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.