monkey nonsense

i started my new job this week! it’s been pretty interesting so far. it’s been awhile since i’ve had to learn a new application.

i’m doing pretty much the same thing i did at my old company for my new company. and actually… i’ve discovered i really do like automation! i find it very interesting and even though i’m totally not nerdy (because i’m just way too cool for that ), it makes me excited to think of a reusable framework for automation!

yay for finding something interesting to do for a job! i wonder if this is what i’m going to do for a career? or whether the interest will wear away eventually… hey, it’s lasted 3+ years already!

it’s been awhile since i’ve posted any guitar butchering… but i have been trying to practice! it’s especially productive since danny usually has dan teach him some stuff after small group which makes me get out the guitar more often too! thanks danny and dan!

this song is NOT one of the songs i learned with them. try to guess what it is! i actually don’t know how to play the F chord (and u’ll be able to tell whenever that chord comes up!) and i start to laugh when i hit a particularly bad stretch.

tune 7

an observation made by some friends during small group – i’m apparently the benjamin button of car owners.

(zeroth car – i learned on a pontaic grandam station wagon. but then it broke down too often (if you turned too fast), leaked when it rained, and had no side view mirror on the passenger side, so then i ended up driving the newer car more often. it wasn’t really my car.)
first car – buick regal. i loved my regal! when i think about how awesome it was to drive that boat and all the features it had in it? steering wheel audio controls! in a 1996(? maybe 95) model! that didn’t come to the camry until 2005!
second car – toyota camry. i downgraded to a smaller car with the camry. but it was still a family sized car. i loved how smooth the camry’s ride was, how many people could sit in it, and how large the trunk was!
third car – scion tc. it’s a sporty car.

so i’ve gone from (station wagon->) buick regal -> toyota camry -> scion tc. the cars keep skewing younger! at this rate, i’ll be on a bicycle by the time i’m old!

so i bought a new used car – scion tc. it’s very different from my camry… but it was in kind of in my price range (close enough) with the features i wanted (really only ABS) and low mileage. i wanted a 2004ish camry with ABS with 30-40k miles, but 1. the first dealership sold the car before i even got my insurance check 2. the second dealership was idiotic and had their salesman offer it to me at the price i wanted only to pull back the offer 3. the last dealership offered it to me at the price i wanted, but then we found out the car had no ABS… in any case… i couldn’t get a camry i was bummed.

things i miss about my camry:

• 4 doors. 4 doors are so convenient! even if it’s just me that’s riding in the car… it’s nice to be able to easily put things in the backseat. and lately, i’ve been carpooling. this means that one of my passengers needs to crawl out of the back… very annoying.
• larrrge trunk. do you know how many dead bodies can fit in a camry’s trunk??? MANY!
• quiet ride. seriously, i feel like the comfort level of riding a camry is comparable to luxury cars. it’s really quiet, it’s really smooth. i miss it. and my scion makes noises. not normal noises. i swear there’s something wrong with it. i got a lemon.
• gas tank. i filled up my scion for the first time this past week. it took 12 gallons. i miss my 15+ gallon tank on the camry.
• it’s not a rice rocket. so apparently, the scion i bought is a rice rocket. i didn’t put it all together at the time… but when i bought it, i knew about the air intake. i thought it was kind of annoying but the car was cheap! i also noticed the tinted windows, but didn’t think anything of it. until i saw it in the daylight more. it is REALLY darkly tinted!!! like unless you go right up to the glass, u can’t see thru the window! then… i went to austin and saw all these tcs… and they looked different than mine. when i got back, i noticed i have a suped up exhaust!

things i like about the scion:

• it handles better than the camry. this could be because it’s a smaller car… but maybe also because it’s designed to handle better? (supposedly sportier?)
• blue! my odometer lights up blue! i test drove during the day so i didn’t know this feature. it was a pleasant surprise. i love blue!! also, the light in the rearseat area also lights up blue!! and the radio allows you to pick the color of its display. pretty useless feature if you ask me… i usually don’t care what color my display is. but of course, i set mine to be blue
• smaller. it’s nice being a little bit smaller. the scion is actually wider than the corolla so it’s a nice width. but it’s shorter. makes for parking in my garage a lot easier! i don’t have to go alllll the way forward just to make sure i clear the garage door.

i think in general, i still prefer the camry. but given the price range i had to work with, the scion’s a pretty nice car!!

so i posted earlier about how google voice mis-transcribed my parents’ voicemail. it also happened a few times to mariam as well.

sample -

“You can Mary, I’m just calling” … haha, i like how Mariam became “Mary, I’m”
“Gimme a call back on my plate right now”
“Hello little voice subscriber” … wait that translated properly! what’s mariam smoking?!

anyways, i received my first perfect transcription today from the car dealership….
“Hi. This is Mike from Town and Country auto and truck Center calling in regards to your email on the Camry. Please give me a call (410) ###-####. Again (410) ###-####. Thanks.” (Note: I removed the digits to the phone number, but they actually matched exactly too!!)

is google voice getting better?? or is Mike just that better of a voicemail leaver that google voice can understand him better than mariam?

i got into my first car accident a few weeks ago.

it was on the on ramp for route 50 (not a highway, but one of those divided roads that get pretty busy). there was a huge gap and the car in front of me seemingly went. so i started to accelerate and when i glanced again in front of me, i noticed the car didn’t go! it had basically inched to the end of the ramp and decided not to go. i slammed on my brakes, but not in time.

here’s the resulting damage to her car and mine:

why is my damage so severe?? because of this…

i hate hitches!!!!!

so they estimated my damages initially to be $4300… but then when i called the garage to check up on the progress, they informed me that the engine lost compression in 2 cylinders and the car is basically totaled!!!

i had to go clean out my car this past friday… i took more pictures of it. i sat in it one last time. i felt like i let down my car. it was my first purchase out of college. i financed the whole thing. i just got the title saying i owned it outright. it was stamped june 12th.

after they removed the damaged bumper to look inside

after removing the license plate

73895 miles… so many miles still left

maryland has a special license plate for farms.

i just stumbled upon a website that documents gaithersburg md then and now… it’s a very interesting site. it’s cool to see how buildings were preserved… but then also crazy to see how things have changed so drastically! i especially liked seeing the area around my parents’ house… i remember when muddy branch & darnestown road was that small!

take a look yourself! http://www.shauncurtis.com/photos.html

what i find really sad is the link they have for belward farm… belward farm is the land across the street from my parents’ neighborhood. it’s been farm land ever since we’ve lived there. while all the other farms sold and became housing, belward farm reminds just land… the website gives background on how the farm was able to remain intact! unfortunately, it also linked to a website that proposes new development on belward farm. that is not cool!! http://sites.google.com/site/gnprcoalition/gnprc-fact-sheet-1

i hate when you go out to eat as a group and it comes time to pay for the bill. i hate math. i hate division particularly. division and subtraction… i hate having to borrow from the tens or having to remember the remainder… it’s so much easier to just carry the one! multiplication and addition… so much cooler!!

sorry, got off topic. anyways… it’s a pet peeve of mine when people round drastically in their favor. for example, the per person cost ends up being like $20.75… and they pay $20. i mean, yes… you’re only really shorting $0.75 but if EVERYONE does this and say the party has like 10 people? that’s $7.50 right there! and people wonder why the bill never adds up at the end!

but i also have another pet peeve regarding the flipside… overpaying. i don’t like it when someone (doesn’t have to be me) always ends up having to overpay because it’s not fair to them. everyone’s on a budget so when someone covers someone else’s portion, i feel like… don’t do that! someone else should be paying their share, not you paying more than your share!!

so because of both my pet peeves… i had a bbq at my place and because it was so last minute, we decided buying stuff and everyone splitting it would be easier. so the cost of the bbq ended up being $3.81 a person… that’s such a weird number! do you actually collect that exact amount? how do you round that value? if i round up, i feel like i’m scamming those suckers!

what do you guys think of some of the govt incentives right now? incentives like a $8000 tax credit for first time home buyers or the cash for clunkers program. do you think in the long run, it’s helpful? or do you think it’s a waste of money?

i’m not sure how i feel about these things. because i’m wondering how the govt continues to have enough funding for all these things. and i wonder the long term benefits of these plans, particularly the cash for clunkers program. it’s great for the environment and it’s stimulating the car industry but isn’t everyone just buying japanese? how does that help?

on the flip side, i’m benefiting from the $8000 tax credit this year. and my mom is attempting to get a new car with her clunker (it’s currently broken outside a honda dealership… i’m not sure if they’ll take it since the clunker needs to be running) so it’s at least stimulated both my mom and me to make purchases! but then again, my mom would’ve been in the market in the first place if her car really did die and i’ve been looking for houses for the past 3 years… so…

The same blue food dye found in M&Ms and Gatorade could be used to reduce damage caused by spine injuries, offering a better chance of recovery, according to new research… The only side effect was that the treated mice temporarily turned blue.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/07/28/spinal.injury.blue.dye/index.html

see how awesome blue dye is?!?!