conquering the world one oxymoron at a time
Archive for June, 2007
June 24, 2007 at 7:40 pm · Filed under daily grind
I read about this topic on some other blogs recently, with regards to just how much should one spend. The general consensus seems to be that ~$100 is good for friends, more for family, less for co-workers/acquaintances. That seems about right, and I’d only add the caveat that perhaps students get a bit more of a slack when it comes to giving wedding gifts. Between flying someplace to attend the wedding, booking a hotel room, and getting a present, it certainly adds up, and it’s especially hard on a graduate student budget.
Regardless, I didn’t think there was a hard and fast rule. I thought in general, you give what you’re comfortable with, and there’s not so much of a science about it. BUT, I overheard a random conversation the other day in which a girl proclaimed her formula for deciding how much to spend on a wedding gift: she would somehow find out the name of the reception caterer, contact them directly, and get an actual per head number on how much the couple are spending for the reception. She would then buy a gift around that number, figuring that she’s giving a gift around the price that the couple is spending on her for food.
Isn’t that completely and utterly insane???? Not to mention, if she were to go through all that trouble, why not take into account the cost of the church/minister/receptionsite/weddingdress/etc.etc??? Really, I did think that it was the thought that counted. Matching the dollar amount of the present to the dollar amount of the food is completely overboard.
June 19, 2007 at 5:09 pm · Filed under people
Despite now having lived in a big city for three years, I still don’t have the survival-essential city instincts. I don’t automatically assume that everyone may be out to mug me, and when people ask me for directions, I always stop to help. At one point, I did wonder why I seemed to be targeted especially frequently for directions. Back then, I didn’t really feel/realize the need to be more selective about stopping to talk to strangers, so I always helped.
This past week, while in Toronto, I walked home one night by myself (I had an early flight to catch; others in my group wanted to go out). I know one shouldn’t walk alone after dark, but really, what was I supposed to do? I didn’t have money for a cab (Canadian or US).
Walking along, I barely noticed a car stopped on the side of the street … Having already passed the car, I was surprised when the driver said something to me. City Instinct Girl (CIG) would have just kept walking, but my first gut reaction was to stop, turn around and very politely ask “What’s that?”
The man asked me for some directions. CIG would have walked off, or at the least perhaps made up something. I actually said “Sorry, I don’t know; I’m not from around here.” Mistake #2 in the books of city instincts: Reveal that you are not familiar with the area.
At this point, some form of instinct did kick in, and I turned on my 3-inch heels and walked away, ignoring anything else the man said (which included various ways to try to entice me for further conversation: “Oh? So where ARE you from?”, “Where are you walking to?” etc etc)
The moral of this story was that I need to gain some city instinct, be more alert/aware of my surroundings. It’s better to seem rude and offend a stranger (he’s a stranger!) than to put myself in any potential danger. I know I should do this (and I will try), but at the same time, I can’t help feeling a tinge of disappointment that our society has come to this.
Must be the southern-upbringing.
June 14, 2007 at 5:32 pm · Filed under people
I’m in Toronto for a conference on tissue engineering, and all of the talks started today. For the first time ever at one of these conferences, I saw people taking pictures of presentations with digital cameras. Whenever a new slide gets shown, or even sometimes when animation on a single slide gets changed, someone would take a picture. Is this a new form of note-taking? It really struck me as rather odd.
My first reaction was one of shock: “Oh my god, are they allowed to do that in this day and age of oversensitivity to IP??” Then I reasoned that taking a picture of a presentation slide is not that much more damaging considering that the content is being presented orally anyway (and theoretically available on the abstract CD). But the whole concept still felt somewhat off to me. If I were presenting, I’d be pretty thrown by cameras pointed at my slides snapping images as I paced through my presentation.
Perhaps more interestingly, the presentation-slide-photographers are almost entirely Asian. Seeing that the conference boasts attendees from 20 different countries, I wonder if the cameras are an emerging trend in Asia-hosted scientific meetings that got carried over here to Toronto/North America through the venue of an international conferece.
June 4, 2007 at 11:12 am · Filed under hobbies
I always knew the Harry Potter books were getting longer and longer with each one that she writes, but it never sunk in as much as when I saw this picture of the boxset while browsing through Amazon:
For serious, check out the difference in thickness between the first book (reasonable) and the 4th, 5th, 6th, and now 7th (ridiculous). Maybe she figures that the 10-year-olds who first started reading the first book in 1999 were 14/15 by the time the 4th book came out, and are now 18, and so would have no problem handling 500-page books. My question is just how necessary was it to have a 500-page book?
Her first book wasn’t 500 pages, no doubt, because her publisher/editor/common sense told her that she can’t sell a book 500 pages long for 10-year-olds. So edit she did, but somehow as the books got more popular, the editing became superfluous because she knew the books would fly off the bookstore shelves no matter what. Granted, the last one (Half-blooded Prince) was quite good and moved along at a good pace, so I didn’t so mind the length. But I remember reading the 4th one (Goblet of Fire) and getting so frustrated with page after page of descriptions of the Gryffindor common room. Was that really necessary? Just get on with the story!
So I’m curious as to just how successful she will be in “getting on with the story” in this 7th, and last installment (Deathly Hollows). I’m sure I’ll feel differently when I get to the last page and realize that I really do want to know more, but for now, I’m glad that this whole Harry Potter thing will soon be over.
