Zhanga: November 2009
Entries have their own pages now. Click the date to see the entry by itself with its comments.
Saturday, November 28, 2009 (6 comments)
A couple of days ago my dog finally decided she likes to fetch things. She's pretty hilarious when she's chasing her baseball because she stomps on it with her paws and then chomps at it like she's catching a small animal. Here's a picture of Morgan posing with her baseball after chasing it around for a while.
I was tired of playing fetch in my basement so I sat in a chair and went on my laptop. She kept playing with the ball for a little while. I turned around a few minutes later and found this:
She stayed in this position long enough for me to get my SLR out and get a few pictures, plus at least a minute or two after that.
I've read that showing the belly is a sign of submission. I guess the baseball won?
Also, free in-flight wifi is awesome.
9:03AM
Wednesday, November 25, 2009 (4 comments)
Today, I was stopped at a red light and put the car into neutral. When the light turned green, since I was on a downhill, I let the brake go before hitting the clutch to shift into gear. Whoops, that car had an automatic transmission and a brake pedal further to the left than what I'm used to, so I stomped on the brake with my left foot and da/dt = negative a lot as the car decelerated from 2 mph to 0 in 0 seconds.
And then I was stuck in traffic for two and a half hours as I drove to the airport and back.
Here's a picture of Seattle city center from an overlook on Queen Anne Hill, and a picture of the full moon that night:
9:01PM
Monday, November 16, 2009 (12 comments)
My odometer reads almost 9000 now, so I think I'm due for a traffic ticket soon. Somehow I haven't gotten a ticket in the Tiburon, yet in less than 5000 miles of driving in a minivan I got two. I guess cops know that the Tiburon is actually slower than a minivan.
Speaking of embarrassing, I don't get nervous starting my car from a stop anymore, except on this one hill on the way to Chinatown. Every time I bike up that hill, which lasts for four blocks, I'm completely dead by the time I reach the top. It's about a 30 degree incline which is completely ridiculous and feels like 45. It was raining today so I drove my car instead of biking, which turned out to be a poor choice. On the wet pavement on that kind of slope I proceeded to embarrass myself, twice, by slipping my tires all over the place when trying to start at the traffic lights. Good thing it wasn't snowing.
Anyways, to prepare myself for the ticket that I'm going to get soon, I started reading up on Washington traffic laws. Apparently, it's legal to turn left on red into a one-way street, even from a two-way street, even on a red arrow! No wonder I see people run red left arrows all the time. It seems that most people don't know this law though, because I do see most people stop at left arrows and wait for it to turn green. There's this one really retardedly timed light on my daily commute home from work that always turns red right as I get to it... I guess I won't be waiting there any more.
Also, under Washington state law, it is reckless driving to embrace another while driving. Is that a common problem up here? (It's also reckless driving to exceed the speed limit, but I don't think that one is enforced.)
5:03AM
Sunday, November 15, 2009 (5 comments)
This picture makes me smile:
Handi won't let me get one like this. I think she's afraid that it wouldn't fit in the back of my car, which would mean putting the dog up front and her in the back.
1:41AM
Wednesday, November 11, 2009 (2 comments)
Facebook thinks I'm French. This happened both at work and at home, so I don't know what the deal is here. Maybe Washington got taken over while I was asleep (unlikely, since we are talking about France here), or maybe my name is a typical French name, but somehow Facebook decided I'd like to use Facebook in French:
It doesn't even get the text right. Would I like to use Facebook in France? Is that a sneaky airline ad or something?
Of course I don't want to switch to French so I didn't click it. But Facebook is one step ahead of me! It's so smart!
Meanwhile, everything else on the page is in English, even the "Comment" and "Like" links on statuses/wall posts right below this one.
4:22AM
Wednesday, November 4, 2009 (3 comments)
Today, I was walking down the street and watched a girl get into her car which was parallel parked quite neatly. I'm not really sure what kind of car it was, but I recall it looking kind of like a VW Golf, only it seemed even smaller. Anyways, she got into the car, turned it on, and without delay backed straight into the car behind her, making all sorts of crunching noises. Then she calmly pulled forward, put on her blinker, and left the scene. I wish I had my camera for that one...
Seattle drivers. Sigh.
I haven't hit anything else yet, but yesterday I did notice my clutch was acting up. The pedal would get kind of stuck on the way back up after pushing it all the way to the floor, and I was worried I'd already messed it up or something. After an unfruitful Google-I-mean-Bing search, I investigated further and found that the pedal was getting stuck because my floor mat had moved up and it was catching the pedal. I feel retarded.
1:56AM
Sunday, November 1, 2009 (4 comments)
A couple of posts ago I mentioned that Amazon shipped my filler item ($1 batteries) separately from my actual order. Well, my actual order became available a couple days later, and because they came from different places they were scheduled to arrive on the same day.
I came home from work that day, and found a UPS notice on my door. It said they would not leave it at my door (inside an apartment building that has locks on the entrances) without a signature.
I went to my mailbox and found that near my mailbox was my actual order, delivered by USPS. This could only mean that UPS won't drop off my $1 batteries at my door for fear that some filthy thief living next to me will steal my AAA batteries.
In other news, I biked to Chinatown today, a trip of 3.1 miles with too many hills. Due to my incredible brilliance, I arrived and found myself in the middle of Chinatown without a bike lock. So I biked all the way home empty-handed, and now my legs won't work.
5:48PM
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