Walk with Donovan

I forgot to mention that before I went home, Donovan and I went for a hike.  We took our usual path up Strawberry Canyon and then back down the city streets.  I took a photo at the top which shows Downtown Oakland.  I live in Downtown Oakland so it’s essentially a picture of home.

Donovan was really excited about some experiments that he was working on today.  The results showed what he was hypothesizing about beams.  You see, he’s looking at mechanical switches.  These switches are really small.  The gap between this beam he was bending and the plate below was only 400 angstroms.  An angstrom is very small.  It’s 10^-10 meters. Anyway, he was very excited about his results.  I’m sure he’ll make something out of it.

Take it Easy

Stopped by Take It Easy Thai Restaurant on my way home. There was a long line so I decided to stop. Pretty lame in the sense that I just finished waiting a long time for transportation but I figured the food must be good. First problem was that there was chaos. It wasn’t clear if there were 2 lines (pickup and ordering) so there were people just trying to get there business done. The counter staff lacked control. I wound up striking up a conversation with this couple. The woman complimented me about my pants. She’d never seen North Face pants like these. Then we talked about DC, Indianapolis, and murder.

DC: I told her that I was going to DC for work and that it was going to be hot out there.  I told her that I had to wear pants.

Indianapolis: She just came back from a week trip to Indianapolis.  Her family lives out there and it was hot.

Murder: A guy cut in line to get his food.  At first, the couple were upset that he cut in line.  Then we got to talking and the guy who cut in line mentioned something about safety in Oakland and that someone had gotten murdered down the street several days ago.  Then she pointed out that the murders in Oakland haven’t been random.  I told her that random murders would be scary, like the sniper incident in DC.  My thinking is that too much is at stake when you kill someone so random would be pretty risky if there wasn’t a clear reward.  I personally don’t walk around flashing expensive items because I don’t want to wind up a victim of burglery.

Anyway, it was an interesting conversation.  It’s interesting to talk to people especially when there is some stress in the air.  It diffuses the situation.  Bravo to her for breaking the ice about the pants.

EDGE network

Oh my God! The EDGE network is so slow. There was some delay on BART today due to some police activity at the Richmond station. I had 17 minutes to wait for the next train. In that 17onute delay, I figured I coils route a map using the bus system instead. Boy, was I wrong. The network was so slow they I couldn’t get the appropriate transit authority sites up. Pathetic.

The transit authorities need simpler web pages. There’s no need to show as much graphics as they do.

Group emailing

As far as I can tell, the iPhone doesn’t allow you to write to a group on your contact list. You can separate users into groups and you can email many people at a time but you have to select recipients one at a time. This is lame. Google did that with GMail when it first came out and then finally added the feature. It’s such a pain to select people one-at-a-time.

SPOT Award

Today I received a reward for recognizing potential safety concerns at the workplace. We do a lot of different things here and we have many safety requirement. Sometimes things can be improved or overlooked. It’s good to keep your eyes open to hazards.

Brett and Melissa presented the award and some cash ($150). I ain’t complaining.

Lunch

It’s taco salad Tuesday at the lab. Lots of people like this particular menu item so you have to get there early. They don’t run out as far as I know but the line can get really long.

I had lunch with Doug, Alex and Paul.

Daily View

Optometrist appointment

Went to the optometrist this morning because I haven’t been able to wear the contact lenses I purchased in June. It turns out I have a rash under my eyelids which is why it felt like I had a speck of dust in my eye when I wore them. I was already wearing daily disposables which are supposedly the best kind because they don’t get as much organic build up. Now it all makes sense. I could wear them once a week or so with little problem. That frequency must have allowed the rash to go away. I wore contact lenses this past Sunday.

He issued me a different brand to try out. If they work out, he’ll trade me for my unopened boxes. The lenses he put in this morning feel good.

I have to go back in early September to have a review after I test out the new sample lenses. Hopefully this works out.

Breakfast

This morning, I have an optometrist appointment so I’m out of the usual routine. I had breakfast at Crema, a local coffee shop.

As you can see, I had a coffee and bagel. This place serves the butter on the side which is a bit of a hassle but it’s nice in that you have full control over the amount that you add. I prefer having it spread by the clerks.

The coffee here has a slightly different taste to it. It’s got some character. Not being a big afficionado, I don’t quite have the vocabulary to describe it. It’s a flavor that sort of lingers while the coffee is in the mouth but there isn’t an after taste.

$3 even for the coffee and bagel.