they were serving "pork butt on a stick" at the drag race.. i was too full to have any. unfortunate i know.. ^_^ so the pictures for the drag race are up :)

wow... i don't what's going on, lately i've been working hard but am also very stressed by all the things that are on my mind. everything seems to come to place now for me but are yet very clear. my career pursuit never really had a clear definition so i've been seriously consider going to grad school and hopefully by the time i'm out of grad school i will have a much solid and detailed career definition. or more appropriately a research interest.
(Read More)

OMG i can't believe i just spent TWO HOURS trying to figure out why my algorithm for finding the weekday of any Gregorian DATE (anything after Oct. 15, 1582) is not working simply because i didn't know THIS!!!

"In addition, the leap year rule was modified by making all century years not divisible by 400 common years, despite they are divisible by 4. Thus the century years 1700, 1800, 1900, and 2100 are common years, while 1600 and 2000 are leap years."

HOLY CRAP!!!!! what a dumb rule....... hahhaha but i'm glad i figured out.. jeez i was about to pull my hair out.

i just got an email that will probably make andy faint. all these people keep referring me as "zhang ling" or "ling" while my real name is "ying". is it really THAT HARD to distinguish?! a lot people at kfc called me "ling".. and andy's boss and co-workers sometimes get confused too. today i just got an email from an apparent CHINESE GRADUATE STUDENT:

Hi Zhang Ling,
The Hartford program has another PDIA project which needs your help for designing a website. Please contact Susan for more information if you are interested.
Susan's email: --crossed out--
Thanks,
Han Li

well the amazing part is they all seem to use "ling" not like some people would use "jing", some "ming", some "ling", some "xing" or something you know

i realized that my linux account at school expired today. last nite i was still ssh the account and today it told me my password is wrong. i talked to the tech support and they renewed my account. in the computer lab, i saw another classmate who also complained about expiring account. hrm.. how exactly did they make it so your account expires after the first 1/3 of a semester? *wonders*

B A B Y   P A N D A

watch a video of this little cutie!!

Little Johnny Gets Promoted

A first grade teacher was having trouble with one of her
students. One day she asked Johnny what his problem was he
replied, "I'm too smart for the first grade, my sister is in the
third grade and I'm smarter than her to." The teacher took him
to the principals office and explained the situation to the
principal.

The principal told her that he would give Johnny a test, and if
he failed to answer one question he would have to go back to the
first grade and be quiet.

The teacher and Johnny both agreed.

Principal: "what is 3 x 3" Johnny: "9"

Principal: "6 x 6" Johnny: "36"

And so it went on like this, the principal asked him every
question a third grader should know. Finally after about an hour
he told the teacher "I see no reason Johnny can't go to the
third grade, he answered all of my questions right."

The teacher asked if she could ask him some questions. The
principal and Johnny agree.

Teacher: "What does a cow have 4 of that I only have 2 of?
??

Teacher: "What do you have in your pants that I don't have?" the
principal gasps but before he can stop him from answering Johnny
says,
??

Teacher: "What does a dog do that a man steps into?" Johnny:
??

Teacher: "What starts with F and ends with K and means a lot of
excitement?" Johnny:
??

The principal breaths a big sigh of relief and says "Put Johnny
in the fifth grade, I got the last 4 questions wrong myself.

(Read More)

Football player version
Time limit: 3 weeks

1. What language is spoken in France?

2. Give a dissertation on the Ancient Babylonian Empire with particular
reference to architecture, literature, law and social conditions - or -
give the first name of Pierre Tudeau.

3. Would you ask William Shakespear to:
a. build a bridge
b. sail the ocean
c. lead an army
d. write a play

4. What religion is the Pope?
a. Jewish
b. Catholic
c. Hindu
d. Polish
e. Agnostic
(check only one)

5. Metric conversion - - how many feet are in 0.0 meters?

6. What time is it when the big hand is on the 12 and the little hand is on the 5?

7. How many commandments was Moses given? (APPROX.)

8. What are the people in America's far north called?
a.westerners
b. southerners
c. easterners
d. northerners

9. Spell - Bush, Carter, and Clinton.

10. Six kings of England have been called George, the last one being called George the Sixth. Name the previous five.

11. Where does the rain come from?
a. Macy's
b. 7-11
c. Canada
d. The Sky

12. Can you explain Einstein's Theory of Relativity?
a. yes
b. no

13. What are coat hangers used for?

14. The Star Spangled Banner is the national anthem for what country?

15. Explain Le Chateliers principle of Dynamic equilibrium - or - spell
your name in block letters.

16. Where is the basement in a 3 story building located?

17. Which part of America produces the most oranges?
a. New York
b. FLORIDA
c. Canada
d. Wisconsin

18. Advanced math. If you have 3 apples, how many apples do you have?

19. What does NBC (national broadcasting co.) stand for?

20. The University of Illinois tradition for efficiency began when?
a. B.C.
b. A.D.
c. STILL WAITING

* YOU MUST ANSWER THREE(3) OR MORE QUESTIONS CORRECTLY TO QUALIFY

i found the 250mb zip disk i've been looking since two weeks ago. it has many files i don't have backups for. i finally found it last nite. it's been sitting under my bed this whole time. don't ask me how it got there. but YAY!!! go colonel~ go colonel~~

Breaking News: Ladybugs descend on central Iowa
D.M. is under a ladybug invasion
Impostor ladybugs invade campus, actually beetles

it's true!! there are ladybugs or should i say lady beetles EVERYWHERE here in iowa city. i just walked out of my apartment, there are five sitting next to the door and i took a picture of one with 10x zoom. earlier i was sitting and waiting for the bus. in merely two minutes, two lady beetles landed on my bag and one crushed into my face!! everywhere you go, you see them flying around. we've gotten ones coming into our apartment too. eek.. scary!

我敬爱的薛老师竟然。。。
这是我今天收到的：
===
小张颖：
很高兴又收到你的E-mail. 有关学习, 你的智商告诉你, 你要继续读下去。博士、硕士哪个程度高我不清楚，我的看法是从低到高。薛老师也在读书，今年11月底（顺利的话），就要本科毕业了。但我读得很累, 且记忆力大不如前。然而，我的态度还是很端正的------笨鸟先飞嘛!
我很sorry地获悉你父母仍如此“龙虎斗”. 这么长时间了不可能是年龄原因吧！好在你还是很争气的. 能经得住“大风大浪”锻炼的女孩必更成熟. 不过可想而知，你一定吃过不少苦，你或多或少失去些父母对你童年的爱，你也怪可怜的，相信你现在更加懂得如何爱别人。
人生坎坷似乎是必然的，薛老师一心一意为学生这么多年，把对自己孩子的爱分享给了无数个学生，受到无数家长无限感激，两位家长还送了锦旗. 但教育上太露锋芒必遭妒忌、刁难，甚至陷害，这是中华民族劣质性的所在。我为了别人顾不上督促、关心自己的孩子，高中都没有考好。现在回头想想，这么多年无私奉献似乎不太值得，显得毫无意义。目前薛老师正与本校领导发生激烈冲突，已反映至区、市政府. (可能要打官司)
我家电话---，手机号为----，我周一至周五晚上都很忙. 你有空可多发E-mail给我，看见你的E-mail，犹见你人影，令我回想更深、更久。
薛老师

我的回信：
===
喔，没想到薛老师的人生还如此坎坷。我以为薛老师因该是接近享清福的时候了。真没想到.
但不管怎么坎坷，人生还是有许多值得奋斗的事。许多时候人生非常不公平，但放弃是弱者的选择。我想我们所付出的努力哪怕只有一两个知己能理解都还是值得的。我现在必须去上课了。我中文大字的速度实在太慢。有机会我一定打电话给您。您在我心目中永远很崇高，给我人生的教导和鼓励也是我终身难忘的。

just to clarify the confusion caused by the previous entry. i wrote it in chinese because i got the email from my teacher in chinese and replied it with chinese. he's the teacher who i highly respect and love. unfortunately i got the news from him saying his life isn't going too well. despite of his hard work, he's got much trouble with his bosses and might need to go to the court. i am not quite sure how this all started but i was truly sorrowful for him because he's really a wonderful teacher. he even said himself that he's shared so much of his love to his students, he didn't even have enough time for his son who didn't do well in the exam for high school. because of his success, there are jealousy and even persecution against him. that's why he's in so much trouble now.

it was just extremely surprising to hear that. this world is not fair. he certainly doesn't deserve that. i attempted to make him feel better by restating his position in my heart. i told him that he will forever be an important and virtuous person who has given me valuable lessons and encouragement in my life.

----------------
I will continue to write entries in chinese and i apologize i will not be able to translate every one of them because most of the time I choose to write entries in chinese due to one or more of the reasons below:
1. i can't express my feelings and emotions properly in english. my chinese is so much more superior than my english.
2. it's hard to explain the situation to none chinese people.
3. it's chinese lyric or poem
4. i don't have time to translate it

i love chinese literature. i used to write personal chinese diary. now i want to bring it online. i don't expect anyone to read or understand my chinese entries since most of the time they are loosely constructed to describe my abstract feelings at the moment. thank you for reading my tabulas tho. i hope it will continue to bring you good moments as i wish to share the happier, funnier and brighter side of me. but also because it's easier to write chinese entries here, i will throw in many.

check out what i get to do with my grad level research class.

this is the powerpoint file that describes my project in a very simple sense.

and yes i get to use the school server (php, perl & mysql) for it.

Henry Ford dies and goes to heaven.

At the Gates, St. Peter greets Ford, and tells him, "Well,
you've been such a good guy, and your invention...the assembly
line for the automobile...changed the world. As a reward, you
can hang out with anyone in Heaven you want."

Ford thinks about it, and says, - "I want to hang out with God
Himself."

So, the befuddled St. Peter takes Ford to the Throne Room,and
introduces him to God. Ford then asks God, "When you invented
Woman, what were You thinking?"

God asks, "What do you mean?" Well," says Ford, "You have some
major design flaws in your invention.

1. There's too much front end protrusion. 2. It chatters way too
much at high speeds. 3. Maintenance is extremely high. 4. It
constantly needs repainting, and refinishing. 5. It is out of
commission at least 5 or 6 days of every 28 6. The rear end
wobbles too much. 7. The intake is placed too close to the
exhaust. 8. The headlights are usually too small. 9. Fuel
consumption is outrageous.

And that's just to name a few."

"Hmmm...," replies God, "Hold on a minute." God goes over to the
Celestial Supercomputer, types in a few keystrokes, and waits
for the results. In no time the computer prints out a report,
and God reads it.

God then turns to Ford, and says, "It may be that my design is
flawed, but according to these statistics, more men are riding
my invention than yours."

I'm pretty sure I've just aced my programming language concept midterm. I will be surprised if I don't get a perfect score. Then you never know what kind of stupid mistake I could have made. We will see. I got my Chinese Civilization midterm back. I got one of the highest scores in the class so I guess I feel ok. Now I just need to worry about my upcoming book report that's due in a week and half. arg, I barely started reading. I will have to work on that tonight and tomorrow. Hehe, but right now I should go and get some post-it notes and a thank you card for the lady who helped me on Tuesday!

[update]
:( i bought her some carnation as my thank you gift but she wasn't in her office. so i didn't get to see her :(

http://www.albartus.com/motas/

Mystery Of Time And Space has added three new levels since i last played. level 9, 10 & 11. GO PLAY!! ^_^

btw, here's my walkthrough if you are interested.

sometimes i wonder if certain things have stayed on my mind for too long. i had a dream last night. an online friend visited me in this weird house where i lived. at first she came out to be completely rude... cussing at me and demanding me to change etc. then i found myself laughing and joking with her because i said it was just her truth self and i shouldn't be offended by it. it's kinda funny i can be so light-hearted about it in my dream and still sigh when i think about it when i am awake. some things hurt me deep.. they don't go away easily.

an original self inspired script turned out to be quite some work. i spent two days finishing a script that offers you calendar management, event email reminder for free. i think it's quite useful. of course i wrote this originally because i like to have my appointments reminded via email. since i check my email more often than anything. and since that i don't use yahoo service any more, i can't use their reminder service. so i decided to write one myself. a separate service for any email addresses. there's something more to it as well. if you like to keep an event list on your web site (see my example), it's now easier than ever. the script automatically lists your events and cross out old ones for you. all you have to do is link it with a line of javascript code.

screen shot:


click to join!

it's quite rare for me to be addicted to an english fiction. i don't enjoy reading fictions in english. but i'm now truly addicted to reading


as the critics say, it's blindingly good. i abandoned playing games and working my new project to read it. it's strange how it absorbs my attention.

i'm gonna share excerpts from the book in the future.

i was trying hard to hold back my tears. i got a B for my plc midterm because i just totally misinterpretated the second part of the exam. i also lost 8 points on the first problem. i don't like teachers take points off for the same mistake over and over.. like 8 times in my first problem. esp. that they didn't take any points off my homework when i did the same thing. so i absolutely didn't know what i did was wrong. so i talked to the teacher and he agreed to give me back some of the points. but it's so not fair. i simply didn't know it was wrong to begin with. they graded my homework wrong so i didn't know and then i lose 8 freaking points on the exam which is like 20% of my entire grade. arg..... this is just so not fair. i totally know the material and my grade just doesn't reflect it.

something interesting i didn't know before. maybe you don't either...
gives you more control over your css background image

http://www.w3schools.com/css/pr_background-position.asp

i've gotten postcards from pei and daynah recently. thank you for thinking of me. my life has been centering around my school. this has been the longest break for me away from the net. it's sweet to see those postcards ^_^

on the other hand, i finally uploaded the only picture i took during our trip two weeks ago on a beautiful autumn weekend. it is the only one because the stupid camera ran out of batteries after that one. ARG.. go figure.. iowa's autumn is so short, i wanted to photograph all the beautiful trees turning color!

i'm busy now working on a web project for school. hopefully i will be able to launch it in a couple of days. i will need your support! it deals with blogs ^_^

Hello everyone, my first graduate level project is now opening to the public!! (I feel like celebrating with fireworks; I really have been working hard on this!!!) It's called The BlogMatch Project. Much like match.com, it matches people through "reading" their blogs. This matching is for online friendship. Once you joined BlogMatch, it will search for blogs that contain your interests. It also will search for blogs contain unique terms which you are talking about on your blog. It will notify you by email if such matches occur. You can decide whether you wish to read the matched blogs. I hope this service will help you find more personal blogs that better fit your interests. Right now the matching part is still under construction because I need people to sign up first. The registration is free! If you are interested in finding more interesting personal blogs, PLEASE DON'T HESITATE TO SIGN UP!! Because I set a goal for 50 new members by next Tuesday for the class which this project is written for, I'm offering a promotion. The first 50 approved members will be plugged on pure-essence.net (google rank: 6/10) for a minimum of 10 days!! To be an approved member you need to submit your blog and after I approve you, you will have to LOG IN to demonstrate the email address you used to sign up with is valid. Referring to other people will gain you more plug. Read more here!

another lj 'copier' domain?
http://www.greatestjournal.com/

how many of these are there? weird.. just coz lj is open source, doesn't mean you should make everything similiar to it.. hrm.. well at least i like the newer lj layout A LOT BETTER.. i'd think they'd use something other than the lj pencil as their icon tho :\

strangely there all filled with people.. people must be obsessed with blogging nowadays LOL

i need to find some good articles on xml parsing for The BlogMatch Project . i originally intended to do the parsing with perl. but i found this article
http://www.sitepoint.com/article/560
which gives a great tutorial on parsing xml with php. i'm trying to decide. coz if i do go with php, that would mean i will not be able to get any help from my professor who is good at perl. maybe they have good tutorials on how to parse xml with perl as well? i need to search more.

如果你也懂中文，请和我分享我个人痴爱的一篇散文。它写出了我的心声。不知你是否也曾片刻间放下手上所有的一切，只为身旁最微不足道的现象而感动。我成长的过程中有太多这样的片刻。我那三年的日记是我最好的见证。如今这样的片刻减少了，可是我知道这种痴傻没有离我而去。而最了解我的是荣荣。我明白那是我们爱的基础。因为我们真心理解彼此的痴傻。也是为什么我对这段爱总是念念不忘的缘由。是的我们的爱建立在虚无飘渺的奠基上，所以无法生存。但是我们的感受出自真心所以留下的回忆终身难忘。和他分手就象和成长道别。要生存，必须面对现实。不知道现在是否还写得出这样的散文. 我怀念我的过去，怀念荣荣，怀念到刚开始认识Andy的时候会惹他生气，说我dwelling in the past。呵呵，无药可救啊！

1. you can now choose on your list to show how many upcoming events vs. how many crossed out events.

2. you can choose to sort your list descendingly or ascendingly

Just edit your options accordingly. Again if you haven't signed up yet, it's waiting for you!

^^ thanks pei and ecila for the suggestions :)

OMG
http://stars.zaobao.com/foreignstar/pages2/stars300901.html
this page is hilarious. it's in chinese. it's just comparing photos of some very famous chinese female stars. images of them with vs. without make ups.. some of them are QUITE different.

just a reminder for those who easily forget.

oh yea, something funny (Bush's Email Inbox)
http://albinoblacksheep.com/text/bushmail.html

omg, i swear this TA copied my answers exactly to write the solution for the last assignment.

http://www.cs.uiowa.edu/~fleck/hwsol6.htm

they are exactly how my variables are named, ordered and how my test cases are chosen.

LOOK!!

he basically just copied and pasted my answers as his solution. i don't know if i should feel honored or violated :( i don't know but it feels strange. maybe i really should be happy since at least i got 100% on my homework. but i hate that class now. because the way everything is graded is so unfair to me (refer this. there are more than just that too). and i know i'm good at it :(

MORE TO THE INCIDENT
so i took daynah's advice and emailed the professor about the copying and i got a response back today:

Thanks for bringing this to my attention -- I'll discuss it with the TA. If your solutions are to be used, you should receive credit and be consulted beforehand. The samples are a natural way to do the problems, and might be duplicated unintentionally, but it is unlikely all the identifiers would be chosen alike.

i guess this is the first time something happened in this class actually made me happy. more on the copying incident from last entry.

email from professor:
Hi,
The TA acknowledged that she did indeed use your solution for those to be posted. This should not have happened without your permission, and you should receive (perhaps already have) a personal apology from her. Also, you deserve credit for the work, and I would be glad to credit your name on the solution sheet -- is this OK with you? Or if you prefer, you can remain anonymous, or we can post alternative solutions -- your choice.

I'm sorry this happened this way, but at least I hope you feel proud that your solutions were judged to be a model to show the rest of the class -- that's very good work.

----
email from TA

Hi,
This is Xin Lu, TA for the 22c:054 class.
I'm sorry I didn't ask for your permission before putting your solution to the web. If you feel uncomfortable with that, I could take it off. Otherwise, would you like your name be put after that on the web?

now events on the same date should all show up properly.

DNW ALARM ME SERVICE

stolen from miki
1. If you're too open-minded, your brains will fall out.

2. Don't worry about what people think; they don't do it very often.

3. Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.

4. It ain't the jeans that make your butt look fat.

5. Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity.

6. My idea of housework is to sweep the room with a glance.

7. Not one shred of evidence supports the notion that life is serious.

8. It is easier to get forgiveness than permission.

9. For every action, there is an equal and opposite government program.

10. If you look like your passport picture, you probably need the trip.

11. Bills travel through the post at twice the speed of cheques.

12. A conscience is what hurts when all of your other parts feel so good.

13. Eat well, stay fit, die anyway.

14. Men are from earth. Women are from earth. Deal with it.

15. No man has ever been shot while doing the dishes.

16. A balanced diet is a cookie in each hand.

17. Middle age is when broadness of the mind and narrowness of the waist change places.

18. Opportunities always look bigger going than coming.

19. Junk is something you've kept for years and throw away three weeks before you need it.

20. There is always one more imbecile than you counted on!!

21. Experience is a wonderful thing. It enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again.

22. By the time you can make ends meet, they move the ends.

23. Thou shalt not weigh more than thy refrigerator.

24. Someone who thinks logically provides a nice contrast to the real world.

25. If you must choose between two evils, pick the one you've never tried before.

my favorite is 5. maybe it has something to do with the fact i constantly work in a computer lab babysitting....

it's kinda interesting when my professor asked the difference between "father" and "further". so i did a search. this guy's explanation is short and to the point and yet makes perfect sense.


If people just remember that physical distance is always farther, we wouldn’t need to discuss this further.