Finally Resurfacing

So September has been a hectic month for me so far. I was moving into my new place for the first week of the month then I had to hit the road for a job in South Carolina. In fact, I'm typing this at the airport in SC (free wireless at the GSP airport, very nice).

When I get back, I'll assemble the pics of me furnishing the new place but for now, I'll leave you guys with a pic of Jennifer Love Hewitt. She's so hot!!

Disappointing Returns...

So it's my birthday today. I'm busy with moving and stuff so there wasn't really any celebrations. Just ate some black forest cake my mum bought.

But I did decide to try my luck at the Mega Millions since it was a $252 million dollar jackpot. And the draw was gonna be on my birthday as well.

I got $27 worth of tickets, but as you can see, only 1 ticket actually won anything. And it was a measly $3 as well... I had thought to bank on birthday luck, but it wasn't forthcoming I guess. Oh well, I hope the office pool did better.

Joys of Business Class Travel

So on my recent trip back home, I was bumped up to business class. There's a huge jump in service and food between business class and economy. It's no wonder that there is a 2:1 price premium on business class, but after getting the kind of service I did, I'm definitely gonna try to upgrade myself every time I get enough points.

It's nice!

As you can see, they provide you with a power connection. I think mine was busted or couldn't provide the 230VAC required to power local electronics as I couldn't get it to charge my DS... The 2nd pin hole for the headphones is because it is noise canceling.

The array of seat arrangement options was numerous. I could make the seat slouch or fully recline. And they have a lumbar massage option which I found quite amusing if un-effective. The leg extension was also far too short but I guess they would have ran out of leg room.

They also gave me slippers and a fancy place to put my evian mineral water.

Spacious.

There was also a counter where you could place your drinks or other stuff. Even though I don't normally drink champagne, it was being offered for free, so why the hell not eh.

And now on to another important aspect of the business class experience: the food."

A classy menu.

The snacks given are "higher class" than economy but I think in the end, I prefer the cheaper Japanese snacks compared to the more esoteric things they provided. The free sake is a HUGE plus though...

The main course consists of an appetizer, a main meal and then desert. This was one of the most exotic airline meals I've ever eaten. Considering that I've always traveled economy, it's not a very surprising statement. But it was good. They gave me scallop, abalone, beef tongue, shrimp and a whole bunch of other stuff. And in case anyone was wondering, the blue ribbon is your chopstick holder.

The main meal had fish. But not some lousy fish from a microwave dinner box, this one had a ginger sauce. And they served it with miso soup and rice. They also give you a blue table cloth. Like woah.

Finally, desert. Melon sherbet and ice cream. This is wayy to awesome to describe. My favourite part of the whole course.

In conclusion, life in business class is good. One should try to always upgrade their seats to business class. I know I will keep trying!

An insight to how the big boys play

Interesting read about how the world of High Frequency Trades operate. It sounds like it there's a lot of megabucks and serious computing power involved in major transactions around the world.

No wonder the small fries don't really stand a chance. We get overpowered, overclocked and even played by the big fishes. Sometimes in ways we don't even know. Caveat Emptor I guess.

But that might be changing with the recent introduction to stop "flash trading" or the esp-ish read supercomputers get on the markets due to them piggy backing on the stock exchange servers. We'll see how it goes but it feels good to even the playing field a little.

In a separate note, you always hear stories of how companies do not put enough thought in the naming of their products when selling them in foriegn markets. I recently had to deal with a company called Process Combustion Controls. A pretty innocous name by most standards but the moment I read their name I started snickering. It's pretty unprofessional but funny. Guys and masturbatory references always seem to get along well.

The funniest thing was, after I mentioned this to my colleague, he said that the name was appropos, since they were "a bunch of jerk-offs."

Harry Potter

I'm no big fan of Harry Potter. I've only read 1 book and watched the first 2-3 movies. But this is kinda funny. Hermione isn't hot enough though. Though I think they got Harry spot on.

It's been a while

So I have some catching up to do.

1. Happy Father's Day to all the Dad's out there. You guys probably deserve the attention more than one day a year for all the good jobs you do.

2. It's the official start of Summer! Hopefully, this will mean that there will be more "summer-like" weather than weird, crazy April weather. Although considering that this is one of the coolest summers in memory in the Midwest, the chances of something weird happening is pretty high.

3. Congrats to the newly graduated! You guys might not have chosen the best timing for that act, but at least it's better than graduating 6 months ago.

4. Proof that TF2 sound effects + bloopers = funny.

Sick

So no updates for now. It was a beautiful wedding, Congrats to the bride and groom. I'm confident that they will have a fantastic future. In the meantime, please enjoy this video.

10 more days

I'm starting to think of local food everytime I go for a meal now. The loh mee, the vegetarian bee hoon... I can almost taste them. It's been more almost 15 months since I've been home and I'm totally looking forward to my first major vacation this year.

I think I could use the break. Although things are starting to get busy here, a break will do me good. 最近自分の生活はあまりよくいかなかった。どんの理由があっても、自分が直したい。。。 Perhaps a change will do me good.

Secret Guide to L337ness.

Tired of losing to scrubs? Seeking the secret to leetness?? Wanna know how to play as Ken in Street Fighter?!? I'm gonna introduce you to the answer to your questions! The secret flowchart the pros use to dominate any challengers!! Use it at your own peril. You will be accused of being too pro!!11oneone1

Invisible Car

How cool is that?! And no, it's not invisible because everyone is staring at the blonde...

The Wonderful World of Reals... with Tax!

Interesting new Xbox Live ad. Quite un-Microsoft like I think. But it's good.



And for some bummer news, Congress is starting to talk about taxing online sales. Again. I hope it doesn't come to fruition although with Chicago having the highest sales tax in the USA (11.25%!!!), uniformity of sales tax might actually mean that I need to pay less... Then again, I'd rather not pay it at all.

A true Hand of God

Taken from NASA's X-ray Observatory, this is actually the death of a star. The blue rays are X-rays emitted as a star loses energy and collapses onto itself. It takes 150 years to traverse from the base of the palm to the tip of the longest finger. And it happened 17,000 years ago. That's the awesome thing about astronomy, it's a study of stars and our past. Due to the limit of the speed of light, it's the one form time travel that is possible - we see what happened hundreds and thousands of years ago as it reaches us from light years away. Amazing.

Here's to hoping that in the next decade, we see a "finger of God".

Show me the Money...

Yeah! The 400 dollar tax rebates should be kicking in this month. Which means I get another $40 bucks take home pay per month. Woo!! That should be enough for a stag party back home.

An Interesting Anecdote

So I was at a job site when someone told me this story.

He is a person who is in-charge of doing projects for a huge multi-million dollar company. His most recent project involves the overall of some process equipment to the tune of a few hundred million.

His story was as follows: About 5-10 years ago, this company had outsourced the maintenance of their railcars to independent contractors. After doing a cost-benefit analysis, it was determined that by creating its own maintenance department, it would break even within 6 months. Thusly, the storyteller was tasked to go to the current contractor to find out how they operated.

His cover story was that he was inspecting the railcars currently under repair. So as he toured the facility, the one question he kept asking the production manager was "What would you differently, if you had a chance to start over again".

After he came back from his trip, he wrote up the repair sequence and within 2 years, the company had created the railcar maintenance division.

After hearing that story, I decided to never tell the whole truth to anybody who isn't in the know. An innocent sounding question might lead you to lose billions of dollars of business in the long run...

March Ramblings

So, I haven't posted in about 3 weeks. Lots of things, well some things, happened in the meantime and I was lazy/busy with other stuff to post. But anyways, here's a quick recap.

1. I went to Houston for a week. Pictures will be posted tomorrow. But Texas in winter is a good place to be. It was the 2nd week of March, Chicago was just starting to thaw out (low 40oF's/5oC's) but it was already in the 70oF's/20oC in Houston. My god. I want to move there soon...

Anyways, I had a fun time hanging out with my friends. I went to see NASA (not really worth the admission) and just enjoyed the nice weather in general. The chinatown in Houston is humongous. It's a sprawl that covers at least 20-30 blocks. About half of it is Vietnamese though. But it's huge. I've never seen so many Pho places next to each other before.

So I was eating supper with my friend at a cafe in chinatown and I ordered a bowl of taiwanese beef noodles and he ordered calamari. He made the additional comment of trying to keep up with me and the waitress actually called him out on that. Since obviously beef noodles>calamari, the waitress said that there was no way he was matching me. That just cracked me up. I gave her 20% tips.

2. Since the weather is getting better (no more snow!! no more 30's!!), I've started walking outside. I can't really jog yet (Doc says in another 3 months) so I'm walking until the weather gets nice enough to actually bike. At least I'm getting some low impact cardio done. Not really that great, but it's a start. It's kinda cool to do your circuit training by the lake. Although it's still only ~50oF/10oC and windy, I like seeing the waves crash against the concrete barriers. Makes me feel like I'm in a kungfu scene, training by the sea.

3. Also starting is my investment tracking plan. I haven't made a decision about HOW to invest (which brokerage firm to use) but I've already started faux trading. Haha. I've decided on a few things.
1. Any stock must pay dividend.
2. No stock should have a P/E ratio of >30.
3. ETFs are ok
Let's see how I fare.

4. Did my taxes... I'm in the 25% tax bracket.. Ugh. And I owe IL more tax. Ugh. AND the new (allegedly non-corrupt) IL governor wants to increase IL tax by 50%!!! From 3% to 4.5%. My gods, it's depressing living in Chicago sometimes. The parking rates just went up, from $1/hr to $3.5/hr in downtown and $0.25/hr to $1/hr around my neighbourhood. Thank god I don't go downtown much and have garage parking. I hate the mayor of Chicago...

So anyone who is interested, is now up to date with my life. Cheers!

Yao Ming Sucked...

At least in the game I attended like Saturday. The one and only time his Houston Rockets played in Chicago, and he had a bad game... Figures. And I had paid good money for the tickets too. At least the Bulls' inflatable mascots kept cracking me up.

Like this dude for example. I have no idea who/what he is but a 10' tall red plastic bull bouncing around is hilarious. Even when you're not drunk.

There was an floating bull balloon riding around the stadium at half time. If it had resembled a flying penis, I would have thought that I was back in college.

This is Benny the Bull. Apparently, he likes to take fanshots with his finger in his nose. I credit his originality but find his sense of hygiene very lacking.

Derrick Rose. The 2008-2009 NBA Rookie of the Year. Watch out for it. The kid is good.

Yao Ming as seen through a sea of balloons. I realised that both the Bulls and the Rockets have red and white as their colours. So for all the Bulls fans in the stadium knew, Yao Ming could have felt quite at home.

Awesome tickets, good game and great company. Although I wouldn't pay this price to see the Asian Sensation again, I had a fun time. It's great when you don't have any pre-domininat rooting interest in a close match.

裁员

今天我公司的head office裁了45个人。也就是说大约25%的人员。 这45个人当中，我认识一两个人。今天和他们MSN时，有点奇怪的感觉。想说几句安慰的话可是又担心自己会被裁。。。 下个星期，大老板会做公司Q2-Q4的经济估计，真希望有好的评估。否则的话，有可能我公司也会裁员。。。

Till this is resolved, no large purchases for me. I will also change my internet from Com-I Suck You Dry-Cast to another carrier so I can get their new subscriber discount...

Long absence...

Yeah, so I had a long absence from posting. I think my motivation just tanked this month for some reason. Busy with work, new achievement pack for Team Fortress 2 and just a general malaise I think...

But anyways, I'm back and starting to write shit again. First off, 没想到因为有了同事的link，就有其他的同事也过来探访我的blog.以后写东西要更加谨慎。能用3种语言来写这个blog就是有这个好处。虽然有时候没有人知道我想说的话，也有几次我说的话，不想让人明白，只想发泄一下。

In any case, because of the said achievement pack and because Street Fighter 4 is coming out for the PC AND because it's already 2.5 years old, I think it's time to start looking for a new PC. I was just messing around on newegg to see what OEM parts cost and then I went to Dell to see what a pre-assembled PC would cost and I think Dell has damn expensive labour...



As you can see, Dell charges a $200 premium on upgrading from the core i7 920 to the 940. That's almost 100% more expensive than the OEM upgrade. The upgrade to the i7 965 is even more bullshit. It's over $400!! WTF. They must be hiring all the retrenched Wall Street brokers to install these processors or something... Just by looking at this comparison, I think I'm going to have to build the next one from OEM parts. This way, any savings can be put to the "Fly home and see friends get married" fund. I doubt there will be much dissent here regarding that course of action.

Ok, that's enough for now. I hope to spec my rig by next week and then I'll start to talk about more important things like housing. Lol.

Life Lessons from Mario

Taken from Kotaku, Mario explains the complexities of a relationship.

First, the basic premise.


A suggestion on how to overcome the huge barrier.


The another take on said obstacle, with a caveat included as well.


The law of unintended consequences hits.


A possible ending to the story.


A very illegal alternative ...



I guess the lesson to be learnt is, invincibility will not help you when you try to get a girl. It cannot overcome large gaps, nor help you bounce on turtles to get to the other side of oceans...

Week 02 of 52 Review

So, after the first 2 weeks of the year, how are my resolutions holding up? Let's review.

1. Lose 2 lbs per month.
a. Weight - There's a problem here in accuracy of the scale. I read 225 but I think it's dubious as weight varies according to the time of day I measure. But I'll call it maintain for now.
b. Exercise - I have been more or less exercising ~5x a week. A bit behind my ideals but still fairly consistent, considering I am not biking at home...
c. Diet - Smaller portions have been a challenge. Especially on weekends. Weekdays, I generally eat less as I can't be bothered to cook. But weekends... I gotta come up with something.

Overall Grade: 3/5. Still a work in progress, but consistency in execution is a start.

2. Manage my finances better
a. Budget - Fail. Have not set a budget. So there's nothing to adhere to. I will set one for Feb 09.
b. Investment - Some research done, now I need to identify which brokerage I would like to use.

Overall Grade: 2/5. Some effort done, but not enough.

3. Get out more
a. My mum just left and it was really cold this past weekend.

Overall Grade: N/A. Will have to wait till end of the month to re-evaluate. Weather has not been kind in Chicago to going out.

4. Career
a. Pilot plant - Learnt how to size conveyors, mixers and RVs
b. Costing - Starting to learn costing (^0.7 measure, ductwork)
c. Academics - Still haven't touched Thermo... Nor Heat Transfer... Fail

Overall Grade: 3/5. Learning Different stuff (Finally!) but still a ways to go.

Well, here's to more progress going on the year.