Andromeda

In the midst of the development frenzy, the Web team has officially moved to the our company's new campus on the 15th. Lucky for us, there were 86 offices on the 3rd floor of our building and we only have 84 ppl in WebCorp+ right now. That means each of us now have our own office. Yeah!

The picture on the left, of course, is my new office. Big window (one section is operable so I can kinda open it during Spring/Fall time) with blue carpet. I haven't done any decoration yet (besides hanging up 3 of the 4 white boards I have, heeheehehee), but i think I'll shop around next week and see if I can find anything I liked. However, I think I'd have better luck finding stuff I like from HK. The only problem I am having is with the motion sensor in my office that turns the light on/off. You see, I sit right behind my 2 monitors when I am at my desk. From time to time, the sensor would determine that there isn't anyone in the office and turn off my lights. I then have to stand up and wave like crazy trying to get the lights back on without having to manually walk over to the switch to turn it on. However, I don't think that sensor picks up waving very well either.

Besides that, the new campus is really great. Walking from the underground parking to my office is a good few minutes walk and should suffice for my daily exercise quota. The only other complaint is that there isn't mush food establishments around in Verona so finding a good place for lunch is quite challenging at the moment.

Mission Accomplished

...well, technically not quite as I still have one or two projects that haven't made it to QA yet - but at the very least, the crazyness is over.

I just checked today that I've logged 230+ working hours this month - and I didn't even count those hours that I was taking breaks because otherwise, I would of died right in front of the monitor!

There is only one word that can describe this development phase - insane! I don't think I've seen so many projects packed into a 2 months period. A few of us were working till 3 or 4am each night for the past couple days just trying to get things done. So it was a great relief that this is finally over. Now we just have to wait for the QAers to get back from vacation to start testing - which in my opinion will lead to more fixes and enhancements (but at least there is one full week before that happens...hohoho).

As a result of this crazy week (and the week before), my Christmas would be rather quiet and uneventful. My current plan includes sleeping, more sleeping, follow by a nap time, then back to sleep again. Don't tell me that doesn't excite you! .\/.

Someone flew me airplane tonite

I...shall...remember...him...!!!!!!

(This actually brought back a funny HS memory - totally not related though)

Never imaging that...

there are real yo-yo competition - I mean at a national level. Nice Tricks

One of the contestants used this song as his background music and now it's stuck in my head. The unfortunate thing is that I can't find the CD single anywhere online (probably because it was from 2001). I've even checked Amazon.co.jp and they don't have it either. The only place I've seen it is the album version at YesAsia.com - but I am not quite willing to dish out 30 bucks for it yet.

Almost here...the deadline that is

In my last post, I rant about coming back home around 10. Little did I realize that 10pm is not a bad time during this time of the year - especially compared to my hours this week. Monday & Friday were the roughly "normal" days. However, it was 3:30 on Tuesday, 4:30 on Wednesday and another 3:30 on Thursday. Um....only if my raise are tied to the number of hours I worked. I remembered pulling crazy hours last year before the development deadline too. Strangely enough, the projects this year and last year were quite similar - both are integration with our reporting products. Hopefully this is the last time I end up with rushing things through.

I did get an excited news this week - the room assignement for the new campus. Starting Thursday, I would have my own office! I was tempted to drop by the new campus this morning just to check it out (last time I visited, Andromeda wasn't ready yet). But I just don't think driving on snowy/icy roads would be such a nice idea. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe. [Downside: a potential day lost on Thur]

This brings me to another point - In the midst of the dev deadline, I am apartment hunting. My lease will run out by the end of Decemeber so I better act quick. Sent some inquires out earlier, a couple of the responses sound promising. If all things line up, I hope to actually go check out some of them next week and make a decision by next Friday.

Taking a Break

Post will be sparse at least till Christmas - as it is officially crunch time at work. Today I left my apartment at 8:48am. When I stepped across the door tonight, it was already 10:00pm. The sad thing is that this trend probably would continue up till next week.

Haven't line up all the peer-QA yet - no idea where I would find the resources at the moment. Oh well~

Let see if I can find the bulk of my project by Sunday afternoon. If so, that would leave me in a better position. Though most likely the "Add to Favorites" functionality won't be done this week since Scott is in training and I really need someone from the Workbench to help with the actual coding.

Back to looking at codes~

Lunch Tale

I mentioned to Herman over the weekend that I've never blog about our lunch group and I thought it'd make an interesting post. So here it is:

On most work days, two of my co-workers and I would go out for lunch. Despite the fact that there are quite some number of restaurants around my office, we always end up in a few of them only. Mainly this is due to the fact that:

1. Me eliminating all Mexicans and sub-shops. Those who know me from college shouldn't be surprise about my disliking of Mexicans. My genes and Mexican food simply refuse to get along on any average day. I did have Mexican for lunch for a few times since I moved to Madison. This is probably because I now have a quota system in place - once every month or two months would be okay. (This year's quota have been used up thanks to the triple Mexican lunchs/dinner I had in August).

I don't like sub as well - so no Subways or Milio's either. The only exception being PotBelly, which kinda surprise myself as well. I think one of the main reasons why I don't like them is that I simply can't stand Mayo or mustard - the thought of these just makes me shivers. Period.

2. Phil doesn't like Asian that much (which is minor when compare to my hostility toward Mexicans). Though I think Herman and I are converting him a little at least toward Rice Cafe.

3. Herman doesn't have any cuisine in particular that he doesn't like - they simply have to be "budget" friendly.

So among the three of us, we pretty much eliminate 50 - 75% of the lunch places in town. It's sad~~~ :P

Another Saturday

At least I got my sleep today, --looking at clock--, or yesterday I should say. As soon as I got home on Friday evening, I was summoned by my bed and slipped into a 15+ hours sleep. Though I do remember waking up a few times throughout the night because of the heater. But still, I don't think I did anything that exhausting at work in the past couple days. Maybe it's all the meetings I've been attending over the past few days. Now I have a new excuse not to go to meetings. ***Note to self: Do not go to office on Monday morning...You're suppose to go to Alliant Energy Center for the monthly staff meeting***

Oh, this week the move schedule for us has been finalized. The web team will be moving to the new campus on 12/15. Not the best timing since the development deadline is 12/22 and I expect getting nothing done on the move day so that's a day lost. But nonetheless I am excited about the move - hopefully having my own office in a brand new building! We'll be moving into Building 1 (Andromeda...and yes, each building does have its own name) and will be the sole occupants until the admin/sales/RFP/demo move-in Mid-Jan. Oh Yeah!

Along this line, I will probably move closer to the new campus once my current lease runs out (which is the end of this year). Although it takes pretty much the same time from my current apartment to my current/future office, I've been staying at this apartment for 2 yrs already. And that's 1 yr too long. :) So start the apartment hunting!

New Blog Title

Goodbye, EMP 5488! You served me well in the past year, but now I need a new title for this blog to match my mood. So in case you haven't notice, this blog now has a new title - Pointless Sentiments. Don't even bother to ask why I picked this name because I have no idea what-so-ever on how I end up with this name. I only know it kinda start out with the word "sentimental" and every thing from there is all pitch black.

I do know how I come up with the old title though - it was my employee id here. Since I know there must be people out there searching for co-workers' blog (Um...like me), I now feel the urge to hide behind some fake name like 'Pointless Sentiments' so they won't login to SDE and look up my real name when they're bored at work.

P.S. Okay, it appears that JC knows about the owner of the blog is but he's sworn to secrecy. He stirred up my curiosity and now I am more interested to find out than ever.

First Snow of the Year

It started getting freezingly cold over the weekend so it is inevitable. And there it is tonight - our very first snow of the year. I think it was sooner than last year but I don't quite remember when it started snowing last year. One thing I do remember is that last winter, my office have no heat. Each morning Michael and I tried to figure out if that thing next to the light swithc is indeed a thermostat so we can turn up the heat and avoid turning into a popsicle. Unfortunately, you can tell we didn't have much success when he started referring to our office as the 'Iceberg'. This year, however, the situation is much improved. In fact, I think my office is one of the warmer ones in this side of the building. (Oh...since we are on the topic, before Erica and Renee moved in to the Iceberg, the air conditioning is so screwed up that it's cold in the winter and hot in the summer!) But of course, the next best thing would be getting the news that we are ready to move to the new campus. Still no updates as of now. Sigh.

Time for a new start

I know it was meant to be this way from the beginning, so best wishes!

-- Let me have a bit less worry and a bit more courage --

Oops

Monday was Jasper's birthday. Happy Belated Birthday! I kinda feel bad since she always remembers mines. So, I offer to buy dessert buffet next time I am back in HK (maybe drinks afterward too), how 'bout that? (Though you really should print this post out if you are taking up the offers... wakakakaka And for those who don't know me long enough, chances like this are like winning lotto jackpot)

P.S. I am debating March/April slot vs Nov/Dec slot with the Nov/Dec edging higher by a 10-pt margin or so.

That's why I don't like change

Because you lose things when you change things around. I've lost all the custom things I've done to my previous template because I did a Clear Edit > Save Template Change combo. That Clear Edit was not intentional, I was hoping to see if it'll revert my blog to the old template style. Not only it didn't do that, but instead it removes my custom changes to this template. Darn it! I'll mess with it later.

Anyway, tonite I feel like I'm in blogging mode.

Originally...

there is something else that I want to write about, but now I totally forgot. Oh well~

Flow of time

Age came up in during an ICQ discussion tonight - it was also a topic between one of my high school buddies last time we talked on the phone. During the chat, he mentioned that we are approaching the late-20s. Man, it's such a dreaded term and sounds real frightening. I mean, I am at 26 now and looking back in the past six years or so, what really have I done!?

From time to time, I'd ask myself if my life turns out the way I want it to be. Yet, I can find no satisfactory answers. I think I understand what I should be doing - but whether those are things that I really want to be doing - I really don't know. And of course there are times when I would ask myself what the heck I am doing because I simply have no clue.

One thing I am sure of - I think i am getting to the stage where I am being more aware of my age. You can feel that time is slipping through your fingers, it's inevitable no matter how hard you try to grasp it.

[To all genius scientists out there in the world, now (or at least within the next year or two) would be the perfect time to find the solution on how to stop aging. Thank you very much.]

New Verona Campus

Andromeda in construction 

Again since I have nothing planned for today, I decide to venture to our new campus once again. Last time I went there, I tried going in through the wrong door (which leads to the not-yet-complete Building 6, Ganymede) and wasn't very sucessful. This time, I made sure I followed through the arrows posted along the garage door (they were there the last time too). Aha - I finally set foot on the new campus, Building 2 to be exact.

The construction wasn't fully done yet - obvious by the look of the block-off main staircase. Howeever, I was impressed. Neat building design and offices. Building 2's theme i think is Scandinavian, and the offices uses birch wood for doors and decor. Birch - my favorite!!! Part of the corridor is hard-wood instead of carpeted as well. Totally love it. Unfortunately, this won't be my team building.

While wondering around, I noticed some funny name for our conference rooms. One of the bigger ones was named LegoLand. We also have conference rooms named Ikea and Nokia - how did they know my favorite brands...heeheeheehee... I also got into Building 4 as well. However, I still like Buiding 2 better.

The picture in the post is taken outside of Building 2. It is a shot of Building 1 - Andromeda. If things go as planned, it should be home to the Web team by Nov/Dec. Can't wait to move to my new office. =)

Customer Call

I did my first customer demo today. Technically speaking it's not a demo, but more like a FAQ section. But still, I got to show some of the stuff using MS's Live Meeting so to me, it's very much like a demo.

Besides talking to the customer part, it was quite fun. I've participated in couple Live Meeting demo before, but mainly as an attendee. This time, I got to be the presenter. Kind of nervous beforehand because I've never did anything like this before and I really didn't have much time preparing. Luckily, I think it turned out okay. From what I heard, the customer felt a bit better about what they can do with the product and how to proceed. I guess it's a mission accomplished!

Weird Call

This afternoon I got a call from this company. Normally it was the other way around where I called up those companies that I've sent resumes to and asks for my application status. This is my first call from an employment agency. Wow!

Of course, I don't have any plans to switch job - yet, but it's still a bit weird getting such a call. I mean, I haven't update any of my online resumes ever since I started working here so I am sure whatever information they used must be dated a while back. In addition, in the phone call, the caller mentioned that they matched my skills (C# .NET) with a company at Madison, WI. Yup - you heard me right - the very same town I am working at right now. I wonder if they even konw that (I'd assume that they still think I lived in Chicago because that's the address i listed on my resume). It would be funny if their clients is actually Epic but I doubt that's the case - I know what my company's looking for in terms of new hires, plus with the number of applications we are getting, it really doesn't need an outside employment agency.

Regardless, the call made me feel good in certain sense knowing that resume can still land me potential interviews. Heeheehee.

P.S. Probably need to update my resume some time - Again, I am quite satisfy with my current job, but you never know. Better be prepared! =)

No Title

Hey I can't come up with a good title for my post so I am just going to use the most obvious title - No Title - How creative...XC===

Anyway, deadline is over (until December that is) so things "should" ease up a bit. Finally got some time to think about the bigger picture instead of focusing on getting things done.

Went down to Chicago today to visit my grandma. She was hospitalized the week before for nose bleed. They couldn't figure out why but suspected that the medications she was taking was making her blood vessel thinner (or thicker - can't remember which) which can contribute to the non-stop bleeding. They have the oxygen machine in her home right now and has set up nurse home visit. Somehow she looks much thinner than the last time I saw her. Hope everything will be okay with her la.

The trip itself was brief and routine. Met with my brother, his gf and my cousin. Dim Sum at Chinatown, visit grandma and then IKEA. Pretty much a routine Chicago trip for me. Unfortunately Vicky was busy today so I can't meet up with her. I figure I need to go out to Chicago again next month anyway for a haircut so we can probably meet then. No luck with Peter as well. Oh well, I guess Nov as well for Peter then.

Eric dropped me an offline icq message this morning as well. By morning I meant 5:30 IN THE MORNING! He must be working morning shift today. Heeheehee... Replied to his message before I took off but haven't heard back yet. Usual Eric style. Hahaha~

That pretty much rounded up everything~

Busy week ahead

I has been a while since I stayed at working past midnight. By the time I got into my car this evening, it was almost 2:00a.m. I think I will take an extra hour to recoup tomorrow.

Unfortunately, I expected tomorrow and Wednesday's night to be pretty much the same - if not worse that is - since the deadline is Thursday morning at 8. Normally the whole day Thurday would be for me to do nothing but sit in the office and relax. However, I have a FULL day meeting from 8:30 - 5 on Thurday. Really, people should be banned from scheduling meetings on the day of deadlines. Sigh~

On a totally unrelated note, the jackpot for PowerBall has increased to $340M. I've heard that it the largest amount of money if won by a single ticket. I figure even if I take a lump sum and after IRS, I'd still have around $100M or so... *Obviously time for bed*

Pilgrimage

pil·grim·age Pronunciation Key (plgr-mj) n.

1. A journey to a sacred place or shrine.
2. A long journey or search, especially one of exalted purpose or moral significance

Haven't been back to Purdue for a long time - I can't even remember when was the last time I was back. I'll see if I can at least go back once by the end of this year. With the raising gas price, it will be a rather expensive trip for me. However, I think it will be worth it. I so need to submerge myself in "Purdue's atmosphere". I mean, even though Madison is another Big 10 college town, but it just doesn't give me the same feeling as West Lafayette.

Time to give Eric a call to start planning ---

No mood

Recently I don't have much mood to do anything. There were a few occassions where I would want to blog something like but just don't have the heart to log in and start writing. Maybe Google needs to develop something that can automatically translate your thoughts in text and post it to your blog. I could definitely use it one of these days.

The Release Cycle for next year was released (release cycle...released...heeheehee) earlier this month (wait, or was it the end of last month? Whatsoever...) This means I can start planning my vacation (or more like dreaming about it) next year. Right now, I am looking at either a March/April or November/December departure date. The Nov/Dec slot is edging out a bit - simply because I am planning to take a vacation starting Thanksgiving till New Year. By the end of next year, I will have 7 days that I carry this year, plus the 15 days I get normally, plus Jan 1 and Dec 25. A grand total of 24 days - just shy of 5 weeks. However if I indeed go back home starting November, I'll probably have to take a couple unpaid days as well since it'll be a 5 or 6 weeks vacation.

Vacation - damn...I could so much use a vacation now. Sigh!

I Blog Search

It's so much funny digging up various blogs from the blogosphere. Though it's also a bit interesting/scary finding out blogs from your co-workers (I haven't met them in person but I know they work in the same company as I do).

I found out that people from HK tend to use MSN Space more while those from the States uses LiveJournal/Blogger. Of course Blogger is still my preferred Blog Provider (OK... I totally made this term up - but what do you call companies such as Blogger and LJ??) and I think it beat down the others. However, I do have to complain that there seems to be a lot of maintainance going on with the site recently. I think I've encounter this problem twice already since Sunday. I was hoping to blog something only to find that the site is down.

Now I can blame Blogger for the lack of updates on my blog. Wakakakaka...

(Another pointless post - but what the heck!)

Upcoming in the next couple months

I will most likely be moving into a new apartment by the end of this year or early next year (since my lease runs out on 12/31). To be honest, I really don't have many complaints with my apartment nor the management company (except for the fact that I got 3 warning letters last year. Though I think who ever complaint moved out already. Ha!) The rent is reasonable for a loft and it's only a 10-15 minutes commute to work.

That being said, I am kinda getting bored of this place. I've never stayed at the same apartment for more than a year. Cary Quad (theoretically speaking it's a dorm) - 1 year; Waldron - 1 year; Marsteller - 1 year; GreenBush - 1 year; Jefferson Commons - 1 year; Hawkins - 1 year. See what I mean? It's amazing that I've been living here for close to 2 years already.

In addition, the more pressing reason is that I will be moving to our brand new campus in Verona in Nov/Dec (Yippee!). Hence the commute will be a bit longer than I like. I am thinking of getting an apartment either in Verona or Fitchburg area. On the totally opposite spectrum, I also thought about moving to the downtown/campus area. Living close to the UW campus has always been an intriguing idea to me. I think Vicky had it right when she said that you can only live in/close to the downtown area for certain interval of time in your life. Once you past that stage, it will become too exhausting and out-of-place. But of course, the biggest drawback is the higher rent and the way longer commute. Um... at least I'll have another 2 months or so to hunt for my next dream apartment.

Also 2 more deadlines before Christmas - I sooooooooo need a vacation.

September in Retrospective

It was definitely a busy month. All gears are rolling in terms of project developments - I have approx. 5 projects or so planned for this phase. On top of that was our annual User Group Meeting, where my company invites all its customers to come to Madison to share their thoughts and experiences. Each team has its own "meeting" with the customers using it - just to demo new features and showcase new developments that are forthcoming. Preparing for the demo definitely took quite some number of hours. My application is definitely not a complex one to demo - but tweaking the system to highlight the new features within certain time frame is surely a tricky task. Luckily, I am not the one doing the demo as I always tell others - "One of the main reasons I am a developer is that I can't deal with other people." =)

UGM itself is pretty fun - yet exhausting. The theme this year is Mystery in the Midwest. We do a short play during the General Session based on the theme that hightlight how our products get used within a healthcare organization. (Previously themes include Lord of the Rings and Superheros). However, I have to say that I was a bit disappointed by this year's script. Come on, bring back the Charge Router Man at least. (giggles) The UGM's General Session (first day) is also the only time in the whole year where we are required to dress up (business formal). Goodie - I got to try out my new suit that I had custom made earlier in HK. The sessions throughout the 3-day conference started from 8 and lasted till 5:30 - meaning I have to get up by 6:30 latest if I want to be on time. Sigh - don't they know I don't normally get up until 8? However, they do have Hagan Dazz ice-cream bars for snack on the first day - which almost made me forget about the 8 o'clock thing...almost.

Back to the Blog World

It's been a while - let see how this wave goes~

Miscellaneous

Before I do any more writing - did I spell miscellaneous right? Hold on and let me run the spell-checker. Done! Yup, the spell-checker didn't complain so I guess it's right. I remember this word is one of those words that used to taunt me. I mean look at the number of characters in this word: M-I-S-C-E-L-L-A-N-E-O-U-S. Thirteen!!! I now happily declared that my days of only using "misc." are over. (Next word to tackle: Anonymous) [Totally pointless paragraph - hahaha]

I didn't yet write about how I got ripped off last Thursday right? *checking previous posts - nope* Okay, last Thur we had a farewell lunch at this Chinese buffet restaurant. We have 18 people and since they did the checks separately, they wrote out 18 bills. However, when I went up and paid the bill, they said that they only collected 17 bills and claimed that someone did not pay. Being the last one there, I footed the bill - something I really should not done now that I think more on it - Oh well, what can you say, I'm a nice guy. XC=== Unfortunately those who paid previously already left the restaurant. I mean I am so damn sure that they fxxked up the bill. The lunch is only 9 bucks and we are not THAT broke to slip out the door. (Well, might be another story were it at the end of the month instead of the beginning). So I am rather positive that I won't be dining at that sucker China One for some time.

Along the same line, Michael left the company for real now (hence the farewell lunch on Thursday). It felt strange seeing someone left the team/company - especially since I've been working with him pretty much from Day 1. He'll definitely be missed (especially when I need someone to fall back to when questions start flying in). He's moved to LA. Good luck Michael!

On a different note, looks like things are starting to get busy. The situation definitely worsen in a certain extend in the past week or so. (Hack! How did it happen without me noticing!?!?) Having quite reach panic stage yet but it's out of my comfort level. Um...

Last note: why is there a horizontal scroll bar on this screen!?!?!? Ahhhhh - my eyes - the scroll bar is killing me!!! Darn - definitely overworked.

See how this post fits the title (Once again, M-I-S-C-E-L-L-A-N-E-O-U-S)? Coz it's just a whole bunch of incoherant, pointless rants.

What a Busy Day -

Today was a busy day at work. I don't think I've been at my desk for more than a fourth of the time I am in today - which is pretty unusaul since I am not the kind of person that got invited to meetings.

When I walked in this morning, I was hoping to get a bit more done in one of my projects that's due in October. (Oh! Today's free donuts/bagel/muffin day too! Yummy~) However, things just kept popping up - meeting to attend, e-mails to reply, issus to be dealt with, and of course, Stair Stay (Someday, I'll post the description of this funny game we have at work. Someone even wrote up an "official" guide for it).

When I finally sit in front of my desk to get some coding done, it's already 4:30pm! Unbelievable~

Labor Day Weekend - A Day at Phil's

We have a gathering at Phil's place again today. It spanned from 3 to 10:30ish and filled with Cranium, Werewolves (and witch/wizard who refused to listen to instructions; and someone has a strong liking for Vampires rather than Werewolves) and other games. Luckily we avoided Times Up because I know I'd totally sucked at that game (speaking fraom a previous experience here).

On a side note, I think I might need to get a new DC. Some of the picture I took this evening were kinda blurry. And I've had this problem for quite some times already. Outdoor with bright sun-light are fine for my DC. However, not every picture I've taken indoor are as nice as I hoped them to be. I've started taking double shots for all my pics earlier but didn't do so tonite. How unfortunate.


Snap shot of self - the never changing pose. 

Am I being too greedy?

vs

It is truly unfornate that the Chargers and Bears don't play each other this year. I can't image the excitment and hype that will come with such game when we have Drew Brees against Kyle Orton - two of the most prolific QB from Purdue in recent years. Just think about all the possible exposures to our football program. And since these two teams are in separate conferences, the only chance for them to play this season would be the Super Bowl. Oh well - come on Bears & Chargers!!!

Lunch at Cancun

Let me take this opportunity to congratulate my coworkers to get me to dine Mexican 3 times this month. Yup you heard me right - not once, not twice but THREE times...IN ONE SINGLE MONTH. I think that pretty much used up all my Mexican crusine quotas for the remaining year.

Though I have to say the stuff wasn't too bad, and I definitely enjoyed having a lunch break with the gang. =)


Errr... Nothing comes up at the moment for the caption - I'll fill stuff in later with a post. =)

2 Banana Republic Tees + 1 U2 shirt

Destoryed by that stupid pant I bought in HK. The first BR shirt is totally accident because I forgot that I never washed the pant before. I forgave myself for that thinking that I can afford one tee/shirt. Man wan I wrong. So the next time I was doing laundry, I thought to myself, "Well, it's already been washed once, so the color shouldn't come off this time la..." Well - what I ended up were a brownish tee (originally white) and a blue shirt with light brown patches all over the front.

Stupid pants...

Darn it Google

Did you know that you can customize your own Google page? To be honest with you, I hated it. Don't get me wrong, I like to whole personalization portal thing - after all, I write my company's portal application. It's just that they've made people aware of the Darg & Drop functionality in arranging the different plugins/portlets. I even have other co-workers emailing me telling me to check out the Google portal. I am soooooooooo sure the next thing I'm hearing will be the Drag & Drop.

So we'll try to fight with Google's (as well as some others - not forgetting that I have MS SharePoint on my back already) development resources with our 1.5 developer.

Long time no see, Blog!

Still alive?

It's been a while since my last post - which dated back to...mid-July!? Things had been busy since the beginning of the month because of the deadline. Now that it's finally over (though in reality - not quite there yet), I shall have some breathing room until late September. To be honest, this development phase turned out better than I had expected. Though I still have to push back one of my projects, but the other went through okay. Hopefully this problem will go away next phase when my mentee can start helping out with my projects.

The first 2 buildings in our new campus is almost ready - no word on which team is getting moved at this moment. When all the buildings are finished, the new campus can house around 1500 people. The unfortunate news is that our company now has more than 1900+ employees - which mean some teams will be left behind in Madison for a couple more years. Um...

Just found out that one of my co-workers will be leaving in 4 weeks. What a shock! We've been working closely today since my first project and he's definitely the "knowledge source" on our team. Hack - I worked with him even more than my own team lead. He will definitely be missed - I still remember the day I walked into his office for a crash course in the application so I can start my very first project. A lot of times when I have doubt or simply no clue on what I need to do, he always provide the right info. To make matter worse, I can no longer direct people to him when they come ask me questions - Ouch! This also means that I'll probably have the final say on a lot more matters once he's gone - pressure pressure pressure (Sigh~). I guess eventually we'll adapt, but I'm telling you that it'll take a while.

Company Picnic 2005

Unlike last year, this year's weather wasn't as nice. It was drizzling on my way there; and the rain's been on and off throughout the time I was there. Once again, we went to the Devil's Lake State Park - which is quite nice in my opinion - plus it's only 45 minutes away from Madison.

Like I said earlier, it rained for a while, then stopped, the rain again...repeat... Let me tell you, having your meal outside the tent while it's raining was no fun at all. I hate being told that "Oh I am sorry, this table is taken" only to find that those people were still lining up for food after I am done with mine. What's up with that!?!?

Overall it was a fun day. "Our" (technically speaking it's not our team but the team comprises of mostly people from the Web team so I'll just call it ours...heeheehee) team won at the Tug-of-War this year (the team won last year as well so we successfully defended the title). It was fun because as the game starts, you can see this blanket of black cloud coming. People are just rushing to get the game started as the situation is getting worse as the game progress. And as soon as we are done, it's pouring cats and dogs.

Oh I have to mention...someon'e gift did get used today. =)

IKEA Catalog

UPDATE: It's out!

Did I mention that the 2006 IKEA catalog is coming out this weekend? Yippee~ Time to tell my bro to get one and mail it to me.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Done! After my 11-hr marathon reading, i finished the book around 9:30pm tonight. The plot is good. I wouldn't say it's as dark as the previous 2 books but I think it's an interesting plot with a great twist toward the end. It kept me guessing who's the half blood prince and who'll be killed in book (which turns out that I was dead wrong at my guesses).

Here's my voyage since yesterday night: I didn't pre-order the book, but I went to my local Barnes and Nobles on Friday night anyway to see how worse the situation is and if I could just get my hands on one that night. I've never seen the BN parking lots so full (when Book 5 came out, I was still in Chicago). The cars totally filled the BN's lot as well as that of the adjacent ShopKo and Cubs Food's. I was greeted by "Prof. Snape" in the front door - which shocked me for the resemblance. Once I stepped inside, I also met couple other characters such as Hagrid and Prof. McConagall. There are kids and teenagers dressed up as wizards and witches running around. It was quite a festival.

However, I didn't get my book at midnight though. They were asking people to line up around 11. When I took a look at the crowd, I gave up - figuring I can probably wait another 12 hrs. There were hundreds and hundreds of people lining up both inside AND outside. Without pre-order, I know I'll be those waiting at the outside. Hours of waiting outside without air-conditioning simply dampened my excitement (I seriously hope they picked a Fall release day for the final installment). On a side note, the trip to BN wasn't totally fruitless. I unexpectedly found something I had been looking for quite some time. It's a Javascript book with a chapter on Drag and Drop. I'll leave that in another post.

Anyway, let's get back to my HP journey. I went to BN again this morning around 10:45. To my surprise, there was a constant line of about 20 people of so in front of the cashier - each with a copy or two of Harry Potter of course. They had all the counters opened yet people just kept coming in. At 11:00, armed with my regular Grande 2-pump white mocha in the Starbucks across the streets, I started my marathon reading. The Starbucks wasn't too big, but there were alredy people hogging the nice comfy chairs with a HP on their hand. From what I could tell, all of us just got our copies since neither of us got very far into the book I believe (unless they are re-reading it). I pretty much was glued to the seat until 4 o'clock or so - finishing half of the book already.

Unfortunately, there was no free refill at Starbucks and I am in need of refreshments. I guess I can picked any fast-food shop but I picked the retro-styled McD close to my apartment (well, not that close) figuring that there will be fewer people there (the others are always crowded). The cashier/managers at McD were amazed that I was already half way done. Heeheehee~ A 6-pc chicken nuggets & medium fries (and of course, the drink with UNLIMITED free refills) later, I was ready to continue on with the book! I only stayed for 2 - 3 hours. Afterall, it was a McD and you can only stayed in a McD for so long. Though I have to mention that I don't know if I'd do the same if I were in HK. However, I probably would have been kicked out if it's HK anyway (wakakaka).

The end came couple hours later in my apartment. 30 chapters and 652 pages of Harry Potter 6 - finished. Though I believe HP 5, with more pages, only took me less time but I ain't sure. Like I mention earlier, i liked this installment - despite the fact that I don't like Rowling killing this charater. It's kind of sad knowing that there is only one more book to look forward too. Oh well~

Back to Normal - At least for a week or so

Just from what I did for the past 2 days (which is nothing), it's pretty obvious that my life is finally back to "normal". Back to HK late May till mid-June, then my mom came over to the States with me for 3 weeks for my brother's graduation ceremony. Unforutnately, my dad didn't feel like coming this time. Oh well~

But for the first two weeks while she was in the States, I drove down to Chicago every weekend to meet up with her (In reality, including my brother's ceremony, I made that trip between Madison and Chicago 3 times in 10 days). I really can't believed that I drove 1000+ miles in 10 days. Normally, I don't even drive 1k per month. (Did I mention that the oil-change-guy told me that I probably need to get new tires soon? I guess making all these trips definitely won't help. $$$$$)

She also came up to Madison and stayed with me for a week. To be honest, there really isn't anything better than coming home for lunch and found that it's already ready when you step inside the apartment. And when you're done, simply say Goodbye to mom and go back to work (wakakaka). We didn't do anything special - just wandering around Madison area. I did show her our new company campus (my first time too - well, not count last time when I got lost trying to find the new campus). I didn't realize how big our campus will be until I see the real thing. I would be very very disappointed if the Web team didn't get moved this coming Fall/Winter.

Anyway, back to the point. Now that my mom's gone and I am officially broke. I guess my life is finally getting back to what it used to be. Hopefully this calm period can last another week or two before we dive into the crunch period for our first deadline for the next development cycle.

漫畫盤點

漫畫盤點

I had a recount of our (my brother and I) comic/manga collection while I was back in Hong Kong. I've never lay them out all at once so it was quite amazing to see. I believe we are using 3 or 4 boxes to stores them. Plus the fact that my brother still has a couple "sets" in the States and I have my Five Stars Stories with me.

So here's the list (counting clockwise from upper left hand corner):
網 球王子; GTO; 三國誌; 百份百感覺; 封神演義; 地獄老師; 龍騎士; 亂馬 1/2; 咕嚕咕嚕魔法陣; 佛 Zone; 少年藍球夢; 好好先生; 真島小子勁爆一擊; 精武門; 聖鬥士星矢; 足球小將 (世青篇); 鬼神童子 Zenki; 幽遊白書; 神龍之謎; Slam Dunk; 惡神; 超神 Z;

Not in photo: 孤忍; 足球小將 (世界盃篇); Death Notes; 通靈王; 五星物語;

Reunion - The Buddies

I picked this one as the first photo I posted partly because I believe none of them know about this blog so I feel a bit safer. (wakaka~) Though it doesn't necessarily mean that those picture with my college friends won't show up (hohoho).

Anyway, it's been a while since I saw these guys (to be exact, the last time I saw them was the last time I went back to HK, which is Dec 01). We met at TST 水車屋 for dinner that night and later moved to McD (now that i think of it, I think it's kind of pathetic - Come on, McD!?!? - well, next time, maybe we'll pick a Friday or Saturday). Unfortunately, this isn't the full group. Missing from the picture are Po Kin (to my surprise, I was told that he's studying MBA in Japan), Pig and Fat Ball/Jacky (former known as Keith).

Joffee and I actually met Pig earlier that evening in Kowloon Tong KCR station. He actually came back to HK for a week (half business & half leisure) and being all secret about it. We being Mahjong addicts and since Pig is leaving the next morning, Joffee and I tried our best in persuading Kenneth for a all-niter MJ meeting. Too bad that plan didn't go very far. I guess having to working the next day from 7am to 9pm is a plausible excuse.

It was a great evening - good food & lots of catching up done. It really didn't feel much different from the last time I met them (or since our high school days). To be honest, we don't chat or IM very often. A lot of the times were simply "Hi, how are things going?" kind of IMs. Yet it always amazes me that I didn't lose contact with them. It's true that we've kind of went on our own journey in life all these years, but I think the mere fact that we've still kept in touch with each other, despite the fact that I've pretty much stayed half way across the world throughout these years, makes me treasure our friendships even more.

I have another group of friends that I want to expose, but that'll be another post. (Yeah, they don't know about this blog as well so I am safe.)

Back to the Blog World......Well, sort of

At least I think I got one foot in the door now. It isn't like there's a huge crowd out there reading my posts anyway. Oh by the way, MooCow's back (Yippee!) so go check it out. It's way better than mine.

Anyway, it's been a while since my last "real" post where I actually typed something up rather than clicking the Blog It button. So let's do an update. Things are going pretty smooth at work - at least I haven't got fired yet. I can't believe I've only been working for a year and a half. I believe the current development cycle is my fifth dev cycle already. Some times when I look back at the stuff I did/the code I've written, I would complaint to myself why I did something one way vs the other. Luckily since not many people know what I am working on (did I mention that my product consists of the smallest number of developers? 1.55. Wait, the new developer isn't really ready yet, so take out a 0.5), I just need to rewrite/redo some of the stuff before things gone wrong. Hahahahahahaha~

I think I can say that life is sailing smooth as well. Just came back from my first "vacation" last month. And since it's been 3.5 years since I last went back home, it's a long-waited trip. My mom also came back with me to the States to see my bro's graduation. She did stay at my place for a week for I am kind of spoiled right now (wakaka). On the other hand, I think I can officially declare I am broke. $$$$$

I think I'll got enough down for this post - come back for more next time. You probably won't have to wait another 6 months. =) I am just debating whether I should betray my family and post some family photos up here or should I do the injustice and post those I took in HK with my friends? Um...

Link! Jasper, link!

You know it won't do my blog any good if you don't include the link - mine will never surface to the top of the search engines! So, put a link in there! Wakakakaka~

<a href="http://uarzen.blogspot.com/">EMP 5488</a>

P.S. Did you ever googled your nick? Your blog was the 4th entry - probably because this blog alone has 2 links to it.

Lunch this week

Monday - skipped
Tuesday - Panda Express $5.48
Wednesday - Burger King $4.42
Thursday - Smoky Bones $15.00
Friday - Boston Market $6.32
----------------------------------
$31.22

In addition to the US government, my lunch is also costing me a fortune. Like my co-worker said, it's enough to get a console game. Maybe I should think about bringing lunch (though i can already foresee it'll be a totally failure - well, no harm in thinking)!

Countdown started...

I think i can officially start the count down to the 3/10 deadline. As of today, the outlook is not looking so well - which probably means starting next week, i'll be going into panic mode. Basically, my daily routine will look somthing like this: wake up > shower > work > lunch > more work > and yet more work > dinner > sleep > repeat. As a result, posting will be even more sparse. Sigh, I always wonder why this happens in almost every development cycle I've had so far.

On the side note, I did submit my vacation request today. On the form, we have to state how many vacation days we would have left at the end of the month which we take the vacation. It's kinda sad to see my days drop to a mere 0.04 And I do plan taking at least a half day some time this month - which mean i'll be going into the "hole". >_<

Another side note (since I am talking about vacation), my green card has expired for 3 months already. I think I need to stop procrastinating and get that taken care of. Otherwise, I'll be such a anti-climax when I arrive at the airport in May and the airline folks say, "I am sorry we can't let you on the plane because your green card has expired." Though it would be worse if they let me go out of the country but won't let me back in. Oh well, I guess I'll be helping out the US deficit (they are charging a fortune for the renewal if you don't know).

Bottling up the crazy

Bottling up the crazy: Haiku of Blah

I left my first blog comment on MooCow's blog today. Following other people's lead, I started my comment with a Haiku. Well - I believe it's a Haiku at least. His blog is definitely fun to read - trust me! Today I feel so empty when i click on the live-feed link in FireFox on Moo's blog but there's no new entry. Well, hopefully he'll come back on Thursday. =)

Oh the long wait...

Opened up my mailbox - Honda recall reminder (Yup, probably should take care of that next time I went to the dealer for an oil change - especially it's free); AE Rewards Catalog (Bathroom reading I guess); Electric bill (Yikes!) - still no title. Darn it!

But as I walked up the flight of stairs to my apartment, i saw this little Priority Mail envelop outside my apartment door. As expected, insides lies the car title (as well as the paid off notice from the bank) that i've been waiting since the beginning of the month. To be honest, it was kind of an anti-climax. It really wasn't as "nice" as I expected - but one way or the other, I won't be keeping this one for long. Tomorrow I'll leave work early and pay the Wisconsin DMV a visit to change both my title and plate to a Wisconsin one. Illionis has treated me well ever since I came to the States, but now is the time to move on! Onward with my wonderful and glorious life! (Real reason: The sticker on my license plate expired 8 days ago; I really can't afford another traffic ticket at the moment - not before my IRS tax return comes in later this month)

Spoiled & Butchered at the same day

First Monday of the month - doughnut day! Yum~~~

Anyway, that's not the point of this post. Today I picked up my 2nd monitor at work. Ahem...2nd LCD flat panel that is. It was really nice having one LCD opening up the tracking utility while the other monitor opens up VB or whatever else I need to have opened. Why can't I have 2 LCDs at home. Life is so unfair! On the side note, i did run out of desk space. So now all my binders are sitting on the floor. Though technically speaking, I do have an empty bookshelf sitting in my office right now. But that means if I need those files, I'll have to get up and take 2 steps to get to the bookshelf - Nah, too far~

After my company buttered me up with a nice monitor, I got butchered later in the afternoon. My code got broken - once again - by another team!!! Talk about the joy of doing cross-team projects. Did I mention the deadline was tomorrow at 8 a.m.!? It was such a "joy" digging through all the development images trying to find an open slot to do the fix. As a result, today is a 12-hour working day for me. Guess who's leaving early tomorrow (if nothing else come up that is)? I looked forward to the day where I can tell my friendly QA to mark their project "Dead on Arrival". Ha!

What!? It's Thursday already!?!?

Time sure flies. I just realized that tomorrow is Thursday already. How did I spend the last three days. More importantly, what did I do at work? I faintly remember I did teach two classes on one of the day, but that only accounts for 4 - 5 hours. My workplan meeting this Friday would definitely be challenging.

Bad news at work - other team is doing some UI changes to their module. The changes will probably come chasing after me later this month or early next month - despite that fact that I am already overbooked at 300%.

I am supposed to teach another 2 hr class tomorrow. It wasn't until like 4pm this afternoon when I remembered this. Of course I haven't revise the PowerPoints and in-class exercises from 3 months ago. Hopefully, I'll come up with something to say tomorrow. (Or wish that all the attendees decide that they would take the day off instead of coming to work. Ha!)

Nothing a little sweet can't fix

I was in a bad mood earlier. Technically speaking, I wasn't in a bad mood. Rather, I am in no mood at all. And it wasn't just tonight. So around 10, I decided that I could really use some sugar in my system so I got out and drove to Walmart to get myself dessert. A pint of ice-cream + a case of Pepsi. I'm all good now.

On the side note, I haven't had any sodas for the past 2-3 days - wondering if that's the reason I was feeling moody. Um...

BBS

There is this BBS that I go to every day. Recently, there is this big fight over whether some of the "chat" thread should be moved to another board instead of the main board. The main reason being that newly created threads will get pushed to the bottom of the first page (or sometimes even the second page) within a short period of time as these "chat" threads keep floating up.

To me, this is a perfectly fine idea. Why on earth would I even care about conversations between several individuals with topics that will bored me to death. Oh wait, I DO care because they are pushing all the new threads to the bottom of the page and I have to scroll down/go to the next page to even find them. Anyway, these idiots have to make such a big fuss about it and the administrator finally reverted to the original configuration.

They should be grateful I am not the one managing the BBs; otherwise, I'll definitely shut the whole thing down - If you are not appreciating what I am doing (simply because of passion), get the fxxk out of here.

P.S. That's why I like the newsgroup server 3home so much. More than once their admin mentioned that it's a private server; if you don't like what they're doing, stop coming! And I think that's totally cool~

Another uneventful weekend

Another weekend with nothing happened. To certain extent, it should be a good thing. However, I think I'll need to find something to spend my time on (before I got stuck with all the projects for the next developement cycle).

Saturday and Sunday nights (by night I mean 10:00 and after) are particularly boring. Normally, I would start going through all the online forums, newsgroups and weblogs that I visit daily. However on weekends, I've already did all these when I woke up - which left me nothing to do now. Thus, this is normally the time I update my blogs and post in forums/newsgroups.

不滿

好多 HK 字出唔到呢~ 極為不滿~
.\ /.

More photos this year

Hopefully. This is one of my new year resolution i think - that is, to take more pictures of things around me. I still remembered back in Purdue, one of us always had a digital camera. Tons of pictures were taken during those days. I surely missed that!

So this year, I vow to take my DC with me more often. =)

林一峰: 一個人在途上

聽完林一峰遊樂會之後，立刻從 M:\ 內找回了『一個人在途上』這一隻 CD 的 mp3。結果整晚就伏在書桌上聽著一峰的歌，洗滌了自己的心靈。作曲，填詞，主唱－林一峰一手包辦，現今所謂的樂壇，仲有邊位歌星有這才華? 可惜的是無機會親身去一峰的音樂會，冇辦法感受到 live 的氣氛同感覺~ (聽聞濱唱會的 cd 其實做得不是太好~ ding!) 下次，下次有機會的話......

已經很久沒有衝動去買 CD，亦已忘記了上一張買的 CD 是哪個歌星的。估唔到一星期之內，竟然會有兩張 CD 會另激起我的購買慾。

This is the day where...I paid off my car

Though technically it should be yesterday. Oh well~ What a relief - 4 long years! Has it already been four years already? Sure doesn't feel like it.

Now I am waiting for my car's title! Hohoho~