Livescribe SmartPen

A pen that records audio and what you write and can upload them onto your computer. Where is this product when I was going to school? :( Granted, as a poor student, no way could I afford a $200 pen along with their proprietary notebooks.

Livescribe Pulse Smartpen

Cute Lyrics - All I Want is You

All I Want is You - by Barry Louis Polisar

If I was a flower growing wild and free
All I'd want is you to be my sweet honey bee.
And if I was a tree growing tall and greeen
All I'd want is you to shade me and be my leaves

If I was a flower growing wild and free
All I'd want is you to be my sweet honey bee.
And if I was a tree growing tall and greeen
All I'd want is you to shade me and be my leaves

All I want is you, will you be my bride
Take me by the hand and stand by my side
All I want is you, will you stay with me?
Hold me in your arms and sway me like the sea.

If you were a river in the mountains tall,
The rumble of your water would be my call.
If you were the winter, I know I'd be the snow
Just as long as you were with me, when the cold winds blow.

All I want is you, will you be my bride
Take me by the hand and stand by my side
All I want is you, will you stay with me?
Hold me in your arms and sway me like the sea.

If you were a wink, I'd be a nod
If you were a seed, well I'd be a pod.
If you were the floor, I'd wanna be the rug
And if you were a kiss, I know I'd be a hug

All I want is you, will you be my bride
Take me by the hand and stand by my side
All I want is you, will you stay with me?
Hold me in your arms and sway me like the sea.

If you were the wood, I'd be the fire.
If you were the love, I'd be the desire.
If you were a castle, I'd be your moat,
And if you were an ocean, I'd learn to float.

All I want is you, will you be my bride
Take me by the hand and stand by my side
All I want is you, will you stay with me?
Hold me in your arms and sway me like the sea.

Thanks to STlyrics.com

Check out the little video too!

Amazon Profiling

I remember many many years ago (when Amazon was first established), I was genuinely amazed by their profiling (recommendation) system. They don't just recommend the stuff that I had browsed (that'd be a no brainer), but things along the similar line. Today, after my latest purchase of two DVD sets, my recommendation included a 2008 Sports Illustrated Swim Suit issue??? Have I been profiled as a MALE??! I'm so offended! :P

Recession v Depression

A saying for my non American friend (yes, friend, singular, can't think of any one else who'd voluntarily read my chit :). The saying goes like this:

When your neighbor got laid off, it's recession; when you are laid off, it's depression.

:)

A Year in Review

Instead of blogging about the depressing stock market, economy, auto and retail industries etc. etc., how about something mood lifting, like the first female inducted into professional Japanese baseball league -- Eri Yoshida, a 16-year-old Japanese girl who, known for her knuckleball, pitched to eight batters in her November 2008 tryouts without giving up one hit.

Read more

I guess that's not technically an entire year in review, well, it's certainly a landmark of sort. :)

The Little Joys in Life

I think I'm an easy to please person. Inexpensive little things make me happy -- a lighted fire place, a tub bath, Christmas tree. To me a great weekend is one that I can stay in and just watch lots of movies with my husband. (Yes, doesn't count without him.) But lately it seems these little joys are getting harder and harder to achieve.

Let's start with bubble bath. We spent a lot of time to find an apartment with a great tub, now California (as usual, I guess) is having water shortage issue, I feel guilty to enjoy such a luxury. A fire place -- air quality day. There are days in California that it's actually illegal to lit a wood burning fireplace!! That is not too much of a big deal, I really prefer an electric one better anyway, just suits my lifestyle more... oh, but then the extra electricity usage will contribute to destroying the environment and facilitate global warming... same can really be said about a Christmas tree... or our big screen TV.

Of course, all these whining just seems so petty given the fact that I still have my health, a great husband, a JOB, and a decent living place, albeit a rental. One should be grateful for what he/she has...

Ringing in the New Year

If you have not yet seen the new year video produced by jibjab plastered all over Yahoo.com, MSN.com, CNN.com, etc., here is the link

New Year Jib Jab Video

All things aside, 2009 is looking to be a grim year -- the housing melt down, the financial meltdown (or as they are referred to in Asia, the financial Tsunami), massive lay offs. My last day at work (before the new year), I heard rumors that there will be more lay offs come the new year. This honestly is the first time I work in a field where lay offs are real, for me and those around me. I don't think I will be among the next batch or two to go, but by the third and fourth, anything can happen.

I don't understand why companies lay off people in batches. It's bad for morale, granted, lay offs in and of itself are bad for morale, but doing it in batches are worse. It should be like peeling off a bandage -- just rip it off, you either stay or go. Nothing is worse if not knowing if you will be next. Or in my case, just knowing that people that I know will be lay off is depressing. But as the American saying goes: "When you neighbor gets laid off, it's recession; when you are laid off, it's depression." So far I am still in recession.

Shopping Center Scenary in the Downturned Economy

I went shopping at an outlet mall a couple of weeks ago. For my non US friends who have no idea what an "outlet mall" is, just think a very big discount shopping place. It was a sad sight. It wasn't a weekend, but it was noticeably empty. This place used to be crowded. There are barely any people in the stores, even the store clerk seemed lethargic. Finally spotted a store with more than 10 people inside, it was Shoe Pavilions. I went inside forgetting that they are going out of business. The scene was scary -- boxes, shoes strewed all over the floor. The place looked like it's been robbed, in a certain sense, it probably had. People there were still picking at what's lying on the ground trying to find the last bargains. Good luck finding two shoes of the same style, same size in the same box. Looking at the little kiosks in the middle with vendors selling useless stuff that people will normally shell out a few dollars to buy in the good days were just sad....

Every store and everything was at least 30% off... but the overall atmosphere was still sad... Wonder when we are going to come out of this...

Kudos for the Yes on 8 Props

I refer to the Californians Against Hate website where it lists the top donors to the Yes on 8 proposition. Unemployment rate is at 16 years high, a million hard working Americans are looking for work, holiday season right around the corner, charities are out soliciting for donations..... Lovely peeps are donating $ to stop OTHERS from getting married. Seriously? How about some donations to the women shelter? I'm sure they can use $100K or so. I guess it's still money well spent trying to prop up the US economy.

Kudos to the donors.

What the No on 8 People Did Wrong

So what did the No on 8 people go wrong? They didn't use kids in their commercials. Haven't they learned anything yet? You don't fight fair. Making logical advertisements only caters to those who are going to vote No on Prop 8 anyway. If you are truly trying to sway people from the other side over, you must use communications that they understand -- kids.

Is it me or people just go nuts whenever it's perceived that children are involved? Crimes that that involved kids are "heinous." All crimes are heinous, whether it happens to kids, women, men, elderly! Look at the commercials that the Yes on 8 peeps did!! A little girl saying "Mommy, I want to marry a princess too when I grow up." Isn't that a bit extreme?

So "we" (No on 8 peeps) should have ads with children too. I am thinking a VERY adorable kid with big eyes, "Daddy, please don't teach me to grow up to be a hateful and angry person." Or how about kids adopted by same sex parents, "With Daddies/Mommies, I will not be here." Or preferrably both. They should come and consult my advice next time we vote on this issue.

Stupidity

I've came to realize that people are, notoriously, stupid. Yet the (low) level of their intelligent continues to surprise me. Gun sales increased after election of Democratic President? Seriously? With the sagging economy, housing/financial crisis, and a war that we've been fighting for 8 years for God knows what reason, people really think the first thing on Obama's plate is to ban gun sales?

I am starting to wonder those mutants living in the sewer systems as portrayed in US comics indeed exists... and they can vote too!

Talent

Skill is something one earn through time and hard work; talent, on the other hand, is something that one was born with. A skill instilled by God, figuratively speaking. My talent? Computer killer.

Allow me to explain, many eons and a few blogs ago (yes, I start new and unfinished blogs like there is no tomorrow), I blogged about my series of computer mishap -- spilling water on the company laptop thus conveniently destroying it (have I mentioned that the laptop was only 1 week new?); accidentally put very malicious virus onto my personal laptop; went to use Hubby's laptop while he's trying to fix mine and brought up a blue screen of death. Three on three!

That was a while ago... and my latest streak: moved colleague's laptop from table onto podium in preparation for a conference and immediate soldering smell followed; after said conference returned to my own desk and discovered blue gooey gel on the tip of my CAT 5 cable, turned out that when I unplugged it from my laptop the night before, I accidentally dropped the tip into my cup of water and it sat there over night, at least I didn't destroy another company laptop :); day after I spilled water onto my (thank god external) keyboard and ruined a $70 keyboard.... Again, must look on the bright side, that could have been the work laptop again. :D Where will my talent stop?

Gainfully Employed

So one day I suddenly got a hunch that I was going to get let go, so I decided to clean my cabinet of all my personal junk that's been sitting in there for the last two years. Well, fortunately or unfortunately, my hunch did not come true. Work has, actually, been quite busy lately, so when my friend said I am "gainfully employed," I assumed "gainfully" means constructively/productively. A few days after said conversation, I've decided to look up "gainfully" on Dictionary.com (you should try it some day, it's an excellent resource!). It turned out that "gainfully" means "lucrative." :O Me? Lucratively employed? So I went back to my friend and said to her, "employed... yes; gainfully though... I'm not so sure." To which she replied, "in this economy, being employed is gainfully employed." How true and how sad....

Hope v Desperation

Once again, my goal to have a blog that I will update regularly was short lived. Here's another shot...

***

My husband believes that lottery is for the mathematically challenged (but sometimes he'll still buy them for me because he is a sweetheart :D). I, on the other hand, believe that one is buying a hope. I'm sure everyone has heard the joke by now about a guy asking God why can't he win the lottery and God said, "you've at least got to BUY the ticket for me to help you." Well... you get the idea.

So where does the desperation part comes in? Desperation is when you looked up the odds of 1/4,500,000 (yes, that's one if 4.5 million) to win the California lottery. Desperation is to calculate out that at the rate of 2 tickets per drawing, it is going to take one 400 years to buy 4,500,000 lottery tickets. Desperation is to calculate out that to buy 4,500,000 tickets within 10 years one will have to buy about 40,000 tickets each drawing... And for those of you who understands the basic concept of statistics -- just because the odds is 1/4,500,000 does NOT mean that buying 4,500,000 tickets will ensure 1 win. Just look at the number of kids a couple that wanted a kid of a specific gender need to have before they have the child of the "right" gender.

(A highschool friend of mine has 6 sisters before her parents finally have the son. The odds of having 7 girls in a row is 1/128 or 0.0078125...)

Desperation....

My Single Child Syndrome

My single child syndrome has been pointed out to me by my beloved coworkers from my previous employment. "Single child syndrome" is a very interesting term and so very true. Funny thing is I noticed that I act the same way when it comes to a video game or a real life situation.

So once upon a time I played this game called "Yohoho Puzzle Pirate." First you join a crew and be a grunt. After a few weeks, I no longer want to be a grunt so I threw money at the problem -- bought game currency with my credit card and started my own crew and flag... and be my own captain.

For the longest time I have wanted to play in coed softball in a company. I was just about to give up on that when I started working with my current company. I could not believe that this particular dream can still be fulfilled at my age. Then I had some unpleasant incidents during the season, so I started my own team. After I started my own work team, I found out that that wasn't the best idea either because now you will have to accommodate every one at work. So next year I am going to start my own team, outside of work.

See, totally the same MO -- (1) start my own and (2) throw $ at the problem. Hurray to single child syndrome, capitalism, and $ to throw at problems. :D