Most Recent Fortune Cookie - The only normal people are the ones you don't know very well.
It came yesterday...booyah. I think my first mention of this controller happened in November 2002. And now I finally have my paws on it. The startup sequence is awesome. Take a look see.
| Dumbarton Bridge | 8,600 feet | $72.25 million |
| San Mateo-Hayward Bridge | 6.8 miles | $70 million |
| Bay Bridge | 23,000 feet (4.5 miles) | $77 million |
| Richmond-San Rafael Bridge | 4.04 miles | $66 million |
| Carquinez Bridge | .8 miles | $266 million |
| Benicia-Martinez Bridge | 1.2 miles | $25 million |
| Antioch Bridge | 1.8 miles | $36 million |
| Golden Gate Bridge | 2742.9 meters | $85.5 million |
I've finally gone on all 7 Bay Area bridges (well, actually there are 8 but the Antioch one is so small and insignificant...)! They are, the Bay Bridge, the Golden Gate bridge, the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, the Carquinez bridge, the San Mateo-Hayward bridge, the Dumbarton bridge, and now the Benicia-Martinez bridge. I'm sure eventually I'll use the Antioch one even though it's so small and out of the way. Martinez is like something out of the Industrial Age or a post-apocalyptic world. I kept saying,"I'm never living in a place like this." Near Martinez, I saw old warships and even a brontosaurus.
I was in San Ramon on Saturday morning. Had breakfast at this place called "Ruggies" that was pretty decent. Funny and ironic how last weekend, I hear "All My Life" play on the radio when I haven't heard that song for at least a year. As this guy with this big gut was leaving, he grunted to the people waiting near the door and said,"Sorry folks, it's all in me now...nothing left! Hahahaha!"
3 brothers was closed down that day for some lucky kid's birthday. I had to order to-go. Got shrimp with scrambled egg. Wish I could have gotten that beef stew dish that I usually get.
Went to Menlo Park on Sunday and visited Laura Sloan. Her place is so cool because it was filled with all these hiding places since it's a house with an attic and gables. Went to this little Italian place nearby called Trattoria Buon Gusto and had a Celentani alla Campagnola because they didn't have anything similar to Frutti de Mare. Watched Lost in Translation again. Like a fine wine it was. Laura's housemate had this Italian cookbook by Carla Capalbo. Everything had garlic in it. Looked so good. I like the idea of stuffed squid.
Why does the Verizon guy go,"Can you hear me now?" Shouldn't he be saying,"Can you hear me still?" There have been a ton of times where I move around looking for the best signal and saying,"Can you hear me now?" I don't get it.
I saw this lamp and appliance timer at Home Depot the other day and how it's supposed to deter thieves. Then I thought about Home Alone and how Culkin rigged the lights and dummies to fool the brothers that there was a party going on. THEN I thought, wait, there weren't a bunch of cars in the shot of the house. How can there be a party in that neighborhood without a bunch of cars outside. I'm just nitpicking really.
The Enter key stopped working in Windows for some reason. Plugging in another keyboard had no effect. The enter on the numeric didn't work either. I had to use the ALT shortcut. Googled it when I had a chance and apparently, there's a virus or spyware that somehow disables it EXCPET for in the address field of IE. Weird huh? More of an annoyance than anything else. Try programming without the use of the enter key. It gets pretty messy. Anyways, what I did was get rid of all the iexplorer.exe processes. Just in case, that happens to any of you. People recommended running SpyBot but my method seems to have worked without having to restart my machine.
Some days in the carpool area there are like 7 cars waiting, and on other days, there are 7 people waiting. Yesterday, there were 10 people waiting behind me.
I bought a TIGER LWL-A220 lunch pail. It's like the freakin Bentley of lunch pails. I've used it a couple of times already and it's pretty useful.
My cell phone plan is coming up soon. I'll probably end up sticking with AT&T for now to see where this whole AT&T/Cingular shebang is going. Want new phone NOW!!!
I've been really busy at work with program customizations . But still pretty stoked because I get to infuse a lot of creativity into it...
My XML Server Hard Drive Report generator works! It's streamlined and it's pretty slick. I'll get a small screenshot when I get a chance.
Yesterday, a garbage truck was going down powell towards the marina...and trash was just flying right off the truck due to crosswind. Really lame.
Johnny Depp's new movie,"Secret Window ", is based on this book that I read when I was a kid. I remember the story pretty well so I expect a lot from this movie. Very suspenseful and hopefully the ending won't be as lame as it could be.
I didn't leave work today until 9PM. I really wanted to get this feature working for E3 and must have spent 4 to 5 hours programming it in ASP. I started off in ASP.Net(which has some spiffy WebUIValidation script pre-done) then I realized that the production server E3 resides on had only ASP installed instead. Ergh...oh well. I had no music, no distractions, no nothing. Tomorrow's presentation in San Jose should be pretty darn impressive compared to their old solution provider. I'm not presentating but I'll be there to answer questions. Plus, there's going to be free lunch! I'm going to have to wear a suit and tie though. I think the last time I did that was for the interview. Haha.
Last night I had a looong talk with Nanny. I'm glad everything kinda worked out. Things could have gotten ugly....hahahaha jk. Sorry Fred, I just couldn't do it. :-p
I'm REALLY looking hard at this TV. 56" of glory. Toshiba Theaterwide HD57H83
Went to D&A Cafe yesterday with Lih-Chern. She hadn't been before so it was good to see yet another satisfied customer. I really should take Fred's advice and open up the food section to the database and stuff. It would be a really big deal though. Had Seafood with XO Sauce, Chicken with Ginger and Green Onion, and Beef Stew.
Pretty impressed with how far William Hung has gone. I might say though, that middle girl in the top pic is scary.
Ok ok...I stopped fighting against Steel Battalion. Next Thursday, it begins. I hear that the re-release has blue LEDs for the controller instead of the original green. Oooooh.
Last night, went to the Korean supermarket. Got 3 spinach bundles for $1. 10 green onion bundles for $1. Got mixed seafood packs for $1.99 each. Good stuff.
Went to Fentons with Lih-Chern and Jeff. I was supposed to go up with them to Tahoe this weekend but I decided no to cause I didn't want to get stuck up there. Plus, its always crowded on the weekends. Had a root beer float and a brocooli cream soup.
Stupid OCF was down again. Really lame. Well, it's free hosting so I can't complain. Or can I?...
Well, Dim Sum was a lot of fun. Went to the place that Margaret recommended and she was right. Really good stuff. Pretty darn crowded but there seemed to be a lot of carts to go around. Treated Fred to lunch and it was Leah's first time with Shark's Fin which she ended up not liking. More for me! It's too bad she eats Uni now. Hahaha. So dinner is a little sketchy at this place (little seawater shrimp); but their Dim Sum is alright.
Bought the Criterion Edition of "The Royal Tenenbaums" on the recommendation of Fred and Carl. Funny stuff. Liked it a lot. Have to see Bottle Rocket and Rushmore.
I can't believe Sushi House can be packed on Wednesday at 9PM. That's crazy. Still waited for 30 min. Crazy.
Well...I can't seem to get away from Steel Battalion. My hands must control a mecha warrior.
Hmm...I was mentioned in some of the old Berkeley SIMS Bailando->Flamenco Project talks. I'm even on their website. Ame, the grad student I worked for got her doctorate from Berkeley last year. Pretty crazy stuff. I'm interested in similar stuff so maybe years from now I'll call her up and ask for help on my thesis. Hehehehe.
Link 1
Link 2
Went up to see pretty much everyone in Davis this weekend. Carl, Walter, Wyle, Ryan, Blair were there and everyone just pretty much hung out, played music, and played "War of the Monsters" on the PS2. Carl's place is pretty amazing. They rented a 3 bedroom house so they have a living room, dining room, kitchen, garage, and everything else that goes with having a house. All for $1800 a month. "War of the Monsters" is pretty fun. Love playing the Praying Mantis. They even have this huge stop light sign that really works. One of the roommates apparently found it in a dumpster. So cool. Ended up staying the night at Carl's place in their couch-bed. Oh yeah I had sushi that night but it didn't really sit well with me afterwards. Not sure if it was the In-N-Out I had for lunch.
Yesterday, I got to see Balazs, a guy I haven't seen in at least a year. He came up for a friend's birthday and so had a day free. Went down to Palo Alto to pick him up and brought him to my apartment where we played DOA Volleyball (big surprise), Soul Calibur 2, Mario Kart, Mario Party. Lotsa fun. Went to Korean BBQ later with like 8 of his friends, Fred, Leah, and Nancy. Got to sit with the low tables which I actually requested this time. Got a lot of food which since I picked the place and I must say, that I did pretty well ordering the food for everyone. Took Balazs to the airport where I guess he bought a last-minute ticket back to LA.
The day didn't end very well for me cause I found out that someone I consider close to had decided to not tell me certain things. Consequently, I feel that I've been through enough and having friends like that isn't worth it. Really sucks. 2 Smirnoff's and a very understanding Moose Monkey helped me get over this. During dinner, I was in a kind of shock where I kept pushing things in the back of my mind. Thankfully, it was good food so it was easy to do that. hehe I would say screw secrets and screw people who keep secrets from close friends. Maybe I was deluding myself on that one. I forget way to easily sometimes. Should talk to Simon about this.
Anyways, today is Dim Sum with Fred. We're going to try to go to that place Margaret mentioned. Oh yeah, today is a holiday, so no work! :-D
Today (technically yesterday) was pretty exciting. I've been having trouble keeping up with the disk drive space on all the servers. I was evaluating a bunch of different software and I found 1 that was promising. It uses a licensing scheme which really sucks cause for the amount of computers we have, it would have been very costly. Still, it was a whole lot better than Belarc just on information basis alone. What was really cool was the fact that when it was run off the network, you could then compile a collection of complete hardware/software reports. The GUI was pretty sweet too. Still, that 5-user free limit bugged me. As I sifted through the data, I found out that the data was being stored in XML format. YAH!!! The openness of it was kinda shocking but so cool. That was yesterday. Today, when I popped in, I saw that my login script changes had netted me info on 20 or so machines plus most of the servers. It was about time I did some coding, so I started researching ways to pull data from the XML code and present the info I wanted. I figured the easiest would be a web report (maybe a Win app later to completely replace the pricey one). After working on it for hours and hours, reading through XML, XSL, the XML node language (XPATH, somewhat like LISP node jumping except easier), I finally got it to work. Got confused at one point because my node traversals didn't work. I wrote a straightforward XML/XSL report with a lot ofthings that should be looped hard-coded in so I'll have to look into it this weekend or next week. Plus I want drives that are low to come up in RED. So that was my APP IN A DAY. I'm going to work in my DHTML magic to make it look spiffy too. THEN, I'm going to write it in C++. MwAHAHAHA.
On the BART ride home, the car next to me became a "Party Car" which basically involves teenagers dancing around. They even got a Limbo thing going on with an umbrella. Pretty crazy.
After work, had dinner at D&A in Oakland with Fred and Margaret Chang(a person I knew wayyyyy back in middle school, went to Berkeley, but never saw). Had the usual, mayonnaise shrimp, seafood in XO sauce, but also a new thing, salt and pepper pork which was all right. I love the big portions there. Margaret told me that I should try the place nearby (with the tiny shrimp) for Dim Sum. Also to go to the 2nd floor. Ooo, going to forsake Tin's. haha
When I got home I brought out my old miniDV tapes and started watching them while working on the computer. Dang everyone looked so young. Lih-Chern said the stress had made us all older and I'd have to agree. So many good memories like Honda and Hiro singing Chicken Guys, Margaret (Yoon, darn now I have to differentiate, :-P) 's performance in Theatre Rice, the time at Great America where Honda couldn't take any more rides, Scott riding bikes all the way across the Bay to Tiburon with me, riding around Pixar, ahhhh.
If anyone is interested in the place I'm probably going to in October, here is a Googlelink. I'm kinda suspicious about the vibrant colors. I bet they put food coloring all over the place.
Well, I ended up cleaning up the apartment more than filing my documents last night. I really cleared the floor and vacuumed it all, it looks pretty neat now. It's easier to cleanup cause I leave the TV on and can still watch while the filing cabinet is in the closet so I really can't hear much while I'm in there.
Forgot my wallet at home today. Sux. Ate two corndogs.
Balazs is coming up today? Apparently so but I haven't heard from him. Must get info. Haven't seen him in a while.
The little onsite server (Roadito) we have to replace the old onsite server (Roadie) is pretty cute. Its in one of those micro-ATX cases. Sits there all quiet with its neat blue LEDs. :-D
So William is pretty famous on campus now. He had an interview in the Daily Cal. He's doing some singing in Clark Kerr. He has T-Shirts. :-P
Well, I recently bought a filing cabinet from a guy on craigslist for $30. 4 shelves, big, metal monster. Fit in the car just right though I had to roll the windows down a bit so that the corners could stick out. Consequently, I spent pretty much all last night organizing my stuff (I've never thrown away anything) into catagories for the hanging file folders I bought (25 for $3.50 at Office Max...I got 100). They're still some more to organize (old school stuff mainly) but most of it is done. I just threw away 4 large bags of stuff that I didn't need. I'm sure I'll throw away at least that much tomorrow.
After doing that, I took out the Taxes 2003 folder and started doing my taxes. I think I owe the IRS $400 but the state owes me almost $200. I'll probably have to increase my deductions on my federal so I'll get a nice refund like everyone else does. I told Chris that I only did 1 and owed but he also did 1 and said he thought he didn't owe. I'll have to talk to him about that.
I just noticed that nowhere on my diploma does it say "Electrical Engineering & Computer Science". All it says is that I got a BS in the College of Engineering. That's BS.
Nick was kind enough to give me an Indigo Gamecube controller he had saved for I guess no particular reason. That means by a stroke of luck, I have 4 distinctly colored controllers, black, silver, flame, indigo. Next time, Mario Kart is going to be a blast.
I can't believe that George Lucas had the gall to release Episodes 4,5,6 on DVD this year. You think people are going to get that and not wait a year or so to get ALL the episodes on DVD? Well, I guess some hardcore fans just gotta have their kicks. I'm waiting for that LOTR box set that just has to be coming out soon. Must remember to see if Family Guy is going to be cheaper at Tower now that its been confirmed that they will be closing a few stores. Rumors of a Simpsons movie is also flying around. THAT would be awesome.
Hahaha...sorry but I find this funny. Got it from a friend's website.
Man, Friday was so much fun. Chris, Lori, Leah met up at my place and we all went to meet with up Lih-Chern and Jeff in San Francisco. Table was pretty much divided between drinkers and non-drinkers. I think the drinkers really got their moneys worth since they had to bring out the big sake bottle for them. So amusing. This guy Chuie? had so many drinks it was crazy. 7 plates of beef on our side. Chris really started pulling his weight only in the end when he stopped drinking and started eating. Ah....I love Shabu Shabu Fridays. Towards the end, all I was eating were noodles and vegetables.
Instead of going to the underground club, we all headed back. An impromptu game night then commenced. First we got our butt kicked by Lih-Chern we won almost every Puzzle Fighter game (I think I only beat her once). I think I need to take back that game or else I'll never be able to beat her hahahahaha. Then we played Mario Party 5 and Mario Kart: DD where I pretty much dominated. I can't believe we played till it was 4 in morning. I don't think I've done that in a LOOONNNG time.
Suprisingly, everyone woke up at a reasonable time. Went to Denny's for brunch. Went a little shopping in Bay St. where I read the Mensa Puzzle book. I wonder what it takes to get into Mensa. Met up with Lori and went to the Crossroads Trading Company in SF where they sold Prada and DG clothes at cheaper prices. It's like a thrift store but they have much more upper-class clothes than the store in Berkeley. Went to Walgreens and a store with interesting household stuff. Had dinner at a pizza place in that district. There were a lot of hip places to eat that I'd never passed by before.
Got a fruit plate at Costco. $10 for a lot of fruit pre-cut. I really liked the pineapples. So sweet. I must remember the next time I go to have a list of stuff I need before hand. Every time I go I just run around quickly cause I hate waiting in line. I need to get black socks and sorts of other things. I'm supposed to practice golf with Chris. Instead of buying a set at Costco maybe I could just borrow some of my relative's sets. That would be super cool.
I saw a license plate holder that said "Watch Out! I cheated at the DMV"
Went to Tiffany's in Walnut Creek. The Apple Store finally opened nearby! They sell sterling silver chopsticks!!! I like my metal chopsticks so much. Don't really need silver though. According to the saleslady, the Elsa Peretti Open Heart Pendant is the most popular item. Probably cause it's cheap (well, cheaper) and it looks good.
Went to Sizzler last night for all you can eat Salad Bar and Soup. Is anyone else noticing the increase in prices all over the place. I see increased prices almost everywhere I go. Pasta Pomodoro's Frutti de Mare is now $9-something. Lyon's was the first to raise its prices. Denny's no longer has that $3-something Meat-Lover's Special (it's now $5). The McDonald's close by now has $6 Double Quarter pounder meal (no supersize). The other one a block away is 20 cents cheaper for some reason. $6!!! They still have the $1 McChicken but I really feel that the price increase of more than a dollar is really crazy. At least asian places don't jack up their prices that easily.
Here are the states I've stepped foot on.
create your own visited states map
Here are the countries I've been to.
create your own visited country map
This year I'll prolly be going to China with my dad but maybe in the future, Australia would be cool. Could visit relatives there and live with the bushmen. :-D
I saw the "Shiny Hat" woman in Denny's. She always says that she has a husband and kid living in some motel. Always carrying a Macy's or something shopping bag. No family at Denny's though. Wonder if she lives in some fantasy world or she just made it up for some sympathy money.
I made a music video! Working on getting it to stream and such but it's pretty cool. I'll post when I get it all sorted out.
Yesterday was hectic at work with a lot going on. New releases and smart site updates and meetings and such.
Jackson explained the Christ allegory in Donnie Darko. Made it really clear to me what the similarities were. I was too stuck on the time travel stuff.
Tower Records's parent company files for Chapter 11!!! Seems like almost every chain music store has been affected by bankruptcy. Sam Goody, Wherehouse, and now Tower.
Looking forward to getting a new cell next month. My current phone has so many bugs. Makes me so angry sometimes.
Who wouldn't want this body pillow? Well, I guess some wouldn't...
I'm kinda hooked on Average Joe 2. It's the one show I watch regularly. Don't ask me why but it keeps me glued in ways Survivor or any of the other shows couldn't.
Friday was supposed to be Shabu Shabu night but reservations were to no avail. It was a good thing anyway's cause it also happened to be Honda's last night in the US before he headed back to Japan. We ended up going to Chevy's right by the apartment (Mixed Grill). He had also just passed one of the CCNP tests too. Afterwards, went back to the apartment where we played lots of DDR. I should get back into practicing again. It's good exercise. Later, they went Karaoke'ing but I really didn't feel like dropping $30.
Saturday morning, I went and picked up Eric and Fred and went to Finche Cafe to get all that yummy chinese breakfast stuff. Met up with Lih-Chern and Monica. The wait was longer cause we had a bigger group this time. Chris had stayed over last night (slept on the couch...marveled at actually not sleeping on the floor for a change...hahaha) but had obligations elsewhere so he couldn't come. So much good food. The kitchen prepared dishes like the oyster noodles were good although not piping hot. Coincidentally, my aunt Jackie had also decided to come that day too. Good stuff.
Afterwards, I went to Eric and Fred's place. Played Trackball, shot hoops, watched funny videos, watched Eric play Tribes, and then we went to have dinner in Concord. After looking around the Elephant Bar, we headed to Tony Roma's. Had half a Rack of Beef Ribs instead of the usual Roma portion. Also Mozzarella Sticks. Yum. 2 obese men were before us and had to get reseated cause they couldn't fit into the booths. I pray that that never happens to me. I pray VERY HARD. If I keep on going to places where obese people eat though, then eventually I'll turn into one. That's why I enjoy eating at asian places. You almost never see an obese asian person. Must be some genetic thing although if we really tried, we probably could all be obese (see sumo wrestling).
Super Bowl Sunday came and went without too much fanfare. Except for that halftime show where Janet Jackson bared her nipple ring. Ergh. I don't even want to think about it. Janet is getting old. It'd be like Barbara Streisand showing some thigh. Blegh!!! Well Janet's not that old but she's no spring chicken so pulling Aguilera/Spears tricks just doesn't seem to work the same way.
It was raining yesterday so hard. Made going to work on a Monday (yes...it was a "Case of the Mondays") especially difficult. It snowed in FEET up in Tahoe. Hate splashing around in business casual clothes.
Went to ABC cafe last night to get grub for a few days. Got the Slightly Stinky Tofu and Seafood with XO Sauce and the Sweet Shrimp (I know I know...no sugar...but I couldn't help it).
When I went to Elephant Pharmacy, I got my blood pressure checked with the free machine they have there. 125 systolic pressure and 74 diastolic pressure with a 81 bpm. Good pressure all around. Normal heart rate as well.
I was at McDonald's awhile back, and I saw this guy trying to open an apple pie box with one arm because I guess he had had a stroke and was unable to use the other arm. It was really sad particularly since a monkey could have opened it up quicker (well the guy wasn't very smart about using what he had). Makes me very afraid of getting old and the things that come with that.
I got a 8 lb weight at Big 5 awhile back as well. I've been using it while I watch tv and when I'm reading or when I'm just bored. I do a lot of reps since it's not too hard and I start to feel the burn and strain after 2 sets of 10 reps. I'll know when to move on when I can do 5 sets of 10 reps without feeling a thing. Still doing those ab exercises although Eric has a good point in that I need to get leaner if I want to see abs.
I am deeply disturbed by the movie "Donnie Darko". I'm still puzzling over that one. Freaky bunny man and time travel. I'll have to talk to Fred and Eric about it.
Old Fortune Cookies -
Others appreciate your good sense of humor.
You are next in line for promotion in your firm.
Treat others as you would treat yourself
