Life@Boston

Top 5 Anime

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 04:39:57 GMT

In no particular order...

Aria
Nodame Cantabile
Escaflowne
Kanon
Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu

Honorable Mentions
Maison Ikkoku
Spice and Wolf

Super Bowl

Mon, 04 Feb 2008 04:12:36 GMT

1) Patriot offensive line was horrible. They were unable to keep Brady protected which led to the breakdown of the passing game. Brady had 5 sacks... way to many in this type of game.
2) Patriots overall played sloppily. Seemed like they incurred too many penalties which hurt them or helped the Giants on key plays that allowed the Giants to continue the drive.
3) Giants defense was definitely better than the final season game. They definitely confused the Patriots offensive line by bringing different looks and late blitz. Manning's composure was almost like his bigger brother.

I think NE lost the game. NY didn't win it... they just made less costly mistakes.

Yesterday

Sun, 03 Feb 2008 15:18:20 GMT

I went to watch this. You can read more about it from wiki. The music wasn't as good as some of Andrew Llyod Weber's earlier works. It felt similar to Jesus Christ Superstar where Weber attempted to bridge modern guitar/rock sounds with traditional symphonic sounds. At points in the musical, the music was just TOO LOUD. The plot line also reminded me too much of Phantom of the Opera and similarly a tragic ending with a glimmer of hope. The musical itself had a few comedic moments which didn't seem to work very well.

The price of $28 wasn't too bad though. For 1 week engagement, the show wasn't all that packed. Mid/Upper balcony were empty. I relocated from mezzanine with a strained view to mid Balcony with a better view (and more space!)

Up next... My Fair Lady, Avenue Q and Annie.

Tick... tick...

Mon, 08 Oct 2007 05:27:16 GMT

BOOM!

The creator of Rent wrote another musical before Rent itself. Tick... Tick... Boom was loosely written in 1991 according to what information I can gather but wasn't produced until 2001 after Rent was successful. Overall I liked its unique format and although the music was not as good as Rent, it was pretty decent. Much better than the last few musicals that I saw.

Sun, 09 Sep 2007 03:09:46 GMT

As an experiment, surprisingly 6k on Thurs. And 6k on Friday.

Nonetheless... 6k is probably a pretty standard baseline which needs to be supplemented.

The local chinese food court now has a taiwanese style restaurant.
www.wisteriatw.com

Back at boston...

Thu, 06 Sep 2007 12:55:02 GMT

10k on Mon.
9k on Tues.
10k on Wed.

Trying to walk in such a way that doesn't place emphasis on the outside of the feet first is pretty hard.

Bay Area Trip

Thu, 30 Aug 2007 04:24:58 GMT

After thinking about this trip sometime last week, I decided to go. Quite a few people were up in SF. The trip would probably be worth it if not only to catch up. The plan was to drive up Friday and leave Monday.

Friday:
Left home around 10:30 am. Hooked up the iPod to the not so reliable radio transmitter similar to this. Unlike the link, the one I have is an earlier model so only had eight channels to scan from, it wasn't very reliable and I had to search multiple times in order to find a decent open station. Overall it worked up the 5 but near the city, I began to get interference from real stations.

Took 373 miles and 14.865 gallons. I stopped once at Laval exit to grab some coffee and snacked a little. I arrived around 4:00 pm at the Great Mall in Milpitas. Since Wilson was still working, I thought I'd try to catch a movie to pass the time. Unfortunately, none of the showings fit into the schedule. For dinner went to Ramen Halu, the broth wasn't the best I've had (Santa's broth still remains top). Once at Wilson's place, setup the sleeping stuff outside in the TV room. Unfortunately, the laptop hard drive died. It began to give me errors which led me to just stop trying to correct it.

Saturday:
Morning was spent diagnosing the laptop. Went to Fry's to buy a 100Gb hard drive. Also bought a nice cooling tray for the laptop. After lunch at a Diner in Saratoga, it was time to fix the laptop. We weren't meeting with Joe, Ernest, and Po until 5pm. We had some issues with drivers (ie didn't know what I had in the laptop) but that was fixed pretty easily. With the OS re-loaded, the machine booted up much faster and I began the long task of re-installing everything. I also stored some of the essential drivers for the laptop on a separate USB drive as well. As I'm typing, I'm missing the Dell Media Experience which allows the computer to auto recognize DVDs that are loaded. I find that little program to be pretty handy. I'm hoping the Driver CD in Boston will have that particular one. Else, I'm stuck looking for a decent backup that hopefully will allow me to resume watching Anime/JP/HK DVDs.

At 5pm, went to watch WAR. I didn't think there was enough action scenes between Jason Statham and Jet Li. Fight scenes were good nonetheless... it just needed more. Afterwards, Korean BBQ at a true mom and pop restaurant. The locals even helped the two owners by cleaning up the tables for other customers. They were apparently *that* busy that they couldn't properly bus the tables when they left. Of course, I think another hired hand probably would have helped... legal immigrant of course. Afterwards chatted and watch Wilson/Ernest miserably fail at MGS. Failed to get online cheap tickets to the Jersey Boys musicals unfortunately.

Sunday:
Since we couldn't get tickets online, Wilson and I went to SF to buy the tickets. Got limited view orchestra side box. We should learn to try and bargain these tickets down. -.- The musical itself was interesting. They primarily used Franki Valli and the 4 season songs to retell the story of how the 4 seasons came to be. Afterwards, went back and had dinner with Cynthia.

Monday:
Woke up later than I had hoped. Started driving around 10:30. Had lunch at Gilroy and officially headed back down at noon. There was a detour on the 152 which took the "local" roads around an accident. That detour took roughly 45 min. I took one stop again at Laval street exit again. Unfortunately, I resprained the same ankle. I was in total shock and I was light headed for a good 20 min. Didn't drive just rested. I got back around 5pm.

***
Overall... good trip except for the fact that I reinjured the ankle. =[

Happy Birthday...

Fri, 17 Aug 2007 08:12:29 GMT

- One free lunch at the insistence of a "stubborn woman."
- Two phone calls.
- Two instant messages.
- Lunch with parents.

***
This seems to be a "tradition" that I go through. I've always planned on cleaning up the textbooks, games, and assorted items that I've stored over the years yet I can never seem to "finish" this project. Usually something else comes up and when I finish, there is usually no more time left to do a proper job. However, I have managed to chip away at certain sections of my room from time to time. For the past few days, I've been dealing with what I view as the biggest obstacle to a reorganized room: the bookshelf and the assorted stored books under the bed. The books that I have takes up 5 shelves. Most of these books I never read anymore and have lost their utility to me at some point --books on computer programming languages, old college textbooks on fascinating but not very real world applicable subjects, and uninspiring inspirational books.

Uninspiring inspirational? Ya... you know those books that are meant to inspire you but after reading the book they are in reality very uninspiring.

I also reorganized my current game collection. I have quite a few games for PS (FF7, free Madden 01, Lunar Silver Star Story, FF Anthology), a few games for Dreamcast (Grandia 2, Legend of Dragoon) and al lot of PC games. They've been stored away aside for a few games into the closet. I also tossed the boxes that some of the games came in which I kept for no reason.

Finally, my large CD collection has been properly stored. They will no longer collect dust. Although with the advent of the iPod, CDs are pretty much a collection of the past. I still will get CDs only because I can't the mp3 versions elsewhere legally and illegally. They are mainly Japanese imports and the Japanese artists are putting out great songs that are WORTH buying. The RIAA should take note and report back to their bosses that good songs result in CD and music sales.

So... does anyone want some books?

Back at home

Tue, 14 Aug 2007 05:20:23 GMT

and it is much cooler than Boston.

I've been crippled again. Due to all the construction thats going on around BU, there is a lot of uneven pavement, loose gravel and general walking hazard when not paying attention. About two weeks ago, I wasn't paying attention and I sprained my ankle again. I sprained it before the weekend so I managed to put weight off the ankle for almost 4 days. I didn't massage it until the 4th day which was a bad idea. Unlike last time, I waited until the pain fully subsided. I think its a mistake since the ankle is stiff now. Still have to strike a balance which is hard to determine. I did notice though that my feet tanned a lot.

In the past 3 weeks, I've finished Melancholy of Haruhi, Samurai 7 anime, and Samurai Champloo. All came highly recommended. All were watched in roughly 12 hours. Ya... I stayed up late watching some of the episodes.

PSU...

Tue, 24 Jul 2007 06:57:49 GMT

Today my PSU (no not a Phantasy Star Universe but Power Supply Unit ) crapped out on me. It came with the current computer that I got close to 5 years ago -- maybe even longer than that. I'm too lazy to check the email receipt that was sent to me.

I replaced the old "Enlight" 420W with a new "Antec" 650W from Best Buy only since there really wasn't anything decent to choose from. I hope this one won't crap out on me. Installation was pretty easy but it is a pain trying to connect all the power outlets through the already cluttered cables that connect the Mobo to the DVD and Hard drives.

I spent 4 hours from the time I woke up, to discovering my PSU may be the likely culprit, to buying and finally installing the PSU and booting it up. What a pain...

Sat, 21 Jul 2007 05:08:16 GMT

Back to Trillian I go.

Its Official~

Sat, 14 Jul 2007 15:09:23 GMT

I'm giving up ICQ, AIM, and YM in favor of MSN for a week.

Why? Apart from a few contacts on ICQ, AIM and YM, I predominantly use MSN now. I used Trillian (the all in one IM program) and I'm wondering if I should continue using Trillian or not. It is pretty good even if it is a free version. But some functionality doesn't work with pure IM clients. I think I'll give MSN Live Messenger a try for a week before re-evaluating the use of Trillian.

Unfortunately, in the process of uninstalling YM, I messed up some uninstallation crap where all the previously installed programs no longer give me the option to uninstall. It also populated XP's list of installed programs with alot of wierd applications which I'm guessing was part of some program essential to YM. This got me wondering, is there a software application that remembers and monitors the location of all the necessary executable files, drivers, registry changes and other essential files that allow some random application to work? Then when uninstalling some random application, this particular software application can clean up any registry entries left untouched as well as delete the drivers and other files left behind in the installation? After this experience I think that the current uninstallation feature of windows seems somewhat lacking. And my computer always seems to run slower after the installation of some random software and slower after the uninstallation of the same random software.

As a result, I reinstalled windows again. This time, I managed to backup all the critical files and downloads. Installation went pretty fast after roughly 12 hours, the computer was up and running again. =]

Who needs an iPhone...

Tue, 03 Jul 2007 04:32:30 GMT

when you have the P. I. M. P. Service.

Yes thats right, for a very low monthly fee, you can get the information from the Internet just like the iPhone service. It will locate any restaurant as well as give you direction to the restaurant from your current location. Order now~!

BBQ Beach Party!

Fri, 22 Jun 2007 20:53:48 GMT

Ok ok... its not really a beach party.

Phantom Gourmet is a food show that critiques the restaurants in and around Boston and New England area. They hosted this BBQ Beach Party which is currently still going on at City Hall Plaza. Aside from a 20 min or so rain squall, I went there to try the world class ribs that the producers of Phantom Gourmet managed to bring to Boston. Judging by the amount of trophies that stood in front of their respective stands, I naturally tried the one with the most trophies first.

All in all I tried the ribs from 5 different places. The best one I think is Willingham BBQ. Their ribs need no sauce and wasn't slathered in sauce when cooked too. The other good one was "Dave's BBQ." Other ones like Cowboys was overhyped.

Trani was also there but I went to their location on Salem street. I think Trani has a pretty unique way to make desserts.

Summer

Thu, 31 May 2007 14:03:11 GMT

This is a very interesting class. The professor talks I think a bit too much on stories of past students, stories with morals in them, and common sense stories he thinks (and I agree with him) that students should have. But unfortunately, story telling doesn't mix with teaching concepts. Stuff like present/future worth, acceptable rate of return, inflation/deflation valuation on money, etc. This one of those "very useful" classes that can be applied to real life situations. I'm glad I took it.

Random TV update.

Thu, 17 May 2007 07:53:02 GMT

The more I watch Boston Legal, the more I believe it is one of the best written shows. I have noticed that the writers for that show seem to embed social and political commentary in many of its "big" cases that come up. The commentary itself lends to the current socio-political atmosphere of Boston but laso resonates to the rest of the US. In the past episodes, there have been cases regarding: growing concern of explicit material for younger and younger audiences, immigration laws and the illegals immigrants, illegal detention by the US at Guantanamo Bay, the Darfur genocide/conflict, and the list can go on. These issues are very prevalent in today's society and definitely should at least bring some attention to America. well... realistically... maybe not.

***
And in even sadder news, CBS's Jericho has officially gone off air after only one season. Survival in a Post apocalyptic US world can be a dangerous place. It is a pretty compelling story line with decent character development. To bad the season ended with a great cliffhanger. So... like all good things American, there is a petition to try to bring back Jericho for the 2nd season.

http://www.petitiononline.com/09272006/petition.html

I've already signed it. I think you should too!

***
Survivor has ended. The "fan favorite" Yau-man got voted off in the 2nd to last tribal council. He got screwed over by Dreamz who promised to give him the immunity idol in the last immunity challenge (which he won) in return for a brand new truck Yau won from a reward challenge with 6 people left in the game. Strategically speaking, Yau would have won if he wasn't voted off as by the show of hands from the post finale episode. Dreamz screwed himself out of the million already well before that 2nd to last council. He actually probably had at least 3 other votes against him because of his "betrayal" by the Mookie/Alex/Eduardo group. Luckily, Earl won the million and he definitely deserved it. His straight answer of Yau "because I could not beat you in the final vote" was most definitely true and probably sincere as well. Sandra... just hung on both Yau and Earl's coattails all season long. She never experienced the hardship of this particular Survivor twist.

***
Amazing Race ended a while ago. I had hoped the Beauty twins would have won it. Unfortunately the couple that I liked the least won. My favorite team "Cha cha cha" was eliminated in the episode before the final race to the finish. I've seen three episodes where the final race ends in SF. I wonder how SF managed that.

***
The "How I Met Your Mother" finale was a bit of a disappointment. I was a bit sad at what happened with Ted and Robin. Now it'll really be interesting since there is a need for a brand new major character development (aka Ted's future wife).

Sprained Ankle

Wed, 25 Apr 2007 18:48:55 GMT

What a crappy day.

Hot and Sunny!

Tue, 24 Apr 2007 05:57:34 GMT

And as a result, Boston U got to see alot of females strut around in pretty summer clothes. Yes... lots of flipflops (shudder) and lots of skin revealed.

Feels like summer. To bad I'm fighting a cough.

Desktop 2.0

Mon, 05 Mar 2007 01:44:57 GMT

After the mishap of last week, I finished getting my desktop up and running yesterday.

What did I lose? I lost all my applications from Mozilla, Spybot S&D, and other important applications. I lost all the downloads associated with those applications as well as associated drivers. I lost all my pictures. I lost all the mp3s that were on my iPod as well as some that weren't on my iPod like my whole Mariko Kouda collection. I lost all the ripped DVD ISO's.

After reinstalling the windows patches, I got the internet up and running. And began the long process of downloading and installing all the applications that I need. I had little trouble until I had to deal with the songs that were stuck on my iPod. After a quick Google search, I found this program called Sharepod which transfers songs from iPod back into the PC. Its a pretty nice program to transfer the music files. It kept the genre > album > artist - title type format and directory structure that I used before. I also started redownloading the DVD ISO's that I lost as well as some more. The new hard drive structure helps alot.

***
The new Amazing Race All Stars is pretty interesting. I hope two of my favorite teams from before make it to the final leg.

blah.

Fri, 02 Mar 2007 13:34:04 GMT

So I did something stupid to my computer earlier this week. I lost all my previous school work, all my photos, all my downloads, and sadly all my mp3s. There were probably a good 2 Gb of mp3s I had not transferred to my iPod. I lost quite a lot of important documents as well as sentimental documents and photos. So after four years, my desktop finally had a clean reinstall. At first, I was hoping I could recover most of the hard drive partitions through just the re-installation of XP pro. But after two hours of unsuccessfully trying to get the computer to recognize the other partition, I just gave up and formatted everything. I reworked the hard drive into new partitions. I'm pretty happy with this current layout of hard drive space.

Being the minimalist that I am, I spent less than twelve hours to re-install the applications I need or used the most. I've decided to stick with only one browser (Mozilla), one instant messaging client (Trillian), one photo editing application (Picassa2), and... there's probably more but thats all I can think of now at the moment. It shouldn't be hard to maintain my computer since I've already loaded all the essential applications I need.

Now, I need to redownload all my previous downloads.

Valentine's Day slushy!

Thu, 15 Feb 2007 13:46:46 GMT

It snowed. Then it started raining. And all the snow if it didn't melt it became a slushy mix of water, ice and snow. I wonder if anyone went out and actually braved the weather just for Valentines?

Oh... on Fox TV, there is a new reality contest show called "Are you smarter than a 5th grader"? coming out. Its billed as "This is a show that doesn't test how smart you are, but how dumb you've become." Should be an interesting show.

So...

Fri, 02 Feb 2007 00:07:24 GMT

Around this time last year, there was snow across Boston. The CBS weather anchorman were all trying to predict when the snow would end for good (ie when Spring officially comes). This year, I find it funny that the weather anchorman are trying to predict when a good amount of snow will blanket Boston and not melt the following day. Apparently January 2007 set a new Boston record for the least amount of snow.

For the record, I don't want snow! =Þ

下雪了!!

Tue, 23 Jan 2007 23:53:38 GMT

How cool is that! I should take a picture of the Charles River. I believe its frozen over.

It's pretty cold

Thu, 18 Jan 2007 13:09:26 GMT

Apparently its an "El Nino" year which most Bostonian's blame Global warming for. It's been a very mild winter. It hasn't snowed yet. It was relatively warm over Christmas break (highs of 70F) which in some cases were warmer than the lower half of the US.

I'm still trying to sort through the multitude of pictures that I got from Singapore/Taiwan. I've actually been lazy about it. =] But I'm glad that I got to go to see and have some sort of recognition of the younger cousins that I know about but never really interacted with.

Other than that... classes have started.

Ho Ho Ho~

Mon, 25 Dec 2006 08:23:00 GMT

Merry Christmas!