Eclectic Like Me: 2011

Friday, August 19, 2011

A Cat in a Bustier and Clown Pants

I was cleaning my office last night, and I found a bunch of stuff from high school and college. There were plenty of commonplace things, like class notes and papers, but it was the unexpected stuff that really brought back memories: a list of Highland Retreat quotes,¹ my sophomore- and junior-year track meet schedules with all my events and times,² poetry written by me³ and by others,⁴ a draft of the top ten reasons to be a math major,⁵ a game of MASH,⁶ and numerous doodles and drawings.

Several of the drawings were the kind you make by folding a paper into thirds and getting different people to draw the head, torso, and bottom of a person. Andrea and I used to sit in the back of Calculus class and goof off. Here's one of our masterpieces:

¹My favorite is when Jeremy yelled, "Don't get me in trouble! Don't get me in trouble!" while spraying LaVonne with a hose in the pool house.
²My best time in the 1600M? 5:54.
³Mostly silly.
⁴Mostly serious.
⁵Including such gems as "Life without Geometry would be pointless."
⁶The MASH-ee ends up getting married in an orange dress to a guy named Fred, driving a station wagon, and living in a shack in Australia with 15 kids and a pet rat.

Monday, May 09, 2011

First Rose of the Season

Yesterday Danny was giving me a hard time because I haven't updated my blog recently and he's tired of seeing the same word cloud over and over again. Today, it just so happens that there's something new in my life: a rose blooming in my garden! 'Roseraie de L'Haÿ' and 'Louise Odier' have both been dangerously close to blooming for a few days, but 'Roseraie de L'Haÿ' surprised me this morning with several wonderful, spicy-smelling blooms. I stopped to smell the roses (of course) on my way to work and snapped this shot with my iPhone.

Friday, February 18, 2011

Visualize This

I have been researching data visualization at work recently, and I really like word clouds. Just for fun, this is a word cloud of my Facebook posts from the last year. (Click image for a larger version.) Some of it made me chuckle. What do you think? Any surprises?

Random Things About Me

I don’t like talking on the phone.
At some point in school I had to read “To Build a Fire” by Jack London. I hated it. Ever since then, I have disliked all books/movies/TV shows about cold, snowy places.
Sometimes I use pivot tables in Excel. I don't know whether to be proud of this or ashamed (because it means I use Excel way too much!).
I don't like mangoes.
In the course of talking through a problem with another person, I often have that “aha!” moment when I answer my own question. In order to waste less of other people’s time, I keep a rubber ducky, named Johnny Mustang, on my desk, and I talk through problems with him instead.
When I get cravings, it’s most likely for one of the following foods: chocolate, onion rings, cheese, or buffalo wings.
My father and both grandfathers all have names that start with E: Eldon, Emory, and Elias.
I think the spread of cell phones has introduced a whole new way for people to be rude to one another. If cell phones weren’t so incredibly useful, I wouldn’t have one.
I love to laugh. A lot. I’ve never laughed so hard I peed my pants, but if I did, I would probably laugh about it.
I defined my own “Hierarchy of Cleanliness” for assessing which guests my house is clean enough to host. The categories are: (1) me, (2) family and close friends, (3) acquaintances and strangers, (4) hot date, and (5) the president. To date, the cleanest my house has ever been is level 4. I hope one day to achieve level 5, but as presidential cleanliness is about so much more than just getting rid of dirt and clutter, I have my doubts.
Most of the best cakes I've ever eaten were cakes I made.
I can't bring myself to wear black and khaki together even though I think it looks fine (even good) on other people.