I read a book

I read The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. I was told that it would change my life. It didn't.

I'm not a literary critic but my major complaint was Rand's neglect for certain parts of the story. Like when Lucious Heyer dies and leaves Peter Keating with $200,000 in the 1920's. That was a huge sum of money, but it is merely mentioned and then doesn't seem to affect any aspect of his life.

The other thing that pissed me off while reading the book is the storyline between Peter and Toohey's niece Catherine. She appears and then disappears for years at a time. Then they get engaged but then on page 262 Toohey encourages Peter to go after Dominique knowing that he was engaged to his niece. On page 329 Toohey again has to be reminded that Peter was engaged to his niece but this is like 2 years later and there has been no mention of Catherine in between. Then on page 376 Peter and Catherine decide to get married the next day. That night Dominique proposes to Peter and he says yes despite that he is supposed to get married to another girl the next day. WTF? Then she isn't mentioned again for years.

But if they were in love before Toohey drove Peter towards Dominique why did years go by without them seeing each other. Also, why didn't she do anything except sit at Toohey's house and wait for Peter to show up? It was like 'Oh hey, by the way Peter is still courting this girl even though he promised to marry her several times but then never did but we're not going to talk about that for another couple of years until it is convenient'.

Also, she didn't mention the fall of the stock market in 1929. It was briefly touched upon a few years later that no one was building. I would think that the Great Depression would have a bigger effect on an Architect in New York City.

Texts with a stranger Part 2

So my new friend Joel texted me again this morning and a great conversation ensued. Only this time Joel texted me from a different number, which I thought was weird but he explains why. Read on.

Joel: hey it joel again !$exy time!
Me: Hey Joel. I gotta know, did Morgan agree to go out with you?
Joel: Is this morgan or brian !$exy time!
Me: This is Brian
Joel: o sorry brian who !$exy time!
Me: I don't think we know each other. Anyways did you ever get a hold of Morgan?
Me: She sounded like a babe when you called her 'sexy pants'
Joel: ya she said yea so wot ur last name !$exy time!
Me: Why do you want to know my last name? And what's which the new phone number Joel?
Joel: idk cause i want to meet u and this is my friends fone so waz the other 1 !$exy time!
Me: Why do you want to meet me? I already told you that I just see you as a friend.
Joel: ik i'm not gay i jus wana know ur last name come on please !$exy time!
Me: Perhaps sometime in the future once we're better texting buddies. Anyways do you ever get blackout drunk and hit on ugly girls? Because that's what I did last night.
Joel: how old r u !$exy time!
Me: 22. How old are you Joel?
--20 minutes later--
Me: Where did you go? Are you taking a really smelly dump? Because I don't mind if you text while you take a crap. Just as long as you aren't jerking it to my responses.
Joel: wot? !$exy time!

Texts with a stranger

248: Hey morgan it b joel booth how r u
Me: Hi. This isn't Morgan. I think you might have the wrong number
248: O sorry
248: Wot ur name
Me: Brian. Don't worry about the wrong number.
248: Hey do u wanna go out sexy pants
Me: I'm sorry Joel. You seem like a really nice guy but I've always seen you as more of a friend
248: Is this morgan?
Me: No man. It's not Morgan. It's a dude. A dude who doesn't want to go out with you.

Where Should I live?

I'm moving to the Seattle area in about a month and I still don't have a place to live. I'm planning on figuring that out once I get there, but I would like an idea of the location. So I am going to use some of my Industrial Engineering skills to figure out where I can live that will minimize transportation time and cost.

I figure that I have three destinations and their corresponding weekly round trips:
Work (5)
Supermarket/Shopping (1)
Downtown Seattle (.5)

I have a few towns that I could live in:
Bremerton
Bainbridge Island
Silverdale
Seattle
Poulsbo

Here is the breakdown of total weekly transit times in minutes for each location based on Google Maps directions:
Bremerton - 324
Bainbridge Island - 464
Silverdale - 183
Seattle - 660
Poulsbo - 244

I also want to look at the cost of transportation. This is the weekly cost of gas and the cost of riding the ferries:
Bremerton - 26.87
Bainbridge Island - 33.50
Silverdale - 13.44
Seattle - 74.20
Poulsbo - 18.71

This all assumes that the housing in each location is similar. It appears that Silverdale will minimize weekly transportation times and costs. The one downside of Silverdale is that it will make the weekend trips to Seattle a rather long trip.

Brian Makes Friends

What's weird is that I haven't made any new friends in about three years. I mean actually went out a met someone and became their friend on my own. I know that doesn't make any sense because I'm friends with tons of people I wasn't friends with a few years ago. But the difference - I just realized - is that everyone I've met in the last couple of years I've met through people. Most everyone I know I can trace back through other friends people.

Now that people have left town for jobs and summer I find myself down a few friends. But a couple weeks ago I was at beer olympics and was placed on a team with a couple random guys. We got eliminated early and I ended up drinking with these two 5th year seniors for a couple of hours. They were pretty cool, and I went home not thinking much of it. Over the next couple of weeks I saw them at the bar a few times. In spring term the crowds move between the bars depending on the day of the week. So I saw them at Mitch's on Wednesdays and The Jug on Mondays.

Last Wednesday Mitch's blew a circuit and weren't serving $2 pitchers and Peter and I were about to leave and the guys happened to be there and said they were going to grab a case and drink. We ended up drinking with them for another couple of hours and I think that I might have made some new friends. But I won't be official until we've exchanged numbers which would be way awkward. So perhaps I'll stick to the random bar encounters.

I seem to have a knack for meeting people right before I move out of town.

Not a great day

June 21 is my favorite day of the year. It is my favorite for two reasons. The first is that June 21 was always the beginning of the summer throughout my primary education. June 21st still means that the summer is just getting into swing and lazy days and the beach are in the near future. The second reason that I love June 21st is that it is the longest day of the year. I really love having the not set until 9:15 at night. I wish all days would be like June 21st.

Today was not a good June 21st.

I woke sideways on a bed in Las Vegas and was too drunk to tie my shoes. I then endured 9 hours of epic-hangover traveling to get back to Ann Arbor only to find that my room had been broken into. Luckily I had my computer with me, but even if I didn't I do have my much discussed computer lock. I'm not sure the total extent of what's missing but I can tell you I am down a Maglite, Airsoft pistol, switchblade and digital camera are all missing. The most disappointing loss though is my American flag with a semi truck superimposed. It will be missed. Also, let me know if any of your friends just picked up a totally sweet American Flag.

Brian Accidentily Makes $28

The University often sends me emails asking me to participate in research experiments. But because they need a certain number of people to show up they usually double book the sessions to ensure there are enough participants. For those who show up after the session is full they give them $5 for showing up and send them on their way. I have come to learn that it is much more lucrative to show up near the start time and get the $5 then to actually spend an hour on the experiment for the $15.

So today I was working up near north campus and my shift ended at 6:50 and there was an experiment that started at 7. I decided it would be perfect. I could stop on the way home and pick up a fiver and then use that to drink for free all night. That $5 would mean that I could have two $2 pitchers and Mitch's and even have enough for a dollar tip. Those are 60oz pitchers so I could have a great night out on the $5 from stopping on the way home.

When I got to the lab it turned out that they weren't full so I actually had to participate. The basis of the experiment was to study decision making where you sat at a computer and were put into random groups of 6 students. You then had to rank letters based on certain payouts depending on which particpants had the highest priority which changed often. It was a little too complicated to explain on here but the basic premise was that the better you were at ranking things with high payouts the more money you got for the experiment. I quickly realized that this was just game theory and with a little bit of strategy I was able to find the Nash Equilibrium. I was able to consistently get a high number of points. They said at the beginning that the average payout was about $15. I made $28. Too bad that because I am a university employee it will come in my next paycheck (with taxes removed). Unlike the $5 cash that I could have gotten.

So my scheme of taking the $5 by showing up late might not be as good as my scheme to dominate choice experiments.