Lauren Wu dot com

I have owned a TiVo for three years and I have only just found out that there is an easter egg/hack to enable the 30-second commercial advance/jump on a regular TiVo remote! You can find detailed instructions elsewhere on the web, but in short, the key sequence is:

SELECT PLAY SELECT 30 SELECT

More cheat codes can be found from The Whole Hacking The TiVo FAQ.

D loves to travel, and takes lots of photos wherever he goes. He took one of the Travelator in Hong Kong (longest escalator in the world) and it is now being shown in a National Building Museum exhibit called "Up, Down, Across: Elevators, Escalators, and Moving Sidewalks". It's also featured in their companion illustrated catalogue. An excerpt:

"As these devices [elevators, escalators, and moving sidewalks] have transformed architecture, so have they influenced our perceptions of human mobility and public space. Their continuous motion and the ever-changing perspectives they afford to riders can suggest cinematic experiences. Perhaps that is why the elevator has become a popular setting for intimate encounters, threatening actions, and humorous confrontations in film. Ironically, this medium, which is often preoccupied with the display of heroic rescues and grisly deaths, sometimes relies for dramatic effect on the malfunction of a device that is by far the safest method of transportation.

Viewed in their historical and design contexts - as mechanical systems, through their diverse uses, as the inspiration for new architectural forms, and through their presentation in film - elevators, escalators, and moving sidewalks become objects of fascination and vehicles for discovery. Though these devices are mundane by virtue of our familiarity with their daily uses, they have radically transformed our buildings, our cities, and our lives."

Murphy's Law is usually quoted as "Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong." The law is named in honor of Edward A. Murphy and popularized by John Paul Stapp, but the story is a lot more complicated than that. Nick Spark researched the origins of the law which you can read on the AIR (Annals of Improbable Research) website. There's even a Slashdot discussion on the topic.

Other commonly known sayings referenced in the report:

Peter Principle (by Lawrence Peter): "In a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence"

Parkinson's Law: "Work expands to meet the time and money that is available"

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 19, 2003:

yuppify \YUH-puh-fye\ verb : to make appealing to yuppies; also : to infuse with the qualities or values of yuppies

Example sentence: "Market tenants have had to lobby politicians . . . to sway them from plans to yuppify the market by adding trendy restaurants and nonfood vendors." (John S. Long, [Cleveland] _Plain Dealer_, Apr. 11, 2001)

Did you know? "Yuppy" and "yuppify" are products of the 1980s, but they owe a debt to predecessors from the 1960s and 1970s. "Hippie" (a long-haired unconventionally dressed young person who rejects societal mores; from "hip," meaning "cool") first appeared in print in 1965. "Yippie" (a politically active hippie; from Youth International Party) followed "hippie" into the language in 1968. "Gentrification" and "gentrify" (referring to the effects of influxes of relatively affluent people into deteriorating neighborhoods; from "gentry") made their debuts in 1964 and 1972, respectively. "Yuppie" (a young well-paid professional who lives and works in an urban area; probably from young urban professional; influenced by "hippie" and "yippie") hit the press in 1982. "Yuppify" and "yuppification" (patterned after "gentrify" and "gentrification") joined the lexicon in 1984.

According to this Yahoo! article, "Professor Chris Idzikowski, director of the Sleep Assessment and Advisory Service and a visiting professor at the University of Surrey in southern England, has identified six common sleep positions and what they mean". The following table summarizes the positions and the corresponding interpretations:

This quote beautifully captures the reason why I try to do triathlons. Cathy Wong, one of the Bay Area Velo Girls coaches, uses it as part of her email signature:

"Undertake something that is difficult; it will do you good. Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow." -- Ronald E. Osborn

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a total mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

Amzanig huh?

[9/19/03 Addendum: Discussed on Slashdot]

According to this WSJ article "When 'Wheat' Really Means 'White': Deconstructing Labels in Bread Aisle" (subscription may be required), "Bread makers use food coloring, brown wrappers and healthful-sounding words like 'stone-ground,' 'cracked-wheat' and 'multi-grain' to make their breads sound more nutritious than they really are."

The bottom line is, forget about the name of the bread, and ignore what the bread looks like. Often, food coloring and brown wrapping is used to make bread look healthier than it is. As always, read the label! Look out for the following:

• Avoid bread that lists trans fat as an ingredient (usually diguised as partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, shortening and margarine)
• Make sure that the first ingredient contains the word whole, e.g., whole wheat or whole grain.

Don't be fooled by breads that contain "100% enriched wheat flour". That really doesn't mean anything since most bread is made out of wheat, white or brown, healthy or not. "A wheat kernel has three layers -- the fiber-rich bran outer-layer, the endosperm middle layer, and the wheat germ, the nutrient-dense embryo. " Some manufacturers remove the bran and the germ, rich sources of fiber, and can still call the product 100% wheat flour (but not whole wheat flour). Also remember that bread is usually enriched only because it has been previously stripped of nutrients. Last but not least, be wary of white bread, which contains bleached flour.

I just got an email from Evan Williams, co-founder of Pyra/Blogger. They are no longer providing Blogger Pro as a separate product since most of the features are being folded into regular (free) Blogger. Even so, my "subscription" to Pro will still be valid so I'll be able to use features that have not been ported over yet, like RSS (I use that!) and post-via-email (have yet to try it).

I guess that's one of the benefits of being purchased by a company with oodles of cash (Google). They can now afford to give away the service for free. This is bad news for TypePad, whose plans are expensive: one of the reasons why I did not subscribe even though I was offered a discount for being a beta tester.

Most exciting of all, Pyra/Google is giving me a free Blogger hoodie for being a Pro subscriber! I will wear it with pride.

Despite the fact that he lives thousands of miles away in London (as in England, UK and not Ontario, Canada), I message/email/speak regularly to my awesome friend Ingo. We spoke recently about mid-life crises and how people seem to be getting them earlier and earlier. It used to be something one experienced in their forties and fifties. Now we're getting them in our twenties and thirties, they're called "quarter-life crises".

Here's a great article by Mark Capper that Ingo painstakingly typed since he couldn't find an electronic copy. It's called "Burnt out at 35: Meet the Tireds":

Are you fed up with the rat race? Would you jack in your job in return for a better life and less money? Then you're probably a Tired. And you are not alone; increasing number of young professionals are Tireds -- Thirtysomethings Independent Radical Educated Drop-outs -- a survey has found.

A typical Tired has a well-paid career in law, finance, technology or media. But, when he or she hits her 30s, they find their desire to make money waning. Many feel cheated by spending long hours at work, worrying about work or planning for work.

According to the research, one in 15 has already quit the rat race, and 45% are seriously thinking about changing career and finding something less time demanding. More than 80% of 30 to 35-year-olds among the 1,000 people questioned said they were unhappy at work. Most said stress was the major reason for wanting to leave, with boredom and lack of fulfilment as other main reasons for feeling Tired.

Howard Beale, from Fish Can Sing, the PR agency behind the study, said: "Young people in a weird way have become older than their parents. The generation perceived to have it all are asking whether they want it all."

The Tireds join a growing list of groups struggling with life. Last week, the Dinkies (Double Income, No Kids) generation was found to be failing to cope with the responsibility of having children.

Divorce is such an ugly word. Appropriate, since divorce is an ugly thing. Even if a couple mutually agrees upon getting a divorce, one party has to serve the other party to "sue" for divorce. Just like a lawsuit.

So is marriage merely a legal contract? If so, why all the hoopla surrounding weddings? Why spend thousands and thousands of dollars on a ceremony and reception if what you're celebrating may only be temporary? My wedding is meaningful to me because it carries religious significance. I want my loved ones to bear witness to my declaration of love to D, and to hear me swear by my wedding vows. I take my wedding vows seriously. Afterall, D and I are committing to stay together "... till death do us part." Death. It doesn't get any more serious than that.

I had an a fascinating conversation with an enlightened friend of mine several years ago, Rebecca. Rebecca was living with her boyfriend, Todd, and had been doing so for the past ~5 years. According to the Canadian government, they were common law husband and wife but they were not married, nor did ever intend to get married.

I asked her why she didn't want to get married, and whether it was because she didn't believe in marriage. She said it was just not realistic for her (and I assume anybody else) to commit to marriage vows. "Remember when you were six years old?" she asked, "And you and your best friend promised each other that you would be best friends forever? Are you still best friends with this person? Do you even remember that person's name?" Good point. She loved Todd, and expected to be with him for the forseeable future, but that's it.

We had this conversation ten years ago. People change, stuff happens. I heard from a mutual friend that Rebecca is no longer with Todd and is seeing somebody else. No harm, no foul.

Marriage is supposed to be about unconditional love. It used to be about putting your heart and complete trust in somebody else's hands, taking the plunge, and doing whatever it takes to make things work. It's a huge gamble, the biggest bet you'll ever make. "Honey, I love you so much that I am willing to put money on it." How much? "HALF MY ASSETS. That's how much I love you." Unless you have a pre-nup in place... just in case things don't work out.

A recently overhead conversation:

Guy #1: "Sometimes I pretend I'm gay and flirt with homosexual men to get better service. For example, I'll chat up the airport shuttle guy so he'll drop me off first..."

Guy #2: "Dude! What the f***???"

Guy #3 to Guy #4: "Y'know I would've just slipped the driver $5"

Guy #4: *shrugs*

I don't think it's right to lead people on, regardless of your sexual orientation, especially if you're not genuinely interested/available and are doing so just to take advantage of the other party. It's all fun and games until somebody gets hurt.