Byebye Jail

The picture on the front page of my blog is a view from the temporary shelter of economics department, Condon Hall, a gray concrete building some people call a jail(*1). Everyday after work I walk out of the building, I see the bus stop under the trees and wonder when my ride is coming and starts me a new journey.

Now we are about to move back to our home, Savery Hall, located in the beautiful quad on campus. The computer lab is going to be closed today. Everything will be moved out and brand new computers await us at home. Sitting in the lab looking through the large windows with views blocked by the gray concrete wall, I know I am going to miss it.

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(*1) Condon Hall used to be the Law School building. It got the reputation of being the most ugly building at UW. People joked around that the jail design of the building tried to tell law students what consequences their future judgement would lead to.

星巴克儲值卡

剛剛發現一件事情，之前居然都沒想到。一張星巴克儲值卡用一次接下來一個月可以一天用他們的AT&T WiFi 兩小時，但如果我同時維持有兩張卡兩個帳戶，這樣我每次來星巴克唸書就可以用上網路四個小時。四個小時就非常足夠了，可以工作整個早上或整個下午，我似乎也不太可能連續唸書超過四小時。

不過只能用兩小時也有好處，就是我會有效利用時間，時間一多我就會開始瀏覽和研究不相干的網頁，例如像現在開始寫blog。

我的反應果然變差了，這麼簡單的事我居然之前都沒想到。

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在台灣時好像比較沒辦法在咖啡店唸書，尤其是念需要思考的東西。一方面是台灣大部分的店裡大部分的人都在聊天，氣氛沒那麼適合唸書，另一方面是因為我可以把英文當背景音樂，不仔細聽不會太瞭解別人在講什麼，但是如果旁邊的人用中文聊天，就算沒興趣的話題也會很自然地開始聽。

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實驗結果發現，其實就算只用一個帳戶，兩個小時過了之後，只要不登出或關機，網路還是都不會斷。

This Week's Agenda

The agenda for this week is, again, work work work. A never fulfilled routine but still need-to-be-made agenda.

One different thing this week though. Here it is: If I work hard (defined by myself) for a couple of days in a row, I can take one weekday off for a movie marathon. I am going to see The Time Traveler's Wife, (500) Days of Summer, and Star Trek. Maybe not Star Trek, the theater I want to go doesn't have Star Trek anymore. I'll find another one to fill in.

My reward seems too big for tiny little effort. But whatever.

戰況空前

暑假看了很多影集，有的是新開發的，有的是之前看一半沒追上的，如果以季為單位，不分是哪部影集，我應該看了五季以上，換算成集數，應該超過百...。

算一算，九月一開學我應該會很忙，不是因為要教一門新的課，也不是因為論文要趕進度，而是現在趕上進度要和電視同步收看的影集包括

1. The Big Bang Theory (Season 3)

2. How I Met Your Mother (Season 5)

3. Brothers and Sisters (Season 4)

4. Grey's Anatomy (Season 6)

5. Scrubs （目前還在Season 7，還差一點才會趕上秋季的Season 9）

還好現在電視公司都會把剛撥完的影集放到網站上，不然我每晚光握著遙控等著時間到就夠了。

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事實再次證明，越忙的時候越有空做閒雜事，兩年多前閒閒沒事的時候，花了一整年才把【The West Wing】七季看完，而以上1、2、4和5都是今年才開始看的。

Angel and Demon

In the days that I work, I can stand up as a decent human being. But in those days I dodge doing my job, I feel myself nothing but a terrible person.

They say people do not need others to justify the existence of oneself. Pathetically, I do need hard work to justify myself.

Free Wi-Fi at Barnes & Noble

剛意外發現 Barnes & Noble 有提供免費的 AT&T Wi-Fi。因為現階段研究需要連到學校一個研究中心的 terminal server 用 Stata，雖然喜歡在咖啡店唸書，但常常受限於有些咖啡店沒有免費網路，或是網路訊號不強。

傍晚跑來 U Village Barnes & Noble 裡的咖啡店工作，一開始只連到一個訊號很弱的網路，正想說都特別跑來了卻又什麼事都沒做，就連 AT&T Wi-Fi 看會不會貴，沒想到居然免費，真不錯。查了一下，是七月底才開始的。以後有空可以來這唸書。

適合睡眠的氣溫

Cold Temperatures Improve Sleep

研究指出華氏60-68度（約攝氏15-20度）有助於睡眠。西雅圖很多時候都是氣溫攝氏十幾度加陰天，難怪我隨便都可以睡上十小時。如果斜對面那棟房子可以趕快蓋好會更好，不要每天一大早不到八點就開始動工，擾亂我的美夢。

今晚氣溫攝氏16度左右，正是適合睡覺的好天氣。經過上星期的高溫摧殘之後，現在非常欣慰有這種涼快的天氣。

最近太陽下山的時間從之前的九點開始提早到八點半了，盛夏好像就這樣過了。

Bookmark

I used to save articles of New York Times in New York Times' own bookmarking system. Then New York Times no longer had the bookmarking function and my files were transferred to the suggested bookmarking site, Furl. Now Furl became Diigo. Even though Diigo provides the migration of data from Furl to Diigo, somehow my old files in Furl are all gone.

Things change too fast for me to get used to. Now I'll give Delicious a try.

Crazy Global Warming

What's wrong with the places I stayed? My hometown Hsinchu and my second hometown Seattle have broken the records of high temperature last week. Both reached around 40C.

I am not the person who can stand the heat (I am fine with cold weather). Last week I felt dying in my top-floor apartment facing the west with only an useless but annoying electric fan. The long-lasting sunset made my room a sauna. I couldn't stop sweating and even had difficulty of falling asleep. Growing up in the windy city Hsinchu, I've hated wind for my entire life. But I felt very grateful to have some breeze later last week. I finally got to have some sleep.

Back-to-School Gadgets

Incase Nylon Backpack is one of the 25 best back-to-school gadgets selected by Time magazine. It seems to have several compartments with different functions. I don't really need that many pockets though. I usually bring only a laptop, a cellphone and a wallet. Not so many gadgets I would like to carry around. What attracts me is actually the mustard color and its comfy material. I usually don't buy yellow stuff. But this mustard color looks cool.

I am an adzuki-bean/heather-grape color addict. Sometimes I buy stuff just because the color is attractive, regardless of their usefulness. I just can't say no to things with certain colors. Like they should belong to me.

Anyway, the bag is little bit expensive. I need someone to talk me out of it ...

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I've decided to abuse my blog, by writing this kind of non-article nonsense. It helps prevent me from abandoning my blog.