October 30
so much food, so little room.
Frank is eating 4 big macs a day in order to loose weight. I wish I can do the same. No... actually I wish I can have cabonara, puttanesca, mussels in sauce of white wine and blue cheese, and croque madame each day AND still loose weight.
That would be just greedy, wouldn't it.
On a more uplifting note, today I finally got my hands on my brand new gym membership card, thanks to Microsoft's effort in trying to help employees like me to get in shape. I'm not sure how much mileage I'll get out of this membership. Instead I'd like to see someone fitting a generator on an exercise bike so that I have to keep paddling to generate electricity to keep my computer running while I work. THAT would:
1. Keep MS employees, mostly geeks like me, from heart diseases.
2. Keep lazy bums like me from having back problems, or other physical injuries induced by poor ergonomics.
3. Save energy, save money.
Speaking of saving energy, maybe they should build a greehouse on the top floor so that I can work on my laptop, lying around in the sun, perhaps get some tanning done while I'm at it.
Maybe they should not only provide wireless internet/intranet connectivity for the building, but also wireless electricity supply available for the building. Turn the floor into a gigantic charging pad. Imagine how pleasant it will be with NO wires.
Although this wireless electricity business may mean we can't bike to keep our computers running, and ourselves healthy.
Although this wireless electricity business may mean we can't bike to keep our computers running, and ourselves healthy.
October 29
not my type.
After one faithful year, my Apple ice keyboard was officially spent and looking somewhat grey. I invested one evening rejuvenating it. The procedure was easy, but painstaking. It involved popping out 108 keys, cleaning 108 keys, drying 108 keys, and lastly putting the 108 keys back onto the keyboard.
I almost went crazy doing it.
Who came up with this stupid and inefficient layout anyway?
Half way through drying the keys I decided to see if putting a wet key back in will result in electric-shocking myself so that I can have someone to sue in order to not work for the rest of my life. I'm afraid the cheap white plastic isn't that good a conductor.
I was somewhat resentful and decided that Apple doesn't think different after all, even when it comes to things as fundamental as a keyboard.
I arranged the keys upside-down for them to dry asap, after that I made myself tea while waiting for them to dry.
20 minute and 2 cups of tea later I had completed a brand new keyboard layout design. Still qwerty, but more efficient, in terms of ergonomics and efficiency.
I almost went crazy doing it.
Who came up with this stupid and inefficient layout anyway?
Half way through drying the keys I decided to see if putting a wet key back in will result in electric-shocking myself so that I can have someone to sue in order to not work for the rest of my life. I'm afraid the cheap white plastic isn't that good a conductor.
I was somewhat resentful and decided that Apple doesn't think different after all, even when it comes to things as fundamental as a keyboard.
I arranged the keys upside-down for them to dry asap, after that I made myself tea while waiting for them to dry.
20 minute and 2 cups of tea later I had completed a brand new keyboard layout design. Still qwerty, but more efficient, in terms of ergonomics and efficiency.
October 25
ODed on Chicken
Not really, I actually ODed on caffein.
This blog is the result of 2 cups of chai and a cup of peach tea, consumed past 7pm on a week day. I'm officially sleepless, and pissed.
I'm not tired yet, but 6 hours from now I'm supposed to get out of bed to have my routine "very strong English breakfast tea", assuming I can retire to bed free of random thoughts and konk out.
rraarrrrr......... I wish I have been granted RAS access already so I can shut up and work and not wasting time being frustrated and sleepless.
I wonder if Indian food is caffeinated.
This blog is the result of 2 cups of chai and a cup of peach tea, consumed past 7pm on a week day. I'm officially sleepless, and pissed.
I'm not tired yet, but 6 hours from now I'm supposed to get out of bed to have my routine "very strong English breakfast tea", assuming I can retire to bed free of random thoughts and konk out.
rraarrrrr......... I wish I have been granted RAS access already so I can shut up and work and not wasting time being frustrated and sleepless.
I wonder if Indian food is caffeinated.
October 18
Harass! Huzzah!
Gotta have a first in everything, right? Including harassing people.
I made the switch at work this Monday, and one of the few "perks" is a change in my phone number and the privileges of the account. So I decided to try if I could dial international calls freely.
1st attempt 206xxxxxxx:
I thought "what am I, stupid?!"
2nd attempt 1206xxxxxxx:
I thought "Dun! What am I, stupid?!"
3rd attempt 9+1206xxxxxxx:
There was a slight pause, then there was signal for the call getting through! I held the phone for 3 seconds and realized that I have just dialed my parents' number. It felt awkward for a moment, and I guessed the conversation would have gone like this - "Hi dad."
"Hi mei, are you ok? Is something wrong? Do you need help? Why are you calling?" (I have yet to call home yet since I left for Beijing, so something must be up.)
"Er... yes I'm ok. No nothing's wrong. No I don't need help. No there isn't a terrorist attack and I'm not kidnapped. I'm calling because I'm trying to figure out how to use my phone at work to make international calls."
"Does that mean you're calling for free?"
"Yes... uh... I gotta get to work."
"Ok bye!"
"Bye!"
And that would have been emotional because a) I subconsciously dialed my parents' number. b) I called home for the first time in more than a year. c) I actually called home. d) I initiataed the call to home. e) My parents didn't have to call me and we talked on the phone. ... there can't possibly be enough times spent emphasizing the fact that I, Anita, dialed with my very own index finger on my left hand, the number of my parents'. That's just shocking, if I may say so myself.
But after the phone rang a few times I looked at my computer and realized it was about midnight in Seattle. I gasped and hoped my coworker didn't think I was burping from indigestion, and concluded that as much as I would love to give my parents a very pleasant and totally unexpected surprise, they may need some uninterrupted rest. I quickly put the receiver back to the cradle and pretended nothing happened.
I realized that today I have committed my first phone harassment.
I could have stayed on the phone and explain to my mum or dad that I was being stupid. I could have asked them aside from being woken up by their daughter how things were otherwise. However I freaked, panicked and hung up the phone. In doing so I decidedly turned myself into a wimp. Shame!
To mum and dad it was probably as if nothing happened, while I spent a good hour reflecting why I haven't called them for so long.
I made the switch at work this Monday, and one of the few "perks" is a change in my phone number and the privileges of the account. So I decided to try if I could dial international calls freely.
1st attempt 206xxxxxxx:
I thought "what am I, stupid?!"
2nd attempt 1206xxxxxxx:
I thought "Dun! What am I, stupid?!"
3rd attempt 9+1206xxxxxxx:
There was a slight pause, then there was signal for the call getting through! I held the phone for 3 seconds and realized that I have just dialed my parents' number. It felt awkward for a moment, and I guessed the conversation would have gone like this - "Hi dad."
"Hi mei, are you ok? Is something wrong? Do you need help? Why are you calling?" (I have yet to call home yet since I left for Beijing, so something must be up.)
"Er... yes I'm ok. No nothing's wrong. No I don't need help. No there isn't a terrorist attack and I'm not kidnapped. I'm calling because I'm trying to figure out how to use my phone at work to make international calls."
"Does that mean you're calling for free?"
"Yes... uh... I gotta get to work."
"Ok bye!"
"Bye!"
And that would have been emotional because a) I subconsciously dialed my parents' number. b) I called home for the first time in more than a year. c) I actually called home. d) I initiataed the call to home. e) My parents didn't have to call me and we talked on the phone. ... there can't possibly be enough times spent emphasizing the fact that I, Anita, dialed with my very own index finger on my left hand, the number of my parents'. That's just shocking, if I may say so myself.
But after the phone rang a few times I looked at my computer and realized it was about midnight in Seattle. I gasped and hoped my coworker didn't think I was burping from indigestion, and concluded that as much as I would love to give my parents a very pleasant and totally unexpected surprise, they may need some uninterrupted rest. I quickly put the receiver back to the cradle and pretended nothing happened.
I realized that today I have committed my first phone harassment.
I could have stayed on the phone and explain to my mum or dad that I was being stupid. I could have asked them aside from being woken up by their daughter how things were otherwise. However I freaked, panicked and hung up the phone. In doing so I decidedly turned myself into a wimp. Shame!
To mum and dad it was probably as if nothing happened, while I spent a good hour reflecting why I haven't called them for so long.
October 15
I. Hope.
msn messenger 6.0.0 (060825) for mac refuses to scroll to the bottom of the conversation by itself, and it's making me slightly paranoid when I hear multiple chimes while the conversation window looks unchanged.
On a more uplifting note, today I had a very pleasant outing with the usual suspects and Joan Hinton, a nuclear physicist that helped develop the first atomic bomb. After it was dropped in Nagasaki, she left the US for China and devoted herself in the communist revolution and to improve socialist economy and agriculture.
"I touched with my own hands the first bomb that hit Nagasaki. I tasted a feeling of deep guilt during the preparation of this crime against humanity. How did it happen, I was thinking, that I went on to make my contribution to this? But it did happen! And it happened because I then believed in the wrongly held assumption that the advancement of science should be pursued for the sake of science. This very philosophy constitutes the poison of modern science. And because of that assumption, which makes us draw a line between science and social life and human beings, I came to work on the atomic bomb. We thought that as experts we should be dedicated to “pure science” and that everything else should be left to politicians. I am ashamed to confess that it was the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombing that made me get out of my Ivory Tower, the one I had built for science, and made me realise that there is no such thing as pure science, and that science has no mission and no purpose other than serving the interests of humankind."
Not that the bombing in Hiroshima and Nagasaki was more uplifting than the msn bug, but I am relieved that someone robbed of philosophy still sees the world with hope. I spend 40 min everyday in traffic from my isolated courtyard to the city wrapped with layers of toxic fumes and that alone is enough to make me lose my perspective in life. I still believe I can make a difference. For starters, these are what I'm doing:
I'm not paying taxes to the US government.
I buy fairtrade coffee and teas.
I recycle.
I only buy electronic goods that rate well in efficiency thus not wasting energy.
I bring my own chopsticks.
I bring my own shopping bag.
Tomorrow I'm going to Jane Goodall's speech. I hope I can find the motivation and inspiration that I need to grow the list.
On a more uplifting note, today I had a very pleasant outing with the usual suspects and Joan Hinton, a nuclear physicist that helped develop the first atomic bomb. After it was dropped in Nagasaki, she left the US for China and devoted herself in the communist revolution and to improve socialist economy and agriculture.
"I touched with my own hands the first bomb that hit Nagasaki. I tasted a feeling of deep guilt during the preparation of this crime against humanity. How did it happen, I was thinking, that I went on to make my contribution to this? But it did happen! And it happened because I then believed in the wrongly held assumption that the advancement of science should be pursued for the sake of science. This very philosophy constitutes the poison of modern science. And because of that assumption, which makes us draw a line between science and social life and human beings, I came to work on the atomic bomb. We thought that as experts we should be dedicated to “pure science” and that everything else should be left to politicians. I am ashamed to confess that it was the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombing that made me get out of my Ivory Tower, the one I had built for science, and made me realise that there is no such thing as pure science, and that science has no mission and no purpose other than serving the interests of humankind."
Not that the bombing in Hiroshima and Nagasaki was more uplifting than the msn bug, but I am relieved that someone robbed of philosophy still sees the world with hope. I spend 40 min everyday in traffic from my isolated courtyard to the city wrapped with layers of toxic fumes and that alone is enough to make me lose my perspective in life. I still believe I can make a difference. For starters, these are what I'm doing:
I'm not paying taxes to the US government.
I buy fairtrade coffee and teas.
I recycle.
I only buy electronic goods that rate well in efficiency thus not wasting energy.
I bring my own chopsticks.
I bring my own shopping bag.
Tomorrow I'm going to Jane Goodall's speech. I hope I can find the motivation and inspiration that I need to grow the list.
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