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2006-11-30

 

I Rock

At least for AE's My Wishlist. I managed to get today's feature item, Microsoft's Zune, each of the three times it offered today. Since my iPod just arrived yesterday (to my surprise, Apple Fedexed it from China in 3 days), I couldn't convince myself to get a Zune (Welcome to the so-so!), even at half price. I ended up getting one for my sister and giving up other chances.

These are definitely signs that I'm good at this game. And I have had enough practice to perfect my skills. So I believe, on top of getting more 25% off certificates, I'll also be able to get something big. Like the Porsche or the 40" TV with Blu-Ray. Maybe both...

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2006-11-29

 

Winning Something

I am never a guy who wins in things like lucky draws. Well, except the time when I was in high school I won the grand prize of seven dwarfs dolls (as in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs), and bear in mind that I was in a boys' high school. So I don't win anything meaningful, including the Xbox 360 from the stupid Amazon Customers Vote.

But it changed yesterday. Thanks to "My Life. My Card.", I was lucky enough to get that 25% off (up to $150 off $600) certificate from Amazon. Of course, I would rather have the Sharp 37" 1080p LCD TV for $900, but no complains here. Now if only I could get the Porsche...

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2006-11-28

 

Second Movie in 10 Days

I went to a movie theater again, this time for the other top 2 US box office movie, namely Happy Feet. I didn't have much expectation for this one, simply because I consider singing and dancing penguins dumb.

Overall, the movie was nothing better than I have expected. For most of the time, it is just scenes after scenes crowded with almost identical penguins. Other times, there are hip-hop penguins of Hispanic heritage (although they are already the funniest in the movie). People have criticized its anti-Christian agenda; I didn't see it that way, but wouldn't care otherwise anyway.

What I don't quite get about the movie is the target audience. Certainly it can't be for adults for its dumbness (unless I have been overestimating the intelligence of human being), yet it seems to be equally unsuitable for kids. What's worse, it could even trigger brainless kids to stop eating fishes to "save the penguins."

I am glad that I didn't pay twice the price to see it in IMAX.

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2006-11-24

 

Black Friday Sucks

This year's Black Friday sucks. Despite having a long TOBUY list and finally having a bit money to spend, I couldn't find any deal I'm a bit interested, even after spending a whole week looking online and reading newspaper ads. Well, except for the Xbox 360 sold at $100 in Amazon, which was more like an invitation for DDoS attack and was impossible to get.

Actually, the top item is my list is a Wii (notwithstanding its ridiculous name), but it is tough to get. I also want a DS Lite, but everyone seems to stick the price to $129.

Desperate as I was, I decided to go for an iPod. My very first iPod. After all, it is rare to see a sale in Apple Store, and who can resist with it on top of an employee discount?

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2006-11-19

 

Most Appreciated Skill

Guess what is my most appreciated skill so far after working for more than 1.5 months?
All wrong. It has to be... (drumming sound) Powerpoint animation skill! Heck, I spent two freaking days for two slides! I even created an animated meat grinder from a static clip art. (Any way you could imagine how that it has something to do with my work here?)

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2006-11-18

 

Free as in Beer

Our VP treated us something nice.

All folks in the lab was allowed to go for free lunch and free movie yesterday afternoon. The lunch was at Benihana at 11:30 (the green tea ice-cream was terrific, by the way). This allows us time to make the movie at 1:20. Of course, the movie is none other than the Bond movie Casino Royale, on its release day (Daniel Craig is probably the least charming Bond ever, by the way).

How was the day looked at the end? Imagine if you take out 11am-4pm from a day, and see what you have left. On a Friday.

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2006-11-17

 

Unsafe Houston

Houston is becoming a worse place to live in, after Katrina. So many people have moved in from New Orleans during and after the hurricane, and have decided to stay.

I heard about two incidents in the last couple days.

First, a woman was walking in downtown at around 8pm. She was approached by an African American. Then, out of nowhere, that guy punched her in her face and knocked her down, apparently for robbery. He fled when a car drove by and stopped. This is not too surprising, as it is well-known that downtown Houston is not particularly safe at nights.

Another incident was a carjacking in the apartment I lived for 4 years. A poor graduate student, who also shared the same building with me in Rice, worked his ass off in campus until 2am and then went home. Once he parked in the apartment, he was approached by three African Americans. He surrendered his car, laptop, and wallet at gunpoint. Maybe he should be blamed for driving a Lexus, but it is a really old one.

What really surprised me is that the apartment is so freaking close to a police station. Moreover, I always see a police patrol car parked near to the apartment office. And not just the car. When I walked pass the patrol car, I saw a uniformed police officer in the car. One time, I even saw him eating a banana in the car (!).

How can Houston become this bad in such a short time? I have to be glad that I left...

2006-11-10

 

Walking Home

I live almost 2 miles away from office. While it is quite a walk, it is a fun walk, particularly for returning home on Wilshire Boulevard, one of the major streets here. Though not the shortest route, this routing is entertaining as you can see you walk faster than cars (this remains me to the opening scene in Office Space). At least most cars, not counting buses and those that dare to drive on the bus lane.

As an added benefit, I also walk pass a place like a Church of Scientology Mission. What I don't get is, why are people still believe in anything else, after Flying Spaghetti Monster has made His presence?

2006-11-08

 

Shopping Experience in Hong Kong

Despite efforts on advertisements, the retail services in Hong Kong could still be extremely horrible and much worse than the counterpart in mainland China. Quite the opposite to, say, 20 years ago. This is one of the stories I heard about.

So a customer X went to shop for clothings in Jusco. X was interested in an item, so she asked the shopkeeper Y, who was very busy chitchatting with her colleague, the price of the item. Y ignored X. X asked again, Y ignored again.

"Excuse me, can you tell me how much is this?" X raised her voice a little bit.

Of course, Y couldn't care less. It appeared that she didn't want her conversation interrupted.

Feeling angry, X said, "What's wrong with you!? How come you don't answer me after I asked you like 10 times?"

Finally, Y replied. "What 10 times? You only asked 3 times!"

"Then how come you didn't answer me?" X followed up.

"Can't you see I'm in the middle of a conversation?" Y shot back with a sound reason.

X was speechless.

So was I when I was told about this story.

There's probably a reason why I don't like to go out a lot and do most of my shopping online.

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2006-11-04

 

Weird Feeling

I have had this weird feeling about Symantec's stock prices for a while. I've been wanting it to drop since I accepted their offer, but not in a manner that would imply any collapse of the company. Probably quite opposite to what most other employees feel, I would say.

Finally this is over, because the exercise price for my stock option is yesterday's closing price. The final price isn't too big, given the trend for the last 2 months, but if I had joined in June... well let's say I'd be more than $20k richer. Looking at the bright side, I'm probably glad that I didn't start at 9/11, as the stock option would cancel out any salary I get.

2006-11-02

 

Daylight Saving Time Ends

Daylight saving time finally ends, and I never thought I would miss it so much. When I was in Texas, I hoped the sun to go down as soon as possible for every single day, yet it never seems to leave us until after 7pm. But now in California, without Daylight saving, it is completely dark outside (except for the bright moon) when I leave my office, which is typically only around 5:30pm. The latest PhD comic shows exactly what I mean. A day, as it seems now, has already gone when I done working...

2006-11-01

 

Portrait Mode

Computer screens are getting proportionally wider, following the trend of TVs. Sure, it makes them better for watching movies, but how much often do you use the computer screens for movies as oppose to, I don't know, as a normal computer?

Some people argue that wider screens are better because the way human's field of vision extends further to the sides than vertically. Or you can see lame excuses like the one from the first link saying you can see more columns in a spreadsheet (what if you want to see, hm, more rows?).

Now that I need to do more coding (both for work and for finishing my stupid dissertation), I decided to turn both my home desktop and office desktop to portrait mode. This is one of the best recently things I have done to myself. Now I can see more lines of code (instead of more code per line...) and being more efficient.

What's surprising to me, though, is that I found that my browsing experience also improves after switching to portrait mode. This is because most web sites, most notably newspaper web sites, try to be "portable" and limit the width, so my new width of 1,200 pixels is still much more than enough, yet I can also read articles more efficiently with less scrolling. I guess I'll keep it in portrait mode until I finish my dissertation and start playing games again...

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