Elaine

Hello Kitty Roomba

2008-09-25T13:06:42Z

I don't really post to lj anymore, but this is for two people that are on LJ but not facebook. They know who they are.

http://gizmodo.com/5050963/get-your-floors-clean-and-cute-with-hello-kitty-roomba

IKEA!

2006-10-08T21:05:27Z

I spent 6 hours at IKEA yesterday. Though I went with jagheterlelle and we both get distracted by shiny objects easily and it was also my first time there.

since it's my job to make you all feel old

2006-05-27T23:56:41Z

Someone at work was talking about going to see Ministry this summer, and apparently the tour is sponsored by VH1 Classics. :)

Fear me!

2006-03-29T01:21:03Z

I now have a trombone of my very own!

mine!

2006-02-25T18:28:22Z

Other photos can be found at http://www.gweep.net/~prefect/gallery/elainewrx

I can't take credit for this one

2006-02-14T02:23:44Z

Confucius say: Man who walks through airport turnstile sideways is going to Bangkok.

ugh

2005-12-13T09:15:28Z

So I'm back from China again. I actually got back Friday night, but I've been pretty brain dead since. My sleep schedule is all still screwed up, but oh well. This time around the trip totally sucked. We got on the bus for the factory at 8:00am and then got back to the hotel around 11pm-12am each night. We worked the weekends also, but we got out early last Sunday, around 7:30 I think (I forget now). Time to go waste some time since I can't seem to fall back to sleep.

Oh, BTW, this was the song that they played EVERYDAY at lunch time and at 4:30 (when the shift ended). My only theory is that they played it so that everyone would leave and no one would want to stay to work overtime. Maybe that's something they should do in the states for all those people that are workaholics and never go home when they're supposed to.

be jealous

2005-09-28T00:27:06Z

I have the complete first season of Fraggle Rock

This would be the life...

2005-09-11T09:19:38Z

:(

2005-09-04T10:07:49Z

I just realized that I'm going to miss purgatory :( My flight was orginally scheduled for Friday, but I need an extra day in China so they're changing it to Saturday. Looking at the flights that leave HK on Saturday, I won't get into Boston until 7:30-9ish PM.

China again

2005-08-23T22:50:13Z

So I'm going to China again this weekend. I'll be staying for a week (who knows if it'll get extended). I got my itinerary today and on my way back I have a layover in Tokyo. I'm so tempted to see if I can stay a few days in Tokyo on my way back. The only thing is that I'd be by myself, but I've heard Tokyo is a safe city. Hmmmm.... so tempting.

interesting experience

2005-08-04T01:59:24Z

I got to spend the day in a TV studio (from what one of our marketing people said, it's the same one The Sopranos is filmed at). It was an stressful yet somewhat interesting experience. I was used as a stand in at one point for lighting which was kind of intimidating but also neat. During it, the director said "You have a face for TV" though I'm only taking it with a grain of salt since he seemed to butter up to all of the women there. Tired now though, but I'm glad work flew me to NYC instead of making me drive.

I wish they could give me more notice

2005-08-02T00:33:09Z

I was told today, that I need to go to NYC tomorrow and wed to support a video shoot of Scooba. They're flying me there at least so I don't have to do that god-awful drive. It screwed up a lot of my plans for the week though.

Sometimes I really like where I work

2005-07-28T22:48:58Z

What happens when you go to an "open work environment" and arm 90 people with Nerf weapons? A huge Nerf war and complete chaos :) I think we had the biggest one so far, today.

Two work related things:

2005-05-25T02:24:51Z

1) Starting Tuesday, I will no longer be an intern at iRobot. I will become an Associate Mechanical Engineer. Yay! More money and health insurance! Time to start looking for an apartment.

2) iRobot announced the project that I've been work on since I started last August. It's the Scooba. Go to the iRobot website to learn more.

Hmmmm....

2005-05-11T11:33:29Z

It's about time for a new laptop. This trusty one has lasted me for about 3.5 years now. It's not broken, but it's starting to show its age. I have about $5000 saved up and my credit card is all payed off (there's also a likely chance that I will be getting hired full time and hopefully I'll know by Friday). I'm thinking one of these would be fun to have. Anyone have any luck with buying whole systems at Apple Stores? Do they usually have good stock? When I bought this thing, I bought it on the online store and it took forever for them to ship it.

gizmoek @ 2005-03-18T07:51:00

2005-03-18T00:09:48Z

I saw the sun yesterday! It was very exciting, though it was still partially covered by a few layers of smog, but there was enough of it coming though that it actually casted a few shadows. Man, the environment here is going to hell.

I'm in HK for today and the rest of the weekend (one extra day) since one of the guys is leaving to go home today. I still have to do work today, but it's so much nicer here in HK than in Shenzhen. It looks like we're going sailing on Sunday if the weather is ok.

In China

2005-03-14T23:03:01Z

I'm here in China. We arrived Sunday night local time in Hong Kong. HK is an amazing city from what I've seen so far. We stayed in the Kowloon part which isn't even downtown and it seems pretty cool. Everything is clean and shiny, all the cars are spotless and it seems like everyone either drives or is driven around in a Mercedes, BMW, some Hondas, etc. We only spent the night there and then yesterday morning we went to the mainland where the factory is and we will be staying during the week.

The mainland is much different that HK. I've only been here one day, but apparently from what one of the guys who has been here for a couple weeks, it's always "overcast" where the overcast is smog. Things aren't quite so clean here and we're pretty much told that we should leave our hotels at night, even though we probably are ok with four of us (but better not take the risk). Traffic here is crazy. People will cross the street and if they can't make it all the way across, they'll stand between the lines of traffic inches away from getting hit be cars. When we're in the compound of the factory, we get treated very well. The security guards, which are government guards hired by the company, will salute us every time we go by. We stick out, especially since you've got me, a blonde haired female, and two of the other guys are over 6 feet tall, and when we were walking to our ride after work yesterday, everyone was looking at us and we stopped some conversations in their tracks.

The factory itself is an experience also. Lots of people. I'll have more on that later, but it's just about time to have breakfast. I'll be posting pictures at http://www.gweep.net/~gizmo/gallery/china_mar_05 when I get a chance.

this is the beginning

2005-03-11T22:47:20Z

This is just wicked cool. It actually gets me excited about the next few decades to come.

Oh yah, I'm also leaving for China tomorrow morning and won't be back for a couplefew weeks.

randomness

2005-03-02T04:54:52Z

So today I found out that I have yet another name at work. These are all the names I have so far:

Eric "Correct last name" (the name that's next to my door)
Tank (sort of a nickname due to a mixup)
Dances with Robots (my native american name)
Abigail "Correct last name" (the name that is on the division contact list)

I feel like I'm missing one, but oh well, I find it amusing. Those of us traveling to China have to fill out visa paperwork and one of the fields is "Chinese Name" so maybe I should pick one of these for it :). One of the engineers wants his to be Wang.

finally home

2005-01-26T16:15:59Z

1094 Oakland -> Atlanta
438 Atlanta -> Boston
1050 Oakland -> Atlanta
350 Atlanta -> Boston
4369 Oakland -> Dallas
909 Dallas -> Boston
*1530 (2x) SF -> Dallas -> Boston, *SF -> Dallas
*4488 Dallas -> Cincinnati
*5358 Cincinnati -> Boston

Those were all the flights that I was put on since Saturday morning. The ones with the * are the ones that I actually took to get home.

busy week

2005-01-23T22:43:08Z

So I ended up in the San Fran/Oakland area for the week on a business trip. It was a pretty busy week and I didn't have too much time to myself due being extremely tired when I got back to the hotel each night. I was originally scheduled to get back home at around 8 PM on Saturday, but the second leg of the trip (from Atlanta to Boston) got canceled due to some small snow storm that was going on in the North East. So now, I'm stuck in SF/Oakland until tomorrow. Hopefully my flight doesn't get canceled yet again.

Yesterday I got to see more of the city that I didn't get to see last time, which was nice. I went to Alcatraz and the SF Museum of MOdern Art. I also got stuck in the middle of the pro-life rally that marched down the Emabarcadero. Luckily I was on the sidewalk that the pro-choice people were walking down. It was good to see that the pro-choice people were out in force to counteract the rally. If I hadn't been with someone else who I didn't know that well (the consultant I went on the trip with) I would have joined in with them.

Today I'm in Oakland at my brother's place. My flight tomorrow is supposed to leave SFO at noon tomorrow and lets hope it doesn't get delayed again. So far I've been put on 4 different flights since Sat.

wheee

2005-01-16T05:34:22Z

Things seem to be looking up. First, I put together a sweet new computer. It runs so nicely. I'm also helping out with robotics again this year and it should be fun now that I don't have to worry about school work, but.... I'm taking a few trips for work. This should be good. My first business trip is on Tuesday. I'm going to California for a few days to work some stuff out. I'm the only one from the actual company that is going, so it's a little scary, but I'm looking forward to it. Second, I'm going to China at the end of Feb. beginning of March. I'm really excited for that trip. I know people always say "business trips aren't anything special because you still have to work" but you know, I've been so antsy to get out and travel that these opportunities are perfect. I mean, how many chances will I get to go to China (well, if I stay with the company, maybe more than once, but that's only if they hire me full time)? This is also good new with my future with the company. If they're willing to send me places, that means that they trust me and think that I'm good enough to represent the company. Lets just hope these trips go well now.

he's all grown up now

2005-01-13T12:09:23Z

Happy birthday gweepprefect! (he's 30 now)

memememe

2005-01-07T23:20:37Z

1) Go to http://www.mapquest.com/directions/
2) Enter your Current Address and the Address of your Childhood Home (or at least the town if you don't remember the exact address).
3) Put the time and distance in a post like this.
4) Don't forget to repost these directions (not the door to door ones)

Where I was born: Total Est. Time: 45 hours, 20 minutes Total Est. Distance: 2984.18 miles
Where I spent most of my childhood: Total Est. Time: 8 minutes Total Est. Distance: 2.81 miles
After I was 15 years old: Total Est. Time: 0 minutes Total Est. Distance:0 miles