Heh cool. I can post from my sidekick using the web browser. It wouldn’t work before without javascript support. Now it does, and I’m able to post from here. Cool.

I’m on the last plane to bring myself home to springfield, IL. My mom is gonna pick me up. Usually, dad would also go but he has to work tonight, his last before he’s off from work for a week. So, mom and I are gonna have lunch when I get there.

I notice airports have gotten better as compared to last year, with the screening and new fed dept in charge of security. Check-in wasn’t too bad but I had to be alert and look for a shorter line or get into a fast queue. I thought I was a little late but I got to the gate in time.

The plane just moved, so I better hit the submit button before I lose wireless service. :-)

I pretend I’m in a movie, like that movie about a boy trying to get home for christmas and he was the “cute” boy in home improvement with Tim Allen. Only if I could remember the name… Know what I’m talking about? Yeah, you do? ok great…

There’s a few things I gotta do when I step inside my parents’ home. This is the longest time I’ve been away from home. Let me calculate… the last time I was home was uh may.. wow, I can’t remember exactly when. It’s been that long.

I realize I’m no longer a kid who asks dad for some change to play video arcale. How do I know? because this is the first time I’ve paid my own airfare without asking my parents for some help. One thing that will never change. The refigerator is full of foods and all free!

-My parents have tons of things in the house. I gotta find a way to get rid of the things. Selling on ebay is one way.
-I gotta fix my parents’ computer; it probably has more virus than the bird flu.
-I gotta test the cable speed and see if I can get the upload rate up to at least 256 kbps.
-Got a few projects to work on, in which two of them I’m hoping to unveil over the break.
-I plan to do all the cooking for my parents. I was already a chef before I knew it. I will talk abt that later.
-What better way to de-stress? snowboarding! I found out there is a snow resort not very far from my home, about 2 hours away. That means I can go riding where in the past, I thought I had nowhere to go.
-There’s a big poker tournament coming up on the 30th of Dec. This will show how much skill I have in poker. Details to folllow.
-I gotta spend time with my family of three—dad, mom, and grandma—and life is not getting any shorter. On other related news about family be sure to have infant nail scissors for your baby’s fingernail.

Oh, I remember the name of the movie now. It’s called “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” and the boy’s name is Jonathan Taylor Thomas. Any of you ever watched that?

Warning signs slow cars better than cameras

Auto Express said checks in England showed 25 per cent of drivers speeding at speed camera sites, but only 16 per cent at flashing speed limit signs.

Now, this is something to consider! Do you have any idea how many cameras does DC have? More than fifty but not all of them are used for speed ticketing. The largest automotive organization, AAA, has declared DC as a top strict enforcement area, which is the first time in 105 years. Last October, DC fined $2.9 million dollars from flashing at speeding vehicles and since 1999, it has earned more than $122 million dollars. The officials keep saying it’s to make the area safer. Yeah right! Dear DC officials, what do you have to say after this article? Doesn’t that contradict your point of making the area safer? You’re just using us to take our money out for your own benefits.

Oh pul-eeze…

In about 6 months or so, I’m gonna be out of here!

I just ate a can of spaghetti boyardee, 8 sticks of new Oreo, turkey sandwich (with one bread) with mustard and cheese, beef ramen, and a leftover steak with A1 sauce. Oh, I had a milk to go with that too.

+ + + + + =

Anyone care to count how many calories altogether?

all pics are found from images.google.com.

Thought this was cool…. even more prevalent in the deaf world, which is like 1% of the entire population.

Yahoo! Answers – theory of six degrees of separation

In 1967, psychologist Stanley Milgram tried to test the theory by sending several letters to random people in the Midwest. The letter featured the name, address, and occupation of a single person on the East Coast; participants were asked to forward the letters to the people who they thought were most likely to know the person. It took an average of five intermediaries to reach the target.

AOL shareholders should be glad abt this news.

The deal shows that Google is willing to pay to preserve its lucrative relationship with AOL and prevent Microsoft from becoming a bigger provider of Internet search tools. A deal between Microsoft and AOL would have made Microsoft’s own advertising network more attractive.

The struggle over AOL reflects the larger competitive landscape between rivals Google and Microsoft, said Internet analyst Scott Kessler of Standard and Poor’s.

The proposed agreement with Google gives AOL more flexibility to sell Google search ads, and have them appear only on AOL sites. The online service currently directs advertisers to Google’s Web site with no way to limit display ads to its own customers.

AOL is Google’s biggest customer, accounting for about $420 million, or about 10 percent, of Google’s revenue during the first nine months of this year, according to regulatory filings.

Most of the $420 million came from the ads Google distributes on AOL’s Web site. The two companies first began working together in 2002 when Google wrestled away AOL from another online advertising network currently owned by Yahoo Inc.

Microsoft, which increasingly views Google as a fierce rival, has been negotiating with Time Warner since January but did not propose any cash investment in AOL, officials said.

*update*

Google has bought 5% of AOL for one billion dollars, preventing Microsoft from making a big move into the search engine market.

Gmail Mobile.

Type http://m.gmail.com in ur browser on your sidekick. Only one image will be loaded (Google logo) and the rest is all text, which means it gets downloaded fast. Oh yeah, you can always search ur emails. No need to sort. :-)

Calvin really loves snow, especially making snowmans.

Some of my fave:

Click on pics to enlarge.

Type “20002” or your zip code and “weather” in the google search. Now you get your weather report in < 1 second than loading up on weather.com and bunch of ads. :-)

This guy has a point. “There is no God”. The bottom point? Enjoy your life.

Believing there’s no God stops me from being solipsistic. I can read ideas from all different people from all different cultures. Without God, we can agree on reality, and I can keep learning where I’m wrong. We can all keep adjusting, so we can really communicate. I don’t travel in circles where people say, “I have faith, I believe this in my heart and nothing you can say or do can shake my faith.” That’s just a long-winded religious way to say, “shut up,” or another two words that the FCC likes less.

Wanna know which one is really the best search engine? Google, Yahoo, or MSN? Don’t sweat, there’s an easy way to find out.. Just take this test and you shall see. *matrix theme plays*

Saw this on “How Stuffs work?” website. Someone asked what is the largest passenger ship in the world? Ofc, US carriers hold the title for being the largest ship but what about passengers? We all know about Titantic, which I think got way too hyped up ‘cuz someone said it was “unsinkable”. Ofc, nothing can be ever unsinkable! Right now, it’s the Royal Carribean Cruise line’s Explorer of the Seas. But something bigger is going to be built. It’s called the Freedom Ship. Currently, they’re still trying to find more investors and raise money to build this ship. The specs are as eye-popping as they can get. Check this out.

Freedom Ship from How Stuffs Works.

Freedom Ship FAQ – more info abt this ship.

No cruise ship that has ever been built can compare to the enormity of Freedom Ship. Imagine a mile-long stretch of 25-story-tall buildings in New York City; now imagine that floating on the water. If you can picture that, then you get the general idea of Freedom Ship’s size. At 4,320 feet (1,317 meters) long, 725 feet (221 m) wide and 340 feet (103 m) tall, the ship is taller than the length of a football field and wider than two football fields put together.

Freedom Ship will have 17,000 residential units and will be home to more than 60,000 people, including residents and all of the personnel that will be required to maintain the ship. The floating city will continuously circle the world and will travel to most of Earth’s coastal regions, offering residents the ability to see the entire globe without leaving their home. All of the ship’s employees will be given food, housing, uniforms, medical and dental care and a continuing education program. The ship will contain all of the features that any modern city might have, including:

*17,000 living units, with prices in the range of $180,000 to $2.5 million, including a small number of premium suites currently priced up to $44 million.
* A $200 million hospital
* A 3,800-foot (1,158-m) landing strip, which will serve private planes and some small commercial aircraft that carry no more than 40 passengers
* Hangars for private aircraft
* A marina for residents’ yachts
* A large shopping mall
* A school system offering K-12 and college education
* A golf driving range
* Bicycle paths
* 200 open acres for recreation
* 3,000 commercial units in a similar price range
* 2,400 time-share units
* 10,000 hotel units
* A World Class Casino
* A ferryboat transportation system that provides departures every 15 minutes, 24 hours a day, to 3 or more local cities giving ship residents access to the local neighborhood and up to 30,000 land-based residents a chance to spend a day on the ship.

Sketches:

I would have posted pics when I got back except I was too tired and exhausted from snowboarding for about five hours straight. Bummer, I forgot to charge my camera so the battery ran out when we got to the top of mountains (hills). Nonetheless, here’s the pics. :-)

I started learn how to snowboard three years ago when RIT offered a PE class in snowboarding with a discount pass, so it was a good time for me to learn and use the deal. But I didn’t even snowboard once last year as I moved to DC, started my first real job and was basically in middle of everything that’s going on. Now I’m more settled this year and after living in DC for more than a year, you definitely want to get out of DC whenever you can. So, last sunday was a great time to be out of DC.

I was really rusty when I started the first run down the slope and I told Blake that I’d read in a mag that about 1 in 6 snowboarders get hurt and I sure hope I’m not gonna be that person. He said not to worry and just take your time as u build up confidence. As soon as he said that, he went off, zooming down the slope. I was like holy shit, he’s already gone! I gotta try and catch up. Down the slope, I fell or slipped a few times, not really used to riding the board in a long time and I felt like I was a beginner all over again. I told myself to be in control of my board and take my time without going too fast. Eventually, I was able to pick up and after a few runs, I became a lot better and able to stay with Blake but he’s way up on a different level than I am. I have a long way to go to become as good as he is. He can jump high while my jumps are a joke, barely lifting off the ground.

One big drawback about this ski resort is that they don’t serve alcoholic beverage! Instead, we got some coffee. And overall, the entire resort is pretty small but is the nearest resort to DC. There’s a bigger resort in Wisp, abt 3 hrs from here. I’m gonna snowboard as much as I can and get ready for Colorado later this year! :-)