Htam::Diary

This Monday, Charley and I went to the University of Washington Bookstore at Mill Creek again.  Afterwards, we went and met up with Dennis and had some Calzones at Varlamos.  Our Small Group was extremely small this day:  Bo is already at school and Joe could not make it.  We had a good time nevertheless.

This Sunday, after being at church for about six (6) hours, I listened to three (3) episodes of Odyssey.  Later I played Octi the abstract board game with Charley.  It was quite intersting, I won the standard game and Charley won the abridged version.

This Saturday, my cough seemed to have worsened a bit, so I stayed home while Charley went shopping with his mother.  Later we still went to the Saturday meeting but left early.  At night, we watched Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, it was pretty funny.  I like the voice of Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart).

This Friday, Charley and I went to the UW Bookstore at Mill Creek.  I read some Linux-related magazines.  We were short on time so I was unable to read a book.  Later, we ate dinner with brother Sun, Auntie Amy, and Gary.  Bible study at church was on the birth of Jesus.

This Thursday, I returned to my previous house.  The inside looks fine.  I returned for my rice cooker and my vacuum cleaner.  To my surprise, segmentation fault!  They are not there!  One of my neighbors told me that one day the door to our house was wide open.  It could have been stolen then.  Oh well, not a huge lost.  Then I went up to the attic.  Behold!  The twenty some neatly packed, labeled, and computer itemized boxes have all been opened, most of it with contents scattered on the floor.  What a mess.  There are four types of items:
- books, more books, lots of books,
- toys, inteilligent toys,
- chronicals of my journey (school papers, attraction souvenirs), and
- personal belongings that means nothing to others but a lot to me.

I decideded to take some from the last category (primarily pictures and correspondings with classmates during middle school) and bring them with me.  Though the attic is a mess, I priase the Lord that the house proper is still in acceptable condition.

This Wednesday, after eating a big lunch (at Super China Buffet next to Central Market and Sears) with Uncle Mack and Auntie Tina, Charley and I went to the Pacific Science Center.  We played around in the exhibits until closing time, it was very fun.  I remember some of the items there from eight (8) (has it been that long? gasp) years ago.  We did not go up to the Space Needle, it costs $13, more than the $10 for the Science Center.  It is again a fun filled day.  I am very tired, after walking more than 10,000 steps today.

This Tuesday, Charley and I went to the UW Bookstore.  He needed to verify the covers of certain textbooks.  I read some book about bash, some math books, and bought my own copy of Flatland.  Later we went to Ranch 99, bought some frozen food, and also ate dinner there.  Then we went to the prayer meeting.  At home, we played Stratego, a Milton Bradley game.

This Monday, Charley and I went to Barnes and Noble bookstore.  We spent the entire afternoon there.  I read Learning SQL in its entirety, read some of Perl Best Practices, and other books about apache, postfix, sed, awk, and regex.  It was a very wonderful afternoon.

This Sunday, I woke up very early in the morning.  Why?  Don't I have jet-lag?  Yes, but I also needed to go to church.  It was nice seeing all these people I've known before during high school.  Everyone was surprised that I'm back and asked similar questions.  Later, I decided that I would just introduce myself as ``I got back from Taiwan a few days ago; my parents are doing well; I will be going back to school in California in nine (9) days.''  This is basically the information they want to hear, in the most concise way possible.

This Saturday, I woke up a bit before noon.  After breakfast/lunch, Charley and I played some badminton.  At night, we went to a mongolian grill place and ate dinner with Mike, Ben, Joe, and Dennis.

This Friday, due to the time zone difference, I woke up shortly after noon.  I did not do much today, mainly rested.  Later we went to Bible study, then I translated some sentences from English to Chinese for the SCA gospel meeting invitation cards.

This Thursday, I travelled back to America. The plane took off at approximately 18:34 Taiwan/Taipei time.  The flight time was approximately 10 hours 5 minutes and 17 seconds.  We landed in Seattle at approximately 13:39, Pacific Daylight Time.  From now on, all times indicated on this server will be in PDT.

On the plane, I first watched Mr. and Mrs. Smith, and then I went to sleep.  When I woke up, it was about time to eat breakfast, and I (starting from the middle) watched The Interpreter.

This Wednesday, I finished packing.  I am still a bit sick, so I stayed in the house.  de and I finished our cube solver for now.  It is now available at cube solver [DEPRECATED].  Take a look and give us suggestions.

This Tuesday, I fell sick.  This might be a bad news because I will be travelling back to America on Thursday.  So I stayed at home and mainly worked on the cube solver mentioned earlier.  I finished the initial cross and went to sleep.  de finished the first layer corners afterwards.

This Monday, de, the previously mentioned friend of mine, decided to write a cube solver system using PHP and an available java applete from, I believe, .  I decided to provide the development environment in hopes of sparking collaboration between us and saving the time that both of us write a similar system (like the previously mentioned cube record system).  The server can now be reached at phd.htam.org [DEPRECATED].  Feel free to take a look.  If you are interested in joining development, contact% me.

We spent the night prototyping and implementing the bare essentials of a Cube class.  It is currently functional, with the ability to solve a randomly generated cube (by reversing the steps, no less).  With the two of us joining force, whenever there's a project going, the phd development team should crank out code in a very efficient manner.

This Sunday, I started writing a new cubing record system, sparked by the system developed by a friend of mine (`de') who started cubing, indirectly or directly I am uncertain, due to my influence.  I do not exactly like his system, so when he announced that he is working on multi-user support, I decided to join the market.

This Saturday, I initiated my packing procedure.  This is an arduous procedure that requires a span of many days.  The total time required spent actually packing is quite limited; however, like writing essays, we need to put on many layers with space (temporally speaking) to cool down in between.

The new server, which I mentioned earlier in several posts, is not accessible by network for some odd reason.  I was really worried: until my dad told me that there is a (planned) power outtage at his office.  I switched the sever functions back to my laptop for today, and it worked.  Mails are not dropped, pages are still served.

This Friday, I went to the policestation for the last time (hopefully) for this duration in Taiwan.  I got everything settled, paid the fine, and am now legally illegally staying in Taiwan.  I have seven (7) days to depart, just like we planned.  Since we were there in Hualien city, I bought some pens for a classmate from Caltech.

This Thursday, I woke up and found that the AC was running (so I put on my running shoes and tried to catch it).  According to my mother, power was restored around 01:00.  So there was actually only 2~3 hours of power outtage; and I heard it was `turned off' for safety reasons, not broken-and-fixed.  In any case, the effects of the typhoon is mainly past.  I did not do anything really special today.  I did finish a lot of books.  That's about all.

This Wednesday, because a typhoon is coming, and I previously needed to go to the police station tomorrow, I went today instead.  Everything went smoothly and I should now be legally illegally residing in Taiwan (for one more week).  I also fixed the problem where one of my servers was not using its swap partition.

Notice the time, our house just lost electricity supply.  (Isn't it convenient that I keep my server on my laptop?)