Brooklyn Botanical Garden

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Brooklyn Botanical Garden

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Backyard

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Backyard

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Brooklyn Botanical Garden

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Backyard

Hooded Sweats

Bill Cunningham's NYT On the Street is almost a must read on every weekend.
People generally don't want to have anything to do with umbrella, so hooded pullover is the way to go.
More about hoodie on 4/27/06. Too bad, after certain period of time, you need to be a paid member to access the article. You know, somehow they need to get paid. Man, I would hope that the advertisers can pick up the tab. I myself can read them alright as I still subsribe to their print edition.
Picture by Bill Cunningham for the New York Times, rights belong to their rightful owners.

Morning Has Broken

"Morning has spoken, like the first morning" ....as sung by Cat Stevens. I sang this when I was in secondary school. Between primary school and secondary school was the only time I would sing in a group on a regular basis. After that, my singing career is done. I should really practice my Karaoke, I shouldn't deprive myself from singing even I know I sing terribly.

Another Day another not so real writer

JT Leroy, James Frey and now 19-year old Havard sophomore Kaavya Viswanathan. Her publisher just decided to pull her debut chick lit "How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life" off the shelf in the midst of alleged plagiazism.

In Brief

Judge: Web Surfing worker can't be fired.


Fake news you can trust:-
AP reported world productiviy increased by a whooping 5 basis points yesterday. The increase was attributed to a 12 hours grayout of Blogger, the Google owned blogging 'platform.' People generally got more work done in North America during their workday, while in Asia, bloggers aren't as sleep deprived and was more productive the following day.

However, once Sergey and Larry were on the case and the service was restored back to its normal snappy self, bloggers tend to overcompensate, and there is an expected drop in productivity on the immediate days followed.

PacAir Range Hood

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This is in my mind, the Rolls Royce of Range Hood (it mostly isn't but to me it is) if you were to compare with something you find at Home Depot, namely the Broans there. The 36 inch Broans has a 200 CFM suction, while this 36 inch has a 750 CFM suction on spec.

Just don't cut your beef too thin, they may just fly through the duct.

Note: CFM, cubic feet per minute, a measure of air flow. I don't know if it's for a fact the higher the CFM the better or only up to a certain number or even CFM will suffer from diminiishing return after certain numbers.

UPDATE: 3/6/07
This thing really "sucks," in the best sense of the word. It's a thumb-up, just in case you are wondering. I recommend.

UPDATE: 8/3/08
The thing is still sucking kitchen soot. Great sucker.

UPDATE: 8/14/09
No problemo.

UPDATE: 8/9/2010
What can I say.  Nothing needs changed, not even the light bulb.

UPDATE: 12/16/2010
Oops.  The light bulb died.  You need a philips screw driver to unscrew the "diffuser" to change the light bulb.  The dead light bulb that lasted a few years is a generic no name brand that says 120V40WTAIWAN.  I have a Philips appliance 40W lying around and I changed it right away.  It's quite easy to remove the screw but not so easy to screw it back in, you need to have some patience but it can definitely be done.  The diffuser has a minor crack near the screw hole probably it was tightened a bit too much originally.
Related post.

Blogger is back on

I hereby announce that Blogger is back to its normal snappy self. I am going to uncork some cheap champagne or something bubbly.

Blogger is stalling

There has been problem editing and creating posts, I checked the maintenance page, though allegedly fixed but I still experience difficulty.
That's what you got when you didn't pay for it.

Blogger is choking up for the past 12 hours or so

I can't really edit my posts anymore. The feature is screwing up, the edits end up in la-la land I guess. Anyway. Hope they are on it.

San Yang Pai Range Hood

SAN YANG PAI range hood, honestly sucking kitchen soot for more than ten years.

PacAir Range Hood

Week in review...

Former Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright says she works out three times a week and can leg-press 400 pounds, as reported in the New York Times Magazine.

Current Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice is no wall flower either, her Condicise can be seen here, here and here.

If the two were to have a Secretary of State death match, my bet would be on Albright, she can probably crush Rice using one leg. However if Rice were allowed to run away, she should be able to out run Albright with relative ease. I guess.

New York Times is just unhealthily obssessed with American Apparel, the post-Gap, post-Abercrombie & Fitch, sweatshop-free, super sexually charged underwear or underwear-like vendor.

LVMH, hawker of luxury brands like Louis Vuitton and Dior, reported a 15% increase in first quarter sales or 3.6 billion euros. Once again thanks to the insatiable demand from the gullible consumers worldwide. No wonder the French can pretend to work 5 days a week and spend more time protesting working than actually working. Meanwhile the rest of the world put in a 12 hours work day just to buy their handbag.

Albright picture linked from the New York Times. Rights belong to respective owners.

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This is another shot of The New York Public Library. This terrace facing the Fifth Avenue is part of the Bryant Park according to Bryant Park.

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I don't know what the fuck I was thinking, I should have focused on the foreground instead of the lion. I think the tulips should be in focus. But what the fuck, it's just a picture.

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Breaking: ESWN is rocking again

After intermittant grayout and finally total blackout, the site is finally moved. Let's see how his new host is holding up if and when there is a DoS. Meanwhile, hope Mr. ESWN has a good night of sleep and sweet dreams.

Nikon Coolpix Ads

Photo linked from NYT. Ad created by McCann Worldwide for Nikon.










Photo linked from here. This "Sharp-Shooter" for Coolpix S4 is from JWT Taiwan.
Photos copyrights belong to their respective owners.

So I guess Nikon is trying to be edgy.

Single line Multiple Servers

I am a messy person, not because I say I am, it's just empirically proven. My work desk is always messy, my hair is messy. If not because of my wife, I guess I would be doubly messy.

But I do appreciate certain orderliness (My 2 cents psychology is I freaking over-compensate on my own messiness.)

When I wait in line, I do expect people know how to line up in an orderly fashion.

I rather wait in a longer line than a potentially disorderly line. Where I live, there is an express line and local line, and it's a fucking mess by my standard. I don't like it one bit. When the express bus comes, folks waiting for the local line would just come join the party, or vice versa, so there is really no order. I just don't like to deal with the mess and this kind of ambiguity.

Duane Reade is a big freaking drug store in New York City. But you know what they have just the right amount of stupidity to do multiple line multiple server at the cashier counters. For fuck sake, have a single line, so nobody waits at the wrong line because there is some stupid customer or stupid cashier holding up the line. One time, we customers chose to wait in one line but then some manager would come out to say, yeah let's fuck it up, form a line at each cashier counter, I think that's the stupidist thing I have ever seen.

ESWN is acting up

For whatever reason, ESWN is acting up like crazy, OKAY, that's a stretch, but Yahoo! is taking it out of service because of bandwidth overusage issue. The site is up now and Mr Admin says or kind of alludes to some denial of service attacks. When you are this popular, and may I add a bit controversial, chances are the DoS attacks may very likely be real....
Update, the site is down again.
That really makes you wonder. I am no big fan of conspiracy theory, but then again, you never know.
If the site were hosted locally, and with certain Admin wizardry, perhaps DoS can be avoided, but look like Yahoo! doesn't really have counter measure, well I don't know better. Hosting own site in the basement or anywhere else may be fun to some people but certainly not for most.
Update:
There is still no ESWN .... So I guess he has to move on to some other hosting company perhaps.
Breaking Update 4/20/06:
ESWN is rocking again. so far so good ....wait, OKAY, it still good. Let's see how his host is holding up if or when there is a DoS. Meanwhile hope Mr ESWN has a good night of sleep and sweet dreamssssssssssssssss <- I am freaking juvenile here.

Eric: "Babysit"?

April 18 (tomorrow), around 4 to 9 PM, will give ride home. Let me know asap.

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Central Park

Central Park

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Central Park

ESWN black out

got this error when going to ESWN ...

Error

Sorry, you have reached either a non-existent site or the site has been suspended (or deactivated) due to Disk Space and/or Bandwidth Violation / Exceeded.

Site Owner: Please refer to this help page for information.

Did somebody forget to pay the bill?

Webby Awards

People love lists. So we have the Webby Awards here. Here is the current nominations. My blog is not on the list, so I must be doing something right, no I mean they must be doing something right.

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Pokemon Theme Song Music Video

Nytimes Commute Digest

Save yourself, yes, people need to save more for their retirement, that is if they can retire, and save, at all. Social security is heading to bankrupcy or something in 2007 or 2042, so folks you are on your own. If you don't have anything to save now, at least quit drinking $3 fancy coffee every day. I don't have additional cash inflows other than my day job, so I don't do Starbucks. I can't explain to my kids like Daddy can't afford your college education because I drink $3 a cup coffee every day.

Older people blog too and they may be the better bloggers. Older bloggers tend to avoid cyber cutesy words. I think that's a good thing, got to remember that. When you are older or plain old, cutesy words just don't sound right.

Angelina Jolie is saving poor Asian kids one at a time. Soon to be 18 illegal Chinese alien, Young Zheng would soon get his green card from Home Land Security, thanks to Angelina Jolie who urged John Sullivan III — a partner at Fulbright & Jaworski to work on his case pro bono. Angelina Jolie might be much hated and made fun of, but I think she does some real good work, I mean not her movies, though.

Breaking...and not so breaking news

Transit Worker Union leader Roger Toussaint was sentenced to a 10-day jail term for inciting a 3-day illegal strike that left New Yorkers in the cold in last December. Roger Green, a democratic assemblyman from Brooklyn who sided with the union said the jail term gives Roger Toussaint "rock-star" status. I say WTF? He can't compare Toussaint to Martin Luther King Jr.

Jacques Chirac rolled back the CPE labor law. Unpopular economic reform is not going to work with the French. Don't worry about the French, as long as the gullible Asians are still lining up to buy Louis Vuitton and Chanel, they will do just fine.

Jeffrey Skilling, former Enron CEO, proclaimed he was "abolutely innocent." Let's see if the jury buy that.

While the Jewish folks celebrate Passover and the Christians celebrate Easter, I being a "gentile" just celebrate the arrival of Spring. I got to celebrate something. I refuse to be left out without celebrating anything.

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It's like he's running away from the branches' shadows. Daytime nightmarish run, with a touch of playfulness. He's after all smiling.

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Jin Lu

Queens Botanical Garden

Queens Botanical Garden

April 9th, 2006

Shot by a Canonite I found in the park. Shot in JPEG Large, should have done it in NEF. Fill flash. I really have no problem with Canon folks, Canon really comes across having cleaner pictures. People who have extra cash, please send me a Canon 5D with pro lenses or the Canon 1dsMkII with pro lenses.
Queens Botanical Garden

"The wealthier you get, the smaller your balls become"

"Working class people play basketball, middle-income people play baseball and wealthy people play golf," Democrat Congressman Mark Udall was quoted saying that on The Economist.
That explains a lot of things.

A sharp knife

A good knife is a very good investment in the kitchen, it probably lasts more than you want it to last.
Any chefs would tell you a good knife is a safe knife because it simply doesn't slip that easy when you cut. No surprise here.
What does Jacques Pepin say about sharp knife? A sharp knife gives you a clean cut, it heals faster. I am floored.

The Day After Tomorrow

They are probably filming the Day After Tomorrow 2 in Manhattan right now. Or wait, it's really snowing in April.... 

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Apple takes matter in its own hand

I was reading David Pogue's piece on FrankenMac on my way to work. You know that's how I do my reading these days, on my commute to work, standing. Then I found out from a colleague of mine that Apple is actually releasing its own piece of software today to allow dual boot into Windows XP.
It's inevitable.

Hong Kong Streetstyle featured on Style.com

Style.com has a piece on streetstyle in Hong Kong.

It is a kind of spiritual snobbery to think one can be happy without money
-- Albert Camus

Materialism is more fun when one has money.

Spring Break

New York Times has an article about Spring Break and anorexic. Thanks to spring break, now anorexia is a competitive sport, let's see who gets thinner the fastest.

There is also an aricle on the Magazine about the greatest man-band from Australia, The Wiggles. I like them too. When Alex was a pre-schooler, he really liked them and did go to Madison Square Garden to see their life performance. The oldest guy there is Jeff and he's 52. I actually find them pretty cool. Their songs, some of them, I can sing. I believe they wear Blundstones too.

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Adult lower incisor sprouting out. His first adult tooth.

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