Tuesday, March 30, 2004
sweet deal!
i just got a practically brand-new all-in-one scanner/copier/printer for $40! Someone on the 2nd floor had a moving sale, and within 5 minutes of getting the email notice, i was there! It had been used for only about 2 months, and epinions.com gave it 4.5/5 stars (it's the Epson Stylus CX54400). Orig price is $120. I just installed it and it works great..it's amazing. You can make colour copies even without turning the computer on! Its extremely fast as well. It's a bit big, but it looks really nice and it fits in the back of my desk. Much better than the 5-year old thing DeskJet i was using. I guess it's time to send that one to re-use....
Wednesday, March 24, 2004
more snow
today was a busy day. woke up at 6:30, ate breakfast and dashed off to the Palais de Congres for the morning session. Listened to about 7 talks, then went to the vendor expo and got free stuff, and then went to about 6 more talks. Met michael around 1:15 . we walked around Old Montreal, and reminsced over the time we went there two summers ago (when we were just friends then) for the Just for Laughs festival. And we even managed to find the same place (Restaurant Forget) that we went to the last time we were there!! It was cool and odd and the same time, since this time the weather was so blustery and everything it was covered in snow. Anyway, the people at the restaurant were really nice, and the atmosphere was great (candlelight, in a cozy-looking room). However, I didn't really enjoy my meal--i got a tuna salad with raw potatoes, green beans, onions, tomatoes (last four, i don't like) with just olive oil for dressing. i guess i was expecting the traditional tuna salad, all mixed together with may. but at least michael enjoyed his dish. (ham & cheese crepe, with chocolate cake). it was really awesome to go back to that place, but i wish i could have eaten a good meal like last time (vegetable lasagna + cheesecake). i guess having this wheat intolerance makes things bit more difficult.
After scrambling around for a few hours to get Michael's slides printed properly (long story, but moral: don't use "Symbol" or "Math" font in PowerPoint!), we finally went to dinner around 9:30 at a Thai restaurant. It seemed like a good restaurant, but i think i just ordered the wrong thing. I ordered a dish that was chicken, vegetables, panang in a peanut sauce with coconut milk. i asked for the least amount of spiciness. when i got my dish, i was suprised since it looked more like a soup (had pieces of chicken and bell peppers floating in some very oily-looking, and very spicy curry sauce). it didn't taste bad or anything like that, but i could barely taste the food because my mouth was on fire. michael offered me some of his (he said his was really good) but i couldn't really taste any of that either. it was disappointing. afterwards, my stomach was in serious pain (i guess the food was too spicy/greasy). hmm. so far all my meals in Montreal have been somewhat disappointing..with the exceptions of the veal/rice/veggie dish at the Food Court (good, but not great) and the Chicken Caesar salad i had at Boulvard Monday, most of it hasn't been great. oh, the japanese food we had on Sunday was good (good soup, appetizer, dessert..ok main dish). but anyways, i hope that this trend improves, since i'll be here for another 4 days, and i can't afford to be spending so much money on food that makes me sick/ill (and on top of that, doesn't taste great!).
p.s. the reason i type so strangely is that a few days ago my bakspace key fell off (yeah, weird!) i guess i use it too much :)
After scrambling around for a few hours to get Michael's slides printed properly (long story, but moral: don't use "Symbol" or "Math" font in PowerPoint!), we finally went to dinner around 9:30 at a Thai restaurant. It seemed like a good restaurant, but i think i just ordered the wrong thing. I ordered a dish that was chicken, vegetables, panang in a peanut sauce with coconut milk. i asked for the least amount of spiciness. when i got my dish, i was suprised since it looked more like a soup (had pieces of chicken and bell peppers floating in some very oily-looking, and very spicy curry sauce). it didn't taste bad or anything like that, but i could barely taste the food because my mouth was on fire. michael offered me some of his (he said his was really good) but i couldn't really taste any of that either. it was disappointing. afterwards, my stomach was in serious pain (i guess the food was too spicy/greasy). hmm. so far all my meals in Montreal have been somewhat disappointing..with the exceptions of the veal/rice/veggie dish at the Food Court (good, but not great) and the Chicken Caesar salad i had at Boulvard Monday, most of it hasn't been great. oh, the japanese food we had on Sunday was good (good soup, appetizer, dessert..ok main dish). but anyways, i hope that this trend improves, since i'll be here for another 4 days, and i can't afford to be spending so much money on food that makes me sick/ill (and on top of that, doesn't taste great!).
p.s. the reason i type so strangely is that a few days ago my bakspace key fell off (yeah, weird!) i guess i use it too much :)
Saturday, March 20, 2004
bonjour!!
ok, here were are in Montreal...and it is SNOWING like nobody's business. :) Michael and I had gone out for lunch (we ended up going to the Hard Rock Cafe) and when we returned around 4:00pm it was so snowing so strong it felt almost like rain! It was quite odd too since for part of it we were walking along the same street (St. Catherine) that we had walked on the last time we went to Montreal! It was insane.
Anyways, our hotel (Le Centre Sheraton) is really great. Even though we got there around 11:00am, we were able to check in to our room and unpack. Our room even has a minibar fridge, that we are going to try to use to store our own groceries(hopefully our using it won't trip the sensors and charge us for storing our own stuff!) We also got the internet in our rooms, which after a while of debugging, we finally figured it out.
Oh, one of the things we really noticed after getting to Montreal: EVERYTHING (and i mean everything) is in French--signs, menus, coffeepot intstructions, hotel handbook, even the treadmill in the hotel gym (i had to guess that "vitesse" meant "speed")! A lot of times they have it in English as well (in smaller letters, of course, as mandated by Quebec law) but a lot of times they didn't, so I guess you would be screwed if you didn't speak French. I guess I'm glad I took a year of French in high school (and also, knowing Spanish helps quite a bit). Michael took 8 years of French in school, but he says he doesn't remember much. Whatever..i think he has a good French accent. :) Also, about 90% of the TV channels are in French as well...they show American movies but dub them over. We caught bits and pieces of "Clueless" and "Election" in French, and WB cartoons as well (Slyvester, Tweety, and the Tazmanian devil sound *hilarious* with French voices!)
Anyway, at the moment i'm just chilling after a 5-mile run on the treadmill. Was pretty good! I'm so glad I am able to get back into running again!
Anyways, our hotel (Le Centre Sheraton) is really great. Even though we got there around 11:00am, we were able to check in to our room and unpack. Our room even has a minibar fridge, that we are going to try to use to store our own groceries(hopefully our using it won't trip the sensors and charge us for storing our own stuff!) We also got the internet in our rooms, which after a while of debugging, we finally figured it out.
Oh, one of the things we really noticed after getting to Montreal: EVERYTHING (and i mean everything) is in French--signs, menus, coffeepot intstructions, hotel handbook, even the treadmill in the hotel gym (i had to guess that "vitesse" meant "speed")! A lot of times they have it in English as well (in smaller letters, of course, as mandated by Quebec law) but a lot of times they didn't, so I guess you would be screwed if you didn't speak French. I guess I'm glad I took a year of French in high school (and also, knowing Spanish helps quite a bit). Michael took 8 years of French in school, but he says he doesn't remember much. Whatever..i think he has a good French accent. :) Also, about 90% of the TV channels are in French as well...they show American movies but dub them over. We caught bits and pieces of "Clueless" and "Election" in French, and WB cartoons as well (Slyvester, Tweety, and the Tazmanian devil sound *hilarious* with French voices!)
Anyway, at the moment i'm just chilling after a 5-mile run on the treadmill. Was pretty good! I'm so glad I am able to get back into running again!
Wednesday, March 17, 2004
well let it snow...(again)
ok, last night it snowed for a LONG time. dude, where *is* spring? this has got to be the most bizzarre weather! but i shouldn't complain, i actually like the snow..it falls down so gently and it's so fluffy, not like rain or sleet that is characteristic of West Coast winters.
anyways, the reason i haven't written in such a long time is that i've been SUPER busy. this weekend i did work basically the entire time (and so did Michael, even though he was over here!). I basically had to crunch through a bunch of my Excel data..but it was cool since i think i'm actually figuring something out. yesterday i skipped lunch and stayed at work until 6pm, since i was "on a roll" in terms of research (plus i had to wait till 6pm for the saferide!)
but at least last night i had a chance to take a break..there was a women's event at the associate housemasters' place, where we watched "Iron-Jawed Angels," and HBO about the women's suffragists movie. There was a really good turnout (like 20-30 ppl?) and the movie was excellent! As someone else said, after seeing it it would be a sin for me not to vote in the next election, to not use rights that people fought so hard to get (and not long ago..women got the right to vote in 1920)! anyway, i rate that movie a 10/10..i'm going encourage that my parents see it as well, it is an excellent movie!
anyways, the reason i haven't written in such a long time is that i've been SUPER busy. this weekend i did work basically the entire time (and so did Michael, even though he was over here!). I basically had to crunch through a bunch of my Excel data..but it was cool since i think i'm actually figuring something out. yesterday i skipped lunch and stayed at work until 6pm, since i was "on a roll" in terms of research (plus i had to wait till 6pm for the saferide!)
but at least last night i had a chance to take a break..there was a women's event at the associate housemasters' place, where we watched "Iron-Jawed Angels," and HBO about the women's suffragists movie. There was a really good turnout (like 20-30 ppl?) and the movie was excellent! As someone else said, after seeing it it would be a sin for me not to vote in the next election, to not use rights that people fought so hard to get (and not long ago..women got the right to vote in 1920)! anyway, i rate that movie a 10/10..i'm going encourage that my parents see it as well, it is an excellent movie!
Monday, March 08, 2004
so much for spring...
it another act of bizzare-osity, the boston weather has swung yet again in the opposite direction. yesterday it was sunny and almost in the 50s, but when i woke up this morning, it was cloudy, snowing and below freezing (with windchill). whatever. i'm not pissed since i like snow, and we have the Winter Shuttle from SP to 39. :)
so i went to pilates this morning, for yet another humbling (yet enabling) workout. when i returned i had a yummy hot cereal consisting of 2 Tbs rice bran, 2Tbs oat bran, pecans, half-n-half, strawberries, stevia, cinnamon, cloves, and maple syrup. :) I also had a cheese stick, a butter corn cake w/ almond butter, cream cheese, & tahini, and of course some hot chocolate (yes, i do believe in BIG breakfasts..). and after finally getting to work (and after studying for about an hour) i took Lesson Quiz #8 in Japanese..i think it went ok. Right afterwards had swimming class, which kicked my ass towards the end. We went in the diving pool (which is way colder) and started doing breaststroke techniques. i totally sucked at it, probably because i had never done breaststroke before. eek. well hopefully i can figure it out soon enough..
and i ate lunch at 2:45 today, and since i was relatively starving by then, i ate all what i had brought (the delicious pork roast i Crock-Pot(tm)ed yesterday, carrot sticks w/ ranch, yogurt, rasberries & cereal, another cheese stick, and some almonds/pecans). Oh and last but not least, a TANGELO. those things are quite tasty! tangelos look just like oranges, but are more, well, orange (they are deeper in color) and are slightly smaller and sometimes they have a little nub. i bought them on Saturday when Michael & I went to the Alewife Whole Foods. i ate on of them for "dessert" and it was delicious!! the taste is similar to orange, but a bit stronger, and more sour (but still sweet). kinda tastes like a cross between an orange & lemon, but still quite sweet. yummy!
anyways, back to research...
so i went to pilates this morning, for yet another humbling (yet enabling) workout. when i returned i had a yummy hot cereal consisting of 2 Tbs rice bran, 2Tbs oat bran, pecans, half-n-half, strawberries, stevia, cinnamon, cloves, and maple syrup. :) I also had a cheese stick, a butter corn cake w/ almond butter, cream cheese, & tahini, and of course some hot chocolate (yes, i do believe in BIG breakfasts..). and after finally getting to work (and after studying for about an hour) i took Lesson Quiz #8 in Japanese..i think it went ok. Right afterwards had swimming class, which kicked my ass towards the end. We went in the diving pool (which is way colder) and started doing breaststroke techniques. i totally sucked at it, probably because i had never done breaststroke before. eek. well hopefully i can figure it out soon enough..
and i ate lunch at 2:45 today, and since i was relatively starving by then, i ate all what i had brought (the delicious pork roast i Crock-Pot(tm)ed yesterday, carrot sticks w/ ranch, yogurt, rasberries & cereal, another cheese stick, and some almonds/pecans). Oh and last but not least, a TANGELO. those things are quite tasty! tangelos look just like oranges, but are more, well, orange (they are deeper in color) and are slightly smaller and sometimes they have a little nub. i bought them on Saturday when Michael & I went to the Alewife Whole Foods. i ate on of them for "dessert" and it was delicious!! the taste is similar to orange, but a bit stronger, and more sour (but still sweet). kinda tastes like a cross between an orange & lemon, but still quite sweet. yummy!
anyways, back to research...
Sunday, March 07, 2004
sunny day
a couple hours ago michael & i got back from a great run around the Charles...we did Harvard/Science (about 3.9 miles). the weather was amazing! And the special shoes are holding up too! I am so excited for spring!!
Thursday, March 04, 2004
today's thursday, which feels like a friday (since it was last day of PE classes for the week). well, i'll take that. :) i am happy that i won't have to wake up at 6:30am tomorrow, like i did today.
anyway, cycling today was an excellent workout. i got to work early too, around 10am (that's early for me). Japanese class was really fun, we all had a few laughing spells, as we usually do, when people either make funny mistakes, or either a student or the instructor says something hilarious (it's so great to able to make funny comments in Japanese). On the way to my chiropractor's appt afterwards, I was listening to a J-pop song on my iRock and it was great cuz i was able to understand more of the words. I remember when i first heard it (towards the end of last semester) i could only understand liek 5% of it..but now it's like i get 20% of it. yay!
And as for research, it's going pretty well..i finally figured out the MATLAB stuff, so i'll probably be crunching through more SEM pictures in the next few days. I also really wanted to start the PHEMT measurements today, but apparently one of the probes was messed up. Argh! Hopefully i can start them soon.
anyway, cycling today was an excellent workout. i got to work early too, around 10am (that's early for me). Japanese class was really fun, we all had a few laughing spells, as we usually do, when people either make funny mistakes, or either a student or the instructor says something hilarious (it's so great to able to make funny comments in Japanese). On the way to my chiropractor's appt afterwards, I was listening to a J-pop song on my iRock and it was great cuz i was able to understand more of the words. I remember when i first heard it (towards the end of last semester) i could only understand liek 5% of it..but now it's like i get 20% of it. yay!
And as for research, it's going pretty well..i finally figured out the MATLAB stuff, so i'll probably be crunching through more SEM pictures in the next few days. I also really wanted to start the PHEMT measurements today, but apparently one of the probes was messed up. Argh! Hopefully i can start them soon.
Wednesday, March 03, 2004
despite the fact that i had a drink last night, i felt surprisingly good this morning when i woke up (7am). here's a summary of my day (so far).
Pilates - i totally got my ass kicked (in a good way, of course). Whoever says that Pilates is not "a real workout" needs to be dragged out into the street and.. (well, ok..maybe not *shot,* but possibly punched in some manner). :) Seriously, when i'm done (in 2 weeks) i expect abs/thighs/buns of steel!
Research - The rest of this morning was spent coding in MATLAB. Fun, fun, fun. I actually don't mind it that much. And I really should go to the lab and find that missing part i need (a gold BNC - SMA connector) but i'm having to much fun with matlab (scary...).
Swimming - that was great. Got to use those "flipper" things that scuba divers use. It was hella fun, you can go super fast with those things. When you take them off, your feet feel really small (kind of like when you take your skis off after a day on the slopes). Anyway, that was a good workout too. I quickly scuffled home and ate the rest of my asparagus soup and my almond-coconut custard (sounds strange, but they were great. i'm glad i'm finally able to make good food). Oh, and I ate the most AMAZING protein bar i had ever tasted..it's Pria "Carb Select", in Cookies & Caramel flavor. I was like "oh my god" after the first bite. It has caramel in it, but i think what made it taste amazing was the dark chocolate. I swear, it tasted just like a candy bar (surely better, i probably have eaten like three "real" candy bars in my entire life, and i don't remember them tasting that great).
More Research - still am trying to find a good algorithm to find the length (such as full-width half-maximum) of a recess, using my SEM images. Matlab is starting to annoy me..earlier it had told me that the "+" and "-" functions are not defined for 8-bit integers (they have to be "double"). whatever!!
Pilates - i totally got my ass kicked (in a good way, of course). Whoever says that Pilates is not "a real workout" needs to be dragged out into the street and.. (well, ok..maybe not *shot,* but possibly punched in some manner). :) Seriously, when i'm done (in 2 weeks) i expect abs/thighs/buns of steel!
Research - The rest of this morning was spent coding in MATLAB. Fun, fun, fun. I actually don't mind it that much. And I really should go to the lab and find that missing part i need (a gold BNC - SMA connector) but i'm having to much fun with matlab (scary...).
Swimming - that was great. Got to use those "flipper" things that scuba divers use. It was hella fun, you can go super fast with those things. When you take them off, your feet feel really small (kind of like when you take your skis off after a day on the slopes). Anyway, that was a good workout too. I quickly scuffled home and ate the rest of my asparagus soup and my almond-coconut custard (sounds strange, but they were great. i'm glad i'm finally able to make good food). Oh, and I ate the most AMAZING protein bar i had ever tasted..it's Pria "Carb Select", in Cookies & Caramel flavor. I was like "oh my god" after the first bite. It has caramel in it, but i think what made it taste amazing was the dark chocolate. I swear, it tasted just like a candy bar (surely better, i probably have eaten like three "real" candy bars in my entire life, and i don't remember them tasting that great).
More Research - still am trying to find a good algorithm to find the length (such as full-width half-maximum) of a recess, using my SEM images. Matlab is starting to annoy me..earlier it had told me that the "+" and "-" functions are not defined for 8-bit integers (they have to be "double"). whatever!!
Tuesday, March 02, 2004
how i learned to stop the SPAM
ok, so my theory about my email turned out to be correct: since for the past 2.5 years (ever since i've been at MIT) i have had all my athena email (anita7@mit) forwarded to my MTL account (anita7@mtl.mit), there have been a few inconveniences/annoyances that i have noticed. First of all, since MTL changed something on their server, i could no longer check my email using things like Yahoo or Hotmail. I couldn't use WebMail, since it didn't stay on the server once it was forwarded. And the other weird thing is that I didn't get to enjoy the wonderful SPAM FILTER that came with Athena. Even though I had set up my Eudora filters correctly, it didn't seem to be filtering any spam.
Anyway, so to end the annoyances once and for all, i figured out how to stop forwarding the Athena email. Then I set up my Eudora to use Kerberos, etc to check the Athena account (instead of the MTL one). Finally, i logged into my MTL account and figured out how to forward that email to my Athena account (so now it's the other way around). Well, eventually when i got it all settled, it worked wonderfully...it totally filters out all the spam, and i check it using web-based email accounts. Yay!!
Anyway, so to end the annoyances once and for all, i figured out how to stop forwarding the Athena email. Then I set up my Eudora to use Kerberos, etc to check the Athena account (instead of the MTL one). Finally, i logged into my MTL account and figured out how to forward that email to my Athena account (so now it's the other way around). Well, eventually when i got it all settled, it worked wonderfully...it totally filters out all the spam, and i check it using web-based email accounts. Yay!!
