dear facebook -
thanks for adding the 'people you might know' suggestion feature. you
don't think that i already friended everyone i could possibly stand to
be connected to publicly during my fb friending binge a year ago? and
don't you think there might be a really good reason as to why i am not
friends with those people i know and yet are not already friends with,
esp since i subscribe to the 'i really hate some of my fb friends'
mentality?
yeah. that's what i thought.
interesting article from the wall street journal a few weeks back on
why people read blogs. the main finding is habit. i personally enjoy
the voyeuristic part and i find it relaxing. it's nice to read about
someone else's life - joys, troubles, insights - and know that you're
not alone. it's like reading a novel in real time. something akin to
watching the hills without the delayed broadcast element that means we
already know that spencer and heidi are going to get back together
regardless of the fact they were on a 'break' in monday's episode.
plus, it's something to do when you're bored.
some tidbits excerpted from the article below, and the full article
here: http://blogs.wsj.com/buzzwatch/2008/04/15/habit-forming-blogs-new-research-into-why-people-read/?mod=WSJBlog
informal poll: why do you read blogs???
Habit-Forming Blogs: New Research Into Why People Read
(4/15/08)
The question of what drives people to read blogs is a big one for
traditional media losing time with their audiences to the Internet and
companies looking to tap the Web for marketing. It's also of more than
passing interest to bloggers themselves (including us here at
Buzzwatch).
One view suggests that, with such a broad smorgasborg of blogs and
posts to choose from, readers will only dine on the most compelling
content. But some researchers who studied a group of blog readers say
one factor may be unappreciated:
Habit.
When University of California at Irvine researchers delved into usage
patterns, they found study participants who labeled their blog-reading
time as "chilling out" and "doing nothing," with one describing his
impulse to read blogs as similar to his cigarette habit. Another
talked about following through on her blog-reading routine even when
she wasn't interested in some of the content.
In other words, when it comes to some blog readers, keeping them may
be much easier than getting them in the first place–a finding that
suggests the importance of good marketing for blogs. The study,
"Exploring the Role of the Reader in the Activity of Blogging," was
presented last week at a conference on human factors in computing.
There are some caveats to the research–most notably, that the study
examined just 15 blog readers. The researchers say their results point
to areas worthy of bigger studies–and note how little academic
research has been done on blog reading.
One interesting finding: the blog readers typically professed little
stress about information overload in trying to keep up with their
favorite blogs. When they got behind on reading posts, they just
skipped the old ones. (Blogs apparently are not like the pile of New
Yorker magazines you intend to get to–someday.)
We asked two of the study's authors, Eric Baumer and Bill Tomlinson,
to answer a few questions. Mr. Baumer is a doctoral candidate at the
University of California at Irvine. Mr. Tomlinson is an assistant
professor there. Here's the interview:
Q: Your study suggests that regular blog readers are reading out of
habit, rather than making content-oriented decisions about whether to
read. Do you think blog reading is becoming more like TV viewing, to
which some people devote hours while complaining that they can't find
anything good to watch?
Mr. Baumer: While blog reading often becomes habitual, that does not
mean it is not about the content. Motivations for reading are highly
multifaceted, and while routine is one motivation, there are many
others, including finding current news, fostering a personal
connection with the blogger, fulfilling social obligations by reading
a friend's blog, entertainment value, etc. While blog reading is often
habitual, that habitual nature interacts with many other varied
motivations.
With respect to the comparison with television, the form of the
habitual activity is different from TV viewing. With few exceptions,
TV limits the viewer to being a mostly passive participant; it is not
a medium that facilitates much audience interaction. On the other
hand, blogs enable interaction in a number of different forms:
comments, email, trackbacks, etc. Thus, while blog reading might in
part be habitual, those habits include interaction and engagement by
the reader in a way not possible with television.
Q. People told you that they don't get stressed out if they're not
up-to-date with their blog reading–which you point out is at odds with
the pervasive notion of information overload. What are the
implications? And does this ring true for you personally?
Mr. Baumer: In the paper, we actually reference a quote that describes
the excessive amount of information available and that people will
soon be completely overwhelmed by it; that quote is from 1613.
Does it ring true personally? Yes. Shortly after I started reading
blogs regularly, I gave up on trying to stay completely up to date, as
it was a futile effort. When I have a chance, I'll skim through titles
and maybe glance at some interesting looking posts, but I'm not trying
to get to everything in my RSS feed reader.
Also, one of the biggest ways I find items of interest is through
other people I know. If another student in our lab or a friend of mine
finds something interesting, they're likely to share it. Lots of
online sites, such as del.icio.us, are built around this idea of
social filtering, but that sort of filtering happens through casual
offline conversations, too.
Q. What are the signs that someone's own reading of blogs has become
habitual? Also, you say that tools to raise self-awareness could be
needed. What might those be, and what problems would they address?
Mr. Baumer: Habits aren't necessarily bad; reading the same blogs in
the same order at the same time every day can help make it easier to
remember which blogs one wants to read.
However, habits aren't necessarily good, either. Habitual reading can
become potentially detrimental when people disengage mentally and
don't think very critically about what they're reading. Many of our
participants were reflective about why they read blogs, but not as
reflective about how or what they read.
In terms of self-awareness, there is an interesting potential for
tools that encourage critical thinking and reflection about what a
person is reading. We want to encourage and enable people to ask
questions about what is being said on the blogs they read, not just by
the words themselves, but between and behind the words. Encouraging
this sort of critical reflection may be an interesting and compelling
way to make blog reading a more engaging experience.
Q. Many bloggers are obsessed with–and depend financially on–the size
of their readership. What do you see as the most important takeaways
from your results to bloggers? How might they be used to improve
blogs?
Mr. Tomlinson: One of the most important lessons for bloggers from the
study is that readers are heterogeneous - they're coming from
different backgrounds, and have different expectations and
motivations. Even among the participants in this study, there was a
wide diversity of perspectives on several key issues.
Being aware of this heterogeneity in their readership can help
bloggers think more carefully about the content they are providing,
and how it will be perceived by their audiences. Blogs as a medium are
highly varied and give rise to a broad range of interactions between
bloggers and readers; understanding a bit more about the dynamics of
these relationships was one of the core goals of this study.
fun with widgets! yay new media! some pretty neat ones out there - i put a couple along the right - now you can see exactly how evil the weather in nyc is - check 'em out and stay tuned for more to come.
festive usual suspect wknd - ceppos and huyett came down. ceppos to hang out, huyett to find an apt for her impending move. ceppos and i spent a busy sat morning at home depot (one of my new favorite interests) finalizing the pong concept. we ended up with 4 pieces of 2x4 laid next to each other on three trash cans. many thanks go out to vin's cousin for this feat of engineering.
after a delightful and delicious brunch at cody's we took naps and then began the party around 4 - which contributed to our disastrous state later on. it was pretty cold in nyc, despite the fact it had been in the 70s all week, so it was like, 'welcome to our apt -have a sweatshirt', but we were able to hang out outside, teach many people to play pong. we lost 7 balls already to the roof on the other side of the fence. we're thinking about putting up a sign that says, 'please return pong balls here'. there's a good chance our neighbors hate us for being loud all night, and i had to put myself to bed, only to wake up later and put vin to bed. all in all a raging success.
the week goes on - finally sunshine in the city, though cold. where is spring already? maybe may will make the difference.
i scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!
free cone day tomorrow (april 29) at ben and jerrys! i know it will be
mobbed, prob not ice cream weather at all, and it's possible to get a
scoop for about 2 dollars on a day when the entire world isn't trying
to go, but i'm never one to turn down free deliciousness and it's
super cool that they do this. (they also used to have their board
meetings floating on inner tubes in a pool. thank you social psych
book).
what is: the gym
am very very sore to say the least. rejoined the gym and yesterday was the first class i'd done in about four months.
just got tix to jimmy buffett at jones beach in august for me and charlo! very excited. heard great things about that venue. it's on a wed night which cramps the style a little bit, but it's okay b/c a week later is the labor day weekend show. =)
operation pong table is about to commence. we're going to have to improvise here. will report back
. . . These snakes have tired my patience.
Consider the 'no bullshit policy' reenacted (hi boxa) I don't have
enough time or energy to second guess every little thing when it comes
to work. Being myself has not only gotten me pretty far, it's succeeded
more often then not. So am going to do things my way and if someone
has a problem they can talk to me about it. 'There ain't no rules around
here - we're trying to accomplish something.'
In other news - am more than a little tipsy thanks to team
drinks/dinner. Ceppos and huyett will be in nyc tomorrow night for
weekend festivities. Basically the plan is to drink from 11 pm on
friday straight through til 4 am on sunday. Could be epic folks.
--
Sent from Gmail for mobile | mobile.google.com
waiting for the latest episode of 'greek' to download from itunes (if you don't watch this show already, you should check it out. get to go back to college for a little bit. and all this national house rule stuff that we love to hate is hilarious) and will update on the trip to dc!
had a lovely time despite, as huyett noted, about 13 hours of driving for seven hours of pong (on our part - huyett came from boston!). but they were glorious hours!
epic road trip began with huyett's inability to find manhattan. i say that with love huyett! and went downhill from there. i think the combo of 95 being the road to hell, school vacation in new england, and whoever the idiot was that decided to put three tolls within 30 miles in delaware combined to make the perfect storm of traffic (note - perfect storm was elected an over-used term of 2007. but i digress). at any rate, we sat in traffic at the delaware bridge for an hour, after 45 waiting for the toll plaza in jersey. we are all now big fans of the ez pass. get yours in advance.
finally made it to dc around 3:30 in the morning. however, it was warm, the air smelled sweet and it was a gorgeous night. needless to say, no drinking ensued.
this was made up for on sat afternoon by the presence of a keg of keystone, two pong tables, some ragey kids and the 80-degrees and sunny weather. we taught vin and julissa to play pong, which they picked up very quickly - julissa and i won three nailbiters with some clutch shots on her part and then huyett and i reformed the team of destiny to continue our winning streak. which ended b/c neither of us could see straight and our behavior was pretty much described by this money quote from friday's d debating whether pong is a date:
A pong date also allows for a reasonable amount of conversation, much more than a movie date. Optimal moments for conversation include when the other team is chugging, when the ball is lost, when someone is throwing up, when someone runs up to go to the bathroom or when one of the four players has gotten distracted by a shiny object. Just because you have no recollection of a conversation doesn’t mean it never happened.just to clarify, we were the team distracted by shiny objects.
hilarious and brilliant website thanks to salon's broadsheet
(http://tiny.cc/IdXeX) where you can sell the jewelry that your ex-bf
gave you. tagline: you don't want it, he can't have it back. there's
some good stuff on the site, but the best stuff is the stories
accompanying the jewelry. endlessly entertaining. kind of like this
work day. well, the endless part at least.
check it out at: http://www.exboyfriendjewelry.com/
my first name is fairly common (high point was the 1990's: 27th most popular. today it ranks 35th). in high school i think there was another 'lyon's first name'* in every
class i had. there are myriad nicknames, 'short fors' and other
permutations of it that those of us with the name have
selected to be our handle if you will. my parents named me the full
version of my name officially, and nicknamed me a particular shorter
version that my family uses. around age 5 i decided that i didn't like
being called the shorter version, and demanded that i only be called
the full name. people that have known me since kindergarten still call
me that as a result of my childish temper tantrum (it's nice to be
indulged).
after i grew up a bit i went back to the short version, which is what
i was called in middle school and high school. and then graduated and
went to d where the last name/nickname train was in effect thanks to
the crew team, and became what i am now known by: lyon. (well that,
and miss doodad, depending on who you're talking to, but i digress).
of course then i graduated and entered the real world and the
workplace, where i am occasionally called by lyon, but more often by
the short version of my name that i've chosen to go by. granted, my
email is my full name, but i sign my emails with the short, i
introduce myself with the short, my business cards say the short.
point being: it's v. clear what the name i like to go by is.
so where the hell do people get off arbitrarily shortening my name to
whatever they feel like? esp when what they feel like is a version of
my name that involves a 'y'? UGH. NO.
what's in a name? my dignity.
*keeping this vague lest google's algorithms betray me
testing out a new blogging platform that allows you to publish
straight from your email. if this works, this means more 'on the go'
thoughts and more entertainment for you guys at work! as if the
twittering (see lyon@now to the right) wasn't enough. haha. we'll see
though - let me know what you think.
the incident that prompted me to investigate this functionality was
when i was down getting lunch i ran into a d '06 from the crew team at
cosi who works down the street. i recognized her, and when i gave her
a hug she said, 'i thought that was you but i wasn't sure b/c she was
so blond'. i still consider myself brunette, despite the blonder and
blonder highlights, and i know people think i'm blond, but i didn't
realize it changed my appearance so much. however, i can safely say,
that blonds do have more fun. ;-P
in fact he is one of my fb interests
in Just-
spring when the world is mud-
luscious the little lame baloonman
whistles far and wee
and eddyandbill come
running from marbles and
piracies and it's
spring
when the world is puddle-wonderful
the queer
old baloonman whistles
far and wee
and bettyandisbel come dancing
from hop-scotch and jump-rope and
it's
spring
and
the
goat-footed
baloonMan whistles
far
and
wee
- ee cummings 'in just'
believe it or not, i'm type a at heart, and i don't tolerate messes - be they of the quarter-life crisis or entropy kind - very well. i like my bills to be paid, my laundry and dishes to be done, my checkbook to be balanced and my room to be clean. generally, this is not the case, but i prefer it this way and i frequently go on kicks that i like to think of as 'tough love' where i throw out anything that irks me in the least - be it the fit of the clothes, the clutter on the floor, the irrelevance of the piece of mail, etc. i think i broke my mother's heart (who, incidentally, is not type a) when i was annoyed with the clutter in the basement and threw out all her mix tapes from the '70s 'b/c she never listened to them'. the reason i think this is because i did it over a decade ago and she still brings it up.
i mention this because i frequently go into 'tough love' fits when i'm annoyed with the boys in my life and delete their numbers from my phone. and then when they text, which they inevitably do, i don't recognize the number and wind up with messages received at 1:45 in the morning saying, 'i'm back in nyc'. who is? where did you go? and do i want to reply? suppose this is my own damn fault.
am road-tripping this wknd with huyett and vin down to dc to see lingley and whit and linsalata. we're planning a pre-green key outdoor drinking event that should sound familiar - pong and bbqing. am very excited to go south where, i hear, the cherry blossoms are blooming and it's not freaking freezing every morning. i was lucky enough to see whit last wknd as well - she was in town checking out columbia. no update on what she's decided regarding schools, but we did spend a lot of time discussing the nyc housing market (non-existent) and good times at school out on the terrace. am obvi way biased on where i want her to end up - but either way she has a choice between two great schools and will be happy either way i'm sure.
also chatted briefly with boxa - she mentioned something about having a 350-question, 8-hr test looming on the horizon. under those circumstances, i think you're allowed to drop off the face of the earth . . .
am on health and wellness kick thanks to work which has given us goals to meet with the potential of cash prizes to inspire us. one of the requirements is to eat five servings of fruits and vegetables a day. i'm sorry, but does anyone else think that's a lot? someone mentioned that a salad would go a long way, and i suppose i could have some carrots or something, but five just strikes me as a ton. then again, two or three, which i've been managing, is a vast improvement on zero. and isn't this all about improvement?
also are supposed to exercise for 30 minutes or walk 10,000 steps a day. for this, they gave us a handy pedometer. i knew nyc is a walking city, but have been flabbergasted by the amount of steps i take every day. kind of like when my coworker told me to cut down the blurbs i'd written to 500 words and when i went to do it, the word counter tool revealed that they were in fact 150 words long. who knew?
so to continue the unfun and inadvertent theme that seems to be developing with this blog of painful, torturous (expensive!) medical and dental procedures that you never want to have happen to you, i had to go get an ingrown toenail taken care of today. this meant a trip to the podiatrist. how many of you have been there before? yeah. i was terrified.
and with good reason. the doctor stuck needles in my toe and then went to work - the numbing effect is just now wearing off and boy does it hurt. so now i am soaking my foot three times a day in iodine, on antibiotics, hobbling around and stuffing my face with the nerds i bought while wandering around cvs waiting for my prescription to be ready.
all of this is preventable folks! don't wear your shoes too tight and don't cut your nails too closely.
if i can't be a good example, i guess i'll have to be a horrible warning lest somewhere there are nerds with your name on them . . .
now that that's out of the way, let's get down to business. all week i was so excited for friday night so that i could stay in, pamper myself and go to bed when i felt like and sleep in super late on sat morning. the problem with this is that when you go to bed early, you wake up early. ergo - my dream of sleeping 'super late' meant 8:30.
it is a glorious glorious feeling when the weekend stretches in front of you like a misty main street usa - side note: i'm dying to go to disney world. anyone in?.
here are my choices for today:
1. go to home depot (i can do it and they can help) to discuss planting flowers on our terrace (did we mention we have a private terrace?) and the pong table concept.
2. go to the bath and body works down the street to use my coupon
3. take the subway to the bed bath and beyond/tjmaxx on 6th ave and do major linen, kitchen, apt shopping
4. lie on said (unlandscaped) terrace. supposed to be a high of 72 in nyc today
5. walk around central park. flowers are FINALLY blooming. in fact, walking the block home from the subway is a delight b/c of the hyacinths that are planted along the sidewalk. they smell wonderful.
these are my options. what will i probably do? dawdle around, watch something on hulu and take a nap for most of the afternoon. but everybody needs goals.
let me preface this by saying that i do realize that it is spring - there is no 'might as well' about it - but i do feel these lyrics sum up the way this week went, and so:
The things I used to like, I don't like any more,spring fever i guess . . .
I want a lot of other things I've never had before,
It's just like my mamma says, I sit around and mope
Pretending that I am so wonderful and knowing I'm a dope
I'm as restless as a willow in a windstorm,
I'm as jumpy as a puppet on a string,
I'd say that I had spring fever,
But I know it isn't spring.
I'm as starry eyed and gravely discontented,
Like a nightingale without a song to sing.
Oh, why should I have spring fever,
When it isn't even spring?
I keep wishing I were somewhere else,
Walking down a strange new street,
Hearing words I have never never heard,
From a man I've yet to meet.
I'm as busy as a spider spinning daydreams,
I'm as giddy as a baby on a swing,
I haven't seen a crocus or a rosebud,
Or a robin or a bluebird on the wing,
But I feel so gay in a melancholy way,
That it might as well be spring
- rodgers and hammerstein 'it might as well be spring'
quick update before i'm late for work (again). headed up to htown on saturday morning with huyett - had a swift trip up from nyc on the bus - it's amazing how much easier a trip that is when there isn't any traffic - made it under 4 hours. met up with huyett and off we went on the d coach - only to have it, ironically enough, breakdown outside of manchester, so we sat on the side of 89 for awhile and waited for the new bus to come get us. fortunately, neither of us had anything to do, and we were in good company, so we chilled and chatted and read our books. besides, to be perfectly honest, the later we got up there (and subsequently, the later we started playing pong) the later we could stay up later that night. =)
finally did arrive and rounded up some undergrads for our first game back. like riding a bike despite the extended 'alumni fsp', though we have probably ruined our entire record for green key i'm sure. was beautiful and balmy and spring was in the air, though much less so than farther south.
dinner at molly's with my bro, a stop at his room to burn a basement mix that then WOULDN'T PLAY - this was v. disheartening - we were back in the basement to run table for five games straight, including silver shrubbing diede and alex. it was like some sort of twilight zone or something. a quick trip to xh for some dancing and then huyett and i walked around occom for old times sake before heading home to bed.
ran rip road on sun morning - i forgot how steep those hills are! - and we headed back around 3. very quick trip - but it was great to hang out, play pong, and be in htown before the madness of green key. looking forward to going back soon though. nothing like htown in the spring.
busy sd week in nyc - ceppos is stopping back by apt 7 on her way home from paris tonight. though i expect her to be too tired to say much more than 'bonjour!' - i am excited to see her. whit will also be in town this wknd, checking out the scene, as she tries to decide between the blue lions and the crimson for ed school next year. and huyett, continuing the really fun game i like a lot called 'hang out every wknd', will be back in nyc on fri night to look at apts on sat, as her impending move is coming up. and we're all taking off for dc next wknd to have mini green key with lingley. fun!
pretty sweet parts of 'the lord of the rings: the return of the king:'
1. when merry lights the signal beacon and the message spreads throughout the land via other beacons on snowy ridges in the night
2. when the bad guy says 'no man can kill me' and miranda otto's character rips off her helmet and goes 'i am no man' before stabbing him in the face with a sword
3. any scene involving legolas (sigh)
rain in nyc (again) and the whirl of gaiety continues.
went to go see 'forgetting sarah marshall' last night through work - scored a free pass which was pretty sweet - and found myself really enjoying the movie. it was hilarious, and i predict, the new break-up movie of broken-hearted people everywhere. it really did a good job capturing the angst of breaking up with someone. good lines as well, so of course i back it. highly recommend to everyone - go check it out! it was fun to go to the movies - hadn't been in forever - and i would go more often if it didn't mean choosing between two hours of entertainment or food for a week in nyc . . .
going to a wine and cheese thing with a consultant who did some work for us over the summer at his company tonight - this should be interesting. sort of feel like ugh! do not want to go and ooo - am so grown up and professional. will see which one wins out. and then home to pack and go to bed - still not feeling well, and am going up to htown tomorrow. long trip for not a lot of time up there, but am suffering withdrawal for spring in the still north, pong, and dance parties. huyett's coming as well, we're going to try to go skiing if there is still snow, and otherwise enjoy being in the woods.
thank god it's friday folks! enjoy.
i find myself in the interesting position of seeing a jewish guy (who says he can't marry me because i myself am not jewish.) and a catholic guy (not established yet whether or not we could get married - but he was cool with the way i'd raise our kids if we had any). aside from the VERY weird feeling of talking about such serious issues early on in relationships, before it has been established that i even care to date either of them exclusively, it's had me thinking a lot about religion. (it's official folks, the universe has a sense of humor, even if it doesn't always play fair.)
on paper, i suppose i am episcopalian, which i hear doesn't rank too far below catholicism in terms of the 'organized' part of organized religion. my family celebrates christmas, and we celebrated easter growing up as well, and my mom plays the organ in a church in my hometown, but i am the only one of my family that ever really went to church, and even then i only went because i liked singing in the choir. i find the idea of rote recitation week after week to do little to guide my belief or my behavior, i feel just as close to a higher being (however you define it - thank you wet hot american summer), if not more so, at home in a field with a sky full of stars on a summer night as i do in a church. don't get me wrong, i pray and i like hymns, but i think i would identify more as spiritual than religious. if anything, i believe in the 'church of buffett, orthodox' ;-P
that being said, i am not against anyone practicing their religion, nor am i in theory, against the idea of converting to either of said religions. what i think bothers me most is that i don't think there should be so much emphasis on it in one's life, and i think converting to something, even if there wasn't so much of it in my daily life, is a pretty big thing to do for something i am perfectly fine with as is.
since i've been seeing these boys, and had my eyes opened up to the fact that this is something that is a big deal to a lot of people, in a way that my upbringing and personal beliefs are not, i've been hearing more and more stories about it and talking a lot about what it means, and what values of this nature mean, for a relationship that might have the potential to 'go all the way' not to imply at all that the point of a relationship is that. but then again, is it? esp at the twenty-something age? what is a relationship that 'can't' end in marriage. or at least can't have the hope of a future? is that the point? that even if you don't know that it will go somewhere, it has the potential to do so? maybe whitney should have been singing 'what's religion got to do with it', not 'love'.
as far as the jewish guy goes, i'm mostly just sad. the first legit guy i meet in nyc in almost three years and it can't go anywhere b/c of my religion. i'm being discriminated against dammit! but it just seems so sad to walk away from something good like this. and so far, i haven't - we're still seeing each other (it's a damn good hook up) but it won't ever be what it could have been. i guess that's just part of living in nyc.
as for the catholic guy - i'm learning more about notre dame than i ever thought i would (am beginning to think that they might be more fanatical than d kids about their alma mater - as sacrilegious as that sounds - they toast to 'the irish' every chance they get). he kept calling me 'blue blood' until i informed him that my mom had grown up in gary, indiana, and she, my uncle and my grandfather went to purdue, while my grandmother went to iu. midwestern mothers club represent! it remains to be seen what goes down here, as he lives in detroit, but it's interesting and kind of crazy.
in other news, am deathly ill at the absolute worst time - my boss is out for the next two weeks on paternity leave and i'm the point of contact. i suppose that's always how it goes. just got some thai food, going to eat it with thera flu and put myself to bed.
i suppose in the end it's just simply complicated. but i guess most things are aren't they . . .
happy april! and april fools day. hopefully you remembered to say 'rabbit rabbit'. (note - i had originally heard of that superstition while watching nickelodeon as a young child. as i just scanned that wiki article on it i saw that it dates back to 1420 england. sort of funny to think of nickelodeon actually being right about historical facts, but i digress).
i VERY pleased to announce that we FINALLY have a wall! and what a wonderful wall it is. everything we hoped it would be and more. huge relief to have that done. hot dog.
it's been a rainy couple days in nyc - those april showers you know - don't really mind b/c it's warm out. also i really like the sound of the rain on the street. my room growing up had a skylight, and i miss that noise living in dorms and apartment buildings for the last seven years.
ceppos is off to paris for a week today, which i'm sure my bosses will appreciate b/c my gchatting will go down and my productivity will go up. she's hoping to meet up with hayley while she's there, and maybe she'll run into cody, who is also over in europe for an extended period of time.
speaking of work, they're inducing my boss's wife tomorrow. so it begins. this should be interesting. also - informal poll - met a cute guy during a meeting a few weeks ago. he doesn't work for my company, and we won't be working together anytime soon it looks like. is it okay for me to ask him out? hmm - tough one . . .
