Hello there

Origami: Menger Sponge using Penultimate modules

2009-09-30T22:37:00.000-07:00

I saw this and wanted to build my own.
The site didn't have instructions but it had some pointers:

1) The structure is called Menger Sponge.
I like this and initially wanted to build a level 2 or 3 version.

2) The modules are called penultimate module done by Robert Neale.
This site has a very good intro. This page, within that same site, has very good info about how to build the square version of the penultimate module which when assembled together makes a cube.
When I started building this module, I felt that it was too much trouble to start with a 4:3 ratio rectangular sized paper because all the origami paper I had were squares, 150x150mm to be exact. I also didn't like that I had to cut the ends so I left it. As I put the modules together my changes didn't affect the cube at all so I went with my changes.

After a few cubes, I finally decided to build the sponge based on that one picture I saw. :)

Starting out...

This reminds me of the Death Star from Star Wars: Return of the Jedi but I call it the Death Cube. :)

Almost done...

Done!

Another angle:

I had a good time building this and enjoyed figuring it out. My wife also helped me a lot folding the modules as I assembled it.

Making Takoyaki

2009-08-08T02:00:00.000-07:00

My wife and I made takoyaki for dinner tonight. It was very "Oishiiii!!!".
We've been talking about buying a takoyaki plate for the longest so we finally got one today. It started with seeing takoyaki being made in Japanese TV drama: "At Home Dad" starring Abe Hiroshi. We wanted so bad to experience it but had a difficult time finding a place to buy a takoyaki plate. Initially I wanted to get an electric one just like in the TV show. Later on I decided with the plate because I realized we already have a portable burner and operating an electric one probably costs more.

Another item I bought from watching a Japanese TV
drama is a Zojirushi tumbler. This time the show was "CHANGE" starring Kimura Takuya. In one of the episodes, he pours tea from a tumbler. When I saw that, I told my wife I wanted that tumbler. She thought I was nuts because we already have quite a lot of tumblers. I wanted the tumbler not because of Kimura Takuya but because I was very tickled that the tumbler's snout is opened from a button press. My wife says that in addition to Kimura Takuya pulling in all the big advertising bucks for the TV shows, he's also holding up the Zojirushi tumbler.

CORRECTION:
I just reviewed the CHANGE episode with the tumbler. Actually it's the last episode. The tumbler has a black top and the cup (which is actually the tumbler's cover) does not have a plastic ring on the bottom (or the top when it's put on top of the tumbler). I was right about the red button to open pouring. But it has a red tab versus the white tab to push in to close pouring. hehe

Having Fun With DealExtreme.com

2009-08-01T13:05:00.000-07:00

My wife told me about this site a few days ago and I've been having loads of fun checking out the site daily. I'm just addicted to see what else the site has, the user reviews and items other users have bought. The site is like a super combined store of all those small utility shops I've seen through the years. After just a few moments of surfing the site, I asked my wife why she didn't tell me sooner. She says she did, I just didn't pay attention. haha
I have already spent about 40 bucks of stuff there and I'm still looking for other stuff to buy. haha

One of the first items that brought me there was the Wii component cable.

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.4256

The latest item I bought is a lighter that looks like a match.

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.4366

My family saw this at a restaurant sometime ago and we were just mesmerized by it. I've been trying to find it at the small utility shops but haven't had any luck until now.

Now I have to get used to waiting for about 2 weeks I guess for DealExtreme to ship the stuff...

Fixing the Adblock plugin for Firefox

2009-06-05T23:44:00.000-07:00

I like using the Adblock plugin for Firefox but I am running into two issues. Since it is not maintained anymore and also being curious, I dived right into the code to see what I can find.

#1 Installation
The plugin used to install but ever since the later 2.0 versions and then the current 3.0 versions of Firefox the plugin just doesn't install.

Fix:
Download the plugin
Change the extension from .xpi to .zip
Unzip
Edit install.rdf and change the maxversion of Firefox to some high number, I think I chose 99.9
Zip the files back up, Use .xpi instead of .zip in the zipped filename
Install plugin in Firefox using this local file

#2 The radio buttons for the group "Hide ads" and "Remove ads" are both selected in the Preferences dialog box.

Fix:
Edit the file content/settings.js
This file is extracted from chrome/adblock.jar which is essentially a zipped file.
chrome/adblock.jar on my system is found in:
~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/.default/extensions//
On line 39 of content/settings.js, change the entire "if" code block to this:

if (Hide) {
radiohide.setAttribute("selected", true);
radioremove.setAttribute("selected", false);
} else {
radiohide.setAttribute("selected", false);
radioremove.setAttribute("selected", true);
}

Zip up all the files to recreate adblock.jar.
The new adblock.jar file could be smaller in size than the original adblock.jar. That's ok, Firefox will still load the file fine. I think the original adblock.jar was packaged without compression.
Replace the old adblock.jar file with the new one.
Restart Firefox, the radio buttons in the Preference dialog box should now work correctly.

Computer Help Call

2009-05-20T22:16:00.000-07:00

Tonight my uncle called me asking for computer help. My uncle speaks Cantonese and I don't speak it that well so I didn't ask more about the problem. I figured I just need to show up with my computer and see what's going on.
I arrive after my dinner and turns out the problem was his wireless mouse wasn't working. He has a Logitech wireless keyboard and mouse set. To his credit he thought that the problem was due to batteries but after replacing them the mouse still didn't work. I immediately recognized the problem and told him about using Logitech's "connect" button on the receiver first and then on the mouse or keyboard second. He had this sudden and happy look to see that it was a quick fix and that he can do it himself next time.

My uncle called me before for another computer problem. He couldn't connect to his wireless network. Initially I thought I could resolve everything by just bringing myself. Turns out I had to bring my computer and an ethernet cable to diagnose his router and modem. So tonight when he called I thought I should bring my computer. (I left my ethernet cable at his house.) Turns out I didn't have to use my computer to "connect" his wireless mouse. So funny. :)

Yummy Crab!

2009-04-25T22:11:00.000-07:00

I had dinner tonight at Macau Friends Restaurant in the Sunset District. It was my first time there and I never heard of this restaurant before. I was looking through their menu outside and one item looked interesting: "Portuguese Style Curry Crab $14.99". So I thought why not!

I was so surprised at what came out. It was a fairly large oval plate and the curry sauce was filled to the edge. I scooped some of the sauce onto my rice and boy it was yummy! I next went for the prize and got my hands and fingers ready to work out the crab meat. The crab was simply delicious! It was a fairly medium sized crab and I think well worth it for $14.99 plus tax and gratuity.

My wife next asked me if this was as good as Thanh Long's crabs. I forgot the cost but I'm sure it was nearly twice the price or more. I thought for a bit and sided with Macau Friends. Thanh Long may have three different ways of cooking the crabs but the crabs are a bit smaller and obviously more expensive. Looking back, I think the Thanh Long's prices aren't justified.

Interesting price fluctuations for Nokia E71 on Amazon

2009-04-16T22:14:00.000-07:00

The last few weeks I have been researching a phone to replace my aging Motorola V3I because my front display and camera has gathered a lot of dust inside.

I decided on the Nokia E71. I remember a few years ago my friend had the previous version E61 and I liked the web browsing capability, so I thought I go with the next version. Then as I read the reviews on Amazon, I found out the phone has some trouble with T-Mobile's tzones WAP service.

I was still interested in following the price of the phone on Amazon. I remember it started out at 319.99. A few days ago or more it jumped to 339.99. I think it was just yesterday the price rocked up to 366 something. Finally today it jumped down to 320 even! These prices are for the black version. I haven't really followed the white version but it's now at 366 something.

In the meantime I'm still using my current phone. :)

Rolling Stops in San Francisco

2009-03-22T20:46:00.000-07:00

Recently my friend told me his wife got a ticket for a rolling stop near their home.

I didn't know what that was until tonight when my wife and I were scouting an intersection in SF while waiting for my uncle. We were looking at the tires of all the cars that passed by and only about 2 or 3 cars actually stopped. The cars that stopped did it only because other cars approached. But there were cars that still did the rolling stops waiting for other cars to pass before they moved on. So my wife and I were thinking with the SF budget, one way to help is by nabbing the rolling stoppers! At that one intersection we were there for about 20 minutes and saw about 30-40 cars doing rolling stops. Wow, think of the dough rolling in for the SF budget!

MSI Wind U100-279US memory upgrade oddity

2009-01-10T15:31:00.000-08:00

So after installing a 1GB Corsair laptop memory module into the MSI Wind, I found out that the wifi didn't work.

I re-opened the notebook thinking maybe I disconnected something by accident but I couldn't see anything out of the ordinary. The strange thing is the wifi never showed any signals.

Then I realized the MSI Wind turned off the wifi. I think it's from opening and closing the bottom cover. This is not the same "switch" as the Windows "switch" of enabling the wifi.

So after turning it back on with the Fn + F11 key sequence, I was able to see all the wifi signals and somewhat connect to my home signal. The strange thing is it was able to connect to my home signal SSID but it got stuck acquiring an IP address. I even tried going into my router to release the IP address that the notebook was using earlier before I did the memory upgrade.

I was out of wits. Finally I decided to do a test. I tried connecting to another wifi signal to see if the wifi module is working correctly. I was able to connect so I thought I do one more thing. I decided to remove and re-create my home wifi profile. At long last I was able to re-connect. Boy what a journey.

Found GI Joe Snake Eyes!

2009-01-01T17:47:00.000-08:00

While cleaning up my old stuff, I found an un-opened GI Joe Snake Eyes!

I don't remember when I bought it but according to the year on the packaging I'm guessing late '80s.

I do however remember buying it as a kid and boy am I glad that I never opened it. I do have other GI Joe action figures that I opened but this one I treasured.

Opinion: John Chiang, CA State Controller is nuts!

2008-12-22T22:07:00.000-08:00

article:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/12/22/national/a153948S79.DTL

title:
Official says Calif. could be broke in 2 months

problem:
John Chiang, the California State Controller and also the official referred to in the article, says CA will not have any money in the next 2 months to pay folks. He also says the state will be forced to defer payment or issue IOUs. He's also referred to as the "Chief Financial Officer" in the article.

Another problem is this same person about 6 months ago was against the governor's plan to lay off state employees and slash the pay to existing folks.

article:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/25/MN0B11V432.DTL

title:
Controller says he won't cut workers' wages

I remember he also did a very lame interview on KCBS radio saying the governor's plan would be negatively viewed by folks in Wall Street. He also said California could access loans. I forgot what type of loans but I remember they were the same type of ARM loans "home buyers" accessed a few years ago that's now causing the foreclosure mess and not to mention the entire economic situation. First of all, six months everything was in the sh*ts so what and why is he so worried about what Wall Street thinks? Second when I heard him talk about the loans I immediately concluded that he is an idiot.

Winding forward to now, I'm sure he has to eat his words now. When the governor wanted to fix the cash problem six months ago, he was saying "What cash problem? California is doing fine!" Now he's saying, "California, we have a problem!"

Another problem I have is his inability to do his job. I'm thinking in business if the CEO ordered layoffs and salary reductions but the CFO declined to go ahead with the plan, guess what happens next? This dimwit thought that he was helping out employees but really he's destroying the state he lives in.

Products Review: Noise Canceling Headphones

2008-12-21T20:16:00.000-08:00

I have been in the market for noise canceling headphones for a week or two. What started it was my work area was getting very noisy. There were lots of sounds: desk and cell phones going off, folks having conversations near me or as they walk by, the A/C turning on and off with regular frequency, and the cleaning staff vacuuming.

I was willing to spend so I narrowed my list to Bose QuietComfort 2 and Sennheiser PXC 450. I also looked at "mid" class range and considered Philips SHN9500 and Audio-Technica ATH-ANC7 QuietPoint.

I didn't get to try the Bose but I was able to try the others.

Now the cancellations:

I canceled out Bose because of all the reviews about poor build quality. The photos of the plastic hinge cracking and breaking apart convinced me that Bose is not making a good product.

My friend recently bought a pair of Philips and let me try it out. It was actually very decent for the price; he paid around $50 I think. The noise canceling capability reminded me of the Philips noise canceling earbuds I used to have. It brought the noise volume down a bit.

The Audio-Technica felt like it didn't work that well. The headphones were comfortable but they felt a bit tight. The noise canceling did bring the noise volume down but it just didn't feel like much happened.

Finally the Sennheiser pair I have to say I didn't get a chance to try it before buying it. But I decided on this because I was convinced of the reviews and the information from the manufacturer. The noise canceling really worked for me. I know noise canceling headphones don't exactly kill all noise but the Sennheiser was able to do it for me by creating a silent like feeling in my ear despite the outside noises. I also like the talk-through feature where it brings the outside noise into the headphones if I want to talk and listen to someone without taking off the headphones.

The one negative about the Sennheiser is actually with the case. The Audio-Technica has a small pouch with a velcro backing to carry the accessories: audio cable, plugs, battery and more. The Sennheiser case does not have a pouch. What it has instead are rubber band cloth "hooks" but they are just too small to open up and put the accessories in. Also the headphones require some strange transformation to be put in the case. It just made me afraid that I might break them doing the transformation. With the Audio-Technica, I just have to turn the cans and that's it.

Redfin Commentary

2008-10-14T23:49:00.000-07:00

I hope Redfin will do well.

I wrote some entries a while back about Redfin and although I haven't been using the website I still think it's a great search service to monitor real estate.

I haven't checked Redfin's rules yet but in this market of shrinking buyers I think Redfin might want to open up some of its self imposed barriers to get business.

1. Handle short sales
I remember the reason given was that it takes too long. In this tough market, I don't think Redfin should leave that on the table. When times are bad, any potential opportunity is worth pursuing.

2. Remove the buyer's bid limit
With buyers shrinking and sellers unable to sell, I think Redfin should be more open to present any offer a buyer can present. I know some sellers will just reject the first low offer they receive but that's the market, supply and demand. I think Redfin should not side with the sellers and create a false sense of demand.

3. Provide "hand-holding" services
I'm not sure if Redfin is already doing this but I think Redfin agents should be more reachable. This is also in response to some of the topics I read in the Redfin forums about some buyers having difficult experiences getting their offers through. I know this will put a strain on the agents' working hours but in a job like this working set hours just doesn't make sense. It's even more important during tough times to have agents help buyers along starting with educating them on the buying process and keeping them up to date during the offer stage.

4. This one might be my perspective but I think the website should open up more to traditional buyers.
I know Redfin has lots of information on the website about the buying process but I think there are still a good number of folks who prefer to physically talk to someone. I'm not sure how yet but the website needs to be more friendly and approachable for these traditional buyers. Rather than forcing them to read through lots of text to get started there should be a better way to convince, educate, "hold their hands" along the buying process and eventually win their business.

I hope Redfin will do well. I really like their business and the website. I also hope one day I can join the team and contribute to the business. :) (I know it's not the right time now but I'll keep trying. :)

Samsung LCD TV Fun part 2

2008-09-14T01:13:00.000-07:00

This is a follow up to my previous entry.

My DVI to HDMI and audio cables finally came.

Specifically I bought:

1 x Link Depot 15 feet DVI to HDMI cable
1 x 3 feet mini audio 3.5 mm split to two RCA audio plugs
2 x RCA couplers
1 x 12 feet audio RCA plugs

I looked all over and could not find a 15 feet mini audio 3.5 mm split to two RCA audio plugs so I had to piece it together. The closest I could find is 12 feet. Obviously I went with this setup to match the 15 feet video cable. I could not find a 12 feet DVI to HDMI cable.

These cables worked great for my MacBook Pro and my Samsung LCD TV. So looks like when using the HDMI input, the LCD panel does support millions of colors.

I was actually afraid the video cable might not work because some of the comments I found were not positive. They ranged from not working at all to missing colors, lines, sections, or stuff.

So yeah both the audio and video cables work great.

Samsung LCD TV and Auto Wall Mount Fun!

2008-09-05T23:56:00.000-07:00

Samsung LNT4081F finally arrived Wednesday!

A look inside... some broken styrofoam.
As long as TV is not broken.

Testing it out first, scanning channels, looks good so far

Sorry no pictures of installing the Samsung Auto Wall Mount.
But here's one applying the finishing touches on TV and mount.

Installing the wall mount was fun and exciting but also difficult.
The difficulty was with figuring out the best location. My studs weren't in good locations for an ideal location so I had to settle.

In the end everything turned out great. I love adjusting the wall mount with the TV remote.

I think I found an annoyance with the PC input, or the VGA input.

The LCD TV can't be used as a secondary external display when I connect my MacBook Pro to it. I connect using the DVI to VGA connector and a VGA extension cord.
The odd thing is if I tell my MacBook Pro to use the LCD TV as a mirrored display then it works.

I next tried connecting a PC laptop using a VGA cable and discovered the color depth of the LCD TV is only 16 bit which means 65,536 colors. I may be wrong about this though because my PC laptop which uses Intel integrated graphics only supports a color depth of either 16 or 32 bit. Too bad it doesn't have 24 bit which would match the "millions" of colors Samsung states that this LCD TV supports.

I am going to try connecting my MacBook Pro via the HDMI input next, once the cable arrives in the mail, and confirm if the LCD TV color depth really is 16 bit.

Yay! Finished reading Hannibal

2008-09-01T11:29:00.000-07:00

I had a marathon reading session last night and finally finished the book. I really enjoyed the book. The biggest thing was to find the differences between the movie and the book. The story, characters and situations they got into were overall very gross. I almost felt like I was in the story about to get stabbed watching the whole thing unfold as a curious witness. Even when the story was not talking about Hannibal, I felt that in the background he was up to something and already planning the next several steps ahead.

Hate to spoil it but near the very end, there is a paragraph specifically for the reader to stay away from Hannibal if the reader wants to live. Wow that was just spooky!

Hannibal by chance

2008-08-31T01:26:00.000-07:00

On Friday August 29, 2008, I was driving my wife to a local bakery so that she can pick up a birthday cake for my cousins. On the sidewalk in front of my parked car, I saw a box. I looked inside and saw a hardcover book titled "Hannibal". I immediately thought, "Wow! What a good find!" I started having flashbacks of the movie as I saw it in the theaters. I kept thinking about the terrible brain scene. I picked up the book and read the flaps. My wife finally came out of the bakery with the cake. I took the book with me and started thinking about finishing the book on the same day.

Unfortunately I have not finished the book but as of Sunday I am about a third of the way through and have nearly 200 more pages to go through.

So far the book is intriguing yet disgusting but there are some technical parts that confuse me. There is heavy usage of fragmented sentences. The book is written from the third person perspective but when the fragmented sentences appear I think the author is trying to convey the exact thoughts and visuals the third person's mind is forming. Another technical part is the usage of the Italian language. I can only follow the characters' names. Everything else I don't have any context or understanding.

Back to finishing the book...

Quick Review: Hansgrohe E100 Monsoon Handshower

2008-06-25T12:11:00.000-07:00

Problem:
Very low water pressure in previous handshower, no identifying company marks anywhere

- afraid of larger costs to look into plumbing
- cousin-in-law says remove handshower to see if water pressure the same from tube
- sure enough, after removing handshower, water pressure coming out of tube is high

Solution:
- Went to Home Depot to pick out new handshower
- Narrowed down to two 40 bucks models: Hansgrohe E100 Monsoon and Waterpik Medallion
- Chose Hansgrohe because tube is smooth, Waterpik has striped metal and black colored tube which wife didn't like
- Upon opening product at home, surprised to see handshower is thin and light, now prefer this over the big and bulky previous one, Waterpik model also big and bulky
- After installation, water pressure is high again
- Only has 3 water output modes versus 6 for Waterpik model but realized 3 is enough
- Again love the smooth tube and thin and light handshower

How I fixed my Nintendo DS Lite's broken left shoulder button

2008-06-22T14:46:00.000-07:00

I cut out a small piece of thin cardboard paper and placed it inside the small switch hole after removing the rubber plug out.

After removing the back case and looking at the switch which the left shoulder button presses, I couldn't see any defect or any blockage preventing the pressing. I next proceeded to do testing on the switch itself without the left shoulder button and found that I needed to press harder compared to my working right shoulder button to activate it. I shined light all over that small switch but couldn't find anything. Finally I decided to pull on the rubber plug with tweezers and was surprised that it can be taken out. Inside is a hole and what looks like a circular metal sheet inside. I tested the switch again by pressing on that metal sheet with the DS Lite stylus and had the same results. Then I thought why I don't put something inside so that when I press the switch it won't seem like I have to press so hard. I found some cardboard and cut out a small rectangular strip. I stuffed it inside the hole carefully and folded it in half. Then I replaced the rubber plug. I tested the switch and it worked better. I also tested it with the button attachment and that also worked. So I finally I put the back case back together and tested again. My left shoulder button is now back in working condition. Yay!

Tools used:

- Craftsman 18-Volt 3/8-in. Drill/Driver
(I know this is way too much, but the next tool explains it.)
- Jackly 32-in-1 Electro Screwdriver set
(This thing contains the bits for a small Philips head and the all important tri-wing head. It has a screwdriver for attaching the bits but I thought why not make use of my electric drill. :) Finally this set also has a pair of tweezers so it's perfect. I knew this tool would come in handy when my wife bought it for me when we were in Singapore. I still have the receipt: S$9.90 at Chamoxa in Funan. :)
- Thin cardboard paper
- Scissors

Time used:
- roughly 30 minutes, most of the time spent on testing

Quick Review of Japanese TV show: Kuitan

2008-06-01T02:34:00.000-07:00

I like this show a lot. It is an easy to watch show combining food, mystery and comedy.
But most of all, it is about enjoying food. My mouth waters and my stomach growls as I watch each episode showcasing a particular dish.

The characters are wacky and cool, especially Kuitan and Igarashi!!! But I love the rest of the characters too: Ryosuke, Hajime, Kyoko, Rie, Momo-chan, Lau, Kelly, Police Chief and Owner. The varying supporting cast in each episode turned in very good performances too.

The 'Napolitan' end song created for Kuitan 2 is so funny and it's also very catchy. Seeing Kuitan, Ryosuke and Hajime dance in the music video is funny too.

Totally thumbs up for an Excellent and Enjoyable TV show to watch!

Whew Home Search Over

2008-04-04T07:14:00.000-07:00

First and foremost is thanks to our families for everything starting with raising us or from their perspective putting up with us. :)

Now some take aways...

- Anytime is always a good time to buy, just depends on your situation
- I say this because I find the perennial question, "Is now a good time to buy?" meaningless. In the end it really just depends on what you want. The news out there such as bad/good economy or buyers'/sellers' market are just things you have to accept and deal with.

- Thanks Redfin for creating a wonderful site!
- I also Thank Zillow for creating a very useful and enormous home valuation site!
- As mentioned in my previous post, I used a variety of sites to search for homes and I am thankful for their existence.
On a side note, I just can't understand how our families bought their homes years ago before websites existed. I think I would be lost still if I used their methods which would be combing through newspaper ads, picking up and pouring through free real estate magazines at street corners and lastly word-of-mouth from the agent or other folks in this day.

So that's why I want to very much Thank Redfin.

Redfin is very simply a wonderful site to use.

With that said, I feel bad for not using Redfin as our agent. My excuse is I had already talked to an agent first who was a referral from my cousin. My cousin did not use the agent in the past instead the relationship was through a friend of a friend. Honestly during the beginning we quietly "interviewed" a few agents by seeing how they act around people in open homes, respond to our questions and just guessing if we would be compatible. As we moved along I realized I kept relying on the agent my cousin referred me for a lot of things from several late night questions, lots and lots of rounds of home tours and more importantly: submitting bids.

- My wife and I are looking forward to enjoy our first home. :)
- On a side note, I am broke now from buying the home. :) Redfin, you hiring? I'm looking! :)

US SF Bay Area Home Prices

2008-04-02T21:23:00.000-07:00

I have a gripe about home prices in the San Francisco and San Mateo counties.

I think most of the sellers these days are still in lah-lah land. Despite all the negative news they still think there is some golden anchor out there willing to plop whatever they are asking. Instead what I see is they continue to wait, and wait, and wait. Some appear to "wise-up" by reducing after a month or more. The reason why I say "appear" is because sellers end up wasting another month or more of mortgage payments when they could have cashed out earlier and stopped the bleeding. Another disappointment I see is when they reduce, it's not a whole lot. Sellers are just not realistic about the true value that their house can fetch in today's market. Instead they are only concerned about their own value which unfortunately, in what I've seen, never attracts that golden anchor.

I think in today's difficult market to find buyers the only obvious way is to price like a contractor's special. In that situation multiple offers should come in and some will probably come in over asking and that will be the true value.

Anyway, good luck to those sellers waiting for their golden anchors.

Signaling, a lost driving habit

2008-03-23T12:09:00.000-07:00

So annoying... have been victim three times when a driver cuts in front of me without signaling. Then the driver for some reason wants to get back on the previous lane and lo and behold the driver signals! And the funny thing is there are no cars on that lane.
Annoying that these three drivers think cutting someone off without signaling is ok, but signaling when there are no cars around is the right thing to do.

Return of Condor Heroes - Hong Kong TVB 1983

2008-03-16T21:20:00.000-07:00

Watched DVD version produced by HK-TVB
Has missing scenes despite completeness claim by HK-TVB

- Sword fighting scene in forest between Yeung Gor(YG) and Goo Goo(GG) against Kum Lun Faht Wong(KLFW) (names are Cantonese pronunciations)
- After some somersaults by GG and a landing by YG, GG lands perfectly on YG's raised left leg, they then mega-jump towards KLFW with their swords ready for action.
- Wife calls this the stacking scene
- KLFW, on the other end, also mega-jumps with his wheel weapons, one in each hand, and does a karate kick

- YG sees the Big Condor(BC) for the first time
- BC just did something and is now on top of a building doing some wing movements
- YG interprets it as kung fu technique and imitates the actions
- BC eventually flies away

Feels like there is more but it has been ages since I saw the original on tv, in fact on KTSF26

Quick Review: Super Smash Bros. Brawl

2008-03-16T08:34:00.000-07:00

Went to Costco and noticed game, decided to purchase
Was lucky to find one elsewhere because the display stand for it was empty

- Only played for around 20 minutes
- Game feels like Jump Ultimate Stars for DS
- Game menu difficult to use, was expecting on-screen pointer like most Wii games
- Stages are interesting, funny when fall off platform