Hills of Hayward

Ever since I joined the workforce, one of the bedrock software of my daily life was Microsoft Outlook. When I first watched “You’ve Got Mail” starring Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks back in 1998, I was gleeful that the characters were obsessively checking their email on AOL parelleled my own on Microsoft Outlook.

I viewed all Microsoft products, including MS Outlook, with reverence back then. Whenever a new release of any Microsoft software came out, I was eager to install and play with it. Unfortunately in this post-bubble era, the Microsoft fanbase has diminished to those who have no choice but to stick with Microsoft. The company founded by Bill Gates has been ravaged by Linux and other open source software.

The recent charge of independantly developed Web 2.0 applications has out-innovated Microsoft at every turn, and almost more importantly, taken the novelty and wow factor away as well. Google digs the knife deeper by leading the brigade on the assault on Microsoft Office with their Gmail application and Google Docs and Spreadsheets.

To be honest, I always thought that MS Outlook would be the last application I ever replace, but with my current small-team, multi-computer, and multi-location working environment, MS Outlook just does not support this setup well. My email application of choice is now GMail. There is a certain sadness once I realized this week that MS Outlook has Jumped the Shark for me. Seeing time fly by and Microsoft’s dominance degrade so quickly reminds me of how ephemeral software is. Natural elements such as wind and rain cannot degrade software, but our own society and culture evolving  so rapidly can quickly make the most mighty of software extinct.

Auf Widersehen Microsoft Outlook, maybe I will see you again in the future.

My alarm clock was beeping again… After snoozing it for a couple times, I finally decided to wake up with this voice in my head, “hey.. you’ll lose an hour already, should not waste it on sleeping more…” When I saw the time showed on our cable box - “5:03″, I was sooooo happy! “I’m not losing an hour….. I have an extra one!” Somehow I thought the time will be adjusted the other way around… Till that moment, I was fully awake and happily thinking about what I can do with my extra hour. It’s my favorite time of the year. I used to spend the hour talking to my best friend on the phone when we were seperated by the Atlantic Ocean and suffering with both of our homework, giving my house a deep cleaning ;), or going to Starbucks (yes, you know me and my Starbucks! :)) No one was here in Starbucks yet and it was so peaceful.

What do you do with your extra hour today?!

When I was young, my parents often took me and my sister and our relatives to Skyline Drive in the Shenandoah National Park to view the fall foliage. Skyline Drive is a narrow road that winds on the top of the mountain range from Virginia all the way to North Carolina. I remember brilliant fall colors of red, orange, and yellow. Now that I am older, I wanted to take Christine to travel with me to see the splendor. We also stopped by Luray Caverns, the most dramatic of underground caverns on the east coast.

This trip I have been experimenting with a Sony GPS device that tracks and records my location and altitude every 10 seconds. With this device, I am able to geocode our photos and mark them with an exact location. Using the Flickr website, I am able to share the exact location of my photos taken in a map. Click on the numbers to see which photos correspond with each location.

Altera took us to lunch for a project kickoff yesterday. During lunch, I learned that this person, Jeff, from Altera traveled around the world for a full year after their wedding… Gosh.. I was really jealous and actually shocked that someone did it and someone I know. That was a dream I had since I was a little girl. I told myself that my honeymoon gonna be travelingaround the world - 環遊世界.

Sometimes you think about it, for people like me who have this dream and who like to travel so much, how come I haven’t done it?! Is it because of budget, because of time, or? They might matter. But it’s the courage - the courge to leave everything behind, and simply go on a journey that’s totally separate from your daily life. I thought that would be such a wonderful thing. But why have I not done it yet?! I don’t know. I know I’m not afraid of the new environment, the strangers, or the unknown language. I guess I was not brave enough to stop the clock and just leave. One year is not that long comparing to a person’s life. But 365-days is surely a long time comparing to 24-hours.

It’s a dilema and it’s a dream. It’s a very sweet dream that I have since I was a little girl…

Thanks to Grandmother Fang and my Big Aunt Shirley for inviting my dad, Christine, and I over for some great dinners the last two nights. Grandmother Fang whipped up some of her fantastic home cooking, while Big Aunt Shirley and Cousin Jean introduced us to a yummy Vietnamese pho place in San Jose.