Sunday, November 27, 2005
new zealand at last
We made it from Brisbane, Australia, and now I am currently at an internet cafe in Hamilton New Zealand. We are staying at a nice place on the harbour in Auckland, however. We made the trip to Hamilton to check out a uni for me to possibly study at for a semester or year abroad during my 3rd year of study. It looks alright, nothing too special to report :)
In Auckland, however, all three of us (me, mum, sis) decided to do the SkyJump I mentioned before off the Sky Tower. Yup, even my mum jumped 192 meters (that's about 630 feet for you Americans) from the top of the tower attached by just a cable. The view from the top was just about worth it - don't worry, I did bring my camera for that trip.
Anyway, I'm at some crazy cafe where everything is in Korean and it's starting to freak me out. I really don't know whether to ????? ???? in blogger or not.
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
brisbane
I have been having such a blast the last few days here it's amazing! The "fight club" house turned out to be worse than I had imagined, you can imagine sunken ceilings, ripped up floors, beer bottles EVERYwhere, several beat up couches... you get the idea. Turns out that the owner is waiting for the right permit so he can tear it down anyway, so the kids living there are happily trashing it for him. It was a blast having a BBQ with all them, and going out was pretty crazy as well. We even went back the next night to play poker with all of the guys there, and there was more fun times to be had.
My sister's friend got us up at around 5:30 or so a couple days ago to go surfing in the morning, and I decided that either it was way too early or I just suck at surfing. I was having a terrible time trying to get up on the board! It was still fun though, and we got to watch the sun rise over the edge of the ocean (rather than set, like we usually do in California) Later, I even got to play in a game of ultimate with my sister and some people from the uni team at Wollongong!
Yesterday I guess it was, we hopped on a plane up to Brisbane, the third largest city in aussi-land behind Sydney and Melbourne. We have some family friends here who we are staying with which makes it fun being submerged in the culture here. There are many similarities, but many differences as well. When we walked in the door we were met with a hot cup of tea and a plate of cookies which was so relaxing after driving from the airport. Needless to say, my mum is still a bit crazy behind the wheel of a right-side drive car, especially in the traffic of a city with nearly two million residents! After sleeping in this morning, we went to a beach about an hour or so north where the water was nearly swimming pool warm (it's not even summer here yet!) but the waves left somehting to be desired. It was fun nonetheless, and when we got back my sister and I quickly showered and were rushed to our family friends' daughter and her husbands place for a nice dinner. After, we went out with Ryan to shoot some pool at a local place - the aussies love their pool! I'm still getting used to just walking up to a bar and getting a XXXX beer without anyone so much as batting an eye.
Anywho, I guess tomorrow we are going into the city and I think I want to check out the uni here, because I guess they offer my major- which is amazing considering barely a handful of schools in the states offer it.
Oh, and thanks Uncle Tony, I'll try and spread the word to mum about the bungee jumping! I was thinking about this place.
Friday, November 18, 2005
paradise
I have only been here a couple days and I already want to move here.
Yesterday, the first full day, we spent in Sydney. We had lunch (BBQ'd octopus) overlooking the harbor, saw the Opera House, the bridge, had a beer at a pub, all the touristy things. This morning we drove to Wollongong (no joke!) to see where my sister has been studying abroad for the past 10 months. It is seriously paradise! We played a game of cricket with some aussies in the park, went bodysurfing, played some ultimate on the beach, went surfing with my sister's quasi-boyfriend, and we are just now getting ready for a BBQ and poker night at a house called the "fight club" before we go out on the town. (I assume the house is named after the house in the movie) I can't wait. I swear it is going to take all my self control to keep from yelling, "ahh, put another shrimp on the barbie!!!"
Anyway, I'm here, safe, and having a blast. I'm still trying to convince my mum to let me go skydiving or bungee jumping in New Zealand. We'll see how THAT goes.
From down under, cheers and g'day mate!
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
australia
For the next two weeks, I am going down under to the wonderful country of Australia. I am flying into Sydney and spending four days there, followed by a few days in Brisbane, and wrapped up with four days in Auckland, New Zealand. I am really excited to go, and of course I am bringing my camera. [Click here] for a PDF of my itinerary.
I will try to update with my happenings when I come across a computer, and of course email is always an option if you need to get a hold of me ::cough::Laura::cough::.
Anyway, I have to drive to SFO to make the flight, so I will see you all on the first of next month!
Sunday, November 13, 2005
win2vnc - dual head plus one
I was having ice cream with my Uncle Randy and one of his friends last week and I had to explain how I work with two computers and three monitors on my desk. The man was dumbfounded at how I could manage them all simultaneously. I explained how I usually use one for code, one for output, and another for IM/Chat/etc... Well, let me explain it in geek terms. First, here's a picture:
As you can see, there are indeed three monitors. The two on the right are running on the same computer, while the one on the left is a different machine. The two on the right are hooked up to a windows box with a dual head ATI 9800 Pro, the middle via DVI and the right via standard VGA. The one on the left is hooked up my linux box running the latest version (10.2) of Slackware Linux. The fun part is how I control them :)
One option for controlling two computers on the same desk is a KVM Switch. It stands for Keyboard Video Mouse, and does what the name implies; there is a mechanical switch that you can flip so your keyboard and mouse (no video in this case) are switched from one computer to the other. I did not go this route for a couple reasons, the primary one being I'm lazy. I don't want to have to reach up and flip a switch every time I want to switch the computer I'm working on. My solution before a couple weeks ago was to have two keyboards and mice, each controlling a different computer. This works fine, but again, I'm lazy.
Enter VNC. VNC, or Virtual Network Computing, is a widely known way to control a computer over a network or the internet. I heard from Jonathan a year or so ago that there was a hack to mimic a dual head setup with VNC, so I did just that. First, I had to put VNC on the linux box (left monitor). I initially installed realvnc, the standard for most vnc applications. I was disappointed to learn it could not broadcast the default display, :0. I turned to google and found x11vnc, which is able to. I compiled and started it, and it worked like a charm. Next, I turned to the windows box. After much googling, I found win2vnc, the program that mimics a dual head setup over VNC. I installed it, but came across a minor program bug: since I was already running a dual-head display, and wanted to add yet another monitor, it would crap out when I went off the wrong side of the screen. After a minute or so, the middle screen would act as if it weren't there at all! I searched the forums and found this thread which explained the phenomenon - and how to fix it! I installed the re-compiled version of win2vnc and connected to the linux box. Everything worked!
So now, I can move the mouse from one screen to the next to the next - and back - seamlessly. Even the clipboard works from one OS to the next. All this using one keyboard and mouse! I left the extra keyboard on the desk because that's the main thing I use on the linux box (go figure), but the ability to get rid of it is there.
And if the above didn't make any sense to you, I apologize. I mostly just wanted to write all this down in case it breaks I know how it was set up. :)
Friday, November 11, 2005
why chico?
I have had several opportunities recently to talk to people and give them my "mini life story". You know what I'm talking about if you have ever been to a dinner party with your parents; their friends pull you aside for three and a half minutes and give you the third degree. Everything is fair game, including the age old favorites like "what's your favorite subject in school", "do you have a girl/boyfriend", and "what do you want to be when you grow up". Well, as I'm getting older - I'm in college now - the questions are turning more into a real "adult" conversations. Some things never change though, and the favorite question is to ask which college you attend and what your major is.
I'm noticing a trend as I tell more people that I attend Chico State, the renowned party school of the nation. (according to the 2002 playboy list, we went from #1 to #2 since 1987) This is something most Chico State students are proud of. Even I stand up a bit straighter when I tell non-college going people of my age where I go to school. The people I'm worried about are everyone else. Like my parents' friends. I tell them I go to Chico, and most have to stifle a laugh as they try to look me in the eye and ask how bad the partying is. Everyone knows. I try to explain how I don't really party all that much and I try to keep the number of drunken stupors to a minimum, but to no avail. I try to explain how I'm in a really good program which they probably can't even pronounce on their first try (mechatronic engineering with a minor in computer science anyone?), but again, to no avail. Chico has this aura about it that makes it known that every kid at Chico is a drunkard psych major with no goals.
How do I know everyone thinks this way? Did you catch American Dad last Sunday? One of the quotes was an Arabian boy who, in speaking of America, says (paraphrased): "I did study abroad once at ASU; we ranked as #2 party school behind Chico State". This was on national tv. The scary part is all my friends who were watching the episode with me started cheering! Everyone went on about how the flailing show was now once again kosher in their book and how they won't miss another episode.
More power to them, but what about when we graduate? Not all the students will think that way forever. In fact, I would bet that the day they start looking for a job their minds will change. What do we say when our prospective employer at the big engineering firm asks us where we got our degree from? I would want to turn my gaze to the floor when I mumble "Chico State", and immediately change the subject to my skillset or something else less detrimental to my resumé. I hope that it's not an issue, but it is something I think about and fear just a bit. I can only hope I get into grad school at Stanford or Cal Tech or some school with a better tract record. I'd be happy with any school that doesn't have student hazing deaths from water poisong.
And that's what really Grinds My Gears™
Tuesday, November 01, 2005
random update
Alot has been going on lately with the car, halloween, family stuff, etc... and it's just starting to get back to normal in my life (as if there is such a thing). My grandfather passed away a couple weeks ago and it hit me pretty hard, but after spending the last few weekends with my family I'm feeling better about it and coming to terms with the whole death thing. It was an eye opener to watch the process, but I won't go in to details here.
Yesterday was Halloween and since I didn't dress up at work, my coworkers punished me by dressing me up in Shawna's costume taken from Moulin Rouge. Word on the street is the costume made my ass look good. I also went to the comedy show on camus (sans costume) which is CSU Chico's effort to keep kids out of the streets partying. It wasn't as good as last years, which featured Carlos Alazraqui (who was the voice of Rocko in "Rocko's Modern Life", the taco bell dog, and more recently, Officer Garcia in "Reno/911"), but I was still laughing pretty hard. Just a word of advice: never sit in the front 4 rows of a comedy show if you can't take a joke in your name... Getting back home was a challenge now that the city of Chico Oficially Sucks (PDF Warning) Halloween night. It was a MONDAY NIGHT for cryin' out loud. The coppers had every street downtown blocked off with at least 4 officers at each intersection. It was like every law enforcement angency collaborated to stop the fun. I saw more policemen than kids on the streets!
