Wasting time

Why is it so much easier to waste time when you have important things to do?  When I have nothing to do, I'm bored out of my mind.  Yet, when I have something pressing or some sort of deadline, I can find an infinite number of ways to entertain myself.

Latest achievement

'Bacon Candy'

1/4 cup brown sugar (packed)

1 lb. thin sliced bacon

Coat bacon in brown sugar on both sides, just as much as will stick.  Place strips on crumpled aluminum foil on a baking sheet or shallow pan to allow fat to drain.  Bake at 350 for 8-10 min per side until golden brown, broil at end for extra crisp bacon.

It is truly one of the most delicious things I have tasted. 

My best purchases to date

For 2007, my best purchase was a used washer/dryer set in great condition, looks fairly new, for $100.

I'm so glad that I got the w/d since there's nothing better than fresh-out-of-the-dryer underwear, and the convenience that goes along with it.  

I still remember the days when Tedd and I would schlepp our laundry to the laundromat on weekends by car, or carrying it to Plex in a jam.  I'm amazed that I put up with the inconvenience. I mean, it's almost like making my own sandwich. Who does that anymore?

Second best purchase: 20 pack box of Shin Ramyun.  Damn Koreans know how to make an instant noodle. 

Current Status

Pantry: 

1 box of spaghetti

1 box of penne

1 jar of pasta sauce

1 box of stuffing

3 boxes of granola bars

2 boxes of oatmeal packets

1 family-size box of honey bunches of oats

2 bags of chips

8 lbs. of haribo gummi bears

1 jar of peanut butter

Refrigerator:

half a quart of milk

sweet relish

1 summer sausage

1 block of cracker barrel cheese

orange juice

2 eggs

beer

wine

Freezer:

1 package of hotdogs

1 econo-size box of johnsonville brats

1 package of thomas' english muffins

1 loaf of whole wheat bread

1 carton of mint chocolate chip ice cream

1 package of frozen dumplings

1 box of jalepeno poppers

Jujyfruits are not Dots

Whenever I am in a drugstore, I am tempted by all the candy that is available.  I don't typically eat a lot of candy, but there are a few types of candy that I have a high affinity for.  These include Twizzlers (strawberry flavor), gummi bears (only Haribo brand), peanut M&Ms, Nestle Crunch and Kit Kat.  Certain flavors of Jelly Bellys are also on the list.

One candy that I remember liking is Dots.  The other day, while I was wandering a drugstore in Nashville looking for emergency shaving cream, I decided to buy candy.  My craving was for a gummi candy, and in particular, Dots.  Unfortunately I couldn't remember if it was Dots I was thinking of, or Jujyfruits.  

I ended up buying 1/2 pound of Jujyfruits.  Excited about my purchase, I bit into a sweet-smelling green Jujyfruit... and found that it was not what I was looking for.  As my jaws were trapped shut by Jujyfruit sticky power, I cursed my poor choice.  Not only were Jujyfruits not what I really wanted, a quarter of the box was licorice flavored pieces.  Who actually likes licorice anyway?  So I ended up eating an entire box of candy that gets stuck in your teeth and that is not Dots.  It was a sad day indeed.

10 lbs.

No, I did not gain 10 lbs. I've actually lost some weight, but I'm not sure if it's fat or muscle. I've been trying to be better about staying in shape, so hopefully it's fat. 

But the real news is that I just had a brilliant idea: I can buy almost anything on Amazon. So I did. I bought 10 lbs. of Haribo gummi bears! Yay!

I used to rollerblade almost 20 minutes to the one candy shop in Evanston that carried Haribo gummi bears to buy a pound or two every few weeks. Now, I can have all the Haribo I want with just a click of my mouse.

I love the future.

Mistakes

We've all made mistakes in our lives, but mine seem to be dominated by food-related mistakes.  

Example No. 1: 

In college, I got wind of the annual McDonald's 25 cent hamburger promotion.  College was the first time I had the freedom and means to do whatever I wanted.  And I wanted two things: hamburgers and to save money.  Here was a perfect opportunity to do both!  So I ended up buying $5 worth of hamburgers, at 25 cents, that was 20 hamburgers, such a steal!  Except I ended up eating hamburgers every day for every meal (including breakfast) for almost two weeks.  Lesson learned: do not purchase 20 hamburgers at once.

You'd think that I would be able to generalize such a lesson to other foods, but that has not proven to be the case.  

Example No. 2: 

When I first moved to New York City, I hadn't yet stocked my fridge and was hungry.  I was walking down the street when suddenly I saw a sign from above.  Subway was having a deal-- 10 footlongs for $10!  Wow!  What a deal!  I learned the hard way though that Subway sandwiches do not refrigerate well (especially when you get tomatoes and oil and vinegar on them).  Being the frugal type, I refused to throw out perfectly edible sandwiches, and it would be two years before I ate another Subway sandwich.

Example No. 3:

A bunch of high school friends headed to Atlantic City during an annual winter-break reunion.  The first thing we did was hit the buffet.  Of course, I would have to extract all the value out of the buffet by eating more in food than the buffet cost.  That's how I would rage against the machine!  Ha ha!  Got you!  

I ended up eating 8 plates of food, and could not move for more than 2 hours.  Literally-- could not move.  My dear high school friends, to show their care and concern, left me at the buffet to go gamble.  Buffet: 1, Me: 0

I'd like to think I learn from my mistakes and become a better person as a result.  However, with food, I clearly have a problem.  

Latest Example:

Cereal was on sale at the Super Target.  Family pack of Life cereal with two freshness-sealed bags for only $3.99!  What a deal!  Except now I have to eat two boxes of Life cereal.  When will I learn not to buy food in bulk?

Beauty and the beast

So Yao Ming got married to his childhood sweetheart, the 6'2" Ye Li, also a basketball player.  I guess it would look funny if Yao Ming hooked up with the typical barely 5' tall Chinese girl.  

My mother commented, when she saw a picture of Ye Li, that she was a beast.  Evidently, my mother thinks Yao Ming can do better.  But from the wedding photos, I think she looks ok.  I think the true litmus test of whether you are a beast or not is if you are unsuccessful in looking pretty on your own wedding day.  Luckily, most people clean up pretty good.  

Of course, so far, all I've been able to find are pictures of her from an angle, where you don't really see her face.  That may be a bad sign. 

One man's trash...

... is probably trash.  You really don't get to see all the really crappy furniture out there until you shop for it on Craigslist.  Some of the stuff out there I just don't understand how it even got made.  I was actually surprised at the amount of stolen dorm furniture for sale as well.  All I know is that I think I can splurge a little and get furniture that doesn't make my place look like the Plex lounge.  

As I've been known to buy more furniture than necessary in the past, and just accumulating too much stuff in general, I've really been working at reducing how much I buy.  

For example, the amount of furniture I'm aiming to have in my entire apartment here is probably going to be the same amount I had in my room at 717 Emerson.  Any of you who have been in that apartment probably remember that it was chock full of unnecessary furniture.  Like a tallish behind the sofa table.  Why on earth did we need that?

Other examples: A breakfast nook table and chairs that we never used, bookcases upon bookcases that may or may not have had books, and so on.

Now, I'm aiming to have my entire apartment fit into less than 10 units.  By unit, I mean a box or a large item.  For example, a TV counts as one unit.  Right now, I'm at 9 units without furniture.  As far as furniture goes, I will have five items.  A dining set, a sofa, a coffee table, a TV stand, and a bed.  If I get shelves, that will make six or seven, but that's the limit.  I plan on getting those snap together shelves so when it comes time to move again, if I want to, I can take it apart and fit it in my hatchback.  Everything else was bought second hand so I can sell it for cost or even for a profit.  No more brand-new IKEA for me!

I hate moving.  Especially the part where I'm looking forward to having a nice hot dog, but then I realize I haven't bought ketchup or relish yet.

It's a sign

The other day, I went running. It reminded me of several things, the first of which is how much I hate running. But running is one of the only physical activities that makes me feel like I actually worked out. Something about sweating or whatever.

Before, I used to take my iPod shuffle (the white USB stick one) and kind of stick it in the waistband of my shorts. That would work well enough for me, as I don't feel a $100 device deserves a $30 armband.

This time, I had a problem. The shuffle kept popping out the top of the waistband, or slip down my shorts. The reason? Somehow, I suddenly have these large protrusions of soft, rubbery flesh right above my waist. According to Google, they are called "love handles". I don't feel out of shape, but all of a sudden I have gained enough fat that my shuffle can't stay put in my waistband.

I think this means I should either:

a) Give up, get fat, eventually buy a scooter so I can get around.
b) Run more.

Damn. I think it's going to be choice "b" because I like being able to see my toes.

Death defying

I just moved down to North Carolina, a normally less than 8 hour drive that ended up being more than 9 hours due to traffic.

I'm not very good at these long drives, at least not by myself. The first time I drove any longer than an hour was when my mom took me up and down the East Coast to visit colleges. I started out ok, but by the time I crossed the New Jersey border into New York, I was ready to fall asleep.

You see, as a child, I had been conditioned to fall asleep in the car. Long trips were usually done at night or in the early morning, when I was tired. I was used to falling asleep and waking up just as we got home. The same conditioning is a great asset on long flights. I'm able to fall asleep just as the plane pushes back from the gate and wake up just as we touch down.

This "skill", however, nearly killed me twice. The first time I had done a long trip by myself was when I moved to Atlanta from Chicago the day after college graduation. If I remember correctly, it was more than 12 hours drive, and the last part was done in the evening. I recall calling some family and friends to keep awake, but I nearly ran off the road in the mountains of Tennessee. That would have been bad. I distinctly remember thinking that I wasn't going to make it to Atlanta. Somehow, I made it.

The next time I would make a journey like that was when I moved from Atlanta to New Jersey. This time, the drive was even longer, about 15-16 hours with traffic. Fortunately, my brother and sister had come down to help drive some of my stuff back, and so I had company, which helped... until my sister fell asleep. I drove on, forcing myself to stay awake. I did the usual things, turned up the radio, slapped myself (hard) and drank water. I found an old packet of Lifesavers candy under my seat that had been there so long, most of them had melted into multi-flavored chunks. The sugar gave me the jolt I needed to stay awake long enough to make it across the New Jersey border. Those Lifesavers lived up to their name.

Alas, even though I was less than 25 minutes from my house, I just couldn't stay awake any longer, and I exited the highway and pulled into some random person's driveway to take a nap. At about 3 AM, I finally reached my destination.

I was not looking forward to this move because my past experiences driving long distances were not good. I do fine if I have company, and while I'm holding a conversation. But by myself, the unending road and foliage whizzing by only encourages my mind to drift into unconsciousness.

But I made it. Next up, advances in garbage can technology and adventures at Super Target.

Gone phishing

How savvy are you at detecting scams?

Here's a test you can take courtesy McAfee.

I scored 10 out of 10, since I'm paranoid.

The Navy Shower?

The Navy Shower

This reminded me of the dorms at Tsinghua University in China. For us international students, we were lucky enough to have our own bathrooms in relatively new buildings. The buildings were maybe 2 years old. The catch? We paid 8x the rent compared to local students. Also, since our building was built on a rushed schedule, and rather cheaply at that (everything in China is done this way), our hot water pumps would clog all the time, resulting in days, even weeks without hot water.

So I and a few of my friends took advantage of another perk of being an international student: all rooms were equipped with an electric hot water pitcher. When the hot water would go out, we'd boil water and mix with cold water, and take "showers" that way. I was able to make do with only one liter of boiled water! Nothing made me feel more connected to my heritage than pouring water over myself with a little cup while squatting.

Some things you'll never get

A followup to my previous post about getting an iPhone.

I didn't actually get an iPhone for me. I got one for my dad, who's been wanting to do email and web on the go for a while. Sure, there's Blackberry and Treos, Qs, HTCs, etc. But none of these are suitable for my dad. He needs something intuitive, something easy. Something that behaves the way you expect it to. Something you can use right away without reading a manual. And so far, it works for him.

Of course there are some annoyances that I hope will be fixed soon, such as:

No voice dialing

No integration with Exchange servers to get Outlook mail*

No way to use international SIM cards

No way to edit documents or serve presentations externally

No Flash support

Despite these and other features lacking, I still think the iPhone is a great device. Why? Because it's got my father using cutting edge technology to improve his life and because I know Apple will fix most of these issues in short order. Steve Jobs wouldn't allow his baby to be anything other than perfect.

But there are tons of people out there who keep complaining that they don't get what the fuss is about the iPhone, how it's lacking such and such feature, that this or that device did what the iPhone does and more three years ago.

These are also the same types of people that will never understand why people choose to use Macs instead of PCs, why VHS beat Betamax and why the Wii is a breakaway hit. It's about ease of use, about human-centered technology not machine-centered technology. I can't wait for the day that I don't have to do research just to operate these types of devices. The iPhone is getting there.

iPhone at last

I waited in line today at an AT&T store to get an iPhone. I was #11 in line at this particular store. By the time the doors opened, there were at least 50 people in line. I'm pretty sure the store sold out.

One funny thing I saw was there was a Verizon Wireless tech waiting in line with us, with his truck parked right in front. Here's a picture of when his truck was still in the parking lot.





Some people were camped out since early in the morning. I only waited about 3 hours, but boy I should have brought a chair or something. My ass, despite its cushiony structure, hurt like hell.

Just as the line started moving, the guy next to me starts chatting me up. He's a little shorter than me, Indian, and looks slightly more nerdy than I do. He starts asking me questions like, "So are you excited to get the iPhone?" "Which one are you going to get, the 4GB or the 8GB?" and saying things like, "I heard that the AT&T network isn't 3G."

Now, being a nerd myself, I knew exactly what he was talking about. However, I felt this overwhelming urge to keep my nerdiness to myself. So I played dumb. "3G? What's that?" (3G? Hell yes I want 3G!) "I saw the commercials and thought the phone looked pretty cool." (I've been following Apple and iPhone news for the past six months)

It was very strange. Even though I was probably a bigger geek than he was when it comes to Apple, I felt a need to hide it. The guys in front of me were even worse, discussing things like the future of Apple notebooks and how cool David Pogue's iPhone video was.

Even though I love nerdy things, I feel this need to hide it as much as possible. I guess I just don't want to be the stereotype. Which is why I chose engineering, but not computer or electrical engineering. Which is why I chose biomedical engineering, but did not want to be a doctor. Which is why I decided to teach instead of consult. I asked my friend what I look like to her. She said that I look like an ABC. But that's exactly what I don't want to look like. At the same time, I don't want to look like a FOB either. So where does that leave me?

Big Brother, Inc.

It appears Google is extending its reach with yet another cool feature: StreetView. With Google, you just know this will be super useful. Even though Amazon has had something like this for several years.

So what happens if you're accidentally caught in one of the shots, and you don't want to be in Google's infinite database? Google will take it down for you right? Wrong. It turns out opting out requires you to send Google personal information.

I'm not sure how I feel about this. On the one hand, if we're caught in the background of some newspaper or magazine photo, there's not much we can do about it. After all, we're out in public, and public is public. But I think the problem here is that being caught in Google's StreetView ostensibly means that we'll be there forever, easily searchable, and in contexts that could be damaging to our privacy. Like women going to abortion clinics. Or people going to an HIV testing center. Or you going to a job interview while still employed.

Many people seem to agree that it should be an easy matter for Google to simply blur out people's features so they're not identifiable. After all, what value does it bring to the service to have people's faces in it? Instead, Google's making people jump through hoops to opt-out, and that makes me a little worried about the way Google is infiltrating our lives.

Breaking News!

I'd like to think of myself as compassionate. I care for my fellow man. But when you flaunt your immense wealth by ridiculing the masses and acting like a spoiled brat on TV, you're just asking for it. That is why I support Paris Hilton being in jail. It's probably also why the "Jail Paris Hilton" petition had at least twice the signatures of the "Free Paris Hilton" petition that Paris herself started. I support it even though jailing Paris costs two to three times as much as jailing a standard convict.

She thinks she's being targeted because of her fame. I totally agree. Did you think infamy only had an upside? She also had an incredible opportunity to turn her entire image around, to be America's sweetheart instead of being almost universally hated. Too bad she screwed that up with the behind-the-scenes deal to serve only 3 days in jail.

But the real news is that Paris is finally getting a reality check. She called Barbara Walters and described her experience. "I feel like I am in a cage."

CONGRATULATIONS! THAT'S WHAT IT'S SUPPOSED TO FEEL LIKE!!

Leopard Features Announced!

Even non-technophiles must rejoice: Apple's new operating system, Mac OS X Leopard was demoed today with lots of cool new features announced.

The best thing about Apples new operating system releases is they usually make older machines faster even while adding new bells and whistles.

One probably unsung but very exciting addition is a VoiceOver upgrade. Now, your computer can read things on the screen to you in a pretty natural-sounding voice. Even cooler is that it can now read Japanese and Chinese.

Man, if they had that when I was studying Japanese... nah, I'd probably still end up not remembering anything.

Eat for $5 a week

I found the recent Time photo essay on what the world eats to be fascinating. They tallied up the total food expenditure for one week for families around the world, then took a picture of them with all the food.

The first thing I noticed was how the families from industrialized nations consumed so much more processed food. Things like cereals, bottled drinks, cookies, chips, etc. One family from Southeast Asia had surprisingly little green in their diet, and I was also surprised to see that the two American families ate a significant amount of fruit and vegetables.

I think I'd be a little scared to see what I ate in one week. It might just be a table of gummi worms and cheddar cheese.

Blast from the past

It's amazing what you find when you go through old stuff. Especially when you're a packrat like me. Actually, I'm a reformed packrat. Ok, maybe a reforming one. Trying to anyway.

Here's a little snippet from 1998, almost 10 years ago. Man. Saying that makes me feel old.



Wow! $1 per disc, what a deal!