Hills of Hayward

We used to be just three bachelors at a startup named Octopus Inc just seven years ago. Now we are three married men with a total of five children between us.

Nick, Peter, and I decided to get our growing families together for some fun play time, swapping baby stories and experiences, as well as enjoying a hearty dinner together in Hayward.  It was agreed by all involved that we have to do this again more often.

Maybe “hearty dinner” was an understatement. It was quite a feast.  This was our dinner menu:

• Prime Rib slow baked at 325 degrees
• Spinach dip bread bowl
• Sauteed mushrooms
• Baby carrot, pearl onion, and turnip vegetable medley
• Mixed greens salad
• 2 different cakes and a banana cream cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory

Video of Chef Peter is cutting into the prime rib

Three Babies Playing

It was a nice Polytechnic Reunion last night!

I’ve lost contacts to most of my schoolmates from the graduate school in Polytechnic University. I ran into Hsiang-yang’s family at Mike’s wedding two and a half years ago and then I invited both Mike’s and Hsiang-yang’s families to our wedding two months later. However, I did not know what I was busy for during all these years. We just didn’t find time to get together again until the time I sent out the email about quitting Cisco. We started talking again!

Mike suggested to have a potluck party at our place and I was very excited about it. Mike brought 粉蒸肉 ﹠ 蔴油雞; Lulu also cooked Harrison’s favorite 油飯 & brought 燒鴨. Mike was such a good cook and used to cook for his roommates and schoolmates. And this time, he still didn’t let us down. Lulu的油飯也一掃而空，我都還沒吃到第二碗呢，就全沒了. The best part is the dessert. Mike taught us how to make taro ball (芋圓). Hsiang-yang’s kids, Joyce & Janet, had so much fun.

Anders seemed to enjoy the event a lot as well. He only took a short nap during our dinner and then he didn’t want to go to sleep until 11:00 PM. Surprising he wasn’t afraid of new faces as much any more. Lulu, Hsiang, Ann and Mike all held him for some time and he “talked and sang” in their arms. The funniest thing is that Anders kept grabbing little Charlotte’s hand when we took pictures. Hehe… “When Anders met Charlotte…”

We were talking about the recent decision we heard that Polytechnic will be bought by NYU and becomes NYU’s Engineering School. We were not sad about it. By contrast, we were all happily talking about applying a new Master diploma! Haha… :p

Everyone has a big change since then, 1996 - the year we met at Polytechnic University in NYC. It was nice to get together again!

I only have a couple pictures for now until I got the photos from Mike’s Nikon D2X!

Click on the pictures for larger images.

Came across this little gem yesterday. It boasts an excellent relaxing song in the background while you choose where to start a chain reaction of colored explosions. If you choose right, you can entice the entire screen full of flying balls to explode. There are only 12 levels, so you can finish this game in around 10 minutes.

After playing for a while, I started thinking about why and how I was choosing where to start the chain reaction. Some factors were:

• density of balls in a specific area
• density of balls across the entire screen
• directional velocity of balls
• initial reaction starting point: center or closer to the walls

Try it out for yourself.

This game reminds me of catalytic reactions in college, or maybe the explosion of a meme in the real world. It soon got me thinking whether my decision for where I was activating the chain reaction really made a difference?

The lower the levels, the less concentrated the balls and the conscious decision of where to start the reaction becomes more important; however, but when you get to level 12 where over fifty balls are flying around at all angles and speed, the complexity of the situation is probably beyond an obvious decision for most mortals.

So I did an experiment. I played level 12 a total of ten times with my brain engaged. I then played it ten times with my eyes closed. The results were humbling.

It’s been soooo long since the last time I skied. I was very excited to know that Nancy was arranging a one-day ski bus to Kirkwood with the Bay Area Ski Bus and Harrison and I joined the trip without hesitations. It was the first ski trip in the past two years and …… I turned really BAD in skiing.

The first round was okay then things went downhill. I seemed to forget everything and the fear of turning with speeds just flowed in my mind. I kept falling even on the flatter areas. The worst time that day was to fall with my face down hitting my head to my left arm. I was dizzy for a while. This is the second time I fell towards to the front with my face downward. The last time was a disaster - my ligament on my left leg was torn 7 years ago.

The afternoon finally went smoother. Though I didn’t go to the black diamond with Harrison as I usually did, it was still a very fun trip with all the friends together. Watching those kids skiing down fast without fears, I can’t help imagining Harrison holding Anders coming down from the hills in a few years.

Happy New Year!

2007 has passed so fast that the time when we realized my pregnancy seemed to happen yesterday. It’s been a big year for Harrison and I with Ander’s arrival, Lookspark.com’s acquisition and SnapTint.com’s growth. It was a blessing and we hope everyone also had a memorable 2007.

Wish you good health and happy life in 2008. May all your dreams come true. Dad forwarded the New Year countdown fireworks at Taipei 101. I still think that the fireworks are far more exciting and prettier in Taiwan, even in the old days before Taipei 101 was built.

Enjoy!

You might want to ignore the background voices. Those taiwanese girls sure had a lot of comments.