Somehow, I ended up not watching many movies. On this trans-pacific flight to Tokyo, I ended up catching up on several movies I had wanted to watch in 2009, instead of catching up on sleep:(
The movies were: Funny People, Up, Julie and Julia, Public Enemy and Hancock.
I saw the trailer for Funny People and had wanted to like the movie. But, at the end of the movie, I had mixed feelings. Putting a human face on a celebrity and showing how lonely he felt is not a new concept. But the Adam Sandler character was self-centered and not likable. There was no one I could root for in the movie.
I had seen many positive review for Up and I loved the movie. The story was well told, with plot twist and turns to keep things interesting. Some exaggeration and plots were unreal, but acceptable for an animation movie. Another Pixar classic!
As a foodie, the story of Julie and Julia appeals to me. I thought Meryl Streep's Julia was full of energy, but not to the point of being annoying as Julia Child sometimes was on TV. Amy Adam's Julie was insecure and vulnerable. While I like Julia more, Julie felt more real. The story itself was interestingly told.
After 3 movies, Public enemy felt like a blur. It used documentary style filming, which always made me a little confused. I thought the acting was great, but the story itself and the narrative was a little weak.
The last movie was Hancock. The concept of profiling a fallen hero was much discussed in the critic's review and I looked forward to see how it was being handled. But I was a little disappointed in the ending. Introducing a second super hero was an interesting plot twist, but, IMHO, spoiled the movie. The ending was predictable and not convincing.
I think I am all movied out for a while...
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Christmas music in the air,
Crazy mall traffic everywhere!
Yes my friends,
2009 is coming to an end!
New experiences in the year pasting:
Silicon debug and Lee Vining Canyon ice climbing;
Old activities that were fun rediscovering:
Swimming and white water rafting.
Dreams were brought to fruition:
Hiking Half Dome and Europe vacation;
Unfortunately there were also life's frustration:
Unachieved goals and failed relation.
2009 will end with a bang!
With a trip to Singapore and Japan.
Here's looking forward to the New Year,
Engaging in new endeavors with no fear!
Crazy mall traffic everywhere!
Yes my friends,
2009 is coming to an end!
New experiences in the year pasting:
Silicon debug and Lee Vining Canyon ice climbing;
Old activities that were fun rediscovering:
Swimming and white water rafting.
Dreams were brought to fruition:
Hiking Half Dome and Europe vacation;
Unfortunately there were also life's frustration:
Unachieved goals and failed relation.
2009 will end with a bang!
With a trip to Singapore and Japan.
Here's looking forward to the New Year,
Engaging in new endeavors with no fear!
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Calligraphy class get together
As some of you know, I started practicing Chinese calligraphy at Tzu Chi foundation's Northern California chapter in late 2001. I had been attending classes regularly until early 2008. Over the years, many students had come and gone, but a few fellow students and our teacher became very close friends.
In March 2009, we had a gathering at K and DM's house. It was a really good time. Our group of friends had stopped attending class regularly and it had been more than a year since we last met each other.
We shared stories of LS mountain biking accident in Ireland, M's job in Southern California and her return to the Bay Area, K's co-worker's story, Phil's travel and poem and teacher R's part time gig as TV talk show host.
After 9 months, we had another gathering, again at K and DM's house. Phil came with his wife and M brought her daughter along. Since it was a work night, we could not stay as long, but enjoyed a scrumptious French dinner prepared by K and DM and lots of conversation.
K and DM would be moving to Southern California in May next year. LS just came back from a trip to Peru and wanted to go study Spanish in Guatemala. Phil's mom pass away a few months ago and he had been travelling between US and Taiwan taking care of business. Teacher R is now a full time TV host. M is preparing to launch her own skin care product.
In this holiday season, it was really nice catching up with old friends. I had a good time and wished for more similar gathering.
In March 2009, we had a gathering at K and DM's house. It was a really good time. Our group of friends had stopped attending class regularly and it had been more than a year since we last met each other.
We shared stories of LS mountain biking accident in Ireland, M's job in Southern California and her return to the Bay Area, K's co-worker's story, Phil's travel and poem and teacher R's part time gig as TV talk show host.
After 9 months, we had another gathering, again at K and DM's house. Phil came with his wife and M brought her daughter along. Since it was a work night, we could not stay as long, but enjoyed a scrumptious French dinner prepared by K and DM and lots of conversation.
K and DM would be moving to Southern California in May next year. LS just came back from a trip to Peru and wanted to go study Spanish in Guatemala. Phil's mom pass away a few months ago and he had been travelling between US and Taiwan taking care of business. Teacher R is now a full time TV host. M is preparing to launch her own skin care product.
In this holiday season, it was really nice catching up with old friends. I had a good time and wished for more similar gathering.
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Broomball
I was having dinner with A, D and S at Sakoon when I checked the time. It was 9:20pm. I asked, "Guys, can we leave now? I have a broomball game at 10."
"What the hell is broomball?", A asked. He is from India and went to school in Arizona State. There was no chance he had heard of this game.
"It is basically ice hockey without skates." I replied. "I have never played it myself, so I don't know too much about it either."
When I was going to school in Michigan and Wisconsin, I had heard my friends talked about playing broomball. My understanding was broomball was ice hockey without equipment. The game was usually played on a slick, frozen backyard, with players wearing tennis shoes, running around hitting a tennis ball with a broom.
The Michigan Alumni Association of Silicon Valley organized a broomball game for 10pm on Saturday night at the Cupertino Ice Center. I signed up, figuring I need to play broomball at least once, so my winter experience would be complete :)
I arrived at 10pm, wearing a fleece jacket, jeans and sneaker, not knowing what to expect. The public skating session was getting over and we had the entire ring to ourselves. We were supposed to be given formal instructions, but the only orientation we got was a short plead by Matt, the association's president, telling us to keep the sticks low.
The ice center provided the broomball equipment. The "broom" used was not a real broom. Instead, a small triangle rubber attachment was inserted to one end of a broom stick. We were also given helmets, but most of the helmets were broken, and many did not have any foam protection. After running around in one of the broken helmet, I decided not to wear one, since the helmet was getting in the way.
Finally, instead of a tennis ball, we were using a rubber ball, about 5 inches in diameter. We were not given the option to rent broomball shoes.
We had 25 people who joined the event. Since we had the ice to ourselves, we were split into 2 teams. The criteria was those wearing college colors("College")and those not("not"). Since I was not wearing my Michigan attire, I was assigned to the "not".
Since there were couple of broomball "virgin" among the crowd (hmmm...I guess I was not the only one working too hard in school and did not have any broomball fun!), all of us took the ring and the same time and started a game.
I quickly found running on the ice to be rather tiring! Since we took the ice after a public skating session, the ice wasn't extremely slippery. We could run on ice. Stopping was more suspect though. I found myself running deliberately. I just didn't want to fall! The ice ring was also deceivingly big. At the start of the game, I ran from offense to defense, chasing after the ball. I was quickly winded and had to pick and choose my involvement.
With about 12 people on each side, and most of us novice. We really did not have any strategy. The ring was crowded with people, so neither side really had a chance to score. I also found I need to work on my hand-eye coordination! There was lots of "air" swipe with the broom, when I tried to swing hard at the ball, only to catch it at an angle and had the ball rolled in directions I had not intended. I was reduced to poking at the ball and sometimes kicking at it. I also found on defense, it was better to extend the reach of my broom stick by falling on my knees. It could be a really rough game, but since this was a alumni/co-ed event, everyone was careful not to hurt each other, and helped each other up if they fell. There was no body checking:)
After about 20mins of play, Matt called timeout. We were to start a real game. 6 per side, including goalie, for 5 mins. Then the players rotate. This was to be repeated until end of the session.
I took ice with the first team and was assigned to play mainly on defense. Since this was the first real game, both sides were tentative and focused more on defense. While there was some scoring chances, neither side really threaten.
After 5mins, all 6 players rotate out. As I was wiping sweat off my face, our team, "not" scored! It happened fairly quickly and I did not really saw how the scoring occurred.
"College" started playing more aggressively to score, but our defense held for the rest of the 5min session.
I got rotated back into the game and was helping out on offense when "College" had a break away. I was late getting back on defense and the player on "College" had a one on one with the goalie. He scored :(
For the rest of the session, neither team really had good scoring chances. After another 5mins, I rotated off the ice. The "not" team got a few good chances in front of our opponent's net. We were able to score again, near the end of that 5min session.
For the last 5min session, it was "all in"! Everyone on both team took the ice at once. "College" team, being down 2-1, pulled their goalie. I was playing a middle fielder type position where I was mainly playing defense, but was forward enough where I could get involve on offense.
About 3mins into play, our team had a few shot at goal, but "College" played great defense and stopped all the shots. As the ball was rolling back to center ice, I moved forward and hit what I thought was a fairly slow shot. But since "College" players were starting to move on offense and there was no goalie, I scored!
With that score, the game ended. We returned the equipment and chatted a little. Matt said if there is enough interest, he would organize a game every month, but probably at a Foster City ice ring, where they have real helmets.
We had about an hour of ice time and the game was totally fun. I will joined the game again, but next time, I would wear gloves, bring my own helmet and wear knee pads. My knees were pretty bruised from all the falling on the ice.
"What the hell is broomball?", A asked. He is from India and went to school in Arizona State. There was no chance he had heard of this game.
"It is basically ice hockey without skates." I replied. "I have never played it myself, so I don't know too much about it either."
When I was going to school in Michigan and Wisconsin, I had heard my friends talked about playing broomball. My understanding was broomball was ice hockey without equipment. The game was usually played on a slick, frozen backyard, with players wearing tennis shoes, running around hitting a tennis ball with a broom.
The Michigan Alumni Association of Silicon Valley organized a broomball game for 10pm on Saturday night at the Cupertino Ice Center. I signed up, figuring I need to play broomball at least once, so my winter experience would be complete :)
I arrived at 10pm, wearing a fleece jacket, jeans and sneaker, not knowing what to expect. The public skating session was getting over and we had the entire ring to ourselves. We were supposed to be given formal instructions, but the only orientation we got was a short plead by Matt, the association's president, telling us to keep the sticks low.
The ice center provided the broomball equipment. The "broom" used was not a real broom. Instead, a small triangle rubber attachment was inserted to one end of a broom stick. We were also given helmets, but most of the helmets were broken, and many did not have any foam protection. After running around in one of the broken helmet, I decided not to wear one, since the helmet was getting in the way.
Finally, instead of a tennis ball, we were using a rubber ball, about 5 inches in diameter. We were not given the option to rent broomball shoes.
We had 25 people who joined the event. Since we had the ice to ourselves, we were split into 2 teams. The criteria was those wearing college colors("College")and those not("not"). Since I was not wearing my Michigan attire, I was assigned to the "not".
Since there were couple of broomball "virgin" among the crowd (hmmm...I guess I was not the only one working too hard in school and did not have any broomball fun!), all of us took the ring and the same time and started a game.
I quickly found running on the ice to be rather tiring! Since we took the ice after a public skating session, the ice wasn't extremely slippery. We could run on ice. Stopping was more suspect though. I found myself running deliberately. I just didn't want to fall! The ice ring was also deceivingly big. At the start of the game, I ran from offense to defense, chasing after the ball. I was quickly winded and had to pick and choose my involvement.
With about 12 people on each side, and most of us novice. We really did not have any strategy. The ring was crowded with people, so neither side really had a chance to score. I also found I need to work on my hand-eye coordination! There was lots of "air" swipe with the broom, when I tried to swing hard at the ball, only to catch it at an angle and had the ball rolled in directions I had not intended. I was reduced to poking at the ball and sometimes kicking at it. I also found on defense, it was better to extend the reach of my broom stick by falling on my knees. It could be a really rough game, but since this was a alumni/co-ed event, everyone was careful not to hurt each other, and helped each other up if they fell. There was no body checking:)
After about 20mins of play, Matt called timeout. We were to start a real game. 6 per side, including goalie, for 5 mins. Then the players rotate. This was to be repeated until end of the session.
I took ice with the first team and was assigned to play mainly on defense. Since this was the first real game, both sides were tentative and focused more on defense. While there was some scoring chances, neither side really threaten.
After 5mins, all 6 players rotate out. As I was wiping sweat off my face, our team, "not" scored! It happened fairly quickly and I did not really saw how the scoring occurred.
"College" started playing more aggressively to score, but our defense held for the rest of the 5min session.
I got rotated back into the game and was helping out on offense when "College" had a break away. I was late getting back on defense and the player on "College" had a one on one with the goalie. He scored :(
For the rest of the session, neither team really had good scoring chances. After another 5mins, I rotated off the ice. The "not" team got a few good chances in front of our opponent's net. We were able to score again, near the end of that 5min session.
For the last 5min session, it was "all in"! Everyone on both team took the ice at once. "College" team, being down 2-1, pulled their goalie. I was playing a middle fielder type position where I was mainly playing defense, but was forward enough where I could get involve on offense.
About 3mins into play, our team had a few shot at goal, but "College" played great defense and stopped all the shots. As the ball was rolling back to center ice, I moved forward and hit what I thought was a fairly slow shot. But since "College" players were starting to move on offense and there was no goalie, I scored!
With that score, the game ended. We returned the equipment and chatted a little. Matt said if there is enough interest, he would organize a game every month, but probably at a Foster City ice ring, where they have real helmets.
We had about an hour of ice time and the game was totally fun. I will joined the game again, but next time, I would wear gloves, bring my own helmet and wear knee pads. My knees were pretty bruised from all the falling on the ice.
Friday, December 11, 2009
House warming and Wedding
I got an email on Thursday from V. It was an invitation to his wedding on Friday evening at Mantra in Palo Alto. I had already made plans for the evening, but told V I would stop by after my dinner to congratulate him and his wife.
A few weeks ago, I was at G's house warming party. I knew G and V from my first job. At that time, I had been with the company for almost 6 years, while G and V were NCG (new college grads), just left from grad school, starting their first job. I had worked with both of them to help learn about the work environment and the company's design methodology.
I had left my previous for 3 years now, but it was exciting seeing the coming of age of the then new engineers.
A few weeks ago, I was at G's house warming party. I knew G and V from my first job. At that time, I had been with the company for almost 6 years, while G and V were NCG (new college grads), just left from grad school, starting their first job. I had worked with both of them to help learn about the work environment and the company's design methodology.
I had left my previous for 3 years now, but it was exciting seeing the coming of age of the then new engineers.
Friday, November 27, 2009
Styrofoam cups and Thai Nakorn
I read his comics blog every work day for almost 3 years now.
Three years ago, Boey posted a link on Craigslist to his comic blog. Each blog entry is a simple line drawing comic about his work, friends and love life. Since he post a blog entry everyday, on some days the comic might be funny, on other days, thought invoking and, still on some days, boring.
It was from one of the blog posting I read about his styrofoam cups. Boey is an artist and draws on styrofoam cups when bored. Then he started showing the cups at Art Festivals and scored an interview on Orange County Register. That was when he hit big time!
From the article, I learned his work could be found at Marion Meyer Contemporary Art gallery in Laguna Beach. On this Thanksgiving weekend, I was in Orange County to spend time with my brother and his family. Not a shopping person, I talked my brother and his family into seeing this unique art work on Black Friday.
There were about 10 cups on display. The details on each one was amazing! This was like graphic art, souped up to fine art. Most of the cups had whimsical design, but a few were darker and more serious. Quite a treat for me, especially having seen some off the cups on Flickr.
There was a painting by Robert Mah in the Marion Meyer Gallery which we enjoyed very much as well. It was a landscape painting that had a hint of Chinese landscape painting. Using only black coloring, the brush stroke were more obvious compared to most chinese painting, but it did had the same mystic feel.
After the show, we went to Thai Nakorn in Stanton for dinner. The best thai food I had ever had. Read my review on Yelp about it here.
--
Update 11-30-09
I emailed Boey and told him I made a trip to Laguna Beach to see his styrofoam cups. He repiled asking if I made the trip for that purpose only. When I answered yes, he said he felt sorry for me, because he did not leave his best work with Marion Meyer. He also told me to email him in advance on my next trip south to Orange County and he would show me his best work over coffee. Sigh...I think I have low standards. I thought the cups in Marion Meyer were quite good already.
Three years ago, Boey posted a link on Craigslist to his comic blog. Each blog entry is a simple line drawing comic about his work, friends and love life. Since he post a blog entry everyday, on some days the comic might be funny, on other days, thought invoking and, still on some days, boring.
It was from one of the blog posting I read about his styrofoam cups. Boey is an artist and draws on styrofoam cups when bored. Then he started showing the cups at Art Festivals and scored an interview on Orange County Register. That was when he hit big time!
From the article, I learned his work could be found at Marion Meyer Contemporary Art gallery in Laguna Beach. On this Thanksgiving weekend, I was in Orange County to spend time with my brother and his family. Not a shopping person, I talked my brother and his family into seeing this unique art work on Black Friday.
There were about 10 cups on display. The details on each one was amazing! This was like graphic art, souped up to fine art. Most of the cups had whimsical design, but a few were darker and more serious. Quite a treat for me, especially having seen some off the cups on Flickr.
There was a painting by Robert Mah in the Marion Meyer Gallery which we enjoyed very much as well. It was a landscape painting that had a hint of Chinese landscape painting. Using only black coloring, the brush stroke were more obvious compared to most chinese painting, but it did had the same mystic feel.
After the show, we went to Thai Nakorn in Stanton for dinner. The best thai food I had ever had. Read my review on Yelp about it here.
--
Update 11-30-09
I emailed Boey and told him I made a trip to Laguna Beach to see his styrofoam cups. He repiled asking if I made the trip for that purpose only. When I answered yes, he said he felt sorry for me, because he did not leave his best work with Marion Meyer. He also told me to email him in advance on my next trip south to Orange County and he would show me his best work over coffee. Sigh...I think I have low standards. I thought the cups in Marion Meyer were quite good already.
Friday, November 13, 2009
Friend from Taiwan/New York
WCT and I went to grad school together. We were all part of the late night gang, working from 7pm to 3am in clean room every day. A special bond was formed while we were working crazy hours in a stressful environment.
After graduation, WCT went to work in New York for GE Labs. He also started a family and keep non-engineer hours. Given the time difference, we did not contact each other very often. But every time he came into town for business, we would make an effort to get together and catch up.
We last saw each other in April in San Francisco. He was contemplating about a teaching position in National Taiwan University. I learned on this visit he is currently an associate professor at NTU's Electrical Engineering Department.
There was a lot of change in his life over the last several months which we shared over dinner at a mutual friend's house and drinks at A Perfect Finish.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
