Nikon Strikes Back

This is what happens when Nikon Strikes Back, and Canon loses the camera war... a mass slaughter!!! (in case you missed it, you were supposed to click on the link... )

Enjoy, while I am still trying to update & upload my pictures from our weekend trip...

SDL: Idiom Acquisition

So I've been working for Idiom a little over 3 years now. It's been an exciting journey, where I am first introduced to a semi-career change, coming from an engineer, to now a customer-facing consultant/project manager. I must say I have learned a lot in the past three years. Sure, I have not learned much of a new technology, but I have been grilled and trained in people-skills, how to work and manage people and projects. Stressful, yes, but valuable learning lessons.

Idiom is still a private company, so we always wondered where we would be a few years down the road. Well, that change is now upon us. SDL, a large European-based company has officially acquired Idiom as of Monday, February 11th, 2008.

What does it mean for me? I am not sure. Yet.

In the globalization market, SDL and Idiom are the two major competitors, and now that the two major competitors have become one entity, this will have major impact on the customers, for sure. We can only hope that the change will be for the better, both for the customers, as well as for the employees.

But what does this all mean for me? I do not know yet. Hopefully before the end of this week, or this month, there will be more updates. In the meantime, I need to find out the full details on my stock options, as well as the stock exchange price now that I am part of a public company.

Otherwise, it's business as usual. I am still on the bus, though, we will see for how long. Already some 15+ people have gotten off the bus, and that's a substantial number of people given our size.

Company Outing at the Butler and the Chef

We have the company get-together at SF, named The Butler and the Chef. Though the weather wasn't quite the ideal, at least we found a pretty good parking spot directly in front of the restaurant. I guess not that many people go out to eat in a rainy day.

The restaurant was actually located in the SOMA, South Park area, which is really close to where I used to work, right out of college. I actually used to go out to a couple of restaurants in the South Park area for lunch breaks and stuff. Good old days.

Friday, February 1st

My college friend Mike, and his wife, came over to our place, to hang out and eat dinner with us. I hadn't seen him in ages and it was certainly nice to re-connect. He's the friend who works at Samsung. He used to work in the Samsung wireless technology, but recently transferred to the Samsung venture group. Initially, I had some interest in getting into the wireless technology, and just the whole "technology"-side of Samsung, but given where things are now, I don't think this will be an opportunity for me, at least, not anytime soon.

Would you work at Samsung if you had a chance?

Michelle's Birthday

Michelle's mom and brother (David) prepared a steak dinner for everyone to celebrate the birthday for Michelle and Steven, along with a delicious cake. Afterwards, we just watched the American Idol and hung out. Great home-made steak, baked potatoes, and a great time with the family. I think we need to visit them more often, and on the flip-side, we should invite them more often as well. It doesn't have to be only on special occasions and holidays, but even as a monthly get-together; after all, we only live less than 15 minutes away.Oh, by the way, Michelle's mom prepared another delicious cake.

I got her a pearl necklace with a small diamond accent.

What a day

The day started out real exciting, when my car broke down on my on my way to the office.
Actually, it all began when the internet went down literally a minute before starting a web meeting presentation with one of our customers, and so I had to re-schedule the meeting last minute, and then left home to San Mateo office to use the internet from the office, however, on my way to the office, off of 238 East connecting to 880 North, the engine temperature gauge started climbing consistently, and so I pulled over, and stopped the engine, in time to see smoke from under the hood. And I was in the middle of another conference call meeting!
So I had to finish up the meeting, and called my colleagues to cover for me in the other meeting, called CSAA which then sent a tow truck and had my car towed to a nearby shop. Luckily, the problem was just around one of the pipes which somehow burst and had started leaking engine coolant, which was causing the overheat as well as the smoke.

As for Michelle's birthday, well, I made a reservation at a French restaurant(Fringale) in SF to quietly celebrate her birthday, just between the two of us. The restaurant was small and cozy, however, we were seated next to two ladies who were overly excited about everything... otherwise, it was a good experience overall.

I think if we were given the opportunity and lived a bit closer to the city, we would love to try out more restaurants, but given the mortgage and just the fact that it takes over 40mins to drive out to the city, makes us a bit more reluctant to going out and trying out new restaurants. But there are so many good restaurants in the City! Can't let all of that go to waste!!!

RY Teachers Gathering

We had a small get-together with the RY teachers and JDSN, for the usual teachers' meeting, as well as to celebrate Michelle's birthday. We prepared our specialty; traditional Korean BBQ, along with the traditional soybean paste soup (Dwen-jang-jji-geh), and JDSN brought chocolate cheesecake from Godiva that was out of this world! If you do not hate chocolate, and have not tried this cake, by all means, I must recommend that you try it out.


I think I always enjoy watching people play Wii. I think it's the novelty of the entertainment system which is the number one strength of Wii, however, like anything else, you need to have the proper software/game to make the most out of any entertainment system, and so I am still waiting for that one perfect, software/game to make the most out of it. In the meantime, I enjoy watching people shake and twist and turn and flip the remote controllers to their hearts' content.

One Brilliant Rainy day

Everyone has a moment of brilliance, a moment when "it" just hits you. Such was a moment when we were driving out to SF for our company dinner this past Saturday. It was a perfect photography opportunity, with the rain and the fog surrounding the dimly lit city. Well, almost perfect, given that I was in a car in motion, and secondly, that I was actually driving.

So I do what I can do. Pull out the camera, ensure all the settings are good, and then pass the camera to my new assistance photographer, and tell her, go get 'em!

So here are some of the pictures that she took. Though the camera and the lens certainly makes for a good picture, there's always the most important quality of the picture, the photographer.

Well, you be the judge.