Massively Late Update

Sorry guys, I've been really caught up in WoW, editing photos, and just going out to the mall and stuff.

Uhhh, where to start...

Well...you guys have probably heard me complain about my phone and provider. For those of you not in the know, I had this, a Sony Ericsson.




I really hated it. On paper, it looks like a good phone. Bluetooth, fairly comfortable dimensions, web access, camera. In actuality, it's terrible. I only got this phone because my RAZR was stolen from my pocket two summers ago...like a week after I got it. Admittedly, the RAZR isn't that great a phone, but it was better than this one. The camera takes horrible pictures. Every person I took a picture of looks very blurry. But that's probably not a big deal when the phone can only take about 10 pictures before it complains about lack of memory. The voice dialing feature never worked for me, instead, it added my voice command to each person I made a voice for. So everytime my dad calls me, I hear "Call Dad" before the ringing starts. Web access was always slow, so I never bothered to use it or wanted to pay for it. The battery never lasted very long. Two days on standby with minimal calling was pushing it's life. Big stretch from the 315 standby hours advertised. On top of that, the phone had a tendency to lock up and restart itself very often. Most times, for no reason at all. I distinctly remember one day where I slid the phone into my pocket, and it restarted the second it settled in the cloth. When I used my Bluetooth headset (also stolen) with the phone, the battery lasted all of 4 hours. Couple that with T-Mobile's spotty service, and it was an aggravating time with this phone.

I think I will try not to ever buy Sony's products ever again. I've owned a PDA, this phone, a CD burner, and several game consoles. I can honestly say that each item I've bought with a Sony brand on it has horribly disappointed me.

Anyway, what to do about my phone? Well, my family is kinda locked into T-Mobile, but there's hope! T-Mobile started a brand-new service called HotSpot@Home. If you buy a H@H plan, it allows you to make unlimited calls over WiFi. Any WiFi network you have access to, including T-Mobile's HotSpot locations. Why is this good? Think about Cornell campus. T-Mobile's coverage outside buildings is actually pretty good. Especially on Central and West. This is actually T-Mobile's strength; T-Mobile signals are known to be very good outside, mostly in urban areas. Now move inside with a T-Mobile phone. No cell signal. But, there's always WiFi. And since it's WiFi and you're on the H@H plan, all calls are free. Even during days. Most people have not heard of this plan. Why not? T-Mobile announced this service the day that the iPhone was announced.

Don't get me wrong, I like the iPhone. Especially for the lower price now. However, Apple has disabled a lot of the features that I thought were necessary or missing from the phone itself. For example, we know it has WiFi capability. Why is there no iChat program? Or Skype program? Even AT&T can have signal issues when WiFi is strong. Also, it is strangely odd that a smart phone lacks any sort of MicroSoft Office compatibility at all.

Anyway, I managed to convince my family to get me a new phone. Here it is:




(About the pictures: I just did a Google image search. Didn't know who to credit, so I hope the url is still embedded in the pictures)

Mine will be one of the newer ones with WiFi. Obviously to use the WiFi service. We're not signing me up for the email plan since it's kind of expensive for the limited use I'd get out of it. Also, mine will be black. I'M SO EXCITED HEHE.

Btw, if you have RSS readers, you might want to add this blog to that. They're quite handy. Especially if you have Gmail. You can download an extension called Better Gmail. Among other things, it integrates Google Reader (one of those RSS readers) into Gmail!

I had fun cooking for and eating at Nightmarket. Although, in my opinion, CTAS was not as on the ball as JUSA was. JUSA had chaos, but it was a lot more organized and smooth. CTAS was very confusing from what I saw. What does that ultimately mean? Well, it means that JUSA got pictures of everyone cooking. CTAS didn't allow me time for photo breaks, so they lost photos for club posters and such*. Oh well, just things to learn, I guess. It was still a good experience.

Why the asterisk? CTAS will most likely never receive any of my pictures. I ran into a lot of trouble with them this past summer and I would not like to repeat the events. Especially since some people not in the loop on what happened actually went and called the whole ordeal my fault. Just shows that if you look out for everyone, it just goes and backstabs you in the end. Specifically, I wanted to avoid anything like this happening to Optix (one of the parties involved), but my ideas and message were misinterpreted and misrepresented later and made me a bit of a villain.

I will try to update more often. Specifically about things that I experience/think about.

Expect a video game review or three, or advice on photography or cooking!

Stay Tuned.

Ennichi and Chaos

Hey guys,

So, this weekend I helped JUSA set up and cook for Ennichi. And it was pretty wild. I musta made over 100 crepes for one of their stands, and I took ~279 pictures for the whole event. Well...actually...that's not a whole lot, but it is a lot of work for Jiyeon and other people who will have to flip through the pictures. =)

I mean, it was definitely fun and I would do it again. I got lots of practice flipping crepes...so I can use that with pancakes and omelets! And my camera had been dying to go out for a long time. Although...never mess with photographers with flashes. I could not see for a few minutes.

My first project at work today was pretty...awful...in a way. I work from 645 to 315 (supposedly...it's usually been 340). Friday at 3, I was told it was all green lights. It was scheduled to start at 8 am today. Imagine my surprise when I show up to work and find out that the earliest it can start is 10 am. Now imagine what I try to do considering vendors (visitors who came to see the project being run) have arrived at 8am. THEN...imagine how well it goes when the project has to be rescheduled for 2PM. The project was supposed to last from 8am to 2-3pm. I had to stay to watch the first batch of the project, so I ended up leaving work today at ~6 pm. I worked ~11 hours...with a 20 min lunch, no bathroom break, and no work breaks. It was .... chaos.

That being said...this job is still easier than school.

Alice got us Colbert tix!!!!!! So, I'll be going to the 2nd show (9pm) on Oct 26 to see STEPHEN COLBERT!!!!! I wanna try to get a press pass too....I want pictures =(

I'm also getting excited for CTAS's Nightmarket. Yes, I am embracing my inner non-existent-Taiwanese person.

That's all I can really think of for now. I'm also kinda tired. WoW is great. I wanna edit pictures...My car needs to be repaired....the ventilation system still isn't working...and my dad said I should also get an oil change....How's everyone else doing?

Stay Tuned.

PosterPost

Hey all....

So...beginning today with a little rant...I went and got a 750 GB external hard drive...I got the external cuz it was like $80 cheaper than the internal...plus...I went to Best Buy...got the ad...and went to Circuit City...where it was price matched and given another 10% discount =)

Anyway, what pisses me off is...Windows XP introduced a new file system called NTFS...It was "great" because it was more efficient for the sizes of hard drives that would soon come. It also took up less of the hard drive space to establish folder hierarchy. Lastly, it enabled a user to create a file larger than 4.3 GB.

So why the hell...would Western Digital...create a 750 GB hard drive...in 2006...5 years after XP came out with NTFS....and have it formatted in fucking FAT32?!?!?!?

I was trying to move a 7.5 GB video (Top Gear Polar Special) onto the drive...and lo and behold "Not enough disk space" error....with 650 GB free (after conversion, 750 goes to 698)...and since I've moved so much stuff onto the disk already from my other disks...I can't go reformat...

Otherwise...life isn't so bad...I can start taking pictures again since I have like..DOUBLED my hard drive space...

I might go to some natural parks around here or something...if I wasn't so addicted to WoW.

Work...is kinda really tough...like...not anywhere near as hard as school...but definitely not as easy as I thought it would be. It's a very different kind of difficulty...and also...it sorta stops once I walk out of the office and go home...but I probably shouldn't complain...everyday is interesting so far.

I feel bad for the kids who are studying...now that I'm like...outside the bubble and looking in...academia...is way harder than industry. Stress and pressure never ever stopped at school and there was always something added onto your plate. Here...it...seems much more mellow...even at the plant...which is supposed to be one of the most stressful and hectic work environments in the industry (other companies have commented on how good P&G people are, it's not just me being gloaty).

So...comment if ya got anything...otherwise...

Stay Tuned.

Apologies

Oh my fair blog, how I have deserted you...

Work was extremely hectic this week, even with Labor Day off. I tried to rush my first project out the door because I treated it like a problem set...Unfortunately, I had to meet about 20 people to accomplish the first step of the project...and I wanted to do it in 3 days...when everyone was busy. On Wednesday/Thursday, I realized I couldn't do it since I hadn't met 20% of the people and hadn't even told everyone a procedure to execute...So I postponed it, with advice from my boss....apparently, it was the right thing to do...YAY!

"Real Life" is so different...dates are pretty much "flexible"...and in general, it's much more easy going...Also...and I totally did not expect this...but I haven't really done anything technical at work yet. At all. I've been using analytical thinking to figure out how to do projects, but I basically do project manager work. It's so weird...they gave me an office too...but...I hardly ever use it...maybe an hour or two a day...everything else is meetings and questioning people.

I hit my first animal last weekend...it was quite sad...I was going like 60 on a narrow, dark highway at night...I saw a little fuzzy thing and slammed on my brakes from maybe like 1/8 mile away...I saw that it wasn't going to move since it was eating something that already got hit...and had it's back towards me...so I turned to avoid it...and when I was going 5 mph...it jumped under my tire...it was a little fox or something...I dunno...I was sad...

My boss told me that she hit a bear once...similar situation, except she said she was driving and a wall of fur appeared and bumped her car...and ran away...she found out it was a bear because her family could tell that the poop the animal left on the hood of the car was a bear's...she said not to ask how they could tell.

I didn't end up going to the Brewfest, unfortunately...big "MUST BE 21 OR OLDER" disclaimers discouraged me...

I'm conflicted on how to spend my time after work...I'd love to do lots of stuff...but I'm so tired...I wake up at 530 everyday...I dunno...I'll try to get used to it quicker...

Also, someone at work this week saw me and said I looked like I was 12. Maybe because I had my new shoes, tidy laces, tucked in shirt, helmet, goggles, and backpack.

I think that's all I had to say...hopefully, photo posts will come soon!

Stay Tuned.

First Week of Co-Op

Hey guys,

First week of Co-Op ended. It was pretty intense...a lot of meeting new people, attending orientation/training classes, and just basically getting adjusted. I haven't actually done any work though. I just got a project schedule/outline on Thursday afternoon/Friday.

I went back to Ithaca this weekend because I missed people and wanted to see everyone before it got too busy. I sorta failed at the latter since I really only hung out with Alice...sorry, all. I bet even Alice got sick of me towards the end.

I'm thinking of coming back next weekend. I found an amazing radio station that plays in Ithaca. WBBR, 93.5. Lots of rock music, with a nice mix of classic and modern rock. There were a lot of nice songs that I had to scribble down titles, artists, or lyrics of in my directions home....which I almost lost out the window as I was waving goodbye to Alice, haha.

Anyway, next weekend is the first annual Ithaca Brewfest. I wanna attend as a designated driver since it's $10 and there's a concert. I dunno, does anyone wanna go?

I finished Heroes....6 episodes in 2 days....now, I'm free to restart my WoW addiction after work everyday...hmm...I wanted to start working out too though...

Zooomr's bulk upload is still down...so that's gonna have to wait...I should get out more with my camera too....

Stay Tuned.

Pennsylvania

Hey guys,

Life here is pretty interesting. In case you didn't hear, I'm co-oping at Procter and Gamble at Mehoopany, PA. I've been there for 3 days, and still haven't done any real work. Not my fault, though. We have to go through a whole week of training classes. So many things to read and meetings to attend and people to meet and get to know. It's confusing enough, so I'm glad we don't get real work til after we're more settled in.

My apartment is pretty sweet, especially for $100/week. We're living in a nice lady's basement apartments in the middle of the Endless Mountain Regions. I still haven't really finished unpacking since my room is so small...meh. The scenery is very pretty and morning fog makes the mountains and roads almost pleasantly intimidating. I'd take pictures if I didn't have to drive or worry about my camera while at work (can't bring cameras into the plant...BIG no no).

I'm actually living in Tunkhannock, PA, and it's a quaint little town. One of the young managers described it as "a town with everything you need...but just one of them." So....one grocery store, one WalMart, one haircut place, etc. He was telling a half truth.

I miss everyone at Cornell though. It's a little lonely here since the young managers don't really hang out with the co-op's that often. They invited me to a bunch of things, but I can't really go/not yet comfortable enough.

My car seems to be broken...the ventilation system is either on full blast, or not at all...so I gotta get that fixed.

I'm typing in shorter sentences/paragraphs because I really want to watch Heroes right now and I'm gonna go do that after I finish this next line.

Stay Tuned.

New Place

Hey everyone. I moved into my new place in Tunkhannock, PA. I'm kinda lost since I don't know anything about the area. I think my address is wrong too.

In any case, I already started missing people...it's pretty lonely up here. The house is isolated from everyone else, the community is small, and it's all very quiet.

I'm trying to fix my landlady's interwebs. I'm not really sure what's wrong. I'm also not sure as to why the cable modem is hooked up to the computer via USB.

I'll try to post more often now. First, I'd like to make sure I can post on my own computer. I'm using my landlady's office/home computer right now

Stay Tuned.

Winding Up the Summer

Hey guys, I know I haven't updated in a long time, and I apologize. Life has been unbelievably hectic this summer. Orgo II and Heat and Mass Transfer are kicking my ass.

Final in H&M is tomorrow, and *knocks HARD on wood* I'm done with Orgo II if I passed the final.

I would REALLY like to do a photoblog posting, but Zooomr is still downish. Specifically, the bulk uploaders I love and use so much still don't work. I heard a rumor that the API's are updated and ready to go, but Zooomr doesn't have the hard drive space necessary to hold everyone's pictures if bulk uploading goes back up. I can see this problem, seeing as how I can upload gigs of photos a shot. And I don't go out on pictures shoots that often. So, I'll still wait. I might also finally finish the code needed to make this blog as pretty as I wanted.

So yeah, summer is winding down and people are moving back in. It's kind of surreal. It seemed so weird to be here at first since EVERYTHING was so quiet....but now...with everyone moving back in...it seems like it doesn't belong...Ithaca is better when it's quiet, imo. If only the weather didn't suck and work wasn't piled up to Shaq's eyes.

Not sure what I'll do during Co-Op with my free time. I originally wanted to take some classes to meet my liberal arts requirement, but it doesn't look like I'll be able to get that done.

I'm looking forward to Co-Op....money...sleep...less stress....I wonder what it'll be like when I come back in the spring....

I have to go now, since we're going to dinner...so...sorry this isn't the greatest post (it basically boils down to a "look i'm not dead" post), but uh...

Stay Tuned.

Random Orgo Frustrations

Orgo is a catalyst in the following reaction:

Aaron + CH3CH2OH = happiness, with forgetfulness as a notable side product.

Hmm.

So...I think I'm in trouble. I really wanted to drop Chem 358, Orgo 2 since I didn't think I needed the class to satisfy credit. I only wanted to take it since it was kind of interesting and I would have liked to have the advanced science elective credit it gave me in case I needed it. The class is also much harder than Chem 357, Orgo 1. I was intent on dropping the class, but I seem to have hit a new problem.

I would say that most of the people who know me know that I'm minoring in Biomedical Engineering, as well as majoring in ChemE. Normally, junior spring for ChemE's here involves ChemE 301 [Non Resident Lectures], ChemE 332 [Analysis of Separation Processes], ChemE 390 [Reaction Kinetics and Reactor Design], and ChemE 372 [Introduction to Process Dynamics and Control]. This is a total of 12 credits, enough to make you a full time student at Cornell. Apparently, I also wanted to take Food Science 417 [Food Chemistry 1] (which satisfies the advanced science elective), Biological and Environmental Engineering 365 [Properties of Biological Materials], and ChemE 481 [Biomedical Engineering]. This totals up to 18 credits, which doesn't sound too bad on paper, but most of these credits are uber ChemE ones. I don't think I can drop any of the latter two without restructuring my minor AGAIN. Last time, it took me 5 hours.

How is this related to Chem 358? If spring term becomes difficult, I may have to drop Food Science, however unfortunate this is. This means that I will need Chem 358 to graduate, since senior year has pretty much been planned out. This leaves me with either choosing a hard 2nd half of summer...or a potentially (and very likely) hard junior spring.

Also, I just had a pretty bad day, so all of this combined with the bad day is...not good.

I emailed the head of ChemE at Cornell (who...oddly...knew my name...and asked that I give a tour to a prospective student, even though I've never met this professor, nor have the grades to draw the attention of these people) asking for a tentative schedule of the ChemE classes and the professor of the BEE class for a tentative schedule for that class to help plan out spring term, but I don't know if they'll be able to give me that information.

I dunno. Any suggestions?

Stay Tuned.

Yay!

I've moved into 402 Eddy Street! It's quite spiffy. We have a nice view out our balcony, with a grill =)

Uh, not much has really happened in the past few days. Fola, Ken, and X have moved in. I almost hit a suicidal deer when driving to storage. The thing crossed over the road, into the oncoming traffic lane, then ran BACK IN FRONT OF MY CAR as i got closer. I had to slam on the brakes to not hit him. It was really odd. The car behind me stopped too.

I'm still not all unpacked, but it'll work for now.

ZOOOMR MARK III IS UP AND WORKING!!!! it's pretty cool, from the 5 mins i spent looking around. this means that picture posts may resume soon. granted, there's like...a 2400 picture queue...

anyway, to bed! still have class tomorrow.

Stay tuned.

"Down" Time

It's been a long time since a post and there's never been a really good one.

So, I guess I'll start talking then.

I'm still at Cornell, taking summer classes. It's pretty fun, but really hectic. I hang out with other ChemE's, but we have class from 8:00 AM-4:30 PM everyday except Friday, which we usually have off (hooray!), except for exams (boo!). The schedule really sucks since we had finals in the spring, a weekend, and then started summer classes right away. Our 1st round of prelims starts when the real summer session people GET here. Plus, even the Applied Engineering Physics majors that are here only take 3 hours of class a day. Oh well. Such is ChemE.

Speaking of which, I'm having a dilemma. I am considering becoming a double major in ChemE and Biological and Environmental Engineering with a Biomedical Engineering concentration. I should talk to people here, but it really seems like the only requirement I haven't met or exceeded (ChemE Fluid Mechanics >>>>>>>>> BEE Fluids) is the senior capstone course. I don't think I'd be able to fit another capstone on top of ChemE Design senior year...plus, it might interfere with my taking electives and stuff...hmm...

I started up on StarCraft again in honor of the announcement of StarCraft2. If you liked SC and haven't seen the trailers and stuff, go to blizzard.com and watch everything.

Zooomr is updating to Mark III. This is good and bad. It's good because it promises a bunch of really cool looking updates. It's bad because 1) one of my favorite photographers, Thomas Hawk, is Evangelist of Zooomr, and he's been really busy, 2) i can't go onto Zooomr to look at pics, and 3) I can't share pics.

I'm currently living in a bit of a dump, but I get to move into my sweet apartment Friday! Unfortunately, the lack of a break screwed me over, and I wasn't able to bring kitchenware up here. Like the apartment is fully furnished, but I don't have utensils or things to eat/cook with...hmm...in any case, I get to move out of a place that's like...2 mins from Commons and into Ctown. My place right now is with sketchy grad students and "has free internet," which means I steal it from neighbors, when it's up. Right now, the only wifi networks available have passwords that I don't know. Bugs get into the room pretty easy too...oh well.

I'm thinking of getting a webcam. I wanna use it for Skype, definitely, but I might add like a video to this blog, especially when I go on CoOp and have nothing to do after 3 pm everyday. And weekends...mmm...free weekends...

But yeah, I'll continue to add pictures, and I'll make a much more media-centered (pics) post later, when Zooomr gets settled. I'll probably also comment on news or whatever. Most likely video games. And...weather?

Anyway, have a good summer!

Stay tuned.

PS: I need a sig or sign off thing. "Stay tuned." is ok, but I wonder what else might work...I'll think about that. Or y'all can comment.

Reverse Starlight Hosted on Zooomr

Hey guys, things have been really hectic. I uploaded a group of pictures 2 days ago and forgot to make a post. I have a really bad prelim tonight, so I don't think I'll be blogging today besides right now. Anyway, the last group had some 40+ pictures from a tae kwon do tournament that was held here. Enjoy!

I'll have a meaningful post sometime soon.

Stay tuned.

Light Your Path

IMG_1774 Hosted on Zooomr

Here in Becker procrastinating my studying of pchem. I'm sorta pretty screwed for the rest of the semester actually...I have a prelim every week until study week...oh well...such is life...although, I would recommend that ChemE's should never minor in Biomedical Engineering while being on 3 different executive boards.

Anyway, enjoy the latest batch of uploaded pictures. 86! Quite a group, even if most of them suck =(

Stay tuned.

Little Bang

Hey everybody! Here is a first post, and unfortunately, its a little bang...I'll post pictures periodically and choose one to represent each set.

I'm currently in the ACH common room. I was studying, but I'm gonna start heading to bed soon.

Anyway, enjoy!