Thursday, July 31, 2008

TV

Wow, I can't believe Chelsie was voted off of SYTYCD today. Even though I'm a fan of Courtney, I thought she didn't do as well as Chelsie last night.

Unfortunately, I think that the Asian chick is going to win it all, especially since I've heard the judges pick the ultimate winner. It's not that I don't like her because she's Asian. It's that I don't like her because she's unattractive.

It sucks that the tour is coming to Baltimore on a Monday.
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Since the greatest show ever (aka Veronica Mars) has gone off the air and I already have all the DVDs, I needed a new show to watch and preferably one on DVD. Well, I remembered the short-lived but excellent dramedy called Wonderfalls that aired on Fox a few years ago and decided to buy it on amazon.

I have to admit I'm a little disappointed because I remember the show being a lot funnier (and the main chick being a lot hotter). It's kind of eerie to see the similarities between Wonderfalls and Veronica Mars though - both have a teenage girl as their main characters and very quick witty dialogue. And it's even stranger that I'm drawn to shows like this.

The show's about an Ivy League graduate who works in a Niagara Falls gift shop, and through some strange event, inanimate objects start telling her to do (usually bad, dangerous, and sometimes illegal/unethical) things.

What makes the show so creative and inventive is how the simple commands can be interpreted to mean different things. Well, that and the fact that her family is insane and she's usually reluctant to help anyone, ever.

Monday, July 28, 2008

Management Styles

It's been interesting to see the different styles of management I've experienced since I started working.

I was sort of thrown into a project at my first job and didn't really have a manager for the first few few months. After I was assigned to a real team though, I found out that the guy sitting in the cubicle next to me (and who started a few weeks after I did) was going to be my new manager. I also found out that he had never really been a project lead before. Needless to say, I was skeptical of his leadership abilities and unfortunately that didn't change much over time. He knew his technologies pretty well but I think that clouded his judgment a lot and also closed his mind to suggestions by others.

My second manager was actually another programmer on the previous team. When the first company split into a commercial offshoot, he was promoted to be a project lead. We worked together pretty closely before (bonded more by our dislike of the management style of the former lead than perhaps anything else), and so the new structure worked out pretty well. I can see how in some situations there could be a lot of bitterness concerning the promotion since we both worked at the company for essentially the same amount of time, but that wasn't the case at all. I felt the team ran a lot smoother since he knew both our strengths and weaknesses and ideas were more free-flowing than before.

At my current company, the management structure is actually pretty similar to my co-op at IBM back in college. I have a manager and then a project lead. My main interactions with my manager have been personnel-related (timesheets, performance evaluations, etc.), and all of my tasks have been assigned by the project lead. Although I haven't worked with my manager much, everyone has said that he's an incredibly hard worker and very open to the opinions of others. I've seen the same thing in my project lead.

People become managers for different reasons and take different paths to get there. However, from my own experiences, the most effective teams have leaders who are willing to listen to everyone's opinion and want to consider all options before moving forward. The most effective leaders are those that set an example by working hard themselves and offering their own innovative opinions.

My new social life

Back in Dallas, my friend circle consisted mostly of people who did the same thing I did: sitting in front of a computer for 8+ hours a day. Sadly, our conversations at parties oftentimes turned to the latest technologies and problems with certain programming languages (after we got tired of gossiping about people who weren't at the party ;) ).

Well, here in DC, my new social life has consisted of going to random parties where I've met the host maybe once or twice and didn't know anyone else. Sure, it's sort of awkward at first, but a little bit of alcohol, food, and some fun party games and it's like you've known the people forever.

The random party on Friday was hosted by my sister's good friends and they had a Christmas in July theme. I was a little hesitant to go at first since it seemed like a close knit group and was far away, but I had a great time and everyone was really friendly. There was even a girl there who went to UT!

We also went to drop my sister off in NYC this weekend. Her project in Belgium didn't get an extension so she'll be working on a project in NY again. I visited my high school friend in NYC and it was pretty interesting to hear all his med school horror stories. If I had known that there were so many attractive girls in med school, I may have switched majors ;) although it sounds like their shifts are ridiculous (his roommate had just finished a 27-hour shift with only one 40-minute break!).

Sunday, July 20, 2008

The Holocaust isn't funny?

Bert: Hey, Ernie, uh, you know that you have a banana in your ear?
Ernie: (Loudly) What was that, Bert?
Bert: I said, you have a banana in your ear, Ernie.
Ernie: (Very loud) Whaddya say, Bert?
Bert: (Yelling) WILL YOU JUST TAKE THAT BANANA OUTTA YOUR EAR!
Ernie: (Yelling back) I’M SORRY, BERT, BUT YOU’LL HAVE TO SPEAK A LITTLE LOUDER!
I CAN’T HEAR YOU! I HAVE A BANANA IN MY EAR!

As I mentioned in my last post, my friend from Delaware came to visit this weekend and it was a lot of fun.

We saw two shows from the Capital Fringe Festival: one was a stand-up comic who related his life stories as episodes from a soap opera, and the second was labeled a comedy on the website, but turned out to be incredibly serious and depressing.

I suppose the synopsis for the second show didn't really sound humorous (the German chancellor invites 6 million Jews back to Germany and examining the repercussions of his decision), but we still thought there was a chance. That idea quickly dissolved about 15 minutes into the show when 2 characters had already died and there were no jokes.

The comic was pretty funny though, so 1 for 2 isn't bad.

In between shows, we met up with my (only) friend in DC and some of her friends at the Jim Henson exhibit at the Smithsonian. I had no idea he had created so many other shows and characters besides Sesame Street and The Muppets. They had Kermit and Bert & Ernie on display as well as some other characters - but no sign of Elmo, Grover or Miss Piggy.

Fun fact: Kermit only ended up being green because the first one was made of Jim's mother's coat.
Fun fact #2: Oscar the Grouch was originally drawn purple, and he was orange in his first season, before taking on his familiar green color.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Eye Doctor

Is it just me or are female doctors getting a lot hotter?

I went to get my eyes checked today for 2 main reasons. 1) I haven't gotten new eyeglasses in a really, really long time - close to 8 years. 2) It was free - my vision insurance covers eye exams, lenses, and a good amount of the cost of frames, so why not?

First the nurse (or the optometry equivalent of a nurse) ran a bunch of visual tests. The worst was when she put these eye drops and then ran this light DIRECTLY into my eye, mumbling something about how I wouldn't feel a thing. Well, I might not feel it, but I'm not about to let some strange light into my eye. Yeah, I think that test took longer than it should. Oh, and then she put some more eye drops before she left, saying that they would leave my pupils dilated. I wasn't really sure what that meant, but she managed to say that I wouldn't be able to see anything at a close distance for 3-4 hours. Um, but can I go back to work on a computer right after this? Of course, she said yes, but the answer was really no.. I had to push my laptop way back on my desk to even vaguely make out what was on the screen.

Then the (hot, blonde) doctor came in and ran pretty much the same tests as the nurse. It always amuses me that nurses spend more time and run more tests than doctors, and yet they get paid way less and get less respect.

It turns out I've developed a slight astigmatism, just like my sister and mom. It was weird finding out that my left eye is weaker than my right eye. I always have both eyes open. It's not like I drive or work with my left eye closed or something.. I wonder how that happened.

My friend from Delaware is visiting this weekend and my sister is coming back to the US (for good this time!) on Monday. We need to help her move to NYC sometime in the next couple of weekends, my Delawarean friend is coming back to DC in a few weeks, and my family bought tickets for this cheesy Bollywood program in Atlantic City at the beginning of August. For knowing so few people in the area, we somehow have a pretty busy schedule!

Monday, July 14, 2008

Racism

The cover of the recent New Yorker illuminates and exposes the racial undertones of this election. What's probably most interesting about the whole thing is that it's not even Obama's political opponents who were responsible. For some reason, the self-righteous people at the New Yorker thought that the cover was a brilliant satire of the common misconceptions leveled against the Obamas.

Unfortunately, since the cover has no words and only contains these striking images, many uninformed and uneducated people will walk by the magazine in their local grocery store and will form misguided opinions about them.

The most common misconception about Obama is that he's Muslim. While most people would disagree with this especially after the whole issue with the reverend showed that he was a devout member of his church, there's some people (my mom and her elders included) that believe you inherit the religion of your father.

At first, I thought it was only my mother who held these beliefs. But later I found out that other people, like her aunt and uncle and some of their friends, expressed the same feelings. I suppose it has a lot to do with how they were brought up, but I still think it's unfortunate that in their view, one can never truly escape their roots.

Friday, July 04, 2008

$, family

My mom watches this show on the Indian channel, and she's become a big fan of the doctor who practices/prescribes ayurvedic treatments. Apparently, he tours the US every year and came to our town this week. We had to wait for 2 hours in a stuffy hotel room (even though we had an appointment!) and he basically felt my pulse for 2 seconds and then prescribed a bunch of herbal remedies without really asking any questions. I felt ripped off. It was the biggest waste of $100 since I saw Mystere in Las Vegas a few years ago.

My sister's been visiting this week from Belgium. She has a (very well-deserved) break between projects and it happened to fall on the 4th of July too so she decided to come here. It's been really nice having her here and everyone seems to be in a much better mood when she's around.

My family is terrible at making decisions. Person A will place the responsibility on Person B, and if Person B has a good idea, Person A will invariably be upset about the idea. We didn't have a plan for the evening until about 5pm. There's supposedly a great fireworks display at the lake near our home, so we waited with the other throngs of people at the corner. For some reason, the 50 or so other people had never seen the display before either, because the fireworks were way too low and there were huge trees blocking our view.

Happy 4th!