Finally, I have discovered the correct way to eat the seaweed side dish come with the meal in Korean resturant. I went to the $5 cheap Korean place for lunch. Verona had learnt how to eat the seaweed from observing people from other table. She is so kind to teach me and Tyrone with a good demostration. The correct way is first take a slice of seaweed, lay it flat on top of your rice. Then pick up the seaweed by placing the chopsticks parallel to the rice surface, the seaweed will fold into two halves and hold rice in between. It looks kinda like a sushi. I found the seaweed taste much better eating this way. Now I have another reason going to that resturant for lunch. Oh… I also learnt the sweet dessert drink come with the lunch is called chi-ke. It is pronounced somewhere between chicken and sake.

I have been working on my thesis full throttle these past weeks. After sorting out all the bugs in the simulator, I have made quite some major progress. Tomorrow I am going to have my regular research meeting with professor Hardy. This is the first time I have something solid to show him. I have generated the graph on packet delay measurement. I am going to employ 3 different traffic prediction methods, the first two is already coded, the last one is more involving, hopefully it will be done by this weekend. I am looking forward to get feedback from the professor on how many data I have to collect before I can call it done. I can think of hundred ways to extend the scope of my research, but all of those really doesn’t matter now. All I care is the minium requirement to pass the defense.

I hosted the toastmaster meeting today. This is the first time I take up the role of the meeting chairman. The main task of the chairman is to introduce the speakers and bridge the transition between different sections. I don’t think I am doing very well today, even missed a small section entirely. I keep forgoting my lines when I don’t have my notes. Although I am less neverous than when I am making a speech. The reason I can think of is my lines are much shorter, not enough time for me to start getting nervous. I have to work on my introduction skills more, better find some time to read the toastmaster manual. I don’t think I have time for my next speech in december, probably I will do in january. Still, my biggest challenage is I tends to forget what to say and I have a hard time forming a sentence right on the spot with correct grammer.

I was reading the news today about the failed sucide bomber in Jordan. The bomber is an iraqi woman, she, her husband and two other man bombed a wedding in Jordan. Her husband’s bomb detonated and killed 57 people in the hotel ballroom. Her bomb failed to detonated, and she caught by the police. In the news was her interview by the persecutor, in which she mentioned that after her bomb failed to detonated, her husband pushed her out of the room before his bomb expoded. This is the part of story I don’t understand. If they had already make up their mind to die for what stupid reason, why the husband want to save her life after her bomb had failed. Would it make any difference if they die together from the same bomb? Make a choice between life or death is a big decision, once she had make up her mind, she should not a second thought that easy. If at the very last moment, she still have doubt about her decision, wouldn’t it be to call it off? The mind of sucide bomb is something a sane person can never understand. If someone act in such unhuman manner, totally lack of reasoning in his own will, the society should response to them and deprive their rights of human being as well.

I have promised to help Pat wash Charlie this weekend. Due to different reasons, this task is procastinated until the last day of the long weekend. We started the battle after dinner. With a hind sight, we made the right decision having dinner first, or we won’t have enough energy to wash Charlie. Charlie dislike taking shower, probably from trauma when he was a puppy. Pat’s mom used to spray cold water at backyard to wash Charlie. We exhausted all our methods to make him step into the shower. Pat tryed talk him in patiently, I tried to bride him in using treats, but all our tricks are useless. Charlie just refuse to go inside. At last, we resolve it by force, I carried his legs and Pat carried his front, move him into the shower. Charlie is a very big dog with long hair, it used half a bottle of shampoo. Pat was doing the grooming, and I guard outside the shower to prevent Charlie escape. It took us almost an hour and half to finish washing him. After the shower, I dry Charlie using hair dryer. Charlie seems not very happy about having to take a shower, he didn’t laugh as usual when we dry him. It is really a lot of work to shower a dog, the $50 fee charged by Petcera seems not very high after I had experience dog washing first hand.