sticker on my monitor

There is one sticker on the bottom of my monitor, saying

"(at least) RESPOND!"

as a remedy for me not being a good people person. Sometimes I got an email and didn't respond because I thought I didn't think of a good way to respond yet. Then people began to think I was ignorant and rude. It should have been better to drop an email to say please give me extra time to think, just to acknowledge it. Believe nor not, I learned this through playing DOTA the computer game, when some other player told me this. Who said computer game can not change people's life?

Now I have another one added to my sticker:

"Think from other people's perspective and needs, not mine. Ignore my own redundant thoughts."

This one came from last Friday I brought a guest to lunch. I definitely should, but I thought a while before I did. Hell!

2 old precious videos

In a retreat to Will's cabin in 2006. Today I found them in my computer.

Nicole's baptism


Guys diving in an ice hole

I like the way they lined up and posed for photographs like a world champion team before dive. Priceless.

my work

my current work is about evaluating flood force on buildings, and we are building our software now. Lawyers, government and insurance companies would be interested in this information. Someday I will start my own business and become a multi-millionaire.

ps. I said I would learn google KML language and add flood to google earth. I did. I can create a movie on top of google earth if I want.

This is no longer image overlay. 100k polygons are drawn on the fly.

st louis bay, ms

so I am at gulf coast in MS now. I am going to NASA Stennis Space center near here for a 2-day workshop about hurricane simulation. I applied for this workshop in March, and got rejected for some reason at first, then I send a long group email, copy to staffs at NASA Stennis, questioning the decision. Then she let me in. Sometimes people reject you not because of rules, it is just they are lazy and don't want to go extra miles. So you have to push for it.

After 3 hours' drive, I am here, in a motel just 1 mile from the beach. This motel is the best I could find in this area. After hurricane Katrina, everything is being rebuilt. This afternoon I went out for a scenic drive, but what I saw was very depressing. I could not even find a good place to eat, I mean my GPS shows a lot of restaurants which turned out to be no longer there.

How to spend the nights here? This is a bar, a casino and wireless internet here. Maybe I just do all of them.

This is tian logging off from st louis bay in MS.

tornado.. and my roof

Haven't blogged for a while, after I lost my stolen wifi in my bedroom. There were two errors in my previous sentences: 1. I can't use "my" before the word "stolen", if it is stolen, it is not MINE; 2. if it's not mine, there is no way to "lost". Anyway, let's forget about philosophy for a while.

My blog is officially pulled off from my facebook, which should be one of the major events of facebook history. just kidding. I found my blog too rated R, which might mislead some innocent kids. BE PREPARED! my blog reader, if you find some harsh words in my future blog, just install a mute button plz.

episode 1.
----------------------
If you meet me on street during one of these days, and ask "was up?" I would answer,
"Fine. My roof has fallen."

Yes, the roof of my living room was fallen. And this is not a joke.

Before I explain, let's revert back to 3 years ago, in 2005. In Jackson MS, when Katrina came, there was no power, no food, no gas in the whole city. The day when Katrina reached Jackson, Dr. Tu, one of my coworker, was still working in the office.
This is a well kept joke in my lab now. We are still wondering how he came to the office when there was no gas. And the day Katrina came, one of my other cowork called the office to check if anybody was there. To her surprise, Dr. Tu answered,

"What's up?"


episode 2.
------------------------
Several days ago, during work I was running computer programs, while chatting online. Then my workers came and told me "Tian, there is a tornado caming, let's shutting down the computers and go downstairs."

"Ok." or I should have said "roger that". Just a random day of my life in Jackson. If you want surprise with a dose of disaster, come to Jackson.

"You see, the trees are moving." My coworker added.



episode 3.
-------------------------

So nothing happened...yet. On that night, I drove to a Bible study. On my way all the traffic nights were off. It was a mess.

During my sleep on that night, I was awaken by some noise in my living room. Well dreamed, I was toooooo lazy to get up to check. I thought it was some thief. "Take whatever you want," I murmured, "But I will beat you up if you wake me up".

The second morning, when I get up for a shower. TO MY SURPRISE, the roof of my living room was fallen!!!

Welcome to the real world, where roofs are not neccesarily on top. Like man is not necessarily always on top, woman can too.

interesting images from google earth

the coordinates are shown in the images, you can use "Fly to" in Google Earth to check them out.

that's the result of slow play your A-A hand

4 of A's
once in a life time. so i took a screenshot