Brian Kim
Dave Gibbons
I was in the sound booth at the back of the auditorium.
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
NewSong NOC Pics
I took some pictures at last weeks NewSong 12th Anniversary service at NOC:
Brian Kim
Dave Gibbons
I was in the sound booth at the back of the auditorium.
Brian Kim
Dave Gibbons
I was in the sound booth at the back of the auditorium.
Sunday, October 15, 2006
Fantasy Football, Week 6
From 0-3 last week to 3-0 this week.
Ring of Fire (some money): 54.91 vs. 52.26
(I still have one WR left)
BRCM Keeper (more money): 103 vs. 78
(we each have one WR left)
Yahoo Public (no money): 76 vs. 72 (final)
Ring of Fire (some money): 54.91 vs. 52.26
(I still have one WR left)
BRCM Keeper (more money): 103 vs. 78
(we each have one WR left)
Yahoo Public (no money): 76 vs. 72 (final)
Friday, October 13, 2006
Company Finance & Operations Panel
On Wednesday, I was a panelist at an event sponsored by the USC MBA career placement center. Actually, my manager received the initial invitation but he had a schedule conflict so I went instead. There were four panelists including myself and we shared why we chose finance, how we found our job, and what company finance was like vs. corporate finance. The other panelists were from Intel, Cisco/Linksys, and Amgen.
The event went well and there were many good questions during the Q&A time. One of the students asked what skills we looked for when interviewing MBA graduates with no prior finance experience. The other panelists talked about having good communications skills, being assertive, etc. When it was my turn, I said, "Pivot tables and VLOOKUP."
Afterwards, a 1st year MBA student from China came up to talk to me (I always seem to get the Chinese foreign students). We talked about a couple of things then he asked me how he can improve his communication skills. I told him he should watch more TV or go to a bar and talk to people. Seriously. It worked for me (the TV part)... I learned a lot of my English from watching Sesame Street.
The event went well and there were many good questions during the Q&A time. One of the students asked what skills we looked for when interviewing MBA graduates with no prior finance experience. The other panelists talked about having good communications skills, being assertive, etc. When it was my turn, I said, "Pivot tables and VLOOKUP."
Afterwards, a 1st year MBA student from China came up to talk to me (I always seem to get the Chinese foreign students). We talked about a couple of things then he asked me how he can improve his communication skills. I told him he should watch more TV or go to a bar and talk to people. Seriously. It worked for me (the TV part)... I learned a lot of my English from watching Sesame Street.
Spider
I hate spiders. Actually, I hate all types of insects (I know spiders are not insects). So imagine my horror when I found this in my closet as I was about to go do laundry:
I was too freaked out to focus correctly but you can see the spider was big enough to cast a shadow at the back of the closet several feet away. Ugh! There was also a huge web about three feet across; I'm glad I didn't run into it face first. After taking the picture, I found the nearest magazine and smacked the spider in midair. It landed on a chair, stunned, so I flicked in on the ground and smacked it a couple (ok, eight) more times. Just to be sure, I picked the spider up with a paper towel and flushed it down the toilet.
Shirley used to make fun of me all the time about my fear of spiders and bugs. Each time I saw a spider in the house, I used to make her get rid of it. I think Shirley had a "pet" tarantula as part of an undergrad psychology experiment at UCLA so she has no fear of spiders. However, she had extreme dog phobia. I remember one time we were walking on the beach path in Long Beach when we saw another couple with two small dogs in the distance. When Shirley realized that the dogs were unleashed and running towards us, she screamed and jump on my back. As the dogs got closer, she tried to climb higher and put a death grip around my neck. I recall saying, "If you keep choking me, I'll pass out and fall down and the dogs will get you." Mercifully, the dogs lost interest and wandered off in time for me to remain conscious.
To this day, I avoid the 2nd Indiana Jones movie so I don't have to watch the walking/crawling through insect scenes. That and the little Chinese boy was really irritating. Needless to say, I would suck on Fear Factor.
I was too freaked out to focus correctly but you can see the spider was big enough to cast a shadow at the back of the closet several feet away. Ugh! There was also a huge web about three feet across; I'm glad I didn't run into it face first. After taking the picture, I found the nearest magazine and smacked the spider in midair. It landed on a chair, stunned, so I flicked in on the ground and smacked it a couple (ok, eight) more times. Just to be sure, I picked the spider up with a paper towel and flushed it down the toilet.
Shirley used to make fun of me all the time about my fear of spiders and bugs. Each time I saw a spider in the house, I used to make her get rid of it. I think Shirley had a "pet" tarantula as part of an undergrad psychology experiment at UCLA so she has no fear of spiders. However, she had extreme dog phobia. I remember one time we were walking on the beach path in Long Beach when we saw another couple with two small dogs in the distance. When Shirley realized that the dogs were unleashed and running towards us, she screamed and jump on my back. As the dogs got closer, she tried to climb higher and put a death grip around my neck. I recall saying, "If you keep choking me, I'll pass out and fall down and the dogs will get you." Mercifully, the dogs lost interest and wandered off in time for me to remain conscious.
To this day, I avoid the 2nd Indiana Jones movie so I don't have to watch the walking/crawling through insect scenes. That and the little Chinese boy was really irritating. Needless to say, I would suck on Fear Factor.
Laundry
Can't sleep... I think I'll go do laundry. It's 4am so the laundry room should be free. When I had my house, it would take forever to do laundry since I had to run each load in series. Now, if the washers/dryers are free, I can run all 3-4 loads in parallel and be done in 2 hours. That's probably the one and only advantage of living in an apartment. :(
Yes, 3-4 loads. I usually go through my entire wardrobe before I do laundry.
Yes, 3-4 loads. I usually go through my entire wardrobe before I do laundry.
Imagine?
This weekend I'm running FOH sound at NewSong NOC. It's NewSong's 12th anniversary and the theme is Imagine. There is usually a special song each week and this week it's "Imagine" by John Lennon. I own a couple of Beatles CDs and I like a lot of their songs but I don't think "Imagine" is appropriate for a church service, especially considering the lyrics and John Lennon/Yoko Ono's politics.
Hmm... sounds like communist-utopian nonsense to me. Well, at least I'm just running sound and not actually playing the music. I hope they're not planning to use this song again next week when I'm playing bass.
Yeah, whatever...
Imagine there's no Heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today
Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace
You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world
You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one
Hmm... sounds like communist-utopian nonsense to me. Well, at least I'm just running sound and not actually playing the music. I hope they're not planning to use this song again next week when I'm playing bass.
"Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. ... I don't know what will go first, rock 'n' roll or Christianity. We're more popular than Jesus now. Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me."
- John Lennon, 1966
Yeah, whatever...
Grandma Update
My grandma is doing much better. She came off dialysis and they moved her out of the ICU last week. I went to see her last Saturday and she was awake and alert although she had no idea who I was. While I was there, a nurse put a mask on grandma to administer some inhaled medicine and grandma was yelling that we were trying to suffocate her. I guess if she has the strength to complain, then she's probably recovering well. Two weeks ago, she was given only a 10% chance to live by her doctor.
With my uncle arriving from Shanghai this weekend, my parents are going to spend next week in my apartment. It's back to sleeping on the couch for me again.
With my uncle arriving from Shanghai this weekend, my parents are going to spend next week in my apartment. It's back to sleeping on the couch for me again.
Thursday, October 12, 2006
Tuesday, October 3, 2006
Bored
I'm getting bored with work. There's lots of stuff to do and I have a good staff but it seems like each month is the same, just the numbers are different. Same analysis, same slides, sigh...
This is looking more and more interesting. I wonder how much of a paycut I would have to take to be an entry-level chef somewhere.
This is looking more and more interesting. I wonder how much of a paycut I would have to take to be an entry-level chef somewhere.
Monday, October 2, 2006
Firefly
I downloaded a free episode of Firefly from iTunes Music Store and watched it last week. I heard about the show when it first came out several years ago but didn't watch any of it. It turned out to be quite good so I found and downloaded all the episodes and the movie Serenity, which was based on the series. So far, I've watched three more episodes plus the movie and I'm hooked. The downloads are a bit dark and small so I'm planning on buying the DVD set from Amazon.
Too bad the series was cancelled after only 10+ episodes by FOX. With all the other crap shows they have, I'm not sure why Firefly got cancelled mid-season. One thing I'm ambivalent about is the use of Chinese in the dialog, almost exclusively curse/swear words. The story takes place ~50 years in the future where China and the U.S. have joined to form the Alliance, so there are a lot of Asian elements in the series. Quite often, the characters would say something in Mandarin as part of the dialog and there would be no subtitles. That's pretty cool! Since all the main characters are non-Chinese, the downside is that the pronounciation is so bad that you can't tell what they're saying unless you're paying very close attention. Maybe this is a good thing since there's a lot of swearing. There's no way they would be able to air this on FOX if they did all that swearing in English.
你他媽的。天下所有的人都該死。
渾蛋！
哎呀。我們完了。
This is some of the Chinese dialog in the pilot show that I downloaded from iTunes. Of course, I didn't get any of it watching the first time. Even knowing what they're supposed to say, it was still hard to understand. They should have hired some Chinese actors to do the swearing.
Too bad the series was cancelled after only 10+ episodes by FOX. With all the other crap shows they have, I'm not sure why Firefly got cancelled mid-season. One thing I'm ambivalent about is the use of Chinese in the dialog, almost exclusively curse/swear words. The story takes place ~50 years in the future where China and the U.S. have joined to form the Alliance, so there are a lot of Asian elements in the series. Quite often, the characters would say something in Mandarin as part of the dialog and there would be no subtitles. That's pretty cool! Since all the main characters are non-Chinese, the downside is that the pronounciation is so bad that you can't tell what they're saying unless you're paying very close attention. Maybe this is a good thing since there's a lot of swearing. There's no way they would be able to air this on FOX if they did all that swearing in English.
你他媽的。天下所有的人都該死。
渾蛋！
哎呀。我們完了。
This is some of the Chinese dialog in the pilot show that I downloaded from iTunes. Of course, I didn't get any of it watching the first time. Even knowing what they're supposed to say, it was still hard to understand. They should have hired some Chinese actors to do the swearing.
Grandma
My grandma got real sick this past week. Because of her Alzheimer's Disease, she's been living in a nursing home for the past several years. This is her 3rd trip to the emergency room since moving into the home. Evidently, a kidney stone block urine into her bloodstream and she was in toxic shock. Add this to a host of other medical conditions, including stomach cancer, they had to do emergency surgery on Wednesday. I went to see her after work on Wednesday and she didn't look too good.
Several days ago, her kidneys failed so they had to hook her up a dialysis machine. I spent the entire day at the hospital yesterday (Saturday) and by the evening, she was able to open her eyes for a couple of seconds which was a relief; we haven't been able to get a response from her since the surgery on Wednesday.
I just heard from my parents that her kidneys are functioning again so she's off dialysis but I think she is still on the ventilator since she can't breathe for herself. My parents are flying in from Toronto later this afternoon and my uncle is flying in from Shanghai in a few days. The other uncle drove down from San Francisco this past Wednesday. I have three other cousins in Los Angeles and all four of us have been to the hospital. I guess this is turning out to be a family reunion of sorts.
Several days ago, her kidneys failed so they had to hook her up a dialysis machine. I spent the entire day at the hospital yesterday (Saturday) and by the evening, she was able to open her eyes for a couple of seconds which was a relief; we haven't been able to get a response from her since the surgery on Wednesday.
I just heard from my parents that her kidneys are functioning again so she's off dialysis but I think she is still on the ventilator since she can't breathe for herself. My parents are flying in from Toronto later this afternoon and my uncle is flying in from Shanghai in a few days. The other uncle drove down from San Francisco this past Wednesday. I have three other cousins in Los Angeles and all four of us have been to the hospital. I guess this is turning out to be a family reunion of sorts.
Fantasy Football, Week 4
Got distracted this week by other things and I left Larry Johnson on the bench. Arg! Don't think it would have mattered since all my other players in that league sucked this week.
In the other money league, I'm down 114-109 but I still have Donovan McNabb left to play. Let's hope he can get more than 5 points.
As usual, I kicked butt in my other other league since no money is on the line.
In the other money league, I'm down 114-109 but I still have Donovan McNabb left to play. Let's hope he can get more than 5 points.
As usual, I kicked butt in my other other league since no money is on the line.
Sunday, September 24, 2006
Fantasy Football, Week 3
Aiya! I think I'm going to lose this week in all three of my fantasy leagues. The only one I have a chance of winning doesn't involve money. :(
Friday, September 22, 2006
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
iPod Restore
I decided last week to move all my personal files off my work computer, which includes about 4,800 songs in iTunes (~26GB). Running my Mac mini as a FTP server, I've managed to upload about 2,400 songs from my PC. It also seems to make a difference which OS you first connected an iPod. All this time, my iPod was in "Windows" format which means I can't update the software using my Mac. To fix this, I had to restore my iPod which wiped out all the audio and video files. I guess I'll be busy for the next several days moving the rest of the songs and reloading files to my iPod.
Crack in the Firewall?
My friend Leon commented that he can see my blog from China today. I think all of blogger.com was inaccessable from China in the past. Not sure what or why he can access it now; I'm sure it's not the Koda Kumi picture.
Let's see how long it takes to get blocked/banned again... :)
Let's see how long it takes to get blocked/banned again... :)
CFO Retires
Big news at work today. Our company's CFO announced his retirement, effective immediately. This is more important to me since the CFO is my boss's boss's boss. Not sure if we're going to hire an outsider, or promote from within which will cause serious musical chairs/job rotations again.
Sunday, September 10, 2006
박정아 (Park Jung Ah)
I just bought a K-pop CD by Park Jung Ah, one of the singers from the group Jewelry. This is her 1st solo album.
Here is the M/V from the 1st single, Yeah. Cute Korean girls AND ice hockey fights... what else can you ask for in a music video?!
I don't understand any Korean, other than hello and thank you, so I not sure what the songs are about. My guess it's not too different from Chinese pop songs: boy meets girl, boy falls in love with girl, girl dumps boy, blah blah blah. A lot of the song lyrics include 사랑해 (sarangae) which has something to do with love.
I also bought this album; I don't understand Japanese either. :)
Here is the M/V from the 1st single, Yeah. Cute Korean girls AND ice hockey fights... what else can you ask for in a music video?!
I don't understand any Korean, other than hello and thank you, so I not sure what the songs are about. My guess it's not too different from Chinese pop songs: boy meets girl, boy falls in love with girl, girl dumps boy, blah blah blah. A lot of the song lyrics include 사랑해 (sarangae) which has something to do with love.
I also bought this album; I don't understand Japanese either. :)
Friday, September 8, 2006
Fantasy Football
Last year, I signed up for a public league (free) with Yahoo! and came in 5th out of 10. This year, I'm in three different leagues with money on the line in two of them. The season has barely begun (one game last night between Miami and Pittsburg) and already I'm overloaded with data. I'm getting statistics and news from both Yahoo! and CBS Sportsline while trying to remember who is starting on what team.
Anyway, I think I got lucky in my $100 league (mostly finance people from work). Pittsburg defense came up big and gave me 17 points. In addition, my opponent's 1st string RB and WR are both out for week 1. In my $50 league, I got the 1st pick of the draft so I'm counting on Larry Johnson to have a huge game this week.
I've been putting off getting cable for the past 6 months, even watching Spanish stations during World Cup, but I think it's time to have it installed for football. I was going to give my 36" tube TV to a co-worker but she went out and bought a 40" LCD TV so I still need to get rid of the 250 lb. monster in order to make room for a LCD HDTV.
Anyway, I think I got lucky in my $100 league (mostly finance people from work). Pittsburg defense came up big and gave me 17 points. In addition, my opponent's 1st string RB and WR are both out for week 1. In my $50 league, I got the 1st pick of the draft so I'm counting on Larry Johnson to have a huge game this week.
I've been putting off getting cable for the past 6 months, even watching Spanish stations during World Cup, but I think it's time to have it installed for football. I was going to give my 36" tube TV to a co-worker but she went out and bought a 40" LCD TV so I still need to get rid of the 250 lb. monster in order to make room for a LCD HDTV.
Monday, August 28, 2006
Oregon Coast
View from the beach house in Lincoln City, Oregon
I spent the weekend (plus Friday) in Portland visiting my sister and Rebecca. My parents were there as well, after their vacation to Alberta earlier this month. I took a flight from LAX instead of SNA which meant I had to leave work early and fight rush hour traffic Thursday afternoon. The ticket was cheaper from LAX but in hindsight, I probably should have left from SNA. In addition to paying $33 to park my car in Lot C, I got the lamest parking ticket ever. Evidently, LAPD comes around and checkes each car in the lot. I got a $25 ticket for not having a front license plate on my 350Z. Sheesh, is that how you reward your customers? Next time, I'm going to pay a bit more and leave my car in a private parking lot.
The plan for the weekend was to drive to Lincoln City on the Oregon coast and spend a couple of nights in a beach house my sister rented. Since there will be 5 of us, I rented a SUV from Avis via Priceline. They gave me a new Ford Explorer for $38/day which was much cheaper then the prices at the Avis website. The Explorer was roomier than my 4Runner but handled like a boat and the interior was ergonomically incompetent.
First stop: Tillamook Cheese Visitor's Center
Typical Oregon beach weather
We did have nice weather for one afternoon... it was still cold though
Sunset
There was not much to do in Lincoln City so we ended up shopping at some outlet stores and the local Indian casino. Having been to Las Vegas many times, Chinook Winds was pretty crappy in comparison. I think there were less than 10 tables (blackjack and craps) total and the rest were slot machines. The did have free soda dispensers though. We also spent the majority of both evenings playing mah-jong. I ended up winning $5 from my parents!
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Mac mini Surgery
Yup, that a meat cleaver (with Chinese characters on it)
I forgot to buy a putty knife to open up the Mac mini so I looked around the house for a comparable tool. I also had to use another knife (paring knife) and a couple of Dave & Buster PowerCards to get the case open. It ended up taking me about 20 minutes of prying and cursing to get the !*@&#^% cover off.
Naked Mac mini, cover, and "tools" on my nice placemat
Once the case was open, I had to detach the AirPort (802.11g) antenna and remove 4 tiny screws. It's amazing how much hardware Apple packed into such tiny box but it makes it hard to upgrade components. There are two DIMM slots in the Mac mini which comes with 256 MB modules for a total of 512 MB.
New memory modules on top vs. original memory modules at the bottom
The 1 GB modules had a lot more chips, with chips on the back of the DIMM as well. The actual memory ICs on the new DIMMs were manufactured by Elpita(!) while the original ones were made by Nanya. On my first attempt, I didn't seat one of the new memory modules properly so when I rebooted the Mac, only 1 GB showed up. Good thing I anticipated this and did not close up the case thus saving me another 20 minutes of grief... :)
2 GB!
Amazing. My first computer (Commodore VIC-20) had about 3,500 bytes (that's right, no-prefix bytes) of RAM while my next computer (Apple ][+) had 48 KB of RAM. With 4x the original memory, my Mac mini is a totally different machine. It now boots up quickly and launching/switching applications is really quick. I'm going to reinstall Warcraft III and see how fast it runs compared to the PC version.
The obvious question is why Apple ships the Mac mini with only 512MB? Before the memory upgrade, the Mac mini was really slow and definitely not useable for business. To switch between MS Word and Excel would take at least 15 seconds. Apple should have included at least 1 GB of memory which would only cost an extra $30-$40. Instead, I had to spend >$200 for the new DIMMs and now I have two useless 256 MB DIMMs. Grrr...
Saturday, August 19, 2006
Del Mar (last time!)
Our finance department event at Del Mar went okay. Several people backed out at the last minute but we still ended up with about 75 people. I brought a camera but was too busy running around to take many pictures. I only bet on two races, winning one and losing the other, so I was up a whopping $0.30 for the day... :)
For the eighth race, we were able to send two people down to the winner circle to congratulate the winner and get pictures taken. I took a picture from our skybox balcony; they're the ones in beige and pink.
Also for the eight race, a group of us (not including me), managed to pool $240 and bet on the longshot to win (#6 horse). It was 25:1 when they placed the bet and the odds jumped up to 43:1 at post time. I think the horse came in 6 out of 8 but it was pretty exciting in our skybox during the race.
I've organized this event for the past four years. If I still have staff next year at this time, I'm delegating.
For the eighth race, we were able to send two people down to the winner circle to congratulate the winner and get pictures taken. I took a picture from our skybox balcony; they're the ones in beige and pink.
Also for the eight race, a group of us (not including me), managed to pool $240 and bet on the longshot to win (#6 horse). It was 25:1 when they placed the bet and the odds jumped up to 43:1 at post time. I think the horse came in 6 out of 8 but it was pretty exciting in our skybox during the race.
I've organized this event for the past four years. If I still have staff next year at this time, I'm delegating.
Slow Mac mini
I finally got tired of my slow Mac mini. Launching programs and switching between applications is incredibly slow. Even my old Compaq 1.0 GHz Pentium III with only 256 MB of RAM runs faster.
It has the 1.66 GHz Intel Core Duo processor but only 512 MB of RAM. I've been reading that the slowness is due to memory shortage and a slow hard drive so I ordered two 1 GB memory modules. I'm hoping that giving it 2 GB of RAM will minimize the frequency of virtual memory swapping so the slow hard drive won't affect performance too much. Of course, that brings the cost of the Mac mini >$1,000.
==========
Oh, to get the Mac mini case open, I need to go to Home Depot (or Lowes) to get a very thin putty knife. Apple decided not to use screws to hold the Mac mini together but rather 15(?) plastic tabs that are next to impossible to open without breaking. Sigh... I remember having to buy special tools to crack open my Mac Plus almost 20 years ago to add memory (from 1 MB to 2.5 MB!).
It has the 1.66 GHz Intel Core Duo processor but only 512 MB of RAM. I've been reading that the slowness is due to memory shortage and a slow hard drive so I ordered two 1 GB memory modules. I'm hoping that giving it 2 GB of RAM will minimize the frequency of virtual memory swapping so the slow hard drive won't affect performance too much. Of course, that brings the cost of the Mac mini >$1,000.
==========
Oh, to get the Mac mini case open, I need to go to Home Depot (or Lowes) to get a very thin putty knife. Apple decided not to use screws to hold the Mac mini together but rather 15(?) plastic tabs that are next to impossible to open without breaking. Sigh... I remember having to buy special tools to crack open my Mac Plus almost 20 years ago to add memory (from 1 MB to 2.5 MB!).
Sunday, August 13, 2006
Del Mar again
I went to my manager's party at Del Mar on August 6th. Since we were in one of the private skyboxes, it was a lot more fun than the last trip. I brought my old Canon camera so I can use up the roll of film that's still in there but I did get one picture on my digital camera.
I'll be at Del Mar one more time this Thursday for our finance department event. This is the 4th year I've organized the event; I think I'll delegate that job next year. We'll also be in a private skybox and I chartered two buses for the trip. My only task left is to buy beer and other refreshments for the bus ride Thursday morning.
I'll be at Del Mar one more time this Thursday for our finance department event. This is the 4th year I've organized the event; I think I'll delegate that job next year. We'll also be in a private skybox and I chartered two buses for the trip. My only task left is to buy beer and other refreshments for the bus ride Thursday morning.
Thursday, August 10, 2006
Why Do They Hate Airplanes?
UK Panel Asks: Why Do They Hate Airplanes?
by Scott Ott
(2006-08-10) — The British Parliament, in a rapid response to a terror plot foiled by Scotland Yard yesterday, announced formation of a study panel today to determine why some Muslims hate airplanes.
Early reports indicate 21 men have been taken into custody in connection with a plan to take down an unknown number of U.S.-bound passenger jets originating in Great Britain.
The expert panel will examine various theories about why airplanes engender such hatred among devoted followers of a peaceful religion.
“Is it the horrendous noise? The speed? The condensation trails?” said one unnamed source close to the panel, listing some of the areas of inquiry the experts plan to pursue. “Because if it’s any of those things, we can get to work on engineering changes to make airplanes more tolerable to our Muslim brothers.”
by Scott Ott
(2006-08-10) — The British Parliament, in a rapid response to a terror plot foiled by Scotland Yard yesterday, announced formation of a study panel today to determine why some Muslims hate airplanes.
Early reports indicate 21 men have been taken into custody in connection with a plan to take down an unknown number of U.S.-bound passenger jets originating in Great Britain.
The expert panel will examine various theories about why airplanes engender such hatred among devoted followers of a peaceful religion.
“Is it the horrendous noise? The speed? The condensation trails?” said one unnamed source close to the panel, listing some of the areas of inquiry the experts plan to pursue. “Because if it’s any of those things, we can get to work on engineering changes to make airplanes more tolerable to our Muslim brothers.”
Tuesday, August 1, 2006
Agape/MBCLA Outing
Here are some pictures from this past Saturday. A coworker invited me to her small group's beach outing at Salt Creek Beach in Dana Point (next to the Ritz Carlton). It was jointly sponsored by another small group from a different church so there were a lot of people. Since both groups were Mandarin/Taiwanese speaking, it was a bit Chinesey™. I don't think I spoke English the whole time but everyone was pretty nice, putting up with my kindergarten Mandarin.
Singing... Chinese songs. Not sure why the guy's shirt is open. Nice houses in the background though.
My coworker is the one in pink
Mmm... BBQ meat!
Singing... Chinese songs. Not sure why the guy's shirt is open. Nice houses in the background though.
My coworker is the one in pink
Mmm... BBQ meat!
Canon PowerShot SD600
The Canon digital camera I ordered for my mom arrived so I brought it with me on my "day off" and took some pictures. I decided I would drive to Torrance and revisit some of the places that were part of our wedding day.
This is PCH Seafood Restaurant. It looks a bit run down on the outside (and inside) and hasn't changed since I first ate here in 1985. While I was at USC (1st time), John Chen and I used to eat here every Friday after our morning class. It has nothing to do with my wedding; I stopped here to get lunch. Their cashew chicken is one of two dishes that I will drive an hour to get... the other is #6 (garlic chicken) at Versailles.
Chinese Community Church of South Bay: this was my home church for almost 10 years and it's where the wedding ceremony was held.
Our photographer took us to a catholic church in Palos Verdes that morning and took some photos. I remember is was windy and we almost lost Shirley's veil over the side. I still have a 12"x18" picture of us... not sure what to do with it now.
View of the costline from the church
Redondo Beach from Avenue E and Esplanade. I proposed somewhere down there almost eight years ago.
This is PCH Seafood Restaurant. It looks a bit run down on the outside (and inside) and hasn't changed since I first ate here in 1985. While I was at USC (1st time), John Chen and I used to eat here every Friday after our morning class. It has nothing to do with my wedding; I stopped here to get lunch. Their cashew chicken is one of two dishes that I will drive an hour to get... the other is #6 (garlic chicken) at Versailles.
Chinese Community Church of South Bay: this was my home church for almost 10 years and it's where the wedding ceremony was held.
Our photographer took us to a catholic church in Palos Verdes that morning and took some photos. I remember is was windy and we almost lost Shirley's veil over the side. I still have a 12"x18" picture of us... not sure what to do with it now.
View of the costline from the church
Redondo Beach from Avenue E and Esplanade. I proposed somewhere down there almost eight years ago.
Sunday, July 30, 2006
7
Tomorrow would have been our 7th wedding anniversary. I've decided to take the day off from work since I won't be too productive anyway. Hopefully this is the bottom and things will improve after tomorrow.
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
HondaJet
It looks like Honda is making airplanes now, including the jet engine. It's a very small jet with seating for 7, like a minivan or SUV. The range is only 2,000 km, so to fly from LA to Toronto, you would need to stop and get gas somewhere in Nebraska. I wonder how much it's going to sell for.
Of course, the HondaJet is nothing like the Saab Gripen which seats only 2 people and costs $25M.
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Joystick
It was really really hot this past weekend so I ended up sitting in front of the air conditioner all weekend. With nothing else better to do, I re-read three novels by Michael Stackpole based on the BattleTech universe. It took me about 12 hours to read all three books.
In addition to the novels, I also bought a lot of MechWarrior PC games during the past 10 years. I used to play them on my old PCs with a Microsoft Sidewinder joystick but now everything connects via USB ports. After reading the stories, I felt like blowing things up with lasers and missiles so I went to Fry's on Sunday and picked up a Logitech Extreme 3D joystick for $30.
Even though the game was six years old, I managed to install MechWarrior 4: Vengeance on my work computer running XP Professional. So far, it seems to run okay except the missions are more difficult than I remembered; I keep getting killed even on the easiest level. I thought I finished the game when I first bought it. Hmm, I'm going to blame it on the faster computer or new joystick... but it's probably old age.
In addition to the novels, I also bought a lot of MechWarrior PC games during the past 10 years. I used to play them on my old PCs with a Microsoft Sidewinder joystick but now everything connects via USB ports. After reading the stories, I felt like blowing things up with lasers and missiles so I went to Fry's on Sunday and picked up a Logitech Extreme 3D joystick for $30.
Even though the game was six years old, I managed to install MechWarrior 4: Vengeance on my work computer running XP Professional. So far, it seems to run okay except the missions are more difficult than I remembered; I keep getting killed even on the easiest level. I thought I finished the game when I first bought it. Hmm, I'm going to blame it on the faster computer or new joystick... but it's probably old age.
Thursday, July 20, 2006
Opening Day at Del Mar
Some photos from Opening Day yesterday at Del Mar Thoroughbred Club near San Diego. The grandstand was packed with people; I've never seen so many hats and breast implants (sorry, no photos). Don't ask how I was able to take these photos on a work day.
Midas Venice 320
This is the mixer we use for NewSong NOC worship services; Irvine has a larger Verona board, also built by Midas. There are 682 knobs, buttons, and sliders on the top surface of the mixer. In addition, there are 146 connectors (XLR/TRS/RCA) at the back. Each Sunday, I have about 90 minutes to unload the sound equipment truck, plug in all the wires, and run sound check with the worship team to set most of the 682 controls on the mixer. It was a pretty simple band setup this week but due to the drama segment, I ended up using 20 out of 24 mono inputs.
I think the list price is about $6,000.
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Google Earth
Google Earth must have updated some of their satellite pictures recently. Last October, I took a photo of a blue-roofed house on Ko Yao Yai off the coast of Phuket. Each time I looked at the island in Google Earth, I could not see any details within the low resolution pictures. However, with higher resolution pictures this time, I was able to find several places where I took photos.
Google Earth view (7°58'55.90"N, 98°34'12.53"E)
Photo of house with blue roof near the center of image above
I didn't realize that Phuket was ~8°N latitude. No wonder it was so hot. If you look in Google Earth, you'd realize that the island is in the middle of nowhere; it took us about an hour by boat to reach the island. During the boat ride, in the middle of the ocean/bay, I had full signal strength on my Treo and even received a couple of emails. Of course, I get dropped all the time driving on the freeway in SoCal.
Google Earth view of a beach on the south end of the island
Photo of the beach houses taken from the end of the pier. The water was warm and very clear.
A zoomed-out Google Earth view of the area. Ko Yao Yai is off the east coast of Phuket.
Google Earth view (7°58'55.90"N, 98°34'12.53"E)
Photo of house with blue roof near the center of image above
I didn't realize that Phuket was ~8°N latitude. No wonder it was so hot. If you look in Google Earth, you'd realize that the island is in the middle of nowhere; it took us about an hour by boat to reach the island. During the boat ride, in the middle of the ocean/bay, I had full signal strength on my Treo and even received a couple of emails. Of course, I get dropped all the time driving on the freeway in SoCal.
Google Earth view of a beach on the south end of the island
Photo of the beach houses taken from the end of the pier. The water was warm and very clear.
A zoomed-out Google Earth view of the area. Ko Yao Yai is off the east coast of Phuket.
Monday, July 17, 2006
Blogger Spam
Arg! I just got hit with 92 pieces of Blogger spam from the same "Anonymous" poster. I used to get about one per week but not this much at once, and one per post too.
Friday, July 14, 2006
Sunday, July 9, 2006
Old Camera
I found my "old" Canon T50 SLR camera I bought when we first moved to California in 1985. The camera came with a 50mm lens and I bought a 80-200mm telephoto zoom lens as well. It was a simple camera to use—although you had to focus manually—and took pretty good pictures.
Image from Canon's Camera Museum
I checked the frame counter and it showed "4" which means I took three pictures already. I think the film inside (if there is even film inside) is from before 2000 and I'm not even sure if it's a 24 or 36 exposure roll. I changed out the batteries and the camera seems to work. I guess I'll have to shoot the rest of the roll and get it developed.
All the recent pictures I took on this website was with a Sony DSC-W5. Earlier pictures are from a Sony DSC-L1 or Sony DSC-U20. I've been pretty happy with Sony digital cameras. The really crappy looking pictures were taken with my Treo 650.
Image from Canon's Camera Museum
I checked the frame counter and it showed "4" which means I took three pictures already. I think the film inside (if there is even film inside) is from before 2000 and I'm not even sure if it's a 24 or 36 exposure roll. I changed out the batteries and the camera seems to work. I guess I'll have to shoot the rest of the roll and get it developed.
All the recent pictures I took on this website was with a Sony DSC-W5. Earlier pictures are from a Sony DSC-L1 or Sony DSC-U20. I've been pretty happy with Sony digital cameras. The really crappy looking pictures were taken with my Treo 650.
Saturday, July 8, 2006
Pit of Despair
I just spent the past eight hours in the office working on a PowerPoint presentation of Q2 financial results. Sometimes Often, I feel my job is completely pointless.
Sigh... at least there's A/C and free sodas.
Sigh... at least there's A/C and free sodas.
Tuesday, July 4, 2006
Italy 2 - Germany 0
Wow, Italy scored 2 goals in about a minute in overtime... and I thought Germany was going to win the whole thing.
Pre-Independence Day BBQ
I finally got to use my BBQ at the apartment. I invited several co-workers over for dinner yesterday and I grilled up some filet mignon, halibut, and jumbo shrimps. I've cooked steak and shrimp on the BBQ before but this is the first time I tried halibut filets. I even went out and bought a grilling basket so the fish wouldn't fall apart while cooking. I have one more piece of filet mignon left; maybe I'll grill it up for dinner tonight.
I've also starting cooking a bit more at home. I think it helps me feel less like a transient since I pretty much ate at work or ordered take-out for the first few months after moving. Too bad my kitchen in the apartment is tiny.
I've also starting cooking a bit more at home. I think it helps me feel less like a transient since I pretty much ate at work or ordered take-out for the first few months after moving. Too bad my kitchen in the apartment is tiny.
Saturday, July 1, 2006
France 1 - Brazil 0
Wow, France almost didn't make it out of their group. I guess everyone in Brazil can get back to work now... :)
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