November 17th, 2008 yoshers
Since I have been a boy, it was always PC for me. But now I have an iPhone…and Windows has Vista.
In any case, as Shareena is plotting how to break, destroy, incinerate my iPhone, I have encased it in protective gear:
New MacBook Pro.
Why?
- Good address book, email, iPhone integration (still feeling the pain from Outlook)
- Nice mouse gestures (and no buttons may be good or bad)
- Easier to manage all of the Xserves that we use for our Webcast program
- It’s not Vista
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March 20th, 2006 yoshers
As you can see, my blog presence has changed and I am ready to write more than usual. A few things went away – my bio page, my friends page – but hey, I think it looks better.
The comments section is back, so for all 2 of you who actually check out my page, feel free to comment away.
Hmm, should I keep doing the advisory column? It’s not always easy coming up with topics…
Anyways, you’ll see that I have embedded the gallery into the main theme, while the forums are pretty much its own theme. It’s just too bad that I am too lazy to integrate everything, but such is life.
As for my normal life, things are going well. Shareena and I just celebrated our 8 year anniversary. We went to one of our favorite places – Napa Valley Grille – and well, let’s just say that it wasn’t the ideal restaurant experience. Let’s count the ways:
- Ordered one soup…asked for two spoons…one server thought I said “two soups”…told the waiter that I said “two spoons”…server brings second soup…hmm, lack of communications?
- Where are my wines (3 tasters)?
- Oops, food spill (not too bad and even understandable given that we were fitting a lot of stuff on a small table)
- Ack, salty chicken
- Um, why are you charging us for coffee?
I guess we will be looking for another place in Napa to dine the next time we are there. Della Santina’s in Sonoma is quite nice and very well priced as well.
Otherwise, our next trip will be Vegas! More on this in the near future.
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September 24th, 2005 yoshers
I know that I returned from vacation three weeks ago, but I am still feeling tired and cannot seem to get back into the groove of things. I am not sure I know what is going on, but at least I have finally managed to put up some photos of my trip (though comments are still in order…with help from Shareena as I don’t want to mis-name anyone). The pictures in the gallery are just a sampling…of the ones that I liked the most. If you want to see the rest, just catch me at home or when I have my iPod and I will be sure to go through all 1000+ with you. Many of them are repeats as I have pictures from four different cameras.
I also promise to write about my fun and exciting trip this coming week…most likely, I will have to break it into pieces…and I really need to organize my life and get motivated. Anyone with a suggestion?
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August 3rd, 2005 yoshers
Things have been so busy that I have pretty much ignored the fact that I will be off to New Zealand in two weeks. Honestly, I have been telling people that I am going in two weeks, but really have not thought about it much. I guess I have settled into a pretty comfortable life after coming back from Chicago and frankly, I haven’t traveled much (well, I mean something more than just a weekend or my normal Christmas break) so I guess I just have not gotten into it quite yet.
Anyways, I have been kept busy with the bSpace project at work…among other tasks and projects. We have finally launched on production, though a bit trimmed due to some large and small errors that we have been unable to correct…or in some case, indentify. Seriously, adapting code to suit your needs is not an easy task and I am fortunate that I do not have to do this. Of course, running a set of hardware for an application without knowing that someone else has done so successfully is not exactly a walk in the park either…and this is something that I am dealing with.
Outside of work, I have been watching my fantasy baseball teams live at polar opposites of the spectrum – one team is so far ahead that I cannot see how I can lose and the other is so far behind that I do not see how it is even possible to make the playoffs. Of course, there is also the fantasy football draft…which is always fun and is taking its time as we are doing a forum draft (yes, I am hosting the forums…and hopefully they don’t go down when I am in New Zealand!). And while I have not worried much about New Zealand, I have been helping Shareena out in running some errands – buy books, get some winter clothes, get gifts! Of course, there will be more of this next week.
All in all, I hope to write in my blog more often this month…notes on preparing and vacationing in New Zealand seems like something that might be interesting. Of course, we’ll see if I even get internet access in New Zealand…and if I do, no one at work shall know!
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July 2nd, 2005 yoshers
OK, so I still have not managed to stop looking at housing bubble sites, but I have stopped reading most of the housing bubble blog/comment posts as most of it is just rehashing stuff that I have already read. Fortunately (or unfortunately, considering the amount of time that I am spending), there are yet more to read about as far as how the US economy will influence and be influenced by the current real estate situation. And although I have not been able to settle myself down and find a really good way to learn about economics formally, I have learned more about the different dynamics of the economy.
Still, economics are very much influenced by people…and we know trying to figure out what people will or will not do is hardly something that one can measure scientifically. People basically profit off of other people (see stock market bubble of the late nineties variety) and for some reason, it feels like the current market conditions are basically influenced by two things 1) oil price and 2) whatever comes out of the Federal Reserve Board. Seems like a very narrowly focused set of things to determine the whole US economy…sure, other factors are still involved, but the real conundrum is that the study of economics is basically the study of how people (whether individually or as a large group) will behave towards certain commodities. But the fact that the Fed Board can say, “everything looks great” and the economy will stay healthy (and conversely, if they say, “the sky is falling”, you can bet that people will be hiding their assets under their pillows) makes my question the sanity in following any economy.
So now that I have spat out my less than fully educated view of the US economy, I shall once again resist the urge to do something hasty in anticipation of the imminent demise of real estate. Their will be no selling of my house in anticipation of real estate prices dropping. I mean, renting really does suck on so many levels.
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June 3rd, 2005 yoshers
I must say that I have caught on to the housing bubble wave and am spending a bit too much time reading articles and various forums about the current housing situation. Frankly, everyone can analyze it all they want, but just as the recent housing price run up has been unpredicted and unprecedented, the future of housing prices are just as unpredictable and perilous.
When I bought my house a few years ago, I thought I was buying at the peak of the market. Of course, that did not deter me as I had ample money for the down payment and I was hardly stretching myself too thin for my housing payments. At that time, I was definitely buying for the long term and just wanted a place to call home so I can stop renting (especially from Mr. Reddy). And if the market went down a bit, which was possible, I would still be doing quite well.
Nowadays, if you believe in the very worse of the housing bubble talk, I would be very tempted to sell my house and wait for the bottom to drop out on housing prices. Aside from the hassle of moving and finding a place to rent (which ironically would be cheaper than buying in Berkeley), I guess this would be possible. Of course, I tend to not believe that Berkeley will be hit as hard as some of the other locations when the housing market cools off. Given that the university is nearby and the already high prices, I doubt that the inventory of houses for sale will dramatically increase and there are probably very few investors trying to flip properties for a profit here.
That said, while Shareena and I would like to move away from the dirty alley, but the time is not right. So I will keep an eye out and see what’s out there and hopefully the mass mob mentality that is going on right now dies down in a polite way. Of course, I don’t think that’s going to happen, but that’s another story for when I talk with you next.
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March 2nd, 2005 yoshers
As you know, I am not a big proponent of annual celebration. I suppose I am even somewhat of a “bah humbug” for Christmas (hey, we did have a Christmas tree in the house). I guess I do not really understand the celebration of a somewhat random thing…and no, I am not complaining about getting older…yet.
Really, I think I just do not like the expectations of these days. Maybe it will change, but I am content with a quiet birthday with no one noticing that it was my birthday. Not that you should forget on purpose, but I won’t mind if you don’t call me on my birthday. It really is no big deal, I won’t think any less of you.
Of course, this does not apply to other things.
What a morbid blog…. I suppose I can use the cheering up…and has anyone seen my UC Berkeley staff ID? I think this may be the cause of my negative birthday/anniversary thoughts.
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February 25th, 2005 yoshers
While I am waiting for Windows to run its “Windows File Protection” scan as I am trying to figure out why one of the computers at work keeps on crashing, I will talk a bit about my last couple of weekends.
For the pre-Valentine weekend of the 12th-13th, Jansen, Rebecca, Dave and Olivia all stopped by Saturday night for some yummy and spicy (well, only medium, but spicy enough for most at this restaurent) Thai food at Ruen Pair, the restaurant where Shareena and I ordered food “extra hot” and it actually was extra hot. There are some photos forthcoming from our adventure with all the great food here.
Afterwards, Dave went crazy on ice cream and thus, we had an impromptu ice cream party and played Bang! with our housemates. Ironically, Olivia was the Sheriff again (after she was the Sheriff a couple of times the last time we played) and Dave got killed very early on…at least he got to play a round this time. For the second game, we stipulated that if Olivia got Sheriff again, we would redraw the roles. After some attempts, we managed to get it right and Olivia managed to not get to be Sheriff while Dave survived for more than one round.
Sunday morning came and Dim Sum was on! Jansen, Rebecca and Olivia accompanied Shareena and me all the way to Daly City for Dim Sum at Koi Palace. More yummy food followed (but no tripe or other very strange things…well, I guess we did get an order of chicken feet) and after we were all full, we returned to my place for some “Awesomely Bad Love Songs” on MTV.
Last weekend saw Shareena and I make our way down to LA to visit my grandmother. She is getting up there in age and since it was raining, she was not able to come out and have lunch with my uncles, aunt and us on Saturday. So on Sunday, Shareena and I swung by for dinner with grandma at her apartment in downtown LA. We discussed Shareena’s buying of 2 gold bangles in India town (in Artesia) and chatted up her caretakers from Indonesia as well before we headed back up to Berkeley.
So a couple of busy weekends…and guess what, I get to see Shareena’s parents this weekend. I guess the fun never stops.
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January 28th, 2005 yoshers
On Sunday, Shareena and I travelled up to Davis to see Rebecca, Jansen and Olivia for a performance by Cirque Eloize at the Robert Mondavi Center. It must be explicated publicly that while the Robert Mondavi Center looks hideous from the outside (as you drive by on the I-80), the interior and acoustics of the place is quite top notch.
Anyways, the evening started off with dinner at Kathmandu Kitchen for some good Indian food. Certainly, it is nothing in comparison to Shareena’s mom’s cooking and the Tandoori chicken was pretty much what Shareena does with her grilled yogurt chicken, but overall the food was above average and it is always nice to have some garlic naan (which Shareena’s mom does not make).
The show that we saw from Cirque Eloize on Sunday was Rain. It was quite a good combination of quirky humor, amazing acrobatics and great demonstrations of strength and flexibility with a fantastic dream-like atmostphere. It was certainly different from our last encounter with Cirque Eloize two years ago when Nomade made its way to Berkeley. Nomade was certainly the more exciting show, but each has its charms. For anyone who wants to see the various Cirgue du Soleil performances, I would definitely recommend them see Cirque Eloize as well and for a much more reasonable price.
Still, I think I will have to see “O” at Las Vegas when I have the chance.
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January 4th, 2005 yoshers
Fortunately, part 2 of my busy December was pretty laid back, so my batteries are recharged for a busy 2005.
Firstly, I drove down to southern California to spend some time over Christmas with my family and old friends. On Christmas Eve, Jason and I hopped over to my cousins’ house in Oak Park and we had some hot pot (which Jason likes a lot as he gets to cook his own meat) and beef stew before playing a game of Bang! (which my cousins and uncle were thoroughly confused) and a few games of poker. My little cousin got quite lucky and won both times and thus, was able to pay off his Mahjong losings earlier that evening.
On Christmas Day, I hopped over to Monterey Park with Jason to have lunch with my grandma, aunts and uncles. Afterwards we watched the Laker’s game (and even my uncles were lamenting Kobe’s ballhog-ness) as Shaq fouls out before the end of regulation only to watch his new sidekick, Dwayne Wade, carry the load and beat Kobe and the Lakers. Afterwards, my aunt and I dropped grandma off at her apartment in downtown Los Angeles before I returned to Simi. Thereafter, I got hold of Diego and we went off to see House of Flying Daggars at Universal Citywalk. It was a pretty good movie, though the ending was a bit farfetched…but I suppose that is just part of the movie. You either make that leap or stop at the edge of the cliff.
I left Los Angeles on Tuesday, December 27th, in the morning to a major storm. Fortunately, I left pretty early and thus, I did not have to deal with the masses of southern Californians who cannot drive in the rain. It cleared up after about an hour and I was on my way back home to spend New Years with Shareena.
So after much resting, video game playing, teaching of Bang! and a few Quantum Leap season 2 episodes, it’s time to resume normality. Hope everyone had a good holidays and the best for 2005.
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