Scorpions kind of look like bodybuilders!
Watch out for the stinger!
laelene Posted in video blog，Tags: animals, observation, videos
29
September
2011
0
Online again!
laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: experiences, internet, opinion, work
26
September
2011
Wow, I’m sitting here in the room, with internet on my laptop! Yeah, I know, that sounds so mundane and even expected, doesn’t it? Well, it’s not after a month of only having access to the world wide web via my phone. The open signal at my apartment went away and after a couple of weeks trying to get around it, spending time at Whole Foods, staying late at work, and even waiting in line at the business center for their computers, I’ve decided that this is a luxury that I can and should get. After all, I’ve saved 8 months worth of internet service fees already!
Awhile back, some of my coworkers introduced me to Clear, so I began to research that in depth, since I really liked the idea of having portable internet (I thought about tethering my phone, but it cost too much for too little bandwidth). After thinking about it and teetering between yes and no, I finally decided to see if I could get a modem for cheap on eBay. Much to my surprise, as I was following a modem & router combo to see what kind of price I could get it at, I came across a banner ad for a FREE one! This definitely peaked my interest, so I clicked on through and found an amazing deal: free modem-router ($120 value), free activation fee ($35 value), and free first month’s service ($45 value)!
Granted, I did have to sign a 2-year contract, but that’s pretty fair and I don’t mind it since I can bring the internet with me when I move. The only thing I wasn’t crazy about was that I was not given an option for the $35 plan, which is slower, but cheaper. However, I called up their sales guys and was told that I can downgrade from the $45/month to the $35/month plan without a fee. I sure hope he didn’t give me misinformation, but if that’s the case I’ll just change my plan later on! I really doubt I’d need the super fast internet speed, so why pay $10 more a month? That adds up fast to $240 throughout the course of my contract!
Oh wait, but I’m getting ahead of myself… right now I’m enjoying some free internet at Panda’s hotel room and it feels so strange after so many nights of not being to get online with my laptop! I did receive my Clear device today and I’m really excited, but since I have internet for now, I don’t want to turn it on and activate it until I need it this weekend. I can’t wait to try it out though! I’ve heard great things, especially from our IT guy at work and he should know, right? I just hope I can get a decent signal at my place.
Fold me a fortune
laelene Posted in video blog，Tags: experiences, food, observation, videos
25
September
2011
So this is how they do it, using that metal rod to fold the cookie around.
8-D
laelene Posted in photo blog，Tags: interesting, pictures
24
September
2011
Ignore all the writing and admire the coolness of the smiley face wearing sunglasses! Yeah, I'm clever, aren't I?
Anniv3rsary
laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: experiences, food, panda, pictures
23
September
2011
Today is my “official” three-year anniversary with Panda! We kind of set an arbitrary date since it’s hard to say when exactly we got together. So, we go off our first real date, which was the Friday of Zero Week at UCLA. The great thing about that is our anniversary is always on a Friday!
Tonight we celebrated by going to Itacho Izakaya for dinner, then getting free dessert at Milk, right across the street! Milk is offering free ice cream sandwiches via ScoutMob. I got a Red Velvet and Panda got a Grasshopper (mint chocolate). Yum!
Impatient
laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: future, opinion, panda
21
September
2011
Ever get impatient with life? Sometimes I just want to get on to the next stage and get that MBA, finally live with Panda, and be married. I look forward to the future a lot and I’ve been anticipating it for years! At the same time, I know that life as it is now has its own perks and I shouldn’t lose sight of all that I have now. While I kind of want a fast-forward button to press, I still value all that I get to live out today.
Still, sometimes it’s nice to think about all these great future plans, isn’t it? This seems especially true as I start to see more and more of my peers moving on to the next stages of their lives, getting more education, settling down, and starting a family. Every now and then I can’t wait to go to business school and then move in with Panda and start our little family, kids, cats, and all. But I guess life comes as we’re easy and I’m definitely not ready to get marked or have kids yet, much as I look forward to when that part of my life comes.
For now I’ll try to take better advantage of the things I can do more easily now – explore my passions, travel some more, and maybe even move somewhere new!
Eerie eel
laelene Posted in video blog，Tags: animals, behavior, videos
20
September
2011
How strange that they poke out like kelp and just hang around mostly motionless.
Spring to life
laelene Posted in photo blog，Tags: food, nature, pictures
19
September
2011
Look what grew in our yard! I’d really like to have a lush garden in any future homes of mine. They bring so much joy and learning, as well as a sense of peace and well-being. How cool is it that these eggplants grew without us intending them to?
Technological pains
laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: opinion, technology
16
September
2011
My greatest pet peeve about technology is that it often doesn’t take change well. I wish it was easy to put multiple accounts together, and to weed out any duplicates that occur in the process. Take contact lists, for example. Why is it that when I try to sync my Google contacts with my phone, I end up getting a whole lot of the same entries, instead of a clean list? I understand if they need to ask me about the merge if different versions of the contacts contain different information (such as one only has email and the other only has phone number, or the listed contact information doesn’t match). However, it’s just not that easy and I’ve had to manually go through and sort through the listings to correct them, which is quite tedious.
Another thing that totally baffled me recently is Apple IDs. They don’t always make it clear when you are making a new one, so I somehow ended up with two even though I meant to change my primary email address for my account. I did some research and they make it very clear that they do not merge accounts, so I had to figure out which account to keep as my main one. Why it is that they can’t combine your accounts with a data migration is beyond me. Perhaps I don’t understand enough of the coding, but nevertheless, this is a common issue that people have and I feel that it’s worth any trouble to create a good system to do so.
I also don’t see why user IDs can’t be easily updated as we wish, so we can change our minds as often as we want. After all, we go through life changes all the time, sometimes wanting a fun screen name, sometimes wanting a professional one, and sometimes just wanting one other than what we have. Why create an entire account just because of that? It would make so much more sense to keep all the information that has been associated with an account and just change the username you log in with or share with others.
It’s amazing that it has been so long and still these improvements that would allow us so much more control over our accounts are not something we can expect from any form of technology we choose to use. The pains of trying to get around it or fix it almost don’t even make it worth it either. Whatever happened to technology being able to make your life easier? It seems to be causing me a whole lot of (time-consuming) problems instead!
