clickety clack of keys

http://www.dailykos.com/user/katerina – this is a great “diary” on the dailykos site. the user lists a bunch of articles and pics from the presidential race that appear on yahoo and encourages you to rate them. the reason is that the most highly rated articles become highly visible on the website. it is a useful tool to bring to attention positive articles for Kerry. her links are clearly labelled as automatically giving bush-favorable articles the lowest rating, so don’t click them if you want to read the articles first, but go to the website then find the articles. i feel no personal compunctions about clicking on the auto-links for rating bush low, but that is because i feel that his (this includes the RNC) money buys so much visibility that this is ok.

http://thedailywtf.com – this website is a hysterically bad and embarrassing repository of odd code/commenting behavior that people have found in code they have seen. it’s fairly technical, but there are gems that even non-techies will appreciate.

are you kidding me

my former manager ymed me today. he was flown into town by a company where a bunch of my ex-coworkers work, which gave me a job offer before i accept my current job. he and the company’s vp of engineering were discussing a proposal to hire the VN outsource company (which is the same one that our former company had hired) for some of their work. after telling me this, my ex-manager asked me if i would have an interest in going to work for the other company as the local US contact in charge of the outsourced operations. what in the world he was smoking, i have no idea. working primarily with the outsource (and foreign office) teams severely degraded my personal and professional life. i am so happy at my current job. it would take a salary of a greater order of magnitude (i mean this in the strict mathematical sense) for me to even remotely consider to the tiniest amount working like that again, and even then i might turn it down, and would only consider it because it would mean i could retire in a few years. 😀 anyway, i explained that i like that other company (because i sincerely do, and i don’t want to burn any bridges), but that i am quite happy here and reminded him that working with non-local teams was too much for me.

it was a bizarre moment for me, as i had told him about how bad the working environment was countless times before. perhaps i was sticking too closely to my “not being negative at work” rule and painted a somewhat ambiguous picture. eh.

confessions

1. i cheated and started early on my bad novel. i meant to write out some ideas, but instead wrote prose, which is against the rules. i wrote about 2.5 pages last night. i might dump it and write up some other ideas to whittle down to by the end of this month.
   
2. i was in a one-hour meeting that i totally faked understanding. i mean, i understand the higher-level concepts, but the lower-level details were like, “Blah blah is built on blah, but don’t you think there might be an issue if we implement the blah layer on blah because of blabbitygook?”
3. my desk is a mess, but i claim to know where everything is. but i actually think i don’t know.
   

musings

november is National Novel Writing Month, and the muse calls, albeit collect. i’m vaguely thinking about doing it, but november is supposed to be an extremely busy month for my project at work. but the point is not to do it well and not to put it off for when you can do it well, but just to get it done, so perhaps this should not deter me.

the problem is, i don’t know what i know enough about off the top of my head in order not to have to thoroughly research the topic in order to write at the pace required (50,000 words — roughly 175 pages — in 30 days). i’d like to write a quirky little charming love story, because, heck, it may not be a respected genre, but i enjoy reading about people falling in love, and what better to write about than what you like to read about. yes, the previous sentence was poorly structured. i wonder if i’ll be able to make any sort of progress at all because i’ll be obsessed over proper sentence structures. i hope not. anyway, i’m not sure if i’m going to do it yet. it’ll depend on if i can come up with a decent concept by the end of the month before NaNoWriMo begins. there is, of course, the fear that i’ll work hard on it and the best i can come up with is trite, clichéd garbage. i know it’s something that chokes everyone, but i can’t pretend like it doesn’t exist.

—

the presidential race is close. i am hoping the often-touted “incumbent rule” will mean a victory for Kerry. maybe i’ll be able to drown my sorrows in writing if Bush wins this election.

—

sometimes, i think about the contrast between my mother’s life and my life, and marvel at how much easier i have it. it’s a matter of every aspect of life: my career, my relationship, my daily routine, my responsibilities. my parents’ lives were truly about working hard so that the children will have better lives, with very little opportunity to enjoy their own lives. when i hear some parents express sentiments that, to me, sound like they don’t want better for their kids (“This job was good enough for me, and it’ll damn well be good enough for you!”) than they had it, it pains me. how can you not want better for your kids? better doesn’t have to mean more money or a more prestigious career; it can mean leaving a better world for your kids, making sure that your kids don’t grow up selfish, making sure that you can be around more if possible: basically, you can take the lessons you learned in life and make sure that your kids can learn from them too. why would you want to keep them down?

this entire train of thought was originally spawned by how great i think seppo is. just on a day to day level, he’s so caring and supportive and fun and loving. there are some things that i think are minimum standards for what i want in a relationship, but for people of my mom’s generation, they are things so far beyond reach that she can’t really fathom a reality where those things are common and expected (not that they aren’t appreciated, of course). things like assuming that we’ll share household chores (in fact, seppo does more than me, so i’m putting in a lot of effort to try to balance things more), that there are no “women’s work” and “men’s work” in the house, that we pay for things together, that we are equal partners in the relationship… see? don’t they sound really basic?? so yeah, to me, they are just understood, but to my mom, having my dad even get up to pick up the remote controller that is too far away is a huge achievement (he usually calls people over from another room to pick it up for him). well, things are a bit different since my dad is living in korea with my sister, but i’m getting off topic. oh, whatever, what topic?

i sure do love that seppo. it’s been 6 years and 7 months since we first started dating, and he still drives me batty with being cute. i’m sure there are people in this world who will disagree with me, but he’s so charming and cute and funny and smart (but i’m smarter, of course). i love his smile and his laugh, and his voice is just the right tone. he cracks me up everyday. sometimes, i just wanna hug him until he pops. heh. *pop* woops. he’s talking with mobi right now. they are so funny together.

i guess all gushing must come to an end, and this is no different. ended!

booked!

i am buying some books. here they are: to sir phillip, with love by my new favorite romance novelist Julia Quinn, lonely planet paris, and lonely planet london. the other day, i cleared out barnes and noble’s inventory of Julia Quinn books. someone called her the modern Jane Austen, and while i can’t quite agree with the assessment, i can’t quite bring myself to disagree with it either. the situations the characters find themselves in are quite proper on the face of it, yet each scene is imbued with the subtle sly wit for which Jane Austen is known. the more astute reader is rewarded for paying attention because the funny lines are funnier when the subtext is understood. i’d like to flatter myself to think that i’m one of the astute readers. the other two books are to plan for our honeymoon (or some other future trip if we go elsewhere for the big HM).

politics and me

i don’t blog about politics very much, which is weird because i’m obsessed about it. i used to write more politically-oriented things in high school and college, but i think i’m tired of writing. but i am still obsessed though. in the car, we listen to 960 am, the local AirAmerica Radio affliate. at work, i read various news media and blogs and minutely scrutinize the daily polls for tracking the presidential race. i just can’t keep myself from staring at the polls and keeping my fingers crossed.

i am really looking forward to November 2nd. either that, or i’m really dreading it.

shielded

i live in a bubble. i live in a bubble where i can take in sanitized knowledge, feel anger, talk to my peers about the injustice of this war, but not have to feel the immediate pain of loss associated with this war. as i have no family in the military aside from my little cousin, who has returned after being deployed to kuwait, i can remain reasonably sure that i can continue in my bubble and not have to go through the anguish of those losing loved ones. i know people who have family there, and i live in fear on their behalf, but i know that that one degree of separation is a critical degree that allows me to stay safe in my bubble.

i was shocked to discover today the brother of someone i knew in high school was a casualty of this senseless war. i was looking around on www.moveon.org which led me to check out the ad clips on www.realvoices.org, and stumbled upon an ad that turned out to feature yet another brother of that schoolmate, which led me to some old articles, which led me to the salon article. reading the words cannot help but conjure the voice of the schoolmate i had casually known. i can hear the note of anguish in his writing, and i am so saddened by his family’s pain. at the same time, i’m inspired by the words and the conviction behind them.

—

i read my words above and they seem so hollow and devoid of meaning and relevance.

comapny bbq

we just had our release party/bbq. we celebrated the release of three products and the end of a successful quarter. featured were:

• pine box derby (we assembled it 30 minutes after it was due and came in 2nd to last of 17 teams; one may say it was symbolic, but one may also observe that the car that came in dead last was beautifully painted/lacquered [rumored to have cost $200 to get painted] car that the sales team submitted may be a more symbolically meaningful entry)
• the “good enough band” featuring songs such as “Stacy’s Palm” and “All the Small Screens” (i’ll have to post the lyrics at some point; they are hysterically funny)
• tasty food!

when we got back to our desks after a two-hour fest, we found good-branded duffle bags at our seats. maybe they want us to pack up our things and leave. heh.

seriously, it was nice to have a nice party and feel like we aren’t clinging on the edge of despair every constant minute. it was nice to party like it was 1999 — which, by the way, was the last time i attended a company function as fun and laid back as this one.

in-n-out’s not-so-secret menu

i finally looked up in-n-out’s secret menu. this is the best list i’ve found so far:

“3-by-3” = three meat patties and three slices of cheese.

“4-by-4” = four meat patties and four slices of cheese.

“2-by-4” = two meat patties and four slices of cheese.

Note: You can get a burger with as many meat patties or cheese slices as you want. Just tell the cashier how many meat paties and how much cheese you want and that is what you’ll get! For instance, if you want 2 pieces of meat and 6 pieces of cheese tell them you want a “2-by-6.”

“Animal Style” = the meat is grilled with mustard, then pickles, extra spread, and grilled onions are added.

“Whole Grilled Onions” = onions are grilled whole and not chopped like animal style.

“Double Meat” = like a Double Double without cheese.

“3-by-Meat” = three meat patties and no cheese.

“Animal Style Fries” = fries with cheese, spread, grilled onions.

“Protein Style” = this is a burger with no bun, wrapped in lettuce.

“Grilled Cheese” = no meat, but everything else.

“Extra Toast” = buns are extra toasted giving them a crunchy texture.

“Veggie Burger” = aka “Wish Burger,” burger without patty or cheese.

“On the Sal” = this is just lettuce and dressing. Nothing else.

“Animal Fries” = fries with melted cheese, grilled onions, and dressing.

“Fries Well-Done” = extra crispy fries, even better than the regular!

“Fries Light” = opposite of fries well-done, more raw than usual.

“Flying Dutchman” = two meat patties, two slices of melted cheese–nothing else–not even a bun!

“Neopolitan Shake” = strawberry, vanilla and chocolate shake.

“Choco-Vanilla Swirl Shake” = chocolate and vanilla swirled together to perfection.

“Lemon-Up” = half lemonade and half 7-up drink.

“Root Beer Special” = half root beer and half Dr. Pepper

“Tea-Ade” = half iced tea and half lemonade.

a lovely addition to our household

i am so excited! we went to best buy monday night and looked at this oven, but chose to look up the model number when we got home instead of buying it right away. this turned out to be a good move because the floor model was displaying the wrong model number on the little sales sticker. we went back on tuesday and decided we wanted it, but the best buy guys told us that it couldn’t be delivered until october 27th at the earliest, which was not good for us. we then went to sears with the hopes that they would have the same model, but were disappointed to find that they did not have it out on the floor. undaunted, we asked the sales guy, and he was able to look up the proper model and order it for delivery for us. the best parts are that they did price matching (679.99 at bb, but 699.99 at sears, with an additional 10% off the difference) and that they can deliver it as early as thursday. we asked for saturday delivery instead, since we would be available to take the delivery. oh! i almost forgot. we were also able to put it on our pre-existing sears card (we bought the dishwasher with it), which gives us 0% interest until the end of september next year.

yay!