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Alyssa and I spent Memorial Day weekend enjoying all that the Pennsylvania Dutch have to offer. We stayed in a bed and breakfast called The Dingeldein House, picked solely for the name of course.

For two days we raced women on scooters and horses and buggies up the hilly roads of Lancaster County. We also tried a variety of local foods at a food festival (although we preferred the local beers they had over the food, with the exception of Whoopie Pie). There was also plenty of shopping for quilts, candles, and other handmade goods, although we tried to restrain ourselves as much as possible.

Overall it was a fun weekend, and despite a few mishaps (including our innkeeper recommending we walk through a bad neighborhood and past the local jail to a restaurant a couple of miles away) we managed to make it out no worse for the wear.
9:07:00 PM 0 comments

 
On the way home from May's 90's party, which by the way was lots of fun with tons of great music, I got on the subway and sitting there before me was a girl who was the spitting image of Ms. Farshtey, my Latin teacher from High School, same long red hair and all. Of course if the similarities had stopped there it wouldn't be that interesting, but she was of course talking about Latin with her companion.

She was frustrated that so few people have read the Aeneid, and that she would be happy even if they would just read it in English. Stepping back, she wondered how so many people could miss the references to Virgil in classic literary treasures throughout the ages. Eventually their conversation shifted to less Latin-oriented topics, but it was just one of those odd throwback to the 90's kind of nights.

Hopefully I'll make it to bed without any further run-ins with any of those 90's trends we all wish we could forget!
12:18:00 AM 0 comments

 
It's now the end of the second day at BASES and things have been going great so far. BASES is filled with wonderful people, interesting projects, and lots of other good stuff. They've got me working on a number of projects in a variety of different areas, but my pharma background has definitely been helpful for bring up to speed on these topics.

As for the commute, it definitely isn't as fun as my old 20 minute subway ride, but it really isn't too bad on the bus from Port Authority, and there are a bunch of great people that ride it. If only it wasn't at 7:45 am...
9:25:00 PM 0 comments

 
Just a bit of personal news - I'll be leaving my position as an analyst at Datamonitor to take a pharma consulting gig at BASES. It should be a great new place to learn about things from the other side, and I can't wait to start. Of course, I still have one more week at Datamonitor, and far too much to do in that week to finish things up there.
10:05:00 PM 0 comments

 
Four years ago today I was getting on a plane headed to the other side of the world. I knew no one, and didn't have a clue what I was getting myself into. Of course, it turned into one of the greater experiences of my life, and the people I met there will be friends for life (in fact, we have a big group conference call scheduled for tomorrow morning).

More thoughts on this may come up later.
5:20:00 PM 0 comments

 
I brought a cheap heart-shaped box of chocolate into the office today (Russell Stover, with a cute kitty on the front of the package), with the intent to share it with my team. However, upon opening the box, the chocolate was slightly discolored and we weren't sure it was going to be very good. Undaunted though, we each picked one up and took a bite. Or at least we tried to.

I was the only one able to actually bite through mine, as I had managed to get one of the dreaded strawberry chews. However, I fared better than Rich, who tried to take a bite only to almost chip a tooth. His piece was so hard that even with a knife he couldn't cut it open to see what was inside. Granted, it was just a plastic knife, but even still.

So I felt guilty for having caused such trauma and vowed to make it up to everyone with new chocolates come lunchtime. Katie and I went off to Duane Reade (a drug store) and found a wide selection of picked over cards and racks upon racks of chocolates. We eventually found a bag of chocolates, that while not valentine-oriented, were perfect for our needs. So I brought them back to share.

Fortunately these chocolates went over better with the crowd! Happy Valentines Day!
10:45:00 PM 0 comments

 
Apparently the boiler installation was a success. Maybe too much of a success. It was a little too warm today at the office, but much preferred to the frigid days earlier this week. The day did go by pretty quickly though!
8:11:00 PM 0 comments

 
As if yesterday wasn't cold enough in the office, today I got in to find out that the boiler for the entire building was broken. Apparently they were trying to get a new one in and installed by sometime in the afternoon, but we had our doubts - boilermen are in short supply on the coldest days of the year. In addition, the fire alarm decided that it should go off at least a half dozen times by about 10:30am. At that point my team decided that we could be more productive at home, and took our leave of the office. I think it was a wise decision, and it was nice to be home before the snow started falling rather than trying to get home in the thick of it.
5:15:00 PM 0 comments

 
Looks like stamps are gonna cost 42 cents for a first class letter come May 12. Act now and get your forever stamps while they still only cost 41 cents! (They'll still be good and usable in the future).

As a side note, apparently postage rates increases are now tied directly to inflation, with the USPS allowed to raise the rates annually. Thus, we can expect a raise every May for the foreseeable future.

At work today we were musing about what would happen if someone managed to corner the market on stamps; at the very least there might be an arbitrage opportunity there somewhere, although the returns are likely far too low to be worth it.
7:48:00 PM 0 comments

 
The heat in the office is out, and its the coldest day of the year to date. We've also had a fire alarm (just a test of course) and a phone that has been ringing off the hook. My team is sitting around in their coats and hats and gloves, desperately trying to type without making too many errors, which isn't easy when your fingers are in thick gloves. It's only 9:30 - if it keeps going like this it will be one heck of a week...
9:38:00 AM 0 comments

 
For whatever reason, writing just hasn’t been on my agenda much lately. Whether it is because I am writing more for work and am thus less likely to do it recreationally on the side, or something else, I am not sure, but the end result has been a dearth of personal writing.

Looking back, I guess it really has dropped off significantly since I got home from Australia, possibly due to the fact that the need to keep family and friends informed of my activities and whereabouts have diminished through the combination of being at home and the slightly less hectic lifestyle that comes with working a regular job and not being a student anymore.

Regardless, I’m going to be making an effort to write a little more, whether on here or somewhere else is yet to be determined but I’ll keep you all informed either way. Also, I may look at a bit of a redesign here, given as it has been quite a few years since I’ve played with it. Time will tell...
9:52:00 PM 0 comments

 
I came across an interesting game last month and thought I'd share. The game is called Cursor*10 and the goal seems simple enough - you start on level 1 and have to get up to level 16. You start with 10 lives and there is a time limit on each life (of about 30 seconds).

Your character is a cursor, and nothing seems amiss when you start, the first few levels pass quickly, but you learn where things are and what they do. 30 seconds later your character dies, and you are presented with the first level again. But as it starts you notice something different - you still control your cursor, but there is a duplicate on the screen, that follows the exact path you took in the first life.

As you get to higher levels, you realize that there are places where you need to hold down multiple buttons at once to move on to the next level, but the only way to do that is to use echoes of your previous lives to hold them down while you advance, eventually making your way to level 16 and your goal.

I think it is an ingenious game, and as it says when you start, you must cooperate with yourself to figure it out.
2:12:00 PM 0 comments

 
Just had a quiet new years with a few friends, some moderately decent champagne and more cheese fondue than I care to think of. Happy 2008 everyone!
2:09:00 AM 0 comments

 
Every month I get a credit card from the MTA delivered to me at work with a $76 credit on it to pay for my monthly metrocard. We've been getting these credit cards for the better part of a year now; previously we were just given the monthly metrocard. This plan does offer the benefit of being able to trace the cards, and lets me call up the MTA if the pass is lost or stolen to get a partial credit back. However, this credit card didn't help me today when I got to the subway, my previous metrocard having expired yesterday, only to find that all four metrocard machines at the 96th street stop were flashing 'Cash only.'

The attendant at the station booth could not have been less helpful when I asked her about it, wanting to know if she would let me go through and just buy the card later. Her response - 'Go to another station, I can't let you through.' Not wanting to deal with this at the early hour I decided just to walk the 10 blocks south to 86th St, fortunately before the nasty weather hit. It was just incredibly frustrating for the MTA not to have their system up and running, especially when they have pushed people to switch to their 'more convenient' credit card system.
9:49:00 PM 1 comments

 
I got to play hero not once, but twice in the span of a few hours this evening. Alyssa and I were walking over to a local restaurant for dinner, and were about to cross the street when a man on the other side slips and loses hold of his dog's leash. The dog takes off on a tear, and fortunately cars screech to a halt as it runs to our side, but due to the 2nd Ave. subway construction a concrete barrier and a tall fence stopped me from grabbing him right away. Instead I ran along side him and chased him up the block and around the corner at which point I grabbed his leash. He was still running though, and pulled hard enough that he tore the metal ring holding it to his harness right off. So another half block later I finally caught up with him and managed to hold him and calm him down until his owner came, thanked me and took him back.

Alyssa and I then proceeded to have an excellent white pizza, and were almost back to her apartment when we saw a jeep across the street that had apparently died, and several people were trying to push it to the curb, with little success. I stepped in to help, and between the three of us we managed to get it reasonably close to the sidewalk. Hopefully it won't get towed for being illegally parked, but it is far better for it to be along the curb than in the middle of the street.

Those were my adventures for the evening. I definitely would not have expected either, but it felt really good to be able lend a hand to a few people that needed it this evening.
9:17:00 PM 1 comments