Hate Cooking

Cooking wasted so much of my time from doing stuffing that really matter to me, like doing another drawing.

Firefox theme killed my Firefox

It's good that I always keep a copy (actually, a few) of Firefox portable, because just a while ago my Firefox was messed up after installing a stupid Firefox theme. So I actually won't mess with Firefox theme from now on. I really don't have time to mess with reinstalling shit.

So, that's why he's unpopular

I made a friend about half a year ago. He was a talented person but he kept complaining to how people around him didn't like him much. I felt sorry for him and for a long while didn't quite understand why he was unpopular among his colleagues.

Then, a few days ago, I was driving to a place with him. I talked about the meaning of certain lyrics, and mentioned the word "era".

"eeee- ra", he said.

"Hur?" I was puzzled.

"eee- ra."

So he's trying to correct my pronunciation I guess. "Era." I said.

"eeee- ra, not error, eee- ra"

"Era."

"eeee- ra"

"Era"

"eeee- ra"

"..... Eeeee ra"

And then he stopped correction me.

Don't get me wrong. I don't mind someone spend time to correct my pronunciation. But I can see how other people may find it irritating, and wonder if that's one of the reason why he's unpopular among his peers.

Stubborn

I was a bit tired after work, but I tried to continue practicing piano. So I went ahead and started the training video and followed along. In the middle of the session, I was simply too tired. So I paused the video, leaned on the bed and thought of waking up after a few minutes. By the time I gained back my conscious, an hour or more had been passed. I pressed on and finished the class nevertheless.

This is why self-paced learned works for me: I am so stubborn on getting something done with I started something out. Sometime my stubbornness gets me into trouble. This time it's in my advantage.

Inking on Lenovo X60 Tablet feels way better than on MacMini with bigger Tablet

I've been inking on my MacMini with MangaStudio 3.0 for a few days. It was OK, but somehow I found the workflow sluggish. But this morning I tried using my Lenovo X60 to do inking with MangaStudio 4.0 and it felt so much better. Maybe I should use my MacMini to do drafting, and then do the inking of my tablet PC.

So I like In-ear headphone better

At first I was not too happy with the sound quality of my US$33 in-ear headphone and thus get a slightly more expansive (US$99) over-the-ear headphone. After using it on-and-off for months, I have to say that while the sound quality is definitely better, I really can't stand wearing it for more than 2 hours. My ears will get cramped by the can to a point that I simply can't stand it. On the other hand, I can use my in-ear headphone for a whole day without much problem.

It nice that I have both so that I can pick and choose base on my need at the moment.

I think I censored my own dream

I dreamed again, and this time it's like a R rated movie censored into a PG movie playing on Sunday afternoon.

It was all fragments, but it involves me trying to clean up the dish washing machine, and a lot of black water flooded out of the machine. Notice that there was no roaches and crazy stuff like that flowed out.

And then I was very angry working at my mom's factory (come to think of it, it was like a snapshot of my childhood) but no curse word coming out of my mouth. It was like something mute my voice.

I walked into the "manager room", and I saw my young brother reading magazine while mom was NAKED. However, I only saw her back, and she didn't look like my mom at all. Actually her face was like blurred.

I also visited some crazy cities, saw some stores selling magazines and mangas. Again, it's kind of like a alternative version of childhood which I walked all the way to some street hawks to look for Doraemon manga. When I opened these magazines and mangas, they were all blurred.

So it seems like someone or something or whatever went into my dream and censored everything to PG level. What the frog is going on.

Reminder

Need to keep practicing drawing and inking everyday .... in order to remind myself that I am still far from being good enough to quit my day job.

Silence message

Wonder if you experienced this situation: you sensed that someone at your workplace tries to avoid getting eye contact with you or may be even avoiding you. What will you do?

Another podcast that I love goes away

Sad is hear that http://www.mobileorchard.com/ and the corresponding podcast is going away. Sigh. That after CoOp/CoOp Live is gonna be end ....

CS5

Spent/Wasted most of my time yesterday on setting up Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator CS5 under both Mac and Windows in order to work on a poster. The installation was ULTRA slow, but at least the Windows side installation was completed. And then I spent whole night just to mark up all the content and get the basic color right. Poster creation is so time consuming no matter how primitive the design I want to go for.

What, blue screen?

I tried to stop a Load Test running on Visual Studio 2008 Test edition on 64 bit Windows 7, and my M6400 office laptop suddenly went blue screen. Well, blue screen is part of my work life, but still, angry.

Research on wireless internet access

After finding out how crappy and restrictive the wireless access on iPad 3G (provided by AT&T) was, I started researching on whether there's a plan B.

First I came across Sprint's mobile internet. I hated it instantly when I saw that it required a 2 year contract. Also it's not cheap as it cost US$60+ each month. On the bright side, it's a 3G + 4G plan, meaning that while the 3G has 5Gb cap, 4G is unlimited. Still, I just hate committing on a 2 year contract. Another problem: the MiFi router thing doesn't have as long battery life as iPad 3G, and it also means another piece of device to carry. But the this modem is relatively lightweight, and 3 hour plus battery life should be enough to do my work. One good thing: based on the coverage map, the connection on my living place should be pretty well. I can also using it with at most 5 internet device, meaning that my iPod Touch, my tablet, iPad, Dell M6400 and Nintendo DS can all got mobile internet connection everywhere I go within Houston. That sounds pretty sweet.

Then I came across Clear. I liked the fact that I don't have to committee on a 2 year contract, even thought that means I have to have my own equipment, like a US$250 WiFi USB device and US$130 HotSpot device. US$40 for 4G only each month, or US$55 for 4G + 3G. But the biggest problem is the coverage. Based on the map on the site, my living place is barely covered, that means the connection speed will be terrible. NOT GOOD.

So I think I will still get a iPad 3G. After all when I use it in HK or other places, I am pretty sure the connection will be so much better than those in AT&T. Plus it's always nice to have a "back up plan" with me. I instead of using the slow and restrictive AT&T, I may just get Sprint 4G. It has all the benefit of MiFi but with much better speed. The thing is keep me from getting Sprint 4G right away is that many people report that the firmware for the modem is very buggy and require a lot of reboot. So I better wait for a while. Well, at least a 4G option is coming very soon.

Gotta continue monitoring the Sprint 4G forum.

BTW, still haven't decided which size of iPad 3G to get. 16, 32, or 64 .....

Continue messing with toys without buying

After reading a lot of OK review about 3G on iPad, I drove to Apple Store, only to find out that it was sold out. so in order to not waste the time I spent on driving, I played around with some Apple toys that I haven't tried before:

• Mighty Mouse: it's actually fun to play with, and work as advertised. I just wish that they put even more gesture on the mouse, or even make it support Traditional Chinese handwriting. For US$69, though, I am not paying it just for the gimmick.
• Wireless keyboard: work as expected, think it's OK, but price ... expansive ...
• Number (iPad app): very nice UI, Easy to use, I won't buy it though since I have no need to make or modify spreadsheet on the road. I tried some spreadsheet app on iPod Touch and found that I NEVER use them.
• Pages (iPad app): Fine. But again, no need to create doc on the road. NotePad is good enough for me.
• RealRacing (iPad app): Super fun. Too expansive though.

So as you can see, I continue being a cheap bastard.