Time, Mr. Freeman?

Just got done with Half-Life 2. After some very memorable and engaging fire fights in City 17 and the citadel, the ending was abrupt and surprisingly easy. It definitely was not as satisfying as the ending to Half-Life 1. But overall, the game was excellent. Now it's time to beat Halo 2 and maybe get started on Metal Gear Solid 3.

Come Redone

Home for Thanksgiving this week and finally got some free time to redo this website. Now it looks a bit more professional, I think. Read up a bit on typography and color design so hopefully it's soothing to the eye. Haven't done much else other than watching TV and play Metroid.

Now listening to: Bright Eyes - "Digital Ash In A Digital Urn"

Two Is Better Than One

The picture below speaks for itself. I got two Dell 17" LCDs recently and now they're working nicely in a dual-head setup. Running dual-head in X sorta sucks. Right now I'm using the "Big Desktop" option provided by the ATI drivers, but the WM (Fluxbox) isn't aware of the two screens. So a window will maximize over both screens, my GDM login prompt is split in the center, etc. The other option to run separate X sessions on the two screens; maybe I'll try that out someday.


So Bush won re-election. We've got four more years of right-wing tyranny in front of us. Perhaps it's time to move. On the brighter side, Halo 2and Half-Life 2 are coming out in the next two weeks. GTA: San Andreas came out last week. Pretty good time to be a gamer. I also recently got all Gold metals in Project Gotham Racing 2. Proudest achievement in recent memory. I've put over 140 hours and 7000 miles into that game. Amazing.

Currently listening to: Squarepusher - ``Big Loada''

LaTroy Hawkins Sucks

What's wrong with the Cubs?! First they lose 2 out of 3 to the Mets. The Mets! Now they've lost 2 out of 3 to the Reds with Hawkins blowing yetanother save tonight. Things don't look good for the wildcard spot especially with the Braves coming up as the final series of the season.

The Giants aren't doing so well either. Losing to the Padres tonight on that wild mound-trip-throw. Sucks for that outfielder hyperextending his knee. The craziest thing is that the Astros are in the lead for the wild card. I mean weren't they written off back in the Spring? Anyway, it's shaping up to be a crazy weekend. Giants vs. Dodgers; Cubs vs. Braves; Astros vs. Rockies; Angels vs. A's. And of course, who can forgetIchiro? He's two hits shy of breaking the single season hit record.

Finally beat Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow last week. That was the weakest ending ever. Now I'm in the middle of Silent Hill 4: The Room. I've always liked the Silent Hill series, and this is shaping up to be a good one.

Avoid the Hoopla

Found out yesterday that my ICDE'05 submission from July was accepted as a poster paper. Totally awesome news. This means I might have a trip to Tokyo next April.

Oh and by the way, the 10-year ban on assault weapons ended at midnight last night. Thanks to the lobbyists from the NRA, every family in America can now own a semi-automatic. I mean, who doesn't want a Colt AR-15 in their living room? </sarcasm>

Hello from VLDB

Writing this from my hotel in downtown Toronto. Got into the city sometime last night, after much rain and a 2-hour electricity outage, everything is pretty much settled down. I'll be here for the rest of the week attending VLDB 2004. Other than that, not much to see in town since I was just here a couple of years ago. So I will take this free time to prepare for my upcoming Ph.D. qualifying exam. But I'll definitely go out to Chinatown often for the food; good thing the public transportation system in Toronto is robust.

I came back from Dallas last week visiting my new-born nephew, cousin and her family. It was a fun trip, babies are cool. Among other things, we visited Austin and downtown Dallas. The 6th Floor Museum about JFK was really cool. It's not often you can be so close to history.

Also, the fall semester started last week. I'm just taking one class but will probably sit in on a couple more. The big thing this semester will be the qual. I probably won't be able to relax until passing that.

Doom 3 finally came out and it was downright dissappointing. Aside from the monotonous gameplay, I wasn't even that impressed with the graphics. Why is everything so shiny? I guess I'll just have to wait for Half-Life 2 (which is suppose to go Gold on monday).

Currently listening to: Rilo Kiley - ``More Adventurous.''

Elephants are Bigger in Person!

After finishing off the ICDE'05 submission, I spent the July 4th weekend in DC, hanging out with Scott and Alex. Checked out all the famous places and saw the fireworks. Very fun. Been doing some external reviews for ICDM'04 and ICDE'05. I finished a DMKD journal revision submission and will start soon on a TKDE journal submission. More importantly, I have to start preparing for my Ph.D. qualifying exams coming up this September. Lots of papers and books to read for that.

Recently, I set aside some time to setup a decent stereo system. Finally got tired of using my computer as a receiver. I got Onkyo TX-SR601receiver, Acoustic Research PSC25 center channel, Acoustic Research PS2062 as fronts, Sony SS-MB150H as rears, and the Pioneer DV-578ADVD player. I can't believe I didn't do this sooner. All my music (especially the vinyls) sound so much better and watching DVDs is just awesome with the surround sound. I also got the Flaming Lips' ``Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots'' on DVD-Audio. That album is 10x better with the surround sound.

Last week, I sold pretty much all my video games (except for Splinter Cell and Project Gotham) and put down pre-orders on ESPN NFL 2K5,Doom 3, and Halo 2. NFL 2K5 should be good; hopefully it will get some respect this year over Madden with its budget pricing and early release date. Totally psyched about Doom 3 (see screenshot), out on August 3rd. I just hope my system can run it smoothly, might have to upgrade the video card.

[Doom 3]

Currently listening: The Polyphonic Spree - ``Together We're Heavy''. Lots of good music came out recently (legally & illegally). The new Converge, The Faint, Dillinger Escape Plan, Isis remixes, Further Seems Forever (demo), The Cure, Unearth are just some. Good time to be a music fan.

PS. I ordered that Airport Express thing from Apple. It looks awesome.

PPS. My cousin just had her baby recently, which means I'm an uncle! Going to see them in mid-August hopefully.

PPPS. I recently broke the 800 mark on the number of CDs I own. Wow.