I have a kid.

He's my son, and I'm his father. Whoa. Still trying to soak it all in .. and I think I'll be soaking for several more years. For details about him and his life, ask about his blog.

Meanwhile, this blog will stay on course with thoughts and tips.

Chicago Historical Photo Essay

I've grown an amazing love for history in the past few years. Absolutely hated it in school, but now, I'm different. The problem is that in school, we learned the history of the U.S., or of Europe, or of China. I think I would have been more interested if it was history about something close to me. And past and present photo comparisons are awesome. I want history of Chicago, of Skokie, the CTA, Lane Technical High School, that old building at Broadway and Thorndale, the old church at Francisco and Peterson, etc. And this photo essay helped feed that infatutation.

Wise Men

Wow, did you know that the Bible never mentions how many wise men (aka "Magi") there were that came to visit Jesus? Matthew mentions the gift-givers without number as Magi (plural of Magus). They gave gold, incense, and myrrh. So it seems the number has been traditionally held at three because people assume that a wise man can't hold more than one gift.

Or that any wise man wouldn't come to visit this child without one.

Too busy to blog?

So as I mentioned in an earlier post, this blogging stuff is hard to keep up with.

Now that my killer quarter at DePaul is over, I've been able to relax a little. That relaxation comes with a disclaimer ... I have a baby coming soon. Washing his clothes, assembling a crib and dresser and glider, installing a car seat, caring for a wife who has the equivalent of a bowling ball strapped in front of her (ouch), preparing for the physical and emotional trauma of labor, and making sure we have the money to survive through an unpaid maternity leave can be somewhat stressful too, but at least there's joy waiting at the other end. So I'd take the anxiety of an unborn child over classes any day.

So I will sure be busy as this young one grows up. The roller coaster ride of parenthood is worthy of a blog on its own! hmmm ...

Corrupted Memory Cards

So I finally bought myself a camcorder to record my son's life from when he's -2 months old until he's married. I started looking into an SD card so that I can save some pictures and video to it.

I soon remembered that my father-in-law and a friend both lost some great pics (including some from my wedding) because their cards were corrupted. All that to lead into some reading into how you can avoid corrupting your memory card.

For example, here are some of the main reasons memory cards become corrupted:

• Taking one photo after another too rapidly. A camera can not complete writing one image before starting the next.
• Using a memory card from one camera in a different camera. If you use a card from another camera, format it in the new camera first.

Interview with the pastor of BTK

Check out this interview with Pastor Clark of Christ Lutheran Church. The infamous BTK killer went to that church. Now, after his arrest, Pastor Clark has changed his theology a bit:

"There is definitely an evil force out there that is viable," Clark says.

You can put it on the booooard ... YES!!

YEAAAH ... The Good Guys in Black are going to the World Series!

Miers

The Associated Press picked a bad title for this article, so I went in thinking it'll be a bashing. But I learned a lot about Ms. Miers and her church. She's really involved there, and she has a heart for India!

She also served on the missions committee and took a deep interest in its programs in central India, according to minister Barry McCarty, inviting him and an Indian mission director to lunch at the White House last March.

I'm not saying she's an amazing woman, nor am I a supporter yet. We'll see what happens as years pass.

Text Message through email

Want to send a text message to someone but don't want to type on your miniature cell phone? You're already sitting in front of a computer, so just send an email to friends_ph_number@teleflip.com (where friends_ph_number is a 10-digit number) and your friend will receive the text message. No more anxiety about typing on a phone keypad for what should be a quick and simple message.

Just remember to keep the text msg to less than 120 characters, which includes the sender's email address (sucks if you have a long one).

Proud

bib,
originally uploaded by kekil.

My sis ran the Chicago Marathon today! It was fun to experience the excitement of this annual event. It was a long and grueling day. I think it was pretty tough for Nit and Shawn too. Shawn's knee was killing him, but you can ask him about that.

See some of my pics and others' pics

Things That Only Happen In Movies

Some of my favorites:

1. It is always possible to find a parking spot directly outside or opposite the building you are visiting.

3. Television news bulletins usually contain a story that affects you personally at the precise moment it's aired.

7. All bombs are fitted with electronic timing devices with large red digital displays so you know exactly when they are going to explode.

14. On a police stake-out, the action will only ever take place when food is being consumed and scalding hot coffees are perched precariously on the dashboard . . .

17. If you are heavily outnumbered in a fight involving martial arts, your opponents will wait patiently to attack you one by one by dancing around you in a threatening manner until you have defeated their predecessor.

18. If a microphone is turned on it will immediately feedback.

24. The ventilation system of any building is the perfect hiding place. Nobody will ever think of looking for you in there and you can travel to any other part of the building undetected.

30. When you turn out the light to go to bed, everything in you room will still be visible, just slightly bluish.

33. All beds have special L-shaped sheets that reach to armpit level on a woman but only up to the waist of the man lying beside her.

35. During all police investigations it will be necessary to visit a strip club at least once.

See also www.moviecliches.com

Avoid Laptop Meltdowns

Laptops pack lots of processing and hard work into a small space. Keeping itself cool is of prime importance. That's why you should utilize your Power Management Options in Windows XP.

Even still, some people don't realize the other dangers of everyday laptop computing.

• Do not place your laptop on a soft surface (blanket, bed, soft chair, etc), specifically one that blocks the fan and ventilation.


• Shut down your laptop before putting it in a bag. When enclosed in a notebook bag there is no air circulation and the results can be worse than melting. This example should help you understand.

My Sox!

At the Game,
originally uploaded by kekil.

I was hoping my rare presence at the Cell would be an encouraging one, but no ... the Sox continued their slide today, losing against the Twins. The Indians have caught up from 15 games behind and are close on their tail. Maybe we should have another players' strike like in '94 when the season was cut short while they were on top.

I remember '93 and '94 when when I would listen to the Sox almost nightly on WMAQ 670. Joey Cora and Ozzie Guillen were ON the field, along with Carlton Fisk, Black Jack McDowell, Bobby Thigpen, Tim Raines, Robin Ventura and a 25 year old Frank Thomas (he's 37 now). Those were the days that kicked off my attachment to the Sox. I hope they pull through to give us some exciting playoffs this fall.

Send Large Files

Often webmail applications like Yahoo! Mail, Gmail, and Hotmail impose limitations on the size of an attachment that you can send to someone. And on the other end, receivers have limitations on what can be received, especially if you're not using an account like Gmail or Yahoo! that has at least 1GB of space. Here's where YouSendIt.com gets in the picture. Now instead of being upset about attachment size limitations or taking up unnecessary space in a recipient's inbox, you can send a large file like a Powerpoint presentation, a short video, a long song, and more.

All you do is go to the webpage, upload your file to their server (instructions are straightforward), and a link will be generated. The link will be sent automatically to your recipient, and the recipient can forward the link around if he/she wants others to have access to the file also. So you don't want to do this with highly confidential data since anyone who has access to the link can download your file. You can only send one file at a time, so it's not the best for sending multiple pictures. This is generally the best for files between larger than 5 megabytes, up to 1 GB (that's 1000 MB)! YouSendIt.com will generate a link for you. The file stays on the server for seven days.

Fraud Guides

For all you Craigslist-er's out there, beware of clicking links that are placed on random posts, especially the ones with alluring titles.

Most of these links can redirect you to undesirable websites, including sites that can install adware and spyware on your system.

Fraud Guide is a site about the different ways you can get fooled. Here's an excerpt from the phishing section:

Links within an email are deliberately disguised in another attempt to deceive the recipient. HTML emails may display a genuine URL but when clicked on the hyperlink will take the user to a different web site. For example: http://www.win-big-bucks.com? may actually take the user to the web site the scam artists wants you to go.

The consumer needs to be very careful with these hyperlinks. Even if the legitimate companies URL seems to be in the web address it may not go to that site. These new hi-tech outlaws are very manipulative and are experts at deception.

Did you watch JetBlue land?

To see this live was surreal. I can't imagine how much worse it was for the passengers and flight attendants on board who are watching the situation develop as they stare at the back of the headrest in front of them.

If you missed it, you can watch the video here.

As one passenger put it, "I thought how it must have been like on Sept. 11 watching on television and seeing the planes come toward the building."

I had just assumed that the captain would not show anything on the on-board screens. Without seeing themselves on TV, a calm captain and crew would have made the situation a lot less stressful and emotional.

Yes, the pilots should be commended on their skill of landing that aircraft. But there was definite lack of wisdom in deciding to keep their in-flight TVs on.

Do you think passengers should have been able to watch the situation unfold on their in-flight monitors? Share your comments.

Google Secure Access

Wireless networks, especially public/free ones, are not very secure. One can somewhat easily view the information you send over the internet if it's not encrypted or secure (https). This is where Google Secure Access comes in.

Google has come out with Google Secure Access. It's a Google engineer's side project (as most Google products are, because developers are given 20% of their time for side projects). After a free download, Google protects your network usage by sending all your traffic through Google's servers.

.. your internet traffic will be encrypted and sent through Google's servers to the Internet. The data that is received will then be encrypted and sent back through our servers to your computer.

It's still in beta. Seems like a good idea. Obviously there will be a lot of hoopla about privacy because Google's servers "see" your data. But there was similar hoopla about Gmail scanning emails, and it seems that hoopla has died down dramatically, though Gmail still scans emails religiously.

Born Into Brothels

The Born Into Brothels DVD is being released on Tuesday, September 20. Buy it or rent it. It's worth a watch. It gives a truer picture of children's life in the red light district than anything I've ever seen, including having friends who have been to Bombay and experienced the same things first hand. Make sure to set some time apart for afterwards to process what you've just seen.

The Levee in New Orleans, Falling Apart

It's been hard for me to grasp the enormity of what has happened in the Gulf Coast. I am such a visual person. But these have helped a lot: The Levee Break and Google Map of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and the spot of the major levee break .

If you click on the Satellite view, you can see the "before" shot .. the Katrina button will show you an "after" shot.

I'm just being reminded more and more that the treasures of this world can be destroyed without even a hint of foreshadowing. Your heart will always be where your treasure is. If you're treasures are in the things of this world, when the world falls apart around you, you will fall apart just as easily.

Find Cheap Gas

I knew about Chicago Gas Prices before, but now the circumstances have reached preposterous proportions. I've been visiting it every day to catch the best price within a few miles from home. On an empty tank, my Pathfinder can cost me $60 easy. And that's once a week, if we're lucky. $240/month for gas!

This site takes visitor reports of gas prices in the area, and deletes it after 24 hours. Here are some standard tips for saving gas:

• Avoid High Speeds As your speed increases, your aerodynamic drag increases in an exponential fashion. Driving 62 mph (100 km/h) vs 75 mph (120 km/h) will reduce fuel consumption by about 15%.


• Do Not Accelerate or Brake Hard By anticipating the traffic and applying slow steady acceleration and braking, fuel economy may increase by as much as 20%.


• Keep Tires Properly Inflated Keep tire air pressure at the level recommended by your vehicle manufacturer. A single tire under inflated by 2 PSI, increases fuel consumption by 1%.


• Use A/C Sparingly When the air conditioner is on it puts extra load on the engine forcing more fuel to be used (by about 20%). The defrost position on most vehicles also uses the air conditioner.


• Keep Windows Closed Windows open, especially at highway speeds, increase drag and result in decreased fuel economy of up to 10%.


• Service Vehicle Regularly Proper maintenance avoids poor fuel economy related to dirty air filters, old spark plugs or low fluid levels.


• Use Cruise Control Maintaining a constant speed over long distances often saves gas.


• Avoid Long Idles If you anticipate being stopped for more than 1 minute, shut off the car. Restarting the car uses less fuel than letting it idle for this time.

Sprint's Text to Landline Service

Sprint is offering a new service called Text to Landline. I can send a text message to any home/business phone and it will get converted by those often funky text-to-voice readers.

From July 12, 2005 to October 12, 2005, Sprint PCS subscribers will be able to send a text message to a landline phone at standard domestic text messaging rates! Text messages, which are converted to voice, can be sent to any landline phone in the United States.

When the person answers his or her home phone, they will "hear" the text message you sent and can reply back to you with one of the available responses. You will also receive a text message on your Sprint PCS Phone when a response is sent back to you.

In addition, the recipient can reply with one of a few standard text messages (e.g "Yes", "No", "Thank You", "Where are you?") or can send a voice message back. If a voice message reply is sent, the Sprint PCS customer will get a text message saying "This is the reply to your Text to Landline message from [insert phone no here]. Press "Talk" to listen.

Good concept .. but there's still work to do before it catches on .. you can rarely ever understand the text readers! What do you think? If you don't have Sprint PCS, send me a text message with your office/home number so I can show you how it works.

It's a Boy!

It's a little more tangible now. Yesterday we had our final ultrasound. Within the first minute of the weird probe thing being rubbed over my wife's slippery belly, I saw it ... my son's manhood! I called it even before the radiology technician did. N and I smiled at each other and both of our minds started racing, as the technician went on to show us more of what our son is up to in the womb.

Each time I think about this pregnancy thing, it simply amazes me. N often feels like there's an alien inside her ... how would you feel if you had a two pound foreign living thing inside you? It cannot be described in words. Just ten weeks ago, he was the size of my big toe. Now he's the size of my hands (I got big ones) I know I'm going to be overwhelmed with emotion when, God-willing, our little one is in my arms. Reality is slowly setting in.

Soo .. we need to step up on finding a name! Any ideas?

Clipboard Security Flaw in IE : Lifehacker

LifeHacker pulls through again and reveals a Clipboard Security Flaw in IE. You should take a look at this!

CNN.com - A wife's desperate journey with her husband's corpse

Instead of hearing numbers .. death toll, dollars in damage, etc, it's good to hear a story about an individual person, and what she went through. This makes it more real. This is when we realize we're blessed.

NOLA.com: Hurricane Photos

Get a grip on the devastation here: NOLA.com: Hurricane Photos.

I don't know about you, but I'm battling the numbness I feel to catastrophe. Sadly, my heart is growing cold to death and sorrow after hearing stories of death almost daily .. whether in India, Iraq, Spain, London, New York, or the Gulf Coast.

It's probably just constant reminders that this world is just a temporary home.

Google Talk

I'm tempted to download Google Talk but I know it will thrill me for about a week and then it'll just take up hard drive space because it won't take on a significant following among friends. But I want to play!!

You can always count on Google to take away hours of my day.

Dig this

Chipotle is almost ready! I'm ready to get in an inevitably long lines for some grrreat fantastic food. I think I might gain a lot of weight soon ...

Chinatown

We went to the Phoenix Restaurant in Chinatown ... and man we chowed down!

Virtual Earth

Google has received so much hype these days, and MSN is trying to catch up. Virtual Earth is their competition to Google Maps. Honestly, I like it a little better in terms of the UI. It uses more screen real estate, and has a couple better functions that Microsoft won't hesitate to brag about. Instead of doing my own, why don't you read a comparison already out there.

Here's a site where you can play with both maps side by side.

cta alert madness

There's an interesting by-product of the CTA alerts. Soon, after enough people sign up, trains around the city will be ringing with a cacophany of ringtones whenever there is a delay. Are we (those who are alerted and those who are not) ready to deal with that not so welcome addition to our commute?

Today on the Purple Line, it was just me and one other person, yet I'm sure it was quite annoying for everyone else in the car to hear a text message coming in every time an alert was sent. Sure, we can all set our ringers to vibrate, but really, can we get all 350 and counting people to do that? I doubt it.

High-priced housing

USATODAY.com has an article about the states that may be the most overinflated. Chicago doesn't seem too bad .. it's #91. But that still shows a chance for deflation. I want to move to the under-inflated markets! Maybe Dallas, Houston ... or even Indianapolis? hmmm ...

Folding fitted sheets - can it be this easy?

Is it just me, or does this seem like it's hard to do? I guess I'd have to go home and try it. The great mystery may be solved tonight. Oh the difficulties of life.

Fiesta!

I forgot to bring leftover Thai to work today for lunch. But God still provides! I had a feast of some great shrimp and Mexican food galore. You can't beat free food. Especially when you don't expect it. You just can't.

A Dip at the NBC Tower

Little old lady taking advantage of the whirlpool at the NBC tower .. as I wasted my time going to the Indian Consulate.

Staring while waiting

A long delay for us at Western. so i did a lot of staring this morning. this is probably the latest i've ever gotten into work

Gooood Humor

Free Good Humor ice cream at 311 s. Wacker! This made my day!

movies in the park

We enjoyed bits and pieces of "Shark Tale" at Edgebrook Park last night. For some reason I didn't know about the availability of Movies in the Park across Chicago. I hope we take advantage of it more often this summer. The problem is, I have all these teachers around me, who are out of work for the summer! And poor Cecil has to think about going to work the next day. bah!

traffic cops

traffic cop
Originally uploaded by kekil.

I'm not convinced that these traffic control cops (or whatever they're called) add any value to the intersections of the loop. It seems like they're just doing what the traffic lights and walk signals are already doing. I'm sure it feels good to have authority over cars and pedestrians, but do our taxes really need to pay them for it? Maybe you can convince me otherwise ...

I'm ready to get back in gear

i want to keep at it, but i'm never consistent at anything! will i ever be a real blogger? with thoughts in my head and a camera phone in my hand, you would think that i can start posting like crazy.

so ... will you read me? give me a chance! but i don't guarantee anything.

old school laptop

An antique ... This Toshiba uses its 3.5 floppy as its primary drive...

Asian American Festival

Asian American Festival ... food and shopping and performances this whole week!