I am Stan

Movin'

2010-04-30T06:41:00.002-04:00

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To give you the background, Blogger is getting rid of FTP publishing, so I can no longer host my blog on Net Legion. No biggie - I can't complain since Blogger free ;) Not Facebook "your stuff is ours, but you won't care as long as it's free", but just free.

Still undecided on what to do long-term, though. Facebook wins on usefulness, but Blogger is much better at letting me go back and search through my data. This comes in handy when I can't remember what I did last year (let alone yesterday).

unfulfilled by order fulfillment

2010-01-20T12:25:00.001-05:00

Thinking I was getting a good deal, I ordered TurboTax from Staples.com for $49. At the time, I didn’t realize that I could have walked into the store and gotten the same price. But, what I did know was that Staples always has hundreds of copies of TurboTax on the shelves – so, I figured, I must as well select the “Pick up from store” option and save on the shipping.

My first surprise was that the site informed me (after I paid, of course) that my order will not be ready for two days. Well, OK, I’m not in a desperate rush to pay my taxes, but that’s a bit inconvenient. There was another surprise on the order slip – it said “UPS shipping, free”. UPS? Why would you need to ship an item to a store that already has it?

When I finally showed up to the store, my order was there - still packaged in the UPS envelope. Why, I ask, why? Right next to the checkout lane, there’s a huge display with dozens of TurboTax boxes – couldn’t I have one of those?

Sure, in 1999, online shopping may have been a novelty. But today, can’t Staples.com and Staples-down-the-street realize that they’re the same company? And that I, as a customer, don’t really care which one I shop at, as long as I get a good price? And that paying an external shipping company is probably not the best use of their budget?

we are #1-10!

2010-01-06T09:06:00.002-05:00

Every year, the Nielsen/Norman Group compiles a list of ten "best" intranets, and publishes a report that it sells to companies (like ours) eager to take a peek at the competition. Every year, we read it and walk away with mixed feelings: some features are well designed and executed, while others are years behind what we have. Oh, and of course every year there's a submission that consist of a lightly-customized SharePoint portal... and that's it. "Bah!", we say, "We’ve got SharePoint, plus CMS, plus a stand-alone portal, plus a crapload of applications, plus thousands of static collections..."

Surely, our users are just as proud of the hornet's nest of complexity that we call our intranet.

In any case, last year we decided to throw our hat in the ring. A small brain trust from a couple of departments got together to work on the submission. I ended up writing and rewriting sections on our design methodology and usability testing, as well as the "lessons learned".

We sent in the submission, complete with dozens of screenshots, and waited patiently for the result. When it came a few weeks later, we were pleasantly surprised – we got selected! Unfortunately, we were not allowed to reveal that fact until the final report was published.

But that wasn't all there was to it. We thought that we were done with the writing part. Wrong. Being selected into the top ten meant more writing – much more! When we sent in the second wave of documents, the NNG people responded with a draft of the writeup... and let’s just say it needed a lot of work. I can sort of understand the factual flaws and the inconsistent voice, but the amount of grammar errors and typos reminded me of the finest Lee, Kong & Co. work. More revisions, more emails...

Finally, yesterday we got the good word that the report was officially released. You can visit NNG to check out the summary, but getting your hands on it would cost a cool $224. At least we've got our copy for free... regardless, it's nice to be recognized in the same crowd as GE and Wal-Mart.

catching up

2010-01-03T22:22:00.002-05:00

Dogs, holidays, house, and everything else have conspired against any blogging activity, but no matter - I still remember a thing or two from the past month.

The highlight was the San Fransisco trip, of course. Kathy was nice enough to host us for a couple of days after our poorly-planned arrangements with Hakeem fell through. On Monday, Dec 7th, it was time for me to hit up the "An Event Apart" conference, and hit it I did. It was intense - not a multi-track CHI-like affair with 45-min nuggets of knowledge, but more of a tutorial onslaught. AEA was very much practice-oriented and focused, and I liked that. Glad I went.

Susan and I had a little bit of time to explore San Fransisco on our own, and the highlight for me was the Legion of Honor museum. Maybe I didn't expect a classical collection in the vicinity of the Golden Gate, or maybe it was the nicely-selected exhibits... or maybe it was the fact that we got in for free with our Bank of America cards... either way, it stood out during our museum blitz.

Jonas was nice enough to drive us to Napa, where we enjoyed a two-hour wine tasting with the owner of Hendry winery. Afterwards, we spent the remainder of the trip in South Bay, thanks to the hospitality of Dave and Jen. How they find time for anything with Dylan and the twins, I don't know. Hakeem made an appearance at the 11th hour and came through for us with a drive to the airport. Good times.

Fast-forward to the end of December, to the non-denominational holiday celebration at the Drozdetski home base. As usual, we've had our dinner on the 24th, sat around for a minute, and decided it was time to open presents. I made off handsomely, but then followed up after Xmas with an investment into a PS3. Yes, "investment" into our Blu-Ray/Netflix watching experience - the games are a nice bonus.

post-thanksgiving mayhem

2009-12-02T07:46:00.002-05:00

I managed to get myself sick over Thanksgiving, which didn't help as we tried to host Daisuke, meet with Schrock, Dave, and Sunny, and drive down to Rhode Island to see Pisit and Casey. On T-day itself, Susan prepared a feast at her parents' house, with me pitching in for manual labor tasks. Susan used a special bag to cook the turkey in, which I had doubts about - but it totally worked out, and the turkey was fantastic!

Oreo was spending the holidays away from home, as Susan's aunt got another dog and wanted Oreo to get to know her. Then, on Monday, I was in for a surprise when Susan revealed that the new doggie, Luna, will spend the week with us. Again, for the record, I'm *not* a dog person, but Luna is adorable! Plus, she follows Oreo around as if they're tied together. Very cute, especially when they cuddle together:

Finally, yesterday was Susan's birthday. We went to an Ethiopian restaurant in Somerville for a romantic dinner - made even more romantic by the fact that we happened to be the only people dining... unless you count a crowd of townies at a bar one door over. In any case, we went full-on authentic, and ate with our hands aided only by pieces of injera bread. The best part was the sweet honey wine... very nice.

two days in nyc

2009-11-18T06:51:00.004-05:00

So over the weekend, we got a chance to scoot down to New York. Oreo took the copilot seat on the armrest on the drive down:

Once we got to NYC, we had exactly 0.5 seconds to spend with each one of our friends, but it was still good to see Chris, Sunny, Eugene, Karim, and Roman. We've had a definite blast at the lawyer-organized party that had an agenda split up into 45-min blocks, and got a chance to take Oreo to the dog park for the first time. The little guy was so excited he slept like a rock for most of the way home.

On the way out, we did make one stop at a place that Susan somehow found in Flushing. It was a canteen inside a Hindu temple that served "real" Indian food. We didn't know what exactly was on our plates, but soon found out what the flavor extremes taste like. The place itself was interesting - kind of a family-run, family-oriented joint with simple picnic tables and plastic chairs. Take a look at how many dishes we scored for about $20:

wud

2009-11-17T23:27:00.002-05:00

So, I survived another World Usability Day. It was my turn to pick up the slack, after skipping last year while my coworkers bore the brunt of bored kids at the Museum of Science. This year, things were drastically different 'cause we've had to change venues - ending up at South Station, a pretty busy stop on the Red line / commuter rail.

What preceded the event were a dozen or so hectic meetings where we tried to figure out how in the heck we could tie usability to this year's theme - sustainability. If you think about it, if you set out to create something perfectly usable, you may end up wasting more materials/energy/money than you would otherwise. It's all about finding that sweet spot between designing something that works and not destroying the planet in the process.

In any case, we actually ended up with a few fairly coherent activities/posters. Folks from Farm Design had examples of sustainably-built yet usable medical implements. Somebody discovered that Boston has a place called the "Institute for Human Centered Design" that produces nifty items for everyday use. We even recruited a local bike shop to demo their foldable bikes.

The star of the show was your truly (of course!). I stuck about a million ideas on my poster, but the gist was that a) companies that make products that are designed to fail / become obsolete / you can't repair yourself should be avoided (I'm looking at you, Apple!); b) DIY'ers that either fix things or repurpose their components are cool; and c) think before you buy. I even had a hands-on activity - I took apart an unusable and very much broken vacuum cleaner, and invited passersby to come up with novel uses for the parts. You can see the plastic bits under the poster:

Surprisingly, people that did stop by were very interested in the message. It may have helped that they had nothing to do while they waited for their train, but hey, we'll take 'em in any shape or form.

All in all, I thought things went much better than they have in some of the previous years. As a bonus, all the participants got to imbibe at will at the reception held inside MIT's Stata Center. And let me tell you - that's one weird building all right... talk about usability...

nothing grows... except hilarity

2009-10-27T07:09:00.003-04:00

Since early spring, Susan and I have been carefully tending our garden. We bought the seeds, planted them, and watered the soil (almost) daily.

OK, maybe we forgot to water for a week. Or two.

And maybe the plot that we chose only gets sunshine for five minutes a day.

Still, we were disappointed with the harvest that can be only described as disastrous. The tomato plant yielded approximately two tomatoes. Not two pounds or bushels - two tomatoes, period.

Carrots didn't do much better. The one that did grow is, umm, a little too awkward to serve to guests:

people of walmart

2009-10-27T07:02:00.004-04:00

Definitely the funniest site I've seen in a while: People of Walmart. Why didn't I think of bringing a camera to the store before?

Update: John Michael has pointed me at another treasure, "People of Public Transit". Excellent compilation!

slappin' paws

2009-10-19T08:08:00.002-04:00

Oreo shows off his listening skills:

royal visit #2

2009-10-16T08:21:00.003-04:00

So now the second October visitor - Daisuke (accompanied by Cecilia) - has come and gone. Daisk got lucky, though, since his visit coincided with a Yelp event at the Microsoft office in Cambridge. Not a shabby place, I must admit, esp. when it is filled with people handing out free food/coupons/baby bottles of vodka. Unfortunately, Daisuke didn't make it to Burlington in order to meet Oreo - oh well, maybe next time!

don juan

2009-10-12T06:46:00.002-04:00

Jonny made an appearance in Burlington, seeing that he's had an interview with Tufts Medical School. He said it went well, so there is real hope that Jon will make it back to Boston!

Susan made us a very nice breakfast before Jon had to leave for the airport, and it was warm enough to eat outside on the deck. Awww. Maybe the food will contribute in luring Juan away from Florida!

again, google...

2009-10-08T11:48:00.002-04:00

Minding my own business, I went into Google maps to find directions - and was stunned to see the property lines drawn in. Holy sh#t! I can see a very detailed representation of all the plots in the neighborhood, including our very own patch of dirt. The neighbors across the street have a strange driveway configuration, and sure enough, it's on there. Wow.

we're so predictable...

2009-10-01T09:42:00.002-04:00

I stumbled upon Google's Domestic Trends data visualization, and found some of the patterns very curious. All that Google doe is track the number of search queries across many categories - such as "Air Travel" and "Unemployment". Take a look at "Computers & Electronics": every Xmas, the searches spike in exactly the same fashion. I bet the searches on "batteries" spike even higher after Dec. 25th...

about time...

2009-09-30T09:41:00.002-04:00

A year later, an EU commission finally determined that Georgia started the war in South Ossetia. Something tells me that the news networks will hesitate to admit that they totally f'ed up the reporting of that conflict...

st. barack

2009-09-17T06:42:00.002-04:00

Just read that Obama is scrapping plans to install the missile shield in Eastern Europe. That was one of Bush's dumbest ideas, and he's had quite a few of those.

So is it time to canonize Barack yet?

decordova

2009-09-07T00:10:00.003-04:00

After slaving away on deck duty for a few hours, Susan and I decided to reward ourselves with a trip to the DeCordova outdoor sculpture park. The stars lined up perfectly, as the admission was free for Bank of America members.

"But wait, Stan," you might say, "your Bank of America account was closed a while ago!" Yes. Yes it was. But I still held on to my Hello Kitty card, heh heh!

The weather was perfect, and we really enjoyed walking around the forested reserve and discovering cool installations, like this one:

For some reason, I've been craving a Zingerman's sandwich the whole day, so we tried to find the closest substitute in downtown Concord. Main Street's Market came really close with its salmon BLT, so I left happy - right back to more construction work.

no somerville today

2009-09-02T22:20:00.002-04:00

Ohhh man, we almost made it to Senator Kerry's town hall meeting in Somerville, but just as we were about to take off Oreo landed awkwardly after jumping off the front stairs and started whimpering. He seems OK now (good, 'cause he ain't got no insurance!)

Luckily, it looks like the town hall meeting went well, and that Senator Kennedy's dream wasn't smeared days after his passing. Still, what a debacle this healthcare debate has been so far...

handshake

2009-09-02T12:43:00.001-04:00

Finally, my laborious labor has produced something I can show outside of work. For the past few months, I’ve been working on a project that’s looking into using social networking to connect folks at MITRE to the people we work with on the outside – sponsors, research partners, vendors, etc. Sure, we have some tools now, but they’re either email-based or just too heavy-duty due to security regulations. We needed something more persistent but at the same time more open, and a social network may just fit the bill. Why do I say “may”? Well, that’s the whole point – we’re prototyping an approach, and if it doesn’t meet our needs, at least we’ll at least know why.

So anyhoo, after searching far and wide, the team established that we needed our own environment (sorry Ning/Facebook/LinkedIn, you ain’t getting our data!) We picked Elgg, an open-source platform that so far has been working reasonably well for us. The biggest problem I’ve faced on the user experience side, however, is that Elgg is endlessly expandable with plugins written by the open-source community – and those plugins are endlessly inconsistent. Just getting something that could pass for a reasonable navigation scheme took a few Stan-years... and I’m still not done.

Since this is a research project, we’ve had an equivalent of 1 - 1.5 full-time developers working on it, which meant I had to get my hands dirty with PHP - and actually, that felt strangely liberating. Normally, I’m working with locked-down COTS products, where even the smallest change takes. With this Elgg-based thing, everything is up for grabs.

Our baby, christened “Handshake”, is out on https://handshake.mitre.org. Check it out, although there’s only so much “checking out” you can do without being invited by a MITRE employee. If you’re interested, shoot me an email, and I’ll pull you in.

kelly's centennial

2009-08-13T13:32:00.003-04:00

In the middle of a day, I received a distress call from Susan – her car blew a tire on a highway not far from my work. I got to her pretty quickly, and put the spare on. Then, on the way back, my dear Prelude Kelly reached quite a milestone:

I wasn’t sure if the car was gonna blow up or turn into a pumpkin, but luckily neither has happened.

my cusk and I

2009-08-08T21:05:00.004-04:00

OK, so maybe waking up at hella-early in the morning was worth it after all. Sunny and I met up in Gloucester, and boarded a Yankee Capts fishing boat. The website (pretty much our only source of information for anything deep-sea fishing related) told us to show up two hours in advance of departure, but we could've walked in ten minutes before 7AM - the boat wasn't too crowded. So, right at seven, off we went - past the picturesque harbor, and into the Atlantic - for a good hour and a half. Then, the boat dropped anchor, and we got to fishin'.

Now, this type of fishing wasn't what we expected. Instead of casting, we dropped bait on a hook attached to a heavy sinker all the way down to the ocean floor, 250ft or so below the water surface. One thing that we quickly found was that it meant lots of reeling. Lots. Just dropping the lure took almost a minute in some places.

Sunny was the first to deliver, with a fish that was just short of the minimum length that you needed in order to keep it. Then, we hooked a couple of sharks (yup...) - not as scary as they sound, as they were about 20 inches long. Those we couldn't keep either. Finally, mid-way through the day, I caught a cusk fish:

Apparently, these guys are infamous for being poor swimmers, so it barely fought as I brought it to the surface. Eh, all that mattered was that it was long enough!

A little later, Sunny distinguished himself by reeling in a nice-looking haddock:

Thus, operation Fish was completed, and we had something to show for it. Good times!

plans for the weekend

2009-08-08T05:11:00.001-04:00

Up at 4:30AM on a Saturday morning to go deep-sea fishing, after staying up to play paintball last night. Somewhere out there, work begins on a monument to my manliness.

the whole 10 yards

2009-08-06T22:47:00.004-04:00

This is a first for me as a homeowner - and for my family as a whole. I just got my very own 10 yd dumpster!

What's the big deal, you say? Finally, I have a chance to get rid of all the construction debris that have been clogging the basement/garage/shed. This is just about half of the stuff that's been sitting in the basement alone:

First the yard sale, now this... we're finally getting organized!

P.S. For the record - yes, I know that disposing of stuff is not the most environmentally-friendly thing you can do. In my defense, everything I'm throwing out has been carefully sorted for anything recyclable/salvageable.

long live the autococker...

2009-07-28T23:17:00.002-04:00

After eight faithful years of service, my Autococker is no more. At the last paintball outing, the cocking rod snapped - leaving me with a very sentimental paperweight. Alas, it's time to move on - it'll be hard to expect the same accuracy from any of the new electronic markers, but I was clearly outgunned in the rate-of-fire department.

So, after a few days of online research rendered useless by a 10-minute conversation with Jason at Paintball Wizard, I am now a proud owner of a Dangerous Power G3 marker. You gotta admit, it's a bit sexy:

We'll see if it shoots as well as it looks, though.

yard sale: lessons learned

2009-07-25T22:49:00.003-04:00

We pulled it off - we've had our first very own yard sale! It was something that we kept on delaying for a while: either the weather wasn't right, or we were busy doing something else. In the meantime, useless junk kept on accumulating everywhere, most noticeably in the garage.

I was so excited about this purging process that I woke up an hour early - this is on a Saturday, too. Even before I had breakfast, I started pulling boxes of mismatched plates that we'll never use, old PS2 games, cables, books - and arranging them on a couple of tables at the end of the driveway. I even converted an old door slab into a makeshift display space and started piling things up on the stairs. Susan joined in to help out, rescuing some kitchen utensils in the process:

Right before 9AM, I went out to hang the signs that I carefully scribbled with a huge Sharpie the night before. Guided by a traffic map that I sketched out, I tried to make sure that I channelled pretty much all the cars passing by the downtown into our little dead-end street. Apparently, the scheme worked - a steady stream of bargain-hunters kept us busy for most of the morning.

People do vary. Some where very nice and stopped by to chat even if they weren't buying anything. Some haggled down to the last cent (c'mon! who does that!) And then there were some who just drove by, made a U-turn at the end of the street, and went back up the hill. Can't please them all!

So, what are the lessons learned?
- a wheelbarrow is mighty useful for carrying items back and forth from the garage
- little post-it stickies work well as price labels
- def. need lots of change ($1 bills)
- dropping down the prices at the end of day just to get rid of stuff does the trick - we should've done it earlier!

So, all in all, the garage can breathe easier, we're $86 richer, and hopefully some people will use our stuff instead of having to buy new things. Everybody wins. Especially the dude who got the yellow seats from my del Sol for $15. May he find a way to ride them into awesomeness.

the dish

2009-07-20T22:16:00.002-04:00

There are those that claim to find fault with the married life. But "those" are not taking the positives into the account. Take, for example, the feast that Susan cooked up for me on Friday. For starters, we had French green beans and baked sweet potatoes with cinnamon. Next came the roasted chicken seasoned with garlic and herbes de provence, with a side of spring pasta with zucchini and carrots. Finally, as if I wasn't stuffed, Susan unveiled the dessert: fruit medley with white chocolate. Owie. I'm still recovering.

back to paintball

2009-07-13T23:20:00.002-04:00

After a hiatus of a couple of years, I went back to paintball, and now I don't even know why I stopped. I've played twice in the past two weeks, and had a heck of a blast.

During the first outing, the ref took a few pictures on the field, and happened to snap one right after I hung the flag. Woot!

more home improvement

2009-07-07T21:37:00.003-04:00

Let's see, how about something else to impress Mr. Eugene Katz... ah, here, the shed saga!

The roof on the shed was so mossy that I couldn't even tell what the original color of the shingles was:

But this was before the July 4th weekend. Two full days of ripping off old shingles, replacing rotten plywood, and putting all new roof goodies in place, and here we have Shed 2.0:

For better or worse, I went with the "high definition" look (I'm not kidding, that's what the shingles were called). It's supposed to be rustic... I dunno. All I know, it's better than what was there before - and I got to use my roofing nail gun!

update from the home improvement front

2009-07-06T22:35:00.002-04:00

There is a reason for the shortage of posts lately - Stan has been getting serious about home improvement. The big project over the past couple of weeks was fixing gutters and replacing siding that was permanently damaged by the lackluster state of the old gutters. Things are looking much better, and the main water spout now culminates in a water collection barrel:

Free water collected in an enviromentally-friendly way... doesn't get much better than that!

oreo, no milk

2009-06-15T22:44:00.002-04:00

Normally, when little hairy monsters run around my house and poop on my carpet, I get a little upset. But this particular fellow was just too cute to get mad at:

Susan's aunt let us borrow Oreo, a Cavalier Spaniel puppy, for a two-day experiment on how we'd handle another living thing. I'm proud to say that the thing was still alive and happy when we gave it back - but, then again, I don't think Oreo has had any unhappy moments. Ever.

life lessons

2009-06-07T19:51:00.003-04:00

This weekend, I've learned that packing a pillow, a bottle of vodka, a set of poker chips, and a bag of Goldfish crackers is not enough to sustain you on an overnight camping trip. I've also learned that sleeping in your car while being completely drenched as the temperature drops below 50F is mighty uncomfortable. Who knew.

On the bright side, hiking through the cranberry bogs at the Myles Standish State Forest was awesome.

a surprise run-in

2009-06-04T21:29:00.004-04:00

After some deliberation, I figured that there is no way I can cover our vacation in a blog post. For one, I've been working non-stop ever since I came back, and all my vacation memories have been replaced with worries about deadlines and visions of horrible UIs. At the same time, the amount of cities and sights that we visited ended up a little overwhelming. I found Barcelona very interesting, but Susan was not as much of a fan. In France, we were smitten by the hospitality of Susan's uncle and his family. Tuscany was unbelievably scenic, while Assisi and Perugia each had their own unique feel to them. Finally, Rome... sort of the best and the worst of the Western civilization mixed with a healthy helping of traffic and dirt.

The pictures are on Facebook, and Susan will love me for highlighting just one:

By pure accident, we caught the running of the Mille Miglia in Siena. When I saw this car, I just gulped "what the heck" and snapped the picture. Only later did I realize what it was. You're looking at a Merecedes SLR Stirling Moss, a $1mil car that's only available to previous SLR owners... and, apparently, McLaren F1 drivers like Mika Hakkinen (behind the wheel). Wow.

when in rome...

2009-05-20T10:23:00.002-04:00

OK, quick check-in from an internet cafe in Rome. In the past ten days, Susan and I traveled from Barcelona to Arles, France, then rented a car for a tour de force through Tuscany and Umbria. We somehow made it to the Italian capital, despite the desperate attempts of multiple Italian motorists and pedestrians wishing to end their life in front of our VW Polo. I'll have to sort through my memory (and my camera's memory card) later to identify the high points of the trip - there just have been so many. But yeah, my batteries are recharged, and all my domestic concerns are long forgotten... or, rather, replaced with new ones - like not getting burned to a crisp under this crazy sun!

home and away

2009-04-28T22:40:00.003-04:00

Eugene is better, and is back from the hospital, jaw wired and all. Now it's time to focus on domestic affairs for a little while, as in about a week I'm taking off for Barcelona. Susan should be there already, if all goes according to plan. The plan calls for us driving all the way through the south of France to Tuscany, Umbria, and Rome. We'll see what happens!

But, back to the home front. I just planted some hedge plants, and have very high hopes - we could really use some green in front of the ugly wire fence. Here's my pride and joy:

Now, if I could just remember to water it once in a while...

no yum

2009-04-24T11:01:00.003-04:00

Eugene is in surgery now, getting his jaw fixed and wired shut, and front teeth removed. He'll have to undergo more surgery later and get dental implants, but for the next two weeks he'll have to eat though a straw. Sucks all around.

jab of fate

2009-04-23T16:03:00.002-04:00

Here I was, minding my own business and getting lunch for Sue, who happened to be home sick with the flu, when my phone rang. My brother's name was on the caller ID, but when I picked up it was his girlfriend - and she was clearly shaken.

She told me that Eugene was at a dermatologist's office when he passed out, fell, and broke his jaw. Yaowsas. I got in touch with my parents as soon as I could, and we headed of to NYC.

Luckily, we missed all the traffic and got to the NYU Medical Center quickly. Eugene just got out of ER, and was in a pretty sorry shape - bruises on his face, cuts on his lip, and talking with about as much diction as Mayor Menino. He swallowed so much blood that he was throwing up, but by the time we got there the bleeding subsided. They had him hooked up to IV and morphine... in other words, the scene was exactly what you see on TV.

Incidentally, TV shows were my only frame of reference. I've never stepped foot in a hospital before, which might explain what happened later that night.

I left to park our car in Brooklyn, and met with Sunny on the way back to the hospital. We took a cab to go a few blocks up 1st Ave, and walked through the lobby to where I remembered the elevators last were - only they weren't there. At this point, we ran into the first security guard, who directed us to go to the visitor's office and procure visitor's passes. Nobody was paying attention to us in the office, so we took off to dodge some more guards and actually made it into an elevator. Too bad it only went up to the 9th floor - and Eugene was on 11th.

Only after a long conversation with a guy back at the office did we figure out that we were in the wrong hospital. NYU was up one block. D'oh.

guilty pleasure

2009-04-17T10:32:00.001-04:00

I love going to Walmart. There, I said it.

Last nite, when Susan mentioned that she wanted to go, I hollered "Me too!!" You don’t see me get this excited for your average shopping trip, oh no. Walmart is "special" in every sense of the word.

First, I’m very much aware of the fact that Walmart is taking over the world, eating babies of small business owners, and turning China into a cesspool of pollution. However, in my mind, this is balanced by the fact that I can get all my stuff in one place for cheap. How about that for rationalization.

What I secretly enjoy the most is getting a glimpse into the life of middle America. Boy, it’s as captivating than watching a car wreck in slow motion... and about as tragic. It wouldn’t be a Walmart trip if you didn’t see a poster child for morbid obesity, ignorance, or poor birth control choices. You’d think you’d leave depressed, but no, the opposite happens – when you walk out of the door, you say to yourself, "Phew, I’m sure glad I don’t have to shop here!"

But you know you’ll be back.

dios mia!

2009-04-15T22:02:00.003-04:00

Susan and I simultaneously realized that we're going to Europe in a just a couple of weeks, and we have no idea where we're gonna stay or what we're gonna go. Panic.

chi 2009, wrap-up

2009-04-10T08:49:00.001-04:00

CHI ended with a bang. As in, me banging my head against the seat in front of me, hoping to erase the awful memories of the closing speech. Some professor from a Dutch design school went on and on about what I could only classify as "design for the sake of design". His presentation style was lethargic, the text on the slides was microscopic, and on top of it all the guy chose to dress like Steve Jobs. Argh.

But, all frustrations aside, I got a lot of useful stuff out of CHI. On the last day, I participated in a great SIG discussion on user research in online social networks. The general outcome was "IRB, you ain't seen nothing yet". I happened to sit next to a guy from Facebook who complained of researchers circumventing privacy controls (and Facebook's TOS) by joining geography-based networks and screen-scraping to their heart's content. There was also some interesting stuff coming out of IBM's Beehive... oh, and some great smackdowns regarding the concept of "aesthetics".

As my co-worker put it, it's good to check CHI out every couple of years to see what's going on in the field. Maybe the field should do a better job separating fluff from stuff, though.

chi 2009, cont.

2009-04-07T12:44:00.000-04:00

CHI continues to be a total mixed bag. Some sessions are well composed and presented; others are on the level of "we've asked six people about their phones". Some are inspirational and/or immediately useful; some are so researchy/long-winded that they turn my brain to mush - like the guy that spent half an hour introducing the word "trajectory" to describe user interaction with a system.

I've heard some semi-useful stuff on social networking research that I'll be able to use. There's some interesting stuff on metrics, mobile stuff, and video. Sustainability made an appearance as a topic, so that's good to see.

The venue (Hynes Convention Center) is eh. The biggest complaint is the wireless network that goes in and out. You'd think that they'd plan for a crowd of geeks with their laptops...

chi 2009

2009-04-06T09:53:00.003-04:00

So Boston CHI is under way, wooooo! Judy Olson just made her opening speech... reminded me of the good ol' SI days - Judy is speaking in her usual "drinking from a fire hose" style, and I'm typing away on my laptop. She spoke at length about social ergonomics, or the intersection of human psychology and the CSCW technologies like telepresence.

The conference opens on the same day as the Sox season, and the Sox are playing at home for the first time in, like, eternity. That is, they are scheduled to play if they don't get rained out. Either way, an interesting commute back is guaranteed.

hello, carter!

2009-03-28T01:28:00.002-04:00

Check out my new bundle of joy!

OK, well, he's not exactly *mine*, but he did bring lots and lots of joy to Kenny and Laureen - and they clearly deserve it. To say that they are fully committed to their baby is an understatement: it seems that they were made to be perfect parents. I'm sure Carter will turn out a-OK (until he gets old enough for uncle Stan to teach him a thing or two, of course).

So, last weekend Susan and I enrolled in Parenting 101, and went over to the Kwong's house to get a taste of what raising babies is all about. Susan was up late with us but had to turn in eventually as she had to work the next morning. I, on the other hand, dutifully stayed up all night with Kenny to attend to all the baby-feeding-diaper-changing fun.

Next day, I was completely delirious. It'd be hard for me to go for a repeat right away, yet Kenny and Laureen are managing just fine. All the best to them!

f my life

2009-03-17T23:05:00.002-04:00

If you have a few hours to spare, check out fmylife.com. It's like Twitter for the unfortunate. I'm pretty sure I can contribute some good stuff...

fiber (optic) diet

2009-03-04T16:37:00.000-05:00

We gave into the temptation and signed up for Verizon FiOS. Up until now, we were getting high-speed internet from Comcast – and, as a side effect, got a few broadcast channels – some in HD. But, Verizon kept sweetening the deal. Free installation, DVR, and now cash back… we couldn’t say “no”.

First impressions?

The number of channels is a bit mind-boggling. The quality of the HD signal is noticeably better (no, all HD is not created the same, as I’ve learned – has to do with differences in compression levels).

The installation was a bit more involved than simply pulling cable through the wall. Downstairs in the basement we now have a futuristic battery/terminal box. It contrasts quite nicely with the piles of construction debris.

Major complaint?

The DVR box is slooow – so slow that some actions simply hang. Even switching channels results in a noticeable delay. But, we just sigh, and say that this is still better than having to watch commercials ;)

factor my bling

2009-02-27T12:44:00.002-05:00

In a story parallel to that of the “World of Goo” creators (excellent Wii game, btw, completely different subject), my friend Kenny is trying to get an online business going with a help of his web-savy developer friend. The idea is fairly novel – they collect salary information from those who sign up, and let users input as many personal attributes as they wish. By doing so, users can find out, for instance, what the average salary of a Tufts grad is – or, if they would've made more money if they were a foot taller.

I've given them tips on the usability aspect of things, and can say that I'm genuinely impressed with the results. They've already solved some significant technical problems, like how to deal with incomplete data sets, and how to anonymize the data effectively.

Kenny & Co. recently went through the alpha launch, so feel free to check out the results of their labor on Blingfactor.com. Go ahead, sign up, look around, and let me know what you think.

v-day recap

2009-02-16T06:16:00.004-05:00

Ah yes, the Hallmark holiday you just can't skip - Valentine's Day... Susan and I are developing a tradition of sorts, where we go to Spanish-type restaurants every Feb. 14th (Mexican counts, right?) This time, we ended up going to Dali's, a tapas place, which proved to be ground zero for romance - judging from the never ending line outside.

Here's a picture of Susan enjoying garlic shrimp, scallops in butter sauce, and squid in its own ink - yum! The food was really good:

But, that's not all that the Mrs. got. At home, there was a brand-new shoe closet waiting for her:

Well, OK, it wasn't really a surprise, because the Mrs. helped put up the shelves. Still, Jonas, eat your heart out ;P

sign me up!

2009-02-02T12:08:00.002-05:00

As soon as CHI announced that their next conference will be in Boston, it was pretty clear where my annual educational outing will take me in 2009. Early registration is now open, so I signed up today.

Now, if your boss needs some additional encouragement to sign off on your travel plans, let him/her know that you can get a $200 discount off of the registration rate by becoming a SIGCHI member (which costs $55). If the corporate powers refuse to pay for the hotel, let’s talk – I should have room in casa Stusan. If there’s no money in the travel budget, hitchhike. Point is, get your bum over to Boston & get schooled ;)

P.S. Oh yeah, did I mention that Judy Olson will be the opening speaker? Even if she did leave SI for the greener pastures of Irvine, you can bet that she'll start things off on the right foot.

we fit!

2009-01-30T00:36:00.002-05:00

Some yuppie trends are too good not to follow. Being Wii-obsessed is one of them, and getting Wii Fit is just a natural progression of that condition.

Yes, we paid way too much for it, and yes, it was worth every penny. Now we can quantify how terrible I am at dancing. In a mini-game where you don't have to do much more than step on and off the board in rhythm to music, Susan scored something like 138 "perfects" and 2 "OKs". I managed to get only 2 "perfect" steps in...

what can stop a mailman?

2009-01-28T19:23:00.002-05:00

This is quite possibly the best piece of news I've read in a long time (oh yeah... since last Tuesday... but nevertheless). The Post Office is considering cutting delivery days to five.

Of course! Do I really care if my mailbox becomes junk-mail-free on Tuesdays? Of course not. I would even wait an extra day for the Wii Fit that we should be getting any time now. Why such uncharacteristic patience? Well, think for a second how much gas it takes for the mailman to visit every single house almost every day. It's mind-boggling.

do my work for $0.03

2009-01-27T08:28:00.002-05:00

Really busy at work - we're prototyping an enterprise social networking service that's supposed to punch through the firewall in a big way. My part involves customizing an open-source platform to meet our needs; seeing that all the developers are either busy or have spontaneously left the company as soon as the project started, I've set up my one-man "full UCD cycle" shop. With the speed of a cheetah that's been caught in a bear trap, I mock up what I need to do, hand it off to the front-end developer (me), muck around with the PHP/HTML/CSS/JavaScript soup, have the testers (namely, myself) play with the changes in the sandbox environment, and then release it to our prototype. It would be fine if the other projects that I need to work on stopped for the time being, but they continue demanding my attention like a bunch of unfed babies.

On a somewhat related topic, I just stumbled upon Amazon's "Mechanical Turk" service (here's the Wikipedia explanation), and am now pondering ways of splitting up my workload into HITs ;)

note to self

2009-01-18T15:06:00.002-05:00

- check forecast before hanging laundry

thank you, onion, for speaking the truth

2009-01-06T17:55:00.001-05:00

Apple Introduces Revolutionary New Laptop With No Keyboard

on wives and cars

2009-01-04T15:06:00.005-05:00

After seeing the, hmm, transformation that my car has gone through, Susan is understandably protective of her Accord. When I drove it recently, though, I heard some screeching noises coming from the front end, but Sue tried to assure me that she's been hearing that for a while and that everything was fine. Still, just to be safe, I decided to check on the brakes.

Driver's side pads were fine, so I was about to start formulating other theories when I figured it wouldn't hurt to check the passenger's side too. Oh word. The pads were worn down to the point where the metal of the backing pad was showing through. Compare the thickness to a new pad:

Aye caramba!

quick update

2008-12-29T16:34:00.001-05:00

Xmas good, family good, love presents - lots of clothes - family trying to tell me something?

Jon's here - 120s reunion - still caking - Hakeem won the Wii tennis tournament - Stan needs to practice

electrological dig

2008-12-20T13:03:00.003-05:00

What do you think this is?

Yeah, I had no idea either, but it was permanently attached to the side of my house, in this little nook where we keep our trash cans. The same nook serves as the only entrance point to the basement for the time being, so every time I need to go downstairs in the dark, I have to stumble across the trash cans until I can reach the door - there's no light there.

Curiosity finally got the best of me, and I decided to investigate (the neighbors, I'm sure, were curious in their own right as to what I was doing outside in the middle of a snow storm). After tracing the wires, playing with the fuses, and miraculously not electrocuting myself, I have a theory.

It seems that the original owners put in a very nicely-designed switch for the light, just in the right spot for the basement door. They probably had it installed professionally when they were putting in the addition, as all the wires are tucked away inside weatherproof boxes.

Then the next owners had the crazy idea of building their own sprinkler system. They took apart the light fixture, and ran a wire to the water control valve. That green garden hose in the picture is actually a conduit; it's anybody's guess where it was supposed to go, as it's been cut a long time ago.

So after some huffing and puffing (and nearly freezing my toes off), I restored the light to its original grandeur, and removed the water control thingie, garden hoses and all. I now have a clean-looking switch that actually does something, and the wires that I removed are just what I need to finish installing an exhaust fan in the bathroom.

It's amazing that things like that make me really, truly happy.

the international man of mystery

2008-12-14T23:18:00.001-05:00

George W. Bush: "Who throws a shoe? Honestly!"

ice - not so nice

2008-12-14T23:00:00.002-05:00

Thursday night, we saw nothing but rain in Burlington. Everywhere to the north, people saw rain too - unfortunately, with the temperatures below freezing, the rain froze over just about everything. Apparently, that was enough to bring down a cr@pload of trees, some of which hit the power lines.

My parents lost power for about 30 hours, which is not the most convenient thing when you're living in a house with electric heat. Kenny and Laureen, who live in New Hampshire, still don't have power. Their house dipped to 37 degrees, a little too close to "pipes bursting and other bad things happening" point. I gave them my parents' kerosene heater, which worked well - until the kerosene ran out. We then found that it is illegal to stock kerosene in Massachusetts stores. Who knew. Not surprisingly, almost all the places around New Hampshire are out of kerosene. And generators. And heaters.

hello... kitty?

2008-12-07T11:33:00.003-05:00

Bank of America has really got to get its stuff together. Susan thought it would be cool to get a customized card. A month later, after the bank managed to send it to the wrong address, the card arrived.

Only they managed to screw up the name on the card, too.

Needless to say, I was thrilled to receive a "Hello Kitty" card:

moving on, part 2

2008-12-06T20:42:00.002-05:00

I ran MoveOn's picture-taking idea by a few of my friends, and instead of the expected "sounds kinda lame" response, all of them were very excited to participate. So, I figured I'd go digital with this baby.

Here's the idea: download and print out one of these pages, "I stand with Obama on clean energy", "I stand with Obama for an end to the war in Iraq", "I stand with Obama for health care" - or the crowd favorite blank form that you can fill in with anything. Sign your name and home town in readable letters.

Take a picture that shows you holding the printout, and email it to me (stan at netlegion dot com).

I'll forward the pictures to MoveOn.org, where they'll deliver them to your congressmen - and also post them all over DC for the Inauguration Day. The idea is to encourage the lawmakers to cooperate with Obama's progressive agenda.

Does that sound like something you can do?

yup, we're in recession

2008-12-02T22:42:00.002-05:00

Days after the sh#t that we're in was officially labeled a recession, my mom found out that she was laid off - along with half of her company. That just sucks. She started there three months ago after working diligently at another place for thirteen years. Now the new company found itself in such a hole that they could barely cover the last payroll.

black friday

2008-11-29T09:36:00.004-05:00

Even though I'm not much of a consumerist type, I do get excited about the concept of deep discounts on stuff that I need to buy anyways. So, this Friday, I drafted my game plan - Staples, then Harbor Freight, then IKEA.

Susan woke up an hour earlier than me and headed to Macy's. At 6AM, I dragged Daisuke, who's staying with us, to the first stop in our journey. Staples was surprisingly organized and well-staffed. I've had no problem finding a wireless keyboard at $70 off that I was planning to give to my dad, so much so that I was beginning to debate the wisdom of waking up early.

But, there was no time for regrets. We had to get over to Harbor Freight, a hardware/tools store in a town close to Rhode Island. After a heck of a drive, we showed up to find the store almost completely devoid of people. They didn't have the exact item that I wanted, but I still ended up buying a pneumatic nailer/stapler that I've been dreaming about for a while now, and a roofing nail gun for the inevitable project that I'll be starting this summer.

Our last destination was IKEA, even if we had to take a detour around some other miscellaneous stores while we were waiting for it to open. About 200 people gathered outside the doors, with half of them gunning specifically for the $99 MALM bed. Luckily, things were quite orderly, and nobody got trampled (as happened at Walmart). Daisuke and I even went for the free breakfast that IKEA offered. I then found a nice bureau and took care of some kitchen-related business while we were there. Good times!

2008-11-26T15:44:00.000-05:00

(driving through Woburn)
Susan: Why are all the houses on this street so crappy?
Stan: I dunno… maybe because they’re so close together? How about this for a solution to the housing crisis – they should demolish all the crappy houses, and plant nice trees in their place. That way, there will be less houses on the market, and the prices will stabilize.
Susan: What about the people in the crappy houses? Where would they go?
Stan: Hmmm. Maybe they should start demolition without giving an advance warning?
Susan: What if they think that our house is crappy?
Stan: Uh-oh.

moving on

2008-11-23T11:04:00.002-05:00

Anyone involved in the Obama campaign knows just how efficiently it was run. Not a day went by without an email explaining a certain point, highlighting a negative attack by those bastard Republicans, and, oh by the way, asking for donations in the nicest way possible. Some PACs joined in, most noticeably MoveOn.org. I still remember when MoveOn did an online survey to figure out which Democratic candidate to support. When Obama won the contest, I knew things were looking good.

Anyhoo, with the election over, there is a feeling that we should do *something*, anything to make things better - keep the momentum alive and all that. So, the other day I went to a MoveOn meeting in my town. About a dozen folks gathered from all walks of life: a couple of retirees, some people my age, and a young guy who apparently lived in every red state and had enough of it. MoveOn is doing a campaign that seems lame on the surface but fits perfectly well under the mantra of "doing something" - they're collecting thousands of photographs of ordinary people holding up signs like "I stand with Obama on Clean Energy", and sending them to the Senate, to encourage lawmakers to fall in line with Obama's progressive agenda. Oh yeah, the same pictures will be posted all over DC on the Inauguration Day, which makes me want to visit even more.

u win, pal

2008-11-23T10:56:00.002-05:00

Congratulations, PayPal. In the last eBay transaction, you finally succeeded in making me go through the payment process without letting me change the payment type. I know perfectly well that I don't want to draw from my checking account - just as I know that you, Pal of Pay, don't want to be hit with the credit card fees.

It's always amusing to see the powers of UX be used for something evil. That "change payment type" button has been moving farther and farther away from our field of focus over the years, changing colors to become less noticeable, until finally it disappeared altogether. Somewhere out there in Silicon Valley, the UX team is looking at the results of their A/B testing, and probably celebrating.

Booo.

tanked!

2008-11-15T00:46:00.003-05:00

For anyone who's played the Tank game on Wii Play, you know that it's more addicting than meth. Guess what:

Susan and I beat it! Yup, we made it to level 20, where we had to fight an *invisible* tank. And we killed it! Word up.

congrats!

2008-11-14T13:35:00.002-05:00

My brother passed the Bar Exam - awesome!!!

I'm off to commit some crimes, now that I have my legal representation lined up.

back from NYC

2008-11-10T22:48:00.002-05:00

Susan doesn't get too many days off - and when she does, they're typically not of the weekend variety. So, when she managed to string together Friday AND Saturday, we jumped on that chance, and headed off to New York.

First, of course, we stopped by the outlets. For two hours. Great start.

Still, despite the fashion-related delays, we made it to NYC by around 5PM, and got a chance to catch up with Chris and Anne - in front of whose apartment we conveniently parked. Saturday morning we got some grrreat soup dumplings, and ran (literally, because the streets were jammed with traffic) to the "Phantom of the Opera". Oh yeah, we also stopped by my brother's new apartment, and met his amazingly obedient and surprisingly sweet dog, Mark:

"Phantom" was pretty good, and left us with enough time to enjoy a BBQ place in Brooklyn (Fette Sau, close to the Bedford Ave stop) and Karim's party in Midtown. Here was the kicker, though - Susan had to get back to work by 11AM on Sunday.

Ah yes. We ended up leaving Brooklyn at 5AM on the dot. By 8:10, we were pulling into our driveway. Don't ask me how I didn't get any tickets, I just wanted to get home before I fell asleep behind the wheel.

It's good to be back.

woo! hoo?

2008-11-05T17:42:00.003-05:00

I've kept a checking account from my dot-com days (yes, NET Legion all the way), leaving twenty bucks there just in case. My bank still insists on sending me statements every month, which I rarely open. It's just hard to get excited about making $0.02 in interest.

Today, I happened to read the statement, and saw that my balance grew by over $1600. First, I thought this was the result of a favorable bank error - very sweet. Then, I thought that Obama's economic policies have kicked in even before inauguration - all right!

After a few minutes of elation, I looked at the total, and realized that the bank clerk must've added my deposit to the wrong account - the ATM wasn't working the other day, so I had to go to a live teller to drop off some checks. Crap.

OK, I can exhale now

2008-11-05T00:43:00.001-05:00

What a tremendous victory. What a humble speech. What a moment of pride. Thank you, Barack, for making me remember what makes this country great.

knocking on every piece of wood I can find

2008-11-04T21:34:00.001-05:00

Ohio? Pennsylvania? Michigan? Growing more and more optimistic.

VOTE!

2008-11-04T14:04:00.003-05:00

Voted first thing in the morning today; now it's finger-crossing time.

booo

2008-11-03T23:31:00.002-05:00

Quite fittingly, I've decorated the inside of our house with McCain/Palin posters for Halloween - couldn't think of anything that would scare my friends more. Quite ironically, the mother of one of the kids trick-or-treating at my house noticed.

Her: Wow, a fellow Republican!
Me: Ummmmmm, actually, those are our Halloween decorations...
Her: [sound of deflating air]
Her husband: [laughing hysterically at the whole thing]

I just want tomorrow to be over, for the good guys to win, and for this country to go back to what it was when I came.

F1 is over - long live F1!

2008-11-03T06:53:00.002-05:00

Congratulations to Lewis Hamilton for becoming the youngest driver yet to win the Formula 1 championship. But boy, did it come down to a nail biter on the last lap in Brazil!

Sadly, I must now count the days until the next season starts...

wa wa wee

2008-10-30T12:08:00.003-04:00

Still slaving away at work, coming home to slave in the kitchen, and then occasionally venture over to the inlaws' house to slave around a little bit more. But you know what? We're making progress. The counters have been installed and they look AWESOME. I was so used to craptastic nature of our old kitchen that the first time I walked in, I couldn't stop saying "WOW!" for about five minutes. Thankfully, the reality hit me again when I realized I still had to do all the plumbing for the sinks, hook up the disposer, and stop the dishwasher from tipping over every time it's opened.

In any case, see for yourself:

true...

2008-10-26T19:41:00.001-04:00

everything but the kitchen sink

2008-10-18T13:37:00.003-04:00

This is not life, this is a study on chronic exhaustion. Work has been crazy lately, as we rolled out the big portal update that we've been working on for months - of course, without the pilot that we've been asking for. Now we have to deal with all the feedback that's coming in at once, instead of using it to help us iterate in a test environment.

Susan's parents are fixing up their new house at a feverish pace, and we're helping them where we can. What that means in practice is that after working a full day, I drive over to their place and pitch in where I can. Afterwards, I'm back to my own place, where we've entered a critical stage in our kitchen remodel - the period of time when the sink and the water supply has been removed. Doesn't sound too bad in theory, but even getting a glass of water becomes a production now. Aye!

Actually, this picture is outdated now - the counter installer suggested that we replace the island, which makes perfect sense... seeing that what's there now is a piece of crap created out of plywood. So I have more drilling and soldering to look forward to in order to reroute the water lines.

(un)expected visit

2008-10-13T21:30:00.003-04:00

Daisuke, Myuki and Mark came down from New York this weekend, apparently escaping the confines of their apartments and the craziness of the stock market. We spent most of Saturday walking around Boston in the most perfect autumn weather ever, and wrapped up our night by watching the Sox... in their most drawn-out defeat ever. Wow, what a great reminder of why I never watch baseball.

On Sunday, we went for dim sum, checked out Oktoberfest in Harvard Square, and, once the guests left, headed for IKEA. Ah yes, we were saving all the excitement for last.

IKEA had a crazy sale on some items - like, out of control crazy. Flooring that's normally over $1.15/sq. ft. was being sold $0.49 - or, at least, has been sold before we got there. Still, we scored a great modern-looking dining table with six chairs for $199.

First, we had to get it home, though. Let me tell you - my car is not designed to haul 8ft-long boxes that weight over 100lbs!

Somehow, we made it home (driving 20 miles an hour below the speed limit on Boston roads - not recommended). It'll be a while until we get around to fixing up the dining room - kitchen comes first - but at least we can rest knowing that we have a sweet table waiting for us.

another one for the books

2008-10-07T22:51:00.002-04:00

Just like that, and Jonas is married.

Well, OK, it wasn't that quick. What kicked off the very sweet and romantic ceremony was the rambling sermon from an older wedding officiant. Not that it was lacking in humor - the line about letting Melanie buy whatever she wants got quite a laugh - but his circular narrative prompted Jonas' brother (also his best man) to suggest that we move on to something better... like the first dance:

For me, the wedding was a great opportunity to catch up with good friends. Schrock and Annabelle hosted me for the first night, and introduced me to the wonderfully frustrating family bonding time called the jigsaw puzzle (told you I'd find that piece!). Then Kathy took me on a search of a cold beer at a bluegrass festival (mission NOT accomplished), and finally Dave and Jen took on the role of a Stan-sitter. By the way, their kid is totally the cutest thing ever, even when packaged in a plastic tote:

Dave was even nice enough to drive me to the airport on my last day. Too bad that only after the check-in kiosk gave me the blank stare did I realize that I f'ed up my reservation and was flying out of SFO and not SJO. One letter, $100 cab ride difference. On the way, Susan poignantly observed that I, indeed, must be related to my brother, who managed to show up at a Paris airport a day late for his return flight. I wonder what gene controls the inability to follow an itinerary.

sf

2008-10-04T13:41:00.002-04:00

I'm in San Fran, y'all! Jonas Kong is getting married after all, and I wouldn't miss it for the world. Unfortunately, Jude will, due to a viral sickness of some severe sort. Rough. Oh well, we'd have to carry on, and channel Jude's spirit as we go along.

couldn't wait to blog about this, also

2008-10-03T10:31:00.004-04:00

The House should stop wasting time on the bailout package, and immediately pass a measure to stop Sarah Palin from using the word "also" at the end of every sentence. Argh!

shortcut?

2008-10-01T09:36:00.000-04:00

Got an interesting mailing from the Department of English at the Texas Tech University. See, when an institution of that caliber sends you mail, you sit up and pay attention. I first thought that they wanted to protest my use of run-on sentences or something like that, but the truth was much more sinister. Our friends in Lubbock, TX are now offering a "User Experience Professional" certification. Three days and $1800 is all it takes to become a pro, apparently.

On a related note, my dad finally rebelled against me using his house for archival storage, and brought over several boxes of paper. Some of it is from my Tufts days, and some from Michigan. It will take me more than three days just to sift through thick packets of SI504 assignments and SI501 papers… so hey, maybe Texas Tech is the way to go?

more kitchen

2008-10-01T06:59:00.003-04:00

Yup, this thing is definitely taking over our lives. Now I understand why people that have lived through a kitchen remodel give you a sympathetic stare and a wink when you tell them what you're doing... and this goes for people who've hired a contractor!

At this point, all the cabinets are more or less in place, and the wiring is complete. More importantly, the plumbing is done! The geometry of the pipes would leave Euclid scratching his head, but everything seems to work without leaking. Now we just need to get the counters in place, to replace our cardboard variety.

moving up in the world

2008-09-30T17:21:00.002-04:00

I know, I know, my blog is getting updated less frequently than Susan's resume, but it is, in fact, official - Susan's got a new job! She did really well at Nordstrom (like, REALLY well - especially on the day that she gave the two-day notice to her manager, hehe). But anyhoo, it just so happened that a Burberry store was opening in the same mall, and the hiring manager made Susan an offer that she couldn't refuse. So there she is now, in a world of even more upscale fashion.

In other Susan-related news, her parents are buying a house even closer to us than before (her dad made it very clear that part of the reason was the walking convenience of his future grandkids). So, for the past few weeks, Susan and I were playing the role of couriers/translators/ruthless enforcers to make sure that the transaction goes through smoothly. Closing is tomorrow, so we'll find out if we were successful.

ming sighting

2008-09-22T22:17:00.003-04:00

So Susan and I went to Minado, an Asian seafood buffet. Those three words spell trouble right there - all-you-can-eat that's yummy and supposedly healthy. Uh oh. Anyhoo, while we were stuffing ourselves, we saw Ming Tsai. Yes, this guy:

Clearly, Susan was the first to spot him, while I remained unconvinced that a chef of such caliber would be caught in any restaurant but his own. But no, the waitress confirmed it, Ming comes to Minado a lot. I guess even if you own your own upscale joint, the deal that Minado delivers just can't be beat.

update

2008-09-19T19:14:00.002-04:00

Um yeah. Not much going on, except that I got my car back - wooo! Besides that, just running back and forth between working at work and working on the kitchen.

One cool discovery that we just made is that a gym in our town charges just $19.99/mo for membership - and this membership allows you to bring a guest any time. For Susan and me, that's even cheaper than the Tufts gym - and much, much closer. Awesome. Also, this gym doesn't close for every school break, thus causing me to lose whatever muscle weight I had.

for the record

2008-09-14T22:39:00.002-04:00

It's a little difficult to say anything about the whole Palin debacle. Look at it from any angle, and all you can do is throw your hands up and say, "This is what politics ended up becoming in this country?" If anyone has managed to stay with the Republican party up until now - which would be a remarkable achievement in its own right - it's probably time to quietly peel that Bush/Cheney sticker from your bumper. It's OK, we'll take you back. We won't even mock you (all that much).

Anyhoo, my brother was visiting for the weekend, so he told me two amusing anecdotes:
- He just got a new game, and decided to name his character "McCainPalin2008", figuring that he'd just make an ass of himself in multiplayer mode. Unfortunately, the game turned out to be single player only. So now, any time he starts it up, he has to shudder in disgust.
- Eugene filled me in on the fact that Palin was using her personal Yahoo email account for official business. Apparently, as soon as that became known, dozens of people tried to reverse-engineer her password by using the "forgotten password" service on Yahoo. I guess there were so many attempts that Palin's account got locked. That's where the funny part ends. As I was reading up on this farce, it slowly became clear that Palin was most likely using Yahoo to circumvent the Freedom of Information Act. Maybe she is ready to continue the Bush legacy after all.

let's see what's cookin'

2008-09-01T21:42:00.003-04:00

We definitely put the "labor" into Labor Day by continuing our kitchen remodel. The previous owners made their own "custom" cabinets from some scrap wood, and tried to go for a classy look with a paper trim on the walls:

One of the first things we did when we moved in was to rip off the horrendous cabinet doors and cover up some of the eye-soreness with new paint:

I thought the cheery green color was not too bad, but Susan outlined some of the things she'd rather do to herself than have to look at it for an extended period of time. The kitchen was to be one of the primary post-France projects, and we kicked it off a week or two ago.

IKEA helped us out big time, and we had the whole thing planned out in their design tool (give or take a few inches here or there). As the first step, I hacked off a good portion of the island, and moved the fridge to its new home. As the sweet-looking hole in the wall indicates, I need to run some wiring for a new outlet and the microwave that will go where the door is now:

Moving right along. Days later, first pieces of wallboard that so cleverly imitate tile are up, and the wall cabinets are beginning to take shape. You can also see some under-cabinet lights hanging out, unattached:

Here's where we are today:

The range is relocated and rewired (although we'll have to get a new one, this beast is way too old), the microwave/exhaust fan combo is operating with no trace of electrical connections anywhere, and the old cabinets are completely gone. The center island is slated for demolition, but we'll keep it around until I can hook up the plumbing under the new sink, to be placed in the middle of the long wall under a window that we're installing. To put it differently, much work remains, but we hope to be able to use the kitchen in at least some capacity while we work on it.

boston from the water

2008-09-01T21:31:00.002-04:00

Sunny and I took a break from it all to enjoy a perfect day on the Charles. We rented kayaks and paddled all the way from the Newton line to just past the BU bridge:

The way back was, admittedly, a little more strenuous, seeing that the wind and the current were not in our favor. But, we still made it back in one piece - well, two pieces, each a little sunburned, but both totally enjoying the whole thing.

120-style

2008-08-27T16:24:00.003-04:00

Still haven't had a chance to report on the latest 120's reunion, which happened this past weekend. After changing our minds about who's driving whom and how about a million times, Pisit, Hakeem, and I met in Providence. We called Daisk to ask the question that comes up every time we meet - are the places we're going to fancy enough to necessitate us bringing something other than sneakers? Dasik replied that no, we're not going anywhere special - "as long as you guys aren't wearing Nike Air Maxes". I look down - sure enough, Nike's all around - except for me, of course. So, off we go for another trip to pick up shoes.

This was the first of many detours that we took on the way down to NYC, but we finally made it to Edgewater past 10PM. First item on our agenda was to meet up with Sunny in Hoboken, which we've accomplished - even if at that point Sunny was quite a few beers ahead of us.

Next morning, I woke up at 9 and attempted to get the troops ready - and failed miserably. As soon as I'd persuade one person to get up, another one would find an excuse to nap some more. As a result, we only got going at 1PM, giving us just enough time to swing by Chinatown, check out Wall Street, and get some niiice sushi at Tomoe Sushi. To wrap things up, we went to a spot called "Fat Baby", which provided plenty of beer but, regrettably, no obese toddlers.

quick tally

2008-08-21T16:24:00.001-04:00

All right, I'm trying not to babble too much about South Ossetia, but two weeks in, I still have a bitter taste in my mouth. Let’s go over the list of “interested parties” to figure out where we are:

South Ossetia
Hundreds lost their lives during the Georgian bombardment, as South Ossetia suffered the highest toll in civilian casualties – even if the US media actively tried to sweep that fact under the carpet. From the sounds of it, the prospects of future re-integration of the area back into Georgia appear dim at best - not that Georgia has done much for South Ossetia lately, prior to going in with the guns blazing. Speaking about guns: a simple fact escapes most observers. Since 1992-1994, South Ossetia effectively became a de-militarized zone, with heavy armor and most munitions banned. Georgian claim that they were responding to a provocation from the separatists is a little like saying that Israel can justifiably nuke the Gaza Strip if an IDF soldier gets hit with a stone thrown over the wall.

Georgia
War is no picnic, and it sounds like ordinary Georgians got their share - particularly from the "paramilitary units" that poured in across the border. The area is a lot like Iraq - many ethnic tribes live close together within borders drawn by external powers. People are mostly poor, and mostly armed. Remove the centralized control, and the sh#t hits the fan.

Saakashvili
Between his claims of ethnic cleansing and an imminent attack on Tbilisi, it's amazing how the man has not been impeached yet. Oh wait, at least he didn't claim that South Ossetia had WMDs...

McCain
Way to expose yourself as a total douchebag. "We are all Georgians"? What?? When Serbia got busy in Kosovo, we did not become Serbians - far from it. "In the 21st century nations don't invade other nations..." Uhhh! After hearing that, I wanted to clean out my ears. With kerosene. Set ablaze.

US
Yikes. Let's ignore, for a moment, the fact that the US has been exposed as having no geopolitical leverage whatsoever. Unfortunately, what's also becoming clear is that the "We'll Fight For Democracy Anywhere There's Oil" doctrine is beginning to backfire. The signing of the missile defense treaty with Poland, while completely glossed over by US media, has all the trademarks of a little incident in Cuba a few dozen years back. Well, for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction - already, Syria is reaching out to Russia to buff up its missile defenses.

Russia
Technically, the only winner here - but, then again, the military success was never in doubt. The army did lose some planes and soldiers, which it will undoubtedly use as an excuse to spend more on weapon modernization. Action/reaction, again. Did Russia piss off/scare its neighbors? Sure, that was the idea. Watch Ukraine rumble and then quiet down after a quick suggestion from Medvedev: "Want to be next?"

day to day

2008-08-14T09:09:00.001-04:00

World events nonwithstanding, Susan and I are managing to have a good time - even if she's working almost every night and most of the weekends. On Tuesday, I took a day off so that we could wander around Harvard Sq. This time around, we strayed off the beaten path, and took a walk down Brattle Street, past humongous houses left over from the pre-Revolution times.

On Monday, I strayed off the beaten path in a different direction, and went to the Medieval Manor with Dave, Jared, and Monica. This place put on a dinner show that was light on medieval-ness and heavy on sexual innuendo, with plentiful beer and food that we had to eat without utensils. Needless to say, I loved it.

misinformation? or worse?

2008-08-14T06:57:00.003-04:00

I continue to be amazed at the coverage of the Georgian conflict in the US. There's still almost no mention of the initial barrage of South Ossetia by the Georgian forces that killed by far the most civilians. Just the other day, I was reading an account of Georgians fleeing, with eight people stuffed in a Lada, and some trying to get away on a tractor. Scary and sad - if only I didn't read the same exact account much earlier in a Russian story that described the flight of the Ossetians after the Georgian slaughter.

The only person to get the situation right? John Stewart, who masterfully outlined the hypocrisy of the American position:

go U-S-A!

2008-08-11T12:24:00.001-04:00

You know, I'm really enjoying watching the Olympics (then again, maybe it's the new TV that makes even fencing look interesting). The US/China basketball game was fantastic – fairly physical and fast-paced, with the US clearly dominating. What I liked about it was the conduct of American players at the end of the game: no taunting or excessive celebration, just a few friendly handshakes, and a friendly wave to the crowd.

I'm even glad that Susan woke me up to watch the 4x100m freestyle relay. The French were talking all kinds of trash beforehand, and during the last leg their swimmer was ahead by a whole lot. Suddenly, the US swimmer, Jason Lezak surged ahead – yet both Susan and I thought it was too late. Somehow, he managed to touch the wall first, beating the frogmen AND setting the new world record. Unbelievable.

shots fired - now, what do we report?

2008-08-08T15:09:00.002-04:00

It's always fun to watch the news "break", as the new agencies don't always know how to spin them at first. After all, by definition, "news" are very much new. After the initial floundering, news companies fall in line – by investigating the reports fully, or (as I suspect) by plagiarizing the majority view.

This morning, fighting escalated in South Ossetia, a province of Georgia that has been virtually independent for over ten years. This region has seen much conflict in the past, but recently things have been quiet – so I can bet that none of the news agencies have any reporters on the ground there. So, we can gather the following facts from the secondary sources:

fragile peace was being maintained by a peacekeeping force that included a significant number of Russian soldiers

fighting renewed between Georgian forces and the separatists, with some civilian casualties

peacekeeping force incurred a number of casualties as well

Off the record, Georgians have a long record of being total assholes, but we’ll leave that out for the sake of objectivity. So, based on this information, how do we spin this story?

CNN: Georgia 'under attack' as Russian tanks roll in (a few hours later, the headline changes to a slightly more neutral Georgia says country is under attack by Russia)

AP: Georgia says Russian aircraft bombed its air bases (great strategy – cite your sources, avoid expressing opinions)

ABC News: Face-Off: Russian Troops Move Into Georgia

Fox: Georgia Says Russian Craft Bombed Its Air Bases followed by a surprisingly unbiased explanation:
Georgia's president says country's under attack by Russian tanks and warplanes after Georgia launched major offensive to retake province of South Ossetia

BBC: Russian tanks enter South Ossetia

What's the Russian take on this?

ITAR-TASS: More than 10 peacekeepers die in events in Tskhinvali

RIA: Georgia claims control over most of South Ossetia in major attack

Pravda.ru (admittedly, a more sensationalist outlet): Georgian military executing wounded Russian peacekeepers

What really happened? Kinda like with the Gulf of Tonkin, it might take years for the truth to come out.

smash-smash

2008-08-07T15:12:00.000-04:00

During my senior year at Tufts, all five of my housemates spent quite a lot of time playing "Smash Brothers" (or, one could say, very little time doing anything else). One of them ended up graduating late, and while nobody can attribute that directly to his gaming habits, we all know that Gordon caked hard.

I, however, spent all year resisting the temptation, which was easy to do from the sidelines: the game looks like a cartoon with tiny characters smashing each other. So, instead of playing, I tried to spend my time productively, doing things like meeting Susan and applying to grad schools.

Years later, the game is out for the Wii – and my friend Chris ended up buying it for us.

A few weeks in, I’m happy to report that I’m capable of stopping – although the game sure is addicting. One of the reasons I can put down the controller is that I’m absolutely terrible at it. Once in a while, Susan and I connect to play Chris and Anne online, and the result is dismal. Our characters spend most of their time being punted back and forth between explosions, kicks, and other animated maladies. We’d like to get better, but we know we’re outmatched – just as the boys in my suite, Chris and Anne spend countless hours every day playing that damn game...

hdeeee

2008-08-01T10:13:00.002-04:00

When I found myself having to wear glasses in order to play the Wii, it became painfully clear that our tiny old TV had to go.

Now, many of my friends would spend months learning about LCD and plasma technologies, contrast ratios, and refresh rates. Me, not so much. I saw a good deal online and bought the TV same day. Yesterday, the beast arrived in a box big enough to hold an aircraft carrier. Here it is, a 52” chunk of HD goodness with a sexy name of Philips 52PFL7422D/37:

When I first turned it on, Susan, who was standing in the opposite corner of the living room, yelled that it was burning her retinas. Excellent. That’s exactly the response I wanted. I want neighbors’ kids to be irradiated. I want to get an LCD tan. I want astronauts to detect changes in Earth’s magnetic field.

For the record, the environmentally-sensitive side of me has been temporarily placed into a corner – but, I keep telling myself that the TV is Energy Star-compliant. Good enough.

u're not my pal, paypal

2008-07-30T09:40:00.001-04:00

I was going through a PayPal transaction the other day, mentally preparing myself for some kind of a disappointment. It has long seemed to me that PayPal and eBay were created by two warring siblings that have been forced by their parents to collaborate – but secretly hated each other’s guts. So, any time PayPal’s interaction scheme takes me down a mineshaft, I make sure to let my buddy at eBay know all about it.

This time, though, I was pleasantly surprised. I needed to add a credit card number, and found that the entry form was designed in a very sleek way: accepted credit cards were listed below the card number textbox; as I typed in my number, the other options faded away, indicating that the system knew I was using an AmEx card.

For the first time ever, I was ready to give kudos to PayPal’s designers – I even logged back in to take a screenshot. Guess what – this time, I wasn’t going through a transaction, so the form looked completely different – even though purpose of it was exactly the same.

I still hate you, PayPal.

in the gutter

2008-07-27T20:48:00.003-04:00

As Ice Cube once put it, today was a good day. Yesterday wasn't all that bad either.

Of course, the only dealing I took part in was borrowing a ladder from the neighbor, and the onle hoe I saw was of the garden kind. But, things are different in this 'hood. After a week of rain, the skies cleared up, and everyone on the street went to work. My weekend project - putting up a gutter... and man, was that needed!

The lack of said gutter lead to a chain of unfortunate events. Water cascaded down the siding, collecting on the AC unit, and causing the wall to rot. Squirrels then burrowed their way in through the soft wood, and the rest is history.

But, no more! The gutter looks great - even got the leaf guard on there. Of course, I still have to take out that AC, fix the insulation and the siding, but that's small change... Pimpin' indeed.

family affair

2008-07-18T14:45:00.000-04:00

My family is very small – miniscule, by any standard. On this side of the pond, I just have my parents and my brother; back in Russia, my grandma lives in the two-bedroom apartment that we all once shared, and my two cousins (one of whom has a daughter) share another, smaller apartment a few miles away.

As a result of having a family tree that doesn’t branch, we are completely unfamiliar with the baggage that comes with being a part of a large family. Our friends and coworkers tell us of conflicts between in-laws, and of cousins that they don’t speak to any more. Surely, there must be some benefits, too, that come with being a part of a large clan. Heather, my brother’s girlfriend, regularly takes him to family weddings. Eugene still hasn’t reciprocated.

The Drozdetskis are completely unprepared to deal with family disagreements – to the point that my mom had to sit down with my dad and me to discuss a sticky situation, and none of us knew how to approach it. You see, when my grandpa passed away, my mom offered to bring my grandma to the US. In the discussions that followed, my mom explained that she’d have no problem being the caretaker, but the one part that they’d have to work out is the healthcare question – it’s not exactly cheap for seniors here. That’s when my mom found out that my grandma intended to leave her only marketable possession, her apartment, to my cousins.

My mom was a little taken back, not necessarily by grandma’s decision, but by the fact that she thought it was a natural choice. It seems to be a universal theme in immigrant families – members left behind automatically assume that the people that made it across the border are rewarded with cars and houses that come for free. On the surface, our standard of living is indeed better. But, on the other hand, most of what we have is bought on credit, and my parents know that they’ll have to keep busting their humps for a looong time, probably well into retirement age.

A little story illustrates this disconnect. My mom has never bought a watch for more than $10 – it’s just not worth it for her to spend more on something that can break or get lost so easily. But, when she visited Russia, one of her friends thought that her watch was worth $20K, and for some reason mentioned it to my grandma - who took it completely in stride. When mom heard about this, she was bewildered, and asked, “How did you even think that was a possibility?” My grandma, completely unfazed, answered “Oh, I just thought you liked it.” It didn’t occur to her that my mom, who’s currently working two jobs, would never even think of spending twenty grand on a watch – and if she did, my dad would probably have a heart attack on the spot.

So, we’ve got a misunderstanding, some hurt feelings – and a complete lack of experience dealing with either.

unemployment? what unemployment?

2008-07-16T15:32:00.000-04:00

UPA, probably the most active UCD group in the Boston area, has sent out 19 job postings from various companies today. Hmmm... tempting.