My own blog editor !!!

Long time didn't blog, because I had been holding off blogging until I could use the rich client blog editor that I built. It is a part of the GRAND photo application that Andrei, Mike and I have been working on, scheduled to be released first quarter next year!!! (i.e. yea,yea, i know i know, please tolerate my geeky engineer talks and advertisement here, haha!!~)

Anywayz, the preliminary function of the blog editor part is finally somewhat completed, meaning I can blog easily with simple "dragging-and-dropping" photos into the editor without any "cut-and-paste picture links" nonsense. (You have NO idea how much that annoying manual step and the "five pictures upload limit at one time" drive me nutz everytime when I blog with a bunch of pictures!!!)

With our app, it saves me loads of time now when blogging!!! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!~~~~
My LIFE is that much sweeter now!!

Building a product that you want yourself and using it feels freaking AMAZING!! (^_^)v

Tragic construction accident right next to office

A sad construction accident happened this morning around 9:45am right near our office at Causeway Bay, causing 2 construction workers' death and 5 other injured.

The construction crane collapsed unexpectedly and fell onto the 9th floor of the half-demolished building behind it. Several workers were trapper in the crane while the accident happened. Two instant deaths...

It was my first time to witness the aftermath of a tragic accident in such a close distance... Very... shocking and feeling terrible!

Andrei took pictures of the accident scene in the afternoon from the office. The pictures were so good, and the tragedy was so... sad. -__-

The crane collapsed in the middle while it was being lowered.

Closer look of the breakage. Broken very thoroughly.

Rescue process was hard, since the firemen needed to ensure that the crane won't collapse more and cause even more injury.

The site was immediately blocked off and all construction terminated.

More than 100 firemen were involved in the rescue process.
If the crane fell on the opposite direction towards the busy street...
I can't imagine how much more death and injury it would have caused!!

Crowd of news reporters tried to interview the person-in-charge of the rescue mission. Not only news reporters, a lot of passersby took pictures of the crane with their digital camera, cell phones, etc. It was shocking to everybody!!


Not much else to say... Just wish speedy recovery to the injured, and peace to the families of the dead.
Amen.

US trip recap

After a few weeks of rough fighting with jetlag, I finally came back on a somewhat normal schedule (instead of waking up at the weirdest random time in the middle of the night) and function as a human being again (well... sorta, I still wake up VERY regularly at 7am every morning for no apparent reason regardless of how late I sleep the previous night).

Anyways, I decided it's finally time to upload all the pictures from the US visit and give a short recap of this trip ...

First Stop - LA

First, landing in LA. Gosh, I missed the nice, comfortable California weather. Sunny, warm, dry (unlike the unbearable humidity in Hong Kong).

The big, open-space, US-style parking lot. A strong contrast with the small, cramped Asian-style parking lot in Tokyo and Hong Kong.

We went to a street festival in LA (forgot what it was for). It was very lively. People were just hanging out, eating, enjoying the nice weather and cheerful atmosphere. I really miss walking outside without sweating like a person just came out from a shower (of sweat!!!).

"Look!, it's the Candy-man!!".



Our generous hosts, Brett and Katie
Brett was so nice that he cooked a really yummy steak omelet breakfast for us. We stayed at his place when we were in LA. Mike and Brett were good buddies in high school. Brett and his girl friend, Katie, have been living in LA for many year now. Mike and I visited them in LA from time to time.
Brett 's living room, with the gigantic TV box!! ;) They got a really nice entertainment center there~ We watched "The Forty-Year Old Virgin" together (even though I felt asleep not long after the movie started... It's NOT me, it's the stupid JETLAG, I swear!!!!)

Brett and Katie just moved into their current place for a few months. I really like their new place. The whole house is very bright and clean. We used their dining table as work desk (to set up our laptops and crap).

See, my temporary "work-station". ^_________^

With me, pretending to work ;)

The long corridor leads to Brett and Katy's room, where their scared, mysterious kitten stayed most of the time when Mike and I intruded their house. (The kitten hided from us because she was really scared of strangers. I didn't get to see her until the very last night of our stay). Poor kitten. Hope we didn't scare you too much!!!

There is a wide, soft green sofa in Brett and Katie's cozy living room.

So cozy that Mike couldn't help but borrowed the sofa as his afternoon nap bed ;) hehe...

And here comes our cordial hosts ;)
Kicking lazy Mike out from his monopolizing the sofa~

A giant red-pink robot?!! Haha... actually, the two pillows on top might have given it out~
It's a air mattress that Brett and Katy prepared for us. We settled the air mattress in Brett's art room. (He is a comic artist.) What we did was we pumped air into the mattress thing, slept on it at night and put it up vertically against the wall during the day (like what you see in the picture), and then put it back down when it's bedtime.

"Advanced technique", huh?! ;)


LA Zoo Day Trip

Brett and Katie brought us to the infamous LA Zoo. I couldn't remember when was the last time I was actually in a zoo. Probably back in primary school in HK? I don't particularly like zoo, because looking at caged animals from outside the case feels cruel to me. But not long ago, Mike's sister, Julie, convinced me that the animals are actually getting better care when they are in a zoo. So that eased a bit of my uneasiness.
And honestly, I don't think I can get such a close look at some of the animals below unless I go to a zoo. So I am glad that I went ;)

Even though there was a glass in between, I still feel scared every time when Mr. King Kong moved or turned. (To be fair though - he is indeed GIGANTIC!!!)

The goats were fighting with their hard horns on the cliff. It attracted a lot of people watching.
So we stopped and watched as well...

And 20 minutes later....
Well, my neck started hurting, but they were still holding the same positions more or less.... Excuse me, is this a setup of some sort?!?!

The closest I had ever gotten to be near a giraffe!

And the lazy lizards!! Taking their afternoon nap (like Mike....)

We witnessed some fierce Zebra fight in person. They were eagerly biting each other's back. Any Zebra experts out there who can tell me if this is normal zebra's behavior? (But of coz, they were okay at the end)

From LA to St Louis

We were mostly just relaxing and lying around in St Louis. We were so relaxed (and lazy) that we didn't even take too many pictures ;)


Mike's dad took us to the St Louis Art Museum to have a luxurious brunch one day. Really nice view there!
Overall the US trip was a nice vacation to visit Mike's friends and his family, a good break from the tons of busy work at HK. We needed it !!! ^_^ (Though I didn't really need the jetlag that came with it afterwards... P_P )

We didn't go to St Fran, so I didn't get to see my parents this trip. I miss them!! Really can't wait to see them flying here next week!!! We'll go eat lotz of lotz of DIMSUM!!! yay!!!

Still have time to say ....

Hehe... taking advantage of the huge time difference between here and in the States - I can still say this "in a punctual manner"...

"Happy Father's Day, my beloved Old Bean!! "

^______________________^

Can't wait to see mom and you are here !!!

Back from the States, and .... BANG!!

Seriously jetlagged....
So tired~ >_____<
helpw.....

I was so tired that I had a "blackout" this morning getting up from the bed. Basically, I have this problem from time to time - if I get up from a lying-down position too quickly and try to stand up, my eyesight will turn all dark and sometimes even have troubles balancing myself. It is not a serious problem since it seldom occurs and even if it does, my eyesight will always return in less than a second.

Though this morning, "lucky" for me, my blackout problem occurred and was worsen by my heavy jetlag and extreme tiredness, and...

"BANG!!!" -- I fell down on the ground....
Mike was soooo freaked out when he heard I fell. He was browsing in front of his computer in the living room while he heard the loud BANG. Poor guy, he was very badly jetlagged too and had to go through this scary scene because of me.... =(

Well... I was okay, since I somehow was able to land on my knees and my right arm. Bruised my knees a bit and twisted my right wrist (which is still hurting now). The lucky thing is ... I didn't hurt my head, and I can still type ;)

Anyways... still too tired to post about the US trip. May be laterz.....

Getting ready for work vacation

This week has been an extremely busy week. Work is busy (as usual). But since Mike and I are going to the US for a couple weeks to visit friends and family, Andrei and we have been trying to arrange stuff so that we can do productive work remotely while we are on the other side of the planet. That's why it's called a "work vacation", Ha!!

In addition to the work stuff, I had been cramping study time into my schedule as well. Yea, Japanese class finals. And this is what you got for not studying throughout the semester like a good student would. ^_^ I know a lot of people think I am a good student, but, (secretly and honestly), I am a horrible procrastinator when it comes to studying language.

Sometimes I feel like I don't need to study - I speak the language okay (well... after surviving a year in Tokyo, who wouldn't?), I feel like I have (sorta) enough practices from watching all those Japanese drama and anime (hehe... study thru entertainment, right?), and I always do my homework (well.... on the day that it's due, sorta last minute kinda completion...), etc. So how hard can preparing for the finals be, right? But the truth of the matter is - I ended up almost pulling an all-nighter on Thursday night to review all those level 1 grammar that we have studied accumulated over the course of 12 weeks.... (ouch...) Though in my defense, I can argue that those "advanced" grammar never comes in any normal daily conversation, nor in any of the TV shows or drama that I watch... >____<

Well... I guess I have way too much BS and make way too much excuses for a lazy student who wants to speak Japanese like a native speaker but do not put in the effort to earn it, huh?! ;) haha....

Anyways, finals is finally over now, and I am going on my little work vacation ;) YAY!!!