Outstanding

Today Angel and I toured bits of Asian L.A. We got Vietnamese sandwiches at Lee's in Fullerton, then we went to Rowland Heights and I caught up on Hollywood gossip while she got a (very cute) haircut. Then we got cheap boba (I got watermelon strawberry), went to a Korean market (for about a minute), a Chinese market, another Chinese market, and then met her summer internship friends at Life Plaza a couple blocks down and shared some yummy Kung Pao Chicken. (I think that's what we got...) Then I scored some sweet Japanese stationery and stickers. When we got back to MV Angel got to put an ornament on our tree (she chose the crazy huge "deer in gazebo" thing that we've had forever though I have no clue where it came from; I chose a bunny wearing an alligator suit).

The highlight of the entire evening, though, was when we were in Chinese market #2, and a mentally challenged guy about my age standing in the aisle next to me told me that he thought I was "outstanding." I think it was probably because I was the only non-asian looking person in the whole store.

Now, of course, I feel like sleeping, not editing video. Le sigh. and I do NOT want to go to work tomorrow.

I am so tired

Today we went to LA to move kina out. Then we went and got our tree from the boyscout lot. I have pictures on flickr though of course in true flickr form they're in backwards order. Oh well.

almost healed!

My mom decorated the living room with her collection of nutcrackers and my dad flicked on the gas fireplace (grr but at least it still smells like fire) and we lit the candles and it's very nice, but I can't be there because I have to edit this video for them.

Tomorrow Angel and I are going to LA to eat Vietnamese sandwiches and cheap boba, peruse asian markets, and get her hair cut. w00t w00t.

I am so tired of being so tired. I need to sleep for 24 hours straight to make up for it or something. Though that'd probably just make me feel dead.

Too tired to type any more "a href"s or go into rich text mode so I'm gonna paste in some URLs:

http://www.pbwiki.com/
Cool free wiki but haven't tried it. Like the logo though.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/tv--radio/off-the-planet/2005/12/10/1134086846734.html
I would be one happy camper if they brought Futurama back.
http://www.devilducky.com/media/39303/
This made me laugh.
http://www.aspanovasbizkaia.org/spotafanoc.htm
This made me CRY.

pwnage

Oh, so hey mr. "I saw side-by-side 30 inchers"--

Today I took a tour of Calit2 at UCI and saw stuff like electron microscopes made by Carl Zeiss worth 2.5 million dollars and labs where they can synthesize DNA. And then...

We walked into a room and the first thing that caught my eye was two ceiling-high stacks of black boxes with white apple logos. Then I looked to my left and noticed a wall-sized grid of monitors, silver, with--little apple logos on the bottom! 10 wide, 5 high--FIFTY 30" MONITORS MADE INTO ONE GIANT WALL. Then I peeked behind the screen and saw 25 2.5GHz DP G5s. I almost squeezed my aunt's shoulder off, but if I hadn't done that I might have audibly squeaked. I think I did, actually. Now that they've made it and used it for things, Apple actually wants to get involved and help them figure out how to get rid of or minimize the frames so that the image is less interrupted.

And while that may be extreme and unfair to hold over you, I did see a desktop 3-30 incher setup on a nearby desk, so that's fair enough to compete with the dual screens. I don't know how they supported that, though, since natively they only support 2. I thought.

The lady there at Calit2 told me about a new graduate study program at UCI called ACE--MS in Arts Computation and Engineering--and looks like an interesting concept. Too bad it involves lots of CS and engineering...things that hurt my brain. Touring that facility made me wish I was a scientist, though...makes me want to force myself to do something like that just to get access to the cool labs.

They're also building the third part of their trio of huge, new, and pretty CS facilities financed by the Mr. Bren who build the arena that I saw Green Day perform at in high school and used to have Kempo tournaments at. Apparently it's not too shabby, I dunno.

The focus group? Let's just say....learning experience.

as if I didn't already have enough reasons to visit nyc

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/16/arts/design/16pixa.htm

"The Museum of Modern Art has mounted the largest, most object-oriented exhibition in its history devoted to film: a show about the runaway phenomenon of digital animation. Well, some digital animation. O.K., the digital animation of one hugely successful, pioneering company, the Pixar Animation Studios. Since its founding in 1986 by John Lasseter, who remains its creative chief, Pixar has brought forth such visually memorable if fluffy concoctions as "Toy Story" and its sequel, "Finding Nemo," "A Bug's Life," "The Incredibles" and "Monsters, Inc.," perhaps its masterpiece. ..."

New videos on kina's site

I just added two videos from the show last week to the media page of kina's site. As a true big sister, it is my job to proselytize, so I bid you to go see it. (If it's been a while since you looked at it, I've changed things here and there.) However...I don't want to make her bandwidth costs jump too much, so maybe I should be kind and post them on some temporary free hosting for you all to get it from. Haha! See how I'm assuming you want to see them? I promise, I picked these two songs because they're new and not recorded yet and some of my favorites. Pardon the bad audio, the setup wasn't optimal. But I have a new love: H.264 encoding.

(pause)

...meh. Too much work. I'll just deposit a buck or two into her account at some point. Go, look. Enjoy. They're pretty.

Holy Shamoley!

I saw round-trip airfare, LA to Tokyo, for $340 today. Not online, but through a travel agency. Lowest I found online was just over $500. Why this talk of Tokyo? My grandma might be going in the spring to talk about a book deal and I might tag along if my job here is done. Heh, heh. *rubs hands together sinisterly*

Today, while I was waiting for a meeting in the lobby of a senior community, I overheard some hilarious conversation between a trio of "age-qualified" people sitting next to me. (Apparently that's the new PC name for them...well, at least, for the boomers when they start retiring.) I forgot my notes at work so I can't go into detail, but I will give you a little taste:

old man: do you 'find whoopie' or do you 'make whoopie'?
old woman: well, if you're talking about the person, then you'd 'find whoopie', but if you're talking about having a good time, then you'd 'make whoopie'.
old man: so, can you 'have whoopie' or is it 'make whoopie'?
old woman: it's 'make whoopie' unless you're talking about the girl named whoopie.
old man with walker: d--do you mind if I sit here?
older woman: do you make whoopie?
old man with walker: ...o--oh, my whoopie days are short.
older woman: but have you made whoopie?
old man with walker: ...y-yes...
older woman: well, as long as you've had it, that's good.
old man with walker: ...my whoopie days are over, I think.
older woman: I think mine are, too.
old man: "whoopie days, are here again..."
old woman: I think it's "happy days are here again"
old man: ...oh yes, that's right.

Actually, that may have been the best of it. The rest was just a bit of talk about Popeye and someone being proposed to.

Also, Justine Bateman (of Family Ties fame) is going to guest star with her brother Jason (Michael) on Arrested Development on January 9th. Sweet. Fox, you are such sillyheads.

Oooweeoo I look just like buddy holly

Today at my very favorite Japanese Market I saw bootleg copies of Advent Children for 20 bucks, bootlegs of the Steamboy soundtrack for 11, the real Steamboy and Appleseed soundtracks for 20, Howl's Moving Castle for $60 ($90 special edition), the entire Steamboy Box Set for $120 or $180 (I forget which), and a calendar with THE MOST CUTEST PICTURES OF KITTENS I HAVE EVER SEEN, EVER.

EVER.

I could have died.

Tonight Kyle called me up last minute and we ran out to see Pride and Prejudice at Downtown Disney. Aside from the fact that my bottle of water made me have to go to the bathroom with an hour left in the film, I liked it. The romantic-ness Homage to Girls Everywhere (the last scene) would have been more appreciated if Kyle hadn't been cringing during the whole thing and distracting me. : ) It was very sweet, though, and I did like it very much. I just think that Keira skinnybones has a scary toothy smile. I swear I can count about sixty teeth when she pulls that lower lip back, and then she always opens her mouth, and it's a little bit frightening. Kelly Reilly is so pretty. I loved her in L'auberge espagnole. Even though she played a ***** in this movie. I really liked the BBC miniseries with Colin Firth--five hours gives you a little more space to flesh out the dynamics of the relationship between Lizzy and Mr. Darcy, I think. This movie, as all good hollywood films are wont to do, played up the romantic potential right from the start, which kind of takes away from the feel of the book. Also, having an actress renowned for her beauty play Elizabeth kind of takes away from putting so much stress on her amazing personality and intellect being her key to success, while Jane's is her looks. Oh well, though, that's hollywood, and I'm not even a big fan of those Jane Austen-type books anyway. I avoided reading most of them in high school--of Emma, Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, and any others in that vein, I probably only really read one. Though I do want to read Wuthering Heights.

Today I had dim sum for lunch, and emi just brought home a salmon skin hand roll, so now I'm really itching to go eat sushi. Mmmm salmon mmm maguro tako ika uni hamachi hokkigai amaebi mmmmmmmmmmmmm.

I wish me and my friends could all lucid dream so we could meet up and have adventures.

Oh oh and you're mary tyler moore

Phew.

Today was good because everything that went wrong yesterday was resolved today, for the most part. I got less than five hours of sleep, but I got three hours off work to go eat lunch for free in Laguna Beach, so I'm not complaining. (Though I did have a lot to do. :\) No one went back to the office after that save me and one other girl. Oh well. After lunch I: got two companies to loan me demo units for FREE, so now I have: three sample remotes, two keyboards, one trackball, one piece of software, and one set of wireless amplifier headphones. I have got the mad phon3 skillz0rz. Though Sony is poopy and sent me dud remotes. Lame.

------


Angel's coming back tonight! Yay! Not that I have time for socializing. But I just realized that all my still-in-school high school friends will be coming around this break, so I'd better be prepared to be social--or else. Dun dun dun. But I've got focus groups to run! *whimper*

Daddy called it the singing bridge

The show was good. I had to choose between doing my work here or going to see her play, and I chose the latter, since I can live with a few less hours of sleep but I haven't heard her play a long set in a long time. Finally met Chris, too. (Nice meeting you, Chris.) Had an Earl Grey Milkshake, which was HEAVENLY. Saw Colin again and heard his awesome "eclectic funk" band play after Kina. (Lead singer=hip hop vocals + violin, awesome drums, grand piano, congas, electric guitar, probably a bassist but I didn't notice.) Aside from some technical issues with her tuner, she did great, inside-out t-shirt and all. And if she'll let me, and if the footage isn't worthless (I wasn't manning the camera, so I dunno) I want to try to put clips of Memory and maybe Breathe Honesty up, just because it's a sin that neither of those are on either CD.

I'd better make a ton of phone calls tomorrow, and I'd better get more volunteers for my focus group, and I'd better not have my dollar eaten by the popsicle machine again.

Business.

This week is going to be interesting. I actually have a full week of hard work ahead of me. Today I had a 15 minute presentation at a 3 hour meeting (and nerves + freezing cold room = I was trembling the ENTIRE time even though there were only 10 people there and I was sitting down), tomorrow I have a call scheduled with a lady from Dell to talk about past and future joint business practices, then I have a lunch meeting with my boss and the Property Markets Manager of a large chain of senior residential properties, and that night I'm probably going to LA to see Kina play at ground zero, on wednesday I have a status report meeting with my boss, then a meeting with two people from retail and marketing operations to discuss our options with computing, on thursday luckily I just get to take a chunk of time out to go to lunch with my department, and on friday I have a demo meeting. Some time in the next couple of days I need to get the names of ten more seniors, call all sixteen and invite them to the focus group (and get at least ten people confirmed), and I need to call the rest of the complex directors and ask them the questions I'm asking tomorrow, and I need to talk to someone about renting space in the community center tech room and I need to talk to high schools about service partnerships. Some time next week I need to hold the focus group, which will require a ton of work and a report afterwards. Before I can hold the focus group I need to have responses from the questionnaires back and have assembled sample bundles and somehow come up with price points even though our financial person is on maternity leave. Tomorrow I need to deposit some questionnaires and ON NO I have to draft up an invitation to the other focus group to leave at the complex we're going to visit...and I should go to the two nearby senior centers and leave some there, too...aieee!!!

I am so not built for this business of...business. It's all way over my head. Makes me want to go to UCI for two years and get a Neuroscience major. Or something.

The scary thing is, I think the teen market study is going to be more difficult than the senior market. All seniors want to do is email and look at pictures and do searches on health and genealogy, and they want to do it easily, with big visible buttons, even if they're ugly. Teenagers will want everything, and it will be totally impractical, plus it'll all have to look amazingly cool. How on earth will I deal with that. At least I'll have an easier time getting focus groups together. Not that any productive information will come out of them.

Linkage, Pt. 8

• Totally sweet
• Disturbingly gorgeous fractals (especially farther down). I mean, some of these are wall-worthy! I mean, study wall, not living-room wall, maybe, but still. Actually, some of them are probably living-room worthy...depends on the decor, I guess.
• Ingenious site navigation design, with a sense of humor to boot
• I enjoy good photos of nature, if you haven't already guessed
• An actually really useful site for booking space in hostels, for anyone with plans to travel...
• Fun for some, terrifying to others
• I'm really impressed by this handiwork. I think I'll check back on Mrs. Cruise in fifty years to see how accurate it was.
• Creative techniques for stimulating creativity...it all looks like too much work for me.
• Another google cheat sheet, this time for advanced search operators. Excellent.
• I want one

and finally, if all that isn't enough to keep you busily avoiding what you really should be doing, there's always this.

awwwww

the neighbor boys just came a'caroling, complete with horrendous violin and clarinet playing. It was so sweet. :)

(one day I will see christmas decorations and snow on the same house.)

War of the Worlds = they're fertilizing the earth with BLOOD!!!!! eeeeeew!

I love The Wizard of Oz...I love their voices! I love the tin man's eager tone and the makeup on the scarecrow. The cowardly lion always looked so mushy to me, but I liked him anyway. I love the technicolor. Dorothy's voice is so soft around the edges and yet strong and full of emotion. The wizard feels like he's straight out of MST3K: the movie. (It's the Braaack show, starring me! I'm Brack!)

I really like the book This Book Will Change Your Life (and its sequel). But maybe I should work on getting through more of my 101 Things To Do Before You Die first.

Today was one of those days where I meant to do everything but nothing got done. It was nobody's fault...an hour or two of errands became six because we were unlucky, but no matter. I chose non-frustration, and was better off. :) Plus I got five sweet new cigar boxes. Tomorrow, then, I'll go pick up a few Senior Santas.

Whoa.

I just watched Nobody Knows, a very very depressing Japanese movie based on a true story. I probably shouldn't reveal the ending in case you ever see it (don't see it if you're feeling down), but apparently the true story is even more jarring than the movie (see imdb.com if you really want to know). It was devastatingly sad, and reminded me of Grave of the Fireflies in a lot of ways.

Anyway, now it's ridiculously late. I'd best be off to bed. I did make several successful phone calls without hesitation today, after all. I deserve a rest.

This is unfortunate.

"Pavia, Love and NGF"

Jamie says:

"Suppose this was corroborated, and that further such discoveries were made.
Would you revise your ideals of eternal love under scientific duress? Or would
you opt for the William Jennings Bryan route?"

However, I beg to differ. This finding doesn't necessarily disprove my own admittedly unrealistic ideals, because I never claimed that the butterflies could last forever. Things become less fiery, perhaps, and that's fine, but that's different from a complete fizzle. So no, I don't feel the need to revise my pipe dreams just yet. But still, it'd be nice if we could come up with some way of prolonging the Year One effect. (That's not to say that people never surpass that mark, but you've gotta admit that couples celebrating 25 years who are still as lovestruck as they were on day 1 (or 1-365, rather) are few and far between, those lucky something-or-others.)

G'night.