Proud turn of phrase

While your intentions are dark your meaning is clear.

I came up with that on the fly. Kinda of proud of that. Very . . . deep somehow. :)

quotes of wisdom

It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop.
Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in getting up every time we do
Be not ashamed of mistakes and thus make them crimes.
He who will not economize will have to agonize.

Food blogs of interest

Interesting food blogs (this is mostly for myself, I promise!). The.thekitchn.com http://cannelle-vanille.blogspot.com/ http://eatlovedrink.com/ http://brokeassgourmet.com/

Follow up to New Year's resolutions disclosures= med school interview

Ok, so I actually got an interview for med school. Virginia Tech Carilion. Its a new school (only 1 class so far) but it is provisionally accredited. I interviewed this weekend and I really, really like the faculty and the students. One of the charter class is even from UW and lived across the street from me in the 17th ave guys house (Christian guys house across the street) and graduated a year after me. How exceptionally funny is that! I know this still a long shot. But I keep hoping it is less of a long shot than I think. For all of you supporters, you have serious confidence in my awesomeness which isn't completely borne out it my application.

When I received the first rejection from GW (they interviewed 1,000 people, can you imagine?that is just insane!) I started to think that it was time to pull it together. So I started an MS project schedule of reapplying for this coming year. I think I need to pull it out and get it started. So that if I get in, good; if I don't, life won't end. After actually visiting Roanoke and the school, its really hard not to be very attached the idea of actually starting in August. I feel like the school is a really good fit for me (if not perfect). Lots of places to come up with new ideas and really cool learning style and even solid opportunities at the affiliated hospital (its a level 1 trauma center with 15 residencies). I know that I would not be the first one who has reapply for a couple of years. I just wish I could be one of the ones' who don't have to.

I am seriously thinking of making some changes though if I am not accepted on the first cut. It might be time to be drastic in my life realignment. Time to get started doing something I love.

Valentine's flowchart from Mint

Luckily I think I have plans this Valentine's Day. Because frankly these aren't options.

Provided by http://www.mint.com/

It's busy in my brain

Work is . . . work. I have something due for review in 1 hour. So of course I can't concentrate and finish the darn thing. . .

I am enjoying this musical jem.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129754791

Quote an interesting meditation

Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable. - Sidney J. Harris

This rings true to me, though I am not sure it actually is. And since I am the queen of things left undone in my personal goals (or at least part of the royal family) this could be considered tragic.

Be Denmark: Lower your expectations

According to recent research (thank you NPR), the secret of happiness is an income of ~$70,000/year and low expectations.

Does this make anyone else depressed?

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/08/world/europe/08iht-danes.4140472.html

Although, I do think maybe its good. Do good. Do your best. Be surprised and pleased even with small good.

Wishes are like...

Wishes are like dandelions, there must be fertile ground and no anxious gardener around
-Tanya Green

Traffic for 10 days-Beijing

Heard about this from my friend Ben Morrell. Holy cow.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/dr-gridlock/2010/08/chinese_traffic_jam_hits_10-da.html

Moments when time slows

I need one of those moments. When time slows down. Somehow I have made it "here", wherever here is, and yet I didn't mean to be "here." I think most folks come to some point like this in life. Generally, I think it's called a mid-life crisis. I want life to slow down so I can somehow make decisions.

And yet I am healthy and employed. A depressingly funny quote from Ben Morrell (yeah, high school drama friends) edges things into some perspective.
"L: You have a 1/11mil chance of crashing in a plane
B: I have a 1/25mil chance of getting this type of cancer I have! #FeelingPessamisticRWe"

The speed at which time passes should free me from worry, right? After all, I worried in January about moving and committing to anything when my job was uncertain. I worried about getting into a lease which wouldn't let me move back to Seattle right after I finished Georgetown. Yet I am still here, two+ years later.

Maybe this could be termed existential crisis. Probably not though. I'll let you know.

ToneChecker

My friend Ben Morrell posted this. A quick check confirms, this could be a hilarious invention for never getting anything said.

ToneChecker Plugin for Outlook

This was just what I needed after a long day at work.

2088+ socks: so ridiculous I couldn't make this stuff up

I have decided to write a completely anonymous blog with just the random (excuse the word) crap that actually happens everyday working for the government. Par example: Today, 1044 pairs of socks (2088 individual socks or possibly 1044 pairs of socks per carton with 5 cartons delivered total; we aren't sure) were delivered to my office this afternoon. They were intended for a detention center in El Paso. I guess I am glad it's mid-May and likely fairly warm in Texas this time of year. And I am going to hope that this wasn't a last minute extreme need purchase. Because the vendor made a mistake. And knowing the government and government vendors, its going to be a while before these socks make it to their intended owners. And these boxes will be cluttering my cube walkway for a while.

Have I mentioned how irritating AT&T is

So I literally have had no service on my phone at home for the last two days. I have been struggling with service "Searching" everywhere, but apparently my home (the middle of DC!!) has such bad service my phone can't even figure out its supposed to be on AT&T!

I love my iPhone. I live off it sometimes. And I have no land line phone at all. The whole story is tragic. Really. Tragic, like on the level of endangered species being wiped out completely or baby seals dying (if you can't hear the heavy sarcasm tone aimed at myself and my petty problems).

Tech writer's rant

1. Spellcheck. It's not an option.
2. No, you cannot use the return key (creating new paragraphs) to create double-spaced documents. There are several much easier ways to do this in Word or any other reputable word processing software (Google Docs, Lotus Notes, anything). This not only make the document necessarily longer, using more paper when printed and irritating any discerning reader, it also creates headaches when converting to Adobe pdf and trying to make it 508-compliant, accessible to screen-readers everywhere.
3. Not everything is "Body Text." Styles were created for a reason. Use them.
4. If you are going to deviate from the set MS standard styles, please use your own new style consistently. If you start one section on a new page, start the next section on a new page too. If you number using a "A-1" style in the footer, don't use a "A.1" in the document.
5. When creating numbered lists, do not include use punctuation at the end item UNLESS every item in the list is a complete, COMPLETE sentence. For those unfamiliar with complete sentences, let me refresh your memory: a complete sentence includes a noun, a subject and a verb.
6. Please, please use underlining and bold and italics judiciously. These are for infrequent use. If more than 1/8 (13%) of your document (excluding headings) is underlined, italicized or in bold it's time to rewrite. All 66 pages cannot be the most important thing in the document. I agree, there are excellent reasons for using emphasis. But a reader starts feeling irritated when everything in the document is emphasized.
7. Please do not use tabs or spaces to center text on the page.
8. If you have to hand create a table of contents in MS Word 2003 or later, then you are not creating documents correctly. There is an automated function to make the whole thing easier for everyone, especially me.
9. Just because something looks nifty doesn't make it easy to read.
10. Just because something needs to hold water legally doesn't mean it needs to be incomprehensible to anyone except a lawyer.
11. If it doesn't sound like it makes sense, it probably doesn't make sense.

Update on the move to a more healthy Malia

So I am not sure there has been any substantive weight change since I started last Tuesday night. I have until Wednesday morning before I start demanding a refund. But I have noticed that the focus on portion controls, and not really having much option but to eat less food as well as just having a more defined meal (its all there, I don't need to/get to add anything) have helped me a lot. I am still adding a few extras (double-bubble anyone?) mostly drinks. This weekend I ate a 2nd "dinner" of a salad (blue cheese and dressing and apples, mmm good). Saturday I ate well until I substituted dinner I didn't want for a large piece of pizza. And Sunday I ate brunch with Merissa and Samantha and had pancakes for lunch and then steak dinner with Rebecca and Steve.
So I am not totally with the Diet-To-Go program . . . But I added plenty of exercise yesterday when Merissa's dog, Clyde, decided "off-lead" meant "totally gone." Roughly an hour and a half later (my phone was dying and I was too stressed to pay attention to the time) a lovely couple who had grabbed the triumphant hunter/hound dog who was barking and circling a dead deer carcass. Clearly it was the biggest animal Clyde had ever seen. I think he was rather proud of himself for finding it. He was not at all repentant for the stress. My cute little black flats will never be the same. Kelly and I circled the nature reserve several times trying to find Clyde. Ironically the dog who really needed the long walk was Clyde, but Kelly and I sure were the ones to get it!

You can teach new tricks

Check out the quote from this lady, Alice Thomas, 79, who will finish law school in May. Way to GO!

http://abovethelaw.com/2010/02/quote_of_the_day_that_sounds_a.php

Some how happy despite one of those days

You know those mornings when you have a hard time dressing yourself? yeah, that was this morning.

Apparently getting married?

A good friend at work, one of my government clients, announced to a branch meeting that my moving jobs was good timing since it was just in time for us to get married. I may have laughed a little hard . . . and long. Sorry Bob. It was just so unexpected. But thanks for the compliment.

I miss Oscar

That's it. Even though there are lots of other things to worry about. I miss my dog.