Sunday, November 26, 2006

LV Long Wkend

So leaving at 1am on Thursday morning, I started driving from Palo Alto to LV. Leaving SJ at 3am, I was literally driving into the sunrise... (since we were travelling east!). 10 hours later (at 11am), we arrive at Caesar's Palace, Las Vegas.

So this trip was fun and all, but 3 days in Las Vegas actually seemed too much. Sure I gambled here and there, and went to old LV and walked around the strip, but I just wasn't too in awe of the place compared with say, yosemite.

The food though, was awesome. The Spice Market at Aladdin had AYCE raw oysters!!! This made my day. Combined with cotton candy as desert and crab legs that required minimal effort to eat (they split the leg down the middle, so the meat was exposed), it was easily one of the best buffets I've ever had.

Of course, the drinks there were insanely cheap :)... since if you gamble at the tables (or even just stand around it), you get served alcohol. haha.

Goal #2 of winning my plane ticket back didn't work out though. I was half way there after the first day, but then in the next two days, things didn't go my way. I had a chance to be down $5 for the entire trip... but I risked it all, and lost!... So LV had the upperhand in the gambling category.

Oh, and the casinos are all very smoky. My hair and all my clothes smelled like cigarettes every night. I took so many short showers (at least 2 a day) to get rid of that smell... ppeewwww!

The drive back was insanely long. I don't think we took pictures, but imagine nighttime, and a winding road up a hill, and all you see are curved lines of white and red. I don't think I've ever seen that many cars lined up on both sides of the highway... turns out the reason for the delay wasn't an accident, but a stupid traffic light 140 miles from this sea of white and red.

So it took use 13 hours (3pm to 4am) to get home (the trip there was only 8 hrs)... needless to say, it was a very tiring drive. I don't know what is worse actually, sleeping awkwardly in a car, or coasting down the highway and playing daytona :)... Personally, I prefer the daytona experience.. haha..

Friday, November 17, 2006

Candle in the Wind

So this past week I've been pretty busy after work, attending to the moutain of work that I was suppose to do throughout the term.

Actually, this week was sort of the beginning of my series of 'tests' to test out how much my body can tolerate nowadays before breaking... I am attempting to move back to (well, actually 'move to') the 6 hour a day sleep schedule as oppose to the 10+ hour a day schedule that evolved over time... Of course this is in anticipation of my 'congruency pursuit'...

Good thing is, I sort of shaved down the mountain... bad thing is its seems I might be getting sick from this drastic change in my regime (its either that or I ate the steak too fast and cut my throat)... but rather than see this first test as defeat, I see this as an indication that I need to treat my body better in the upcoming months.

Of course, I also realize all the actions I am doing now might be for nothing... but dreaming is something I am very good at, so I will continue doing that!

On the other hand, making dreams a reality, well, that I am working on :)

idealistic mson out.

Saturday, November 11, 2006

Updated Pics...

Added a link to my pics on the right sidebar ---->
Check it out!

Stranded for Xmas?

So today I was catching up on my admin work... and I realized something when I crashed the Air Canada website trying to place a seat reservation...

My round trip air ticket return flight is booked for SAT, SEPT 23rd, 2006... as oppose to SAT, DEC 23rd, 2006... (yes.. oh sh*t indeed)

I just noticed this today, why the fuk are both the 23rd of these two months on a saturday???... frik!

so basically, this means I am screwed... Can't help but feel realllllly stupid right now... how could I miss this detail???... fuk!

dejavu just now... but just this past week, I started reading horroscopes again... So happened it was talking about how I will have to be spending money for no reason and for minimal returns... At first I had no clue what it meant.... but now I see clearly what it was getting at... ... all too clearly.

Friday, November 10, 2006

Another Invention?

So a few months has gone by, and my hair is soon approaching anime character length. Living in a house with all guys, it is hard to find a hairband. With that, another lightbulb goes off... ... inspired by the San Diego crew's CAT5 aka blue cable rope...

Invention #2: Hair Band of the 21st century

Description: The weight of the ear buds is just heavy enough to provide the pulling effect required to pull my hair back! Note how when the hair band is in the 'on' position, it is completely transparent and not detectable.

Cost: $0 (the earphones are courtesy of Air Canada... haha)


Sunday, November 05, 2006

LA Weekend Part III: Marissa Land!!!

**note: this entry will be updated w/ more pics later**

So today was the highly anticipated day... the day we hit up O.C!!!

So needless to say, I dragged everyone to the places where the O.C. was shot at and took pics. For the O.C. fans who read my blog, see if you recognize this one.



After eating at THE diner (yes, where O.C. films in), we went to Huntington beach to surf... the waves were humongous!!!... wiped out countless times... some of the waves were twice as tall as me!!!

Around 4:30ish.. we started to head back from Huntington... 5.5 hours drive + 1 hour dinner to get back to san jose... this includes the one hour traffic jam going from the beaches to the outskirts of LA... just imagine how short the trip might actually be if we drove at 12am in the morning... ahhh. .the possibilities!

Saturday, November 04, 2006

LA Weekend Part II - Hollywood


So we went to the walk of stars today in Hollywood, and watched the Clippers game. Pictures are worth a thousand words... so check the new updated pics!

LA Weekend - Part 1.5: Hyatt

Friday, November 03, 2006

LA Weekend Part I: Operation V220 Revival Saves the Day

So after Operation V220 Revival, it was time for the main event of the wkend... Los Angeles and Marissa Land!!!

So a couple events at happened on Fri night:
1) Highway 101
So I was driving down the 101, and passing a few people here and there, going 'slightly' above speed limit, etc... after 10 minutes or so, after passing yet another car, I start getting highbeamed. So thinking I p!ssed the driver off -- and not wanting to get shot -- I move back in one lane and let the car pass me by... problem solved right?... WRONG!
Because once I moved in, more cars started to flash their high beams at me...
At this point, I realize that I couldn't have p!ssed off that many people... so as I continue driving, a car who passed me by points to my car and waves his hands etc... At this point, I decide to pull over and make sure nothing was wrong with the car (ie. not leaking gas, trunk wasn't popped open.. etc.)
So we pull over and walk around the car, nothing seemed to be wrong at all... then as BJ and Odog step back in, they ask me... are the lights on?...
And with that... we were on our way.. haha!

I thought it was weird that I only twisted the light knob to the first position... but then again, this car didn't have a steering wheel height adjuster on it.. yet it had a MP3 CD player on board... so I thought meh, maybe it's another weird thing for this car...

I blame my headlight not on incident to the car... wasn't my fault I tell you.. wasn't my fault! :)

2) Reason behind Operation V220 Revival
So the main reason behind the Operation V220 Revival was for the LA trip. We were meeting City Boy in LA, who was living it up at a high class hotel... but since LA is a big city, it would be hard to find him...
Now I had established the fact that the V220 can't make calls in the last post, but lo and behold... text message works!... So with this in mind, I wrote a text msged and it was received by City Boy... phewf...
turned out he was at a club when we texted him, lucky the V220 came through... or we'd be sleeping on the streets this night!

Operation V220 Revival!

So for those who do not know... my cell phone battery had been going through some rough times since august. A month or so ago, the battery was officially dead... rendering my V220 powerless... (and useless).

So it was Fri afternoon at the creative powerhouse Xerox PARC when a lightbulb went off.

Idea: lithium ion battery = 3.6V. So what if I wired 3 AA batteries together, would I be able to power the V220 that way?...

... So off I went to grab some wires, some tape, some scissors and off I went.







Results:
As you can see by the pictures, the cell phone turned on! :)... 4 years, $6K a term, that's what EEs do!.. haha...

The only drawback is that the phone cannot make or receive calls. My hypothesis is that the wireless component draws too much power.

So for now, the phone can turn on, and when someone calls, rings and then go 'warning, battery low'...If i accept the call, phone dies.