The World of Little Little Bird

大年初一抽了一支签. 哈哈

过年了.最近估计看paper看的神经脆弱,睡觉很惊醒.一早就被下雨的声音搞醒了.Austin已经很长时间没下这么大的雨了.真是很爽.把我的小破车给冲刷了一下,看上去登样多了.睡不着,索性就起床上网.等到10点,给家里打了个电话拜年.电话挺难拨通的,估计无数人都在拨.总算运气好,在拨了1分钟后,打通了.就听到电话那头的爆竹声,想想5年前,我也正放得欢着呢.说了没几分钟,电话就断了.反正年也拜过了,不去管它.出发去逛mall.由于下着大雨,路上冷冷清清,在大雨中开车感觉真是不错,就是危险了一点.到了Highland mall,也没什么人.最近很多department stores都在winter clearance sale.Dillards是extra 30% off on top of 50% off clearence,也就是65% off.Foleys是有些衣服66% off.JCpenney是有些衣服70% off.总体来说,Dillards的sale质量要好很多.基本上全场clearance.看到Ralph Lauren的Cashmere&Wool风衣,原价$350,现在才120.估计国内太平洋得卖个四五千吧.要是我还在Pittsburgh,肯定就出手了.还有家具也都extra 30% off.但是还是贵啊.坐上了皮沙发,真TMD舒服.不过,马上引来了sales staff,白活了一番,还给了我名片.没看出我一副民工相,住的又是Apartment,哪有地方放高档货.想想要是自己有了house,还真就搬一套回去爽爽.看来看去,也没有什么东西要买的.Foleys里那些衬衫,原价都不知道怎么标的,66% off后还要$30.再等等吧,等到80% off的时候再来个回马枪,看看能不能捡到些什么.不过好东东估计就没有了.后来又去买了菜,还去邮局买了2 cents的邮票,哎,mail in rebate的成本又提高了.回到家,搞了冷面充饥.下午争取还要写一篇paper review.

My officemate came back from India this week. But as soon as he returned, he caught flu and got sick. Meanwhile, Kelvin got flu too in CA. It looks like flu is very fierce at this time of the year. Fortunately, I had a flu shot during the winter, which should keep me safe.
Due to my officemate's sickness, he asked me to attend the GAIN (Graduate And Industry Networking) Day banquet at UT Austin for him as a company representitive yesterday evening. Our company is one of the sponsors and had a dinner table there. The entree was good but too little for me. :P
There are many research readings for me these days. I've reviewed four out of the ten DAC papers that I received so far. However, I've got to take a look at the SRC whitepapers as well. There are a heck lot of them.

Hahahahahahahahahaha

I applied to review the Design Automation Conference, 2006 papers some time last November. I didn't take that seriously. However, to my suprise, I got ten papers to review yesterday from DAC. Sigh, there goes my PS2 time.

Pepsi is doing a super bowl promotion on their drinks and chips. When you buy any 3 12-can pepsi drinks and any 3 large Lays chips, you get $10 back from mail-in rebates. Meanwhile, CVS pharmacy is giving out $5 CVS extra bucks for the same requirement for this week. Hurry to CVS and get 3 cases of drinks and 3 bags of chips for $15 plus tax and then get 15 bucks back. Not bad for a super bowl party. If the Steelers make it, it will be fantastic. Hehe.

I've heard of bidding hotels on priceline.com for a long time, but have never tried that feature. I played it today and it was very cool. Highly recommended.
I am going back to Pittsburgh for my commencement this May and will stay there for the weekend. I got 3 nights at Courtyard Pittsburgh Downtown for $48 per night. It is a pretty decent price as the rate from their website is $139 per night. I started my bidding for all the 3-star hotels in downtown area and university center area from $40 per night and raised it gradually. It is quite like trading a stock and is a lot of fun. My next target is to get a Manhattan 4-star hotel at the price of $130 per night for my trip to New York city after the commencement.

Sitting in front of the TV, holding a beer, watching the best NFL playoff game so far this year, what a wonderful time! The game was full of up and downs. Steelers played a wonderful first quarter with Big Ben's fantastic passing game, while Colts took control in the fourth quarter. It should have been much smoother for the Steelers if the referee hadn't taken Polamalu's interception off. All the sacks on Peyton Manning at the Colts' 2 yard line, Bus's fumble, Ben's unbelievable tackle and Vanderjagt's missing 46-yard field goal in the last minute of play, almost took my breath away and gave me a heart attack. Finally, Pittsburgh got their well deserved win in Indianapolis. What a great effort by Bill Cowher, Ben Roethlisberger, Jerome Bettis, Troy Polamalu and all the Steelers! See you next week in Denver!

Due to the broken exhaust pipe, my car gives out really loud noise when I hit the gas pedal. Though I was told that the noise would do no harm to driving, I can bear it no more. It destroys my weak nerves. I wanted to go fix it this noon during lunch time, but was held by a project. I will do it tomorrow anyway. I had a tough week, but do wish to get my luck back next week. I will submit my eb1 materials and my parents will apply visiting visas in Shanghai.

刚把车车修好没两天时间，又挂了。这次是老毛病了。从engine连到muffler的管子又断了。一年之前去修过。 结果帮我焊了一下。这次是另一个地方坏了。爱，时间长了，管子锈了，不管用了。修车的说他可以帮我再焊起来，但是不保证其他地方再断。要是换新的话，得连 整个muffler一起，大价钱。他建议我不换，说那不影响开车，只是声音大，象老黑们开的破车那种。唯一的问题是声音大了过不了年检。所以我可以在年检 前两天去找他，焊了后过年检。要考虑换车了。等过了年检后卖吧。也陪了我近三年了，舍不得啊。

This time, it was not a car but the computer spyware. I installed an online game on Sunday afternoon. Ever since, I constantly see IE windows popped out. Also, my computer becomes extremely slow when I use IE to surf on the internet. IE eats up over 90% of my CPU resources. The uninstall of the game didn't help to get the speed back. I spent all my night time on the god damn spyware this week. I tried to restore my computer to a previous checkpoint, but failed. I downloaded numerous anti-spyware software, but they didn't work so far. I worked till 2am this morning and will continue to fight until I either win or I totally lose this war. Tonight should be the key battle.
I took my car to the garage yesterday afternoon and got the new fender and headlight on. It was a hell amount of labor to detach the damaged parts and assemble the new ones. I was there watching the owner through whole procedure. It is tough money for him. Though I believe he makes much more than I do, I feel myself lucky about the current job.

I took my car to two garages today, one Iranian and one Vietnamese. To fix the headlight only, it is $250 from the Iranian garage, and $270 from the Vietnamese, both are all cash prices. If I also want the body work, i.e. to replace the left fender as well, the prices are $500 and $450. I ended up putting $100 deposit at the Vietnamese shop and having them order the parts. I'll go back tomorrow to get them assembled. Another bad news is that the fucking Hertz noticed the scratches when my friend returned the car today. Shit! Though my friend's credit card company can cover all the repair expense, I should still pay the loss of use fee and admin fee to Hertz, which may be another $150 to $200. 破财挡灾, 破财挡灾. I'm very guilty for all the troubles that I have brought to him.
I should learn a big lesson from this accident. I was too confident about my driving skills, and boasted it often. Caution is very important. I have to 夹起尾巴做人.
Looks like I need to 堤内损失堤外补. Wish my stocks go up. :P

Everything goes well this week but the car accident. I held a birthday party at home with friends yesterday. We lit up candles, sang birthday songs and I had my birthday wish before I blew the candles. We played cards and enjoyed the dinner that I had prepared. Also in this week, I had half of my teeth cleaned on Thursday. The Nasdaq went up for 100 points in the first four trading days of 2006. Even the Rockets got two wins this week.
However, I had a car accident yesterday. I tailgated my friend's car at a red light when I followed him onto Loop 1. I braked hard but could not stop. I turned the wheel so that I didn't drove into him directly which resulted in that the left front of my car scatched the right back bumper of his car. His car, a ford tauras had no dents but some scatches, while my honda civic was much worse. I got dents around the headlight, also both the headlight cover and left turn signal light were trashed. Fortunately, no person was not hurted. We pulled over, took a look at the cars and then continued heading home for the party. I need to go to the Vietnamese garage again tomorrow. I went there in 2004 for my exhaust pipe, in 2005 for the broken window, and now it is time for 2006. Here is a list of food that I we had last night.
菜:
茶叶蛋
土豆色拉
凉拌芹菜
自制烤鸡
红烧狮子头
虾米炖蛋
红烧tilapia
酒:
White Zinfandel (感谢Xiaoqiu同学)
Bud Select
甜点:
Raspberry Yogurt Cake (感谢deodar同学)
水果:
梅粉苹果 (感谢Gary同学)
表演:
NFL Wide Card Playoff (感谢Patriots和Jaguars还有ABC电视台)

Postage goes up again from Jan 8th this Sunday. The new rate will be 39 cents. When I first arrived in US, the rate was 34 cents. In 2002, not long after I came here, the stamp prices were raised 3 cents to 37 cents. Need to stock up some 2 cents stamps from the post office next week.

昨天晚上有Rockets的比赛.吃完晚饭,从nba.com看到Rockets居然36:33领先Cavaliers.于是决定去Apartment的club house看球.到了没多久,就进入了中场休息.闲着没事,就开始操练桌球.刚玩了两杆,就有一位老先生说他有半小时时间,要求加入.这位老先生相貌堂堂,一身休闲西装,精神抖擞,操东欧口音.由我先开球.在我开球后,只见他果然高手,从容不迫,连入两球.他居然还会缩杆,翻案球更是出神入话.我只得强打精神与之对抗.集中精神的我果然不俗,顿显强者风范,三下五除二,拿下第一局.真的是暴长士气.第二局仍然由我开球,我第一局显示的超强实力已经完全压制了对方.在我打进一球后,他居然误将黑球进袋,我再下一城.第三局一开始我有两个球没处理好,结果他一路领先,追回一分.顿时他精神大振,进入了第四局.第四局双方你来我往,僵持不下.直到最后时刻,我才发力以一球险胜.此时两人已经完全忘了时间,酣战连场.第五局,我通过合理的技战术(把我的球堵在洞口)获得领先.直到最后黑球,由于没有好的角度,我只得采用不擅长的翻袋技术,连续两杆都是差之豪厘.而他在关键时候也有点手软,连续两杆薄球没有成功.最后,我一杆定乾坤.4:1, 哈哈哈. 回头一看篮球,Rockets居然从领先17分被追成4分.赶紧回到电视机前为火箭加油.最后几分钟真是难熬.幸亏火花连续两个中投命中,艰难拿下比赛.哈哈哈哈

The Rose Bowl game last night was exciting. UT beat USC in the final minute and drove the whole Austin crazy. I could hear screaming all over my apartment. There are so many UT students living in my apartment and it looks like a UT dorm. The screaming reminds me of the old days in SJTU. When we watched soccer at midnight, we did that too. The difference is that UT students jumped on the top of cars to celebrate while SJTU students throw water bottles.
Back to the game, it was a great one. USC is Reggie Bush's team and UT is Vince Young's team. Both star players did a wonderful job. I gave up in the fourth quarter on UT and went to bed, but was then waken up by the yells. 41:38 with the underdog's coming back at last, it was a excellent gift to all the UT fans.

糊里糊涂已经在2006年上了两天班了.现在想想,好象没有完成什么东西.这大概是所谓的节假日综合症吧.不过有一点还是很爽的.我的印度officemate回国省亲,我可以独享office三个星期,感受一下Senior Staff的待遇.嘿嘿.
不知不觉,又变老了一岁.当然严格来说,要等到公历那天才算.下班回家煮了面条,就着昨天搞的红烧小排,酱油蛋吃了,也算是凑和着过了.蛋糕还是等公历再吃吧.
现在在看NBA.今天ROCKETS总算要赢了.也算是给我老人家点面子. :) 看来我得天天生日,ROX才能进Playoff.那我很快就老得走不动路了.嘻嘻.

Steelers are finally in the playoffs. They will try to take out Cincy next Sunday. At the same time, my 9-day holidays come to an end. I'll go back to work tomorrow.