Dentist Visit

I had an appointment with the dentist today. It's hard to find good health care providers, especially when you're in that point in life that requires a lot of moving around. I hope my life will finally have some stability, at least enough where I can at least see the same dentist, OB-GYN, doctor, etc. for a few years.
One of my friends from work recommended the dentist I went to. It's easier to go when at least one person you know likes the doctor you're seeing. I was thinking about it this morning, and realized I haven't seen a dentist in almost two years. I think part of the reason why I haven't gone in so long is because health insurance providers don't like college students, or at least people between the ages of 18 and 25. Doctors and dentists are irritated when young people don't take more preventative health care measures (although some of them are motivated by greed). It's a complicated catch-22.
The dentist liked my teeth. He said I have "good bone", and that if I took care of my teeth I would have them for 50, 60, 70+ years. I like that idea. The dentist did mention that I have some minor crowding that we can think about fixing with appliances (but nothing elaborate like braces) in a few years, and it would only take about six months to correct. Even though I wore braces for a time, I've never had perfectly straight teeth. Maybe when I have the cash. When the dentist started to examine my teeth, his assistant got really excited and said, "Look! She has a virgin mouth! No bridges or crowns!" I can't imagine someone my age needing that kind of dental work.

Even better news: no cavities!

Never Tick Off An Engineer

Sea Launch Rocket Explodes

Sea Launch Rocket Explodes During Launch
NSS Explosion (video)

Huh. Not good.

The One Before The One

I'm officially "the one before 'the one'" for someone. Probably more than one someone. (Don is one, too, so it must be a common thing!)

I just got internet at my apartment, so I can browse MySpace again and catch up on the soap opera of our lives. (Isn't that embarrassing, to admit I have a MySpace?)

A guy I dated a few years ago - Fall of 2004 - started dating a girl after he let me go and I guess now they're getting married and having a baby. While I am irritated that he's getting married before I am (because I'd like to think that marriage requires good communication skills and trust, neither of which he had with me), I'm glad that I'm not her and I'm happy that he appears to be happy. I'm also glad that I'm single, with no signs of a wedding in my future.

This guy was actually the fellow who e-mailed me last year (my response here). My life is better now than it was then, for my sake I'll reiterate:

I live in a spacious, quiet, one-bedroom apartment. I have a tree outside my window that hides my balcony and lets me pretend I have my own little piece of isolation.
I have my degree, and am getting more education as we speak. I think I'm going to start on my Master's next year.
My career has launched! And I'm enjoying that immensely.
I have some great friends who love and appreciate me, who are also patient and accepting of my flaws.
I have a healthier relationship with a different man, someone I believe can be my equal in many things (and my better in others).

My life could be a lot worse, and I'm glad he's not in my life anymore. Another ancient flame I looked up on is also in a serious relationship that will probably end up as a marriage. He looks happy with her, and I think, as a couple, they match well visually. I remember the aftermath of that relationship pretty well (it wasn't pretty), but I can't remember anything that I liked about the guy. It was my longest relationship, too - a little over two years. You would think there would be something nice I could remember about him. I know he now hates me and hopes, as one six-month-old e-mail said, that my life is a "hellhole" (he broke Hotmail's abuse policy when he e-mailed me an unprovoked profane and vile message and I reported him on it; Hotmail deleted his account). I know he blames me for what went wrong with the relationship, and I know that communication problems were a big part of what was wrong with it. I'm glad that he looks happy. I'm also very glad I'm not his new flame, and I'm glad that she looks happy with him.

What is my point? My point is that I'm glad those relationships didn't work out, as painful as it was for me when they ended. I'm glad the Fates have woven the threads of our lives away from each other and that they've woven the thread of my life into the thread of the fellow I'm seeing now. I'm also glad that my overall happiness with life has been going in an upward trend for the past almost-24 years (with the occasional crash or two).

Writing in Chinese

The Pen Matters - Doubting to shuo

The other day in class, my Chinese teacher told my class that we would all have to learn how to read Chinese, and not rely on pinyin. I think everyone in class (including me) groaned. Then I thought of it as a quaint challenge (and we all know how I react to challenges).

I think Westerners find languages that use non-Roman letters difficult precisely because the writing looks strange to them. Written Chinese is so complex as to stroke order and proportions that I think Westerners (and especially Americans) are intimidated into not learning the writing system.

Then I think of the "cool factor" of visiting China or Taiwan; if I'm fully able to communicate with the people around me, and to pick up information from, say, maps and/or road signs, then I would enjoy the visit so much more. I wouldn't be frustrated by the language barrier.

Even though I'm quite frustrated over my character workbook, at least I have a purpose for torturing myself with it. Maybe that will make me more motivated to do my homework well, and eventually be happy about having an assignment to work on.

Black Ice In Iraq?

US Military Looks To 'Black Ice'

I had enough fun driving on black ice when I was living in the frozen North. Can you imagine what those poor Iraqis will be thinking when they drive on this stuff, which has no equivalent in their environment?

"Hey Ahmed, WTF is this s***?!?"

Good Date - Teamwork

Last night I had a date. The plan wasn't anything too fancy; I was going to drive to his place and watch a movie, then go home at a reasonable hour.

I get all dolled up, get into the jeep, and turn the key. ::churn churn churn grind grind grind click::

I call Dad, "Dad, the car won't start. It makes churning or grinding noises."

"Sounds like the starter; a new one shouldn't be too expensive."

I call my date, "Hey cutie, my car won't start and my dad thinks it's the starter."

"Are you sure? It could be any number of things."

"I know, but I'll guess it's the starter and I need to replace it."

"Do you want me to come over? I'm not great with cars . . ."

"I'm not either, but if you want to come over for emotional support that'll be good."

So, after I changed into something I could get dirty in, and $140 (Actually, $170, minus the core charge) later, my date and I dug out the flashlights and replaced the starter in my jeep. Luckily for us it sits high enough off the ground we didn't need to jack it up.

I also realize this is a short summary; we spent a lot of time looking at my jeep repair manual and then crawling underneath the jeep to look at the real thing. The photos in the manual are taken from all sorts of different angles and don't really help someone as clueless as myself and my date.

Strangely, it didn't take as long to install the new starter as it did to remove the old one. We made a lot of jokes that we should have learned more about car stuff in college, being as we're both engineers. (For Wordpecker, I make more than he does!) We also noticed that we're both terrified of touching car batteries, mostly out of the irrational fear that we'll be magically electrocuted.

Even as disappointing as the night turned out, I think we had a little fun anyway. After all, the whole point was that we spent quality time together. There's something nice about learning you can be a team with someone, and have something positive come out of your efforts.

And there is something so wonderful about turning that key and hearing the engine start.

What Women Want

What Women Want
IT Industry Culture Failing Women

It sounds, to me, that women want to be treated fairly and be given equal pay for their equally brilliant ideas. It looks like women are finding that in industries outside IT in the UK.
Granted, this opens up the whole can of worms regarding women taking a mid-career break to raise children, which is something I don't want to touch on today. I don't have an answer for that, and I don't know what I will do when I get to face that problem.
I have no idea if the decline of women in tech is happening in the United States, but I for one want to stay! I'm not the best coder, although I'm proud of a few snippets I've done elegantly. Database is my weakspot, and I'm definitely not up on bleeding-edge technology.

Speaking of bleeding-edge technology, here is a funny ancedote that happened to myself and one of my best friends from college. I had just bought an iPod and a FM transmitter so I could listen to it in my car. This FM transmitter plugs into the cigarette lighter on one end and the iPod on the other. When the radio is tuned to the same frequency the FM transmitter is tuned to, music from the iPod magically comes out of the speakers.

My friend (who is galactically intelligent -read smarter than me- and I hope won't mind me sharing the story) was riding in my car one day soon after I bought the iPod and FM transmitter. He looked at the iPod, then the radio, then asked, "How does the music get from the cigarette lighter to the radio?"

This from a guy who just bought an XBox360 and PS3. :)

Update: I called my friend last night and he told me he just bought a Nintendo Wii on eBay. :)

Movie Review: Children of Men

So, I went to see Clive Owen in Children of Men this weekend. I was a little hesitant to see it because I've heard that it was extremely violent.
While it is a violent movie, it wasn't as violent as I thought it was going to be. Definitely not on the scale of Black Hawk Down.
All in all, I really enjoyed it. The filmmakers don't blatently tell the audience every single little detail - you have to really watch the film to pick up the background of Michael Caine's catatonic wife, the suicide pill, etc. It's quite refreshing. In other words, it's a good example of the "show, don't tell" mantra of story-weaving.
Which reminds me, Michael Caine was great in this. His character is mostly for comic relief, but the role is such a departure from what I would normally consider a "Michael Caine" role and it was refreshing to see Caine do something new. Maybe I just haven't watched enough Michael Caine movies, but I've always seen him do fairly stuffy roles (even though he's excellent in them - The Quiet American is one of my favorite movies, but only after reading the book) and it was great to see him utilize his potential.
While I enjoy watching Clive Owen in pretty much anything he's done (yes, even King Arthur, even though it was a terrible movie), he was superb in this. I think his work in Children of Men trumps his work in Closer.
As far as dystopian movies are concerned, I was slightly disappointed with the ending. I feel it should have been more optimistic than it was.

I've heard the movie doesn't follow the book very well, so I suppose I'll be reading the book now. Hopefully I'll be able to find a copy without Clive on the cover.

Top Ten Movies I Want To See This Winter

OK, the last time I did this was a little over a year ago, but I thought I'd make another list. Turns out I ended up watching all except for Chinatown and Chronicles of Narnia. 80% gives me a "B", right? (Since I've started writing movie reviews, I'll try to review these movies as soon as I watch them)

The Good German - Aren't you sick of hearing me babble about this? I'll reiterate: B&W, old-school-style noir. Cate Blanchett (who I've begun to deeply respect as an actress) does German accent.
Letters From Iwo Jima - Companion piece to Flags of Our Fathers. I saw a trailer for this before Curse of the Golden Flower and it took my breath away. The more I watch Clint Eastwood's work, the more I want to see, therefore,
Mystic River - Because if Clint made it, it should be good (and another reason I'm not a fan of Peter Jackson - he snatched best picture and best director from Clint that year at the Oscars).
Pan's Labyrinth - I've heard this is good. Really good. Don't take your kids.
Children of Men - I haven't read the book, but sci-fi dystopian thriller with Clive Owen? Should be interesting, if not excellent.
Seraphim Falls - Because Pierce Brosnan and Liam Neeson in a western is a fluke that only happens once.
Hannibal Rising - Gong Li's other winter contribution. Gaspard Ulliel as Hannibal has got to be. . . perfectly creepy. He played such a sweet fellow in A Very Long Engagement.
The Hitcher - I don't usually want to see horror flicks, but this could be fun.
Breach - I'm a sucker for espionage movies and government secrets.

and last but not least,

The White Countess - this has the potential of a great Hollywood romance; exotic setting, a sexy, mysterious woman, and Ralph Finnes.

Luxury Items

When I was living in Montana there would be certain things I wanted to get when I was visiting my parents for the holidays and we had our obligatory trip to Las Vegas. These items included body butter from The Body Shop and Chanel lipstick (or my new favorite, Shiseido).

Now that I live in a mecca of cosmetics and body-pampering products and services, I've noticed I really don't take advantage of my new-found easy accessibility of said products and services.

Maybe it's because I already have the body butters and lipsticks that I want, but I think it's more along the lines of those items are no longer a luxury to me. If I want body butter, I can drive to a mall that has a Body Shop and get some. Chanel cosmetics? I can drive to any mall and find makeup to my heart's content.

Do you know what I now consider my luxury items? Coach purses. Pedicures. Facials (which I've never had before). Really good sushi.

I haven't been clubbing here yet, but I'd love to go dancing. You know they have different clubs for different styles of music/dancing? That blows my mind, coming from a place that had maybe two places to go dancing in, and both played relatively similar music.

Cpl. Dunham Posthumously Awarded Medal of Honor

Stars & Stripes Article
The Gift Of Valor

Corporal Dunham dived onto a live grenade to save his comrades. He died eight days later in Bethesda, Maryland.

Semper Fidelis.

Paychecks & Allowances

I, like many other people, get a paycheck every two weeks. Like many other people, it gets direct deposited into my checking account. But I don't like calling my paycheck a paycheck. It sounds too much like I've been beaten down by the system, that I'm just another cog in the industrial wheel. I call my paycheck an "allowance".

Do you remember when you were a kid and your parents gave you an allowance? Or, if you didn't get an allowance you at least wish you did? That's kind of like how I feel about working for the company I work for.

Think about it: my company gives me something interesting to do during the day, plus provides some decent health benefits (of which I've been lax about taking advantage of - I need to get my teeth cleaned) and a way to save for retirement. I get good educational benefits from work, too, among other things. On top of all of this my company also gives me some money every couple of weeks to cover things like rent, food, bills, and my occasional local adventure.

How great is that? I realize I'm very lucky; that there aren't many people who have an employer who cares about their employees. But I think having a positive attitude about work makes me want to go to work more - and makes the workweek seem so much more enjoyable.

Yeah. I'm a pretty happy product of "the man's" system.

Gimli Glider Incident

A friend from work gave me the URL for this and thought it was a cool enough story to share.

Gimli Track Info

Go Boeing engineers and Air Canada pilots!

Software Glitch Loses Another Spacecraft

You remember that story a few years back, how the Mars Climate Orbiter decided to burn up in the Martian atmosphere? Turns out the human error was that some engineer neglected to convert from English units to Metric. Whoops!

So, NASA (or rather, Lockheed Martin), has done it again.

NASA - Mars Global Surveyor
NASA Decides That A Software Error Doomed The Mars Global Surveyor Spacecraft
Panel Will Study Mars Global Surveyor Events

The short version is that an update to the satellite's software in June 2006 caused it to go into 'safe mode' in November 2006 and the battery burned up when the radiator neglected to cool it properly (solar rays do that).

An article I read on NASA's mounting problems in the late 90's said something interesting about NASA contracts. Government contracts can be made quickly, correctly, or cheaply. You can only have two of the three options on any one project. When quick and cheap trumps correctness, you get stupid things like failure to convert inches to meters and solar panels getting stuck.

This should never have happened. And now we've lost a key mission in our space exploration endevours. Yes, the satellite lasted longer than the mission originally specified, but it might have lasted a lot longer. QA should have caught this.

I realize that everyone makes mistakes, and that QA can't catch every bug, but one would like to think American engineering and ingenuity could manage not to half-ass something as important as this.

Learning Chinese In Westwood

Last night I drove up to UCLA to go to my Chinese class. You can probably fit a dozen Montana Tech campuses on UCLA's campus. I felt lost just driving around. I'm just happy that I found my class with little difficulty. I can't imagine what it must be like to have an entire load of classes there. But I have the coolness factor of saying I go to UCLA now.

Class was, I must admit, a lot of fun.

We have a huge class - something around thirty students. A lot of people want to speak Mandarin, apparently. My teacher is from Taiwan, so I think that will be an immense help because she has a native understanding of the language and would be better at correcting pronunciation as well as teaching "everyday" or "speaking" Chinese rather than just "book" Chinese.

There are a lot of different people in my class. Young, old, white, hispanic, asian (non Chinese), poor, rich (or at least richer than myself). It's nice to know that I'm going to be stuck there with a lot of bananas (or twinkies, an asian-american slang derogatory to mean one is only yellow on the outside) and horny creepy guys.

In class we introduced ourselves and learned the initials in bo po mo fo.

Love's Loopy Logic

Love's Loopy Logic

One of my favorite professors sent me a link to this article. It's really interesting.

So guys, if you think "she wants you", you may or may not be wrong, but going after her is probably a good idea. Ladies, if you think "all men are pigs", you may or may not be wrong, but thinking that way when you're dating is a smart idea (and keeps you from getting heartbroken).

You Never Know Who Might Be Interested In You

Girl decides to create a profile on an online dating website, despite lack of success with similar websites in the past. Boy sees profile and e-mails girl.

Turns out, boy and girl work for the same company. Even though the girl has a personal policy against dating coworkers, the girl decides it might be all right, since the boy is on a rotational program and they probably won't be working at the same site for too long.

Turns out, boy and girl not only work for the same company, they also work in the same building, on the same floor, supporting the same project (but have never met before)! What are the odds?

I went out with the guy on Sunday; we met in downtown Long Beach and wandered around. We walked down to the beach and then walked back up to downtown and "had coffee". We actually both got tea, but having tea isn't quite the same concept as having coffee. What do they call the experience when you "have coffee" but drink tea?

He seems like a nice enough fellow, and he seems complex enough that I won't get bored or frustrated. I didn't get a kiss, but will probably let him have a second date. I'm leaving my guard up, though. I've had too many bad dating experiences in college and I don't want to get myself into one now that I'm in "the big city".

Movie Review - Curse of the Golden Flower

Hmm. So I went to this movie at The Grove on Saturday night. While I was waiting for my friends I wandered into the 3-story Abercrombie & Fitch, and not only were they playing the music way, way too loud, they had floor-to-ceiling merchandise there. Anything that had the remote possibility of being in their catalog was in this store. Must be where they outfit the A&F army or something.

Anyway, so I'm still trying to decide if I like or dislike Curse of the Golden Flower, Zhang Yimou's most recent film, starring Gong Li and Chow Yun-Fat.

The plot is basically this: one totally dysfunctional royal family is getting ready for the Golden Crysanthemum Festival. The empress has been having an affair with her stepson (the crown prince) for three years, the crown prince has been sleeping with the Imperial Doctor's beautiful daughter (his half-sister), and the emperor has been secretly poisoning his wife by adding a "special ingredient" to his wife's "anemia medicine" to make her crazy. The empress' eldest son returns from his duties on the western frontier, and is noticing that something is "not quite right" with his mom, and the baby brother in the family obviously has some issues too.

The film is beautiful to watch, although I'm not sure the Imperial Palace has psychedelic rainbow as a color scheme. The music is pretty good too.

The intense battle sequence looks like something out of a Peter Jackson film, and the close combat sequences are either shot so close you can't see what's really happening or so wide you can't appreciate the nuances of movement.

Half the time I felt like I was watching a multi-million dollar soap opera. For example, it takes way too much screen time for the Imperial Doctor's daughter to figure out who she's really sleeping with. Actually, that was the funniest bit in the movie, aside from the banter between the Emperor and Empress.

I was disappointed with the movie, but it was enjoyable to watch. I usually expect more when I go to see a big Chinese production, especially from heavyweights Zhang Yimou and Gong Li.

The Day Has Come When I Drool Over A Digital Piano

My current "thing I just gotta have right this second" is this Yamaha YPG-625 Digital Grand Piano. I'm saving up for it.

I saw the keyboard when I was browsing my local Guitar Center, and really enjoyed playing what little snippets of pieces I remember on it. The keys feel "right" to me, which is, to me, the must-have feature on a digital piano.

I remember when digital pianos started to become the big fad around 6 or 7 years ago (maybe even before that), and these sales people would expect you to justify paying between $2,000 and $5,000 for a digital piano. To me, there is nothing that can replicate the experience of playing a real, wood & steel piano wire piano. I would get so disgusted with those salespeople because they didn't understand that; they would try to sell you the idea that a digital piano was better than a "real" piano because you wouldn't have to ever tune it, and that people couldn't tell by sound which was a real piano and which was a digital.

Right now it's not logically feasible for me to move my Samick upright from my parents' home to my apartment. That's part of the reason I want to buy this Yamaha. I've been out of practice so long and some days when I get home from work I just want to sit down and play something.

Here is a list of what I eventually want to be able to play (some of the music I can play with the sheet music, other pieces are new to me):

• Mozart's Sonata No. 11 in A Major (KV 331) - I'd like to eventually play all three parts.
• Mozart's Turkish March
• Rachmaninoff's Prelude Op. 23 No. 5 - my old piano instructor had me learn the first part of this, under the title "The District Attorney"
• Chopin's Nocturne in C Sharp Minor (posthumous) - if I could get this to sound like pearls I can give up piano playing
• Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata; I know how to play the first part, with the sheet music. I want to get better.
• Beethoven's Fur Elise - I can play the first part of this from memory
• Beethoven's Rage Over A Lost Penny
• Several of Bach's Minuets
• Shubert's Military March

And some pop pieces:

• In Dreams (From Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring)
• Star Trek: The Next Generation Theme (you won't believe how long it took me to find the sheet music for this)

I used to like playing more pop, and less classical, but I must be getting older. Or have a greater appreciation for truer gems.

Happy New Year! (And a Movie Review!)

Being unplugged from the internet can be great every once in a while. I'm still too lazy to have internet set up at my apartment yet, and so while Saddam was getting himself hanged I was busy trying to enjoy my seven days of paid holiday while trying to find a nice way to get my parents to go home.

That sounds terrible, doesn't it?

I love my parents. I enjoy spending time with them. But a few days is enough. They stayed from the Thursday before Christmas to the day before New Year's. How was I supposed to get anything done? I had no time or space to myself really. By the time they left I had enough time to decompress slightly before work started up again, and no time to do any of the things I needed to get done.

I should be thankful I have parents who want to visit their daughter in a strange city and unintentionally drive her crazy, causing her to visit the gym at 4:00 AM because she can't sleep.

I went to a coworker's New Year's party, which ended up being my friend, his wife, one of their friends, and myself. We played a couple games of Scrabble and drank lots of champange and sparkling wine. The first game of Scrabble I did poorly, but we were on our third bottle of wine when I won the second game so I think the alcohol did something to my creativity levels (everyone else was playing the same). I was putting down words like "fairy" and "vixen". Usually when I play Scrabble I have a hard time coming up with something beyond "it" and "an".

I went to The Good Shepherd yesterday. I enjoyed it, but it wasn't the movie it should have been. Then again, I went to the movie expecting it to be disappointing.

I didn't learn anything more about spying than I already knew, so the movie was uneducational. I picked up the code lines before the "knowing looks" that would act as the giveaway. It was fairly cliche, however, especially the tailor. (At the time and place it must have been brilliant) Matt Damon plays his role fairly flat (and coldly I might add), and the viewer can figure out what he's going to do before he does it. His character's predictability was more frustrating than anything else I found "wrong" with the film. I expect that CIA agents at least attempt to be good spouses, even when work does eat up time and energy. There was no sense of sacrifice (except that he didn't get to be with the woman he truly loved, but he does get to meet her later in life and have sex with her, which is the silver screen equivalent).

I was pleasantly surprised with Angelina Jolie in this film. While I already enjoy watching her act, I assumed she would always be one of those "personality actors" who you watch because you want to see them do something they're famous for. Jack Nicholson and Jim Carrey are two good examples. In The Good Shepherd you see her play a coy, brazen (if naive) socialite who marries Damon's character Edward and becomes, through his neglect of the relationship, a broken-hearted, lonely housewife. She was amazing to watch, especially in the scene when she discovers Edward was unfaithful. (What geeky idiot would dare cheat on Angelina Jolie?) I sense her character was more upset over Edward not telling her about the infidelity rather than the infidelity itself.

Overall I would say the movie is OK. Rent it, or go see it in the theater if you must, but I'd like to think there are better spy and espionage movies out there.