The World of Little Little Bird

没有零钱不想出门守在窗口旁边

我把自己反锁在这个房间里面

你被我忘记了好几天觉得有亏欠

现在就罚我一整天发呆十几遍

好个RAINYDAYRAINYDAY我不反对

IT´SRAINYDAYRAINYDAY有点伤悲也无所谓

我在窗前画个圈圈雨下了好几天

眼看着心情湿一边快乐少了些

我被你宠坏了好几天应该冷静一点

打开收音机听一遍都是烂音乐

好个RAINYDAYRAINYDAY我不反对

IT´SRAINYDAYRAINYDAY有点伤悲也无所谓

好个RAINYDAYRAINYDAY我不讨厌

IT´SRAINYDAYRAINYDAY没有约会

电话就在一边响了半天装做没听见

赌一百块钱一定是你下午想见面

我猜你也等了好几天需要人安慰

想你就好像果汁一杯好喝又不贵

好个RAINYDAYRAINYDAY我不反对

IT´SRAINYDAYRAINYDAY有点伤悲也无所谓

好个RAINYDAYRAINYDAY我不讨厌

IT´SRAINYDAYRAINYDAY这种感觉

没有对不对没有对不对酸酸甜甜

I started to like GIGI's songs from the moment I listened to her 短发. It was eight years ago when I was still a freshman studying at MinHang campus of Shanghai Jiao Tong University. After I came to US, I'm out of the pace of her new songs. What I have are several old mp3 songs when I downloaded about 3 years ago. Rainy Day is one of them.
It is a rainy day today and depressing, especially after Rox lost to Heat in the NBA game on ABC. I stayed at home all day long with the time elapsing between my fingers. Could hardly remember what I did today. There goes my weekend.
Tomorrow is the start of another week, my third week of this internship. Hope life will get better.

Today, I had lunch with Hui Zheng's family at Tien Hong Restaurant for dim sum. It has been almost 6 months since I visited Hui last time. Hui's son is very lovely and quiet during the lunch. The dim sum is good, though not the best.
On my way home, I found a good grocery store called Sun Harvest. It sells foods at good prices. I bought some roasted pumpkin seeds for only $1.99 per pound. It tastes great and reminds me my childhood in Shanghai.

The computer password at my company needs to be updated every 3 months. Today, I had a hard time to find a third password, which I can remember, for my machine.
The restrictions include: Must include at least 3 catagories out of 4 (A-Z, a-z, 0-9, and symbols like $#); Must be at least 6 charaters; Must be different from the last 6 passwords that I used. Rule No. 3 means I can NOT recycle my password until 18 months later. It really sucks.

Half of this week has gone. I've been debugging on my codes for almost 3 days. Finally, I fixed the bugs, two are logical and three are memory leakages. I can have a sweet sleep tonight. Yeah!

AMD Donates AMD Athlon 64 Processor-Powered Computers to Carnegie Mellon UniversityElectrical and computer engineering lab to use high-performing AMD Athlon(TM) 64 processor-based systems for advanced engineering applications

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Jan 24, 2005 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- AMD [AMD] today announced the company has donated AMD Athlon(TM) 64 processor-based high-end computer systems to a senior capstone design lab in Carnegie Mellon University's Electrical & Computer Engineering Department. AMD donated the systems as part of their University Campus Team, an ongoing program to forge strong relationships and technical partnerships with select U.S. universities. Graduate and undergraduate students will use the AMD64-powered systems for advanced circuit design, mathematical simulations, data analysis and documentation of experimental results.

"It was imperative that the computer systems at Carnegie Mellon University be able to withstand near-continuous use from our student body and AMD Athlon 64 processors should meet our requirements," said Dr. Vijaya Kumar, acting head of Carnegie Mellon University's Electrical & Computer Engineering Department. "AMD's donation provides us the world-class technology and performance we need to run our systems in this lab for the next several years."

"Carnegie Mellon University's engineering department had very specific computing needs -- to run intensive 32- and 64-bit applications -- and AMD was able to meet that need with our high-performance AMD Athlon 64 processors," said Marty Seyer, corporate vice president and general manager, Microprocessor Business Unit, Computation Products Group, AMD. "AMD64 technology will help Carnegie Mellon's researchers and students stay at the forefront of their field, preserving the university's status as one of the world's foremost schools of engineering."

About AMD64

AMD64 evolves the industry-standard 32-bit x86 architecture to support the demanding 64-bit environment that will enable future generations of computer functionality and productivity. AMD designed the AMD64 platform to allow end users to enjoy reliable, best-in-class performance on the 32-bit software they own today while preparing for a seamless transition to high-performance 64-bit applications. The AMD64 architecture is also designed to enhance the security of your computing environment by integrating Enhanced Virus Protection technology enabled by advanced anti-virus features in Windows(R) XP Service Pack 2 and the upcoming Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1.

Since the introduction of the AMD64 architecture in 2003, the AMD Opteron(TM) processor for servers and workstations and the AMD Athlon(TM) 64 processors for desktop and notebook computers have earned more than 60 awards for innovation and performance and the support of more than 2,000 OEMs, hardware and software developers, system builders, and distributors.

About AMD

AMD [AMD] designs and produces innovative microprocessors, Flash memory devices and low-power processor solutions for the computer, communications and consumer electronics industries. AMD is dedicated to delivering standards-based, customer-focused solutions for technology users, ranging from enterprises to government agencies and individual consumers. For more information visit www.amd.com.

AMD, the AMD Arrow logo, AMD Athlon, AMD Opteron and combinations thereof are trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the U.S. and/or other jurisdictions. Other names are for informational purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective owners.

SOURCE: AMD

AMD, Austin Suzy Pruitt, 512-602-4392 (PR) suzy.pruitt@amd.com or Mike Haase, 408-749-3124 (IR)

I went to Texas State Capitol today.
The Texas State Capitol houses offices for the governor, secretary of state and all legislators, as well as the Senate and House chambers, a library, bookstore and cafeteria. Designated a National Historic Landmark in 1986 for its "significant contribution to American history," the Texas Capitol is an impressive example of late 19th century public architecture. The largest in gross square footage of all state capitols, it is second in total size only to the National Capitol in Washington, D.C. Like several other state capitols, the Texas Capitol surpasses the National Capitol in height, rising almost 15 feet above its Washington counterpart.
There was a rally in the square when I visited it. Cops were all around. Speeches on anti-abortion were addressed. In the photo, a female TV report was talking to the camera.

After my great vacation, this week seems extremely long for me. I find my time is really not enough. Finally, weekend is coming. At least, I can get up late. :P Moreover, the AFC Championship is on Sunday. Go, Steelers!

Software: CoolStreaming.exe
Mechanism: P2P, somehow like BT
Channels: CCTV1, CCTV5, CCTV6, ESPN, 凤凰卫视, etc.
After working for about 20 minutes, it provides pretty good quality TV programs.

Day No. 13

It was the last day of year 2004. However, Kelvin still had to meet with his boss. Poor kid! We went to his office together, fortunately, his boss was not in. So Kelvin had a chance to show me around Stanford University again(with zz the day before) and Palo Alto downtown as well. After lunch, he went back to work.
The New Year's Eve party with Yan and Tracy started with buffet at Todai from 5:30pm. I like Todai's food. I had quite a lot of oysters. :D After dinner, we went to 好乐迪 for Karaokey. Yan and Tracy showed their talents and skills. Especially Tracy, her 等爱降落 was as good as Coco's. Two hours' singing was an enjoyment for me due to two masters' performance. Then, we went to Tracy's home at San Francisco to play cards while watching TV(the celebration at the Big Apple). During the traditional card game 八十分, Yan's couple teamworked so well that outscored Kelvin and me. The next game was Black Jack. Everyone had a chance to be the dealer. It was fun to see Kelvin deal. :P
At around 2am of the new year's day, Kelvin sent me to the San Francisco International Airport for my return flight. It is one of my best New Year parties.
That's the end of my holiday trip. I had so much fun. I'd like to say thank you to Kelvin, Yan, Tracy, and zz for sharing the happiness with me.

Day No. 12

It was a rainny day again. I got a big surprise that morning. I received a call from zz asking me to pick him up from San Jose International Airport. He was lucky, as SJC is one of the very few places that I know the way. I had been there twice for the rental car. :) Here we go. I met zz and his beloved girl friend, Christina. We then went to zz's luxary house, which he boasted often. zz is my 师兄, we had had a lot of fun together in Pittsburgh before he graduated. We had happy chats. At noon, zz, Christina and I had dim sum at 醉香居. In the afternoon, zz guided me around Stanford. I took photos of the Hoover Tower, which was called 奶嘴 by zz. :D
In the evening, Kelvin and I went to Hot Pot City for buffet. It was another meat feast for me.

Day No. 11

Thanks to Kelvin's suggestion, I went to Monterey Bay. The weather was great at Monterey. I sailed out to watch whales. The wind blew hard and the boat shook hard too. But the view was awesome. After around 1 hour's sailing and searching, we finally located a whale. The trick was that we followed the whale with distance and waited the whale to show her tail. Whales are too shy to how their heads. :D Everyone on the boat was trying hard to photo the whale, except for the captain and the safe guard. They must be tired of whales. :)
After two hours' up and down, left and right, I was back to the land with an uncomfortable stomach. I then went to the famous Aquarium. It is a very big one. There were so many different kinds of fishes, and people as well, most of whom were parents with their kids.
When I got back to Palo Alto, where Kelvin's company is, I lost myself in the rain. Yes, it was rainning there. I mistakenly drove onto Highway 84, a bridge leading to the other side of the bay. The cost was 20 minutes, three bucks(for passing the bridge), and fear of not able to see Kelvin.
Due to zz's unavailability(actually, he was in Florida, shhh~~~, it is a secret), Yan, Tracy, Kelvin and I met in a bar at San Francisco for drinks and chats. We had a good time toghther that night, and planned our New Year's Eve party on Friday.

Started my new semester today. To reward my hard work, I did this 罗宋汤 for myself.

I'll be back to internship tomorrow morning. As a result, you may see a more sentimental yaping and less water on this blog. Actually, I miss my work quite a bit. :)

Day No. 10

Scattered Rain.
Kelvin and I went our for breakfast. 大饼, 油条, 豆浆, the familiar foods, gave me good memories of my childhood in Shanghai.
I then drove to San Francisco again to visit Chinatown. I'm not a big fan of Chinatown, so I walked down Grant Ave pretty fast. Suddenly, I found myself at the Fisherman Whalf again. :) The previous day, due to the rain, I only visited pier 45. But Kelvin told me there were sea lions at pier 39. I saw the sea lions this time. I did the crab and clam chowder for lunch again. I do love them. However, I paid the cost later that day to find a turgid right eye. I should have stayed away from sea foods. :)
I met Kelvin at his company and we went to dinner at 半亩园. Kelvin is crazy at the 红油抄手. I talked with Yan on the phone. We decided to meet together including Kelvin, me, Yan, Tracy(Yan's girl friend), zz and Christina(zz's new girl friend) sometime. We haven't met for quite a long time since Yan and zz graduated last May. To get zz, I called him several times. He was really busy and I had no luck reaching him. :P

First, the NFL playoff.
Congratulations to Steelers!!! My two and a half years' stay in Pittsburgh makes me a Steelers fan. They were lucky to survive from Jets' two missed field goals in the late fourth quarter. Steelers top Jets 20-17 in OT from USATODAY
Then, the NBA regular season, Rockets vs. Spurs
Rockets did it again by defeating Spurs by 73-67.
Yeah~~~

Golden Gate Bridge 

Crabs at Fisherman Whalf 

Day No. 9

Monday, Rain.
We were back to Bay Area. We wasted the morning doing something not worthy. :P
Kelvin then hurried to work at noon, while I drove to San Francisco. I went to the Fisherman Whalf for the famous sea food. The parking rate hurt. $4 for one single hour. I ordered a whole crab and a bread bowl of clam chowder. Both were delicious, I liked them very much except the bread was too hard for me to bite. I then drove to the Golden Gate Bridge. Due to the rain, the photos are kinda vague. After I drove back and forth the bridge, it was already past 5pm. We had to return the rental car to Hertz at San Jose International Airport before 7pm. Discussing with Kelvin on the phone, we decided that we went to Hertz respectively. I treaded the pedal hard all the way to San Jose, and ensured a 6:20pm return. The Hertz guys were nice and finished the whole process in 2 minutes. 5 minutes later, I was on Kelvin's car towards 鼎盛, a Shanghai restaurant, for dinner. The 蹄胖 is pretty good, but the 腌笃鲜 was so so.

Day No. 8

We checked out our room around 9am. We went back to the national park and visited the desert view, which is the other branch of the fork. At 10am, we started our drive back home. I drove the first 200 miles and had our lunch at McDonalds. Then Kelvin did another 200 miles before handed the wheel back to me. I took care of the rest 400. We arrived at Mountain View around 10pm. What a long drive! On the way home, the clouds were getting thicker and thicker. The sun was hiding behind the clouds the whole afternoon. In the evening, it started to rain. The rain wahsed out the dust on our rental car. The odometer pointed to 2400, which means that we had driven for almost 2400 miles on the trip.

Left home at 4:10pm, rushed to the Bestbuy near my company, grabed a 23"TV, removed the box, had it stuffed into the passenger seat, returned home before 5pm. It was a late gift for my birthday from myself. TV

Grand Canyon 

Hoover Dam 

Day No. 7

We left Vegas with regrets early in the morning and headed towards the Grand Canyon. It was Christmas, and the traffic was very smooth. Therefore, I could drive at 100mph on the freeway. I didn't mean to do that. :P The road in Arizona is straight, flat, and dull with no exits, no gas stations, no rest areas but only long long drive.
On the way from Vegas to the Grand Canyon, we stopped at the Hoover Dam for a couple of photos. Two cops were guarding on the entrance to check the cars for terrorists. We both look honest, and were let go in 2 seconds.
Around noon, we were almost there. We could see a huge sign saying McDonalds were 44 miles ahead. Oh, my God. Still 40 minutes to go, but I was already hungry. Soon, we saw the bad part of Christmas. Even McDonalds were close for the day, so were Wendy's. That sucked. We ended up grabbing two cold sandwiches at the gas station selling unleaded gas for $2.399 per gallon. Of course, we fueled our car because there is no gas station in the National Park. During the break, we reserved the hotel.
At around 2pm, we were in the park. There is a fork in the park, one leading to the desert view, and the other to the trail. We decided to go for the latter first, and left the desert view for the next morning. The view is really awesome. I like it very much. At 4pm, we were at the head of the trail. We were excited to get down the trail, because we were told that down the canyon, it was like Spring. We started downward fast despite of the rugged trail. We saw sereval tourists coming up at the first 15 minutes but not a single afterwards. 45 minutes later, my toes started to ache. I couldn't run as fast as before. The sun started to set. The temperatue dropped quickly. But Kelvin was still fast. :) I suggested that we got back at 5pm no matter how far we went. The next 15 minutes was another rush. We arrived at a little wooden house with chairs. :) It is the mark of the farthest we went. The returning was much more energy consuming. We had to rest from time to time. We saw the sunshine vanish from the top of the mountain. The moonlight on the snow gave us some light. The whole mountain is in serenity. There is no sound except for our pant. It was freezing. Thank goodness, that I brought my thick jacket for the trip. I started thinking that if a bear appeared... One hour later, our rest frequency increased sharply. My legs were so heavy that I wished I had done more exercises. Another 30 minutes later, we ran out of drinking water. But we still couldn't see the moon, which meant we had a long way to go. The small sandwich that I had for lunch had already gone. I told myself that I was gonna get a good dinner after we got out. 40 minutes more went by, and we finally arrived at our car. We sat on the bumper and shared chocolate, the only food on the car with water in excitement. Kelvin hoped we had had more time to get to the bottom of the canyon. :) Strong man~~~
We went to the hotel. Due to Christmas, my hope for a good dinner didn't come true. After a quick dinner, I threw myself into a spa while Kelvin was watching First Knight in the room. I was too tired and we needed to drive 800 miles the next day to get back to Mountain View, CA.

Three years ago, I first stepped onto the States with Kelvin. Peng and Hui picked us up from Pittsburgh International Airport. We stayed temporarily at Hongzhou & Xu's place for one week. These memories are still very clear. Time flies by. Now I myself become an old cop. I get my own credit cards, car and internship. At the same time, all the friends I mentioned above have graduated and most have left Pittsburgh.
I celebrated the day by myself with a little cake from walmart. Wish myself a wonderful 2005!!!

Caesars Palace 

Bellagio 

Day No. 6
It was Dec. 24th, the Christmas Eve, and we were in Las Vegas.
After our research on mitbbs, we made our plan for the day. Have our brunch buffet at Bellagio, play in the casinos, hang around the strip area, and then watch Jubilee, a famous show with beauties. We checked the buffet online, which was $12.99 for breakfast(before 10:30pm), and $19.99 for lunch.
What was the time? 9:30. Here we go. Run~~~. When we arrived, there was already a line waiting, but it was not too long. Soon it was our turn. However, we were told that due to the holidays, they raised the price to $28.99. That's why some people waiting ahead of us just left. I looked at Kelvin, and Kelvin looked at me. We were hungry and wanted to eat! The buffet was wonderful. I liked the salmon, the steak and the dessert very much. To me, it was worth the money.
After the lunch, it was casino time. We split and started on slot machines. Before I understood how slot machine worked, I earned $20. Haha. One hour later, my balance was -$25. Kelvin did much better, he earned some. I used up my cash, and called Kelvin for his $100 bill. I went to the black jack table and selected a table with no other gamblers. I started my 单挑 with an old female dealer, whom I called 灭绝. I got two tens for the first deal, and she got 14. I was so happy, but only for 10 seconds. She got a 7 to become a 21. Faint. I then started to 唐僧 with her. After about 10 rounds, I earned $20, and escaped like smoke. I returned $100 to Kelvin and lost another $5 on slot machines. We spent like 3 hours in the casino. :)
We left Bellagio and tried to buy tickets for the show. Unfortunately, on Christmas Eve, Jubilee was not on. So disappointed. We then hanged around the strip, viewing the Caesars, MGM, and etc. S.H.E. would give a concert in MGM on Christmas. We would be leaving for Grand Canyon. Who cares those little girls? Maybe Zhong does. :) More to our disappointment, the free pirates show outside the Treasure Island was not on Christmas Eve either. Sigh~~~ Something more tragedy happened that night which neither Kelvin nor I would like to remember. It almost ruined our coming holidays. However, fortunately, we got it straigten up.
OK, that was Vegas, that was our Christmas Eve, with both excitement and disappointment.

Pacific Beach 

La Jolla Cove 

Day No. 5
We left L.A. in the early morning. San Diego is our next stop.
As we planned, we were to arrive at Vegas for lodging that day. So we didn't spend a lot of time in San Diego. We visited La Jolla Shores, La Jolla Cove and Pacific Beach. Due to the winter, not many people were on the beach. But the sea is awesome. The sky was blue, the water was blue, the sand was soft, and the air was refreshing. Kelvin lured me to swim in the sea again and again. However, as soon as I walked into the chilly water, I backed off. Looking at those little kids having fun in the water, I felt the impact of age. The only thing I could do was running and jumping in the water.
Before leaving San Diego, we drove through the Island of Coronado, and had our late lunch at a small burger shop in downtown Coronado. The next 7 hours were driving, driving and driving. We arrived at Vegas after 10pm. Vegas is so bright that we could see it 20 miles away (if I was still awake at that time:)).

Disneyland 

Day No. 4
Day No.4 is a day of Disney. It was Dec.22nd, and Christmas was barely ahead of us. More and more people were on vacations. There was a long long line in front of almost every game. We decided to participate those thrilling ones only to save time. The criterion was the red triangle on the tour guide, which imposed physical requirements.
I like the "Splash Mountain" and "Indiana Jones" best. They are fun and exciting. Roller coasters are always welcome(We took 3 at different locations :)). Pirates of the Caribbean is very worth going. It is beyond my expectation. However, the Haunted Mansion is a piece of crap. We ended up with 15+ games during our 12 hours' stay in Disney.
Notes:
- We didn't know how to use Fast Passes, which are great things. We thought we had to pay extra bucks for it, but it is totally free. Here is how it works. When you first arrive at a popular game, you pick a Fast Pass showing when it is valid. Then you go to other games and enjoy yourselves. Get back in the time slots shown on your Fast Pass, and you can go directly in without waiting.
- The 3 best parts in Disney is yelling, yelling, and yelling as if I were 10 years younger. The consequence was that I got a raucous voice. :(
- The longest waiting time claimed is 100 minutes at the Splash Mountain.
- The longest time that we actually waited is at the flying elephant. (I felt I were another 10 years younger...)

We had our late dinner at 海星海鲜 for a discounted hot pot buffet. The discount starts from 10:30pm. It was another wonderful hot pot dinner and I left with a stuffed stomach. :)

Universal Studio 

Day No. 3
We spent the whole day in the Universal Studio. We went to almost all the entertainments. The most impressive ones are the thrilling "Mummy" and the wonderful live show "Water World". If you go to universal studio, I highly recommend you the "Water World". It is a big show with hero, beauty, fire, water, and even a plane crashing to the water.
Before we left, we played some tricky games for gifts. Kelvin and I spent $5 each, but none of our 16 balls managed to get into the target. Then I turned to a weigh. If I hammer it hard enough, a bell will ring. After getting the assurance that no matter the bell rings or not, I'm gonna get the prize, I waved the hammer with relaxation, and bingo! The bell rang. I got a little plush dog. :)
We had our dinner at 小肥羊. It is a famous hot pot chain store in China. I'm not sure whether the LA store is one of them. But the meat is really good. I became a hot pot lover during my trip. :D

According to Kelvin's request, I post this dirty, disgusting, little piece of sh*t. Excuse my French.

sea at 17 miles 

a famous tree in 17 miles 

Day No. 2
We started at 9am in the morning with two friends of Kelvin's. We took S. 101 to W. 156 to S. 1. We stopped at 17 miles, Monterey Bay, shot some photos, had our lunch, and then headed south. The single lane highway 1 is on the mountains right beside the sea. It was fun driving on it. It's kinda like playing video games.
We arrived at LA in the evening. After dropping our guests, we had our dinner at 新顺景. We ordered some daily specials including 象拔蚌. We are both 巴子, and never had that before. We made a joke by asking if we ordered one pound, how many we could get? After the joke, the waiter gave us a big surprise. He claimed that we couldn't order these specials unless we ordered another regular price dish to keep them in business. Shoot, we ended up with a damn soup with several duck bones in it for $6.50.
As for the lodging in LA, I made a mistake. When I reserved the motel online, I thought it would be convenient to be in downtown. However, many friends warned us of not staying in south downtown for safety reasons afterwards. 老黑 and 老墨 are everywhere. When we arrived, we found that we were right in the south downtown of LA. Holy crap! Fortunately, we were in good timing. It turned out to be our old buddies were busy having their own Christmas and in no mood dealing with us. :) Yeah!!!

It is very cold today in Austin. I found a good deal on swim trunk at oldnavy.com.
http://www.oldnavy.com/asp/Product.asp?wdid=9100450&wpid=244562
However, the shipping is 5 bucks. So I rushed to the Old Navy local store, only to found nothing to buy.
Yan and Tracy will apply visas in Mexico tomorrow. Wish them good luck and a nice trip.

Day No. 1
My roommate sent me to Austin International Airport at noon. I arrived at SFO at 7:20 by Frontier Airlines, a company no one knows. (No one includes Kelvin, zz, yan, my roommate, etc.)
We went to San Jose Airport to pick up our rental car from Hertz, only because San Jose is $30 cheaper than SFO. We got a brand new Corolla 2005 with GPS. We made two decisions at Hertz. Decision no.1, we waived car insurance. Decision no.2, we rented a GPS. We made a very wise decision on the GPS. It turned out to be very useful and my favorite toy along the long journey. After having dinner at FU LAM MUM restaurant, we got to Kelvin's home for lodging.

郁闷, 不爽!

Self congratulations~~~

Cool Kelvin 

I had a wonderful trip to the west coast during the holidays. I wanna say thanks to Kelvin, without him, the trip wouldn't have been so much fun. Here comes handsome Kelvin. Applause~~~

I created my first blog yesterday on xanga.com, but had difficulty uploading pictures. So I moved to here thanks to hello's ability to deal with photos.