Phone Pics on Flickr

Ethan's growing up fast. Everything happens faster actually. The whole thing is a blur. My digital camera does fine technically but is just way too much trouble to carry around. After getting a new phone with ATT we decide to add 4gig cards to it. The idea was that we were going to take smaller pictures but more frequently. We won't be able to print the pics but at least we'll have them to look at on the web.

Adjusting to different light settings and shutter speed and such has been reduced to sliding the phone open, hit the camera shortcut button, and shoot. The quality is unpredictable. Sometimes the slightest difference in angle stretches the picture. The phone camera also lags behind a second between pressing the shoot button and the actual capture of the image, resulting in lots of half opened eye shots.

I am getting more used to the phone camera though. The idea here is I can capture a lot more while giving up pixel count. Not a bad trade off considering the alternative could be no picture at all.

I've also been using PicLens addon for Firefox when viewing galleries. It works with Flickr and youtube.

Jumping a Toll Gate

I have seen this done before. Usually young male, fit, has a running start. All of which I didn't have except the illusion that I am still 22. Yep, that's right, I jumped one, sort of. Not because I've been watching too much GTA game trailers either.

A lady in front of me had gotten her bag firmly caught in the toll gate. She tried pulling, prying, and looked for a station agent. About three seconds goes by, an eternity for commuters, while she fights these orange plastic jaws of death. I, with my ticket in hand, had rolled my eyes, sensing folks behind me doing the same, my morning triple latte urge boiling, put my ticket in. There, I'm a hero. The gates flashed open and smashed shut again before I could get out.

So there I was, with no station agent in sight, decided to jump. I needed to clear a bit more than my waist. No problem. Memory of my basketball playing days flashes by. I leaped and cleared only about 90% of it. It was awful. Although I didn't fall, I was scrambling to get over the gate. Will Ferrell playing basketball on skates would have more grace. Worst of all the station agent showed up and gave me a wth-were-you-thinking? look. They must have cloaking devices, or can beam down from another office...

Funny how things worked out though. I got in line for my coffee later and they gave me two lattes because of a previous mixed up order.

Tagged.

Damn. Y'all know I can't read. I've got 2 audiobooks (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Guns, Germs, and Steel), a Pantone swatchbook, and Art Since 1960. I tried CD1 chaper 23 but that didn't work. Pantone 618C is as close to page 123 as I'm willing to count. On Art Since 1960 there are 2 pictures on page 123. Oops, does the game end here??

Mind dump

It's what happens when you've had food for thought and partially digested ideas. You've been warned. From here on down, I'm giving myself license to blab.

It all started at work. I'm charged to solve an existing problem that we've had at work. It involves pdf's. Lots of it. Every piece of printed direct marketing material has a pdf copy. Planners, writers, and designers needs to look at past jobs for referencing and a quick way to gauge their next project. Every year we produce roughly 800 marketing pieces. This include marketing emails as well. When I first came on board I quickly patched together a static html page with a sorting script. It sorts jobs by project number, project type, project title, and date it was submitted to this list. Easy. I even got a company award for this. You want to barf right?

Fast forward 2 years. That tiny html has grown to an unsightly list with hundreds of entries. Other things further complicated this band-aid solution. The sort function is fragile and would break if one entry's html for one project was slightly out of place. Designers were suppose to update this html list as they complete projects. Makes sense. But between press checks, meetings, and actually doing work, updating this list quickly slips down in priority.

Nothing to lose sleep over, so far. Yet here I am, just starting to push at 1:21 AM.

I know company culture also plays a role in this problem. It's tough to describe it without broad stroke comments. Borrowing an expression from online gaming - they want to have everything on farm status. Everything needs to be done in a way that doesn't require on-the-spot agile thinking/problem solving. To a degree, I think that's ok, but our company has been around for 60 years. They've been on farm status on everything for at least couple of decades. It's a feel-good fuzzy wuzzy warmness and it's contagious.

The problem stated above is probably, ok, definitely self-damning. I mean, why am I posing as a programmer or a web guy and providing half baked solutions? Why did I design something that puts pressure on only the designer?? Why was the html so fragile to begin with? why can't we designers all copy/paste blocks of code the exact same way. html is so easy, why does it complicates designers' work? Nuts.

I've got a few ideas mentally thumbtacked.

My first idea: save pdfs in folders organized by project type (brochure, postcard, etc), and let file browsers take care of the sorting. This is probably the most likely solution knowing how people are at work.
Pros: It requires no html, updating, budget, or additional software.
Cons: Need to train (really, I do) people on making shortcuts. Folks from other department may complain that it doesn't show up on intranet (which I can prob just make a link from our intranet page to the folder right?).

Second idea - CMS. Content managed systems like drupal, joomla. Ah hell, even blog would be a godsend now. This will solve a lot more than the pdf problem, I can't decide if that's a good thing or not.
Pros: Ok, there's a lot. Planners can start an entry for every project, writers can handle the bulk of the commenting, and designers posts pdfs there. Even distribution of work. RSS to keep tabs on projects. Tags and labels galore, searches would make more sense. History of changes and comments (usually in illegible handwriting from attorneys). More sense of contribution and collaboration. Lots of long-term benefits like making people more web/tech savvy. Some coworkers are already on-board with the idea. Boilerplate/templates and other often-used copy can be accessed easily.
Cons: Logistical nightmare with IT. Endless meetings to learn about CMS, decide on which is best, and play responsibility hot potato. Hell of a lot more work initially.

Well, that's it for now. It's late and my mental thumbtacks have disappeared in my mental cubicle.

Grandma Lee, I'll miss ya!

I have spent many summer vacations with grandma Lee. One summer, she had made us chilled rice balls. It was so good that my cousin Martin and I finished the whole pot and asked for more. She cleared off the table and taught us how to make it. Martin and I realized that we should make more to avoid another shortage. We got to rolling, ball after ball. After we had made enough grandma told us to stop. We, of course, didn't. We had made way more than what we could eat, one bigger than the next. We made one that was the size of a baseball. Grandma finally shooed us off the table and told us that we'll have to finish everything we made. We didn't know it yet but grandma had a lesson planned.

She cooked all the rice balls we had made. The first few bowls went by fast. Pretty soon we were stuffed. We thought we had finished everything until she brought out more. And more. Finally, we gave up, we were ready to admit defeat. She didn't scold us though. She laughed instead. ...and brought out the baseball size rice ball.

Grandma was 102 when she passed away this Tuesday. In the picture, as with all her meals, she's eating fruit before her meal. Her visitors were likely to receive scarfs she's knitted. I have a few of these. You can often find her silvery hair intertwined with the wool.

ding!

We celebrated Ethan's first birthday recently by going to Monterey's Aquarium on a Friday. A few days before going to the aquarium Ethan had been saying "yu" a lot, which sounds like "fish" in mandarin. He would point at stuff and say "yu~", so I thought he might actually like to point at a fish instead of stuff that aren't fish. We were happy to see new additions at the aquarium. There was a new corner near the tidepool exhibit where waves would come crashing down on a clear plexi-glass roof.

We walked around the Canary Row and had a late lunch (clam chowdah in a bread bowl). We also walked down to the beach where Ethan felt the chilly water of the Pacific Ocean for the first time.

He's back!

I'm still getting used to the new and improved Ethan. He's just started to walk 2~3 steps. He's also started to make faces on demand (like the pic above). More pics on the way.

Point Reyes

With Sherie and Ethan still in Taiwan, I found my weekends very uneventful. So when my coworker invited me to join them on an 8-mile hike near Point Reyes I quickly agreed.

Taiwan '07

I've finally reduced all the pictures I took in Taiwan down to about 250. I'm also trying a flash version of CS2's automated gallery. I'm hoping the download time won't take too long.

If I had to reduce all the pictures I took down to one, it will prob be this one:

Taiwan is all about rice, especially during Chinese New Years. This picture was taken near my grandma's home in Yi-lan. I was only able to spend 2 days here but I got to see grandma. She's still trucking along at 102.

Besides Yi-Lan, we also took a short trip to Wu-Lai for a day. We ate at a restaurant that overlooked the Wu-Lai river. Afterwards we had afternoon tea/coffee at a hot-spring hotel. I ordered a Kahlua Coffee for about $6 USD, which also includes a dessert.

We stay in Taipei for most of the 2 weeks I was there. Not much was going on in Taipei as most business was closed due to Chinese New Year. Sherie's mom cooked us a huge dinner on the second day of New Year, traditionally the day where married women return to their parents home. Sherie's family, like most families enjoy "dry-land swimming" as part of the new year tradition. In front of Sherie's place there's a park with a wide open track. Although signs clearly say no fireworks, there was a show every night from 7pm to 3am.

Baby Plane

Don't have a silver spoon for your little one? No worry, dress it up with a Baby Plane!

9 month check-up, what a no-bloody mess!

Ethan's turned 9 months old this week. His weight gain has slowed but is still at a hefty 23lb-14oz. on a weight-height ratio, he is *still* off the chart, above the 100-percentile curve.

Before we saw Ethan's doctor we were told to do a survey. These questions are specifically for a 9-month old. We filled it out and for the most part it was a great reminder. One of the question asked if we lived in a place built before 1979. We do. The doctor sent us to have Ethan's blood tested.

We get down to the lab and two assistants were there to draw Ethan's blood. Actually, their badge said "Assistant II". The first assistant, felt around Ethan's arm for the vein. Felt around some more. Then he whispers to the other assistant, "oh, its a flush". The other assistant tries to feel the vein too. Both of them seem to be unsure. The first assistant, sensing me getting impatient quickly swabs Ethan's arm with alcohol and took out an adult-size needle. He didn't hesitate, to which I thought was a good thing at first, and plunge this adult-size needle into the Ethan's arm. He loosened the rubber strap and no blood anywhere. He then tries to dig around a bit more, still, nothing.

I knew these guys were practicing on Ethan. Fine. The only way they were going to get experience were on babies. So go ahead, practice on my only son. All this time, Ethan is crying louder and louder, and the assistant is digging around for a vein. Finally, I asked him if they could get someone else. Another guy in white coat came, used a "buttlerfly" (a thinner) needle, and was able to draw enough blood for the test (this guy saw Ethan and said "oh-oh, and I have carpal tunnel!").

So what went wrong? I don't know, but I have a few theories. I could've kept quiet for a little longer and maybe the first assistant would eventually find a vein with an adult needle? Couldn't this first assistant used a "butterfly" in the first place?

In anticipation

The whole chen5.1 gang will be taking a trip to Taiwan for Chinese New Year. I will be posting more frequently, so I hope. The furthest we've traveled with Ethan was a 2 hour drive to Monterey. So flying for 14 hours should be an adventure.

There are a few things I'm looking forward to. Introducing Ethan to Sherie and my family. Food. Yi-Lan (grandma Lee's farm is there). The night market and the grocery-market. New year festivities. TV! 7-11 (yeah that's right, 7-Eleven). Buying breakfast.

As giddy as I am, there are also some things i dread and can't avoid. Smokers, especially with Ethan. Smog. Lack of organized/clean sidewalk. The returning trip, it'll be tough since Sherie and Ethan are staying behind for a few weeks longer. Jet lag.

As I write this post, there's a list of things we need to bring back that's been growing exponentially. Vitamins tops this list both in quantity ~and~ importance. I frequently remind family that there IS a Costco in Taiwan... Glucosamine is the same everywhere right? We will be packing lots Ethan's things as well. We're still in the process of deciding what we can/can't get by. Long gone are the days when I can only pack 3 shirts and a jean.

So friends, family, and coworkers, what do you look forward to (or dread) when you go on a vacation? Food? People? Music?

Ethan's pics from 6 to 9 months

Things to eat before first birthday:
Chicken, check!

Baby Tech - Babykeeper

I saw this from gizmodo. Seems like such a great idea, no?

6 month check up

We were a little late getting to Kaiser (by 5 min) and was told our doctor couldn't see us :( Boooo~~ After some thinking, i approached the nurse again and tried reasoning with her. I also held Ethan up to the window to help my case. it did! a few minutes later the doctor came out to greet us. ...it could also be that i was begging a little.

Ethan weighed in at 22lbs. plus change. the doctor was convinced that he was on a strict snickers diet. We explained, up until the check up, he was getting mostly breast milk and not much else. Ethan is now almost 7 months old and has since then moved into semi solid foods like tofu and mushed up carrots.

The 6-month check up also meant getting more shots. With the 3 vaccine shots Ethan got a bonus flu shot. We're going back in a few days for his second flu shot. I had mention to the doctor about mercury based preservatives in flu shots. Out of all the pediatricians I've asked at Kaiser, most of them seem to think its no big deal. What's a parent to do? The alternative was to wait for vaccine shots that *didn't* have the mercury preservatives... not likely, since there's already a shortage of the regular vaccine.

baby tech

2 baby tech products that recently came across my screen. weird? yes. useful? seems users have been reporting getting more REM sleep.

2 month check up

Ethan got his vaccine shots on Tuesday. I'm happy to report that he weighed in at 13lbs and 14oz, at a hefty 92 percentile. We were told that weight was big even for non-asian babies. His height is 25 inches and off the percentile curve on the printout. The doc said he was at 97 percentile. At this rate, he will be 900lbs and 8 feet tall before he turns 13.

Ethan at 7+ weeks

more after the jump.

my day job

Duke of Poop, aka Sir Poopington. in rougher neighborhoods he's know as Sir Poopalot. 

What Ethan thought of Sushi House

what? no green tea ice cream?