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- 9.30.03
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- 8.27.03
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- Hello, just wanted to let everyone know that I'm going to be heading off to New
York and Washington DC for about a week. I'm leaving today (my flight is in 8 hours,
in fact... why am i not sleeping yet?), and I'll be coming back on 9/2 evening. Hopefully,
I'll be back with plenty of pictures to share so stay tuned.
- Thanks to my friend Kelly, my website is now ad-free! He's hooked me up with
a subdomain off of his web server... which is really cool of him. I know, I'm hella
cheap by not just paying $8/month and getting my own domain, but seriously I'm not
using that much space anyhow to warrant a web server of my own. Yay, no more
geocities and its stupid banners on the right-most corner of every page of my site,
and no more annoying pop-up windows either...
- Throughout the past month, I've managed to fix up my website quite a bit. Some of
my pages were seriously outdated, so I tried to update those pages to some degree.
I've also fixed the broken links that have accumulated due to me updating my webpage
in a negligent manner, moving pages and images around, etc. Lastly, I've made all my
links such that when you hover your mouse pointer on top of a link, it'll change color.
Maybe it's just me, but I think that's pretty darn cool...
- I went to the
A's vs. Yankees game
for A's Photo Day. Andrew, Jim, and I reached the Oakland Coliseum around 7am just to
wait in line, cuz it was only for the first 2500 fans. But boy was it worth it! We got to meet
most of the players, including Barry Zito, Tim Hudson, Rich Harden, Keith Foulke, Eric
Chavez, Erubiel Durazo, Jose Guillen, just to name a few. I took pictures with some of them,
so check them out
here
(thanks andrew). Not only that, the A's won in comeback fashion,
scoring
two
in the bottom of the 9th off closer
Mariano Rivera
to win 2-1. What an A-mazing day...
- I went to
Yoshi's in Jack London Square
for the first time. My cousins visited from Taiwan, and their friend took me there for sushi
and a jazz show. At first listen, I didn't think it was that great... the music was discordant,
loud and seemingly just random noise. But once this noise was accompanied by the solo
saxophone or solo trombone, I was truly impressed. Jazz is not really melodious like other
music we're accustomed to, but sometimes you just can't help bobbing your head to its
acoustic beats.
- 7.31.03
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- Greetings everybody! Thanks to those who bugged me throughout the
month about not updating my webpage. If it weren't for you, I would not
have remembered to update this month. =)
- I went to the
Counting Crows /
John Mayer /
Maroon 5
concert at Shoreline. Counting Crows were pretty good, playing songs
mostly from their latest album "Hard Candy" and their best album
"August & Everything After." John Mayer is one helluva guitarist, but
his singing... although he may be melodious to the ears, he is definitely
not aesthetic to the eyes. It looked like he was in pain when he sang!
- I saw the
A's vs. Giants game
at Pac Bell Park. Giants lost again... (geez, I'm still winless at Giants
games this year) but at least I got a free Bonds Russian Babooshka doll.
Eric Byrnes
hit for the cycle (something I had never seen any player do in person), so
that was cool. But he was so lucky... his triple in the 9th inning should have
been caught! The Giant's rookie outfielder was in position to catch the
harmless flyball, but he suddenly slipped and
fell on the grass
while the ball trickled all the way to the wall. Byrnes ended up on 3rd base
to complete the cycle. Ridiculously amusing, I must say...
- I also went to the
Orioles vs. A's game
in Oakland. I went 3 hours before first pitch, and unlike last month, I
was able to secure a limited edition Barry Zito bobblehead doll. I'm all
about free giveaway dolls at baseball games. All I need is a tea kettle to
start up my own little tea party. Oh yeah, A's won too. (I'm undefeated at
A's games this year, go figure...)
- I took two separate trips away from the Bay Area: LA for July 4th
weekend and Clear Lake last weekend. Both trips were very relaxing... it's
really nice to get away from the worries and stress of home every so often.
It's particularly quiet and peaceful up in
Clear Lake.
And fooood, boy did I consume LOTS of it. Burgers, beer, chips, beer, potatoes,
beer... time to go to the gym again...
- What else? Mountain biking around
Angel Island
in SF Bay? Check. A full day at a
Santa Cruz
beach? Check. (anyone up for a game of "pajunga"? =P ) Beach
bonfire at night? Check.
- All the pics from these fun activities are here:
Summer 2003.
Good times, good times...
- 6.15.03
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- June means it's finally summer time... yay, fun in the sun. Wheee, time to play!!!
- Oh wait, I'm a working boy now. What summer break?!? Doh! =(
- Congrats to those who recently graduated and good luck to those leaving
Cali for summer work! =)
- Well, it's been fun times since my last update. Let's see... I've seen four
movies within the last month:
Finding Nemo,
The Italian Job,
X2: X-Men United, and
The Matrix Reloaded.
All were really good movies, but in terms of overall cinematic quality, I would
recommend these four movies in that order.
- I've gone to two concerts so far:
Coldplay at the Shoreline
Amphitheatre in Mountain View and
Glen Phillips at the Great
American Music Hall in SF. Both were pretty cool shows, though I wished the
Coldplay show were a little longer, and Glen Phillips could have played more Toad
songs. And I just found out the Ataris are playing for free at Pier 30 in SF next
month. Anyone interested in going?
- I went to the
A's vs. Kansas City Royals
game for the Zito Bobblehead Day. We arrived at the Coliseum two hours before
first pitch and the bobbleheads were all given out already. Argh! But that was the
only bad news of the game. Not only did the A's win, but they won in come-from-behind
fashion.
Erubiel Durazo hit a
game-tying 2-run HR with two strikes in the
bottom of the 9th to tie the game, and
Mark Ellis won the game in the 10th with a single. The
best A's game I've ever attended - what a treat.
- So who signed up for
Friendster already? Actually,
who hasn't signed up for Friendster yet? Man, I think this is the latest Internet
craze since the... blog... hehe. Well, I finally signed up last week just to appease a
friend, and thanks to him I'm wasting more time than ever! But it's pretty neat in
that you can stumble upon long-lost friends you've lost touch for quite awhile. Would
you be my friend?
- I sat in my usual wooden chair in front of my computer one day and the chair legs
broke beneath me. Don't worry, my computer is doing fine... my parents and sister laughed
at me, however.
- More recent photos from the last 3 months are finally posted here:
Spring 2003.
- 5.22.03
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Oops, it's been over a month since my last update... I haven't really had
much to say... until now. =)
- So I've been going to the gym about 3 times a week for the past 2
months now, and I think this eat more and exercise routine recommended by
24 Hour Fitness is working! I've gained about 3 pounds!! (It better be 3
pounds of muscle and not fat... otherwise I wouldn't be one happy camper :) )
- I've been doing some research on how to lead a more healthy lifestyle,
and I've come to realize that I couldn't have been more unhealthy in college.
But it's all good now... I'm eating 3-4 meals a days now, eating breakfast
regularly, eating a piece of fruit and/or jamba juice per day, in addition
to drinking more water at work. Now if only I monitored exactly what types of food
were going into my body...
- Last week, I decided to get my yearly eye examination. So I called in and
scheduled an appointment with Camino Medical Group. I've actually never used
my medical insurance before (I switched to Blue Cross when I started working
last summer). Anyways, yesterday was my appointment date. I went in, filled
out some preliminary paperwork, and waited to get my eyes checked. Once the
nurse called my name, we went to measure my height, weight, blood pressure,
etc. I found it weird that they were doing this, considering that all I wanted
was to get my eyes examined. But then the nurse gave me a hospital cloak and
ordered, "Take off your clothes and put this on..." WHAT?!? Wait a minute...
what kind of eye facility was this?
- Needless to say, I got more than my eyes examined that day. It turns out
that I was mistakenly scheduled for a physical. And in the end they had to give
me a tetanus shot. And I have to get more shots in a few days when I go in for blood
tests. "But, but... I only wanted to get my eyes checked up..."
- 4.6.03
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April = start of baseball season... GO GIANTS!!!! oh yeah, go A's too...
- I finally succumbed. I signed up for a gym membership at
24 Hour Fitness. There
wasn't one main reason for me joining a gym though. I did feel like I was getting more
lazy lately. (There could be a correlation between becoming more lazy physically and
passing each day sitting on your butt and staring at a computer screen 5-6 days a week,
though I'm not sure. :) ) Or it could be that my so-called six-pack was gradually turning
into a one-pack - one round "mr. happy" kind of pack to be exact. And the love handles
were getting too lovely in my opinion. In any case, it took me 10 whole months to realize
all this, but better late than never, right?
- I went to the
Warriors-Rockets NBA game
at the Coliseum Arena in Oakland. Even though the Warriors lost, I saw
Yao Ming
make his first career 3-pt shot. Yeah! But seriously, I wasn't sure which team the
majority of the crowd was rooting for. When Yao was about to shoot a free throw,
everyone would boo him... and rightfully so. But then when he made the free throw,
everyone would cheer him. Huh? There are some things in life I will never understand...
- I was finally able to take a one-day trip to go snowboarding at Kirkwood! It was
nice to get my snowboard reacquainted with the slopes again, though it seemed like I was
getting acquainted with the snow more than my board was. What's interesting was that I
had never gone boarding down a Double Black Diamond run before. Supposedly, this
run even had a warning sign with a skull picture on it. Oops. I'm just glad that I was
able to make it down in one piece and live to tell about it. Pics from the trip and more
can be found here:
Spring 2003.
- 3.3.03
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- It's already March... only one more month till baseball season! Wahoo, go Giants!!
- Last month, I took my dad to see a Siebel Open tennis match at San Jose Arena. It was the
opening round match between
Michael Chang and Andre Agassi. Although Agassi whooped
Chang in straight sets, this was a fun match for me personally. These two guys were
my favorite tennis players when I was growing up. As tennis players with weaker serves
than the competition, they had to rely on solid ground strokes and consistent effort in
running out for balls hit to them to win. Till this day, I have the former down pat, but I'm
still working on the latter two traits...
- Is it me, or have many people started posting diaries of their lives online? I swear,
it's like the happening thing to do nowadays... xanga, blog, pita, livejournal, you name it.
Well, my reaction? I *could* cave in to peer pressure and sign up for one of these
online diaries too, but I won't. I refuse. You can't make me... Muahaha...
- But then again, I was talking to someone a few weeks ago about how hard it is to
keep a loyal fanbase for your website. Considering that before the beginning of
this year, I hadn't updated my homepage in 6 months - it's kinda hard to expect people
to come back and check out your page when its never updated! That's why these xangas
and blogs and pitas and livejournals are popular; since they are updated frequently,
people's curiosities are piqued and their thirst for another's views on life intensifies
with every new entry.
- The conclusion of my study: Update my webpage more often!
- Two new photo galleries added in the Pictures section:
End of Year 2002 and
Winter 2003.
The only pics not posted yet are those from summer 2002 and from my trip to Sweden/Denmark.
- 2.9.03
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- Happy Chinese New Year, everyone. Hope the year of the ram treats you well.
- Work has been really busy. In fact, I'm updating my page now from work on a sunny
Sunday afternoon. Grr... I was hoping to update more frequently, considering I have so
many pictures (courtesy of my Canon S230 digital camera), and there have been many
requests for them to be posted. Bear with me, I'll get them up when I'm free. In the
meantime, check back every so often.
- I guess the biggest news for me the past month was that my company sent me to
Sweden on business for two weeks. Yup, Sweden! Of all places... We're working on a
project with Ericsson, a company based in Lund (south Sweden,
see map). Luckily, I was able to take
a Sunday off work to visit Copenhagen (Denmark). That city is really beautiful in terms of
old-style European architecture. I couldn't stop taking pictures that day; everywhere
was worthy of a snapshot! I'll try to post some of them to share with you guys.
- I got to see the Superbowl in Swedish. Not only did I miss out on all the new
commercials, but I also had to stay up to 5am just to catch the game at all. Oh well, at
least I was able to watch many Australian Open tennis matches at more "normal"
times. Man, did anyone see that Roddick/El Aynaoui match? That 5th set was
ridiculous... 22-20 or something?!?
- I also spent a quick weekend stop in Las Vegas to catch the
F4 concert in Mandalay Bay. That was a
fun show, although I had never heard of their music before until recently. (F4 is a
popular Taiwanese music group for those who don't know). I have a lot of pics
from this event too... again, I'll post them up when I get a chance.
- Yup, I gambled. Yup, I lost more money. I'm sticking to blackjack from now on...
- That's about it. Keep checking the site, eventually I'll post those darned pics. =)
- 1.5.03
-
Wow... where to start?
- Happy New Year, everyone. Hope 2003 treats you well.
- I'm sorry that I haven't updated my webpage in a long time. For those who didn't
know already, I'm back from Taiwan and Japan. I have a lot of pictures from my trip
last summer, but they are only in prints and probably will not be available online.
I'm way too busy (read: lazy) to scan them all. In any case, here's one pic I did scan...
allen drinking a taiwanese boba
- Despite the sad ending, it was a great playoff run by my beloved San Francisco
Giants nonetheless. Sigh, only two innings away from a World Series championship, but
getting to Game 7 of the World Series, let alone beating the Braves & Cardinals during
the playoffs was awesome. Watching all those great games from sports bars w/ friends...
it doesn't get any better than that. I was fortunate enough to attend the Game 5 victory
over the Cards that sent the Giants to the World Series. What a great game...
see winning run in bottom of the 9th!
- I attended the Big Game between Cal and Stanford. And Cal won!!!!
- I saw Yao Ming play against the Warriors. He is the real deal.
- I'm currently working at
Avalent Technologies, Inc.
It's a startup based in San Jose. They do microprocessor cores for embedded
systems, as well as system-on-chip solutions.
- My first expensive purchase after landing my new job? A digital camera. Finally, I
can take my own pictures and post them, instead of taking pictures, printing them, and
scanning them. And no more stealing pics from other people's websites... :)
- Lastly, one of my New Year's resolutions: update my webpage once a month...
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