Man. . . when I was her age I was happy with a clunky old 386. . . and she's getting a freakin' laptop?!?!? I feel jipped. . .

I arrived a little after 5:30PM because of stupid traffic on Mopac. . . I'm honestly of the belief that the majority of the people in Austin do not know how to drive. . . compound that with the poor traffic lighting system, and you've got a major problem on your hands. Still, by the time I arrived there were already people mingling and the band (I don't remember the name, but they played some decent original songs) was well on the roll with its first set. Chris and Julie were handling the crowd nicely while An and Blake tried to best each other in the croquet tournament (don't ask me who won, because I didn't keep scores). Various people from Design Edge soon arrived and much more mingling ensued (plus imbibing of alcohol). And then out of nowhere Chris brings along this cute petite asian girl and asked me if he remembered correctly that I spoke Mandarin. After confirming that his memory has not failed him due to age, he introduced us two and encouraged us to "talk amongst ourselves".

Her name is Yan Yan, and she recently came to the US to study in the design/art school of UT in for her Masters. She originated from an eastern province in China, off the coast of Taiwan, and came here alone in pursuit of her dreams. It was interesting meeting another Chinese since most of the people I know are non-asian, but we got along fairly well I think. Towards the end it turns out that her significant other was too busy playing tennis to come take her home, so instead it was me who escorted her back to her place. She actually rooms with another girl, and both of them became busy in bringing out food and making me feel comfortable when I stepped in for a visit. Then her roomie's sig other showed up, and much chattering ensued.

And boy. . . was it a restaurant. I've been to really high-classed non-asian restaurants before. . . but this was a REALLY high-classed asian restaurant. The place is called Tea Pavilion (a butchered translation, I must admit), and the interior designs were quite elegant, with highly refined wooden furniture fleshing out the five-star establishment, and a sprinkling of chinese glass art separating the dining spaces. The food. . . oooh the food. . . Honestly, the food was something very similar to (if not straight out of) the delicacies seen on the popular cooking show "Iron Chef". The first dish was a succintly thick but lightly flavored chicken and rice chowder, which had just the right consistency to be very very good. This was followed by more commonly known spring rolls, but supplemented with a wild-chicken stew with some herbal seasonings. Needless to say, the soup was very very very good. The main course were three slices of medium-rare veal covered with wasabi sauce, supported with wasabi mashed patotoes (I didn't know they even existed), and finishing with a light salad in a light wine dressing. We also had a few other appetizers and side dishes to go along with this, since the servings were quite. . . small (for me at least). Nonetheless it was very good, and some of the dishes (especially the main course) were too pretty to eat. . . but was eaten anyways because it came down to between my sense of aesthetics and my sense of hunger. So if any of you reading this happens to be in Plano when the restaurant opens (grapevine says sometime after April 1st), feel free to give them a try. They're located on the north side of Park, east of Preston, right behind the Blue Goose mexican grill. Yummmy. . .

Since they didn't let us pay for the food last night, I decided to help dad out in installing their stereo system. This involved mainly with running the wires all across their ceiling, which meant climbing ladders and risk falling to my death and all that nice stuff. :) But it was fun. . . and at the end I got some more food to take home (supposedly made by the daughter, although I have no confirmation as to whether this is true or not), which made my stomach even happier. Ahh. . . happy stomach. . . :)

Despite savage rumors about Infiniti services and customer satisfaction, the overhaul on Bismark went fairly smoothly. I arrived at the shipyard on time, and was met by a friendly service representative, who walked me through the whole process without a hitch. Contrary to the nightmarish stories of Infiniti charging astronomical prices on their maintenance schedule, mine was a paltry $40 for the first 3750 mile checkup (which includes a loaner I30). The total bill was $75, only because I requested some repairs on the paintjob. Not too bad. The complimentary carwash didn't get rid of the stupid bug that decided to play chicken with my windshield on the trip home yesterday though, so I'm going to have to figure out someway to remove the remains.

Other than that, I had lunch with Dave & Co. today at the County Line (which had decent BBQ. . . although I'm torn if I have to choose between this or Rudy's BBQ), and it seemed like there was a Mazda MR2 owner's meet there. . . I counted at least 6 of them. . . and my G35c was the only one disrupting the crowd. :P

Spent the rest of the afternoon washing and cleaning out the Bismark. . . knowing fully well that she'll be washed again on Wedensday when I take her in for her first check-up. Hopefully there won't be any nasty surprises waiting for me at the shipyard. Knowing my luck, however, it will be raining tomorrow. :(

While soaking in the hot tub before dinner, I'm getting the impression that I am now known as the-guy-who-owns-a-G35c in my apartment building. While not necessarily a BAD thing. . . I'm not too sure if that is the image I wanted to project. . . Angie (one of my neighbors) insists on bringing up the fact that I own a G35c to everyone when I'm present. . . and the resulting attention is not one I relish in. Oh well. . . guess I should've known this might happen when I decided on the Bismark. . .

Lagrange points (named after the French mathematician Joseph Louis Lagrange who made the discovery) are relatively stable points in space where gravitational forces from the surrounding solar system convinently cancels each other out. Thus theoretically (and realistically), one can put an object at a L point, and have it "stay" (relatively speaking) like a good little doggie.

Mathematically speaking, L1 and L2 are the least stable, where an object loses its position in roughly 552 hours (not a good doggie). L4 and L5 are the most stable, and their stability is prompting further consideration as future sites for space colonies.

But what about L3? As far as I can tell, there have been no information on the stability of L3 (other than it being grouped with L1 and L2 as being unstable). Positional-wise, L1 is between the Earth and the Sun, L2 is on the "outside" of Earth, L3 is on the "outside" of the Sun, and L4 and L5 are off at an angle between the Earth and the Sun.

But I guess now that I think about it. . . stability at L3 is probably not much better than L1 and L2 simply because of the gravitational force on L3 from the Sun and the Earth is unilateral, hence it is far easier for an object at L3 to "slide off" the equilibrium point than at L4 and L5, where the gravitational force is active in two dimensions. Hmm. . . guess I just answered my own question then.

After that, Dave and I went to see Tears of the Sun. I had read some pretty bad reviews about it, but I figured Bruce Willis deserved the benefit of the doubt. And I was sort of right. Its not a film for the usual moviegoers. . . as it can only be fully enjoyed if one gives some thought to the subject matter. War is hell. . . but sometimes there might exist some beauty in the middle of chaos. The advertisement for the movie did a very good job of summing it up though. . . "He was a soldier trained to follow orders, he became a hero by defying them."

After the movie we then proceeded to stay up way too late playing games. :P

Other than that, the Matron (mom) arrived earlier today as part of an inspection tour of OC4, to make sure that things are not amiss and that I'm not hiding a harem of slave girls somewhere in my closet (not that any incriminating evidences would be found anyways, as I took the liberty to "clean up" the place before her arrival. . . *ahem*. . .)

Was going to try and fix DDR II (since DanB reported massive failures the last time he tried to use it) after I finished moving the office, but it decided to behave and act like it wasn't broken. Not too sure what to make of it. . . but its working. . . can't ask for more than that I guess. . .

Since I did such a great job learning CSS (well. . . enough to get me by, I suppose. . .) I decided to try and pick up PHP as well. So far, it seems to be a pretty versatile language for web applications. . . but slightly overkill for serving simple web pages. Chances are I probably will not convert this site into a PHP site. . . but maybe develope a few PHP applications to supplement it. . .

This pleasant weather also caused a minor change in the scenary. . . as I drove home, I noticed that there was a 1000% increase in the number of cute girls walking around in their swimsuits (heading to the pool, of course). . . Need to step up on my SEAL training. . . I think a 1000% increase in the regimen should do the trick. ;)

Anyways. . . despite Crystal's predictions, we had a less than favorable showing this time. She had planned for there to be a more equal male/female ratio, but in the end it became something like 3:1 male/female. . . which as I implied, was somewhat disappointing. But most everyone had a decent time. Surprisingly I remembered more of the dance steps than I thought I remembered. . . so I was actually able to experiment a little with Crystal with extra turns and loops (attempts at reversing leads ended catastrophically. . .) Katie actually thought I was a very good leader. . . which came rather unexpectedly, since. . . well. . . I'm not the greatest dancer in the world and all. . . We would've had a better time if Dan/Long/Ketan/Sara showed up on-time/earlier (more people = more fun), but at least they did show, I suppose. All in all, a fairly exhuasting but fun-filled night.

And finding the nearest Post Office is tougher than one might think. We have the web, right? All the information at the touch of a button, and with it I still can't find the finagering Post Office. Sources have pointed out that the nearest USPS building is right down the street from me. . . except I've driven all up and down the street TWICE today (and followed by two motorcycle cops for quite a ways) and didn't even see the shadow for the stupid building. Grr. . . I must be getting so old to where I'm deaf, blind, and dumb now. . . *sigh*. . .

Other than that, repairs for Enigma One is proceeding. . . while not on schedule, its at least progressing at an acceptable rate. Hopefully she will be ride-worthy before summer gets here.

While playing Neverwinter Nights, my character has matured to a point where I can summon a familiar to accompany me in my travels in that dark and dangerous realm. I decided on a pixie, and named her Mitsou. I told Bonnie this and she received it with mixed reactions. But I think her final statement summed it up quite well. . . "Pixie Power!!!"

Apparently Jennifer and her significant other is having some minor quibbles. Poor lass. . . she deserves better. Best of luck to her and hope they can resolve their issues before it blows up.

After days of indecision, I finally decided to go to Midnight Rodeo tonight with a group of ACMers instead of going to play hockey. Hopefully the weather stays clear enough so that I can go play next week instead. Its been months since I've stepped into the arena. . . I'm going to be soooo out of shape. . . *shudder*. . .

Meanwhile, Ni-Lie's computer decided it didn't want to live anymore, and promptly committed self-lobotomy. . . I'm still trying to figure out what went wrong. . . but the hard drive is too muddled to make any sense of the file structures.

It turns out, one of my neighbors was minding their own business and cooking dinner when their dinner burst into flames on their stove. At that point the sprinkler system promptly came to life and doused everything, fire and inhabitants both alike. The fire department arrived shortly afterwards, and since the fire was already put own, had little to do but to vent out the room and write reports. The inhabitants were unhurt, just soaking wet and freezing in the 50ish degree evening breeze (I lent them my jackets to help stave off them catching a cold).

As can be expected, this facade of a society can only last so long. . . until the clerical order becomes "tainted" by their human nature. And thus this creates the backdrop for the intricately choreographed gun battles that rivals that of The Matrix. Equilibrium one-ups The Matrix in one aspect though: there's a fast and furious sword fight scene that everyone has to wait until Matrix II to see.

The acting and dialog could have been a lot better, but some of us speculated that it was intentional. . . since the director was trying to portray what it would really be like to live in a emotion-less society. If that is the case, they did a good job. I won't even mention what if that wasn't the case.

Unfortunately we had a slow start tonight, as Paul attempted to use his laptop to play the movie. For some reason there were some incompatibilities between his laptop, his RCA cables, and my receiver. I had expected this to happen, but fortunately for everyone we finally got it to work, and on with the show. The movie was complemented with lots of food potluck style, but there could have been better coordination between all of us. Oh well, maybe next time.

After the movie we all trotted down to Dave & Buster's for some laughs. Josh and I grooved pretty well on Pump It Up, gathering a crowd once again. Except I decided to try something harder with Joe, and we failed miserably. At least I gave it a shot. . . Joe and I later tried playing again to redeem ourselves, and succeeded to some extent.