• I found a place to live in San Francisco
• I flew back from San Diego
• I had dinner with 20 other people at Sava’s
• I went to Kathryn’s talk on the rising costs of textbooks
• I determined that it will be cheaper and easier to buy a used bike in San Francisco and sell it at the end of the summer than to try and bring my bike here on the plan or ship it.
• Against all odds I found a subletter.
• I also found someone to take the last room open in our house for next year.

The only downside is that my subletter has already moved in, so I am semi-homeless for the next week and I still need to pack all of my stuff and store it. Luckily it looks like one of my roommates is not going to be around much, so I am crashing in her room for now. Also, it will be a good opportunity to go through all things and see what I can get rid of.

tags: annarbor, list, moving, umich

Rain! Snow! Clear skies! Friends, family, strangers and acquaintances! This trip had it all. Notably I have now cemented my affinity for fuzzy .3 megapixel camera phone photos. I even shelled out for a USB cable so I don’t have to send each photo individually to Flickr through MMS.

Other stuff:

• I satiated my Providence/College Hill nostalgia. I still love the city and campus, but obviously nothing feels the same when all the people you lived with are gone.
• After missing the Michigan Theater sneak preview of Where the Wild Things Are for my 5 hour affinity diagramming meeting a few weeks ago, I saw it in Cambridge with Andrew. I’m glad I finally got to see it, but I found it mildly disturbing and in retrospect I am glad I didn’t end up seeing it by myself.
• I failed miserably to develop any kind of sense of direction at all. All the awesome navigating skills I thought I had developed last year were obviously a direct product of the Chicago grid system and very visible and non-ambiguous landmarks.
• I only slept about 5 hours each night but it was totally worth it.
• Somehow I actually managed to get some homework done.

tags: boston, list, photography, providence

Things I like about being home:

• My family
• Maurie and the Kathans
• Maddie
• Parkway Deli
• Occasional pleasant waves of high school nostalgia
• Free laundry
• The sound the cicadas make at night
• Montgomery County Agricultural Fair

Things I dislike about being home:

• Humidity
• Very bright cloudy days
• Car dependence
• Feeling bored and awkward
• Rockville Pike
• Mosquito bites

tags: home, list

• If you install IBM’s Rescue and Recovery on your ThinkPad when you are already dual booting Windows and Linux through GRUB, your computer will no longer boot.

• Luckily this can be fixed by reinstalling GRUB using the Ubuntu Live CD.

• Glossy screens in office environments are dreadful.

• If you live in Chicago and you need to rent a car, you can probably save a boat load of money by getting it in Oak Park. Their Hertz is even within walking distance of Green line and Blue line stops.

• If you update your credit card’s address twice within 10 minutes and then immediately attempt to use it to buy a laptop, you will set off a fraud alert and the charge goes through.

tags: globetrotting, list, navi

For days like today, when your dining hall is serving Thanksgiving dinner for the the 4th time in the past month and a half, I have concocted Natalia’s Ratty Indian Food Sauce, my attempt to recreate the sauce that comes with Chicken Tikka Masala. It haven’t quite got the flavor right, but it is still pretty delicious with rice. The ingredients are:

• Meatless tomato sauce (from the Italian station)
• Yogurt (from the salad bar)
• Garlic, chili powder, curry powder, onion powder and salt (from the spice counter)
• 3/4 of a little packet of half-and-half (from the coffee area of the beverage station)

All the portions are improvised every time. It helps to heat it all up at the end because the yogurt makes the sauce cold, and to mix everything very thoroughly. Also, don’t use too much curry powder, because then it will taste like dirt, or too much chili powder, especially if it is not mild chili powder, because then it will be too spicy. I haven’t managed to put too much garlic in yet.

tags: food, list

I have been brainstorming ideas of possible jobs. Since ruling out lawyer last semester, I have come up with:

• Web designer
  Because HTML/CSS are among my few marketable skills.
• Librarian, perhaps law librarian
  I have to admit I do not full understand what librarians do, but having worked under some of them for the past three years they seem like happy, well-adjusted people.
• Copy Editor
  I like to read, I like to proofread, I like to edit. Con: I have no official editing experience besides my few months spend as a substitute copy editor at the Herald where my biggest responsibility was checking people’s graduation years.
• Social worker/Counselor
  I like listening and talking to people I know about their lives. I like helping people. I am not sure if I would like this role as a formal job.

tags: future, list