Quik Thinking

(X) Sang Karaoke
( ) Gone on a blind date
(X) Made a prank phone call
(/) Had some kind of beverage accidentally shoot out of my nose
(X) Caught a snowflake on my tongue
( ) Danced in the rain
(X) Climbed a tree
( ) Watched the sunrise with someone
( ) Gone to a drive-in movie
(X) Lay down outside at night and admired the stars while listening to the crickets
(X) Gone somewhere with no idea how I was going to get back
( ) Watched someone die
(X) Cried myself to sleep
(X) Had chicken-pox
( ) Spent the night in a hospital
(X) Fallen into quicksand
( ) Been kicked off a vehicle for disorderly conduct
( ) Been trapped inside or under something until rescued
 
( ) Travelled across a continent on land
(/) Been on a helicopter or submarine <- I've been in a sub but it was docked at the time
(X) Travelled by ship <- Only as a toddler :(
(X) Travelled by tuk-tuk
(X) Travelled by motorcycle <- I've even fallen off one!
(X) Travelled by Maglev train
 
(X) Been horseback riding
(X) Ridden on an elephant or a camel
( ) Been sky-diving
(X) Been in a hot air balloon
(X) Been canoeing or kayaking
( ) Been water-skiing or surfing
(X) Been snow-skiing or snowboarding
( ) Gone scuba-diving
 
(X) Swam in the ocean <- Well, I've tried swimming, anyway, but kept getting knocked over by waves.
(X) Gone ice-skating
(X) Been fishing
( ) Swum with dolphins
(X) Milked a cow
( ) Seen and heard a glacier calf
(X) Climbed up an active volcano
 
(X) Lived in more than one country
(X) Walked down Bourbon Street in New Orleans
( ) Watched the Old Faithful geyser gushing
(X) Biked across the Golden Gate bridge
( ) Been to the Grand Canyon
(X) Seen the Statue of Liberty
(X) Gone to the top of the CN Tower
( ) Gone to the top of the Eiffel Tower
(X) Been to Disneyland OR Disney World
( ) Been in a rain forest
(X) Been to Niagara Falls
( ) Walked on the Great Wall of China
( ) Been to Westminster Abbey
( ) Been to the Louvre
(X) Walked across the Sydney Harbour Bridge
( ) Taken a train across the Chunnel
( ) Been to the Olympics

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http://inaugural.senate.gov/history/video/video-2009-obama.cfm

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My roommate Tina and I went to Bi-Rite for ice-cream tonight. As we got there and joined the back of the queue, the owner came out and handed us a Closed sign, asking us to disallow any more people from joining the line. In exchange, he offered us free ice-cream. Tina held the sign while I fended people off with my sharp tongue. It was interesting to play the asshole for a while and the free ice-cream we got at the end was delicious.

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Not a very creative name but it tastes amazing. This dish was inspired by a rice-maker with a steamer on top. Here's how I make it.

Put 4 parts of rice for every 5 parts water into the rice-maker and turn it on. Slice the brussels sprouts in half and place them into the steamer. Cut out the stem of the chard then cut it into pieces and add it to the steamer. Place the steamer atop the rice-cooker so that the steam from the boiling rice will cook the sprouts and chard.

While the rice is cooking, throw some chilli flakes into a deep pan (or wok) along with some olive oil and heat on low. Slice and chop the leeks and bok-choy before throwing them into the pan. Grind some fenugreek in a coffee grinder, along with some black pepper and cumin. Toss that into the pan. Turn up the heat and pull the leaves of the parsley. Also grate a few garlic cloves and add to the pan. When the leeks and bok-chow are almost done cooking, toss in some crushed walnuts. You can add some pine-nuts or pistas as well. Wait a bit and then turn off the heat before tossing the parsley into the pan.

Mix the contents of all cooking vessels before eating. Here's a list of the ingredients:

• rice
• brussels sprouts
• swiss chard
• leeks
• bok-choy
• fenugreek
• garlic
• parsley
• cumin
• peppercorns
• walnuts
• pine-nuts or pistachios

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Yesterday, while I was at work, UPS left me a one of their infamous love-notes. Apparently I missed their attempt to deliver a package to me. The note said they'd try to redeliver it today between 2 and 5pm so I stayed home to wait for it. I was a little concerned in the morning when I checked the website and it seemed blisfully unaware that the package was out for delivery today so I called UPS and verified with a real person that they would indeed be delivering it today.

Just to make sure that the driver wouldn't skip me out this time, I created a large sign addressed to UPS, telling the driver that I was home and asking him to ring my doorbell or call my cell. I even drew an arrow pointing to the doorbell. Then I waited. 5pm came and went with no sign of the UPS driver so I called them again and asked about the package, only to be told that it would definitely be delivered today.

At a quarter to seven, there was still no package so my roommate called UPS and was told that the driver would continue driving until every location had been hit but it might take a while. No sooner had he hung up than we saw the UPS truck pulling away. The driver had left another note but hadn't bothered to ring our bell, despite the enormous sign. Irate at the driver's incompetence, my roommate found the local UPS dispatch office's number on the Interwebs, called them directly, explained what had just happened and demanded that they send the driver back.

The driver did return and was all apologetic but absolutely denied his clearly negligient behaviour. What an ass-clown! I don't understand why any companies use UPS to ship packages to consumers, unless they don't care that their customers are being inconvenienced by a company that treats customer experience as a joke.

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I was briefly appalled before I realized that I knew him and he was on the SF Bike Coalition board. It turned out that he'd had his jacket containing his keys stolen and was trying to rescue his bike. As luck would have it, the hacksaw couldn't even put a dent in the u-lock so he had to go back for bolt-cutters.

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Normally when I buy a salad for lunch, they put far too many greens in it. Thinking out of the box today, I asked them to put in the toppings first and then there wasn't much place left over at the end for greens so I got only as much as I wanted.

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Just for fun, in light of a recent localization discussion had by our team:
 
1 elephant = 1 *slon*
2 elephants = dva *slona* OR dvoe *slonov*
3 elephants = tri *slona* OR troe *slonov*
4 elephants = chetiri *slona* OR chetvero *slonov*
5-20 elephants = 5-20 *slonov*
21,31,...,91 elephants = 21,31 ,...,91 *slon*
2[2-4], 3[2-4], ..., 9[2-4] elephants = 2[2-4], 3[2-4], ..., 9[2-4] *slona*
2[0,5-9], 3[0,5-9], ..., 9[0,5-9], elephants = 2[0,5-9], 3[0,5-9], ...,
9[0,5-9] *slonov*
 
...and then repeats with addition of more then two digits!
 
I wonder how GetText actually implements this...

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I seem to have become embroiled in a peculiar flaw of the SF public library system that has been letting me borrow books without them being added to my record, which effectively means I am unconstrained by the due dates to which ordinary citizens must hew. I first noticed this a couple of months ago but dismissed it as a one-time hiccup. But when it happened again the next time, I figured it must be a systemic glitch.
 
Here's how it works. I use the website to place a hold on a book that's already in the branch. A day or so later I get an email telling me the book is available for pickup. I then go the library, locate the book on the hold shelves and check it out. A day after that I get an email telling me my hold was cancelled. From this moment on, when I log into the website, it tells me I have no books checked out!

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I spent all day at an innovation offsite, which is like a mini-conference for VMware employees. Lots of fascinating and exciting ideas were presented. At one point, after a presentation about something that promises to create enormous cost savings in the data centre, our head of IT came up to the question mic and asked the presenter when he could have it. The answer, which made me laugh, was "oh, you can have it right now. Just download the source code from my web page!"

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