a come back in casino

so this long weekend we went to a casino resort in a small town 70 miles away. The last night, before we head back, I sticked my last five dollar bill into a slot machine, ding ding ding, w00t w00t, it becomes 203 dollars!! Then I felt my luck was turned and went back to the blackjack table and won back my 400 dollars. I go to casino only once per year.

When I walked out of the main gate, a blonde girl, sleeping by the water fountain, asked me if I saw a curly haired guy. I said no, are you waiting for him? Yes, I AM waiting for him, apparently a little angry. There were a lot of mosquitos by the fountain. If I was alone I would have offer a room for her. Even though I would be rejected but that would still be a nice try.

On the way back, I silently repented: When I was in school, I was a better person. I need to come back in my personality.

a little prayer

At Christmas 2002, I was in New York City, visiting my dad's friends. A little more than one year after 911, I arrived at the place, with my heart bleeding. The scene just makes you want to cry. There was a lot of flowers, and a huge flag reads in God we remember this day. I was in awe and prayed, even though I was not a christian.

For the earthquake in China, I only donated 100 dollars, yes maybe I should donate more with the income I make. But I don't want to feel like it overdone. I contributed and showed my love and sympathy, that's it. I don't want to make it sounds like a disaster for China, or for a specific group of people. But if you gonna pray for the asia part of Earth, today is the time.

LORD, please show mercy to us. Amen.

scored 4.75

My employer gave me 4.75 out of 5 for the performance of the past half year! *^_^*

As you may know, China is going through a terrible time, tens of thousands people died during the earthquake at 5/12. When I saw the photos online, my heart was soaked in tears.. I am gonna donate a little money to them.

moving

I am moving to a MUCH nicer apartment in one month.
"My apartment is killing me, literally. after my roof fell i mean."

Can't wait to go back to MN to see my advisor and my old friends.
"I am coming back to the hear~~~t of wor~~ship"

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.