Titanium

Last week, I spent several hours with colleagues at work doing nothing but just hanging out, having fun. I work for a small company, and there are five of us developing a company product. Couple times a year we get together after work having fun, you can call it a camaraderie.

We share jokes, concerns, ideas and whatever come to mind. We talked about health (yes, we're at that age). John showed us how he recently found a cure for his nerve pinching pain, which had been with him for several years. Standing with two hands on the back of a tall stool doing steps only with the front portion of the feet. "I try to do this when I go out for a smoke, or just stand thinking. I can do 200 to 400 reps. No more pain, baby!" he said. Gene told us about the several operations he had to eliminate the pain in his back. The last operation he had, the doctor removed the old titanium bolts and replaced with better bracket to separate the joins in his spine. We all laughed when we heard: "And I asked the doctor to give me the old bolts", Gene proudly said. Gene is a handy man, he built the pool bar, the outdoor grill, all cabinets in his kitchen, and load of furnitures in his house. I suspect most of big & small appliances he can fix them himself. But I have no clue on what he's going to use these titanium spine bracket bolts. John jokingly said: "So, you are the kind of guys who wants the used parts back when taking the car in for repair, huh?". "Hell, yes! Show me the proof that you have replaced the bad part.", Gene replied. Gene keeps those old titanium bolts in a glass jar, as mementos I think. The titanium bolts last pretty long, they are strong and rust proof. My guess is those bolts would last even longer than most of us.

Looking at my friends, they are all experts at what they are doing: programing. They have many, many years of experience. Coding becomes their second nature. Sure, we're old, but our skills are not rusting or slowing down. Like those old titanium bolts in the jar. They could be replaced by newer and better bolts, which perhaps can pivot & twist, but as for the functions of the old titanium bolts; they still perform well just like the first day they were installed.

Mixed feelings

Only few more days Bảo will head off to Japan for two long weeks. It will be the first time for him to be away from home that long. And I am here having a mixed feelings, half excited and half worried. I am excited for he will see the world on his own. He will make decisions without any coaching. He will meet and make new friends, young and old, without parents interference. He will conducting himself in front of strangers without parents observation. But will he make the right decision at every turn? Will he feel content and confident with new friends? Will others accept and love him for who he is? Yes, I am worried.

For one week duration of each, there were few times that Bảo went to camp, attend seminar, worked as internship away from home; and every time I had similar feeling. This time, the feeling is much deeper, as if it grows proportionally to the distance and duration of where he will be. The mixed feeling comes up not only with Bảo, it happened to me when Thuỵ spent a week at University of Virginia last year as well. I keep asking myself: have I done enough of raising him, teaching him right and wrong, preparing him for the world, arming him with knowledges, experiences, and skills for anything throwing at him? There are so many things to teach, to prepare, to train before time runs out. His birthday reminds me of one year closer to that day. The day that I no longer able to teach him. When his mind no longer listens to my words. The feeling of that day is closing in makes me edgy. I want to pack lot of things into one long lecture, as if it's my final lecture. Yes, I realize that he does not like to sit & listen to my long lecture; but ... you see, time is running out; so I thought.

Writing these words reminds me of a saying: "If you do not trust your child, then when can your child become trustworthy? If you do not feel confident in your child, then how can your child ever be self-confident?" I guess it's time for me to step back. It's time for me to have confidence in Bảo, for he will make the right decisions on his own. It's time for me to put my trust on him, for he will conduct himself wisely in front of his friends and public. People will accept & love him for who he is, because he has been surrounded with love and care; for he has been raised with mixed feelings: excited & worried coming from me. Yes, I trust that he will feel excited to explore & learn new things. Moreover, I am confident that he will also be careful on every step that he makes.

Potstickers and dumplings

I usually mix up between the two names, so what is the difference between dumplings and potstickers? The difference is how they're cooked. Potstickers are pan fried then steamed. Dumplings are just steamed to perfection.

Here are few of my favorite dumpling recipes:

• Sohui Kim’s recipe
• Alton Brown's recipe
• Chinese dumpling recipe
• Leann Chin's recipe
  

As you notice, I do not include Bobby Flay's recipe, just because it has duck instead of pork or shrimp! And to me, that's just ain't right. I am unfair, I know.

China, China, and China

Because the Olympic is going to be in Beijing, China the Travel Channel is showing lot of shows with the destination in China, yeah, for the whole week! Last night, the Samantha Brown's Passport to China was followed by Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations which is also in China. As usual, Anthony's is packed with wits and tongue-in-cheeks narrations. But bizarre enough, watching both show back to back, they remind me of Andrew's Bizarre Foods. In Passport to China, Samantha tried deep fried star fish from a back-alley-street-food stand, and then she tasted the duck tongues in a popular restaurant. Anthony had goat's stomach, goat intestines, goat balls, and boat load of other undignified dishes which you would not want to touch if he knows of their origins.

As usual, Anthony paints a beautiful China cuisine picture with words: "the mother of all cuisines". It was funny that when Anthony was presented with a dish, mushy gray substance; being hungry, and trying to be culturally polite as well as the host of the show he chowed it down quickly. With broad smile, he gave the regular thumb up: "It's good!" The gray substance is the left-over soy bean paste, after the tofu was made, these are the left over and many have thought of nothing you can make out of it. However, when the local guide explain in Chinese accent: "You can't find this dish outside of Beijing!", Anthony smiled happily. The guide then followed: "because, outside of Beijing, people give these to pigs." The camera switched back to Anthony's face, and you can see his smile suddenly disappeared. He quickly went for his local drink and I wonder whether to wash that still lingered after taste, or he wants to push the food back down.

Jot them down

When I have couple things to do, I can pretty much finish the tasks. But when I have many (5+) things to do, more likely I will forget couple of them. To battle this, I jot them down, and check each off as I finish the task. The problem is that pencil is never available when I need it, and when I have the pencil in my hand, the piece of paper which has all the listed tasks suddenly vanished.

So, this time, I am going to use the blog to keep track of things I have to do, and I will check & update the list every day

Exercise

We started the exercise schedule last night. We do 10 push-ups, 10 sit-ups, 10 jumping-jacks and 10 squats together; and then start the cycle all over again until tired. I could only do total of 20 for each category. I figure, it was my first day and I should take it easy; will increase the repetition number each day. My goal is to reach 40 reps for each category. Hey, summer is here, we all can use a trim body in the swim suit. Will see the results after 1 month.

Media file server

I am thinking of building a new file server, which serves as a storage for all of our media files. A file server to keep our video, image and music files. It has to be reliable, so I am thinking of using RAID-5, and expandable storage space so we can add more as we need more space. It has to be fast enough to serve up to 5 concurrent sessions, which means ~500Mbps. So, here is a first cut requirements:

• Motherboard which can handle ~2.4GHz CPU (~$75, or use an used motherboard)
  
• Memory 2GB (~$60)
  
• A case which can handle up to 12 SATA drives (will use the optical juke box case in the garage)
  
• Software RAID-5, perhaps Linux Fedora/Ubuntu (free)
  
• Two Ethernet interfaces (already have)
• Starting out with 4 SATA drives, 500GB each, 2TB total. (~$300)
• Running MediaTomb, Samba, and a Web server.
• DVD burner, to burn archive DVD
  

I need to come up with a name for this server, probably hit Bảo & Thuỵ tonight, they seem to know ton of names. An appropriate name would be of a character which has vast knowledge, large memory, or infinite data.

Few of my favorite things

Goofing off, spending time with love ones, and taking pictures are few of my favorite things.

We are sitting at the Statue of Liberty island, taking a rest and waiting for our ferry ride back to the Liberty State Park. Bảo & Thuỵ are goofing off, making faces at each other.



We are in the ferry, heading to Statue of Liberty island. It's too hot outside so we take refuge in the lower deck. The window opens up and it's a great way to take pictures of the statue

Lights

With a big round translucent white glass rim, and 6 clear incandescent bulbs in spokes & wheel configuration; these are the ceiling lights in Ellis Island Immigration museum. Rows and rows of these light up the main hall, today as well as almost hundred years ago. Silently they witness the immigrants, listen to their worries, and light up their hopes in the new country.

Each light glows in the amber hue, not as bright as in compare to today light bulb technology; but these kind of bulbs last quite long. Many of the light are replaced with newer style frosted bulbs. Some of them even changed to the swirl fluorescent energy-saver type. But for me the old bulb attracts me more with its clear glass, incandescent glow, and that little pointed tub on top.

It's true, that they are inefficient, and not bright enough but you just cannot duplicate that glow with newer bulbs. It glows with an unique amber color, not too bright which can blind your eyes, but just enough to see the face of the person standing next to you. Perhaps, that's the additional purpose of these old lights: to bring people together, standing a bit closer, to look up without being blinded by the light, but to reach up with a hope. A hope in the new land.

One day trip

Yesterday, we spent the whole day visiting Liberty State Park, Ellis Island, and Statue of Liberty island. When we got to the Statue of Liberty island, the monument guard checked out tickets and let us access to inside of the statue. Yippee! We climbed up 156 steps, and the view is just magnificent.

We walked out to the balcony and thought that I can capture a close-up picture of Lady of Liberty's face. But because of the viewing angle, directly up at the statue, we only able to see her skirt. We climbed down to almost the bottom balcony level to be able to have a full length picture of her.

Statue of Liberty island is the third destination, and Huân was pretty tired by now. He was probably hungry and thirsty because during lunch, he did not eat much of his chicken tenders and fries.

At Ellis Island's cafeteria, we see that they are selling a soup called "Immigration Soup", which served with breads. But it was quite warm yesterday so none of us order that one, but it sounds very interesting. We was thinking of the right time to eat that soup would be when outside temperature is cooler, and the idea of coming back in Spring or Fall sounds very tempting.