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.

2009-2010 Western Conference Forecast

Article from EPSN:http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?page=OffseasonPredictions09-WestStandings

Western Conference is still crazy, just like how it was last year and two years ago.

well....now Golden States is out of picture, i really don't know what to expect in west. and what's with portland? i really think Denver and Dallas should be before Portland. I'm not saying Portland is bad or anything, but I do think Denver and Dallas can be better. Also, I'm pretty sure the 8th seed has to win at least 45 games. I mean, come on, it's almost a western tradition now. I do think Lakers are gonna repeat its championship run, yet it will be hard repeating getting the title. The eastern big threes got some big moves (not saying swapping Ariza and Artest is not big but still) and are likely to stop Lakers. I think, besides GS's games, I'd watch more games of eastern conference.

Hope for Golden States:

1) Anthony Randolph:

seeing him in summer league really gives us a lot of hope, but Don Nelson is known for not giving chance to young players. Therefore, i really hope he will get enough minutes to show what he really has. Again, I know that summer league sometimes doesn't really mean much (look at Marco Belinelli few years ago......), but it really seems like he has something to prove. Golden States' front count is never strong. Counting on Biedrins or Turiaff alone is too big of a risk. If Randlph has something, let him show it. I do wanna see more inside plays. Run-and-gun is fine, but it would work better inside.

2) The back court:

aka Monta Ellis and Stephen Curry. These two are both shoot-before-pass players. If both are gonna start, who's gonna be 1 ? Or if there's really gonna be a 1?

It is true that a team doesn't really need a true point guard, and Warriors don't pass much anyway, but having a good point guard does help (looking back in 2006 and 07 when Baron Davis was still around, at least he passes sometimes......). Now both are not truly point guards, so I don't really know what is going to happen and what the style (what kind of run-and-gun) would the Warriors have this coming season.

3) Stephen Jackson's Future:

Jackson recently announced that he wants to be traded to be a contending team. Knowing that GS is probably not gonna be good for another 2 or 3 years, it is reasonable for a 31-year-old to want to feel more secured. I do hope Jackson can stay on the team, knowing that he can be a nice link between front and back court (he averaged 6.5 assists last season). He, however, does dribble too much sometimes, and I'm not a big fan of his fade-away three's.

All in all, he's a good player and provides good leadership (although he's known for getting technical fouls as well)

4) Don Nelson:

Well, my only hope here is that he can focus on coaching and stop fighting for power against the front office. Do your job Nelly, you are not good for those jobs that require writing or speaking anyway, so just be a coach, and please use your young players. Their growth is important.

5) playoff run:

Work hard Warriors!!! Although you guys' records are not that pleasant in recent years, but we still support you!!!!! Good luck in the coming season!!!!!!!

A little knowledge: in basketball, we usually use numbers to represent your positions

1: point guard

2: shooting guad

3: small forward

4: power forward

5: center

i hope i dont get it wrong......

All pcitures from Internet

ZGMF-X10A, Freedom

Alright, WTF, you might say

Freedom is the name of the Mobile Suit in anime Gundam Seed, piloted by Kira Yamato. If you haven't heard about any of the names above or you are not interested in gundam or robots in general, you may take your leave. The button "last page" is on the upper left corner.

However, if you are still interested in any way, let me show you why I like this one in particular. (I hope you guys don't think I'm a geek...well, so what if I'm a geek lol~)

A little background:

Gundam SEED is an anime series that was aired in Japan in 2002. Being one of the Gundam series, many gundam fans have high expectation for it. I will not criticize or even mention the story here, however. This model is the second mobile suit for the main character.

A little data that probably no one would care:

Model: ZGMF-X10A

Height: 18.03 m

Weight: 71.5 metric tons

Power plant: Ultracompact nuclear fission reactor, power output rate @8826 kW

Equipments: Beam Sword, Shield, Plasma Assault Gun, Plasma Cannon *4, Nuclear Jammer Canceler, Phase Shift Armor

i like this model because of the design the use of color. First I just love the combination of white, blue, and red (but i'm not patriotic XDDDDD). With the black, the entire body looks even cooler. It adds a little......metallic feeling to it.

As of the design, it looks very smooth to me, especially the chest part. The entire model doesn't have any unnecessary part or flawed designs. It is simple but high-class. The wings in the back also make it look even better.

In the anime, this model is the ultimate mobile suit. Being a hero unit, of course it has to be cool and strong. Under the control of the main character, this unit, like its name, is flying freely in the sky and not many opponents can damage it. It, however, almost got destroyed at the last battle and actually got killed in the sequel, Gundam Seed Destiny. Still, the awesomeness remains in my heart and I personally think it's the best unit in the entire C.E. era (SEED, SEED Destiny, Astray, etc)

because this seires made so much money when it was on air, the staff decided to make a sequel of the story, Gundam SEED Destiny. The story is crappy, the characters' changes don't make any sense, and the ending is WTF. For those who are interested in watching this series (SEED), please don't watch the sequel because you will hate it.

Another note: As I mentioned earlier, Freedom got destroyed in the sequel, and, because they want to make more money, they came up with Freedom's predecessor, ZGMF-X20A Strike Freedom. The design follows the basic design of Freedom, but somehow they made it butt ugly, especially the cannon on the abs......

(and what's with the golden hands? shining fingers?)

Strike Freedom

Funny thing: I remember I used to write a review for every single episode for this series. Now when I look back I find my comments really funny. Things like "this guy should totally kiss her already" or "this girl is a b***h" are everywhere. Oh I miss those days....XDDDDDD

p.s. some data from wikipedia, our best friend :D