I have a little problem... or, shall we say, quirk. When I go somewhere I like to buy postcards. And while I do actually send a lot of postcards, I almost always buy more than I send, and I save all these extra postcards for the day when planet Earth gets invaded by evil space aliens who can be destroyed only by throwing postcards at them.
But then I realized, well if you can kill the aliens with postcards, I think it's pretty likely that any form of paper will work. Soooo, if anyone wants to do a fun postcard swap, send me an email with your address and I'll send you one. (And you can send me one if you want, but don't feel like you have to). I promise I won't sell your address to some evil "the man" corporation, or use it for anything other than the postcard.
I have only 43 of these extra postcards lying around, so hurry! (tee hee).
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Today's Green Pioneers
Did everybody want to be a pioneer or some kind of explorer when they were a kid? I know I did! Between playing Oregon Trail and reading a LOT of Janette Oke books, I spent a lot of time wishing that I was on a covered wagon. In fact, I think that's partly why I fell so hard for Star Trek. (Those of you who love Star Trek like I do probably know that Gene Roddenberry referred to his show as the "Wagon Train of the Stars".)
So what's my point here? Well, last weekend I went to the Good-Green Jobs Conference put on by the Blue-Green Alliance , which is a unique alliance of union workers and environmentalists. I have never been particularly pro-union, however I liked the idea behind this conference. And I'm happy to piggyback off of the unions' lobbying expertise if it serves "my" interests. I put "my" in quotes because saving the environment is actually in everyone's interest, whether they realize it or not. That's why I voted for Nader in 2000. Yes, I won the election for Bush. If you're upset, email me and I'll give you my address so you can come T.P. my house.
My favorite part of the conference was the rousing speech by Governor Gregoire. She talked about the big 3 auto companies and said that although the huge number of job losses have been extremely sad, the companies are to blame for it because they didn't display any foresight in dealing with environmental issues. And people got really excited when she talked about how Washington is suing the EPA.
Then she talked about how the road to energy independence will be difficult, and compared us all to pioneers. I loved that analogy! It's perfect. For a person who is trying to live with a minimal carbon footprint right now, (and I'm far from being that person) even a small, mundane task can be a huge struggle. How do you visit your parents on the east coast when airplanes emit more carbon per mile than a Hummer H3? How can you join your friends for dinner at a big chain restaurant if you're trying to eat local? Simple things that most people take for granted, such as driving out to the mountains for a hike, or drinking a cold can of soda, become very difficult if not impossible.
The pioneers of the wild west had a really rough time. You all remember Oregon Trail - they got dysentery, their oxen died, they ran out of food. It freakin sucked. But those people paved the way for the rest of us, and made this country great. So the people who are going car-less, grid-less, plane-less, eating less meat, using less water, and buying less stuff are truly pioneers. Hopefully we can find our way to sustainability with a minimal amount of dysentery.
So what's my point here? Well, last weekend I went to the Good-Green Jobs Conference put on by the Blue-Green Alliance , which is a unique alliance of union workers and environmentalists. I have never been particularly pro-union, however I liked the idea behind this conference. And I'm happy to piggyback off of the unions' lobbying expertise if it serves "my" interests. I put "my" in quotes because saving the environment is actually in everyone's interest, whether they realize it or not. That's why I voted for Nader in 2000. Yes, I won the election for Bush. If you're upset, email me and I'll give you my address so you can come T.P. my house.
My favorite part of the conference was the rousing speech by Governor Gregoire. She talked about the big 3 auto companies and said that although the huge number of job losses have been extremely sad, the companies are to blame for it because they didn't display any foresight in dealing with environmental issues. And people got really excited when she talked about how Washington is suing the EPA.
Then she talked about how the road to energy independence will be difficult, and compared us all to pioneers. I loved that analogy! It's perfect. For a person who is trying to live with a minimal carbon footprint right now, (and I'm far from being that person) even a small, mundane task can be a huge struggle. How do you visit your parents on the east coast when airplanes emit more carbon per mile than a Hummer H3? How can you join your friends for dinner at a big chain restaurant if you're trying to eat local? Simple things that most people take for granted, such as driving out to the mountains for a hike, or drinking a cold can of soda, become very difficult if not impossible.
The pioneers of the wild west had a really rough time. You all remember Oregon Trail - they got dysentery, their oxen died, they ran out of food. It freakin sucked. But those people paved the way for the rest of us, and made this country great. So the people who are going car-less, grid-less, plane-less, eating less meat, using less water, and buying less stuff are truly pioneers. Hopefully we can find our way to sustainability with a minimal amount of dysentery.
Monday, June 23, 2008
Next Stop is.....
the East Side Motel!
Yeah that's right! Last Wednesday, I heard Warren G sing Regulate, live at the Sodo Showbox! Snoop Dogg, Warren G, and other members of "The Dawg Pound" who I am not really familiar with, played in Seattle last Wednesday.
If I had to describe the show in one word it would be "super-freaking-awesome". Yeah so it's 3 words. I bet in German you could say "The concert at which Snoop Dogg performed Gin and Juice and many members of the audience got high and there was no schnitzel" and it would be one big, long word.
Now if Snoop himself had to describe the concert in one word it would probably be "mother-f***ing". Yeah it's not really a stand-alone adjective. I guess it's some kind of modifier, like 'very'. But from what I could tell it was his favorite word.
So here's how it went down.... the line to get in was reeeelly long. I guess they wanted to make sure security was tight for all those rowdy Seattlites who come out of the woodwork to see Snoop Dogg. And by 'rowdy Seattlites' I mean mostly caucasian graduate students. We seem to be Snoop's biggest fan base. Maybe someone should do a study on this - how many people who grew up listening to Doggystyle now have advanced degrees? I think listening to Snoop Dogg just may make you smarter!
After the 'Dawg Pound' performed, there was a pretty long gap before Snoop came out. At one point, they played Flashight, by Parliament. I got quite excited by this - I discovered Parliament through Snoop's music, and they are now one of my favorite bands. I thought he'd come on any second, but no such luck. As it got close to midnight, the fans' excitement started waning, and at one point people started booing. I would just like to state on the record that I never booed. I know it's annoying when performers make you wait around a lot, but I love Snoop way too much to boo. Honestly, he was probably on the phone with his high-school-sweetheart wife - she had a rough week apparently, getting a DUI and all that.
Anyway, although it was late (and on a school night!) and I was quite tired, I was super pumped when Snoop finally came on stage! He was wearing a baggy black t-shirt that said "West Side" on it. LOL. Now I see why rappers spend so much money on stuff like gold teeth or diamond necklaces that say "Crunk" on them. They only spend like $9.99 on their t-shirts, so they have lots of money left over burning holes in their pockets. :)
I loved seeing Snoop dance around on stage - he seemed like he was having a good time. And he performed all his biggest hits! Oh and Sensual Seduction too. Burn! Sorry Snoop, I love you to death but I'm not a super big fan of that one.
Seriously, it was one of the best concerts I have ever been to. Usually bands love to play all their new stuff, which no one has heard yet. And they're so tired of their old songs.... like when I saw Weezer at Coachella a few years ago. I swear Rivers Cuomo was rolling his eyes during the entire Sweater song. But Snoop happily sang Gin & Juice, What's My Name, etc.
Snoop, if you ever want to hear about Gaussian mixture models, I am here for you. And when I want to hear about b*****s in the living room getting it on, I turn to you. Your music makes this world a better place.
Yeah that's right! Last Wednesday, I heard Warren G sing Regulate, live at the Sodo Showbox! Snoop Dogg, Warren G, and other members of "The Dawg Pound" who I am not really familiar with, played in Seattle last Wednesday.
If I had to describe the show in one word it would be "super-freaking-awesome". Yeah so it's 3 words. I bet in German you could say "The concert at which Snoop Dogg performed Gin and Juice and many members of the audience got high and there was no schnitzel" and it would be one big, long word.
Now if Snoop himself had to describe the concert in one word it would probably be "mother-f***ing". Yeah it's not really a stand-alone adjective. I guess it's some kind of modifier, like 'very'. But from what I could tell it was his favorite word.
So here's how it went down.... the line to get in was reeeelly long. I guess they wanted to make sure security was tight for all those rowdy Seattlites who come out of the woodwork to see Snoop Dogg. And by 'rowdy Seattlites' I mean mostly caucasian graduate students. We seem to be Snoop's biggest fan base. Maybe someone should do a study on this - how many people who grew up listening to Doggystyle now have advanced degrees? I think listening to Snoop Dogg just may make you smarter!
After the 'Dawg Pound' performed, there was a pretty long gap before Snoop came out. At one point, they played Flashight, by Parliament. I got quite excited by this - I discovered Parliament through Snoop's music, and they are now one of my favorite bands. I thought he'd come on any second, but no such luck. As it got close to midnight, the fans' excitement started waning, and at one point people started booing. I would just like to state on the record that I never booed. I know it's annoying when performers make you wait around a lot, but I love Snoop way too much to boo. Honestly, he was probably on the phone with his high-school-sweetheart wife - she had a rough week apparently, getting a DUI and all that.
Anyway, although it was late (and on a school night!) and I was quite tired, I was super pumped when Snoop finally came on stage! He was wearing a baggy black t-shirt that said "West Side" on it. LOL. Now I see why rappers spend so much money on stuff like gold teeth or diamond necklaces that say "Crunk" on them. They only spend like $9.99 on their t-shirts, so they have lots of money left over burning holes in their pockets. :)
I loved seeing Snoop dance around on stage - he seemed like he was having a good time. And he performed all his biggest hits! Oh and Sensual Seduction too. Burn! Sorry Snoop, I love you to death but I'm not a super big fan of that one.
Seriously, it was one of the best concerts I have ever been to. Usually bands love to play all their new stuff, which no one has heard yet. And they're so tired of their old songs.... like when I saw Weezer at Coachella a few years ago. I swear Rivers Cuomo was rolling his eyes during the entire Sweater song. But Snoop happily sang Gin & Juice, What's My Name, etc.
Snoop, if you ever want to hear about Gaussian mixture models, I am here for you. And when I want to hear about b*****s in the living room getting it on, I turn to you. Your music makes this world a better place.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Tucson is Getting Cooler
I looked at houses in Tucson yesterday. Don't ask me why - it's just an old habit. I always went to www.tarmls.com and did searches on 85701. That's the 'cool' area by downtown. It has the super awesome Armory Park del Sol neighborhood - there's a great article about that here .
Now it looks like the Mercado District homes are done too, and there were some new loft on there that I hadn't seen before. I wish I could remember how much they were asking for those Mercado District row houses in 06 because I have a feeling they're selling for less than that.
If you are reading this and you live in Tucson, please buy this . All I ask is that you let me come hang out there with you next time I'm in Tucson.
Also if anyone knows what's going on with that Rio Nuevo project, let me know. When I was there, it seemed that the very idea of Rio Nuevo was causing houses around downtown to be bid up way higher than what they're worth. So, I'll be very curious to see how that all pans out.
Now it looks like the Mercado District homes are done too, and there were some new loft on there that I hadn't seen before. I wish I could remember how much they were asking for those Mercado District row houses in 06 because I have a feeling they're selling for less than that.
If you are reading this and you live in Tucson, please buy this . All I ask is that you let me come hang out there with you next time I'm in Tucson.
Also if anyone knows what's going on with that Rio Nuevo project, let me know. When I was there, it seemed that the very idea of Rio Nuevo was causing houses around downtown to be bid up way higher than what they're worth. So, I'll be very curious to see how that all pans out.
Monday, June 16, 2008
Lending Club Update #4
Lending Club is still going through their quiet period, but in these dark times of recessions, endangered narwhals, and the Wii fit, I just wanted to assess the status of my LC portfolio.
The late loans have climbed up from 0.7% in March to 1.6% now - and the default rate has gone from 0% to 0.19%.
Out of my 41 loans, one is completely paid off, and the other 40 are all on time. So, no lates for me yet! I have been wishing that the LC would open back up to lenders again, so I could invest more with them. But I think it's actually good that they are quiet now so we can wait and see how the default percentage changes with the gas prices, credit crunch, etc etc. I still really like the idea though - I think as credit gets tighter these peer-2-peer lending services will be playing a valuable role.
The late loans have climbed up from 0.7% in March to 1.6% now - and the default rate has gone from 0% to 0.19%.
Out of my 41 loans, one is completely paid off, and the other 40 are all on time. So, no lates for me yet! I have been wishing that the LC would open back up to lenders again, so I could invest more with them. But I think it's actually good that they are quiet now so we can wait and see how the default percentage changes with the gas prices, credit crunch, etc etc. I still really like the idea though - I think as credit gets tighter these peer-2-peer lending services will be playing a valuable role.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
I got Tagged
1. Post the rules of the game at the beginning.
2. Each player answers the questions about themselves.
3. At the end of the post, the player then tags five people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read the player’s blog.
4. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.
What were you doing five years ago?
Actually, 5 years ago I was in Australia. I was probably almost done with the semester around this time. I pretty much spent my time eating meat pies, and riding the ferry to various locations to do scenic walks.
What are five things on your to-do list for today?
1) Write some perl code(already started this...high 5)
2) Go surfing at del mar!
3) Eat dinner with Irene and her family
4) call my darling boyfriend since I'm so far away from him right now (I'm in San Diego visiting Irene)
5) Do a Spanish placement test for a summer class I want to take
What are five snacks you enjoy?
1) bree, apples and crackers
2) Thai ramen (QFC sucked me in with their damn expensive ramen!)
3) ice cream sandwiches where the outsides are cookies
4) chips and guacamole
5) a cheeseburger from Dick's (they're like, bitesize)
What are five things you would do if you were a billionaire?
1) Stop writing perl code. Or code of any kind, for that matter.
2) Buy my parents and my sister lots of stuff.
3) Start a company to implement my hitch-hiking idea.
4) Buy a boat and sail around the world with Sean (leaving my successful company in the trusty hands of my VP...)
5) Donate to some worthy causes - including the U of A solar car team (if it is still running)
What are five of your bad habits?
1) Talking too loud. Sometimes I just get carried away and the volume keep creeping up.
2) Biting my nails.
3) Procrastinating - usually via web-surfing
4) Interrupting people. I am not quite sure how often I do it, but I think I interrupt Sean fairly often and he is just too nice to tell me.
5) Drinking coffee. Oh wait, that's a GOOD habit! :)
What are five places where you have lived?
1) St. Paul, MN
2) Reno, NV
3) Phoenix, AZ
4) Tucson, AZ
5) Manly, NSW (Australia)
What are five jobs you’ve had? (a short list)
1) Baby-sitting
2) McDonald's - mostly drive-thru, which I kicked butt at, BTW :)
3) physics lab at U of A - undergrad 'researcher' (a.k.a. wrote code)
4) engineer at Raytheon (more coding...)
5) research assistant in the speech lab (still coding...)
PS. That question is sort of depressing for me. it's not a short list for me, that is literally all the jobs I've ever had.
I'm not really sure what appropriate tagging etiquette is... I guess I'll just try a few people and see what happens. I won't be offended if anyone doesn't want to do this.
Brianne/Andy
Cecily
Irene
Sara
Marti
2. Each player answers the questions about themselves.
3. At the end of the post, the player then tags five people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read the player’s blog.
4. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.
What were you doing five years ago?
Actually, 5 years ago I was in Australia. I was probably almost done with the semester around this time. I pretty much spent my time eating meat pies, and riding the ferry to various locations to do scenic walks.
What are five things on your to-do list for today?
1) Write some perl code(already started this...high 5)
2) Go surfing at del mar!
3) Eat dinner with Irene and her family
4) call my darling boyfriend since I'm so far away from him right now (I'm in San Diego visiting Irene)
5) Do a Spanish placement test for a summer class I want to take
What are five snacks you enjoy?
1) bree, apples and crackers
2) Thai ramen (QFC sucked me in with their damn expensive ramen!)
3) ice cream sandwiches where the outsides are cookies
4) chips and guacamole
5) a cheeseburger from Dick's (they're like, bitesize)
What are five things you would do if you were a billionaire?
1) Stop writing perl code. Or code of any kind, for that matter.
2) Buy my parents and my sister lots of stuff.
3) Start a company to implement my hitch-hiking idea.
4) Buy a boat and sail around the world with Sean (leaving my successful company in the trusty hands of my VP...)
5) Donate to some worthy causes - including the U of A solar car team (if it is still running)
What are five of your bad habits?
1) Talking too loud. Sometimes I just get carried away and the volume keep creeping up.
2) Biting my nails.
3) Procrastinating - usually via web-surfing
4) Interrupting people. I am not quite sure how often I do it, but I think I interrupt Sean fairly often and he is just too nice to tell me.
5) Drinking coffee. Oh wait, that's a GOOD habit! :)
What are five places where you have lived?
1) St. Paul, MN
2) Reno, NV
3) Phoenix, AZ
4) Tucson, AZ
5) Manly, NSW (Australia)
What are five jobs you’ve had? (a short list)
1) Baby-sitting
2) McDonald's - mostly drive-thru, which I kicked butt at, BTW :)
3) physics lab at U of A - undergrad 'researcher' (a.k.a. wrote code)
4) engineer at Raytheon (more coding...)
5) research assistant in the speech lab (still coding...)
PS. That question is sort of depressing for me. it's not a short list for me, that is literally all the jobs I've ever had.
I'm not really sure what appropriate tagging etiquette is... I guess I'll just try a few people and see what happens. I won't be offended if anyone doesn't want to do this.
Brianne/Andy
Cecily
Irene
Sara
Marti
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
100 Things
I came across this post while surfing on blogexplosion, and I laughed out loud reading it! So I thought it would be really fun to do my own.... here you go!
100 Things About Me
1. My first home was in Falcon Heights, MN.
2. It was so close to the state fairgrounds that we could see the fireworks from our upstairs window.
3. My sister and I shared a room, and we played multi-day games with our My Little Ponies.
4. My second home was in Reno, NV.
5. Our mom sometimes let us pick the numbers for Keno while we ate at buffets.
6. In 4th grade my favorite song was "Blame it on the Rain" by Milli Vanilli.
7. My first concert was Gloria Estafan, and I loved it!
8. I did ballet for 7 or 8 years as a kid. I am still not that graceful, so I can only imagine how bad it would be if I hadn't done ballet!
9. I played clarinet from 6th grade through my first year of undergrad.
10. I had 5 majors in college (University of Arizona) which were the following: economics, music education, mechanical engineering, computer engineering, and applied math.
11. After 6 years, I finally graduated with BS degrees in computer engineering and applied math.
12. During college I spent a semester studying abroad in Sydney, Australia.
13. I tell people I went to Sydney to study abroad, which is true, but the real reason I went there was for a guy.
14. It didn't work out with the guy. But Sydney was a great place!!
15. Aside from baby-sitting, my first real job was at McDonald's.
16. I got really sick of their fries and still won't eat them.
17. I spent two years in college on the solar car team.
18. When we went to the American Solar Challenge to race the solar car, I was the one who performed all the safety tests. Someone had to get unbuckled and out of the car in under 10 seconds, so I did it because I was the smallest. The reason I was the smallest is that I was the only girl on the team.
19. I have been to Europe 7 times. I actually had had enough after the 6th time, but last summer my boyfriend was in Italy, so I went to visit him.
20. When I was in Spain in 1998, we went to a capea, which is a bull-fight with a baby bull.
21. All of us in my group got to go into the bull ring and try out bull-fighting. I was really scared but I did it, and after we moved the flag and the bull ran though, I was so excited!
22. Little did I know that the bull went behind me, turned around, and then started heading back towards me. People told me to run but the bull was faster and it headed me in the butt! (It didn't really hurt, as I remember - just a little scary).
23. One time in high school a guy told me (via a friend, of course) that he wouldn't ask me out because I liked star trek.
24. I have autographs from several famous Star Trek actors, including Michael Dorn and Marina Sirtis. So who's laughing now?
25. I also have a phone that is shaped like the Starship Enterprise. Too bad no one uses landlines anymore.
26. Most of my boyfriends have been engineers. For some reason, none of them has liked Star Trek.
27. I have always loved to plan parties. In high school I organized a "lock-in" for about 30 friends at this indoor jungle gym.
28. My parties keep getting bigger. In undergrad, I threw lots of house parties and a formal dance for the Society of Women Engineers.
29. Last month (May 08) I threw a boat party for 110 of my closest friends. Ok I didn't know most of them. :) But it was a great party!
30. When I turn 30 I want to have a spectacular party. Hopefully a rooftop party.
31. I used to write restaurant reviews on my website www.thefoodlog.com
32. I once wrote an article about 5 different ways to make mac & cheese - actually each way just involves adding different mix-ins to your mac & cheese.
33. I could probably open a store that is like Coldstone Creamery but for mac & cheese. I think it would fill an important market niche.
34. When I was a kid in Phoenix, my sister and I swam in the pool almost every day. (We were way too old to be playing ponies by then.)
35. I used to pretend I was a mermaid a lot.
36. I have been making mix tapes for about as long as I've been throwing parties.
37. In high school I used to record songs off of the radio, and I think my mix tapes are still in my mom's house in a box.
38. In the late 90's, we got our first web browser and I somehow found a place where you could download 30 second wav files, which I used to make (really short) mixes.
39. I recently found a website (www.mixaloo.com) where you can make your own mixes. I was so excited when I found this, if I were a gymnast, I would have done a backflip!
40. I'm really bad at directions!
41. Last summer I got directions from a blind person. I'm not kidding.
42. In my defense, I think that blind people have a lot more incentive to memorize the location of things.
43. I started undergrad when I was 17.
44. I had to 'sneak into' the rock gym, i.e. lie and say I was 18, because if you're under 18 you need parental permission. Luckily they didn't card me.
45. I actually got a fake ID when I was 19.
46. The first place I tried to use it was Zachary's pizza in Tucson. I was so excited to go in there and use my ID, and then when I asked for a beer they didn't even card me!
47. I got the ID taken away about a year later at O'Malleys, in Tucson.
48. I am totally addicted to caffeine. Sometimes I think about quitting, but I don't really want to.
49. One of my favorite things about living in Seattle is the abundance of coffee shops with free wifi.
50. My favorite Seattle drink is the Cozy Latte at Zoka's. But despite all the awesome coffee shops here, I still love the caramel macchiatto at Starbucks.
51. Aside from McDonalds (and baby-sitting) all of my jobs have been coding jobs. These days I mostly write perl and bash scripts, with the odd dash of Matlab.
52. Sometimes I wish I were a mailman. I think it would be nice to be outside every day... but I hate driving so that probably wouldn't work out so well.
53. I have done some volunteering on and off, usually spurred by some kind of boredom.
54. In high school I volunteered at two nursing homes. I mostly just helped push patients to and from lunch, bingo, etc. Sometimes I'd take them outside or just hang out and chat.
55. I liked most of the work at the nursing homes, but I hated making toast. During meals people always wanted toast, and I never made it right! It was always too light or too dark. So I threw away a lot of toast.
56. My next big volunteer stint was with Big Brothers Big Sisters after I finished undergrad.
57. My 'little sister' loved to go to the drive in, and it was great because tickets were only $2! I learned that kids have horrible taste in movies, but it was fun.
58. I just started volunteering again, this time at the IRC teaching refugees to use computers.
59. The volunteering is great for me because it puts some structure into my schedule. In grad school my schedule is very amorphous.
60. I love traveling! I have been to 20 countries outside of the US.
61. I still have a long list of countries that I want to go to.
62. Another thing that I love almost as much as traveling, mix tapes, and throwing parties is trying new foods.
63. I love all the Thai food, Indian food, and salmon in Seattle, but I really miss the authentic Sonoran food I had in Tucson.
64. I bought a house in Tucson that was close to my work, but I ended up hating it because it was far away from everything else.
65. The one good thing about my house was that it was near a famous taco stand called El Guero Canelo.
66. El Guero Canelo was quite good, but there was one across the street called BK's that I liked better because it had shorter lines and better guacamole.
67. At taco stands I always ordered a caramelo. It's a quesadilla but with meat in it. So good! And to drink I'd either get horchata or a manzana lift. You can't take away your drink there because you have to leave the glass bottle when you're done. They reuse them. (Or I guess send them to a bottling plant?)
68. I don't own an iPod, even though I love music a lot. I might be the last person on earth to buy one.
69. I almost bought one but I got a Nokia 5300 phone, which plays music. It's not quite as nice as an iPod but for me it's close enough.
70. Plus I got the Nokia for free because my roommate works at T-Mobile. I have some mad hook-ups.
71. The most roommates I have had at one time is 3. This is when I lived on 6th street in Tucson. That house was a fantastic party house.
72. I lived with my sister 3 different times, not including growing up with her.
73. I really miss my sister and because we live far apart now it's unlikely we will ever live together again. She was a great roommate and I loved borrowing her clothes.
74. I want to get a second home in Costa Rica. (Or possibly a first home.) Hopefully my sister will come down there and visit me a lot.
75. I took Spanish all through high school so I'm kind of decent at it.
76. I have also taken one semester each of Polish and German.
77. I have a short attention span.
78. Sometimes I try to play sports even though I am really bad at them.
79. In college I played intermural soccer for a couple seasons.
80. When I was working I played on a company softball team.
81. The first season I kept striking out, but the team loved me because they had a rule that whoever strikes out has to buy beer next time.
82. I started going to the batting cage to practice, and decided to buy my own bat.
83. I accidentally bought a kid's sized bat. People on my team laughed at me, but I still have that bat. I think for my skill level it was a fine bat.
84. My favorite sports are not team sports, they are surfing, wakeboarding, skiing, and running. I guess I mostly like expensive sports.
85. When I was 19 I discovered wakeboarding and I was really excited about it. But I couldn't go very often because I lived in Tucson, so I bought a skateboard to practice on.
86. I didn't get very good at skateboarding. But there's nothing cooler-looking than a grown woman trying to learn how to skateboard!
87. I ran a half marathon last November. That was the ultimate athletic achievement of my life.
88. In undergrad I spent a lot of time in the library. Some friends and I once broke into a study room because we couldn't find an available one to use.
89. My friend Scott climbed through the ceiling and opened the door from the inside, then took apart the look and pushed all the pins down so that we could open the door with a credit card. It was our personal study room for the rest of the year, and I brought my own whiteboard and hung it up in the room.
90. In high school I was in the environmental club. We had a contest to see who could bring in the most recycle logos (cut out from a cardboard box or something like that). I fell into my mom's recycle bin trying to win that contest. If I remember correctly, I did not win.
91. I used to think that the Sierra Club was full of crazy radicals, but last year I met someone who is in it and is really normal, so I decided to join.
92. I'm now a crazy radical. (JK...)
93. I hate driving, which is one of the main reasons I moved to Seattle.
94. One of my dreams is to never have to drive again. Hopefully I will be contemplating my lack of driving while sipping cocktails on the beach in Costa Rica.
95. I fell in love with drinking when I got to college - mostly because I am really shy.
96. Drinking definitely changed my life for the better, and gave me some great funny stories that I can tell my grandkids.
97. For example, one time I woke up in my going-out clothes but with no pants on. (Nothing bad happened ... )
98. I once ate 10 tacos from Del Taco in an hour. I didn't feel super good afterwards, but I didn't suffer a 'reversal'.
99. I still sleep with my teddy bear Toto who I have had since before I can remember.
100. That was way too fun... I must really be full of myself!! :)
100 Things About Me
1. My first home was in Falcon Heights, MN.
2. It was so close to the state fairgrounds that we could see the fireworks from our upstairs window.
3. My sister and I shared a room, and we played multi-day games with our My Little Ponies.
4. My second home was in Reno, NV.
5. Our mom sometimes let us pick the numbers for Keno while we ate at buffets.
6. In 4th grade my favorite song was "Blame it on the Rain" by Milli Vanilli.
7. My first concert was Gloria Estafan, and I loved it!
8. I did ballet for 7 or 8 years as a kid. I am still not that graceful, so I can only imagine how bad it would be if I hadn't done ballet!
9. I played clarinet from 6th grade through my first year of undergrad.
10. I had 5 majors in college (University of Arizona) which were the following: economics, music education, mechanical engineering, computer engineering, and applied math.
11. After 6 years, I finally graduated with BS degrees in computer engineering and applied math.
12. During college I spent a semester studying abroad in Sydney, Australia.
13. I tell people I went to Sydney to study abroad, which is true, but the real reason I went there was for a guy.
14. It didn't work out with the guy. But Sydney was a great place!!
15. Aside from baby-sitting, my first real job was at McDonald's.
16. I got really sick of their fries and still won't eat them.
17. I spent two years in college on the solar car team.
18. When we went to the American Solar Challenge to race the solar car, I was the one who performed all the safety tests. Someone had to get unbuckled and out of the car in under 10 seconds, so I did it because I was the smallest. The reason I was the smallest is that I was the only girl on the team.
19. I have been to Europe 7 times. I actually had had enough after the 6th time, but last summer my boyfriend was in Italy, so I went to visit him.
20. When I was in Spain in 1998, we went to a capea, which is a bull-fight with a baby bull.
21. All of us in my group got to go into the bull ring and try out bull-fighting. I was really scared but I did it, and after we moved the flag and the bull ran though, I was so excited!
22. Little did I know that the bull went behind me, turned around, and then started heading back towards me. People told me to run but the bull was faster and it headed me in the butt! (It didn't really hurt, as I remember - just a little scary).
23. One time in high school a guy told me (via a friend, of course) that he wouldn't ask me out because I liked star trek.
24. I have autographs from several famous Star Trek actors, including Michael Dorn and Marina Sirtis. So who's laughing now?
25. I also have a phone that is shaped like the Starship Enterprise. Too bad no one uses landlines anymore.
26. Most of my boyfriends have been engineers. For some reason, none of them has liked Star Trek.
27. I have always loved to plan parties. In high school I organized a "lock-in" for about 30 friends at this indoor jungle gym.
28. My parties keep getting bigger. In undergrad, I threw lots of house parties and a formal dance for the Society of Women Engineers.
29. Last month (May 08) I threw a boat party for 110 of my closest friends. Ok I didn't know most of them. :) But it was a great party!
30. When I turn 30 I want to have a spectacular party. Hopefully a rooftop party.
31. I used to write restaurant reviews on my website www.thefoodlog.com
32. I once wrote an article about 5 different ways to make mac & cheese - actually each way just involves adding different mix-ins to your mac & cheese.
33. I could probably open a store that is like Coldstone Creamery but for mac & cheese. I think it would fill an important market niche.
34. When I was a kid in Phoenix, my sister and I swam in the pool almost every day. (We were way too old to be playing ponies by then.)
35. I used to pretend I was a mermaid a lot.
36. I have been making mix tapes for about as long as I've been throwing parties.
37. In high school I used to record songs off of the radio, and I think my mix tapes are still in my mom's house in a box.
38. In the late 90's, we got our first web browser and I somehow found a place where you could download 30 second wav files, which I used to make (really short) mixes.
39. I recently found a website (www.mixaloo.com) where you can make your own mixes. I was so excited when I found this, if I were a gymnast, I would have done a backflip!
40. I'm really bad at directions!
41. Last summer I got directions from a blind person. I'm not kidding.
42. In my defense, I think that blind people have a lot more incentive to memorize the location of things.
43. I started undergrad when I was 17.
44. I had to 'sneak into' the rock gym, i.e. lie and say I was 18, because if you're under 18 you need parental permission. Luckily they didn't card me.
45. I actually got a fake ID when I was 19.
46. The first place I tried to use it was Zachary's pizza in Tucson. I was so excited to go in there and use my ID, and then when I asked for a beer they didn't even card me!
47. I got the ID taken away about a year later at O'Malleys, in Tucson.
48. I am totally addicted to caffeine. Sometimes I think about quitting, but I don't really want to.
49. One of my favorite things about living in Seattle is the abundance of coffee shops with free wifi.
50. My favorite Seattle drink is the Cozy Latte at Zoka's. But despite all the awesome coffee shops here, I still love the caramel macchiatto at Starbucks.
51. Aside from McDonalds (and baby-sitting) all of my jobs have been coding jobs. These days I mostly write perl and bash scripts, with the odd dash of Matlab.
52. Sometimes I wish I were a mailman. I think it would be nice to be outside every day... but I hate driving so that probably wouldn't work out so well.
53. I have done some volunteering on and off, usually spurred by some kind of boredom.
54. In high school I volunteered at two nursing homes. I mostly just helped push patients to and from lunch, bingo, etc. Sometimes I'd take them outside or just hang out and chat.
55. I liked most of the work at the nursing homes, but I hated making toast. During meals people always wanted toast, and I never made it right! It was always too light or too dark. So I threw away a lot of toast.
56. My next big volunteer stint was with Big Brothers Big Sisters after I finished undergrad.
57. My 'little sister' loved to go to the drive in, and it was great because tickets were only $2! I learned that kids have horrible taste in movies, but it was fun.
58. I just started volunteering again, this time at the IRC teaching refugees to use computers.
59. The volunteering is great for me because it puts some structure into my schedule. In grad school my schedule is very amorphous.
60. I love traveling! I have been to 20 countries outside of the US.
61. I still have a long list of countries that I want to go to.
62. Another thing that I love almost as much as traveling, mix tapes, and throwing parties is trying new foods.
63. I love all the Thai food, Indian food, and salmon in Seattle, but I really miss the authentic Sonoran food I had in Tucson.
64. I bought a house in Tucson that was close to my work, but I ended up hating it because it was far away from everything else.
65. The one good thing about my house was that it was near a famous taco stand called El Guero Canelo.
66. El Guero Canelo was quite good, but there was one across the street called BK's that I liked better because it had shorter lines and better guacamole.
67. At taco stands I always ordered a caramelo. It's a quesadilla but with meat in it. So good! And to drink I'd either get horchata or a manzana lift. You can't take away your drink there because you have to leave the glass bottle when you're done. They reuse them. (Or I guess send them to a bottling plant?)
68. I don't own an iPod, even though I love music a lot. I might be the last person on earth to buy one.
69. I almost bought one but I got a Nokia 5300 phone, which plays music. It's not quite as nice as an iPod but for me it's close enough.
70. Plus I got the Nokia for free because my roommate works at T-Mobile. I have some mad hook-ups.
71. The most roommates I have had at one time is 3. This is when I lived on 6th street in Tucson. That house was a fantastic party house.
72. I lived with my sister 3 different times, not including growing up with her.
73. I really miss my sister and because we live far apart now it's unlikely we will ever live together again. She was a great roommate and I loved borrowing her clothes.
74. I want to get a second home in Costa Rica. (Or possibly a first home.) Hopefully my sister will come down there and visit me a lot.
75. I took Spanish all through high school so I'm kind of decent at it.
76. I have also taken one semester each of Polish and German.
77. I have a short attention span.
78. Sometimes I try to play sports even though I am really bad at them.
79. In college I played intermural soccer for a couple seasons.
80. When I was working I played on a company softball team.
81. The first season I kept striking out, but the team loved me because they had a rule that whoever strikes out has to buy beer next time.
82. I started going to the batting cage to practice, and decided to buy my own bat.
83. I accidentally bought a kid's sized bat. People on my team laughed at me, but I still have that bat. I think for my skill level it was a fine bat.
84. My favorite sports are not team sports, they are surfing, wakeboarding, skiing, and running. I guess I mostly like expensive sports.
85. When I was 19 I discovered wakeboarding and I was really excited about it. But I couldn't go very often because I lived in Tucson, so I bought a skateboard to practice on.
86. I didn't get very good at skateboarding. But there's nothing cooler-looking than a grown woman trying to learn how to skateboard!
87. I ran a half marathon last November. That was the ultimate athletic achievement of my life.
88. In undergrad I spent a lot of time in the library. Some friends and I once broke into a study room because we couldn't find an available one to use.
89. My friend Scott climbed through the ceiling and opened the door from the inside, then took apart the look and pushed all the pins down so that we could open the door with a credit card. It was our personal study room for the rest of the year, and I brought my own whiteboard and hung it up in the room.
90. In high school I was in the environmental club. We had a contest to see who could bring in the most recycle logos (cut out from a cardboard box or something like that). I fell into my mom's recycle bin trying to win that contest. If I remember correctly, I did not win.
91. I used to think that the Sierra Club was full of crazy radicals, but last year I met someone who is in it and is really normal, so I decided to join.
92. I'm now a crazy radical. (JK...)
93. I hate driving, which is one of the main reasons I moved to Seattle.
94. One of my dreams is to never have to drive again. Hopefully I will be contemplating my lack of driving while sipping cocktails on the beach in Costa Rica.
95. I fell in love with drinking when I got to college - mostly because I am really shy.
96. Drinking definitely changed my life for the better, and gave me some great funny stories that I can tell my grandkids.
97. For example, one time I woke up in my going-out clothes but with no pants on. (Nothing bad happened ... )
98. I once ate 10 tacos from Del Taco in an hour. I didn't feel super good afterwards, but I didn't suffer a 'reversal'.
99. I still sleep with my teddy bear Toto who I have had since before I can remember.
100. That was way too fun... I must really be full of myself!! :)
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Internet Scavenger Hunt
A few weeks ago I started volunteering at the IRC , which is an agency that provides help to refugees. I actually got this idea from reading this blog , which I had just randomly started reading one day when I was homesick for Tucson.
Right now I have two students who I tutor once a week, teaching them how to use a computer. They are both from Burma and neither one had used a computer before. It's really fun and interesting, and also more challenging than I imagined! I thought it would be a piece of cake... just see what they know about computers and start showing them how to do stuff. Use the mouse, open a Word document, etc. Except I forgot one thing - they also barely understand or speak English. It's amazing how much you take that communication medium for granted!!
So, I'm having fun coming up with new ideas, and one thing I want to do now that one of my students is getting to know some of the basics is have her do an internet scavenger hunt. (Ok, I'll probably have to walk her through most of the steps still, but it at least gives me a framework for a lesson, which is something I hadn't ever thought about before.)
I'll post what I have come up with so far, and if anyone has any ideas, please tell me! If I come up with enough things I'll probably split them into easy, medium, and hard, so feel free to suggest something at any level. Thanks!
1. Find a picture of a fish.
2. Find a website that has your name on it.
3. Find the address of the nearest library to your house.
4. Find the predicted high temperature for this Saturday.
5. Which buses would you take to go from the airport to the space needle?
6. What colors are on the Italian flag?
7. What year did Washington become a state?
8. How many quarts are in 5 gallons?
Right now I have two students who I tutor once a week, teaching them how to use a computer. They are both from Burma and neither one had used a computer before. It's really fun and interesting, and also more challenging than I imagined! I thought it would be a piece of cake... just see what they know about computers and start showing them how to do stuff. Use the mouse, open a Word document, etc. Except I forgot one thing - they also barely understand or speak English. It's amazing how much you take that communication medium for granted!!
So, I'm having fun coming up with new ideas, and one thing I want to do now that one of my students is getting to know some of the basics is have her do an internet scavenger hunt. (Ok, I'll probably have to walk her through most of the steps still, but it at least gives me a framework for a lesson, which is something I hadn't ever thought about before.)
I'll post what I have come up with so far, and if anyone has any ideas, please tell me! If I come up with enough things I'll probably split them into easy, medium, and hard, so feel free to suggest something at any level. Thanks!
1. Find a picture of a fish.
2. Find a website that has your name on it.
3. Find the address of the nearest library to your house.
4. Find the predicted high temperature for this Saturday.
5. Which buses would you take to go from the airport to the space needle?
6. What colors are on the Italian flag?
7. What year did Washington become a state?
8. How many quarts are in 5 gallons?
Friday, June 6, 2008
Stuff Engineers Like #4 - Engineering Paper
If you are not an engineer, or haven't hung out with engineers much, you may be asking yourself "what is engineering paper?" Or perhaps, "why are engineers so awesome that they have their own paper?" Which is a good question. I mean, there's no 'physics paper' or 'art history paper'.
Of course, the exclusivity may be part of the reason why engineers love this paper. If you know and love engineering paper, then you are part of a special club. To be a member of this club, you must have taken several undergraduate classes which involve drawing complex diagrams and/or graphs. Physics, vector calculus, drafting, circuits, and many others fit this bill. So no matter which engineering discipline you are in, you've had at least one teacher who insists on homeworks being turned in on engineering paper.
Nowadays I don't have a need to use engineering paper that often. But when I see that yellow paper superimposed with green grid lines, I am filled with a warm feeling of nostalgia. It reminds me of happy days - studying with friends in the library, complaining about how hard our ECE 220 multiple-choice exams were. Ahh, those days, when you had homework problems like "So there's a guy on the end of a cantilever beam..." Sigh. No monte carlo simulations needed to solve that. And then, your grandpa shows up at the library and gives you a Werther's Original. That's engineering paper man.
Of course, the exclusivity may be part of the reason why engineers love this paper. If you know and love engineering paper, then you are part of a special club. To be a member of this club, you must have taken several undergraduate classes which involve drawing complex diagrams and/or graphs. Physics, vector calculus, drafting, circuits, and many others fit this bill. So no matter which engineering discipline you are in, you've had at least one teacher who insists on homeworks being turned in on engineering paper.
Nowadays I don't have a need to use engineering paper that often. But when I see that yellow paper superimposed with green grid lines, I am filled with a warm feeling of nostalgia. It reminds me of happy days - studying with friends in the library, complaining about how hard our ECE 220 multiple-choice exams were. Ahh, those days, when you had homework problems like "So there's a guy on the end of a cantilever beam..." Sigh. No monte carlo simulations needed to solve that. And then, your grandpa shows up at the library and gives you a Werther's Original. That's engineering paper man.
Thursday, June 5, 2008
My Advice to my Younger Self
Have you ever thought about what you would tell yourself if you could go back in time? I actually used to wish that I had advice from my older self when I was a teenager. Is that weird? I somehow had great faith that my older self would be cool - living by herself, probably in a loft, eating cereal out of a handmade ceramic bowl. Why the cereal? I'm not sure. I guess cereal was an important part of my life.
Anyway, I guess I turned out pretty OK, and I have lived by myself off and on. And I always take my U of A bowl with me. I didn't make it myself but it's a nice bowl with a flower on it. But if I ask myself what advice I would give little Amy, I'm usually baffled. 10 years out of high school I sometimes feel like I have figured nothing out. With the possible exception of how to decompose a signal into orthogonal basis functions. ;)
But today I finally thought of an important piece of advice that I wish someone had told me. Here it is....drumroll..... Don't worry about money.
Gasp! I don't mean ignore money, or spend it frivolously. I just mean don't plan your life around it. Now, I wasn't a greedy kid, and I still don't think I'm too greedy. I wasn't someone who wanted to become a millionaire by the time I hit 30. In fact, I didn't think too much about money at all. Yet somehow, I worried about it a lot. I knew that my parents had worked hard to save up a good chunk of money for me to go to college. But I also knew that that money was not nearly enough to pay for 4 years at a private school. Let's say maybe 2 if I were lucky. So I didn't even apply to a single school other than U of A. (U of A was giving me a tuition waiver plus some other scholarships which would cover the dorm cost.) I looked at my options and even going to U of Minnesota with in-state tuition would have cost much more. And although I wanted to live by the ocean and heard great things about USCD, I didn't even go visit the campus.
After college, my fiscal conservatism continued. During college I had spent half a year living by the beach in Sydney, and I knew that places to live don't get much better than that. Still, I took a job in Tucson, rather than taking a risk and moving somewhere beautiful.
Yes, moving somewhere without a job could mean that you blow through some savings, or even go into debt! But this is America. With enough persistence anyone who is willing to work can find a job. And besides, you'd be amazed what you can live without. I am living on a pretty tight budget now, and I've almost entirely given up fancy coffee drinks, magazines, living in a mold-free house, and several other niceties. But I love being in Seattle so it doesn't bother me too much. (I'll admit once in a while I get a craving to buy something and it bugs me a tiny bit... but I power through!)
Unfortunately, now that I'm finally figuring out this lesson, my time to experiment and have those kinds of adventures is almost over. Sometimes you have to make choices in life that have nothing to do with how you spend your money. Now I guess I need the Amy from 2018 to come back and tell me how she got through all this.
Anyway, I guess I turned out pretty OK, and I have lived by myself off and on. And I always take my U of A bowl with me. I didn't make it myself but it's a nice bowl with a flower on it. But if I ask myself what advice I would give little Amy, I'm usually baffled. 10 years out of high school I sometimes feel like I have figured nothing out. With the possible exception of how to decompose a signal into orthogonal basis functions. ;)
But today I finally thought of an important piece of advice that I wish someone had told me. Here it is....drumroll..... Don't worry about money.
Gasp! I don't mean ignore money, or spend it frivolously. I just mean don't plan your life around it. Now, I wasn't a greedy kid, and I still don't think I'm too greedy. I wasn't someone who wanted to become a millionaire by the time I hit 30. In fact, I didn't think too much about money at all. Yet somehow, I worried about it a lot. I knew that my parents had worked hard to save up a good chunk of money for me to go to college. But I also knew that that money was not nearly enough to pay for 4 years at a private school. Let's say maybe 2 if I were lucky. So I didn't even apply to a single school other than U of A. (U of A was giving me a tuition waiver plus some other scholarships which would cover the dorm cost.) I looked at my options and even going to U of Minnesota with in-state tuition would have cost much more. And although I wanted to live by the ocean and heard great things about USCD, I didn't even go visit the campus.
After college, my fiscal conservatism continued. During college I had spent half a year living by the beach in Sydney, and I knew that places to live don't get much better than that. Still, I took a job in Tucson, rather than taking a risk and moving somewhere beautiful.
Yes, moving somewhere without a job could mean that you blow through some savings, or even go into debt! But this is America. With enough persistence anyone who is willing to work can find a job. And besides, you'd be amazed what you can live without. I am living on a pretty tight budget now, and I've almost entirely given up fancy coffee drinks, magazines, living in a mold-free house, and several other niceties. But I love being in Seattle so it doesn't bother me too much. (I'll admit once in a while I get a craving to buy something and it bugs me a tiny bit... but I power through!)
Unfortunately, now that I'm finally figuring out this lesson, my time to experiment and have those kinds of adventures is almost over. Sometimes you have to make choices in life that have nothing to do with how you spend your money. Now I guess I need the Amy from 2018 to come back and tell me how she got through all this.
Sunday, June 1, 2008
My Boat Party Mix
I just found out about this website the other day where you can make mixes and get part of the money if anyone buys them. They are missing a few very crucial songs such as "Gimme that Nut" but overall I think they're ok.
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