perfect sailing weather

Paul Ip

the ride back

On my way back home on the MS Connector. It definitely seems to take
longer, but I also get to do things like browse the Internet, do
Facebook, twitter, and blog. I also get a much better view of the lake.

It does seem to be taking MUCH longer. I'm still on the bus but my
guess is that door to door it'll take an extra 20-30 minutes, which
really sucks. Friday I'll try taking the public bus home. It should be
more direct, and therefore faster. There's a transfer though, but
there's on with the MS service too.

To be continued...

taking the microsoft bus home

Paul Ip

connector

Today I am trying out the Microsoft Connector bus to get to work. I
think I got to the stop way too early, but I'm curious to see how much
faster/slower it is door to door in the am and pm. I do have to say
that I've been getting to and from work pretty efficiently though -
usually 30 to 40 minutes.

Friday I'll experiment with taking the city bus home. I like options.
(-:

work

update

It's been a while since I've actually *written* something, right?

I actually don't even have anything that I feel like writing at this
point. I'm just bored, sitting on a plane, with nothing to read. I
knew I forgot something!

So tomorrow starts my second real week in Seattle, and I'm looking
forward to it. Tomorrow there'll be this fun event at work, with a
"variety of beverages" that I'll be joining in on. Hopefully it'll be
a good opportunity to meet others in my org and just have a good time
in general. Also, with any luck, I'll have as much fun after work this
week as I did last week. (-;

good morning

520 says hi

jersey

transportation

What to do... despite making it back home in record time today (40 minutes), I have a feeling that there must be a better way than to drive to and from work every day. I'm close to city bus routes as well as the Microsoft Connector shuttle. But, city bus would still take forever because of stops and the Microsoft bus, from what I hear, doesn't go to the buildings where I work.

Solution? Tell me if this is crazy.
1) Rent a $15 locker at the transit center over by Microsoft where I can keep a bike. Then, take the Microsoft shuttle there and ride my bike the remaining mile or two to where I work. There's a bike trail that takes me right there. This means that I'll probably have an east side bike for work and a west side bike for um... when I'm on the west side. Two bikes. Overkill? The other bonus is that I would be able to ride my bike to the gym. Last year I never went to the gym because it was about half a mile away from work. Waaaaay too close to drive there, but too far to walk. Perfect biking distance though.

2) Motorcycle. Seems like a great way to exploit the HOV lane in the evenings so that I can get home reasonably fast. Plus, it's another machine for me to play around with... as if the car weren't enough... Downside is the cost of a bike, effort to get a license, and also insurance. Wah.

3) Do both. Who knows if I can get a seat on the Microsoft bus at all?

4) Car pool. This will be trickier since there aren't 60 interns living in the same complex. I'm not counting on it. I would need to find people who live by me and work by me and have similar hours. Ick.

5) Work from home a lot. YES.

holy shit that's a big tv

Five digital channels off the air with no antenna. Maybe I should tell
comcast to f themselves.

homemade speaker stands done!

Two Target lamps + parts from my old dresser + a set of conduit clamps
+ black spray paint = custom speaker stands for under $5. And less
clutter!

This is the ugliest view.

eta

Arrival of items:
TV - ETA 7/23
Couch - ETA 8/2

Removal of items:
Boxes - 7/18
Crane that's been blocking a small part of my view - TODAY

bookcase

I went to IKEA today in search of a sofa, coffee table, TV table, dresser, a desk lamp, shelves, random kitchen stuff, and another chair. I only got the TV table, shelves, random kitchen stuff, and the chair, but that's probably a good thing. My car was completely full. Miraculously I played tetris with the boxes and got everything to fit. I could even see out my back window and my side mirrors.

Anyway, it's all assembled. I just need to new TV to show up and perhaps get cable. Oh... and get the sofa, dresser, and coffee table.

New bookcase is built and loaded, meaning that I have yet another room that is almost *complete*. I got a fancy looking one. 16 cubes in a 4x4 arrangement. It was actually interesting to build. Very repetitive, which is great for later in the evening.

Top row - Personal stuff:
1 - Good books worth re-reading + my queue (2 books... one that I've started... over half a year ago)
2 - Books that I've read (or planned to read) that are "meh"
3 - History (history books, yearbooks and the like)
4 - Travel and language

Second row - professional stuff:
1 - Good readable books + queue (10 books, 3 that I've "started")
2 - Good useful books
3 - Good but irrelevant books, or relevant books that suck that I keep "just in case" [someone throws some meaningless marketing term that I've blocked out of my memory]
4 - Dated, irrelevant, or otherwise dead to me

Third row - TBD
1,2 - empty
3 - records that aren't in my file. why is it on paper anyway?
4 - misc. Yale stuff

Fourth row - Class materials
1 - Useful stuff from CMU, and random stuff from training at PGR
2 - The good stuff from Yale
3,4 - The good but irrelevant, or relevant but not good stuff from Yale

18 year old coors light died during the road trip. sadness.

i will try to not fall out of my window

thanks, melanie!

I haven't gotten cable yet, but I'm enjoying this free internet. My $50 badass WiFi antenna is paying off.

Download: 1023kbps (or 128kB/s)
Upload: 656kbps (or 82kB/s)

I'm getting a bit tired of packing. Maybe I'll post a few stories from the epic road trip.....

wtf?

another nice lunch spot... sadly, the last of the trip

bear. still alive

the clouds looked nice before dumping near blinding rains on us for 15 miles

oh. hi.

collective soul, live, blues traveler, and fireworks @ red rocks

denver

Denver has done well. OK downtown, had a great time at the Rockies
game, and so far I'm enjoying Red Rocks. I'm even going to check out
Little Asia tonight. Only issue: diversity. In a random sample of 1000
people at the concert:
2 people of SE Asian descent
1 of S Asian descent
1 of African descent

WTF?

live at red rocks

the smoke beginning to clear from our section

fireworks so close, I'm getting rained on

the outfield seats are now... in the outfield

dammit. i could be watching the fireworks from the field

game over, man. game over.

extra innings

coors field

living room and kitchen

another day, another great lunch spot

curvi

straight