白人牙膏 - more crazy Taiwanese brand names

So we've heard already about 黑人牙膏, the "black man toothpaste", but in direct competition is now:


白人牙膏 - white man toothpaste.....



Why are Taiwanese people so weird?

Conference Championship Game - Picks

Ok, I'm going on the record with some picks before two big-time games today.

Big 12 Championship Game Pick:
Oklahoma Sooners 48 - Missouri Tigers 27

SEC Championship Game Pick:
Alabama Crimson Tide 27 - Florida Gators 24

European Stupidity

Europeans are REALLY stupid sometimes....for example, European electricity is provided at 220 V and 50 Hz.

See this map to see which countries use 220 V and which use 120 V/60Hz:


So since Europe is all the same AC Voltage and Frequency, you would think that you could stick German appliance plugs into Swiss wall sockets, right?

NOOOOO......they have to make the shapes of the sockets/plugs different, so they're not compatible.
Talk about STUPID!!!!! This is really, really STUPID!!!!!!!



Why do they want to make things difficult for people? Such morons, sometimes....

Carleton Stupidity

Here is an article on the stupidity of Carleton University's student association boycotting a fundraising event for Cystic Fibrosis.....

Globe and Mail article

The reason?  Cystic Fibrosis isn't an "inclusive" disease.....

Those Carleton University Student Association members are big, huge MORONS......

The Big 12

So.....BCS chaos reigns in the Big 12 - especially if all three leaders, Texas Longhorns, Oklahoma Sooners, and Texas Tech Red Raiders all win out.....who of these should go to the Big-12 Championship game?  (Decided by the BCS standings)

The Longhorns beat the Sooners 45-35, who in turn walloped the Red Raiders 62-21, and the Raiders in turn won 39-33 against the Longhorns.

It seems that the Sooners had the most impressive victory of these three games.

Plus, their loss to the Longhorns included some questionable pass interference calls...

Out of conference games - the Sooners have beaten: Cincinnati and TCU, while the Longhorns and Red Raiders haven't beaten anyone impressive out-of-conference.

And the controversial "who's playing best lately" nod also goes to the Sooners...

And even though I don't have an AP vote, I figured I'd give my two cents, anyway....(assuming all three teams win next week)

The Sooners deserve to go to the Big-12 Championship.

(and Sam Bradford for the Heisman!)

Stanford Idiots and "The Play"

Those Stanford people think they're so smart.....

Well, I don't know if that's true....at least they look really dumb on "the Play" - coming on the field before the game is over....

Watch here!

Stupid Stanford.....

Tip Inflation

About 20 years ago, tipping in North America was 10% of the pre-tax bill, and then sometime around 15 years ago or so, this became 15%. Now in the last 5 years or so, I have heard some people say 20% is a fair tip share.

RIP OFF!!!!

This North American obsession about tipping, tipping for everything, tipping for the hotel housekeeper, tipping for taxis, tipping for the doorman, tipping the guy who carries luggage, tipping the airport shuttle driver, tipping, tipping, tipping.....

I refuse to adhere to Tip Inflation.....BOYCOTT TIP INFLATION!!!!!

Lint....

You know when you wash a pair of jeans, and you look in the pocket and there is a ball of stuff.....lint, I guess.....

Where does the lint come from anyway?

Prediction: Navy Midshipmen to win 2nd in a row

The Navy Midshipmen vs Notre Dame Fighting Irish rivalry is one of the most sacred rivalries in NCAA Football. Too bad this great game will be overlooked by many fans, as neither team is ranked in the Top 25.

Of course Navy had lost 43 straight games until last year, when the Midshipmen squeaked out a win in 3OT against Notre Dame.......

Here's my prediction for Saturday: Navy will make it two games in a row.....Go Navy!

Duzen and Siezen

Well, living in Germany is sure an experience, but there's one thing as a native English speaker that I've never gotten used to: duzen and siezen.....

What do these mean?
Well, duzen means to use "du" to say you (in German), which one typically says to friends, colleagues, kids, dogs, buddies, classmates, basically anything in a social setting.
And siezen means to use "Sie" to say you (in German of course), which one typically says to clientele, service personnel, adult strangers, elders, etc. Basically much more polite, something one would use in a formal or official setting.

The problem is that there are many cases where the line is very fine between "du" and "Sie". In my group we all "duzen" each other - which is good, because it removes the awkwardness and distance that "siezening" someone creates. Except for my boss and the secretary. And also an older professor who "siezens" everyone else.....but that's really strange, especially when everyone's saying the familiar "du" until speaking to this older professor (or my boss and his secretary speak with each other).

Another weird scenario was when we visited some friends, and the mother-in-law of the guy is around 70-80 years old. Her son-in-law told us to just use "du", but when we did so, she "siezened" us back....what should we do? If we continue with "du", we are being impolite, but if we use "Sie" there's an awkward distance created, and as well, its kinda strange to take back "du" and then continue with "Sie".

Textbooks tell us to use "Sie" when in doubt...but using "Sie" when you should use "du" presents a very awkward formal situation that's also weird......maybe I'm too North American, but I really prefer the "du", and perhaps start with "duzen" a bit too quickly.......

But I also think that some Germans need to be a little less uptight about this thing, and just relax and go "duzen" someone! I would say that Germany is the most strict at the "duzen" and "siezen" separation for a European country.

Thank God I don't live in Japan! (How many people would I offend a day?)

Compiling

Man does programming suck!! Who in their right minds likes it? Hours programming, and then stuck with bugs and segmentation faults......booooooo! Programming SUCKS!!!! BOOOOOOOOOOO!

Luckily, there is one advantage when it comes to programming......compiling! When your program is compiling, it gives you an excuse to:
a) surf the web
b) skype your friends
c) eat a snack
d) watch some youtube
e) catch some zzz's

Quantum Humour

I like this comic alot......I think however, you need some Quantum Mechanics background to understand it....



Suffice it to say, after I read the last pane, the function collapsed to the funny eigenstate...

66-3

Here we go again....Cal beats Washington St. by a score of 66-3.

Offensive brilliance early in the season and lots of promise from Tailback Jahvid Best. Let's see if the defence is able to hold up over the season....Cal, unranked at the beginning has now snuck back into the Top 25.

Circle Nov. 8 on your calendars, hopefully they can knock off the Trojans!

I love Sourdough!

Yes!!! This is definitely good news!

Sourdough healthier than whole wheat!

Best brand names

What is the best brand name in the world?

I think that 黑人牙膏 is near the top, if not the #1 brand name I've ever heard!



黑人牙膏 kicks ass!

So true!

Scooped!

Looks like we'll still be able to hear our favourite song!

Story here

NOOOOOOOO!

How can it be Hockey Night in Canada without the famous theme song?

Toronto Star Article

You're telling me that CBC cannot shell out $500 per broadcast to play this song?
They make so much off the TV advertising that $500 is chump change!

What? Is that a Budweiser I see?

What!? Is that Mom drinking ... a BEER!?

Dad. So silly!

Look what Dad did today!

Mom and Dad. So silly!

Mom and Dad arrived in California last night.

Dad came into my room, surfed the internet (stocks), read a few reference papers on my  research topic and went to bed ~ 11pm.

Mom came into my room, made Dad eat healthy food, unpacked, almost fellasleep in my bed, gave me money to give to Hsiao-Ah-Yi and Stephanie, put food in the fridge and freezer, talked, showered and finally went to bed ~ 1am.

It's as if I never left Toronto.

And then Dad came into my room at 7am to surf the internet again. Sigh.

Graduation

Since someone is going through a graduation ceremony this weekend, this cartoon seems quite appropriate...

Post-Duck

Still think you wanna be a post-duck?

Stranded in Suburbia

Here's a nice article in the NY Times by Paul Krugman.

US Urban sprawl really is stupid....

Elvis Rocks!

Elvis Stojko is the best figure skater EVER, and this just confirms it:

Athletes should think twice about heading to Beijing: Elvis Stojko

Flying Horror Stories

What's this about? They don't even give a seats to airline passengers now?

Article on CBC Website

Man, that is really messed up!

Olympic Logo

Here is how the olympic logo was developed for Peking 2008.....

Baseball 2008

Ok, the season's just started, so I'm going to pick the teams I'm cheering for this year. We'll see in October if any of them actually accomplished anything....

AL East: Toronto Blue Jays

AL Central: Cleveland Indians

AL West: Texas Rangers

NL East: NY Mets

NL Central: Chicago Cubs

NL West: San Diego Padres

Martin Luther and Wittenberg

So I went to the quiet little town of Wittenberg that wasn't so quiet around 500 years ago. Here's where the Protestant Reformation began! Martin Luther and his insights of "justification by faith" captivated Christians and changed the course of human history!

Here is the door of the Schlosskirche.  This was where Martin Luther hung his 95 theses for debate, challenging the efficacy of indulgences.  The original door burned down, and this rebuilt door inscribes his 95 theses in commemeration.

Here a statue of Martin Luther, in the Wittenberg town square.

This is the Marienkirche, where Martin Luther preached.  This is the pulpit (probably rebuilt though) where Martin Luther would have preached his Reformation message from!

"Faith is a living and unshakable confidence, a belief in the grace of God so assured that a man would die a thousand deaths for its sake." 

Olympic Torch and San Francisco

The Olympic torch is coming through San Francisco within the next few days. Protestors that are pro-Tibet have voiced their opinions, including one brave soul who climbed the Golden Gate Bridge:

(Picture from SF Chronicle, read the article here).

This week's protests on Tuesday and Wednesday should prove interesting... anyone who wants to join the protests can view these websites:

http://www.sfteamtibet.org/
http://www.sftorch2008.org/

Boycott the Genocide Olympics

The stuff going on in Tibet is downright unjust....

Cultural Genocide in Tibet committed by China

Why are countries such cowards when it comes to China's outright gross violations of basic human rights?

BOYCOTT THE GENOCIDE OLYMPICS!!!

Family Day

Dear Mom and Dad,

I hope you had a great family day!

Billary in trouble

Man, how the mighty have fallen...Billary Clinton is truly reeling after the Potomac primaries and this:

Clinton Ex-Campaign Manager Backs Obama

This primary season is soooo interesting!

Homework Sucks!

I knew it!!!!!

That's why I just didn't bother doing my homework!

Read Article

Are you freakin' kidding me!?!?!?!

Geez! What's up with these st00pid airlines!?!?!?!?! I hate flying more and more!

What the heck!?

Pats NOT perfect

He he he he,

Stupid Pats are not perfect after all.....

Randy Moss still has no Superbowl ring.....


He he he he he......

(Get this straight though, I am no Giants fan)

They got me' name right!

Cool, this time I was interviewed, they got my name correct.....

YES!

Link to Interview Summary

What would Martin Luther King Jr. say?

The Toronto District School Board trustees have approved a plan of the first publicly funded black-focused schools. The Globe and Mail has an article on McGuinty's unwillingness to take a stand:

Read the article

Isn't this a step backwards? Why are we encouraging segregation?

MOM, I lost some weight...

I lost about 4 pounds when I went to Germany. This proves that traveling to Europe and eating meat and potatoes is good for your diet.

SO THERE, MOM!!!

The Goal

I think its pretty obvious that an OT win is far more superior than a stupid shootout.....

Here's a great goal:








To the junior Nats, congratulations!

Boooo! Booooooo!

Booooooooooo!

Four weeks is not long enough of a trip for Europe. If anybody is going to visit in the future, make sure they stay at least 6 weeks.


Boooooooooo! Boooooooooooooooooo!

No hablo español!

Welcome to España! A week trip to Barcelona, Sevilla and Granada proved how good Spanish life is. I highly recommend southern Spain to everyone. I recommend a trip to: Sevilla, Cordoba, Granada, Malaga, Cadiz and Ronda. Take up some sun in Costa de la Luz and maybe take a ferry from Algeciras to Tangiers. I would say that a one month trip to Spain ought to do it!

Travels to a far far land...

Here are pictures from a mysterious land known as Europe. Here are pictures from Budapest, Praha, Wien and Dresden. It's up to you to see if you know which picture belongs to which country.

Conversation with M and D

So I called M today to wish her a happy birthday and D picked up the phone. The enlightening phone conversation went like this:

Me: Hi D. What are you doing for M's birthday?
D: Did you forget M's birthday today?
Me: Noooooo. Did you?
D: Nooooooooooooo. Did you?
Me: D, you forgot M's birthday, didn't you?
D: Noooooooooooooooooo. You did.
Me: No I didn't, I just called home to wish M a happy birthday.
D: Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

Such a deep conversation!

Academic integrity

Here's a rare serious post on my blog. I recently went to the big device conference and saw that a paper was published by a group at Stanford (by two big name EE professors). The professors (and their grad students, of course) were reporting on some simulations for a particular device. However, students in my research group had found similar results earlier, and chose not to publish these simulation results without experimental data.

Now here's the bad part. The main professor on the paper is in charge of a research center involving many research groups from different universities. He is also the Chair of the conference that I attended. He had heard a presentation from my research advisor during one of the research center updates - basically, this prof knew what one of the students in my group had studied yet still decided to publish his own paper. Not only that, the other professor on the paper was previously a professor at my school before moving to Stanford, and had a close working relationship with our group. Talk about dishonesty.

That's just not right. BOYCOTT STANFORD. They conduct some dirty business.

Pro-Bowlers from the Bay Area teams

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA... This had me laughing for a while:

"The Bay Area's NFL teams haven't been stellar on offense this season, but they're certainly skilled when it comes to giving the ball back to the opponent.

Power and placement, along with the NFL's best net averages, secured Pro Bowl berths for 49ers punter Andy Lee and Raiders punter Shane Lechler."

You can find the full San Francisco Chronicle article here.

Leafs are dumb.....

Brad Boyes is on track for a 50 goal season....of course not with the Leafs.

The Leafs just love to trade away their first round picks or first round choices for old foggies. Come on you stupid Leafs, trade some of the old guys for draft picks. Maybe then you can win a Cup!

Oh, another thing the Leafs seem oblivious to is the fact that there are prospects from Ontario. Hey, Ferguson et al., you are allowed to draft players from Ontario. They don't always have to come from Europe!

Japanese and English...again

Yet another display of Japanese second language abilities....



the guy on the video is my hero!

Also, listen to this one!

This one is another funny "Learn to speak English" commercial...

Learning English...

So, being in Europe, I am amazed how well some people speak English, especially here in Germany. Maybe the French are not as good, but in any case the average French person speaks better English than the average American/Englishman speaks French. And the northern European countries are amazing at English...Denmark, Holland, Norway, etc.

So I guess English is indeed the international language, and learning it is important....
If one needs further motivation, you can see this:




Now that we've established that English is important to learn, what is the most effective way to learn it?

I vote for this method:



he he he he he....no wonder Japanese people speak English so well!

Anyway, once that's done, unfortunate situations like this one can be avoided!
Win-win situation!

Genius relatives...

I was recently went to a conference and was able to meet up with some of our relatives (who will not be named) who live nearby. One of them is a genius, but I have proof now of how much of a genius he is.

I went to dinner with family on Sunday night and then they were kind enough to drop me off at my hotel. They turned on the GPS to see directions to the hotel, but my genius family member decided to ignore the directions. The entire time. Haha... I think he ignored 4-5 directions, saying that he was able to get back to the hotel. And lo and behold, he got me to my hotel! What a genius!

Name Change

So I was able to get a radio interview, but it was in Mandarin.

You can see the summary here.

The interviewer wrote to me in English and addressed me by my English name, but as the interview was in Mandarin, she got my name wrong (she never really asked me for my Taiwanese name, and I'm not sure where she got the new name from).

Apparently, my name is now:
賴宏吉

Who would've thought?

STUPID NFL TV Rules

Really really stupid....

I watch NFL (and even better, College Football) on the awesome Slingbox that my sister setup, so that I get the TV feed from her local cable. So this Sunday, I had an interest to watch as the early game, Chargers vs. Titans. But of course its a local station in the Bay area, so CBS instead is broadcasting Raiders vs. Packers.

Ok, this is reasonable, but I didn't want to watch 4-8 Raiders being blownout by the 10-2 Packers (38-7). So I would like to watch maybe an NFC game instead...like maybe: Eagles vs. Giants (NFC East traditional rivalry), or Cowboys vs. Lions (playoff implications). But NOOOOO, NFL stupid rules prevent FOX in the Bay area to broadcast something up against the Raiders game on CBS.

For the late game, I'd really like to watch the Steelers play the Patriots, (Go Steelers!), but NOOOO, NFL stupid rules prevent CBS from broadcasting something against the 49ers game (who are 3-9) against the Vikings (6-6).

STUPID STUPID STUPID

Is there any wonder, more people are watching NCAA football instead of the NFL? Hey idiots in the NFL commissioners' office, stop being idiots and let us watch more than a 4-8 or a 3-9 team every single week!

BOOOOOOOOOO! BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Laptop for Thought

A couple of device group folks were talking about the "One Laptop Per Child" initiative and someone brought up that Intel decided to organize a similar initiative to compete, called "Classmate PC". Both initiatives are developing cheap but usable laptops to kids in poor countries to help education standards.

Funny that an initiative that has such noble intentions ends up being a competition. Regardless, having both initiatives should in theory help the world out a little more... right?

Anyway, as we were discussing these programs, I was looking around the coffee shop and almost every single person there had a nice laptop (mostly MacBooks, some HPs and some Dells). I encourage everyone to check out the laptops being developed cheaply for these kids. Best of luck to these programs!

136 points....

This year is so weird in College Football. Talk about upset city!

In any case, one of the unheralded teams in College Football set a Div-IA record last week....Navy beat North Texas 74-62! What a crazy game! That is a ridiculous amount of points for a team to score, that never passes, and basically runs the 3 back option every play.

Although its not as glamouras as Ohio St. vs Michigan, or anything else, I am definitely looking forward Army vs. Navy on Dec. 1.

Go Navy, beat Army!

The Curse of the No. 2

What the heck is going on? I guess it's just a big curse to be No. 2 ranked this year in NCAA football... I don't know whether to be sad for the Pac-10 this year or to be excited about such a big upset! Well, it's good to see that USC is not the best team in the Pac-10 this year.

ESPN link

Though the Bears are sucking this season, I'm still rooting for them! Let's hope Nate Longshore doesn't throw yet another interception during a crucial drive in the 4th quarter (was it really worth standing in the cold rain watching Cal lose to USC?)

Gonna see some Canada!

Well, I guess we're gonna be going to see some good ol' fashioned Canadian hockey:

Dec. 29 CAN vs SWE
Dec. 31 CAN vs DEN
Jan. 4 Semi-finals
Jan. 5 Finals

Oh, isn't it great that the stupid Yankees got their clocks cleaned by the Tribe?

#1 is LSU and #2 is who?

Man, LSU pulled off a squeaker against Florida, otherwise do you know which school would be #1 in the nation?


P.S. Stupid Trojans finally ran out of luck....

Europe, here we come!

I'm planning a trip to Europe, and I'm trying to figure out some cool places to go. This is a tentative plan:

Dec. 25th: Leave from SFO. Merry Christmas!

Dec. 26th: Arrive in Frankfurt, Germany. Head to Freiburg, Germany by train.

Dec. 29th: Pardubice, Czech Rep. with Stan
Sweden vs. Canada - World Junior Hockey Championship
Dec. 31st: Pardubice, Czech Rep.
Canada vs. Denmark

Possible itinerary from here: Pardubice -> Prague -> Vienna -> Budapest -> back to Germany

Jan. 9th: Arrive in Barcelona, Spain (with Betty!)

Possible itinerary #1: Barcelona -> Granada -> Seville -> Cordoba -> Barcelona
Possible itinerary #2: Barcelona -> Figures -> Bilbao -> Barcelona

Jan. 16th: Return to Freiburg, Germany (from Basel)

Jan. 22nd: Return to SFO. Good-bye Europe... I hardly knew ye.

I'll keep adding plans as they become more concrete!

Berlin sized beer

Mmmmmm......beeeeeeeerr.......gooooooood......

Wolverines, the sequel

Well, the Wolverines really suck! 39-7 against the Ducks....

Man, things are not happy in Ann Arbour.

And kudos to the Golden Bears' offence for winning with a non-existent defence again.....

Game Summary

Is Mom Really...

... drinking BEER!?

Too Berkeley!

Here's what the hippies in Berkeley have been doing for the past few months:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/09/05/BAFKRV1TR.DTL

Seriously, these hippies are just completely useless. I understand that they want to preserve their trees, but seriously, the university is willing to plant THREE trees for every tree they'll tear down. Isn't that a win-win situation? More trees and a new athletic stadium...

Sigh. It's amazing how these tree-sitters have wasted so much time and so many resources. Don't they realize how much money is wasted on all this bureaucracy? This money would be better suited for people who need it!

Sometimes, Berkeley is just too Berkeley for me.

Ah, wolverines...

Ah College Football...

I went to the Cal(#12)/Tennessee(#15) game today and watched Cal victoriously defeat the Volunteers (GO BEARS!).

However, as big a game as it was, I think it was more entertaining seeing highlights from the BIG upset that Appalachian State pulled against Michigan. Haha! Good to see Michigan fall flat at the end of their game... thank you Appalachian State football!

Go Bears!

More sighs

So, I've been hanging around two people for the last 5 weeks in Germany, let's call them D and M.
Well, today, D and M were heading back to Canada.

Of course their flight was at 1:45pm, so naturally, D wanted to take the 7:57 train to the airport, so that he would arrive at 10:06. (Because taking the 8:57 and arriving at 11:06 is just too rushed).

So the walk (no possibility of traffic jams) to the train station is at most 15 minutes. To catch the train at 7:57, D wakes up at 5:30 and just ends up standing outside in the hallway. Then at 7:15 wants all of us to leave for the train station. We are at the train station by 7:30 (a full 25 minutes before the train is to come), but D still looks nervous that he's going to miss the train.

At which point M says to D, that she cannot stand his uptightness when there is a train to catch....

Sigh....

Sigh...

It's so sad how the U.S. is so scared of China... why is little Taiwan the one of the few countries willing to stand up to such bullies?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20478712/

Put your foot in your mouth...

I was in Portland this past weekend with some friends from undergrad. Of course, one of them has a habit of putting her foot in her mouth, and she did it again.

On Sunday, we had already dropped off someone (M) at the airport. His girlfriend (L) had not yet left. Keep in mind that no one had met L before this weekend. We were hanging out in downtown Portland, when N said: "M has no standards," right in front of M's girlfriend L. Sigh... then N decided to justify her comment by saying that last year, M was checking out any girl that could walk, including a bunch of old 50 year old women.

Good thing L is such a good sport!

Austrian Alps

this picture is worth a thousand words....

Dad's best friend

Something about Dad...he only has really old friends or really young friends....

Explanation of Dad's behaviour

I knew there was some explanation of Dad's behaviour....it turns out that he's a snowboarder!

Scariness personified

If this isn't scariness personified, then I don't know what is....

I Am Art

Apparently, I can also be a piece of art....

Jokers

These two jokers are coming to Germany for 5 whole weeks. Will they be better behaved than they were in California?

We are twins...

It looks like Stan and I are twins in this picture... We look like brothers. So sad! Hahahaha...

Proof that Dad is obsessed with Cornell...

I found this in the collection of photos... Apparently, Dad took the whole family to Cornell a couple of times for some visits.

Dad is so obsessed with Cornell. He should have gone to school there. Maybe, when I make lots of money, I will send him there for school.

Happy Mother's Day!

Today, Betty, Dad and I took Mom out to Niagara-On-The-Lake for Mother's Day. Dad was annoying Mom all day... She yelled at him, and told him to go away several times.

Dad said: "Today is not Mother's Day... it's Sad Father's Day!"

Family portraits cont'd...

This is my picture from our family portraits!

Jimmy Carter is ...

So today, Former President Jimmy Carter was invited to give a talk at the UC Berkeley campus. Luckily, one of my officemates couldn't go, and gave me his ticket.

For some really odd ODD reason, Jimmy Carter is my Dad's favourite President all time. However, today I learned that most Taiwanese people don't like Jimmy Carter since he broke off some diplomatic agreement with Taiwan when he was in office. So why does Dad like Jimmy Carter so much?

I have no idea. But then again, it's hard to explain Dad!



Anyway, Jimmy Carter talked about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He gave this cool quote from the late Pope John Paul II. Paraphrasing this quote, the Pope had stated:

There are only two ways to have peace in the Middle East: realistic and miraculous. A realistic method would be divine intervention from heaven above. A miraculous method would be for Israel and Palestine to reach a peace agreement.

Family Portraits are Cool

From Christmas time...isn't Skype great?