Archive for January, 2009
January 30, 2009 at 8:05 am · Filed under dating, love, news, science
Now I don’t know about you, but I can say that I have certainly had times when I wished there existed some sort of love potion or even anti-love potion. But who would ever think that such a pipe dream could ever make it into reality? Certainly not I.
At least not until I stumbled across this. Now just imagine if we could turn on/off that “love” switch all by ourselves… wouldn’t that be amazing? Ok, well in theory I think it could be but in all honesty, I think I would miss some of that confusion and unknown. I mean would you really want your partner to be able to give you some drug to make you be “more in love” with them? It’s an interesting dilemma and possibly a great ethical question considering you are playing with someone’s emotions.
Regardless of the ethical dilemma and all those higher level questions on a purely scientific basis, this is possibly one of the coolest discoveries I think has been found to date. Although I do wonder if anyone could truly bottle love, I do like to think it is one of life’s biggest mysteries.
January 29, 2009 at 2:43 pm · Filed under feminism, news, politics
Two of the most important women’s-rights-related bill-signings in the past few years. See the original post with photos here.
January 29, 2009 at 10:45 am · Filed under economy, fashion, news, politics
Now I am pretty upfront that I’m not exactly an Obama fan-girl (skeptic would probably be the best descriptor) but I’m starting to come around to actually liking the guy a little bit. In fact Obama fan-girls/boys still irritate me and bring out the “devil’s advocate” voice in me all the time. But I have to say I am a fan of some of the things that are happening. One very trivial example would be not wearing coats in the oval office. While it may be a trivial example I think it just shows a President who is a little more relaxed with formalities and more interested in doing what’s best for the country and you don’t have to be in a full suit & tie to do it. I’m not saying wear jeans to work but loosening up a bit is not a bad thing, in my opinion.
Not to mention there has been much progress in the past week or so. I am pleased.
Update:
So Thursday morning I was reading this lovely article about how Wall St has been freely giving away bonuses this year despite the fact that they cannot stay out of water without tax-payer dollars bailing them out. And I was just lamenting to a friend about how I wish someone would say something to those people in finance who believe they deserve a bonus for actually making their companies fail because quite frankly, I’d say the opposite is true. These are the same people that got unreasonably large bonuses for doing things that we have found to be completely unethical and made of naught. The money just wasn’t there and they made it up, so why should they be rewarded for this? I cannot explain how pleased I was to read this article later that afternoon which appeared in this morning’s paper. I am really glad that President Obama is actually taking a hard stance on this, granted I wanted a little more brimstone and fire a la Maureen Dowd but you know, I’m still happy that he is showing his displeasure.
Perhaps I will end up actually liking Obama I do really like some of the new moves that Obama is making even if I am not (and am determined never to be) a “fan-girl”. I certainly reserve that fundamentally American right to criticize our politicians but I have to say I think this is a great start to what I hope is a new era in politics.
January 28, 2009 at 6:31 am · Filed under work
So I try not to post too much about work because I think it is not necessarily the wisest decision but every once in a while something happens that is just too priceless to pass up.
A little background, I work for a major software consulting firm with a client that is one of the world’s largest investment banks. Needless to say “working for” two giant firms like this (especially international ones) leads to some interesting communication across countries.
This morning I walked into the office and I typically get ~200 emails overnight that I try to at least glance at when I first come in. I noticed one from my consulting firm’s HR or someone along those lines. Now I typically try to get through the more pressing emails of things that I actually have to do before I look at what HR sends me. I mean sure HR is important but really, I think doing my actual job is more useful. At any rate, I am going through my email list at this point thinking to myself why do I get so much junk mail (all those corporate DLs, you know). I am happily half way through my list of emails, surely will reply sometime this morning after I get through my little list of things I wanted to get done this morning. At least this is what I am telling myself when suddenly I get this phone call on my cell phone from some extremely long phone number. Since I forgot to put my phone on silent I, obviously, answer this call and to my surprise it is the guy from HR in Pune, India calling about the email he just sent me. Now it is 8:11am CST, I have been at work for 11 minutes, needless to say I am a little disoriented and stunned. But I move past that and let him know the information that he is requesting about US Holidays and the like. It was an extremely short phone call and I believe it saves me the trouble of having to reply to email.
Actually come to think of it, my last project was even more interesting because occasionally I’d get calls at 10pm EST from APAC and at like 5am from EMEA. Though I wasn’t in grad school a the time so I didn’t find the calls quite as jarring. I have to say I do appreciate that the current calls are actually during the work day, no matter how surprising they are.
January 16, 2009 at 7:27 pm · Filed under dating
I, for one, think dating is complex enough without this whole internet and social networking thrown in. I bring this up because well recently it’s been more applicable. But you know there are just so many different ways to communicate these days that it’s just ridiculous.
So I’ve had exes and friends of exes and past hookups and well all sorts of people find me on Facebook and Myspace and all these weird social networking websites. I have to say I have a few funny stories of people I didn’t really want finding me on the internet. But this post is more about the people you think maybe you do want to hear from.
As if it isn’t stressful enough to wonder what your possible new interest is up to or figuring out when you should call them or how to work up the nerve to even call them. You can now find them on Facebook and Myspace and what have you and then go through the entire wondering of, can they see me? What are my privacy settings? Should I change them? Do I actually want to “friend” this person? And then there is email and text messaging. I mean what ever happened to just regular phone calls? And then the anxiety and waiting for the person to call you back or the date itself. Sometimes I wonder if being so in touch with everything around us doesn’t take some of the mystery out of dating. Not to mention how it gives you a lot of information that may not be accurate, helpful or even interesting but can be misleading, awkward and strange.
I think the most memorable thing that’s happened to me was meeting my own personal internet stalker at the laundromat. New rule #1 for me. Do not give out your personal email address to those you do not know. It is not safe. Just like your number. Don’t give that out either. Unless you are really truly interested. So true story: I meet this guy doing laundry one Sunday, I am peacefully reading the Devil Wears Prada while listening to my iPod and praying for my laundry to dry faster. So this guy starts asking me about fashion and whether I’m really interested in it or not (because of the title of the book) and I am sortof humoring him because I’m from the South and it’s not polite to just not talk to people. Eventually he asks me for my email address and I figure, OK fine how much harm can that do, he’ll probably never email me anyway. Boy was I wrong. First there is now gchat so even with your email address people can check your “status” and then apparently he found my blog from 2004, which I think I may have updated once since then. Clearly, I’ve forgotten about it. And he even found my Pandora radio station. It was incredible and quite stalkerish. Thankfully, I don’t think he’s a real stalker (obviously, I wouldn’t be posting this if I did).
But I mean who would imagine that there is so much out there that can complicate relationships these days. It’s like dating is a mine-field with every single point of communication at your fingertips. Personally, I’m a fan of the phone. Granted, I do think the phone can be terrifying because it is oh so personal compared to texting, email, Facebook/Myspace messages etc. But in the long run I also think if you are truly interested in a person, what else have you to lose?
January 11, 2009 at 10:15 am · Filed under economy, politics, work
I have always thought of myself as a rather drastically liberal person who believes in social responsibility which also goes hand in hand with hard work. But very recently I was called conservative and judgemental in the same sentence. Typically it wouldn’t bother me but the reasoning behind it bothered me so much that I have been thinking about it all week.
Let me backtrack a bit, this all stemmed from someone I know who is reapplying for unemployment. Now, I do believe that there should be a safety net out there for people who lose their jobs. I believe that they shouldn’t be left hung out to dry because of the economy or the fact that it can take a few months to find employment again. I get that, I really do. But this person has maxed out the terms of unemployment and reapplying for an extension without even looking or wanting to look for a job. I am just flabbergasted at this phenomenon. I have met some conservatives who always tell me when I speak about how I am a proponent for welfare, umemployment, social security, and quite frankly most social services that all these people are just free-loading off of our hard work. Up until this point I had never met anyone that I felt was doing anything close to that, so I never took it all that seriously. But now I don’t necessarily know how I feel about the whole unemployment system and I have to say that I really do not appreciate people who abuse the system. Because I have friends that due to the failing economy or other unfortunate circumstances have lost their jobs and they are working extremely hard every single day to find a new one. They are not happily collecting unemployment they are just thankful that they have it so that they aren’t on the street with nowhere to go. And I am glad that unemployment exists so that they are relatively safe and stable until they can find another job.
What really strikes me is the fact that a person can say that they don’t particularly want to look for a job because they would rather “enjoy life” and then talk about how they don’t have enough money to do fun things that they want to and yet still continue to be unemployed. I mean I understand that working is not always fun. In fact it often sucks (for lack of a better word). But, in my opinion, we all have to do it in order to survive. Working is simply a part of life and it is up to you to find some form of employment that suits you. I mean I’m not in love with my current job (although, I have been lucky enough to have had work experiences that I love) so I know that I am working towards having enough experience and education to move to something better at some point. It doesn’t have to be immediate but I know that I have the ability to control my work environment to a certain extent. It does not excuse me from having a job. And society does not “owe you” the money to exist when you are not contributing anything back to society. And I don’t think that is a conservative view point. In fact it is the basis for social responsibility.
Being liberal isn’t about giving away free hand-outs, it is about helping those who are less fortunate who need the help to get to where they need/want to go. It is about being socially aware and trying to think of what’s best for the entire community, not thinking only of oneself (in fact, I believe that’s where being conservative comes in). When one takes advantage of the system it’s just being on the other side of the conservative coin, except that you believe someone else should be paying for you to do whatever you want. I mean it sortof reminds me of Donald Trump who believes that he should be able to get out of his massive loan from Deustche Bank to build Trump Tower in Chicago because of the real estate crisis but he won’t let those home-buyers who bought those condos at outrageous prices out of their mortgages with him. I mean does that strike anyone else as just a little self serving? Because that’s the way it seems to me. And honestly, shouldn’t Trump have enough money to cover the costs for such an ambitious project anyway, he sure acts like he should.
I digress, the point being, I do believe in having an unemployment system. And yes, I will admit there are flaws that are not easily rectified. In fact, they may never be rectified and while I do not appreciate people who cannot be bothered to get a job I still believe that the system is necessary for those who are not abusing the system. For those people who truly need it to get back on their feet and who use it as such. I think that the selfishness of a few should not make us so close-minded that we forget the great benefit it gives to so many. If nothing else at least we all have the security of knowing that should we lose our jobs to this fantastic economy that we won’t be immediately out on the street.
January 6, 2009 at 6:50 am · Filed under family, fitness, health, random, texas, work
I have been inspired by a friend of mine to reflect a bit on how I wanted to start the new year and how I actually started it. Now she had two separate posts on what she wanted and what actually happened but I think I can cover all of mine in just one (especially considering I started thinking about posting this just now).
So initially I actually had contemplated starting out the new year quietly, at home, by myself. I know this doesn’t sound particularly exciting but I’ve had an exceedingly busy and social year and I really just wanted some down time. I was thinking of a good book or maybe a stupid movie or better yet working on my website and playing around with some Ruby on Rails. That was my idea for a perfect New Year’s Eve. And to follow that with some loose resolutions (because I don’t really believe in resolutions) that I will be healthier and make time for myself amongst all my crazy activities.
My actual New Year’s Eve was spent with some of my friends in Austin, who I have not seen in years. And to be honest it didn’t really feel like a new year’s celebration, we went out for dinner and then to one of the bars downtown and ended up wandering around Austin for hours after the bars closed (it’s a long story, let’s just leave it at that). But it was not too far from what I had initially wanted because it didn’t actually feel like the typical New Year’s Eve celebration, it was more like a few very old friends of mine and I going out and “getting into trouble” as usual.
Actually it was pretty interesting getting up in the morning because we didn’t drink all too much yet all three of us (that went out and were crashing at the same place) still weren’t feeling 100% in the morning. And I dubbed it the “Adult Hangover”; you don’t have to drink excessively to be tired and cranky after a night out. It’s the grown up version of that lingering feeling of regret for going out partying with your friends. Except now, as adults, you are smart enough not to drink yourself stupid but you still get the consequences of not being able to bounce right back after a long night.
So for my first day in the new year I decided to visit my cousins who also live in Austin and I really couldn’t have thought of a better way to begin the new year than with people that I love that I rarely get to see because I live so far away. And after such a great kick off to the new year I decided to make some slightly more concrete new years resolutions: actually eating healthier, seriously trying to keep up a vegetarian diet and hopefully by the end of the year become vegan, go to the gym/exercise at least 4 times/week (excluding soccer and dance), have a more positive body image, seriously focus on my academics (no more lame excuses), be more positive and productive at work and last but not least make sure to fit in some substantial time (at least a couple of hours) every week to just be by myself.
And I did learn something while I was back home. “You can take the girl out of Texas but you can’t take Texas out of the girl.” I don’t know if I’ll ever live there again because I do miss seasons whenever I go south but I will always have a special place in my heart for Texas and everyone I know that still lives there.
