I, Robot

Just saw the movie I, Robot at the theater. I don't know how much of the movie is based on the book, since I haven't read it. What I can say is, it is a hero-save-the-world movie with a twist, and I enjoyed it a lot.

batgung

I am reading some articles written by two expatriates living in Hong Kong. They are really funny. I mean, they got to be, if they have the guts to name their site batgung!

National Simplify Your Life Week

I was recently told that the first week of August is National Simplify Your Life Week. I wonder how many people celebrate this, and what do they do?

Weapons of Math Instruction

A nice piece on Weapons of Math Instruction.

Asparagus Steamer etc.

I got a Crate and Barrel catalog in the mail, and got a kick out of reading it. My favorite items included the Egg Plate, the Silver Dollar Pancake Pan, and the Over-the-Sink Board. And when I saw the Asparagus Steamer, I just couldn't stop laughing...

Crepes Cafe

Tonight we went to Crêpes Café in Menlo Park for dinner. I ordered a chicken crêpe, and Francois had a "La Complete", which has ham, egg and cheese. We both asked for mushrooms as an extra. I like his crêpe better than mine -- the ingredients all went well together. We then shared a Belle Hélène crêpe for dessert. That was excellent.

Chicken

An amusing paper on chicken.

Donnie Darko

Just saw the movie Donnie Darko on DVD. It's an intriguing story. I just wish I had an idea what it is about!

Spritied Away (千と千尋の神隠し)

Last night we watched Spritied Away on DVD. Like all other Hayao Miyazaki movies, we were treated with a creative story depicted with colorful drawings and accompanied by beautiful music. It immersed us in a magical yet believable world, and we enjoyed it a lot.

Kids on Love

Don't know how authentic this is, but here is a fun read about the opinions of kids on love.

Back to Square Roots

The Stanford magazine published a showcase article about Cardinal Whirlwinds, my square dance team. Go squares!

My Life as a Dog (Mitt liv som hund)

I saw the Swedish movie My Life as a Dog. In the movie, 12-year-old Ingemar learn to deal with the joy and bitterness of life, when his mother was dying and he was sent away to stay with his relatives. A simple yet touching story.

Human Clock

I came across the human clock site. You can see the current time in a photo, and it changes every minute. Pretty amusing.

Spider-Man 2

Just saw Spider-Man 2 at AMC Mercado. I got annoyed at times when various characters verbalize the moral dilemma of Spider-Man, but other than that it's a great movie. Great action, great special effects, and very entertaining.

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios)

Last night, I saw the movie Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown on DVD. It was by Pedro Almodóvar, who also did Hable con Ella. Unlike Hable con Ella, which is covered with a certain tone of sadness, this movie is outright funny. I guess you can tell from its name? Another thing I got out of it was that I really wanted to try some gazpacho myself -- without the extra ingredient from the movie, of course!

Grameen Bank

I just finished the book Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty. It is the autobiography of Prof. Muhammad Yunus, founder of the Grammen Bank. He observed that the poorest of the poor are very hard-working, but they barely make enough to live from hand to mouth. Prof. Yunus believes that they can break out of the cycle of poverty with just a tiny bit of capital. Grameen Bank provides exactly that. It extends small loans to these poor people so that they can start a profitable venture. And it works. Millions of people have benefited from the Grameen Bank. It is truly inspiring to read its story.

Big City, Goa and Ra

Yesterday we played board games with some friends. We played Big City, Goa and Ra.

Big City is more or less the board game version of Sim City. Each player takes turns to develop the city, and his/her buildings are scored with respect to their location and neighborhood. A quick and nice game.

Goa, on the other hand, is a long and painful game. It is set in the 16^th century. You are in the business of spice trade, and you are trying to found colonies and plantations in India. There are many different things in the game: the auction, the ships, the spices, the colonies, the colonists, the ducats, etc etc. It is a bit too complex for me.

Ra is an auction game set in ancient Eygpt. You get tiles from auctions, and different combination of tiles gives you different scores. It tends to be a bit confusing for first-time players. But since this is my second time playing Ra, I did alright :)

Talk to her (Hable con Ella)

Just watched the Spanish movie Talk to her on DVD. It's a very emotionally charged movie. I am not saying that it is a tear jerker. Rather, the plot unfolds in a way that keeps you emotionally connected to the characters.

Destination Berkeley

This afternoon we met up with Romain at Games of Berkeley. We bought the game San Juan and played at his place. It was a lot of fun.

After that Francois and I went to Berkeley Repertory Theatre to see Mike Daisey's 21 Dog Years: Doing Time @ Amazon.com. He talked about his crazy dot.com days at Amazon.com. I laughed quite a lot during the show.

Before we drove home, we stopped by Barnes and Noble to pick up a copy of Britannica Almanac 2004. Now I have the names of US Presidents and their wives and children, together with a lot of other information :)

BANG 7

We played in the treasure hunt BANG 7 yesterday. It was a great deal of fun. We could almost solve all the puzzles, but the one we couldn't solve was really frustrating. It required the knowledge of the middle names of the presidents of United States! Last treasure hunt we were also troubled by a US Presidents question, so we printed the list of US Presidents from the White House. Alas, that list does not have their middle names. Next time we will print a list of US Presients with their first, middle and last names, plus those of their wives and children...