JumboDELIC by Mr. G
I shall believe by Safiry
The fun in dysfunctional by Stacy
HOPE - UNITY - TRUTH by Truth
The Story of Jae... by Julie
Med Feelings by Fittipaldi R.I.P.
alemao para principiantes by Guenther
*.* by Gunno R.I.P.
I just wanna have something to do by Ruivinha R.I.P.
*Toxic Girl by Ruivinha R.I.P.
The source of the stillness
Some Thursday weirdness
My research website
Tuesday, October 19, 2004
I'm still alive! And I have a new blog... This should be the last post of this blog... It's sad to see it dying, but it was time to move on! To move downstream.
posted by Michel | 9:04 AMTuesday, October 12, 2004
The last post is approaching really fast. In the early morning tomorrow the movers will be here to take all my stuff. And this includes this computer... Sometime later in the day (I think it will be later, because so far I didn't get any calls from them), another company will be passing by to take my new car. Then I won't have much... A week worth of clothes, some books and paperwork with information about what to do when I get to Seattle and so on.
Actually I found out that I won't have a car all the time. It is estimated that it will take 12 days for my car to arrive in Seattle and I will have a rental car only for 7 of those. But I guess it won't be a problem. I'll try to schedule my week to compensate for all that.
Talking about scheduling, one of the most difficult things I have to do until tomorrow morning is to build my list of apartments and houses to visit once I get there. With the list, I will look at the map and define an optimal schedule for visiting the places and start calling around to see if my optimal schedule is compatible with the renter's schedule. It is going to be very hectic and requiring lots of planning and organized execution. But it should be doable!
Besides that, I guess that there isn't much to tell... I was very nervous this morning and early afternoon, but right now I'm just busy and getting things done. One of the things that is getting done right now is laundry! So off I go to get my clothes from the dryer.
Oh, yes, I forgot one small detail: the car transportation company asked me to give them the car with less than 1/4 of the tank of gas. Uhm... When I bought the car yesterday they gave a full tank! How can I use 3/4 of a tank if I don't really have free time? I'll leave my car on for the evening and sleep inside it, I guess... :-)
And they also asked me to wash the car. They gave me a washed car but yesterday it was raining... Now my car is all dusty! So I'll have to find some time until tomorrow to wash it. Hopefully the car people will pass by the end of the afternoon and the packing people would leave in the morning, giving me time to do all this (well, it's not that I'll have much else to do anyway).
Yes, I'm still alive, although I haven't been posting lately. It's just been pretty hard for me to sit down and do anything. On Saturday I went car hunting and narrowed down my search to two cars: a Toyota Solara and Honda Accord. However, I couldn't really decide on Saturday, because I didn't know if I could change my mind about moving cars (I first told to the relocation company that I wasn't going to move with any cars).
The reason why I was looking for cars here and not in Seattle is that I thought that the most I could get done here the better. Less things to run after when I get there.
On Monday I got the confirmation that I could still change my mind about moving cars, so I went back to the car dealer and made a deal (after staying there for a LONG time): I am an owner of a 2005 Honda Accord EXL. Leather seats, sunroof, XM satelite radio, 6 CD changer, 2-doors, 4 cylinder... It is a pretty nice car (at least I think so, although my parents wanted to convince me not to buy a 2-door car).
So there went Monday. I also boxed everything that I had in my office and lab and moved half home (the trunk of my new car could only fit 3 boxes, 2 bags and a small box; I still have 3 boxes to go). For you to have an idea how hectic Monday was, we only had time to have lunch at around 4 pm! Dinner at around 11:15 pm...
This morning I finished backing up everything from my ex-laptop and my home computer (the one I'm using right now) and I'm almost ready to go. The only thing left is to send some letters to the car place. They want proof that I will be able to pay them.
Anyway, it's time to go for lunch now... And then run around to get everything done.
Friday, October 08, 2004
I'm feeling suddenly a little less nervous today. My morning was devoted to organizing my day, defining who I had to call, who I had to email, where I had to pass, and so on. I officially don't have even half a car right now (if I don't go and steal Stacy's car - she has two, anyway)! The amazing part of this all is that I did get almost everything that I had to do today done. Now I'm back to my office and I'll try to finish some things and start the backup process. After this process is done, I have to go and clean all my things from the office computer, remove my usernames, leave it as if I didn't pass by here. I also have to pass by the library and drop the few books I borrowed... It's kind of a sad process to leave...
This also means that I have to start the process of closing my blog. Closing is the easy part. What will be difficult is to find a name for whatever is coming next. I've learned this time and I won't choose anything related to the place I'm staying, so that I won't have to close it again when I move on. Maybe I'll learn with Safiry and reserve a website like "idonthaveanickname.com". :-)
And for the link of the day: Cooking for Engineers. A (sometimes) very interesting website made by a guy that likes to analyze the food and recipes. What I actually liked about it is the way he presents the recipe, as a table. Nice idea, but I'm not completely sure it would work all the time.
Thursday, October 07, 2004
I could write many things, but I guess I won't really. I'm just too nervous to think straight these days. I'm lost on what time it is, what I have to do next, what I forgot to do then. Lots of things to take care of... Just too many things! As the days pass and I keep getting things done, I find out more things that I have to do. Unfortunately my brain kind of gives be the wrong feedback: when I have too many things to do I tend to become introspective and end up not doing anything. I always think I'm forgetting something and just can't find what it is.
Life is hard...
Oh, I forgot to say that I've got my housing confirmation. I'm going to stay in a place that the invoice says it costs $120/night! But it's in downtown Seattle, with a great view (especially because it looks like I'll be on the 23rd floor - hey, I was on the 24th for my interview!), with a person to clean my apartment every Friday, fully furnished, with all bills paid... Although it's only a 1 bedroom place, it's not that expensive if you come to think of it. At least for Seattle!
posted by Michel | 12:15 PMI'm sorry, but I have to post this:
U.S. gets election advice from outsiders. It is actually a very interestin articles about some problems with the US electoral system that people don't really realize. First of them is that who counts the votes are affiliated with a certain party. Then they go to the e-voting and touch screen systems that don't print any paper confirmation. Without this kind of confirmation, if there is any doubt about the result, it may be impossible to check!
They have a good point there, but it goes back to my "paperless world plan". People are still too worried with the fact that computers are unreliable. They are a big black box and nobody really understands what is going on. You always have to add a paper redundancy to give assurance to the people that you won't loose the information.
It's the same thing as when I was talking about transforming the place I used to do internship at in Brazil. I put forth the idea, but the secretaries and financial analysis department said that they couldn't do that, because they needed the papers to make sure they weren't going to loose the data! That's why you can add any amount of redundancy and backup you want on a computer system!
Oh, well, society has to change before we get anywhere with my "master plan". I'm patient.
Wednesday, October 06, 2004
Just some interesting facts (because I just can't work today... Too many small bureaucratic complications that I have to deal with):
Here is a comparison of average temperatures and rainfall between Stillwater and Seattle (from weather.com:
The interesting thing is the rain pattern that is almost inverted. Here it rains during the summer and there during the winter. One important thing that this graph does not show is that they have much more rainy days there than here. When it rains here it's a lot of rain in one day, while there it doesn't rain as hard, but it rains for longer.
And here are the weather facts (most of them you can see in the figure above, though):
Stillwater:
* The average warmest month is July.
* The highest recorded temperature was 115°F in 1936.
* The average coolest month is January.
* The lowest recorded temperature was -18°F in 1996.
* The maximum average precipitation occurs in May.
Seattle:
* July is the average warmest month.
* The highest recorded temperature was 96°F in 1991.
* On average, the coolest month is January.
* The lowest recorded temperature was 11°F in 1989.
* The maximum average precipitation occurs in November.
Another day is gone and now I'm getting to the last steps towards my move. It is set that I'll be moving on Thursday, and all my stuff are going in the van for moving on Wednesday. This means that this weekend I'll spend organizing and listing what I'm taking, what is going to storage until I find an apartment, and what is going to my temporary house. I have to start moving my things out of the office too, and bringing them home.
There are lots of bureaucratic things I have to solve too! I have to transfer my car to my roommate, car insurance, maybe pass by the apartment office and tell them that I'm leaving, close by savings account (I can't close my checking account yet, because I'm getting paid for this month by the end of it - I'll have to send a letter asking to close my account later)... I have also to find officers for the Brandeis/Hillel Club, so that I get my reimbursement for buying the Sukkah. I have to send the information about being the Jewish representative for the Interfaith Council to the only person that is left that could do it (although I'm sure he will do a terrible job).
Oh, and I have to talk about my great party, right? The one I have been working to get people to go, I have called a lot of people to confirm that they were going to go... Well, how many people there were? 3.5 (one arrived 30 minutes late and left 15 minutes after it)! These are the things that always made me depressed about being the president of the club. You work a lot, get everything ready and then people just think that it's too much work for them to move to the library lawn and have a free dinner (very good food, by the way). It's just plain sad.
Finally, I have to talk a little about the US vice president debate. I haven't watched it! But I went after some information about it and I found three interesting blogs on CNN: Carlson (the Republican), Bengala (the Democrat) and Klein (the person having fun with the debate, and not with politics). The interesting thing is that, except from some small things in common, it really looks like they are talking about completely different debates! Each catches a different detail. I'm probably being biased here, but I think that Carlson was the one that is the most forcefully biased, seeing errors where there were none, and agreeing with points that just didn't make sense at all (from Dick Cheney, of course). But my conclusion, after not watching the debate, is that nothing really was gained from it. Both made lots of silly mistakes, and didn't quite answer any of the most interesting questions. Oh, well, debates are always like that, aren't they?
Monday, October 04, 2004
Two things before I go back home to finish building my shopping list for the party tomorrow:
1) Have you heard R.E.M.'s new album, Around the Sun? Well, I have on Myspace and I wasn't too impressed with it so far. I know that sometimes R.E.M. albums require you to listen to them more than once to enjoy it, but it was a little repetitive in my opinion.
2) They are on tour again! And will be passing by Seattle on November 19 and 20! It's good to move to a city that is bigger and more important! Tickets cost from $40-$75. And you can also buy parking online for $8!
Oh, by the way, just for one person to which this information might make some sense, do you know who is playing there on the following day (November 21)? Check it out! Hehehe...
I posted and forgot what I really wanted to write about... On the email that the birthday person sent me, she had the following message in the bottom:
"I'm a beloved daughter ,because Jesus gave me salvation !!!"
Ignoring the misplacements of commas and additions of spaces where they shouldn't be added, the strongly Christian message, and going only to the content of the phrase, does it make sense to you? I don't know if my ability to understand English is bad (the email actually had the same message in Portuguese too, but that's a minor detail), but the line of thought of this phrase just didn't make sense to me.
What is the relationship between being a beloved daughter and being saved? I would understand if you consider Jesus your "father" (in the spiritual sense) and say that because you are beloved, you got salvation from your "father". But this phrase is the other way around. You are beloved because you are saved, as if people can't love you if you are not saved. And if you are saved, your parents have to love you?
As I said, it must be just my inability to interpret the message... Can anybody help me?
Why things just don't simplify, instead of getting more and more complicated each day? Sorry for not posting yesterday. Life was just a little strange, trying to work at home because I didn't have my lab key... My roommate had a big meeting in the living room during the whole afternoon (he actually asked me if it was ok with me, but didn't specify that 10 people were going to be involved. He said: "I have to work on the props for J-Night in the living room. Is there any problem with you?" Well, him working on things, cutting paper, is not a problem with me, but 10 people was a problem with me! Especially because I was having lunch when all these people started showing up...).
Anyway, I'm really not angry at him about that, I'm just angry at myself for not asking for details about this "work". I learned, though! And I was even able to work some and almost get a good part of my research headache done with. Today I have started phase II.
But the thing that complicated my life most this week is that a friend was going to have her birthday party on Friday, but suddenly today she changed it for Wednesday! Problem: I had already organized a dinner with my friends in the lab for Wednesday! I can't cancel it right now... What will happen is that I'll have to go to the dinner with the lab people and then go to this friend's house for dessert. Providing that I'll have a car for that, because I remember my roommate has lots of other plans for his Wednesday. But I can always ask for a ride... It shouldn't be a problem.
Now I'll go back to work, and back to waiting for the relocation people to call me. If I don't get any message from them until around 7 pm, I'll have to send an email to the recruiter and ask what is going on, if everything is still alright. It would be really nice if I knew when I am going to move as soon as possible!
Just for an useful thing, check bugmenot.com. It is a nice website that provides you with logins and passwords for websites that require free registration to access their content. The idea behind it is that you can access it without giving your email to the company, decreasing your chance of getting spam. If you are already registered to some websites, you can give to bugmenot.com your username and password for other people to use it. Clever!
Saturday, October 02, 2004
Sometimes it is fun to read some very biased news, but on the opposite side that mainstream US media is. One good example of a source for these kinds of news is Reason. They have interesting articles such as Miami Vices: Lessons from the presidential debate that points out that there are some "strange" republicans that still think that Bush won the debate, although all 3 polls show that for the public that watched it thought he didn't. The interesting conclusion of the article is that if you really want to know who should win the debate, you should watch it on mute and just analyze the reactions. This reminds me that I've read an article on BBC with the analysis of the body language of the debate done by a body language specialist (sorry, I couldn't find the link). What is a body language specialist? How does a person specialize on this?
Oh, well, not that these debates are going to change anything. Unfortunately Bush will remain in power and people will give him 4 more years to fix the trouble that happened during the last 3 1/2 years. I actually don't think that he can do much wrong, besides invading Iran, North Korea, and whoever else he wants to, in order to keep the military people busy, and give jobs to people (military ones - but, hey, it's easy and people feel good about themselves because they are "defending their country"). The US economy always go up and down. The problem is just too big for any government to be able to really control it.
Oh, well, back to my reality here, I woke up early this morning to go and look for my lab key that fell on the library lawn yesterday. After about 30 minutes looking around, I just gave up and went to the office to work on what I could there. Now I'm back home finishing preparing lunch (I know it's almost 3:30 pm, but I just was having fun in the office, what can I do?). Then the rest of the day I'll work here at home, hoping that my roommate will stay away from home the whole day today.
By the way, it was COLD this morning. Something like 43F (6C), feels like 36F (2C)!
