The coldest winter I ever spent
Archive for May 2012
After a semester of hard work, (and an ‘A’ for my effort!) here is much of my study clan from Human Anatomy class, drinking at Zeitgeist May 30th!
Kyle, Melissa, Julie, Lauren, Jeremy, Anne-Marie, Pam, and I – Anatomy Study Clan!
I’ve built up a huge list of Fun Things to do in the Bay Area. When I want to find something fun, I go to my bookmarks and just open up ALL of these links and scroll through them looking for a muse. It often works out well.
The Dark Room: Theater, Comedy, Music, Bad Movie Night and more
18 Reasons | Engaging Our Community Through Food and Art
BACDS — The Bay Area Country Dance Society Website
Bawdy Storytelling – Adventurous adults telling their true stories
Nerd Nite SF: Welcome to Nerd Nite SF — Every 3rd Wednesday!
HappyCortex – Event Listings – Home
San Francisco Walking Tours | City Guides
San Francisco Social Meals, Meet New Friends, Group Dining | Grubwithus – Never Eat Alone
Friends of the Urban Forest – Other Projects – Tree Tours
ReidAboutSex | Reid’s Calendar
NightLife: California Academy of Sciences
After Dark: Evening Hours for Adults | Exploratorium
Friday Nights at the de Young | de Young Museum
The Independent :: San Francisco, California :: Live Music Live
Broke-Ass Stuart’s Goddamn Website
Down to a Science – A San Francisco Science Cafe and Science Blog
Events | Books Inc. – The West’s Oldest Independent Bookseller
The Starry Plough Pub and Nightclub
BayAreaScience.org – The Best of Science by the Bay.
BayAreaScience.org | The Best of Science in the Bay Area
Ashkenaz Music & Dance Community Center
San Francisco Salsa Dance Club Bay Area Salsa Dancing Lessons
RIP Squidlist 2013 :-(
I’m thinking of switching from my AT&T cell phone plan with an Android phone (Samsung Captivate, AKA SGH-I897, AKA Galaxy S) to Virgin Mobile.
What is your experience?
It looks like the difference is:
AT&T (monthly)
$75
200 MB data
1000 texts
450 Rollover minutes
Unlimited talking with other AT&T cell phones
Virgin Mobile
$45 ($30 less!)
unlimited MB data (I dunno if I could use more than 500 MB/month)
unlimited texts (I sometimes use 500 texts/month)
1200 minutes (plenty)
It looks like I can sell my phone on eBay for $100, buy an LG Optimus Elite for $150, and start saving $30/month.
Why shouldn’t I do this? Leave a comment.
So what’s up with this?
Is this related to the Facebookification of the internet? No matter, I blog so my friends (and I) know what’s up in my world. Still, it’d be nice if I were super-famous and stuff.
I have been wanting this email feature for oh my god, like 20 years. Thank you internets!
Boomerang for Gmail is awesome! (that is a referral link, if you use it, we both get some free prizes like these.
Here’s a video showing Boomerang in action
You know when you send an important email and a timely response is important but you aren’t sure the person is going to respond quickly? How do you keep track of this important tidbit? What I used to do was copy-and-paste the email into a Calendar item… which is cumbersome and a PITA to do on a regular basis!
From their website:
Boomerang allows you to schedule messages to be sent or returned at a later date. Write a message now, send it whenever, even if you’re not online. Track messages to make sure you hear back, and schedule reminders right inside Gmail
I’ve been using it for a week and it works as advertised! I’m in!
There is Boomerang for Gmail on Chrome, Firefox, and Safari (Hahah, no Internet Explorer!), and Outlook too.
These are all Android apps I heartily use and recommend for my AT&T Galaxy S phone.
Find all these apps on Google Play for your Android phone.
RealCalc Scientific Calculator – a great calculator. The stock calculator suuuuucks but RealCalc is great (and costs like a buck or something!)
NoLED – It turns on the screen and tells you when you’ve missed a call or text. Essential (I can’t believe Samsung forgot this functionality!)
Google Goggles – great for scanning QR codes (those fancy new computer bar codes). It holds promise for doing a lot more, but not much more yet.
Fish Bowl – photo gallery
Clock – The built in Clock app with the wake-me-ever-so-gently “Smart Alarm” is my daily alarm clock and I love it.
Lord Of Magic – fun shoot’em up
Gmail – of course
Google Maps – of course
Silent Time – Works great to keep my phone quiet for my weekly appointments.
SwiFTP FTP Server – I use this and an FTP client on my home computer to move files from my computer to my phone
Hi-Q MP3 Recorder – Rock solid
I use this every day to record lectures and people giving me information. It is indispensable.
Chase Mobile – it’s pretty convenient depositing checks remotely!
Google Voice – works great. Once every couple months it doesn’t let me listen to voicemails but generally works great.
Andmade Share – makes sending attachments and such way easier
Astro Player – Music playback. Love it for the equalizer and playback speed adjuster. I record lectures in school. I use the equalizer to make the recordings listenable and I use the playback speed changer to scroll through the lectures quickly. Win!
BART Usher – It’s my go-to schedule travelling through BART
Data Traffic Monitor– Helped me diagnose a bandwidth hog program
Screen Filter – Indispensable brightness control for my AT&T Galaxy S phone.
Tasker – It is supposed to be super-duper powerful but the best use I found was that I created 6 (pretty useful) buttons with it that have obvious purposes: Sound On/Off, Wifi On/Off, 3G On/Off.
Wifi Manager – Lets me see the wifi networks around me at a glance. Nice.
Google Authenticator – If you use Gmail, you should use 2-Step Verification to protect your account! How to enable it. And a friendly video that walks you through it.
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Here are the maybe/maybe-nots
Groupme – I WANT to love it but 2 of my friends don’t receive the messages reliably :-(
SomaFM Radio Player – I WANT to love it but It uses a bit (30kb/min… 43 megabytes/day) of bandwidth and a lot of battery even when paused. I don’t have unlimited monthly 3G bandwidth so I’m wary to use the app.
Prey – It is supposed to track my phone in case I lose it. So far I haven’t gotten it to work right. But I’m on it.
Rock and roll! I aced my semester!
A * Human Anatomy
A * Medical Chemistry
A * Conceptual Physics
P * (Pass) Fitness Center
(don’t feel you need to read the rest of this post)
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Here is what I took this semester
CRN, section, day of week, time Units, Location, Professor
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ANAT 25 General Human Anatomy 4.0
Study of the gross and microscopic structure of the human body. UC/CSU
30302 002 Lec T R 09:30-11:00AM SCIE 100 Guthrie, M
31543 023 Lab R 12:00-03:00PM SCIE 347 Guthrie, M
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CHEM 32 Intro to Medical Chemistry 4.0
Basic concepts of inorganic and organic chemistry, biochemistry, and physics as they apply
to the chemistry and physics of the human body. CSU
Open to all students. No previous chemistry or physics required. Satisfies the requirements
of nursing and related majors that require one semester of chemistry. Also satisfies the
recommended prerequisite for Physiology 12 and MB 12. Students taking a major that requires
two semesters of chemistry should enroll in CHEM 101A or 103A should enroll in CHEM 40.
32533 353 L/L W 11:00-02:00PM 1125 Valencia St. 364 Fong, L
M W 09:00-10:30AM 1125 Valencia St. 106 Fong, L
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PE 200C Fitness Center Super Circuit 2.0
33367 001 Lab HOURS ARR WELL 201
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PHYC 10 Conceptual Physics 3.0
A conceptual, almost non-mathematical, introduction to physics with demonstrations. Topics
from mechanics, properties of matter, heat, sound, electricity, magnetism, light, nuclear
physics, and relativity. Emphasis on topics that lead to a better understanding of our
technological society and physical environment. UC/CSU
31746 551 Lec W 06:30-09:30PM 1125 Valencia St. 106 Tesler, P
--------------------------------------------------
PHYC 10L Conceptual Physics (Lab) 1.0
PREREQ.: Completion/concurrent enrollment in PHYC 10
Laboratory experiments involving basic physics concepts. Emphasis on concept development,
data handling, and laboratory skills. UC/CSU
Required for students enrolled in the curriculum in RADL
31747 601 Lab SAT 09:00-12:00PM SCIE 158 Yan, H
semester total units = 14
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Anatomy
Looking at the final grade sheet… 146 students started the class. Of those …
. . . 65% (96) passed (C or better)
. . . 34% (50) didn’t pass (D, F, drop, W)
. . . 21% (31) got an A, like me!
# of students in each category
A: 31 (90%+)
B: 30 (80%+)
C: 35 (67%+ or so)
D: 10 (48%+ or so)
F: 11
Drop or W: 29
I’ve been looking for the best mechanical pencil for a long while. Turns out, it was hiding right under my nose! Wanna jump right to the money shot? Scroll down!
Most of my mechanical pencils. Top to bottom: Jolt, AI, SumoGrip, ClearPoint, Logo II, Kerry
I tried the Bic AI pencil. Supposedly the lead advances itself automagically. But the mechanism is always scraping its plastic lead advance mechanism against the paper, making it feel odd It has a second advance mechanism (because they knew the auto-advance wasn’t awesome?) where you shake the pencil to advance it. That’s kinda cool except the leads keep slipping backward; you have to shake it a lot to keep the lead extended properly. Worst of all, when you flip the pencil over to erase, the shaking often accidentally advances the lead. And the eraser is tiny, and hidden under a cap. Apparently I have nothing good to say about the Bic AI pencil.
The Pentel Jolt pencil has an interesting mechanism (read: I could never get it to frigging work). Apparently you are supposed to shake it twice quickly to get the lead to advance. This alleviates the problem with other shake pencils (like the Bic AI) where the lead accidentally advances while you are erasing, but it’s simply not reliable. Sometimes 1 shake advances it, sometimes 2, sometimes 2 shakes extends the lead way too much. It is completely frustrating and unusable.
The Paper Mate Clearpoint is a side advance pencil. Kinda neat. And it even has a nice large twist-up eraser, another win. I’ve had a little trouble getting used to pushing the button on the side, I’m sure that’d subside after a while. Much more importantly, the twist-up eraser mechanism twists right back down when you use any reasonable erasing motion! Dumb! Argh!
The Sakura Sumogrip. First the “sumo” part: the barrel is too large, my hand cramps up after just a few minutes of using it and I’ve got large hands. I don’t know, I have friends that like the size, but not me. Second, when you’re erasing, the twist-up mechanism twists right back down, just like the stupid Paper Mate Clearpoint. Third, unless you are careful, pressing the eraser to the paper while erasing causes the lead to advance. Three strikes, you’re out!
The Pentel Sharp Kerry has received a lot of praise as a terrific pencil. I have two of them. At $16 apiece it’s certainly the most expensive pencil I own. It is very pretty, definitely the prettiest writing implement I own. It feels great in your hand, words like “elegance”, “style” and “refinement” come to mind every time I use it. And it is terrific fun uncapping and recapping it, every time is a little flourish!
I wrote with a 0.5mm Pentel Sharp Kerry for a full semester of American History class, I’d write furiously and every now and then pause to marvel at it’s beauty. Yeah, I know, a little distracting, but it put a smile on my face. I’d whisper to myself, “I have the best writing implement in this room.” (yow, I really did that… I should have started calling it “my precious”!)
After a semester of writing madly with it in History class, I can say it writes well. I now think of it as my “executive” pencil. The only things that bother me about the Sharp Kerry: the (tiny!) eraser hides under a little metal cap, and my favorite pencil has a spring mechanism for the lead that helps it write smoother than the Sharp Kerry.
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I tried using a separate eraser for these pencils that write well but have substandard erasers. But a couple things get in the way of me liking this:
First, the obviousness of it all. After 400+ years of trying, Science (capital ‘s’ dammit!) should be able to supply me a good pencil with a good eraser!! I’ve found small block erasers to be hard to use, you’ve got to hold this tiny, irregularly shaped thing in your hands very tightly. They are hard to find in my bag too.
I haven’t found a pencil-shaped eraser I love. The Pentel Clic Eraser has great eraser material and a solid holder, but every time you take it out, you have to fumble with the length of the eraser; then when you put it away, since the advance mechanism and the clip are the same, you have to push it back down. I haven’t tried it but maybe the Staedtler Stick Eraser would be good for me. I tried a Tuff Stuff Eraser but the eraser dust made an awful mess, a million tiny sticky shards of rubber on the desk. Fair warning: I bought the Tuff Stuff on eBay so it’s possible I got a knockoff eraser.
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And then there’s love! The Paper Mate Logo II is the best pencil I have ever owned.
Paper Mate Logo II mechanical pencil, 0.7mm in black, 0.5mm in maroon.
This is by far the best mechanical pencil I have ever owned.
But read the article for how to fix the one huge problem that held it back from shining.
Let me count the ways:
Fixing the loose twist-up eraser on the Logo II mechanical pencil, making it my pencil of choice!
The nice retractable tip of the Logo II
Now I own both sizes of Logo II pencils. I use my black 0.7mm for “writing”, when I need to write a lot of text, like for my Anatomy class. The tip almost never breaks. I use my maroon 0.5mm when I need a finer line, for Chemistry class; if I am hasty, I might break the tip, but the finer line can be worthwhile.
Curiously, the Paper Mate Logo II mechanical pencil isn’t given much support from the Paper Mate company. Apparently Paper Mate is owned by Sanford, who is owned by NewellRubbermaid. I wrote to Paper Mate looking for a home web page devoted to the pencil and I got a response from someone at Sanford saying “…we apologize that you were unable to find this pencil on our website. It is still available for purchase… through local stationer and/or office supply stores…” Weird. Minimal corporate support for such a great pencil.
I have bought the Logo II pencil at Dick Blick retail for $4.50 and Amazon. The pencil is available in 0.7mm or 0.5mm, black
or maroon. I bought a box of maroon 0.5mm pencils and a box of 0.7mm black pencils so I’ll never want for pencils again. And I plan on giving a few away, because that’s how I roll.
The craziest thing is that I’ve had this pencil in my pencil box for a long time. The fiddly eraser kept me from loving it. I’m so glad I found/fixed the pencil!
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The Paper Mate Titanium is also a fine pencil with all the same features as the Logo II. It’s been in my pencil box about as long as my Logo II. I don’t like the squishy finger grip but you might. There is also the Paper Mate Logo, the Logo 3 and the Logo 4. I don’t like the styling or feel of these other pencils as much as the Logo II.
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Spikeman asked in the comments what the difference between the different Logo pencils is. Here are photos that show the differences:
Logo 1, plastic clip and tip
Logo 2: metal clip and tip
Logo 3: plastic clip and tip with a cushion grip
Logo 4: metal clip and tip with a cushion grip
September thru December 2011 I beefed up my body a lot working out at CCSF. This semester I didn’t make nearly as much progress. On a lot of fronts I just kept things even. Here are the highlights:
Everything I do is 2 sets of 10 reps. On most machines I stayed even from last semester. Here are the differences:
Chest Press: 75lbs to 110lbs. Excellent… except that I had left off in December at 120lbs. Feh!
Lateral Raise (still trying to build up my shoulder profile) I worked it every time I went to the gym and went from 70 to 85. Importantly, just a few weeks ago I realized I’ve been sitting on the machine such that I’m mostly just using my anterior deltoids instead of the correct posture that would use my anterior AND posterior deltoids. Ugh, it’s waay harder to do the exercise the right way!
Bicep Curl: Still I’m hovering around 95lbs, but I still like how my biceps look and feel compared to before working out.
Yoga ball crunches: I lean back on top of the yoga ball and do a sit-up, it works the abs better than a sit-up, and it burns like someone is stabbing me repeatedly with a knife (joy). The knives used to be unbearable at about 8 reps, 2 sets. Now it’s about 11 reps, 3 sets.
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What’s next? I’ve always noted that I don’t have enough cardio. I’ve just been running on the treadmill to warm up for the machines. Well, over the summer I’ll be visiting Megan a lot, she lives in Kensington at the top of the Berkeley Hills, about 800 feet of elevation… I now have a nice bike… Bring it on!
Watch out for this scam. I just got an email seemingly from a professional acquaintance of mine saying that she had been mugged in London and needed money. It was signed with her usual signature so it looked reasonably legit. The email originated from (example) First_Last@yahoo.com. However, her email is actually First_Last@att.com! Note the changed domain! Someone was trying to impersonate her with a new, real email address!
It was the tone of her letter that told me something was fishy. If something seems fishy, it usually is! But man, those scammers are getting better.
Here is the message I got (I changed the name and email)
From: First Last First_Last@yahoo.com
I’m writing this with tears in my eyes, I came down to London, United Kingdom for a short vacation. Unfortunately,I was mugged at the park of the hotel where i stayed,all cash and credit card were stolen off me but luckily for me i still have my passport with me.
I’ve been to the the Police here but they’re not helping issues at all and my return flight leaves in few hours from now but I’m having problems settling the hotel bills and the hotel manager won’t let me leave until I settle the bills. Well I really need your financial assistance..
Please let me know if you can help me out?
I’m freaked out at the moment!!
First Last, Her Title
Her Organization
First_Last@yahoo.com[Her usual email signature]