Beautiful spring weekend

What a wonderful weekend! It was the perfect temperature, and my friend from college, Maylene came and visited. Boston has a bike-share program called Hubway, which has usable bikes docked all around the city and is rentable for just $5/day! What a deal! We biked along the Charles River, and it was just perfect!



Dinner party!

Justin stuffing the chicken according to Jake's tyrannical kitchen commands.

Book planter DIY project

Made using a book from the thrift store, some rocks from a nursery, and the succulents Nari and Chi brought me from California!

Mt Auburn Cemetery

Mt Auburn Cemetery is the nation's first park-cemetery. Meant for the dead, but built for the living. I spent a nice peaceful adventurous afternoon there.




Wild animal siting! :P


Chapel inside the cemetery

Boston Post-Monday

Last week's events shook up Boston considerably, but the city's residents responded by coming together in the least cliche of ways. People tried to keep each other informed, and talked about the latest updates on the subway, on the bus. The police even decided to use crowd-sourcing as a way of identifying and capturing the suspects. Twitter, which I don't have, but my roommate has, was incredibly informative, as reporters on the front-line were tweeting instantly.

A tall MIT building that is visible from the Boston side of the Charles River changed its colors to show its patriotism.

Cape Cod Vacay

A little outing to Cape Cod for Cecil's bday weekend. :) I went down to New Haven on Friday for the celebration with his friends, and then we took a road trip that stopped at Newport (where there's giant mansions along the ocean cliffs) and various beaches in Cape Cod. A little bit cold, but on the upside, it was uncrowded!

Running away!

April Goals

I'm not doing quite so well with this goal thing (especially since it's already halfway through April) but I'm still trying to keep up with it!
March Goal Progress: I've been pretty good with salsa, going to lessons almost every week, and also going to the social dances on Fridays (so far, it's been my only Friday night activity). I didn't get as far with SQL because after that small portion of my project, I didn't need it anymore, so it was hard to justify work hours to devote to it.


Professional Goal:
VBA: VBA is a language used to build macros in Excel and Powerpoint. I've already started learning it (and master it!) by working on my current project. I wrote a code that allows me to format, copy, and paste charts, words, etc from my excel sheet to my powerpoint presentation, at which point, I have a separate macro that puts it into the exact same position each time. Horray for time saved!

Personal Goal
Bragging: I've realized that I don't give myself enough credit for the work that I do. Like many people, I'm my own harshest critic, and I'm trying to actively change how I judge myself. I've been reading "Lean In" by Cheryl Sandberg, and what strikes me from her book is how great the difference is between how men and women perceive themselves. Women just are so much more likely to be riddled with self-doubt. For example, men are more likely to reach for opportunities that they want and learn the skill on the job, while women only reach for opportunities once they feel ready. At Google, where people are encouraged to suggest self-promotions, men are way more likely than women to submit their own names. Men feel qualified for jobs when they meet 60% of the requirements, while women feel like they need to meet 100%. As a self-doubting woman, I don't know how men do it. But it would be such a blessing to have that kind of confidence (not arrogance, just confidence). So I start with a baby step, learn how to brag.