New hobby and exciting summer

This summer started off with me exploring a bit on my bicycle and doing a personal training ride for a month. After that month things just fell apart and I found myself stepping away from the bicycle more - I got a bicycle rack for the car for super cheap but even that didn't really motivate me. Eventually I will need to get back onto the saddle but a new hobby has emerged: photography!

Some days, while starting in front of my desktop computer, I would always dream of capturing a beautiful pictures I could use as my wallpaper. I like to look at landscapes and marvels, i guess part of the cycling has shown me some great sights. So an upgrade to my digital camera was always crawling on the back of my mind. There has been a big confusion for me between professional cameras and SLRs for a while -- most people say you don't need an SLR and a simple point and shoot will do. But i guess i'm not like everyone and usually I tend to get a bit too technical to accept something simple.

Eventually I did get the SLR, and getting it was a story all by itself. I researched and researched and decided to invest little into the camera and more into the lenses since the majority of the community does agree with what I say - amateurs say otherwise. The camera came from no other than my cousin who lived at Irvine at the time (quite the drive from the bay area). This was a great opportunity I thought to myself because another thing I wanted to do was visit an old friend down in LA. I had a blast in LA and also got that camera that would set me off on my journey.

So I had the car, and the excitement of getting the camera and meeting up with a good friend got me pumped. I drove the entire 400-500 miles there to Irvine first to meet my cousin who I have not seen in years. The drive down there wasn't as bad as some of my friends told me - it was long but wasn't something that would be impossible; it just took some coffee and a can of rockstar! When i got to LA i dropped off my hitchhiker mom and ditched her so i could go on with my business - the camera. My cousin sold me his first and only SLR for $200, it was a great trade for both of us since he no longer needed it and I was trying to save money by starting off small in the camera world. I stayed that night and hung out with one of his friends and just observed a bit and left for LA the next day.

I went to meet my good college friend Charly from years back. I have seen him drive up to the Bay Area often and so decided it was worth driving down there to give him a visit. The day I got there he seemed to have a lot of things planned already. We played MTG with two of his other friends and it was a great start. He had his own place with a roommate and two large dogs; it was like the complete opposite of what I have back here at home. I stayed in the garage of his house which was a room for someone else that was out of town - it had a superb sealy temperpedic bed!

The next day wasn't as exiting as the first, but it gave me time to soak up on my new camera and also left me with room to think about personal things and explore the area. We walked the dogs and also watched a movie that same day. On Monday we went to Disneyland as he had planned and met up with some new friends there and enjoyed as much as we could in one day. Honestly I had a great time and it was it surprising how much detail was in this park - something I haven't had the mindset to think about until now as an adult. The fireworks was a blast and I had some fun using the new camera I got.

The trip to LA was a blast and I would probably plan on doing it again - maybe during the next magic release because now I have a gang down there to socialize a bit with. Definably a great experience and also a true test of my driving abilities. I almost hit a truck but it was a good thing my mom got scared and yelled out. I know my limits much more now and will pull over next time to sleep.

CYCLING SEASON, FOR ME ANYWAY!

Today was an awesome day, not only because I took the entire day off but I got myself a new upgrade on my best bike and transformed it into something like a dream!

This morning i was just randomly browsing through craigslist and found a cycling enthusiast setting up a garage sale at noon. It was a few hours away and I went to study some of the bicycle components i was interested in, mainly that $190 Dura Ace crankset he had up for sale since everything else was MTN bike stuff. I was very tempted to purchase it but no way will spending $190 just to change one of the many components on a bike be a smart move. Anyway, a friend and i went there to check out the place and it looked exactly like it did in the photos -- one garage wall full of components and wheels / bikes galore. Anyway I had my eye on those cranks the entire time and they sure looked good - almost 9.0/10.0 for a used!

I made my initial offer of $140 and explained to him i needed it for the bike i had with a triple setup (something i learned to regret getting). He agreed that $140 was a good offer and he'd take it but i wasn't even prepared to spend that much, so I went home empty handed and took another look at the bike parts I had. I gave him a call and wondered if he wanted to do trades and he told me he was interested in that triple i had (a coincidence!). Anyway let me put and end to this long story by saying i got the VERY pricey DA 7800 cranks by trading in my LESS EXPENSIVE Ultegra 6603 cranks + $50 + a triple front dérailleur i no longer needed! TALK ABOUT AWESOME - the bike, after installing it of course, felt like a different creature.

I was so excited I test rode it for a few hours today and was convinced i made the best decision to do the swap - this was almost too good to be true! Anyway this is no joke, the bike feels about 25% more responsive than it did before and the bike truly feels race-ready at last!

After the day i went home to shave my legs and get ready for the cycling season ahead of me.

Final Fantasy XIII - Happy Jappy

Seems like this new final fantasy game is missing one thing: a dark side. This entire game has a weird storyline with confusing plot that i found very "basic". There was a lot of extra content in the game that i skipped on such as the extra stories generated by every new encounter within the game. But the game does deserves a lot of recognition for what was done right.

There is a lot to love about this game but it doesn't seem like it deserves the A grade that it could have received from me. I think the story was a bit too weird for me to understand, maybe some serious die-hard fan can help me out in the future but, as for now, i'm still not 100% sure i understood the ending/story.

The battle system was awesome, that is something i had fun with - even though it was only a single player game i see its potential use in the future. All u needed to do was control one character and the other two were on auto pilot, this saved a lot of time and repetitiveness that usually is part of the RPG formula. The battles were pretty good, and i think every new monster i faced in the progressing story had a chance to kill me; it was a challenge throughout the entire game.

I also thought they did a good job in selecting voice actors for the movie scene "conversations" -- the characters seemed more flavorful than a lot of the games out there. They all had good transitioning lines and i guess put that natural blend of lingo into their game.

Happy Jappy is a word introduced by a friend of mine and it seems to fit this game title pretty well. I found this game to be like a typical Japanese fanboy's dreamy game, every sexy character has perfect bodies and looks that meet the standards of fashion models. Hell, i can already see tons of people trying to dress up as these characters during some anime convention and buying those model figurines! I'd admit I was admiring how attractive the characters were, that might hint on the types of people who work in the final fantasy teams.

Another thing is the music in this game; they did a good job on their tunes and i love how soothing it is to my ears. But there isn't a really dynamic set of background music (BGM), most of the music is either neutral or "happy" hence the title i gave for this blog. I kept remember the scenes in Final Fantasy VII, one of the best FF games, where you would see blood trails left by the story's antagonist and it would switch to a very dark set of BGMs - this game def. isn't the same. This game so reminds me about japan's pop culture, very attractive singers that don't have the same level of talent as their looks.

Well after beating the game, it seems like it's not quite over yet since there are about 30+ side quests that were impossible to complete before. I dont even know if i want to try them since I'm already done with the game - that last boss wasn't even that difficult after i got the hang of it so what's the use in getting stronger.

Oh and that reminds me, this game has an upgrading feature for every weapon / accessory that you find / buy. Anyway they made the upgrading system very complicated and you would need to spend some hours figuring out the right amount of resources to upgrade efficiently. I made a few good upgrades and required the help of an excel spreadsheet and a few hours of proofing my formulas.

Overall, I like the game but I can't find a good reason to play it again. It is like watching a well-made movie with all the special effects and none of the story to make it great.

The photo on the top is a picture of Serah Fallon, The main character's sister and also probably the central goal of the game -- saving the world so that she can be revived automagically.

re-embracing an old hobby

As school started, I got back onto my bicycle and frequently biked to school like I have in the past for years. It was a rewarding feeling getting on that bicycle again and actually using my bikes instead of stowing them away in the garage.

Shortly after school started, i found a cycling companion that lived in the same neighborhood - the discovery was unexpected and eventually we got closer together and we meet up daily before and after classes. Eventually the new found friend got curious about the road bikes i rode and decided to get one.

I got back into my bicycle hobby as soon as he was interested in getting a bike, i think we spent about a few weeks researching and going around stores. I shared with him a lot of my experiences and quite a lot of my opinions to persuade him into the right direction. He was very skeptical at first but eventually I got him to avoid spending money in the wrong direction. Right before he was about to spend some of his money on a bike he saw at a local bike shop, we went to our first swap meet together (sports basement).

We found his first bike which was exactly matching what he wanted to spend ~ about $300. It was quite the bargain for a nice entry-level bike. The components / wheels alone on the bike probably made up for the majority of the cost. He wanted a short bike so i guess this was the bike he wanted, especially for the price. The bike was a late model OCR compact in Blue from giant with a lot of modifications towards an ultegra / 600 grouppo mix. The fork was aluminum alloy so it was probably the 2004/2005 model. When i test rode the bike, it was responsive and had all the qualities i would look for in an entry-level bike. I made the decision for my friend to buy the bike right before a family had the opportunity to look at it, and no regrets i hope.

After a few weeks of enjoying his new bike, he then decided the bike was too small for him and he really wanted a bicycle he could be proud of riding. To me, this was the common behavior i see a lot with friends who test ride my racing style bikes. Eventually his mind was clouded with a lot of dream bikes on ebay and eventually he we were researching again. He seemed very interested in a carbon frame and was about to buy one again at a store before the swap meet ironically.

There were about 3 swap meets that day we went on october 2009; i drove from san jose to richmond to walnut creek and back (180miles). I went with my new friend and an old highschool peer. Everyone had their own things to look for except myself - since i really didn't know what i needed. There were a lot of great things going on our first stop in san jose; i got my steel bicycle i always wanted and it was one of the gems of that swapmeet. Being cautious about time, we quickly started moving to the next venue in richmond, east bay.

A lot of high hopes were set on this next location since it seemed to be very publicized. We got to the place about 15 minutes late and started to look. This second swap meet had more "retail" merchants than the previous one so things were more new and less bargain-able. After a few minutes there, i wasn't too interested in their selection - but my friend found his carbon frame that he wanted, a very nice Orbea orca for $500 that came with the fork and a free front derailleur. Shortly after getting the frame we just left towards that last destination in "walnut creek".

We got there earlier than the other two places and saw barely anything. So we went around inside the store that was hosting the event and learned more about the orca frame we just picked up. Some customer shared some nice comments about the frame while we waited for the sellers. After about half an hour we finally saw something useful - a set of mavic krysium wheels. We got the wheelset for under $50 and decided it was time to leave and head back to san jose to look for parts for the new bike we now needed to get parts for.

After the day was over, I probably spent about $300 - but i got my bike that was probably worth every penny. And my friend got his bike built for about $800 and it feels like one of those $2k+ bikes new. We'll be looking forward to the cow palace meet sometime this month and hopefully he will figure out what else he wants for his bike. The only problem i see now is that he got a frame a bit too big, and also a frame too small.

I just finished fixing up my bike last week and am very proud of it, now if i can get my ass off and actually ride it i can really enjoy it.

Education Problems And Solutions 2009

So I have decided to get back into school again 1 year after I've graduated with an Electrical Engineering BS degree and minor in Computer Science.

First off, going back to a government educational institution right now is horrible due to all the budget cuts in California and probably nationwide. I thought only the fees were increased but actually a lot more of surprises came as school started. Our school has more "closed" days than before and also each professor must choose and discard 5 additional days during the semester. With an increase in the fees and reduction in the courses/lectures this seems good for people who want an easy education ... but not for those who actually want quality education.

So it looks like the future students of San Jose State University will have limited knowledge and less skills than previous students... because of the many setbacks and reduction in teach. My lecturers all have reduced their course objectives and have a few topics normally taught in the class. I believe this is only the beginning and a lot of issues will arise later.

It was also very difficult to get into courses because of the limited seating that is now enforced. Before you could get add codes easily if the professor allows it - but everyone now needs to ask permission and codes from the top.

I just started reading a book from this Stanford professor (economics) and it has a very interesting first chapter. The professor always gives this assignment of "if i gave you $5 make as much profit as possible within 2 weeks" and it is similar to the situation right now at SJSU. I think i should give this book to one of those professors at school and maybe they will get some of the ideas that have sparked in my head.

San Jose State should step up to this budget problem and find alternatives to generating income... the first chapter clearly shows that you can generate lots of money without money at all. Organizations should be started around school to create income for the school. The university is full of bright people, they should be able to start projects that eventually brings in some profits. Simple things like the printing shop across the street started by one of the professors probably donate income to the school - there should be student groups that do such things.

I would repair bikes at school for free and just put a donation can in front of myself to help generate income for the school (like an example in the book). Although it does sound weird to offer free services - most things are easily fixed and people end up donating more than they would for a repair. The CS courses I have been taking should offer consulting services to nearby organizations and possible get some sorta donation later. I have signed up to work with cinequest and in return i get some free movie tickets.

Well the ideas are endless and I'm sure SJSU is capable of figuring it out - they just need to stop looking at their problems and look at alternatives.

I LOVE MY T61 LAPTOP! BEST $900 EVER!!

Often times i regret spending over $800 for this laptop i'm using now to write this blog entry but the past few weeks have made me appreciate this little machine much more than before. The picture shown above is the product of my labor for the past few weeks and also the work of many other thinkpad owners around the world! It shows the successful installation of OS X on a lenovo thinkpad T61.

Ever since those Mac and PC advertisements i've grown some hatred towards Mac because of their consistent jokes about PC users. Anyway i finally get to see what the Mac OS X is all about and i have to say it is a unique blend of features for an operating system that places it ahead in some ways. I like the OS X because it makes you feel like Apple Computer is run by perfectionists that spend hours and hours until they are satisfied with their product.

Anyway, the reason why i'm so happy with my laptop is that it is 100% compatible with the x86/OSX operating system that has been always proprietary to Apple Computers. Most laptops out there are far from being 100% compatible with this operating system and will always have something to keep them from fully experiencing the software. The most common things missing are wireless capability and graphics support; without these the experience would be unpleasant and most would revert back.

The reason for installing the OS in the first place was because i decided to take a challenging course in "iPhone Development" which is a new course here at SJSU taught by professor that i'm close with. Because of Apple's common behavior, they would only allow their SDK to run on newer Apple computers that have the latest and greatest. Initially i thought about investing into an older model macintosh computer to setup my environment in, but the search proved to be a challenge. The lowest prices i saw on ebay were $350 for used "Mac Mini"s that should retail for $300 new. Anyway, i have heard about "hackintosh" - the term used to describe a PC running the Mac OS and decided to start. 

The first day I spent most of my time researching forums and starting my downloads - the first disc i installed was a complete failure and it was very discouraging. As i searched more "stable" builds i got to my first checkpoint - installing and running the OS successfully. I was so excited that i went and showed my friend nearby but it ended up showing me how unstable these installs were and ended up wasting time re-installing. Eventually on the second day i was quite confident of my machine and decided to start downloading the SDK - and as i opened the program it informed me that my OS was outdated and needed and update. The update ... trashed my install and my two days worth of work! Anyway, it was clear that the more stable build did not support the SDK and i started back at square one and decided to go for the latest, less tested, builds. At this point i was clear on what must be done and have gone through the install process a few times already. Eventually everything came together and I have gotten everything to work properly with the exception of stable bluetooth detection and CPU speeds reduced by 10%.

When i brought the machine to school many were in awe and gave me props for getting the dev. environment working. Even a few mac owners were envious of what i had - the feeling was great and now i'm looking for a spare machine to play around with and also to replace some parts on this machine.

LONG LIVE THE THINKPAD T61, THE GREATEST LAPTOP I'VE BOUGHT!! Despite the crappier body made by lenovo!

Now i get to program iPhone apps and get a student developer license from school.

my first car, the integra gs 93' 5spd

I have long been a cyclist and have felt very comfortable doing distances of up to 40 miles daily to get to places. However, most people don't think this is a great idea and one of them is my close uncle that is a sports car fan for many years. Since last year, he has urged me to learn how to drive manual - which is something i believe all guys desire to learn in their lifetime. I've been looking to buying a used car from the start based on my simple mechanic experience with bicycles. Also working on a car is something i really would like to know how to do since i'm quite the hands on person.

Initially I was setting my eyes on a 5 speed civic, something proven to be reliable and relatively easy to drive and pay for. But as months pass by i've been sent links to civics around $4-6k and all of these prices were out of my budget and beyond my checking account. So one day (a week past my birthday) my uncle spots an old integra for just $3000 on craigslist and immediately i was interested because i could actually buy it CASH. Price usually is the motivating factor behind a lot of my purchases - but an integra should be better than a civic, i thought. So i agreed quickly and said I was interested and my uncle sent an email.

Afterwards, with a lot of doubt that we would get the car, we got a reply back from the seller and my uncle decided to take some time to come down to sunnyvale to check out the car with me. So it was 7pm and I brought a close friend of mine, who owns a GSR integra, to head towards DeAnza College to meet the seller/car. Both of them saw the posting on craigslist and were pretty excited to check out the car since it looked clean, but i kept them skeptical and alert for any problems that may come with the car.

When the sellers arrived, we took a look at the car and were amazed at how great it looked, they inspected all the obviously places and the interior. When we got into the car for a test drive i sat in the back while my uncle gave it a basic test on the road and freeway. After we test drove it, we had a team meeting, and both of the experts i went with agreed nothing was wrong and i should just GET IT. These two were deep honda fans and should know more about cars than i should so i fully agreed on their judgements and if they say to buy it, i definitely would. At first, i thought the car looked abit outdated and "not my style", but the whole experience of buying this car made me appreciate it more as time went by.

Of course there was a problem right after we agreed that we wanted the car, the owners wanted the money immediately because they had a line of people who agreed to purchase it tomorrow morning if it was not sold. Desperate for cash we only came up with a little over $1000 and had to scramble around for money from family/friends nearby. Well nobody seemed to have that much cash around except my mother who ultimately came in to help. My uncle was willing to drive all the way back to san francisco and back to get the extra money - something that told me this was a great deal. So we told the sellers we had the money and agreed to meet in the morning @ DMV around 8am to cover paperwork.

The next day the original owners transferred the title over to me and gave me their keys and remote. I had no experience with manual beyond just the parking lot about half a year ago so i was really rusty and needed some practice. My neighborhood friend across the street examined the car own his own and agreed that it was a great purchase and sort of helped me re-learn how to drive the 5speed transmission. After the first few turns and stops i was pretty nervous and stalled a few times and annoyed about 2 drivers ... but i made it back to the driveway and was ready to learn how to drive the following weekend with my uncle in the hilly streets of San Francisco.

A friend of mine who claimed to know how to drive manual come over sometime the next week to check out the car and brought one of our friends along. I knew these two for a long time and i knew they would give that predictable habit of theirs to bash on people's stuff. So they came and gave their little lines and i remained cool about it and ushered them into my car and let my friend take the car for a spin. Immediately, as my friend got into the car, he admitted he didn't know how to drive that well and .... i was somewhat not shocked. I guess i knew this guy long enough to expect something like this to happen - so i endured his revving of the engine to start the car on first gear and push the car past 25 on first gear. I do not believe i saw him shift beyond the first gear before we needed to stop again and turn.

Anyway, it was dark and they seemed to have seen enough of the car and the friend that drove the car agreed it was a nice buy while the less interested friend remained a bit skeptical. After the drive we went out for food and stopped by an auto parts dealer to see if an old friend of theirs still worked there. I got to get his phone number and he agreed to check out my car someday when he was free to fix any problems and offer service. And on the days ahead i was researching on car parts to buy and forums on the integra to research more on my car. On the day before the weekend with my uncle - i drove the car around just to make sure i remembered how to change to the first gear and get it moving - and then i went to san francisco to train the next day at 6:30AM on a sunday.

The training was about 2h30min and time flew by pretty quickly and we went all over the city and onto the freeway to less populated areas. One stop we made was to a krispy kreme and I finally got the see one of these for the first time. The entire time, it was me who was driving and i was very surprised to see myself drive so easily and well. My uncle thought i knew how to drive already and had confidence in me enough to give me a grade of B+ after we were all done.

I just took it for a spin yesterday with my sister to get some food at the nearby KFC - since this was something i could not do on the bike. Well getting the chicken wasn't the great highlight of the experience but i finally thought i nailed the first gear down with a technique i figured out taht day - it was to pivot with the heal and use your toe to let go of the clutch slowly and smoothly. I now remain skeptical if that was the proper way to drive and if this was not a good practice.