I have been traveling and sick recently (those are unrelated I am pretty sure). I have to say 4 hours on a plane is getting pretty painful. I did find someone to talk to on the way back. He was studying C++ on the plane and I asked him why he was learning that (C++ is way more painful than Java for object oriented programming and C is way better for learning the internals of a computer). So I got to talk to him for quite a while. He is looking for a job as a quant after spending the last 5 years teaching as an assistant professor in math. It was an interesting conversation, made me remember how good of a job I actually have most days.
I had a couple of interesting experiences while doing my usual green commute back home. On the light rail (which is brand-new BTW) I watch 3 girls get on who had the biggest potty mouths and the poorest grasp of the english language I have seen in a long time. We are talking bad language. I can remember being that age and having the same pointless conversations about who did what to whom and whose cousin could help in a fight (for reference none of my cousins could help). But this made me feel really old. All I could think was how uneducated they sounded and how much they will be disadvantaged in life. Additionally, they had poor attitudes. One girl was picking the decals off the window for the train. The older lady behind them asked them not to do that because her tax dollars paid for that and someone would have to replace it. Then I heard a conversation I could not believe where these young girls just dismissed and insulted this lady. Incredible, their parents should get out the spanking paddle for this conversation. The girl continued to do it insisting that the lady couldn't tell her what to do. Then the lady mentioned something about her tax dollars paying for their education and the girls were like 'no, my mom pays'. It was obvious the girls did not go to any private school because no private school would ever let their children act like that. It was pretty amazing how disjoint from reality their perceptions of the world are. Even if they went to a private school the state still sends tax payer dollars their way for a wealth of programs (that aren't helping these girls obviously). It was just amazing, I really want to do something. I know older people always complain about the younger generation but this was quite incredible. These girls, if they continue on their course, will never amount to anything, no one with the attitude and language that they showed could ever go anywhere. It just made me feel very old and sad for them.
Then when I was walking around downtown there was this kid on a skateboard who almost ran into me while he was trying to run a red walk signal (for reference he was completely wrong to even try). To which I was of course at fault and he called me a 'fucking idiot'. A completely ridiculous statement. I wasn't the asshole who fell off my skateboard nor the idiot who thought I had the right of way when I didn't.
It was just a couple of incidents that made me feel old because I was complaining about the younger people, sad because I had acted similar though to a significantly smaller extent in my youth, and angry that these kids are acting this way. The future is going to be full of a few smart people and a lot of dumb people and unfortunately the difference will be larger than it is today and these kids I saw will be on the wrong side of that with a high probability. Just sad, parents should raise their kids better.
Showing posts with label Personal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Personal. Show all posts
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Always have a backup plans
So today I woke up and I was like, 'I am going for a bike ride.' I planned out a path that would take me about 23 miles and would end up at a bus stop where I could get a ride back home. Let me tell you I was flying, it was a great ride. I was at about mile 12 when my back tire blew out. Not only that but I didn't have a spare. So I had to walk the remaining 11 miles to the bus stop to get a ride home. So a 1.5 hour trip turned into a 5 hour trip. It was not fun. Now I have to get my bike fixed and I can't ride it into work tomorrow. :-(
This also reminds me. On my list of things that need to exist in heaven are:
This also reminds me. On my list of things that need to exist in heaven are:
- Cold shower after a long run or bike ride
- Naps on Sunday or Saturday afternoons when the wind blows through the house and it is sunny outside.
Saturday, May 8, 2010
Pasta de Jour
So today I went downtown again to get past. Today went a lot better than my difficulties with the Teamsters union last week. On this week's food list is:
I also noted last week that they were charging a 20% mark-up over the website. Well today I realized they actually give you more than you ask for. So a 1/2 lb bag of anything is 5$. Well I noticed both of my bags come in heavy at about 2/3 lb. What the sellers were doing was lifting the bag to make the weight exactly 1/2 lb for the price printer and then leaving the extra in the bag for you. It is really nice of them to do. Makes me feel a little better about spending $5 on a bag of pasta (which isn't much more than a box from a store I might add and I get really cool pasta from this place).
My results from last week were that the lemony one was way too lemony and the one with mozzarella in it was too gooey with the addition of the cheese to stomach for the week. I am hoping to have better luck this week with my cooking.
- Whole Wheat Herb Pasta with Lentils, Spinach, and Leeks.
- Whole Wheat Garlic PAsta with a Broccoli Rabe Sauce.
I also noted last week that they were charging a 20% mark-up over the website. Well today I realized they actually give you more than you ask for. So a 1/2 lb bag of anything is 5$. Well I noticed both of my bags come in heavy at about 2/3 lb. What the sellers were doing was lifting the bag to make the weight exactly 1/2 lb for the price printer and then leaving the extra in the bag for you. It is really nice of them to do. Makes me feel a little better about spending $5 on a bag of pasta (which isn't much more than a box from a store I might add and I get really cool pasta from this place).
My results from last week were that the lemony one was way too lemony and the one with mozzarella in it was too gooey with the addition of the cheese to stomach for the week. I am hoping to have better luck this week with my cooking.
Monday, May 3, 2010
Biking in Hail and Fun Links
Yes you read that correctly, I had to bike in hail on t he way home. Not only that but it was pelting rain and I don't have fenders so all of the water hits me in the face. It was nutz. I do not suggest riding in the hail though. It was very unexpected. Additionally it is thundering out there. I haven't seen that very often.
Anyway I wanted to add a couple of interesting links I have found or been passed recently.
Anyway I wanted to add a couple of interesting links I have found or been passed recently.
- Here is another set of pictures from the volcano, I really like the ones with lightning.
- Finally I was passed an interesting video from 1906 which is on youtube. So interesting to see what things were like back then. I have to admit it is kinda boring but look at the people riding their bikes and looking at the, I assume, trolly car. Really interesting.
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Lemons Everywhere
Pasta of the day: Lemon Explosion.
Let me tell you, it is lemony. I used an entire lemon (zest and juice) to make this pasta. It is really good but the Ricotta cheese is a little course when you add in the zest it isn't the best. However it is definitely a neat dinner. Now my hands smell like lemons.
Also zesting a lemon is not the easiest thing to do. I used a potato peeler and then chopped the zest again but the chopping didn't produce very small zest, this may be the problem with the roughness of the dish. I think there needs to be a kitchen device that you like put the thing in there and the press slice, peel, zest, smush, whatever and it will just do it no matter what it is or its size. I think I will invent this, it will be awesome.
Let me tell you, it is lemony. I used an entire lemon (zest and juice) to make this pasta. It is really good but the Ricotta cheese is a little course when you add in the zest it isn't the best. However it is definitely a neat dinner. Now my hands smell like lemons.
Also zesting a lemon is not the easiest thing to do. I used a potato peeler and then chopped the zest again but the chopping didn't produce very small zest, this may be the problem with the roughness of the dish. I think there needs to be a kitchen device that you like put the thing in there and the press slice, peel, zest, smush, whatever and it will just do it no matter what it is or its size. I think I will invent this, it will be awesome.
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Note to Self: Cooking prep to not do
- Dice Garlic
- Dice Tomatoes
- Dice Olives
For reference I am making: this.
Pasta Party
So I think I have a new Saturday routine. I have found this stand in the Pike Place Market called Pappardelle. The pasta place also gives you a recipe with the pasta which is fun as well. While I think the vegetables are a little overpriced in the market it is still fun. There is a farmer's market in Redmond where I live however it is generally under-attended by people I would like to buy from and isn't open as long as Pike Place Market.
I also have discovered a bakery in Pike Place which sells day old bread for a dollar which is way cheaper than I normally get from the store near my house. So recently I have been making the trip downtown to get pasta and bread (and maybe vegetables) on Saturdays. It is nice because I get out of the house and get to experience Seattle (which isn't really that interesting but still).
The pastas they have are really neat. They all kinds of weird stuff like Spinach Garlic. It seems this place only sells at farmer's markets and the websites suggest a sort of central making place however for 1/2 a pound for $5 I think it is worth it to get some new kind of pasta I have never tried. My biggest problem recently with my cooking has be the boring food which is always the same and this will hopefully spice it up some more. Also they have vegan pastas (which I buy) and vegan recipes which is nice as well. I am slightly worried about the more starchy diet I have started however since I normally eat 1/3 to 1/4 as much as I used to I think it averages out.
It also seems like you can order the pasta online at a 20% discount to the market which is kinda frustrating. If you have a farmer's market near you which sells this pasta let me know what you think of it.
I also have discovered a bakery in Pike Place which sells day old bread for a dollar which is way cheaper than I normally get from the store near my house. So recently I have been making the trip downtown to get pasta and bread (and maybe vegetables) on Saturdays. It is nice because I get out of the house and get to experience Seattle (which isn't really that interesting but still).
The pastas they have are really neat. They all kinds of weird stuff like Spinach Garlic. It seems this place only sells at farmer's markets and the websites suggest a sort of central making place however for 1/2 a pound for $5 I think it is worth it to get some new kind of pasta I have never tried. My biggest problem recently with my cooking has be the boring food which is always the same and this will hopefully spice it up some more. Also they have vegan pastas (which I buy) and vegan recipes which is nice as well. I am slightly worried about the more starchy diet I have started however since I normally eat 1/3 to 1/4 as much as I used to I think it averages out.
It also seems like you can order the pasta online at a 20% discount to the market which is kinda frustrating. If you have a farmer's market near you which sells this pasta let me know what you think of it.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Interesting Conversations
So I had an interesting interaction on a plane. So I am sitting in an exit row and enjoying myself reading my book (The Princeton Companion to Mathematics
). I come back from the bathroom and the lady behind me across the aisle ask me a question. It is obvious she had been wondering for a while and wanted to ask: "Is that a textbook?" So I was like, 'no', I mean it isn't a textbook. How do you though say what it is. So I said it was a tour-de-force of the modern mathematical research at the end of the 20th century, which I think is mostly an accurate way to look at it.
So but here is the thing. The number of people who actually read this book is slim and there is an exceedingly small portion of the population which could even understand the 'review' chapter. So I felt extreme pride in telling them what I was reading. I mean it is quite something that I can read it and understand the majority of the concepts (thought I don't honestly get the insanely complicated ones, I am still having trouble with buildings (there isn't even a wikipedia article on it)). So is it right to feel proud of myself? I mean I am trying to improve myself by doing more than just reading people magazine. Or is it wrong to feel that way? You know in my opinion it is ok because this is complicated and advanced and I can understand it and I should feel good. I am sure most people will disagree that it is valid to feel proud that you can do something well or at all but I completely disagree. Now it isn't like I was standing up on the plane and being like, 'I'm better than you because I can read this' (that would have been inappropriate). However it is important to know your strengths and nuture them, additionally (and I will write more on this later) humility is not the lack of pride in yourself it is the proper amount of pride and the self awareness to know where that line is between your abilities and where your abilities are not. Anyway. All of that went through my mind so I thought I would write about it.
I would add that no one else can judge whether you have the proper amount of pride in your abilities. They might think they can but they cannot mostly because people always remember the one time you were wrong instead of the other times where you were not.
). I come back from the bathroom and the lady behind me across the aisle ask me a question. It is obvious she had been wondering for a while and wanted to ask: "Is that a textbook?" So I was like, 'no', I mean it isn't a textbook. How do you though say what it is. So I said it was a tour-de-force of the modern mathematical research at the end of the 20th century, which I think is mostly an accurate way to look at it.So but here is the thing. The number of people who actually read this book is slim and there is an exceedingly small portion of the population which could even understand the 'review' chapter. So I felt extreme pride in telling them what I was reading. I mean it is quite something that I can read it and understand the majority of the concepts (thought I don't honestly get the insanely complicated ones, I am still having trouble with buildings (there isn't even a wikipedia article on it)). So is it right to feel proud of myself? I mean I am trying to improve myself by doing more than just reading people magazine. Or is it wrong to feel that way? You know in my opinion it is ok because this is complicated and advanced and I can understand it and I should feel good. I am sure most people will disagree that it is valid to feel proud that you can do something well or at all but I completely disagree. Now it isn't like I was standing up on the plane and being like, 'I'm better than you because I can read this' (that would have been inappropriate). However it is important to know your strengths and nuture them, additionally (and I will write more on this later) humility is not the lack of pride in yourself it is the proper amount of pride and the self awareness to know where that line is between your abilities and where your abilities are not. Anyway. All of that went through my mind so I thought I would write about it.
I would add that no one else can judge whether you have the proper amount of pride in your abilities. They might think they can but they cannot mostly because people always remember the one time you were wrong instead of the other times where you were not.
I'm going to need you to come in on Saturday
So you may have noticed a lack of postings recently. Well, last Friday about 3 minutes before I was to grab my bike and go home I get a call from a high up person. So to make a long story short I was on a plane last Sunday to visit a customer and I just got back a day or so ago. This required me to work all weekend to set-up my laptop so that I could get access the materials I needed to do all of the things I required while I was away. So I lost Saturday.
We flew the red-eye on Sunday and then I worked straight until about 9 pm the next night. Followed by a long Tuesday and then a half-day on Wednesday which I followed up with a long flight that was delayed by an hour. That was my last week. Couple of lessons in general for those who are likely to interact with customers.
We flew the red-eye on Sunday and then I worked straight until about 9 pm the next night. Followed by a long Tuesday and then a half-day on Wednesday which I followed up with a long flight that was delayed by an hour. That was my last week. Couple of lessons in general for those who are likely to interact with customers.
- If your customer's company is non-American then expect to spend lots of times with misunderstandings. I wasted most of Monday because we couldn't communicate with the customer effectively.
- Make sure your support staff at your home office are available and will help you. We had a lot of problems because we could not get in contact with the people at home.
- Expect your customer wants to own every aspect of your product regardless of whether or not they should. My area is completely automated and self-configuring and the entire trip was about the customer wanting to tweak things in the system.
- Make sure you bring a program manager or someone with you. Program managers are people and relationship managers. This is important because as a technical person I didn't have the time nor the energy to take care of that aspect and I really appreciate my coworker who went with me as he did a great job of keeping the entire process on track, documented, and productive.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Human Nature
So I read a lot of websites and I usually read the comments because occasionally I find good information there. (Though mostly it is garbage.)
What is interesting to me (at least today) is that it seems like everyone is 'smart'. (There is a long conversation coming up about 'smart' and whether the word every means something.) So I read a lot about economics, I know surprise. It seems like every article out there is about how the debt is too big, how no one wants socialized health care (including liberal sites I may add). Additionally all of the comments are usually in line with my thinking. So the question is this: If everyone thinks some thing is wrong then why are we still on this track? (This extends beyond health care and the debt to the complicated tax system, wars, etc.) Who are these people. So I have two theories:
What is interesting to me (at least today) is that it seems like everyone is 'smart'. (There is a long conversation coming up about 'smart' and whether the word every means something.) So I read a lot about economics, I know surprise. It seems like every article out there is about how the debt is too big, how no one wants socialized health care (including liberal sites I may add). Additionally all of the comments are usually in line with my thinking. So the question is this: If everyone thinks some thing is wrong then why are we still on this track? (This extends beyond health care and the debt to the complicated tax system, wars, etc.) Who are these people. So I have two theories:
- The average person on the internet is very homogeneous. Especially when it comes to commenting and posting on websites. This kind of makes sense as the average person who uses the internet for more than just virtual farming (which I do too) has more money (thus would be more worried about these things), has more education (there is a known correlation with wealth and internet usage), and/or younger Americans (which are more homogeneous in that we have a lot of the same thoughts and fears.
- The other possibility is that I am just crazy and everyone doesn't agree with me. While I agree this is true the extent seems very muted in general.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Wait, I should have a place in this course
So I have nothing important to blog about tonight. I have no energy to blog something complicated. However I wanted to talk about a really frustrating thing that I witnessed today.
So I am in training currently. After you leave school and enter the work force you will continually train both for your benefit and for a check box on your manager's commitments. Some training is good and some is bad. My training this week is putting me to sleep. It makes me feel good to know I can still learn things on my own though. I am probably too knowledgeable to get a LOT out of the course. Little victories in life is what all people have to look forward to once they graduate.
Anyway, when you sign up for the course it specifically says that if you are not there on time your seat will be given away. It actually says this in every email they send to you to remind you about the course. Thus you can show up the day of and get in usually because people just do not show up. So anyway today two people came in about 15 minutes late and were lucky there were still seats in the room. The course was just opened like last week so apparently many people didn't get a chance to get approval. Well anyway, about 2 hours later (about 25% of the day is gone by now) two people walk in right after each other and try to sit down. The instructor is like, um, 'no leave, there is no room'. To which the people are like, but 'I am registered'. The course had run out of books for the course and thus there was no possible way they could have gotten in.
Even though all the emails and websites are like, 'you will lose your seat if you are not on time' these people still went up to the instructor and were like, 'but I'm registered'. Unbelievable. If I was the instructor I would not have been that nice to them. I am sure the instructor deals with it all the time though. For one the courses start about 9 AM usually. Which is a whole hour after normal work starting times for other people. This time is very much in the core hours of work time. If you can't make it into work by this time there really is something wrong. I just can't believe people in the world feel like they can just walk into anything and do whatever they want. Based on the driving habits of people around here I really shouldn't be surprised at this attitude though. Completely unbelievable.
So I am in training currently. After you leave school and enter the work force you will continually train both for your benefit and for a check box on your manager's commitments. Some training is good and some is bad. My training this week is putting me to sleep. It makes me feel good to know I can still learn things on my own though. I am probably too knowledgeable to get a LOT out of the course. Little victories in life is what all people have to look forward to once they graduate.
Anyway, when you sign up for the course it specifically says that if you are not there on time your seat will be given away. It actually says this in every email they send to you to remind you about the course. Thus you can show up the day of and get in usually because people just do not show up. So anyway today two people came in about 15 minutes late and were lucky there were still seats in the room. The course was just opened like last week so apparently many people didn't get a chance to get approval. Well anyway, about 2 hours later (about 25% of the day is gone by now) two people walk in right after each other and try to sit down. The instructor is like, um, 'no leave, there is no room'. To which the people are like, but 'I am registered'. The course had run out of books for the course and thus there was no possible way they could have gotten in.
Even though all the emails and websites are like, 'you will lose your seat if you are not on time' these people still went up to the instructor and were like, 'but I'm registered'. Unbelievable. If I was the instructor I would not have been that nice to them. I am sure the instructor deals with it all the time though. For one the courses start about 9 AM usually. Which is a whole hour after normal work starting times for other people. This time is very much in the core hours of work time. If you can't make it into work by this time there really is something wrong. I just can't believe people in the world feel like they can just walk into anything and do whatever they want. Based on the driving habits of people around here I really shouldn't be surprised at this attitude though. Completely unbelievable.
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