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.

Halloween Birthday

Happy Birthday to xvenusian!

USC 55, WSU 13

It was great to be able to watch the USC vs. Washington state game again yesterday. This week my team performed well early and never let the Cougars back into the gane. With Matt Leinart doing well as the quarterback and Reggie Bush taking a back seat in the offense, it seems like Vince Young, of the Texas Longhorns, will win this year's Heisman Trophy. I think Matt and Reggie are going to steal too many votes from each other and split their fans, and the rest of the nation will vote for Vince Young and he'll win. Who know though, there are still four weeks left in the season.

Halloween in SF

My buddy and I went out to SF on Friday. Here are some of the pics. I think I'm too old to go clubbing now, but it's worth it to see the outfits some of the people wear. We went as Hans and Franz, from Saturday Night Live, but I think that a majority of the people there didn't get it. Man, do I feel old now.

My New Monitor

Yea! My new monitor is here. I wanted to take pictures of the box and everything before I hooked it up, but I forgot. So now it's up and working, so here is the first picture of my monitor:

The picture quality is very nice and in the first five minutes I have not spotted any stuck pixels. Satisfaction level with my first LCD monitor purchase: Extremely high. I'm going to give the monitor its first real test with Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory. Look for the short review tomorrow.

Funny Costume Idea

I can't believe I never thought of this:

What a great costume. Not what I'm going to be this year, though.
Thanks for telling me about this, Tina.

Personal Stress Level = Green

My midterm is over. I don't know how well I did, but nothing I do now can change the results, so I have to relax now. The professor will post answers on Saturday, so I'll check and see if any of his numbers look familiar.

1 Hour and Counting...

Midterm at 7am. Wish me luck.

BCS BS

Sports news controversy this week:
U. of Texas has passed my USC Trojans by the slimmest of margins in the BCS Rankings this week. I am not really concerned because as long as USC is ranked 1st or 2nd we will make it to the Championship game, and then it will be decided who is really the best team in the nation. Also, USC's strength of schedule will improve and UT's strength of schedule will worsen as the season progresses, which will most likely put USC back at number 1 as long as they don't lose.

Another reason why I can't be concerned
right now is I have a midterm for Phase-Locked Loops in 16 hours. Yuck!

Broken Monitor

Last week my monitor fizzed out on me. Every once in a while I would notice the edges of the screen "buzzing". Kind of the same effect as when you degauss the screen, but not as severe. On Thursday night it just pooped out and turned off like those old TV sets (shrinking to the little dot in the center...wee). I think it's some kind of thermal issue because now I can get about 5 minutes of use out of it and then it will go black again. Then I have to push the power button to turn it off for a couple minutes and the cycle begins anew. It's all rather annoying so I ordered a 19" flat LCD monitor off of the internet. I like to play videogames so I used this article as my main source of research:

19'' High-End Gaming LCD Roundup June 2005 (from www.firingsquad.com)

I chose to go for the cheapest monitor on the article, the Hyundai ImageQuest L90D+ 19'' LCD. It should arrive at the end of the week. Look for my early review sometime this weekend. I hope to remember to post a 1-month, 3-month, and 1-year review also.

Will my new monitor really do this?

HSX Short Season

It's about time I getting back to discussing my trading activities on HSX. Like I mentioned earlier, now that summer is over a lot of movies are doing really badly, which means this is a good time to short movie stocks. This last weekend I chose to short the movie, Doom, starring The Rock. Even though the movie is based off of a popular videogame it's coming out at a bad time of the year for movies and the previews they showed really did not make it look like a good movie. Anyway, the movie stock dropped H$6 on it's adjust on Sunday, earning me a good amount of money. Yea! Probably won't have much more HSX news until I'm done with my midterms. Bye.

Studying

Today I tried to focus on school. I got some reading done for all ofm y classes and got started on my homeworks for the week. I am still a little apprehensive about the midterm I have on Wednesday so I guess I am going to really have to sit down and study for that one on Monday and Tuesday. I was happy to be able to watch Desperate Housewives for the first time in a long time (without taping it of course). Working all these long hours the past month at work has really made me forget the simple joys in life.

Football and Midterms

Well, I just finished my 3+ weeks of working every day. My reward: getting to see my USC Trojan Football team play the UW Huskies live. It was fun cause my friend from USC, Roberto, came over and watched the game with me. Oatmealgal, are your Cal Bears ready? After that it was back to studying for school. I have a midterm coming up this Wednesday morning and I am having trouble with the homework for the class. I have been emailing the professor and he is doing a good job of getting back to me very quickly. I hope I pass this class. I also have to get a group meeting set up for tomorrow for my other class. We have two weeks to get a short presentation ready and we are still choosing the case study we are going to use. I have a feeling this one is going to come down to the wire. I am crossing my fingers...now.

Recovery

I guess working those long hours last week burned me out. The most memorable thing that happened this week is USC's close victory over Notre Dame. Work is starting to let up on the difficult work schedules, but now my clases are starting to take up my free time. Only one more quarter of class after this one and I will have a masters degree. Yea!

I'm Home!

SPending 14+ hours at work sucks

Long Hours

I'm on the last leg of a 14-hour shift. It wasn't meant to be 14 hours; I was supposed to be home 4 hours ago... but this is the world of test. I must find a way to escape....

Pretty Good Saturday

I made it! My class from 8am-5pm was actually pretty good. It was Project Management Basics with Professor Peng. He kept the lecture moving pretty smoothly and my friend Venti Frappuccino kept me attentive.

After class I went to work and since I had
to go late after class, the time there didn't seem as long either. Thank you to my coworker, Bob, who stayed late a couple hours to cover me while I was in class.

I thought I wasn't going to have enough energy to go to the party, but then I discovered it was a birthday party so I had to show up. I went had a couple of drinks and had a really good time.

And to top things off my USC Trojans beat the Arizona Wildcats. Although it wasn't the blowout people expected so many college football fans across the nation will be yelling for Texas or Virginia Tech to be the new first place team. Whatever. Next week it's USC at Notre Dame!

Marathon Day

Well, it's 7:15am and I am about to start a horribly long day. First I have class from 8am till 5pm. From there I go to work and finish the swing shift, which ends at 10pm. Lastly, I will probably drop by a friend's house do show face at a little shindig he is putting on. That's already a 16+ hour day. Yuck. Wish me luck. I'll try to give you updates along the way.

3rd Week of Class

Well, I just had my third week of classes. I talked to my professor for Phase-Locked Loops and he said if I can do the homework then I'm in good shape for the class. I guess that makes me feel better for now. We'll see how I do on the midterm. For now I am attempting to reread the chapters from last week before I move onto this week's readings. I hope this stuff begins to make sense soon.

Power RB

Here is a picture that defines the reason why USC was able to pull out a win over Atizona State: the power running of Lendale White. I don't know why the USC offensive coordinators do not start out every game with Lendale White carrying the ball. Although Reggie Bush is an exciting, gifted play-maker, I believe that White's power running through the middle of the field is a more important element to the USC offense. By utilizing White early and often, you force the opposing team's defense to condense on the middle of the field to stop the run. This allows the wide receivers to get open on the sidelines and give them more deep room behind the linebackers. I know Norm Chow knew this, and that's why in the last couple of years Lendale White has had more rushing attempts than Reggie Bush. Now with inexperienced offensive coordinators calling the plays, they are trying to be to fancy all of the time and almost running a one-dimensional offense. They better get their act together soon.

High Blood Pressure...

What an exciting game! My USC Trojan Football Team had to rally from a 21-3 deficit at the end of the first half to beat the Arizona Sundevils 38-28. In the last three games the offense as a whole dominated the other teams' defenses. In this game the two running backs, Lendale White and Reggie Bush, had to do all of the scoring. As for the unsung heroes of the game, the defense should get a lot of credit for making 5 interceptions, and the offensive line should all get huge steak dinners tonight for allowing the RB's to run all over the field. As usual, there are a lot of haters in the College Football World, and so many people will cry that Texas or Virginia Tech should now be ranked number 1, but I'm going to support my Trojans and just say that you will have to wait your chance to play them in the post season. On some of the discussion boards I've been reading, a University of Florida fans has been making a big ruckus about how great his team is. Well, after they got blown out by Alabama today, I hope he can stand to be a little more quiet this week. I love college football!

Katamari Damacy

Upon hearing such good reviews for this game, I went out to Best Buy and bought Katamari Damacy. The premise of the game is simple, yet is supposed to be so addicting and fun. Basically you control a really sticky ball that rolls around and collects things. At first, those "things" are small, like oranges and bananas. However, as you gather more items, your ball can grab bigger "things" like cars or even whole buildings. Sounds absurd but it seems a lot of people like it. I haven't gotten to try it yet, but I'll write more on it in a couple days after I have played it for awhile.

USC vs. ASU

Well, this weekend my USC Trojan Football Team faces another challenge on it's path toward the National Championship. On Saturday they will be playing the Arizona State Sundevils in Arizona. The popular opinion of the sports writers in the country says that ASU's offense will be even better than the Oregon Ducks' offense. Who knows how well they'll do against my Trojans' defense. I am a little more at ease though, because the Sundevils' stadium is not as hostile and loud as Autzen Stadium in Eugene, OR. I can't wait till kickoff.

Catching up

Well, it looks as if I might be getting on the path towards catching up with my Phase-Locked Loops class. I have started the reading and homework today, which is 6 full days before it is due. I hope that I will be caught up and understand what is going on, or if I don't, at least have well-formulated questions to ask the professor.

Tired

I'm so exhausted. I'm just not managing my time well with school starting again. This morning I could barely stay awake in class, and to make things worse, I had to stay at work two hours later to make up for the lost time spent at school. No progress on my homework for Phase-Locked Loops. I will definitely ask the Prof for help after class tomorrow. I just need to get a grasp on the concepts like frequency being the rate-of-change of phase and rules that usually cannot be visualized. Wish me luck.

PPL's

I decided to sit down and study for my Phase-Locked Loops class. From doing the first homework, it's obvious I'm still a little shaking on some of the concepts. I will see if I can schedule to meet the professor at office hours sometime soon.

HSX Results

This week I decided to try out the shorting strategy on HSX. I really thought that two of the movies going into this weekend, "The Corpse Bride" and "Flightplan" were over valued. It turns out I was only correct on "The Corpse Bride". So I'm shorting more shares of "Flightplan" now, hoping that the stock will drop a little on Monday to let me recoup my losses.

Trojan Triumph

Yesterday my USC Trojans didn't let me down. They got off to a slow start in hostile Autzen Stadium, but came back to win 45-13. There were a lot of questionable calls for both sides during the course of the game. In the beginning of the call the bad calls favored Oregon, but toward the end of the game the refs made a couple of bad calls in favor of USC. The game really was a lot closer than the score would indicate, but I still believe the Trojans would have had the W in the end.

Game Day

Today is the first real test for my USC Trojan Football team. They are going up against the Oregon Ducks at Eugene. I just hope that the team has stayed focused in practice this week and that they won't be too relaxed on the field. The game starts at 4pm here in California. Too bad I'm going to a housewarming party at 4:30pm. VCR don't fail me now.

2nd Day of Class

Well, I attended the first meeting of Phase-Locked Loops today. It didn't help that I was tired, but even if I was wide awake I don't know if I have had enough background in the subject to really get a lot out of the lecture. I did learn that Phases-Locked Loops are related to the subject of control systems, and I really liked the control systems class I took a while back, so I think I am going to stick with this. Let's hope I'm not making a mistake. Anyone out there know a good tutorial for Bode Plots?

Santa Clara University - Quarter #7

Well, today was the first day of the Fall quarter at Santa Clara University. It sucked. Actually, the class I had was pretty good; Finance and Budgeting for Engineering Managers, taught by Frank Rose. Professor Rose does a very good job of keeping the lecture interesting with his colorful metaphors. I am pretty good at listening even though the subject matter doesn't excite me. Tomorrow I have Phase-Locked Loops I. I looked at the text book today and it seems as though I am really going to struggle with the class. I may even have to drop it. I just hope I can still finish my degree by June if I do withdraw from the course. I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow.

NCAA Football - Week 3

Well, my USC Trojan Football team improved their record to 2-0 this week, beating the Arkansas Razorbacks 70-17 at the Los Angeles Coliseum. I was very impressed with the offense, which in the first quarter had 8 plays totaling over 250 yards. Matt Leinart and his receivers looked really in synch and Reggie Bush had a really great run. I'm most concerned for Lendale White. I think he is more important to the USC running game than Reggie Bush. Yes, Bush is faster and pulls a lot of attention from the other players on the team, but Lendale White is the most effective running back up the middle of the field. His power running style forces the linebackers to focus on the middle of the field, leaving the receivers more room to work on play action plays. I also wish that the offense would throw more to Dominic Byrd, a very athletic tight end. However, I can also understand how the team might want to save him for games where the receivers get shut down, as in the Oregon State game last season. Well, this week will be a challenging one for the Trojans as they head to Eugene to play the Oregon Ducks. Fight on, Trojans.

Fatigue

Poor LiverLvr. He's been prescribed this medical treatment by his doctor. He has been taking injections of interferon three times a week. I guess on the internet some people have blogged about their experiences with the shots and described a wide range of side effects, but mostly flu-like symptoms. LiverLvr has actually been very lucky and the only side effect he is feeling is fatigue. I just get concerned sometimes cause I know he has a long drive home, and I don't want him to fall asleep behind the wheel.

His Physical Condition Yesterday: 8 out of 10
His Fatigue Level: 10 out of 10

Restaurant Review: Crustaceans

My sister and her family are in town visiting this week, so on Saturday we met up for dinner at a restaurant in San Francisco called Crustaceans. It is on the corner of Polk St. and California St. If you enjoy seafood and your wallet can handle the prices, I highly recommend it. We all got one of their specialty dishes: Roasted Crab (in butter and garlic). It is amazing how full and rich the flavor in the crab was. To complement our main dish we also split a couple of plates of their garlic noodles. I will definitely have garlic in my system for the next couple of days. The crab was so good that even though everything on the menu sounds delicious, I will probably continue to get the crab whenever I go to this restaurant. For desserts, their baked Alaska and friend bananas are also excellent.

If you decide to go, it is a little fancy, so men must be wearing a collared shirt (don't worry they give you bibs to protect your nice clothes).

Summer Vacation 2006

So one of my buddies mentioned that since he finished high school he has gone to at least one foreign country a year. Some of this happened to be for school, and maybe for work, I don't remember, but I really like travelling so I thought I would join him for a summer trip in 2006. So far we're thinking of a Mediteranean Trip, where we visit Spain and Greece for a couple of weeks. So I have a couple of questions for you blog readers out there.
1) What are your top three places you would like to go on vacation next summer?
2) For anyone who has visited or lives in Spain or Greece, what do you recommend doing?

Labor Day

Welcome to the StarSpangledTrader blog, which will detail most of my big trades on the Hollywood Stock Exchange. Well this weekend Transporter 2 was a big hit for me. With the price I bought the stock at, I needed it to make at least $10 million this weekend, and it ended up making $20 million. So overall on the stock I make a profit of H$1 million, with H$600,000 of it coming today.

Also, my USC Trojan Football team didn't let me down on Saturday and they ended up beating the UH Warriors 63-17. Next game is in two weeks, with the Arkansas Razorbacks coming to play USC at the LA Coliseum.

It's Game Day!!!!

Hooray!!! College Football is finally here. Just a little more than an hour until kickoff. I'm just so sad that I'm stuck here in Northern Cal while my team, USC, is playing in my home state of Hawaii. My parents are loyal UH fans, so they are going to the game, and my mom called me to let me know that USC fans are taking over the area around Aloha Stadium. She said that there are so many USC tents and tailgaters having a great time, and the USC Trojan Marching Band is even marching around playing the rock charts for everyone. I'm getting all excited just thinking about it. I had so many good memories of Game Day at USC, and our team wasn't even winning then. I just wish I lived in LA right now so that I could still go to every home game... what a shame. The positive aspect I can think of for myself is that I'm saving money on the cost of the tickets to the game, but that is of little consolation to me. Well, it's time for me to get in front of the TV for the next four hours. I hope you enjoy your Saturday as much as me.

Mahjong and HSX Results

Well, The Brothers Grimm made enough money so that my account was up today. I'm doing the standard HSX procedure of selling all of it, and shorting the stock. I'm hoping to be able to catch up to LiverLvr, but he has some money in the Christmas season movies already, and I don't, so no matter how close I am too him, I expect him to pull away come December. At least for now I've pulled to within 50% of his portfolio's value.

As far as Mahjong went last night, it was fun. In addition, we managed to teach my 12 year-old nephew how to play and he really liked it. Of course, my aunt kept winning every game. I'm glad we got my nephew to play, though, because that meant that we weren't playing for money. Just like videogames, I think it would be fun if I could gather a group together once a month to play mahjong. It's difficult to plan though, because it really does take the whole night. Maybe I'll send an email out to my friends and gauge their interest again.

Family in the Bay

One of my Aunt's from Los Angles came up to visit this weekend. They went the Winchester Mystery House yesterday and then we went to dinner. Today they went on their own to Alcatraz, but tonight we're meeting up at my sister's house to play Mahjong. I hope I don't lose too much money.

Wild South Bay Nights

Well, my friends and I checked out this club called Studio8 last Friday. The venue was pretty cool, but we heard the crowd is better on Thursday nights, so we gathered together a larger group of people and we are going to hit the town tonight. I was never one that was big on clubbing and dancing, but being single guy in a land of male engineers makes you see evening activities in a whole different light. Most of my friends don't have to work tomorrow like I do so I'm probably going to drive separately so I can leave a little earlier. I just hope I'm not too tired in the office tomorrow.

Baseball, Anyone?

So last night my friends and I went to a SF Giants game. It was a good thing we got the tickets free from our company, cause the Giants got whipped by the Phillies 9-2. It's even better that I didn't care who won cause I know there were a lot of sad Giants fans last night. We all had a good time cause there was tailgating before the game with lots of beer. The highlight of my night was getting to eat those yummy garlic fries and then after the game, racing my friends down the kiddy slide behind the left field wall. Nothing really excited, but it was probably one of the better Tuesday nights I have had in a while (read: since I started working).

The Brothers Grimm

Well, in the next couple of months, I only have two movies that I have put H$ money into. (For those of you new to my site, this is all on the fictional Hollywood Stock Exchange). This weekend I have some money in The Brothers Grimm. It looks to be an okay movie, and I'm hoping people will be up for this magical-thriller-type movie. It's funny cause from the poster, I can't help but think this is Good Will Hunting 2, but then I realize that the actor with Matt Damon is not Bennifer, but Heath Ledger.


Of particular interest to me is the role of the actress Monica Bellucci. Back in 1999 I saw a [not particularly good] picture of her in a British Maxim magazine with a blurb describing her as one of the most beautiful women in Europe. From the picture the magazine provided, I chose to disagree until I saw her press shots for Matrix Reloaded. From that point on I could not get enough of her. Well, that should be all of my HSX action for this week. I will try to remember to write of the outcome Sunday morning.

Videogaming equipment

Target has been having a sale for "back-to-school" season, my roommate and I picked up some new furniture for the apartment. He and I each got a video rocker chair. One of my friends from work has one and it's a really nice piece of living room furniture. I highly recommend it.

Lot's of Laughs

Ha Ha, check this out:
AT&T Text to Speech

Type anything and it'll say it. Got it to call my roommate a dumbass (thank you, That 70's Show).

40-Year-Old Virgin

Well, I don't have anything going on HSX this weekend, but my roommate is expecting a big jump due to the 40-Year-Old Virgin. Everything I've seen for the movie looks funny, and Steve Carell was pretty funny on Bruce Almighty and The Office, but like I said before the summer season is over and movies just won't make as money as a couple months ago. I didn't get into the movie's stock because I'm being cautious, but I'll watch how the movie does just to see if my roommate has a good week or not.

Slow Season

Well, the summer movie season is officially over, or at least it is in my eyes. From May till the end of July, my HSX account grew from H$4 million to H$12 million. Now that schools are starting again, I don't expect my account to grow past H$14 million before the Christmas movie season.

On that note, I am still excited about Fall because that means it's time for NCAA football and the return of my National Champion USC Trojans. After the way last season ended, and with the return of many starters, I should be brimming with confidence for an unprecedented 3rd consecutive championship. However, I will continue to keep a cautious attitude because we lost many strong members of our defense and a lot of the coaching staff. I continue to stay optimistic, but I just won't go bragging to everyone that my team is going to win it all until after the season is over. I am crossing my fingers.... Now.

Back to the daily grind

Well, second day back at work, and I'm already waiting for my next vacation. I can't even cook anything at home yet cause my fridge is still empty. On top of that I need to do laundry pretty soon. This may see obvious, but coming back from a vacation is a lot of work. I'm going to be more exhausted in the next couple of days than before I started my trip to Hawaii.

To all my readers out there (anyone? hello?), what is the worst chore/activity you have to do when coming back from a vacation?

Hi Ho, Hi Ho...

First day back at work. Luckily I'm working the late shift because I am still jet lagged. I could not fall asleep to save my life last night. Got to get back into my routine: defrosting food, going to work, working out, cooking, and sleeping. At least I don't have to worry about classes yet.

Going, Going, Back, Back to Cali, Cali

Well, today is the last day of my vacation. I definitely wish I could stay longer, but then I probably wouldn't be able to pay my bills. I know I have not been keeping up with my journal, but what can you expect, I'm on vacation. Everyday I would wake up and say, "I should write about what happened yesterday," but then I would look at the sunny weather and think, I'll do it after I go to the beach with my cousins. Then after the beach there would always be some huge feast for dinner, and I would go into a food coma and just sleep for the rest of the night. So much for getting back in shape. So here is what has happened since my last entry:

1) water balloon slingshot was a success, although I only made one
2) ate some shaved ice
3) Took my niece and cousins surfing -- good times
4) ate some more shaved ice
5) celebrated my uncle's 60th birthday
6) celebrated my Dad's retirement
7) bought a skimboard and went skimboarding with my cousins
8) more shaved ice
9) saw my sister graduate and get her MBA from UH

Pictures are coming I promise.

Bombs Away

Welcome back to my journal. My cousins and I have been getting along well and this is turning out to be one of the more fun family reunions that I can remember. The only thing is we are getting along by playing video games and I know my mom and the other aunties aren't necessarily happy about that. So to get us doing something that doesn't involve a TV, I've decided that we should have a water balloon fight. We are even trying to build a slingshot for the water balloons. I'll hopefully complete a pair of then and put a picture up soon.

More Family Stuff

Well, another day with the family. Last night the cousins had a Mario Party. Pretty fun for family get-together standards. Today we went to a water park in Hawaii pretty fun too. I'm going to meet up with some high school buddies tonight, and sometime later this week I think everyone wants to head up to the North Shore. Looks like more Matsumoto's Shaved Ice. I can't wait.

I weird note, I have a 14 year-old niece, and she's obviously going through her adolescent period of emotional volatility and angst. I know I'm her uncle and I'm family so I'm automatically not cool, but she's using all this sarcasm and attitude to keep me distant from her, and now it's starting to get to me. I really just do not want to talk to her anymore. I don't know whether I should say something to her or just let what little relationship I have with her just whither away into nothingness. I only see her once every couple of years, and to have her just throw away any change of being close to her family just seems like such a waste. No one needed to buy her plane ticket; if she wanted to ignore us she would have had an easier time doing it in St. Louis, and then she wouldn't be bringing me down. What should I do?