and I think that's my new favorite place to watch basketball. Plenty of TVs, reasonably priced beer, and everybody there gets really into the games. To add to the general amusement in the restaurant during this game, there was a random group of hot girls wearing tight, low-cut versions of referee shirts. I thought at first that they had come up with a creative way of attracting guys. Later it turned out they were doing some sort of promotional thing for Miller Lite, but I still think it would be a good way to attract guys. It was certainly working on my tablemates *cough cough*

Also, my brother's birthday was last week - happy 21st, Tim! Unfortunately, he resisted my best efforts to get him drunk, but he did have a few pints of Guinness with dinner :) He has promised that he'll still come visit me in Chapel Hill now that he doesn't need me to buy him alcohol anymore. I guess I'll have to start cooking him dinner or something...

I went up to Richmond this weekend to visit Ed and his family, and that was nice and lazy. Ed also made the mistake of taking me to a used bookstore, so now I have a whole pile of fun new books. (New to me, anyway...although of course I've read them all before!) We're making plans to go apartment hunting in NoVA (that's northern Virginia for you non-W&Mers) in a few weeks, over spring break. That should be new and exciting, since I've never actually looked for an apartment in an unfamiliar city. Anybody have advice about places to live in the Reston/Fairfax/McLean area?

Today what makes me happy is making new friends. :)

Not all who wander are lost

2006-02-16T20:00:00.000-05:00

I guess today has been a day for following my whims. I got into campus early and put in a couple of hours of work on my project. Lately I've been stuck in Javascript hell, so I've had to force myself to actually work on it, but today I really got into it and felt like I was accomplishing something. My agile methods seminar was a lot of fun - Julia gave a talk about her "real world" experiences working as a developer. Now I'm not quite sure what I'm getting myself into in the consulting world - it sounds kind of crazy! But in a good way. :) I actually stayed awake in Digital Logic, for once. When I got back to my office afterwards, I had an email from someone at Intel who had come across my resume and wanted me to interview for a job writing CAD tools. Just for the record: when I said I was going to rewrite Xilinx myself because it sucked so much, I didn't actually mean it! But it was a nice ego boost, anyway.

At that point it was getting kind of close to busy time at the gym, so I headed over there. It was nice and warm out and everybody was sitting outside on the quad. It felt just like being back in the Sunken Gardens...people throwing frisbees around, professors lecturing outside, nice warm sunshine...fire truck sirens in the background and billows of smoke overhead? Hang on a second. There was definitely a large amount of smoke coming from somewhere behind the bell tower. I was in no particular hurry, and I was curious, so I followed it. And just on the other side of the parking lot, there was definitely a building on fire:
I couldn't tell exactly what was going on - there's some sort of machinery on top of the building, like an air conditioning unit, and that's where the fire was. About five fire trucks were maneuvering around the parking lot, but didn't seem to be doing much else. I gawked for a while and then left.

The gym was fairly empty when I got there, so I did a half-hour on the elliptical and another half-hour on the bike. Oof! I hadn't worked out in over a week, so I definitely felt it. I went out to the bus stop, realized I had just missed my bus, and decided to pick up dinner on campus. I wandered around indecisively for a while, still in no particular hurry and stopping to watch things whenever I felt like it. Eventually I ended up at Quizno's and got dinner there. It still wasn't time for the next bus, and I was halfway home already, so I just walked home. I'm sure my legs will hate me tomorrow, but oh well. The weather was too gorgeous not to spend some time outside.

And that's what makes me happy today - weather nice enough that I was actually enjoying being outside. In February. I love the South. :)

Super Bowl fun

2006-02-06T17:59:00.000-05:00

I wouldn't go so far as to say that I actually watch football these days - Ed's brainwashing attempts haven't been that successful - but I'm definitely more aware of it than I have been in the past. I actually followed the playoffs this year (though that was mostly due to a lot of weekends in Williamsburg) and I'm developing a bit more of a sense of how the game is played. So I was looking forward to the Super Bowl this year. Of course, in my mind at least, the Super Bowl is only a little bit about football. It's also about the commercials, the halftime show, having a party, eating chili and drinking beer. And since my roommate Julia was providing the last three, I was ready to have fun!

Of course, the real fans wouldn't confine themselves to a party in the evening. At church yesterday morning, the bread and wine were brought up to the altar by a proud family (mom, dad, and two little boys) all decked out in Steelers jerseys. When they got to the front of the church and everybody figured out what was happening, there was a spontaneous burst of applause. I got an attack of the giggles, which was something of a problem, since I was supposed to be singing. :)

The afternoon consisted mostly of party setup. In true party mode, of course, I was perfectly willing to move furniture and vacuum floors but couldn't bring myself to do any homework. The party guests (Julia's friends from the history department) finally arrived, and we had a great time. The chili was yummy, there was plenty of beer, and the company was good. Amanda and I discussed the possibilities of learning the refs' hand signals and using them on guys in real life. (Your boyfriend won't commit? "Delay of game!" He's hitting on another girl? "Unsportsmanlike conduct!") The commercials were mostly pretty dumb, but some of the beer ones were funny. Oh, and the game was fairly good too, but I'm not confident enough in my opinions about football to post them here. :) Afterwards we kept sitting around and drinking, watched Grey's Anatomy and decided it was not as cool as the commercials had made it out to be, and finally broke up the party around 11. Good times. It's fun throwing parties - we really need to do it more often, even if it does entail a lot of cleaning before and after.

Today what makes me happy is new library books!

Dancing through life

2006-02-05T12:16:00.000-05:00

Last night I went contra dancing with Sarah, Jason and Jeff. We've been talking about this for ages, and finally actually made plans and went. We started off the evening with dinner at Sarah and Jason's (yummy eggplant curry!) and then headed to downtown Carrboro, where the dance was just getting started. There were a lot of people there - all ages and all skill levels - so we jumped right in. I had been contra dancing once or twice before and liked it, but now I'm definitely hooked! The people were all very friendly, and I caught on quickly - it's the kind of dance that you can have fun with even if you're new at it. It's all about patterns, which is pretty cool as well. But best of all, these dances were designed for women with twirly skirts. As I'm sure most of you know, I've been crazy about twirly skirts - the long full kind that fly out around you when you spin - well, probably since I was old enough to stand up and spin around. Just about every woman at this dance, including me, was wearing a full skirt (and one or two of the guys were as well - this is Carrboro!) and I got to twirl to my heart's content. When the dance finally ended, it was too soon, but I was exhausted! We went out for a drink afterward, had some trouble finding a place on Franklin Street where we could actually sit down, and eventually ended up at the Carolina Brewery along with Vince and Tynia. Good beer, and a good time hanging out with friends. :)

Today what makes me happy is the Super Bowl party that my roommate Julia is throwing this afternoon. Chili, beer, and awesome commercials - and who knows, I might even watch the game this year! :-P

Mood-swingy day

2006-02-02T23:48:00.000-05:00

Well, today has been a mixed bag. On the minus side: my Digital Logic textbook is utterly useless, I remembered why I hate writing Javascript, and the server I'm supposed to be doing my research on decided to have issues. On the plus side: stuffed shells for dinner, Carolina won (decisively!) and it's almost the weekend. Also, I found all kinds of amusing stuff on the Internet today. So if you're in need of a time-waster (and clearly you are, since you're reading blogs) check these out...

Ever wonder what Star Wars would be like in Engrish? Would Yoda make any less sense? Now we know.
The source of the above link, and many more - somebody on Wikipedia has compiled a list of Internet phenomena. This could double as a geek test - how many have you seen?
An article by my new favorite Wired columnist (I've been reading his stuff for ages, ever since Brunching Shuttlecocks was actually alive).

This last article has inspired me to a bit of geeky mischief...details to follow. :)

Thoughts for the day

2006-01-31T17:29:00.000-05:00

People at the gym need to learn how to sign up for machines properly. This afternoon, out of the four treadmills, there were two in use with no names on the signup sheet, and two empty ones with people signed up for them. I'm sick of having to kick people off machines, and I was pretty sure I knew what would happen next, so I took an empty one. Sure enough, the girl whose name was on the sheet never showed up. I understand the logic of signing up for multiple machines, especially with the weird upstairs/downstairs setup at the SRC, but please take the extra two minutes and go cross out your name when you make up your mind. Does this happen everywhere, or is it just a UNC thing? </rant>

On a happier note, I have come up with a brilliant idea. One of my professors has a laptop which he uses for his slides in lecture, and this laptop's battery is not the greatest. It lasts exactly an hour and fifteen minutes. So precisely at the end of class, even though he still has five slides to go, the laptop shuts itself off and he has to say "We'll finish this up next week." The possibilities here are amazing. Every professor should be equipped with just such a laptop. I won't name any names, but it would make some classes a lot more bearable.

Today what makes me happy is finding the perfect anniversary present for Ed. And no, I won't tell you what it is ;)

Gratuitous Microsoft bashing

2006-01-30T17:44:00.000-05:00

Just came across a somewhat interesting article in Wired about a guy who is being sent to jail for trying to sell the leaked Windows 2000 source code. The most amusing part of the article, to me, is the following snide comment that the author managed to sneak in:

"The company has also expressed fears that making its source code public could allow hackers to find security holes in Microsoft products -- though, so far, intruders are doing fine without the source. "

Apologies to Jeff S - I have nothing against Microsoft personally, nor do I think it's entirely their fault that so many attacks are targeted at Windows (as opposed to, perhaps, that tempting pool of Linux users who can't figure out how to install antivirus software?) Still, I couldn't help giggling a bit. :)

Today what makes me happy is warm weather. And consequently, the fact that I washed my car and it's now all pretty and shiny.

New great location, same erratic updates...

2006-01-29T18:30:00.000-05:00

Okay, I've decided my blog needs a new home. While writing my own blog software from scratch was fun, I don't feel like going through periodic wrestling matches with it anymore, and I never got all the bugs out anyway (as Jeff S. can tell you...) I've been using Blogger for a while now to keep working notes for my research project, and I really like its interface. Plus, it has an RSS feed, so all you LJ people can be lazy and put it in your friends page.

Will I actually update my blog more, now that I'm doing it the easy way? No promises... :)

Anyway, on to the actual news. First of all, pictures from Friday's party, courtesy of Sarah and Jason. Unfortunately, they got one of me completely failing to finish a car bomb. In my defense, I'd like to point out that the Guinness had just been poured and they didn't give the foam any time to settle.

Also, massive amounts of organization and reorganization paid off on the basketball-ticket front: twelve of us have RISER TICKETS to the Carolina-Duke game! :-D We were about 500 people back, so we expected the riser tickets to be all gone; when we found out they weren't, we gladly took a bunch. Then we found out why people were turning them down. To get spots in the front of the risers for most games, you have to get in line four or five hours before the doors open. For this game, the line starts on Saturday afternoon...and the game is on Tuesday! Though there is still some debate, most of us figure it isn't worth that much effort. Even if we end up in the back of the risers, what the hell, we'll still be there. The bragging rights alone are worth it. And that's what makes me happy today. :)