Kai, The Informologist

Congratulations, it was quite amazing, although I was constantly at war with drowsiness.

We are just waiting for Sunday to come now.

(via Flickr)

A beautiful game. That’s what Manchester United has been playing lately.

Although Javier Mascherano was sent off in a game that ended 3-0 with the last two goals scored purely out of frustration or despair, it was a game where Manchester United demonstrated enough class to outplay Liverpool in almost all arenas. While the 4-0 win against Aston Villa just added concrete to the foundation of Manchester United’s current form.

Throughout the 90 minutes played in the Theater of Dream last Saturday, there were no moment of panic for the Red Devils, even though balls were dropped in their area more than a dozen of times. For those who had witnessed the game, the high confidence from United can be concluded as suffocating. Almost every pass across the midfield could have been threatening against the Villa goal.

On top of which were the demonstration of excellent goalkeeper line-up in the team this season, with solid performances from Tomasz Kuszczak, Ben Foster and certainly Edwin Van der Sar. I guess when we can’t find the one, we find a trio to amend for that differences.

“Totti is Totti,” Roma coach Luciano Spalletti said. “But a team that is not able to play without a player does not have the right mentality.

AS Roma – the men in tight jerseys. They are not a team you can put down so easily, especially in a season where they are still the top contender for the Italian Serie A. And even with UEFA’s warning about the conduct of the fans, we can still expect a hostile environment for the visitors.

We will not be expecting another riot of goals, but a good fight regardless of score is what you will probably see from the United team.

…but needs words mapped through emotions to turn meaningful.

I’m changing the layout of my Flickr page and will try not to mass upload since that takes away quite a lot of attention to individual shots.

Only when you are placed in a situation could you respond to that situation.

This came up in a conversation about 2 books – one for the men and one for the women, for them to learn about each other and how to compliment or adapt to one another. One of the question asked in the book was (paraphrased):

You have two choice: would you rather be alone with nobody who cares/loves you, or would you rather be with many friends yet not respected?

Most people that I have asked this question (that means 2 people), have preferred the first choice. That’s like a standard answer to some level, but in reality when you are really alone, you might go to extend to gather people around you.

I don’t know the purpose behind the question, but I was just thinking, what difference does a Christian make in this?

Just yesterday I felt an urge to hang out with people (just people), and even contemplated about going to a dinner that I’m probably not going to enjoy. I think we are all human, and we generally like affection, companies and when that’s taken away, we may take stride in finding replacement.

It’s just something to think about sometimes.

Congratulation to people who got baptized today! (I didn’t get to the dumplings in time…)

Picture missing is the Roast Duckling – the picture was blurred.

We goes by Limestone Grille almost everyday – whether it was on bus routes to school, or walking to Kroger for groceries, but rarely do we notice the restaurant behind it. Some calls it the hidden secret of Bloomington, that is the Limestone Grille on East Covenanter Drive – it most probably could be.

Here’s our evening menu:

Appetizer: Parsnip Pancakes with House-Smoked Fish
The salmon was quite amazingly fresh and the parsnip pancakes were fantastically fried. The combination of both can probably only be described by them “Japanese” Manga (such as this one). Definitely a recommended appetizer.

Entree: His – Grilled Lamb T-Bone Chops; Hers – Crispy Roast Duckling;
Medium-raw was perfect for cutting. The smell of the lamb was so slight that one has to really smell to notice it.
“marinated in olive oil, fresh thyme, rosemary and garlic served with buttermilk mashed potatoes” everything that was described was on the plate, with delicate presentation.

Duckling was crispy and fine to the last bite. None of the garnishes were overdone and fits perfectly with the main entree.

Dessert: His – Heavenly Crème Caramel; Hers – Orange Chai Sorbet
Everything on the Dessert menu sounds fantastic.

All in all, great food and great service. And the price was very much reasonable for the restaurant, which was elegant yet simple.

You should go there sometimes.

Thanks to all who had came. It was quite fun.

It actually wasn’t all that bad. I hardly have to use my umbrella.

Cool pre-study we had, thanks to the loud live band who were playing in the Starbucks on Indiana.

And I’m really surprised that the dinner I had at City Bakery was filling enough that I didn’t even felt hungry at 12.

Hey guys,

As some of you may know, I’m working on a research presentation that talks about our online/offline identity(s) dynamics:

Title: What’s our ‘Real’ identity?
Abstract: The number of social networks, as well as the number of massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) has dramatically increased in recent years with different motivations. I would like to argue that by participating in these services, online citizens have (fully or partially) allowed the extension of their personalities that would otherwise not be seen in their real life. And that their online identity(s) shapes their real-life identity, and vice-verse.

I’m not able to find/come up with good/solid research materials to support my thesis. My other option is to conduct my own research such as survey/questionnaires and such. But before that, I was wondering if anyone (if there is anyone) can throw out ideas on this research title – can be absolutely anything (from your personal experience or something you thought up).

Please help and let me know! Thanks!

“Ubuntu” is an African thingy? Wow.

Well, let’s say its enough to restrict me to one-round of serving in a Burmese lunch buffet (in a bowl some more) – where they serve curries and coconut rice, of course with meat.

So yea, Slim Fast has a more sounding and appetizing substitute perhaps?

Two nights with that much contrast. Quite unbelievable to be honest.

On other topic, tax return/refund deadline is fast approaching – April 15th. If you are an IU international student and is in need of help, please proceed to www.iStart.iu.edu and under ‘Session Sign-up’ choose the Tax Help Session – should be helpful.

Ice Coffee in the making.

It stopped blowing me away probably after the 2nd time I was there.
Although I’ll continue being a fan of its Avocado Shake.

Spring is finally here. Although we are still getting pretty low temperature. No matter.

Our dinner was set at a friend’s place, whose mum was kind enough to invite us. Although it was a Chinese dinner, it felt like there was courses after courses. We had traditional dishes that includes Lotus Leaf Chicken (with black fungus), Shrimp, Asparagus, some cold dish, self-made Spring Rolls. Then Chicken Soup. Then fruit – pineapple and oranges. Then some nuts. Then ice cream. Plan for diet just taken a few step backward.

Counting down to a presentation that I have not even started researching.

Title: What’s our ‘Real’ identity?
Abstract: The number of social networks, as well as the number of massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) has dramatically increased in recent years with different motivations. I would like to argue that by participating in these services, online citizens have (fully or partially) allowed the extension of their personalities that would otherwise not be seen in their real life. And that their online identity(s) shapes their real-life identity, and vice-verse.

I find it interesting, I hope the presentation can be of something that will demonstrate that.

Bear’s has exception Pizza at $6.50 base + $1.50/topping!

Watched a show from WTIU talking about Bush’s War. Quite interesting and enlightening. So it’s not entirely President Bush’s idea.

I have been so tiring these days, and there looks to be no recuperation until end of semester, most probably. But after that, West Coast all da way!

Excellent morning to see Man Utd go 5 points clear, although its certainly not the time to relax. With seven games to go, the season is kind of just starting!

The day of recital began at 1 o’clock. It was a full-scaled orchestra, accompanied by chairs of strings, percussions, winds, even a set of harp was included. Excellent performance from start to finish. That was followed by the second recital 4 hours down the road, my first time attending piano recital, it was quite beautiful, although I’d still prefer the music played by different instruments. Last recital was at 8:30pm, I resist the temptation to go to another concert (jazz piano at its ultimate best as described by YY) and had some food at the reception.

A music-filled day had hopefully cultured me to appreciate some classical music.

I feel so sick today. Head spinning!

I’m grateful for them steamed mushroom chicken! (Thank you YY).

Working on Friday by myself was a little nerve-wrecking. The day ended with a girl whom I was waiting to help, walking by me and said, “I don’t need your help anymore”. Oh, how snobbish.

Preparation for bible study had hopefully taught us more. We, or I, tried to relate the whole of Hebrews Chapter 8 with today’s theme of ‘Good Friday’, that’s the commeration of the death and crucifixion of Jesus Chris. I’m not sure if it was portrait that way in the end with most people either tired or confused by my explanation of ‘瑕疵’ (nothing wrong) in verse 7.

Karaoke at Andrew’s followed. It still feels quite unfulfiling in the end compared to singing in church, even though it was quite nostalgic to be singing Jay Chou’s songs (I have a flat voice, no music talent whatsoever).

Get yourself ready San Francisco, I’ve confirmed my arrival (but not sure about my departure yet).

It was a blissful day to just sit around reading webcomics, writing blogs and doing research with no time limit. Plus, the weather was fantastic (no, I didn’t ride my bike after all – my $30 investment is still rusting away on the balcony).

Pre-study felt good, thanks to the pair that provided plenty of content. Now I just have to review and organize them.

For those who don’t know – historically and biblically, today is the day of the arrest of Jesus (Thursday). Tomorrow is Good Friday, the commemoration of His crucifixion, and Sunday is Easter. And no, it has nothing to do with bunnies. Easter is the day that Jesus rises to declares victory against Death.

Cheesy? Da Truth.

In college, like many of us are, we don’t really have a good amount of steady income. Yeah, there is all those part-time hours, but the income just weren’t never enough to match our expenditure.

You’d probably heard of these ’save-money’ tips, but they are what I can think of or had used before. Below are a list of ways to cut down your spendings in books, and movies.

For Books/Readings:

1. Always check out your local/University library first
2. Or your friends! Just shoot an email out and see if anyone cares to share them
3. Online book swapping/exchange services such as this, this and this. No, I haven’t tried them before, but they are all pretty feasible. (You may have to pay a small fee/shipping for these services)
4. Book.Google.Com – Check out others’ libraries, build your own, or search for books that are in the public domain. I just downloaded Diothas’s “A Far Look Ahead” that talks about the 96th Century, that’s how many years from today? 7500 years. Wow.
5. Similarly, Scribd gets a good load of self-published papers/books daily that you may go through for interesting content.
6. Last resort, go to local book store and read through it (without folding pages as bookmark!) with a cup of coffee. Delightful afternoon.

For Movies:

1. Okay, after 3 months of observation, it is concluded that it always beat to rent videos through Netflix than going to the store (say Blockbusters) by quite a big margin.
2. Websites such as this for lower-quality movies.
3. If you can understand Chinese, PPStream or PPLive NetTV can both be quite entertaining (they are applications to be downloaded).
4. For movie theater environment, you probably still have to go to the movie theater. But worries not ‘Alexander Hamilton‘, there’s the Five Dollars Club (if you are near any Kerasotes cinemas). “Thank you for using me”, say Abraham Lincoln. (Only catch: you might have to wait for a few weeks for the new releases to be entered into the ‘Five Dollars Club’. Can you wait it out?)

Other Entertainment:

1. Webcomics or scanned-and-translated-manga always hits the spot.
2. Music! I heard a professor once said that music aspires all information. I’m still puzzled. Anyways, Last.fm, Anywhere.fm, or even the iTunes Radio are pretty good sources of free music.

Awesome. I hope these are good resources to help you out.

“The use of tires (or wheels to go further back) has broaden our views. The same can be said about technology” – Professor Steve Mannheimer (paraphrased)

It was great to have Professor Steve Mannheimer from the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)’s School of Informatics to speak to us about… the history, metaphysical and his view on ‘technology’ (which returns nearly a billion results under Google Search).

He was a historian, a painter, an art critic, a reporter, an ‘idea’ person and a professor. It was hence a fine display of the collection of knowledge in all these areas. There are simply too many terms spoken that I haven’t nearly heard of.

The conglomeration of small bits of history, literature and analysis including the 1858 trans-Atlantic cable, Diothas’s “A Far Look Ahead”, ponography (not to mistaken with the other p-word), etc, were stringed together to delivery his message.

At the core is an extension or a varied version of what our K201 (Computer in Business) professor taught us:

K201: Messy Data > Tidy Information > Useful Knowledge
Professor Steve: Chaos > Intervening Data > Useful Information > Applicable Knowledge > Conclusive Wisdom > Intuitive Beauty

For example, from the chaos, you pick ‘42′. When you give it a value, such as 42 degrees, its data. And using that data, you know it’s cold and you are going to put on a sweater. Wisdom comes in the choice of sweater. And beauty is achieved when all these process becomes intuitive.

Come to think of it, I’m not entirely sure what he was driving at. But as he reads off his manuscript, I just felt enlightened in many ways, perhaps awestruck by the volume of knowledge bombarded at me.

At the end of the lecture, during Q&A session, Professor Steve made some interesting remark on some of the best work of art – they are either about ‘Love’, the happiest emotion or about ‘Death’, the saddest.

I’m really thankful of my I400 Professor for making the effort to invite scholars such as Professor Steve and Mark Deuze from previous week, it really open up our eyes to many issues related to the new media.

Lastly, this and this are some of the interesting things technology can do. Watch out for that kick…good job Big Dog!

Ciao!

“Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye.”
- Luke 6:41-42

It’s been more obvious as I start to serve, that I sees fault in so many things yet I seldom examine my own doings. Not cool, I don’t like it to be so.

自我提醒中。