Reading the fine print

I don't know about you, but I have a tendency to pay the majority of my attention to fine prints on receipt, emails, advertisements, etc. This is more of an adapted habit after a number of commercial traps I feel into. Originally it was a good thing to pay enormous amount of attention to fine print -- so that I do not get tricked again; know the limitations of a seemingly good deal; do not look like a fool when confronted otherwise, etc. However, sometimes reading of the smaller and lesser important font might not always be a good thing.

In a recent email from administrative assistant about weekly meetings going to be held, I opened the email thinking the meeting is going to be held at normal time. The first rough scan of email I immediately started reading the un-emphasized lines, completely ignoring the bolded, underlined, red fonts listing the re-corrected time and place of the meeting. Of course we all want to read what we want to read to constantly prove that we are right, I ignored the "instead of" from the email, and went ahead for the preparation with the original time. Only later after running frantically around the lab did my confused coworkers reassured me that the meeting was, indeed, at a different time. It was a definitely an awkward situation, and again I felt like a fool when confronted that I was wrong. So I just concluded that there is no right things in life. Would that be a little extreme?

StateFarm

There are times that I was clueless about some of the major companies that exist in today's society. Apparently there is a major auto insurance company called StateFarm. The first time I came to its exposure is when I was conversing with one of my ex-roommates whom I did not get along with. From my perspective, she was cranky, self-absorbed, passive-agressive, etc. I'm sure from her perspective I was the same. Flash back to the beginning of a fun summer break after a hard working college year, I was asking her about her summer plans out of curiosity. And the conversation goes like this:

"Are you doing anything for the summer?"

"Yeah, I'm gonna work for StateFarm."

"Oh cool, what kind of work are you going to do?"

"Just some filing and organization."

"Oh cool, so what kind of vegetables do you guys grow?"

And I never heard from her again. For a while I was confused as to her lack of response, only later I was so curious to look up online of what kind of vegetables do StateFarm grow. Indeed, they don't grow any vegetables, nor any animals of that sort. Thinking back to the currently situation, I wasn't sure if she took it as my attempt to disrespect her or if she through it was just plain cluelessness.

Bistro Francais in Georgetown, Washington D.C.

Among the crowded but gradually declining M street long sits this classic authentic French restaurant, Bistro Francais. I have been to this restaurant a couple of times, mostly due to finding emergency food after a tiring shopping streak, or the foodie frantic restaurant week. Both times I had a peaceful, yet non-significant dinner. 

Seasonal Vegetable Soup was okay. I usually prefer soup that is a little clearer, and more broth-like. So instead of creamy and cloudy soup that is filled with many different ingredients, I normally go for the broth that is simple. Therefore due to my unique preference in soups, I would only give this soup an okay.

Minute Steak Maitre d’Hôtel: Bistro style sirloin steak topped with parsley butter & french fries. This was a great dish. The beef steaks were not grilled too much to be considered a kebab, which is something that I often wonder. The tomatoes were flavorful and juicy, onions were under grilled and spicy. Beef steaks were also on the rare side and juicy.

gbAMSA Clinical Fellow Panel design

I didn't try very hard this time. There are two versions for this flyer. I personally really like the second one, but the first would do the job to catch the eyes of the general public.