how pretty is THIS thing? I can’t believe that vacuum cleaners can be this nice.
toronto to columbia, with some problems in between
my mom has told me that i am a very lucky person. i tend to believe that; even more with air travel, where my lucky stars have rarely failed me.
therefore, today i shall consider the payoff for all the great flying-karma i have gotten before. (and even then, i can see at least 5 things which went WELL, and could have went far-far worse).
upon arrival to toronto, it turned out that due to bad weather in chicago our flight has been delayed by 1hr 45min (i.e. departing at 4:45, instead of 3). mind you, we had a connecting flight, at 4, from chicago to columbia (which is about an hour and a half of driving from tim’s parents’ place).
here is where it went nicely – we randomly ran into oleg’s sister, who was flying out to san fran via same gate and a later flight. i imagine she was fine, as she had a direct flight to sunny cali, where as it was the rained in chicago and snowed in denver that caused the bulk of problems for 1000s of passengers today. she watched our bags while we figured out what we want to eat – which allowed us to pick a sit in place. we brought our bags with, and had decent nourishment for insane prices (if its in the airport, it must be expensive), which is great as it paid off later.
upon inquiry towards the powers to be about what is the state of affairs with regards to our flights, the response was a death-bored-stare and “everything in chicago is delayed. your flight is delayed too.” [so buzz off, i imagine is what they would say if they could]. we took those words, despite tim’s strong instincts to the contrary, and boarded the plane.
upon boarding, it turned out all the overhead cabins are full, and our little carryon suitcases had to be checked in. SUCKS! i repacked work laptop into my bag, grabbed my jacket, and sent my suitcase on its merry way to columbia. upon settling in, they announced that we will spend 2 hours waiting on the tarmac for take off. we pulled away, went through a safety demonstration, and then spent about 1.5 hrs chatting cellphones, reading from laptops, or napping as we simply waited for chicago to clear up.
i am tempted to use upon too often.
arrival to chicago was sudden – the land appeared about 2 seconds before we landed, that’s how bad the visibility was. unfortunately, our flight to columbia was cancelled. completely. for the day. the machine suggested we “stand by” (i.e. hope that there will be 2 empty seats for us) for a 12:15pm flight next day. mind you, the time was around 7pm at this point. not a happy prospect!
we did some running around (i am sick and tired of the chicago airport – it has one really pretty transfer and everything else is just boring), and with james’ (tim’s dad) help figured out that going to raleigh/durham airport would work (except, it is a 3 hour drive for them to pick us up…). there was a flight departing at 8:15, we found the gate, and were overwhelemed by insane amounts of people who were having difficulties.
united has 4 hubs: denver, chicago, washington and someplace else that i can’t remember.
denver got shut down completely due to 2 feet of snow (now we solved the mystery of where is all the canadian snow!). chicago got shut down for about 4 hours (that we were waiting in toronto – apparently some flights were 7 hours delayed, such as the one that flew in from raleigh and was going to fly back at 1 – but instead was flying back at 8).
imagine a network, that is heavily based on 4 hubs. shut down 2 major hubs (chicago and denver both seemed to have the most routes from the map). imagine the shutdown spreading through the network.
yeah.
people were crying (well, one girl, who honestly seemed more annoying even though i did feel bad for her), and stressed out, and frustrated, and yet most managed to keep a good cheer. i was impressed by how well the workers at the united terminal were working – cheerful, kind, apologetic for the delay and yet dignified. i am honestly impressed that some people actually seem to care about their work. (the toronto workers of united weren’t nearly as impressive, as they mostly seemed to want to get rid of us).
we waited through yet another line up (remember, at this point we have crossed between 2 terminals about 3 times, that’s 3 instances of taking shoes off, taking out 2 laptops, putting each one in a seperate plastic box, putting everything through the xray, putting everything back together. i bet i can do all this in my sleep now!), and got to the excellent people at the check in counter for 4 flights, including raleigh one. they put us on a waiting list (5th and 6th), and said “be back here at 9”. the time was 8:15.
fast forward through some more running around and going through security to get our suitcases. no suck luck. i’ll spoil this ending: we still don’t have them, they should be delivered to sumter tomorrow… all of my highly condenced packing has gone to waste! at least i have both my laptops, and my cameras with me!
thus, very lightly packed, we bought a sandwich, some drinks (last time we ate was at 1, in toronto – no flights this short serve meals – and this was 8:30pm). and then a magical, miraculous moment…
our names were called over the speakers
i felt like i won the lottery. my name! called out! THAT MEANT THEY HAD SPACE FOR US.
cue awesome moment: we got exit row seats. and even though we both were aisle, there was no one next to me, so i got window. it was gorgeous. spacious. calm. heaven! that’s what business class must feel like. except without the stress of feeling like you are responsible for rescuing people.
i bought wired beforehand, and spent most of the calm flight reading it. what an excellent journal!
right now we’re in raleigh. there’s att web here for $8usd/24 hours, and tim’s dad is supposed to be here in about 30 minutes. i decided against the money waste.
positive things about today:
aaand apparently they are here! YAAAY we are free from the airport hell!
remember kids, don’t FLY THROUGH CHICAGO!
PS: updates: our suitcases are lost. we filed a form of “delayed baggage”, that was supposed to be delivered today with the 12pm flight, but, alas, they are lost. i am SHOCKED. this is my shocked face: :|
philosophy of logic
one of the most interesting things that i learned in the last 4 years of university is the notion of flow. no, scratch that. it is THE most interesting thing that i have learned in the past 4 years. the reason i bring it up in this post, is that flow is a state in which you are:
- highly internally motivated
- are keenly interested
- faced with a challenge just at the border of your abilities
among other things. this really deserves another entry on its own, BUT, today i realized WHY it is that the task must be challenging.
philosophy of logic, a class i am taken, is taught based on a book written by ian hacking, a u of t professor (honorary at this point, i believe). the book is incredibly well written, is highly interesting, and incredibly easy. it is easy not because material is easy – it isn’t really THAT easy – but because i have already met all the material presented with in. frequency probability (studied in stats of psych), belief probability (studied in stats of CS – highly relevant to AI!), philosophy of logic (despite that this is the name of this class, i have ran into the arguments presented with in in my other philosophy classes). i’ve touched on all of the math in it.
therefore, i have a terribly hard time making myself sit down and get into the details of the “basics”. i am capable of it, and i did a lot (finished reading the entire book, for example – i am doing all the exercize sets tonight). its just difficult to not get distracted.
therefore, out of a bracelet maha gifted me with years ago, i have made that necklace. it is SO FREAKING COOL. and thanks to my abnormally thin wrist, i am still able to wear the bracelet comfortably. YAY for saving $30.
you can read more about flow there.
new shuffle?!
why did no one tell me! holy cow that’s cute. AND IT CLIPS! no longer will my mp3 player we swaying in the wind and messing up my style (seriously!).
i guess i’ll have to live without a screen. but DANG that thing is cute!
(and the way i found out is that i randomly opened on its page in the b&w catalogue!)
higher posting rates
i updated my theme.
as i was going through the past months of entries (just on the calendar, not reading), the longest posting streak i had was exactly a year ago. maybe its the fact that exam time means i want to slack off, or that i need to vent the stress (which is at a surprising low this year – i guess taking electives as opposed to required courses actually does help!), or something other.
christmas time makes me so happy – it is like for a few weeks everyone are celebrating. (and through extended years of pavlovian training, i started anticipating my birthday, new years, and the fun that is part of all that more and more each day! oh how i can’t wait to get this over with!)
weirdly, of course, exams are far better than work, where there ARE no such breaks.
*stretch* well, i’ll be done soon!
(slacking off: my first day in paris. ever. Louvre and Eiffel tower at night. *sigh* i can’t believe how much i have grown and changed since then, and yet it still takes my breath away to remember that city.)
another photo of sarah
not even sure what to title it.
studying, and slacking off in breaks…
more cat all the time
who knew i’d ever enjoy the company of a cat that much!
i made poached pears today. i keep forgetting to buy an orange to experiment with this, but essentially its 3 simple steps:
1. peel and core the pears while…
2. half a cup of sugar, 2 cups red wine, 1 cup water (more wine?), 3-5 cloves are coming to a simmer
3. simmer pears in liquid until desired consistency and color reached with lid on
(4 optional: to get a thick sauce to pour over the pears, simmer half the time with the lid off. or something like that. i just wing it, and it works.)
tasty, easy, and little effort, other than the peeling and coring, but i can live with that for the high class style of eating a poached pear off a tiny white plate.
Lawrence is doing well. cuddling on the couch is normal, he is sleeping ON the couch now, has a favorite chair (director’s chair), and rubs up against our legs regularly. he still bites and scratches in play, which makes me look like i climbed over chicken wire. but its a small sacrifice to waking up to a cat nuzzling at your chest!
also, i got an ear infection day before my first exam. i’m not really considering it luck as its (a) hassle (b) an extra exam to write at the end of the year, ruining my brilliant plan of having 3 exams per semester and graduating with 8 half credits (due to a full year movie course).
russian humor and photographs of the cat
despite my generally large removal from russian culture, it always frustrates me to a great degree to not be able to translate russian puns, jokes and expressions to english properly. we can come close, but it is, of course, impossible.
thus, this wikipedia page is bringing joy to my heart.
witness:
A Frenchman, a Scotsman, and a Russian are drifting in a lifeboat in the middle of the ocean. Suddenly they see a bottle bobbing on the waves. They uncork it, and a Genie comes out. For releasing him he’s prepared to grant them each two wishes. The Scotsman says: “I want a bottle of whisky and to go back to Scotland,” and promptly disappears. The French says: “I want a bottle of the finest Merlot, and to go back to France,” and is sent on his way. The Russian considers it a moment and decides: “I want a case of vodka and the fellas back!”
* Side Note: This joke is a play on the fact that in Russia it is believed that three is the optimal amount of people for drinking. This in turn goes back to when in the Soviet Union a bottle of vodka cost 2 roubles 87 kopecks, 3 r. being a convenient price for three to buy a bottle and have 13 k. left for a snack, e.g., 100 grams of candies. A good deal of Soviet folklore is based on this interpretation of the “magical number 3”.
and, as promised! clicky for large
new challenge
since some crazy spam started getting through the math plug in, i am trying this new challenge.
diny, soon it will be like you wanted, taking integrals of trigonometric functions in order to comment.
lemme know if there are any problems!
lawrence
we adopted a kitten. tim and i came to the humane society, and after much deliberations picked a cat that fit our “numbers”: 1-4 years old, tabby grey/red, neutered/sprayed. Lawrence fit the numbers – when we tried to talk to him, he wouldn’t respond, and he just lay there, quiet, matted fur, unremarkable.
this was saturday, 7pm, when we arrived home, and took him out of the carton carrier that the society gives you. he was timid, timid to the extreme, and (in hindsight, foolishly), took him out ourselves. after a few timid steps across the floor, he found a nook next to the green chair, and lay there for a while.
(green chair on the right)
we did some research, showed him his litterbox, and straight away he timidly hid next to the shoe rack.
there he was until the end of the evening, when we took him on the couch with us to watch tv. every time we touched him from any point of the crate till now, he purrs, RUMBLE PURRS, non stop. so was that first evening on the couch – and suddenly, amidst the petting and the purring, he started stretching, and becoming more and more cute. as in, his fur became cleaner, his face became happier, brighter, and suddenly, he was adorable, adorable to a degree neither one of us saw before.
sunday morning, he was hiding under the couch. we let him be there for the entire day, and in the evening he came out and explored a bit in front of our eyes. for the first time he used the litter box with us there (he did before when we slept). he is cute, adorable, soft, fluffly, and incredibly pretty.
and he is the first cat ever that i am inlove with.
first cat that purred in my arms (that first evening when i picked him up). and last night, after hiding the entire night under the couch, he reluctantly came out from underneath to get petted, hiding back at any noise (tv, shoes shuffling, blanket moving underneath me). and this morning, he came out again, and right now, i am the happiest person ever, because this cat is obviously scared, and still obviously started trusting me. i have never formed a bond like this with anyone else, human or not. and all i want to do now, is to sit in front of the couch and pet him again and again as he comes out and then goes back under when he is not comfortable anymore. BUT HE COMES OUT! and each time it is longer, further, and more comfortable.
he is playful, cute, and really is coming out of his shell, but not yet, so i’m not sticking my camera in his face yet. sorry guys :)
i assure you, whenever he DOES start feeling like this is his home, and safe place, he’ll have nowhere to go to hide from my freaking camera.
did i mention he is a purring machine? all you have to do is put your hand near him, and he starts purring, even if he isn’t coming closer to it.
and humane society is an incredible place for animals, and a terrible place for animals. it is amazing as it is ridiculous how many they save. and it is terrible, because so many of them are depressed, and don’t have the motivation to do anything anymore – like lawrence. and the others, the meow, whine, bark, peep (depending on the species) to a heartbreaking point. there were cats there that pawed at people through the cages, and if you stopped and put your hands closer would rub up, meow, purr, and … ah, my heart breaks. i wish they all could be saved. what the volunteers are doing is incredible.