Back 2 School
On Saturday, my mom and I drove my sister down to Champaign to help her move into her apartment. The campus looks basically the same, except a bunch of new apartment buildings popped up all over the place. Also, there's some new/different stores on Green Street. Remember when that area used to have a Yen-Ching Buffet and the Co-Ed theater? I already forgot what all of that looked like. Other than driving around and moving stuff for my sis, I didn't have a chance to visit any buildings, like Grainger or the Union, and I didn't check to see if R&R's really turned into a gay bar, as rumored.
I did drive by ISR to see all the students moving in, and it revived memories of me and Anuj packing all our stuff into his little Corolla and caravan-ing down to school with P, Vic, Chras, and Rod that day. I especially remember watching some daring passing maneuvers by P in his van on IL-47, a 2 lane highway. Anyways, I could write more nostalgic stuff about college memories, but this blog has seen too much of that already.
Another thing the trip revived was my doubts about whether or not there is an Old Country Buffet in the Champaign-Urbana area. Previously, people had informed me with great confidence that there definitely was, and since they insisted it was true, I just accepted it, even though I had never seen one in 4 years of being at school. Well, when we were down there on Saturday, we ended up having lunch at Hometown Buffet (on Prospect by Outback Steakhouse and across from Meijer). Since the place was so similar to OCB, I started thinking that maybe everyone who told me there was an Old Country Buffet before actually got it mixed up with Hometown Buffet instead.
So this bothered me so much to the point that eventually, I did what any self-respecting nerd would do and just looked it up on the Internet. Google pointed me to Buffet.com or something, where I learned that there were in fact NO locations of Old Country Buffet in the Champaign-Urbana region. However, the kicker is that OCB and HTB are run by the same people so it's pretty much the same thing. Thus in a way, everyone was right and everyone was wrong.
The drive to and from school used to be pretty much a weekly thing for me, one that I must have done close to a hundred times, if not more. I kind of miss driving on the relatively open highway for a couple hours at a time. It's really a relaxing experience, other than the million bugs that die on your windshield, and the occasional possum you run over that gives you a chilling look before the thump comes. One thing I have come to enjoy about the trip is analyzing other people's license plates. On the way back Saturday afternoon, my favorite was "JESUS 85". It made me wonder whether or not there were actually 84 other Jesuses (or is it plural "Jesii"? hmmm...), who wanted that license plate, so this guy ended up getting the 85th. Otherwise, why "85"? I was intrigued.
Well, I guess as all the school people start a new year, us working people simply start a new week. Have a happy Monday everyone.
Monday, August 25, 2003
Friday, August 22, 2003
The Other Side
Back in junior year of college, one of the more promising job presentations/interviews I went to was for Molex, a large maker of connectors that was located in Lisle (or was it Downers Grove? Somewhere close to Darien I remember). The position I interviewed for was basically kind of a technical sales/support consultant, which would require me to learn everything about the connector products, and be able to deal with customers about choosing the right connectors, answering their questions, that kind of thing.
Well, obviously I didn't end up getting hired there, otherwise I probably wouldn't be here working for Northrop Grumman right now. The interesting thing is, Molex is (among others) one of the major sources for connectors that we buy in building stuff here. And as it turns out, my job position here requires me to deal with those kinds of technical sales/support consultants at companies like Molex. But after some frustrating experiences, I must say that I have begun to really hate those guys. They either don't know jack, or give you half-assed answers to important questions, and usually are not very helpful at all.
How weird is it to think that had things worked out differently a couple years ago, I might have found myself on that other side as one of "those guys" I hate. I wonder if that was the case, would I be annoyed with "those systems engineers" from customers like Northrop Grumman, that keep calling up or emailing stupid questions for me to answer. I also wonder whether or not any of these people I deal with were the same biatches that got hired over me back in those days. Hmmmm.....
Back in junior year of college, one of the more promising job presentations/interviews I went to was for Molex, a large maker of connectors that was located in Lisle (or was it Downers Grove? Somewhere close to Darien I remember). The position I interviewed for was basically kind of a technical sales/support consultant, which would require me to learn everything about the connector products, and be able to deal with customers about choosing the right connectors, answering their questions, that kind of thing.
Well, obviously I didn't end up getting hired there, otherwise I probably wouldn't be here working for Northrop Grumman right now. The interesting thing is, Molex is (among others) one of the major sources for connectors that we buy in building stuff here. And as it turns out, my job position here requires me to deal with those kinds of technical sales/support consultants at companies like Molex. But after some frustrating experiences, I must say that I have begun to really hate those guys. They either don't know jack, or give you half-assed answers to important questions, and usually are not very helpful at all.
How weird is it to think that had things worked out differently a couple years ago, I might have found myself on that other side as one of "those guys" I hate. I wonder if that was the case, would I be annoyed with "those systems engineers" from customers like Northrop Grumman, that keep calling up or emailing stupid questions for me to answer. I also wonder whether or not any of these people I deal with were the same biatches that got hired over me back in those days. Hmmmm.....
Thursday, August 21, 2003
Update on yesterday's meeting: it blew. At the end, it was like finishing my last final of the semester, I was tired as hell but could finally breath a huge sigh of relief that it was over. The stuff I presented went fine, so it's nice to know that my work over the past few months wasn't worthless. But I was really getting annoyed by people arguing about little stuff, or stupid questions being asked. It's always those 2 or 3 people in the meeting that make it last 5 hours, when it could probably be done in less than half that time.
We always joke about the motto of Darien being "A nice place to live". Well, on the way to the Dunes on Saturday, me and Olivia saw another cheesy motto printed on the water tower for Worth - "The Friendly Village". I don't know why small towns feel the need to invent a little catchphrase to describe themselves, but it's funny.
*****
Joke of the moment:
A mushroom walks into a bar. The bartender goes "Sorry, we don't serve your kind here." The mushroom replies "Why not? I'm a fun-gi!"
(credit my sister for that one... an oldie but goodie)
We always joke about the motto of Darien being "A nice place to live". Well, on the way to the Dunes on Saturday, me and Olivia saw another cheesy motto printed on the water tower for Worth - "The Friendly Village". I don't know why small towns feel the need to invent a little catchphrase to describe themselves, but it's funny.
*****
Joke of the moment:
A mushroom walks into a bar. The bartender goes "Sorry, we don't serve your kind here." The mushroom replies "Why not? I'm a fun-gi!"
(credit my sister for that one... an oldie but goodie)
Wednesday, August 20, 2003
The following was written yesterday afternoon but I forgot to post it before leaving work. Since I am going to be mad busy today with Design Review fun and probably won't have time to write anything, I'll just put it up anyways and you can all pretend that today is yesterday.
A Glimpse Into The Life
- I have been suffering from a sore throat and stuffed nose for the past few days. Yesterday after work I made a cornish hen because Olivia said it would help me get better. God bless her soul, but I ended up burning my tongue on the soup and now I have no sense of taste in addition to losing my sense of smell to the cold.
- It's a great luxury for my day when a lot of people update their blog/xanga pages. Sometimes I feel like Grandpa Simpson and his mail: "Maybe if I go to sleep for a few days some good mail will build up." So maybe if I stop checking everyone's pages for a few days, some good updates will build up. Props to all the regular updaters out there, you know who you are.
- I watched parts of "Saving Silverman" on TV last night. Normally I don't watch movies on TV, because I always switch the channel during commercials and forget to turn back, and also I don't like the fact that they are edited. But for some reason, I stuck to that channel and caught most of the movie. It turned out to be ok actually, stupid with some funny parts. Although I probably would've been pissed if I had paid money to rent it or watch it in the theater.
- Other than the obvious negative of having to go back to work, another bad part about Mondays is that the baseball schedule is usually much thinner. This hampers my normal routine of keeping my eyes glued to my monitor, following the CBS Sportsline MLB Scoreboard and Yahoo! StatTracker windows. And I guess it also ends up causing me to do more retarded things, such as watching Saving Silverman on TV.
- Today was yet another instance of waking up to the video for Linkin Park's 'Faint' on MTV. It wasn't one of my favorite songs on the CD, but maybe the repeated exposure I get every single morning is making it grow on me. They should've released 'Numb' as a single, that is the best song on the CD in my opinion.
- My daily breakfast consists of cereal with lactose-free milk. When I run out of milk and/or cereal, the backup option is a jelly sandwich. Both options were chosen for their relative ease of construction. Occasionally, I will have some leftover cake or a couple slices of pizza, and those days often turn out to be spicier than the others.
- The drive to work is short and sweet. I could probably make the trip with my eyes closed by now. Usually, I only catch about half a conversation on some morning show. I don't know why I listen to the radio at that time to begin with. What I really need is some music that will put me in a good mood and fire me up for the day. Not much help from the CD changer, which I have managed to fill with sleepy or depressing stuff. I think I need to bust out Doggystyle and put that CD on repeat. Or, just burn a CD with that Ying-Yang Twins song over and over... "to the WINDOWWWWWWW to the WALL" ... I still have no clue what that song is about. But those Ying Yang Twins, they sure have some catchy and ghetto music. Last year's favorite for me was "A-YI-YI-YI-YI", and I don't know what that song was about either. The repeating of syllables seems to be a trademark, maybe they just have a stuttering problem.
- My daily lunch consists of a sandwich (usually turkey, roast beef, or chicken on wheat), chips, and a Capri-Sun Big Pouch, Mountain Cooler flavor. I've found that turkey does indeed make me sleepier in the afternoon. Sometimes, I substitute pretzels for chips, but only if I feel like being spicy that week. Occasionally, I upgrade the lunch experience by treating myself to some fruit.
- I try to drink water regularly at work. The rage these days seems to be those Nalgene bottles. Everyone and their mama has one, except me and my mama. I guess it must be good, and comforting to know that you can run your water bottle over with a car without it breaking, but I've decided to drink my water out of good old plastic cups. Partly to be different, but mostly because I don't like to wash and reuse a plastic bottle. I choose disposable, baby.
A Glimpse Into The Life
- I have been suffering from a sore throat and stuffed nose for the past few days. Yesterday after work I made a cornish hen because Olivia said it would help me get better. God bless her soul, but I ended up burning my tongue on the soup and now I have no sense of taste in addition to losing my sense of smell to the cold.
- It's a great luxury for my day when a lot of people update their blog/xanga pages. Sometimes I feel like Grandpa Simpson and his mail: "Maybe if I go to sleep for a few days some good mail will build up." So maybe if I stop checking everyone's pages for a few days, some good updates will build up. Props to all the regular updaters out there, you know who you are.
- I watched parts of "Saving Silverman" on TV last night. Normally I don't watch movies on TV, because I always switch the channel during commercials and forget to turn back, and also I don't like the fact that they are edited. But for some reason, I stuck to that channel and caught most of the movie. It turned out to be ok actually, stupid with some funny parts. Although I probably would've been pissed if I had paid money to rent it or watch it in the theater.
- Other than the obvious negative of having to go back to work, another bad part about Mondays is that the baseball schedule is usually much thinner. This hampers my normal routine of keeping my eyes glued to my monitor, following the CBS Sportsline MLB Scoreboard and Yahoo! StatTracker windows. And I guess it also ends up causing me to do more retarded things, such as watching Saving Silverman on TV.
- Today was yet another instance of waking up to the video for Linkin Park's 'Faint' on MTV. It wasn't one of my favorite songs on the CD, but maybe the repeated exposure I get every single morning is making it grow on me. They should've released 'Numb' as a single, that is the best song on the CD in my opinion.
- My daily breakfast consists of cereal with lactose-free milk. When I run out of milk and/or cereal, the backup option is a jelly sandwich. Both options were chosen for their relative ease of construction. Occasionally, I will have some leftover cake or a couple slices of pizza, and those days often turn out to be spicier than the others.
- The drive to work is short and sweet. I could probably make the trip with my eyes closed by now. Usually, I only catch about half a conversation on some morning show. I don't know why I listen to the radio at that time to begin with. What I really need is some music that will put me in a good mood and fire me up for the day. Not much help from the CD changer, which I have managed to fill with sleepy or depressing stuff. I think I need to bust out Doggystyle and put that CD on repeat. Or, just burn a CD with that Ying-Yang Twins song over and over... "to the WINDOWWWWWWW to the WALL" ... I still have no clue what that song is about. But those Ying Yang Twins, they sure have some catchy and ghetto music. Last year's favorite for me was "A-YI-YI-YI-YI", and I don't know what that song was about either. The repeating of syllables seems to be a trademark, maybe they just have a stuttering problem.
- My daily lunch consists of a sandwich (usually turkey, roast beef, or chicken on wheat), chips, and a Capri-Sun Big Pouch, Mountain Cooler flavor. I've found that turkey does indeed make me sleepier in the afternoon. Sometimes, I substitute pretzels for chips, but only if I feel like being spicy that week. Occasionally, I upgrade the lunch experience by treating myself to some fruit.
- I try to drink water regularly at work. The rage these days seems to be those Nalgene bottles. Everyone and their mama has one, except me and my mama. I guess it must be good, and comforting to know that you can run your water bottle over with a car without it breaking, but I've decided to drink my water out of good old plastic cups. Partly to be different, but mostly because I don't like to wash and reuse a plastic bottle. I choose disposable, baby.
Monday, August 18, 2003
Sports Talk
For those of you uninterested in sports, fantasy or otherwise, you are advised to skip this entry.
- Up until the past year, I never realized how shady the world of college sports was. It's so sad and disturbing to hear about all the kinds of stuff that goes on - and that's just when they get caught. I guess most of it is caused by the fact that a lot of money is at stake. At least in professional sports, everyone knows that it's all about money and profit. But in college sports, all the schools try to talk about how academics is always a priority, while it's obvious that it isn't. So you have all this stuff happening behind the scenes and a lot ugliness that is swept underneath the rug. You gotta wonder, what scandal or tragedy is gonna be uncovered next?
- Yesterday was the McNown league draft. I went into the draft pretty unprepared this year, but came out feeling ok about how my team turned out. Had the 8th pick, which excluded me from getting any studs (Tomlinson, Ricky Williams, Portis), but it's aight. I ended up with a top 3 of Ahman Green, Terrell Owens, and Daunte Culpepper, which is not fantastic, but decent. And I'm also especially excited because this is the first time I have had Brian Urlacher on my team.
More importantly, Week 1 already looks like it could make or break my season. I have still yet to ever beat Dave Chan's team and my boys desperately need some confidence to start the year off right. A preliminary look at the matchup follows:
*Taipei Dudalisks vs. Dudo Dominators*
QB: Daunte Culpepper vs. Kelly Holcomb
WR: Terrell Owens vs. Randy Moss
RB: Ahman Green vs. Deuce McAllister
TE: Bubba Franks vs. Marcus Pollard
WR/RB: Eddie George vs. Fred Taylor
WR/RB: Rod Gardner vs. Hines Ward
WR/RB: Curtis Conway vs. Isaac Bruce
K: Jason Elam vs. Joe Nedney
D: Brian Urlacher vs. Ray Lewis
D: Derrick Brooks vs. Takeo Spikes
D: Roy Williams vs. Mike Peterson
Hopefully by the end of Week 1, his team name will have to be changed to Dudo Dominatees.
- Usually by the time football season starts, I can focus all my attention towards football instead of baseball because the Sox are out of the pennant race and my fantasy baseball team is pretty much locked into 2nd place. But this year, the month of September looks like it will be very exciting baseball-wise. Sox have a decent chance of winning the Central, if they could find some way to beat crappy teams and win on the road. Two big ifs, but oh well. At least we have something to hope for. And in fantasy, my team is almost dead even with P's team for 1st right now. It should definitely be a interesting final month and a half of the season.
Currently playing on my Winamp: Maxwell - Lifetime
For those of you uninterested in sports, fantasy or otherwise, you are advised to skip this entry.
- Up until the past year, I never realized how shady the world of college sports was. It's so sad and disturbing to hear about all the kinds of stuff that goes on - and that's just when they get caught. I guess most of it is caused by the fact that a lot of money is at stake. At least in professional sports, everyone knows that it's all about money and profit. But in college sports, all the schools try to talk about how academics is always a priority, while it's obvious that it isn't. So you have all this stuff happening behind the scenes and a lot ugliness that is swept underneath the rug. You gotta wonder, what scandal or tragedy is gonna be uncovered next?
- Yesterday was the McNown league draft. I went into the draft pretty unprepared this year, but came out feeling ok about how my team turned out. Had the 8th pick, which excluded me from getting any studs (Tomlinson, Ricky Williams, Portis), but it's aight. I ended up with a top 3 of Ahman Green, Terrell Owens, and Daunte Culpepper, which is not fantastic, but decent. And I'm also especially excited because this is the first time I have had Brian Urlacher on my team.
More importantly, Week 1 already looks like it could make or break my season. I have still yet to ever beat Dave Chan's team and my boys desperately need some confidence to start the year off right. A preliminary look at the matchup follows:
*Taipei Dudalisks vs. Dudo Dominators*
QB: Daunte Culpepper vs. Kelly Holcomb
WR: Terrell Owens vs. Randy Moss
RB: Ahman Green vs. Deuce McAllister
TE: Bubba Franks vs. Marcus Pollard
WR/RB: Eddie George vs. Fred Taylor
WR/RB: Rod Gardner vs. Hines Ward
WR/RB: Curtis Conway vs. Isaac Bruce
K: Jason Elam vs. Joe Nedney
D: Brian Urlacher vs. Ray Lewis
D: Derrick Brooks vs. Takeo Spikes
D: Roy Williams vs. Mike Peterson
Hopefully by the end of Week 1, his team name will have to be changed to Dudo Dominatees.
- Usually by the time football season starts, I can focus all my attention towards football instead of baseball because the Sox are out of the pennant race and my fantasy baseball team is pretty much locked into 2nd place. But this year, the month of September looks like it will be very exciting baseball-wise. Sox have a decent chance of winning the Central, if they could find some way to beat crappy teams and win on the road. Two big ifs, but oh well. At least we have something to hope for. And in fantasy, my team is almost dead even with P's team for 1st right now. It should definitely be a interesting final month and a half of the season.
Currently playing on my Winamp: Maxwell - Lifetime
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