Who's awake now, at 3:59AM EST on Sunday?

I haven't stayed up this late since I was still in college.  What
am I doing now??? I was trying to get some computer stuff working (CVS,
Subversion, and Eclipse.)  Took me forever, but I figured it
out.  I eat too much when I'm studying late... almost ate half of
a huge bag of avocado tortilla chips, but it's OK, they don't have a
lot of saturated fat, and has zero grams of trans fat.

anyway, that computer stuff isn't totally necessary for my midterm on
tuesday, but it is important for my other class, so it's not a total
waste. better get to bed before this schedule becomes permanent!

On Friday, before my interview, I stopped to eat at Popeye's before my haircut.
They had some good, but old songs: "For your eyes only", and then some
other song, which I have no idea who sings it, nor do I know the title.
Some of the lyrics (actually I just forgot them, but some of the words):
   "waited all my life", "finally (found?) you", "wrap my arms around you", etc....
Any idea?  A woman sings it...

These kind of songs are hard to find via Bit Torrent, but what other safe alternative is there?

This is so cool!!!!!!
I setup wireless internet in my condo, and I right now, as I type this,
I'm in my room, which is about 2-3 walls away from the access point
(the router).  COOL!
At first it was really hard setting up the router on the PC that is connected to it, but after a few tries, I got it. 
The only disadvantage so far is that my iBook can't use WPA unless I upgrade to OS X 10.3 (damn you, Apple!)

I'm going to do another rant about driving.  This will be useful
to you if you're ever in Northern VA.  Assume you're in the left
lane, and you're going pretty fast (i.e. at least 10-20 MPH above the
limit.)  The car behind you will get mad and think you're going
slow if you're not EXACTLY riding the bumper of the car in front of
you, so he/she will cut in front of you, so that they can ride the
bumper of the car that was in front of you. 
No wonder there's accidents... no one here knows about safe braking
distance.  They all must have racing style brakes that can brake
on a dime.  I didn't know they had that much money.

OK, done ranting.  I'll be studying this entire weekend. 
Hope everyone else has a great weekend!  Protected post.....

More snow.

Ever feel so overwhelmed that you think things are going to be
impossible?  That's how I feel right now.  With two grad
classes, work, and hobbies (I guess I could cut the hobbies out, but
I'm on a contract), I'm finding it hard to complete this project that
is basically "new" to the software/programming community.  
It's called "web services" and even if you're not a programmer, you'd
probably be interested.  I won't bore anyone right now with it
though.  Just that no one in my class even knows where to begin,
and I'm working alone.  I'll believe in miracles if I ever get
this done.

We were grocery shopping and Joanne decided to buy a lotto
ticket.  She filled in the numbers on the sheet and handed it to
the lady at the counter, when the lady asked her "Are you 18?"  I
proceeded to LOL... I was like "Hey, she's 28!"  Anyway, Joanne
still had to give her some ID.

My team (from my grad class) is mostly competent, but they don't know
all of the current trends in software development (XP, test driven
development, etc.)  If you write HTML, it should be part of the
W3C standard.  IE is not
the standard; they put some extras in their browser that are not
compliant.  So, if your page doesn't "look right" in another
browser, it's not the other browsers fault, it's yours for writing
non-compliant code.

sorjai asked me to
comment on Gran Turismo 4. So far, it is very good.  The graphics
are even more realistic than GT3.  I've only done the license
tests so far, but I can tell it's a good game.  I can also tell
I'm kind of rusty.  I can only manage to get silver on the license
tests.  If you want to learn how to drive well, getting gold on
the license tests will teach you plenty.  Skip the rest of this
entry if you're not interested in learning about how to take a
curve:  If you want to take a curve that is basically a left turn,
then as you approach, place your car as far right as possible.  In
a more powerful car, you want to do most of your braking here, since
braking while turning is a no-no.  Rather, break as much as you
can in a straight line.  Now, start steering the car towards the
apex of the turn, light on the throttle.  Once you've passed the
apex, start straightening out the car and applying more throttle. 
You want to steer your car towards the outer edge of the turn, taking
advantage of the width of the track.  Start laying down on the
throttle to get a good exit speed.  Hope this is helpful to some
of you.

When Joanne and I were in D.C. showing her friends around, we stopped
by City Sports.  I ended up getting an Under Armour shirt, which I
thought would be great for TKD.  What do I think of it?  It's
really cool looking, since it's tight and shows off your muscles, but
the disadvantage is that it doesn't allow a lot of breathing
room.  It did its job, which is to wick the sweat from the body to
the outside of the shirt, but it didn't really cool me down.  I
think I'll try the "loose gear" version, which is not as tight.  I
think the version I got is good if you were playing some outdoor sport
in the cold, but it's not good for a dojang.
 

We ate at California Tortilla, which didn't live up to all the hype
that my coworkers have been giving it.  I still prefer Chipotle
and Baja Fresh.

Finally picked up Gran Turismo 4 even though I could've picked it up
Tuesday.  Too busy with school; I'm not even home till 10:30PM,
Mon-Thursday.

[this was sent via email because xanga is down]
edit: I meant to post this last night (Monday).

I wonder if blogging at night is a good idea.  Most people blog
during the day at work, and it gets read by others during the day.
 I refuse to blog at work because of monitoring.

Anyway, Joanne's best friend Ivy and Ivy's husband, Eddie, are visiting
the US from HK.  So yesterday, we ate at A&J, a really great
Northern Chinese style dim sum restaurant.  They brought me two
sets of Naruto toys and a new Twins CD.  I'll post pics later.

I don't have the day off today.  Instead, I took a floater and we
went to D.C. to sightsee.  We saw "Disney on Ice."  It was a
pretty good show; it featured "101 Dalmations", "Lilo and Stitch", "The
Little Mermaid", and "Peter Pan."  We then went to the house where
Abraham Lincoln died, and to Ford's Theater, where he was shot.
 Funny, I've
lived in this area for such a long time, but don't remember visiting this place.  Maybe as a kid in elementary school.

I'm taking two grad school courses this semester, both 3 hours long,
twice a week.  It really does take up a lot of time, especially if
you work and have other hobbies.  Anyway, I was so overwhelmed
last night -- I thought I would never figure out how to program web
services, but finally, after 3-4 hours of messing around, I finally got
it!  The wisdom from "Back to the Future" never ceases to amaze
me.  "If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything."  sorjai, did I get this quote right?)

Growing up, I never met nor went to school with many
Asian-Americans.  Asians made up probably less than 1% of the
entire student population.  This had an affect on my thoughts on
Asian (specifically Chinese) culture and effectively isolated me such
that I didn't know how to deal with being so different, yet at the same
time, I was very similar; just trying to be a normal American and gain
acceptance among my peers.   Like most "twinkies", I can
barely speak my parents' native language(s).  I used to speak very
well up until 2nd grade or so, when for some reason or another, it just
phased out of daily use.  It got progressively worse as I wasn't
using it to converse with my mom, and worse when I was ashamed of being
Chinese.  Some people reading that last sentence probably don't
understand why or how someone could be ashamed, but if you grew up here
or somewhere similar, you'd understand very well. 

Many people like to say they don't have any regrets.  I agree it's
better not to dwell too much on negative things; instead, just learn
from the past and move forward.  However, sometimes the past has a
way of coming back.  Something I sincerely regret is that I wish I
grew up in an environment supportive of Asian-Americans, and that my
mom were more strict in forcing me to use Chinese at home.  I know
she meant well -- she just wanted to ensure I would learn to read and
speak English, most likely to succeed in making a living here. 
This regret resurfaces itself when I encounter people who mainly speak
Cantonese, and I feel as if I can't hold a conversation with
them.  It just turns into a situation where I just keep quiet, and
they usually do the same.  Also, I can't understand HK pop music
or any of the VCDs without reading the subtitles.  

This is probably one of the major reasons why I'm not a typical twinkie
anymore.  I actively try to learn more of the language, I barely
eat American style dinners unless I have to, etc.  There are other
instances where I'm not such a twinkie, but most importantly, I'm not
ashamed of my culture, race, or who I am.

It's official: Naruto is coming to the US later this year.  I'm
both happy and sad.  Sad because when DBZ came over here, it
sucked.  Voices were terrible and the Japanese theme song got
ruined.  The whole mood of the show didn't carry over well;
instead a rock theme replaced the intro song.  All the toys aren't
even as cool.

What will happen with Naruto?  You'll start seeing little kids
wearing Naruto shirts, most likely poorly made.  The theme song
will be translated to English, and sound corny.  On the other
hand, I'll be glad that Naruto is coming to the US since that will make
games and toys easier to find.