Tuesday, March 23, 2004

I think I'll make this a multi-part thingy.

I.

Jenny and I spent a weekend in Chicago a couple weekends ago, which was a lot of fun. Here are some interesting pictures. You can view the full album here, though you have to be an Imagestation member.

The Chicago River, dyed bright green for St. Patrick's Day.

Some DeLoreans at the St. Patrick's Day Parade.

The Sears Tower.

Pizzeria Due and, in the background, Pizzeria Uno.

Finding Nemo at the Shedd Aquarium.

The Chicago Skyline from Shedd Aquarium.

II.

After coming back from Chicago, we basically just hung out in Ann Arbor. I had work to do since I wasn't on Spring Break, so while I was doing that, Jenny did such things as bake cookies. Said cookies were met with such raves and adulations as the world had never seen before. And with good reason, they were really good. They were all gone in a couple of days, with the assistance of roommates and labmates.

We saw a couple of movies, namely The Triplets of Belleville (pretty strange, don't think I would recommend it, unless you like strange things) and Starsky and Hutch (not bad, don't go in expecting too much though.. "do it. do it. DO IT."). By the way, watching movies is not without risks.. read this. That was the same theater we were in.

Also, last weekend we had a FOB party with Chinese food, Mah Jong, etc. It was great. Here's our FOB picture:

III.

I just finished reading the book The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, by Malcolm Gladwell. It was pretty interesting.. it's about what makes things spread (like brands of shoes, fads, teen smoking, crime, television shows, etc.), and how it's little things that make or break them.

IV.

As you can see from the pic below, my car turned 77777. Ooh, ahh. If I had thought of it before, I could have set it up so that the trip meter showed 777.7. I also considered taking the picture at 77 mph but even I am not hardcore enough to do that. Who knows if I'd have found a free spot in traffic at the right time, plus the needle would be obscuring the odometer.

I think it's about time to change the accessory belts because I didn't need to change them at 60K and now they're starting to make some noise.

V.

I finally got a haircut. I've been getting the sides faded periodically but I haven't cut the top since around November or December. My hair had gotten at least as long as it used to be in high school. (As in the FOB picture above.) Now it's back to short and spiky. Ahh, I can feel the breeze around my head again.

Wednesday, March 10, 2004

Hey all. Buy some cards from my good friend and yours, Erin C! They look really good.

Monday, March 8, 2004

I did my taxes. Glad to get that over with. I owe Michigan a ton of money but I should be getting even more back from the US government. So it's a wash.

It is cold once again. It snowed today and is currently 22°F. Just when I thought I could put away the heavy jacket...

Random song lyric: (I think this is the first time I've posted lyrics)

When I was a child I caught a fleeting glimpse
Out of the corner of my eye
I turned to look but it was gone
I cannot put my finger on it now
The child is grown, the dream is gone
I have become comfortably numb
-Pink Floyd

Friday, March 5, 2004

Damn, I lost my cell phone. This morning I put it in my belt clip and put the clip on my belt. This afternoon I noticed that the clip was still on my belt, with no phone in it. (And I hadn't used the phone.) Mike and I retraced my steps but came up empty-handed. So, I'm buying a new phone this weekend.

I was considering buying a fancier phone, but I think I've decided to just buy the cheapest phone available. After all that's how I chose my previous phone and had no problems with it.

So really the only thing I lost is all the phone numbers that were stored in the phone. Oh well, y'all will just have to call me so I can get your numbers again.

Tuesday, March 2, 2004

Hallo, I just came back from New York on Monday morning. It was very nice there, sunny and in the 50s-60s. Didn't do too much, just hung out, went to Central Park, ate at various good restaurants and cafes. Relaxing. My flight back was at 6 am, meaning I had to leave Jenny's place at 4 am to catch a train and a bus, so I didn't sleep beforehand. Then when I got back I helped work on a proposal so I've been pretty busy up until now.

I flew on Spirit, which means I flew on MD-80s. They are pretty nice, I mean they're not new or anything, and they are average from a seat-comfort standpoint but they are pretty quiet because the engines are way in the back on the fuselage. I thought they would be loud because I flew on an L-1011 before (which also has a fuselage engine) and it was very loud, and I assumed the extra noise was coming from the fuselage engine. But no. When taking off you don't even hear the engines roar, you just feel the plane start moving forward quickly.

While I was in New York, this happened. Brian was about to hop on a B or C train at that very station to meet us for dinner but his plans were "derailed" (groan) by the smoke and emergency vehicles. Not to worry, he took the 1/9 and dinner was good.

What I don't get is how shorting out the 3rd rail at one point can bring down multiple subway lines for hours. It seems like the worst that should have happened was the short circuit tripped the breaker for one segment of rail on one track. At most one or two trains that happened to be on that section would have to be evacuated and that platform closed but the station, other lines, and other trains on the original line should be able to run on the express tracks.

I also don't get how a single point failure can cause the multiple-day huge blackout last summer. I thought these systems are supposed to have some redundancy.

They are opening a Cold Stone Creamery in Ann Arbor. Yay. Now if only they had a Jamba Juice. (Or preferably, a place like Jamba Juice but cheaper and with less emphasis on being "trendy", "new-agey", and "health foody", and more emphasis on "serving good smoothies.")

Groaner of the day:

kbong1980: i think CEO of Lotte is #2 with only 50% of samsung CEO's wealth. hehe
KeFanMan: what a loser
KeFanMan: i don't even know what lotte is
kbong1980: Lotte is another conglomerate
kbong1980: they make cookies !
kbong1980: Largest department store in korea
KeFanMan: do they make a lotte of cookies? HA. HA.

A lot of people have been asking what's up with my AIM buddy icon. Here's the story behind that. My Mom has a Powerbook (or some kind of Mac laptop.. I dunno, I don't know Macs). Her profile icon is that cat you see on the left. Well, over winter break I installed a chat program (I think it was Fire, or possibly the official AIM client) on there so I could talk to y'all. Apparently that program sets your buddy icon to be your Mac user profile icon. And apparently, AIM stores buddy icons on its server because I stil had it when I returned to Ann Arbor. Voila, cat buddy icon. I stuck with it because I'm too lazy to find another icon and anyway, I like cats. No, it's not actually a picture of my cat.

By the way, here's a picture of my Mom on a friend's scooter in Taiwan:

Go, Mom.

I'm now reading (but not for long, since I'm almost finished) Lamb, by Christopher Moore. It's subtitled "The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal," to give you an idea of what it's about. It's quite funny. You would enjoy it, regardless of your religious leanings.