minlin space

it was a great game and Rockets out lasted the lakers in the second round match up. not many people think Rockets will win but it just happened.

100-92!

Yao ming scared every rockets fans with a late game knee knock down by kb. but he came back to the game and scored 8 points in the last few minutes and contribute big to the win.

After the game, kevin and chris all had a good idea about the tall guy with the number 11 on his back and start to chanting, go-yao-yakee-go

The post game interview by Yao ming is pretty fun too:

-Q: Did you think your team is underdog before the game?
-A: I dont know. I just learned that word couple of days ago.

-Q: How do you feel of the win?
-A: NBA says everything is possible.

哈哈

a good movie based on a true story, one of the (not many) film i enjoyed watching. i particularity like some of the memorable quotes from the movie:

Carl Hanratty: Well, would you like to hear me tell a joke?
Earl Amdursky: Yeah. Yeah, we’d love to hear a joke from you.
Carl Hanratty: Knock knock.
Earl Amdursky: Who’s there?
Carl Hanratty: Go fuck yourselves.

————————————

Frank Abagnale Sr.: Two little mice fell in a bucket of cream. The first mouse quickly gave up and drowned. The second mouse, wouldn’t quit. He struggled so hard that eventually he churned that cream into butter and crawled out. Gentlemen, as of this moment, I am that second mouse.

————————————

Frank Abagnale Sr.: You know why the Yankees always win, Frank?
Frank Abagnale, Jr.: ‘Cause they have Mickey Mantle?
Frank Abagnale Sr.: No, it’s ’cause the other teams can’t stop staring at those damn pinstripes.

————————————

Frank Abagnale Sr.: She’s so stubborn, your mother - Don’t worry I won’t let her go without a fight. - I’ve been fighting for her since the day we met.
Frank Abagnale, Jr.: Dad, out of all those men - You were the one who took her home, remember that.
Frank Abagnale Sr.: Two hundred men sitting in that tiny social hall watching her dance. What was the name of that town?
Frank Abagnale, Jr.: Montrichard, dad.
Frank Abagnale Sr.: I didn’t speak a word

————————————

Yossarian: Let me see if I’ve got this straight: in order to be grounded, I’ve got to be crazy and I must be crazy to keep flying. But if I ask to be grounded, that means I’m not crazy any more and I have to keep flying.

————————————

Paula Abagnale: Just tell me how much he owes and I’ll pay you back.
Carl Hanratty: So far, it’s about 1.3 million dollars.

It was a good game, up and downs, mistake and brillent plays, things change in a split second. the arizona cardinals should have won the game, if they do not blow a gauranteed 3 point field to a interception that resulted in a touch down by the stellers. that is a net 10points difference. but this is the fun of the game, anything can happen, no matter how unlikely it is. superbowl commercials always are a hot topic, and this year the commercials are no exception. several good ones include cocacola, pepsi, godaddy, audi. audi is almost like a 007 movie.

looking forward to the superbowl XLIV, hopefully seattle seahawks will be there.

this is fun to watch, joy of software developer

the long awaited superbowl is this sunday Feb 1, 2009. I have been a fan of superbowl for many years and feel it is exciting, and fun to watch, not only the game but the half time show is second to none. even the commercial is fun to watch. it is said this year it runs 3mil for 30 sec, wow!

before i came to usa, i did not like football at all. there were some football shows on tv but i have a hard time to understand why players can get 10 yards in 3 plays. i was thinking of chinese gong-fu that would be easy to go all the way with some tricks, hehe. i started to like the game when i went to the stadium to watch my university team play, and i am one of those crazy fans in the stadium to cheer loudly for every completed pass, every firth down, and for a sack. i like the excitment of the team down 5 points and having 2 min left in the game to make something happen. i like the smartness and accuracy when the quarter throws a deep ball for a touchdown, it is pretty fun.

so it is sunday 2/1/2009 3pm CST for the superbowl XLIII. enjoy the game..

happy niu year to all my friends, hope you in the niu year:

正财、偏财、横财，财源滚滚；
亲情、友情、私情，情情如意；
官运、财运、鸿运，运运亨通。

enjoy the following 小品，by 赵本山：

My company is having the chinese new year party one week ahead of time. it was a fun event, about 2k-3k people showed up. the event was held at OCC (overlake christian church). this is a huge church, they even have a shuttle to take you from the parking lot to the church. i remembered i used to go there every week to play volleyball. the show starts at 7pm, with the 狮舞 to start the show, it then followed up with performances from within ms, local chinese communities, such as northwest chinese school, huayin, the infiniti dance school. they added 3 shows from kids, i know a friend whose daughter is in the performance, the kids show is my favorite tonight. after the kids show, kevin and chris take turns to take pictures with the little girl and we even joked about she may get her fans team and requested for signature. a boy and a girl who were born in usa did a 相声，very good considering that may kids of their age in usa dont even know how to speak chinese.

it was a fun night to kick off the chinese new year, and kevin and chris were very happy enjoying the performance.

here are some pictures from teh party:

one of my new year resolution (hopefully i can keep it:-) ) is to work out more in the fitness club. my company provides us free fitness membership, but i have not taking full advantage of it so far. work out is like something of low priority and can be cut if i dont have time, and that happened a lot.

pine lake club is a very good fitness club about 3 min drive away from where i live, so you think there should be no excuse not to go there. it has a full exercise equipments, a basketball/volleyball court, a full size swimming poll, a kids swimming poll and 4 indoor tennis courts. i like to use the treadmill and bikes, many equipments i dont even know how to use it.

plan to sign up for a personal tour of the facilities and stick to a set of time each week. set a goal for myself, work out to reach the goal, and reward myself when the goal is reached. have fun and keep fit.

in normal days, if your portfolio lost 20% over the 6 months, it is considered not a good investiment. however in this crazy time, this is not the case.

so today we were talking about stock during lunch, once we heard colleague said his portofolio lost 20% of value the last 6 months, we look at the guy as if he is a investment guru.

this is how crazy the things are now.

long term wise, the current situation is going to rebound. short term, one needs to spend more time on managing the portfolio. for example, when it comes to ESPP, sell on the first day of purchase will usually give you a good profit, and this is especially true in difficult time. before company scheduled financial report, you can do enough research to predict the outcome of the quarter, you probably dont know the exact detail of balance sheet, but you can pretty much know if the company is doing well in the quarter, and it happens a lot that the stock price rise up a bit before the report and drop sharp after it (of course this does not always happen and it depends on how business visibility the company conduct themselves).

the basic rule still applies, buy into companies you are familiar with, buy into the companies that have good track records.

pay attention to the industries that is on the rise. the energy crisis in the past year has brought enough discussion on renewed energy and its application and adoption. although it is still time for these alternative energy to mature and in wide use, it is worth looking into the sector. this is the trend, and this is an area where there is a huge market, and also this is an area where it is relative new, there exists many opportunities.

TO ALL MY FRIENDS, A WARM HOLIDAY WISHES FOR A VERY MERRY XMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR

HOLIDAY GREETING