Albert's

To Do List

The year is almost over. I would like to start my New Year Resolution and Reflection a month early - because there is no better time to start than now.

- Start Learning Japanese (set a schedule and follow through)
- Learn to deploy and utilize SQL database (this one is not likely, my hope is to create my own interactive quotation database...kind of like bash.org)
- Learn to type faster in Chinese (practice, practice practice)
- Learn to read simplified Chinese fluently (I am only fluent in Traditional Chinese. I will start with the most common 1000 words used daily. Mainland China uses Simplified Chinese, this will create more job opportunity.)
- Find an Aikido class and join it. The eventual goal is the mastery over oneself.
- Jog on a regular basis, not just when I feel like it.
- Stretch. I would love to be flexible again.
- Be a vegetarian for a month. (overall, eat less meat, eat more veggie, drink more water)

Other big projects that will take a more than 10 years
- Buy and own a house, then remodel it to be a zero energy house that is self contained.
- Write 2 books.
- Live forever
- Open my own library or bookstore

Obviously, living forever is not likely. But I figure I would aim high for the moon so when I fall short I would at least land amongst the stars.

Okay, those should be enough to keep me busy for a while.

The Story

Can't sleep.

It doesn't seem right a person can feel so tired but unable to sleep. Surfing through TV channels at 1 am revealed some pretty weird commercials - the kind of commercials you just have to wonder "Are there actual people in this world that these ads are targeting?"

I hope not.

In the end, I settled on this old movie "The Story of Us". Have you ever wanted to see what happens after a fairytale ends with "...and they lived happily ever after."? If you do, then "The Story of Us" is made for you. There are no witches and poison apples - no easy common enemies - no black and white answers. What you have are two person who loves each other and have to live through the mundane chores of life. This movie is about love after 15 years.

Surprisingly I found the film engaging and very watchable. It doesn't hurt that Bruce Willis and Michelle Pfeiffer did the talking. In fact, of all the super hero roles Bruce Willis played - Armageddon, 5th Element, or Sin City - I thought this struggling husband is his most heroic. When I first saw this movie 3 years ago I didn't appreciate this movie as much. There wasn't any action or much humor. It is just about two people. I suppose the movie didn't change, but I did.

The fact I understand this film makes me a little sad. It is a sudden realization of this lost of innocence. Yet for the life of me I can't figure out where I lost it.

Weather forecast says it will rain tomorrow. 95% chance of rain. Nothing seems certain now a days, not even about condensations in the air. That is just life for you, and for me.

TV Online

My unhealthy and slightly unnatural binge known as Scrubs is now officially over. Many hours was wasted in enjoyment and vegetation. It was great ^_^

While in pursuit of Scrubs goodness, I may have inadvertently bump into the next trend of technological fad - TV Online.

Everyone knows about Youtube, the 1.5 billion dollar video deposit purchase by Google. People upload vblogs, webcam diary, movies, and TV shows.Also increasingly networks are placing their shows online, such as The Daily Show. Check it out, you might enjoy it.