Donkey for breakfast?

Doesn't sound very appetizing.

Returning my book to the library

Went to the library to return three books. One of the books I had checked out never had registered on my online library account, so I went to the circulation desk to let them know the issue. Two of the librarians went to scan it back in, and found no library barcode. They looked at me and remarked, "This book isn't ours."

I stared at them, and then down at the book, and then said confused, "Huh...I must've bought this one then."

They laughed hard at me,"Sounds like you've been studying too hard!"

I chuckled a little too, and said,"I really don't remember buying this book."

"Well it was nice of you to try and give it to us!", and they continued laughing.

I put the book back in my bag.

They were still laughing as I walked out of the library.

Growth spurt and jeans

At the beginning of seventh grade, my mom took me to buy clothes for the new school year. We bought three pairs of jeans, the typical amount we would purchase year-to-year. By January, though, my growth spurt had hit, and I no longer fit in any of the jeans purchased in September. So back to the mall we went, and bought three more pairs of jeans that I could wear until the spring. By March I had outgrown two of these pairs. I was left with only pair of jeans that fit, and my mother surely was not going to buy more jeans at this point. So I wore that same pair of jeans everyday until mid-April when it got warm enough for shorts.

Everyday going to school, I was certain that everyone who saw me snickered amongst one another, "There goes the boy who never changes his clothes. He wears the same jeans every day! Poor guy got hit by puberty at the wrong time of year."

Rationing Halloween Candy

Throughout my childhood, I ate candy very methodically after Halloween. Upon arriving home from trick-or-treating around the neighborhood for 3-4 hours, I would dump my pillow sack of candy onto the living room floor and begin to sort it. I would pile the candy by type together, and group them based on how delicious they were. I then filled a large metal bowl with the candy, starting with the my favorite candy (Snickers, Milky Way, Baby Ruth) on the bottom and progressing to my least favorite candy on top (Smarties, Skittles).

With the bowl prepared, I would leave it in the dining room on one of the unused chairs. Every morning when making my school lunch, I would grab precisely two pieces of candy from the bowl and put it in my bag. No more, no less. On days I did not have school, I would only eat two pieces of candy. Through this process, my candy lasted typically until early April. Throughout the cold winter, I would live through the least favorite candies and progress onto the better ones. By the time spring was poking its head, I was on to the best candies of all. Every day was a better candy day than the last.

I felt, and still feel, this fully maximizes the potential of Halloween.

My thesis length

The first draft of my Master's thesis was 314 pages. It was unintentional, but I was real glad that it was 100*π

Where to sit in the back of a car

When three people are riding in a passenger car together, one person is forced to sit in back. Here, they struggle to hear what the two others are saying up front, or just sit quietly for the duration of the ride.

Often, people like to sit behind the passenger seat because it allows them to have more legroom. The driver often sits farther back to be in a comfortable position to use the pedals, while the rider in the passenger seat is able to move their seat forward to provide legroom for a backseat rider.

If one desires to be heavily involved in the front seat conversation, sitting behind the passenger is a bad idea. To have the best chance to be involved, one should sit behind the driver. Although less legroom, this seat provides the best opportunity to not be excluded from conversation. The reasoning is as follows:

*The driver must focus on the road. Thus, when conversing with other passengers, he or she must keep their head pointed forward and thus has a limited ability to engage in conversation. As well, they are focused on driving and may not always be available to chat with.

*The rider in the passenger seat does not have to focus on the road. When conversing with other passengers, this rider can turn their head to look at who they are talking to. When the driver is focused on driving, they can engage in conversation with all others in the car.

Under these assumptions, one should want to locate themselves so that they can easily talk to the rider in the passenger seat so they can have eye contact when necessary. If one sits behind the passenger seat, the rider up there will unlikely turn around to talk to the backseat. If, however, one sits behind the driver, the rider in the passenger seat can turn around to talk with you, and thus including you more in the conversation.

Summary: Sitting behind the driver keeps you engaged in the conversation because the passenger seat rider can turn their head to talk to you. Sitting behind the passenger seat means you get no eye contact and are more frequently forgotten by those in the front seat.

Protege breaks 100k

My 2001 Mazda Protege hit 100,000 miles last night. I've been anticipating this for weeks. I bought the car in 2004 with just over 40,000 miles.

The last time I drove a car past 100,000 miles it was my dad's old Mazda 626 which was passed on to me when I was 18. That car I hit 100,000 miles in front of Molly Pitcher's Well in Manalapan, NJ.

Last night, I was at the corner of Jett Road and Tanglewood Trail in Atlanta when I hit the goal. My girlfriend and I visited Dunkin' Donuts 8 miles prior and then drove as the odometer ticked away. Below are the pictures of the odometer and the location. (photos by Amy)

There for the news story

Police Investigate Reports of Gunfire at Screen on the Green

Last night a bunch of friends and I went to see the Screen on the Green movie festival at Piedmont Park in Atlanta. They were showing Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, and we got there just after the movie started. We couldn't hear much because the place was packed and people were yelling and walking around the entire time. Still, it was the first time I was seeing the film so I did my best to assume the storyline.

I went to the porto potties with my friend at one point, and on our way back, we saw a huge crowd running toward our direction screaming. The first thing both of us thought was that someone had gotten shot. We went back to our seats though and sat down. We could see over the whole crowd and saw people getting up to leave. Soon after, the screen flickered as the organizers feigned technical difficulties. They announced the event was over because the projector was having issues. The article above describes how it was because of the perceived unsafe situation at hand.

We hung out for a bit after, not knowing it was unsafe, before heading to leave. On our way out we passed through numerous large groups of teens. At one point our group of friends were approached by a young man who asked if any of us had an iPhone. He jammed his hand into my pocket, and finding nothing, went to my next friend's pocket, where he found his iPhone. Yelling ensued, as the young man grasped onto my friend. My other friends and I tried to break everything up, while the rest of the crowd around us circled around yelling. Finally, we got our friend free and in the resulting standoff one of my other friends got hit. The young man bolted when the police poured in, and we saw the young man fall flat on his face; he had been tasered by a police officer.

This was my first time experiencing anything like this in Atlanta or anywhere. I felt bad since one of my friends who I went to undergrad with was visiting from North Carolina, and this was to be his one memory of Atlanta. I haven't had any issues like this before. I hope Screen on the Green continues, just under safer conditions.

Accidental Optical Illusion

My office mate accidentally made an optical illusion with some of the data output for his thesis. I always wished I could create, on purpose, my own optical illusion. Lucky guy stumbled right onto it! Check it out! It looks like the x-axis is sloping down and to the right, but it most certainly is flat.

Cold Egg

Back last summer, my carton of eggs was left too close to the point where the cold air enters the refrigerator. It froze my eggs. I took the shell off anyway, and this was the result.

New Bed

I moved in to my new house last August. I needed a new full size bed; I already had the sheets from my undergrad days. I searched craigslist and found a guy selling a full size bed and I purchased it on my second day here in my new city. Little by little my sheets seemed to shrink. I couldn't understand why they seemed just out of reach. Every time I made my bed I had to rip them a little more to make them fit. I'd been debating buying new sheets.

I measured my bed last week. It turns out it was a queen size the whole time.

Staying home sick

I always found it to be a very weird feeling when I had to stay home from school sick. All day I'd spend at home, but it was surreal since I knew I was supposed to be somewhere else. I'd look at my clock, and say to myself, "You'd be in [insert class] right now." I hated the feeling, that life was happening where you should be, and yet you weren't there. I guess I just hated skipping school.

Winter Hat

In Montreal.

Dining Hall Scam

Back in my freshman days, my dining hall provided delicious food 19 times a week. I had a 16 meals/week dining plan that I went over on every week. I loved eating at the dining hall and the student center. It was a rare day when I ate off campus since I didn't have a car.

But there was a certain meal that just didn't fly with me, and I would avoid at all costs. BREAKFAST FOR DINNER.

Let me explain. Our dining hall charged us $3.75 for breakfast, $4.25 for lunch, and $5.25 for dinner. It was a total scam for them to charge us $1.50 more for breakfast, just by being cutesy and serving it for dinner. Why would I pay extra for the same food I ate that morning, and the same food I'm going to eat when I wake up the next day? Preposterous.

(Anyone who rationalizes it by saying the sandwich station, pasta station, and soup and salad bar were open during dinner as compared to breakfast is lying to themselves. Those are not why you paid $5.25 to eat there.)

Waste of knife

I make several sandwiches every morning. This requires spreading of many items (mayo, peanut butter, jelly, hummus). Often times, I will make one peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and subconsciously knowing I'm finished, I will toss the knife in the dishwasher. I then turn to make my next sandwich, perhaps a turkey one needing mayonnaise, and I realize I've tossed my knife away and need a new one. I scold myself for being so wasteful.

This morning I sunk to a new discouraging low. I made my first peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and as usual, I idiotically threw the knife in the dishwasher. I turned to make my next peanut butter and jelly sandwich and realized I was knife-less. Danggit. So I got another knife. I spread on my peanut butter and tossed the knife into the dishwasher. Turned to spread my jelly, and "gosh darnnit again"! Had to go get a THIRD knife just to spread the jelly.

Mexican food and graduation

The dinner before my middle school graduation my family went out for Mexican food.
The dinner after my high school graduation my family went out for Mexican food.
The lunch before my undergraduate graduation my family went out for Mexican food.

I know it's not time yet, but I look forward to keeping this tradition up for my M.S. and Ph.D graduations.

My favorite song ever LIVE

My favorite song of all time (since about 2001) is Saves The Day's "Sell My Old Clothes I'm Off to Heaven". I listened to this song everyday in high school and sang it aloud, and it makes almost all my playlists.

I've seen Saves The Day twice in concert before last night, and neither time did it get played. I had given up hope that I'd ever see this song performed live. It's not on any of the major releases, and only made it onto a compilation of B-sides.

But last night I finally got to see it. I think I'll be happy all week from that alone. It was everything I'd dreamed of. (and I don't know why the youtube video continues for 2 minutes past the end of the song...)

Selling my car in Argentina

This has been in my head for two years now. When it is nearing the time to sell my car one day down the road, I have a plan of how I'm going to do it.

1. Post my car on craigslist in Argentina for something ridiculously cheap. Let's say $10. The only thing I ask is that the person arrange all the import paperwork (or I'll do it...just because.)
2. Drive my car to them from the U.S.
3. Deliver car to Argentina.
4. Fly home.

Somewhere in there is an incredible road trip through Mexico, Central America, Ecuador, Peru, Chile and into Argentina! I've done a bit of research on it, such as where I can take a ferry to avoid undesirable countries (Colombia.) As well, I've learned that there is not even one road that goes straight through because of the Darien Gap, a huge expanse of rainforest that no road crosses through.

A cool add-on to the trip would be to go to Chile and then take a real expensive boat cruise to Antarctica. South American would be my 6th continent I'd visited, so I figure I should tack on the 7th while I'm down that way.

Biggest worry, besides safety, is whether my car can make it those several thousand miles. But yeah, safety is a huge concern.

Darien gap below:

Bloom's Taxonomy

I have always enjoyed considering my work in the context of Bloom's Taxonomy.

I was first introduced to the concept in the third grade through the school district's gifted program, called Shared Time. Our teacher, Jill Dembsky (who runs KEWL), had the six words of Bloom's Taxonomy pasted on the wall next to the chalkboard for us to always ponder them. Still today, I frequently consider what type of thinking I am doing on an assignment in reference to the taxonomy.

Back in third grade we were challenged to think beyond Knowledge and Comprehension, the skills needed for elementary school, and reach the four highest levels. Now as a graduate student, we usually operate at Application and Analysis, and need to push ourselves to work more frequently at Synthesis and Evaluation.

I always felt seeing the thinking skills presented in a hierarchy made it easier to recognize where one was working at the time. Thus making it easier to consider what is necessary to reach the next level.

$36.41 in change

To all the cashiers out there.

Back when I used to spend my time behind the checkout counter, I spent a lot of time handling money and thinking about coins and bills. Frequently, I got to dish out 41 cents worth of change, which in its easiest combination of coins is 1 quarter, 1 dime, 1 nickel, and 1 penny. I enjoyed pulling out one coin from each bin in the cash register. I looked forward to when an order was $XX.59, and I was handed cash, because I knew I was getting a chance to dish out one of each coin.

But I had bigger dreams. I always dreamed for the chance to hand out $36.41 in change. That would allow me to hand out one of each bill and one of each coin in my drawer (couldn't count the $50 and $100 bills that I had to slip into a locked box.) 1 $20 bill, 1 $10 bill, 1 $5 bill, 1 $1 bill, 1 quarter, 1 dime, 1 nickel, and 1 penny. Oh how I longed for the day I could give this in change. This would require someone to get an order of $13.59, and then pay with a $50 bill, or perhaps $63.59, and pay with a $100 bill (or two $50 bills).

This chance never came. Usually when these amounts came up and they paid with cash, they paid with multiples of $20 bills. During my years working at the cash register, I recall several occasions where I got to hand $16.41 in change, and it was those times where I felt so miserable. So close but so far. Just one more bill to hand out. I even had the chance once to hand back $35.41 in change, and that was the hardest transaction of my life. While I stood behind the counter on the quiet nights, I often calculated possible add-on items that could be added to certain transactions that could assist in getting to the magical change number (e.g. buy a Snickers bar [$1.05 after tax] to bump an order of $12.54 to $13.59), but I could never ask a customer to buy something like that just for my pleasure to hand back some certain change amount.

Maybe somewhere out there someone has gotten the chance to give back $36.41 in change. And if they have, I hope they relished their opportunity to hand out change in such wonderful fashion.