Bonjourno principessa!

Nathan Myhrvold, author of Moderist Cuisine, visits Google

2011-04-19T13:35:00.000-07:00

The following are my notes from a presentation and Q&A with Nathan Myhrvold, author of Moderist Cuisine.

Who's the book for? People passionate and curious about food

Made the decision to make the book 2 years ago - no ipad then.
Chose to use very high quality: stochastic printing
Photography was used to illustrate concepts that people otherwise wouldn't understand
Use cutaways to illustrate what's going on inside a cooking vessel that we can’t see

One of the volumes is about coffee and wine
Best thing to do to young red wines: hyper decanting. Pour into blender, hit frappe, 30 sec. Makes younger red wines more drinkable. "The other reason to do it is because it freaks wine people out SO MUCH"

1500 recipes in the set, 50% can be done at home; With special equipment, 75%
The rest requires liquid nitrogen, etc. Can do at home but it requires effort

Photography philosophy: Want to provide a view of food they've never seen before
The team believed If they did the food right, shouldn't have a stylist coming and telling them how to fake it.

About the cutaway photography:
It was real, not photoshopped. They cut equipment in half. "We have 2 halves of one of the best kitchens in the world"
Had to be willing to make a mess
Photography motto: "It only has to look good for 1/1000th of a second"
Wok photo was especially difficult: Cut ⅓ off of wok, oil kept catching fire

Also had a video camera HD at 6200 fps
One video: Water balloon popped with a pin. The tension on the balloon pulls it off the water faster than the water drops. Wile E. Coyote-like (water stays in the air)
Another video: Recipe for ballistics gelatin in the book.
Popcorn video: Water expands by a factor of 1600

The project started as an outline for a 600 page book.
Lots of techniques, no good place to learn. Wanted one definitive place to learn about modern cooking techniques.

Plans on publishing more?
A reader once said to him re: number of copies: "your publisher is an idiot.” He responded: “I'm the publisher"
It's the first 2400 page cookbook

Sold the 6000 before they even shipped.
Ordered 25000 more.

Audience questions:
Favorite restaurant? Meal?
El Bulli

Talk more about barbecue temperature stall:
On Google [barbecue stall] vs [barbecue stall temperature] has vastly different results
“What the hell is the stall?”
Most of the community claimed the stall in temperature rise was due to collagen in the meat being converted into gelatin (making touch meat tender)
In reality, there was not enough energy in the reaction that it could be
In fact, it was evaporation of water, like evaporative cooling.
To prove it was evaporation, they conducted an experiment where one brisket was sealed in bag and put in convection oven.
Uncovered one stalled for 2.5 hours and went up; covered one, no stall.

While at Microsoft, had to convince Bill Gates to give him leave to go to culinary school, but couldn’t get into culinary school without restaurant experience. So worked at a restaurant once a week.

In France, a chef huffily walked up to him and said “you know a duck like a Frenchman!”
"I boned a lot of ducks...I wouldn’t admit that elsewhere”

What are top 3 things average cook does wrong?
“Wrong” is hard.
Best tip: If making omelets or scrambled eggs, throw 1 egg white away to improve texture. Cook at extremely low heat (water bath, steam).

What about coffee tips?
There's a large coffee community.
Coffee is mostly about attention to detail, like temperature control
Pressure profiling - allows you to determine pressure of espresso
Best tip: For regular coffee- aeropress. It's like a super soaker for coffee cup. 175 deg. Available on Amazon.

How did you select your coauthors and what are they doing now?
"If I hadn't written software, I never would've written this book....The best software isn't written by a single person”
Chef at Fat Duck. He had understood science.
Scientific American editor

All photos were taking by him and assistant
Most of the people who worked on the book still work for him. Promoting book, figuring out what to do next.

The book’s kitchen is in a space that used to be a Harley Davidson service area. They still get people coming to get their bikes serviced.

How did this book on the art of cooking change the science of cooking?
Engineering underlies art. This book should empower chefs.
Lots of time describing cooking as art in book.
Parallels between modernism in art and cooking.
Cooking is an art. It's about engaging us through our emotions.
Like architecture - most buildings are pretty dull, but they're necessary.

Nutrition?
There's a chapter on food and health. Nutrition not covered completely. Tried to tackle good for you and not good for you food. Food is about energy.

The spectrum of heat application
Most traditional applications are very hot - fire
Most food is mostly water. Can't make food higher than boiling point of water until it's dried out
Grilling is cooking with infrared. Gas flame is a poor way to do it, which is why they have a metal grill to reflect infrared

Shoutout to Padmapper

2009-09-25T11:46:00.000-07:00

Padmapper was really useful when we were apartment hunting. It takes Craigslist apartment postings and puts them on a map, allows you to filter by things like pets, # of rooms, etc. While it can't accurately capture everything, it was still my go-to tool - much easier than using Craigslist itself!

Sharing any page in Google Reader

2009-05-07T14:04:00.000-07:00

Several people have asked me about this, so I'll share it here.

I use a bookmarklet to share any webpage on Google Reader (that is, things I am not subscribed to). I got this bookmarklet from Reader, but I am no longer able to find it. It still works, so I might as well share.

Just drag this link Note in Reader to your bookmarks bar. It should look like any other bookmark.

Now, whenever you're on a page you want to share, just...
1. Highlight a snippet of the page that you'd like your friends to see in Reader.
2. Click the "Note in Reader" bookmarklet
3. A little popup will appear. Notice the highlighted text from [1.] becomes your snippet. You can also add your own comments and then post for all your Reader friends to see.

Haven't updated!

2009-05-04T11:47:00.000-07:00

Whoa, I haven't updated in forever! I'll try to get on that. There's lots of exciting and not so exciting stuff going on. I had another knee surgery and I'm planning on going to Japan this summer. Further updates to come!

Embarassed walrus

2008-12-04T18:47:00.000-08:00

From my window

2008-09-11T21:13:00.000-07:00

I can see the 9/11 light beams from my window

Chaitanya's nursery 'hood

2008-09-10T17:31:00.000-07:00

I'm in NYC with Chaitanya and Bobby. We are running around Chelsea near the office and Chaitanya realizes we're a few blocks from his childhood home. We've just passed his old nursery.

Here's a pic of him in front of the old apartment.

NOLA

2008-08-22T19:01:00.001-07:00

Honey the pit bull

2008-08-18T13:47:00.000-07:00

Here's the dog i'm watching. She's a cutie!

Plastic surgery video blog

2008-08-14T16:00:00.000-07:00

My friend Dave had plastic surgery recently and he's video blogging about the experience and his recovery.

You can visit his profile page to following along during his recovery process, if you're interested.

wienermobile

2008-07-15T12:14:00.000-07:00

Oh I wish I were an oscar mayer wiener...

New blog

2008-06-10T13:14:00.000-07:00

John and I started a new blog to keep notes about wine, beer, and food. We've been taking a bunch of wine and cheese classes together (and he took beer classes on his own). I realized that a problem I have with learning about wine is that I never remember what I tasted and whether or not I liked it. By maintaining this blog, I'm hoping that over time, I'll be able to see a difference in the way I talk about wines (and food) as evidence of my developing palate and increased knowledge. We'll see.

Please check out our blog: Artichokes to Zinfandels

Cutie under my desk

2008-05-27T17:00:00.001-07:00

Condi Rice just walked by

2008-05-22T13:06:00.000-07:00

Just another day at the goog

Oh Google

2008-05-15T00:00:00.000-07:00

Someone showing off their ride for Bike to Work Day

Surgery pictures

2008-05-14T16:42:00.000-07:00

I finally scanned pictures from my surgery. I understand that not everyone enjoys looking at such things, so if you're interested check them out here

----------------
Now playing: Maroon 5 - If I Never See Your Face Again
via FoxyTunes

Biggest strawberry...ever.

2008-05-14T13:15:00.000-07:00

This strawberry is the size of a medium plum. Next to it is what I would normally describe as a 'big' strawberry. I even put a quarter in the pic so you can see the relative sizes.

Edit: I'm kinda disappointed that I ate the humongous strawberry because this picture really doesn't do it justice.

Vacation time!

2008-04-19T11:26:00.001-07:00

I'm going to leave for my vacation at some point today. John and I are going to drive from here to Coeur D'Alene, ID stopping in Napa, Portland, Seattle, and Spokane. Here's the plan in case you're interested:

Sunday
Wine and cheese class at Artesa Winery and lots of other fun wine tastings throughout Napa. We're hoping to hit ZD Wines, Ceja Vineyards, and Sterling Vineyards. Or we might head up to Sierra Nevada Brewery if we can get to the Sundial Bridge before sundown.

Monday
As we make our way up to Portland, we're going to visit the Tillamook Cheese Factory and possibly some sanddunes for sandboarding (not me, I'm injured). In Portland, we have several breweries we hope to visit plus Voodoo Donuts, Powell's Bookstore, and more.

Tuesday and Wednesday
By this time, we'll be in Seattle. I love Seattle so we'll be busy visiting lots of stuff. I've never been to the Space Needle but we're also going to visit my old favorites like the Seattle Public Library, Pike Place Market, and Bleu Bistro. I don't think I can handle the underground tour again, but maybe I'll make John do it on his own. If we venture outside of Seattle we're going to try to make the Boeing Factory Tour.

Thursday
We're going to leave Seattle and head east toward Spokane. Ideally, we'll be there in time to have lunch with my Grandpa. Then, off to Coeur D'Alene Resort for dinner with my Grandma and her side of the family.

Friday
Fun resort activities and/or driving up to Bonners Ferry, ID where my Grandma lives.

Saturday and beyond
John and I don't really have a plan for getting home. We figure we'll take the most direct route and play it by ear.

View Larger Map

I wish I could've gone to Carnival, but I can't fly (hence the roadtrip). I'll try to do lots of mobile blogging to keep you updated.

Politics and donating

2008-04-03T19:47:00.001-07:00

Until recently, I never truly got why people would donate money to a particular candidate. What does my money matter? I could never donate enough to really make a difference. Don't they have enough? Etc, etc. (Yet I don't feel that way about voting.) I just donated to the Barack Obama campaign fund. Honestly, I'm concerned about the country but I feel there's little I can do. The whole system seems to have screwed itself into the mess we're in. I hope my money helps.

Surgery pics

2008-03-21T14:18:00.001-07:00

Here are some pics from surgery...

This is me before surgery a week ago:

This is my knee today. You can see the 2 smaller incisions where they had the arthroscopic camera and tools in me. The larger incision is where they had to open me up to repair the cartilage because the arthroscopic approach wasn't going to work. Also, if you look carefully you can see the "yes" they wrote on my leg to tell my surgeon to work on this leg and not the other one.

Surgery

2008-03-17T16:24:00.001-07:00

So I got surgery on Thursday. I still have to scan the photos and upload them but hopefully they'll be here soon.

The background:
I've had bad knees my entire life. My kneecaps are very loose and slide out of place. Occasionally, they completely dislocate and cause me to fall for (seemingly) no reason. The question I most often get are "do you have to pop them back in?" and the answer to that is no, they go back in by themselves. The whole thing is very painful though. Over the years, my knees have gotten worse and worse. The frequent dislocations have caused the cartilage on my kneecaps to wear away and become arthritic (pics to come!). It prevents me from running, playing sports, and even little things like hiking on uneven surfaces. My knees just feel so unstable that I get very nervous doing anything besides walking.

I have been seeing an orthopedic surgeon since the beginning of the year to try to resolve this problem. We decided that the best course of action was for me to get surgery on both knees. It turns out I have two problems: 1) my kneecaps are too high and 2) the ligaments that are supposed to hold my kneecaps in place are off balance; that is, the inner ligament is too loose and the outer ligament is too tight, thus the sliding kneecaps. The surgery we were planning was fairly straightforward (from my perspective). My doctor was simply going to loosen up the tight ligament and tighten up the loose one. (At one point, the use of cadaver ligaments was even thrown into the mix - how exciting! But then my doc thinks we can just use my existing ones). That was scheduled for April - as soon as I got back from the CHI conference in Florence.

What happened:
I was in NYC on business the week of February 11th and I had another episode. I was walking through the lobby of my horrible hotel, the Paramount Hotel, and I my kneecap popped. Unfortunately, this one was not like all of the others I've had. I tried to get up and walk it off like I usually do, but I was unable to put any weight on it. I went to the hospital the next day and had to get crutches.

Fast forward four weeks and I'm in surgery at Stanford Hospital to remove a piece of cartilage that got knocked off when my knee dislocated. It was floating around in my knee causing problems since that day in NYC. I imagine things were a little more complicated than my doctor expected since I was in surgery for longer than scheduled. Since the cartilage was in there floating around for so long, it swelled a bit and had to be shaved down before it could be screwed back into place with bio-dissolvable screws. I was put under through general anesthesia - something I am not excited about experiencing again as my body did not take it well this time. My doctor was unable to perform the other surgery (tightening and loosening the ligaments) at the same time due to the nature of recovery. I have a special machine (a continuous passive motion machine) that moves my leg between extended and flexed very slowly. This is necessary for recovery so I'm able to bend it once it's healed. I have to be in the machine for 6-8 hours a day. I'm also attached to a special cooler for 5 days. It's really like a fancy ice pack that has ice water running through it for constant cooling.

The State of California now officially recognizes me as handicapped (woo good parking). I cannot drive for at least 4 weeks. I can't put weight on my leg for 8 weeks, which means I'm using crutches that entire time. I cannot fly due to increased risk of blot clots so I had to cancel business-paid trips to Switzerland and Italy.

More interesting Peru news

2008-03-06T11:39:00.000-08:00

There was an article on BBC News's website about Peru being chastised for allowing people to use coca leaves. Here's a snippet

The International Narcotics Control Board released an annual report on Wednesday that reminded the two governments that use and possession of coca leaves, the main ingredient in cocaine, were limited to medical and scientific purposes.

The two countries should "abolish or prohibit activities... such as coca leaf chewing and the manufacture of coca tea", the report said.

People in the Andes use coca leaves to alleviate hunger and tiredness, for medicinal purposes and in religious rituals.

I understand both sides, but having gone to Peru and having drank coca tea to alleviate elevation sickness, I think the Peruvians do have a legitimate cultural reason for their position. Caryl even bought coca tea to take home (remember? At that crazy grocery store where the women were serving samples of vodka and tang? I was so excited about the tang! It was incredible to find new flavors!)

Fwd: knees

2008-02-14T12:43:00.001-08:00

My knee is huge!

snow

2008-02-12T21:55:00.001-08:00

If you look carefully behind where it says 'cold' and 'snow' you can see the reflection of my brand new crutches. Stupid new york.

Theresa Sobczak

Cold in NYC

2008-02-11T10:36:00.001-08:00

My hotel in NYC shows me the weather by the elevator. Cold and cloudy is an understatement

Theresa Sobczak

Kimchi

2008-01-31T11:12:00.001-08:00

If you care to know more about kimchi, here's an article that was in the SF Chronicle

Finally, a purpose for science

2008-01-30T10:55:00.000-08:00

This article talks about a scientist who wanted to test the idea of "double dipping" - that is, whether or not a significant number of germs are transferred when people dip, eat and dip again. It turns out fewer germs are transferred than expected - and thicker dips are better than runny ones because more of the dip sticks to the chip and doesn't run your germs back into the bowl :)

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/30/dining/30curious.html?ex=1359435600&en=4685daa806b50ab5&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

Happy New Year

2008-01-19T16:01:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! This is my first post of 2008 and I'm happy to report that my resolution of exercising more is going fairly well. Actually, prior to 2008 I never exercised. I learned to use the gym/machines at work and I'm keeping track of my weight.

Other exciting 2008 news: I'm probably going to get knee surgery this year. The doctors tell me that my kneecaps are naturally too high on my legs plus I have very loose ligaments on one side which is what causes my knees to pop out. In order to solve this problem, they're going to cut into me and loosen up one side of my knee and tighten the other to balance out the forces on my kneecap. I have xrays and MRIs I can share soon.

In April, assuming my knee surgery doesn't prevent me, I'm going to be in Florence, Italy for CHI, a conference for human-computer interaction. I'm supposed to do research all over the world this year, but if my knee surgery conflicts I may have to postpone it so I can do the necessary traveling.

The week of February 11, I'll be in NYC.

Carnival is in April, Liz is getting married in September, and hopefully I'll get to go visit Caryl soon.

Overall, it's going to be a busy year!

Sunrise at PHL

2007-12-28T04:32:00.001-08:00

Theresa Sobczak

Web lost and found for gloves

2007-12-25T22:50:00.001-08:00

This link is terribly long because i'm posting from my phone. It's an article about a website called onecoldhand.com founded by a CMU student to reconnect people with their lost gloves.

http://www.google.com/gwt/n?u=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.google.com%2Fnews%2Furl%3Fsa%3DT%26ct%3Dus%2F5-1-0%26fd%3DR%26url%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fseattletimes.nwsource.com%2Fhtml%2Fnationworld%2F2004088548_gloves23.html%26cid%3D1125279884%26ei%3DWfdxR6vRCp6arAO89PH9Dg

updates

2007-12-07T15:06:00.001-08:00

I'm waiting at my doctor's office waiting to be called so I figured i'd update you on what's going on. I'm here at the doctor to see if I really need knee surgery. If you didn't already know I have really bad knees and my kneecaps slip around a lot. I'm hoping to get that fixed now that I have the means/time to do so.
Last week I was in NYC on business. I got to see Dan and Chaitanya from the Phoenix office. My boyfriend John also traveled with me. We were there over a weekend so I went to see my family. A mind-blowing even occurred: my mom said to John 'give me a hug' when she was greeting us. It was very unlike anything I've ever seen my mom do with a current boyfriend.
Tonight is the google holiday party, which should be fun. I'm being cheap and I didn't buy a new dress or anything

Theresa Sobczak

Christmas cards

2007-11-25T17:08:00.000-08:00

This year I decided I wanted Christmas cards that would be pretty and spread holiday cheer but also benefit a good cause. While surfin' the 'net I found this website: Cards that Give. There's a gallery of cards so you can choose by design or select a charity. It was a much bigger list than I could find anywhere else, but I don't know how comprehensive it is. I only wish there was a way of finding local charities...but I ended up going with some UNICEF cards anyway.

Celebrity filled work day

2007-11-20T13:11:00.001-08:00

As I was walking back to my desk from a talk with Anthony Bourdain I was going to the cafe to get a cookie and lots of Googlers were standing around in groups and kinda looking around in awe. It turns out Goldie Hawn and her long-time boyfriend were here. Someone I don't know just turns to me and says in a stunned voice "...that's Goldie Hawn..." and I say "yeah. wow."

2007-11-14T15:51:00.000-08:00

Theresa Sobczak

Halloween

2007-10-30T13:44:00.000-07:00

A billion pumpkins appeared outside my office

Theresa Sobczak

Fantasy football hilariousness

2007-09-27T15:17:00.000-07:00

My dad's team (Homers) is taking on the the Elks. I'd be intimidated if I were the Elks

Machu Picchu

2007-09-17T11:01:00.000-07:00

I got to work this morning and found this article:
Yale to return Peruvian artifacts

I do remember being rather disappointed in Yale when our tour guide in Peru told us that they had the artifacts and refused to give them back. I'm glad that they seemed to have worked things out. Hopefully I'll get to see the exhibit before it returns to Cuzco. If not, I guess I'll just have to take another trip there. :)

Crushes, sororities days, toilets, and hilarity

2007-08-30T15:26:00.000-07:00

So yesterday I was in the bathroom IMing my friend on my phone. As I did that I was reminded of happy times from my days as a sorority girl (so long ago). Basically, Caryl had this huge crush on this guy. She was being such a girl about it. She had to pee really badly but was talking to crush boy on AIM and didn't want to miss anything. I think I was in my room and I heard her shouting about how she didn't know what to do. The eventual solution: she took her laptop to the bathroom with her while she peed.

Hilarity!

Pink Floyd album art

2007-08-29T23:47:00.001-07:00

Have you ever seen this poster?

Have you ever tried to figure out which album covers are on that thing? Oh yeah, it's easy: Dark Side of the Moon, The Wall, Wish You Were Here...maybe you know those. But what about the rest? I don't actually own any albums with cover art, but it was REALLY hard to figure out which (besides Animals and Atom Heart Mother) are there. Seriously internet...

(It's Relics)

Not a fan of London

2007-08-04T04:18:00.000-07:00

I feel like I shouldn't judge London because I really didn't get out to see much of the city. All I did was work, sit in my hotel, and go out to eat. None of those was particularly fun like it was in Madrid. Madrid was a beautiful city that I look forward to returning to someday. London I could take or leave. Everything is super expensive here! Not only is everything super expensive - it's not even that good! I'm willing to pay lots of money for good food. It makes me angry to pay lots of money for really shitty food. London was all right as a city, but I didn't find anything really exciting or interesting about it. It's cute, I guess. Basically, I'm not impressed. And I'm happy to going back to Mountain View today.

Food!

2007-08-02T11:20:00.000-07:00

All I can think about is food. I haven't had tasty food in a long time it feels like. I can't wait to get back to the States and chow down on some mexican. I'll be so happy!
So it turns out I someone contracted (is that the right word for this) salmonella in Madrid. I guess it's a lot worse than I thought both from having experienced its fury on my body and by having everyone reacting in a very very shocked way when they hear that's what I had. I have no idea how I got it, just that it was miserable.
Now that I can finally eat again I really really want something tasty in my mouth. And, just as a piece of advice, when you want something tasty in your mouth, do not send your mouth to London. I'm sure there's good food around here somewhere, but (shhh, don't tell anyone I said this) even the Google cafe isn't all that good here(!!!!). I don't think it's that the food is bad, I think it's just that British taste is bad. I've found few people who disagree with me on that, so far.

¡Buenos Dias Princesa!

2007-07-23T08:40:00.000-07:00

Last night I was flipping through my Spanish tv for the first time and I found Life is Beautiful (one of my favorites) en español. I found it funny that Guido's phrase for his wife had been turned into "¡Buenos Dias Princesa!" I don't know what I expected, but I thought it was funny. I even considered temporarily changing the name of my blog while I'm in Spain.

Armpits

2007-07-23T08:31:00.000-07:00

So when I was taking Spanish in high school my friends and I once discovered a picture of a female with a raised arm pointing to something in the distance. This young woman had very hairy armpits. Our Spanish teacher explained that women don't groom their armpit hair in Spain. This was very shocking news.

Since I've arrived in Madrid, I've been carefully peeking at women's armpits to see if my Spanish teacher was right. So far I have only encountered 1 pair of hairy armpits. However, it seems that Spanish women keep their armpits pretty well hidden. I've also only seen one pair of shaven armpits.

I'll report back with the conclusion to this study at a later time.

(and in case you were wondering, yes, I do occasionally feel weird for trying to spot armpit hair on the streets and the metro of Madrid)

Day 2 in Madrid

2007-07-20T12:02:00.000-07:00

So this morning I went into the office and finally found the kitchen. It's not that hard to find, it's just that I wasn't looking before. It was awesome. Apparently Spaniards have a thing for orange juice because there was a fantastic orange juicer in the kitchen. It looked like this:

So a coworker explained to me that Spaniards consider the country to be the orange country and they drink oj all day, not just ask breakfast. It's even considered a dessert!
Did you know they make white chocolate Toblerone? Because I didn't until I saw it in the kitchen at work today.

Another observation about Madrid: there are no ads on the metro trains. Where there are normally ads there are just blank spots or big maps of all of the other metro lines.

Subway cheese

2007-07-19T07:28:00.001-07:00

While browsin the net and trying to stay awake at what Madrid wants me to think is 4:30 PM, I found this cartoon

I think you should listen to this cartoon's message, as it's a powerful one.
By the way, that was found on The Consumerist

Welcome to Madrid

2007-07-19T05:45:00.000-07:00

There are a few things I've learned about Madrid in the short time I've been here (5 hours).
- I thought they don't believe in street signs, but it's just that they don't believe in street signs on the STREET. They're instead high up on buildings.
- Buying metro tickets is very confusing. I still don't know why I had to buy a suplemento. Do you? Exactly. That's as much as I know.
- The dollar sucks against the Euro!

About my hotel:
- There's no iron! I have to pay someone 5 euros to iron a shirt for me. I think it'll be cheaper for me to just purchase an iron and throw it away at the end of the trip. I'll let you know what I end up doing.
- I found a nice little window in my bathtub. Story and annotated pictures to come later.
- My room includes one of the very first hair driers ever produced. I attempted to use it and decided that it would take approximately 35 minutes to dry my hair using it. (again, a picture to come)
- I think I have a bidet in my bathroom but I'm scared of it because I don't know how to use it.

Kwik-e-mart

2007-07-17T19:21:00.000-07:00

So in case you haven't heard, some 7-elevens were converted into
Kwik-e-marts to promote the Simpsons movie. One of them happens to be
in my town, so check it out. My favorite parts were the old dude in the
freezer (trying to freeze himself into the future), the pink sprinkled
donuts, and the cashier saying "thank you, come again"

Advice needed!

2007-06-11T23:52:00.001-07:00

My little bro is graduating from high school. I can't believe he's old enough to be graduating from high school, but that's beside the point. Do you have any idea what a big sister is supposed to get her little bro for graduating? Right now it looks like he'll be commuting to Penn State Berks from Collegeville (about a 45 minute drive) but he might also rent an apartment. If he were moving out of the house I'd definitely get him some badass college-apartment stuff - like a TV. But if he's not moving out of the house he doesn't need a tv so I have no idea what to do. I'd give him cash, but I'd rather he did something useful with it than spend it on chicks.

Party cups

2007-06-10T17:13:00.000-07:00

I have a recommendation for you if you're going to be holding a party soon: http://etch-it.com/index.html. They're pretty awesome. Here's an illustration:

Basically, these cups have this stuff that you can scratch with your fingernail to write on. It's very entertaining when you've had several beverages and you don't waste cups. :) They were a big hit at this party I went to in San Francisco, so I want you to be a cool host/hostess too. Don't forget to invite me!

In NYC

2007-05-21T03:17:00.000-07:00

So this week (5/20-5/25) I will be in NYC. I'm here on business but I definitely want to hang out with anyone who's around. I'm really into eating amazing food, so if you'd be willing to hang out with me I might make you have dinner with me. :) I wonder when restaurant week is...probably not til June. Damn. Oh well, come eat delicious food with me anyway.

Vegas pig

2007-05-18T13:02:00.000-07:00

I'm in Vegas at this Harley Davidson themed cafe. I found this pig
holding condiments on my table

Toilet art

2007-04-28T20:09:00.000-07:00

So I saw this piece of art in the stall of a bar bathroom, thought it
was a little weird

Easter

2007-04-08T19:54:00.000-07:00

I feel like a bad Christian girl. Today I had a talk with my boyfriend about the importance of this day to Christians. The Christ rising from the dead is pretty much the entire event that Christianity is based on. Then after this conversation, we headed over to our friends' house for an Easter Egg Hunt. An easter egg jello shot hunt. While I can't deny that it was delicious, I feel a little guilty for celebrating this day by gratuitously consuming alcohol. At the same time, how is it any different from the way children celebrate Easter? They hunt for eggs and indulge in candy, so is it wrong for me to hunt for eggs in order to indulge in alcohol? Probably...because I know better.

I miss the struggle...almost

2007-04-02T16:21:00.001-07:00

I think I found life more satisfying in college even though it was a much bigger struggle. I felt like I was getting something done, making a difference, and going somewhere. It's not that I don't feel that way now but I think it's different. It's just being in the real world I suppose. There aren't anymore compulsory milestones. In college I was working toward graduating and getting a fantastic job in 4 years. Now I have that, I achieved that. What is the milestone now? There's no 4 year mark to look forward to.

Gift from Beijing

2007-04-02T11:07:00.000-07:00

One of my coworkers in the Beijing office just dropped by to introduce
herself and give me this awesome gift. It's a paper cutout. Apparently
these artists use knives to cut out these designs. Mine is full of fish
which signifies 'more' as in more luck, more money, more food, more
people, etc. My cubemate choose a peacock design which signifies
beauty. :)

Bacon is a vegetable

2007-03-28T22:56:00.000-07:00

I recently found a great reason to embrace my vegetarianism...

Bei

2007-03-28T22:52:00.000-07:00

Like I said before...Bei was in town and he did something crazy. This
is a photo of his half shaved head which he raffled off to raise money
for an ill professor. His boss at Disney won the raffle and got to do
the honors

Update

2007-03-28T22:46:00.000-07:00

I've been bad and I haven't been updating as much as I should. Let's see...tonight i was busy making plans for when I head back to CMU for Carnival. Anyone else going to Carnival?

Bei is in town...

2007-03-07T22:07:00.000-08:00

At the moment I am watching Bei get his head shaved by his boss at an
ETC event in San Francisco. Oh, Bei

Seeds growing out of my strawberry

2007-02-21T10:17:00.000-08:00

Do you see this? The seeds under the stem? Am I crazy? Have I just
never noticed this before? It's kinda weirding me out....like those
tentacle things on the underside of ferns.

Wax

2007-02-19T01:20:00.000-08:00

Dude(ttes). I waxed a guy's chest on Friday. It was pretty badass. It's still all patchy. I will attach photos.

I wrote a lot more but he was bitching about it so now there's no info.

It's coming

2007-02-12T12:46:00.001-08:00

I don't know if anyone's paying attention, but I am. A new blog post is
coming. I realize it's been a while and lots of stuff has happened.
So, just in time for Valentine's Day I have 'new blog post' on my to do
list.

Also on my to do list: go see Dave Chapelle tonight, buy plane tickets
to GS, Carnival, and Michael's graduation, buy tp, saline solution,
shoes, and new jeans, mail my taxes, clean my room....

Boo Bears.

2007-01-21T15:10:00.001-08:00

Boo.

Storyless

2007-01-18T01:20:00.000-08:00

I have nothing interesting to say. I really don't. I've been on the phone with people recently asking how my life is going and I truly have nothing more to say than "ok." Is it really that nothing is going on? No. Maybe I just don't have enough time to tell you about the endless excitement of my life. Maybe.

An interesting article...will put this to use soon

2007-01-16T15:53:00.001-08:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/25/fashion/25love.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5087%0A&em&en=a5fb740d3765b8e1&ex=1169096400

2007-01-11T17:35:00.000-08:00

I'm having scary daydreams.

Paying it forward

2006-12-29T17:21:00.000-08:00

So last night I was in New York City with Shawn (guy from Google who also happens to be on vacation on the east coast) and his friend Josh. Anyway, after a long hard night of trying to keep up with New York and their late bar-closing times (4am!)...we decided to grab some cheap Mexican food. So this was 3 in the morning and we were all at least a bit drunk. The chick working the counter was super nice...even at 3 in the morning. She was so extremely pleasant to every person in the store that we were kinda taken aback. Shawn then told us a story about how when he worked at Dominos this guy once told him that his nice attitude once made his night and that, in turn, made Shawn's life. Shawn wanted to do the same for this woman. Only he expressed it a little differently. He took a $100 bill out of his wallet and looked at it for a little while. He dropped it in their tip jar and we left. I hope they were pleasantly surprised!

Dream that caused me to be late for work

2006-12-19T10:51:00.000-08:00

I had a really crazy dream last night.

The first part I remember is that I was supposed to be getting married to Nik. I was thinking about calling it off because I didn't think it was right to be getting married. Then I saw there was a timer in this room I was in that displayed how long it was til I was supposed to get married - 12 hours. I kinda freaked out and I called Nik on the phone to tell him and I think he knew it was coming. He was mad at me and put me on speakerphone so everyone (his family, including his mom) could hear what I had to say.

The next part of my dream I remember was Steve dropping me off at my house. My Korean grandmother was there for some reason. Steve walked out of my house and she watched him leave because she was very concerned about some Korean thing. Basically, there were a lot of clouds in the sky (which was no good) but she realized Steve would be fine when a balloon floated up into the sky and spread the clouds a little.

The next thing I remember is being home and being forced to take my brother shoe shopping. I was waiting in the car (which was a minivan) and I think i was watching an infomercial...anyway my mom drove by in a truck and I was really unhappy about having to take Michael shoe shopping.

The last thing I remember was that I was hanging out with Steve, this girl Hannah from middle school, and some other guy. We were talking about what we were going to do that night and I was laying on the floor and Steve was laying on the couch above me. Hannah whispers to me that whatever we do we can go cheat on our boyfriends. And I am shocked and tell her I wouldn't do that. Then I look at Steve and get upset and say "I can't anyway...because I don't have a boyfriend"

Weird.

Ooooh Google

2006-12-15T12:11:00.000-08:00

While I was walking around in my pig pjs today I saw this and it makes
me appreciate where I work. But at the same time I wonder why this
person didn't put away their big red ball when they were done playing

Izzle

2006-12-15T10:48:00.000-08:00

So I got an email in a mailing list that read "Happy Fridizzle, my nizzles!" I turn to my friend Sasha and we have a short conversation that goes a little like this:

Me: What's a nizzle?
Sasha: What?
Me: A nizzle
Sasha: In what context?
Me: As in 'Happy Fridizzle, my nizzles' - it's in an email
Sasha: What? Let me see [walks over]
Sasha: Oh, I think that's like 'homies'
Me: But aren't you supposed to add the suffix -izzle to words that already exist?
Sasha: Yeah...
Me: So what word is that?
Sasha: [whispering] I think it's the n-word
Me: oh.
Sasha: You're so innocent.

Perception and decision making

2006-12-14T11:04:00.000-08:00

This is going to be a fairly crude assessment of things (at least academically)...

Rational decision making consists mainly of a few things
1) Perceived risk
2) Perceived benefit
3) Assessed likelihood of various outcomes

Of course there is a LOT more involved than that, but those are the basics. Which is the problem with rational decision making. There's emotion (i.e. fear) that could skew, either positively or negatively, one's view of decision at hand. And yes, there are times when emotion actually leads us to make better decisions than cognition alone, but I'm not getting into that here. There are general biases that most everyone face, my favorite being regret theory. Regret theory is the idea that the regret one might feel by making a decision that results in a negative outcome can have a very strong impact on that decision.

So, it is actually impossible (I think) to assess every aspect of a decision. It's kinda like the idea of traveling back in time and changing something that might set off a chain reaction that changes history; see this Simpsons clip for further info. It's hard to take into account the affect one small decision might have on other aspects of your life that you might never have thought of. In high school when I found myself daydreaming I would catch myself, note whatever it was I was thinking about, and try to trace it back to whatever triggered that thought - just for the fun of it. For example, let's say I found myself imagining various ice cream flavors Ben and Jerry's should try, which was a result of me thinking about weird food combinations, which was a result of me thinking about a sign I saw at 7-11 for slurpee flavor combos, which was a result of me thinking about how I lost my 7-11 receipt, which was a result of the teacher talking about the importance of keeping receipts for tax purposes. From the topic of taxes to Ben and Jerry's...well I don't know where I was going with this. Perhaps I'm trying to say everything is/can be related to everything else. Which is why I believe that it is impossible to assess every aspect of a decision before making it.

Basically, we can't tell the future and what the results of a decision will be. So we have to make decisions based on how likely we perceive various outcomes to be. I'd like to note that i said "perceived" likelihood. Naturally, humans are extremely biased creatures. So, for example some people think that using significant lottery numbers, like birthdays or anniversaries, make them luckier. If you're reading this you no doubt understand that that's not true. However, those people *perceive* their potential outcome to be of greater likelihood, and there's little you could do to convince them otherwise.

Why am I talking about this? To remind myself to be rational and that my perception of the state of things differs greatly from others.

I <3 Firefox 2.0

2006-12-12T11:16:00.000-08:00

Here are my reasons for loving FF 2.0. I'm very dedicated to explaining this to you, so read the whole thing and if you learn something new I think it will improve your life - no joke.

1. More streamlined RSS feedreading experience.
Have you ever wanted to add an RSS feed to your Google Personalized homepage? (In case you don't know, an RSS feed allows you to be able to go somewhere like Personalized homepage and see updates to a blog or news site without visiting that site and checking - huge time saver on the stalker front). Anyway, before it was a long and complicated process that required you to somehow figure out the feed address...basically it was a lot more difficult than it should be. But now with FF 2.0 , you can just click on the feed button in the URL bar...

then you get this and you want to choose Google Reader. I guess you can choose the other ones, but I don't see why you'd want to. :)

Then you get another page, click Add to Personalized Homepage and it appears on Google!

You guys are on my Google Personalized Homepage...so everytime I open my browser I get to stalk you and see if you'd made any updates. Except it's like passive stalking since Google just gives me the info without having to check your blog everyday.

If you're not familiar with Google Personalized Homepage, I don't think I could live without it honestly. It's how I get news, keep up on you guys, and read other blogs as well. It has a bunch of other tools and fun stuff in the directory (labeled "Add stuff"). Check it out if you haven't already.

Back to Firefox...

2. Search query suggestions
Firefox has always had a Google search bar but now it offers query suggestions as I type! Sometimes this is useless, sometimes it's amazing because it prevents me from typing a long query, and sometimes it helps me remember what I'm searching for.

Let's say I'm searching for the Tenacious D movie but I don't remember what it's called (oh no!) All I do is type is whatever I can remember (in this case "Tenacious D and" something). FF offers me suggestions! Woot.

3. General amazingness by saving me time and frustration
Firefox just crashed (which I actually think was Blogger's fault and not FF's) while I was trying to upload these example photos. Yeah, tragedy...but wait! When I opened firefox it asked me if I wanted to restore my session. I did and this whole post was waiting for me even though I hadn't saved it. Thank goodness. You wouldn't have gotten this valuable information if Firefox hadn't been so amazing.

The relationship between emotions and cognition

2006-12-11T22:35:00.000-08:00

I studied this. I should have more insight.

Feel like writing

2006-12-06T00:13:00.000-08:00

I'm writing my Christmas cards...and it's hard to decide who to send them to. I've got my family and Tridelt so far. Hm. I want to send one to you, but I don't have your address. Please give it to me. :) I was thinking of sending cards to Steve's parents...but I don't know his Dad's address. And it's not fair to only send a card to his mom. I also don't know how to address it. Ugh, complications. I also don't want her to think I'm a freak for sending her a card. I also don't know if I should write Merry Christmas. Steve pretty much called me lame when I said happy holidays or something...but perhaps his mom is more sensitive. How am I supposed to know these things? I think I know the answers but I'll ask him just in case.

So the holiday party was fun. I wish I had taken pictures so I could show you the craziness.

Caryl - if you're reading this, what the heck? Do you have a blog anymore? If so, why was I not notified?

Rose

2006-12-05T15:39:00.000-08:00

Today while sitting and reading email I made a silly putty rose. Here
it is if you're interested. :)

By the way, yes, I know I'm lame.

My roommates and I took a seduction quiz...

2006-11-29T14:14:00.000-08:00

So the roomies and I have been talking about layable vs. not layable and our seduction styles. Seduction styles came about as a result of the book The Art of Seduction. Allie Lin first introduced me to this book and I passed its wisdom onto Leah. Anyway, I think the book is a lot wiser than this flash quiz (I do hate the loading times) but here's what I got.

Fancy things in Spokane

2006-11-24T11:44:00.000-08:00

My first-ish house

2006-11-24T10:54:00.000-08:00

This is 2400 University Place in Cheney, WA. It was where I played when
I was a wee one after my parents moved out of married student housing at
Eastern Washington University.

Nice view from a not so nice place

2006-11-24T09:24:00.000-08:00

This is the view of Spokane from my Grandpa's hospital room. He's doing
ok.

Tenacious D

2006-11-21T16:58:00.000-08:00

Crappy photos of the D rockin'

Tenacious D

2006-11-21T16:49:00.000-08:00

Crappy photos of the D rockin'

dress help!

2006-11-19T21:44:00.000-08:00

I'm looking for a dress to wear to the company holiday party. I tried a
few on and here were my two favorite. Any strong feelings?
--wants to dress to impress

Edit: So I've decided against either of these dresses. I'll wear a little black dress and spend my money on accessories.

Oh California

2006-11-19T13:43:00.000-08:00

So here I am...eating outside...in a halter top....in November. Yay
California.

Happy birthday!

2006-11-18T22:27:00.000-08:00

I had a very good birthday.

;) I had forgotten what it was like to blush.

Heard in MV

2006-11-16T01:43:00.000-08:00

So hopefully this will just be a placeholder for a more comprehensive
entry with charts and other comparative evidence between Mountain View
anf Pittsburgh. Anyway, walking back from lunch today I overheard a
conversation during which the following was said: "I just don't
appreciate the inconsistency of the temperature here." Now, to make sure
I wasn't crazy I checked out good ol' weather.com. For the past week,
the temperature has been between 60 and 64 degrees. The november
monthly average is 64 degrees. Upon closer inspection, looking at day
by day averages for this month for many years past, the temperature has
been between 60 and 64 degrees. Hm.
--in bed and still pondering this incident 12 hours later

World Usability Day - woot!

2006-11-14T09:52:00.000-08:00

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/11/world-usability-day.html

Yay!

2006-11-05T20:21:00.000-08:00

Yet another airplane blog entry. Looking out my window, it's like this plane is chasing the sunset.

I had a good trip. I spent Wednesday to today (Sunday) in Pittsburgh for a recruiting trip. I've been dying to go recruit since I got my job. It's kinda like when I would recruit for incoming students, SEO, or anything - I just enjoy sharing my wonderful life with others. That sounds kinda bad. I don't mean that the way it sounds. I just want everyone to be happy.

When I wasn't working, I got to spend time with Steve and sisters. I always love going home (hm! I used the word home to describe tridelt) to my girls. I only wish that my older girls (that's you, if you're reading this and wondering) were there too. I got to meet a bunch of the newbies who are initiating next week, yay! They're super sweet and I was so thrilled to meet them. I also went to the football team's last game of their undefeated season...but I was busy watching the tridelt cheerleaders and making Leah, Sturges, and Rachelle do kicks and stuff by shouting at them. I was telling Andrea that I thought it must be sad to be a CMU cheerleader because you stand there the entire game cheering and saying stuff like "get pumped up" and "make some noise" and no one does. So, in an attempt to be encouraging, whenever any of the tridelts would say such things I would cheer. Apparently this riled up some other fans, so it was doubley effective. woo. Anyway, the girls were all super cute and Andrea and I were like proud moms watching them.

Andrea, Lacey, and I went to dinner at Union Grill last night. It was delish. I then ran into a million people I knew at this party we went to afterwards.

So the question of the weekend was "what's up with you and Steve?" For me, same as always - staying strong and waiting, but with somewhat more hope. I suppose this, like everything, is a learning experience. I still have a lot to work on. While my transition may have been out of necessity, the point is it happened and it's somewhat positive. But I still have a lot of questions I can't ask, requests I can't make, and things I can't say. That's just the way it is for now.

2006-10-25T08:21:00.000-07:00

Waiting for the shuttle

2006-10-25T08:19:00.000-07:00

So here I am waiting for the shuttle. I'm usually not even awake at
8:00 in the morning. Dammit. I prob missed the shuttle I needed to
catch. I don't want to drive all the way into the city during rush
hour. Hmmm. We'l have to see how it goes
--sleepy and cold

First mobile post

2006-10-24T23:44:00.000-07:00

I've decided this is my new thing. Running around and blogging from
where ever and taking photos on location (courtesy of go.blogger.com).
Here's me in bed with my laptop. Obviously I'm not going for efficiency
since my laptop is next to me. It'll get more interesting soon, I
hope.

I hate thinking I see a flashing window out of the corner of my eye.
--in bed

Greys and I are done

2006-10-19T22:37:00.000-07:00

Greys makes me too sad. I look forward to it all week...and it just gets me down again. Good thing I'm happy now.

You know what's good about being single?

2006-10-17T19:34:00.000-07:00

Being single means I can:
Not shave my legs
Eat as much garlic as I want
Stay at work super late without feeling guilty.

:/

Velcro shoes

2006-10-07T21:27:00.000-07:00

Prison Issue 23: Coffee/Sterling Blue

These are my cute new shoes. They have velcro straps.

Two things:
1. I must be a woman - I went shoe shopping to cheer me up.
2. Something must really be wrong if I can't even bother with tying laces anymore.

Contemplatative....

2006-10-07T19:26:00.000-07:00

I just am.

In Seattle

2006-10-07T00:07:00.000-07:00

Hello. I'm in Seattle. I've been missing Grey's but it's ok. I know it's Tivoed at home and I've been keeping myself busy enough that I am able to live without it. that won't stop me for looking for it on the abc website again after I finish writing.

People have lots of advice. It's funny because sometimes you want advice because you truly don't know what to do and need some (any!) direction. Then there are times when you realize that the person giving the advice won't understand enough about the situation to truly take into consideration everything that deserves considering. Sometimes that's good anyway. Sometimes details don't matter and there's a right answer and a wrong answer. I think i take the advice that I want.

My weekend slow dancing in a burning room

2006-10-03T21:20:00.000-07:00

I really wish I could write poems or songs. It would make expressing myself a lot easier. I much prefer to put cryptic lyrics in my profile than to actually say what's going on. I do it because I need to let it out, to scream and shout to anyone who might be listening without actually letting them know what's going on. It's why, when I'm asked, I tell people they're to be interpreted any way the reader would like, but only I really know. That's gotten me in trouble in the past. I don't know how many people actually look over them and wonder what's going on in my head, I think it would be interesting (but more likely disappointing) to find out.

I just realized I feel like Meredith (from Grey's, of course); she knitted a sweater.

It was good seeing my sisters again. I miss them. It's really hard to go from being in a house full of girls who love you unconditionally to driving around California aimlessly and alone. I should be realistic. I consider myself lucky for having the friends I do have in my new home. It just totally sucks being an adult.

It was good seeing Steve again. I miss him. I wish he wasn't having such a hard time with everything. I wish there was something I could do.

Everything does happen for a reason - I know it does. I just wish I knew the reason because waiting is hard.

The next day...
I'm so tired. I'm so so tired of thinking about it and crying over it and reliving everything in my head. I really just want it all to be over. I want to get on with my life. I can't be productive like this. I'm trying to get all of my finances all nice and organized, but I just can't because I can only think about one thing. I don't know why I can't distract myself or allow myself to think about anything else. I don't want to be in this horrible fog of a life anymore, I want to go back to being myself.

Throughout the day people kept asking me how my trip went, so I had to tell them. It went well, it really did. I came out of it better than I went in. It wasn't ideal for me, but it was the best I suppose (even though I hate to admit that). So I thought about it a bit. He says he cares about me and isn't angry with me anymore. I can't help but wonder if he's just doing a fantastic job of manipulating me into thinking those things so I'll leave him alone. I don't want to be some psycho chick, but it makes sense. What do you do when some girl won't let go? You tell them, "it's not you, it's me" a la George Costanza. While that thought is making the rounds through my head, I don't actually believe it. I believe every word he told me. And as agonizing as it is, I'm still waiting.

There's one coming

2006-10-03T14:55:00.000-07:00

There's a post coming. I started it on the plane last night.

jamming

2006-09-26T22:41:00.000-07:00

I remember when c j and Rachel were jamming together in my room in Donner. c j would play his steel drum and Rachel would play her (electric) violin.

Transit

2006-09-26T11:32:00.000-07:00

Transit is available in Pittsburgh now! I so wish it had been available before I left school - it would've helped a lot.

My car

2006-09-24T16:35:00.000-07:00

By the way, this is my beautiful car.

I drive around with the top down all the time. It makes me feel more alive...and Californian.