It was a balmy July night in Bneid Al-Gar, a neighborhood in Kuwait City overlooking the Persian Gulf. Kuwait could be oppressively hot in the summer but I recall summer evenings being tolerably warm and sometimes nice. I loved Kuwait at night. It seemed like the city lit up (especially during Eid), the lights from modern buildings and towers built in the 1970s and 1980s reflecting off the Gulf.
As my family and I waited for a taxi to take us to the airport, I craned my neck and stared at our apartment building. My family was embarking on a…
From the perspective of a UX research manager
Over the past year, I’ve written a lot about preparing for interviews for UXR positions. Here’s one spot where you can find all that content:
- UX research interviews: what to expect (part 1)
- UX research interviews: what to expect (part 2)
- What to expect from technical UX research interview questions
- For the love of God PRACTICE your presentations!
- How to Put Together a UX Research Portfolio Presentation
- Slide Design Basics … for UX Researchers
- Top 5 UX interview mistakes
And if you’re new to UX research, here are some books I’d recommend you read to help you prepare for your…
Fireplace progress, painting, and a fabricated bathroom countertop.
I’m less than 10 days away from moving in and this past week was a flurry of progress. I made a trip to the house almost every day this week to approve various decisions.
The most exciting thing to see come together this week was all the progress on the fireplace. The tile setters finished laying down and grouting the kasbah trellis tile from Fireclay. I absolutely love it and I’m glad I went with the tile setter’s recommendation of using a dark grout. Fireclay cautions against using dark grouts since they may bleed on the tile. But the tile…
Hello again! It’s time for me to update you on my home renovations in extraordinarily minute detail. It’s been two weeks since my last update … mostly because week 13 was very quiet but last week was very eventful.
Week 13: August 2, 2021
With all the delays in materials due to the pandemic, scheduling different subcontractors has been a challenge for my contractor. So this week the tile crew had a break as they worked on another project. Things were a little quiet this week but a few things were accomplished. …
Painting closets, cleaning the chimney, and installing bathroom tile.
We had a busy couple of weeks and the bathroom is slowly starting to look like a bathroom and not a construction zone. Here are updates from the last two weeks of renovations:
Week 11: July 19, 2021
This week, the crew removed the old mailbox and installed a new one. The contractor had suggested moving the mailbox to the other side of the door and I really liked that suggestion. But when we removed the old mailbox, we found an old mail slot behind it. When I saw it, I literally went inside to see if there was an opening behind it for the…
A tub, a new move-in date, and a structural report.
I know you’ve been waiting with bated breath for the latest updates in my home renovations.
Not so much? :)
In any case, the past three weeks have been very busy with various projects and decisions. So busy that I’ve been tardy with my updates both here and on Instagram. So here’s a recap of the past three weeks.
Week 8: June 28, 2021
I spent most of that week in Illinois visiting my mom. But a lot happened while I was away including the arrival of the much awaited tub!
Along with the tub, most of the shower fixtures and the sinks were also…
Tile progress and a missing tub
This week, the construction and tile crew got to work on the tile in the kitchen. I’m blessed in that the prior homeowner had done a lot of renovations to the home, especially in the kitchen. But I wasn’t in love with the kitchen backsplash or the kitchen pendants. A lot of people who saw photos of the house loved the blue tile and pendants but I found them a bit too Grecian/masculine for me. …
When I first started this publication/blog, my intention was to write about the process of renovating the house pretty regularly. Alas, between work, the actual renovations, and life . . . time got away from me. In this post, I’m going to try to recap the past six weeks of renovations … as best as I can from my memory.
Week 1: May 10, 2021
Whether it is the Vice President or a colleague, there’s no excuse for mispronouncing people’s names.
You may have missed it in the chaos of the 2020 Election and the pandemic but last October, David Perdue, a senator from Georgia, mocked Kamala Harris’ name at a Trump rally. After intentionally butchering her name, Perdue ended his remarks with, “I don’t know, whatever.” The crowd laughed because apparently being so ignorant (and arrogant) as to mispronounce an ethnic name is funny. Perdue’s people dismissed the whole incident because apparently Perdue didn’t mean anything by it.
But Perdue did mean something by it — else he wouldn’t have even bothered to mock Kamala’s name. By pretending that Kamala’s…
Hi,
We had the day off yesterday so an outing to Santa Cruz was in order. It was gorgeous! We even spotted an otter playing in Monterrey Bay. Before the pandemic, I always took the Bay Area’s proximity to beaches for granted. Now I’m really grateful that I can see the water within an hour’s drive. When I first moved to the Bay Area, I had this idea of trying to visit every nearby beach up and down the cost. I may resurrect that project this summer and fall.
I hope you have a great Memorial Day weekend and get…
