no love from google

As some would say, Google Docs really sucks the bag. Earlier this year I trusted Google Spreadsheets with my anal record-keeping spreadsheets. You know, the ones about my car's maintenance history and my spending habits and the like that make for really boring blog posts. Today I'm bringing everything back to Excel. Office 2007 is like crack. Once you get hooked, you can't get off. Anyway...

What up with Google Spreadsheets and:

• How it just throws away formatting data?
• How it can't remember the last sheet I was on?
• How it's as slow as cold molasses?
• How it discards my formatting data? (it's so annoying, it gets listed twice)

I guess I'm done. But if the little annoying things are so bad that I won't bother with the rest of its capabilities (whatever those are), that's bad enough. Google Spreadsheets, goodbye.

love from google

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west coast, east coast, midwest? which will it be?

I'm so confuzzled. OK... I'm not confused at all. West Coast is where it's at (sorry, Lifshitz).

It's 7:15PM... I mean 9:15PM and I'm in Albert Lea, Minnesota. I have a lot to share, but not too much time/effort. Here's a list of observations from my trip, in no particular order. Photos to come later.

• Eastern Washington state is beautiful. Nice rolling hills. People say there's nothing out there. There isn't.
• Spokane is like a small Portland.
• There was construction on almost the entire stretch of I-90 in Idaho.
• Montana has a lot of mountains, hence the name Montana.
• There were wildfires all over Montana. I was driving through smoke almost the entire way from Missoula to Rapid City. That's a distance of over 700 miles. Made me feel better about not having time to visit Devil's Tower and Mt. Rushmore. The people visiting wouldn't have seen much of anything with the smoke.
  
• At first I thought the smoke by Billings was from the refinery that was next to the hotel. Then I realized that it was from the fires. Saw some helicopters flying over to the lake to pick up buckets of water to bring to the fire.
• Southwestern Minnesota smells like poop. Then again, I have to drive through Gary, Indiana tomorrow. I'd rather it smell like poop from cows than from smog.
• I thought that after getting to Minnesota I'd be back in civilization. Yes, they dropped to speed limit to 70mph and they started setting up speed traps, but still no traffic. 7pm I had the entire highway to myself - about 10 miles between me and the next car. How did I get 10 miles? I saw cars when I was getting towards the end of a 20 mile straight stretch of road.
• I saw a funny name for a convenience store (or "C-Store" as they like to write out). Kome-n-Go.... or was it Kum-n-Go? Sadly, I didn't get the photo.
• This morning when I was having breakfast at the Holiday Inn Express in Billings, Montana, literally half the guys (4/8) in the lobby had cowboy hats on.
• I am annoyed at the 85 octane gas they sell in South Dakota.
• I am even more confused by the 85.5 octane gas in Montana.
• They used to have no speed limit in Montana, saying that your speed had to be "reasonable and prudent." Since then, it's been changed back to 75mph. In western Montana, driving 75mph is not reasonable and prudent. More like 70mph if your car handles well.
• Eastern Montana is like West Texas. Open road, no people. So much land you don't even bother to notice the occasional refinery.
• I still think the Badlands are over-rated. I remember thinking that the first time when I was coming from the East. Still over-rated coming from the West.
• Conservatives must love I-90. The periodic signs about abortion, drugs, etc. Nice touch.
• I noticed the price for the Tendercrisp combo at Burger King dropped about 50 cents every 300 miles. $6.49-ish in Couer D'Alene, Idaho. $5.99-ish in Billings, Montana. $5.49-ish just west of Rapid City, South Dakota. BK rules I-90 apparently. What do you want me to do? Starve? I'm having Applebee's right now.
• A "prime" exit has 2+ gas stations and 2+ fast food options (national chains for both). So far on this route, prime exits come every 150 miles or so. Planning ahead has paid off.
• I saw this caravan of an RV and a car with Washington plates today heading east. They had a canoe. At first I thought it was cool that they were going on a trip and have come as far as I have. Then I realized that they were in the middle of nowhere in South Dakota with a boat. Why the hell would you leave Washington to go anywhere with a canoe? And of all places, why South Dakota? Or even Minnesota???
• South Dakota has by far the best random man-made attractions. Wall Drug literally had signs for 30 miles. Seemed like one every quarter mile. All different. Then there is the Corn Palace in Mitchell. I didn't go to either one. No time. )-:
• People with Minnesota plates drive slow. It's like they think they're from the Northwest. I have some news for you. Sure, Minnesota was part of the Northwest Territory, but it is certainly not part of the northwest.
• People in Montana were pretty good at using lanes. I like that.
• South Dakota license plates look like Louisiana license plates.
• Idaho plates look like Ohio plates.
• It seemed like every car with Iowa plates was a Buick.
• The last real city I've seen was Spokane, Washington. I guess I-90 only passes through a few "real" cities. Seattle, Spokane, Madison, Chicago, Toledo (it makes the list if Spokane does), Cleveland, Buffalo, and Boston. Note that I've only passed two of them so far.
• Only three cities on I-90 have anything resembling traffic: Seattle, Chicago, Boston.

Today's winner is Swift, coming in with 11. Runner up is FedEx with 7.
Also in the running were: CRST - 6, Wal-Mart - 5, Sysco - 4, Coca-Cola - 3, Hey! - 2, Rude - 2, UPS - 2

so what's the plan?

Sunday:
Leave Seattle at 7:00am.
Get on I-90 at the very end at Safeco Field.
Lunch at BK and gas at Couer D'Alene, ID.
Get gas at Missoula, MT.
Get gas at Laurel, MT or Billings, MT.
Stay at the Holiday Inn Express on the east side of Billings, MT.

Monday:
Shed a tear for not having time to visit Devil's Tower in WY.
Lunch and gas at Sturgis, SD.
Check out the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD.
Get gas at Sioux Falls, SD.
Stay at the Holiday Inn Express in Albert Lea, MN.

Tuesday:
Lunch and gas at Janesville, WI.
Stay at my parents' place in Shaker Heights, OH.

Wednesday:
Visit my brother.
Pick up a replacement rear left brake caliper that I just ordered from the Mayfield Murray's.
Replace the rear left brake caliper.
Change my brake fluid.
Change my oil.
Replace the oxygen sensor.
Stay another night at my parents' place in Shaker Heights, OH.

Thursday:
Leave at about 7:00am.
Get gas in Beachwood, OH on my way out.
Lunch and gas somewhere on the NY Thruway.
Finish the length of I-90 at Logan International Airport sometime around 6pm.
Dinner at someplace of Katie's choice in Boston.
Stay at Katie and Al's place in Boston, MA.

Friday:
Depending on time, maybe drop by my place and unload the car.
LDP Planning Meeting at noon in A-48
LDP Group Meeting at 2:00pm
SYA Dinner at 5:00pm

boo silverstar, update 2

So last night I drove over to the Amtrak station to pick up Greg. Yes, Amtrak. It sucks. Train showed up 2 hours late or something.

But anyway, he pointed out that I was missing a headlight. I went to take a look, and sure enough, I was down one. I've replaced it this morning.

Checking back on my records, the bulb that blew was a Sylvania 9006ST, a standard halogen bulb rated to last 1000 hours. I installed this bulb March 11, 2002, when my car had only 104,078 miles on it. Now, almost 5 and a half years later and 67,379 more miles on the car, I'm replacing the bulb.

So how does this compare to the Silverstar that I've been ragging on? The Silverstar light bulb that my dad installed lasted almost exactly a year. It was rated for 150 hours. My bulb lasted 5 years, 5 months. It was rated at 1000 hours. So 150-180 hours of use a year. Reasonably close.

Here's the empirical data:
Silverstar: ~1 year
Standard Halogen: 4 years, 3 weeks; 5 years, 5 months

Did I mention that the Silverstar costs about four times as much?

Original Post
Update 1

mirapex

Finally got a full look at this seemingly ridiculous ad. It's for a drug to relieve restless leg syndrome. Potential side effects?

Drowsiness or falling asleep during normal activities... like driving
Feeling faint or dizzy when standing up
Gambling or sexual, or other intense urges

Nice.

vern fonk

Thank you, late night TV. My life is now complete.

making lemonade

So as the saying goes, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Well, today I was busy making lemonade.

A bit of context. Today was the first of two days of presentations about the state of the competition. In attendance were a number of the Group Program Managers as well as our VP. For me, I was responsible for a 30 minute presentation covering my little piece of the Windows Live offering. Good times.

I had my slides ready, I had my demos scripted, so what could go wrong? A lot. A few days before I started getting a sore throat, and I was pretty certain that I was going to lose my voice right around the time of the presentation. This morning I woke up, and crap. My voice was pretty much gone. Great. I figured I'd just deal with it. Practice using a deeper voice and not using the same intonations that I usually use and I should be good, right? Issue number 1 resolved... kinda...

Not quite... a few more technical difficulties. Google Calendar, one of the sites that I was going to demo was behaving pretty strangely in the morning. First off, things were just acting weird. Then after a bit, the whole thing just shut down. Issue number 2. Thankfully, it came back up shortly afterward, but not much that I could have done in that time frame as CYA if it decided to die again.

Third issue? When I got to the building where the presentations were taking place, my laptop was having some issues getting a network connection. I wasn't the only one. Quite a few people were having the same issue. Thankfully, Alpa found a solution so the network was up and running a few minutes before the presentations started. Without a network connection, most of my demos wouldn't have been possible.

Fourth issue. So I knew that the combination of my laptop, external monitor, and powerpoint slide shows spells trouble. The presentation mode likes being on the main screen and there is no way to change it (annoying). So in preparation, I spent a few hours in the morning running an external monitor under some pretty terrible settings just so I can just plug and go at the real presentations. Well... it didn't work out so well. First off, my laptop reverted to the dual display setting which Powerpoint doesn't like. Thankfully, I had the control panel handy to change the settings again. Problem solved, right? Wrong. The software problem had turned into a hardware problem. My luck had it so that my laptop's VGA port flaked out on my at that precise moment. End result? Swapped laptops. Good thing I had a reasonably up to date copy of my presentation out on the Sharepoint server (yes, the occasional Microsoft plug). Phew.

The unfortunate thing about the laptop swap is that I didn't have my two browsers open with the sites that I needed for the demo. Why two browsers? Because IE7 had been flaking out on me all morning... especially with Facebook (I did a side by side comparison. For some reason IE7 just didn't feel like loading Facebook for a while even though it worked fine on FireFox. It continued to load other sites fine). I knew the order of sites that I needed, so that wasn't going to be a big issue. The bigger issue ended up being me not knowing what login and password I use for certain sites. 30 Boxes, for example, I completely botched. I was trying paul.ip@hotmail.com as my e-mail, and a variety of passwords. Somehow I managed to integrate this into my demo. It made a really nice premature segue into how 30 Boxes in integrated into Facebook. Basically after two failed attempts I explained that I forgot the login information because 30 Boxes is so easy it never asks me to log in and that I could bypass my whole login fiasco by just accessing the thing directly from Facebook... which I did... while crossing my fingers hoping Facebook wouldn't ask me for the 30 Boxes login information either. It didn't. Issue number 5 solved.

At the end of the whole thing I just couldn't help but laugh at the situation and how many things went wrong. It's like my visit to Kellogg. Hopefully this has better results.

What do I mean by that? I have my final review next week on Tuesday. We shall see. (-:

By the way, does anyone know where the scenes in the Paul Newman film Hole in the Wall Gang was filmed? Reminds me of Zion National Park and Canyon de Chelly. Shaker Heights, baby!

I-90

Apologies for the low effort post, but I'm busy at work. Seriously. More on that later.

At 7:00am PST, I'll be beginning my drive across the country on I-90, end to end.

And excerpt from WSDOT:

Washington is the western terminus of the nation’s longest Interstate Route. Interstate 90 is 3,020 miles long, stretching from Seattle, Washington to Boston, Massachusetts and crosses 13 states. Much of the route through Washington replaced US 10, which was decertified as a US route in 1969.

Interstate 90 crosses 13 states: Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and Massachusetts.

Interstate 90 features two floating bridges: The “Lacey V. Murrow Memorial Bridge” and the “Homer M. Hadley Memorial Bridge.”

And of course, gotta check out Wikipedia's article on I-90.

vista really really sucks

If only it were fast. Someone once made the comparison that it takes longer to do a task under Vista than it did to perform the same task on an early Mac. I think that claim may be exaggerated, but the speed of the OS is certainly a huge issue. Huge enough that I'll bitch about it here even though they're helping me pay the bills. Perhaps Microsoft should think of it this way - if Vista was fast, I'd be a hell of a lot more productive than I am right now.

My general gripe with performance is that the OS can be so unresponsive at times that it's like a flashback to the days of old. See below.

The examples:

Booting up:
I love the Standby feature and how well it works in XP. I can close my laptop, reopen it and I'm right back where I left off in a matter of a few seconds. When I first got my new 2.0GHz 2GB laptop, I tried the lovely Standby feature only to discover that it took much longer to come back out from it's slumber and my network connections would also be permanently dead. Solution: Hibernation. I used hibernation back when I was on Windows 2000 because Standby still left the fan on for my laptop back then. Because it keeps all my work open, it's still better than a full reboot, and it's a whole lot faster. So how does XP do hibernation? Poorly. Without taking measurements, it takes just about as long to come out of hibernation, if not longer. Every morning I come in, plug in my laptop, press the power button, go to the kitchen to get a cup of coffee, then come back to my laptop. Regularly I still see the white on black text for loading the BIOS for some components. Occassionally I get the Vista splash screen. Usually though I see the login screen. Sometimes it responds to Ctrl+Alt+Del, sometimes it doesn't. If it does, sometimes it's ready to take my password, sometimes I need to give it a few moments to think and try again. Afterwards logging in is when the real adventures take place. About once a month, I can get up an running within a minute or two of logging in. Usually it takes more along the order of ten minutes. Yesterday I rolled in at 9:53 from a meeting thinking that I would have plenty of time to shoot over an e-mail to some people to let them know I'd be OK to meet at 10am. Long story short(er), the e-mail didn't make it. Instead, I walked downstairs to deliver the message in person, hoping Robin could relay the message over to Caroline. Too late. No meeting. After getting back upstairs, my laptop was still churning away. I couldn't change windows, I couldn't open programs. My laptop was working, but doing its best to ignore me. It was 10:07, almost 15 minutes since I had tried to bring it out of its deep sleep. What does the experience remind me of? It reminds me of trying to browse Web sites over dial-up, but worse. Even that was usually more responsive.

General sluggishness:
I'm not sure if this is IE7, Outlook 2007, Office 2007, of Vista, but my guess is Vista. You may be asking how I came to classify this as general sluggishness. Let me try to paint a clearer picture. I find myself attempting to do basic tasks, like closing windows, moving windows, opening programs twice. Why? Because it takes longer than expected. Don't get me wrong - this doesn't happen all the time, but it certainly happens enough to piss me off. If I ask for a simple task like closing a window, just close it! Same with opening an e-mail outside of the preview pane. It's just an e-mail! I can open Photoshop 7.0 on my XP laptop in just about the same amount of time. That's just ridiculous. Perhaps it's because I'm used to how responsive XP is. Or maybe today's developers are so far removed from the days of 8MHz computers that they no longer even think of responsiveness. I don't know, but what I do know is that the amount of waiting that goes on reminds me of when computers used floppies and I would know when I would expect to have to wait for the computer to complete complex or I/O intensive commands. I haven't had to do that for years. It's as if I'm living in the past.

Vista isn't all bad though. And some things are fast. The photo viewer app is MUCH faster than the one in XP. I can't seem to understand how they still haven't figured out how to rotate images automatically for display based on EXIF information. Flickr can do it. Freeware jUploadr can do it. Why the hell can't Microsoft's photo utility do it?

food

You may have wondered where I've disappeared to recently. Um... I've been eating. Here's a summary of the exploits:

Weekend #1
Friday, July 13 - Dinner - Benihana
University, right by the I-5 on-ramp, Seattle, WA
Benihana is meh as usual. I only go to these places when there is a group going and I feel like socializing. I suppose the prices are reasonable, especially with the Prime Card discount (courtesy of Microsoft), but I would really much rather either somewhere else. If I want to eat steak or fish, I can do a better job doing it myself. If I want a cooking experience, then I'm not Paul Ip. I just want good food. Atmosphere, entertainment value, etc. take a back seat.

The other caveat is that I used to work at one of these places. As a result, nothing came as a surprise (well... mostly). The performance was OK. Nothing fantastic. Actually, the onion volcano thing went poorly. I'm not sure if others picked up on it, but it just wasn't done right. The soup and salad were exactly like I remembered it. The food was overcooked. The shrimp sauce was not as unhealthy as it used to be, which is a shame, because it used to be good. Anyway... the highlight was the sushi bar. $1 hand rolls. Cheap!

Saturday, July 14th - Breakfast - Mee Sum Bakery
By Pike Place Market
Even though we dropped by at 8am, they had no pineapple buns (or whatever they are called in English). Disappointing. Their pork buns are pretty good. The curry beef buns are just OK. Highlight? The baked pork buns (and the location). Lowlight? In three attempts, I have never been able to procure a pineapple bun. Damn it!

Saturday, July 14th - Lunch - Shanghai River
Westminster Highway, past No. 3 Rd, Richmond, BC
Good place. We were lucky to get a seat in this place. Their food was excellent as usual, although the Xiao Long Bao were a bit smaller than I prefer. Overall, solid. We ate other stuff too, but obviously this one item was the highlight. Highlight? Xiao loong bao. Lowlight? Whatever Alissa ordered.

Saturday, July 14th - Dinner - Richmond Sushi
Off No. 3 Rd, towards Bridgeport, Richmond, BC
We gorged ourselves. I forgot to mention - it's all you can eat. Not the highest quality, and I didn't really like the color of the tuna, but overall passable sushi. Plus, they have other items that you can get - like chicken wings and the like. $180 for six people (before tip) is pretty good for unlimited sushi and some drinks. The unagi was pretty decent, the tuna seemed sketchy, and no ika. Overall, I'd go again if I was with a group of people crawing massive quantities of raw fish. Probably not cheaper than getting some crazy sashimi at 5888 Cambie, though. Highlight? Gorging opportunity. Lowlight? Not *that* cheap and seems like they can have sketchy quality.

Weekend #2:
Thursday, July 19 - Dinner - Kau Kau BBQ
My parents wanted to go to the International District. I should have been stronger with my warnings. It sucked. Despite the rave reviews on yelp, I have to say that I have never been so disappointed with an "authentic-ish" Chinese meal before in my life. The Chinese Broccoli was chopped in ways the made no sense. My only explanation is that they had some that was beginning to turn and they chopped off the parts that have spoiled. The roast pork was the fattiest I've had. Not that I don't like fat, but this was like eating bacon is char sui sauce. I like bacon, but it's prepared a bit different. The cooking overall was pretty poor. The plate of vegetables and the pan fried noodles (chow mein... the real kind) were very meh. How meh? Those are two dishes that I've prepared myself before, and I have NEVER done such a crappy job with it. Not even on my first attempt where I was basically winging it. To add insult, the service was poor, we had to wait for our crappy food, and it wasn't even cheap. Bottom line: don't go here. Highlight? Leaving. Lowlight? Not being able to come up with a plausible reason for why the food is so terrible.

Friday, July 20 - Lunch - Noble Court
140th St, across from the Safeway, Bellevue, WA
I don't need a well appointed interior. I don't need a place to be super clean. I just want good food. That's why Noble Court works for me. Great food. The stuff that comes out on trays seems to be for a different audience (if you know what I mean), but if you avoid that, it's fine. The kitchen did a fantastic job keeping up with business that day and the food just kept coming out. The flow of lunch business also made sure that the food stayed fresh. A good combination, in my book. Highlight? They have a great variety of good dumplings. I like. Lowlight? A little pricey considering the dinginess of the place.

Friday, July 20 - Dinner - Umi Sake House
1st Ave, Belltown, Seattle, WA
I'm almost always happy with this place. This time was no exception. It's one of the rare occasions where I actually like a place that has a nice interior and service and everything - not to mention a good looking staff. (-; So we had four people, and we ordered $50 of sashimi, $30 of sushi, and $22 in rolls. About $25 a head, which is only a tad more than the $23 a head at the all-you-can-eat place in Richmond. Only difference here is that the quality of the food is fantastic, and we got some pretty good stuff. The great thing about this place (aside from what I've already mentioned) is that the platters aren't just filled with cheap stuff. So far they have always featured uni, which is some of the most expensive stuff out there. This time we also got toro and some shrimp sashimi. Good stuff. In the end, I was stuffed. I suppose I'd take this over Richmond Sushi. Yum! Highlight? The sashimi and the wait staff. Lowlight? Can be pricey if you don't get one of their huge special rolls to fill up (that's the trick).

Saturday, July 21 - Lunch - HKYK
No. 3 Rd, across from the Acura dealership, Richmond, BC
This place is solid as usual... and packed. Very good dim sum. Their har gow wasn't as good as some other places, but definitely good. They also had some good xiao loong bao. Why is that important? It's important because it means that by eating here I can get my xiao loong bao fix along with the dim sum fix. That's a good thing! You know what else is a good thing? Discounts for orders before 11am. Highlight? The food. Lowlight? Smells like natural gas (it's a hot pot place at night).

Saturday, July 21 - Dinner - West Lake (literal translation from Chinese)
Victoria and 34th, Vancouver, BC
Pretty new place it seemed. They had decent food. My dad wasn't particularly impressed (probably because we didn't order enough seafood), but I was happy. The salt and pepper shrimp was decent, but not the best I've had. You could eat the shell most of the time, but not all of the time. The rest of their stuff was decent, especially the veggies, fish and chicken. The pork n' mayo thing wasn't incredibly popular with our group. Highlight? Um... no lowlights. Lowlight? No highlights.

Sunday, July 22 - Lunch - Neptune yada yada
No. 3 and Ackroyd, Richmond, BC
This place is great. Some of the best har gow I've had outside of HK. Getting a table is a pain though. You basically need reservations, even if you get in at 10am. Why? The stuff is dirt cheap before 11am. The good thing is that the place opens up at 8am. I'm not sure if you need reservations then, but it certainly is good news to have a place that opens early. It opens up the door to having dim sum for breakfast. Followed by? Maybe dim sum for lunch. This place also has loong har gow (the lobster version of har gow). $2 per dumpling, but they're pretty good. Should be tried at least once. Highlight? The har gow. Lowlight? The xiao loong bao here sucks.

So what now? In a bit I'm off to try a wonton noodle place in the International District. I hope to finally have a good experience there. So far it's been sucking... a lot.

Seattle Center

Seattle Center

Seattle, Washington

weekend plans

Since Patrick decided to go hiking last weekend, I'm going to do some this weekend. I will be returning to the Crystal Lakes Trail - this time with real equipment. OK. I had real equipment last time, but that was too late in the year. This time there should still be some snow up there. (-;

Sunday, I plan on doing stuff to the car with Ross. Replace the distributor cap, fresh spark plug wires, new oxygen sensor, and a new distributor rotor. It's sure to be good times. Followed by Film Noir.

On a completely unrelated note, there has been a ton of traffic in Elliot Bay this afternoon. I've seen three huge freighters, two random barges filled with freight, a cruise ship, and of course the regular ferries to Bainbridge Island and Bremerton. Each one of these big boats can haul over 500 containers. Not bad.

independence day

The day started with a gathering of us Microsoft MBAs up on the patio of the Harbor Steps. Low key, free food, and free drinks. Not a bad combination. (-; The plan for most was to go to a park somewhere by the bay to get a view of the fireworks. There are two sets of fireworks here in Seattle. One if on Elliot Bay. The other is on Lake Union. It's funny because one of the things by buddy Ross mentioned to me when I was here in February was how people camp out all day at Gas Works Park to catch the fireworks on Lake Union. Thankfully for me, I had an invitation to hang out with my "coach" on a rooftop right by Lake Union.

There was a good mix of people over at the Lake Union rooftop. It was a mix of Microsoft, T-Mobile, and a few "unaffiliated" people. It's always good to see a variety of people. To give you an idea who was there, there was a person who was a director level at Microsoft, someone who had "retired" for the last two years (at a young age), and also my old flatmate Barnaby's old flatmate who apparently now works at Microsoft. Oh... and to give you a sense of the mood, we were playing drinking Jenga. A good game. If you haven't tried it, you should.

Aside from a fantastic view of Lake Union and the fireworks, we had some interesting conversations about all sorts of things. Heck, with 5 hours of waiting for the fireworks to start (since it doesn't get dark till 9:30pm), there was plenty of time to eat, drink, and talk about all sorts of things. Overall, I continue to be pleased about the people at Microsoft. They know what they're talking about, and sarcasm and smart-assedness are completely OK. Plus they're honest about what's going on. We don't live in a dreamworld where we think that Microsoft is better than everyone else. We all think the iPhone is great, we all have iPods, and we make fun of the Zune. We also acknowledge when things aren't so hot (like Vista's performance) while also thinking of ways we can do things better, as well as seeing why some things must first fail before they succeed (like Windows Mobile... which after writing a Comp Strat paper, I don't see how Palm could ever have fostered any growth or innovation... their stuff sucked). We also had some good conversations about work life balance at the company. Let me summarize: It's good.

Here is a short video of the fireworks from yesterday. Enjoy.

quick update

Don't worry. I'll be putting up a full post later today. But for now: random thoughts.

I like how Keyshawn Johnson shows up on ESPN wearing jeans, Vans (or are they Keds?), and a t-shirt. I'm not sure if the sport coat he's wearing is his or provided to him on the set by ESPN.

Serena Williams is a man. Either that, or she's not really Venus' sister.

Whoever came up with the concept of "Sprays in the City" should be ashamed of him/herself. And if it's successful, we should be ashamed of ourselves. Either way, Mark McGrath should certainly be ashamed.

Home runs are over-rated. I'd rather see a double play or a tough play on the infield. On a related note, Barry Bonds should blow out his knee during batting practise over the All-Star break.

I'm feeling good, John!

USA! USA! USA! USA!

a day without google? how about a morning without facebook?

I can't login this morning because my account "temporarily unavailable due to site maintenance." Grrr... So how else am I supposed to keep in touch with large groups of people? E-mail??? You've got to be kidding me. So much for the lazy status update. I now have to do a blog entry... a lame one at that. I can see Scott and Patrick throwing their arms up in the air about how they are even bothering to read this crappy post. I'm sorry. Blame Mr. Zuckerburg.

plans for the week

Tonight - sailing, then call up Maia after 9pm PST to wish her a happy birthday
Friday - After work MBA party downtown
Saturday - Shop at Pike's Place, International Beer festival, Space Needle, Outdoor movie, and then maybe go out *somewhere*
Sunday - Dim Sum at the Noble Court in Bellevue, apparently the Richmond of Seattle (which I don't believe), perhaps catch up on some work?
Monday - Lunch with Bahna (yes! Bahna!), write out my midpoint review, perhaps catch up on some work?
Tuesday - Meetings... lots of them. We'll see how many get cancelled.
Wednesday - July 4th party in Fremont perhaps?
Thursday - Work on the car

update - in pictures

Sailing on Elliot Bay on Thursday
Sailing on Elliot Bay on Thursday

Ape Cave (Mount Saint Helens National Monument)

Dim Sum at Wong King in Portland with some Nike interns (and an Intel and Microsoft)

another mishmash of updates

You all are wondering how the visit to Bill Gates' house went. It was a good time, and I have nothing to show for it. How come? To respect his privacy and safety, none of use were allowed to bring in any electronic devices. That means no cameras, no cell phones, no camcorders, etc. Wallets, watches and ID badges are OK. But let me tell you - he has a nice place. It reminds me a bit of home, but a lot bigger and on a beautiful lake.

So did I meet him? Let me tell you how the evening unfolded. I mingled for a while before I went to the buffet to help myself to some dinner. After getting my food, I needed to find a place to sit. Unfortunately, all the tables were already full (because there were probably over 200 of us). I looked around and eventually found some steps where some people were sitting. The steps too were full, but there was some room on the other side of the velvet rope. I went and sat back there, rationalizing that that would be fine since although it was going against the rule of staying in front of the rope, it did go with the intent of the rope which was to keep me out of the house. Me and a few other interns were actually discussing this when I noticed someone coming down the steps. As I looked over, the person just snaked his way through the crowd on the steps, not saying anything. This person was Bill Gates.

From my perch, I got to see the crowd's reaction. The interns immediately took notice and flocked towards Bill. The odd thing is that as they got to within 10 feet of him, they stopped, forming a bubble around him. For a few moments it was pretty awkward. A crowd had gathered, but no one was talking to him. They were just staring at him. Finally, a few brave souls decided to break the silence. I thought about getting up and joining in, but I reasoned that it would be better for me to stay put since I had a full plate of food plus a glass of wine. I eventually found my way into the crowd and get close enough to hear what he was saying, but no, we didn't actually "meet."

Moving on, this has been a productive week. After the day-long meeting, I actually got a lot of stuff done this week. Because I worked on Sunday (crappy weather that day), I'm considering taking tomorrow off to go hike near Mt. Rainier. Then I'll head over to Portland to hang out with Lifshitz and give her a hard time about anything and everything that she does or doesn't do. Why? Because that's what we do. (-;

Oh. And tonight I'm going sailing with some people from Microsoft. It'll be a great time. It was fun last time even though it was cold and rainy. This afternoon is warm and sunny. Should be great. Catch y'all later.

a big day tomorrow?

Agenda for tomorrow:

Full day "offsite" meeting. I've got 30 minutes to talk about what Yahoo and Google are doing in my area of focus. This will be the first time I'll be going up to prove that I can actually do real work. We'll see what happens. (-;

Afterwards, party at Bill Gates' house. No joke. We're heading over to this place for a party with him and a bunch of other executives. My guess is that I won't be getting much face time if any at all. There'll be several hundred people there so it isn't exactly what I would call an intimate event. And no, I won't have any photos. We are not allowed to bring in electronic devices of any kind. No cameras, no phones, none of that. Just my ID card, wallet, and keys. Fun? Maybe. But at the very least it should be an experience.

car update!

I got off work today at 3 so that I could do some work on my car and also help Ross with his (and so he could help me with mine).

Radiator which was leaking all over no longer leaks... well, no longer leaks as much. I still need to replace my upper radiator hose, or at least reclamp the thing. I'm also having similar issues with the ATF leaking. That's a bit of a bigger issue and a bit more annoying too. But hey. Probably $400 in labor saved today. Or about $600 before tax.

Also, at some point I need to document the whole fiasco of getting new phones from AT&T. I'm already their customer. Somehow I'm pretty sure that it would have been MUCH easier to switch to a new company instead of sticking with the one that's served me for the last three and a half years. Thanks, guys. I'm now armed with a legitimate reason to hate you. Can't we just turn back the clock to the good ol' days when I didn't need to deal with you on a regular basis?

thoughts on microsoft

So far it's been great, and I'm not saying that just because I think people working here might also be reading this blog. (-;

Good people, relatively free reign over my project, and lots of freedom over how I want to work, dress, live, etc. I love it.

That being said, there's a lot of work, but it's fun work. I've been spending a lot of time going crazy with Web browsing getting myself up to speed on what the competition is doing in all the related spaces, and that's a lot of stuff. Thankfully, I'm already addicted to facebook, flickr, and various mapping things, but there's just a ton of stuff out there that I haven't toyed with yet. For example, mobile services. I just got a new phone today with an unlimited data plan, so that's something that I can take a peek at. So as I said, it's work, but it's fun.

Also, some other random notes for a bit of flavor. The cafeteria here is great. Choice of sushi, Indian, Italian, Mexican, burgers, sandwiches, salads, stir fry, etc. I've noticed that I'm mostly gravitating towards two places. The Indian for sure, and then the place upstairs. I think tomorrow I'll change it up and get a sandwich of some sort. Those tater tots have been teasing me...

The other thing is that the facilities here are beautiful, but also goofy. The campus here is really nice. Great landscaping, nice rhododendrons and even a waterfall by the outside eating area. On the other hand, the hallways here are death traps. They're not very wide, there are tons of blind corners, and there's carpeting so you can't hear if anyone is coming. End result is a lot of people almost running into each other. Typically a little annoying, but potentially catastrophic. I'm fearful every morning as I exit the kitchen area with my (complimentary) cup of hot tea of coffee. The other thing is that the toilets don't flush very well. I'll let you use your imagination about how I've determined that.

i like food

So a typical Sunday for me here in Seattle.

9am - Wake up (thanks, Alissa!)
11am - Play basketball with the interns
2pm - Go to the market and buy some mix of fresh fruit, vegetables, meat, dairy, and bread. Then go home and eat half of it and save the remainder for the rest of the week.

So I love the market. Aside from the throngs of tourists who want to take photos of everything, it rocks. Huge head of good quality romaine lettuce for 99 cents. Fresh french bread for under $3 a loaf. Huge quality apples for 99 cents/pound. And always an awesome selection of fancy fruit like cherries, strawberries, and even lychee. The meat there is pretty good too. Got a special of Angus NY Strip steak for $8.99 a pound. Plus I got some sausage there. The first time I've ever had sausage that isn't bursting with oil and fat. Good stuff. And of course, the fish there is excellent, although a bit on the pricey side.

Now that I'm finishing up with my late lunch, I'm going to see if I can do some random shopping downtown at a drugstore, and maybe Old Navy. Hopefully they'll have some good long sleeve tees.

After that, game 2 of the NBA finals. Go Cavs!

live from seattle

The long awaited rambling update... I promise that it will be disjoint and random. If the paragraph bores you, skip it and move on to the next one.

So right now I'm at work. I arrived in Seattle on Sunday, May 27 and I spent a few days hanging out in Seattle before starting work on Wednesday.

Working in my office is kind of like working in the Hall of Mirrors at SOM. I share the office with someone, which is fine with me, considering that at Progressive I didn't have much personal space to myself, though I do admit that I enjoyed hanging out with Steve and Colleen for many hours each day. The reason my office reminds me of the Hall of Mirrors is that usually it's relatively quiet, but there is a fair amount of traffic. Then about once or twice a day there's a loud gathering somewhere near here that's loud as hell. But it's OK. I'm used to working in the Hall of Mirrors. Only issue is that I am still in the habit of leaving my iPod in the car. I need to change my ways... especially with the amount of research that I'm doing.

So what am I doing? I'm trying to come up with a vision for a product. Right now it's a lot of competitive analysis - going and looking at different competitors' offerings and capabilities. I'll also be looking into trends both from a user standpoint as well as from a technology standpoint. It's very much like the sort of thing I did when I was doing research for my Comp Strat paper, so I feel like I'm pretty prepared for it. The only "issue" is that there is so much material internally to review that it's a bit overwhelming. I think I'm getting a pretty good handle on it though. I'm going to spend the next day digesting what's here, creating my own stuff, and then I'll reach out to a few more people to get some more brain dumps from people involved in two other affiliated projects. Good times.

So my apartment. Yes, I promised I would jump around a bit. My apartment is sweet. I'm sharing a 2BR with another intern in downtown Seattle. Heavily subsidized by Microsoft. We get a fantastic view of Elliot Bay and downtown Seattle. On a clear day I can see Mt. Rainier from my bedroom. Awesome. I'll put up some photos shortly so you can see for yourself. Better yet, drop by for a visit. We have a couch and plenty of floorspace. The other great thing about the apartment is that it's close to a bunch of stuff. I'm within a 5 minute walk of the Pike Place Market, which is a great place to pick up groceries (and flowers). I can get everything from produce, meats, milk, cheese, fresh bread, to asian and latino groceries. There are also a ton of little eateries around the market, from oysters to russian to chinese to greek to turkish. Good stuff!

The only two drawbacks to where I live: it's far from good greenspace and the commute kind of sucks. It takes 8 minutes to get to the highway in the morning. It can take over an hour to get home in the evening if there is a Mariners home game. I'll need to figure something out. Maybe I'll take the bus those days.

Oh yes. We get free bus passes for working here. I like.

You know another thing I like? The cafeteria here. Today I had Indian food and sushi. Granted, it's not the best quality I've ever had, but it's passable. Plus it offers variety. The only problem is that it seems like I want the Indian food every day. I have this bad feeling that I'm going to overdo it like we did Aladdin at SOM. Wish me luck. I intentionally got something else yesterday just for a break. The good thing is that they mix up what dishes they have each day. So is it really repeating?

So social stuff. It's been cool hanging out with the mix of people that I know here. High school people, b-school people, and Microsoft people. Give me a few weeks and I'll mix in some other peeps that I know here (from CMU and other).

My car. Ross and I have formed an alliance. An alliance to work on our cars. We both own 4th generation Honda Accords. He has the local knowledge. I have the tools and experience doing random stuff with my car. It will be fun. We will save enormous amounts of money. I'll probably save $300+ doing the radiator by myself. $100+ for the oxygen sensor. Driveshaft I may wait till I'm back in Cleveland. Ross will likely save a ton on his car as well. I like.

So what did I miss.... Photos! I just got internet access yesterday at home. I'll try to start uploading some stuff in the next few days. Not just so that you all can see pics from the cross country trip, but also so I can take more photos. I think I almost managed to completely fill 12GB worth of memory cards.

Oh yeah... I got invited to a party at Bill Gates' place. I hear he has a nice house.

So so far:
7 sunny days
2 rainy days
Had Japanese, Russian, Mediterranean, Mexican food.

we have reached the west coast!

Late last night, we reached San Francisco, finishing the "coast-to-coast" part of the journey. But, the trip isn't over yet. Tomorrow morning we go for yet another hike (on top of the 40 miles of hiking already done in Zion, Grand Canyon, and Yosemite National Parks) in Redwoods National Park. Then, a drive up the Oregon coast, and then finally arriving in Seattle.

Oh... and the stat of the day: 29.5 miles per gallon so far with the car.

Now, time for some sleep... or something.

zion rocks

Zion has definitely made it onto my list of favorite national parks, joining Jasper (Canada), Mt. Rainier, and Olympic.

Since the last time, we have hit up Houston for an Astros game with Scott and Jenn, BBQ in Austin with Ly Ann, and Zion, Bryce Canyon, and Grand Canyon National Parks. Good times. Probably about 30 miles of hiking over the last three days, with a combined 7000 feet in vertical climb.

Unfortunately, I left the cable for my "good" camera packed deep in my car, so no photos yet. )-: Don't worry though. I think I've taken well over 400 so far, and I'm not even sure how.

The car is still holding up, although I think I need a new radiator, new oxygen sensor, new front-right driveshaft, and maybe something in my rear-left suspension. Radiator is under control (leaks at the top periodically when in heat), O2 sensor flakes out periodically (which then screws with the ECM which I then need to reset), driveshaft has been holding up great despite the escaped grease, and the rear-left suspension just makes noise. In other words, things are under control, but I'd love to take a day and retool my car at some point. It's all stuff I can do myself assuming that I have a garage. Damn.

and i would drive 1,000 miles...

Hello from New Orleans. Yep. Safely made our way down here from Cleveland yesterday after 15 hours on the road. Left at 7am, arrived at around 10pm in the evening, thanks to the gift of time, courtesy of time zones.

It's been a great trip so far. Explored DC, where we got to play with guns, rocket launchers, and pose by tanks and Apache helicopters. Explored Pittsburgh, and then took a great 55 minute run through Shaker Heights and Cleveland Heights in Cleveland.

Last night we arrived in New Orleans, after a 1,000+ plus drive from Cleveland. On the way, we didn't do that much, although we did stop by an authentic Skyline Chili experience in Kentucky, right across the river from downtown Cincinnati. Good times. Driving game winner from yesterday, FedEx, with 31 trucks, with an impressive race between UPS, Wal-Mart, and Swift Transport for second. UPS had an early lead, building starting with trucks in OH and continuing through the end. Wal-Mart got a slow start, but caught up with UPS in Alabama. Swift, a late entrant, didn't enter the race until Alabama, but quickly caught up to make it a three-way race on I-59 after we passed Birmingham.

bowling

Last night the Student Government went bowling with the Dean. It was a good time, and I actually managed to bowl relatively well. Bowled a 122 (I think) and a 99. I then bowled a 111 lefty after starting with I think a total of 4 through the first two frames. New lefty personal best!

Photos? Miriam has the photos. I need to get them from her. (-:

And yes, I have bowled lefty before. I think it started when my shoulder was screwed up from playing ultimate. Now it seems like I may bowl better lefty than I do righty. Definitely more consistent. Even the Dean noticed how inconsistent my right arm was. Hrm...

when recommended isn't recommended

So I took my car to the dealership... second time since I got the car in 2001. I figured that I would ask them to do a few of the recommended maintenance things that I never bother to do. Basically adjust the valve clearance, replace the ABS high pressure hose, replace the ABS fluid, and inspect the SRS. Of these things the only thing that is still recommended is the valve clearance. No maintenance required for the ABS or SRS unless there's a problem. Great!

Why the discrepancy? The only thing I can think of is that my car was built before they knew how long things like the ABS or SRS would work before breaking. Now they advise to stay away from those things. Leave it alone unless there is something wrong. I guess it's good enough that I already fixed my ABS thice (replaced three sensors).

So why bother bringing it in? The valves haven't been adjusted in AT LEAST 70,000 miles (although they seem fine), they're fixing my A/C (which I don't have the time or the facilities to deal with), adjusting the rear caliper (because I'm lazy), and they can check out why my car has no power on a warm start on a hot day. But I didn't ask them to fix it. Just tell me the issue and I'll deal with that myself if needed, or do nothing. Not worth paying labour to fix that.

My car should have 170,000 miles on it by the end of the summer. Nice.

i love maps

The companion map to the road trip.

more info about where i'll be living

I will be living here:
http://www.equitycorporatehousing.com/market/propertymarketing.asp?PropID=2238

update

It feels like it's been forever, but I guess it's only been a week since my last post. An update on things.

School is almost done for the year. It's flown by incredibly quickly, and I'm happy about how I've been able to establish many very close friends here at SOM. While there is the occassional overly dramatic (probably staged) fits of jealously between the two groups, it's good. As I've been saying a lot recently, "I like food." Let's just say that my "work" groups at school have become somewhat food oriented, which is totally cool with me. Only issue is that so far I've only made contributions to one group while offering very little in return to the other. Seriously, things would be different if it wasn't for the vegetarianism. Chinese food isn't exactly vegetarian friendly. I'll think of something...

Despite how awesome school is (weird), I'm really looking forward to the summer. I've got my dream job out in Seattle working for Microsoft, and I'll also be taking advantage of the wonderful excuse to drive across the country... TWICE.

Trip 1: New Haven, CT to Seattle, WA
We'll cover 21 states and DC in this trip - Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, California, Oregon, and Washington. States I haven't been to before are marked in bold.

Also amazing is that I'll be able to visit a few friends on the way. TC and Darin in DC, some of my Cleveland peeps in Cleveland, Scott in Houston, Ly Ann in Austin, Steven in Arizona. Unfortunately I'll be missing Peter in San Fran. And of course Patrick. He'll be along for the entire ride.

So what will we see? A quick rundown of sights, big and small. The George Washington Bridge, The Garden State Parkway (I hate NJ), Washington DC, Old Town Alexandria, PA Turnpike, Breezewood, Pittsburgh, CMU, Boulevard of the Allies, the mile-long GM plant at Lordstown, the crazy OH highway patrol, Chinese food in Cleveland, the steel mills in the Cuyahoga Valley (which we talked about in Employee class - Mittal Steel), Skyline Chili in Cincinnati maybe?, the red highways of Alabama (if they're still red), New Orleans, French Quarter, Garden District, Houston, Astros game, Austin, West Texas, most of Arizona and New Mexico, Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Zion National Park, maybe Canyon de Chelley, maybe Monument Valley, the Extraterrestrial Highway (at night!), Yosemite, San Francisco, Pacific Coast Highway, Mt. St. Helens, Seattle, In-N-Out burgers at some point, Jack in the Box at some point, Broadway perhaps, Pike Place Market, the original Starbucks, West Seattle. Good times!

Trip 2: Seattle, WA to Boston, MA to New Haven, CT
Why Boston? So that I can drive the entire length of I-90 in one trip. Why? Because I can. I'll start at the western tip by the Alaskan Way, and end by Logan Airport in Boston. I'll probably stop at Billings, MT; Rochester, MN; Cleveland, OH and Boston, MA. I'll be back just in time for Orientation where I'll be an SYA. I'll be visiting states in this trip - Washington, Idaho, Montana, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts, maybe Rhode Island, and Connecticut. 31 states for the round trip. At the end of this trip, the only states I would be missing are North Dakota, Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Arkansas.

We have been through a lot together.

Oh yeah... almost forgot about Welcome Weekend. It was awesome. Beautiful weather, tons of activities. Nothing like going from the club fair to playing sports to studying while having Cava to helping announce a hockey game. Yes. Announce a hockey game. Seriously, the opportunities here at Yale are limitless.

summer travel

Rough map

I need to get my a/c fixed.

boo silverstar - update

For those who checked this blog a year ago, you may remember my post about replacement headlamps. You can find the original post here:
http://paulip88.blogspot.com/2006/04/boo-silverstar.html

My dad and I had a similar discussion today. Why? One of his Silverstar headlamps has died. Predictably. About one year after installation. Dud.

it's been great knowing you

First Internet Bank and I go way back. We were first introduced to each other during my lucrative internship at Progressive Insurance after my sophomore year in college. There, I had about one week's worth of work to do in about 14 weeks. Needless to say, I spent a lot of time browsing the Web and doing all sorts of "research," most of which was in no way related to work (ok... so it was related in how I was going to spend on the money I was making).

Aside from doing tons of research on computer components, which catapulted me to the Top 10 internet users at the 30,000+ employee company (and got me a nice chat with my manager about how I did download this large manual on the programming language I was supposed to be learning), I explored banking options. After all, I needed some good place to stash away all the money I was getting for my supposed "work" that I was "doing." This is where we first met up.

The rest of that is history. It's been a good 6 years. However, I have to say that our relationship just isn't as passionate as it used to be. It's still nice how you treat me to free ATM usage wherever I want, but sometimes it's the little things that count. Like being there when I need you the most. It's OK for some other bank's Web site to be down, but it's really starting to bother me when you're unavailable on occasion without any real reason. Why?

Then today I found out that maybe there are better banks out there. Read this:
http://www.bankrate.com/brm/safesound/commmm.asp?fedid=2758613

Maybe it's really time to move on... I have been seeing someone else. You know about this other bank. We've done stuff together before. ING Direct is a bit stingy though. I can only use sketchy budget ATMs. You let me go wherever I want. I guess that counts for something. But really, I could use a little bit more love over here.

hell week

I'm taking a little break. Basically, I've already put in a 44 hour week. And no, that's not including the 15+ hours today. I guess if that's included, then I've done about 59 hours of stuff so far this week. Over the hump.

So why? I've been spending a ton of time on Student Government this week. We're transitioning to the next year's officers these weeks, and we also had some preparation work to do for a meeting with Yale SOM's Board of Advisors. I've also been putting in about 3 hours a day working on the Yearbook, which should be completed within the next day. On top of that, I've also got a simulation to work on for one of my classes and two cases to write up for this week. In other words, I've been busy. The good thing is that I'm still being social... that is, I'm still talking to people.

crappy blogs

So like you, I read other people's blogs. Mostly those of friends that I like to keep tabs on. However, I have a little problem with one of them. The content that's being put up is just total crap. It's one thing to create a blog and then neglect it. That used to be more of a problem when there wasn't RSS and I would need to do work to see if there are any updates. My current problem is something else. This one individual had been updating their blog, but the updates are just total crap. Apparently this person's life now focusing on a few things that I'm just not interested in.

So... should I just stop reading the blog? Should I have a little chat with this person to let them know how I feel about the quality and diversity of the content? Or should I suck it up and continue reading this blog with the hope that eventually the tide will turn and the topics will return to something that's even marginally interesting or informative? Choices...

good times

April looks like it will be a good month.

We had three parties this weekend (of which I went to one). Tons of sports going on. I played Bocce at happy hour on Thursday, and I’m about to head over to the fields for the first football/soccer game of the spring. Plus there was an ultimate frisbee game yesterday that I missed plus a softball game today which I’ll also miss. Plus, April Foolery is upon us - activities for every day of the month. Check out what’s in store for the month here.

Good times.

Overall, people are pretty laid back now too, which is a plus. I’ve still been spending a ton of time at school, but it’s mostly been split between working on the Yearbook and spending time with friends doing nothing. Not too bad.

And Spring Break was fantastic. You can check out my Morocco photos on flickr.

best trip ever

Yep. I'm back, and I had a fantastic trip. Apologies to Maia and my family, whose Japan trip and ultimate US road-trip previously shared the top position. Those trips kicked ass, but Morocco is awesome. You should go there.

Granted, if you're the type who likes resorts, classy hotels, shopping, or the like, then stay far far away. You shouldn't be talking to me anyway. I like my trips to be cheap, dirty, and authentic. Resorts and touristy places seriously bother me.

So what made the trip so great?

• Tons of interesting stuff to see
  Medieval city centers (medinas), complete with life and real people. Kids run around the narrow streets. Vendors sell everything from food, shampoo, clothes, to the fantastic "fob-bags." Venice is a medieval city, but it's dead. No one lives there. Sienna is a medieval city that still has life, but only because of all the hot chicks that go to school at the university there. If you want to get a feel of how people really live in such places, Morocco is the place to be.
  
• Good food
  Sure, the tajines get old after a while, but overall the food was decent and plentiful. Plenty of lamb, chicken, and fruit (especially oranges). Plus, all of it's fresh. Sure, it might not be the cleanest of places to get food, but they do a decent job preparing it. Ever try eating in Venice? It sucks. Plus, if you stay away from the touristy areas and are willing to take a gamble with diarrhea, there's plenty of interesting things to try (though admittedly, after about a week, it gets tough trying to find something new).
  
• Great people
  The people there are the friendliest people that I've met. Sure, they're trying to make a few bucks off of you, but they generally won't outright try to take advantage of you. If you ask a guy to give you a lift to a museum that's literally around the corner, he'll tell you. People will go out of their way to help you out. Granted, you can't just lay there and assume that good things will happen. They'll overcharge you like crazy if you don't bargain, but that's because they know you can afford it. And it's true. You can... which leads to the next point...
  
  
• It's cheap!
  Unless you get sent to a tourist restaurant, you can get a decent sit-down meal for less than $10. Want to step down even further (my style), you can get really really cheap. Yugita and Swadeep got some nice sandwiches in Fes by some auto shops for about $1 each. In Marrakech, Swadeep, Fay and I decided to go to the stall where only locals sat (perhaps it had something to do with the lamb heads lined up at the front, or the fact that no one there spoke English). We had two orders of lamb and a order of fresh lamb brains. $6.50 total for the three of us. Three cinnamon teas? $0.50. Mmm... Cinnamon tea...
  
  
• People don't speak English, but I can communicate with them
  The biggest challenge of communicating with people is figuring out which language people know. Everyone knows Arabic and French. A few people here and there know English, and the same with Spanish. But even so, most people know a little of some other language (like a Moroccan Salad, they would joke... a little of everything). Eventually, with a combination of English, Spanish, gestures, smiles, and perhaps a couple random French words, you can get what you need. It was also great to be able to practice my Spanish again.

Some other interesting considerations... For example, what race am I?
I'm becoming more and more ambiguous as the years go by it seems. It can be a bit annoying that Chinese people don't know that I'm Chinese, but at the same time, I can pretend to be whatever I want to be. In Morocco many people thought I was Japanese (maybe it's my camera, or maybe it's how Japanese people love to travel), one person guessed that I was Indian (like three of my travel partners), then guessed that I was Latin American. Another guessed Malaysian (the joke). It's amusing. So why does this all matter? In certain places (meaning food markets like in Marrakech or Essaouira), people will harass you (in a nice way) to try to get your business. It's cool at first, but gets tiring, especially since there are usually over 10 stalls. So one thing for next time is to pick a race with some language that they won't know. Like Thai or something, and then pretend not to know any other languages. We'll see how that works.

Anyway, after that aside, some things you shouldn't expect from a trip to Morocco:

• Wild nights partying
  Bars are basically for men and hookers. Either that or hang out at a western hotel. If you're planning on doing that, then you should just stay home you creep.
  
  
• Perfect health
  We all managed to get a little bit sick during the trip, and we're a pretty hardy bunch. Yugita gets the top prize for being least sick. Let's just say that they have different standards for cleanliness when it comes to food preparation. My solution was looking at the food situation as another dimension for "adventure" and seeing how far I could reasonable push it without getting the runs. I won. (-: I still have my cipro for another day.
  
  
• A perfectly packaged experience
  If you can't tolerate people who don't speak English, or you can't tolerate some mild inconveniences or filth, then stay at home or go somewhere else. Go to Costa Rica where you can use your US dollars at English speaking establishments and look over the beautiful beach from the safety of your chlorinated pool. Yes, I'm bitching.
  

So maybe I should cover some of the practicalities. Like where we went. You should really just be looking at the photos which I'm uploading right now. There are over 500 of them. We were there for about 12 days. Arrived in Casablanca where we spent a day. That was already too much time. The city has one site, the Mosque Hassan II, and a railway station that you can use to get to your next destination. We took the train from Casa to Fes. Train travel is fairly cheap (around 100dH per ticket) and efficient. Only problem was that we were there at a time when the busses were on strike, so the train was a bit crowded.

Fes is awesome. We were only there for a day and we got a guide to show us through the medina. Definitely worth it. It has a massive medina that would be cool to explore on your own. Another day or two there would have been fine if you want to make a 3+ week trip.
Chefchaouen was our next destination, which is north of Fes in the mountains. We got a grand taxi (grand in latin languages means big. it's no limo) to take us there and back for about 1500dH. We dropped by Volubilis (Roman ruins) and Moulay-Idriss on the way. Chefchaouen is neat town. All the walls in the medina are painted blue, which is neat. It's also a neat medina to wander in (aren't they all?).
After Chefchaouen, we returned to Fes and took a train to Marrakech. We had a day train. A night train would have been a better use of our time, but we already made other bookings so the night train didn't make any sense for us anymore. Marrakech is another really neat city. Another nice medina, but this time with a huge square with lots of cheap food. The square also has a lot of entertainers, but also a lot of creeps who like to grab people's asses. Also people who shake your hand so they can hold on to it when they whip out their snake. We stayed away from there, although it is one of the main attractions.
From Marrakech, we took a four day road trip out east, crossing the Atlas mountains to visit the Dades and Todra Gorges, and eventually arriving at Merzouga to visit the sand dunes. The sand dunes were probably the neatest part of the trip, even though I love wandering the medinas. The photos speak for themselves.

After the excursion into the wilderness, we wrapped up our trip by going to Essaouira, a "small fishing town" that allegedly is a "secret." Secret's out. They're building resorts there, which is damn annoying. The good part is that it looks like the ignorant tourists going there are doing that they do best, being ignorant tourists. That means that I suspect that they're staying in the safe resort environment, maybe going to the beach, but not bothering to visit the medina. Essaouira has a really interesting medina. Unlike the other ones, this one actually has a grid layout. How Progressive. The other highlight? The seafood. Swadeep, Fay and I gorged ourselves on shrimp, prawns (or crayfish... whatever), fish, and 2kg of crab. Good stuff. Good final destination. Chill town, good views, good food, and good souvenir shopping.
After Essaouira, we took the ghetto-fabulous bus back to Casablanca for our return flight. CTM is the national bus line that's a bit pricier, a bit nicer, and a bit more reliable. We took a private bus, which featured a luggage guy who climbed the side of the bus while moving to get to/from the luggage rack on top, doubled as a bouncer, and also helped keep the bus clean. We also got to see the magic of irregular stops. People would get dropped off in front of their houses, get picked up at random places, and the like. Some guy even got a shipment of vegetables (he walked emptyhanded to the bus as it stopped, and as we pulled away he walked back to his house with a bag of stuff and a bundle of greens). We also got to see how beggars and salesmen make rounds on busses whenever it makes a longer stop. Good times. (-:
So practicalities... what to bring...

• Someone who's good with languages
• A good bargainer
• Clothes for all conditions

Somehow I wore the same outfit for virtually the entire trip. I need to give it a nice wash. No need to worry about ATMs. They are everywhere. Morocco has some amazing infrastructure. Mobiles work virtually anywhere. Our driver kept getting calls out in the middle of nowhere. There are also cybercafes in all but the smallest towns (same with ATMs). Credit cards are occassionally accepted. They may even take AMEX if you're lucky (or unlucky... since you're probably in some mad tourist trap). If you want to use your Discover card, stay at home, or go to Costa Rica (the only foreign country where I have seen places take Discover regularly).

Sigh... The upload for the photos is only half done. It's been 3 hours. I'm going to sleep. With any luck it will be done in the morning when I wake up.

and i'm off

Yesterday I said goodbye to Patrick, who has departed for Brazil. Today, Mamoun heads to Dubai, Emre back to Turkey, and our group head to Morocco. In an hour, we head out on our way to JFK to catch our flights.

I doubt I'll have regular internet access, so till next time!

last exam before break

I'm here sitting in classroom A53, ready to take my last final exam for Spring-1. It's hard to believe that after this, I'll be 3/8 done with my MBA experience.

The last half semester has flown by very quickly, as it seems like only a few weeks ago we came back from winter break. It's been a crazy, but good semester that included the final set of core "perspectives," the crazy job search, and also more of the usual antics that make up life at business school. Although it's been a great semester with a lot of positive developments, it's good to see it come to a close. Next semester should be a good shift for me, with a lighter course-load that would allow me spend more time working out, doing extracurriculars (like Yearbook!), and maybe even catching up on a few things outside of school.

Also, with today being the last exam, it's finally settling in that I'll be leaving for Morocco tomorrow for a spring break trip! It's funny how I seem to have been thinking more of summer in Seattle than spring break in Morocco. Now that it's upon me, I'm definitely looking forward to it. All I need to do is to get this final exam over with... and pack. (-:

rant and rave

Rant
Some jackass in Cleveland keeps putting in real estate listings with my phone number on it. This is the second time it's happened and it's really starting to piss me off. Learn to proofread your classified ads.

Rave
Summer at Microsoft

wtf is up with the ford explorer's door

Those of you who I talked to in Seattle recall how I was bitching about the Ford Explorer that Avis tried to rent me (that I rejected after noticing that there was a warning that the battery charger (aka alternator) wasn't working).

Basically, I had just flown in to Seatac Airport and I wanted to get some rest for my interviews the following morning. Admittedly, I was a bit out of it. I was already disappointed by how I was assigned a ginormous SUV, but I just wanted to get to the hotel. When I got in, I was surprised by how comfy the seats were, and also by how terrible the visibility was. The height of the exaggerated "masculine" hood mass made it impossible to know where the front of the car stopped. The rear view was impeded by the rear headrests so much I thought of going through the trouble of removing them so I wouldn't kill myself while changing lanes. er... I mean kill other people while changing lanes.

Then there was the mechanical problem. I inserted the key and was greeted by a message telling me that this brand-spanking new car already had a mechanical issue with the alternator. WTF? I've had my 1993 Honda since 2001 and I haven't had an issue with my alternator. Why does Ford's have to break within a year? Oh... and my dad's '89 Acura's alternator finally went last summer.

Basically, the Ford Explorer seems like it was designed to be a comfy, spacious lounge, and the whole "car" concept came as an afterthought. No sport, no utility, barely a vehicle.

At this point, I had enough and decided to get another car. I reached for the door handle...

? ? ?

I couldn't find it. I kept searching. Oh... there's a shiny thing. Maybe I can grab that. No dice. There's this handle. It looks like an "oh shit" bar that was put in a weird place. Nothing. Thankfully the window was open, so I reached out and opened the door using the outside door handle. I sure as hell hope that isn't how it's supposed to work.

After getting out I took a closer look. I don't like being baffled by things like this. In better lighting, I failed to figure it out, even after the closer inspection. I wanted to leave, so off I went.

Today for some reason I felt inspired to solve this mystery, so I looked up some photos of the Ford Explorer's door to see if I happened to miss something due to my tiredness and impatience at the time. Sadly, I'm still baffled.

Any ideas? Here are the photos:

stupid seattle activity #2

Tracing the steps of Sir-Mix-A-Lot

Most people don't know that Sir-Mix-A-Lot is from Seattle, but just listen closely to the lyrics of his hit song Posse on Broadway and you'll see the clear path that he took that one night. If that isn't credible enough, consult Wikipedia.

I already traversed a good bit of the path on foot with Ross, but instead of stopping at Dick's for dinner that night, we opted for Ethiopian food instead at Queen Sheba, which was awesome. Next time. (-;

Here's a map I created because I'm being a dork and I don't feel like showering, going outside, buying food, or anything else that I really should be doing.

my plans for the summer = microsoft's plans for the summer

Apologies to those I haven't informed personally about the news. It's been a crazy few weeks.

Quick summary:
Feb 15 - Feb 16: Setting up interviews with Microsoft
Feb 17 - Feb 19: Getting "ahead" with schoolwork, prepping as much as I can
Feb 20 - Feb 23: Travel/Interviews with the Office team and Windows Live team
Feb 24 - Feb 25: Attempting to return to New Haven
Feb 26: Return to New Haven
Feb 27: Attempt to keep up/catch up/work ahead (still not sure where I am)
Feb 27 - today: Get sick, stay sick, rest, drink lots of fluids

But anyway... about the job... I'll be interning with Microsoft as a Product Planner. What does that mean? Instead of writing out something from my perspective, here's a summary from someone who's done it as an intern.

And did I mention that the job is in Seattle?

Not to mention what's right by Seattle (not the girl... she's in Florida d-: )

it is done

After a few weeks of drama, I have finalized my plans for the summer. I will be working at Microsoft this summer as a Product Planner for Windows Live. Good stuff.

It's been an interesting few weeks. I'll provide a more detailed summary at a later point when I have some more time. High level, I had an offer from DuPont, which coincidentally came the same day as my invitation for second round interviews with Microsoft. Happy Valentine's day for me! I interviewed last week at Microsoft, and I also spoke to several people at DuPont. Here's a quick summary, cut out from an e-mail I just sent.

Unfortunately, I have decided to work for your sister-in-law instead (funny how these things work). I still think that the DuPont position is an excellent opportunity, and I hope to let others know about what DuPont has to offer. I am a leader of the Marketing Club and the Technology Club here, so I'll be playing a big part in letting them know what types of employment options there are out there.

What are the odds?

stranded

My flight was to leave an hour ago, and I'm still in Ross' place entering a blog entry. No, I didn't miss my flight. I was there three hours ahead of schedule. My flight was canceled.

Four hours later, after spending a full two hours on hold with American Express travel services, renting another car from Avis, and driving back to Ross' place, I finally have arrangements to get back to New Haven. It was no easy feat either. I was on hold for about 45 minutes at the airport, which was getting to the limits of my phone's now crappy battery. I should really get a new one. Three times this week I've dropped calls because my phone's battery crapped out on me.

Anyway, thanks to my handy charger, I was able to stay on the line with them for well over an hour, finally getting in touch with someone who was able to get me on a flight to White Plains, NY through Charlotte, NC. Nothing like going through five states on this trip. Awesome.

I'll be back in New Haven at about 1:00pm on Monday.

cross-post, from seattle

This is a post that's going up elsewhere on another blog that I'm doing for the admissions office at Yale. Yes, I will continue to create unique content for this site. Exclusive content will include rants, stuff about my car, random links, and anything else that's either irrelevant, or unrelated to school.

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Today I am writing from a hotel room in Seattle, Washington where I have two days of interviews this week. I arrived here Tuesday evening and I spent most of yesterday (about 6 hours) interviewing for one position at the company. Today I get a day off where I’ll spend most of the time either here in my hotel working, or across the street working in Seattle’s fancy new public library. I’ve visited Seattle the last three summers so I’m OK with spending most of the day as a recluse, and then spending the evenings hanging out with friends of mine who live here. Tomorrow, I have another big day of interviews beginning at 11:00am. I’ll be staying here for until Saturday night when I take the redeye flight back east.

As someone interested in a marketing position, I had most of my interviews in mid-January, and right now I am in the middle of wrapping up this entire operation. I have already received a very good offer from one company, and I am in the process of completing second round interviews for a second.

The whole recruiting process has been pretty crazy, and I’m looking forward to the end, which is approaching very quickly. Looking for a job is almost a job in itself and it’s been a challenge balancing my job search with academics and extracurricular activities. Granted, I feel that I’ve been able to get everything done and still manage to sleep 4+ hours each night, but I really am looking forward to a lighter load in a few weeks when Spring-2 (the second half of the spring semester starts). Looking forward to a lighter course-load (one less class), not have to worry about my job search, and more opportunities to do things outside.

Until then, I still need to focus on the here and now - meaning classes, and more importantly, my interviews on Friday. Wish me luck!