English is a frustrating language. For example, all the pronouns have plural form except “you”. So people usually have to say “you guys”, “the three of you”, or “you’all” to clarify.
Chinese is much easier. All the pronouns become plural by taking on a common suffix
Archive for May, 2006
You’all
Wednesday, May 24th, 2006More iPod Speakers
Wednesday, May 24th, 2006- Altec Lansing inMotion im7: thumb up! I got it from Amazon for $189. Big sound that fills a big room easily. The quality of sound is comparable to Bose sounddock but the price is a lot easier. Innovative tube design. Universal power adapter. Only issue – a bit too big.
- Altec Lansing inMotion im11: thumb down! $99 is reasonalbe, if it works. The sound is OK in the first half of volume range. It gets progressively more distortion moving up the range. The bigger problem: it shuts it self off randomly after a few minutes with the iPod still running! Returned!
- iHome IH5: big thumb up! Same $99 price, but much nicer than im11. The sound is very clear and fairly rich across almost the whole volume range – an 8 out of the 10 compare to Bose and im7. But the bonus is the multitude of functionalities – alarm clock, volume display, big volume nob, nice three-level LED brightness, nice and functional buttons in additional to remote, FM/AM radio, etc. Only issue here is the lack of universal power supply (110V only).
Set Low Expections
Tuesday, May 16th, 2006As in life, setting lower expectations in golf not only makes you happier but also score better.
Time and time again, I have observed not only myself but also others exhibiting the interesting behavior of hitting bad shots right after great ones, getting into horrible situation after a great hole, getting worse after a great game. Psycologically, we are setting a higher expectation after a good showing of performance. The stress induced by the higher expectation is the killer.
What I have been trying to do are a couple of things:
1) Set a realistic expectation every game, for example, focusing on eliminating bad decisions and throw-away shots; instead of trying for perfect shots or other unattainable goals.
2) Forget about the last shot, period. No matter how great or poor the previous shot is, it’s over. You have a new situation to deal with. That also helps you to concentrate on recovering shots instead of wondering in futile “if only…”.
XR-H3MD Decommissioned
Wednesday, May 3rd, 2006XR-H3MD is the first and only bookshelf stereo system I owned. It has 3-CD changer, Mini-Disk recording and playback, twin cassette tape recorder, optical audio output port, and a 60Watts of output. Basically a top-of-the-line bookshelf system, circa 1997.
It has been with me through 2 states, 3 cities and 6 moves. A couple thousands of hours of crystal clear classics or apartment room shattering rocks. It has been the default alarm clock for many years. And it always occupies a special perch in the house.
The bestbuy guy sold me this had tried to sell me the extended warranty on this piece of “sophisticated Mini-Disk technology”. Boy, am I glad I didn’t buy that, even after almost 9 years, this baby never had a single glitch anywhere – the wonders of modern engineering design.
Now it is finally gone. I actually feel sad to have packaged it all up in its original packaging – yes I have saved them for all these years. Nobody supports MD anymore, it is completely skipped in the US market between CD and MP3 technology. And the iPod+HiFi speaker is so beautifully efficient and capable, it has to go now. Bye bye, bookshelf stereo.