Dentists

Today I went to the dentists to get a cavity filled.  It's always weird to see the dust of your obliterated tooth rising in front of you as the dentist drills away.  And today it affected my contacts especially bad--something about tooth dust must really dry them out.  Had to get a new pair because they were just too dry to salvage. 

Sweetest Day

So I was at the grocery store today in the greeting card aisle and I saw a section for Sweetest Day, on October 15.  Never heard of it? Neither had I. Upon looking at the cards, it seems like greeting card companies have concocted this holiday, which is essentially Valentine's Day in the fall.  Crazy!

Climate Week NYC

New exciting environmental thing to tell you all about! Came across the website for Climate Week NYC--a whole array of lectures, panels, film screenings, etc. about climate change and what NYC's role is.  Looks exciting.  Will have to make sure to clear my schedule so I can attend some. 

Things You Should Not Do in A Cubicle Office Setting

• Use a mouse on a hard surface without a mousepad--most loud and annoying sound ever
• Slurp tea (or anything, for that matter)
• Chomp on nuts so loud so that people across the room can hear you
• Play with a remote-controlled airplane that makes an ear-splitting noise
• Whistle
• Play music without headphones

And what have the other grad students in my office done in the past 2 days? All of the above.  aaaarrggh

Climate Reality Project

So I've been ignoring this blog for awhile, but I think I'm back now.  I'm going to start off by posting something I find interesting, which is called the Climate Reality Project.  It's a new intiative run by Al Gore, and it's a multimedia event happening in September, in which people from around the world will speak about how their climate is changing and how it's impacting their daily lives.  It's an effort to shed light on real things happening right here and right now as a result of climate change, to show incontrovertible proof to those people who say climate change isn't real.  The program is still being developed, but I've signed up for the e-mail updates, and am looking forward to the events in the NYC location.

Conversations

So I had lunch today with other Princetonians in Columbia grad school.  And the quirkiness of our conversations just had to be shared. Today at lunch we discussed, among other things:

• A play in NYC that it's a 6-story former hotel.  It's interactive, and you traverse all 6 stories along with the actors as the play progresses.
• A restaurant in France where you're completely in the dark, and the waiters are blindfolded, and you have to feel around and use your other senses while you eat.  You can also order a "surprise" dish if you want.
• Some research at Columbia where they're trying to get people to be able to move objects just using their brain.

Such interesting topics!

Computers

Two things you should not be doing if you're using a computer in an open office environment:

• Using a mouse without a mousepad
• Using a laptop without a mouse (using the clickpad)

Both of these are noisy and extremely annoying when trying to concentrate.  You're in your 20s, people, learn some professional decorum.