Main > Joel's June 2005 News

 



Thursday, June 30th 2005

Oh, it's the weekend. It's almost Friday. And it was payday. Oh, and it's a 3-day weekend. I'm so out of it, I didn't even realized July 4th was coming up so soon. At the end of the department meeting, which I had mentioned last night, the director running the meeting told us to enjoy the holiday weekend. This completely confused me, as I was wondering what weekend he was referring to. It couldn't be July 4th, because why he would he tell us to enjoy next weekend? Then, I realized July 4th is Monday.

Egads. Am I really working this hard?

Today was just rushing around, working like a madman. I didn't get to the office as early as I wanted to, but still at a decent hour, and I just worked all day, meeting with various people, writing up findings. I finished a lot of what I wanted to by 5:15pm, so I went out for drinks afterwards with a clear head @ 12 Bar. Tomorrow, I start the rest of my testing. So far, I've come up with two findings, and it's only the 1st week.

I guess I should explain why I desperately feel the need to come up with valid findings on an audit. Yes, there are what we refer to as "Gotcha!" auditors, who revel in catching you doing something wrong. We auditors know who they are, and we despise them. There's some value in what they do, but we don't really like them. They make the rest of us look evil, and we don't like to be perceived as evil.

For the most part, we just want to do our work, and catch control deficiencies. If we catch them, bad things won't happen to the business, and we've provided value to our existence. It's the "Listen, we're here to help you seal up the cracks. If we succeed, then you'll be in great shape" mentality.

I suppose we could theoretically go through an entire audit, and conceivably find no control weaknesses. That means everyone has done their job, and I've confirmed it. However, from my perspective, it's more than likely that my management may sit back and wonder, "Uh, did Joel really work hard, poke and prod, and find everything? Or did he just waste everyone's time, pulling off this intricate charade?"

See, that's the insecurity that plays out in my brain every day. Did I catch everything? Did I actually examine everything that needed to be reviewed? Did I miss anything? Did the auditee try to fool me by hiding the dead bodies under the rug? I don't have to find anything, but if I find a million findings, and I know there's solid evidence behind it, then I actually feel better. My management can sit back and say, "Wow, I'm sure glad we put Joel on this. He dug deep, and found control deficiencies that no mere mortal could have discovered. I'm glad we keep him around."

So, don't be all nasty to your local auditor.

No luck in purchasing a digital camera or camcorder. I'm primarily using dpreview.com, C|Net.com, and camcorderinfo.com. From what I see in the digital camera market, you can have small/portable, yet weak in features. Or, great features, but it's hard to use, unwieldy, and expensive. Hmmm. I think there's an argument to be made to own multiple cameras for various situations. However, that argument wouldn't fly around here in the Ipe household, i.e. my wife would never agree to that.

In comparison, the camcorder search makes the digital camera hunt a walk in the park. While I'm all about still photography, I'm not big on video, so I'm having trouble even figuring out what I really need in a camcorder. By the time we figure it out, Joshua will be asking for his own camcorder.


 

Wednesday, June 29th 2005

During my lunch hour, I wasted 90 minutes going uptown to 42nd Photo to check out the Casio and other cameras, including the Canon Elura 90 camcorder. However, they only showed me the Casio, and told me everything else was upstairs. That part was okay. What I didn't appreciate was, in an empty store, the guy was bored to tears to have to speak to me, was insulted that I asked him questions about, you know, price, and what else he had available for purchase. In addition, I didn't appreciate that every time I asked him a question, he'd wait a bit, then answer in a really irritated way, with a 10-second delay. Finally, I said, "Well thank you", and walked out. I don't care how cheap the stuff was. Don't treat a customer like they shouldn't be bothering you.

Best part? He kept asking me if I'd been to their website, but for stupid reasons. Case in point: The storage card in the Casio was full after whoever took sample photos with it. I wanted to take a picture, but couldn't figure out how to delete a picture. I ask the salesguy, and he sighs, then starts fiddling with it. He then asks me if I've been to the website, and read about the camera or not. I said, yes, but the website isn't going to tell me how to delete a picture. He seemed irritated at my answer. Asshole.

Officer Jason Schechterle is a real warrior. In 2001, his patrol car was rear-ended by a taxi, and exploded into flames. If a fire truck, on route to the same call he was, wasn't nearby to drag him out of the flames, he'd be dead now. He suffered severe burns to his face, arms, and upper body. Doctors had to remove his skin to keep him alive. He's back to being a cop in Arizona, and is still married, with kids now. I can't believe what he's been through.

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Wow, that's bad.
Even his hands are messed up
Before the accident, hugging his wife

An EPA advisory panel is recommending further study of the effects of Teflon on humans. Turns out, trace amounts of a compound in the creation of Teflon, but supposedly destroyed in the manufacturing process, is appearing in blood samples taken from people across the country. When rats & mice were exposed to the compound, they developed brain tumors. Ummm, anyone starting to think about your pots and pans in the kitchet cupboard right about now?

I was all set to do tons of work tonight at home, but then I fat-fingered my VPN PIN code in my little VPN doodad, and now it just blinks "Bad PIN" incessantly. I have no idea how to reset it, and I've hit nearly every button. Now, it's 1:57am Thursday morning, and I can't log in remotely. I can't do any testing, so I'm just going to bed. I have a ton of work to do, so I'm going to catch the earliest train at 5:52am, and get to the office where VPN isn't necessary. What a waste of my evening.

It's all "fun" testing too. Checking 137 server names against an inventory list online for their information classification label, risk level, etc. Sometimes the worst part of completing an audit test step is just coming up with an appropriate sample. At my last job, sampling for IT audit work wasn't a big endeavor. Lots of times, they were just process reviews or picking a sample using a judgemental method. Here, sampling is huge.

  • What's the total population to sample from?
  • What's the time period?
  • Is the sample going to be statistical or non-statistical?
  • Am I using a judgemental method? Haphazard? Stratified? Etc, etc.

By the time I've filled out the statistical or non-statistical formula, the non-statistical rationale form, and selected a sample of whatever, it's 5:30pm, and I haven't even gotten to the testing part yet!

Lucasfilm opened up their new facilities in the Presidio in San Francisco last weekend. An estimated 2,000 guests attended the opening of the Letterman Digital Arts Center. What's up with the name? Letterman? Anyway, here are some pics. Love the Yoda fountain.

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Cool Yoda fountain
It's George Lucas!
A reproduction of Darth Vader

Speaking of Star Wars, here's a silly Star Wars parody called Grocery Store Wars. A bit on the corny side. Still, it's a lot of effort by the Organic Trade Association to market organic foods.

Tomorrow, I have some huge department meeting about quality assessments or whatever from 11am to 1pm, which doesn't really excite me. Management is providing free pizza for lunch, which I think is nice. After work, I'm meeting up with some friends for drinks.

Hmm, alcohol!


Tuesday, June 28th 2005

And you all thought we had stopped purchasing electronics. We're soclose to picking out a camcorder, and surprisingly, I think we found a neat new digital camera. I'm going to some place on 5th Ave tomorrow during lunch to check out the Casio Exilim-Z750. According to the reviews, not only is it 7.2 megapixel, and has a large LCD, it's apparently rather nifty.

My friend who works at Panasonic can get an awesome discount, but nothing will ship until approx August 11th. Yikes.


Monday, June 27th 2005

I'm not allowed to speak about tonight's "incident", and I've probably said too much already. Suffice it to say, purchasing the StainGuard for our living room furniture from Seaman's Furniture was well worth it.

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Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

We finished watching Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, starring Jim Carrey & Kate Winslet. Very interesting movie, but not has earth-shattering in my mind as I had expected. Then again, the movie had been hyped for so long, my mind may have created unreasonable expectations.

Finally, two pictures of my new office, which I'll be in for the next few months, or the rest of the year, depending on when I'm finally moved to NJ. As you can see, I have windows..... which serve absolutely no purpose. Still, I've started bringing in my technical reference library, and will actually bring.... pictures! Yes, personal items in my office. How exciting.

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My new office, for the moment
Notice the windows

I haven't had an entry in the Recent Purchases in a long while. Hmmm, that's Joel, trying to save a buck. Next month, be warned. We're on the quest for a camcorder, and a replacement digital camera if we can swing the additional expense.

For your benefit, a music video of the Yes song "Owner of a Lonely Heart" remixed by DJ Max Graham. I gotta find the mp3.

Joshua had lots of energy this evening, so I gave him more Tummy Time practice on the bed. After the 3rd time, with his toys almost within reach, he used both legs to push himself towards his toys a whole two inches.

We're very proud parents! I must say, this type of excitement from me is completely unheard of. I don't even like kids.


Sunday, June 26th 2005

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Vijay & Reeba @ the Ingersoll BBQ
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Josh & Tummy Time -- not so bad

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday. A pox on you, Monday. New audit starts tomorrow, and I shall be ready for ye.

Weekends? Relaxing? Bah. Yesterday, we were all in a huff, getting ready for the annual Ingersoll BBQ. If you ain't invited, you ain't cool. They skipped last year. So, actually, the last time they had it, we weren't even married. How times have changed. Namootoo made her patented "Chili powder?!?!?!" potato salad, and we made a stop at a BJ's Wholesale Club for formula and diapers. Oh, the fun never ends around here. :) Pictures are up, and I admit to not having the greatest photos, but I was feeling a bit lazy. It might have been the excess humidity.

Sunday was mostly about a visit to my parents, with a brief visit from some of the guys & gals from my old church, in order to see the baby in all of his glory. Afterwards, when we got home, Lesh came over to drop off my sunglasses, which I had left yesterday.

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Sky Captain & the World of Tomorrow

We tried to watch Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind Friday night, but we both got tired 20 minutes into it. Better luck later this week. I finished watching Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. It's cool how they made the movie (completely in front of a green screen), but I didn't think the story was exciting.

I'm very proud of Mr. Joshua. Forr the first time, yesterday and today, he didn't just endure "Tummy Time", but actually was fine with it. And he held up his head for a good 3 minutes or so, which means he won't be too far from crawling. Good for him.


Friday, June 24th 2005

Here are some random pictures. The first two are Josh in his little San Antonio Spurs jersey -- specifically, Tim Duncan. I'm very sorry to my friends in Michigan, but I had nothing to do with it. My wife went to school with Tim Duncan, so don't look at me. I'm guilt-free. :)

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Game 7 was great
but I wish I was wearing a Pistons jersey!
My office, until this past Wed
A view of Brooklyn
The Brooklyn Bridge & the South Street Seaport

The other three are of my most recent office, and the view I had at the nearby windows. Damn, I'm gonna miss it. I moved into a new cubicle on a different floor this past Wednesday. It's bigger, but it's older furniture from the 80's. Ah well. It's all temporary until I move to my final office in New Jersey.

I spoke to my manager, and I'm planning to attend the Securing Windows 2003 I was interested in. Turns out, it's being offered the one week I have available in August between audits. Very nice. Now I just have to get the official approval, and register for the class.


Thursday, June 23rd 2005

What a day of running around. First, I had a 9am meeting (that had been postponed from Tuesday), but I snoozed until 7am, which made it highly unlikely that I could make the 7:20am train. Weighing all of my options, including having my wife drive me to Hoboken, I decided to take the train to Hoboken, then the ferry across the river. It's $4 one-way vs. the $1.50 for the PATH train, but $4 and missing an early morning meeting don't equate. Anyway, here's the running around summary:

  1. I ran to the train station in 4 minutes, and caught the next train to Hoboken, at 7:48am.
  2. The train arrived in Hoboken by 8:20am, I took the ferry at 8:25, and we arrived across from my office building at 8:35am. Thank God for the ferry (let's call it "Plan B").
  3. I hustled upstairs, and met the lead reviewer.
  4. At 11:45pm, I hustled to lunch at the Garden, where the NY IIA Chapter had their annual organizational meeting. Free lunch, folks. Free lunch. :) Also, I got to see people again, which I haven't in months. I received a nice gift certificate for being such a good contributer this past year. Now I just need to decide how I want to treat myself!
  5. After the meeting, I ran to the 33rd St PATH station by 3:25pm, hoping to ride that to Hoboken, and still catch the 3:47pm train to Newark, and transfer to another train, going to my station. Very tight. Amazingly, I arrived in Hoboken by 3:45pm, and and still caught the train. Phew! Otherwise, I would've had to wait 45 minutes for the next train.
  6. After watching Josh so my wife could run some errands, I went running at the high school track. Hey, that's running, right?
  7. After I got back, while we were clipping the boy's strangely sharp fingernails, my friend Paul called. His parents, coming back home from their trip to India, had missed their connection in Newark, and were stranded at the airport, with no more flights until tomorrow morning. I showered really fast, and at 9pm, flew 85 mph down to Newark to pick them up, while Paul made hotel reservations. We got them into a nearby Sheraton. Looks like I was "Plan B".
  8. By this time, it was 10:30pm, so I picked up some Wendy's. Since there was no more time for a nice dinner at home, this was Plan B.

Lots of Plan Bs today, eh?

Looking forward to the weekend. BBQ at our friends the Ingersolls, where Mr. Joshua will be making an appearance. We may also go camcorder shopping Friday night.

I just learned through the grapevine that one of my coworkers is jealous of my new office, since mine is bigger than his. Hey, the benefits of being Indian. :) Pictures of my old and new office tomorrow when I have more time.


Wednesday, June 22nd 2005

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Danica Patrick

This Danica Patrick story is just outrageous.

I moved my office to a different floor today. It's not as nice as my last one. :(


Monday, June 20th 2005

First off, a big hello to the Youth of the CSI Congregation of Hudson Valley. Been a long time, eh? Hope to see you all again sometime! Needless to say, it's been a while.

Weekend was fine, but I accomplished no cycling this weekend. As a matter of fact, I haven't gone running in two weeks, as I'm still waking up every morning with a sore throat, and still generally sick. What gives? I used to never get sick, and I've been "sick" for 2 weeks now? I hope it isn't Ebola.

As for the rest of the weekend that didn't revolve around me, we finally celebrated Mother's Day in style by picking up takeout sushi from Sushi-hana in Montclair. After not having sushi during her entire pregnancy, she's trying to make up for lost time. Eating our tempura, california/tuna/salmon/etc rolls at home isn't as fancy as dining in a fancy restaurant, but as new parents, we'll take what we can get.

Saturday evening, we visited my parents, and Joshua decided to cry/scream for 2+ hours straight. We really had no idea what was the matter with our "He's usually so well-mannered." son. We finally decided to just get him home. On the way home, we did a stop at Applegate Farms, where we got some ice cream. I, of course got my favorite chocolate chip cookie dough sundae with whipped cream and hot fudge, and the missus got two scoops of coffee ice cream in a strawberry sundae. I guarantee that I will never want coffee-flavored ice cream with a strawberry topping, but this was turning into a Mother's Day celebration that never ends. Hmph. She tries to pull this scam with her birthday too. You have been warned. :)

We were about to go home, when my in-laws called, wanting to see their grandson. So, never quite making it home for a relaxing Saturday evening, we drove over to see them too. We got home around 11:30pm.

Sunday was a lot of running around (groceries, haircut, laundry, etc), before going over to my in-laws. Num's cousins from Virginia were in town, so we came by for dinner. I had 20 minutes to make my macaroni and cheese, but didn't have time to make chicken nuggets, so we outsourced those to Burger King. That worked out well.

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Beeni, Joshua, Marina
The center of attention
With his grandpa

This morning, I was getting ready, when I checked my calendar, and realized I had a breakfast (not just me, but some other new hires as well) with our managing director at 8:30am. One of those "Get to know the new staff" deals, where people ask seemingly-smart-yet-stupid questions that people ask, just to prove that they're smart and involved, interesting and engaging. Luckily, I made my 7:20am train, and made it in plenty of time for the 90-min breakfast. I asked no questions, since the managing director is so far up the food chain, he isn't going to remember me at 10:05. Of course, most people asked inane questions about "Where do see blah blah blah." It was so transparent, I almost didn't enjoy my bagel. Almost.

The rest of the day was pretty easy. One expense report (why are these never easy?), one meeting, some work, and some hunting for a training class to take in the 3rd quarter. I'm looking for something technical, and I think I found some interesting choices on Learning Tree. I'm torn between:

My boss advised me, as part of my annual goals, to become an SME -- a subject matter expert. This way, I'm the "go-to guy" on stuff. My real goal is to never let them realize I'm hugely unqualified for anything but menial tasks, and even then, I don't clean bathrooms. Also, I should not just be focused on platform-specific expertise, but look at processes. Continuity of business, change management, etc. I sent my boss the list, so let's see what he says. Num and I considered that I take a class in Atlanta, so we could turn the trip into a imprompto vacation, but apparently my company is a little stingy. I was informally advised by my colleagues to keep it in NYC. Rats.

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Ocean's Twelve

I was going to do a whole bunch of rants regarding the crazies in the Middle East, my hopes that people will realize that this stupid Iraq war may not have concrete-and-attainable goals, and my complaint that eating in NYC is too expensive, but let's leave that for another day, shall we?

We finally finished Ocean's Twelve, and we fell asleep in the living room. We later woke up around 2am, and Num went to bed, but I'm still up, doing this and that. It's now.... 4:38am, and I should try to get some sleep. I need to get up in a little over an hour.


Wednesday, June 15th 2005

In case anyone was trying to visit my site last night, you probably couldn't get to it. Late last night, the server went down. However, the folks in Canada tell me everything is fine now. I'd complain, but I'm paying somthing like $10/month. Who am I to complain? This doesn't happen often, either. In any case, the window into the carnival that is my life is back on. Hope you brought your popcorn.

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"Slap a Jap". How inappropriate.
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What's a "Japanazi"?

For you comic book fans, check out these unintentionally funny scenes from comic books of yesteryear. How times (and expressions) have changed.

Last night, I spent 2 hours or so working on the NYIIA site again. I've been doing a lot of updates this month, as the new chapter year started June 1st. Thus, new executive committee members, committee updates, etc, etc. I got most of those done, except for additional fixes last night. More importantly, I started converting pages from .htm to .php. Then, I replaced the navigation bar with a php include (ooooh, aaaaaah). Now if I want to modify the menu bar, I do it in one place, and it's simultaneously updated on all pages. That results in a condition we call "Administration Happiness."

President Bush's top aides have millions of dollars in stocks, real estate, and other investments. Sigh. They're government employees, right? Yep, just checking. I'm not saying they can't be rich. I just know that I'm not.

I wonder if I should do a moblog or not. I should talk to Jimboy about it.

So one of my team members on this audit has this huge Ebay side business. He and his wife go to auctions, and buy junk for cheap. Then, they sell them to other people. Baby clothes, Indianhead nickels, antiques, etc. I mean, they'll buy it for $10, and sell it for $100. He's got some auction going on right now -- they bought some doodad for $30, and it's about to sell for $500 profit. What damn good idea. He says they go to all sorts of auctions, including those where self-storage companies auction off stuff when the renters don't pay.

My sister Julie is coming over for dinner tomorrow night, as her birthday is right around the corner. Num is making a Thai dinner. She whipped up an Indian dinner on Tuesday night, we had KFC Wed and tonight (leftovers tonight -- no one wanted to cook again), and Thai dinner tomorrow night. We're picking up sushi Fri night, and we've got away dinners (like an "away game" in sports) Saturday and Sunday.

I may not have to cook this whole week! Then again, KFC was my idea, so did cover dinner this week. I just outsourced it.

I also thought up of addtional Trivia items, with pictures. I also fixed up the Growing Up page (and added two new pictures), retitled all of the recent Josh photo sections in the Family gallery. It's not just Joshua, but the whole family, so let's just call them accumulated photos of the family in March, April, May, etc.


 

Monday, June 13th 2005

I reworded bits of yesterday's posting, so please re-read it.


Sunday, June 12th 2005

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Life around here

Today was Father's Day in the Ipe household. Num woke me up out of my NyQuil-induced stupor, and surprised me with a Father's Day surprise. I kept asking, "Today is Father's Day? Are you sure? Wow, I can't believe I forgot." She keeps saying "Yes, I'm positive. Uh, almost. Yes. It is." Later on at church, we're both wondering why no one is mentioning anything about Father's Day, nor did the sermon have anything to do with Father's Day. She's starting to give me odd looks that say, "Hmmm, I'm pretty sure it is......" with a frown. Finally, during a diaper change at the church, we check out the calendar, and Father's Day is next Sunday.

I knew it! Father's Day is always around my sister's birthday, which is next weekend. I felt much better, since I'm never right about anything in this marriage. :) She felt sheepish, but I said it was okay. It's been a pretty nice Father's Day so far, I've never been a Dad before, and we've lost track of the days anyway. I don't blame her, because I never know what day it is anymore. That's what having kids does to you. The comedian Sinbad was right -- kids make you crazy. I'm pretty sure my parents were normal, until my sister and I drove them mad. We caused too much trouble all those years, and they didn't deserve it.

BTW, did you see the shirt she made for Josh? Pretty nice! I got her a box of chocolates last month. From the Detroit airport terminal. Woohoo.

So the summary of the day -- surprise for me in the morning (cards, great gifts), attended church, lunch from Burger King, nap in the afternoon, evening walk with the family, Chinese food for dinner, bath time for Josh, and finally we got to spend 20 minutes as regular people after the baby went to sleep. Now it's bedtime for us.

She was planning all this big stuff for me (fancy dinner, etc, etc), and BOOM!, we both conked out in the afternoon, just plain exhausted. Taking care of a baby is no joke, and is awfully tiring. Through work in there for me, and it gets to be too much. I don't know how she does it during the week when I'm at work!

I didn't do much for Mother's Day this year, so she's ahead of me in terms of "Effort".

I posted pictures of Josh from this past week, including ones today. As I edited photos, I thought about how my friend Leena has been publishing daily photos of her daughter Alisha for 3 years now. I originally mocked her, but she vowed that I would be doing the same thing. Lo and behold, I've been putting up pictures since March.

I guess this is what life is like now. I'm a father, part of a family. We'll go on trips, take the kids to Disneyland, teach them how to throw a baseball, and eat chicken fingers for dinner. What's ironic is that I was never one for kids. All those Sundays in various churches, people my age would hold little kids and go ga-ga for them. Meanwhile, I'd look at them, rolling my eyes. Now, I'm taking pictures of my son, hoping to capture a smile. Who am I?

Life is so different now. Different, but wonderful. Don't get me wrong, though. When he sleeps, we take a sigh of relief, and act like normal people again. :)

Nothing else exciting going on the rest of the week. I wrap up fieldwork on my audit, and I'm back in NYC next week. We have some family events next weekend, including seeing some of Num's family, who are driving up from Virginia for the weekend. Same folks we spent last Thanksgiving with.


Saturday, June 11th 2005

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Orlando Bloom & Diana Kruger in Troy
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Tom Cruise & Jamie Foxx in Collateral

I'm starting to like this whole DVD-in-the-mail rental idea. Thanks, Regina. I've watched both Troy (blech) and Collateral (good), and Num is watching Birth, a Nicole Kidman movie. Now we just seal the DVDs back into their self-addressed stamped envelopes, and drop them in the mailbox. We've got Ocean's Twelve, Eddie Murphy: Raw, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind coming next. I gotta remember to add Goodfellas to the queue.

Folks, those crazy Nigerians are at it again. They're adapting, evolving, changing their schemes to keep their potential victims off-balance. If you run auctions, view Craigslist, or even view Monster.com, be wary.

My 2nd week working in NJ went fine. I especially liked my imprompto day off (my sick day) on Tuesday. Even though I was sick, it was nice not having to dress up for work, and I felt awfully refreshed the rest of the week... except for being sick. A day off in the middle of the week should be mandatory. I have one more week left, then I'll be back in the city. I don't mind being in Weehawken, but there's so little selection in food for lunch. Either we eat at the mall, grab food from the tiny cafeteria, or drive somewhere, which is tough with all the Lincoln Tunnel traffic. It'll be nice to take the train again.... I think. I certainly didn't miss all that running to the train station every morning.


Wednesday, June 8th 2005

I had planned to write this deep thought about fatherhood, but I think I'll save that for tomorrow night. Instead, here's a look inside our fridge. Initially, you may think it's odd, but I'm pretty darn sure you won't be able to resist taking a peek.

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Here you have your various sauces -- BBQ, ketchup, salsa, etc.
Lots of bottles of formula, 2% milk, OJ, fruit juice, leftovers.
Not much here. I do see some peas.
Lots of meats -- pork chops, steaks, chicken.

Come on, you know you want to see the exciting contents of our fridge. It's more mysterious than Al Capone's vault.


 

Tuesday, June 7th 2005

I called in sick this morning. Well, "emailed" would be the more accurate term. I've been feeling ill since Friday afternoon, got better for a while, and started feeling sick after cycling Sunday (I knew that would happen, but you do what you have to do "for the cause"). After staying up last night until 2am to work on NYIIA site updates, feeding the baby immediately afterwards so my wife could get some sleep for once, I woke up this morning around 5-something. I felt awfully sick, and my semi-sore throat blossomed into a full-fledged sore throat. Include the light dizzyness, and that was it for me.

I took some NyQuil, but work up at 10:20-something to the door buzzer. Turns out, DHL came with my replacement iPod, which is now charging up. Glad I was home today. I ate some cereal, and here I am at home. Num is out and about with the baby, so it's just me and the cat.

CNN has an article about how women and men choose cars, and what they would buy. I don't think it's the most scientific study, but I guess the results make sense. I did note that apparently I choose cars like the women do, which I think is the best approach for any purchase, really. Then again, looking at the list, I wouldn't buy any of the cars that female buyers would purchase. I liked all the items on the men's list. Hmph. Shouldn't there be a fun or "I want it" variable in the equation?

Did an internal auditor for the Los Alamos labs get beaten up for being a whistleblower?

Sigh. I'm waiting for my Dad to call me to ask me what happened. Really, it's UPS's fault.

For all you Office Space buffs, I found a page with lots of downloadable quotes from the movie.


Sunday, June 5th 2005

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Sample scene from KOTOR2

I went cycling today for first time all year. Did a simple 16 miles to Passaic and back, just to work out the legs. What else? I did play tons of KOTOR 2, and I've built up my skills. I do admit to being worried that I'd even enjoy the game the first night I bought it, but I'm really enjoying it now. It's hard to pull away, because the story has so many twists and turns.

I've got a sample screenshot on the right, but that's not from my actual game. You can customize your character (or avatar, to use the correct gaming term). I'm actually black (close enough in appearance to my brown Indian self), bald (getting truer each day), with a goatee (just like me). My Jedi name? Ki Joshy Mundi. Yeah, that's right. I went there.

On Thursday, we attended the NY ISACA Wasserman Award & June Gala Dinner. Not bad, for a IT auditor party. I got to see my old team members again from my last job. Here are some pics from the venue, the Museum of Jewish Heritage down in Battery Park. Nice place.

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Sweet sail boat passing by
Various pictures of the museum grounds
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Stupid camera with its fuzzy pictures

Yesterday was fairly low-key, and we needed that. Num's cousin Malini and her kids came over to see the baby, of course. The cat and I get no visitors, and we've lived here in this apartment the longest. Call it cruel injustice.

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Malini & family
"I believe I can fly"
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The Exorcist

We signed up for the Blockbuster Online DVD rentals program. It's only $14.99 a month to rent an unlimited number of DVDs a month. You also receive 2 free in-store rentals a month. In the spirit of watching a movie, we rented Bridget Jones sequel - Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason. What a crappy movie. Troy, Collateral, and Birth are all arriving this week. Oh, I almost forgot. We watched The Exorcist on DVD Wednesday night. Excellent movie, and still scary after more than 30 years. That's the mark of a quality movie.

I completed a service request with Apple last week, and mailed them my iPod. Hopefully I'll have a replacement sometime this week or next.

Check out PostSecret on Blogspot. It's.... interesting.