windows live writer

i’ve decided to use the extra two hours i have at starbucks to experiment with windows live writer. if it works the way it claims to it will be super useful on this trip. below i used their map feature to show you the starbucks i’m sitting in. its in that weird hut-like structure.

Day 1: Map

View Larger Map

Trip Day1: Richmond to DC

somehow i feel like everytime i take the train i have an interesting experience, and trip day1 did not disappoint. as i waited in the staples mill station for the not-so-unusually late train i ran into an old friend. ami and i used to hang out a lot freshman year of college. after that she transferred to UVA and i didn't see quite as much of her anymore. after graduation she joined the peace corps, and she just got back from namibia in march. needless to say we had a lot to talk about and catch up on. and then, right before boarding, i ran into zainab (sp?). so the three of us sat together and had these great conversations ranging from themed parties to genocide (actually, those two topics were oddly tied in together...).

in a stroke of pure brilliance ami and i missed our stop (franconia-springfield). we couldn't hear the announcer at all (i think one of the speakers in our coach was broken or something), so when we saw the train was stopping at our station we grabbed our bags and ran for the door. unfortunately we had to cross two coaches to get to the only open door and by the time we got there they had shut the doors and were about to move on. so we got out at the next stop (alexandria), and went our separate ways. ami took the metro out to her brother's place in ballston, and i was got picked up from the alexandria station.

unfortunately my friend who was picking me up took over an hour to get there from tysons. not because there was traffic, or something legitimate like that, simply because apparently this friend of mine is a combination of unreliable and incompetant. after a brief trip to safeway for some trip supplies i reached laura's at 10:30PM. the annoying thing about public transportation in this country is that a trip that would have taken me about 2hrs by car ended up taking me nearly 5.5hrs. technically, though, i guess its only half amtrak's fault.

oh and for those of you who are wondering, the alexandria train station apparently closes by 9PM. and if you happen to be left waiting outside for someone to pick you up, there aren't any benches. i did get to take a picture or two during that time before my camera battery died.


The view from the front of the alexandria train station. (dont judge...it was low light without image stabilization).

School Bus Graveyard

I shot this picture while driving. Everytime I drive to my parents' house I pass this school bus graveyard. In all honesty there's a chance that its not a final resting place for old school buses, but I'm sticking to my story.

Fancy Schmancy

Check out my fancy schmancy monitor in the lab. Its squarish and nearly as cool as my fancy schmancy desktop PC. I think the new EEEPC has specs on par with my lab PC, if not better.

good wine, good food, and great friends

I have this friend, Hitesh, who I've known since I was 15. We met randomly at a local youth group event and grew to be really good friends. He's truly brilliant...he finished five majors in the amount of time it took me to barely finish one, and one day he'll make a really great lawyer...or doctor...or anything really, just as soon as he picks something :) Hitesh and I have a hard time matching schedules, especially during classes, so we decided to get together when the semester ended. His last exam was friday, so I invited him over to dinner friday night.

For the last couple weeks, I've been spending a lot of time with my cousin, Yogi, and another old friend, Push. The two of them have gone into real estate together and are doing absolutely fabulously. Who knew that my childhood partner in crime would turn out to be such a convincingly knowledgeable businessman? Anyhow, the two of them are very sweet and tend to pick up tabs and bills when we're out, which is great because I love spending time with them and wouldn't be able to quite as much otherwise, given that academia (while "rewarding") just doesn't pay well. So I invited them to dinner as well, partially as a thank you and partially because, well, we usually hang out on friday nights.

Now the great thing about living in the same town your entire life is that everyone knows everyone else, especially within ethnic communities, and especially when you all go to college together. Yogi, Push, and Hitesh were all in the same fraternity in college, so they all know eachother quite well. In addition, my roommate, Sonya, went to college with us and knows everyont, too. So of course she was invited. Slowly the list of dinner guests grew until there were 8 of us.

I decided that an event with more guests than chairs definitely deserved truly engaging culinary endeavor on my part....so I enlisted the help of my dear friend Tracey (you probably know her from her blog, Cooking Ameristyle>) and learned an awesome new trick: how to cook a whole chicken!

All in all, between prep time and actual cooking time, hours were spent in the kitchen, but in the end it was definitely worth it. It's not everyday that you get to do something fun for your friends!

The entire menu was:
hors d'oeuvres: hummus, pita chips, olives stuffed with garlic, and mini dill pickles.
appetizer: tomato and goat cheese stacks, drizzled with a balsamic reduction and garnished with a sprig of cuban basil.
main course: oregano roasted chicken with roasted vegetables (potatoes, carrots, onions, fennel, and multicolored peppers).
dessert: mango sorbet with fresh blueberries.

blag

so there are a few web comics that i follow somewhat religiously. the list is cyanide and happiness, xkcd, amazing super powers, and piled higher and deeper (phd). i've been following phd the longest, then xkcd. amazing super powers and cyanide and happiness are the two latest additions to my list, but recently cyanide and happiness has become the one i check most often. xkcd used to hold that position. actually the guy who does xkcd used to go to middle school with me. i didn't know him all that well, but we had some classes together. anyway, his blog (which he calls a "blag") is the only blog i like to somewhat keep up with. one of his recent posts is about the difficulty of reading in bed....the ultimate position involves minimal muscle activation, so you can read until you fall asleep. basically he came up with a device to hold his kindle while he lays on his side in bed. its a cute design, made of a coat hanger. my bed issue doesn't stop at books, though. the big thing for me is my laptop. right now, while blogging from bed, i'm propped up on some pillows and my knees are bent to support my laptop at an angle where my wrists are relatively comfortable on the keyboard. this position isn't sustainable for long periods of time because of the strain it puts on my neck and legs. at some point, hopefully as i drift off to sleep, i'm going to want to lower my legs and relax my neck.

so randall munroe's blag got me thinking...is there an easy fix for my bed laptop problem? a couple of months ago my roommate and i built a table for my bed. it spans the width and has casters on it so i can roll it up and down the length of the bed. ideally, it would enable me to sit in bed and work on my laptop without having to be in this awkward position. the only problem is that its about 8 inches too high for laptop use. while i realize this is an easy problem to fix, the issue becomes more complicated when you consider that i need new mattresses. any new mattresses will compensate for the additional difference in height. the table is actually pretty cool, but it doesn't really serve its intended purpose. if you happen to read this and think of a simple solution let me know.

speaking of reading this, i dont give anyone the address of my blog. maybe its because blogging feels so inherently 2001-ish that despite its growth in popularity i just can't commit to doing it regularly.