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...