it makes you wonder...

*Towards the end of the work day yesterday, I used one of the bathrooms in my office, which is a single-user toilet room. I washed my hands, and used a paper towel to dry them. (This is all fascinating, right? Wait for it!!) As I tossed the towel into the wall-mounted waste receptacle, I noticed something out of place in the bin. I took a closer look, and saw a plastic disposable container from a salad bar, with the remains of a few pieces of lettuce and perhaps some lentils.

Um... huh?

The bathroom happens to be almost exactly next to the kitchen, which is equipped with cans for recycling plastic... and, if you're really not even into recycling, we all have our own trash cans at our desks... so I'm wondering about the circumstances that would lead someone to throw out a salad container in the bathroom... is one of my co-workers so sad and lonely that he/she eats lunch alone in the bathroom!?!?!

I'm not even sure I want to know...

(*Editor's Note: I mentioned this to a few people yesterday after it happened, so my apologies in the event you are reading this story twice-- think of it as an opportunity to dig deeper into the question. Let me know your thoughts on this matter in the comments section. I welcome your insight.)

today's lessons

1. I am good at saving money-- specifically by VE'ing the hell out of a light fixture package while preserving the integrity of the design.

2. Kendall Square is an abyss. I will never understand my way around Kendall Square. It is my personal Bermuda Triangle/Black Hole of buildings.

3. On Wednesdays, I typically eat at least 1 butterscotch candy. At least 1, and only on Wednesdays.

yogurt tease.

Among other things, I just had a 6 ounce cup of Dannon Light and Fit yogurt for lunch, vanilla flavor. I've been noticing lately that unfortunately it is tasting increasing more artificial. I went to the kitchenette to wash out the cup before recycling it, and had the following conversation with a co-worker, who will be referred to in the remainder of this post as yogurt tease, or YT for short, for his comments and behavior. (I will be referred to as SSC, in case you were wondering)

SSC: (while washing out yogurt cup) Wow, this yogurt tastes increasingly more artificial each time I have it.

YT: Yeah, most yogurts do. Although Stoneyfield yogurt is pretty good.

SSC: (nodding, agreeing-- though making mental note that the Stoneyfield is pricier, and the enormous box of Dannon Light and Fit was a good deal at Costco) Yeah, you're right. (tosses cup into recycling bin, and turns to walk away)

YT: You know, I make my own yogurt.

SSC: (stops in tracks) Really! How do you do it?

YT: Oh, it's really easy. You just need to start with the culture, and you can't buy it at any regular store, because all of their stuff is processed.

(SSC nods, ashamed after eating processed cheap yogurt)

YT: You just heat milk to a froth, let it cool, add the culture, and refrigerate overnight.

SSC: (falling straight into the Yogurt Tease's trap) That does sound easy. Where do you get the culture?

YT: (drops bomb) Oh, mine is from [fill in foreign country here-- left blank to protect identity of said Yogurt Tease]. It's been a family tradition since the 1970's.

SSC: Right. Of course. (finally exits kitchenette, defeated)

age is just a number

a lot of times i get carded at bars. worse, i often get mistaken for a student in my class rather than being the professor. today, though, the opposite happened, and i'm not sure how i feel about it.

i was in the kitchen at work getting a cup of coffee, talking about my weekend with a coworker. i mentioned that we travelled to a good friend's baby shower, and that she is having twins. the conversation went something like this.

coworker: you went to RISD, right?
me: yeah, for grad school
coworker: do you know so-and-so?
me: uh....
coworker: he's about our age. i'm figuring that you and i are about the same age... well, within 10 years.
me: uh...

yeah. so i happen to know that this coworker of mine has teenage children! i got all confused-- do i suddenly look old enough to have teenagers?

greetings

i just received a work email with the closing salutation of "yours".

um... doesn't seem P.C., does it?

a conversation at work

at work, someone in my desk area was frantically running around looking for a calculator with a square root function... after asking 2 people without any success, the person approached me and said:

shana, you must have a calculator with a square root function! can i borrow it?

i said yes, i do, and yes, you may borrrow it, and then i got to thinking... what about me made this person think that i would most certainly have a calculator with the ability to calculate square roots?

i received these M&M's as a gift.

auto spell check

i find this quite funny. i just received this email from an engineer who is supposed to be sending me progress prints today. see if you can figure out which word was auto-spell checked:

Shana, Denise is making the puffs now, we will send them over in a few minutes.

sad orange

the secret word

so my friend at work, who i happen to be working with on a project, was talking to a consultant of ours who was really hesitant to change part of his design. she was telling me that while she was talking to him, it seemed really unlikely that he would change... until she mentioned that one of our principals thought it would be a good idea to make this change. upon hearing his name, the consultant agreed to make the change. as she told me this part of the story she said "all i had to do was say [this principal] wants to make this change, and the consultant agreed! his name is my secret word."

"funny", i said, "when i run into that situation, i use your name, and that works for me.".

hierarchy is funny. so is lowerarchy. HAHAHA no, i know that's not a real word. seriously.

i kind of want to be someone's secret word... sometimes i think i might have that going on in studio but i'm not sure.



i decided i don't really want comments on this one... is that wrong? well, whatever. this is my blog, damn it.

how many architects....

does it take to design our own workspace? i think we have 13 involved, and we can't get it right. one thing that we did agree on is that we're not going to allow our clients to come into this haphazard mini-office... which is sort of ironic, when you think about it: shouldn't we want to show off our own work?

picture in picture

a little print screen action with my new double monitor scheme results in capturing both screens... and some crazy picture in picture action.

[i think this is another case of me thinking this is much cooler in my head than the resulting blog post. whatever.]

more on etiquette

at this time of year, we have lots and lots of fancy dessert-type snacks all around the office. there are tins of cookies and plates of pies and dishes of breads scattered around.

i just witnessed a co-worker paw through approximately 10 pieces of a baklava-type dessert before choosing a piece.

um, hello, swine flu anyone??

it's all in the name

so... i have to say i think i'd have a really hard time having a name that is also a word used in conversation. i'm being intentionally vague here... but let me try to explain the scenario. a co-worker of mine just referenced a group of people and used his own name in the description of the group. i wonder if he thought it was weird.

(in my head when i started to write this post, it was really good... and sadly it's not very good, but i wrote it anyway, so deal with it. or don't.)

a different perspective

it felt like a totally new place today at work. it was the first monday in months that i've worked a full day in the office-- the semester has drawn to a close. i changed desks, changed projects, and actually left for lunch... it was all different.

it's almost 'the office'

this is probably crossing the line of information, but whatever. i can't contain it anymore.

there are 2 people who sit closely to me at work-- which means that they also sit near each other. at least once a day, they talk on the phone. both are overjoyed to be talking to each other, and one frequently puts the other on speakerphone.

um, really? is this necessary? i think not. i feel there should be a minimum distance apart that 2 employees must be in order to be allowed to exercise phone rights. someone needs to tell these people-- the speakerphone is insane, because we hear this cheerful person in stereo surround sound-- and it's just too much.

too much.

the simple things

we have been without hot water for about, oh, 30 or so hours... it's totally annoying. we went to the gym last night and showered there, and i have a feeling we'll be doing the same for the next few days. lame. i realized how much i rely on that morning shower to get me going... sigh. it probably doesn't help that the floor i work on is super quiet-- we're all moving to a different floor, except presently i am the last one on my side of the floor, sitting here quietly reviewing some lighting submittals.

LP's

the following is reproduced from an email that was sent out to my entire office today:

Anyone wants these?

Free LP records.

Janis Ian
Olivia Newton Johns
Jackson Browne
Joan Baez
Barbra Streisand
and more….

uncontrollable

they have just announced that there is no water in my office building.

suddenly i want to wash my hands VERY BADLY.

um, really?

i just submitted an inquiry to a website and got this auto response:

"The message you sent requires that you verify that you are a real live human being and not a spam source."

i considered not responding... then i realized i need to know about their products, so i told them i'm real. they responded with this:

"This message is to notify you that your verification was received, and your email address was successfully white listed."

white listed?? is that a real term?