amazing but a little freightening!!

DARPA Grand Challenge

Created in response to a Congressional and DoD mandate, DARPA Grand Challenge is a field test intended to accelerate research and development in autonomous ground vehicles that will help save American lives on the battlefield. The Grand Challenge brings together individuals and organizations from industry, the R&D community, government, the armed services, academia, students, backyard inventors, and automotive enthusiasts in the pursuit of a technological challenge.

The Grand Challenge 2005 was held on October 8, 2005 in the desert Southwest. The Stanford Racing Team won the $2 million prize with the winning time of 6 hours, 53 minutes. A total of five teams completed the Grand Challenge course which was 132 miles over desert terrain.

Four of the DARPA Challenge finishers.

Stanley, the fastest robot!

Drove 132 miles without a driver! Can we say Terminator??

josephine and i have been sick like crazy for the past week. unable to really do anything productive. not really a good time to be sick since we both have tons to do. i have a journal club to give on thusday. i will be ready but it would be a lot better if i wasn't sick.

it's been over a month since i've blooged and i apologize for the long absence. it's been too long i know! but i'm back in 2006 with a renewed spirit! i hope that everybody had a wonderful holiday break. mine was spent with family at home. josephine and i had both sides of the family over for ham on christmas. it was very meaningful to have our first christmas at our place as a married couple with both families together. i'm so happy we pulled it off.
for new year's jo and i went to mansfield and watched the ball drop there. is it just me or does it seem like it's becoming less and less important as each year passes? by the way, it was great to see dick clark back on new year's rock'n eve but at the same time, it was sad to see what the stroke had done to him. but not to get anybody on a down note! HAPPY 2006 to everybody!
i wish you all a wonderful and productive new year. best of luck and good health. may each day be filled with friendship, family, and love. for all you still looking to establish yourself in the world, may this year bring you great success. and for all you looking for love, know that love is looking for you too, so open your eyes and heart and let this year be your lucky year!

extra life

it's amazing how much time we spend sleeping. we spend about 30 years of our life sleeping in bed! (8 hours a day is about 1/3 of our life!!) that's too much! imagine if we only sleep an hour less each day. that's an extra 5 years of conscious life that we can enjoy! which is probably more than most excercise or diet could accomplish!

maeve

the cutest gamer out there! our friend's daughter maeve. she's sooooo cute!!

CONGRATULATIONS!

CONGRATULATIONS!! one of my best friends, ERIC CHAN (not my brother, the other one!) proposed to his girlfriend MARI and she said YES!! i'm so happy for the both of them. i wish the two of them a lifetime of happiness and companionship. it's a great feeling to know that you will always have somebody that loves you as much you love them.

eric is one of the most loyal and caring person i have ever known. so i know that mari will be taken care of. at the same time, from what i know of mari, i know her to be a thoughtful, sweet, and caring girl as well. a perfect match... take care of one another and never forget the love that you have found in each other. always remember that a little patience and understanding goes a long way.

the very best to the very best of friends...

i'm glad somebody else will be joining this marriage boat!!! (not that it's a bad boat to be in... :P)

sauna

it's like 100 degrees in the lab so i've decided to study in the library today. the building is designed to turn on the heat for the winter and i guess it stays on until summer and there is no way to shut it off. seeing that it is 70 some degrees outside, it feels like a sauna at my bench. you can lose 5 pounds just walking through the lab!!

jenga

back to work...

i had a wonderful thanksgiving weekend. i hope that everybody had a great time with family and friends. i am so happy that i was able to spend quality time with my wife and my brother and brother-in-law. even though we really didn't do anything special, just spending time at the apartment was great. the above picture is of our tallest jenga tower. lambo always tries to make things difficult!!

now if only i could get back into the groove of things and concentrate. really need to focus on studies again. i've been having nightmares about work! mark would come over to me and ask for data that i haven't done yet!

happy thanksgiving

what a wonderful thanksgiving! happy holidays to everybody out there. make sure you all keep warm. it's snowing like crazy out there so becareful out there driving. this year, josephine and i had our first thanksgiving as husband and wife and we had our brothers over. it was a great success. the turkey was excellent and all the trimmings were delicious!! we have tons of left overs to last us the whole weekend!! thanks eric and eric for being such great brothers. and thanks josephine for being the best wife in the world!

and creme brulee!

my plate!!

ooooh... sooo good, 20 pounds of goodness!! great job jo!

fried mushrooms and olives appetizers!!

the brothers gaming...

all our junk food! ready for the holiday weekend!

my apartment manager is a freaking idiot. she has sent my long awaited package from buy.com back to the sender. now i have to wait another week at least before i get my hard drive. i tried to call fedex to tell them to hold the package at the location which they told me they would. before i was about to leave and pick it up this morning, i called to double check it would be there since it is a half hour drive! thank god i did since the package was already on a truck back to california. f@ck!! so now i have to wait for it to get back there before i can file a claim to get another one shipped to me. i'm so ticked off!!!