My friend in his blog wrote he treasure friends that can have deep conversation with. I totally agree with him whole heart. I don’t have many friends I can talk to with out any worries. Other than my LSC buddies, a couple of friends from primary schools and universities, I usually have some reserve about what I talk to other people. I can tell people about my opinions on various issues, but normally I won’t expose myself too much. There is a line inside my mind that I only allow the few trusted one cross over. I have made another comment about deep conversation and BS is only seperated by a thin line. I would like to clarify this statement. Deep or shallow conversation, brainful or brainless, meaningful or not are three independent variables. They are co-related in some way. BS by definition is meaningless coversation, which is difference from brainless. Usually brianless implies meaningless, but brainful doesn’t always imply meaningful. Deep conversation some times touch on topics like purpose of life, career goal, childhood dream, or even philosophical values. Those conversation defintely require lots of brain juice, but at the end it is often conclusionless and meaningless. It kinda like the analog that a undergrad knows nothing about everything and a Ph.D knows everything about nothing. In conclusion, a true friend is someone I can talk freely with, regardless whether the conversation is deep or shallow, BS or meaningful, brainful or brainless.

It is time for the 2nd annual foosball tournament at work.? Last year, I did quite bad in the foosball tournament.? I was neww to foosball.? After 1 year of practice, I think I can do much better this time.? Moreover, this year I am teaming up with Mike King, a very strong player.? Since Mike is better playing offense, so I will take care of the defense.? I can save most goals except garbage goals or shots by John Sy.? My long range attack from the back is quite effective, with some good chance turning into a garbage goal.? The combination of me and Mike had won almost every other combinations at the foosball table at least once, so we have a chance.? Somehow the foosball tournament didn’t generate as much attention as last year.? Probably those of us hang out at the foosball table knows the stregth of each other.? We can predict who has a highest chance.? Adrian, last year’s campanion, is definitely up to something.? Gota watch out for Danial and Danny as well, but at least I can block half of their shots.? The most scary shots are from John Sy and Lesile.? I can only block 25% of Lesile’s shots and almost no change against John.? If I want to win in the tournament, I gota train my blocking skills.? I wonder is my reflex too slow or I over-react.? There must be some hint before Lesile or John shots.? I have to observe carefully their hand movements to find out where they are going to shot.

Pat bough a file cabinet from Staples and naturally I am the one put it together.? On the box of the cabinet is advertised that it can be built in 12 easy steps.? It took me the whole afternoon to assemble it.? The instruction is acceptable, but not as clear as the one from Ikea.? Luckily I have experience assembling cabinet, just following the step is time consuming.? The last step to finish the cabinet is to put in the drawers.? This made in China cabinet must have some quality control problem, one of the rail is stucked.? It took me lots of effort to disassemble the drawer, take apart the rail and fix it with WD40.? It have still have some squeaky sound but at least it can open fully.? Actually the cabinet is not much cheaper compare to the one I got form Ikea.? The moral of this story is what you pay is what you get.? There is always a risk involve in buyding made in China products.

I was talking to an engineer friend today at lunch.? I discover I have a passion for automation, I just hate manual labour with a heart.? Last friday, I have to check 200 or so simulation results at work.? The reporting tool is not smart enough to take care of simulation failed on the first run but passed on the later runs.? I estimate it will take about at most half an hour to go through the simulation log files and identify the false negative results.? Since I hate brainless manual work so much, I end up spending a day writing a program to prase the log files and fix the simulation results.? The program is very elegant and compact.? I spent most of the time reverse engineer the internal data structure of the reporting tool so I can manipulate the result.? My boss also have to go through this painful and boring process fixing the report file.? He loves my small program.? Strictly speaking, it doesn’t make sense in term of time management.? Even both of us have to check the result every week, the time spent combined would still cost less time the time I spent in writing the program.? However, I find it more fun write a program to get the work done than work on it myself.

Today I went to the info session of a new course offered by my company together with a profressor from UBC.? The course is on analog and mix signal design basics.? I have put down those technical things many years.? The info session is held during the staff update.? It is one of the few staff updates I actually find interesting enough for me to go.? I even skip the CEO’s BS staff update from time to time.? More people come to the info session than I thought, I guess we are eagar to have free lessons.? The course is much toughter than I expected.? It requires more than 10 hours every week.? The class is four hours, then the prof. expect us spend 3 hours on the textbook and 3 hours on the assignment.? Then there is one hugh 40 hours project.? The work load is crazy for a non-credit course.? All you get is a useless certificate for completion.? It is essentially a condensed version of a graduate class.? Unless your work is directly related to the analog group, this is not the best investment of your time.? The program is this taking kind of math heavy courses is you will forget most of the stuff if you don’t use it.? I am sure I had learn most of the stuff in my undergrad, but obviously I gave them back to my prof.