Thursday, October 28, 2004

pumpkin time

I'm going to a pumpkin-carving party tonight; it'll be the first time in three years that I've carved a pumpkin.

Last night, in preparation, I went to Safeway to buy a pumpkin. On the way there, I remembered that it was lunar eclipse night, so after I parked my car I looked around for the moon. It was about 8pm, which was perfect timing; it was just after it had started to get really dark, and before the eclipse started to wane at all.

So, for about 10 minutes, I had a very good view of a large brown moon. Honestly, I was less than totally impressed. I've seen some solar eclipses, and those have been much more spectacular.

Others have been calling the color "blood red" and remarking on the eclipse's coincidence with Halloween. I guess it would have been cool if the eclipse had actually happened on Halloween night, and I'd been young enough to be out trick-or-treating.

Tuesday, October 26, 2004

What's the world coming to?

From uk.gay.com:

One of the fashion world's most celebrated gay relationships may be over, according to press reports.

Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana have reportedly split up after nearly 20 years together.

However, fans of the pair's clothes can take heart - apparently the couple will continue to work together on the D&G brand, which has become one of the world's biggest.

Monday, October 25, 2004

jetlag is for wimps

Okay, not really. I used to think that people who had severe jetlag were just being wimpy, but since then I've decided that there are several factors that contribute to jetlag, and some of them are not controllable. Still, I do think there are things that can be done to reduce the effects of jetlag.

Things that can't be helped:

- Air sickness: If you get sick on airplanes, chances are you're going to feel horrible once you get off. Dramamine and/or other pills can help, but those have side effects too. My sister gets horribly airsick and she can't eat anything on planes except bread and water, so she is always weak getting off a plane, especially after 12-hour Asia flights.

- Not being able to sleep on the plane: One of my theories about jetlag is that what you do on the plane and what you do on the first day that you arrive in a new time zone is crucial. If you plan everything right, and force yourself to sleep or not sleep on the plane, you can do a 12-hour shift in a day or so. I've done it several times myself after flying from Boston to Taipei. Unfortunately, if you are unable to sleep on the plane, you're pretty much screwed. I'm pretty lucky since I've always been able to sleep anywhere: a carpeted floor, on the window seat in my HS library, in any MIT lecture hall (6-120 especially), in a bus/train/airplane seat, on a dining table with a blanket...

- Getting sick easily due to lack of sleep: Junior year in college, I averaged 4 hours of sleep, and I pulled all-nighters on a regular basis, but I hardly ever got sick. Now, I go to Vegas for the weekend, average 6-7 hours of sleep, and get sick. Getting sick is pretty hard to control. Eating and hydrating properly does help a little bit, though.

Things that can be helped:

- Sleeping according to the new time zone as soon as possible: When I get on a plane, I figure out what time it is at the arrival location, and do whatever it is I'm supposed to be doing there. When I get on a 10:30pm red-eye on the West Coast, I figure out that it's 1:30am on the East Coast, and I go to sleep ASAP. When I get on a 1:00pm flight in San Francisco, I figure out it's 4:00am in Taipei, set my watch alarm for 10:00am Taipei time, and go to sleep ASAP.

- Eating and drinking properly: I like to take food and especially water onto planes with me. That way, you can eat whenever you like, not when the airline decides to feed you, and remain properly hydrated throughout the flight. Nothing makes me feel like crap as much as being dehydrated.

- Fighting through the first day: Now, back to my theory that the first day in the new time zone is the key. If you succumb to jetlag and sleep at 7pm on the first night, then you're pretty much screwed the next couple of days. If you fight until 11pm before you crash, you're in much better shape the next day. I find that if I fight through the first day, I don't have to fight very hard to get through any of the subsequent days. The best way to fight through jetlag is to play video games. Passive activities such as watching TV and reading books aren't nearly as good. Video games demand your complete attention, as well as hand-eye coordination. The other way to deal with the first day is to cram in so many activities that you can't sleep. For example, on last week's Boston trip, I arrived on the 7am red-eye, and I was scheduled to meet our group in the hotel lobby at 8am, before a full day of interviews starting at 9am. Similarly, my mom used to book us on a trans-Pacific flight leaving Saturday morning, which would arrive in Taipei Sunday night, and we would be expected at Chinese school at 10am Monday morning. It's amazing what you can do when you have no other choice.

I wonder if I'll look back at this in ten years and conclude that it's only young people who can ward off jetlag. Although, my mother usually does a pretty good job.

Sunday, October 24, 2004

busy Boston week

I was in Boston most of last week doing recruiting. It was kind of fun; usually when I go back it's just for a weekend, and usually for someone's wedding, so I never get to do much. This time, I had almost two whole free days just to hang out and visit with people. It was still pretty hectic though, now that I think about it.

Let me think...

I took the Tuesday night red-eye, and checked into my hotel Wednesday morning with just enough time to shower before I was supposed to meet up with the whole group at 8am. Interviews started at 9am, and pretty much ran through the rest of the day. I did get to eat at the food trucks for lunch (Goosebeary's!) We did a feedback session and then I went to meet a friend who was in town from New York (and some of his co-workers). We went to a nice French-Cuban place near Harvard Square called Chez Henri, which was fun except that the three of them were Yankees fans and so did not greatly enjoy the screaming and hollering coming from the bar in the next room (mostly during Damon's grand slam).

The next day I woke up late, went to the Coop to pick up some more MIT gear for my mom, and then spent the rest of the day walking around Boston. I dragged a co-worker down to Kenmore Square, where we fought through a horde of crazy people to grab a couple Red Sox AL Championship T-shirts, gawked at the broken signs and glass, and wondered about the police investigation on Landsdowne Street (we later learned about the Emerson College student who was killed). We had lunch at the Elephant Walk, went to Dunkin Donuts, walked around Newbury Street and Boston Common, and then finally wound up at BU where we were supposed to answer questions after a co-worker gave a talk. Afterwards, some of us headed out to the Pourhouse, where there was supposed to be an MIT alum event, but as far as I could tell, only about 30 people showed up. I won a Budweiser baseball cap by answering some cheesy 80's trivia question, we had some burgers, and then we stopped by Crossroads before heading back for almost 6 hours of sleep.

Friday, I had another full slate of interviews, but afterwards a friend took me to eat at Oishii, a very small (14 seats) but very good sushi restaurant. Apparently one of the chefs used to work at Nobu. We had dessert and coffee at a little place in Davis Square, which was nice because the temperature was getting down into the 30s. The next morning I met some friends at Mary Chung's for Saturday brunch, and then visited another friend's apartment in Brookline before having dinner at a Southern restaurant called Magnolia's. Afterwards, I crashed in front of the TV watching Game 1 of the World Series, and then caught an early morning flight Sunday morning.

Whew! Boston was fun and nostalgic, but I'm glad to be back.

As an aside, the entire greater Boston area has become Sox-crazy. Every other window has a ALCS pennant in it, and most people have a Red Sox logo somewhere on their person. The Patriots are finally starting to get some love too, with their incredible 21-game winning streak and two Super Bowl wins. Seems like it's still a baseball town, though.

Tuesday, October 19, 2004

Neopets

Neopets is a website that allows users to adopt and care for their own virtual pets. Kind of like Tamagotchi, but online, and instead of just feeding your pets, you play games to get money, and then use the money to buy the food. It's extremely popular with the under-10 crowd, and my mother has been addicted for the past year or so.

Anyway, I recently came across this article. Apparently, some parents in Australia got upset about their children playing Neopet games like blackjack and poker, and as a result the gambling-type games have been disabled for Australian Neopet owners. Personally, I would be more worried about the advertising-type games.

I told my mother, and she couldn't understand the fuss. Then again, my mother has always been unusually cool.

Monday, October 18, 2004

atheism

Here's a random quote that I liked:

"I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours." - Sir Stephen Henry Roberts (1901-1971)

Friday, October 15, 2004

Millionaires for Bush, Billionaires for Kerry

I just read a very intriguing article entitled "Millionaires for Bush, Billionaires for Kerry" which tries to explain why the uber-rich tend to lean Democrat.

My favorite part:

On Wall Street, veterans speak of "f***-you money": the nice round figure a guy needs to set himself up for life, buy (and decorate) multiple residences, create trust funds for kids, and still have enough cash to buy expensive toys and pursue new business ventures. At a certain point—somewhere north of $10 million—wealth may become "f*** you and f*** you, Republicans" money.

I object to the "guy" part, though.

Thursday, October 14, 2004

storage media

I just recently finished backing up all of my digital photos to CD. I made two copies of everything, but I still felt a little weird deleting the photos from my hard drive.

I wonder what the numbers are on the reliability of CD as a data storage medium? Is DVD any better? Tape backup? Those USB sticks that are so popular now? What's the state of the art in consumer data storage media?

Wednesday, October 13, 2004

biking to work

The other day, I was getting crap from someone about not biking to work. I do live 3-4 miles away from work, and I agree that being afraid of drivers and weather are not very good reasons not to bike to work, so here's my primary reason: I use my car as a mobile garage.

Just of off the top of my head, here are some of the things that I keep in my car so that I can have them whenever I want them: two crates of water, two six-packs of Gatorade, a couple of Power Bars, a first aid kit, extra tape (for jammed fingers), a nice basketball and an old basketball, a frisbee, a softball and glove, bug spray (lots of mosquitoes next to the Bay when you're playing sports outdoors), warmup pants, an extra jacket and an extra sweatshirt, two boxes of Kleenex, hockey skates and a stick (I may have taken the stick out recently), my tennis racquet and three cans of balls, one pair of basketball shoes, one pair of tennis shoes, one pair of cross trainers, one pair of sandals, sunglasses, sunscreen, baby wipes (for hands), a towel, duct tape, and a cell phone headset. Honestly, if you wanted, you could go look in my car right now, and find all of those things.

Granted, I could bike home to get those things before going off to do whatever, but frequently they're useful at unexpected times, and I'm an inherently lazy person. And so, because other people are lazy like me, we end up with these terrible foreign policies based on our need for oil. Sigh.

Sunday, October 10, 2004

winless no longer

The Niners won today! In overtime!

My overall expectations for the Niners this season are somewhere below basement level. I've already mourned the death of the golden era many times since the mid-90s, with the Niners missing back-to-back playoffs in 1999 and 2000 (for the first time since the 1970s), Jerry Rice leaving in 2001, and the Niners getting shut out two weeks ago, for the first time since before I was born.

So, I was pleasantly surprised to come back from basketball practice, only to learn that Tim Rattay had somehow pulled off a miracle 4th quarter comeback today, after being behind 28-12 with 8 minutes to go. Granted, Julian Peterson, the heart of the Niners defense, went down in the first quarter with a season-ending torn Achilles tendon, but at least my team won't set an NFL record for ineptness by somehow managing to go winless. Not this year.

Wednesday, October 06, 2004

women in computing

I recently went to a talk by the authors of Unlocking the Clubhouse: Women in Computing.

Some of the data presented was interesting. For example, they showed that women and men tend to enter college with different levels of computer experience, which negatively affects women who are considering the computer science field. They also found that women were more affected than men by bad teaching, poorly formulated curricula, and non-constructive criticism.

I definitely agree with the first point, and my suggestion is that all high schools have a mandatory computer class requirement, where real computer science is taught, instead of the usual touch typing, word processing, and spreadsheet skills. I am curious as to the reason behind the second observation; I'm not satisfied with the hypothesis that women are intrinsically less confident, whether for natural or environmental reasons.

On the other hand, there was quite a bit of material presented (mostly by Jane Margolis and not Allan Fisher) that I found irritating. I think it just pisses me off when people think and act like they have me all figured out, and try to tell me things about myself that aren't even true. Immature, huh?

I was trying to pinpoint the source of my irritation, and I think it boils down to this: Those of us who are women and have been successful in pursuing a career in computer science aren't really the women that these studies are about. We are "double outsiders" (a term I heard during the subsequent Q&A session) since we are neither men, nor do we conform to the "normal" woman stereotype.

We are told that as women, we needed extra help in order to succeed in computer science classes. Except we didn't. We are told that we didn't grow up with PCs and video games in our bedrooms, and that we didn't seek out computer experience in junior high and high school. Except we did. And, we are told that we don't code in our spare time, and that we don't enjoy talking about computers with our friends outside of work. Except we do.

This is the reason, I think, that I find most analyses of women in computing irritating, and sometimes insulting.

Tuesday, October 05, 2004

yearly Vegas pilgrimage

Just got back from Vegas after three days of gambling, shopping, eating, and other random fun things.

This time around I finally saw "O" by Cirque du Soleil, which I had been resisting because of the ridiculous price tag ($125 for rear orchestra). I grudgingly admit it's worth the price of admission, if only because of the coolness of the special effects.

I'm mostly awake today, but I'm feeling a kind of tiredness that is unrelated to sleep deprivation (I slept for 10+ hours when I got back) or physical activity (unless walking around outlet malls counts as exercise). I plan on much television-watching and book-reading this week.

Friday, October 01, 2004

presidential debate

I watched bits and pieces of the debate last night, in a conference room at work. Some thoughts:

- To me, it's telling that both President Bush and Secretary Rumsfield seem to mix up Osama bin Laden with Saddam Hussein on a regular basis.

- Jim Lehrer is the man. He asked good questions, he was respectful but authoritative, and he kept the audience in line. Although, I wish he could have said something when he asked if the invasion of Iraq made it more or less likely that we would use force in another country, and the president ducked the question.

- I try to avoid watching President Bush speak, because it makes me ill. As a result, I was surprised and horrified by his speaking skills, while others apparently had lower expectations.

- I still don't like Senator Kerry. He did a good job as a debator, and he made some great points (not hard to do in his situation), but he's too much of a lawyer and a politician. If he loses, I think that will be why.

I was listening to the radio after work and one of the radio commentators said he was an "isolationist libertarian" and a registered Republican but he was going to vote for Kerry because for him, this was a one-issue election, and that issue was the war on Iraq.

To me, this is a two-issue election. I can't vote for President Bush because of the terrible mistake he has made in declaring war on Iraq. I can't vote for Senator Kerry because he has said the US does not have an obligation to help Taiwan, at a time when US military support is crucial to Taiwan's future. I also dislike Ralph Nader very much. I guess I will research other "third party" candidates.

 

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