The World of Little Little Bird

I am kicking ass. lah, lah, lah...

I went back to Pittsburgh last Sunday. The main purpose is to give mock interviews to the students there.
I took Continental airlines this time and connected in Cleveland. The plane from Cleveland to Pittsburgh was a very small one. It only holds 19 passengers. I have never flown this kind of plane before, so was pretty excited. I took some photos with my cellphone and will upload them later. All passengers have to board from the ground. The stairs are integrated to the plane gate and the plane is propeller-driven. No air hostess is on board. I arrived in Cleveland in 3:30pm Sunday afternoon, got to Pittsburgh at 7:30pm but the two cities are only 1 hour and a half's drive away...
As usual, all activities in Pittsburgh are talking. Talking to professors, students, staffs, friends (fewer and fewer), and my colleagues in the company thru tele-conferences. I managed to watch PB and 24, two of my favorite series though.
I was almost stuck in Cleveland on Tuesday night. There was only 10 minutes connecting due to the delay of the flight from Pittsburgh to Cleveland. I arrived at Austin at 12am, but would have a early Wednesday meeting at 9am.
The next trip to Pittsburgh will be the end of April.


Borading...



On board...



Getting off...

snow

这两天Austin来了超强冷空气，温度骤降。今天是Martin Luther King日，但是我们不放假，哭。。。一早，抱着侥幸的心理，打了公司的weather hotline，被告知，一切照常。出门，看到车子上都是冰。上次看到这个情景还是03年冬天在Pittsburgh的时候。还好，我当时的装备还在trunk里面。发 动车子，开足暖气，拿出雪铲，咔咔咔。2分钟，解决问题，上路。一路上车辆稀少。到了公司，看到有人离去，说老大说了，大家回家吧。想了想，既来之，则安之。回家也要work from home，于是留下，开始工作。

There are many coupons floating on ebay, such as 30 off 150 STAPLES coupons. However, I had never considered buying any. I am an old-fashioned guy who likes one hand money and one hand stuff. I was afraid to be cheated in case the e-coupons don't work. My mind has changed since my first transaction on ebay this Sunday.
I wanted to buy a coupon. There were 30 sellers around. I could buy it immediately for the price of $19.99, or I could bid it with a lower price. The drawbacks of bidding is that I may not be able to get it and I have to wait till the end of the bid. Before starting, I signed up accounts on both ebay and paypal. Then I looked at all the bids and picked one which would end in two hours. There were already four bids and the price was $10.01. I bid it with $10.51. After 40 minutes, I got an email saying that I was outbid with $12. Ten minutes later, a new bid of $12.50 came in. Then it went up to $14 in two minutes. It looked like two guys were bidding higher each other. After I had my dinner, there were only 20 minutes left. The highest bid became $14.50. If I wanted it, my bid had to be $15+. I hesitated a while and decided to give up, since I can always bid from other sellers. When the bid expired, I received an email from ebay, saying that my bid was $10.51 and the winning bid was $14.50, which is no surprise. However, one minute later, I got another email from ebay. In this email, it says that I have got a second chance and the seller wants to sell me the coupon for $10.51, my bid price. I immediately understood what had happened. The seller bid against himself to push up the price in the hope of my responding. Well, I did not. So he was not able sell the coupon and he had to come back to me. I accepted his offer and paid $10.51 through paypal with my master card.
$12 is a reasonable price for me, and now I got it for $10.51. More importantly, I made my first purchase on ebay.

11:15pm, 01/07/2007. I just got onto my bed. Suddenly, I heard some beeps from inside my apartment. The sound came from my door. I checked the smoke detector above the door, it was ok. Then I opened my door. It was the Carbon Monoxide Alarm. The red light was flashing which urged me to evacuate to fresher air. I rushed to the stoves, but all four were turned off. I couldn't smell gas, but the alarm would not go off. I made a phone call to the apartment emergency mainentance and left a message. I was wondering perhaps the carbon monoxide came from the heater. After talking to my roommate, I turned off the heater and opened the windows. Well, the beep continued. There was only one choice left. I put on my pants and jackets, and went out of my apartment with my roommate. I left a second message for emergency mainentance. One thing can happen is that the detector malfunctioned. I decided to test it. I took it off from the wall and took it outside. Amazingly, the alarm stopped. It seemed to me that the alarm worked. After 5 minutes wandering in the cold, we decided to come back in. I disconnected the battery to stop the beep, kept the heater off and the windows open. I put all quilts, blankets over me and went to sleep. I felt sleepy. I could hardly keep myself awake.
12:15am, 01/08/2007, my cell phone rang. It was the mainenance guy calling back. I told him the situation, and he said he was sure that the battery went out. He asked me to take out the battery and turn on the heater, which is electricity powered.
08:00am, 01/08/2007, I woke up by my alarm clock. I was tired and didn't want to get up. However, I had to, because it is Monday, the busiest day of the week.

I just realized that I have been dumping junks here for two years. I was surprised that I had so much to dump.

2007年的第一篇牢骚,比以往来的更早一点.
上周末,新的roommate搬了进来.是一个UT Austin的新生.刚开始几天,他的哥哥嫂嫂过来接他,也住在这里.今天他们离开了.我也开始了郁闷.
今天晚上,回到家里,发觉我的炒菜锅和盖分别在两个地方.炒菜锅虽然洗过了,但是没有用洗洁精,看上去油油的.最让我郁闷的是,不沾底的炒菜锅里多了无数scratch,估计是他用金属锅铲炒的结果.我用了半年,都好好的,一天之间就面目全非...这也验证了我当初的担心.我并不怕对方人不好,怕就怕人大大咧咧,随便用我的东西,吃我的食物.哎...