jontsai's Xanga

what's it like at yahoo

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 16:35:22 GMT

one of the best parts... an upbeat security guard who greets you every time you walk/drive by!

Her name: Shewondia Mills. She is always dressed in purple from head to toe.

She won an award of $5000 for being a super security guard!

Read more: The Purplest of them All

laura shigihara

Wed, 02 Sep 2009 17:48:24 GMT

... is the interesting person of the day.

I first discovered her some time while at Cal. I think it might have been reading through Brian Foo or someone's website on OCF, and there was a link to music they liked, which had a link to Laura Shigihara's OCF page.

It offered a lot of MP3 downloads, so at that time, I was like "Hey, this is cool, free music." So I downloaded all of the music on her page.

Today, while organizing my music library, I came across those MP3 files so long ago, so I decided to do a search on Laura Shigihara to see what she's up to these days. Her OCF page seems to be updated, and she also has a profile on Last.fm. She has a variety of genres of music, but mostly are video game style.

From Last.fm profile:

Graduating from UC Berkeley with a degree in International Relations and Business, Laura decided to pursue a career in music after an unexpected detour landed her record contract offers in Japan for singing and production. Although she didn’t accept for various reasons, she still chose a music related job working as the audio director of a Japanese-American company where she created music and sound effects, and co-hosted an audio talkshow. Shortly after she began composing for game soundtracks. After completing several contracts, she decided to make it her career.

She's pretty really good, considering that she has no professional training in music but just does it as a hobby (and now career).

I wonder what things people can accomplish if they dedicated their efforts and applied themselves to it.

defeats the purpose

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 09:37:25 GMT

Defeats the Purpose

Taken at the Yahoo office break room. Original post-it note commented that printing out a stack of flyers about water conservation defeats the purpose.

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thou shalt not covet

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 09:36:00 GMT

Exodus 20:17 NASB
"You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor."

Thou Shalt Not Covet

Funny post-it note found on a Bible at church. A nice pocket-size, bonded leather Bible with button flap that has been in lost-and-found for weeks.

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ms photoshop fail

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 23:31:55 GMT

Photoshop Fail: MS Business US

Shared by a coworker. Screenshot taken from www.microsoft.com/businessproductivity/default.mspx on 2009.08.25 17:20

Photoshop Fail: MS Business Poland

Shared by a coworker. Screenshot taken from www.microsoft.com/poland/businessproductivity/default.mspx on 2009.08.25 17:20

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edit:

Do you see it? The person in the middle.

Apparently, Microsoft changed the picture now to be the same on both sites.
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edit 2:

Found 2 other articles about this incident:

My shining moment today: 20 seconds in the hallway with Jerry Yang.

Fri, 21 Aug 2009 01:28:22 GMT

My shining moment today: 20 seconds in the hallway with Jerry Yang.
a short by Jonathan Tsai.

I said, "Jerry?" and I just froze.

He looks at me and extends his hand as I say, "I just wanted to shake your hand," with a sheepish smile.

"What's your name?" he asked.

"Jonathan," I replied. "I went to your high school, Piedmont Hills. . ." scrambling for things to say. I had not prepared a script for such a moment. Mind racing, I thought, “Maybe I should say--’You’re famous! You’re on the Physics Hall of Fame back in high school, and so was I! You’re my hero! I followed in your footsteps and came to Yahoo!’ ”

He cuts me off, asking, "Oh, really? What year were you?"

"2002," I replied, still with a sheepish look on my face.

"How are things over there now?"

I said, "They're good, it's been a while..." (I wish I said, you should donate 10 million dollars to them or something like that).

"What do you do here?"

"Fantasy sports."

"Oh, nice, I just saw the iPhone app. Good work, keep it up."

(I don't work on the iPhone app).

And he walked off like he was the President of the United States rushing off to his next meeting. I probably walked 10 feet with him from when I first said his name to when we parted.

my first motorcycle crash

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 01:29:28 GMT

I just crashed my motorcycle... 30 minutes ago.

Exiting Capitol Ave South, on 680-S, right turn curve
Before I entered the curve, I was going about... 50mph and the car behind me was catching up
I slowed probably to 30-35 mph right before/during the curve... when it was a 25 mph curve
As I was exiting the curve, I straightened up too early and instead of finishing the curve, I went off the side of the road into the unpaved part
I straightened up also because I needed to slow down... a short merge with oncoming traffic.
Fell on my right side
My jacket got a few scratches on the right arm
I myself did not sustain any injury or damages
None of my clothes got ripped
My backpack and laptop was okay
My bike was not okay
Front-right turn signal smashed into the fairing, and that part is cracked
Front brake handle bent
Right foot pedal missing
Right foot brake bent
Cracked windshield
I didn't even hit my head, my helmet is unscratched
I got to my senses and then picked up my bike, walked to the side of the road, and started it, and rode home.

The bike was $1500 used. Now I don't know what it's worth after the crash. Repair it and keep riding? Sell it as is? Repair and sell it?

Should I buy another bike? Or quit motorcycles forever? Decisions, decisions

NoiseTrade Widget

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 17:27:16 GMT

Street Signs and Mug Shots

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 20:39:35 GMT

2009.04.07 The Chuns visit Berkeley.

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And then she died...

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 03:16:51 GMT

Time to start posting a lot of pictures on Xanga again. I'm backlogged all the way to March of this year, since my trip to Shanghai.

For relevant videos that inspired me to do this, search keywords on YouTube like: t40 t42 gpu reflow ibm

It was a last ditch effort to save my laptop. Disassembled to the components the first time, spent 3+ hours with DeJu to attempt to reflow with a heat gun. Reassembled. Same problem, but it still worked.

Second attempt: Reflow with tea candle. Machine is now effectively dead dead.

Laptop Repair: Reflow GPU

Reflow GPU

2009.04.28 - In the Apartment. Trying to repair T40 loose connection from mobo by reflow with a tea candle filled with alcohol + heat gun

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Berkeley Hat Co. Berkeley Hat Co. 2009.04.07 The Chuns Visit Berkeley. "Street Signs and Mug Shots"	Puddle Reflection Puddle Reflection 2009.04.07 The Chuns Visit Berkeley. "Street Signs and Mug Shots"
Puddle Reflection 2 Puddle Reflection 2 2009.04.07 The Chuns Visit Berkeley. "Street Signs and Mug Shots"	Puddle Reflection 3 Puddle Reflection 3 2009.04.07 The Chuns Visit Berkeley. "Street Signs and Mug Shots"
Walk Don't Walk Walk Don't Walk 2009.04.07 The Chuns Visit Berkeley. "Street Signs and Mug Shots"	Durant Ave Durant Ave 2009.04.07 The Chuns Visit Berkeley. "Street Signs and Mug Shots"
One Way One Way 2009.04.07 The Chuns Visit Berkeley. "Street Signs and Mug Shots"	Blondie's Pizza Blondie's Pizza 2009.04.07 The Chuns Visit Berkeley. "Street Signs and Mug Shots"
Crepes-A-Go-Go Crepes-A-Go-Go 2009.04.07 The Chuns Visit Berkeley. "Street Signs and Mug Shots"	Hot Topic Hot Topic 2009.04.07 The Chuns Visit Berkeley. "Street Signs and Mug Shots"
Shiekh Shoes Shiekh Shoes 2009.04.07 The Chuns Visit Berkeley. "Street Signs and Mug Shots"	Cyclists dismount in plazas Cyclists dismount in plazas 2009.04.07 The Chuns Visit Berkeley. "Street Signs and Mug Shots"
Jay L Jay L 2009.04.07 The Chuns Visit Berkeley. "Street Signs and Mug Shots"	Christine C Christine C 2009.04.07 The Chuns Visit Berkeley. "Street Signs and Mug Shots"
Ryan C Ryan C 2009.04.07 The Chuns Visit Berkeley. "Street Signs and Mug Shots"	Christine C Christine C 2009.04.07 The Chuns Visit Berkeley. "Street Signs and Mug Shots"
Jensine P Jensine P 2009.04.07 The Chuns Visit Berkeley. "Street Signs and Mug Shots"	Jesus G Jesus G 2009.04.07 The Chuns Visit Berkeley. "Street Signs and Mug Shots"
Jay L Jay L 2009.04.07 The Chuns Visit Berkeley. "Street Signs and Mug Shots"	Droplets Droplets 2009.04.07 The Chuns Visit Berkeley. "Street Signs and Mug Shots"
Alina C Alina C 2009.04.07 The Chuns Visit Berkeley. "Street Signs and Mug Shots"	Jonathan C Jonathan C 2009.04.07 The Chuns Visit Berkeley. "Street Signs and Mug Shots"
John L John L 2009.04.07 The Chuns Visit Berkeley. "Street Signs and Mug Shots"	Daniel C Daniel C 2009.04.07 The Chuns Visit Berkeley. "Street Signs and Mug Shots"
Christine Hat Christine Hat 2009.04.07 The Chuns Visit Berkeley. "Street Signs and Mug Shots"	Jonathan Eyes Jonathan Eyes 2009.04.07 The Chuns Visit Berkeley. "Street Signs and Mug Shots"
Blur Blur 2009.04.07 The Chuns Visit Berkeley. "Street Signs and Mug Shots"	Jesus G Jesus G 2009.04.07 The Chuns Visit Berkeley. "Street Signs and Mug Shots"
Walking Down the Street Walking Down the Street 2009.04.07 The Chuns Visit Berkeley. "Street Signs and Mug Shots"	Junia K Junia K 2009.04.07 The Chuns Visit Berkeley. "Street Signs and Mug Shots"
Milanese Cafe Menu Milanese Cafe Menu 2009.04.07 The Chuns Visit Berkeley. "Street Signs and Mug Shots"	Milanese Cafe Menu 2 Milanese Cafe Menu 2 2009.04.07 The Chuns Visit Berkeley. "Street Signs and Mug Shots"
Kalamari Kalamari 2009.04.07 The Chuns Visit Berkeley. "Street Signs and Mug Shots"	Richard S Richard S 2009.04.07 The Chuns Visit Berkeley. "Street Signs and Mug Shots"
Jonathan C Jonathan C 2009.04.07 The Chuns Visit Berkeley. "Street Signs and Mug Shots"	My Camera's Cousin Canon XSi + 430EX = My Camera's Cousin 2009.04.07 The Chuns Visit Berkeley. "Street Signs and Mug Shots"