Outside Context

I wanna know where da gold is at

2008-03-14T13:05:00.000-07:00

This is apparently not new, but it's one of the funniest things I've seen on the internets for a while.

What? Of course there's a remix!

Feelings... wo wo wo feelings....

2008-02-04T10:38:00.001-08:00

Here's my feelings painting. I'm a bit sunnier than Jen.

Bored

2008-01-14T21:28:00.000-08:00

For some reason, I'm really bored tonight. I feel antsy and unsettled, but also like I don't feel like doing anything. So this is the painting I have created, based on my personality, for your viewing pleasure. Or at least that's what my personality looks like according to this website :) Anyone know what it is?

Click here to create your own painting.

The Real Truth

2007-12-27T10:43:00.000-08:00

I'm trying really hard to pull myself away from the TV's gravitational pull.
This morning, I couldn't help but notice the description of the show Real World according to the Comcast guide which read, in its entirety:

"Much thanks (or blame) for the reality show glut belongs here: young strangers live together."

Thirsty for Bling?

2007-12-23T09:22:00.000-08:00

Read this, and weep for the future of mankind.

www.blingh2o.com

A bit too late...

2007-12-17T18:38:00.000-08:00

... but the "good hustle" award goes to Liz for putting up a post after a three-month drought.

Sadly I didn't get to the Hungarian House of Wines. I did eat a lot of goulash and chicken paprika, and I soaked in the Gellert baths. Most importantly, I was introduced to the world's greatest candy, Pottyos. Beanie and Liz can vouch for its deliciousness. It makes the Dunlays cookie (which Andrik and Jen have also eaten) taste like crap.

Anyhow, I have nothing much to add, so here's a pretty picture. Have a Merry Christmas, all.

If you're in Hungary, and you haven't left yet

2007-11-18T19:47:00.000-08:00

This one's for you James...

Make sure you visit the House of Hungarian Wines. For approx $20 you get a wine glass, a little baggie of crackers, and a wine cellar of a ton of Hungarian wine to sample. Bring a buddy. You can't beat it.

As for the baths: the Gellert Spa is neat, but Szechenyl Spa is really worth the trip.

Say Hello to Captain Jenny Rackham

2007-08-21T13:26:00.000-07:00

Because this is my pirate name:

Captain Jenny Rackham

Even though there's no legal rank on a pirate ship, everyone recognizes you're the one in charge. You have the good fortune of having a good name, since Rackham (pronounced RACKem, not rack-ham) is one of the coolest sounding surnames for a pirate. Arr!

Isn't that fun. And so appropriate! I know you want to try it. So go take the pirate quiz and let us know what your name is :)

Paging Dr. Kevorkian

2007-08-08T20:07:00.000-07:00

I have never had strep throat until this week.

Growing up I knew kids who got it all the time. Some of my good friends were constantly missing school due to strep, but for whatever reason I was never really susceptible to it. Then this week I had a sore throat, which I initially dismissed as some kind of 24-hour summer cold bug. When the soreness didn't go away - and when it got worse - I called the doctor. A quick swab later and I was diagnosed.

If you've never had it, it sucks. It sucks really, really bad. Take the worst sore throat you've ever had and multiply it by a million. Just swallowing is misery, my ears hurt, my tonsils are swollen, the glands in my armpits are swollen, my head hurts, my neck, arms and legs ache (from tensing my muscles each time I swallow.) I had no idea it was this bad.

I've just started on antibiotics and have a week left of them. I really hope they kick in soon. I'm only supposed to take one pill every 12 hours, but I was very tempted to eat half the bottle when I got home today. Instead, I've been using Chloroseptic throat spray, which is magical stuff (basically a really strong anaesthetic). It numbs everything for about ten minutes.

If you've ever had strep, I have a newfound respect for you. Just like I have for all those kids who got it when I was younger.

... and my arms aren't tired at all

2007-08-08T10:48:00.000-07:00

So thanks to the magic of FlightMemory and my obsessive-compulsive habit of keeping ticket stubs (back to age 7), I now know the following about myself:

- I have flown 383, 083 miles to date
- I have flown the equivalent of 15.39 trips around the earth
- I have flown to the moon and more than halfway back (1.6o5)
- I've been in the air for 856 hours and 23 minutes of my life, which is 5.1 weeks or 1.19 months
- I've made 342 flights on 27 airlines, 29 different aircraft types, to 77 different airports.
- 55 of my flights have been in first class. 330 of them were in a window seat.
- 41.8% of my flights have been on American, 11.8% on Delta, and 10.6% on Southwest. (those are my top three)
- 20% of my flights have been from O'Hare, versus only 15.3% from Dallas/Fort Worth. I guess it really has been awhile since I lived in Texas.
- A full 20.6% of my flights have been on the McDonnell Douglas "Super" 80, which is a plane that most frequent fliers hate.

Obviously these stats aren't perfect, since I took a trip or two as a baby that I don't remember. But interesting nonetheless. The site also generated the following nifty maps:

Give it all you got

2007-07-26T17:47:00.001-07:00

Let's see if this mobile post works out with my new Samsung V-something phone. So far, I'm very pleased with it. I've especially enjoyed the ability to send/receive emails.
I just finished a trip down to San Carlos where I dropped off my resume and fancy-schmacy, super dooper strategy paper for Tesla Motors www.teslamotors.com. The cute receptionist was very nice, and didn't even flinch at the fact that I was unshaven, t-shirt clad, and sweaty from walking from the train station in the sun. I don't know that anything will come of my package, but I have nothing to lose at this point.
Everyone keep your fingers crossed for me.

Frozen almost goodness

2007-07-25T15:38:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I went to my very first Giants game. I think I saw the Giants once in Dodger Stadium back when I still lived in La La Land as part of my love affair with the '88 Dodgers.

I have to be honest and I say I was interested in Barry and his pursuit. One comment I made last night was that I thought Bonds' race for the all time home run record has kept Average Joe San Franciscans from talking about how bad the team is this year. Anyway, I had to take a picture of Barry doing his thing in right field. Granted, right field is the position with the least amount of leg work involved, but his stance in the picture below pretty much summed up his attitude toward the game.

Barry during a pitching change.

I have to admit that when I played center field in high school, I always wished I had a ball in my back pocket to throw around when we had pitcher changes; it gets boring out there.

What really sucked is that it was REALLY cold in the right field bleachers. Selling $8 beers didn't help the situation because I wasn't prepared to spend $40-$50 just to feel a little warmer. We stuck around until the 9th inning to see all of Barry's supposed at-bats.

Barry with 1 out in the bottom of the 9th

When Barry couldn't bring anyone home in the 9th, we left. Little did we know that the Giants would go on to score 4 runs to tie the game and send it to extra innings. I ended up catching the end of the game on my couch on ESPN.com. Although it would have been cool to see the 2-out rally in the 9th, I'm glad that I didn't stay in the blistering cold through the 13 innings. I wouldn't have been home until midnight, and the Giants lost anyway, 7-5.

Triple Double

2007-07-22T23:43:00.000-07:00

I don't know the statistics behind this, but I had to share.

Jen and I are trying not to eat out too much. But, as chance would have it, we have had Asian food 3 times in the last couple of weeks. There's a lot of Asian food on the west coast - faster delivery over the Pacific keeps the eggrolls crunchy.

Well, all three of these times, when it has come time for the fortune cookie, Jen has gotten TWO fortunes inside of the same cookie!

The first time, it was unusual because I had never known that to happen before. The second time it was a crazy coincidence. The third time was Twilight zone-ish. Has anyone ever gotten two fortunes in one cookie before? Or, for that matter, ever know of anyone getting them?

I haven't.

I think she's a witch. Later this week I'm going to see if she weighs more than a duck.

A few pics, mostly of the cats

2007-07-15T00:11:00.000-07:00

I know this may seem obsessive about pets, but here are the pictures of the "road trip" across the country. They are mostly of the cats, which were the most entertaining part of the trip. After a few hours of meowing, they were so dead tired that they just passed out. The rest of the trip, they mostly slept. Bo found that he was most comfortable on the floor in the back seat. Ally wouldn't really fall asleep unless she was on one of our laps or on the floor on the front passenger side.

We tried to take pictures of each of the state signs as we passed by them, but we didn't catch them all. A couple were at night, and others were just blurry.

For the first few days in the new diggs, they were both pretty bored because the apartment was so painfully bare. Now we have a couple of pieces of furniture trying to inflate themselves and fill in a lot of space while the rest of our stuff gets here.

[Jott from Jennifer Cardenas] Welcome to San Francisco, the current temperature is really nice. After a long j...

2007-07-01T18:33:00.001-07:00

Jott From Jennifer Cardenas

Welcome to San Francisco, the current temperature is really nice. After a long journey, we are here and on our way in the catch of sleeping intermittently, we are dozing off intermittently, but we have arrived.

Set reminders, assign, and manage this jott on Jott.com

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[Jott from Jennifer Cardenas] This morning we depart from the beautiful municipality of Park City, Utah. We t...

2007-07-01T07:25:00.001-07:00

Jott From Jennifer Cardenas

This morning we depart from the beautiful municipality of Park City, Utah. We thank the nice people at the Holiday Inn Express for having a room for us last night at 12:30 when we rolled into town and also for enjoying the nice music from the country music station. This morning during breakfast, we got the joy of watching a music video of sometimes it takes pause(?) to be your woman.

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[Jott from Jennifer Cardenas] Well we stayed the last night in Des Moines and we just crossed into Nebraska li...

2007-06-30T09:38:00.001-07:00

Jott From Jennifer Cardenas

Well we stayed the last night in Des Moines and we just crossed into Nebraska little behind schedules David(?) just calm down but we are doing ok Lincoln [unclear speech, please listen].

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[Jott from Jennifer Cardenas] What interesting spectrolino(?) trip, we are just leaving Chicago almost, at bra...

2007-06-29T13:51:00.001-07:00

Jott From Jennifer Cardenas

What interesting spectrolino(?) trip, we are just leaving Chicago almost, at braking down contact parking light, I blink(?) some [...] as well, and having to getting our battery replaced in the parking light, so hope fully [unclear speech, please listen].

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Something new

2007-06-03T11:42:00.001-07:00

I just noticed that Picasa has a slideshow embedding function. So, here are some of the pictures from the triathlon.

I hope this works and that it is not too annoying.

No backing out now

2007-05-18T07:16:00.000-07:00

The triathlon is tomorrow. Jen and I leave for Galena this afternoon.

Right now, I feel like this:

The only thing that worries me (aside from the fact that I've never done this before and my training could be described as "lax") is that I have felt really tired the last couple of days. I am usually pretty energetic (bouncing off the walls not included) during the day. But this week has been a real drag and I'm worried that I won't have a lot of energy tomorrow morning.

Wish me luck.

I'm so smug

2007-05-15T07:38:00.000-07:00

In keeping with my tradition of finally signing up for things about three years after they go mainstream, I've created an account on SmugMug for my pictures.

Check it out at http://jmsullivan81.smugmug.com . New pictures from Morocco and Portugal are online, although some of the Morocco pics are purloined from Evan and Dave.

I'm still on free trial status with SmugMug... I have about 12 days to decide if I want to pay $34 for an annual account. Hmmmm....

It's cooking time.

2007-05-13T11:58:00.000-07:00

In our house, there's a joke that if the words "damn it!" or "oh shit!" come out of the kitchen, that Jen must be cooking something. There is no meal complete without a slight cut, steam burn, bumped head, bruised hip or smashed toe. Last Sunday was no exception.

Receipe:
1 Jen
1 Onion
1 Wüsthof butcher's knife

Combine ingredients in kitchen. Add careless chopping technique. Find shoes, go to emergency room.
Serve on steril bandage. Dress with 5.0 silk, making sure to approximate but not strangulate.

Will keep for one week if stored in cool, dry place.

Jott

2007-05-05T13:03:00.001-07:00

Jott From Jennifer Cardenas

I am using this new program called Jott and I am trying it out to see if I can post from my phone straight to the blog, so let see if it works.

Listen to audio
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She's Comcastic!

2007-04-06T20:06:00.000-07:00

Here is a description of one of the working girls at SPAC that I saw today, going from head to toe:

Pony tail
"Retro", pointy glasses
Embroidered polo shirt
70's style running shorts
Walkie-talkie clipped to the running shorts, making them fall delectably low off one hip
Ugs

Spectacular.

Blurry Vison

2007-03-30T19:31:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday morning of last week, I wake up in the apartment of the newly minted Mr. and Mrs. Bridges to an odd sight. That being blurry sight out of my left eye. So began an odyssey that has created what are sure to a hundred pirate jokes.

Me, leaving St. Mary's Hospital, with my eye patch. They dialated my eye and I could tolerate the light.

Andrik mocking me by wearing my eye patch

After consulting a doctor in Evanston and seeing a doctor on an emergency visit in San Francisco, it turns out that I had a "spontaneous corneal erosion." Which basically means that several layers of my cornea just sort of disappeared in a conglomeration of scratches. For no apparent reason. Awesome, right?

Well, that doctor said it would be better in two days, but it wasn't. Because it healed as scar tissue. Still blurry. So he took off the tissue with tweezers and put in a contact so it would heal better. These are like the two things I feared the most. Plus, they dialated my eye again, but this time it lasted for two days

Andrik loves this picture of my very dialated eye. I just think it's freaky

I hate things that touch my eye, but I've had to get used to eye drops and things touching my eye. YUCK!! 1 1/2 weeks later, my vision is still blurry, probably for two more weeks.

But on the plus side, I have pain killer eye drops.

Pirate Rights

2007-03-30T19:26:00.000-07:00

If you, as I, am concerned about the right to dress as a pirate, you should see this article. This poor kid is being denied the right to dress as a pirate, and I for one think it's a travesty. You'll soon see why :)

Whisper me this

2007-03-10T10:42:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was the inaugural recording of The Dog Whisperer on our DVR.
I thank (blame) Eric and Liz for introducing me to this show in January when I spent a couple of nights at their place. I didn't realize that the National Geographic channel apparently doesn't run any other shows. This will probably rival Law & Order on TNT for straight out number of recordings.

Jen was able to watch about half a show this morning, and I think she's gonna get instantly hooked. I like Cesar because he's a case of a poor immigrant coming to the US and doing something that makes rich people pay him tons of money and idolize him. That's awesome.

Are you the pack leader?

To paraphrase The Man Song: "I'm the pack leader of this house, until you get home."

Some Flava

2007-03-04T19:20:00.000-08:00

Actually seen at the bridal shower of Dave Drelicharz...
Equal packets with the following phrases: "In Favor of Flavor" and "Fight for your Right to Flavor." Ridiculous.

Also from the shower: rare sightings of Adam Moses and Leah Norris. Mysteriously missing: one Mr. Jamie Sullivan.

Getting old

2007-03-04T19:18:00.000-08:00

This picture says it all about our Friday night. We started drinking at home with each other at five. After many beers and some take-out, Andrik passed out at 8:45 on the couch. We're getting so old!

Cold sucks

2007-02-14T07:17:00.000-08:00

Always remember to zip on Zap...

2007-02-13T09:29:00.001-08:00

Last weekend was my second-ever attempt at downhill skiing. I went to The Canyons in Utah, a nice little resort about half an hour's drive through the mountains from Salt Lake City. I hadn't been skiing since 1997, so I was curious to see how much ability I had retained over a decade of inactivity.

Surprisingly, quite a bit. We started off on the bunny slope (named "Sweet Pea" to ensure that you're as embarrassed as possible) and I rocked it - I went down three times and was easily the most skilled skier on the slope. All of the ski school students were jealous. I swear.

An actual shot taken from a Canyons webcam on Saturday, when I was there. That could be me on the lift!

From there we got on the lift, where we discovered that The Canyons only has three green (beginner) ski runs - and only two of them, Boomer and Meadow Way, were accessible to me. I spent all morning schussing down them, never falling down, and came away feeling like a pro.

After lunch I got braver, and we decided to try the last green run, called Winding Lane. The only way to get to Winding Lane was by negotiating a short blue (intermediate - egad!) run called Zap. I'd been skiing all morning, so how hard could a very short run with a comical name like Zap really be?

This is what Zap felt like, except this person is in control and I was not.

Basically, I fell down about twelve times (every time I tried to turn to slow down) and wound up sliding down most of Zap on my butt. As I did, my wallet worked its way out of my back pocket (which I'd forgotten to zip up) and went up into the snow. When I finally emerged, bruised and battered, at the bottom of Winding Lane, I realized it was gone and had about eight successive heart attacks - I had to be on an airplane in about sixteen hours, and it didn't look like I'd see my wallet again until the snow melted in April.

Michelle got back on the lift and made a quick run down the trail again (she's a good skier; at one point she actually got yelled at for going too fast) but the wallet was gone. I started making mental lists of everyone I needed to call, every card I needed to cancel, etc. We also called the airline to figure out how the hell I was going to get on the plane.

Long story short - some helpful Utahn found my wallet and returned it to a lift operator, who called me a few hours later. We drove back out to Park City to pick it up. I'm the luckiest person in the world, hands down. I'm also an OK skier, but I'm going to take more lessons before I attempt any more blue runs. And I'm going to remember to zip my pockets.

Valentine's Day gift idea

2007-02-06T17:09:00.000-08:00

Overheard in the locker room yesterday (verbatim):

"I'm gonna dress up like a clown and fuck her."

This isn't out of context, I heard most of the conversation. Poor, poor undergrads.

Maybe they do know why I fly.

2007-02-05T09:03:00.000-08:00

After my Pittsburgh travel adventure (see below) I decided to be a bit of a squeaky wheel and send an email to American Airlines voicing my displeasure. They responded with quite a bit of 'grease' - in the form of 10,000 bonus miles.

Holla.

Right now, on Animal Planet

2007-02-04T14:13:00.000-08:00

Puppy Bowl III

"Puppies cavort in a play area that looks like a football stadium in the third annual event that offers an alternative to the Super Bowl. Included: a halftime show featuring kittens."

I have just spent fifteen minutes watching this. They have instant replays, and "Bowl Cam" (a water bowl with a glass bottom with a camera underneath to look at the puppies while they splash), and "water time outs" to replenish the water bowl. But the very best part is the soundtrack of a sports crowd that cheers when the puppies do something.

Gotta love it.

When bad travel happens to good people

2007-01-25T08:51:00.000-08:00

1:30pm - Jamie leaves the John Hancock Center and hails a cab for O'Hare.

4:10pm - Scheduled departure time for Jamie's flight to Pittsburgh. Gate agent announces a 90-minute delay due to snow flurries in Chicago.

5:50pm - Flight 4179 finally departs for Pittsburgh. Jamie strikes up a conversation with his seatmate, a DJ and morning-show host for a Phoenix Top-40 radio station.

6:30pm - Somewhere over northern Ohio, the cabin pressure fails. Some of the oxygen masks drop down, but we're instructed not to use them. The cabin keeps alternating between freezing cold and uncomfortably hot, and Jamie's ears keep blowing out. The Top-40 DJ is white as a sheet and clutching her armrests. The plane makes a 180-degree turn and heads back to Chicago.

7:15pm - Flight 4179 lands back in Chicago, where passengers are told not to worry about the fire trucks waiting along the runway. Jamie is reaccommodated on a United flight leaving at 10pm.

8:00pm - Jamie, the Top-40 DJ, and a similarly-delayed software salesman from Youngstown, Ohio, bond over *entirely* too many beers in the Admirals Club, then switch to the Red Carpet Club when they run out of free drink vouchers.

9:50pm - United announces a 40-minute delay to Flight 760, bound for Pittsburgh. The plane finally leaves at about 10:35pm.

12:05am (Eastern time) - Flight 760 lands in Pittsburgh in heavy snow. The brakes makes a strange sound, prompting a sign of the cross from the Top-40 DJ. Naturally, nobody's luggage made the transfer.

12:30am - Avis announces that it has "no record" of Jamie's reservation for a rental car, and provides him with "the only car we have left," a Crown Victoria that reeks of smoke.

12:55am - The Crown Victoria is rear-ended by a Pittsburgh city bus as Jamie attempts to find his hotel. There's no damage, fortunately, but it's basically the last straw, and for the remainder of the drive Jamie screams obscenities and flecks the windshield with spittle.

1:30am - Jamie goes to bed, wondering if he'll ever see his luggage again and wondering what he ever did to the city of Pittsburgh to merit such a welcome.

What's cold?

2007-01-23T20:13:00.000-08:00

29° at 3:30 pm today.

What's colder than that?
Walking from SPAC to almost Dempster without appropriate head gear.

What's colder than that?
Doing it commando because you forget to take an extra pair of boxers to the gym.

Brrrrrr!

1997 to 2007... What a difference

2007-01-17T18:32:00.000-08:00

Yes, party people, the rumors are true. I did just get my very first 10 year high school reunion email! It made me feel a combination of old and nervous. You see, I wasn't one of these people in high school....

so I'm not sure what it would be like. You see, in high school, I was quiet and studious. Nothing like the riotous good time you all know and love. In a word, I was mousy. Bad glasses, really bad hair, worse clothes and the poorest kid in school. People knew who I was mostly because I could help them with their class work. So, a quick outside context poll... Do I go?

Also, a fun little tidbit. The picture of good old BHS in the link above shows the front of the school. The first and only time I tried a skateboard, I fell right down those stairs. Mere moments later, my boyfriend at the time broke his arm riding down the railing on the left.

p.s. Jamie - sorry to post over the snake. he was cute, but I felt a need to get some opinions :)

Awwww

2007-01-17T15:15:00.000-08:00

This is the first time I've ever found a snake cute.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/omni_kh/359390989/

Home is where I hang my hat...

2007-01-11T07:09:00.000-08:00

... or I will, if I ever finish unpacking. I *hate* moving; Jen and Andrik, how have you done it so many times over the past few years?

The new place is good. It's much, much older than my former apartment, which is something I'm still struggling with. The landlord did a lot of repairs before I moved in (and, unfortunately, while I was moving in) including a new kitchen floor, replastering all the walls, replacing the toilet and installing new ceiling fans. Yet to come are new windowsills. Still, I'm not used to the floor creaking when I walk or putting up with subpar water pressure from 80-year-old plumbing.

I'll have pictures when I finish unpacking. I still need a lot of stuff - area rugs (A&J, any recommendations for places to get them?), a coat rack, a rack to go above my toilet. I think with some with TLC, it'll be a nice apartment. And the commute is only 15 minutes door to door - amazing!

I just wonder if maybe I'm not a suburban guy at heart. We'll see how I adjust to the city living thing.

That's right, I said ALL wheel drive

2007-01-09T20:25:00.000-08:00

Lest you all think we had less fun than you on Jen's birthday, we decided to go out and get some more debt. After much gnashing of teeth and numbers, we bought one of these last weekend:

You all know I loved my little Acura, but you all also sat in the back seat of it, so I'm sure you'll appreciate this decision as much as we have come to. Plus, this guy can go to the mountains and carry stuff on its roof, so it's got that going for it. Which is nice.

The best part, though, has got to be how solid it is. The other night Radar jumped in the back while we were showing some friends. After a while we managed to drag him out and close the back gate. He must not have noticed, cause he promptly turned around and tried to jump back in. THUD. I think Liz and I hurt ourselves more laughing than he did, but the car was fine. Good solid machine there.

Collaboration

2007-01-08T22:12:00.000-08:00

This very nice video is really a group effort.
Pablo is the one who actually shot the footage.
Jamie came 2000 miles to be at the event.
I decided to go to Howl at the Moon.
Jen was born 27 years ago.

I don't anticipate being alive long after Jen finds this post. Send me your goodbye wishes while I am still able to read them.

Here we go again...

2007-01-04T16:16:00.000-08:00

Well, after a week and a half of tirelessly defending the couch from the ruthless forces of anti-gravity, I had to return to class yesterday. Today, I went to what I thought was my second scheduled class. I was wrong. It was my third class. It turns out that there were classes scheduled for yesterday (usually there are no classes on Wednesdays). Except that yesterday we had "make up" classes for the ones we "missed" by not attending on Monday and Tuesday. Bullshit.

I'm tired of all these re-scheduled classes. Many of the classes that I have taken need to stretch their content to fill all 10 weeks in the quarter. Why the hell do they need to greatly inconvenience us to schedule special extra class sessions for events that everyone is completely aware of? For example, there is no way that there will ever be any classes on January 1st or 2nd. So, why not plan your course schedule to not count on having class time on these days? Why do you have to go through all the trouble of scheduling separate classes, when it is inevitable that some students (no matter when it is) will not be able to attend?

I have one class that will not start until next Monday. At the first session, we will reschedule TWO classes. Ridiculous. The school is also rescheduling all the classes that will be missed because NU has decided to observe MLK day by canceling classes. All of Monday the 15th's classes will be held on the 17th, during which I will be out of town. Which means that I will miss these sessions as well.

There's only one word that can describe this type of action.

Happy New Year

2006-12-31T15:17:00.000-08:00

While the rest of you are out partying and drinking champagne, I'm sitting in my apartment boxing stuff up. It's true that you never realize how much crap you've accumulated until you try and move it all. So here's a virtual toast to 2007, from me to all of you, including the two Californians who appear to have forgotten their Blogger passwords or something. I hope all of your evenings are better than mine, or at least involve more vomiting.

Holiday Spirit

2006-12-26T10:34:00.000-08:00

We knew for a long time that Bo had a problem. We try to ignore it. We imagine that he's okay and that these are just one-time occurances. But we have to face the facts sooner or later.

This is Bo's second Christmas (alive) and he hasn't been handling it well. I didn't realize the size of the problem until I awoke one morning to find him passed out under the tree, his breath reaking of tuna fish. Doesn't he know how this hurts us? Doesn't he care?

Bo passed out under the tree.

On to other cats.
We had to take Ally to the emergency room again because she got the lesions on her back just like last time. They gave her the steroids, pepcid, antibiotics regimen. They also shaved the area around which the lesions occured. It turns out they were all around her neck. She looks like she's in pretty rough shape, but she's doing better than she was a few days ago. Looks like we will have to see an animal specialist if this is going to keep happening. The last time we took her was in October.

One side of Ally's neck.

Ally's back.

Merry Christmas

2006-12-25T08:19:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas from the Cardenas Clan to the outside context crew :) Hope you're having a great holiday!

Another Disa-google-pointment.

2006-12-20T18:41:00.000-08:00

So, I signed up for a YouTube account today. I was hoping that I could just use Google Video (especially since Google bought YouTube) and be satisfied.

However, Google video makes it a little harder to do the one thing that I really want with video - post it here. With Google, I have to upload the video, then post it to Blogger (also owned by Google) from the video.google.com website. On the other (better) side, when you see a video on YouTube's site, there are two links right there, right next to the video. One is the actual URL for the video, and the other is a short piece of HTML code that you can use to imbed it into any site (like this one). This little piece of HTML code is infinitely more useful than what Google video provides.

For example, when I embeded the two videos in the Vail post, I had to actually pretend to post those two videos individually from the Google site. Then I had to cut and paste the HTML from those two fake posts into the actual post that I had written. Then I had to go back and delete the two fake videos. Pain In The Ass.

Once I logged into YouTube, it took me about two minutes to find this clip of Leo Laporte reporting on the MS Zune (which I have disliked from the beginning and quickly pinned as destined to commercial failure):

I just cut and paste the whole object tag right from the YouTube site and put in right into the HTML of this post. How easy. By the way, Leo is one of my favorite tech guys because he is extremely knowledgeable and down to earth about what technology needs to do for people to be successful.

The "Perfect" Form

2006-12-19T10:48:00.000-08:00

So, it turns out that Jen and I actually enjoy skiing. I don't enjoy the expense. I don't enjoy the painful learning curve (I still have bruises on my shins). I don't enjoy the half-pint six-year-old kids going in a snake very slowly down the slope. But I do enjoy the feeling of rushing down the grade (in control) and "shushing" my way back and forth through the snow.

After our first day's instruction on Sunday, Jen and I went back by ourselves on Wednesday. We were big fans of the pizza-french fries technique.
We never went off of the bunny slopes, but we had a good time. We went up and down the mini-lift just to the right of "Minnie's Lift".

We spent the first half of the day going up and down what's called the "magic carpet". It's basically a conveyor belt that very slowly takes you up the almost-flat grade of the bunny slope. In the picture above, they are labeled 35 and 18. Here's Jen on 18.

If we had one more day of skiing, we would have conquered the greens, no problem. For your laughing enjoyment, here is a vid of my very second trip down the side of number 18 on Sunday. I wish I had a video of me toward the end of the day on Wednesday. Trust me, it would look much different.

There are some other Vail highlights, to be sure, courtesy of the patented Kellogg team bonding technique. First the Sunday night wig-walk:

Monday night Wild West Party:

Wednesday night pub golf in the condos. My condo hosted a drink called a "Colorado Bulldog". It looked like ass and tasted very yummy. Here's our hole before people arrived:
And after:

Thursday was relatively quiet, save for the fact that the closing concert was put on my the 80's rock cover band Fast Times.
It turns out the bar had a wooden floor installed above a layer of tires to help with country western line dancing. When you fill the dance floor with excited, drunk grad students all jumping up and down in unison, the effect is quite shocking. This is a video with very bad sound (the camera was overwhelmed by the huge speakers in front of me), but you can still make out the song being sung mostly by the crowd.

When I took this video, my feet were flat on the floor. The movement is the floor itself. And I was on the side, it was worse (better?) in the center of the crowd.

That's about it for Vail. Watch out, Tahoe, here we come.

Our First Christmas Tree

2006-12-18T16:17:00.000-08:00


Is it wrong that I spent an hour getting this together today even though I feel sick? Well, I'll put up some more info about the ski trip tomorrow.

Workin' it once again

2006-12-14T10:46:00.000-08:00

So my languid days of lying on the couch at home, traveling the world and collecting unemployment are over. My first day here was nothing like my first day at Brunswick, where I was given my paperwork and then left to rot in my cubicle for the rest of the day. Here they had a whole schedule ready for me, and my every moment up to now has been blocked out. They're hitting me with information pretty fast and furiously, which is kind of nice. It sounds like when I'm busy around here, I'm going to be really, really busy. The volume of candidates, interviews and hiring is pretty much quadruple what I used to handle.

The commute - 10 minutes in the car, 55 minutes on the train and 35 minutes on a bus - is gruesome. Fortunately, I move down to the city in about three weeks, and then the commute will drop to a half an hour, like it was during the old Brunswick days. In the meantime I'm getting a lot of reading done - if you've never read Herman Wouk's "The Winds of War," I highly recommend it.

In happier news, I have a window cubicle here and a pretty good view, all things considered. We're on the 30th floor, and when it's clear I can see the lake. So if you feel like impressing someone, you can say you have a friend with a window office in the John Hancock Center. It'd have to be someone who's very easily impressed, however.

Bienvenidos a Cabeza del Leon

2006-12-11T12:50:00.000-08:00

So, it turns out that we are actually in Lionshead, not Vail Village.

Here are the highlights so far:

Counting Crows suck.
Counting Crows in an outdoor venue really suck.
Putting on ski boots hurts.
Walking in ski boots hurts.
Skiing in ski boots hurts.
Jen + short red wig = hooker look-alike.
What's the deal with outdoor hottubs?
The profit margin on everything and anything for sale in Vail has got to be huuuge!

I have some pretty good pictures, but ofcourse no way to post them. I hate T-mobile. Tomorrow we hit the slopes again. Hopefully we will both get better by the end of the day. Today is hangout day (thank goodness).

Later.

7° and -8°

2006-12-08T07:36:00.000-08:00

Those were the temperature readings for the current temperature and windchill, respectively, that they announced on the radio this morning as I drove Jen to work. Brrrrrr! It's cold in here!

Today is errand day before we take off for Vail. The high will be 27° F today. Tomorrow and Sunday, you ask? Mid to high 40's. Great.

Phone pic of our courtyard after first snow.

66.66%

2006-12-07T12:38:00.000-08:00

That's how done I am with my program. This morning, I finished my last final for this quarter; Management of Technology. It wasn't too bad, all things considered. I have now completed four of the six quarters needed for graduation. I have the rest of the afternoon to feel accomplished.

I went back into the archive and pulled out this picture of the Beanski. This was on the beach near Hermosillo, taken in the spring of last year, before we moved back to Chi-town.

I originally tried to post this using the built-in blogging tool in Picasa. I was a little disappointed in the functionality. Picasa and Blogger are both owned by Google, so there is a link directly from one to the other. But, there is no way (that I saw) to post more than one picture, and you can't move the picture around in the editor or is goes away irretrievably. And the connection is really, really slow. So, I'm still looking for an efficient way to post pictures. Things I've tried:

Direct email address provided by Blogger to send posts: you have to log in after you send the email to actually publish it.
BlogMailr.com: The embedded pictures that I sent with my emails didn't get published, only placeholders.
Picasa Blogger tool: very slow and lacks functions for multiple pictures and formating.

On an unrelated note: I just finished a Law & Order episode where Grey's Anatomy's Kate Walsh was a Navy pilot that killed a guy. She was a blond and still very hot.

With a little luck, I will put up a couple more pictures the LA trip from the handy-dandy Samsung-cam.

Happy Barthday

2006-11-28T14:57:00.001-08:00

This message was written (but not posted) on Sunday night.

A couple of pictures from Jeff's wedding are coming. Last night, we attended the barthday party for Simon.

Simon found out that he passed the California bar exam and it was his birthday, hence the "Happy 'Bar'thday" cake.

There was a sushi chef from a local restaurant who made the best rolls I've ever had. I can't call myself a sushi connoisseur, but these were damn good.

This is a group shot of everyone at the party.

Simon is the one in the green shirt standing next to me. His dad is the one with the mustache right next to him. His mom is the woman next to his dad with her right hand on his brother Andrew's shoulder and her left hand on his cousin Leia's shoulder.

The weather here has been terrific. We drove through Malibu today. We saw the Pepperdine campus and visited Point Dune beach. If you're lucky, I'll put some of those pictures up once I get them off my camera (these are from Simon's mom's camera).

I hope you guys had a great Thanksgiving. Jen and my's Thanksgiving day eating:

1. Chicken caesar and pulled pork sandwich at Midway.

2. Various Kraft Foods snacks on the plane to LAX.

3. Carne asada tacos in a hole in the wall taco stand in LA because it was 10 pm on Thanksgiving day.

A moment's rest

2006-11-28T09:46:00.000-08:00

I'm back from a six-day whirlwind tour of Copenhagen, Helsinki and Stockholm. To sum things up quickly: Copenhagen was good, Helsinki was terrible and Stockholm is my new favorite European city. It was cloudy and wet most of the time I was there, but fortunately not too cold (no snow). I took pictures which I'll hopefully be posting in fairly short order.

I'm guessing I probably walked about 15 miles each day. I had to cram a lot of sightseeing into a very short time. You should see the blisters on my feet - they're of biblical proportions, although they've gotten a LOT better in the last two days.

Today I check out some apartments in the city (and hopefully sign a lease if I find one I really like.) Then tomorrow it's off to Key West for a week with my parents, where I plan to do as little walking as possible.

Happy belated Thanksgiving to all, and to all a good night.

Ski Help

2006-11-19T17:21:00.000-08:00

Sorry to use the blog for my own personal gain, but I was hoping those skiers among us could help me out. I have no idea what I need to go skiing. Help so that I can go to Vail prepared :)

In the words of the State Bar of California

2006-11-17T18:28:00.000-08:00

"The name above appears on the pass list for the July 2006 California Bar Examination."

I AM JOB

2006-11-16T18:58:00.000-08:00

'nuff said. Got an offer today from my first-choice company. Very very good stuff. I'll be starting in a few weeks.

/self-congratulatory posting

As if being unemployed weren't bad enough...

2006-11-14T09:58:00.000-08:00

... while working out at the gym this morning, Rosie O'Donnell was dancing around playing the bongos - with all of the sweatiness and heavy breathing that entails - with the cast of some musical on "The View."

And before you ask, there was another woman in the gym who put the TV on "The View." It wasn't me.

A phone test.

2006-11-11T02:52:00.000-08:00

T-Mobile

This picture was taken a few short days ago. What happened to that glorious weather? A big thunderstorm went through today and it's now windy as hell.

Testing, testing, 1,2,3

2006-11-10T11:40:00.000-08:00

My class is about to start, so of course I'm writing this now.
I saw this post today and had to try it. It's about an online service that allows you to post to your blog by sending an e-mail. I know that I tried this before directly with the Blogger email address, but I didn't really like how that worked. After I sent the e=mail, I had to go into Blogger and click "publish post" to complete the task. I thought that was pretty stupid.

So, we'll see if this is any better. I also want to see if I can send a picture from my cell phone.

An ending....

2006-11-08T07:03:00.000-08:00

Happy last day at work Jamie!!!!

These guys are unbelievable

2006-11-05T09:18:00.000-08:00

I was reading this on TPM today and it was just one more piece of proof that these guys are ridiculous in their hypocrisy. How is it that half the population still thinks that Republicans should be in power??

Ally Attacks

2006-10-28T16:26:00.000-07:00


The best part of the clip is how Ally taunts Bo by touching him on the leg right before she pounces.

Another reason why YouTube rocks

2006-10-27T11:16:00.000-07:00

How else would something like this make it to the mass public?

I know there are some of you who are holding your sides in. Don't pretend you're not.

Here's why I haven't been posting much

2006-10-23T13:51:00.000-07:00

So about a month ago, I decided that I was ready to leave my company.

It was a hard decision - I've never worked anywhere else, and the fact that they took a chance on me a few years ago (when they didn't have to) probably kept me around even longer than I should have stayed. In any case, we're not doing well financially and despite all my recruiting trips, we aren't hiring anyone. I got fed up and started floating my resume out on Monster and CareerBuilder, looking for a company that took recruiting a little more seriously. I've been contacted by a few headhunters and, over the last week, have done a few phone interviews. Next week I have my first in-person interview.

Turns out it was a good call, because today I found my current job is being eliminated by the end of the year.

I'm actually not upset at all, mostly because I was already planning to leave. I don't have an official "last day" yet (it'll most likely be sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and possibly even closer to New Years), but I've made enough traction in my job search that I'm fairly confident I'll have another job by then.

Good timing, eh?

Anyhow, I'm a whore for networking, so if anyone knows anyone looking for a mid-level recruiter or organizational development monkey, I'm all ears.

I feel so connected to these people.

2006-10-18T08:29:00.000-07:00

Try it for yourself and see:

HowManyOfMe.com

There are:
4,043
people with my name
in the U.S.A.

How many have your name?

Snow bunnies

2006-10-17T11:18:00.000-07:00

It's official.

Jen and I will be in Vail this December. Neither of us has ever skiied, so it should be pretty amusing to scream my way down the slow side of a bunny hill.

We'll be there for 6 days, but only plan on "skiing" for 2. This is in anticipation of sightseeing, hangovers, shopping, hot tubbing, and physical recovery from such.

By the time we hit Tahooe next year, we'll be experts at how to party in the snow.

This too shall pass...

2006-10-16T21:56:00.000-07:00

So, we took Ally to the vet this morning. She's all fine now. So, we basically are on a "wait and see" stance right now. The vet said that we should run out the antihistamine and antibiotic and see if anything happens. At this point, we don't plan on getting her any special care over the weekend when we are in Cali. Hopefully she is still doing great when we leave (and continues to do so through the time we return).

Late last week, she was feeling listless and slept a lot. Over the weekend she improved tremendously. Today, she started fighting back with Bo. They take turns jumping on each other. Bo likes to get up and immediately jump on Ally. However, when Ally does it, she perches her ears back and stares him down. While Bo lies on his back with his paws up, ready for the impending attack, Ally glares at him to see how long he'll hold. She then slowly uses one of her front paws to pat at one of his legs to see if he'll flinch. After doing this a couple of times, she quickly pounces on him.

I wish I had video of it so that all of you could see it. It's really funny to watch.

Simple Mindedness

2006-10-13T15:16:00.000-07:00

I tend to like things that are simple, and to the point. If you add in informative, I'm a big fan. That's why I liked this graphic from the NYT:

It was created to show the last minutes of Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle's flight before he went into a building in Manhattan. This is only a screen shot of the first frame. The whole animation can be seen here.

I think it does a very nice job of visual information presentation.

That is all.

Juxtaposition

2006-10-11T09:35:00.000-07:00

So, last night I walked into the apartment, only to walk out of it 5 minutes later with Ally in her travel carrier, on our way to the Animal 911 emergency room.

When I woke up in the morning, Ally had a couple of scabbed-over scratches right between her shoulder blades. She also had a slightly swollen area right under her chin at her neck.

In the last 10 months, I've been worried about Ally several times for things like this that just end up going away with a little time. The vet told us that she would probably be a little more prone to sickness than Bo. So, I didn't think too much about it.

When I left for class at 1 pm, the condition was pretty much the same. When I arrived from class, the couple of scratches were now a quarter-sized patch of missing fur and raw skin on her back and the swelling around her neck was still there. That's why we ended up in the emergency room for three hours, during which time the swelling got worse.

After all was said and done, it appears that she had an allergic reaction (something else the vet warned us about). She got a shot of adrenaline, a shot of antihistamine, a shot of an antibiotic and a Pepcid. Now she has to take an oral antihistamine and antibiotic for a week.

She looks much better today, but we have an appointment with the vet for Monday to check things out. Finding and eliminating the source of a cat allergy is a long and arduous process, keep your fingers crossed.

The title of the post comes from the writing in one of the framed prints hanging on the waiting room wall:

"I think one day I'll end up in a cold apartment all alone and eating cat food out of a can I guess that's okay since I am a cat after all."

The words were snaking around the drawing of a cat standing on its hind legs. I thought it was an odd selection for a vet's office. I understand that it's supposed to be a little funny, but in the end, the idea of a cat all alone in a cold apartment is not comforting to pet owners. I am sure that they could find a print that conveys a much clearer yet still amusing anecdote about life as a cat.

I'm totally working right now

2006-10-10T10:47:00.000-07:00

I found out that Yahoo! has started a time capsule. Their idea is to have people submit digital media to be unveiled at their 25th anniversary in 2020.

Now is your chance to show the world how great and photogenic you think you and your friends are. Or, how awesome your band is.

I think it's a pretty cool idea, but I wonder what's to stop it from just ballooning out of control when every "Mr. Digital photography" and wannabe music/video producer starts to upload their work. Won't it just get lost in all the static of everyone else's work?

Apparently, it has been publicized in Latin America already because there are a lot of pictures submitted from there.

What luck

2006-10-09T20:37:00.000-07:00

Here's a transcript of a voicemail I got today:

"Hello Mr. Sullivan, this is Linda calling with American Airlines. I'm calling in regards to your flight from Chicago to London Heathrow on November 22. Unfortunately that flight has been oversold. In order to make room in the main cabin for additional passengers, we have moved you to our business class cabin."

Score!

Fun with fingers

2006-10-07T15:20:00.000-07:00

Top Ten Things That Fingers are Good For:

1. Counting
2. Carrying things
3. Nose-picking
4. Non-verbal communication
5. Exploring the unknown contents of bags, boxes, cracks, toasters, etc.
6. Eating aides
7. Sharing wholesome communiques with congressional pages
8. Flipping through TV channels
9. Drunk dialing
10. Ceasing hiccups

Thanksgiving turkey...

2006-10-05T19:05:00.000-07:00

... and other things Jen and I will not be in Evanston to enjoy this year.

It was announced that the Grand Marshal for the NU homecoming game this year will be Stephen Colbert.

The announcement doesn't say if he will give a speech or be at a reception or anything like that, but I still think that there's bound to be something.

Alas, Jen and I will be enjoying good-'ole Mexican hospitality that weekend at my niece's quinceañera.

watch out for my wake

2006-09-26T10:12:00.000-07:00

When I left Turkey there were bombings. After Hungary, anti-government riots. Germany, a train wreck... It's good to be home. Here's some teaser picts - more to come on snapfish.

Me, in Sienna, Italy.

Me, on top of St. Peter's, Vatican City.

Me, near Parliament, London.

Yes, for the first two weeks of my trip I was "that girl" taking pictures of herself in front of all the sights. It was time to meet up with a traveling buddy...

Turkey. Lots of cats. This cat was beloved enough to warrant a sign saying "do not disturb."
And no, my traveling buddy was not a cat.

I wish more carpet shops were open air.

Croatia is the homeland of the cravat. Strangely, however, the national uniform is the speedo. Croatians are superstars at Even, Aggresive Tanning®.

Kellogg is taking over the world. Really.

The long arm shots are much better with a partner.

They have really big houses in Vienna.

And really fun toy stores in Prague.

And really big and fun beers in Munich.

So it's come to this...

2006-09-22T18:11:00.000-07:00

Friday night, and I'm watching "Celebrity Duets" on Fox, where Cheech Marin just forgot the words to "Hit Me With Your Best Shot."

At least I survived all of our tornados (tornadoes?) in Chicago tonight. Makes the duets that much sweeter.

Hi, we're in Prague

2006-09-18T09:23:00.000-07:00

and you're not.

Neener.

Reader's Digest: Italy

2006-09-13T07:51:00.000-07:00

It's time to convey the two weeks in Europe... in brief. Part 1 - Italy.

Our trip to Milan, was a doozy. Chicago to London (worst airport ever), London to Lisbon, Lisbon to Zurich, and Zurich to Milan. We spent the night in Milan and ate at the only restaurant open at 10 pm. That was the first place we tried out the "drink the house wine" theory. They had red wine ON TAP. Literally, one tap for beer, one tap for wine - crazy.

Next day we trained it through Genova on our way to Vernazza. The town of Vernazza is the second largest in the Cinque Terre chain of five.

Map of the region

Vernazza was beautiful and wonderful. Although there were a lot of tourists, the character of the townspeople really came out.

Jen on the path to Monterosso, Vernazza in the background

On our first full day, we took the 2 hour hike to the largest of the towns, Monterosso. The hike was pretty tough due to the mountains. We had to go up the side of the mountain for a long way, then accross toward the town, then back down to sea level. After an afternoon of sunbathing, we huffed and puffed our way back.

Grapevines on the hills above Monterosso

I think the best part of Vernazza was sitting in the piazza after dinner to drink wine and people-watch. We were usually there until 11 - 12.

The piazza in Vernazza at night

The following day, we hiked to the middle town, Corniglia. It was an easier hike and we were able to enjoy a nice lunch there. We hung out the next day until training it to Venice. We heard that Venice was a place that we definitely had to see, but not really worth staying in for more than a day. So, that is exactly what we did.

A gondellier overcharging tourists for the view we got from the water taxi

It turns out we were there during the weekend of the yearly Ragatta, but we were going to miss the actual day.

Jen and me in St. Mark's Square

We made our way back to Milan and ended out stay in Italy in the same hotel (if not the same room) that we started in. And yes, we did go back to the same restaurant with wine on tap.

Like I said, this was a very brief account of our week there. There were many little things that would make this post unbearably long. Hopefully we can share more as we see you.

Zdravo

2006-09-08T05:46:00.000-07:00

I go halfway around the world to hang out with Kellogg folk?!? Small world. I spent most of yestderday cruising the islands around Hvar, Croatia with a bunch of guys from Andrik's world. (I'm not entirely sure about names, but I think the guys that said they knew Andrik from his program were Dave Sweeney(?) and Ben (really tall, dark hair).) After five weeks on the road, it was really nice to hang out with some Americans for a while.

Anyway, I'm here in Croatia for another week before heading up to central Europe. It's fabulously beautiful here, and I highly recommend travelling through here soon before it gets much more touristy. But I am hoping for some cooler weather up north - my poor freckled skin can't take many more beach days. :P

Many picts to come when I am home (I think I'm up to around 500 or so...).

Bump

2006-08-28T14:43:00.000-07:00

I'm tired of seeing the woman in the bug sunglasses every time I visit this blog. So I'm sticking this post up to knock her butt down.

And yeah, I know I put her there. Ironic. Or maybe not.

The "Buzz" in Fashion?

2006-08-23T07:52:00.000-07:00

Can anyone explain why it's suddenly fashionable for women to wear giant sunglasses? Everywhere I go I see ladies wearing sunglasses that make them look like insects. Jen, Liz, can you provide any insight?

The woman who sets next to me is listening to one of her burned-at-home "mix CDs," each of which only contains five or six songs. So far she's "Heard It Thru The Grapevine" four times this morning.

Momentous Meeting Moments

2006-08-11T09:31:00.000-07:00

So, I discovered that one way that I can use to stay awake in meetings is to forget about trying to pay attention (I'm falling asleep anyway) and instead to do a little creative writing exercise.

I write down sentences that come into my head. I start writing the sentence with a subject or situation or emotion, but nothing else. Then, I just continue writing as the words fall out of my brain. Most of the sentences are not very good.

My favorite one from this morning's financial structures training:

"Pretty ponies prance precipitously through plush poppy patches."

What have I been reduced to?

Coming soon to a college town near you

2006-08-08T11:15:00.000-07:00

After about two hours on our travel-booking website at work yesterday, my fall schedule has been finalized:

September 10-12: Atlanta (Georgia Tech)
September 13-14: Knoxville (University of Kids Whose Parents Were Related)
September 17-18: Madison (University of Bucky Badger)
September 18-19: Champaign-Urbana (University of Corn)
September 20-22: Blacksburg, Virginia (University of Yes, They Have Technology in Virginia)
September 25-27: Ann Arbor (University of Jen Went There)
October 1-3: Knoxville again
October 3-5: Atlanta again
October 9-10: Madison again
October 11-12: Ann Arbor again
October 12-14: Blacksburg again
October 16-17: Champaign again

I've already ordered two thousand "chochkies" to give out (last year's highlighters weren't exciting, so this year we've opted for waterproof croakie containers.) I also re-ordered our recruitment brochures, this time without the typo ("Brunswich is a dynamic company.") I'll be dusting off the HELLO, MY NAME IS tags and practicing my handshake.

The scent of unemployed college seniors is in the air. It smells like success!

Okay, fine

2006-08-07T21:05:00.000-07:00

Yes, we're alive. You know about me and posting to blogs, you all saw what happened to my last one.

So, Liz made it through the Bar just fine, although you'll have to ask her for the details. If she hasn't already blocked them out.

Last I heard from her, she was getting on a plane to Italy. Perhaps if we're lucky, she'll show up here and post a picture of herself holding up the Leaning Tower. Wouldn't that be a creative shot? If you know anyone in Florence, Rome, London, Istanbul, Zagreb, Vienna, Prague, or Munich, have them look her up.

I am currently trying to figure out who's going to watch the dog while I'm in Chicago a week from Saturday. More news as it becomes available.

Life imitates life

2006-08-07T14:35:00.000-07:00

There is a financial analyst that sits in front of the office to the main controller at work (my team includes the main controller).

In the analyst's cube, there is one of those demotivational posters. The subject for the poster is "CONSULTANTS". The notable tag line is:

"If you're not a part of the solution,
There's good money to be made in prolonging the problem."

It's funny 'cause it's devastatingly, anguishingly, depressingly, unequivocally true.

Proof!

2006-08-06T21:30:00.000-07:00

The intern that I jumped off the Alps with actually had a camera, and he sent me proof of the whole experience.

Me, standing next to the chute with the world champion Austrian parachuter.

This is the Alpan hill off of which I ran .

There is also a rumor that another intern has pictures of us in Munich, but I've yet to see any evidence.

Robots in disguise

2006-08-04T07:44:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I went to the doctor. As it happens, when you are a private practice specialist it doesn't matter that you are not open on the weekends. It also doesn't matter that you only see patients for 5 hours a day. It also doesn't matter that you show up 30 minutes late for your first patient of the day.

In the parking lot of the medical building, there was something strange spray painted on the wall in front of each parking space. When I saw it, I knew it reminded me of something, but I couldn't put my finger on it.

Then it hit me! The medical office was really a cover for a Transformers outpost. Surely the Decepticons would never find them there.

Phone pic taken in the rain, standing in front of my parking spot.

More pictures

2006-08-01T18:27:00.000-07:00

Baby formula for success

2006-08-01T08:46:00.000-07:00

This weekend Jen and I went to Boston to visit our good friends, Keith and Julie, who just (10 weeks ago) had a baby girl. I think that people tend to like the newborn babies of their friends. Let me tell you that this is much easier when the newborn is ridiculously cute.

Phone pic of Jocelyn in her carrier/stroller/car seat.

Before you point it out, I didn't forget my camera. I thought that Jen was going to bring it. She, in turn, thought that I had it. So, it was a miscommunication, which is different.

Jocelyn is so cute it hurts. Before all of you start talking, we are still firmly on the 13 year plan (right, honey?). Wenham was a nice little town, with nice little shops and nice little houses. All in all, a nice little place to raise a nice little family.

The game of the weekend was "what can make Jocely smile?". This is much more entertaining than you would think. I have to admit that I didn't even miss TV for the whole weekend. On Sunday, we went to a "public" park right by the ocean. It was the estate of a old, rich guy who donated it when he died. The grounds are great, and the views were fantastic. It was worth the half mile hike through the woods to get to it. Those old, rich people are such seclusionists.

Phone pic of a very limited segment of the view from the park.

Overall, it was a great weekend. One of the best parts was that my Monday 7 am (United) flight was cancelled and I got to sleep in an extra 3 hours after getting into Penn Station at 2:30 am.

Phone pic of Keith with Jocelyn.

Your Friday travel update

2006-07-28T06:35:00.000-07:00

Hello again from 665 Broadway, 10012.

This week was the most intense that we have had on our project. On Wednesday, we had our second "milestone" meeting with the executives, and the week leading up to this meeting was grueling, with most of the team working 12+ hours last Saturday and Sunday (not me).

So, this Thursday, I got to sleep in and leave early for the airport. Time I left the office for O'Hare: 2:30 pm Thursday. Time I arrived at the Radisson in Manhattan: 3:15 am Friday. Technically, it's not quite 12 hours of actual travel because of the time change.

The only good thing about the wait at the airport was that I treated myself to a bag of Chile Picante Corn Nuts. MMM... brought me back to my childhood, to which Corn Nuts provided a solid foundation. While on the plane, it really hit me that I don't like United. It's old and staunchy (sp?). It's like the GM or Ford of the airline industry. When you fly United, you get the feeling like the company is set up for the benefit of business class and first class travelers, and that the rest of us are really just there as a necessary evil. It's little wonder that, in an era of high consumer strength, United is doing so poorly compared to other, smaller, more attentive airlines.

Phone pic of my view sitting and waiting for our pilots to arrive.

Of the last 5 United flights that I have had where I tried to use the headphones to listen to the in-flight entertainment, 4 of them have not worked at all or not worked well. Last night, I had to hold the headphone plug with my hand at just the right place in the jack so that I could hear the same "The Office" episode that they have shown since I started flying in June (it was old then). The girl behind me stole my pillow. I don't use the pillow and didn't really care, but she tried to be slick about it and slide it out from between my seat and the window. She did it little by little, and it took her the whole flight to finally get it out. As we unboarded, I saw her put it in her large purse. You have to be pretty pathetic to steal a pillow from a fellow airline passenger, then steal it from the airline.

The only nice part of the flight was that there were some big thunderstorms just south of us as we flew through NY airspace. You could see the lightning in the thunderheads in the middle of the night. It was a really spectacular show that we got to witness from a safe distance.

As I stood in line at the Radisson to check in (yeah, a line, at 3:15) I realized that it would be really nice if hotels had check-in kiosks like airports for frequent travelers. Just walk in, swipe your credit card, confirm the room rate, and out pops your key card. That would be really nice. It is a true test of one's patience to stand for 15 minutes in line while someone tries to wrangle $10 off their rate after you have traveled for 11 hours.

I will end this post with the Siemens induced weekly inspiration that fills my life. I am quite sure I know how most of you will react to it:

Phone pic of the poster hanging in the office a few feet in front of my desk.

Thanks cute overload, you made my day.

2006-07-23T21:56:00.000-07:00

The test is on Tuesday, and Wednesday, and Thursday, so I haven't found much to smile about this weekend, but this little guy gets a bona fide giggle. Is it a gremlin or a really stoned dog? You decide.

Report from Florida

2006-07-23T14:04:00.000-07:00

I am in the great state of Florida this weekend, visiting the Smith clan. True to the family form, we have spent the weekend eating unhealthy food (they've never met wings or cheeseburgers that they didn't like, but who knew you could get cheese and bacon on french fries?), lying on the beach and playing games. But the games have downgraded over time. We used to play Monopoly and Risk. This weekend I've played Trouble with my five year old niece twice. Pokemon Monopoly is reportedly coming out of the closet very soon. Where we used to watch adult movies, tonight's agenda includes the Swan Princess. Oh, there's still beer drinking and poker playing, but the atmosphere in the Smith household has definitely changed. My niece is awesome and definitely spunky. She takes after her aunt, if I do say so myself. I am getting tired though. Hanging out for a weekend with a five year old is good birth control. So, if anyone needs to remember why none of us have kids yet, let me know and I'll hook you up with a trip to the Smith house.

Dammit Jim, I'm a doctor, not a dump truck

2006-07-20T20:23:00.000-07:00

To continue the net neutrality debate, I'd like to turn it over to Jon Stewart and John "I'm a PC" Hodgman:

I think it's my turn

2006-07-18T07:38:00.000-07:00

So, I'm stealing some moments away from work on this Tuesday morning mostly because I'm feeling a little lazy, but also because I have a couple of hours before I have really concrete direction on what needs to happen next.

This last weekend was the first that I got to spend at home since we moved. I have to say that I like the new place much, much more than the last one. It may not be as big, but it makes up for it in everything else. This includes the two window units that keep the den and bedroom nice and cool.

The weekend before last, I was in Germany. I arrived on Friday morning, put in a long day at work, and quickly got very drunk with the other five interns from the office. There is a place in Munich called the Hof Brau Haus (I think that's how you spell it). Anyway, they sell beer in liters, and we each had three.

Most interesting exchange of the weekend:
Me and another intern standing with beer. Two girls walk by.
Other intern: "That's a cool shirt, where'd you get it?"
Girl: "Blah, blah, blah."
Me: "Where are you girls from."
Girl: "We're from the south. (in a very southern belle kinda tone) Where ya'll from?"
Me: "New York."
Girl: "Ya'll from New York? Oh, so you're someone to ask this question: where can we get some drugs?"
Other intern: "We just got here, we haven't made any connections yet."
Girls: "Oh." Followed immediately by a 180 turn and walk directly away from us.
Us: [Shrug]

Later two of us went to another bar and drank another liter and a half. I don't remember going to the hotel, but I was very happy to wake up there the next morning. I woke up to the phone ringing to tell me that the bus would leave in 15 minutes. That bus took us to the Austrian town of Pertisau, on the shore of Lake Achensee in the Alps. It was a living postcard.

SMC has an annual retreat called Somerfest, and the company takes over the town. It was organized through http://www.rentavillage.com/, as all the ads clearly told us. Saturday night was the main dinner, along with a speach by the Siemens CEO, who started SMC ten years ago. That night was also the Germany soccer match for third place in the World Cup. It was something else to be surrounded by dozens of Germans, all singing unintelligible songs, drinking beer and being generally happy.

That night, four of us interns were the last four to leave the bar at 4 AM. That wasn't too bad, except for the fact that I needed to be up at 10 AM. By 11 AM, I was firmly strapped between the legs of an Austrian man. With all the calm in the world, I ran off the side of an Alp. I'm grateful to say that the parachute took hold very well and the 15 minute descent into the town below was fantastic. We did a very tight spiral that apparently makes many people sick in mid-air. I was very grateful for the no-hangover gene.

That afternoon, we were bussed back to Munich, where we later saw the World Cup finals at a biergarten among many disappointed French fans. I was suprised to see them greatly outnumber the Italian fans. Nevertheless, those Italians made a huge raucous up and down the streets the rest of the night.

I was back in the states the next afternoon, happy for the trip, but happier to be back home and with an afternoon to recover.

My only regret: forgetting my camera. :-(

N'Djamena... Doot doo, da doo doot doo

2006-07-05T08:41:00.000-07:00

I got back from Key West yesterday. It is, if you've never been, probably the coolest place I've ever been in the continental US. Pictures forthcoming.

To expand upon my Hermosillo post from last week, it appears that Google Maps has actually updated its aerial photos for almost every large city on earth, including Africa. So if you ever wondered what the capital of Chad (N'Djamena) looked like from above, you can stoke your curiosity. I don't know why I like those aerial photos so much.

By the way, every time I hear N'Djamena, I think "menomena." Because they're pronounced the same way.

Air-mo-SEE-yo

2006-06-27T13:35:00.000-07:00

I hate to interrupt the partying all the time (my girl will be so disappointed) but I thought I'd let everyone know that Google Maps has been updated to include hi-res imagery of everyone's favorite Sonoran metropolis. All your favorite landmarks are there: Mundo Divertido, El Burro Feliz, your choice of Sorianas, and (with a lot of scrolling) even the Ford plant. Check it out. I found your old neighborhood but I'll never be able to pick out your respective house.

I'm writing this entry from the Ramada Plaza Hotel in scenic Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, where I'm spending the week managing a training session. It's not as wretched a place as everyone makes it out to be, but my judgement may be clouded by the fact that I've done more drinking this week than I have all year. This town has more bars than people.

On Thursday I head off to Key West, and things look up considerably. In the interim, enjoy the view of Hermosillo.

Pro-net-neutrality, exhibit A

2006-06-26T14:14:00.000-07:00

I know just what this blog needs:

I hope so too...

2006-06-26T13:57:00.000-07:00

In one of my classes, I heard the story of an automotive company that hung blinking signs between their assembly lines that read, "I love my job". It was a nice way to completely undermine the way that employees view their jobs (whether they liked them or not).

I am reminded of this story every time I log on to my computer on the network, where I am welcomed by this screen:

Educate Me

2006-06-22T16:30:00.000-07:00

So, I know it's not as exciting or sexy as Jamie's last post, but I was hoping for some education. There have been commentaries on NPR the last couple of days about net neutrality. I didn't exactly understand the issue and the arguments on both sides sounded good. Help me understand, because I have a feeling that some of you have serious opinions about the issue :) Here are the commentaries on each side:

Anti Net Neutrality

Pro Net Neutrality

p.s. Andrik, Eeyore was not slow. He was a depressed donkey. I should have written about him for that grad school project, but I diagnosed Oscar the Grouch from Sesame Street instead. :)

Ink-a-dink-a-doo

2006-06-20T12:18:00.000-07:00

So it seems like everyone else in America went out and got a tattoo when I wasn't looking.

Before I go any further, I will stop and say that yes, I'm aware there are members of the Outside Context family who have tattoos. And I will preface things by saying I'm not referring to that type of tasteful, easily-concealed-when-the-occasion-warrants tattoo.

I'm referring more to big, gaudy tattoos on prominent parts of the body that are not covered up by everyday clothing. Examples:

1.) The cashier at McDonald's, who had "Junior" tattooed on one side of her neck and "Giggle" on the other.
2.) A woman I work with, who regularly wears sandals and has a rather large tattoo of Tinkerbell on the top of her foot. I can't even imagine how badly that must have hurt, although I am briefly reminded of Areli's "I Don't TINK So" t-shirt back in Mexico.
3.) A man at my company who has large free-form tattoos on both of his forearms.

By now you've probably guessed my stance on tattoos, which is that if God wanted us to have ink in our bodies He would have given us an ink-producing organ, like a squid. But I'm curious to know what the rest of the class thinks - have tattoos become mainstream enough that people don't have to cover them anymore? Should I get on the wagon and tattoo myself? What should it say?