Thursday, August 31, 2006

綺麗なウォークマン Sシリーズ ・ The beautiful Walkman S series

Here comes the new S series.
It's waterproof, includes FM radio and step counting funcitons, and supports MP3, AAC, WMA, ATRAC3, a broad format support that's not normally expected from Sony.
Best of all, it's got an alluminum casing, and the shape and jog controls are all just like the in-line remotes of previous Sony CD walkmans. Now this is a looker.
Also, you get the "3 min charge, 3 hour playback" and 18hours long play time as with previous Sony Walkmans.

If only it supports Mac OS, I'd likely buy one. But before it does, I'm still sticking with my Sony Clie :)

Links:
ソニ☆モバ posting
Sony's press release
Official website

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Google's online Office softwares

Let's see what you get with your ordinary MS Office package... Do you know Google has an online version of most of them? (And this is what made Microsoft nervous about Google) The point of using online applications is that 1)It's free 2)Can do group editing, where everybody contributes, great for team works(How I with I had these when I was doing experiment course reports) 3)The files are online, accessible from any computer, with cross platform support. However, some of them are still not as powerful as desktop applications.

1. Word: word processor | Google's answer: Writely
Writely Home
Most of the essential formatting tools are there; table cell size relatively hard to control.
May upload files from your computer, and download them when you're done.
Because this app is accuired, integration with Gmail is not good, yet.
User account is also a seperate account of it's own.

2. Excel: spreadsheet | Google's answer: Google Spreadsheets

Most of the essential formatting tools are there; doesn't support hyperlinks.
May upload files from your computer, and download them when you're done.
Requires a Gmail account.

3. Powerpoint: presentation slideshows | Google has no answer to this
(Hay Google, want to try this one?)

4. Outlook: mail & schedule | Gmail & Google calander
Gmail
First of all, I guess everybody knows Gmail by now, the famous email service with always growing storage (it's recently about 2.7GB), simple and intuitive UI, integrated IM & calender & mapping, great spam filter, and real time notificaiton via the Gmail notifier application avaliable as a download. If you want one, I have invitations :)

This has a similar UI as Gmail, and also offers event notifications via the downloadable notifier.
May import data from Outlook and iCal.
Supports Calender sharing.
Requires a Gmail account.

Also, for notes, I'm happily using Google Notebook
Google Notebook

Are computers causing us more problems then it's solving?

This morning, someone in our lab asked me to help him send some pictures to his daughter. I thought it's just attach and send, so I went ahead to show him. First, he needs to find the photos he wants to send. The photos are on the lab intranet server, so he went to download them. But then, his connection kept disconnecting and reconnecting to the server every 10~20 minutes. It took him like half an hour to find the ones he wanted and get them on to his desktop. Then, I have to help him find the attach button in his Outlook tool bar. I have used Netscape mail, Thunderbird and Outlook express, and am recently just using Yahoo and Google's webmail UI, in all those cases, the attach button/link is relatively easily spotted. (Except Outlook express, which my junior high computer teacher telled us where it is...) However, I've never seen such an interface nightmare as I've seen today. Outlook launch this "Word email editor" window when you compose a new mail, and on top of the window, there's 3 whole lines of button icons there, most of them, of course, are stuff you'd never use. I felt like finding a needle in a haystack, but eventually found the "paper clip" icon, which I vaguely remember from Outlook express that means attach file (I'd never know what a paper clip means if I never used Outlook express). So there goes Microsoft's trick at it's best, using unsuggestive icons, and burying often used functions deep in a pile of junk.

But the nightmare does not end there. I don't know the outgoing mail size limit of UCLA's mail server, but he just attached 3 photos, reaching a size of about 7MB, and maxed out the size limit: mail blocked. After a futile attempt of compressing the photos into a zip file (size still near 7MB), we decided to send then photos one by one. But then his mail box it self maxed out. Maybe he didn't have the habit of cleaning his mailbox...

Should this be that hard? He just wanted to share some moments of joy of his life with his daughter. And our computing environment made this simple wish extreemly hard to acomplish. In the end I just gave him a Gmail account, which has a simple but useful user interface, constantly growing mailbox size, and 10MB outgoing size limit.
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One other night, a friend at the Co-Op wanted to log on to MSN messenger to chat with another friend. But her ACER notebook, also, kept connecting and disconnecting from the WIFI connection. I told her never buy an Acer again, and just let her use my ultra stable MacBook.
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Yet another friend, who also has an Acer, one day found out that his notebook somehow deleted it's CD/DVD burning drive's driver files, automaticaly, all by it self. The driver couldn't be found on Acer's support site. And the driver from someone else's Acer of the same model somehow didn't work either. After 2 days of trying, he gave up and recovered to the original factory settings.
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Computing should never be that hard, but we do have a lot of idiots in the IT industry.

With my MacBook and Clie TH55, my rate of having something crash in my face is less then once a week. However, it takes a geek like me to know to choose MacOS and Palm OS. It also takes a geek to know to stay away from Microsoft and wisely use Google's great services. Hope more people would get the know how to avoid computer problems and get their work done, not wasting their time solving stupid problems.

Sunday, August 27, 2006

水袋入手!!!


一個月前買了個很棒的Jansport登山背包,來代替我原來的破爛Outdoor廉價品。因為想預留空間裝水袋,就選了個H2O compatable的。其實我之前的Outdoor就已經是Hydration compatable了,只是因為Walmart壓低價格,迫使製造商比需用很差的材料,用半年就已經破洞一堆了。Anyway,買了新的Jansport之後,我開始認真尋找水袋。主要的選擇有Camalpak和Nalgene,其中Camalpak很明顯是為自己的背包設計的;而Nalgene則是Jansport的御用水袋牌子,也是有名的塑膠水壺品牌。不過呢,兩家都很貴,1L的要20$;2L的要25~30$。

不過今天讓我不小心找到了最便宜的,Outdoor水袋小背包附贈2L水袋共20$,特價15$,比單買水袋還便宜!!!爽啊!Outdoor水袋小背包不是很好看,不過若要騎短程的路,只需要帶水的時候還滿方便的,而且透氣背帶和靠背導風溝都有。不過呢,若要出大活動,當然就用Jansport輕便登山包啦,只要把水袋裝過去就行啦^^

哈哈,Jansport登山包 + Outdoor水袋,可是台灣找不到的組合呢!以後我也可以當懶人喝水族了。

Saturday, August 26, 2006

呆丸共和國

過去一直覺得台灣是個美麗的地方。風景漂亮,水果多,食物好吃,有人情味。不過最近覺得它已經成為一個解體中的國家。中國共產黨越來越聰明,以前採取鴨霸強硬手法,得到台灣人團結的反效果。現在靜靜的,暗中給新聞媒體和某些政治人物一些好處;他們就自行作亂,把台灣搞垮。真的是生於憂患,死於安樂,以前李登輝時代,有飛彈試射,台灣人就知道要自我保護。現在,共產黨裝乖,就靜靜的等你自殺。

台灣兩大亂源:
政治、媒體

政治:
國親兩黨把台灣視為中國的一部份;民進黨將台灣視為「政治實體」(那是啥?)沒有人心中有國家,自然就不會有愛國,肯為國家做事的。民進黨當中每個人都只想讓自己權力坐大,而頭頭老扁只會到處討好別人,沒有在做事,反而得罪自己原來的支持者。「有夢最美,希望相隨」只是個選舉口號,老扁當選後,沒有夢,更沒有希望。而反對黨也不做好監督的工作,「為反對而反對」的立場一路走來始終如一,只有一心想把在位者鬥下來,跟幾十年前的共產黨權力鬥爭差不多。每個人心中只有權,沒有國。以前想說呆丸人怎那麼呆,都選些垃圾出來執政;現在發現,怎麼選都一樣,大家都是垃圾。

媒體:
媒體本來應該扮演另一個監督執政的角色,但是他們只知道作亂。新聞亂報,不實傳言捕風捉影,任何雞毛蒜皮都可以編成偉大的獨家。(不過從另一方面來看,某T字頭新聞共產黨轉投資的港商,作亂不就是其任務嗎?)但是這樣亂來也有收視率,只因為呆丸人懶得動腦,電視報什麼都照單全收,放任自己被洗腦。例如,新聞叫你去捐100塊倒扁,你就去捐?有沒有想過,施明德要那麼多錢幹嘛?倒扁靜坐需要那麼多資金嗎?又,有多少人想過倒扁後誰當總統?台面上幾乎每一個都跟老扁一樣爛,甚至更爛;有必要花那麼多社會資源去搞一個更爛的總統嗎?台灣音樂工作者陳明章說得好:「關電視救台灣」,不過有多少人民肯花腦筋去了解這句話的意含呢?為何向劣質媒體宣戰需要一個王建民出來發表聲明才做得到呢?為何出來宣戰的還只是以王建民球迷為主體呢?為何反媒體只有幾天的熱度,比那唯恐天下不亂的施明德倒扁運動還虛弱呢?

人在國外,反而看得更清楚。全世界在進步,台灣在解體。連住在這裡的中國人都覺得台灣很悲哀。我可能提過很多遍,不過台灣真的需要一個敢改革、有理想的英雄,一個能夠像小泉純一郎那樣把國家從解體邊緣救回來的人。把國會的垃圾一次清掉,政府官僚也一次清掉,換一批肯做事,心中有國家的人;全民關電視,讓劣質媒體一次倒光。有大破壞才有大建設,唯有把癌細胞清掉,才能把這個癌症末期的國家救回來。

Thursday, August 24, 2006

Lab work comming to the end

As the end of summer vacation is closing in, the day when I need to leave the lab is also closing in on me. 2 months have past and not much accomplished. I'm gradually getting a clearer picture of my project with each week, and as I got the whole picture in my mind, I started to speed up my work progress. And now, I'm in the last 2 weeks of my project. Still not much accomplished, and I'm getting anxious. Time is running out, my presentation is closing in, the pressure growing, and I'm trying harder.

The last 2 weeks for a summer research program is always the hardest. All the expectations and anxiousness builds up, and under the presure that you apply onto your self, you start to crack. Tasks forgotton, worse planing in search for faster results, fetigue... all add up to screw ups in your experiments. And then the normal bad lucks and unexplainable random faillares seems to be hardder to cope with when you're really anxious.

Hope my luck would be much better for the next week. Give me all the clones!!!

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

A car from Silicon valley: Tesla Motors

And you thought Silicon valley is all about computers, yeah it WAS. But now, a start up from Silicon valley is making really cool cars. Tesla Motors, an electric car company, is now introducing their first product, and it's a roadster. It has zero emission, runs sillent, never needs gas, and no, unlike previous electric cars, it doesn't need to be recharged after every commute (the GM EV1 can only go 60 miles per charge), and it doesn't look ugly. It runs on a high proformance motor that is sufficiently powered, and accelerates faster then a Porsche, silently. It's got lithium-ion batteries that allow it to run 250 miles per charge, and be fully charged over night. And, it's designed by a designer that previously design Lotus sports cars, guaranteed to be cool. This might be the coolest American car since the downfall of Detroit's big 3.

Feel the weather getting warmer each year? Hate the bad air? Get a high proformance electric car. And although most of our electricity is from burning fuel also, those power generators are much more efficient than internal combustion engines.

You might not be able to afford a stylish sports car, but stay tuned, an economic, affordable electric car is in the works.

Read more:
Tesla Motors
Wired mag: Batteries included

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Useful sites for education...

Online class:
Click to launch Berkeley on iTunes U
UC Berkeley on iTunes U
UC Berkeley is providing some of their class lecture recordings through iTunes, you could simply download the lectures you wish to listen, and listen at will. For those who wish to get a taste of how classes are in American universities, those who'd like to learn more, or those who simply want to practice English listening abilities, you'd really want to try this.


Grad school planing:
Peterson's Graduate Planner
This free site gives many suggestions on planning for grad school application, including what to expect in grad school, making sure that you really want to go to grad school, and preparing for the tests and application process.

CTJ/Coast line

Continue the Journey
This is University of California's introduction booklet to grad school programs on UC campuses. In addition to the information that the Peterson site provides, it also has a brief introducion to avaliable UC grad school programs, with application info, financial ad and scholarship info, tips on life as a graduate student and much more.
(There used to be an HTML version, but they just updated it to the '06 version, and only the pdf file is avaliable now.)

Monday, August 14, 2006

Mood: 懶與累

最近真的很累。

周一到周五做實驗,整天要耗精神的小心工作,然後精神耗光,累了,就一直 screw up,然後要找出原因,重做直到作好為止。
住Co-Op要每天注意公告和條規,一不小心又要被罰錢。
週末出去玩,也很累。要規劃路程、要找便宜一點的deal,也要注意時間分配。
還要注意理財,信用卡的錢是否要繳了、帳戶裡剩多少錢、手機的通話加值餘額剩多少。
台灣那邊也有得擔心,何時要選課,要排什麼課,何時要繳學費......。

還要擔心未來。
是否真的要去申請研究所?同樣要研究病毒與免疫還是要換個科目玩玩?要找什麼program?哪個學校?該準備什麼?該申請碩士班還是直接衝博士班?

累了,就開始懶惰。
研究所,找了一些program的網站,就堆到瀏覽器的書簽中,懶得去看。
實驗,強迫自己去認真做,實驗做到忙了,動力反而就出現了。
出去玩,懶得規劃了,上周隨性坐車逛;下週直接跟旅行社。
欠社上一個網頁改版和一個英文版網站。做了30分鐘就不想做了。反正社上對網站也是興趣缺缺,not much people appreciate it. 英文版本來想po版拜託大家幫忙翻譯,不過想想,大概沒什麼人會理我,反正獎金歸社費,幫忙的沒有回饋,當然不會有人幫忙。
最近開始懷疑我是否要終身拿著pipette龜在小小的實驗室中研究看不到的東西。把各個實驗結果統整出的結果的確很有趣,不過總覺得單一實驗和the big picture有段距離,連不太起來。

真的不知該選什麼課。除了生技實驗和專題討論兩個必修課以外,我只要再隨便修個一學分就可以畢業了。那麼,我該修什麼?似乎有趣的也被我修的差不多了。

懶了,累了,開電腦上網。
MSN線上沒什麼人,時區不同;就算有人,也不知道該聊什麼,似乎沒有什麼共同話題。
暑假的PTT和PTT2都很無聊,沒什麼文章。
就算開了瀏覽器,也不知該看什麼網頁。新聞,千篇一律,看都看膩了。共享軟體,也都完膩了。

什麼都提不起勁,完全是個糟糕的生活。

Sunday, August 13, 2006

San Diego trip 心得

首先呢,最大的心得當然是對開車比較有感覺啦。每種機械要操控的得心應手都是要練習的。對於單車,我已經大致可以隨自己的意思去控制我所要騎的軌跡、速度與韻律。但車子就比較難操控。駕駛對於車子的狀況必須經由油門、車速、儀表板、後照鏡間接知道,視力範圍也小很多;不像操控單車那樣可以很直覺的靠自己的平衡感去隨意操控。速度的控制,是由油門力道、引擎轉速表和速綠表,去感覺的。尤其是油門力道和加速度所構成的曲線,每台車都有所不同,必須花些時間去體會。另外,每台車過彎的半徑、可操控速度範圍等,都是要花些時間去了解的。還有,就是如何在加州的高速公路網中生存。在什麼情況下、哪個線道的速度應該是多少;怎樣不要超速的太離譜,又不太慢當路障;怎樣判斷四周車子的狀況,是否即將要變換車道、加速或減速;什麼時候切入carpool lane,什麼時候切到最外線準備換到另一條高速公路?開車長途旅行非常方便,但也有很多需要學習的東西。

這是美國,不是台灣,凡事還是不要太隨性。租車和訂旅館房間都是last minute才搞定,結果都只能接受最貴的價格。
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來點美國旅遊tips吧
1. 信用卡真的很重要,不過每刷一筆都要記下來,不然不小心就會刷爆(差點...)
2. 租車時所有的條規都要看清楚,租車公司可以罰你錢的名堂多的是。(如還車前需要先加滿油)
3. 哪條高速公路在哪裡要接哪一條要先在地圖上弄清楚,只要不小心太晚變換車道就會來不及上交流道。最好先在Google mapsGoogle earth先作好行程規劃,然後在路上也要有地圖或GPS or 有Earthcomber的PDA更好。Earthcomber可以把地圖上附近的intrest point(如加油站、餐廳、旅館、ATM、交流道、觀光景點)全部找給你,真的超方便的。
4. 路上各線道的標示要看清楚,有時某些線道是"right turn only"或甚至是不同線道將接到不同地方。等到你發現開錯時,"No U Turn"的牌子總是會出現。
5. Carpool lane("搭便車"高承載專用道)有時很好開,不過在你準備下高速公路前記得早點出來,因為Carpool lane可以出來的路段不多,幾乎都被雙黃線圍住。不要到時你的交流道接近了才發現自己被雙黃線所在裡面,出不來,欲哭無淚。
6. 路上想上廁所請找麥當勞。加油站的廁所有些要錢,幾乎都要跟店員界鑰匙才能上。
7. 同理,加油站的打氣機也要有消費或投錢才給你用。
8. 在加州開車沒墨鏡會死人的(陽光太閃,會瞎)
9. 高速公路上,大家集體超速很常見,不過還是要小心高速公路警察,他們出現時,大家會集體緊急減速。
10. 有些樂園或動物園的門票在超市買比較便宜。
11. 汽車旅館不提供牙刷、牙膏,請自備。
12. 到旅館不要太high,太大聲時,隔壁不會跟櫃台抱怨,而是很不客氣的用力敲牆壁抗議。

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最後,呵呵,我的外觀改造似乎有一點點成果了,感謝美聿的意見。我自己是覺得好的牛仔褲和襯衫能穿出讓我自己覺得很棒的感覺。不過呢,這次發現,只要頭髮剪好,加個有色鏡面墨鏡就很棒了......orz

本來想說,穿好看一點應該可以讓自己更有自信。多多少少有,不過若EQ太差,還是會破攻。所以,還要想辦法改善情緒管理嚕。

A note on ad posting...

Investigating deeper into how Google Adsense ad banners work, I decided not to add ads to my blog. First of all, the traffic here isn't that large, so revenue would accumulate really slow. Also, Google only sends out checks when your account revenue excedes 100$, so it might take a while to get the money. Last, Google sends out your revenue via checks in the mail, and I realized that I might not be in the US to recieve it and cash it.

So, I choose to give up, and keep this blog cleen. Thank you for all your support!

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Driving trip to San Diego ~ part II

Read part I | Photo album
It was a nice sleep at the Super 8 Motel. Although expensive, it's nice to have a place to stay, since everywhere else is full. A simple breakfast is provided in the lobby, the service is named "Super start (TM)", but it is extremely simple. There is a choice of doughnuts and crescents, and drinks of black tea, coffee and juice. There is also apples. I didn't like the oily feel of crescents, so I got my self a glazed doughnut, getting a taste of ultra sweet american breakfast, and to dilute the sweetness, took that with tea.

First thing in the morning, we went to Vons to get discount tickets (which we found the day before when we went for supplies) for San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park. For 25$ each ticket, we saved 3.5$ each person. Then we were back on the road to the zoo. Since there is free WIFI in the motel, I already got all the driving directions for today, the the drive over is straightforward. 9am on a Sunday morning, there is not much traffic on I-10. Going along with the flow of traffic, I can easily get a speed of 80mph. Yes, I know that's speeding, but when everyone's doing it, why be a law-obeying road block? There is a limit to speed, though, that is the van's own system. From a previous inspection of what's under the hood, I knew that the van has quite an empty engine space: big space, tiny engine. Also, the van is heavy, and the transmission is laggy. Already apparent during yesterday's drive, the gas paddle has quite a strange correlation to engine power input, the line is not linear. From the first bit of your step on the paddle, you get a little to much power, resulting in a jumpy start from a stand still, so you've got to get used to the high sensitivity if the paddle in this part. Then, as you push more on the paddle, the response lapses, you see no acceleration, and you start to see the rpm drop. Then, if you floor it, you feel a jump of the transmission - after a lag, that is - and then power comes in, but slowly. So it's a combination of insufficient power, laggy transmission, and nonlinear acceleration. I could manage to get by on normal highways, but on I-15 to the zoo, there is many hills, and whenever we go up hill, you see the majority of the near by traffic pass by, throwing us behind... Man, if I were driving a civic, I'd sure be the one cutting people off :D

Anyways, we got it to the zoo wildlife park in a reasonably short time, though, thanks to the good traffic (80mph, no sweet :) ). Parking is 8$. And the tickets from Vons requires no farther exchange, it itself is the ticket, and you just walk in. The Zoo got much better then the last time I got here. Seems like attractions have more then doubled. We originally planed half a day for this, but realized that it could not be finished within 2 days, so we skipped a lot of places and shows. As for the animals, I'm sure picture convey the message much better, so be sure to check out my photos on Zoto (link at the end of the post). Worthy of notice, there's these cute little mammals called merkats, furry little social animals with sentries that stand on high places on the look out, while the others dig holes all around. To me, those sentries look more like they're "musing". Also, there's the interesting gorillas, that just seem like over sized kids in black fur. Some times they're climbing the rocks, sometimes chasing each other, sometimes fighting, sometimes just sitting under a tree. And while sitting under a tree, it really seems like it's thinking, or just plan lonely.



There was this new ride that's a big yellow balloon that takes people up for a panorama of the whole valley. But each ride costs 15$. We really wanted to take it, but it was pretty damn expensive. Next to the balloon, there's lions just behind a glass, so you could see it real close. The mother is usually staying in the lier caring for the young, but we lucked out and saw a cub ran out to play, with it's mom coming out and biting it back into the cave. There's also a camping ground next to the lions and balloon, we really should camp there, if we did enough homework before going... Lunch is expensive burgers and sandwiches. Nice, but too expensive, and a little too much in amount. I got this weird "greek chicken wrap" that is literaly chicken sandwich (minus the bread) in a red soft wrap. It's nice that it's cold (good for a hot sunny day), but really doesn't have much taste, it's quite dull.

The must-go-attraction of the park is a monorail that takes you around the whole park, explaining, teaching and telling stories of the park and the animals, a tour of 45 minutes. When we first got in line, there is some kind of medical emergency on a train halfway on the track, resulting in a prolonged delay. So we got out and went to see a bird show instead. After lunch, the emergency is cleared, but another train broke down on the track. This time, we waited, we did get on the train, but we ran out of time, and couldn't leave the zoo on time for our next stop: aircraft carrier USS Midway museum in downtown San Diego, which stops selling tickets at 4pm. We left the zoo at 3:50pm, I guess. what a shame.

Anyways, we still went to the aircraft carrier in the San Diego bay: at least we could see the outside. Highway 163 to downtown is a small route of only 2 lanes, winding in the mountains. With the curves, the ups and downs, less traffic and high speeds, it's a real pleasure to drive, and best of all, it takes you directly into downtown SD. Downtown San Diego is a clouded city full of one-way streets. there are road names of 1st, 2nd~11th street, and also, crisscrossing with witch, A street, B street..., F street.... Also, each of the streets are one-way, with interchanging directions, this one going to the left, the next one to the right, and the next to the left, and vice versa. Eventually, with the help of Earthcomber, we got to the shore of the bay, where USS Midway is permanently anchored.

Having never seen an aircraft carrier, it sure is magnificent. No matter how large you previously think it was, you'd never imagine it to be this big. You could easily see the hangers under the deck, the huge lifts that lift planes from the hangers to the deck, and there's also a fleet of planes on the deck. As we got there, we were just in time to see the last of the visitors unboard the ship, and the staff locking the door to the ship. Now I really want to be here sometime next year. The bay it self is also beautiful, with the sun going down the horizon, sail boats sailing past, and a big island out there in the distance. There's also a big wooden ship with sails on a far dock, but we can't get there because of a lack of parking space.

Then we went to the Gaslamp Quarter for a walk in San Diego's streets. Bicycle cabs are everywhere. Since it's a crowded city with narrow streets, bikes are apparently the way to go. Many of them are even very nice bikes, like a Specialized MTB with a trailer of 2 seats connected behind on the seat post. But rides are for 10~20$ each person, yet another ride that we can't try. This part of city is crowded with high-end restaurants, crowding my Earthcomber map with spots. There's also some interesting stores, such as a really shinny yet cheep jewelry shop, an Oklay shop, a Quicksilver shop next to a Puma shop, and also a city souvenir shop with "I love SD" shirts. There's also this hip shop full of clothes but also with strange book. We found a book called "Fuck this book", full of photos with every verb substituted with the F word, making it really funny.

Dinner was Tai-food, since we can't afford steaks nor lobsters. The food is like Chinese food with a twist of special sauces. The original price was OK, but there's a tip, a state tax and a city tax. Ouch!

The drive back to LA was via 163 -> I-15 -> 78 -> I-5 -> 405. This is finally my time to sleep, and I tired from worrying about car burglars all night. So contrary to the previous drives, I didn't drive, nor track the route in Earthcomber for everyone. I slept and just answered questions when my friends don't know which way to go. But I was still awake half of the way, I guess I was just too tense and worried too much to sleep well. As far as I know, it was all nice and fast untill we got to I-5, where, as usual, it's jammed badly, and jammed all the way till 405. Then it got exciting on 405, as the gas level closes in on the empty line. We got back to the Co-Op with barely anything left in the gas tank, was that close.

After photos of us all back at the Co-Op, we all gathered to exchange photos, then to bed.
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The next day, I drove the one who's just here in CA for the weekend and is going
on to another place to the airport, and also to return the car. We returned the car with an empty gas tank, resulting in a gas charge, ouch. Also, I left my own keys in the car all together with the car keys... RATS...

Spear keys of the Co-Op cost 18.5$ each, and I lost 2 of them, CRAP.

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Photos of the trip on Zoto

Adding Ad's?

I'm considering to add some google ads here on my blog.
The travals, trips and mistakes of this summer is getting expensive, and I've got to save money for next summer's biking trip to Hokkaido.

So what do you think? Do you hate ads on blogs, or are you willing to click on it to help me out? (Ad payments are on a per click basis) Please do post comments, thanks.

我在考慮要在這個blog上放google的純文字廣告,這暑假花太多錢了,明年還想去北海道。當然,開學後也要開始打工/找家教了。大家覺得如何呢?無論你是討厭廣告,還是願意點廣告幫我,請務必po個回應。畢竟這個blog要有大家在看才有意義。

Monday, August 07, 2006

Driving trip to San Diego

It all started last week. A friend here living at the Co-Op said that a friend of his is coming to the US on the weekend, and they may have no chance to meet again in the next 4 years. So we started to plan a trip to San Diego in the weekend, to give his friend an experience of her life.

We searched on the net for points of interest, hotels and ways of going there, almost working every night, but it's very sophisticated and confusing. The bus is inconvenient, the train is too slow and the schedule isn't good, car rentals are very expensive and inconvinent in terms of age restrictions and insurance. Almost every affordable hotel, hostel and motel is shown as full on their website. So we gave up planing, and just go.

The mess started Friday night. We took a bus to LAX, to pick up the girl who's coming, just to find out that our guy here doesn't know her flight number, only vaguely knows her approximate arrival time and what airline she "might" take. We learned the hard way that her plane delayed an hour, and it took really long to get through the customs. We waited 2 hours in the arrival terminal. During the long wait, we called several car rentals. Most aren't even picking up the phone, also, a total of 6 people means that a minivan is needed, which is really expensive and hard to find. With all of us under age 24, it gets even harder. Eventually, Budget agreed to provide a deal for a minivan, an international driver's license and drivers of age 21. But things get even more complicated when our friend finds a problem with his credit card. In the end, the rent is on me, who has a CA driver's license, an American bank issued credit card
a US address and US phone numbers, making the situation simpler for the car rental, but putting the burden on my self. We got a Pontiac Montana. It is a minivan, so it need some getting used to. The parking brake is foot operated, the shift is located on the dash board, and it's really hard to see what's going on in the back. However, with some help and advice from my friend, after not driving for 2 years, and only been on the highway once, I managed to get the car back to the Co-Op intact, and fast. The feeling of driving is slowly getting back to me.

Next morning, all 6 of us got together and loaded into the van. We planed to get going at 9:30am, but ended up leaving at 11... So much for getting up early. Because my friend got his license in Taiwan, and is using an international license, he forgot that it's illegal to park near a curb. And a police car just went by when we are preparing to leave. Crap, we've started to trip with a ticket. It was a grudging traffic jam on the 405. Getting inpatient, and with insufficient driving experience, I made thousands of dangerous lane changes just in one morning. After 1~2 hours, I gradually got better with dealing with highway traffic, drove more smoothly and decreased my lane changes dramatically to increase safety. We got from the 405 to I-5 around noon, and made a stop at a Subway restaurant for lunch. This is also where I exchanged seats with my friend, letting him drive the rest, for fear that I might fall asleep after prolonged driving.

Halfway, we stopped at Oceanside to go play at the beach and take a walk on the pier.It was a nice sunny day, with a fine sandy beach and many people. It feels so great to get wet in the sea water. But once the water gets into your mouth, it's so salty that you could hardly take it. After getting out of the water, I got a pair of cargo pants with pockets of salt and sand, leaving me with salty pants pockets to deal with for the rest of the trip. The pier is much simpler then Santa Barbara or Santa Monica. It's just a plain long wooden pier with less then 3 stores on it, and the rest of it filled with people fishing. It is a simple public beach, all fun, less places to waste money, and free parking.

Another mess came our way after we leave Oceanside and head on towards San Diego. We started our search of hotels in Oldtown, which is near Seaworld. But what we got is: "full, full, full, no vacancy, full..." One even told us that as far as they know, every hotel in San Diego is full. Just as we are starting to get desperate, I fired up my Clie PDA, launched Earthcomber, set up our location, and zoomed out the map, taping randomly to find a hotel/motel, thinking, any vacancy is good enough. Luckily, on my first tap on a place with sufficient spots on the map, I got a Super 8 Motel, with their phone number listed right there in my Clie. I called, and got their last available room. Never thought Earthcomber could save my ass, but it sure did this time. Over the phone, the operator said that 6 people is OK, but we opened the door to find a room for 2. After realising that it's the last available room, we packed in. One interesting point is that the bathroom took half the size of the entire room. The twin bed consists of a mattress on top of another, so we split the to layers and there we've got a nice but clouded bed. We went to the near by town for dinner. The surrounding area is near the intersection of I-15, I-8 and highway 163, and the roads are very confusing, full of left/right turn only lanes, no U-turns and narrow roads with occasional road side parking. We often missed turns, encounter "no U-turns" and, as a result, drove on in the wrong direction for a long distance before we could turn back. I originally expected to have fast food or a dinner, but, with 5 Taiwanese and 1 Chinese on board, and most of us feed up with the junk food at the Co-Op, we went to a Chinese restaurants.

So that concludes our first day...

Photo album | Read part II