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Sunday, November 27, 2005

SVN, gcc, and c++ on Mac attempt

Back from Seattle, and with power nap, there's still time left on sunday evening.

Sitting in front of monitor, stop searching for MLS that wouldn't do some magical trick to find me an affordable yet nice place in Seattle, I searched for C++ howto websites. My C++ is rustier than some old fixer-upper houses, I'm sure.

opening up a shell on Mac G5, I typed in 'which gcc' and got "no gcc ..." returned.

Should I just give up and open up my linux laptop?

That's typical thing I'd do, so to be not so typical I started browsing/searching for how to get gcc running on Mac.

There were some mailing threads, then I went to gnu.org which landed me on gcc.gnu.org eventually. I saw list of compilers on GNU site, including 'chicken' which sounded funny in name but am sure a serious project. As I'm reading down gcc website, it says gcc is moving away from cvs to subversion. Well, there are tons of people who don't even know about cvs existances yet developer communities had enough of it and is moving away from it? I've heard SVN(Subversion) but have not actively used it. Don't think I'm such an expert in using cvs, creating branches and merging them, and so forth.

Oh well, now that I'm on developer.apple.com site, perhaps I will have a better luck. Hope I wouldn't forget to continue reading/playing w/ C++ now that I've digressed so far away from it and am focused on Mac env. setup for development. as said in Chicken Little: What are we talking about?
Heh

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Sunday, November 20, 2005

Oops, Embarcadero Center lighting isn't today.

Returning late from Sharks last night led to another, until it was way after 2pm that I went to bed. Waking up a few times, yet it wasn't noon 'til I woke up. Late but refreshed, it's a nice and lazy sunday. After late brunch of pancake feast, I headed hurriedly to downtown to watch Embarcadero Center lighting ceremony between 4pm and 6pm.

Getting off Muni 38 on Powell, I was happily surprised to see H&M opened. It's been a month or so since I took Muni to Caltrain for commute, thus I didn't realize it opened up so soon. The booming store separated entrance & exit to do head-count of customers. Line was pretty long, but was moving fast. I was in store within minutes, and saw how booming it was. Made me remember the busy shopping street of Myongdong in Seoul from last month's trip. With 'Forever 21' also opened recently, I do hope SF downtown recovers long recession and have a nice holiday sales. Many items were cheap and were on sale, but I didn't dare buy anything with such long lines.

Embarcadero Center had many people skating, and yet there was no other special events. Buildings were outlined with yellow lights, separating buildings from dark sky, but that was about it. Naively thinking that perhaps things will be different at 6pm, we went over to Ferry terminal, hanging out at bookstores and at shops inside. Returning to the center by ice rink around 10 to 6 o'clock, we did a bit more waiting. There were people lined up to get food hand-out, but that's about all action I could see.

After getting some thing to eat and returning home, I realized the event is on friday the 18th. Duh! It was fun watching ice skating and some shopping in downtown, but I seem to have missed Embarcadero Center event today.

Oh well, better luck next time, I guess. And, I should pay better attention to dates.
:)

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recovering Sharks welcome Ricci's visit

Restaurants around HP Pavilion comes back to life with revival of NHL, and to my dismay the BBQ Bar & restaurant about 1/2 block away from Sharks tank was so booked that I had to walk away from food at 7:14pm not wanting to be late for 7:30pm game. Lesson learned was first BBQ isn't good when there's no game nor crowds, and second that be in the queue for food way before 6pm to get a bite of babyback rib for 7:30pm game.

The Bar/waiting area was fully equipped with some five different TV mounted to wall displaying different NHL games and a Stanford vs Berkeley college football in the corner. The nearest TV to where I was sitting had Philly playing against Pitsburg 5 to 3, winning by 2. With Sharks' late streaks of losing game it wasn't all that funny to see Penguins being slammed left and right. Someone behind said something about Rathje in Flyers, our Mike Rathje. Boy, was I out of sync or what? With all the rule changes and player tradings that happened, I didn't even realize Rathje being traded. Saw him a few times on ice as well as sitting out on a penalty for 2 minutes. Penguins, when there were only3 minutes left, pulled the goalie out as most of actions were at Flyer's goal. Unlucky for Penguins this gave Flyer another chance to score and the game ended 6:3. Hope this isn't Sharks fate tonight!!!

When we finally left restaurant in empty stomache it was a bit too late to take a chance at another restaurant's long line, so we headed to the Sharks tank. Maybe it was my impatience not wanting to miss the game, or maybe it was my growling stomache emtpy with anticipation of babyback rib, but the lady working at hotdog stand was super super slow and was making about everybody waiting on line cranky. Only if I'd known. I picked shortest line, yet it was about three times as slow as lines surrounding me left and right. I sure wan't having a good night.

The game opened as I was taking last bite of hotdog by this lady singer who seem about a note lower than most of singers and a bit of slurriness in her pronounciation. As I was told Ricci received warm welcoming by the crowds wearing Phoenix' red jersey w/ number '40' on his back. Like most Sharks' guys he had a clean haircut, making him look much sharper.

First period opened disasterously with Coyote scoring 2 goals almost within first 4-5 minutes. Having obnoxious, loud and drunk people surrounding us didn't help much either. And, a girl sitting behind me was constantly yelling 'Sarks, you can do it. It's easy for you' which sounded more like 'sucks' than 'sharks'. Oww~~~ how annoying. The first one, I told myself was lucky one. 2nd? oh well. I have to admit our passes were pretty unconnected, and a few times players fell as if they're amateurs.

After disappointing, almost laughable first period I hoped that second period would be better than the first, just like last wednesday's game. Sadly it wasn't any better. Passes were still very much disconnected, speed slow and sluggish, while Coyotes' guys were making passes through our guys left and right. No Power Play helped, and as there were an occassion of 5 on 3 due to two Coyotes in penalty at the same time.

It looked as though only fun part of the game was the fight Thornton had at the beginning of the first period. He's been back for like 2 or 3 games since the injury and kept him from playing last 5 or 6 games.

The third period opened with not much more expectation, but wham! Sharks made a spectacular recovery and scored with first few minutes of third period. The period that began hopeless at 1:3 now is at 2:3, and I prayed inwardly 'just one more'. Oh well, I guess I shouldn't have done that because that's how the game went. With another cherry-picking victory of 3rd score, now we are tied and there's 10minutes to go in the game. Both team fierce, the last 10minutes were pretty well played but neither team scored. That means another 5minutes on ice, 4 on 4, and about latter 1/2 of the game was power play for Sharks which didn't help much anyways. As Sharks haven't been so successful at shoot-out, I was worried. Nabi successfully fended the goal for first shot and we did score 1st shot so it seem not so impossible to win this game. Paddy, the team captain that seem unusually sluggish today, was 2nd to shoot and he didn't score. Eventually the game ended 4:3, a victory to Phoenix Coyotes. Losing to a team from desert, Phoenix, Arizona, was a bit of a stink.

But with last 2 games lost during shoot-out, and seeing Thornton and Hannan playing pretty steady games, it made me hope that perhaps we're slowly getting back together and may do ok this season.
Afterall we did have a year off due to the union dispute, and afterall there were much rules changes and player tradings to consider.

Go Sharks! Go Sharks...

Maybe it's time I pickup my skates again and carry the hockey stick.

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Saturday, November 12, 2005

crazy passion and luck at shark tank

SJ Sharks' 7:30pm game against Dallas Stars was a sold out game.
Haven't been to sharks tank in a month did build up some excitement for new games.

The schedule & player stat was fun to read, though disappointing to see my favourite fighter Scott Parker's listed as he missed 1/2 of games due to injury.

What would you expect from Dollas? It's not like fearsome Canadian nor northern part of state, but some desert place near Mexico border, where they may hardly see ice but plentyful tropical storm. That was my thought. Boy, were they good. They seem pretty fit physically, I guess due to all the cowboy lifestyle, heh. And, their passes were pretty accurate & they seem much faster at skating and tagging our players at times. Of course I once saw a Stars player almost falling w/o no one near him, in a very clownish gesture. Heehee...

First period was dragging and slow game. As if Sharks' guys are not fully awake. I couldn't help yelloing 'Come on!' or mutter to self that they can't seem to be skating clean nor see where puck is at. Stars scored its first goal easily within first 10minutes into the game. What an 'ouch' that was. After Nabi seeming to have mis-calculated 1st attempt at goal, it was a clear shot for the Stars, with Nabi already on ice and net seeming empty. The guy just had to be accurate shooter. Oh well, it's only 1st 10 minutes, we all thought. And, with the sharks towl handed out at entrance, we cheered on more. In another 5 minutes, there's another goal scored by Stars. I thought I almost saw a fight breaking out at 1st period, for that last 5 minutes of 1st period. The mood got super competitive, and Sharks finally seem awake from deep sleep and thirsty for blood & action.

Oops, did I say blood. Be careful what you wish for. 'Cuz there was blood shed. Unfortunately it was one of us. Hannan, while in agressive puck fight & body checkin' was down on ice. Took him almost a minute to get up and for a moment both the crowds & players remained in calm while medic helped him walk off the ice. There were blood from his cheek on ice on the spot he fell and dripped blood while he walked off the ice. Yike! That seem to have inspired Sharks a bit. Last 5 minutes of 1st period our players seem to play more around Stars' net, playing some cherry picking. But with all the 'Oh!' and 'Ouches!' and exclamations, puck that seem to fly toward net never made into the net, got caught by massive bodies laying in front of the net, or caught by goalie, or something. It was pretty intense & disturbing. Just for the minutes it was at Stars' net and number of attempts made, it should've scored at least 1. I couldn't help blaming the luck. Sharks just are suffering from a bad game, a bad condition for some reason and a bad luck. That was my defense for them.

2 goals Sharks gave out made the 2nd period rather an interesting game. I think we the audiences came back with low expection and subdued mood, and yet Sharks seem live and faster on feet. Yay, Sharks. 2nd period flew like a mere minute instead of 20minutes. And, amazing a sight it was to see Hannan back on players' row, and yet more surprising to see him on ice. If couch Wilson was going to lecture all the players for tonight's game, there's no way he could say anything to that boy. And, I'm sure medics would have to load him up on painkiller to help him get through the night. Energetic, eager to win back the goals, Sharks easily scored 2 back to be even with Stars. The Stars seem to remain their physical strength and kept up consistant playing yet Sharks somehow were different in 2nd period; like a transformation of Acquarium Sharks to wild one out in Pacific Ocean? Anyhow, there were a few interesting double-powerplay against Stars, plenty boo~~~s against Stars and zebras(when audiences felt pentalty on our guys were not fair).
Was glad to see someone like Sturm(number 19) & Primeau(number 15) making a good progress, was somewhat disappointed at seeing Kyle(number 4), Cheechoo(number 14) and Marleau(number 12) seeming a bit sluggish. Hannan was just crazy. He's already well known for most ice-time as is. It was amazing to see him back on ice, and was super saddening to see him down on ice again and be carried out again with his blood yet once again on ice. He was crazy yet to return to ice, for the third time and it was funny to see how Stars' defensemen somehow left him alone and instead gave Brad(number 7) more of body checking, the share would have been Hannan's.

After a rather comeptitive game in 2nd period, 3rd period seem quiet interesting. At 2:2, both team needed that 3rd goal badly. Again, the game passed through fast, and unfortunately there was no goal to be gained by either team. Both team did try hard, yet no goals made, and it went to 5 minutes extra period followed by shoot-out, which I feared. For some reason Nabi's coming out of net area bothered me. I guess it would have been a good tactic if he was able to stop the goal, but since puck consistantly hit the net, I couldn't help but be a bit upset with his strategy. Yeah, yeah, I know he was supposed to do that, but still I wanted him to block that goals. And, sadly Marleau and Cheechoo, two of our best skaters and goal-makers, both failed to put the puck into the nets, both times caught by Dallas' goalie.

Thus, a sad & bitter game ended. Well, it was pretty interesting and it's not quiet bitter. I wish our players were a bit more alert and less tired-looking. It's always good to play against worthy opponent rather than making a victory over an easy prey, but still it made me worry for Sharks as it's only the beginning of season and the team looked rather sluggish.

Hannan's persistance, Stars' physical fit, and our guys' bad condition made me think about what passion one must have to become a professional hockey player, and made me wonder how much of that zeal we do apply in our day-to-day humdrum jobs. Surely I can make my job more meaningful for myself, hopefully without a cut in my chick, heh. And, many unsuccessful attempts our guys made at Dollas' net made me wonder about luck & fate. Was it just a bad game tonight or was this luck, undescribe-able and seemingly unscientific, against our team tonight?

:) I hope all Sharks fans enjoyed the game as much as I did. Can't wait 'til next game. Hopefully I'll see Thornton & Parker at that game, too. ^^

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Thursday, November 10, 2005

CSS & WWW::Mechanize

I've played with LWP modules before but not w/ WWW::Mechanize. It's rather a powerful one. Still, with badly formatted html form, it's giving me no end of trouble.

Also started looking up CSS for webpage layout & styles. It's interesting. I'm playing with fonts color & sizes, and format stuff. Want to explore webpage layout for the cool outline.

Interesting, how when one think things got so advanced there are new world yet opening up to explore.

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Thursday, November 03, 2005

winter's here

Thought it was pretty chilly in Seoul, Korea. My first day back from Korean trip and it's pretty chilly here. Leaves remain greener in this so called sunny state of California, but thickness of coat people wear get a bit thicker and even in sunny day light chillier air makes me shiver a bit in my long sleeve. With daylight saving time change that I've missed along with halloween, it also gets darker a lot faster.

Without a warning winter's at my face, and I guess that means this year's almost over as well.

Time to reflect how this year has been, and to ponder what next year will bring.

To begin with I'll have to re-stock my closet with last winter's sweaters and put away summer short-sleeves.