1. What time did you get up this morning? 9:30
2. Diamonds or pearls? Did I get a chain mail meant for girls?
3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? V for Vendetta (excellent movie!)
4. What is your favorite TV show? Oh man that’s a tough question Continue reading ‘Chain mail’
Archive for March, 2006
I got a series of emails yesterdy and today concerning the building I work in’s sewage.
Mar 22, 2006 2:34 PM
ALL RESTROOMS IN [building] ARE CLOSED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE. Please use
restrooms in adjoining buildings and absolutely minimize water usage.
ALL WATER WILL BE SHUTDOWN IN [building] ABOUT 4:00 THIS AFTERNOON. If
you have critical need for water, please contact Frank Cannella immediately.
And then there was this one.
Mar 22, 2006 3:41 PM
PLEASE DO NOT POUR ANYTHING REMOTELY DANGEROUS DOWN THE SINKS WHILE REPAIRS
ARE UNDERWAY.
Water may not have to be shut off, but keep usage to a minimum. All
restrooms will remain CLOSED.
It’s really a good thing I have been working at home. Or else I might be drinking your poop from the water fountain. Even though I got the “all is ok” email earlier today, I still won’t drink from there anytime soon.
Oh yeah, for you concerned people, I am still wearing underwear at home. It’s just the pants that have to come off.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/leicestershire/4836336.stm
There are now special heat sensitive black stickers in the urinals which transform into smiley faces when boys aim at them.
Oh man how cool would this have been in school? Or at work?
I left campus early and instead worked at home for more than half the day. You know the best part of working from home?
Answer: not wearing pants.
Oh man it was great today.
What do you expect from such simple creatures?
Your last name stays put.
The garage is all yours.
Wedding plans take care of themselves.
Chocolate is just another snack.
You can be President.
You can never be pregnant.
You can wear a white T-shirt to a water park.
You can wear NO shirt to a water park.
Continue reading ‘No wonder men are happier.’
As people drive in Atlanta, GA, they are so used to the traffic light situation. However, Representative Amanda Treadwell (D) has clued in citizens to a possible improvement to the system. CNN has quoted her as saying, “If you are going to be given a yellow light to be warned about a red light, why can’t you be given a brown light to warn you about a green light?” A month ago, she proposed a bill to congress for such a brown light. This traffic light would be just like the light we have all come to know, but it has an additional brown light above the red light. Many supporters are cheering her on.However, she does have some enemies to the bill. Lee Katz (D) says that this will ultimately harm the people. “Can no one see how much this will cost the people?” New traffic lights in the city of Atlanta will cost over $10 million, and that does not include labor costs.
Treadwell, however, is not deterred. She has a testing site in the heart of Atlanta, at Peachtree Street and 3rd Street, next to the famous Fox Theater. She hopes to show congress that traffic can be alleviated because drivers would know when they would be able to go, thus eliminating delays from unattentive stopped drivers.
So far, the brown light studies do not have enough data, but Treadwell is hopefull. “One day I hope to live an Atlanta where there is not a traffic problem.”
Do you feel a sense of camaraderie when you pass by a car of the same make? Or even the exact same car? Some people enjoy parking next to a similar car; others simply point out these other cars to their passengers. Gestures such as these are slowly becoming part of mainstream culture.
Volvo recognizes these gestures and wants to build on them. This is how the Volvo high five came to be. One press of the button and a hand on the driver’s side comes out a few feet. This hand’s outer layer is a very soft fabric, and a middle layer is a tough rubber that protects the inside circuitry. When two Volvos are passing by each other on the street, special sensors alert the driver that another Volvo is getting near and gives the option to give that Volvo a high five.
Advanced audio technology is built in too. The chief engineer, Peter Smith, is quoted as saying “The soft fabric wasn’t making the right high five noise, and so we hired some experts to make us some high five sounds. Just one sound wasn’t enough because our drivers demand some variation in how their high fives sound.” This makes giving a high five to another Volvo much more enjoyable because the driver and passengers will (hopefully) not become annoyed at the same repeating sound. Says one test driver, “It’s even more awesome to pass a Volvo on the street now.”
Peter Smith promises more features will be added to his product, including a passenger side hand. He says, “Passing a Volvo on the road and high fiving is good; how about another one when you park next to it?” Thus, a driver can park next to a Volvo in a parking lot and “slap some fabric” without having to park into the spot backwards.
When asked what else the future holds, Smith replies, “I believe it will be rude not to high five in the near future.”
This was made up by Lee Katz.
We did really well in trivia night tonight at the Raging Burrito–when the final question came around, we had 62 points, and the leading team had 54. For those of you who don’t know, the final question is a betting question. You can gain or lose up to 15 points depending on if your answer is correct (and depending on how much you actually bet).
So the final question was well within Jeff’s realm of knowledge and he was narrowing it down, but he was also saying, “Well we’re either winning or Jeff is going back to Blacksburg [where his college is].” Well, we go it wrong and got third place. This is why Jeff has to be exiled from Atlanta into Blacksburg. Sorry Jeff.
By the way, I’ve run into so many people I have known in my past at the Raging Burrito. Is this like, the one place that all of my friends share? The friend nexus of the universe? I should go there more often to see people of the past.
Does anyone want to go to Oxford Day on May 13th with me? I want to go to see Dooley and have a good lunch on the purty quad. Also, I want to see how the campus has changed, but don’t worry–it’s a small campus, and so it won’t take long.
Are you sure you want to spoil it? Just click the link.
Continue reading ‘DHMO.org’
I totally just thought of this yesterday, a way to beat Superman. It might have already been written about though because it seems so painfully obvious.
So you know how people can wear the infrared goggles and see at night? But if they are blasted with a normal dose of visual light, they are temporarilly blinded? Well if Superman’s x-ray vision works like that, say picking up a small amount of already-existing x-rays, then being blasted with a bunch of x-rays will really affect him. Catch him off guard.
Criminal masterminds, you owe me.
I think it’s time I explain why medical school interviews are almost the greatest drain of motivation and the bringer of sadness. Have I already done this? I don’t think so.
The whole process is designed to make you want to drop out so that only the most passionate, motivated students can succeed in applying. This is the excruciating process step by step:
- Take the MCAT. This is the aptitude test, like the SAT and the ACT, but for medical school. This requires at least 3 months of studying and should be finally taken the April or August before the next step (about 2 years before entering medical school). The test itself takes an entire saturday starting at 8 in the morning and ending at 5 or 6 in the evening, with a normal proctor. The test includes about 4 or 5 hours of solid test taking, with the rest being when the proctor talks or when you take a break.
- Apply using AMCAS to all medical school choices 13-15 months before the medical school year would start. This is an application that takes a whole day if the applicant has nothing else to do and is on amphetamines. Otherwise, it takes perhaps a whole week to finish everything on the application, including essays, biographical information, a total recapitulation of classes and grades, and about $50 per school (usually at least 10 schools).
- Finally it is Fall, a year before you would start school. You must make sure you have already turned in 3 recommendations to your schools, along with your transcripts and your AMCAS application. Now you are waiting for schools to send you a secondary application.
- Every secondary application is different, but of course they are, because they ask questions that only their school would want to ask. These secondaries take anywhere from a few minutes to a few days to complete due to either just paying an additional fee ($50-$100) per school or paying the fee and writing up to about five essays. Some schools make you provide hard-to-get things such as a notorized form that says that your middle name is in fact Mud.
- Now you play the waiting game again. A school might get back to you sorta soon or, well, NEVER. After paying about $150 per school, you wait and see if they want to interview you.
- Interview day is excruciating. You have to visit a school on a specified date in your absolute best suit and haircut. If you don’t, then you are probably not going to be accepted. Anyway, on interview day, you must be there at around 9am in most cases (thus, you have to have already traveled to the city the day before). You spend about two hours listening to how great the school is and kissing babies. If you frown, then you are kicked out. If you yawn, you are burned at the stake. Some places might interview you around 10 or 11 in the morning, but many will take you on a boring tour of the school and eat lunch, either catered or from the school cafeteria. Around 1 or 2 in the afternoon, they might be ready for an actual interview. I consider the actual interview easy as pie. It’s like a conversation with an intelligent person, but do you see my point? They make you wait around ALL DAY LONG in your uncomfortable clothes waiting to talk to this awesome person. Afterwords, they might have an activity but probably not. You’re free to go home and change.
- Now you are playing the waiting game again. By March 15, a school has to tell you if you are put onto the waiting list, rejected, or accepted to their school. If you are accepted or declined, great. However, if you are put on the waiting list, you are waiting until the first day that school starts to see if you are accepted.
There you go. A two year process that is like hell. I’d prefer a single application (AMCAS) and then a phone interview but whatever. I guess two years of pain is ok too.