Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in v_rabbit's LiveJournal:

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Wednesday, December 16th, 2009
11:16 am	How cold is cold? The heat in our old office building, dating from WWII for sure, hasn't been working since the beginning of the winter. We were told that there is no estimated date of repair. We had to make do with some space heaters and we recently acquired some radiator heaters which work much better. I also got an extra pair of long underwear. Since some people were complaining that they felt uncomfortable, I guess the head honcho felt somewhat guilty and was wondering "how cold is cold?" before leaving for his Christmas vacation. I've seen OSHA's recommendations for 68-79 temperature range but no regulations on that. Anybody knows? I don't know if government regulations apply since we are technically military. There is talk of relocating "scientists" to the library so that they will give extra heaters to the office staff. The "scientists" could as easily work from home but this never came up. I guess in this economy, a job without heat is better than no job so I avoid speaking up on this issue in general but if there was a regulation somewhere, I will be sure to forward it. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, December 15th, 2009
4:45 pm	Venting some steam For some reason, our old building (WWII?) does not have any heat since the beginning of the winter. I would expect somebody to tell us to be free to work from home since we can easily do that (reading papers and such). But no. Our boss (who does not have a sense of humor) even talks of relocating us to the library if it gets too cold. It's the government so I don't know why they don't get things fixed quicker. It's not that it costs too much. There is not even an estimated time on when it will get fixed. Is that how we are fighting in Afghanistan? Current Mood: annoyed (Comment on this)
Wednesday, November 25th, 2009
1:54 pm	Miscellaneous Here's a few things going on with me. o Still no heat at work. I'm taking today, Wednesday and Friday after thanksgiving off. Hopefully, it will be fixed by then. If not, what will it take for somebody to tell us to work from home? o The LJ emacs interface seems to work, so I'm posting more daily news here. My "ideas" blog is at Blogger's for the moment. o I still have static on my phone despite getting new filters from Mikey. Another pesky problem to ruin my thanksgiving weekend! Not sure if that interferes with internet speed. o I got the red cellophane rolls. They are very very nice. Hopefully, I'll be able to sell some of those at the munch on December 4th at Tiffany's. o I did look up the sum of a geometric series in my calculus book, and the answer was right there! I don't think we went over that in my calculus classes. Not only that but I finally understood something basic about the learning rate decreasing to 0 as a condition for convergence in reinforcement learning. While doing my PhD I knew I should look into the limits of sums but never got around to it. What a race race! o I've also found our how to open a port in my linksys router. Port forwarding is called "virtual server" in my router. I'm now downloading torrents for the missing episodes of Lost Season 5 on Hulu. velvetine (Comment on this)
Sunday, November 22nd, 2009
7:10 pm	Static on my phone This weekend I had static on my phone. Mikey said that he had some filters that he wasn't using and I went by to get them this afternoon. Filters are needed to extract voice from signal data when the internet comes from the phone line as well as with Verizon DSL. Since it was a nice day, we went to get some gelato in Clarendon. There was some music in the streets. Mikey took my hand. I felt very happy. An eerie feeling, I must say. velvetine (Comment on this)
Wednesday, November 11th, 2009
12:01 pm	BR09 Formal Tea late notes It wasn't exactly like I thought it would be. They did explain that "formal" tea was different from say, "victorian" tea or "spanking" tea. It was mostly men serving mostly women so that didn't really work for me. Fortunately, somebody gave a ticket to Mikey and he came so that gave me a man to serve! Besides that, the best part was afterwards to eat those delicious finger foods. I found myself talking to a transvestite at the end so I was glad when that was over.  I do like the idea of serving tea though. I had an apron from my Halloween costume but I needed a short "formal" skirt. I'll think of something next time ... Current Mood: naughty Current Music: I dreamed a dream (Comment on this)
11:38 am	Quiet day at home today Ha! Today is Veteran's day and I thought it was going to be a very quiet day at home trying to catch up on reading some papers when I call a call from security at my visa card for some fraudulent transactions. I fell for a sort of phishing scam on tooth whitener! I got a unbelievably cheap sample at dazzlesmile.com ($1.97) but I'm getting recurrent transactions (varying amounts around $88.60) from other companies with names like "healthsmile". I should have known better not to keep on clicking! Stupid bunny! I did get the sample though but now, I'm concerned that it might not be entirely safe. I'll stick to hydrogene peroxide and baking soda for now. Miles to go before I sleep .... Current Mood: aggravated Current Music: I dreamed a dream (Comment on this)
Thursday, November 5th, 2009
11:22 pm	Sendmail configuration for Verizon Port 587 Verizon changed the listening port of its mail server around the end of October. I couldn't remember the exact date and didn't test my outgoing mail. I finally figured out that my mail wasn't going out. I scrammed tonight to fix it. Here's what I did: /etc/mail/access stays the way it used to be. I added the following to sendmail.mc that did the trick: define(SMART_HOST, `outgoing.verizon.net') define(ESMTP_MAILER_ARGS, `TCP $h 587') define(RELAY_MAILER_ARGS, `TCP $h 587') I then did a make and restarted sendmail. It didn't work before without the SMART_HOST definition. Phewww.... Current Mood: rushed (Comment on this)
Sunday, August 23rd, 2009
5:12 pm	Arlington County Fair I had a nice time at the county fair today. I had some spanish food, signed for health care reform (onslaught of junk mail), and finally went to see the games. I played this game consisting of inserting and shooting quarters so that a little steamroller would push quarters down my way. It took some time figuring it out but once I did, it was addicting. I used all the quarters I had ($5 ?) and got a pair of earrings and a little round spinning top in about half an hour of fun. Can't wait for next year! Current Mood: cheerful Current Music: Summer music (Comment on this)
Sunday, August 16th, 2009
2:02 pm	Eastern Market I went yesterday to have breakfast at Market Lunch in the Eastern Market with Mikey. I had green tomato benedict and Mikey had blue buck pancakes. We sat outside in the sun. After that we shopped a little and I got a Gramma Jose white tomato. It was delicious with some salad and garlic! Mikey got some heirloom tomatos of different varieties. I went back the next day, today, to the Flea Market. Interesting. There were some nice paintings of the DC area. Lots of made in india clothing and jewelry. There was some estate sales where I bought a necklace I liked for $2. Nothing real antiquy about it but it matched my outfit. Well, I should sell some stuff before buying more junk! Current Mood: calm (Comment on this)
Friday, August 7th, 2009
4:41 pm	2009 Go Congress It's at George Mason Univ. this year and I took some time off to go. I won my first game this morning! 1 out of 3! Tomorrow is the last round. I mostly win or lose because of stupid mistakes. I guess that's the case of most kyu games. Current Mood: upbeat (Comment on this)
Monday, August 3rd, 2009
9:51 pm	Flowers To make up, I've asked Mikey to bring me some flowers (and go to La Chaumiere) and not flowers from Costco. He brought me a dozen beautiful roses. They are very fragrant. Mango climbed on the brown chair to look at them. Maybe she thought they were a flock of cardinals? Current Mood: horny (Comment on this)
Saturday, June 20th, 2009
6:07 pm	les feuilles mortes The tide has risen again. Some sand castles will be washed out. Today Sarah moved to Bowie, MD. Although it's not that far, it's not 15 minutes away. It's the furthest she's been all her life from our house in Arlington. Coming back from visiting her in Bowie, I felt my heart tighten as I pulled onto South 13th Street. Ever so slowly, time washes away ties but memories remain strong. I've been involved in her life for too long. It's time to pull back. I love my solitude. "Les feuilles mortes" is playing but I notice that I don't have "Ma Solitude" from Jacques Brel. Current Mood: sad Current Music: Les Feuilles Mortes (Comment on this)
Friday, May 8th, 2009
10:09 pm	Edelweiss! Yesterday, I found an edelweiss flower in the backyard. At least I think that's an edelweiss. It does not look quite as in the pictures. Maybe it's a wild, poor cousin. Current Mood: calm (Comment on this)
Saturday, April 11th, 2009
8:06 pm	Passover 2009 .. v'higanu lazman hazeh. As our nuclear family sat together for passover, this never rang so true. Bob was back after many years in New England and his whereabouts are not settled yet. Sarah is talking about moving to Bowie, MD. It's not that far fortunately but farther than I would care. Current Mood: grateful (Comment on this)
Thursday, March 26th, 2009
8:44 am	Angry I am angry. Angry to have to find an area of research all alone by myself. Angry that the division director just bullshitted me when he said that I should repropose my cognitive map proposal when he had no intention of pushing it forward. I'm angry to have to work around this asshole, JMcL. I'm angry that I am in a bad bad place to do what I want. I know there is always a silver lining, but today it's hard to see it. Current Mood: angry (Comment on this)
Wednesday, March 18th, 2009
7:32 pm	Key West, FL I went on a very nice vacation for my birthday with my horny, horny goat, Mikey. We flew to Miami Airport and then took the Greyhound bus from Miami Airport to Keywest airport. We didn't know how to get the tickets for the bus since we didn't leave from a Greyhound terminal but Mikey got the tickets from the Washington, DC, terminal a few days before our departure. I slept all the way to Keywest since I didn't get a good night's sleep the day before. We stayed at the Merlin Inn in old town Keywest on Simonton street. That place was recommended by a suspoid, Beckie Hunter, and I wanted to continue the tradition sotospeak. I kept her email dated June 23, 2002. It was very comfortable. We had a four-post bed but no canopy. Mikey really liked the cat in residence. It was a big grey and white cat and very friendly. The inn served breakfast on the patio. It had a swimming pool too but we didn't take advantage of that. The weather was around 78-80 degrees by noon. It did rain in the morning a couple of times. We got there just in time to go to Mallory Square for the Sunset celebration. Before the sunset, there were performers on the boardwalk. One of them, Catman, did circus tricks with his cats like jumping through hoops of fire. He got a lot of applause. On the way back, we had the best key lime pie we ever tasted at Matthiessen. The next day we did the old town walking tour from the June Keith's book on "Key West and the Floriday Keys." The houses are spectacular ... and very expensive. There were some very cute tiny houses for, say, $600K. I got a sunburn while walking before I got myself a hat. I bought some key lime jelly and Mikey bought some hot sauce but he realized that we couldn't get them on the plane. So, we went to the post office and they gave us a box and everything we needed to ship them. We ate dessert at the "Better than sex" restaurant. I had a creamy key lime pie and Mikey had a chocolate bread pudding. Yum! Friday, we went down Simonton street to the beach but it was tiny and nobody was in the water. So, we walked over to the Butterfly conservatory. That was a very nice experience. Butterflies were flying every which way among tropical plants and there were also a few tiny birds. Enchanting experience. It was all enclosed like a greenhouse. We then went to the Hemingway House on Whitehead street. Pretty cool! We saw some six-toe cats. I didn't know that Hemingway was so handsome when he was younger. His study was nice too. A little room in the backyard. Then, we went to the beach at Fort Taylor. Very nice beach with white pine to retain the sand dunes. There were no big waves due to the piers on the sides and there were a lot of people in the water there. No lifeguard though. There was a pelican in the water next to me. Mikey said "a pelican whose beak can hold more than his belly can." Mikey didn't want to take a dip in the water though. The last night in Keywest, we went to eat dinner at the Blue Heaven restaurant. It was very enjoyable. I got tired of fish and had the Jamaican jerk chicken. The next day Mikey took the bus to get our rental car at the Keywest airport. We then drove to Big Pine Key. We went to the Blue Hole but didn't see any alligator. We then went till the end of Big Pine Key and took a trail. There is little dirt and the ground is mostly limestone with holes. A black snake was lying across the trail. That's when I decided that I wasn't going any further. We did see some cute Key deers. They are as big as dogs. In the evening, we went to the No Name Pub on the way to No Name Key. I got an excellent fried grouper fish. Mikey got a pizza. I also got a tee-shirt from there. It says "A nice place if you can find it." The next day, Sunday, we went to Bahia Honda. I was somewhat disappointed. There were 3 beaches. Only Calusa beach had swimmers but no waves (due to the piers built on the sides to break off the waves) and still no lifeguards. The beach was facing the Bahia Honda bridge. Mikey went on the parallel bridge that was built for the overseas railroad. We saw an iguana. Mikey took a dip once. I went in twice. In the evening, we went to see the sunset on the old Seven Mile bridge. We also saw some lights from the shuttle launch in Cape Canaveral. We didn't know what it was at first then I recalled hearing about a shuttle launch. Well, it was very very relaxing. We had wi-fi in both places and I was able to post the next session of my class online on my little netbook. I can now check Key West off my bucket list. I'm hoping to return, maybe with Sarah but if I don't, I'll remember the sunsets on the water and the key lime pie from Matthiessen. Current Mood: relaxed Current Music: dehumidifier humming (Comment on this)
Monday, March 2nd, 2009
3:24 pm	A bird fell down the fireplace It's snowing today and for some reason, there are lots of robin around the house. I noticed that Simbah was crouching in front of the fireplace. I got closer and could hear some faint noise. I wasn't sure if it was a bird or a racoon at first. Then, I could hear the fluffing of wings. The poor bird wasn't able to get out but was really trying. Suddenly, the bird was sauntering in the fireplace. I had the screen tight against the fireplace so it wouldn't go into the house but it wasn't tight enough and the bird escaped into the house. It started to slam from window to window. I opened a dining room window but the bird didn't see it. It then went into the TV room and perched on top of the litter box. Simbah was very close following its every move. The bird then went on the cat tree near the window. Mango came out to see what was the commotion about. She wasn't afraid or shy about that and the two of them seemed like two accomplices in crime. I opened the window and finally the bird flew out. I don't know what would have happened if I wasn't there. I don't think the robin was a match for the two lumps but it was a big robin. Before it was all over, two more birds got into the house. Fortunately, I came in time to open a window. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, February 25th, 2009
9:55 pm	Adversarial environments Today, I met MB of NDU at a seminar. He called me some time ago saying how hard it is for a woman to work with men (!). I thought he was trying to be nice to me but it was more like he was pitying me. I should have reacted faster but as always, I assume good intentions. Today, he said that I did not have to stay at NRL. Obviously, somebody must have told him about my fallout with Roger and Doug. I told him that I like NRL because I did not have to work against deadlines. I don't understand those people. Leaving a secure job in this recession, what is he thinking? he obviously doesn't want to help me but want to have a good conscience by providing advice and explanations that does not cost him anything. I do feel angry and also discouraged. I love doing research and solve problems. I hope I'll always do despite adversity. I have to be careful not to let those people affect me. Obviously, this is starting to affect me since I'm sharing this with you. I'm trying to keep up with the game of Go and try to pick up on the research later when I'll retire. I want to keep up with Lisp as well. Maybe Clojure. Current Mood: angry (Comment on this)
Monday, February 16th, 2009
11:30 am	21st Century I'm slowly copying my CDs into an iTunes library. That's what I've done most of this weekend and the last. I've the Ipod running right now. It does feel like coming through to the 21st century, almost 10 years later! Current Mood: cheerful Current Music: George Brassens (Comment on this)
Sunday, January 25th, 2009
2:40 pm	test upgraded to new version of LJ. C-c C-c does not work for me but C-c C-s works to submit. Current Mood: drained (Comment on this)