Keira Knightley movies

I just finished watching the director's cut of King Arthur and The Hole, both of which features Keira Knightley.

King Arthur claims to be "the untold true story that inspired the legend"--a claim which I doubt any well-educated person would have believed in the first place. Historical accuracies aside, they have very little evidence to make the definitive claim that the King Arthur of legends was a Roman centurion.

In the director's cut, they show the young Lancelot arrive to meet the young Arthur, with the both of them looking to be pre-teens, and then we skip to 15 years later, where we see Arthur as a... 40-year-old man...? Meanwhile, Lancelot is in his early 30's. They should have just made the thing 20 years later, instead of 15, if they were going to use actors who are so much older. I guess that might be why the scene didn't make theatrical cut... though I doubt it.

Overall, the movie itself was not too bad. The early battle scenes didn't need to be as long as they were, I thought; it was also shorter in the theatrical cut, but not for the reason of pacing.

I thought The Hole was a much better film than King Arthur... although I guess it's a bit unfair to compare two completely different types of film.

View From the Top

I had wanted to watch View From the Top in theaters when it was first released, but never got around to it. It flopped in the theaters, but I caught most of it on cable last night.

I thought it was pretty funny, with a good, if somewhat predictable, storyline. I mean, how many people didn't think about what would happen when instructor Witney (Mike Myers' character) asked for the tests to be passed to the front?

That didn't detract me too much, though, as the movie overall was still fun to watch, and Gwyneth Paltrow looked good, as always.

The Legend of Earthsea

I had missed this mini-series on SciFi, and saw it available for download on some torrent sites, so I downloade them and watched them over the weekend.

I must admit that my main reason of watching was for Kristin Kreuk (of Smallville fame). But of course I was also hoping to see a good story. Unfortunately, I was first distracted by the bad acting, and then by the bland story.

After I finished watching it, I found out that it was based on a series of novels. And apparently (as one would expect based on how bad the film version is) quite different from the source material. I think I might pick up these books to read the real story.

Awaiting Your Return

Helplessness, is ten thousand times reluctance to wait
Helplessness, is to be deeply in love with you but be apart
Though the road be long, you should also know
In my heart, I'm awaiting your return
Expectancy, like looking off into the wide seas

Due to separation, now the endurance of love is known
Due to separation, sadness was inevitable
Perhaps not used to having storms
But there are always chance meetings in life
With you, understand that love will not change for life

Accompany you to search for the courage to be alone
Accompany you to take on the pain and sorrow of being apart
The world inside of our hearts
Is a true love that will never be forsaken
Hope tomorrow we can lean on one another closely again

Due to separation, the love in the heart has deepened
Due to separation, begins the realization of how spectacular love is
Wish that we both will love each other forever
Being true to our hearts, we shall reach the future
With you, understand that love will not change for life


等你回來

無奈是萬分不得意的等待
無奈是共你深愛卻分開
路縱遠你也應知道
我心中在等你回來
期待如望向飄飄那滄海

原來離別方可知愛的忍耐
原來離別了不免有悲哀
或許不慣有風風雨
卻知生命總有際遇
和你明白愛一生也不改

陪你來尋覓孤單的勇氣
陪你來承受分開的痛悲
在心中你我的天地
是永遠摯愛不拋棄
期待明日再緊緊靠一起

原來離別了加深愛於心內
原來離別了始覺愛精采
願彼此永遠的相愛
靠真心定可到未來
和你明白愛一生也不改

New DVDs

Picked up I, Robot, Collateral, and the Collector's Gift Set of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King on Tuesday at Target. DigitalEyes was supposed to ship me the LOTR gift set last week, but somehow the credit card didn't go through, even though I just sent them another payment. Which is too bad, since they're selling it for $59.95, while Target has it for $69.95. But I guess it evened out, since they're selling I, Robot and Collateral for $21.99 and $22.95, respectively, while Target has them for $15.99 each.

So I watched I, Robot on Tuesday night, and just finished watching Collateral. Both were good, in my opinion. I didnt think I, Robot was a bad as some of the reviews I've heard led me to believe, but I guess the more negative reviews were mostly based on the fact that the story had little, if nothing, to do with any of Isaac Asimov's stories from the book of the same title, with the exception of the famous "three rules," and Dr. Calvin. But obviously no one expected to walk into the theater to watch a series of short stories.

It doesn't look like the extended version of The Return of the King has any of the scenes I'm looking forward to, but I may be surprised yet. The whole extended scene of how Smeagol became Gollum was kind of useless, though. If you're gonna extend the movie, you should be extending on the stuff you didn't include from the novel, not from a short blurb mentioned in an earlier book... that's my opinion.

Global warming??

It's a cool place, and they say it gets colder
You're bundled up now, wait till you get older
But the media men beg to differ
Judging by the hole in the satellite picture

So where's this global warming thing they've been talking about? Only thing I know is that here in Southern California, it's not often that we get to near freezing temperatures, unless you're talking about up in the mountains, like the San Bernadino mountains.

Winter hasn't even begun yet, and already we're seeing temperatures at below normal for this time period? Wonder how proponents of global warming explain that... Or I guess I should take some more time to read that Wikipedia entry later.

Unexpected rain

I was watching Iron Chef when I heard over the noise of my computer fan what sounded like heavy rain... so I looked through the blinds, and sure enough, it was pouring. It's subsided to barely a drizzle now, but still, it was quite unexpected as I was out earlier and it didn't look like it was going to rain, and there was no mention of even being overcast in the weather forecasts.

Guess it's a good thing I decided not to get a car wash today.

Security check

I was stopped by the police while driving on Azusa today. Apparently they were doing some random spot checks. I wonder if anything was going on... I checked the national threat alert, and we're on the same level we've been on for months, so that's probably not the factor.

Did see a lot more police cars on the road today than normal, though.

Redline

Redline Water Wetter seems to be working pretty well so far... I got a new bottle last Saturday (since I got the new radiator, the contents of the previous bottle was no longer in my car), but the temperature gauge showed an abnormally high temperature while I was driving down Azusa Ave. on Saturday.

I guess maybe it just took some time before it got mixed with the rest of the coolant, because the temperature seems to have held down well on Monday.. but I didn't drive too much on the surface street, so some stuff remains to be seen.


As a side note, I was not able to tell if it was doing its job properly last time, as the old radiator was already doing pretty badly by the time I added Redline to it last time.

Dumplings

Went to the Chinese supermarket (99 Ranch) yesterday and got myself ingredients for dumplings, but didn't get enough dumpling skins... so I was only able to use up about half of the meat paste. So today I went to the closer Chinese supermarket (HK) and got some more. Looks like the Korean brand of dumpling skins are actually better, although they seem abit smaller.

Web Browsers

FireFox is my Favorite

Firefox 1.0

Shortly after I downloaded the official release of Firefox 1.0 last night/morning, I tried to update my extensions... much to my chagrin, it took forever for the update to try to connect to the update site, and I couldn't connect to extensions mirror at all.

I was finally able to get to homepage of all of the extensions I've installed, and repack them to work with the new version. The only extension I didn't repack is Firesomething... I'm not too sure if it will cause any conflict with the new version.

Watched "The Grudge"

It was okay. Wasn't really very scary, but maybe I've just become numb to all these horror movies.

The movie doesn't show thing chronologically, which, while wasn't confusing, does leave one wondering on the timeframe of when everything occurred. The only thing we know for sure is that the original incident at the house happened three years prior to the main story of the movie, and that the professor hurled himself off his balcony the day after the original incident.

When did the Williams family move in to the house? The hauntings had obviously been happening since the day of the original incident, and it seems like the Williams must have moved in and lived there for a while...

Who taped the cabinet shut, and for what purpose? Whoever did it must have seen something, and felt compelled to do so... but it seems like no one in the Williams household would have had the time to do so.

Yup

After closer examination of the damage on the bumper, it seems most likely that the damage was caused the the debris on the freeway, since there was also a cut into the center opening of the bumper, which could not have been caused by scraping on any curb.

I'll have to take my car in to the shop Johnny recommended, and hope they do a better job of painting it than the previous shops did.

Scraped bumper... again

The frustrating part is that I have no idea when or how this happened. I've been careful to avoid hitting anything all the time, and this still happened.

Whatever it was, must have taken place either when I was going home from work last night, or coming to work this morning, since I didn't notice it at all yesterday.

It could have been the piece of debris on the freeway this morning, that went under my passenger-side wheels. There was no way to avoid that thing except through sheer dumb luck.

Rambling

Just went to the ATM to deposite a check, and there was this couple ahead of me, just talking and looking at whatever it is that they're looking at... took at least five minutes of them mostly talking before they finally deposited their money and were finished. Who knows how long they were there before I got there. What is it with these people? Can't they get their crap together before going to an ATM? Near midnight? No common sense at all.

Getting ready to vote

I was going to look over the sample ballot on Saturday, but didn't really get to. Since it is now technically today, I decided that I should get to know what each measure is so I know what to vote for. 'Cause otherwise it would be rather pointless.

Didn't know anything about the representative and judges, though, so pretty much had to guess on them.

I'll have to make sure I remember to bring the sample ballot with me leave for work tomorrow--so I can go to the polling place directly, instead of having to come back to pick it up.

Cornish hen with baked rice

Saw this recipe for the Flavorwave on their website, so I decided to try it. Not too bad, but definitely too much chicken broth and not enough rice. I'll have to either increase the amount of rice, or decrease the amount of chicken broth, next time.

On a side note, I'm just starting to use this Hello BloggerBot thing. Will take some getting used to.


Frozen hen... starting to cook


Cooking...


Finished.

The hits just keep on coming

So, after replacing my radiator, and the lower priority task of finding a store that sells Armor All CarWash Wipes (found 'em at Walgreens after an online search), I come to find that the kitchen sink is backed up.

Ran over to Rite Aid and picked up a bottle of Liquid Plumber Gel, and it's now sitting in the sink, working its "magic"... Hopefully it works. I'd hate to have to make another run for drain cleaners.

Fried... round 2

The fried chicken pieces last night didn't go as well as I had hoped, although it was passing... I'll have to experiment with it more to figure out the best procedure to take in frying it up. And hopefully find a better recipe so that they taste more like the ones which I have fond memories of.

I tried frying mushrooms tonight, which is the vegetarian version of the fried chicken pieces. Building on the experience from last night, they turned out much better. But still not what I'm hoping for... I guess I'm either using too much soy sauce, not enough egges, or have to actually blend the frying powder into the eggs.

This begs for further testing at a later date.

Car now in the shop

So I drove over to King's Discount Tires and asked them to replace my radiator. It seems that they will be able to get their hands on a new radiator today, so I decide to leave the car there and rent a car to get to work.

Sam at King's suggested to rent from Budget, instead of my usual Enterprise rental, I figured since I've never rented from Budget, I'd see how they compare to Enterprise. Plus typically there's some kind of deal to get a rental from a store that the shop recommends. They took a very long time to get there to pick me up, I guess there was some miscommunication between Sam and the Budget rental place he called.

Now I'm rolling around in a Daewoo Lanos, until King's is done with my car.

Note to self

Apparently Central Autobody moved about a year and a half ago, 'cause today when I drove over to have them look at the radiator they installed, it was a different shop. They told me that Ming (owner of Central Autobody) had moved his shop to Arcadia. I couldn't find his shop listed in the yellow pages, so I guess I'll just find a good shop to replace the radiator, instead of hanging on to the hope that I'd get some kind of deal since the radiator was somewhat defective to begin with.

On a side note, there was some important person's funeral today... As I was driving to the auto shop, there was a whole line of cars in procession, complete with police escorts.

If time permits when I get home from work

I think I'm gonna try my hands at making some Chinese fried chicken pieces (鹽酥雞). Hopefully the basil leaves I have right now are not too old for it. Assuming that's the case, I'm only lacking one other ingredient, aside from the chicken.

Need a new radiator

Looks like the radiator they put in my car after the accident has reached the end of its life cycle... and it was never working too well in the first place.

I'm going to take my car back to Central Auto Body for them to look at and see what they say, but there can be no doubt that I'm gonna need to replace it.

Armor All CarWash Wipes

So, after several days of rain, it looks like it's gonna be clear for a short while--the weather forecast says there's more rain coming next week--so since I've used up my last sheet of this stuff, I figure I'll just pop into the nearest auto parts store and pick it up, right?

No such luck.

The nearest auto parts store happens to be an Autozone right across the street, which is where I picked up my first pack of Armor All's CarWash Wipes. Couldn't find it. Went to several other stores--a Kragen's down the street, another Autozone in Alhambra (close to work), and the Pep Boys on my way home--Nada. Strange how none of these stores seem to be carrying them. Maybe I'll ask a clerk next time.

At any rate, I'll be going to the car wash tomorrow. But I'd like to have some of these car wash wipes handy in case it does rain again.

Be careful using Tilex Fresh Shower

Slipped in the shower while spraying it down with Tilex..

Yup, that's right--I ignored the instructions warning and sprayed while I was standing in the bathtub. How else was I supposed to spray the shower door?

Now I have bruise mark on my right hand. No other damage, as far as I can tell.

Dreams

Had a dream about Tomoko today. Strange. Haven't thought about her in a long time.

In the dream, we were having some kind of party, in a setting that's similar to school, but felt like home.

Moving again?

Mom called yesterday, saying that she put down an offer on a new house in El Monte. If we want, we can take over the payments and move in once our rent contract is up. Otherwise, she will try to rent it out.

The place sounds pretty good, but of course I'd still like to take a look at it first, and of course the prospect of moving again doesn't sound pleasing to me... but at least it would mean a more permanent address, with better conditions.

It would also depend on how much the monthly bills would become. Guess we'll have to see. I'll talk to Donald about it later.

Stupid FedEx

Why ask us to fill in the option of letting you leave the package if you don't intend on following the options? They just left the exact same slip hanging on the door knob. It's like they never bothered looking at it at all. So now I will have to drive to City of Industry to pick it up... Which I could have done days ago, if they'd let me.

Changed brakes

Went to Midas during my lunch break today, wanting to change my rear brake pads. Ended up letting them do a full inspection on the brakes, and replacing both the front and rear pads, as well as resurfacing the rear rotors.... and costing a lot more.

Oh well. At least now the brakes are under their "lifetime warranty."

When I came back, the Internet connection speed was really slow... and is slow still. I wonder if something is up with SBC...

Weird

I guess the humidity is really low these past few days... I just checked my portable AC's water tank, and it was completely dry! Granted, I haven't used it too much, but I still expect there to be some gathered condensation.

So even though the temperature during the day reached into the 90s, with the days being shorter and the humidity low, the nights are quite cool now.

And the only reason I really checked to see how much water was in the water tank was because, somehow, the toilet tank was empty... I could hear water dripping through the pipe, but it was going at a really slow rate. So I needed something to hold water that I could use to fill it. Nothing inside the toilet tank seem to be broken... so either Donald turned off the water valve (though why he would do so is a complete mystery) and forgot to turn it back on, or somewhere a long the line, the pipe is clogged.

Strangely, I was unable to turn the valve at all in either direction, so I can't tell if it is the valve. If it is, hopefully Donald will remember to turn it back on tomorrow morning.

Weather changes

The weather got cooler all of a sudden, though the weather report says that it'll be hot again tomorrow, with highs in the 90s. I wonder if they'll be right.

Firefox Preview Release

So I decided to install Firefox 1.0 PR on my home PC today, after having installed it at work and getting most of the extensions I use to work with it...

Now I just have to wait for more of the themes to get updated.

The Eye

Just caught most of this movie (subtitled) on cable. I believe the original title is "見鬼," which, literally, means "seeing ghost(s)."

Not bad. Heard on Club3G that there might be an American remake of this film. I wonder what they would do with it.

Strange weather

Hottest week of the whole summer... and summer is supposed to be over! Furthermore, it's been mixed in with random, localized storms.

So this morning, as I was driving to work, it was raining... and still muggy. Cleaned up my car with the Armor All carwash wipes after work. Hopefully it won't rain again tomorrow.

Stupid SQL server

The replication to the server in China died again today. Luckily, after rebooting both servers, it seems to have connected again without having to resort to reinitialization.

Oops

Forgot to do the laundry "last night." I'll have to remember to do it after I get back from work "today."

Since I just got the first season of Quantum Leap and the first two seasons of Sliders on DVD, I was too busy watching them to remember about the laundry. That I had the day off due to Labor Day also was a contributing factor.

New speakers!

Went to Fry's and got myself a 5.1 speaker system for my computer... got the one made by Creative, which works very well with my SoundBlaster Audigy. This should enhance my Doom 3 experience nicely. Bwahahahaha.

Gonna try watching some DVDs on it now.

Yikes

Just got a call from Lucy earlier. Seems somehow her sleeping position has caused some kind of nerve damage, and now she's having trouble moving her upper body.

We prayed together in fellowship for her, and I will go see her and take her to the hospital (if needed) tomorrow. Hope she's okay.

Ugh

ChiefValue.com says that it would finish verifying my credit card information in two business days, it's been three days, and I still haven't gotten another email, even after I called the number they gave me in the email. What are those lazy bastards doing?

New stuff for my PC

Went to Fry's after work and picked up a DVD -/+ RW drive, and a chasis fan. Both seem to be working well so far.

Online order problems

Placed on order for a set of Altec Lansing speakers, so that I could get surround sound for my computer. But since my shipping and billing addresses are different, they have to hold my order and confirm with the credit card company. I called up the credit card company to add an alternate address, and the woman who's working the phone sounds like she's never heard of the term.

Wonder if I'll actually get the damn thing.

Slow connection speeds

Decided to test the connection speed, after suspecting it of being slow for about a month... Basically the decision was triggered by use of Mike's laptop to test his wireless connectivity. The wireless connection was good, but it was the Internet connection itself that was bad.

So I performs a bunch of speed tests before I called Charter, and the average download speed was 873.25 kbps. High tapped out at 1.4 Mbps, and the low was 100 kbps.


And I just tested again. Here are the results.

DSL Reports:

1966 / 235
Your download speed : 2013612 bps, or 1966 kbps.
A 245.8 KB/sec transfer rate.
Your upload speed : 241331 bps, or 235 kbps.


SBC Yahoo:

Download = 2.258 Mbps
Upload = 245.67 kbps


CNet: 77.7 kbps


That's pretty bad....

Gas prices went up again!

What happened? When I went to get gas on Sunday (after having driving long distances to and from Peggy's wedding), premium gas was only $2.099 per gallon.

I went to gas up again today, and now it's $2.179 per gallon for premium! I thought prices were supposed to go down since summer is almost over...


On a side note, the AMSOIL seems to be working pretty well so far. Of course, it's still too early to tell.

Gmail invites

Whatever it was they were doing, they seemed to have changed it. I got one invite that I could give out yesterday, and today, I got five more. This, after about three months of not being able to send any invites.

I guess they were testing whatever it is that they test, and now have decided to enable invites again.

So I sent an invite to my brother, one to George, and another to Betty. Except the first one to my brother was the wrong address, so I had to send another one. So now I'm down to two invites left. Since Betty was wondering if she could have separate accounts in Gmail, I sent her the link for the wrong invite. We'll see if that works.

Oil change today

Picked up a K&N oil filter yesterday after work, and got my oil changed with the AMSOIL today before work. Guess I'll find out if it really is a better synthetic soon enough.

Got motor oil

The 5 quarts of AMSOIL synthetic I ordered arrived today. I'll have to remember to pick up an oil filter (or double-check to see if I already have one ready) later today, and hopefully get my oil changed tomorrow.

For quick reference, here's the link to an online test of different synthetic oils.

Well, that worked

Looks like the solution I found from the Google search did the trick. Now everything's synchronizing okay again. Whew.

Sync problems

The one problem I've been experiencing with my new PDA is sync errors when I'm trying to get it to install/sync with my PC.

At first, I would get an error message every once in a while, but it would sync again when I restarted my computer. But ever since I tried to install the Palm Bible Reader and HandStory Basic, it just refuses to sync, no matter what I do. I get an error message saying that sync failed and that I should look at the log for more details... and the log is pretty useless:

HotSync operation was terminated. Some of your data was NOT backed up.

An application on the PC failed to respond to a confirmation query. This application may need to be restarted.

Gee, thanks. Didn't tell me anything about what I could do to make it sync again. Which application?

Battery low

Just got the "battery low" notice for my wireless mouse a minute ago. I've been using the computer for about 6 hours today, with medium mouse usage.

The good and the bad

I cleaned my car and its windows last night, and this morning, on my way to work, some bird pooped all over my windshield. So I had to clean it again when I got to work.

On the brighter side of things, my new PDA arrived ahead of schedule today--it was scheduled to arrive on Thursday, the 19th--which is quite surprising, since it supposedly only shipped out last night, and was apparently shipped from New Jersey.

So I've already transferred what I can from my old PDA to this one. Gonna take a while to get used to graffiti2, and obviously some of the other stuff will have to be reinstalled. But so far, so good.

Need to update

I need to remember to update my Autobytel garage profile to include the smog check information... I think I forgot to do that when I got the smog check.

At any rate, I'm going to get an oil change soon. Since this Saturday is Peg's wedding, I'll have to wait til next week. So I've placed an order for 5 quarts of AMSOIL 5W-30, to see how it compare to the Mobile One synthetic I've been using.

Tried some more tweaks for Doom 3's performance, but pretty much couldn't get it to do much better. Donald did something to help increase it by around 2 FPS, and I changed the anisotropy to the lowest setting, which increased it by another 0.8 or 0.9 FPS. Guess I'll look through the tweak file I found earlier to see if there's anything in there I can use. Ran a bunch of tests as a result, so not too much mouse usage today, either.

Current lowest gas price for premium (91 octane): $2.139


Computer usage for Aug. 16: ~5 hours
Mouse usage: light

Light

Went to watch Alien vs. Predator. Not as bad as I thought it would be.

Gave Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic a try. Doesn't look too bad, though some of the controls are going to take some getting used to.

Computer usage for Aug. 15th: ~5 hours
Mouse usage: Light

Saturday

Mom and grandma dropped by at around noon, and we went out to lunch, then stopped by a Chinese supermarket so mom could pick up some groceries.

By the time we got back, it was around 3:00pm, and I had to meet with Jennifer and George at 3:30, so I couldn't help mom too much with her Excel worksheet. I'll see if I can take a look at it tomorrow.

So Don and I went to George's place. We then carpooled to Lawry's in Beverly Hills (10 west, exit Lacienega north), where George, Jennifer, Lisa, Jessica, and Fred, along with my brother and I, had their prime rib dinner, and a bottle of wine. We got there at 4:35 for our reservation, but didn't get to the main course until around 6:00.

Afterwards, we went back to George's place and played a few rounds of cards.

Got a call from Jeffry, who just test drove a Nissan Altima, and was wonder how much down-payment we had put on our cars before.


After we got home, I played some Doom 3, then checked the forums, downloaded some mods for Doom 3, and played a bit more.


Since we got back at around 11:00, and used the compuer for about an hour during the day, the total computer usage for today is once again around 6 hours..

Mouse usage during this period: medium

Begin MX700 battery test

Start of test:

Aug. 13th, 10:00pm

Decided to test how long the batter in my Logitech MX700 can last without charging. I used to just put the mouse in the cradle everday when I turn off my computer, so the batter never gets close to running low. For this test, I'm going to have to remember to leave the mouse next to the keyboard.

Current time: 4:20am, Aug 14th
Computer usage this session: ~6 hours

Mouse usage during this period: medium-low

&$^#ing BuyDig

It's been two days, and the site still has my order listed as "new order"... so it hasn't shipped it. Even though it claims to have "fast service"...

Look up "gullible" in the dictionary

And find my picture underneath.

I was taken in by a scam today. Some guy approached me in the parking lot of Food 4 Less today, and asked me what "village" we were in, then asked me to talk to his lawyer on his cell phone for him. Ended up driving him around trying to help him, only to have my money scammed.

Maybe if I were trying to be so helpful, I wouldn't have been scammed. There were certainly enough times, when if I didn't offer certain kinds of assistance, the scam wouldn't have worked.

Luckily, they didn't get much money.

POP! Goes the other PIAA bulb

My passenger-side fog light burned out today. And it looks like I forgot to put my screw-driver back in the car from last Saturday, so I can't put the new fog light on.

And that'll take care of my last PIAA H3 bulb. I'll have to order another set for backup soon.

Out of Kleenex

I'm down to the last sheet of Kleenex in my car... so gotta remember to pick up another box soon.

Actually, I think I'm just gonna get it during my lunch break, while I stop in the Albertson's for the BofA ATM. Might just get some donuts for lunch.

Can't figure it out

There was a Chinese song that was running through my head, but I can't remember what it is now. The only song that came to mind is 夢醒時分 by 陳淑樺, which is also good song, so I downloaded it. But I'm pretty sure that wasn't the song that was running through my head.

This is gonna bug me until I figure it out.

Betty's birthday

It's Betty's birthday today, so I called to wish her a happy birthday after I got home from work.

As I expected, there was no answer, so I left her a message. She called me back at around 10:00pm, and we talked till around 11:00.

New PDA

Broke down and ordered the Tungsten E today. Prices have gone down a bit since the last time I checked, which is good. Ordering it off BuyDig.com, along with a 128MB SD card.

Free shipping is 7-10 days, so I chose a faster delivery option for an additional 15 bucks, and went through the checkout process. But somehow it doesn't remember the shipping method I chose, and there doesn't appear to be a way for me change it.

Oh well. Hopefully it won't take too long for it to be delivered.

It's true

Having a bookshelf block the furnace to my room had definitely made the room cooler. Today's weather is almost as hot as it was two/three weeks ago, and my room is nowhere near as hot as it was back then, even without using the AC.

Gas price for premium today: $2.179

That's twice now

Mozilla crashed on me while using Edmunds.com today. Wonder what could be causing the problem.

So, since it crashed, my favicon setting wasn't kept. Gonna have to do a restart to make sure the setting was saved.

So Greg got a new car, too...

And just like Nicole, he also got a 2000 Lexus ES 300. What are the chances?

Found out last night when I went over because Peg needed help with her wedding program, and mom needed help with her homework.

Total cost was around $20,000, but also only has around 20,000 miles, so that's a pretty good price. And I finally looked up the specs at Edmunds.com:

210 HP @ 5800 rpm
220 ft/lbs @ 4400 rpm
Curb Weight: 3373 lbs.

I wonder how much HP was added due to the VVT-i (Variable Valve Timing - Intelliget). Anyway, a quick comparison with my car, based on the factory specs:

200 HP @ 5500 rpm
205 ft/lbs @ 4500 rpm
Curb Weight: 3053 lbs.

So I guess the extra weight is probably what made it feel not as powerful as my car. Though the intake in my car must make a difference, too. The new GTS has 210 HP because of its MVIM (Mitsubishi Variable Induction Management) intake, and has a curb weight of 3307 lbs.

Weird cell phone problem

Apparently my cell phone had stopped working since at least last Saturday. Mom's tried calling me twice during the weekend, while none of my weather updates (text message) came through the phone. I thought it was a bit strange that I didn't get my weather update like usual this morning, but that happens from time to time.

Then Mike called the office phone, because he tried to call my cell phone three times, and couldn't get through. I tried to call the voice message center, and couldn't through. So the only thing left to try was to turn the phone off, and then back on again (classic Windoze fix).

Then it worked.

Cleaned keyboard

Brought along with me some cotton balls, q-tips, and rubbing alcohol to work. Spent the good part of the morning cleaning the keyboard. Much better now, though I wish I can take it apart and get to the insides.

The soda I got from Yoshinoya is kind of leaking, so I'll probably have to clean the cup holder in my car. I'll have to remember to check it when I leave work today.

Computer upgrade

Went to Fry's and got myself a new video card yesterday... NVIDIA GeForce FX 5500, 256MB, 8x AGP. Big difference from what I had before (NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440, 64MB, 4x AGP). But my motherboard only supported up to 4x AGP, so Donald convinced me to switch to his old mobo and CPU.

Only problem was with stupid M$ Windows, which refused to recognize the new mobo and wouldn't boot. Ended up having to reinstall Windows (again). It's like everytime I upgrade, I have to reinstall. *#&$*@*7

Got most things back now, though for some strange reason, I can't log into Earthlink's webmail with Firefox. Was fine with Mozilla, though.

Yup, it's a sales gimmick

Drove over to Durate/Freeway Mitsubishi in repsonse to their "Vehicle Buy-Back" letter.

Based on the way the sales guy asked his questions, there can be no doubt that they're not really looking for any specific types of cars to buy back, but just want to get people into their lot and consider a trade-in for a new car.

Said they'd buy it for around $10,000, which, having just checked Edmunds, is pretty good for a dealer trade-in, which is typically around $8,142, with a private sale at around $9,535.

But that's not taking into account of the accident I had, which I'm sure would drop the price considerably. But it's not like the sales guy looked at my car in great detail, so that was just a quick estimate.

GMail notify

GMail notify stopped working for me today, both at work and at home, so I checked its homepage. Sure enough, a new version has been out for a while.

Installed it, and now it works fine.

Got another letter from Mitsubishi

The local dealership, Freeway/Duarte Mitsubishi, apparently wants to buy back 2000 Eclipses, and has sent me another letter to that effect.

It doesn't seem likely that they'll be able to offer me a deal that I would really like, but this time they say that they will give me free Vegas vouchers for just coming in, so I guess I'll stop by tomorrow afternoon to see what they have to say.

(Ideally, if they gave me a new car for my current car, it would only work if I had to pay the same or less for my monthly payment, and be paid up at or before the time I would finish the finance period of my current car.)

I just called the 800 number they listed in the letter, and got cut off when I was connected to their sales department. Oh well.

Definitely

Messed up. But stuff like this has happened before. Became okay again after a few days. Maybe Blogger is updating their code?

Hmm

Publish button seems to be messed up for Firefox 0.9.3 right now. Testing...

H&R Block

Got reply from H&R Block. Said there's a link for looking at and printing past years' tax returns.

How did I miss this link before?


Cleaned the printer nozzle, then printed the tax return copy out. Sending it out to the IRS. Hopefully that'll be the end of it.

Doom 3

Just played Doom 3 for a bit. Accidently shot the guy I wanted to talk to. But of course my system is a bit too old for the game, barely passing the minimum requirements. It still runs, but my guess is that when "all hell breaks loose" things will probably get really slow.

New versions of Mozilla and Firefox

Just installed the latest versions of Mozilla and Firefox (1.7.2 and 0.9.3, respectively). Had to reinstalled some of the extensions for Mozilla, but so far I think all of the extensions for Firefox have kept.

GMail

Decided to check GMail's spam folder today, just in case H&R Block's reply to me gets filtered.

No message from H&R Block, but two Evite messages. One is apparently from Rickie, the other is probably Greg's bestman for the wedding.

Now, we wait...

Called HP/Compaq's parts support line, after talking with Vivian to see what her thoughts are about JJ's DVD-ROM situation. The support guy gave me an RMA number and the shipping location, so we're going to send the DVD-ROM back to them.

H&R Block's "Talk to a Tax Expert" used whatever form they had to say that it's a technical issue, and that I should use their Customer Support form to get my answers. And because it was a technical issue, I would not be charged the $19.95 for their "Tax Expert" service. Good. I never thought it was fair that I'd have to pay for them to perform a service they should have performed when they took my money in the first place. I still have to wait for them to contact me again, though.

Drove to the Alhambra/San Gabriel District Office for AAA, and spoke with one of their insurance agents. They will send out my information to MMCA. Apparently MMCA changed their P.O. box. Also got my updated (temporary) insurance card.

When it rains, it pours

Ugh. Not only do I have to get in touch with AAA Insurance so that they can send the information to Mitsubishi Motors Credit of America, I just got a letter from the IRS stating that they didn't get my tax information for 2002 (which I always suspected as much).

So now I have to also get in touch with H&R Block, since they've already charged me for the filing of my 2002 taxes, but apparently never sent the file along to the IRS. Just effin' great.


As it turns out, the DVD-ROM that I had JJ order is the wrong one. Now what?

Oops!

I just realized before leaving for lunch today that I forgot to give the rent check to Tom yesterday. I'll have to remember to do so tonight when I get back.

I'll also need to remember to pick up some more rubbing alcohol... the current bottle is running low, especially after I used it to soak-clean my toothbrush.

They changed the broken fluorescent bulb in my office over the weekend, only to have me come back from getting lunch to find that the other fluorescent bulb is now broken.

Forgot to bring MMCA's letter regarding my insurance information again. I'll have to get in touch with AAA Insurance soon.... and they never bothered to return my call. >:[

It's August!

Well, duh.

Today (technically, yesterday) I switched to the new set of contacts for the month, as I had planned. Only problem was that I seem to have placed my right eye's contact backwards, as it felt a bit weird even after hours of wear and many eye drops later. Since I was in the movie theater watching The Bourne Supremecy, I couldn't just change it. When I was done with the movie, I came home and flipped it, and voila! No more weird feeling.

Met with Inez at her shop, and then went with her, Mayu, and Mayu's sister Yuki to dinner at Regent Cafe. Yuki is on vacation from University of Texas, San Antonio.

I should get to sleep and try to get up earlier for work tomorrow.

My room is cooler

I think a combination of this week not being as hot as the previous, the Yu Yu Hakusho wall scroll I've now got hanging on my window, and a bookshelf blocking the furnace, has really made my room much cooler than it had been last week.

There's no doubt that the furnace being blocked must be a contributing factor to the lower temperature in my room. The question is--how much of an influence was that furnace? I'll have to wait til the temperature is up in the mid 90's again to truly know the effects.

Whatever the result, it almost goes without saying that now, when it gets cold, my room will be much colder than it had been before.

I must seem like an easy mark

Went to Little Tokyo and Santa Monica with Nicole, Adeline, and Nicole's nieces today. When I got back, I decided to go fill up my car, and to clean my windshield while that happens.

Just as I've set the nozzle, a car drives past me and stops, the occupants of the car were kind of staring at me. As I walk around to get paper towel out of my seat, the driver of the car approaches me, and asks me what kind of cologne I wear... and proceeds to try and sell me cologne.

Along with her flattery, I easily and quickly bought a bottle of the cologne she was selling. So maybe somehow, they can just tell when some people are sitting ducks. Last time some dude approached me trying to sell me a sofa and love-seat set.

These days, I'm too cynical to believe that she truly meant whatever compliments she gave me.

Stupid Bank of America

Went to deposite Donald's check for the rent, at the usual B of A ATM location near Bally's and Stater Bros. Except the ATM wasn't working.

So I came home, went online to look for other ATM locations. Says the next closest one is on Badillo, just a bit further east of Citrus. E. 212 Badillo. Driver over there, nothing. Though there's a Wells Fargo across the street. Good thing I also checked for the next closest after that while I was online, as well. It's at Edwards theater.

I figured I might as well take this chance to find out if there's a better way to get to and from Edwards, since it's always congested at Lakes Drive. When I get there, and put in my ATM card, there's no deposite option.

Arrrrgggh!!!

Then I remembered that the map seemed to show there was more in the direction of the mall. Makes sense. So I drive over, and finally find a B of A branch, with a working ATM.

Finally in AGP mode

For the longest time, I couldn't get my GeForce4 card to run in AGP mode. I tried many different settings in the BIOS, and still no go. Whenever I check my nVidia settings, it'd say that I'm running in PCI mode. It's so frustrating.

Finally, I the keywords I used to search for finding the solution worked better today, and I found it--turns out Windows 2000 doesn't have the proper driver for my motherboard's chipset, so once I found the right one from VIA (the maker of the chipset used on my motherboard), it works in AGP mode.

About damn time.

I should run a 3D benchmark test to see how it is now.

Too early...

Been up since 8:30 am... 'cause I'm supposed to take Donald to the airport today. Sleepy.... ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

JJ's laptop... again

I guess the DVD-ROM is really just broken. Today, JJ brought his laptop back and asked me to find the address for HP/Compaq's service center, so that he can send it back for repair.

HP's website won't show the location of the service center for the Presario notebooks, instead wanting us to either call or email their tech support to make sure it need to be sent in. So during lunch, I looked up the replacement parts available for the Presario, and found them available for around $450.

So JJ ordered it, and it should be here in about a week. Since he's going back to Taiwan tonight, I guess I'll install it for him while he's gone. Though if the package is addressed to him only, I doubt I'll know when it gets here.

Excellent.

The meta tags worked their charm. No more hitting the refresh button to get the new content.

Let's see if that worked

So now, after I "publish" this entry, and click on the "view blog" link, the new entry should just show up...

Slighty cooler temps

It's been slightly cooler this week than last week, which is good, as I don't have to keep my AC running all the time, and waste electricity.

I'm changing the template for this blog slightly, so that it is no longer cached. That way I don't have to hit refresh each time I post a new entry.


Spare PIAA Healight Bulbs (H4): 2
Spare PIAA Foglight Bulbs (H3): 1

Another PIAA bulb bites the dust

Well, it looks like my passenger-side headlight has burned out. I'll have to remember to replace it before I drive home today.

Another day...

• I saw the Charter cable truck outside as I was leaving for work today, so that should mean that they've sent some guy to make sure the line here is good. Hopefully I won't have those signal problems again soon.


• Donald's car stalled on the freeway today, so he had to take it to the shop. Turns out the distributor is bad, so they need to replace that. They're going to fix his AC while they're at it, too. I had to pick up him and take him back there to pick up his car when they were done. Luckily, it didn't take too much time out of my work day.


• Go my new CD/MP3 player today. So far so good. Need to test it in the car to see ... or rather, hear ... how it sounds. Since it's only got a phone jack, the audio quality might be as good. We'll see.

Ha hah!

I kept forgetting to check if there was something I missed in blocking Friendster's ads. After checking the source code, I found it--there was a onLoad event that called for "displayAds"...

Added that little string to Adblock, and voila! No more ads.

Installed!

Moved a bookshelf. Had to break off a little bit of the sliding window fitting thingy. But it's working. Pretty well.




Charter's signal went out again. So I called their support line again. They will credit me for two weeks.

Lucky!

Got the FedEx tracking number from the online store yesterday... said that the portable A/C unit is scheduled to arrive today. One day earlier than the MP3 player I ordered last week!

Thankfully, the FedEx guy was here before I left for work, as I had hoped (and prayed) for... so I don't have to worry about the hassles of having to pick it up or something. I'll have to rearrange my room a bit when I get home so I can get this unit working.

I only had a short prayer for it to happen this way. Thank God it did.

Portable A/C unit

So I've been running around trying to get a portable air conditioning unit that wasn't too expensive... No such luck.

Did another web search for good prices, and noticed that Walmart had some decent deals for them, and since it would only be about 10 bucks more expensive with taxes than to get one online, I decided to check out the local Walmart to see if they had it. And of couse, they don't.

The guy I asked there says, "If it's online, then we don't have it." What kind of logic is that? I'm sure they must carry some of the crap they have listed online. Whatever, the guy was just being a dumbass.

Home Depot didn't have any, either. I would've thought they'd at least carry some kind of A/C solution.

So I ended up ordering online. Hopefully won't have too much trouble with having it delivered to the apartment.

Automatic proxy scripts

Just gonna post it here for easy reference, so I don't have to log into some forum I posted this to just to get it.

This first came up when I needed to use a proxy to access only a site or two (my own ISP was having problems with its DNS). Mozilla had the function of allowing me to use proxy and specify a few sites that could bypass the proxy. I wanted the exact opposite, and it was suggested that I should use a PAC file.

First, enter code similar to the below posted into a plain-text editor, and save it with a .pac extension:

function FindProxyForURL(url, host)   

    {   

      if  (shExpMatch(host, "*domain1.com"))   

        return "PROXY proxy.com:80";   

      else if (shExpMatch(host, "*domain2.com"))   

        return "PROXY proxy.com:80";   

      else   

        return "DIRECT";   

    }

By default, Notepad will save the file with a .txt extension, and most Windows systems are set not to display that extension. So most people will have to change their folder options to "show known extensions" in order to change the extension to .pac.

Once that's done, set the browser to use Automatic Proxy (it's usually the last option). Since it asks for the URL, and the file is stored locally, it'll have to look something like file:///C/Folder%20Name/filename.pac.

Keep my fingers crossed

Let's hope they've fixed it now... the signal only lasted for around 20 minutes after the second call last night. But it was late and I was tired, so I decided to call it a night.

Luckily, when I woke up this morning, I see that the signal is there again.

Well, that didn't last very long...

At 12:36 AM, the signal went out again. I waited for about 15 minutes (while trying to reset again) before I called Charter.

Same thing, reset the cable box, and they sent the signal, and now it's back..

Let's see how long this lasts

Came home around 12:00AM tonight. Sure enough, the cable was still out. Tom was here trying to watch the Chinese channels, which were, of course, digital and unviewable. He says that the signal kind of came in and out, and when it was in, would only last for around 3 minutes at most.

So I called Charter, and the lady who picked up asked me to unplug the power to all of my cable boxes and then plug them back in again. She also said that there were some signal problems in the area.

Well, hopefully she boosted it enough ... or whatever it is that they can do there ... so I won't encounter the problem again. But just 9 minutes ago, it went out for about a minute, and came back again. So I guess we'll see.


Also tried to unsub from DVD Box Office's mailing list. I thought I had already unsubbed before, but I guess we'll see. It says "Gaming list" so maybe they subbed me to others or something.

Charter Cable Issues

The cable line crapped out on my last night... No Internet connection, all the analog channels were fuzzy, and the digital channels were non-existent. Lasted for at least the hour or two that remained awake doing other stuff. Was going to check this morning when I got up if things were back to normal, but I forgot.

Hopefully I'll get home to find that everything has returned to normal. Or else I'm gonna have to call them again...

CD MP3

Gotta get myself a new CD MP3 player...

Kinda broke my old one when I came home. I swung the little carrying bag to my back, like I always do, and it fell out.

It might actually still work, but I need a new one anyway. That one is, what, five or six years old?

Blogger vs. Yahoo

One of the complaints I've been hearing a lot about on the forums regarding Firefox is the inability to compose messages in Yahoo Mail, Hotmail, etc. in "Rich Text Mode" (HTML).

Yahoo and Hotmail do it via ActiveX, among other things, which basically limits the usage to IE users. If they switch to using JavaScript, instead, like Blogger does, then more browsers would be able to use it.

Not that I would personally like to see more HTML-formatted email messages. But it's simply ignorant to say that Firefox/Mozilla is lacking in the abilities department as far as HTML composing in a web form is concerned.

For instance, this message (and all messages on my blog thus far) is being composed in Firefox. And I'm not having any problems with the "Rich Text Formatting" at all...

My user agent string:
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.7) Gecko/20040707 Firefox/0.9.2

I'll probably have to come back and edit the colors and such, as it might not appear legible in the dark background color I've got for my blog.

The composition of this particular entry is being recorded, and should be available here (in a bit).

Joke becomes reality

Oh, the irony...

First, we saw the Trading Spaces spoof on Chappelle's Show--Trading Spouses.

We all laughed, because the concept is just too ludicrous for a real television show.


Or is it?


Fox Network's new "reality show," Trading Spouses: Meet Your New Mommy is exactly the same general concept, and a desperate cry for help. Far be it for me to expect quality television from the same network that brought us Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire and Joe Millionaire, but this just pure sludge. Why do I have to keep hearing promos for this stupid show, even when I'm nowhere near a television?

Nikon Coolpix and Mac

Jason from work is having problems getting his Coolpix to work with the iMac he's using in the office, so he asks me to check it out for him.

Couldn't do much with it. Everything installed just like the instructions says, but when the camera's connected to the iMac and turned on, nothing happens. Maybe an updated version of the software would help, though I kind of doubt it.

How do you uninstall programs on an iMac? I can't find the option anywhere...

How hard could it be?

If a form looks like this, would be it reasonable to assume that most people would know how to use it?

File:

Apparently, it is too hard for Prof. Kuo.


Unbelievable.

Dumbest trend of 2004

I've been seeing these Asian (most likely Chinese) women with these "face shields" that double as visors. It's basically a visor with a very long flap, where the flap is made of darkened transparent plastic. You can pull the visor down, and it'll cover your entire face.

It's probably all the rage in Taiwan or some other Asian locale... I overheard a conversation a few weeks ago where someone bought one for someone else and what-not.

So far, the women I've seen wearing these monstrous things are all older women. That should tell us something about its true place in fashion.

Television

Watched (most of) SciFi channel's The Buried Secrets fo M. Night Shyamalan... Interesting. Probably fake. Afterall, it's on the SciFi channel.

They did make some attempts into making it look real, though.

Entertaining, but tries a bit too hard, I think. Like the part where the director watches the tape of Johnny Depp and Adrien Brody, back and forth several times. Yeah, we heard ya the first time. Not need to try to drill it in our heads, as if the audience is really that stupid.


Also watched about half of TNT's The Grid; it seems slower than I had hoped it would be. I guess it's supposed to be building up to something. I'll try to finish it tomorrow (have it on tape).

Aaarrrgggghhh!

Aparently someone hit my car with something while it was parked at Dockweiler Beach... yesterday while taking off my nosemask for the car wash, I noticed some chips and scratches below the driver-side rear window.

That's gonna be a pain in the butt to try and repair/repaint. Guess I should be ordering from PaintScratch.com soon.

Dockweiler Beach

Went to Dockweiler Beach after finishing the noodles with Nicole, Adeline, and Lily. Never been there before, but it's basically at the end of the 105 East.

Pretty good place, although it seems rather crowded. It has many bonfire pits, so would be good for an all-day gathering. The bike trail doesn't stay flat for very long, so isn't as good for a beginner rollerblader like myself.

Uh-oh

I've invited people from the fellowship over for 牛肉麵, and since Susan
and Kin don't know my address, I sent them my address via email. The
problem, though, is that Susan's mailbox is full, so the message just
bounces back to me. And I didn't ask for her phone number.



So I guess I'll have to wait til Nicole gets here to see if she knows Susan's number.

It's that time again

One of my fog lights burned out again, I think. Couldn't see its reflection while driving to work today. Gonna check it and put a new one in if it has burned out.

Some Firefox/Thunderbird themes

Haven't found these listed at any of the usual theme sites. Includes an IE5 theme for Firefox.

Random ramblings

• Decided to try out Launchy for Mozilla last night. Then Mozilla began to crash on startup. Since something like this had happened before, I decided to try the same solution as before--remove the "-mail -browser" commands I had. Then Mozilla could start okay, but still had problems. So I tried to uninstall it. Something in the profile was messed up, but I couldn't find it. Finally broke down and removed all my profiles, backing up what I could. Started with a brand new profile, and things seem to work fine now. Hopefully I haven't forgotten any extensions.


• Good drive to work today. No heavy traffic, and no jerks driving. No such luck going to lunch, though.


• I've noticed that big-rig drivers tend to be the most considerate drivers on the road.


• Anne called at around 12:30 today, frantic. Says her car won't move. After talking to her more about the situation, I finally found out that she was out of gas. Good thing it wasn't anything major. She was able to flag down someone to help her afterwards.


• I wonder if, when they're done with the road construction outside, they'll do anything about the tons of tire marks they left on the road.

Yu Yu Hakusho

I took some time to scan in and translate a short, completely unrelated story by Togashi Yoshihiro, the author of Yu Yu Hakusho. And here are the fruits of my labor:

"I Love the 90s"

I've been watching VH1's "I Love the 90s" series for the last couple of days. Made me look for the flying toaster screen saver.

Well...

Decided against getting stuff for the curry for tonight.

Uhh... what was I gonna do...?

Had a list of things I planned on doing after work today.... What were they?

Um... I think they were:

• Get case of Korean instant noodle
• Get ingredients for beef curry, maybe.
• Fill up for gas
• Dust car 'cause it might sprinkle tomorrow

I guess that's it. I should double-check to see how much I should get for the curry, though. Maybe I can just check at the supermarket.

Entertainment Weekly

In "The Shaw Report" from the current issue of Entertainment Weekly, it says:

In: Cocoa-covered almonds
Five Minutes Ago: Yogurt-covered raisins
Out: Wasabi peas


Did non-Asians really get into wasabi peas at one time? Or is that just a Hollywood thing?

Microsoft Updates

Microsoft release another slew of updates today. Luckily, I caught all those for JJ's laptop before I even realized they were new, so his laptop should be completely up-to-date.

Should've done this from the beginning

I downloaded and reinstalled fresh copies of Ad-aware and Spybot S&D on JJ's laptop.

Ad-aware found another 168 entries of spyware after I updated the reference file. >_<


The DVD/CD-ROM still only works part of the time.

Better Business Bureau

Heard on the radio today...

The Better Business Bureau (BBB) has set up a website that rates charities. This information should prove helpful the next time I decide if I want to donate to a certain charity. ^_^

www.give.org

Another hot day

Weather.com says it's 87° and feels like 89°... The digital thermometer on my watch says it's around 92°; radio (KFWB) says it's gonna be 104° in the valley today.

Whatever. It's hot. My watch still says it's 90° now that I've been inside with AC for five minutes.


Meanwhile, there's some kind of construction going on outside today, they closed off the road for a while, and my car is covered with dust.


Tapioca Express' "Vege Bun" is not true to its name. Sure, it's got vegetables in it, but is still predominantly meat. Not that I mind--I expected as much when I ordered them.


Kin called earlier today. It seems two of the springs that were holding up his garage door snapped. Imagine that--both at the same time. Obviously not a good day. I told him how to set the garage door to manual so he could still get it open, but he's gonna have to call someone to install new springs for him, or to do it himself.

Hmm.

Looks like the blog's time is off by about 15 minutes.


...or maybe not. Guess it displays the time when I started the message, not when I finished and pressed the publish button.

Spyware, whee!

Ugh. Been trying to fix the boss's brother-in-law's laptop for the past few days. Ran (and updated) Ad-Aware, Spybot Search & Destroy, and CWShredder, as well as Mozilla Firefox, which is now set as the default browser.

System still exhibits some symptoms of being infected with spyware. So I download HijackThis to go through the list of things that might still be around, and sure enough, there were a few. (Google search for keywords definitely helped.)

It seems to run a bit faster now, so hopefully I've got them all. Windows Update certainly finished a lot faster than it did before. But man, is the hard drive ever fragmented.


I should go get some lunch soon...

It just goes to show

What a newbie I am in regards to blogs. Didn't even know I could have "team members" in my blog. Guess I should browse through some other people's blogs to see if this is a commonly-used feature. At least they explains why I got the option of getting email notifications of when a new blog entry is posted. I'll play around with the settings more in the next couple of days, I'm sure.

For now, it's time to go to sleep.

Because I'm bored...

...and it seems like the so-five-years-ago thing to do, I decided to try out this blog thing. Never was one for keeping journals, which was why I never felt the urge nor need to start something like this.

Not that I didn't think it was a good idea to keep some kind of journal. Just never had the resolve to keep up with something like that. So I guess I'll find out if I'll be able to keep up with this, or if it will fall to the wayside, just like all my previous journal attempts.