I'm on the internet too!

No more blogging?

2008-03-24T18:42:00.000-07:00

Since I've switched from windows to mac there is no easy way for me to upload pictures to blogger, so I've decided to use facebook instead (there is a great iPhoto app that allows you to upload and tag everything very quickly). So, if you are one of the 5 or so people who check my blog (i.e. mom), then get a facebook account :)

The Standard, downtown LA

2008-03-07T11:58:00.000-08:00

This is at the rooftop bar of The Standard. It has a great view of the surrounding skyscrapers, and waterbeds lol

Marie and I looking at a mirror on the ceiling.... we are so artistic.

Here is a great 360 view of the bar:

http://www.standardhotels.com/los-angeles/virtual-tours/rooftop-pool/fullscreen/

The Belmont/Area

2008-02-18T23:06:00.000-08:00

Last week I went out with some coworkers to The Belmont, a restaurant here in west hollywood, and we saw this dude:

Ok maybe he's not super attractive but it was exciting to recognize a celebrity. Normally I am pretty bad at that, but The Office is one of the few shows I watch. I was like :-o

After The Belmont we went next door to Area. It was pretty dead except for some chanel photoshoot thing, and some go-go dancers. And this weird collection of people dressed in business casual.

See if you can tell which photos have the chanel people and which ones have the accenture people:

San Francisco at night

2008-02-09T16:10:00.000-08:00

Kyle and I took the scooter up to twin peaks last night. The view from up there is amazing.

The really bright street is Market:

You can see the golden gate bridge off in the distance

Here's downtown from another view:
You can see the bay and the Bay Bridge that goes to oakland:

I took pictures from a variety of angles and then used photoshop's auto-align and auto-blend features to piece them together and create this panorama:

Roasting Tomatoes

2008-02-09T15:57:00.000-08:00

Yes, this is an entire blog post about roasting tomatoes. Don't they look great, though? These babies roasted for over 11 hours, then I blended them up into a huge pot of tomato soup that I served with gourmet grilled cheese wedges for our super bowl party.

Before roasting:
The tomatoes are coated with olive oil and sprinkled with basil, oregano, fennel, salt and pepper. Some garlic cloves are nestled in there, too.

After roasting:
The tomatoes look sad, but the house smelled wonderful. Time for the food processor.

btw here is the link to the guide I used to roast the tomatoes:
http://kitchen-parade-veggieventure.blogspot.com/2005/09/day-156-slow-roasted-tomatoes.html

and here is the link to the tomato soup recipe:
http://kitchen-parade-veggieventure.blogspot.com/2006/08/slow-roasted-tomato-soup.html

New York City

2008-02-09T12:40:00.000-08:00

In December our friends Peter and Jen told us they were planning a trip to NYC. Since I had never been before, New York was on the top of my US cities list (duh), and so we told them that we would love to meet them there. Then Jen, being one of the most amazing people ever, found a friend's place in Brooklyn where we could all stay that weekend!

We flew in on Friday and met up with Jen and Peter at the apartment of their extremely generous friend Kumiko. We spent the weekend gorging ourselves on delicious foods, admiring new york, and exploring some really great neighborhoods including china town, little italy, nyu, soho, and our favorite, greenwich village.
Here are some pics:

Waiting to transfer planes in the Vegas airport:
Kyle is really proud of his winnings.

The Met:

The Empire State Building:

Some artistic cappuccino:

Coffee in this city has boobs on it:

We stumbled upon an amazing pizza place in Little Italy:

Their tomato soup was even better than the pizza. This is the inspiration for the soup I made for the superbowl:

We also got some delectable japanese cheesecake in chinatown:

Another cute bakery in china town:

Greenwich village:

We found a cheese store that sells cheese curds! Yum.

We also stopped by the library:

Travel Plans

2008-02-09T12:29:00.000-08:00

I don't think I've mentioned it on my blog yet, but most of my friends know that Kyle and I have a big goal for this year: to see 12 US cities in 12 months. Since I fly at lot for work I get lots of bonus flights through my airline, and a couple months ago I qualified for the southwest companion pass. The pass allows me to bring my designated companion along with me whenever I fly, for free, for a year. That means that we can both fly pretty much anywhere in the country for free this year - so we're taking advantage.

So far we have been to:

Chicago

St. Louis

Los Angeles

San Francisco

We haven't decided if those count yet since we have lived in all of those cities already.

However, we did go to one new city in January: New York!

SF Zoo (before the animals started murdering the public)

2008-01-20T04:05:00.001-08:00

Here are some more old photos, from when Kyle and I visited the SF zoo a couple of months ago.

I really love this sign:

"this food doesn't look nearly as good as .... people!"

So grumpy...

We figured we were approaching the giraffes exhibit when we saw this:

SF zoo likes to put lots of different types of animals in the same pen:

Harry Potter 3D

2008-01-20T03:49:00.000-08:00

These photos are really old. I finally got around to organizing my pictures and figuring out how to get them onto blogger using the new Mac. Which is actually about 2mo or 3mo old now I guess.

Anyway, we went to see the newest Harry Potter movie at the imax theater, and to our surprise they were handing out 3D glasses. Thankfully only about 15min of the movie were in 3D.

boy did I have a stupid haircut!

My new camera!

2008-01-20T03:26:00.000-08:00

Check out my beautiful new camera! Isn't this a lovely shade of red?

Here is the black version of the phone. You can see how thin it is in this picture. Now I will always have my camera on me, since it fits in my back pocket. So I guess you can expect more blog entries, since I tend to make them whenever I have new pictures.

Kyle says goodbye to hair

2008-01-20T02:59:00.000-08:00

A month or so ago Kyle decided to shave his head since it wasn't growing very much anymore in certain spots.

Before:
Say goodbye hair!

Spritz was quite supportive of this endeavor; in fact he is the one that did the shaving!

I don't think Kyle is sure what to think yet:

But he doesn't seem scared:

Now for the fine tuning:

And here is what he looks like these days; he has to shave every couple o' days.

Liberty

2008-01-17T15:36:00.000-08:00

There was a giant decapitated statue of liberty head outside of the office today. It's a promotion for the movie cloverfield. I haven't seen this movie and I don't know anything about it, but nevertheless Scott and I had to take pictures in front of it, because how often does a giant statue of liberty head appear outside of the office?? It's pretty awesome looking and my immediate thought was that it was someone's job to make this thing. That job is way more fun than mine.

My job does have its perks, though. Last night we had a team meeting/dinner at a mansion in Pasedena. Turns out it was murder mystery dinner! I have been wanting to go to one of those ever since I saw the Saved By the Bell episode about one. It was really funny. Then about ten of us went to a Hollywood club called Les Deux, where we would never, ever, be cool enough to get in . But that's what corporate social budgets are for, right? The place was filled with rock bands, a couple of basketball players, some dude from The Real World, an X-games star, and various other extremely attractive people that maybe you would recognize if you watched E (I didn't recognize anyone). The coolest part of the club was the translucent tent-like structure with trees, a fountain, two giant gothic chandeliers, and a movie projector. I don't do a very good job making it sound cool, do I? Well, it was. And a lot of fun too!

Shabu-Shabu!

2008-01-13T17:15:00.000-08:00

Last night kyle and I had a glorious Japanese dinner in little tokyo, LA. We went to KaGaYa and got the 7 course shabu shabu special. The first appetizer was two small pieces of fish liver decorated with cavier, tiny chives, and a thin, dark sauce. It was suprisingly delicious. Next we had a clam broth soup. Then we each got two small pieces of what I think the waiter said was deep-fried fish throat (?). It was difficult to pick apart with chopsticks, but it was worth the twenty minutes we each spent working out the small, tender pieces of fish from the odd-shaped bone pieces.

Next was the main course, the shabu-shabu. The waiter brought out a heaping plate of vegetables including chrysanthemum, napa cabbage, shittake mushrooms, chives, and tofu. Then he brought me a full plate of raw, thinly sliced beef and Kyle got half beef, half seafood, including crab legs, mussels, and clam. We put a few things in into the boiling pot of water on our table, but I think the wait staff could tell we were pretty clueless, because shortly after someone came over to help us out. He put all of the vegetables into the pot and gave us instructions on how to eat the beef and seafood. The beef is cooked by swishing it, one piece at a time, in the boiling water. It only takes about 3 seconds to cook. Then it can be dipped into the various sauces they provided, or transferred to a plate to mix with a bite of vegetables. It was so good!! And fun too.

After we stuffed ourselves on meat and vegetables, they took our broth and made it into rice porridge by adding egg and rice. I thought I was stuffed, but the rice porridge was so delicious that I found a way to eat a lot more.

But we weren't done yet! Our meal also included dessert. Kyle picked the baked banana pie, as recommended on yelp. I had a hard time deciding between the apple pie and the creme brulee, but finally decided on the pie. Our desserts didn't look like pie, though... they were served in small, circular, gourmet portions with strange but delicious sauces. yummm. And then our waiter brought us a complimentary creme brulee, on the house! It was great.

Here is what a shabu shabu pot looks like. I meant to take my own pictures, but I was so busy with all of the food, I forgot! I found these online:

A shabu-shabu pot:

The beef is served like this:

Oragami

2007-11-03T01:51:00.001-07:00

I made this out of three $1 bills. Yes I have to post pictures of everything I make :)

Golden Gate Bridge

2007-11-03T01:18:00.000-07:00

A few Sundays ago Kyle and I finally took the scooter across the Golden Gate Bridge. It was beautiful! It was also kind of scary on the scooter because it was so windy.

Filter Sign

2007-11-03T00:52:00.000-07:00

A sign outside of our favorite coffe shop back in Chicago:

they were very creative with drink names. and chalk.

Pumpkins

2007-10-29T23:28:00.000-07:00

I made this:
(from a stencil; not too creative this year)

Kyle and Spritz made this thing:

Pumpkin Patch

2007-10-29T23:20:00.000-07:00

San Francisco has a couple of weird "pumpkin patches" on small properties in the middle of the city. Basically they spread hay around and lay the pumpkins on top. Not exactly a pumpkin patch but it sure is convenient! This tiny one we went to near our house had all kind of weird decorations, including a stand-up wooden cutout of Barny and an (incredibly bad) haunted house in a large industrial crate.

Pumpkin Carving

2007-10-29T23:11:00.000-07:00

Sunday it was eighty degrees... it just didn't seem right for pumpkin carving, but we had a lot of fun anyway. One thing I really like about living in the house in SF is that there are always so many people there that it's easy to turn an ordinary activity into a party.

Nice calculator watch

2007-10-06T14:48:00.000-07:00

This guy noticed me taking this picture shortly after this. Oops.

People still wear calculator watches!??

Picnic

2007-09-24T22:34:00.000-07:00

On my birthday Kyle and I went on a picnic. It was a beautiful day and a beautiful park!

Dur

2007-09-16T16:59:00.000-07:00

MT SI IV

2007-09-12T00:41:00.000-07:00

MT SI III

2007-09-12T00:38:00.000-07:00

MT SI II

2007-09-12T00:35:00.000-07:00

MT SI

2007-09-12T00:30:00.000-07:00

While I was in Washington I went hiking for the first time since girl scout camp (10+ years). For a while I wasn't sure if I would make it, but I did! I was really proud of myself because I am terrible when it comes to physical activities.

Here is some scenery from along the way up:

Puget Sound IV

2007-09-12T00:19:00.000-07:00

This is what the starfish looked like right after it came out of the water. The machinery behind the boat is used to fill barges with coal, or something like that.

This poor fish was caught from deep waters so he didn't fair too well when he was reeled to the surface. Decompression is not fun. That's his air bladder sticking out of his mouth.

Here's another crab pot with a crustacean friend inside. Sometimes we caught 6 crabs in one pot. At the end of the day we had 21 keepers and had a tasty feast.

I like trains ok? They never seem to change.

Puget Sound III

2007-09-12T00:06:00.000-07:00

Me with a SHARK that I caught from about 150ft underneath the boat. Definitely the biggest thing I have ever caught with a fishing pole!

I caught about 3 sharks; they were really hungry! Later I tried some shark fin soup that was probably made using this guy.

Here kyle is pulling up a crab pot.

You can see that the starfish is changing shape as the water slowly leaks out of it.

Puget Sound II

2007-09-11T23:57:00.000-07:00

Army boys

After pulling up the crab pots (which are actually wire baskets, not pots), the crabs have to be extracted and measured. If they are too small they need to be thrown back into the water so they can grow (and reproduce) more. This red rock crab is a keeper.

We found this ugly starfish on the bottom of the sound. I learned that starfish often have a hideous surplus of legs so a five-point one is a score. Abby is going to dry it out to use as a decoration.

The bottom of the starfish looks and feels like macaroni noodles! The top is very sharp and scratchy.

Puget Sound

2007-09-11T23:45:00.000-07:00

One of Abby and Kyle's friends took us fishing on his boat. Here we are preparing to take off.

These lures are called "hoochie mamas"

A train approaching along the shore

Kyle with a dungeness crab (or "dungee")

Seattle, WA - Pike's Market

2007-09-11T23:31:00.000-07:00

Two weekends ago I went to visit my friend Abby and her new husband Kyle in Tacoma Washington. They took me to Pike's Market in downtown Seattle, where there are hundreds of small shops and grocers in a long, multi level complex overlooking the bay. It was really charming; you should definitely check it out if you are in Seattle.

Christianity and Sexism

2007-08-24T12:20:00.000-07:00

I recently posted this article on facebook, but the link is broken today so I am re-posting this new one. And I decided I have a lot more to say about it.

To sum up the story: Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary President Paige Patterson, a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, ousted women from their teaching positions at the seminary and then started a new program for women only. In line with his outspoken beliefs in traditional biblical roles for men and women, the new "degree" is in HOMEMAKING. For WOMEN ONLY. How this relates to theological study or is legally possible I HAVE NO IDEA.

Christianity is overwhelming proof of the prevalence of sexism in a America AND the most powerful force perpetuating it. Churches are still denying jobs to people based on their sex! How is this acceptable in a country where that is illegal for every other type of organization?? Patterson is obviously a nutjob, but please consider that ALL Christians (75% of Americans) look to the Bible for guidance. The Bible that says:

1. God is a male
2. Man came first and Woman was created from a derivative of man
3. Woman brought sin into the world
4. Men did everything that was ever significant short of the "virgin" birth (I am sure if men could give birth they would have been credited for this accomplishment too).

A LOT of old writings are sexist but still valued for their scientific, literary, or otherwise academic value. You could make that same argument for the bible - that we can look past the sexism and extract the value. But the difference between the bible and those books is that 75% of Americans don't look to those books for moral guidance. They don't use those books to back alogical political decisions. They don't claim those books are written by God, or that they are instruction manuals for how to live our lives. They don't read those books to their kids at bedtime.

An anecdote:

A few weeks ago a nine-year-old told me that he should be first in line because Adam came before Eve. He also had the supporting argument that God is a boy. This isn't a kid whose parents are religious fantatics, and I seriously doubt he was repeating something he heard elsewhere. That is just the kind of thing a nine-your-old will come up with when tauhgt bible stories as fact.

Is it not obvious that biblical stories are ingraining sexism into young people right from the start?

The Hills

2007-08-18T23:53:00.000-07:00

You know that terrible show on MTV "The Hills"? The main character (Lauren, I think her name is) lives in my apartment complex in Hollywood (actually just south of west hollywood). The exterior they show on tv is not actually the exterior of the complex and the name is made-up. I guess they do that for security reasons?? I discovered that she lives there last week when my roommate was watching the show and we recognized the interior of her apartment because it's identical to some of the units in our complex. It's pretty neat that they go to the same stores and restaurants that we go to (because we get to see them on TV), but the chance that we might have to interact with them is unfortunate.

Zuma Beach

2007-08-18T23:34:00.000-07:00

A couple of weekends ago Kyle flew to LA to stay with me there. My roommate and I share a brand new red convertible and she was gone for the weekend so Kyle and I had it all to ourselves! We loaded up on snacks and towels at the local Kmart* and then drove west toward santa monica, then up the cost through malibu to get to Zuma. The drive was nice; I looked for people in Malibu that looked like the "Malibu Barbie" I used to have but I didn't see anyone that quite fit the look. The beach was pretty and the weather was perfect. I wish we could go every weekend :)

*worst store ever.

Those specs in the sky are kites!

Moot

2007-08-07T18:14:00.000-07:00

I looked up "moot" today. I have been using this word for years but someone used it in a different way today and I got curious. It turns out I have been using it incorrectly this whole time, but not just me. I often hear it used in the context "that's a moot point", usually to dismiss ideas as irrelevant or pointless. But that's not the meaning of the word at all. See the definition from merriam-webster below.

To summarize, you can only correctly dismiss a point as moot if
1. it assumes something as fact that is actually debatable, or
2. when it's just too abstract to be practically significant

For example, in debating the legality of abortion the point that "God created the embryo so humans have no right to destroy it" is totally moot because the very existence of God is debatable (among other reasons).

I hope this is beneficial to someone else. I bet if you keep using it as a synonym to "irrelevant" no one will notice, though. Perhaps the word is evolving to mean that instead.

24/7

2007-08-07T13:18:00.000-07:00

Note:
You can't provide 24x7 support Monday-Friday. That doesn't make sense.

I also don't like the use of the x because I always read it "twenty-four by seven", but that is a lesser concern.

Locust

2007-07-30T23:21:00.000-07:00

Locusts leave their shells around Waterloo every summer. Jessy, Abby, and I used to collect the shells and stick them on stuff. You can hang them on shirts really easily.

I found this one (with a real live locust!!) in the backyard when we were playing bocce ball.

I think the wings are pretty.

Figure 8 Race

2007-07-30T23:03:00.000-07:00

I was in Waterloo for Abby's wedding this weekend and it happened to be Monroe County Fair week. Woo! I went to the figure 8 race on Wednesday night. Abby's brother Andrew was competing. I could have sworn I blogged about the fair before but I couldn't find the entry. Two years ago Andrew raced the car I grew up in and inherited when I was 16. That car placed but had too rough of a run to compete again. This year he raced a different compact car, number 33, and there was a big group of us there to cheer him on. The flashing leis were a nice touch.

Dinner at the new place

2007-07-26T13:28:00.000-07:00

On Fridays I work from home in San Francisco so that gives me time to cook. Last week I made an eggplant parmesan dish. We don't have a dining table yet so we had to improvise with some boxes, but we still made it look fancy with candles and wine.

Meat Snacks

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

This sign is misleading.

Mr. Sexy

2007-07-14T19:00:00.000-07:00

We pulled up next to this guy as he was shifting around and prominently displaying his jiggling love handles. Mmmmm

See all that fog? These clouds often descend upon San Francisco, especially in the high peaks like this location. It gets very cold, dark, and gloomy and is not pleasant when you're going 40mph on a scooter. They clouds look pretty cool though, and it's neat to watch them as they move suprisingly fast, spilling over buildings and cliffs.

A Snail's Face

2007-07-14T18:27:00.000-07:00

I found this guy on a plant outside of our house in San Francisco.

Birdseed Flowers

2007-07-14T18:08:00.000-07:00

While I was home I helped Abby and Sharon make about 150 of these birdseed flowers. They are used to throw birdseed at the bride and groom as they walk away from the altar. It's kind of funny that you have to you to flick them pretty forcefully to get the birdseed to come out. We imagine that the congregation will look like an angry mob as they all make the flicking motion at the bride and groom.

Cake

2007-07-14T18:03:00.000-07:00

This looks like a giant burger but in fact it is cake! The cake wasn't tall enough with just two layers so I had to add another... and decided on german chocolate. My wonderful mother baked them for me and it really cracked me up when I got home and saw them stacked like this on the table.

The reason I needed a tall cake was to install a not-so-clever canister concealing a spring-loaded penis. When Abby opened it at the bachelorette\bachelor party, the penis shot up out of the cake and into the ceiling. Nick made sure we captured this pose...

I'm not the only one who hates Comcast!

2007-07-14T17:19:00.000-07:00

Someone smashed the window of a comcast ad near my old apartment in the mission

Transformers

2007-07-11T10:58:00.000-07:00

Transformers came out a couple of weeks ago and it did really well. Paramount gave all of its employees a day off this Friday. They also put this big tranformer bee out on the studio lot. I took these photos with my iPhone!

Me

My co-worker Hailin

Not that smart

2007-07-11T08:08:00.000-07:00

I assure you ordering is NOT quick and simple. While many providers have figured out how to charge for internet usage with simple forms that you fill out after getting the splash screen, you have to call these people and they are only open during business hours! I got an answering machine that didn't even mention the company name.

Happy 4th

2007-07-05T13:24:00.000-07:00

I was in Waterloo for the 4th this year so I went to the annual party at the Glessner's clubhouse. Tyler brought his jetski so we played with that on the lake for a while. We also played some euchre but I think my friends were annoyed by how many times I got distracted and forgot whose turn it was or what was trump... also I was really enthusiastic about the win or loss of each trick, which I guess is not cool around here. Of course we had a lot of bbq and desserts, and we also watched a delightful homemade fireworks show over the lake. People were driving me crazy by doing that thing where you light a bottle rocket and then throw it, spinning, into the air. When the fuse ends, the rocket will fly in whatever direction it is pointing (which could easily be at someone's eye if you mess up the toss). They were also launching roman candles from their hands with the reverse end pointing right at their bodies. You know how sometimes they come out the wrong end, right? I must not be the only one who thinks that is dangerous. My advice: hold them out to the side so that the end is pointing at the ground instead of at one's body. Simple!

The Paramount Project & Holiday Inn

2007-06-25T23:06:00.000-07:00

(wrote this last monday)

Today starts my second week on the project here in Hollywood. The first week went as well as could be expected considering that I didn't know a single person here and had to meet about 30 team members in the first 2 days. I am one of 6 members of the "tech arch" team, which is probably the most technical (nerdy) team in the US. I spend every day in a room with 5 very technical men, all over age 35 and with an average of 2 children each. We get along fine but don't have a lot in common outside of work. Thankfully we had a project-wide social event at Lucky Strike that involved accenture members of all teams. That helped me get to know people outside of tech-arch a little better. I was also relieved to find out that at least a handful of people on the project team like to stay out late. Some of us went to a japanese themed bar after bowling and did some more shots and some dancing. Even more shots kept coming out, but I was starting to feel sick so I did some sly maneuvers using shots of water that appeared to be shots of vodka.

I was feeling pretty good about the project at the end of last week, and I'm feeling even better now. I got a room at the Renassaince Hotel for this week, and shortly we'll be moving into corporate apartments. The reason the renassiance made things so much better was that the previous week I stayed at a Holiday Inn, which was fine until the night my room smelled like sewage and I met 6 racists in the hot tub - two austrailians, two missourians, and two kansans. The two from MO were on an all expense paid trip to appear on Judge Judy and asked questions like "Was you born there?" and "What language do youse speak in Austrailia?".

The Australians were on a trip around the world and the Kansans were just visiting LA. Both groups had visited San Francisco before and said they didn't like it. I always ask why when people when they say they don't like San Francisco, but I'm never sure if they're being honest when they answer. I think sometimes it because they are scared of gay people, but of course no one says that (except people in Waterloo). The was likely the case with the Australians, who openly confessed their fear of "negroes"; my guess is that they may have some other biases.

I know why the Kansans didn't like it; they said they stayed near the Civic Center. That's like staying near Cabrini Green in Chicago, or East St. Louis - these places are known for being dangerous and I have no idea why you would stay there.

The Renassaince is a lot nicer so it is less likely that I will be in contact with these types of people... and it smells better!

Street Musicians

2007-06-17T13:44:00.000-07:00

The other day Kyle and I found an entire band had set up their stuff and were performing right next to our apartment. Normally this space is occupied by passionate, Catholic evangelists and their fellow fanatics, but today that crowd was replaced by these happy, swaying hipsters.

Pacific Sunset

2007-06-16T22:09:00.000-07:00

Kyle and I took the long way home tonight and stopped to see the sunset on the west coast :)

Cruising

2007-06-16T21:59:00.000-07:00

Big F'ing Crab

2007-06-16T21:55:00.000-07:00

Because Friday was my last day on the Chicago project, my boss told me that as a going away present I could treat myself to a nice dinner. Kind of like a goodbye dinner without the co-workers. I decided to take Kyle to a place called PPQ Dungeness Island Vietnamese Cuisine, because it had some good reviews on yelp and it sounded pretty ridiculous. We could have gone some place classy, but where is the fun in that? Instead we got the dinner for 2 at PPQ and the food was delicious, plentiful, and messy. Don't let that bib in the picture mislead you, this restaurant is all about crabs. Their speciality is large roasted crabs plucked straight from a crowded tank. The crab was good and the garlic noodles were amazing; I recommend it!

New Project; New Neighborhood

2007-06-14T21:37:00.000-07:00

Today was my second to last day on my project, on which I have been working for almost a year now. For most of the time I had a really technical role (mostly involving clicking a truck) but for the past month I have been doing performance testing (mostly involving making all sorts of MS Office documents). As I may have mentioned, my project is in Chicago, which means I haven’t been working face-to-face with anyone for a few weeks, so I have been pretty lonely most of the day. Yesterday I was getting pretty down about my job, researching med schools, daydreaming about working for our start-up full time, and pessimistically assuming I'd soon be staffed somewhere in South Dakota making office documents until my fingers shriveled off.

My research on grad schools revealed that a top-ten engineering degree probably isn’t enough to study genetics at Stanford. Apparently that program is number one in the country, which I find surprising since their website looks like it was created in 1999, and hasn’t been updated very many times since then. Stanford, along with all of the other high-ranking schools around here, want you to have a pristine undergraduate GPA (don’t have), research experience (don’t have), and, um, experience in biology or genetics (don’t have). So yeah that was kind of depressing. I might still apply. I mean, Kyle got a job at Google against some pretty terrible odds, right? He’s kind of a genius though :-/.

Needless to say, I wasn’t too optimistic about my career at that point.

But then today I got a couple calls about some projects - the Defense Logistics Agency in DC and Paramount Pictures in LA. It was really reassuring to have people telling me that they want me to work with them, that they’re willing to fly me across the country every week, and that I have some pretty valuable skills.

I was hoping to go unstaffed for a couple of weeks (also referred to as “on the bench” or “on the beach” in consulting), but I decided to go for the project in LA - it's a short commute and I'll be working in the Paramount studio right in the middle of Hollywood. From what I hear the team has had some star sightings - Hugh Hefner, Chris Rock, and Jamie Fox so far. I'm not really into celebrities, but like I told Dank, at least I'll have something to tell people about my job for a change. One time after work in Chicago I saw a guy in a bar who looked like Hurley from lost and I told like three people about it (turns out that is not a very interesting story).

So anyway I am really excited about the project, which I’m starting Monday! I’ll get to meet some new people (something I am desperate to do since moving to CA), check out LA, fly people to visit me (Accenture lets us fly friends in instead of flying home if we want) , get per diems (money the company pays us when we are away from home) , and collect airline points so I can get free flights. The job isn't too bad either ;-).

Then, more good news.I left work in a rush to sign for our new place in West Portal at 8pm, and was pleasantly surprised by how short the commute was. But then I remembered that my computer is on Chicago time (since I work on Chicago time), and realized I was two hours early.

To kill some time, I found a local coffee shop called Pearls, and was delighted to find that you can add tapioca pearls to any drink! So I had a coffee drink with bubbles – weird but tasty! Even better, they had free wireless internet. AND, best of all, they were playing this great music that I thought sounded like the Chicago band Wilco that I have been a fan of since college. Then I did some googling of the lyrics and found out that the band wasn’t just like Wilco, they were Wilco! Awesome!! That made me really happy.

Unfortunately that place closed at 7 so I have to find a new place to hang out until 8. I came here to this Irish bar, where I found they have Blue Moon, one of my favorite beers, on tap! I think the only reason I like this beer is that they serve it with an orange, but I’m ok with that. They are playing a song by The Police, which reminds me of the Midwest, probably because I have only ever heard it there.

I like the new neighborhood :)

Today's Headlines

2007-06-14T06:59:00.000-07:00

Look what I found on the news today!!

Unfortunately the "zombie hordes" weren't quite what I expected.

School Girls

2007-06-13T17:25:00.000-07:00

A friend and I were having a conversation about sexism earlier today. I was telling him about this book I read called "School Girls: Young Women, Self Esteem, and the Confidence Gap". The book is a short summary of one woman's experience observing junior high school girls. It is somewhat anecdotal but it really makes you think about gender inequality. A lot of it is about how she thinks the school system is biased toward boys (by being biased toward agressive personalities) and there is also a lot about the girls' self esteem, their opinions on sex, and the pressures they feel academically and socially. Most of the information is gathered through conversations with the girls, and while the author in many cases seems to look to reaffirm something she already believes, she nonetheless presents situations and quotes from the girls that I found thought-provoking.

I thought the results of a survery she conducted were particularly interesting. She asked all of the students what their best quality was. The boys said that they were good at a sport, math, guitar, etc. The girls, almost without exception, said something about their appearance - hair, eyes, etc.

Another interesting thing she found was the girls' confidence in their abilities dropped before their actual abilities dropped. For example, the girls believed they were bad at math even when their grades were competitive with the rest of the class. They were more likely to opt out of advanced classes than boys with the same scores.

The main reason I created this post was that after the conversation I did a search on amazon.com for the book, so that I could get the full title. I wanted to share a screenshot of my results:

1 year ago

2007-06-13T16:02:00.000-07:00

A year ago we were moving into our place in Chicago. Kyle and I painted some of the walls in our room BLACK because it was all white with 2 windows, 2 skylights, and a balcony door... even with the dark walls that place was blinding in the morning. I wonder what color we will paint our room in July when we move in.

Btw, we got the place!!

A New Place??

2007-06-11T18:36:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures of the cute place I mentioned last night. We haven't heard back about the status of our application yet.

Salads!

2007-06-11T17:59:00.000-07:00

A couple of days ago I made some delicious salads using the colors of the rainbow.
Red - Peppers
Orange - Carrots
Yellow - Cheddar Cheese
Green - Avocado
Blue - Mushrooms (ok not quite a match)
Purple - Onions

yeah, I'm that cool!

Housing Search

2007-06-10T23:11:00.000-07:00

I'm sad to report that I lost the cord that I use to transfer pictures from my camera to my computer. The last time I saw it was in our moving truck in Champaign. I can only guess that it fell out of the truck somewhere between Illinois and California. :( I am still taking pictures but my only option for transferring them involves using kyle's laptop SD card reader, a task burdensome enough to limit my blog posting (which is usually motivated by a recent photo upload). However, I am waiting on some things to finish running for work so I have some time to waste tapping away at the keyboard tonight.

This weekend we continued our never-ending quest for a place to live. We were getting pretty desperate and almost signed for a place inconveniently located at the top of huge, huge, huge hill. We told the realtor that we would sign if the other two places we had left to see didn't work out. I'm glad we waited because both of the places were great! The first one we saw is a cozy 4 bedroom place in West Portal that we applied for right away. It is a cute house with a nice living room, a dining room, a great marble-top kitchen, a two car garage, and a big backyard where we think we'll be able to install a hot tub. It's a block or two away from shops, grocery stores, and a cool theatre. The best part about the place is that it is dramatically under-priced... we think the owner might be a little clueless about the housing market. In that neighborhood, similar places are going for about a thousand dollars more per month. :-o What a great find; we are really excited about this one.

The second place was jaw-dropping. It was just beautiful. The kitchen was the centerpiece of the apartment, both physically and aesthetically. It was huge and seemed to be the main gathering place of the apartment due to its location and size. The cabinets and counter tops were gorgeous. The appliances were all brand new and high-end. And the place had really great natural and electric lighting, including skylights and stained glass windows, to accentuate all of the interior design details. All of the bathrooms had beautiful glass showers and new appliances, including a bidet and jacuzzi in the master. It's the kind of place I imagine doctors or lawyers living.

It was so luxurious that the whole time I was thinking... can I really live in a place like this? It is just so bizarre. Half the time I feel poor (SF is more expensive than Chicago, and two of my roommates are going to be pulling in 6 digits next year), but then I remember that a little over a year ago I was a broke college student deciding against buying that extra box of cereal... so relatively I am now rich!! I am an engineer! I could be living in a luxury apartment and drinking fancy wines. What planet am I on??

We ended up deciding against the fancy apartment, although we'll still apply as a backup. The price is ok on its own but now we have to compare it to the bargain place we found early today. Is it really worth an extra $1500/mo for those fancy appliances and hardwoods? Are we grown-up enough to live in a place like that? Do I really want to ask guests to please remove their shoes? How bizarre would our video games, tennis shoes, pizza boxes and beer bottles look strewn all over that place?

I think we'll be a lot more comfortable in the west portal place, especially with all of the extra cash. :) I hope our application is accepted!!

Observations at 24th & Mission

2007-06-04T20:15:00.000-07:00

Today the doorbell rang around 5pm. I am the only one at the apartment at this time because I get off of work at 4 (I am working chicago hours... 7am to 4pm :-/), so I finished what I was doing and trudged down the stairs to see who rang. Peeking around either side of the gate, I was glad that I remembered to shut the door behind me so that the cat couldn't run out while I looked around. The gladness was short-lived. I soon realized that answering the door was a huge waste of time because no one was there, and that it was going to be much, much longer waste of time because I had just locked myself out of the apartment. In business pants, a sweater, and some knee-highs (pantyhose that only come up to your knees ... like very thin socks) I stood in the tiny, 2ft x 3ft space between the door and the gate trying to decide what to do.

First, I looked through the mail. I figured if I waited long enough one of my roommates would come home. There was no interesting mail, unfortunately. I stood around for a bit. Sat down on the scratchy door mat for a bit. Then, a stroke of genius! I bravely entered taco loco (effectively barefoot) and explained my embarrassing situation, then asked if they had a key (since the owners of taco loco also own the apartment). They said no but allowed me to use the phone. The only person whose number I know in San francisco is Kyle, and his phone was dead, so that was no use.

Next I crossed the street and sat on my scooter for a while. At one point I walked to the BART stop to get some free reading materials from the newspapers stands. I made some observations while I waited:

a pigeon* drinking out of the dirty streetwater puddle outside of McDonalds
a girl dressed from the 70's with a hairstyle I liked but could never maintain
an old burly white dude with a very white colonel sanders mustache
a young guy with a dark mustache that wasn't completely unattractive
a person yelling BITCH at me as they sped by in an large SUV
a nugget-shaped latino couple happily holding hands as they walked by
a well-groomed red-head in a suit helping his very white, very old grandmother walk down the side walk in her shiny, shiny white shoes with black toes and heels.
a mumbling old fat guy with only 5 small teeth and some loose, flesh-colored chewing gum in his mouth (or maybe it was actually pieces of his fleshy gums floating around in there and not chewing gum??) asking me all about my scooter, ignoring my replies, and making contradicting statements about it. "Was this here made in Korea? It was made in Italy. How much did you pay for this here? It is made by genuine scooter company. Was it made in Italy? It's not a Vespa. It's a Vespa. It looks like a Vespa. It was made in Italy. It's a Vespa...." and on and on. He also told me that it wasn't worth what I payed for it, although I disagree! Eventually he got bored and saunted onward.

Normally I would share my observations with Kyle, but there are so many today and he is not home. Lucky you!!

*aka Dirty Creatures of Lucifer

The Office

2007-06-01T19:49:00.000-07:00

Here are some other views from the office:

Everyone loves conferences!

Another view from my very generic-looking desk

The Office

2007-06-01T19:22:00.000-07:00

Sometimes when I'm not a complete lazy-ass, or when I have to do some conference calls, I go into the office to work. Since I am working on a project in Chicago, I don't actually talk or interact with anyone in the San Francisco office, except to steal food from catered events. If it's between 9 and 5 on a weekday I'm either in bed, at the cafe around the corner, or at the office on 1 Market. This week I was fortunate to grab a desk with a view!

Views from my desk:

The Bay Bridge and Treasure Island

The Bay Bridge meeting San Francisco

This view is actually not from my desk. It's the embarcadero.

Chicago to San Francisco!!

2007-05-31T15:48:00.000-07:00

No trees.

trees trees trees!

Lake Tahoe

See the Rockies back there?

Chicago to San Francisco!!

2007-05-30T22:58:00.000-07:00

Kyle marked his territory... while walking (so cars on the highway wouldn't be able to tell what he was doing). He is really proud of his trail.

Chicago to San Francisco!!

2007-05-30T22:51:00.000-07:00

Kyle took these... I think that's the Great Salt Lake... turned thirty degrees.

This was the coolest part of the trip. After passing the lake we drove through miles of this white, flat ground. Then we figured it out... great salt lake.... lots of flatness... these must be the salt flats! I'd only briefly heard of them, years ago, and never really imagined what they would be like, so it was a fun surprise.

Looks like snow but tastes like salt!

Chicago to San Francisco!!

2007-05-30T22:42:00.000-07:00

Chimneys of flame!

Rocks!

Tunnels through the mountains

Chicago to San Francisco Road Trip!!

2007-05-30T22:35:00.000-07:00

Kyle and I flew to Chicago last week to move out of our apartment and pack up all of the stuff we had there. Our flight got in on time at 1am, but unfortunately we didn't get home until 4am ... the Orange Line stopped running, our bus never came, a creepy guy grunted and barred his teeth at us, the line for taxis was fifty people deep.... it seemed like the trip was doomed! But eventually we made it to the apartment.

The next morning we picked up this budget truck and hired some "starving artists" to move all of our stuff into it. That is the name of the moving company! The guys were really nice and they worked really fast. They took a few chunks out of our walls but we were just grateful that we didn't have to move the 2,000 lbs of stuff ourselves. If you know me and Kyle you know that a job like that would have taken us 3 days instead of 3 hours.

We had a nice dinner in Chicago and spent some time with friends until we decided to get home and get some sleep in preparation for the *big trip*. Of course we still left tons of last minute stuff to do the next morning. And then Kyle's car wouldn't start. And then we decided to take a 2 hour detour to see his parents in Champaign. And they we left the keys to his car in Champaign and his Dad had to drive them to us.

But EVENTUALLY we mbarked on hour 30 hours road trip West. At 9pm on Friday. 12 hours after I'd planned :-p

We listened to some music and some audio books (Barack Obama's Dreams of My Father, The God Delusion, and I like you) and of course took crappy pictures from inside the van!

I was nervous about driving at first... but it wasn't much different than driving a car when we were on the interstate.

How Weird Festival

2007-05-30T16:59:00.000-07:00

I want some of these. They are a little more advanced than the stilts abby and I used to make.

There was a lot of nudity at this place. I saw someone's wiener!!

There were lots of strange, mostly tacky, decorations.

And an adorable little girl... what is she doing here??

How Weird

2007-05-30T16:53:00.000-07:00

Guy in a costume painting people in similar costumes.

People on drugs dancing to music. Did you notice the guy on the right with the orange sash?

These people are very colorful... I wonder how heavy those gigantic shoes are.

It was about 85 degrees the day of the festival. Everyone was so sweaty. That guy has to be on drugs.

How Weird Festival

2007-05-30T16:40:00.000-07:00

This might be the only cool person we saw at the festival. We saw him performing shortly after we took this picture. He plays cello, sings, and beat boxes! His myspace page says he got a scholarship to Berklee and was doing pretty well as a classical musician... but for some reason he started playing on the street and taking interest in organic farming instead of trying to get a job in a symphony or whatever it is classical muscians do. I guess that does qualify him for the weird festival.

How Weird Festival

2007-05-30T16:28:00.000-07:00

Kyle and I were cruising around SF a couple of weeks ago and it seemed like everywhere we went there were people wearing weird outfits. Eventually we discovered the source and destination of all of the weirdos: a festival celebrating nothing other than weirdness. Here are some things we saw:

Giraffe people... I didn't recognize those hats but Dank did. They are like the ones people where in Katamari (PS2 game).

That guy is so old... check out those butt wrinkles!

We saw a suprising amount of middle-aged man ass.

Maker Faire

2007-05-23T12:14:00.000-07:00

More things we saw:

Computer controller etch-a-sketch robot

Giant nose picker guy powered by a human in a hamster wheel (you can see the wheel on the left)

Human-propelled train car (powered by pedaling). People ride this thing on abandoned train tracks.

Human powered carnival rides. This one is like a ferris wheel with only two seats. Pedal to fly around and around. There were also a pedal powered rotating swing ride and merry go round.

Maker Faire

2007-05-23T12:05:00.000-07:00

A marble maze puzzle built by someone Kyle met at google. He wants to build a large-scale replica of it so he's pitching the idea as interactive kinetic art. He's trying to convince google to let him build it on their campus.

Some students made this 3D printer. You can make 3D objects using kitchen ingredients like icing or spray cheese.

This giant giraffe walked around the fair. Unfortunately Kyle cut his head off in this picture.

There it is! He talks to you if you pet him.

Maker Faire

2007-05-23T12:00:00.000-07:00

More things we saw:

Robotic anemone family. The rubber tubes twitched and swayed like anemone - I want one!!

A car covered in marbles and glass beads... reminded me of when Nate's car was covered in stickers.

Cupcakes with prozac sprinkles and people inside

A printer built out of kinex

Maker Faire

2007-05-23T11:53:00.000-07:00

Make Magazine hosted a fair where people who make stuff can come to show off their creations. We heard there would be robots, crafts, and lots of inventions, so "should we go?" was pretty much a no brainer for nerds like us. Here is some professional coverage of the event, and here are some things we saw:

A board with light cubes that you can use to play tetris - pretty! Note: Those pudgy arms are not mine.

A giant nintendo controller that works just like a normal-sized one. Requires a bit more work to push the buttons though.

Super nerd light bike

A van covered in city

Mixture Loves Books

2007-05-23T11:05:00.000-07:00

This is mixture, my roommate Masha's cat. How often do you see cats sticking their tongues out? He is a silly cat.

Mix likes to explore Kyle's room (perhaps because of the large amount of stuff we have haphazardly strewn about in there*), but we don't let him in very often because he laid claim to the futon in a foul manner when Masha first got him a few weeks ago. However, he has been a very good cat since then, and I think he has adjusted to the apartment. Now I let him in there to hang out with me after work sometimes. Kyle is concerned about cat hair, but the other day he left for work in a google cap that was covered in lint and dust, so I doubt he would even notice if there was cat hair in his room. I guess he fished the hat out from under the bed and plopped it right on his big head without looking at it. Luckily I noticed and prevented him from becoming the Dirty Guy at work. My efforts may be in vain considering the beard he has been wearing recently, though.

*We have been living in a small bedroom without our furniture for a while (hence the disorganized mess). We are in the process of finding a place to live and we're pretty excited about getting a Dorkfort* mansion in the outer city. Tonight we are flying to Chicago to drive a 16' truck full of our stuff across the country. I hope we find a place soon so that our stuff isn't lonely in public storage for too long.

*Dorkfort is the company we started with several friends who will be living with us.

I don't know what Mix's goal was, but he kept nosing around behind the books. It seemed like there was catnip back there or something. If I wouldn't have been there he would have knocked all of the books to the floor in his mysterious quest.

He considered leaping onto the dresser from atop the books but ultimately decided to lie down on top of the books for a short nap instead.

Book Recommendation: Devil in the White City

2007-05-17T15:00:00.000-07:00

You absolutely must read this book! It is a story about Chicago in the late 1800's. The World's Fair, a serial killer, amazing innovations every week - What more could you want? It reads like a novel, but the best part is that it all actually happened. (I guess it would be better if the serial killer part was fiction... but it does make it more, um, interesting that he was right there in Chicago, chillin' in his custom-built torture palace and walking the same streets that I did when I lived there.)

This is the best book I have read in a while. I often find myself telling friends interesting tidbits of history from it (well I think they're interesting anyway), or bumping into references to the famous names or places I read about. For example, when Kyle and I went on our architecture tour we stopped by a building designed by two of the main characters. And during my trip to the Conservatory of Flowers I noticed a historical timeline that mentioned Frederick Law Olmsted, another one of the characters.

The Rookery

The Rookery Interior - recently renovated to restore Frank Lloyd Wright's previous renovation design.

Japanese Tea Garden

2007-05-14T14:55:00.000-07:00

Kyle and I checked out the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park. It was quite lovely.

Isn't this bridge awesome? They had to warp the wood to make it... sort of like the bridge I made for one of my engineering classes.

Yes we were both wearing purple T-shirts.... super cool!

Scooter

2007-05-09T09:37:00.000-07:00

Check out the new scooter I bought last weekend! It's a Buddy 125 Italia. It's so much fun! It goes over 70mph, but I don't plan on testing that any time soon. It's great for getting around in the city, and I really like riding on the back while Kyle drives. We went all over town on it. Tomorrow I'm get my motorcycle license permit so I'll be totally legit.

Here is a picture of me in my riding gear. Kyle has a matching helmet :-p

Mixture

2007-05-08T21:38:00.000-07:00

Mixture is Masha's new cat that lives in the apartment. He is really friendly and has a cute fluffy tail. Sometimes he poops on stuff though :-/

from LA back to SF

2007-05-08T21:33:00.000-07:00

Our trip back was scenic too, while the daylight lasted.

The Price is Right

2007-05-08T21:23:00.000-07:00

The reason for our road trip to LA was to see The Price is Right. It wasn't as simple as getting tickets and showing up, though. We had to camp out on the sidewalks of LA for ten hours because they issue more tickets than there are seats in the studio. I don't even like this damned show that much, but Bob is retiring this year so I figured I better not pass up this bizarre opportunity as I certainly wouldn't have it again.

The camp out is step one of the brainwashing process.

Next there is a complicated ticketing system that starts at 6am. We are given numbers based on own position in the lines, and told to go away and come back in a couple of hours.

Note: Just before 6am Four BITCHES from TEXAS cut the line and then repeatedly cut the line when people called them on it. Eventually someone didn't notice them in front of them and they got tickets somehow! They received many hate stares, taunts, and insults from our group. It was disappointing to find out they were in the second taping, because we had a fantastic plan to boo them, put gum in their hair, and squirt mustard on them once we saw them inside the studio.

The third step of the brainwashing occurs when we return to ABC studios at 8am. Now they have us line up on long benches in the order we got the previous tickets. Then they give us ANOTHER number and tell us to come back in an hour. WTF??

We come back in an hour for phase four, a multi step brainwashing phase. Part one involves sitting back down on the benches in the order of the previous numbers. Part two involves gathering documented social security numbers from EVERYONE in the audience. We are told that if we didn't bring proof of our SS#, it's ok because they will only need it within thirty days if we win a prize. How many people win prizes in this game? About ten. Why are we collecting this information from over 300 people in a process that takes HOURS and isn't even necessary?? Brainwashing. These people are in control, no matter how stupid they seem. Part 3: Nametags. We do not write our own names, duh! A special name writer must come by and do this for us. For some reason he only grabs about 4 tags at once and has to stop and walk to get more over and over again. This place is a torture chamber. Next we are given "interviews" in groups of about eight. If you thought they picked people to come on down randomly, you're a fool! "What is your name and what do you do for a living?" they asked. Do NOT say something professional sounding we learned... these people are looking for hardworking, blue collar americans! Final phase... sit on benches for an hour or so.

And then we make it to the studio.

It's tiny, and creepy. We're told how to be an audience, and how to know if we've been called. We're scrutinized by some people holding clipboards and scanning the crowd. I swear one of them keeps looking at me.

Bob comes out and he's very charming, but slightly senile. He can't remember if it's April, May, or June. He makes the crowd feel like they know him personally, and I guess it's hard not to feel like that when he's on your TV for thirty years (or more?) , always looking into the camera and talking to "you".

The show proceeds with no major surprises. Bob doesn't really do anything. People race out to him between takes to tell him things or have him correct his mistakes. One of the doors for the games doesn't work so we have a break to talk to Bob while they fix it. He mentions a room in his house that is strictly for his pet rabbits to play in.

When they bring out the big wheel, a man a couple of rows in front of us starts having a seizure. The show proceeds as people in the audience start to take notice. Most people in the audience who are aware of what's going on take immediate interest on the man and ignore the show. Only after the scene cut does the crew really take interest in this possibly dying man. It's not like we can rush in medical personnel while filming the BIG WHEEL, though!!

Anyway, it was surreal. A person from our group made it to the bidding corral toward the end but he didn't make it onstage. Most of the prizes were terrible anyway. Ugly furniture. An RV trailer with no truck to pull it. Banjos. Etc.

I wouldn't do it again, but I'm glad that I did. It was freakin' weird and I feel like I learned a little bit about how TV works.

My only photos from the event:
(No cameras or phones allowed in the studio)

If Kmart ever had a place in the American economy, this is it. We bought a ton of crap there for our camp out on the sidewalk, and we would have returned it later if we hadn't been so exhausted. Everyone has this idea. My sleeping bag came with leaves it in.

Here's a pic with one of our team shirts. They say "I need help from the audience" in TPIR font. There were twenty of us. We didn't know everyone in our group but we still had a lot of team spirit.

Venice Beach

2007-05-08T20:41:00.000-07:00

The marketplace at Venice Beach

This is a Reebok advertisement that says "BE KIND TO YOUR IMPLANTS. RUN EASY LA."
I have seen ads for this "Run Easy" campaign in San Francisco, but they aren't about people with implants... they are about at people who run too aggressively. They show posters of people collapsing in marathon races and ask "What are you just doing? Run Easy." That's the difference between the rest of the country and LA. You get the feeling that everything is very superficial there, and everyone knows it. There are way more billboards for clothing brands, and way more time to stare at them because traffic is insane there.

Venice Beach

2007-05-08T20:28:00.000-07:00

Venice Beach

2007-05-08T20:21:00.000-07:00

Road Trip: SF to LA

2007-05-08T18:08:00.000-07:00

It's very hard to tell, but this was a scary place to be. Those rocky waves were very far down.

Here you can kind of see the waves at the bottom of the mountain, with the sun peaking from behind a gigantic cloud that had settled between us and the ocean.

Road Trip: SF to LA

2007-05-08T18:01:00.000-07:00

We saw so many beaches. Some with lots of visitors -

- some lonely and deserted.

On a high cliff we found a giant cloud below us.

It looks like you could just dive right in to that cloud. I doubt you'd feel much until you hit the rocky shore below, though.

Road Trip: SF to LA

2007-05-08T17:56:00.000-07:00

California is beautiful! Dank drove us from SF to LA and we took the long way - the winding, belly-turning, scenic route down the coast. It took us a few extra hours but it was worth it.

At times I was thinking how easy it would be to careen off the highway, roll down the cliff, and plunk right into the ocean.

Bridesmaids' dress

2007-05-08T17:48:00.000-07:00

As you might know, my lifelong best friend Abby is getting married this year and I am the maid of honor! I went shopping for bridesmaids' dresses with her last month and we picked this one. It's not going to be WHITE of course. It's going to be brown with a green sash, which will match the outdoor setting of the wedding. And I will certainly be standing with better posture during the ceremony!

Chicago Architecture Tour - Frank Lloyd Wright

2007-05-08T14:40:00.000-07:00

Our tour stopped at the Robie House, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. I think the most interesting thing about Frank is how amazing he was at convincing people that his work was valuable. It's weird, but is it beautiful? Is a unique style, creativity, and a salesman's personality all you need to become a famous architect? Our guide said that Frank designed each room with a specific purpose in mind and that he told his clients what each one should be used for. But wouldn't you do the same if you designed a house? Maybe Frank is famous because he got so creative with residential design. It doesn't seem like architects do that very often. I wish they would. If I design a house it'll be as weird as one of Frank's. Hopefully more cozy though.

Unfortunately we could only take pictures from the outside of the house. This is a view of the basement windows. Above the windows is a balcony and you can see a bunch of columns peeking over it ... between each one of them is a door. These balcony doors were an entire wall of one of the long rooms inside.

Chicago Architecture Tour - iit student center

2007-05-08T13:34:00.000-07:00

We stopped at the iit campus to see a couple of buildings. This one was the most interesting, and defnitely the most ugly from the outside. The building was designed to unite the two sides of campus on either side of the El line. The giant tube is a sound barrier for the train that runs across the top of the building. You can't really see the details in this picture, but someone decided to trim the roof in some sort of purple animal print and then put the name of the building on orange lettering on top of that. :-o

Thankfully the inside of the building was much cooler. The translucent orange walls were neat.

They also had some rasterbations on glass walls that were interesting.

Chicago Architecture Tour - Lake Michigan

2007-05-08T12:42:00.000-07:00

A Kiss in a Van

2007-05-08T12:22:00.000-07:00

Golden Gate Bridge

2007-04-04T22:28:00.000-07:00

Kyle and I drove to the bridge to check it out. We could also see the island with alcatraz from down there, but it was too foggy to catch it with the camera.

Conservatory of Flowers

2007-04-04T22:10:00.000-07:00

More lillypads. I think my favorite part of the day was the architecture of the building - doesn't it add so much to the scenes? The natural light that comes in is really nice, especially because the day I went was really sunny. All of that cloudy glass looks really great with the white structure I think... very different than the dark skyscraper glass and steel I am used to seeing everyday. I don't think it is particularly unique building because one of the signs I read said that it was originally ordered as a kit. But this is the first conservatory I have seen so I was impressed anyway.

See what I mean about the light? It looks neat when it shines on the mist in the air.

I find this plant disturbing. There were other ones I found that made me more uncomfortable. I took some pictures but I am not going to post them because they are gross. Itsn't it weird how the attractive or unattractiveness of the objects around us can affect our moods? Looking at some of the ugly plant pictures causes a physical reaction - a frown or grimace. Research has shown that making faces affects your emotional state (I think I read about that in Malcolm Gladwell's Blink). So it is no mystery why I don't like looking at gross flower pictures and wouldn't want you to either.

Conservatory of Flowers

2007-04-04T21:52:00.000-07:00

In one of the rooms they had pretty ponds.

They also had some carnivorous plants like this one

The lilly pads were lovely

Here is another carnivorous plant

Conservatory of Flowers

2007-04-04T20:59:00.000-07:00

In one of the rooms there was this really weird display that I didn't understand at all. I read the description for the exhibit and it seemed like whoever created these plant ball things was really stretching to try to make them seem meaningful.

One of the rooms represented a very high altitude climate. I liked the sign.

This one of the high altitude plants. It looks more like it belongs under water to me.

Conservatory of Flowers

2007-04-04T20:52:00.000-07:00

This was definitely my favorite plant. It is called "Tortoise Plant" or something like that. Isn't it awesome?? I don't really understand it at all... it has that huge base and then that one tiny vine sprouting out the top.

As far as I could tell the only theme of this room was flower pots, because all of the plants were in pots. I read a sign about them and it was really boring. I don't know whose idea that was.

Here is an African milk tree. I really wanted to snap ones of those things off and see if milk came out. The white cactus-type thing in the background creeped me out.

This tree-cactus thing went all the way up to the ceiling! Like a lot of the things I saw here, it seemed really unique and bizarre, but I guess I just haven't been in many exotic climates.

Conservatory of Flowers

2007-04-04T20:35:00.000-07:00

The Conservatory opened in 1879. It's really pretty. My photography doesn't do the building justice really.

Inside the conservatory each room had a different climate. This scary twisting plant was in one of the tropical climates.

Another tropical plant... the coconut tree. Apparently these double coconuts are spawned now and then... I was really immature and started cracking up when i saw it.

There were a lot of pretty flowers... this one seemed really unusual to me, it looks like it's made of plastic. I should have asked for a tour; I don't know what anything is called.