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April 29 Spitfire Pub on Microsoft CampusMicrosoft execs recently disappointed me along with thousands of other employees who were excited about the new pub on campus in the new "Commons" area that opened last week. A few days before the scheduled open, Microsoft pulled the plug on the whole thing. They decided that Spitfire would not be allowed to serve alcohol. A pub with no alcohol. That's great. The owners were completely surprised by this; they had staff, food, and supplies all ready to go. There was some sort of compromise, and now Microsoft keeps saying in emails and on websites that any employee can book Spitfire after 3pm, but you have to book it through Microsoft Conference Services. That's what you use to book catering events and conference rooms. I have been trying to find a way to express my disappointment short of emailing Lisa Brummel, our VP of HR. On the Commons website, I found a place where they were soliciting feedback.
I sent mail to the Commons feedback alias (commons@microsoft.com) explaining my disappointment. Here was their response.
I am unclear on our "existing policies" and why they didn't matter until the last minute. Anyway, I emailed MS Conference Services to see just how easy it is to book an evening slot for our team to get some drinks. Here's the response I got.
I am not impressed. $200 and that doesn't include food or drinks. We just want 5-7 people to get together someplace better than Azteca. Nobody's looking to get wasted. I feel bad for the Spitfire owners. This isn't what they signed up for. I spoke to one of the owners, Jonathan, and he said they had followed all the rules, kept to their contract, done everything right. So why did Microsoft wait until the last minute to squash the plans? At the last company meething, they bragged about the upcoming pub on campus. Which exec decided to rain on our parade? December 20 Distribution vs. Concentration of DiscomfortSitting in the airport, waiting for my delayed flight, I started thinking about how airlines deal with long delays. If they have 5 flights from Seattle to NY per day, let's say 8am, 10am, 12pm, 2pm, and 4pm, and the first one gets delayed for 3 hours, they have 2 options. Leave all the other flights as-is and make the 8am people wait 3 hours. Or, distribute the wait by having the 8am people take the 10am plane and make the 10am people wait 1 hour. So I'm wondering if there's a morally correct thing to do vs. what would be best for the business. (I'm assuming for the sake of this conversation, all planes involved have the same configuration, so it would be easy to swap out the aircraft.)
Morally it seems fair to share the wait time. If I bought a ticket for 8am, why do the 10am people get to leave before me? But I'm not 100% confident on that because it's just bad luck that the 8am people ended up with a delayed flight, so why should we inconvenience double the amount of people? From a business standpoint, it seems clear to me that you'd leave as many flights as you can as-is, so as to minimize the amount of unhappy customers. That's at least until the wait moves past a certain threshold where the amount of inconvenience is so much that it outweighs the minimal inconvenience that another flight of people would have to wait. For example, once the wait is past 24 hours, let yesterday's people fly, and work something out for the rest of the flights.
I'm not sure what's right; My gut says to be fair and split the wait time if possible, but I know that could mess things like air traffic control times, flight attendant staffing, and a multitude of other things involved in getting a flight out.
This reminds me a little of Eliezer Yudkowsky's blog entry on Torture vs. Dust Specks where he questions which is the lesser evil: if a single person was tortured non-stop for 100 years, or if an incomprehensible number of people all got a dust speck in their eye. If you're going with minimizing the sum of discomfort, then you'd go with the torture, easily, because the ridiculously high number of people that he talks about in his entry would far outweigh just 100 years of torture for just one person. I can't agree with him because I think about discomfort on an individual level over group discomfort, so I'd much rather have a ton of people have dust specks in their eyes vs. anybody getting tortured. It's interesting how many people actually agreed with Eliezer that they'd go with the torture. The entry generated a lot of discussion. August 21 The Low-Carb Experiment: Final UpdateWell here I am 28 days later. The final 2 weeks wasn't all that different than the initial 2 except that I ate lots more fruit, added these low-carb tortillas, drank a little, and cheated a whole lot. Biggest and best cheating moment: Tollhouse Magic dessert at Belltown Bistro w/ Craig. It was so worth it. If you haven't had this dessert yet, you're missing out. It's a giant gooey chocolate chip cookie hot out of the oven in a scalding little pan with vanilla ice cream on top. It probably had more carbs than all the carbs I had in the 2 weeks prior.
Second best cheating moment. Pumpkin Pancakes at CJ's Eatery with Dan. They only have these things a few times a year on the special menu, so I had to indulge. Totally worth it.
Third best cheating moment. Mini-cupcake with dark chocolate icing and round little rainbow sprinkles. Took me a good 20 minutes before I lost all willpower and had one. Also totally worth it.
Mostly I kept each day down to 0 or 1 alcoholic drink. Both Saturdays I had 2, and for some reason Monday night I went out crazy with some friends and ended up having 4 drinks. Altogether still way less than an average 2 weeks.
Total weight lost: 10 pounds
Total inches lost (waist): 3 inches
Experiment Results: Success August 07 Two Week Check-inSo today is day 15. I'm too lazy to make the graph this week, but basically I lost about 2 more pounds with the total being 8-10 depending on how you measure. I cheated even more this past week but have managed to still not have any alcohol.
The week in review:
Wednesday and Thursday I stayed in, so that was no problem at all.
Friday - At work we had a big meeting and after the meeting they had Champagne and a Chocolate Fountain. This was a rarity for sure. That was probably the worst temptation of the week. I had no champagne, beer, or wine, but I did have one chocolate-covered strawberry. I resisted the marshmallows, rice krispie treats, and pineapple.
Friday night - Was with a group of friends in Belltown. Went to Viceroy, Juju, and Karma. Turns out Adam was also doing the no-drinking thing so I had a buddy. Danced forever at Karma. Still had fun. Lots of soda water w/ lime. Basically my standard vodka soda without the vodka.
Saturday evening - met up with a friend for Sushi. Couldn't have a drink or wine with dinner but sushi is great for low-carb.
Saturday night - Went to a party at Nectar then moved on to Viceroy in Belltown. Met lots of fun people. Got a lot of shit from people for not drinking but whatever. I was driving. Saved lots of money on cabs and drinks.
Sunday - Had book club. Lots of wine and desserts but I only had a few berries, which technically was cheating but didn't matter to me. Berries are allowed as of today.
Sunday night - Met up with Christy for Belltown Pizza. I had their meatball sandwich which is awesome but I didn't eat the bread. Okay, I had a tiny bit of bread. Didn't have any beer though.
Monday night - Met up with Neda for food. Went to Belltown Bistro and had a caprese salad. Didn't drink. Again.
Tuesday night - Went to a Mariner's game. Didn't drink. Also couldn't really eat anything since nothing there is low-carb. Wasn't hungry anyway. Then met up with friends at Viceroy. Didn't drink again, but bought a couple of scotches for the guy I was with as a thanks for taking me to the game. It's become a little weird for me to buy alcohol now that I'm not drinking.
Wednesday night - Everyone was out at Viceroy but I decided to take the night off.
Tonight - I can have a max of one drink a night for the next 2 weeks. Not sure if I'll go out tonight, but it's fun to not have the restriction.
Alcohol - I estimate that I would have had about 18 drinks if I wasn't following the rule. That's at least half a pound. Was busier than a normal week - usually I wouldn't go out so many nights in a row, but still it sounds like a lot. Maybe I should have a weekly limit in addition to a per night limit.
Food
I added a bunch of things to my "allow" list. Dark chocolate, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, low-carb tortillas, peanut butter, sunflower seeds. Not even sure what else but I bought a bunch of stuff yesterday. It'll probably take me at least the 2 weeks to eat it all. I bought way to much meat and fish 2 weeks ago. Still have most of it left.
So that's that. Adding the low-carb tortillas and strawberries have made me very happy.
Had to go to the dentist today since one of my sealant's fell out. I think my mouth was confused with the lack of sugar and figured it didn't need any sealants anymore...
July 30 Low Carb Experiment - Check InThis is day 7 on the low-carb experiment. It's going surprisingly well. It works kind of like magic. I have lost 6-8 pounds depending on how you measure. Either one is realy impressive for only 7 days. Some people say the first few days you lose all water weight - I'm not sure if that's true or not, but I'll take it. Although my stomach feels a lot thinner, I've only lost about an inch. Here's the chart with my progress. The Y-axis goes from my goal weight to just above my starting weight.
Things I eat:
Tomatos, Eggs, Chicken, Cheese, Peppers, Onions, Broccoli, Salad w/ Ranch dressing or Balsamic Vinigrette, Egg Salad, Sugar-Free Pudding or Jello, Breakfast sausages, Salmon, Halibut, Flank Steak, Turkey-cheese roll-ups.
Also tried this recipe and it's okay but real sugar would taste better and it was a little too buttery: http://genaw.com/lowcarb/cream_cheese_clouds.html
Cheating:
I had one piece of Dove Dark Chocolate on Day 2.
I haven't counted carbs at all - just using guidelines.
Had some carrots and the sugar-free pudding which I think weren't supposed to be allowed in first 2 weeks.
Stuck my finger into the icing of Craig's cake last night and ate a tiny bit.
Cravings:
Pillsbury brownies
French Fries from Cellars Restaurant in Seattle.
Mostly I don't have cravings at all. Mostly I'm not even hungry even when it's time to eat. Days that I do the Shangri-la olive oil, I'm definitely not hungry.
Things I would have consumed but couldn't:
About 20 alcohol-containing drinks (3 late night parties and one evening at a bar)
Cake - my friend's birthday
Chips & Pizza - 4am Saturday night at Marty's place (most of us didn't even know Marty)
Candy (Twix & Starburst) - movies with friend who brought candy to share
French Fries - Shaila's goodbye party at cellars
Chocolate Chip Cookies - Microsoft cafeteria
Brownies - my kitchen (would have baked some)
Appetizers and Fries - Friend's birthday dinner
Pasta - would have gone out for food with friend but skipped it
No alcohol update
The no alcohol thing has been surprisingly easy. I was out till past 2am on Friday and Tuesday, past 4am on Saturday, all at bars and parties with alcohol but still had lots of fun. Last night was the most difficult because I couldn't participate in the birthday toasts, drink the birthday shots, etc. Also got pretty screwed at the group dinner since I didn't drink anything (and couldn't eat most of the appetizers) but still paid for my portion of our group's food and alcohol. Basically paid $90 for a halibut filet and a chicken wing. However I saved money the other 3 nights where I would have had alcohol, so I think I came out even this week. And I wouldn't have missed Adam's birthday dinner. He's my yoda.
Observation
You'd be surprised the number of people who wave bread, fries, candy, and cake in your face! I find it pretty hilarious.
So I think this diet comes down to a low-calorie thing. I didn't realize how much crap I eat every week. It's crazy! I'm still planning on sticking out the month. Definitly going to easy up and eat some more carbs after week 2 though. Thanks to those of you who have decided to diet with me (even to those who have already given up on it - I won't name names), and to those who haven't pushed sugar and alcohol. July 25 My Latest ExperimentWell last year I did the experiment where I combined Herbal Essences Dangerously Straight Pin Straight Shampoo with Herbal Essences Totally Twisted Curls and Waves Conditioner. Then earlier this year I tested out Neutrogena Radiance Boost Eye Cream by only putting it on one eye and asking people which eye looked more radiant. The product didn't do very well.
Yesterday I started a new experiment. This one is less creative, but I'm curious to see the results. For the next month, I'm trying a low-carb diet. I read all up on the Atkin's website to get some guidelines, and I went to the supermarket and bought tons of low-carb food last night. I figured if I spent a lot of money (over $200) on food, I'd guilt myself into eating it. I did my first weigh-in last night, and I may put up a graph of my progress later in the week. The hardest part will probably be not drinking any alcohol for the first 2 weeks. This weekend will be a test. Fil suggested I try the Shangri-La Diet which basically consists of eating whatever you want but consuming 1 or 2 teaspoons of olive oil per day. I tried it this morning and gagged. Olive oil is kind of gross by itself. Anyway, here are my first experiences.
Day 1 (Yesterday):
I randomly decided to do this diet right after lunch. It was all on a whim, like many things I do. So here's how it went.
An hour or so after lunch, I was getting hungry for a snack.
Me: Hmmm...they have Cow Chip Cookies in Cafeteria 117. I wonder if I have time to run over between meetings. <remembering> Oh, man. No cookies.
Then on my way back from a meeting I passed my friend Ty's office which is full of Peeps.
Me: Oooh, sugar sounds good. I should have a Peep. Oh, man. Can't have one of those either. Guess I should get back to work.
Then walking by the kitchen later.
Me: Sugar sugar sugar. I should have a Sprite. Oops, can't have that either. Guess I'll have a Talking Rain. No sugar, no sugar. Time for a healthy snack. Let's see what I have in my office. Whole Grain Goldfish. Shoot, those have carbs. I know. Craisins. Wow those are loaded with sugar. I need to go food shopping real bad. <Looking in my drawer.> Wow, I forgot about that Cow Chip Cookie I bought yesterday and saved for today. Shoot, I better give this away since it'll be stale by the time the experiment is over. Oh, and I totally forgot about that half-eaten rice krispie treat. Better throw that out too. Hmmm...this is going to be an interesting challenge.
I finally just went to the supermarket and bought a bunch of stuff.
It's lunchtime now. Wish me luck!
July 23 Car Repair StrategyToday I had an appointment with an auto shop to get a 60k check-up for my car. I love my car. She's a 2002 Infiniti G20, she's midnight blue, and her name is Trinity. I may have blogged about her in the past. Anyway, I once got roped into an unnecessary and expensive "engine flush" at the Infinity of Kirland dealership, so ever since then I have been very wary of auto shops. You never know when you're getting screwed. Luckily, my dad is a mechanic with over 40 years of experience, so whenever they tell me I need any "extra" service, I always call my dad and check with him first. (During the engine flush incident, my dad wasn't answering his phone. He called me back to tell me I was getting screwed about 5 minutes after I had authorized the service. Doh!)
I was getting dressed today and was about to put on a Red Sox t-shirt since they're in town, but I hesitated. What if the guys at the shop hate the Red Sox? Then they'd for sure want to screw me. I also didn't want to wear anything that looked too expensive because then I'd look like a good target - someone they could screw over without feeling too bad about it. So I "dressed down" a little with a hooded sweatshirt. But I did put on a little make-up because I think you can get better service if you look attractive and have a winning smile. I think I play up the "I'm poor and cute, like a daughter or niece to you, so please don't screw me over" card. Don't get me wrong, I assume the guys at this shop are decent, fair, people, but just in case I'd rather cover my bases.
I believe there is strategy in almost everything we do. We make our own luck. A while back I wrote about this in my entry about the book The Luck Factor.
So far they've called and said I needed new brakes. I checked with pops and it sounds legit. Hoping it's nothing else. For the 60k service, Infiniti of Kirkland was charging $1100 and this place was charging $260. Have I mentioned how much Infiniti of Kirkland price gouges? Infiniti dealership in Brighton, MA was awesome and very fair, just FYI, so they're not all evil.
Back to the strategy thing, I also do my hair before a haircut, so they can see that I care about my hair looking good and they'll do a better job. And I brush my teeth before the dentist. If you are making a purchase that involves negotiations and decide to dress down, you have to speak intelligently so you don't get pegged as a dumb kid. It's tricky stuff... July 21 Spring Cleaning in the SummerI've been on a little bit of a Spring cleaning kick. Got rid of a ton of books, now I'm moving on to clothes. Fascinating, I know. I can't believe you're reading this. July 13 What it's like to be 530 poundsStolen from Fil's Blog where I'm guessing he found the article on digg. This is a moving account of what life is actually like for a morbidly obese woman. I hate it when I hear people making fun of fat people. It's even worse when my friends do it - luckily a rare occurrence, but it makes me lose respect for them. Anyway I had no idea just how bad it was until I read this article:
June 30 24 minutes and millions of dollars wastedMy work laptop was really sluggish this morning, so I decided to reboot. 24 minutes later it's finally back to normal. I decided to install some updates during the reboot. Then when those finally were installed, the network adapter wasn't working, so I had to reset that. Adding up the time when your computer is completely unusable during updates and restarts (let's say about 24 minutes every update that requires a reboot), multiplying by all the employees of Microsoft, times the average salary per minute. That's about $300,000 per update, and way more if you account for all the other companies in the world who have employees running Vista. My math might be off but still, it's such a waste of time. Sitting around waiting. There's gotta be a better way.
On a positive note, Microsoft finally got rid of the orange styrofoam cups (which were not pleasant to drink water out of) and they've replaced them with paper green cups. I think they should have thinner disposable cups for water. I get why they need to be so thick and sturdy for coffee, but why not have smaller water cups. It kills me to huge such a huge cup when I just want a little water. I could carry around a Nalgene but those have issues too, and I'm totally anti-mug. Lots of issues this morning. :-) April 05 JetsettingAmsterdam airport is funny. If anybody doesn't show up in time for boarding they call them out really loud over the loudspeaker and reprimand them. "Passenger X Y travelling to Z, you are delaying the flight." Makes me laugh. I'm off to Florence in an hour. Will add more travel observations soon. Internet access about to expire... March 11 Early Morning BlundersI woke up this morning at 5:20 AM and decided to go into work to get a head start on the day. I recently pulled my hip-quad muscle, so I brought in a zip-lock bag full of ice. As I'm sitting in my office this morning, icing my hip, completely focused on the document I'm editing, in a benedryl daze (love allergy season), I look down and realize the bag has been slowly leaking for the past half hour. Right into my crotch. So I have this giant wet spot. Great. My jeans are seriously soaked through, the chair is wet, the ground has a little puddle. I'm slightly horrified, but luckily it is so early that nobody has arrived yet. I'm so wishing the bathrooms had those hand dryers. Anyway, I wrap a sweater around my waste, limp to the bathroom, and do my best to dry my pants with a wad of paper towels. Thirty minutes later I'm still in the drying phase. Luckily my coworkers are late risers. What a morning. And it's only 8am.
Lessons Learned:
February 24 Lady in RedI had some wardrobe issues this morning related to the color red. I was getting ready to go to the airport, and since I was going to be on a long flight, I wanted to be comfortable so I chose this long-sleeved red shirt. Since I messed up my foot last week I can only wear certain shoes, so I was going to wear my red boots. Red shirt plus red boots...too much? Both are somewhere between deep and bright red. I was a little worried about red overkill but I went anyway. As I got out of the cab I got a glimpse of myself in the glass of the airport doors. Ugh! My suitcase is red. As I got in line for security I took out my wallet which was red too. I tried to conceal it. This was embarassing. As I sat down to take out my computer, my stomach dropped as I saw my red backpack. And the backpack is a whole other shade than all the rest, so it adds this horrible clash factor. People can have favorite colors, but this is getting ridiculous. I'm the kind of person people blog about or talk to their friends about. Ack! I hurt my own eyes. What was I thinking? Stacy and Clinton would not approve of this. KStar would probably send me back home. February 14 Podcast is backEnough people asked about the podcast that I decided to bring it back. It's not the highest quality content in the world, but if you're really bored have a listen. http://pencilstar.com/Documents/katestory.xml
Oh, and Happy Heart Day  January 13 Seattle's Olympic Sculpture ParkA young boy, bent at the waist, stares intently into a sewer, his face a mere two inches from the grates. A short walk away, two girls search through the pebbles that make up the walkway, collecting only the whitest, most beautiful stones. The blonde girl with ringlets proudly displays a handful of sparkly white rocks. I widen my eyes in approval and make my way past a giant orange sculpture by Andrew Calder called "The Eagle." I smile because, unlike most people, I can see the eagle. Continuing on my journey, I walk along the outdoor amphitheatre where a girl diligently climbs up each platform unhaltered by a floor-length floral dress, her fluffy brown workboots peeking out through the bottom in contrast. A mother chases her son who runs down a hill, flapping his arms up and down through the air. She smiles at me, shrugs, and says "I guess I'm going that way." As I exit the park, I look up to see a family of five in the distance, racing toward the park. They're all going slow enough to make sure everyone keeps up. The boy slows down, distracted by a dog. The family arbitrarily stops on the sidewalk, the unofficial finish line. The mother looks at me and proclaims, "I got last place." The girl, giggling, agrees.
This is my favorite place in Seattle. December 11 Freaky Masseuse UpdateRemember when I wrote about The Freaky Masseuse? Well I didn't hear back, so I followed up with an email. After lots of phone tag I finally got ahold of the manager of the salon. He was very apologetic and I'm getting my refund. He even offered to pay for my chiropractor appointment. Olivier is no longer with them. He went back to Belgium because of some family problems. Apparently in Europe masseusses are allowed to adjust bones and stuff, but he wasn't supposed to be doing that here. The manager was very nice, and I'm really glad to hear that Olivier is no longer working there.
(I'm multitasking right now, so I apologize if my writing makes no sense...) November 28 New Favorite CandyNovember 06 The Lost DiaryThis woman lost her diary at the Puyallup Fair. And someone from Movin' 92.5 found it. Ever since they have been reading one page a day on the air in the hopes that somebody will recognize her so they can return the diary. It's hilarious. This woman hates her boss, is not over her ex, and lots of other stuff. Man, I don't think I'd want the radio to read my journal over the airwaves!
From the site:
Here's what we know about the diary owner so far:
She works at a boutique, possibly on the eastside, with women named Erica and Amy
Amy is her best friend, Erica is her boss
She has an ex-boyfriend named Alex
She lives alone
She has a dog named Jasper
Her mom lives in Atlanta
She briefly dated a guy named Matt
Ex-boyfriend Alex has a daughter and an ex-wife
Help find the diary owner! November 05 GoCrossCampusI found out about this online game called gocrosscampus.com . I know it looks dorky but it's kind of fun. It had this Ivy League version of Risk. Princeton was taking down Columbia and Penn. Unfortunately they had horrible problems with performance because it got too popular too quickly and they had to temporarily shut down the game. October 08 One More ThingOh yeah. THE RED SOX MADE IT TO THE ALCS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now let's hope there is a Game 6!!! |
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