SoCal

Hello from southern California! In all, there are 17 Ting family decendents here... The Alaska trip and all the other times where I was an honorary family member got me missing my REAL family! We had 100% attendance this year, with all three of my dad's siblings, their kids, and two grandparents. Having my birthday right smack dab in the middle of a family reunion was strategic genius... Presents galone!

My sister once again took the cake for birthday presents... Last year, she got her radio station to sing a Happy Birthday song on the air. This year, she got me a string of Green Bay Packer hats with personalized autographs from selected members of the '96 Superbowl winning team!

And now, the process of getting everyone sat down to dinner has begun...

Erin, Part II

Erin's comment was worth a blog in itself!

Dale, I am truly honored that you have dedicated an entire blog entry about me. Sweet! In return, I offer this: Our first class together was Differential Equations, with Prof. Rabinowitz. I vividly remember this, because Dale and I sat next to each other in class every day for like two months before finally introducing ourselves to one another. I also remember that Dale labeled his notebook "Diffy-Qs". I likely would have met Dale earlier through AIChE if it weren't for my vehement opposition to joining a club to continue doing the nerdy chemical engineering stuff I had to do all day during class. Finally, though, due to my eagerness to hang out with the "cool" ChE kids in class, I joined Dale, Linda, Rachel, and Nate (the Brookfield crew + Nate) up in the front of the room. Dale, do you remember how many more calories are in a beer at room temperature than in a cold beer? We were shooshed by Dale and Linda's RA for studying too loudly. We met at our traditional spot on the floor of Engineering Hall's entryway to "take notes on notes", the active (vs. passive) form of studying. Dale provided the practical insight for each and every homework problem--why would you ever need to know the heat transfer coefficient of this material? Dale also provided interesting roommate stories and the dorkiest jokes and puns you've ever heard. For those of you admiring the wedding photo with umbrella man, there is something besides the tornado warning that you should know about that day. Not only did Dale play the violin beautifully, but he wrote a violin version of "In My Life" (by the Beatles) for the occasion, despite the fact that he needed to rehearse for two other weddings that month! (Those two were Rachel's (pictured in a wedding gown in the photo posted by Dale) and Linda's (far right in the same photo).) Thanks, Dale. So, Dale, as I read the kind words of your blog and reminisce about our old college days, I am fondly reminded of the "Renaissance Man" that made our the study of chemical engineering relevant and fun. And I miss it!

Erin's profile

Name: Erin S.

In this picture of all Chem E's, Erin is the 2nd from the left. Maybe one day the other people in this picture will check out my blog so I can do a schtick on them too

How we met: I think it was in Calculus class, although I mostly know her since she was a fellow Chem E.

Commentary: Erin does not look like your typical engineer (take that as a compliment!). In fact, she models. Engineering mathematical models that is! She is probably the most engineerly of us all. One interesting thing about her is we noticed during one of our problem sets that she writes with her own font.

Favorite Moments:
- Living in the Lake Shore Dorms and studying (well, the rowdy fun part of studying, not the actual studying)
- At her wedding in Minnesota, we all had to take cover from a tornado warning during the reception. This is a picture of all of us in the little theater they had there, with one wise guy trying to lighten things up a bit...


- Her new husband Pete randomly called me after the wedding. The conversation went like this:
Pete: Hi Dale what's up
Me: Not much, what's up with you?
(repeat 3-4 times)
Turns out that I had left a message for them before the wedding to call me, and they never checked the message until after the wedding.

Relationship defining moments: - She was the only person who wanted to join my "Chem E's for the Metric System" movement.

If it weren't for Erin, I:
- Would have a lower GPA

Celebrity Look Alikes

Caught this off of Winston's blog where you can upload your picture and the site tells you who it thinks you most look alike (assume it's some algorithm). It's a little hit and miss, but it's fun to see who a computer thinks I look alike.

So I got about 10 celebrities... here are all of the Asian ones it thought I looked like:



I've actually been told by family and family friends that I resemble Chow Yun-Fat. I like to think about who would play me and all my friends if there was a movie made about my life. So, I'm thinking Chow Yun-Fat is the winner.

So the next five are the non-Asians that it picked...



I'm going to take it as a compliment that it picked Maria Sharapova, the hottest tennis chick, and Britney Spears.

The Family Rivalry

In about 15 minutes, the biggest family rivalry will commence in the form of college basketball. The Wisconsin Badgers, proud school of my sister and me, will take on the Marquette Golden Eagles,* of which my dad is an alumnus. I just called home and mom has declared her allegiance to the Badgers. As per tradition, the stakes are high... whoever stands on the losing team's side has to endure the punishment of doing the holiday dishes.

*If you think that mascot is dumb, just a couple of years ago they wanted to change the name to the Marquette Gold. The public outcry was so bad that they had a vote on a new mascot, and it went back to the lame Golden Eagles.

Other notes:

- Thanks to Dave for introducing me to Division II, I mean Division B, I mean Division IA, I mean Division IAA football as his UMass team beat Montana. Now, hold on to your seats as I introduce a potential earth shattering concept... UMass advances to play next week for the Championship. This is called a "playoff" and it appears to be a GREAT way to determine a championship on the field. It may even beat the system of voting for the champ!

- Is it just me, or has Martha been extra quiet recently?

Say that again?

Ken Broo, local sports reporter, talks about how college football should have a playoff:

"Take the top 24 schools and have them play a playoff! It's only 2-3 games!"

Hey Ken, ever wonder why tournaments are always either 2, 4, 8, 16, or 32 teams? Maybe it's a Cincinnati thing(see Math, Chad Johnson style from a previous blog entry).

By the way, welcome to Erin! Look for a profile of you soon!

The Lemming Conspiracy

So I recently finished reading the book "The Lemming Conspiracy" in which it talks about the cause of stress, discontent, and unhappiness in the world is due to this thing called the Lemming Conspiracy. Basically, it says that someone who are not us writes a script for our lives and we blindly follow it like lemmings.



I was recently reminded of it as I'm watching some basketball. The announcer wondered out loud about whether Erick Dampier, a 7 foot tall center for the Dallas Mavericks, liked playing basketball. He said that tall guys are told that they should play basketball from when they're young, and they play basketball because they're tall. Lemming conspiracy?

Over Thanksgiving, my parents invited a family over who had a 16 year old daughter in high school. She loves to play the piano (she played my sister's piano for hours), but she told me her dad wants her to be an investment banker. This really irks me, out of the 10 billion occupations in the world in which maybe 1 million could make the child happy and rich, it is scripted for her to be an I-banker?

Sometimes I wonder if someone scripted me to be an engineer. I told someone when I was 6 that I wanted to be an electrical engineer... I'm thinking because I was told that by my parents. So now I wonder what I'd be if I had started with a blank script to be written on my own. What would I be right now?

Why it pays to never throw anything away

One of the perks of going to a Big 10 school (instead of an ivy league school, which would've pleased the parents... I wish I had gotten into Harvard just so I could turn them down to go to Wisconsin!) is that you get Big 10 sports teams. While I was at Wisconsin, the football team won two Rose Bowls, the basketball team made the Final Four, and the Packers won a Superbowl. I had season tickets all 4 years to Badger football, and I went to all 24 of the home games and watched Ron Dayne break the all time rushing record. I also stayed at all the games until the end and beyond to the Fifth Quarter, which is a marching band thing after each game where we do the chicken dance, sing Varsity (U rah rah Wisconsin!), and polka.

At my house, I have one thing that's hanging on my wall that's framed: it's all of my ticket stubs of all the games I went to. The only catch is I happened to have lost two of the ticket stubs. I had no idea who in the world would have the extra ticket stubs to fill out my collection.

Well, 3 years after I graduated, I told this sob story to my HS/college friend Jennifer. Jennifer just happened to have saved all of her ticket stubs and donated the missing two to my collection! I ran into Jennifer at our 10 year reunion last week and was reminded of this. So I must say, I am thankful that I know Jennifer and that she doesn't throw away her ticket stubs!

10 year high school reunion

So this Thanksgiving weekend was my 10 year high school reunion. It was a relatively low key night, we all hung out in the upstairs of a bar and basically chatted it up. I really enjoyed it. I must say, the women took care of themselves a lot better than the men did. Some of the fun:

- Those blog veterans recall a profile I did of my sister Linda. In it, I mentioned that I am three years older than her, but despite that when she entered high school I immediately become "Linda's brother." Well, at the reunion, the second person I talk to (someone's date) recognizes my name and says "hey, you're Linda's brother."

- One of my high school classmates now lives in Cincy. Her husband works in Mason, where I live. It would've been REALLY weird to run into her at the grocery store.

- I carpooled with my good friends Jason and Linda (who I've heard may have checked into this blog a couple times but haven't commented at all). Jason, who sells light bulbs for GE (OK, he really is in marketing for MRI machines), has to leave for Chicago early in the morning. As we're leaving, a cute former classmate of mine stops me and says "Hey, I was hoping I'd see you!" I talked with her briefly but told her I had to go... she seemed geninuely disappointed. Jason, playing the part of a wingman that would make Jim proud, goes "Unless you want to take him home." Unfortunately, I think her expression was like "OK see ya."

Things I'm thankful for...

With Thanksgiving here and Christmas coming up, figured I'd blog things that I'm thankful for, from the littlest most inconsequential thing to real life sincere things. So here goes the first batch...

Karen and blogging - Guess I should start with this one. Thanks to Karen introducing me to this site, and giving me the impetus to get this going, I've been able to keep in touch more with friends, get to know a lot of people more than I would've otherwise, and even kinda have some of my friends from different walks of life interact with each other.

Lasik Surgery - My P&G toiletry bag dropped 75% of its weight after I could get rid of glasses, saline solution, and the contact lens case. Being able to function without glasses and contacts is priceless. Well, not really, but definitely worth the 4 grand. Then again, I haven't paid the 4 grand yet.

Electronic Post-it Notes - Those who have seen my computer screen has seen that I use electronic post-it notes a lot. Being someone who needs to be logical but yet have wide open, scatterbrained thinking, these things were a good match.

Tony Romo - He's the new Dallas Cowboys QB. I love a story of a guy who learns his way up and develops into someone great. To top it off, Romo's from my home state of Wisconsin. And he's helping my other football team, the Cowboys, win games, including today's Thanksgiving game!

Thanksgiving cartoon

Courtesy of Dean's blog...


Great cartoon... All this immigration talk kinda hits home with me. I'm shocked at all this anger at immigrants. I can see if people want to crack down on illegal immigrants, but I'm afraid it's getting a bit out of hand. People are way to short sighted and lack knowledge if they feel that immigrants are taking away American jobs. Maybe I'll get into it a little later when I'm not watching the Cowboys!

My experience with Time Warner

Taking a page out of Dave's book, I called up Time Warner today. I told them I was considering switching to Direct TV because they were so much cheaper, and asked if there were any discounts I was missing. In the span of about 5 minutes, they lopped $30 a month off my bill. I took it and called it a day.

I'm thinking I will look for more discounts as I add HDTV for when I get my new TV...

More immature fun

From http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/columns/story?%20columnist=maisel_ivan&id=2653942

Name everything that can be sexual innuendo in this article:


Go back to the beginning of the season, when Arkansas coach Houston Nutt needed only one game to pull Robert Johnson out of the starting job and give the offense to freshman Mitch Mustain. He has gone 8-0 as a starter, technically speaking. Nutt needed only one series to pull Mustain Saturday night at South Carolina and give the offense to Casey Dick.

David Kalk/US PRESSWIRE

Casey Dick threw for 228 yards and a touchdown against South Carolina.

Neither decision was as rash as it seemed. Johnson faltered against USC. Nutt felt Mustain, who enrolled this fall, knew enough to do the job. Nutt didn't need Mustain to win games. He needed Mustain not to lose games. He has sophomore tailback Darren McFadden and a big offensive line to power the offense.

Where was Dick? Unavailable. He injured his back in August. Dick started the last four games of last season and finished spring practice as the No. 1 quarterback. Once he became healthy this season and scraped off the rust, he became a more-than-viable option for Nutt.

Against the Gamecocks, Dick went 11-for-19 for 228 yards, one touchdown and one interception. Nutt said that he turned to Dick with the pressures of November in mind. And, Nutt added, "I have a quick trigger."

No kidding. Hey, the Razorbacks are 8-1 and leading the SEC West. They have beaten Auburn, so they own that tiebreaker. Dick will start Saturday against No. 13 Tennessee. As hot as Nutt has been this season, hand him the dice and get out of his way.

Indy

Hello from Indianapolis! I'm staying downtown in a Crowne hotel. Great location, it's right in between the RCA Dome (football) and Conseco Fieldhouse (basketball) so I can just feel all the sports in the air. The hotel is probably one of the coolest hotels I've ever stayed at. They remodeled the train station that was here into the hotel. When I walk in, I was a bit confused as it totally does not feel like a hotel. It's like you're walking in a train station, and then you turn right and there's a pool.

As I'm walking up to my room, there are actual trains sitting outside of my room. I walked over to them to see if I could go inside and take a tour, but turns out they're all rooms too! I found out that for $5 extra night, I could've stayed in one. Dang, something to try to do next time!

One thing that I'm learning the hard way is that parts of this building is still a live train station... the room kinda shakes a little when a train goes by. Either that or they've put it in for effect.

Burrito vs. Sandwich

My friend Dean posted a blog entry (dated 11/15) about a law suit deciding whether or not a burrito is officially a sandwich. I'm curious to see how Judge Martha would rule on it.

Pathways to leadership

So the last four days, me and 21 of my collegues attended a training called "Pathways to Leadership." It taught a lot of stuff that I've already tried living, but attending the training really reinforced the stuff I've been trying to live, and also created 21 other people who would support it. The main things I got out of it:

- You have control over your life
- People naturally want to be good, it's up to us to bring that out in them
- Positive reinforcement is much more effective than negative reinforcement
- Look at things in degrees of strength instead of degrees of weakness

Obviously it was a lot more complicated than that (since it lasted four days) but that's the gist. As I was learning about this stuff, it dawned on me that a group of people already lived all the stuff that was taught in the last four days. That is our men's softball team. Many other teams will snipe at each other, yell and scream, etc. Not sure who gets the credit, my first guess would be Jim for putting this team together, but our team sticks with positive reinforcement.

So for all of you who are reading this, feel free to help keep me on this track!

On Wisconsin!

Some Wisconsin loyalty in this Sunday night blog tonight...

Wisconsin is tied with Harvard for the most number of CEO's in the S&P 500... 14!
Dick Antoine, P&G's #1 HR guy, is not only a Wisconsin grad, but a Chem E at that!

Joe Thomas, offensive lineman for the Wisconsin Badgers, is not only a fellow Badger, but also a fellow Lancer! He graduated from my own Brookfield Central High School. He's projected to be the #2 pick in the NFL draft next year.

Dick Pound returns

Yes, his name is really Dick Pound. He's the head (huh huh) of the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA). He makes another appearance:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2648859

If you don't feel like reading that, the best line is "Stern jabbed WADA head Dick Pound."

Insert sexual inneundo jokes here.

Dale

Go metric system!

The University of Wisconsin is one of the most liberal campuses... I remember going down and always having some group protesting something, be it freeing Tibet or whatever the issue du jour was. Well, the one thing I would ever become an activist for is a movement to get the metric system to the US (the British don't even use the English system!). I wanted to start an organization called CHEMS (Chem E's for the Metric System). Alas, the left wing liberal in me never manifested itself, and after graduating and joining the corporate world it disappeared altogether.

Now I was perusing Facebook, and it has the groups you can join (my favorite group I've joined is "When I was your age Pluto was a planet" with over 600,000 others). One group I also joined was one for bringing the metric system to the US. It is here where the following was posted. Please note, I did NOT come up with this myself (although I'm sure many of you would've believed me if I told you I did ). So enjoy.

--------------------
Nerdy as it may be, I once worked out a metric version of time units. I've retyped it as best I can remember and recalculate. It has an interesting effect on terms of speed, as detailed in the lower section. Enjoy.


The way things currently are:

1 day
24 hours/day
60 min/hr = 1440 min/day
60 sec/min = 3600 sec/hour = 86,400 sec/day

My proposed metric units of time:

1 day
10 hours in a day
100 minutes/hr = 1000 min/day
100 seconds/min = 10,000 sec/hr = 100,000 sec/day

So the proposed version of seconds would be only slightly faster than the current version, specifically 0.864 of a second as long. No big deal, when it's just a matter of us getting used to it. Easier than getting used to a different number on speed limit signs in kph (but we'll get to that in a bit). If you think about, you may notice this version of hours to minutes or minutes to seconds is very similar to the way meters and centimeters (and going the other way, meters to kilometers) are commonly used for measurement of length, with the deci- or deka- units ignored. But for those of you who might be interested, here's the full version...

1 day
10 hours in a day
10 deci-hour/hr = 100 deci-hours/day
10 minutes/deci-hr = 100 min/hr = 1000 min/day
10 deci-min/min = 100 deci-min/deci-hr = 1000 deci-min/hr = 10,000 deci-min/day
10 seconds/deci-min = 100 sec/min = 1000 sec/deci-hr = 10,000 sec/hr = 100,000 sec/day

Summarizing:
1 day = 10 hr = 100 deci-hr = 1000 min = 10,000 deci-min = 100,000 sec

"Deka-minute" is interchangeable here with "deci-hour". Eventually, new terms for all the deci- or deka- units would be invented.

-------------------------

Make a small leap from this and you may realize that this could be usefully applied to measurement of speed (logical considering speed is distance over time, and I just mentioned how the proposed time unit is remarkably similar to already-used units of distance). Consider this:

If an object is traveling at a constant speed of 1 centimeter/[proposed] second (I know, not very fast but just go with it for a second, pun intended), then it would also be traveling at a speed of 1 meter/[proposed] minute!!! This scales to 1 hectometer/hour and 1 km/day, but I will assume you could have figured that out.


Raise the speed and things start to sound even more familiar. Let's try increasing speed by a factor of 100 and look at 1 meter/[proposed] second, a calm walking speed, about 2.6 mph in current units:

1 meter/[proposed] second = 1 hectometer/[prop] min = 1 km/[prop] deci-hour = 10 km/[prop] hour

10 'kph'. That's nothing too absurd. People could handle that being a leisurely walking speed, right? That would make bicycling at 26 mph about 100 km/[prop]hr. Sounds good to me.


Now, how would these converted speeds compare to the current versions in a vehicle? Let's use a higher speed, say, a highway speed limit - 100 kph (current version of time unit, not proposed). What would that convert to in the proposed system?

Since we're talking hours, we can ignore difference in the two systems' versions of seconds and come from difference from the other side - hours as fractions of a day.

The 'current' hour is 1/24 of a day, and the proposed hour is 1/10 of a day. The proposed hour is therefore 2.4 current hours. So, after multiplying:

100 km/[current] hr = 240 km/[proposed] hr


At first, if these units were put into use, it might sound pretty funny to say you were flying down the road at 240 Km/hr (even though it would be about the same as 62 mph in the currently used system) but I suspect the joke would wear out itself quickly enough.

Keep getting faster and you get to the next nice round number - a race car zipping by at 1000 km/[prop] hr. Okay maybe that's a little fast; that would be almost 260 mph, and I'm not sure if any race cars do that. But they probably will by the time this would get through congress.


Well, that's all for that. Hope you like it. Either way, let me know what you think. I know I have way too much time on my hands.

-Marc

P.S. I typed all this while being insomniac-ish (up for about 9.5 [prop] hours), so please forgive and point out any miscalculations, omissions, or other stupidity.

Hallowienies!

My favorite mascots are making an appearance...

The Secret of Suzanne

Martha (there's a blog mention for ya!) reminded me that I owed an explanation as to what the Secret of Suzanne was...

Well, Suzanne's secret that she kept from her husband was that she was a smoker! All through the opera, her husband thinks he's cheating on her because he smelled smoke on her clothes. Since neither of them smoked, he concluded that she was having an affair. Now doesn't that make a great premise for an opera?

Kudosesses

Wanted to give a couple of kudoses out:

Kudos #1: Jim "The Shedmaster" for coming over (and bringing his Makita drill) and helping me straighten out the door of my shed with some well placed boards. I'm not the most handy person in the world... well, maybe because I've never been interested in it.

Kudos #2: Tom for showing up at my concert on Saturday despite his wife being sick on Sweetest Day. His coming solo actually allowed him to befriend a older couple, so that he could sit inside the church instead of in the overflow area outside of the main hall.

Softblog

So as I swoon over the local weather ;), I blog about our last games of the season tonight in 30 degree weather... After many many years and many many dollars spent at the batting cages, finally I broke out with some good hitting! The highlight of it all was a 2-out grand slam over the right fielder's head to tie the second game, which we ended up winning! I would say the only thing that sucked was everyone that I would've told this to was already at the game! I guess I should be glad they all were there so they can't say I was embellishing :).

Baseball playoffs - and special bonus afterward

I usually tune into the baseball playoffs around this time of year... unlike the regular season, each game counts so much. All the best pitchers pitch, sometimes all in the same game. This year has been great, seeing the New York Yankees lose. Even better is that Detriot made it to the World Series. Just three years ago, they were horrible. It makes me believe my Milwaukee Brewers have a chance!

One of the bonuses of tuning into the baseball games, however, is sometimes the local Fox news comes on before I turn it off. Why? I've discovered the local weather girl, Valeri Abati, is REALLY cute! Not a ditzy cute, but cute in an intelligent sort of way. My previous unattainable crushes have been on sideline reporters, this is my first meteorologist. I do have an in, her sister works down the hall from me... (and Rachel, she ALSO has short hair... what's going on with me?)

Welcome That Girl

So if you're all wondering who that girl is that Karen's flirting with on my blog, it's Rachel, who now has the nickname "That Girl." Now "Dat Girl" would be cooler, but that's not what she said.

Rachel is Dave's fiance (what's with all the twins?), and a very unique person. Apparently a big fan of French teachers with short hair.

Welcome Rachel!

Alaska and allergies

So Chuck, one of the fellow cruise members, sees this cat as we walk around Hoonah, Alaska. He points to it and goes, hey look, it's an Alas-cat!

OK, the whole purpose of this entry was not only to present that bad pun. But an article on Yahoo caught my eye... Apparently they've bred a cat that lacks the protein that causes allergies! Check it out www.allerca.com (now do you see what I was reminded of the above story? The site is SOO close to being Alas-cat).

If I had known about this, maybe I'd still be with my ex-girlfriend. Or maybe not. It does cost like $4000.

Semi-related note... Notice how close "Catholic" is to "Cataholic"? Wonder if there's a connection...

Welcome back Angela!

Welcome back to Angela! She was a contributor to the blog a while back, and now she's back! Yes, she was the one who kept my ideal mate paper all these years.

OK, we've had this life long disagreement... How do you spell the shortened version of "Angela"? Would you go "Ange" or "Ang"? Let's take a vote from the crowd.

P.S. Don't think I ever did a profile for you Angela. Will hafta do that when I'm not so sleepy...

Video games?

Another courtesy of Dean...

Video Game Pianist

Martin Leung, aka the Video Game Pianist, composes his own piano music to classic video games. These aren't some cheesy arrangements, these sound more like a Chopin virtuoso piece. Here's one of his best, a Super Mario medley. It's about 6 minutes long, so if you don't want to listen to the whole thing, then listen to the beginning, skip to 1:30, then skip to 5:00.

http://www.videogamepianist.com/videos/1.wmv

Airport codes

Courtesy of Dean's blog...

Why is Chicago O'Hare "ORD"? Why is Newark "EWR"? This article explains it all.

http://www.skygod.com/asstd/abc.html

Concert #1: Nothing but overtures!

Well, next Saturday is the first concert 2006-2007 season... It's all overtures! These are the pieces that are played before an opera or musical. They take all the best parts of the show and puts it into one song! After 5 weeks or so of rehearsals, here's my editorial comments on each:

The CINCINNATI COMMUNITY ORCHESTRA
Gerald R. Doan – Conductor
Fifty-Third Season 2006–2007
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2006 “OVERTURE”

John Williams - The Star Spangled Banner (for the 2004 Rose Bowl)

This'll be interesting... it's the Star-Spangled Banner, but with some fancy orchestrations. The interesting will be seeing what the audience decides to do, stand or not stand, because it's a bit longer than the normal star spangled banner. By the way, the 2004 Rose Bowl saw USC beat Michigan 28-14, Matt Leinhart was the MVP.

Gabriel Faure - Overture to Pelleas & Melisande

Slow, pretty piece... Had fun during rehearsal using a pencil to change the composer's last name to "Favre"

Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari - Overture to the Secret of Suzanne

Suzanne has a secret... The conductor told us what it was, apparently she keeps this secret from her husband throughout the whole opera. What is it? You'll hafta go to find out!

Otto Nicolai - Overture to the Merry Wives of Windsor

Jacques Offenbach - Overture to Orpheus in the Underworld

Very fun! Especially at the end, when it turns into the "Can-can" song. I'm curious to go see this opera now.

Engelbert Humperdink - Overture to Hansel & Gretel

Yes, Hansel and Gretel is an opera, not just a kids book! This opera has one of my favorite melodies in it, the Dance of the Sandmen... In the story, Hansel and Gretel drift off to sleep and the Sandmen show up (maybe they had too much sugar?)

Johann Strauss - Overture to Die Flederamus

This song kicks my ass. I'm gonna go practice it some more. :)

Guiseppi Verdi - Overture to La Forza del Destino

This translates to "The Force of Destiny." Sounds like a great name for a Star Wars prequel eh? Star Wars, Episode 0: The Force of Destiny

Johannes Brahms - Academic Festival Overture

Great song to end the concert!

Anti-delisting blog 2

Hello fellow readers... Been out of town the last week or so, last four days in good ol' Lima, OH at the Downy making plant. Figured I'd better blog something to make sure I stay off of Karen's delisting, um, list.

I really have nothing to say. It's 9:38 PM on a Friday night, and I'm just about ready to go to bed cause I'm tired from all that Downy making. Let's see... this is stream of consciousness, much like "Cather in the Rye" except I won't be paying for a hooker and then asking her to leave without rendering her services.

Last weekend I took another trip back to the great state of Wisconsin, whose football team was the topic of the last blog. Wow, 13 comments... I think that breaks a record. Guess I should welcome two new contributors who both made their presence felt in those 13 comments, Dave S. (Tom's twin brother) and Martha, who now has a new nickname thanks to Jen, "Martha the Worthy."

I guess I have one thing to blog... I was summoned for jury duty supposedly this morning. I sent in a letter signed by my boss saying I'd be out of town all week (which I was, I just got home this afternoon). On Thursday, I called to see if I'd been excused. I was told I needed to talk to Michelle, who is the only person in the whole world apparently who can excuse someone. Michelle wasn't there, she was gonna be in later. I call later. No Michelle. I call in the early PM. No Michelle. I call again a little later, and am told Michelle has left for the day. I say, "I'm due for jury duty tomorrow at 8 AM, and I need to know if I am excused because I would need to make travel arrangements to come back for that." The lady says, "you are excused." I'm like whoa. I wise up and ask her name, just in case. After I hang up, I realize, unless she remembers me from my previous 3 calls, that I never told her my name. I have no idea what kind of a system Warren County has for jury selection.

Well, hope I'll be up for more quality blogs in the next day or two. Thanks for bearing with it!

Packer Season Ticket update

I got my new priority number for Packer season tickets. I'm now waiting list number 46,386. Projected time to get my tickets: 92 years.

The anti-delisting blog

To avoid the risk of being delisted from Karen's list of blogs, I blog tonight...

I did end up calling Queen City to talk about the incident on Tuesday... The guy immediate said he'd give me my $3 back. I told him that's great, and asked him if his employees were allowed to give refunds with out a ticket. He said no. I told him that they need to be a bit more tactful in communicating that, rather than trying to dig in and argue. He asked who I dealt with, and I told him. He seemed like he was gonna take care of it. Either way, I get my $3 back, but the experience leaves a sour taste in my mouth.

I often have problems with people in customer service when they start arguing with me as if they have been wronged ("I can't help it if they forfeited"). I'm already mad that something happened to me, and now you feel like you've been wronged by me? Worse yet is when they start being condescending (when I told the gate agent that it's Delta's fault they overbooked, not mine, and she said "we're not Delta, we're Comair). All they need to do is to apologize, maybe be a bit sympathetic, and say they're not allowed to do whatever it is, but here is the person that can. More brownie points is if they would say "I'll personally let my supervisor know." They all need to read the chapter of the book "How to Win Friends and Influence People" where they say even if you win this argument, you lose.

I'm so mad I could...

OK, I figure I needed to blog this right now to get all the details down...

Tonight we had our final softball game. The game was at 10:10 PM, not a very popular time for our team. When I get to the game, I pay my usual $3 to get into the game. In exchange, we get a 50 cent off concessions coupon. Since the batting cages aren't working tonight, I'm a bit early for the game. So I turn in my 50 cent coupon and pay another $1 to get a pretzel.

Turns out the opposing team doesn't show up. We get a forfeit win, and they refund us our $3 if we go to the desk. I go up to the desk and ask for my $3. They ask me for my ticket. I told them I used it to buy a pretzel. I'm then told that I can't get my $3 back unless I have a ticket. I tell them that I'm the captain of this team, I used my ticket to buy a pretzel. He says he can't give me $3 back without a ticket. I say I pay $400 for this league, drive all the way out here for a 10:10 game, have the game forfeited, patronize your concession stand, and you won't give me my $3 gate fee back. He says he can't help it if they forfeited. My friend gives me an old ticket to use. I try to use it. He says "I'm not giving it you, you just told me you used your ticket." I tell him I don't appreciate the attitude. He says I'm the one giving him attitude.

He did end up giving me the park manager's name to call tomorrow. I ask him to have him call me. He at first refuses, but then ends up taking my name and number. I don't plan on waiting for him to call, I will be calling him first chance I get.

Blink - Part 2

The book Blink is now finished... Pretty good book, I'd give it a 7 out of 10. Another musing about one of the concepts in the book:

In one chapter, the author talks about how people figure out things based off clues that only their subconscious knows. When pushed to explain how they figured it out, they oftentimes make something up, all unconsciously.

"We have, as human beings, a storytelling problem... We're a bit too quick to come up with explanations for things we don't really have an explanation for."

My parents are really bad at coming up with explantions for things. Most often, they convieniently link to us being bad kids. I.E. my parents explained my bad eyesight on watching too much TV. I got sick because I didn't wear a coat. Now, I can call them on these things. I tell them my sister has 20/20 vision, and you can't say she watches that much less TV than me. I also tell them a cold is caused by a virus, not by not wearing your jacket.

I guess the moral of the story is, don't try to make an explanation just for the sake of making one. Maybe your subconscious figured it out.

The first football Sunday

A few musings from the first Sunday off football season:

-I'm currently on my 9th hour of TV watching today, third game of the day, pitting Peyton Manning against his little brother Eli Manning. The NFL should totally do everything under their power to support fantasy leagues... if it weren't for fantasy leagues, I doubt I'd be so into this game.

-My team, the Green Bay Packers, are in for a LOOONG season as we lose to the Bears 26-0. The Bengals on the other hand are looking good, I think I'm a good omen to wherever I move to.

-I watched the first game at a friend's house, who has the NFL Sunday Ticket package (you have access to all the games). Sounds like a great thing to have a bunch of friends over and be able to watch all the games, but everyone wants to be watching their team's game. So we end up flipping channels and we don't really see a lot of any one game. I wonder what the solution is...

Blink

So I'm taking an opportunity this Labor Day weekend to start the next book, "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell (he previously wrote "The Tipping Point," one of my favorite books). Basically the gist of this book is that the human subconscious is very powerful, that we can figure a surprising amount of things out in a blink. Couple of tidbits:

- He talks about speed dating, of which someone knows within a few seconds whether or not they like someone. In those few seconds, there's no time to figure out if the person fits their "ideal mate" but it's enough for us to make a call. I think Karen's a great example of this, she's told many people she knew Jim was the one within a blink.

- It's funny, as I'm writing this, a song starts playing on the radio. Two notes in, a rush of emotions fill me and my brain immediately tells me it's Journey. It's not just the two notes, but the way the notes are played and the timbre of the notes that allows my subconscious to figure out that this song is by a group who's concert I went to on memorable date 3 years ago! Interesting sidenote, on our cruise, we played "name that tune" with a live pianist. I struggled mightily, probably because I needed all the other parts than just the notes to get the song!



Part two to follow...

Cincinnati Community Orchestra Schedule

As requested so Karen can get these on her calendar, here's the Cincinnati Community Orchestra concert schedule for this year.

“OVERTURE” – Saturday, October 21, 2006
Openers by Faure, Nicolai, Offenbach, Humperdink, Strauss, Verdi, and Brahms
”TUNES & TALES” – Saturday, December 2, 2006
Symphonic holiday stories by Grieg, Humperdink, Respighi, Menotti, and Silvestri
“A TASTE OF SPAIN” – Saturday, March 3, 2007
Music with a Spanish flair by Elgar, de Falla, Bizet, Albeniz, and Ravel
“MYTHS & LEGENDS” – Saturday, May 5, 2007
A musical visit to your favorite movies from Superman to Lord of the Rings

We haven't started any rehearsals yet, so I can't tell you too much, but here's the list of songs for the first concert with any comments.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2006 “OVERTURE”

John Williams - The Star Spangled Banner (for the 2004 Rose Bowl)
Gabriel Faure - Overture to Pelleas & Melisande
Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari - Overture to the Secret of Suzanne
Otto Nicolai - Overture to the Merry Wives of Windsor
Jacques Offenbach - Overture to Orpheus in the Underworld
(The main melody in this song is famous as the "Can can" song)
Engelbert Humperdink - Overture to Hansel & Gretel
(Did you know that Hansel and Gretel is an OPERA? There's an absolutely beautiful melody in it, which will be featured at the next concert, that's for you Tom)
Johann Strauss - Overture to Die Flederamus
Guiseppi Verdi - Overture to La Forza del Destino
Johannes Brahms - Academic Festival Overture

My Ideal Mate - From 1995

In my junior year of high school, we had to write a one page paper on what our ideal mate was. For fun, and to use this new technology called email, my friend and I swapped stories. Well, this friend of mine recently dug out a printout of my paper while cleaning. So, here it is... what I considered an ideal mate back when I was 17 years old:

I’ll be honest; the first thing I’m looking for in the ideal mate is attractiveness. It’s human nature. But tying for first are certain aspects of her personality that would be essential to a lasting relationship.
-The ideal mate has strong opinions yet is open-minded and willing to compromise. She has high self-esteem, but she s not the yes sir type person, nor the type who cant accept anyone elses opinions. She also is willing to compromise when the need arises.
-The ideal mate is very loyal, yet not overpossessive. She doesnt ignore me and pretend I dont exist around others. Nevertheless, she also doesnt follow me wherever I go. She is also honest. We would have a strong relationship, strong enough to be away from each other once in a while.
-The ideal mate can carry on a conversation with me. There are a variety of things I like to talk about, some rather in depth. She would be able to continue and contribute to a conversation. Also, she would feel comfortable enough to talk to me openly and vice versa.
-The idea mate has a good sense of humor, yet knows when to be serious. She doesnt let little things bother her, and keeps a positive perspective on life. She knows the value of humor, but also knows when to be serious with me.
-The ideal mate can share or tolerate my love for sports and music. I like to participate or watch many sports, and she either tolerates it or joins me. Also, she recognizes that music is a part of my life (I’ve been playing an instrument for 13 years) again participating or listening.
-The idea mate has strong family ties. She respects her parents and siblings, as well as mine. She also respects my thoughts and feelings.
When these criterion are met, most of the other attributes of the ideal mate dont really matter. It would already ensure a long, happy relationship.

Hee hee

Thanks Dean, got this on the site if you Google "French military defeats" (after you Google French military victories).

"Going to war without France is like going deer hunting without an accordion. All you do is leave behind a lot of noisy baggage."

A major timesaving tip for folding clothes

Check this out...

Math, Chad Johnson style

Sorry Cinci friends, I couldn't resist, especially since I'm going to the game!... From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Significant debut

In all probability, Cincinnati quarterback Carson Palmer will play two or three series Monday night against Green Bay. It will mark his return to action since undergoing reconstructive knee surgery for two torn ligaments and a dislocated kneecap on Jan. 10.

"We will put on a show for his return," wide receiver Chad Johnson told reporters in Cincinnati. "He won't talk like that, but I'll talk like that for him."

Johnson, who wears No. 85, will be working against cornerbacks Al Harris (No. 31) and Charles Woodson (No. 21).

"Twenty-one plus 31 equals 85," Johnson said.

-I'm tempted to hold up a sign that says "21+31=52 STUPID." Look for it.

My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine...

That's it. Pluto is no longer a planet. (Dean, I can't believe you haven't jumped on this yet... this is something I would expect to find on your blog). I can't decide if it's a minor thing or if it's earth shattering. I mean we all grew up learning that there was nine planets, and all the textbooks have nine planets. You know what this is? This is a conspiracy created by the textbook compaines to have an excuse to print new versions of their books!

OK not really. But it is a pretty big deal, don't you think? Imagine if you were a elementary school teacher. What a great teaching opportunity to demonstrate the scientific method...

BTW, anyone know the significance of the title?

People who don't know what they're talking about

In the NFL, if you're tied after 4 quarters, they go into a "sudden death" overtime, where the first team that scores win. People cry foul because they say the game is determined by who wins the coin toss (the winner gets the option to receive the ball first). Well, I came across this stat today in the paper:

"Since 1974, when the coin toss for overtimes was created, teams that have won the toss have won the game 52.9% of the time, while 43% of the toss losers have won. Last season, 57.1% of the toss winners won, and 42.8% of the toss losers won."

I don't know about you, but 57/43 isn't exactly a favorable arguement of whoever wins the coin toss wins the game. I can even explain why the discrepency between last year and the years prior... kickoff was moved back 5 yards to foster more runbacks. Be interested to see the stats before and after that rule.

Just goes to show, people just don't know what they're talking about sometimes.

Good news and bad news!

Well, the first few days of notthebookstore.com are complete... Still getting about one visit an hour. The good news is I've gotten my first order! Someone ordered a math textbook on Thursday. The bad news? That's been it! Hopefully it's because no one's on campus yet, and once they get into the campus mood they'll start buying. And Karen, I'm thinking of getting someone to glitz up the page! You'll hafta let me know if you hear any insights from your students.

Today I went to a combined GE and P&G APA (Asian and Pacific American) picnic... Being in a group with 90% Asians felt weird to me, even though I am Asian. It's always a weird dynamic, they are my people, but then again I don't really feel like I completely belong... And of course I saw a lot more white men significant others than white women SO's. (By the way, they said that "P&G and GE" prizes would be given away. I wondered what kind of GE prizes there would be, light bulbs? MRI machines? Aircraft engines? Well, they gave away dehumidfiers and wine refrigerators!)

Banter from tonight's Sunday night football game by John Madden and Al Michaels:
Al: "Are you gonna have that spaghetti and chili tonight?"
John: "No... that's a mid-day thing. You need a whole day for it."
Al: "Do you wash that down with Rolaids?"

And finally... please welcome Lindsay the mustard girl to this blog!

More softball and textbooks

Yesterday our men's league had an "all star game" in which certain players were voted in to be all stars, but we all just kinda subbed in and out. The highlight of the night for me was cranking a liner over the right center fielder's head for a home run... don't know if it was bc I'm getting better, I used Jim's bat, or we used a non-restricted ball, but man it felt good!

Notthebookstore.com update... So I took out an ad on Facebook for Xavier students, and since then the site's gotten about 100 hits. But so far no one's bought a book yet. Any ideas why?

Insomni-blog

Late softball games suck, they make it so you can't sleep afterwards... But there's some blogworthy stuff today (if you don't like softball, skip the first note)

-Our team got out the whoppin' sticks and scored 31 runs to win 31-18. I went 5-5 with 4 singles and a double (should've been a triple but I fell down rounding first... doh!). Game ended on a bases loaded, 1-2-3 double play (pitcher to catcher to first base).

-Notthebookstore.com is officially on line and ready to go! The marketing part has started, as I've started advertising on Google. Can't wait for that first non-me visit! Not many people can say they got feedback from a P&G Brand Manager for marketing their website!

-I had started speculating on textbooks as well... Today I sold a Physics book I had purchased back in May for $53 for $99! Now Amazon takes a $15 cut, but it's still like 66% profit. Now for some reason the Chemistry and Marketing books I bought aren't doing as well...

The Mustard video

Just trying out how to embed video...

Post Alaska

About a week ago right now is when we got back from our trip... Good news is the rocking sensation has stopped and I'm sleeping normally again. So a week later, here's some post Alaska bloggings...

- My current weight is at 166 lbs, which is about the same as when I left for Alaska. I did splurge a lot at the beginning of the trip, but as the week went on I ate less and less. I remember the food from my last cruise was better, but I was also reminded that when we took that cruise I was only 1.5 years out of college dorm food

- I've received all the postcards that I sent to myself... Before you laugh, it's what I do on trips. I used just send it blank, but then I started logging some of the events. I also have the people I'm traveling with write something if I get a chance. Karen wrote me two, along with Kristi and Chuck. Here's a picture of my postcard board with the new additions:


And the new "pins" on the map to indicate where I've been:

Jet Lag sucks

As predicted, it's 1:50 AM and I can't sleep. Doesn't help to know that my alarm clock is set for 6:45 AM right now.

So why not another Alaskan cruise blog...

One of the interesting phenomena that happened on the cruise was people got nicknames according to how you first met them. I guess remembering names is too much. The most obvious way to get a nickname is based on where you're from. I.E., there were the "Texas chicks." Karen's dad, after an experience on stage with a hula hoop, was called "Cincinnati Steve." The guy who knocked off Jim in the ping pong tournament, paving the way for me to win it was dubbed "Ping-pong Dave." A few young women that the Templin/Wolf clan met were the "Blond chicks" (for obvious reasons). And a cute young lady who came up to talk to cousin Jon because he had a Purdue shirt on was then dubbed "Purdue chick." Even our own party got nicknames... brother Mike (I'm using Karen as a point of reference for these relatives, obviously I'm not really related to any of them) was for some reason named "Juicepouch." I actually don't know the reasoning behind that one. Mike's girlfriend Lindsay, after an unfortunate Family Feud experience (the question was "Name the top answer for the following question... What is your favorite condiment?"), got the moniker "Mustard."

(Texas chicks are in the back smiling, Juicepouch in foreground on left, Mustard in foreground on right)
Cincinnati Steve on the right, the other two guys said "CINCINNATI STEVE! LET ME INTRODUCE YOU TO MY FAMILY!"


Me on the left, ping pong Dave on the right


No pics of blond or Purdue chicks... will just hafta use your imagination. :)

Bloggin' from Seattle

Not yay for $7.95 wireless access... but I figure since we have a 3 hour layover, might be a good investment.

It was a wonderful trip, and the Templin/Wolf families acted as wonderful hosts for me. One of the interesting things is to try to explain to people how I fit in. One person asked me how I fit into the group... "Well, Jon's cousin's husband is a good friend of mine." Eventually, I just resorted to "I'm their foreign exchage student."



On a similar note, none of the employees on the cruise line were American. Many were Asian, Latino, South African, etc... I don't think there was one American on the cruise. There were two instances where I was mistaken for an employee:

Buffet server: So how long have you been on this ship?
Me: About 3 days
Server (looking confused): Oh, are you new?


Only 2 more hours until our red eye flight to Atlanta.

Bloggin' from Anchorage

Yay for free wireless!

I have way too much to say, but I figured I should blog SOMETHING since I'm at the airport. Just finished a wonderful calorie filled Burger King lunch. Our first leg of our 27 hour journey has completed, as we took a scenic train from Seward to Anchorage. Now, our flight to Seattle, then Atlanta, until we finally return to Cincy tomorrow morning.

North! To Alaska! Go north, the rush is on...

The next scene in my musical of life has me packing for my trip to Alaska and finishing in record time at 11:40 PM (I usually finish around 1 AM or so, always procrastinating until the last minute). As I am packing, I break into a song and dance routine with backup singers appearing in my bachelor pad out of nowhere. The song? North, to Alaska! by Johnnie Horton.

Random Stuff Sunday

Well, don't have anything really inspiring to say, but I figured I haven't blogged for a while, so I'll write up some stuff in bullet points...

- Thanks to help from Tom S. and my cousin, I've gotten over the hump for programming my textbook website. It's now semi-presentable! Too bad none of you are potential customers anymore. Anyways, if you feel like it, check it out at notthebookstore.com and feel free to give me feedback.

- One site I've found useful to keep track of all the blogs I'm reading is bloglines.com. It shows you when something new has been posted to a blog. Thanks Dean for that tip (Dean seems to be quite on top of things when it comes to useful websites... he's the one that introduced to me to quizyourfriends.com too. It's pretty fun if you haven't tried it).

- Musicals have been a fun part of my life, even played an acting role in The King and I when I was 8 (they were pretty hard up for Asian kids for that show in Wisconsin). I always wondered what it'd be like if life were one big musical, where you'd stop and burst into song and choreography at random points. Well, for those of you reading this who know Jenny J, (Jen, or Jenny, or whatever, is just gushing about her new boyfriend Tom (not Tom S)). I totally can see her life stopping and breaking into the song "Hello Young Lovers" from the King and I. Anna passes a picture of her husband, Tom, to all of the ladies around her, and each one takes turns looking at it and starts singing "Tom... Tom!... Tom... Tom" and of course, music starts playing, and Anna starts the song...

When I think of Tom.
I think about a night.
When the earth smelled of summer
And the sky was streaked with white,
And the soft mist of England
Was sleeping on a hill-
I remember this,
And I always will...

Skipping to the Chorus:

Hello young lovers, whoever you are,
I hope your troubles are few.
All my good wishes go with you tonight,
I've been in love like you.

OK, my prose probably doesn't do it justice. You'll just have to get it from ITunes. :)

(Tom S, this is what Megan probably sings to herself every night)

Racing sausage attacked!

Tom referred in one of his comments to an incident a while back that involved a bat... I figure I'd shed some light on that.

First, my editorial comment: This was the most blown out of proportion thing in the history of mankind. OK, now watch the video (click this link).

Done? OK... I couldn't help but burst out laughing, even after watching it again now. First, can you believe this was considered "breaking news?" And I love all the headlines... Racing sausage attacked! And I can't believe the player who did this was led off in handcuffs and charged with battery (hee hee). Some more quotes:

"I just looked over and saw our wieners in a wad." - Ned Yost, Brewers manager.

"Someone had to win." - The guy dressed up as the bratwurst, when asked why he didn't go back and help

What really happened was a player was trying to kid around, but the costumes are so tall that they're top heavy. So she fell down. I think the proper response was a apology by Randall Simon, and for him to buy them dinner or something. I appreciate this kind of kidding around, it's unfortunate that people overreacted so much. Follow up video.

Got any good one-liners? Reply now!

Update on goals

Time to do a status check...

Weight

Goal: 165 lbs
Start: 175 lbs on June 13
Current: 170 lbs

Batting

Goal: 0.500 batting average
Current: 0.473
Status: Had a batting lesson about 2 weeks ago... hasn't quite shown up in the statistics yet, but I need a few more sessions in the batting cages and in games to work on the stuff I learned. My hits have been more solid, so it's a good start!

Golf

OK, I didn't really set any golf goals, but this year it feels like I may be figuring things out... Went golfing with Jon on Friday and shot a 54. Even pulled out the 3 wood and starting hitting it!

Cincinnatians in Milwaukee

It was a rough weekend for Cincinnatians in Milwaukee over the July 4 weekend... I guess I was the only one who had a good one!

- First of all, the Brewers swept the Reds, including winning the Bobble-Dog game.

- Quote:

"I can't believe I brought her here and asked her to marry me here. If I had known, I never would have done it. Not here. Not in Milwaukee. Nothing goes right here.”
- Ken Griffey Jr., Cincinnati outfielder, who asked then-girlfriend Melissa to marry him in Milwaukee in 1992.

- Finally:

Reds Pitcher Arrested: Shackleford accused of third degree sexual assault

I'm not sure what's worse here, the Reds pitcher who met this woman on the internet, or the woman who actually thought there would just be touching...

Bobble Dog! And other July 4 happenings from the Badger state

So the July 4 weekend had me back in my hometown of Brookfield, WI. It's beautiful in the Badger state in the summer (too bad it doesn't last longer!). One of the many great things about Wisconsin is the many lakes, of which I got to spend one day at Whitewater Lake with my good friends. Didn't try to waterski, but did go sailing for the first time in my life. It's amazing how much Physics goes into sailing. This is also where I discovered that the best way to answer one of those "how does it work" questions is "it's like an airplane wing." Apparently that's how sailing works.

On July 4, my wonderful sister that works for ESPN 1510 AM radio got me amazing seats (10 rows behind the plate!) to the Brewers game. Of course, the good ol' Reds just happen to be in town (I don't know how many times I've seen the Reds play in Milwaukee). At this game they gave away something that will be priceless to me... a Bobble Dog! It's a bobble head version of the racing hot dog. The "real" racing sausages are in the picture on the left, and the Bobble dog is on the right. It's one of those little quirks I love about a city! (For those of you who noticed, I have a small replica of the Bratwurst hanging from my rearview mirror).





















It was a great weekend in Milwaukee... A few good friends had moved back to Milwaukee since the last time I visited. I also felt guilty about leaving my family. It was very hard leaving town yesterday, despite knowing I had a doubleheader softball game to look forward to.

Sigh

Winston is someone who, before meeting his girlfriend, was someone I could count on being on-line every night to IM. He's still doing a good job of IMing me, though he's around less frequently now. Well, recently my IM list has been all away for a while. Tonight I see Winston on line... and the follow conversation occurs (IM names have been changed to protect privacy):

WildTing55: Yay, you're back, someone to IM!

Response:

[Bing bong]

madphoenix33: madphoenix33 has signed off

Fun with anagrams

So a while back, Winston introduced me to a site that finds anagrams (where you take the letters of a word or phrase and rearrange them to make new words, like in Da Vinci Code). Today I went back to that site and had some fun with my name... For "Dale Ting" I came up with:

1. Legit DNA

Nice to see I have the gene pool on my side

2. Get Linda

This is funny because Linda is my sister!


And the best one, drum roll please...

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

3. Laid gent

;)

Softball

Today was a bit of a disappointing softball day... It started pretty good, I took a batting lesson from someone at the batting cage I go to. The guy was pretty good, had me work on 1. Exploding the hips, 2. Keeping my head down when hitting the ball. Turns out the guy bought the business about a year ago... Count me jealous! I had my eye on batting cages as a fun business to get into. Maybe I can partner up with him. :)

So at the game tonight, the first time up all the stuf I learned worked to perfection as I lined a single up the middle. After that it was a soft liner to 2B, a weak grounder to 1B... and then up with the bases loaded, 2 out, down by 1, bottom of 7th... Perfect time for a... grounder to 2B. Guess I have more work to do. But I think I gotta let these blisters heal before I hit the cages again.

P.S. It was quite a scene seeing 3 generations of Templins in the stands.

Quotable

"It's like recognizing pornography, you'll know it when you see it."

-David Stern, NBA commissioner, when asked how the NBA determines what type of fouls warrant a suspension.

Book report - Jump start you brain, by ex-P&Ger who quit

In the style of Karen, I will do a little book report too. The book I have is called Jump Start Your Brain, and it's written by Doug Hall, a former brand manager at P&G who didn't really fit because he was too creative. I love the premise because I often make fun of the rigidness and all the processes in our company, and this guy takes it to an extreme. On the cover is a close up of him blowing a bubble, and the title of the book is in rainbow colors.

My favorite part of the book so far is he publishes two things: 1. His letter of resignation to P&G, and 2. His final performance review. I'll share excerpts from his final performance review here, as I find it pretty funny:

"Doug brings an extraordinary degree of creativity, entreprenuerial instinct, and energy to his work. He has brought eight product concepts from invention to shipping, all within calendar 1990... with a ninth project to follow. This has to be something of a record.

Doug has just one key opportunity for improvement: he needs to treat the "system" with more respect... (he) takes almost malicious pleasure in "beating the system" by developing new product concepts faster and cheaper than if work were done through traditional channels... It does not help to rub people's noses in their inefficiencies, their cost of operation or their tortoiselike speed... Finally, and of much lesser importance, Doug has a too-low tolerance for paperwork, memo writing, budgeting, and similar administrative errata which, until successfully addressed, will limit his effectiveness in conventional management assignments."

THIS GUY IS MY HERO. :)

Personal Profiles #4

Here we go... Dean doesn't actually have a blogger account, just usually responds as anonymous. But he's there.

Name: Dean

How we met: Our parents met at the public library, and when they found out their kids were the same age, I got invited to their house.

Commentary: Dean and I were roommates for 2 straight years over in the Lakeshore dorms. All through HS and college, people claimed that they could not tell us apart. Our names being 4 letter words that start with D probably didn't help either. Dean had three stupid talents that I learned during my 2 years as his roomate: 1. He could recite all the words to "One Week" by the Bare Naked Ladies. 2. He could solve a rubik's cube in 5 minutes. 3. He could cup his hands play them as an instrument, blowing through the hole where his thumbs came together (it sounded kinda like what a recorder sounds like... his signature song was "Eternal Flame," and could even hit the high note).

Favorite Moments:
-The one time we were playing trivial pursuit at the aforementioned Winston's house over New Years Eve, and when the answer was something like "Carbon tetrachloride hydrogenase" he started yelling "DUH DUH DUH DUH DUH DUH" and romped all over the room
-The two years as roommates at Wisconsin

Relationship defining moments:
-After college, whenever we would talk on the phone, our conversations would cover three topics: 1. Stocks 2. Football and 3. Girls
-One year for a Halloween party, we dressed up as each other... Dean wore my Dallas Cowboys sweatshirt and I wore his stuff. People got a kick out of that

Church League Softball Fistfight

(Thanks to Jim for coming up with the theme song for this blog... this is an actual song that was featured on the Bob and Tom show)

So on Thursday I played a double header softball game to make it a record 5 softball games in 3 days. We did end up winning both, making my record for the week 2-3. Our team did get on the topic of blogs during yesterday's games, and one person in particular said she'd never read a blog. So I told her I'd talk about her and that'll get her to read it. She still says she'd never do it. So Liz, eat your heart out. You WILL read this blog at some point. Liz is a ringer who originally was supposed to play on the Tuesday team, but broke her wrist in one of her 500 volleyball games a week (the 5 games is a lot to me, it's a normal week for her). Everytime she gets out she says she hates the game. OK, so everyone who reads this blog and knows Liz, tell her all the gossip I'm writing about her.

So you're probably wondering about the title... So in the second game of the doubleheader, in about the 6th inning, the pitcher on their team yells at someone on their bench because he's holding up their last fielder from getting into the game. I thought he was kidding around with him, but maybe not... So this guy, who's not in the game, starts jawing at the pitcher, and starts walking out toward the mound. The aforementioned Liz is actually waiting to bat during all this. The guy gets to the mound and he and the pitcher yell at each other for about 5 minutes. I think the team's some sort of religious group, because I heard the guy say "Don't disrespect me. I don't disrespect you, I call you Reverend..." To top it all off, he was carrying a baby carrier the whole time. I don't think there was a baby in the carrier, but it looked pretty strange to have a guy yelling at a supposed Reverend holding a baby carrier.

The rest of the game went off without a hitch... The team overall seemed pretty friendly (lots of cheering going on). But definitely a first for me...

Stuff

It's 11:45, and I probably should be sleeping instead of blogging... but oh well.

So today is the middle day of the all softball all the time week. We were scheduled to do 1 on Tuesday, 1 on Wednesday, and was subbing for 2 on Thursday. Ended up subbing for another team as well today, so total softball games for the week after tomorrow will be 5. So far I'm 0-3, think it's time to break that streak tomorrow!

Never thought a 3 hour jet lag was that big of deal, but it's affected me and still is a little bit. I tend to wake up in the middle of the night, and when it is time to wake up my body still feels confused. Hopefully that'll end tonight.

No break this weekend as class starts... Management 903!

The big 165

OK, after a week long vacation of pigging out, I'm posting my goals to drop some weight right here on my blog.

Today's weight: 175 lbs

Goal: 165 lbs

And we're off!

Dale

Fun at a beach in Vancouver

Nothing like a little football throwing on the beach...
Oops:


Canadian lifeguard: "I'm gonna hafta stop you, eh? There's a sign, eh?"

The Butterfly effect

Prior to the Underground tour, we had tempted fate by crossing the street while the light was red. Afterwards, we started seeing the effects...

At the end of the tour, we were told that you could get a beer for $2 with our ticket stubs. So of course we headed to the bar. The bartender was a younger woman, with an alternative look to her. As we approached, she informed us that she closed at 6. I looked at my watch, and it said 5:40. So we said OK, and proceeded to order. From then on, at 5:45, 5:47, and 5:50 she reminded us that we had 15, 10, and 5 minutes left. After I had finished, she told Hana "You're lagging behind." After our "5 minute" warning, I said "I got it" and really held myself back from starting a verbal confrontation. At 5:55, we left, and needless to say, did not leave a tip.

The next day, we rode the Ducks (a vehicle that can go on both land and water). The tour guy was great, absolutely funny, and lotsa fun. We went from land into the lake, and cruised by some of the million dollar houseboats on the lake. The guide took us to the house that was in Sleepless in Seattle and we started snapping pictures. One of the people sitting outside yelled "You're too close." Another man came out of his house and started yelling at us as well, one thing I remember was "You're a nuisance." The guide proceeded to wave and yell "Hello! How are you?" and turned around to make a second pass. It was pretty obvious he was pretty po'ed about it, as well as the person on the boat...

As we sit here in Vancouver, we expect a raging infero when we get back to Seattle on Saturday... :)

Seattle quote

"Living in Seattle is like being with a beautiful woman who's sick all the time."

Seattle some more

Continuing with the Seattle trip:

We had a coffee at the original Starbucks at Pike Market. The logo for the original Starbucks was a bit raunchier than the current Starbucks logo, as you can see in the picture (in the current one, she is a bit more covered up). At this Starbucks, there was the nicest order taker ever... she was this Japanese girl that looked like she was totally and completely ecstatic to be serving you. At that point, we observed that the people in Seattle were REALLY nice (the cars stop for pedestrians). At the salmon place the server was a girl, probably college aged. My friend Hana is notorious for asking deep penetrating questions about everything, including salmon (what's the difference between your great salmon and your really great salmon?). Hana was in rare form with this waitress. But she smilingly answered all his questions and gave a lot of awesome insights. One of the dangers of this niceness was I thought all of the women who talked to me really liked me.

The next day, we came to a red light while walking to the Underground tour, and were tempted to just cross, Madison style. We paused because the whole city seemed to be so courteous and law abiding and nice, and us crossing at a red light may create a butterfly effect (i.e. a butterfly flaps his wings in Tokyo and causes a hurricane in the US) and all of Seattle will go to crap. We decided to cross anyway and risk it... (dot dot dot)

The Underground Tour was something that Karen had mentioned in a comment earlier... The story is the city decided to raise all the streets to manage the flooding issues, but couldn't agree with the business on the road to do it. So they raised the roads and kept the sidewalks where they were, resulting in a 8-35 ft drops from the road to the sidewalk. Later they built sidewalks to fill the gap, resulting in an underground open space (as seen in this picture). This is just one of the weird, screwed up things that I've learned about this city.

It was after this tour that the butterfly effect started kicking in...

Salmon update:

My salmon streak was broken at lunch yesterday, as we had a spicy chicken pizza near the Seattle center (it was excellent, similar to Dewey's back in Cinci). But it was restarted at dinner, as I had a British Columbia Atlantic Salmon stuffed with shrimp and dungeness crab (British Columbia Atlantic??? More to come...). Unfortunately, it was broken again today at lunch as we had really good Dim Sum in Vancouver. Tomorrow, sushi buffet! All the raw fish you can eat...

Sleepy in Seattle

Stupidfest Northwest kicked off yesterday in Seattle... Stupidfest is an annual get together of some of my former engineer roommates and friends. It's called that because of the fact we're all dorky engineers, and others (not me) played Magic during some of the first ones. Stupidfest started off with Dean missing his flight San Jose and Hana's flight being delayed coming out of O'Hare. My flight from Cinci arrives without incident, and everyone else arrives within a few hours. On day one, we head to the Pike Market and have lunch at Jack's Fish Spot. This meal is the first of 4 meals in row and counting where I have had salmon: beer battered salmon for lunch, three types of grilled salmon for dinner, and today baked salmon sandwich for lunch and salmon sushi for dinner.

We make our obligatory visit to the Space Needle after walking around a lot at Pike Market St. We attempt to get on the monorail, but upon getting to the station we see that the monorail is out of service...

Today was a fun day, as we make our return to Pike Market and hit the Underground Tour. But I'm sleepy and will continue at another time... Except for this picture, which if we were writing a book we could put in the front cover for Stupidfest. The sculpture is entitled "Pi in the sky."

Windy City Whirlwind

Day two of my trip to Chicago... Boy did we do a lot! On Friday, I arrived and met up with my sister and my two cousins. We went and saw Second City, a Saturday Night Live "minor leagues" of sorts where many SNL alums came from. Yesterday, we saw a matinee of "Wicked" at the Ford Theatre downtown, and later that same night saw the Blue Man Group at the Briar Street Theatre. So three shows in the span of 24 hours! My sister, who used to watch the Wizard of Oz on constant loop growing up, loved the show but now says she's scarred for life because she won't be able to watch the Wizard of Oz the same way again.
(Pictured: My cousin Cynthia on the left, cousin Josh in the middle, and sister Linda on the right outside the theatre).

Today was the architecure boat tour of the city, where we got stories of all the buildings on the river. I learned that one guy named Mies liked to design black boxes for buildings (he's German... figures), until people starting thinking that big block boxes were pretty boring. Too bad, he probably made a good living copying and pasting blueprints for each of his buildings (at P&G we like to call it "search and reapply"). I found out that a one bedroom condo only costs $300,000 and a lake view costs $1 million. On the tour, I also saw the beginnings of the new Trump building, pictured here. Bill Rancic was nowhere to be seen. I remember seeing him on later Apprentice shows as a judge, and it makes me wonder, one minute he's a candidate trying to get hired, and like a year later he's good enough to be a judge? Gimme a break.

What else can happen...

I know how much you all enjoy my softball stories, but the last three games have been rather interesting...

Last Wednesday, our men's team played a doubleheader. The first game went 11 innings (regulation game is 7 innings) because neither team could score a run. During the second game, a lightning storm passed over us and we had about a 15 minute rain delay. Afterwards, the sun came back out. We ended up losing both games, got wet, and really sore.

Tonight, we had our 10:10 game that no one likes. Game started about 20 minutes late. We had what I call a "dixie cup umpire," i.e. you hafta pitch the ball into a dixie cup to get a strike (these guys are used to baseball, so they refuse to call anything that goes above a batter's shoulder). The game was close, we were up 9-8 in the 6th inning before we broke out for 5 runs. So bottom of the 6th, game at 14-8, they shut off all the lights. Field goes dark immediately. We wait for probably 10-15 minutes as they run in and tell the guy who operates the lights to turn the freakin' lights back on. Luckily, after that we get 2 quick outs, agree to let the team bat again, and get 3 outs there and we win 14-10.

And of course, one of the other crappy things about a 10:10 game, is you're still riled up at 12:47 AM.

Baseball and Dale Carnegie

So I went down to the ballpark today after work to catch my hometown Milwaukee Brewers play the Reds in what has been a bit of a tradition for me. Back when the Fountain Square lot was open, I would park there for $1. I would then walk to the game, and along the way try to get a cheap ticket off a scalper. I've decided I would not pay more than half of face value for a ticket. I also had on my side the fact that I only needed 1 ticket, so people who had single tickets would hopefully give me a good deal.

So tonight, I found some street parking for free on 8th and Broadway. On the way down, one person wouldn't give me anything for less than my walk away price (in fact tried to sell me a $40 ticket for $60, which is stupid bc unless it's sold out, I can get it for $40 at the ticket window. And I can guarantee that it won't be sold out). The second ticket person I ran into I was able to get a $30 seat for $15. I made some small talk with him, told him that I wish I had his job (mainly because I'd be working for myself and I'd get to be out there every day and could take whatever ticket I didn't sell and go watch the game) and asked him if he liked what he was doing. He basically said "well, I'm out here bc I need to." As I started walking away, he said "hold on" and gave me a pass to the club level for free. It was quite a nice gesture.

Although I never did make it to the club level (for reasons I'll expound on), I wonder what inspired him to do that. The fact I took an interest in him? Maybe it's stuff that Mr. Carnegie is teaching, Karen? I was sincerely interested... anything that has to do with being entreprenurial!

OK, the reason why I never made it to the club level was because the game SUCKED (at least for a Brewer fan). I left my beautiful seats in the 7th inning it was so bad (13-1). I then spent the next 20 minutes searching for my car, bc I had neglected to take note of where exactly I parked it... But that's for another blog. Need to get to bed as my triumphant return to Lima awaits me tomorrow.

Potpourri

- I went out and got myself a Scrubbing Bubbles automatic shower cleaner... after you take a shower, you press the button, and after a short delay it spits out a solution of what I assume is some surfactants that keeps your shower clean. So far it looks like it's working well. Even though the company that makes the product is a P&G competitor, I still think it's neat! Being the engineer, I was curious how it worked, so I peeked into the shower while it was working and got greeted with a squirt in the face.

- I love summer here because since we're on the far western side of the Eastern time zone, the sun sets at like 9 PM. Means you can start a round of golf at 6 PM and still get 9 holes in easy.

-Back to the regular job tomorrow... it'll be interesting to see how things have gone. It'll be weird because at 5 PM, I get to go home!

-I bought myself a new Casio Exlim Z-60 camera from Staples.com for $250. They gave me a free printer as part of a promotion, which I just Ebayed for $98. Not a bad deal, if I were smart I'd buy a few more and then sell both and make some cash...

Well, time to go take a shower and play with my new toy. Um, that didn't come out right.

Technical Engineering school is done!

Today was the last day of the 6.5 week training that brought us all those laughs... It was a lot of fun between all the long nights! All the "Deans" had a chance to give some parting remarks, and one of them gave an impassioned speech about not letting humor die off because of political correctness. It's great to see that humor is still alive! I definitely believe that without all the laughs, this training would have been UNBEARABLE. Sitting in a room listening to powerpoint lectures all day? And when not in that room, you're in a conference room with 6 people until 6,7, even 8 PM at night.

I learned some of the annoying things about engineers, at least the ones in the company that made up all the processes we're supposed to follow. They like coming up with excruciatingly long checklists, with many of the questions on the checklist very similar, if not the same, as other questions on the checklist. The main engineering process has like 250 items on it. The other thing our company likes to do is to introduce the "tool of the day" and then force feed it to the employees, i.e. you can't get sign off until you've documented that you used the tool. To me, it's like you're building a house. They give you training on this wonderful new tool called the screwdriver. But in order to get funding sign off, you hafta come up with a "screwdriver plan" i.e. how you plan on using the screwdriver in your project. I just want to scream "I WILL USE A SCREWDRIVER WHEN I NEED TO DRIVE A SCREW."

With that, I will turn off my alarm clock, and go to bed, and hopefully wake up at like 10 AM...

The laughs keep coming at engineering school...

When asked how long our reports should be, we were told:

Your report should be like a skirt. Short enough to hold attention, long enough to cover the essentials.

Karen: It's in all in the cards

OK, so third installment of the personal profiles...

Name: Karen Eutsler

How we met: At a friend's card party... but the real reason I have come to know her is she hooked up with my friend Jim (center in the picture) at that party. He apparently won her over with some card trick. So she's what I like to call a friend-in-law.

Commentary: Karen brings a different personality to my life. She's more of a go getter, fight for what you want type. Also deals with people and relationships well (she is in sales). Like her husband, I'm more analytical, logical type. I can definitely learn a lot from her. Karen also has the distinction of most unique wedding present ever given to a husband... A .50 caliber Desert Eagle handgun:

Favorite Moments: Let's see... got to shop the Mall of America with Karen at a wedding where Jim was a groomsman... Game nights at the Eutler's... Being in the same macroeconomics class with her at Xavier... More to come on the Alaskan cruise later this summer?

Relationship defining moments:
-At the Mall of America, she gave me a lesson on all the different types of bras there are out there. Pretty interesting, I wonder if they have any civil engineers on the design team? (Civil engineers design structures such as buildings and bridges and deal with things like weight load support to make sure structures don't fall down)
-All of her attempts to introduce me to all of her single friends. There were varying degrees of success. None have stuck... yet. :) But the effort is definitely much appreciated. (I think I've met every girl from her high school...).

If it weren't for Karen, I:
-Wouldn't be blogging on this site
-Would eat 25% less home cooked meals
-Would have had 50% less dates (blind or other)