Piya's Perspective

I am happy to say that thanks to my friend Stephanie, I have a garden this summer.  A couple months ago, we planted Tomatoes, Eggplants, and some peppers (Bell peppers, Chili Peppers, and Jalapenos).  At some point, not too long ago, we discovered what we thought were green peppers are actually Banana Peppers, which are just a bit spicier than bell peppers.

Anyway, I have been making it a point to walk by the garden 2 – 3 times a week before I leave the house, and this morning I saw a few things definately worth picture taking (must do this tomorrow morning).

Early Girl Tomatoes:  They’re currently in all different stages of ripeness, there are a few green/orange tomatoes that just look really cool.

Beefsteak Tomatoes:  One tomato started growing long before any others on this plant.  Actually about the same time as the first Early Girl tomatoes.  It isn’t visibly ripening yet, but I think it may be done growing – finally…it’s HUGE!  About the size of one of my hands in a fist and the other covering it.  Not quite sure how we’re going to get it off the plant.

Eggplant: It’s growing! It’s growing!  I just saw the beginning of 2, possibly 3 eggplants actually growing this morning!

Super Chili: Looks like a little plant on fire.  A few bright red peppers, a few orange, a few yellow, and I think there may still be a few green.  Mmm…mmm…mmm.  A few weeks ago, Stephanie touched a red one, washed off her hands and then touched her contact.  Her eye was bright red for the rest of the afternoon.  Don’t think it dissolved the contact…

”Naked News” is moving to London.  I watched Naked News online once, about 2 or 3 years ago.  It was…interesting.

A short break from work and ooh…here’s promise…

“Stokowski had heard that Disney was preparing an animated short of “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice”, which was to feature Disney’s first star, Mickey Mouse, who had begun to decline in popularity.” – http://members.tripod.com/~vibgyor/Fantasia/fantasia.html

Congratulations to Donald Duck for making the Hollywood Walk of Fame at the age of 70!  My dad sent me a link to this recently, and today I noticed it made the MSN home page.  However, one line in the MSN article caught my eye. 

“A beaming Donald (actually someone in a duck costume) and Mickey Mouse were among those who attended the star’s unveiling…” 

The first thing I thought was, “They actually have to point out it was someone in a duck costume?!”.  Then, rereading it I noticed they didn’t make the same claim about Mickey.  So, if I understand it, the star of the event was an imposter, but Mickey is the real deal.

Ever since developing a fondness for Donald Duck, I haven’t been much of a Mickey Mouse fan.  However, I do like him in one feature – The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.  I will admit that this is partially because of the reason for its addition to Fantasia.  I heard it said in a “making of fantasia” special (or something similar) that one of the reasons they added The Sorcerer’s Apprentice to Fantasia was because Donald was becoming “too popular” and Disney felt the need to turn the attention back to Mickey – his star.  I have not been able to find any support for this claim (though I haven’t tried hard), but I did find the following…

“His fiery temper endeared him to audiences, and in the 1940s he surpassed Mickey Mouse in the number of cartoons reaching the theaters.”  – Disney Archives:  Donald Duck

And…well…Fantasia was released in 1940, I believe.  So, it’s possible that the dates are a bit off, but one day, I will find proof :).

A few months ago, I had the following conversation about my neighborhood with a co-worker…

“Oh, right, where the juvenile detention center is.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, I remember driving past that when I was younger.“
“I’ve seen the sign ‘Echo Glen Children’s Center“ but thought it was a daycare or something.“
“I’m pretty sure it was a juvenile detention center.“

Or at least, that’s close to how the conversation went.

Anyway, for the last few months, I’ve been meaning to look it up on the internet – not quite brave enough or have the time to take the dead-end detour to see the place.

Last night, I finally did just this…went to google and searched on “Echo Glen Children’s Center”.  I didn’t actually read the first link I followed, and after clicking around the site a bit, found myself at the home page for the Issaquah School District – that doesn’t scream juvenile detention center to me.  After returning to that first page however, I actually read the first sentence…

   ‘Echo Glen is Washington’s juvenile detention center.’

Washington’s juvenile detention center?  Yes…down the street from where I live is the educational juvenile detention center for the entire state of Washington.  Ahh…what a lovely thing to learn.  At least the picture makes it look nice.

Last year, King County was trying to find a location for a Sexual Offender Halfway House, and North Bend was on the list of options.  Luckily a two-story warehouse in South Seattle was chosen instead, but being in an area that is considered for these types of buildings only goes to show how much Puget Sound is growing and that what used to be considered “the boondocks” is getting eaten up by residential neighborhoods.

My review the other day wasn’t much of a shocker.  I was hoping for slightly better and definately hoping for a bit more of a raise, but all-in-all it was a good average review.  My review was much shorter than the other team members, but that’s understandable given that I had no need to talk about future goals – I’m not only off her team, I’m in a different company department.  It was nice to hear some of the positive feedback from other’s.  I was told that feedback was requested from the team lead, the dev lead, and my new boss.  Plus, it was really nice to hear that the client I dealt with made a point to call my last boss after a conversation with me to say what a great asset I was to the account.

After my review, I talked with my current boss to go over a couple of issues we had talked about previously.  I received what I pretty much expected…the company will pay/reimburse me 100% to take a series of testing methodology series at BCC, and we’ll reevaluate my position in 6 months to determine if my salary matches the knowledge and experience I demonstrate within that period.  Here goes to putting in the 110% percent effort I should have been doing for the last few years and just haven’t felt motivated to perform…

My performance review is in just over an hour.  Not sure what to expect.  For most of last year, I reported to an out-of-state manager – tho the team lead was in the office and I have no doubt provided feedback for the team members’ reviews.  This will be my first and last review with this lady.  She wasn’t my manager at this time last year (or maybe I was just transitioning to her team) and she is no longer my boss as of a month and a half ago.  She is extremely nice and I do hope to continue working with her, but it is very difficult to be a long-distance manager.  In the past 9 months that I’ve worked under her, I’ve had one one-on-one with her.  I never really established any goals under her other than needing to figure out what kind of work I was interested in doing.  She knew I wasn’t thrilled with the data analysis reports, but she also needed me on her team.  And, as I expect of a good manager, she recently helped open a door for me – pointing me to a new position that is a better match for my skills and interests, and a future in which I’m excited to explore.  I recently met with my new boss and established goals for the future…in an hour, I’ll meet with my last boss, review my past.   

Playoffs continued this weekend and we survived!  Two nail-biting games.  This league has double-elimination playoffs.  Having already lost one playoff game, each game we play could be our last.  Game 1 went extremely quick – score was 1-0 for quite a long time and the final score was 5-4.  Game 2 (a rematch of our first playoff game) went slower, and we actually got behind early in the game, trailing 9-4 by the third inning or so.  However, we managed to comeback and win by a couple runs…I think the final score was somewhere around 14-12.  Next game we play is a rematch from last wednesday…we go up against the season’s first place team, and hopefully we’ll have a better game than we did last week.  We will be missing our starting pitcher and one of my better lead-off hitters, but as long as everybody else shows we should be good.  And, even if we lose, I’ll still be extremely happy with our season…there are only 3 teams left including us.  The winner of our next game goes on to the championship game.  I’d love to win it all…but my goal at the season start was to at least get to where we are now.  Everything else is frosting.  Yay, Trouble!

My home community, Snoqualmie Ridge, made it to the front page of the Seattle Times yesterday.  I’ve only had time to skim through it, but looks like a good article.

Went to Chicago this past weekend for a friend’s wedding.  The ceremony was beautiful and the reception was wonderful.  Dan and Kathleen both looked magnificent, and it was great to see Dan smiling and seemingly enjoying the night.  Being an interfaith wedding, it was interesting to see what religious traditions were brought in from Judaism and Christianity.  And, I was highly amused with yet another reason for the groom breaking the glass, “It’s the last time he gets to put his foot down.“

For dinner, I ordered the Trout Almondine, which was supposed to be delicious.  It was, but I wasn’t quite prepared for the presentation.  I had to cover up the eye so the trout wasn’t looking at me.  Apparently one table sang “Roly Poly Fishheads” and hid the heads under the teacups.  And I was also told there was some incident with a fish eye going down somebody’s shirt/blouse — OOPS! :).   

Sunday, Ari and I had a nice lunch with Vik and then we were able to enjoy some conversation time with my friend Moshe.  It was great to see him.  I probably should have done something to visit Mike’s family, but…oh well.  *sigh*  Time to make some phone calls this week and get in touch with some friends I haven’t spoken to in way too long.