Say Hi to my little friend

This is my snowboard. Courtesy of Nate!

Rambling thoughts on Project Runway Canada

There's a new episode of Project Runway but I can't get my hands on it. That's made me very dissapointed

What I am able to get my hands on is Season 1 of Project Runway Canada. After watching the first episode, here are my thoughts.

1) Iman is super awesome. Her accents is so much better than Heidi's. And she's honest and blunt.

2) The tagline in Canada is LAME. Heidi has "As you know in fashion, one day you're in , and the next day, you're out." Iman has "Let's see if you measure up."

3) Drama-rama galore! I love all the cattiness and bitchiness.

4) I miss Tim Gunn!!!!
Brian Bailey is like a lame cross of Michael Kors and Tim Gunn. Except he talks too much about what he likes. Tim is a mentor. He doesn't impose his views or offer to much. He asks the designers what they want to do and offer advice to help them realize theri vision.

5) Where's Nina? Nina Garcia serves up no-nonsense advice. I'm not sure where I stand with this Canadian Elle Editor in Chief.

6) Designers - Very interesting bunch. I'm sad to see the major drama queen gone in the first ep. Hopefully the other drama queens last a bit longer.

7) Why are Canadians more touchy feely? One thing that I notice about this show is they offer a lot more commentary from the judges, makeup artists in general. PLus, the designers say a lot too. I'm not sure where I stand on this. I like to hear what the designers have to say in their thinking process. I'm not so interested with what freaking Brian Bailey has to say about other people's work, at least not during the creative process.

Seriously!

Seriously, how can my team lose to Notre Dame. Everyone who has played ND has destroyed them so far in NCAAFootball. And then my team comes along and loses. WTF! It's so embarassing.

But not as embarassing as USC losing to Stanford.

I have a LAKE!

Being named Sylvia is hard.

Nothing is named after you. People like Jude, Roxanne, Tommy and Gina, Jessie, Danny, Julie, Sharona, Rita, Eleanor Rigby, and the like have songs for them. No one has songs, poems, or anything named after Sylvia. The closest famous person I get is Sylvia Plath, and what is she best known for? That's right, killing herself by sticking her head in an oven.

Thankfully, my old boss from CSULA goes hiking and finds this gem!



That's Lake Sylvia and the Crystal Range in the background. It's super lovely since my niece is named Crystal!

I run gels like that!

Jesus, I didn't know my genotyping/PCR digestions can be used as art. Now I have a new way to decorate my apartment! Maybe next time, I'll do a microarray heat map or something.



The art that is found in science reaches beyond this lame gel. Clearly, the artist have not seen images of the flourescently-labelled mitotic spindle and chromosomes aligned on the metaphase plate like such:



If only he knew what other awesome pictures are being captured within the cells just by labelling the right proteins.

The Boss

My boss tells me today what whiel he was gone at a scientific meeting, he managed to play tennis with John McEnroe and partied on a yacht with The Killers. WTF!

I can only expect my first scientific meeting with him would somehow involve playing horse with Michael Jordan and hanging out wit the Foo Fighters.

Google Irony

I just posted how I love google. I come home, open the latest issue of the Economist on my desk and find this article

Inside the Googleplex

http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9719610

The article talks about the dilemma Google is facing with user privacy. Where people like me love it and would use all their products. At the same time, I'm relinquishing my privacy to them, as they know what pictures I order, what addresses I look up on the maps, and if they can get a shot of me on google earth (god, I hope none of those exist).

Anyhow, Interesting read.

Sweeter than an Iphone

So there's rumors that a GooglePhone, or GPhone is in development and may be launched.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=070831075133.jtwjdcbg&show_article=1

I personally can't wait for them to do it. Everything google touches is golden (practically). I love the search engine, Gmail, Gtalk, Google Maps, and Earth, Google Calendar. Google Scholar and News are something i frequently use. Plus, I'm a great fan of Picasa, its photo editing suite because it's so user-friendly and has just about all the features necessary for less-than-pro photographers like me.

The idea of a Google-loaded phone is a good send. According to the article, features will include "a special version of Google Maps, compatible with built-in GPS, and compatibility with Gmail," Google's email service."

Which is so awesome because I always get lost!

This will be amazing. Google Labs, Good work!

What I appreciate a lot: Good Service

In the last few days, I had to deal with a lot of bureaucratic shit and customer service calls, bouncing from one office to another and subsequently, one incompetent and not very helpful receptionist to another.

It makes me very annoyed when I've been asked to call ahead of time, show up to an appointment, and have the receptionist who was clearly the one I had spoken to, completely not know who I am. I had explained to her that I had just talked to her half an hour ago, and she has no recollection at all.

Then there's the Comcast automated service. I needed to get new cable service at my apartment My roommate was moving out and she was taking the cable service with her. So I called the comcast customer service number and was promptly greeted with a prerecorded "Please enter thetelephone number including area code where you have or want" Well I can't do that...We don't have a landline in our apartment since we all have cell phones. So I punch 0 as a default, since normally, that will direct your call to an operator, who may be able to help me. I do that three times because the damn machine things I'm just a delinquent. After the third time, they forward my call to some other line, which is completely not of help! In essence, I was hung up on. Most insultingly, they tell me to call a number for Time-Warner, ending with "It's very easy, just hang up the phone and dial the number mentioned" I was fuming at that point. Not only was the whole automated service of no help, but it ended the phone call completely patronizing me!

What I appreciate more than ever now is good customer service. The one that is helpful. Where they listen to what you want, and even though they can't do too much to make everything go your way, they can make it a little bit less frustrating.

Here are two examples:

1) Cashiers who ask to see my ID when I swipe my credit card because the signature box on the back tells them to ask. Some people might find this to be an insult, and incovenience, but it's one of the few inconveniences that I will actively encourage. Identity theft is rampant and I dont mind being asked to show my ID. It's out already when I take my credit card out from my wallet!

2) Fidelity. I had an Roth IRA account with Fidelity and after realizing that I am not able to contribute to one due to some really bullshit tax definition. I had to ask a lot of questions to clarify things and these people were so helpful with my questions. Calls were redirected promptly. They always give me their extension so if the call falls through, I can reach them again. It was just great. I loved dealing with them. In fact, they're so good, I will definitely go back to them again!