Cousin Check
For Los and Kwongs and other cousin-types. Post to the blog. |
Sunday, June 29
sorry, lawrence. i thought the voice mail message would be good enough... thinking that telephoning would be more immediate than emailing. dan's back in illinois now. Saturday, June 28
Duh, I didn't know Dan was coming up. Why didn't you email me or something dug. Well, I'm at my friend's right now so I don't have my cell with me. How long are you up here? I kind of made plans for this weekend already, but in the off chance you're here longer than that.... we should plan this out ahead of time next time. Well, have fun. booo.
lawrence, did you get the voice mail that i left you? we were wondering if you wanted to come to milwaukee for summerfest this weekend. write back or email me or dan. Friday, June 27
welp, im here in milwaukee at Justin's place. hes still out at a concert but he left a key for me to get in so here i am. woohoo! hmmm... where would the helmet lock be located, if i had one? my friend who sold it to me didnt say anything about it, and im guessing he wouldve mentioned it if there was one. either that or he didnt know about it either. F3's are newer anyway so its perfectly likely that it has one and mine doesnt. ah well...
Dan: As for the helmet question, just carry it around. It'll give you a nice lead-in when macking up chix. "Oh my gosh!! You ride a bike?" "That's correct, I pilot a motorcycle." I carry mine around b/c I don't trust it leaving it around the bike most time. My friend's had his helmet stolen off his bike, even w/ a helmet lock. They just cut the straps. Totally BS b/c supposedly you cannot get a chin strap replacement. Um, I cannot believe the F2 doesn't have a helmet lock tho, you sure man? Even my lowly F3 had one. Hmmm.
Eric, i got you the ones that you later revised. i matched up the price too just to be safe, so im pretty sure its the right stuff. ill be in milwaukee by tonight, so ill bring it with me and hopefully get it done there tomorrow so you wont have to wait until monday. updates to be posted.
Just use US Postal Service (not Fedex/UPS/etc.), wrap it in wrapping paper, and ship it as a gift. Declare value (if you must) at $40 US. Tell them the truth that they are rotors if asked (hence the weight), but say that they are used/re-machined. Just ground ship it. Hopefully, you have a set of brake pads (rear) and 1 pair of rear rotors. Did you get me the Brembos or the Zimmerman? Also, when you ship it, give me total price of shipping plus package. I'll cut you a check and mail it down asap. Also, resend your addy in my work email. fanx!! Thursday, June 26
news from the homefront: Eric, your brake stuffs have arrived. awaiting further instructions. when i mentioned wind resistance im talking about on local roads. on the few occasions i ventured onto the highways i figured out it doesnt make sense not to tuck. is it possible that my helmet doesnt fit right? seems fine to me but i dont know the official way of measuring it or what not. any suggestions on what to do with the helmet once i arrive at my destination?
sorry Ivan, you're wrong. More people die from being trapped in their cage than bikers die from being "slungshotted." (How's that for canabalizing the English language.) If you watch some of those "real TV" episodes, people who survive horrific crashes are the one that fall out of their cars first. Falling off a bike doesn't kill, it's hitting a curb or guardrail that does it, generally speaking. Not wearing a helmet is dumb, period. People die from getting hit in the head with a puck. Raging headache or not, you're just being stupid. Won't mince my words. Why flirt with disaster unnecessarily? There was some statistics that said most accidents occur within 5km of the victim(s) house. i.e. Some idiot pulling out of his driveway without looking. As for a helmet being a barrier to your surroundings, you may be right. But the tradeoff in protection is worth it. If you want to regain some of the lost sensations, wear earplugs with helmet. You'll actually deafen the wind noise, but surprisingly, be able to hear cars more. Try it, may cure your headaches. As for wind resistance, why arne't you tucking at those speeds? I know you're a n00b, but that's just common sense man. I'm gonna keep ridiculing you until you learn to wear a helmet everywhere. Don't be a squid.
this is a big reason why i'd rather have a car than a bike. i was talking to dan about this before...how much more dangerous motorcycle accidents are than car accidents and things of that sort. so i think i'm going to stick with cars. heck, if i die in a high speed accident, i'd rather die in familiar surroundings [inside my car] as opposed to be slingshotted [slungshot?] off the bike and/or run over. just a thought.
the funny/ironic thing is my helmet doesnt mess up my hair. it actually looks worse w/o the helmet, if anything. if im going at ~45mph for any longer than 5 minutes or so my hair looks like ive just fallen off a 50 story building head-first (think "explosion". also, my bike doesnt have a helmet latch and id rather not have to carry the helmet with me wherever i go. i also feel out of touch with my surroundings (in a my-senses-are-numbed sort of way) with a helmet on. and lastly, the extra wind resistance/weight gives me a raging headache. yes yes i know those are weak excuses, if even that. not that it matters a whole lot for me to say this, but i wasnt about to ride all the way up to milwaukee without a helmet. even with safety issues aside, it would just be flat out uncomfortable to have wind blasted in my face for 2 hours straight. and in all honesty, i have no idea why im trying to fight the helmet factor. plus, ive had enough dreams about dying of gunshot wounds to convince me thats how ill eventually go. heh.
Dan, I really don't wanna start nagging. But you shouldn't ride w/o a helmet. Period. It's called a brain-bucket for a reason. THe speeds these bikes can do is astonishing, even for an F2. Riding sans head protection is a really bad idea. Just b/c it's legal doesn't make it right. At the very least, the helmet will allow for an open casket funeral! You owe us that! Seriously, forget the hair man, just put on a lid. Sorry I missed your post earlier. I wasn't reading right. Thanks so much for your help. You saved me over $100 dollars.
Eric, please see my 06.24.2003 post. second half. not that i havent mentioned this before, but ill be visiting Justin this weekend. my original plan was to ride up (mainly to save gas and also mileage on the car), but it doesnt look like there will be friendly weather on sat and sun so i might have to end up caging it. i even bought a cargo net a month ago in anticipation of the trip, argh. ah well, not the end of the world. snoozed til 8:55 this morning, and im supposed to be at work by 9. whoops. this hot weather is killing me. even with [very mild] A/C running plus a fan, i struggle to fall asleep as i battle the heat every night. its raining here today, and boy does it make a difference. the drastic temperature drop was definitely a welcomed change. the 90 degree weather we've been having lately has been kicking my butt. ok, enough fun for a morning. time to start work. Wednesday, June 25
Dan, not to be a plick, but could you pleaes reply to me whether you will be ordering the rotors for me? I need them asap, as my car is screeching like a banshee at every take-off. Thanks. Tuesday, June 24
Oh yeah, I was replying to Eric's post about Justin's personal blog post. Duh. I should read all of your blogs more often. I'm so lazy.
Lawrence, what were you replying to Justin? is there a ghost post made by him that i cant see? Eric, sorry for the huge delay, but your brakes stuffs has been purchased. ill let you know when it comes in.
Larry, yeah, 9500 is a better card. That's why I mean by stupid marketing names.... 9600 performs less well. Think of the pipes as highway lanes, and data as cars. Basically, you have less of a memory bandwidth restriction with 8 pipes. I guess it makes a difference. You're not really getting "double" the performance, but it will be noticeable in benchmarks (not sure about "real" game scenarios) Oddly enough, we don't have an employee discount for 9500, but do have one for 9600PRO 128M (~$113 US) before shipping. Monday, June 23
All right, I've decided to get the 9500 pro if I can get it for $180 or thereabouts. It's steep for me, but I figure I spend zero dollars on anything anyways besides clothes, rent, and food. What's the use of hoarding my (miniscule amount of) money if I never spend it on anything? I see in the description that it has 8 "pipes" versus 4 for the 9600. I have no clue what it means, but if it's anything like v8 on a car, I'm sold! Yeah Justin, that's pretty funny. I haven't written in my blog in about a month haha. Makes me want to write something... except the only exciting thing to happen to me in lab was eating some gummi bears.
Justin: re: drooling Gawd, that was one of the funniest post I've read, like ever. And to think that it's even true!! I used to think that I couldn't sleep a wick without drooling, but bro, you take the cake! Good stuff. Why can't my posts be as humourous and insightful? Sunday, June 22
Larry, I'm not familiar with product names (only know cards by internal names). So I'll have to get back to you on that one. Besides, the marketing names are stupid, since they don't directly corrolate actual performance. 9500 may be better than 9600.... Saturday, June 21
Well I did some checking around, and both the Radeon 9600 and 9500 PROs look good for their price (~$150). How much of a performance drop is it to go with the 9000 PRO? I know you're busy Eric, but if you could just give a little advice that'd be cool. Keep in mind I have zero knowledge of technical stuff, so you'll have to keep it simple for me. Friday, June 20
Dan! If you havne't ordered, I want to change my rear brake to Zimmerman's NON x-drilled. Instead of the Brembos. If you haven't ordered, change it, otherwise, no biggie. Thursday, June 19
Dan: I just sent it to you again, @ dealuniversity. Here's pretty much what I want ----- I need some cheap stuff for my cars, and this is the only way.... Let me know if it's a hassle, in which case, I won't ask. I want: Brake Disc Brembo $18.35 (Quanity: 2) brakes and: Brake Pad Set 15mm Pagid $24.81 (1 Set) pads Those are the links. Shipping over $50 is free. Once you ship it up here, you can use USPS to ground ship it as a gift. Let me know if you can get it first. ----- When you get it shipped, wrap it with gift wrap paper, say it's a b-day gift. Then send it through USPS. Don't worry about insurance or whatever. Say it's under $50 US if you must.... (but I doubt it'll get lost that easily these days). Or better yet, claim it as used. I'll instruct you as the package arrives at your house. Wednesday, June 18
I'm overhauling my computer system, trying to keep it under $300. I've bought a motherboard and CPU (2GHz), but no video card yet. Eric, my ATI card has been great to me for 4 years, but it's time to kill it. What can you recommend that goes for about $100 or less? I've been saving up for this for a long time.
Eric: nope. which email addy did you send to? i guess my main email address is more or less 'dan at dealuniversity dot com'. 'yodaslap at hotmail dot com' is also fine, so whichever you feel like. i will help buy you stuff under the following condition: you wont let me touch it aside from whatever handling necessary to ship it to you. breaking one ultra-expensive digital camera is enough for me :'( welp, so my travel plans for the summer are more or less set now. last weekend of this month ill be in milwaukee visiting Justin. 2nd weekend of july ill be in DC, and 4th weekend of july ill be in SF. i have a place to stay at all 3 places (or so i hope) so itll cut down on costs. hopefully these little weekend excursions wont wear me out. *yawn*
Dan, did you get my email about you helping me out buying some stuff from the States (yet again?) :D If not, let me know, and I'll repost the details here. Tuesday, June 17
Monday, June 16
Knowing you guys, you've probably seen this one already. If not, check it out: http://www.hoghole.com/videos/Tokyo_Breakfast.asf Thursday, June 12
finally got all the pics up. make that all the pics remotely worth posting, up. for the lazy ones who dont wanna scroll down a whole 4 posts: snowcloud.net/daniello/gallery/camping
oh i didnt use the DSC-P50 to shoot the insects. it was my G2 with a coupling ring and inverted 50mm slr lens attached to it. the result? a VERY makeshift macro lens with a tiny depth of field. thats why only certain parts of the bugs/flowers/whatever are in focus. i am still debating whether or not i should get a "real" macro attachment. id like to test them out first before i buy but i dont think thats possible. might have to shell out the cash first and hope for the best. im definitely considering a macro lens for my slr tho. in fact, ima go shop for one right now... Wednesday, June 11
Man that's some great insect photography there. Clear as anything I've ever seen. Maybe I'll have to look into that camera after all... Did you guys play some Cantonese War? (I haven't played that in years).
got the digital pics from the trip posted. pictures can be found here: snowcloud.net/daniello/gallery/camping i actually just bought some webspace [earlier] today so if all goes well from now on my pictures will be at snowcloud.net/daniello/ didnt know the DSC-P series was known for having good macro capabilities. maybe ill bring the little guy along from now on. either that or shell out $80 for a macro lens attachment. boooooooooo argh, time to sleep Tuesday, June 10
The Sony DSC-P series are well known for their macro abilities though, so it's not really a fair comparison. Ivan, you have to give me your new URL, as I want to check up on it once in a while :D
i need to get a job so i can buy a better camera. not to say that my DSC-P50 [not dan's, i have one too] is a bad camera...it's been good to me and is still useful. it's just that somehow it just doesn't cut it anymore. oh well. tripod.com is dumb. i've been hacking their banners off of my site for nearly three years and just TODAY they have gotten smart and gone around my code [or lack thereof]. tripod banners used to insert themselves where body tags appeared in HTML, but now they appear at the bottom of the page if no body tags are to be found. dangit! i took my site down earlier today from tripod and re-uploaded it to another host. what a pain in the butt. -_-
i wonder what happened to the G4. i am having mixed feelings about my G2. on one hand, even now it wouldnt be fair to call it a bad camera and i got a crazy good deal on it at the time i bought it (and still better than the prices ive been seeing even recently), but obsolete is obsolete. a 3x optical zoom is essentially useless and the macro mode is kinda broke, as ive gotten off much better closeups with my old sony dsc-p50. thats why ive taken a liking to my slr w/28-200mm lens. i can get decently wide-angled shots and translates to roughly 7x zoom. for both cameras ive resorted to using a lens-coupling ring and attaching my 50mm lens backwards to create a makeshift macro lens. im not sure exactly what the problem is but my G2 somehow cant zoom past the black halo effect (i think the barrel is too short?), and i have still yet to develop the film to see how the slr versions came out. the depth of field is so tiny that it probably came out blurry anyway. oh well. i dropped off the film at sams club yesterday and im already regretting it. shouldve shelled out the extra cash and gone the 1-hour photo route. now i gotta wait til thursday. *sigh* ok, too much camera talk. if i really loved photography i wouldve bought myself a digital slr instead of a bike. ha, no i wouldnt.
Well, I have to say I've never been to real camping. I like to think I'm a man who could live in the wilderness..... But to be honest? I'd rather shower and put nice smelling gel in my hair. I am excited in seeing some of your pix. I have not enjoyed my camera much lately. I have finally found the limits of my camera, and it is disheartening to know that there are lighting situations which it cannot adapt to, no matter how hard I try. Now, let's not blame the instrument if the musician can't play. I'm just saying I am incapable of working around the weaker areas of the camera because my 'photographic skills' (if you'll allow me to use that) cannot compensate. My next camera will probably be a Canon G5 or a Sony DSC-V1. Although in this day and age, pre-picking a camera is just dumb. I won't realistically buy another camera until my refuses to take a single shot, and by then, cameras will have advanced so much that what I want today will be as obsolete as a typewriter at a laptop convention. going to mirror this on my blog too. :D Monday, June 9
exhausted. got home around 2:30 last night/this morning... shouldve left earlier. oh well it was fun tho, great to be outdoors and away from civilization as we know it. i didnt even sleep in a real tent. it was a screen tent (solid roof, screen walls all around, no bottom) and i just lay out a tarp on the grass and jumped in a sleeping bag. second night was storming but i stayed dead center and remained completely dry. even one of the real tents there got mildly flooded, bwahahaha. anyway, im not about to bore everyone with boring camping stories so if you want to hear more, just ask. as for pics, half of em were taken on my slr so i have to develop the film first. either that or i can post up the digitals first, but i think id rather post them all at once. ok, gotta go back to work. Saturday, June 7
I just got Matrix Reloaded SVCD released by Centropy. It is a very good version of camera with amazing audio (very clear audio, okay video). Even then I couldn't be bothered to watch it for more than 5 minutes. The movie sucked that bad. XMen 2 SVCD rocked though.
i've actually been on summer break for almost a month now. i have a contract job designing a website for the Chicago Chinese Cultural Center [and getting paid by the taiwanese government]. i had an accounting job last summer and was supposed to be rehired this summer but got gypped out of it by my ex girlfriend. [don't want to talk about it] i've sent my resume into a few places and i'm hoping for some phone calls and such. i suppose we'll just wait and see. Friday, June 6
Dan: make sure you take a TONNE of pix, and post the best ones online. I'm interested to see the results. Larry: Yeah, well.... nobel prize winner or not. Fugly is fugly. If the girl is beautiful inside, turn her inside out! Justin: I've been reading your blog. I really like it. It is such a comfort to know that you can take care of yourself. Makes me feel all proud and gushy inside. Roberta: Come on, you must have called HIM by now?? Don't lie! Ivan: So now that you're off, what's the summer plan? Did I miss NE1? Thursday, June 5
i think its near impossible to completely overlook appearance so i guess we're all somewhat shallow. im on hour 8 of a 10-hour shift, argh. im going on a fishing/camping trip this weekend with some church friends. should be fun, and if i have my way, ill be spending a lot of time by myself... and my cameras. its tough to be inspired out here in the suburbs so im looking foward to the great outdoors. devil's lake, here i come!
Yeah, I'd at least be checking into her credentials past the looks. What if she's the next Nobel Winner in something-or-other? Let me count how many times girls have called me for romantic reasons... oh that's right, zero. Though I have to admit I'm pretty shallow too.
Justin: didn't think you'd be so shallow. I mean, I'm pretty bad when it comes to standards on women in terms of appearance, just didn't think you'd be so hung up. Remember, two hands on your bird is worse than.... nevermind! I've just had a rough day at work. I need a new job. This one's killing me. Tuesday, June 3
she embodies fugliness. we walked the dogs once more last week. she kept on telling me to call her; i haven't and don't think i will. i shudder thinking about her: she was nice to talk to once. just once, though. |