PhilHuang.com » Asides

Jury Duty

Philip — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 02:54:39 +0000

My first experience with jury duty today consisted of sitting around all day from 8:30am to 5pm watching movies. Seriously. 8.5 perfectly good working hours down the drain. It couldn’t come at a worse time though since my brains are about to explode with different clients hounding me. I could’ve worked there on my laptop, which I brought but there’s just no way I’m entering any password over a public, unsecured network with content filtering.

We watched Indiana Jones and the Lost Crusade, Legally Blonde 2, and The Perfect Storm. I think I paid attention to 2 sentences from Legally Blonde 2 and it was already complete torture.

Election Day 2008

Philip — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 19:35:33 +0000

Finally, the day is here - go out and vote!

I just got back from voting, no lines really, everything moved smoothly. Obama 08!

FiveThirtyEight.com Polling Data

Philip — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 16:33:39 +0000

Interested in the latest polls and other data? Check out Five Thirty Eight. They’ve created a pretty complex system that takes a ton of polling data and extrapolates trends and predictions. It takes into account factors like the pollsters’ political leanings, historical data, etc.

It Ain’t Over Yet

Philip — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 23:10:32 +0000

Most polls and electoral map predictions so far put Obama in a very good position with 9 days to go until the election. But it ain’t over until the fat lady sings. Polls are all well and good but the biggest thing I fear is voter fraud and those damn electronic voting machines. I really don’t know what I’ll do if McCain wins or worse, the election is stolen. I do find it very inspiring seeing images of Obama hold rallies with more than 100,000 people in attendance (Missouri and Colorado, both battleground or red states). Can McCain create that kind of enthusiasm?

That Was a Close Call

Philip — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 01:11:50 +0000

Geezus, I nearly sliced my finger off just now while cutting fruit. Whew.

Despite the Recession

Philip — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 22:18:35 +0000

I’ve actually gotten a lot more work this month. Well, there was a general uptick in work following the end of summer but I was little worried some of my clients would cut back in the face of a recession. And yes, I’m pretty sure we’re in a recession. I’m still worried about how it’ll affect me in a couple months, but we’ll see. Sorry, not much else to post about, I’ve been pretty busy. Have a good weekend!

Bridge to Nowhere

Philip — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 03:39:55 +0000

I was watching the Vice Presidential debates tonight and wanted to mention a certain moment early in the debate. Biden was responding to Palin about healthcare and he blasted McCain’s plan for a $5,000 healthcare credit (that replaces an employer-paid $12,000 policy) and stomped it down as a “true bridge to nowhere”. Did you guys catch that? Even the live audience reacted to it. Man, I laughed out loud at a political debate for the first time ever. Wow, Biden freaking owned her with that. BOOM. Debate over.

The Office is Back

Philip — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 20:07:46 +0000

Yay, my favorite show The Office is back with new episodes. The season premiere aired last night and I gotta say the writers have not lost their touch after the strike. It was very sharp and very funny as always.

NYTimes.com Double Click Dictionary Search

Philip — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 04:26:53 +0000

I just discovered a feature on NYTimes.com that has apparently been there for well over a year. When I come across a difficult word, I usually want to look it up. So I double-click the word to highlight it quickly so I can copy-and-paste it. Well I just did that on an article at the New York Times website and it automatically opened a popup window with the definition of the word. I thought that was very nice functionality. It saved me time and it was exactly what I wanted to do - look up the word.

Always Good to Have Stomach Medication in the House

Philip — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 17:13:31 +0000

I had 2 bananas late Saturday night and for some reason it gave me really bad gas/bloating that made me incredibly uncomfortable and kept me up ALL night. Sunday morning, I was still uncomfortable and visibly bloated. So I went to a local CVS as soon as it opened and picked up some Gas-X and Pepto Bismol. Gas-X cleared it up pretty quickly. I wish I had it the night before.

I don’t know what the heck was up with those bananas either. Last night I had just half a banana (from the same batch) and an hour later I was getting bloated again but not nearly as bad as before. A Gas-X tablet cleared it right up. Very weird - this has never happened when I ate bananas in the past.