What's a Hmoobian?
Monthly Archive for May, 2004
It turns out I suck at parallel parking behind abnormally sized cars -- like a MINI -- which led to this quote:
"Stop talking! You're giving me parking performance anxiety!"
-- bsii
"You should get some parking viagra for that."
-- tyler
Brand names for parking aphrodisiacs are left as an exercise for the reader.
Europeans Like Bush Even Less Than Before
I'm really amused by this quote for some reason: "admiring Mr. Bush is seen as slightly shameful among thinking Europeans, like confessing a preference for screw-top wine bottles."
Every room I've lived in has had a westward facing window with the exception of my dorm room my freshman year (north) and the one that didn't have a window. There are two classes of problems here: afternoon sun makes the apartment hot and causes glare, and lack of morning sun makes it hard for me to wake up.
In the Stormy house, the westward facing windows made my room so hot that I kept 3 of the 4 lights in my ceiling fan unscrewed to keep the temperature down. It actually turned into a little war with my mom, because she'd constantly screw those bulbs back in, and I'd constantly unscrew them. But in addition to the temperature, the only reason I got up every morning was because my dad woke me up.
In Deutsch, I explicitly chose a westward facing window, thinking that the bay view with awesome sunsets would actually be desirable. Instead, I did everything I could to keep that afternoon sun (and the accompanying glare) out of the room, because that concrete cell retained more heat than a baked potato.
At Haste, the afternoon sun wasn't really a problem, because there was another tall building about 10 feet from my window. What was a problem in the three years I lived there was the waking up. My room was a dark cave until around two in the afternoon, when some light finally crept into the window.
I think it was Stormy + Haste that made me decide I wasn't a morning person because I found it hard to wake up. I think the westward facing windows actually just made the room so pleasantly cool and comfortable in the morning that when I woke up, I was in such a nice place that the only reasonable reaction was to want to go back to sleep.
And at Harmon, I actually have a southern facing window in addition to the westward facing window, so the mornings aren't too bad. Having a more regular schedule than college offered also makes the daily ordeal of waking up a little easier. The real problem here is the afternoon sun from the westward facing window makes this place heat up like an oven. Of course, it doesn't help that I also live in the attic.
With the approach of what promises to be a blistering summer after a too hot and too sudden spring, the lack of a westward facing window is high on my list of requirements for my new apartment. And ideally I'll have an eastward facing window, to make the mornings a little easier.
(And actually, my last couple of jobs both ended up with me sitting by a westward facing window, so again with the glare and heat problems. The west work windows are actually what reinforced my awareness of this problem and made me vow to avoid them in the future.)
If you liked the first set of Cockapoo pictures on Stew's Poos, I posted another set of puppy pictures this weekend.
Low-Carb Diets Affecting Krispy Kreme
It's alarming that such an environmentally irresponsible diet advocating eating so many non-renewable foods is actually having this big of an impact on the food industry.
I just carried 10 cups, 6 bottles, and 2 soda cans out of my room and to the kitchen. It took me 3 trips. This is nearly a weekly ritual for me.
Why did I end up with so much stuff in my room? Because my room is on a different floor than the kitchen. What usually happens is I'll go downstairs to go to the bathroom or something, realize I want more water or something, and get another cup and take it back upstairs, because I didn't think to bring the cup I was using downstairs when I got up for my other errand.
When I was a kid, I always thought stairs were awesome, and I really liked visiting my friends who had stairs. I thought those kids were so lucky... But clearly I was wrong. If I have my way, I'll never live anyway that has stairs between my bedroom and the bathroom and kitchen again.
Kangaroo wins award for saving farmer
How come the useful animals that will apparently save my life are never the cute ones?
As much as I might claim I could never deal with it, maybe I want to move to San Francisco after all?
Honestly, I'm still kind of intimidated by San Francisco. It took me a little while to get comfortable with the urban-ness of Berkeley, and I think it's going to take even longer to get comfortable with San Francisco. Going to San Francisco is like planning an expedition into the unknown -- I feel like I should pack extra food in my car in case something goes wrong.
Driving home last night after looking at apartments in San Francisco all day, I accidentally got on 101 South instead of 80 East, which quickly took me into the aforementioned unknown. I got off at the very next exit (Caesar Chavez), but got lost trying to find an entrance to 101 North. After wandering around someplace dark and smelly for about 15 minutes, I saw an "East Bay Paratransit" shuttle, which I decided to follow and which took me straight to the Bay Bridge. Saved!
I think I just need to go drive around San Francisco for awhile at 2 am to figure out how the pieces of my in progress mental map of the city fit together. Apartment hunting yesterday certainly made a big difference, but I still have big gaps.
The ferret wearing the bow tie is cute, but the idea of the bomber jacket and the biker jacket amuse me more.