Sunyee’s Blog

Cousin Rudy has returned to Taiwan after a 6 week stay.  Most of what happened has been posted on my Facebook account.  Photos have also been posted on Facebook as well.

Also with Clara coming in November, I won’t be online as much anymore.  I’m also closing down sections of my websites to make it more streamlined and less time-consuming to maintain.

This will be my last blog entry on Friendster.  I won’t be deleting my Friendster account.  If I find that I have more time in the future, I might re-open it again.  I find it unlikely, but who knows. 

If you want to stay in contact with me, you can reach me at Facebook.com.

My cousin, Rudy, is coming over from Taiwan to stay at my place for 6 weeks.  We’ll be going to a lot of places so hopefully I’ll have some new pictures to add.

We’ve already got tickets/hotels bought/booked for Disneyland, Las Vegas Venetian, Phantom Concert at Vegas, and Comic-Con.  I am still debating between Sea World or San Diego Zoo after we go to the Comic-Con.

We’ve also made plans to have all the dogs get together for a romp at the dog beach or a dog-friendly restaurant.  Plus one of Chip’s friend will be having her birthday on August 3rd.  So a lot of activities coming up for the summer.

In addition, I’ll be able to bring in some extra cash with this website project I received from a company that wanted my help to re-design their website.  So that will help pay for a lot of my summer activities.

Those of you who have Facebook search me up on it.  I’m more active there than I am here on Friendster.  In the meantime, I have lots of new pictures of Chip at his website http://www.chipthemutt.com/

I got myself a new Dell because my one-year old Toshiba just didn’t have a good graphics card.  It should have been a decent graphics card, but it was glitchy.  So I got a Dell laptop with a 3-year in-home service plan just in case anything goes wrong.

The Nvidia graphics card with 256 MB of RAM, and it is terrific!  I have no problem playing Rappelz or Second Life anymore.  Although my Dell laptop sure makes some interesting clicking sounds.  I wonder why?

I saw a Warcraft Dell Laptop that has 512 MB of RAM with the Nvidia graphics card, but it has something called the Physics card.  It’s a new additional card that computers can have nowadays to help with the physics portion of a software.  I suppose the games nowadays have so many calculations that an additional physics card can help out the physics calculations of the game.

I guess that’s what I need in my next laptop.  A physics card! 

I’m very much looking forward to my 3rd year at the Asian American Expo at the Pomona Fairplex!

My first year, I waited until the last minute to try the lamb-kabob that I regret not eating more.  I also ran out of arms to hold all the things I bought.

My second year, I went prepared with a large backpack to carry everything.  Except I was totally NOT prepared for my brother to buy a dog there!  So I had the fun of carrying Kayla home in my jacket from the Expo.  Kayla was only 3 months old at the time and she was freezing cold in her cage.  So I wrapped her up in my jacket and after a few minutes, she vomited from the motion-sickness.  But people there were so nice and handed me tissues and napkins to wipe it off.  Yeah, it was definitely memorable.

My third year, I definitely plan on eating my fill of lamb-kabobs and I’m NOT sharing any of it!  Not making that same mistake 3 times!  I wonder what will happen this year?  I hope my brother doesn’t bring home a duck …

I never imagined Facebook to be so much fun!  I can’t believe I’m on it everyday PLUS I’m calling up my brothers to remind them to update theirs!  LOL

I really enjoy sending my friends gifts and messages on Facebook.  Also the Dogbook feature is also great to see which of my friends also have dogs.

The security/privacy settings on Facebook is also much more customizable.  So I feel much safer posting my personal pictures on it.

In addition, I just started this new game called Rappelz.  It’s an MMORPG game from Korea that’s been introduced into the American market Nov. 2006.  It’s popularity is growing because it has awesome graphics, interface of Diablo II, and game-play that can rival World of Warcraft!  Plus the best part of Rappelz is that it’s FREE!  Can’t beat that!  If anyone is playing Rappelz my character name is "Gemelle" and I’m on the Salamander server with "Bruinclaw" (aka: William).

I can’t help buy laugh at the blunderings of Microsoft Windows Vista.  I also can’t help by say "I told you so" to all the self-righteous computer gurus that blame the common everyday user for their difficulties with Windows Vista!  I also chuckle at all the people (who just happens to be all males) that told me Windows Vista is perfect and that it’s because I’m a woman that I don’t know how to use a computer.

I guess I’m having way too much fun reading the tech news that criticize how bad Windows Vista turned out to be.  And that Windows XP discontinuation has been postponed to the end of 2008, instead of June 2008. I can only continue to relish in the over-confidence of the techies who think they’re always right.  (I don’t want to say ALL techies, because I’ve met some really brilliant ones who saw this Vista blunder coming.)

I’ve had the fortunate experience of starting my computer journey with Windows 3.11.  Well actually I started with DOS, then Basic, then 3.11.  I’ve focused on the user-end because that’s the end that matters.  If users complain, then the product needs to be changed.  After all, it’s the average user that pays the bills of the tech industry.  This is a concept that many computer programmers don’t quite understand, and that’s why so many of them are feeling the burn of losing their jobs and their homes in San Jose.

But what do I know? I’m not even a computer engineer.  I’m just the average computer user.  Ok, maybe a little above average computer user.  Anyhow, what I do know is when I spend MY money on something, I expect it to work!  And I also learned through my years of being a typical American consumer is that I wait for version 2 of everything.  Because like the law of nature, version 1 most likely have "glitches".

I’m sure Windows Vista will become stable and will become the standard of the future, but that time is NOT now.  More work and research should have gone into Windows Vista before it was released.

Also I reserved an "I told you so" for all those over-zealous MAC users out there who believe MAC OS is perfect!!  LOL I knew this day was coming.  Just didn’t think it’ll be here when MAC sales finally sky-rockets!

I’ve tried to explain to those over-zealous MAC gurus years ago that the MAIN reason MAC OS is virus-free is because it’s not worthy of hackers to create bugs for the MAC OS … yet!  Once MAC OS becomes more popular, the viruses will come. EVERYTHING has it’s weak points.  So MAC OS people should have be counting their blessings each day their computers are virus-free.

But no, I’m told I’m just an ignorant Windows user by the MAC cult people.  I’m told that Steve Jobs would NEVER create anything that has vulnerabilities. LOL  Seriously, Steve Jobs really has been elevated to god-status!  Well, anyway … "I told you so!"

Now to avoid a bunch of hate-mails, I want to say something good about the MAC.  I really do believe it’s an awesome operating system, and I plan on buying one myself, someday.  I think the MAC is extremely user-friendly and has great graphics. And considering the market’s current Windows Vista folly, MAC OS is looking really good.

What eats away at me is whenever a self-proclaimed computer guru tells me that computers are perfect.  That a computer is flawless.  That the real problem is the human behind it, not the computer.  It’s that arrogance that brings my blood to a boil.  To me, it’s that type of arrogance keeps the potentially good computer users from using a computer.  It’s that type of arrogance that divides the users from the programmers.  It’s that type of arrogance that divides people.

So the bottom line of all my rantings and ramblings is that I want people to come together to solve their computer problems.  I want the programming geniuses to talk with the average computer user (not the user that eats and sleeps next to their computers), but really talk with the AVERAGE computer user, it’ll be amazing the products they could create.

Also I hope that the self-proclaimed computer gurus can understand that computers and their softwares can make errors/mistakes, just like people.  After all, a computer and its software can only be as perfect as the humans who created it.

Oh and here’s another link I found after I finished writing my ramblings:  2007’s Top 10 UNDERreported Tech Stories …

I turned on my IMs via Trillian after an entire summer and I immediately got tagged by Jesse for a few hours.  Then when I thought life online have cooled down, I got an invite via the AIM section of my Trillian from Mike!  I was invited to join Facebook!

I didn’t think I could join Facebook because I’m not a current college student.  But it turns out being an alumni is ok too!  So now I have a Facebook account!  I’m so excited!!!

If you have a Facebook account too, look for me!

I guess I need a place to rant so here I go …

I just noticed how many girls change when they find a significant other.  They get overly protective.  They start getting new friends and start dropping their old ones.  Or perhaps they never considered their old friends as friends?

Let me use three examples here:  Ellaine, Mary, and Hazel.  And I have no problems listing their names here because I’m very open about how I feel.  No secrets.  No lies.  No mysteries.  It’s something that I tell my students and that’s how we all get along great in the classroom.  So I’m leading by example by opening up my feelings in my blog online.

I’ll start off with Hazel,  I invited her to my wedding thinking she would be happy.  Instead Hazel simply came, waved hi, ate food, and left.  I didn’t get a chance to talk to her.  The wedding wasn’t even over yet and she’s gone.  She didn’t even sign in.  She didn’t even take the time to drop off a card.  Nada.  Then a few months later, I find out in friendster she got married.  And I didn’t even get an email that she was dating a guy in her life.  Let alone some type of message that she was getting married.  It doesn’t bother me I didn’t get a wedding invite because I understand how expensive weddings are and people are very selective over their guests.  But what kind of friend wouldn’t even take the common courtesy to drop an email to let a fellow friend know they’re getting married?  Instead I had to find out from a friendster blog?

Then there’s Mary, she’s no different.  I also invited her to my wedding and she was nice enough to come.  She even made a gift for me.  I thought she was really kind to take the time to show up.  I thought Mary was a true friend.  Mary was also really open about herself on friendster and even listed that she was in a relationship.  I took the time to message her and congratulate her on the relationship.  We even kept in touch earlier via email until October 2006.  She even forwarded to her friend Jerry to recommend a good vet in the Irvine area.  Then both our lives got busy and we didn’t keep in touch after that.  But I would always go on friendster to see if there’s anything new.  The suddenly, after summer ended, I realized she cut me off from her friendster list.  Why?  I just found out she got married!! 

My last example is Ellaine.  We used to be co-workers and we got along great.  She even had me be her maid of honor.  Then after she got married, she started changing.  My wedding came a few months afterwards and I decided to have Ellaine be my matron of honor.  However as my wedding drew closer, Ellaine become more bitter.  When I returned from my honeymoon, I heard from a few friends that Ellaine was talking shit about me at my own wedding!  So I called her up and asked her what was going on.  Ellaine said that she felt I insulted her at MY wedding because mine was so well planned!  She said she was furious that people were complimenting MY wedding.  And Ellaine blamed me for upsetting HER on my wedding day!  Well let’s just say the conversion ended and I never spoke to her again.

Perhaps it’s just a coincidence.  But perhaps not.  I just don’t understand how some people can live with themselves like this?  Or perhaps I was on their shit-list the whole time and they just pretended to be nice?  I don’t know?  All I know is that I’ve know these girls for years, but they all seem to turn on me after they get married.

Of course I think getting married is a wonderful thing.  Most people change for the better because they feel complete.  But I suppose others feel differently.  I’ve heard about how women change after they get married.  They get more possessive.  They get more anal.  They basically turn from loving creatures to jealous beings.  I thought some men were crazy when they said these things about their wives/ex-wives.  But I suppose they might be right. 

On the bright side, at least they’ve shown their true colors.  And I’m now free from these people.

School is back in session and Chip is as popular as ever.  To help my students find more info on Chip, I created a domain just for him …. http://www.chipthemutt.com/

hehe … William couldn’t believe that I actually got the domain … lol … the things I do for Chip.  And tomorrow, I plan on getting him a Halloween costume from Petco.  I hope they still have costumes in his size.

What an eventful month.  School is back in session.  Tomorrow is Back to School Night for the kids.  The month is just flying by.

I went with Mary to San Diego to help her pick out a new puppy.  She really wanted an Akita, so Akita puppy we got. 

Then my brother Michael ( with his dog Kayla), Mary (with her new Akita dog Mika), and me (with my dog Chip) all got together and allowed the dogs to work out their ranks.  It really is amazing how much a quick walk can help the dogs bond.  So all 3 dogs now get along fine together.

Within a week, we met at "The District", a new mall area in our neighborhood to hang out to meet with Claudia and her 2 kids. It turns out the girls really want a dog of their own.  But Claudia already has a chicken (yes it lays eggs) and they don’t think a dog will mix well with the chicken.  But the girls have completely fallen in love with Mika and Chip.  They were both asking me all the type of dogs available in the world that’s smaller than their chicken!  They were even asking for prices on such dogs.  For kids that’s only in elementary school, they sure plan ahead!

Then my brother called us 24 hours in advance to make sure we went to dim sum with him this past weekend.  He said he had something really important to ask us.  I thought something bad was going to happen.  Instead, he just wanted us to go with him to Germany this winter to pick up his new BMW!   Yikes!

I can’t believe it’s only Wednesday.  After everything I’ve been through this month, I really feel it should be October.  But there’s no rest for me until I survive another Back to School Night and arrive home by 9:30PM.  Then I have to get myself in shape for a wedding this Saturday.  I think I can do it … just as long as I eat subway for the next couple of days … and cut back on the chocolate chip cookies =P  On the other hand, who am I kidding.  I just hope I can find something that fits me in the closet.