Rocket Mania

Lately I've been playing the game Rocket Mania a lot. The goal is to connect the fuse to the rocket. If you launch three or more rocket at the same time, you get some coins on the board. Grab them, and your rockets will be upgraded when you advance a level. I love these strategy games. Another game I like is Alchemy, also by PopCap.

Free hotel room for Jesus' parents

A British hotel chain is offering couples called Mary and Joseph a free night's stay over Christmas, according to Reuters. Quite a creative way to get some free press coverage!

Rear Window

Just saw Hitchcock's Rear Window. I always thought that the movie was about the rear window of a car. The rear window in question actually belonged to an apartment, and it faced into the courtyard. The fact that we could only get a glimpse of life from this window added a lot of suspense to the movie, and made it very interesting.

zipdecode

Now you can see how zip codes spread :)

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow

Just saw Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. I saw the trailer a couple of times, and was intrigued. The soft lens gives it a very dreamy feel. The plot is kind of weak, but I think it is worth seeing, just for the cinematography.

Angels and Demons

After reading The Rule of Four, I started reading Angels and Demons. It is remarkably similar to The Da Vinci Code, in terms of the plot and the writing style. And just as captivating.

Snoopy Museum

Today we went to the Snoopy Museum in Santa Rosa. The exhibit sets the Peanuts comic strips against the cultural background at large, which made me appreciate the jokes a lot more. I also got to know why it is called "Peanuts" -- it means "little children" in American English!

The Rule of Four

Just finished reading The Rule of Four. I couldn't help but keep comparing it to The Da Vinci Code. Both involve solving Renaissance mysteries, and both of them have a web game. I like The Da Vinci Code a lot more though. The writing flows a lot better, and the web game was much better too. That said, reading The Rule of Four brought back a lot of memories from Princeton, and made me smile from the heart throughout.

Bang H8

Yesterday we went to the Haight district in San Francisco to play in the treasure hunt Bang 8. It is a part of the Bay Area Night Game series. My team was very frustrated last time in Bang 7 since we couldn't solve a problem which required the knowledge of the middle names of US Presients, so this time I invited 4 Americans to play with us. That proved very useful in the first puzzle "Cookie Monster!".

"Cookie Monster!" consisted of a bag of cookies and a crossword puzzle. The task was to identify all the cookies in the bag and fit their names in the crossword. I only knew Fig Newtons, but my teammates came up with names like Nutter Butter, Nilla Wafer etc. I was so glad that they were on the team!

Initially I was a bit worried that a team of seven was too large, but since we had at least two puzzles on hand each time, we worked in smaller groups, and that was quite efficient. In fact, we were the first team to get to the finish line! That really surprised me. I had been to several treasure hunts, but I was never even close to having a decent rank. Three cheers to the team!

Google News, Hong Kong edition

Finally there is a Hong Kong edition for Google News. Yay!

Bourne Supremacy

Just went to see Bourne Supremacy. The movie has a lot of exciting action, just as I expected. It would be even better if they did not shake the camera so much during the combat scenes.

Whale Rider

Just saw Whale Rider on DVD. It is set in a Maori tribe, where traditionally the first-born male child becomes the new chief. Pai is born into this line of heritage, but she is a girl. The rest of the movie is about her struggle to earn the love of her grandfather, who believes that everything went wrong the moment she was born.

After watching this movie, I have this question in my mind: Why is most part of the world dominated by male? How did that happen?

Bread and Tulips (Pane e tulipani)

We watched the movie Bread and Tulips on DVD this afternoon. It was delightful to watch Rosalba, the unappreciated housewife, rediscover the joy of life.

Sailing

We went sailing with David yesterday. I've never been on a sail boat before, so I did not know what to expect. We started from Pier 40 and went around Angel Island. David and his friend Mike controlled the boat with the tiller and ropes, and they used a lot of jargons. For an example, to "come about" means that we are changing direction so that the wind will be blowing from the other side of the sail. This one was important to know, since the boat would tip in another direction after that, and we needed to sit on the other side of the boat.

When you are in a sail boat, you really got to feel the power of the wind -- the boat made very good speed, and it tipped a lot while doing that. At one point we were almost vertical! I learned a lot about sailing yesterday. I am so glad that David invited us :)

The Da Vinci Code

I just finished reading The Da Vinci Code last night. I started reading on Saturday, and just couldn't stop. It was so good!

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...

U.S. addiction to oil puts it at mercy of risky characters

The San Francisco Chronicle has an excellent article titled U.S. addiction to oil puts it at mercy of risky characters. It said that the gas tax in the US is too low -- not enough discourage the use of inefficient vehicles, and definitely not enough to create and maintain a mass-transit system. To achieve that would need at around $1 to $3 per gallon. That is so not happening. Can you imagine the US public suddenly ditches their SUVs and goes gung-ho on public transportation, plus advocates a high gas tax to support that? To me that's like seeing the sun rise on the west!

Harry Potter 3

Just saw Harry Potter 3 at the movie theater. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is my favourite of all the Harry Potter books, and the movie disappointed me in that regard. When I read the book, there were a lot of "aha" moments when mysteries from the first two books were explained. The movie did not give me that feeling at all. But then I know the story already by the time I watched the movie, so I guess that's unfair. One thing held up to my expectations though -- Professor Lupin. He was as amiable as the one portraited in the book :)

Shrek 2

Just went to see Shrek 2 at the theater. I usually have lower expectations for movie sequels, but Shrek 2 is no less funny that the first one. It's filled with excellent jokes and parodies. I also like the cute little cat a lot :)

Cool way to fold a shirt

I got a link to a video showing a cool way to fold a shirt. The video is in Japanese (no surprise there), but it's pretty easy to understand even if you don't speak the language :)

The Postman (Il Postino)

Last night I saw The Postman on DVD. It was delightful to see the shy postman and the famous poet become good friends. I like the music in the movie as well.

Network

I watched Network on DVD last night. It was scary to see how crazy things can be when ratings became the one and only driving force in a TV station. The movie was made in 1976, but sadly most of it is still true today.

Run Lola Run (Lola rennt)

Just saw Run Lola Run on DVD. It was amazing. The storyline is very simple -- Lola needs to find 100,000 marks in 20 minutes to save her boyfriend. What's interesting is the way the movie was shot. The camerawork, the editing and the music all work together to keep your heart beating fast. It gets repetitive at times (e.g. when her mother was on the telephone), but overall it was a great movie.

The fire at shoreline

Yesterday when I was driving along Shoreline at around 11:30pm, I saw a fire. Yes, a fire. It was right next to the Shoreline theater, and it was big. So big that I actually parked the car to call the police. When I did that, I saw another guy on his cell phone. I asked him if he was calling the police, and indeed he was trying to get through on 911. Seeing that this was taken care of, I went home. On my way home I saw at least 7 police cars and 2 fire trucks going there! Guess it was really taken care of :)