Author: peterjang73

A nerdy father of two, a husband of a beautiful and understanding wife, an engineer who loves anime and tinkering with PCs and games, but most of all, loves God.
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Two words that JJ has mastered…

Being a boy, JJ has been slower at picking up language and vocabulary.  However, he has been making progress.  Now, he uses two words on a very regular basis with good pronunciation.  What are these two words, you ask?  “What?” and “Why?”.

It is so funny the way he has discovered in using these two puny yet powerful words.  Example:

JJ:  Daddy. Toothpaste.

Me: No.

JJ:  Why?

Me: ’cause you eat the toothpaste.

JJ:  Why?

And if you call him for anything, he simply replies.  “What?”  Not in a rude voice or anything but just simply and factually.  You have to be there, I guess.

Ah the pure joys of parenthood… that and having to hear his whining constantly!  :p

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The Power of Addiction: Caffeine

Well, I was trying to think out of the box and see what I could “fast” on with the Easter around the corner.  Like many out there, I’m an avid coffee drinker.  Back when I worked under a German professor and a Russian post-doc,… well, you can guess how thick and strong the coffee was!  😮

However, since starting to work, the strength has dwindled down and I’ve grown accustomed to weaker brews.  Still, it was usually made up by the volume I’d consume.  Since having kids, I had gone from 1 cup a day to 2 cups and some times 2.5 cups a day!  Sleep was hard to come by…

Now that my kids have somewhat grown up a bit, and since caffeine was something I depended on, I thought I’d say ‘no’ to coffee for until the Easter and see how that affects me.  Well, day 2 is here and I have this HUGE migraine throbbing inside my skull, trying to get out!  Having enjoyed coffee from the age of early 20’s, and having discovered coffee at even earlier age of 10(!), it’s no wonder what kind of control this substance has on me.

If this humongous headache even slightly touches on the pain and suffering of what Christ had to go through on that mount on that day, so be it.  After my fasting is done, for the health sake, I plan on cutting down on coffee intake by significant amount.  It’s such a social drink though.  I don’t normally drink alcohol and so I’d need at least coffee to be that… 

Anyway, here’s to you fellow coffee drinkers and addicts!  To the freedom!

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Upcoming Intel CPU: Conroe, finally killing AMD?!

Hmm… it’s been a few months but ever since Intel released its plans for this year to release a new breed of CPUs, under codename of Conroe, the markets and the enthusiasts have been just talking up a storm!

Just ask any fanboys of either AMD or Intel camps and it’s been the talk of the town!  Based on 65-nm technology, with built-in dual core and sharing 4 MB(!!) of cache, it sure sounds like a [Athlon64] killer!  At this past CES, it beat an OC’ed Athlon FX running at 2.8 GHz (while Intel’s Conroe was running at modest 2.7 GHz!)…

The excitement is there as a fellow enthusiast.  Intel sure seems to want to make itself a definite king of the CPUs this year as it also released ULTRA cheap ($133) dual core Intel D 805!  If you didn’t know, the next cheapest dual core comes from AMD X2 3800+ at close to $300!  That’s a huge price gap!  The downside is that it is a huge heat furnace!  But we are talking $133 here!  *GASP*

While AMD plans on releasing a new (just updated verion of Socket 939) AM2 socket, no real enthusiast is… well, enthusiastic!  😛  Just basically adding DDR2 memory support doesn’t buy anything for us, the fanatics of computer hardwares.  Could AMD be really toppled over? 

It all depends on two things:  1. What will the pricing be on these Conroes?!  Will they be more than $1000?!!  Hopefully for Intel’s sake, not.  2. What does AMD have behind their sleeves?  If anything, this should just heat up the competition and fuel the race.  Go AMD!  😛

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My next mp3 player…

I currently use the venerable Creative Zen USB 2.0 20 GB mp3 player.  It is good for what it does.  However, the built-in HDD sounds like it may die soon… which will “force” me to find a replacement!  😛

It’s really nice having a HDD-based mp3 player.  Why?  I get to carry ALL of my CD collection (200+) on it!  So my next mp3 player would also be 20 GB (or better yet, 30 GB!) player… the biggest $1m question is… “Which one?”

There are million brands out there and then there’s the Apple’s iPod.  I for one don’t care much (if any) for it.  I care more for functionality and value over how pretty it is and what color it comes in.  Hee…

Additionally, with the advancement in technology, I decided that I’d want to watch stuff on it too!  😮  How cool would it be to watch my TV shows on it whenever I get a chance to!  And in this category, it seems that my motherland of South Korea has two really good offerings!

1. Digital Cube’s i-Station i2 and the new V43 (higher res screen!)

Here’s a pic of V43!  It has 4.3″ screen with 480 X 272 TOUCHSCREEN!

And the slightly older i2 (and smaller at 3.5″)…

And next… we have…

2. Cowon A2 with 4″ LCD screen!  I gotta stop drooling…  😛

Both support DivX-encoded videos and both have at least 20 GB storage… the final question?  The price!  Ouch… don’t ask yet.  At least $300 in Korea last time I checked…  Oh well…  I guess watching “24” on such tiny thing wouldn’t be that awesome!  (Oh, yes it would!)  K… bye for now.  😉

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Do You Live to Work or Work to Live?

This question is one of the first questions I set out to answer PRIOR to starting to work. Heck, I addressed this question when I was still in high school.  Yeah, I am a bit oddball of sorts.  😉

When I was senior in high school, our English teacher wanted us to write what our ideal dream life in the future would be. While most wrote houses and $100K+ salary, I wrote (what I thought as) modest $50K salary living in the country side. I wanted to just have a good and happy family life, raising kids who will grow up joyful enjoying life God gave them fully.

When I was in college, I swore to myself that I’d choose a family over work.  If I had to choose between $80K job that required too much relocation and/or
traveling, and one that offered $50k job that would let me leave work at work and rarely any traveling, I’d choose the latter.  To this day, I’m glad to say
that I’ve stayed true to myself.  I didn’t even bother applying to jobs that would either ask more of my time or traveling.  Some of you may just say I’m not developing my full potential in my career.  While that may be true, and having grown up with my parents (esp. my dad) being so busy with work that they rarely spent any time with us, I do not wish that upon my two children nor esp. on my wife.

I like coming home without beggage from work.  I like not having to go into work at wee hours of the night (or the morning). I enjoy being able to flex my time at work AROUND my family.  I am so glad that I don’t have to think about the job-related things while I spend it with the family. So what if I make less money?  When I am up on my death bed, there are only two things I want to be sure of.

1. Did I live fully for Christ?
2. Is my family happy with the way I have lived with them and for them?

I just pray that I’d never get swept up in that workaholic mentality… ever.
So… do you work to live or live to work?