My job

I'm realizing today that I am really lucky to have such a great job. My job at Xerox is a financial analyst. Right now I am building tools to automate tedious tasks. It's fun because I get to use skills from my BS in Computer Science that I haven't used in a while. Eventually I'll get to use some analytic skills from the MBA degree. Plus, my boss and co-workers are very cool, and allow you ample time to work on things and are just all around good people. Plus, I get to work from home from time to time...like today. ;-)

What an awesome weekend!

Alright, so this weekend I set out to visit my friend Bob who lives in Albany. The plan was that Friday I would get up there, we would just drink and chill that night. The next day we planned to go to the Yankees game in NYC. The drive to Albany was fine, no problems at all. So I start unpacking my stuff for the weekend. About an hour after getting to Bob's, I realize I made a huge mistake! I called up my girlfriend in Rochester and said "Honey, I made a big mistake...". She thought I was going to say that I cheated on her or something, but no, this was just slightly less worse than that. I said "Baby, I forgot the tickets at home!" You wouldn't believe that I have the best girlfriend in the world if not more than 30 minutes after telling her this, she was on her way to drive the tickets directly to me. Albany to Rochester is a good 3 1/2 hour drive mind you, so this is nothing to sneeze at, plus she started driving at around 9PM at night. Sweetie, if I haven't said it enough I LOVE YOU....you were definitely a life saver this weekend!!!!!

So, Melissa and her friend spent the night at my friend Bob's house. Early the next morning they took of to visit Melissa's brother in CT. Bob and I spent the morning playing video games. Then we drove to Yankee Stadium, got lost in the Bronx (which was a little scary), but eventually found a parking spot.

SO then the game started. The Yanks started off great...Jeter's first at bat home run, next up...Giambi..home run! Back to back homers to kick of the first inning. That's about it though for highlights from the Yankees, after that they totally sucked. Johnson's pitching was awful...he gave up at least seven runs in the first seven innings. It only went downhill after that...the final score was 19-6. One of the worst games I've ever seen, let alone attended. Oh well - it was still fun going, it was something I've always wanted to do.

The next day, I meet Melissa on the NYS Thruway and we drove back together. It was a crazy but yet fun weekend....I wouldn't have it any other way.

melissa's b-day

This was the weekend of Melissa, as we celebrated her 24th birthday. We went to Letchworth on Saturday with about 20 other people. Fun was had by all. People went for hikes on the nature trail, people went off the nature trail and walked on the edge of the waterfall, and others scaled down the cliff of the opposite side of the park for a unique view. We had some hots and burgers, and drinks. The weather couldn't have been nicer too. I should put up some pictures soon...come back for those.

$$ Gas Prices $$

So, I've been thinking about gas prices lately and how much they have gone up. One of the things I've noticed is that the bands of variation in price fluctuations increases as the price is higher. For example last week, a gallon of gas at the local Delta Sonic cost $2.72, today a week later that price is up to $2.89. More than a $.15 hike in a week. Besides the price of gas continually going up, I think we will continually see major jumps like this. Oil prices depends on a number of things including supply, the world's demand for oil, and fear. That's right, fear is a signicant reason for the jump in price per barrel. Fear over terrorism, over lack availability contribute. Last I heard it was something like it adds $10-20 to the true price of a barrel of oil.

I'm also sure that the technology exists somewhere to make cars much more fuel efficient, getting much better mpg. However due to current political agendas and various lobbyist concerns (big business), people will never see this new technology. Its not until years and years after a known issue becomes a large problem, when the government may begin to seek change (such as what happened with the global warming issue). Scientists have known we are destroying the environment with fossil fuels and other hydrocarbon pollutents, but the true extent of the damage never really gets out to the public due to lobbyists agendas (comming from tobbacco, oil companies, car companies, etc...) All of which do not want things to change immediately because it may impact their business now.

I'm not really sure where i was going with this, just sucks that gas prices have to be so high. And I'm not really complaining that much cause my Saturn gets great gas mileage (about every 300 miles per refill), I feel bad for other people who dont have as fuel efficient vehicles. My next car will likely be a hybrid.

Plant Progress - Day 21

I didn't forget about the plant (in case you were wondering). It has been doing very well, and 12 days after my last update I present you with...Plant Progress Day 21!

whistling

I have been trying for a while to learn how to whistle using finger, you know the kind that makes a really loud noise. Well after many attempts, I figured it just wasnt happening. SO being the dork that I am, I looked it up online. Here's what came up in Google. I did manage to get a few whistles out of it...so i guess you can say today was a success!

new jersey

My roommates and I decided that we would take a little trip this past weekend. We went to see a few bands by the names Deathcab for Cutie, and Franz Ferdinand. I'm not big into either of these bands, though I have heard a few of their songs, which are for the most part good and enjoyable. I mostly decided to go on the trip for a chance to get out of Rochester for a while. The concert was in NJ. Getting to NJ was quite an adventure of its own. There was a freak snow storm, followed by hail in the middle of PA. This led to many accidents and turned-over vehicles, and general slowdowns. Once we pasted Philly, Camden was just a hop across some river (Delaware maybe?), then we had hours to kill before the start of the concert. This is what we did...

We parked near the Tweeter center, and across from our garage was this Aquarium. So we decided to check it out, at first we thought it would be expensive, which according to the main gate it was! It was like $16 per person, plus it said it closed at 5 (the current time was about 4). So we were like no way would we pay that much. So we went to the back and people seemed to be exiting a building. So we checked it out. This exit turned out to be the exit for the Aquarium, and other people were going in as some were going out. So we went in too. Man we're we suprised.

The first exhibit in the aquarium is the Hippo exhibit. Hippos are ginormous! They are also suprisingly very graceful underwater, which was a very cool feature of this place, to be able to see them swimingly underwater. We then checked out other things such as octupus, seahorseas, and jellyfish. But the coolest part was a walk through shark exhibit, where you walk through a tunnel, and sharks are literally swimming all around you! It was pretty amazing.

After that, we were really hungry, so we decided to get some eats. Frank saw a couple of girls and yelled "Hey, do you know where we can eat?" They said they were looking for a place too. So we tagged along, introduced ourselves, and made some friends. We searched for quite a while, because little did we know Camden is really really rundown. We walked down whole city blocks that were completly deserted and boarded up. We found one restaurant at the end of a series of deserted buildings. We went in and ordered some food. The food turned out to be not so bad, it was a small old fashioned Italian joint.

We then went to the concert, and continued to hang out with our new friends. We didn't go to our assigned seats, but it didn't matter. It was all fun. The ride home was pretty exhausting. We left NJ at around 11:30 and got to NY around 4 am. Around Syracuse I noticed TJ driving more erratic than he had the last few hours, he started breaking for no reason. When asked about this later he claims he saw "Arms growing out of the truck ahead of him" and "Shadows that I thought were people". So I drove the rest of the way home after that, we got back to Rochester around 5:45 am.

All in all, an awesome trip! I will put up some pictures as soon as I get them from TJ. Oh! And I was talking to someone later about the trip, and they informed me that they were from NJ and that they avoid Camden whenever possible. When asked why he said because it is America's Most Dangerous city. Camden Who knew we were risking our lives walking through Camden?

Plant Progress - Day 9

Plant progress - Day 9.

Today was fun, we went to a party for my grandma at my aunt's house. We played frisbee and hung out outside. We had a nice dinner, got to see family and it was a lot of fun.

Plant Progress - Day 8

Here it is again, another exciting episode of Plant Progress - Day 8

boxing and sunny fun

I went to RIT today to work out, but got a little sidetracked. I remembered hearing someone say that RIT had a boxing room, so I decided to ask about it. Indeed they had a boxing room, said the friendly sports equipment room girl. So I thought I'd give it a shot. Boxing is tough! You gotta be at the top of your game to be good at it. Some of the bags I could barely hit, if they were moving. I tired myself out after about 30 mins, and 3 bloody knuckles later. I returned the key to the boxing room, and asked the friendly sports equipment room girl for a basketball instead. That was slightly easier than boxing. It was also beautiful out today and anyone who was inside all day, I feel sorry for them.

Plant Progress - Day 7

Plant Progress - Day 7

Plant Progress - Day 6

Another exciting episode of name that plant! Plant Progress - Day 6.

Plant Progress - Day 5

Plant Progress Day 5, much like the plants outside, the indoor plant is doing well. It is gorgeous outside today, near 60 and sunny all day long. This is great. Don't forget, daylight savings time is April 2nd!

Plant Progress - Day 4

Plant Progress on Day 4. It's still grwoing nicely. :-)

Plant Progress - Day 3

Here it is as promised...Plant Progress Day 3! Sprouts are sprouting everywhere! Wooo.

Plant Progress - Day 2

Welcome to Day 2 of the mysterious plant progress. We are making some progress. There are some new sprouts as you can see. Check back tomorrow, for another exciting picture.

Tony Pepperoni's

Tried a new pizza joint today and man was it good! Tony Pepperoni's over on West Henrietta Rd. is amazing. The calzone was literally about 15 inches long. The mozzerella and ricotta and pepperoni were so fresh and good. I loved it. I'll definitely be going back there again soon.

Not much else is going on. School's going well, this quarter is not nearly as stressful as last quarter. Tonight Pete and I are going to jam out in my basement. Should be fun.

Plant Progress - Day 1

So, I got a plant recently (about a week and half ago) and have been taking good care of it. I have been watering it daily and it sits besides my bed, on the windowsill to get plenty of light. I have been waiting patiently and my patience is starting to pay off as little sprouts are starting to show. So here it is...Day 1 of Plant Progress! To keep you guessing the specific kind of plant that I'm growing, you will have to come back every day to see the latest picture. If you feel like taking a guess, feel free to leave a comment. I'm pretty proud of this little guy. Enjoy! :-)

Chunky Monkey

My portfolio theory class today would have been chalked up as yet another boring lecture by a tenured egotistical professor who thinks more of himself than other people, if not for his sense of humor in it all. Some people may find his jovialness to be quite humorous on its own...while this is true try to picture in your head an almost 300 pound man with a silly mustache doing a little dance in praise of Ben and Jerry's ice cream flavors "Chunnky MOooonkey" mmmmmmm, "New York Super Chunk Fudge". This along with his little dance for the "Don't Worry, Be Happy" made my day.

update

How am I doing? Right now, I'm feeling a little better than the last few days. I've been getting over a pretty bad cold after going to NYC last weekend. Between all the cough medicine, several boxes of kleenex and bottle of advil - I was generally not feeling so hot.

I have to thank my gf, Melissa for taking great care of me though during that time. She would go out at 10-11 at night to buy more medicine or whatever else i needed. She's really the best.

I'm into my final quarter at RIT. Then its off to the real world to start my job at Xerox in downtown Rochester. Did I mention that before? Probably not. Last week I was offered and accepted a position at Xerox. I'm very excited and relieved to have a job before commencement.

Still, waiting to get my books though. I dont understand how it could possibly take so long for the sellers on half.com to ship them to me, its been a week and half now! I've only received 1 of the 3 that I ordered. I'm going to have to go purchase one of the books from the bookstore, and then hopefully return it within 7 days (if my other book comes).

Last night me and my buddy Pete jammed out in our basement. He brought over all of his equipment, which was almost everything but the kitchen sink. We played on a full drum set, and a Peavey 5150 amp. It was sweet... more to come im sure, maybe when im not so out of it.

sabres game

This weekend was fun. We went to see the Buffalo Sabres. The trip was part of an RIT hockey trip, which included transportation, a dibella's sub, 100 level seating. It was a lot of fun. The Sabres won 5-3 over the Panthers.

Since then has been kinda a blur. Someone mentioned yesterday that the pace of RIT is kinda like a sprint except that it is 26 miles long sprint. I think this is pretty close. I am feeling a little better than a few days ago, 4 projects down, 4 projects left to complete. I should be done with one more after Saturday. So still trying not to go crazy. 2 more week...here we go.

end of quarter craziness

I'm trying to survive this quarter, things are looking good but very busy. We are doing a group survey for the Red Wings. We need people to fill out this survey asap. Please if you have a few minutes please fill this out, I'll be your friend! :-) It should only take about 5 mins to complete. We desperately need responses. Thank you so much in advance.
http://clipboard.rit.edu/takeSurvey.cfm?id=342348

my first blog

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to post my first blog on my site, Jimsiena.com. I'm really busy right now with school, I have less than 3 weeks left to go and 8 projects left to complete. Hopefully by this weekend that number will be down to 5. I feel like I'm going crazy trying to keep everything together sometimes. The only thing keeping me going is knowing the end of the quarter is almost here. Please pray for me!
~Jim