Food for thought from TheHuey

by Yun,

38th week. Time is ticking. Every night before I go to bed, I’m wondering if tomorrow is the day. Yoyo, that’s her name. When are you ready to meet your parents?

My leave started about two weeks ago. 8 months. Such a long time. I’m tired. Tired from having to get up early everyday. Tired from a full schedule. Tired from walking around with a big belly. Tired generally, especially towards the last few weeks. Now with all the work load gone, I’m at ease. Spent the first week getting ready for the nursery. Crib, mattress, bedding, dresser, changing pad, stroller, car seat…the list goes on and on. Never realized that such a little tiny person needs so many things. And imagine! That’s just the beginning. We painted her room pink, light blue on the ceiling and highlighted with lavender crown molding. She better be a girl. (Ultrasound is never 100% sure about girls).

2006 is a busy year. Quite a few friends and coworkers became proud parents. Reading their blogs and looking at their baby pictures are my big enjoyment. One of my coworkers used to take his cell phone out around 5pm everyday and announced that it was time to look at the cutest kid ever. haha…… btw, his son is very very cute, with really big eyes.

Except for being heavy; having to wobble and stay away from coffee and coke; not being able to sleep well and exercise regularly; pregnancy itself was not too bad when I think about it. People are always very nice to you. Known or unknown, people asked me about my due date or boy/girl. They talked about their own kids and experiences. Recommended baby products to me. My team all took good care of me, although from time to time they teased me “not to piss off the pregnant woman”. Most of my cravings got satisifed. No need to worry about weight (overweighted anyway). Have excuses for not doing certain things. Get away with mood swings. Best chance to do shopping on behalf of baby and motherhood and so on so forth.

Couple of my friends told me to enjoy the last stage of the pregnancy, as it is such an unique experience and honestly will be our last few free days. However, I’m really anxious. Cannot wait to meet this little tiny person kicking and stretching so hard inside me (doing that right at this minute). Maybe I’ll be regretting that thought soon. But that’s later. I’m not worrying about it now.

å?ˆæœ‰å¥½ä¹…没有写blog了，几次æ??笔都ä¸?了了之，上ç?­å›žæ?¥ç´¯æ˜¯ä¸»è¦?的原因，没有心æ€?好好é?™ä¸‹å¿ƒæ?¥å?šä¸€äº›äº‹æƒ…，å?ƒå?ƒé¥­ï¼Œæ´—洗碗，整ç?†æ•´ç?†ä¸œè¥¿ï¼Œå°±å·²ç»?9， 10点了。照Hueyçš„è¯?说，那是到了我的pumpkin time，脑å­?shut down，无法进行任何需è¦?逻辑æ€?维的任务，能å?šå¾—也å?ªæ˜¯ä¸Šä¸Šç½‘，看一些奇谈怪论，已达到休æ?¯å¤§è„‘的目的。

Anyway,说正题。上个� 上个周末，我们�新家了。�美国四年多，最�习惯的就是�公寓，�管怎么装饰，就是没有家的感觉，或者更确切地说是没有安定的感觉。�想添置任何大件的家 具，�想买任何�必�的东西，实在是怕�家的辛苦。寻寻觅觅地想买房�已�有大�年了，几�投标�中，这次终于修�正果，实在是很高兴的一件事，需�谢谢 我们的agent 和亲爱的爸爸妈妈们。

新房å­?(46年新，哈哈）å??è?½åœ¨Santa Clara一个很安é?™çš„å°?区，å‰?门的è?‰å?ªä¸Šé•¿ç?€ä¸¤æ£µé“?树，åƒ?两个把门的。客厅和厨房都有大大的窗户，æœ?å?—。从车库进是family room，长方形，对ç?€å?Žé™¢ã€‚以å‰?的房主在院å­?里建了一个大大的deck，我们很喜欢，以å?Žå¤?天在这里玩è€?，乘凉，都会很惬æ„?。院å­?里现在ç§?ç?€æŸ æª¬æ ‘å’Œ Avacado树，还有几株玫瑰，Huey说å†?清ç?†ä¸€äº›åœ°å‡ºæ?¥ç§?è?œï¼Œè¾£æ¤’，西红柿，大豆苗，都是他喜欢的。我们æ?¬è¿›æ?¥ä¹‹å‰?，主è¦?装修了厨房和厕所，铺了 地，更新了appliance，粉刷一新。之å‰?一直喜欢看室内装潢类æ?‚志，以为轮到自己装修会很有自己的想法，但真正事到临头，我ç»?常犹犹豫豫，ä¸?知é?“怎 æ ·å?šé€‰æ‹©ï¼Œä¹Ÿæ‡’å¾—å?šé€‰æ‹©ã€‚倒是Huey，I like this, I like that，当家作主的气势å?´æ˜¯å¾ˆç››ã€‚æ?¬è¿›æ?¥ä¸¤ä¸ªæ˜ŸæœŸï¼Œhouse is still a mess. è¦?等到全部整ç?†å®Œï¼Œè¿˜é•¿è·¯æ¼«æ¼«ã€‚。。

First off, we only had ~1 hour to play so the blinds were quite crazy. 15 minute rounds starting at 100/200, doubling to 400/800, and then jumping to 1k/2k.

With only 5 players, (Me [button], Shawn, Manish, Sentil, Venkat) I started the evening with some aggresive semi-bluffs and took the first 2 pots. Then, after sensing weakness, pushed all-in on two pair (K3AA on the board) against Venkat. With a rags kicker, he wisely laid down his hand. I had pocket QQs against Shawn’s Ax one hand and the Queens stood up. Then, Read the rest of this entry »

What a wonderful year and a day it’s been! Since June 14th, 2005, I have married a wonderful wife, learned that I will be having a baby girl this year, and found a beautiful house in a great neighborhood. Even though I haven’t quite made it yet in my career, my outlook on life has been only getting rosier. From my awesome parents, a loving wife, great relatives, and stellar friends, it’s hard to find a gripe.

As some of you may know, we entered into a contract earlier in the year to purchase a house in Santa Clara. Unknown to us at the time was that the seller had taken out a second and a third loan/loc against their equity and needed a cash infusion to close the deal. Since we were unwilling/unable to give them more money, (It was already priced at the high end of our price range) the deal fell thru (and the unsavory characters are still refusing to release our earnest money) and we had to go thru quite some hassle to secure new housing (We lost our lease and had to find a new apartment within a very short amount of time). Fortunately, we did find a very nice apartment complex (Arioso apartments) in Cupertino that appealed to both Yun and I. It’s been quite nice to be there in a new and bright environment.

So the trigger for that debacle was Yun and I learning that we were going to be parents. We were a little hasty and should have done a little more due diligence regarding the seller’s finances, but how are we supposed to know that? The good thing is that we learned and bided our time until we found the perfect house. It is an old house but the original owners (!!) took good care of it and it is in very good shape. Lots of mature bushes keep the yard quite private but I’m probably going to remove some of them for a garden.

On top everything, at 5:24 AM on my birthday, I got a gentle wake up call in the form of a magnitude 4.7 earthquake. It was 44km (28 mi) away so I only felt the bed shake a bit and the room creak. I was awake already so knew right away that it was an earthquake. Funny enough, it was the first one I’ve ever conciously felt. I’ve been thru a few 3 point quakes over the past 6 years.

So while I hope my next year will be just as exciting, I’m going to be just fine with a less eventful one.

Best wishes to everyone and hope your next year is as wonderful as mine last.

-Huey

On my birthday, my gift from my wife was that I can play in the evening poker game. After receiving her blessings, I half jokingly touted that I was coming home with the winnings. Our games usually run until 8pm or beyond so when I called her around 7:40 and told her I was coming home, she didn’t broach the subject of who won. Only after getting home and spending a few minutes talking to her about it did she realize that I had won.

What a win it was, Read the rest of this entry »

Game started late at 6:30pm and ran till about 8:05pm. We had 9 players and 3 rebuys for a pot of $60. First place winner, Pinank, was getting quite a few lucky hands towards the end. His A2 beat Mike’s A9 by catching a 2 on the turn (after all-ins after the flop). Second place winner, Huey, let go a few small pocket cards that turned into monsters (96s for a full house), and went heads up with a miniscule stack. Losing pocket 6’s to Pinank’s pocket 7’s. Third place winner ?? got their money back.

Stay tuned for next week’s update, we’ll try to track the winners here.

自从有了baby Huey 之å?Žï¼ŒHuey 收敛了ä¸?少。ä¸?但玩的心æ€?相对少了，å?šå®¶åŠ¡ä¹Ÿæ›´ç§¯æž?了。而我呢，也很享å?— “Speaking for two” 的状æ€?，什么ä¸?满æ„?了，什么东西想å?ƒäº†ï¼Œå°±å¤§å£°åœ°å?«åš·å‡ºæ?¥ï¼Œäººå¤šåŠ›é‡?大嘛，他也å?ªå¥½å±ˆä»Žï¼Œå°½ç®¡å˜´é‡Œè¿˜æ˜¯è¦?嘟囔几å?¥ã€‚

Baby 还没出生，å??字就已ç»?有了一大堆: 胡隆é?™ï¼ˆä¸­æ–‡å¤§å??，爷爷奶奶起的），yoyo-胡悠优（å°?å??，外公外婆起的），Audrey Hu （英文大å??，Huey and I tentatively agreed on this one unless we find something better later)，ä¸?知é?“å°?å®?å®?到时会ä¸?会confuse。

Friday was “Hack day” at work and many ideas were worked on. At the conclusion of the day, we gathered for some entertainment at the poker table. We had 8 players, Mike(?), Senthil, Manish, Shawn, Gaurav, Vivek, Mike M., and Huey.

The action started fast as pot contentions got heated. Manish and Shawn built up quick leads as their stacks grew. My hands were all rags and grew steadily worse until a moment when an AK off suit landed in my hands. That being the best hand I’d seen all night, I pushed all in to be called by Gaurav’s pocket TT. The board came rags and I was forced to concentrate on dealing. After a few hands of dealing, I was able to convince the others to allow me to rebuy since I was dealer.
Read the rest of this entry »

A preliminary demo for my hack is already installed on this site. My hack was to take any text selections a user makes and allow them to search Y! Shopping for related products. You can see it at work by selecting any word or words on this page and then by clicking the little blue box that comes up next to it. Although you might find an obvious shopping term such as nikon digital cameras much more relavant.

This can be improved very easily. For example, instead of only searching Y! Shopping, the initial box can be a drop down menu populated with results from a text analysis tool. Then the user can perform a web/news/product search by following the corresponding links.

A key benefit to this implementation, any web publisher only needs to include a single (two at the moment) javascript reference in their header to receive this functionality. They don’t have to link terms by hand, or do any backend work to support this. They get better user experience and a richer webpage essentially for free.

This is the day. Yoyo Hu moved first time ever!! It feels like somebody is blowing tiny bubbles inside me. One and ….another. At first, I didn’t know what it was. I thought I was hungry or something, since it was lunch time. Then I realized it was something that I’ve never felt before. I asked myself. Is it him? Is it you? Yoyo Hu? He must be so tiny.  Touching me gently. What are you doing? Are you dreaming? Grow up fast. Daddy and mommy cannot wait to see you.