李晓雷
Recently, a family of birds has setup home on top of a light on my balcony. Initially, it was just a single bird (the mom probably). During the past week or so, 4 baby birds have hatched. Below are some pictures.
[bird1] [bird2]
Now it's back to work. ICDE deadline is only 2 weeks away!
Currently listening to: Blonde Redhead - "Misery Is A Butterfly".
Been back from China for about a week, and things have never been busier. After finishing off the VLDB 2004 camera-ready version, I am (and will be until July 1st) working feverishly on an ICDE 2005 submission. ICDE '05 will be held next April in Tokyo, Japan. That would be awesome to go.
[Sony Ericsson T616]
Seen above is my brand new phone! (The background image is an illustration from Battle Royale). The Sony Ericsson T616 is one awesome phone. Aside from the colorful display, camera, and small size, it's got Bluetooth to transfer files wirelessly and also remotely control my Mac Powerbook. I also bought a new digital camera, the Canon S410. Quite an upgrade from my previous A40.
Some unfortunate news? My TiVo broke. [cry] One of its hard drives broke, and I had to send both of them in for service. Now I'm totally lost on TV. The Sopranos had its season finale this past Sunday. Fairly anti-climatic. This whole season was weak.
Oh yea, one of my websites, InStrife.com, has recently started its own IRC channel, again. I didn't create it; someone from its board did. All previous attempts at this have failed. But this time, it's gotten a fair amount of traffic and maintained it for over a week! Visit it at #instrife onirc.gamesurge.net. It's got trivia if you're into that sorta thing. I'm propheci on there.
Currently listening to: Various Artists - "Punk Goes Pop".
Graduated with my M.S. degree this past Sunday. Now I'm writing from China on my 2-week trip. I found out before I left for China that myVLDB paper was accepted! So I guess this means I might be going to Toronto at the end of August for the conference. That should be fun. After I get back from China, I'll be working on hopefully a strong ICDE submission.
In case you're wondering, "Summer Make Good" is the title of the excellent new Mum album.
I just deposited my Master thesis. Hooray for me!
The new liberal Air America Radio launched last week with the main course of The O'Franken Factor (rather clever jab at The O'Reilly Factor). The show is excellent with Franken's witty comments and anecdotes. The other shows on there sorta suck with maybe the exception of the Janeane Garofalo show. Hopefully the network will survive because it has no real sponsors right now.
Got the new Modest Mouse album yesterday. ``Good News For People Who Love Bad News'' is the title. All the kids seem to be jocking this, and it is fairly solid. Although I wouldn't put it too much above their previous releases.
Finally got my iPod mini yesterday. Very slick. It's a little bit longer than I'd like it, but I guess you can't have everything. So far, I've listened to nothing but Shiina Ringo on it. I was only recently introduced to her works, but I'm quickly getting hooked. The Weezer re-release of the Blue Album came out. Nothing too special as I had most of the b-side tracks already. The DVD is pretty sweet though. Same for the Rainer Maria live DVD I got recently.
Speaking of music, I was trying to deduct my music expenses against my websites' revenue for my 2003 taxes. After going through all my receipts, I discovered I spent about $1600 on CDs and vinyls last year. A little scary... But it's a good thing since I owe about $700, without the deductions, to the IRS.
Terrell Owens to the Ravens. Keyshawn Johnson to the Cowboys. Jevon Kearse to the Eagles. Portis to the Redskins. Bailey to the Broncos. Wistrom to the Seahawks. What an off-season! Same thing goes for baseball, too. Can't wait for the seasons to start. Sopranos start again this sunday. Hooray!
One more week until VLDB; it all comes down to this. I think I have a pretty good paper this time around.
I got a couple of Mitch Hedberg comedy albums this week. That guy's fucking hilarious. Here's a good sample:
"One time a guy handed me a picture of himself, and he said, "Here's a picture of me when I was younger." Every picture of you is of when you were younger. Here's a picture of me when I am older. You son of a bitch, how'd you pull that off? Let me see that camera..."
Ninja Gaiden is coming out next week. The early reviews seem to praise it a lot so maybe I'll give it a try. Although I still haven't beaten Fatal Frame II. And in about a month, the Splinter Cell sequel should be out, too.
Currently listening to: Walls of Jericho - ``All Hail the Dead''.
``Denied!'' Received the news yesterday that my SIGMOD submission was rejected. Oh, such is research life.
Work continues on my VLDB submission. Much of the coding is done but there's still a _lot_ of writing, analysis, design, and comparisons left. Hopefully I have enough time before the March 5th deadline. I finally finished reading Al Franken's book. The material in the second half got stretched out a bit, probably to fill the pages. But it was still entertaining. Also updated my recent music acquisitions page.
