New things I appreciate

I just moved in to a new house.  Noticed a few things:

1) My landlord doesn't wash his dishes immediately.
2) People look at me like I'm crazy when I ask about house rules.
3) The bathroom is cramped and small.  But it's mine.
4) I have to drive 15 minutes to school on two highways.
5) The shoe closet is unorganized and messy.

I love it.  Freedom is sweet.

First words

After two days of silence, the landlady takes the initiative:

JJ: SP, Ingrid and Kim came by today.  Do you know who they are?
SP: Yeah I remember: they're your past....people....

I nearly said victims.

My own inception

I've talked about my landlady issues to many people over the summer.  Most asked me, "Why don't you fight back?"  The inaction confuses me as well, for I consider myself a prideful person.  I definitely feel the anger build up each time.  I know all the things I want to say.  and for some reason, these feelings bubble up, simmer down, and I'm left wondering, "What's the point?"

But yesterday was the closest I came to uncontrolled rage.  She walked into the kitchen while I was preparing breakfast.  Turned off the lights.  I turned them back on.  The ensuing dialog:

JJ: You are being wasteful and inconsiderate.  Turn off the lights.

SP: I'm cooking right now.  Besides, I'm paying for utilities, aren't I? 

JJ: No you're not.  I pay for utilities, you just pay for rent.  If I had know you were such a wasteful person, I would have charged extra for utilities. Thank God this is your last week.  I wouldn't be able to put up with this for much longer.

SP: *silence

JJ: Why did you turn that light back on?  That's passive aggressive bullshit right there.  Jesus Christ.  That shit don't work on me, I'm not in second grade.  I'm turning it off now.  It's daytime right now.  You don't need the light on.

SP: *silence (at this point my hands started shaking and my pulse was rising)

Went on a 11 mile hike to try to clear my mind.  I couldn't; the thought was stuck in my mind. I kept searching for the right thing to say to "solve" the situation.  I felt responsible because I didn't take any action, and I believed there was something I could have done that would have "worked."

That night, I had a strong dream.  In it, I was trying to convince my little sister to stop her recreational drug use.  It was something mild that I knew would escalate to something more serious. She wouldn't listen, and I was so frustrated.  

I feel like I played both sides that day and night.  Defense and Offense.  And I failed at both.

Don't rush

In music, the titular words are a golden rule, because as stress built up, we lose control and speed up.  I see now that the same rules apply in public speech.

I had a presentation last night that I had planned extensively.  I rehearsed my speech, designed my powerpoint, and timed myself to the limit of 5 minutes.  I went in slightly nervous, enough to know that I cared and was ready.  I was the second of eight presentations.

The speech started off great.  All eyes were up, hands raised when I had planned them to, laughter arose on cue.  I started getting that familiar rush of adrenaline, the one when I know that there are high expectations, and I am meeting them.

Suddenly, I see the teacher lean forward and whisper, "Time, time!"  I was shocked, for I was only about 3/4 of the way through.  But I had to finish!  I went into overdrive mode and started churning information off the slides.  I finished the remaining quarter of the presentation in about 30 seconds.

When I finished and sat down, I saw her stopwatch (she was sitting directly in front of me).  It read "7:08."

I was upset at myself.  I didn't think I had gone that long, and in practice I had never reached that time.  The idea that time had snuck up on me, unaware, bothered me.  I thought I had covered all the details and time was the least of my worries.

But as I watched her continue to time the students, I noticed a few funny things.  Firstly, everybody after me went 6-8 minutes each, and she didn't say a word.  I think she realized that everybody was going over, and decided not to fight it anymore.  Furthermore, she started the clock immediately after the previous student finished, not at the start of the first word. The setup added about one minute to each presentation.

My lesson to my past self: When it comes time to perform, don't adjust to the outside.  I should have continued at my deliberate pace unless she outright told me to stop.  Speeding up accomplished nothing.  Even if I had gone overtime, I'd prefer to abruptly stop in the middle of a great presentation, rather than finish at the end of a rushed one.

That would leave them wanting more, which is usually a good thing.

As promised: pictures!

Some recent recipes: an omelet/scramble hybrid, and a Chinese Five Spices (Wu Xiang) beef shank

Tricky Statistics

I had a brain disconnect today on my biostats midterm. Thankfully, there was 3 hrs time, and I was able to catch my mistakes.

1) If I just did a F test and found that the variances were equal, why oh why did I perform the t test for two independent samples with unequal variances?

2) If the t is within the critical values, the p value is going to be LARGER than alpha, not smaller. I spent a half hour figuring this one out. Finally figured it out, and failed to reject H naught.

Coincidence?

It's my zodiac year, the Year of the Tiger.

One of my lifelong dreams came true this year: I was accepted to medical school.

The first day of medical school? On my birthday, August 2.

Waiting with a stranger

The situation: I arrive at a house in a strange neighborhood. I am there to meet the landlady and look at the house. The time is 930am. There is already another person sitting on the steps, I assume this is my future housemate. We introduce ourselves and wait a little longer. The future housemate says that he needs to see her soon because he has other places to be. I decide to call her.

The way I see it, the conversation could have panned out in two ways.

The good way:
SP: Hi LL, I just wanted to confirm with you our meeting time today.
LL: Oh yes, we're still on today at 9:30pm.
SP: Ohhhh, ok, that sounds great. I'm with one of the other guys right now and he has to leave earlier than that...is there any way you can come by earlier?
LL: Hmmm, I can't, but my mom can be there at 1. I'll still see you at 930.
SP: Ok that works. See you then.

The bad way:
SP: Hi LL, weren't we supposed to meet at 9:30?
LL: Ummmmm but you said 930pm! I distinctly remember you saying 930 tonight, after you get off of class.
SP: ummm oh, hmmm.... yeah, now I remember
LL: Ok then, so are you there right now?
SP: errrr yes.
LL: *sighs, well I can't be there! I have work until evening! I thought we talked about this!
SP: *changes to speaker phone and hands it off to the future housemate...

Guess which way I took?

Why I need LASIK

What a refreshing morning! Woke to the sounds of birds chirping and the sunlight streaming through the windows. I rolled out of bed, stretched slightly, and started the trek to the bathroom to wash and put my contacts in.

I had hardly pushed open the bathroom door when I heard my landlady say from the next room, "Good morning Sheppard. In light of recent events*, I think we should split everything."

*Two days ago, I offered her some of my Mongolian hotpot leftovers. She said, "It's ok, I already tried some." I asked her to please not eat my food. She didn't understand and asked me to explain why. The 45 min long conversation ended with a happy hug and understanding. Or so I thought...

I asked her to elaborate. She outlined the new rules: "You need to buy your own pots and pans, cutting board, vacuum cleaner, forks, spoons, knives, saran wrap, aluminum foil, spices, etc... Everything you own must be kept in your pantry. Your fruit is not to be put in the fruit basket. Your kitchen supplies should not mix with mine."

This is weird! Why can't we keep all the plates in the same cabinet? "I don't appreciate being called weird in my own home. I find that rude that you would say something like that just because YOU don't understand. I may be quirky and unique, and nobody understands me fully, but I can't help that I feel this way and I don't have the energy nor the obligation to explain myself to you."

But you didn't tell me this in the beginning when I signed up! "Things change, and we should be receptive to that. That's something I want to encourage in this house, that we can be flexible and work things through when one of us has an issue. If you have an issue, just let me know and we'll find some sort of agreement."

and that was just the beginning....

When I come home from school tonight, I found that all of my supplies in the refrigerator had been stuffed in the meat drawer. From raw chicken breasts to carrots to pasta, it was all crammed in a 3 cubic foot container.

On my shoe rack in the closet, I found a note saying, "Shoes on the top row only. One pair deep. All others must go in your room."

My leisure books on the coffee table had been removed and placed outside my bedroom door. No more books allowed on her coffee table.

If only I had been able to see clearly in the morning. I might have avoided the ambush.

4th of July recap

A classmate decided to throw a party at her place. I offered to help with the food, as there was a hamburger recipe that I wanted to test out.

Ingredients:
ground beef, 80/20 meat/fat ratio
mild italian sausage, no casing
sliced mushrooms
ketchup
french onion soup mix
garlic, pepper, salt, basil

Mix all of the above together and shape into VERY thin and wide patties. Punch a hole in the middle.

Cook and serve on a toasted sesame bun with lettuce, tomatoes, mustard, and mayo.

That was the gameplan, at least. When I arrived at her house, I scoped out the situation. She didn't have an apron to work in, so we commissioned a tie-dye shirt as chef's uniform. There were a few problem factors: No cutting board, limited counter space, only frying pans with no lids. The first two factors resulted in her nicked thumb and some tidying up, respectively.

The cleanliness didn't last for long, unfortunately. Without a grill to drain the grease, or a lid to catch it, the panfrying quickly got out of control, splattering as high as my forehead. I eventually drained the grease after every burger into a mug.

But after all of this, the burgers came out excellent. I need to do it a few more times to perfect the recipe and method, but unfortunately it works best as a bulk recipe. Sign me up for more parties!