As This Year Comes to An End

It's like one of those moments when you feel like "crap!! another year has passed and I have achieved nothing. NOTHING!!!!"

yep! exactly how I feel right now. Knowing that I'm graduating this year (hopefully), I started panicking about my life after college a long time ago, but now it's more like the feeling of regretting the fact that I haven't done enough or college.

When you are a freshman in college, you either feel that you need to get suited up and start partying or get suited for tons of classes waiting ahead of you. Well, I fit the latter one, and I'm glad I have done so. There's a fact that you guys should know: even since I started taking upper division classes, I have got a single A. I've got some A-'s, but it's never been a solid A. Sometimes I messed up on my midterm or projects, sometime I messed up on the finals, and sometimes I just messed up both. My sister has told me that the companies usually don't look at your GPA. Apparently they only care about your college and major. Fine, if that's the case, I guess I don't have to worry about my GPA that much. However, I AM glad that I did pretty well on my lower div. classes.

Back to topic. As I became a junior, I decided to finally widen my social circle and party it up. The result? I stayed in my lab most of the time. Party? What party?

And here we go. This is the fourth year and hopefully the last year of my college life, and I feel that I've got nothing done. True, I've learned something in college; true, I've had some fun, but in the end I feel like I'm still not ready for the real life which is finding a job and be my boss's bitch until I die or retire, whichever comes first.

Like I said at the beginning, this is one of those moments when you feel like you have got nothing done. This usually happens to me when I make new year's resolution or birthday wishes. Something bad about being a Chinese? You've got two new years, so you make the resolutions twice......and you feel really bad twice......

My dad often tells me to update my resume constantly so that I don't forget to put anything important on. I always tell him: "Dad, the only thing that will change on my resume is that my GPA dropped again." and this is usually the time my sister starts laughing at me. Thanks, sis.

Anyway, so here's my new year's resolution, and it looks pretty much like last year's......

1) pull up my GPA

2) graduate on time

3) find a job

4) know more people

5) stay in touch with friends

6) consistently practice guitar

7) exercise and train for marathon

8) improve basketball skill

9) get a girl friend (?)

At this point of my life, I really don't give a crap about school anymore, but I guess school would not just go away simply because I give up on it, so i guess I gotta do what I gotta do. Life sucks, isn't it? You know what else sucks? A vacuum.

This is #5 on the list

College Food Series: 法國土司春捲 (French Toast Spring Roll)

I haven't had a post about this for a long time, and I'm glad that I have time right now.

This one is a little tricky, and it requires much more work compared to the other dishes. however, it's still pretty easy overall.

Ingredient:
1) yellow chives about .1 lb
2) Enokitake 1 pack
3) bean sprout 1 pack
4) toast several pieces
5) egg about 6
6) oyster sauce

Procedure:
1) heat up the pan, cook the chives, enokitake, and bean sprout until they are cooked.
2) add oyster sauce for the flavor. The amount is up to you depends on how salty you want it to be.

3) heat up another pan
4) scramble the eggs and put it aside
5) smash the toast until they are flat (that means the bread is not soft anymore)
6) coat the toasts with eggs and pan fry them (french toast pretty much)
7) while you are doing it, preheat the oven to about 250 degrees
8) put some of the chives and stuff on the bread, roll them up
9) use foil to seal the rolls (shiny side facing in)

10) put them in oven for 5 to 10 minutes
11) the point of putting in oven is to dry up the extra water and let the sauce sink in a little more, so adjust the heat and amount of time accordingly.
12) when you are done, cut it open and enjoy :)

Where's the future?

So the other day my friends and I were talking about the life after graduation. This is how it started.

friend A: hey jon, u going to grad school after college?
me: probably, but i dont wanna go to grad school for engineering
friend A: what are you gonna do then
me: MBA maybe? but its just a plan for now. i dont really know yet
A: you going to graduate this year right? better start planning

which then I started thinking about the step-by-step plan after grad

me: so......i guess i'll find a job first and work for like 3 to 5 years before applying for grad school
A: what if you dont get in?
me: uh.....work more and maybe try again? i dunno, never thought of that
A: dude jobs are not that easy to find either you know?
me: yea, but hopefully by the time i finish school the economy will be better
A: yea, there are also more ppl coming out of college who are competing with you
me:......your point?
A: we're doomed. even if we get a job it's gonna be crappy, and you have to work for like 10 or 15 years before a promotion or something
me: what!? no way! it cant be that long. i mean a lot of companies are hiring ppl and they probably need to promote some ppl to get that open space for new undergrads.
A: or they can lay them off......youre too optimistic
me: find then, what's your plan?
A: finish college, get a job, then whatever
me: hows that different from mine?
A: exactly! it's not. so we'll probably be competitors in the future.

in one of my classes, there are around 100 people. despite the effort i put in, my grade is around a C+. and that's about 40 to 45 percent. That means there are 55 percent, or equivalently 55 people who can do better than me. That's only one school. Say if we make my rank around 50% of the class, there are always 50% of people who are better out there. With so many colleges, the chance is that there will be more supply of workers than the demand of labor, so the companies are gonna choose from the better end, which leaves me a little chance of finding a job, a stable job.

and then friend B comes in

B: hey! have you heard that UC's are going to increase the fee again?
A: yea, it really sucks. i cant even stay in school longer

the UC's are going to increase 40% of fee starting next quarter, and more raise in the coming year. Thanks to our broke government, students have to take the direct hit. As my professor always says: welcome to university of california, where there's high tuition, low service.

the story doesnt end here

B: when is this going to end
me: as long as our government still sucks, the fee will only go up. its a one-way street
A: hey! there's a protest thingy on facebook
me: you really think it's going to work?
A: seems like berkeley is doing something
me: dude, after all, we are only students. they dont give a shit about students because we have no power to fight against them
A: ditching classes?
me: so you can just not pay the fee?
A: see? more problems, we're really doomed
me: yea......
B: things are not that bad. i'm pretty sure some good solutions will come up.

From what i can see now, the only solution for me is to get the hell out of here asap and find a job. but according to A this is gonna be hard. and according to B i cant even stay at school. also according to myself I suck at doing well on school

so, where's the future?

trying things out

MouseHunt on Facebook

AS i Watched UP Again.....

I had a post about UP before, and as I watched it again yesterday I actually got something new.

I'm not sure if the staff actually meant to create this but this is what I got.

For Muntz, he represents Carl's old self--stubborn and captured by his own wish. For Muntz, anything can be done as long as he gets Kevin, so he killed many people to keep those away from his bird. Then we have Carl, who's dream was to move his house to Paradise Fall, and he's willing to do anything to achieve this goal including letting Kevin go......if he actually did that of course.

Therefore, if Carl didn't read the rest of the Adventure Book and found out his wife's message, he might turn into a second Muntz......except he has no dogs.

And this is why Muntz has to die. Carl's no longer his old self, so this "old self" must die or disappear. There we go: Muntz must die.

Another point: I mentioned that I thought disney wouldn't kill villains in a violent way. Well, I was totally wrong. They do it all the time. So we were watching Snow White Diamond Edition, and if you've seen it you know how the queen died--pretty much the same way Muntz died. My friend said that disney always kills the villains in the most dramatic way. I guess that's true huh......

Oh btw, when we were watching snow white, we found this movie really funny cuz it makes no sense at all XDDDDD

College Food Series: 青椒包肉(Ground Pork in Bellpeppers)

I wanna call it 翡翠團圓 but it's college food so it should not have such fancy name.....o well

Thanks to Veteran's day, I've got some break to create some new things. One of the reasons why I should thank the veterans lol.

Sometimes I really wish I had better skill at photo shooting, so I can actually change the name college food series to college food porn series......lol

Anyway, let's get to the topic

Since it's college food, it's really easy as any other recipes introduced in the series.

Ingredients:

1) bell peppers x 2 (I choose the green ones. they go better with the meat.)

2) ground pork 1/2 lb

3) ginger and green onion, some

Procedures:

1) marinate the pork with a little soy sauce, and the solution made of rice wine, ginger, and green onion. Pour enough to cover the bottom of the bowl. (don't use too much, or else the meat is gonna have a strong alcohol taste, unless you like it that way of course.......)

ps. to make the solution, simply pour wine into a bowl with chopped ginger and G.O. and squeeze the juice out of them.

2) chop the bell peppers into 8 pieces (4 pieces for each bell pepper)

Okay, so there are actually two ways to cook this thing.

Method 1:

Pro: meat will cook for sure

Con: longer processing time, the shape might not fit into the bell pepper

3.1) shape the pork into balls and cook them in a pan.

4.1) take the pork out, and then put in the bell peppers. Just cook one side. It's good enough.

5.1) add some salt (no soy sauce. it kills the color) to the bell peppers to add some flavor

6.1) put the meat into the bell peppers

7.1) you are done!!!!!!!

Method 2:

Pro: it stays in desired shape, shorter processing time

Con: If you are not good enough to tell whether the meat is cooked or not, you might be eating raw meat later, it's a bit hard to turn it upside down sometimes

3.2) put the raw pork into the bell peppers

4.2) put them in the pan WITH THE MEAT FACING DOWN. It simply cooks faster this way. Also because the meat takes longer to cook. While waiting for the meat to cook, add some salt to the bell peppers

5.2) when the meat is almost cooked (tricky part, be careful), turn all of them upside down to cook the bell peppers

6.2) when both the meat and the bell peppers are completely cooked (you can tell the meat is cooked by sticking a chopstick in, if it goes through without a "sticky feeling," the meat is cooked.) turn off the stove

7.2) EAT!!!!!!!!!!!

You know.....my original plan was to make this blog very professional.....

very professional by filling it with recipes, deep analyses of basketball, shows, or other stuff, but if you look at the category section on your right, the one with most entries is "random."

Great......totally failed.......and here's another "random" entry

It's a beautiful weekend......

Yes! It sure is a beautiful weekend, but unfortunately I don't really have time to enjoy it. When you are a college student, you have two choices:

1) don't study and be doomed in the future

2) study hard and still possibly be doomed in the future

Either way, there's no win-win situation. After all, the college will own you no matter what, and you have no way to escape. Being in San Diego is a luxury to me, but I just can't really enjoy the nice weather or beautiful beach because I'm either at the library or in the lab all the time. Right now as I'm typing this, I'm in the lab. Yes! The lab that I did this in.

I gotta say it feels good when you can have the entire room by yourself and no one's gonna yell at you when you talk too loudly. At the same time it feels really lonely being here when you know some people might be at a party or at the beach or whatever. Well, at least there are some people in the next room so I don't feel too bad.

Every time when it's close to a weekend, I tell myself that I can finally get away from all the school work and rest a little. Well, guess what, weekends do not mean anything to me actually. I'll end up studying somewhere anyway. The only difference is that I don't have classes on weekends, but that's just an extra 1 or 2 hrs each day. How does that help, right?

Being an engineer means that all your work will take a tremendous amount of time, and that doesn't include reviewing notes for tests. True, we might only have one midterm for each class, but we have other things like projects that can take up to 3 or 4 weeks to finish, assuming you work hard everyday.

my life, or I should say all the engineers' lives are pretty boring (fine, all the engineers I know). A typical conversation of two engineering students is like...

A: hey, did you study for *** (code for a class)

B: no, I was studying for %%% (another class)

A: gosh! I wish I had more time! ### (yet another class) is totally killing me

B: well i still have a project due next week for $$$ (and yes, this is a class too)

A: crap! we're doomed.

What? You say this is a typical conversation for all students? Fine, how about this one...

A: dude, when can we finish this crap? I still have matlab assignment to do.

B: well, assuming we can finish this today you have all tomorrow.

A: gosh this is hard.

B: That's what she said!

A: ......... I'm bored of this. I wanna do something fun

B: Well, there are some NMOS's you can play with.

A: What am I gonna do with those?

B: I don't know. Build a current mirror or something

A: that requires BJT you dumb ass

B: Well, MOS can do the job too

Well, you get the idea. You may find this entry really pointless or something. Yes, it's supposed to be pointless. I just wanna whine about things. That's all.

But yea, my weekend can be summed up with four words: working in the lab.

Fun? I don't know. You get to be the judge.

Sometimes Your Effort Just Doesn't Pay Off

Today I got my midterm back and noticed that my score was incredibly low. I asked myself: "WTF!? What is going on?????" As I went through the test, I noticed that all the points I lost was an accumulation of little mistakes. However, this is not my point.

Afterwards, I started thinking: "Am I just careless or is it meant to be?" Few days ago I got another test back, and yes it was like kamikaze. I was pretty pissed off and thinking of how much I studied for the test. I get pissed off easily when it comes to academic stuff such as scores, grades, stupid prof's, etc. I just don't show it in front of people and try to be cool and happy with what I got. The fact, however, is that I'm never happy with what I get. Someone called me having a standard that is way too high, but I think it's about right. Judging from the fact that I came from an Asian high school where people compare scores and grades all the time, having standards like that does make sense, and I'm very used to having high standard (to me it's not really high, but to other people it is.) My mom once told me that I wasn't in high school anymore so things will definitely get harder, so don't think about getting good grades all the time. I agree with her, but I just can't stop setting standards like my high school standard. Throughout the years of college I learned one thing: getting A's is not easy, especially when it comes to engineering classes. yet getting A's is still like a must-achieve thing to me.

That's why I study all the time. Okay, I need to clarify one thing. Of course everyone studies, but I'm pretty sure no one studies until like 3 everyday including Fridays and Saturdays (I admit I don't do it all the time though.) However, every time when it comes to a test, i get all nervous and my thought just goes like "phew"----completely blank, so I kinda have to go through my own thought process and try to grab that slim knowledge that remains in my brain. Of course, the result is never pleasant, and this always makes me wonder: is it really worth studying so much?

On the other hand, my friend once told me: "Jon, you think you studied so much but always failed on tests. Well, I say it's because you don't study enough, so you fail." True, I agree with him to certain extend, but I only have 24 hrs in a day after all, so how much time do I need to commit to studying to get what I want?

I learned that the world is not fair and humans are not equal after all in my first year of college. I see someone who never study, sleep in classes, and don't even buy the textbooks getting A's, like, solid A's. Compare to them, I'm like a total nerd, but the scores do not show that.

I feel like one day I'm just gonna give up on everything and go take like 10 shots and pass out. I know I'm probably going to have a huge hangover the next day but, o well, who cares. I hope this will never happen, but I have a feeling that the threshold is near......

Well, it's sad that things do not go the way you want, but I guess this is life. At least toughness makes us appreciate the happy moments we have.

But I still want good grades......

The Big Bang Theory

I just noticed that I haven't posted some good stuff for a long time. Of course, my whining is definitely not good stuff. Therefore, I decided to share another awesome shows with you guys. Most of you probably already knew about this show, but just suck it up and read it enjoy what I want to share with you.

Big Bang Theory is a show about 4 very intelligent people (either Ph. D or Master degree) who many people define them as "nerds." Indeed, they show every possible stereotype and have ever possible characteristics of nerds in the show. Though some people may find it a little exaggerating, they do perform very well to make us laugh. However, a story about 4 nerds would probably be very boring after a while, so the staff adds in a girl who is tagged as "the blonde girl" who is supposed to be all looks and no academic knowledge.

When these two totally opposite kinds of people collide, sparks do show. :)

Characters:

Leonard Hofstadter:

Leonard is an experimental physicist whose IQ is 173. He is, of course, tagged as a nerd/geek who plays Halo, Guitar Hero, WoW, and all the games that geeks would play. He has no style about his dressing and has no idea about anything but physics, Star Wars, Star Trek, and all other SciFi movies. Something to be noted: all four of the guys share the same interests, but Leonard somehow is the most normal one out of the 4. Many episodes of the series is about him and the neighbor, Penny.

Sheldon Cooper:

Sheldon is Leonard's house mate who has absolutely no idea how this society works. Although he is a genius who received his Ph. D in his 14, he does not know anything about non-academic stuff. This is why many jokes are evolved around him from his manors. For example, he cannot tell when people are being sarcastic (though he learned a bit as the story goes on :) ). Sometimes he can be really annoying, however, because of his characteristics. Even when people do realize that this is part of him, they just cannot stand how he does things in the show. I personally stopped on one episode simply because he's way too annoying. Whether he's good or bad, he is a unique character.

Howard Wolowitz:

Howard is a the only guy out of the four who does not have a Ph.D, and people sometimes make fun of him for that. Besides his smartness, Howard is known for wanting to get laid. He has many "interesting" pickup lines that will never work on any of the women, yet he does not realize this fact and constantly wonders why he cannot get laid. He lives with his mom and is seen as a little boy by his mom disregarding the fact that he's 27. Howard's fun point usually comes from his stupid pickup lines and tricks to get women. However, some people do find it a little disturbing.

Rajesh Koothrappali:

Raj, the 4th guy of the group. He cannot talk to girls with the influence of alcohol. However, once he's drunk, he becomes a smooth talker. We do not find out about it until later in the first season when Penny tries to take the bartender's job and mixes him a drink. Raj talks to his parents often through webcam. His parents live in India and are apparently pretty rich, but Raj often talks about how he was raised in poverty in India. Although Raj has this distinctive symptom that makes him special, he does not really talk much in the show for the same exact reason.

Penny:

Yes, the blonde girl is here. Penny moves into the same building and becomes Leonard and Sheldon's neighbor in the very first episode. Penny works at Cheesecake Factory as a waitress, but she has a dream of becoming an actress in movies or tv shows (ironic, huh?). Unlike the four guys, Penny possesses good street knowledge but is usually confused by the guys. She has dated many guys but eventually broke up with all of them. She and Leonard have this friend/lover relationship that develops throughout the story. Although she does not know much academic stuff, she eventually learned a lot (well, not only academic stuff but also Star Wars, Star Trek, etc.) by simply hanging out with the guys.

Right now it's on its third season. Each episode is about a different story, but the relationship of the characters do develop throughout the story. If you are interested and have some free time, try this show. It's very funny. :)

It's one of those days......

Midterm weeks have officially started as I have two of them this week and tons of hw following after. You know, after every summer I've always wanted to tell myself: Jonathan, try to enjoy this year. It will be much better compared to the last one.

Well, guess what, an illusion is called an illusion for a reason, and self-hypnosis does not work on me.

Oh yea, btw, I'm supposed to be studying right now for my really important midterm tomorrow, and you all know what I'm doing right now. I just don't have the energy and mind to study now, but I will have to eventually. My rainlender just reminded me that I have a midterm and a MATLAB assignment due tomorrow. Thank you rainlender, but I don't really need this right now. I wish I could be watching espn and enjoying my quiet night right now......

I'm not trying to complain here, but wtf, why does my major have to so hard? And in case you guys don't know, I hate the name Fourier. This name makes my life really really miserable. Actually not just this one, but there are also Laplace, Maxwell, and maybe Gaussian alone with it. Sometimes I wonder why people cannot just chill and not think about all those math problems so we do not have to solve and memorize all the laws and formulas.

My professor made a joke saying that engineers only view this world in two perspective: things that need to be fixed, and things that will need to be fixed. Well, guess what, I think my life needs to be fixed right now. I seriously want to just take several shots and crash on my bed so I don't have to worry about anything after today. Sadly this will never happen. At the end mister Fourier still has to punish me with his transformations, and Gaussian still has to torment me with his laws. Isn't the world wonderful?

I guess this is the price you have to pay after enjoying a nice weekend celebrating your friend's birthday. Wait, I actually spent most of the Sunday studying, so it's more like one night of drink-all-you-want-and-don't-think-about-anything. I gotta say it was pretty fun, except the fact that I slept on a really soft couch so my back started hurting the next morning.

I think I should go back to playing "who blinks first" with my heavy textbook. It always owns me pretty badly for some reason. I guess I can never beat it because I'm just not smart enough to play the game right.

Last words for you guys: living the lab is not fun; living in the library is not fun either, but when it comes to your grade, the words "lab" and "library" are better than the word "home"

Good night guys. May you guys have a wonderful night and may you never have to face what I have to face right now......or more like after finishing this post. Ah......I wish I could watch some How I Met Your Mother or Big Bang Theory right now......

Another sad news? Or should I call it normal?

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=4532106

There were injuries after injuries last season, and this may be a sign that it's repeating this year. I'm not saying that this is the only reason why Warriors sucked last season, but it does play some role in it. Now I just hope that this won't affect the rest of the team that much. Oh well, not like they can make playoff this year, so it doesn't really matter. They have a lot to do for the coming season, and the first would be......

FIRE EVERYONE IN THE FRONT OFFICE AND GET CHRIS MULLIN BACK!!!

College Food Series: 碎肉玉米炒辣椒 (Spicy Ground Pork and Corns)

You know......I always find it hard to translate the dishes' names to English......

but anyway, here we go:

Ingredients:

1. corns: 1 can (non creamy)

2. ground pork: 1/4 lb (marinated with salt, sesame oil, a little rice wine, and some corn starch)

3. chill peppers (I like the red ones, they add good color to the dish, but if it's not spicy enough throw in some green, little ones. Oh they are good.)

Procedures:

1. after marinating the meat for around 15 minutes, throw in some oil into a heated cooking pan.

2. throw in the chill peppers and let it cook for about 2 minutes (or until the smell comes out)

3. throw in the meat and cook until it's cooked.

p.s. if you think it's not salty enough, add some salt. DO NOT USE SOY SAUCE. It's going to destroy the color.

4. throw in the corns and cook for 3 to 5 minutes

5. eat!!!!!

It is another great dish to go with rice, and it's awesome for lunch box as well. It's easy, tasty, and fast. Such a good dish huh? :)

College Food Series: 麻婆豆腐 (Ma Po Tofu)

I decide to start this series just because I love food. Haha, it's also a guide of how I successfully made it so I can check back in the future. So here we go

Ma Po Tofu

ingredient:

Tofu: 1 piece

The sauce pack: 1 pack

pepper corn oil: a little

ground pork: 1/4 lb

I use the sauce pack to save some time. After all we the college students don't have that much time on cooking, right?

You can get this in the Chinese grocery stores such as Ranch 99. It's around 2 bucks so it's acceptable.

Procedures:

1. boil a pot of water. We will use it later.

2. heat up another pot (or a pan or whatever you use to cook) and put in some oil.

3. cut the tofu into small cubes (the smaller, the easier the flavor goes in but also the easier it breaks, so it's up to you how big you want it to be).

4. cook the ground pork until it's fully cooked.

5. add the sauce into the pot and stir slowly.

6. meanwhile, put the tofu into the boiled water for about 30 seconds. This is an important step. You might not be able to tell the difference because this dish has a strong flavor, but for other dishes you can taste the "soil" taste in the tofu.

7. put the tofu into the pot and stir slowly. Cook it for about 5 mins.

8. add in some peppercorn oil to give it a good smell :)

9. if it's too watery, make some corn starch water (corn starch + water...DUH!! make sure you use cold water though) and put it in gently.

10. wait until it's saucy but not watery, turn off the fire.

11. eat!!!

It's a great dish with rice. I bet you can eat more than usual with this dish, so dig in!!

How I Met Your Mother

Okay.....so I've seen some depressing stuff on people's blog. It's true that we face things that don't go according to our ways, but that's also the interesting part of our lives, isn't it? Like people always say: when someone gives you lemon, you throw it right back at him you make lemonade :) This show has a lot of realistic stuff and unrealistic stuff. The realistic part makes us think while the other part makes us laugh. For those who are sad or depressed or whatever, go watch some of the episodes. It's really funny.

The story starts with a dad (Ted) telling his kids about his life back when he was late-20 and how he met their mom (yes! the title!). To them, everything happened in the past, but to us, the time in the show goes with our current time. The entire show is a big flashback.

There are five main characters who are good friends with each other. Of course they have to go through some fighting and arguing, but they are still good friends after all.

Characters:

Ted Mosby:

Ted is an architect who seeks for a woman for a long-term relationship and marriage. Throughout the show he gets with many but eventually breaks up with all of them. I'm not gonna talk about the characters too much in case of any spoiler. Watch the show!! :)

Marshall Eriksen:

Marshall is Ted's best friend ever since college. They lived together throughout their college life and still lived together for a while after college. He's a lawyer who's dream was to help the environment protecting organization to fight against the evil corporates. However, his dream doesn't seem to come true any time soon..... Marshall is a tall man who was raised in a "manly" family. All his brothers are taller than him (he's 6" 4') and his dad tried to make him become very manly. The family sure can eat. :)

Lily Aldrin:

Lily is Marshall's beloved woman. They got together on the first day of their college life and have been together ever since. Lily is a teacher at a kindergarten. Although she's kind and sweet most of the time, she does have those moments when she completely turns to the dark side(XD). She's also a painter whose painting is not acceptable to human beings but somehow is to dogs (and it's extremely bad to the birds).

Robin Scherbatsky:

A Canadian news reporter who moved to the US to chase her dream. However she could only work at a station called Metro News 1 that apparently has a really low viewing rate. Robin is introduced in the first episode of the first season. In the episode, Ted did something crazy to try to get her, but at the end the narrator (old Ted) revealed that Robin is only the kids' "aunty". Of course, there's more about Ted and Robin later on in the show, but we do know that they eventually stayed as friends. Robin's thought is kind of opposite of Ted's. For example, Ted wants to get married and have kids, but Robin just wants to chill and have fun in a relationship. She doesn't want commitment (or not yet?) and would not accept Ted's idea. Again, go watch the show. There's so much more. :) Oh yea, the other four always make fun of her for being Canadian or saying Canadian things. It might be a little offensive to my beloved Canadian friends but....I'm sorry it's just so funny XDDDD

Barney Stinson:

I know it's kinda sad to say this, but he's my favorite character. He's a womanizer who pretty much always wears a suit. He apparently worked at some mysterious company that no one knows what it does, and he never told anyone about his job (until certain episode when something happened to that company). He has many crazy ideas of judging a woman or how to get a woman to sleep with him. He also has a set of rules of life. He always says those ideas with the tone of "let me teach you something". In the show we learned why he always wears a suit and how he became who he is now. Barney's role is the comedian and the spice of the show. Without him the show would not be so interesting and so funny. And once more, go watch it.

For those who are college students and are suffering from all the works, I understand how you guys don't really have time, but we gotta loosen up a bit sometimes so we won't drive ourselves crazy. This show can be the buffer in real life. I'm sure it will give you some laughter, and you'll definitely enjoy it. :)

Oh yea, this show also talks about sex a lot (well...we got Barney here) so for those of you who can't take it, don't watch it. But hey, just talking about it wouldn't hurt would it? I say we should just relax and enjoy the show.

This is one of the shows I follow. I've followed many series such as The Office, Heroes (stopped), Big Bang Theory, and House (need to catch up). I'll try to give some introduction of these shows to those who have never seen them before.

Lebron James' Best Dunks

http://www.nba.com/video/channels/top_plays/2009/09/14/nba_091409_lebron_dunks.nba/

This guy is a physical freak.

But I like it :)

NATCAR

For the past two years, I've working on a project that took a ton of time. For this I've been skipping events and parties. Now we've built one car and competed in last year's competition, I decided to move on and leave it to the younglings. Many people have been wondering why I would skip all those fun stuff for something like this, so I feel that I should kinda explain what NATCAR is about.

NATCAR is an automatic car that can detect the track and run it. The track is pretty much white tape on black carpet. There's also a wire that contains 75 kHz current running through it. That's pretty much the basic setup of the track.

The car has to be able to detect the track, whether by detect the color contrast or the current, and run the track with the fastest time while trying to avoid wandering off the track (hitting the white cones, which gives penalty). Of course, the car that takes the shortest time wins.

The car itself contains several parts. Although there's not so much limit of how you make the car, it does have to have some basic parts. There are the sensors in the front, which senses the track; there's also the motor controller that controls the speed the revolution of the motor; the micro-controller that acts as the brain of this car. Yep! Things like these.

A Nice View of One of the Sensor

Honestly, the components are not very hard to build, but they are extremely hard to calibrate. Things usually work well on their own, but it would be a totally different story once we assemble them altogether. For most of the time, our effort was on debugging. This includes tons of testing and reverse engineering.

The Micro-Controller

Every week, we sacrificed our precious rest time for this project. Our meetings were usually on Saturdays from 10 am to 2 pm, but very often (almost every week) we worked until night time. Yes, our Saturdays are gone. Of course we complained about this a lot (you have no idea how much I complained :) ), but, o well, we gotta do as much as possible so we could make it to the competition.

A View of Soldering

I have to say that we had a lot of fun (someone: ewwwww) from doing this. Although it sounds and looks and in every single possible way very nerdy, we still had fun :) . We got to put what we learned in classes in practice. However, whatever we learned in classes can only apply a little bit. For most of the time, it was more like trial and error with probable hypotheses. I believe we learned more from this than from any class.

Our Lovely Testing Machines

There are not only engineering stuff involved in this project. For a while we had to deal with the funds. In this period of time, we hit a bottleneck and had no solution for a good month or so, and the board saw it and thought that we couldn't finish the car on time. Thanks to some board members and our team's hard effort, we still got to finish the car on time (HA! Screw you, board!) Although the result of the competition is not satisfying (we did not finish the race), the process is still awesome.

Now that I'm done, I wish the best luck to all who are still on the team. I will go back sometimes just to check out how everyone does. Many members who were on the team are still on the team this year, so I'm pretty sure they will have some nice breakthrough. Good luck again to all of you NATCAR-er. May the force be with you :p

The Car (okay...this one is not the one we built. i dont have a picture of our car. this belongs to the team two years ago...XD)

Xiao Long Bao (Little Steamed Buns) [小籠包]

Most of the time when people talk about it, they would think the steamed buns from Shanghai. True, Shanghai's steamed bun is super popular, but it might not be the best in my opinion, or I just haven't had the really good ones from Shanghai yet.

I'm gonna talk about the xiao long bao from this really famous store in Taiwan, Din Tai Fong (鼎泰豐). In Taiwan, Din Tai Fong is like another name for xiao long bao, their most famous dish. Many tourists from China, Korea, and Japan request to go there when they go to Taipei. This is one of their must-go places in Taiwan. Yes, it's that popular.

You might ask: it doesn't look that special from this picture, so what is the secret that draws all the customers?

Well, it might not look special because you cannot really see what's inside from this picture, or I simply suck at taking photos :p.

What makes this xiao long bao so special, so different from other places? First, it has really thin skin. The skin is so thin that you can break it easily. If you are not a good chopsticks user, it is recommended that you use other utensils to support when you get the xiao long bao. Since the skin is so thin, you can taste the flavor inside easily. When you take a bite, it is not noticeable that the skin is there. To exaggerate a bit, it feels like the skin would melt in your mouth.

Second, there is a secret sauce used to make it. Apparently no one really knows what's the ratio of the sauce used except the owners and the key officers. This sauce brings out the flavor. It extracts the best part of the meat and creates a perfect balance when eating it with ginger and vinegar. This sauce plays an important part of the dish.

Third, the visual effect. Visual? You say? Yes! When you enter the restaurant (the oldest one), you will see the entire kitchen and all the chefs and workers in it. You can see the entire process of making the xiao long bao. You will be amazed of how fast they can make it. All the chefs are REALLY skilled, and they are not afraid to show you what they've got. This really brings up your appetite.

Fourth, the waiters and waitresses. If a restaurant is well known internationally, the all the workers there must have really good manner. Workers at Din Tai Fong definitely have it. You will be surprised how nice they can be. For example, some workers have to carry like 5 or 6 serves of xiao long bao (the wooden container shown in the picture), it would make sense if they want to serve them asap. however, they will still let you pass first when the path is too narrow. To me, I would let them go first and would expect them to pass. Instead they insist that I shouldd go first. I do not see workers from other restaurant, especially carrying so much stuff, do the same. Interesting fact: all waiters and waitresses have to be able to speak Japanese because there are sooooooo many japanese tourists who go there.

last but not least, the restaurant itself. The restaurant is bright, nice looking, and, most importantly, very clean. I heard that tehy spend hours cleaning everyday to make sure that the restaurant stays "appetite". I mean, no one would want to eat at a dirty restaurant right? Knowing that this building is much older than me, other restaurants might already have dirty walls, broken tables or chairs, or cracked plates or whatever already (yes, some restaurants do use the plates if they are only cracked a little on the sides, but I don't see it at Din Tai Fong), but all the above are not seen in this restaurant.

I'm pretty sure that's not all why this restaurant is awesome. If you have a chance to go, try it yourself and maybe leave a comment here to tell everyone how you feel about this place. For those who are in LA, there is one there. I'm not sure if it tastes the same, but hey at least you guys have it. It better than nothing isn't it? :)

p.s. some pix from internet. the sign is not from the original restaurant

When you have jetlag.....

Waking up in early morning is refreshing. It makes me feel like I can do so much in one day because I feel that I have so much time. The weather today was beautiful, and the view was so awesome. My neighborhood is already pretty, but it looked even better today. It was actually so pretty that I wanna buy a really good camera to take pictures. Well, too bad I'm a poor guy, but at least I had camera.

I love this community. It's so pretty and so convenient. It's close to the subway and a beautiful park. There are also tons of restaurants and/or shops around. Although getting to those places still requires driving, it's still good. :)

Here are some more pix......

This complex is named as a lake, so all the street names in the complex are all sea creatures (yea...they all live in salt water,not in a lake......) Most of them are names of fish, but there are some exceptions.

This place will look even better in fall when all leaves turn red or yellow. Too bad I won't have a chance to be here during that time. By the time I come back, all leaves would be on te ground already.

This morning, I learned to appriciate what I have more. This sounds kinda weird I know, but hey, if you live in this community and realize how beautiful it is, you would think the same.

School is starting soon. This last year of school (hopefully) will be fantastic. I will make it fantastic. People, enjoy school while you can. Once you get out of school, there will be more stress and you would have no way to get rid of all these anger and depression :)

We'll end this post with this picture ;P

We should take our own responsibility

People, if you are reading this, please read until the end because I think many people actually need to know this, and it may include myself.

To me, responsibility is a big word. It's like a dividing point of children and adults. Some people have the look of a child but really matured mind. How do we tell? Well, they can take their own responsibility.

When we were young, we let our parents take care of everything, whether it's the money for lunch, or the food supply like breakfast. We didn't have to worry about anything but, say, our grades. For all other things, our parents take good care of it.

As we grew older, we started facing more problems and not all of them can be taken care by our beloved parents. We faced problems like finishing homework, judging who's the good friend, and/or how to get a boy/girl friend. When one problem comes up, there are usually more waiting in line just to screw you over. We have to deal them one by one or once for all. No matter how we deal with them, we HAVE to deal with them. The problems won't disappear when we run away, and not to say we usually can't run away.

People, we all know that running away from problems does not help, and we all should know that

KICKING THE PROBLEMS TO SOMEONE ELSE DOES NOT HELP, EITHER.

It is quite common to hear someone's saying: it's not my fault. It's his/her problem. Come on! Is it really? Okay, I should be too black and white. It is true that sometimes it's really not someone's problem, but for most of time it does involve the person who says that, even just a little.

Does making someone else the one to blame really helps? Yes, it might take away the blame you deserve, but ultimately it does not help the condition you are in. If you didn't finish the homework, you are still not done with it even if you say: "Jon asks me to play with him so I have to go," or "I have other stuff to do so I don't have time." Children do that, and you should NOT do it if you think you are qualified as an adult.

When we enter college, we find ourselves in situations when we have to work together very often. Do we want to work as a team or several individuals? Can we work as a giant, efficient machine with all parts together or just different parts that do not fit? Face it people. Playing hot potato does not help.

I'm writing this article right now because of some people, and you know I'm talking about you. However, I do wanna ask everyone who's reading this to be respnsible. I've heard this line from Crayon Shin-Jan: "If you see yourself walking toward a rocky road, choose another one that's not rocky." True, it is supposed to be a joke, but it does make some sense in a point of view. If you are not ready for the rocky road, choose a flatter one. If you are not ready for this job, don't take it as if you are. If you do that, you will find yourself in a much worse situation than not taking it. True, we have to learn to face challenges, but we also have to learn to judge the situations. Sometimes there are things we are not capable of or not capable of yet. It's really important to learn this kind of judgement.

So what if you don't have a good judgement and find yourself in that much worse situation I was talking about? Well, you finish the job, no matter how hard it is. Quitting is for losers, and it causes so much trouble for other people. This is EXTREMELY important when you are the LEADER.

A leader is the head of the team. He has to come up with a plan and guide the members of the group to success. A good leader knows what's good and can figure out a plan from all members' suggestions. He can also handle the pressure and blames when he has to, and he has to be able to control the group. If you are a leader, especially when you are elected to be a leader, wear your armor and prepare to handle all the pressure and blames. It is your responsibility and your job. You are not elected to be a leader because you are cool or funny or whatever. You are elected because people think you can do all things listed above. If you think a problem is too hard to handle and just run away, what kind of leader are you? And do you know how much trouble other people have to deal with because of your lameness?

Please, be responsible. It is very important not just now but also in the future. If your boss thinks that you are not responsible, how can he give you the important job? When things don't go as you planned, bite the bullet and move on!! Deal with it!! You are adults now, and running away doesn't help!!!!

Again, people, please take your own responsibility.

p.s. Sorry for the bad grammar and jumping thoughts, I'm jsut writing down whatever comes out of my mind.

Cleveland's Future

Being a Lebron's fan, I check Cav's record and status sometimes. Although I'm not as crazy for Cav as for Warriors, I do make sure I read all their news on ESPN to follow their works. In any case, I do hope that Lebron can get a ring somewhere.

Last season, the Cavs ended with 66 wins and swept first two rounds. However, it ended its championship run with disappointment after game 6 against the Orlando Magics. The main reasons are:

1. Dwight Howard's dominance inside the paint

2. Because of D. Howard, the swing men got more chance to shoot outside

The inside-outside plays totally destroyed the Cavs. That's why the front office made several moves, hoping that they will help in the coming season.

Let's start with last year's starting lineup:

Point guard: Mo Williams

Shooting guard: Delonte West

Small forward: Lebron James

Power forward: Anderson Varejao

Center: Zydrunas Ilgauskas

Besides Lebron, no one can really make to the starting lineup in another team, besides Mo Williams maybe. But then again, besides lebron no one can be a go-to player in this lineup. Therefore, it's almost a miracle that they got 66 wins. You may say that it was due to some good team work and good defense or whatever, but mostly it was Lebron's performances that really saved them. I'm not saying other players are bad players, but compared to starters on other teams, Cav's starting lineup does seem a little weak.

After the disappointment last season, this offseason is really busy for the front office. They acquired several veteran players, hoping it will help in the coming season, especially against Orlando. The most important reason for all these moves is that they want to get the ring for the coming season so they cane make sure that Lebron stays in Cleveland after 2010.

Lebron made a comment about being a free agent in 2010, after he's off his contract. He was being ambiguous about what he is going to do. He tries to put pressure on Cleveland so that the office will do everything to keep him. Smart move, but I don't really see him being on another team (NY? really? you really think he's going to NY? I doubt it....)

Therefore, the office, being afraid of losing Lebron, traded several big names:

1) Shaq O'neil:

There are pro's and con's about this trade. many, including the front office, think that adding into the rotation will add size aka defense inside. If they face Orlando again, maybe Shaq is a good add becasue he can probably stop Dwight Howard inside. Also he might be good against other big players. Overall, he's good inside.

Then again, he's 30+ and is not as in shape as he was anymore. Although he said that his mission in Cleveland is to "win a ring for the king", it's still hard to say that he won't want to take over and be the star himself (like he did last season in Phoenix). Because he is 30+, he is not as atheletic as he was before. Judging from what he did in Miami (missing practices for no reason), there's no guaratee that he will fit into the team that well. After all, team chemistry is really important.

He is considered the biggest move of this off season ( or you can say Artest & Ariza swap? Rasheed Wallace going to Boston? Richard Jefferson? Vince Carter?) But I do think that his effect is the biggest (Cav's championship, Lebron's staying in Cleveland, etc)

We cannnot say whether it's a good trade or not until season starts, though, so we should just wait and see.

2) Jamario Moon & Anthony Parker:

These two players are for parameter force for sure. Adding these two does add more power outside, and they can be good bench or starters. I personally think they are good adds.

3) Leon Powe:

Leon Powe shows his ability two years ago in the final against the Lakers. Powe shows really good athletism and also good skills. Although Powe probably won't be back until later of the season, he can be a good bench sharing minutes with Varejao. I really like this guy, and he's from California XDDDDDD

I hope I can see him play more often.

So the new starting lineup in the comins season might be:

PG: Mo Williams

SG: Delonte West

SF: Lebron James

PF: Anderson Varejao

C: Shaquille O'Neil

and the second unit should be

Daniel Gibson

Anthony Parker

Jamario Moon

Leon Powe

Zydrunas Ilgauskas (I have problems spelling his name.....)

It looks pretty good to me if I don't consider the other big two in the east.....but I do think that the Cav's have a good chance winning the Eastern Conference. The rest is the fight against......the Lakers if nothing goes wrong. Lebron vs. Kobe, people have been waiting for this for a long time. Last season Lakers were 2-0 against the Cavs, and we will see how this season will go.

One thing that's worth talking about is that the Cavs didn't have a good record against the big teams (namely Lakers, Celts, and Magics), so they will test how well the new rotation is by playing against these teams.

Good luck Cavs, and good luck Lebron.