This is cool, blogging with Textmate editor, using xmlrpc protocol.

One of my friends is studying medicine and I asked why did she decide to study in that field.

her: well, I have a theory. I think it’s because I have a short attention span. I tend to change subjects every two years as I get bored of them easily. Medicine is one subject I think I wouldn’t get bored too easily and it should have enough things to keep myself and my so-called attention span busy. And I like to prescribe medicine for people. What about you? why computer science?

me: because it talks back to me.

her: Oh! you are weird! I just know a medicine I ought prescribe for you!

STEVE JOBS AT HOME IN 1982 — “This was a very typical time. I was single. All you needed was a cup of tea, a light, and your stereo, you know, and that’s what I had.” —Steve Jobs

Whoa, I didn’t know that his birthday is on Feb. 24th, two days apart from my birthday. Awesome.

This man is something. Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Men are born to write… Whatever he beholds or experiences, comes to him as a model and sits for its picture. He counts it all nonsense that they say, that some things are undescribable. He believes that all that can be thought can be written, first or last; and he would report the Holy Ghost, or attempt it. Nothing so broad, so subtle, or so dear, but comes therefore commended to his pen, and he will write. In his eyes, a man is the faculty of reporting, and the universe is the possibility of being reported.

I’m trying to write more, on my work blog and this one.

Link

“Do profoundly deaf people who learn to talk have a voice in their head?”
– Heather & Allen Exby

“My best answer to this,” Hauser wrote, “is that the brain has a special capacity to develop phonological representations, even when it does not have auditory input. The representations might be dramatically different from what hearing individuals hear. Nevertheless, they function in the mind as ’sounds.’” Deaf schizophrenics, he continued, have auditory hallucinations, and blind schizophrenics have visual ones.

This is a good link. I think thoughts are just what they are, thoughts. They don’t really exist physically but from our minds and apparently, 99% of them express theirs phonologically while we express with our hands visually in Sign.

Link

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

Cool, nice to know that I’m not the only one having those thoughts. Thoughts are powerful. Oh yeah, he was adopted too. Cool.

Taken from here

Everyone should discover their personal legend. :-)

Paulo Coelho, author of The Alchemist

I remember receiving a letter from the American publisher, Harper Collins, which said that: “reading The Alchemist was like getting up at dawn and seeing the sun rise while the rest of the world still slept.” I went outside, looked up at the sky and thought to myself: “So, the book is going to be translated!” At the time, I was struggling to establish myself as a writer and to follow my path despite all the voices telling me it was impossible.
(more…)

“The first 90% of the code accounts for the first 90% of the development time. The remaining 10% of the code accounts for the other 90% of the development time.”

-Wikipedia

Coding has a steep learning curve but once you get it working, the rest is gravy. That’s why I’m learning Django. :-)

Think I’ll go buy these. Much better than rubber ones!

It’s been a month since I switched to Dvorak keyboard layout for once and good. Dvorak is the name of a simplified keyboard that’s been remapped efficiently to ease stress on your hands in typing. It was created by this guy named Dr. August Dvorak, hence the name, who spent countless days researching keyboard layouts. God bless him.

I first heard about this layout back when I was in college. Boy, you get to learn a lot of stuffs in college. Three of my friends were Dvorak typists and they told me it’s better than Qwerty. So I tried to learn but it was too hard and I had to stay catch up with school and homework. I gave up shortly after attempting to switch.

On my first internship off college, I got bored so I thought again about learning how to type in Dvorak and this time, I lasted longer for about two weeks. I still struggled and was typing pretty slow. I gave up again.

Now, I’m in my full-time position as a webmaster for Google, I spend a lot of time typing and my fingers were starting to burden the stress. When I got a Kinesis keyboard, I thought it was a good time to learn Dvorak again and so I did and stuck with it. I’m happy I did and it’s so easy to type urls like google.com, evenly alternating fingers.

With this Dvorak layout, I learned two things about this keyboard. It focuses on alternating both hands wheras with Qwerty, there is a number of words that can be typed with only one hand. When I started to type in Dvorak, that was a bad habit to break as I wasn’t very used to alternate hands on almost every letter. Secondly, it actually uses all of your fingers, from your left pinkie to your right pinkie. I wasn’t used to engaging my pinkies as I used index, middle fingers and thumbs often on Qwerty and I wasn’t really touch-typing, although I could type pretty fast.

One other thing it taught me. My dad isn’t very computer literate and he couldn’t even touch type and would have to hunt and peck at every letter. I used to make fun of him about that as I couldn’t imagine how hard that would be. Touch-typing, that is, feels pretty easy to me, almost like writing. You probably feel the same way. Till you try to teach yourself how to type on Dvorak. And that is exactly the same kind of frustration that my dad feels when it comes down to typing. Computers weren’t around when he was born so I understood that now and I don’t make fun of him anymore.

One of my favorite parts about this keyboard is probably the period that’s above D letter on E letter. It’s so easy to hit that letter instead of awkwardly lifting your hand to reach period on the lower right bottom.

Since 70% of English words can be typed on home row, sometimes, Dvorak layout makes me feel like I’m typing on a piano, using all of my fingers almost equally, hitting most common letters on the home row with occasional reaches to other less frequent letters. Oh yeah, the record for the fastest typist in the world was accomplished with a Dvorak layout. :-) ‘enuff said.

For more reading on this keyboard layout,

Ma.tt » On the Dvorak Keyboard Layout
Kertong.com - The Dvorak layout
The Dvorak Keyboard and You
Dvzine.org/

Good luck!

Awesome video!

What’s so great about this video is it doesn’t use any voice so it’s a great presentation for people who are deaf like me.

And since I can hear a bit, great music as well. :-)

“You must clarify your goals, gain knowledge through spaced repetition, preserve health, work steadily, minimize stress, refuse interruption, and never resist sleep when tired. This should lead to radically improved intelligence and creativity. The only cost: turning your back on every convention of social life.”

via Wired

Over the past couple of weeks, I got in a funk, uncertain of what I want to do with my life. I was still figuring who I am such as what is my purpose here on this Earth. It appears that I seem to have everything going on but something was still missing. So I spent some time reading and surfing the web especially Wikipedia. I can’t imagine not having Google or Wikipedia. I also go to Amazon.com often to read customers reviews. I realize that by doing a lot of reading does help with the sense of who I am. After a while of doing that, it dawns on me that I need a role model and as you know, imitation is one of things of how we learn. I’ve found a person who I’d like to model after. That person is Tiger Woods. The more I read about him, the more I feel in common with him. He is a shy person but when he’s focused on something like golf, nothing can stop him. That is true about me. Once I get started, I don’t stop till I achieve that I was aiming for. I could spend hours at a driving range tuning my swing or in front of computer coding for hours. Lately, what I lack is the focus and that I easily get frustrated or have a lack of patience. Tiger Woods had the same problem that he tends to get impatient sometimes. So, he and I share similar personality and ofc, I love to play golf. :)

Excerpts on him:

If one word could describe Tiger Woods’ personality, it’s “conscientious.” His attention to detail and tireless determination to reach his goals is what separates him from the competition. For Woods, his drive to achieve wasn’t born over

People say Tiger has a real presence and that his ability to help others extends beyond the U.S. He is truly a multi-racial person, not just a black athlete. People feel that he will be a big influence on people across the world - and not just in a golf sense. He can hold everything together. He is a universal child - truly multi-cultural.

That’s what I want to be, a person who can keep it real and together. I remember in my youth that I received the most conscientious award from my former dorm supervisor.

I’ve started writing in my journal book to write down my thoughts and things that I want to do. I realize that every night, I need to think about my day, whether I was productive, and write to plan my day ahead so that I’ll be ready to get out of bed and start the day. If I feel my focus begins to waver, I’ll look in my book and get my thoughts organized. If I start to feel frustrated or down, simply, I’ll google the man, Tiger Woods, and read more about him.

Woot, this looks good! I shall make some soon.

KOREAN BARBECUE BURGERS

Ingredients

1/2 cup chopped green onions
1 1/2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons minced peeled fresh ginger
3 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
1 tablespoon dark sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 pounds ground sirloin
Cooking spray
6 (1 1/2-ounce) whole wheat hamburger buns, split
6 red leaf lettuce leaves
6 tablespoons thinly sliced radishes

Preparation
Prepare grill.

Combine first 8 ingredients. Divide the mixture into 6 equal portions, shaping each into a 1/2-inch-thick patty.

Place patties on a grill rack coated with cooking spray; grill 6 minutes on each side or until a thermometer registers 160°. Remove from grill; let patties stand 5 minutes.

Place buns, cut sides down, on grill rack; grill 1 minute or until toasted. Place 1 patty on bottom half of each bun; top each serving with 1 lettuce leaf, 1 tablespoon radishes, and top half of bun.

Yield

6 servings (serving size: 1 burger)

Nutritional Information

CALORIES 343(38% from fat); FAT 14.4g (sat 4.7g,mono 5.7g,poly 2.3g); PROTEIN 26.7g; CHOLESTEROL 72mg; CALCIUM 72mg; SODIUM 534mg; FIBER 3.7g; IRON 3.8mg; CARBOHYDRATE 27.4g

Bruce Weinstein , Cooking Light, AUGUST 2007

I knew it. It was a matter of time before someone would create a Google Doodle logo in ASL. That has happened. Here’s the image below.

Click on ‘Grades 7-9′, and Region 2 to see it.

Kudos to Molly Kestenbaum for creating the art and getting nominated! Vote for her!