Real Pirates!

CNN.com - Ocean pirate attacks surge: report - Oct. 30, 2003
Aargh! Ahoy matey! Who woulda thunk that there are real pirates, and that they actually a problem in this Day N Age. You would think that that pirates would be gone by now (in the age of radar, gps, etc.) But Pirates are cool, because they talk funny. Arrgghghghh! Matey!

Happy Halloween, Everyone!

yay! mike duff is coming to Boston so we can hang out tonight. In the meantime, I went to work as a "street punk", with shiny pants, tight sweater (with orange edging) and a knit cap. I was keeping it real, racing up and down the office in my sneaks.

Nick made Squash Soup

Last week I tried Squash soup for the first time. I have to say, I really liked it. He used butternut squash and also made some chicken with bacon. I can't say that I've had such a great meal in a while. :) It was finger-lickin' good! 'Specially with a side of Joe Schmoe to go with it.

Green Street Studios

Zahra was nice enough to point me to the Green Street Studios -- Current Schedule. It's just down the street from me, so perhaps I can fit in a Taichi or dance class. Thanks Zahra!

Badger, Mushroom, Snake

Some of you know that I wake up early during Mushroom Season to get mushrooms in Animal Crossing. Nick, who is awesome, sent me this Badger, Mushroom, Snake flash animation in celebration. It is too cute! MUSHROOM, MAGIC Mushroom! Hahahahah! Today I woke up too late to get the mushrooms, but I did try. :)

Linksys: WMA11B - Wireless-B Media Adapter

Linksys: WMA11B - Wireless-B Media Adapter is nice for your parents, maybe! :)

Splat Professor

Just ran across Andrew Gouldstone's research page. I didn't know you could be a professor of Splat. Can't wait to see their lab group t-shirts. :)

Just as I thought!

I am addicted to Animal Crossing... Right after trekking all the way to Downtown Crossing for a sausage and pepper, minute maid, and mixed nuts, I went right back to playing.

Happy Birthday to Me!

I am 28 today! Yay! I had dimsum this morning with the coolest people, and got a card from Nick and my mom. Yesterday I went to Rain's party and also got a card from Ela & Arrin. I also got the coolest birthday Card from ->IAN<-, another from Barbie, and another from Shawn. Then we went out to eat Brazilian Barbeque with Roo, Sopps, Jim, Virginia and RIch-- all in all a satisfying way to ring in the 28th year of my life. Oh, and I got a beautiful bouquet of yellow-red roses (14!) that smell great, along with a Borders books gift certificate. Then we chomped down on the most delicious Hiz Biz cake, designed by Sopps. Then a mad dash home to play with the NGC Animal Crossing game I got. Ohh, wee, I was playing until around 3AM, and my eyes were almost shut. Such a cute game!!!!! I know, I am going to be addicted. :)

MIT Solar Electric Vehicle Team

Go MIT! The new MIT Solar Car is out. I remember my freshman summer, riding with the Dane Hovey Racing Team and helping out alongside the Manta (the MIT solar car back then). This year, the team is in Australia, and I am sure they will make us proud. The name of this year's car is Tesseract.

Sweet Deep Fried Ice Cream with Noga and Zahra at Thai Basil

There we are, at Thai Basil on Newbury. Dinner was great, and the atmosphere was quiet. Then the fire alarm went off a few times. We stayed for ice cream, and then headed to The Other Side Cafe on the other side of Newbury. The Other Side was playing rap and hiphop at full blast, until around 11PM, then they mellowed out.

Winners of the Ig® Nobel Prize

Winners of the Ig® Nobel Prize is a great read! Nothing like fun and science in one.

Jim Gouldstone's Artwork

A coworker of mine commented on how nice pictures were. *sigh* It's hard to pick a favorite! I like them all so much.

Nick is AWESOME!

On Ziondanch, he's posted a song about MY FAVORITE SHOW, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. COOL SONG!. I have it on my playlist and can't wait to see the show tonight!

Wheelchair products from Independence Technology, a Johnson & Johnson company

I really think iBotis a cool invention, because it uses gyroscopes to enable types of motion not possible in current wheelchairs.

Animal Crossing

I am addicted to The Animal Crossing, it's just too cute. Aw-aw-aw-aw! I just got 30,000 bells from my friend >IAN< and was able to pay off my mortgage. I also got to run some errands and send letters to my pals in the village. :) Its totally cool!

MonoCulture critic down the block: Geer Says He Knew What Was @Stake

Geer Says He Knew What Was @Stake.

The Philippines is one of the world’s largest messaging markets.

RCR Wireless News Wow, 750 phonebook entries... let's go to Manila and sms all day!

King Richard's Faire is a rip-off, don't go!

This weekend we went to King Richard's Faire. My review:

Nickel and dimed at every corner:: It was quite a ripoff! You pay $21 dollars (incl. $1 discount) for the privilege of shopping at the expensive stores that sell Medieval merchandise. The offered merchandise was very good handmade quality (leather masks, carved staffs, fairy wings). However, for that amount of money, I would have expected that the shows were free. I mean, after every show the guy passes out his hat and you give extra money (on top of what you already paid). They heckle people too, to make them feel guilty. I was quite surprised the bathrooms were free.

Food::The second thing is the food coupons. You can't buy food with regular money. You can only buy food coupons of 50 cents each in $5 denominations. This is so that parents lose track of what they are paying for. We found a pork sandwich for 12 coupons ($6) and a large drink for 7 coupons ($3.50). This "meal" was worth $9.50-- and there were no fries included. The pork sandwich was also very sweet-- so sweet I couldn't eat my half. Anyway, with the bare necessities (tickets and food) being so expensive-- it was hard to have any money to spend on the things in the shops, even if I could afford any of the nice things... like a leather mask ($100 average, or wings $75 average).

Disappointments:: The Mud show was a BIG disappointment. This mud show didn't really get muddy (they had a handful of dirt at any one time, they didn't really get dirty, and the plot sucked!) The only part we really enjoyed was the joust, but that was kind of confusing and the plot wasn't that great. It was also the only show that we didn't get asked for money at...

Something nice to say:: I guess the thing with Medieval fairs are that there's some good stuff to look at. We took some cool pictures of the different garb people were wearing. That's about it all the nice stuff I can really say.

Recommendations-- go to the Renaissance Festival in Miami instead. Tickets are much cheaper (~$10), and you can spend your money on cool stuff, not feeling ripped off at every turn. Their mud show is a lot better, and funnier too! At that one, I was also able to buy an ocarina for $35, and a friend got a turkey leg for $1 (at deep discount on the last day)! Anyway, we got the impression that King Richard doesn't really care about the medieval stuff, he just wants to make a fast buck out of unsuspecting people. It could have been just a fun time, but King Richard is Greedy! I felt bad for the families who were trapped with the kids who wanted amusements/candy/toys. Be forewarned, there are better places to go for a medieval show (for starters, Medieval Manor...). I definitely won't go to this show ever again-- I felt burned.
Just a small donation requested...

all you need to know about robots

all you need to know about robots. Many of the robots were too cute to be taken seriously, while others were too scary-looking to feel comfortable around. The only exception was Honda's Asimo, but it wasn't listed here. I look forward to more work by Cynthia Brazeal's robotic life group to make robots look less strange, and more "natural".