90's Cartoon Flashback

Speaking of Aeon Flux... How many of you remember watching that cartoon on MTV? It had such a distinctive artistic look. I also remember the futuristic, X-Files, Big Brother, beat The Man themes that were always present in the mini plot lines. Such a good waste of five minutes. I'm glad they are making it into a movie, but couldn't they get an Asian actress to play the lead role? No offense Ms. Theron, but Aeon was Asian and it just doesn't feel right with you in the role (props for going with the jet black hair though). Anyone else agree/disagree?

Aeon Flux

I'm trying to get back into playing the movie stocks on HSX, they are not being kind to me. The last couple of weeks I have been watching Aeon Flux, which is opening this weekend. I thought it was going to do well, but for some reason the price of the stock keeps dropping. Now I just don't know... why didn't I put some H$'s into Harry Potter on its opening weekend?

Phase-Locked Loops!!

I just finished my Finance class, so I only have two more meetings of Phase-Locked Loops between me and a relaxing Christmas break. So tonight I have to finish my last homework assignment for the class and then begins the week of studying for the final. I am dreading this last exam of 2005. With my recent Scrubs revival I must ask myself, "What would J.D. do? What would J.D. do?" I will ponder this question as I watch episode 17 of season 3...

Helping out Competitors?

I just so happen to look at the banner ad atop my blog yesterday and I saw this ad. Since Yahoo! is one of the main competitors for Google, don't you find it weird that Google is putting up ads for their music service?

Weekend of School Work

I had to do a lot of school work this weekend so I really tried to lock myself in the apartment to get everything done. Good news: I finished my 10-page paper. Bad News: I have another 5-page paper to write by Tuesday. The only thing that kept me sane during this high-pressure weekend was taking breaks to watch some recordings I have of the 3rd season of Scrubs and a fun Friday out with my friends. So now that I've watched a lot of season three, I really want to watch season one and two of Scrubs. Netflix, here I come. I really love the goofy humor of the show. Well, things are busy right now, so I guess I'll write more about it later.

The Goblet of Fire

Yesterday was a fun day packed into my weekend of schoolwork. First I brought some friends of mine up to LiverLvr's neighborhood and we ate lunch at the local Hooter's restaurant. Sure, most people think that guys only go there for the waitresses in their skimpy costumes, but I honestly like the chicken wings there. At first LiverLvr thought I was lying, but since I've made him try it out he agrees that the wings are good. They have this nice tobasco/vinegar sour hot sauce that really appeals to me (this time we tried 3 mile hot, next time 911?). After lunch we carried out our late Black Friday shopping. I just got a couple pairs of jeans.

Later that evening a group of us went to see Harry Potter - The Goblet of Fire. I read the book a couple of years ago so I really don't remember that many details, but I could see how the movie would be even more confusing if I had not read the book at all. It's such a shame that so much needs to be cut out of the movie due to time constraints. I wonder if this will be a cause for problems in the screenplays for Harry Potter - The Order of the Pheonix or Harry Potter - The Half-Blood Prince because those books only get longer than Goblet of Fire. Anyway, the movie presented the main plot points in an entertaining way. The special effects were great, the acting was ok (most of the actors were kids, so what can you expect?) and the two-and-a-half hour length really flies by. It's so interesting to see a series that captures the interests of both adults and children at the same time.

Overall Rating - 8 out of 10

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope you all are having great food tonight.

Early Thanksgiving

This last week my parents made a rare trip up to the Bay Area to visit, but they left the other day, so last Sunday we had an early Thanksgiving dinner together. It's the first time I remember my older sister spending Thanksgiving with them and it was the first Thanksgiving dinner I've had with them in nine years! It really was pretty special to be able to have that dinner with them. I'm also pretty lucky that one of my friends opened up her family Thanksgiving to all us Bay Area orphans. Thanks a lot, May! I guess this week will be turkey overload. Happy Thanksgiving.

USC 50, Fresno State 42

What a close game! It was so exciting I couldn't take it. I must give credit to the Frenso State QB, Pinegar, who has a strong arm and completed some great passes. Even though Fresno State plays in the WAC, which is not a very strong football conference, they showed that they truly deserve to be ranked 16th in the nation, if not higher. They never gave up, and even though the gave up 5 turnovers, they kept battling to keep the game close.

I'm amazed at the performance Reggie Bush put in tonight. He generated unbelievable numbers in many jaw-dropping plays. It's just too bad he fubbled away a kickoff return in the fourth quarter or this could have been a perfect game for him.

I had to watch the game in a bar tonight cause the Bay Area TV networks had to broadcast the Sharks hockey game. I didn't like that cause there was no sound on the TV. It was fun though, cause a lot of friends from work were there and talking a lot of crap because they wanted my team to lose. I can't wait to be able to watch a recording of this game so that I can hear the commentary and really follow what's going on.

Crunch Time

In the next two weeks I have one homework essay, two papers, and a short presentation due for one of my classes. This class, Finance and Budgeting for Engineering Managers, is the class that interests me most and I really enjoy the material, but it is the volume of work that is killing me. I have procrastinated to some extent, but it was mainly doing research. Now I think I have all the data I need, I just need to pound out the words. I'm really pushing to get a lot done in the next couple hours cause the USC game is starting at 7pm. Wish me luck.

NCAA Football - Week 12

For their 11th game of the season (2nd week bye) the USC Trojan football team will be hosting the Fresno State Bulldogs this year. This could be a very challenging opponent for USC, especially if they don't expect a strong game from Fresno State. I am hoping that there will not be an upset on Saturday.

Bay Area Real Estate

My parents came into town this weekend so we decided to go looking at real estate. Here is Santa Clara the homes are just way overpriced. Every condo is almost $500k and the townhomes are even more expensive. Right now I just can't see myself being locked into a $400k+ mortgage loan, eating top ramen on a plot that's only 1,000 square feet.

X-Men Legends 2

The other night LiverLvr and I got to play X-Men Legends 2 online together. Contrary to our first impression, XL2 was very easy to set up and get working (unlike LiverLvr's wireless gaming bridge). We only thought that we had an error because when we connected, we didn't see any online games being played. However, when I hosted a game, LiverLvr saw it immediately and joined. It was fun playing online, but for now we both agreed that we would pass the game in single player mode first, and then play through the game in coop mode once we knew what to expect.

What disturbs me is the probability that LiverLvr and I were the only ones trying to play XL2 online on a Tuesday night. Is this game really that unpopular? My theory is that anyone who owns it on the PS2 or the Gamcube is just playing in single-player mode, while anyone who wants to play in the coop mode bought the XBox version and plays through XBox Live.

Here is a screenshot of what XL2 looks like.

32 and Counting

Congratulations to the USC Trojans football team for beating the Cal Bears on Saturday, extending their win streak to 32 games.


Hats off to the defense for shutting down the Bears' offense and causing 6 turnovers. Here is a picture of Darnell Bing celebrating the first turnover of the day.

One Down, Two to Go

Well, this weekend I finished one of my classes for the quarter. Actually, I think I have to write up one more case study for the class, but that might take one night when I get around to it. Now I have just two classes to focus on. Phase-Locked Loops is going to be difficult. I'm struggling to keep up with the readings and the homeworks. I don't know how I'm going to do there... My finance course is also going to be a challenge. I have a short paper to write for that class and I am going to have to write a company analysis. I think I'm going to be living in the library the next few weeks. Wish me luck.

Calling all Oatmealgals

Are you ready? I'm in class now, but you know I'll be checking the score. Good luck, your team will need it.

Showdown in B-Town

Tomorrow my team, the USC Trojan football team, is headed to the location of their last loss two years ago. This is very similar to the situation on that horrible day. USC is undefeated looking to go to the National Championship and the Cal Bears have already suffered a couple of heartbreaking losses this year. Since that loss, the USC/Cal game has carried with it a lot of hype and excitement. I hope that my team keeps their win streak going and doesn't falter against Cal. Too bad I won't be able to want the game cause I have a Saturday class from 8am-5pm tomorrow. Boo! My VCR is set and tomorrow as soon as I get home from class I'm pressing the play button.

Homework Problems

Phase-Locked Loops is kicking my butt. I worked all last night on a problem set and I couldn't finish it. Something is seriously wrong with the text book or something. I have to start earlier so that I can email the professor for help.

This Saturday my work load will lighten up a little bit cause I'll finish my Program Management Basics course. I can't wait to be done with school.

Blog Comment Spam

I've noticed that blogs tend to get comment spam, which I think are comments being automatically posted by software bots. I guess the strategiy behind this is a reader of the blog will be curious about the comments and follow a link posted there. I hate spam/junk mail in all forms cause I feel it's almost of form of communication terrorism. Look at the effects of real terrorism: delays at the airport for security checks, the formation of the Homeland Security Counsel, and a lot of lost money and time from our daily lives. I think this parallels how spam and other unsolicited mail waste our time at work and at home. Blogger has implemented a form of blocking blog comment spam which requires comment posters to verify that they are real people and not computer programs. However, is it worth that extra time for verification every you post a comment on someone's blog? You can read more about this verification method here:

http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=1203

31 Game Win Streak

Congratulations to my USC Trojan football team. It was great to see them perform to expectations in their 51-21 victory over the Stanford Cardinal. I was also glad to see some of the BCS controversy fade as #3 ranked Virginia Tech fell to #5 ranked Miami. If the top teams win out the rest of the season, it looks like the NCAA Championship game will be a showdown between the University of Texas Longhorns and the University of Southern California Trojans. Honestly, I cannot forcast the outcome of that game. I would like to see my alma mater win, but Vince Young seems to be a force to be reckoned with this year.


This brings me to the only thing I can be disappointed with this year: The Heisman Trophy race. I admit that Vince Young is the only constant factor keeping Texas winning, but I know that when people cast their votes for the best college football player this year, they are just going to look at statistics. This year, there have only been a few close games where Matt Leinart and Reggie Bush have played all four quarter of a game. Their stats would be so much better if they actually played all four quarters of every game. However, Vince Young has played almost a full game almost every week for Texas. Their second string quarterback has only 8 passes all season, as opposed to the USC back-up, John Booty, who has played in the 4th quarter of almost every game and has attempted 39 passes this year. I almost wish USC would leave Matt Leinart in so he could pad his stats. I guess I'll just have to be satisfied with the success of the football team.

Hyundai L90D+ 19" LCD Monitor - One Week Review

Two weeks ago my 6-year-old CRT monitor broke, forcing me to upgrade to an LCD monitor. After reading a review on www.firingsquad.com I chose the Hyundai monitor (see entry title for the model number). This was not the best performing LCD in the review, but it was the least expensive. According to the review this monitor is mentioned in a lot of gaming forums as a gamer's gift from above, as it delivers great performance for a tight budget. I have used a number of LCD monitors in the computer labs at school and work, and honestly they all seem to perform similarly. The one factor that I never get to test in those environments, however, is the update speed of the pixels. This happens to be a important attribute when it comes to gaming. I have read comments where gamers get headaches playing on monitors that don't refresh quickly and blur motion across the screen. So after a week here are my thoughts on my new monitor, reduced to a couple of sentences and numbers.

Quality Control: 10 out of 10
When buying an LCD monitor, a buyer is always afraid of getting a dead or stuck pixel. Nothing like viewing a dark scene in a movie and having a central pixel stuck bright red all the time. My monitor has no stuck or dead pixels.

Color Reproduction: 10 out of 10
Take my numbers here with a grain of salt because I am not comparing this monitor side-by-side with any others, but I but see any differences in the colors from my old CRT. I am also very impressed with the software that comes with the Hyundai LCD. It helps fine tune ther color output from your PC so that any discrepancies can be corrected. I think it works very well.

Screen Uniformity/Field of View: 9 out of 10
The monitor can be viewed from a wide angle, however as with most LCD's it fades the wider you go. This fading is not as pronounced as the earlier generations of LCD, but it's still there. I probably would not have noticed this if I hadn't read the review, but if you're not looking dead center at the monitor, there are parts on the edges that darken faster than the center of the screen. For any normal viewing it's hard to see, but if you make the monitor one solid color (like in the color tuning software) you can barely see this.

Update Speed: 10 out of 10
I have been playing Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory this last week. It's a free online game that's quite fun, especially since the really good players have moved onto better newer games, so I can rock all the poor newbies that still play. As far as the performance of my LCD, I don't see any difference from my old CRT. What a relief!

Overall Satisfaction: 10 out of 10
I'm so glad I read that www.firingsquad.com article and chose this monitor. It takes up less space, using less enery, and puts out the same quality performance as my old CRT. And for those of you that read my earlier post, the monitor does rotate. The only problem with that is you have to change a software setting to get the screen output to rotate with it. It would be more convenient if the monitor could detect the rotation and change the resolution automatically. However, I don't really see the need to rotate the monitor all that often, so this lack of a feature does not disappoint me. If you need to get a new monitor and can spare about $350, then I highly recommend the Hyundai L90D+ 19" LCD Monitor.

3rd Floor Isolation

I guess I never realized how much I missed at work because of working on the 3rd floor in my building. People always seem to know about some work gossip, but I never knew how. Well, after LiverLvr and I sat for an hour in a 2nd floor computer lab for our training class, we found out. In that short time we heard about Google's stock price increase, possible news about pay bonuses, 401k contributions, and shuffling of management. I can only imagine what it's like working there everyday. I need a new desk...

Work! Help!

Training at work is killing me. LiverLvr, I know you understand.

Katamari Damacy Review

Looking back on my old posts, it seems I have been promising reviews on many items yet I have not posted any. Well now I will finally post a review for this game. Katamari Damacy's main strength is its use of a unique and simple gaming concept. I never thought taking the role of an alien being rolling a giant sticky ball on Earth could be so much fun, but it is in this game. As LiverLvr pointed out to me, the novelty of the game resides in the completeness of its object database. If you pick up an alarm clock on one of the levels, then in your collection there will be an alarm clock with a little description for it. Same goes with trees, cars, people, animals, and if you get large enough, even rainbows that you pick out of the sky. It's just hilarious fun. I highly recommend this game.

Visuals: 6 out of 10
The graphics are not that good, but for this game, they don't need to be.

Sound: 8 out of 10
The J-Pop soundtrack is catchy and very fitting, and almost every object you pick up makes a unique sound.

Gameplay/Controls: 7 out of 10
The controls consist mainly of the two analog sticks. There are a couple other buttons to press but the game kept everything simple. It feels very natural.

Replay Value: 8 out of 10
If you are one of those people that like to find every secret and collect every item, this game will keep you interested for a long time. I am not one of those people. However, the gameplay is so simple it is very easy to just pick up and play for 5 minutes every once in awhile.

Overall: 8.5 out of 10
Since the game can be gotten for $20 it is a good value. It's very short if you just like to complete levels and see the ending, but then you are probably not appreciating the goofiness and care-free fun of the game. Also definitely not for those gamers that crave blood and guts. If you enjoy games like Mario Party or Animal Crossing, you will appreciate the innocent appeal of this game.

HSX Starbond

Some more HSX Strategy discussion here. Looks like the Starbond for Luiz Guzman (LGUZM) is going to drop around H$26 in two weeks. It's too bad the site limits ownership of Starbonds to 20,000 shares. Since yesterday the price of the bond has already dropped H$4.50.

H$20 Million Milestone

What a surprise! This morning I check my HSX account and I'm at H$20 million! I think I hit H$10 million around July 20th. That's pretty good growth. I wish I could play the real stock market this well.