Babel for office use

In central America Spanish, an aviador "an aviator" is a person who only shows up on payday. Yes, everyone knows a few of those.

Afrikaans language, pampiervampier "paper-vampire" is the other word for stapler. It punches two holes in papers but if you are not careful, you could draw blood on your finger too.

In German, Blechlawine literally means “metal avalanche”. It describes the traffic jam on the highway. Use it only when you are very late… hmm… I realized that only the people who are constantly late faces traffic jam in the morning.

If you are late to go home everyday and your wife is angry with you, why don’t you get her a drachenfutter, literally means “dragon fodder” in German. It’s the peace offering a guilty husband gives to his wife.

Oh! And finally I hope you do not have a koshatnik in your office. That’s a person who sells stolen cats in Russian.

No... nothing to do with this cat below.

This cat survived

5:14pm

This cat survived Hurricane Rita as well :)

A day to feel light hearted... driving to work today was reeeaaaly nice. Everyone seems to be smiling in their cats.. I mean cars.

There are however quite a few of stranded cars at the road side though.

I am feeling guity that Hurricane Rita did not hit us directly as was perdicted days ago and that our neighbour at Port Arthur, Beaumont and Lake Charles got the punch of the eye. At the same time I felt fortunate... I feel fortunate.

Hurricane Rita... the day after

Hurricane Rita is now an afterthought, an aftermath...

The TV finally stopped showing the 24hours live feed of Rita and for a change, Oakland Raiders and Philidalphia Eagles and playing each other. It is so nice to see adults play GAMES again. Nothing will ever matter, they score POINTS against each other. Win or lose, no one will die... shake their hands and go home to their family.

I watch Oakland scored 7 points and then turn off the TV and I did what a Houstonian must... I took my family to a Japanese restaurant and eat seafood. (I hope their sashimi was stored at the correct temperature yesterday) Cost me an arm and a leg but we were happy. A fried Ika, a Caterpillar roll, two Spider rolls, a sashimi combo, two miso soup... emmm... I like!

Then went to the mall for a stroll and bought two science fiction books (in case of another hurricane, I will have books to read with the torchlight) and a little matchbook Ford GT.

Hmmm... a boring day suddenly sounds like a good day.

I am finally going to play tennis later today. Though I think we might have to clean up the tennis court a little bit...

Hurricane Rita T-0day!

10:11am
Electricity is back!!
Slept late last night but the storm woke us up at about 2:30am. We moved to the mattress fortress to avoid possible broken window glass. The kids really enjoy the mattress fortress. We were really lucky to avoid the eye. In fact being on the clean side of the storm, we have avoided a lot of problems, such as flooding and tornados.

There are numerous debris on the ground, mostly vegetation. A few shingles but I did not see any broken glass. The neighbourhood seems to work hard to clean up all the potential object that would be carried by the wind from their yard.

The wind is still strong out there but no where near and wee hours of the morning. Most importantly we were spared by the force of nature. Hurricane Rita's eye missed us, but she set her force onto other communities.

I shall see what I can do to help when the storm subside. I do have a lot of non-perishable food in stock. The only problem is that Rita will turn into a tropical storm and linger for another 5 days or so. That spells heavy flooding and endangerment of lives.

00:42am
This is it.

This is the day of landfall.
A portrait of her nearing Lake Charles area.

So far, we are quite sure that Houston has been spared. We will be getting about 75 mph wind maximum, when Hurricane Rita landfall in about one hour time.
Meaning we will get some shingles flying away from our roofs and most probably land on our neighbours' windows. No major structural damage is expected though.

We might lost water and electricity, but according to the various mayors, it will not be more than 5 days. I hope my baby will not be too fussy during these days without AC in Texas summer.

A curfews had been issued at various part of H-town and vacinity. Looks like it should be relatively peeaceful since there's National Guards deployed sparingly around the city.

The wind is blowing fiercely at times and rocks the windows at times and take a break or two the next... the cycle seems to repeat itself. It's like the worst thunderstorm, but without lighting. I was surprised by the "without lighting" part.

I am getting tired... so tired... need to get some zleep...

Oh! thanks for the notes, BLB, whoever you are.

It's wonderful to get a few phone calls from friends that I have not talked to in years. Mostly from Oklahoma and one from D-town. They must be wizards to find my current phone number.

I will be sleeping under a couch tonight... no seriously... really...

My thoughts goes to all the folks at Port Arthur, Lake Charles and Galveston. Be safe.

Well, before I lost my electricity... good night/morning.

Hurricane Rita T-1days

5:55pm
Just went out to look at the sky after watching the TV broadcast for hours. It seems that Hurricane Rita will not put her eyes on us... directly, and she is now a CAT 3 hurricane. I just want to see it for myself.
TV don't lie, the dark cloud is moving very fast, it rains a little and the wind is probably not more than 30 miles right now.
Portrait of Hurricane Rita at 5:00pm.
Looked for wall clouds (habit since my Oklahoma prairie days) but detect non. So the possibility of funnel cloud is reduced.
Oh! yes, we have a lot of birds today. Lots of them, especially grakles (not common in my neighbourhood) I guess they must have watch TV as well (that my area is now safe-er).
Well, the worst is yet to come... we'll see. The hurricane is still taking her time to landfall... things will change in a matter of hours...

1:36pm
Looks like Hurricane Rita might go down to a CAT 3 when it landfall a few hours from now. That's really good news if it sustance that way.
The wind is picking up a little more but nothing that will get the hair behind your back stand yet.

This is the portrait of Hurricane Rita at the moment.

10:53am
Hurricane Rita is slowly approaching. The sky is still quite bright but the cloud is slowly thicken. The wind is picking up and the formation of the cloud is slowly showing the danger that lies ahead.

The cloud formation as seen in the picture, this picture is taken facing North East, the direction of Miss Rita. This was taken early this morning, metering is set to the sky.
Finally finished boarding up the house with what ever I can find (I only manage boarding up 3 windows, while taped the rest). I only covered larger windows facing the North East side, I hope the Hurricane doesn't do the looping motion and come back with a strange direction (as some of the scenarios indicated).

7:07am
First arrest occured to the surfer that almost drown (cause they found his surfboard first, unskilled and stupid if you ask me). He was saved and handcuffed when he tried to go back to the sea. I wanted to say something else about this but, no... I changed my mind.

6:57am
Really bad news. A evacuation bus just blew up at I-45 North highway. Multiple fatalities had been reported.
It's a bus with carrying elderly citizen who rely on oxygen tank, and the oxygen tank exploded.

6:02am
It's here. The rain will starts pouring in vacinity around Houston today, in a few hours (about 5 hours).
The city advised Houstonian who still plans to evacuate to bunker down, because there's not enough time anymore. No gas and traffic problems will expose the stranded motorist.
The sea level is now level with the Galveston's sea wall, at 17 feet.
Hurricane Rita is now a CAT 4 hurricane. As bad as it is, it is actually "feels" a little better from the CAT 5 storm that it was presented to us.

At the home front. Can't sleep very well.
The yard is now cleaned. I have collapsed the basketball hoops, and brought in all the yard equipments. Taped some windows with the duck tapes that I have left.
Today, I will start working on creating a mattress fortress in the middle of the house.

The latest story says that we will still get a 75 mph or above wind even though the hurricane path had changed a little, but it's still shifting. The good news is that Houston will be at the "safe side" and thus, tornado should be "minimal".

Wishes:
Family safe.
Jaguar Shark safe.
Electricity not gone too long.
Peace instead of chaos.
Tennis with KS on Sunday, or chess with Dave on Sunday... that would means that everything is peachy and fine... :)

Hurricane Rita T-2days

Hurricane Rita is getting closer to our home, and it's a little too late to evacuate. The traffic just won't allow it. Furthermore, there's no gas around... even a full tank of gas will just takes you 24 miles away from where you are, in this 4 mph traffic. Then you will be stuck because you cannot refuel.

My family and some of my friends are staying. We did some planning last night, it lasted for 5 hours. Among us, we have a retired cop to lead us, we planned for the communication without the phone system.

... but my worries are mostly for my infant and the 3 year old. Any how...

Hurricane Rita preparation

11:21am
Just came back from the grocery store. Took me an hour to get there and about 10 minutes to come home.

Nothing much that you need are available... but all the pumpkins, and are Halloween costumeson sell. So if you want a good bargain on these items, come to Suburb Houston.

Plywood are gone now and the line to the HomeDepot cashiers are hours long. The line goes out to the parking lot.

Here's some snapshots that I took while I was waiting in the traffic this morning:
These are not the sensational pictures that you will see on TV but a personal shots of middle class America in the suburb that mostly forgotten.

All the schools are closed since Thursday.

Need bread... I suggest that you find an alternative, get the diet bars or something.

Water... soda and Gatorade are still available but may be it's time to stock up some tap water.
Batteries. Only AAA, AA and 9V are still out there.

This is the proud-lucky dude that paid $400 for the 9 pieces of plywoods. I think he is also the town villian that bought the last 9 pieces.

I feel for this family. They stock up their van with everthing. Got to the grocery store and got their supplies... then their car won't start.

Well, at least they will miss the 4 mph traffic.

Good luck to all. I will update the situation if I could... Losing electricity and the phone service and air conditional in Texas in the middle of summer... hmmm...
I really hope that you will not see me on TV

Please support The American RedCross.

Beauty at 165 miles per hour

Hurricane Rita's eye. As pretty as she is, I might have to avoid her completely.

Hurricane Rita T-3days

3 days to go before Hurricane Rita’s landfall.

Counting the days. Working along at work but my concentration level is not at 100%... nor is it at 80%... part of me is debating if my family and I should skip out of H-town as soon as possible.

Last night, my 3 years old and I went for a little Hurricane Shopping. We got a bunch of can food and chicken of the sea in packs. We also got a few Alphabet soups as well, but of course.

Wanted get another torchlight but all of them are out! From Maglite to what have you, all of them were out at both Target and Walmart! Of course I could not find a single D-cell or C-cell battery.

I am going to hit Sam’s Club later today and then the drug stores and office department stores, in that order.

I have enough water at home. I will fill up the bathtub with water for the non-drinking purposes.

Going to check my first-aid kid and find the camping equipment… may be buy some charcoal for burning… so much to think about.

Got to withdraw some cash tonight… I’ll bring my camera with me where ever I go from today onwards.

***

1:00pm
Just came back from shopping around.
No batteries C-cell or D -cell,
No bread,
No purified water(gatorade is still available),
No torchlight,
No duct tape...

I am really thinking harder about leaving now...

***

3:20pm
This just in: Most of the city is running out of gasoline.

***

3:26pm
Hurricane Rita is now a CAT 5 storm!! Sustaining win at 165 mph... got to discuss with my wife about leaving town now.

Hurricane Rita T-4days

We in Houston got a problem.

Hurricane Rita is coming our way.

To see if you are in the danger zone, click this… THIS.

Here’s something that will be helpful,

Hurricane evacuation tips:
Some tips in case you need to evacuate your home for a storm:
- Stay alert to storm advisories. Evacuate if told to do so.
- Map out your route, using roads specified by local authorities.
- Do not get on the road without a place to go.
- Fill your car with gasoline.
- Before a storm threatens, contact your veterinarian or local humane society for information on preparing your pets for an emergency.
- Secure your home before leaving. Board up windows and glass doors, anchor loose yard objects or bring them inside and lock your doors.
- Get cash. After a hurricane, banks and ATMs may be temporarily closed.
- If possible, evacuate to the home of either friends or family in a non-vulnerable area within your county.
- Next try a motel or hotel and as a last resort go to a public shelter. Remember, shelters are not designed for comfort and do not usually accept pets.

Source: The American Red Cross

Life of a bug

Dr. Kris Erickson was a professor of Entomology at the University of Copenhagen. His research is mostly on lesser known beetles in the world. About two year ago, he stumbled on a new found species of beetle, the Mryptilephelus coryli, thus decided to study the little bugger.

The Mryp beetle is small comparing to the common beetles and it goes through simple metamorphosis to adulthood, mate and died within a period of 14 days.

What he found fascinated was the fact that the Mryp beetles will never move more than 10 feet away from where they emerged from the egg, even though they have a pair of wings that are capable to carry them to far away places. (This fact that they don’t travel and multiply in exponential scale made them so rare.)

Dr. Erickson worked on his research for two year. Meticulously studying them in their natural habitat and also in lab tests. To determine their habit, diet, the impact of their existence to the environment, but most of all, their way of life. The fact that they never travel more than a 10 feet radius was so fascinating to him.

By the end of his result, he published his findings in a major nature magazine. His found that the Mryp beetle sleep in the day, wake up early at nigh, travel an average of 8 feet to the food source, usually a kind of rare mushroom, and then they eat for hours. After that they will travel the same path back to the log where they were born and sleep. They would do this for 12 days, mate on the 13th day and do the routine again on the 14th day and then died.

After Dr. Kris Erickson published his paper. He went to his favorite restaurant near the University, sit at his usual seat, smiled and put a bullet through his brain. Ending his own routine way of life… he was 42.


The End


(This is a work of fiction and there's no Mryp Beetle nor Dr. Kris Erickson. And no beetles were hurt during his lab testing stage)

p.s. If we were to live without ever venturing outside of our comfort zone or what we are familiar with, we would be living like the fictional Mryp Beetles. Life would not be worth living, just like what Dr. Erickson had found out.

So gang live a little, do something out of the routine way of life. Try Chinese food, to learn another language, travel to the end of the world, sing... better jazz, write a poem, play waterpolo, wear a pink shirt, help someone, talke to your neighbor, switch off the TV for 48 hours, paint something (especially if you are bad at it)... enjoy the sunset (when was the last time you did that?)... enjoy sunrise (huh?)... laugh with your friends and identify the people who loves you and spend some time with them... trust me it's worth it.

Time saving morning ritual...

This morning, I was cruising in my car again on the Beltway-8 northbound. The traffic was moderate and I would be on time to the office, so I was just relaxing and enjoying myself. Shifting down to over take the slower car and then shifting up to cruise, while darting gracefully around the asphalt. And of course I am one of those good guys that use their signal lights.

During the drive to the office, I decided to solve the problem of time wasting. Or better yet, time saving. Now how do you save a few minutes here and there to get to work early, while sleep a few minutes more, and hitting the snooze button every 2 minutes for 7 more times?

Well, I came up with 4 little things that you can do to save time:

First of all:
Instead of taking that morning waking shower. Wash you hands with common soap, instead. Do not use perfumed soap.
You see, taking a shower means that you lose 10 minutes. But washing only your hands with common soap will save you 9 minutes or more!! When you meet someone, the person will smell the common soap in your hands and “know” that you have your shower and you are neat and clean. Common soap gives you that appearance, while perfume smell will give an impression that you are hiding your stench with cologne.


Second of all:
What about your not washing hair?
Wear a cap if you are a babe (guys love girls who wear a baseball cap). You can wear a cap if you are a guy with a beer gut. It fits the image, but if you are just a regular nice guy, or a geek please do yourself a favor and wear a fedora dress hat. You know, the kind of hat that men used to wear before President Kennedy decided that it was not cool enough?

Third:
Instead of brushing your ALL teeth for 5 minutes. Brush only your 4 front teeth. I mean you save about 4 minutes and 30 seconds right there. People only see your four front teeth anyway.

Fourth:
If you really need to go to the bathroom. Why do it slowly? Just use all your energy and clean your gut in 2 seconds. I do not want to elaborate about this but this technique saves you at least 5 or more minutes.

You see, life if simple. Life is for the enjoyment of useful, free time, to do nothing. We can save a lot of time if we just put our heads to it.

I know I am going to enjoy sleeping 15 more minutes tonight. I hope you will too.

Coolest graphic design you will never see... skateboard

To prevent myself from going to the half way house of architecture design, I make it a habit to visit bookstores twice a week. Usually I visit one during lunch hour at one of the work days and then on Friday night, I bring my 3 year old son with me. He loves his graphic novels and anything with dragons or dinosaurs in it. Me, I love everything.

This week, I would like to share a book that I really love. It’s one of the coolest book that no one would notice… unless you are a skate punk or a skate rat (according to the book). I do not skate myself, never have the balance to do it with any grace. But I love the graphic design that are infused into and become one with the decks. These are some of the best graphic design of our time… recorded temporarily until the cement eats them up.

The book that I am talking about is all about skateboard art, it is called BOARDS by Universe Publishing. The book is an easy read, completes with graphics that will makes you go, dang! And put a big smile on your face.

The book covers skateboard design that are influenced and inspired by – kitchen appliances, sixties design, skate camp, the New York subway system, anime, graffiti, hot rods, you name it. It spotlighting some of the best art work includes boards of Birdhouse, Girl, Chocolate, Zoo York, Enjoi and 5boro.

Check it out. The best graphic design under your feet, pretty cool feat I must add.

Birthday... tennis... revelation

I played tennis with my buddy Mickey (No, not the mouse). We used to spar quite a bit way back when (since college), until I partially torn lateral humeral epicondylitis about a year ago. I took twelve months off to let my elbow heal. I started playing again about month ago, even though I still suffer discomfort every time I play.

Mickey and I decided to play to celebrate me getting older (my birthday was September 11). We played with an all out intensity. Trying to beat each other and for the bragging right that was twelve months over due.

My serves were working well. Got about seventy percent of those in and setting up a comfortable “put away shots” after short rallies.

We played for an hour, with no easy shot for one another. And at that point it was 5-5 and we hold our serves. But the moment it hit that hour mark, my wheels came lose on me… I could not chase down the balls… even though the shots were there but I just could not get there. He held his serve and then broke mine to win by 7-5.

I hate feeling old. I really hate feeling old.

Green Lantern

I finally went to Toy R Us (next door) and get a really cool John Steward Green Lantern action figure. I bought the one with the metallic green color with digital pattern. It comes complete with a detachable Green Lantern Battery as well. Place it on top of my monitor with his right hand pointing toward the sky while showing off his ring. His left hand holding the Green Lantern Battery.

"John Stewart, the man who worn the power ring, symbol of the intergalactic Green Lantern Corps. Controlled by his will power, the ring made his imagination manifest, and being an architect, he conceived some pretty cool objects."

You see, the "donkey" is now been replaced by this Green Lantern. It should tell you a little about me... "growing up"... ?? (hmmm... for buying an action figure...)

Oh! by the way, I love comics and guys, my birthday is coming up soon...

A day... by design

The morning drive was really ridiculous. 20 mph for one and a half hours was really not what the highway was meant to be.

Got to the office at 8:29am. Took a few minutes to settle down, drank a can of Coke (to get the heart pumping), checked my “To Do List” from Friday and read some headlines from the internet and… there. I am ready for the new day. It’s now 8:41am.

I reached for my roll of sketch paper,… rolled them out on the drafting table. Took a deep breath and glanced out of the windows and saw the flowers reflecting all the sun’s glory to the world. Summer is always beautiful as long as you are not roasting in the sun.

I smiled looking at the flowers. Took another deep breath and hold a Pentel Sign Pen in my hand. Studied the programs, then closed my eyes and started to brainstorm. Writing down ideas for a new little project that I was assigned… first page and then second page. By the time I finished, it was 9:44am. I had about 43 listed ideas with elaborations on the pages.

I took another deep breath, looked out the windows again, and this time the yellow leaves were falling off the trees. The wind was blowing in a comfortable pace, a couple went by laughing as they walked. Autumn had arrived and the whole earth looked like she had been caressed by King Midas.

I paused a little for the leaves. Look down and seriously concentrated on my brainstorm list and start to put more notes next to them. Eliminated the “far out” ideas by crossing them out. I then torn up more papers from the roll and start sketching these ideas into lines and forms that communicates. I sketched with speed but with not much precision. By the time it was 11:02am I had 7 pages of sketches. And from the 43 ideas in the brainstorm list, only 11 survived.

Overlay them once again, sketched the necessary lines bold and ignored the rest of the chicken scratches. At about noon, I was down to my final 2 designs that I liked and workable. I sat there staring at them debating with myself and then try to combine and fuse some of the ideas together. By 12:00 noon, I got it. I had one sketch in my hand to show, for of all the work that I put in this morning. The muses had been kind today.

I turned my cell phone to silence and put it in the drawer. Took my faithful pocket size sketch book, got my coat and scurf from the closet, and then went out into the snow. The cold in the air pinched my ears and my nose a little, but it was not too bad, it was not windy. I walked slowly, smiled thinking about the design while enjoying the misty puff of air from my mouth every time I breathed.

I walked two blocks to get a burger from the Prince’s Dinner. Ordered a Classic combo with onion rings and a homebrew root beer in a chilled mug (yes, even in winter), emmm... just beautiful. I then open my sketch pad, took out a Razor Point and start sketching the silhouettes of girl, she had short hair, and was wearing a heavy leather coat, laughing joyously while enjoying her burger. She was definitely conversing happily with her boyfriend and very much in love with him. I stole a little of that magical moment into my sketch book. That made me smiled (and I will smile every time I look at the sketch again).

Got back to the office, poured a cup of hot black coffee and here it goes again. Checked my e-mail, checked the messages on the phone, and checked the messages on my cell phone. Good, there was no fire drill (urgent problems to solve) at lunch. Turned on AutoCad and start to make my sketches into electronic form.

By 4:43pm, the CAD drawing was now more presentable. By then I had drawn 9733 lines. Trimmed and deleted 6782 lines to get 2951 of recognizable perfection from it. Stretching my tired hands. It was 4:47 pm when I printed the drawing out for a brief moment and then turn it into a PDF file and then e-mail it to my client. I sat there, arranged my files and put the sketch papers in a folder while waiting for the phone to ring. 5:12pm… hmmm… he was not there when I e-mail it. I knew this because a client will always have an opinion, after glancing for 120 seconds, at the simple 2951 lines that you presented to him.

Packed up and rearranged my area a little, then I made small talks with my colleagues, about football, the humidity, the weather and of course the traffic. In that order, too…

Working on a small innovative project that the client did not care much about the cost… This was almost a perfect day, I mean it’s not everyday that the season changes within a 10 hours period right? I am getting a little hungry again, hmmm… I should now go join my fellow Houstonian in the highways. Well, at least it is now spring time and the birds are singing.

Got to save this. Here we go… Bye.

What the elve said about OU...

Moved to my football blog.

Black Saturday

Moved to my football blog.

TV listening for TCU @ OU game!!

Moved to my football blog.

Katrina - How to help...

Hurricane Katrina came and went, leaving behind a catastrophe that is quite unimaginable. The images of sufferings were so painful to look at. Tanks with armed patrolmen made the scenes even worst to take in. Americans has always been strong and compassionate at moments like this. In this time of need, Americans are known to be generous.

Folks, be generous but don’t be stupid!! When you want to give food and stuffs, remember to give them in imperishable form. Raw meat, sausages or salad will not only goes bad before they reached the needy but create more problems for cleaning them. Give “can food”, that’s the best form of food to be donated.

When you donate money, please be smart and use the “proper channels”. American Red Cross is the one I would recommend. They are made up of 96% volunteer workers, so you can rest assure that your money will go to the needy and not a bunch of so call “organizers”. They have been around for ages, yes, they are real.

My in-laws and I have jointly taken into our homes, 6 people from New Orleans (by recommendation). That's the least we do to our fellow Americans...

Hopefully with the little things that each of us can offer, we can pull together to help the healing and the rebuilding of something that only together we can achieve.