Ubiquitous Computing Touch Screen from Microsoft Surfaces

This is one of the more mind-blowing, incredible things I've seen in a long time. I can't even fathom the possibilities that this kind of computing has. It simply amazes me how far computing technology has already come over the past two decades, but if things keep developing at the rate that they've been over the past two years, by the next 20 years, I can't even imagine the kinds of things we can expect to see!



And I thought my Nintendo DS Touch Screen was cool!

Text Messaging Comes To The Rescue!

Interesting story about how text messages halted production of a possibly pollutive chemical plant in China. I had no idea text messaging could be so powerful. Story link here: 1M Text Messages Protest China Plant. Good to see Chinese citizens taking some initiatives on their own, too! Now, if only their stock markets would stop jumping up and down...

New Guy, Pokemon, Football, Driving Range, House

Seems like it's about the right time for another Grant's Pad Potpourri Post - a little bit of everything, in convenient digest form!

Interestingly, visitation to Grant's Pad has been very consistent these last few weeks, despite the lack of new and exciting posts to keep readers interested. Hopefully, I don't ruin the visitage-karma by posting something today!

Work has been uber busy. Cognizant engineering is quite a bit of work. Hopefully it translates to quite a bit of dough! I do a lot of sort of "liaison" type work, transmitting information about problems with the product from one group to another, or even customers at some points. In a way, I feel kind of like that guy Tom in Office Space. You know, "I talk to the customers so the engineers don't have to!" Only, I am an engineer... so I guess it's not really that similar after all...

One thing that has been interesting is we recently hired a new engineer out of UF, Alex. It's pretty cool to have another young guy work in the group. I've been the only young guy in the TCAS/TPR group since Nick was transferred to the EMI lab. What's even cooler is, as Cognizant engineer, I'm a bit of a mentor to Alex, showing him the ropes of TCAS and Transponder. It's actually pretty amazing how much I've learned about these products since I started at two years ago.

One point of interest these last few days was my purchase of another DS game - Pokemon Pearl version! It's kind of funny. Years ago, when the Pokemon craze first struck, I never knew it was actually a video game - I thought it was just a dumb card collecting hobby for kids. Granted, it's still quite kiddy, but the game itself is pretty awesome. Strangely, the older I get, the more at ease I am doing kiddy things. My friend Karn got the Diamond version of the game, so we can trade Pokemon that are unique to each version! Again, kiddy, yes. But awesome.

So, I've played in a total of four company football games so far this season, and we have been blown out in six games (remember, I missed the first two because I was in Cedar Rapids). I haven't really found my position yet, mostly because I haven't really demonstrated a great ability to catch. What I have shown is my speed and shiftiness, which was showcased during practice when I returned a kick for a touchdown and also in the games that I did play in as a QB rusher and a cornerback. I think I feel pretty good playing cornerback, but someday I'd like to play a little offense too! One thing that has surprised me is Nick's all-around athleticism. For a guy that was (and still is) a bit overweight and out of shape, he has quickness, size, speed, and great hands. Definitely an asset to the team!

I went to the driving range the other day with Clint, the captain of the football game and an all around nice guy, if not a bit on the kooky side. I remember going to the driving range many many years ago and REALLY not enjoying it - golf swings seem to really aggravate my tendonitis. This time was no different - my forearms were (and still are) in quite a bit of pain. It sounds dumb, but I really think my arm muscles are too hard, so they pull easily on motions like a swing of a club or a bat! I guess I have to take the good with the bad!

Last but not least, my house is coming along pretty well. You can keep track of the progress of my house by looking at the photo album here! The construction manager said that we should be able to close on the house by around August, so you'll be able to see it grow and develop right in front of your eyes!

Study: Female Sharks Fertilize Own Eggs

I know I haven't had a post here in a while, but this story was too cool not to cop out with: Link

My House Is Growing!

I received a call from Charles, the construction manager for the first couple phases of the building of my house, while I was in Cedar Rapids, telling me that the slab would be poured last Friday and that they were going to start laying the concrete this week and the frame would be complete around the end of the month or something like that. So Cherry and I headed out to the construction site on Friday to see what our slab looked like. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my actual camera, so the photo below is from my cellphone. As you might be able to tell from the photo, the slab looks kind of small. So small, in fact, that we were questioning whether the builder might have confused our house for a different floorplan! But we figured since the floorplan we specified is part of the contract, we don't really have to worry about that. I imagine building the wrong floorplan would be a major breach of contract!


So, as you know from my previous post, we went ahead and spent the weekend in Boca with my parents. After work on Tuesday, I told Cherrie, "Let's go check the progress on the house, I think they were supposed to lay the brick this week!" We headed to the homesite, and this is what we saw, a mere two work days after the photo of the slab above:


My goodness, they grow up so fast!

Back in Melbourne Again

It's becoming yet another cliche around these parts, but it really is a bit of a relief to be back in Melbourne again, after my third week-long business trip in just five weeks!

On Wednesday after work, I decided to go work out with Master Bruce's Taekwondo class. As mentioned in my previous post, I had watched his class earlier in the week and thought what a great opportunity it would be to train in a formal class environment again. It was a real treat. Since the techniques they were practicing were often a bit different from the techniques that I'm used to in my Choy Lay Fut Kung Fu, Master Bruce had me basically try to practice techniques that were similar in form and function, and that helped a lot in preventing me from not practicing at all. I got to train a few different self-defense drills with one of his senior instructors, which was also pretty cool. I found that many of the techniques seem to come from Jujitsu and Arnis - he emphasized wrist locks and throws more than I'm used to seeing in Taekwondo. After class, I showed some of my kung fu to some of his students, who also appreciated the opportunity to see a (quite largely) different style of martial art! I think it would be pretty cool to stop by in their classes any time I am in Cedar Rapids in the future!

Another point of interest this week was the call that I received from Bob Chiusano, the former COO of the company who came to Melbourne about a year ago to have a skip level meeting with some of the newer hires. I was having lunch with another participant of those talks, Yifei, and another young engineer in Cedar Rapids when Yifei received the call and said it was for me. I was pretty surprised to find out that it was Bob on the other line! We didn't talk much - he basically just asked me how work was going and told me not to hesitate if I ever wanted to ask him any questions even though he wasn't the COO any more. In any case, it's pretty cool the people you get to talk to just for going to a skip level session!

On Thursday after work, I stopped over at Tony's house for a bit. Tony is the senior technician at the factory in Cedar Rapids, and he's a pretty sharp guy. He never went to university because he had his three sons at a very young age, but he's definitely an asset. I got to know him pretty well during the Atlanta training and during this past trip to Cedar Rapids. What I didn't know is that he's also a video game junkie! He spent a good part of my visit to his house showing off some of the awesome mods to Battlefield 2, the war combat sim that he plays most often. I have to say I was pretty amazed at the lengths these guys go to to make these sims - fields of grass swaying in the wind, Playboy spreads "painted" on those same fields that you can't see clearly unless you are in the air, and of course awesome modern weapons.

I headed back to Melbourne very early Friday morning. The flight from Cedar Rapids to Atlanta was not particularly eventful, but in Atlanta, I ran into Randy, a Harris engineer that I had met on my flight to Atlanta on Sunday, to my surprise. His meeting had gotten out early and so he was able to take my flight to go back to Melbourne instead of the late afternoon one. It was also Randy that confirmed the next point of interest to me - also on our flight from Atlanta to Melbourne was none other than Evander Holyfield! Apparently, he had an exhibition fight in Cocoa Beach this past weekend. I thought he had looked strangely familiar when I saw him at the departure gate, but I didn't think anything of it at the time since he had no entourage or posse with him. I guess he can take care of himself!

This past weekend was Mother's Day, so I didn't get to stay in Melbourne for very long after getting in at 2:15 in the afternoon. By 6:30, Cherrie and I were out the door and on our way to Boca. When we got there, I was surprised to find a DS game sitting on the bed. My sister, Melinda, had gotten it for me! Unfortunately, it was New Super Mario Bros., a game I've thoroughly enjoyed since about November of last year. I decided to return it in favor of a game that I don't already own, but then I remembered that my dad had expressed interest in purchasing a DS himself. So, my filial piety kicked in and instead, I picked up a DS! With it, my dad, my sister, and I played quite a few multiplayer games, and I have to emphasize again how much cooler New Super Mario Bros. is in multiplayer mode!

Anyhow, I'm finally back in Melbourne, and slept a whole night in my own bed for the first time in over a week last night. You'll have to pardon the cliche once again, but it sure feels good to be home.

I Love My Wife!

Today's post, despite how it looks, is actually not a spoof on the recent Chris Rock movie. As a webmedia personality, I sometimes get lost in the waves of things to write about and sometimes forget to write aabout the things I appreciate every day, like watching King of Queens or playing my DS (although I actually do write about playing my DS quite often...).

So today, I dedicate the title of my post to my awesome wife Cherrie, who is very supportive of me in every way and whom I left home all alone during her summer week off of school to be here in Iowa to work. As the song goes, today is "no New Year's Day to celebrate", nor are there "Christmas Cheers". No, today is just a special post to say "I love you" to my wife and best friend, Cherrie!

I also thought it would be appropriate to note that Cherrie threatened to not pick me up from the airport if I didn't write today's blog post! But really, I really do love her, I do! ^_^

Meet Your New Resident Cognizant Engineer

Wouldn't you know it, I'm back in Cedar Rapids, Iowa again. After a very brief stint in my hometown of Melbourne, I was informed that the factory would greatly appreciate another body to look at and run tests to troubleshoot some of the problems that I had worked on in Cedar Rapids about a month ago. The timing couldn't have been much worse - Cherrie's last day of school for this semester was just this past Thursday, and this week is her week off before her summer semester starts, so she will probably be pretty bored this week without me there! On top of that atrocity, as I mentioned last week, I've joined the official company Flag Football Team. Our first game was Monday, and I missed it! How can we survive without our star tailback??? The answer is, we didn't! We were obliterated 36-6 and 50 something-0! Looks like our team has a bit of work to do!

Anyhow, my trip to Cedar Rapids was not as enjoyable as it could have been. I met a couple of other engineers on the plane, who I had a pretty good conversation with. I was then supposed to have a three hour layover in Atlanta. However, there were some problems with the plane (something we always like to hear!), and by the time they had it all figured out (and the other delayed flights in front of us had gotten along on their own way), I had been in the airport for six hours! I was actually worried that we wouldn't get to Cedar Rapids on time for me to pick up my rental car. Fortunately, we did get in on time, and I hooked myself up with a super cool Pontiac G6 sedan (they didn't have the coupe - boo!).

As you may or may not recall, my last trip here to Cedar Rapids was marked primarily by 10 hour workdays. Monday was no different, as I came in at 7:30 in the morning and left at 6:30 in the evening. The test tech Tony and I did not get as much accomplished as we had hoped. Instead, we (read: I) ended up blowing up two power supplies, which hopefully have been fixed by now. Ironically, today was also the day that Mark informed me and everyone else on the team that I am now the new Cognizant Engineer for our program. Basically, that means program related processes, such as design changes, customer complaints, etc., all converge on me. Definitely makes me that much more important, but I've already started feeling the impact of increased daily e-mails. Still, I'm pretty excited about my new role.

After work, I decided to check out the awesome gym at my not-so-awesome hotel. The hotel itself is from on of my favorite chains - Best Western. We stayed at a lot of Best Western hotels when we were kids, and they always gave out these cool little travel kits to kids. This Best Western, however, was a bit old, and part of it (about half) must have been damp at some point in time, because it smelled kind of strange. Fortunately, my room is in the not-rank part. However, the gym is in the smelly section. Still, it was awesome - it featured free weights (the first hotel that I've been at since I started these business trips to have free weights), multiple weight rooms with several benches of all different types and more machines than I've seen since I worked out at Southwest Rec at UF! I'm pleased to say that I am still pretty strong, even after all this time not lifting free weights - I was able to incline bench 205 pounds six times! After my workout, I watched the end of a Tae Kwon Do class in the cardio room at the gym. The instructors looked pretty good for the most part - the students, not so much. Still, the master invited me to work out with them if I had time later this week. I might have to show them what Choy Lay Fut Kung Fu looks like!

That night, I decided to order room service from the restaurant downstairs. Apparently, their ribs have won a number of awards, and I will tell you right now, they deserved each and every one of those awards! Those were some of the best damn babyback ribs I have EVER had. Chili's can't hold a candle compared to the ribs at the Best Western Longbranch hotel! It was simply incredible. I think I'll order some more tonight!

We made a little more progress today on the problems that we are working on. More notable (at least for you readers) is that I met two people that I've talked on the phone with for quite some time today - Tom and Stefanie, the Manufacturing Electrical Engineers on both of the programs that I work on. Tom is kind of a weird guy - he's a tall white guy that looks to be around his mid-to late thirties and says "Dude" and flashes gang signs all the time. Pretty funny. Stefanie is pretty much how I thought she would be from talking on the phone with her - a small, kind of shy lady. In any case, it's nice to finally put a face on all the people I've talked with on the phone at last!

First May 2007 Post!

Today's post is nothing more than a general blog post. It is, as the title states, my first post of the month, which is always a neat thing. I think the main point of significance that I wanted to write about today was how astonishingly fast April went by for me. You, dear reader, can easily see that April was not a great month for Grant's Pad in terms of articles and posts. As I've said before, we (read: I) at Grant's Pad pride ourselves (read: myself) in providing wholesome, yet easy to read and highly applicable material at least 10-15 times a month. However, in April, I was only able to crank out a meager six posts!

As you can see from some of the previous posts, one large reason for the lack of posts in the month of April was the travel that I took this month. The trips proved to be a double-edged sword for Grant's Pad. While they did take a lot of my time, thus limiting the number of posts I could take time to write, they also provided me with a great deal of material that allowed me to stay away from the usual Gator sports or college flashback cop-out posts that you've surely become accustomed to over the past year and five months and change!

Moving on to an almost totally non-sequitur topic, I found out through our fabulous company e-mail newsletter today that May is actually Asian/Pacific American Heritage month! It's pretty interesting for me. As quoted from the newsletter:

Much like Black History and Women’s History celebrations, Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month originated as a congressional bill. In 1978, a joint congressional resolution established Asian/Pacific American Heritage Week. The first 10 days of May were chosen to coincide with two important milestones in Asian/Pacific American history: the arrival in the United States of the first Japanese immigrants – May 7, 1843 – and contributions of Chinese workers to the building of the transcontinental railroad, completed on May 10, 1869. In 1992, Congress expanded the 10-day observance to a month-long celebration.

Pretty interesting!

Speaking of Asia, my brother Ed left yesterday to begin his study abroad in Taiwan! I'm pretty jealous. Cherrie and I haven't been back to Asia since 2004-2005. Since then, my good friends Eric and Billy have gone to China and Taiwan, respectively, and Billy told me just this past week that he would be spending this summer taking graduate engineering courses on a Georgia Tech satellite campus in Shanghai! I never got to take Engineering classes while I was studying abroad!

Last little bit for today. Nick and I have joined the Official Flag Football Team for our company! We've already had three practices, but I've only been to one of them so far (thanks to my busy travels!). Our first of many, many games (it's a looong season) should be next week. I'll be sure to keep everyone posted on our progress!