Albert's

Tides

"There is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune."
- Julius Caesar (Act IV Scene 3 line 218) by William Shakespeare


These are the tides of life that I have come to accept. There comes moments of longing, the wanderlust, of a soul that feels restless and must go out to meet the new world, to see new people, and to try new things.

Then comes periods of stillness, the overhwelming desire to find a quiet corner and think, to get away from the crowd and journey into another world no smaller than the one visible.

Either world would take a life time for me to explore, to find my place, to fit myself in and grow into whatever destiny has in store for me. I don't mind turning out badly, I am more afriad of never turning out at all, of never been. How can a tree take root if it keeps getting transplanted?

In real life, the tides of sea is gravitated by the presense of the moon. I wonder to what the tides of my life gravitates. I wonder what drives me.



Just chatting

Took 3 quick online quizzes and the picture they present is suprisingly congruent. Using these 3 data points to triangulate and a pretty consistent view shows up.

I am consistently inconsistent - according to the survey. "Unconventional", "You are just you", and diverse interests ranging "from riding a unicycle to writing poetry".

"a friend to everyone" and "most compatible with: everyone" says the same thing.

"You reject traditional gender roles. However, you don't actively fight them." It is perhaps a bit alarming that they judge me to be 50% boyish and 50% girlish. I believe the technical term is "androgyny".

So "Unconventional", "Friendly", and "Average (androgyny)" - that's me. I sense irony.

Oh, wait, you mean the answer to life is not on the Internet?



What's Your Inner Blood Type?

Your Inner Blood Type is AB!

Your personality is hard to define - you're very unconventional.
And even if your personality could be defined, it would be completely different next week!
Outgoing and shy, sensitive and thoughtless, you tend to have a very split personality.
This makes you unpredictable. You can be a total angel - and a total devil.

You are most compatible with: everyone!

Famous Type AB's: Jackie Chan and Marilyn Monroe

The Sesame Street Personality Quiz

You Are Big Bird

Talented, smart, and friendly... you're also one of the sanest people around.

You are usually feeling: Happy. From riding a unicycle to writing poetry, you have plenty of hobbies to keep you busy.

You are famous for: Being a friend to everyone. Even the grumpiest person gets along with you.

How you life your life: Joyfully. "Super. Duper. Flooper."

Future Unknown

I took a breath, for courage,
then dipped my hand into the water of life and drank,
deeply.



Basic Mac Softwares

I am looking to buy the new MacBook DualCore. There has always been an urge for me to cross over and play with an Apple Macintosh. The ability to dual boot Window and OSX made the laptop very attractive and the base price seems really reasonable at USD 1099. I upgraded a few compenent, such as 512MB Memory to 1GB, 60GB hard drive to 80 GB, and the iWork package. I also chose the 2.0GHz with DVD±RW option. The final amount is $1520. My pointer hovers over the comfirm purchase button and I just can't make up my mind.


While I am locked in my internal struggle. I figure I can use the left over thought process to research on the necessary softwares I might need to buy or download for Mac. Those little hidden prices or nice open source programs might swing the decision for me. Below is a basic list of softwares I think I would need. The list is posted for people who is looking to tryout Mac for the first times. Hopefully I can save you an hour or two.

Operating System:
OSX*,【Boot Camp】, Windows XP Service Pack 2 Home$ or Professional$,

Internet browser:
Safari*】,【Firefox】,

Text Editing:
TextWrangler2$,【TextEdit】, Stickies*,

P2P Download:
BitTorrent~】,【iRC】,

Office Work Suit:
Applie iWork*$, Microsoft Office for Mac*$,【Open Office~】, Adobe Acrobat$~,

Instant Messenger:
Fire】, iChat*,【MSN Messenger for Mac】,【AIM for Mac】,【Skype~】, 【Yahoo Messenger~】, 【Gaim~】,

Graphic:
ACDSee$~, iPhoto*, Adobe Photoshop$~,【GimpShop~】,

Video:
VLC~】,【QuickTime~】,【Windows Media Player for Mac】,

Music Player:
iTunes*】, 【FoxyTunes】,

Compression Utility:
Stuffit$,

Archive Viewer:
FFView】,【Comic Book Viewer】,

Organizer:
iCal*,【Google Calender~】,【ReminderFox~】,

Remote:
Microsoft's Remote Desktop Connection Client】,

Burning Software Comes Internal with OSX.

* = comes with MacBook purchase
$ = needs to buy
~ = runs on both mac and pc
【】 = free software
*$30 day free trial comes with MacBook purchase