Category: Life

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Life

Fazoli’s

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fazoli's pic

Fazoli’s is fast Italian food restaurant chain. I used to work at a company where there is a nearby Fazoli’s. It’s became my preferred lunch place, after I went there a few times with co-worker (and order Chicken Caesar Sandwich only, because in the beginning I don’t eat pastas, being from China I eat noodles instead).

Today I went there again for lunch, and was very surprised and happy to see a familiar face: a Thai lady who used to work there and I got to know over the years.

Life becomes more interesting and rewarding, when we meet old friends unexpected 🙂

BTW, Fazoli’s menu and utensil got a face lift too, they got rid of the cheap plastic utensils, use the real plate and forks instead. The only thing missing, is I no longer see the old article (1990s) introducing the Fazoli’s as “Italian Food, Fast” concept, maybe they lost it during renovation.

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Career Life

Felt blessed: looking back at 2010

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It’s Christmas eve 2010. Baby already fell asleep. Wife is tweaking her new Toshiba R705 laptop, and I was reading some Navigation controller stuff while watching TV (PBS Christmas program, KMOV news).

This year is obviously one of the most significant years in my 13 years stay in this country. In early March, we got a baby girl. Before that I changed job after 15 months stint at a decent size software company. Things did not work out as good as I thought in Oct/Nov 2008 (the middle of financial crisis). The good thing is, after some hard work and luck, I got a new job at local software company, and got to do what like to do.

In July I signed up the Apple iOS developer program, paid the $99 annual fee and became more seriously on iOS app development. I have thought about it and bought Macbook and iPhone 3G back in Jan 2009, but between my old job, our expectation of baby, and my shear inaction, I did not get to finish the Beginning iPhone Development book in 2009. I started fresh again in 2010 (got the new iPhone 3 dev book, for one). Since the birth of baby, I felt more and more the importance of spending time with family. I think iOS app dev gave me a decent shot at this desire. In middle Oct. I went to the city of brotherly love Philadelphia (again, I went there in May with my in-laws), for the Voice that Matter iPhone dev conference. I think I learned quite a few things there, besides technology, there is design and the business of going indie, which both are important to me (being from developer background).

Looking forward, baby is growing much faster than I thought, especially since she started to crawl and stand. She likes my gadgets (iPhone, iPad, and macbook), much more than her own vtech laptop. I hope I can spend more time with her before she grows up.

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Fun Life

World cup 2010 thoughts

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The soccer World Cup 2010 is already well in the process. This is also the first time An african country hosting the cup, interesting and exciting for the continent and the host South Africa. I noticed soccer’s popularity grew in the US over the years, from the 1998 word cup to this year. ESPN/ABC broadcast most games alive, and the new media, from NPR to newspapers, showed interest too. For me personally, I also have some observations:

Maradona (Lu Gu Sun, bu xu lian xiang)
I know, I know, he is a controversial figure. But I still remember he is the best player in 1986 (when I was in middle school), basically my impression is the only way to stop him, is to put him down. Despite so many up and downs after 1986, I am glad to see him back. That being said, I found this Maradona comment from Lu Gu Sun (one of the best English professors in China) and another comment form Wang Xiao Feng to be interesting.

(source: The Sydney Morning Herald)

Other old timers
Less known than Maradona, I saw both Jurgen Klinsmann (the German guy, wiki) and Rudd Gullit (wiki, one of three Holland guys in 1980s to 1990s) on ESPN as commentator. I did not recognized Gullit initially because he has short hair nowadays 🙂

China presence
Did you see the China Yingli Solar (Chinese and English interchangeably) Ads bulletin at the stadium? According to marketplace, Yingli paid pretty money ($100 m) on this one, hope they can get their money worth. One thing I noticed, they could learn from and Budweiser/Harbin beer (English with Chinese ), so that people (assume they know English) could understand the company name better.

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gadgets Life

The missing iPhone

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By now all the people who are into gadgets should have heard about this iPhone Gizmodo gate: this is apple’s next iPhone .

I don’t know about the fate of this Apple engineer, as Gizmodo did not say a word about him/her (Why Apple Couldn’t Get the Lost iPhone Back). I hope he/she won’t get fired for this (assume this whole thing is not an Apple stunt). Because a while ago, if we recall, a young Chinese engineer died from iPhone leak(HuffingtonPost: Sun Danyong, Chinese Engineer, Kills Himself After Losing ‘4G’ iPhone Prototype).

After all, life is much more important than stupid iPhone, if we can put things in perspective.

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Life

We got a baby girl

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She was born in St. John’s Mercy Medical center St. Louis, labor room 5, at 6:55 AM CST, on May 5 2010 (Friday). She weighs 7 pounds (3.15 kg). Mom and baby were both doing fine. Obviously our lives changed forever since her arrival. For me personally, I need to worry about two people instead of one; and vice versa. The first 2 days at hospital after baby born is a bit overwhelming. Things calmed down quite a bit after the initial panic. And I think we both become more confident about taking care of baby as time goes: diaper change, swaddle, and feed the baby (for my wife).

Babies are fun
They are a million times fun than iPhone, or at least a thousand times fun than computer programming. Maybe my wife will disagree with me on this one. Nowadays because I work in office (instead of home), I see my baby only in early morning and evening, so I tried to spend some quality time with her (like changing diaper and burp). It seems to me our baby has some change everyday. The first 24 hours is obviously very sleepy. After that she is more active, besides the cries every baby does, I can see her smile a little from yesterday.

Some trivia stuff
A year ago this time (March 5, 6 and 9) is the 10 year low of US stock market (Dow Jones stock index).

I found some iPhone apps for baby: like this one “baby brain” and “total baby” (available at iTune app store), both tracks baby diaper change and feeding, among other things. I thought about this when my wife started write those information on a notebook (although she has iPhone).

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Life

Happy Chinese New Year & start new job next week

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First want to say “Happy Chinese New Year” to my readers. Chinese (lunar) New Year, the year of tiger, starts on Feb 14, 2010.

Gong Xi Fa Cai

Today is my last working day with my current employer. I switched to my current job about 15.5 months ago, in the middle of financial crisis (what an co-incident). I recall in last Chinese New Year’s day I was on road for business (the downside of consultant job). Obviously there is upside of working as consultant too (see different people and places; working from home, again Pros and Cons there).

I will start my new job on Monday Feb 15. Another co-incidence is my next employer and my first employer starts with same syllabus.

BTW, an excellent YouTube video on “how to quit with class” (saw it from Workopolis first).

Continue reading “Happy Chinese New Year & start new job next week”
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Life Technology

Does multitasking work (I)?

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One big complaints on the new iPad is its lack of multitasking support. From technical perspective, I think that’s because iPad will be use iPhone OS, currently at 3.2 beta, and it does not support multitasking. It does support iPod (listening to music) and another task such as browsing web though. Some developers speculate Apple will support multitask in its iPhone OS 4.0.

Oh well, my point here is not just about iPhone/iPad multitasking. My point is trying to discuss whether multitasking, work both for us human beings and for the computers (ultimately controlled by us and supposed to help us work more efficiently). To be honest I don’t have the answer. But I read one interesting article when I google “multitasking makes you stupid”. I did not intensionally typed in those words, it just stands out when I typed “multitasking” in my browser google toolbar (another one is multitasking myth). Anyway, here are an interesting article from the Atlantic (2007)

The Autumn of the Multitaskers
and here an review article on the Atlantic article.
Multitasking Makes You Slow and Stupid…(I would read this one after the Long Atlantic article).

Continue reading “Does multitasking work (I)?”
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Life Saint Louis

Some thoughts after seeing movie “Up in the Air”

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(Update 04Feb10) Watched the “Outsourced” movie from Netflix on Feb 02 night, quite interesting. It has a similar theme with “Up in the Air”.

(Original) Went to see movie “Up in the Air”. That’s the first time my wife and I went to see a movie. We figured time is running out for us to go cinema in the near future as we expect our new baby this March.

Couple thoughts after seeing the movie:

Continue reading “Some thoughts after seeing movie “Up in the Air””
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Life

Happy holidays and remember exercise

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It’s that time of the year again, this year it put another perspective after such a crazy year in terms of financial and job markets. The other day I met my former boss at the mall, and was surprised to learn one of my co-worker passed away this year. I was aware of my co-worker health problem, but I could not believe his passing because he is about my age (I am not disclosing my exact age here but I think I am still fairly young).

Holiday tech gadgets gift ideas
Saw David Pogue (NY Times) holiday tech gadgets ideas from CBS Sunday Morning show. One thing caught my attention, the Philips DirectLife, basically it’s a wearable gadget one can wear on neck, or slip on belt, to track his/her daily physical activities, and can analyze whether he/she get enough walking in office (or gym). I think it’s a great idea. Here is a review, quote:

The system is available from the DirectLife online store now, and will run you $79 (until October 30th) and includes a 4-month membership. After the initial 4 months, membership will run you $12.50 a month. This product is available in the US and the Netherlands only at this time.

Continue reading “Happy holidays and remember exercise”
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Life

What you want your daughter to be?

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If you read my blog long enough, you may know I am not a big fan of Jim Rogers, the famous US investor who recently moved to Singapore: to help his daugher learn Chinese (Mandarin better) among other things.

Here is Jim’s take on life and his current job (link: Yahoo tech-ticker), which kind of hit my tone. I mean, some day, I want to semi-retire, spend more time with family and do things I always dream to do.