The World of Little Little Bird

More than one month ago, I received a mail from the Accounting Services, Carnegie Mellon University. There is a charge of $380 for the purpose of Ph.D. defense attendence. I was like, what the heck is that? I checked my student information online but didn't find any balance on my account. I asked my friends who graduated earlier, and was told that they knew nothing about this charge. I decided to wait and pretend not have received this mail until the school contact me again.
This afternoon, when I was cleaning my stuffs, I saw this mail again. After a second look at it, oh, my god, I finally figured out that this is NOT a charge invoice, but a check that reimburses my travel expense back to Pittsburgh for the defense. Thanks to Judy and Xin for helping me submit the expense report. Please pardon my stupidity, and do not laugh. :)

This week, there were many interviews in the company. My Indian officemate was stuck on that. Yesterday, he interviewed a MS student from CMU. Amazingly, this student and I took two courses together and we both TA'ed 322 for Fall, 2003. The world is real small. :) The kid is good, but unfortunatly, he failed to impress my officemate. I felt sorry for him, but I believe he can find a good job soon.
On wednesday, I took a flu shot. People from China are usually less vulnerable to the virus. I remember the first year that I came here, the cold weather in Pittsburgh was like nothing to me. :) However, my immune system gets weaker this year. I caught a cold one month ago.
I got a new project to work on this week, which should keep me busy for a while. Sometimes, being busy is a fortune, especially when we are still young.

I went to see the famous bat flight of Austin this evening. One of the most amazing sights in Austin takes place every evening from March to early November, when 1.5 million Mexican free-tailed bats emerge from their roosts under the Congress Avenue Bridge. It was a little too late to see this spectacular view. The best time should be from late July to mid August. When the bats came out this evening, it was very dark. Here are what I got from my crappy camera. Blacks Bats in the Dark. Oh, yes. Black in the dark. HoHo.

Sunset view from the Congress Avenue Bridge

Black Bats in the Dark

I got this link from philawar's blog. I checked it with my blog and found "The World of Little Little Bird" worth 564 bucks. I was very surprised to see that my blog was better than nothing. :) Now I showed this off on the left column of my blog. Hope the value will increase in the near future. :P

I finally submitted my paper to ISQED this afternoon. Now I can have a relaxed (mentally) night. I'm proud that I can finish a paper in 5 days. Amazing. Sounds a little 臭屁, hehe. Here I want to thank Xin's valuable comments. Hope this paper will be accepted, so that I can visit San Jose again next Spring. Yeah!

Three interceptions that led to two touchdowns cost Steelers a loss in overtime. Without Big Ben, Pittsburgh's offensive line stinks. Pittsburgh had a great look at the opening of the overtime. They returned 75 yards on the kickoff, which already made the ball in the field goal range. However, Maddox fumbled and lost the ball on the 3rd down. Though the defense team of Steelers held back Jax's offense, Maddox's interception buried Steelers.

One day before, I was still whining about busy writing a paper. Now, I've done the draft and got experimental results for one circuit. Unfortunately, the servers in my company are on maintenance this weekend. So, there is nothing that I could to do get more cirucits results. Guess I will get more results after the submission and cross my hands for the acceptance. Of course, I will proof read it a couple of times before submission, but I am far less busy than I expected. Might go shopping on Sunday. Yeah~~~

The last two days, I attended a SRC annual review in UT. In the review, I saw many famous people. I had a chance to recognize all those big names. :) As a representitive of my company, I was asked to grade all the presentations. I don't understand many of them. Also, due to a company meeting yesterday morning, I missed all the CMU talks that I was very interested in. It was good that I could still make the afternoon talks, and had a chance to talk with Larry and Peng.
From today, I started to work on a paper for ISQED. The deadline is next Monday, which drives me crazy. Actually, not too crazy, at least I still have time to write my blog now. :P There is a family fun event at AMD this Saturday. Hope I can still go. That totally depends on the experimental results that I am running right now. If they look good, I may still have some fun this weekend.
The thing that really drives me crazy is the market. Nasdaq was down over 100 in the past week. Sigh~~~Cry~~~

Good luck and have fun, dude!!!

Arrive in San Jose on Saturday (11/5) and come back on Thursday (11/10). Need to work on the slides and practise. Tired after 三国志, hehe.

玩三国志,用刘备.从赤壁(208年)开始打,经过将近一个月的辛苦战斗,总算统一了.但是由于我的穷兵黩武,关键是杀人过多和篡夺帝位,过关动画居然说刘备的江山三代而亡.只比秦好那么一点点.TNND.