Personal Dork Assistant

It's kinda funny to see

It's kinda funny to see Cartoon Network censor their anime. The whole Tenchi gang was sitting around the table drinking what CN dubbed as "tea." Of course, everyone was turning red in the face and keeling over. The euphemistic "tea" was pretty obvious even if you couldn't read the label or recognize the shape of the sake bottles.

Was at Fins last night

Was at Fins last night for their shrimp taco combo. It was obvious that the girl managing behind the counter was sick as a dog. She was sniffling and had that droopy-eyed look of sickly exhaustion. Felt kinda bad for her, but at least she didn't sneeze in my tacos.

"Men can be so easily entertained."

The link stolen shamelessly from The Obscure Store. All wackiness ("A man in a chicken suit dropped an egg, signaling the start of competition.") aside, it's a story about a man trying to save his business by doing what he does best. Which happens to be eating chicken wings. Oh well.

Rode in an double-length bus

Rode in an double-length bus for the first time in ages. I'd forgotten how cool the swivel and accordion section in the middle was. Especially when you're sitting in the back section as the bus turns and the front half goes left and the accordion section gets all scrunchy, all while you're still pointed forward. However, with the extra length and the flexible midsection, the bus had some extra vibrational modes which caused unwelcome resonances in my gut. Good thing it was only a five-minute ride.

A new coffee cart just

A new coffee cart just set up shop on my way to school. The lady behind it seems nice enough, if a glance as I walk by is sufficient evidence for character. Small business is the invisible but powerful driving force behind the American economy. Unfortunately, there's a Peet's shop half a block up the street in the next mini-mall. And a Starbucks is in the not-so-mini-mall across the next intersection. This isn't counting the coffee counters within the grocery stores that anchor these respective mini-malls. Of course, if I keep going and get on-campus there will be more cafes and coffee carts than you can shake a stick at. Is there any hope?

Hmm... the VGA switchbox was

Hmm... the VGA switchbox was not a panacea. There's definitely loss of picture quality and some nasty image ghosting. Hey, what did you expect for three bucks. Need to look into better cables and internal shielding.

Getting out of the House

Decided to head up to Costa Mesa to check out the computer fair at the Orange County Fairgrounds. Main reason was to check out the Zalman low-noise CPU cooler/heatsinks and power supplies. Besides, at a place like this there's always plenty of other random computer junk that might catch my eye. And the car can use a little exercise, too.

The fair was a bunch of tables and blue partition curtains set up in a barn of a building. Most of the vendors were Asian mom-and-pop shops. Some were more like mom-and-pop-and-son-and-daughter operations. In some other time and some other place, we might've been dickering over bok-choy and live chickens instead of DIMMs and motherboards. The prices weren't very impressive for the name-brand stuff, although I was tempted by the white-box SoundBlaster Audigy for $60. The real gems are the parts and pieces from obscure brands with the badly translated manuals. Found the Zalman guys and tried to get a package deal. Unfortunately they wouldn't deal unless it was cash. Didn't feel like making an ATM run so I sucked it up. The heatsink is pretty and the the quiet fan and PSU were as advertised. In a small apartment, the lower noise level helps a lot.

Picked up a replacement of the HandTrack trackball for the PowerBook. My last one broke under excessive clicking, and Fry's was out of stock of the USB version. The new one is upgraded so that all three buttons are separately programmable, which comes in real handy with USB Overdrive, which is about the last piece of software I need before I migrate to MacOS X. The real deal of the day, though, is the VGA switchbox I found from a big rack of old equipment. That plus a couple of VGA cables was seven bucks, compared to almost $100 for a real KVM switch. You can't beat that with a stick.

Wanted to get some rounded IDE cables, too, but I was out of cash and their prices weren't a whole lot better than Fry's. Since I was in Costa Mesa anyway, I went down the road to the Women's Club. Yep, they were still playing Magic there. The crowd was actually quite good, since it happened to be a Pre-Release Tournament for the new set (isn't there always a new set?). Dan Gray was still in charge, and there were a few other familiar faces, but nobody recognized me, which was probably just as well. It was too late to get in th sealed tournament, of course, but they were running the usual 8-man booster drafts, so I jumped into my first game of Magic in 1.5 years by drafting cards I've never seen. At least nobody else had too much experience with the set either, this being a pre-release and all, so I wasn't totally out of it. Drafted a solid but unspectacular B/U deck. Beat a girl wearing a USC sweatshirt and her mono-green with my fliers, and lost to some generic Magic-playing teenager who had more creature enhancers in his B/U. Was pretty happy with my play, but my draft skills let me down, which was nothing new. The whole deal was a deja-vu experience, and it was fun, but I'm not going to be sucked back down that black hole.

So four games of Magic managed to kill three hours. Although to be fair the drafting took an hour out of that. It was going to be late by the time I got back to SD, and I skipped lunch. So as I cruised down the 405 towards the fork, I was lured off the freeway by the blazing neon of the Edwards 21-screen multiplex and the mall it anchored. As I walked into the Irvine Spectrum Center, I had an oddly familiar feeling, even beyond the fact that it was just a mall. Then I realized where it came from. The whole place was just like the shopping emporia in Vegas, with the carefully designed yet easily fabricated buildings. It wasn't just a mall, it was an integrated entertainment destination. There were a wide range of restaurants, entertainment from the megaplex and an Improv Comedy Club, and the usual litany of stylishly corporate brand names filling out the place. Even the Food Court was not immune, as the only non-chain place was the Chinese fast-food place, and I simply was not in the mood for bad Chinese food. Anyway, I got a plate of something to refuel and sat in the food court. If this is the future, then we are all doomed. And I'm not just bitter because I was probably the only person by myself in the whole mall. The place felt like a wringer designed to extract money from the flow of people, and as an unfortunate side-effect take a little joy with it. The hordes of teenagers were happy enough, fresh sponges still saturated with life and disposable income. The parents, who seemed weighted down (credit card bills?), were there because there's nowhere else to go. And the few grandparents seemed slightly bewildered. I was glad to finish dinner and get back on the road.

Anyone need an extra ATX power supply and an Athlon CPU cooler?

Sports Wrapup

Cal stole one and Stanford was solid against the LA schools. How in the world did the Sharks get whipped 6-2 by Columbus after playing even with the Red Wings? Yeah, it was the second game of a back-to-back on the road, but still. Australian Open, ladies doubles finals: Hingis and Kournikova vs. Arantxa and some Russian teenage hottie in a black one-piece tennis outfit with the short skirt and a plunging(!) neckline. Well worth watching, and they played some good tennis, too.

It's heartwarming to come home

It's heartwarming to come home long after sundown to be able to find my way in the darkened apartment by the soft glow of LEDs from all the gadgets strewn about. Of course, I could've just used the iPod's backlight to light up the room.

Wow, The Grove Cafe (the

Wow, The Grove Cafe (the student co-op) makes a much tastier cup of coffee than Espresso Roma (the chain in the Price Center). Too bad The Grove a little out of the way. And just when I'm getting close to that freebie cup at Espresso Roma, too.

Shopping Trip

Grocery shopping is one of those chores that you undertake to keep yourself alive. It's depressing how much time can get sucked up by this type of chore. Especially when you're living by yourself, so there's no economy of scale. The best use of the PalmPilot so far is as the grocery list-keeper, so I won't forget to pick up some some trivial staple when I do hit the store. I end up wandering around aimlessly anyway. It's not like I plan out menus in advance, so I walk around the produce aisle looking for inspiration to strike. And I can never shake the nagging feeling that I'm forgetting something. Unfortunately, I'm usually right.

Anyway, I was out of rice, which seems like a good reason to go to the 99 Ranch Market. It's like a way to reconnect with my roots. Not to mention a chance to restock on the bags of frozen potstickers. You gotta love decent food which can be prepared by anyone who can boil water. They also have the best Fuji apples. And they're cheap, too. One of the pleasant side effects of the Japanese recession, which forced Washington apple farmers to dump them on the market.

Oh, and I had to pick up some toast. Mmm... fresh purple (taro) toast.

Wow, that was an aggravating

Wow, that was an aggravating football game to watch. The Raiders had about a million ways to win the game and they managed to blow all the opportunities. They got screwed by the ref, they blew a short-yardage 3rd-and-1 which could ice the game, not to mention the complete failure of the pass defense in the second half. Painful.

.plan

• Prepare for Tivo upgrade
  • Burn boot CD
  • Repartition HD to add a FAT32 filesystem
• Check out Tower's weekend sale
• Laundry (colors)
• Catch up on the Tivo-ed episodes of SatC

The Price Center is an

The Price Center is an apropo name for the student center, especially when you're trying to buy lunch. I did like the Mexican food place, which was run by a Chinese family who spoke Spanish. Sometimes the lady would take the order in Mandarin, then turn around and give the order to the cook in Spanish. The Chinese food place is awful, so I'd rather eat from the Mexican place, which is probably awful, too, but then I don't know any better. Besides, there's something to be said for an occasional plate of greasy enchiladas smothered with red sauce and queso that ooze over into the rice and beans. Oh, and the token bit of iceberg lettuce salad in the last styrofoam square.

Anyway, that's all gone for the new quarter. The counterspace is all boarded up with a "Coming Soon" sign for Rubio's Mexican Grill. They used to be a small San Diego chain, but they're now listed on NASDAQ and trying to expand. They're okay, especially when they run their 99-cent fish taco sales, but nothing special. I like Fins better anyway, far as fish/shrimp tacos go. I guess La Jolla just isn't cut out for cheap hole-in-the-wall eateries.

Ran the first discussion section

Ran the first discussion section of the quarter today. Went like most first-try sections. Attendance is always good, and I always plan way too much material so I never finish on time. There's plenty of fascinating history and people involved in astronomy, and none of that go into the lecture if I want to fit the material into an hour.

Today's Experiment

1. Sear jumbo scallops in butter. Season with salt. Two minutes per side. Set aside.
2. Throw in a minced shallot and a small clove of minced garlic into the brown butter and sautee.
3. Deglaze the whole mess with some lemon juice.
4. Throw in some al dente spaghetti and a big handful of parsley. Salt and pepper. Toss to coat.
5. Put the scallops back on top.

The acid from the lemon worked well with the sweetness of the scallops. I think it needed a dash of white wine for a more complex flavor, but I didn't feel like buying a bottle of wine just to use a tablespoon. The dilemma for a single guy, it takes just as much effort to cook for one as it does to cook for many, and it's not significantly cheaper. I still need to buy a bunch of parsley even if I only use a few stalks. Especially with seafood like scallops, it's not something I can freeze and save for later. Tomorrow: Rubio's fish tacos, 99 cents for a limited time.

Boy, this doesn't make him sound any smarter

(Reuters) President Bush fainted and fell off a couch on Sunday evening after choking on a pretzel while watching a televised football game...

It's a little depressing to

It's a little depressing to spend half an hour on the Stairmaster only to find that I didn't even buy myself half a hamburger from In-n-Out.

Cree got hammered on missing

Cree got hammered on missing the earnings estimate and a lousy top line. The prediction of zero growth for the next quarter or two didn't go over well, either. That's not a good sign for the LED business in general, especially for the more profitable high-end products like the bright, blue LEDs where Cree's chips are used. Meanwhile, AAPL is doing its usual post-Expo swoon. I guess the new iMac wasn't sexy enough.

Saturday Morning

Ah... there's no better way to start out a quiet weekend than plopping all the rechargeable batteries and toys into their chargers.

A blast of Santa Anas has rendered the sky crystal clear. The desert wind wrings all the moisture out of the sky and turns people into Chap Stick addicts. It also raises the temperature by about 15 degrees over the usual winter temperatures, so I had a good excuse to go down to Peet's Coffee, add twenty bucks to my Peet's cash card, and get the most expensive drink on the menu for free, which happens to be their Mocha Freddo ice blended drink. I could've gone for the Xtra-Large Mocha, I suppose, but a triple-shot of espresso isn't exactly the road to relaxation. Picked up half a pound of Major Dick's Blend, too. I keep meaning to try the Holiday Blend, but my coffee-buying schedule never quite syncs up right with the holidays.

Now I can vegetate in front of the TV for the rest of the day. Of all the cruel consequences of 9-11, this is probably the most insignificant. Nevertheless, with the cancellation of that week's NFL games, the playoffs were pushed back one week, thus putting ABC's slate of wild-card playoff games this weekend instead of last. They had planned to milk their own NFL games for all they were worth, then counterprogram the other networks' football coverage this week with the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, which is a big deal (if you care about figure skating) because the U.S. Championships were act as the Olympic trials. Unfortunately, with the schedule changes, the 800-pound gorilla that is the NFL now gets the prime-time coverage on ABC, and the figure skating is relegated to the god-forsaken cable hell known as the ABC Family Channel. They can't even put it on ESPN because they have to run their NFL pre/post game coverage.

Oh well, it's hard for me to watch figure skating nowadays. Even with all the leggy teenage girls in sequins, it's just not fun to watch a sport where the winner is determined by who doesn't fail, i.e. fall on their ass. It really is like watching a car wreck about to happen. Of course, I can watch the NFL games and it's like a car wreck on every play. And what's wrong with watching car wrecks anyway?

KG was flat out sick

KG was flat out sick against the Lakers. Athletic 7-footers should not be able to drop 3-bombs from the top of the key.

What a bunch of wankers.

What a bunch of wankers.

What I Did on My Winter Vacation: Part 2

Finally got around to reading the Harry Potter books (well, the paperback ones, anyway). Finished Sorcerer's Stone while waiting in the airport on the Vegas trip. Did I mention that the people in the next seat on both the flight to Vegas and back had the Star and the Enquirer with them? Cruched through the other two books in one night. It's light, entertaining reading. Although now that I've read the books, the thought of Harry Potter slash stories does make me slightly nauseated. Or maybe it was just the tacos from last night.

Talk about slight nausea, Scholastic Inc. needs to keep their dumbed-down American editors away from these books. Not that Harry Potter is some impeccable literary masterpiece or anything, but what the hell is wrong with calling it a Philosopher's Stone? The rest of the world doesn't have any trouble with name, and the pursuit of the Philosopher's Stone is only one of the primary impetus of modern Western science. Heck, Issac Newton cared more about the Philosopher's Stone than gravity or any of that physics stuff. I don't usually buy the spiel about dumbing down America, but this annoys me, probably more than it should.

I think I'll skip the HP movie, though. Maybe I'll wait for the DVD. It just seems like one of those books where the imagination would fill in the images better than film and CGI. I was impressed by the LotR movie, although it did drag a bit in places. Couldn't make it all the way through the rolling credits, even with a brand new Enya track playing over it. Apparently I wasn't the only one since it seemed like half the guys in the theater were waiting in line at the restrooms when I scooted there. I was glad to have read the book a while ago, so I could fill in the little details like the leaf clasps of their elvish cloaks, but not remember so much detail as to be annoyed by the changes, like Arwen as super-elvish-babe. I understand that they had a dialog coach work with everyone, nevertheless all the elves sounded like actors trying to speak a totally foreign language. I wonder if I still have those LotR CCG cards sitting somewhere.

Went to the local postal

Went to the local postal distribution center to pick up my held mail. After culling through the ads and tearing up the credit card offers, the only things left were the bills. You know, even with convenient on-line bill payment and with plenty of money in the bank account, paying the bills still sucks.

I'd almost forgotten how darn

I'd almost forgotten how darn nice the weather is around here. At home, the house seems to be sitting in a slight depression near the top of the hills, so that the fog and mist gathers and it takes most of the morning for the wintry sun to punch through. Sometimes the fog is so thick that I couldn't see across the street. At least here in San Diego I know any depressive modes will be the real deal. None of that seasonal disorder crap.

MacWorld Expo

There was no way it was going to live up to all the rumored hype, but the new iMac is pretty darn nifty, even if it does look like Luxo Jr. It's a little annoying that my used-to-be-awesome PowerBook now appears painfully obsolete in comparison, but that's the price of progress, I guess. I might finally be convinced to upgrade to MacOS X, though. If only iPhoto would import my existing stash of... pictures. Even ZephIR is being updated for MacOS X. A couple of Palm conduits and a final version of Eudora is all I need. Oh, and the $300 for the new version of Office. Well, maybe I'll wait. Podmate. Turns the iPod into an universal remote control. Intriguing.

So I have a cell

So I have a cell phone now. Mom couldn't get decent reception from SprintPCS at the new house so she moved to AT&T. Since we're committed to a Sprint contract from now to eternity, and I'm the only one in the family who doesn't have a cell phone, I inherited the Sprint phone by default. Heck, it got great reception all the way down I-5. Not sure why couldn't receive anything in the middle of the Bay Area. Not sure what good it's going to do, since the Tivo is the only thing around here that makes regular phone calls. I suppose one of these days I'll have to try the wireless data modem option, although the last thing I want to do is to give Sprint another ten bucks a month.

Good reasons for blogging

1. Gets me writing something coherent(?) again so I won't be overwhelmed when I have to write a thesis. If I ever get that far, that is.
2. I'm getting a crash course in CSS by messing with these Blogger templates

Well, maybe the reasons aren't really that good.

What I Did On My Winter Vacation: Part 1

We went to Las Vegas for Christmas. It's sort of become a family tradition when we get together with a couple of uncles and their families for the holidays. The uncles are Vegas fiends from way back, but we never went until Sam and I got old enough to play. I feel bad for the underaged cousins. Especially Abby, who's the only girl, way younger than the rest of us, so she has nothing to do except go to CircusCircus with her mom, and has no one to talk to except us the really annoying relatives.

I'm glad the folks didn't drag us to Vegas when we were young. It would be so easy to hate everything Vegas stands for, even now, and even with comp room and food at the nicest hotel on the Strip plus free play money from the relatives. Skipping to the head of the buffet line was probably the best perk of all, although as Sam said, "It was hard to look the hungry little kids in the eye," as we walked by. Still, one can't help but notice the soulless machine lurking behind the fancy facade, from the mathematical advantage built into the games, to the little black camera domes in the roof, and the litany of Brands that populate the shopping emporia. However, there's something strangely democratic about a place that cares nothing about your appearance, race, age, or sex, as long as you had money and is willing to spend it.

Even with guilt-free money to lose as I choose, it's hard to make myself sit down and gamble, knowing the odds are stacked against me. I usually stick with Blackjack since the odds are almost fair, and I can play by the book and not feel too bad when I do lose. Apparently Sam's been playing lots of poker with his Stanford buddies and practicing online, too, so this time we spent a good deal of our time in the Mirage poker room playing $3-6 Hold 'Em. They made the poker rooms smoke-free, thank goodness. There aren't many card sharks lurking at our low-limit tables, not when the manager was gathering games with ten times the stakes. Nevertheless, I was ready to be lose my shirt since I've played only a handful of poker in my life, although I did read the handy poker primer that Sam had. Yeah, I lost, but I held out for quite a while, and I did get beat twice when the other guy got his card on the river. At least when you lose at poker, the person taking your money is right there looking you in the eye. Sam lost, too, and he was mad because he was expecting to do better. He was drawing dead, his opponents kept shit opening cards and got lucky flops, and so on. You know how that goes, especially in Vegas. Too bad we were there for Christmas, since there was no action at the Sports Book. In fact the Sports Book section was positively forlorn the whole time we were there. All those big screen TVs going to waste. So much for the only other Vegas game where skill might help.

On the other hand, maybe ignorance is bliss when it comes to this sort of thing, since my uncle always seem to manage to win money when we're there. At roulette, no less, which has the worst house odds of all. Anyway, it was nice to see the family. Ask about how the LED business is doing. I should learn the names of fancy cocktails so I can ask for them at the gaming tables. A pretty lady offers me free drinks and all I ask for is H2O. Lame.

Alright, time for some content.

Alright, time for some content. I drove back to San Diego from the Bay Area yesterday. I timed it perfectly so that I hit LA after six hours of mind-sucking boredom that is the drive through the Central Valley, just in time to run into the teeth of the afternoon commute. If you're not familiar with California geography, you have to go through the entire length of the LA and Orange counties to get to San Diego, and both counties form pretty much a continuous traffic jam during rush hour. Actually, it wasn't that bad throgh the Santa Clarita valley, but I had to make a decision on which north-south artery to take through the rest of LA. There was no way I was taking I-5 all the way, and the 210-to-57 route would've been clogged at the 210-10 interchange, not to mention it's a bit out of the way. Decided to take the 405, since it is suppose to be the San Diego Freeway, after all. Even though it doesn't go to San Diego nor is it the shortest way to San Diego, but it's a route I haven't tried before. Of course, if you know anything about LA traffic, you know that the 405 is no picnic during rush hour either, and I should've known better, too. It was stop-and-go from the Getty Center all the way down to Costa Mesa, but at least I got to drive by a different array of LA surburbs. Sherman Oaks, Culver City, Redondo Beach, Santa Monica, Manhattan Beach, Westchester (not to be confused with Westminster), etc., etc.

Not sure why I even drove in the first place. It just meant that I could carry lots of extraneous junk which I never used anyway, like my work PC. It did let me take advantage of mom's Costco card, though, and I'm now stocked with enough Kleenex to last me through Spring and then some, not to mention enough Tupperwared food to feed me 'til then. The car did get a badly needed oil change and wax job. The car still looks pretty good after a thorough wash-n-wax, for a six-year old stock Honda anyway (no rice rocket here). The whole process involved about half a dozen sundry chemicals and cleaning products, so I'm sure I sucked in some interesting fumes on the drive back. The iPod was the MVP for the trip. Kept me (almost) awake, and no repeated songs during the whole time.

Woohoo, my first step into

Woohoo, my first step into weblog navel-gazing. Thanks, Blogger. I'm surprised by the impressive array of software engineering just so people can brain-dump into the cyber-ether. I'm sure there are better tools out there (emacs?), but since I don't have shell access to the web space this will do for now. We'll see how long it takes before I get bored with this exercise.

So why am I doing this now? Well, I've got two week's worth of email that are waiting in my Inbox, and I'm too lazy/chicken to open it. The Telnet window is right there and Pine is waiting for my command. Yeah, I still do my personal email the old-fashioned way. Not sure if I'm afraid of the inbox being full or empty. Anyway, it's something for me to put off, so I'm taking advantage of the opportunity. Of course, that was what I did for my winter break (putting things off), so I should stop.