Tuesday, December 3, 2024
Medium bowl of oatmeal with milk, flax meal, cacao nibs, toasted shaved coconut, sliced and toasted almonds, diced half banana; hot water. Patrick and I both set up our new iPhone 16 Pros. Mine took about 40 minutes. So many screens to walk through! Walked and rode Muni to UCSF Mission Bay. Before boarding, I found that Muni passes I had purchased earlier no longer appeared in the app on my new phone. I paid via Clipper card instead. Along the way I encountered and waved to James K. At work I encountered many overlapping problems, many related to the new phone. There was a problem reserving the huddle room I chose, but I resolved that with Alyscia R. Duo authentication wouldn't work, and I had to call the IT Service Desk to resolve it. However, I didn't have a telephone in the huddle room I was in, and cellular reception was spotty. Wifi was also spotty, so I spent several minutes trying different huddle rooms and then simply getting plugged in to ethernet. Eventually I got my Duo problem resolved, but I don't know exactly how. The IT support person removed a phone number from my account, and this created a problem later when I did not receive Duo alerts as expected. Siteimprove linkchecking, spellchecking, and policy work. pcard paperwork. Updated the PharmD website due to the application deadline passing. For today's office winter holiday party, we took over the 3rd floor hotel hub, which is normally a semi-public space for anyone at UCSF to use. James J, Shalimar S, Karen G, Sahru K, Alesia W, and a few others were the main organizers of the event. Everyone on the tower floor was invited, and I personally invited Bernard from floor 4 to crash. I set up the music from my 16-inch MacBook Pro which has surprisingly good speakers. I used Amazon Prime Music, playing Preservation Hall Jazz Band at first before Sharon asked me to switch to a playlist called Relaxing Smooth Jazz which seemed to work. (We intentionally avoided Christmas music because not everyone celebrates it.) Attendees received one raffle ticket for attending, another raffle for dressing festively (which included wearing a provided reindeer or other sparkly or decorative headband), and (I think?) another for entering the baking or ugly sweater contests. One small room held desserts in the baking contest. Another small room held drinks and desserts not entered into the baking contest. The large room held the buffet lines—schwarma wraps, salad, tacos, burritos—and various tables and eating areas. Jen C and Sharon Y (and maybe someone else?) were the contest judges, locking themselves in the room while doing so. Sahru took first place in the baking contest with a fruit tart. Angelie took second place with chocolate pinecones. Karen took third with a dark chocolate bundt cake topped with raspberries. The prizes were Amazon and Target gift cards in varying amounts. There was also an ugly sweater contest, but I must have stepped out for a moment at the time and didn't hear who won. Suzan and Maggie won raffle prizes not part of any contest. Updated the Office of Administration web page and orgchart for Angelie: new hire Wan-Yu L who replaced Judy C. Followup with Jeff N about gathering more data for his new person page. Completed setup for a new form in Drupal to send results to Asana. End of work day. On the Muni T train I encountered Wan-Yu again. We sat together near a dog named Jack (whose name was written on his harness) and a skateboard both of which were owned by a man with his head down while playing (I think) a Nintendo Switch almost the entire time. Jack was on a leash, but the owner was not holding it. Jack was surprisingly quiet and mostly well-behaved for being largely unsupervised. Jack had smelled and was interested in the desserts I was carrying, but the owner looked up for a moment and said a few words and Jack released his interest. Wan-Yu and I chatted about all kinds of things: dogs, cats, pets, volunteering, hamsters, commutes, personal safety, the holiday party, meal planning, journals, memory, recordkeeping, and more. Along the way, the train stopped for a long time—perhaps 10 minutes. Eventually the operator said there was another train stopped in front of us, which wasn't any help. The train eventually started again with an apology. When we alighted at Powell Street Station, Jack and his owner also alighted, and we were surprised and amused to see Jack run far ahead while carrying his short leash in his mouth. Some others walking nearby weren't sure of what to make of a largeish, unleashed dog, but I could tell that Jack would not harm anyone. Dinner at home with Patrick: crab cakes with mac and cheese and peas, hot water. Afterwards we talked about the day's many events. Patrick went to bed. Finished configuring the new iPhone 16 Pro and ensuring that all apps worked as expected. It was a lot of work—several hours. I washed dishes.