apete's apage

Waiting for Godot

2006-11-08T18:55:00.000-08:00

I'm excited for tomorrow. I get to see Waiting for Godot by the Gate Theater from Dublin. I saw the play when UMS had the Gate Theater come through Ann Arbor back in 2000 or so. It was one of the three big events that lead up to me taking my first leave of absence.

How you ask? Well, when I saw Godot, I really took it as a message about my life. I really don't take metaphors from performances too well but the time was right for this one. I saw Godot as being the end. At different times the end either meant death or retirement. I didn't want to be Waiting for Godot which is how I felt by just going to work everyday. I realized I needed to get out of the cycle. I couldn't just go to work everyday forever. It provided the REALIZATION.

The other two influences for me to take my leave of absence were:

I received the book, "Six Months Off" which gave me the COURAGE to believe that I could take a leave from work. Honestly, this may be the most influential gift that I've ever gotten. I read it straight through very quickly which is not common for me to do with non-fiction books. It helped me plot on how to get out of work as well as make me feel comfortable with the decision financially both of which were huge hurdles for me.
Finally, I received an email requesting volunteers for an archaeological dig in Peru for the summer of 2001 from the University of Michigan Anthropology Undergraduate Newsletter. This provided me with the perfect OPPORTUNITY. A doctoral student at the University of North Carolina was going down to do some field research and was looking for help. It was something that I always wanted to do and I already knew I knew the Andean region.

Things came together very quickly after these events happened and I was off in April 2001 for three months. After I left, I asked for another month and didn't come back to work until September. If these events didn't happen, I wouldn't have gone to grad school either, because I would have been too afraid to ask for time off.

The big question is why am I thinking about this now...is it because "Waiting for Godot" is in town...or could it be that I just started a new job and I am already planning my next temporary escape?

Welcome to Seattle

2006-11-08T18:47:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Seattle is right. I've spent the last 5 days wet. I guess I've been blessed with beautiful weather since I've gotten here in August. I guess I can live with the rain but whatever happened to the misty rain that Seattle is supposed to have. There was plenty of actual drops coming down the ENTIRE time.

The one thing that is missing is the cool thunderstorms from the midwest.

Information Acquisition Day

2006-10-09T23:00:00.000-07:00

Today was the day that I increased my access to information the most since I have been in Seattle. First, I went down to to the Capitol Hill branch of the Seattle Public Library to get my library card. It was nice to browse the books on CD and see new selections. I had sort of worn out the choices at the AAPL after going through them since 2002 with a long commute. I also finally got internet (I think we are calling it internet now, as opposed to the Internet, aren't we.) from Qwest which fulfills my dreams of not getting anything through Comcast.

The Front Door

2006-09-18T22:53:00.000-07:00

The Front Door
Originally uploaded by apete.

Well, I have moved in. There isn't much there but it is mine (via the bank.)

Now does anyone want a house in Ann Arbor?

47-21

2006-09-16T17:42:00.000-07:00

That may have been the best complete game that I have seen Michigan play in a long time.

Next Monday

2006-09-15T17:58:00.000-07:00

Today, I spent about an hour and 15 minutes signing papers to become a new, proud owner of a condo. Yup, I raised enough money to at least get the 5% in. The title doesn't go into effect until Monday after everybody is happy with everything so, I have to wait through the weekend before I move my carload of stuff up there.

Washington's process is a bit different than Michigan's. In Michigan, I got to sit across from the seller and sign all of the documents together and at the end of the session, it was all over. For my last house it was an interesting thing because the guy that I bought my house from was one of those high school teachers that you don't want your kids to have so it made it interesting to me to finally see him for once. Here in Washington, the signings at different times. Hopefully Monday at some point, I will be able to get the keys and start moving in.

I do get my final walkthrough tomorrow so hopefully, everything looks good.

Last Weekend's Crazy Luck

2006-09-15T17:43:00.000-07:00

Sunrise at Goat Rocks Wilderness
Originally uploaded by apete.

Well, last weekend I went on my first outdoor adventure. My friend, GJG, and I met up half way between Portland and Seattle in the Goat Rocks National Wilderness. We took a trail that we used using the nifty Northwest Hiker site. We selected the Shoe Lake Trail because it looked fun, it had water, and it was on the Pacific Crest Trail.

It really didn't have much in the way of water except for a few springs at the beginning of the hike and a lake at the end...oh well. We all survived. Another interesting feature was trying to find flat camping ground along the trail to camp on. We weren't allowed to camp in the basin that the lake was in so we had to hike back and with a few scrambles down a few ridges with no luck, we finally found a place that worked just fine.

The coolest thing about the hike was that we inadvertently found a friend of GJG's, Dan, that was a thru-hiker on the PCT. GJG missed meeting him while he was traveling through Portland. He knew that he would be in Washington somewhere and that was about it. We asked the first few thru-hikers about him and after translating that Dan was really Sweatbox on the trail and that he was about 15 miles behind. Armed with the knowledge that Dan=Sweatbox, we asked the next groups of thru-hikers with names such as Nemo, Haiku, and Tree Hugger getting better info. Finally, about 3 miles away from the car as we were leisurely walking back to allow for Sweatbox to catch up, he did. Very cool and lucky. Anyway, he was hiking with Star and Token Civilian. Greg got to catch up and we heard some harrowing stories and then we drove them up to the store for provisions before we took off to watch the exciting end to the 9-6 Seahawks victory over the Lions.

Expansion, Sharpies, V8, Condo Update, and Walking

2006-09-08T23:13:00.000-07:00

Today, I got to choose the new layout for my office. The two interns that I was sharing the office with have gone back two school and my office will only have one other person in it! That means I get a bigger desk...I could use a bookshelf too but one step at a time.

I also realized today that the only writing utensils that I had on my desk at one point today were 5 Sharpies...I don't think I've used a Sharpie since I've been here but there were no normal pens or pencils. I really have to start making sure, I come back with all of the writing utensils that I walk off with and not leaving them in other offices.

It is nice having all of the free drinks that I want while I am at work. It sucks having free Coke there all of the time though. I have been trying to wean myself from it though. I have been very successful in the morning. I have been forcing myself to drink a milk, a V8 and at least one other kind of juice. No Coke. It's been working too. I've even started liking V8. I just wish it didn't have so much salt in it. My next step is to start replacing those afternoon Cokes with Talking Rain water. I've been doing ok with that.

As for my condo, things are looking good for closing by the 18th. I get to inspect it on Monday! I am getting excited and nervous. I am looking forward to having a place to call my own. Right now, I am renting a room from a couple of people in my programming class that have a extra room in their apt. It's working out for both of us.

Finally, for you Fitster fans, a few of us, have been keeping track of each others steps on walkertracker.com. It is the best thing that I have seen on the internet and I have been using it for the last two weeks and uploading almost everyday which is saying something! I really like the graphing...which you can do with your 'comrades'. There is also a mapping feature which isn't quite as cool as Fitster would be but you can see where your fellow walkers are. So if you have a pedometer, get out there!

More on the Condo Purchase Agreement

2006-08-20T18:22:00.000-07:00

I forgot to mention a couple of things about the condo purchase agreement in that previous post. I had some fun in negotiating. I really didn't touch the price directly at all but I did get three cool things added that weren't there before.

I got my homeowner's dues, which are paid to the condo association each month, waved until 2008 which I think is about $250 a month.
I also talked my way into the appliance upgrade which puts all stainless appliances into my unit. I think there was a $6000 pricetag on that one.
Finally, the association only allows dogs under 25 lbs in the unit. I had it written into my contract that I could have that waived for the first time. I think it is written in there, '...until the said dog is gone.' It helped that my real estate agent and the woman representing the condo were both dog people.

It was kinda fun and it reminded me that I wanted to take a negotiation class while I was in grad school. I guess I could look at UW for one of those.

AWESOME, AWESOME, AWESOME

2006-08-20T17:50:00.000-07:00

WOW! There is a true classic Metallica dad out there somewhere. Srah just passed this link to me. I've seen lots of coverband CDs doing all kinds of stuff including Metallica's own collaboration with SFSO. The song selection was near perfect as well. I was excited to see the lesser known bass solo, Anesthesia, by the late, great Cliff Burton on the disc. I am excited to hear it. I would have replaced 'NEM', 'Sandman' or 'Unforgiven' with 'Horsemen' or 'Seek and Destroy' but then again, I didn't come up with it.

Why I really like this is because it reminded me that a friend of mine, MT, has promised a photo of his first born in the scraps of his faded metallica t-shirt that he purchased at our first Metallica concert in Saginaw, MI way back in February 1993. We've come a long way since then...4 years in the MetClub and 7-8 other shows including Woodstock '94 and a club member only performance in Toronto.

Also, Metallica is now available on iTunes. I can't quite forgive them for their anti-Napster crusade but it is an interesting step.

Week 2: Deposit on Condo

2006-08-19T19:05:00.000-07:00

Hey all. The big news today is that I put in a deposit on a condo. This makes it very possible for me to own 600 square feet of Seattle. The floorplan looks like this. I know the website makes it look like a cruise ship and if I went to the website before I saw it in person, I would have probably not even stopped by.

The unit that I got, #405, was actually a unit that one of the sales team had picked out for himself. He got himself engaged and decided that they needed more space, so it went out on the market. I went by there three times before I finally decided to go for it. It has a really amazing view and is in a good location. It is about a 25-30 walk down to the waterfront and has some cool shopping districts both east and west of me.

The only problem is that I have a bad loan-income ratio or whatever because of my new student loans and my A2 house. The only way that I can get a loan right now is by either selling my house by September 18th or by getting what is called a no-ratio loan or something like that which places all of the burden on me PLUS a little higher interest rate. I have until next Friday to give a go/no go decision.

Other than that I spent most of my time this past week looking at condos. I did find a place called Jersey Mike's which reminded me a lot of a place called Jersey Giants which was on Washtenaw before it closed down. I loved that place and miss it. Tomorrow, I am going to stop by the farmer's market in my new neighborhood.

As for the week coming up, it will be spent preparing for closing on the condo which means getting insurance quotes, chatting with lawyers, and trying to come up with a down payment! The Yankees are in town and I may try to catch a game at SafeCo. Hmmm...I just looked and the BoSox are here next weekend too.

First week

2006-08-13T22:34:00.000-07:00

Well, I have made it through my first week. Things have been going pretty smoothly. I am really impressed with the additional benefits that I have. I am both excited and nervous about the classes that I will be in everyday for half of the day. I like everyone that I have met but I cannot believe the number of pages that are being given to us. I have about 2 feet of books when I set them on top of each other. I've already begun my reading though.

As for the relocation, that is moving along too. I don't know how well yet, because I just can't decide which side of the lake to live on!

Downtown Seattle - I'll only be able to afford a 1 bedroom condo but the neighborhoods have so much more character.
Eastside - close to work and cheaper although, I'll still only be able to afford a condo.

Days 6 & 7: Boise and Portland

2006-08-06T10:05:00.000-07:00

Potato Ice Cream
Originally uploaded by apete.

Today included a trip across Idaho; from Idaho Falls to Boise. The entertainment between included Pickle's Place in Arco and Craters of the Moon National Monument. Neither of these were planned because we didn't know how we were going to get across the Gem State. Arco as it turns out was the first town to be lit by nuclear power back in 1951. It was filled with images of atoms. It was probably filled with radiation thinking back to those unregulated days when you could do what you wanted with nuclear waste. We stopped for lunch at Pickle's place where I had a Crater Burger which was basically an Atomic Burger with black olives. Sarah had a mountain of tater tots which because we were in the home state of Napoleon Dynamite.

The Craters of the Moon Nat'l Park was a lot of black rock. Again, it probably would have been cool if we got out and walked around but I wouldn't recommend a special trip for it.

We entered Boise which seemed like a nice little town. We met up with my cousin and a friend from SI and had dinner at a Caribbean restaurant. The next morning was another of the best meals on the trip. My cousin recommended Goldy's which is a little breakfast place with awesome food. I had the salmon hash and a malted waffle that were great.

We then took off for Portland. There really wasn't much between Boise and Portland but upon getting to Portland, we hung out with my friend from undergrad and his dog. The next morning we got up and saw the town and then took off for Seattle.

Where Everybody Knows your Name

2006-08-06T09:51:00.000-07:00

I have only been out to dinner in Redmond twice and both times I ran into somebody that I knew. Either Redmond is very small or SI has some large reaches into the world. I know it isn't the latter. The first night we went to Sushi Land which is ok sushi and you pick it off of a conveyor belt. It is really cheap though. Anyway, when we walked in I noticed the parents of an SI alum that I graduated with.

The next night was very similar except this time it was an alum of the year before me. Pretty crazy considering that I've only spent about 32 hours in the area and I'm already running into familiar faces!

Day 5: Tetons and Yellowstone

2006-08-04T08:29:00.000-07:00

One more parting shot of the Tetons
Originally uploaded by apete.

Day 5 ended up being our rush through Yellowstone and the Grand Teton National Parks. We needed to get to Idaho Falls because the cheapest room that I could find in Jackson was $209. Yellowstone was amazing even though we only followed the road. I really enjoyed the thermal pools and mud ponds especially. The wildlife was cool too. The worst part was the rain that fell on us most of the trip through Yellowstone. The Grand Tetons also were very impressive and I didn't leave many of those photos off my flickr page.

We ate dinner at Bubba's BBQ in Jackson. This was the only meal that I remember from my trip while I was in high school. I must have been just as good this time because it was fantastic this time as well. Easily my favorite meal on our trip this time too. the down side was here too the computers were down and I had to pay cash.

We continued on in the dark to Idaho Falls. I really wish it was light out for this trip because I think it would have been pretty beautiful.

Day 4 Out West

2006-08-03T09:16:00.000-07:00

We got up earlier than normal in Rapid City so that we could get out to Mt. Rushmore and continue on. Rushmore was ok. It seems to be one of those places that you look at think it looks as you'd expect it. We were in and out after about 20 minutes. I do have a parking pass for a Saturn from Michigan through 2006 if anyone is interested in saving $8.

We crossed the border into Wyoming and headed up to Devil's Tower National Monument which we also took several photos of before we continued on. We stopped at a little homey place for lunch where we were greatly disappointed that there was no mashed potatoes to make models of Devil's Tower a la Close Encounters of the Third Kind. We ended up trying to shape coleslaw and French fries. Not quite the same.

We ended up in Cody, WY where our reservations were missing at the Buffalo Bill Village and then ended up giving out the last room WHILE we were trying to figure out where our reservation was. Gosh! They ended up getting us a room at the Antler Inn which was otherwise known as the Burl Inn which is what the sign said. Oh well. After that we went to dinner at Irma's which was ok. We went there because it had a bar that the Queen of England gave to Buffalo Bill at some point. We did miss the gun fight in the bar which is scheduled daily at ~~high noon~~ 6pm. To add to the bad luck in Cody, the computer was out at Irma's so cash was appreciated.

Blog Drought of the Summer of 2006

2006-08-03T08:56:00.000-07:00

So there was a lot happening during my blog drought during the summer of 2006. Following my Chicago trip I did continue on to Montreal in order to actually Montreal this time. I really enjoyed the Old City (especially some of the cute delis), the Atwater Market and visiting Schwartz's for some Montreal Smoked Meat.

I also was working part time with Menlo Innovations which has some great methodologies for designing and developing software. I really enjoyed my time there and it was a great experience.

I had an interview out in Seattle for the job I'm headed out to start. I hung out with Erika and some other SIers as well as visited Mt. Rainier, Pikes Place Market and the Seattle Public Library of course.

I also got out to Hell, MI on 06/06/06. I didn't know what to do once I got there and it seemed that nobody else really knew what to do either, but I was there.

Day 3: South Dakota

2006-08-03T08:04:00.000-07:00

The Corn Palace
Originally uploaded by apete.

Well, Today was the first exciting day of the trip. We started off by heading to the Corn Palace in Mitchell. This is one of the stops that I think that my family missed when we took this route when I was in high school. It was definitely very interesting. It wasn't quite as corney as I imagined. Much of the structure was brick and there was also a lot of hay or grass covering it. I don't know why I was imagining all of it being corn. They use 12 different varieties of corn to get the different colors.

We continued onward across South Dakota stopping in Murdo for lunch at some diner. The diner was attached to the Pioneer Auto Village which was very large and very interesting. It had all sorts of things but among my favorites were a Wells Fargo stagecoach, a mess of old lunchboxes and of course the General Lee.

We got going and went through the Badlands fairly quickly with a stop at the Prairie House which was an old sod house homestead from 1909. I couldn't imagine living like that. The badlands were pretty cool. We ran into some Bighorn Sheep but didn't have time to do any good hiking. After getting through the Badlands, it was a stop at the old Wall Drug which I couldn't believe that Sarah had not heard of but she has now experienced. I also got a text message while we were at Wall Drug that some friends of mine had a baby. That was a first.

We finally pulled into Rapid City at about nine and neither of us felt like the half-hour trip to Mt. Rushmore even though it would have been interesting to see it all lit up. We did eat downtown Rapid City at the Fire House Brewery. It was ok. The best was the Gorgonzola Ale soup which was as interesting as it sounds and good.

Our Trip West: Day 2

2006-07-30T09:10:00.000-07:00

Windmills
Originally uploaded by apete.

Well, Day 2 was about as exciting as Day 1 but the roads were clearer. We continued from Rockford stopping in Madison, WI for some lunch. We plowed through Minnesota after crossing the Mississippi River which seemed extra large even this far north. We ate dinner at a Perkin's right after this photo was taken in Worthington, MN. My favorite quote from the booth next to me was something along the lines of, 'If you want to study art of the human body, you really need to move to Paris, the Twin Cities, or New York." So does this mean that St. Paul houses the second best life drawing studio in the world? Anyone?

Day 3 will include the Corn Palace, Wall Drug, Badlands and Mt. Rushmore. Stay tuned. I am trying to make an effort to blog everyday. I'll probably have flickr photos uploaded at least. Oh and it is supposed to be over 100 degrees today. I can't wait to get to Seattle.

Our Trip West: Day 1

2006-07-30T08:58:00.000-07:00

Our Trip West: Day 1
Originally uploaded by srah.

Well, I'm on a blog again. We took off on Friday for Seattle. I had to drive down to Dayton, OH to pick up Sarah at the airport. My only goal that first day was to get on the other side of Chicago. I really hate driving through that city unless I am going there to visit friends. We plodded through slowly even though it was like 11 at night and rush hour or something was still going on. Let me know if you want more blogging...

Traveling again...

2006-05-21T19:10:00.000-07:00

So now I am out in Chicagoland. I am out here working at the Managing Electronic Records conference as a student volunteer. I did it last year and they took me on again. I liked it. So far it is going much, much smoother. Last year, the set up of the conference binders took us until about 11 pm. It was a horrible experience. This year we were done at 5:30 or so. This year we also have to wear these yellow polo shirts. They are nicer than the CHI student volunteer shirts...and we get two that are different shades, with different color collars. I'm looking forward to the session which run tomorrow through Wednesday afternoon. The afterparties are fun too. Tomorrow, there is one on the top floor of the Hancock Building and then after that is another at the hotel featuring chocolate and martinis. Hopefully, there won't be any Yahootinis!

I'm here staying in Delaneystan in Exile. It's really nice except their puppy either is pals with me or goes Kujo on me. I never know what to expect from him. Also, when I showed up yesterday, I knew they had a birthday party to go to and I thought that I was going to be hanging out by myself in the condo, but they invited me to go along. I had a great time, it was at a Whirleyball place and they had a court for two hours. I scored about four times and think I did pretty well. Maybe I'll pick it up as a hobby. The other cool thing was after our time ran out we discovered that there was lasertag also so eight of us guys played for about a half an hour and walked out completely sweaty. Nothing like going to a birthday party for someone you don't know and getting all sweaty.

After the conference, I'll be heading up to Montreal for try number two at seeing the city this spring. Seeing that I don't have anything else to do there, I think there is a good chance. Stay tuned to flickr for photos, because there is a better chance for updates there, than here.

Updates...smupdates

2006-05-03T14:52:00.000-07:00

OK, so Fitster won 3rd place in the Student Design Competition at CHI.

As for Montreal, I really can't tell you much. I was so busy being a student volunteer, working with the Fitster team and keeping myself afloat that I didn't even walk the few blocks to even peak at Old Montreal.

Some thoughts that I did have on Montreal:

What is with the sesame bagel? Every bagel in town was sesame. There was no plain or any other type. I even went to a bagel store called New York Bagel and that was all they had.
The CHI site proudly states "English is spoken everywhere in Montreal." What they fail to tell you is that French is always spoken first.
I really didn't feel like I was in Canada. I didn't know where I felt that I was but it wasn't Canada. I've never been to France. I have been to several places in Ontario and British Columbia.

Final 4

2006-04-25T11:19:00.000-07:00

Fitster made it! More tomorrow...hopefully. I have a PowerPoint presentation to do though.

Student Design Competition

2006-04-25T11:16:00.000-07:00

So it feels pretty cool being in the student design competition now that we are here. It was really nice being selected, working with a fine group which couldn't be better, and getting a paper published in the proceedings. It feels 10 times better after hanging out at our poster with people stopping by who are genuinely interested in our design and hearing from others that ours is one of the better ones. Today we also found out that we were 48 total entries and we were one of the 15 that were selected to show our posters at CHI2006. We find out Tuesday if we will be one of the top 4. If we are, we will have to do a presentation, but I think that we can muster that...we've done it before.

It is difficult work though, especially while trying to get in 20 hours of student volunteer labor in. I really haven't seen much of Montreal at all yet. On Sunday, I was in the conference center from about 8 AM to 8 PM without leaving and today it was about 9 AM until about 10 PM. The cool part about tonight's opening ceremony was they had Cirque du Soleil performing and free drinks.

Don't fly United Express

2006-04-25T11:09:00.000-07:00

So, I am in Montreal now. It seems to be a fun city from what I've seen of it which isn't much yet. Getting here was an ordeal though. Ugh.

I am currently a student volunteer and in a student design competition at the CHI2006 conference. I flew out to Montreal on Saturday after getting 4 hours of sleep the night before. We left Detroit on United Express. Don't fly United Express. It was about 15 minutes late leaving Detroit. that wasn't so bad except that we really only had about 45 minutes to get onto our connection at Dulles. This was before we realized that it was pouring rain or that we needed to take 2 shuttles to the other gate in DC. So as we are landing, we see the rain and of course we have to get off the plane without a bridge and had to run through the rain to the terminal. Our poster is too long to fit in the poster tube so we had to cover that and what better to cover it than with a barf bag...I knew they were good for something. Mattbot was kind enough to go to GAP and buy me a new jacket which looks pretty smart because otherwise, I would have froze for those two rainy days.

So we got off the plan successfully, only to encounter the first of two shuttles that looked like a stormtrooper carrier. No, I am not geeky enough to know what they were actually called in the SW movies. Anyway, the best feature of this machine was that the driver had to walk from the one 'cockpit' all the way through the tram like inside to get to the other side in order to get into the other 'cockpit' to drive away in the other direction. After that we got to another terminal in which we walked through for five minutes in order to get to yet another shuttle. Finally, we get to Terminal G which just has a whacked out way of getting people to the gates. There was a series of about 7 doors in which each had about 4 gates attached to it and the doors had a line of planes above it. It was so confusing. When we got there our flight was delayed as the passengers deboarded in the rainstorm. When we finally boarded, we saw all of the baggage lying on the ground in about 2 inches of water. Don't fly United Express. After carefully covering our poster again, we ran to the plane one by one in the rain.

After boarding we were delayed another hour as they had to rescan the luggage because they mixed them up with some other plane. (Remember this and don't fly United Express.) Once we're off the ground we're fine until we wait for our bags in Montreal...and wait...and wait. Three of our bags didn't make it. We have to wait in a long line to fill out a claim because there were several people whose bag didn't make it. Don't fly United Express. They tell us that the bags will probably be sent to Chicago or Toronto which have more flights directly to Montreal and we may get them that night. Cool.

No it was a lie. We called on Sunday and they were still in Dulles and they were probably going to be on the same flight that we took the day before...so we should call back at 7 to see if it landed. They did arrive this time. The downside was that they were soaked. It was probably because they were sitting in two inches of rain for 24 hours. As we speak, my clothes are strewn throughout my room drying. Don't fly United.

Oh and by the way, we also left the poster at the airport as we were trying to find a shuttle to the hotel. We didn't realize this until we were halfway to the hotel and there was no turning back. Yes, this was also United Express' fault because the airline made us temporarily insane. Finding a printer in Montreal on a Sunday was difficult but we did find one and it was done by 8:30 Monday morning and I got to set it up myself.

The hotel is nice. We were booked in a Sheraton for being student volunteers for the 5 days that we will be here. No complaints about the hotel.

I have no friends.

2006-04-19T13:58:00.000-07:00

Jookster
Originally uploaded by apete.

I have a problem when a computer tells me this. I don't know about you.

Anyway, it looks like this is a combo between friendster and delicious. That looks weird without the dots in it.

I don't have time to look at it right now but here is my profile.

Be friends with me....

Procrastinating and Sharing

2006-04-11T19:48:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I am supposed to be doing something else.

But, I just wanted to share the fact that I just received one of the new crisp $10 bills. My only comment is that the color makes it looked like I was laundering a large sack of cash and there was a red sock that I didn't realize was in there with it. The government calls the color: "subtle shades of orange, yellow and red." Whatever? The oval on the backside containing the US Treasury was also cheesily done if you care to look any closer.

Useless info, I know.

Almost Done

2006-04-08T00:44:00.000-07:00

Me and the President of Nicaragua
Originally uploaded by apete.

I leave for the airport in about 3 hours. I probably should be sleeping but I am just trying to catch up on stuff and packing.

Yesterday, was kind of exciting. We left for an indigenous community, Mozonte, at about 7 A.M. It was about 4 hours away. The President of Nicaragua was opening a new telecenter there. The ride up there was interesting. Because we had to work on our presentation, all four of us had our laptops open until they died on the way. The first thing we did was to head to the telecenter to get them charging when we arrived. It was pretty entertaining because we were by ourselves and we just talked our way into the telecenter which was surrounded by cops because that was where the ribbon cutting and lunch was going to be. At least they looked through our bags.

Time in Latin America isn't so punctual so we waited for an hour and a half for the president to arrive. During that time, we listened to a couple of songs sung by some Nica reality TV show winner named Michael something or other.

The president finally arrived and after an hour or so of speaches we were off to the ribbon cutting and lunch. Edwin, who is our client and the Secretary of Youth, introduced us to the president of Nicaragua, Enrique Bolaños. Then we posed for a photo. After the official photographer took a photo, the prez tried to move on but I held his shoulder in place and asked for a photo with my camera which he stood for. It was weird because I am not usually a celebrity chaser but this was different. I don't know why. Oh and the lunch which was done by the local women was the best typical Nica meal that I had.

Today, we got up early again; we had a press conference in which we talked about our project and the importance of telecenters to Nicaragua and then continued into a workshop for the coordinators of the existing telecenters. It worked out well. I had a few sections which I tried to do in Spanish...I really don't know how well I did. I was a little nervous and embarrassed because my Spanish sucks.

Back to the states...

Things not to eat in Nicaragua

2006-04-04T01:06:00.000-07:00

OK. So I've been there and tried a couple of things that I do not recommend to anyone. First, is the turtle eggs. They come very warm but they are still raw in the middle. Basically you make a hole in the shell and suck out the yolk and white. You are supposed to use a little salt and lime but it didn't help at all. The other was some crazy beer thing that had beer, hot sauce and ice. Yeah, it was gross.

Cosmopolitan

2006-04-04T00:55:00.000-07:00

So I always forget, one of my favorite things about traveling is the randomness of the people that I meet. Tonight, I went out to dinner with a crazy UN of people. There was:

one Nicaraguan - who we work with
one Columbian - the girlfriend of the Nicaraguan and she also works at the Ministry of Youth.
one Austrian - I met her at breakfast the other day. She was alone and it was obvious so I showed her how to get her breakfast and she has been hanging out with us ever since.
one Israeli - we met her at Casa de Cafe and she was looking at returning to Costa Rica where she was staying until she met us.
one German - the friend of the Austrian
one Guatamalan - he is our sponsor through the IADB
us Americans - there were the 4 of us from Michigan....actually one of us is Venezuelan so that even adds one more nationality.

It was one of our birthdays also so we sang happy birthday in 5 different languages and there was regular conversation in 3 of the languages. It was very cool and interesting.

Updates...finally

2006-04-02T12:02:00.000-07:00

Well, most of what we've been doing is work. It has been interesting though. We've now visited 3 different telecenters. Managua, Masaya and San Carlos. We are back in Managua for this last week. We'll probably be at the hotel for most of it working on our presentation before we leave and preparing for our little press conference. We do get a little break on Thursday when we will be headed up to Mozonte, which I keep pronouncing as if it were Brazilian (with a 'che' at the end.) In Mozonte, there will be an opening of an additional telecenter in which we will be attending and it is being opened by the president of Nicaragua. I don't know if or how much face-time we'll get with the President but it should be interesting.

Our trip to San Carlos was pretty enlightening. The fun started before we even got there, we had to cancel our boat trip of 14 hours, which was described to us several times as a puke-fest, so that we could do the 45 minute flight instead. The flight was new to me though as well. It turned out to be a 14 passenger flight (including pilots.) From where I was sitting in the first row, I could have just leaned forward and played with the controls myself. The landing strip looked as if it was a ski slope in the summer. It was a bit freaky flying into the side of a hill but we ended up alright. San Carlos itself was as hot as Managua which is always in the mid-90s but it was even more humid. Our hotel had showers but I never could get water to come out of mine. After 6PM the town was swarmed with these ugly flying green insects that you couldn't escape from. They had people and cars going around blowing this insecticide that probably was worse than the insects for us. It was crazy. I won't be going back, unless I have to.

As for fun, we finally saw a volcano and a market last Saturday. Last Sunday, we went to a beach on the Pacific side. It is always fun to play in the ocean. I tend to get bored doing beach stuff but waves are always fun for part of it. Yesterday, we saw Grenada which has been the best city we've been to so far. We also hit another market. Today, a few of us went to old town Managua and saw the old Cathedral. I took too many photos of it. It was sort of eerily amazing to me in the way it just stood there in ruins. It really looks as if it could collapse at any time.

I've got less than a week left and it looks as if most of it is going to be work, work, work. We'll see though.

Flor de Cana Rum

2006-03-23T14:28:00.000-08:00

One thing that we did discover is the Flor de Cana Centenario Rum. It is aged 15 years and is so smooth. If you put it on ice, you can almost barely tell it is there. We've had it the past two evenings. We'd like to get a tour of the factory now. The two big beers are very Latin American, Tona and Victoria. Very late with little flavor. I am disappointed that they don't sell the liter size that is common in many of the Andean countries.

American Food Elsewhere

2006-03-23T14:25:00.000-08:00

Today, we went to a restaurant called Hippo's that was pretty close to the hotel. It was American. I didn't think I'd know what an American restaurant really was but when you find one in Nicaragua, you know. They had curly cheese fries, potato skins, several burgers, and clam chowder. I had a blue cheese burger with curly fries and clam chowder. The burger was pretty good although the blue cheese was not very blue at all. The clam chowder tasted as if it came from a Campbell's can. Oh well.

Infomacion v. Infomatica

2006-03-23T14:15:00.000-08:00

So, I've discovered another problem with being from the School of Information and being horrible at speaking Spanish. Whenever, I tell someone that I am from the Escuela de Informacion, they always correct me and say Informatica, or information technology. Fortunately, I have been in the field of informatica for the past 9 years. I just say, 'No, Informacion.' Then they expect an explanation of what a school of information is. I can barely do it in English.

Libraries and My Spanish Sucks

2006-03-21T12:23:00.000-08:00

Day 3 -
Introduced myself as 'una estudiante...' today in front of about 20 high school kids. They laughed, I turned red. It was...fun.

For my library readers out there: We did our morning focus groups in the school library. It is a poorer school that is just down the road from the Managua telecenter. Between the focus groups, I chatted with the librarian who was actually a Spanish professor at a local university. She volunteers at the library when she can because she loves the kids, parents and books. She loves having the kids say hi to her on the street and being useful. I guess there isn't a library educational program in the country. She has taken classes and read up on it on her own. There was a bunch of new donations that were on the shelves but not cataloged yet if anyone is looking to volunteer.

Managua -- Day 2

2006-03-21T12:13:00.000-08:00

First day of work - Day 2 Nicaragua
Today was the first day of work. I didn't get to see much of the country or city today. Oh well. I am also not sure how much work, we actually got done. We had several people talking at us. I was ok with the Spanish until about 2PM when I became really glad that we had a translator. The Managua telecenter was really large. There were 12 computer cubicles and a large auditorium which is where we spent most of the time. The internet was so slow and we ended up buying a wireless router so that all of us could get laptops online. Earlier in the day, we had all been on one side of the auditorium in which our cords couldn't reach the outlets. By the end of the day, we all moved to the otherside for power, displacing most of the local workers.

As for work, we ended up developing a script for a focus group with questions for the groups that we are meeting on Tuesday, PTA and administrators from the next door school, student groups and university students. We also listened to severl presentations, some of which were just more than we needed.

For dinner we were taken to a mall so that we could eat at a food court. We're americans afterall, right? Ugh. We need a bit more communication. I did have some traditional Nica food from one of the places: beans and rice, pork, fried cheese and fried bananas. It was ok. We then went to the supermarket which was the highlight of the day. I love seeing products from other countries, not to mention all the cool fruits and vegetables.

More tomorrow, hopefully.

Greetings. Day 1 in Nicaragua.

2006-03-20T13:31:00.000-08:00

Well, I have arrived safely. Everything went well except for a run between gates in Houston. The arrival in Managua was nothing like I've ever experienced. We were captured by a guy holding a whiteboard with our names. He took our passports and baggage claims and then took us to the diplomatic waiting room where we were served drinks as our customs and visas were taken care of. It was great! No lines, no police. Just a few friendly places. They came to get us once we were taken care of and we were off. They then took us to get some chicken and to grab some water before we got to our hotel. So far what I've seen looks really nice. The neighborhood that I am in right now reminds me of the neighborhood that I stayed in Quito the first time I was there. The final thing was that all 4 of us have our own room. Nice. A little much but that is cool also meaning it has air conditioning.

Random DC things

2006-03-02T12:29:00.000-08:00

So, I am in Washington DC doing a week long internship for the Library of Congress which is a SI program called ASB. It has been ok so far. I had a lot more fun last year in making the continental maps clickable for the Federal Research Division's country studies. Last year, I also got to see a lot more behind the scenes of the LC including the stacks, preservation lab, and the vault with the cool maps and atlases.

This year, I have been working with the National Digital Newspaper Program which has been ok. I have done some different types of processing, quality checking and usability analysis on the documents.

Like last year, I've also been enjoying the walk to and from work. It is just really refreshing to be able to walk to work. It takes about 35 minutes either way.

Outside of work, I've mainly been eating as usual. I discovered the National Museum of the American Indian has an interesting and tasty cafe. There are a couple of different regions to go visit and they all have a couple of main dishes and side dishes to choose from. I've now had some venison, buffalo and salmon along with several salads that have been quite good. The only down side to this is the expense. This place is not a cheap place to eat.

Last night was also a good food night. We went to a place called afterwards which was part of a bookstore called kramerbooks. It was really good. I had a crabcake with avocado and tomato salad. After that we went to a bar called Saint Ex which was also really cool. We only had a drink there but we caught the end of this one movie at the bar that none of us had ever seen or heard of. It had Richard Pryor, Sidney Poitier, Bill Cosby (w/beard) and a couple of other recognizable faces in it. We couldn't wait to get back to the hotel to check it out and make plans for a viewing once we returned to Ann Arbor. Right after the movie they started playing the Muppets. This was even more entertaining.

wasting time....

2006-02-23T18:53:00.000-08:00

I have two three page essays due tomorrow at 9AM and I am avoiding writing them mad.

Here is one of the things I have been wasting time with. Please take a look and help me map my personality awareness.

http://kevan.org/johari?name=apete75

I Quit...

2006-02-07T20:45:00.000-08:00

Well, I quit my big person job today. It was sort of weird but I have been threatening it for about 2 years. It really isn't that big of a deal because I am only working one day a week because of school. I am glad I did it. I feel kind of free. It'll be a nice kick in the butt to start applying for a new job. So what was it that made me finally step over the line:

The company I was working for lost a contract and loses the business that I was working with on June 6th.
I just helped retire a system that I was the only one with real knowledge of so I didn't need to hand that one off.
One of my goals for going to school was to look for a new job.
I thought I was going to quit about 24 times since I started school. I either wussed out or was talked out of it every time.
I am going to Nicaragua for about a month in March and didn't want to deal with being gone from work for that long.
It gives me 10 more hours to do homework or apply for jobs each week.
Work was getting too monotonous.

So as you can see the reasons were piling up and that first bullet point was what tipped the scales. Basically, it meant that even if I stayed, there wouldn't be much of a future there anyway so it wouldn't even be that great of a fallback.

Who knows?

UPS delivers

2006-02-07T20:10:00.000-08:00

First Photo
Originally uploaded by apete.

Well, here is the first photo from my new camera. It isn't pretty but what can I do, it is a self portrait after a long day.

The camera is a Canon Powershot S2 IS. It has a ton more features than my old Canon Powershot S30, but it is a bit heavier. I like it though. It has 12x optical zoom and 5 megapixels. I would have really liked to have waited until after I graduated and have gotten a job. The problem is that I will be off to Nicaragua in March on a business school program.

Anyway, UPS has a great service that I didn't know about. I have always hated UPS because they won't leave a package if you don't sign for it. It just sucks. BUT...I actually called to have it held today because I knew I wouldn't be around for the next three days. They said, do you want to pick it up tonight. I didn't think either the package or I would get there before 5 or whenever the place closed. They gave me the option to come with an appointment between 8 and 8:30 and they would have my package right there. It took about 5 seconds once I drove in because the package was right there. It was great and I will do it again.

for, fore, four....

2006-01-28T16:15:00.000-08:00

Noor seemed to have tagged me for this one.

Four jobs I’ve had:

1. Waiter at Sam Sneads Tavern in Myrtle Beach
2. McDonald's
3. Night Supervisor at Zingerman's Mail Order
4. Facility Intern at Yost Ice Arena

Four movies I can watch over and over:

1. Star Wars: A New Hope
2. Office Space
3. Shawshank Redemption
4. Casablanca

Four places I’ve lived:

1. Myrtle Beach, SC
2. Aplao, Arequipa, Peru
3. West Charleston, WV
4. Lansing, MI

Four TV shows I love:

1. MacGyver
2. The X-Files
3. Lois and Clark
4. Young Guns

(Note: TV show and love really don't show up in the same sentence for me much anymore.)

Four places I’ve vacationed:

1. Barcelona
2. Ecuador
3. Brazil
4. Chile

Four of my favorite dishes:

1. Red Coat Tavern Burgers
2. Mussles from the Earle, between 5-6:30.
3. roasted vegetables
4. lamb

Four sites I visit daily:

1. My Yahoo page
2. CTools
3. my del.icio.us
4. Email for work

Four places I would rather be right now:

1. Cinque Terre
2. Not in the DIAD
3. Sweden
4. Portland, OR

Four bloggers I am tagging:

1. Adam
2. Alfie
3. srah
4. T-Nine

How do you open your straw?

2006-01-16T20:50:00.000-08:00

So how do you open your straw? Most people seem to do one of two things.

They smack one side of the straw on the table making the straw come out the top of the package.
They tear off the top.

I have always done it a third way and I didn't realize this was out of the ordinary until only a few years ago when I got into a conversation with some people about which technique they used. I was not ordinary because I grip both ends of the straw with my fists and pull the wrapper apart.

Screw the Machine!

2005-11-30T08:34:00.000-08:00

Do you hate being talked at by those stupid recorded voices...or what is even worse now, having to talk to them, hoping the background noise won't throw off the voice recognition software? Plus, you can always tell when someone is talking at a machine on the phone. It just sounds stupid. Here is a nice page to get around the machine for over 100 companies and get to a normal person. However, I am not promising that this person will not be rude though. Good luck.

Burger Clubbing again

2005-11-12T15:19:00.000-08:00

Well, this past week we had another burger club outing. We have a group of 6 of us that go have a burger every month. It started in January and we had a bit of a hiatus while some of the members were out of the country. We went to Sidetrack Bar and Grill in Ypsilanti, MI. The reason that we chose it was because it was on the GQ's 'The 20 Hamburgers You Must Eat Before You Die' List. If you ask me, it wasn't worthy of the list. I've only had one other burger on the list and that is from Miller's Bar in Dearborn, MI which is leading the pack currently on the GQ poll. It is a travesty that Redcoat Tavern in Royal Oak, MI is not on the list. It is the best burger that I have ever had!

After the average burger from Sidetrack we had a viewing of Hamburger America which is a documentary about 8 of the best burgers in America. They all have their little quirks, that is for sure. I haven't had any of them and only two are found on GQ's list. Anyway here they are in the order that I would like to try them.

Dyer's (Memphis, TN) - Yes, it is a deep fried hamburger. It looks wonderful. The best part is that the grease is ancient. They strain it every evening so it is 'clean' for the next day.
The Bobcat Bite (Santa Fe, NM) - This one has green peppers to go with the cheese. It looks great. This is one from GQ.
Louis' Lunch (New Haven, CT) - This is the other one on GQ's list. It claims to be the oldest burger in the world. It's served on toast and you don't get ketsup. They also have this chiz whizy stuff to spread on the bun to act as cheese.
Ted's (Meriden, CT) - Steamed burger along with steamed cheese. It is a hunk of cheese on it though which is what made me like the looks of it.
Solly's Grille (Glendale, WI) - You have to see this to believe it. This is a butter burger and I am not talking about a spread of butter, it is a hunk. I'd say a half of a stick. I love butter but this might be over doing it. I'd like to find out for myself though.
Billy Goat Tavern & Grill (Chicago, IL) - I've acutally walked by this place before. It looked like a regular burger to me. No excitement here. The SNL skit was funny although I don't think I've ever seen all of it.
The Meers Store (Meers, OK) - This was the biggest of the bunch. It is for cowboys. You can only get mustard because mayo is for sissys and ketsup is for yankees. I, personlly, don't agree but that is fine. It's made from the long horn cattle out back.
Wheel Inn Drive Inn (Sedalia, MO) - I like hamburgers and I like peanut butter but I am not excited to try them together. Maybe one day I will though.

Some themes that I took away from the film are:

FRESH ground meat is key. Almost all of these places had their meat ground daily.
You have to be popular enough to move the entire building (or at least the grease) to be on this list.
You can live forever if you eat these burgers! Or at least until 90.

What is your favorite burger? Why?

Wal-Mart Sucks

2005-11-04T11:34:00.000-08:00

So, I have been inspired again so I have a little case study. Well, I guess that I can say that I am lucky to have never lived in a community where there is a Wal-Mart. I have been spending some time down in Oxford, OH and they have this new Wal-Mart Supercenter. The funny part is that when you drive from the downtown area to the Wal-Mart there are several closed down storefronts. An industry analyst, Retail Forward, predicted in Business Week (10/16/2003) that for every new Supercenter that Wal-Mart opens, two local supermarkets will close. This doesn't include pharmacies, hardware stores and other local businesses. It also doesn't include the ugly hulk of a building that was formally a Wal-Mart in Oxford, OH. I just guess it wasn't big enough.

I know it's cheaper, but I am one of those people who will spend a little extra money to make my community a little bit better. It is funny that Wal-Mart's founder said, "Something must be done by all of us in the retailing and manufacturing areas to reverse this serious threat of overseas imports to our free enterprise system Our company is firmly committed to the philosophy by buying everything possible from suppliers who manufacture their products in the United States." and the current CEO recently purchased a Lexus hybrid because "I just hate dependence on foreign oil." (I will give him props for driving a hybrid though.) when 70% of the merchandise comes from China which would make Wal-Mart China's 8th largest trading partner...if it were an independent nation.

Speaking of Wal-Mart being an independent nation, it would be the 14th largest financially, just ahead of Sweden . And some people find California being the 5th largest economy being odd...

Yet another study shows that local businesses spend 53% of their revenues within the community that it resides. This contrasts greatly to the 14% of revenues from a large store like Wal-Mart. So basically each large store you have in your community, you arfunnelingng even more money to some other place.

Most of this information comes from Walmartwatch.com.

And Oxford is a nice little town including the beautiful campus of Miami University. *sigh* I do feel better now.

Bird Brained

2005-10-20T14:42:00.000-07:00

Oh my. This guy should not be going to jail. He needs to be going to the loony bin.

W - 7037
T - 7681
M - 5600
Su - 9673 (and most of this was up and down stairs)
Sa - 10503
F - 1775 (It was on my dresser most of the day.)
Th - 4741 (Another work day.)

Tofu Cream Pie is En Vogue

2005-10-08T16:46:00.000-07:00

Ha! I just got done giggling about a little story that I read. So PETA activists in France just pelted the US editor of Vogue with a cream pie. It was in protest to Vogue's pro-fur editorials. I know they got Bill Gates and a couple of others but this pie was tofu! I think the only way this could have been funnier would be if they got her as she was going in to the fashion show.

I do like animals a lot and do agree with PETA to a certain extent but man, I just couldn't go vegetarian. I like meat way too much. I've thought about it a couple of times. My diet is pretty meat-less but I still like a steak or a good burger.

I do refrain from buying leather products as much as possible. I still think it is necessary for things like shoes and belts but cowskin is not needed for couches and carseats. I guess I am the opposite of a vegetarian wearing a leather jacket.

Th: 7721
F: 9099

Hot Dogs! Get your red hots!

2005-10-06T16:25:00.000-07:00

So Ann Arbor has all of these hot dog vendors all over the city and I often am tempted to try a polish sausage or something but it is just way too often that I see them with a cigarette. That is fricking nasty. I really don't like the idea of a cigarette near my food and worse yet, a smokers hands on my bun. Arg. Sometimes it just sounds good yet there isn't anything I can do about it.

Pedometer:
Th: 11065
F: 19308
Sa: 5108
Su: slacker
M: 8405
Tu: 8305
W: 7473

To Allison...

2005-09-27T21:01:00.000-07:00

The Glasses
Originally uploaded by apete.

Here is that photo with the glasses that you requested. There are a few more low quality photos on my flickr site.

Also for everyone else, I've completed two days over 10 K steps. Monday it was 10181 and Tuesday it was 14005. Tomorrow is a work day.

Woo-hoo Walker

2005-09-26T17:35:00.000-07:00

It's 8:30 PM and I've surpassed 10K steps. Too bad I'm at a computer now.

Here's the bad news:

Saturday - 3018 (ugh!!!)
Sunday - 5985

The Single Chopstick Man

2005-09-24T09:25:00.000-07:00

First my last few days of the pedometer:

Wednesday: 7815 (started at 2PM)
Thursday: 4748 -This was the work day that I dreaded and I can see why. I can't believe that I used to do this 5 days a week!
Friday: 8265 - Still not 10K but I think I have potential

Now, we'll see what the weekends are like. I have no clue what I do on the weekend. I'm curious about many things. How many steps to mow the lawn?

Now on to the real post...I went to Sushi.come yesterday for lunch and I was sitting across from this couple and the guy was hilarious to watch. They ordered a bunch of rolls and I missed them having their salad and soup which disappoints me because I wanted to see him eating his salad. Anyway, I only saw him with one chopstick in his hand at any one time. He used it to point and poke a lot but my favorite was that he used it as a spreader. He asked for some extra of the ginger dressing that they put on the salads, which led me to believe that this wasn't his first time eating sushi. He would then spread the dressing on the rolls with one chopstick. Then, he would set down the chopstick, pick it up with his fingers and toss it in his mouth. It was fun to watch and I hope that I wasn't staring Finally at the end there was the big ball of pickled ginger on the plate and he started rolling it around with his chopstick and said to the woman, 'You try this?" She didn't and they left.

Seeing to world a wee bit clearer

2005-09-21T14:49:00.000-07:00

So if you've seen me around lately, you may have noticed something new on my face. Yeah, they are glasses. It's been about a month and I've been doing really well with remembering them.

It's been about 5 years since I received my first prescription. I did get glasses then and wore them about 12 times. Sure, it made things a little clearer but I really don't think it made my life better. I can't tell you where those glasses are right now.

The next stage was about 2 years later and I went back to the eye doctor and he told me my prescription hadn't changed and that, "I wouldn't kill someone on the road because of it." That was good enough reason to not get another pair that time.

This last time, I gave in and got a pair of glasses. I REALLY hate to wear them and it doesn't help when everyone tells me that I look good in them. I just told the guy there to pick a pair that looked good on me. He gave me several to try on and then we chose between three frames all together. It seems to have turned out well.

So here are some of my big complaints about glasses. I don't know if there will be ten...but it will be close:

No depth perception. I feel like an idiot.
Screwy periphial vision. There are times where I see the frames and I will look over and the frames move with my head...go figure.
I don't like having to prop them up on my face after they slide down.
If they get a smudge on them, I can see better without them than with them. It is impossible to get gunk of of them.
If I wear the glasses for part of the day and take them off, my vision does not go back to normal until after I sleep. It is like a third level of vision quality that I have and worse.
I've had more headaches since I've started wearing them. Isn't this supposed to prevent headaches?
I have to be careful of what I do while I have these on. They are fricking expensive.
I am a macro guy, not a micro guy. Details aren't exciting to me. I like the big picture, these just magnify certain things that I was ok with not seeing before. For example, a hair on a computer screen or a scratch on my car.
Yeah, I just hate having things in front of my eyes. Even glasses.

Walka-wear

2005-09-21T14:32:00.000-07:00

No I didn't get shoes. It's even better than that. I have a pedometer that will upload through some software and sort out the number of steps I've done an hour, week or month. Why? Well, for my Information Visualization class, my group has decided to go with a health theme for our project. There is some research going on that is measuring steps of a certain group of people in order to motivate them with goals. We are going to try to convert this data into a meaningful visualization that will help motivate. In addition, I think in order to get me blogging again, I'll be reporting my step count on a regular basis on my blog.

Right now, I'm at 3477 steps and that is since about 2PM. It's almost 6 now. And if you are curious there are about 2000 steps in a mile. The recommended number of steps in a day is 10,000. Most people do not even come close to this. I know I don't but I am going to try. This is supposed to be a motivational tool after all right? It will get me blogging and walking!

Gas Humor

2005-08-27T21:29:00.000-07:00

Well, there has been a lot of gas price humor going around but this one is my favorite.

Eye Terrorist

2005-08-19T23:45:00.000-07:00

So I just had my eye doctor ask me, ‘Do you want me to call EMS?’ The worst part was that she was entirely serious. I don’t have a good track record with anything near my eyes. I did get through the lens selection and the looking into my eyeball part fairly well. I was a bit nervous because I knew what was going to be happening next. The eye drops did come next. I don’t do well with clear eye drops so putting yellow liquid into my eyes is just not a good idea. After fighting with the doctor to get them in, we took a bit of a break while the dye took effect. During this break, she started telling me about how she was seeing some yellow spots in the back of my eyeball and she wanted me to see a specialist to see if there was any macular etiology happening. Basically between the eyedrops, discussion of my eyeballs, and the anticipation of pressure testing of my eyes, I turned completely pale, got cold and clammy and woozy. This was about when the doctor asked me if I wanted her to call EMS. I said no but needed to get out of the throne of eye weapons so we stopped the remainder of the exam. I then moved out to the waiting room where they made me raise my feet and gave me water while I tried to return to normal. It didn’t help much that they were trying to set up an appointment with a specialist while I was recovering. So now I am off to see the specialist on Monday with the warning that it would be worse than the normal exam. I don’t even know what that means.

Some notable eye experiences in my past:

I have never been able to open my eyes underwater.
I am infamous for blinking in photos
I don’t even like wearing glasses or sunglasses because those lenses are too close to my eyes.
One time when I was about 16 I had my eyes burnt by the sun (see the third bullet) and I had to have two people hold me down and one to put the eye drops in my eyes.
At about age 19, I had a scratch or something in my eye and I went to the doctor to check it out. He put the infamous dye in my eye and then I went to the bathroom to throw up before he continued the exam.

Childhood For Sale

2005-08-14T11:15:00.000-07:00

Childhood For Sale
Originally uploaded by apete.

Well, the house that I grew up in is FOR SALE. It seems weird to me but I think that it should seem weirder. I guess I haven't lived there for 6 years or so. My room was taken over and repainted and many things have changed.

I think it will be interesting to see who moves in if this sells. My parents are building a condo in Fenton. I went through the other condos the other day. Many were being built and it was fun to go through the unfinished skeletons of the other new condos. It reminded me of my childhood.

My First Meme

2005-08-13T16:54:00.000-07:00

This is the first time that I’ve been tagged for a meme. I’m a good week late.

What I was doing ten years ago

Summer of 1995…This would have been the summer that I spent as a beach bum/waiter in Myrtle Beach. I probably would have been pretty close to leaving and heading back to school which was a fiasco. There were four of us and 2 left early. Me and my friend that were left were to pack up everything and leave. His dad ended up having a heart attack and he flew out about a week early. I had to sell all the furniture that we had and pack everything that was left in my little Corsica and drive back alone.

What I was doing five years ago

Summer of 2000…Oh god, I was working and there is nothing memorable.

What I was doing one year ago

Summer of 2004…I was trying to arrange to go part time in order for me to attend school at work and preparing for a trip to Brazil which will happen in about a week.

Yesterday

Worked all day and started cleaning out my office in order to have a room for the person renting from me. Then I went to the bar to celebrate Chrispy’s new job. Woo-hoo.

5 snacks I enjoy

* cheese
* chocolate
* olives
* chips and good French onion dip
* Anything that doesn’t have fake sugar or fake fat

5 songs I know all the words to

I am not very good at this so these may be dated and I will not be able to do them anymore. I just don’t listen to music like I used to.

* “Paul Revere” by The Beastie Boys
* “The Four Horsemen” by Metallica
* “Jump” by Van Halen
* “Unforgiven” and many others by Metallica
* “Paradise City” by GnR

Stop laughing. No really!

5 things I would do with $100 million

I’m feeling rather environmentally friendly today so…

* I would buy a fleet of Toyota Priuses (Prii) for friends and family.
* I buy several houses in one area and redo them with environmentally friendly techniques and materials and either sell them or rent them out.
* Travel for about 2 years going around the world and actually staying places for longer than 2 weeks.
* Work at a job that I like.
* Buy my parents a house and let them retire.

5 locations I would like to run away to

These change on a daily basis and will never be too specific…

* Arequipa, Peru
* Scandinavia
* Eastern Europe
* Vietnam
* India

5 bad habits I have

* Drinking Coke
* procrastinating
* biting off more than I can chew
* eating too much
* not exercising

5 things I like doing

* Making food and eating it
* Eating food made for me
* travel
* watching movies
* learning

5 things I would never wear

I really don’t know. I’d put on a lot of things if the circumstances were right…

Dirty clothing of another is the only one that comes to mind.

5 TV shows I like

* MacGyver
* The Simpsons
* Beverly Hills 90210
* I was watching Survivor religiously before I stopped cable.
* football

5 biggest joys of the moment

* I’ll be working part-time starting at the end of this month
* SIers are coming back to town
* I’ll have income besides my 8 hours of work
* My walkways look great
* srah

5 favorite toys

* laptop
* knives
* books on tape from the library
* discount cards from certain food retailers
* bike

What I did this weekend...

2005-08-01T09:25:00.000-07:00

After...
Originally uploaded by apete.

Before...
Originally uploaded by apete.

Tony and I installed a slate walkway to my front door. This has been on my list of to-dos for about 3 years. It is so great to have it done. It took about 4 hours, 5 bags of sand, 7 bags of gravel, and a lot of slate. I think the longest piece was fitting the slate into each other. It was a lot more difficult than it looked.

My Knew Nives

2005-08-01T09:20:00.000-07:00

My Knew Nives
Originally uploaded by apete.

Aha...I ordered these about a month ago and have been looking forward to their arrival ever since. I finally get a cleaver of my own. I have used one in the past couple of houses that I lived in and always wanted one of my own. I love the weight on them. Also there is a 7 in. Santoku knife, a 9 in bread knife, a 5 in serated knife, and a paring knife. All on a new magnetic holder.

Roly Poly-itical Map

2005-07-27T10:26:00.000-07:00

I went to this chain restaurant called Roly Poly today. They make these wrap sandwiches that aren’t that great. I don’t recommend it and won’t be going back myself. While I was there, a sign did catch my eye for one reason. It contained a map of the

and the states were red and blue. At first, I thought why would they have a election map hanging here. As I looked closer, I saw that it was a franchise marketing poster. The red states had Roly Polys and the blue ones did not. Unfortunately, Michigan was ~~blue~~ red this time. I’m just curious as to whether the red/blue map was a marketing ploy or coincidence because the only reason that I looked at the poster was because it had the map on it.

I know...

2005-07-27T09:39:00.000-07:00

I will be an apprentice of this guy.

What do I do!

2005-07-26T09:35:00.000-07:00

I am trying to decide what to do in order to balance my work and school life for next semester. As school goes, I am trying to do straight HCI or tailor it a bit in order to do something along the lines of Electronic Records and archives. I really don't know yet. I just feel that HCI is a little too focused and I think that I can get the usability and design work that I want done with a few classes and mix it up with some archive classes that I find interesting. I really don't know.

In addition to the school decisions, I need to decide what to do with my job. I have now thought about quitting the job I currently have MANY times. I first thought I was going to do it when I entered school. They let me go part time. I then thought, I'll work until Thanksgiving...and then it was Xmas...and then it was spring break. It just never happened. The money was too good. Summer roles around and I am tempted with getting an internship through the middle of June, but no, the money is just too good. Besides, I don't NEED the internship to graduate. I just have to make sure I take enough practical application classes to get 3 more PEP points.

I have to decide whether I want to go part time or take a leave of absence from work. I was leaning towards the LOA because I have a little bit more in loans and a possible work study availability and I have some roommates to provide me with some rent money. That means I am better off financially. Today, I was approached by a boss' boss' boss type person asking me if I was going to be around because our customer is thinking about starting up a project that they put on hold more than a year ago. It is an intriguing project and I would be interested in working on it. I am also one of the few that has the appropriate knowledge of the project. It's basically a electronic archive that they are trying to migrate to a new software so it does fit in well with my school interests. I just don't know. I really don't think that I can work 20 hours a week and enjoy school again.

Team Pfizer raising money for MS

2005-07-22T10:33:00.000-07:00

Kurt...I think
Originally uploaded by apete.

So this is the 4th year that I have ridden in the MS150 to raise money for Multiple Sclerosis. It is a two day ride that is about 75 miles each way. OK this year it was 84.5 miles each way which sucked...especially mentally. 10 miles is 10 miles, ya know. Oh well.

We got a little rain on Saturday. Only for about 8-10 miles and it wasn't bad. It did look ominous for the whole ride. It was fun though. I should have trained more. My knee is pretty sore. It started hurting about 65 miles in the first day so I was in pain for the rest of that day especially on the uphills. I did ride well the first day though. As others went to the bar, I had to borrow a car and race to Ann Arbor for a wedding. This is not recommended for a large bike ride but you do what you have to.

The second day didn't go as well. After the first 10 miles, my knee got all stretched out and was ok for about 35 miles when it started hurting again. I went about 25 more and then I had to give in a little after 60 miles because I had tears running down my face when I was going up hills so I sagged in. Because of the extra mileage from the first day though I was only a few miles short of 150 so I didn't feel that bad.

Wine Cheese Salt Tasting?

2005-07-22T10:07:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, I attended a salt tasting. That's right, a salt tasting. It was really interesting, but then again, I love when people talk food to me, especially GOOD food. The tasting took place at Zingerman's Deli. The producers from Halon Mon were in town from Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysyliogogogoch, which is on the Welsh Isle of Anglesey. No really, that IS the name of the town.

The first thing that we did was talk about salt a little bit. Most of it was talking about the differences between factory produced salt such as Morton's and naturally produced salt like theirs.

Factory salt is pure NaCl with certain additives that promote dryness. The additives give factory salt a bitterer flavor. These additives also enhance salt's ability to dry out the body by preventing the body from absorbing moisture.

Sea salt on the other hand is somewhere between 90-95% NaCl. It is not pure because seawater naturally contains other elements. The two most common are magnesium and calcium, both of which are needed by the body. As the levels of the other elements vary the flavors of the salt change. Calcium provides a sweeter taste, while magnesium has a bitter flavor. An interesting fact about calcium levels is that they vary by season depending on whether the shellfish are growing. When they are growing, there is less calcium in the water because the shellfish are using it.

The ‘making’ of Halon Mon sea salt starts with the Gulf Stream current which brings clean water across the Atlantic to their little isle. They then pump the water in where it is initially filtered naturally by the sand and mussels at the ocean bottom. (Did you know that mussels can filter 9 pints of water an hour? I can’t imagine drinking 9 pints of water a day although I probably should.) After the water is pumped into the tanks, lamps heat it until it reaches the proper consistency and crystals begin to form. At this point there is a “rinser” takes about 10-15 minutes to rinse the salt in salt water to get the proper taste, size, texture and combination of elements. This is normally done with about 2 kg of salt at a time. Once it is ready it is then packaged and marked with the date and the initials of the rinser. This whole process takes 11-14 days.

Here are some of the things that we tried having both the factory salt and Halon Mon in front of us. We tried a piece of celery. Now I hate celery, mostly for the texture but I am also not a fan of the flavor or smell of celery but I was tasting the salt so I ate it. The two things that you notice by trying both types of salt in a row are the bitterness and overpowering aspect of the factory salt. After the celery, we tried a piece of melon and tomato.

They then made a couple of quick and easy dishes. The first was a type of bruschetta that simply had olive oil and their salt on some good toasted bread. Then they had a piece of bread with some soft goat cheese and dulce de leche with some salt sprinkled on top. I love that sweet and salty flavor and have been known to put sea salt on my hot fudge or caramel sundaes for a little while now. Yum!

There were also two additional ‘flavored’ sea salts that they had on hand and let us try. One was a spiced salt that contained cloves, paprika, pepper, ginger and about 5 other spices. Actually, they only put one clove in each package and I was the lucky one who got it. I didn’t get a prize though. The other was a smoked salt, which is smoked for 6 days. Either of these would be amazing on any type of meat or fish, I would imagine.

Some more interesting facts that I won’t put into paragraphs because this is already too long:

Human blood has the same percentage of salt content as seawater.
Sea salt that is sun dried in pools is subject to anything that will fall into the pool or on the salt. Think birds here.
I drank A LOT of water during the tasting.
There is a chocolate tasting coming up soon. I can’t wait.

My New Book

2005-07-19T15:35:00.000-07:00

My New Book
Originally uploaded by apete.

I wanted to be like srah...except I get cool official Harry Potter glasses. Did I just say cool?

Free Lunch

2005-07-19T09:40:00.000-07:00

Well, today turned out to be the day that the company that owns the office building that we work in puts on a big BBQ for everyone in the building. Unfortunately, it is also the first day in weeks that I made a lunch for myself. Usually, we get a weeks notice or so but today I see a flyer posted on the door as I am walking in. Oh well, l put my salad in the fridge and made off with an unhealthy footlong Coney dog and a cheeseburger...for free. I forgot to grab a Good Humor bar though. Doh!

Problems with Chips

2005-07-18T08:58:00.000-07:00

So this past Friday, we had a little meeting during lunch. It was catered by the hotel whose room we were using. It was just sandwiches, cookies and chips. Nothing fancy but I have always had problems with people eating chips during lunch meetings like that. No, it isn't because of the crunching, it is because of those horrible little bags that you just can not keep quiet. It was driving me crazy. I couldn't hear a thing and I didn't know what to do. I wanted to rush around the table and dump everyone's chips onto their plates one single time and get it all over with.

My second problem with the chips at this was that they only had one option. That option was Baked Lay's Original. OK, Lay's Originals are not baked. They are fried. The packaging should not carry the word 'Original' anywhere. They are not made the same and they do not taste the same and are therefore not 'Original'.

Am I Crazy for Not Being Lazy

2005-07-11T09:29:00.000-07:00

So I am one of those people who likes stairs and tries to avoid escalators and elevators as much as possible. I don't know why. I just realized how odd I was when I was at O'Hare and there were two escalators going up one floor and there was a huge line behind them and right next to them there was a set of stairs that was sparsely populated with 'climbers'. It was ONE floor. I chose the stairs of course but I probably would have done so anyway.

So I am curious to the 3 or 4 readers out there, what is your stair/elevator ratio? I would say that 5 floors is when I would start doing the elevator as long as they were both equally accessible. I like stairs, what can I say. I usually even avoid those moving floors in airports unless I am heavily laden with luggage. Oh well.

Neighba' Hata

2005-07-08T14:36:00.000-07:00

This is the very first time that I could not wait to get home and blog! Even though it was about 30 seconds in the car.

So I am driving back in my neighborhood towards my house and as I drive by my next door neighbor's yard, he has a For Sale sign in it. This wouldn't be so bad except for the fact that in the early spring the house on the other side of me and the house directly across the street ALSO went up for sale the same weekend. I thought I was hated then, now I'm feeling REALLY loved!

I was actually waiting for this one to happen, the neighbor had his wife pass away about 2 years ago and he up and married about 6 months later and rarely spends anytime at all in the house.

As for the other two houses, The one next door has sold. I am disappointed in this because she kept a wonderful garden and he was a pilot who actually was one of the guys that carried around the Olympic torch during the last games. The other one across the street is still for sale and vacant. If I would have known I could have bought up the whole block!

Painting. Check.

2005-07-06T18:10:00.000-07:00

I have just put a final coat in my kitchen. I am now waiting for the paint to dry. I think I finally have all of the rooms painted that I want painted right now. It seems like so much work to get started painting and then there is so much waiting in between. I just want to put my kitchen back together and call it a day. It does seem to look good although I am worried that it might be too dark in my kitchen. I guess we'll see.

Service Busy

2005-07-05T10:35:00.000-07:00

For the past three weeks, I have been more than occasionally getting an error message saying "Service Busy" after dialing a number at my house. It has been driving me nuts because my home phone isn't working either. This morning I called T-mobile customer service. They told me that the error 'Service busy' is because the local tower couldn't hold all of the calls that were going through. I told her that this has never happened in the 2 years that I've had T-mobile and made her open a request to have someone look at it. I had to tell her that if it keeps happening, I was going to go with a provider that could handle the traffic in my area. Now, I think that I could understand if there was a football game or even during the art fair, but having this happen in Ann Arbor during the summer just isn't acceptable. If you are having this problem too, I would recommend calling. The more complaints, the better chance we have with them adding room for more calls. Here's the number: 1-800-937-8997.

Escape from the MAN to the Library

2005-07-05T09:44:00.000-07:00

Well, I am here at the Southfield Public Library where I have to escape to at lunch in order to keep up with all of my non-work email, several blogs, and many other things that the MAN at work tries to keep me from. Luckily the library is about a block away making the trip simple.

I guess although I don't like it, it does make some sense and I do get more work done. I do send out a special thanks to all of those who host their blogs on their own domain names because works firewalls aren't that smart...until I hit them over and over again.

In the beginning...

2005-06-30T09:56:00.000-07:00

So this is the first entry that I have ever blogged. I am not sure how this is going to go but I thought that I would give it a whirl. I have too many people blogging around me to not try. I wonder if I'll have enough thoughts and experiences to entertain myself, let alone the masses.

On that note of confidence, I will sign off now and pray for something exciting to happen so I can post it here!