Archive for the ‘Daily Life’ Category

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Walking to work experiment

Tuesday, May 5th, 2009

WalkingToday is day 6 of my walking to work experiment, and I could proudly say the experiment is a success. For the past 6 work days, I have been walking all the way from home to work and back every day. A distance of 2.7 miles.

Why would I do such a thing? For several reasons: First, walking is good for my health. Second, I can save money on gas and parking. And third, it is good for the environment.

Basically, I decided last Tuesday to see if it is possible to walk all the way to work, so I gave it a try. On that first day I realized I should probably take a hat, water, and a better portable radio. I took the route recommended by Google Maps, only to later find various shortcuts to make my way easier. My conclusion after this initial experiment: It’s not too bad.

I kept walking Wednesday and Thursday. Then Friday morning it rained. I decided to walk anyway. Also, I said if I can walk in the rain, I can  keep up this walking program. So, the same day I returned my parking permit and bought an umbrella. I bought 4 daily parking permits just in case.

Now is day 6 of my walking experiment, and I still haven’t used any of the parking permits. I feel good and happy. I really hope I can keep it up.

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Posted in Daily Life, Health, Stanford | 6 Comments »

Order, Office Depot, and Vertical Storage

Monday, April 27th, 2009

Those of you who have been following my twitter or Facebook updates may have noticed that in the past three days I was in a cleaning spree, transforming my room from an unpassable mess (literally) to a reasonably clean and spacious environment. In addition to the detailed sorting and throwing away of junk, I made some reforms to the order in my room. The goal is to hopefully have maintainable order, instead of just temporary order.

One of the things I’ve realized is that I do not have enough storage space for all my stuff when all my clothes are clean. That leads to extreme clutter in the clothes drawers and clothes being stored on the floor. My soultion was to use vertical storage. I went to Target (retail) and purchased a vertical storage device. This device allowed me to make use of unused room volume for storage while keeping floor area clear. Amazing!

Similarly, I used a 99L storage tub to store all my unused boardgames and empty boxes, instead of keeping several volotile stacks around the room.

Another great solution was to puchase two additional garbage containers to allow for pre-sorting of paper and recycleable trash. No more keeping unneeded paper or empty water bottles on the floor or desk. Now I can trash them immediately and do not need to collect during cleanup time.

While I was at Office Depot, I also found a better solution than envelopes for paper storage. It’s called a “file folder“, and not in the standard sense of a directory for digital storage, but rather a physical object that stores paper.

Hopefully this new room order will actually last.

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Posted in Daily Life | 1 Comment »

Turkey, India, and Thanksgiving

Sunday, November 30th, 2008

This weekend was Thanksgiving. As always, holidays in the US are designed to create long weekends, and Thanksgiving is no exception. Scheduled on the third Thursday of November, Thanksgiving marks the beginning of the winter holiday period. As I did last year, I went to the traditional Stanford Thanksgiving dinner, which was nothing too fancy. I spent black Friday playing boardgames for nine consecutive hours, winning almost all games I’ve played (except Pandemic and Stone Age).

This Thanksgiving, I couldn’t avoid hearing the news about Mumbai, India. I thought to myself this is not the first time Inidans are killed on Thanksgiving, though this time they weren’t native Americans. That also made me think about the traditional Thanksgiving dish — Turkey. In almost all modern language this bird is named after some far away land. Many languages refer to Turkey, many others, including Hebrew and Turkish, refer to India. The interesting this is, the Turkey, like the American Indians, is in fact a native American, a fact most closely reflected in Vietnamese, referring to it as “Western Chicken”. For more information, see Wikipedia.

In exactly one week (and 3:30 hours) my parents will be arriving here for the first time since I moved here. I’ll get to show them my office, my room, and play games. We’re also going to go on a road trip to Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon! I’m happy!

For those of you who asked what  I got from Tanga Trash. Here’s your answer: 20 Questions card game, The Fabolous Fifites Shaped Jigsaw Puzzle, and a Space Alien Test Kit, I kid you not.

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Posted in American Culture, Daily Life, Family, Gaming, Stanford | No Comments »

A new friend

Monday, November 24th, 2008

I made a new girl (space) friend this week, and together we have founded the awesome peoples’ league (Bay area chapter). She and her fiancé are into boardgaming in addition to using free operating systems. They also watch many similar TV shows and enjoy hanging out and playing the same games I do (and in a good level).

As part of my ongoing commitment to resurrect this blog, I’ll tell you all that I’m happy. It’s amazing how happy a friend could make you when you need one!

In other news, I am in the process of writing an NSF grant proposal, which basically means write something about your research and beg for money.

One of the great things about being a postdoc is that you have students who do all the work, so I will have at least two papers submitted to IJCAI (probably more), and all of them in collaboration with different authors, both here and in Israel.

BTW, If you like my blog, please comment so I’ll be encouraged to write more!

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Posted in Academia, Daily Life, Personal | 8 Comments »

Happy Birthday?

Wednesday, November 19th, 2008

It’s my birthday today. I’m 28, and at work. One year older and not much to show for it. Maybe I’ll start updating my blog, but for now that’s all.

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Posted in Daily Life, Personal | 1 Comment »

Oral Surgery

Monday, July 21st, 2008

After SurgeryToday I underwent oral surgery under general anesthesia. The procedure was the removal of my two lower wisdom teeth which were impacted. This procedure is uncommon in the US for people my age (27). Usually people get their teeth removed in their teens even if there aren’t any complications.

The clinic I have chosen was within short walking distance from my home and I arrived there in less than half an hour:


View Larger Map

Before the procedure, I had to pay the bill. Due to my insurance I had to pay only a 20% co-pay, and that amounted to “only” $238, which I paid and proceeded to read the book I brought with me.

Later, I was called in, hooked to an IV and got some oral shots.  The procedure itself went smoothly, and in a split-second (from my point of view) I was in recovery.

Due to the anesthesia, I could not walk back home. The clinic strongly recommends having someone drive you home and look after you. I could not find anyone who was willing and able to do that for me, so I had to stay for a few more hours in the clinic for recovery and then took a taxi home.

At home, I took some pain meds and antibiotics, as the doctor ordered and contacted my friends and family onine. Now I can’t talk, and have trouble drinking. Hopefully this will pass in the next few hours so I could have dinner tonight.

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Posted in Daily Life, Health, Personal | 1 Comment »

Crash!

Tuesday, July 1st, 2008

Crash!Just days after my first police ticket, I had my first two-vehicle car accident, and it wasn’t even my fault! I was driving down a small residential road (Newell), and the other driver was driving out of the public library parking. However she did not see me and continued right past the stop sign right in front of my car, even though I had the right of way. I stepped on the break but it was too late and I ran into the side of her car.

I sustained no injury in the crash and both cars were drivable. I took some photos for insurance purposes (you can see one of them over here (this is the front of my car).

I have also created an illustration of the accident scene (thanks to Google street view):

Accident Scene Sketch

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Posted in Daily Life | 3 Comments »

Spinning Blades, Laptop, Police

Saturday, June 28th, 2008

Vertical ChallengeLast Saturday, I went to the Vertical Challenge Helicopter Show at the Hiller Aviation Museum San Carlos airport. The show included admission to the museum and an exhibition of military and civilian helicopters. The main event included helicopter aerobatic demonstrations, RC Helicopter presentations and a search & rescue demonstration by the US Coast Guard.

After the show, I came back home, realized it was really hot, in spite of the fact I’ve ordered a fan off Amazon the day before. It seems fans don’t really work before they are delivered, and this particular Amazon order would take two weeks to arrive. After checking the options of faster shipping, I suddenly recalled a different way to get products: Retail. A Home Depot was less than 5 minutes from my home, at I verified online that they indeed stock fans. A short trip back and forth and a fan was in my possession. A few minutes later, it was assembled the room was significantly cooler.

Later this week, on my way to Stanford, the police have suddenly stopped me. The officer explained that I was driving 40 in a 25 zone (this is MPH, so it’s actually 65 in a 40 zone in kilometers) and gave me a ticket. The officer was not able to say how much the fine was, so I will know that only when I get the ticket in the mail.

Upon reaching Stanford I had a positive surprise. My laptop, that I’ve ordered two months before, has finally arrived and works great. I took it home to complete the installation and it will soon replace my old one. Expect being able to video-chat with me any time day or night (assuming I’m online and you have skype).

This weekend features Paul’s boardgaming extravaganza and BAP’s games day. Next weekend is the 4th of July, aka Independence Day. Stay tuned.

P.S. Thank you all for purchasing stuff via the DealExtreme links in my last post. I got more than 20 points already. If you did buy anything, please comment and tell me what you got. Thanks!

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Posted in Bureaucracy, Daily Life, Leisure, Stanford, Tech stuff | No Comments »

Deal Extreme!

Saturday, June 21st, 2008

Deal ExtremeI have recently discovered an amazing website based in Hong-Kong selling tech gadgets at amazingly cheap prices: cables, adapters, and any type of USB gadget you could think of all in ridiculously low prices and free worldwide shipping. On the first day I ordered 7 different products in 6 separate orders. On the next days, I ordered 13 more items for a total spending of $89.

The name of the website is DealExtreme. And the things I bought are:

I hope you all enjoy this amazing site, and if you do buy something, please click on my links, as I get referral points.

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Posted in Daily Life, Tech stuff | No Comments »

T-immobile

Friday, June 20th, 2008

T-mobileThe story starts nine months ago, on my first arrival to the United States. From the start I knew I have to get myself a cellphone and thus I have bought an iPAQ and a T-mobile prepaid SIM card. However, the SIM card was sold without the PIN code required to make changes to the account. This was not a problem for me, as I could still use the phone and add minutes.

Three months ago, I decided that I will spend more than a total of $100 in a year and thus I could load up to a $100 immediately and get extra benefits: 15% more minutes, and the minutes expire only after a year. Assured of my new “gold” status, I did not buy any more refill cards.

And then, suddenly, yesterday I discovered that my balance of more than $50 became 0. I called customer service and they explained that the 1-year expiration applies after the NEXT refill after I qualify for gold, but she agreed to credit my $50 back. All she needed was to confirm my identity with the PIN I did not have. She said I will have to identify myself at a T-Mobile location and get a new PIN before I could get my minutes back.

As I neeed to make a call right away, I added $10, immediately losing 35 cents for not buying the card as Safeway, and decided I’d go to a T-mobile location the next day. At the T-mobile location, I asked to confirm my account, but they said that my ID must match the name on the account. After several minutes of asking for help, I asked them to check whether or not my name is on the account. It turns out it was, and new PIN was assigned. Now all I had to do was call customer service and have them credit my minutes.

Well, in case any more problems will arise, I decided to call customer service from the T-mobile store. After a short wait, the rep told me that they cannot credit my account since more than 48 hours have passed since the balance expired. I asked to speak with a manager, they complied, leaving me on hold for at least 30 minutes. While on hold, I called them back from my cell phone and got the same reply from two additional reps, asked to talk to the manager, and got disconnected, and then tried again.

After more than 30 minutes of waiting, the final rep managed to get their supervisor to credit my account. An amazing waste of time and money for just $50 that were rightfully mine. Once I deplete my balance I will seriously consider switching to another provider.

T-mobile and the color Magenta are registered trademarks of Deutsche Telekom.

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Posted in Bureaucracy, Daily Life, Tech stuff | No Comments »

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