Short update today, as it's already midnight and it's been a long day ( Read more... )

Today was a fresh day in Iceland, and began with a visit to the local bakery (yum!) followed by Zach and I driving around parts of the "Golden Circle", though not necessarily via the same routes used by most tourists. More on that later.

I learned a lot today:

• Reykjavik traffic engineers apparently think that roundabouts on the highway are an ( Read more... )

Zach and I arrived in Iceland today after an overnight trip from Seattle. I'm pretty tired, as I found it nearly impossible to fall asleep at 5PM PST on a plane seat that didn't recline ( Read more... )

With my poor ability to even recognize Michael Jackson songs, I'm quite sure that this message, found in the Junk E-mail folder of my Microsoft account, isn't for me:

Hope you receive this message ( Read more... )

Yesterday was Puzzle Safari: The Search for Stamps event -- my third such event. The Puzzle Safari format is officially my most favoritest puzzle event ever (see Safari 08 writeup and Safari 07 writeup). Unfortunately, despite hopes that we would crack the top 3 this year, our team didn't do so well. (Partially due to a team-wide error where we ( Read more... )

I realized a few weeks ago that something amazing had happened ( Read more... )

We're at the review stage at Microsoft, and part of that process is soliciting peers to provide feedback on us. One of the managers on my product group sent me a copy of what he said (usually the comments are anonymously delivered to me). To say I was floored would be an understatement -- this is absolutely the highest praise I've seen shared with ( Read more... )

When I was quite young, my parents still had an old black and white TV where we watched Star Trek. When my mother told me that they were buying a color TV, I was confused because I was absolutely convinced that I could see color on the screen. What follows is the subsequent conversation, after I informed her of this:
Her: Ok, so what color is ( Read more... )

I'm currently reading Snoop: What Your Stuff Says About You, an excellent book about how our personalities leave an imprint on the types of things we keep around us. It's fascinating, and only 80 pages in, I'd absolutely recommend it. One of the ideas I'm currently reading is how most people have a narrative that they weave throughout their life ( Read more... )

After experimenting with embroidery on my own napkins, I decided to branch out and actually make a full set of napkins to give as a gift. Originally I had planned to embroider a set of video game characters, as I've been enchanted with all the Mario-themed crafts I've seen recently. But Jeff had an even better idea when I pitched the video game ( Read more... )