Sabbatical - Quick Comment

My sabbatical trip to Australia is coming to the end. Looking back over the whole trip, there are many gains and losses. Perhaps I shouldn't say losses, but more like realizations. Many of these things I think I've known for some time, but after this trip, they solidified. Let just say I'm a bit tired of the status quo; however, I don't really like drastic changes either. So I will have to see how things go. There will definitely be some small changes in the near future, with much bigger ones on the horizons (1-3 yrs) that I need prep time for.

Upcoming Purchases

Paid off last month's credit card bills, definitely burned a hole in my wallet from all the hotel and air ticket purchases (still got a small payment due next month for the Melbourne nights).

At the same time, I just realized that in additional to the Aus/HK trip in December, there are tons of stuff that I am planning to get... It would be great if company can start sending out bonuses now instead of the end of year. XD

So far, my list contains:
* New phone - Nexus maybe? I'll find out on the 19th I guess.
* New camera - I think I'll settle for a 5N instead of 7 just for the sake of my bank account
* 3DS
* Kindle - I still need to figure out whether I should get the Touch for now and wait and see if they'll have a 10" version of the Fire later
* iPod - A bit disappointed that the Shuffle wasn't updated since I'll be using it mainly for gym, so a shuffle probably would be enough. On the other hand, I should be grateful that they didn't kill off the shuffle... hahaha
* Wii/DS games - Kirby Wii, LoZ: Skyward Sword, Mario Kart and Super Mario 3D Land for sure.

"Yikes" is the word that came to mind when I looked at the list... :p

So I made it to the 100th...

This kinda came up during one of our team game nights. The original topic was on laundry and how often do one do laundry. Thinking about how many tees/polos I owned, I casually said that shirt-wise, I probably can go on for about 2 months.

Boy did I underestimated myself. It turned out that for short-sleeves, I actually had 99 of them hanging in my closet. Admittedly, there are a handful that I haven't wear for a while (say a year or two), and a bunch that I bought but haven't got a chance to wear them (after all, I do live in the Midwest where it's not always warm and toasty)... but even excluding them I probably would still have 80+ (Note to self: find a time to donate those).

Honestly, I really should cut down on the buying... but reality? I just bought #100 and #101 today.

Um... an interesting combination in front of me right now....

Since with the sub-zero temperature, I have no mood going to the gym tonight, I decide to stay home and do nothing (again! 2nd night in a row.... Gosh, i love the days after a deadline). So in front of me right now on the left is a peanut butter sandwich... on the right is a glass of Sauvignon Blanc. Yeah - not your typical pairing... but heck I am hungry and i need to finish off the bottle of wine I opened on Saturday. I even considered microwaving some edamame, I'll see whether I am still hungry after I devour the PB sandwich.

On the topic of wine, I opened a bottle of Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and Prosecco this weekend (it's with a bunch of friends). To my utmost disappointment, I like none of them. The chardonnay was okay (but definitely not as good as the one I tried in Napa from the same vineyard). The Sauvignon Blanc was forgettable. And the prosecco... oh the prosecco... It's just too "oaky" and does not have the crisp taste and aroma that I was hoping for. :( I know I should have gotten a bottle the vinho verde instead. Silly me of wanting to try something new.

On a totally different note, some have noticed the increase in number of blog post I wrote this year (for those folks reading from FB, I don't actually write these in FB... I just have FB automatically import from my blog). I guess this is mainly due to the fact that my desktop died a couple weeks ago. Sitting on a couch with a laptop apparently makes it easier to blogs. I'll see how long these updates will last. :p

This Past Saturday...

definitely an activity-packed Saturday. The most exciting part, of course, was finally getting my hair cut - something that has been bothering me since like the beginning of February (Wait, is it normal for someone to be excited about an haircut? Oh well, I never claimed I am normal anyway). However, with the deadline on 2/17 and things were kind of behind schedule, taking a trip down to Chicago for my haircut really wasn't an option. So finally the deadline had past and the weather was somewhat decent (or so I thought), I decide to pay a visit to my hair stylist - No more getting frustrated trying to gel my hair in the morning!!! I also have my hair colored this time to a copper-ish color. Since the "brownish-red/reddish-brown" I did last time was too subtle, I decided to go for something that's "easier to see the difference". I remembered I tried similar color in 06 or 07 and really liked it, and so far I'm loving this one as well.

Oh... might as well do an advertisement for my stylist here then: Headquarter Hair (Norris: will I get reimbursed for this? Hahahaha....)

Also met up with the Chen's for lunch... the little kiddo is definitely growing fast. At 6 months, I felt okay to hold him now as chances of me accidentally dropping him has receded. Hahahaha.. Also went to the MS store afterward at Oak Brook. I guess that's MS's response to the Apple store, but honestly I wasn't very impressed. It's definitely lacking something but I can't exactly pinpoint what it is. To me, it's not much different than simply walking into a Best Buy.

All the above happened in Chicago, which means a 2.5hr drive each way. To Chicago, it was an okay trip but definitely not a good one. I knew this pretty much as soon as I got on the Belt line and I started yawning... 945am? Definitely too early for me to function on a Saturday (And I already head to bed early the night before... at 2:15am)

On the way back it was much worse. Besides the constant need for caffeine to keep me awake, there was also the freezing drizzle which forced to me to stop from time to time to clean up the ice on the wiper blades and the wind shields. Yikes!

Fun continued when I got back to Madison with another night of "Bang!" with the team. In our last two team game nights, it has replaced Settlers of Catan and became the game of choice.

Like I said in the beginning, it was definitely an event-packed Saturday.

差啲唔記得 blog 底...

12 月返 HK 時近距離見到林一𡶶... e+ 諗番真係應該走埋去搵佢影番張相都好... Oh well, too late now~
佢真係真係唔係太高，另外佢個樣，真係睇足咁多年都係差唔多，一樣都係咁 baby face... 直頭係無言啦...

btw, 唔知佢幾時會開 “個人” 演唱會? 好强調係個人因為我對佢個妹冇乜興趣．我成日都話佢真係開嘅話我係會極力撲返黎睇嘅... XDDDDD

有啲歌，係唔可以亂咁聽嘅...

完全係 mood changers...

[Edit: 咁又呃咗一個 blog post... 哈哈哈...]

It's been a long week...

It's been a long week at work due to the development deadline on Thursday. Well, it's been busy ever since I came back from vacation already, but this past week is simply hectic. Basically all my time was split between work and home, with a heavy majority being at work. So it is definitely a relief that I now have my life back... Ha ha ha... Most of the stuff made it into the QA with a few remaining. Considering the state of all the projects on Monday and how many projects made it in, I'd say the whole team did some really crazy job this week. Hopefully this is not happening with every deadline.

Weather

Earlier tonight I was looking at the thermometer and saw that the outside temperature was 30 degrees. My first thought was "Oh, it's so warm tonight". But a second later, my senses came back to me and I was like "What's wrong with me!?" It was still below freezing point and I was calling the weather warm!?!? To my defense, comparing to a few nights ago when the thermometer was constantly displaying temperatures below 0F, tonight is indeed much warmer.

Looking ahead, the weather forecast for the upcoming week is excellent (with high of 52 on Friday). Unfortunately, I'll have to survive the Thursday deadline before I can enjoy any of this...

And so I took a step...

While I think this probably is the right choice, but part of me isn't totally convinced yet. Hopefully this will turn out to be something interesting, otherwise I will have to plan for something else (though that too might not be too bad)~