Kane's Blog

Let's get spooky

2011-10-30T16:27:00.002-04:00

Jasmine

2011-10-23T12:00:00.000-04:00

Chinese food in Atlanta

2011-10-19T20:42:00.010-04:00

Had some great Chinese food in Atlanta the other week, most of the restaurants are located along Buford Highway, it's like a Chinatown there, but it's pretty small, and mixed with other Asian restaurants.

1. Peter Chang's Tasty (川娃儿)

It serves Szechuan food, so it's spicy and oily. Tastes pretty authentic, only it's a little bit salty.

6450 Powers Ferry Rd,

Sandy Springs, Marietta

Ga, 30339

2. China inn (六福)

The best Chinese restaurant so far, it serves very good Szechuan food, we had some nice chat with the waitress, the dish in the bottom right corner is so tasty!

5470 Peachtree Blvd

Chamblee, GA 30341

3. Canton House (富丽华)

A typical Cantonese restaurant, serves dim sum and Cantonese food, not spicy. This restaurant, according to my friend, is hot spot for hosting wedding ceremonies.

4825 Buford Hwy

Chamblee, GA 30341

4. Man Chun Hong (满天红)

The worst so far, it's in Korea Town, the dishes don't look good nor taste good, it could be it serves better Korean food, but if you are going for some authentic Chinese food, don't go there.

5953 Buford Highway Northeast

Atlanta, GA 30340

Panda

2011-10-09T22:29:00.002-04:00

For a guy who lives only a few hours' drive from Chengdu, home of Giant Panda, I've never thought that my first encounter with panda would be in the US, more specific, in Zoo Atlanta. And guess what, these four pandas in the zoo are from Chengdu, just a few hundred miles from my hometown. It always brings excitement to see the familiar in an unfamiliar environment, especially for the first time. That's why Americans would be excited to see Starbucks in China, and Chinese would be very excited to see Dragon dance in the US.

Visitors love to see pandas, they could stay there for a long time just to watch the baby panda climbing, they are the most lovely creature in the world. Unfortunately there are only a couple thousand panda remaining both in the wild and in conservation areas, they are endangered by low birthrate and loss of habitat.

What's new in iOS 5

2011-10-06T23:11:00.002-04:00

1. Chinese input.

That's added value for Chinese users like me. It's smarter than its predecessor, but a little bit slower.

2. Notification center

This thing works as a double-edged sword. On one hand, you just love how all your push notifications being aggregated into one page, on the other hand, it's a battery killer! Every few minutes, you'll get a notification from your email, SMS, Calendar, IMs, etc. So to save battery, you might not wanna put push notifications active for a lot of apps.

3. Photo editing

It doesn't do much magic, just crop, auto-enhance and red-eye reduction. Compared to what Android can do, this is just like nothing.

4. Twitter built-in

Now you can post tweets inside photos

5. Reminder

This could come in handy when you think you might forget something yet not considering it as worthy of putting in the calendar.

6. Reader in Safari

7. Dictionary

Double clicking on a word doesn't only give copy and paste, it also gives a "Define" option, which is a dictionary

When you hit it, it'll be something like this

8. iCloud

This is the killer update in iOS 5, but it seems Apple hasn't turned on the service yet, even though I had iCloud installed on my Mac, I don't see any syncing between the phone and mac.

9. iMessage

R.I.P. Steve Jobs

2011-10-05T22:20:00.002-04:00

Steve Jobs, 1955-2011

How to install iOS 5 GM

2011-10-05T09:48:00.008-04:00

iOS 5 just went golden yesterday after Apple unveiled iPhone 4S, and promised to release the final version on Oct. 12th. If you cannot wait that long and want to lay a hand on it right now like me, you could download the Golden Master version, which is amount to the final release version, and have installed right now! Here's how (for Mac only):

1. Download the latest iTunes 10.5 beta 9, direct link, install it

2. Download iOS 5 for your iPhone, downloads are available here, http://imzdl.com. For ATT users, use GSM, for Verison, CDMA.

3. Extract the IPSW file from the iOS 5 seed

4. Back up your iPhone by iTunes

5. Open iTunes, connect your iPhone, press and hold option key and choose "restore", select the IPSW file from where you extracted it

6. Wait till the system is loaded and your iPhone restarts

7. Setup preferences, iCloud and sync with your back up

Ig Nobel Prize

2011-10-03T13:12:00.004-04:00

Heard about Ig Nobel Prize today in Modern Analysis class. Just to be clear, it's NOT the Nobel Prize awarded in Oslo. Ig Nobel Prize acts to award "research that makes people laugh and then think", as they state their spirit. For example, this year, peace prize is awarded to the mayor of Vilnius, Arturas Zuokas, who solved the illegal parking problem by crashing these luxury cars with an armed tank, they even have a video for this

Tennis again

2011-09-30T03:38:00.001-04:00

7 days to Qualify

2011-07-23T19:10:00.001-04:00

it's gonna be four tough days from Aug 1st to 4th, wish for the best!

Mac OS X Lion Pros and Cons

2011-07-09T16:19:00.010-04:00

Having been testing Lion for a few days, I‘m starting to get used to the new system. Below is what I've found.

Pros:

Airdrop makes sharing much easier.
Versioning keeps track of modification history.
App full screen is a nice feature but it doesn't work quite well on non-apple applications, at least for now.
Reader in Safari works like an information aggregator, it detects the core information on a page and display it in a pretty decent way.
Built-in dictionary and smart zoom are two smart features, but dictionary is a little slow.

Cons:

When switching between desktops, desktop icons sometimes don't show up.
Back/forward gestures disabled, even in finder. So you need to press on that little back/forward arrow to go back or forward in applications like Chrome. However, one could use two/three finger swipe gesture to switch between pages in Safari, iCal. It seems that Apple is trying to promote its own apps.
When switching to an app on a different desktop with Finder open, screen would give a quick flash.
Launchpad is not as useful as it seems, you could always use spotlight or third-party search apps to find things quickly.
Switching between apps is not as straightforward as in Snow Leopard where you could just swipe four fingers and select the one from the active apps. Whereas in Lion, there is mission control, you need to switch between desktops first and find the target app and then activate it.

All in all, I don't think it's a major release, it could just as easily be an upgrade. It might take some time to adjust to the new gestures if you are already familiar with Snow Leopard, especially with the new "Natural Scroll Directions", which allows you to swipe like the way on iPhone. So if you turn this feature on, you will be treating your touchpad as the screen, swiping up means grab the page and pull it up, yielding pagedown, which is just the opposite to the traditional scrolling.

4th of July

2011-07-05T11:36:00.000-04:00

Bill Baggs Cape

2011-07-04T21:44:00.002-04:00

Gorgeous view from the light house

Movie time

2011-06-30T00:28:00.004-04:00

Watched 7 films in cinema this month! Guess that fandango deal (2 tickets for $9) on Livingsocial has contributed quite a bit to box office.

X-man: first class

Pirates of the Caribbean 4

Kungfu Panda 2

Super 8

Midnight in Paris

Hangover 2

Transformer 3

more yet to come...

Save more on travel

2011-06-29T17:42:00.005-04:00

bidding on Priceline.com has been my best pocket saving strategy when planning a trip. To save more, I would collect more useful information from other sources to help bid.

www.mrrebates.com

This site provides cash back if you click links through their site, for priceline, it's 2% cash back. So click priceline.com through mrrebates.com, bid your room, and get 2% on top of what you've won.

www.hotwire.com

Hotwire works as a preference to how much you are offering on Priceline. Usually you should price lower on Priceline than Hotwire's offering. If you can't get a better deal on priceline, then buy it from Hotwire.

www.biddingfortravel.yuku.com

www.betterbidding.com

These two sites provide successful bidding information on Priceline and Hotwire. So before bidding, just go to these two sites, and check what other people have won and how much they are paying. The bottom line is, you shouldn't be paying more.

My trace in May

2011-06-10T11:45:00.001-04:00

Having lived in Gainesville for two years, I kinda like the way life is. Going to school is routine, having my own room with independent bathroom, which I would've never thought about when I was back in college in China. Comes weekend or study break, I could just drive my car to the beaches or to the cities for fun. Shopping is easy, everything can be purchased online, and I'm enjoying seeking deals whenever making a purchase. All these little details keep bringing me the hope of an even better life here. Going back to China is such a long way. From the time I got on the plane to the moment I got off the third plane in Beijing, it's about 24 hours. Followed by a wonderful month of adventures.

Jiu Zhai Gou

2011-05-30T21:31:00.001-04:00

The saying goes:"once you've been to Jiuzhaigou, you are done seeing scenic waters". Jiuzhaigou is renowned for its colorful waters and multi-level falls, one of the World Heritage Sites. What's been captured by camera is just a tip of an iceberg. It's gorgeousness is beyond the scope of imagination, you have to see it with your eyes to appreciate the real beauty of it. The best season to visit Jiuzhaigou is October when the water level is high and sky is clear. I was there in raining May, but my joyfulness when actually seeing all the colors in the water was never less. You just couldn't help but be amazed by how much innovations our mother nature has put in creating this beauty.

Huang Shan

2011-05-26T17:28:00.002-04:00

The other saying goes:"once you've been to Huangshan, you are done seeing scenic mountains". With that said, I‘m done seeing waters and mountains one thing for all in May! Being another World Heritage Site, Huangshan is known for its sunrise, as displayed on the upper-left corner of the picture, its pine trees, the lower-left corner, and of course, the view of clouds from above when you are standing on the peak and you feel like you are standing right on top of the clouds, which makes you think you are the Creator! However, none of these would happen if the sun doesn't pay a patronization. I happened to see the sunrise and pine trees, but not the clouds, which is perfectly fortunate already in a raining season like this.

Hong Cun

2011-05-24T21:41:00.003-04:00

Well, another World Heritage Site, to the southwest of Huang Shan, Hong Cun is a small village town open to visitors. It's the location for one of the fighting scenes in "Crouching Tiger and Hidden Dragon", which attracted even more tourists after the movie was named the Best Foreign Film on Oscar.

Guangzhou

2011-05-16T22:33:00.003-04:00

The Forbidden City

2011-05-06T23:21:00.004-04:00

As the name idicates, it's the "Forbidden" city, though it's open to tourists, armed policemen are everywhere ready to suppress unrest of any kind and arrest whoever dares a bold attempt to make a protest. To get anywhere close to it, you need to go through a security checkpoint and the stares of the security crew. Police lights are always on around that area as if making a warning, "DON'T be stupid", which gives one the shudder. So this is the capital of China, the very place where Chinese emperors have ruled this country for hundreds of years.

Butterfly Effect

2011-03-09T16:30:00.004-05:00

wikileaks -> turmoil in middle east -> twitter -> more turmoil -> soar in gas price?

Busch Gardens

2011-03-06T23:44:00.001-05:00

Having heard about the world renowned roller coasters at Busch Gardens in Tampa Bay for a long time, but I never had the gut to take a ride. Then on this cloudy Sunday, just because friends insisted, I finally took all of the four major roller coasters in the park, Gwazi, Kumba, Montu and Sheikra.

Sheikra, the first dive machine roller coaster in US, is at the core of all the rides in the park. It starts by climbing at a 45 degree hill, make a U turn, then hold for 2 seconds at the very edge of the dropping point. So basically the riders in the first two rows of the train would face the ground from about 200 foot above for 2 seconds, knowing that they'll be dropped vertically any moment at a very high speed. I was in the third row, so didn't feel a thing. It is at this point, people would start to scream and cry. Then it makes its first 90-degree dive, make a loop and proceeds with its second near-vertical dive, 81-degree, into a small cave, and down to splashdown area. The whole ride lasts about 2 minutes, the first row is always in high demand, definitely recommended.

Post from iPhone

2011-02-11T20:37:00.001-05:00

This is a test post from iPhone, my magazine subscriptions.

2011 UF ISOM Workshop

2011-02-09T00:30:00.002-05:00

The ISOM Workshop this year will be held on Feb. 11th and 12th at Hilton, topics would be on Healthcare and IS. Great opportunity to socialize with faculty from other schools and meet with new ideas, and of course, the free food is always attractive!

Link to 2011 ISOM Workshop

2011 FACSS Chinese New Year Show

2011-02-07T16:05:00.001-05:00

Make Mac run faster

2011-01-31T00:04:00.002-05:00

Had this Macbook Pro for a year and half, it's running damn slow as applications are installed and uninstalled. Usually it so happens because either too many applications are been installed and it messes up with the disk permission, or there're some disk errors that require repair. To make the system run faster, the following few steps would help:

1. Remove unused applications;

2. Close unnecessary notifications;

3. Repair disk permission

--a. open applications->utilities->disk utility

--b. select Mac OS disk

--c. verify disk permissions

--d. repair disk permissions

4. Repair Disk

--a. insert Mac OS CD

--b. restart the system

--c. open utilities->disk utility

--d. verify disk

--e. repair disk

these few steps have worked for me, it feels light and new again.

Dancing to I gotta Feeling on Kinect

2011-01-30T18:01:00.002-05:00

Dancing to Poker Face on Kinect

2011-01-30T14:43:00.002-05:00

Dancing to Crank That on Kinect

2011-01-29T23:40:00.002-05:00

San Diego

2010-12-30T21:53:00.001-05:00

Last day in California was quite of a rush, we needed to drive from LA to SD in the morning, take some time off there and drive back to LA in the afternoon just not to miss the flights home from LAX, though some of us did miss after all.

Traffic in LA is terrible, if not worse than NYC. Every hour is virtually rush hour, and since it's so big a city, no matter where you go, you might want to consider a 10 to 30 mins' delay depending on where your destination is. We were clever enough to pull traffic layer out on Google Maps so as to avoid those sections marked yellow and red. Once you are out of LA, road is all yours!

First time to set my feet on a real air carrier in San Diego. The carrier is so huge, we spent 2 hours in the lower decks and when we finally made it to the top deck, only to find a long long line waiting to board the carrier bridge. So had to quit and rush to airport.

Also the first time to get involved in a rear-end collision, not by my fault. Miraculously, though the sound when the collision happened makes me think it's gonna leave a huge dent and scratches on the bump, the rental car survived without even a scratch! Gelievable!

Malibu State Beach

2010-12-28T22:55:00.002-05:00

We've made a very wise decision to drive to Santa Barbara via US1 road, it's built along the coastline so as you are driving, you get to appreciate the beauty of the ocean, the Pacific. Malibu State Beach is just one of the places one must stop by along the way.

Lots of rich people live there, so on one side is the great ocean, on the other side on the hill, it's luxurious houses and villas. This is exactly when one would wish to work very hard and make a fortune!

Santa Barbara

2010-12-28T21:59:00.000-05:00

Photos by 360 Panorama on iPhone from Superior Court

Zion National Park

2010-12-26T22:00:00.001-05:00

Breathtaking scenery with water falls, mountains, ice, fog and bushes in Zion National Park. It's about three hours drive from Las Vegas crossing Arizona and into Utah. Though it's a short drive inside the border of Arizona, it's not an easy drive. There's this 10 miles' zigzag shaped highway that gives me goose bumps even now I'm thinking about it. It's completely in the mountain, so a lot of frequent sharp turns while on high speed, especially dangerous in the night.

As it gets closer to Zion, you'll start to appreciate the grandeur of nature, be thrilled by the scene and completely forget about all the adventures along the highway.

Las Vegas

2010-12-25T23:36:00.001-05:00

Having heard so much about the city on desert, about its gambling business, strip clubs, and how every new couple gets married there, it has never occurred to me that my first visit to this city is primarily for a concert of a super Hong Kong star, Eason Chan.

Typically, anyone who visits Las Vegas would choose to stay in one of these luxurious hotels along Las Vegas Boulevard, spend hours in line waiting for a spot in one of these fancy restaurants for lunch buffet, and then play slot machine in one of splendid casinos, having a foot massage or a spa possibly along the way, and enjoy in one of these gorgeous show arenas one or several strip shows in the night. None of these happened to me in Las Vegas.

So I stayed in a Holiday Inn far off the strip, went to one state park and one national park during the day, and had every meal in Chinatown, spent the night wandering around the strip, watched a Chinese concert in a seat where even the screen looks blurry, took a bold step to the top of Stratosphere tower for three insane rides, which scared the hell out of me and some other kids going with me!

Being special feels so extraordinary!

Valley of Fire

2010-12-24T22:08:00.001-05:00

Valley of fire is Nevada's oldest state park just one and a half hours drive to the north of Las Vegas. It gets its name from red sandstone formations. So you are driving and driving, bored by those normal treeless grey hills along I15, but all of a sudden, the the stones and rocks turn red, it's just going from one world to another, except that the other world makes you so exciting.

The other thing about Valley of Fire is petroglyphs just as the one in the photo. It's said that some sort of ancient people used to farm here, and they communicate by these kind of symbols. Well, of course now it's considered rock art open to all tourists.

Pumpkin Night

2010-11-01T23:15:00.001-04:00

Thanks to HYZ's whole set of carving tools so that we are able to accomplish such a grand project. Basically you need to first stick a pattern on to the face of a pumpkin, pierce a whole bunch of holes into the pumpkin along the pattern line, saw through the holes to get a prototype of the pattern, polish the edges to make is smooth, light it up and Ta-Dah, you'll get one of these beauties!

I did the witch, the hard part is her hair and face, since they can easily get snapped off. But it turned out to be an art!

It wouldn't last very long, it gets all creased and shrunk and smelly after just a few days

Move in day

2010-08-21T22:29:00.001-04:00

Finally moved in to new apartment, it's a nice place, fully furnished with utility ready to use. Moving is always a hassle, especially the packing part, there're things that you know you would never use, but dumping them would make you regret so much; there're also things that you know you'll have to use it so frequently, but you'd rather get a new one in the new apartment; there're things that you've kept for so long a while just because it's memorable to some event, but in the end you wouldn't give a second thought to getting rid of them just because they're such a burden to carry. So it took me days to pack things up and just 1 hour to unpack them.

Watch out, moving house on highway!

2010-08-19T23:54:00.001-04:00

On my way to Orlando, this moving house came into my sight. This makes moving so easy, just lift the house up, load it on a truck, and hit the road. Driver feels tired? Well, just pull over, unload it somewhere in the grass, get into the cozy house, there you go!

Not for kids

2010-08-18T19:18:00.002-04:00

For a first timer, firing a gun could be so overwhelming and sweating. Each step is proceeded with extreme caution, people could die in there for god sakes! Can't believe it only takes an ID to play with real guns in USA, never dream about such things in China, though we played quite a lot toy guns with these BB plastic bullets when we were young, it never comes to my mind that one day I would be holding and firing a real thing. So this has added to our excitement when we were actually aiming at the target and pulling the trigger. I could even imagine how wide open my Chinese friends' mouth would be when I show them these pictures. It was fun and very special experience!

FACSS 2010

2010-08-14T23:12:00.000-04:00

FACSS Site Tour

2010-08-13T22:59:00.001-04:00

Spent hours doing this just so it's fluent without long pauses, correction of bad wording, mismatch of video and audio, external noise, whatever that makes it flawed. It turned out pretty much to my satisfaction.

Yep, it's still drivable

2010-08-06T20:38:00.000-04:00

picture explains itself.

Alaska license plate in FL

2010-07-23T21:27:00.001-04:00

It must has gone through a hell lot driven from Alaska, the very northwest, to Gainesville Florida, the very southeast. It doesn't seem like a rental car, in which case it might have served a couple of drivers around the US and finally reaches FL and never finds its way back to Alaska ever again, that means there's possibility it's going home at some point. Now, I would be really so astonished to see a Hawaiian car.

East US Roadtrip

2010-07-09T22:52:00.002-04:00

10 days road-trip through east US, or a "glance of US universities" as we call it since a handful of famous US universities, some are in Ivy, is in route of our schedule.

4th of July Firework Show in St Augustine

2010-07-05T14:47:00.001-04:00

Well, this is embarrassing

2010-06-24T21:06:00.002-04:00

This was taken inside the bathroom of Maguire common room. Embarrassing enough to Chinese. The font looks weird to me, the boldness of the characters is not even, and don't even mention about the lousy translation. It's not like the Chinese broadcasting at the airport in US, or a Chinese version brochure at a famous tour site here, which we would probably feel proud of, this is a Chinese translation of warning Chinese not to grab the toilet tissues in a public bathroom. Why not French, Korean, or Spanish? It's like we Chinese are stealing it all the time, and we need to be warned in our native language just in case we don't understand English, not to do so.

Double Rainbow in Gainesville

2010-06-22T20:02:00.004-04:00

It's like one is just not enough, let's double it! Absolutely astonishing, especially when you have the full view of the rainbows. The upper rainbow is not as evident as the lower one, and this seems to be a universal phenomenon from the pictures I've searched online, probably it has to do with certain physic theory.

Click below to see more double rainbow:
http://bit.ly/cAffue

Pick Blueberry

2010-06-08T17:18:00.003-04:00

It's a blueberry farm located just outside Newberry FL, where only AT&T subscribers have the privilege to make and receive calls. We have full load of 5 cars, with only a handful on AT&T, and the rest on T-Mobile. The farm is quite off the GPS, so we spread out to find the location, and suddenly realized we could not communicate with each other because we do not have AT&Ter on each car, so once I found the location, I would have to drive all the way back to notify all the other 4 cars. Quite the way ancient people did it, huh? It's quite fun. That's when I decided to switch to AT&T with the new release of iPhone 4.

Thunderstorm Season

2010-06-04T14:12:00.002-04:00

Thunderstorm everyday, looks kinda scary, isn't it? Nah, not that much, it has been like this for weeks, it's not like it's gonna rain the whole day everyday. Mostly in the sunny afternoon there will be one or two thunderstorms, lasting less than an hour on average. So everything will be cooled off during that hour, but after that hour, everything goes back onto its original track so soon that you wouldn't realize that there's been thunderstorm already. So it's not as bad as it seems, actually I kinda like it as long as I'm not caught driving in the thunderstorm. That's free car wash everyday, why not like it.

Knock knock

2010-06-03T15:00:00.001-04:00

Silver Springs Nature Park

2010-05-31T15:15:00.004-04:00

Just in case you haven't heard about it, other than sunshine, Florida is also a state of gators. So in the Silver Springs Nature Park in Ocala, FL, you would see ordinary gators, gators with sharp head, albino gators, mini gators, gators parking by waterside, fat gators, gators with special patterns, cartoon gators, gator statues, well, you name it.

Other than gators, there's pretty much nothing else to see, just kidding! Plenty more animals waiting for your patronization. Like this bathing bear, that curious giraffe, those two making-love cougar, that god-knows-how-old turtle, and that famous Llama to the very right corner. It is so famous that in China almost every young individual knows it. In Chinese, its name is "Cao Ni Ma", which phonetically translated to English is "F*ck your mother". Since many of the dirty words have been "harmonized", this animal has been worshiped and treated as a symbolic figure of "harmony". We even have a song for it, "the song of Cao Ni Ma"

Couple Key Chains

2010-05-15T15:34:00.002-04:00

isn't this just cute

Marion County Park

2010-05-14T20:13:00.004-04:00

Marion County Park is a little island in Marion County Lake, right on I24. It seems people like to bring their family in RVs and camp there. Everything you see is green and blue, green mountain, green grass, green trees, blue sky and blue water. It all seems so harmonious, bring you so close to mother nature. What a scene!

Climbing at Foster Falls

2010-05-10T20:09:00.000-04:00

Foster Falls is said to be a climbing heaven in Southeast. It's got all sorts of routes there, great camp sites, and nice view of the falls (as can be seen below). I didn't know it's such a popular sport until I saw dozens of climbers on site with us, middle-aged, young; male, female, all geared up and climbed as they were walking. It all looks so simple and easy, but I was so wrong.

A friend set up a simplest route for me, the first climber, and taught me all the safety instructions, I thought, "well, that's easy, just get hold of some holes with my hands, move up a little bit with my feet, and grab some other holes and move up still, keep doing that, I should be on top nice and easy in no more than 5 minutes." But after 5 minutes, I was only 1 meter higher than where I started and couldn't move up any further, besides, I felt no energy in my arms and hands, that's when I realized the difficulty of climbing.

Later they told me that the point in climbing is do NOT use your hands to hold your body on the wall, use your feet, otherwise you could easily be exhausted. Relax your hands every now and then when you are able to stand on your feet. Following that, I managed to finish another route, though with the help of my shoulder, back and face, anything I could think of to keep myself on that rock. It feels so good to conquer something difficult to you. I think that's one of the reasons why so many people love climbing

Our tents

Pocket Lamp

2010-05-06T17:48:00.004-04:00

Got this little toy from Meritline.com for 99 cents, free shipping from Singapore. It's of credit card size so that you could put it in your wallet. Simply lift up the bulb-like transparent flat plastic and it's lit up by two LEDs beneath it. It comes in handy when you are in the dark and reaches into your wallet trying to find some changes. Good idea and good product for that price.

Identity Theft

2010-05-05T16:33:00.005-04:00

Recently I suffered from identity theft on one of my BOA debit card. Apparently one of the merchants that I purchased some goods from online thus keeps a record of my debit card information underwent some hack activity in their order system, this leads directly to the compromise of my check card. Dozens of transactions which I didn't make showed up in my account statement over night, pending. I'm kinda anxious when my account balance goes from positive to negative and goes further down each day not knowing if I'm responsible for any of that. Here's what I did the moment I knew there's Identity Theft on my card:

1. Call Fraud Department and report identity theft, they'll close your debit card and issue a new one.
2. Call Claim Department and ask back your money which you haven't spent.
3. Wait for the affidavit, sign and return it.
4. Get a credit card!

When I first opened my bank account, this beautiful young lady advised me to have two checking accounts, one for daily use and one for online purchase only for security reasons. I didn't know back then that identity theft is such a serious problem in US. I'm very glad I took her advice and kept only minimum balance on the "online-only" card. Things could be way worse if I had only one card.

Tubing in Ichetucknee State Park

2010-05-03T23:06:00.002-04:00

Ichetucknee Springs State Park is located about 40 miles northeast of Gainesville, an awesome place for tubing. 6 dollars entrance fee per vehicle, and tubes rental varies from 5 dollars to 15 dollars depending on the size. There are three tubing options: 3 hours from north entrance to south entrance; 1.5 hours from midpoint to south entrance and 45 mins from Dampier's Landing to south entrance. We took the 1.5-hour one, wonderful tubing experience. You can swim in the water, you can also climb on to the branches along the bank and make an impressive diving into the water, or you could just stay in your tube, go with the flow and relax.

Graduation Day

2010-05-01T14:37:00.002-04:00

UF couldn't have picked a hotter day to held its annual Graduation Ceremony, it's said to be the hottest day ever since last October, with 94 degrees highest. You still need to wear cap and gown and pose like a hundred thousand of times in the sun, just thinking about it makes me sweat. It's THE biggest day ever, most of them have suffered four years for this very day, so a little sweat wouldn't be that much of a problem.

It just reminds me of the two graduation ceremonies that I missed. The first one at SYSU, I booked a flight prior to the ceremony; second one at HKUST, I couldn't make it back to Hong Kong. It seems I have this little thing with graduation ceremony. How many graduation ceremonies could one have in his/her entire life, I've already missed two, and am not sure if there's gonna be a third one; if there ever was, I might've still missed it for whatever reason there is.

Final season

2010-04-24T21:54:00.001-04:00

Three more days to go till summer break officially starts!

Shuttle Launch at Kennedy Space Center

2010-04-06T11:01:00.001-04:00

A glimpse at UF campus

2010-04-01T10:39:00.001-04:00

It's a sunshine Monday afternoon, on UF campus, across Beaty Towers, where there is this wide open area of lawn, always patronized by bikini girls and frisbee guys. Don't say that I'm conservative or anything, you don't see these kind of relaxation in China, at least not on university campus in China.

Some of my Chinese friends told me that they always wanted to do the same thing but never have the guts to do it. The reason being the way we were educated and lack of confidence in a foreign country. But as a foreigner, I quite enjoyed the view.

Avatar II trailer

2010-03-21T22:59:00.004-04:00

Avatar+Star Wars+Harry Porter=EPIC

7 mile bridge in True Lies

2010-03-19T23:57:00.002-04:00

Rumor says that's how the bridge has that breach there, yah, the jet bombed it up. Believe it or not, the bridge is so famous partly owe to the movie, at least I know the bridge because of the movie, and made it a must-not-miss-site when I visited Key West. Now it's open to walking tourists, so you can simply park your vehicle at the intersection of the old and new 7 mile bridges, and walk to the "bombed one". The view is absolutely astonishing!

View Larger Map

2010 US Census

2010-03-18T07:10:00.002-04:00

I'm not paid to promote this, just feel excited to see Chinese in US government official letter. Probably Koreans will feel more excited than I am...

Spring Break II - Tampa

2010-03-13T10:24:00.000-05:00

When it's spring break, you would expect an influx of students from northern states to Florida, it's either Miami beach, or Disney World in Orlando, or the southernmost point in Key West. So when you plan your trip during that period, try avoid going to those hot students spots, because you know, traffic would be bad, and students would be everywhere. So we decided we go to Dali Museum, a place students definitely would not consider for spring break. This is taken outside Dali Museum.

We got to Clearwater beach at 4pm, hardly found a parking lot. The sand is so white, but the water stinks. West Palm Beach is way better.

Spring Break I - Savannah

2010-03-08T10:50:00.001-05:00

It's a 4 hours' drive from Gainesville FL to Savannah GA, a great place senior people to live. There is this Savannah College of Art and Design, it has buildings all over the town, and students there have quite different tastes in appearance, unlike the students I see at UF, whose styles are more or less the same. This is the famous Forsyth Park Fountain.

ISOM Workshop

2010-03-07T04:15:00.000-05:00

It's annual workshop hosted by ISOM department, which means free food at Hilton hotel as well as work presentations from big names in IS/OM area. Well, I enjoyed it, especially when I got this little Gator clip. It comes with my name tag and conference folder, so basically my name tag is clipped to the folder by this little gator. It's very small and light. I like it, I would love it if it's made of gold.

T-Shirt War

2010-02-21T23:27:00.003-05:00

Amazing idea! This group worked for two days, "wasted" 222 T-shirts to make this video. I just hope they're using "rewritable" t-shirts, but that would've taken more time.

Google Buzz

2010-02-13T18:11:00.001-05:00

This was several hours after Google launched its Buzz.

Swingle Singers

2010-01-24T22:05:00.000-05:00

It's so cool! Wonder if we can do it in next year's performance

UF ranked 2nd in Best Values in Public Colleges

2010-01-22T00:03:00.000-05:00

Good news for University of Florida. Probably because of its low in-state tuition and reputation for sports.

Way to go, Gators!

Source: Yahoo!

Speeding Ticket

2010-01-13T02:56:00.000-05:00

A 241 dollars' speeding ticket, that's only 2 months after I got my drivers license. They say, every driver will have their first pull-over sooner or later, but mine comes a little bit too soon and the price too high. Anyway, lesson learnt, when you are driving on local road to Jacksonville, do as the speeding limits say and do so as fast as you can, because somewhere in the woods or on little trails, right where the speed limit signals you to slow down, ambushes "invisible" police cars. So you better look for these speed limit plates and step on your brake hard once you see one!

Fireworks at Epcot

2010-01-03T02:36:00.000-05:00

2010 Countdown at Magic Kingdom

2010-01-01T11:19:00.000-05:00

This amazing firework show recording was made possible only after standing at the same spot for more than 2 hours. Wanna move a little bit? Yeah, first try to lift your left foot, put it nice and slow to the tiny little spot between god knows how many legs on the ground, try to avoid stepping on somebody's knees or feet or livers or anything. Then turn your body 137.98 degrees to the right and lift your right foot and put it in another spare spot, and repeat this for like several dozen of times, congratulations! You've made it to a new location, oh, no, wait, just 10 inches from your original location! You get the idea. It was people everywhere, either standing or sitting and lying on the floor or by the fences, all waiting for the last moment of 2009 to shed on the beautiful castle. What a night in Magic Kingdom! The best countdown ever!

Happy New Year!

Miami Beach

2009-12-30T22:15:00.000-05:00

We stayed in a hostel right on the Miami Beach for three nights, but only got 2 hours to actually see the beach in day time. Why is that? Because we headed out early to other places and headed back at night. So on the last day in Miami Beach, we decided why not give it a couple of hours to the beach only 5 mins walking distance away. That turned out to be one of the best decisions ever made.

I proudly present you "MIAMI"

what a scene!

Hop on, I'll give you a ride to deep blue!

Key West

2009-12-30T02:03:00.000-05:00

Key West is a city in the very south of Florida, also of USA. Anything there is labeled as the "Southernmost something". e.g. the southernmost christmas tree, the southernmost buoy. You cannot miss the sunset in Key West, Mallory Square is said to be the best place to see it.

Sunset in Key West

on Mallory Square

People make big fusses about the end of US 1 road in Key West, you would see this "Mile 0" thing on many of postcards there. Probably that's the best proof of being in Key West, moreover, the southernmost place of America.

Indian Key

2009-12-30T01:12:00.000-05:00

I'm not sure if it's the right name for it, but I saw this plate right on the bridge which says "Indian Key Fill", so I guess it's more or less that.

As we were driving along US 1 from Miami to Key West, the astonishing view on both sides of the road kept us screaming. Nobody believes it's winter time. So when I about to drove onto a bridge, I saw this parking sign, that was when I decided I wouldn't waste another minute in the car.

little red

Let's just call it the Indian Key Bridge for now

Marathon

2009-12-30T00:57:00.000-05:00

This Dodge minivan has been with the seven of us the whole trip, it's part of the group. It always serves our comfort first though asks for lots of gas. It's in this white minivan have we acquainted with the song Life is Wonderful by Jason Mraz, which later becomes the theme song of this trip.

After about 4 hours' driving from Miami, everybody's hungry, so we rushed to Publix and bought some chicken wings, cakes, drinks, and cookies and had a picnic right on this beautiful beach in Marathon.

Everglades NP

2009-12-29T02:38:00.000-05:00

West Palm Beach

2009-12-28T01:05:00.000-05:00

The first beach we visited on this trip, unfortunately, nobody saw this coming and we were the very few walking on the beach with jeans and sneakers on. Yet we still managed to have fun and buried Ray alive in sand.

He's volunteered

St Augustine

2009-12-27T02:53:00.000-05:00

St Augustine is said to be one of the oldest cities in USA. So we've decided to have more fun!

The Flagler College

Castillo de San Marcos

Trip to Canada - Blue Mountains

2009-12-22T01:32:00.000-05:00

It's concluded by a friend as a crazy sports trip in Canada, as I went all the way from Florida to Canada to play tennis and badminton, and finally something reasonable, ski! People from north would get so excited when they get to see the sunshine, the beach and the ocean in the south, the same thing happens to southerners when snow is right in the touch, especially when you have all the ski gear on and ready to manipulate the snow. Well, in my case, it's being manipulated. You cannot avoid several nice falls as a beginner no matter how cool you could pose in front of the camera, before you know it, you are wallowing in snow. It's the height and the speed that are in effect, you will be just so scared of speeding and hitting something and never get up again. So you voluntarily put your ass down and make a nice and slow contact with mother earth as long as you feel a little acceleration. That is exactly why I spent 30 minutes right from where I was standing in the picture on "skiing" down to where all the cars were. For an experienced skier, it's a less-than-a-minute job. Anyway, ski is fun!

Trip to Canada - Niagara Falls

2009-12-20T00:19:00.000-05:00

It might not be the best season to appreciate the Falls, but it's definitely the coldest season to see it. I got all soaked up by merely standing on top of it. But it's all worth the wet and cold. The view is just spectacular and is only offered to visitors on Canada side.

The famous horseshoe fall

you only see this in fairy tales.

Trip to Canada - Toronto

2009-12-18T20:48:00.000-05:00

Spent 7 days in Canada (actually 5, the other 2 days were merely either waiting for plane or on plane). For a southerner like me, coming all the way from sunshine state of Florida, it has never occurred to me the kind of coldness of actually below zero or even more. It wasn't when I walked out of Toronto airport did I realize the huge difference between the these two trivial numbers, +20 and -10! It's so freaking COLD! That was when I decided the North would only be a destination of short visit!

Had some walking around Toronto in the first two days, yes, in the cold! Though I had brought all my winter wearings to Toronto, it's never "winter" enough. I was this hoodie guy touring around the city in the coldness and wind. I could actually feel the wind cutting my face and lips. When the attendant in the hostel asked me, "where is your jacket?", I said, "I don't have no jacket", she raised her thumb and said "you are brave!" Am I? I simply don't have one.

My favorite part of Toronto trip is Chinese food, it's the best taste I've ever had for almost half a year since arrival in Florida! The good thing about a metropolitan city is that you always find big Chinese community there, which means authentic Chinese food and merchandise. I'm just so jealous of my friend at University of Toronto, they're just a few walking distance to China Town!

The CN Tower

Toronto City Hall

University of Toronto

Inside one of UT's buildings

not so WaterFree

2009-12-03T15:56:00.000-05:00

Apparently, this Falcon WaterFree urinal is not Urine free.

Photo taken in the male restroom on the 6th floor of Library West at University of Florida with Motorola E8.

St Petersburg

2009-12-02T02:47:00.000-05:00

Had my first driving experience in USA this whole afternoon, St Petersburg, "fortunately", was chosen as target of my pilot trial. From Old Tampa Bay to St Petersburg Pier, then headed to Clearwater Beach. Missed several exits, made some false turns, but good news for St Petersburg residents, I have proved myself NOT a road killer. GPS is undoubtedly one of the most greatest inventions of all time, for a first time driver, and new comer to St Petersburg, I managed to find my ways around in a rent car with a GPS mounted in it!

St Petersburg Pier and Clearwater Beach are definitely the two places I would recommend for people who, like me, want to enjoy their day in sun, birds, sand and water.

Canada Visa for Chinese F1 Students

2009-11-25T14:10:00.000-05:00

Just successfully applied VISA to Canada. It's so much easier to get it if you are holding F1 visa in USA. Basically you just need the following documents to be not refused entry to Canada:

1. Application form

2. Application fee

--- paid with money order is convenient if you're not in the vicinity of any embassies

3. I-20

4. Valid Passport

5. Certificate of registration

--- this can be issued at university admission and registration office

More details are posted on Embassy of Canada.

Lake Wauberg

2009-11-09T01:56:00.000-05:00

Lake Wauberg, a great place for BBQ, boating, relaxing, friends and family get-together. Free entry for students and faculty with Gator 1 Card. We had a good BBQ time there on a sunny sunday.

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some Halloween films

2009-10-31T22:48:00.000-04:00

Get ready for the Halloween horror feast!

The Sixth Sense

The Others

Skeleton Key

Identity

Horror Night @ Universal Studio

2009-10-31T21:27:00.000-04:00

Having stuck in Gainesville for three months, finally the suburbanite goes into the big CITY seeking for some entertainment that he is deprived of for a long time.

Horror Night @ Universal Studio (Orlando)

Apparently the men behind this event have put tremendous effort in creating a scary ambience with the dizzy lights, scary music, bloody settings, big fire coming from the roof, smoke that permeated into every corner of the setting which dims your visibility, walking zombies on streets who approach you all of a sudden and scare the hell out of you and of course, the core of Halloween - Haunted House.

Dracula, Frankenstein, Silver Screams, Chucky, Saw

Only went to 5 of the 8 haunted houses. One and the only one tip to go to haunted houses: Always always go with girls :)

Also took two rides in Mummy, and one ride in Simpson, which were so cool. Unlike these freaking 90 degrees roller-coasters which give you a cold gasp even by simply looking at them, Mummy is more like a plotted-rollercoaster, it's indoor and doesn't have these crazy U-turns. I would take another ride next time. And Simpson is a 4D movie theater, just amazed about the way it makes you feel that you are losing gravity and falling from sky to the ground by simply adjusting the movements on the things you are sitting on, AMAZING!

Gator Growl

2009-10-18T02:43:00.000-04:00

Had a great time in the swamp as the annual Gator Growl kicks off a great night show following homecoming parade. This year, Gator Growl brings in Dana Carvey, O.A.R. and Jabbawockeez. Just got so amazed by how far these standing comedians could go to amuse the audience, half of which students and the other half, parents. It's all about sex, homosexual, politics. Dana Carvey definitely knows how to mimic political figures. However, he's apparently not adding too much new sauces, coz I searched, after the show, through Youtube only to find the exact same jokes. Well, you can't blame him for that, because that's kinda how this entire entertainment industry works. And one more thing, if only they could've set up the stage in the middle of the stadium, my neck would feel so much better.

Homecoming Parade

2009-10-17T17:15:00.000-04:00

I thought homecoming day was the day when new students come to university at the beginning of each academic year, apparently I was right about the predicate and object, but wrong about the subject. Instead of new students, homecoming is welcoming back former residents and alumni of an institution. Wikipedia has a more detailed introduction of homecoming.

Homecoming Parade is held annually here at University of Florida, UF organizations and neighborhood communities would participate in the parade as an opportunity to showcase whatever they wanna show to Gainesville residents. It's in the middle of noon, people have lined up along the University Avenue, and chopper is circling to ensure a full media coverage from the air. From distance, you can hear siren, which is only part of the parade.

Having just watched military parade on National Day, I feel so delighted to watch homecoming parade. Because this parade is FUN.

More pictures in Picasa

Homecoming

in memory of 911

2009-09-11T12:09:00.000-04:00

go Gators

2009-09-07T02:44:00.000-04:00

As a new comer, you'd be very lucky to be in the Ben Hill Griffin Stadium to watch the Gators to rip off any opponent who dares to challenge the gators in the swamp. I'd say I'm the lucky one. Some of UF students have been here for years and haven't got a ticket to the game, yet I managed to have one after only one month of my arrival. A ticket to the first game of this football season.

University of Floria vs. Charleston Southern

The stadium is full of orange and blue, the symbolic colors of UF. One can be so easily touched by the enthusiasm of gator fans, who are not only audience, but also part of the game already. Once you are in there, you can't help but growl with them, cheer with them, clap with them and roar with them. It was a great game, big opening victory for the Florida Gators.

It's the Gator Nation

go Gators!

Crabbing at Cedar Key

2009-09-06T22:05:00.001-04:00

Crabbing at Cedar Key, which is 2 hours' drive to the west from Gainesville. It's a great place for boating, and crabbing. Basically, we use chicken legs to lure Blue Crab, it didn't take too long before one is "hooked". For each crab caught, we placed it in a little iced cubic, not before long, they stopped struggling because of the coldness. After three hours crabbing in the sun, we ended up with close to 30 crabs and 4 tickets! Apparently, you need a fishing license to go crabbing. We were caught right on site by a patrol when we were about to leave. Lucky enough, the officer only gave us ticketed warnings rather than fines.

International Hostels

2009-06-18T20:10:00.002-04:00

If you are on a budget trip in China, international hostels may be a good choice to stay. It's Chinese decoration, western life style, and most of all, it's cheap, few dollars per night if you choose to share the room with several other travelers just like you.

We stayed in three international hostels during that trip. Shown in the above picture, from left to right, hostels in Suzhou, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Shanghai respectively. Quite coincidentally, all of them theme in red, not surprisingly, because red represents energy and vitality in China, travelers, mostly the youngs, are that group of people.

Hangzhou

2009-06-15T16:04:00.001-04:00

When people talk about Hangzhou, there's a good chance that they will talk about the West Lake. It is most famous for the TV series New Legend of Madame White Snake, based on a legendary story there. We used to watch that series over and over and over again each summer break and winter break, just as the way how Star Trek works here.

Probably I had too much expectations for it before I was there. It's quite disappointing when I was there only to see towns of tourists heading for the same spot. And every spot you want to visit, you will have to pay for admission fee, which is not cheap. Besides, things are quite different from what I saw in the TV series. Nevertheless, it's quite a beautiful lake, a good place to relax.

Suzhou

2009-06-11T22:58:00.002-04:00

This was taken in the ancient city of Suzhou, apparently, it's modernized with all the neon lights and lanterns. But still, it's amazing view from the river. It has been there for like several hundred years now, probably with modern reconstructions on some of the buildings. Now it's a hot spot for tourists, consequently, commercial area.

Tian Zi Fang

2009-06-09T19:22:00.001-04:00